ArcanicNeon said
Gertrude looked at Priscilla, then the Ursa. 'find weak spots.' She said. 'Try and strick limbs....' Gertrude quickly shifted Steelethrone into Rifle, and began firing at the legs of the Ursa. The Ursa took a swing at Gertrude, and she rolled out of the way, turning steelethrone into a sword and stricking it's front left leg.

"Try and strick limbs..." Gertrude said to Priscilla. "Alright!" Priscilla said as she would break her staff in half, as it turned into her shotguns once again. She turned around running towards the try, using her right leg to kick it as it made her jump even higher. Priscilla would make a front-flip landing on the Ursa's head, she shot it two times with her shotgun as it fell on the ground, defeated, dead. Priscilla would take a deep breathe looking at Gertrude. "Nice work, Partner!!" she smiled at her friend as her shotguns turned into a staff and she began to think about Simon.

She looked okay. No bruises or scratches. He wondered if she was hit by that monster at all. "Y...Yes. I am alright. I was just landing when the Ursa ambushed me." Ursa? Well, it certainly does look like an Ursa to him.

"Ah. That's unfortunate. Well, don't worry you got Blaire, Whitney and me with you. Oh! I'm Simon." He said, nearly forgetting to tell somebody his name for the second time. "What's yours?" The Ursa was back to its feet, but was stricken by the perfect blow of Whitney's sword that Simon wasn't looking at.

"My name is Alexis..." She replied, perhaps ready to answer a question that Simon would repeatedly ask somebody besides Priscilla, Isaac, Gertrude, Jie, Blaire, Whitney and Alexis. Her attention seem to shift something that was behind Simon and he looked-- remembering the Ursa that was attacking them now was pinned down by gun fire from Blaire at the back with her guns on rapid fire. "Looks like you could use some help now..."

"Ah damn. Well, I know you can't just hit it on the head, since it's got that shell-looking thing on it. And maybe some parts of its body too." He said, carrying his Mechanical Blade on his shoulder looking at the large Ursa under assault by Whitney's expert mid-air techniques and the barrage of Blaire's guns. "Welp, let's get to work with this thing." Simon says; "Let's rock!" He brandished his sword at a safe location and took a running charge head first at the Ursa who was pissed off.

It leapt up to its two legs and heaved its paws down for a ground-shaking attack, but Simon jumped forward, throwing for himself a backflip and threw his shield at the Ursa's face, hitting it with a loud bang! before continuing his advance on the ground. "Heyah!" He threw into its large torso a heavy slash, only to find it shrugging off the attack and swiping Simon out of the way into a tree.

Alexis saw Simon get tossed into a tree. "Simon!" She shouted as she used her other gun to take some potshots at the Ursa. If she could draw the monster to her Blaire and Whitney they could attack it together. "I'm over here teddy!" She shouted hoping to draw attention to herself.

If the Ursa took the bait then her luring worked.If not she hoped the other two girls would back her up.

paigesweetheart said
"Try and strick limbs..." Gertrude said to Priscilla. "Alright!" Priscilla said as she would break her staff in half, as it turned into her shotguns once again. She turned around running towards the try, using her right leg to kick it as it made her jump even higher. Priscilla would make a front-flip landing on the Ursa's head, she shot it two times with her shotgun as it fell on the ground, defeated, dead. Priscilla would take a deep breathe looking at Gertrude. "Nice work, Partner!!" she smiled at her friend as her shotguns turned into a staff and she began to think about Simon.

'Complex... I like you.' Gertrude said 'Let's find those ingredients then get out of here...' She began to walk off, knowing Priscilla would follow her.

---

The beowolf was proving an annoyance for Jie. The beast ran at her constantly, but Jie moved out the way most of the time. Jie turned around and ran up the wide of the tree, pushing herself off at an angle that allowed her to land on the wolf. Jie aimed Lotus pin at the Beowolf's head, and pressed the trigger. The beast colapsed, dead. 'Well... That was fun...' Jie said, walking away from the beowolf corpse.

ArcanicNeon said
Jie stood there. She was being watched. By something.Soon, she heard a growl come from behind her. Jie swiftly turned around and pointed Lotus pins at a bush. Slowly, a beowolf emerged from the bushes, circling Jie. The creature jumped at Jie, but she rolled out of the way, firing the revolver parts of Lotus Pin at the Beowolf. The beast howled, and ran at Jie again. Jie readied herself, and quickly side stepped to avoid the beowolf, running towards it and striking the wolf's legs. The beat toppled over, but got up. 'Well...' Jie said, aiming Lotus pin at the wolf and firing continuously.

"...Eh!?"

Gram had a rather confused expression on his face as he scratched the side of his temple. This was... where he landed wasn't it? Did he... Did he really just end up going in a giant circle? 'Oh man!' he thought, placing his hands on his forehead. He didn't have a partner, and now it looked like he wasn't even half-decent at this searching business!

"Shit!" he exclaimed, taking off running into the forest to complete at least one of his objectives.

After quite a lot of running, Gram registered the sounds of gunfire and erratic foot/pawfalls with his Aura-enhanced perception. 'There!' he thought, dashing off in that direction. As he got closer, he could catch glimpses of a green clad female going at it against a Beowolf. He launched his bone spikes like spears, aimed for the Beowolf's closest leg and furthest arm. He hoped to effectively staple the Grimm's leg to the ground and arm to the tree adjacent so one of them could go in for the kill.

But then it died. And his spikes impaled the innocent tree behind the Beowolf. Such was the life of a tree in the Emerald Forest.

Then Gram sprung into the clearing with a combat roll, looking rather late to the party. He blinked twice.

"Hi!"

---

"Heh," Atalanta grinned, looking back behind her to see Isaac keeping up well enough. Good thing she wouldn't have to be slowing down for his sake. There wasn't much change in the surrounding area as far as Atalanta could tell, so she just kept up firing off her lines, slinging herself forward, and sliding about on her blade skates.

Priscilla nodded towards her partner as she began to follow right behind her. "Alright! Let's see, if we can find something around here. Hmm." she said trying to look for the ingredients. "Thank you!" for the compliment that Gertrude gave her. Priscilla can be quiet, shy and not spoken but on the battle field, she is fearless, brave and a very good technique thinker.

Whitney snapped her fingers, and a soft shield appeared at the back of Simon, doubling his protection. It broke and dispersed into thin air after he made contact with the tree, but it was able to lessen the impact of the hit. After seeing that he was completely fine, she brought her attention back to the enemy, "I'm over here teddy!" The blue-haired lad called out. Whitney giggled lightly before rushing in towards it,
"It certainly does look like a giant teddy bear~"

When the creature turned it's back towards Blaire and Whitney, the bullets managed to hit its back which wasn't protected by a hard shell; causing it to fall down on all fours. She ran towards the beast and leaped into the air, "First to get the kill, gets the bacon~" As she landed, her swords pierced through the creature, and it let out a sharp cry. "And since you are my partner, and I wanted to give you a warm welcome, you get to kill it~" She grinned. Her swords nailed the Ursa's leg to the ground, injuring it badly and constricting it of its movements. Now she waited for her partner to go in for the kill.

Hmm.. is this a good enough welcome? Yes? No? I wonder.. Wait, maybe she's really nice and she doesn't wanna kill it? So... maybe I forced her to kill it. Gahh, what do I do.. She sobbed mentally.

Alexis watched impressively as Whitney attacked the Ursa. She cheered softly as her plan worked and the Ursa was pinned. "Partner...ohh..." She though back to the pre launch speech about the first person you meet becoming your partner. "I'll do this .."

She pointed her gun at the Ursa and hoped this time she did not miss. It was kind of hard to her as she was not one to kill but she had killed one before being chased.

But she was going to be a Huntress and this was expected of her...

She also heard Whitney say something about bacon and blinked. "Bacon? This is a forest so I doubt we'll find bacon here."

Why was she so calm talking to others? Normally she would be a person who wanted to avoid talking to others but they did save her so it would be rude not to thank and help them in return.

Without any regrets she fired.

Everything seemed to be going off without a hitch for Isaac, he and Atlanta were making good time towards whatever it was that he had seen, they had yet to run into trouble. As it turned out, whatever the object was, wasn't as far off as he'd originally thought, in fact, it almost appeared to be- Isaac skidded to a stop. "WAIT!" He shouted to Atlanta, 'Moving, I know I just saw it moving' he thought. It was then that Isaac noticed something; silence, dead silence, not a single bird sang or flitted through the trees, even the insects had gone quiet. Isaac's head snapped around as he tried to spot any immediate threat, then, his original concern was confirmed as the object ahead moved again, this time in the direction of him and Atlanta, moving in a rapid undulating motion.

Jie turned around to face Gram. 'Not Gertrude...' She thought. 'But he'll have to do...'

Jie smiled 'Hey. My name is Jie.' She introduced 'I believe we haven't met...' She said, 'I'm guessing you're my partner! I think we should...' She was interrupted by the sound of more howling. 'Move.. Come on.' Jie said, jogging off. She'd hope that Gram would follow him deeper into the forest. She wondered, what were the Artifacts they needed to get? were they chess pieces? checker pieces? car parts? Jie wondered, and looked back to Gram, then in front of her.

LaXnyd said
Mei noticed the presence of several wolves surrounding the area, as well as that of Rielle readying the arrows. Comforted by her presence and the fact that she had her back, even if she didn't actually hear Rielle proclaim that, Mei's attention was once again solely focused on the one beowolf that had challenged her. Having been knocked back by the weaponless human, the wolf snarled before charging her again. This time, however, Mei had concentrated an accurate amount of Aura into her fists and she once again intercepted the beast mid-lunge. Instead of being forcefully knocked back, the force of her punch exploded the beast's head. Had it been in slow motion, then one would have been able to see the energy actually go through the wolf's head and expand it like a balloon before bursting it's head. With the first one dealt with, Mei turned her attention the encircling group at large and prepared her stance again. With Rielle holding a bow, it would be bad if they started to focus her due to the fact that Mei had no idea how well Rielle would be able to fight up close. As such, this was optimal. Mei would draw their attention and take them out as they came, and Rielle would be able to safely snipe. Hopefully, there wouldn't be another mishap and Mei won't accidentally catch on fire or something.

Rielle watched the movements of three beowolves behind Mei. Hopping to a different tree that was directly in front of where her partner stood, focused on the ones in her direct line of sight. Thinking fast, she called out to Mei. "Tree branch above you. Jump and swing forward on my signal." she said before counting to five in her hear. The beowolves lunged at her friend and she released her fire arrows towards them. "NOW!" she yelled as she let go and jumped towards the ground. As she fell, her bow transformed into what looked like a boomerang.and after landing with a roll, she threw it towards the beasts that stood in front where Mei was. It flew in a way that tripped up the three remaining beowolves before it returned back to her. She caught it and it transformed again returning to its form as a bow.

Watching what Mei would do, she was confident this fight was over. Rielle had set it up perfectly for Mei to return to the ground and deliver finishing blows before the creatures could regain themselves. She stood from her crouch and looked around, listening for anything else that may be lurking.

Instead of a risky "fight as they come strategy" that Mei had they would resort to, it seemed like Elly's weapon had more tricks than she realized. Waiting for her friend's command to jump, Mei jumped onto the branch as her partner unleashed the arrows and the boomerang that her weapon could transform into.

As she saw the beasts going down, Mei decided that she would finish each on one blow. Focusing the correct amount of aura into her body as she descended from the swing, she landed right in the middle of the downed Beowolves and exploded the first one's soft belly with a punch. Then, turning her body she unleashed an elbow strike with her opposite arm on a second, finishing it off from the head before finally bringing her fist down in a downwards motion to crush the last beowolf from it's spine.

Entering one last martial arts stance, Mei did not drop her guard. "...is that the last of them?" she asked Rielle, knowing that her partner, with her aerial coverage and heightened faunus senses would probably be able to answer better than she could.

LaXnyd said
Instead of a risky "fight as they come strategy" that Mei had they would resort to, it seemed like Elly's weapon had more tricks than she realized. Waiting for her friend's command to jump, Mei jumped onto the branch as her partner unleashed the arrows and the boomerang that her weapon could transform into. As she saw the beasts going down, Mei decided that she would finish each on one blow. Focusing the correct amount of aura into her body as she descended from the swing, she landed right in the middle of the downed Beowolves and exploded the first one's soft belly with a punch. Then, turning her body she unleashed an elbow strike with her opposite arm on a second, finishing it off from the head before finally bringing her fist down in a downwards motion to crush the last beowolf from it's spine. Entering one last martial arts stance, Mei did not drop her guard. "...is that the last of them?" she asked Rielle, knowing that her partner, with her aerial coverage and heightened faunus senses would probably be able to answer better than she could.

Not answering her partner for a moment as she turned in a circle, Rielle focused her eyes far into the forest around them. After a moment she turned back to Mei and strapped her bow across her body. "There is no immediate threat, no." she smiled then, walking over with a hand on her hip. "That was something. I cant believe i didn't catch anyth-" she was cut off by a small tree branch falling from a burned out tree. "Ah, oh well. I didnt blow anything up at least!" she said happily. "You were totally awesome!" she added excitedly. "You were all like woosh, pew pew..." she started making karate gestures with her arms and sound effects with her mouth before she giggled and ran a hand through her hair.

"Anyways, lets go before anything else gets attracted to the smoke." Rielle said as she started walking deeper into the forest.

Mei lowered her head. "It wasn't that amazing, really - it's no different from using any other weapon. I can't use a bow and arrow or a boomerang like you can..." she pointed out. Sure, there were still a few tricks here or there that Mei had yet to show Rielle, but those were not for use here. "And besides, you can fly and use a bow and arrow. I bet that's a really useful combination."

Following Rielle deeper into the forest, Mei suddenly became concerned - she had lost her orientation when she crashed into Rielle and as such she had no idea which direction was which at the moment. "Elly, do you know which way we're supposed to head?" she asked.

"I haven't managed to see anyone else around, so it seems we are partners indeed," Gram grinned as he pulled free his two bone spikes from the tree they had lodged themselves into. His new partner, Jie, seemed to be a compentent enough combatant. Unfortunately Gram didn't get enough glimpses to see exactly how she had fought. All he knew was that she had some kind of firearm integrated into her weapon. But then again, who, other than himself obviously, didn't have some kind of gun or ranged-variation to their weapon?

Suddenly, a howl. And then his partner jogged off, leaving him all alone.

Gram glanced around the surrounding area before shrugging and jogging after Jie.

MonsieurShade said
Everything seemed to be going off without a hitch for Isaac, he and Atlanta were making good time towards whatever it was that he had seen, they had yet to run into trouble. As it turned out, whatever the object was, wasn't as far off as he'd originally thought, in fact, it almost appeared to be- Isaac skidded to a stop. "WAIT!" He shouted to Atlanta, '' he thought. It was then that Isaac noticed something; silence, dead silence, not a single bird sang or flitted through the trees, even the insects had gone quiet. Isaac's head snapped around as he tried to spot any immediate threat, then, his original concern was confirmed as the object ahead moved again, this time in the direction of him and Atlanta, moving in a rapid undulating motion.

The duo was cruising through the forest quickly, making great time. Everything was going so smoothly. Of course, that meant that something should be going wrong pretty soon, if media had taught Atalanta anything. As if on cue, Isaac cried out, telling her to stop. Atalanta swung her arms behind her and fired off grapnels into the tree branch she had just passed, pulling her back. She shaved off momentum with a little flip in the air, wrapping her grapnel linees around the branch before retracting them back into her gauntlets.

"Good news or bad news?" Atalanta asked Isaac from her seating up on the tree.

Blaire continued to act as support by firing at the Ursa. As soon as it turned around, the bullets pierced through the soft part of it's body. Her bullets ran out by the time that it fell down, so when she pulled on the triggers, the guns assembled themselves back to their original forms; dual swords. Whitney went in for an attack, and has proven herself yet again, when she pierced through it's leg and rendered the creature immobile. Blaire caught her mentioning the word bacon, and her stomach grumbled.

Eh.. I should have eaten breakfast.

As soon as the blue-haired girl fired the killing move, Blaire relaxed herself. "Good one." She said before walking over to her partner. "Are you okay?" She asked Simon. When her gaze went over his protective armor, she laughed lightly. "Of course you are." She answered her own question. Blaire glanced back at the two girls before sheathing both swords.

"Thanks. " Alexis said to Blaire. "I just got a lucky shot this time." She made a promise to train more if she got into Beacon to herself. She grinned sheepishly as she thought back to her earlier attempts to kill the Ursa. She nodded when Blaire glanced at her and Whitney. "I acted like a amateur back there.." She thought bitterly.

Turning to look at Whitney she nervously looked her in the eye and extended her hand managing a small smile to mask her nervousness.

"Guess you are my partner ..."

"Bacon? This is a forest so I doubt we'll find bacon here." Her partner said before firing at the Ursa.

"Oh, no no, I meant when we get back to Beacon~" She said as she pulled out her swords and placed them back securely. She jumped off of the Ursa and walked over to her partner. The girl extended her hand, "Guess you are my partner ..." Whitney couldn't help but notice that she was a bit nervous, so she shot her a cheeky smile, "That, I am. My name is Whitney, I hope we can be good friends, yes?~" She replied and shook her hand happily.

Whitney look around her, observing where they were, when her eyes landed on an old, broken structure. She put her palms together in excitement, "Ah, this must be the ruins, yes?~" She asked no one in particular.

The cushioning from Whitney's magic assisted him in surviving the Ursa's onslaught. He felt little pain as his back made contact with the tree but he still felt the disorienting force that it did, leaving him a little out-of-it for the duration of the fight.

The fighting was over and the Ursa fell dead. That was also the time where Simon could gather himself back together and shook the stars of confusion away from his skull. He saw the black-dressed girl walking over and asked his condition in a tone of slight worry. "Are you okay?" Simon moved his body and limbs, feeling them around to see if he actually damaged something because of the attack.

"Brain's fine… Fingers moving and everything else is still attached." He said before trying to stand up, the Mechanical Blade still on the ground as he dusted whatever of himself off, only to hear a small laugh coming from the cutesy dressed Blaire. Simon gave her an annoyed look. He didn't like being teased like that.

"Of course you are~" She sheathes her sword and approached Alexis and Whitney while Simon gathered his sword, returning it into its compact form and attaching it to his right bracer. He looked around lazily for his shield and saw it sitting on the ground a few metres away. The laziness inside of Simon took over him as he activated the magnetic mechanism, forcing the metal of the shield to become pulled by the left bracer, quickly attaching to it. Once he was all settled, he joined the girls who was chatting.

"… Just got a lucky shot this time." Alexis proclaimed and Simon didn't understand. He looked at the Ursa and saw the bullet wound that it suffered and pieced what she said together with a quirk of a brow. The mind of the inventor is quick to dot things together after all. The shook of his head signified the ache that still remained on his head but he figured that complaining about it would only make him less of a man than they are. After all, he just got owned by an Ursa that the girls managed to kill. "I acted like an amateur back there…"

Alexis offered her hand to Whitney, and Whitney seemed to have accepted her invitation to become partners with an outburst of joy and kindness. It was great to see among them as the thought about their first meeting with Priscilla took place. Before he was kicked out of Signal… The lonely girl that stood by the docks that came to be his girlfriend was the shy and very closed one. Nobody really talked to her and nobody seemed intent on helping her. So Simon sat by her and tried what others won't. With time, came her openness. Her joy and her love. Eventually. It took him some time but when she admitted her feelings it felt great. A smile flashed from Simon towards the two newly born partners shaking their hands firmly that became their strongest tie between a person. He wondered if his ties were still as strong as it was.

Finally the small group turned to the ruins. The building looked crumblingly old and moss was taking over its structure. The entire thing was open and you could see what was being held inside. Pedestals, all holding something wrapped neatly in a plastic bag. He heard a sound and turned his face towards Whitney who became eagerly excited as she said; "Ah! This must be the ruins, yes?" Simon was definitely ready to answer that question.

"Yeah it must be. Blaire was the one who found it. So it's all thanks to her!" Simon replied before going on to the ruins's. "Oh yeah… Since you're now my partner, why don't we get to know each other a little? I'll start with something you could work with I guess… I told you before, I was an inventor! I love to make things and get touchy with my belongings." He began to yap as he walked towards the pedestal. "Most of the things you see with me is probably engineered by me… Well, not to boast or anything…" He looked at the items placed on the pedestal, becoming stupefied as he looked and turned to Blaire.

"Blaire, come check this out… Do you really think this is the kind of 'materials' that we need to bring?" Simon said. On top of the pedestal lies two bread slices wrapped neatly inside a plastic. Next to it were several other ingredients that seems to be necessary to make a… Sandwich? "There's mayonnaise… Some lettuces… More bread… What the heck?" He commented before adding some more comments. "You don't suppose we take all of them back right?"

Blaire watched the friendly exchange between Alexis and Whitney. It seemed like they were going to be fast friends--though with Whitney, that wasn't surprising because she already voluntarily announced that Blaire and Simon were her bestfriends the moment that she met them.

"Ah! This must be the ruins, yes?~"

Blaire glanced at the old remains of a structure. "Yeah it must be. Blaire was the one who found it. So it's all thanks to her!" Blaire shook her right hand slightly, "Ah, I wouldn't have found it if it weren't for Simon though." Blaire followed Simon towards the ruins, but glanced back at Alexis and Whitney before continuing, "Let's go." She told them with a small smile. She broke into a light jog when she saw that Simon was already steps away.

"Oh yeah… Since you're now my partner, why don't we get to know each other a little? I'll start with something you could work with I guess… I told you before, I was an inventor! I love to make things and get touchy with my belongings." He began as they walked towards the pedestal. "Most of the things you see with me is probably engineered by me… Well, not to boast or anything…" He continued.

"Hm, is that so? That sounds really impressive. You must really be skilled if most of your things were engineered by yourself." She replied with acknowledgement as she thought about his weapon and armor. "My father was a good engineer himself. The weapons you see on me were made by him. Even though i'm good at fixing weapons and such, I can't make one from scratch." She added. Blaire turned back once more to check if the other two were following.

"Blaire, come check this out… Do you really think this is the kind of 'materials' that we need to bring?" Blaire turned back to face him, before glancing down at the object which was placed on top of the pedestal. There were two bread slices, which were wrapped tightly inside a plastic. Thinking that there was some kind of mistake, she glanced at the other objects to make sure, "There's mayonnaise… Some lettuces… More bread… What the heck?" Simon remarked. Blaire's stomach grumbled, and she was almost sure that it was loud enough to be heard. She flushed red in embarrassment, but tried to think nothing of it by clearing her throat.

"You don't suppose we take all of them back right?" Simon asked. Blaire gathered her thoughts for a moment before answering, "Hm.. I don't know.. Maybe we're supposed to eat them?" She suggested. That was unlikely, but she was hungry so the idea sounded pretty good in her ears. "..or not. Each of us should probably take one. If you think about it, there are enough for each one of us to take." She replied. Now that sounded more reasonable. Though if she were to choose, the first one would definitely be her choice.