Robert was shocked yet again, as the majority of his teammates voted for him to be the leader. While Tai did have a point that the faculty most likely chose leaders, he still felt honored by their praise. "Thanks everyone. I didn't really expect this. I just did what I felt had to be done. So, yeah, sure. If I become leader, you can be Heavy Hitter-Strategist if you want Greyson." He thought about Tai's suggestion of going back to where they had all started from. "Alright, let's go. We'll figure out how to get back at the top when we get there. It wouldn't be the hardest thing we've done all day." So he started walking in the direction where all of the zip-lines converged. Seeing that they were all in for a long walk, Robert turned to his teammates behind him and asked, "So what's everybody's story? You know. Where are you from? Why you want to join Beacon? Et Cetera, Et Cetera, Et Cetera."

Trico looked up at Laura walking, or flying, up the mountain, without any attempt to come down and talk to Trico. She sighed heavily and wandered back down into the forest, looking for something big and ugly to kill.
"Ozpin, I really hope you get hit by that rock. Might knock some sense into you about this idiotic teaming system." She ground, kicking more leaves up in vexation, and stomping into the forest, muttering madly to herself.
"Gonna make a pretty necklace from teeth and then hold a lovely little tea party your not invited. People are a bother, who needs them?"

"Yeah, I got it. I just hope that robot didn't hear you." Gren said. Kuhaku blinked and peered over his shield to look at the Mech. He hadn't thought of that. The idea of his plan being revealed to/comprehended by the Mech never crossed his mind. He had hoped that wouldn't prove another fatal mistake like his prior hesitation.

"Go! I'm ready to take out it's cables, just get it to turn around." Gren continued in a low voice. Kuhaku nodded as another bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. He started to move when his ears picked up rapid movement coming from behind.

"Crap. The voices from before!" Kuhaku had forgotten about them, turning his head to look over his shoulder. Gritting his teeth, he hoped the voices were friendly. How this would effect their plans, he didn't know.

His glowing blue eyes blinked twice. There were two of them, both of them human. His eyes widened at the sight of them. The larger male had a glowing spear, the female had long, blue hair and a weapon at her side that he wasn't familiar with. Some sort of sickle attached to a chain. At first, slight fear halted his feet but then he came to a realization. With the two of them, the second pair would complete his future team. Hope and excitement filling his chest, his mouth parted as the corners of his lips formed a smile, his eyes brightening. Like a hammer knocking him back into reality, he then remembered he was currently engaged in combat. His future friends could get hurt if he waited.

He took a single step before a sudden bolt of lightning ripped through the air and Kuhaku shut his eyes in pain. The light from the bolt temporarily blinding his sensitive vision. Tears welling up at the corners of his eyes, he struggled to open them and blink away the tears. Looking over his shoulder at his future teammate, he figured that attack must've come from the larger male, his Semblance. As he watched unmoving once more, the human male began to use his Semblance to spin his spear, a truly wondrous sight as it sparked coated in electricity. But his wonder was cut short as the male was then attacked by the Mech.

"Damn it! Not again!" From his inaction, another teammate was being attacked.

"Do something!" the male bellowed out. To whom, Kuhaku wasn't sure, but as he took a second step trying to will himself to move against the monstrous machine, the female then spoke.
"Abel!" she yelled as she moved behind him. Was that the male's name? Abel...
"What do you expect me to do? Fly over his..." she stopped mid-sentence.
"YOU TWO! GET READY TO MOVE AS SOON AS I DO THIS, I DON'T THINK YOU WILL HAVE MUCH TIME! Abel, try to hold on a little longer!" mumbling something under her breath after she finished, Kuhaku could only watch in awe for what she did next. Tears still streaming from his intense, blue eyes.

Running at the wall of the tunnel, she had pushed off of it and jumped, flipping in midair as she threw her weapon at the attacking Mech. With the business end spinning around the mech's shoulder and hooking to it, she then shot towards it somehow and swung behind it. Grabbing onto the 'cables' she yelled.

"Now!"

Kuhaku shook his head furiously and glared at the mech, wiping away at his drying tears. "Wake up! Go now!" he told himself with a low growl in his throat. "Gren! Change of plans! Work with Abel and keep it occupied while I help her!" Sheathing his sword into his shield, he slung his weapon behind him and crouched low. "No more! I won't let anyone get hurt!" he told himself as he dug the toes of his boots in, small black claws ripping through the tips of his gloves as he clutched the ground. Exploding into a sprint, he was merely a blur as he shot off towards the feet of the mech. Bounding on all fours, he ran between its legs and immediately spun around as he got behind it. Looking up its back, he shot upwards into the air with a jump. Claws scratching and finding purchase wherever they could, Kuhaku rapidly scaled the length of its back until he was close to Bridget. Looking at the 'cables', he saw that they were actually linked ammunition belts.

Grinning, he unsheathed his sword from his back and stabbed it into the first belt, twisting. Snapping and breaking them. Doing the same with the second, he looked up at the firing machine guns. Within a few seconds they would either run dry or jam from the damaged belts. Continuing his climb with his sword re-sheathed, he got closer to the female's position. Staring into her eyes with his own, he warned her. "You might want to jump off for what's coming next."

He looked up and climbed until he got to the nape of its neck. Releasing one hand, he grabbed the hilt of his sword as his weapon immediately began to shift and change into his Great Axe. Hanging onto the mech's neck, he wielded his axe in his right hand. "Screw wasting time blowing off its limbs, go directly for the head and end this." Briefly, he hoped he wouldn't lose his gloves. Swinging his axe upwards, he lodged it into the back of the mech's neck. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out four oddly shaped vials of Dust. Reaching up, he loaded the vials into the hollow in the hilt of the Axe. With a loud cha-chunk locking sound the Axe accepted the ammunition, chambering it.

With a few forceful tugs, Kuhaku freed his axe and continued his climb once more using only his feet and free hand. Going over its shoulders, he made his way to the mech's face. Glaring into its mechanical eyes, he growled loudly and punched them out. Ripping out the internals of its eyes with his claws. Swinging his axe, he dug his axe's head where the mech's chin would be.

"Eat this..." he muttered under his breath with malice. As the hidden trigger clicked out in the handle, the head of the axe split and separated slightly to reveal a long, rifled barrel within its shaft. [GRENADIER MODE] Roaring, Kuhaku squeezed the trigger. The air erupted with four, rapid concussive blasts from his Great Axe, the special Dust Grenade ammunition being fired point blank into the machine. Unfortunately, the reckless move cost Kuhaku. The heavy recoil from firing the Great Axe singlehandedly and off-hand caused him to lose his hold. The following blasts from the attack forced his body off of the Mech and sent him flying. Singed, shredded by shrapnel, and partial deaf Kuhaku crashed to the ground. His Great Axe following him dangerously and landing with its head buried in the ground inches from his body. Coughing, Kuhaku looked up at Gren and yelled, "BURY IT, GREN!"

For better or for worse, two new people showed up. Humans from what he could tell, one with a spear, another with some sort of curved sword or some such. They took the offensive on the robot, relieving pressure from Kuhaku and Gren. Good in that it would allow them to move without worrying of getting perforated, but now they had to do their part to help or there may be two corpses that they would have to report. One of the humans with a spear, Abel if the other human was correct, caught the attention of the machine. Gren feared the worse when the machine opened fire, but the human had some sort of barrier-like ability. It would protect him, but for how long? At least it distracted the machine and allowed the other human, a female from her voice, to vault over the mech and onto it's back, redirecting it's fire away from it's ally. Gren cursed to himself, since now he can't simply shoot the mech without risk harming the girl in the process. Luckily, Kuhaku was quick to change the plans.

Before Kuhaku ran to engage the machine, he told Gren to assist Abel in keeping it occupied. But Gren wasn't sure how he'd do that; The God Eater in it's Devastator Form risked a lot of friendly fire if he tried to shoot at the mech, an he wasn't sure if he would do much notable damage if he switched to the Terror Form and tried to slash at the mech's legs. Gren was feeling rather useless when he remembered one more ability; his Semblance. "I can't distract it, but i can keep it still!" Running out of cover Gren ran close to the machine, not to melee distance, but to the effective range of his Semblance. Once he determined he was close enough Gren stomped his feet into the ground and focused in on the machine. Channeling his Semblance, Friction, he used the ground as a conduit between him and the Mech. From there he used his Semblance to increase the Friction between the mech's joints, making it harder for it to move until it was practically paralyzed. Gren needed to put all his focus onto his attack, not only to ensure that the mech doesn't break free, but also to know which parts did not need to be affected by his semblance as Kuhaku and the human girl tore the machine apart.

Kuhaku shot pointblank into the mech's head, which presumably held either vital operation functions or at least some sort of sensor. If it wasn't the former, than the machine would at least be unable to target them. But he was still a danger. Kuhaku's attack also knocked him far away from the Mech, leaving only the girl. Before Kuhaku was sent flying however, he had one more order for Gren. As though time froze, Gren thought about his next action. "Bury it.... But the girl... She has to escape, I can't hurt her. But this machine needs to be stopped. I... I must..." As Gren thought, he cut off his Friction and lifted up The God Eater. Clenching his teeth for what was going to happen, he shouted one responds of his own before he brought destruction. "MOVE!" Gren unloaded The God Eater onto the ceiling of the cave above the mech, firing not only bullets but also unguided rockets. Explosions and gunfire echoed throughout the cave, and any voices was drowned out in the cacophony. Dust and dirt was kicked up and before long, a massive rumbling sound louder than Gren's own attacks was hear. Bit by bit, the earth above them began to fall onto the mech. Gren hoped that this would destroy the mech, and more importantly, he hoped that the girl could escape.

Too concentrated on keeping the Ampere spinning quickly enough to keep himself free of bulletholes, Abel wasn't aware of what Bridgett was doing until she had already cleared him at grappled to the mecha with her chain blade. Forced by the constant pressure to remain attuned to his own problems, he couldn't make out exactly what she was doing either, but his questions were answered when the endless barrage of bullets toward his position was abruptly halved. Sparks flew from the wall like firecrackers where Bridgett aimed the minigun, and Abel realized he could advance. Still spinning the Ampere, he moved forward in a slow walk, trying to get too close for the mecha to fire at him without hitting its own exeskeleton or reaching the limits of its turret's pivoting range.

This momentary strategy turned to dust when one of the strangers threw himself into the mix. Though the light was limited, Abel knew instantly and without the shadow of a doubt that the attacking student wasn't human. In the heat of the moment, he couldn't think to identify him as a Faunus, but Kuhaku's unorthodox approach distracted him nonetheless. The feline boy's dark shape, faintly illuminated by his eyes, merged with that of the robot's. Its remaining turret paused for a moment as the robot adjusted itself to the new weight.

Abel saw the opportunity and took it. As Kuhaku was scaling the thing's back to join Bridgett, the guardian on the ground twirled the Ampere, changing it into staff mode in the process, before slamming its tip into the metal rail beside him. By infusing a great deal of low voltage energy into the metal, he caused bright sparks to erupt along it, partially and sporadically illuminating the tunnel. In the improved lighting he could see his partner and the Faunus clinging to the huge machine's upper back, as well as the other stranger -a big, heavily armored fellow- channeling something through the earth that seemed to be hindering the mecha's movement. It took Abel a second to realize that this guy was really helping him, but he didn't dwell on the thought. As he watched Kuhaku altered his weapon somehow and detonated it, sending both an explosion through the mecha's head and himself sailing through the air—in Abel's general direction. Before he could even begin moving to intercept, Kuhaku's momentum left him sprawling in the dust to cough out three foreboding words.

Abel rushed to his side, counting on this 'Gren' to keep him covered. Upon kneeling, Abel got a better look at Kuhaku. Now there could be no question that this guy was a Faunus, but that didn't really matter to Abel; in the space of a few seconds he had already proved his courage and talent. Putting a gloved hand on Kuhaku's shoulder, he quickly tried to ascertain if he was alright. While certainly worse for wear, it didn't look like the boy would be passing on anytime soon. In fact, Kuhaku's sky-blue Aura was already in effect.

The analysis was interrupted by the deafening sound of destruction. Abel rose and pivoted on his heels in time to see the first few slags of rock descend from the tunnel's roof and impact the floor. One fell directly on the track, mangling it and plunging the tunnel back into near-darkness. To his horror, he saw Bridgett (identifiable by her bright blue hair in the gloom) still holding fast to the mecha's back, despite the fact that the metaphorical sky was falling around her. At the rate the ceiling was collapsing, there was no way she could escape being entombed alive. Unless...

Abel used the last of his degraded aura to illuminate the tip of the staff mode Ampere once again. With the intensity of the glow, only incredible misfortune could keep Bridgett from seeing it. Picturing his partner grappling with the Rakurai through the trees, Abel held the Ampere in the air horizontally with both hands. “Bridge!” He hollered, putting everything he had into amplifying his voice. “Grapple to me!”

Pheona could not be bothered to walk so pitifully through an unkempt forest. Such energy was better suited fueling her potential combat with a Grimm, if even that. It sufficed to say that much of her 'work' was laid upon her steely servant to take care of; transportation included. Pheona sat comfortably upon the massive shoulder of her animated golem, who went by the rather misplaced name Invictus. The robot was of a rather polite nature to be given so brutish a title. His arm was curled upwards, granting Pheona a spot to rest her boots. The grace with which he walked maintained Pheona's position with little worry of her falling. Her expression of indifference further indicated a lack of fear.

The duo had proceeded through the woods after landing with a apocalyptic impact upon the earth after falling from the airship they rode in on. Pheona could, once again, not be bothered to climb down a rope like some commoner. Despite her early entrance into the environment, Invictus kept a steady, slow pace as he proceeded, leading to a majority of the other students taking the lead before her. Pheona had set her sight upon a particular cliffside in the distance, figuring a greater height would offer her some worthy advantage in determining the whereabouts of some 'artifact' as the instructors called it.

"I don't suppose you could suddenly sprout the capacity for scanning the environment?" Pheona asked, poking at something under her nail with a dull look.

"Initiating scanning procedure. 23%..." Invictus replied, tone as monotonous as, well... a robot. Pheona gave a brief glance at the side of her servants head which her back rested upon, and returned to her nail-pruning duties. She knew for a fact Invictus was merely playing; a strange occurrence for the golem.

"No I suppose not," Pheona replied, "How much longer till we reach the cliff's edge?" She couldn't be bothered to look up, either.

"Approximately ten minutes, if I pick up the pace. Do I have your permission m'lady?" Invictus asked. Pheona lifted her elbow and rested it upon the golem's head and clenched his bicep between her ankles, preparing to hold on.

"Granted. I do tire of this scenery," Pheona said, looking ahead. Immediately Invictus picked up his pace, metal feet stomping into the soft earth with a dull rumble. His immense size betrayed the speed at which he sprinted, coursing through trees as deftly as a one-ton majestic deer. The duo came upon the steep but passable terrain that would lead them upwards and to the cliffside scouted beforehand, and Invictus continued to trudge up its heights untiring and unrelenting. At the very edge, she hopped off of her servant's metallic body and brought her hands to her hips. She looked out over the basin.

"Perhaps these artifacts are placed upon some sort of altar for ease of recognition? Surely these instructors would not task us with scouring the forest floor for something potentially small and unnoticeable," she said.

"Unless, of course, they are looking for hunters and huntresses with dedication and no small amount of patience alone," Invictus commented. Pheona glared slightly at Invictus, half-wondering if the golem was poking fun at her temper. She sighed heavily and crossed her arms.

"And I still have yet to meet a partner. Call it luck or whatever. I only hope they are..."

"Worthy of your presence, m'lady?" Invictus finished her sentence. Pheona's glare, this time, was quite evident. The golem's featureless face offered no sense of remorse for his words. Pheona turned around and walked past Invictus' side, heading along the cliffside.

"Searching about through this canopy won't reveal anything, it seems. We continue on," Pheona declared, "We will find someone soon enough."

Guess Who said
Robert was shocked yet again, as the majority of his teammates voted for him to be the leader. While Tai did have a point that the faculty most likely chose leaders, he still felt honored by their praise. "Thanks everyone. I didn't really expect this. I just did what I felt had to be done. So, yeah, sure. If I become leader, you can be Heavy Hitter-Strategist if you want Greyson." He thought about Tai's suggestion of going back to where they had all started from. "Alright, let's go. We'll figure out how to get back at the top when we get there. It wouldn't be the hardest thing we've done all day." So he started walking in the direction where all of the zip-lines converged. Seeing that they were all in for a long walk, Robert turned to his teammates behind him and asked, "So what's everybody's story? You know. Where are you from? Why you want to join Beacon? Et Cetera, Et Cetera, Et Cetera."

Greyson smiled as he walked with his teammates but he moved a little faster then then going to get to the zip lines before he started to feel the pain of his leg "well if their is one thing you all need to know about me is this basic thing, I'm an adrenaline junkie with a hero complex. You know that dream of saving the world and all that is what I dream about. I really don't remember where I spent my life I just know it was boring as hell my earliest memories are from combat school."

Greyson started to talk about it so at least he got a few words in before... "AHHHH! DAMN IT" Greyson yelled in agony as he fell to the ground the pain of his broken leg finally made it's way to his brain trying him hire much it really hurt "not now, not when I'm so close" Greyson whispered to himself not wanting to be the burden when their so close to making it, not again he can't be the one to hang everyone back again! He thought remembering the pain of his life before the academy. Greyson huffed and groaned as he kept trying to stand despite the pain. ...

Robert listened to Greyson about his personal history when suddenly he dropped to the ground in a bout of cursing. "Whoa! You okay, Greyson?" Robert asked, having no idea what was wrong. He saw Greyson was clenching his leg and asked, "What's wrong with your leg?" Robert took a knee right next to him to see if there was any obvious injury, but didn't see any. He turned to Priscilla and Tai, "Either of you know anything about... um... whatever is wrong with his leg." His lack of knowledge in first-aid showed brilliantly. Even the often-times-oblivious Robert knew Greyson was still trying to hide the pain though, which would do no good if he was going to get any help.

Priscilla yawned and nodded, beginning to walk towards the ship with the others. But she was at the front walking ahead of them, maybe because she was a fast walker or something? As she was walking she heard Robert talking about their past, the girl simply shooked her head slowly because she was tired of people asking her about her past, mainly because it wasn't such a beautiful past. It was sad and she just stol and stole stuff for herself and her family, they were poor and thats what she did in her past. So it wasn't a topic that she felt like discussing now. And thats when she heard Greyson, she turned around and ran to her partner. As she was now worried. "Are you okay?! No. We dont have time . We need someone professional. Lets go and take him to the ship. Grab an arm and I grab an arm and we take him to the ship?" She said looking at Greyson as she reached down to grab a hold of his hand and wrapping his arm around her neck. "Come on guys.."

It's a broken leg on the femer, the large bone I will need a cast for a few days but only when I walk on my own!" Greyson said gently pushing Priscilla away but wanting to stand on his own feet. Greyson can't let anyone help him! He doesn't want to burden anyone like he did his family when he was younger and disabled. Greyson pulled out his sword and stabbed it to the ground making it used as a crutch knowing he will need to sharpen it later but the last thing he will do is be a burden to his friends he didn't want to drag them down. greyson groaned with each step making sure to move on his own getting pain....

Auriel lead the pair on the search for their objective, his eyes open and his head moving around, scanning the environment. He noticed that on the side opposite where they had originally come up, there was a massive number of plants, far more than he'd expected to see. Turning to Emlyn, he jerked his head in the direction of the greenery. "Hey, there's...like, an obscene amount of trees and stuff over here. A lot more than you'd expect to see on a mountain. Maybe they hid the cards over there? I can't find a damn thing up here, it's pretty barren." Already making his way towards the plants, Auriel continued talking.

"And your sister, huh? My younger brother's got his eyes set on this place, too. The family was ecstatic when I got accepted." Brushing his way through a small bush, Auriel stumbled to the side as he felt the ground coming loose underneath him. "Hey, Emlyn....? I'm not crazy, right? The mountain just...moved, right?" His head darting from side to side, Auriel stepped back as some of the plants started moving. Moving plants? Oh COME ON!!!! Slowly, a large creature became visible among the shifting foliage, and Auriel couldn't help but stare up at it in awe. Awe and terror.

"Emlyn. I hope you're warmed up." Auriel armed himself just as quickly as he had before. "Cause we're in for a hell of a fight."

Bridgett shifted slightly to allow the newcomer more maneuverability on the machines back and lost her grip slightly when he cut the ammo belts off of the guns. She pulled her weapon to her and looked to find the best spot to try and land when she jumped off, so was caught completely off guard when the explosions detonated right next to her. Stumbling she nearly fell off, but barely held on to the gun she was still directing, momentarily blinded and deafened by the shell shock, she did what she could to use her semblance. Though not operating even close to optimal range due to the confusion in her mind, she had enough control to sense what was going on in the fight.

The other on the back of the robot had been blown off.
Abel was already at his side.
His partner was much closer to the robot than he had been, and was doing something to the machine that slowed it down
The partner Switched stances and was firing into the ceiling.

Her sight started returning to her, and she saw as much as sensed the rocks coming down around her. She saw Abel holing up his staff and shouting something, but couldn't make out what it was through the ringing in her ears. Guessing at his plan she launched Rakurai at his staff, hoping that in doing so she wouldn't just pull the staff towards her. Her hope died out when a large boulder landed in between the two of them and her weapon bounced ineffectually off of it. As she retracted her weapon back to her, she came up with a new idea.

Closing her eyes, she put more focus into her semblance and using that to determine where and when the rocks would be falling and ran the other way, using every ounce of her mobility and speed to get across the distance to the new person in just a few short seconds. As she ran past the giant she flung the weighted end of Rakurai out past him so that as he kept running it would wrap around him and tug him with her. Not even looking back she shouted "Run, fool!" right before the chain went taut, which ended up jerking her short, he was a lot heavier than she expected, the chain barely causing him to stumble a few steps. Unfortunately the miscalculation also caused her dogde of a falling boulder to come up short and it landed on her shoulder, causing her to fall and scream out in pain. Laying on the ground she clutched her shoulder, pain causing her to loose all focus in her semblance as she struggled and stumbled to get out from under the collapsing roof. I just hope this was worth it

Gren unleashed his fury on the machine until he saw the girl escape. Once she was in the clear Gren tried to finish up burying the mech by unleashing a slavo of rockets. As they were flying towards the ceiling Gren turned to run when he saw a rock from his previous deconstruction hit the girl. He cursed himself for his recklessness and activated his Semblance to reduce his Friction, allowing him to slide towards the girl using the shockwave from his rockets to propel him forward. He outran the explosion and the shrapnel, positioning his body between the girl and the blast. He crouched low and made sure that his massive frame did all it could to prevent anything else from hitting her. He still had the God Eater out only to provide additional cover.

The rumbling of the collapsed ceiling went on for only a short while longer, about five or so minutes by Gren's count. Eventually, the rumbling stopped. Where the robot once stood a large pile of stone and dirt replaced it. It nearly filled up all the way to the ceiling of the cave, but left enough room for someone like Gren to squeeze through. Once he was certain that there was no more danger from the debris, Gren looked at the girl. A human, with blue hair. She clutched her shoulder, likely injured and at worse broken. She would live, but only if they escaped so she could get medical attention. Gren bemoaned his lack of medical ability. "Are you okay? Nevermind, that's stupid question. You just got hit by a rock. Can you stand?" Still wary of danger Gren stood up and had the God Eater at the ready, in case the noise had attracted Grimm or more robots. Offering his hand to help the girl up Gren spoke again. "I am Gren Orchid. Heavy weapon specialist and boar faunas. I'm... I'm sorry for all of that. I should have waited for you to clear out. Truly, I apologize for endangering you like that...." Gren said solemnly.

As the world figuratively crumbled to pieces around them, Kuhaku remained sprawled on the ground fading in and out of consciousness. As he saw the mech being brought down and buried underneath large pieces of the train tunnel, he desperately hung on to a few more moments until he could at least hear someone's voice. Until he knew they were okay.

"Are you okay? Nevermind, that's stupid question. You just got hit by a rock. Can you stand? I am Gren Orchid. Heavy weapon specialist and boar faunus. I'm... I'm sorry for all of that. I should have waited for you to clear out. Truly, I apologize for endangering you like that...." his voice rose from the following silence of the battle, echoing off of the walls of the train tunnel.

"That makes two of us, Gren." thought Kuhaku. He would have to remember to apologize to his new teammates for his reckless actions after proper introductions.

A sigh of relief escaped from Kuhaku's chest, blowing up dust. The two of them seemed to be alright. The black stripes on his tail and ears began to fade to brown and continued to fade until there was nothing but white. Blinking slowly as he blankly stared at the ground in front of him, his glowing blue eyes changed back to their normal hazel color. His short, black claws retracted. Signifying the release of his Semblance. Bracing for what was coming next, he shut his eyes and mentally prepared himself.

With a sharp gasp, his eyes snapped open wide. His body completely seized up as it was wracked with pain, his gloved fingers digging into the ground. Hyperventilating, his vision whited-out and he went blind. All sound drowning out to a muffle, a persistent ringing then deafened his hearing. The pain that was nulled from the battle cascaded over him, returning with multiplied force and battering his body like relentless ocean waves during a storm. Biting his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, painful tears streamed from his eyes as his breathing became sharp and ragged. His head felt as if it were under intense pressure and was fit to explode.

"Bear with it! Bear with the pain! Ride it out, it'll be over soon! Hold on to them! Hold onto your memories...!" Kuhaku thought, consoling himself. Within a few minutes, his breathing slowed and steadied. Tears halting, a trembling, gloved hand reached up and wiped them away along with the blood on his lip. Blinking furiously, his vision returned to him and shapes came into view. The finer details coming in later. The ringing in his ears grew silent and his hearing returned to him, voices coming in clearly. The pain subsided and his body relaxed. The side effects of his Semblance usage passed shortly.

Pulling his hands in underneath his chest, he slowly pushed his body up onto all fours. Arms trembling as they supported him, he slowly stood. Immediately losing his balance, he stumbled and frantically reached for his Great Axe. Taking hold of the grip, he leaned his body against the weapon. Its head still buried in the ground, steady and accepting of his weight.

Looking at the large pile of debris. he cleared his throat. Weakly calling out to the other pair, "G-...Gren! Is the lady alright? Are...Are you both alright?"
Blinking twice, he then remembered.

Slowly turning his head to the side, he saw Abel. Swallowing dryly as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face, he realized how embarrassing his little 'episode' must have looked. Lowering his eyes to the ground, he then looked up and managed to give Abel a weak smile. Reaching out a hand, the other hand clutching his Axe tightly, he offered it to Abel.

"Oh. Right. Nice to meet you. I'm Kuhaku. Kuhaku Shiro. I'm a..." his voice caught in his throat and he took a few seconds before continuing.
"That's right. He's...a Human." he thought to himself. Worried what Abel's impression of him would be and how he would react, he cleared his throat.
"I'm a Tiger Faunus." He summoned up his courage and straightened up, standing as tall as he could. Still leaning somewhat against his Great Axe. He would firmly shake this human's hand if he accepted him.

Tai nodded, and together they began to head back towards the cliffside that they had come from. He tuned out part of the conversation, not feeling too comfortable in even really discussing team roles when they weren't even sure that the four of them would be a team at all, or who the leader would be. True, it stood to reason that the four of them had been brought together by the relics with the intent of making them a team, but it wasn't set in stone by any means. If so, why would they make both pairs collect relics, rather than something simpler such as saying 'The first pair you meet you will be a team with. Go collect a relic and bring it back'? Since they hadn't, it still left open the possibility that their teammates could be other people. So, Tai would wait and see.

He stayed silent as well as Robert asked about backstories and general information, listening to Greyson without judging at this point. He did start paying attention though as it became clear that Greyson was more injured than he let on. "I know basic first aid," he confirmed when Robert asked, but it seemed the other boy didn't want assistance, instead trudging on with his sword as a crutch, something that most certainly was not good for the blade.

So, he decided to make the general point that might have been missed in the guy's determination to not seem a burden. "So, how do you plan to scale the cliff with a broken leg by yourself," he asked Greyson in a neutral tone, making it clear that he wasn't condemning, but rather just seeking information.

I still have a full round in my ammo pouch just like you all saw I can get on the blunt part of my blade and unload rounds and start flying" Greyson said pausing to take a breath flinching as he kept using the blade for a crutch regardless before continuing " im going to make it their with the ammo I have left then ill gladly seek medical attention until then I wont stop till we get their and finish this assignment end of story" Greyson said groaning as he felt another jolt of pain hit him but no matter what Greyson kept moving along with his sword for a crutch knowing that Greyson will spend hours sharpening the blade back to its original sharpness but hours of sharpening was infinitely better then Greyson feeling like he was letting everyone down and get those looks of pity that he had gotten when he was back in a wheelchair when he was younger.

Greyson had spine problems as a child and was glued to a wheelchair to go anywhere while his father was a doctor he was no miracle worker so Greyson couldn't do anything and everyday he felt like hell knowing that his disability cost his mother the time of her life to be with his father. It was only recently, a few years ago that his father came up with an experimental procedure and effectively cured Greyson but what he didn't know was that the procedure was illegal and unethical back where Greyson was from they still talk about the Ortega trial that cost his father his license as medical researcher making his mother have to pick up the slack doing odd jobs. so Greyson left and he became a fighter. Greyson never takes his ability to walk for granted and will hurt anyone that does, cause he knows more then anyone what it felt like to not have it...

For a moment, Abel's heart soared. To him it looked like Bridgett had gotten his message, facing his direction and readying her weapon. His heart sank like a stone, however, when a slab of the ceiling fell directly between them and sent up a cloud of dust. For a moment he was incredulous; how could life be so cruel as to allow a boulder to drop so spirit-crushingly perfectly? From his perspective, Bridgett was gone, crushed to atoms by hundreds of tons of stone.

A feminine scream pierced the consuming darkness. Abel perked up; Bridgett was alive? Every nerve in his body urged to him race forward and save her. Between the dense, powder-filled air and the abyssal darkness of the tunnel, however, there was nothing he could do. Realizing how infuriatingly helpless he was, Abel could only clench his teeth and squeeze the dented hilt of the Ampere in morose anger. The continued avalanche from above forced him to crouch down near Kukaku with his hands over his head for protection, staring wordlessly at the rock beneath his heels.

Though Abel lost track of time, the collapse eventually stopped. He rose to his full height, absently brushing chips of stone and dust from his coat, and frowned into the darkness. He could find no sign of the mecha; clearly it had fallen victim to the same rubble that had ended his partner. Abel was just getting to kicking himself for letting his new comrade down so soon when he heard voices from the gloom, on the other side of the fallen boulders. The omnipresent echo in the tunnel made Gren's words clear, and more importantly, restored Abel's spirits as quickly as lighting a candle. Bridget and the armored one had made it out after all.

A noise from Kuhaku stole his attention. Abel turned to look and found the boy in agony. He recoiled at the mere sight of Kuhaku writhing in the floor, streaming tears and drawing blood from his lips, in horrible torment. Abel tried to keep a cool head and think up a way to help, but the scene before him was too disturbing to be replaced in his mind. As soon as the fit had come, however, it seemed to fade away. Abel held out a slightly trembling hand to help Kuhaku up, but he didn't seem to notice. Instead, the Faunus called out into the darkness, talking to his partner. When he finally noticed Abel and introduced himself, the guardian took his hand to shake.

“Abel Fulgurate,” he intoned. Anything else he could have said had chanced to vacate his mind for the moment, so he focused on Kuhaku instead. The Faunus hesitated, then seemed to puff up before revealing his obvious heritage. Was this guy frightened of admitting what he was? Abel knew that there was some anti-Faunus hate out there, as there was for every demographic, but fear to introduce oneself?

“Obviously,” he replied. The brusqueness of his tone took Kuhaku by surprise. “Don't know why you had to spit it out, though. You just showed that you got a lotta guts. Next time, though, you might want to let me take those hits.” By saying that, Abel effectively accepted him, implying that the two would continue to work together in times ahead. “You gonna heal up okay?”

"Alrighty then..." She sighed noticing Greyson walking by himself with the help of his weapon. As they began to walk, they would now begin to notice the ship. "Guys! Guys! Guys' guys. Guys. Guys." She said pointing at the mountain, jumping up and down but as soon as she landed down, her heel began to hurt. "Ouch...!" She said falling on her knees. Her legs really did hurt, she did run alot and was the most who was getting hurt by the bulls and their leader, Edgar. Priscilla stood up slowly and walked towards the ship, walking inside and taking a sit on the closest empty ground space"Im so tired.." The girl said laying on her back, she was wprried about Greyson, worried that he wasn't going to not be well. And then her mind went off to what Robert said, he wanted to know about their past, which wasn't such a good thing to say to people she just met a few hours ago.... Right? It was still bad for her! And she would be embarrissed, mad and sad that they wouldn't speak to her, because of what she did but all of this ran around her mind, thinking.

What was formerly a perfectly good train tunnel.
Beaten, blown up, battered, smashed, stabbed, cut, torn, and actually not that hurt, the mech fell beneath the rubble of the train tunnel, the heavy granite structure keeping it down as the 4 above started to semi-celebrate their victory. No matter. It had a plan. The rubble would start to shift and stir slightly, though for a minute, all seemed well. At least, from outside the rubble. On the inside, the robot started scrunching itself up, making up for its lack of sight with the root it had into the camera system in the train tunnel, it could see every single one of them from within the tunnel; it didn't need eyes to see. Within a few moments, the mech slowly rose from the rubble, and faced towards Abel and Kuhaku. Quickly, the same metallice voice rang out, saying: "TARGET ACQUIRED" as the lower iliac region of its torso opened up to reveal three sub-machine guns, all primed at the Tiger Faunus and Guardian.

---

The Top of the Mountain
*stomp. stomp*
A booming sound permeated over the large mountain, as the infantile Datura awoke. Pieces of its mask were missing, chipped and scattered. That was all that mattered...it needed to be complete...and to sleep. Trudging along, it simply stared at Emlyn and Auriel, and, strangely, ignored them entirely. It walked by as if it was going to completely ignore the duo. Humans didn't concern it...all that was prevalent in its animalistic mind was to become complete and expand, expand until it became an adult...big enough to become all of these red trees.

"Abel Fulgurate," the human male intoned as he took Kuhaku's hand and shook it.

Chest swelling with relief and happiness, Kuhaku's smile grew brighter and wider as his energy returned to him. Shaking Abel's hand firmly, he was nervous for no reason it seemed. This one was one of the accepting.

"Obviously," Abel remarked on his comment about his lineage.
Kuhaku blinked, surprised at first.
Scratching the back of his head, he looked away in embarrassment.

"Of course I'm a Tiger Faunus. Idiot, now you just look stupid. Did you get a concussion from the earlier fall or what?" he muttered as he thought to himself.

"Don't know why you had to spit it out, though. You just showed that you got a lotta guts. Next time though, you might want to let me take those hits." Abel continued.
Turning to face Abel again, he let out a nervous chuckle.
"Yeah, I guess that was rather obvious and unnecessary of me. I, uh...I appreciate the compliment by the way."

Compliments made him uncomfortable and talking with Abel proved slightly difficult as he felt shy, embarrassed. Only from sheer will did he prevent his cheeks from heating up and flushing red. Though, he'd like to see exactly how tough Abel seemed to be. Kuhaku's youthful looks and svelte body may cause others to perceive him as frail, but he was far from it and deceivingly so.

"Oh, and thanks for coming to our aid. We were in a pretty tight spot." His voice clearing with the return of his strength, his small cuts, burns and wounds began to heal from his Aura.

Looking down at himself, he noticed that he was covered in dust and began to pat himself down. Straightening his appearance and adjusting his clothing. Ridding himself of most of the dust and debris, coughing into a fist when the small dust clouds irritated his breathing. Finishing his short coughing fit, he stared at the fingertips of his gloves and frowned at the small holes his claws had made in them. At least they were still intact. He looked back up at Abel when he spoke again.

"You gonna heal up okay?" Abel asked.
Grinning, he gave Abel the thumbs up.
"Yeah, I should heal up just fi-" he cut himself off as his ears suddenly twitched.

Turning his head to face the pile of rubble, the pupils of his eyes narrowed into a black, vertical slit. He heard the movement under the rubble before his teammates did. His prior grin changed into an angry scowl, a low growl rumbling his throat. Ripping his Great Axe from the ground, Kuhaku broke off into another dead sprint at the rock pile the mech was buried under. As he ran, his Axe reverted to his Sword and Shield. The mech's body then rose from the rubble, its torso opened up to reveal three gun barrels aimed at himself and Abel.

"TARGET ACQUIRED" its robotic voice rang out.

"ACQUIRE THIS!" raising his shield high above his head, he punched straight downward as he came right up to the gun barrels. Pounding the edge of his shield down onto the barrels, he bent them all downward which would cause them to catastrophically fail if the machine tried to fire them. And just in case that didn't work, Kuhaku gave his sword a twirl in his other hand and rammed its point into the exposed torso of the machine. Giving it a kick to bury his sword in deeper, he slammed the face of his shield against the pommel and hammered it in as deeply as he could. The internals of the machine sparking, crunching and twisting loudly as he did. With a final kick, he back-flipped into the air and yelled out to Abel.

"ABEL! HIT MY SWORD WITH A LIGHTNING BOLT! GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU GOT!" As he hung in the air, Kuhaku curled as tightly as he could into a ball, bringing up his shield to protect himself from any more flying shrapnel and debris from what was coming next.