Having arrived at the firing range with the required protection, Sepia nervously picked up a rifle and magazine. As her weapon required good aim, she wasn't particularly worried about accuracy. What she was worried about was loading the stupid thing, especially after Ms. Vanhomrigh's rather emphatic words on the subject. Thankfully, the ammo went in without a hitch. Once on the firing line, Sepia assumed position with nearly perfect form and waited for further instruction. She was especially careful not to point the rifle anywhere near other students, having nearly blown a hole in her face in the past from careless firearm handling.

Esther Vanhomrigh - 5th Period, Practice Class

As the students approached the firing line and readied themselves for the first string of fire, a vein in Esther's temple visibly throbbed. She couldn't help but feel more than a twinge of burning annoyance at Ms. Montgomery. Not only had she not done well at the obstacle course, but she apparently had issues paying attention to her instructions. To be honest, her decision to change her mind about them using their own weapons had been sudden and not necessarily planned. But, even still to have her words so easily ignored enraged her. Esther wanted to break the girl, but that wasn't her purpose here. Priscilla chose to remain in the class, so Esther would do everything in her power to guide and train her. Even if the girl had a rather vapid personality and troublesome first day. Still, she would work with her and give her a chance to correct herself. One chance.

"Ms. Montgomery! The instructions were for you to use the stock rifles on the range! You'll be using your own weapon at a later time and date. Remove yourself from the firing line and select a stock rifle at the weapon rack. Don't worry, we'll wait on you." She barked her commands at Priscilla, the last sentence spoken with a sneer. Sarcasm oozing from her words.

After waiting for Priscilla to swap out her weapon, Esther adjusted the brim of her cover and pulled out her Scroll yet again. Habitually checking the time, she looked up and down the firing line to ensure everyone was ready. Expanding her Scroll and accessing a special application that controlled the range, she began tapping on a few icons. As she did so, small square targets with a large black circle in the center popped up in front of each student 25 yards away. Slowly, the targets dropped down low to the ground.

"Eyes and ears! Shooters! With a magazine of rounds, load!
She waited to see that everyone loaded their weapons.
"Make ready!"
Again, she waited to allow the students to charge and rack back their weapons in order to chamber a round.
"You may commence firing when your targets appear!"
Tapping an icon on her tablet Scroll, the paper targets popped up within line of sight of each student. After a brief pause, the first shots rang out and thundered. She couldn't help but smile a little to herself, though it would unnoticed by anyone else.

Kuhaku Shiro - 5th Period, Practice Class

On Ms. Van's command to load, Shiro tightly gripped the boxy-thing and slammed it into the rifle first go. With an extra tap on the magazine's bottom for good measure, he resumed his stance exactly how Ms. Van instructed. Stock deep in the pocket of his shoulder, rifle brought up to the side of his cheek. Peering through the sights, he focused on the front sight until only it was clear and everything else was blurred in the background. With the command to make ready, Shiro grabbed the charging handle and ripped it straight back to chamber a round. Getting as stable and as comfortable as he could, he tried his best to relax his body save for his hold on his weapon. He couldn't help but get a little excited though, evident by his tail flicking back and forth behind him. He loved guns and shooting them. As he maintained his focus on the front sight, the sclera of his eyes narrowed into a slit.

Calming his breathing, he allowed the muzzle of the rifle to drift up and down slightly. Hold and grip firm on his weapon, he did a little butt wiggle to make sure his stance was positive. As his target popped up, his ears did the same and perked. Hearing Ms. Van's announcing the range was hot, Shiro's thumb swept the rifle's safety selector to 'Semi/Fire'. There was a brief pause and silence as no one had fired a shot yet. In his curiosity he half wanted to look around but decided against it. Being a young man of action, he decided he would be the first to break the silence. With the pad of his pointer finger, he slowly began to squeeze. Waiting until the moment the front sight settled in the center of the blurry black circle and for the moment of exhalation, he squeezed the trigger all the way through and fought the urge to flinch as the air cracked and boomed with the sound of his shot.

For his following shot, he tried his best to maintain consistency between each shot, taking his time before the next. After 5 well-aimed shots, he ejected the magazine and let it drop to the ground. Grabbing the charging handle and racking it back a few times, he inspected its chamber to ensure it was cleared and swept the safety back on to 'Safe'. Lowering the muzzle of his weapon safely at the ground in front of him, he waited for further commands from Ms. Van. Heart pounding and breathing a little excitedly, he couldn't help but beam and smile. He wondered how his shot group looked. As he stood there waiting, his target slowly lowered closer to the ground to indicate he was complete with the first string of fire.

Robert Fallson - 5th Period, Practice

Robert continued hoping that Ms. Vanhomrigh wouldn't notice him taking the wrong firing stance. He felt sympathetic for Priscilla, since Ms. Vanhomrigh had caught her even though he was making several more mistakes. Robert waited for Ms. Vanhomrigh's signal before preparing to take his first shot. He looked down the sights; lined up the crosshairs with the center of the target, completely disregarding bullet drop, wind, et cetera; and pulled his finger back, since he hadn't been listening to Ms. Van's instructions to keep the fingers off the trigger until ready to fire. Nothing. Nothing happened. Robert made an irritated grunt before trying to pull the trigger again. Still nothing. Why wasn't the rifle firing? He continuously pulled on the trigger, again and again. Nothing was happening. He began inspecting the gun for issues, but didn't find anything. The magazine was in properly, the charging handle had already been pulled back. "What's wrong with this thing?" Robert then noticed the small switch next to the trigger. "Wait, what's this?" he said as he flipped it from 'Safe' to 'Semi/Fire.' He had forgotten to turn the safety off. Robert looked back at the target and resumed where he had left off.

He pulled the trigger, not expecting the recoil this time, and the muzzle quickly lifted upwards. "Whoa," he said aloud as he felt a sudden feeling of power over the paper targets that sat 25 yards away. He smiled and looked through the scope again, trying to see where his shot had hit. Robert was pretty sure he saw a small hole in the lower right corner of the target. He aimed higher and to the left of his target, hoping that this would get his shot closer to the bull's eye. By the time their shooting session was done, Robert had fired five shots that had all just barely hit the target. Not a single bullet had gotten close to the bull's eye, let alone hit it. Robert had a lot to improve on over the year. At least if he wanted to get better at using weapons other than his own. Robert was pretty sure he was way better with his own bracers.

Robert began to set down his gun, realized he hadn't turned the safety back on yet, picked it back up to turn the safety on, and set it back down again. He was about to walk away from the range, when one of the students next to him fired a late fifth shot. Robert was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the discharged bullet casing flew into Robert's shirt. The unexpected feeling of heated brass touching his skin made him jump and yell out, "Ahh!" Robert tried to shake the casing free, only for it to slide into his pants. He tried to grab it as it quickly slid down his leg and onto the dirt. Robert looked around to the several students staring at his ridiculous display. "Darn Fallson luck," he whispered under his breath as he joined the students that had finished shooting.

Marcus Goldstein - Practice

All told shooting paper targets was rather relaxing. Especially at ranges that Marcus could hit them with low powered phlegm.

He spent a few seconds just getting his breathing right. Just because the targets were in what most hunters would consider ‘melee range’ did not mean he should not take it seriously. He still had a bet to win. Stand straight, aim with both eyes open, exhale steadily, and then gently squeeze. His grandfather likened it to pinching the bottom of a pretty girl when he taught Marcus the skill.

A small hole appeared an inch above the bullseye.

Marcus was not good with girls. Nonetheless the shooting lessons resounded well with his slow and steady approach to life.

Each and every shot was sent downrange with great care, to the point Marcus was only on his fourth shot by the time most others were already finished. Unfortunately some poor sod had the terrible luck to get too close, and like it was pre-aimed the hot casing ended up inside the shirt of the bespectacled boy.

“You hurt?” Marcus asked dryly as he flicked the safety back on. While doubtful that the brass did anything other than irritate, it was only polite to ask. Frankly though Marcus simply wanted to go back to shooting again.

"Wow, what a ripoff. I should have confiscated the trinket at least." Diamond whispered to Amy as they headed off to the lockers. As soon as the door to the gym clicked shut behind her, her posture slumped. "Oooow," she complained, "First combat, then grimm studies, then this. So glad the next class is computers. I can't wait to sit around and do nothing for an hour."

Checking the time, she figured out there was plenty of time to get a shower before she had to head to the next class. If she wasn't sweaty before, she certainly was now and it was starting to feel like a second skin. To be honest, she would have taken the shower even if it meant being late to the next class. Grabbing her hat she didn't even bother changing and headed straight for the team's room.

The hot water did wonders, washing part of the fatigue away. It made Diamond want to crawl into bed and sleep, but alas there was still one period she had to attend before she could go laugh at everyone who picked and optional. Truth to be told, the girl was wondering why art and botany would be taught at combat school - she supposed it was more to give the students time to relax, which she could do on her own just fine - and she didn't take psychology for a science.

When she was done she got into a new change of clothes and headed of to the next class, wondering what that would be like. So far none was exactly what it appeared to be on the first sight, and if experience was anything, there would be a great amount of physical exertion incorporated in it somewhere. That train of thought got derailed however when she saw the teacher, who she could only describe as a metal boy band reject with a hair of that length and amount of metal embedded in his face. Well, at least he looked geeky enough to know what he was teaching.

Walking into the classroom with a greeting, Diamond took her place and waited for the bell.

Trad Oak – Practice

Trad waited until Ms. Vanhomrigh finished her instructions before responding to Marcus’s offer.

“Nah, you two both seem like you were born with rifles, I’d probably get my ass handed to me.” He was no stranger to guns himself, but as father always said, Just because you learned how to swim doesn’t mean you should race the fish.

Slipping the safety glasses on, Trad picked up one of the rifles he had been inspecting earlier along with a magazine. After heading to an empty spot on the range he grabbed the headphones slung around his neck. Stretching them out to put them on he stopped to listen as Ms. Vanhomrigh began scolding the pink girl for pulling out her own weapon.

“Poor girl.” Trad said to himself, he couldn’t help but pity her. So far she had been late to not one, but two classes they had been in, and she failed the obstacle course. Now she missed key instruction and was being drilled by Ms. Vanhomrigh. Yet she didn’t appear to be giving in.

Turning back to his own lane, he replaced his headphones on his ears and picked up his rifle. Plugging the magazine in securely and pulling the latch back he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and put the stock firmly against it. Clicking the safety off, he lowered his head to the rifle and readied his site.

The second the target popped up, Trad squeezed the trigger. A little too hasty for his liking, but he had four other shots to take is time on. Taking deep breaths and steadying his aim, he fired of the last four shots each with careful concentration.

Watching his target lower Trad felt confident he at least kept within the middle 3 circles.

“Ahh!”

Quickly turning toward the scream, he saw Robert flailing about as if a bee were on him. Trad simply shook his head and spoke softly, “Those two were probably made for each other.”

Priscilla was so ready to start this session! This was basically her territory, she had a widen smile on her face but it was soon to be a frown when she heard Ms.Vanhomirgh. "What did I do NOW?!" she thought to herself before turning her attention to the professor. So, basically they couldn't use their own weapon now..? Well that was bullshit because she wanted to use her weapon..! Priscilla was only good with her weapon, not no damn stock rifles. This was bullshit written all over it and it was embarrassing with Robert being in the same room as her. The pink-haired teenager just nodded her head, not even speaking one word to Ms.Vanhomirgh, ever since the obstacle she has been really mean to her and that was getting Priscilla a bit mad. Yeah, she didn't hear for the instructions but... talk to her nicely and calm. That is how an instructor suppose to be have with a student right? Professionally. This wasn't. She wasn't.

As Priscilla got back to the firing line, she quickly reloaded, this time did everything that the instructor has told them. If someone were to look at Priscilla, they would see a focused angrily girl staring at the target. She was really focused that she forgot where she was, as soon as the paper target appeared. Priscilla squinted her left eye, and shot fire..! The bullets went through the paper target, though, they were perfect shots. This happens regularly when she is mainly focused on one thing, which was the target. After this, Priscilla doesn't want to do anything else, even if it could fail her grade.

Even with the pallets' favorable design, navigated the river without falling into it required a great deal of conversation. Vorosky opened fire on the innocent riverbank in order to use the recoil to propel himself away from a outcrop of rock jutting up from the riverbed. The unpleasantly familiar sound of rapidly-beating wings reached him from over the water, and when the professor looked ahead he was disheartened to see a small flock of harpies incoming. Vorosky managed to bring down two of the avian Grimm with short, controlled bursts from his rifle, but the sharp-minded monsters split up after that, targeting students one or two at a time. One harpy swooped down on Vorosky almost vertically, threatening to topple him into the rushing whitewater. While he managed to block the thing's killer talons with his weapon, the harpy closed its claws around the gun instead and yanked hard, disarming the professor. With a sigh, he pulled a pistol from his belt and unceremoniously ventilated the Grimm's mask.

The scuffle had pivoted him around so that he was facing upstream; while not a desirable outlook for such a perilous situation, it enabled Rayna's questions to be heard. “Anomalies have only one use! The portal we came in by is one-way. The closest way back is right in front of upcoming waterfall! In just a few moments we will be there...” here the professor was interrupted by a brilliant light and a thundering crack, signaling that Abel had left a harpy thunderstruck and drowning in the river. The guardian barely had the time to reset the Ampere to blade mode before an overhanging branch almost knocked him into the water. If not for his low, kneeling profile, he would have been. Vorosky continued, “And follow me exactly!”

A steady roar, growing in volume with every meter, heralded the dreaded waterfall's approach. Abel cast a worried glance back at Oswald, the closest to him. After Oswald came Daniel, then Greyson, then Sangue, then Gren, then Jack, then Rayna, then Mokuren, and finally Sarina. The combat teacher's aide seemed to be dealing with the worst of it, having been the last to join the riverbound procession. Though Abel could barely see them from his own position, Itzamna and Salamanders ran along the riverbank, with the former jumping across rocks and from trees while Salamanders spat caustic fluid at her. Sarina, however, armed with the radiant red and blue light of her semblance, the Empress of the Stars. Aglow with the powers of war and peace, she moved with enhanced speed and struck with augmented strength, all the while forcing the Grimm to concentrate on her. Even Abel found himself oddly attracted to Sarina, despite the situation. He shook it off -was that an effect of her semblance?- and focused on what came ahead. A harpy came at him, shrieking, but he dissuaded it with a swing of his Ampere. Looking for another target, it went after Greyson instead.

Up ahead, Vorosky had reached the waterfall. He sedately produced a washer and threw it forward. The air just on the precipice of the cataract shimmered, and Vorosky leaped into the anomaly. Abel, next in line, brought out his own washer, and fingered it nervously. He could honestly say that this was simultaneously one of the most frightening and most exciting experiences in his life to date. The roar of the waterfall forced him to focus, and he lobbed his washer after the professor. To his dismay, it sailed over the edge, and plummeted to the maelstrom far below. Trying to keep his panic at bay, the guardian pulled off one of his gloves and threw it instead, hoping with desperation that the small metal chips on its knuckles would do the trick. Abel gulped and took the leap of faith. The world around him went dark, though whether it was the contortion of space that was teleportation, or the tumult of a raging river, he could not tell.

The world came back, and Abel realized that he was, in fact, underwater. Bubbling and scared, he tried to swim, only to hit a hard surface. Puzzled, he pushed off of it, and abruptly surfaced. In an instant he realized where he was: the fountain right outside the front entrance of Beacon academy. Smiling down at him was the scruffy, pitted face of an unmasked Vorosky. “You survived! A plus!”

If he hadn't been tired, or terrified, or tremendously relieved, Abel might have punched the may. As it was, however, he wearily pulled himself out of the fountain to make way for the next person. The bells signaling the end of fifth period started to chime as he did, making Abel remember that despite all that he had just gone through, there was still another hour of school. “Ugh.”

-=-=-



After a few moments in which Ahriman looked somewhat likely to erupt into a cantankerous discourse, the man's good nature won out and his treated Aurellius to a shrug. “Works for me I guess. Next time though, I will indeed be more specific.”

After a few more minutes of struggling on the remaining students' parts -Ivan, Jayden, Sapphire, and Victor never managed to get the newly-replaced medallion at all, while Benjamin and Geni got it only after tremendous effort- the passing bell resounded through the school and Ahriman dismissed the class. “You kids didn't do too badly, for your first day, but remember this: if you want to make an impact on the world, nothing less than your best effort and your best dedication will suffice. If you do not wish to give it your all, you've come to the wrong academy.” Those ominous words echoed off the gym's walls. Ahriman smiled. “See you next time!”

Gren Orchid

As Gren tried to stem the tide of Grimm, Vorosky released some sort of explosive into the area. It caught Gren off guard, but it seemed to have affected the Grimm much worse. He took the opportunity to gun down a few while they stood there dazed, but over the noise of the gunfire he heard Vorosky order everyone to the river. Gren didn't really have time to protest and could get the gist that he wanted the students to make a run for it. Perhaps not the most brave thing to do, but a smart hunter knows how to pick their fights. Gren followed the others to the river, unfortunately being a bit slow due to the fact he likely outweighs everyone here at least twice over. He saw them take out pallets of all things to serve as their makeshift raft down the roaring rapids. Once more Gren had his doubts, but they had no place here. If he had more time he could construct a more stable water craft, but time was not on his side. He could already hear the other Grimm recovering from Vorosky's attack and come this way.

As the students jumped onto their pallets and made their way down stream, Gren too took a pallet and stood firmly on it. His shook and dipped dangerously into the water, threatening to capsized, but Gren was able to rebalanced it. Using his Semblance he rooted himself firmly onto the pallet, which would allow him to follow up with some rather questionable actions. At this point Gren's mind wasn't really thinking rationally, but acting reactionary. While what Vorosky said was true, that the Itzamna couldn't swim and that the salamanders wouldn't catch them, the harpies proved little trouble to Gren. If anything, it showed off one of his lesser known skills: Anti-Air. Gren's massive weapon was more than capable of clearing the skies of the harpies, and anything that even so much as flew in his general direction was soon peppered with hundreds of bullets and occasionally nailed with a rocket, or at least caught in the splash. With no cover to protect themselves, Gren was able to fill the skies with firepower. Even for the few Harpies that somehow managed to avoid his onslaught, they were unceremoniously smashed into the river. One Gren caught with his off hand and crushed it's neck, doing nothing but lowering his accuracy a bit. And at that point his had accuracy by volume.

At some point Gren realized that some of the students were gone, notable Vorosky. He was able to see Abel vanish over the rapids and feared the worse. So the faunas aimed The God Eater towards the river itself and began to unleash a hail of bullets, using the recoil to propel him from the back of the group to the front. But as he was charging forward a harpy tried to fly by him. Gren was quick enough to swing his still-firing God Eater at the harpy, buffering it with bullets. It was at that time however he noticed the anomaly ahead of him, shimmering when some of his bullets few it it's direction. Now realizing what had happened Gren once again charged forward with the help of the God Eater and jumped into the anomaly.

After Agesander unveiled the medallion challenge Sapphire started to analysis it trying to figure the best way in which she could reach the goal. Obviously with her rib in the condition it was heaving those heavy boxes around and climbing to the top wasn't really an option. The next obvious solution was if Sapphire couldn't make her way to the medallion then logically she should bring the medallion to her. Of course she could go into the locker rooms and use one of her shotguns to shoot the medallion down but she considered that would defeat the purpose of the exercise and likely land her in detention.

Sapphire glanced down at the leather bands on her arms that hid Morpheus and Phobator. A plan began to form while Amy and Diamond climbed there way up to the medal. If Sapphire could launch one of those grapplinging hooks through the chain that the medal was suspended from she could use the raw dust from one of her ice cartridges to flash freeze the rope, the grappling hook and the chain that suspended the medal then all it would take was a sharp impact, say from one of the smaller blocks or perhaps another grappling hook and the chain would shatter like glass.

While Sapphire was coming up with this plan Amy and Diamond succeeded in touching the medal and Agesander reset the arena for the next contestant. Sapphire was about to attempt her plan when Aurellius stepped up to plate. He grabbed one of the small blocks from the side and through it at the chain with all his might. Sapphire smiled, there was no way that was ever going to work. Agesander must have done this exercise a hundred times, surely some other idiot had tried this. The chain must be much too strong for a puny block like that to break it.

Thinking this Sapphire was shocked to see seconds later the medal falling down to the ground where Aurellius touched it. Sapphire looked at the teacher for a moment who didn't even seem angry. Sapphire sat down on one of the benches at the side of the room. If the test was that pathetically easy that it could be completed in two minutes with minimal effort by whatever idiot came along then Sapphire wasn't even going to try, it wasn't worth her time or her dust.

Clearly no one else wanted to try Aurellius' solution for fear of looking as though they were copying it. Sapphire watched each attempt at the medal from the sidelines. Only Lionheart and that new guy... Ben she thought... were actually able to reach the medal. Sapphire took great pleasure in watching how abysmally Ivan failed in his attempt at the task. When the bell rang and Agesander dismissed the class Sapphire walked by him on her way to the change rooms.

She stopped only partially facing him. "You know, I think the local hardware store sells chain that wasn't blown in a glass factory. Maybe you should look into it." She said with a look of annoyance on her face before walking into the change room and out of range of any consequences that little encounter may have caused her.

Sapphire showered and changed back into her regular cloths. It felt good to have her weapons on her back once more. With her fiddle in hand Sapphire left the gym in search of the music room. Once there she found a seat somewhere in the back and opened her violin case, Sapphire removed the beautiful instrument and placed it gently on the desk in front of her, waiting for the teacher to tell them what they would be doing.

As the students slowly shuffled into the Language classroom, they would notice the class' professor leaning against his desk, reading a medium-sized book. The cover of the book was falling apart with several clumps of pages missing as well. Prof. Albion continued reading the book, gingerly turning the pages, waiting for the bell to signal the beginning of class. As soon as it did, the professor immediately started the day's class.

"A fox faunus, a donkey faunus, and a lion faunus go on a hunt together," his voice booms. The shape of the classroom was similar to that of an amphitheater, allow his already loud voice to be easily heard over the noise of the students' conversations. "When the day comes to a close and the three decide to divide their spoils, the donkey decides to divide their catch into three equal portions. The lion kills the donkey and turns to the fox, telling her to now divide the food in front of them. The fox puts everything into one pile, except for a small scrap of meat, and asks the lion to choose one of the two piles. As the lion faunus begins to walk away with the larger of the two piles, he turns to ask the fox faunus where she had learned to share things in such a way. The fox faunus responds, "From the donkey’s misfortune." As Prof. Albion finishes reading the excerpt from the book in his hand, he slowly and carefully sets it down on his desk, and turns to his students. "You," he says, pointing to a random student. "What is the theme of the story?"

The student, who had been too busy talking to their classmates to have fully heard the entire story, looked confused at Albion's question. "Uh, don't be an ass?" they respond, coercing a few laughs and chuckles from the other students.

Albion ignored the student and looked around to choose another student to answer his question. "What about you? Do you know the theme of this fable?"



Robert listened to Prof. Albion's story with full attention. No way was he going to get on a teacher's bad side on the first day. Well, not another teacher's bad side that is. At least he hoped he wasn't on Ms. Vanhomrigh's bad side. "Oh well. Can't do anything about it now," he thought aloud. Albion asked a student that Robert didn't recognize what the theme of the fable was. Robert knew of course, it was basically said by the fox faunus at the end, so he was glad that he was the second student chosen to answer the question. "Basically, learn from the mistakes of others," he responded.

"Good job, Mr. Fallson," Albion congratulated. It made Robert feel a little uncomfortable that the professor called him by his last name. Albion then continued speaking to Robert, glaring at the student from before while doing so, "Something I'm glad you have taken to heart." Albion turned back to his desk and grabbed a stack of papers, placing them in front of the nearest student. "Take one then pass the rest to the next student," he instructed. "These will give me an idea of how well you all know basic grammar and spelling. Please try your best, unless you want me to treat you as if you have a learning disability for the rest of the year."

Robert looked at the paper he was given. Nothing too hard, only two pages of fill-in-the-blank questions, multiple choice, etc. Someone would basically have to actually try to fail to get a bad grade on the paper. Robert hoped the class would be like this for the rest of the year, then Practice and Math would be the only difficult classes.

Oswald Connolly- Survival

Oswald's head was still buzzing from the effects of the sound grenade, he noticed that they were, as a matter of fact, not in the clear from here on out. The Itzamnas and Salamanders had managed to catch up, but he was at least able to make out what the Professor was saying. The anomalies were one-way, explaining why they had to go to such lengths in order to make their way back. As the class found itself dealing with raptors, lizards, and now flying feminine Grimm, Oswald carefully retrieved a greenish-yellow dust crystal from his pouch and loaded it into the base of his sword.

As a Harpy rapidly made its way towards the armored, now-cloakless young man, Oswald raised his blade, lining it up with the Grimm before pulling the trigger on his sword. After a moment, a beam of electrical energy burst from his blade, piercing the Harpy through and through and causing it to fall to the ground, its muscles paralyzed by the powerful electrical blast. Chuckling, Oswald turned to aim at another Harpy, repeating the process, with the most recent victim crashing into a Salamander, which reacted by coating it in a powerful burst of acid. His chuckle turning into a full-fledged, sadistic laugh, Oswald frowned as another aerial Grimm saw fit to interrupt his reveling by attempting to claw his face open.

Carefully turning to his opponent, the swordsman slashed his blade across his body, aimed up at the Harpy, only for the monster to flap its wings powerfully, pushing it out of the way of his blade. Letting out a groan, Oswald moved his eyes when he heard the familiar sound of someone travelling through one of the anomalies. As Gren passed him using his weapon as a propeller, Oswald nodded at his classmate before sheathing his own weapon and taking a careful grip of his own washer. A short while after Gren disappeared, it was Oswald's turn to teleport, and he tossed the washer in, following after it a moment later.

When he found himself surrounded by water, Oswald reached out quickly, grabbing hold of something solid and using it to surface himself. A moment later, the swordsman realized that the anomaly had deposited him in Beacon's fountain, and let out a hearty laugh as he pulled himself from the water. "Well that was fun, right guys?" Letting a smile cross his features, Oswald laughed again. "If that's any indication of what this is gonna be like, I'm looking forward to the rest of the year!"

Greyson hurried to the professor seeing how he was getting them out was by the rapids. Honestly Greyson didn't like this plan but anything to get out of this place he was sick of fighting in a forest he had no idea about or knew what would be hiding behind the next tree, the one thing Greyson hated were the surprise attacks in a place like this. Greyson ran to the professor and he quickly got on soon as they entered the rapids jumping onto one the barges and getting it moving.

Greyson was forced to deal with a harpy but Greyson was done playing around First it was the Ankou, then the Itzamnas called in as reinforcements and finally the Salamanders raining acid down on all there heads this was just getting Greyson pissed off beyond reason so as it came at him Greyson just used a phosphorous round to make catch on fire which killed it pretty quickly he was in no mood to have another prolonged fight when he just wants out of here.

When Greyson saw himself falling into the waterfall down into the jagged rocks below Greyson was prepared for the worst but when he opened his eyes he realized he wasn't dead.Greyson soon felt something solid in front of him and he tried to break through it or try to find a way past it but when he realized that it was just stone. it wasn't until he tried to stand on said surface that he realized that he in a fountain in front of the school. Greyson growled loudly realizing that school wasn't even over at this point and his cloths were soaked. "god damn it, if every class is like that I swear I might go mad" He growled annoyed about the entire ordeal as he got up and tried to ring out his cloths and check on his weapon to make sure the dust cartridges weren't wet and as luck would have it they were fine. May be the only good news to this compared to school not being over yet, but at least the next class was music so it was going to be a lot more soothing then what he just went through.

Zywie Stal - Symphonic Band/Jazz Band

Her first day of another concert band class went well. There were many veteran students that returned such as Sarina along with newcomers that arrived as well. It was the same routine just like how she had been teaching for many years. First day, little introduction of everyone and then sight read the pieces she handed out. Hounds of Spring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzcoUDRR_7s, Festival Prelude https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK5TPwXGXQ4, Parkour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TghKoLi57Gs, and Crown Imperial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WMrQe87gRk were decently sight-read by the band and throughout the period led to a course of playing the music, narrowing down the mistakes, and eventually sectionals and lastly some details on Jazz Band and how that would be covered in the next class days. (in which each section of the band practice together in separate rooms).

Stal assigned Sapphire the Double Bass (http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140605005251/plantsvszombies/images/1/10/Double_bass.jpeg) immediately once talking to her after class. There would be changes as Sapphire would have to switch to bass clef and would help her into her transition as a Bassist. Though she was left with the the dilemma of the other students as class ended… Both Geni and Ivan played the Piano. She did not have enough time to ask them if they played any other type of instrument as not all pieces included the piano.

Stal could still accommodate Ivan and Geni in the band as they would have to take turns on playing pieces that included the piano. She was left with Daniel, a guitarist, Priscilla a vocalist who should be in Quire instead of Concert Band, and Greyson who played the electric bass. She could accommodate Daniel and Greyson into the Jazz Band with Priscilla. Stal wondered if they played any other kind of instrument such as the trumpet, or clarinet for symphonic band.

Any residual pain from the encounter with the Grimm paled in comparison to Abel's new horror. As he stood in front of the fountain, the Ampere held limply in his left hand, he stared with white eyes at the wretched thing on his chest. “My...my fancy blue coat...” he breathed, miserable and disconsolate as one who grieves after death. With all the joy sucked out of him and pooling around his shoes, the guardian had nothing left to due but squelch off to sixth period, leaving behind him a soggy, mournful trail of puddles. In more or less severe states of unhappiness departed the other Survival students, headed toward their own final hour classes. Though Abel knew that Language lay on his horizon, he couldn't image that he'd find the words to describe the sorrow that soaked through his waterlogged coat and into his bones.

Professor Vorosky, meanwhile, remained behind. With a callous cheerfulness he explained that there were likely a few students who missed the anomaly, and that he'd have to remain here for a time to see who else came through. His true feelings lay indiscernible beneath his mask; he could have just as easily been irritated at his students' collective failure as concerned with their well-being. He sounded pleasant enough, certainly, but something about the Survival teacher emanated a certain wildness, as though the time spent among woods and beasts physically dwelt in his psyche.

The bells marking the beginning of sixth period tolled.

-=-=-



The computer science laboratory was dark, which Ni knew wasn't healthy for the eyes, but there was no better working condition for computers. The light-up keyboards and vibrant displays pierced the shadows, creating points of activity and potential that sucked up students' focuses like water into a sponge. Of course, Ni could not deny that a fragment of him kept the lights low so that he could steal catnaps once in a while, but on the special first day of school when he met his new students he fostered high hopes that none of them would put him to sleep.

“Hi there,” he said when everyone had gathered. He stole a quick glance at the checklist glowing now on his scroll; it appeared that a couple students hadn't arrived yet. The professor rolled his gleaming pink eyes. Would there be no-shows on the first day? “Computer science 101, then. I'm Ni Rensa Ryou, you can call me Ni. Some of the other teachers say I'm a shut-in,” he grumbled, raised his hands dramatically as if about to deny it. “...it's true. I deal with machines better than people, and not Chatworth's weapons of mass destruction. I'm not just boasting when I say I've got computers down, and before the end of the semester you're going to have them down too. Then the real fun can begin.”

Ni sauntered over to his desk and slouched at the computer. At the press of a button, every station in the class powered on. “I'm not gonna lecture ya all that often. You're here, you know what a space bar is, how to uninstall a program, and write a method. Log in using your last name and team name, you'll be prompted to make a password, and find your Student Assignments folder. Find the first slideshow and get on it. And if I catch any of you watching animated web series online, even good ones, I will silence your CPU faster than you can say, 'Oh, that's my uncle'.”

The assignment in question was a short in-workspace code-writing activity, in which the student was called upon to create two object classes capable of interaction with one another, one representative of the student him- or herself, and another representative of a Grimm of their choosing. When run, the program would need to choose a random action from the Grimm out of three different options the student creates, send it as a parameter to the student class, and display a random string out of three options saying how the student responded. It was open-ended and allowed for some creativity along with its technicality, which Ni felt was a good opener.

Esther Vanhomrigh - 5th Period, Practice Class

Head slowly swiveling as her hawk-eyes scanned the firing lines, she waited until the last student had finished their shots before announcing her range 'Cold'.

"Cease fire, cease fire! Shooters on the firing line, unload and show clear! Step off of the line and back to the weapon racks to secure your weapons. Grab your equipment and prepare for your next class, the range is now declared cold!."

Reaching into her coat pocket, she once again slipped out her Scroll to check the time. Expanding it to its tablet form, she tapped at the screen. As she controlled the automated range from her Scroll, the targets lowered down into their pits. Quick snapshots were taken by the range cameras and fresh targets rotated out the newly shot up ones. At either ends of the range, two 'Roomba' looking bots appeared hovering low over the grounds and skirted the line. Powerful magnets collecting the spent brass casings to clean the range.

Still issuing electronic commands to the range from her Scroll, she mentioned something in passing to the students as they locked up their stock weapons and grabbed their things.

"You are being notified that Beacon Academy will be monitoring and keeping track of all progress, or lack thereof. Your obstacle course times and shot groups will be sent to Headmaster Ozpin himself to review as time goes on. Input from myself and Professor Iderson, along from Headmaster Ozpin will ultimately determine your grades and future attendance in this course. With that, this concludes your time with us this period."

Collapsing her Scroll, she looked up at them as they began to file back towards Beacon and off of the range. Pocketing her Scroll and adjusting the brim of her cover, she folded her hands behind her back and headed off in a different direction from the students.

"We will see you all in the near future. Don't be late." she said with cold finality.

As she walked into the treeline and vanished from eyesight, her gloved hands unfolded and reached into a different coat pocket. Pulling out a zippo lighter and small metal tin, she opened the metal tin and slipped out a cigarette. Sliding the tin back into her coat, she put the cigarette to her lips and flicked the lighter open with a ting. With a schick the paper on the end of her cancer stick burned and crackled quietly. She clicked her zippo shut and pocketed it. Leaning against a tree, hidden in the vast woods surrounding Beacon, she removed her cover. Hanging it on a stubby branch sticking out from the tree she leaned on, she looked up through the canopy at the skies above.

Sure, she was part of the faculty and she was still technically on school grounds. Maybe there was a 'No Smoking' policy, maybe there wasn't. She didn't really care. Brushing a strand of her raven hair off of her brow, she took a deep drag. Exhaling a thick stream of smoke, she sighed as the acrid smoke had filled her lungs and bloodstream with the wonderful stimulant nicotine, amongst other things. The students probably saw her to be a 'by-the-books' kind of woman, straight as a board. In actuality, she wasn't all that straight. Not that she would let anyone else know or see. All to maintain a professional appearance, really. Not that she really gave any fucks. Here was her haven, this was her break in between classes.

She rated it.

Kuhaku Shiro - 5th -> 6th Period, Computer Science

The first thing that Shiro was immediately hit with upon entering the Computer Science class was the heavy and depressive dark. Not that the dark bothered him, it was just incredibly so. In stark contrast with the rest of the room, the quietly humming computer workstations were harshly bright. It took his sensitive eyes a moment to adjust to things. In addition to the odd lighting conditions, the room was frigidly cold. He understood that electronics preferred to function better in cool environments, but he hated the cold. Already he was considering maybe having this class swapped.

As he stood amongst the group of students attending this class with him, his tail swayed up in the air behind him in curiosity. Eyes and ears darting around, he didn't pay too much attention to the teacher. The man seemed a bit drab, dull and bland. Very much so unlike some of the more 'colorful' Beacon staff. He didn't seem to deny the idea he was reclusive either, more so embracing it. Shiro snickered a little upon hearing the teacher's name. Such odd names he's learned in just one day, but what kind of name was 'Ni'? For some reason he couldn't explain, he felt like adding some odd honorfic to the end of it..

At least he was a straight and to the point kind of man. Picking his desk, he quickly followed the instructions given as told. Breezing through the first few steps with ease. It wasn't until he had opened up the 'Student Assignments' folder that his ears slowly drooped and a look of dread came over him. He must've misunderstood something when he elected for this class. Shiro isn't electronically illiterate, he knows his way in, out, and around a computer's tower. But therein lies the problem. Shiro is more hardware inclined, able to isolate and troubleshoot problems with bad computer components and swap them out to repair them. He knew how to physically build and repair a piece of equipment. Not code and program it. Software and programming was one of his weakest points of technological knowledge.

Shrinking down, he nervously looked around at the other students to see if they were just as confused and intimidated like he was. Swallowing dryly, he was seriously considering rescheduling this class out now.

"Aww, man..I must've made a mistake."
He squinted at the screen, still trying to get used to the stark light and dark contrasts.
"Object classes?...Parameters?...Strings?...Like, yarn or..."
Already he could foresee himself having trouble with this class. But, that was the point of it all, right? To increase and better his education and knowledge. Never one to just focus on his strengths, this would be covering one of his 'weaknesses' right? An all-around average and well-rounded Hunter, right?

Right?

A bead of cold, nervous sweat rolled down the side of his face as he groaned quietly to himself.

IC: Ni Rensa Ryou, Computer Science

"There is an additional point to your first assignment. Depending on how well you do, I'll place you in one of the three circles of desks, and we'll go on from there. Higher ranked students will have harder but more enjoyable assignments, lower students will receive more..." He shuddered barely perceptibly. "Teaching. If I come over to your station at the end of this class block and all you have written is "I am a fish" 400 times on your monitor in Sharpie... Heaven help you."

Ni nodded at the class, then went back behind his own desk and turned his monitor on. He and Haven’s computer science instructor were in the middle of their annual “contest”, and he couldn’t afford to let the other teacher get too far ahead of him. The Key powered up, and what appeared to be a third person shooter popped up in the left half of his screen. The right half, however, was what Ni was focused on, a stream of code running up from the bottom of it.

This was bad. He was farther than Ni wanted him to be.

Oswald Connolly- Survival-> Computer Science

Paying little attention to Professor Vorosky and his last little note, Oswald made his way to his next class, lamenting the loss of his cloak. Again. Thankfully, he never made a big fuss over the rather simple piece of relatively heavy cloth, so he could simply find a fabric shop in the city and have that taken care of. As a matter of fact, he'd probably have to order several replacements, as he expected that he'd find himself devoid of his favorite fashion statement multiple times in the future.

Shake-drying himself before he stepped inside the halls of Beacon, Oswald grimaced as each step brought a tiny 'squish' noise. He hoped Computer Science wouldn't be too labor-intensive. He also hoped that he didn't fry himself by getting a computer wet. As he stepped into the classroom, Oswald felt as if he were in a meat locker. Still wet from the fountain, he found himself shaking in the cold, and cursed under his breath. This was another reason he had his cloak-that thing was warm, as well as being water-resistant. He could have wrapped it around himself to avoid frostbite, but for now he'd have to deal with the temperature of the class, in addition the oppressive darkness.

Professor Ni's introduction to the course scared Oswald- he hadn't handled anything more complex than a two-way radio in years. While he knew he was less academically-inclined than his fellow students, this class was there to prove to him just how drastic the difference was. Logging in after a moment of trouble, Oswald found his way to the assignment folder, which resulted in a prompt face-desk. He looked around and met eyes with Shiro, the rambunctious tiger Faunus boy from Sapphire's team. Sharing a look of suffering, he returned to the assignment.

After ten minutes, Oswald started to panic.

At the twenty-minute mark, panic became anger.

Thirty minutes in, anger turned into depression, which led to outright hopelessness when the fortieth minute rolled around.

Ten minutes before the class ended, Oswald had succeeded in giving his representative a cloak. A bright green one. Groaning pitifully, Oswald frowned at the computer before he finally gave up and worked on the other figure- the Grimm. Each keystroke was slow, with Oswald having to look at the keyboard to see what he was typing, and when the bell signaling the end of class rang, Oswald was the picture of a broken man.

Gren Orchid

Luckily for Gren he managed to escape the wilds and was back at Beacon. His first thoughts once he came to wasn't about his survival or the well being of others (Though it was one of the most immediate thoughts) but on the nature of these anomalies. He had the desire to weaponize such things, but shortly after pondering that thought he looked around for the others. They too made it, one by one, with no grimm following. He would have to make it a point to ask Vorosky more about these things. Before he could ask himself however the bell for the next class rang. Shaking off excess water and sheathing The God Eater onto his back, Gren headed to his next class.

Computer Science. On one hand, it was a deep and intricate subject that could lead to great esteem outside of Beacon. Computer and machines were on the rise in the world, to the point that it was a viable investment to buy a computer over a car, or to use robots instead of training hunters. Of course, it was best to blend both worlds instead of trying to replace one another. At least that's what Gren would like. Gren took a seat, one that could accommodate his massive girth, and listened to the processors rather curt introduction. "Winging it huh?"

Logging in and making a password, Gren read the assignment and debated what he needed to do. He had to admit, it was a while since he did coding like this. It didn't help that the professor never specified what format they'd be using, so he decided to start off with C++. As he tried to remember code, he spoke in a low mumbling voice what he was doing.

"Hmm... #include <iostream> using namespace std;... Let's see... Int main() { int... No not int... There, string action1 = "eviscerates";... cout << "The hunter" << word- Wait, no, this needs to be randomly generated. Hmm. That changes things. What was it again... Ah, right, loops. Maybe that would work. Or does he want use to insert the actions? Some cin and cout than, but... Ah! I got it! Alright, this might be a bit crazy, but unsigned int seed... unsigned Attack = rand(), Counter rand();... cin >> counter; if... cout << "What do you do?" \n; wait that should go before the cin... else if (Action != Counter) cout... Errors? Oh, typo. And now... system("pause"); return 0;"

Gren was too caught up in his work to help others, but by the time he was finished he created the program required. It would first tell the user that a grimm was attacking you using up to three different attacks. Than a list of the possible counter attacks was shown, with an input asking the user what to do from the list of counters. If the user chooses something that isn't in the list it would display the message "You tried that, but didn't have enough time!", though choosing the wrong counter would result in "That didn't work! The Grimm (random action) you!" Perhaps it wasn't the most interactive of programs, but with what little time he had to write it from both scratch and memory, he liked it. He did hope however that the teacher was going to actually teach them a little. Demonstrations perhaps. It's not like Gren expects this guy to teach them how to program their own Paladins or something, though Gren has already made plans for something like that.

With the bell that signaled the end of class, Gren emailed his program to the professor, under the assumption that was how they were to turn in assignments. He noticed some of his fellow students looking rather... Dishearten. Gren wasn't really confident that he could tutor them given his own sparse knowledge of the subject, but better to work together than die alone, right? The first person he went to was Oswald, who seemed to have taken the most damage from this class.

""Hey Oswald. That class was rather tough, wasn't it? Had an easier time dealing with Grimm than facing that monster. So hey, I know that looked pretty daunting but maybe you and me could work together, trying to figure how to work things out? God knows we'll need all the help we can get.

Professor Albion continued reading the book from earlier, taking care as to not damage it anymore than it already was. Every so often he'd look up from it's tattered pages to make sure no student was cheating off another. When the faster students began to put down their pencils and lean back in their chairs, signaling that they were finished, Albion placed a bookmark where he had been reading. "When you finish, please bring your test to me so I may grade it," he announced. One by one, students would rise from their seats, turn their test in, then return to where they has been sitting. A few times Albion would have to stop grading to remind the finished students that they needed to wait for everyone to be done before they could begin socializing. When the last test had been brought to his desk, Albion announced, "Now that everyone is done, you can begin talking. See? Not so bad right? I can be a fun teacher. You can all leave when the bell rings, which should be in..." he looked at the time on his scroll before finishing his sentence, "... ten minutes."



Robert finished his test quite quickly and was one of the first students to turn it in. He wasn't much for just beginning conversations with strangers, and it didn't seem the teacher would appreciate people talking while there was still people taking the test, so Robert pass the time by quietly singing to himself. Eventually, Albion gave permission for the students to talk to each other, but seeing as Abel was the only student Robert recognized and he seemed to be the silent type, Robert continued trying to find ways to pass the time, like trying to balance his pencil on several objects around him.

"Oh wait," he thought aloud, "Priscilla. I asked her on a date, but never said where we would meet up." He quickly grabbed his scroll and sent a message to her that read, "Hey Priscilla, it's me Robert, obviously. Anyway, let's meet up at that statue in the courtyard. You know, the one at the entrance of the school? For the date? Alright, see you there." After hitting send, Robert felt a sense of relief, "Whoo, that would have been bad. Wandering around the school trying to find each other probably wouldn't have been a good a good beginning to a date. Date. Huh, I'm going on a date. With a pretty girl. Seems a bit unreal. I'm so excited." The student next to Robert was probably giving him some weird looks now. What kind of person says what they're thinking out loud? Robert was completely oblivious, though.