Eos Drosera – Beacon Airship – The Previous Morning

There was a certain level of irony, Eos reflected, in a bird faunus being afraid of flying. If someone had suggested the idea to her back home in Kiln, she’d have roared with laughter so loud the glassblower next door would have yelled at her from across the fence for shaking the vases on display. And yet, there she was, jaws clenched, listlessly picking at the lace hem of her peignoir, trying to focus on anything but the ground stretching impossibly far beneath her. It was not the height that concerned her, not really; for her, the top of a watchtower or mountain range was not an unusual perch. What troubled her was the seeming lack of support; she feared that the powers that be might, in a moment of capriciousness, decide to drop them from the sky at any moment, sending them all plummeting to an assured doom.

Many had chosen to stare out the windows that lined the airship’s cabin, to watch the passing landscape as the elegant aircraft transported them swiftly and safely to their destination. Eos, however, had taken one look outside and decided that whole idea was in no way for her. She was bent over as much as possible on the bench, focusing on assembling a list of all the design features that would make their craft entirely unlikely to crash back to the earth in a fiery inferno.

“That won’t happen, of course. Impossible. Strongly unlikely, anyway. But what if….no, no, stop that, but wait, what if…no, no. No. Stop.” she insisted brusquely to herself. Sensing perplexed stares from other students aboard the airship nearby, who had likely overheard her budding self-debate, her ears and cheeks flushed a deep berry red. Oh great, she thought, six minutes with my prospective classmates and they already think I’m nuts. She turned her gaze resolutely to the floor of the airship, trying to appear busy picking at a piece of the jerky her father had sent her off with earlier that morning, before he waved goodbye to her from the road.

Feeling a sharp jolt in the craft, her head snapped back up, a strand of jerky hanging from the corner of her mouth like a fishhook. “W-what the blazes? What was that? What fresh torment is this?!” she exclaimed, casting about for explanation. Her heart was pounding. Were they all going to die? Had science brought them all to a horrible fate? As the students around her placidly gathered up their belongings, it dawned on her that the craft had, in fact, docked.

This is the last time I’m doing this, she resolved, stuffing the last of the piece of jerky in her mouth with a deep sense of relief.

Eos Drosera – Beacon Cliffs – Tuesday Morning

“Well, that’s just great,” Eos groaned, stepping onto a platform in dismay. It seemed the fates had more flying in store for her before she’d be able to call herself a Beacon Academy student. This was even worse than before; at least the airship, despite her fears, had been absolutely not in any real danger of crashing with her on board. Here and now, there’d be nothing keeping her from a crash landing of epic proportions but her own ingenuity and courage. Just like the rest of being a huntress will be, she thought, grinning despite the fear that left her hands shaking. Once she managed to make it through this first challenge, her skills would already have improved past what they had been when she left home three days before with her father, determined to make a new life for herself.

If the gods are good, I may even find someone else waiting near where I land, her optimistic line of thought continued. She had paid more attention to this speech of Professor Ozpin’s than to the one the night before, which she could barely remember. Then again, much of that was probably attributable to the number a few shots of rum from a jolly stranger had done on her short-term memory last night, as well as her head. Taking a moment to force her breathing to steady, as her mother would have advised her back on the firing range at home, Eos took a quick mental inventory of her supplies and resources.

She had been absorbing solar energy for much of the morning, having been awake since the very crack of dawn. Eos estimated her total stores of solar energy to be at about 67% of her maximum developed level. She estimated that a downward blast, sufficient to redirect the force of her fall and allow her to attempt to land on a sufficiently stable tree branch, would require about a third of that energy. An acceptable sacrifice, given that she would likely only absorb more as the sun rose higher in the sky over the course of the day.

Distracted by planning, she almost didn’t realize what had happened at first when she found herself sent whistling through the void, cheeks smarting from the cool air whizzing past. It took her even longer to realize that she emotion she was experiencing was not terror but exhilaration, a strange, howling joy that sprang from her heart to her lips as she gave a loud, victorious whoop, which was stolen by the wind as it burst forth. If I get through this, Eos vowed, I’m figuring out some way of doing this all the time.
As she descended, her established plan flashed once more through her mind, and she scanned the rapidly enlarging ground for sufficiently large and supportive trees. However, the closer she came, the less it seemed that any were quite right for her purposes. A somewhat overdue volt of panic shot up her spine, and she frantically grasped for the belted pouch in which she stored Sun Down. As the strap slipped open, the sleek metal box fell from between her perspiration-slick fingertips and plummeted through the air below her.

“No!” she screamed, watching her weapon fall as the earth below came closer and closer. A desperate plan formed in her mind. She had never tested the ability of her semblance to physically push her, and this would be unpleasantly warm, but there was no time to think of something foolproof. Drawing upon her aura and solar reserves, pointing an outstretched left hand in the manner of a child making a finger gun gesture in a game of huntsmen and Grimm, she fired a series of round, glowing solar orbs in a staggered, zig-zag fashion beneath her and, crashing painfully against the first, sent herself smacking into the next one below and to the right of it, like a bruising game of pinball in which she herself was the ball.

After this next collision, she was able to gain more control of her thumping descent, and was pleased to discover that the heat of her semblance’s manifested orbs was not as overwhelming as it was in her usual summonings. Doubtless, however, she’d have bruises to show for this later, and her absorbed energy was dangerously low, far beyond the amount she had budgeted for the purpose. Hopefully it wouldn’t take her long to find Sun Down once she hit the ground.

Hitting against the last of her summoned orbs of light, they dissipated as she fell the final four feet to the ground, going into a roll as she hit the ground as her mother had taught her years ago. Taking only a moment to catch her breath, Eos threw herself forward into a sprint in the direction she estimated Sun Down to have fallen in. Who knows, she mused with a bark of laughter, perhaps it crashed straight into a Grimm’s head.

It was a beautiful morning. Well, it likely was. The giant mass of bodies made it seem a lot. . . Well, not as pretty. Still, this is the day Asvoria's been waiting for. The first real event at school. The opening ceremony was nice, sure, but the real things that mattered were starting now with the announcement. Luckily, she had already started getting her stuff together out of her habits from youth. "Wonderful." The girl muttered to herself as she finished small calibrations on her armor pieces. "Everything seems to be in order. I wonder what we're going to be doing today. I hope those guys weren't too distraught yesterday." After she had finished sightseeing yesterday, she was approached by two others asking if they wanted to go look around some more, or something. Asvoria decline however stating that it was an early to bed, early to rise situations. Still, it was an exciting day. "Now it's time to head to the rendevous point at the cliffs!" The girl exclaimed giggling her way out to them.

She quickly found her place amongst the others and listened to the teachers' speech. . . Asvoria was honestly suprised that the final test of it all was some sort of "hold against the mob" challenge. It couldn't be all too hard. . . Well, it could but what would negative thinking do at this point? Professor Ozpin ended the speech and people started to launch into the "Emerald Forest" or so Ozpin called it. Ready to launch, Asvoria hunkered down slightly and lowered her own weight, hoping it would launch her a little further. All in all, she still wanted to just stand out amongst her peers but doesn't everyone? "WOOOOOHOOOO!!" The girl cried out as she launched high into the air, seemingly higher than everyone. Having the air rush past her head, the screams of a few hundred soft voices, and the cool feel that made one's eyeballs water from the irritation. . . "This is perfect!" The girl would have called out if not for the mid-air flight.

Soon enough, a tree came into close proximity with the currently falling girl. Her once perfect looking spirals of hair were now slightly unraveled as the were mussed up with the swirling of leaves coming off the branches of the trees. "It's about time to get serious, isn't it?" Asvoria questioned herself with a nod in return. Her right hand reached to where Randgrid waited for it's moment to shine. Released from it's prison, the weapon extend out to it's Hammer Mode. "Ehhhh, might need a little more than that, Randgrid." With that comment, she clicked a button on the shaft of her weapon and the mallet-head changed into an axe-head. With the splitting power of her axe, Asvoria cut into a tree on the side of her descent and used it to slow herself some. Had she not have been moving a little too fast it would have been enough to stop her, but alas Randgrid pulled out of the wood and letting her fall but a little bit slower. Thinking quick enough, she lowered the weight of her axe and started to spin herself. With enough force behind her swing she increased the weight of Randgrid to a bit above normal and slammed it into a nearby thick tree. It stopped her completely and with hardly time to spare. "Oh look, the ground." She slightly giggled to herself as she dropped harmlessly to the ground.

With a hearty laugh, Asvoria scanned the surrounding area. It was all green, green, green and green. Nothing wrong with green of course. The repeated use of the same color was rather bland. All Asvoria was thinking was, "What? No flowers? After a light sigh, the girl clumsily recovered her weapon from the tree and held it over her shoulder while trying to figure out where to go from here. "Well, they say the best strategy is to just wonder in a random direction. . . Right? Righ--" She was trying to finished, but something interrupted her. The roar of a giant creature standing on it's two feet. "An Ursa, huh?" Asvoria commented, showing admiration for such a large and somewhat magnificent creature in front of her. "Are you trying to fight me?" She asked with quite the inquisitive look on her face. The Ursa gave her a weird look, wondering what the heck was wrong with this unscared, not combat ready girl before quickly roaring again. "Gotcha' gotcha'. You're looking for a tussle ain't ya'. Hungry? Well, not for long. Come at me!"

The Ursa charged without another thought. Hitting the button to switch forms again, Asvoria held her mallet in an almost baseball-like stance waiting for the thing to get close. When he did reduce the distance, and was almost in mauling range. . . "HOME RUN!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as Randgrid slammed into the underside of the Ursa's chin. The creature of Grimm flew up into the air and slammed into a tree. The body fell down and hit the ground, lifeless looking. "Oooooooookay. Moving on. Let's go find my partner." With that, she walked into the forest looking for her future partner.

Dawn Agresta - Beacon Cliff - Tuesday morning

at last the time had arrived for Initiation and she had set off with everyone else, gear collected, mind and body warmed up, and breakfast had in the meanwhile. She hadn't talked with many people, but that was understandable given how nervous everyone was, or otherwise eager to see what would happen with all of this. She knew that she had started to really wonder, and as it drew near her own anticipation increased in turn.

Arriving at the cliff, she took up her position on one of the pads that seemed to wait for them. At that point she devoted her attention to listening, especially as they gave out instructions for what was to happen, and how the Initiation itself would take place. The task itself seemed simple enough, albeit difficult in its own way. They just has to find some Dust crystals and get to the end of the forest. That was easy enough, especially for the people they were asking it of.

She was, on the other hand, far more skeptical of the team selection process. Really, they were going to go with something as arbitrary as 'the first person you see'? How would that even work from an administrative perspective? They'd need to have the entire forest bugged, or simply rely on the honors system to make it worked. And while admittedly the latter might be true, it did defeat the point of the instructions in the first place, so far as she could tell anyway.

Sadly, it seemed she had no say in the matter, but for the moment it was irrelevant as things started happening. Specifically, it turned out that those pads they were standing on were actually giant catapults of some kind, which sent each student launching in turn. Fortunately she wasn't first in line so she had the chance to brace herself, Stern Iron and her notebook on her person and ready to go.

In a moment she was flung into the air, sent flying over the forest in a way that she was fairly certain defied all natural laws in the process. At least she hadn't lost her notebook, and with that she turned to her landing strategy. Reaching out, she held Stern Iron in a firm grip, letting the tips catch the stronger branches that whipped by, which served as impromptu hooks. She spun and flipped, diverting her momentum in upwards directions as she descended, until at last she landed on the ground.

The Emerald Forest most definitely lived up to its name, she decided as she glanced around. Thus far there was no one in sight, though she had to imagine there was at least one person nearby. With the amount that had been sent off it would be hard for that to not be the case.

Well, there was no point in sticking around here. So after brushing off her shoulders she holstered Stern Iron and began to walk through the forest. Time to get this over with.

(( TIME TO GET INTO THE WAY BACK MACHINE ))
Carlin Hazel - Patch - Tuesday morning
@Katakon@agentmanatee@OneWayOut

Where it not for her leaders rather obvious signals to calm down , Carlin would have very likely attempted to summon a gale wind to toss old iron-jerk half way to their destination. But cooler heads one over...and blasting a world leader ( a military nations world leader no less ) out of pride seemed like a very bad idea. even if it was incredibly satisfying at the moment. Honestly, no need to be so rude!

Carlin joined the other on the boat, excited and giddy for their big mission thing! That was of course until the boat took off and Carlin learned something new about herself. She was apparently super sensitive to sea sickness. It came on so suddenly and so intensely she would probably call it sea plague. She almost immediately emptied her breakfast over the side of the boat before they were more than 5 minutes into their trip. She quickly quarantined herself to quarters where she preceded to basically be a unhappy, moaning, vomiting, lump of a girl.

Time passed weirdly for her in this awful state. She didn't remember exactly when she got the message on her scroll but it did briefly make her feel better.

~ Holy crap! Also Good for you!!!!" she texted back ~you two will make a super cute couple. If anything exciting happens I'm going to want all the juicy details *eyebrow waggles* And don't worry. Capricious though I am I'm fairly decent at secrets. You should be the one to tell them when you are ready, I'm sure they will be just as happy for you as I am. Good luck!~

And shortly after she hit send she emptied her lunch into her personal barf bucket. Patch couldn't come soon enough.

----At patch---

As the ship stopped at their destination Carlin began to recover in degrees. As she emerged from the rooms onto the deck of the boat. the young woman looks positively skeletal, the flowers of her head band withered and wilted into sad grey things on the verge of death. Leaning heavily on her staff she made her way off with the group, each step seeming to recover a bit more of herself. It helped that she held some food in her other hand and was taking advantage of finally being able to keep something down. She was off the boat as soon as she could and thinking of calling her parents and asking for them to send a private air ship for the trip home because screw the last 24 hours they had been a living hell!

Anyhow, what is important to take away from this was that Carlin was off the boat with Paris and the others and feeling better.

By the end of Ironwoods speech of the details, what few there were, of the mission she seemed mostly herself again. The flowers on her head band had slowly regained life until they were once more her neutral honey hazel color.

She pursed her lips at the Paris's stalk with Fern about who should go where

"I'm fine with whatever and will differ to the decisions of the leaders on such matters. But as for getting around in the woods...I would like to point out my semblance IS Chloromancy. As in the manipulation and control of plant life? Not that I don't mind guarding a town, just wanted to point out for the record that I would be fine dealing with threats in a dense forest. And while my magic can be...explosive that doesn't mean-"

her potential rant ( likely brought on by nearly a day of almost no communication beside pathetic whimpering moans ) was brought to a halt when heather showed up. She gave her a sly knowing look that screamed -I must hear all the details- before schooling her features into a nice neutral look. and otherwise said nothing as she was afraid in her current hunger for speaking state would lead to her being a blabber mouth.

Today was a day to remember. It may have been even more important than the day before, as this would ultimately decide whether or not Tim would be a hunter. Like the day before, the weather was sunny. A few clouds dotted the skyline, but no major cloud formations in sight. Good weather for an important day, like Monday had good weather for an important day.

And like Monday, Tim was not enjoying it. Maybe it had to do something with sailing in the sky.

"FUUUUUUUUUU-!" He yelled again, still flying.

He body spun in the air, unbalanced and disoriented by the launch. His mind raced as he flew, desperately trying to regain control over his body. He was unsure which way was up and which way was down, but he was sure the contents of his breakfast were supposed to be going the other way.

Tim gagged, burped and held his mouth shut with his hands. His body was spinning, his head was spinning; everything was spinning, and he could taste something rancid coming up from the back of his throat, which he was sure shouldn't be there. Desperately trying to control his flight and not die, Tim closed his eyes and forced himself to focus.
This is nothing. He told himself. I'm not dying right now.

As he opened his eyes, he was met with a sea of green speeding past in front of him.
I'm horizontal? Tim thought.
He quickly looked around him, confirming his findings. Features flew by very quickly, but he discerned that he was indeed horizontal. However, he was slowly spinning, and he could feel himself slowly lose altitude.
Fuck. He thought.

He had seconds at best.
Better make this count then. Tim thought.

But as Tim hurtled through the air, he came upon the question looming over the whole situation like a sword of Damocles.
What can I actually do about this?

Tim still had MJ, kept safe in hiss vice-like instinctive grip. Other than that, all he had was a sick stomach. And that meant that he'd have to get lucky.

His body had slowed down enough to actually begin descending, meaning that while he had very little time, he could at least see where he would land. He was gently sloping down towards an uneven batch of trees, unremarkable in almost any way. There was nothing he could see that could break his fall, save for brushing through a few trees perhaps. He had nothing else, so it'd have to do.

Tim braced his limbs, managing to stop his rotations for the most part. His stomach churned with nervousness as he prepared to at least try to land safely. He went over the steps in his head. What he needed to do was get MJ under him to break his fall, somewhere where the force of the ball hitting the ground transferred to Tim's body would damage the least amount of things. Tim readied his body, tilting himself sort of upright and held MJ in both hands.
Where the heck am I supposed to put this? He thought.

But while he was musing, he forgot one crucial thing. Something that would literally turn his world upside down.

He'd forgotten that trees exist.

As he was thinking, his legs caught the very top of a particularly big tree. Tim's body was flipped out of balance and he began panicking.
"SHI-" Tim began before bile clogged his throat.
He curled up in middair around MJ, currently upside down, desperately trying to swallow down the rancid liquid travelling up his throat. Branches whipped past him as he tried to regain his balance. He finally managed it, turning upright soon before he hit the ground. He lifted MJ above to hid head, partially to calm his brain and partially so he could see below. He saw the ground rushing up to give him a welcoming gift. An Ursa lay right in his path.

---

It was quiet on the forest floor this morning. The weather was quite temperate, and the ursa was simply loafing around. It had very little to do today, since nothing was really happening. It'd eaten its breakfast, it'd done its daily routine. No other Grimm had walked into its territory, so no fights to be had. It was very peaceful, very boring.

But that would soon change.

---

Tim came hurtling into the poor ursa, MJ slamming into the poor beast's head with an audible thunk, while the rest of Tim's body slammed into the creature, slamming it into the forest floor, shaking the nearby trees and kicking up a cloud of dust and leaves. The Ursa twitched and Tim groaned, stirring from his experience. His grip tightened on MJ as he tried to get to his knees. He held his face with the other hand and groaned some more. His head was still spinning and he felt like throwing up.

Getting to his feet, hand still on his face, he staggered off of the ursa and dropped to his knees on the forest floor, hands held on his head in an attempt to ward off the nausea. The Ursa squirmed under MJ, attempting to get up and exact retribution, but it found itself pinned by the impossible weight of the silver sphere.

"Fuck." Tim said, still nauseated.
His head throbbed, though the spinning was dying down, and his stomach heaved from his experience. His heart hammered away in his chest, trying to convince Tim with much prejudice that he was still alive. Tim breathed in and out slowly, trying to control his symptoms.

1, 2. 1, 2. In and out.

It worked. The world stopped spinning and the bile in his throat quickly retreated down from whence it came. His stomach still churned a little, but less violently than when he'd been in the air. As the Ursa struggled under MJ's weight, Tim shakily rose to his feet. He no longer felt like he needed to throw up and he was sure the symptoms wouldn't come back.

The Ursa, meanwhile, had managed to pry its hands under MJ, and it began attempting to lift the metal sphere. Suddenly, the weight lifted and the Ursa sagged with relief, until it realised that Tim was still there.
"Thanks for helping me, bear," Tim said, raising MJ menacingly.
The Ursa tried to swing at Tim, even at his awkward position.
"and goodbye." Tim said, throwing the ball down.

As the ball left his hands, Tim amplified its weight several times over. It bore down faster than it should onto the Ursa's face, smashing into the creature's nose with an audible crack. The beast's face instantly caved in, crushed by the momentum of a ball heavier than it should be. The Ursa's body twitched as blood oozed from the crater created by MJ, before finally becoming still. Tim picked up MJ, reducing its weight when he touched it, as the Ursa's body decomposed into shadows.

"That was quite something." Tim sighed, turning away from the disappearing corpse.
He tucked MJ under his arm and adjusted his ruffled scarf before turning around to gauge his surroundings.
"What do I do now?" He asked, to no one in particular.

@Pyromania99
For a few moments as she sailed through the air, Varen felt somewhat refreshed. The air was nice, the sun was out, and it was generally good weather all around. It reminded her of something a teacher at Signal had said once in a lesson she hadn't really been listening to. A painter had fallen from the top of a clock-tower once all the way to the ground. He survived apparently, and he'd said: "While I was falling, I was fine. It was only when I hit the ground that I realized I was in trouble." Mostly it only reminded her of her current situation because it was one of the few times where she was warm and awake. The sun had been nice that day and she was sitting close to the windows, and she had been falling asleep, but she really wasn't sure what had spurred the teacher to mention that quote considering they were in a lesson about Math, so that had woken her up.

The treeline was looming closer and closer however, so Varen didn't have any more time to reminisce. She braced herself for impact as she brushed the top of a tree, snapping off weak branches as she hurtled past. (Kinda in this direction)



Reaching out with one of her arms, she swung off the a solid-looking branch changing her momentum from downwards to forwards. (like this)



She hit the ground rolling (sideways of course), the Ammo Box making it an extremely uncomfortable trip. She came to a sudden stop as she hit something big. She looked up to see an Ursa, out cold but not dead. Immediately her mind went into battle mode. Thoughts of what had totalled it left her mind as she sprang into action. In one fluid motion she rolled backwards, grabbed the comfort grip from her Ammo Box and slotted it in as she got up into a firing position. One shot, all 9 pellets going into the Ursa. The Ursa evaporated confirming its death as Varen spotted a girl with golden curls walking further into the forest.

Instantly Varen's mind froze up as she tried to think about how to call out to her. The principal had said the first person they made eye contact with was their partner for the next four years but that was kind of a weird thing to call out to someone for when you didn't even know them... But wait, pretty much everyone was going to do that, chances are most of the people here would be paired up with people they didn't know existed prior to initiation. So maybe she could do it without it seeming rude but still, it felt kind of iffy for her.

"Uhh... Hey!" She called out awkwardly, "The Ursa wasn't dead!"

@Katakon@KiltmanBagz

Heather... panicked a little bit when Paris asked why she was so... dishevelled. Was it that obvious? Well... her hair was wet and more than a little messy, her pigtails were obviously quickly done and generally less neat than normal, and her boots were both not ties. Heather blushed from emmbaraasment at her own appearance and immediately bent down to tie her boots as she responded ti Paris, "Uh... no I slept um fine... it's just uh... I was... um shower, and... w-I! Uh... when Ironwood came over the... intercomm so... had to get um... dressed real quick so..." well... she wasn't TECHNICALLY lying to Paris, and she was babbling like she usually did when she was nervous.

She caught a look from Carlin that made blush as she came up from tying her boots, knowing that as soon as they were seperated from the group with Carling Heather would no doubt be interrogated. She started trying to fix her pigtails as she waited to be told where she was going, "So... uh... are we in teams or pairs?... You know for... the... mission?"

Renji Yamada - Beacon Cliffs - Tuesday Morning
@snarfulblast

Renji paled for the first time in years when he heard Ozpin mention their mode of transport. He looked down at the platform he was standing on. It was mere inches from the ground, but it felt like he was a mile high. "Crap." He said. The word was different coming from his lips. He had heard it said and never understood it's use, until now. Suddenly he hears the gears in motion and a determined face replaces the nervous one. Bracing himself he chooses not to let his fear control him. A moment later he is flying. More like falling with style, but never the less moving through the air. As he flew he took out Serenity's Regret and transformed her into Gunbai/Sickle mode. He had seen some of the others use their firearms to control thier descent, but he had limited ammo and limited time. So he hatched a better plan.

Using his body and weapon Renji increased surface area slowing himself somewhat. Then just when he was about to hit a tree he tucked into a ball. Once past the canopy he slung the sickle end of his weapon at the nearest branch. Hooking the limb the momentum swung him like a pendulum. At the crest of the swing he retracted the sickle and threw it again. He repeated the motions twice before at the valley of the third swing he retracted the sickle then using the momentum hit the ground in a sprint. Well, as much of a sprint as Renji was capible of. He ran for a few dozen yards before he caught a glimpse of something odd. A group of three Boarbatusk surrounding something on the ground. He changed his direction towards them to find as he got closer he recognized who was on the ground. [color=black]"Nikolas? Why is he? Nik!"[/color) He shouted as he saw one of the boarbatusk poke him with thier tusk.

Transforming his weapon back to rifle mode he took a shot at the closest one. The bullet hit the ground in front of it exploding in a bright flash of light. Turning blindly towards him the boarbatusk charges tucking into a ball a rolling toawards him fast. Renji turned his weapon into it's Getsugasan form and smiled. "Batter's up!" He said as he stopped, squared up, and swung the flat side of the spade tipe at the beast. With a loud TWACK!, the grimm went flying squeeling the whole way. "Homerun!" He said with a chuckle. He had always wanted to say that. To bad Nik was out cold to enjoy the pun. Shrugging Renji didn't have time to worry about that as the other two grimm charged at him. This time he did have time to completely set up for another bad joke. He barely had enough time to swat them away into nearby trees.

Quickly changing to his rifle again he shot two more times at the closest one. First was another flashbang followed by a lightning charged round paralyzing it. Going back to gunbai and sickle he charges the other one to try and keep it from rolling into it's deathroll again. Catching up he swings at it with both ends. Getting into a rhythm of blocking and attack he tricks it to attack when it should block. Knocking it prone he drives the sickle into it's empty heart. By then the second boarbatusk had recovered and was charging. Shooting it again proved useless as the round ricocheted off it's armor. When it came close he dodged by jumping over it and swatting downwards with his spade knocking it off track again. Moving quickly he returned the charge and disposed of the beast flinging it into another tree and nearly cutting it in half with his gunbai.

With all threats dealt with he approached Nik and woke him up the best way he knew how. SMACK! "Wake up partner we have crystals to find and more grimm to slay. No sleeping on the job friend." He said standing the wolf up. Saying something about heading east sounding like an idea, Renji headed that direction knowing Nik could easily keep up with his slow pace.

Morgan Rouge – Beacon Locker Room – Tuesday Morning

After leaving Liam to compose himself, Morgan completed his morning rituals with efficiency. A hot shower followed by a small breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, ham and a turkey leg in the dining area had Morgan in high spirits. By the time most students were getting dressed Morgan was already busying himself with checking his weapons and prepping gear in the student locker room. The sextant of pistols cutlasses that made up Fortune’s Six were arranged neatly out of their holsters before Morgan as he painstakingly oiled the edges of his weapon’s blades and the barrels of their pistol form. His father had stressed the importance of proper maintenance when it came to equipment. After all, a man’s tools were a reflection of his character.

With a satisfied grunt Morgan gave a final inspection and began holstering and strapping Fortune’s Six in place just as Glynda’s broadcast sounded.

‘Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation. Again, all first year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately.’

Before the last words had finished, Morgan strapped the last of Fortune’s Six’s pistols into its belt holster, retied his red bandana over his hair, and charged out of the locker room with an indefatigable purpose.

Morgan Rouge - Beacon Cliffs - Tuesday Morning

Arms folded and standing ready on his launch pad, Morgan couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh at the dynamic manner they’d be making their entrance into the Emerald Forest as Ozpin called it. Some of the other students seemed to share his enthusiasm as they were sent skyward, but many weren’t stomaching the prospect with much joy. One Faunus girl in particular carrying an impressive pair of tower shields looked like she was about to faint before her launch pad sent her hurling through the air, and other students were wailing in near panic as their turn came up, quite literally.

Speaking of which, Morgan stretched his arms and legs to loosen the joints as his turn neared and the sounds of students flying through the air either whooping or screaming came closer. He had enough time to give his weapons one last check to make sure they were securely fastened before the last student to Morgan’s right, a small girl with an impressive mallet, was sent sailing into the air squealing with glee.

Winking at the next student in line, Morgan was abruptly catapulted into the sky his shirt fluttering behind him, the ground racing beneath him in a blur, and blood rushing through him with exhilaration. He rapidly soared in an arc over the forest and began cannonballing through verdant trees and leaves as gravity took command and Morgan rapidly descended into the forest proper. Unsheathing the pair of cutlasses at his belt with a smooth motion, he began slashing and cutting apart branches as they whipped ahead of him. The ground rapidly threw forward to meet him, but just before hitting the ground, a pair of thick scarlet tentacles shot forward from sturdy overhanging tree and wrapped themselves protectively around Morgan’s torso. The tentacles stretched and strained as they grabbed hold of Morgan, stopping his descent mere inches from the ground, and giving him a nice view of the forest floor before the tentacles whipped back like a bungee cord and Morgan began backpedaling back into the sky.

Flipping back into the air, Morgan cut the pair of tentacles from their mount on the tree’s branch and flipped once more before landing lightly on the branch and anchoring himself by driving his blades into the branch before his own momentum could topple him out of the tree.

Overhead, the amputated tentacles sailed upward for a moment before disintegrating into a stream of salt water and raining back down on Morgan in a light shower. Wrenching his cutlasses free, he sheathed them, and straightened his back to enjoy the view from atop the tree.

“I am just way too good at this,” he quipped.

_{I suppose the Wayback joke has already been used. Oh well, everybody hop into TARDIS.}


Light woke up that morning, slightly befuddled, but not for the obvious reason. Alight, I've made it to Beacon. He thought as he went about his morning routine. I've taken the first big step forward on achieving my life's goal. I feel like I should be more...excited, euphoric, even. But, I'm not sure how I feel. He pondered this as he finished up and, hearing the announcement, set off for initiation.

Light stiffled a yawn as Glenwich and Ozpin traded turns speaking to the students. Light had already looked over them and dismissed most of them as too weak to even swing some of their massive, gaudy, overdone weapons, much less even throw a decent punch. I bet they give every new students the same speach. He thought as Ozpin rambled on about compassion and dedication and such. He was vaguely disappointed when he first met Ozpin. From his reputation, Light expected him to be a lot more... He searched for the correct word. Just a lot more. A lot more than the shabby old man who needed his cane for balance that he appeared to be. Light was dejected upon hearing that they would be forced to work with partners and in teams. I can take care of myself, thank you very much. I don't need anyone else, they will only slow me down. He thought, arrogantly.

Light did know well enought to pay attention as their goal was defined and described. Light rolled his eyes. "So, their plan is to throw a bunch of armed kids into a wood, filled with hostle nightmares who would gladly tear your intestines out your nose to find a tiny chrystal needle in a leafy haystack and those that survive will be recruited to do even more insane, dangerous, and insanely dangerous things. He grinned. Sounds like fun. He thought.

A slight problem then occurred to Light. How will they get down there? His question was soon answered as a kid was launched, sceaming like a girl, but cussing like a sailor into the green abyss below. If Light hadn't known his turn soon, he would have busted out laughing. Light immediately understood he needed to do, and he started calculating force, trajectory and planning his landing in his head. One by one, each were launched, as luck would have it, Light was near the end of the line, and, consequently, one of the last to be launched. He brought his Dynamos out and braced himself, deciding to go in a shallow arc, which should maximize his chances of landing without injury.

Twang!!!

And, almost before he knew it, the ground lept out from below him and he was flying though the air, like a bird. He soared, actualy laughing alound from the exhilarating feeling of moving at such a fast speed. He felt his upward momentum slow and he started on the downward arc. He leaned back so he feet were infront of him, pointed at the ground and he spread his arms. He directed his five Dynamos to support him, one on each arm, one under each foot, and the fifth on standby. He used his aura to supply the power, and increased their upward thrust. He slowed his fall enough to drop the last couple feet to the ground. He casualy brought his dynamos to hover around his shoulders and he took a look around.

The forest was bright, colorful and still. A sleepy chirp of a bird could be heard and a slight wind wound through the undergrowth, rustling leaves and branches. No Grimm or, for that matter, other students could be seen, although all the plants made it difficult to see anymore than several meters away. Some way to see through obsticals would be very useful. Light thought, and he made a mental note to look into that. He located north, by the sun he could barely see through the trees and set off in that direction.

@Crimson Raven
Razor darted through the forest keeping an eye out for both the Grimm and the other students. He couldn’t take a chance in finding another student and being paired up with them. He needed to keep others safe from his Semblance until he could gain control of it. Razor came to a screeching halt and his eyes widened as he saw the figure standing in front of him.

“It can’t be,” Razor said as he stared at his nightmares self he saw last night. It still wore the Grimm mask over its face and he saw the same black liquid drip from the bottom of the mask. He couldn’t see it, but he felt the sadistic crooked smile it wore behind the mask. His nightmare self walked behind a tree and Razor ran followed suit, but when he ran around the tree he saw nothing but open forest. The black liquid that dripped from the bottom of the mask and onto the forest floor was now gone.

“Calm down, it’s just a residual from the nightmare. Nothing more and nothing less,” Razor said as he sighed. But what does it mean when a nightmare is seen while you’re a wake? What does it mean? Razor couldn’t think of it too long and continued to the northern end of the forest.

“Just got to make it there and all should be,” Razor said before he slid to a stop and saw the student in front of him. He was a 5’6 male with white hair and wore a white coat and pants with a black and purple shirt under the coat. “Fine” Razor sighed as he rubbed his eyes.

“This is just perfect,” Razor sighed. well there goes that plan.

Light tenced as he suddenly heard something coming toward him, through the trees. He caught a glimpse of color and he knew it wasn't Grimm. It was something far worse...another student. Light aruptly looked at the ground, to avoid eye contact, spun on his heel and stalked in the opposite direction, ignoring the other's existance.

@Rex

Martin Chestnut-Feelin' it Coming in the Air-Tuesday Morning

Even putting the silliness of putting teammates together based on chance alone aside, this entire initiation ceremony seemed to be a lot more of a hazing ritual than any kind of school mandated function. Literally throwing a bunch of teenagers into the middle of hostile territory, teaming them with random total strangers, and then forcing them to fight for their lives didn't just appear irresponsible--it appeared downright ludi--

THIS IS BULLSHIT

If Martin had had a little more time to think he could have gone farther, but there's not a lot of thinking that goes on when flying through the air hundreds of feet above the ground other than that focused on surviving.

Wind whipping past his face, Martin closed his eyes, mentally searching for the small, hard knot in the depths of his mind, that small slight voice that kept him controlled... And found it, grabbing hold and loosing it. His eyes opened again, his flight through the air seeming to slow even as he triggered his gauntlets into their active form. The metal digits extended over his fingers, whirring tighter, the Dust channels running through them aligning into functioning order.

None too soon. The forest was looming, despite the slowing passage of time. Martin fixated on a single branch, the one he was hurtling toward, extending both arms upward, bracing his Aura against the hits he was about to take. He snagged the limb, joints wrenching and Aura struggling as he shifted his velocity back so he was heading mostly upward, trying to take the force out of his horizontal momentum--and blazed back above the canopy.

Well, that went substantially better than expect--

Martin's thoughts were cut off as he reached the apex of his arc and started to fall into the canopy again, this time going almost directly downward. His gauntlets loaded with Dust as he started to near the ground, a clap and a downward push sending a blast of air Dust away and slowing his fall. Two more blasts and his supply was exhausted--but he was only five feet from the ground, a fall he could easily take. He landed, knees bending to take the impact as he fell into a crouch, finally standing and brushing himself off. He'd looked as graceful as a drunk pigeon in the air, arms flailing, and he was entirely out of Dust... But at least he wasn't dead.

A sigh. Now to find a partner.

[h2][color=ed1c24][center]Yami Crimson - Patch - Tuesday Morning/center][/color][/h2]

Yami awoke from his sleep, a sudden cramp came to the back of his neck which made Yami grab it in pain. He slept in such a uncomfortable position that his whole body was sore all over. The cramp in Yami's neck went away slowly, and as soon as it did Yami grabbed the top of the guard rail and pulled himself upwards. Yami instantly felt the side effects of sleeping on the hard ground in a sitting position, his legs nearly gave out as they both fell asleep during the night. The soreness in his neck hadn't gone away, which made Yami groan lightly. Why had he fallen asleep outside, in the least comfortable position ever. A better question is how did he stay asleep the whole night without ever waking up once? Yami walked his legs off for a bit, trying to get them back to their regular selves while also stretching his limbs out. He was still sore all over, but the soreness went down tremendously. Yami grabbed all the things he left out during the night and put them back into his backpack as he threw it back over his body onto his back. The weight of his crossbow hitting his back harder than expected, which made him scuff in surprise. Today just wasn't his day.

Yami exited the ship, while Ironwood was in the middle of debriefing the mission to all the other students. His ability to not be noticed by people and sneak up people was a blessing in disguise sometimes because he knew Ironwood would've chewed him out if he noticed him slide in."Right. Now let's not waste any time. Seperate yourselves into pairs and decide who will be going where. I'll be waiting for the two who will accompany me to Signal. You have five minutes" was the only part that Yami caught onto, which wasn't much to go off on. Yami grabbed at his neck again, the soreness was still there and bothersome. Yami could barely turn his head left or right without putting a strain on it.

Fern, the team leader of FRST came over to Paris and told him what she thought of the mission in general. Yami quietly walked up behind Paris, trying not to get their attention while he tried to listen in to the conversation, trying to pick up on what they were actually doing. After what Fern said to Paris, Yami started to form what the mission was all about. Seemed like they would all split up into groups of two as they all went to different locations across the island in which they would help the villagers anyway they could. Yami listened in as his fellow teammate Carlin joined in the discussion, Yami looked at Carlin as she started and she seemed to look like a shell of herself. Her usual vibrant flowers on her head seemed to lose a little color, and she just seemed like she had gotten the hell beat out of her the whole boat ride. At least Yami wasn't the only one that had a rough ride, he smiled at the thought as he rolled his neck in a circle trying to force the soreness out.

Lastly came his final teammate, Heather who was just a mess. Yami gave her a arched eyebrow, trying to figure out what happened to her. While he was doing this, Heather fidgeted around trying to find the words to apologize as she tried to fix herself. Yami started to laugh lightly, as he watched her fix just about every part of clothing she had on. Paris in his ever so caring nature asked if she was alright, which was met with more stuttering and fidgeting. She gave a pretty valid excuse as she bent down to tie her boots, Yami was watching her the whole time and something felt off. Yami shrugged it off though, if Heather was lying she had her reasons and if it was something major she would come to each of them about it. Heather started to fix her pigtails as she asked "So... uh... are we in teams or pairs?... You know for... the... mission?" Yami finally spoke up as he answered her, his hand still attached to the back of his sore neck. "Pairs.. I be-believe." Yami chuckled nervously as he looked away from his teammates. "It.. It'sOkayHeatherIWasLateToo. Yami said very quickly, changing the subject completely. Yami had no idea how to be outgoing or comforting in the least, and his awkwardness just blurted that out at a random point. Trying to comfort Heather in Yami's mind was a good way to come out of his shell, but as soon as he said that his face turned bright red. Embarrassed he even attempted it, Yami looked down at his feet, still having a grip on his neck this time moving it around trying to massage the pain away. "Wh-What are the pairs anyways? Ir-Ironwood said we only had 5 minutes to decide..

@RoflsMazoy

Asvoria would have continued walking, but she heard some noise behind her. The tell-tale sound of gunfire screamed the answer more than anything else. Confused, the girl turned on her heels and returned to the scene.

The was a girl where the Ursa's body had been. "Uhh... Hey!" She called out awkwardly, "The Ursa wasn't dead!"

Asvoria was slightly confused. . . But she knew one thing. Their eyes had met. In fact, she didn't even really know this girl. No name, no nothing. It didn't matter much though. "Guess I didn't put enough of my natural strength into that. I knew something was weird when it's head didn't just deta--" The blonde girl stopped as soon as she found that her words were a little. . . Grim. "A-anyhow. Guess we're partners now. Come on now, on yer' feet buttercup." Asvoria merely grabbed the other's hand and pulled her up easily enough. It felt like she had massive strength, but it didn't seem quite like that but slightly different. "My name's Asvoria Laurent. It's nice to meet you partner! Guess we need to find the shard thingies now."

The blonde girl couldn't help but giggle slightly at how easy it was to find her partner. It was like, almost immediately. Still, she needed to know one more thing. "Could you tell me your name? It's probably better to say your name than just calling you 'Partner' or 'Buttercup' the whole time"

Collab with @FateWeaver and myself.

Morgan Rouge - Emerald Forest - Tuesday Morning
As he looked around the dense thicket of forest stretching in all directions Morgan reflected on the objectives laid out by Ozpin and Glynda.

Land. Find teammates. Grab dust shard. Make it back to the cliff through Grimm.

Well, Morgan thought, step one down. All he needed to do next was find someone and make it towards the Northern end of the forest. He narrowed his eyes and focused on the direction of the shadows drawn out by the tree he was perched upon in relation to the sun. The foliage made it a little more difficult to pinpoint than trying to find his bearings at sea, but before long Morgan to pinpoint north based on the shadow’s movement along the ground. An old navigator’s trick.

Taking a running leap, Morgan activated his aura for extra balance and flung himself from the branch he’d landed on towards a nearby tree and began leaping from branch to branch towards the northern end of the woods with a practiced ease. Most of the landlubbers would probably start making their way there as well and he stood the best chance of locating other students if he went in the same direction.

Orlan Price - Air above the Emerald Forest - Tuesday Morning

Bang! Two left. Orlan was getting closer to the ground, and Axios was nearly empty. Endless green rushed passed him as he crashed through branches. With an effort of will, he forces his left arm out ahead of him and focuses his aura. A brief flash of light illuminates the leaves before Aegis springs to life.

Bang! Curling behind his shield as he crashes through the thinner branches, Orlan prepares for impact. He had entrusted his well-being to the barrier for more than this in the past, and had faith that he would land uninjured. One more tree loomed ahead, and then a clear space in the forest beyond. Changing the angle that he held his spear, Orlan prepared for one final jolt, and then a rolling tumble.

Morgan Rouge - Leaping through the Emerald Forest - Tuesday Morning

Continuing his forward progress through the Emerald Forest, Morgan leapt from tree to tree keeping his eyes fixed on the ground searching for possible threats. As he landed on a sturdy oak he scanned the woodlands for another sturdy platform, which he found in the form of another oak tree right before a clearing in the woods. He leapt forward already calculating his next trajectory to maintain his momentum.

Suffice to say, he wasn’t paying attention to anything flying at rapid speeds from the east until his aura alerted him, nearly too late, of the speeding object. Morgan was already in midair towards the oak and he didn’t have many options in terms of changing his trajectory as he sighted the glowing spear tip and quartz shield flying towards him. Biting back a curse, Morgan spun around and rammed a balled fist into the shimmering shield with an aura-fueled punch.

It was like hitting a brick wall, and his muscles strained with the effort, but it had the gratifying effect of throwing Morgan back into the opposite direction and slamming into a barely controlled roll on the ground. Fist smarting, Morgan rolled to his feet and ripped a pistol free from a holster scanning the area for whatever he’d run into.

Orlan Price - Air above the Emerald Forest - Tuesday Morning

Orlan nearly dropped his spear in his attempt to move it out of the path of the form coming toward him. He had neither time nor leverage to do anything else, except tuck his chin down to his chest and keep his arms close to his sides. When the punch he never saw coming landed, it seemed to stop him dead in the air for an endless moment. That ended with him flying backwards, into the denser foliage he had just escaped. A few branches snapped under his weight on the way down, and then the ground and sky roll over each other as he tumbles sideways along the forest floor.

The trunk of the tree he ended up fetching up against was mercifully cushioned by foliage around its base, and Orlan suffered no more than scrapes and bruises. The pain from those faded as his aura took hold and he used the tree to support his attempt to stand. His feet back under him, he lets Aegis’ light fade to preserve his strength.

Axios in both hands once more, Orlan turns back in the direction he had originally been heading. Judging from how the space had been clear merely moments before, he could only assume that the object which he struck was another student. This was confirmed when, after a handful of strides, Orlan stepped around a tree and came into view of the one who had supplied the alcohol the previous night.

”I think that counts,” he states simply as a flintlock pistol and wary eyes line up with his.

Morgan Rouge - Emerald Forest - Tuesday Morning

Morgan narrowed his eyes as the foliage rustled from the direction of the object he’d launched back had landed and he cocked Fortune’s Six in that direction. A tall and dark-blonde student emerged from the underbrush staring pointedly at Morgan’s drawn flintlock before drawing his eyes up to meet Morgan’s.

“I think that counts,” the student said.

Morgan winked in response and flipped the pisol cutlass back into its holster. Striding forward he clapped the student firmly across the back with his usual friendliness.

“Well, Step Two, aren’t you a tough nugget!” Morgan said. “That’s a hell of an entrance, I don't think I saw you joining my party the other night.”

He should’ve figured more students were on their way given he wasn’t the last student to get springboarded into the forest, but Morgan hardly expected to collide with a future partner in mid-air. Compared to the newcomer Morgan looked like a walking arsenal with four flintlock pistols and a pair of cutlasses strapped to his body, but just about everyone in this school was some kind of badass, and his new partner certainly looked like he knew how to carry that spear of his.

“Let’s walk and talk, we’ve got a mission and a bit of glim to find before the day’s out.” Morgan said.
He jerked a thumb towards his breast and a cocky grin spread over his face as he gave a proper introduction and leaped back onto a low-hanging tree branch.

“Name’s Morgan, think you can keep up?”

@Pyromania99
"Thank you." Varen said, straightening up her scarf. "My name is Varen."

Thankfully her teammate didn't have to see her landing which all things considered was rather embarrassing. She also wasn't telling her what her last name was just yet but she'd probably find it out some time afterwards anyway. The thing about her last name was she didn't even know if it was her actual last name. Varen had never heard her father say it, and the settlers she had been with only called her by her first name anyway. She'd needed something to put down on the forms though so she just came up with something on the spot.

"Do you happen to have an idea of where we're going?" She asked the other girl, "I wasn't completely listening to the principal's speech."

 @agentmanatee@KiltmanBagz@Dawkins

After talking to Heather, Carlin and Yami finally showed up to the party, with Carlin expected peppiness and Yami's social awkwardness. At first Paris noticed Carlin's features looked sickly, he was going to ask if she was okay before Yami surprised him by confirming Heather's question. At least Paris has been doing better with his reactions at Yami's sudden appearances, he only yelped in surprised and jump a feet in the air instead of readying his bow like last year.

Paris awkwardly stared at Yami for a few seconds before he composed himself with a fake cough and going into a stance as straight as he could. "Yeah, we're to be grouped in pairs, Team FRST already grouped together I have to assign the pair ups..." Paris spoke formally before he started to look more focus as he though up of possible team ups for the pairs.

The best pairs he could think of is Carlin with Heather, and Himself with Yami. Heather would be able to take and deal the close range attackers for Carlin while Carlin attacks at mid range giving te pair a good range coverage. While with himself and Yami would be lacking in Close range combat their abilities should make up for that, as Paris should be able to manipulate the battlefield to keep attackers off himself and Yami should be sneaky enough to not worry as much about his range problem. Paris nodded and spoke with confidence, "okay, we will pair like this. Carlin with Heather and Yami with Me, I think that's the team with the best coverage for this mission, if you have any objections, please say now or forever hold your peace."

@Crimson Raven

When the student started walking away, Razor would have done the same, but he remembered the head masters words and knew he probably had cameras all around. If he didn’t obey the rules of this initiation he’d most doubly get kicked out and then what? I’ll become nothing more than a Grimm Razor thought.

“Hey, don’t walk away from he you little brat!” Razor yelled before he continued, “You know as well as I do what happens when we meet up and you also know breaking the headmasters rule would get us both kicked out. I don’t know about you, but I’m not getting kicked out because of a Five foot nothing twerp.” Razor caught up with the student.

“As much as I don’t like it, we’re stuck on a team together,” Razor said before he took his yoyo’s out and added, “Besides: we’re not alone” Razor looked around as a pack of beowolves surrounded them. This is just perfect Razor thought.

(ps, Renji's dialouge should be in black but I cant find it so yeah)

Nik's groggily lets Renji stand him up, shaking his head Nik looks over at the monk,"Right, so we're going east yeah? And we are looking for a crystal yeah? Well then what are we waiting for?" Picking up his axe Nik turns west and starts walking, before realizing he was walking the wrong way. Quickly turning around Nik walks past Renji, shouldering his axe
Renji stopped in his running when he heard Nik head the wrong direction. He turned to say something, but stopped when Nik noticed it himself. "Yeah, east is this way friend." He said with an amused grin as Nik walked past. As they travelled east together Renji spoke up. "Once we find the crystal we head north for the ruins." He explained keeping an eye out.
"Right, how many crystals are there again?" Nik ,after catching up with Renji, looked around searching for a crystal."Also seeing as we'll be partners I better tell you the name of my weapon. Her name Is Ash Moon." Nik un-shoulders Ash Moon with a small flourish."Anyways we best keep moving I'd hate to lose out on getting one of those crystals."
"Ten. So there aren't many. One per pair. Two per team. Total of five teams. You'd think they'd want more able bodied Hunters than that." He answered with a shrug. Liking his new partner's weapon name he nodded brandishing his own switching it to rifle mode. "Serenity's Regret." He returned the favor before agreeing with his suggestion by simply moving onward
Nik nodded his head and followed, using his hiegthened senses to watch for Grimm,"Look over there I think I see some ruins. Let's check them out." Nik having seen the ruins left of their position, moved towards the cautiosly."Come on Renji we don't have all day." Nik turned back and motioned Renji to follow him.
"I'm coming. I'm coming. Sprinting is not one of my strong suits. Forgive me." He said bounding towards Nik the best he could. As they moved toward the ruins they came across a glade. In the middle was a huge tree. Towards the top was a huge nest. In ther nest was two things. A bright and shiny lightning crystal and a Nevermore. "Huh Nik? We have a problem."
Turning as Renji moved past him Nik's jaw dropped,"Well I've never fought one of those before." Before moving into the glade Nik stopped himself and Renji."Ok I have a plan. You think you could distract old bird brain over there while I run and grab the crystal seeing as you don't like running, and I'd probably be faster any ways." Sheathing Ash Moon Nik drops into a runners crouch.
"Yeah me either." He said dropping into a defensive position when Nik mentioned a plan. "Yeah no problem." Renji said after Nik explained himself. Loading up his weapon Renji took a sharpshooter's knee and took aim at the giant bird grimm. "Go when the first shot hits. I'm going to blind her momentarily. So make it count." He said before firing the first flash bang round.
As soon as he heard the shot Nik bolted towards the tree, making it as the Nevermore screeched, Nik nearly dropped to his knees from the proximinty of the screech. Pushing through the paing Nik pulled out Ash Moon and slammed it as high and as hard as he could, using like a lever Nik continued to do this until he was half way up the tree. Upon reaching the half way mark Nik grabbed the branches and continued to climb reaching the nest with just a little bit of trouble.
As Nik climbed Renji kept firing shot after shot until he was out of flashbangs. "Nik! Run!" Shouted Renji as he quickly reloaded. Now with nothing but elementlal rounds he fired at the Nevermore while calling for it and strafing trying to keep it's eyes on him. Fire round , fire round, lightning, and ice struck the giant raptor, but did little other than piss it off.
The Nevermore burst from it's nest, that's when Nik jumped, straight into the nest. Grabbing the crystal,and pocketing it, Nik quickly looked for a way down but he quickly realized he was stuck so he did the only thing he could think of. He jumped axe held high onto the Nevermore's back slamming his axe into it to keep himself from falling."Renji aim for the eyes!"
The resulting screech that came from the grimm was worse than the first one. This time even Renji had to fight not to grab at his ears. Taking aim again Renji fired another ice round followed by an acid round. When it hit and the Nevermore lurched he realized he'd forgotten about them and fired another follewed by is last two fire shots. "Nik! Finish it! I'm out!"
"Gottcha!" Nik pulled his axe from the Nevermore's back steadying himself he ran up to it's head and quickly placed an ice crystal into his axe, which instantly became covered in a jagged sheet of ice. Nik raised his axe over his head and brought it down, once twice, thrice. The Nevermore let out one last ungodly screech as it went limp and tumbled to the ground, Nik jumped off at the last second before the thing hit the ground, going into a roll as he did making the impact not so painful. "Well that was fun and look I got the crystal." Nik pulled out the lightning crystal from his pocket and handed it to Renji.
When the beast landed Renji ignored Nik at first approaching the limp nevermore. Serenity's Regret morphed to spade mode before Renji swung it down hard with a grunt severing the head completely. As the grimm faded into the void Renji turned with a dark look on his face. For a moment it looked like he was about to say something dark before smiling brightly. "Better safe than sorry." He said taking the crystal from Nik and storing it in His weapon case.
"Yeah now we head north right? Let's go." Nik turned north wards and waited for Renji to lead the way.
"Yup. Hope everyone else is doing ok." Said Renji leading the way. In the distance sounds of similar affairs echoed through the forest. As Renji and Nik traveled Renji prayed for everyones safety.