Gratia Mindaro - A Friend in Need

Gratia's demeanour remained unchanged as the piece of scum gripped against her shoulder, face still schooled in that cold, impassive expression many had come to associate with her. These two were irksome in their methods of gauging her, especially that receptionist. The voyeuristic gaze seemed to linger irritatingly upon her back even as she silently walked past, the strange upbeat cheer that exuded from every pore ... it was unnatural.

Her experience with organised criminal syndicates like the Dodici was limited; the larger, transnational entities would have extended their filthy tendrils into the industrial slums she called a home, but they had always been part of the backdrop of the salt-scented docks, preferring to stick to their storage warehouses than actively court power in the district.

They collected their fair share of thugs and enforcers seeking to fulfil their pitiful little ambitions, and she could remember a number of encounters with those worthless sacks of shit in the past. Yet the pathetic unwashed fools were still so utterly petty, so detestably sinful, so human.

Here, in a major center of their operations, they were different, unnatural.

Fake.

Scum that fooled themselves into believing they were some higher fucking class of criminal. Base animals indulging in their sins under a veneer of professionalism, of etiquette.

She would enjoy ripping that facade apart.

The teenage Huntress banished her thoughts to the very back of her mind, obediently following her escort into the backlot. Her onyx eyes coolly studied the area, gaze sweeping over luxury vehicles, armoured cars and a myriad of thugs before resting upon the central figure.

The man with a bloody collar.

So this was Sonny Dodici.

A wild beast hiding in a poorly crafted disguise of professionalism. Powerful enough to give not a single shit. Her glance lingered on the giant man's weapons for the merest of moments.

He was impressive. Unnaturally so.

"I am Gratia," she replied immediately, tone colder than ice. Criminal scum or not, this was a powerful man. One did not survive long in this world by being an irritation to the strong. "Gratia ..."

Providing her surname would bring danger to her family. She refused to implicate them here.

"... Fiordilatte."

"Stick to the plan! Cian! Take the two big ones out first!" Hearing that she responded as quickly as possible lifting byakko into a comfortable shooting position she started firing at the grimm. "Tch I cant do much more than this its hard to get a clear shot!" Cian shouted as she noticed the factors playing against her one with how dim things was it was hard to aim accurately and with them moving at the speeds they were it was the best she could do. She kept firing her shots creating a barrage of bullets for them to weave through making it where at least some hit. She hated firing blindly like this but with things was it was the best she could do. With a flick of her wrist she activated her semblance over her team it was the best she could do for them at the moment. For one her clip was out and two like this is brought her time to reload. "Reload" Cian said as she focused on reloading byakko while maintaining the barriers for now.

Vega Venetia – Team VGNB – Zephyr

Vega looked on to the building, wondering how Gratia was handling herself in the enemy stronghold. Though she stopped worrying about as she knew she could handle herself and turned to the both Napoli and Beryl.

“So with the infiltration in process underway, now we need discuss our next course of action.”

Sarina Tala Dei - Team JESS with an L – Defending a Caravan

Sarina had lost her balance when the Taijutu sweeped on top of the caravan vehicle and fell of with the unconscious body of Lilac. Lilacs body fell upon her as the Emperor Taijutu quickly looking to finish the two off quickly refocused its attention to her, erecting its body up and launching itself, to digest its prey. Quickly she launched a powerful blast into the Taijutu mouth that caused it to stumble into pain. She then quickly made a illuminating dash to the caravan were she held the unconscious body of Lilac and shoved her unconscious body inside the caravan vehicle so she could be safe.

Again, she was on the caravan vehicle as the Taijutu gazed at her, making a demonic roar at her. She realized that she took its eye sometime before and With a euphoric laugh, “I can understand why you are angry! Come at me!” she said mockingly. So with a push of a button, Sarina began to rev the engine of Arbiter as she gazed down the Emperor with a grinned tight lipped expression.

Diamond tried to make the ride as smooth as possible, but made a mental note that sneakers probably weren’t the best footwear to a forest, much less burning crash sites. She had to skirt around as not to get her own feet pierced by the sharp debris - not that she minded, it spared her from seeing the presumed massacre.

“Almost there.” she said over her shoulder as she got them across the wall and headed to the first bigger house. Looking around to make sure none of the pesky security drones were watching, she half knelt in front of the door, took off her hat and grabbed a few lockpicks, making a short work of the lock. Waltzing in she saw a bench and set Emerald on it.

“If I were a first aid kit...” she mused for a second before going through the shelves and cupboards. “Aha!” Second try. Good. Looking through the stuff, she found a disinfectant and a couple of bandages. It would do for now, but if the air jockeys needed help, she might just have to go crack open a few more homes. “Take off your shirt.” she said, preparing the supplies.

“Okay…” Emerald reached to take off her shirt, wincing as she did so, moving her arms and torso made her wounds sting all the more, but it couldn’t be helped. She slowly peeled off what was left of her shirt before tossing it aside.

“So...you think that Davis guy betrayed us?” Emerald asked, not really wanting to talk about her wounds, or how she got them.

Pausing for a second, Diamond shook her head. “I don’t know. He didn’t seem smart enough to be behind this, although I would know appearances can be deceiving. We can’t let that bother us now though.” Taking what she had she walked over to her teammate. “This is probably going to sting like a bitch.”

The wounds were nice, straight slashes - it would make them easier to patch up. She cut a few butterfly bandages before applying the disinfectant. Then she carefully stitched the gashes before wrapping them up in the sterile bandages. “How are you feeling? Any cramps, fever?” she asked, hoping whatever Grimm did this wasn’t poisonous.

True to Diamond’s word, it really did sting like a bitch. Emerald did her best not to move and cry out too much, she was glad when Diamond was finally done. “Well it stings a lot...and I feel exhausted and a little dizzy...if I have a fever I can’t tell. Nothing is cramping, pretty sore though.”

“Dizziness makes sense with the blood loss.” Diamond reached out to her subpar knowledge of medical aid. Rummaging through the kit, she found a thermometer and handed it to Emerald. “Take temp regularly. if there’s an infection that’s likely going to be the first sign.” she said, I just hope you don’t.. “Thirsty? anything else I can do?”

“I guess I am a bit thirsty.” Emerald admitted, now that they were no longer in any direct danger should could think about things like being thirsty. “I want to lay down mostly.”

“Good plan.” Diamond smiled as she went to pour a glass of water. Handing it to her teammate, she found a pencil and a bit of paper and wrote down her contact information along with short explanation of what transpired and that she intended to refund the owners of the house later. If you told me two years ago this would be happening…

As the gravity of their situation slowly settled in and the adrenaline wore off, a more attentive Diamond and Emerald would eventually come to realize that the residence they were currently holed up in would seem...out of place. In their moment of peace and quiet, investigative eyes would begin to pick up on things that would appear irregular. It would seem that for one reason or another, someone had already broken the house prior to Diamond’s jimmying of the front door. The other entrances to the home had clearly been kicked in. In a hectic and chaotic rush, the home seemed as if a hurricane had blown through or that a bomb had gone off as things were knocked over. Broken. Scattered about. Overturned and tossed around. As if a fight had occurred hours if not days prior to the Hunting Team’s arrival. Whoever originally lived there, either they frantically evacuated the small town or they were forcibly dragged out. No signs of an orderly and calm exit were present. Should the curious pair decide to investigate the neighboring residences, it would be the same for each and every one to differing degrees. However, nothing of monetary value was stolen. Precious jewelry and finery that only a farmer’s wife could afford in such a place so far separated from the urban hustle and bustle of larger cities were left for the taking by any other looters or ne'er do wells. Simply put, it looked like the townspeople wanted out as soon as possible. Either that, or someone else wanted them out in a hurry and weren’t afraid to use a heavy hand to do so.

The knowledge was buried in the back of Diamond’s head though - she had too much to think of, and what happened to people that were no longer here wasn’t a priority. “Hey, would it be alright if I checked on how the two oafs are doing? I’ll just get the medkit to them in case it’s needed and hurry back.”

“Yeah, that’s fine, I’ll just rest a bit in here.” Emerald said, sounding absolutely exhausted. She took a long sip of the glass of water.

Reaching into her coat, Diamond pulled out one of the flare pistols and set it close to Emerald’s reach. “In case of emergency pop one out of the window. I’ll be right back.” she smiled, grabbed the medical kit and ran back to the crash site, bracing her nerves for the sight.

---

As the pair moved towards the crash site, Oswald found that the tendrils of darkness covering his body were writhing and thrashing with an energy he’d never seen before. Ignoring the new behavior of his ethereal soul, Oswald looked around for a moment before shouting. “Hey, anybody left out there, yell back!” Turning to Cobalt, he spoke in a normal tone of voice. “They better still fucking be alive.”

Hearing voices shouting, Alex and Chase snapped into action. Chase immediately got to his feet and linked himself to Alex’s side. Without a word, the two of them smoothly ‘glided’, walking to the nearest piece of hard cover and drawing their sidearms. It would be easy to assume that the voices belonged to the young Huntsmen as part of the team they dropped off at the town, but their nerves were too shot to allow themselves to be lazy and complacent. If someone had enough sense to set up that trap and shoot them out of the sky, then they had enough sense to know who they were and wanted them buried in the ground. They already buried two of their family, hell if they were next. Eyes and ears on alert, they waited for the source of the voices to come closer to the wreckage of the airship. Firearms loaded, on fire, and at the ready. Trigger fingers itchy to pump rounds into the bastards responsible for the loss of their comrades.

Cobalt pulled out his own gun and began to move towards the wreckage cautiously. He flipped off the safety on his gun and scanned the area for danger. “Is anyone out there? Anyone at all! Do you need medical attention? Please respond!” He called out as he got within 8 yards of the wreckage. Cobalt prepared to use his Semblance if anything attacked him and stopped.

Following alongside Cobalt with his shield covering his torso, Oswald only gave a sharp look to the wreckage. Without his Dust, he couldn’t attack from a range, and he had no way to use his Semblance just yet. He’d follow his leader for now.

The voices got closer and closer, placing the pair of soldiers higher and higher on alert. It wasn’t until Chase briefly ‘turkey peeked’ around his cover that he saw Oswald’s shield and immediately recognized it. Alex having been the co-pilot, he never laid a good pair of eyes on the Huntsmen team that was their cargo. However, the case was different with Chase. Taking a few strides over to Alex, he placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder and indicated that they were friendlies. No need for alarm. The two sharing a mutual understanding and nod, they then stepped out into the open to reveal themselves to Oswald and Cobalt. Restless as they were, they still kept their eyes and ears open to anything in the surrounding environment that may wanted to cause harm to them. Alex looked the two young men over and wasn’t really impressed. Then again, Esther was a stick compared to the brute yet she could drop him in the blink of an eye. He never understood where Hunters got their formidable powers from.

Alex looked around for the other two, and was the first to ask questions.
Ignoring what Cobalt had shouted earlier.
”Where’s the rest of your team? Are you two all that’s left?”

“The rest of our team is out looking for supplies. Forgive me, but could you identify yourselves? I don't recognize either of you without your masks.” Cobalt lowered his weapon but stayed cautious, ready to jump into action whenever.

“Have you seen Ms. Vanhomrigh? It’s vital that we contact her, especially considering what just happened.” Oswald tried to keep a steady voice, but the frustration and anger in him was plainly evident.

Beryl Harken

"I believe that the plan was for the stealthier of you to accompany me around back to see what we could find."

Beryl had been content to remain quiet and let the others figure out the plan. At this point though, her staying silent would do nothing but waste precious time. They needed to get moving before something happened to Gratia.

She adjusted her sword belt and did a few light stretches. She looked at the other two with a slightly impatient face.

"Best we get moving sooner than later, the person who remains behind can move in when things start exploding."

Luke Schwarz

Clear shots?

What the heck? I can't possibly be in front of everything, I'm a small gu—ggrbl

In his moment of distraction, the hoodie-clad hunter found his situation to have suddenly grown much more dire, as long arms, clawing at and past him for purchase, found hold of his neck, instantly squeezing tight. His eyes bugging, he cut off his complaints (through no mean feat of psychological effort), and directed his focus to the task at hand. Teeth grit as his neck muscles tensed in an instinctual method to fight off the squeeze, his consciousness flashed back to a more practical method of dealing with the attack.

Grab the choking hand.
Four fingers on the meat below the thumb.
Peel away.
Counterattack with all your might!

Deftly adjusting his grip upon the creature's arm, he caught one of its fellows trying to slip by—

"OOOAAAAAAAAH!"

And with a haggard cry of war, clubbed it with the Grimm he'd been dealing with.

Letting out a rough cough as he released, he returned to his usual demeanor that everyone knew and loved once more.

"I can't be getting in the way of every shot, can I?!"

Consummate everydude just trying to make sense of the world around him. The more this mission dragged on, the crazier everyone was getting! They had to get out of here, and fast.

And with some remorse, he noted that he was definitely a major factor in slowing their process down in the first place. Just as the sparring class had time and again proven:

I think too much.

"Just put lead on anything that moves that isn't us!" came the amendment, "If there's a worker in here, we'd have known by now!"

Shuai Taidan

Before long, Team Canvas was finally together. The sun was still up and the forest was quiet. There were signs of grimm passing through the area, most of it large tracks. Some cobwebs of unusual size hung from the trees marking broodling paths, but they were spread far and irregularly. There was no signal here on everyone's Scroll, so they could not even use their devices to call each other over a network or access the internet.

The first of the team to interrupt the silence was, of course, the masked pyromaniac of the team, having exterminated a Nevermore mere minutes before. Taidan was bringing up the rear, terrifyingly long qiang resting casually upon his shoulder. While none could see his face, it was quite clear from his jaunty step that he was smiling. Beatifically.

"Do spider Grimm produce spider silk?" he asked, fingers tapping gently against the shaft of his weapon. "There would be a lot, wouldn't there?"

Enough to ... say, craft some rather dazzling garments from.

---

@Savato @Sho Minazuki @Onarax @Lucius Cypher

Varius landed well with a martial grace as expected of Hunters their level, ever observant he was more concerned why there was also a Nevermore here. Though it now lies dead, there was still the matter of reaching their destination, now that their main transport was down. It was likely they were going to be a little late, and given the nature of their mission, the sooner they got there the better. Their team member Shuai broke the silence. They would likely produce silk, considering this was a nesting type, them making their own nest with their webbing was very likely, and yes given the mission, there would be a lot.

"Very likely, and I would trust you to keep the swarms off of us too when the time comes", he responded promptly, dusting his clothes off before the team began to figure out which direction to move in.

Shuai Taidan

"That goes without saying, Varius," replied the resident pyromaniac and pretty-boy extraordinaire (although aside from his flowing locks of pinkish-brown hair, it was exceedingly difficult to make out his facial features from behind the strange gas mask tightly worn over his head) with good cheer, immediately closing in on his teammate to throw a friendly arm around the other man's shoulder. "Any Grimm that comes close to us, and wham! The goose will have been cooked!"

Literally, of course, because that was the fate suffered by all monsters of the night that found themselves at the business end of his napalm-producing weapon. Although, the intense heat of the chemical compound would more likely result in overcooking, but the metaphor still applied nonetheless, albeit with an assumption that Chongli was capable of being utilised as a kitchen utensil. Taidan had yet to properly test such out, but it was an idea that was going straight on his list of things to do if trapped in a state of ennui.

It would be a truly fascinating experience! And he had a chef outfit lying around that would fit perfectly with such an activity.

"So what type of plan are we going for today?" he continued, still resting his arm upon Varius. "Want me to just flood the nest with fire, or ...?"

Lauren Negasi

I hate you, Sloan.

In reply, her brother's words (barely a week old) rang in her ears: Should have gone to school, Lorena. You could build yourself a real weapon.

Not that part of her wasn't itching to just break out her kickboxing experience on this runty little fucks. She could feel the familiar itch already, and her chest was racing in excitement as she watched Ben's chain lightning crackle through the swarm. But then she saw him back up - and the part of her that Ben had driven to a draw days prior in combat class realized that the concession of ground was probably for the best. She slid backwards herself - but not before she had taken a knee and cleaved right to left with her axe, bifurcating a few Grimm. As they dissolved into shadows in front of the next row of Scavengers, Lauren stood and dipped backwards, landing on the tiptoes of her right foot besides Ben.

"So this whole mission is ass, huh, Cap?" she asked cheerfully. "Not the normal kind of ass either. The 'wow, every member of BASL has the best ass in school' kind. I mean the 'these little cocksuckers are gonna tire us out until they can swarm and chew our eyeballs out through our bomb-ass sunglasses' kinda ass. Hey, got any Ice Dust handy?"

"Think I do. What're you thinking?" BASL's leader answered, watching with some satisfaction as the rodents hit with lightning went down and didn't get back up. It hadn't taken care of them all, but the Dust round had done its job and thinned out a large chunk of the horde. He kept peppering the swarm with shotgun rounds while he retreated inch by inch, casting a glance over towards the team's ax maniac with a questioning gaze. Neither she nor Sangue could do very much about the horde, and despite he and Amy's efforts it was still coming right towards them. They needed some kind of idea, at least.

"Nice as it is to know you think I've got a great ass, it'd be real nice if it wasn't the last thing we all heard."

Lauren Negasi

"Make us a quarter pipe out of the Dust," Lauren offered, bending over, beckoning, and tapping her left cheek tauntingly at the Scavengers. "Give ourselves a little protection, let 'em slip over each other trying to scale it. When they start standing on each other's shoulders like they're in a zombie movie, and they start scrambling over, we clear the fuckers out row by row."

Flicking her axe down to casually bat away a Scavenger's tool, Lauren took advantage of the Grimm's poor balance and punted it into the swarm, where it was swallowed up by the black mass held at bay by her captain and her stripper.

"Work smart, not hard, Cap~!"

"That... Could work." Was Ben's only comment, as he mulled the suggestion over in his head. An odd idea, but he didn't have anything better. And they really needed to do something. So he took one more step back, slid open the breech on Artorius, and slipped in an Ice round before doing the same with Lawnslot. The swarm surged forward, now that the firepower keeping them back was halved, but their advance didn't last long. Two reports reverberated through the air, only preceding the flashes of white light. The first couple of rows of Grimm were, actually, caught in the ice; the rest slid backwards on the rough quarter pipe shape that had been formed, acting as a bottleneck for the number of Grimm that could get up and over to reach BASL.

Ben ejected the spent shells, and used his new-found breathing room to reload with proper rounds. He flashed the other members of his team a quick thumbs up, then settled in to wait for the first wave.

Sangue Naga

Odd ideas really were something within the BASL team. And Sangue wondered if she could use her "ass" as an advantage against the Grimm if it was so iconic.

And yes, she genuinely believed that it could be used to some kind of advantage.

Keeping her blade by her sheath, she prepared to initiate her attack with an Iaido stance. Her eyes gleamed as she slashed without any hesitation at two Scavengers before slashing at any rodents that happened to look like they'd slip past their formation.

So far, Ben and Amy were doing most of the work, and since Sangue was in no position to be effective in a swarm situation, she simply protected her teammates' backs.

She had no complaints as long as she was doing something for the team.

The Fury’s gun powered up, spinning to maximum speed and filling the air with the rapid cracking of small arms fire, Amaranth adopting a wide stance and holding her elbow in one hand to steady her shot as she mowed down the small Grimm trying to climb over the wall currently trumping their ability to move forward. Well, mowed down was the wrong word—the Fury’s cannon wasn’t exactly a weapon of delicacy, the power of each shot doing more blasting backward than precision killing if she scored a direct hit. Luckily, accuracy wasn’t exactly an issue with as many Grimm as there were. She pumped her fist, the action triggering the barrels to spit out a few spent cartridges and reloading her weapon before it stopped rotating and slid back into the sleeve.

Her spear and shield rattled out, her first strike spitting a Grimm, spinning the unfortunate monster and lance, then throwing it off her spear to knock another one back. Her semblance cranked up, her motions seeming to increase in speed as her reactions hastened, knocking a few more Grimm away.

“Entire fight is ass, Negasi?” Amy asked as she shield-bashed a few back. One of the Grimm had gotten over the wall and was coming at her from the left, too fast for her to get her spear back in time— “Don’t know how right you are.” A quick sway to the side and Amy’s hips hit the Grimm square on, the rapidity of her motion and force delivered knocking the surprised creature far enough away to skewer it and fling it away. She winked at the other girl, then went back to defending the wall, smashing another with the flat of her blade.

Lauren Negasi

Wow, that was some thot shit.

Lauren blinked at her quasi-girlfriend's playful display incredulously and then shook her head, doing her best to clear the image from her mind for the moment. For the first time, she was grasping how difficult Ben's life must have become. The dying sounds of the Grimm that Desire had skewered brought BASL's new girl back to the forefront, and she noted with slight pleasure that the Grimm attempting to scale Ben's makeshift structure had thinned out. The rising odds brought a grin back to Lauren's face, and she ducked slightly as though preparing to line up on a fastball. With one enormous sweep of her axe, the boxer cleaved through four or five Scavengers who had scaled the wall at once.

When nothing instantly replaced them, Lauren knew they'd won. She felt her heart soar - and she could almost feel her Semblance begin to pump through her veins like hot blood.

"Mr. Lloyd!" she thundered, laughing to herself and stepping back from the Dust construct. "Tear down this wall!"

Sonny’s assistant immediately pulled a pen and paper out of her blouse jotting something down as Gratia’ voice echoed out into the slightly warm breeze. Sonny’s ears perked up when she spoke and nodded playfully.

“Another one of them Fiordilatte bastards huh?”

“That’s old man Fiordilatte for you, he stopped his train at a lot of stations." The man who had led Gratia to Sonny said under his breathe eliciting muffled snickering from Sonny’s assistant – though he immediately stopped as Sonny approached him. As Sonny approached Gratia she would notice that his left leg carried a slight limp, and as he passed her by he pushed her out of the way with his right hand. He got up to the man who was snickering and though from Gratia’s angle it was difficult to see, he was inches from the other man’s face.

“Your apologies Son-“

The man was silenced by a force directly hitting his throat, Gratia couldn’t see if it was a punch or something else. The man desperately tried to regain his breath, clutching at his own throat and taking several steps backwards before collapsing, his face blue, legs kicking in anxiety – until he was still.

“Well I think we just found an opening Fiordilatte, just don’t make any puns.”

“Marissa, please take our new employee upstairs to meet my sister and the cargo.” Sonny said walking away from Gratia picking up his cellphone as it began to vibrate to life. Marissa put a steady hand on Gratia’s lower back, meant less to comfort and more to guide. As she was walking away she could hear Sonny’s voice speaking to what seemed to be another subordinate.

“So there are kids in the lot out front? Get them out of here, we’re moving out in an hour or two.”

“No I don’t care how, just do it.”

Marissa lead Gratia to the elevators and pushed a button of a machine that was located on her hip, it make a small chirp and said quietly 'notified.' They entered the elevator and she pushed the button corresponding to the top floor, number 12. When the elevator doors opened a noise would pierce Gratia Fiordilatte's eardrums, cries for help. Marissa lead her in the opposite direction.



As the team sat in inaction out front of the Dodici Cosca’s buildings a man approached them with a warm smile and a business suit, he seemed affixed to Beryl.

“Hello there young ones. You all seem rather tired, or weary perhaps; why not come inside with myself and fetch a glass of water?” The man said with a genuine sounding coo.

Ben allowed himself a soft laugh at Lauren's antics (didn't stop him from rolling his eyes, though), but he knew she was right. These Grimm weren't smart enough to do much planning, which meant that if there were any Scavengers left then they couldn't get up over the ice wall. Killing them would be a cinch, but the wall that had kept them safe was now in their way. Still, he couldn't just shoot it. Or cut it. Both would take too long, and expend too much effort (and ammo) removing the obstacle. No, he needed to be more direct.

With a flick of his finger, he gestured for the rest of his team to cover him while he sheathed Artorius and Lawnslot. Then he started walking up to the wall, cracking his knuckles in an admittedly exaggerated show of preparation. The only real prep work was deciding exactly where to hit it to clear it out. What looked to be the weakest spot. After a few moments he decided on his target. a point about halfway up, and drew back one arm. The sound of his fist striking the wall echoed with a sharp crack, its structure developing deep, irreparable faults. The second punch, delivered with the other hand, shattered the icy barricade into a million tiny pieces that could be kicked aside with ease.

He registered the dip in his Aura reserves, but it wasn't significant enough to worry about. Especially with both batteries left in reserve.

"That good enough for you, Negasi?"

A symphony of crackling heralded the shattering of the icy wall into an edged hail, and the glistening pieces fell like hail amid the smoky, dissolving corpses of vermin. Laudable teamwork had proven itself the superior of raw numbers and bestial instinct, and the four members of BASL soon found themselves overlooking a hall empty but for puddles of water and the final few hazy chunks of their prey. Given the importance of their situation, however, they could not afford to bask in their victory for long. No doubt intuition drew them toward the double doors through which the horde had poured; beyond that portal lay a cafeteria very much in ruins but now deprived of its deplorably-mannered customers.

An investigation of the room itself, however, would turn up evidence that suggested more than a mere Grimm habitation. Despite the volume of scavengers previously occupying the cafeteria, its destruction seemed rather incomplete, as if the creatures held a specific goal in mind. Furthermore, no nests, however crude, lay in any of the corners or piles of debris. In the silence that followed, a weak but audible pounding could be heard from the walk-in refrigerator.

If the hunters-in-training approached and opened this refrigerator, they would find hidden inside two men. Both obviously suffering from hypothermia, they sported pale skin, constant shivering, and frost all across their bodies. The one closest to the door would gasp in equal parts relief and pain to see, even through eyelids nearly frozen shut, that help had come at last.



In short order the Grimm were dispatched. Lesser numbers and workably bright conditions meant that even first-year hunters could dispatch the vicious but diminutive Grimm easily. As the final Griever breathed its last and began to disintegrate into acrid ash, a smothering calm settled over the room again. It lasted only a moment, however; there came a sporadic echoing through the vents, betraying some sort of activity in whatever room lay on the other side of the sealed door. A human well-versed in the talent of auditory reception might even be able to make out decidedly feminine shouts amid shrill shrieks, distinct enough to hint at multiple noise-makers. The time for Luke, Cian, and Jack to start making real progress toward Priscilla and the safe room seemed nigh.



Rather than accept Sarina’s challenge, the Emperor Taijitu chose a different approach. With the vehicle gaining speed thanks to Estelle, only a few moments remained before it would ram through the wall of lesser Taijitus blocking the way ahead and escape. Seemingly feeling the significance of the moment, the Emperor stretched its muscles. A cobra-like hood extended from the sides of its head partway down the body, the inner scales proving to be a near-metallic red coloration that reflected the sun like a thousand tiny mirrors. The light dazzled Sterling, preventing him from taking action of any sort as his brain reeled, and before Sarina could quit her pose it slammed its head down onto Estelle, nearly depleting the defenseless faunus’s aura in one slam of its crushing weight. Instantly the caravan vehicle, rocked by the force of the impact, lost momentum. The very next instant, it collided with the wall of Taijitus, and like a net capturing a bird they held.

The caravan had stopped.

Shrieking in victory, the Emperor set up a clamor that echoed through the whole canyon in the throats of its brethren. The Taijitus that formed the net quickly dropped and swarmed the vehicle en masse. With a yell of panic, the caravan driver deserted his seat and disappeared, racing to the emergency land rover to save his own skin. When the little four-wheeler sped down the ramp and out back the way the group came, however, Lilac could be seen inside; despite his fear the driver had not left her behind.

Left with the choice of fighting a pointless battle or fleeing, the three remaining students chose the latter. Their radio sparked to life. ”What was that!? Most of you just stood around like bricks. Your senior classes haven’t been that exhausting or divisive, have they? Ah…sorry. Ozpin won’t be happy to hear that a senior team failed a mission. There’s a plateau just outside the canyon. Get there fast before the Grimm catch on. Ranger-3 out.”

The fastest way to the plateau would be to scale the side of the canyon, avoiding the various Swiss-cheese holes that pockmarked its surface, and run the rest of the way to the rendezvous point.

Sterling Johnson

"... Chalk it up to growing pains for now, huh? I've got Jorie. No sense waiting around and moping out here in the wastes." the now-un-stunned brawler offered, shifting their diminutive, and still very-much knocked-out leader's weight upon his shoulder. Apparently having learned his lesson from the flash, his aviators were now resting squarely upon his face, leaving his eyes unreadable.

However, he didn't conceal the fact that the good humor had left his face. A moment's lapse in judgement was all it took for them to go from salvaging the situation, to...

To running at a dead sprint from a horde of Grimm they knew was in their way. They were careless.

He was careless.

And it nearly cost the driver, Lilac, and his team their lives.

"Dunno about you guys, but I'd rather die back in Beacon. At least there's air conditioning there."

With the most humorless quip of the day, Johnson began to walk.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------



Meanwhile, far away from situations quite so far down the drain, Luke Schwarz found himself utilizing an oft-disregarded affinity of his.

They'd just wiped out the last of the ambush, after ironing out minor kinks in the plan and communication thereof, and were now making their way through the room at a much more respectable pace than they'd started. It seemed the continuous ambushes after sitting around and talking for too long had lit a similar fire under everyone's rears.

However, they weren't rushing blindly forward. That is to say, the trio were still very much cognizant of their surroundings, and wary of any new stimuli that might suggest a new threat or change in the situation.

And as it just so happened, a moment of sheer convenience occurred in something of that nature, for tumbling down the vents and into the room were the sounds of screams, shrieks, and other such noises...

And they're g i r l s !

Now, to clear the air here, before anyone took things the wrong way, there were entirely innocent reasons for the team hit-sponge's receptiveness and immediate recognition towards the vocalizations of distressed females.

You see, he grew up in a house with two younger sisters, and as anyone who had a sister knew, little sister screamed a lot. Whether yelling at you for not letting them have their way, to distracting them from their homework, to even correcting your form on how to punch, little sisters always aired their dissatisfaction with maximal volume.

Therefore, it was perfectly sensible that he be able to distinguish a girl screaming at moment's notice, and it betrayed nothing at all about his character beyond a heroic tendency to help girls in need.

At all.

Seriously, it's not like I have anything to be defensive about.
I'm a coward anyway it's not like I'd do anything
I'm a perfect gentleman. End of discussion.

"Sounds like we're getting close. Let's get this thing open..." he said, drawing up to the door and proceeding to try and do so.