Team AERO: Chapter X

Bzz. Bzz.

You get up and go though your daily routine. Shower, dry brush, dress. You exit the bathroom and look around your room.

Oliver's gone again. Guess even a rematch with PINK can't stop him from working out.
Regalia's not here either. Likely getting breakfast.
Crystal is still asleep.

Yep, just a normal morning.

[Breakfast with Regalia.]
[Wake Crystal? (Why?)]
[Anything else?]

You slip out of your room and head to the cafeteria. Sure enough, there's Regalia.

You get your food and slip in across from her.

"Good morning!"

She smiles softly, "Good morning~"

[Your words here!]
[Just eat.]

"You feel ready for our fight today?"

She nods as she finishes chewing, "As ready as I can be. How are you feeling?"

[Nervous?]
[Excited?]
[Apathetic?]
[Something else?]

"Excited! I can't wait to face them!" You hold your fists at about shoulder height.

She chuckles into her hand before patting your head, "Try and save some energy for the fight~"

You nod and get to eating. You finish after a while and head back to your room with Regalia.

The two of you slip inside and Crystal exits the bathroom shortly after. Oliver quickly replaces her.

You start getting ready for class.

"I wonder if Marble will be back." Crystal says as she stares at her scroll.

"I'm sure he's fine either way." Regalia says.

"I hope he's alright." You say before getting your homework put in your backpack.

"Ready to go?" Regalia asks you.

[Yep.]
[Nope. (What are you missing?)]
[??]

You check for your weapon. It's not in the slot in your backpack.

You look by your bed, nope. You look under your bed. Oh. There it is.

You slip it in it's holster and wonder how it fell out.

"All set!"

You leave with Regalia and Crystal, leaving Oliver to get dressed and eat on his own as he normally does.

You enter the lecture hall and secure your seats, saving one for Oliver.

You wonder if Professor Marble will step in just before class as he usually does.

[Doodle.]
[Go over your notes/homework.]
[Play on your scroll.]
[Chat. (Who? What?)]

"Hey, Regalia. Crystal."

They both look at you.

"We should go over tactics for our fight later!"

"Shouldn't we wait for Oliver? We are a team."

[Nah, we can tell him later.]
[You're right. Let's wait. (Between class? Lunch? Before the fight?)]
[???]

"You're right. Let's wait until lunch."

You take out your notebook and doodle the fight last weekend with the Taijitu. Oliver joins your team some time after you finish drawing it's body.

"Ahem."

You look up. It's Professor Alabaster.

"Good morning students. I regret to inform you that Professor Marble will not be able to teach today."

The student body exchanges excited whispering.

"However, I know that your studies are important, especially those dealing with Grimm, so I have volunteered to take over your lessons until his return."

The cheering turns to groaning.

[Pay attention, maybe Alabaster is a better teacher than Marble.]
[Keep doodling.]
[Scroll?]
[??]

You decide to listen to Professor Alabaster. He couldn't be worse than Marble, at least.

He talks for a while about different Grimm and known weak spots. Taijitu eyes, Deathstalker undersides. Basic things you already knew.

He then goes into different Grimm tactics. How most of the larger Grimm are usually solo hunters, while Grimm smaller Grimm group up. Pretty standard.

Then he stops. He thinks for a while.

"Class dismissed."

What?

"Well. Now what? We still have.." Crystal looks at her scroll, "An hour until our next class."

[What do oh glorious leader?]

You get up, "We should ask if Professor Marble's alright."

Your team seems to agree, and you make your way down to where Alabaster is still standing.

"Uh.. Sir?"

He turns. It looks like you just broke him from a trance. "Ah. Aero. What can I help you with?"

"We were just wondering if Professor Marble was alright."

He sighs, "I don't know. We can't contact his transport. It's likely been destroyed."

[How do reactions?]

"Is there any way we can help? It is to an extent our fault too somehow, after all."

He thinks for a moment. "You'd be flying into near certain death. I couldn't send you into that with so little training."

"However, there may be a transport waiting for you in a half hour. The choice is yours."

He turns and leaves your team alone in the lecture hall.

[You have to do it.]
[Talk it over.]
[You ain't no Suicide Squad.]
[??]

You turn to your team.

"So. What should we do?"

They all have such serious faces.

Oliver cracks a smile and a chuckle, "Well. It's our fault he's in that mess, right? If we can do something, then we should, shouldn't we?"

"Yes, but the Grimm on those mountains aren't like anything we've faced. Our odds of survival are low. We lack the training." Crystal says as she crosses her arms.

Regalia taps her chin, "There are strong arguments for both sides. If anyone could survive, it'd be a professor. But he only went because of us."

Crystal sighs and shakes her head. "This isn't easy. But.." She looks at you, "We'll follow your lead. Which ever way it goes."

[Well?]

"Well, why don't we just double our numbers?"

"What do you mean?" Regalia asks.

"PINK!" You exclaim.

"PINK? Why?" Crystal asks.

"Well, they need us alive if they want to keep the tournament going and get 'revenge' on us for beating them, right? And we need help to rescue Marble!"

Regalia taps her chin, "It wouldn't hurt to increase our numbers, though we should ensure they understand the risks."

You nod. "Of course."

You take out your scroll and text Phyllis.

[Hey, can you guys meet us in the dorms in 5?]
[P.C.- ye. wut 4]
[We'll tell you when there.]

You lead your team to the dorm, running. It only takes three minutes to get there, so you slip in your room and drop your books and stuff off before going to the lobby.

PINK's already there.

"So what's this about?" Kelly asks.

[How do you put this.]

You take a deep breath, clock's tickin'.

"On the weekend we fought and noticed Grimm behaving strange on the wall. King Taijitus and Death Stalkers smashing their heads against it. We told Professor Marble since - duh, obvious - who then went into the mountains to investigate but,  as you probably know, he didn't return yet.
Alabaster said they lost contact to his transport, and that it's likely been destroyed.
He also said there's going to be a transport for us waiting if we want to go and look for Marble, but since the enviroment and the Grimm are though we thought of asking you to help us, to double our numbers and to be sure of our gratitude!"

You exhale and breath in quickly.

"After all, you'll need us alive for that match, and we can get some real Hunter experience!"

PINK turns around, huddling up. You can hear them whispering back and forth.

"We're in." Phyllis said with a grin.

"We should go before the transport leaves." Crystal says.

Oh, right! You only had a half hour!

[Let's go!]
[No, you need to do something first (what?)]
[??]

"Let's go!"

You check your scroll as you lead the two teams toward the docks. You have about 10 minutes.

You jog there to save time but also to conserve energy. It takes about five minutes to get there.

Your teams file aboard and the pilot turns to you, "Waited til the last minute, eh? Can't blame ya. Hell of a decision, kids."

She gives you a thumbs up before turning around and starting the vehicle.

You look around. There's a bench that a couple people are sitting on. There's a pair of crates on one wall, one marked with a red cross. There's also a dozen one-ear headsets hanging above them.

The radio comes to life.

[Static- "In bound to the last known location of Shuttle 231- ETA 20 minutes, over.]

Well, looks like you have some time.

[What do?]

You quickly go through the crates. The one on the left contains small survival back packs. You open one up. A half dozen Shcneekerbars, three 12-hour flares, and folded thermal blanket. It's still pretty spacey, and has pockets on the outside.

You check the medical supplies. There's a few field kits that could easily fit in the packs and other various medical supplies and treatments for various indigenous toxins in the area.

You grab a field kit and put it into a pack before putting it on.

You stand up take one of the headsets off the rack, putting it on.

"Hey!" You wait until you have everyone's attention, "I think these headsets are for us. I'm sure they'll come in handy."

<"Took you long enough." *Chuckling* "Rookies."> Must be your pilot.

Everyone is passing out headsets. You grab, Phyllis once she gets hers.

"Hey, Phyllis." Seems the headsets don't broadcast if they're within a certain range of each other. Neat.

"Yea?" She asks as she adjusts the earpiece.

"I just wanted to go over chain of command quick. Just in case anything goes wrong, we need to have someone who has say over the other."

"Hey." She says with a smile.

"What?" You ask.

"It's your mission. We're you're support. You've got the lead, and we'll follow you."

"Thank you." You smile and she pats your shoulder before you turn to the rest of the group.

"We should go over the situation quick."

"Listen up team! Aero's in charge and she's got out briefing." Phyllis says to her team. She joins them on the bench and listens to you recap the events quick.

<"We're here, kids. You getting out in the air or didn't they teach that yet? Hahah.">

[Jump. What can go wrong?]
[Land, please.]

"They didn't teach us that yet, so if you could land, please, that'd be great!"

<"Rodger that.">

The airship lands at the base of the mountain and the doors slide open. One of the few spots of vegetation in the area is the jungle that connects the mountains to the city. Your pilot landed just outside the jungle, so there are trees all to your right, the mountain to your left.

You hop off and the teams follow suit. PINK has their weapons out already, setting up a small perimeter.

<"Alright. Orders are to drop you off and head back. We can't lose another ship. Call the school for evac. You should be in range of the CTT on this side of the mountain. Good luck.">

The ship takes off, heading back towards the school.

"Alright. What's first?" Crystal asks you.

[Look for Marble.]
[Look for his ship.]
[Set up camp.]
[Clear out any Grimm.]
[??]

"We should set up camp."

"With what supplies?" Crystal asks.

"O-oh. Right. Uh." That's right. We have almost nothing.

"Hate to break you two up, but the Grimm definitely know we're here and are closing in." Phyllis says as she aims her gun at the tree line.

You look. You don't see anything. How does she know?

[Question her.]
[Plan of attack (post them).]
[Just get ready, your teams will figure it out when you see them.]
[??]

"Square formation!" You shout as you grab your weapon and spin it as it opens.

Oliver and Nick form the front points of the square, with Crystal and Kelly in the middle. You and Regalia are opposite each other, behind the two males. Phyllis is behind you, and Ivory is behind Regalia.

Well, you made more of a U, but there is only eight of you. And they won't be hard to hear coming down the mountain.

You look over and see that Regalia's already got thread through much of her part of the tree line.

"Five at 11, 7 at twelve, 3 at 1." Phyllis says calmly. Her team nods. Crystal and Regalia seem to get it as well.

A shadow passes your face and you look up. Ivory has a dozen paper airplanes in the sky already.

Kelly knocks an arrow as Crystal turns the dial on her weapon. Oliver and Nikolai have their rifles up and aimed at the treeline. You hear Phyllis turn the barrels of her rifle behind you.

[Prepare for ranged attacks.]
[Prepare for melee.]

You spin your weapon around to face the musket end towards the treeline. You wait for what seems like hours.

"10 seconds." Phyllis says.

You prepare to fire. You can hear them now, thrashing through the jungle.

They break the plane suddenly, several on the left getting caught in Regalia's threads and tearing themselves apart.

You fire, as does everyone else. Small explosions rock the trees as the advancing Grimm begin to get mowed down.

You direct your shot from Grimm to Grimm before pulling it back and letting it rest at your feet.

"Clear!" Phyllis says.

["Well done everyone."]
["That's a really handy semblance, Phyllis."]
[Let's get going. (Where? For what?)]
[??]

"Well done everyone! And Phyllis, that's a really handy semblance."

She smiles, "Thanks. Doesn't seem to be any more in the immediate area."

"Good to know." You say as you reload your weapon.

"Well, what do we do know?" Crystal asks you. "This is the last place they had contact with Marble, but it's clear he's not here."

She's right. He might as well have never been here, but the looks of things.

[Search around the base of the mountain.]
[Search the jungle.]
[??]
[Go home. You tried.]

"Let's search around the mountain first." You say.

"Just a moment, please." Ivory says softly.

You turn to her. She's unfolding and refolding her paper airplanes into.. Slightly different airplanes..?

["What are you doing?"]
["Sure, whatever."]
["We can't wait! Marble could be injured!"]
[??]

"What are you doing?" You ask.

"Re-purposing. We can search a wider area if I have them as scouts, rather than fighters." She says as she flattens the tiny origami fighter in her hands and refolds it into a scout plane.

"Oh. Cool." You look at the two teams and think.

"Why don't we split up? Have three people go in either direction while Ivory and I survey the jungle and keep this area secure?" Regalia offers.

"Who would go with who?" Oliver asks.

You can feel eyes start to turn towards you.

[Good plan! Teams are: ? (Aero, Crystal, Oliver, Phyllis, Nikolai, Kelly]
[Bad plan! Stick together! (or alternative plan)]
[??]

"No, we stick together. Form a line and march one side of the mountain. We'll have a higher chance of survival that way."

"She's not wrong.. Professor Marble did warn about the Grimm near the mountain." Crystal says flatly.

"I'm ready." Ivory says as picks her weapon off the ground and stands.

"Then let's move!" You say, taking the lead. The others follow behind you, forming a line.

You march forward, scanning the rocks and treeline for anything that might hint as to where Marble went. You march for a couple hours, but it doesn't seem like you're going to have any luck at the base.

The sun hit it's peak a while ago, but it's still pretty high in the sky.

[Stop for lunch. Yay, rations!]
[Keep going.]
[Double back, might have missed something.]
[Search up the mountain.]
[Search the jungle.]
[??]

"Alright, let's try searching the mountain. Maybe he went up. If anything, we might see his transport."

You lead the group up the steep slopes. You climb diagonally so that you can search a larger area. About fifty feet up, it starts to get easier as you find a path.

That leads directly to a cave 100 feet later. Somehow you couldn't see it from the ground, but a smaller ship like the one Marble probably used would fit inside.

"Maybe he's in there?" Kelly says as she peers inside.

With your faunus eyes, you can see past the entrance a ways, but it doesn't look like anyone's been inside. It continues well beyond your vision, though.

Phyllis steps into the entrance. "There's high Grimm activity inside. I can't tell how many or how big they are."

[Go in and explore.]
[Keep climbing.]
[Head back down.]
[Rest inside and have a half Schneekerbar.]
[??]

"Let's get out of the sun and grab a bite quick." You say, motioning to the cave.

Everyone moves inside and starts to grab one of the ration bars from their packs.

You go in last, swinging your pack off your shoulder and around to your front. You open it up and take one out. You look at the Schneeker label a moment before opening it. You break half the bar off, leaving it in the wrapper, and put it back in your pack.

You take a bite of it. How boring. At least it's got a day's worth of everything in a single bar.

You look around the cave. You can see in a little farther, but it's really deep. If you take the team inside, only Regalia, Kelly, and yourself would be able to see what they're doing.

Everyone else seems to be enjoying the break. A few are talking to each other, others are leaning against the wall and relaxing. Phyllis is standing near where the light ends, watching the darkness. She must be keeping tabs on the Grimm. You wonder what exactly her semblance is.

[Break's over! Time to (explore cave/climb further/back to the jungle)]
[Nah, this is nice. Vacuo's hot as balls, yo.]
[??]

This is a nice spot. The shade really cuts down on the heat of the sun. Yea, you should stay here a few more minutes.

You lean back against the wall. Ah. Nice and cool.

Phyllis turns around. "Six enemies approaching from the jungle."

Everyone gets up and readies their weapons.

You head to the entrance of the cave and look down.

The six Creeps exit the jungle and start climbing up the mountain. They aren't coming directly at you, in fact, it doesn't look like they notice you at all.

Everyone is behind or next to you, waiting for your command.

[Back inside, stay ready.]
[Pick them off.]
[Watch them first, attack if attacked.]
[??]

"Hold fire. Let's see what they do."

Everyone lowers their weapons a bit.

The Creeps file up the mountain a ways. It's getting harder to see them when they split off, three going left and three right. Then they begin coming back down at the same time.

"Dat is not normal." Says Nikolai.

"Are they.. Looking for something?" Asks Crystal.

One of the Creeps spots you and begins screeching.

"Shit!" Oliver says before a bolt of plasma goes through the Grimm's head.

The other Creeps already heard it, and are starting to converge on your cave.

Oliver, Nikolai and Phyllis fire their rifles, taking out three of the five. Kelly fires an arrow that explodes the fourth. One of Ivory's scouts comes back and peppers the last with bullets before gliding back to her hand. The Creep isn't dead yet, though a shot from Phyllis finishes it off.

"Creeps are doing similar search patterns in the jungle." She says as she unfolds the plane and refolds it into a fighter.

"This isn't normal Grimm behavior. Something's up." Crystal says.

"I agree. And it's possible Marble has already found the source." Regalia adds as she taps her chin.

What's your next move?

[Jungle.]
[Cave.]
[Higher on the mountain.]
[??]
[Call for evac, you tried.]

"We should go up more. Maybe there's something up there they missed. At least we might be able to see something from up there."

"Let's go!" Kelly says.

You lead your group back up the face of the mountain. The climbing's not the easiest, and the higher up you get, the closer it feels you are to the sun. But eventually you make it about a third of the way up the mountain.

And find absolutely nothing. You can't even see through the thick jungle trees. You do spot a paper airplane, though.

It glides back into Ivory's hand. "The Creeps are starting to head back. There's one more plane following them, wherever they're going."

"What should we do? We haven't seen anything that looks like Marble's been on the mountain." Crystal says.

"Grimm activity is picking up the higher we go. We might meet resistance soon." Phyllis adds.

"Sounds like there might be something in the jungle." Regalia mutters as she taps her chin.

You guess you have about an hour of good sunlight left.

[Get high(er on the mountain).]
[Back to the jungle.]
[Back to that cave. Set up camp.]
[??]

"Let's head back to the cave. We can camp out there. Sleep in shifts and such. It'll be dark before we get to the jungle anyways."

"Aero's right. And there's only three of us that can see in the dark." Regalia says.

You head down the mountain. It's much easier going down. It only takes about an hour to reach the cave, but the sun is starting to set when you make it inside.

Nikolai takes one of the flares from his pack and activates it, tossing it lightly towards the back of the main area and lighting the entrance up inside.

Regalia lays wires across the entrance. Everyone has a weapon that could cut through if needed, so you're not really trapped, though it does make a decent trap for Grimm.

Phyllis is standing at the back of the main area again. The Grimm must still be stirring.

Everyone is trying to get comfortable and claim their sleeping area. Some are finishing off their Schneekar bar.

You chew the last bit of yours.

"We should split the faunus between the watches, so that we always have someone who can see." Crystal says.

"I'll take first watch." Phyllis says.

"Should we do two or three watches?" Oliver asks.

[How many?]
[What groups? (Aero, Regalia and Kelly are faunus. Phyllis has her semblance.)]

"Let's go two by teams. AERO'll go first."

Everyone more or less shrugs. You get up and replace Phyllis as she joins her team to sleep. You can see a distance into the cave thanks to the flare and your faunus eyes. But even still, you can't see that far. It's pure darkness inside.

Crystal stands by you. "How long do you plan on keeping us out here if we don't find Marble?"

["We'll find him."]
[(#) Days.]
[??]
["We'll head back tomorrow, no matter what."]

"Two more days, tops. But we'll find him."

"I hope so. These things are gross, and they're all we have." She shakes her head before finishing her Schneeker bar.

You laugh quietly, "Yea. But at least they keep us fighting fit."

The two of you have some time to pass.

[Anything you want to say?]
[Just keep watch silently.]

"Do you have any guesses on what happened here?"

She thinks for a moment, "It could be anything. Undiscovered Grimm 'boss', someone with a semblance or technology that controls Grimm, a mind altering parasite... We don't know enough to make any conclusions."

You nod. "We'll get to the bottom of it."

"Unless Marble already has." She smiles.

The rest of your shift goes smoothly. Time to wake PINK.

You and Crystal wake Phyllis and Ivory as Regalia and Oliver wake Nikolai and Kelly.

They take their places and assume your watch.

You yawn.

[Sleep by yourself.]
[Sleep near someone (who?)]
[Sleep... With someone?]

You let out a little cough.

"What is it?" Regalia asks you.

"We should sleep together." You say.

Her face reddens, "What?"

"I mean, as a group. We should share body heat and get comfy." You say.

"O-oh. Yea." She chuckles.

"Sounds good to me." Oliver says. They settle in on either side of you. Crystal gets in next to Oliver.

You fall asleep with your team.

[Chapter X: End]