Frozen Waste [Open]

Muffled Thumps echoed over the edge of the valley as Walter's fists struck the Ice wall on the far side of the valley. As Walter retracted his strike, lightly bloodied indents could be seen on the ice. Through the sound of the light torrent of cold wind, Walter could hear the crunching of snow echoing in from the top of the Valley. Wiping his bloody knuckles dry, he re-equiped his nylon jersey and warmth slowly returned to his torso. He began to walk to the source of the sound.

As Night was walking he found a cliff wall that seemed dry enough. "Hmm i wonder." Night put his dry hand against the wall and tried eroding the inside of it to make a pocket. "Darn, to much moister." Night pulls out some red dust crystals and places them in some ridges in the cliff wall. "Well, if theres anybody near by they sure are going to hear this." Night walks behind a tree and loads a fire dust bullet into Gold Rodger and takes aim. CRACK!!!. As Night pulls the trigger a loud explosion comes from the gun and crystals as they make a hole in the cliff. "That should do, heh." Night walks into the hole he just made and sheaths R.W.M and sits down to think on how he's gonna find his way back to Beacon.

While searching for the entity that disturbed the snow at the valley's edge, what sounded like dynamite exploding echoed from the southern end. Assessing his choices, Walter decided to discover the source of the explosion first. Fists clenched, Walter followed the cliff face until he discovered an unnatural looking cave. Assuming his stance, he inched his way into the cave.

Night heard something at the entrance and quickly draw his gun at the ready. "Oh, walter its you, dang man you scared me there for a second." Night says as he lights a small fire.

A few seconds pass before Walter lowers his stance. Scrunching his brow at Night, he walks back to the lip of the cave.

Night holsters Gold Rodger and sits back down. "So what are you doing out here Walter?." Night asks as he puts his hands against the fire.

"Training," Walter said. "But I heard noises coming from the top of the valley." Walter pointed to the top of the cliff face Northeast of the cave. "It could be Grimm." Walter left the warm lip of the cave in the direction of the cliff."

"Oh that...heh, your kinda there." Night says as he gestures the cave as a hint. "I was kinda cold so i improvised."

"It wasn't your explosion. It was the sound of feet disturbing the snow. By the sound it's either a large Beowulf or several smaller entities. Regardless, my body has been still for long enough." Walter jogged away from Night and his figure began to fade between the torrenting snow.

Night watched as Walter disappeared in the blizzard. "Hmm." Night loads 6 fire dust bullets just in case and reloads R.W.M.

What was that?

Even through the wind, Pierce heard it. A dull thump. Like a body dropping to the ground. Or an explosion. It must have been really strong or really close for him to have heard it. His hearing was better than average but even he would have a hard time hearing that.

Looking to his companions, Pierce sees that they've noticed it as well. Well trigger-happy did at least. He's looking in the direction the noise came from. The other one though, Pierce can think differently.

He's staring daggers, right at him. Like he's mad. Furious. His hand's in his pocket, something that unsettles Pierce. He remembers the words he said as he worked on the Jaegers.

Weapons come in all shapes and sizes. Gotta keep my guard up.

The wind's picked up a bit, blowing snow near horizontal across the treetops but the general direction of the disturbance is easy enough to follow. Any experienced hunter would find it in minutes.

"That's either something we want to kill, or something that wants to kill us. I'm going, with or without you two. It's your call."

Night's fire was starting to go out so he decided it was time to leave the make shift cave he made in the cliff wall. "Uh, time to get moving i guess." As Night said that when leaving the cave he heard footsteps in the distance."Hmm." Night unloaded the fire bullets in Gold Rodger and loaded a new bullet he just made, an experimental air dust bullet.

"Uh please don't explode on me." Night begins spinning the revolver at high speeds before clicking the hammer transforming it into a black and gold katana. "Here we go!"

Just as Night said that he pulled the trigger and stabbed the blade into the ground as a visible torrent of wind encircled the blade. But when it struck the ground a twister 12 across formed around night clearing the snow away from the ground and making him dry. "Now the fun begins!" Nights aura starts glowing a brilliant dark red as sand pours out of his sleeves and forms into decoys of himself. "Uh, this is harder than i thought." As Night strained to for the sandstone clones his aura was draining fast. Just as the twister of snow fell, it revealed three perfect duplicates of Night. "Scatter!" Night commanded the clones and on command they sprinted through the snow to the location of the foot steps to figure out what they could be. Night then returned to the cave loading the fire bullets back into Gold Rodger."Now i wait i guess..."

Well, might as well investigate.

"I'll go with, might just be what I'm looking for." Xarias said, his weapon now split to it's dual blade form. He faces the direction of the sound and tries to recall the details of his mission. He never heard of other people coming to the forest, neither did he bother to ask if the job is a solo one.

Well, looks like I might have competition.

"In case you guys don't want to use names, just call me blue." He said while pointing to his blue aviator jacket. "I'll call you Blonde and black, if that's ok."

Xarias didn't want to get Black mad, he was already staring daggers at the both of them, and noticing he has his hands in his pockets he decides to take things cautiously now. These kinds of jobs never seemed to go smoothly, always one thing or two that Xarias forgets to take account of.

What about the sound?

Xarias didn't like the fact that the sound sounded a bit like an explosion, this wasn't in the plan. Could be some hunters, maybe some snotty students from beacon trying to show off, or maybe his target suddenly grew bazookas on it's back either way this means that charging head in would be a bad idea, might as well let Blonde lead the way. Xarias would then scan the area for the source and hopefully find his target.

Damn it's cold! This is gonna be a rough day... Or night.

His thoughts wandered as he watched the already dark skies get even darker. The sun was going down. Now his job just took a turn for the worst.

As Nights Duplicates reach the source, his aura relays the information back. "Hunters, hmm." Night then recalled the duplicates back before the got to wet."Uh hope they're friendly." Night walks out of the cave still holding Gold Rodger at the ready just in case.

Not waiting for Black's, as Trigger happy calls him, reply, Pierce leaps off the branch. A second later, he's swinging from tree to tree, occasionally landing on a branch for a split second before flying off again.

As cold as it is, not to mention my two new "friends", this feels great.

The wind whips against his face, stinging it with cold, but Pierce couldn't care less. It's been awhile since he's gone out like this. He finds himself grinning, he's teeth chattering a little bit. For a minute, he forgets that he's on a mission, a stranger following behind him.

The minute soon ends though as he finds himself at the base of a cliff, an odd looking cave set in it's frozen surface.

What do we have here?

Cautiously, Pierce walks towards it.

Just as Night hears footsteps outside the cave his sandstones clones returned as Night his pointing his revolver towards the entrance of the cave. With a thought inside his head Night decides to say something. "Friend, or foe?" Just as Night says that his clones land and start falling apart as the sand starts floating into the cave.

Just as Pierce starts walking towards the cave Xarias sees a flickering light against the cave wall.

Fire

Xarias stops following and fuses his guns to ready his partisan, he quickly loads high velocity rounds in it and calls Pierces' attention.

"Hey blonde? Didn't you notice the fire?" he said in a matter of fact sort of tone.

Pierce stops for a moment as they both notice something, or things, jump into the cave. Xarias get's Relentless Fury in a ready position just in case they might have to defend themselves.

Things just keep getting weirder and weirder

As the sand returns back into Nights jacket he sits up still pointing his gun at the entrance. "Ik your out there, friendly or not?!" Night asked in a loud slightly weakened voice. "I am no threat to you as you may be to me, now show yourselves."

"Friend or foe?"

Just as Pierce heard that voice, three people quickly jump out of nowhere and into the cave.

Damn. How'd I miss them? That cave must be big to fit at least four people.

The voice however, sounded young. Probably around Pierce's age, give or take a few years. Might even be a student.

"Ik your out there, friendly or not? I am no threat to you as you may be to me, now show yourselves."

The voice sounded weak. This guy might need help. Friend or foe, Pierce wasn't about to let someone die in the cold. Grimm were the enemies, not people.

"Friendly. I won't hurt you if you do the same."

Shields in front of him, Pierce steps into the cave entrance.

Night lowers his revolver and leans against the cave wall. "Well good to hear." Night said as the rest of the sandstone duplicates returned to sand and drifted back into his jacket. "Got anything to start a fire?" Night said as he holstered Gold Rodger.

Seems friendly enough, definitely not my target.

Xarias follows Pierce into the cave and sees a white haired guy leaning against the wall. "Got anything to start a fire" says the stranger. Xarias looks around as Pierce walks further in. He then notices the guns at the new guys' side.

Doesn't look like they could do much compared to my bullets. Maybe he uses dust.

Xarias notices a small fire, barely enough to keep anyone through the night. He decides to see what Pierce is gonna do. His rounds aren't incendiary, so he can't do much for the fire. Seeing that the guy is freezing he decides to offer some help.

"I can't make fires, but perhaps I could get some firewood. It's getting dark outside and we might have to stay here for the night. Won't take long with what I have." he says, as he gestures to the blades of his weapon. He starts heading out leaving Pierce all alone with the stranger.

If he could tie me up, he could definitely be able to defend himself against one guy.

Xarias then hooks to the nearest tree and quickly cuts all the outer branches on one side with one quick stroke. Seeing this to be sufficient for the fire, he carries it back to the cave.

Might as well keep warm. No point going after my target in the dead of night.

Night watches as the stranger walks into his make shift cave. "Greetings, my name is Night Alexander Stiff, you?" Night asks as he keeps a steady hand by Gold Rodger and R.W.M.

Pierce hears Trigger-happy exit just as Night introduces himself. He looks cold, shivering a bit, mist coming thin through his mask. He doesn't look too threatening, about Pierce's age. His hair matches the wall behind him, ironic actually. His hands are wrapped around a revolver and a massive katana.

The state he's in though tells Pierce he won't be a problem.

"Aren't you a little young to be dying from the cold??"

OOC: Thanks for spamsquading the thread, guys. Next time....please wait.

IC:

Silently and stealthily, Junis followed Pierce and Xarias into the cave, if for nothing more than amusement. Though there was an issue to be settled.

"Foe," the manipular said shallowly towards Night, "If you don't shut up. Trust me when I say you'll lose the ability to become stiff."

"Im 17...I would use one of my bullets but i don't want to collapse the cave, and my sword ran out of dust as well." Night says as his aura starts slowly regenerating. "And I lived in a place way colder than this." Night's says still holding his weapons.

"I have no reason to attack you and i advise you dont attack me." Night said to the new person who entered, while still holding his weapons.

Junis reappears out of nowhere, startling Pierce. It wasn't his voice though. It was how he seemed to appear out of nowhere. This guy definitely had a weird vibe.

Why is he so hostile all of a sudden though?

The wind outside picks up, whipping Junis' cloak. The last of the fire dies out and the temperature drops even lower than the already biting cold.

Pierce turns around to face his companion.

"Grim, we don't need to fight. It's getting darker. Colder. As much as you don't like it, Night here has a safe place to spend the night. Safe enough at least."