Rainer Fang, Emerald Ubiquitous, Piers Garetson, Emilie Peterson

Emilie saw that the voices, in fact, came from humans. Still at the ready she rounded the corner and looked them over. Both carried swords, and appeared to be bigger than herself. As the range lessened, she switched splendor into claymore form, and hoisted it over her shoulder. If this was some trick of the Grimm, or part of the initiation test, she was ready to go Berserker in an instant.

"Heya, what's your names?" She called out to them.

Piers let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the very much human forms of two more students. After a tense moment of not knowing what was the source of the sounds they were hearing, he was all too happy to know they just found the other half of their team. It never occurred to Piers that this could be a trick of some sort, so he stood in a relaxed position with his weapon at his side.

"Are you guys alright?" He called out with a smile. "Any of the Grimm get to you?"

Rainer stabs Silver into the wall. He looks ahead and spots the other pair. "We ran into a couple leeches, but we got rid of them." He carefully observes them. They look friendly, but we got to be careful. He gave Emerald a signal with his hands hoping that he understood. "My names Rainer Fang what're your names."

Once the water drops to half its height, Emerald says, "This is a good place to stop wasting our strength clinging to the walls." As they drop is when the other partnership turned the corner.

Enemies! Kill them! No they're other students. Can we run then? No! More of us means we have a better chance to survive a fight against the Grimm. Bah! I can beat any Grimm that comes our way, just let me take contr— No. We're working with them that's final.

((OOC: Takes place before you guys' questions. Piers and Emilie can answer Rainer question, then Emerald will say his name.))

Still looking somewhat suspiciously at them, Emilie extended her left hand, her right firmly gripping Splendor still.

"Emilie Petersen." She said shaking Rainer's hand, perhaps a little harder than necessary. She was starting to relax a little bit, any Grimm would have made a move by now. She stayed on guard however, it could still be a trap set by the teachers at Beacon. After waiting for all the introductions to finish, Emilie asked her next question.

"Though I'm not much for strategy, I have to ask, how do you two fight? I need to know who to watch out for if I need to get serious." Though perhaps a strange question to them, to Emilie it made perfect sense. If she was forced to use her full power, any who were too close to her were in danger of losing more than a few limbs. At least if she knew how many would be near her she could not worry as much about dicing up her new teammates.

"I'm Piers Garetson, it's good to meet you two." In stark contrast to Emilie, Piers was nothing but smiles and gratitude. The more the merrier as far as he was concerned and having two more people to fight beside meant two more people to help keep the battlefield clear for him to do what he needed to do. He offered a handshake as well but his was far more gentle.

While Piers found Emilie's question to be a little blunt, he understood the necessity for it and eagerly awaited an answer. Working together as a team meant knowing what others were capable of and that knowledge was especially useful to Piers when he wanted to bolster their abilities.

"Emerald Ubiquitous." Emerald said extending his hand. What about us? Don't we get introduced? Are you crazy? That's information they could use against us! Aren't we suppose to be working with them? They could betray us at any moment! I highly doubt that. I say it again, you're being naive! You need to learn to trust people.

Emerald listens to Emilie's question and answers, "I fight Grimm, preferably with a weapon, the rest you can find out later. The more important thing right now is getting out of here." With that Emerald looks around for a path to choose. Oooooh! Slam! Serves her right for not telling us her fighting style first. There are more important things than getting to know each other. Like finding out if they have food. Like finding out if they— will you shut up, Lapis!

Emilie looked disgusted at Emerald. She'd only be thinking of these dolts safety when she asked the question.

"Well excuse me for trying to make sure I wouldn't hack off your limbs. I'll just assume you're melee because of that toothpick you call a sword. Try not to get in the way if something big comes along." She said angrily. Her eyes dared Emerald to challenge her. With Emilie's rage increasing, it would only take a little provocation to trigger an explosive reaction from Emilie. She still didn't trust this man yet, and she hadn't had a chance to use even half her power since coming to Beacon. Petersen was just itching to take a swing at Emeralds head.

What's her problem? I just meant we needed to get out of here. She's scaring me. She obviously considered what you said as an insult. And it's glorious! But I didn't mean it like that. Doesn't matter, let me fight her! I'll put her in her place!

Actually, I think I should take this one. You sure Lapis? Are you going to talk about sleep and food? No. But I'll keep that in mind. I'm just gonna say what you would say but in a way that shouldn't be insulting or backing down. I hope you know what you're doing.

Emerald's iris' turn a bit more blue when Lapis takes control. "I apologize if what I said insulted you. I didn't intend for that to be the outcome. I just think we can learn better from experience rather than describing, besides we need to get out of here as soon as possible. If we stand here talking we might lure a lot more Grimm to our location." Done talking Lapis relieves control back to Emerald, with his eyes changing back to normal.

That good? Yeah, why are you being helpful? You said we can sleep once this is done. Well, at least you're not acting out of the ordinary.

Piers's eyes widened slightly in immediate concern when Emilie took the tone she did with Emerald. It wasn't difficult for Piers to figure out in their short time together that the fuse on Emilie's temper was short and not something that should be messed with. It would do exactly no one here any good for a fight to break out between them before they even saw their first Grimm together.

"Emerald has a good point in that we should keep moving." Piers interrupted the stare down by placing himself between the two, speaking with the best disarming tone he could muster. "Every minute we spend here is another minute we put between us and becoming full time Beacon students. Students that will have more opportunities to slay Grimm then we could ever ask for."

"If you don't mind the suggestion, I think Emilie should take the lead. Having seen what she can do I can attest to the fact that she's the kind of fighter that benefits most from being up front and close with the enemy. I fight more defensively with my weapon so I'll take up the rear. How would you feel about backing up Emilie Rainer, and would you mind helping me back here Emerald?"

((OOC: This happens after the hand shakes))

"Nice to meet you two." Rainer says blandly, unfazed by Emilie's strong grip. She must be nervous, but she is still pretty strong. He glances at Emilie's rifle. A claymore it complements her strength. He looks at Piers. Looks like a friendly guy. A quarter staff huh... "Ugh... I want this to end already. I need to read the latest volume of Super Giant X." He sighs.

((OOC: Before Emerald's apology))

"Now now guys lets get along here. We're going to have to work together." He says with no enthusiasm. "A girl shouldn't get too mad you'll get wrinkles." He scratches his head and observes their surroundings. Guess we have to go down.

((OOC: In response to Piers))

He looks at the Piers. "Sure why not. I don't see a problem with that." He looks at Emilie. "I got your back." He gives a thumbs up.

(OOC: Fang, my weapon is currently in sword form. Look at my first post. Not a huge problem, but you mention that it's a rifle in your post.)
Though still angry, Emerald's apology cooled her head a little. Both of their points, for planning and for action, made sense. It was strange though, it appeared as if Emerald's eyes had changed when speaking. Probably just her imagination. She luckily didn't hear Rainer's comment, the end result wouldn't have been pretty, but Piers's suggestion for the order was to her liking. Though she wasn't particularly observant, at the front she wouldn't have to worry about her teammates. She really was liking Piers, he was easy to get along with and was really a strong complement to both her fighting style and personality flaws.

"Ok then." She huffed. "Which way do you think we should go?" She asked the group.

((OOC: Changed it))

"Looks like the only way left is down." Rainer points at the tunnel leading down. "We could rest for a bit, or we can continue on." He lets out a yawn. "I'm fine with either one for now. Super Giant X can wait. We don't know what's going to be down there. Unless you guys are up to the task." He says genuinely worried for the others, but also because he's hungry. He hasn't had anything since the start of the initation, except strawberry milk. "Just wondering do any of you have anything to eat? I'll trade you some strawberry milk for it."

"Nah, didn't pack anything." Emilie said. She shifted Splendor on her shoulder again. "Ok then, let's go." She said, taking the point. She began walking down, deeper into the cave.

Topaz, Lapis, you guys ready in case I need to use Fragmentation? Yep. Yeah, my nap charged me back up. Good, we don't need to rest. Emerald thought and said, "Okay, I'll stick to the back." He followed Emilie down the path.

"Excellent, lets keep moving then." Piers happily chimed in as he followed everyone else down the cave, every now and then looking over his shoulder to make sure that nothing was going to sneak up on them. He remembered that their frantic fight with the bat Grimm left one alive when it retreated. The memory made his arms burn slightly.

"Uh...by the way, I don't know if you've seen them yet but if we find any bat like Grimm be careful about attacking them. They're full of acid."

Emilie rolled her eyes, unlike herself the two had probably read the scroll. Speaking of which, a ding came from hers, she pulled it out and illuminated it with her semblance as they walked.

"Hmm, so there's a new grimm in the water." She said "It's kinda like an eel and is pretty poisonous." She said. Luckily, the water up ahead seemed to be decreasing. "Let's hurry it up a bit," she continued. "If the water keeps lowering we won't have to worry about meeting it." She said, picking up her pace a bit.

Rainer gently clapped his hands when Emilie used her semblence. "Wow, that's pretty cool." He said impressed, but can be easily misinterpreted. As Emilie talked about the new grimm, Rainer takes his scroll out. He reads the new message about the Toxicanths. "Looks like the only danger is the spikes of the Toxicanths. Creating a new type of grimm that's just crazy." He puts his scroll away and matches Emilie's pace. He decides to give everyone some of the strawberry milk he had stashed. "Do any of you want some?" Holding up two small milk cartons to Emerald, and Piers in the back. In his other hand he held up a small carton of milk in Emilie's field of vision.

((Time-skipping a bit.))

The squad of students continue on their trek through their tunnels after brief introductions and snacking. Over time, the terrain seems to be evening out, and the cavern getting wider. Indeed, after around thirty minutes of travel, it seems to be pretty normal cavernous terrain. Perhaps an hour after joining up as a team, the four students come to a giant doorway in the cavern, with the doors already open.

On the other side of the doors is a massive cavern, spanning at least three-hundred feet in diameter, and probably even taller than that at the center. There seems to be three more sets of doors, placed equidistant to each-other, around the cavern. There is one straight ahead, one to your right, and one to the left. All three of these other sets seem closed, however.

Suddenly, an ear-shattering screech can be heard echoing throughout the cavern. It is quickly joined by what sounds like three more, and anyone with sensitive hearing would quickly be incapacitated. It may be wise for the students to try to find a way to at least dull the sound.

As they walk in Emerald comments, "Are we still under the lake?" Before anyone could answer him, the screech goes through the cavern.

Gah! That hurts! I'm scared! Why couldn't it have been food! Not only does Emerald's head hurt from the screech, he gets a mind full of shouting voices. Shut up! I can't think! All three of them stopped shouting at once. Emerald covered his ears when the screech started, but it hadn't subdued the sound much. Without looking up he asks shouting, "Anyone know how to stop that!?"

"Thanks but I'm good." Piers politely declined the offer of milk with a wave of his hand as the group kept walking. He didn't bother checking his scroll when it beeped, the others did a well enough job of explaining what it would say. Poisonous eels...the thought of such made him glad the water level was lowering for them. Briefly Piers wondered if his semblance could be used to cure poison, it wasn't something he's had the chance to practice trying before. Hopefully he wouldn't have to in the near future.

Upon seeing the large open doors Piers was about to wonder out loud if some other students had beat them here, but seeing the three closed doors lead him to believe otherwise. Had he the time Piers would have liked to of examine the doors for clues on where to go next, these being the first man made structures he had seen in the caves. But any thoughts about that were immediately silenced by the wave of intolerable shrieking that filled his ears. Instantly his hands went up in an attempt to cover them but Piers knew it made him vulnerable to do so. Something else was obviously in the cave and he was going to need his hands for his weapons.

Bracing himself for the sharp sound, Piers quickly lowered his hands and began undoing the bandages around his burns. With a simple tear he was left with one long strap and two smaller wadded up ones which he used to fashion himself a headband with earmuffs. It was far from perfect or ideal but it at least allowed Piers to tolerate the cacophony.

"Let's pick a door and deal with whatever we find behind it!" Piers shouted as he pointed toward the middle door with his staff. "Either we find something behind it to kill or we can get out of here and away from the noise! I'll open the door, someone with a gun take aim and get ready to shoot the hell out of whatever we find." Not wanting to waste anymore time Piers ran up to the door and got ready to open it as soon as someone took up an offensive position.

Emilie rejected the offer for milk, she hated the stuff. They continued walking for a while before they came into a huge cavern. The shrieks shattered her ears. She'd already gone partially deaf from years of fighting, but it did nothing to dampen the sound. As she went to cover her ears, she heard Piers's instructions. A good plan overall, but Emilie had no plans to use a gun, or to wait for someone else to open the door. Charging over to the door, she grasped the handle with one arm and pulled with about 70% strength. At this level, the door could weigh almost a ton and she'd be able to open it. Her other hand grasped Splendor tightly. If necessary she was ready to slaughter anything that came out of that door.

Rainer covered his ears from the ear shattering shriek. "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?" He saw Piers and Emilie run for the middle door. Piers was saying something but he couldn't He gave Emerald a tap on the shoulder and pointed toward Piers and Emilie. "LETS FOLLOW THEM AND THINK OF A PLAN AFTER WE REGROUP!" He runs to the middle door. As he runs towards the door he looks around to find anything suspicious.