All was going well as Timbre and Sepia made their way deeper into the Emerald Forest. Sepia was leading them towards the temple at a blinding pace, but only a mile into their mad dash she felt a sharp pain in the side of her head. Her eyes widened as she fell face first into the dirt and leaves.

Timbre ran and knelt at her side, placing a hand on her back. "Sepia! Are you okay?"

Sepia turned over and pulled out her scroll. 'I was cut off. I can't get to the temple. I don't remember where it is.' She huffed as she tried to get up, but failed and fell back down.

Timbre caught her and helped her to her feet. "What do you mean 'remember'? What happened? Are you okay?" Timbre helped her over to an outcrop in the hill they were walking down and helped her onto a large boulder. "There. Let's rest a minute…"

Sepia flopped down and took a deep breath. 'It has to do with my Semblance,' she held the sides of her head, 'I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours.' She closed her eyes to rest. Her head felt as though it was caving in on itself.

Timbre nodded. "Right. That makes sense. Okay. I guess if we're going to be on a team together for the next four years and all…"

A half mile away, Arty and Roland were arguing nonstop about which direction to go.

"I'm telling you, we've already been this way!" Arty yelled. He gestured to a large rock. "We've passed that rock that looks like a Boarbatusk in a tutu twice already!"

"This one is not the same! I think I'd know a rock that looked like that! It'd be a freaking miracle! You can't even pull back the reigns on your own imagination!" Roland shouted back while pointing ahead. "If you have a better idea, then get on with it! Take the lead, Burne."

"I've told you twenty times already. Call me Arty. And, in fact…" He looked up through the branches towering above them. "I think I do have a better idea. Stand back." He took off the tube of white paintballs and scooped out two. They fell to the ground, meeting their end in a splat.

"What are you doing?" Roland stopping in his tracks as he watched Arty fiddle with his Dust paint. "Look, your Dust has gotten us in enough trouble already."

"Don't worry. These are Air Dust. They won't cause any huge catastrophe like the forest fire... I'm just gonna go up, get a look around, find out where the temple is, and when I get back down, we head that direction." He held up the vial to show Roland. "Wanna come with?"

"I… I suppose." Roland reluctantly took the paintballs and looked them over for a moment. Sure they were cool, but there was room for improvement in the design, like some divots on the surface to add a little speed. He finished his examination and dropped them on the ground. "How many times have you done this?"

Arty looked down at the ground, making sure he'd land on both paintballs at the same time. "Um… once. But it worked, so... it should be fine."

Roland was taken back, but not entirely surprised. Arty seemed to be some unholy hybrid of organized and spontaneous. "Right…" He took a long, deep breath, reevaluating the decisions that he had made in the past few weeks. There he was, in a forest with some artsy guy that he barely knew and surrounded by monsters. Sure, it was better than the incident that brought him to Beacon, but it was still a pain. "Let's get on with it." He glared at the paint and prepared to jump on it.

Just then, another rustle from behind them. A black boar with molten eyes and gleaming white tusks had emerged from behind its stony tutu-wearing twin. It was charging at them, and was closing in fast.

"Jump!" Arty yelled as he jumped up, stomping on the puddles of paint. When his feet connected, the Dust activated. Arty shot upwards with a strong blast of wind.

"This is crap!" Roland shouted as he leapt on top of the paint. He was sent rocketing up behind Arty, and attempted to angle his feet so that he'd stay balanced. Apparently, the paint had coated the soles of his boots, allowing him to get just enough thrust to stay up.

"I hate Grimm. I hate them with every fiber of my being…" His tail shifted around to maintain his balance.

"That's kinda why we're here." Arty said shakily, trying to remain stable in the air. "Huntsmen defend people. Grimm hurt people. Huntsmen kill Grimm to defend people. Kinda how it works." From fifty feet below him, he could see the angry Boarbatusk eyeing them. "Okay, can you see anything?" Arty looked around for anything resembling a temple.

"That's why it sucks when a Grimm kills a Huntsmen. It screws up the system," Roland scanned the horizon. "There's a clearing a ways off. Towards that mountain." He pointed to a few stone columns poking up from the trees. "That's a good mile or two away, though."

"The Air Dust won't last long, but it should at least get us a good way there." Arty said as he leaned forward slowly, allowing the air from his boots to begin pushing him towards the ruins Roland had pointed out.

"Hold up." Roland held up an orb of ink, about the size of a baseball, encased in a thin veil of plastic. "I need to give our new friend a present." He dropped the orb over the Boarbatusk and then began following Arty's lead. With a clench of his fist, the ink condensed and crushed the monster's head with a satisfying series of crunches. "Got the Boarbatusk." His voice was hardly heard over the last screech of the Grimm.

"Nice." Arty nodded. "Maybe they give awards to students who kill the most Grimm during initiation." He said with a long stare. Forcing the sociopath to be my partner may have been a mistake... He picked up the pace as he reassessed his new partner's mental state. As unstable as it seemed to be, it could be useful in a battle, but it was still unnerving.

Roland trailed behind his friend with the hint of a smile. The rush of air was fantastic. Freeing, even. He looked over to his partner as they flew over the treetops. "So what got you banned from Atlas?!" He shouted over the wind. "I've heard that General Léon's a jerk, but I've never heard of her outright banning anybody that's already been through training!"

"Oh… um…" Arty's blonde hair flapped around wildly in the rushing wind. "Is now really the best time to talk about this? Can we at least wait until we're, y'know, on the ground?" He pointed downward with his gun.

"This is as good as a time as ever!" Roland batted back. He jabbed his thumb at his feet. "We've got a bit!"

Arty felt himself dropping slightly. "Maybe not as much as you think! Dust can be pretty unpredictable" He yelled back. He saw the glare Roland was giving him. "Fine… Let's just say my Dust paint hasn't exactly been 100%... helpful."

"I've noticed! That forest fire was really something, huh?" Roland shot back. A trail of paper was waving behind him, all typed out as they flew.

Arty could hear the paper as it flapped rapidly about as their descent began to speed up. "Yeah… the forest fire was definitely not the first time my paint got me in trouble." Arty sighed. "The first time I... blew a hole in the front of Atlas Academy… after accidentally making graffiti with pure Magma Dust..." He finished quickly.

"Ni-i-ice." Roland laughed. He took note of their loss of altitude. The paper folded and condensed into a shield-like shape. "Looks like we're about to land. Be ready!" He held up his shield in preparation to bash away anything that might get in his way, including other students.

Arty didn't have time to question why Roland was so calm after hearing that his new partner was virtually a convicted arsonist. He had to keep his feet steady in his descent. Tubes and paintballs fumbled around in his hands for a moment. He readied his arm to throw a new paintball, one that glowed with a dim purple hue.

Timbre held her hand out in front of Sepia when she heard a loud CRASH from overhead.

"Did you hear that?" She asked, but was soon immediately answered by a flash of purple and white slamming through the trees. It embedded itself about ten feet up the side of the oak ahead. Timbre let out a slight shriek as splinters of wood showered her and her partner. They looked up to see the purple cowboy clinging to the branches of his landing zone.

She jumped again when a quiet splat sounded out higher up the tree. A boy in orange was flying through the canopy above them. The boy that she had befriended the day before shot towards the thick trunk of the same tree. As soon as he would have smashed face-first into the bark, he was stopped in mid-air by some invisible force before being launched away. Unfortunately for Timbre and Sepia, Arty was sent flying into both of them.

Finally coming to a grinding halt, Arty looked up to see the world spinning around him. "I… hate… Gravity… Dust…" He said, trying to shake the dizziness away. After he got over the impact of the crash, he looked to his left and found himself face to face with Timbre Forté.

"Timbre!?" As the dizziness faded, he came to the realization that he was dog-piled on top of her and the other girl from the day before, the one in brown. He felt his face flush and he immediately shot up to his feet. "I'm so sorry!" He reached his hand down to help her up.

Timbre let him help her up to her feet. "Thanks…" she turned to help Sepia back up, "How many times are people going to fall out of the sky and onto me today? First you, now Arty-"

"Watch out!" Roland shouted from the top of the tree. He finally lost his grip and fell into the crowd of three. When the dust settled, he was laying on top of the other three groaning students.

"Thanks for the soft landing, guys..." He pried himself off of top of the pile.

"Now the cowboy… great..." Timbre growled quietly as Arty's boot dug into her side.

Sepia, at the bottom of the pile, had her face buried in the dirt. Why? Just why…? Incredibly, she pushed up and made the other students slide off of her back with ease. She wiped the grime off her face and stretched. 'Ask them what they're doing and why they were flying through the sky,' she thought for a second, "again," She signed down to Timbre. 'And get their numbers so I can text them.'

Timbre pushed herself up… again. "Right. Um," she pointed to Sepia as she addressed Arty and Roland, "Since we're all heading to the same place, and seem to have partners, she wants you guys' scroll numbers and… she wants to know what you guys were doing, since we're all still looking for the temple. She also wants your contacts."

Roland passed his scroll to Sepia. "Well, Burny-Burns here made a forest fire that Rime and the Neanderthal put out. Then we got lost, launched ourselves fifty feet in the air, repeated our whole landing strategy exercise, failed miserably, and landed on you two. The temple is a mile northeast of here, by the way. It's near the mountain."

Sepia returned Roland's scroll, and then proceed to snatch Arty's from the front pocket of his backpack. How she knew where it was, Arty had no idea. She quickly retrieved his information and returned it. She sent a group message to Arty, Roland, and Timbre. 'That makes sense. So we've got Angry Purple and Dumb Orange leading the charge, huh?'

"Hey…" Arty retorted. "It was my idea that led us to finding the darn thing…"

"Play nice, Sepia," Timbre rolled her eyes. She turned to the two guys, eying Roland apprehensively. "She'll get used to you. So," she held her arm out to the path ahead, "lead the way guys."

As the four students walked down the dirt path, Arty chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Timbre asked quizzically.

"After everything Roland and I have been through already, wouldn't it be hilarious if we were the first ones there?"

Roland glared. "I wouldn't be surprised if everyone else in our orientation is already done."

Timbre returned the laugh. "Yeah, Sepia and I have been through a ton as well. Ursa, getting hopelessly lost, watched somebody kill a King Taijitu with a playing card, helping another student find a partner," she looked to Sepia and smiled, "y'know, typical stuff."

Sepia reached back into the feathered bustle on her lower back and produced four smashed chocolate bars. She passed them out with a wide smile. 'You need energy to slaughter the nightmares of mankind!' She texted the group and unwrapped her chocolate bar to take a massive chunk out of the top.

"Um… thanks…" Roland looked over the chocolate bar for a moment. It seemed okay, if only a little melted. He unwrapped it and took a bite. "So what's the deal? Are you just really quiet, or…?"

'Mute.' Sepia texted with one hand as she chewed noisily on the candy.

"Right, got it." Roland nodded and decided to avoid the topic.

Arty found their surroundings unusually quiet. "So… things seem… uneventful for once."

Timbre broke off a large square of chocolate, "Yeah, odd, but preferable to the alternative," she said with her mouth full.

'Eh, I like killing things.' Sepia texted.

Roland was starting to like this girl, "Agreed," he gestured back to Arty, "He's scared of me, though."

'What a coincidence! Timbre thinks I'm scary, too!' Sepia grinned at her idol.

"Oh no..." Arty muttered, "I think they're getting along," he whispered to Timbre.

Timbre rolled her eyes in response. "No kidding. So, how far away did you guys say it was to the temple?"

"A mile." Roland looked over a note that he made during their flight. "It'll be a steep climb, though."

"Perfect…" She rubbed her temples as she tried to figure out how she'd survive the next ten minutes with the insufferable purple cowboy. Her only hope was that the results of the initiation wouldn't lead to them sharing a dorm room.

Sepia peered up the path. She shut her eyes tightly for a moment and reopened them. 'I don't think there are many Grimm for a while. We should be relatively safe until we get there.' She texted the group.

"How do you…" Roland caught himself. "Nevermind," after the strange supply of chocolate that she appeared to have on her, he wasn't going to question the girl. "So we just return to the cliffs after visiting the temple, right? Kill anything else that gets in our way and we're done?" He unconsciously went back to typing as he spoke. And I don't have to talk to you people any longer? He thought, but decided it best to leave that part out.

Arty folded his arms behind his head after cramming his empty wrapper into his pocket. "Yeah, I guess so." He looked over to the two girls. Even though he knew where the conversation would go, he wanted to be polite, "So, what're you guys' stories?" he looked to the singer, "You probably don't get asked that that much."

"You bet I don't," she rubbed her arms and looked off into the trees off their path

I've got this! Sepia mouthed. She latched onto Roland's weapon and began typing. That way they would have a physical note of it instead of a text. 'I'm from Vacuo! I directed a few indie films and acted a lot. I went to combat school, but left to pursue film. Had an accident on set, lost my voice, and now I'm here. I've taken a liking to this again, though. I remember why I wanted to do it in the first place!' she recounted the story she had given Timbre earlier.

Arty could only stare at the petite girl for a second before nodding slowly. "Right…" He noticed that Sepia was looking back at him expectantly, pointing to him and giving an exaggerated shrug as if to ask "what about you?".

He felt Timbre's eyes on him as the shorter girl grinned widely. He sighed and pointed to himself, "I… kinda blew a hole in a school..."

Timbre and Sepia looked at him. Timbre with shock, Sepia with joy.

"You blew up a school?!" Timbre yelled accusingly.

"No no no! I blew a hole in the school… completely different…" Yep, she thinks I'm a lunatic, he thought to himself.

Timbre tapped her lips, "Right… so the forest fire was just… a continuation of that?" Just get me to that temple so I can be done with this and get away from the pyromaniac and the psychopath.

'So what about you, Kangaroo?' Sepia texted and looked up to Roland.

Roland grunted in annoyance, "Otter." He was hoping that he'd just get skipped over, but apparently he wasn't so lucky. "I had it rough back in Mistral. I needed to get away from my home for a while, and that's when I was forced to come here with this jerk of a Huntsman by request of Onyx Alabaster. He invited me here, but it feels like more of an order than an invitation in the end."

The group suddenly became silent. Depending on whatever made his life 'rough' back home, he may have had a reason to be a jerk in the first place. He certainly didn't seem to be the type to be open about… well, anything. 'Having it rough' could have meant any number of things.

Arty broke the stillness. He jogged up ahead, "Well, whaddya say we go get this over with? I don't want to be out here all day!"

"Alright then." Timbre pat Sepia on the shoulder and winked. She flicked her wrist, exposing her red and black glove. The other girl smiled back.

Before Arty could figure out what was going on, Timbre launched into the air over his head, her combat boot almost bashing him in the skull as Sepia dashed between him and Roland, forcing them to jump backwards.

"Race ya!" The girl in green shouted happily as she backflipped and swung through the trees.

The two guys stood there watching as the girls sped away from them. They slowly turned to look at each other. Arty slowly raised Palette, aiming it down the path. The other pair in his sights.

"What're you?"

Arty lined up the shot, "Just watch."

Two purple paintballs launched from the barrel. Paint splattered on Sepia and Timbre's backs. Both of the girls slowly came to a stop and then launched backwards. When the girls came to a stop, Arty and Roland had already taken the lead.

Arty cheered and pumped as he looked back at them. "I think we just took the lead! Maybe I don't hate Gravity Dust!"

Timbre groaned. "That was a cheap trick, Painter Boy!"

"So is this!" Roland smashed a ball of ink against the paper coming off of his weapon. He whipped it forward, and the ink at the end formed a spike that dug into the ground a few yards ahead. "See ya!" He latched onto Arty's backpack strap and sent them rocketing forward, and then let go once they passed the ink spike. The added momentum served to give them an even farther lead.

Sepia took off after them while using a very specific finger to communicate her frustration.

Even though she was annoyed by the Gravity Dust trick, Timbre beamed with joy as she swung through the trees to catch up with Roland and Arty. When she finally caught up to them, she swung low against the ground. Her feet could barely keep up with Arty's blinding pace. Of course, she still had a few tricks up her sleeves. "Something tells me that you're gonna lose."

His boots clapped hard against the ground as he ran, the vials in his backpack clanking loudly. "Yeah… I don't think so." He threw a white ball at the ground. A blast of air launched him in an arc, far ahead of the rest of them.

Well aren't you just a Dust demon? Timbre mused to herself as she rolled her eyes. "Just try not to blow us up! You hear me?!"

"We're… supposed to be partners…" Roland grumbled as he watched Arty run. Oh, you've done it now… His mind was preoccupied with typing out his trump card, so he hadn't even noticed Sepia sprinting up behind him.

Her eyes narrowed on Roland's paint splattered hat. That'll do. She ran up and snatched it off his head. As soon as he whipped around to face her with fire in his eyes, she chucked it over to Timbre. 'Sorry!' She signed.

Timbre barely had time to ask why there was a cowboy hat over her face before Roland tackled her mid-swing in an attempt to retrieve his precious hat.

Sepia gave a silent laugh while running after her next target, Arty.

Arty turned back to find the shorter girl running up to him. He found that he had completely underestimated how fast Sepia could move in her long skirt. In a vain attempt to escape her wrath, he tried to pick up his pace.

Sepia just waved at Arty as she kept up with him. Yeah, you should be afraid. She thought while peering into his eyes. She drew her guns, and the reels on her guns spun in opposite directions to release trails of film and bullets. The grips of the guns became flush with the barrels, and the reels positioned themselves over each other at the base of the rod as a single circular crossguard. The dual layer of film and bullets trailed up the rod and formed dual whips. The smile on her face would've looked innocent if she wasn't full-on sprinting with a weapon in each hand.

With a flick of the wrist, the film whips wrapped around Arty's ankles. With a quick mid-run twirl, Sepia yanked his feet out from under him. He landed face first in the dirt.

Upon tearing himself up from the ground, he looked back to see Timbre running up from behind and Roland down the trail. He was wrapped up in Timbre's wires.

"Woah… looks like I'm surrounded by dirty tricks." Timbre caught up to her teammate, taking the lead as they came to a clearing. The clearing however, was not clear. Her eyes widened as she tried to stop. The momentum wouldn't let her and she crashed into the group of people in front of her.

Sepia instinctively kicked herself off the ground to avoid whomever it was that Timbre crashed into, but this just sent her flying into the walking brick wall named Everest. Great… The impact didn't seem to phase him, but it certainly sent her tumbling to the ground.

Timbre sprawled out on the ground, her head spinning.

"Oi! Watch where ya goi… oh! Timbre Forté!"

"Oh no…"

Alice helped Timbre get up and off of the ground. "It's so nice to run into you again… well… not literally… but… you know."

"Hi, Alice." Timbre put on a forced smile.

"Thanks for leaving us tied up in the Grimm-infested woods you two." Arty called out as he came into the clearing, dropping the film bindings Sepia left on his ankles. He noticed the red headed girl, the messy boy in the green beanie, and the colossal caveman standing in the large stone structure. "Hey there. I'm Arty. So it looks like we weren't the first to get here then, eh Roland?" He looked back to his partner, who was hugging his hat closely as if to protect it from further harm.

"Well, at least we're not the only ones still out here, but we're still pretty late by the looks of it." Instead of the group of people, Roland kept his eyes trained on his precious hat. "It's okay… I'll keep you safe." He whispered quietly before plopping it back onto his head. His eyes followed Rime as she walked up behind the caveman with a translucent sapphire ball in hand. "Rime, Everest, what's up?"

"Oh, hey Timbre!" She paused. "Roland…" She held the orb to her friend. "Here big guy. I'll let you hold onto this."

"RIME GET ART-I-FACT FOR RIME AND EV-ER-EST." Everest boomed. He palmed the orb with one hand and examined it as a chimp would a leaf. "PRETTY. COLOR."

Arty winced as he imagined the crater Everest must've left when he was launched into the forest. Those spring plates must be a lot stronger than they look. He just hoped that another student wasn't unlucky enough to be in the way when he landed.

"Right…" Roland glanced at the guy in the green beanie for a moment. Something about him seemed off, but he couldn't place it. "Your name is Turf, right?" He then pointed to the redhead. "And you're Alice…"

Alice eyed the Faunus suspiciously. "Right. Movin' on." She walked up to the pedestals in the temple. She looked over the various multicolored artifacts for a while. "Now which one?..."

Arty tilted his head to the side. "Has she been like that the entire time you've known her?" He asked Turf.

"Oh, you mean bipolar, don't you?" Turf asked quickly while glancing over to his partner. "Yeah, she certainly has been in the hour or so we've been stuck out here together. What about him? Has he given you trouble?" He gestured to Roland.

Arty thought it over for a second. "I'd say yes, but I honestly believe I've been the bigger issue."

"Got that right…" Roland grumbled and walked over to the pedestals. "Let's just pick one already."

Arty bowed and held his arms out towards the pedestals. "Ladies first."

Timbre laughed. "Thank you. You're such a gentleman." She said, trying to copy Alice's manner of speaking. She didn't notice.

Timbre walked up to the pedestals and picked up a bright emerald orb. She smiled as she looked at the shimmering light bounce off of it. She heard Arty's boots hit the rugged rock floor behind her as he stepped up to the next pedestal, also containing a green orb.

He picked it up. "Look! Twinsies." He laughed as he held it up for her to see before shoving it into his backpack. "Okay, Roland! Got our orb thingy!"

This guy blew up a school? She watched as he jogged over to Roland. But he's so… nice.

"Great. To the cliffs, then." Roland looked over to Alice, and noted that she took a ruby colored orb. It seemed as though each one had a counterpart, but the ruby orb sat alone. What could that have meant? This is nothing like the initiation at Haven...

The four pairs of students grouped up and began to discuss just how exactly they would get back. As they tried to figure out which way the cliff was, an argument broke out as there was nowhere near a general agreement on where the school was. Alice, of course, was the most vocal and adamant that she was right.

"I'm tellin' ya, we came from that way!" She shouted, pointing off into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing from the ruins.

"And I'm telling you that we came from that way!" Turf yelled back as he pointed off to the left.

The others watched in a mixture of amusement and annoyance, ready to get on with their day.

Turf and Alice's bickering was suddenly cut short when a deep rumbling shook through the earth beneath them. The ground seemed to shift under some sort of weight. Thundering footsteps came from the direction Alice had pointed.

"Um… guys? Do any of you… know what's up?" Turf looked around. His eyes were open wide in fear as the earth continued to shake.

Rime clinged to Everest's arm for support, "Is it an earthquake?!"

Sepia closed her eyes, and opened them to reveal a look of shock and fear. 'A very big Grimm is coming,' she signed to Timbre. 'A Minotaurus.'

Timbre looked over to Sepia with a shock dancing in her eyes. "Sepia… this is not a time to joke about things like that."

'I'm not.' Sepia signed back.

Arty held onto one of the pillars of the structure as the ground continued to shake. The remaining orbs fell to the cobblestones at their feet and began to roll around. "Guys. I can barely read lips, much less hands, so can one of you please explain what's going on!?"

"Sepia said it's a Minotaurus…" Timbre muttered quietly.

"A Minotaurus!?" Alice yelled. Turf stood next to her, ready to dash into the woods.

"What is a Minotaurus?!" Arty yelled.

The trees nearby began to shake and fall. The 4-story pines at the edge of the clearing suddenly shifted to reveal what appeared to be a large painted skull with a bull's horns. Burning yellow lights in the sockets glared down at them and the white plates on its body were covered in spiky protrusions. The gargantuan bipedal black creature towered above them before releasing a ear-shattering roar that rippled violently through the surrounding trees.

They all looked up to it. Some wanted to scream, some wanted to run, but Roland stood silently next to Arty, Timbre, and Sepia. The shrill ringing of a typewriter's reel resetting itself over and over brought the students back into reality for a moment. On his weapon was a trail of paper with lines from a textbook on Grimm. The chapter that his fingers were reciting from memory detailed just what the Grimm was. "I've read a few books on the topic, but I've never seen one of these up close. Based on what I've read, I'm going to take a guess that that is a Minotaurus…"