Nora got up from her own mini-crater and walked over to Cole, standing over his head. Lightly rapping him in the forehead, she said "Wake up lazy bum. We have Grimm to kill!"

The group of students walked in a roughly north direction, hoping to make some good time toward the village before needing to stop and rest.

Pyrrha was currently yelling at her partner for his apparent lapse in judgment. "Why did you let Nora pack our bags?! You know she would just put syrup and pancake mix in them!" Pyrrha was mad, but she knew it was an honest mistake. They had each been assigned to assemble necessary provisions for the trip, and Jaune had decided that the person who eats only pancakes was the best choice to pack their bags with food.

"Honestly, it's not that bad. I packed enough food for all of us for a month in my bag. I guess Ozpin saw this coming. I'm now VERY glad I listened to him. Plus, I packed some basic camp cookery, so we may actually be able to make pancakes." Cole shrugged, gesturing to his bag.

"YAY!" Nora bounced around Ren with joy. "I knew I could count on you!" Nora smiled widely at Cole.

"You know, it's really convenient your bag breaks the laws of physics and can hold all this stuff without adding mass to it. Some would say too convenient." Ren grabbed a hold of Nora by the shoulders to stop her bouncing.

"You say convenient, I say scientifically justified." Cole replied, shrugging. "Wait, don't you store Stormflower in your sleeves? How's that work, hmm?" Cole turned to face Ren, who merely shrugged, conceding the conversation. "Oh well." Cole turned around again, continuing to walk north.

Cole pulled out his scroll and projected the map in front of him, hoping to get his bearings. "It looks like there is an old stone tower in the area. If we can find that, we can track where we are going more accurately on the map." Cole closed the scroll, then looked to Pyrrha. "You mind?" Cole asked as he pointed up.

"Not at all." Pyrrha pulled her shield from her back, then positioned herself so that Cole could stand on her shield. They both pumped aura into their legs, giving them extra power, then Pyrrha launched herself upward, Cole doing the same mere seconds after her.

Cole was launched quite high into the air, then channeled some of his aura to his shoulders. His aura manifested and formed dark blue wings, sprouting from his shoulder blades. He glanced around quickly, spotting the tower just as his aura started to sputter from the exertion of keeping him aloft.

Cole allowed himself to fall back down, flaring the aura in his shoulders again just before hitting the ground. He slowed enough to land in a crouch, then straightened up to look at his friends, three of which were marveling at the display he just put on, one was just staring at him quizzically.

"What? The tower looks to be a few kilometers that way." Cole pointed toward where he saw the tower, slightly west of their previous path. "If we move now, we should get there just before nightfall. We can camp there, then move on in the morning." Cole began walking in the direction he had pointed in, snapping JNP out of their daze to follow him.

"You never told me you could FLY!" Pyrrha jogged up next to Cole and slugged him in the shoulder, quite hard.

"I can't." Cole replied, lightly rubbing the assaulted shoulder. "Manifesting those wings draws too much of my aura to maintain them for more than a few seconds. I need to get better control over my aura before I can really fly. Even then, I doubt I could maintain it for more than a few minutes."

"When you do, can you carry me around? It'll be like the name of that awesome song that Ren likes to listen to!" Nora materialized in front of Cole, facing him while walking backwards.

"Flight of the Valkyries." Ren confirmed.

"Right, that one!" Nora was practically jittering with anticipation.

"We can try it. It may be a LONG time before I have enough control to fly, especially if I'm carrying you at the same time." Cole replied, laughing to himself at Nora riding him like a bird.

"So does this make you a flying monkey? You know, like from that one movie with the 'Lions and tigers and bears; Oh my!' I love that movie." Jaune shot a smirk at Cole.

"Don't mention the flying monkeys. Those things are creepy and evil." Pyrrha glared at Jaune.

"He's got a point though, Pyrrha. I'm a monkey that can fly, even if it is for just a few seconds." Cole grinned at her.

"STOP IT!" Pyrrha glared murderously at Cole.

"Okay, okay, fine." Cole raised his hands in defeat as he continued to walk through the forest. He then turned slightly to the side to whisper in Jaune's ear. "Seriously though, who's scared of flying monkeys?"

"Thank you." Pyrrha sighed, relieved her friends decided not to taunt her for her weird fear.

Cole returned his attention to the path ahead of them. With his focus now back to the forest, he heard what sounded like Grimm, fighting quite far from their current position. His tail twitched, and he held up his hand to stop the group.

"What is it?" Jaune said, not understanding why Cole had stopped.

"Hush. I think I hear…" Just as Cole was about to finish the sentence they all hear the loud bang of a high powered gun. "Hunters! This way!" Cole drew his sword and shield and rushed into the tree line in the direction of the gunshot. JNPR followed suit.

As they neared the location of the fight, they heard other sounds of battle, metal scraping on Grimm armor, roars from various Grimm, namely beowolves and ursa. There were also more gunshots; from the sound of them, three different guns had been fired multiple times in the past minute.

Cole and company saw a clearing ahead of them, and charged forward, ready to help in any way they could.

As they breached the tree-line, Cole saw a few things. Many of them were dead Grimm, already smoking and dissolving. The other four things he saw were a few familiar faces.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Ruby piped up, collapsing Crescent Rose and storing it on her back.

Author's Note: So this chapter is pretty short. I decided to cut it where I did for the cliffhanger. I'll finish the chapter after this and put it out pretty quickly, I just need a few hours to figure out what I'm doing.

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