Chapter One—Pawns In an Emerald Forest Today was the day she's waited for. Her massive sword blazed through the air like a rocket, trailing fire and smoke as it was propelled by jet engines towards its unfortunate target. The shadowy beowolf didn't stand a chance. Her sword caught the beast under the arm and in a flurry of jets and fire her sword was dragged upwards and beyond, leaving the grim monster in pieces. The young woman holding the massive blade—almost twice as tall as she was, which didn't mean much because she wasn't very tall—smiled darkly at the sight of her handiwork. Placing her blade against her shoulder she breathed in deeply. The smell of battle filled her nostrils; sweat, dirt, mangled fur and the aroma of exaggerated combat tingled her nose like an electric shock. Oh, what a scent! Her ears were blessed to hear an orchestra of metal on beast, the dancing footsteps of battle forming a rythem that incouraged her own feet to dance and her arms to twirl about wielding jetstream—her sword... the big massive jet-powered sword she held against her shoulder—and join them in the frenzy. Even the echoing sounds from a Laughter didn't shatter her euphoric thoughts. The small laughing ape jumped at her from up high in the trees, its red eyes gleaming like glowing red dust and his mask elaborately decorated with eyes and mocking lips. But this Grimm found no such luck with Hope. In a flash her sword was ripping through the air, trailing blue fury. It collided with the laughing Grimm and sent it across the clearing in two distinct pieces. Hope breathed in deeply again, smiling. She was in total control. "What are you doing?!" Demanded a young woman with granite colored flowing long hair and serious dark eyes, "If we don't get those pieces we'll never get to be huntresses! We need to get going, the soon the better if you ask me." "Yeah, well no one asked you, Payne." Hope said under her breath. "What did you say?" "I said that I didn't ask you!" She repeated herself, not afraid to say what was on her mind, "I don't need you to tell me what to do." It was the truth after all. "If either of you ladies wouldn't mind..." Oriol grunted, his armored fists locked with the claws of a mighty dark bear—and Ursa Grimm, "If you two start arguing again it's going to be 'unbearable'." Before Hope could even roll her eyes at that god awful pun something struck the Ursa from behind. The attack came out of nowhere and was so fast it left only an afterimage of a snow white blade slicing the bear's spine. She searched the trees for Essere, but he had already fallen back beyond the trees. It was incredible how quickly and silently he could move. Oriol looked around for Essere. His mouth was gaunt with disappointment, "... I wanted to be the one to do that..." "To bad." A small voice said from behind Hope. It was Essere. Neither she nor Payne even realized he was there until he spoke. "Looks like it's already over." "Yeah." Hope went the center of the clearing to observe the fallen Grimm beasts. There were dozens of Beowolves and Laughters scattered around, all in little bits and bobs but neither Hope nor Oriol nor Payne nor Essere had a scratch on themselves. It was almost too easy. "We'll this is disappointing." "What is?" "This entire quest. When Professor Ozpin said we needed collect a relic I just thought it was going to be much more dangerous here... I thought there were going to be traps and monsters the size of buildings and dust magic and—and—I don't know, just more than this! Even when they launched us from the cliff was simple." "Says you." Oriol objected, "You were able to fly down with that sword. I had to fall. Hard." He rubbed his bruised arm gingerly as he said that last part. "I just thought Beacon was supposed to be different than Signal or Transmit." Everyone was silent, including Essere who's always quite. In the aftermath of the battle the four of them stood tall in the center of the clearing. "Listen." Hope said, her voice demanded to be heard, "I don't know anything about you more than your names and that you can put up a hell of a fight. I've never seen you in my life before now but from the moment our eyes met we became a team. And as a team I can promise you—we're going to be the first to get that relic, and we're going to be the first to get out of this forest. Nothing is going to stand in our way." Payne crossed her arms, "Who elected you to be our leader?" Hope put away her sword, "No one, but if you have a problem with it then do something about it." Payne raised her hands and cocked a smile, "I have no problems, no ma'am." "Good. I'm Hope Hekigan by the way. I look forward to fighting with you—all of you." "I'm Payne Grayson." "Oriol Chava, at your service." "Essere Al Verde." Once the last name was pulled forth a dreadful sound emerged from beyond the trees. The sound of crows and flapping wings. Hundreds of flapping wings. Behind every leaf was a pair of yellow glowing eyes, and below the branches black feathers fluttered down aimlessly from above. Everyone looked to each other, "Well, I guess that's our cue to get the hell out of here!" Pouring from the trees came dozens of ink black Cravens, their caws ringing out at them like fingernails on a chalkboard. A smile dashed across Hope's lips, stretching from ear to ear. Drawing her sword jetstream she pointed it at the flock of inky missiles lobbing themselves towards the four of them. "Looks like we're going to have to fight..."