Team Underground(UNDG): Our Journey Begins(Part 6)

Upsilon’s POV:

            To this day, I don’t know why I wanted to keep hanging out with those three. I barely knew any of them and I was somehow willing to stick with them for the night, even sleep outside with them under the stars. It was actually really relaxing and I was well rested for the next day; when we woke, no one else was awake so we took our time in getting to the locker rooms to get our gear and weaponry. I got dressed into my Huntress uniform at a swift but not rushed pace, and I made sure that my headband was in place so that there was no chance of my ears being seen. My hair hid the fabric of the band and I made sure it looked perfectly natural before heading to the lockers, seeing Noelani putting a little bit of make up on.

“Morning!” She said with a chipper tone as she looked at me in the mirror.

“Hey,” I waved slightly, “How’d you sleep last night?”

“Wonderfully!” She sighed with a dreamy look in her red eyes, quickly they met mine through the reflection. “You know what I think?”

“What do you think?” I responded as I jumped up onto a ledge usually used for girls doing their hair, but since not many people were up yet it was empty.

“I think you could use color,” Noelani turned on her heel to face me, making a gesture to my bangs and the way they fall along the left side of my face, “right around there.”

“My hair?” I chuckled slightly at the look on her face, she was dead serious and also clearly plotting something in that twisted head of hers.

“Yeah…” She grinned mischievously as she waltzed to her makeup bag, revealing an impressive assortment of eye shadows, blushes, eyeliners, mascaras, even some hair dyes of blues but no purples. It surprised me that she had naturally purple hair, but what else surprised me was that she had red dye in the bag with her. I eyed it carefully and then I looked at the ends of her hair that were reddish lavender, one brow rose into my hairline and then I asked.

“So you dye your hair?” I walked over unknowing as to what she was going to do next, I picked up a box of fire red hair dye and then she snatched it from me.

“Yep, only parts of it though.” She picked up the bulk of my hair off my neck, tying it back into a ponytail but leaving my bangs hanging in my face, “For some reason my mother and I were born with purple hair but she also encouraged me to use hair dye if I wanted to since she always had pink and orange mixed with her hair.”

“And may I ask what you're doing with mine?” I smirked a bit as she opened the fire red box, taking out the materials and eyeing up the bottle of red liquid.

“Like I said,” She snickered, “You need color in your hair, and I'm adding it whether you like it or not!”

            I shrugged with a chuckle, shaking my head and then allowing her to do what she wanted with my hair; I knew I had no way to stop her without either hurting her feelings or just delaying the inevitable. I silently observed as she used the dye on the ends of my bangs, making sure it faded properly into my natural brown color; she made me rinse my hair a couple times while she applied three layers of the color to make it perfect. I followed her instructions perfectly until she was drying my hair for the last time—by that point it was close to ten in the morning, and the initiation wasn’t until noon. When she finished, I brushed my hair to fall in the right direction and I ruffled the layers to curl correctly; then I looked at myself in the mirror with a grin.

“Wow, I’m seriously impressed,” I smiled again as I ran my hand through my hair, watching as the red color shifted in my hair and fell into place over and over again. “It looks amazing.”

“Aw!” She grinned as she admired her own work with pride, “You’re welcome! Any time the color starts to fade, just talk to me and I’ll fix it.”

“Will do,” I gave her a lazy salute as I left the bathroom to locate the lockers where The Maelstrom Guider had been stashed away for safe keeping. I strode to the one I stored it in, number 219, which was on the end with no lockers in the way of the door. I entered the combination using my scroll and it flipped wide open, showing the familiar pole I made when I was in the White Fang—where they got the materials to make a weapon like that I never knew—considering its past uses, it was in really good shape.

            I took it out and proceeded to strap it to my hip next to where my ammunition bag was resting on my lower waist, sighing at the familiar weight of it on my body. I looked around without an idea of what I was looking for, seeing a girl with long blonde hair talking to a much shorter girl with black and red hair, a white haired one talking to the girl I recognized as Pyrrha, a blonde guy walking around aimlessly with his face looking like he was lost. Even with my ears pressed down on my head I could hear all of their conversations: the tall one was trying to talk about the short one making new friends, Pyrrha was talking about letting destiny take over in the initiation, the blonde guy attempting to flirt with the one with white hair. I couldn’t help but crack a smile at the sight, wondering how the day would play out and if I was going to end up on a team with the people I was hanging out with before.

“Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation?” Asked a voice over the loud speaker, my ears would have perked up and turned towards the sound but thankfully the headband I wore kept them hidden.

            I closed my locker quickly, striding past the blonde guy who somehow ended up stuck to the wall with a spear holding him in place. I wasn’t going to ask what happened or make myself late for the initiation, so I just left him there until the person claimed their weapon from his hood.

“What happened to him?” Noelani asked as she suddenly appeared next to me, flipping something that resembled a throwing star in her hand.

“I honestly have no clue.” Was my response until my thoughts wondered about her weapon, “Uh, can I ask what that is?” I gestured with my hand to her ivory colored weapon.

“Oh!” She beamed as she held it out to me; we continued to walk as I took it from her and turned it around a couple times. I noticed that there were extensions on the blades, compartments for dust probably, and they had a symbol of a heart split in half by a curved blade with gold on one side and red on the other. “This is one of my weapons; I have a bunch of them. I call them Ivory Chaos.”

“They look really badass,” I smiled as I handed it back to her, “So what do they do?”

“When they hit their target they will explode with whatever dust is used in the cartridge, and also they have another power that I can use when I need it most.” She glanced around as if someone was listening to us and then she said softer, “I can connect them to make a mace.”

“Wait, what?” I asked stunned, unable to see how they would do that, “How is that even possible?”

“You’ll have to wait and see.” She smirked as she took her star back and tucked it into her little thigh holster. I nodded to her statement as we walked along the halls to the large opening where a crowd of students was heading; I figured it was the right direction, and my assumption was proved right when I saw all of the students lined up at a cliff.

            I strode over with a sigh, giving Noelani a hand shake and an honest wish of good luck before standing at a platform. My eyes looked straight forward to see a large valley full of lush trees and a canopy so thick that it was impossible to see the ground beneath those towering branches; I wasn’t worried though about visibility since I had a Faunus’s night vision. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the blonde guy again looking very anxious about being there; to my left I saw that the two guys I'd been hanging out with were already in position and awaiting instructions. Then I saw the two professors from both the ship and the auditorium: Glynda and Ozpin.

“For years you have trained to become warriors.” The Headmaster began, one hand behind his back and the other holding a white mug with the Beacon/Vale emblem on the side. “And today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest.”

“Now,” Glynda spoke up, her arm was around a large scroll, her shoulders back and looking very authoritative with the way she stood, “I’m sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates. Today.”

There were murmurs and whispers of confusion around me, also a couple whines of disappointment and uneasiness with the fact that we could not choose the teams ourselves. I didn’t mind being assigned one since I wasn’t much of a social butterfly like other people.

“These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon.” Ozpin resumed where his companion left off, “So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well.”

More hushed exclamations of concern, and a couple more people were whining around me, I merely rolled my eyes at their reactions to this; it could have been a lot worse.

“That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years.”

Now that was what caused my composure to break, I couldn’t help but wonder why he would say find someone you can work well with if you can't search. I glanced over at one girl who pretty much screamed “WHAT?!” and another who was boasting to their friend about knowing that would happen.

“After you’ve partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest.” The wind started to pick up around us, causing it to mix with the sound of Ozpin’s voice in my ears, “You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die.”

Some of the students near me started looking nervous, shifting where they stood and holding their weapons tightly as if to comfort themselves.

“You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately.” He looked up and down the line of students once before finishing with: “Are there any questions?”

“Yeah, um sir—?” Someone at the front end of the line started to ask.

“Good!” The Headmaster interrupted, blowing off the poor kid, “Now, take your positions.”

            At that point I stopped listening to the guy to brace myself for the launch, lowering my stance and holding my pole in one hand while looking out at the vast forest ahead of me.

Click. Click. Boom! Click. Click. Boom!

            I heard that series of sounds from the farthest end of the line, signaling that they were already being thrown into the air and that I needed to keep myself focused. My eyes dashed down the line, seeing the launches happening much faster than I expected, there were only four people left until I was sent through the air. I saw my blue and purple haired friend cheer with exhilaration as she went flying into the sky; she even did a couple back flips just because the open air permitted her to do so. I shook my head a bit as I did an internal countdown until I was in her position of being sent into the sky. Three, I lowered my stance further so I wasn’t caught off guard. Two, I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart. One, I opened my eyes and leaned back on my own platform to get a strong jumping start. I felt the metal shift slightly, moving back into the ground a bit in order to prepare the large spring to throw a person into the sky and then:

Click. Click. Boom!