Assignment: Defeat the Targets! (0/2) [Closed]

It seemed like a usual assignment at first...

A good distance away from civilization, a curious, broken stone path would be deceptively hidden beneath the various vegetation that sprouted around the surrounding area. Tall cypress trees would seal away the secret nestled inside as moss and flora hung from the branches as a veil of mystery; the once-built cobblestone was now shattered and cracked, the ground reclaiming it long after it was forgotten by memory. Pillars and rotten wood posts would dot as a remembrance of something once important, the signs long eroded by various weather and insects that crawled inside.

Long ago, this was once a small stop for travelers. After a brief walk around, one would find the crumbled stones of buildings past. Pillars that used to provide a shelter from the elements now reached for the sunlight that barely peeked between the trees. Moss would cover the roads and leftover foundations of the five homes, various walls either partially intact, or littered across the ground. In the center, the five buildings and trails connected to a once elaborate courtyard, it's designs and carvings lost to rain and wind. The fountain that stood in the center was cracked and barren of water, it's marble-carved features long lost to erosion, leaving smooth bumps and crevasses as it's defining features

Due to civilization advancing, and transportation evolving, the grounds had become obsolete and left for nature itself to reclaim. It seemed like the perfect place to strengthen the bond between teammates, as two pairings would receive the following instructions:

Students!

You have been tasked along with a teammate of yours to map out the following destination. There has been no reports of Grimm activity in the specified area, but we expect you to follow protocol and come prepared as you would for a standard mission. The coordinates have been attached to this message. Once there, please remain with your teammate in the area until further instruction is uploaded!

Thank you!

A simple task for the two teams... but could it have a deeper meaning?

****

A long sigh would escape Matt's lips, eyes fixated on his Scroll as he lifted it up above his head with the screen pointed toward him.

Sure enough, no signal...

It seemed rather odd-- once getting within a few meters of the uploaded coordinates, the device simply... lost connection. The flashing (NO MAP -RECONNECTING-) dead center of the screen only served as a taunt to his attempts to get any form of communication back with Beacon as he frowned and pocketed the device.

"Alright... so... we miii~ght be a little lost now..." He'd sheepishly comment, turning to the direction of his partner. As he shifted, the two black, metallic tonfa at his sides would give a light tap together, outfitted appropriately for the assignment as he scanned the forest in an attempt to find a landmark. The sight of trees and more trees wasn't quite helpful, along with the clumps of moss that hung off of branches and crawled up nearly everything it could in the forest. The freshman would rest his hands against his waist, trying to recall what they were taught in a situation like this. He'd remember the coordinates, but that was nearly useless without any form of a map or direction in this area as he dug into the ground with his shoe.

He was more so bracing for whatever his teammate would dish toward him, a little nervous laugh coming from him as he turned to face Natalie with a little grin. "Let's... retrace our steps?" Matt would shrug a bit in his response, giving an awkward 'OK' with his hands toward the female as he shrugged.

As Matthew held his scroll up in the air, practically waving it around as he looked for some kind of signal, Natalie had found a seat on a fairly large rock, knowing that her teammate might be at this for a minute or two. Standing over it, she noticed a bit of moss had grown over the top of it, just like almost everything else in the surrounding area. Not wanting to dampen her leggings or skirt any, she tried her best to clear away a spot large enough for her to sit down.

Gingerly, she lowered herself down onto the cold surface of the rock, happy to at least not feel anything wet seeping through. Soon she felt a small itch on her ankles, quickly slapping at a small bug that had bitten her. "You don't say..." She had a sense of sarcasm in her voice, obviously annoyed at how long they've been wondering around, as her chin landed in her hands, propping herself up on her knees. She quickly slapped at the back of her neck at the feel of yet another bite. "Gah! Stupid bugs are everywhere."

Her hand returned back to its position as her taller teammate looked to be thinking about what they could possible do. Her tail swayed back and forth, her ears twitching a little as the sound of a few birds chirping attracted her attention. 'Guess I can't really be all that mad about the sights at least...' It really was a beautiful sight. Everything was so tranquil, and almost completely absent of any form of intervention from humans or faunus.

"Gah!" except for all the damn bugs...

Her attention was finally brought back to Matthew as he made his suggestion. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to remove any left over bug while she raised to her feet. Her knives, one strapped to her back and another on the outside of her thigh, gave a small jingle with the movement. She sighed before addressing Matthew. "Well, lead the way. Just don't get us even more lost, alright? I'd like to make it back home with most of my blood still in my body."

Arthur had been walking with Tim for a while now, he'd known it would take them quite some time to arrive at their destination due to neither of them being the most mobile of people. "What do you think then? I mean, what are we doing out here?" Arthur kicked a small pebble down the path they were walking. All Arthur knew was that they were meant to go to a specified location and wait until further notice, it sounded like a boring assignment but he was he wasn't the kinda guy not to do what he was told.

"What I dislike the most is that we're told to go to such a difficult place to reach, why is that? I mean, they could have told us literally anywhere else that would have been accessible to public transport but 'noooo'! That was too tricky for them." Arthur was rambling at this point, mostly because he disliked walking and disliked the walk he was having to do. Made only worse by the fact that Tim wasn't the best conversational partner, who often needed help understand, from what Arthur remembers, understanding what he's trying to say.

Natalie's sarcasm hadn't been missed, a sigh escaping him. Of course he could see it coming a mile away, but the Faunus sure loved to rub it in like salt to a wound. Then again, he'd gotten so used to it by now that it was far from anything harsh to him. Just the typical response he was going to get as she tasked him with finding their way around. The sounds of birds chirping would echo about the forest, whatever wind pushing through the trees making a soft whistle in a brief pause as Matt glanced around an their surroundings.

The rocks had indeed looked a bit out of touch where they stopped... Glancing at the one Natalie rested on, he'd look back down the direction of the path they took, taking a few steps past her to get a better sight of the area ahead. The various stumps and rotting wood had lead him to believe that they had found some kind of trail when searching for a signal. The soles of his shoes would crunch against the leaves and rocks beneath his feet, tipped cleats digging and scraping slightly against the random stone broken apart.

Looking down, he'd scrape a bit of the moss, taking the innocent life of a few ants that were trying to cross it as Natalie slapped at something in the background. The various complaints and sudden 'Gah!' noises had almost become background to him as he didn't seem quite phased by her subtle problems with nature-- it was a forest after all, bugs should have been expected.

"You're quite the bug magnet, huh?" He'd comment, getting a little enjoyment out of hearing her whines instead of bickering about how wrong he was about things for once. His green eyes would glance around a bit more ahead of them, the hanging moss not helping his view as he looked over his shoulder and waved Natalie onward.

"We might be getting close to something. Look." Pointing to the scrapped moss, he'd reveal the cracked slab beneath his feet, his arm moving and suggesting that they continue instead of backtracking as he gestured to the other moss-covered splotches on the ground. "They continue along the ground here." Keeping optimistic, and wanting to keep spirits high, he'd smile as he felt the spirit of adventuring grow with their task, "Maybe this will lead us to what we need to find?"

Tim simply stayed silent and let the boy rant, blow off steam, whatever he was doing. He was just happy to be in nature. He loved the forest and everything in it. Well except for the Grimm. He scanned the area as they move. The light bounced of his giant arms, and his steps as monotone as his voice. "Area designated as to risky. Statement: transport in an area would lead to possible injury from steepness." He said as he walked. "If you are irritated by this why not ask leader Leo to take over." Tim felt an odd sensation as he spoke, he soon felt a small grin on his face.

"Gee, thanks Tim. I'll have you know I am leader of this team and who says I even need you here? I could have taken Aoife or Leo, but I thought this was a good enough reason to learn more about my newest team member and to see what he can actually do." Arthur stops for a moment and reaches his arm out in front of the giant boy next to him,

"Wait, did you hear that?"

Arthur looks around for a moment, as if he could hear something. He rests his arm from holding it out in front of Tim, then shrugs "I'm just going crazy perhaps. Uhh, just to be on the safe side, do a scan area find things... thing" Arthur didn't know what to call it, he hoped Tim would understand what he was talking about and would act appropriately.

Tim stepped forward. "Scanning for hostiles." He searched the area pointed out and looked around, before putting together an analysis. "Two subjects detected. Both human. One male one female. Proceed with caution." He advised as he slowly but quietly moved forward.

A groan of distaste was all Matthew received from Natalie for his joke. "Hahaha, very funn- Ouch!" She slapped at the back of her neck again. She mumbled under her breath as she scratched at the small bump that had now started to form.

Crossing her arms again, she planted herself back onto her rock, eyeing Matthew as he dug at something on the ground. "Well? Are we gonna get going or what?" Her answer didn't take long as he waved her over. Sighing, she got back up and decided to humor him a bit and see what he had found. "What is it now?" she said apathetically. 'This should be good.' came to mind in a sarcastic voice somewhere in her mind, as she peeked around the taller boy.

Seeing him point to the mossy stones caused another sigh, feeling like she hit the pin on the head about him not finding anything of true interest. "So you found moss.... on some stones..." Natalie had to hold herself back a bit, trying to control any kind of anger. After the recent events she had to deal with involving her losing her cool and her other side coming out. She took in a deep breath, counting to ten in her head before feeling surprising better.

Looking up at Matthew's smile, she couldn't help be feel a little loosened up. Pondering his idea for a second, she remembered that even if it was a dead end, they don't exactly have anywhere else to go. "Well, its not like we have anywhere else to go." with her arms still crossed, she stepped out in front of him, starting down the path.

Arthur entered stealth mode.

Stealth mode wasn't much different from walking like he normally does, he just crouches a little and walks slower. However as he does this, he also draws his sword which he tries to do with as little sound as possible... Which obviously means the scraping of the sword against the scabbard makes as much noise as it has ever done.

As he creeps along side Tim, he asks in a hushed tone "Wait, how can you tell between their genders? Or more importantly, can you tell how close they are to us?" All these questions where important ones Arthur thought and could possibly mean the difference between life or death.

Tim simply looked at Arthur with one finger to his mouth. He continued to watch them for the time being. "It appears we have sighted some unknown targets. What is the protocol for this?" He asked in almost a whisper.

Ice. Cold.

He could feel the temperature drop even lower than what he would call cold, freezing up as Natalie downplayed his sleuthing. His mouth would simply drop as the Faunus casually strolled past him down what he thought was a huge discovery-- the mossy covered stones now looking really unimportant in the grander scheme of things as she pushed passed the hanging moss and cypress leaves. His still form would slump slowly, arm falling weakly to his side as he groaned to himself in torture. Why Natalie, of all people for this assignment...?

His feet would noisily crunch against the leaves and brush covering the path, shuffling to catch back up with the female. Reaching her side, he'd briefly make a 'Hmp.' as he lifted his hands to rest against the top of his head. Closing his eyes as they walked, he simply comment, "Y'know, Bug Buffet, you keep scratching those bug bites, you're gonna agitate them even more. Shouldn't sit on moss covered rocks next time." He'd tease the girl, opening one eye to gauge her frustration level, looking to see how that brow and face morph with anger this time. Matt knew she was a bit hot headed, but being teammates, he felt the need to occasionally press buttons by giving Natalie a silly nickname depending on the setting.

As the two would walk, it would be apparent the destination was close. The remains of a stone building would be seen toward the end of the 'trail' they followed, the ground now littered with cracked stone layed out in a brick-like fashion as vegetation sprouted from various cracks. He'd come to a stop to take in the view as beams of sunlight illuminated some patches of the area, a surprised "Woah..." escaping him as the nature-reclaimed area sat before them.

The area was desolate of any life outside of insects and birds, untouched for sometime as pillars rose and crumbled at the tops. Whatever was left of the five buildings in the old stop had crumbled from weakening foundations of invading vines and weather. The eroded stone would be smoothed from any winds that rushed through the trees, many "features" engraved into the traces of civilization either partially visible or completely lost to the elements. Matt could only stand there, awestruck by what was left behind for them to find as they stood in the opened clearing.

"Uhh, is there generally protocol for this kinda stuff? I thought you were the protocol guy? Arthur edged closer, "Tim, it would seem they have reached some kind of clearing, what's your diagnosis on the situation?" Arthur was finally enjoying his time in the middle of nowhere, he enjoyed trying to be stealthy normally if he were with Aoife, their tactic would be to just rush this people head on, whether it being combat or not. He didn't think it would be, they must also be from Beacon, he finally thought. Why else would two strangers be out in a place like this? It's certainly why him and his team mate where there.

Tim thought to himself as he ran simulations. "Simple. Follow until it deems us necessary to reveal our selves." He said in his robotic voice. He then slowly approached the two while staying in the tree line.

"Okay, gotacha Arthur replies, following behind Tim for a moment before realising,"Hey, uhh, Tim. I'm team leader right? So shouldn't I go in front?" Obviously, this held no real reasoning behind it, but it would make Arthur feel better about himself. Before Tim can respond to Arthur's request, Arth has already wriggled his way in front of the giant, trying to make as little noise as possible. Which in turn meant he made a fair amount of noise.

'Turns out, my stealth mode isn't nearly as good as I first intended it to be. Arthur thought, but it was too late for that now. Arthur then stops in his tracks and turns on the spot to face Tim, "I think we should just go over there and say hello, I mean, what's the worst that could happen? I mean Honestly."

Tim just watched Arthur talk. "Silence is better." He said as quiet as possible. "But you are the Leader." he stood up and was about to call out to them.
[Habb yank him down or cover his mouth...comedy]

Glancing back over her should, but not quite enough to see her sulking teammate. "Well? You're the one that found it, get a move on." She commanded as she pressed on, being careful to push an occasion low hanging moss and branches out of the way.

Pressing on down the path, she found herself subconsciously scratching at a few bites. She mumbled a little curse about bugs, when Matt chimed in on her actions. Turning her head in the opposite direction of him in an attempt to hide her face while pouting, she gave him a small groan of disapproval. "S-so what! At least- At least I didn't get us lost." She was really digging for something but failed to come up with anything in a combination of being flustered and not really having much she could hold over his head.

Continuing down the path, it slowly began to grow wider, coming to an end at what appeared to be their finally destination for this leg of Matt's adventure. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she was a little glad Matt found the way there. "People lived all the way out here?" She began to wonder closer to the remains of what looked to be a small village. "How could anyone manage to live this far out?"

"No idea..." He managed to whisper out, head looking upwards as he walked toward one of the cracked pillars.

The marble had greened significantly as he smoothed his hand over the chalky-feeling stone. The small village had now just been a literal fragment of memory as he returned his gaze toward the direction of the courtyard, spying the four other buildings centered around the fountain in the center. Grass and weeds sprouted from the stones layered across the circular feature, the fountain dry and devoid of any trace of water as dead leaves and dirt filled the aging centerpiece. Breathless in the discovery, he was without words for a moment as he took in the sight with his partner; the teasing and bickering between them forgotten in the moment.

"I wonder what made them leave, or how someone could forget about a place like this." The tall trees would rustle in answer as a wind blew through the grounds, bringing the Human's attention upward in the mystic-feeling atmosphere. He'd continue to slowly walk forward as he approached the vast courtyard. The large sized circle had traces of stone and clay arranged in a long lost pattern due to nature sprouting new life between cracks. His gaze would drift downward to look over the ground he walked on as he neared closer to the fountain.

Leaning down to touch the stone, his Scroll would reactivate with a blip in his pocket, catching his attention immediately as he dug around in his jackets pocket.

His look would shift to an odd glance at the device, sorta taken back by the eerie sight: one bar. The map slowly showed his location, but hadn't drawn the area yet as a spinning circle in the center signified it loading something. "I just got a signal." He'd call over to Natalie, a tone of disbelief in his voice considering how long they wandered without one, turning the device to show her as he'd question. "What about you?"

Natalie came to a stop at the wall of the first building they had run into. Holding her hand up to her, she attempted to brush away from of the moss, only to make no leeway on even scratching the surface. "Beats me..." Moving back for the path, she noticed the window had also been grown over by hanging moss. Reaching a hand out, she suddenly felt uneasy and retracted it back to her. "How long do you think they've been here?"

Returning back to the bath gingerly, she slowly began to walk towards the center of the five houses, her small rounded ears perked up the best they could, heightening her hearing as she felt like something might be off about the place in general (INB4BUILTONINDIANBURIALGROUND) "There's something.... weird about this place... Like someone is watching..." Her attention was snapped back to Matt as his scroll began to beep, causing her to jump a little because of the tense in the air.

"You do? Hold on let me check." She reached a hand into her small sactual, whipping out her own scroll. Sighing, she still couldn't seem to find a signal. She began wondering around, seeing if she could improve her own signal. "Ugh... Nothing for m- wait, I got something!" She walked a few more steps away before her scroll also picked up on a signal. "But... where are we exactly?" Her map was also still attempting to load up.

Natalie's lifted ears and vocalized feelings would only compound the looming feeling of something being off about the area as she wandered a little ways to get a signal. He'd adjust his focus between the Faunus' perked ears and to the loading map before scanning the area in front of him. The old buildings did have a bit of a creepy look to them with how the vegetation over them as if it were a hand slowly enveloping something in it's palm. Although the sight of his partners ears made him a bit uneasy at times, he was at least appreciative of her heightened senses and open communications.

"From the looks of things, this place has been long forgotten... I'd guess at least a century or centuries with all this stone about." The five buildings would have no remnants of a roof or doors, the interiors home to various over sized weeds and fauna as they reached up the interior walls for support. Reaching toward the sky for any trace of sunlight. The thought made his skin crawl a bit at how creepy nature could be in the bigger picture of things when it came to history...

Matt would hesitate as he pipped up, "H-Hey, if you... hear anything suspicious... You'd let me know before running, right?" He'd try to joke, but his concerned tone wouldn't carry the humorous attempt very well as the map slowly began to load on his Scroll. The location still had them pinned at where they entered in the forest, but the title for the area was taking forever to show to them. The light brown area of the territory further served a reminder how far they were from civilization as the signal struggled to download the map.

His green eyes would lift up from his device to keep a cautious eye on their surroundings as he scanned the buildings and surrounding overgrowth. The tense feeling and Natalie's heightened awareness conveyed they were possibly not the only people out here...

Arthur was quick to respond to Tm standing, before Tim could say a word Arthur had already pulled him back down to their crouching position and had a hand covering his mouth. "Hush, I think they know we're out here Arthur was almost silent as he said this, "Okay, I'm serious now, we could just expose ourselves now and get it over with, or..."

Before Arthur could continue his scroll had started faintly bleeping at it too had just reconnected. He fumbled around in his pocket, trying to find the dastardly thing once he did had had turned it off and he'd begun to worry that him and his partner would be found. With this thought Arthur just looks up at Tim and places a finger over his lips, before making a complex display of hand movements. Which in Arthur's mind, made perfect sense, but to anyone else they looked like a mad man having a seizure. With that, Arthur started to walk around, towards the pair in the ruins whilst trying to stay hidden. Not indicate if Tim should follow or not.

Tim simply stayed where he was as he watched the two in front of him. He continued to scan the area as he watched them.

Natalie's grip on her scroll tightened, bringing it closer to her chest as she looked around a little more. She slowly stepped further into the village, thinking about how life in this little village could of been. 'Centuries?' The thought rang in her head. 'What was life like that long ago?' Her questions were interrupted as Matt suddenly pipped up.

Looking back down at her tightly gripped scroll for a second, she sighed seeing that hers was still attempting to load. "Maybe I will, but you know what they say. You don't have to out run the bear, you just have to out run the person next to you." She was just teasing of course, obvious from the smile she had on her face before she knelt down, inspecting something that she had just caught in the corner of her eye.

Before she could investigate any further she heard another beeping noise, just like a scroll, somewhere off in the distance. Darting her head back, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but was still worried. "Matt... That wasn't your scroll, was it?" Her mind was hoping that maybe she was just a little off, with Matt already behind her, put that didn't stop her right hand from finding its grip on Zephyr. "I don't think we're alone out here."

Natalie's sudden shift and stance had begun to make him uneasy-- he wasn't expecting to be startled so soon. Double checking his device, he'd look down at it and give it a little shake, "I don't think it was mine-"

Glancing back upward toward his partner, he'd watch her reaching toward her waiting holster. Her hand had begun to baby the grip of her weapon, Faunus ear's perched up high above as he witnessed a slight twitch from the visible white tips. Her senses were much sharper than his, trusting the others warning without any protest or doubt as he froze in his spot. With her eyes glancing off in the direction behind him now, Matt would slowly move his Scroll closer to his waist, a finger grazing the cold, black metal along his waist as his eyes would cover the area behind Natalie as a precaution.

His voice would come out a lot lower, maintaining a calm composure as he aimed to make no sudden movements. "Behind?"

Matt's free hand would be hidden from anyone looking toward his backside, moving to motion at Natalie. He'd lift two fingers in signal, gesturing toward the female before closing his fingers in a tight fist, holding it up: 'Hold.' His green eyes would continue to scan the surrounding homes and forest in front of him as his posture turned slightly stiff, but non-threatening as he eyed down a group of bushes. Lips thinned, remembering the training they've been in as he payed closer attention to what would be an advantage for the potential invader-- the corners of the nearby ruined buildings, and any brush that had been within reach of the female being looked after first before his gaze would scan farther off.

Arthur could see and hear they had become aware of his and Tim's presence, he became completely still and completely silent a mild state of panic had ensued, he looked over to Tim to see if he'd noticed, he couldn't tell the robotic giant didn't give much away by his appearance.

Now Arthur was faced with a small dilemma. Does he out himself now, which he could see no real reason not to, other than it wouldn't be as fun. Or he risk getting caught and potentially harmed.

He chose option one, but first he through the shrubbery he got Tim's attention and signalled for him to stay put at least for a little bit, with that he stood up sheathing his sword up at the same time. Then started to walk out of his hiding spot with his arms raised. "Okay, okay, okay. He caught me." Arthur had a sly smile on his face as he revealed himself. He stopped walking in the middle of some kind of courtyard in the ruins, very much in the open, but not where he could break line of sight with Tim.

Natalie's eyes were constant flipping between Matt and the area she heard the noise come from. Her mind jumped around just as much to what the source of the sound could be. 'Could it be a grimm?' She quickly dismissed the idea, knowing that no grimm could make a sound like a scroll. That meant it had to be human.

Natalie did as Matt commanded, staying very still, but very ready in case of any kind of real trouble. She nodded her head as he spoke, still dead still as he also scanned the trees.

When the tall blonde guy stood out of the brush, Natalie was startled slightly, pulling her knife part way out of its sheath. Slowly she stood up, knife still partially out. She was worried about the situation in general, namely because she's never dealt with a situation like this before. "And you are?"