[hider=Pop Quiz]“Pssst.” Silence, save for the periodic hissing, ruled over the dorms of Team BASL. “Pssssst.” After a long day of grueling classes, teenage drama, and more accumulated bruises from hard-fought matches in Goodwitch’s combat class, it was nice to come back and slip into the familiar sensory deprivation that sleep provided, to allow for a chance for some nice, quiet— “Pssssssssssssst.” “Whaaaaat, Lauren?” Benjamin Lloyd finally asked, sitting up to glower sleepily at his teammate in the bed across from him. “What is it? Is something wrong?” … “Is anyone awake?” “Course we’re awake, Lauren,” Amy Desire mumbled sleepily, sitting up in bed. As always, crimson spikes of hair were unkempt over her vibrant eyes, and they were almost long enough to cover the dark circles that had blossomed under her eyes in recent days. “You’ve been at it for twenty minutes.” “I had a thought!” Lauren Negasi hissed excitedly. Ben groaned. “…” Sangue Naga said thoughtfully. “Is that…good?” “I think so! So…you guys all failed the entrance exam, right?” “Gee, thanks,” the team captain of Beacon Academy’s first crew of abject failures muttered under his breath.” “Yeah,” Amy said, “there were Grimm in Forever Fall that we, well...we weren't ready to deal with. Not just Boarbatusk and Ursa, but...well, anyway. We didn't make it. We were only allowed into Beacon on a technicality and some dumb luck. Weren’t you?” “…Well…kinda,” Lauren admitted sheepishly, “but the point is, none of us passed the entrance exam! There are probably kids here who are gonna think that we’re not real Huntresses in training—“ “—I’m a guy, you know—“ “—Huntresses in training until we do it. So…I say we do it!” Silence ruled over Team BASL. “…Wouldn’t Ozpin just…laugh at us?” Sangue asked quizzically. “Not if we snuck out to Forever Fall tonight! Listen, we’ll make our way out to where they stored the relics, fight as a team, and by tomorrow we’ll all come back as full-fledged Beacon students – to ourselves, even if nobody else ever hears about it. Come oooon, guys, it’ll be great!” “Don’t you ever sleep?” Amaranth asked, though under the bleary, husky tones of her voice there ran an undercurrent of thoughtful interest. “Even though…” “I still don’t know,” Ben grumbled. “Sounds like a lot of work for a slacker.” But he, too, was already standing up in bed and searching around his bed for yesterday’s pair of clothes. Lauren’s gaze turned towards the last holdout. “Sangue?” … … … “…Sure.” “YEEEEEEEHEEHEEHEEEEEEE!” Ben, as was customary of team leader, was at the head of the team’s collective groan. ************** They all met up ninety minutes later, underneath the sporadic light shone on them by a full, if fragmented moon. Sangue and Lauren seemed awake and alert, and the latter was grinning, arms thrown around both her female teammates. Amy’s night vision was compensating for the sleep that still fogged her eyes, as well. But Ben Lloyd was rubbing at his eyes now and again with the back of his hand, and his Aura was still awaiting recharge after his pitched duel with Lauren several days ago. Nothing about this idea felt good the more he thought about it – not the location, not the circumstance, and especially not that the team had seemingly come to a consensus that, as none of the others had gone through initiation with a four man team, they wouldn’t, either. [i]She's insane.[/i] Luckily, it seemed like his other teammates were having similar thoughts now that they'd arrived. “Who here has the best Ozpin impersonation?” Lauren asked. “Probably Ben. Though I think Ozpin’s a little too lively for him at the moment,” Amy deadpanned. “I hate both of you. Blah blah blah, landing strategy. Blah blah blah, next four years. Blah blah blah. Start your engines.” He made a half-hearted gun out of his thumb and front two fingers, but Lauren made up for the lazy motion with an emphatically yelled “[i]BANG BANG![/i]” and leapt off towards the nearest and thickest tree branch she could find. There was a glint of moonlight against the white leather of her jacket as she landed and ducked into foliage, but the echo of her final war cry echoed with the original three members of Bastille for seconds after she’d gone. Together, they exchanged a knowing look down at the forest of Forever Fall, and then back at each other. Amy sighed and smiled, with an apologetic warble in the back of her throat, before speeding off into a nearby brush and zigzagging away, Unchained Fury nestled proud on her back. Sangue followed next, silently, her clawed arm outstretched to grab a thick tree branch of her own. Ben, exhausted and uncertain, stared up at the sky – with no stars but so many chunks of moon lighting the path to a familiar enclave in the forest – and finally began to trudge down on foot. ************** Lauren Negasi was moving so fast through the forest that once or twice she caught an acrid whiff and was scared she'd set her boots on fire. Aside from the occasional Beowolf or two cutting across her path, and yeah, maybe a Boarbatusk that she'd managed to knock out through an intense game of chicken, this was a snap! Granted, they'd had a few weeks of training under their belts by now, and from what she knew of at least Amy and Sangue it sounded like they had some fighting training to spare, but...really? They hadn't passed this? It was almost literally a walk in the park-- [b][i]INCOMING MESSAGE FROM: AMY DESIRE[/i][/b] [i]Oh, goodie.[/i] "Heyyy, babe!" Lauren cooed teasingly when the line opened. "Promise not to hate me if I beat you there? By my guess I'm--" "[i]LAUREN, HELP![/i]" --[i]uh oh[/i] "Desire? What's the matter?" the dark young woman asked, suddenly feeling her stomach drop out from under her. There were nicks on her face and arms; little cuts from tree branches and minor Grimm skirmishes that she had been able to ignore thanks to her Semblance. But Amaranth Desire was in trouble, and with that being the case, there was nothing positive enough in the world to get her going. "Where are you and th--" "The others," Amy bawled, "I don't know! Ben was with me, but it--it got--he told me he had enough Aura to--" Lauren's eyes were growing wet. [i]No. Please please please no. This was my idea. This was my fault. I told them we weren't real students.[/i] And Amy sounded [i]close.[/i] So close she could almost hear the cries for help. Like they were coming right towards her. "Desire, listen, I'm turning around. Stay on the line, please, I'm--" "NO! NO, LAUREN, [i]RUN![/i]" Desire wailed. Over the line there was a muffled thud, like a Scroll had made contact with something, and this-this-this [i]whistling[/i] sound overhead, and Amy's cries stopped all at once. Lauren, bawling quietly, grabbed her axe and ran for the enclave. A laugh chased her all the while as she skidded to a halt with an angry scream-- --that was promptly drowned out by two familiar guffaws and a quiet, polite chuckle. Amy Desire was on the ground, reclining in that sensual way that Lauren found irresistible. The Apophis Claw had whistled to a stop in a tree trunk beside her head, with Sangue sitting cross-legged in front of the other red-haired BASL member. The team captain was resting atop the tree trunk with his head in his hands, apparently trying to get some sleep. Lauren Negasi, bewildered and frightened beyond all belief, dropped her axe and took a step forward. "A-Amy?" she croaked, blinking tears from her emerald eyes. "[i]Ben?[/i]" "I promise not to hate you," the ex-stripper deadpanned, and suddenly the newest member of BASL felt like the dumbest bitch alive. "Shouldn't have woken us up for something this easy, Lauren," Ben said. "I [i]am[/i] sorry..." Sangue said slowly, sheepishly. "It sounded...kind of funny when Be...I mean...it was suggested." For a moment, Lauren wanted to shout at them until she was hoarse; then she realized what the tears in her eyes and the newly-oscillating feeling in her chest meant, and she walked over to wrap them all in a hug so tight that it caused Amy to make a little whistle in the back of her throat for breath. "I hate you all. I can't believe you'd do that to me." She squeezed tighter and kissed the tops of their heads in turn. "[i]Don't[/i] do that to me again. That was evil." "We won't," Sangue promised. "Or...I won't." "As long as you promise to stop insinuating we're not real Beacon students," Ben joked wryly. "Would make the whole 'team leader' thing pretty inconsequential." Lauren looked at Amy Desire and playfully snarled at her, but in the end she tightened the hug and nodded. "Yeah." "Yeah what?" the ex-dancer asked her, with a nudge of the elbow. "Yeah. We're real Beacon students." ... ... ... "So can we sleep now?" "What, right out here in the forest?"[/hider]