Friendwork and Teamship [Private with Forest and Melina]

[Al Ciendra]

Grimm, Grimm, Grimm and more Grimm.
That's and the blazing of her flames was all she could see at the moment, as Al was in the midst of a horde of the beasts.
She was on an exterminate mission, as Beacon had noticed a few too many Grimm getting cozy in the Emerald Forest and instead of dealing with it themselves thought it was a great idea to send a few students to handle the issue instead of letting the professors or hired huntsmen deal with it.
Al was inclined to agree, as she rarely felt so alive when her axe was cleaving through the neck of a Grimm, making its head fly a few feet away as the flailing body collapsed and fell apart into dust.

She ducked under another claw swipe, rearing around and punched the Grimm in it's ugly mug, flame coating her fist which then blew the monster's face into pieces.
Another attack, this one coming in from the side, Al leapt out of the way, yet not in time, it wounds its mark hitting her square in the chest as Al tumbled backwards.
With a flip, she got back up, whirling around as a barrage of fireballs decimated the Grimm that were now rushing her.
She was panting heavily, the piles of dust evident of her work...yet she could hear more coming, maybe she should not have ran ahead?
...who cares, those two nerds were just slowing her down!

With a fierce battle cry, Al flew deeper into the forest, ready to meet the Grimm head on!

[Forrest Waldstein]

The plan was simple: stick together. Except they didn't. Thirty minutes ago when they were discussing the plan, Al must not have been listening or paying attention, and she ran off into the thick of it. Not to mention if she started a forest fire there would be hell to pay. It didn't help that Al was the fastest of the group, leaving Forrest but more so Melina in the dust. Forrest had to stick close to Melina, his Semblance's creations able to exterminate a variety of Grimm along the way. Maintaining his Aura on a small tree or two would be beneficial, as his Semblance's creations could deter Grimm. Besides, Al could handle herself in a fight. Forrest had firsthand experience with that.

Dammit, Al... Why didn't you stay with us?... Forrest mused, rebuking Al for her rashness. He had also agreed to the mission, albeit to protect everyone nearby rather than for the sheer thrill of it all. An adept survivalist, it didn't take long for Forrest to find Al's footprints, or much more obviously, the scars of battle she left behind. The scorched remains of Grimm were hard to miss. Forrest could also hear the sounds of battle a bit further into the forest. No doubt it was their missing teammate.

"Al isn't too far ahead. Let's go." Forrest called out to Melina as he went in the direction Al had gone. He went fast enough to get to Al fairly quickly but slow enough as to not leave Melina behind.

[Melina Caedus]

Why does she have to be so impulsive about this? Melina mused as she let out a dissapointed sigh. There she was, chasing after her fiery wolf friend who was storming into the fray without a care in the world. Al was a good friend to Melina, if not her best even. So upon hearing that Beacon offered local students to take care of the increasingly growing numbers of Grimm in the Emerald Forest themselves, she knew Al was going to jump at that offer, but she seemed to have underestimated her recklessness…
She probably shouldn‘t complain, given that she herself could be as reckless in the right circumstances. With her was Forrest Waldstein, a calm boy with a nack for tactics from what she heard. The ex-military medic engaged her mask, giving chase.

“Right!“ her mechanized voice rasped out of the contraption at a mere supposed whisper and the machinery supporting her legs beneath the armor whirring to life as she ran after.
She wasn‘t as fast, if only because she couldn‘t accelerate as quickly. That did mean she was lacking behind, however that also meant once she got going she could easily keep the pace.

As was when she chased through the thicket and a large Alpha Beowolf jumped out at her. Melina raised her shield charging into it, sending it flying with ease against a tree without slowing her down.
Her shield then shifted as Melina reeled Solemn Vow back so she could crash the blunt upper end into the Grimm‘s Skull, pulverinzing it and leaving a dent in the tree. It was as if her shyness was replaced by absolute focus.
She isn‘t going to let some mere Beowolves halt her advance.

[Al Ciendra]

Al kept charging forward, tearing through more Grimm, as maniacal laughter joined the scorched surroundings and dust piles in the traces she left on her path.

It was finally when she entered a clearing that Al was stopped, a giant foot stomped down in her path, an attack that Al barely dodged as she skidded backwards, getting a good look at what had stepped in her path.
A Geist, a body formed of rock and soil stood before her, easily 30ft tall, the Grimm staring down from above, its true body encased in a makeshift helmet made from a tree stump, the stumps roots were also crawling through its frame, making the golem body extra sturdy.

The other Grimm had retreated, not wanting to get stomped by the stone goliath.
Perfect for Al, she had grown tired of hordes, she drew got into a combat stances her axes glinting in the light of the clearing as she got ready to counter the giant's slow attack and then start smashing its body to bits.
There it was!
One of the arms rose upward to sweep across the forest floor, in an attempt to wipe her off the map.
Al got ready to jump, yet as she looked up...she saw something that made her freeze up, on the shoulders of the Geist's stone body sat a Griffon, Al's breath caught in her throat as a scene from 10 years assaulted her mind, yet, she shook herself free...but a second to late, the rock arm hit her square in the chest and sent her flying backwards.
Al was winded of breath, as she tumbled across the forest floor, only finally catching herself as she managed to dig her feet into the dirt...a crack could be heard, Al looked down at herself....her ankle shouldn't bend like that.

She tried to gather her breath, as both the Geist and Griffon were charging at her, shit...maybe she had to run?
No way, she could take them!
Her flames flared up again in roaring defiance as she stood her, she'd burn these two fuckers to the ground before they could finish her!

[Forrest Waldstein]

There she was, Al was within sight by now, along with a Griffon and a Geist. Things weren't looking too good for Al considering her ankle was twisted in clearly the wrong direction, yet she was still able to stand. She must've been so full of adrenaline that the injury didn't seem painful to her. All Forrest knew was that he had to save Al.

Get away from her you BITCH! Forrest thought venomously at the Griffon as he used Sylvan Anthem, branches exploding around its body, causing it to fall to the ground squirming in a futile attempt to break free. Forrest then turned his attention to the Geist, the body of which seemed too sturdy for his own attacks. Once again, Forrest used Sylvan Anthem, this time to immobilize the Geist. The roots cascaded up its legs and down into the ground, firmly rooting its legs in place.

"I can't hold it for long, take it out Melina!" Forrest ordered, focused on keeping the Geist immobile.

[Melina Caedus]

Melina burst into the clearing shortly after Forrest and quickly saw the precarious situation Al was in and witnessed as Forrest took out the Griffon with impunity. To be fair even the calm and shy Melina, got angry at the sight of her best friend being hurt, her foot bent in an unnatural way.

You dare…!? Melina thought as her gaze was now fixed on the Geist, a troublesome type of Grimm with a fragile base form. However, give it material to posses and they can become quite bulky juggernauts with bodies composed of wood, rock or sometimes even ores and metal.
The former rescue team medic had seen a few of these back in Atlas, one even in form of a Gigas Armor… a dreadful sight.
Raw power was needed here and an enraged Melina wasn‘t going to wait for a command...

Her shield readjusted itsself again as Melina grabbed her baton and extended it into it‘s staff form to connect it with the barrel mounted on her shield. Once locked in place, the shield disconnected from her metal arm, transforming itsself into the head of a mighty poleaxe. Just as she gripped the newly formed weapon with her prosthesis she inserted gravity dust shell from her arm into the haft of her weapon, it‘s head glowing in a forboding violet light.
Melina charged at the giant and with a powerful stomp, raising her weapon above her head catapulted herself into the air at an angle that saw her crashing down at the Geist‘s body.

“Hrrrrgh!“ she grunted with gritted teeth as she came down, swinging her weapon downwards with all the might her mechanically enhanced body could muster. The blade crashed into the wooden stump, that was the golems head, splitting it without issue and going on to cleave the rocky body beneath in twain, almost entirely down the middle. What Melina clearly lacked in speed, she made up for with strength.

Now Geists are tricky creatures, Melina was aware of that. It was likely that this one was going to abandon it‘s body in favor of staying alive. Too bad for it that Melina took this into account when attacking, as the gravity dust in her weapon activated just as the Geist, tried flying off.

“You are NOT getting away!“ Melina declared as her weapon created a powerful gravity well around her that magnified gravity to a point that made both the Geist and it‘s former, now crumbling, body crash into the ground. Melina was also affected, but thanks to her graft and mechanicly enhanced body was easily able to resist the force.
At the same time she extended her left arm towards the Geist, a wall of hardlight appearing beneath it that it crashed head first into, splitting it‘s mask in two and killing it. The gravity well expires the same moment she lifts her weapon off the ground.

[Al Ciendra]

Al was a bit dazed, from getting flung around by a fist three times her size, but her aura had not cracked yet, the endurance training she was doing with her semblance must have been paying off, she was still in this fight but...did she need to be?
The small fry had retreated, for now, she could hear their footsteps just around the clearing as they were looking for an opportunity to attack the now three huntsmen, but something was deterring them, Al didn't really know what, maybe it was the gorgeous sight of Melina destroying the Geist's body with a single strike, rending its rock apart and then trapping its actual body in a gravity well to crush it as well that made them shy away.
Al herself was stunned for just a second, she would definitely hype Melina up for that one, tell her how cool she was, the shy medic would probably only reluctantly accept her compliments, but Al would give them anyway, Melina deserved them after all.
Yet, then her gaze shifted to the Griffon and her blood ran hot, her eyes saw only rage as Forest was restraining the Grimm, it was of course a good move on his part, but Al just did not want to have another thing taken from her by this guy, those damn vines took her win the tournament, and now they would take her shot at sweet sweet revenge, revenge she waited for so many years.
Al stood, as stable as she could as her flames flared up again, this time a demonic blue hue engulfed the clearing as Al was completely covered in flames.
"HE'S MINE!"
Al roared over her flames as an explosion then ripped into the dirt, Al flung herself forward, in a flash of blue light she shot through the crumbling remains of the Geist, melting any rubble that could have hit her as she crashed into the falling Griffon, she grabbed it by its throat as she flew forward and then caused another explosion, sending herself and the Grimm crashing into the Ground.
Sylvan Anthems vines had burnt away long by now as Al sat on the Griffons chest, she had it pinned as the Grimm lashed at her, she caught its wrist, gripping them tightly as she burnt through them and made claws fall to the ground.
The Grimm roared as it tried to peck at her, flashes of that beak tearing into her face entered her mind, but Al ignored them, headbutting the beak with her mask, Al cackled as her fingers then latched onto the beak's connection to its face.
"Payback time."
With her fingers digging into it's flesh melting it as she went Al reared back, ripping the Griffon's beak from its head, flinging it to the side, as with manic laughter, her flames now fading as the Grimm was left dazed, she kept tearing into the Grimm, the particles, denoting the Grimm's passing, were already coming of its body long before Al stopped tearing apart it's head.
"Haaah...catharsis."
Al said, as she got up, ignoring her twisted ankle as she used her semblance to hover in place, she knew Melina would scold her if she put too much pressure on it.
"Let's deal with the stragglers."
Al said, as the last few Beowulf's approached the clearing again.

[Forrest Waldstein]

Forrest was glad that the three of them seemed to be clearing out the Grimm effectively. That was, until he viewed Al's raw display of power against the Griffon. It was primal, vengeful, and downright barbaric. Forrest could only stand by, stunned at what Al had just done.

"...I'm gonna go deal with the stragglers now..." Forrest spoke after shaking his head, getting a hold of himself. The Beowolves advanced into the clearing where the three of them were. Noting that, Forrest conjured up a root to wrap around one of the Beowolves. Upon being caught in the root, the Beowolf squirmed and thrashed around violently. It wasn't just struggling to break free, it despised and feared the creation that was holding it up off the ground. The other Beowolves noticed the root created by Sylvan Anthem, looking noticeably demoralized by the sight of it. They took several slow steps away from the conjured root out of fear.

"Quick! Get the rest of them!" Forrest called out to his teammates, hoping they could easily dispatch the other Beowolves while their morale was broken.

[Melina Caedus]

Melina turned to Al, only to step to the side as Al shot past her in a display of savage vengeance towards the Griffon. She really must have had a personal vendetta towards those creatures if that was her reaction.
What startled her though was the sudden appearance of those blue flames that bursted forth from the fiery wolf. Melina had never seen them before and the sight did unnerve her somewhat.

Forrest then restrained a Beowolf, which oddly enough caused the morale of the rest of the pack to crumble as they hesitated. A curious reaction, but one Melina decided she would capitalize on as she stormed forward as fast as she could. She was very much worried about Al‘s injury, but given the faunus clever way of circumventing it, Melina had the time to take action against the Grimm first.

“Stay put, Al!“ Melina announced in an unusually commanding tone just as Pridwen‘s blade crashed down at the first Beowolf, beheading it in one clean strike. This roused those around out of their stupor, one lunging at Melina in retaliation. After all, hopelessness easily grows into wild desperation.
In response, the battle medic brought the weapon head closer to her and instead struck the jumping Grimm‘s body with the low end of her weapon, tossing her foe away to the side.
She then reeled it back to cleave another approaching Beowolf in front of her into upper and lower halves.
Pridwen crashed into the ground from such a wild attack, it seemed like she was wide open as the previously knocked away Beowolf had enough time to get up and lunge at Melina once more, ready to sink it‘s teeth into her.

Instead it was met with the white glowing apparition of a shield, knocking it airborne with a fierce shieldbash. Albedo, the shining knight in armor, emerged from Melina‘s body who then proceeded to spear the airborne Grimm and tossing it back to Melina.

“Hrrrgh!“ Melina‘s groan reverberated from her mask as she pulled her weapon off the ground and swung it with all her strength against the helpless creature.
It was as if she was playing a morbid version of baseball. The blunt end crashed into the soot black body, killing it with the impact and launching it‘s desintegrating body to the side. Albedo then hovered back next to Melina with a flap of her wings.

[Al Ciendra]

Al was very, very happy to continue her Grimm slaughter fest when she saw Forest give her a golden opportunity to do so, but, Melina stepped up telling her to stand down, the unusual commanding tone made Al's ears flick for a bit, she got a flashback of her stealing a cookie jar a few years ago and her moms choice of words.
"O-okay."
She said, as she floated back a few steps, instead taking to Forest's side, she hovered for a few seconds longer, as she watched Melina work, it was...actually a very beautiful sight, the sheer power Melina wielded with Pridwens combined form actually made Al's mouth stand agape, she HAD to see Melina fight more often, but, that could wait, as Al landed she could feel the bones in her foot ache badly, she was good at ignoring pain and just fighting through it but this HURT, the control of her flames slipped as Al just landed her butt on the soft grass of the clearing with a gasp of pain.

Guess that her lift-off especially juiced up with her amped flames was a liiiiittlee too violent for her already banged up foot.
So, when she defiantly tried to stand back up and her foot made a noise it definitely shouldn't, Al remained seated, trying to prop up her leg a bit so she'd not lay it down anywhere weird.

[Forrest Waldstein]

The last remaining Beowolf was still held aloft by the root conjured from Sylvan Anthem. Seeing as Melina had taken care of the rest of them, there was no need to keep the root around much longer. Looking over to the Grimm, Forrest outstretched an open hand towards the beast before closing it into a fist. The root clamped down hard on the Beowolf, crushing its body into lifelessness. The billowing smoke from its body made it evident that this Beowolf was no more. With that, the root began flaking off into ashy wisps as it disintegrated. That's when Al fell down into the grass. Noticing her trying to get up, Forrest tried to stop her.

"Al, wait! You'll only make it-" he said before hearing a loud crack from Al's foot as she defiantly stood up despite his warning.

"worse..."

Forrest knelt by Al's side, making sure she didn't make the same mistake again. Noticing Al was trying to prop up her leg, Forrest helped by conjuring a log beneath her leg, allowing the back of her knee to remain supported by the log.

"Melina, I think we need your help!" Forrest called out to her as he took out a small medical guidebook from one of his pockets, frantically flipping to a chapter that dealt with extremity trauma.

[Melina Caedus]

Upon the defeat of the last Grimm Melina disengaged Pridwen‘s Poleaxe form by transforming the head back and reattaching it to her prosthesis. She then put away the pole as well and ran her way back to the others as Forrest called for her.
She stomped across the clearing with Albedo not far behind. Kneeling down near where Al‘s foot she prepared herself to treat it.

“No matter how much this might hurt, I need you to hold still. Okay Al?“ she only commented through her mask, not caring for any protest that Al might muster. She didn‘t want to hear any complaints from her patient, especially since she was technically at fault for this. Even then, when it came to injuries, Melina was usually hyperfocused and difficult to distract.
She lifted the wolf‘s leg up a bit to gently pull off the boot and anything beneath for her so get a good look on the full extend of the injury. It wasn‘t pretty, a foot was definetly not supposed to be in such a position. She hoped it was just a dislocation instead of a fracture, since she couldn‘t heal broken bone on the spot. In any case first things first, realigning the foot.

“Albedo, hold down her leg.“ she commanded and Albedo started hovering next to her, firmly grasping Al‘s leg with a strenght unbecoming of the phantasm. Melina decided to enhance it‘s strength by fueling it with more aura, since she needed Al to be still for this to go smoothly. On the bright side, the soothing cold Albedo‘s touch emitted seemed to dull some of the pain.

“Forrest, after I have corrected Al‘s foot and bandaged it, I need you to create a splint or cast for it. While I seriously hope it isn‘t fractured, we need to make sure that she moves the foot as little as possible from now on until we can get Al back to school for proper treatment.“ she looked at Forrest with a stern gaze for but a moment as she instructed him, quickly directing her attention back to the foot.

She gave Al a quick nod and then did her best to realign the foot. The pain was undoubtably going to be excessive and agonizing. Once back in place a compartment of Solemn Vow opened revealing what was essentially supplies you‘d find in a first aid kit. She wraps a bandage around the foot, giving a nod to Forrest once it was secure.

[Al Ciendra]

Well, all of this was a little embarrassing, she was having her ass saved by two other people after her fuck-up, but, she was to exhausted to really protest, even though she hated having Forest's damn vines be the ones to prop up her leg.
She was tempted to move her leg away, but this was when Melina returned, and she had some very firm instructions, she was very okay with listening to her.

Al, was largely silent for the procedure, between the initial injury and her last blunder Al had enough time to get used to this injury,
so she was silently nodding along as Melina told her to stay still, which she did Al only fidgeted when Albedo touched her, the cold and normally probably soothing touch felt pretty bad to the pyromancer whose body was normally much warmer than a normal person.

She was more busy to think of how she'd explain her running off, but she was having a hard time coming up with a good explanation for her dumb idea, she just really wanted to murder the most Grimm and her impatience got the best of her with her, in comparison to herself, slow teammates.

Then, her foot was realigned, Al gave a small grunt, yet remained mostly silent, as she turned her foot a little, it felt a bit better to move her foot again, she pushed Albedo of her leg, in a gentle yet insistent manner to get the message across that she did not enjoy Albedo's touch.

"Hey, sorry for running off, I just got too into it."
Al sighed as she shifted a little, as much as she could without moving her leg of the log.
"And also sorry for making you worry about me and patch me up again, thanks for that by the way."
Al lifted her mask a little, facing away from Forest who was gathering material for a cast, showing Melina her smiling face, just to let her see she was being sincere and thankful for her help.
She did push her mask back up again just to make sure Forest didn't see anything.

Speaking of Forest, when he put on the cast Al once again held still, without much of a response, only when the wood hardend around her leg did she twitch.
"Are we done now?"
She asked, moving her leg a bit to feel if the cast sat correctly, it did...how was she going to get back to Beacon though?
With a wood cast on her leg there was no way she could fly lest she'd burn the thing and standing let alone walking did not feel great currently.

[Forrest Waldstein]

Forrest quickly skimmed the section on resetting dislocated limbs as Melina made her way over to help Al. Diagrams were especially helpful since reading pages worth of material wouldn't be feasible for Forrest in this moment. He got the gist of it, more or less. By the time he put away the medical guidebook into his pocket, Melina instructed Forrest to make a splint or cast for Al's foot. He nodded to Melina and searched for a relatively thick branch about the size of Al's foot. Considering where they were, it didn't take long to find a suitably sized branch.

Channeling his Semblance into the branch, he was able to snap it off the tree without much effort. Catching the thick branch as it fell, Forrest continued using his Semblance to effectively mold the material into the shape of a splint, sloughing off any unnecessary material as if it was being whittled. It didn't take long for the branch to take the form of a splint. The good thing about it was that it was made of preexisting plant life that Forrest didn't create, so he didn't have to expend his Aura to maintain its form. Noticing the nod from Melina, Forrest made his way over to Al to set her foot into the cast.

"I'll try to make this as painless as possible for you, Al." Forrest said as he put the cast on Al's bandaged foot, manipulating the flexibility of the wooden splint with his Semblance to make it easy to slide on before returning it to its original hardness.