[X] It isn't
[X] Have two groups of three constantly searching while two people remain behind with the airship, rotating those two in to replace searchers every hour.
"Are you sure you're not tired?" Blast asked, as he and Yand sat around the airship. "I could get you some coffee if you're still a bit asleep."
"I mean, if you're offering." Yang replied. "Not gonna say no."
"Of course you're not." Blast replied. "Do you like your coffee black, or do you have no taste?"
"None whatsoever." Yang replied.
Blast laughed a little, as he stood up to make the coffee.
"Why were you up so late anyway?" He asked, from across a room. Yang momentarily considered standing up to talk to him, but that meant getting up, and she was comfortable as it was.
"How was I meant to know that the new Rapid and Raging would be so long?" She asked. "Seriously, it was like three hours long and every minute of it was terrible."
"Objection!" Blast called. "Only way you could think that is if you watched it for the plot!"
"The first few had an alright plot." Yang replied. "I mean, it was simple and predictable, up until it got weird with the Grimm-Dragon hybrid being used to power the villain's motorcycle, but at least it was entertaining. Now..."
"The plot's always sucked." Blast replied. "The action scenes are the only things that keep people watching. Like, the trailers, yeah, nobody cares about a protest group falling to extremism and only being stopped by the protagonist racing good. What got people watching was those few seconds of the slow-motion sequence before Speedo used his semblance on the airbike."
"It could have at least used less ridiculous names." Yang Xiao Long said to Blast Yellowstone.
Blast shrugged. "Seemed normal enough to me."
"And I'm pretty sure the political commentary is getting too heavy-handed." Yang continued. "I mean, yeah, it's not a direct connection, but the terrorist leader being a Faunus kinda makes it obvious what they're critiquing."
"I mean, maybe." Blast replied. "But I just turn my brain off for those movies. I haven't seen it yet so I don't know how bad it is, but I can overlook a lo-"
"Evetta dies offscreen."
"Worst movie ever." Blast instantly declared. "Zero out of ten."
Yang laughed. "Too easy."
Blast sighed, as he walked back into the room with two cups of coffee, one mug in either hand. "Well, now I'm not gonna be watching that movie. That's depressing. Let's change topics."
"'Kay." Yang replied. "As fun as it would be to keep spoiling you on movies and see you explode, it'd probably blow up in my face somehow."
Blast chuckled. "Ah, I can't keep a Long face with you punning it up like that."
"At least someone appreciates it." Yang replied. "Winter's pretty cold when it comes to puns, and I don't know enough about Two or Cent to know if they'll be col two. Nor-a those two others."
"Such a shame." Blast replied. "Can you imagine Xiao much better the world would be if we could all unite over puns?"
Yang took a moment to think, before realising she was running out of puns on this direction. Time to change it.
"A shame the other's all went to the mountains instead of listening to our comedy." She said. "Snow joke, that."
"They're missing the peak of puns here." Blast countered. "But on the other hand, they could end up buried in avalaughs."
"You're terrible." Yang laughed.
Blast quickly gulped down his coffee, then looked around. "Well, I'm bored. I'm going to do some weapon maintenance. Are you doing anything?"
"Not really." Yang replied. "Maybe I'll have a look at those harpoon-gauntlets. Play around with that for a bit.
"Have fun with that, then." Blast said. "Shame we have to stay in peak condition, I could really go for a sparring match about now..."
"Maybe later." Yang replied, as Blast walked off.
Finishing off her own coffee, Yang took a moment to put the mug away, then went back to the room she had been assigned.
She was really glad that she was allowed to sleep in here again. Those hospital beds were alright, but they weren't as comfortable as real beds. And the roof is slightly more fancy too. Still unfamiliar and bland, but a white line across dull grey was still better than just dull grey.
Ignoring the roof, though, Yang went up to the shelf in the corner, and picked up the gauntlets there.
She hadn't noticed in the fight, that the two gauntlets were for different hands, but that was a nice coincidence. It meant she didn't need two bodies to use both hands. The mercenary leader guy must have enjoyed thematic cues like that, having the gauntlets on opposite hands to better play up the black-and-white mirror theme.
They weren't too fancy, as far as weapons went, but they were of a nice design. Simplistic. Quality of the metal was good too, and she knew how hard the harpoon was. Melee-wise, it ran into the usual issue with gauntlets in that it essentially made you punch better, but it was constructed in a fashion that it didn't constrict the movement of the fingers, which would allow-
-
the man to tighten his grip around the child's throat.
There was a snapping sound, and-
Yang shook the memory out of her head, and threw the gauntlets back on the shelf in disgust.
...She'd messed up there, hadn't she? Assumed she could get the man talking if she just pushed him. Assumed he was alone. Assumed he had thrown away an opportunity for a sneak attack for gloating reasons.
She'd saved lives, but the people who hadn't made it were on her as well.
...Feeling sad about it wasn't going to bring them back, though. Wasn't going to make anything better. She could feel sad all she liked, as long as she was
better from here on out. Best way to make it up to the dead would be not to make the same mistake again.
Learn from her mistakes. Move forward. Be better. Don't make that mistake again.
She'd fiddle with the harpoon gauntlets later, though. For now, she couldn't stand the sight of them.
Walking off a bit, Yang wondered what else she could be doing right now.
...Maybe she could train up a bit. Sparring would drain her Aura too much, but a few strength exercises wouldn't make an impact.
Satisfied with her plan, Yang went off to throw some weights around for a bit.
~~~~~
By the end of the hour, Yang was feeling rather good about herself. Hadn't broken her record in regards to heaviest weight lifted, but it was still nice to remember she could throw around things several times her weight.
And then Winter returned to the airship, and Yang got ready to get moving.
She didn't really need much stuff to be ready for going into the mountains. Aura would protect you from the worst of the cold, and Yang herself was able to keep warm easier than most. But it still felt uncomfortable when it got cold, and all it took was a woolly jumper and some more thick clothes to stop that being a problem. Conveniently enough, the airship had everything she needed.
Winter really was prepared for everything. There was some light cloaks in case of a desert, some equipment to help with thick jungles and forests, the works.
Pulling on a beanie and confirming that her hair still looked amazing while she wore it, Yang nodded, and headed towards the exit of the airship. As she did so, she passed by Piran and Ren, who were wearing significantly more layers then Yang was.
"How'd it go?" Yang asked.
"Didn't find anything." Ren replied. "There was some Beowulf's lurking around, but not much of a group. Not enough to be a real threat to anyone."
"Winter was thinking of doing some mountain climbing for the next area." Piran replied. "I get the feeling that you and Blast are going to enjoy a race up a vertical surface."
"Could be fun." Yang replied. "Anyway, Two's group should be back in the next hour, so I guess that means I'm going to spend two hours out in the snow, isn't it?"
"That's how it works." Piran said. "Hey, Ren, when Nora gets back, I'll sub in for her. Two and Cent seem like they're the kind to keep going, but Nora'd probably be happier sitting around with you than me."
"Sure." Ren replied.
"Well, see ya later." Yang said, as she left. The boys waved at her, and as Yang left the airship, she saw Winter and Blast both waiting for her.
While Winter had put on some warmer clothes, her outfit wasn't that different from her usual. Looks like it wasn't a rumour that Schnee's were better with the cold after all.
Blast, meanwhile, had just put more belts on under his open jacket and called it a day.
"You're going to be freezing." Yang noted.
"Nah." Blast replied. "Someone as hot as me? The snow'll melt right off me."
Yang smiled, and Winter gave no reaction.
"Let's go." Winter said. "The closest area to climb isn't far from here. While I can't risk using a Nevermore of flying summon in an area with a risk of blizzards to fly up, we can still climb fast."
And with that ,she set off, with surprising speed. A moment later, Blast and Yang followed.
The snow was starting to pile high, but fortunately, Aura provided some options in regards to getting through snow like that. There was Winter's method, of running fast enough and using your Aura to bounce off the top of the snow piles, and there was Yang's method, of melting the snow slightly so that you could move your legs through it easier.
And then there was the Blast method of just running so fast any effect of a slowdown is minimised. It wasn't the best method, which was why he was the last to arrive at the cliff face, but it did technically work.
"Race you to the top." Blast said, as he dashed out of the snow and onto the cliff face. By the time Yang followed, he had already made it up a decent distance. Not even remotely close to the top, but high enough that a fall would hurt.
Noticing Winter standing nearby with a glyph under her feet, Yang smiled, and walked up next to Winter. When more glyphs started forming, building a stairway up as Winter ascended, it was easy enough for Yang to leap from one to the next. Only until she had overtaken Blast and his unfair head start, of course. Naturally, Yang jumped onto the cliff proper and did it the fun way once she had made the contest fair by being double the height of Blast.
"Cheat!" He called up, from way down below you.
"What was that?" Yang asked. "I can't hear you from up here. You should hurry up!"
Whatever Blast said in response to that was muffled by the wind, but the sound of crunching stone seemed to hint that Blast was speeding up a bit.
Smiling, Yang stretched her leg up, moving it onto a stable footing and using it to leverage herself upwards. Building up momentum to propel her upwards, Yang pushed away from the holes her hands were in, and took a leap up the cliff.
Above them, Winter stopped her ascent, and looked down at them for a moment. For a moment, Yang swore she heard Winter sigh.
"Don't tire yourselves out." The Schnee called down. "There's going to be a long walk ahead of us once we get up here, and there will be a return trip."
"Yes, boss!" Blast called out from below Yang. Still further down, but getting closer.
Stretching her arm and gripping a chunk of rock above her, Yang, kicked up with her right lef to get up to it, and when she didn't see another good grip for her left hand after she jumped, she punched through the rock just enough to create an arm-sized hole for her to grip.
...Huh. If she did that all the way up, it'd probably be faster.
Smiling, Yang continued to climb with greater speed.
Upon finishing the climb, Yang, Winter and Blast have two hours to search. Naturally, that is just enough time for something interesting to happen.
[X] After searching for a while, Yang spots a figure silhouetted in the snow in the distance.
[X] The weather starts getting bad, and a blizzard starts just as Winter suggests they return to the airship. The gang gets lost.
[X] There is a mighty roar that echoes through the mountains, spooking birds away and shaking the earth.
] The weather starts getting bad, and a blizzard starts just as Winter suggests they return to the airship. The gang gets lost.
