Team Nightwatch

Exchange Students and a Powerful Semblance

Andrew

     I started to drill the girls even harder than ever.  I was still in training with my hidden weapons and bastard sword but I'm sure that I've mastered the scythe.  Mastered what I wanted any way.  Target practice was going well for Destiny and Leah, I considered teaching them how to curve bullets but that would require me to trust them.  They're my teammates but my life is extremely important to me, so I turned to something else.
     They never us their semblances and there are two possible reasons for it; it's really powerful and draining, or they don't really know how to.  Leah knows what she can do but doesn't know how to do it.  Isabel can create shadow clones, a lot like Blake actually, that disappear when hit.  Of course I've got the whole universe control thing, but Destiny's never used her from what she's told me.
     "It's really hard on me," she said when I asked her to do it in training.  I folded my arms across my chest and looked at her.
     "Destiny," I told her.  "You're stronger than you think you are, I know that.  Now...,"  I spread my arms, "hit me with your best shot."  I can't tell if my pep talk had worked but I think she realizes how much I want to help her.  I'm going to be her target for crying out loud....
     She clutched her head and screwed up her face in concentration.  Maybe this wasn't the greatest idea...being her guinea pig, I mean.  She flickered out of sight but so did everyone else.  I hadn't heard the others but still felt a little twitchy.  Shadow Strike and Nightblade were back in the dork so all I had were my hidden weapons.  "Where is everyone?"
     A loud screech broke the eerie silence and a shadow passed over me.  I looked up and almost fainted from shock.  A Grimm was flying over me, one that I'd only seen in a book before and been warned about.
     A Dragon flew over my head again and blobs of shadow dropped from it wings, creating more Grimm.  The Dragon screeched again before leaving me with the Grimm.  "Okay...how'd it get passed everything?"  I didn't have time to question it though, these monsters looked pretty bad.  I extended my hidden blades and started racing around the bizarrely perfect circle of Grimm, tearing them apart and throwing...straw everywhere?
     I decapitated a Creep and I found myself on the back of a headless training dummy.  Destiny was breathing heavily and laying on her back, and everyone was staring at me.  "Did anyone else see the Grimm?"
     "Grimm?"  Isabel asked.  "There wasn't any Grimm...."  What?  "You just went ham on those dummies and destroyed them."  Then why did I see Grimm...what a second.  I looked at Destiny.
     "That's your semblance," I stated.  "Mental hallucinations...."
     "Yeah," she replied, still breathing heavily.  I noticed the sweat on her face.  "I can usually do one person with no problem, multiple people is where it gets hard.  I'm really out if practice but, at some point maybe, I could control somebody...."  And I thought my semblance was dangerous.  I can bend the physical world but Destiny bends the very fabric of the astral plane.
     I opened my mouth to say something before someone else spoke up.
     "I've got the same one."  I turned around to look at the speaker.  She had dark skin, mint green hair, a very immodest outfit and what looked like guns behind her back.  Two other people were with her; a tall boy with metal grey hair and similar colored clothing, and another girl who was pretty tall, dressed almost as immodestly as the first girl, with long black hair that covered one of her golden eyes.  I feel like I've seen her before but I can't think of where....
     "Same what?"  Destiny asked. 
     "Semblance," mint-haired girl said.  "I'm Emerald by the way."  Her smile looked friendly but I saw something behind it.  Something not quite right....
     "You three aren't Beacon students, are you?"  I inquired, not putting my blades away.  I know, one way or another, every student in Beacon Academy.
     "No," the boy said.  "We're exchange students from Haven."  His smirk looked like it was a familiar expression for him.  "The name's Mercury, by the way.  Mercury Black."  I nodded to him and looked at the last girl...she's actually more of a woman probably.
     "And your name?"  I asked. 
     "Cinder," she told me.  "Cinder Fall."  The smile she gave me and the sound of her voice only reassured me that I knew her. 
     "Andrew," I replied, trying to be polite.  She just continued to smile at me and I saw her lips just barely move.  Luckily I can read lips decently but there was only one word on hers.

Shade

     "Well, it's been nice meeting you all," Cinder said.  "Come on Mercury, Emerald.  We still need to unpack."  She looked over her shoulder as she left and waved bye to me.  "See you later, Andrew...."  I just to her and the trio left.
     "Well done Andrew," Destiny said.  "I think she likes you...."  The gears in my brain were still working full time to find out who Cinder was.  I closed my eyes and thought about her smile and her voice, the most familiar things to me.  "Andrew?"
     "That's it."  I muttered, the memory coming back.
     "Beg pardon?"  Isabel asked, looking confused.
     "That girl, Cinder, I've seen her before," I told them.  "That night when we were staking out the dust shops." They still looked confused.  "She was that girl with Torchwick!"  They stared at me for a second before going into fits of laughter.  "What's so funny...?"
     "Destiny," Leah giggled, "are you sure you removed your semblance from him?" 
     "I thought I did," she replied through streaming eyes.  "Guess not."  I clenched my fists.  I know that I come with some pretty wild ideas but this time I was being serious.
     "Come on," I interrupted.  "Even you all can't deny that she does look like her."  They continued to giggle at me and I gave up on it.  They may think I'm crazy but there's one think I'm sure of.
     I never forget a face.