Church's Summer

First Mission Part 3: Ascent

Church switched on his light again, before heading over to the others. "Okay, so there's a large hole over there; I didn't see an edge to it. Which means... We have three options: we can go back to our teams and try to dig ourselves out, but there's a high probability we'll die since those are heavy ass rocks. We could go to the sides of the cave and see if we can climb across that way. Or, we can go down into the pit of death for no fucking apparent reason at all. I'm voting for the sides."

"How many Grimm are in the pit?"

He rolled his head to Tai, watching as he eyed the edges of the hole. "Too many to count; it's a sea of glowing red eyes down there."

"Okay, certain death, got it."

"It's not certain death Xiao Long, it's just less than one percent."

"You know what I call less than one percent, Church? Certain death."

Topaz cut in between them, putting in his two cents. "We're going to go around the sides of the pit."

A thick silence hung over them, no one moved, only the sounds of the Grimm below echoed in the cave. "You just decided that, huh? Not even gonna ask what the fuck the other's want to do?"

"You said you wanted to go around the sides too."

Church rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but I offered other suggestions as well." Topaz opened his mouth but Alpha cut him off. "All I'm saying is that's not very democratic of you. Actually, kind of a bitch move to just order us about." Once again he opened his mouth to speak, but the AI interrupted him, again. "Fucking bitch move my amber-haired cave acquaintance."

He shone the light in Topaz's face, causing the man to pinch his eyes shut, wiping the stupid scowl off his face. The leader of TEAL held up his hand to shield his eyes as a groan escaped him. "What do you guys want to do?"

Lilac shrugged, not having an opinion like a dumb lemming. "I don't know, whatever way you think is best, leader." God, he could not stand that level of kiss ass. It reminded him way too much of how Simmons used to act. Topaz nodded smugly to Church, as it appeared his subordinate respected him more than Church's did.

"Going 'round the sides seems sensible to me, Church." No doubt Tai could sense the tension between the two, and rightly sided with his admittedly quick tempered leader. Church's Cheshire grin seemed to glow in the dark as they traipsed over to the sides of the cave.

Church slid his scroll back into his pocket, the light shining out like before as he walked once again, over to the hole in the cave floor. He stuck his arm out, feeling for any grips, his right hand found purchase on a small ledge, prompting him to stick a foot out which narrowly landed on an outcropping. He pulled the rest of his body onto the wall, hoping beyond hope that the ledges held under his body weight. Tilting his head back, he saw nobody else had moved.

"Well? Come on, I don't want to be here for the rest of my fucking lifetime." Topaz slowly hulled himself onto the wall, Lilac echoing his movements, while Tai was reluctant to get on. "Move your ass, Xiao Long." With no small amount of reluctance, he pulled himself onto the wall.

He let out a slight 'hmph' before turning back to making sure he didn't fall into the pit; it would very likely lead to his death if he did so. The ledge his toes were situated on crumbled slightly, prompting him to quickly shuffle his feet to the next. The following outcropping was enough to support his weight and give him room to balance himself without the need of his arms, from his position he could see he only needed to traverse about forty more feet before ground once again appeared.

A groan that turned into a sigh escaped him as he leaned his forehead against the cliff. He was far too lazy for all the shit they had to do. Even if somehow he chugged down all the energy drinks that Tucker used to store in the fridge in Blood Gulch, it still wouldn't be enough to give him the energy to climb across the lengthy cliff.