Team AMBR
There was a knock on the stone side of the entrance to his study.
"You wanted to see me, Headmaster?"
"Ah, yes, young master Hazel. Do come in."
The room was entirely stone, lacking an actual door. Sand dusted the rocky floor and there was no furniture in the room save for the large wooden desk, leather chair that was currently facing away from the teen who'd just entered and a large wood and glass cupboard filled with what looked like some seriously nice alcohol.
The sand on the floor sifted and blew outward, a gust from the hole in the wall of the mountain blowing it into the corridor behind him and shedding light and the visage of a blue sky into the usually dark academy. The chair swivelled, and in it sat a thin man in an open navy shirt and dark, dyed green hair. This dark complexion and even darker eyes narrowed into his guest's even as he smiled warmly.
"Please, Mr. Hazel, do take a seat. Or would you rather I refer to you as Asher?"
The newly identified boy strode into the room and sat, his charcoal grey long coat crumpling under him and eliciting a fart-like noise from the leather beneath. He ran his hand through his charcoal grey hair as his amber-green eyes crinkled in irritation at the noise.
"Whichever your preference sir. I do hope the chair isn't directly built to throw visitors off and embarrass them at the start of the conversation, in order to lend you the mental upper hand, headmaster."
"Now now, such tricks should be beneath someone of my standing, don't you think, Mr. Hazel?" asked the headmaster, a spark of mirth in his eye.
"I think we've known each other long enough for me to learn you'll take any advantage you can get." the youth retorted, raising an eyebrow as his head teacher.
The man across from him grinned happily and lent backward in his chair.
"You would be correct, as usual. A trait I hope I've passed on. Now, to business. I'm sure you're wondering why I called you here." the headmaster stated in a tone that told Asher he wasn't expecting an answer. The older man opened and reached into a drawer on his side. Pulling out three files, he tossed them across the mahogany desk to within easy reaching distance of his counterpart.
Asher picked them up and started reading. The headmaster rose as he did so, striding across to the cupboard and opening it to reveal drinking glasses and expensive drink. He poured two while his companion read.
"It's odd that we call them cupboards, don't you think?"
Distracted from his reading, Asher looked up.
"Sorry sir?"
The headmaster sat back down and slid a glass over to his student before taking a short drink of his own and putting his feet up on the corner of his desk.
"Cupboards. It's an odd name. A combination of 'cup' and 'board'. But we rarely use them simply for storing cups, and they are not simply boards. Formed of them yes but not essentially the thing itself." said the older man, sending a look to his student that told him they were not entirely discussing cupboards.
"The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, headmaster." Asher stated as he tilted his head in confusion.
"Quite right, but not what I'm getting at. My point being, we call them cupboards but use them for many separate tasks other than storing cups. Port, food, wine, rum, beer-"
"Your emphasis on alcohol is a point I'm sure the council are fans of." the boy interrupted, quietly urging the other man to get to the point.
"Quite." returned the headmaster, clearly enjoying running circles around his student with his ploy, before launching into a more constructive tone.
"My point being, what if we took a cupboard, and used it for an ulterior purpose."
"This is why you've given me three personnel files from each of the other academies. You're talking about huntsmen."
The older man leaned forward in his chair, thumb circling the rim of his glass as his eyes told Asher to continue.
"You want to take huntsmen and use them to fight something other than grimm. Instead of cups, you want port." Asher said, as if realising something.
"But what's this got to do with me?"
The dark skinned man grinned, and slid a photograph across the table.
Asher picked it up and scanned it. From what he could tell, it was a freight train depot that had gone up in smoke. The Schnee Dust Company's insignia was emblazoned on the side of what used to be the building.
"This is…?"
"A terrorist attack. The full shipment of dust was stolen and replaced with explosives. Several people were injured when the train reached the depot and exploded. Four people died, including a Faunus. They all had families."
Asher's jaw clenched. Seeing his reaction, the headmaster slid his scroll across the table and tapped the play button.
"This was posted this morning."
A man in a white mask with blazing red hair and a black and red jacket and trousers stood in a cave, flanked by two white and black-armoured and similarly masked individuals, into the camera.
"The explosion and hijacking of the Schnee Dust Company's monthly shipment from its Forever Fall mines was orchestrated and conducted by us, The White Fang. Humanity and its filth have only just begun to feel our-"
"SCUM!" roared Asher as he exploded out of his chair and threw the phone across the room. It shattered against the stone wall. The headmaster just looked at it with a pout.
"That was expensive, Mr. Hazel."
Asher took a deep breath and sat back down, breathing heavily.
"I'll pay for it-"
"It's fine. It's just a phone. I'll get an upgrade at the shop later. But I'm guessing you're getting the picture now?"
Asher nodded.
"You want Taurus' head on a pike."
The headmaster grinned at the look on his student's face.
"Exactly. The Fang have finally gone too far to be called freedom fighters and the kingdoms have decided that it's time to take them out. You can imagine what Atlas' initial response was, especially given how much funding they get from the Schnee's."
"All out war?"
The older man nodded. "Though problem with that is that war requires knowing where the enemy is and how to fight them. The Fang, like most terrorist groups, doesn't have a central location. They're a series of interspersed camps in the outer regions of every kingdom. Going to war with them would be like getting into a boxing match with a ghost that can still hit you back. So I suggested something a bit more… radical." he smirked.
"You want a counter-terrorism hunter team."
"Bingo. A team with a member from each kingdom. Obviously hunters aren't supposed to have ties to any individual kingdom, but with a group like the Fang, everyone from every kingdom is under threat. Apparently they even no longer have qualms about killing human-sympathetic faunus. Atlas obviously again wanted full control of the team, but we bartered them down. One member and..."
The headmaster smirked viciously.
"I dangled the knowledge that you were originally from Atlas in by… 'accident'. So they were under the impression they were basically getting two members for the price of one. May have neglected to mention that you hate their entire system with a passion, however."
Asher's amused smirk and raised eyebrow said it all.
"However, we can't just select anyone to be on the team. Each of you have taken a year out between academies and as a result are not only a year older than most first years but also separate in that you haven't yet taken the entrance tests. Which is what you thought you were coming in for today, no?"
Asher nodded.
"I'll make this brief since we've known each other for nearly four years and you know that I'd only deceive you if I had to. The other headmasters supposedly aren't giving their students this information but I wouldn't put it past Atlas to brief their kid fully and completely despite everyone else's wishes and both Ozpin and the lady leading Haven are clever bastards. We're dropping you into the emerald forest via Bullhead an hour after the first year Beacon teams drop. They'll be mostly out of your way. You will, however, be taking the test with them. Which means you're going to be following the same rules. One, the first person you meet will be your partner in all the years to come, and two, you have to succeed in retrieving an artefact from the ruins in the middle of the forest and return it back to the cliffs next to beacon. That's the part everyone knows. What they don't 'supposedly' know is the exact intention for this team, which I've already laid out for you. You're going to be-"
"A portboard." the boy chipped in, grinning.
"Quite." returned the headmaster, also smirking.
"When I brought you to shadow academy you made me promise that one day I'd give you a shot at the Fang. This is it. So here's the other thing that you need to know."
He leaned inward and dropped his voice to a darkly low level, while keeping it quiet all the same.
"The Fang are disturbingly active in and around Vale as of late, and they have unknown partners inside their criminal underworld. Not only that, we have reason to believe that this partnership was orchestrated by an unknown third party. I'm sure you're aware of the ramifications of having a third enemy with zero available intelligence on pulling the strings behind both terrorists and world-class criminals."
Asher's eyes narrowed in both surprise and a slight modicum of controlled fear.
"With all due respect, it sounds like you're throwing us to the beowolves."
The headmaster sighed softly and sorrowfully, before leaning back in his chair and rubbing his temples.
"I won't lie to you, I'm not Ozpin. I can't move people like pieces on a chessboard and cut myself off from it entirely, but in this case there isn't any other option. All of-age huntsmen are either already in dedicated teams too useful to break up or busy with the recent resurgence in Grimm activity. Failing that, they're almost certainly out in the world gathering intelligence for us. You guys are students, which means it'll be easy to get you full access of Beacon and Vale, you'll be ranging into Forever Fall and Emerald frequently on experience missions and no-one will expect teenagers to be part of a global counter-terrorist agreement. But you're right. This is going to be insanely dangerous. You're going to be punching shadows and chasing whispers, and the entire time you'll be doing it you'll have targets painted on your backs. But..."
The elder looked sharply into Asher's eyes with a look he didn't quite recognise, and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"You can do this, and not to put too much pressure on you, we need you to do this. Letting people like this run rampant… it only ever leads to bloodshed and death. I respect freedom of speech and difference of opinion more than anything, but people are dying and disappearing out there, and unlike with your mother..."
Asher's eyes softened and lowered in sadness for a brief moment.
"This time, you're strong enough to help fight it."
The younger man sighed.
"I was in the moment you said we were going up against the Fang, but I get it. Where do I sign up?"
The older man smirked.
"You already are. Your bullhead's on the landing pad. Grab your gear and chuck it in there and she'll drop you in the forest before taking your bags on to beacon. It's a long flight, and the fight through the forest isn't going to be easy, so make sure you suit up properly. Now get out of here."
Asher nodded and rose, turning toward the open stone entrance and started walking.
"And don't fuck up!" came the call from behind him.
He just flipped his headmaster off over his shoulder and kept walking.
"Do you think there'll be cute boys?"
"And cute girls?"
"What will your team be like?"
"Are you gonna make lots of friends?"
"Not like Clover and her lot though. They're all bitchy-"
"Language, little brother."
Regalia Frost Selene was not a typical girl. She was the daughter of the richest man in Mistral and one of its premier socialites. She'd worked in a cut-throat business all year to bring profit to the family company. She was a trained horseback rider, sharpshooter, and huntress-
A pillow hit her square in the face.
"English, sis!"
She was also the elder sister of two irritating and cute little balls of fur.
The girl eyed her aggressor with a wicked and amused grin, making the poor pre-teen boy gulp in fear.
"How about I teach you the language of MANNERS!?" she yelled while laughing before tackling him onto her bed and giving him a noogie.
"No! No sis please! Arrrggghhh!"
The packing could wait. She only had a little time left with her little shits, and she was going to spend it well.
She couldn't, however, stop herself from letting her eyes occasionally flit to the holstered guns hanging from the doorknob, or lick her lips in anticipation of what she hoped was going to be a great year.
"The ship's here to take you to beacon, hun." a dark haired woman spoke from the doorway to her russet-haired and fox-eared daughter.
"Okay. I'll only be a minute." replied the younger girl, packing the last of the things on her bed into a large suitcase. Her mother walked up behind her and hugged her, leaning over to plant a kiss on the top of her head.
"You don't have to do this, you know. Your father's proud of you no matter what choice you make. He's told you hundreds of times."
"And he's lied each one to make you happy."
The younger girl felt her mother's kiss turn into a grimace atop her head.
"I'm not doing this for him mum. I'm doing it for me. Besides, you can't feed eight of us forever."
Her mother sighed. "I suppose you're right. Have you said goodbye to your siblings?"
"I did last night."
"Then there's nothing more that needs to be done."
The youth nodded and threw a backpack over her shoulder, before dragging her suitcase off the bed.
"Mari, not all humans are angry at Faunus. Most just don't understand. I'm sure your time at Beacon will prove that to you."
The younger girl smiled and hugged her mum with one arm.
"Goodbye, mum."
She left, closing the door quietly behind her and leaving a tearful woman in her wake.
"Are you ready soldier?"
"Yes, sir."
General Ironwood stood across from his latest field agent, who was currently clad in Atlas field armour and toting an impressive amount of weaponry for a fresh huntman. The wind was howling and tearing at them from their position on the exterior landing pads on the Atlas cliffs base and the thrust the engines on his dropship were outputting weren't helping any.
"You've been briefed, you know your orders. Suit up and conduct the rest of your prep on board your ship."
"My ship, sir?"
The general grinned.
"I decided that in the future you and your team may very well require some… transportation that Beacon isn't always able to provide. She's one of the fastest in the core, soldier. Use her well."
"Yes sir, thank you sir."
"You're briefed and dismissed soldier."
"Yes sir."
Watching the young lad mount the ramp and pull his goggles over his face, James Ironwood couldn't help but question whether or not the councils and headmasters of the various kingdoms, including himself, had made the right decision for Remnant's future.
