Fret not my dear readers. I plan on continuing this story, as well as my other story if I have time for it.
Summer: Most writers probably can pump out many chapters over the summer, however I will probably not be able with getting myself a summer job and dealing with getting ready for college, as well as an online course so my summer is quite packed.
Reviews:
Guest: It's taken me awhile to decide who it is the Glynda married. First I thought Ozpin, but I don't think that Glynda would approve, as she would want to keep work separate from personal life. I have decided upon Qrow and I will tell more of what happened with that later on.
=Time of episode 2=
-Nick POV-
Nick was currently chained to a cold metal chair. His whole body ached from the innumerable lashes that he had received that had been his punishment for his most recent act of defiance in the prison. His chair was placed facing the warden's plush leather seat behind his mahogany desk. The warden was a wolf faunus and wore an ironed White Fang uniform that appeared quite decorated.
"You certainly are quite the free spirit I've heard. You've been here for seven years and have yet to lose hope that you'll escape." Said the warden in a bemused voice.
"Well, I try my best sir." Replied Nick, masking the pain that he felt with an attempt at humor.
Flipping through a large stack of envelopes and pulling out a handful the warden continued, "I must admit you are the single greatest factor of stepping up the security of this little hell." Flinging the top folder at Nick's face he began again, "First you tried tunneling out by using your lunch tray, pretty impressive."
"You make me blush, unfortunately what I thought was the outside was an occupied guard tower… don't remember much for what happened for the day after seeing the guard." Coily smirked Nick.
Tossing another folder at Nick, "Next you tried to escape into the crowd in one of your many fights by jumping the fence." Coming to the next folder the warden gingerly placed it in front of Nick, "this one's my personal favorite. You subdued one of your guards when the other was sick and he was taking you to a fight, confiscating his clothing you attempted to walk out of the prison. Lucky for us one of the guards that day was friends with the guard and knew that you weren't him, sounding the alarm."
"Shucks, you give me too much credit. Surely others have attempted just as much."
"No, they mainly give up after the first attempt or commit suicide."
"Why don't you just kill me than? Or do you just like seeing my smiling face in your office to much that you can't kill me?" Nick mocked.
"Haha. Trust me, I wanted you six feet under at first… but I just make too much money off of you. Over two hundred successful fights and still alive. It's truly impressive. How do you win all your fights being half the height of the other contenders, any secret?"
Nick gave an evil smile, "When I was really young I read a magic book in the library. I don't remember any of the tricks, but the first rule always stuck with me...always, always be the smartest person in the room."
Leaning far over in his chair so that he made sure Nick could feel the rancorous breath that he was exhaling the warden menacingly said, "are you saying I'm stupid?"
Nick smiled, "No, I'm saying this is attempt four." Flinging his wrists that were chained to the chair at the warden's hands on the desk Nick transferred the chains onto the warden. Then he slammed his left fist into the bridge of the Warden temple. He had done it many times in fights to stun an opponent or knock him out he had mastered where and how much strength had to be utilized, and the warden just felt all that experience hit him in the face.
Sucking in his breath as he stood up from his chair from the pain in his wrists he walked over to the wardens side of the table. On the wardens belt were many keys, grabbing these he started rummaging around the drawers of the desk until he found the next item that he was looking for. It was a .38 caliber six shot revolver. Edmond had taught him how to profile different individuals and on his second time with the warden he got the feeling that he was a very paranoid and insecure man, since he knew that the prison had weapons it was only natural for the warden to have his own personal self defense gun.
After aggressively binding the warden to his chair and stuffing his mouth with a piece of cloth. Nick approached the door, flinging it open he coldly scanned the adjourning room. There was a sole guard in it going through files, he glanced over at the door. The moment that the guard saw Nick, he quickly inhaled his breath in surprise, eyes dilating and nose flaring now preparing for a fight. Not wishing to alert others Nick leaped at the guard closing the distance between them in an instant.
The guard was a dog faunus who just finished pulling his eighteen hour long shift for the night. He had a daughter and a wife at home who were both discriminated against in their small town. He had joined the White Fang to make faunus kind treated like equals. In an instant however his dreams and family were snuffed from his mind, as his eyes dimmed in death. He had tried to punch at the escaping prisoner but the prisoner was far more skilled and before he could even comprehend what had hit him he no longer had a pulse.
Nick retracted his arm from the guards chest. 'Damn, he caught me by surprise and I used too much of my aura!' Checking to make sure that there were no more guards in the room Nick sprinted out the door. It didn't matter this time if there were guards in the halls that saw him or not, they would all know eventually.
The hallways of the prison were lit by lamps on the walls giving the sense that the shadows were moving with every flicker of the flames. The walls were made of stone and had moss growing in some areas. It showed the datedness of the prison. The further in towards his destination he went the moor splotches of brown dried blood lined the walls and floors.
Nick was lucky to not get spotted by any roving patrols as he sprinted down the hallways of the prisons to get to his first destination. Stopping outside of a cell door he grabbed the key ring he had acquired and began trying them. The ring was neatly separated by wards and number so it didn't take long to find the correct keys and pocket them. Unlocking the door he opened the it with care.
"Come out, I'm not a guard." Nick said to what appeared to be an empty cell except for some shadows.
Two thin forms that had blended into the shadows of the dimly lit cell moved closer to him. "Who are you, what do you want?" Croaked one of the figures.
"I'm starting a jail break. Here are the keys to the cells. The more you unlock the higher the odds are that anyone of use will make it out. Tell those you free that it was Nick Goodwitch who freed them." With that Nick tossed the key ring to the group, keeping the ones that he had pocketed earlier.
Not seeing if the two had understood his message he bolted off down the winding halls. Rounding a corner he heard a shout echo behind him. Turning to glimpse what had caught him he saw two Fang guards running at him, the glint of the fear of losing their jobs evident in their eyes. Lifting the pistol he stole he calmly pulled back the trigger and fired two shots in quick succession. The guards didn't have time to react, they hadn't been trained in what to do if a prisoner got their hands on a gun and continued baring down on the path that lead to their deaths. Their chests exploded by having been hit with the powerful rounds, without aura to protect them they died within instants due to blood loss and shock.
Without the slightest hint of remorse Nick continued to his goal. It was his cell that he was running to. Outside of it he opened it already preparing the key.
"It worked Ed! Go time!" Nick yelled, no longer concerned with any thoughts of stealth.
Edmond was standing by the door as per instructed by Nick earlier that day. Surprise could be seen on his face when the cell door opened not due to the guards, but by Nick. Although Edmond claimed that he believed that Nick could pull off an escape, three failures was not the best track record.
The two of them were sprinting towards the final step of the escape plan. "What's the plan?" Edmond inquired.
"We wait around the next corner, than we wait for the alarm." Nick spoke
"Alarm! Shouldn't that not be sounding!" Whispered Edmond in a stressed tone, still wishing to keep silent.
"That's what my mistake was the other times. If the entire prison is on alert due to a prison break than no one will notice two prisoners that lean to fly." Nick then stopped by a stone corner signaling Edmond to do the same.
"How the hell did you start a priso-" Edmond was cut off by the blaring of an alarm. Nick covered Edmond's mouth with his hand. Soon a group of guards rushed past the corner that the two were hiding.
Sprinting past the corner and through double doors that Nick was able to quickly unlock there opened up to a large hanger that contained three bullheads.
"Run the the front bullhead and start it up! I've got the hanger doors."
"Got it." Shouted Edmond back to Nick as he ran off to the bullhead.
Nick ran past the bullhead and was faced with wall of buttons. He bit his lip as he stared at buttons upon buttons. "Screw it." He began pushing and flipping anything in sight. After some time the large hangar door began to open to freedom. Also though the hanger lights began flickering on and off in a weird pattern. Sprinting to the bullhead clambering into the ship via the sliding side doors he made his way to the cockpit area.
"We're up!" Cried Edmond in surprise. He piloted the hulking bullhead outside the hangar with the skill of a drunk man hitting every light on the ceiling while making his VTOL takeoff. Shooting outside into the night air the two of them admired the stars for a little.
"Are we being followed?" Inquired Edmond in a nervous voice.
"Uh… hold on." fiddling with the controls on the dashboard of the bullhead Nick found what appeared to be a radar display, "nope, nothing in sight."
"We're free?!"
"Yup!" replied Nick, a smile forming on his face. "Do you know where you're flying to?"
"...I thought you did since this was your escape plan."
"I didn't think of any areas to escape to, I think I did at one point, but that was a lifetime ago and another me. You have any ideas."
"I used to live in Atlas, I'm sure the Atlesian military could provide us with some kind of military police patrol."
"True, but only if they don't try us for homicide in front of a military tribunal for the fights that we were forced to do. Not saying that they will, but better safe than sorry. However much I hate to say it I elect we go to Vale. It has decent infrastructure for anything that we wish to do and for its military well, you can't get better hunters in the kingdoms."
"I'm good with that. Plug the coordinates into the computer and we're good."
Nick gave a nod before fiddling with the instruments, finally he pulled up a map and keyed in their destination.
=A few days later on a cramped bullhead (specifically day after group pairings)=
"Vale control tower to unidentified bullhead please respond with your flight plan number, you have entered Vale airspace" crackled a voice over the radio.
Nick and Edmond looked at each other. They were too overjoyed about escaping than of making sure they had flight plans and they had a much larger issue to worry about. Nick picked up the radio transponder, "This is..." he searched frantically to a number or anything, finding one he replied, "Foxtrot three. We have no flight plan and plan on landing at the closest airfield we can find over."
"Tower to Foxtrot three you are not clear to land at Beacon Academy please circle and file a flight plan."
"That was more of an FYI, we have no dust aviation fuel. We are landing, as soon as we can, over."
Edmond shook Nick's shoulder, "I have good news and not so good news what do you want to hear first."
Turning off the radio for the time being Nick turned to Edmond, "Bad news first."
"Suit yourself. We no longer have any fuel and my bullhead lessons I told you about never taught me how to land before I was nabbed. The good news however is I can see our landing zone, so hold on!" With that Edmond nosed the bullhead down into a steep decent to make the landing zone. The landing zone they were aiming for was a wide field of grass by what appeared to be the entrance of the school.
-Velvet POV-
Velvet had made it into Beacon academy the previous year. Her dream when she was young was to be like Nick and help people, he was the one who wanted to be a hunter to do that, not her originally. After he was taken by the White Fang she searched every available moment she had for him for two years. At that point she decided to look at her view of his absence in a new light. Since he could no longer become a hunter, she would become one for him. It was difficult at first with her timid nature and she learned much from asking Ms. Goodwitch to teach, although she felt more like a punching bag many times, she did learn much from the older women. After her first mission with her team the previous year she became enthralled with being a hunter. She loved the freedom her body felt as she fought and the feeling when her head sunk into her pillow that she had done good and made the world a better place.
Her time at Beacon was not without its troubles however. Faunuses were widely discriminated against even after multiple rights acts had been agreed to. Ozpin and the teachers tried to dissuade such conduct, but there was only so much that they could do. Her teammate Fox was most understanding of her plight, as with his red eyes he was ostracized from groups, not as much as a faunus but still enough to feel lonely.
She was currently sitting in the front entrance of the school on one of the many benches that were placed outside the school. It was peaceful this time of day with the wind blowing though the flowers and the sun's shining it's fresh morning rays over her ears. "I didn't know they let animals on campus" came a gruff retort from behind her. Followed by the laugh of three boys.
Velvet let out a groan. She knew who this year's biggest bigots would be, the source of the voice. She had taught herself to deal with those kind of people. She wouldn't physically resist, that's what the Fang did and it cost her Nick. She was resigned to find peaceful measures for her problems. She than felt her head being forcefully elevated by a hand grabbing her ears and yanking. "I said get out you damn animal, we don't need your kind here."
*SCREECH...CRUNCH*
Velvet wriggled her ears free and leaping a handful of paces away from the boys and turned her head to see what had made that dreadful sound. She saw a white unmarked bullhead with a thoroughly scratched up paint job that paired with the crater that was created in a crash. One of the side panels for the doors flew open and two figures jumped out.
The two figures were wearing tattered black uniforms of some kind. One was taller than the other, that one had black hair that seemed so suck in all light that struck it. The other had what appeared to be either brown hair or blond. She couldn't tell with it being so matted with what she assumed was mud. They both had eyes sunken into their skulls, gaunt bodies and were so skinny that even with clothes on she could see their ribs protruding from their chest.
The two were chatting, after some time the taller one broke off walking towards one of the nearby buildings. The blond strolled, or more precisely limped over to where she was with team CRDL. "Would any of you fine people know where one such as myself would acquire some food?" Asked the limping boy.
"People, you left out the animal here. And not for some vagrant such as yourself." Cardin retorted.
"Uhm… follow me. I'll show you to the dining hall." Timidly stated Velvet.
"Thank you, lead on." Velvet began walking towards the dinning hall. She couldn't quite place it but she felt some familiarity about the boy. Velvet counted her lucky stars when Cardin and his group of bullies walked away leaving it to be just her and the limping boy.
*Bing-bong-bong-bing*
"Shoot, first hour bell. I have to go, but if you follow this path you'll make it to the dining hall. There might be snacks but all the breakfast is gone for sure." Chirped Velvet in a rushed voice.
"I'll follow you. I've always been interested in this school, and I've been starving for seven years, what's one more hour." Shrugged the boy.
Velvet would have pestered the boy about how he wasn't allowed to go to class if he wasn't a student, but with the limp she figured that she could easily lose him and with her timid nature if she didn't have to cause conflict, than why do so. She sprinted out of the gardens running through the halls to get to professor Port's class. When she reached her seat after running to both outpace the boy and to arrive on time she discovered that directly behind her was the boy. He wasn't breathing heavy, but he did look slightly paler than back in the garden.
"Beowolves, Ursa, Grimm. I know these creatures all by one name… prey. In my class you will learn... you have a question?" Port inquired pointing to a student behind Velvet.
Velvet turned her head to see who would ask such a question and she saw the boy that had come from the bullhead, "Would you say that the hunting of Grimm is superior to that of man?"
"I don't understand what you're asking." Port said with a furled brow.
"As Hemingway once said, "There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter." Could you say with certainty that those who have hunted men would find Grimm a superior specimen?"
"That depends upon the man, and just how much they liked it." Port solemnly replied, the boy nodded his head in approval, obviously liking the answer. "Now, as I was saying in my class you'll learn how to survive and best Grimm. Why, I remember when I was a little boy..." Port told stories for the remainder of the class period. Velvet let out a groan internally and looked around the room. Others were doing the same, her soft brown eyes caught the vibrant flow of golden hair that was attached to a voluptuous women intently focused on a single point. Following where the student was looking she discovered it to be the limping boy.
*Bing-bong-bong-bing*
"Well, I guess you'll have to wait until next class to hear how my story ended." Port proclaimed, most of the students already out the door.
The golden haired blond jogged over to the boy who was limping down the plush hall. "So, where's your uniform, not that I'm complaining to see those guns" said the blonde, as she felt the forearms of the boy. Velvet hadn't noticed before, as she was more concerned with Cardin, but the boy was sporting some impressive muscles on what non-bone part of his body he had.
"Oh… I haven't received my uniform yet… it needs to be custom tailored with my slim complexion." Blushed the boy, keenly noticing that the blonde was feeling his arm far longer than necessary and he shook off the hand.
"Where are my manners" snorted the blonde. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, and this" she grabbed a girl with a red cloak that was walking beside her, "is my sister Ruby."
"Nice to meet you." Said the boy stretching out his hand and shaking Yang's. "I'm Nick."
"No last name? Velvet inquired, jumping into the conversation. "Ohh, I'm Velvet Scarletina."
At the sound of Velvets name the boys face grew dark and he faltered in his walking. "My last name is… for another time."
"Oh, mysterious, I like it!" Yang shouted giving Nick a playful punch on the arm.
"What is that dreadful stench?" Pouted a girl sporting white hair and holding one of her hands over her nose.
"That's me" sheepishly said the boy. "I haven't had an opportunity to shower in sometime. Can you point me to the nearest shower, outside of the rooms?"
"The training rooms with Ms. Goodwitch would have some showers. If you hurry you'll miss any crowd." Velvet responded.
"Thanks, I hope to see you guys around." The boy seemed to just fall back into a passing group and disappear without a trace.
-Glynda POV-
Glynda was sitting in her desk at the fighting arena. She had arrived a few minutes before the next class was scheduled to be let out to keep up her punctual reputation. She was reading her usual book, being 'Ninjas In Love' with the cover replaced with that of latest 'Dust'n Shop' catalog. Her day had been far more hectic than usual with early that morning a bullhead crashing in the front gardens of the school. When she and Ozpin went to inspect it to see if the pilots and passengers were alright they found nothing. Quietly Glynda moved the crashed bullhead with all of its parts to the bullhead hanger and her with the rest of the available staff conducted an on grounds search for any signs of injured people. The thought of it being an attack had crossed her mind and she had brought it up with Ozpin, but he responded by simply pointing out that they were at a school that trained hunters, as in the position that was congratulated for being the best trained fighters on Remnant, so why would anyone attack them.
It was there while she was reading that she heard the sound of someone singing, She frowned, no one should be in the showers, her first class started at third hour. As she listened to the singing she recognized the song, it was 'Hanging Tree', an awfully grim song to be singing early in the morning. Glynda stood up from her chair and walked to where the changing rooms and thus the shower door were located. The singing was originating in the men's side of the two doors. Taking a deep breath she yanked the door open and walked through.
The changing rooms were set up so that the showers were closest to the doors so that the students could rinse the sweat away from themselves before they reached any possibility of soaking their uniforms in water, although students being students somehow managed to do that regardless of how many times she reminded them to fully dry before they put on their uniforms. She was expecting a normal students body to be showering, in which case she would reprimand them and give a stern talking to about the use of the shower in the combat class, as well as the consequence of missing the class that they were in. What she saw instead was a body that was mangled with scars crisscrossing every which way. Parts of skin were blackened and deformed with burns and the occasional rib was swelled from being untreated from it being badly damaged. The head of the owner of the body was facing the wall away from her.
"You're heading to the infirmary this instant!" Glynda shouted, her eyes set in furry that a person would let their body be in such a condition.
The boy turned his head to face her. Glynda was met by green eyes that were sunken into the skull and golden blond hair that was still shimmering with water droplets, "Who the hell are you?" questioned the boy.
"I'm professor Goodwitch, the combat instructor. March young man to the infirmary before I drag you there myself."
"... I don't know where it is." Sheepishly said the boy.
Glynda let out an exasperated sigh. "Follow me." she curtly said, as she began marching to the infirmary, closely trailed by the boy.
When they reached the infirmary they were met by the head nurse. "What brings you here today?" Glynda stepped to the side to reveal the boy she was escorting, he still had on only a shower towel to cover himself. "Wow… what did you do to him Glynda!"
"I didn't do anything, I found him like this five minutes ago showering."
"You need immediate attention, how long have you had those ribs of yours broken." Snapped the nurse, preparing tools to set the many bones that needed to be set.
"Couple months I'd say." Mumbled the boy.
"Pardon me" Questioned the nurse.
"A couple of months at least." Shrugged the boy.
"Fine, we'll go with that. What's your name, I need to sign you in."
"Blank." Said the boy in a set tone.
"You have to use a real name, and don't even think of lying. My semblance will know if you do."
"I refuse." Growled the boy in a low voice, showing his patience to be running out.
The nurse, getting frustrated twisted one of the broken bones that the boy had, the boy subsequently winced in pain, but didn't cry out. "At Least give me your first name."
"Nick" whispered out the boy.
"Alright Nick, see you when you wake." Said the nurse with a smile on her face.
"WHAT!" Cried Nick, realizing that he had been drugged. Before he could say anything more the full force of the drug hit his system, knocking him out.
Glynda stayed in the infirmary for the whole of the next class period. Staring at the boy made her heart leap, although the reason for that was lost to her. She felt like she knew Nick, but at the same time she didn't. The nurse had taken some x-rays and patched up the wounds that she was able to fix. He had three broken ribs, broken collar bone and a fractured tibia. When the x-rays were developed the nurse let out a gasp. "What is it" questioned Glynda, walking over to the nurse.
"Nearly all of his bones have been broken at one point. Even from hunters that were lost in the wilds for years haven't had this many injuries."
"I heard the news that we found one of our crash pilots. Is this him?" Questioned Ozpin peering through the door.
"Yes, I'm going to call the police to handle him when he wakes."
Ozpin held up his hand to signal Glynda to stop, "If he can survive that crash than I want to talk to him without the interference of police."
Glynda realized what Ozpin was getting at, "Surely you aren't going to make him another exception, there aren't even enough students to form another group with him."
"I'll place him with the other… exceptions if I do like what I see. How long until he wakes up?"
"Now." Growled Nick.
"Good, tell me how would you like to be a hunter?" Asked Ozpin in his usual non-objective voice.
Nick stayed silent for sometime before answering, "No."
Ozpin smiled at the response, "and why not."
"Your students believe that the greatest foes they'll face are the Grimm. I differ in that belief, and have a darker outlook of the world than the students. Adding me to this school would be like adding oil to water, they don't mix."
"That's why I want you here. You can't cook a good meal without vegetable oil and water. You've obviously seen many things, where did you get your… wounds."
"Another time would be better" was the forlorn response Nick gave.
"For the time being just stay here and recover, I'll sort out the logistics of this situation out, for the time being feel free to join in the classes while you recover." Ozpin gave a small half smile and walked past the entrance of the door frame into the hallway.
Nick put his head down in the pillow and appeared to be asleep. The nurse came over to where Glynda was, "What's your take of the boy?"
"I don't know, I feel like I recognize him from somewhere, it's frustrating. Can you give a psych eval of him, since you're also our schools best psychologist."
"No problem with the evaluation. Speaking of which, how are you holding up with the loss of your son? It's been awhile since we've had a talk about it."
"It hurts" was the hollow reply Glynda gave. "I can make it through the day if I can convince myself that by training hunters then I'm helping his memory, but it's a struggle everyday." Glynda was staring out the window as she spoke, sorrow dripping from every word she said. "Bye" was the last word she said to the nurse before she left the infirmary.
Glynda shut the door behind her before she saw what happened next. Nick, who was previously sleeping awoke with a start and began a fit of shaking. He saw the nurse looking down at him with a curious gaze, "please don't go." Shakily said Nick, a voice full of fear. "I don't want to wake from this dream. I don't think I can handle it again."
The nurse walked over to his bed, leaning in and in a caring voice said, "you aren't dreaming, now get some rest." Pushing his head back into the pillow and giving a smile that revealed no ill intentions she stayed in that position until Nick drifted into sleep.
Glynda made it back to her class for the ending half of third period. She was teaching the second year's combat. When she entered the combat room she was met with a large group of teens talking and goofing off in their respective teams. "I want ten laps around the school now!" Glynda shouted at the class. There was a large collective groan from everyone at her order before they began their laps.
A boy with matching red hair and eyes broke away from the mass of students heading for the door to confront her. He was holding a bundle in his arms, "Hello Ms. Goodwitch. I found these in the boys locker room. What do you want me to do with them?"
"Thank you Fox. I'll hold on to them for the time being. Now start your laps."
"Yes ma'am." Hurriedly replied Fox before running to join the group in front of him.
Glynda looked down at what she had just received. There were two items. The first was a .38 caliber revolver. She slid the cylinder holding the rounds open to see what type of ammunition was being used and to possibly find a name. To her surprise she found two used cartridges in the cylinder and the remaining four to be illegal hollow point rounds. Hollow points had been made illegal since their invention sixty years ago, their purpose was for one thing, that was the indiscriminate act of murder. The rounds once hitting flesh would shatter causing internal damage and would largely be a one hit kill to anyone without an aura. The second item were rags that appeared to be some sort of gown. It stank of blood and sweat, with dark red splotches covering all features of what used to be the black background. Turning the rags over she saw two white features on the blackness. The first was a serial number, a number that should only be fit for vermin not for humans to be identified by. The second was the claw and jaw emblem of the White Fang. The emblem she despised over anything else in the world. The emblem which represented the organization that had taken her son.
Next chapter will take some time, as I will be gone for the week preceding this chapter's release.
I will discuss more of what happened in the prison later on, as the need for such information is needed.
