MANDO RISING

"They call themselves Animal Control"

At 5:00 it started. BLEET! BLEET! BLEET! Jacob woke up to his alarm and threw on a pair of gym shorts and a white tee. He glanced over to see Daniel doing the same. "You too," He asked the young giant.

Daniel just grinned at him and flexed his arm, his bicep rippling, "You don't get guns like these by sleeping in. I'm actually kind of embarrassed that I missed leg day. Yesterday was just too hectic."

Jacob nodded in agreement, then he noticed something, "Wait where is Ginny?" He asked. Samuel was still sleeping, but their fourth team mate was no where to be seen.

"She probably already hit the track. She's a runner, does at least three miles every morning." Daniel replied as the two of them walked out the door. "Sometimes she joins me on the weights after, but usually she gets into the ring. For a primarily ranged fighter, she can box pretty well."

As they entered the gym they looked around. At the back on the left side sat a group of four boxing rings. In one of them Price was wiping the floor with some other student they didn't know. They couldn't see his face but he seemed charged with energy. Dominating the right side of the gym was the indoor track. On it they could see a familiar blonde, and running with her was the purple-haired leader of Team VILT. The two of them headed to the front left, where the weights were located. "Spot for me?" Daniel asked.

"Sure, how much are you lifti..." Jacob trailed off as he saw that his teammate had put 800lbs of weight on the bar. "Um, I don't know how much help I'll be if you drop that kind of weight man." Daniel just gave him a wicked grin as he took position.

"Don't worry I don't really need a spotter, I can just use my semblance if something happens. As a matter of fact I'm only going to be lifting about half of this weight with my arms. The rest will be from my semblance, I can train my body and powers at the same time this way," Daniel said right before he started lifting.

A group of other students started gathering around to stare at the giant. One of them, a fourth year Jacob had seen around school, started laughing at the absurdity of it all. He walked away, slowly shaking his head in disbelief.

After Daniel finished four reps, Jacob put 300lbs on the bar, feeling slightly emasculated by his teammates performance. The gathered crowd dispersed, still in awe of what they had seen.

/

After they finished, they went over to see Ginny stepping into the ring with Price who said simply, "Round One." As they started boxing the song he had requested started playing from the scroll in his pocket.

You got blood on your face

Looks like you're a total disgrace

They started dancing on the balls of their feet and Price could be heard rapping quietly. Ginny seemed upset at his cockiness and skipped forward, throwing a vicious jab into his jaw.

You came here to take me down

but I only see one of us on the ground

It hit and they could see his his eyes crinkle in a smile. He replied with a left feint at her gut and as she dodged to the side his right hook hit her in the temple. She staggered and he let loose with a left cross, right jab, and finished with a spartan kick to her chest. She hit the mat, paused for a moment, then bounced back up, throwing an uppercut. Price responded by sweeping her legs out from under her and pinning her. She tapped out, as the song finished.

Round one over

Price started to walk away, whistling. Then Daniel stepped into the ring, "You were holding back," he said simply.

Price nodded looking surprised, "Yes I was, does that make you angry, lad?" Price said as he assumed a boxing stance.

"Not really, I've just been wanting to show you up in the ring, and this is as good an excuse as any. And before you make an excuse about being worn out, so am I. I just benched eight-hundred pounds."

"Well in that case what are we waiting for?" Price asked. Then he grinned, "Agent Tex," he said to his Scroll, as he advanced on Daniel. Daniel planted his feet for maximum grip and waited as Price danced toward him, it was a fight of completely different styles. Daniel was a boxer and Price used one of the fighting styles of Vale's eastern islands. As soon as Price got close enough, Daniel delivered a jab. The sound of his glove hitting the smaller man echoed through the gym. The blow rocked Price's head back and Jacob thought the smaller man was going to fall. Bur Price recovered, looking dazed. Daniel just grinned, this was going to be fun. The fight continued in much the same way, though Price got in way more licks, every time Daniel threw a punch it was lightning fast and the sound would echo through the room like a cannon shot. The man was nowhere near as technically skilled as Price, but he didn't need to be. For Daniel footwork just really didn't matter. Boxing gloves simply didn't hurt him. Price finally took what seemed like a rocket powered punch to the face and crumpled. It wasn't a knock out, he was just done.

Daniel stepped out of the ring and shoved his way through the crowd that had gathered around the ring. It seemed that the giant would soon be making a name for himself. He found Ginny and Jacob, and then they headed back to their room. Daniel took the first shower. As he let the water run over him, he thought about his father. The last time he had seen his dad, his father had asked him one thing, "You're man now Daniel, and strong noble one at that, but your sister, well she is still my little girl. Protect her son, and take of yourself too. Don't you two be taking any unnecessary risks ya hear me? Now off you go."

Now he was trying to balance that request with Ginny's need to branch off on her own. It was turning out to be a lot harder than he had imagined. Then he heard someone beating on the door, "Daniel get out of there!" It was Ginny, of course.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he said exasperatedly. He quickly threw on his school uniform and left the bath room.

After everyone was done showering they headed to breakfast, "So, Samuel are you nervous about the duel with Tanner?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Not really, what happens, happens," the fencer responded curtly. Ginny gave him a strange look. She just couldn't seem to get a read on the guy. He almost never talked, and when he did he rarely had anything nice to say. But he didn't seem like a jerk, if he was it would be much easier to just dismiss him as not being worth her time. She just wanted this to be the perfect team that team TEAL seemed to be. She wanted everyone on the team to be friends and Samuel was the only obstacle in her way. Ginny was determined to find a way around this barrier. She would have to find a way to form a friendship with the fencer, she decided.

Daniel noticed the determined glint in her eye, and gave her a questioning look, she just shrugged back at him. "So today we have class with Dr. Oobleck, the history professor." Jacob said, he sounded excited about the prospect of a history class. "I've heard he is one of the best professors here. But according to the second years, he's a bit... eccentric."

As they left the line they saw TEAL seated at a table that had plenty of room for them. So they joined their brother team. Daniel decided to sit beside Price, who strangely wasn't constantly flirting with Hazel, who was seated across from him. Daniel wondered what the deal with the two of them. As he set down his tray, which was overloaded with food, Price looked to the side, "There's the wee laddie. Hazel and I were just talking about how you beat my face in today."

"If you ever lay your hands on my man again, I'll make sure that some of your parts go missing," Hazel said, smiling sweetly.

"Now Lass, it was just a friendly boxing match! We were just having fun. Besides I want a rematch!" Price protested loudly.

"No. Absolutely not. You finally decided to take off your balaclava and let me see your face for the first time in three years and it looks like hamburger meat. How am I supposed to enjoy the view when its all swollen up?" She said.

Ginny seated herself across from her brother, "Daniel, you should have known there would be consequences in beating up on someone." She said stealing a strip of bacon off his plate. He just glowered at her and put his arms on the table, curling them around his tray protectively. "Oh, its not as if you need all that food. You just eat when you're bored," she said as she reached for his tray.

Daniel absentmindedly slapped her hand as he faced Hazel, "I sincerely apologize for giving Price the beating he needed. But if you ever need someone to give him the beating he DESERVES, you need only ask," He said with a grin.

She grinned back, "I'll certainly keep that in mind," she glanced back at Price, "Looks like I have an enforcer now; you best watch yourself."

Ginny looked at him, puzzled. Daniel had never shown any interest in defending anyone but her. Back at Signal he had only focused on beating the living crap out anyone who threatened his smaller sister. Beacon was confusing her. No one acted normally at this school. Well no one except the anti-faunus crap piles. They were, as always, everywhere.

Jacob sat bent over in conversation with Tanner, the two of them were busy discussing their leadership class, Tanner had already told both him and Violet about seeing Johnny Nova. "So what do you think he wanted Steele's help with?"

"He said something about human purists. Seems like any high-profile faunus have been getting attacked by a group of pro-humans. They call themselves 'Animal Control'. Seems they think they're just balancing out the White Fang. I did some digging and found out that Steele's team, TTNM, was made up of Steele and three faunus. Not only that they were involved in quelling one of the last faunus uprisings. They got branded traitors by the faunus community here in Vale. It would make sense for them to try and redeem themselves by stopping this murder spree. They probably think that they can redeem themselves by stopping this Animal Control group. They might even be right," Tanner replied. Jacob could tell the very idea of a group like Animal Control pissed Price off, and he empathized. Jacob had never quite understood the hatred of faunus.

The bell rang and Jacob stood, noticing Samuel wasn't in the room. He sighed, the young fencer was really starting to hurt the team dynamic by refusing to communicate with everyone. Jacob had decided something needed to be done about the man, but he didn't know what he could do. Maybe the duel with Tanner would help, he certainly hoped so.

He was so preoccupied trying to come up with a solution to the Samuel problem that he didn't even enjoy Professor Oobleck's lecture. The man was teaching about the faunus revolution, a subject Jacob would usually have been enormously interested in.

He walked to lunch and saw that Daniel and Ginny were already seated with TEAL and VILT. Daniel had managed to draw a crowd by arm wrestling all comers. The guy was a first year and he was already drawing crowds everywhere he went. It was starting to get ridiculous. He sighed, why couldn't he just have a normal team like Tanner.

His lunch crawled by as he contemplated the Samuel Issue, as he had begun to think of it.

On the other end of the table Daniel was arm wrestling a fourth year named Davis. They struggled for a moment before the fourth year's arm gave and Daniel slammed it down so hard that it crashed through the table. Daniel stood and the students gathered around started chanting his new nickname. They were calling him Mando now, apparently it was a reference to a warrior race from some sci-fi film. From what Jacob could gather it had something to do with the way Daniel's helmet looked. Jacob didn't really understand it.

As the bell rang Jacob linked up with Tanner and Violet. They had another leader only class today. It was taught by the same professor, but supposedly this class was meant as the application of what their lessons taught them.

They entered and took their seats. After a few minutes Steele walked in and looked at them happily. He was wearing silver half-plate and held a greatsword in his hand. "Well what are you waiting for, go get your gear. From now on you will not come to this class unless you are fully geared up."

The class turned out to be way more exhausting than they had expected. They were put through simulations of the battle with the massive horde of beowulves, which was replicated using holograms. They had to command their holographic teams in battle and as they progressed it became apparent that they had handled the real battle all wrong. If they just positioned themselves differently then TEAL and BGDY could have held position inside the building without taking any injuries and VILT would have been able to attack the grimm from the trees. The results would have been similar but it was a far less risky way to do things.

The class ended and Jacob's thoughts immediately turned back to the Samuel Issue. He finally just decided to wait it out until after the duel. Tanner and Violet were waiting for him outside the classroom. They gestured for him to follow them. They ended up in Professor Eclipse's class room, though the professor wasn't there. "So what's this about?" Jacob asked, his curiosity peaked.

"It's about your team. Or more specifically one particular member of your team," Violet said.

"Yeah, I know. I'm already aware that Samuel is a problem," Jacob said, irritated. He already new this was an issue, surely they didn't think he was oblivious to the problem.

"Nope. Not Samuel. Daniel," Tanner corrected him, "And its not because he is a problem. Its because he is the opposite of a problem." Tanner was actually smirking, Jacob didn't know the scarred face could hold such an expression. "We want to capitalize on his growing fame."

"And play a prank while we do it," Violet added, with an evil grin. Jacob suddenly discovered he was very interested in what the two had to say.