I awoke my team before sunrise, ordering them on a run around beacon academy. We first moved to the JNPR dorm, to pick up their team leader. The dorm was dead silent as we entered, and as we knocked on the door to team JNPR's room Jaune quickly exited wearing running clothes. I stopped him with my hand before he could walk out. "You need to wear your combat gear, and you should bring water for the run." Before he could answer, I turned him around and pushed him inside his room again. After a short wait, he exited again this time dressed in a more appropriate attire. "Now let's get going."
We exited the dorm, the rest of team CCCP waiting outside ready to take on my obstacle course. We first jogged to a cliff a short while out from beacon. The ground at the edge of the cliff had weird grey plates inserted into it, and it had been labeled as initiation grounds on the map over the compound. Just like my training regime in the gym, I had been forced to change the obstacle course a little to fit better to aura users. Instead of scaling the huge cliff side, as I would have done in the army, I jumped of it without pausing. Midair I took out my weapon in its sword form and stabbed it hard into a nearby tree. This slowed my decent enough for me to land without breaking any bones. This did not mean it was a soft landing, the area around me certainly felt the force of it, but aided by armor and my aura, I managed to do it without any damage. Copper slowed his decent with a steady flame, burning up the dust inside him to achieve lift. Penny arrived shortly after, coming to a stop by planting her blades into the mountainside and the trees.
"Penny, make a net." She acknowledged my command and intertwined the wires running from her swords, creating a net to stop the fall of Ciel and Jaune. I saw the face of Ciel looking over the edge, shortly after she jumped out from the cliff. During her fall, she turned on her back. She hit the net, her aura stopping it from slicing her into pieces. She quickly got out of the way, allowing Jaune to make his jump. "You told him to boost his aura?" Ciel turned towards me. "No, Sir." I immediately yelled at the blonde about to jump down from the cliff. "ACTIVATE YOUR AURA!"
A plan started to form in my head. . I ordered Penny to retract her net and removed my weapon from its sheath and transformed it into the rifle form which I aimed at the blonde. As he neared the ground I fired at his plating, the force of my shots made him activate his aura and slowed him down enough for me to catch him. I put the struggling blond down on the ground, and when he finally touched the ground, he turned to me in protest.
"What was that?" He protested, sorely touching the places the plates cowered his back, now marked with bullets.
"Ciel and I forgot to mention that you should have reinforced your aura. Therefore..." I turned to Ciel who already stood at attention. "I have special task for you and I, we are picking up a sizeable stone and bringing it back to academy."
"Wait, why?" Jaune asked as Ciel accepted the task.
"Because a mistake will lead to the death of someone else. This mistake could have ended in you dying; a little reminder will decrease the chances of it happening again." I answered as I sheathed my sword/gun.
We continued our little obstacle course through the forest, as we got farther from beacon more signs of the huntsmen's fight against the Grimm appeared. Overturned trees, burned trees, trees cleanly severed right through, well any damage seemed to be caused by the myriad of weapons in the arsenal of the huntsmen. When we entered a clearing where the ground was covered in ashes and the trees were black husks, we encountered our first Grimm. The Ursa was standing in the center, and I grabbed my rifle.
"This seems like a good spot." I said as began firing directly up into the air. As the sound of my rifle resounded through the forest, I heard the sound of the creatures of Grimm moving in on the disturbance to their kingdom. Ciel immediately sent out a bolt of lightning at the Ursa, and as it disintegrated we took our stance in the center of the clearing. "Jaune, I hope you're ready for a fight." I said as I scanned the tree line.
The still winded Jaune readied himself for the onslaught in response. Not a second too late for the second for suddenly a King Taijitu burst out of the trees. I opened fire at the snake Grimm and as I fired, Copper dashed in for the kill. "Ciel cover Copper while he fights the snake." I barked over the clamor of combat. "Penny and Jaune, we have the opposite side, you two engage them in melee while I provide ranged support." The combat commenced as the tree line was peppered with the red eyes of Grimm moving in on the location.
Ciel and Copper displayed their menacing duo, the monstrous damage Copper could do in close combat, and the incredible accuracy of Ciel complimented each other in a dance of fire and lightning. Every time Copper was about to be flanked by attacking Grimm, Ciel would blast the monster away, and Copper stopped any Grimm from reaching Ciel uncontested. In the other side of the clearing, Penny proved the superiority of Atlesian tech by taking out half of what came at our side. Jaune proved to be an excellent meat shield. His aura only decreasing by a miniscule amount each time he was hit. The fight dragged on, and the ash from the ground began to distort my vision of the battlefield. I brandished my sword and joined Jaune in the frontline.
My first opponent was an Ursa, it moved up on its hind legs to deliver a crushing blow to me. I transformed my sword into the rifle, unloading a salvo into the exposed chest of the Ursa. It shied away, and replacing it was a Beowolf. The Beowolf attacked with swift strikes. Without fazing I redirected its first attack with my armored arm. The plating held, and I finished of the offending Grimm by stabbing it through the head with my sword.
After a while, the fight slowly died down all around the clearing. "Gather 'round mates." I barked calling the training party into the center of our natural arena. "Great job guys, before we run back to beacon I want to give you guys some feedback. Penny, as always, beautiful job. Copper you need to keep a more even pace, try not fizzling out to fast and try to focus your energy to attack instead of letting it dissipate. Ciel you really need to brush up on your hand to hand combat, you amounted to little more than a civilian with a stun gun when the visibility dropped. Jaune you are the opposite of Ciel, you really need to obtain a ranged weapon." I stopped, drawing in a deep breath after unleashing such an onslaught of information. "Now do any of you have some feedback for me?"
Jaune thought a little on the question. "You need something that can take care of more armored opponents, you struggled with the Boarbatusk." He finally answered.
"Thank you, now let's get back to beacon." I said and began jogging in the direction of the academy.
On our way back to the academy, we found a temple, Jaune said that this temple had been the target during initiation. Ciel and I respectively grabbed a stone, and carried it back to the academy. We entered the campus and made our way to our dorm room to change into something not covered in ash. Jaune returned to his own dorm after saying that he would meet us in the mess hall. After placing the stone outside we entered our dorm to grab some clothes and made our way to the communal showers. After splitting up into the male and female shower rooms, Copper and I proceeded to paint the white tiles of the shower black. We dried ourselves up, and put on our spare combat suites. The girls came out shortly afterwards both wearing a spare set of their usual clothes.
After placing our dirty clothes in our room, we made our way to the cafeteria. The cafeteria at beacon academy had a striking resemblance to the one at the orphanage. The high vaulted ceiling was held by arcs of stone, and windows spanned the entire wall on both sides of the hall, letting in the light of the rising sun into the hall. The NPR part of team JNPR were already waiting for us. We grabbed our dinner and joined them, my team going for a hearty breakfast of bacon, sausages and eggs.
"What did you do to Jaune this morning? He arrived back at our room completely covered in ash?" Pyrrha challenged as we sat down at the table.
"A little morning training. Nothing out of the ordinary." I answered as I dug into my breakfast.
"A little morning training that involved shooting our team leader?"
"Sometimes accidents happens." I answered stabbing a piece of bacon.
"If anything happens to him…"
"You will be the first to know." I said trying to deescalate the situation.
"No, if something happens to him I will end you." She threatened and stood up from the table.
"Hey, Girlie." Copper broke in, chewing on a piece of sausage. "You stay away from Cobalt."
Before a fight could break out Jaune joined us, diffusing the situation. "Pyrrha, I was the one who agreed to join them, they didn't force me to anything." I sensed that Pyrrha did not believe him, clearly showing her distrust of me. Ren changed the subject to something less antagonizing.
"Have you guys seen team RWBY this morning? It sounded like there was a pretty heated argument last evening."
"Blake disappeared!" Nora answered. "They took a transport to the city this morning, and I saw them leaving without Blake! Maybe Blake has run away with the circus, to experience a new life as an acrobat, we should do that Ren, I could be a strong man and you could…" The hyperactive girl continued, fueled by a plate of pancakes covered in syrup. Penny stood up from the table. "I will go help them! They are my friends, and friends help each other in need."
"Are you sure that they want your help?" Copper asked a little muffled as he tore into a huge piece of bacon.
"Yes, they are my friends, they said so themselves."
"Are we your friends?" Nora asked almost assaulting the robot girl with puppy eyes.
"I am not sure. Copper and Ciel are my coworkers, and Cobalt is my boss. I do not know what you are. We could be friends."
"Yay." Nora answered, assaulting the robotic girl with a hug.
"Will you help me help RWBY friends?"
"No sorry, Ren says that I have to do homework today." The Valkyrie answered.
The robotic girl meekly said her goodbyes, and as she left the cafeteria a yellow marked soldier entered. He scanned the room, clearly looking for someone. As his gaze moved over our table he stopped his search, clearly having found what he was looking for. "Corporal Early, I have a message for you. The general wants you to report to the CCTS tower at eighteen hundred hours."
"Thank you soldier." I answered as I finished up my breakfast.
The soldier saluted me and left. Leaving a confused team JNPR. "You're a corporal?" Jaune said surprised.
"My military rank is still in effect." I answered. "It means that I get paid by the military and that I have command over my squad."
"You certainly do things differently in Atlas; I couldn't imagine Jaune and Ruby having such a commanding attitude towards us." Pyrrha stated still dissatisfied with my treatment of Jaune.
"Well, sometimes it looks like you need it, just look at the situation in team RWBY. A strong leader can diffuse those situations. Hell Cobalt stopped Ciel from killing me once." Copper retorted, clearly offended by the Amazonian's statement.
"A leader is not always a commanding voice. It shows great skill to resolve situations like that without grabbing to authority." She answered.
"But being able to use both will net the best result." Ciel chimed in, supporting Copper in my defense.
"Hey, don't begin fighting, it is hardly relevant. I use my authority when I need it, but negotiating a compromise will usually net the best results. Different methods different situations." I said. "I will be going to the range, I want to get in some time with my new rifle before my meeting with the general´."
The range was a long room, with cutouts of Grimm suspended on a rail in one side of the room. One could add obstacles at will, and if one wanted to try ones weapon against different types of plating, you had that option. Considering Jaune's word from the training, I borrowed a high caliber revolver from the armory at the school. After almost cutting my finger off after the revolver turned into a knife, I began firing with the heavy weapon. The kick was hard to deal with, however as I got used to it, I began putting bullets into the targets with my usual accuracy. The revolver would allow me to have an armor-piercing alternative to my rifle, and my aura combined with my armor allowed me to fire it onehanded. This made it possible to hold my sword while using it. While not able to display the gunplay of Copper in his fight against Spec. Schnee, I would be able to do something against the heavily armored Grimm.
After a couple of hours of in the range I delivered the revolver back and made my way to the CCTS tower. The tower was located at beacon campus and I arrived five minutes before my time ran out. I was received by the military police, which guard the tower, into a private messaging chamber. Here I found a holographic display in the center of a round room. I took my position and shortly after general Ironwood appeared, animated in blue light he still managed to display the authority connected to man of his position. I saluted the general.
"Corporal, good to see you, settling in well at beacon I hope?" He asked after dismissing my salute.
"Yes sir, the Beacon facilities are more than adequate for my team." I asked and placed my hands behind my back.
"Good." He answered, and he pressed a button revealing a mission file. "New mission for you, I have reports that stolen military goods may be brought to Vale by the white fang." He brought up a picture of a scruffy man. "This is Tukson, he is our informant, I want you to go to his bookstore, and find out where the goods are and what they will be used for. And in extension I give you permission to use more extreme means."
"Extreme means sir?" I asked.
"We are closing in on the Vytal tournament, and if the white fang wants to do some serious damage they would attack during this time. I give you permission to use less than legal means to stop this."
"I understand sir, we will not disappoint."
"And another thing corporal, I do not want Penny involved in this."
"Why not sir?"
"She is not a soldier like you and Copper, and Ciel is a special case. Please let her be a student."
"She is a great combat asset; it would be a mistake to not utilize her."
"Just avoid letting her in on the less savory parts of the investigation."
Before I could answer, my scroll rang. I cursed myself for not silencing it, but before I could hang up, I noticed that it was from Penny. I showed my scroll to the general. "I said she could call me if there was an emergency." I picked up the call.
"Sir. Explosions and sounds of fighting from the docks. Moving to investigate." Penny said from the phone.
The call immediately ended, leaving no time for me to order her to do something else. I turned towards the hologram of the general. "Sorry sir, I have to leave." The general nodded towards me, and turned off the transmission on his end. I ran for the armory. As I sprinted trough the beacon campus, I called Copper and Ciel in a group call.
"Where are you?"
"We are at the weapons shop in the City, what has happened?" Copper answered.
"Attack at the docks, how fast can you be there?"
"20 minutes. "
"Good, I will join you as soon as I can."
I entered the armory. Inside I found a female bunny faunus, she was cleaning her camera. "You, faunus, I need your help now." She complied confused, and helped me put on my plating. As I grabbed my helmet and a couple of extra mags, I realized that I would have no way to travel to the docks fast enough to make a difference. I closed my locker, but as I turned to lock it, a plan formed in my head. The faunus had returned to her camera, but was roused by my command. "Hey, I need your help again." She let out a shrug and returned to me. "Put in the coordinates of the docks, and then press fire when I have entered the locker." She let out a small protest but I dismissed it instantly.
The locker was not made for human travel, but I made do with holding on to the weapon holders. I nodded at the faunus, and she closed the locker and pressed the fire button. I felt the locker accelerate, and I accompanied the ascend with a chorus of swearwords. The locker reached the cusp and for a moment, I felt weightless. The world grabbed me again and I accelerated towards the ground. I braced myself against the sides of the locker, preparing for touchdown.
The collision was extremely disorienting, but I stayed inside, relying on the feeble protection provided by the metal locker. After a while, I regained my bearing, the pain fading as the aura did its job. Outside I saw Penny fighting a huge amount of white fang grunts. A couple of the faunus neared the locker, wary of the content. I smashed open the locker, covering my left side with the heavy metal door. I peppered the encroaching faunus with rifle shots. Penny was taking care of an innumerable amount of faunus. A wing of bullheads flew towards the docks, they did not bear a military marked, so I rationalized that they were white fang.
"Penny, Bulls incoming six o clock, give them a light show." I heard a short affirmative, and the robotic girl called her swords to her. She spun the sword in a circle, all pointed at the encroaching bullheads. A green blob of energy began building up in the center of her swords, and with it, Penny produced a laser that took down one of the bullheads. The others managed to land with their contingent of White fang grunts. They ran towards Penny and I, intermixed with the ordinary grunts I spotted some of the stronger lieutenants. While Penny and I faced the army of white fang, Blake and a monkey faunus faced the dangerous criminal Roman Torchwick. The red haired charmer was wearing a white jacket and his trademark bowler hat, complete with the red band. He displayed an extreme amount of skills as he fought the two faunus off and managed to climb onto one of the bullheads leaving with the dust haul.
We were joined by Ruby, which with her great speed and abnormally huge scythe carved huge holes in the white fang formation.
The fight ended when a fireball erupted inside the white fang formation. From behind us, I heard the shouts of a certain red haired individual. "Time for barbecue!" Copper pulled a pin out of his brand new grenades, but instead of throwing it like he had done before, he held it until it exploded. The fire coated him, and he ran up screaming like the reaper and began gutting his way through the faunus. The attack from both side, and the fact that one of the attackers might as well have been stepped out of a nightmare, broke the morale of the faunus, routing them back to their bullheads. Further forcing their retreat was bolt of lightning striking down into their formation. I turned to see Ciel standing on a high voltage mast, letting the current of travel through her and into her lightning bolts.
The dock was left with the exhausted bodies of white fang casualties. The police arrived, albeit a little late and began apprehending the white fang casualties. I joined up with the rest of the huntsmen in training. Copper was still slightly burning as result of his fiery entrance. "Looks like you bougth some new toys." I said as he closed. "These things are awesome, I felt on fire when using them." He answered. I ignored his wordplay. Blake and the monkey faunus joined us. The monkey faunus had the monkey tail to identify him as a faunus, and was wearing a white jacket. The jacket was open and revealed the craziest abs I have ever seen.
"Blake!" Ruby exclaimed as she ran up and hugged the cat faunus. "Please do not run away again! We can fix this together, if you just sit down and explain."
"Yeah you guys are friends." Penny added.
"You want some team privacy?" I asked and motioned to my team. Ciel had just joined us after clearing things up with the police.
"No, I do not want to leave any unanswered questions." Blake gathered us. "I grew up in the white fang. I was there as a child at the protest and the boycotts. However, one day everything changed. A new leader stepped in, on with very different values. Instead of peaceful protest, we began using force to hurt the companies that abused the faunus. So I left, I decided that I no longer wanted to use my skill to aid in their violence."
"See that wasn't so hard. Now we just need to convince Weiss." Ruby said.
"Convince me of what?" A certain white haired individual said from behind us.
"Look Weiss, she explained everything…" Ruby started. Weiss ignored her and squared off against Blake.
"We have used so much time searching for you, and during that time, I have been thinking." Weiss said. "I don't care. You're not one of them anymore, and that's all that matters to me."
"Yay, team RWBY is back together." Ruby busted out, forcing her team into a group hug with her semblance.
My team and the monkey faunus sat there in silence, appreciating the happiness that flowed out of the gathering of teens. They finally separated, and Ruby began retelling the fight to her white and yellow team members.
"Penny was like whoosh, with her swords and kicked extreme ass. Suddenly a rocket locker drops out of the sky like kapow, and out steps cobalt that was like bang bang bang, laying down the fire on the white fang." The red reaper told, while doing different poses, further emphasizing her story.
I left the gathering for the police officers placing the white fang prisoners in a wagon. "I would like to interrogate one of the prisoners." I asked the officer in charge.
"Sorry, police business."
I extended my hand towards the officer. "Corporal Early. Atlesian military. The people you have apprehended could deliver much information regarding an ongoing investigation."
"Sorry sir, Vale grounds, Vale business. Ask your superiors to request for a joint operation. Then you can get access to the prisoners." He answered, ignoring my outstretched hand.
"This investigation could save lives! I want to see the prisoners now." I demanded from the officer.
"And I have regulations to follow, now get out of my sight before I have you thrown out of the city."
I left disgruntled, and joined my team around Ruby closing in on the ending of her story. "And then Copper came, first he threw a grenade at the white fang, where after he set himself on fire with a fire grenade! If he had been using his fist, I would have thought it was Yang."
"You set yourself on fire?" Yang interrupted.
"Yeah I have fire dust infused into my body. Usually the fire will appear during the fight, as a byproduct of execs heat of me sending fireballs at my enemy. However, when I set myself on fire, I do not need to heat up and I can put up a better fight quicker." Copper answered. "Nothing crazy there, the true crazy is Cobalt and Ciel. Cobalt was at Beacon only ten minutes before the fighting started, and Ciel hooked herself up to the Vale power grid!"
"When you get more control over your power like me, you will be able to do things like that with ease." Ciel answered dismissing the claim of insanity. "There is no crazy in doing what you are capable of."
"How was the ride Cobalt? I cannot imagine it was comfortable ride." Copper continued ignoring the lightning girl.
"The ascend and the descend were not that comfortable. I would not recommend it to anyone." I said with a smile. Brushing of the experience as a minor disturbance.
I sent the locker back to Beacon and left the docks together with my team. We entered our dorm room, and as Penny entered the bath, I gathered Copper and Ciel for a briefing.
"General Ironwood has a mission for the three of us. He has intel that the white fang has acquired Atlesian military tech and that they are going to use this in an attack against Vale during the Vytal tournament. Our mission is to stop this attack at any cost."
"What about Penny Sir?" Ciel asked.
"General Ironwood has asked me to keep her out of the investigation."
"Why sir?"
"General Ironwood has his own reasons, I trust him to tell me if it has anything to do with the mission." I answered and brought up a picture of Tukson on my scroll. "Our first task tomorrow is to meet the informant, so get to sleep and be ready for the morrow."