Chapter 7: Vacuo and the Great Gambit

A few clouds hung around in the air, but the sun still shined brightly in the afternoon sky. Students all around filled the streets as many had come to attend Vacuo's academy, or were at this stop waiting to head to Beacon.

Gale yawned as he pulled at his uniform, "So this is what one of these feels like . . . Man this is uncomfortable." He loosened the tie and looked down at the black pants and red linings on the blazer. "Oh well," he looked around at where he was. He was sitting down on a stone bench just far enough away from one of the many directories in Vacuo. A large group of students all in Beacon uniforms crowded around it to find places to pass time before the airships were ready to take them to Beacon. Gale yawned again and sighed, "Have to be nice . . . Have to be nice." He thought to himself over and over again.

"Hey are you ok?" a voice asked him from his left. He looked up to where it came from and blinked as he saw Jade standing by him with her arms crossed behind her back. She was dressed in the Beacon Academy uniform, blazer, skirt, and all. The Beacon crest was shining and new on her uniform, giving even her shy demeanor a very uniformed and professional appeal.

Gale nodded and looked back at the mass group of students surrounding the directory. After a moment he found himself continuously looking back and forth between them and Jade, who simply stood nervously next to him. Gale sighed, "Hey?" He asked rather harshly.

Jade jumped a bit, "Um . . . Y-Yes?" She asked nervously, her ears flatten on her head once more, giving away her nervousness.

Gale stared straight at the group and slouched back, "You can take a seat here if you want, I don't bite." He said trying to be funny while smiling at her as his tail moved from behind him to the opposite side of where she could sit. Jade hesitated and finally sat at the edge of the bench, as far away from him as possible. "You . . . Ok, well if you want to sit all the way over there that's fine by me, but you're showing you're nervous quite easily." Gale said tiredly.

"T-That's not it!" Jade looked up at him and mild shock at how she had just randomly said something like that before looking back down at her legs. "I'm just not good at talking to people . . . I'm very shy."

Gale nodded slowly, "So what then? You never have friends to normally talk to?"

Jade shook her head slowly like a frightened animal, "No! I mean I would always hang out in the library at our old combat school, in Mistral, alone." Gale looked at her in slight surprise at hearing the place she attended combat school. "I would always be sitting alone, studying or reading in the library, and no one would bother me, except this one really nice girl."

Gale continued to listen to her, "One friend?"

Jade nodded, "Yeah . . . Eventually I started talking to her; she was really nice . . . She said her name was Jasmine."

Gale looked at her in slight surprise, "This girl . . . knew Jasmine," he thought quietly to himself.

Jade looked up slowly at the group of kids in front of them, "B-But I told her that I'd try to make at least one friend on the ride to Beacon before I made it into one of the school ground, and then I'd met up with her . . . So I still have one more ride to go and I was just wondering if . . . If I could . . . If I could . . . Could."

She continued to tense up and finally Gale leaned back on the bench and put his arms behind his head. "You're welcome to stay with us; after all, because of us you have more than five friends now so I guess you met your goal."

Jade looked up at him in surprise, "You mean-"

Gale nodded, "I don't know about the others entirely, they seem nice enough, but you seem like a good kid so consider me your friend."

Jade smiled happily at him, "Thank you . . . To be honest, I actually heard she had died not too long ago," she said sadly, while bit his bottom lip quietly. "I . . . I think she would have liked you, she always liked helping at school, and especially liked talking to people like you," Jade said happily while looking at him with rising joy.

Gale held in his rising tears as he felt the words from Jade slice into his very soul, "Is that right? I think that would have been nice," He said as casually as he could.

Jade nodded, and then looked over his shoulder as she heard more people approaching.

Cyrus and Elizabeth walked towards them; Cyrus's uniform looked exactly like Gale's though it was far straighter and the tie was tightened, while Elizabeth's was just like Jade's. "Hey you two, how's it going?" Elizabeth asked happily.

Gale looked back and shrugged, "Not much, Jade just wants to know if we can all be friends, sound cool with you? She really could use some."

Jade tensed up nervously and tried to protest at how blunt he was about her issue, but Elizabeth quickly hugged her with a laugh, "Absolutely! I love making new friends!"

Cyrus nodded, "I don't see why not."

Gale yawned, "See? It was that easy to make friends with this strange bunch."

Jade stuttered nervously, "Um . . . I-I'm not m-much of a hugger . . . Can you please let go?"

Elizabeth ignored her for a minute until Cyrus picked her up by her neck collar, "Hey! Let me go!" She protested as her fox ears stood up in surprise at having been picked up. Cyrus laughed and held her up for another minute, letting her kick and squirm before finally letting go.

Sora found her way to them, "Sorry! John and Heather began trying to pull me into a swarm of new friends they made," She said with nervous laugh. "So how are you all doing?"

Gale yawned, "Tired . . . When does the airship leave for Beacon academy?"

Sora put her finger up to her chin and thought for a second. "Hmm . . . I don't really know too be honest."

Sora snapped her fingers, "Maybe train schedules are in the scrolls we got with the uniform!"

Jade looked up slowly, "Um . . . It leaves in about an hour, and the station is only ten minutes away from here, so by the time it leaves we'll be there sometime in the evening tonight, just in time for some sleep before the orientation ceremony tomorrow morning."

Cyrus looked at her curiously, "You sound like you know every detail of it."

Jade's cheeks flustered and she shuffled in her seat, "Well . . . I just did the math based off what I read in the scrolls we got. . . So I think it's accurate."

Gale yawned once more, "Great so I can sleep for half an hour . . . Just wake me up when we leave." He closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

The rest of the group laughed and continued to talk for a few minutes more until Star approached them all quietly. "Did you all go see what's happening at the main plaza?" The looked at her with confusion and she pointed back at where she came from, "You do know there's some kind of fight going on right? A lot of the students are there, apparently some people keep trying to fight this one guy, but they keep losing."

"A fight? I want to watch!" Sora bounced up.

"This does sound interesting," Cyrus said with a smile.

"Come on, it's actually really cool," Star said as she headed back from where she came. The group began to walk towards where she ran off to, but Jade stayed to shake Gale awake before following along.

Gale yawned and stood up, "Now what?" He asked no one in particular before walking after them.

After a few moments, the large group found themselves wading through a crowd that had circled around a few different first year students. One gray haired and gray eyed boy in a Beacon Academy uniform stood in a relaxed position with his hands in his pockets, black and silver wireless headphones resting on his head, and a gray beanie with a yellow pin of a plastic face sticking its tongue out stuck on the side of it. He himself was grinning at four random male students who were in casual clothing, brandishing their weapons at him. "How dare you steal from me, you damn thief," shouted one of them.

The gray haired boy shrugged, "What do you mean 'damn thief?' I won that game fair and square, I won these headphones, the beanie, and the money. Hell you should be thanking me for giving you the opportunity to play a real serious world game; I mean you guys coming to Vacuo always sound so laid back! Can't you take it easy?" The boy asked while laughing. The four students glared at him, and jumped forward to attack him with their weapons.

The gray haired boy squinted at them for a moment, and his eyes flashed a bright silver color. He moved ever so slightly to the left after closing his eyes again and then he swung his leg around to kick one of the students attacking him. He laughed, "You're seriously that easy to beat? I don't even have to pull my hands out of my pocket . . . Hey there, how about a wager?" He said while spinning around and looking at a random female student in casual clothing. She looked around nervously and pointed at herself in confusion. The gray haired boy nodded, and jumped in the air as one of his attackers tried to hit him from behind with a battle-axe. The gray haired boy crouched on the blade with his eyes closed, a smile on his face, and not one bit of worry in his body language. "Yes you, the cute one of course." The girl blushed and her friends giggled.

The attacker swung his axe around wildly to throw the gray haired boy off of it, but the boy only jumped up and threw his foot into the attackers face, knocking him out cold, and dropping him on the floor. "Let's have a bet; if I beat all these morons with just my feet, hands in my pocket, you let me treat you to dinner some day?"

She blushed heavily and looked down. One of the last two attackers behind him growled, "Don't ignore me you, you asshole!" He ran forward and slashed his sword horizontally.

The gray haired boy ducked and flipped backwards halfway to kick both feet into his attackers face, and then he used the momentum of his kick to flip back the halfway he initially accomplished so as to put him back on his feet facing the girl. "What do you say?"

She blushed for moment and finally looked up at him, "I . . . Uh . . . I," her friends nodded, "She'd love to!" They answered for her.

She blushed heavily, "N-No! Thank you though . . . I actually already like someone else, I-I'm sorry." She stuttered.

The gray haired boy pulled on his beanie, "Not a problem at all, I admire your loyalty to that special person. It's a pleasure to meet you by the way, names Jericho, it would," he swung around and smacked his foot into the last of his attackers, which sent the attacker sliding away on the ground. The gray haired boy looked back and bowed his head slightly while putting his right hand out, "Have been a pleasure to treat you, and now I must depart." He spun around and walked over to the massive holographic board that shined a welcome sign, and the names of different shops in the areas

The large group of friends seemed impressed by how the fight had gone, "Well that was a cool fight, but I wonder who's going to get that gray haired guy, he seems like a terrible team player, too laid back." Gale said out loud to his companions.

"Coming from the guy who slept most of the way here, that's just not even funny," Star jabbed at him.

An electronic voice began to ring throughout everyone's scrolls, "Attention students headed for Beacon Academy in Vale, please be aware that Airships depart soon, so please board whenever you are able." The voice repeated this message over and over a few times to ensure everyone understood.

After about ten minutes the large decided to go and find some spots on the airships headed for Beacon Academy. After finding some seats and passing some time, the airship began to take off with incredible speed. "Attention students heading for Beacon academy, due to clear weather and no interruptions, we will be arriving in Beacon at exactly eight in the evening, please enjoy your ride." A voice announced over the PA system from the cockpit. A few hours passed and Gale looked up at the airship's onboard digital clock; it read "6:32pm" and he sighed as he realized it would still be another hour and a half.

Gale looked around and saw that Jade and Cyrus were missing, while the rest of the group chatted on about other things. He finally stood up, exited the booth they had, and looked side to side. He perked up in surprise at seeing a large group of students massed together near the front of the airship; all crowding around one open booth.

Gale walked over and looked over their shoulders to see Cyrus and Jade sitting next to each other in the booth, and playing cards with the gray haired boy from earlier that sat across from them. "What was his name . . . Jericho he said right?" Gale asked himself quietly. He stared in mild surprise as he saw Jericho move to draw one card, but then he quickly pulled the second one from under the top card with such speed it was almost like it never happened. "What the hell?" Gale asked himself quietly.

Jericho leaned back, "So then, what do you two have, as you can see," he flipped the top card, "It's the angel of death card . . . The turn is over and now we show our hands." Jade put down hers and so did Cyrus so everyone could see their hands. "Let's see . . . Ah a good hand, you little lady, you've got four Atlas knights and a Huntress of virtue card, a total of twelve points . . . Now then, you sir have got yourself one Ursa card, that's minus three points . . . However you also have two white dragons and two Huntsmen of strength, so that makes fourteen points with the minus already added, so combined you both have twenty six points." Jade and Cyrus smiled confidently, but Jericho smiled as well.

He shrugged, "I'm sorry do this to you both but," he showed his hand, which held four dragons, one red, blue, green, and one white, and he also had a knight with a gold cross on it, "I've got the four elemental dragon kings, with a Huntsmen Holy Hero to boot . . . So my total is fifty five points . . . Guess I win again." He took two clear plastic cards they both had stacked in front of them. "So then . . . You want another game? I know I've already taken so much Lien from each of you, and more from all these nice folks, I don't want to take all your money, but I will if you chose to play."

Cyrus and Jade hesitated, but Gale stepped forward through the crowd, "I'll play . . . Provided we do this with a hundred Lien." Gale offered while staring at Jericho calmly.

Jericho smiled and opened his arms, "Sounds wonderful! Let's have a game then!" He exclaimed happily.

Cyrus and Jade tried to make him stop but Gale shook his head, "Trust me; just stand to the side alright?" He nodded out into the crowd and both of them obeyed him without much of a fight after that. Gale sat down and rubbed his tired eyes before running a hand through his fiery red hair. Jericho shuffled the cards while looking him over, "So what's your name?" Gale nodded and gestured to him, "Isn't it polite to introduce yourself before asking another's name?"

Jericho shrugged with a smile of interest, "I grew up outside the Kingdoms, social stuff like that goes over my head. I'm Jericho Silber, and you?"

Gale nodded slowly, "I'm Gale." He said casually.

Jericho smiled, "So then Gale, you must really love red huh?"

Gale raised an eyebrow, "My favorite color is blue actually," he said as his red monkey tail bobbed in the air with the blue bandanna tied around it.

Jericho nodded, "I see . . . I mean its' obvious blue is your favorite color, you practically scream blue."

Gale yawned, "I know, but being born with red hair I figured I'd embrace it."

Jericho nodded slower than before, "That's why I personally love every color except gray, it's so boring, yet it's so, well . . . Me." He finished shuffling and spread all the cards out facedown.

Jericho looked up at him, "So then, do you know how to play this game?"

Gale thought for a minute, "The game is called War Party right?"

Jericho smiled with a short nod, "Yes it is."

Gale stared at the cards, "Then yes I remember . . . Someone other than the dealer draws one card from the pile, then they shuffle around the cards, then the next person going clockwise draws a card, and this continues until each player has five cards. The cards are then put into deck form, and we are allowed to discard up to four cards, then draw however many we discard, and if we want to discard again we are able to do so with one less than last time, and we may continue this until we are longer able to do so . . . We show our hands and tally up the points in each war party. Points are earned based on the card's base attack, its type, element, and how many pairs or similar color cards we have, however corrupted cards cost points . . . When one draws the angel of death card, then the turn is over and players must show their hands regardless of how many cards they have . . . Am I right?"

"Finally, someone who understands the game! So then, you draw first, and don't forget that a winner is declared based on the absolute value of points, so even someone with a heavy amount of negative points can win." Jericho confirmed.

Gale looked down and thought for a moment. He picked up one, and then Jericho picked one, then Gale and then Jericho again. They continued this until both held five cards, and then Jericho stacked the remaining cards into deck form. He quickly put away three cards and drew another three. Gale looked at his hand and discarded four, and then drew four more. He thought for a minute as he looked at his hand of four dragoons, one green dragon, one blue, one red, and one white dragon. He also looked to see he had one Beowolf card. Jericho discarded one and then drew one card, and Gale was about to discard his Beowolf card when he froze with his hand over the deck. "What a minute," he thought to himself before looking up at Jericho, who stared at him with a cocky smile. "Why did he only draw one card? Surely he would have done two to get the best hand . . . Unless," he looked at the deck and moved his hand a little closer.

Jericho held his cocky smile and Gale blinked once. "This next card . . . Its' warm . . . Does he use heat to determine what the next card will be?" Gale thought to himself. He pulled his hand away slowly and thought for a minute.

Jericho slouched in his chair, "Take all the time you need, I'm not going anywhere."

Gale nodded and looked down at his hand, "I've got a good enough hand even with this Beowolf card . . . But I need to get Jade and Cyrus their money back . . . The money!" He thought to himself.

Gale smiled at Jericho who looked at him with a bit of confusion. "Is something wrong there, Gale?"

Gale nodded and laughed, "I seem to have forgotten to put my money on the table."

Jericho laughed softly, "Ah, so you have, might as well put it up if you're going to lose it in a turn or two."

Gale smiled and laughed softly, "No, I just like showing my opponents the money they're never going to get."

Jericho blurted out a laugh, "Now you I like playing cards with, well then go ahead and show off the money I'll be winning either way."

Gale laughed and reached into his side pocket. He pulled out a red wallet with a phoenix etched onto it, opened it and tensed up slightly as he looked inside. Next to where he kept his Lien was a picture of two children playing together outside, one boy with fiery red hair and a bright red monkey tail, and a girl with golden blonde hair and bunny ears. "Jasmine . . . I," he let his breath out slowly and smiled down at the picture, "I'm helping two friends in need . . . Please know I'm keeping my word." He pulled out his money, and counted out a hundred before moving to put the rest back into his wallet.

As he put it away into his wallet, he quickly pulled a golden dragon card from behind the photo of him and Jasmine. With impossible speed and a calm expression he kicked the golden dragon into his hand with a quick flash, and no one seemed to notice as he closed his wallet casually and put it away. Jericho leaned back a bit as he waited, "Are you sure you're not going to make a move?"

Gale smiled at him, "Right, I know what I'll do now, I'll have to hope these four can beat him." He put the spider card down and drew another that had a picture of a poorly armed and armored trooper with a low number near it. "What? It's not the Angel of Death card?" Gale thought to himself.

He hid the card ever so gently behind his gold dragon card and Jericho drew the next card, "There it is then, the Angel of Death card," he showed off the card with a black Grim Reaper with angel wings on it. "The turn is done so we show our hands, I'll go first."

Jericho gave a cocky smile and placed his hand down, but as he was about to let go Gale saw him jerk his ring finger, quickly kicking a card up his sleeve as another slide out and took its original place without any sort of disturbance to give away his cheat. It happened so fast it was like some sort of illusion that no one but Gale seemed to notice. He looked up and blinked once in confusion as he saw Jericho's eyes flash a bright silver color for a quick instance. "I have three Ancient Grimm cards, A Fallen Huntsmen card, and the Goliath card, and when all those cards come together they give a whopping five hundred points, the highest amount one can earn." Jericho leaned back and smiled, "So what have you got?" Gale smiled and put his cards on the table. Jericho grinned with a satisfied look, "He's good," he thought to himself as no one else noticed the card hiding behind one of Gale's dragons.

Gale folded his arms and leaned back, "I've got the five Dust dragons, red, blue, green, white, and gold, and all are positive cards . . . Also of the same type, so that means I too have the maximum of five hundred points . . . I suppose it's a draw."

The crowed awed in amazement at what had happened in the game. Jericho shook his head, "Nope, you win mate, I saw what you did there and someone has finally attempted to beat me at my own game . . . And they succeeded from the looks of things around here; I almost didn't even notice it, so your friends have earned this back." He pushed the Lien he took from both Jade and Cyrus to the side near where they were. "I admire what you did for them, so here, that was a good game." He said with a laugh as he leaned back again. "Alright everyone, the game is over, sorry everyone, the airship is going to be there at Beacon any second now."

The large group disbanded until only the four remained. Gale handed Cyrus and Jade their credit chits, "Both of you just go back to the booth we have . . . I need to talk with Jericho for a moment . . . Alone." Cyrus nodded and began to walk away, but Jade hesitated for a minute. She looked over to Jericho who closed his eyes and gave her a happy grin. Gale nodded at her and she turned to leave. Once they were far enough away, Gale drop his smile and stared intently at Jericho. All other students were far enough away to not hear them.

Jericho swapped out his wide, cocky, happy smile for a smaller one as he opened his eyes and stared at Gale. "So," he leaned forward and rested his chin on the palm of his hand, which kept him at eye level with Gale who slouched back in his booth. "Why did you keep me here Mr. Wildheart? Surely this isn't some confession, because I'm afraid money has won my heart time and time again." Gale didn't even twitch at Jericho's comical remark. "Oh? Why are you being so serious?"

"I know about you as much as you about know me." Gale said without missing a beat.

Jericho tilted his head slightly and stared at Gale with the same bored but friendly look, "Oh really? Do tell what you know about me."

"I know you were associated with the underworld. A criminal human working with the White Fang. . . If you were hired or a part of them I don't know, but I do know they're not to be trusted . . . So forgive me if I'm a little on edge that you're here."

Jericho kept his expression and blinked. "Oh? Am I so bad at covering my trail that another kid found me out? I need to work on covering my tracks."

Gale frowned, "I know the underworld like the back of my hand,"

"Wrong," Jericho said sternly with a glare, "You know the upper underworld, you know the bosses; you know the petty crimes from people that are nowhere near the levels that the true underworld can drag you to."

Gale leaned forward, "Enlighten me," he said bluntly.

Jericho sighed but kept his smile, "Ok, well there's no reason to get too serious about all the details . . . I found out what they, my old step-fathers group, were planning to kill a lot of good people, and so I sold them out along with my other band of merry do-gooders. First, on the day of my fourteenth birthday, sold my step-dad out, gave away their HQ, schematics on the bases, defense forces patrol records, and everything. Next came the White-Fang. The authorities said I was clean but gave me no cash, so when I started stealing things to make a living, that's when I found out the leader of the first group, my step-father, was still alive . . . He's been hunting me down ever since, so one of the professors at Beacon Academy ended up finding me after I back stabbed a team of mercenaries that were going to sell me out to my said step-father, and he told me that if I went to his school and worked hard that I could make some good cash and even get my step-father off my back. . . How could I say no? The man who raised me to kill and lie wasn't my favorite role model, and he wanted me dead . . . Coming here was the only choice I had." Jericho said with a stupid smile.

Gale nodded slowly while listening to him finish his explanation, "Well . . . That seems somewhat believable."

Jericho shrugged, "Is it as believable as you thinking you could have cheated me out of winning your hundred credits?"

Gale twitched, "Hey you cheated too!"

Jericho laughed, "Oh, so you saw me? That explains why you went and did something like that, well aren't you a good friend to go to such lengths for others?"

Gale sighed and leaned back, "I feel bad for whoever gets on your team, human."

Jericho shrugged again, "Oh please, people will be happy to have me on their team, besides I've been told I can't gamble with students or steal anything while on campus, and if I get protection out of it then I might as well feed my bad habits until we actually get to Beacon."

Gale sighed and got up, "Just be careful, you're a student here now so I'd hate to lose someone even if they are a cheater. I'm going back to my cart, so just know I'll be keeping my eye on you."

Jericho laughed and nodded, "I'll feel so much safer having such a strong young monkey watching over me." Gale shook his head in annoyance.

Someone from another nearby cart whispered "What a pest," towards Jericho without knowing he heard it.

Jericho let his smile begin to fade when he was finally alone, and he stared down at his hands resting on the table. "I'm a pest . . . Yeah that's about right; I guess you were right . . . Father," he closed his fists and laid down on the booth, "Well, time for an hour nap." He said happily before drifting off to a somewhat sad sleep. The air ship sped along the rails over some thick woods. It continued its course until it made its way through a new city surrounded by forests that seem to go on for miles. In the distance stood a massive castle like area. This was the kingdom of Vale, and Beacon Academy stood proudly within it, watching over both the city and the lands surrounding it.