The first few days of his career as a Huntsman went just how any other period of time at school would have been, Noctis felt. Waking up in a room with three other people had been surprising, as was the fact that his partner had been hiding a secret of her own. A small robot, stripped open and seemingly in the midst of repair, had been attached to the complementary computer in their room, and when he had inquired, it turned out that that robot was her 'pod'. Pods were essentially armed AI companions that carried diagnostic instruments such as radar, scanners, EMP jammers and advanced hacking tools just to name a few, as well as mounting heavy ranged weapons. Apparently her pod had gotten overloaded by an external attack, and thus she was now trying to repair it. So far nothing out of the ordinary.
No, he had no problem with that. The thing he had a problem with was that she had transferred the central AI, which she had somehow named GEMINI, into their room's computer. So far she had been able to contain it within numerous firewalls the complexity of which baffled Noctis entirely. However, she had told him that it would only be a matter of time before GEMINI started to bleed into the school's central server. Well, they would cross that bridge when they came to it.
He had probably taken the implications of a potentially hostile AI presence in the entire school way too lightly. He sighed under his breath. Never mind about that now, he wanted to eat his food in peace. Weiss was preoccupied with polishing her nails, apparently, while Carmine had absconded to continue repairing GEMINI. Nora was talking about this dream about her and Ren apparently surrounded by dozens of Ursas, which was technically impossible, owing to the fact that Ursas never appeared alone. They always turned up as meat shields to divert damage away from their smaller Beowolf compatriots. Amusingly, Ren continually contradicted her, clarifying that instead of in the middle of the night, it was actually in broad daylight. The supposed dozens of Ursas were replaced by only a measly two. Noctis smiled good-naturedly, instead looking sympathetically at a despondent Jaune. Cardin has managed to beat Jaune into a pulp with his mace earlier this morning, but nothing could have compared to Carmine's beatdown of the poor guy in front of him. Apparently her and Jaune's ancestors had had a major conflict more than a millennia ago, and social isolation on the part of the Rienhardt family had only perpetuated the feud.
What he had understood was that the Rienhardt line, which used to call themselves Vilebloods back in the day, had ruled a small kingdom called Cainhurst. However, the hyper-religious entity that Remnant had been at the time essentially sent down a crusade upon them. Castle Cainhurst was put under siege, and fell, with almost the entire Vileblood line destroyed. Then, discovering that the ruling monarch of the time, Queen Annalise, was effectively immortal in the same way that her descendant Carmine was, the leader of the besieging party, Martyr Logarius, sealed himself in with the Queen and thus locked the entirety of Castle Cainhurst in stasis. The real issue between the two families cropped up when a rogue Executioner, for that was what the paladins of the crusade called themselves, broke the seal. He ended his master's miserable life, finally martyring him properly, and then proceeded to smash the vulnerable Queen into paste. The crazed zealot had revealed his name in his dying breath, killed by one of the Queen's loyal knights, but the damage was done. The Queen had been destroyed so utterly that even her own immense abilities were not enough. Hurriedly, they had assembled a life-support throne, a technological marvel that was still not enough to bring her back fully. Now, she lived as a lifeless corpse on a throne, permanently stuck on the threshold between life and death. Her remaining subjects had declared their undying enmity to the Arc line, and had vowed to take their revenge. A millennia later, even with the immense technological leap her home had made, this vendetta still persisted. Surprisingly, they had seemingly not bothered to pursue it, despite the fact that they certainly had the firepower to carry it out. Noctis, like many others, had seen the footage of the massive military parade that Cainhurst had shown to consolidate their alliance with Atlas on the same date as their Initiation. Those house-sized tanks, that the announcer had addressed as Lancelots, still made him shudder.
Apparently her father thought the Arc scion's presence in Beacon was some sort of test, to ensure her resolve to her Queen's will. Well, swinging at him hard enough to crack the floor with her mace was one way of coping, he guessed. Luckily she still had enough sense to stop after the first and only hit she landed had knocked him out cold.
He sighed, staring into Jaune's distant frown before looking at his sister's own unhappy face. Losing to Carmine, an opponent that was as relentless as they got, was one thing, but his loss to Cardin this morning? Pyrrha turned to Jaune concernedly, before asking "Are you okay?"
Jaune snapped out of his stupor, before replying with "Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?"
"More like you're not okay." Lapis summarised. "Seriously, that bastard has been shoving his weight around like he was born to do it, but for some reason he's making your life especially hard."
"Guys, I'm fine! Seriously! Look!" He laughed, somewhat hysterically.
"Jaune, Cardin has been picking on you since school started." Pyrrha shot back.
"Who? Cardin Winchester?" Jaune chuckled. "Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!"
"He's a bully, Jaune. The sooner you admit it, the sooner we can deal with this." Noctis grumbled.
"Oh, please!" The blond leader scoffed. "Name one time he's 'bullied' me."
"He's knocked your books out of your hands more than I care to count." Icarus piped up.
"He's jammed you in doorways with your own shield." Ruby added.
"And there was that incident where he shoved you into a rocket locker. I can't believe that you're not taking this seriously, Jaune." Yang said in disbelief. "He said that it was an accident but clearly he did it on purpose. He could have killed you with that stunt, and you still haven't told anybody?"
"I didn't land that far from the school!" Jaune laughed.
"Jaune." Pyrrha said. "You know, if you ever need help, just ask."
"Ooh! I have a plan!" Nora exclaimed, getting up from the table. "We'll break his legs!"
"And afterwards get expelled by the headmaster for assault. It's simple, really." Blake deadpanned in response.
"Guys, really, it's fine. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone."
The sound of raucous laughter and yelps of pain diverted their attention from Jaune's predicament to the sight of team CRDL harassing a rabbit Faunus for no apparent reason. "I told you it was real!" Someone who was unmistakably Cardin hollered. Lapis's fist clenched, and her expression hardened. Lapis had been surprisingly petite without her armour, Noctis had realised. Only slightly taller than Ruby, her freckled light brown skin and hair the colour of chocolate belied a person whose ferocity was only hinted at by the two bear ears on the top of her hair. Being a bear Faunus, and taking into consideration her personality, she probably took no shit at all from people of this kind.
"What a freak!" His sycophantic teammate, Russell Thrush if he remembered correctly, mocked the poor girl in front of him. The apple Lapis had been eating before all this happened seemed to implode in her clenched fist, juice starting to drip out of her hand.
"You know what, Nora?" She growled, getting up from her seat. "I'll take you up on your plan. In fact, I'll leave Cardin's legs unbroken so you can finish the job. I'll just break everything else."
Noctis internally debated what to do, before reaching down to his right boot and pulling out his collapsible baton. He mentally activated the combat mode of his metal arm, feeling the panels open, the hydraulics engage and the springs click into place. The servos, primed to move at a speed and power much more than usual, emitted a soft, high-pitched sound as he flexed his prosthetic arm. The ultrasonic whine it made was enough to set Yang's teeth on edge, but he ignored it and got up.
"Where are you going?" Ruby asked. "Please don't get into a fight again."
"Don't worry. I'm not going to kill those fools." Noctis said. "I just want to stop Lapis from doing that for me."
He then started to move towards the scene, but not before Lapis managed to reach there first.
"Hey, dipshits! Get your damn hands off her!" She yelled. Noctis internally winced. If this went the way he thought he would, he had no doubts as to who would win. Lapis's semblance was essentially a steady yet drastic increase in body density, allowing her mass to increase to a maximum of 44 tons in around two second. This, however, did not affect her volume in any way, so her proportional strength increased by a few magnitudes. Force equated to the product of mass and acceleration, and an increase in mass as drastic as Lapis's semblance without any decrease in acceleration due to a larger surface area equated to more force. It was simple, really. All it took was a bit of foresight, but these four definitely lacked that particular quality.
"Yeah? You trying to help out your fellow animal here? Fuck off." Someone he remembered to be Sky Lark exclaimed. "And this is for trying to get uppity with your superiors!" He reared back his fist, and swung it with the intention to punch her in the face, but she caught it before it made contact.
Lapis got into the bully's face, before saying "I've met a lot of people like you four. Sickos that get off from making innocent people feel like jumping off a cliff. Hell, I've seen people actually kill themselves because of the kinds of disgusting shit you put them through." She applies more strength into her grip, eliciting a muffled squeak from Sky as his hand got crushed before his aura kicked in. "And do you know what I did to them? Do you really want to know?"
By some streak of God-given misfortune, Sky's teammate, Dove Bronzewing if he remembered correctly, turned to Noctis. "Hey!" He shouted. "You're her leader, right? Then tell her to get her damn animal hands off my partner!"
Before he could respond and neutralise this rapidly growing shitstorm, Cardin grabbed him by his shirt, pinning him against a wall, before getting in his face and yelling "I'm gonna tell you this once, and only once! If you and your animal teammate don't back off now, I will personally make sure that your life becomes as much as a hell as I've done to Jaune!"
Noctis narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's pretty much a forgone conclusion that your team is going to get their arses kicked." He drawled.
"Sure as I'm sure that you'll come crawling back to me for mercy by next week! Feeling lucky, punk? Then I dare you to piss me off!" Cardin yelled, slamming him against a wall. "Come on! I double dare you, motherfucker!"
Noctis grinned. "Yeah, lucky enough to win the Cross-Continental Lottery. Also, I can teleport, bitch." He deadpanned, making sure that it came out as a monotone just to spite Cardin. No way this motherfucker would be getting a rise out of him, he thought.
Ignoring the splitting headache, he teleported behind Cardin, but not before subconsciously ordering his ash clone to knee the bastard in the gonads as hard as it could. The bully crumpled down to a crouch to protect his family jewels, allowing Noctis to get in a swing with his baton. He swung the collapsible baton diagonally right and upwards in an arc that allowed it to extend as it swung, resulting in the baton extending to its full length with an audible click as the telescoping shaft locked into place before it made contact with Cardin's temple with a loud crack.
The racist bastard collapsed to the ground, unconscious, and Noctis realised too late that his aura wasn't up. It looked like Cardin, the cocky son of a bitch he was, didn't even think he was a threat, and thus hadn't bothered to raise his aura.
"Well, fuck. Goodwitch is gonna kill me." He muttered. "And I'm probably going to have to drag this dumb jock to the medical wing myself."
He was brought out of his funk by the sight of Lapis backhanding Sky across the room, but as the unfortunate accomplice smashed into the wall, he saw his aura absorb the impact for him.
"Or I can get Lapis to carry him for me" He sighed. "I am going to be in such deep shit for this."
Swearing under his breath, he brought his baton to bear against Russel, blocking the other student's wild haymaker with his prosthetic arm before smacking the side of Russel's head with his baton. He then swept the mohawked boy's legs out from under him and then, grabbing Russel's head with his left arm, he slammed his head against the corner of one of the tables. The impact rattled the plates and crockery on the table, eliciting scared glances from the random students eating at the table. Russel's aura absorbed the actual physical harm, of course, but not the pain. He dropped naturally off the table and stayed on the ground, groaning in pain. Just to be sure, he propped up the barely conscious Russel onto the adjacent wall, making sure his head was at somewhat of a right angle before bringing the baton to the side of his skull with a loud crack. The last of his consciousness slipped away as his aura shimmered and died, thus leaving behind another unconscious and probably concussed member of team CRDL. He turned to look at the varying expressions of his friends, a variation of shock, understanding, some with barely concealed approval and one very prominent exception that beamed widely and mouthed "Their legs! Break their legs!"
He sighed, before dodging a chair flung at him by Dove. Well, shit starts here, it seems.
/-/
Lapis, in her armour once again, stood over a still smouldering battlefield. Both her lance and her arms were dripping with crimson blood, which appeared to have splattered onto her entire form. She stared at the events unfolding in front of her, as she watched people she recognised as Legionaries walk through the sprawled, bloodied bodies covering the ground. Occasionally they would find a survivor, and then they would finish off the wounded with the bayonet of their rifle. Challenger tanks and Stryker IFVs which had previously belonged to the Legion, or rather their burnt-out husks, smouldered in the background.
Numerous dropships and Bullheads littered the ground, either smashed to pieces by their crash or existing as lifeless shells, while the debris from shot down Turmfalke fighters littered the ground. She stood on a cliff overlooking the devastated landscape, only breaking her stare when something that looked like a particularly large Alpha Beowolf, around twice the size of normal and made out of innumerable blades and hooks drew in next to her. It held in its right hand a battle axe, while its left hand held a circular shield centred upon a metal spike. The gaping bladed maw of the creature opened an impossible degree, before slipping down and into a human form within the beast. Similarly, the blades and hooks of the body withdrew into the form of a khaki robed man within. The man, now free from his armour of blades and hooks, attached his battle axe to his side. His shield shrunk into the central spike, transforming into what looked like a conical rice hat, which the man strapped onto his head before drawing up his scarf to cover his nose and mouth.
He then turned to Lapis. "Anything wrong? You seem regretful, in a way."
"Damn right I am. We just had to exterminate an entire chapter of ourselves. It's fratricide, Brad. How am I supposed to feel good about that?
Brad sighed. "They crossed a line. Massacring an entire Faunus village and then razing it to the ground? Command never approved it and probably never will. Wiping them out was never a choice on our part. It was their choice to turn on us, and we only reacted how we were supposed to. Besides, these loons burned literally all the children alive. They shoved them into a wooden shed and then set the whole building alight. I'm pretty sure that no one would have wanted people so messed up to stick around anyways."
"I get that, but don't you think that this is a bit, you know, meaningless? It's just bloodshed in response to bloodshed. I mean, I get the big picture of keeping the White Fang friendly, but how the fuck did that escalate to outright infighting?"
The roar of a finger-four formation of their own Phantom fighters overhead answered her, the four aircraft turning overhead to show off their standard ordinance of two normal heat-seeking missiles on wingtip pylons and two laser guided bombs on underwing hardpoints. A 20mm rotary cannon was nestled on the left side of the cockpit, and the soot that blackened the muzzle of its housing betrayed its frequent use. A single powerful engine propelled the fighter at twice the speed of sound, ripping through the air with a deafening scream of sound. The conversation temporarily lulled as the jets passed overhead, with the two looking up in awe. Soon, the fighters were all but gone over the horizon, returning the area to its solemn silence.
"I don't really know, to be honest." Brad admitted. "To me at least, the Legion was never about proving that humans are better than Faunus, it's about keeping balance. If any one side, be they human or Faunus, becomes too dominant, society itself goes down the shitter. When the White Fang pulls in one direction, we pull in the other."
"Balance, essentially." Lapis stated, savouring the word in her mouth. "So that's what the aim of the game is, if that's even an aim at all."
"Well." Brad stated lamely, "We're lifting off from the LZ in an hour's time. I'll leave you here to meditate here for a bit if that's what you want to do, but make sure you're on time."
Lapis huffed under her breath. "I'll do that. See you at the LZ."
The memory faded out of her vision, greying out into a blank bright light before her vision resumed to the sight of Sky standing before her.
"What the fuck!" She mentally yelled. "Don't you dare hold that over my head, we both know that I had to do it!"
"I am not holding that over your head, I'm simply reminding you that you don't have to kill them now!" Lazuli yelled back. "What the fuck did they do? We've both seem much worse shit than this, and yet you're having the exact same reaction as if they killed that girl! Whatever these four are, they aren't killers! Sure, they might be jerks, but that doesn't mean they have to die yet!"
"So what? You're telling me that I shouldn't kill them yet?" She shot back internally.
"Exactly!" He countered. "Everyone we've killed has been on some variation of 'we had no choice'. Either it was self-defence, in the defence of your comrades, your duties to the Legion, or they were part of some greater objective. But this? This doesn't serve any purpose!" The voice in her head seemed to take a moment to calm himself, before trying to reason with her. "You swore an oath, Lapis. To use this power, you swore an oath. Tell me."
"No meaningless slaughter. There must exist a greater purpose." She whispered, taking mind how Sky's eyes seemed to widen as he heard that.
"Yes. This isn't for a greater purpose. Killing these four now would be senseless slaughter." Lazuli huffed.
"Then what do you suggest I do, then?" She mentally asked.
"Just knock them around a bit, scare them shitless. You know what to do."
Lapis grinned, before letting go of Sky's hand. He looked relieved for a second, before she turned up her semblance to maximum density. Then, she backhanded him in the side, gratified to see the flare of aura as her hand made contact and to watch his progress as he flew across the dining hall.
She turned to check on the other two bastards, only to find Cardin laid out in a position reminiscent of a crawling caterpillar, buttocks raised high into the air as if he had been knocked out while crouching, courtesy of her gallant leader Noctis and his collapsible baton. Russel lunged forwards to avenge his leader, while a chair bouncing off her back notified her of what Dove was doing.
"Nice try! I'll do you one better!" She hollered across the room, before reaching down to the nearest table. However, another random group of students she didn't recognise just stared blankly at her, more shocked than anything. "Do you mind if I were to borrow your table?" She asked gently. They just nodded, taking their plates and cutlery in their hands before Lapis easily lifted the entire table.
She yelled, "Suck on this, you sick bitch!" before spinning around and throwing the table at Dove. The table somehow turned in mid air so that the top faced its target before it slammed into the boy, pummelling into him and continuing unfazed before both it and Dove smashed through a column. The unfortunate column exploded into chunks of abused masonry that buried both Dove and the daring table underneath a pile of rock, effectively taking the bastard out of the fight. She walked to the remarkable dent in the wall that Sky had made when he made contact with it, and was surprised to find him still conscious on the ground.
"D-damn it…" He weakly stammered. "W-what the fuck are you?"
Lapis crouched down to the boy's eye level, staring him straight in the peepers. She smiled, and noted how Sky ever so slightly flinched away from her. "I am Legion. My friends call me the Auxilia, if you even know what that means." The sudden whimpering from Sky confirmed that he did know. "But you?" She got up, reaching down to grab a chunk of masonry. Lapis tossed it up into the air before catching it and continuing, "All you and your team need to know is to stay the fuck away. It's simple, really." She then threw it point blank at the boy's head, where the last of his aura blocked the rock and caused it to break into bits and pieces of gravel. More importantly, Sky was now unconscious. The battle, of it could even be called that, was over.
She looked over at Noctis, standing over the unconscious bodies of Cardin and Russel, and smiled at him. Noctis grinned impishly in return, flipping his baton around and slamming the telescoped shaft onto a nearby table to collapse it before gesturing at Cardin's protruding buttocks. Lapis, getting the message, walked over and promptly kicked the unconscious bastard in the arse. Her heightened density magnified the force of the hit so that Cardin was sent flying into the wall, where he slumped over, still unconscious. Noctis reached down to his pocket, pulled out a pad of Post-it notes along with a pen, and scrawled down 'Told you so.' Then, he stuck the note onto Cardin's forehead, before keeping the pen and taking out a permanent marker.
"Why do you have so much stationery on you?" Lapis asked.
"I have a normal notepad, a pad of Post-it notes, a pen and a permanent marker. Oh, why? I like to be prepared."
Lapis was about to ask why the permanent marker before being forced into laughter by the sight of Noctis reaching down and doodling a very prominent handlebar moustache on Cardin's face. As she recovered, she blurted out "I see. Why not draw the goatee next?" That caused Noctis to start chuckling, before escalating into full on laughter. Before he was laughing too hard, however, he reached down again, this time to draw a very obvious monocle around Cardin's right eye. Both Lapis and he burst into new bouts of laughter, and they were still laughing like maniacs when professor Goodwitch came around.
"We're screwed, aren't we?" Icarus muttered to himself, staring solemnly at the stupidity of his two teammates.
/-/
Glynda prided herself upon her restraint, but even this was too much. Ozpin has been obsessing over the presence of the book and of Cainhurst's reemergence into world affairs ever since Initiation, so it had come down to her to manage literally everything the school had to offer.
"Essentially, team CRDL, in your point of view, started the whole debacle from your point of view because when your teammate intervened in team CRDL bullying a Faunus girl, they immediately escalated to physical violence, with Sky attempting to punch Lapis in the face and Cardin slamming you against a wall. Cardin then threatened to, and I quote, 'make your life as much as a hell as I've done to Jaune's.' Am I correct?" She said, in a clipped tone.
"Yes, Professor."
"And in response you used your semblance, which by the way has been stated in your medical report to literally split your brain in two every time it is used, with side effects of gradual mental degradation that basically turns you into a sociopath?"
"Yes, Professor." Noctis's tone now sounded more demure, compared to the feisty duo that she had to practically drag into her office a few minutes before. Her telekinesis had proved remarkably useful in transporting the four incapacitated members of team CRDL to the medical wing, where they were quickly verified as having at worst varying degrees of concussion, their myriad bruises and scrapes notwithstanding.
"So you staggered Mr. Winchester by applying your knee to his male-exclusive vulnerable area, then turning around and smacking him in the head with this." She pulled out Noctis's collapsible baton. "This is a carbon steel expandable baton, specifically reinforced, modified and fitted with heavier, more durable components for the express purpose of taking out even Huntsmen. You may as well be beating him about the head with a lead pipe."
For some reason the two of them turned towards each other and grinned, sharing a private joke that she was unfortunately privy to. Glynda reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Yes, Mr. Argent, I know that you technically got into Beacon by beating Ms. Xiao Long about the head with an actual lead pipe, but please show more restraint next time." Turning to Lapis, who was now sniggering at her now red-faced leader's expense, she said "And you, Ms. Ferrum. It seems that when others throw chairs, you throw the entire table. I understand the kind of place you come from, and the fact that collateral damage is a relatively new concept, but please remember that it exists. Also, keep in mind that your fellow students, even if they might be less than ideal people, are not the enemy."
Glynda took out Noctis's permanent marker. "I'm pretty sure the company which made these markers issued a general recall around last year because these particular markers have ink that permanently stains human skin. I am sure Tsune, our head nurse, will try her best to prevent as much of the staining as she can, but Mr. Winchester will most likely have a faint imprint, almost like a birthmark, of a monocle and a moustache for the rest of his life."
"Remind me to get Cardin a top hat for his birthday. Then he can be a jerk to people properly, like a sir." Noctis snarked out of habit, before shutting himself up with a look of terror on his face.
"This isn't the time for jokes, Mr. Argent." She growled.
Lapis nodded, along with a now cowed Noctis. Glynda continued, "Thankfully, they were only concussed at worst, no thanks to someone who punted Mr. Bronzewing through a column." She glared pointedly at an abashed Lapis before resuming. "I would ideally put you two in detention for the rest of the year, but the Headmaster has requested that I make a special exception for your team."
She then handed Noctis back his baton, to the latter's obvious surprise. "The headmaster has seen fit to list you as not only students, but operatives. Your prior… experiences before joining this school have given you experience beyond what even this school can do for you. Do not be alarmed when I say that both Ozpin and I know almost every fact of your lives, barring the most confidential details of course. For instance, Lapis, I know that you are a Legion operative, but I do not know what rank you are."
Noctis looked at her in shock, eliciting a shrug from Lapis. "I'm not gonna be all melodramatic about it like some people are, so yeah. I'm Legion, and proud of it. Nothing to hide there."
"And for you, Noctis, I know that you are not in fact Ms. Nikos's bodyguard, but her aide. It's just that you trust no one else to protect her."
Noctis nodded. "That's actually true. Normally I go with the bodyguard ruse just because people seem to jump to it the moment they see me at work, and because I want to save myself the work of explaining that I'm actually her aide."
"On a more serious note." Glynda stated, "I also know that the both of you have body counts, as does your teammate Icarus. Carmine lacks one as of now, but not from lack of trying, as I personally feel that you four are potentially the most lethal students that have ever enrolled in Beacon. As of now, Lapis has the highest, with a kill count somewhere in the low hundreds, but of course that is considering the fact that Vacuo has been embroiled in pseudo-civil war for years by now. Your teammate Icarus currently holds second place, having been a currently retired White Fang assassin."
She was then interrupted with a cheerful "Yes!" from Lapis, who beckoned to Noctis by rubbing her forefingers together. Rolling his eyes, Noctis pulled out a hundred Lien from his wallet and slapped it into Lapis's waiting palm. Glynda's eye twitched, and her well manicured hand rose up to meet her forehead. "Did you two seriously set up a betting pool on that?"
"Yep." Noctis said exasperatedly. "Lapis and I bet on what Icarus was before joining Beacon. Carmine still doesn't know enough about Remnant for her to bet fairly, after all, and furthermore her expenses were being paid by the school, so if she lost, we'd be mooching off school Lien. I thought that he was some sort of elite mafia hitman, you know, the kind who shows up in a suit and tie. But it seems like Lapis here was more correct. She bet a hundred Lien that he used to work for the White Fang, and I took her up on it."
"I cheated, actually." Lapis grinned smugly. "Icarus actually told me that he was from the White Fang, during Initiation."
"I'll find some way to get you back. Someway, somehow." Noctis grouched, sulking as he did.
Glynda sighed. "Anyway, Noctis comes in third with a kill count of ninety four, all instances registered as either self-defence or in defence of his charge. This is two digits more than I would like, but I understand that sometimes, drastic measures have to be taken in the line of duty." She reached down to take out a note and four brand new scrolls from a drawer in her desk, before passing them to Noctis. "This note contains details on your first assignment. More specifically, it contains details on how the briefing will be delivered."
Noctis opened the note, reading it and then passing it to Lapis. "Why would the headmaster use burner scrolls to brief us? I know the Vytal Festival is coming up this year, but this does still seem a bit cliché."
"You know about the upcoming Festival?" Glynda asked in surprise.
"Yep." Noctis said. "I've been trying to settle sponsorship deals and things like that for the past few months. It's hard to organise Pyrrha's public image for an event without finding out about the event in the first place."
"Well, I guess that is to be expected." Glynda conceded. "Well, with that over with, all I have left to say is to remind you not to get into any more unnecessary trouble. Of course, school rules on Beacon's premises still apply, but you four have been authorised to disregard any laws that might obstruct you on your assignment. However, if you four are detained by law enforcement and we find it not worth the hassle to bail your team out, we will disavow any and all actions you may be accused of."
"Huh." Lapis muttered. "Not even a razor blade?"
"What do you mean?" Glynda asked, taken aback by the unusual question.
"That's what the Legion does when informants or such get captured." Lapis explained, without batting an eye. "They know enough to screw us over, so before they get tortured for information, we smuggle a razor blade into their cells. You know, so they can slit their wrists."
The deputy headmistress blanched and unconsciously flinched. "No, I didn't mean that at all! What I meant was that your disciplinary amnesty would be revoked, and then you would face due punishment through Beacon's conventional procedures."
"Oh, I see. So nothing too drastic, nothing too destructive or too illegal and we'll be fine." Noctis summarised.
"Yes, that's what I meant. The headmaster shall be relaying your assignment details through these scrolls, so keep them safe. One more thing." She pushed her glasses up, allowing them to glint in the light. "This status of yours is on a need-to-know basis, so please do not spread the word unnecessarily. Other than that, I'm done. The two of you are dismissed."
The two of them strolled out of the deputy headmistress's office, new burner scrolls in hand. "Well, that was unexpected." Lapis noted. "I thought we were in deep shit there for a bit. Shame we missed Grimm Studies, though." She grinned in amusement.
"I would buy an audiobook made by Port, if only because it'll be better than sleeping pills. But instead of sitting through another one of his 'stories', we get enlisted into black ops! Fate really is fickle, eh?" Noctis cheerfully replied. He flipped the baton in his hand, before stowing it back in his right boot. His personal scroll vibrated, and he took it out and looked at it. A message from Pyrrha.
It read: Any idea what to do about the Jaune v Cardin situation? Not sure how much longer he can last… meet me at rooftop asap to discuss.
Noctis huffed. "Lapis, I kinda need to go talk with my sis. Would it be okay if you were to tell Carmine and Icarus about our team's new status by yourself?"
"Yep. Shouldn't be that hard. See you later, Boss." She waved goodbye to him, as Noctis turned to run to the rooftop rendezvous point.
/-/
"So, you want me to help Jaune out? Without blowing up team CRDL in their sleep? Well, that takes away the easier option here, you see?"
"Well, yes." Pyrrha muttered. "I'm just worried he'll crack under the pressure."
"So why the rooftop?" He asked. "Him being Jaune, he'd probably be dumb enough to think you brought him here to jump to his death."
His sister sighed. "I was thinking that I would bring him up to train with me." Noctis stared at her. "His combat skills aren't up to snuff, so I was thinking of giving him some one-to-one tuition. I know, it's a dumb idea, but…"
He raised his hand. "It's not dumb, it's just incredibly suggestive. You and him, alone together on a rooftop, where no one would bother you two. Pyrrha, we come from Mistral of all places, so you of all people should know what this sounds like. I'm not ready to become an uncle yet."
Pyrrha's face reddened remarkably quickly, and she reached out with her semblance to Noctis's metal arm. She then used it to make him slap himself.
"It's not like that!" She yelped, much too panicked for Noctis's suggestions to dissipate. He grinned impishly.
"Tell you what, I'll go along with this, but on the condition that someone from my team, preferably me, chaperones the two of you. I might even pitch in to help with training, as would Carmine. I'm sure she would love the opportunity."
His sister elbowed him. "Come on. We're not kids."
"That's the problem." He mused.
"Hey!"
"Alright." Noctis said. "I'll see what I can do. Some barriers to stop people from falling off the roof would be a priority. Honestly? I'm not sure if this will work. The two possible outcomes we have are this; either the training works out and benefits his self-esteem, or the skill gap between you two discourages him even more. It's pretty risky."
"Yeah, I know that. I just hope this will work." She muttered.
"You still have time to think this through, since Cardin and co will probably be recovering from their concussions for at least the rest of the week." Noctis explained. "Are you sure you don't want me to just leave team CRDL a free belt of grenades sans pins in the middle of the night?"
"Very sure. Please, please don't kill them. They might be jerks, but they don't deserve to die."
"I'll take that into consideration." He said, turning to leave. "Goodnight, sis. Don't get pregnant!" He called back with a grin of mischief on his face, safe in the knowledge that she couldn't make him slap himself at this distance. However, the same could not be said for his steel-toed boots, which were pulled out along with his feet from under him. He collapsed in a heap, swearing as he did. "Seriously? First Lapis, now you? What is wrong with all the women in my life?"
/-/
Ozpin leaned forward in his chair, prodding and tapping at various symbols on his scroll. The administration portal opened on one side of his scroll, bringing up a list of students and their statuses. The other side of his scroll was connected in a call with the Bloody Crow. "We need to move fast if what you are saying is true." He said. "The signs are cropping up everywhere. Discord, strife, division. All the signs of the Crawling Chaos pulling the strings. Also, the temple in the Emerald Forest must be sealed as soon as possible. You know that if even an image of himself survives, we have not won yet."
"That which holds the image of an Outer One, becomes an Outer One itself. I know that he'll use the statue as a contingency." Ozpin replied. "Unlike what you think, I haven't lost my touch yet."
"Good. We still need you in this fight, Willem. I have obtained some security footage, unfortunately just a snippet, but it should still prove enlightening."
While the footage loaded, he scrolled down the list of students to reach team NICL. At each relevant student entry, he toggled their individual operational status.
[NOCTIS ARGENT: ACTIVE]
The footage finished loading. It was not even a snippet, it was more of a still life painting, but it got the point across remarkably quickly. The first thing he saw was the fiery orange hair and uncharacteristically terrified expression of Roman Torchwick. Then, he saw the massive frame of the Grimm Dragon, the Wyrm, roaring up to the night sky. Then, he saw him. The Troupe Master himself, basking in the glory of his own creation.
"Where did you get this?" He ground out. His mug slipped out of his hand and shattered on the marble floor.
"In the industrial district of the city called Vale. Coincidentally, the same city your Academy overlooks."
"The dragon and the humanoid creature are from the Grimm Troupe." Ozpin's explained. "The Grimm Troupe are essentially semi-sentient Grimm, sentient in the case of the Troupe Master, that traipse around Remnant in a twisted parody of a concert tour. Their shows consist of visiting densely populated areas, torturing those living in the area with sadistic games courtesy of Troupe Master Grimm, and then purging the area of all life."
"So they are essentially the most powerful of these Grimm you fight. It's just a possibility, but maybe this Troupe Master is Nyarlathotep?" The Bloody Crow hazarded. "This is not much of a lead, but it is still a chance."
"I don't know. The Troupe is elusive at the best of times, and seeing them here in Vale is both a game changer of a chance and a horrible omen for the entire region."
He flicked another student's status as he said that.
[ICARUS AZURE: ACTIVE]
"Do you have a plan, Willem? This might be our only chance to take Nyarlathotep out of the game for the next few millennia. Being as omnipotent as an Outer One means that time passes much faster for them than it does for us. We kill him for what he perceives as a few seconds, but to us he is gone for an entire eon." The Bloody Crow chuckled. "His reaction time is much, much too slow, you could say."
Ozpin flicked another status.
[CARMINE REINHARDT: ACTIVE]
"Yes." He said. "I have a plan. You see the human among them? He's a local crime lord. My operatives can infiltrate his underworld, learn his plan, and maybe get the Troupe Master into position so that we can make our move."
"Excellent. Who shall these operatives be?" The Bloody Crow asked.
He flicked the last status.
[LAPIS FERRUM: ACTIVE]
Ozpin smiled. "I believe you already know one of them." The team status popped up on his screen, verifying his decision with a [Y/N] window. He tapped [Y].
"My daughter, hmm? I see…" The Bloody Crow mused. "Good choice. And I hope her teammates are adequate?"
"They are more than 'adequate'." Ozpin drawled. "They're the best on my side of the board."
[TEAM NICL STATUS: ACTIVE]
In the pale moonlight streaming in from the window of his office, Ozpin's grin gleamed a pure white.
(Author's Notes: Thank God I completed this in time!)
