Chapter 10: Family
Present. Mistral
With Kole's shoulder healed back to semi-normal, the Fridulfs and their friends and spouses took a much, needed vacation to Mistral where the siblings could visit their family. They all meet up at the train station to take the safest and quickest route to the capital and then walk to their nearby ancestral home. On the train, everyone except Kole and Marcus took the time to catch some sleep. Katherine was asleep in Kole's arms and Grant and Shade were both leaning against each other on the bench opposing them.
"Yo. Watch this." Marcus said to the Kole, who was struggling to stay awake. A sly grim formed when he saw Marcus approached a young red head sitting alone near the front of their train car. "Hey baby. Why don't we head to the back of the train and you show me your caboose?" The red head, struck Marcus with the front of her hand and stormed off.
"Ha!" he yelled slapping his knee and waking everyone nearby. "I gotta say that was your best one yet"
"What's going on?" yawned Katherine as she stretched.
"Nothing, just Marcus being an idiot. We're almost here." Kole said,
The young faunus girl across from him, rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "You nervous?" she said stretching to wake up her muscles
"Not really. Yeah it's been years since I've been home, but well, that's life. Right?"
"Yeah, hopefully. Wonder what mom and dad will think when they see that their runt, turned into a full-fledged Huntsman."
That thought put a grin on his face. "So what's the plan, boss?"
"Well. First, we visit mom and dad. Tomorrow we'll be assistant teachers at Sanctum, so we can talk with Ash's class about becoming a Huntsman and Huntress and teach weapon's forging
"Cool. Ya know I can't believe I'm saying this but, I hope they'll like Kate."
"She'll be fine. She's a nice girl. A little 'quirky', but non-the-less, they'll like her."
Half an hour later they arrived at the train station on the edge of the city of Mistral, where the group headed South along a dirt road to the Fridulf estate. Shade and Grant lead the way, holding hands as they walked; Kole and Katherine followed with Kole's arm draped over her shoulder; and Marcus brought up the rear blasting rap music on his scroll.
"I can't believe that you two grew up here. This place is so gorgeous" Katherine said taking in the sights of the dense forests.
"Yeah. Why did you ever leave and go to Beacon? If I was from hear I would have stayed and gone to Haven." Marcus asked
"Haven is nice, but we've always liked to travel and see the world." Kole explained
"And after living here for years, it gets pretty boring here." Added Shade
All of a sudden the two Fridulfs stopped in the middle of the road and stealthily drew their weapons. "When I say run, you take Marcus and Kate on up the road and out of danger. Stay there and protect them we'll take care of this." Shade said to Grant.
Marcus and Katherine drew their swords and scanned the area. "What is it?"
"The welcoming party!" Kole shouted when Grant knelt down to investigate a tripwire set in the middle of the road.
"Shit!" Grant screamed seeing that the wire was connected to a grenade buried in the dirt.
"Run!"
The small explosion gave the signal for gunfire opened up from the treetops and treeline. The others ran ahead, all dazed by the thunderous blast of the booby-trap, Grant unslinged his rifle and prepared for any upcoming attack. Kole blocked some of the bullets with the blade of his gun and returned fire at the snipers, while Shade covered her teammates retreat.
All around the forest road, gunfire opened up, causing the Huntsman and Huntress to scatter. They then opened fire all around them, unloading a hail of pistol and shotgun fire. Realizing the ambushers were out skilled, five masked and hooded bandits emerged from the tree line, armed with hybrid weapons and a few improvised weapons. Shade transformed her weapon to axe-mode and blocked the attacks with great ease. As soon as the gun battle began, it then changed into an all-out melee fest. Katherine, Grant, and Marcus watched in shock and awe as the two fought with such synchronized attacks. When one would turn their back to an enemy, the other would defend them. Being back home has made them an unmatchable duo. They were truly in their element here
"I don't know about you sis, but these guys are actually pretty good. I think I'm almost breaking a sweat." Kole said to his attackers
One of the bandits charged at Kole while he was distracted by the sniper fire. Seeing him out of the corner of his eye, Kole spun around and kicked the thug in the butt, launching him into the dirt. This angered the bandit so much that he charged again at the Huntsman. Kole sheathed his pistol and took on the thug bare handed. Once he was within reach. Kole grabbed him by the neck, picked him up into the air, and slammed him into the dirt on his back. Kole rested his knee on the bandit's chest, pinning him down.
"Get your filthy hands off of me, human." said the bandit as he gasped for air
"Not until you tell me, who's the Alpha?" asked Kole
The bandit remained silent and struggled to get free.
"I said. Who is the Alpha?" he said pointing the barrel of his gun to the bandit's head
Finally, the bandit answered him as he realized he had been beaten. "You are."
"What?"
"You are the Alpha!"
"And don't you forget it, punk." He said taking his knee off the thug and helping him to his feet.
The other bandits halted their attacks against Shade when they saw their leader had been defeated. Kole's opponent removed his balaclava and revealed a young boy's face of about fourteen years of age. The boy had Shade's black hair and a pair of green eyes. But he also had a pair of small wolf ears that were hidden under the mask. Katherine and Marcus then realized that the other attackers were about a foot shorter then, the Huntsman and Huntress
The boy looked at Kole with such hatred. "And I almost got you this time"
"Yeah, sure you did. Come here, I want you to meet my friends, Marcus and Kate. The other one is Shade' bitch Grant.
"Fuck you, Kole"
"Hey" Kate said punching Grant in the stomach "Don't swear in front of the children."
Anyway this little runt is Ash, my baby brother." He said rubbing the boy's hair.
"Nice to meet you." Kate said pinching his cheek
"You set an actual grenade in the road?" yelled Grant "You could have killed someone."
"It was just a small gravity Dust bomb. It was just meant to create the shockwave of a real bomb." Explained the boy
"My God. You people are insane" said Grant taking a step away from the Fridulfs
"Are they Huntsmen too?" asked the other kids. "Can we have your autographs?"
"We'll see after dinner. First we gotta get home." said Shade
"So is she you girlfriend, Kole?" Ash said trying to embarrass his big brother
"As a matter of fact, yes." He answered "Come on runt, say goodbye to your friends and let's go"
The group continued on down the road, until they reached an old house tucked in the middle of the forest. Ash ran on ahead to inform the family of the arrival of the Huntsman.
"Just keep in mind our family is a little 'off'." Shade said turning to her friends
"Well your little brother and his psycho friends already tried to kill us. I don't think things can get anymore 'off'." said Marcus sarcastically
The Fridulf Home was a modestly sized two-story house with a red brick exterior and a large chimney that produced a large cloud of white smoke from behind the house. It featured a wide front porch that covered the east and south.
An older man and woman stood eager at the doorway awaiting their arrival. The man was about 5'11" with thinning salt and pepper hair and had a wore a white button-down collared shirt, and a pair of black slacks, with a faunus wolf tail; and a woman about Shade's height with long, dull, reddish-brown hair, wearing a long light grey dress with white and pink flowers printed on it. also with a wolf tail.
"Shade? Is that you?" yelled a woman with a familiar looking set of reddish brown hair, and green eyes, standing at the doorway "What are you doing here?"
"Yeah. Nice to see you too, mom. Thanks for asking." said Kole as he approached the steps to the front porch.
"Kole. I see you are still acting like an arrogant prick." said the man as he approached Kole to shake his hand.
"And I can see that you're still an old excuse for a man." He replied
"Nice to see you boy," the man said hugging Kole
"Mom. Dad. I want you to meet our teammates. Marcus; Katherine, Kole's girlfriend; and my boyfriend Grant" said Shade "Guys, this is our mom and dad, Grayson and Heather Fridulf."
"Nice to meet you both" Katherine said with a curtsy.
"How's it going?" said Marcus
Grant approached their father and tried to shake his hand "Sir. It's an honor to meet you, Shade has told me a lot about y-"
Greyson, looked at the man before him with a look of absolute rage. He reached for Kole's pistol and aimed it at Grant's head. "You stay away from my daughter, human. Or I swear I'll fill you with so much lead, you'll be using your pecker as a pencil!"
The young Huntsman jumped back and fell off the steps into the dirt. "I'm so sorry sir. Please don't shoot me." He pleaded
"And I stand corrected." said Marcus reaching for his sword.
"Dad, knock it off" Shade said laughing and punching her father in the arm.
The senior Fridulf handed back Kole's pistol and reached out a hand to help Grant to his feet. "The first sign of danger and his reaction is to run? Geeze what do they teach you kids at these Huntsman schools?"
"Hey we are actually skilled fighters. He's just a giant pussy." added Kole with a laugh.
"You're not gonna shoot me, right? I'm just a friend, okay. I get it, hands off. " asked Marcus with his hand on his sabre.
"So these are the infamous teammates we've heard so much about." Greyson said looking at Katherine and Marcus
"Come in, come in." Said Heather as she waved everyone inside "Make yourself at home"
"I remember when we saw your fight during the 38th Vytal Festival. Now that was some match. Those Haven kids didn't know what hit them."
"You can discuss your fights later. Dinner's getting cold. And remember kids, no weapons at the table." said Heather as she disappeared to the kitchen.
"Yes, mom" said the Huntsmen as they hung up their weapons on a hook near the door.
Inside the dining room was a 10' long walnut dining table. Greyson and Ash brought out some extra chairs and plates for their visitors. The walls of the room had oaken wainscoting with a dark green wallpaper. Atop the walls, hung thousands of photos of the Fridulf family and hanging over a grand fireplace sat a large, targe shield decorated in black and red.
"I hope you all like fried chicken. I made enough to feed an army." said Heather bringing two large plates of chicken to the table. Shade's tail couldn't help but wag when she smelled the mouth-watering aroma of the chicken. "But before we eat, would anyone like to say grace?" Katherine eagerly raised her hand and began the prayer."Kole take that ridiculous hat off at the table."
He did as he was told and again, while everyone lowered their heads to pray, Kole attempted to steal a chicken leg, hanging close to the edge of the large plate. But this time he received two forks embedded in his hand. The first from Katherine, and the second from his mom.
"Damn it!" He shouted
"Kole! Watch your language." Said Katherine and Heather at the same time.
The whole table erupted into laughter when they saw that some things never change.
"Honestly, after all these years I see that you can never learn. You're never going to sneak anything by me, boy" said Heather
"Oh yeah. We'll see about that." He said pulling the forks from the back of his hand "You're starting to slip in your age ma."
"Don't you back-sass me boy. Or I swear I'll drag your ass outside and just see if your as good a Huntsman as you say." She said pointing sternly at him from the head of the table.
"Bring it on"
After dinner, everyone gathered outside to have Shade and Kole teach Ash and his friends a few fighting moves they learned at Beacon, while Marcus, Grant, and Katherine sat on the porch watching the Fridulf children spar, preparing Kole for his fight.
"So how long have you two been dating?" Heather asked Kate, handing her a cup of coffee
"Since our first year at Beacon, ma'am. You won't believe it, but when we went on our first date, he was absolutely scared."
"Ha. I can believe it. And please call me Heather. You know, underneath all that tough-guy physique he's just a big softie."
The thought of seeing her big strong hero be a scrawny push-over, made Katherine smile. "I would love to see that."
I've heard that opposites attract, but after seeing you two. I can't believe how right that is. You're a beautiful, smart, and energetic young woman. While Kole is a jackass."
Katherine couldn't help but laugh at how his own parents could insult him the same way Shade does.
"I can tell he really cares about you. Promise me you'll keep an eye on him for me."
"Yes ma'am. I mean Heather"
"Alright ma you ready, ma?" So do you want me to get you a cane first or can you still lift that shield of yours?" Shouted Kole
"Katherine. Be a sweetie and get Skjoldr from above the fireplace. Its about time I kick this whelp's fucking ass."