It had been two weeks since Xal tested his class. They were all showing improvement, no matter how slight, they had only been training for a weeks now after all. The only problem was that they would never allow him to monologue, (whether or not that was a problem was debatable.) that bummed the proud warrior out a little, how where they supposed to know his thoughts if he could not monologue?
But that wasn't what had him on edge, ever since the cookie incident, Xal had found himself locked in an epic prank war of epic proportions. He could not stress the epicness of this war enough, though it was eight against one, one badass elite unit versus two of Beacon Academy's most promising first year teams, it was still an even war.
The cookie he vaporized two weeks prior? That wasn't a mere store bought hunk of unhealthy ingredients. Xal had spent hours perfecting that recipe, he used all the best materials he could get his hands on, he baked until he created the perfect treat, the most tragically delicious sweet anyone had ever seen. And he vaporized it. The point was that he was willing to put in a lot work for his petty desires.
He was currently setting up a log trap in JNPR's room, no one would get hurt, he put a pillow on the end of the one and a half ton piece of wood. But whoever next opened that door would be in for a surprise. He was about to jump out the window when his scroll chimed.
It was a text from Phyrra. "Jaune got his first kill." Attached was a gif of Jaune beheading an Ursa Major. Good for him, that boy needed a victory, he started looking like a mess about a week and a half ago. Xal had no idea why, but it was hurting the performance of his entire team, so Xal obviously had to step in. He had a hard time getting team JNPR to talk, but they cracked eventually when their grades began to drop.
Jaune pulled him aside one day and made him promise to keep a secret, Xal learned that Jaune faked transcripts to get into the academy. It was dishonorable to be sure, but the promise had been made, he knew two secrets now. He was also told that the boy was being blackmailed, but Xal couldn't help with that one. He told Jaune that one day he would make a choice, he would have to choose his team or himself, and that only he would could decide whether or not he would take the cowards path.
And now it would seem that somewhere along the line he chose to be the warrior that everyone believed he could be. Maybe he would set up some sort of celebration upon his return. But after someone had triggered the log trap, he hadn't dragged a tree trunk all the way up here for nothing.
And with that thought Xal stepped off the edge and fell a few stories, landing on his feet. He made his way to the kitchen to prepare make cookies, for eating this time, in celebration of Jaune's milestone. He was about to open the door when his scroll chimed again.
It was Ozpin this time. "Come meet me in my office please." Was all the Xal got. He was generally fine with the vague instructions, they were better than "Cut into the heart of the devils nest and extract the holy relic." which were just as specific, but you had to have been there.
Xal stepped out of the elevator irritated. That damnable music that played during his slow ascent was going to drive mad! He would install a gravlift even if he had to put it together using only his mandibles. But now wasn't the time for a mental rant. "You have need of me Headmaster?"
The silver haired man jumped as if he was surprised Xal was there, which was odd given that the elevator was not very quiet. "Oh, yes." He answered, regaining his composure. "When you missed last weeks faculty meeting I realized that you don't have a faculty email account, so I wanted to inform you that Deputy Headmistress Goodwitch set one up for you."
Xal cocked his head. "Is that all?" He hoped not, otherwise he would have come up here for basically nothing.
"Do you know of the upcoming Vytal Festival?" Ozpin was still only half there by Xal's perception, he couldn't know for certain if something was wrong, but it seemed like it.
"Vytal Festival?" Wrongness afoot or not he was still curious as to what this Vytal Festival was.
Ozpin took a sip of his coffee. "Yes, a celebration of peace between the kingdoms of Remnant, where students from all across the world come to participate in the Vytal Tournament."
That sounded exciting. "I love tournaments." Xal said with the sincerity one would think only a child was capable of. "And you say the students are participating? Is there a prize?"
The Headmaster was staring off into space again. "Headmaster?" Xal waved his hand in front of Ozpin's face. "Are you ill?"
The green clad human snapped back into reality with a shake of his head. "Apologies," Ozpin waved Xal off, "and I am fine, some... separation is normal for me." Xal felt that something was being hidden from him.
"Anything else you wish to tell me?" Xal asked, weirded out by how distant Ozpin was getting even during their conversation.
"The Kingdom of Atlas has requested your presence, they wish for you to help them solve a technical issue they've been having while trying to reverse engineer the technology on that ship you found."
"Atlas? I thought Vale was dealing with the cruiser." Xal wasn't concerned about the humans dealing with the technology, they would likely just blow themselves up. But he was curious as to why the kingdoms where sharing, humans were generally pretty greedy when it came to technology, the Arbiter had to strong arm them into sharing Trevalyan.
"Atlas is a bit better at the whole science thing than we are, so a little outsourcing is beneficial." Xal just nodded, it would seem that human greed wasn't as rampant as he thought.
"When would they be expecting me?" Now that he knew of the tournament, Xal would need to begin work on some new projects to ensure that his students would emerge victorious. I mean, they would win regardless, I trained them, but who couldn't benefit from better equipment?"
"They said they'll be ready for you in a week." Xal was about to leave with that information but then Ozpin said on last thing, "And could you please stop booby trapping the student dorms? It's setting everyone on edge."
"Very well, I will call for a ceasefire." And on that note, Xal left, now wishing he had a cape so he could have gone with a flourish.
(Line break)
"Hold! I come in peace." Xal held up his hands in the hallway that contained teams RWBY and JNPR's dorms. They were currently trying to chip Jaune out of the wall, just in the door threshold was the log. "HAHAHAHA!!" Xal bellowed. "You actually tripped it!"
Jaune was not amused. "The pillow didn't help at all!"
"Anyway, if you all could give me schematics for your weapons I will be on my way." Xal said matter of factly, his brain switching to business mode.
"What?!" Weiss screamed. "No, why would we trust you with that."
Xal's pupils narrowed into slits. "Why wouldn't you?"
Yang put a hand on his shoulder, or tried to, Xal was very tall, after some reaching the blonde settled for a pat on the back. "I don't know man, you've been pretty mean about some of your pranks."
Xal scoffed. "Since when are a few practical jokes considered mean? And speaking of mean, I recall your last prank against me involving a bucket of solid ice."
"Hey! I said I was sorry about that." Weiss stated looking away with a blush of embarrassment.
"You do go into pretty intense detail with your retaliations Professor." Et tu, Blake.
"Yes, I remember the one from four days ago." Ren said looking off in recollection. "You somehow developed dust that would bind to our auras and make us itch." The other humans shuddered at that. What they didn't know is that Xal sold the formula to Oldman Shopkeep, turning a decent profit.
"That was a special case, I was not pleased when my boots were filled with syrup!" That took Xal hours to clean, the water simply could not get some of it.
"But that doesn't matter, Headmaster Ozpin has demanded we call a ceasefire." Xal looked to the still stuck in the wall Jaune. "And I believe we can all agree that this has gone too far."
"Yeah, it is getting pretty bad." Ruby said, scratching the back of her neck. "Sooo, why do you need our weapon schematics?"
"It's a surprise, but a good surprise, I promise." Everyone still looked on edge, but after a few tense seconds Blake, and then Jaune sent the appropriate files. They were later followed by everyone else. "Thank you. And congratulations on your first kill Jaune."
The scraggly boy just stuck out his thumb. "Thanks."
(Line break, POV change, earlier that day)
Ozpin was busy checking the stasis pod that contained Amber, the current fall maiden. "Are you sure." He turned to the man sized floating creature hovering behind the life support machine.
Floats Aimlessly waved his tentacles in front of the camera of his translator. "I cannot fix her, I'm sorry." The huragok was clearly distressed by this fact judging by the way his head and tentacles drooped and his bioluminescence dimmed.
"I can only make the machine more comfortable for her." He waved again.
Ozpin sighed. "I suppose that's all I could have asked for at this point. Thank you for trying." Ozpin wished things were not the way they were, but wishes do not often come true.
"I regret that I could not have done more."
"Me too."
(Line break)
I got something out early! Aren't you happy?! Now I think I have hit my stride, the story will begin picking up now. And like always, don't forget to leave a review, I do read them and they really do motivate me, even if I don't always respond.