Broken Up View
A/N: Another chapter! I'm so sorry this took so long, but between work and playing a lot of League of Legends, I also wound up getting a huge brain fart. This took so long to finish, and it pisses me off so much. Also I hope to get more work done with Into Fiore. Hopefully I get over this brain fart as well. Finally, this will be a pretty long chapter since it's basically a series of one-shots about each of the members of VNLA on their own. And so, off we go!
I own nothing. Please R & R.
Vio
The team leader let out a content sigh as he walked into the room, a box under his arm. On the box was a hexagon inside a circle (The Didact symbol from Halo). Above it were three letters: E.M.P. He smiled when he saw Leaf's piano was absent. "Well, nice to see Leaf listened and took his piano out of here." Humming This Will Be the Day to himself, he opened the little box and pulled out a cone-shaped device.
The device itself was light purple, and had bright blue lines running along it. It had a sphere-shaped bottom piece at the base of the cone. Based on the design of it, one could easily realize that the device was meant to open up like a flower. Unfolding the base, he set it up in the middle of the room before pressing the light blue power button on the side. Almost immediately, the device lit up.
"Hello!" came a synthetic female voice. "Thank you for purchasing this Electromagnetic Pulse Generator. You may call me, Sheila."
"Hello Sheila," Vio said politely despite talking to a machine. He was simply in that good of a mood. "I would like you to perform a scan on this room and send out a pulse to eradicate any hidden microphones or cameras."
"Certainly!" it happily replied. "Such a function is what I was designed to do after all. I'll begin scanning the room right away!" A high-pitched hum began going through the room after that as the unit checked the dimensions of the room. Thirty seconds later, the device stopped humming. "All done!" it chirped. "Electromagnetic Pulse generator armed. Please remove all electronics you do not wish to harm."
"Already done," he told it. Leaf's keyboard is gone and I have Ren holding on to my Scroll for me.
"If you say so. Firing in 3… 2… 1… Now firing emp."
"Wait, what did you say?!"
The device opened up like a flower as a blue light began to glow from the center of the unit. The light intensified as a blue pulse was sent out and filled the room. After it died down, the light in the EMP unit died down. "Is that it?"
"Not even close," came a familiar voice. The unit started glowing white before a small hologram of Album appeared. "Vio, if you're seeing this, then I found the emp unit you were going to buy and use to try and clear out the room. And if you're someone else, tell Vio I'm from the future and that he owes me 300 Lien." He rolled his eyes at that comment. Of course Album would do something like that. "Now, you're probably wondering about why this appeared after the emp fired a pulse. Well the answer is simple: I rigged this device so that not only will it not fire an electronic destroying pulse, it will broadcast this message."
"Dammit, Album," he growled through grit teeth. His hands were tightly clenched in fists of rage.
"And now, I leave you with this, oh fearless leader." She pointed her index fingers and started shaking her hips. "Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh, ha-ha-ha-ha-h-" The recorded dance never finished because Vio took the device and hurled it at the wall with an angry yell, causing it to break into pieces from the center unit. After that, he proceeded to start tearing up the box the unit came in. As he tried to tear up the smaller pieces, there was a knock on his door.
With a scowl, he stomped over to the door in a very Weiss-like manner and pulled it open. "Yes?"
On the other side of the door stood a concerned looking Blake and a smiling Yang. "Hello~!" sang the blonde brawler. "We were hanging out in our room when we heard a yell and something slam into the wall," she said cheerfully.
"Are you alright, Vio?" Blake asked. "What was all the yelling and the crashing about?"
His eye twitched at the question. "I was trying to use an EMP generator to get-"
"Don't you mean-"
"Don't start that," Blake interrupted the smirking blonde.
"Thank you," Vio graciously told Blake. "Anyways, I was trying to get rid of some planted bugs Album put in our room using an EMP. Unfortunately, Album somehow found the one I would use and made it useless as an EMP generator. So I was furious about that and hurled the unit at the wall."
"Wow. Tough break," Yang said sympathetically.
"Well, Weiss is forcing Ruby to study right now, so we're on our own. Want to hang out?" Blake asked. Vio was internally cheering when he noticed the light blush on her cheeks.
"Sure," he replied with a nod as he walked out and closed the door. "Let me just get my Scroll from Ren and we can start planning the date I have to take you two on." One quick stop to JNPR's room (And Nora singing about pancakes) later, and the three were walking around the Beacon campus. "So," he asked them, "anywhere you two want to go in particular?"
"Well, I know a really great restaurant down in Vale," Yang told them, edging closer to Vio in preparation for grabbing onto him. "We could all go there for an evening."
"That sounds nice," Blake added. As she said this, she grabbed a hold of Vio's right hand and held onto it. He went to pull away, but she applied a bit of pressure to get him to stop doing so. "So how does next weekend sound?"
"It should work," he replied, internally groaning when Yang attached herself to his left arm. "I'm sure I'll be able to cover it," he added.
"Awesome!" Yang said while hugging his arm closer to her chest. So soft! "Sounds like a plan!"
"So, what now?" Blake asked. The three legitimately had the entire day to themselves.
"I don't know," replied the rich teen. The three kept walking with the two girls clinging to the young man's arms. "Want to see if the cafeteria is serving lunch yet?"
Yang smiled brightly. "Sure!" Tightening her grip, Yang dragged Vio (and by extension Blake) with her to the cafeteria.
When the three arrived at the cafeteria, there were some students hanging out in their casual clothes, but it was pretty empty since a lot of their classmates were probably hanging out in the city. After the trio got some lunch (today's special being steak and potatoes), they got a table to themselves. "So Vio, what do you think of Vale?" Yang asked him. "How is it compared to Atlas?"
He smirked while cutting a piece of steak. "Well it's certainly a lot better than Atlas. The people here are just so… kind," he said with a pause to eat the piece of meat. "In Atlas, the people only care or themselves, and tend to be extremely closed off and bigoted. As I'm certain you've heard, the humans in Atlas are the most biased and racist people in the four kingdoms. But here… The people don't seem to care as much about what species you are. I may have seen some racism, but not as much or as blatant as in Atlas."
Blake smiled at him. "I've noticed that too. There may be some racism here, but the citizens in Vale are a lot nicer than the humans I've met before coming here."
"That's Vale for you," Yang replied happily after taking a mouthful of soda. "We're some of the nicest around." She then leaned in towards Vio, giving him a better view of her cleavage. "So Vio, you looking forward to our date on Saturday?"
He composed himself with some effort (thank Dust his father taught him how to do so), and looked at the blonde with a controlled smile. "I'm actually slightly anxious, Yang. This will be my first actual date, since Weiss and I never did anything that could actually be considered romantic."
Both girls laughed at that, Yang moreso than Blake. "You and Weiss were a thing?!" she asked.
"You know, that doesn't exactly surprise me," the Faunus commented dryly with a smirk. "Especially since the two of you are from similar backgrounds."
"Yeah, we were a thing several years back," he said with a bit of a chuckle. "It ended disastrously when Weiss' sister tricked me and destroyed our extremely innocent relationship."
"Her sister?" asked Yang. "Now I'm interested. Start talking and tell me everything."
Nudar
The blond teen was busy in the school workshop yet again, but for what he hoped would be the last time. "Alright, Soul Cutter, let's finish you up," he said tenderly to the weapon. He had been spending a tremendous number of hours in this one room trying to modify his weapon to deal the reloading problem. And he had finally finished the alterations to the reloading system. A tweaked screw here, a tightened bolt there, and the buster sword was reassembled. "It's alive!" he cheered as he held it in his hands, earning himself some strange looks from other students in the workshop.
"What's going on, Nudar?" came a cultured female voice. He looked to the source and found Velvet staring at him inquisitively. Considering her mysterious weapon was on her belt, he figured she had been working on the weapon again.
"Oh, I just put the finishing touches on Soul Cutter so that it works much more effectively," he said proudly. "Now I can stop spending so much time in here."
She giggled at his remark. "Well to be fair, you've spent so much time here because you've been helping me with my weapon every now and again."
"Yeah, good point." He heaved Soul Cutter onto his shoulder and started towards the door. "Well, see ya later, Velvet," he said with a wave. "Good luck finishing your weapon."
"Thank you!" she called to him as he exited.
The blond teen was humming a song he liked called Quincy's Craft as he approached the locker room to drop off his weapon. As he entered the locker room, he found Pyrrha polishing her armor and sharpening her weapon Mil ō. "Hey Pyrrha," he greeted as he walked in.
"Hello, Nudar," she told him. "How are you today?"
"Feeling pretty alright," he said with a grin and a nod. "Finished up Soul Cutter, and now I'm depositing it here in my locker."
"Well congratulations," she told him. He nodded before going to his locker, which happened to be near him. As he forcibly wedged the buster sword inside it, she kept staring at him. "Say, Nudar. Can I ask you something?"
He grunted as he pushed up against his sword. "Sure. Go right ahead." He began struggling again to get Soul Cutter inside his locker.
"I may be mistaken and assuming things here, but are you originally from Mistral?"
He stopped at that, and practically froze when he heard that question. "W-what makes you say that, Pyrrha?" he asked nervously.
"Well, your name follows Mistralian naming conventions, with your first name being in ancient Mistralian, and your last being derived from an old Mistralian deity," she explained.
"Maybe my parents had roots in Mistral," he replied nervously.
"Then why are you getting so nervous about this?" she asked him.
"I'm not!" he yelled as he punched an adjacent locker, creating a dent in it.
The redhead stared at him for a moment in silence. "Nudar, I know you're hiding something," she said in a caring tone. She got up and put a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong? I'm your friend."
He pushed off her hand and pulled Soul Cutter from its loose position in the locker. "It doesn't matter. You don't need to know."
"Nudar-"
"Let it be, Pyrrha!" he yelled at her.
The invincible girl was silent for a moment. "No." She got in front of him and raised her own weapon. "I won't leave this be until you tell me what's wrong. And if I have to fight you for you to tell me, then so be it."
"Really, Pyrrha?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "You want to fight me because I won't tell you something?"
"I don't want to fight a friend, but if I need to have a sparring match to get you to tell me, then so be it," she told him firmly.
He let out a heavy sigh before looking at her. "So either I tell you now, or fight you and tell you if I lose." He shook his head. "Really great choices, Pyrrha." "Alright then, let's have a spar, Nikos. And if I win, you drop my name thing. Deal?"
She grinned at his challenge. "And should I win, you will answer my questions. Very well, Nudar, I accept." The Invincible Girl quickly put her gear back on and grabbed her weapon while Nudar started walking towards the training room. Within a couple of minutes, the two were standing opposite one another in the same room Goodwitch had them spar in. "So, we go until one of us is in the red for our Aura reading?" she asked him as they got ready to begin.
"I guess," he replied as he strapped his Scroll to the underside of his right arm. Opening up the Aura Monitor on it, he pulled Soul Cutter out of the ground and rested it across his shoulders. "Just so you know, Pyrrha, I'm doing this so I at least have some degree of a say in whether or not I tell you anything."
"And I feel it right to warn you I won't be holding back, Nudar," she replied with a grin. Holding her sword in her right hand and her shield in her left, she got into a battle stance. Her eyes asked a simple question to the blond swordsman.
"Go," he said simply as he held Soul Cutter to his right with both hands. With Aura-enhanced speeds, the two launched themselves at each other, their blades colliding with sparks from the collision. Nudar was expecting the amount of power Pyrrha put into her attack, but she was shocked when Mil ō was pushed back in the collision. There was even more power behind the blond boy's attack then she had assumed.
Nudar wasted no time after the attack bounced back. Swinging his sword up, he swung in a downwards strike towards her legs. Shocked at the speed he recovered with, she could only roll out of the way. When his blade slammed into the ground, the ground cracked and even broke into some chunks from the force of the attack. How did he make his attack have so much power? Pyrrha thought to herself.
She held her lance up and threw it at him, pulling the trigger and launching it harder at him. The tip of the spear slammed into his Aura and slid off of it into the ground. The redhead dove for the spear but her stomach became acquainted with the toe of his boot. She rolled on the ground before righting herself on her hands and knees. Nudar launched himself at her with his sword held high, and her Aura barely managed to repel the attack. It's even stronger!
"You're probably wondering how I managed to make my attacks hit harder with my longer swings," Nudar said simply to Pyrrha. "It's because I'm using my Semblance. It allows me to increase or decrease the accelerative force of the weapon I'm wielding to alter my attack's power." He hefted the blade over his shoulder and looked at her with a challenging stare. "So, how are you going to take me down now?"
Pyrrha however was confused. That Semblance… that weapon… the stance… Why does it all seem so familiar? She felt as though she had seen and heard about Nudar and his Semblance. But she wasn't sure how. She shifted her eyes to her weapon. I could get Milō back using my Semblance, but I don't want anyone knowing about it. She looked down at her left arm. At least I've got my shield to block his attacks. Setting a plan to mind, she started running towards where her weapon was imbedded in the ground. When Nudar made a power swing at her as she charged, she lifted her shield up to the blade. As it slid aside, she attuned the metal in Soul Cutter to her Semblance.
Using it as an opportunity, Pyrrha launched herself into a roll and pulled her lance from the ground as she passed it. Getting into a stance on one knee, she converted the lance to its rifle form and used the shield as a guard. Taking aim, she started firing a series of shots at her opponent. Nudar started running to avoid getting hit, and activated his sword's newest mode. The sword opened up along the edge of the blade to reveal a long vent for Dust as trigger shaped like a brake handle released itself from the handle. A/N: Basically, a brake handle from a bike came out of the handle.
Grinning at her shocked expression, he twisted the handle to change the dust element. With a powerful swing, he launched an arc of flames from the edge of his blade. The Invincible Girl quickly dove to the ground and rolled to the side to avoid an overhead swing. Switching back to sword mode, the two clashed blades repeatedly with neither willing to give an inch to the other. However, Pyrrha found herself losing ground as he kept increasing the force of each attack. What is so bad he's trying to keep me from finding out?
As Pyrrha took an overhead swing at him to hit his sword's hilt out of his hands. As she moved her weapon up, he raised his left foot and kicked her in the stomach. The air rushed out of her lungs, Nudar knocked her aside. She stumbled, and dropped her weapon again. "This match is over!" Nudar yelled as he swung sideways towards the redhead. Raising her empty hand behind her blocking shield, the sword arced up to avoid her. His eyes went wide as his powered swing flew by her and took a shield bash to his stomach. As she went to deliver a punch to his head, Nudar let go of his sword and raised his leg.
With a loud yelp of pain, her fist met his face as his boot slammed into her side. Both combatants fell to the ground groaning in pain. "Alright then, Nudar. I'd say you won," Pyrrha groaned to him.
"So you'll stop pressuring me for what you wanted to know?" he asked as he raised his head to look at her.
"Despite this technically being a tie about our Auras," she held up her Scroll and he saw they were both on the red level, "I will hold to my agreement and leave you be as to your past." She made herself get up and walked over to where her weapon was laying.
"It is fair," he said simply while getting up. "But I will give you something to deal with the tie." He walked over to Soul Cutter and rested it over his shoulder. "Try to remember stories about someone called 'The Vehement Avenger' from Sanctum. Then you'll start piecing it all together." With that, the blond swordsman left the stadium. He knew what Pyrrha would remember: she'd remember the reason he was going to school in Vale.
He had been a problem child at Sanctum since he hated intolerance and got into dozens of fights. Of course, since people hated him more than his friend Castaño because he wasn't as naturally intimidating, he had taken more crap about the delinquency issues. Which is why at the end of his time at Sanctum, he had been borderline forbidden from attending Haven. He had been prepared to go into the workforce and outlive his infamy with a job at a convenience store or something, but Ozpin came to his family's door one night and asked him to attend Beacon instead of working like a civilian. Who was his mother to refuse the chance to have her son be a professional Huntsman?
-That night-
Nudar was sitting in Team VNLA's room with the rest of the team. Album was cheerfully typing away on her Scroll while laying on her back with one leg bouncing in the air. Vio was reading from their World History book but seemed more interested in his own thoughts than in the text book. And finally, Leaf was drawing in a sketch book (How does he do that if he's blind?!) and looked as though he were on Cloud Nine. As for himself, he was currently messaging Castaño and his friends from back home. Hearing about how much they all missed him, he smirked when he got an idea.
"Hey guys," he said to snap the others out of whatever they were thinking about. "Can you come over here for a moment?" As they all reluctantly came over to his bed, he sent a message to Castaño to get the rest of their old group together for a video call. "There are some people I want you to meet."
"Who is it?" Album asked in an annoyed tone.
His Scroll started going off with his friend's name appearing on the screen for a video call. Turning the device sideways, he hit accept. Immediately, their ears were greeted by a loud girl's voice. "NUDAR!" she happily yelled. Leaf groaned in pain from the volume as he held his bat ears.
There were three people on the screen, two boys and one girl, wearing the Haven Uniform. The girl had bright orange hair and a couple of flower hairpins. Her grey eyes were shining happily like her gigantic smile. To her left was a teen with straight black hair. His glasses had silver inlays and a five-pointed asterisk on the bridge. A similar necklace, also in silver, hung around his neck. He looked mildly happy to see Nudar, and was looking at the other three as if he was calculating their every weakness. The third teen was a taller boy with dark tan skin. His short brown hair was filled with waves and hung loosely and partially obscured one of his eyes.
"Hey guys!" Nudar said happily to them. He looked at his teammates. "Guys, these are my friends from back home. The girl is Sunset, the black haired dork with glasses-"
"HEY!" he yelled indignantly.
"Is Chromium. And the dark skinned guy is Castaño." He looked back at the screen. "Guys, this is my team."
"So you guys are the VNLA Nudar keeps telling us about," the darker teen commented. "It's nice to meet you guys."
"Nudar talks about you guys a lot," Sunset told them. "I'm so glad he managed to find such good friends at Beacon!"
"That is unless you're all delinquents like he is," Chromium stated while adjusting his glasses.
Vio laughed at that. "Naw, that's this one," he said while pointing his thumb at Album.
She punched Vio on the arm. "Jerk," she growled. "But yeah, Nudar is my partner in crime for pranking this one group of assholes we have to deal with," she explained to the Mistralians.
"Wonderful," muttered Chromium. "Now we've got two of them."
"Hey, did you hear?" Castaño interrupted. "Chromium was made into a Team Leader here at Haven."
"Oh yeah, how's that going?" Nudar asked his friend.
"Quite well," he told them while adjusting his glasses with a proud smile. "They're still adjusting to having such a well-organized individual in a position of power, but I'm sure they'll get used to it."
"I doubt that," Nudar teased him with Sunset laughing loudly while the black-haired teen yelled at him.
"Hey, Nudar's friends," Album loudly said to the screen. "Are you guys coming with the exchange program?"
Chromium nodded. "We signed up for it. It'll take a couple weeks for us to show up though."
"I'm excited to meet you guys!" Sunset loudly told them. "You sound so awesome!"
Nudar smiled as his two sets of friends got along. He honestly felt that all of his friends would get along just fine.
Leaf's POV
When the Faunus woke up that morning, he felt like he wanted to try spending more time with his teammates. He was woken up when Album was up unusually early. "Morning Album," he greeted her with a sleepy yawn.
He heard her flinch a bit, which meant he probably startled her. "Oh, hey Leaf," she said calmly when she realized who it was. "What are you doing up this early?"
"I'm usually the first one up," he told her calmly. "You woke me up just now. Are you going somewhere?"
"I have…plans for today. It's a shame I can't be around to see the results." There was an anticipatory tone to her voice that indicated she was extremely excited about whatever was going to happen.
"Can I tag along?" he asked.
She hissed through her teeth. "Sorry, kind of already got Nora helping me out, and it's a two-person job."
"Oh." His ears drooped a little at that. "Well, maybe some other time then."
"Yeah, sure," she said as she opened the door and closed it softly.
He sighed to himself after she left. Well, so much for that, he thought to himself. Slightly bummed out about it, he started going about his own daily routine and took a quick shower. As he got out, his ears were twitching in irritation from getting wet. "I've got to buy a shower cap," he complained as he gently dried his sensitive ears. After dressing in the casual/combat clothes he had brought in with him, he stepped out to his other teammates getting ready. "Hey guys," he greeted.
"Oum Almighty!" Nudar yelled in shock. The Faunus heard his friend turn. "Jeez, Leaf. Don't sneak up on us like that."
"He came out of the bathroom," Vio deadpanned. "It wasn't that scary."
"So," Leaf said to draw attention back to himself. "What are you guys up to today?"
"I'm going down to the workshop to finish working on my weapon," Nudar said proudly. "So no bothering me."
"I plan on going into the city on an errand today," Vio informed them very matter-of-factly. "Also, I'd recommend keeping your keyboard out of here for the day."
"So, do you need any help?" He tried to not sound too whiny, but he wanted to do something with his friends.
"Sorry, Leaf," he said genuinely. "But I was planning on doing this myself. The fewer people who know my plan, the better my chances Album won't stop me." Leaf and Nudar were confused about that statement, but knew their Leader wouldn't elaborate on it.
"It's ok," he said while trying to sound upbeat about it. "I'll find something to do today. Maybe CFVY isn't doing anything today." That meant nothing. He knew CFVY would be busy and were friends with Nudar, not him.
"Well, if you say so," Nudar said to him. There was an awkward silence where Nudar and Vio kept getting ready. "Ok, I'm going to the workshop. Later!" With that, he went over to the door and left. The amount of weight behind each step told Leaf he was excited.
Another couple minutes passed before an alarm on Vio's Scroll went off. Leaf heard him tapping away at the screen before getting up. "I'm leaving now," he told him. "I'll be back in about an hour, and I'd recommend getting that keyboard out of here before then." He opened up the door. "See ya man." The door closed.
The Bat Faunus sighed before getting up. Grabbing his keyboard, he put the instrument into its bag and went to the cafeteria for a quick breakfast. Grabbing some fruit and some toast, the green-colored teen found a seat with who his sense of smell told him was Jaune. "Hey Leaf," said leader greeted him, confirming his suspicions about his identity. "What's up?"
Leaf sat down and set his keyboard down next to him. "Vio and the others are all doing their own things today. So, I'm left to my own devices. How about you?"
"Well, Pyrrha and I were going to train some more this morning, and then we were going to go study for History." He chuckled awkwardly and the surrounding sounds showed his arm scratching his head. "I'd invite you, but..."
"It's alright," Leaf told him with what he hoped was a reassuring smile and a nonchalant wave. "I think I'll take today as a personal day."
"Oh, alright then," the blond said awkwardly. "See ya." With that, the leader of JNPR got up and left Leaf on his own. The Faunus finished his meal by himself, and returned the empty tray. After leaving the cafeteria, he wandered around the campus for a while looking for somewhere to play his keyboard in peace. However, he ran into one problem.
There's too much noise, he thought to himself. It seemed like everywhere he went, there were other students hanging out and being noisy. Of course, he didn't bother with the library since the librarian probably wouldn't approve of someone playing a piano there (even though they got away with all sorts of crap in there. Some kids even had an airsoft tournament in there last month!), so he was thinking about finding a quiet tree or a similar place. After a lengthy search, he found a tree with no discussions in the immediate vicinity.
Sitting himself down in the shade, he found the zipper and took his keyboard out. Switching it on, he tried to think of what to play based on how he was feeling. Vio and the guys ditched me, and I don't have many other friends around here, he thought to himself. That's when it dawned on him as to what he should play. His mind made up, henodded his head to set a beat for himself to begin before playing the song that fit how he felt right now. After playing for a moment, he began singing to his own playing.
"Mirror, tell me something,
Tell me who's the loneliest of all."
He paused for a moment, before picking up his playing like he had practiced.
"Mirror, tell me something,
Tell me who's the loneliest, of all.
Fear what's inside me,
Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?"
By now, he was engrossed with his music, and didn't notice that someone was approaching him. Instead, his fingers danced the patterns they had memorized after practicing since the beginning of the year.
"Mirror mirror, what's behind you?
Save me from the things I see
I can keep it from the world,
Why won't you let me hide from me?"
As he kept sang, he didn't realize someone joined him in his singing.
"Mirror, mirror, tell me something,
Who's the loneliest of all?"
That's when the second voice stopped singing with him.
"I'm the loneliest of all…"
As he finished the song, his unnoticed guest applauded him. "That was a wonderful performance," he was told by a familiar cultured voice to his right.
He turned in that direction in shock. "Weiss?! When did you get there?"
He heard a giggle. "Around the third verse," she told him amusedly. "I had no idea you played piano, let alone so well." She sat down beside him, so he scooted over while feeling a bit of warmth on his cheeks. She's awfully close.
"Oh, I guess I was so focused that I didn't notice you were here then," he awkwardly chuckled. "So, what are you doing around here?"
"Well, I tried forcing Ruby to study today, but she vanished when I went to the bathroom." She breathed a heavy sigh and he 'saw' he cross her arms in annoyance. "So I went to look for her, but instead found someone playing the song I performed at my concert before coming to Beacon." She smiled and took his right hand, causing him to tense up at the contact and feel his cheeks get even hotter. "You have a wonderful voice Leaf."
"T-thanks Weiss," he choked out. Come on, Leaf! Stop being a coward! What would Vio do?! Taking a deep breath, he steeled his resolve and smiled a bit to the Schnee heiress. "I tend to be sensitive to sound, so I wound up learning to play the piano and singing on my own."
"Impressive," she said while giving a slight squeeze to his hand. "So, do you know how to play any other songs?"
"Actually, yes," he said, excited that the heiress was interested in one of his passions. What he didn't realize was that the heiress had cheeks as red as Ruby's cloak and was silently cursing her leader as well as thanking her.
Album (Starts after Leaf's discussion with her)
Stepping out of the room with a messenger bag over her shoulder, the white haired girl met up with her fellow hammer-wielder in the hall. "Hey Nora, you ready to go?"
The red-head nodded while bouncing in place. "Yup! I am so ready!"
Album nodded. "I can see that," she told him. She looked at Nora with a semi-annoyed expression. "And you brought Ren with you because?"
Nora looked at her partner with a silly grin. "Oh! I felt we could use some of his awesome ninja skills on your top-secret mission!"
"Also, Jaune and Pyrrha were going to try to bridge the awkwardness from yesterday morning, and I didn't want to be all on my lonesome," explained the dark-haired boy.
Album made a thoughtful face at that, and nodded. "Alright, seems legit." She then pointed at him with a scowl. "But if you do ANYTHING to jeopardize our mission, I will end you, got it?"
"Completely," he said with a nod. "Now, what exactly is this mysterious mission?"
She started walking backwards down the hall. "Follow," she whispered while moving her arms. Nora eagerly skipped down the hall after the white-haired girl. The male member of the trio rolled his eyes before following after the two girls. As they left the building, they kept walking towards the airship dock. "Basically, I planted some bugs in CRDL's and my own team's rooms to get dirt on the guys. Vio found out on accident, so he's going into town to get an emp unit to wipe out my bugs. So, I got this," she said while holding up her bag.
"And in the bag is…?" asked Ren.
"A self-designed emp unit. Instead of giving off the usual pulse, it will instead project a message of me taunting him over out-smarting me," explained Album. "That way, I can get a serious rise out of aggravating him."
"Sounds rather pointless to me," commented the only male in the trio. "If the four of you are supposed to be a well-organized team, why would you do things like that to him?"
"Because it's fun, Ren," she replied snarkily. "Besides, it's not like my team has had to do anything as a team yet. So who cares if I keep pranking him?" As she quickened her pace, the two members of JNPR shared a worried look over her statement.
(Down in Vale)
It wasn't long until the trio made it to the only store in Vale to sell what Vio was looking for, and like the airship, they were just opening. As the sign on the door changed to 'Open', the trio hid behind a bench and trashcan… well, the girls did. Ren stood there looking at the two like they were crazy… well, more so than usual.
"Alright," whispered Album, "on my mark, we go in. Nora, you and Ren distract them while I go to the emp units. Knowing Vio, he'll go for the one that is right towards the end, so I should be able to replace it."
"How should I distract them?" asked the red-head.
"Any way that doesn't kill someone or get us arrested," Ren told her in a deadpan tone.
"Alright then," she said with a determined nod. "Let's go. She leapt over the bench and started running towards the store with Ren following behind her. After the two walked in, Album counted to ten before stealthily walking over to the store.
Walking through the doors, she raised an eyebrow at Nora's "distraction". Said girl had an arm around Ren's neck and had him sitting on his knees in front of her in a corner away from the door. He looked incredibly bored and uncaring, while Nora had a crazier than usual look on her face. "Nobody move, or he gets it!" she yelled angrily while she pulled his head closer. Pointed at his head was… a banana.
"Ma'am, please," the store worker said calmly. "Let the poor boy go, and drop the banana."
"Never!" she yelled angrily. "He is not poor, and I refuse to go until my demands are met!"
"Ma'am, I cannot make you the empress of Slothelvania or get you an audience with the Grand Duke of Pancake Island," he told her in an annoyed tone.
"And why not?" she asked angrily.
"Because both are equally impossible!" he yelled in an exasperated tone.
"Then I'm never leaving!" she yelled loudly, making the other employees cautiously start moving towards her.
Album grinned at her counterpart's actions, and that grin became a full smile when she realized the only other person nearby was a green haired girl with dark skin. She cautiously walked over, but stopped when she saw the other girl was discreetly opening the boxes and putting the units in her bag. After grabbing the last box, she looked around at Nora's antics and froze when she saw Album staring at her. "How much did you see?" she asked her tensely.
"The last five boxes," she replied quietly. "Now while I'm usually supposed to be anti-crime, if you cover for me putting something in one of these boxes, I won't rat you out."
The mystery girl grinned at her and nodded. "I can do you one better." She pointed her thumb over at a camera in the corner. "I took the cameras out a while ago. Feel free to lift at your leisure. I'm sure your friend is doing her job quite well." To answer this, Nora began singing the Vale anthem about pancakes.
"Yeah, Nora's pretty awesome," she said with a nod. "Well, thanks Minty."
"That's not my name," the green-haired girl snapped. "It's Emerald, little Miss Schnee."
Album glared at her. "Don't call me that. I have no relation to Weiss Schnee."
Emerald patted her on the shoulder as she walked by. "Well now we're even," she said with a laugh. "See you around, maybe."
Album watched the strange thief walk out with her bag over her shoulder before looking back at the now empty boxes. Alright, I've wasted enough time. The fact that Nora was singing show tunes now proved how little time she had. Grabbing the first box, she popped open the lid and pulled the fake unit out of her bag. Quickly putting the electronic in the wrapping, she slid it back into place. Turning on her heel. She walked towards the door again, her presence unnoticed by the workers.
She waited two minutes outside the store behind the bench. The tracker on Vio's Scroll told her that he would be there in five minutes, so she would have to run soon. Fortunately, Nora and Ren came running out with an angry store owner behind them, so the trio started running like the figurative devil was at their heels… only to get separated while escaping. Realizing she was without her co-conspirators, Album stopped running just in time to almost hit someone walking by.
"Watch where you're going," growled a slightly deep male voice. The speaker was at 5' 5", with a pale complexion, longish black hair and steel grey eyes. He was wearing a green vest with a white undershirt, and tan cloth pants. His shoes were dark brown boots. His outfit was completed with a dark green cloak tied around his neck. He had two medium sized swords with triggers on the handles, each resting on one hip. He was glaring at her despite being slightly shorter than her. "You could have gotten my shoes dirty."
Album just kept staring. This man… "I'm Album," she told him and extended a hand. "Who are you?"
He looked at her weirdly and took notice of her hammer. "My name's Obsidian. I'm here from Vacuo for the exchange program. I take it you're a Huntress in training as well?"
She kept staring at him before realizing he asked her a question. "Oh, yeah. I'm a first year at Beacon."
"Cool," he replied in boredom. He looked at Album for a while longer, before realizing she was still just staring at him. "Later," he said awkwardly as he walked away from her.
After he left, Album stood there on the sidewalk staring into the space where he had been standing. "Yeah, it's a pretty sweet gig up at Beacon," she said mindlessly despite him being gone. "Ok. Bye Obsidian."
"Album! There you are!" yelled Nora as she and Ren approached her from further up the street. "We've been looking everywhere for you! Except, you know… right here."
"We lost the shopkeeper a couple minutes ago, but we didn't realize we had lost you as well," explained Ren. He then noticed the semi-vacant expression on her face. "Is something wrong?" he asked her out of concern.
"I stared perfection in the face," she told him. She then smiled dreamily. "And he was gorgeous." Ren and Nora shared a look of confusion before getting behind the girl.
"Come on Album," Ren told her. "Let's get you back to the academy."
Omake: Weiss' day (Because you'd probably complain otherwise)
The white haired woman sat behind her desk in her office. She had inherited the SDC from her father ten years ago after graduating, and was now the head of the world's leading Dust Company. As she finished signing the budgeting documents, she took a sip from her tea, savoring the warmth from the drink. As she set the cup down, a ring came from her desk phone. "Yes?" she answered after pushing the red button on the display.
"Miss Schnee, you have some personal guests here to see you," her secretary said politely.
Weiss smiled, knowing who was here. "Send them all in," she told her assistant.
As she stood up, the door opened. "Auntie Weiss!" yelled three young voices as two little girls and a little boy ran to the woman and clung to her legs.
She laughed as she knelt down and hugged all three children. "Hello you three," she said happily.
"Weiss!" There was a blur of rose petals before the rich woman was tackled by her partner. Even though she was 29 and a mother, Ruby was as hyper as ever.
"Rubes, let her go," laughed Yang as she picked up her younger sister. As Blake helped Weiss to her feet, she set Ruby down. "Hey Weiss, long time no see," the blonde said while hugging her friend.
"It's good to see you Weiss," Blake, without her bow, told her. "Ruby and the kids were antsy to see you."
"I'd imagine," she said with a laugh. "Where's Vio?"
"Right here, Princess," he called. He wrapped an arm around both Blake and Yang's waists.
"I thought I said not to call me that," she growled.
"C'mon, Auntie Weiss," whined Ruby's daughter.
"I think it's fitting, Mother," came a new little voice. Startled, Weiss looked to her left and saw a small boy with bright green hair and sky blue eyes. What shocked her were the black ears coming out of his short hair.
"So do I, my lovely wife," said a new male voice behind her. She turned around and saw a pair of black glasses framed by forest green hair. There was a loving smile on his face.
"Leaf," she said breathlessly. Not realizing why, she threw her arms around his neck and leaned towards him. As their lips were about to meet, she heard Ruby's voice yelling her name.
Hearing Ruby yell her name, the heiress shrieked in shock, headbutting Ruby in the process. "Ow!" both girls yelled.
"Geez, Weiss, are you that angry we ruined your fantasy?" asked Yang with a teasing smirk.
"What are you going on about?" she muttered as she rubbed her forehead.
"You were moaning Leaf's name in your sleep," Blake told her with a grin.
As Weiss sputtered indignantly, Yang pushed Ruby off the bed so she could lean in towards the now blushing whitette. "So? What were you dreaming of doing exactly?"
"Sure, ignore your leader's pain," groaned Ruby.
"It's none of your concern whether or not I was dreaming of Leaf!" snapped Weiss.
"So you were dreaming of him," commented Blake.
Weiss screamed in aggravation. A couple hours later, after dressing and dealing with Yang's teasing, the heiress finally decided to make Ruby improve her grades. Without so much as a word to Yang, she dragged her leader to the library. It was going as well as she expected, until she went to the bathroom. When she got back, there was no sign of Ruby.
"Just typical," she muttered when she found her leader missing. Instead, she found a hastily-written note from Ruby.
Dear Weiss, I don't know what's going on with you today, but I hope you work out your feelings for Leaf. Your bestest best friend, Ruby Rose: Your Best Friend.
Weiss crumpled the note before storming out of the library in search of the hyper girl. Feelings for Leaf, she mentally scoffed. That's nonsense. I don't have feelings for him. He's a common orphan, I'm a rich heiress. I'm human and he's… She stopped herself, realizing she was about to have the kind of racist thoughts she was trying to get rid of. But… It would never work… Would it? She was dragged out of her thoughts when she heard a very familiar song being played nearby. "Is that…?"
She walked quickly to the source of the music, and was shocked to find Leaf playing Mirror Mirror by heart. She was silent initially, amazed at the quality of his voice and skill on his electric keyboard. She was so amazed that she joined him in singing, but quickly stopped when she realized why he would be playing this song. Hearing the ending lines of the song with such heart, she felt her own heart practically shatter.
Is he really so lonely? She thought back to everything Ruby did to befriend her and how friendly she was to everyone. Time to take a page from her book, thought Weiss as she began applauding Leaf's performance. When she sat down beside him and they began talking music, she had one thought. Ruby Rose, I hate you and love you.
Elsewhere
As Ruby happily devoured the chocolate chip cookies she… appropriated from the cafeteria. As she started her third plate, she sneezed heavily. "Weird… I feel like someone is thinking about me. But who?"