Chapter 26: Recruitment (Part 1)
"Are you sure about this?" Zeke asked Harmony as they walked towards their destination.
"Yes, I'm sure. If I wasn't sure we wouldn't even be in here," Harmony groaned.
So far their temporary partnership was straining on Harmony's nerves, more so than Melody did with her princess lessons, which had been particularly trying these last few days. Harmony was honestly surprised that she hadn't ripped off anyone's head yet. Which is not to say that the navy-haired fairy didn't get her revenge during combat training with her sister.
"I'm just saying that since I've been here, the people who can fight make themselves known throughout the school, and your friend isn't exactly one of them."
"So you're basing your judgement of somebody off of what second-hand sources have to say rather than forming your own opinion?" Harmony spat. "How reliable of you."
"You're comments are really starting to get on my nerves, little fairy. How about showing a little bit of respect?"
"Respect is earned, not given. And if that's the way you really feel you could just drop this whole plan of yours and I'll be on my merry way," Harmony shot back with just as much bite in her words. "But just like a child, you probably won't stop this game until you get bored with it."
Before Zeke could add anything else the two rounded their last corner that led to the school's hanger, where one specific specialist was to be their next target.
"Hey, Max!" Harmony shouted, her voice echoing off of the reinforced metal wall. "You in here?"
"Does this guy live in the hanger or something, I barely even see him around the school," Zeke pondered out loud, rather than fueling another one of their arguments, as he looked around the enormous hanger.
Zeke had of course already gotten to see the large space once before during his first tour of the school but it was only now that he got a close look at some of the aircrafts that resided there.
"It's not like I'm here on campus long enough to know his schedule, but I do know that after our combat class is finished that he's always here," Harmony explained.
"Aww, how loyal coming to see your little friend every day," Zeke's voice was patronizing, as usual. But Harmony also heard something else in his tone, was it…jel-.
"Hey, Harmony." Max greeted as he came out from one of the ships he'd been working on. "How was…" Max paused for a second when he realized that it wasn't just him and Harmony like it usually was, but today they were joined by another guest. "Oh, hey how's it goin? Prince Zeke, right?"
"Well I give him and A-plus for his observation skills," Zeke smirked which Harmony just rolled her eyes at.
"Ignore him, please," Harmony said. "For my sake, as well as yours."
"Okay then…," Max agreed skeptically. "So, what's up?"
"Actually I have a favor to ask you," Harmony started off.
"Which would be…?" Max folded his arms over his chest.
"Well first off you should know, that we," Harmony pointed to herself and then to Zeke, "are starting a team for this season's competition events."
"You two?" Max asked incredulously. "Working together?"
"Is there a problem with that," Zeke questioned rather defensively.
"I-uh…guess not," Max responded slowly.
"Look," Harmony interrupted. "I'm just gonna cut to the chase. I know that you're a strategist Max. And in being such, I'm willing to wager that you'd be a force to be reckoned with if given the right tools."
"The odds would be in your favor for that bet," Max grinned. "Why? Are you volunteering yourselves as tools?"
"See I knew there's a reason that I keep you around, you're quick on the uptake" Harmony joked. "But I wouldn't put it in that sense, maybe guinea pigs, instead? So care to show us what your arsenal of tactics holds for your potential guinea pigs?"
Max laughed, "Sure thing," Max agreed. "Follow me. I'll show you my database."
Harmony did as she was told and Zeke followed suit.
Arriving in his dorm room, all three teens ended up in front of, what Harmony and Zeke could only assume to be Max's computer, which was large to say the least.
With three screens that just barely fit on the length of his desk, it almost looked like something out of a spy movie rather than something that would be owned by a high school student.
"How in the world did I miss this thing when I first came in here," Harmony wondered aloud. "It's friggin huge!"
"I'll take that as a compliment," Max smiled sunnily. "Now you two said you need ideas on strategies." With a couple of well-placed strokes, Max quickly typed something on the holographic interface keyboard.
Within seconds a list of file names was compiled onto all of the screens.
"Whoa," Zeke looked completely dumbfounded as he watched Max do his thing. "So you're telling me that these are all the strategies that you've come up with since coming to this school."
"Of course not." Max deadpanned. "I've been building up this bad boy since middle school."
"I'm impressed and slightly worried that you'd have need for combat strategies when you were in middle school," Harmony remarked.
"Well, not all of these involve combat," Max explained. "Some have more to do with stealth, some are ideas which employ how to influence people to act certain ways that you can use in your favor, and other help with more delicate information that requires a…sleight of hand."
"So sneaking around, manipulating others, and stealing," Zeke said bluntly.
"Well, you don't have to say it like, that. Let's just say when you grow up with as many siblings as I do, you learn to finds ways of getting what you want without getting your parents involved."
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's take a look," Harmony said excitedly rubbing her palms together.
Max paused for a bit before swiveling around in his chair, "I promise that you guys can check out my database…but only on two conditions," he said firmly.
"Ugh! Why can't people ever just say, 'Sure, I'll be happy to help, no strings attached.'?" Harmony groaned.
"Everybody wants something from someone, and everybody uses who or what they can in order to get it, "Zeke said wisely. "Life in a royal court teaches you that real quickly."
"Wait to make me sound like some underhanded, conniving upper-class jerk," Max said sarcastically.
"Trust me, I'd never mistake someone as plain as you for someone upper-class," Zeke insulted.
Only a few moments after did he feel the repercussion of his statement, as a resounding slap echoed off the wall of the dormitory.
"The hell what that for?!" Zeke exclaimed as he cradled the left side of his face which was now emblazoned with a Harmony-sized handprint, looking more shocked than anything else.
"For acting like a spoiled-brat!" Harmony answered back with such anger in her voice that it almost sounded like a growl. "I've had it up to here with your superiority complex. And it stops now.
"You may be able to get away with saying that kind of stuff to other people because of your friggin' status and not be confronted about it, but that was before you met me. Max is my friend and you will not disrespect him like that!"
To that Zeke had no response other than just huffing out of the room, making sure that the door slammed on his way out.
Silence filled the room for a few seconds before let out a large sigh.
Harmony spat under her breath grumbling something about Zeke that sounded a lot like 'mucking brass turd', before she turn back to Max whose eye were wide in confusion and surprise. "Ugh, sorry about that."
"Um, it's fine, I guess? But… don't you think you two should at least try to get along? You know, considering the fact that you're on a team together," Max suggested. "You might've acted a little too brash, Harmony."
The fairy sighed at her friend's words, while hearing an echo of her nanny's words about how Harmony's 'act first, think later' responses would put her in some difficult situation. Harmony really hated when she was right about that kind of stuff.
"Maybe," Harmony finally admitted. "But it's not like I had much of a choice with this team," she muttered while looking towards the window.
"Something you wanna share with the class?"
Harmony turned back around to see Max's eyes showing concern.
"Nah, I'll deal with him later," Harmony blew her bangs up as if to say how little she was looking forward to the next time she and Zeke met. "But, all that aside. You said you have some conditions that come along with you helping us?"
"Yeah…well. About that…" Max tried to figure out how he wanted to word his request. "The first one is pretty simple."
"Meaning that the second probably won't be," Harmony sighed. "Okay, give me the one that's easier to swallow."
"If you guys wanna use my database, well then… I want in on the team," Max tried to say this in a somewhat forceful tone but it ended up falling kind of flat. Still, the blue-haired teen mentally applauded his attempt and answered his 'demand'.
"Done."
Max blinked, "What just like that? You're not even going to ask me about what I can bring to the table other than my strategies?"
"If I'm being honest, you being a part of the team was going to happen anyway. We didn't just come here for your computer skills, Maxy…or at least I didn't."
"Maxy?" the dark-haired specialist questioned.
"What? I like to give all my friends a nickname at some point in time. And that one just seemed to fit," Harmony smiled.
"How do you figure that?"
"I don't know. I guess it's kind of like…well I think of you as a loyal friend, almost like a cute nickname someone gives to their pet dog," Harmony attempted to explain.
"I'm sorry, but did you just call me 'cute' and a 'dog' in an attempt to compliment me?" Max questioned.
"Ugh, it sounded much better in my head, but I digress," Harmony replied, now getting back on track. "What's your second request?"
"Tammy!" Harmony called as she busted into the aforementioned girl's room.
"You know in my realm we call it 'knocking'," Tammy rather disinterestedly, without turning her head away from her laptop.
"Really?" Harmony over-exaggerated her expression in response. "I've never heard of it. But on a separate note, I'm borrowing your phone."
"How about no," Tammy refused.
"You can't answer 'no' to a statement, only a question. And I wasn't asking."
"What's wrong with your phone that you so desperately need to use mine, and at that why mine? We have four other roommates that you can ask," Tammy pointed out.
"Because," Harmony tried to explain in a strained annoyance, "I left my phone somewhere at RF and I need to call someone to keep an eye out for it."
"Again, I ask, why not use Mel, Aqua, Lulu, or Jasmine's phone? And how did you lose your phone in the first place? You usually hold onto that thing tighter than your guitar."
"Mel is off somewhere that I can't find, Aqua is at some interest meeting for a club, and Jasmine and Lu went to Magix to do some shopping. Look, just let me borrow your phone then we can stop with the interrogation and you can get back to your obviously busy life."
"Fine take it," Tammy jutted out her arm with phone in her palm. Harmony went to reach for it before the ginger-haired girl quickly snatched her arm back. "The millisecond that you finish I want it back, got it?"
"Yeah, yeah," Harmony shoved off the comment before grabbing the phone from Tammy.
"So you found it?" Harmony exclaimed happily into Tammy's phone. "Thank the spirits!"
On the other side of the line Max couldn't help but roll his eyes at Harmony's over acting. Especially as he looked at the place on his desk that she had specifically placed her phone at.
"I think you might be overdoing it a little Harmony," Max commented on the other side of the line.
"Yeah, okay, that sounds good," Harmony continued with her charade, completely ignoring what the specialist had said. "You can come by my room around the afternoon to drop it off, I should just be getting out of class."
"Whatever you say Harmony. Oh, but…um thanks for this, ya know. I'll see you later."
"Okay, see ya, man," Harmony ended the call with a satisfied look on her face as she sauntered to return Tammy her phone.
'This is going to be a very interesting development,' Harmony thought as she opened her suitemates door and unceremoniously threw the girl's phone on her bed and left before Tammy could gripe about the possibility of it breaking.
Well there's the first recruit for the new team! I feel kind of bad since Max doesn't get a lot of screen time so I wanted to go ahead and make him the team strategist. I haven't quite figured out what his fighting style and weapon will be like, but for any RWBY fans out there, just know that I get a lot of my inspiration from the wonderful world of Remnant where if you have a weapon "It's also a gun,"! But all that aside I'm super excited for the next chapter update because I'll be introducing the next member of the team. And I'm going to enjoy writing about them soooooo much. Maybe a little too much, but oh well!