GRYD Season 02 - Episode 8 - Payback
Another day began at Beacon, and for most of the students there, everything seemed nice and peaceful. Their thoughts were focused on schoolwork, the potential for upcoming missions, and more. But for one person, for one student, for one member of Team GRYD, they didn't have that feeling of peace.
It had only been a few hours since Elenor had warned him that Primrose was going to be invoking whatever plan she had concocted in order to get some sort of revenge on both GRYD and MEAL. As Glyph sat on his bed in full gear, he couldn't help but shake his head. Him and Primrose couldn't be more different, and he didn't just mean in their personalities, or how they led their teams. Even he would admit that Primrose could command effectively when in certain situations.
The problem was that she was a control freak, she didn't give directions, she didn't instruct, she was a dictator. She demanded things of others, and wouldn't tolerate failure in any way. He never did understand why Maggie and Rita put up with her, they even seemed to enjoy her more dominating nature, but it was also that reason that Glyph could tell that she hated Elenor. Elenor didn't react well to her command style, and instead of changing things to better suit her teammate, she just blamed her.
"Poor Elenor," Glyph said with a sigh.
Elenor was a good soul, and he knew she deserved better, but by luck or fate she was with Primrose, who was a bully, an egomaniac, and everyone knew it...but her and Maggie and Rita. Though he wondered if Rita was starting to see the truth because of Elenor, he wouldn't ask her though, she wouldn't confide in him, not yet.
He sighed again, and started to lightly hit his head against the wall of the room. Glyph wasn't trying to invoke pain on himself, rather, he was trying to figure out what Primrose was going to do to him and the others.
To his credit, and his management style, he told everyone to be on guard, he wouldn't hide a potential attack on them, that would be risky, and damaging. But when they asked what she planned for them, he had no answers, and Elenor was just as unlikely to find out as they were before it was too late.
"She's going to be subtle," he muttered to himself, "she'll want to avoid the cameras, else get in trouble with Night. Unless she can disrupt them..."
Glyph grimaced and shook his head, there were too many variables. He was very much the kind of guy to go with the flow, but between Macro and Brick he had the knowledge of how to think a few moves ahead. But as Macro would happily note to him at times, "Thinking a few moves ahead is hard when all you see is fog."
He smiled as thought of that line, for he could hear Macro's voice when he said it to himself. While it wasn't ideal, he knew he had to just focus on the day, be ready for anything, and put Primrose down when the time arose.
The door suddenly opened, and Yasmine entered, "Hey, the others are ready to go, we're going to be late if you don't get your stuff."
"Right, sorry," said Glyph, and he quickly grabbed his stuff and followed her out.
Glyph could see the others down the hall, but his expression remained hard, Yasmine noticed this, "You're thinking about the attack?"
"Yeah."
"Anything you think I can do to help keep us safe?"
"Can your Semblance predict events before they happen? WITHOUT seeing the people?"
"Technically, no, but there are exceptions. I'll just keep my eyes open, and Leilani will keep her ears ready for anything that sounds off, ok?"
"Thank you Yasmine," Glyph said with a smile and a bow of his head.
"Thanks for the heads-up," she answered back with a smile, "I look forward to foiling whatever those bratty girls have coming for us."
She got a very evil smile on her face, which took Glyph aback a bit, but the two laughed it off and joined the others, and then rushed to class so that they wouldn't be late.
They made it to class just before the bell rang, Professor Barker Chestnut took note of this, "Cutting it close, dear students. Let's hope you don't make that a habit when you go out into the field!"
He laughed mightily as he usually did, and both GRYD and MEAL gave their own version of an apology. As he sat down, Glyph looked over to see where Primrose was, and she was exactly where she was supposed to be. In her set, Maggie and Rita at her sides, with Elenor on the edge. His gaze narrowed as he tried to discern anything different about her, but nothing came up. With a shake of his head, he faced forward and focused on the lesson.
Unbeknownst to him, Primrose's gaze went to him and she smirked smally before going back to the lesson herself.
The class went on without a hitch, and the classes exited with a praise from the Professor for their hard work.
Both GRYD and MEAL went into the hallways and talked about the lesson, but for Glyph, something just felt off. This only was magnified when he saw Primrose and the others walk in front of them and she give an evil smile to Glyph.
He fumed at this, and Macro grabbed his arm to get his attention, "Calm down, she's trying to psyche you out."
"It's working," replied Glyph bluntly.
"Don't let it! Part of a war is psychology, you know that. She doesn't know that we know she's planning something. This is just her way of getting under your skin because she thinks she has us."
"Maybe she does have us," noted Diana, which drew gazes from everyone, forcing her to throw her hands up in surrender. "Hey, hey! Not what I meant, I'm just saying that she's been planning this for a while, right? So maybe she smiled because she knows something we don't, like the first part of her plan?"
The others looked at one another and nodded, Aaron strummed his chin as he pondered the schemes of PRME, "For all we bash PRME about, Primrose is cunning, and if she does want to get at us...she'll try and make it personal."
Erin was uneasy at this notion, "That's not a great thought, there's many ways she can do that, just depends on how much she hate us."
"Which is a lot," noted Leilani, who then turned her sad eyes to Glyph and Macro, "especially you two."
"And like you said that one time Marcro," Yasmine added, "that makes us guilty by association."
"Lucky us," joked Reyson.
The group went silent, but Diana quickly broke it up, "Well, I say we don't dwell on it. She'll make her move and then we'll swat her down like always. I'm going back to the room to freshen up a bit before class. Accidentally got a little bit of ink on my dress."
"THE HORROR!" said Reyson in an overly dramatic voice, which got the others to laugh.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I'll see you guys in a bit."
They watched her leave, and then huddled back up again, and to Macro's surprise Reyson made a notion of pondering himself, "You know, what if we are overthinking this in the grand sense?"
"How so?" asked Macro curiously.
"Well, think about it, we know Primrose is smart, and more than likely she knows that if Elenor found out about the plan, she would spill it to Glyph. So...what if this is just to get us so on edge that we start tripping over ourselves? Get paranoid, get sloppy, expecting everything to be a trap, that kind of thing. We'd suffer in the grand sense, while PRME shines as they're not technically doing anything."
"That's a devious line of thinking, Reyson," stated Aaron with a frown.
"Thank you," he replied with an evil smile.
Erin chuckled at this softly before straightening up, "Well...I wouldn't put it past her, I mean...she is mean to a fault."
"Exactly, I bet you that nothing is going to-"
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
A scream broke out in the hallways, it was loud and long and it carried weight. Both GRYD and MEAL recognized that scream was from Diana, and rushed through the hallways to go and see her and find out what's wrong. The only reason Glyph didn't teleport was because if it was another trap, he didn't want to walk into it and put Diana in further danger.
The teams got their weapons ready, and once in position, they threw open the door. To their surprise, Diana was fine, physically at least. She was in her part of the room, and on her knees. Her expression was one of terror.
Leilani, Erin, and Yasmine went to her to check up on her while the guys quickly surveyed the room.
"I don't see anything wrong," Macro noted as he did a quick scan.
"Red, why did you scream?" asked Reyson confused.
Glyph made to add to that question when he noticed the nearby closet, the one that Diana had to herself. It was empty.
"Diana, where are your dresses?" he dared to ask.
"I...I don't...I don't know...they're gone! All of them!" she said clearly stunned.
The others looked to the closet, and their shock turned to confusion.
Reyson was particular confused, "Wait, that's it? They stole your dresses?"
The girls all looked at Reyson with fury, who backed off immediately, "Right, sorry, my bad."
"It doesn't matter WHAT was taken Reyson," spat Yasmine, "it matters THAT it was stolen. And as Aaron noted earlier, she's trying to make it personal. Diana loves her outfits and makeup and such. So what better way to trigger her than to take that?"
"Yeah...I see your point."
Macro though wasn't satisfied, he observed the room again, including the door to both the room and the closet, something wasn't adding up with him, Glyph noticed this, "What's wrong, Macro?"
"How did they do it?" he asked back.
"Do what?"
"Get the dresses? You were here in the room before class, remember Glyph? They were there when you left, right?"
"Yeah."
"Ok, so then we went to class, and PRME was there. All of them, and when we left class they went down a completely separate hallway. One that would've taken them a few minutes to get to our room and then raid it, which I doubt they would've done given that Glyph could've teleported into it at a moment's notice on a whim."
"Which means they somehow took it during class."
"But that's impossible," piped up Erin, "you just said it, they were all there."
Macro nodded his hair grimly at this, "Yeah...I know. Which means they had help of some kind. Just not sure who or how."
Leilani got depressed at this, but then perked up, "What about the cameras? They're at the entrances of the hallways and pointed at the doors to show who enters and exits!"
Remembering that, Yasmine and Macro rushed outside into the hallway, they each looked at opposite ends of the hallway, and their jaws dropped.
Yasmine was particularly disgusted, "The cameras were moved..."
"They won't tell us anything..." said Macro equally as disgusted.
As they entered the room, the others could tell that they weren't getting any good news. Diana surprisingly was the one to break the silence, "What do we do now? Tell Night? Confront Primrose?"
"Maybe to the first one," answered Glyph, but he paused and shook his head, "but while we KNOW it was Primrose, we can't prove it. That's probably why she smiled, she knew her deed had been done and that we couldn't catch her in the act. Confronting her wouldn't do any good."
"So we just...move on?"
"We'll get your stuff back, I promise, but for now...yeah."
"I hate to be the blunt instrument here," said Reyson as the others went quiet again, "but that was just the first salvo. We're going to get hit rapid fire after this, and on that one you can believe me fully."
The others looked to Reyson, but knew he was right this time, and dreaded what was to come next.
The next hour came, and nothing happened, which made them all the more apprehensive. The word about the theft of Diana's dresses reached everyone's ears, including Elenor's, but Glyph told her to keep her distance for the time being. Not to push things else get caught in the crossfire as well.
As lunchtime came, the two teams came together and conferred, The Lovers were the last to join them as they took their time getting their food.
"Nothing?" asked Macro to the others.
"Nothing," replied Glyph, grimly.
"I swear I'm not wrong this time," said Reyson with a small laugh. "This will come quick, she won't want to prolong this, she'll want to make this the worst day of our lives."
"I believe him...this time," noted Yasmine. Reyson gave an evil smile and she shoved him as a result. "That first attack was timed, deliberate, they knew one of us would go back to the room and see the dresses gone. It was just perfect luck that it was Diana."
Diana grunted as she picked at her food, "Yeah...lucky me."
"We'll get them back," enforced Glyph.
"Thanks, partner."
"We shouldn't dwell on this," stated Aaron loudly, "whatever she has planned, it'll happen when we least expect it. As terrible as it feels, we have to let it happen, endure, then get our own payback."
Erin was eating some chicken, but put it down to talk, "I doubt she'll attack us in such a public place, so let's...*cough*, let's..."
"Darling? What's wrong?"
Erin started to cough loudly, "Something...went down the wrong way..."
Her coughing grew more and more, getting deeper, more pronounced, until all she did was cough. Aaron went to her and thumped her on the back to try and clear her airway. To his horror though, she stopped coughing, and started to choke. She grabbed her throat as she gasped for air.
"She's choking!" Aaron said loudly, getting a lot of people's attention. As he tried to figure out why he eyed the chicken. On instinct he grabbed it and nibbled on it a bit, and his eyes flew wide in horror. "There's Cayenne in this! She's allergic!"
Macro rushed into action, he had his vest on him and pulled out a vial. He unscrewed it and held it up to Erin's nose, "I know it's hard, Erin, but you have to breathe this in!"
Erin struggled to do so, but she breathed in the fumes from the vial, the more she did, the more her breathing returned. The other members of MEAL and GRYD relaxed at this. Aaron was distraught over this and cradled Erin tightly, "I was so worried, my love."
"I'm sorry, I should've tasted the Cayenne," she said weakly, "I just really wanted Chicken today, they hadn't had it in a while..."
"Oh crap..." said Reyson with anger and disbelief.
"What? What's wrong, Reyson?" asked Leilani.
"Remember what The Lovers told us? They had Chicken on their first date. Erin loves the food here because it's different from what she's served. Thus the food..."
"Is personal..." finished Yasmine heavily.
"And who does Aaron love more than anyone in this whole world?"
"Erin." answered Leilani.
Glyph exhaled sharply at this, "She got us again!"
Aaron grabbed Glyph's shoulder to wheel him around, his face was full of fury, and his voice had none of his bravado, "Who cares!? She almost killed Erin! I will return the favor!"
Macro got in between them, "Calm down! Yes, she had an allergic reaction, but Primrose wouldn't have let her die. She knew from our days at Signal that I carry antidotes to various things in case someone is in trouble. She would've remembered that when planning that."
"YOU THINK I CARE!?"
"Calm down! Glyph, get both of them the infirmary, now!"
Glyph nodded and teleported them both away. The students were all looking at them with various expressions. Macro had no time to deal with this, "What are you looking at? Or does anyone here know where Team PRME is? Because unless you do, back off!"
They didn't hesitate to get back to their meals, but as Macro looked to the others, he could see the uncertainty in all of their faces. Stealing clothes was one thing. But inducing an illness to get revenge? That was a line no one should cross.
Not long after, Leilani and Yasmine headed to their rooms, Leilani specifically needed to get something for an upcoming class. Her utensils. Yasmine was taking no chance though, not only did she insist on going with her sister, she used her eyes to try and detect any danger that was near them. The cameras had been moved back to their original spots.
Yasmine figured Night must have done it, but she still was uneasy. She motioned to Leilani to head for the door to MEAL's room, but held her back from opening it. Yasmine grabbed the handle slowly, turned it, and just as slowly opened it inward.
Her eyes scanned the room, looking for anything out of place, anything that was wrong. Anything that could present a danger to Leilani.
"Sis?" Leilani said while trying to hide the fear in her voice.
"I think we're good," noted Yasmine, "go ahead and get your stuff."
Leilani sighed and went in. Yasmine continued to scan the room though just in case she missed something.
As Leilani rummaged through her stuff she couldn't help but pause and ask, "Do you think Primrose will try and hurt me a lot because I'm with Glyph?"
The honesty of the question took Yasmine aback, but she recovered, "I don't know, Leilani. Primrose has never been a fan of Faunus, so she likely would've done something to you just for that. But because you're Glyph's girlfriend? Yeah...she might have something special for you."
"Yeah...I thought so. All of this? It makes me glad that we didn't know her in Minstrel."
"Ha, ha, ha, very true. I would've done what Glyph did at Signal and put her in her place. I'll always protect you Leilani, you know that right?"
"Of course, sis!" Leilani said with a smile.
Yasmine nodded and pulled out her phone, "Good, now, hurry up! We'll be late at this rate."
"Right, oh, probably should check my supplies and make sure I'm not missing a key thing."
As Leilani started to open the container to her art supplies, Yasmine's semblance flared on, and her eyes went wide as she saw a tripwire, "Leilani get down!
Out of instinct she rushed her sister and got her to drop the contain just as she was opening it. No sooner had she done so than a small explosion of sorts. The girls covered their heads when they heard it. Then, when they felt it was safe, they looked to see what happened.
Yasmine eyed the container, while Leilani looked up, "Uh...sis?"
She pointed upwards, and Yasmine looked up to see that much of the ceiling was now covered in various amounts of paint.
"Paint bomb, of course," she remarked grimly.
Leilani laughed lightly, "Well...it's better than choking on chicken."
"You forget, it would've gone off when you were looking into the it. Meaning that the paint likely would've gotten into your eyes. Which means you would've been incapacitated for some time."
"Oh..."
Realizing what almost happened, Leilani hugged her sister with tears in her eyes, "Thanks for protecting me."
"Always," said Yasmine with a smile, before opening her eyes that were now full of fury. "Trust me when I say that this won't stand."
After getting up and getting cleaned up as best they could, they made for class. Though late, the teacher didn't seem to mind for some reason. When they reached their seats, the others asked what happened. Yasmine waved them down and wrote a note explaining the details. When Glyph found out, his head snapped towards Primrose, who this time was looking at him with an evil smile. To add insult to injury she gave him a wave. Glyph started to rise, but Macro pulled him down and shook his head.
"Not yet. Not here," he warned. "This is what she wants."
"She almost blinded Leilani!" Glyph replied through clenched teeth.
"Almost! She failed, take heart in that. We'll get her. Just not right now."
Macro looked at Glyph pleadingly, and he relented as a result, but not before shooting a final glare at Primrose.
Another break came forth, and Yasmine went to the library, figuring she was safe there as it would be too risky to plant a trap there. Her drones formed her holographic computer and she was typing away a storm.
"I know I'm an idiot, but how exactly does that work again?" came a voice.
She turned to see Reyson approaching, his usual smile on his face.
Yasmine grunted with a small smile on her face and continued to type, "A mix of hard light constructs, really small circuitry and a whole bunch of other items that I don't have time to discuss with you right now."
"Hmm...ok, so why am I here exactly? You do remember that you called me here despite us being at war, right?"
"We're not in a war, Reyson."
This remark surprised him, "How can you be so calm? They almost blinded your sister not two hours ago!"
His comment made her stop, her hands balled up into fists, and he could see them shake with anger. Yasmine took a deep breath before unclenching and typing again, "I don't deny what happened, and if I have my way I'll personally make Primrose suffer for what she nearly did to Leilani. But this isn't a war. A war is between two sides in an open contract of combat. This? This is sneak attacks, this is pettiness, this is payback."
"I'm pretty sure wars have been started as acts of payback."
"...fair enough. But still. Her tricks will run out, and when we catch her, she'll pay a worse price than these petty acts."
"If you say so."
"I say so. And if you don't believe me, believe Glyph and Aaron, they're actually angrier than you are...which I didn't think was possible."
They looked at one another and then broke out into a laugh, Reyson added to it with a small clap, "Very nice, and for the record, I'm angry too, but I can see why they're angrier. Let's backtrack though, why am I here again?"
Yasmine again stopped typing so that she could look at Reyson clearly, "Your father."
"You found him?"
"No, and I don't think I will, there's not enough information, too many variables, etc..."
"Please tell me there's a "but" coming..."
"Yes, there is. Based on what you told me about your mother, and the estimated point of conception based on your birth, I might be able to narrow down where she met your father."
Reyson shook his head in displeasure, "That's going to be a wide area, Yasmine. Even if it's a city, that's a lot of candidates."
She gave him a small smile to calm him down, "Which is why we'll add more information to narrow it down more. If nothing else, we can ask for every guy with red eyes in the places she might have met him."
Another laugh broke out between the two, Reyson nodded at the joke, "Whatever it takes I guess. So, do you have the places narrowed down?"
"Almost, typing in a few calculations. That's why I'm doing it in here, less chance of a-"
A noise caught her ears and she stopped and turned her head. A bouncing sphere was heading their way. Fearing the worst, Yasmine quickly turned on her Semblance, and for the second time that day her eyes went wide with fear.
"EMP!"
The sphere suddenly opened, and a blast of electrical energy emerged from it and went out in every direction. The room went dark, and Yasmine's drones shorted out and hit the table. The other students that were in there were thrown for a loop as they had no idea what was going on.
Reyson on the other hand was ready for battle, swords already drawn and looking for who threw the sphere, "The dark is making it hard to see. I'm going to call Glyph and see if he can help out."
As he pulled out his phone, he noticed the screen was dark, he tried turning it on but had no luck, "Oh, right, EMP. How the heck did she get an EMP?"
He expected an answer, but when none came he turned to Yasmine, who was looking at her drones heartbrokenly.
"Yasmine?"
"My drones are dead," she said softy, her voice sad.
"Oh right, they were electrical. I hate to ask, but the data about my dad?"
"My drones save all data to a backup server outside the school. I'll be able to finish the algorithm."
"Great, but how long until you fix your...pets?"
She gave him a look of displeasure, but saw his smile and couldn't help but give one herself, "A few days. I have the parts, but it'll be a complete rework. I made these by hand, I knew I should've added EMP protection...but I didn't expect to have to deal with it in the field."
"Well, now you know you need it, and now they won't be able to pull that trick twice."
"Maybe, but this is getting out of hand."
"Yeah, I'll alert Glyph, he needs to handle this, and soon."
Not too long after the incident in the library, Rita was walking down a hallway by herself. Her expression was calm, and she paid no mind to the other students, some of whom had odd emotions when she walked by. As she passed one juncture in the hallways, a hand reached out and grabbed her on the shoulder. In an instant she was gone.
A couple floors down, Rita reappeared, and as she whirled around she found herself looking at Glyph.
"Hello Rita," he said with as little emotion as he could manage.
"Is this your plan for payback?" she said with a wry smile, "Divide and conquer PRME? Is Maggie next? Then Primrose?"
"If I was your leader, then maybe. But I'm not her, I don't do things for glory, or to see people suffer needlessly."
That last comment got Rita to twitch nervously, Glyph noticed, but didn't react, "I'm not here to hurt you Rita, in fact, I'm here to ask for your help."
"I can't stop Primrose, so don't ask. She's bent on this, which I'm sure you can tell."
"I know, believe me. I need you to help me with something else."
"Which is...?"
"Elenor."
The mention of Elenor's name made Rita drop her guard completely, she wasn't expecting her name to be brought up by this, "What are you going to do to Elenor?"
Glyph chuckled softly, "I would never hurt Elenor, Primrose on the other hand..."
"She's not a part of this. It's just you and Macro's teams."
"Really? Did you know about this whole before today? Or did Maggie and Primrose fill you in from the start?"
Rita made to speak, but she stopped herself and looked away angrily.
Glyph nodded when he saw this, "That's what I thought, and that's why I'm talking to you. It's gotten out of hand. Small pranks I would've tolerated, but this? Nearly killing Erin? Almost blinding Leilani? Destroying Yasmine's drones? That's too much. I'm putting an end to this tomorrow. When I do, I need you to protect Elenor from the backlash."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm going to do what I should've done the moment we got to Beacon. I'm going to put Primrose in her place, and make sure she can't get up from it. And despite how clever she was today? She won't see this coming. It will devastate her, and she'll want to lash out on someone..."
"Elenor."
"Yeah, Elenor. You've changed since you've been her partner, even if you don't want to admit it."
"I admit it," she countered with a small smile.
Glyph joined in on the smile, "Good. She's good people, unlike Primrose and Maggie. I can't look after my team and MEAL and Elenor. Even I'm not that good. So please, protect Elenor after this happens."
"...ok."
"Ok."
With a final nod, Glyph headed down the hallway, Rita watched him curiously for a bit before calling out, "What makes you think I won't tell Primrose that you're going to humiliate her tomorrow?"
He stopped and turned to her with a blank expression on his face, "I'm betting you will. I'd even say she'll guess correctly as to where it'll happen."
"...but?"
"It won't matter. She won't see what I do to her coming. She can't. She doesn't know me as well as she thinks."
Glyph shrugged and vanished, leaving Rita alone to wonder what to do.
The next day came, and the school was abuzz with conversation. Not the least of which was because the attacks on GRYD and MEAL were so public that everyone was wondering what would happen next. Glyph talked to the others in the room of GRYD and got them be calm as he handled the situation.
"And how much longer must we wait in fear of them doing something before you 'handle it'?" asked Reyson skeptical.
"Combat training," Glyph replied.
"Are you going to fight Primrose?" asked Leilani confused.
He turned to her and smile, "Something like that."
The hours went on, but combat practice did come with no further incidents. Lochen entered late, heavily limping on one leg, but still his usual self, "Hello everyone! Sorry being late. I want to see some good fights today! Do we-"
Before he finished, Glyph appeared next to him, with a look of deep determination.
"...have any volunteers..."
"I want to request an opponent," Glyph said simply.
"...who?"
"I challenge Primrose Madonna."
The room went quiet, and all heads in the gallery turned towards Primrose, but she wasn't shocked by this. In fact, she was smiling. A smile that had much intent in it as she stood up to face Lochen.
Lochen eyed them both before saying anything, "Ms. Madonna? What say you?"
She smiled even wider at this, "Dear Professor, I would usually not deny such a request, but I am not feeling quite well today, so I decline."
Primrose did a small curtsey to Lochen before sitting back down and resuming a posture of innocence. Lochen wasn't buying this, but he knew he couldn't force the matter. "Sorry Glyph, it appears..."
A laugh emerged. It started out slow, but it got louder, and louder, and louder still. With each round of laughter it got more evil, more crazed. And to the shock of all, even Primrose, it was Glyph who was laughing.
Eventually he stopped laughing long enough to look at the professor who was quite shocked about the turn of events going on a bit, "I'm so sorry, Professor."
"What's the joke, Glyph?"
"The joke, sir? I believe she just sat down."
This ribbing got most of the students to react in more shock, while others tried to hide a smile or laugh. Glyph maintained his suddenly happy demeanor throughout though, while Primrose's smile faded quickly.
"Again, I'm sorry Professor. It's just that I thought that after all the terrible pranks and injuries that she caused my team that she would want to strike the final blow on me to finish off her revenge. But clearly I overestimated her. Clearly she needs to act like a coward in order to actually get a victory over someone."
Again the gallery reacted wildly, even GRYD and MEAL were shocked by what was going on.
"Is Glyph seriously taunting her?" asked Reyson with a confused expression.
"He didn't learn that from me," noted Macro.
"Or me," added Leliani.
"It's ok Professor," said Glyph waving him down noticeably. "I guess I'll just have to choose another opponent. Maybe one of the other members of Team PRME will want to fight for the honor of their leader! You know, if she had honor."
Primrose struggled to stay contained to her seat. She fumed with every single insult being thrown her way.
"Let me think...how about you Rita? I think we only faced off at Signal once before, right? I know I won, I always win against PRME, but I'm sure it'd still be fun, right? Or how about you, Maggie? You're Primrose's BFF, her "right hand"...I was going to say a joke there, but I think it might be too mean."
The gallery was nearly rolling out of their seats at this new side of Glyph, even Lochen wasn't struggling to keep in a laugh. Primrose meanwhile was glaring at Glyph with venom, and her eyes were bulging.
Glyph clapped as if in realization, "Ah! Of course! Elenor! Dear Elenor, the best of Team PRME. And I'm not just saying that because we're friends. You're incredible in battle, got in a few hits on me, remember? Yes, a one on one duel with you would be perfect. I mean, you did beat Primrose, which obviously means you're a better fighter than her. You clearly have more brains and guts than her. And if we're being honest, if you two were guys, you'd likely have a bigger set of bal-"
"ENOUGH!" roared Primrose as she rose of from her seat incensed, "I ACCEPT!"
"Ok," said Glyph simply, a fake kind smile growing on his face.
Primrose stomped away from the gallery, who were trying to figure out what just happened. No one had ever seen Glyph like this, and yet he was slinging insults like it was second nature. After Primrose disappeared, Glyph went to his battle positions and started to stretch.
Lochen approached him as he did, "You know what you're doing, right?"
"Am I a evil person, Professor?"
"Not that I've seen."
"Well...first time for everything."
He gave a smile and a laugh before continuing to stretch. Lochen wanted to speak, but didn't know what to say. Before he could think of anything, Primrose approached her own starting position.
Her glare had not changed, but there was also an air of confidence in her, "You know this won't change anything, right? You'll do your stupid little GKO, and the battle will be over...and nothing will change."
Glyph again laughed, not as long as before, but enough to get her attention, "Oh Primrose, you never could understand everything, could you? You're right, if I did what you know I do as Glyph, nothing would change. In fact, all of them would see me as petty, even though I'm totally in the right here. But that's the catch. You only know me...as Glyph from Signal, Glyph from Beacon. There's another Glyph that you've never met..."
"Oh my gosh," Leilani said in the gallery softly, getting the others attention.
"What? What is he doing?" asked Diana curious.
"I promised I wouldn't say, but you're in for a show, Diana."
Back on the battlefield, Glyph started juggled his escrima in a way he never did before, leaving Primrose very confused, "What are you doing?"
"Getting ready, of course. You see, this battle, is going to be very different. Because...I'm not going to use my Semblance. I'm not going to my escrima..."
He threw them away so that they were out of reach of him. Glyph even went so far as to take off his overcoat. He stretched his arms high into the air and lowered one of them until his hand formed a fist.
"Primrose Madonna...I'm going to beat you with one punch."
"You're crazy."
"You've seen me be crazy before, does this look like that time? Anyway, we should begin. Ladies first. Oh, wait, there is a lady here, right?"
Not taking anymore insults, Primrose slammed her poleaxe into the ground and unleashed her energy geyser Semblance. It rushed towards Glyph, who merely smiled in return and did a simple, artsy, sidestep to dodge it.
He held the move, only moving his eyes so he could look at Primrose and raise his eyebrows to show her he was just toying with her.
With a roar she rushed him, and started to swing wildly with her poleaxe. Every time she did though, he would either dodge it, block it easily , or get out of her range. And each time he did, he made sure to do it as flashy as possible.
After one flurry he stopped, turned to the gallery and bowed, "Hope you're enjoying the show!"
The gallery erupted in cheers, especially from GRYD and MEAL, and the outpouring of support for him made Primrose even angrier.
She again roared in anger and rushed him. Swinging her weapon in any and all directions in the hope of hitting him, yet not one of them did. He wasn't using his Semblance, but he might as well have been given how easily he was dodging them. Each dodge grew a bigger and bigger smile on his face.
Tired of the games, Primrose again activated her Semblance, and let loose her attacks all over the arena, forcing Glyph to try and dodge all of them in quick succession. But to her horror, he did that, and he did it in style.
So much so that after launching two of her power waves right beside each other, Glyph merely walked towards them. The gallery thought for sure he was taking a hit to prove a point. But instead, as he got closer, they spread apart just wide enough for him to slip through without damage.
"Kind of hard to do parallel lines from a single point of movement Primrose," he taunted. "Sorry."
She shook with anger, and her Semblance glowed around her, and she poured it into her weapons and slammed it on the ground, "Take this!"
Glyph smiled and did a legitimate leap out of the way in order to get out of its range of effect. The wave slammed into the nearby wall and created a massive crack in it. Primrose breathed heavily from the attack, but stopped when she heard whistling.
She turned her head and saw Glyph whistling while he sat on the ground cross-legged. When he saw her looking at him he clapped in mock appreciation, "Wow! I honestly didn't know you could pour it on like that! That was impressive. Unless, you can't do that again, can you?"
Baring her teeth, Primrose stomped over to Glyph and started her barrage of attacks again, but her fatigue was showing, and her attacks were very slow. So much so that Glyph showed off his moves even more and got even more artistic in his dodges, ensuring that he didn't get hit, and mocked Primrose as much as he could in the process.
This went on for a few more minutes until eventually, Primrose was so tired that she nearly collapsed to the ground. She fell to her knees, dropped her weapon and started gasping for air.
Content, Glyph regained his more stone-faced expression and approached her. He sat down in front of her and looked at her with very angry eyes, "You never did understand, did you?"
Primrose seemed to get even more agitated that the Glyph she knew was back.
He shook his head at her, "You keep thinking this is about me, about Macro, it's not. We're not here for glory, we're here to help people. You're not, that's why you keep losing, that's why you don't get the attention you feel you 'deserve'. And that's why I did this. Did this in this way. To the people in the gallery? You look like the weakest person in this school. Congrats."
The realization hit Primrose like a ton of bricks, but she couldn't say anything.
"You come after my team again like you have? I'll cut you even deeper. You can take that to the bank."
With that, Glyph rose up, and prepared to finish this, but stopped just short, and smiled once again, "Oh, one more thing. Remember that time you sent Elenor into the forest alone? You know, for that mission for Professor Chestnut? My team and Macro's were so furious at what you did to her that I told them to remind me to punch you whenever I got the chance. Consider this payback for that too."
He wound up his fist and threw it in such a way that it caught Primrose under the chin and sent her flying off the ground and into the wall. A buzzer screamed in the room, and yet no one cheered, everyone was silent. Glyph had beaten Primrose with a single punch, without taking a single hit, and they all knew why he did it.
After looking at Primrose with content, Glyph went over and grabbed his coat and put it on. He then teleported to get his escrima, before appearing alongside Lochen, his expression back to its usual form, and his eyes filled with intent as he looked at the gallery.
"We're not here, to be petty," he said to them all in equal measure. "We're here to train, to help people, to save lives, to defend our families and friends."
He pointed to Primrose, who hadn't rose up from her beatdown, "She decided that her fame, her glory, her pride was so important that she tried to injure and traumatize my friends, my teammates, my partners. Let that be a lesson to you all. If you put your egos and desire for glory above the lives of others? That is your fate. I promise you that. Am I clear?"
The gallery was silent, as was Glyph for a time, before...
"AM I CLEAR?!"
The students, save for MEAL and GRYD, all made various motions or compliances with his statement, which seemed to please him.
"Good. I know we're technically all still kids, but it's time to grow up. We need to be better than that, better than her. Otherwise you should all just go home, because none of us have time for this kind of pettiness with what's outside these walls."
With that he left the room, the gallery glued to him as he left. The eyes of Lochen were especially locked onto him, but to the surprise of many, he smiled, "Huh, maybe he should be teaching this class. Team PRME? I do believe your leader needs your assistance. The rest of you...class dismissed."
The school was abuzz with what happened, and in a way that changed the complexion of the ones talking. For instead of talking about the fear of what might happen next, they talked about what Glyph did, how he did it, and the message he spread. The message of rising above personal egos to grow, and to always look out for ones' friends.
As the hours passed by, GRYD and MEAL noticed something. Team PRME, Elenor included, was nowhere to be seen in the other classes. This had them curious, even Macro and Glyph were wondering if their "disappearance" was because of someone like Night.
After all the classes had been finished for the day, GRYD and MEAL went to go to their rooms, but were stopped by and attendant, "Headmaster Night wishes to speak with you all."
"Lead the way," said Macro, taking point in the line.
They marched up to Night's office, and once inside they saw he was once again looking out the window, his expression focused, but clearly sad.
After a bit of staring, he signed and turned around, "When the Silent Step entered our school, I felt wronged. As Headmaster I promised to protect you, but if it wasn't for you all, I wouldn't have been able to keep that promise, and I was sad. But the events of the last day or so have made me even sadder. I should've seen this coming, I should've noticed the changes in my camera network, and I should've been able to prevent this knowing the history between your two teams. For that, and all that has happened, I am sorry."
"You have nothing to apologize for, sir," said Macro with a kind smile.
"No no, let him beg for our mercy," joked Reyson. "You never know when we could use this against him."
"Shut up, Reyson," chastised Yasmine with a glare.
"Party pooper."
"Enough," said Glyph, getting their attention. "Macro is right, Headmaster. You can't watch over all of us all the time, not with all that you do. There's nothing to be sorry for."
Night smiled and chuckled at this, "For ones so young, you are so compassionate and wise. Thank you."
"If I may, Headmaster?" said Erin as she raised her hand to get his attention.
"Of course, Ms. Flushe. Whatever you need to say or ask, do so."
"It's just...I've been thinking about all of what's happened to us and...there's no way PRME did it on their own. They were in our eye sights when certain things happened, and other things couldn't have been them because of the precision of it. Like what...like what happened to me..."
She rubbed her throat as if it was still hurting, Aaron wrapped an arm around her in support. Night nodded, but this time looked angry, "To that, I can assist you. Because I thought the same thing, and I did some digging."
"What did you find?" asked Diana, curious.
"Primrose got an influx in her account a few days prior to the "pranks". The money came from her father, who as I'm sure you know is quite wealthy. She used that money to bribe certain attendants to go into your rooms to plant devices, or steal your clothing. She bribed one of the cooks to put the Cayenne on whatever food you had Ms. Flushe, knowing you'd have a reaction to it."
"Would you object, sir, if I shot them with my crossbow?" wondered Aaron with clear fire and hatred.
Night had to restrain a laugh at the request, "If they were here still, then no, I wouldn't. But they've all been relieved of their duties and removed from the school. They'll also find it very hard to get good work given the report I did for their crimes."
Most of GRYD and MEAL laughed at this, it was good to know that the ones who tried to hurt them weren't getting off scot free.
Yasmine didn't react though, she raised her hand as well to get Night's attention, "Headmaster, what about the EMP that destroyed my drones? None of Team PRME are mechanics of that quality."
"Ah, I did research on that too. Turns out, that Primrose's father isn't opposed to using EMPs to short out rivals systems while he gets the reports he needs. He apparently gave one to Primrose."
"Unbelievable, and I'm guessing we can't touch him?"
"Apologies, Ms. Kaleido, but no. However, I have a friend coming in tomorrow that will help you get your drones back up and running in no time. Ms. Artemsia, all of your dresses have been located, all are unharmed, and they've been put back in your closet. To you, Mr. Forrest and Ms. Flushe, I've arranged a dinner date for you both upon your next trip to Vale, no Cayenne, I promise. As for your next trip Ms. Leilani Kaleido, I've gotten you a gift card for an art store to replenish your supplies. And while you didn't get affected by their pranks, Mr. Heron, aside from the phone you lost which I will replace for both you and Yasmine, I will grant you a little leniency upon your next offense. A little, keep that in mind."
At the revealing of their rewards, the others smiled, clapped, and even cheered in regards to Reyson. Night smiled at them all before turning to Glyph and Macro.
"As for you two..." he began.
"Stop, we don't need anything," interrupted Macro with a raise of the hand.
"Why not? asked Leilani confused, "You guys suffered just as much as us."
"Exactly," acknowledged Glyph with a sigh, "whether you want to admit it or not, this was because of us. Primrose hated us enough to go after you all, and that's on us."
"Partner, that's not how it works," stated Diana with a shake of the head.
Macro gave a small chuckle at this, "Yeah it is. We should have never let it get this far, and we're sorry for all you suffered through."
"If you want to reward us Night, there's only one thing you need to tell us," Glyph said as he stepped towards the Headmaster. "What are you going to do to Primrose?"
At this question, Night got uneasy, and in a way that was visible, and made everyone else in the room nervous. All except for Glyph and Macro, who feared the worst by the reaction.
"Headmaster?"
"...usually..." began Night, but with clear hesitation, "for such a violation of the rules that I set, Primrose would be expelled without remorse."
"But...?" Macro dared to ask.
"But...after her being in the medical wing for a few hours after the fight with Glyph...she vanished."
"Vanished?"
"Vanished. We do not know where she is. She likely studied all the camera positions and knew how to get out of view of them should things go wrong. Where she is right now...I don't know."
Glyph's eyes narrowed in anger, "What about the other members? Maggie was in on this, I know that for a fact, and while Rita may not have set up the traps, she would've let them go off to please Primrose. Only Elenor is innocent."
Night sighed bitterly and shook his head, "I know, but unfortunately, I can only prove that Primrose did the deed based on my investigation. So only she can be punished...which is hard to do if she's not here."
"Could her father have gotten her?" wondered Reyson after a small time of thinking. "We've already seen a bunch of...passionate parents at our school already."
"Thanks for the kind words," said Diana with a mocking smile.
"Anytime, Red."
"I appreciate the outside the box thinking, Reyson," answered Night with a more focused expression, "but no ships have entered our airspace today at any point. I can see hidden ships as well, so they're not cloaked. More than likely, Primrose ran off. To where...is hard to say."
"As long as she's not here, I'll be content," stated Glyph with some finality.
"Ditto," added Macro with a fierce expression himself.
The others all agreed on the subject, Night didn't add to it though. Instead, he just straightened up and turned back to the window.
"I am again sorry that this happened to you. I will do all that I can to make sure something like it never happens at this school while I'm Headmaster. Hopefully I'll be able to keep the promise this time."
"We have faith in you, Headmaster," said Leilani with a kind smile. "You haven't failed us yet as far as I'm concerned."
"That's very kind, Ms. Kaleido, but sadly I can't say the same about Ms. Madonna. I let her in with the hope that I could quell her insecurities, to help her harness her potential to be the leader that I felt she could be. Instead...she let her anger, her...pettiness...blind her...and now she is alone, and forever scarred...with no one to guide her or help her."
The room went silent once again as Night looked longingly out the window.
Not too far away, in the Emerald Forest, Primrose was going through the nearby trees with force. She was livid, and was slicing at anything she could with her poleaxe.
Her eyes had a crazed look in them, and she was muttering, "I will get him...I will get him...I will get him..."
A Grimm suddenly appeared, but she killed it with extreme prejudice. Without a second thought she moved on, ready for the next threat.
Unbeknownst to her, a camera was watching her, but it wasn't Night on the other end. Instead, it was Wizzer, who looked at her with curiosity, and then smiled, "She'll do."
*credits*