CHAPTER 11: A GREY-COLORED COMPASS
TEAM RWBY DORM - BEACON ACADEMY
Team RWBY and The Vault Hunters are in their room, staring at the Vault Hunters with animosity and distrust, except for Ruby, who feels sad and she doesn't want her friends to argue so much - she just wants to know why did the Vault Hunters do such a thing.
Weiss crosses her arms and glare daggers at them, "Well? Out with it then! - Why didn't you tell us about this? And why murder those men?", the heiress looks at the Vault Hunters, looking all bored: Zane is just drinking his ale on the corner of the room, just with a lazy look on his eye, Flak is on the floor, petting Broodless this time while Mr. Chew whimpers inside his backpack with his head poking out: Amara is sitting properly, but her eyes are focused elsewhere, and Moze is just not paying attention to them.
"What do you all seek? Tell us the truth!", Blake chimes in.
The Vault Hunters glance at each other and turn back to the kids as they show their same expressions as before, except for Zane, who closes his eyes and looks at the ground with remorse.
Moze sighs as her eye rolls around to the side. "We're mercenaries. We get paid to kill people -" but slowly looks down, " - though sometimes the innocent ones get the end of the barrel. But if there's anything I seek: It's cash. Loads and loads of it - because I have needs too, and I don't believe in Karma or Luck, but not as much as tin can over here. I do what I do to survive."
Team RWBY went all paled at this statement from Moze, especially Ruby, who is sitting there scared and Weiss appalled by their actions. "Unbelievable, do all of you want the same thing?", she frowns at Moze, then at the rest of the Vault Hunters.
The Beastmaster shakes "I have gained my sentience - but along with it . . . my own goal to complete the Hunt - and be with Death herself, for my true purpose is to kill and hunt the strongest warriors, monsters, even gods."
The girls all have mixed expressions on the robot's statement, Yang with the most expressive reaction, "You've faced GODS before?!"
Flak cups his metal chin. "Well I have no data on an ultimate and supreme being, so I can't say if there is one."
Zane chuckles, "I would've included the fookin' Cringe Twins, but they don't even deserve to be in that category.", he then takes another swig of his alcohol, only to find it empty, he sighs and holsters his flask in his jacket, TURNING TO THEM. "But seriously, we've faced things that are kinda like gods and shite, it's crazy, but you're talking to us right now - so, that proves it.", he says a few references here and there before staring at the wall.
"Indeed. Some gods are not born, some are made. And whether its a noble god, or a malicious one . . . I will kill it, for the Hunt and for Death."
Eventually, Ruby asks a rather difficult question. "You say you will hunt the strongest warriors; If we get strong enough, does that mean you'll . . . kill us too?", Team RWBY suddenly grows pale, their skin went pale white and take a step back from the Vault Hunters.
Flak squints his eye at the scared girls, with a menacing tone, " . . . Maybe - Ouugh!", but is immediately punched on the side of his shoulder by Amara's fist, his pain sensors cause him to recoil and hold his arm in silence after a loud metallic grunt.
Amara turns to the girls with a contrite expression, "We are NOT going to hurt you, we ARE your friends. We are not going to betray any of you or Ozpin or anybody here on Remnant except for that Torchdick, eugh, I need to work on that. You can see us as bad people all you want, but we are with the Crimson Raiders."
Weiss scoffs, "Really? Because the last I heard , THEY are also like YOU. Outcasts, criminals, rebels. I bet the Crimson Raiders have nothing to fight for ANYTHING! THAT MAKES THEM EVEN LESSER TO TRUST THAN YOU! - "
Flak plays a recording in his databank, all the while sitting down on the floor. " - LANCEMEN - ATTENTION!", a strange voice utters from Flak's body, catching the girls' attention and turn to Flak.
- I only have one question to ask of you all. One question. Just a few years ago, we were enemies. But that time has passed. As glad as I am to see you all in Sanctuary, I know you wouldn't have come if you had any other option. I know how bad things are out there. I know how Jack's army has swept across this planet like a sandstorm, ripping apart everything in its way. When I joined the Crimson Lance years ago, they told me I'd be fighting to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. But you all know as well as I do - that was a lie. But this fight, against Hyperion? It isn't. If we don't band together, if we can't protect this city from Jack's army, then we're done for. I am Roland, and I only have one question to ask: ARE YOU WITH ME?! -
The recording was enough to shut up the heiress' rant, but raises some question on their heads, the first one to ask is Blake. "Roland? Who's Roland?"
Flak looks up to her. "Before Commander Tannis, this was a recording from the original leader of the Crimson Raiders: Commander Roland. He was a former soldier of the Atlas Corporation, before he left on his own accord and an incident revolving his superior officer and his team. I haven't met the man, but I have records of him bolstering his forces and thus creating the Crimson Raiders, to prove Weiss wrong on her statement.", the heiress crosses her arms and pouts, looking away from him.
"Fight against Hyperion? That was the same Hyperion we saw back at the Vale City Library, you guys fought them?"
"The Crimson Raiders fought the Hyperion Corporation as a resistance group to protect the desolate planet of Pandora - and knowing Roland, he has gathered enough forces via his recruitment message scattered all around the planet.", he then plays another recording.
This is a message to any Crimson Lance left on Pandora. General Knoxx is dead, and knowing the Lance, they're more likely to cut their losses and leave you here than send an extraction ship. So unless you wanna starve to death out there, you've got two options. One: you become bandits. Two: you join me in protecting the people of Sanctuary. I can offer you food, shelter, and the chance to fight for something real, something meaningful - a chance I know the Atlas corporation never gave you. Roland, out.
"Out of all the soldiers I've discovered, he's the one with the true courage and has a heart of gold despite his status as an intergalactic criminal along with his cohorts; Brick, Mordecai and Lilith. Along with the help of an batch of Vault Hunters long before us, the Crimson Raiders have succeeded on defeating such a massive corporation, but at the cost of his life."
"I bet he fought in battle, fighting to the death with thousands of Hyperion guys.", Ruby wonders.
"No, he died by a single shot to the chest . . . by the hands of Hyperion's iconic megalomaniac dictator, in exchange for his daughter's, who assisted the Crimson Raiders.", he plays another recording although this time it's another man with a cheery tone with a hint of threat
"Heeey, Roland. Handsome Jack here - 'member me? My men kicked your bandit asses out of New Haven and killed your little pal Lilith. Ringin' any bells? Anyway, I hear you and the rest of your little buddies have relocated to Sanctuary. Just wanted to congratulate ya - you've successfully delayed your deaths by a few months. I'm gonna be real busy mining Eridium to charge that Vault Key I stole from your buddy Tannis, so you guys are gonna be low on my priority list for a while. So Ciao!"
Zane, Flak and Moze frown at the voice of Handsome Jack. For Flak, he was able to grab as much documents, recordings and everything else that records his life from a code monkey, to a charismatic dictator, after the Fall of Helios incident it's unknown if there are still back-ups of Handsome Jack or not. As for Moze, fighting the Corporate Wars had her fair share of fighting every single rival corporations, including Hyperion. And after facing bot after bot after bot, she already knows that Hyperion has the cutting-edge tech for robotics, and conquering a desolate planet only to be stopped by a few ragtag of misfits forming a resistance, is just plain embarrassing. Although their power could use some work, because Vladof's superior weaponry is still second to none.
Lastly, the old man knew the bastard personally, because during one of his missions (and this is seriously canon), he helped the dictator build the Impound Deluxe in his space casino: The Handsome Jackpot. And during his years on working with him, he witnessed several events that he saw his true colors. Good thing he left before he was getting too involved in his big plans.
Zane looks at the city in the distance through the window, "He was a symbol of hope in a planet that tastes like armpit sweat. And that handsome bastard snuffed that last hope the planet has ever had. But the Crimson Raiders live on and they still do the good 'round the galaxies even if we're a bunch of blood thirsty killers either seeking challenges, seeking retirement, or just get fookin' rich."
Ruby looks down, looking all mopey, "You guys are not the bad guys at all, right?"
"Lass.", he pauses for a moment, as he sits down on the chair, he stares at her begrudgingly. " - This is the reason why Ozpin made us interact with you lot only on weekends - because we also think we might rub you off with our . . . personalities. And - I know it'll get in the way in your duties as Huntress or whatever shite business Ozzy wants to put you through."
Yang raises an eyebrow at him, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Amara sighs, "It means we are different from you all a billion times over, sure we like some things together, but in the end, that don't make us feel closer. At least, not yet. We have good reasons to be the bad guys, and bad reasons to be the good guys. That's why we went off with Torchwick, we did a mission for him last night in order for us to buy whatever we can around here to survive this planet, if we ever get to set a new base here."
Ruby widens her eyes at her, "The mission? What is it about?"
Moze looks down but eyes at them under her helmet. "To clear a warehouse complex, it was used as a small base by a bunch of criminals, but things got complicated when they had an Atlesian mech. - "
" - AN ATLAS MECH?! - AT THE HANDS OF SOME BRIGANDS!? - But I'm sure you dealt with that thing no problem! - OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!", Weiss snaps at her, but only for her to squeal in pain as Moze immediately stands up and pinches her ear real hard to make the princess squeal in pain and pulls her closer to Moze, who's clearly pissed.
" - HEY, I DIDN'T FOUGHT THAT THING ONE V ONE, ALTHOUGH SLOWER THAN MOLASSES, THE THING'S BIGGER THAN IRON BEAR! - IT TOOK 300,000 LIEN TO COVER THE REPAIRS! AND I HAD TO EVERYTHING IN ONE NIGHT!", Moze retorts at the princess and the two hot heads start to butt heads, growling at each other.
"Easy, you two. Look, I'd love to continue the cat fight - but here's the kicker: He's got tons of shipment of Dust coming from the city and onto the warehouse complex. Which is why, we have concocted a new plan: we need you asskickin' lasses to sabotage Torchwick's operations at the same location.", Zane smoothly breaks it off, with a smile on his face.
The rest of the girls are shocked that they are allowed to be outside that easy, at first they expect the Vault Hunters to stop them; but considering they actually helped Torchwick in the first place and they are affiliated with them, it's partially fair for them to fix their mistake and not let a criminal mastermind get away with it.
Ruby looks at Zane and smiles at the old man, "I've been thinking the same thing too." she frowns as she looks down on the floor. "Criminals like Torchwick cannot get away that easily, its also our job to protect the city not just from Grimm."
Yang places a shoulder on her sister with a worried face, "Ruby, we can't just go - "
" - Yang, people already died and it's on Torchwick's hands, he made our friends do his dirty work! - We need to settle this, once and for all.", Ruby spoke nobly around the room.
Zane smiles at the young leader and ruffles her hair, "HAHAHA! - Welp, it's a good thing yer lookin' at the man who scanned the entire location. We'll fill you all in the details after our training with JNPR, and tomorrow night . . . you lasses are on your own. Can't risk us being there considering me team are on his side."
Weiss squints her eyes at Zane, "And why would we trust you? - You could fake this information and we'd all die the moment we step foot in there."
Moze shakes her head, "Kid, as much as we hate being underpaid by Ozzy, we have had enough of shooting down everything in our sights for now. And I know those 'Dust' shipments are gonna be causing more trouble than it looks. Roman plans to sell it, but I think he's starting to branch out into more 'bright' ideas, and it won't be pretty."
"Plus, we are not doing to maintain our relationship - you can hate us as much as you want. But we are doing this not because it's the right thing to do, but a more balanced choice, to even the scales of Good and Evil."
The girls remain silent, as the Amara gets up and leaves the room, followed by Moze and Flak, with Zane the only one looking at Ruby with a gentle smile, to which Ruby smiles at the Operative. In his mind, he is scot-free from them by playing as the 'good guy' but he can't take it all for granted now that he and Red have a little bond together, Zane then closes the door on his way out.
HALLWAY
Once the Vault Hunters are out, they all let out a collective sigh of relief. The team was expecting being caught by Ozpin and the higher ups, and they're bound to be found since they've made a mess of the area. But they didn't expect Team RWBY to eavesdrop THE SECOND TIME. Sure, they can brush it off as 'they are kids, they love eavesdropping and making mischief' - but there's a line between things you wanna know and things you DON'T want to know.
Moze walks with her team as she takes out a can of soda and drinks it, saving the rest for later, looking all bored. "Uggh geez, we're finally done with those girls, honestly they could just fuck themselves right off - They are not gonna survive the outer planets if they are gonna come with us."
"They won't - but unless if we teach them the right way, perhaps they too can survive out of Remnant. Let's hope they will come back in one piece on their mission."
Amara turns to Flak and Moze with a curious tone, "But what about the mech? Didn't Torchwick say that he has other uses for it?"
Zane places his hands in his pants' pockets, looking straight ahead. "That classy boyo's gonna build that mech from the ground up - I've seen Hyperion engineers work a giant constructor bot the size of an apartment building in a matter of days. And they said it wasn't the finished product."
Moze sighs as she pinches the bridge of her nose. "Hate to say it, but I agree with the geezer. The girls better watch their asses out there. God, it's all coming back to me. Why does Darzaran Bay always gotta appear in my head?", she groans in pain, trying to forget the painful memories."
Amara just smirks at Moze, placing her hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, they can do it on their own. And because they are capable fighters - but not better than us ~ We're leagues away from them.", the Siren giggles as she boasts like she always does.
"I would love to remain my humility side, but noticing Blake's performance and assuming the other girls' performance earlier - I guess it is safe to be appreciate ourselves more than them.", the robot chimes in with a chuckle as Mr. Chew pops out of the backpack and purrs on Flak's head.
The old man then checks his watch, and fixes his gloves, "Welp, guess we're plenty early to watch me favorite show about an underdog cop . . . who is a dog. - ", but his sentence is cut off when he bumps into a student, but the student falls down on the floor along with his weapon.
"ARGH - I'M SO SORRY! WHY DO I ALWAYS KEEP BUMPING INTO PEOPLE!", Jaune groans as he is on the floor, rubbing the side of his head, wincing in pain.
Zane scoffs as he offers his hand. "Nah, it's alright, boyo! - Up on yer feet.", the young knight smiles as he grabs Zane's hand and helps Jaune up.
Jaune picks up his Crocea Mors on the floor. "Thanks, Mr. Flynt.", afterwards, he stands up to face the four of them, noticing they are here now. "Y-You guys are already done with Team RWBY's training?"
Suddenly, Nora pops behind his back with a big smile, "HOW DID THEY DO? TELL ME THE SHORTY STORY!", followed by Nora is the rest of Team JNPR, Pyrrha waving at them.
The Vault Hunters exchange glances before shrugging their shoulders together, "Eh, it was kind of short, honestly, Weiss kept bitching around like a little 5 year old while I took all the hits with Iron Bear.", Moze sips on her can.
Flak nods, "Blake is nimble and is rather proficient with her skills, but she has a lot to work on, mainly on her combat senses, as a . . . well, a Huntress.", he looks sternly and calculated as ever, keeping her secret of Blake being a Faunus.
Amara crosses her arms. "Yang's a fierce fighter, yet her ferocity is going to be her downfall. And she always rely on her Semblance and her weapons, obviously.", Pyrrha was about to ask Amara, but the Siren thought of it ahead of her and glances at her direction, " - and no I didn't go easy on her - mmmaybe a little."
Zane tilts his head to the side innocently, "And of course Ruby's fine, lass has quite the energy and have a little bonding moment!, ". the old man smiles at them. But I'll be serious on her training just a little more."
Moze covers her mouth, her eyes staring at him half-open. "Pssh, yeah, keep telling yourself that 'Uncle Zane' ~ ", the Gunner starts to giggle, the two also followed suit, mocking the old man.
"Oi, Red is like me long lost niece, we both like guns, we have the same vibe an' the same energy! If anythin' our little training had a little bond together.", he rolls his eyes around, and turns to Team JNPR. "So, what are ya' lads and lasses on about?"
Ren steps up, "We're gonna go on training with Pyrrha since we're all done with our studies , but Jaune here, still needs to memorize the dates."
Jaune looks down in defeat, "I still can't figure it out. But good thing we're going for training, it'd be fun to limber up once in a while."
Pyrrha hums in thought, thinking of something, before smiling at them. "Hmmm . . . Why not train with us? - We could use some tips on combat just like you did with Team RWBY."
The Operative checks his watch and groans like a little child who doesn't want to go to sleep. "Whaaaat? - I mean we can just do this next - DOOOUGH!", he wraps his stomach as Amara punches him straight in the stomach, twisting his guts. " - Auuugh . . . you punched me in the small intenstine - ARGH - I think it's lodge in me gallbladder."
Amara smiles innocently at Pyrrha and the others, Oh, we'd LOVE to, we have so much free time around here actually."
Jaune takes a step back in fear, "W-Wait? We're going to WHAT? - B-But I thought it'd be just - "
Nora jumps in excitement and starts choking Ren with both of her hands. "OH. MY. GOOOOOOOOD. WE'RE GONNA BE TRAINED AND BECOME LIKE THEM . . . ALIENS - "
Ren eventually breaks himself free by smacking Nora's head with the side of his hand, letting Nora giggle playfully. "NO, Nora! We're not going to be aliens!", he turns to the Vault Hunters, "Sorry, she's too enthusiastic for this."
The Gunner smirks at Nora, feeling impressed by her excitement. Don't worry, Pink Streak. I'll take care of her, something tells me - she and I are gonna be fast friends.", she crosses her arms, while shifting his glance towards her.
"HAHAHAAA! I KNEW IT!", she hops towards her with a big smile. "YOU'RE THE BOOM LADY, RIGHT?! THE ONE WITH THE BIG GUNDAM!?"
"DAMN RIGHT I AM! It's nice to see a fellow connoisseur of explosions!", the veteran grins.
As the two demolitionists are giggling mischievously, as Ren lets out a long sigh. "I am even more worried for her now."
He then hears metal footsteps behind him, followed by a looming shadow and a metal hand on his shoulder. "Do not fret, my friend. Moze may just be as maniacal as Nora, but Moze knows her limits when it comes to explosions.", he then lets go of him.
Ren turns to the Beastmaster, with a deadpanned stare. "If you say so - and since Pyrrha is with Amara, Nora is with Moze and Jaune's probably gonna go with Zane like any other professor, I guess I'm going to be your student."
Flak nods at him, "Very well then, Ren. I assure you, I am quite adept to teaching astute students such as yourself."
"I can already see that, even though you don't look like one - I know being taught by a calculated hunter always works out fine.", Ren smiles at him, genuinely interested about being mentored by a sentient robot.
Flak squints his eye playfully, "Hmmm . . . I wouldn't say so about that.", he looks on his shoulder to reveal Mr. Chew, panting at Ren and happily barks.
SANCTUARY 3 - PROMETHEA'S ORBIT
Meanwhile in the mobile headquarters of the Crimson Raiders, is floating in orbit on one of the planets within the six galaxies. The ship's annoying robot, Claptrap, who actually had no reason to join the Crimson Raiders in the first place other than being pure entertainment is currently stuffing something in his port.
However, he immediately looks behind him to see Gaige with a fumed expression, her eyes almost bulging out of anger and rage. "GODDAMN IT CLAPTRAP! YOU MESSED UP MY MARGARITA MUCHIES AGAIN!?"
Claptrap quickly backs off and runs away from Gaige, only to be stopped by another floating robot: Gaige's bestie for the restie, Deathtrap. "AHHH MINION!", he then tusn back to Gaige, trying to look for another way out. Maybe in the vents? Or maybe try to fool them, or go straight I was - uhh - trying to do Gordon Ramsey's Taste Test and I thought I'd be a chef, y-y-you forgive me, right minion?"
Gaige looks down, gritting her teeth." No one . . .", she takes out a legendary Tediore shotgun with a red palette on the body of the gun, until it gradually changes color to diagonal streaks of red and yellow to the barrel, and it's named after her iconic phrase: Anarchy. "EVER. TOUCHES. ", she then aims the shotgun at Claptrap, now looking at him with pure hatred and disdain. "MY. MARGARITA MUNCHIEEEEEEEEES!".
She then fires at Claptrap at point blank range, however the robot is still standing., checking his vitals, but then the robot acts confident. "I-I'M ALIVE! - HAH! - YOU CAN'T TAKE DOWN GENERAL CLAPTRAP THAT EASILY! - "
But one of Gaige's skills, 'Close Enough' has a chance for her bullets that hit solid objects to ricochet towards a nearby enemy at reduced damage. The bullet bounces off the wall of the ship and hitting Claptrap's exhaust port, setting him on fire. " - AGGH! - MY CLOACA! WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE MY CLOACA! ~ "
Gaige holsters her shotgun, "MESS WITH MY MUCHIES AGAIN AND I'LL SIC DEATHTRAP OTHER THAN YOUR FUCKING CLOACA!", she sees Claptrap running and crying as the robot leaves the Bridge of Sanctuary 3. However, she hears a series of footsteps behind her.
"Ah Gaige, there you are.", Hammerlock's voice echoes in the ship as she turns around and sees him smiling at her, still wearing his iconic suit and his gentlemanly mustache.
Gaige grins widely, and waves at him with her robot arm. "Heeey! Hammylock! What's up, still gathering more goods for our guys back at Remnant?"
Hammerlock nods whilst standing astutely. "Yes, but I figured I could use your help . . . sadly, again. I feel like I'm a burden to you -", Hammerlock sheepishly asks, not wanting put any burden on her ever since the trouble they have together with Wainwright and the new Vault Hunters back on Xylougros, but in the end it was a success.
Gaige raises a finger on him, making him stop. "Shhhhhh, now! - You're not a burden! I literally have a crush on you 7 years ago and NOW I still do, even though you're technically married to Wainwright BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT! Heh, what's going on?"
" It's about - ", but before Hammerlock could explain further to the Mechromancer, the Holo-Projector in the middle of the room, suddenly sparks into activation and forms into a 3D figure Atlas' CEO with his iconic mustache, waving at them too.
"HEYAAA! ~ D-D-Did I do it right? Was my entrance good?!" Rhys smiles at them as he turns to Gaige and Hammerlock, with the former confused about the guy in the projector. Hammerlock just whistles as he rather keeps his answer to himself
"Uhh - who're you?", the girl find him rather suspicious, must be because of the mustache that may or may not have been taped to his face or just grew it, nevertheless, it's weird and Deathtrap growls at Rhys like a cat glaring at its prey.
Rhys glances at her and catches her rusty but sturdy robot arm, it's crudely built, but still in good shape, "O-Oh, uhh, you're uhh, you have a . . . really cool robot arm, hot damn - AGH! - Sorry about that, tend to get out of topic, I'm Rhys ~ Rhys Strongfork, CEO and re-founder of the Atlas Corporation. Nice to meet ya'.", he smiles at her.
Gaige widens her eyes at the mention of the company and wraps her arms around her waist, trying not to laugh. "Pfft - ATLAS?! As in, the one company that keeps failing all the time - also WOAH! - you got a robot arm too?! THAT LOOKS LIKE THE TERRAN-90 MODEL I USE! - EXCEPT MINE'S ILLEGAL!", she raises her robot arm she made all by herself.
Rhys gasps in shock and feels his heart warm up to see a fellow robot arm user. "OH MY GOD, SAMESIEEEEES! ~ MY ARM'S TERRAN-90 MODEL AS WELL! PHEW! Thank goodness, I'm not alone in this universe who use it.", he stifles a tear, before clearing throat. "Alright! Alright, I'm alright ~ I'm contacting you guys right now about dropping in some . . . reinforcements?"
Despite that small talk with their robot arms, Gaige raises her eyebrow at Rhys, expecting a typical evil CEO agenda. "Reinforcements? We're just getting some supplies and head back to Remnant, not going back into another war."
Rhys raises both of his hands sheepishly. "Oh nonononono, I get THAT - but few months ago, the Atlas Corporation's R&D Department did some big workarounds on the Maliwan Arbalest wrecks during the Siege on Promethea. They suggest bringing those babies on a field test, preferably the ones with threats - you know, like Pandora, Eden-6, or better yet, Promethea."
"And let us guess, you thought of something better than all of those mentioned choices?", Hammerlock inquires the CEO.
Rhys perks up and smile at the scholar hunter, "Hell yeah! - Since the Atlas Corporation decides to . . . ", he slowly looks away, slightly ashamed. " . . . learn from their mistakes back on Pandora, they will not deploy there. Plus the units will just distract the Jakobs Corporation on Eden-6 while they're doing their thing. I know Wainwright's still getting used to the CEO stuff, I understand him since I was just a salaryman back on Hyperion. And lately Promethea's been rather quiet, simple folk enjoying the nightlife, buildings are being cleaned and repaired, ratches are still a thing, and the Skywell is back on our hands."
Gaige squints her eyes and points at him, "Wait - YOU were Hyperion?! ME AND MY TEAM KILLED HANDSOME FRIGGIN' JACK! WHY SHOULD WE TRUST YOU!?"
Rhys places a palm on his chest, "W-What?! I helped you guys during the war on the COV, and even helped my entire company, and thanks for killing that asshat! Y-Yeah, used to serve Handsome Jack before AND after he died. I thought I'd become him, you know? Be the next Hyperion CEO! BE THE HERO OF HEROES! - although - there's that phrase: Never Meet Your Heroes . . . ", his face grew serious, remembering his memories with Vaughn Fiona, Sasha, Gortys and Loader Bot. " . . . It's best to leave things dead. And I'd like to extend my gratitude by giving the new and improved Atlas' finest mechs: The Titans."
Rhys scratches the back of his head. "Eh, it could use some work, but it functions similarly to the Maliwan's Arbalests, we kinda have a lack of originality here, but what counts is its firepower. And we both know that our friends on Remnant definitely need this on their side."
Gaige takes a look at the functions and schematics of Atlas' mechs. Afterwards, she turns to Holo-Rhys. "Do you think you can bring a few units here?"
Rhys sticks out his tongue on the side of his cheek as he frowns and types a series of commands in his laptop. "Just a seeeeeec ~ aaaaand DONE - I sent a cargo ship on your designation, just be there sign the waiver and take it, no charges. Now I gotta go back and prepare some pepperoni pizzas and smoothies for my executives - and maybe I can order some vegetarian options as well, as Gortys said: Variety is important -
Hammerlock steps up, " - Uhh, Mr. Strongfork, if I may interrupt you one last time.", he calls his attention, " - Is there a possibility you'd make your arrival to Remnant?"
Rhys lets out a chuckle, before stopping. "I honestly WANT to! I've been cooped in ATLAS HQ for a long time now! - but like Jakobs, my people and my company goes first before myself. But I'll be planning to make an appearance soon, the best is saved for the last - well not last, only for a long while y-y-you get what I mean. Anways, GOTTA GO! ~ RHYS, OOOOOOOUUUUT!"
COURTYARD (VAULT HUNTERS AND TEAM JNPR)
Meanwhile the Courtyard, is an absolute mess, several students from around the Courtyard are evacuating from the premises as they hear the sound of explosions and rumblings. Of course it may have been an accident, but the chunks of dirt, broken rocks, and the sight of birds flying around in a panic to move away from the commotion says otherwise.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSS FIREWORKS!", Nora jumps for joy as she starts to laughs as she sees Iron Bear's rockets fly across the Courtyard and homes in on Nora, but the Huntress uses her own explosions from Magnhild to propel herself out of harm's way before the missiles starts to detonate altogether. "WOOOOOOO! EXPLOSIONS!"
Moze, in her Iron Bear, scratches the side of her head, but shakes the thought off, thinking it was just luck them missiles seemingly detonated earlier than usual as she loads another type of 'rocket'. "Lovin' the view there?! "
The Huntress is watching as the explosions go on, clueless at Moze about to launch another massive rocket. "HELL YES! - IT'S LIKE FIREWORKS BUT MORE DEADLY!"
"Ooooh yeah - and there's gonna be another one just for you! - Just. Stay. Still! - ", she opens fires and releases a Big Boy Missile, a rocket with the power of a mini-nuke.
Nora turns around to see the mini-nuke flying towards her and smiles madly, "YAAAAAASSSS! BRING IT! ~ she transforms her Magnhild to a large hammer and readies herself as licks her lips. "Aaaaand ~ ", she then swings the rocket out of Beacon Academy with such force, it flies to the Emerald Forest. "HOMERUUUUUUUUUUUNNN! ~ ".
The Gunner is left utterly shocked, blinking her eyes rapidly. "Are you kidding me?", she sees the mini-nuke fly to Emerald Forest and eventually the people heard a big explosions followed by the loud screams of Grimm.
Nora raises her arms in the air, holding Magnhild with an ecstatic expression, "That. Was. AWESSOOOOOME! - LET'S DO IT AGGAAAAAAIN! ~ ".
Meanwhile Ren shakes his head as he feels the vibrations Nora and Moze caused, but as for him, he and Flak have a more proper training compared to both of the girls' complete chaos. Ren holds a blindfold and glances at the robot. "Blindfolded? That's rather unorthodox."
"It is. But based on my research and thesis, having unorthodox training can yield significant results to your abilities and skills.", the robot then turns to Moze and Nora, continuing to use more explosives for funsies and to blow each other up, with the former still using her massive bipedal mech. "Except for that - that is not training - that is lunacy.",
Ren sighs as he puts on the blindfold with a smile, "That's how they work, I guess. Some people are just hard to read.", he then looks up to Flak, assuming that's where he has been standing all along. "Okay, I'm ready."
The Beastmaster nods as he circles around Ren, "Your task is block all of our attacks, find where we are, and strike when you have the chance. Basic principles.", he paces around him, but instead of following the instructions he just made, he commands Mr. Chew to lunge at him.
Ren immediately uses his sense and narrowly dodges Mr. Chew, by side-stepping and uses his weapons, Storm Flower to open fire at the rabid skag, but the projectiles are thick enough to deflect and block it entirely, hearing the CLINKS and the PANGS. "Is it really that durable - WOAH!", suddenly he is pulled by his legs, Mr. Chew growls as he uses his long tongue to throw Ren and throws him away, crashing him against a wall.
"Ren, as a man of your caliber, you need to fight different kinds of beasts, Grimm or not. Some would go for a rather direct approach, some however . . ."
He keeps searching for Mr. Chew, but Broodless appears out of nowhere and he is slashed on the legs, "ARGH! - ngh. ", knocking him down, thankfully, his Aura protected his physical body from the it's sharp drill forearm.
". . . are smarter than you. Humans are NOT the alpha species, not by a long shot. And I have fought enough to solidify my statement, so you must do your best - to prove me wrong."
Ren gets up and hears growling again, the same growl he hears from Mr. Chew. "Woah!- "He then ducks to dodge Mr. Chew's attack from above, aims up and shoots down Mr. Chew's belly using rubber bullets. At first he hears nothing, but then he hears skag whimpers and curls up into a ball, the young Huntsman smirks to himself as he feels relieved. "Did I do good, Sir Flak?"
Flak walks towards Mr. Chew and takes him gently, putting him him at ease by rubbing some kind of natural ointment for the pet's swelling belly. "Hmm, yes you did. Well done."
He then takes off his blindfold, smiling at Flak. "Thanks - AUUUUGH!", however he falls unconscious as Meat-Thief arrives with a baseball bat, already bashed Ren at the back of the head. The jabber snickers cockily, he just loves bashing people in the head.
"But not well enough.", his pets gather around him.
Pyrrha: You know this is a nice change of pace.
Amara: I know - it kinda beats fighting each other, if anything, it's a pretty good substitute.
(Amara uses her magic arms to attack Pyrrha, and Pyrrha is blocking and dodging all attacks. The two are doing an Endurance Agility Test.)
Meanwhile Zane is currently standing in front Jaune, who's in his proper stance. However the old man has an unimpressed face all over him. In his days, he has seen untrained people that are getting ready for combat. But he has never seen such clumsiness as Jaune, his posture is wrong, he sees the strength of the grip in his sword is a bit loose, maybe he's hesitant. And his footing - BLOODY HELL - the footing. It makes Zane's first embarrassing ballerina lesson a masterpiece compared to this.
Honestly, even Tediore's 'army' which is just a bunch of cops with police training have proper amount of training and how to handle their gear correctly. Zane continues to deadpan stare at Jaune.
Eventually the young knight caught wind of this, "I-Is something wrong?"
The Operative snaps at his thought and smiles at him to hide his genuine confusion, "Nah, nah, nothin' - I'm just curious about something - "
Jaune tilts his head to the side, raising a brow "About what?"
Zane crosses his arms. "What sorta doohickey killing machine ya have there?", he motions his head to his Crocea Mors.
He takes out his sword and a shield. "I - uhh - I have this - It's a hand me down, belonged to my great-great-grandfather. During the war.", Both the sword and shield are shown to be incredibly durable, despite apparently being forged several generations prior to the present day. The sword is sharp enough to decapitate an Ursa Major, and the shield is sturdy enough to withstand several direct blows from an Ursa, a Death Stalker - he already saw him in action during his arrival in Remnant.
Zane eyes both of them, stroking his beard. The sword itself is a simple longsword with a blue handle and a golden cross-guard, and the shield is white with a gold trim, displaying Jaune's emblem in the center. "That's from yer ancestor's, eh? Looks pretty shiny fer a hand-me-down (he grins) Let's give it a try, shall we? ~ "
Jaune yelps and raises his shield, "W-Wait, how can I fight you, you don't have anything - AAAAAGH!", he closes his eyes and braces for impact, and immediately blocks an attack he can feel a massive vibration from his shield and slowly opens his eyes to see two large slash marks from his shield from Zane's Digi-Claw.
The old man sighs as he deactivates his Digi-Claw, looking at him with the same unimpressed look. "First, boyo, do not ask that again if yer' gonna face an opponent, actually you know what - be confident and try to be unpredictable."
"I don't -", he slumps on his shoulders, all bummed out. " - have those kinds of traits . . . honestly I don't think I'm that kind of person to -
Zane lets out an exasperated groan, "UUUGHHH! - YER YAPPIN' TOO MUCH! SHOW YER MAD FACE, BOYO!", he grins as he does a powerful straight kick, sending Jaune away from him. Jaune also dropping his shield and sword, even a normal warrior still has the strength to grip their equipment, why does Jaune easily break?
The knight picks up his sword and winces in pain and grits his teeth.
"Don't drag this too much, boyo! - Pick yerself up an' come hit me with yer best shot!", he opens his arms wide, letting Jaune have a free hit. At this point, the old man is feeling sorry for the poor lad.
Jaune takes a few deep breaths before staring down at him, "RRRAAAAGGHH!", yells as charges at Zane, who is now smirking mischievously at him. But as he thrusts his sword at him, his sword went through a Digi-Clone, with the original Zane teleporting elsewhere.
But he looks behind him to see the real Zane, behind him. Smiling at the blonde Huntsman, "Again.", Jaune swings his sword again with more ferocity, but it lacked the swiftness, which Zane has the time to rolls his eyes around and teleports to another clone this time on left. "Again, boyo."
Jaune growls in anger and swings at each of the clones, trying to find the real Zane, much like what Ruby did to him. But at least little Red knew how to fight and deal with an annoying old man like him. As each Jaune's attack is more erratic, but inaccurate, it's as if he's flailing that sword like a little child. He lets out one final scream with one final slash, only to hear his sword clash something solid, but this time - it is vibrating.
The knight opens his eyes to see Zane's disappointed look, but between them is a digitalized Barrier, with the futuristic device deployed on the ground in front of Zane, the old man clicks his tongue three times before head-butting Jaune, his head passing through the Barrier, and putting the young man down on the ground.
Zane picks up his Barrier device and crouches down to moves closer to the laying knight, rubbing his forehead from the sheer pain. "Did anyone teach you how ta' fight?!"
The Huntsman looks away in shame, "N-No . . .", he then gets up and takes a step back, looking at Zane scared, the old man looking at him in silence. "I-I-I'm sorry, but - "
" -Nah, boyo. I already pictured everythin' - no one knows about this, don't it?".
"Well . . . only Pyrrha. But other than her, no one.", he pauses for a moment, to see his friends far away from, and training with the other Vault Hunters. Pyrrha arm-wrestling with Amara, Ren diligently training with Flak and his beasts, and of course, Nora and Moze not even doing training, but just doing pranks and scaring students off with explosions. Jaune looks down in envy and regret. "Well, guess the cat's out of the bag then . . . "
He sits up, his back slumps forward, "My family . . . they have this obsession with being a her. Almost all of my uncles, grandfathers, cousins, they were heroes who fought all kinds of battles or whatever - and then there's me - a guy never got PROPER TRAINING, even though I'm being given this . . . relic. Like come on, I wanted a cool gun, but not a sword and this heavy shield.", he drops both of the aforementioned things away.
"I've kept this image so much that I even used fake transcripts to be admitted here. I'm pretty sure you'll report that to Ozpin. Maybe because I don't deserve this kind of privilege or I'm not worthy to be Huntsman."
"Boyo, I ain't mad or disappointed - well, I am, but not to you too . . . but to me as well. Ya' see, I'm - kinda in the same boat as you are back when I was a young lad like you - I was treated like shite in me family . . . I was used as a laughing stock for me brothers, though I'd never amount to anythin' to the bandit family. "
"You were raised as a bandit?", Jaune's face contorted into confusion.
The old man nods. "Down in the death planet of Pandora itself, aye. Learned to survive there on me own, and made my way out of that damned planet. The point here, boyo, is that always appreciate with what ya' have - and make do with everything you got. Sure life's unfair - but it's always unfair the moment you were born in this world! - So, how about it then? You wanna take things seriously now?", he offers him a hand.
Jaune smiles as he grabs his hand, Zane helping the young lad up to continue their training.