RedDragon: Well, we are finally back with the next chapter of ALBO!
AssassinK: About time… So are we moving forward with altered RWBY canon?
Sage Wolf: I don't think so, this chapter and the next are original stuff based on the plan Red gave us.
RedDragon: Yep, thought it would be a good idea to get more time with new characters and also show off some new ideas.
Sage Wolf: I'm guessing that these two chapters are one story beat split in half then?
RedDragon: Yep, the mini arc is kinda big for one chapter so it's split into two.
AssassinK: Well, it's not like something dangerous is gonna show up…
RedDragon: …
AssassinK: Why are you quiet? Red? Red?! RED?!
Sage Wolf: Well, anyway, chapter start!
Chapter 6: Will of Man
~Camelot House~
It was the early hours of the morning at Beacon Academy. The four young men that made up team ALBO were up and about, doing their morning routine and other activities. It was the weekend, but instead of using it as a time to rest, they were keeping themselves sharp. With what they knew, they couldn't afford time to slack off, not with a metaphorical sword hanging above their head. It had been two weeks since the incident in the Forever Fall Forest and some things have changed. For one team CRDL were acting less like the dicks they normally were, Lancelot punched himself in the face to make sure he wasn't dreaming. On the other hand, the situation between Jaune and Pyrrha was better and she kept the secret she learned. Belial was currently sitting in the reading room, the bookcases now filled with books that they have purchased thanks to their own personal funds. Well, Belial wasn't sure if Lancelot got them legally, but that was a worry for another day. The Demon Clan member was meditating, working on improving his mental fortitude. His meditation was soon interrupted when Arthur entered the room. Noticing his team leader's presence, Belial opened his eyes and asked, "What's up Arthur, something wrong?" Waving, Arthur replied, "Hey Belial, question, are the equipment you found in that one room still working?"
"It's old, but serviceable if I remember right. Why?" Belial questioned to which Arthur replied, "Well you know how we have been training in the woods out behind the house?" Belial nodded his head. "Well you see Lancelot kinda aaaah…" Arthur trailed off. Belial blinked a few times before facepalming and groaned out. "What did he do?" Arthur with a blank face said, "Well…. We were sparring you see," Belial nodded slowly, understanding that either Lancelot damaged the property, or his weapon, or did grievous harm to his body. "And he ended up eh -" Arthur kept hemming and trying not to get a Hellblaze blast to the face, "Ahh-" "Arthur. Get to the point." Squeezing his eyes shut, the young man rushed through the next sentence, "He broke Insurgent while practicing. So, we kinda need to repair it." Belial stared blankly at Arthur before getting up and walking away and out the dorm house's backdoor. Arthur turned to the window and saw Belial standing out there, staring into the sky. "Huh, I guess it wasn't gonna be as bad as I-" "RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" He was interrupted as Belial let out a rage fueled roar, Hellblaze and Darkness trailing off him into the sky as the sound scared birds away from the trees they were resting in.
~Ozpin's Office~
The headmaster of Beacon Academy sat down at his desk and began to look over the paperwork for the day. "In all my time in this world, nothing is truly as evil as this blasted paperwork. Well," Ozpin began, looking up with a nostalgic expression on his face. "Maybe Salem, but I'm starting to think this war is just becoming history's worst divorce. I wonder if Meliodas would say that the Holy War was just a giant dick measuring contest?" Looking down at the forms on the desk, Ozpin raised his mug to his lips to take a drink, but stopped as a noise reached his ears. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" Glancing out the large window and seeing Darkness and Hellblaze streak into the sky, Ozpin asked aloud, "What in the name of the Brothers is going on? Who pissed off a Demon?!"
~Beacon Dorms, a few minutes earlier~
Stretching his arms above his head as he yawned, Jaune looked out the window seeing the picturesque morning. Smiling, he turned to his team members seeing that Ren was meditating, Nora was bouncing on her bed, and Pyrrha was doing some stretching. Jaune had to momentarily look away when he caught himself staring too long. 'I really need to burn that stash. If Mom or one of my sisters find out about this then they would never stop bugging me about dating her.' "Ok guys, I don't know about you, but I'm gonna be doing a light workout, then get caught up with Professor Oobleck's-" Jaune was quickly interrupted by a loud and distant "DOCTOR!" Jaune glanced in the direction of the noise. "It's kinda sad that that wasn't the strangest thing I have ever encountered." Before he could continue, a loud scream of pure rage ripped through the air. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" Eyes widening, Jaune turned to his team and yelled in shock, "WHO THE FUCK PISSED OFF MY COUSIN! Change of plans we're staying inside and avoiding him at all costs!" Pyrrha looked over concerned, "Is it really that bad?" Jaune groaned, "Last time he was this pissed, Wild joined the family." As if his name summoned him, the piglet screeched and attempted to hide under Jaune's bed having heard the screams.
~Sometime in the Future, What used to be Atlas~
Standing on a landing strip is a young man about 17 years old with short white hair that barely hangs past his ears and heterochromatic eyes with the left being black and the right purple looked up at the shattered moon. He was wearing a simple white and black suit with light blue trim. "Alright," He said confidently. "Tomorrow I join the Beacon Holy Knight Academy. I'll show everyone what I'm made of and give Mordred a run for his-" The young man stopped as a familiar yell was heard "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" The young man's eyes went wide hearing this and asked silently, "F-father?"
~Back at Camelot House~
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!" Belial was still roaring to the heavens. Arthur now stood outside with Oberon and Lancelot joining him. Lancelot was holding his damaged weapon in hand. "How long has he been doing this?" Oberon asked. Arthur shrugged and answered, "Like 10 or 15 minutes, give or take." Lancelot looked at his leader incredulously and asked. "Not to sound like that guy, Boss Man, but how is that even physically possible?!" Arthur tilted his head to the side before raising his hand to his chin and replied, "Not sure." Oberon looked at Belial, then backed to his cousin and team leader and asked, "Okay, how do we stop him?!" As soon as these words left his mouth, Cath came hopping out and leapt up to rest himself on Belial's shoulder. Raising his tail, the cat beast swung it and smacked Belial in the back of the head. "AAAAAAA-! Gah!" The sudden shock of pain to the back of the head knocked him out of his rage. "Thank you, I needed that," Belial said, inhaling and exhaling loudly to calm himself down further. To no one's shock, "RRRRAAAAHHHHH!" The Demon screamed out once more, thrusting his arm towards the sky, shooting out a short stream of dark fire. "Okay. I'm calm now." Lancelot raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth, "Sooo we need to fix Insurgent. Does the forge work or not?" "Depending on how much damage you did, we need to head to Beacon and use the forge there. Might as well anyways, I need to do some maintenance on my swords, make more bullets. Arthur! Bring Sequence, we might as well sharpen it while we're there." Arthur gave a thumbs up as team ALBO made their way to Beacon's main facilities.
~Beacon Academy Forges~
The air was heated and humid, the multiple large forges churned out heat as they continuously belched out flames, ready to heat metal on one side of the room. Hanging on the walls were numerous weapons and tools. Both examples of craftsmanship and also items to use to maintain and shape weapons. Pneumatic presses as well as sharpening and polishing belts of different sizes decorated the other. Numerous warning signs and plaques were displayed, catching the eye to make sure the students followed the rules and not maim themselves. Lancelot whistled, seeing all the high level equipment. "Pretty nice stuff." he commented. A loud thud reached the four teens ears as a voice rumbled, "Beacon only uses the best equipment. Now can you tell me what I can help you with?" The team turned to face the voice only to see a veritable giant standing before them. The man stood tall at 7 feet with a muscular build. A shock of shaggy black hair was tied into a short ponytail with a single lock hanging freely over his left eye. His orange shined like a roaring flame, standing out even more in the forge. The most physical feature was that most of his limbs were replaced by combat prosthetics that were clearly high grade with several self modifications. The metal was dark gunmetal grey with orange trim with the fingers ending in claw-like tips and the feet having two deadly toes.
Giving them a stare, the man asked, "So, what can I do for you?" Stepping forward, Arthur stared up at the man and said, "Uh, we need to use the forge to maintain our weapons. By the way who are you?" The man gave Arthur a blank stare for a moment before replying. "I'm Vulcan Yaeger, I run this here forge. I'm the teacher for Advanced Weapon Creation and Repair. Now, what can I do for you kids?" Arthur stepped forward and said, "We're team ALBO. We just came here to fix up our weapons." Vulcan hummed, trying to place the name. "ALBO, ALBO… Oh! You're the kids dorming at Camelot House. Well then, hand over your weapons. I don't have all day." Arthur and Belial looked at each other, "Uhh technically sir, only Lancelot here needs to fix his weapons, the rest of us just need to do some maintenance." Lancelot handed over Insurgent, causing Vulcan to wince. "I can fix it, but I need some time." Everyone nodded and scattered throughout the forge, recognizing the subtle dismissal for what it was. An hour passed by quickly. Everyone finished the work on their weapons when Belial stiffened slightly feeling another presence. Oberon looked worried, trying to catch Arthur's eye. Without making a big movement, Arthur shifted his eyes to see what was wrong. Belial was quietly moving his finger, pointing at Oberon, then Lancelot, himself, Arthur and the door before repeating. It was a signal that the four of them had practiced.
'Someone's coming. They've got magic as well.' Arthur realized what his team was trying to signal. With every second, the presence was coming closer. It was too late to do anything. The door opened and someone stuck their head in. It was Sir Burlywood, the Huntsman from the Forever Falls. Arthur gave a short sigh of relief, their secret would be safe with him. "Morning Vulcan, I'm here to pick up my weapons and my son's blade. "Morning, Ect- Sir Burlywood. Your weapons are on the table and Kay's sword is right here." Vulcan greeted, to which Ector smiled and told him, "Come on Vulcan, just because I've got the Sir title doesn't mean you can't call me Ector." Arthur was trying to follow the conversation and blurted out, "You two know each other?" Vulcan smiled and nodded.
"Back when me and my team were going through our final year of Atlas Academy, we would do some joint missions with Ector's a few times." Vulcan explained, gaining a nostalgic smile. Ector chuckled at this and added, "If I remember correctly, those missions usually ended with dealing with either angry Grimm or even angrier bandits." Vulcan laughed and replied back, "And how many times did you almost get us killed cause the wrong person saw you use magic?" ALBO's eyes widened at this as they tensed. Seeing this from the corner of his eye, Vulcan quickly said, "It's fine, I had a magic user on my team. I know all too well the need for secrecy." Ector nodded before looking at Team ALBO for a minute, "You got any plans today?" He directed the question to Arthur who looked like a deer in headlights for a minute before replying with a shake of his head. "I've booked one of the training grounds around Beacon for me and my son's team. I was hoping to run into you kids, wanna come along?" Arthur looked at the rest of his team, wondering why Ector wanted to see them. Each giving their leader a nod, Arthur turned back to Ector.
"We accepted, can we pack first?" Ector replied with a nod, then headed to the door. "Meet myself and my son's team at dock 6. We'll head off to the training ground from there." Seeing the knight leave, Vulcan spoke up. "Alright, head back and start packing. I'll take care of your weapons for your little trip. Knowing Ector, he's going to make sure that this trip will push you to your limit." With that, ALBO left the forge and headed back to Camelot house. Along the way, they ran into a lovable red hooded reaper. "Hey guys!" Ruby greeted, waving her arm. Arthur smiled seeing his fellow team leader. "Ruby!" Arthur yelled back. Belial smirk seeing his leader rush off to Ruby. "And he's off to see his girlfriend." The demon teased. Lancelot gave a snort, causing the demon to turn to him. Raising an eyebrow Belial asked, "What?" Giving him a teasing smile, Lancelot answered "Like you and the Ice Queen don't have all that tension every time you talk?" Belial turned his head away quickly, hiding the faint blush on his cheeks. "You're reading way too much into mutual annoyance." Turning back to the two dorks, Belial tuned into their conversation.
"So what are you guys up to?" Ruby asked the amber haired youth. Smiling, Arthur replied, "Well, Sir Ector asked us to join him and team BRGD on a training trip into a section of the Emerald Forest. We're just heading back to Camelot House to pack." Ruby gained a worried look. "Are you sure you guys will be okay? We don't exactly have a good track record with field trips." Shaking his head, Arthur answered, "We should be fine, BRGD is a third year team and Sir Ector is a veteran Huntsman. Besides, if anything goes bad, Sir Ector will probably have us retreat." Still not fully satisfied, Ruby gave him a shaky nod. "Okay, just stay safe, okay?" Smiling Arthur rushed back to his team. "We'll see you when we get back Ruby!" Arthur called to her as team ALBO headed off to Camelot House once again. Giving Arthur's retreating figure one last look, Ruby said quietly, "Come back safe, please."
Back at Camelot House, Team ALBO packed the supplies they needed. "Ok guys, do we have everything?" Arthur asked, a bag slung over his shoulder. Giving his team leader a thumbs up, Lancelot answered, "Yep, got some rations, medical supplies, and come extra clothes. Just as you suggested Boss Man." Nodding, Belial adjusted his hunter outfit and added, "We also got some extra ammo as well. Can't be too careful. We don't know what kind of Grimm we are gonna be facing." Floating down, spear hovering behind him, Oberon commented, "We should probably head back to the forge and pick up Insurgent." Arthur nodded at Oberon's comment. "Yeah, don't want to keep Sir Ector and Team BRGD waiting." Leaning to the side to let Cath leap to his shoulder, Arthur lead his team out the door and to their next adventure.
~Later at dock 6~
Arriving at the dock, Team ALBO saw Sir Ector as well as Kay and Bedivere. Also with them were the two other members of Team BRGD. The first was a young man a couple years older than Team ALBO but slightly shorter than Arthur and Belial. He had vibrant green almost emerald eyes and platinum blonde hair that would reach his shoulders if it wasn't tied back. He wore a hooded reddish brown robe over a padded grey shirt with light silver armor over the chest. Under the robes sleeves he had black gloves and silver arm guards. He also wore a pair of brown pants with a black belt. On his hips he has silver armor and has silver shin guards and black boots. On his robe were celtic symbols along the arms and the shoulders. Swung over his shoulder was a long staff about 6 feet in length. A long brown spiral ran over the red metal down the polearm until it tapered off near the ends. The ends themselves were silver. Not only that, they were also heavily reinforced with a few blunt studs dotted on all sides. Several small containers were also attached to the end each holding a different Dust powder.
Leaning over to Kay, the young man asked, "These are the guys your Pops got to come along? They look like they could barely tell a Beowolf from an Ursa." Rubbing his nose, Kay replied, "Dinadan… You know as well as I do that I think taking these first years is a bad idea, but this is my father so they can't be… that bad." Dinadan gave him a blank stare and added, "You just threw up a little in your mouth didn't you?" The deafening silence said it all.
"Come on, they can't be that bad if Sir Ector asked them to come." another young man commented. Patting the young man's back, Dinadan smiled and said, "Percy, buddy. When was the last time you ever heard Kay actually give out praise willingly? The fact he hasn't asked them to jump off a cliff yet means he's actually holding himself back." The young man just gave Dinadan a blank stare.
The young man stood a few inches shorter than Kay. His grey eyes gave off a mirthful air while his black hair was cut short on the sides with it being slightly longer on the top of his head. He wore a grey chest plate and grey pauldrons with light blue trim over a dark blue long sleeve shirt. His lower arms are covered by grey gauntlets with blue gems on the back of the hands. He also wore a pair of blue jeans with grey waist armor over it as well as thick grey shin armor and grey boots with light blue trim. Keeping his pants up was a belt with several attached pockets. Over his left arm is a small light blue shoulder cape with a dark blue symbol of what appears to be a chalice or grail. On his back he carried a large bow made of blue and white metal trimmed in silver. The bow itself seemed to be made of several segmented pieces from two different weapons. On one end was a sharp spear tip that resembled a partizan or a small trident with a white blade. The other end was a long crescent shaped blade colored blue with a dark edge. Black lines intersected across the bow's arms, separated the blue and grey metal pieces. Slung behind his waist was a large quiver with arrows. A second smaller quiver was attached to the belt. This one was unique as it was made entirely of metal that was completely closed. Bedivere gave the youth a sideways glance and replied, "You can be too optimistic at times Percival.
Dinadan gave a small chuckle, "You're gonna get yourself into trouble because of that one of these days Percy~!" Percival casted his head down at the sound of the nickname Dinadan gave him. "Please don't say that in front of the newbies Dinadan…" Team ALBO could only stare at them, surprise at their personalities. "And I thought we were a bunch of weirdos…" Lancelot mumbled quietly. "So nice to meet you guys, we're Team ALBO" Arthur said, trying to be friendly. Kay, giving him a cold stare, answered in kind, "Save us the trouble and go jump off a cliff." Dinadan's face became a blank stare as Percival gave him a look. "Well there that is…" Percival quickly added, "Dinadan, why did you have to open your mouth?" Belial's eyes darkened as his demon mark appeared on his head. "What did you say to my team leader asshole!" he yelled, drawing his weapons. Kay glared at Belial, hand reaching to his sword. "Weaklings don't get to talk." Kay hissed out. The tense air was ended when Ector whacked Kay on the back of the head. "What did I say about running your mouth, boy?!" Ector chided his son. Rubbing the back of his head, Kay looked down, chastised by his father's actions. Turning back to Team ALBO Ector apologized, "I am deeply sorry for my son's poor impulse control. It seems he still hasn't learned to give others the needed respect." Kay simply huffed, while Percival sighed. "Why does this happen every time we work with another team?" he asked himself.
Dinadan gave a sideways glance and said, "Hey, give Kay some credit, he doesn't treat Team CFVY like trash." Percival could only give a blank stare. "One team. Compared to all the teams we've worked with in the past? You know that does not excuse almost every time he has done this…" Dinadan just shrugged with a bashful smile. Ector, rubbing the bridge of his nose, just said, "The point of this trip is to help hone your skills. The reason I brought Team ALBO along is to give them experience as well as get my son to be more social." Dinadan gave a small snort and said, "Yeah, and the Demon King was giving out candy." This caused Percival to laugh and caused Bedivere to give a small smirk. Staring at them blankly, Oberon commented, "Wow, way to give it away…" Arthur giving everyone a quick once over, added, "Okay, if we're all on the same page, do you think it's time to head off?" Nodding, Ector walked to the Bullhead, giving the silent command for the others to follow him. With firm expressions, the two teams walked to the Bullhead as well, unsure of what was to come.
~Emerald Forest~
In the lush forest, a shaking bush could be seen, and soon the shaking passed on to other foliage. After a few moments, the perpetrator revealed itself to be a deer, looking for food. Walking forward, it approached a nearby berry bush, ready to satiate its hunger. Its ears suddenly perked up, sensing a foreboding presence nearby. Turning around it stumbled back in fear. Before it was the figure of a Beowolf, arms raised in an aggressive display. But it did not move, nor did it make a sound. Approaching cautiously, the deer discovered that the Grimm was but a statue of stone. One that was all too lifelike. A sudden hiss reached its ears as it barely let out a panicked bleat of fear as something collided with it. Soon a strange sound like rocks sliding over one another filled this small section of the forest. When it faded, a new statue graced the forest floor. One of a dear taken by surprise. Once more, the forest became deadly quiet as whatever had done this, slinked away, out of sight and ready for its next victim.
AssassinK: You motherfu-, I see what you did!
RedDragon: Had to introduce them eventually.
AssassinK: This is why you can never be a DM in D&D!
Sage Wolf: Well, this can only end badly.
RedDragon: Well, see you all in the next chapter where our heroes have to deal with THAT!
AssassinK: I really hate you sometimes…
RedDragon: I know.