Volume II: Episode 13: First Impressions
Another day was about the Beacon campus, and Team RRFL was committing to once again making the rounds. In the last few months, they had settled into a routine of sitting with Team CFVY, but sometimes, it was good to break things up and pick the brains of the other students. If nothing else, it was a pleasant day to sit under the tent that served as shelter for the outdoor picnic tables.
"You know, sitting under here, you almost forget your worries, or the fact that we're on a world where every moment alive is a precious gift that could be taken away at any moment," mused Thunder as he looked out upon the city. "Bunch of ungrateful jerks."
"Reg," chided Black Out.
"Well, it's true!" complained the red-eyed hammer wielder. "All I'm saying is that I can see where the village people are coming from."
"Poverty?" offered Lightning with a fork full of spaghetti.
Vanguard perked up at that. "You're off the speech-writing team for the Vytal Festival."
"Oh, come on!" complained the blue-eyed hammer wielder. "Just what am I supposed to do then?"
"How about you just leave," ordered a voice that tickled at the backs of all their memories.
"Oh, come on, part two," said Lightning as he put down his fork and looked at the approaching forms of Team BCHT.
The two teams had mostly stayed away from each other ever since the exercise at the beginning of the semester. Lightning was beginning to hope that they had finally buried the hatchet, but from the uniformly displeased expressions of the four approaching Havenites, that was clearly not the case.
Surprisingly, it was the leader of the group - one Joseph R. Balkun, if Lightning remembered right - that spoke first. "You're sitting at our table."
Lightning noted the lunch boxes they were all carrying, either in their hands or slung over their shoulders.
Vanguard was much more logical with his reply: "I'm pretty sure this table belongs to Beacon."
"Maybe," replied Joseph. "We, however, have sat at this same table every day since we first arrived in Vale. It's our spot. Our names are even carved into the wood."
Lightning ducked his head under the table and spotted the stated names very elegantly carved into the legs before letting out a resounding. "Huh. I guess so. Does that mean you guys are confessing to vandalism? It actually kind of looks like Daiku's handiwork."
"This was no feeble Atlesian mockery, but genuine Mistralian artistry," declared… Curtis? His name was Curtis, right?
"And I'm sure you sleep with your little wood figures every night while we sleep with proper guns and bombs," countered Thunder.
"You sleep with bombs?" mockingly asked the inferior Stahl who did not have a callsign.
"Of course they do," came an older voice. "Haven't you seen them in combat? They look like they came fresh off the war factory floor."
Oh no, that voice! Why did it have to be them? Of all the teams in all the four academies, why did it have to be them?
Sauntering over to them were the four worst people to ever meet in a dark alley, Atlas's lost children, the Harbingers of Haven: Team DSST.
Jockeying for the lead was the alleged leader, the most vile of the bunch: a blond-haired faunus with a horse tail coming out of her back and competitive brilliant strong orange yellow eyes who went by the name Lightning Dust. Lightning Dust! Could her parents have been any more on the nose and generic about what she was going to use in her career? Ferris had, of course, politely suggested a few callsigns for her, an offer rarely extended to people not affiliated with Atlas Academy. Unless you were Team APRC, anyway. His callsign had a theme with his brother's, after all, so it wasn't like he could change it. In the end, she'd snubbed the idea. What nerve!
Of course, also jockeying for the lead was the girl who walked like a princess because apparently that's what it meant when your hair looked like bacon. The irrepressible Sunset Shimmer, the one constantly vying for command of Team DSST, who clearly had enough chips on her shoulders to start up a casino. Then again, despite being a smug little haridelle, she didn't have much to stand on this semester. After all, she had been the one mentoring the traitor Cinder Fall without noticing that she was a filthy criminal in disguise, which was hilarious! Absolutely rip-roaringly… was that a blood stripe on her arm band?
Close behind was, of course, Trixie Lulumoon. Oh, sorry, The Great and Powerful Trixie! Because of course she had to do things like talk in the third person and act like a massive braggart completely in excess of her actual abilities. If she ever amounted to anything, then Lightning would be shocked, absolutely shocked.
Taking up the rear was, of course, Sunburst Flare. He didn't know what the scholar had done to earn his ire, but his silence was enough! Either that or by going to Haven, he had inadvertently abandoned someone he cared about which would have cataclysmic effects on everyone's lives… eh, but it was just a feeling. His standing there was reason enough to dislike him.
"What do you want, Team Dust?" asked Vanguard in his most even tone.
"Isn't it obvious?" asked the alleged leader.
"You're sitting in a spot that rightfully belongs to a Haven team, and we want you to give it up," declared Sunset, as Team DSST seemed to form up in a united front with Team BCHT. "Now, you can either do this the easy way... or the hard way."
"How about they don't do it at all?" asked a familiar, prideful voice.
"Coffee!" greeted Lightning as he turned around to see the Valish team marching up towards them with grave expressions. "What brings you out here?"
"Ghosts," answered Coco simply.
"My ADA was acting up. I thought I heard someone nearby, and when I asked who it was, it said it was Blake Belladonna," explained Fox. "Probably just a glitch."
"Or it might not be," mused Rain. "If it's an ectoplasmic phenomenon, we should get ahead of it before it becomes too much of an issue."
"Excuse me, but are you listening to yourselves?" asked Sunset. "You're sitting here, on rightful Haven territory, talking about ghosts like they're a serious threat. Next you'll probably muse that Blake is actually alive instead of six feet under like we all know her to be. You're delusional. Give up the table, and we'll let you walk away from this without any of you sleeping with the fishes."
There was an audible gasp from one of the nearby tables, and some on Team CFVY couldn't hold back their reactions.
Yatsuhashi was shocked. "Did they just..."
"Use a racial slur?" asked Velvet rhetorically. "I think they did!"
Yatsuhashi blinked and glanced at her. "Uhh..."
Lightning valiantly held his tongue, though he really wanted to laugh.
"'Sleeping with the fishes,'" continued Velvet. "Why of all the low-down dirty things they could... just because we Valish have a vibrant fishing industry doesn't mean me and Coco want to lay with marine life."
Coco advanced on them. "Slur or not, you've got the same thing going for you. Mess with Team Coffee's friends, and you mess with us. And you don't want to mess with us."
The alleged leader of Team DSST stepped forward to meet her, and both they and Team BCHT formed up behind the faunus. "Bring it, you stuffed-up little hyrax."
Before the situation could escalate further though, a new voice, boisterous and full of life, joined the fray.
"Oh ho! Stay your hands, fellow students."
As one, the sixteen assembled Huntsmen and Huntresses in training turned to see a fifth team approaching. This one Lightning recognized as one from Shade: Team ZINC, led by Zachery Ochre, a faunus from Menagerie with a shortish shaved tail. Next to him were his teammates: Irving Keller in his cowboy hat, Nave Church and her mistaken belief that by claiming the moniker "Carolina" she could somehow crawl out from under the shadow of her bartender mother, and Candy Appel with her bright blonde hair.
"What do you want, Zach?" asked Joseph.
"To stop you all from making a terrible mistake," replied the big man. "After all, fighting outside the ring is illegal at Beacon. And to think, the Vytal Festival is so close too. Do you really want to just destroy your chances of victory when it is so close?"
"Are you volunteering to get beat into the ground?" offered the alleged leader of DSST.
"You mean beat you into the ground," corrected Ms. Church. "And I wish. Unfortunately, we're first-years. We'll never face all you second years in the ring."
"Unless we spar or enter the Mistral tournament circuit," pointed out Zachery.
"Perhaps, but not today," said Vanguard suddenly as he picked up his food and stepped away from the table.
Lightning and the rest followed him. Team CFVY stood aghast, but soon followed. The Haven teams were probably happy, but the members of RRFL never checked.
"What was that?!" demanded Coco when they were a fair distance away.
"Deescalation," Vanguard answered succinctly. "The situation was getting out of hand, and frankly, it was pointless. Emotions were getting heated. Discipline and self-control are paramount if you don't want to bring Grimm down on your heads. It's good practice."
"So's fighting spirit!" declared Coco hotly.
"A waste of energy when not properly directed," was Vanguard's calm rebuttal. "In the end, Team Beechnut and Team Dust aren't really worth the effort."
"With an attitude like that, they're going to keep thinking they can push you around," reasoned Coco. "You guys need to stand up for yourselves."
"What they think is worth even less than what they are," Lightning snorted. "One day, they might actually become worth the effort of putting them in their place, and... well, that'll be an interesting day."
"And what about until that day happens?" asked Velvet pointedly.
"Until then?" Lavi echoed. "Well, until then, for one thing, we aren't getting expelled for unauthorized combat."
"Yeah," chimed in Thunder. "it's just trash talk, and believe me, I know trash talk. In the end, it don't matter."
"Hear, hear," agreed Fox.
Vanguard pivoted and faced Coco directly. "We've talked about this before. You mean well, but… what's going to happen when you cross a bridge that you shouldn't? Some day, that ego of yours is going to write a check your body can't cash."
Coco cocked an eyebrow. "Then I'll walk back across it. Besides, as long as we stick together, there's nothing we can't handle."
"I hope you're right, Coco," spoke Yatsuhashi. "I've just got a bad feeling about today."
"Yeah," Lavi said. "I saw Ruby and Yang having a nasty argument on the roof over her breakup with Jaune."
"They didn't see you, did they?" Velvet asked, concerned.
"Oh, heck no," Lavi assured her, shaking his head. "Believe me, I pretty much flew outta there when I realized what was going on."
"One of their number gone, and two of the survivors arguing," Yatsuhashi observed. "Here's hoping they reconcile soon, before it costs more lives."
Teams CFVY and RRFL were currently seated across from each other on a Bullhead, en route to Lower Cairn. The village had sent a distress call saying they were under attack by Grimm and needed reinforcements, and the two teams had volunteered to take the mission. Normally, only one team would have been sent, but there had been something... odd about the distress call.
Coco wasn't particularly impressed with Team RRFL's choice in combat gear. It worked, sure, and they definitely scored points for practicality, but basic Atlesian combat armor with only a few minor tweaks was the opposite of style.
"Say, aren't you guys supposed to be in charge of setting up the Beacon Dance?".Reg had paused in his consumption of almonds to ask the question. "I mean, won't this mission interfere with that?"
"Don't worry. I made sure we got some first-years to back us up if we're late getting back," Velvet assured him.
"Not that we'll need them," interjected Coco. "Three days, in and out, and we'll be back with almost a week to get everything ready. Besides, most of it's already been set up."
"Yeah." Fox nodded. "Mostly, anyway. I've got some DJs lined up, but someone is insisting we get a live band."
"It's the Beacon Dance!" protested Velvet. "With all those guest students from all over! We should be doing the best to make it the best!"
"But where am I supposed to find a live band?" Fox complained. He turned his sightless gaze over to the Atlesian team opposite them. "Say, do you guys know anyone who can play? From Atlas, maybe?"
Fox was more vocal than usual, mainly for Team RRFL's benefit. He preferred to use his telepathy semblance to communicate with the rest of Team CFVY, and they had gotten used to relying on it on missions, but like Yatsuhashi's memory erasure, they generally tried to keep his semblance under wraps. With Team RRFL joining them on this mission, he'd offered to link them up, but Rain had vetoed the idea.
"What's the matter?" Coco teased. "Got something to hide?"
"Doesn't everyone?" Rain asked back, refusing to rise to the bait.
Team CFVY exchanged awkward looks at that.
"Seriously, what's the real reason?" Coco asked, breaking the silence.
"Telepathic communication is a useful tool," Rain acknowledged, "but the more you rely on it, the more likely it will become exposed. Moreover, if you depend on his semblance too much on missions, it makes him weak point for the whole team. And a target for anyone who figures out what you're doing."
"A few people," Rain replied. "First to come to mind would be using the available Rainbooms and Shadowbolts. Trouble is, while both groups like Magic, they really don't like each other, so if you chose one and not the other, that's liable to lead to problems. And bringing them both in means added tension there."
"Sounds exhausting," Coco noted. "Good luck, Fox."
Ferris shrugged, leaning back. "Well, hey, we could do it."
"Wait, you guys play music?" Velvet asked.
"Sort of?" Ferris raised a hand and waggled it back and forth. "We've never played with an audience before, but I think we're pretty good. Vanguard's lead guitar, Thunder does drums, I play bass, and Black Out's backup guitar."
The rabbit faunus's gaze shifted over to Lavi, who shrank back and shyly cocooned himself in his wings.
"Say," Coco said, "those nicknames-"
"They're callsigns," Rain corrected.
"Whatever," she said, waving it off. "I heard some first-years went on missions with an Atlesian team and got nick- sorry, callsigns like that too. Why don't we get callsigns?"
"Team Apricot is special," Rain informed her.
Coco tipped her head forward and looked at him over her sunglasses. "How'd you know I was talking about Team Apricot?"
"Like I said," Rain deadpanned, "they're special."
Coco pursed her lips at that for a moment, then shrugged. "Fair," she said, tilting her head to the side to acknowledge the point.
"Looks like we're hot-dropping!" the Bullhead pilot reported through the intercom between the cockpit to the passenger bay.
"What's the sitrep?" Rain asked, his voice calm and professional as he activated one of the microphones built into the cabin.
"Doing a flyby," he replied. "See for yourself."
Coco and Rain unstrapped themselves from their seats and took up positions by either side door, peering out the windows. Lower Cairn was in the forest, but the rocky terrain meant anything large on the ground would have to approach from the direction of the main gate. A large mix of Beowolves and Ursai were assaulting the village, and the Grimm had breached the outer perimeter trenchline, with craters showing where landmines had taken their toll on the Grimm. A pair of gigantic automated turrets flanking the main gate were firing on them, but those turrets were clearly designed for larger, slower targets; their slow rate of fire was proving inadequate against the swarms of smaller Grimm, but when they fired, they obliterated whole clusters of them with terrific energy blasts, digging even larger craters than the mines had. Much smaller, more conventional autoturrets were scattered around, of course, but most appeared to be nonfunctional, likely damaged in an earlier assault. At the wall that marked the final defensive perimeter, they could see people - militia or perhaps just able-bodied volunteers - lining up a mixed bag of personal weaponry.
The ground began to shake, and a rumbling filled the air.
"What is that?" Coco asked.
"Megoliath?" Rain speculated.
Lavi shook his head. "We're too far south for those."
"No," Coco said, her voice low. "Goliaths. Plural." She paused as a deep bass whine sounded, and she looked back up. As the herd of Goliaths charged toward the village, the two giant turrets moved to target the elephantine Grimm, muzzles and tracery along them glowing red, sections of the barrels shifting and rotating, locking into place, doubling their muzzle diameter and adding another yard to their barrel length.
K-CHOOOMM!
Gigantic red beams spewed forth from the giant turrets, nearly blinding Coco even through her shades, and stabbed out toward the Goliaths. Averting her gaze from the guns themselves, she watched their targets as the beams punched through and felled the Goliaths with shocking ease, then swept side to side to catch other Grimm within their lethal beams.
"Gods above," she murmured. She looked over at Rain. "You Atlas boys smuggling some new toys in or something?"
Rain shook his head. "Whatever that is, it isn't Atlesian," he said grimly, "and it looks like they're out of power."
Coco looked back at the turrets, and she could see what he meant. The turrets were dark, barrels drooping to the ground, steam rising from the muzzles, the residual heat of the beams turning the tips of the barrels from orange to red. If they weren't out of power, they were overheated. No more help from that quarter.
"We're going in," she declared. "Get us up near the second defensive line and drop us in."
Rain gave her a quick, hesitant glance, then nodded.
In moments, the eight student Huntsmen were letting gravity take hold as the Bullhead hovered, its chin-mounted chain-driven autocannon having unfolded from behind its armored panel to thin the swarm of Grimm approaching the DZ. The familiar staccato of the 1.2-inch high explosive dual purpose rounds firing was a comforting sound.
Rain wore Mouser in its split shot-claw form, landing with vicious slashes to rend a pack of Creeps that had slipped past the Bullhead's covering fire.
Reg, for his part, held his own weapon, Smith's Hammer, overhead, slamming it into the ground. Channeling his aura through his hammer, he activated his semblance, and the vibration from the impact rippled out, sending a pair of Beowolves flying back.
Ferris held his weapon, Western Hammer, in reverse, holding the head under his arm as he worked the lever action and fired shot after shot of lightning dust rounds into the Ursai near his landing point.
Lavi used his wings to steer himself to a mostly clear area, adding his downward momentum to Field as he stabbed the sword bayonet into the back of a Creep. He quickly swung Lea up to his shoulder, sighted a shot, and fired.
Coco kept Gianduja in handbag form and clubbed a Beowolf over the head as she landed, before swinging it around and smashing another in the face.
Much like Rain, Fox came down slashing with Sharp Retribution, the elbow blades moving with quick precision and lashing at the Ursai as he landed and began to dance around it.
Yatsuhashi landed with Fulcrum first, the greatsword striking with an earth-shattering impact, before he hefted the blade and swung it in a broad stroke, decapitating the stunned Beowolves.
Velvet... Velvet had a problem. She fiddled with Anesidora as she fell, but the distance was shorter than she was expecting, and the impact with the ground disrupted her concentration before she could find the right picture.
"Oh, no."
"Velvet, catch!" came Lavi's voice.
The rabbit faunus turned to see a blade spinning through the air past her.
"Thanks!"
Tapping into her semblance, she caught it easily with borrowed reflexes, then quickly whipped around to confront the Alpha Beowolf facing her.
She squared off in a stance that took elements from five different people but was in truth all her own. Since meeting Team RRFL - and to be honest, Lavi - she'd taken to trying to synthesize her own style, taking what worked from people she'd used her semblance to copy and ditching what didn't, then blending it all together to make it her own.
It was what had caused her hesitation on choosing a weapon to mimic.
But now? With a blade like this? The weight felt right, the balance was perfect, and a blade like this - so common among Huntsmen and similar to other weapons as well - was what she'd started her experimentation with. Velvet drew the sword bayonet back and charged. She launched herself into a slide to duck under its claw swipe and lashed at its legs as she passed between them. Rolling to her feet, she kicked off the chest of a Beowolf that had been lurking behind the Alpha and twisted in mid-air to latch onto the Alpha's back long enough to slit its throat. Landing on her feet as the Alpha dissipated, she spun to face its packmates.
Grinning ferally, she threw herself to the wolves.
She leaned to the left as the Beowolf to her right clawed at her. She brought the borrowed weapon up and lashed out, scoring a shallow gash along the overextended arm, but rather than finish it off immediately, she moved on, tossing the bayonet into a reverse grip in her left hand, with which she plunged it into the chest of the Beowolf on the left, ducking under its claw swipe.
The one directly in front dove at her, arms and claws outstretched, and she twirled the bayonet back into a standard grip, hopping back and bringing it up, allowing the Beowolf's own momentum to impale its skull on the blade through its chin. Velvet turned and gave a side kick to the right-hand Beowolf to give her some time to extract the weapon from the fading corpse of its comrade before she tossed the weapon back to her right hand and charged in again.
She let herself get lost in the fight. Her semblance flared when she needed it to pull off a particularly complicated maneuver, but for the most part... there was a certain joy and satisfaction to be found in using her own skills, instead of relying on borrowed ones. This was her accomplishment. No cheating, no shortcuts, just... her.
The Grimm were described as an endless horde, and as far as anyone knew, it was true. But even they had local limits, and after some time, it seemed they'd reached them. For now.
Velvet took a few deep breaths and dusted herself off. Walking up to Lavi, she flipped the bayonet over to hold it by the blade. "Here," she said, letting him reclaim the weapon. "Thanks for the loaner."
As the group turned to walk the final stretch into the village proper, Lavi fell in beside her on her right. "Where'd you learn to fight like that, Velv? That was amazing!"
Velvet blushed. "I-it's my semblance. I have photographic reflexes, and I've seen a lot of people who use weapons similar in size and shape to this, with all sorts of different fighting styles."
"That's really cool!" He frowned. "Still… you're a Huntress; why don't you have your own weapon?"
"But I do!" she protested, holding up her camera. "Anesidora uses hardlight dust to create temporary copies of weapons from photos I've taken."
Lavi's frown deepened. "Isn't hardlight dust, like, really expensive, though? What happens when you run out?"
From up ahead, Rain looked over his shoulder at them and nodded solemnly. "A serious tactical deficiency."
Velvet looked away bashfully, ears flopping down to hide her face. "It's... one reason I don't use it much."
Lavi stopped, grabbing her wrist with his left hand. Surprised, Velvet blinked as he brought her hand up. His right hand pressed the bayonet - now sheathed - into her hand and then gently closed her fingers around it. "Keep it, then," he insisted.
Velvet stared at the bayonet she now held, then looked up and blushed again, shocked. "Are- are you sure?"
Lavi shrugged. "Field here is just a bayonet. I can always make another, and I'd hate to see you get hurt because you didn't have a backup."
"Aww, how sweet," Coco interjected teasingly. It seemed the rest of the team had stopped to watch as well. "You know, we've talked about getting her a backup weapon before, but she's always turned it down."
"I tried a bunch of different weapons back at Pharos," Velvet mumbled, looking at the treasured gift as she tucked it into her belt. "Couldn't ever find one that really felt right. Ended up lugging around a couple dozen different weapons before I built Anesidora."
"But I'm guessing this one feels… juuust right?"
Velvet blushed for a third time. "Coco!"
"You know," Coco noted, grinning broadly, "some say a Huntsman's weapon is an extension of its wielder, that the weapon you use is a true expression of your soul. I wonder what it says-"
"Coco, enough," Yatsuhashi interrupted, the big guy for once being moved from his usual placid demeanor. He'd been getting over his fear of accidentally hurting people and was coming around to being more assertive... when the situation called for it.
Coco sighed dramatically. "Oh, fine. Ruin my fun." She jerked her head toward the village. "Let's go check in with the villagers."
"They're hiding something," Rain pronounced, standing by the gate to the village, past the stone warehouses that could also serve as a final defensive line behind the inner walls proper. Most of the two teams had gathered together there.
"Yeah," Coco agreed. "I got that much. First, they call for help, and when we get here, they just want us to leave? Something's fishy, all right. And tech like that didn't come from nowhere."
It wasn't that the people of Lower Cairn hadn't been polite or welcoming... but they had been very insistent that the Grimm situation was now under control and that their services were no longer needed and that if they could just run along now, that'd be great. Despite the herd of Goliaths that had just tried to stampede the village. In fact, they had taken the time to point out that, since the Goliaths had been so handily dealt with, then obviously, further Grimm attacks could also be dealt with. Inquiries as to where the gigantic turrets had come from or where they could get them, though, were stonewalled.
All in all, it was very suspicious.
"Could it be MARS field testing a prototype?" Yatsuhashi suggested.
"A bit far from home, don't you think?" Reg asked as he shelled another nut. No one else even recognized what kind of nut he was eating now. "Besides, if it were, the place should be flooded with MARS-brand weapons, not those old peashooters these guys are packing."
"Someone else trying to break into the market, perhaps?" Fox speculated, continuing to pursue that line of thought.
"Same problem," Reg pointed out. "Some of these guns the locals are using date back to the Great War."
"Maybe a government project?" Lavi asked hesitantly.
"No," Velvet denied, shaking her head. "Vale's not like Atlas. We don't have a big budget for military research. Besides, if it were the Valish government, why would they send us instead of someone who's been briefed on it?"
Rain let out a hiss of frustration. "All this speculation is getting us nowhere. We'll be here a couple of nights anyway. Mingle. Maybe someone will let something slip." He looked around. "Where's Ferris?"
"I think I saw him talking to some of the kids a block back that way," Velvet offered, pointing down one street.
The two teams set out to find their missing member, and as they rounded the corner, they found him squatting down in front of a little girl who had a doll clutched to her chest.
"Your name's Phoebe, huh?" said Ferris. The girl nodded. "I know a girl named Phoebe, but she's not as nice as you. I don't know how my friend Lavi can stand her."
Velvet glanced over at Lavi. "You know a girl named Phoebe?" She wasn't jealous. Of course not.
"Phoebe Kommenos is a third-year at Atlas," Lavi said, his voice stony. "Remember that whole mess with that treacherous Haven team?"
"Yeah?"
"Turns out, one of them was Phoebe's long-thought-dead stepsister, so to keep her safe, they shipped her team back to Atlas on the first airship they could find," he explained. "She's... not a nice person. Very... sure of herself and doesn't think much of... people like me."
Velvet went very still at that. "People who didn't go to combat school?" she asked in what she knew was a vain hope.
"Faunus," he said simply, his wings twitching involuntarily. "Commoners. The poor. And yeah, people who didn't go to combat school."
Without looking, Velvet reached over and took his hand comfortingly. She knew what that was like. Cardin Winchester had been a particularly nasty piece of work, and he'd been a year below her, and she hadn't been able to bring herself to stand up to him. Sweet Lavi against an upperclasswoman?
Oh, yes, she understood the hell that must have been.
She turned her attention back to Ferris.
"Hey, it's natural to be a little scared," the blue-eyed twin assured the girl. "The Grimm are out there, and they're pretty scary, but we're here - two whole teams of Huntsmen! - and you've got those big guns out there to keep you safe."
The girl shrank back, then looked back and forth.
"You don't like the guns, do you?" Ferris prodded gently. "I know they're big and noisy, but... no? That's not why?"
She shook her head and gestured for him to come closer. He did, and she leaned in to whisper in his ear. After she pulled back, he looked her in the eyes and said, "Thanks, Phoebe. I mean it. But I've got to go now. Can you be brave for me and your parents?"
Phoebe nodded hesitantly, then more firmly.
"Okay, then." Ferris got up and moved to rejoin the two teams.
"Never figured you'd be good with kids," Lavi commented.
Ferris shrugged. "You just gotta know how to talk to them." He glanced back at the girl as she rejoined her family. "They're so vulnerable, y'know? Helpless."
"That's why we're here," Coco reminded him. "So, whatcha got?"
"She said the big guns were set up by..." he paused, "...by a scary giant robot with horns."
"A giant robot?" echoed Rain. "That suggests Atlesian hardware." He frowned. "MECH has been noted to be active in the area... Team Ruffle, I think we need to do some recon, see if we can find this giant robot. Coco, can your team cover things here?"
Coco nodded. "Count on it. We'll hold the fort."
Several minutes later, Team RRFL was stepping past the outer perimeter, and once they were well out of earshot, Reg broke the silence.
"So. Giant robots, Lightning? Did she, by chance, say it was a giant talking robot, brother mine?"
Ferris nodded grimly.
Lavi felt a chill run down his spine as he connected the dots.
"Which doesn't make sense," Rain said darkly. "They aren't supposed to be here."
When night fell with no sign of Team RRFL, Coco was... well, she was concerned, and so was the rest of Team CFVY. It had been Fox who had suggested they offer to stand watch by the main gate so they could wait for their friends' return, an offer the village had (reluctantly?) accepted. They had agreed on paired shifts, with Coco and Fox taking first watch and Velvet and Yatsuhashi taking second watch.
"Heads up," Coco called. "There's a car incoming. Its headlights are off."
The night vision goggles she was wearing clashed horribly with her outfit, but it was an unfortunate necessity. Fox was blind, after all, and Coco and Yatsuhashi lacked the superior night vision that faunus like Velvet had.
"This late?" Fox questioned. "It's almost midnight."
"Yeah," Coco agreed. This was way too suspicious. "Wake the others."
The car slowed as it approached the motorized gate, which began to swing open of its own accord. Whoever was in the car obviously had the access code. Minutes later, the gate was closing behind the car as it drove slowly into the village where Team CFVY waited, flanking it on either side so they could follow it whichever way it went.
None of them expected it to transform.
As the car shifted and twisted unnaturally, it drew itself erect, towering over them like a- like a giant demon, eyes glowing faintly, demonic horns silhouetted against the night sky.
Coco reacted without thinking, sliding Gianduja off her shoulder and transforming it into its rotary machine gun form, swinging its six barrels in line with the robot's head.
Blue eyes blazed as it turned to look at her.
"An ambush!" it shouted, swinging an arm up, and like the metallic monstrosity it was attached to, it began to transform further, partially disassembling and reassembling itself into a gigantic cannon.
There was a bright flash and a click from the other side of the street, and the robot turned its head and weapon to where Velvet stood. Holding her ground, the faunus girl snapped another picture.
"Who are you working for?" it demanded. "The SDC?"
"We're Huntsmen working for Vale," Coco retorted, revving Gianduja's barrels and drawing the robot's attention. "Now, who - and what - are you?" she demanded.
The robot took a giant step back, narrowing its necessary field of fire, and replied, "The name's Cliffjumper, and I'm an Autobot. This how Vale greets its guests?"
"I don't remember inviting you to our kingdom," Coco shot back. Her eyes flicked down to where she saw Fox and Yatsuhashi stepping out to flank the robot from behind.
"Wait! Stop! Everyone, put your weapons away!" interjected another voice.
Coco - and Cliffjumper - glanced over toward the voice. It was Mayor Rockland, rushing into the middle of this- argh!
He held a warding hand out to Cliffjumper, then looked at Coco. "It's okay. He's a friend. He's the one who built those turrets you were asking about. Just... showed up and killed a Goliath that was going to trample the village to dust." He turned and looked up at Cliffjumper. "Before you arrived, we called for help. They're the help."
"Mmm..." Cliffjumper seemed unconvinced for a moment, then nodded, shifting the gigantic cannon back into an arm.
Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Coco lowered Gianduja.
"Fine," she said. She glanced at Cliffjumper. "Still got questions for you, big guy."
Like why you think we'd be working for the SDC.
Cliffjumper snorted. "Too bad, kid. You ain't getting any answers."
It was then that the gates began opening again, and Cliffjumper spun, its arm turning back into a gun as it swung it around to point it at the gate. Coco squinted. That was Team RRFL!
"No, stop!" Velvet shouted, leaping at Cliffjumper and tackling its arm, spoiling its shot.
"What th-?" Cliffjumper sputtered, then shook its arm hard, sending Velvet flying down the street. It looked back at Team RRFL. "Shoulda known. Huntsmen are just like the White Fang. A half-measure at best." It raised its cannon arm again...
...and Coco fired, unleashing a spray of Hyped-up dust rounds from Gianduja, battering the "Autobot" aside and sending it crashing into the building opposite.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Team RRFL exchanging looks before also opening fire on Cliffjumper, but the robot weathered the assault and dashed for the gate, transforming back into a car and rapidly outpacing the pursuing Team CFVY. Mounted on its roof was the cannon, which opened fire on Team RRFL, who scattered to avoid the energy blasts. "Eat ion displacer!"
"'Half-measure'?" Velvet shrieked as she ran after it. "You're trying to kill our friends!"
Cliffjumper swerved to a halt at the gate and transformed back into its robot mode. "Your friends?" It shook its head. "Doesn't matter. You just made an enemy of the Autobots." It glanced at the giant turrets flanking the main gate, then looked back at them. "And I can't have our enemies reverse-engineering these babies."
It swung its cannon arm around and fired at the base of one of the turrets, and to Coco's horror, she saw it as it slowly began to tip over toward the other. Cliffjumper transformed again, driving out past the damaged turret as it finally collapsed, crashing into its opposite counterpart, leaving only rubble and wreckage in their place, blocking the road out of the village.
Mayor Rockland stared in shock at the collapsed turrets.
"What- what have you done?"
"I... it attacked our friends," Coco defended. "We will, of course, help clear the road."
"I think you've helped enough."
"That... could have gone better," lamented Lavi as the Bullhead carried the two teams through the morning sky.
"No regrets," Velvet countered, reaching over to take his hand in hers. "You saw what that cannon could do. If it had shot you..."
"Thanks, Velv, but..." He paused. "The people of Lower Cairn are not happy. Which means the Vale Council won't be happy. Which means the headmasters won't be happy. Which means we won't be happy."
"What were they thinking, anyway?" Coco shook her head. "Working with some... giant robot they don't know anything about? That's... kind of insane."
"I cannot speculate," Rain said with a shrug. "His hostility toward us seems to run counter to his apparent willingness to help the village."
"When we first confronted it, it asked if we worked for the SDC," Fox informed them. "And it called the White Fang a half-measure."
"Yes... not exactly the sign of a well-balanced mind," Rain concluded. "If a machine can be said to have a mind."
"Any idea what that... 'Autobot' has against you, Rain?" Coco asked.
"Well, you did shoot him first," he pointed out, and Coco seemed to bristle at the reminder. "Aside from that, there's a lot of bad blood against Atlas. Considering our combat outfits are recognizably Atlesian, his assumption you worked for the SDC, and his estimation of the White Fang as a half-measure... well, it seems he has something against Atlas and the SDC."
Reg snorted. "Maybe it's the horns? Maybe he thinks he's a faunus?"
Somehow, that wasn't very convincing. And it didn't change what was likely waiting for them back at Beacon. Though if they got their stories straight before they landed…
"And so, that's the story," summed up Rain as Teams CFVY and RRFL stood before Ozpin's desk while General Ironwood stood impassively nearby.
The desk was temporary, of course, because it was just a generic desk from an office supply store, as was everything else in the room overlooking the city of Vale. The headmaster's old office was still undergoing repair, and while they had been assured that it would be finished in time for the Vytal Festival, it still stood as a stark reminder of the treachery unleashed just a few short months ago. The traitor Cinder Fall had done a number on them, and everyone was eager to go out and get a win, especially the Havenites.
Coco really wished she had better news to bring back to the headmaster, but she didn't. These… "Autobots" had some unknown grudge against Atlas and incredibly powerful weaponry, coupled with a mentality that considered the White Fang a half measure? It was terrifying.
"Is this true?" asked Headmaster Ozpin, his gaze locked onto Coco's face.
The leader of Team CFVY nodded. "That's correct. I can't think of a single thing left out. Velvet?"
The rabbit faunus shook her head. "No, that's everything. It just… started blasting."
The headmaster nodded with an expression that seemed as practiced as time itself. "Very well. Now, I understand your teams…"
"Don't worry. We won't speak a word of this to anyone," offered Coco out of the blue.
Ironwood turned his steely gaze on her. "You won't?" he asked, his voice skeptical.
"Of course not," she assured him. "Giant talking robots? I don't know what project made it, but it's been kept pretty hush-hush, and it's pretty clear it's gone psycho. That's a minefield I don't think any of us want to step in, so we're just going to keep our mouths shut. Right, guys?" She looked over at the other seven students.
The rest of Teams RRFL and CFVY quickly nodded along.
"Hmm. I don't blame you," Ironwood accepted. "Whatever this is, it's something we'll need to keep close to the chest in order to avoid sparking off an international incident. If you remember anything else you forgot today, let us know, but for now, I think you can consider yourself dismissed."
The group of eight was quiet until they got into the elevator and started down the long descent towards the bottom.
"Good. I think they bought it," said Coco as she smiled nervously.
"I hope so," Velvet murmured. "But if the people of Lower Cairn say something different..." she trailed off.
"I doubt they will," Lavi reassured her. "They were pretty cagey about working with him in the first place. I can't see them changing it up now, and we gave the headmasters all the details." Even if one or two of the details had been a little... massaged. "Besides, from what you said he said, you probably only beat him to the punch by a few seconds."
"Maybe we should start a PR campaign to head it off," joked Coco.
"Excuse me, are you saying that you are going to tell every single soul about this?" asked Rain rather pointedly, as if in exasperation.
"Pfft. No," dismissed Coco. "I wasn't lying. We're not telling a soul about this, not even Ozpin."
They all looked around in confusion.
"Coco, we already told them everything," pointed out Fox. "Well, mostly."
"But we didn't tell them that we're going to be conducting our own investigation," replied Coco confidently. "Come on. Isn't it obvious? There's something big going down with these psycho robots, and odds are, people are gonna get hurt. Are we really just going to stand by and let it happen when we can do something about it?"
Fox's blind eyes narrowed. "That's not actually a question, is it?"
"Wait, are you serious?!" demanded Reg. "You're planning to go and take on a bunch of giant robots by yourselves, without telling the headmasters?!"
"You catch on quick," confirmed Coco, and again, her mouth twisted into that grin of hers that unnerved them so. "You're not going to narc on us, are you?"
Rain looked at his team before replying, "No, but-"
"Good!" interrupted Coco, not caring to hear the rest of Team RRFL's reply. "We'll meet up later tonight then. Glad to have you guys in on this."
She either missed the looks the other occupants of the elevator shot her way, or didn't care. To Rain's frustration, he realized that it was probably both. When they finally exited the elevator, he took leave of the others to avoid any… mishaps involving any sudden traumatic events.
By the time Ozpin returned to his room, he could barely contain the shakes. He had to steady the hand holding his door key in order to get it into the archaic lock he had insisted on so long ago. He opened it, dashed in, and closed it with startling rapidity.
He locked the door again and threw his keys into a corner, uncaring of where they landed. He managed to get a few steps into the room before his knees gave out. He just barely managed to stop his descent with his arms.
His glasses dropped off his face, and Ozpin screamed.
It was the wail of a man whose greatest failure, long suspected, was now confirmed. He screamed, and he screamed, and he screamed. He yelled until his voice gave out, and then he began to sob.
"He's dead. He's dead. He's dead. He's dead." The mantra continued.
Great rivers of tears flowed from his eyes, and he barely managed to knock his glasses away before falling down into a fetal position. The room, thankfully soundproofed, was filled with his sobbing and the chattering of teeth, the cries of a broken man losing many of the last remaining scraps of his hope, and being too distraught to see if he had any left at all.
"My fault. My fault. My fault. My fault," became the new watch words.
The carpet became soaked over the course of the rest of the night as tears and mucus flowed into it from above. Ozpin didn't sleep that night. He just continued to weep and wail in utter despair. It didn't stop until the alarm for work had sounded.
Hearing that alarm, and knowing he had to be seen in his office soon, Ozpin pushed himself up. It took a great deal of effort, his arms shaking the whole way, but he managed to do it. He also managed to clean himself up enough to be presentable.
No one, not even his closest confidants, would ever know what happened that night. He wouldn't let it show. It was a game that Ozpin had become very used to playing.
It was a mask that had hardened over a very long time.
Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):
elvet and Lavi are just so adorable, aren't they? Writing those two be awkward around each other was one of the few bright spots in writing this chapter for me.
Anyone notice the theme we went with for Team RRFL's weapons?
Anyway, we're finally bringing this particular plot thread in toward the whole Autobot/Decepticon War, along with making the first really explicit reference to ScipioSmith's SAPR in the form of Phoebe Kommenos.
For the record, the Phoebe who appeared in this chapter is Phoebe Gray and would have been one of the last survivors of Lower Cairn in canon before Team CFVY bungled things and got her and the rest of the Gray family killed. She received absolutely no description or characterization at all in her brief appearance in After the Fall before a Goliath dropped part of a mountain on her and her family.
Speaking of Team CFVY... *headdesk*
Nope, nope, nope. Cutting that rant off at the knees. Suffice to say that we were not impressed with their performance in iAfter the Fall/i, and V6/V7/V8 clearly indicates that Team RWBY is, in fact, following in their footsteps.
I'm just glad we've derailed all of that.
Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):
He's not lying, you know, we really have derailed everything in canon by this point. Though I feel in Team CFVY's case we need to dip into that even more in order to justify why they aren't the planet's biggest blithering incompetents. It's just… blimey, they're as dumb as posts. I mean, they are really really bad. They're so terrible that they can't even be competent in their one specialized field that they're supposed to be good at.
It's kind of funny. Learning more about Neptune made us really like the character, turning him into a sort of All-Might by way of Ciaphas Cain; which, of course, had the knock-on effect of making him really fun to write. Conversely, the more we learn about CFVY the less appealing they become, and the less fun they are to write for me. Luckily, Cyc's always a wellspring of ideas for them, and always takes point on chapters like these.
Also, shout out to LordsFire , who offered up one of his OCs for us to use, and created another out of whole cloth at the drop of a hat.