Chapter 3: Welcome to Beacon
AN: I hope you haven't forgotten about Bob. He hasn't forgotten about you. Kassidy meets five of the seven characters she'll quickly be surrounded by. For those of you who don't like dialogue and exposition, the next chapter should strike your fancy. As always, don't hesitate to let me know how to improve.
(Perspective: K)
"And this will be your room for the night." Opening the door, the woman who made herself known as Glynda Goodwitch introduced Kassidy to her quarters. A bed and nightstand at one end, a table and chair at the other, and a half bathroom off to the side. "I apologize for how sparse it is, but this was the best we could do on such short notice."
"It's better from what I'm used to."
"Is there a power outlet at least? I could use some charge." Kassidy looked at her computer. The disadvantage to being the most powerful tablet ever built. Bob sucks through electricity like nothing else.
"Of course. Unless there's anything else you need from me Kassidy, I'll leave you to your rest. I regret that neither I nor Ozpin will be able to meet with you in the morning. I have an airship ticket for you… here." Glynda handed over a slip of paper. "It leaves from the downtown air stop at 10:30. Don't be late."
"Thank you, Ms. Goodwitch. Have a good evening." After the door closed, Kass regarded her AI. "Now that we're to ourselves, we can move on to more important business."
"Like admitting that she is indeed a witch?" Bob has been going on about that particular conspiracy theory all evening. At least he was tactful enough to talk about it in my ear so she couldn't listen. "The cape, the wand, the magic, everything about her screams witch!"
"Firstly, she's most definitely not a witch. She doesn't have the pointy hat or flying broom." Kassidy smirked. "Well, at least not that I've seen."
"Exactly."
"And the important business is work."
"Wait, aren't we supposed to be resting? I still need to charge, you know. And you need to recover from your surgery."
"Quit whining, I'll get you charged up. And I've got too much energy right now, I couldn't rest if I wanted to. Stupid hormones." Grabbing her bag after having stretched a bit, Kassidy reached for the door. "We're on our own until 10:30, right? That's 11 hours we have to be productive. If I can find scrap of some kind and maybe a workshop, I think I can get some actual progress made. I've got some new ideas."
"Of course you do. At least the latest one didn't blow up on us."
Now I'm really wishing I had gotten some rest. Standing in a giant flying box, morning had come around quickly. Looking around from the corner of the compartment, Kassidy noticed that almost without exception, the passengers were all around her age. Must be kids going to Beacon also. She fiddled with the newest addition to her gear: a metal bracer strapped to her left forearm, with one of her rifle clips sticking out the top.
"Is that Ruby over there across the way?" The sudden squawking in her ear brought her back to reality. Sure enough, the little girl was on the other side of the ship, standing with some blonde with the biggest hair of head Kassidy had ever seen. And the shortest shorts.
"Sure is." Kass was debating whether or not to go over and talk when her stomach rebelled. I hate flying. "Ugh… can you bring up something to keep me distracted from my gut?"
"Are you okay? You don't look okay." The perky voice came as a complete shock, and Kassidy whipped her head up, instinctually reaching for the pistol on her belt before she got control over herself. It's a new life, and I promised to not be a scumbag. Shooting someone just for wondering how I was doing is the kind of paranoia I'm trying to get rid of. The red headed girl in front of her had a white sleeveless shirt with a heart shaped hole under the neck, what looked like some metal corset, and a pink skirt and fingerless gloves.
"If I was meant to fly, I'd grow wings."
"Ooh! That'd be so cool! Just imagine if I had a pair of wings! Wait, then I'd need a new outfit and I like my outfit. But still, wings!"
Kassidy groaned internally at the pink ball of energy in front of her. At least she's distracting me from my gut. "I'm sorry, I don't think I picked up a name. I'm Kassidy."
"Where are my manners?" the red head practically shouted. "I'm Nora Valkyrie, and this guy with me is Lie…" Nora motioned to her side at a guy that was conspicuously absent. "Wait, where did Ren go? Oh Ren!"
"Nora, where did you run off to this time?" A voice called from about ten feet away. After dragging the poor man over here, Nora continued as if nothing had happened. "This guy with me is Lie Ren. We're together. Well, not together-together, that'd just be weird."
"Nora, I think she gets the idea. But please, call me Ren." A green shirt, white pants, and a streak of pink in his hair, Ren had just brushed himself off after being tugged around by his friend.
"Nice to – urf – meet you." Kassidy's stomach was making very clear how displeased it was with current matters. "Uh, Bob, why don't you take over while I focus on not making a mess?"
"Well, since you asked so nicely." After being dug out of her pack, the black box immediately held both their attentions. "Greetings, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. I am Bob, an artificial intelligence program. Well, that's a bit of a– "
Bob didn't even get to finish his introduction before Nora had started ogling over the black box. "Wow, your scroll talks! I mean, sure, it's kind of big and black and ugly, but still! Isn't it awesome, Ren?"
"Hold on a second, ugly?" Oh boy, here we go again. "I'll have you know that I'm the pinnacle of computer engineering and programming. A more perfect marriage of software and hardware has never existed before, and probably never will exist. Honestly, I think I would be insulted if I had the slightest clue of what this scroll device was." Holy shit. I think he might have gone a little overboard there. Actually, I don't remember coding that part in…
"Forgive her, my friend is a bit impulsive. Although, to be fair, your design does appear to be lacking finesse. I haven't seen a scroll of your type before." The picture of calm and collected, Ren kept his travel mate from saying anything more and seemed to be the only force capable of holding her in check.
"We're not from around here." Kassidy had to blurt it out to get a word in edgewise before Bob went off again. "So I'm afraid we're a bit lost when you keep calling my computer a scroll." Out of the corner of her eye, she watched what appeared to be a television screen switch from the news to Glynda talking to everyone on the ship.
Reaching into his pocket, Ren pulled out a white card with a yellow diamond in the middle. Pulling on either end, the card expanded into cell phone size, then tablet size. "Scrolls perform many functions for us, such as managing our communications, productivity, and identification. If you haven't picked one up, I would suggest doing so the first chance you get. They're necessary to make a lot of things work."
"That sounds like a challenge." Bob wasn't too pleased with the idea of competition. "Give me five minutes and I'll have that system cracked easy. Why, I could-"
"Ren, look! Isn't Beacon grand from up here?" A blur of pink whizzed its way over to the other end of the ship, as a tower came into view.
"Looks like you have your hands full. My condolences." Kassidy offered a small smile before her stomach reminded her how much she hated flying. And just in the nick of time, some kid went running across the ship on the verge of throwing up. "Oh lovely. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to be busy doing… not that."
"Very well. It was a pleasure making your acquaintance, Kassidy and Bob." Ren sauntered off to the other side of the ship, trying and failing to keep up with his hyperactive friend.
After several minutes, with the ship landed and her stomach settled with all its contents, Kassidy was slowly making her way down the main road. Seems like I'm not the only one packing heat. Everyone here's armed to the teeth. Actually, that Ren guy was the only person I've seen so far without a weapon. A glint reflecting in her peripheral vision, Kass turned to see a pair of butlers pushing a cart of pristine white luggage, with some girl in front leading them. She nearly busted up laughing until she saw a familiar red and black head of hair fall over on top of the cart.
"Ruby does seem to know how to get herself into trouble."
"Yes she does Bob. Yes she does." Noticing a glass vial of red powder had rolled to her feet, Kassidy picked it up and looked at it. The front of the bottle had a snowflake on it. "I doubt you have any idea what this would be. Have you had luck connecting to any computer systems yet?"
"Unfortunately not. There seems to be a fundamental difference between computing processes that's barring me from entry. So I might actually need six minutes to crack this scroll deal." Kass chuckled. Curious, she was about to pull the cork stopper off the bottle when…
BOOM! Her pistol was in her hand before she knew what was happening. Looking around, she quickly saw that Ruby had sneezed and caused an explosion. An open vial of blue powder was on the ground next to her. Holstering her pistol, Kassidy began walking over to the scene of the incident. "Well, remind me not to open this vial, Bob. This powder seems to spontaneously combust in contact with oxygen."
The girl in a white dress turned around at the new voice, and glared. Kassidy held out the vial with a neutral expression. "Should I even ask why you're carrying around bottles of an energetic powder that combusts in the presence of oxygen?" Nodding to Ruby, she added, "I see you're in the habit of making new friends via explosives." The young girl blushed.
White Dress, however, was not having it. "Energetic powder? Combusting in the presence of oxygen? Are you an idiot? Do you not know what dust is? And do you seriously know this premature dolt?"
Kassidy bit her lip. Deciding to try again, "I happen to have made her acquaintance, but that's not the issue here. And no, I don't know about this 'dust' compound which just blew up a hole in the road from being exposed to air. Perhaps if you would care to enlighten me, preferably with fewer insults, we might actually get somewhere."
White Dress pinched her nose, wheeled around, and went to berate Ruby. "This is still your…" The young girl had apparently decided to make a tactical retreat from the scene. "Ugh! What is it with people today? Give me that!" Snatching the vial out of Kassidy's hands, she reached into a different suitcase and pulled out a pamphlet entitled Dust for Dummies and Other Inadequate Individuals.
"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee family highly encourages our customers to familiarize themselves with this easy to follow guide to dust applications and practice in the field."
Kassidy felt she needed to take a breath for the girl after that small lecture. "You get all that, Bob?"
"Obviously."
"Good. Hmm… alright, as far as your marketing department is concerned… 10 out of 10 on this one. Thank you, Ms. Schnee I would assume? This seems like a logical place to begin my research."
A satisfied hmph sounded from the girl. "Why yes, I am a Schnee, thank you for finally taking notice. Weiss Schnee." With a toss of her off-center ponytail, Weiss was the dictionary definition of arrogance.
"I think we better leave rich girl to her fancy luggage, Kassidy." She was startled when her computer's voice wasn't coming from her earpiece, but from her bag, clearly audible to the Schnee girl. "I'm suspecting it might be her time of the month."
"WHAT!?"
"Bob! You don't just say things like that!" Despite the situation, Kassidy was barely keeping herself from collapsing on the ground laughing. "I should probably go before my computer gets wordy again. Okaythanksbye!" With that, Kass elected to make a tactical retreat of her own. Once she was safely around a corner and out of earshot, she busted up laughing harder than she should have. "Holy shit man, that was gold! I mean, seriously, don't do that again but the look on her face!"
"Glad I could brighten your day. If the itinerary I snagged was correct, there should be a meeting in that building straight ahead of us. Ozpin giving everyone a speech and all."
(Perspective: R)
"Look, it's only been one day. Trust me, you've got friends all around you. You just haven't met them yet."
Looking up from her sleeping bag, Ruby saw a girl creeping along the edge of the wall towards a bag in the corner. Something seemed off about her, though. For starters, she hadn't changed into sleepwear. She was still wearing… a suddenly familiar khaki tank top, jeans, and combat boots. In fact, she had only just now pulled off a vest of some kind.
"That girl… she's the one that was at the store last night! Remember? When those jerks tried to rob me?"
"You know her?"
"Not really. I mean, we talked a little bit afterwards, but she seemed really out of it."
"Well, now's your chance to make a new friend!" Grabbing her younger sister by the arm, Yang hauled her over to the mystery girl digging in her bag and pulling something out.
(Perspective: K)
Kassidy found herself tucked into a corner in a ballroom. The speech was nothing to write home about, and after stowing her weapons in a locker she found a place to set her pack down. The Schnee girl hadn't decided to enact revenge, and her wounds from the surgery last night had closed up. Unwrapping the bandages and tossing them in the trash, Kass was peeling open a nutrient bar she had dug from her pack when two figures suddenly started making their way over.
"We've got company, Bob. And don't think this is going to be an excuse for you to keep acting weird." Looking closer, Kassidy could tell that Ruby was getting pulled along by a familiar blonde.
"I believe you two know each other?" The blonde seemed quite pleased with herself, while Ruby was pouting the whole time.
"Hmm… I can't particularly claim to know her, but at this point I'd be hard pressed not to recognize Ruby Rose. Considering how I kept some scumbags from trying to rob her last night."
"Hey! I helped too you know! So, uh… are you feeling better? Oh, this is my sister, Yang!" Ruby suddenly turned around, still a bit embarrassed at having been quite publicly dragged across the ballroom.
"Yeah, don't count little Rubes out! Actually, from what I know of last night you seemed to be pretty out of it after you got out of your metal shell. Maybe you were… shell shocked?" Ruby groaned behind her.
Kassidy, however, had a mischievous grin forming on her face before she clamped down hard. Bob apparently had an idea of what was going on. "Oh no. We agreed, no more puns. Kassidy, I hereby forbid you from interacting further with this Yang character."
"Dang, your man sounds jealous." Yang had a smirk on her face.
"Don't worry about my computer, he's just wanting attention at this point. Though he got plenty of it this afternoon. Word of advice: don't mess with the Schnee girl's luggage."
"Oh yeah! Thanks for distracting her! She was being really loud and cranky and I just wanted her to stop yelling." Ruby was acting rather flustered at the mention of the incident this afternoon.
Kassidy chuckled. "You missed the main event. And shut up, Bob." The computer was trying to pipe back in, undoubtedly to recount the tale of what exactly was said.
"Oh boy, this sounds like a story I want to hear." A devilish grin spread across Yang's visage.
"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask that we share stories another time. I've got a lot riding on tomorrow, and I still want to get some research done before I tuck in."
"You're going to sleep. In full combat attire?" The two girls said the same thing at exactly the same time. They looked nothing alike, but it was obvious that they had been together for a while. Maybe sisterhood isn't so far out of the picture.
"Well, yeah. What else would I sleep in? Plus, I'm ready with all my gear if something happens in the middle of the night. And with that, I bid you farewell."
As the two girls sulked off, Kassidy finished her nutrient bar, rolled out a heavily used and abused bedroll, and flopped on it. Any semblance of comfort it once had was obliterated long ago, but she didn't care. I haven't killed anyone at the school, and nobody's tried to kill me… yet. Tomorrow will truly be the first day of a new life. I won't have to be the bad guy anymore. Satisfied, and with Bob still unable to connect to a computer network, Kassidy rolled over to try and get some rest.