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Chapter 14: Beach Party
By the time that Astra and Regalia had arrived at the promised beach party, led there by Fox Scarlatina whom they had begun to find cocky and insufferable enough to understand the wide berth that Athena-Jade gave him the sun had already set almost entirely over Port Alistair, its' last rays painting a thin streak of shimmering gold across the horizon where the sea and sky met and giving a truly spectacular view to those attending the party which had already been in full swing when the two of them had arrived.
They had found themselves at the promised cove, though what Fox had neglected to mention was that the rave had been deemed illegal due to the inherent danger the location posed. The perimeter defences of Port Alistair, like any other port city on Menagerie reached out to sea and included several coastal watchtowers manned by experienced Hunters and weapons platforms and small outposts from which counter-attacks against any incoming creatures of Grimm could be launched; those defences were sparse and widely spaced in order to allow the vast flow of traffic to move through the Kingdoms' shipping lanes unhindered with several not insignificantly sized portions of the coastline going practically undefended and it was in one such portion that the party was taking place. The cove had been cut of from the vat majority of the beach by the rising tides that had rolled in and brought bitingly cold winds from the sea with them and the destination was only reachable via a serious of narrow walkways and stairways cut into the surface of the chalky, rocky cliff-face that formed the walls of the cove which led up to a currently unmanned stretch of the perimeter wall.
As risky as the location was and as illicit as everything about the affair seemed at first glance the party had already been in full swing when Astra and Regalia had arrived and it was hard to deny that everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves with no harm being done.
Fox had left the older teens whom he admittedly barely knew to their own devices relatively swiftly; remaining with them just long enough for the news that the boy who was not old enough to drink had arrived with several bottles of hard liquor and a bare of the student Hunters from the academy he called home in tow before disappearing into the crowd once his social status amongst the college students had been assured.
Astra and Regalia had seen no real problem with this and quickly joined the party and made themselves comfortable, there were grills and barbecues set up with more than enough food and drink to go around after all and the DJs were exactly as good as Fox had promised, having set up a small impromptu booth and stage for themselves with its' own lighting rig made from whatever had been available, the risk of alerting the Hunters keeping watch over the area with the display of flashing strobes and neon clearly either not occurring to them or being deemed unimportant. The teens who attended the local community college, many of whom had never met someone training to become a Hunter before had been thoroughly enamoured with the pair, seeing the Deer and Raccoon Faunus almost as entirely different order of being altogether; treating them like minor celebrities whilst their weapons and superhuman strength and abilities had each drawn gasps of amazements from the small crowds of teen who gathered around them.
Eventually Regalia had needed to find some space to simply breathe.
"You okay, it's not like you to get claustrophobic?" Astra asked joining their partner on the small chalky boulder whose surface the waves had worn smooth that she had perched on, positioning herself some distance away from the bulk of the party.
"Yeah I'm fine" she managed a weak smile as she stretched and shifted her weight "I just needed a minute….heh, I'm not really used to that many people thinking I'm cool"
"Why the hell not you're awesome?" Astra demanded with vehement conviction "Jetbike riding Grimm-Hunting bad-ass….I've seen you suplex a Grimm before that's cool and you can't tell me different. Here I brought you a drink, since you're not riding Clunker tonight"
"Thanks….shaken, not stirred" Regalia chuckled as she popped the lid off of the bottle of beer with a casual flick "I jut don't really know what to talk about….We're Hunters, we're completely different to everyone else here. Is it weird for you too?"
"No 'cos when you're under six feet tall you've gotta have a personality" Astra snorted before swigging his own drink and adding "Besides, not my first party"
"You've been to an illegal beach rave like this before?"
"Not this well done" Astra admitted "More just house parties or an illegal rave in a warehouse somewhere but it's fine….I'll introduce you to some people"
"See, you made friends already!" Regalia exclaimed "How did you even do that?"
"Uh….I'm hot?" Astra gestured to themselves, popping their collar and preening in a display that was only half joking before adding "Besides, there's more Faunus in college here on Menagerie than there is anywhere else on Remnant; there are a lot of hot people here who study sociology and politics and I happen to have met Blake Belladonna quite a few time….basically gives me a foot in the door for anyone I wanna talk to"
"You-you're" Regalia's eyes widened as she processed her partners' comments and realised exactly what they were implying "Boo you whore!"
"Hey it's a party, I'm just having a good time!" Astra defended amidst a fit of laughter at Regalia's affronted display "Seriously, what's your type? I'm sure we can find someone here"
"I um" Regalia seemed to fold in on herself "I really don't know, I kinda didn't have many chances to date with the clan y'know"
"Well we can do a little field research now if you want" Astra smirked as they gestured towards the still ongoing party "Fox was right about one thing, basically everyone here is hot"
"Firstly eww, you didn't have to say it like that" Regalia laughed "Secondly, is that what you're doing….research?"
"I'm just having a good time" Astra repeated, nonchalant and aloof demeanour faltering for a moment as they added "You're right, these college kids really don't get us….and I'm not looking to date anyone anyway"
"Well not anyone who's here" Regalia countered slyly
"What?" Astra sputtered, hastily wiping away beer that had sprayed from their nose with the back of their hand and locking eyes with their partner who merely folded her arms across her chest and met their gaze
"Oh come on, I was raised in the wasteland but not under a rock" she teased, voice taking on an almost singsong quality as she added "You like Wolfram"
"I don't….I mean I-" Astra sputtered and faltered again before letting out a wordless groan "Oum damn it, I mean yeah the guy's hot as hell….he's like solid charisma with pecs, but we're just friends and I'm not gonna risk that….And it is way too early in the party for this"
"There's a schedule?" Regalia asked in a tone that far too earnest to be genuine, deciding that she was clearly playing along their joking comment Astra nodded and answered
"Yeah we paint our nails and talk about cute boys during the after party, right after the debate we solve all of Remnant's problems" Astra chugged the rest of their beer and hopped up onto their feet "Right now, since we're still waiting for AJ and Zirconia I think it's about time I go and teach this DJ that not everything on their playlist has to be a club remix and then teach you how to dance"
"Don't you have to be able to dance yourself to be able to teach me?" Regalia shot back with a devilishly sly grin which Astra merely shrugged and allowed to roll off of them
"Nah, common misconception; dancing is ninety percent vibes, seven percent self confidence and three percent skill" Regalia couldn't but laugh at that and found herself happily sliding off of the boulder she had been perched on, deciding that it was beginning to get cold and that some activity, or simply being close to the fire-pits would do some good she began to follow after her partner; she had finally experienced her first illicit party and whilst it wasn't quite everything that the movies had portrayed it to be and she was uncertain about making a regular habit of attending such events it was still an enjoyable enough evening.
"Okay" she grinned before quoting a line she was sure she had heard in several classic movies involving cowboys "Let's dance"
"Well this certainly looks like the place….I know I don't have the most experience of these kinds of things but it does seem to be on the wrong side of the wall" Zirconia noted dryly as she and Athena-Jade drew near to what could only be the party that Astra and Regalia had been invited to and then naturally extended that invite to the other half of Team MARZ. The two of them had slipped through a heavily reinforced, though currently security gate that had been conspicuously left unlocked and ajar, indicating that the organisers of this get together had either connections within the ranks of those manning the Kingdoms' perimeter wall or had simply bribed them and now they were making their way down the steep and unpaved path leading into the cove itself, its' route a mixture of roughly hewn stairs and uneven and winding pathways carved into the surface of the rock face which might have been idyllic or picturesque in other circumstances though in the dark with a fierce wind whipping up around them it was simply impractical even for people gifted with the enhanced senses of a Faunus.
"I think I can see the appeal of it though" Athena murmured, a small yet excitable smile etching itself into her features and dimpling her prominent cheeks as she felt the pulsating throb of heavy bass travelling into the ground and up into her bones as beams and flashes of vibrantly coloured light lanced and streaked across the night sky in time to the same rhythm from the painfully obviously makeshift stage and overhead rig that they were attached to.
"Likewise" Zirconia admitted, loosening the cape like garment that perpetually covered the lower half of her high cheek-boned face and allowing Athena to see the faint smile there "I'm not sure if the music is exactly to my tastes but it definitely seems….intriguing at the very least"
"Yeah, it's a shame it's sketchy as all hell and if my Mum ever finds out I was here she's gonna wring someone's neck….Dad won't mind though, he did worse as teenager" Athena grinned, the Bear Faunus pausing as she caught sight of the mildly confused look on her partners' face and adding "I've been texting my cousin on the way here, the guy who gave Astra the invite is her ex boyfriend….he's kind of an idiot and he uses the fact he's Professor Scarlatina, Professor Adel and Counsellor Daichi's kid to get things he wants"
"Ah, so he's the stereotype that people thought you might be" Zirconia noted dryly, seeming to notice the affect the words had on the shorter woman beside as she turned and added in a much softer tone "You're not, those assumptions people make are wrong"
"Thanks" Athena shrugged, the two of them continuing onwards with the white haired young woman's thoughts turning inwards as she considered the truth of Zirconia's words before quickly turning to the Grasshopper Faunus herself, wondering just how she could be such a consistent contradiction; one moment aloof, detached and effortlessly scathing and painfully accurate in her observations yet in the next moment kind, forgiving and open.
Only for her thoughts be intruded upon by the sound of Zirconia stumbling on the uneven surface and almost slipping; revealing that no matter how she might appear she was not above the indignities that befell the average person.
"I've got ya" Athena assured her as her strong hands flew out and caught Zirconia by the hip and shoulder, the two of them remaining like that for a moment until the taller woman righted herself and the Bear Faunus quickly searched her thoughts for something to say before the brief silence between them could stretch out long enough to become awkward; suddenly feeling daring, her usual curiosity about the various mysteries that her partner presented emboldened by something about the situation she decided to simply ask a direct question.
"Hey what happened to your legs?" she gestured to the mechanical limbs that had betrayed Zirconia; her brazen fortitude failing her a moment later as she added "I mean, if I'm not prying too much; I don't want to-"
"It's not something I talk about often" Zirconia answered simply, her mismatched even filling with a faint sense of mischief as she added "And I do seem to remember that you avoided my questions earlier"
"About my nightmares" Athena sighed, taking a moment to internally debate the merit of trying to avoid the topic again "Right"
"If you don't want to-"
"No it's fine, I'll talk….we're friends, you've definitely earned it" she let out another slow breath and braced herself as she prepared to divulge what few people knew "Do you remember the New White Fang….they attacked the Vytal Tournament in Atlas around ten years ago"
"I do, it was in the singles match wasn't it?" Zirconia remembered it well, not least because her parents had still been alive then and they had frantically tried to shield her eyes from the carnage that unfolded "It was between a brother and sister wasn't it, they were….Oh, Astra's brother, your brother they were both there"
"They were" Athena nodded "And so was I….And so was Coral, the two of us sneaked out of the VIP box that we were in to go and get snacks, we were still out there when the attack started….The White Fang….they tried to kill my sister and I froze up, I couldn't do anything-"
"You were a child" Zirconia stated, as soothingly as she could possibly make the flat assertion sound.
"So was she" Athena croaked out "Her birth-I can't call them parents, they were in the White Fang and the White Fang tried to brainwash her to be a monster like them but she still put herself between me and them when they wanted to kill me or kidnap me to use as leverage or send a message….she doesn't want to be a Huntress but Coral is braver than I'll ever be, forget the family name I wanna be a Hunter so I can be as brave as my little sister"
"I….I wish I knew what to say" Zirconia murmured the words slowly "I remember seeing the start of the attack on the television but the signal was cut off but to be there in person….I can't imagine what that must have been like, nobody should have to see things like that"
"That's why we're training right?" Athena shrugged, sapphire blue eyes hardening with a sudden burst of fiery determination "To make sure nobody else has to"
"Exactly" Zirconia nodded, her features filling with something that Athena-Jade couldn't quite identify; the moment stretching out for several seconds until the first thumping bass note of a new song being played pulsed through the ground with nerve-rattling intensity and turned the pairs' attention back towards the party that they stood at the precipice of and the Bear Faunus gave a soft smile as she nodded in the direction of the noise, lights and flickering fires, deciding that there was a time and a place for such serious topics of conversation and that this was neither.
"Come on Hops, let's go have fun….and hopefully keep Astra from doing anything dumb"
Astra Mars was currently making an idiot of themselves and whilst they were completely aware of that fact they simply couldn't bring themselves to care.
The Deer Faunus's attempts to convince the DJ to play something more to their tastes had gone entirely unrewarded, the status and sense of mystique that came with being a student Hunter amongst a group of teens from the general, civilian population of Port Alistair apparently not quite stretching far enough however this had done nothing to dampen their spirits or dissuade them from teaching Regalia how to dance as they had promised they would. In truth Astra was a passable dancer, though as in all things the Mohawk-sporting teen would never be convinced that average or simply passable were acceptable results when one had an audience to perform to and had remedied this by substituting an earnest effort for a comically overblown spectacle that bordered on ludicrousness; only for this display to be taken as something of a challenge by another individual with a frighteningly similar mindset and disposition.
Leading to a dance off that might have been one of the funniest things that Regalia Russet had ever seen in her life.
"It's like that one scene in that hero movie" the Raccoon Faunus managed to cackle out to anyone nearby who might be listening between ragged, gasping breaths caused by laughing until her vision blurred and lost all colour as she became light-headed.
"Clown to clown communication is what it is" a familiar, distinctly cultured and yet still low and rough voice with an Atlesian accent replied with a snort of faint amusement at the same time as a large and powerful hand clamped down on Regalia's shoulder, holding her steady and keeping her upright. Regalia herself took several moments to catch her breath, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes so that she could properly see Athena-Jade and Regalia who had recently arrived and clearly deduced that their team-mates would likely be at the centre of whatever nonsense was currently occurring.
"What exactly am I looking at?" Zirconia rasped out slowly, utter confusion etched onto her features as she took in the sight.
"I don't even know how it happened" the words bubbled out of Regalia as she gave in to another fit of laughter "Astra was showing me how to dance to this kind of music and then this other guy came over, now this is happening and I'm confused"
"So it's a dance off" Athena-Jade nodded in understanding, a wide and toothy grin splitting her face as she rolled her neck and shoulders, the joints giving satisfying pops before she removed the collapsed form of Mould Breaker from where it fastened to the many belts she wore and slipped out of her sleeveless jackets
"What're you doing?" Zirconia asked, clearly bracing herself for some kind of insanity, Athena merely handed the discarded items to her partners and gave a conspiratorial and impossibly cocky wink
"Just hold on to these for me" with that the Bear Faunus joined the dance off and proceeded to deliver a thorough and detailed education on the subject to her team-mates along with everyone else who was watching; her particular fighting style lending itself well to a flamboyant and eye-catching approximation of breakdancing whilst allowing her admittedly short and powerfully muscled body with its broad shoulders, sturdy arms and thick biceps to move with a degree of nimble dexterity that few would of suspected until finally, satisfied that she had playfully but undeniably upstaged Astra Athena flung herself into a backflip and landed several feet in the air on awaiting glyph in a crouch on one knee.
The crowd cheered and yelled their approval whilst Astra merely rolled their eyes as they leaned against the glowing surface of the glyph.
"Really couldn't help yourself could ya….and was the hero landing really necessary"
"Yeah 'cos your dancing sucks, it's the suckiest" Athena answered as she hopped down onto the ground and grinned sheepishly as she added "Besides….I haven't actually done that in years, I had a phase when I was thirteen I couldn't think how else to land it"
"You had a breakdancing phase?" Astra laughed "Oh you're screwed AJ, if there's any embarrassing photos I will find them-"
"You think you'll do a better job than the Atlesian press? Be my guest" she shot back.
"You guys are total dweebs….but you're still awesome" Regalia laughed as she and Zirconia rejoined them, the Grasshopper Faunus returning Athena-Jade's belongings to her as she gave her partner a bemused look. With Team MARZ reunited Astra took a moment to catch their breath, playing absently with their Mohawk and ensuring that none of the fiery red spikes that made it had been knocked out of place or otherwise interfered with, only to catch sight of something that irked them
"Where the hell did the crowd go?" the Deer Faunus gestured to where the circle of onlookers had been moments earlier, only to catch sight of them hurrying away in a loose but unified gaggle with an explanation coming in the form of a loud and almost certainly intoxicated yell from one of those furthest away.
"FIGHT!"
"Does this happen often at this parties?" Zirconia rasped out with her usual stunningly deadpan delivery.
"More than I'd like to admit" Astra sighed with a visible wince, heading in the direction of the scuffle nonetheless and adding "Come on, let's see if we need to break it up"
"They're right, we're outside of Port Alistair's walls; this could draw Grimm" Regalia nodded, her previous light-heartedness vanishing in an instant and being replaced by stern practicality of someone raised in the wasteland. Team MARZ hurried towards the fight, parting the crowd with the least amount of force that they could; the four of them being horrified yet quickly springing into action upon seeing that one of the fighters was none other than Fox Scarlatina, though fighting was perhaps too generous a term as the Rabbit Faunus was currently doing nothing more than ineffectually flailing to free himself from the grasp of an older teen who currently had him pinned to the ground and was steadily sending ripples through the sand with each successive punch to the face he delivered.
"Come here you son of a bitch" Astra hissed, voice dropping low and becoming something low and icy as they seized the unknown student by the back of the neck and bodily dragged him away from the fight, effectively ending the confrontation though the drunk and belligerent young man seemed determined to continue venting their anger on the nearest available target
"GET OFF ME, WE'RE NOT DONE! GET OFF ME, HEY KID, HEY ASS-HOLE I'M DONE WITH YOU! I SEE YOU AGAIN AND I'LL BREAK YOUR-"
"Shut up, calm down and walk away….before you do something that might piss me off" Astra snarled, doing everything they could to ensure that the words conveyed a sense menace; as the Deer Faunus leaned in close enough that the tips of their antlers pressed into the struggling and furious teens shoulders the fight seemed to evaporate from him in an instant, yet Astra quickly realised that the commotion around them was not abating and in fact seemed to be growing louder which led to a single moment that stretched out for an eternity where they realised what was about to happen before it did. Whether it was the fight itself, or Astra's intervention in it that had provided the burst of negativity that drew the beast or simply that outpouring of emotions from the party as a whole combined with the noise and spectacle of it all would never be known; all that mattered was that a moment later a low, rumbling wail filled the air, a sound like a foghorn combined with the scraping of metal against metal following by heavy, thundering footsteps as a single Grimm breached the surface of the water.
And then there was havoc.
"EVERYONE GET BEHIND US! GO, MOVE NOW!" Astra bellowed as they could, hoping that their voice would rise above the din of screaming and fleeing college students that had begun to scramble frantically in every direction with a total lack of coherent thought as blind terror set in.
"They have no idea what to do!" Athena yelled frantically as she and the rest of Team MARZ fell into place around their leader "We need to keep the Grim distracted"
"Right!" Astra nodded in agreement, unfurling Buckshot Ares and bracing themselves; breathing coming in shallow and unsteady gasps as another screeching rumble echoed through the night and the Creature of Grimm that had found them came lumbering out of the surf.
"That thing shouldn't even be near the sea?" Regalia gestured to the monster in confusion "It must have followed a river all the way downstream" her point may have been correct, yet at that moment it hardly seemed relevant in the face of the sheer size and terrible presence of the thing. Overall its' form resembled that of some prehistoric hippopotamus; several times the height and width of a person and bloated, the ribs wrapped around its' vast and rotund torso seemingly straining under the things own massive and armoured girth; its' obsidian flesh cracked and shifting slightly with individual jutting masses of bony carapace trailing along the hide of the monster like miniature drifting continents. Its' short limbs were sturdy and even more heavily armoured, each ending in a wide and sloped wedge of fused digits that could be used a fin, shovel or bladed implement as needed. Along the things' back a single row of vestigial fins led to a similarly aquatic tail where midnight black tissue was stretched thing to the point of appearing a bloody red and filmy. The skull of the Creature of Grimm was vast, a rounded but by no means sleek mass of heavily armoured and reinforced bone easily larger than the average person and capable of swallowing someone whole if they were not crushed to a mangled pulp by the towering yet blunted tusks that protruded from its' maw or the numberless grinding implements that stretched from its' jaw deep into its' gullet. Smoke billowed from its' nostrils and its' eyes were the expected shade of glowing, murderous red and as they locked onto Team MARZ the four students were forced to consider that they might have found themselves out of their depth.
This was a Sludge-Lord, a species of Grimm considered one of the more dangerous on Menagerie.
"The kids pack a punch I'll give 'em that" Coco grumbled as she gingerly touched a bruise that formed along her cheekbone
"No sympathy" Velvet snorted, the statement at odds with the way she leaned over her partners' shoulder and kissed the offending blemish "You shouldn't have let him land it"
"Had to let 'em feel like they achieved something after kicking the whole team around the ring like that" Coco replied with a faint but unmistakeably savage grin.
"I wouldn't say that sparing Team WULF's feelings is exactly necessary, it's not as though any of them were lacking in confidence to begin with" Yatsuhashi noted with a bemused grin from where he sat at the table in the combined kitchen and dining room within the sizeable luxury apartment that the three remaining members of Team CFVY called home, located within the stained-glass, domed top of the tallest of Breaktide Academies' many towers.
Coco had given Team WULF the sparring match that they had wanted, along with a thorough thrashing to boot; the sight of Wolfram Ironside who was easily one of the most capable hand to hand fighters amongst the first year students being lifted a dozen feet into the air by an uppercut and the towering, sturdy form of Ursinia Red being kicked across the sparring area as though she weighed nothing at all and left in a crumpled heap, struggling to breathe and unable to stand as she fought the urge to vomit would certainly go someone to dissuade other foolhardy students from making similar challenges, though each of Team WULF had been beaten and tossed aside several times only to rise to their feet once again the Headmistress had decided to reward their tenacity by allowing Wolfram to land a single blow by purposefully reacting more slowly and giving him a brief opening which the ferocious young man had exploited with a crushing haymaker. That had been several hours ago and following the sparring match and the gym session that she and Yatsuhashi had intended to enjoy in the first place Coco had returned to her home above the Academy that she and her team-mates who had become family had built to catch up with some of the seemingly endless tide of paperwork and other tasks that her role as Headmistress and the seat on the Council of Menagerie it granted her entailed whilst also trying to relax and enjoy her weekend with her family somewhat; a task that was made difficult by the fact that the child she considered her son in every way that mattered was absent.
"I really wish Fox had called one of us to say that he wasn't gonna be home tonight" the bruised and exhausted but still impeccably well put together woman noted with a sigh as she continued preparing a dinner that had been delayed for several hours already as those present had waited for the young Faunus.
"He said he was going into the city and meeting some friends, I'm assuming he's staying at one of their houses" Velvet noted, nodding in agreement as she added "You're right though, he should have told us that before he left or when he made the decision"
"I'm getting worried about him" Yatsuhashi's quiet admission, barely above a whisper "It feels like he's been acting strange lately….rude, cocky, aggressive, keeping secrets"
"I know what you mean" Coco admitted, pursing her lips and taking a moment to consider "But I think he'll be okay, he's just still getting over his first real break up and trying to be a little bad-ass to convince himself he's fine….I wish he'd understand that he can talk to us about things but he'll be okay, I'm sure he's just at a party somewhere now and doesn't want us to know he's getting drunk; we were all doing it at sixteen-"
"I wasn't" Velvet countered "I wasn't one of the popular kids like you"
"I actually didn't go to that many parties" Coco replied, catching herself off guard with the realisation as she looked back at her own teenage years "I was always working at my parents restaurant and saving lien….Yatsu, what about you?"
"I lived in the countryside" the giant of a man reminded them delicately "There really wasn't any trouble to find unless you were as committed to finding it as Jaune Arc was….After all these years I still don't know how he managed to find a fake Beacon transcript"
"Wait" Coco raised a hand, a mortified expression forming on her face as a truly terrible thought occurred to her "Are we…..Are we not cool any more, were we not as cool as we always thought we were?"
"You're still cool" Velvet snickered as she leaned over and planted another kiss on Velvet's cheek "Just keep an eye on dinner before we start having a collective midlife crisis"
"Not funny, don't even joke about that" Coco fixed here with a haughty expression, dramatically flipping hair from her eyes before bursting out laughing. The peaceful atmosphere in the kitchen of Team CFVY's apartment continued for a while longer, the smell of cooking food steadily filling it until the sound of Coco's Scroll caught the attention of all.
"It's Fox" she announced with a grin "So then who wants to guess, did he finally remember to call us out of common courtesy or does he need us to pick him up from somewhere"
The sound of screaming and gunfire filled the kitchen the moment Coco answered the call and the colour drained from the faces of all three of Fox Scarlatina's parents.
"MUM HELP, COME AND GET ME OUT OF HERE PLEASE THERE'S GRIMM AND-"
"Where are you?" Coco's voice was instantly stern and businesslike as she cut through the teens' panicked and desperate begging.
"I'm, I'm on the beach!" he managed to form the words despite the way his voice cracked and wavered; nothing in his life having prepared him for the situation he found himself in "There was a party and a Grimm, some kind of big ugly Hippo monster showed up….Team MARZ are fighting it but it doesn't look like they're even slowing it down and-"
"Stay where you are, keep your Scrolls' location turned on. Try and get to safety and follow any instructions that Team MARZ give you without questioning them. Do you understand me?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Good….We're coming to get you" with that Coco ended the call and turned to see the ashen, terrified faces of Velvet and Yatsuhashi.
"Oh my Oum" the Rabbit Faunus gasped out, the dread seeping into her very bones far more personal and immediate than anything she had experienced in several years of Hunting monsters.
"I'm getting my sword" the words left Yatsuhashi in a quiet by urgent murmur as he prepared to leave.
"Get all of our weapons" Coco insisted "Velvet, call Ruby, I want her and Penny inbound right now and I want perimeter defence converging on Fox's location; we'll worry about whose head needs to roll for this later. I'm gonna get one of the transports ready to go"
With silent nods of agreement Team CFVY hurried into action, a well-oiled and experienced Grimm-Hunting machine fuelled at that moment by anger, desperate hope and simple, unrelenting fear of what they would find if they were too late.
"We need a plan!" Astra exclaimed as the latest salvo from the min-guns fitted to each of their forearms thudded into the armoured hide of the Sludge-Lord with seemingly no effect other than angering it further. The monster let out another of its' haunting, rumbling screams before charging towards the Deer Faunus at a frightening gallop that nothing of its' size should have been capable of, kicking up sand and debris as it thundered through the space that the party had occupied shortly before though the sight of it was obscured soon after as a series of glowing glyphs were brought swirling into existence between Astra and the Grimm.
"Get clear!" Athena-Jade called out, Astra dared to glance away from the oncoming Grimm for the briefest moment and saw that the Bear Faunus was readying Mould-Breaker in its' laser cannon form whilst behind her Zirconia and Regalia were frantically trying to usher the remaining terrified teenagers to safety, ushering them towards the paths and stairs that were now the only form of escape from the cove; their attention was quickly forced back to the Sludge-Lord however as the Grimm came crashing through each of the glyphs in turn, losing almost none of its' momentum in the process. Astra surged into motion and exchanged the ranged weapons Buckshot Ares for the blades that extended from their wrists, letting out a wordless yell as they began their daring head on charge before leaping into the air at the last possible moment and preparing to stab down into the skull of the beast only for the Sludge Lord to lash out and swing its' armoured head at the Hunter with ground shaking force; sending Astra hurtling through the air with their Aura rippling around them at the points where the tusks of the Grimm had made contact before landing face down in the sand with a painful but muffled thud.
The Grimm was thundering towards them again in an instant.
"Come with me if you want to live!" Regalia yelled frantically as the harpoon component of Apex Scavenger blasted into the loose and shifting surface around them and Astra needed no further convincing, quickly taking the tip of implement and feeling a sudden lurch of momentum as their partner reeled them in, pulling them out of the path of the Grimm just before it could gore and trample them; which allowed Athena-Jade to open fire and set the night sky ablaze with a stream of crackling, incandescent and ephemeral green light.
"Direct hit1!….But it's not down" her exclamation quickly gave way to disbelief at the sight of the juggernaut of bone and obsidian continuing to stand and paw at the sand with its' trench-digging claws in defiance, snorting and billowing smoke from its' nostrils and it regarded the four Hunters who had steadily drawn closer together and placed themselves directly in front of the frightened party-goers that had first drawn it.
"We still need a plan" Astra insisted "We can't stop its' charges, we need to distract it and keep from the people….Zirconia how many people are left to get out?"
"Still too many" the Grasshopper admitted "They're frightened and disorganised and the paths weren't meant for this many people at once-"
"Okay, I've got an idea" Astra breathed out, hoping that their hasty and half-formed plans could coalesce into something workable before the Sludge-Lord charged "AJ I want you to fall back, get as many glyphs between those people and that Grimm as you can-"
"Got it"
"Zirconia, can you use your Semblance to hide the paths from view?"
"That's not exactly how my Semblance works, but I should be able to" she confirmed
"Okay good, Regalia we're gonna split up and try and keep it distracted. Ready….Now!" Astra was charging once again with Buckshot Ares at the ready as they went hurtling towards the monstrous Grimm, collapsing the weapons into their shield form and locking them together over their own chest as the hard-light emitters built into each shield came online to create a curved pane of translucent and rose tinted hexagonal panels. Leaping into the air once again to avoid the bone-crushing impact of a head on collision Astra braced themselves and felt a painful tremor travel through their entire body as the Sludge-Lord crashed into them and sent the Deer Faunus sailing through the air with another swing of its' massive, tusked head. As they landed in a barely coordinated crouch Astra saw that their plan was already being enacted, a faint gleaming of brilliant white light announcing that Athena-Jade had begun creating layered glyphs along the length of the pathways that led out of the cove to form makeshift barricades before their light was quickly blotted out, Zirconia activated Phantasmagoria and whilst the trap-like Semblance was intended to smother the senses of those locked within it the half-sphere of rippling and impermeable darkness still worked well as an obstruction, keeping those yet to flee from being spotted by the Grimm. The Sludge-Lord itself quickly made to press its' advantage, skidding to a halt before reorienting itself for another relentless charge only to be compelled to turn around and barrel in the opposite direction by Regalia who had aimed her shotgun and fired at the things' back.
The Grimm was massive, powerful and resilient but it was not intelligent at all.
"HEY! HEY UGLY, OVER HERE!" Astra yelled, deploying the mini-guns once again and opening fire with a maelstrom of bullets the moment their partner had leapt out of the way and peppering the beasts' armoured flank, though admittedly with very little effect. The Grimm prepared to charge again only to be distracted once more as Regalia blasted a small fragment of bone from its' reinforced carapace with a Dust shell fired from close range, the Racoon Faunus flinging herself under the Grimm's belly to escape its' gnashing jaws and quickly falling back; seeing this Astra took aim again and waited for the perfect opportunity to open fire and as they did so a small, hopeful smile began to form as they dared to hope that things might just be as simple as they seemed.
Only for a desperate yell from Athena-Jade to disabuse them of that notion a moment later.
"WE'VE GOT INCOMING!" with a hissed curse Astra turned their eyes skyward and saw several specs of of glowing crimson illuminating vast, dark shapes that were rapidly approaching from the sea; avian Grimm drawn by the chaos in the cove that would soon be close enough to unleash their barbed quills or dive and rake the serrated talons into anyone unable to escape. Yet there was something else and Astra quickly found their last, dying embers of hope reignited as lone rocket streaked overhead and exploded amidst the incoming flock to announce that help had arrived.
"Oh thank Oum!" they yelled, utterly uninterested in how they might sound at that moment as several armed and armoured transports streaked over head with several forms, silhouettes that could only belong to Hunters leaping from their open hatches. One such form was that of living legend and Grimm Studies Professor Ruby Rose herself who streaked through the darkness in a blur of crimson as if the laws of physics had no hold over her before finally landing on the beach, perilously close to the enraged Sludge-Lord and already in motion. The Sludge-Lord roared and snarled but was ultimately unable to prevent the blade of Crescent Rose swinging in a low arc that sent it travelling beneath the monster, tearing into its' underside and bursting from its' spine before Ruby used all of her momentum, leverage and incredible Aura-fuelled strength to drag the Creature of Grimm from the ground and hurl into into the air, where it was promptly enveloped in the beam of light discharged by a laser weapon for larger than Athena's; that fitted to the front of Penny's personal transport and destroyed entirely, the smoking and dissolving fragments of its' body falling to the ground like jet black snow.
"Woah" Astra breathed out, awed at the sight of one of the greatest Hunter for a generation; only to be brought out of their brief reverie by a presence looming over them and exuding a silent menace that seemed to change the temperature and air pressure around them; whipping around and preparing for another confrontation Astra's entire thought process came crashing to a halt at the sight of Professor Coco Adel glowering down at them.
"Where's Fox?"
"Should be out by now" Astra gestured towards where Athena and Zirconia were still dutifully maintaining their Semblances "We put up a barrier to cover them, couldn't stop that Grimm though so we tried to-"
"I need to find my son" the Headmistress interrupted and Astra found that they couldn't fault or begrudge that at all "I look forward to hearing exactly what happened tonight during a very thorough debriefing when we return to the academy"
The sheer force that the words were delivered with, despite Coco never once raising her voice was almost enough to leave Astra thinking that another encounter with the Sludge-Lord might be preferable to what awaited them.
If there were any words to describe the tension that filled Professor Adel's office at that moment they were not part of any member of Team MARZ's vocabulary.
Where Counsellor Daichi's office was warm and comfortable with everything about the space having a professional but welcoming air about it and Professor Scarlatina's workshop was hectic and often in a state of organised chaos the Headmistress's personal space seemed designed to intimidate; the décor being a display in harsh and utilitarian minimalism filtered through a lens of refined taste and understated expense that all served to make those who found themselves before the Head of Breaktide Academy feel small. Where the other Professors' sought to make their offices seem as open as possible in their efforts to compel any student in need of their time or input to approach them Coco's office was the exact opposite and as each of Team MARZ sat before her and left feeling as though they might be used for target practice at any moment, the four of them joined by Fox Scarlatina the message that Professor Adel wished to convey was clearly received; namely that this was her domain and their presence here was the result of a series of grave mistakes on their parts.
"I want you to explain to me exactly what happened tonight. From the beginning" her words were filled with a barely contained fury and with her signature sunglasses absent and her beret resting on the desk beside her elbow Coco's lined features and hard, calculating eyes were unobstructed from view; giving those gathered before her a chance to try and estimate just how poorly this might go for them. Athena-Jade looked horrified as the myriad ways that what followed could transpire filled her mind, images of her being sent back to Atlas in disgrace, expelled and with the press dogging her news of her failures and endangerment of the public became known causing what little colour her complexion had to drain from her face. By contrast Zirconia remained entirely inscrutable, whatever thoughts were racing behind her mismatched pale pink and orange eyes being impossible to guess as she met Professor Adel's stare. Regalia and Fox were shuffling uncomfortably in their seats, the pair casting furtive glances in one another's direction, the Racoon Faunus growing steadily more visibly irate as became clear that Fox had no intention of explaining anything.
Eventually it was Astra who broke the painfully heavy silence.
"It was my fault professor" they sighed, preparing themselves for whatever might come "I heard that there was going to be a party tonight outside of the walls and that there weren't going to be any Hunters present, so I had my team meet me there; I thought we'd able to handle it. I know I should have called it in and had the party shut down and dispersed but….well where I grew up nobody really likes a snitch"
"I see" one of Coco's eyes twitched at that final statement and the anger she was struggling to keep at bay threatened to spill over with her next words "And how did you find out about this party beforehand….The fact that the local garrison had been convinced to turn a blind eye is a serious matter, you understand that don't you?"
"I do" Astra nodded "But I can't tell you who paid 'em off-"
"CAN'T OR WON'T?" Coco bellowed as her fist struck the surface of her desk with enough force to make the entire office shake.
"They can't tell you, they don't know anything….It was me that got them into this" Fox finally spoke up, the Rabbit Faunus already looked a pitiable sight with a bruised face caked in dried blood that had trickled down and stained their shirt after the beating they had received on the beach and the way he folded in on himself, looking anywhere but at Coco as she turned her attention towards him only made him look smaller and more wretched.
"Go on" Coco encouraged, some of the anger and steel leaving her voice to be replaced with something more gentle that she reserved for those closest to her.
"A few of Summer's old friends, I haven't seem 'em since they graduated, well they're in college now and they told me about the party. They said I could come but I'd have to bring my own drinks….Astra and Regalia saw me getting thrown out of a shop when I tried to buy some booze and I convinced them to help me out"
"I see" Coco took a deep breath to steady herself, the urge to reach across the desk and throttle Astra where they sat written plainly on her face for a moment "So you bought alcohol for an underage teenager and enabled their lawbreaking?"
"Yes Professor" Astra nodded, resigning themselves to their fate and hoping that the academy would at least pair for their flight back to Neo Vale when he was expelled, they didn't have the heart to call their parents and ask for the lien to return home.
"But you also identified a potential problem and moved to prevent it with the resources at your disposal" the Headmistress continued, raising a hand and adding "Don't you dare try and insult my intelligence by telling me that you planned it; but the fact remains that you put yourselves directly in harms way to save lives tonight and you did save lives, including my son's….so I'm not going to punish any of you, you're dismissed. There will never be a repeat of this incident, do I make myself clear"
"Yes Professor!" Team MARZ chorused in perfect unison
"Good. Now get out of my office" the four freshman students scrabbled to their feet on unsteady legs, none of them daring to breathe out a sigh of relief whilst they were still in Coco's presence and all but fleeing in a terror far greater than what the Grimm could have hoped to inspire, each of them grappling with the urge to break into a run as they retreated from the office.
"Mum I-"
"No, stop talking. It's time you listened" Coco's voice was measured and even, though it was clear that this took almost all of the self control that she had as she rose to her feet and strode around her desk, pulling Fox up out of his seat before throwing her arms around the unreasonably tall boy.
"Mum-"
"You could have died tonight!" Coco sobbed into her son's shoulder "The whole way to that cove I was terrified, all of us were; we thought we might be too late, that either we wouldn't find you at all….or worse, that what we did find might not-might not-"
"Mum I'm sorry, I didn't think" Fox whimpered leaning into the embrace
"I know you didn't….you didn't think, you just feel everything like the dial's been cranked up to eleven and just react with the first thing that comes to your head" Coco leaned back and cupped the boys' bruised and swollen cheeks
"Look at me, I need better from you kid. I love you too much to let anything happen to you, I love Velvet and Yatsu too much to see what it would do to them….I know it's been rough for you since Summer left, I know school is stressful and you feel like you've lost most of your friends; but just talk to me, talk to any of us. You think we wouldn't get it, or wouldn't listen?"
"It's just" Fox's eyes darted around the room, once again unable to meet Coco's gaze "I just wanted to be the cool one for a change….me, myself. Not because of who I'm dating, or because I live at the Hunter academy or because of who I'm related to, just me"
"And that's something I completely get" Coco murmured "But this was not the way to go about it….now come on let's get you cleaned up"
"Okay"
"And then you're going to give me the names of every single person you know who was at that party, starting with whoever did that to your face" Coco's entire demeanour became predatory "Heads are going to roll for the mistakes that were made tonight….and you are by no means out of trouble yet young man"
"I thought we were gonna get expelled for sure" Regalia whispered, her voice still filling the darkened dormitory despite the attempts at being quiet.
"I thought she was gonna throw me out the damn window" Astra replied, breaking into a small fit of nervous giggling as though the expected Coco Adel to storm into the dormitory at any moment, the Deer Faunus leaning over the edge of their bunk to speak with their partner.
Team MARZ had been dismissed from Professor Adel's office several hours prior and hurriedly made their way through the presently dimly lit corridors of Breaktide Academy without a single word exchanged between them, encountering no-one in the halls and hearing only faint sounds of life from the dormitories of other teams before finally reaching their own. From there the four of them had showered and changed, reaching an unspoken agreement to go to bed without any further discussion; only for sleep to prove itself far too elusive for them, with Regalia being the first to accept the inevitable and give in to temptation during the early hours of the morning by sitting up and scanning the room, her eyes making sense of the pre-dawn gloom with ease and seeing if her friends were as restless as she was.
"I still can't believe that Fox was really gonna let you take the fall for him there….And why the heck did you do it?"
"Better me than everyone" Astra shrugged simply "And Professor Adel would absolutely have kicked us all out if somebody didn't start talking" there was a pause that lasted a few moments, a peaceful silence that was interrupted by the sound of covers rustling directly across from Regalia when Athena-Jade sat up and extricated herself from the mass of covers and blankets that she routinely buried herself with, glaring at both Astra and Regalia and grumbling.
"You guys suck! We could have all lost everything we've worked for tonight….Seriously, remind me never to come to a party you invite me to again" Astra and Regalia shared a glance at that, both of them undeniably stung by the anger in the Bear Faunus's voice but still understanding that her concerns were entirely justified and that expulsion from the academy would have consequences for her that her team-mates would not have to contend with.
"You seemed to be having fun at the time" the quiet, delicate yet rasping voice came from above and Athena visibly faltered as Zirconia sat upright and joined the conversation.
"I still can't believe the first thing you did when you got there was join a dance off" Astra snorted
"Hey Astra" Regalia gave her partner a devilish grin as she looked up at them "You got served"
"Okay fine" Athena mumbled, mildly irritated that her anger had been so easily undercut "I'm sorry and the party was cool….I just-I don't wanna mess everything up here. I came here to show everyone that I'm more than just the family name, I can't go back to Atlas as the first member of the family to get kicked out of a Hunter academy"
"I get it" Astra sighed "Trust me my parents will kill me if they ever find out about this and my brother is gonna give me no end of shit….But y'know what, whatever; they all did dumb stuff too and we all survived, nobody got hurt tonight"
"Nobody was hurt specifically because of us" Zirconia chimed in thoughtfully.
"So….maybe we can use the fact that we've already saved peoples' lives to get ourselves a better first mission?" Regalia noted with an optimistic smile that quickly faltered upon seeing the bemused grins that her friends were exchanging.
"Not a chance" Astra sighed, shaking their head and brushing long strands of fiery red hair that had been let down out of their eyes "If anything we're more likely to get stuck on perimeter defence after tonight….Damn maybe we should have let Little Fox get eaten-"
"Not funny" Athena growled, a warning clear in her voice.
"Okay sorry" Astra apologised, accepting that the joke was in bad taste "But all I'm saying is that all in all, tonight wasn't that bad….not the worst party I've been to"
"How is not-What on Remnant happened at….No, don't tell me. For the sake of my sanity I've decided I don't want to know" Athena rambled, suddenly incandescent with indignant anger which only made her partner let out a soft, muffled laugh.
"In all honesty I wish I had gotten to experience more of it" Astra glanced over at Zirconia for a moment, thoughts clearly churning in their mind before they spoke again.
"Well in that case, there's always time for a party tradition….the after party, since we're all awake at this time in the morning talking nonsense anyway" with that they slipped off of their bunk and began rummaging around in the early morning gloom, the sound of clinking glass and the hissing pop of a bottle opening informing their team-mate of what they were doing.
"Seriously?" Athena demanded "You stole their beers? When the hell did you even do that?"
"I grabbed a few of them when we were leaving, made sure Professor Adel wasn't looking first though"
"I actually cannot believe you" the snowy haired young woman whispered in abject shock even as she took the proffered drink, realising not for the first time that under all of their swaggering bravado and even deeper beneath the earnest but insecure personality that it masked, Astra Mars was utterly insane.
"Want one?" the sound of Astra offering a bottle of beer t Zirconia caught Athena's attention just in time for her to hear her partners' answer.
"I've….never drank alcohol before" the admission stunned Athena to her core, though knowing what little she did of the Grasshopper Faunus's upbringing she supposed it should not have; more importantly to the Bear Faunus however was the giddy, excited smile that this news brought to her face as she clambered from her bunk, large and muscular arms using the frame of Zirconia's bed for leverage as she beamed up at her partner.
"You mean we all get to find out what kind of drunk you are together? Oh this is gonna be a special occasion!" and with that delighted exclamation the Saturday night, now early Sunday morning was salvaged.
Author's Notes:
So, our little filler min-arc that also gave us a tour of Port Alistair and set up a few things that can be used at later dates is now concluded.
The next chapter will be the beginning of the Vol.1 finale, get ready for this one people because I have some fun stuff planned for it; it's gonna be a spectacle and set up things for not just the rest of first year, but also the story as a whole.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
So Fox is just that annoying kid who doesn't get beaten up because their parents can probably have your parents fired….Even if nobody on Team CFVY would actually do that.
A little more world-building for Port Alistair, showing that the defences are not impossible to breach and that the guards aren't impossible to pay off….which is how someone smuggled that Grimm onto a ship that Team FADE are still investigating behind the scenes.
Hunters are probably like rock-stars to the average person living in a city in Remnant.
Regalia grew up on that dune crawler, she's used to cramped and crowded but she's not really used to being the centre of attention.
"No 'cos when you're under six feet tall you've gotta have a personality" I'm not bitter about being vertically challenged, why do you ask?
Astra is absolutely not above using the fact that Felix Xiao Long is their half-brother and that they're literally on first name terms with THE Blake Belladonna/Xiao Long as an icebreaker.
"Boo you whore!"….Yes that was a Mean Girls quote.
Regalia is absolutely socially aware enough to call out Astra….And yes there is an unofficial schedule and these talks are reserved for kitchen session after parties; also "Yeah we paint our nails and talk about cute boys" is a Vol.1 callback.
These two sheltered rich dorks are absolutely dying to stop trying to be cool and just go wild but neither of them is gonna make the first move.
"Ah, so he's the stereotype that people thought you might be" I mean that is kinda the vibe AJ had for a few chapters back there.
You didn't really think Zirconia's backstory was gonna be that easy to learn now did you?
So, that's what AJ has nightmares about….The finale of Vol.6 of FADE: Legacy, because there is no way that events like that didn't have a lasting impact on her.
'If you can't be the best in the room then make it look like you weren't even trying anyway' is exactly the kind of defence mechanism that Astra would use to protect their image and ego.
"It's like that one scene in that hero movie"….You know exactly what I'm talking about and you know it.
AJ does capoeira with glyphs and a hammer, of course she can breakdance….And of course she finished with a hero landing.
And now for a segue into the meat of the chapter….Of course it was Little Fox who got himself into a right and beaten up.
So I know that the Hippo Grim is in the wrong environment and I made an offhand comment about it but I needed a monster for this chapter and I've used almost everything else that immediately came to mind….I knew I wanted to do a Hippo Grimm at some point but didn't really have an idea about where to put it.
Of course Coco absolutely rag-dolled Team WULF, but she did let them get a hit in.
The domestic scenes with the old canon characters are always fun to write and the Team CFVY scene was no exception….They all know deep down that their kid is a little shit, but they're trying to trust him to grow out of it.
Also the mortifying realisation that they're not cool any more was hilarious to me.
Of course the first thing he did was call his Mum, can you blame him?
Regalia was on point with the movie quotes this chapter.
Astra might not have a Semblance yet, or in all honesty be the toughest fighter but their plans are definitely effective and they have strokes of genius under pressure.
There's the problem with Grimm, the effects of one of them showing up is the exact thing that's gonna draw more of them.
Luckily reinforcements got there….And I stand by my belief that it's not really a Dues Ex Machina if you already foreshadowed or set it up.
I could have had Ruby use her remaining silver eye but the image of her basically golf-swinging a Hippo monster into the air was too good to miss.
Yeah Coco and Velvet are basically the opposite of Ozpin and Goodwitch in a way, Velvet you can approach in and out of class but if you get called into Coco's office then you know you've fucked up somewhere.
Props to Astra for being ready to jump on proverbial grenade.
Props to Fox for finally owning up and taking responsibility.
I mean look, Team MARZ saved the day….But Astra and Regalia did still kinda fuck up.
"Look at me, I need better from you kid"….And at that moment I channelled my own Mum whilst writing Coco.
Fox is understandable….still a dumb-ass though.
If you've ever broken the law with friends and narrowly gotten away with it then you've had those conversations like Team MARZ's.
"Better me than everyone" and that right there is why Astra is the leader….I mean, more than half of Team MARZ's plans/combo moves involve using them as a projectile.
I can promise that Team MARZ's mission will absolutely not be perimeter defence.
They're not Laser levels of crafty, but Astra can still be crafty.
Of course Zirconia has never touched alcohol before, when would she have had chance?
Thank you to SumoSnipe and Funlander for their review on the last chapter.
Ship name for who?….For Athena-Jade and Zirconia it's "Buggy with the Bear"
A literal Bug-Bear is up there with another monster I've got an idea for, a disgustingly literal "Hawk-Tarantula-Moth"
No Team MARZ were armed, this is Menagerie not new Vale...Besides, I refuse to entertain the idea of rocket lockers.
I completely forgot about Buffy lol.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.