"In summary, be polite and don't break the law, kids. Remember, if you break the law, you don't go to Beacon. Oh, and be nice to the exchange students." Atin snapped his scroll closed, and started heading towards the door of the classroom.
"But…Sir, won't they have our student ID? If we did hypothetically break the law?" One of the sea of intermediate faces asked.
"If you get caught breaking the law, you will be expelled. I can't believe you even have to ask that." Atin shook his head, and was dismayed by the revelation, that there were in fact, stupid questions.
LLL
Max and Atin were walking behind Team RWBY through Vale, the group of six slowly making their way to the docks. "Appreciate you girls escorting us poor, defenseless, weak civvies into Vale," Max said, making a note on his scroll before putting it away.
Yang snorted a laugh at that. "Good one, sir," she replied, shaking her head at Max's obvious joke. "But you know, you didn't need to bribe Ruby with an extra batch of cookies, right?"
"Oh that wasn't a bribe Yang. That was payback for what you guys did in Port's class. Max was the one who had to clean it up. That's why he gave her extra sugary sugar cookies," Atin commented from the back of the group.
The only response was a nervous laugh from Yang. "Extra sugar? That's a pretty bad joke, Mr. Winchester," she said, just barely avoiding to stutter. After a few moments of silence, she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. "Sir?"
There was no reply from either teaching assistant, only a not in any way suspicious amount of whistling.
"So," Ruby finally piped up, the only one of her team not going pale at the thought of the leader on a sugar high, "who was that book guy?"
"Oh, that was Tukson," Max replied. "He's been supplying me with some teaching material for the last handful of months. Good guy." He nodded at Blake. "And is able to get his hands on some rather obscure material. How's that smut treating you, Ms. Belladonna?"
Blake began to turn crimson from a mix of shame and fury. "It's not 'smut'! Its romance, and it's treating me quite well, thank you very much Mister Force."
"Your vehement denial says otherwise."
"Also Blake, I tried reading one of your 'romance novels', and I have seen porn with more romance than that book. Also, I left the copy under your trash can, where it belongs." Atin slowly slide behind Max, ready to use him as a shield.
"Anyways," Max continued before Blake could retort once more, "thought maybe he'd be interested in working as Beacon's librarian. Position's open and it's a pretty good pay raise."
"Is it really that big of a difference?" Ruby asked.
"Well, working at Beacon pays pretty well. At least, compared to back home, it pays well."
"Also, hazard pay helps a ton. I mean really, its time and half. And if we have to work overtime, it stacks. Combat class on Friday's is amazing for my bank account, if not my blood pressure." Atin chimed in, feeling it was once again safe.
"Hold on, why do teaching assistants at a combat academy get hazard pay? You two don't even do any field work, why do you get hazard pay?" Weiss asked, unable or unwilling to hide the annoyance in her tone.
"Well technically Max and I are civilians, so there's that, and also, we are training seventeen to twenty year old kids on how to kill things for a living. These same students are permitted to wander around the campus, and the nearby civilian town, with loaded weapons. Need I go on?" Atin had caught up with the group just in time for his second favorite activity, sarcasm.
"Or should we show the scars from the stray shots we've had to deal with as proof? Got a good one on my forearm here," Max added in.
"Hell, we have to teach Nora! That girl alone qualifies us for hazard pay. Don't get me wrong, she's very kind, but I am outright terrified of that girl and her obsession with things that go boom," Atin spoke up, shuddering with fear.
Weiss appeared to consider something for a moment, before nodding. "I will concede you those points, I suppose," she said. As they neared the destination, Weiss appeared to speed up a bit, now smiling.
"Well, you seem rather excited, Weiss. Unusually so," Max noted.
"I don't think I've ever seen Weiss smile this much…It's actually kind of creepy." Ruby frowned a little, giving Weiss a sidelong glance.
Weiss turned to look at Max and Ruby, her smile clearly present on her face. "How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!"
Yang crossed her arms, sighing at her teammate's response. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."
"Quiet, you!"
As they approached the docks after a moment, Yang once again spoke. "Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?"
"And why you absolutely needed me and Atin here after helping us with our small errands?" Max cut in.
"Ugh, they smell like fish!" Ruby remarked, pinching her nose closed.
"The docks smell of fish? Gasp! Max, we need to get to the bottom of this mystery!" Atin rolled his eyes at the 15 year old.
"This must be the work of an enemy Semblance!" Max quipped.
"It must be quite strong to affect an entire area like the docks! Girls, you have to spread out and find the person causing this. Max and I will supervise. You will be graded on the amount of time it takes." Atin leaned back against the railing, breathing in the salty air, comforted by the fact that no matter what world you were on, the ocean smelled horrible.
"In all seriousness, what are we doing here?" Max asked, choosing to lean on the railing using his arms. Granted, he and Atin already knew the answer, but it never hurt to let Weiss have her little moments occasionally.
"I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!" Weiss declared, her eyes roaming the docks for likely passenger transports.
"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament." Blake rolled her eyes at Weiss's lack of subtlety.
"You can't prove that!" Weiss scoffed, putting on a hurt look.
"You know Weiss, if you want the inside scoop on the other team, I have low morals and can be convinced to 'lose' my scroll for a few hours, which happens to contain all the visiting teams information. I'll even give you a 'not a troublemaker' discount!" Atin hopped the Schnee heiress would take him up on the offer, Taco day was going to get more expensive with more students.
Before Max could reprimand Atin, Ruby grabbed the group's attention with a gasped, "Whoa." Turning around, they saw a Dust shop cordoned off with excessive amounts of yellow police tape. They walked over, seeing two detectives currently on-site. "Excuse me, sirs? What happened here?"
"I mean, besides a robbery. Or the murder of several yards worth of police tape, not sure which though!" Atin eyed the broken glass on the street, wondering why the criminals bothered smashing the windows.
"Please excuse him, he has brain damage, officers. Anyways, is this a robbery or something more, uh, violent?" Max piped in.
"That brain damage only affects my depth perception thank you very much. It's extremely rude to imply I am unaware of the fact that I'm a sarcastic ass. I work hard to be insufferable." Atin assumed a hurt look, unable to stop the corner of his mouth from twitching upwards.
"Robbery, indeed. Second shop to be hit this week, but oddly enough, no money was taken. Just the Dust. Who needs that much Dust, anyways? What would you even need that much for?" One detective, wearing black sunglasses with slick-backed black hair, was the one to answer.
"Party?" Max offered.
"Fireworks?" Atin suggested.
"Oh, ballroom dancing!"
"Don't be absurd, clearly its for the sickest rave ever." Atin shook his head at Max.
"What about becoming an unstoppable warrior by shoving crystals into my body at seemingly random spots?" Max looked at Atin, seemingly daring him to top that snarky comment.
"With that much Dust, you could blow up half the city. Or the wall." Atin felt queasy at the last comment, knowing the only reason he got away with it was that no one would take him seriously.
Max threw his arms up in surrender. "Alright, you win, man. Can't top that."
"Or maybe it's just the White Fang, jackasses." One of the detectives finally spoke up, though both of them looked quite annoyed at the two jokers.
"Ya know what I think? I think we don't get paid enough to deal with this kind of shit," the other detective announced, walking away from the peanut gallery.
"Hmph! The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates!" Weiss announced, her nose rising into the air.
Hand on hip, Blake stared at Weiss, asking, "What's your problem?"
Weiss turned to her, her tone of voice somewhat condescending. "My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus." Blake's voice began to grow hard, and her eyes narrowed.
"Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!" Weiss seemed to be growing more upset.
"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!"
Ruby interrupted at this point, saying, "Hmm... Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him."
Weiss replied, her eyes closed, tone almost lecturing. "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." Ignoring Blake's growing anger, Weiss put in a final, "Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."
Yang was the one to speak this time, looking at Weiss, clearly uncomfortable to be hearing the argument taking place between her teammates. "That's not necessarily true..."
"Hey, stop that Faunus!" An angry voice cried out from the direction of the docks.
The group ran back to the docks just in time to see a monkey faunus running on the deck of a ship that had just arrived. "Aaaaand that, kids, is why stereotypes exist," Max said, watching Sun run from some sailors.
"Stereotypes exist because stupid people do stupid things, and nothing makes for a good story like stupidity," Atin growled in annoyance.
"Thanks for the ride guys! Haha!" Sun shouted, leaping off the boat and hitting the ground running.
"You no good stowaway!" Another sailor shouted at him from the deck.
"Hey, if I was a no good stowaway, I would have been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" Sun shouted, hanging off a lampost from his tail. A rock sailed towards Sun, which he dodged with ease.
"Get down from there!" The two detectives from earlier had apparently heard the commotion as well, and decided they were paid enough to catch stowaways.
Atin quickly moved to a spot just in front of Blake, knowing what was coming. Seeing what Atin was doing, Max moved to a spot just slightly beside Blake, setting up an odd looking triangle between him, Blake, and Atin.
Sun swung himself to the top of the lampost, laughing at the detectives underneath him, before leaping off and running away. As he began to pass team RWBY he made sure to run in front of Blake giving her a wink before abruptly stumbling forward, running throat first into Max's extended arm. Max then curled his arm, bringing Sun into an impromtpu headlock, smiling at the detectives as they slowed down.
"So, do we get our junior detective badges now?" Atin smirked at the two officers, having far too much fun with the whole situation.
"As you soon as you hand that kid over, sure. Guess you two can do something other than make terrible jokes, which is good for you," one of the detectives said.
"We can't do that, officers. Believe it or not, he's an exchange student to Beacon, here for the Vytal Festival," Max explained, keeping Sun in the headlock. "I'm Max Force, a faculty member of Beacon Academy. Young Sun here is on the roster of exchange students from Shade Academy and we were asked by Headmaster Ozpin to greet him, as he decided to grab a ticket to arrive earlier than other students. He's a bit of a jokester, which his headmaster already warned us about." After a moment of silence, just enough time that the detectives could process what Max had said, he offered one last bit of comment. "If you'd like to call Beacon to confirm this, I'd be glad to let you use my scroll. Glynda Goodwitch and Headmaster Ozpin are both on speed dial, as is the main line for Beacon itself."
"Use mine. My coworker needs to keep attention focused on restraining the little miscreant." Atin proffered his scroll, already set to call Ozpin, simply awaiting confirmation.
"Alright, wiseguys, why don't we call your little bluff here," the detective with green hair said. He took the proffered scroll, looking at the number already pulled up. His partner was already on a separate scroll, confirming the number.
"Numbers match. Go ahead and call," the black haired detective gave the go ahead.
Pressing the call button, the scroll was put on speaker. After two rings, there was a click. "Mr. Winchester. I wasn't expecting any calls. Is there a problem down in Vale?" Coming from the other end of the line was the recognizable voice of Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy.
"No real problems sir, I just need to confirm that a, uhhhh…" Atin looked down at a very depressed Sun, "Sun, right? Sun Wukong?" Sun gave the strange man a quizzical look, but slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, I just need to be sure that Sun Wukong is on the list of visiting students for the Vytal Festival."
There was the sound of papers being shuffled and even drawers opening and closing for a few seconds. "Ah, yes. Right here. Has he already arrived?"
"He has." Atin made sure to shoot the young Faunus a glare, mostly for the benefit of the attending officers.
"My, the ship he was chartered on certainly made good time, as they promised, then. Would you mind escorting him, then? I know I asked you to meet him, but should he wish to see other sites in Vale today, I'd appreciate it if he had a guide or two."
"Of course, professor, we'll make sure to keep a close eye. And I don't think Sun will have a problem with that, right Sun?" Atin crouched down by Sun hoping he would play along.
"Oh, uh, yeah! Sure thing! It would be great to get a tour, I wouldn't want to get lost or something!" Sun hurriedly chimed in.
"Well, glad to hear it," Ozpin replied. "If you'll excuse me, Mr. Winchester." And with that, the scroll clicked once more, the call ending from Ozpin's side.
The two detectives looked at each other, before looking at the assistant teachers in disbelief. They handed Atin his scroll back. "Well, I...suppose you're free to go, then," green said, clearing his throat. "But in the future, please don't joke about breaking the laws, young man. There won't always be someone there to explain the situation like there was today." The two officers walked away, shaking their heads in confusion.
Once the detectives were out of earshot, Max released his hold on Sun, letting the student stand up straight finally. "Uh, thanks for that save, I guess," Sun said, rolling his neck a bit.
"Boy, you're lucky we were here. What is wrong with you? Your school paid for a ticket to get you here, why would you stowaway on a cargo freighter?" Atin glared at the student, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Well I-" Sun began to offer an explanation only to be cut off by Atin.
"Stop. I don't actually care what you were thinking. It was stupid. You not only endangered yourself, you almost threw away your future, you almost ruined your team's chance to compete in the Vytal Festival, and you almost ruined your school's reputation. You do something that stupid again without a very good reason and so help me I will throw you off Beacon tower." Atin fumed that anyone could be that stupid just for some fun. It annoyed him even more that Sun would have gotten away with it.
Max watched Sun slump at the lecture. After a moment of awkward silence, Max coughed, getting everyone's attention. "Anyways. Welcome to Vale, Sun Wukong. Why don't we show you around a bit, then we'll head to Beacon and figure out where you and your team are gonna be stuck once they get here? Any against?" When no one voiced dissension, though Atin appeared ready with some snide remark, Max clapped his hands. "Let's get walking, then. I believe there's a nice little cafe a short ways down that street."
"OH! I know a great place! Follow me!" Ruby announced, disappearing around the corner in a blur of petals."Owowowowowow". Ruby's pained voice echoed around the corner, causing the group to hurry around the corner after her, to see Ruby on the ground, rubbing her forehead and rolling back and forth, with an unnamed girl simply laying there on her back, perhaps concussed.
"Are you two alright?" Yang asked, leaning over to help Ruby up. "This is why you can't just go tearing off around blind corners Rubes." Her admonishment finished, she turned her attention to the other girl, who hadn't moved at all.
Max watched this little exchange, wondering to himself how much of what happened in the show would happen here. This had, after all, been a somewhat important scene in the show.
"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking." Penny announced from the ground
"Do you... wanna get up?" Yang asked slowly, a hint of nervousness creeping into her voice.
"Yes! My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny leaped to her feet causing the small crowd to jump back.
"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."
"I'm Weiss."
"Blake."
"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Blake smacked Yang on the side, shooting her a glare. "Oh, I'm Yang."
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny cheerily announced
"You already said that." mentioned Weiss
"So I did!" Penny declared with undiminished enthusiasm.
"Sorry for running into you! Take care, friend!" Ruby waved cheerily as everyone began to leave.
"She was... weird..." Yang shuddered slightly, fighting the urge to look over his shoulder.
"She certainly was an odd one" Weiss agreed
"What did you call me?" Penny asked, having suddenly appeared in front of the group, and Weiss in particular.
"Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me!" Yang at least the grace to look ashamed
"No, not you. You!" Penny announced, walking up to Ruby seemingly unconcerned with being called weird.
"Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..."" Ruby began stuttering, looking around nervously.
"You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?" Penny was now almost nose to nose with Ruby, staring deep into her eyes.
"Uuuum…" Ruby looked at her team over Penny's shoulder. Her team was frantically shaking their heads back and forth, realizing what would happen. "Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?"
"Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" Penny seemed even more enthusiastic than before, if that was possible.
"Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?" Ruby looked at Weiss, somewhat ashamed.
"No - she seems far more coordinated." Weiss smirked at Ruby.
"So... what are you doing in Vale?" Yang asked Penny.
"I'm here to fight in the tournament." Penny proudly declared.
"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Weiss asked incredulously.
"I'm combat ready!" A sharp salute accompanied Penny's statement.
"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part." Weiss could not contain her skepticism.
"Says the girl wearing a dress," Blake couldn't help but remark.
"It's a combat skirt!" Weiss' arms were almost as cross as her tone
Ruby appeared next to Weiss in blur of petals, giving her a low-five. "Yeah!"
"Wait a minute. If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know this monkey-tailed...rapscallion?"
"Sun, come with me. This is gonna take them awhile." Atin began walking away, having already given up on preventing the argument. "In the meantime, you and I are gonna have chat about the difference between 'fun' and criminal actions".
Max followed Atin, gesturing for Sun to follow as well. "Now, the first thing in those cases should always be you asking yourself the question of 'is this illegal?' If your first instinct is yes, guess what you probably shouldn't be doing, Sun," Max said, deciding that a headstart on the lecture would be a good way to pass the time.
"Also ask questions 'does this have a high chance of getting me expelled if caught?' If the answer is also yes, don't do that," Atin added on, while mumbling under his breath, "or just don't get caught."
Sun simply nodded his head along, confused by the last fifteen minutes of his life.
LLL
A knock on the door frame of their suite grabbed the attention of Beacon's teaching assistants. Max recognized the silhouette of Jade at the bead curtain. "What's up, Jade? Cookies are already doled out for the day, you know," Max said.
"Oh, um, no, sir, I'm not here about those," Jade replied.
"For the last time, transcripts are in the bin. I swear to God, I'm gonna buy an actual neon sign for that thing," Atin's voice echoed out from his room.
"It's not that either, Mr. Winchester," Jade said, rubbing the back of her head. "Um...I might have overheard team RWBY discussing plans to go looking for one of their teammates. I think they said she's been missing since Friday, and, um, this, kinda, well, seemed like something faculty should know about."
"Max! It finally happened! A student with common sense! We found one." Emerging from his room, Atin shoved his feet into his shoes, trying to conceal his annoyance with team RWBY. "Come on Max, we better go stop them."
Max scoot his chair back, sighing. "Of course this shit still happens. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Jade. Go on back to your room, we'll take care of this," Max said. "Someone's in for another lecture."
Atin and Max left their room, knowing full well they could not, in fact, stop team RWBY, despite the damage that would be done to the docks. "So, where should we watch from? And should we call the cops?" Atin asked Max as they made their down the hall
"Well, assuming shit hasn't blown up yet, we can attempt to call the cops. Dunno if our ruleset will let us, but the worst that can happen is we die, so probably worth a shot at least."
"I'll make the call once we get there. Can't have them arrive too early. They would be at risk of death then. Don't want that on me." Atin quickly poked his head into team RWBY's dorm, confirming their absence.
LLL
An awkward silence filled the air at the docks. After all was said and done and with some property damage committed, Max and Glynda were finalizing details with the police officers, while Atin stood with team RWBY and Sun, glaring at the children with irritation clear on his face. The students, for their part, had the decency to at least look somewhat ashamed. The next week of detention would be a long one for them.