"So Glynda, why did you want to talk us? What new fire do we have to put out?" Atin tipped his chair back from the table, arms crossed behind his head.
"Team CRDL isn't starting shit again, are they? Because I'm pretty sure their mentors would be cross if so," Max added in, choosing to lean forward onto the table.
"Don't tell us, we want to guess! They started another fight on the docks! Your guess, Max." Atin hid his grin well, maintaining a deadpan.
"They had another food fight, but this time there were actual injuries?"
"They got another world famous criminal locked up?"
"You know, I almost felt bad about signing you two up for the exhibition match, but with that little display, you have removed any lingering guilt I had." Glynda glared at the two.
Max was suddenly sitting straighter in his chair, looking at his co-worker. "That's some, uh, interesting workplace humor there, Glynda," he said, trying to gauge her reaction.
"It sounded a lot like you just said we have an exhibition match. As in, combat. Something we are woefully unqualified for, as Qrow's ever climbing body count can attest to." Atin dropped to floor, no longer relaxed. "More importantly, you know all this, including the fact that we are not in fact, huntsmen. So what possessed you to have us do an exhibition bout? Because we will die. Messily, and screaming. That won't look good on the yearly student review."
"Everything he just said, plus the fact we still haven't got any weapons, except for my scroll," Max pointed out.
"About that, General Ironwood was having some trouble getting the items you requested through customs. It would seem the City is… hesitant to ship fully automatic rifles to our school. I'm not sure why, given some of our students' ammunition requests. But he was able to get you something for the upcoming bout." WIth that, Glynda handed each of them what was unmistakably a standard issue Atlas infantry sidearm.
"A pistol? Glynda, you want us to fight whoever the hell is gonna fight us, with nothing but pistols. What did we do to deserve this? Is it the sarcasm? You could have asked me to tone it down, as opposed to arranging our actual deaths. And Max did nothing to you. That I know of," Atin said.
"I'm hoping this little match will help Max get out of this depressive funk of his. Some of the students are noticing and it seems to be slightly impacting them at this point."
"Max is always depressed! That happens when you're a million miles from home and faced with a sudden case of constant death. It wears the psyche down just a tad, ya know? Quite frankly I'm amazed we've held up as well as we have! I haven't even lost my temper at anyone. Or at least, anyone that didn't cause a mass casualty incident. And how on earth is getting humiliated and murdered supposed to fix his depression anyway?" Atin stared dumbfounded at his boss.
"First off, yeah, how does that help me in anyway? Second, I haven't really been that bad...have I?" Max asked.
"Max, Mercury noticed. Mercury. You have been pretty bad."
"Mercury? Really? He never made mention of it to me."
"Yes well, hate to break the tough guy facade, but I overheard him muttering to himself about how you were depressing even him. He really should stop talking to himself, terrible habit. Never know who might be listening. Regardless, getting this back on track, who are we stuck fighting, Glynda?" Atin inquired.
"The two of you will be fighting team CRDL. Given your training sessions with Qrow, you might actually be able to fight them, given that they are the currently lowest ranked team in my class," Glynda went back to explaining, looking at her tablet/scroll.
"Glynda, they have Aura. We don't. How are we supposed to beat them? If Cardin even touches us with that mace, we will go from teacher to chunky salsa in seconds! Just because I will come back doesn't mean I'm keen on dying, at all," Atin said.
Max, meanwhile, was looking at the pistol that had been handed to him, inspecting it. "Wait, are these forty-fives?" he muttered, somewhat surprised he and Atin were being given permission to use these, even if it was against super-powered beings.
"Max, forty-five or not, we are fighting people who can shrug it off. We might as well be shooting Wesker for all the good these will do us! At least Glynda gave us live rounds. We can make them bleed. If they bleed, we can kill them. Or at least knock them out." Atin placed the gun on the table, feeling slightly better about his chances. "So when's this exhibition? Do I have time to write my will?"
"Wills are useless," Max said.
"I suppose they are. So how much time do we have Glynda?" Atin inquired.
"Class starts in a half hour, I expect you to two to be there on time. Also, as the bout will be broadcast, I expect you two to clean up. You're representing the school after all." Glynda strode out of the room.
"Wait, broadcast?!" Max shouted, standing up and knocking his chair back in the process.
"Max, I think we've got trouble, oh I say trouble, right here in Beacon Academy," Atin slumped in his seat. "I'm gonna go see if I can't shake Winter down for some forty-five caliber dust rounds. Maybe that will help us. Go get us some more ammo from the armory would you? We're gonna need it."
"Isn't Winter still in the middle of some kind of investigation?"
"I'm about to contract a sudden case of mace-face, Max, she is the least of our problems." Atin stomped down the hallway, muttering under his breath.
Max rubbed at his chin, before deciding to make his way to the armory and his stash of lockers to prepare.
"Oh, I don't want to see Mr. Atin or Mr. Max die. This is going to be terrible! Why would they sign up for this?" Ruby asked her friends.
Weiss sighed, shaking her head. "Knowing those two, this probably wasn't actually their idea," she pointed out calmly. "Nevermind Atin, Max has always seemed pretty non-confrontational. I feel like even Atin would only fight if provoked."
"I can't wait to see how strong they are. They have to be at least half as good as the professors! They're TA's at Beacon Academy after all!" Nora pulled a sign from nowhere, along with popcorn.
"Nora, how do you keep sneaking popcorn in here? And share?" Yang asked, eyeing the crumpled paper bag.
Jaun began an explosive coughing fit, before muttering under his breath, "They are going to make such a mess of the arena."
"Given the 'advice' Mr. Winchester has given me, I'm actually a little concerned for Cardin's safety. He might have been a bully, but I don't think he deserves what those two will to do them," Ren said, misinterpreting Jaune's comment.
"Well Max, Winter was surprisingly helpful. I got a magazine of dust rounds. One. Fire. But it's better than nothing." Atin tossed the magazine to Max. "You're probably a better shot than I am. Hand me some of that ammo, would you please?"
"Yeah, sure. You want ice, fire, gravity, or lightning dust rounds?" Max asked.
"Where did you get that ammo from? How? It's a pain in the ass to get, especially in a thirty minute window. By which I mean impossible, unless you say, ask a member of the Schnee family." Atin stared at Max, perplexed.
"Hey, I have a surplus of money every week, Atin, and I never said I had the ammunition on hand. I spend my money on things other than baking supplies, I'll have you know." Max loaded a magazine into his pistol, then tossed a magazine of regular bullets to Atin.
"Let's get this over with, I want to go ask Ozpin why he okayed this for broadcast." Atin turned to face the door, a resigned look on his face.
"Well, it could be worse. Could have pitted us against a second- or third-year team." Though he said it with feigned confidence, Max winced at how stupid that really sounded out loud.
Both taking one last breath, they walked through the doorway and out to the arena.
"Alright, Team CRDL, what's the first rule of terrain on the battlefield?" Max's voice came out of the speaker system of the arena, surprising the students watching the exhibition match.
"Are...are they all wearing mics or something?" Yang asked, confused as everyone else right from the match's start.
"Um, use the terrain to your advantage, sir?" came the somewhat hesitant reply from Sky.
"That's correct. How about rule number two?" Max had his scroll out, casually typing something out with his thumb, eyes on Team CRDL.
"Oh, I know this one! If the enemy is using it, blow it up! Xcom taught me that." Atin chimed in, looking over Max's shoulder.
Max shrugged. "We'll call that Rule One A. CRDL, rule two?"
"There's a rule two?" Dove asked, sharing his team's confusion.
This confusion was mirrored in the stands, even Glynda seeming somewhat confused. Peter coughed a bit, having been asked by Ozpin to commentate on the match for the broadcast, rubbing his chin.
Max grinned, his thumb making a final tap. "Rule two: if there is no terrain, then make your own."
Beside Ren, Nora was scribbling this down in a notepad she had brought with her, while everyone else looked at Max as if he was crazy.
A loud series of eleven THUNK'S echoed through the stadium in quick succession, causing some people to jump in their seats. There were now lockers littering the arena. "Max, you realize that Glynda will charge for the ceiling, right?" Atin asked.
"Wait, is he allowed to do that?" Weiss asked, looking at her team and Team JNPR beside them.
"I mean, maybe? There isn't a rule against it as far as I know. It certainly never came up on the tournament circuit," Pyrrha replied, sounding confused.
"Final rule, I promise," Max said, tapping on his scroll again. "Never stand near your enemy's terrain."
A locker that had landed right behind Team CRDL beeped, the boys turning to look behind themselves in fear. With a click, the locker door slowly swung open. And deposited cookies onto the battlefield.
"Max, did you think we were fighting team RWBY? 'Cause that doesn't help. At all. In the slightest. Also, you have now deployed a locker full of cookies on national television. I hope you're proud." Atin began lightly banging his head on a nearby locker.
"Uh, just to warn you, that one could hold the explosives I was hoping they were in the other locker there," Max said, coughing into his hand a bit to hide some small amount of embarrassment.
"Where did you…no, I don't want to know. In fact, it's better if I don't know." Atin quickly backed away from the locker.
"Is this a joke to you two? You aren't gonna take us even remotely seriously?" A very annoyed Cardin asked the two.
"In my defense, Cardin, I really did think that was the explosive payload…" Max looked at his scroll, then at the pistol in his right hand. "Oh, right...match has started." And with that, he unloaded half of his magazine into Russell, catching the teen off guard, before diving towards a cluster of three lockers to hide behind.
"God DAMNIT Max!" Atin shouted, leaping behind the possibly explosive locker, looking for the manual release, hoping it contained the promised payload.
"Stop joking around!" Cardin began running straight at Atin, seemingly unconcerned about the locker's contents, his mace held high, ready to smash it straight down.
"Oh shit!" Atin cried out, fumbling with the locker door, finally finding the catch. With a soft click the locker opened to reveal a multitude of bullets, of all calibers, spilling forth in front of it. Cardin, mid-charge, was unprepared for the terrain to become so slippery, and promptly began windmilling his arm, desperately trying to keep from falling over backwards. Atin promptly began shooting the young man, unwilling to let a golden opportunity pass in the name of sportsmanship.
Meanwhile, Max managed to open one of the lockers he was hiding behind, trying to keep an eye on the rest of Team CRDL, who had spread out a bit. Downside, there was nothing of use. Upside, if he wanted to hide in the locker, he could. "Fuck, I really need to get these organized better!" Max grunted, shooting the rest of his magazine at Sky, who ducked behind a locker of his own.
After a quick reload, Max took a look at the locker Sky had chosen, squinting and just barely making out what it's identification code was. He tapped his scroll again, telling the locker to open. And with a smile, he aimed his pistol carefully as a pile of dust crystals of varying elements spilled out. "Fire in the hole!" he bellowed, unleashing a few shots at the pile, then ducking back behind his cluster of lockers as the crystals violently exploded.
"Is he insane? That's absurdly dangerous! That is practically lethal force, and he used it against a student in an exhibition fight!" Weiss stared dumbfounded at the arena floor, eyeing the monitors as the smoke cleared from the Dust explosion, her voice faintly reaching Glynda over the sound of the explosion.
Unsurprisingly, the locker had been blown back, taking Sky with it on its way out of the arena. The locker had taken the brunt of the explosion, leaving Sky with significantly more Aura than would have been expected, while the locker was nearly in tatters. "Sky Lark has been knocked out of the arena," Glynda calmly announced, pinching the bridge of her nose. If she'd known just how quickly Max was willing to escalate in this match, she may not have arranged it at all.
Atin, not expecting the explosion, was thrown onto his side, as was Cardin. Atin began slowly climbing to his feet, a trickle of blood coming from his nose, stumbling back behind the locker. Cardin, his Aura having absorbed the explosion stood up with significantly less difficulty, was shouting something no-one on the floor could understand, his eyes moving quickly around the lockers, unsure of where the TA had gone to ground.
Atin quickly found the catch on the newest locker, hoping it was something useful. The locker opened, and a truly absurd assortment of knives spilled out, along with what may have been a taser or three, ball bearings, small boxes of caltrops, even a sword or two, boxes of matches, and an emergency fire blanket.
"Max, why did you pack a locker full of knives and camping equipment?" Atin yelled across the arena, before realizing that would in fact, tell Cardin where he was.
Max was unable to answer, however, due to the ringing in his ears, having been a fair bit closer to what was a much larger explosion than expected. "What?" he yelled, most everything he could hear reduced to a dull muffle for the time being.
Atin quickly began ripping open boxes of caltrops and ball bearings, throwing them around himself.
"I won't fall for the same trick twice! I will make you take this seriously!" Cardin began kicking the ball bearings out of his way, simply stomping the caltrops flat, using his mace to block the incoming bullets. Atin used the time Cardin spent removing ball bearings to grab two of the tasers, and a knife that looked suspiciously like a gladius. He then began running over towards Max, and more importantly, some unopened lockers.
Max, meanwhile, worked on one of the two remaining lockers he'd chosen to hide behind, the door opening. Inside was a pile of fire dust crystals, Max groaning, already tired of seeing dust crystals after his last interaction with them. He grabbed them by the handful, throwing them towards Russell and Dove, who immediately dove away from the crystals. By the time Max had thrown them all out, Atin was beside him.
"So good news, we are technically winning right now. Bad news. Cardin is both still standing, and very pissed. The bullets aren't doing much. Any idea how his Aura's doing? Or was Glynda mean enough to block us from looking at that down here?" Atin slid into cover by his friend, firing blindly over the lockers.
Max shook his head. The ringing was still there, but he could now hear Atin properly. "Dunno, haven't checked. Kept my locker screen up this entire time," Max replied, reloading his pistol with the magazine of fire dust that Atin had given him at the start of the match.
"Okay, so I have a plan for Cardin. But it's real dumb. How confident are you at dodging a giant mace buddy?" Atin asked.
"Not very."
"Then you get the tasers. We've seen that physical objects can go through Aura. So I'm gonna keep his attention. You tase the shit out of him until he's a twitching mess. Hopefully I don't die. That would be… unfortunate. Can't believe Ozpin is broadcasting this. Got it?" Atin sat up in a sprinters crouch, looking sideways at his friend.
Max held one of the tasers in his right hand, holding the pistol in his offhand now. "Just hope I don't miss, then," Max said, readying the taser.
"Well aren't you mister reassuring. Here I go." Atin took off at a full sprint, charging right at a surprised Cardin. He leapt over Cardin, barely clearing the young man's head, landing behind and continuing to run, firing blindly back at the young man. "Come on mister heavy armor, keep up!" Atin shouted back at the bewildered student.
Max steadied his aim, pulling the trigger on the taser. The darts flew out, nailing Cardin and sticking to his armor. With another pull, the taser unleashed its volts, locking Cardin's muscles as he began to twitch and spasm. Once the taser ran out of juice, Cardin fell face first onto the ground, now unconscious, slightly drooling. Max looked at the taser in hand, whistling. "I need to get some more of these," he muttered, dropping the now spent taser.
"How are they doing this? They're just… normal people. But they're taking a team of Huntsmen apart like it's nothing. They look like they aren't even trying!" Ruby looked at the rest of her friends, making sure to keep her voice down.
"Actually, they look like they're getting lucky," Ren pointed out, his arms crossed as he watched the exhibition match. "Mr. Max did say that he needed to organize the lockers earlier, didn't he? Which means each time they've opened a locker, it's been essentially random chance as to what would be in there."
"Although they did at least plan how to take Cardin out, even if it was rather risky and last minute. My instructors would have some… interesting things to say to them." Pyrrha chimed in.
Atin stopped sprinting after a moment, looking behind him. "Well I didn't expect that to work on the first try. Hey Max, we better wrap this up quick. You left the the oven on didn't you?" Atin yelled across the arena, ducking down behind an empty locker, which left the remaining members of CRDL caught between them.
"Like hell I did," Max replied, looking for the last half of Team CRDL. They had wisely chosen to hide behind lockers for the time being while Max and Atin had been focused on Cardin.
"Well, it looks like this is gonna be a good old fashioned western, unless you actually have a locker of explosives." Atin poked his head over the locker, only to be greeted by a spray of bullets.
Max worked the latch on the remaining locker he was hiding behind. Seeing the locker full of ice dust ammunition, he began pocketing magazines, unloading his fire dust and loading up some ice dust. "Alright, this could work." He grabbed a few more magazines, wondering if he'd be able to throw them to Atin. Max pulled back, then threw forward, the magazines all flying apart and landing haphazardly around the arena. "Well, fuck…"
"I've had enough of this. Lets see what Mr. Force hid in this locker." Dove pried locker open, which opened to reveal a large number of MRE packets. "What the hell? What is this?" Dove stared at the locker, baffled. "Russel, what's in your locker?" he asked.
"Lets see." Russell simply ripped the door off his locker, throwing it Max.
Max ducked down, having only just seen it in time. "What the fuck, Russell?! Who throws lockers?" After a moment, realization dawned. "Oh...right, yeah, I'll just shut up…"
Russell stared at the contents of the locker, a wicked smile on his face. He noticed there was a detonator as well and he picked it up, his thumb held just above the red button. "Pretty sure we got the best locker, Dove," Russell said, grabbing one of the explosives and chucking it towards Atin's hiding spot. It sailed over the locker, landing just behind the TA. Russell pressed down on the detonator, before noticing that none of the detonators were synced. "Who sends a bunch of explosives with unsynced detonators to a combat zone?" Russell yelled at Max.
"The same guy who forgot to organize the lockers in the first place!" Max yelled back, taking aim with his ice dust ammunition and unloading the magazine. Every round managed to hit the locker Russell dived back behind in response to the gunshots. "Fuck, I'm a southerner, I'm not supposed to be this bad at aiming!"
"I literally have no depth perception, and I'm pretty sure I have better accuracy percentage than you right now." Atin yelled across the room at Max.
"Then start shooting!"
"No! If I miss it'll ruin my percentage! Gotta pad them stats." Atin peeked around the locker to make sure the two students weren't trying to rush them. After a few tense minutes of silence, Atin decided to act. "Max, cover me!" Atin yelled, sprinting out from his locker towards Max.
"Wait, what?!" Max yelled back, completely missing what Atin had requested.
Dove, hearing the confusion, stuck his head up and began firing at Atin. He fired rapidly, hitting Atin in the thigh. Atin fell, just barely making it into cover, but not before getting hit again in the ankle. Atin bit into his lip, just barely keeping himself from screaming and collapsing into a ball. He just managed to wheeze out "Great… covering… fire."
"Fuck off, you ran out without any warning," Max chided. He peeked around the cluster, his eyes widening. He had completely forgotten about the piles of fire dust crystals he'd thrown around Russell and Dove just a few minutes prior. He pulled out the magazine of fire dust Atin had given him before the fight and loaded it into his pistol. He hit a pile of crystals right between the two remaining members of team CRDL, the explosion knocking out a good chunk of their aura. Max clicked his tongue in disappointment. "Was really hoping that'd be close enough to some other crystals to set off a chain."
"Yeah… Me, too, man. We gotta wrap this up, it's not making for good viewing, and Glynda is looking antsy up there. You just knocked a chunk off them, rush'em. I'll cover you. I would do the rushing, but, they winged me. I'm not gonna be doing a whole lot of running for now." Atin began quickly ripping part of his sleeve up for a makeshift bandage, quickly tying it off so as not to bleed out.
Max loaded another magazine of ice dust, holding the pistol ready. "Okay, let me know when you're good to cover me." Max grabbed the locker door Russell had thrown, gripping it a bit awkwardly.
Atin loaded an ice dust magazine, slowly turned himself over, one hand braced to quickly pull himself up. "Ready as I'm gonna be, let's get this over with. I'll try to distract them. Go." Atin looked at his friend, waiting for his signal.
"Okay, let's hope this doesn't end horribly on live television. Now!"
"Time for some misdirection. Grenade out!" Atin yelled at the end of his thought, pulling himself and bracing the pistol against the locker.
"You don't have any grenades in these lockers! Just a hundred grappling hooks! For some reason!" Dove shouted, peeking out from the cover.
"They were on sale, for fuck's sake!" Max yelled as he swung out from the lockers, positioning the locker door in front of his body as he bull rushed Dove first. He fired at Dove, using the holes in the locker door to take shaky aim at the boy. The ice dust exploded along Dove's right arm, encasing it in ice, including his weapon. And Max didn't bother slowing down.
Dove made a bit of an awkward roll to his left, getting out of the way of the TA that was trying to run him down, but that also took him fully out of cover.
Atin, never one to waste a golden opportunity, shifted his aim towards the hapless student. Atin began firing, but was unable to land a solid shot on a part of the student that was not covered by ice, succeeding only in weighing the young man down further.
Max, meanwhile, made a hard turn to rush at Russell, holstering his pistol and grabbing the locker door with both hands. Lowering his center of gravity and bracing his shoulder against the door, he ran full bore into Russell, lifting the much skinnier male off his feet and carrying him to the edge of arena. Just before Max could fully get Russell off the stage, Russell managed to plant his feet, halting the TAs advance. "Oh, come on, you couldn't just take a dive?!" Max exclaimed, no longer caring about the mic.
With an unusual deftness, Max tossed the locker door up slightly and then caught it near the end, swinging fully around to slam the locker door into a surprised Russell. The teenager caught himself in time, moving with the locker door to get away from the edge of the arena and out of range of the locker door. "Like hell I'd do something like that!" Russell shouted back, readying his knives. Russell rushed at Max with both daggers, intent on impaling Max's shoulders.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Max quickly dropped to a knee, the daggers sailing over his head. As Russell's momentum carried him further over Max, Max attempted to grab him, but Russell managed to use his momentum to sail clear over the TA's head.
Russell quickly turned and this time, managed to plunge his daggers at the TA successfully. What was unexpected, however, was the daggers sinking into the shoulders and drawing blood. Max yelled in pain, his other leg falling out from under him from the pain. The upside of this was that Russell would have a harder time getting the TA to ring out. The downside, the daggers were buried pretty good and went with the body they were in.
Max grunted, his right hand finding his pistol again. He pulled it out, hoping there were still some bullets in the magazine as he raised it and placed it under Russell's chin. He pulled the trigger and was rewarded with the bullet kicking Russell's head back. The impact and subsequent freezing, along with the blood that he hadn't been expecting now coating them, caused Russell's grip to slip off both daggers. Max fired again, rewarded with another bullet, this one hitting Russell's chest. A third pull revealed that the magazine was empty, however.
Max dropped the pistol, gritting his teeth at the feel of the daggers. With some effort, Max stood up, taking a step towards Russell. He lifted his right leg and planted it into Russell's chest, pushing with all his might to knock the young man out of the arena. Somehow, someway, Russell fell back and out, leaving Max to stand there, amazed that he'd somehow gotten through alive.
As Max bull rushed Russell, Atin began limping towards dove, but foot was unable to take the weight, even at slow pace. He fell to the ground, landing heavily on his knees barely keeping himself from falling over. He slowly began standing, placing all his weight on his uninjured leg, levering himself up as Dove began angrily punching the ice keeping both him and his weapon pinned to the ground. A few small chips flew off, but the unfavorable position robbed his blows of much of their strength. Atin began hobbling forward, putting as little wait on his leg as possible.
"Sorry about this Dove. This isn't is gonna be fun for you."
As Atin continued hobbling, Dove began punching the ice more frantically, still unable to break himself free. He watched as the Student Teacher slowly came towards him, an unpleasant look in his eyes. Dove stared upwards as Atin shuffled into view. He noticed the impromptu bandage, and the way the Student Teacher kept his weight off his leg. He tried to punch him in the injured leg, but Atin awkwardly hopped out of reach, watching as the young man strained to hit him.
"Trying to hit my leg I assume. Smart. Unfortunately, you're gonna have to be a little more clever when you try to exploit something like that. I assure you, having hobbled over here, I wasn't about to let myself get taken down with a cheap shot." Atin brought the pistol up, his arm shaking slightly from the pain, before methodically pinning the young man with ice, first his other arm, then his legs. "Does this count as unable to fight yet? I kinda don't want to keep shooting one of the students when they can't do anything." Atin looked over towards Glynda, unconcerned with the now thoroughly pinned Dove.
"As his aura isn't reduced far enough, it shall be Mr. Bronzewing's choice. He may continue the match in his current state or yield. If he believes he can turn this around, I see no reason to not let him continue," Glynda answered, raising her voice slightly to ensure that Atin would be able to hear her over what sounded like Max screaming in pain.
Dove strained against the ice imprisoning him, his body lifting upwards, his face turning red from the effort. He tried this twice more, the ice doing little more than dripping cold water onto the floor. He looked over at Atin, who sat down near his head, gun not quite aimed at his head. "I give up. I'm not strong enough to bust this ice. And I really don't want to get shot in the face today," Dove said, sighing in acceptance.
"Listen to everyone around us! They think those two are some kind of combat geniuses! Did they even listen to any of their conversations? Clearly they were just getting by on luck!" Weiss was fuming, staring in disbelief at her fellow students.
"I kinda figured they weren't much for combat, but this is kind of ridiculous," came a voice beside teams RWBY and JNPR. Turning, they saw it was Jade, someone who they recognized as an upperclassmen, but their interactions with her were at a minimum. In fact, the only reason they knew who she was was in part due to her visiting the TAs on a regular basis. "What about you guys? You buying this like everyone else?" After a moment of silence, the two teams realized she was looking at them and waiting for an answer.
"Of course not! Just listen to what they were saying! They had no idea what they were doing, it was just pure dumb luck." Weiss snorted, glancing back at the arena to see the two TAs hobbling off the stage with the help of some third years that Glynda had motioned down from the stands.
"Um...you're, uh, Jade, right?" Ruby spoke up, drawing Jade's attention.
With a smile and a nod, Jade replied, "Yeah, that's me. Surprised you remember my name. Pretty sure we've only interacted two, maybe three times, right? You're Ruby, right?"
Ruby nodded, smiling at being remembered. "Yeah! Of Team RWBY!"
"Oh, I know. You lot are one of the more… memorable first year teams. You and your team certainly have been busy this year, haven't you?" Jade said. "And how about your friends? I recognize you four since you're on the same hall as the TAs, but I don't think we've actually met at all. I'm Jade." She squinted her eyes at Pyrrha. "You look kinda familiar, though…"
"Oh, I'm Pyrrha! It's a pleasure to meet you. You've probably just seen me around is all." Pyrrha replied, thrilled to have run into someone else with no idea who she was.
"My name is Lie Ren, most people call me Ren. It's nice to meet you." Ren said.
"I'm Jaune, hi," Jaune introduced himself next. "We're all team JNPR, by the way."
"And I'm Nora! It's great to meet you!" Nora said, posing on the back of her chair.
"Well, nice to meet all of you, then. Hope you lot stick around Beacon through graduation," Jade said at the end of the introductions.
"Hey, Jade? We see you pretty often on our hall, but I don't think we've ever seen your team. You...do have a team, right?" Yang asked, curious about their new possible friend.
Jade scratched her cheek, chuckling nervously. "Ah, yeah, I have a team, they're just...I'm pretty sure they ditched to go to the comic shop in Vale…" Jade mumbled the answer out, a bit embarrassed.
"Do they even interact with Mr. Max and Mr. Atin?" Ruby asked.
"Um, yeah, they do. Just not usually at their room. And, on Sunday mornings, they always send me to pick up the cookies." Jade crossed her arms again, looking at the arena to see that the participants were still in somewhat of a deadlock. "Speaking of our TAs, I wonder why they never activated their Aura. I'm not surprised Cardin was yelling about them not taking this seriously. It was really stupid of them to do that, especially seeing how they won through luck."
Team's RWBY and JNPR quickly glanced at each other, unsure how to respond.
"Yes well, those two are rather full of themselves. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Mr. Winchester talked Max into not using their Aura to 'put on a good show' or something dumb like that," Blake chimed in.
Jade sighed. "Yeah...yeah, I could see that happening…"
Ozpin looked across his desk at the two TAs sitting in chairs. "Well, I must admit the numbers you two posted are impressive. Some of the best the school has ever seen in fact. There wasn't really much of a precedence for this, but still far and away the most impressive ones I've been able to dig up." Ozpin continued flipping through the papers in his hands. He turned one page around, which displayed a line graph of some kind, with a large number circled in red at the top. "In fact, we did so well, I'm not even going to charge Mr. Force for the roof repairs."
"I had daggers...in my shoulders, Ozpin," Max said, staring at the headmaster.
"I was shot. Twice. I had to shoot a student into submission. I'm pretty sure he suffered some nerve damage from that. I don't exactly feel good about that Ozpin. Although the business student in me is happy that our numbers are excellent." Atin glared at Ozpin."I would however like to ask just one question if I may professor."
Ozpin took a sip from his mug. "And what might that be, Mr. Winchester?"
Atin cleared his throat slightly before projecting his question "What the fuck is wrong with you? We have no Aura, we could have died in front of the student body, and you televised the event?"
"We had the utmost faith in the abilities of those present."
"I am legally blind in one eye!" Atin was unaware of the tic that his eye had developed.
Ozpin raised an eyebrow, waiting for Atin to finish his retort. Upon realizing that was the extent, Ozpin lowered the eyebrow. "I was certain, at the very least, that we'd be able to cut the broadcast before your actual deaths, if nothing else. And I'm certain Glynda would have easily handled the student body and explanations concerning your seeming deaths."
"Oh I would love to see her explain away my brain on Cardin's mace. As it stands, everyone saw Max get stabbed, and me get shot! I suppose, what I'm trying to get at here, is why in the name of God you put us through that and televised it. I'm really hoping you have an amazing explanation for us." Atin looked expectantly at Ozpin.
"As it stands, there was actually an idea. First of all, it allowed to me show to certain concerned individuals that you do have at least some small measure of combat potential. Secondly, a different group has been trying to find out more about you two, and this should quite thoroughly baffle them. Lastly, suddenly paying for, and housing two brand new TA's has left something of a hole in our budget, and this fixed it quite nicely." Ozpin took a slow sip of his coffee.
"I smell bullshit and I don't know which parts I can call it on," Max said, his scroll now in his hand.
"About the only one I'm willing to buy is the budget one. I somehow doubt that any of the 'concerned parties' watched that shitshow, and if they did, I very much doubt we instilled any confidence in them, and/or caused quaking of boots, respectively." Atin leaned over to see what was on Max's scroll. "Max, it won't work. These windows are very shatterproof. I tried. Good thought though. Also, just how many spare lockers did you steal from the school?"
"Enough." Max looked down at his scroll, at the big red FIRE button that he'd talked someone into programming into the locker call program for him. With a sigh, he put it away. "Well, at least now we know that our power also heals us from serious injuries. Though I can still feel the daggers sometimes," Max noted, rolling his shoulders. "Not pleasant."
"You know what, Ozpin? I'll do something I don't normally do. I'll believe someone in a position of Authority. For now anyway. Just as long as we get to see some actual results from this." Atin stood up from his chair, heading towards the elevators. With nothing to add, Max stood up and followed Atin into the elevator.
A/N
Atin: We don't normally do these, just wanted to let everyone know that the story isn't dead, the two us have just been busy with work and life. That is all, carry on.
Max: For the fight scene, a majority of the interactions and every locker, save for the cookie one, we rolled dice for. So that was interesting for on the fly writing.