*Adrian's Home, Beacon Academy*
Tweeting.
The tweeting of birds.
How long had it been since he had heard them clearly?
Adrian could see the morning light shine through his bedroom windows as he got himself up from his bed. Glad that the current dream wasn't so bad as the first one, he sighed a heavy sigh and put on whatever he had took off yesterday.
7:06 am, the digital alarm clock on the right side of his bed told him so. Ozpin really did take great lengths to house his visitors well.
Staring to the window, he went over and stared outside for a while longer. Beacon Academy certainly did look beautiful during the early hours. He bet some of the students around here would be doing the same thing, appreciating what was in front of them.
He never had the liberty to do these simple tasks. The only less-than painful memory of said task was the day during his induction into the US Army, smelling the fresh American aroma and watching buildings become replaced by cactuses and dry bushes as the bus took him to a military camp in Albuquerque.
Those days were something amazing to him, like a somewhat distant dream he enjoyed.
Deciding to now focus on the day ahead of him, Adrian walked away from the window and down to the kitchen. Checking the fridge, Adrian saw it was stockpiled with fresh food, rather surprising considering Beacon had bought that amount of food during his first night at the academy.
Eager for something light, he thought cereal would be the best option. Grabbing the milk, he looked through the shelfs and drawers and found some cereal, Pumpkin Pete's to be exact. Taking a more thorough look at the box, he was amused to see Pyrrha on the box art.
"Cool." He shrugged as he found a bowl to pour the cereal into, and then the milk after. Taking a spoon and carrying the bowl with him to the couch, he placed the bowl onto the coffee table and removed his mask before dining into his breakfast.
Each spoonful was like a pint of nirvana, reminding Adrian that he hadn't eaten for two days, a pretty remarkable feat on his part. He mentally said to himself that the flakes were plain, but the marshmallows made up for it. He also wondered how Pyrrha got into the box art in the first place.
About to consume his 27th spoonful, he heard a sharp, refined knocking on his door. Placing his cereal onto the table, he rushed over to the door and opened it, revealing the person behind it to be Ozpin.
"Hello Adrian." He simply greeted.
"Good morning sir." He returned. "You need something?"
"Just a discussion. Mind if I come in?"
"Sure." Adrian let the headmaster walk inside, with him following right behind. Ozpin scanned the room, seeing it had been relatively left fresh, aside from the bowl of cereal and the open box of Pumpkin Pete's.
"I disrupt your breakfast?" The trooper nodded, and Ozpin let out a slight smile. "I see, you can keep indulging if you'd like."
"That'd be rude. But if you let me then sure." Adrian sat back down on the couch and picked up his bowl. Surprisingly, Ozpin sat with him to his left, even relaxing himself as he let his posture droop.
"This is a feeling I haven't in a while. It's almost nostalgic." Ozpin mentioned.
"Well, we all miss the simple things in life don't we sir?" He said as he took in another spoonful of Pumpkin Pete's.
"You don't have to call me 'sir', this is your house. You treat me however you want." Ozpin reminded.
"Sure thing, Oz." Adrian chuckled. "Now you wanted to talk about something?"
"Some elaboration on Glynda's… hallucination." Ozpin said.
"I'm listening." Adrian let his shoulders fail and sunk into the couch, putting his bowl down beforehand to hear what the Headmaster had to say.
"We pried details from her after she calmed herself down, even now she's quite shaken of the incident. From being in a Vortigaunt's body to being beaten by two unknown men, I wouldn't blame her." Ozpin started.
He continued, narrowing down the details as Adrian listened intently. He was surprised to learn that the G-Man was responsible for her state yesterday, with the intention of cancelling another advantage for him. But who in the hallucination had beaten her exactly? And why too? Adrian nodded after hearing the full story.
"So, anything else?"
"Well, Peter did draw a description of Glynda's attackers with her help," Ozpin dug his hand under his coat and took out a piece of neatly folded paper. "I wanted to see if it had any significance to you."
Adrian unfolded the paper and saw an impressive drawing of their description. Looking through every detail, it seemed like some crazy sci-fi armed force. That was until Adrian had his eyes intently stare at the gas-mask the attackers wore.
"Is something wrong?" Ozpin questioned.
"Shit, those look like Soviet PMG gas-masks, just without the big-ass filter on the right." Adrian answered.
"So, this means Glynda somehow, managed to hallucinate Earth… How do you know this?"
"Before Black Mesa made the standard-issue gas-masks for the HECU, the PMG gas-masks were being put into consideration. They were demonstrated and the troops there even got to wear them." Ozpin raised his eyes in surprise to hear that the HECU and Black Mesa had collaborated, more information was good at least.
"So, with the connection to the G-Man and Earth we can consider two things. One, the G-Man forced the hallucination onto her as a scare tactic. And two, Glynda was indeed briefly sent to Earth as a Vortigaunt, which raises the question of what happened after the Black Mesa Incident," Ozpin turned to look at Adrian. "Any theories?"
"Maybe the aliens were enslaved? It'd make sense."
"It would be a shame if they were. No one, not even a trans-dimensional race of creatures should be subject to such tragedies. But if they failed their invasion, why would they go back…?" Ozpin sighed. This was a lot to take in.
Adrian shrugged. "I don't think it's good to make assumptions for now. Once we somehow get more information, perhaps we can land a hit somewhere."
"Perhaps," the Headmaster rose from the couch. "Thank you for the information Adrian, I'll inform the staff about it." Ozpin was halfway through walking to the door when he turned around. "Oh, and as well, I've contributed some Lien to your Lien card. I suggest you buy something to store those… critters of yours."
Adrian nodded as the Headmaster made haste in his departure. Picking the bowl up again, he consumed another spoon of Pumpkin Pete's, a loud crunch echoing through the house as he slowly ate.
The true day started as Adrian walked to the first class of the day, Doctor Oobleck's class. Adrian had no intention to learn anything, but just to hang back and watch whatever happened. As he walked through the hallways of Beacon Academy, the students continued with their greetings towards him, which he took with a nod as he entered Oobleck's class.
"Ah! Adrian! Care to join us?" Oobleck asked.
"No sir, just here to watch for today." Adrian replied. Oobleck nodded and continued to teach his class while Adrian laid against the wall and watched on.
Catching sight of Ruby and Weiss, he remembered he had left the two hanging due to being so burnt out. He could see Ruby whispering for answers from Weiss and the girl in question annoyingly saying to just copy it down quickly. She did specify what the rosy girl had missed, sparking Adrian's hope for the two.
Adrian continued to scan the class for individuals he knew. Team JNPR were concentrated with writing down what was on the chalkboard apart from Nora who was strangely closer to Ren today. Velvet was in the same mindset but was unaware of the almost silent sniggering of Team CRDL. Adrian mentally noted to keep an eye on the four.
And so Oobleck continued and his class kept writing. Adrian didn't bring Helix's Walkman with him or the iPod he had, so listened to the doctor's babble as the hours ticked by. After he finished explaining a particular part of Remnant's history concerning their first encounter with the Grimm, he turned to all the students.
"Now, any questions you'd like to ask?" Oobleck saw the hands of Weiss, Jaune, Ruby and Nora go up, he went with the order he had seen them.
"Are these ancient kingdoms still standing as of today, any monuments or important areas?"
"I'm afraid not Miss Schnee! But with the excursion to Vale's museum next week, I'm sure you could find whatever items those archaeologists managed to scavenge."
"Uh, I don't have the note for that excursion sir."
"It's doctor, Mr. Arc, you can stay back after class and I'll hand it to you."
"U-Um, I couldn't write most of it down, you uh… wrote way too fast for me…"
"Forgive me Miss Rose, I'll see to it I write at… societal speeds."
"What were we doing again?"
"Perhaps if you weren't sleeping for half the lesson you would know Miss Valkyrie. I'll be checking your work next lesson so consider this a warning." Nora whimpered and sunk into her seat, devastated she had to do work when she could be having fun.
"Now, we only have five minutes remaining and we've covered today's material. As one of the staff of this academy it is most important I know what my students want, so any suggestions?" Oobleck questioned, but no one answered as the class remained in awkward silence.
"Maybe we could question Green-Eyes over there." The leader of Team CRDL, Cardin Winchester quipped as his team looked over to Adrian, still laying against the wall and playing with his Tactical Radio before he looked up at the mention of his name.
"Be my guest." Adrian sarcastically said, dreading what kind of questions they would ask.
"Excellent! Come on up Mr. Shephard!" Oobleck welcomed Adrian to his desk, sitting down and sighing loudly. "Here's the groundwork, you have any questions I don't want to answer, I won't. Ask anything stupid and I'll ignore you. Ask something with some agreeable intent and I'll be happy to answer." Adrian elaborated to the class.
Blake was the first to ask. "What's your opinion on the Faunus?"
"Just ask Velvet that, I explained it to her and if I did now I'd get some disagreement from some people." Adrian glared at Team CRDL as he said that, them looking like they wanted to beat his face in.
"How's your family?" Yang went second. Her family wasn't always the happiest, especially since her birth mother left when she was fresh out the womb, maybe Adrian shared the same thing, it was a curious thought she wanted answers to,
Adrian took his time to answer that question. His relationship had always been… strained when it came to family. He was a happy kid some many years ago, then he got too curious and that outlook on life shattered in front of him.
"Margret, things have been getting stressful lately. The bills have been piling up like fucking crazy."
"I blame Adrian entirely! The first time we did it we were completely careful, now I regret even doing you in the first place!"
"I… agree Margy. Still, the kid could hear us. You know what happens when they have low opinions on you."
"I don't give a shit Toby, I was having so, much fun when we were dating. Now that we've got the kid… I hate it so much…"
It took some time for him to fully understand as his mind was still growing. But his parent's musings eventually got more redder and redder until even both weren't afraid to admit those things to him straight in front of him. School payments didn't help either.
He understood why they felt that. People only lived once, and his parents wanted to experience that fully, feeling guilty even for restricting that after coming into the world. But the same saying applied to him too, and he just wanted to deck both their faces for how badly they had treated him as he grew.
"Adrian!" Yang shouted. "You gonna answer or what?"
Adrian jerked upwards, still deep in thought when Yang got his attention. The answer would be easy to convey though.
"No."
Yang had a confused look on her face, before it went solemn as she sank down into the seat she was on. Adrian kept a stern expression on his own despite the painful memories and Yang realised one thing; whatever it was, it was much worse than her mommy problems.
Everyone else noticed the tense atmosphere and decided not to push him too far.
"You may have been trained in Atlas, but were you born elsewhere?" Weiss questioned as the third. Pyrrha's expression and overall posture showed she was interested in the answer Adrian would give as well.
"Vacuo, I was born in Vacuo. Parents worked hard and sent me off to Atlas for training." All a lie, rather he was born in New Orleans, his parents never worked to get him anywhere and it was a veteran looking for a drink that led to his military career, even if his parents never knew that.
Weiss and Pyrrha on the other hand, had the exact same thoughts, although it was more Remnant-exclusive. Vacuo was a kingdom that generally accepted anyone if they could survive its conditions, so it made sense considering his rough nature and innate survival instinct as well as his trained mind.
"Why isn't there any information concerning the HECU?" Velvet was the next to ask, it would be good for her and her team to know why they couldn't find anything two days back.
Another question Adrian knew would be asked. "Well I explained what we did, which was general combat in unfamiliar environments considered too dangerous for the Atlas Army. The HECU and Black Operations had a… disagreement. Higher-ups shut us down before it could escalate."
If by disagreement by his terms meant one side firing at the other despite years of collaboration, then it'd make some modicum of sense.
"What do you mean by 'disagreement'?" She repeated.
"Fine, I'll humour you. Two high-ranking officers from both sects got into an argument, next thing you know they've both got bullet holes in their heads and I'm pretty sure they didn't decide on joint suicide." Adrian pointed at the bunny girl. "Happy now?"
Weiss quickly raised her hand once more. "Were they both Atlesians?"
"Uh, don't know about that one."
Velvet worryingly nodded, shivering as she knew the grisly details of both the HECU and Black Operations. Weiss looked on in disgust, she couldn't fault Adrian as much as she did previously, not after what he did. However, if they were Atlesians, she couldn't think of men solving their problems in such primal manners, especially those from Atlas. Made her almost glad both were shut down.
"Why are some of your weapons really boring?" Ruby said, the same girl who wielded a high-impact sniper scythe, something incredibly bizarre if the sizes of both her weapon and body were taken into account.
"I don't need some willy-nilly weapon that can switch from one thing to another. If it works and shoots then I'm fine with that. It's basically like comparing barbeque and tomato sauce when both are still good condiments regardless."
Although a Desert Eagle that could turn into my wrench could be handy…
Shut up.
Adrian could see the class had no more questions left. "Duty calls, for something you lot don't need to know. Mundane stuff anyway." He said, rising from his chair and walking to the open doors that led to the hallways.
Adrian was now wandering aimlessly through Beacon Academy, but not before making a detour back home to grab his iPod so he could listen to his music, not Helix's. He made sure to hide it so no one would be asking questions, something he didn't need.
He had many artists that fit the bill of "walk aimlessly in a beautiful world", and he played through all their tracks. He was sometimes so distracted that when students passed by and waved, he wouldn't notice and continued walking past, too enthralled in his own musical world to notice.
Sometimes he would start spontaneously dancing, students and staff looked on with confused looks and Adrian decided to do it when he was alone next time.
Now Adrian was at the Main Avenue, laying back on the statue as he watched the clouds roll by and students come back from where-ever they had gone. Playing some air drums, he watched inconsistently for any new activity, his body getting more and more hyperactive as it demanded combat.
He seriously needed a mission, Adrian would eventually just start walking for the sake of walking due to a lack of combat. It made him fidgety just thinking about it, just wanting to fire a gun.
He could ask Ozpin to go to the Emerald Forest and hunt down some Grimm, but he would most likely refuse as it would be bad for his reputation to see a newly-appointed huntsman die or get injured during such and that Adrian himself was much too important after he had revealed his backstory.
Maybe this academy had some firing range or that sort of thing, the students carried highly dangerous weapons with them after all…
Wait a minute.
The trooper got up and eagerly looked for any teams returning from the Bullhead docks and saw a team with some rather exotic and revealing clothing, which also went for the three males in the team as well. They held rather bizarre weapons that Adrian didn't care much of.
Walking up to them, the female in the team stared in awe of who was coming up to them and rushed over to him before he even made it to them at all. She zipped around checking through all his clothing before finally facing him.
"So you are the 'Atlas Trooper' everyone's been talking about!" She bubbly said, accompanied with a very positive-looking smile.
"And you are…?" Adrian asked.
"Dahlia Copperstone!" She answered with that bubbly tone of hers.
"Alright, can I- "
"We heard you took on a Death Stalker solo and won! Is that true?"
"Yeah, I did, woo-hoo. Now I just- "
"Has anyone told you that mask looks awesome!"
"No, I don't care. Will you- "
"Can I have your autograph?"
"Sure, if you let me- "
"Can you give me specifics, I can give you specifics, it would seriously be helpful if you did!"
And so, Adrian used his own bare hands to clamp onto Dahlia's face, before shaking her violently and with as much force as possible.
"Look kid, could you just the god damn question I'm about to ask because if you seriously don't," He made sure she could see his eyes behind the green-tinted shades of the mask as he whispered; "I am going to go fucking insane!"
"Uh um buh guuuuh…" She could only stutter looking at his deadpan eyes. Her team only decided to intervene after seeing Adrian aggressively shake one of their teammates.
"Hey, lay it off her, will you?!" One of the them said. He had unusually glossy and spiky hair, had piercings on his ears and wore some combat apparel all except for a crop top.
Adrian regained his senses and held his head, he had seriously let himself go at that point and was quite embarrassed he was close to scaring a kid. At the same time however, she was being a tad annoying constantly annoying him.
"Erm," Adrian started, "Sorry about that. I'm just a bit… radical, and I just wanted to ask something." It was embarrassing for a person his age to lose his mind in front of group of teens.
The three boys were about to go comfort their female teammate when she slowly spun forward and stared him in the eyes, she seemed like a lost puppy with those bright, ruby eyes. She had realised what Adrian had wanted and frankly, she seemed distressed about it.
"Oh…" She squeaked in her sudden revelation. "I didn't realise. I really should stop asking questions. I get too excited and…" She could speak no further as she sunk into her world of personal gloom. Adrian should've felt for her, but it was all so sudden that it took a while to process.
"Oh great." One of her teammates in seriously decked-out combat gear contrasted with his atrociously large afro. "Dangan Everbloom, I'll answer your question."
Adrian only replied with "Shooting range?"
"Ah, that's near the armoury, just head right when ya see the entrance." He went with his team to go comfort Dahlia. "And just, don't come talkin' to us like that, 'kay?"
Adrian gave a lazy thumbs-up as he watched the team leave. Muttering to himself about how he acted like a complete lunatic, hopefully some pot-shots with his Desert Eagle could quell his fighting side.
"Mhm, so you can't do that today?"
"No Adrian, I'm afraid not. It would take three days for the tank displays to arrive. I suggest you make haste."
"Affirmative, I'll let you know once I've made the decision."
"I trust that you will."
Adrian ended his conversation with Ozpin, who had let him know that the tanks for the specimens like his Snarks, the Spore Launcher and the Spore Fruit it fed on would come in a few days, accounting for the purchase, the delivery and the moving into Adrian's home. The display for the Spore Launcher and Spore Fruits were the biggest problem though, as the space they needed would need custom-built tanks, which could take time to be put together.
So, this was his plan. Get the Desert Eagle, go to the shooting range, fire a few shots. If he wasn't satisfied, get his M16 and fire some more, fire a grenade if he so wished to, then either go to Vale and buy the tank for the Snarks or rest for the day and tirelessly keep waiting for a mission to come to him.
So far, he had concealed the Desert Eagle in a pocket in his PCV and was now making his way to the shooting range. Now that he was a lot calmer knowing there was one, he asked for directions to the foundry, of which he got. So far, the plan was going with no setbacks to speak of.
And a set-back appeared right as he thought of that, it was almost comedic.
Adrian heard his name being called, and turned to see both Coco and Velvet, with the bunny girl being dragged against her will by her partner's excessive strength. The fashionista had a big, dumb smile on her face while Velvet looked like she had been through an intense office day and hadn't even taken a nap. To say she looked dead was an understatement.
"What's up with you trooper!" She exclaimed in her usual tone.
"What's up with your Velvet?" He sarcastically shot back.
"Huh, well I just wanted to go into Vale, and Velvet wanted to come too!" She showed off Velvet, who was dying for sleep. Reaching out a hand for Adrian, she couldn't hold it up and let it fall as she continued feeling like utter crap.
"Sure… I'm just going to go to the shooting range if you don't mind me." Adrian boringly stated, ready to just walk away.
"Well, I'll see… wait. Are you wearing the same clothes as yesterday?" Coco questioned.
"No, I just have clothes that work, and are just the same, so yeah, that answers the question."
"Oh, I mean I could spend some Lien for you to buy some… reasonable clothes."
"Please don't."
"Come on Adrikins, it'll be fun!"
"Don't call me that, ever."
"Pleaaaaaase?"
"No. I'm going to say this now. Go away, and for crying out loud don't drag Velvet into your problems."
Coco decided to get uncomfortably close to Adrian and stared him dead in the eyes, she tilted her glasses down and gave a cold, angry glare at the trooper, Adrian could only do the same with his own dead, dastardly stare, both getting nearer to one another as the silence continued.
"So, that's how you feel then…"
"Of course, Coco, just leave me be…"
The girl just smiled, another big, dumb smile. And then a sudden hit in the gut that Adrian had no clue would happen nor had enough time to react to. Clutching his stomach due to her surprisingly strong punch, Coco tripped the trooper who landed harshly on the floor, before being grabbed by the back of his shirt collar and dragged by her.
Velvet looked at the unfortunate man, still in her dead mood. She groaned out two words that made Adrian fear for the worst.
"You're doomed."
With those two words Adrian struggled to escape Coco's iron grip, but it was useless and she refused to let go. Adrian wasn't one to give up though, and thrashed around even when the three had gotten into the Bullhead en-route to Vale. Whatever happens, he hoped it wasn't too bad.
*[LOCATION: Vale, Remnant]*
After two hours of being dragged alongside Velvet by their captor Coco, she reached the destination they were meant to be in. A fashion store, all glossy and shiny like any other high-end store.
Oh god, of course it's a fashion store, why would it not be?
"Alright you two! Let's go!" Coco dropped the two and strutted her way into the store. The receptionist looked at who had entered and then raised her brows like she recognized her, and she did indeed. They both greeted each other with genuine smiles.
"Ms. Adel, glad to see you back." The receptionist started.
"Same here Dilly, how have you been?" Coco replied.
The two started to converse with one another as Adrian and Velvet entered through the glass doors. He noticed that she had bags under her eyes, and somehow, they were prominent now. Remnant was weird for sure.
"So, what now?" He asked.
"I usually try umm, to run, yeah… but uh, you know, she catches up and drags me back. So, no-go with that, no hope either." She answered as she calmly laid herself on the floor. She was acting different than her usual self.
"So? I don't think what she'll do is that bad. What is it anyway?" He asked again.
"Clothes, she keeps dragging me uh, into wearing different ones. I enjoyed it at first, yeah, but then I stopped liking it. She didn't care how much I said no. Her love for fashion really just over-takes her." Velvet bluntly answered.
"Ah, well then." Adrian sighed and waited for Coco to finish. "You should talk to her about that."
"Maybe." She simply stated right as Coco waved the both to come over. Adrian picked up Velvet and they both went over to the fashionista. He looked at the receptionist's name tag, seeing the name "Dilly Carnation" etched onto it, what was with the flower names anyway?
"More people to enjoy your recreational activities?" She sarcastically quipped.
Coco didn't see the obvious sarcasm in Dilly's comment. "Of course, got Velvet here and the 'Atlas Trooper' I've been talking about!"
Dilly had quite the neutral face as she shook hands with Adrian, waiting for Coco to get concerned with Velvet before speaking. "Did she drag you into this as well?"
"What do you think?" He rhetorically asked.
"Mmm, I see. Well, she won't treat you too badly, but Velvet looks worse than usual."
"Have you talked to Coco about it?"
"Not at all. I did before but I gave up after the 69th time she ignored me."
"Oh, damn." Adrian whispered as he saw the two girls walk towards them. "She's still a good girl, what a shame."
"Adrian, come with me! I think I found some stuff that could suit you!" Coco triumphantly shouted, holding up several clothes held up by their hangers.
"You don't have to shout, Coco." He grumbled as he followed the two to whatever Coco was doing.
Simply put, Coco just wanted him to try on some clothes she thought would suit him. It was nothing too harsh, Dilly was right about Coco treating her well. Having to change several times due to her insistence that the next would be better annoyed him however, especially when she decided to point out his gas-mask.
"Do you always wear that mask?" Coco asked, circling Adrian to get a better look at the clothes.
"It'd be best if people didn't see my face." He replied wearing the peculiar set of clothing.
"Why's that? Scared?" She teased him, lightly pushing him forwards.
"So I can do things easier. Hard to do some things when people recognize you."
"Like what?"
No comment from the trooper. He took a glance at Velvet who looked somewhat interested in what Adrian was saying, but ignored it for the most part, spending her valuable time looking at the floor.
More clothes, more of Coco's insistence and more changing later, Adrian stepped out of the changing room for the two to have a good look. Coco eagerly nodded her head at what she saw while Velvet looked wide awake seeing what he was wearing.
First off, Adrian had his gas-mask off this time, instead wearing aviators to cover his eyes, was wearing a leather jacket over a mostly black long-sleeve shirt, a rather nice looking belt that kept his grey slim-fit pants tight and some combat boots to top it all off.
"So?" He laid back onto the changing room's door and waited for a reply.
Coco gave one of her dumb grins as well as a thumbs-up, while Velvet nodded but paid no mind.
"Alright cool, can I get out of this now?" Adrian begged.
"Sure," Coco looked to her partner and helped her stand up. "Alright Velvet, your turn!"
Her response was to fall face first onto the ground and sleep. When Coco went to help her she saw that the bunny girl had fallen into a deep slumber, even snoring and drooling. Picking her up by the arm and carrying her, she went over to Dilly while Adrian could only watch whatever in God's name just happened.
[A few minutes later…]
"Coco…"
"I know what you're going to say Adrian."
Adrian had gone out of his way to carry Velvet out of the store when she had collapsed. Coco tried to look as innocent as possible going out, earning narrowed eyes from both Adrian and Dilly, who really did shake their heads as the three went out.
Velvet was now on piggyback and sleeping peacefully. Now in an alley to talk with Coco, Adrian's back ached from Velvet's weight, but he gritted his teeth and did what had to. Now he was looking at the fashionista who was whistling and twiddling her fingers to not associate herself with the two.
"Coco…"
"Not my fault."
Adrian sighed, she was in denial and he had to get her out of it.
"Coco, tell me why you drag Velvet into this?" He firstly asked.
"I already told you!" She complained.
"Then tell me the truth."
"What? Adrian, it was the truth!"
"Tell me or I'll not only carry Velvet back to Beacon, but I'll ask Ozpin to dismantle Team CFVY due to abuse of leadership." Adrian finally stated.
The girl flared in anger and stepped a few paces back. "You can't do that!" Coco assumed a fighting stance, fists up and ready to stop Adrian from breaking their team apart.
"I will, somehow." He stated, bored but also gradually getting aware of Coco's hostility as he put Velvet down and rested her onto the opposite wall. "You want to stop me? Go ahead."
Coco took a step forward and glared at him like a cougar, Adrian barely flinched and stood his ground. She took another and tightened her fists, the trooper was unfazed. Then Coco started running and pulled her fist back to punch Adrian square in the face.
He dug his feet into the ground in preparation for her punch. He knew it wouldn't hurt as much as his PCV would take most of the blunt force, but at the same time she had Aura and his punches would be much less effective, meaning sheer force wasn't going to work. If he was to retaliate, he would have to subdue her.
So, he was pleasantly surprised to see Coco completely miss her punch and slam the wall behind him, scaring Adrian as he thought he heard the wall crack. Both could hear Velvet suddenly go wide awake from hearing Coco's punch.
"I'm not a dumbass." Coco growled as she let her fist untighten, with Adrian seeing that she had heavily bruised her punching hand. "I know how to pick my fights."
"Then are you ready to talk then?" Adrian asked. "The complete truth this time?"
"Yeah," Coco massaged her punching hand. "Right, time to tell you."
They both went to face one another, eyes locked.
Coco started. "Let me be real with you here, if there's something I hate, it's being alone. Ever since I was a kid, everyone at my national academy always tried to avoid me, I loved fashion, maybe too much. I'd shoehorn it in any conversation I could be a part of, either they left me to myself or kept quiet until I left…"
"Then rumours started going about. Rumours that were completely bullshit, let me tell you that. Eventually I started getting bullied and I didn't even know why I was in the first place. I was always lonely, glum most of the time too. My parents were nice folk but they always pushed for me to make a few friends. It annoyed them at first, then it angered them…"
"I learned what was best for me after that. Keep quiet and shut up about what I like. Those rumours went and were gone, but I was still always so alone because all that negative stuff still stuck with me. I never made friends until I got to Beacon, where my team became my family, kind of…"
"I've always been so bombastic and cheerful and all that happy slapstick crap because it made me forget my younger years. I obviously loathe it and wish it never happened, but I can't change that. Being alone is one of these things that make me remember, so I drag others with me not only because their dress sense is awful, but so I don't think of the people staring at me as I walk past them…"
Coco sighed and crossed her arms. "Happy now?"
"Slightly." Adrian answered. "I can understand though."
"Is that all?" She asked.
"It's not my problem and I rather it shouldn't be. Instead, tell your team the exact same thing you said to me," Adrian took a quick glance at Velvet, who was now fully awake and wide-eyed hearing what Coco had said. "Because I can see you've been keeping this hidden."
"You can't blame me for that." Coco shot back.
"I don't have a reason to, at least one I can't think of yet." Adrian shifted himself out of the alley and looked back to the girl. "Come on, you had your fun, now I need something myself."
Coco nodded and let Adrian go first, while getting Velvet up from the ground, still wide-eyed. Coco would've liked to say sorry, but she didn't want to lose Adrian in the crowd right now.
Meanwhile, some suspicious folk set their eyes on the soldier, unarmed and unaware. They whispered among themselves before tailing the odd-looking trooper, not dressed in the usual Atlas attire. The hustle continued, the pace was normal, but many wouldn't know of what was to come.
Adrian steadily made his way to a shop where display tanks were being sold, or he should've been if Ozpin had given him directions, the earlier call he had stated to look for "Noir's Great Display" and had walked for 28 minutes, of which he had decided to time out of sheer boredom.
Adrian was taking point, confidently making his pace as he knew he'd find it soon enough. The two girls we're strangely disconnected from one another, each refusing to make eye contact or even accidently bump into the other. He knew Coco's reason, but Velvet's more so bewildered him.
Time passed by, the minutes were recorded, and the three's silence continued. For a world, full of teens with complex weapons and dark creatures of evil, it was in all honesty, boring when you weren't fighting, although perhaps that's what Adrian thought himself.
Luck would be on his side though, as the shop would eventually present itself, courtesy of a few answered questions. The store wasn't very ornate like Dilly's, but more simplistic and to the point. This was a store, look around, buy something or not, get out.
And for its title of 'greatest' it really didn't look that great.
Entering the store, it was as organized as any other store but with a lot less flair than the previous. It was just a darn normal store, what was there for Adrian to say?
"You must be Adrian. Professor Ozpin told me beforehand you were coming." The receptionist greeted, no doubt this was Noir.
"Then you know what I'm here for?" Adrian asked.
"Of course, excuse me while I get what you need." Noir replied as he made his way into the storeroom.
Adrian ushered the two girls to come forth and gave them the simple instruction to safeguard the displays while he decided to head to the bathroom.
Meanwhile a group of about three people entered the store. They look relatively average and were just passer-byers. The only distinct feature was that they were Faunus, one had a reptilian tail, another has fox ears and the last had the horns of a ram. They greeted Velvet and Coco nicely, which they returned their good will.
A simple request for them to use the bathroom too, which Noir accepted once he had returned had them confidently pace into the men's bathroom, seeing the trooper they had targeted washing his hands.
"Oh, hey." Adrian saw the three Faunus and prepared to dry his hands when they suddenly reached into their various pockets and drew switchblades, each of them clearly sharpened to kill.
"Bet the Lieutenant will be happy to know we've rid of one more Atlesian from Remnant, right boys?" The one with the fox ears chuckled, clearly the leader of this posse, the other two smiled deviously alongside him.
"Lieutenant hey? How about I beat you three before you do that?" Adrian asked. He wished they'd have answered at least as they rushed him intent on causing a gory mess.
His instinct kicked in, the space they were in were cramped, providing him an advantage somewhat, and something to work off on. The reptilian Faunus struck first with an attempt to impale him in the gut, which Adrian reacted with a swift dodge and an even swifter slug to the face.
More things to note, these lot weren't good with blades, aimlessly trying to stab him which he moved out of the way before retaliating. Military training always beat street brawling,
And the practice of sometimes punching a Houndeye in it's well, eyes.
The ram Faunus decided it was big-brain hour and tried to break Adrian's ribs with his horns. That only earned him a painful collision with the bathroom walls and a downwards shoulder to the head, putting him out of the fight, even if Adrian narrowly dodged it.
The reptilian Faunus, clearly frightened but still eager to win, swiped at him. Adrian ducked under him and delivered a righteous uppercut to the hooligan and a swing to his face, putting down the second Faunus.
The fox Faunus, tired of Adrian's apparent expertise decided to try a rather effective technique, you could say it was passed down to him.
He ran, ran with all his might. Didn't get him anywhere though as Adrian tripped him by grabbing his leg and dragged him across the floor before quickly disarming him and choking him until unconsciousness came.
"Too easy." Adrian harrumphed, his friends back at Santego gave him a harder time.
Now, about your Lieutenant…
Adrian quickly dug through their pockets to find something at least. He suspected the leader to have something of worth, but only found his phone, still useful. He turned it on to see if any messages had been sent and saw something from their Lieutenant:
"Tracked a large supply of Dust via trucks heading towards the docks. Be here ASAP tomorrow to intercept or I'll drag you by the collar of your shirts."
Good. Adrian took the phone off him as evidence for Ozpin, and hopefully an excuse to finally fight.
He checked the ram Faunus' pockets, nothing. Too bad.
The reptilian Faunus however, had a note, well more of a folded pamphlet tucked in one of his jacket's pockets. He unfolded it to see a simple reminder:
To All Faunus
Saturday 23rd
Come to Warehouse 12 located at the Docks for White Fang recruitment
We hope to see our fellow brothers and sisters there.
A Dust robbery to stop and a mass recruitment to crash? Quite the find indeed.
He pocketed the note and finally dried his hands before Coco decided to peek inside, impatient with Adrian's time needed to simply do his business and leave.
"Adrian, what's taking so lo- HOLY SHIT!"
*Adrian's Home, Beacon Academy*
If Adrian ever considered a day to be a good one, this'd be one out of many.
The displays were finally carried back home, courtesy of Velvet and Coco's help in getting them to his abode and Port and Peach coming to help with storing the creatures. A Snark escaped and attempted to swallow Port's fine moustache but nothing too bad other than that.
Velvet and Coco were still silent during the subsequent VPD visit to the store and the return to Vale, although he knew they'd be back to their normal selves by tomorrow.
The evidence had been delivered, Ozpin acknowledge his feats and promised he'd let Adrian know what would transpire for their side by tomorrow. Hopefully that meant Adrian could be a participant in such.
Adrian slept aptly that night, the tweeting the birds replaced with the shrill noises of crickets as another day passed in this strange, magical world.
I'M NOT DEAD!
Never will be anyway, sorry for the fic's slight delay which will be explained later, but firstly. I've decided to make these ending messages more of my personal thoughts while typing this and not just some throwaway thing to mention.
Firstly, I feel I had shoe-horned a lot of things to get the chapter chugging along, including Coco's reason of dragging Velvet to her antics in the first place. Originally, I had Coco and Adrian in a fully-fledged fight rather than what's currently there. I got rid of it because 1. Coco isn't that dumb and 2. There's no need for that type of filler with the reason previously stated.
Secondly, filler. I will say that the chapters that cover Volume 1 and 2 of RWBY will be sort of filler-heavy, at least from my perspective. I don't plan to re-tread on events from the show and do somewhat original ones. I'm not a good writer, which shouldn't be an excuse you bore you all with fluff. Hopefully the later chapters I can think of something interesting to add.
And the delay. A lot of things have happened alongside my constant procrastination. You, the reader probably came for a kick-ass story and not to pity me so I'll summarise it:
Got into some depressing stuff with my friends on Discord.
Bought some games to handle someone important leaving me.
Procrastination.
Wanting to spend my short break doing things (like gaming).
The family life is kind of awful.
And with that out of the way, time to read the reviews:
Bill Cipher3 – Thanks? I don't really consider myself that good of an author. Reading a lot of fanfics (preferably good ones) they're leagues better than me overall.
Guest – Psionics do exist, both in scrapped material for Half-Life (with both the Kingpin and CIA Brainboy) and Half-Life 2, since Combine Advisors do use psionics.
Leader – I just thought it'd be cool to do, I had no intention to take something from that god-awful game, but thank you I suppose.
pizzama2003 – Is that so? Then thank you then. Honestly, I try and replicate the G-Man's stutters and pauses and creepy tone through complicated words and it looks like it turned out. He'll become more important as this fanfic goes on.
Before I go, I'll leave you, the reader with a short excerpt of my next planned fanfic after this one covers the entirety of Vol. 3 (and I take a break from RWBY). If you know the characters then congratulations
"Piss on a rock, those bastards don't know when to give up..."
Foster and Kirumi split from the rest of the group to find the ammo caches The Patriarch so conveniently spread across the Killing Floor, he never really made it easy for them, mostly for his own amusement.
Encountering a pack of idle Quarter-Pounders, both had to high tail it out of there when they started roaring and sprinting at them. Foster was pretty sure he sprained his ankle while running for his life and Kirumi hadn't run this fast since her botched execution.
So now they had shut themselves off in a storage room, the blast doors provided decent protection from the ramming of steel and collision of flesh (courtesy of the Quarter-Pounders speeding their own heads into the iron). There were no connections to other rooms though, and the two had basically cornered themselves.
Foster heaved as he sat himself down onto the floor. "Bloody hell that smarts..." His sprained ankle was more of an annoyance than an issue but still, it hurt.
Kirumi paced over to him and knelt, while also taking out her medical kit. "Do you require assistance?"
Foster tightly held her arm before she could even start. "Nah, just a sprain. Not like I'm screaming that I lost my leg kid." He said as Kirumi nodded and stood, looking at the currently pounded door.
"Mr. Foster, I fear that door won't hold for much longer. We need a plan." Kirumi squeaked as she saw holes burst forth from the metal separating them from the Specimens.
"Alright, here's Mr. Foster's 100% Zed-Proof Plan!" He pointed at the maid. "You, go find us a way out of here," then pointed to himself. "Me? Just gonna lay back and wait, count my money stacks too. Chop chop! Throw me a bone once you find somethin'."
Kirumi simply nodded once more before commencing the orders given to her. Foster, with the power of Horizine technology kindly gifted by The Patriarch's former (and now dead) employees, digitally reconstructed $4,000 worth of stacks to either marvel at or throw around.
It wasn't really money, but it was money nonetheless.
Foster was mentally singing his own, handwritten song consisting of counting how much money he had and how rich he was before feeling the light hit of a soda can on his forehead.
"That was a joke kid." Foster reminded her.
This time another can hit his head.
"Joke, Kirumi."
Another can.
Foster grumbled and looked up to give her a piece of his mind to see her pointing to a vent above, rather large. Her other arm was cradling about three more soda cans.
"I couldn't find any bones so cans had to suffice. I've found our way out fortunately."
Foster in his lifetime knowing the blank slate that was Kirumi Tojo would never know if she took everything seriously or had some sort of comedic nature inside her.
He sighed to himself and stood up, the stacks of money zipping their way towards him to disappear. Limping towards the vent above, he took one look before clapping once.
"Plan #2, I'm serious this time," Foster turned to the maid. "Vent looks big enough for you, but not me. You crawl through and find me some bloody help, preferably not D.A.R. because he might kick my ass once he sees me."
So, of the remainder of their time was spent pushing boxes and barrels to make a staircase, all while the constant pounding on the door rung on. Once they had done so, Kirumi was about to make her way up when Foster held her on the shoulder.
"Before you go kid," He looked at the blast doors, then back at her. "Stay safe."
"I will. Farewell for now." Foster let her go as he watched her make her way up and slide into the vent. He sat down again and conjured a stack of bills, idly slapping them on his free hand as the roaring and pounding continued.