"Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life."

-Bob Marley

Chapter Six: Fitting In

"Alright, thank you for the help," said Jaune to the clerk.

The clerk waved him through the door, returning back to his work on the computer without looking back again. Jaune hefted his duffle bag onto his shoulder and walked to the door. Pushing through to find himself in an outdoor motorpool, filled with eight wheeled turreted vehicles, their angled armour barely shone under the harsh sunlight. These definitely weren't the same vehicles he was shown in the recruiting office, nor the ones he was trained on. Clusters of people were gathered sporadically, more or less relaxing and talking between each other.

In his hands was a small scrap of paper, "3 Section" messily scribbled onto it. He looked around in despair at the at least twelve vehicles in his sight, and the couple dozen Contractors milling around. How was he supposed to find them with all this? He would have to ask around and hope someone pointed him in the right direction. Jaune jumped up when a hand clapped down onto his shoulder. It was Moss, of course it was Moss. He said he would be his platoon warrant, and he certainly followed up on that promise.

"Hey Arc," Moss nodded at him, eyes covered by a pair of shades and a shadow cast on his face by the brim of his ballcap. "You finally got here, what Section you in?"

"3 Section Warrant," showing him the piece of paper. "Supposed to meet them then go drop off my gear at the barracks."

Moss took a look at the scrap of paper and whistled. "I bet the Captain had something to do with this. All the fucking rookies in one crew..." he mumbled.

"Hm?"

Moss waved his bare hand dismissively, "Nothing, 3 Section should be at the end of the line. If you want to know, Razz is your Section Lead. Now get to it Arc."

"Yes Warrant," he walked down the stairs from the building and hopped down onto the black asphalt ground. Stepping past the line of military vehicles, their cannons were angled upwards slightly. Various Contractors sat on, or around them. "End of the line..." he muttered, checking his watch inattentively.

He peeked around the second last vehicle, and there they were. His old section from Basic, just without Cedric and Iris, who had apparently went on to do things with the Intelligence Wing. Gathered around a low table, they were huddled close around it holding cards in their hands. Thistle suddenly slammed down his card, and leaped up, pumping his fists up in the air and yelling victoriously. Jaune caught his eyes, which went wide in surprise.

"Hi?"

"About fucking time you got here!" Thistle practically leapt over the squat table, the two sisters launching themselves out of the way to avoid any particular painful interaction between their heads and his boots. "Is leadership training really that fucking long?"

Jaune laughed and pulled Thistle into a bear hug, which he returned, "Just means I'm much more qualified than you."

"Hey Arc," Razz waved from the top of the turret. "I'll let you guys talk a while then I'll take you up to the barracks so you can put your stuff away. Unless you happen to have accommodations off base."

He stepped back from Thistle, turning to Razz, "No I don't, at least not yet. Guess that means I'll be here for a bit."

"Hey Jaune!" called out Lavender from her seat. She lifted her small frame up and walked over to him. "Nice to see you're back."

Vi leaned back and waved him over, "Oi! Come join us and beat up Thistle in Remnant!"

"Really? No saying hello or anything? Wow, I'm shocked and hurt," he said, holding his hand to his chest in mock outrage, cracking a small smile. Remnant? It was the boardgame he'd so often played with his sisters, who complained every single time that he was cheating. On the table was a board laid out, a singular colour dominating the map, "Guessing Thistle won."

Finch looked up from his cards, a strange looking backpack device at his feet, "Yeah, he managed to beat every single one of us."

"Well, I guess I'll have to put my partner in his proper place," Jay nodded from beside him and said hello, pulling up a chair for him to sit on. Jaune tossed his bags on the ground and sat down on the offered chair.

He fiddled with his watch idly while Vi reset the board, "So I don't exactly know what schools you guys went to. Mind sharing?"

Thistle set a cup of water down on the table, "You already know where I went. Straight to the unit because I was a gunner. Basically spent a few weeks learning how to operate this baby." he patted the side of the metallic vehicle.

"Same here," said Vi, raising her hand. "Basically tossed Thistle around the turret for a week while I did jumps over berms and shit. I'm pretty sure Razz puked once or twice."

"I heard that!"

Jaune looked at his hand. He was playing as Menagerie, hardly the easiest kingdom to play, but it had a few tricks up its sleeves that Jaune loved to abuse, "Not sure I want to be in the same LAV as you now Vi. Is it too late to switch sections?"

"Hah, funny," snorted Vi, laying down a pair of cards and pushing forward some of her White Atlesian pieces. "I play Deliberate Offensive, then I'll move my troops into Grimm Territory."

He took his turn, deploying more infantry units and pushing through Menagerie to take more land for himself, "What about you Finch? I see that massive backpack of yours there. I'm asking myself whether it's a bomb or something."

Finch patted the backpack by his side, "I like to call it my mobile drone factory, I can turn most metal into fully functioning drones. I pair up with Jay over here to make infinite suicide drones. They taught us some interesting stuff at tech school, so consider me the platoon tech specialist, at least one of the two. Technically I'm a part of platoon HQ, but they put me in 3 Section."

"Wait, suicide drones?" he looked up from his cards gaped mouth. How does making drones from nothing even work?

Finch laughed and scratched the back of his head, "Trade secrets. If you want to know, go switch trades and become a tech with me."

Jaune just shook his head. What did he know? He went into a Huntsman Academy and encountered all sorts of interesting weapons, like Ruby's Scythe! How could it even transform into such a compact form? Something like Finch's backpack wasn't such a small leap in logic compared to other things. He drew his lips into a tight line at the thought. He'd have to talk to his old friends at some point, or maybe he didn't. It wasn't such a stretch of thought that as an Armoured Reconnaissance Company, they'd mostly get sent out to the Grimmlands. That's something for another time, not like I would come across them anytime soon.

"I'm the weapons specialist," Jay raised his hand, his elemental T-shirt not even hiding his muscular arms. "Carry around a big machine gun and I'm qualified with all explosives and anti-tank launchers."

"Also means you strap explosives to robots then," commented Thistle from beside Jay. "I attack you Vi, I use Bullhead drop, putting two troops inside your territory." Thistle plopped down his Mistralian troops down onto her snowy island and started pushing other units into place. "And with that, I have a nice beachhead in your territory. Eat shit girl."

She growled and looked at Jaune expectantly, "Well are you going to do anything about this? We brought you in this game to specifically gang up on Thistle!"

"I'm merely biding my time Vi, I'm biding my time," It was more building up an obscene amount of ability cards, but same thing, right? "You went to marksman training right Lav?"

She nodded, laying down a pair of cards on the table, "Yeah, basically shot rifles for a week. One of my instructors used to be a Huntsman, it was pretty cool, she told me if I kept it up I'll be sent for sniper training in no time. Also, I activate Grimm Swarm on you Jaune, it'll raise your negativity level by two and let me drop Grimm in your continent."

He watched as she plopped two Goliath units in his territory. It would normally be a problem, had he not prepared for it, "Not so fast Lav, I activate Guerilla Warfare. It'll give me a plus fifty percent bonus in attack and defence in core territory."

"Whyyyyy..." Lav moaned into her hands, "That's the most bullshit card ever."

Jaune rapped her sharped on the forehead and grinned, "This isn't my first time playing."

The game progressed from there, where Thistle knocking Vi out of the game fairly quickly after he invaded, leaving the rest of the players to try and gang up on him. Despite their efforts, with even Lavender agreeing to not fight against the remaining player to go all out on Thistle, who was still somehow outplaying them. No one really paid attention to Jaune, he wasn't doing anything, and they had agreed on a truce, so it was fine, right?

"I activate Insurrection," he announced, tossing forward the aforementioned card. "It'll raise the Unrest level in your Kingdoms just enough, so I now have troops in all of your territories. I have just tossed all over you into a violent civil war."

"Are you kidding me..." groaned Jay, "I thought we had an alliance here!"

"Had, Jay. That's the keyword."

With all their combat troops busy fighting Thistle, they were simply unable to contain his uprising, letting him march his troops into their capitals without any resistance. Soon it was just him and Thistle left on the board, and the furious players who had been taken out sitting on the sidelines.

"Just me and you now Jaune," Thistle grinned, and pushed around his troops. "That was a nice trick but I'm simply the better player."

"What about Lav?"

Lavender jumped up and slapped down a card, "I play Grimm Breach, which lets me put Grimm into your land and raises your negativity to a point where I have a massive boost in troops!"

Thistle stared at the board, his eyes searching for a solution to his predicament. With his troops focused against Jaune, his lines against Lavender were long and weak. Still, he tried, tried and failed. His proud kingdom of Mistral was soon split between Jaune's Menagerie forces and Lavender Grimm.

"Well played Jaune," said Thistle, leaning back in his chair. "Guess Leadership training really did help you out."

"Pft, this is just a game. I already was doing half this stuff before I went to it." he placed down a card, "I play Huntsmen Surge. It'll give me five units of Huntsmen."

Lavender watched before her eyes as Jaune absolutely demolished her remaining forces on the map, already spent from attacking Thistle's forces. the whole map was covered in the dull gray colour of the Menagerie forces.

"And as the first Supreme Ruler of Remnant, I'll instate laws demanding that Grimm are to be put to work in the mines," he said jokingly, pushing back his chair from the table.

Razz hopped down from the LAV, face covered in a light layer of sweat from working the whole time, "You guys done your game now? From what I heard Jaune won."

"Yep," he sipped at his water bottle. "Completely surprise attacked everyone and wiped them out."

"Attaboy, no mercy."

Thistle stood up with his arms up in fake exasperation, "Hey you mind remembering that the people Jaune wiped the floor with are your crew? I demand an immediate mutiny!"

"The first day Arc's here and you're already demanding a mutiny Redwood? I'll be having a word with your dad about this," came a voice from the side. Walking towards them was Moss, and another man that niggled a little memory at the back of his head, both wearing dark green berets, "Does Arc have this effect on everyone? If so I say we just toss him into the White Fang and watch them tear each other apart."

"We won't be tossing anyone to the White Fang, not yet at least," the new man laughed at his own joke, before continuing. "You mind introducing me Moss?"

"Everyone, this is Captain Alabaster. He's our Platoon Leader, so he's just coming around to say hello to everyone."

Moss stood with his arms crossed, an awkward silence taking hold. Razz took a moment to realize but snapped a quick salute with his eyes wide. The rest of the section surged to their feet, throwing up hasty salute themselves. Alabaster looked at them, before throwing up his own with a smile.

Wait, is this the same Alabaster-

"At ease," the Captain said, walking towards the Contractors. "I think I met you before Arc, in a bar at Vale to be specific."

"Yessir," he replied with a grin, shaking his hand. "Thanks for coming up to me that day. Don't know what I would be doing otherwise."

Alabaster pumped his hand up and down, squeezing his hand with a grip of iron, "Nice to see you again anyhow. We'll be doing workups for the first few weeks, so we'll see if the reports hold up. From what little I heard from Thistle and Vi, you're a good leader."

Jaune turned to his section, who turned their heads away from him, seemingly interested in other things than him. They really thought that of him? Well, that's comforting, "Well they always shit talked me so I could never tell."

Alabaster guffawed, stifling his laughter with his hand, "Talking shit about people in front of them is the first step in a military friendship. I'll be leaving now, we'll be waiting for the last of the platoon to roll in and head out for a field exercise. We'll just be familiarizing ourselves with the vehicles and some tactics later. Top had the bright idea to switch our vehicles at the last moment with these bad boys. Unfortunately, none of us have worked with it before, so we'll be the testbed for it."

The Captain nodded, and turned away and continued walking down the line of vehicles. Moss following close behind. Jaune turned back to his section mates, who met his gaze with grins and cheeky smiles.

"Never knew you guys loved me," he went back to sit down in his chair. "I feel really appreciated right now."

Vi just snorted, and started to reset the board again, "Yeah, in case you even had the illusion, fuck you."

"Vi!" Lavender elbowed her sister, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"Another game?" asked Vi, replacing all the pieces of the board. "I vote we all gang up on Jaune."

Razz walked towards the table, tossing his gloves to the side, "Space for one more?"

Thistle looked towards him. Everyone started to turn to him, "Vote to kick Jaune out and let Razz in?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"Oh come on!" Jaune raised his hands in mock surrender, and stepped away from the table and offered his seat to Razz, "You know how to play Sergeant?"

"Not really, but I'm going to try," Razz plopped himself down onto the chair, clasping his hand together and staring at the board. "I'll threaten you all with punishment if I don't win."

Jaune snorted. If they thought they could get rid of him that easy, then they were entirely wrong. Kick him out of the game? Well, he'd just help the person who didn't know how to play then. Quickly pulling up a chair beside Razz, he gave Jaune a raised eyebrow, "So let me help you..."

The look his section gave to him could have killed a Goliath.

/ - /

The LAV blasted its cannon downrange, obliterating its target with ease. Thistle whooped from inside the turret, and a machine gun went cyclic on top of the turret. Its tracers flew across the sky, punching holes into the paper targets downrange. Jaune put down his binoculars and whistled at the destroyed targets.

"Spot on Thistle!" he whistled from the firing line. "Jesus you vaporized the targets."

Razz shouted from his commander's hatch, turning his head to Jaune standing outside the LAV, "Thistle sends his regards! And I expected that of him, I taught him to do this shit anyway."

A low drone whistled through the sky. He turned up to see a drone streaking down towards a cluster of mannequins set up. It crashed into the ground and exploded with a mighty boom. Besides him, Finch pulled another one of his drones out of his backpack, taping a brick of explosives to the miniature plane. Rearing back, he hurled the drone into the sky with all the strength his tiny frame could muster. The buzz of its tiny engine growing more distant as it ascended up in the sky.

"Those drones are such bullshit," Jaune sat down crosslegged beside Finch, who was glued to his small ruggedized scroll, manipulating his controls rapidly. "Problem? Crash one of your infinite drones into that shit. Make it explode into a million bits."

"Problem comes when I run out of stuff to throw into it," his eyes remained trained on the small screen. "Can't just throw whatever into it, some complicated stuff goes into it. Tech wizard stuff, we can't tell people how this works for some reason. Don't ask."

"Tech Wizards," he tested the word on his tongue. "Sounds pretentious."

"Eh, don't worry about it. We can still do our jobs."

Across the firing line, everyone was firing their rifles downrange at their respective target. Lavender lifted her head above her scope and squinted downrange at her target. She jumped up from her firing position, leaving her rifle on the ground. Bringing his binoculars to his eyes, her targets all had a neat ragged hole in the center of each of them.

"Alright Mrs. I'm-A-Ultra-Sniper, I think you really showed those paper targets what to look out for," joked Jaune, picking up his rifle from his side. They were going to expend the last few rounds then go for a short break most likely. At least that was what Alabaster had told them about the field exercise.

Lavender giggled into her hand and playfully punched him in his arm, "You just suck at shooting, and I'm amazing at shooting. That's why you're so jealous."

"Sorry, I'm not that bad of a shot. I still can hit the targets." he retorted. A ceasefire order came over his headset, Alabaster's rough voice speaking through his radio.

She rolled her eyes, "Only when they're five metres in front of you."

"Doesn't matter because he has all of you to shoot for him," interjected Razz, stepping out from the back of the LAV, boots clanging against the tough metal ramp. Thistle and Vi stepped out from behind him, taking off their crew helmet, their hair remaining tightly bound, "And if he has the LAV to support, then we can take out most Grimm at that point."

"Dude I'm like Lavender but with the fucking LAV. And Vi's driving is like Jaune's shooting. Fucking terrible," Thistle clipped his helmet to his harness, letting his rifle lean on a table.

"Hey!" Vi punched Thistle, the redhead yelping and rubbing his shoulder tentatively.

"Is insulting my marksmanship going to be a running trend now?"

Razz sat down next to him, "It will be now that you said it Jaune. Your shooting is shit by the way."

"Thanks Sergeant," he rolled his eyes. "I appreciate all the compliments from you guys."

"Take it in stride kid," Razz took out a cigarette. "You're probably going to get it from everyone in the company you meet."

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked, taking off his gloves and pulling an energy bar from one of his pouches.

"Well, for one, you're one of the youngest guys I know who's in a leadership position," lighting his cigarette, he puffed on it for a second before continuing on. "That's bound to get a lot of attention on you. A lot of guys get angry that someone straight out of training without experience gets to lead people in combat, which is some guy's dreams. Say, during leadership school, how many guys were surprised you were there?"

Jaune took a bite out of his bar, mulling over the question, "Almost all of them."

"Exactly. Not all of them know that you're decent at this, so some of those remarks might not in good fun," he stood up, patting his pants down, throwing dust up in the air. "Remember that most of those guys probably know what they're doing too. You'll have to prove yourself at every turn later in your career. So don't mess up, because it's more than just your career on the line."

Jaune's eyes shot up to meet Razz's, "What? Who's?"

"Moss' and Alabaster," grunted Razz, letting his cigarette hang from his mouth. "Moss pushed for you to go to Leadership School, and Alabaster was your reference. He also got you your position in the platoon right now. You fuck up, then it also falls on them too. So don't fuck up Jaune, at least not badly. If you do, then fix it."

He snorted, "No pressure."

"I swear I keep walking in just as I hear my name," Alabaster stepped into view, rifle slung in front of him. "What are you guys talking about now?"

"Just that you put your career on the line to boost his," Razz continued to puff on his cigarette, a cloud of smoke flowing from his mouth.

Alabaster let his helmet drop to his side like everyone else there, and picked a spot on the bench to sit down on, "It's my choice to do it. Just got a tip off from a contact in Beacon, took a look, and decided to give Jaune here another chance. Turns out to have been a good idea from what I've seen. Mind if I take your 2iC away for a bit Razz?"

"Be my guest sir," Razz waved his hand to a secluded spot off to the side. "He's all yours."

"I'll catch up with you guys later," waving to his section mates, they immediately went to making small talk with each other and various other tasks. Jaune made after Alabaster, who was walking to a small clearing that overlooked the training range.

He came to a stop just beside him, "What do you want to talk to me about sir?"

"You still got that sword from the bar kid?" Alabaster turned his head slightly to him.

"I left it in the barracks back at the depot. If you don't mind, why are you asking?"

Alabaster pulled out a cigarette himself. If there was one thing that he noticed among the older Contractors, it certainly seemed like every single one of them smoked, "Back in the day, I used to be an Atlesian Specialist. I knew my way around a sword well enough, and I also know you don't happen to know the way around yours that well, if Moss' reports are to say anything."

He shifted around in the dirt, kicking up dust comfortably, "What are you trying to say, sir?"

"Nothing really," Alabaster snorted. "Just that you need training on your sword, and I happen to know how to use one."

"You... want to train me?"

"Fucking hell Arc," he breathed out a cloud of smoke into the cool air. "Doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Anyway, after we're done with the exercise, go get your sword so we can spar, got it?" he turned on his heels and started walking back to the platoon.

"Wait," Alabaster stopped and glanced at him, "who's even your contact at Beacon?"

He put up a dismissive hand, "You'll find out when you do Jaune. Not my place to be exposing my sources and all. Now get back to your section, we're going to be stepping off for the field portion soon."

"Sir, I still would like to know. If you won't, would you at least tell me if they're a teacher or student?" Jaune remained planted in the ground stubbornly.

The captain snorted and dropped his cigarette on the ground, crushing it with his boot, "Neither Arc. That's what I'll give you. Now run along before I give you extras tonight."

Jaune stared at him, before turning to return to his section. Alabaster crossed his arms and stared at the retreating blonde. The kid had a spark in him, something everyone else here didn't. A spark of independence within him. His course reports had said he refused to follow his appointed section leader's orders, which resulted in them winning the scenario. He'd have to be careful with Jaune, but there was certainly hope for him yet.

/ - /

For the fifth time that day, he was swept off his feet by Alabaster's curved blade.

He fell to the ground, hitting his head against the ground again. He scrambled for his sword, before finding his throat touching the blade tip of Alabaster's sword, an amused grin on the user's face.

"I give," he raised his hands in very real surrender.

Drawing back the sword, Alabaster sheathed the exotic blade by his side. Seeing someone wielding a sword in modern combat gear looked strange, but not out of place with the Huntsmen and Huntresses. The captain reached out a hand, which Jaune took happily. Quickly snatching up Crocea Mors from the dusty ground, he turned back to Alabaster.

"How'd I do this time?" he patted his clothes down, tossing dust all around.

Thistle shouted from the side, "Lasted two more seconds this time, you've broken the world record!"

Turning around revealed his section leaning on the railing of the sparring ring. Several other platoon members stopped by to watch the two spar, collectively laughing at his string of constant and utter defeats. Jaune just rolled his eyes, sheathing Crocea Mors and clipping it back to his side. It had been a day since the exercise had concluded, and a day since Alabaster started training him with a sword.

"You wanna fight him Thistle?"

"Oh hell no! You're the one that's doing this, not me! I'll stay a kilometre away and blast my enemy with the 25mm thank you!"

Alabaster let out a hearty laugh, "Ribbing aside, you did do better Arc. We'll end our little session here for now. Go hang out with your section. I should get to finishing up my paperwork anyways."

He paused before walking off the sparring ring, "Weird time, but you used to be a Specialist right?"

Alabaster scratched his head with a hand, wiping his nonexistent sweat away, "Yeah, why are you asking?"

"Why did you leave sir?"

The captain paused, eyes glazing over and losing focus. He was back to normal the next second, "Personal reasons Arc. Rather you not pry too deep, now run along." without another word, he beat a hasty retreat back to the main building.

He just internally shrugged, what was he going to do? Jumping over the railing at the edge of the ring, he nearly fell face first into the concrete ground, much to his embarrassment.

"Jeez Jaune, just because I'm so pretty doesn't mean you need to be falling face first for him!"

Jaune groaned, "Fuck off Thistle."

"What can I say?" Thistle slapped his back and pulled him up. "I excel at annoying you to the point you start swearing."

"You really suck Thistle."

Lavender hid a snicker behind her hand, and leaned back on her bench, "He's just jealous you know how to fight with a sword."

"I wouldn't really say 'know' sis," Vi snorted. "More like swinging it around and hoping it hits something. At least that's what it looks like."

"Hey! At least I can swing one," he said between breaths. "Where's Jay and Finch anyways? I don't see them anywhere here."

"Think they're at the LAV with Razz," replied Thistle, "Pretty sure they're just hanging out."

Vi rested her head on her hands, "Alright, you guys have a boy's night out, or in. Me and Lav-"

"Lav and I" corrected Jaune.

"-are going to go into Vale for a bit, and fuck off Jaune."

Their base was just situated outside the walls. Plenty of space for them to do what they needed, but close enough to Vale for convenience and protection in case they were ever attacked. In any case, if they were attacked and they couldn't handle it, both them and Vale were in deep shit.

He elbowed her side as he went past, "Alright Vi, you take your sister to do whatever girl stuff you have planned. I'm going to hang out with Jay and Finch and take a shower after."

Vi got up, pulling her reluctant sister along, who was complaining about "wanting to hang out with everyone else". Too bad for Lavender then. He and Thistle wandered in the motorpool, heading towards their LAV, finding Finch huddled over the open engine of their LAV, flanked by Jay and someone he didn't know.

"What's happening over here?" Thistle took the lead, pushing himself in between the bowed figures.

Jay looked up at the pair, "Just learning some basic maintenance skills from Granite here. Engine checks and whatnot."

The grey-haired man looked up from the engine, clicking off his flashlight. He ran an oily hand gripping a wrench through his cropped hair and reached another out to shake Jaune's hand, "Don't think we introduced each other yet. I'm Granite Waller, the guy that makes sure all the LAVs in the platoon keep running."

"Jaune Arc, 2iC of this crew. Nice meeting you."

"You too," Granite pulled away from the handshake and set down a wrench on the hood of the LAV. "2iC? Look a bit young to be doing that."

"Special case apparently," Jaune shrugged, patting the sword by his side. "Captain Alabaster and Warrant Moss pushed me for a leadership position apparently."

Granite's mouth opened halfway, then shut before he turned away, "Well, I think that's good enough for me. We're just about done here anyways, so that concludes my lesson. I gotta go show the numbnuts in 1 Section how not to break my LAV."

"Your LAV?" Jaune raised an eyebrow.

Granite laughed, picking up his toolkit, "Yeah, these all mine, I'm just loaning them all to you. Try not to get them destroyed, otherwise, I'll get angry at you. See you all later, Finch, Jay, keep in mind what I said. I'll be on my way now."

Jaune watched the maintainer leave, elbow's slick with grease, "Interesting guy."

Thistle slapped his shoulder, walking past him, "Yeah, dude put Vi and I through basically maintainer school when we first got here. We basically know how to fix these things ourselves at this point. Figure he'll drag you aside at one point and teach you all this."

"I honestly like working with drones more than this," mumbled Finch, looking down at his hands. "Less effort."

"Pft," Jay smacked Finch in the back of the head. "You'll learn to love hard work Finch."

"When I die."

"That's not the attitude!"

Jaune smiled awkwardly, waving a hand to get their attention, "Hey uh, it just came to me. How did you guys even meet? You said before that Jay did something to help you Finch, so what even happened?"

"Oh god!" Finch raised his arms, stretching out and yawning loudly. "Jeez that's a story, mind if I tell Jay?"

"Go ahead, nothing wrong with it."

"Well, so I was in an alleyway..."

/ - /

Finch was backed up in a corner.

Sure, maybe borrowing money from some very shady dudes wasn't the best idea. But what was he, a thirteen-year-old who had just run away from home, supposed to do? Not run away from home and get a real job? He needed the money to get his project started, but it had flopped within months… Going back home definitely wasn't an option for him, not with what happened there.

So he ended up backed into a dark alleyway with two giant suited men staring him down.

He raised his thin arms up in a weak attempt to defend himself. Adjusting his skewed glasses again, the men snorted and approached closer, and closer.

The first man palmed his hand, stepping menacingly towards him, rolling up his sleeves to reveal full length arm tattoos, "Well runt, borrow from us, can't pay it back, and now what do we have here? Hidden in an alleyway. Pathetic."

Something wet filled up his eyes. Finch stared back at the man and stepped into the barest facsimile of a fighting stance, "What are you going to do?" his voice cracked halfway through.

His opponent grinned, showing his crooked yellow teeth, "Can't say, maybe I'll slowly cut your legs. Maybe this time I'll use my drill. It always varies between people, say, Gary, what did we do to the last guy?"

The huge man beside him grunted, "Stuck bamboo shoots through him."

"There you have it runt," the first man spread his arms wide, laughter echoing through the alleyway. "I'll try and make it quick. Or maybe I'll take it slow, I do indeed have something in mind..."

"Hey! What are you doing?" called a voice from the entrance of the alleyway. There stood a figure shrouded in light, nearly covered by the glare. "What's going on here?"

"Tch," the first man turned around, his eyes covered by the red sunglasses. "He's not a cop, we can take him. Go get him Gary."

Gary cracked his neck, pulling a small knife out of his belt. The giant trudged towards the man at the entrance, a murderous look on his face. The first man turned his gaze back to Finch, a mad grin stretching across his face, "And I'll deal with you."

Before the man could take another step, Gary flew past him, sliding across the ground. The man twirled around to see Finch's saviour rearing back to punch him in the head. The man ducked, tackling his saviour into the wall.

Finch's eyes twitched to the knife on the ground, and the unconscious man beside it. Flicking from the knife to his saviour struggling against his opponent. He was being punched in the head by the bald man. Without another thought, Finch snatched the knife off the ground and ran forward towards the enforcer with a fearsome yell. The enforcer turned back, eyes wide as Finch sank the knife into his neck. His saviour kicked off the enforcer, who stumbled back in disbelief, gripping the knife in his neck.

"Hey kid, let's get the hell out of here," said his saviour, an entirely ordinarily looking teen, albeit with a muscular physique and a firm grip. His defender yanked Finch along, pulling him out of the alleyway.

"This isn't over runt! This isn't… over..." the man behind him collapsed into a pool of his own blood. FInch looked back in horror, realizing he just had indeed, killed someone.

His saviour pulled him into a corner, both of them in the shadows. It occurred to Finch that his saviour might turn into his killer. The man looked him in the eye, "Look, anything that happened there? Nothing happened."

"Wait, but you s-"

"Nothing happened."

"Y-yeah, nothing happened."

"Alright, get on your way now, wherever you're going." the man pushed him out of the sidewalk, his saviour slinking away in the shadows.

"Wait!" the man stopped, Finch walked towards him nervously, "I don't have anywhere to go though..."

"And?"

This was so stupid, "Um, can I go with you? I'd like to try and repay you for what you did to help me."

The teen winced, "Sorry to say kid, but I don't have anywhere to go either."

"I don't care," Finch shook his head. "I want to help you."

His saviour paused, looking between the alleyway and Finch, before his expression melted, "Alright, you can tag along I guess."

"What's your name? I should know the name of the guy that saved my life," Finch skipped along beside his saviour.

The man said the next words as if he was tasting them on his tongue, "Jay, Jay Winchester."

/ - /

"That's my story," said Finch, leaning back on the armoured vehicle behind him. "I ran away from home when I was thirteen, honestly don't remember why. Maybe I was just a rebellious kid who thought he could hack it in Vale. I managed to get a loan from a loan shark somehow and ended up there. Jay and I did odd jobs here and there to get by. Speaking of my family, I should really try and reconnect with them, I don't remember having the fondest of memories of them. but it's worth a try."

Worth a try. Just like talking to his old friends again. It's worth a try. Maybe later, when he'd proven himself in the field, the real field. He could come back and prove that he wasn't such a runt.

Jay chimed in, "I had just come out of Beacon then. My weapon was immediately taken away from me when I failed. Specific instructions from my old man apparently," he snorted in disgust, kicking a random rock away. "Saw someone in danger, fucking hero instincts kicked in and I was rushing to save this dumbass, and here we are today."

"Love you too dad."

"Shut up Finch."

"What are all you dumbasses still doing in the motorpool?" Razz came in from the side, leaning on one of the other LAVs. "Would hate for you guys to get picked for duty tonight because everyone else escaped before you. Have a fucking cookie." a brown disk flew up in the air, immediately yanked away by Thistle. Who clutched the cookie close to his chest.

"My cookie," said Thistle, already shoving it into his mouth.

"You all are such children, I swear," Razz stepped forward into the small huddle, shoving his hands into his civilian jacket. "Girls are already getting ready to go into Vale. There's no fucking way I'm getting stuck on duty because you dumbfuck decided to stay in uniform for too long. Go clean yourselves up before Moss decides your duty for tonight because you're all still in uniform."

Thistle threw up a lazy mock salute, "Yes Sergeant Razz."

Razz slapped the hand down, "Go change, and don't even do that again."

The group laughed between themselves, before starting down the path towards the barracks. Tossing on their civilian clothes, they walked to the base gate to see both Vi and Lavender standing there on their scrolls. Vi looked up and waved at the group.

"Hey guys! Thought you killjoys would spend your time at the base."

Thistle called back, "Hell no! I ain't spending my time here on a Friday! What are you guys even waiting for anyway?"

"Jay asked to carpool with me, doesn't have one yet," Vi looked between them. "Do you expect me to fit all of you in my car?"

"You'll only have to fit half of them," Razz walked out of the building behind them, jingling his keys high above them. "I'll take half of them, then drop them off to do whatever. We can sort out the pickup later. Just keep your scrolls on you at all times."

"Alright, Finch and Jay, c'mon." Vi waved them her car, and flourished to the musty backseat. "High-quality car at your service."

Jay looked weak, shifting his feet around nervously, "I think now that the Sergeant's offering-"

"Eat shit, go puke dumbasses! Whoooooooo!" a car whizzed past them, Thistle's face clear from the passenger seat, a shit eating grin painted on his face.

"No choice now guys," she shrugged.

Jay and Finch put their heads in their head and just groaned.

"Got a paper bag?"

"No, and you can't use my backpack. It has important stuff."

"Fuck..."

That's a wrap.

Thanks for all the reviews last chapter, though I did want to respond to one guest review that did pop up. I'll suppose I'll respond here.

Rant alert

Earth is not Remnant. Remnant's PMCs are not intended to be the same as Earth's. What I have in mind is that they're a force that people hire if they want extended security for a long amount of time. Since they're more of them, more villages can be covered by them. While there are operations/contracts that will be against Huntsmen and humans, usually from my point of view they'll attach at least one Huntsman level Contractor to the unit. The Geneva Convention also doesn't exist in Remnant. I'm pretty sure there would be equivalents, but not that it would matter in the scope of this story, why?

The Grimm don't follow treaties, and neither do bandits.

Due to the role of Jaune's platoon, they most likely won't be doing things like security convoys for VIPs, and whatnot. Not like that matters because (spoiler) certain people have taken an interest in Jaune and his platoon.

Rant ended

With that out of my system, I'd still like to thank everyone that reviews. That review did bring some interesting things to mind that I didn't quite have fleshed out, so it still helped. Just another thing, Jaune's motion sickness will be explained, I haven't forgotten about it, yet.

One last thing, with the recent NS shooting, I'd like to take a moment to think about it and have a moment of silence for those dead. Rest in peace.

Sorry for the depressing shit, carryon.