"So when is Qrow coming back?"
"Soon. At least that's what he told me."
"I never did like him that much. Too disobedient, too rowdy, too drunk most of the time."
"That's Qrow for you."
"You mentioned he had a working relationship with one of the Striker Group guys."
"Not a good one. Didn't particularly agree with me recruiting him."
"We just have to hope he doesn't try to fight him when he arrives."
"We just have to hope."
-A private conversation between General Ironwood and Headmaster Ozpin.
Chapter 17: Beacon 2
"So what do you plan to do with these Mercenaries, Cinder?"
Emerald stared up to her from her seat on the floor of their room, ever obedient and willing to eat out of her hand. The girl had a near obsession with her, always trying to impress her, always trying to get on her good side. She was malleable like playdoh, latching onto her the moment she came to her with offers of something greater. If anything, her loyalty was assured, even if Cinder had to deal with some clinginess.
Mercury laid back beside her, a smirk appearing on his face, "I'm sure you want to know, so you can get riiiiiiight to it to impress your sugar daddy. Or would it be sug-"
"Mercury."
The silvery haired boy shut his mouth, turning his eyes to the roof while Emerald grinned victoriously.
"If you ever call me that again," a flame appeared in her hand, while fire flared out from the corner of her eyes. She spoke in a sickeningly sweet tone, leaning forward and placing her chin on her fist. "Let's just say that while you'll be hard to replace, this mission is entirely possible without you."
Mercury pursed his lips, chest rising as he took a deep breath, "Yes, ma'am."
"Better," she smiled. Emerald snickered from her place.
There wasn't any chance of surveillance in their room, especially after she swept for them. Ozpin was paranoid, but their spot was guaranteed by Lionheart himself, who Ozpin still didn't know was a traitor… to think Ozpin let such a weak man get into the position of Headmaster. It was laughable. But allowing that to affect her estimation of the Wizard's competence, however, was still a mistake. Occasionally, he'd throw a curveball their way every so often, like the present.
"As to what we're doing, well," a grimace. "Striker Group showing up wasn't expected. Ozpin wasn't that accepting of military force before this. But we'll do what we have to, adapt. For that, we need some information."
Wasn't Sabyr Brigade particularly good at information collection? Hm, she'd contact them later and have them dig up whatever they can on Striker Group. They'd be bound to at least have something on them. Might as well use them.
"How'll we get this information? Hacking? Stealing? Spying?" Emerald spoke up immediately, "Not to say that you don't already have a plan."
"I do, and it doesn't involve much of what you said."
"Oh," her face turned downcast.
Put her down, then bring her up, "Don't fret, dear Emerald. Your next task will heavily rely on you, as I don't expect Mercury to do much with his persuasion skills."
Mercury, wisely, decided to keep his mouth shut.
The girl perked up, particularly at the "dear" part, "Really? How?"
"We want to know the real reason behind them being here. I also have the assumption that they won't conveniently blurt out sensitive information casually. I want to know what made Ozpin change his mind about military force and choose them. I'll handle getting a more direct source later. For now, I want to know more about Striker Group."
A flick of her wrist, and her scroll extended out, "While I can easily glean the information about Striker Group from other sources, I can't easily glean the information that's stored in their heads. So, how do you glean such information from their heads?"
"Capture and interrogation," Emerald blurted out immediately.
Shaking her head had Emerald looking down at the floor, "Not quite. Not here at least. It's talking to them. Talking to them and weaselling out tidbits of information as they let their guard down. They won't talk about such things to just anyone, but people they trust, and occasionally by accident."
"So… I'm just going to walk up to one of them and talk to them?"
A coy smile appeared on her face as she swiped through her scroll, and to her contacts list, "I find that men often have looser tongues when they're motivated by their lower regions."
Emerald had a look of horror, "You me-"
"No, you won't have to go that far. Just far enough that his tongue is loosened."
"Loosened around your lips," snickered Mercury, gaining a harsh punch in the shoulder for his troubles. "Hey!"
"Now, now, don't fight," or fight, she didn't particularly care. As long as they were effective. "Here is what will happen. We will go out, find out where they are, and split up to go talk to a target that we choose. Emerald will find a target. One that seems to be doing something important. I will find a target myself, and Mercury will do his best to not compromise us. Now, I will coach you on how to go about this."
"Cinder," Emerald interrupted, arms planted back as to support her. "We already know all this. You taught us."
"Is there a problem with review?"
"No, ma'am."
"Very well, let's carry on..."
/ - /
Emerald took a deep breath in as she walked towards the young man tinkering with what looked like a drone.
Calling him a man was exaggerating. He looked, maybe at the maximum, seventeen. Probably younger though. He didn't look that bad, but she wouldn't fawn over him either. Maybe his mousy looks and thick glasses had an appeal for someone, but not her. Cinder had picked him out, pointing a finger at the Mercenary from the side.
"Hm, he looks like he's privy to the technological side of them. Fairly young too. His hormones are likely acting up at this point in his life."
She had blushed, much to the amusement of Mercury, but she would do as Cinder ordered.
After all, she owed her everything.
He was settled next to one of those military vehicles they brought in, secluded from all the other loud mouthed, brash Mercenaries who were elsewhere. A few other Mercenaries were around, but none close to her target. He was isolated, close enough to the CCT that she could walk up without being shooed away, but far enough away from anyone else that interrupt. As long as nobody else interrupted, she'd be fine. She'd do her mission, then leave. Just play on his feelings a little. Nothing to get embarrassed about.
"H-hey," she stuttered intentionally. All the better to come off meek and mild. "Can I sit down?"
"Huh?" his eyebrows moved almost comically. Furrowing into a point, then rising as high as possible. The mercenary's eyes flicked down just below her face, just for a second. Ugh, a hormone filled boy, just what she needed. Oh well, she'd follow Cinder's orders. "Oh, uh, sure!"
"I'm Emerald," she sat down on the offered crate.
"Finch, Finch Gold."
A short moment of silence as Emerald briefly fidgeted around in her seat, awkwardly smiling at Finch, "Sooo… I just kinda saw you guys randomly come in. What's all this for?" she gestured to the military vehicle.
"Oh, this?" he turned to it. "This is a LAV, or Light Armoured Vehicle. I'm part of the dismount section for it. Tech Specialist, I guess." a pat on the drone in his lap. "We're just here to guard the CCT."
There's the official reason.
They briefly locked eyes, before blood red and mousy brown eyes broke away. A tinge of red came onto their faces. All the more to sell the idea. That would be her excuse later.
"Often start staring, then break away when he overtly notices. You need to make him think you're interested in him."
"I uh, like your eyes..." she murmured.
Finch cocked his head at her, "What?"
"Uh," she twiddled her thumbs, "What do you do, as a Tech Specialist?"
"No, no, what was that you just said."
"Nothing," a shake of her head. "Just talking to myself."
"Oh uh..." he scratched the back of his head. "Well, for your other question, technically, I'm not supposed to be just telling anyone our techniques. Operational security and all."
Dammit… wait, was that a technically?
"But," a small smile came on his face. "If you promise not to start spreading this around..."
I won't be spreading it around, just to your enemies.
"Sure," she rested her chin on her hand, making sure her eyes were locked onto his. "I'm guessing it has something to do with that?"
A tone of pride overtook his voice, "Yeah, a Tech Specialist in Striker Group is mostly trained to be the Commander's conduit to anything that has electronics. To a degree, of course. We can't do everything, so we usually get general training, then get a specialization. Mine are drones, among some other things."
At this, he grabbed a metal cube from beside him, throwing it up. She didn't have to fake her amazement as the cube unfolded in a split second, turning into a miniature quadcopter. The buzz was barely audible as it ascended to just above their heads.
"That's my latest project. A miniature quadcopter that I can deploy from anywhere. It's pretty quiet too. It really sucked trying to get a motor that would do what I need, and last a while. Turns out the Q-15 did the trick, and now this baby can do thirty minutes of continuous flight, has a HD camera pod, and be whisper quiet. This is the first I've made. Though I plan to try and make more. Cost a pretty penny too. Jaune wasn't that happy that I cut into the mutual fund we have for a work related thing, but he was fine with it after I explained. The really big thing was finding all the parts I needed. Like, wow, how hard is it to find an RY-145 motherboard? Heh, hard as it seemed. What do you think?"
"Wow uh..." That was long and convoluted. I wanted to tune out half of that. I really don't want to be here. "That was... interesting?"
"Really?" his face brightened up, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
No, "Yeah. You said Tech Specialists could do other things?"
He nodded vigorously, "I'm just the drone guy, but I'm qualified to coordinate an android platoon in a pinch, along with some basic hacking stuff and database stuff. But mainly, I'm doing mechanical stuff. Like, I also got all these other drones for surveillance, suicide bombing, and other stuff."
His hand waved over the other drones lining the ground. Each one a different shape and size, with one even having a gun attached to it.
"Nice."
"Yeah," Finch said weakly, glancing back at her. "Really cool."
Awkward silence.
Think, Emerald, you gotta keep this up or he might not give you anything to bring back to Cinder…
"What do you like to do in your spare time? I generally just hang out with my team."
What did she even do in her freetime? What… hobbies did she have? Hanging out with her team was… not a lie, but generally, they were always doing something for Cinder.
What did she have?
What was there to do?
Make sure Cinder was happy.
Yeah.
"Video Games, I guess. I used to play guitar, but uh… I sort of stopped a while back. Pretty rusty now. I either hang out with my Section or something like that. Sometimes we get drunk and do something stupid. Not that we've had a lot of time to do that in the last few days."
Something of interest, maybe? "Why's that?"
Finch rubbed his fingers together, "Nothing really, just a whole lot of training before we got sent here. If you ask me though, just being hired isn't half the reason."
That was what she was here for. She just needed to get the information and she'd make an excuse to leave.
"Hm?" her interest now wasn't faked. "I thought you said-"
Finch stopped tinkering with his drone, choosing to stare down at the ground. "That's uh, well, the official reason. I got my own theory. My Crew Commander met with Ozpin a few days back. Then this stuff popped out of nowhere. I mean, he even said it himself, Ozpin probably wants us here because we're special or something. Also another thing, something uh… small."
"What's the other thing?"
He started to rub his fingers together again, "Nothing."
Something then, and he's not telling right now.
Better get the other thing then, "Who's your Crew Commander?"
"Huh?" his eyes shot up from the ground, meeting hers, his voice becoming more and more dejected as he spoke. "Oh, uh… yeah… his name's J-"
"Yo Finch!" came a new voice. She locked onto the newcomer immediately, hiding the scowl that came onto her face. She was just about to get information, and this asshole just had to come and ruin it. Well, she'd let a little irritation show. Her act wanted alone time with Finch, after all. The Contractor approached from behind the LAV, banging his fist onto the metal hull twice.
The red haired interrupter stepped closer, switching his gaze from her to Finch several times, putting his hands on his hips. The loose fitting uniform had all the signs of wear and tear, along with black splotches on random places. He ran a hand through his long auburn hair, staring at them both.
"The TOC needs somebody to set up their drone control station because their Tech guy isn't specialized enough. Also, who's this?"
"This is Emerald," said Finch, coming up to his feet. "Emerald, this is Thistle. Thistle, this is Emerald."
She rose up to her feet too, extending out a hand, "Nice to you meet, Thistle. I'm a transfer student from Haven, so I just came by to see what all you guys were doing here. Not often we see people like you come and guard an Academy."
"Not often we do stuff for Huntsmen at all," Thistle took her hand, pumping it up and down. Much to his dismay, he found her grip even stronger than his. Just putting an overconfident boy in his place. "I assume you guys talked a bit?"
"Yeah," she forced a blush to come to her face as she looked away.
Thistle turned from Emerald to Finch, then to Emerald again, "Oh, I see... oh, oooohhh, well, sorry to interrupt, but we need Finch to solve some of our problems. So I'll just have to take him away..."
"Uh, well, talk later?" Finch yelled out as he was pulled away by Thistle.
A wave at the Tech Specialist, "Yeah, I'll find you later."
If Cinder tells me to.
As she turned away, she could distinctly hear the yelling of Thistle, "You sly fucker! How d'ya do it?"
Be hormonal and liable to spill sensitive information for a girl who looks moderately interested.
She strutted away, making sure to sway her hips a little as she walked. If Finch looked back, he'd only be assured of what he thought.
Cinder stood by the door leading into the school, Mercury already by her side, looking just a little chastised, likely from his absolute failure of a mission.
Suck it, Merc.
"How did your mission go?" Cinder asked, amber eyes questioning.
Pride came through in her voice, "Good, I found out a bit, and some more possible leads."
"I got told to fuck off the moment I started trying to put on some charm," grumbled Mercury. "Though I'm pretty sure she was amused. I'll try again later, and I'll succeed."
"I think she really meant to tell you to fuck off, Merc."
Cinder smiled a little, "Now, now, let's save this discussion until we get to our room, shall we?"
They both nodded, Mercury getting to his feet. The trio soon began their walk back, silence punctuated by occasional taunts between Mercury and Emerald. It'd been a good day, Cinder thought. Multiple leads, and some potential on one of their officers… and the one Emerald targeted. Mercury, not so much, but that was expected.
It was promising if nothing else.
While Emerald and Mercury bickered, Cinder hummed a happy tune.
/ - /
"Been a while since I've seen these halls," Jay said, walking beside Jaune as they made their way through Beacon.
Jaune let his rifle hang by its sling, biting into an energy bar in his free hand, "Mm, How long has it been since you first applied to Beacon?"
"Three years, three years since my dad disowned me, and told Cardin I died, apparently."
The halls were mostly empty, with a few students walking around and civilian faculty walking around. Class was in session, and so most students were learning what it took to be a Huntsman. Few, if any students skipped class. The first reason being the dagger hanging above their heads in the form of Deputy Headmistress Goodwitch. Second being that they wanted to be here. This wasn't forced upon anyone, and Beacon could kick out any student they deemed unfit at any time.
Which led the hallways they walked to be fairly desolate, and an adequate place to talk about somewhat personal things.
"That's terrible," Jaune surprised himself with how flat a tone he responded. Fathers were supposed to support their sons, supposed to love them. Not disown them the second they fail and toss them to the side. He was supposed to get angry on Jay's behalf. Scream, yell, say the world wasn't fair.
The images from the reconnaissance mission flash through his head. Bodies strewn across roads, men desperately trying to cover their loved ones, only to be shot or torn apart.
Just one mission and Jaune already started to feel numb to everything, however corny it sounded.
How could people be evil? What drove people to do horrible things? Why, why, why? All questions he couldn't answer. Probably money, if anything.
"Yeah," responded Jay, ignorant to his inner thoughts. "Thing is, you wouldn't have been able to tell. He was stern and disciplinary, but I always thought that beneath it all, he was proud of me. Proud of me carrying on the legacy. I always tried to do my best, to get him to show his pride in me. Never did." he sneered, "It only took him disowning me to realize that."
"I always wondered, how did Cardin turn out the way he did? I mean, you seem mostly fine."
"You forget Basic? When I was still a bit of an asshole?"
"Oh, yeah."
Jay shook his head, "That attitude was from uh… my time in the less scrupulous parts of the underworld. Had to do stuff to get by, and guess that stuff seeped into my regular mood."
"Ah, well..."
"Anyways, I don't think i can get away with just saying, 'I don't want to talk about it anymore', can we? Seeing as Cardin nearly started an incident in the morning. I figure you should know what's making him think this way and all that. Though I had a talk with him earlier, so he should be having some very deep thoughts on some things."
Jaune finished off the energy bar, shoving the empty wrapper into a pouch, turning his head to Jay, "What did you talk to him about? Cardin stayed pretty quiet the rest of the time."
He shrugged, "A lot of stuff, but you should probably know the background about it first… my dad's an old school guy. Pretty traditional and used to be a Huntsman back in the day. Grandad fought in the Faunus War and died. Dad was always talking about all that stuff. He always told us stories about the shit Faunus had done to our family, about the White Fang and their turn to terrorism, and how they were inferior and used underhanded tactics to win. Something, something, in a fair fight a human would win. He'd always tell us that Faunus shouldn't be Huntsmen, because they were both dirty and underhanded, and inferior."
"Damn," he said. "If that's the sort of thing you hear day in and day out, I could see how all this happened."
Jay sighed, rubbing his forehead, "Yeah, so I went into Beacon just like my brother. Full of bravado and confident that humans were above Faunus. Got that shit tamped down pretty quick when Initiation happened though."
"We have plenty of time, we might as well fill the silence while we walk."
"Pretty simple. I got paired up with a Faunus, was antagonistic to a fault, and realized really quickly that same Faunus was far better at things than me. I thought she'd be dragging me down, but sure as fuck, she was saving my ass time after time. Turned out we took too long and all the relics got taken. She blamed me for not getting in, and I don't blame her."
"I… when I faked my way in, I was absolutely useless," Jaune said. "I sure was lucky that I met Pyrrha, and she carried me all the way through Initiation and took up all of the slack. I could've ended up just like you."
"Disowned and forced to work for a gang as an enforcer while the kid you met off the street does some crazy tech shit?"
"Maybe not like you... "
Jay's chuckling came out harsh and hearty, "After the old bastard disowned me, I pretty much was left to wander Vale with only my thoughts and a shattered view on the world. Was pretty fucked. Met Finch as you know and joined a gang to get by. Then to this. Cardin apparently thought I was dead. Died in Initiation due to my incompetence. He trained hard, wanting to succeed where I failed. Something like that."
"How was the reunion? Haven't heard from you about that yet."
He grimaced, "Told me I was weak because I failed Initiation, and yet he succeeded."
"Ouch."
"Ouch indeed," Jay sighed. "Some stuff about still loving me as a brother, but telling me to not tell him how to judge other people. I couldn't even pass Initiation, so I couldn't tell him how to do things."
"God, that must've been hard. Seeing your brother just badmouth you like that."
Jay shrugged, "He doesn't hate me, that's for sure. Though I'm pretty sure I can turn him around eventually. He said most of that like he wasn't sure of what he was saying was correct. A whole lot of doubtful body language. So I'm just hoping that he'll come around eventually."
"Can only hope."
"Correction, not hope, try."
Just ahead in the wall were a pair of double doors, along with a plaque by the side that read, "COMBAT HALL 1". Inside came the muffled clashes of metal on metal, gunshots being fired, and cheers from unseen students. It was class time, and so with a little deductive reasoning, he came to the conclusion that there was a combat class going on.
"Pretty sure there's a fight going on in there," he nudged Jay in the side. "Wanna go watch it for a bit? Sounds pretty intense too."
Jay raised an eyebrow, "I thought we were just supposed to walk through the school to familiarize ourselves with the layout?"
"I mean, going in to take a look at the sparring arena counts as getting an idea of the layout. Plus we get a nice fight to watch. Not like we'll get in that much trouble."
Jay cocked his head, mouth half open as he squinted his eyes, "Fine, why not?"
"Let's go," Jaune pushed gently on the door, easing himself into the room just as quietly as he had when he'd run late for class. Which wasn't all that quiet, but he had managed to barely slip in a few times. Barely. They entered the dark room, garnering barely a look as they entered.
Down in the sparring arena, two Huntsmen Jaune didn't recognize were duking it out. They were a blur of rapid movement. A short moment where they paced around each other, then flying into a flurry of movements. The Huntsmen sitting on the benches sat with mostly rapt attention. A few of them chatted with each other as the fight dragged on. The benches were placed in an ascending manner so that every student had a clear view of the ring. RWBY and PNR sat near the front, unnoticing of his entry.
"Damn, look at them go," murmured Jay as he came up to his side.
They stood just outside the door, quietly closing the door behind them. Nobody noticed, with the sound being covered by the sounds of the fight below, "That's not even the best I've seen. You should see Pyrrha fight. She's an absolute monster in the ring."
"She's a Champion fighter, yeah? Kind of expected then."
Just then, one of the fighters jerked away, falling flat onto the floor while the other fighter brought his sword back around for another attack. In two quick seconds, the fight was over.
"Good fight on both of you," the darkness lifted, revealing Goodwitch as she walked out to the middle of the ring. "Verdanna, you need to realize your opponent's weakness and exploit it. Blaine is not as proficient with his ranged option than his sword, and you have a rifle."
Goodwitch went on, going into the minutia of the fight. Complimenting and criticizing likewise.
"Pay attention," he whispered to Jay. "She's a good combat instructor. So you're basically getting free lessons here."
"Pft. You're the only one in the section that has a sword in the first place. I guess all of our weaknesses are if the enemy gets up close and personal."
"I'm sure Thistle can nail them with the LAV from two kilometres away while moving."
"I don't doubt it."
Goodwitch finished talking down below, dismissing the two students to the changing rooms. She turned to the front, eyes widening briefly as her eyes came to the two Contractors standing by the door, "Mr. Arc, what are you doing in my combat class? I wasn't aware Striker Group was being paid to guard Beacon."
Almost at once, everyone in the room turned to face them. He shuffled his feet around as each gaze bored into him. Could she have just not called him out? Ah, too late, "Yes ma'am. However, by extension, we need to be familiar with the Beacon grounds, in case of an attack on the CCT and we need to chase them through here. So we're just making sure we know where everything is."
"Really? I didn't know watching my students fight is part of knowing the layout of Beacon."
"Uh… familiarization with the Combat Hall, ma'am."
She hmphed, before turning back to her students, "Very well, you may stay and watch, but you will not distract my students."
"Understood, ma'am."
RWBY and PNR waved towards him, before immediately being glared down by the Professor.
Goodwitch nodded, before looking down at her scroll, "We'll have another match now, would anyone like to challenge anyone?"
"I'd like to fight Jaune, ma'am!"
His eyes narrowed, locking onto the source of the voice. Cardin stood with an arm raised high in the sky, a determined expression on his face. Cardin gave a side glance at him, half a sneer on his face.
"Cardin!" hissed Jay, stepping forward. "You don't have to do this!"
"I have to," Cardin replied, staring right back.
"Winchester!" Goodwitch looked between them both, before sighing into her hand. "I cannot have Jaune fight you, for one, because he's no longer a student at Beacon, and is working if I'm not mistaken. Second, because I won't have it in my class."
"Ma'am, I insist that I will fight Jaune."
"I refuse for a second time, Winchester. Sit down."
Cardin remained standing.
Jay gritted his teeth, starting to walk forward towards Cardin before being held back by Jaune. Jay shot a glance back at him. Why? Why hold him back?
Jaune leant forward to whisper into his ear, "Just don't, let this play out and it'll solve itself. You can talk to him later."
"Arc!" called out Cardin, looking at him specifically. "Do you consent to fight? Will you fight me? Or be a coward?"
C'mon, you really think I would really care for that?
"Sorry to say, Cardin. I am sort of working right now. Can't just go fight because someone asked me to. Maybe on my non existent free time, but then probably not."
"So you're pussying out?"
Cardin withstood Goodwitch's glare without crumpling by a sheet of paper, to his credit.
"Just saying that I can't fight because I'm working," a grin. The look of Cardin's face was furious. Red with embarrassment, but also with a tinge of anger. Man, maybe when Cardin was being an asshole to him, he should've just been an asshole back. That or actually have been a good Huntsman and stood up for himself earlier. If he'd done that he might've actually still been in Beacon…
Still training to be a Huntsmen.
Still training to become a hero.
Just like Cardin was still doing.
If Jaune hadn't been so caught in thought, he might've heard the door creak behind him, as inaudible as it was, and he might not have been surprised as a hand landed on his shoulder. Jaune spun around, nearly jamming his rifle into the owner of the offending hand. It was Captain Alabaster.
"The hell's going on here?" Alabaster glanced around the room, taking in every single face.
Jaune shrugged, "Someone's challenging me to a fight, and I'm saying I can't because I'm working."
"Aw hell, a fight?" the Captain laughed, patting him on the shoulder. "Shit, I'll waive all this work shit for today. Go fight. I'll call it a training exercise for you. It's in my authority as you're direct CO and semi-official instructor."
Huh? "Wait what? You're seriously letting me do this?"
A snort from Alabaster, "Nah, I'm making you do this."
What?
He couldn't be serious.
One look was all it took to see Alabaster was dead serious.
"Now go the fuck on," Alabaster pushed him forward into the main aisle. "Get down to that fucking ring and fight for your Captain."
"Goodwitch? Ma'am?" Jaune asked desperately. "I thought you said you wouldn't let this happen?"
She glared at the Captain, "Yes. Alabaster, you can't just come into my class and demand things happen. I know your service... has been useful, but that still doesn't give you the right to do this."
"C'mon, Glynda," Alabaster threw up his hands, grin present. "It'll be a good training opportunity for the kids. Jaune's been in a fair few real world fights. So they'll be able to see just how ruthless you have to be in the real world."
"Yes, but-"
"Fuck it, I'll call in one of my favours. Just for this one."
Goodwitch shut her eyes for a few seconds, staring at the ground. She finally looked up, and inhaled deeply, "Alright, fine. Winchester, Arc, get down here and bring all the equipment you need. We'll start the fight soon."
They had to be kidding him.
Cardin turned to face him with a victorious grin, which withered somewhat when he faced Jay. Alabaster watched from his place by the aisle, quickly taking a seat on one of the empty benches. Goodwitch massaged her face, occasionally shooting a death stare at Alabaster. While RWBY and PNR…
"No fair! If Cardin gets to fight him now, I should be able to!" Yang yelled out, staring explicitly at Alabaster.
Wait wh- Oh yeah. She wants to fight me and organized it with Alabaster. Figures.
Alabaster crossed his arms, "Next time, Blondie. Jaune fights discount paladin first."
"Aww!"
"Yang, stop embarrassing us like this!"
"Yeah, Yang!"
Jaune ignored it, stepping down the stairs as students to his left and right focussed on him.
Jay's voice came from behind him, "Cardin, I don't know what your ego is do-"
"Jay, stop it. I know you feel like you need to do this," a deep exhale "But you don't. End of story, I'm doing this."
The two argued for the rest of the walk down. Jaune let it all wash over him, instead choosing to think just how he'd beat the same person that consistently beat him when he was in Beacon. Brute force? Maybe, but he didn't want to leave anything to chance.
Finally, they were down at the ring. Goodwitch took his scroll, tapping a few buttons on each before looking up at him, "Mr. Arc, are you sure you want to do this?"
"Captain is telling me to do this, so not like I have much of a choice."
She shook her head, "I don't particularly agree with this, but Alabaster did his part already, and he's been holding onto this favour for a while... actually forget I said anything. Go to your position in the ring."
Did his thing? Well, just another thing to ask him about.
Before long, Jaune and Cardin found themselves in the sparring ring, both of them holding their weapon. Cardin his mace, and Jaune his rifle, along with Crocea Mors strapped to his backpack. The students in the crowd were murmuring, a low drone of talking breaking up the silence. Goodwitch herself stood in the instructor box, looking down upon the two fighters.
"You both know the rules, but just to refresh for Arc, we stop at ring out, or when your Aura goes into the red. Understood?"
They both nodded.
"Alright, three, two, one, begin!"
Uh, sorry for cutting it there. I was writing and realized if I try and write all of this before my imagined deadline then quality will probably drop.
Some of you might say to just ignore said imaginary deadline for a chonky chapter, but uh… this imaginary deadline is the sole reason I am updating regularly in the first place. So it's that or watch this story become like every other dead story.
The reason it's smaller is mostly because I spent a week trying to extensively plan out the story further out. So that's my excuse.
School'll also be in session for me soon, so expect one more consistent update then it'll just go to shit after. I'll elaborate more on it next chapter.
Also join the Discord. One guy joined and left five seconds after. discord gg/8gbF2TJ link also in profile.
Not much else to say, but the next chapter will be a fight.
People be calling Rangers not SOF but Special Operations Capable be hiding in the back. Marine Force Recon cries in ten MEUs but no warfighting deployments. Literally the only unit doing gang shit now are SOF.
Cheers.
Tophat out.