AN: Don't forget to tell me your opinion on it. Enjoy reading.
A few days later, the second semester was close and that meant that more students came back to Beacon and added with the students from other academies, making the place more crowded than usual. It wasn't a problem because it would be for a few months until the tournament finished and wait to travel for the next continent that will host it two school years later.
On this day, Carl and Skyler were walking around the campus, watching the students return to continue their curriculum year. Nothing was so interesting in watching people coming back but it's not bad either.
"It's so nice to relax and watch things going normally." Skyler stretched her hands while leaning down on the chair she was sitting before she asked Carl." How about you, Carl?"
"It's fine whatever," Carl responded.
"…So…how's Violet?" Skyler asked.
Carl heard Skyler's question and it slowly began to embarrass him, "She's good. I texted her a couple of times during the semester break." Carl coughed.
"Oh really? How did that go?"
"It was mostly a friend-to-friend message. There wasn't anything awkward to say."
"Right." Skyler nodded lightly.
"Just don't bring it up here, Sky. I'm not that good in this and saying it here makes it harder." Carl glared at the blue-haired girl sitting next to him, "Besides, I bet you didn't make anything with Ace."
"Y-Yeah, I didn't make anything big except that kiss I gave him before I took my flight. I saw his face and he looked frozen for a second. Does that mean he likes me back or he's just embarrassed?"
"Maybe both. He's a, how do I say it? A hard person to understand sometimes. I looked at his eyes and it means something. I am not by any means an expert in this but I needed some time to understand how he thinks sometimes. He's a guy that ready to make something crazy at any time before somebody realizes that he's gone. Which makes him different than us. Both of us are different, too. I had a fricking guitar ax for the sake of Remnant. He has 5 different weapons and who knows what he will equip later. Do you understand what I say?"
Skyler nodded, "He's a crazy guy yet...hot. Well, my mother told me some advice on how to get him but I'm afraid that won't work or another girl catches him before-"
"Calm down, girl. Stop thinking of someone getting Ace. You will love each other when the time arrives. Anyways, let's see anything other than sitting here. I don't know why I agreed on this." Carl stood up from the chair he was sitting on and grabbed Nevan.
"Fine, let's see what the other two are doing." Skyler followed Carl from behind.
As two were moving, they saw 2 familiar figures. When they looked better at them, they saw a familiar petite girl and a long wild blonde. Skyler gasped in excitement because she realized that Ruby and Yang returned from Patch.
"HEY! RUBY! YANG! OVER HERE!" Skyler went to them with her right hand waving at them and followed by Carl behind her.
On the other side, Ruby and Yang looked around to see if Weiss and Blake were around waiting for them which they weren't. However, both heard a familiar voice shouting their names. they looked around for that voice and noticed Skyler coming their way. Ruby gasped and used her semblance to get to her, forgetting her bags with Yang, who without any problems, carried them and followed her.
"Hi, Skyler!" Ruby exclaimed as she hugged the older girl which she hugged back. "Oh, how good to see you again!"
"Me too! It's been some time since we meet each other." Skyler exclaimed before she released her hug.
"Well, I'm happy to see my sister break out of her shell," Yang said as she arrived and put down Ruby's bags. "You know that I'm not your assistant, Rubes. I won't carry your stuff every time."
"Sorry, sis. Anyways, how's team ACES?"
"They're great. We got back a few days ago and Ace arrived before us. We didn't do anything big aside from training and studying for the next semester." Carl said as he also arrived.
"Lame. Come on, guys. You're becoming like Ice Queen. Is there anything you can do other than that stuff? We didn't start the semester yet." Yang commented.
"Oh, don't compare us to Weiss, who's more of a bookworm than us. Besides, we have other things like Ace's project he's making, some fun activities we do together. It's not like we're studying all the time." Carl argued.
"Oh, I bet she finished the rest of the lessons before we even arrive," Yang chuckled at the thought. "Oh well, we will go to not waste a lot of time here. I bet both Ice Queen and Ms. Kitty are waiting for us with bated breath. Tell Ace and Violet about us. Come on, Ruby." Yang said before she picked her bags up.
"I will arrive faster than you." Ruby picked up her bags and went quickly before Yang start moving.
Carl, Skyler, and Yang shook their heads from Ruby's childishness as Yang moved, but before she continued she suddenly stopped, "Oh, Skyler! Can I tell you something quickly?" Yang turned to Skyler, who got confused and went to her.
"W-What is it?"
Yang learned to Skyler's ear and whispered, "Hey, I noticed how you look towards Ace. Don't worry, just keep going. He deserves someone like you." Yang tapped Skyler's shoulder before she winked and went on her way.
Skyler, on the other hand, became a frozen blushing mess. How did Yang notice her feelings towards Ace? Did she see that kiss? Did she hear anything? She didn't know which didn't make the situation any easier.
SNAP
"Um…Skyler? You there?" Carl snapped his fingers in front of her face to interrupt her thoughts.
"W-Wha huh?!" Skyler stuttered and shook her head.
"You have been like this for a minute. You okay?"
"Y-Yes! I'm fine. Let's get back to our dorm." Skyler avoided the question and start to head back to their dorm.
…
Ace was going on fire in making the weapon. The progress was going very well. No unnecessary interruptions. No problems to deal with for most of the time. It was all good from start to finish for most of the progress.
The way he designed those gauntlets was by having them as normal and colorful bracelets. In a button press, the gauntlets would start to cover the hands like a glove. The glove would take the shape of black metallic gloves with pointy fingers but not so pointy that would hurt anyone or anything it makes a contact with. Another feature that had a button for and its claws that will appear from the knuckles. Those features would have dust capabilities as the person could either make punches fused with dust or shoot normal dust. The claws would also have the same idea. And with proper training, Lisa can make small aura slashes with the claws and fused with dust.
Now, it was yet to be finished but close to doing it.
Ace groaned happily and leaned back on the chair he was sitting on. Man, she might go wild with those, and Ace loved it. Something that would make Lisa happy for her huntress career and a thing that would remind her of her brother.
"Do you know that this is so adorable being this caring for your sister?" Ace turned to the voice from his left to be Violet, who's preparing for the next lessons in the second semester.
"Yeah, I know, and I'm not ashamed of admitting that. After all, this is my job as a big brother. Being a good role model for them. What type of big brother I would be if I didn't think a lot for their best?"
"Right…I'm impressed that you're nearly finishing those weapons. Where did you learn to do that fast?"
"Well, grandpa Joseph was one of the people who helped me on doing those stuff. You too, from the time we had together in the first semester." Ace replied, "It's 94% before it finishes."
"Thank you for this complement, Ace. I'm glad the time we had made a good result. Are there any ideas you want to make later?"
"There will be a weapon for Seth for later and one for the youngest, Luna, that I will save with me until she grows up to be able to carry it." Ace stated.
"Until she grows up? Is she-"
"Two years old."
"…Oh…But how do you know that she will like the weapon your making?"
"She will like it when the time...comes…" Ace became silent for a moment after what he said, remembering the Luna he took care of. "Anyways, how's your relationship with Carl?" Ace changed the question with a tease filling it.
"U-Um. It's good." Violet turned away timidly and thankfully, Carl wasn't in the room to hear them.
Ace smirked and decided to push more, "Good? Are you sure about that? Because you didn't work on many things lately and spent some time with our guitarist."
"W-W-Well, I-I'm free lately. S-So, why wouldn't I spend s-some time with you?" Violet's face was getting a bit red and tapped her fingers lightly.
"Yeah, but out of us so far, Carl was the most person you talked with. Is there anything between you two when I wasn't here?" Ace asked teasingly.
"N-N-N-No! D-Don't you dare think any f-f-funny ideas?!" Violet retorted with her face getting redder.
"Hey! I was messing with ya. Yeesh," Ace raised his hands in defense.
Ace liked to mess with Violet's crush on Carl. While yes, it was weird to see a guitarist and a turtle Faunus inventor being together. This was love and Ace knew that it didn't have stable rules. Yet, he always messes with them like how he did that with Seth about his crush when he was yet to meet her. Carl wasn't out of it, too. Those two were a joy to tease.
After that teasing, Ace returned to make Lisa's weapon and Violet tried to forget this conversation existed.
Knock Knock
The door got knocked and opened to reveal Carl and Skyler back from whatever the hell they were doing.
"Guys, Ruby and Yang returned from Patch. We met them and they say their welcome." Carl informed.
While Carl looked normal, Skyler, on the other hand, looked shy and a little shaken. Ace noticed that and thought that it was either Yang who teased her about her being in love with him or something else but mostly the first option.
"Okay, that's nice, I guess." Ace said.
On the other hand, Skyler rested on her bed and covered her face with the pillow. Now that they met both Ruby and Yang and had a small conversation with them. She remembered what Yang told her.
"Hey, I noticed how you look towards Ace. Don't worry, just keep going. He deserves someone like you."
This was the last thing she heard from Yang before her mind nearly went shut. While she talked with her mother and asked her for some advice on how can she get Ace to love her, it was hard sometimes despite having the first thing she made was hug him when they got reunited. Although she didn't look shy, her face was on fire and turned away quickly from it until she calmed down. She remembered the time when Ace asked her about her crush and it made her a blushing mess. Despite being shy, she wouldn't give up on getting him from any predators as she noticed some of them looking at him, lately.
While yes, Ace was very handsome.
His blue hair was getting longer with those black ones.
Those beautiful red eyes he had.
The growing beard made him more handsome.
That muscular body he hid under the same clothes.
His hands when he wasn't wearing the coat looked so good she imagined how good the rest of his body was.
She dreamed about how nice she was sleeping on Ace's muscular upper body. A toned chest and abs. It made her get excited and squeeze the pillow she was covering herself with. She will get that for herself and hers only. After she gets him, they would get married and have children. How many adorable children was still a hard question but would be answered later when they do it after their marriage and-
ZAP ZAP "GAHH! DAMN IT!"
Skyler moved the pillow a bit off her face and looked to the source of the sound to see Ace being in pain from the shock at the gauntlets he was making. Ace pressed the button to shut it off and began to remove some parts, "I should have not done that! I should have NOT done that!" Ace groaned,
As he started fixing it, Skyler covered herself back with the pillow.
Now, where were we? Yeah, the children.
The thought of adorable children that who knew how many they can be? Then, they become older and maybe follow their parents' footsteps, then the grandchildren of their children and the great-grandchildren until she gets older and dies happily. The biggest problem, before she marries him, would be there any problems with Ace's parents? While they had the role to make her leader to how he was, she wouldn't be able to know that they would be okay with her relationship with him even. But hopefully, HOPEFULLY, they would be okay with it.
Skyler squealed and rolled in her bed from the thoughts. They still have a long time to finish Beacon so she couldn't have the time to get Ace before anyone puts their dirty hands on him.
"Okay, now that's got out of the way, let's see anything more than this." Ace said as he pressed the buttons to make the gauntlets composed to their bracelets mode and picked them up before he put them to safety.
After he put them, he went to his bed and rested on his back, and picked a book that have been there.
Skyler watched Ace reading that book. He looked calm and signs of stress were nowhere to be seen. How did he be that calm for most of the time? She knew that he recalled being able to work under stress and how odd some of his stories could be, but she couldn't help but feel jealous and ask to have one-tenth of his calmness sometimes. Maybe experiencing some hardship would get to develop that, but she had to wait until the mission gets official and began to work either alone or with the help of new people she didn't know anything about.
.
.
.
BEEP BEEP
Skyler removed the pillow from her face and looked at the sound of that noise. It became so familiar as it was one of the alarms Ace had in his scroll. Ace pulled the scroll from his pocket and stopped the alarm before he smiled.
"Oh, will you look at that? Time for the workout in the gym. Prepare your stuff, guys. We made a plan for today's workout to increase the time, so get your asses up and prepare yourself." Ace ordered as stood up to prepare his stuff.
Skyler smiled lightly and stood up to prepare her stuff. She loved going to the gym and doing some hard exercises to not just improve her body, but to get closer to her friends more when she likes to talk to them, or simply look at Ace's muscular arm. Now, that was creepy and Skyler was aware of it but who could remove their eyes from that stunning arm of his?
…
After the gym workout, nothing happened. They continued their day normally and everyone was doing their stuff. Ace continued working on the gauntlet and he seemed very excited to try it out. That was normal as he wanted to make sure the weapon works to ensure there was no slip-up or error.
As for Ace himself, he was very happy with his progress so far. He was able to finish the weapon quicker than the last time he made it. It took him about 2 months to finish and that was a lot compared to this time. This time, he finished it in a week or so thanks to the help of Vi's tools and having everything for the invention. A new and not-so-surprising record for him.
At the moment, Ace stood in the middle of the room, alone because his team was out to check on something. That was a good opportunity to check Lisa's weapon if it worked well or not. He pressed the activation buttons to make them cover Ace's wrists, palm, and fingers.
The gauntlet was black from top to the top edge of the dust tank. The dust tank was in the shape of small, glassy-like chambers that despite looking small, it contained a lot of dust that needs to be refilled every once and a while if you didn't spend an entire day fighting. Moving up for a bit, a circle was seen on most of the palm. That circle fired the type of dust the person chose and the circle glows before it shoots the type of dust the person chooses. Moving up a bit, the fingers were covered very well but also in a way that makes moving them easy and comfortable as breathing air with the edge of them being like knights' gauntlets. Moving to what might be the coolest addition this weapon didn't have before and which was the claws. At the palm, it might seem like there's nothing, but looking closely, there were hidden closed walls that hide them away from anyone.
Ace pressed the button for it to make the holes open to release 3 black claws from both hands. Those sharp claws were placed in a way that was covered by a small barrier to prevent them from cutting the hands of the user. The claws by themselves were also black and very sharp in a way that it can cut through the Grimm's thick body like a nice hot knife on a piece of butter and its durability was so good to handle tougher and sharper weapons, high temperatures, so did the entire gauntlet, and many stronger attacks. Those claws were connected to the dust which can make slash + dust attacks.
Ace closed his palms and pressed the button of the claw mode to release them back. Ace started to channel a very small bit of his aura to the claws and after 5 seconds, Ace swung in the air, making some wind get out of it, making the paper on the desk fly to the end of it.
Ace pressed the button to deactivate the claws before he turned his hands into the palm side. Pressing another button to activate the dust, Ace began to channel a simple fire on his hand. The fire was covering a small part of his palm before he closed his palms and open it to release fire higher while covering his entire hand. Ace smirked before he closed them again and changed the fire dust to another element. Ace opened his palms again to release a small storm of purple electricity around his hand and hovering above his palms.
"Let's go!" Ace exclaimed before he made his hand in the shape of X with the claws released, making him like a superhero on a movie post. After that experiment, Ace pressed the buttons to make the gauntlets back to their bracelets mode and put them on the table to check one last time before he puts them away to give them to his sister later.
He put them inside a box and returned Violet's tools to the bag without messing them up in creating the gauntlets. Then, he went on his bed to rest on his back and stretched his arms, "Yes! This is so good! Now that we finished that, let's see what will we do next?" Ace pulled his scroll.
…
A few days later, the second semester is on. It started with a bang or you could say a 'Yang', That pun was bad, typical Yang puns, as team RWBY and JNPR had gone on a food fight that destroyed the cafeteria. Everyone went out because of the war that was about to happen except Ace who stayed and recorded the mayhem that occurred from Nora throwing a cream pie to Weiss's face. Somehow, nobody noticed his presence. Not even Glynda as he went out without nobody noticing. After that, he watched it again and laughed at the accurate descriptions from them on how it went. Many in Beacon also heard bits from that 'Food Fight' before, and watching it back, it was as to how he thought of it.
After that mayhem, classes went normally, and new to their classes, they had new students from the other academies joining them. It felt refreshing to see new students joining them to witness the torture of Port's classes, the hard to keep up with classes with Oobleck, and the odd nature of Beacon. So far, nothing new was added and the day went normally.
However, Ace was looking around the campus if the main targets arrived or not. Those targets were for your information are team CMEN. Consisted of: Cinder Black, Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, and Neopolitan joining them later. Those were the main targets Ace needs to deal with. He couldn't make any sudden move at them because that wouldn't be nice for anyone, but he needed to be careful as Cinder might get interested in him more than Pyrrha. That might be a good thing for Pyrrha, who wouldn't have a headache in dealing with Cinder or maybe will sometime later after they deal with him.
This was also happening with Blake's problem with dealing with the WF as she will get herself overworked and lose focus after their encounter with Roman, who had Neo steal the Atlesian Paladin, which was something he wouldn't need to care for as Yang did the job anyway.
Now, it was nighttime at Beacon and everything looked quiet as not many would move around the campus at the moment except for newcomers but that was something else. Ace took a very deep breath, smelling the night breeze and walking around to see anyone around. Ace looked around the campus, admiring how good it could be in the night with the lights that come from the CCT tower, the main tower where Ozpin's office was, and the posts standing on the campus.
Very nice when you want to sit and relax if you asked me.
Ace continued looking around the campus, finding if CMEN was here or not. He could wait as he was free to do so.
Thinking about Emerald and Mercury when they were partners before they die made Ace sad. Emerald had to forcefully live in the streets and steal anything and Mercury's hard time with his father when the guy was trying to teach his son in a good way to drive forward. While he was abusive, it might have been worse if Mercury didn't snap on him and killed his father as Marcus Black, if Ace remembered correctly, would have been a huge problem anyone needs to pay good attention to when you fight him.
Ace was sad as both lived hard lives but Remnant didn't say we would help you at the moment. Racism was the biggest evidence around for your information, good sir. The thing about Emerald's way of thinking put her in a problem as she realized how Cinder didn't give a shit about her and used her for the big plans until later while Mercury knew that early, he didn't care as long as he was good or he thought that the battle was bigger than him and saw the way to survive was by following the boss' orders.
Knocking some sense and truth to them before it's too late but that will have to wait for now.
"You think this will help us?" A familiar female voice came out from his left.
Ace turned to the voice as he knew this voice very well.
"Relax, Em. As long as we keep up like 'normal' students, we will get out without problems." Another familiar male voice came from the same direction.
Ace chuckled as he knew that they arrived, so he got closer.
Standing behind a tree, Ace hid his aura to make sure nobody noticed him and moved his face and ear carefully to hear the conversation, "Gah! These clothes are a bit ridiculous! Do we need to hide in this?" The female complained as she lightly pulled the outfit she wore.
"Indeed, Emerald. We need them to hide like normal students as a part of the plan and keep Ozpin's right hand away from detecting us, if I need to remind you, Emerald." Another familiar female said.
Ace heard it from behind and lightly chuckled, 'Nope, not just Ozzy.'
Going to the three students that moving right now. Their outfits were the official Mistral uniform. The male wore a black jacket with a light gray outline around the edge, a white undershirt and a band around his left arm, and pair of black trousers with his hair and eyes being gray. While the 2 females wore the same thing except with gray and black checkered skirts. The first female had a light, mint-green with a straight fringe and bangs as well as two long locks on each side in the back and medium-brown skin and red eyes while the other had long, amber eyes, ashen black hair.
The male was Mercury Black and the female with green hair was Emerald Sustrai, and the leader was Cinder Fall before she lost her left eye and arm.
Ace looked at Cinder as he didn't notice how changed Cinder looked when they met each other the first time. She was way more beautiful than what resulted after the Fall. But that was a subject for another day as he moved away from the tree and changed his position before they sense him.
While he was moving like a ninja, Cinder noticed a blur in a blink. Cinder narrowed her eyes, "Hmm…lookout, it's like someone is watching us."
Mercury and Emerald stood in their guard, looking for anyone and ready to fight or just run away with Emerald's semblance, "I told you, guys. These outfits can't hide us forever. They knew about us!" Emerald said as she was ready to activate her semblance. A few seconds later, in the dead silence, they put their guard down and started to relax, "Gosh, it's getting creepy here. Let us go to our rooms before-"
"Oh, hi! You seem like students coming from Mistral." Suddenly, a person stood in front of them.
"Gah!" Mercury and Emerald got freaked out while Cinder stood in a composed pose.
"Oh, sorry for scaring you out. It's that not many people move around in this time." The person raised his hands in defense.
"Yeah, we are new to this place and we arrived late. You can say that luck wasn't on our side." Cinder said.
"Well, this is where the dorms are if you need." He pointed in the direction where the building of the dorms was.
"Right…thank you for that." Cinder thanked her while inside, she felt disgusted from trying to be nice.
"Oh, well. See you tomorrow!" The person walked away and waved goodbye before heading to the dorm's building.
As he was out of sight, Emerald sighed in relief, "Gods! How did he appear like a ghost? I started to not like this place at all."
"Patience, Emerald!" Cinder ordered, "It's normal to see people like this. It's the Vytal Festival Tournament. So, expect anything like this when you get closer to the targets."
…
The next day, same classes but with other students joining Beacon. It was something that depended on their choice, but yeah, nothing harmful in trying to continue your education if you want to be at your best.
So, nothing was too big aside from Emerald and Mercury and sometimes Cinder joined and watched students in fighting classes to study and counter their opponents. Like Pyrrha for example.
Ace couldn't avoid that but he didn't and wouldn't reveal anything big aside from the Sabrewulf Gauntlets upgrade. Yeah, nobody wouldn't notice the secret ability to be good against mental effects like illusions or how it could be used unless it's pointed out because it was not good when someone tried to steal them as they also work for defense so that will be a problem because Ace won't hesitate to cut their opponent's limbs if he had to take them back.
In the amphitheater, students from both Beacon and other academies were sitting, watching, or ready for their turn to come. Everyone was sitting and watching the match that take place.
The rematch of Ruby Rose vs Skyler Eindhoven.
This match was sure different from the last time as Skyler was able to keep up with Ruby pretty easily thanks to Ace's training on fighting fast opponents this time. Sure, it was not as perfect as Ace's, but being able to keep up with Ruby's speed was pretty much an achievement on its own.
Getting to the arena where both females fighting, The Meta Cavalierly and Crescent Rose were clashing with the advantage given to Meta of course. Ruby sure had a bad matchup as she noticed how hard fighting Skyler had become. She noticed her aura becoming yellow which was a bad thing as she needed one strong hit and that was a win to Skyler, breaking her record of wins in progress. On the other hand, Skyler was going on fire. She smiled at how better her swings were and how good she became in dealing with fast opponents from Ace's hard training as we knew. It made Ruby mostly rely on ranged and counter-attacks which didn't work a lot as Skyler either dodged or blocked them.
Skyler thought that was it. She needed one last attack to finish Ruby once and for all. Which she was ready to make it.
She took a deep breath and tighten her grip with the Meta in its hammer mode. She started to close her distance with Ruby as she ran in fast steps which had Ruby dodge them by using her semblance but not for long. She swung her hammer to make Ruby block it which the red reaper did. Sadly, that was the plan as Skyler jumped and raised her hammer to make the final attack with a mighty roar.
"WAH!" Ruby's eyes wide opened as she dodged the attack before the hammer landed next to her.
This wasn't the only thing as Skyler moved her body to stand upwards on the top of the handle of the hammer with her hands before she lifted the hammer and swung her hammer to the left side of Ruby to block. Ruby moved her scythe to block the attack, but what a mistake that was. As the hammer made a contact, Ruby's grip wasn't good as it made the scythe fly out of her hand.
"Gotcha!" Skyler swung the hammer back to hit Ruby the last hit. The hammer made a contact with Ruby's body, making her gasp the air in her lungs before she got launched outside of the arena and landed with a nearly broken aura.
Skyler put her hammer down and removed her sweat off her forehead.
"Good job, Ms. Eindhoven." Skyler turned to the sound of Glynda Goodwitch coming, "You learned from the last match and that's great as Ms. Rose wasn't able to hit you for most of the time. Which's excellent given how hard the match was when you fought her the first time and how fast Ms. Rose was." Skyler responded with a thumb-up.
"For you, Ms. Rose, your attacks and way of going around your opponent weren't very helpful. While keeping ranges and counterattacks was a good idea, it was hard on you to do the same thing from a person that learned from the mistake and was able to deal with your speed. This is something bad when you fight an opponent that had enormous strength and good reaction time like Ms. Eindhoven. I suggest you work on the swings of yours and try new methods on dealing with opponents with great reaction time."
Ruby grunted in response as she still felt the pain.
"S-Sorry about that, Ruby. I wanted to try out the results of training I made in the last months." Skyler apologized as she offered her hand, "I hope there won't be something wrong between us."
"N-No problem, Skyler." Ruby grabbed Skyler's hand and stood up before she coughed, "Next time will be different." Ruby processed to get Crescent Rose as she and Skyler returned to their seats.
For team RWBY, Ruby got back to her seat next to Yang and Weiss a bit sad from the loss.
"Huh, Skyler was different than last time. She was able to deal with Ruby's speed and swings pretty easily." Weiss noted. "We should increase our training sections later, aren't we?"
"Yep," Yang nodded, "I'm ready to go to the next level! How about you, Rubs?"
"Yeah," Ruby responded with grunts as she still felt the pain,
"We should also work on taking hits as that hammer looks like it can break bones if not for the aura."
On the other side, Skyler returned to her teammates brightly as she performed the results of months of training in the first semester.
"You were astonishing, girl." Ace commented with a smile on his,
"T-Thank you. I knew all of this work was for good." Skyler replied, "After this match, I'm motivated to train more on this to become to your level, Ace."
"No," Ace simply replied,
"What? Why?"
"I planned to do it later and by later I mean next year, it's a very difficult training and really, even I took long to master it."
"Come on, Ace. Please!" Skyler pleaded with small puppy eyes.
Ace's heart was pounding inside his chest from those eyes. He didn't have the effect of the puppy eyes from Lisa as it didn't work on him and rarely work on him and his parents. This time, it came from his friend that while yes, she looked motivated to do and her progress was going well, it was weird that he was getting affected by her. Maybe that can be a good opportunity to become stronger.
Ace sighed in defeat, "Fine, if you insist, I'm…kinda free at the moment."
"That's great. I know those red eyes won't fail me." Skyler exclaimed as she took a side hug on Ace.
"Wait…what?"
Realizing herself, Skyler blushed lightly before she released her hug, "N-Nothing."
"Oh, come on! We're close in terms of our training, why would he have to do more?" Carl grunted,
"Because compared to my level and yours, you're still unprofessional or that close to me. Besides, 'No Pain. No Gain.' If you want to do it later, then okay."
"I will participate after the Hand-to-Hand combat training," Violet announced while she wrote her notes on something,
"That's the spirit, Vi!" Skyler punched the back shell of Violet lightly before the three turned to Carl,
"Fine, but don't expect getting crazy like those two." Carl sighed.
"It's official then. Let's go to our training place at…Friday. BEEP And I will carry you if you got out energy when-"
"Next Match is Ace Storm vs Blake Belladonna," Glynda announced in the middle of Ace's talking,
"Oh well, Friday as I said." Ace stood up and headed to the arena.
As both Ace and Blake stood in the arena, Ace noticed how a little sleepy Blake was. It was around the time Blake overworked herself to get the WF after that meeting with Ozpin as she said. She started to overwork herself to the point she didn't eat, sleep well, etc. Which had the team make a plan to go to Vale searching for any WF and Torchwick's plan before they fought that paladin, trashed it, and introduced them to Neo who rescued Roman from getting arrested before she did it again in the Fall of Beacon. Ace thought that this match would make team RWBY had again gone to Vale as Ace could give Blake some knocking punch to wake her up and a fun match dodging Blake easily at the same time.
"3…2…1…Fight."
Blake grabbed her sword, Gambol Shroud, and attacked Ace with the thought of dodging the attack with her clone. Ace knew that and dodged it…pretty easily. He didn't do a lot of effort. Even though it looked hard, it wasn't hard if you were good enough. Ace brought the Dust Decoded and clashed with Blake's sword before Ace pushed Blake and tried to kick her face which have a clone to take the hit. Usual Blake signature. Ace didn't stop as he approached Blake multiple times with his sword, all of which were dodged or having a clone to take the hit. Ace decided that attacking Blake in that form was a waste of energy so he put the sword back and changed to Hand-to-Hand combat. While Ace was putting the sword back, Blake made a sneak attack on Ace with her small katana in her right hand and the sheath on her left. Unfortunately, Blake's opponent wasn't a guy that can have this as Ace stepped back from that attack before Blake immediately used the bladed sheath to attack Ace who blocked it with the Sabrewulf Gauntlets using his left arm.
Without thinking, Ace punched Blake straight to her face. Blake didn't react quick enough so she took the hit, making her stagger a bit before another fist make a contact with her face again, making her fly a bit.
In the audience, everyone was having high expectations as this fight was having two of the best students in terms of combat skills. Watching both fighters, their records, and the fights they had, it looked like it would be a match where one blinked, and pretty much something got missed before you notice. Sadly, that was not the case as Blake looked sloppy and Ace didn't use a lot of effort to stop Blake.
Maybe another day, guys.
Team RWBY, on the other hand, was concerned about Blake's performance. This wasn't the Blake they knew as Blake usually used her semblance and fast attacks to trick her opponents and beat them. This was not the case as Ace looked like he didn't break a sweat in the match and that's not good as Blake is known to be very difficult to deal with.
"Guys…I think we should talk to Blake about this before she gets out of control." Ruby commented which Weiss and Yang nodding in response.
Back to the fight, Ace's aura didn't have any scratch for Remnant's sake. While Blake was getting a bit tougher and focused but still that's not the Blake anyone will have a problem to deal with. Ace was blocking Gambol Shroud with the Sabrewulf Gauntlets with ease with not so much effort being put into it. So, he decided to kick Blake's left knee and punched straight to her cheek before he moved behind her and kicked her back. Blake tried to get up and correct her stance but she didn't look like she can do much so Ace became near her without any warning...
…SMACK
Ace gave Blake a slap to her face. A slap loud enough to make everyone flinch with some saying 'OHHH!' in the background. The scene was shocking because Ace just straight slapped Blake in front of everyone like it was normal. This made Blake shocked before her expression turned to anger in a moment as she pulled her weapon and prepared to kill Ace from the humiliation-
"That's enough." Blake stopped her process of killing Ace as she turned to the sound of Glynda, "Ms. Belladonna, what the heck was that? You looked like you didn't sleep as Mr. Storm was pushing you around like some sort of training doll, even having the nerve to slap you in front of everyone. It requires a lot of courage for someone like him to slap you right in front of everyone. You better sleep very well, young lady. Not having enough sleep will put you in grave danger."
Blake looked down at the ground in defeat and humiliation. The teacher was right. She didn't have any good sleep and lose to a person he didn't even try. If that was Adam, oh, boy, it would have been 100% death.
"Sorry about that, kitty. You should take a small nap and stop staying late at night as most cats do." She heard Ace apologize in a low sound before he scratched his hand on her head as a cats do.
On the other hand, CES looked disappointed at the result like most people. They had the chance to see their leader's skills shine in front of a real challenge like Blake.
Maybe next time, guys.
"Wow…that was…anticlimactic." Carl commented, "Except that yeesh slap. Maybe joining your lessons on Friday won't be that bad to redeem this."
Not long after, Ace sat back next to them and looked like not a single dust was on him, "That was disappointing indeed. I hoped to have a challenge in it but I guess we have to wait until who knows?"
…
After having a no battle, everything went normally and nothing was interesting until Atlas arrived at Beacon and had General James Ironwood with it.
Oh, boy. That was a crazy problem on that day. One of the things that made the Fall a hell in the living world. Because of the hacking codes Cinder planted in the CCT tower back then, it led to a very bad problem with having the Atlesian droids and the Paladins turn to kill the people. Which led to many casualties and one of them was…Skyler…
That memory haunted him a lot after her death and blamed himself for not being able to protect his friend as a leader and a friend of hers. That moment was heartwrenching for him and stuck in his memory as a reminder of his failure. Her last words were putting salt on the wound and with the shitty situation and you made the best sad scene in a movie.
Ace knew that the person to blame was Watts and Cinder but he couldn't help but have a part of it on Ironwood's shoulder. He was the one who insisted on putting them in the tournament. Which was understandable, yet these amounts led to worse problems and had huntsmen casualties and having them fight both Grimm and Atlesian robots until Roman's ship where it got crashed and everything went calmer. Ace hoped it was earlier because at least Skyler would have been alive out of this. But that was the past and here, he could turn things in a different direction this time.
On a Friday afternoon, Ace was watching the Atlesian ships that carry the students, the droids, and other stuff from Atlas to Beacon Academy.
"A unique scenery from this location, Mr. Storm." Ace heard a voice from behind and didn't need to think twice from that old aura.
"Not at all, Professor. All I see is destruction hidden under our eyes." Ace replied as Ozpin or Ozma stood next to him with his cane in one hand and his mug coffee in the other.
"While I can understand that, believe me, I-"
"You wouldn't have the General bring all of this junk with him." Ace interrupted.
"I could say lowering the numbers as this can bring a problem for not being able to handle a safe Vytal Festival Tournament."
Ace shook his head, "This is a form of destruction in the wrong hands. I know that you can imagine the destruction this can have when all of this bullshit gets hacked in the wrong fucking hands."
"While I understand this way of thinking and the fair share of experience, I can get what are you saying, especially that things are a bit complicated in the last couple of days."
"A Bit. Yeah, say that in your defense when you survive long enough to tell how you and Jimmy couldn't think of having the possibility of getting hacked while you're sitting. I hope that seat of yours will help you later. Now, excuse me…I have a training session with my team at the moment."
With that, Ace started moving to the training place where he and his team train.
"Oh, Storm, you are hard to understand sometimes. If you knew what I'm dealing with for centuries." Oh, he knew about everything Ozzy. If only you knew what will happen next.
…
In a place away from Beacon and everyone. In the Emerald Forest, Team ACES' usual spot for training, Carl, Violet, and Skyler were sitting on the ground, waiting for Ace, who was standing in front of them and ready to listen.
"Now, I'm happy to say that I'm proud of your progress over the last months. You have received training not many would apply or have courage enough to do it. And you continued to train after the semester with the little time you had. Today, I wasn't planning on having this harsh training this year, but introduce it in the next year. But, our blue-haired friend insisted on having it and you joined with her. So, today, you will learn the art of Iai-Jutsu."
Skyler looked excited about it, Violet looked interested, and Carl looked like regretting entering this.
"Oh, great! Another thing to do! Bro, Did you train for your entire life?" Carl pointed out in a groan.
"Nope, Carl. I had a school, huntsmen, and huntresses primary school, and a baby sister to take care of when mother was tired. There were other things I did other than training so thank you for your attention on my health." Ace replied with a little sarcasm. "I had this training when I was around 14 and in summer break where I went around Patch on how to survive in the wild. I know what are you asking but don't. Anyways, I met a great person there. Master Fujin Takahashi. And yes, he's the old, short, with white long beard master that lives away from people. He had the honor to introduce me to this art and other things I trained on."
"So, you inherited his lessons and you will share it with us?" Carl figured out.
"Exactly! The reason why I trained you on those reaction and aura training is that it's needed for this bullshit." Ace answered,
"Is that hard?" Violet asked,
"Oh, If you say that I can make quite the damage without nobody noticing is something that even I still have a very long road to perfection."
This statement made CES confused and surprised a bit. How much does he have to do to perfect it?
"I mean," Ace moved his hand towards the Demon Sword and gripped his handle to pull the katana that have been revealed for the first time in their time together, "If you can do this as easy as breathing air then," Ace put the sword back to its sheath.
CRACK CRASH
Suddenly, multiple trees got cut in half and fell slowly on the ground as Ace shrugged, "It's an absolute bullshit."
Carl, Violet, and Skyler were shocked and their mouth has gaped like they will fall on the ground from the shock. Carl slapped himself, Violet raised her goggles and rubbed her eyes to check if it was real and Skyler took a grip of her blue hair. They were speechless before looking to Ace who was shrugged playfully.
"I-I…Is there more of this crap?" Carl asked, not knowing what he could say.
"What do you think?" Ace raised his eyebrow.
Carl covered his face and rested his back on the grassy ground before he pulls out a muffled scream.
"We're not going out of this alive, are we?" Skyler muttered under her breath, scared at the images of this power her leader will teach them.
"Why do you treat it like a war crime or a going on a suicide mission? It's not that bad when you become masters in it." Ace said smiling at them playfully.
"BECAUSE WHAT THE IN THE DEPTHS OF HELL IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE?! You treat it like Monday morning in a nutshell. I thought this can be achieved in movies or things like that o-or maybe legendary huntsmen only can do that." Carl exclaimed out loud.
"Yeah, this type of training is not just rare because of the difficulty, but from being very hard to learn. Trust me, I spent a lot of time mastering it and it can get to great results. Wanna check on how crazy that can be?"
"N-NO! Not now. Let's learn the basics first and then rain us with this AI Jutsu you're talking about!" Skyler interrupted,
"Okay, now get a hold of yourself and take some deep breath as we will dive into a world of the most bullshit training anyone could have in this god damn world." Ace exclaimed sarcastically, "Also, it only needs a sharp weapon, so, Violet, I brought this sword to use. You can make one later." Ace brought a sword that looked too normal for anyone to use. "You can do that with your axes but I brought more swords to use for the beginning."
The three of them were silent for a moment. Is this really what would happen in the next year? Yes, Beacon was designed in a way to make anyone learn how to be the best of the best in this job but really, they were getting in new stuff that got loaded on them once they lived with the craziest and strongest person in the academy. It was started to get suspicious if Ace was a proclaimed huntsman but returned in time (Which was true) or someone who got younger all of the sudden and lives for over 100 years (Technically, he's about 40, but yeah).
"Okay, first of all, this training requires a lot of good aura control and swings, so, we will start with the basics." Ace pointed his normal sword in front of the three.
…
A while later, the training went well to Ace's surprise. Of course, there were struggles from them as it was their first lesson but they were doing a good job nonetheless. At the end of that hard training, the three got so tired, they went to sleep. It was not a big surprise to Ace, but unlike them, Ace was having the same issues but for much harder lessons cause of the training he had before. The problem was that they did it in the training area, which had Ace carrying them to their beds.
Carl was on his left shoulder, Skyler was on his right shoulder, Violet was inside her shell after Ace put her limbs inside it and carried it like a heavy box, all of that while carrying their weapons on his back next to the Dust Decoded. Because it wasn't night yet, everyone on the campus saw Ace carrying his teammates. Every time they asked, Ace, answered 'Tough training'. Ace heard some saying 'Damn, he does what a good leader does!' and 'Aww, that's too cute!' and many more from the students who were studying in Beacon. The foreign students were confused about it because they were new, so they wouldn't understand who was Ace and why he carried 2 people on his shoulder and a giant purple turtle shell. Which Ace didn't give a shit about it, he just want to put them in their beds and deal with other stuff. After that, Ace arrived at the dorm and gently put the three of them in their beds while giving them a goodnight kiss and covering them with their blankets.
Such a caring leader.
He had a lot of time left in the day, so he went and looked outside to see anything new in Beacon. As he walked around, he spotted professor Ozpin and Goodwitch walking in the hallway with Ozpin having the same coffee mug and Glynda with her tablet.
"Ah, Mr. Storm. It's a pleasant surprise to see you again." The old wizard greeted, "Professor Goodwitch and I spotted the students around the campus talking about you. Care to explain?"
"Tough training, "Ace replied with the same answer he answered everyone, "We sure had quite the training today and they got so tired I carried them to their beds like a good leader would do."
"Very well, Mr. Storm. I'm happy to see that you care very well for your team's urgency. I watched many clips of you together and it's safe to say that you got better with them." Ozpin said as he took a sip of his coffee. "Excuse me, Mr. Storm, if we interrupted any important thing."
"No need to apologize professor. I'm not in hurry." Ace looked left and right to see if anyone was nearby but no one was near. "Say, have you heard about a weird rumor lately?" That caught the professors' attention. "Do you know about that team that called CMEN that came from Mistral and three members and one didn't come, yet? One is male with gray hair and the other two are females with one having mint green hair and the other Jet black? Some people were saying that they were collecting students' information for some reason."
The two professors' minds were asking a question. Where did he hear it? Because if anything was Ozpin and his inner circle was fighting got revealed, it won't end nicely.
"Now, Mr. Storm, it may sound a bit over the top, but where did you hear that?" Glynda asked sternly.
"2 days ago, I also heard from a Mistralian leader from team ABRN, Arslan Altan, that she doesn't recognize any of them as it's the first time she noticed them despite meeting with every single student in Haven Academy," Ace added for his information.
Ozpin hummed while Glynda narrowed her eyes at the teenager. Both adults looked at each other and returned to Ace.
"Well, we will see what can we do. Do not share our conversation with anyone and keep it low before any problem arise. You are dismissed." Ozpin notified.
Ace nodded and walked away from the professors' sight. Glynda looked cautious and ready to knock someone with her semblance while Ozpin looked neutral, "Where did that child possibly hear with something so specific about those three?" Glynda asked,
"I doubt rumors have anything to it, but if it was true and rumors somehow started to go around, that will be problematic to deal with Salem's spies here." Ozpin looked at his coffee that looked like it never ended, "But again, I doubt it."
On the other side, Ace smiled at that conversation. While Ace knew that Ozpin and Glynda will doubt a ridiculous rumor about Cinder and her lackeys, it might start to put some caution on Ozpin before he make any move to stop Cinder or Ace from just doing it himself.
While walking in the long hallway, Ace saw a figure was moving in front of him, and that figure was Cinder. She wore gray pants and boots, a beige leather sleeveless jacket with light-beige details, brown gloves, a Sarahi tied around her chest and another around her hips, and a pauldron on her left shoulder. She also wore a belt around her waist which has multiple brown pouches attached to it. Her fingernails were painted with tan nail polish. Ace thought that she tried to memorize the paths in Beacon and figure out anything to help them at the Fall of Beacon.
Ace and Cinder were walking normally until they were very close to each other. As Ace passed by, he gave Cinder a small yet fierce gaze before he continued on his path. Cinder noticed a pixel of that gaze and stopped at her tracks. She looked behind her at the person who walked next to her. While looking closer, he was the person that they met when they arrived at the night of Beacon.
Cinder narrowed her eyes at Ace before he turned away to another path in the hallway. She knew there was something about that gaze he gave her a second ago. Not wasting more time, Cinder continued on her path to the room.
'Something wrong about him. He looked at me with a hatred that felt like he was my long-time enemy. Better watch out if that was any of Ozpin's tricks.' Cinder said in her thought
…
In one of the dorms in Beacon, Emerald and Mercury were sitting and doing whatever they want when Cinder wasn't in the room. Mercury was briefly training on his kicks while Emerald was checking in her scroll for anything. Their main job however was getting any information possible on their targets. Like Pyrrha Nikos for example.
Knock Knock Knock
Both heard the door's knock and Mercury went to open the door to reveal Cinder entering before Mercury closed the door. After Cinder entered, she sat on her bed and put a leg on the other and her fingers locked together, "So, any new information?"
"Not really," Mercury answered as he returned in his kicks training.
"Right, do you remember that guy we saw when we arrived here?" Cinder asked.
"Yeah, he was seen carrying his team back to their room. What about him?" Emerald said.
"I saw him minutes ago heading outside. The thing is, I noticed how he looked at me. He looked at me with a glare that makes Hazel's hate towards Ozpin looks like child's play."
Both Emerald and Mercury looked at their leader for a second. They remember how scared they were when he stood in front of them like a ghost but having Cinder comparing Hazel's hate with that is something that to not miss. "Now, hold on a second. You say that the weird guy we saw is up to something." Mercury narrowed his eyes.
"That's a possibility. Add him in the possible targets of us if he tried anything new." Cinder said as she pulled her scroll. "Now, Ozpin. I don't know where are you hiding here, but that won't stay forever before I get my hands on her."
AN: And another chapter is done. Tell me what's your opinion on them as I feel like I need to add something but don't know what is it.
Also, HAPPY NEW YEAR! We made out of 2021 somehow guys and I have no idea how we did go through all of this. I hope 2022 will start to get things better and have V9 of RWBY that we have no idea about anything yet. I like the fairytales spinoff as a way to show people about the book that I and many people didn't buy for one reason or another.
Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review this story. And shout out to Shyla915 for her review as it gave me some motivation to continue and write.
Sincerely, Eslam.