Alright, we're going to start seeing some major changes from canon here. The first is the obvious Torga being stronger than Jaune, and every result of that. The second is Pyrrha growing closer to her partner, and understanding a different definition of duty.
The last is Ozpin, and how I've decided to deepen his transfer ability. It always bothered my that they haven't given Oscar a semblance. It bothered me that we never saw Ozpin (Pre-Ozma takeover) and his semblance. So, I gave Ozpin a semblance. He's got aura and magic, but no Semblance? The reincarnating wizard that teaches everyone how to use aura can't figure it out? BS. Not going to spoil what it is, but I think it's pretty nifty.
Anyways, Tournament Arc!
"The sheer audacity of that bastard." I grumbled, looking around Training Field 3.
"Yea!" Nora shouted in agreement. I gave her a grin, allowing the Gamer's Mind to drag my anger kicking and screaming into the depths of… well, somewhere else. With my emotions calmed, I was given the opportunity to take in the surroundings.
It was empty here. Not just this field, but Beacon itself. The sky had gone a dark red, and I couldn't hear a single thing, not even a breeze. Our three target poles stood at one side of the field, the circle at the other, the bench in the middle.
"Somethings wrong." Ren mentioned, his shoulders tense.
Nora shuffled a step closer to him, and I loosened Ruby's Gift in its scabbard. "My scroll isn't getting any signal."
Pyrrha pointed to something anxiously. "Torga, what is this?"
I followed her gesture to see a pennant, fluttered in the breeze. It was at an angle, as if getting blown by something but… there was no wind, and it wasn't being dragged back down by gravity. It just… hung there.
"I don't exactly know. I brought us into a dungeon I unlocked from clearing Forever Fall. One second… Dungeon Escape!"
The world cracked like glass, and I flinched as it shattered, the sounds of civilization returning in a rush. Bullhead engines, the faint chatter of other students, muted firearms reports - the sounds of Beacon were not typically heard consciously to us, not after the first week and we acclimatised. Coming from their absence however, the disquiet was palpable.
"So Torga can teleport too? So unfair." Nora kicked the grass, straightening from her stance. Our weapons were still stored within the rocket lockers, but that hadn't stopped her from crouching as if to heft something heavy.
"I… wait. One second. I wanna check something."
I dropped us back into the dungeon after dropping two of the three target poles. Launching a fire breath down the field, I watched as the grass burned away and the pole charred and burned.
I dropped out of the dungeon, and the field was untouched.
"What'd you do? You just vanished then showed back up with that crazy smile on your face." Cardin apparently felt just fine after what had happened at his house and the dungeon. I tried not to read into that too much.
"Who wants to trash Beacon?" I asked, ignoring the question in favour of demonstration.
We did that for an hour. I didn't even draw my weapons. I punched out all of Ozpin's windows. Tested a few explosives with Super Dust. Nora declared herself Queen. Ren drew obscene things on chalk boards. When I found him doing so, he shrugged.
'No one would ever believe you.' his shrug seemed to say.
I shrugged back and kept punching walls down.
It was fun.
It was as I came back out to see something gigantic hovering over Vale when I found myself speechless. Well, mostly speechless.
"What in Oblivion is that?!" I pointed, though I doubted I had to. Everyone was looking at it.
"That, Torga, is Amity Arena." Ren informed me.
"Woohoo! Festival is here and Nora is ready!" The girl pumped her fists rapidly.
I had known that there would be a tournament but I had figured we would use the combat arenas within Beacon. A silly thought, looking back. If this was a televised event, it would likely not be inside the school. Even our own show was not allowed to run extended clips from within the school. Thus, an arena was needed, though I would never have guessed the arena could fly.
The large Dust crystal protruding from the base of the structure informed me of just how this thing stayed up, and Ruby's comments about Gravity Dust made much more sense.
Something I saw a while back crossed my mind. "I heard they were allowing civilian teams this year?"
"Smaller classes this year." Cardin explained. "So they're filling out with military applicants. Nobody actually expects a civilian to make it in."
"Even if they do, they'll be knocked out in the first."
"Hmm…" I pondered as the arena got larger - or rather, approached Beacon. "Festival starts tomorrow… Hey, who wants to go eat at the most expensive restaurant in Vale? We can pay in gold after to make them feel bad about not being snobby enough, too."
"You can't get in to La Vita Rose without like, a year advance reservation." Cardin mentioned. "Even Father needs to book a month ahead."
I shrugged. "We don't have to get a reservation, just buy someone else's."
"You think someone would give that up for a couple hundred Lien?"
I dropped a literal golden statue of the tower of Beacon with detailed CCT onto the grass, watching it roll just slightly on its rounded base. I looked at Cardin expectantly.
"Right. You looted a door. Don't know what I expected."
"Just let me make a couple calls. Anyone against bringing RWBY?" I thought back to the dinner we were supposed to have when I ditched to go find Blake. A part of me wished I could have gone with, and so I would just make the situation again.
"The girl or the team?"
My team seemed to like them. I hadn't seen too many of their interactions, but no arguments were raised.
"Yes."
Hopefully this time would have us dealing with less crime and terrorism.
"Would the sir desire another?"
The waiter winced as Nora burped. Deanna hid her laughter, her and Alan sat at a nearby table that had been moved over for us. The drone was fixated firmly on our table.
"Yep, keep 'em coming!" I answered, gauntlets unequipped and hoodie rolled up to the sleeves. The waiter replaced my glass with another, filled to the brim with sweet, sweet mead.
I had located the most expensive item on the menu, some sort of royal crab, and had ordered 4 portions with no side dishes. It arrived an odd red colour as opposed to the shimmering blues and purples of mud-crab, but when I bit into the leg with a crunch, an explosion of sweet juicy flavour erupted in my mouth and I fought the urge to swallow the spiked shell before chewing it enough.
Weiss had ordered the same, but was using a dainty set of tools to slowly crack and extract the meat.
We had sat out front of this La Vita place, and as soon as a party of 8 had shown up, I brought out my set of 10 golden teaspoons. Lie Ren's idea. That had covered most of them, but the guy who made the reservation wasn't having it. I gave him a bar, which mollified him.
Not an ingot. A literal bar made of gold with a knob at one end. It was as close to a scepter as we could find in the Flash Forge's database, but that didn't seem to matter to this man who strutted off with his group as if he had just become the richest man around. Jokes on him, I had 3 more in my inventory and they were quite literally curtain rods for our dorms.
And so, dressed in our Hunting apparel and without even the slightest bit of manners, we sat down as if this were a fast food restaurant and the shenanigans began.
At least Weiss was following etiquette and apologising profusely on our behalf. Pyrrha acted like she was trying, but during a particularly rowdy moment I saw her use her semblance to spill some sauce onto the white table cloth and then blush furiously and look around guiltily for the next minute. I was proud of her for it.
I mean, nobody would notice with Nora trying to see how many pincers she could hold in her hands at once. I had gladly surrendered my pincers to this cause, and she was now at 4 on each hand. The clever girl had snapped the claws off and hooked them onto her fingers. If she could, I imagine she'd be clicking and clacking them at people.
Ruby had ordered chicken tenders. The waiter had told her they don't serve low-class food. Weiss had ordered her 'chicken breast filet, ensconced in a special grain blend served with a collection of gourmet sauces.'
It was chicken tenders and sauce. So stupid.
"Whwell-" I paused, swallowing and wincing as a spike lodged in my throat, then vanished. Technically the Gamer's Body saw that as damage, so I wasn't complaining. "Well, we have the Tournament coming up."
"Indeed." Weiss responded, dabbing the corner of her mouth with her napkin then flinching as a handful of breadcrumbs flew past her. Ruby and Yang were fighting to dip their chicken in the amber sauce. The other 4 sauces went untouched. They were literally fighting, pulling hands back, slapping chicken out of the way, and generally making a mess.
"We should practice together."
"And give away our techniques? Heh, nice try." Yang chided me, then yelped as Ruby took the distraction to dip not one, not two, but three tenders.
Lie Ren sipped his bisque, a calm smile on his face.
"Well, I was more thinking about training with fringe cases. Not a big old 4 on 4, but say… Blake vs. Yang, but they're both out of ammo. Or Pyrrha against me, but she's out at half aura to simulate previous combat damage. Or-" I hoped they all went for this. "-I could throw on my armour set, and have all of you guys against me. I still think you could have beaten Draugr-me, if you had-"
"What?"
"The zombie thing"
"Oh. Okay!" Ruby was a gem sometimes. "You think we could have beaten it?"
"Without a doubt." I answered. "I won because I stripped enough armour to penetrate, then made a heavy killing blow. Even if you aren't trying to kill something, having the intent to will make your blows that much stronger. Considering you could probably beat me - remember, you made it fair for me last time - I see no reason why that enemy would hold trouble. Just need to attack like you mean it."
"I did go for the kill." Ren said, having finished with his soup. At this point, the table was a mess but the majority were pleasantly stuffed. "The armour was too thick, even with my aura. We couldn't even knock it down for more leverage."
Yang perked up. "Sure we could. I almost had it knocked over."
"Then you got knocked out."
"Still counts! If Ruby had followed up while I dodged, we both would've still been in the fight."
I cut in. "And that's why I want to train with you guys. My second choice is Velvet's team-"
The table collectively winced, and I stopped talking.
"Yea… she's not going to help you with that."
"What?" I was confused. "Why not? What do you know Blake?"
"You-... Is it true you went to the Winchester estate to meet with Roger?" Huh, so that's what his name was.
"Yea, he invited me for tea."
"There you go. She liked you, you embarrassed her."
"She wasn't even involved!"
"She's a faunus." Blake answered, as if that explained everything.
"So?!" I was genuinely frustrated and confused with this bullshit.
"So maybe it would affect her if the guy she thought she liked turned out to be an anti-faunus asshat?"
"But I'm not! Divines take ye, I've naught but respect for th'lass!"
Ruby giggled.
"What was that?" Weiss looked at me oddly.
"What?"
"He does that when he's frustrated." Pyrrha announced.
"What accent is that?" Weiss asked, genuinely curious.
"We think it's Nordic." Lie Ren answered.
I picked up my mead and downed it, doing a double take when there was already another glass, fresh, sitting in front of me. I looked around but couldn't find any waiters nearby. 'Damn, they're good.'
"My accent aside," Ruby let out a 'drat' in response to my collected tone. "I do think we should spar together. If not that, then at least do the dungeon a couple more times. I know Ruby wanted to level up and it's not fair that she couldn't."
"Because you burned the entire forest down before we could do anything!"
"What happened, happened." I said sagely.
"Do we have to fight you again?"
I sighed. "I think the clearing is a one-time event, so no. I wish we could get my helmet, but I don't think it's possible."
"MAPLE ICE CREAM?!"
Oh Nora…
The night was winding down. After stuffing ourselves full and returning to the Bullhead where Professor Oobleck sat deep in a book, we returned to Beacon. Most of the ride I considered a waste of time, as I had discovered I could quite literally always return to our Training Field whenever I needed, but with the Professor and Richard here I didn't want to have questions asked about why and how we left them.
Oobleck had made his excuse to leave shortly after we touched down, whereas Richard had gotten started on a quick maintenance. Team RWBY appeared rather tired after that ordeal, though I did have Weiss take me aside and personally thank me for the dinner.
I called her Winona so she wouldn't get any ideas about thanking me again. Sure, I antagonised her a little more than necessary, but my first impression of her had not been flattering.
The Deathstalkers stinger came flashing down, only just stopping in a wall of ice that sprang from nowhere. Then, Weiss and Ruby talked while it was right there.
Yea, not too impressive. Weiss had taken to smiling whenever I prodded though, so I would clearly need something new other than not remembering her name. Something for another day, as Team RWBY and ourselves split up at our dorms. The walk across the hall was long and arduous but together Team Juniper forged ahead and through much trial and tribulation, entered our room.
It was odd, staying in a room with the others when I had my own place, my own large bed, and my own music system to help lull me to sleep. At the same time, however, it felt… well, not safe. Not when a crazy lady could change the probability of you having a good night's sleep as easily as the odds of your heart continuing to beat.
But it felt secure. Secure enough to finally bring out the Forever Fall Clear chest, and the Draugr-Me chest. I replaced our first chest in the room with the Draugr one, as it was actually identical to the chest I'd had down in my cellar back home. False bottom and everything.
The wood was a pale but rich bronze, the wood-grains sung into patterns by the Bosmer of Valenwood. The trimming was made of dragonscale forged to steel, giving it a unnatural red sheen. The lock itself was thick dwarven metal, with corundum workings. I would know, for I had forged it myself.
It had taken me weeks of effort, but I had done it.
Opening the chests triggered the quest completion. I got my 20,000 XP, which wasn't even enough to get me past the next level, sadly. I got another title, giving me bonuses when among nature, and I got Forever Fall added to my list of dungeons under my Dungeon Create skill.
The contents got spread out onto my bed, and it was a spread indeed.
Potion of Vigorous Healing x 3
Potion of Vigorous Stamina x 3
Potion of Vigorous Magicka x 3
Orichalcum Ingot x 2
Dwarven Ingot x 2
Steel Ingot x 2
50450L
Petty Soul Gem (Empty)
Ruby x 2
Flawless Ruby x 1
Flawless Garnet x 1
Ancient Nord Battleaxe x 3
Ancient Nord Longsword x 5
Ancient Nord Bow x 2
Ancient Nord Arrow x 35
Gown Of Autumn (Rare)
Skill Book 'Wild Grove'
I tossed the potions, the ingots, and the gems back into the chest, the Lien along with the soul gem and weapons into my inventory, and observed the Gown.
Gown of Autumn (Rare) (⅔)
The Torso+Leg piece of the Dryad's Protection Armour Set. This wrapping is imbued with the Divine and Natural energies possessed by the Dryad Guardian of Forever Fall Temple.
Damage Resistance: 75
Grants the ability to exclude your allies from the damage of an AoE attack.
+5% Damage Resistance for each member of your party that is a lower level than the user.
(⅔) +25% Damage Resistance for all party members against undead.
(3/3) +50% Damage Resistance for all party members against undead, +25% Damage for all party members against undead.
So it was the second part of the set, and if I read it right, it looks like it will give us all more protection against undead. Not like undead hit particularly hard, but it was still good to have.
If I could be caught dead wearing it, that is. A pink dress with branches and leaves all over it, it was clearly something… for the less masculine among us.
"Hey Ren, it matches your hair!"
Well, at least Nora was the one to say it.
I ate the skill book, then grabbed my other one and finally ate that too.
You have learned the Skill 'Wild Grove'!
You have learned the Skill 'Flight of the Valkyries'
Wild Grove (Active, Cost 45 AP) Lvl:1
Far from the eyes of man lie places of power, guarded by the natural spirits who nurture and protect their abode with fierce jealousy. These groves hold the font of nature's might, and with practice, you can apply this protection to a small area around you.
Duration: 1 minute
Range: Variable
Effect: Increase AP regen by 1%/LVL
Flight of the Valkyries (Active, Cost 100 AP) Lvl: 1
In days of old, a myth arose of noble winged women descending from the heavens and fighting each with the fury of ten soldiers. So too begins your own myth. Descend, and eradicate your enemies with fury and valour.
Duration: 3 seconds
Condition: Must be activated as part of an aerial attack.
Effect: Reduces AP usage for all skills during duration by 1%. Increases melee damage by 1%.
I grinned at the Flight of the Valkyries. I keep getting more and more skills based on crashing down on my foes from above. I would soon need to see about something with a bit more utility, but the Wild Grove might be my first skill that can affect others in a beneficial way.
"So? What do they do?" Ren asked while inspecting the gems.
"Well, Wild Grove lets me set an area where our Aura recovers faster. Flight of the Valkyries gives me more damage from aerial attacks and reduces the cost of my follow-up too."
"Neat."
I activated Wild Grove as I said the words, and I… well I felt something come over our room.
Remnant was not barren of animal life, though compared to Skyrim it may as well have been. One could typically count the amount of non-humanoid creatures within sight using one hand. There was a… lacking. If I could describe it better I would, but the point is that even where the world should be teeming with life, you were lucky to find any.
So when a squirrel, two crows, and a hummingbird all perched on our window sill within 15 seconds of the casting, I was impressed. When I saw a small sprout emerge from the wood of the sill, I was slightly concerned.
Pyrrha laughed. A bright, joyous laugh, and I looked over to see her eyes wide and features soft, sitting still so as not to spook them. Ren and Nora stood to her sides and were both content to just watch as the birds fluffed their feathers, one beginning to preen while the other watched avidly.
A pounding at the door startled them away.
Finally, while my team pored over the rest, I brought up my only unfinished quest:
[Quest] A General's Game I: Coin Toss
Keep an eye on things. Something doesn't seem right.
[Main Objective:] Observe the Vytal Festival
[Side Objectives:] ?, ?
[Reward:] 500,000 XP, +10 Public Reputation, ?, A General's Game II
[Failure:] Quest Line: The Fall of Beacon
All that was left to do was to watch the festival.
"Ha!" I flinched as a pencil bounced off my forehead.
Lie Ren sat on his bed with a grin, and his fingers pointed like he'd thrown it.
"Did you just….?"
He nodded, as smugly as Lie Ren ever could. The pounding on the door continued.
"Huh…" I tossed the spare Power Strike book at him. "See if you can't pick that one up."
He looked at me as if I was dumb. "It's written in a dead language."
"Right." I pushed it back into the chest. "Well, still, now you get to learn how to throw your guns."
"Why would I throw my gun instead of shoot it?"
"You'll know when it happens." I answered cryptically.
A gun bounced off my head as I turned to look at the door which was now shaking with percussion.
"Ow."
The Hunter's Gate team had decided they needed footage of us at the Festival. While I would have rather spent my time training in earnest, I could not deny that this would be a unique experience.
I didn't see why we had to be up at the crack of dawn, but when Deanna blearily told me they would be spreading this footage out across the entire Festival, I was at least assured that we would be free to do what we liked the rest of the time. Thus, our yawning group staggered out to the tents, and our first stop was a coffee tent.
It looked like a child had taken skooma, coloured what they saw, then barfed it all over a collection of tents.
I loved it. Well, after I woke up properly I did. It seemed like something that would have been too bright and loud for me, but never before had I seen so many things all for the sole purpose of entertainment! It would be impossible in Skyrim!
There were games for the sole purpose of winning stuffed animals. There was a lady who said she could guess your age, every single time. Pyrrha had steered me away from there to avoid a scene. I admit I likely would have caused one. There were food carts, souvenir tents, even one tent selling a collection of foam fingers and other cheering paraphernalia with Team names printed on them. I grabbed a ridiculous amount of gear for Team RWBY, and slightly less for Team CRDL.
I'm still training. I reminded myself when I felt my guilt at indulging.
I had an efficient, if somewhat silly loop of actions going on while we had walked around the Festival. On one hand, I had both Wind and Lightning Dust, each crystal in my left palm and my thumb and small finger coming in to pin them in place respectively. I filled my Dust Bar to the max, then began using the Factory to transition the two into Acceleration dust in my right hand. It only ever made a miniscule crystal, but I knew from experience how powerful that could be.
I pushed the Acceleration Dust back out, drained all of my AP using Aura Enchantment I & II, then built it back by breaking down the Acceleration Dust to again fill the bars with Wind and Lightning. I reformed the Basic Dust crystals in my left hand, and continued the loop. The first time, I had forgotten to eject the Acceleration dust as I fused it, and had almost ended up with another overload. Considering the first one had levelled up the skill but nearly killed me, I don't want to know what an overload with the Lesser dusts would feel like.
The skill was levelling quickly, though it had slowed down around level 30. I expected to reach maybe 35 or 40 by the end of the day. Dust Mastery on the other hand had levelled up quite a lot considering how often I used the stuff, and I was keeping the synergy between those two skills very secret:
Dust Mastery (Passive) LVL:50
Through the usage of Dust, mankind rose above the darkness, and fought back the Grimm to carve a home for themselves on Remnant. This skill represents your experience with dust, and your ability to do more with less.
Dust Efficiency +1% per level (50%)
Dust Power +5% per level (50%)
At first it didn't seem like much, other than improving the power of my dust. It was the efficiency that really changed things up. See, I could start with two basic crystals, fuse them into a lesser, and then break down the lesser into its component crystals. The issue?
I would still have more dust in the bars after forming the original crystals. Dust mastery had made the process of Dust Factory so efficient, I was creating Dust from mixing Dust. If I read it right, at its maximum level, I would essentially be able to generate dust so long as I had at least two units of compatible dust to fuse and break down repeatedly.
Thus, I kept it a secret. I had done some research on dust fusion, and while most of the terms meant less than nothing to me, I did manage to get the framework. It's effectively cheaper to settle and operate a brand new mine over the required deposit than it would be to create your dust from lesser parts using Fusion Dust. Fusion Dust's price itself was to blame for that, being utterly exorbitant. As a Greater Dust, it was heavily regulated and small portions only granted under government request or scientific research grant. It was almost never actually used to make more dust.
However, if I could level to the point where I could generate Fusion Dust, I don't doubt I could become the most powerful man on Remnant, whether by sheer force of might or by having a hold on the economy.
So, my Dust skills got the majority of training attention, with the various skills that supplement it taking a secondary focus, like Air Slash and its various mutations, as well as Flamethrower and its own mutations. I'd dropped into the training field last night, after everyone had gone to sleep. So long as I popped out some time during the night, I would be able to say I had gotten up early to train. I unlocked my Ice Breath shout, and true to my expectations, it was able to turn an Ice Dust crystal into a Super Ice Dust crystal. I stocked up a stack of my inventory with Super Ice, Fire, and Wind Dust crystals, which had been powered up by my Whirlwind Sprint.
My inventory was loaded with Dust and it felt great.
Other than my money issues being solved, this would make it absolutely trivial to use my skills during the tournament. It didn't say in the skill description for Dust Factory, but when it says 'using it in the ways of the ancients', my Dust bars effectively became new AP gauges, but with added effects to the usage. A few skills were largely incompatible, such as Meditate or Observe, and Power Strike's effects were… lacklustre.
It still hit much harder, it's just that the fire dust didn't change the strike other than the slightest bit of charring around the groove in the wooden post. Double-Strike was unaffected.
Divebomb was very affected. I was very relieved I had gone to the training zone when I had tested that one, as the Dust detonated and filled the entire effect area with flames. I ran through it with each of the Lesser Dust types, most causing detonations of one form or another, while some…
Well let's just say I had to flamethrower myself out of a block of ice. Got a couple Resistance level ups out of it, which is when I discovered that I could hurt myself to get more damage resistance, though considering I had yet to get into a proper fight in my reclaimed armour, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to spend the night beating myself up if there would be better ways to use my time.
All in all, my inventory was full of consumables and weapons, my Shout Point page was looking more full than empty, and my skills - the combat ones, anyways - were all over level 50. I hit like a Giant and took hits like a Mammoth. My armour was recovered and shining, I had a much better weapon than I'd even had back in Skyrim. I'd even placed a couple of bets through Richard. I'd have done it myself but competitors couldn't bet and I promised him half the takings. He thought my bets were stupid and a waste.
I had told him otherwise.
If I wasn't ready now, I would never be, so I let myself enjoy the festival.
"The moment you have all been waiting for is finally here!"
A brief intro plays, showing a quick montage, expertly produced, depicting quick action shots of Team Juniper. It tone-shifts to some shots of the team sitting around, laughing, eating, and even a shot of the team leader jumping out his dormitory window to a laugh track.
The screen goes dark, and in the background a diffuse orange light fades in, four silhouettes in front of it before bold block letters slam into place.
Hunter's Gate: Vytal Tournament
The camera pan-zooms in to where Deanna Goldstien sits behind a newsdesk, a shot of Beacon tower rising over Vale in the window behind her. Sitting beside her is a known news anchor, one Lisa Lavender.
"Good morning Vale! And welcome to this special edition of Hunter's Gate!" Deanna says with her usual excitement.
Lavender, the more mellow one, continues. "That's right Deanna, we have a special programme set for the duration of the Vytal Festival. We've gotten special permission to livestream the duration of the tournament alongside Team JNPR."
"A true blessing. Now, we can't -and won't, despite some of the mail we've been getting - show footage while our Fearsome Foursome sleeps, so there will be times when the stream is down. During those times, you can expect to see Vytal Tournament highlights from previous years, reruns of Hunter's Gate, and on the final night, a screening of the new Hunters and Huntresses movie, Shade for the Soul!"
"Critics are calling this the movie of the decade, with the Mistal Academy of Arts even going so far as to pre-nominate it for Best Screenplay of the Year, and best Lead Actress, nominating Chandri Baker for her work portraying none other than herself in the upcoming film."
Deanna seemed less than enthused. "Be sure to tune in. But for now, it's almost time to get started." She stands from her spot at the news desk. "Please enjoy this special feature before we dive right in!"
The image fades to black, then a deep, baritone voice begins to narrate.
"On November 18th, a violent altercation occurred in the industrial dock district, at the SDC receiving facility."
A brief flash of flames, the sound of gunshots, an agonised yell cutting off abruptly.
"The White Fang, a violent terrorist group bent on Faunus supremacy, made a daring heist against the SDC."The image flashes along with sweeping cinematic music, first with a snowflake, then Amity itself, then a man in a white suit, fingers steepled behind an imperious desk."Without Team JNPR, they would have succeeded."
"Sure, I could have just gone for dinner. And when we got back, our friend would have been dead." The blonde leader, set in brand new, pale blue armour, seemed to say this as a matter of fact.
"Torga!" His team protested.
"This… is the true story.""The story begins not on November 18th, but two months prior. Soon after the starting of the school year, Vale saw itself under siege by an increase in robberies, specifically for Dust, that we now know was pushed by the White Fang. Whether through luck or coincidence, the students of Beacon have had an uncanny track record of being in the right place at the right time."
"Beacon staff has said the following in regards to the involvement of children with investigations of organised crime:"
The scene changes. Glynda Goodwitch stands atop the steps leading to Beacon's main entrance hall. "We can not and will not condone the actions of our students, nor recommend or endorse any other students acting this way. We will however join the people of Vale in thanking them for their actions in reducing the string of robberies and alleviating the pressure on our local Dust stores. Please keep in mind that as Hunters and Huntresses in training, it is hardly fair to refer to students of Beacon as 'children' despite their ages."
"A satisfactory answer for most, but we here at 30 Minutes weren't satisfied without knowing the whole truth. Now, with recent cooperation from the Atlas Military and Headmaster-General James Ironwood, we believe we have that truth. It begins…"
I tuned out the television playing in the corner of the smoothie stand, waiting while Nora created some unholy mixture of ingredients and Ren got a berry blend. Pyrrha and I had grabbed coffee at the previous stand. I was starting to get hungry, but this should tide us over for now.
As much as I could get hungry. I'd discovered that I technically don't need to eat, but with all the new foods and dishes, I found myself doing so anyway. They did so many things with food here, it was quite frankly amazing. I would have been foolish to miss out.
I hummed with pleasure as I took another sip of the coffee. It was bitter, but had grown on me.
"Something on your mind?" Pyrrha asked, having noticed.
"Just enjoying the little things." I glanced back over to her. She.. well, she didn't treat me much differently but her relationship score was steadily improving so I had to be content with that.
Hey eyes twinkled with amusement. "Did they have coffee in Skyrim?"
I shook my head. "Closest effect was a Stamina Potion, but even that isn't right. Nothing that tastes like it though." I took another sip, allowing the bitter liquid to sit in and coat my mouth before swallowing. "Definitely nothing like it."
Ren and Nora stepped up to us with their drinks. "I'm sure you had things that we do not."
I scoffed. "Yea, actual good mead. The stuff around here tastes like what that old hermit up the mountain from Riverwood used to make on his own. That, and magic. I… well I would never be a mage, but I cannot deny the usefulness of having a Destruction Mage with you when you need to light a fire in a blizzard."
"Where we would use Fire Dust." Pyrrha compared.
"Well, yes? But your Dust is a finite resource. Mages have a small, quickly regenerating pool of… well I guess Aura would be the closest analogy, if Aura did nothing but let you use your Semblance. If you were to trek across the tundra, you would need a lot of fire Dust, which would weigh you down. If you had a mage with you, it would be as if bringing anyone else, with the bonus of fire."
"It always seemed like you hated magic."
I looked around, spotting a table we could set down at. Alan followed us over while Deanna got her own smoothie. As it was a live stream, it wasn't expected for her to always be in the shot. I gestured towards the setting and we settled in.
"That's a difficult thing to explain, but I'll do my best. My people had a culture of distrust around magic, and understandably so. Hundreds of years before I was born, Skyrim had a great city on the northern ocean known as Winterhold. It was a harsh place, but home to Skyrim's Mage's College, the only of its kind. Where other countries had guilds, we had a place to learn, to experiment and push the boundaries of what was possible. I envy those times, in a way. Might I have been a mage, born generations sooner? I will never know."
"What's the difference between a guild and a college? We have guilds, but that's mostly for jobs, like Masons or Loggers." Ren gave an example.
"Pretty much the same. The Mage's guild was where aspiring mages went to do things only mages could do. If you had a job that required a mage, you would pay the guild to assign a mage to the job. It was more a mercenary group than anything."
"Whereas the college was more like Beacon?" Pyrrha ventured a guess.
"In a way." I finished off my coffee. "Where Beacon is a school for aspiring Hunters, the College of Winterhold was for continued academics. I did visit a time or two, and I would say only 1 in 10 College citizens could be considered apprentices. The College was more a place of experimentation and study than it was a place of learning, though they did still offer that."
"I take it something happened?"
"Correct, though historians aren't precisely sure what. There was a great cataclysm, and.. Well, Winterhold is about a tenth of the size it once was. The great majority of the city simply fell into the sea, though the College still stood."
"That doesn't make them guilty." Nora pointed out in the blunt way she did.
"No, but when the College is balanced on the only precipice of remaining land where even its next door neighbours fell, it's hard not to see them as responsible. Almost every family in Skyrim had an ancestor affected by that dreadful day, and so we don't trust the mages. No man with a sword would ever be able to throw a city into the sea." I wonder what my men would say, to see me return with a Flame spell on skooma.
"I figured something happened to you personally."
I laughed. "Oh, of course! I can count the mages that didn't attack me easily. That doesn't differ them from any other though. No, we - that is, the Nords of Skyrim - hate the mages out of rarely-admitted fear, and that fear comes from not knowing what they can do. Skyrim's anti-magic infantry prowess has advanced leaps and bounds since, though I dare say an accomplished mage from another country would be on an equal footing with our masters. We… went in a different direction, and it seemed to be working alright when I left."
"Sounds like Vacuo." Ren pointed out as he finished his smoothie. "Hostile lands, a tragedy that prevents you from using magic - or Dust in their case -, and a determination to succeed regardless."
"But it's a desert." Nora pointed out, giving him an odd look.
The quasi-rogue shrugged in response. "Inhospitable wasteland is inhospitable wasteland."
I couldn't agree more.
-.-.-.-
Thank Talos, for Team RWBY fought shortly before lunch. We had watched the first two matches in the morning, and I was frankly unimpressed. These matches were to be 4 against 4, though they typically ended up as a series of skirmishes with the occasional combination attack thrown in. I had been complaining and pointing these out, but Pyrrha had nudged me and told me to stop with a gesture towards the camera.
I made a louder than usual comment about teams trying their very hardest to represent their Kingdoms, then shut up. It had me in a bit of a mood, which is why I had almost missed when they were called out.
I grinned, watching them walk out into the arena. Finally, a good fight and some fun to be had.
Which is why, when they walked off, my jaw was slack and the foam finger with a bold 'Go RWBY!' was hanging limp by my side in the competitor's observation booth. Ren seemed almost ashamed of his oversized hat, even more so than when Nora had forced it on him.
"Were they making a point?" Ren asked, almost confused.
"I don't see what that could be." Pyrrha also seemed confused. She lifted a hand to touch the temporary RWBY Rulez transfer tattoo on her cheek.
Nora stood by with the planned armful of confetti. I had planned to Shout it into the air after their match, but… That wasn't much of a match. They had, one and all of them, paired off with an opponent and performed a series of duels with the occasional team move thrown in. They had almost lost, if you asked me.
Nora lifted her arms to me with a hopeful look in her eyes. I shook my head, finally shutting my mouth as they walked off stage. I trained my eyes on the entrance to the booth, but 5 minutes passed and the next match was called before I realised they weren't coming.
"Good idea, Torga, we should go congratulate our friends." Pyrrha said with another nudge and in her odd tone that made me realise I wasn't doing well for the cameras. She stood and tugged my arm, and I let her pull me up. We left the booth in an odd mood. I had been so excited for this match, I knew from combat classes that each member of RWBY was individually powerful but to see them working together would have been a treat.
I briefly remembered the traintop fight in Mountain Glenn, and how the four of them had mowed through the White Fang with ease before I had gone below. Where was that teamwork now?
Ruby was faster than anyone I've ever met, and that scythe of hers was exceptionally deadly. Yang could take a hit and dish it out with the best of them. Weiss could shape and control a battle at her whim, and Blake was an excellent distraction.
I was running through ideas I had for how to combine their various strengths when I walked into Ren. "What's the deal?" I asked, looking around him to see what was holding us up. I'd apparently blanked out in my thoughts and we were back at the fairgrounds.
"Shh!" He shot back, moving towards a stall where a TV was playing Tournament coverage.
"-orious upset, the Civilian team advances to the next round! Absolutely incredible!"
"Is that Port?" I asked, having only just now heard it. "Didn't the last match just end?!"
"Shh!" My team ganged up on me and I raised my hands in a placating gesture.
I trained my attention on the screen in time to see a fading ball of fire with a group of four silhouettes in front of it.
"Team Ember moves on to the next round!"
With the civilian entries into the tournament, Cinder and co didn't need to be from Haven to get in, so they didn't. Even though Leo is already turned, Salem knows better than to put all her eggs in one basket. She spreads them out, then throws them all at once until her target is covered in egg.
I grabbed that from how she usually has her agents working alone or in pairs despite the absolute chaos the full team could bring. Cinder, Watts, Hazel, and Tyrian, all in the same place with the same goal? A pipe dream, I guess.
