(3rd Pov)
Ump45 Trailed behind the drunken man dressed in murky grays and blacks, his attire mixed well with the winter climate around the android and human. The androids' attire matched the man's rather well. Their only striking colors being red and burning orange respectively.
"Oz'll probably have a run scoutn' ops together" The man shrugged, his flask splashing drops of alcohol upon the frosty pathway to the Bullhead pads.
"Charming," 45 frowned. Her pinched brows made her scar stand out as a more prominent feature. Her soot-caked and slightly damp. Black japanese style school skirt waved in the frigid wind.
"Very" Qrow scratched his scruffy chin with a smile that rivaled a Cheshire cat, though it was gone faster than Ump45 could determine the meaning, hidden or not.
Ump45 and Qrow fell into a swallowing silence as they walked. Both a veteran in their respective fields, not trusting of the unknown, but willing to dabble in it.
One against mindless beasts that get more dangerous as they age. And the other against mindless drones, with the ability to adapt and destroy as fast as a smart bomb dropped from a plane.
Both people approached a Valean bullhead, painted a low profile stormcloud gray. The beacon academy crest painted on its sliding side doors. The symbol was painted a lazy, almost comforting forest green.
The door itself was left half open, mud and other miscellaneous grit was splattered upon the visible parts of the belly.
Qrow with all the gentleness of a pipe bomb in a tail pipe shouldered the door open, causing it to rocket aggressively to the open position with a sharp pang that had 45's damaged arm aching and her synthetic teeth grinding together.
"Anytime now Ironing board!" Called the lanky man as he waved a hand from the door. Snapping the shorter woman from her mental exodus.
"Shut the fuck up" 45 barked. As she pushed the man to the side. The frigid winter wind tossed her hair about and into her face.
Further giving Qrow a handle on her growing displeasure of him and her situation.
Qrow shrugged uncaringly, before shoving past Ump45 and into the pilot seat.
The android gave him a glare, because she wasn't done taking a gander at the control systems of the aircraft.
For future use of course.
Qrow pushed a few buttons on the dashboard, causing the engines to start up in what sounded like a cow. A very injured one.
"Can't fly huh?" 45. Snarked.
"Nope!" Qrow ignored her barb.
The engines continued to make unfortunate noises. That bordered on stalling before they sucked in air like a vacuum.
Starting the bullhead and saving the two from an issue, an issue that was still breeding. But not quite at the ready stage.
Qrow hoped the hunk of flying shit would survive long enough to get the two to their destination.
Ump45 prepared for a crash landing. Might as well. She's been in enough unstable aircraft to spot a disaster.
Thanks to her sister.
Thankfully they lifted off with no issues. The VTOL craft worked as intended. Slowly and clearly not optimal.
But functional. It reminded 45 of herself in some ways. Rouge. And broken down. Struggling to find herself parts, ammo and other necessities for her and her team's survival.
As she sat in her mental escape once again. Qrow flew.
During the flight 45 dedicated her time to sending out signals only members of 404 could pick up. While she busied her hands in cleaning her weapons.
She eyed her damaged knife with a critical eye.
She added the weapon to the list of things she needs to repair. Yay!
Qrow kept a hidden eye on his guest. And more importantly gauging how much of a threat the young women would be.
He deemed her dangerous. Purely on her demeanor.
But he's been proven wrong before. But on this assumption of his. He'd eat his cape if he were wrong.
He'd prefer if his weapon wouldn't have to take another enemy's life.
Something Ruby his niece doesn't quite understand as a hunter. Grimm won't be the only threat.
He keeps his hands dirty, so his nieces don't dirty theirs too soon.
His grip on the controls tightened in a silent promise to himself.
—
The flight from Atlas to Beacon was quite long. Enough so that 45 opted to drop into a low power mode.
She was still conscious per say. Eyes open and half lidded. But her body was pretty much offline.
She decided to conserve hours on energy. She didn't know when her next depo would be.
Food could sustain her well. But it wasn't as good as "plugging into a socket" as the humans would say.
She still hated how those bastards treated T-dolls.
Nothing but disposable tools. Ones that can talk to their masters and understand human concepts.
Like love, pain, hate, pleasure, pride. The list goes onwards.
Once again, she was snapped from her thoughts by the bullhead's rapid descent..
The lack of alarms assured her everything was fine.
Her eyes snapped to the pilot. A harsh twinge to her cheeks. Only to find the red eyes of the man staring back.
"We're landing" Qrow smirked at her startled glare.
"Thanks for the warning..." 45 mumbled.
As the craft descended Ump45 got to see the sheer size of Beacon. Spanning many many stories.
Putting many simply massive ruins of better times shy in comparison.
The main spire alone pieced the cloud cover.
Many massive painted snow-white ships floated around aimlessly. Some stopped at the edge of the cliff to pick up and unload people.
These ships dwarfed her current ship in comparison.
45's robotic eyes moved from the large transport ships to the spire once again. The bright green light sat ominously on its peak.
"Humans and their compensations." She thought. With an eye roll.
Once they closed in on a landing pad that had to figures standing a safe distance away, did she start probing the network with her mind.
Interesting. She thought. No one was guiding their landing like she was used to. Neither the blonde-haired woman nor the silver haired man raised a finger to assist Qrow in landing.
She was intrigued by this. So, she did a deeper search into the bullheads system.
Unlike the Atlas built models which had autopilot on full and fully functional without pilot prompts.
This one had only an auto land feature, one she found out wasn't even being used.
So, with a mental prompt she engaged it, because she sure as hell didn't trust the idiot flying to land them safely.
The control stick snapped from Qrow's hands causing the man to curse. And rasp out something about his "damned semblance"
Before he fell silent and unscrewed his flask and took two heavy gulps.
45 paid the man no mind. Because she was focused on helping the Bullhead land.
They touched down slowly and safely.
Once the craft was landed the control panel beep at them and the two heard the doors unlatch.
Qrow all but teleported to the door and pulled it open. Stepping to the side he gestured with a ringed hand for his company to leave first.
So Ump45 pulled herself from the slightly comfortable seat with a frown and exited.
She came face to face with the two people waiting for them.
"Mrs. Koch, I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy"
A hand was held out for her to take. She moved to take it with her Jerry-rigged arm, but Ozpin removed that hand and offered his other one.
"Elena Koch-" Ump45 greeted as he pulled the hand away and offered another one.
She shook that one with her functional hand.
45 would've appreciated the man's diligence in taking care to notice her arm, but it was unnecessary. Her arm worked just fine.
If albeit barely.
She offered the blonde woman a nod.
"Glynda Goodwitch" the caped woman spoke. Her voice was cold, unlike her companion's warm but calculative voice.
"Nice to meet you" 45 returned the woman's tone.
"No, it isn't," Qrow chimed. "Don't lie to her Elena"
Glynda's eyebrow twitched subtly.
Ozpin clapped a hand on top of his second that was on his cane, drawing everyone's attention.
"Qrow. Mrs. Koch. I have a mission for you" Qrow straightened out. And Ump45 attention snapped to the Green dressed man like a bloodhound locking in on a scent.
"The White Fang has begun stealing dust as of late. I would like you two to start hampering their operations. As well, learn of whose begun these mission's"
Ozpin took a breath before shifting his cane to his other hand.
"Oz. We both know who's behind these recent robberies" Qrow pulled a device from his pocket and showed an image of a carrot haired wannabe cool kid.
45 stole a glance at the image. "Well, chances are there's someone more powerful controlling the strings." After her two cents was added.
Qrow offered up his. "Trust me. I'm well aware of it. The Queen has pawns"
To 45 Qrow just seemed to rattle off some philosophy. But to Ozpin it meant something different. Glynda to it would seem.
Curious. The Android mused but kept silent.
"See to it that her pawns can't move safely" Ozpin's eyes locked onto 45's subtly glowing yellow.
That sounded like a kill order. Once again, the Rouge T-doll stayed silent.
"All I need is ammo and a direction" she closed an eye as she looked up at the silver haired man.
"Very well" Qrow shrugged beside 45 as Ozpin gestured to Glynda with an obnoxious wrist flailing.
The Deputy Headmistress sighed through her nose and pulled a riding crop from a holster on her thigh.
And waved it like a fairy casting a spell.
45 was about to comment on it, if it didn't open a well-hidden hatch near the landing pad and floated out 8 various crates.
Ump45 scanned them with an eye and found the telltale marks of ammunition and explosives on the sides on all the crates.
She almost glitched at the sight of 100 pound plus crates of various ammunition being floated around like dust particles.
She kept her comments to herself, this definitely defiled all her logical processes.
The crates were unceremoniously dropped around her, and the lids cracked off.
And inside... was the most ammunition Ump45 has laid eyes on, the griffin armories only being larger.
The bullets looked odd. But they looked more or less the same. Same firing pin. Same size as the calibers she's used to seeing. The only difference is they all glowed.
Instead of brass casings. They seemed like a cheaper lab made composite material.
Hey eye moved to the second crate, and she almost glitched again.
That infernal T-doll M4 SOPMOD ll's wet dream awaited in the next crate.
Explosives on top of Explosives sat in this crate. 40 Mike Mike shells, grenades, sticks of c4.
The list went. If it was a bomb. It was in this crate. Ump45 humorously thought.
Her sister Ump9 loved to give weapons nicknames. She'd tell 416 to obliterate an area with the Mikey's just randomly and nine times out of ten there was a single hostile in the location her finger was pointed. Sometimes to 45s amusement there wasn't any cover in that area either. Just a lone contact.
Sooner or later 45 adopted the name herself. Though due to their situation. The leader of 404 only allowed 416 to use her 40mm in dire situations.
Those rounds weren't easy to find and certainly weren't cheap on the various black markets she had her dirty servos in.
45 loved her sister very dearly but shoving a 40 Mike down a prisoner's throat isn't a way to go about getting information.
And yes, her sister did ask 416 profusely for a 40mm to do such a thing when they had a human prisoner a few years ago.
In memory of the two she grabbed a launcher and some shells for it, she hooked a sling onto the launcher. So, it could hang from her shoulders.
Next, she pulled her empty mags from their respective pouches and began to fill them with .45 acp. These ones glowed an ominous yellow.
Just like her eyes.
She heard footsteps approaching on her right, so she stopped her action briefly and looked up.
"That's a scary smile, planning to level a city block?"
Her unconscious smile slowly disappeared at the drunk's words.
"No" she replied, straight faced.
"Unfortunate, sounded like fun." Qrow smirked.
Ump45 shook her head as her 2nd magazine was filled.
"You sound exactly like my sister"
Qrow paused in his rummaging in the explosives crate.
"You have a sister?"
45 nodded when he finally looked over from the lack of verbal response.
"What's she like?" He shot.
45 had to pause in her magazine loading to think of an answer.
"She's like a murder kitten. Very friendly. Likes killing things" she nodded resolutely.
Qrow paused to think.
"She sounds like a person I knew" he seemed to dip his head in slight respect, or something akin to honor.
"Is she dead?" Ump45 ventures.
"Summers been missing for a while now" 45. Lowered her head slightly.
"Sounds like your convinced she's not..." 45 stated. Before packing another magazine into her side bag.
"Sum can't be, she's the best out there" Qrow sounded as if he was lying to himself.
"I knew someone like that once to" she muttered while loading her last mag full.
She stood up her joints creaking slightly.
Qrow didn't acknowledge her movement. He just stared into the endless abyss of ammo. A slightly haunted look in his red eyes.
"Natürlich" 45 sighed.
"What?" Qrow snapped from his trance.
"Get up, we have a mission" 45 cut Qrows question in two.
The huntsman nodded and stood, but not before grabbing two boxes of ammunition for himself.
Qrow fell in line behind the T-doll for once in his life letting someone else take the reigns.
If only for his humor, Beacon was hard to navigate.
—-
Proven case and point as 45 herself had to stop at multiple occasions in an attempt to find a shower of some type.
The couple hundreds of people passing by didn't help her sensors much either.
45 pinched her nose. "Qrow" the huntsman's barely audible snickering stopped.
"Yes, Elena?"
45 turned on her heel to make eye contact with the man.
"Where the fuck are the showers?"
Qrow shrugged. "I dunno'"
The following silence ate at the two as they stared into each other's eyes. Daring the other to break the silence first.
"Unnnncle Qroooow!" A high pitched voice shouted out from the crowd.
Ump45's eyes locked onto a red clad girl in a Gothic dress of some sort as she full sprinted towards the two adults.
45 sent a silent ping for her sister automatically to warn her of the immediate danger that might follow.
But she received no response back which resulted in 45 breathing deeply to contain the hurt before it spread.
Her sister wasn't with her.
"I'm with you~" whispered a ghostly voice.
'Be silent big sis 40'
45 watched as the blur of a girl slammed into Qrow with a laugh, having the whole man's demeanor change at the drop of a hat.
"Didja miss me?! Didja?" The qirl repeated like a marathon.
Qrow swung the girl around with one arm and held her out at full extension from himself.
"Nope" he responded coolly.
The girl slid of his arm and onto her one two feet.
"Uncle Qrow, who's the girl" she pointed a diminutive finger in 45s direction as she tried and failed to hide her question to the outside world.
"Rubes, that's Elena my new partner"
Ruby had stars appear In her eyes for a brief second.
"Not like that at all, kiddo" Ruby deflated.
"And.. between you and me… Oz made me" Qrow chuckled.
45 watched the two interact with a raised brow and a tapping finger on her namesake as she shifted her weight from leg to leg.
"I'm Elena Koch" 45 greeted. If only to be polite.
"Elena. This is Ruby, my niece." Qrow introduced his suddenly very nervous niece.
45 nodded and turned to walk off. "Hey, where are you going?" Qrow asked.
"To find a river" 45 fired back.
The Huntsman seemed to blank as his niece looked at 45 oddly before it clicked for the elder.
"Woah, hey! I'll show you to the showers..." he smirked at her.
Ruby looked between 45 and her uncle as they walked off. 45 at Qrow's right as he lead the way.
"H-hey Mrs. Koch. Are you going to be a teacher at beacon?" Ruby stammered as she followed the two.
"Me? A teacher? No" 45 almost laughed.
Qrow shook his head. "I get the feeling you'd be a bad one"
45 shrugged uncaringly, A slight quirk to her lip.
"Perhaps"
45 kicked open a door to the women's locker rooms and stepped in. Leaving the relatives' presence.
Inside the bathroom the android sought a shower. 45 paused in her search when she found multiple stalls, shower heads intact. All knobs. There and no tile cracked or outright missing.
She wasn't used to such pristine facilities.
—
Twenty minutes later she finished her cleaning. Donned in her still dirty outfit she emerged to find Qrow leaned against the adjacent wall to the bathroom door.
She gave him a small, almost unnoticed smile.
"Ready to find us some insurgents?" 45 ventured.
Qrow leaned off the wall. "Hundred percent"
With those words the two were off.
—
END OF CHAPTER 3.