Real Steal: Remnant League

Chap 1

I was running down the hall to my team's dorm as soon as classes ended today. It was Friday which meant I had somewhere to be today. More specifically, I had a fight today and it was getting close to time for me to leave. Reaching my dorm, I quickly scanned my scroll to unlock it and entered it. Heading into the bathroom, I quickly took a shower and changed from my school clothes and into some casual clothes. Exiting the bathroom, I quickly grabbed the few things I needed and placed them in a duffle bag such as some motions pills, snacks, drinks and some emergency money.

Double checking to make sure I had everything, I grabbed the duffle bag, put on a sweater as it was cold before grabbing the keys I had hidden beneath my bed. Taking one last look at the time to make sure it was still early; I exited the dorm. But before I left, I quickly sent a message to the rest of my team that I will be gone for the day and be back later. Their replies were almost instant. Ren said to take care of myself and be careful. Nora basically said 'Okay fearless leader and bring back pancake mix' which gave me a slight chuckle but I always bring some anyway. And Pyrrha asked if she could come once her class finished. As much as I would love to bring her along, I couldn't as where I am going isn't exactly legal. Not illegal completely but still legally grey. And I don't want to get her in trouble at all nor run the chance of ruining her career or future as a huntress. So, I replied saying that she couldn't come as I had to leave now but I promised to make it up to her somehow during the week. She soon replied back saying to take care and that she will be waiting and to call her when I get there. Even though she did not say it, I could tell she was saddened that she could not come but was made happier when I said I'll make it up to her which also put a smile on my face.

Letting out a sigh, I thought about how lucky I am to have met her and to have her as my partner. Putting my scroll away, I adjusted the strap on my bag before running down the halls to exit Beacon. It took ten minutes to get out as the dorms were kind of far from the front doors of Beacon. But once out, I took a deep breath of the fresh air before darting over to the bullheads. Reaching into my bag, I pulled out the motion pills and took them to avoid puking all over the place while on the bullhead. Zipping the bag shut, I showed my student I.D. to the ticket person before boarding the bullhead. Taking my seat, I decided to take a little nap until we get to Vale. Yet I could not help the feeling that someone or something was following me. But I shook it off as me being paranoid for running short on time.

Thirty minutes later

I was jostled out of my sleep as the bullhead landed down in Vale. Getting up, I grabbed my duffle bag and waited for everyone else to get off before I got off myself. Zipping up my sweater as the cold air of Vale greeted me, I quickly made my way over to a nearby car garage. Getting there, I pulled out a special I.d. to show to the guy waiting at the entrance. He smiled at me when he saw the I.D. and pressed some commands on a console. Soon the gate opened allowing me to enter. Nodding my thanks, I went in and headed to the back of the garage. Looking around, I saw what I was looking for. A big truck. More specifically an international harvester cab over engine. Smiling, I went over and got into the truck.

"Hey, old girl. I missed you. Now, let's get going." I said as I started the truck up. Feeling the engine roar to life, I let out another smile. "Yeah, it's going to be a good time."

The truck started moving and I was on my way towards where the fight was. Moving throughout Vale, I could see many areas that held many great memories. Whether winning or losing, I always had a great time along with the others. Never a dull moment. Especially when there is a betting pool. There isn't always one but when there is, the stakes are always higher. After about an hour of driving, I reached my destination. It was a small building that at first glance, you would not think much of. But it was actually a front to avoid suspicion from the Vale police. It was disguised as a laundromat building that was closed with two large garage doors for delivery. Yet in reality, it led to the underground fight club of Real Steel. One of the many locations throughout Vale. Pulling up into the driveway, I lowered the driver side window.

"Hey Jaune. Back again for another show or fight?" The guy who was standing guard asked as he came up to the window before motioning for my I.D. Taking it, he began to look it over.

"Hey Jack. Both actually. Got a fight against some bots in the undercard and going to watch the main event." I answered as he handed me back my I.D. before heading next to the garage door.

"Well, good luck and have fun." He said as he opened the garage door.

"Thanks Jack. See you later." I said as I rolled up the window. Moving the gear, I drove forward and down into the underground.

As I was going down, I heard a noise come from the back of the truck but I ignored it as I thought it was one of the soda cans, I kept that fell from the tables. Ignoring it, i decided to listen to the familiar and nostalgic sound of metal pounding metal and steel bashing steel as the smell of oil and fire greeted my senses. Coming to the spot where we get to park our vehicles, I pulled into a spot before turning off the truck. Getting out, I took in the scent of everything before heading to the back of the truck and opening the door.

"Time to get to it." I said as the door opened and I pulled myself up to get on. Reaching to the side, I flipped the switch to turn on the lights. However, as soon as they turned on, I heard another strange noise again. Surprised, I looked around and saw an opened window which I could have sworn I had closed.

"Must have forgot to close it." I concluded as I closed the window before looking over the rest of the space of the truck. It held a desk, a small fridge and some folding beds with a small closet. Pushing the desk a bit and folding the beds to create some room, I went to the robot that I had brought for the fight. I flipped a few switches which released it from its charging station before moving to the back of the robot to turn it on. Opening up the hatch, I flipped the switch to turn it on. Closing it, I went to the front and waited a bit. A low hum started to come from the robot with a soft green light coming from its center. Soon the robot fully turned on with the light disappearing.

"Welcome back to the land of the living Atom. How you feeling?'" I asked as he got up and looked around a bit before looking at me.

"That's good. Now, come on. We have a match waiting for us. Let's go show them what we can do together." I said to him as I gave him a little pat on his chest plate. Grabbing the headset, I walked to the edge of the truck as Atom followed me. Pressing the button to lower ourselves to the ground, we stepped off before closing the truck door and locking it up.

Walking away from the parking lot, we headed towards the area where all the bots were either being prepared for the carnage that's about to happen, being repaired from a difficult fight, being examined for anything wrong or just waiting for their fight to happen. As we walked through the area, I kept feeling I was being followed by someone. But that soon left my mind as many of the trainers and handlers of the robots here started to notice me and Atom. They soon began to follow us as we continued yo make our way to the spot where the undercard fights and main event is displayed. There was already a small crowd there going wild as a man on top of the stage was placing bets for everyone. Going through the crowd, I was soon noticed as the man on the stage started to get control of the crowd.

"HEY! HEY! HEY! JAUNE ARC IS IN THE HOUSE!" The man shouted causing the crowd to cheer.

"Alright, alright." I said chuckling at his antics.

"Come on man." He said with a smirk.

"Hey Finn." I said smiling.

"I see you are ready for the fight and brought THE PEOPLE'S CHAMPION ATOM!" Finn said before shouting out Atom's title which caused the crowd around us to erupt in cheers again.

"Yup. Ready and willing Finn. And so is Atom." I said to him as I looked up at Atom as he looked back down at me which brought a smile to my face.

"Okay than, let's get these match ups under way." Finn announced before pointing to the spot to show me the bots that Atom would be facing. There were three matches lined up for us. Two were just random bots while the third was a bot I faced before and made the owner lose his mind. It was Metro who was being controlled by Kingpin.

"Let's do this Atom." I said confidently before heading over to the ring as the first match, which was ours was about to happen.

Getting to our spot, we waited for Finn to announce the match. Soon he came running into the ring with a microphone and its stand in his hand. He started cheering and pumping up the crowd. And it worked as the crowd started cheering like crazy. Waiting for the inevitable carnage to happen. Finn then began by announcing the fighters for the first match. He first announced me and Atom as a spotlight appeared above us. Smiling, I started to dance as we made our way to the ring with Atom copying my every move. Every robot and trainer/handler had their own unique thing about them. Dancing was ours and while some people might call it a bit much, there was no doubt that people here loved it. Reaching the ring, we waited for the lift to bring us before entering the ring and going to our corner. Finn then announced our opponent whose name was Round About. He was a big chunky boy that had some similarities to that a sumo wrestler.

'Seems like the trainer really wanted a sumo wrestler bot.' I thought as the bot slammed its feet onto the ground before rolling towards the ring. It stopped just before hitting the ring and waited for the handler to catch up. Once he caught up, they waited as the lift brought them up to the ring where they got in. Once in and in their corner, Finn announced the match to begin and quickly got out of the ring.

"All right Atom. Let's show them what we can do. Engage." I told Atom as he raised his arms while closing the distance to Round About.

The following fight was nothing short of disappointing as Round About was unable to land a hit as he was extremely slow with Atom easily being able to avoid each of the attacks. It seemed that Round About was designed to face against extremely heavy and slow bots as a counter to them. And since Atom was relatively 'light,' it could do nothing except get hit. After a few minutes of evading and landing blows on the body and few on the head, I had Atom stand back a bit so we can finish the fight. Round About seemed angry as the handler decided to try and get close to perform his roll move again. But before it could follow the command, I had Atom close the distance with lunging jab to the head followed by a cross and uppercut. Round About started to move uncontrollably and sporadically as the last hit caused it to have a system crash. After a few tense seconds, Round About fell on its back. Finn than started the countdown which reached ten signifying that Atom won and Round About lost. Its handler rushed in to check on it before shaking its head as some others came in to help take it away.

With the fight over, I went into the ring and took Atom away and led him to one of the spots reserved for us so I can repair any damage that he took during the fight which wasn't much. Since our next match would be after the next two matches, it gave me some time rest and fix Atom. Once done, and making sure that everything was in proper working order, I took a seat next to him, Grabbing my duffle bag, I grabbed a drink and snack to have as we waited for out match to begin. As we waited, I made some small talk with anyone that stops by. Though, I mostly talked with Atom even though it was mostly one sided. I say mostly because every time I am with Atom, I could feel like he is actually paying attention to me and listening almost like he is sentient. Soon a bell rang which alerted me to the fact that current match was over and that our next match was about to begin.

"Let's go Atom." I said as we got off the table before heading towards the ring.

Once there, it was the same procedure as before. Finn getting the crowd excited again, us going to the ring and getting in our corner with Finn then announcing our opponent. This time it was a bot named Sapphire Fire. And it's appearance caught me off guard a bit. Mainly because most of the time the bots are designed to look cool, intimidating or represent something. This time the robot seemed to look like a young punk female with its hands painted to look like boxing gloves and metal strings on its head to look like hair. Almost as if the handler wanted to make the bot appear more human like. Kind of like a generation one robot. Speaking of which, its handler was actually a young female about my age. Maybe a year or two older. She also seemed very cocky and arrogant as she led her robot to her corner while smirking at me. Possibly thinking that this would be an easy fight.

'She reminds me of Yang. This will be fun.' I thought as I exited the ring and readied the headset for the fight.

But that thought was quickly proven wrong as it was a tough as hell fight. Apparently, Sapphire was designed to be a quick and nimble fighter. Allowing her to easily evade our attacks and was able to get out of range from any follows we tried. Her combat style seemed to resemble street fighting. As the fight continued, Atom did take some heavy hits from her with one of the hits nearly knocking him down. But it was not in vain as I soon realized her flaw/weakness. She was weak to counters and fades which left her open to an assault. Not to mention the handler was cocky and would ignore common sense. She would have her bot engage and get close when it would have been better to disengage and move back. We used this to our advantage and manage to beat her. Using the fades to trip her up and counters to stun her a bit. This also showed the reason why she was quick and agile. She was a glass canon and was not able to take a lot of punishment. A few good hits to the head and the body caused her to go down. Finn and the crowd started the countdown and it reached ten. And as soon as the bell rang, we all heard a loud scream. Apparently, the handler started yelling and raging at the fact that she lost and started pulling her hair as well.

'Never mind. Yang would never do that.' I thought as I saw her rip some more of her hair before being led out by one of the guards as some others grabbed Sapphire Fire and took her out of the ring.

"Good job Atom. I knew you could it." I said as I entered the ring and started some quick repairs as our final match was right now.

Luckily it wasn't a tough fight as it was Metro again. And while Kingpin has done some upgrades to Metro like making him more durable and slightly faster, it did not change the fact they were still as predictable in their fights. He would constantly try the same tactic or move even if we counter it easily. This was proven true as during fight, King Pin kept trying to have Metro pin Atom's foot or get him in a headlock to use his hammer hand. And each time he did this, we easily avoided it and counter easily. After a couple of failed attempts, he started to get sloppy and have Metro rush in. But this proved fatal as I had Atom do a double jump uppercut to Metro which caused him to fall down defeated. Though, unlike last time, he did not catch on fire. The countdown started and quickly reached ten making us the winner and causing King Pin to yell out in frustration at being defeated again. But this time, he came up to me and shook my hand before helping the others take Metro out of the ring.

'He is getting better at handling losing.' I thought i turned off my headset before entering the ring. Getting Atom, we left the ring before going to find Finn before the next set of matches would begin. We quickly found him back on the stage taking some more bets while fixing the brackets.

"Hey Finn." I called out.

"Hey Jaune. Great show you put out there." He said with a smile while pocketing the betting money while writing down who better and for which bot.

"Thanks man." I said to him as I looked at the remaining names for the undercard fights and the main event. It was going to be a good time and fights.

"Here's your money. Now I need to go and start the next match. You going to stay and watch?" He asked as he pulled an envelope from his back pocket and handed it to me.

"Of course, I'm going to stay. And thanks for the money." I answered as I took the envelope. Taking out the money, I began to count to make sure it was all there. Even though I trusted Finn, one can never be too careful. After a second, I put the money back in the envelope as It was all there. All eight thousand to be exact. The pay was always good doing these fights. But none of us ever did it for the money. We did it for the love of the sport.

"No problem." Finn said as he left.

"Let's head back Atom." I said as we headed back to our spot. Getting there, I started to repair Atom and fixing him back up. Once done, we headed back to the truck. Getting there, I opened it up and had the lift pick us up. Moving towards the back, I had Atom move forward and sit down in the charging station.

"You did good today Atom. Now take a rest. You earned it." I said as I turned him off and put the charger on him.

Once he was hooked up and charging, I exited the truck while also grabbing some cash to buy some food and drinks at the stands here. Making sure everything was secure, I locked up the truck before heading to the food stands. Grabbing a burger and a soda, I then went to the stands to watch the rest of the fights. It was absolute carnage as the bots started to fight each other. Only two robots were destroyed during those fights. One by its head being taken off while the other suffered a fatal system crash. It was incredibly fun to watch as I loved the sport and judging from the reactions of the crowd, they loved it as well. But it was the main event that got everyone, including me, really excited. It was a four-way battle. The robots were the mighty Midas, and three other robots that seemed to be new here. The fighting was brutal and at one point seemed a bit unfair as they all focused on Midas. But they were clearly outmatched despite being three on one. And in the end, only Midas and one other robot was left standing. But it did not last long and soon Midas was preparing for a de-cappuccino. The robot's was sent sent flying out of the ring with the body falling to the floor. The bell rang as Finn declared Midas the winner while the crowed cheer at how great the fight was.

Getting up, I tossed my trash away before heading back to the truck. Opening it up, I turned on the lights and entered. Taking out my scroll, I saw that it was nearing eight meaning that I had to head back to Beacon otherwise risking the wrath of Goodwitch. But as I put away my scroll, I noticed that my clothes got stain from some oil and grease. Grabbing my bag, I took out some clothes and began to change. Though, as I was changing, I could have sworn I heard a gasp. But I didn't pay attention to it. Once done changing, I exit the back of the truck before going around to get in the front. Turning on the truck, I pulled out before heading towards the exit. Getting there, I waited a minute for the doors to open. Once open, I drove away from the placed and made my way to the parking lot from earlier. Getting there, I showed my I.D. to the guy who then opened up the gate. Driving forward, I drove to the back and pulled into a free spot. Parking, I turned off the truck before getting out. Going to the back, I opened it up and entered. Grabbing my duffle bag, I looked towards Atom and smiled.

"You did good Atom. See you next week." I said to him before leaving the truck and locking it up.

Once done, I made my way to the nearby supermarket as I did promise to buy some pancake mix for Nora. But I also planned on buy some green tea for Ren as I noticed he was running a bit low. Spotting some Mistral chocolate, I decided to buy some for Pyrrha. She absolutely loves chocolate to a point where it almost scares me. After a couple of minute, I exited with all the stuff I brought for them before heading towards the bullheads. Getting there, I showed my student I.D. and was allowed to get on. Taking my seat and making sure everything was secure, I took out my scroll to try and pass the time. Only to immediately put it away and search my bag for my motion sickness pills. I quickly took them while trying to calm myself down as the bullhead started to ascend into the air.

'Man, I hate motion sickness.' I thought as I struggled to keep myself from vomiting all over the bullhead until the pills kick in or we get to Beacon.

Thirty minutes later

It was the later as the pills did not work and I had to struggle not to vomit all the way to Beacon. Once there, I did not wait for the others to get off as I immediately rushed towards the nearest trashcan and emptied my stomach. It was awful but something I have gotten used to when it happens. Though that didn't mean I like it. Going over to a nearby water fountain, I rinsed my mouth to get rid of the horrible vomit taste. With the taste was gone, I made my way back to my team's dorm. Checking the time, I saw that it was nine which meant that they were in the dorm. And the sounds coming from inside told me they were still awake. Opening the door I saw Ren trying to meditate while Nora was bouncing on her bed. Pyrrha was at her desk finishing up something from Professor Ports class.

"Hey guys. I'm back." I greeted them as I closed the door behind me.

"JAUNE!" Pyrrha yelled as she jumped from her desk and wrapped her arms around me.

"Missed you too Pyrrha." I chuckled at her actions which were always cute. But I turned confused for a moment when she let go and started sniffing the air for a moment. It was at that moment when I realized she smelled the chocolate that I brought for her. Smiling, I pulled out the chocolate bar I got for her.

"I know. Here you go Pyrrha." I said before quickly having it snatched from my hands before being enveloped in another hug.

"Thanks, Jaune." She said quickly before going over to her bed and started eating the chocolate with childlike wonder.

"Welcome back fearless leader." Nora said as she continued jumping on the bed.

"Hey Nora. Here, I brought you some pancake mix." I said before again having it snatched from my hands at lightning speed.

"YAY!" She shouted excitedly before snatching and hugging the pancake mix like it was the most precious thing in the world. I simply shook my head before turning to Ren.

"Got you some green tea Ren. Saw that you were running low on it." I said as I handed him the tea.

"Thanks, Jaune. And welcome back." He said before returning back to his meditation. I smiled before going over to my bed and started to put everything away. Once that was done, I went into the bathroom to change into my pajamas.

"Where did you go Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she finished the chocolate.

"Sorry. But I can't tell you." I answered. This caused her to sadden a bit which I did not like and attempted to cheer her up. "But don't worry Pyr. While I can't say where I went as its private. I did promise to make it up to you remember."

She smiled at this and nodded before heading into the bathroom to change. Smiling, I got into bed and tried to fall asleep as it was getting late started but couldn't as my scroll started vibrating. Groaning, I rolled over and picked it up and saw that I received a message from Finn. This caused me to raise an eyebrow in confusion as while we are friends and occasionally hang out with each other, we didn't really text each other. Especially at this time. Opening it up, I saw the message was brief but I could tell was urgent.

'Jaune. Open the news. NOW!' It read.

Curious, I decided to open a new tab to see what was important. Going to the news shortcut, I pressed it and waited for it to load. After a minute, it finished loading and nothing really caught my eyes. Deciding to look a bit more, I saw a breaking news headline. Clicking on the article, I saw something that nearly made my eyes bulge out of my head.

"Jaune, are you okay? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Pyrrha asked concerned as she saw came out of the bathroom and saw my shocked expression. Ren and Nora were also concerned as they stopped what they were doing when they saw my shocked expression. But I paid them no mind as I was entirely focused on the article I just pulled up. Real Steel, while not illegal, many saw it as legally grey. That's why we took great care to not get spotted by the police. But a new law was just passed by each kingdom. And while not a bad one, it will definitely change the future of Real Steel. And that was for the fact the new law just made Real Steel the new National Sport of each Kingdom.

Note:

A request from a friend.