Atlesian military base: training room*
fresh blood stained his shirt and the knuckles of his attacker had only got even more bloody the more he was struck, a few more times of them gettin into his defense, he'd had enough and put his hand over their chest and blew them away in the air and quickly got back up glaring at the red all over himself and the floor, "your running low of fighters robo-cunt!" cole yelled before spitting out a glob of blood. He'd lost his grimm arm, got a new one but he could only use it so much to shoot his lightning before it over heated, and he'd been fighting vacuian, Mistralian , valian, and Atlesian specialists all day, his will was as strong and unbending as steel, but his body was worse off, he was tiring out faster after each opponent he faced off against.
After every wave of fools and monsters he'd noticed the purposeful choice to create storm clouds over the room, after each time he noticed it only had enough voltage to get his reserves halfway or barely that much, he smirked watching the roof open up revealing rain clouds and in came a small bolt of lightning that surged through him healing his injuries but like before had barely recharged his reserves. "cole, im not doing this out of interests to torture you, I know how powerful you really are; you've got one more opponent" he ended his sentence with a cold tone before a pair of double doors opened up and out walked a beautiful feminine body inside a familiar suit of armor cole had worn when he'd escaped beacon "what the hell is this Ironwood, your new android model!?" he yelled charging his arms up and heard "wait for it" over the speakers.
the womanly armor was painted black and red with the exact same design as his old armor but suited for it's body while he had the body armor Ruby built him and over that was a torn cloak and a single gauntlet remaining on his right arm that he'd designed for killing the woman with a red sword but this fight felt like it would be his hardest fight. the womanly droid reached behind her back and pulled a pair of scythes he swore looked familiar.
Before he could react the woman rushed him and that's when it hit him, literally and figuratively, the blunt end smacked into his arms guarding his head while the sight of black tipped red pedals fluttered all around them as they could block and dodged each other's attacks until cole got sick of it and grit his teeth. "okay, this is really getting old" he grunted and zapped her left shoulder and threw her right arm to her left spinning her around, zapped that arm both clenched tightly to the dual scythes, grabbed her shoulders he pulled her back and down kneeing her in the back making her stumble forward, then kicked off her like a spring board accidently knocking her helmet off from the back of her head revealing a head of red and black hair.
shaking off the disorientation she turned around with a scowl that turned into her signature smile he secretly adored upon seeing his face.
"you just couldn't resist could you" she said testing her arms but they refused to move an inch.
"Oh sure" he began sarcastically "I could have never guessed" squaring his shoulders and dipping into his normal stance flaring a wave of power through his arm "I knew it was you the moment you rushed in, your semblance and weapons were a dead giveaway" he smirked as he dodged and blast her with a wave throwing her ten feet back. In a whirlwind of roses barreling towards him she swiped at his abdomen at the last second but hit air, stopping at the center she scanned all around and saw nothing "what, you finally run away from me?" she yelled then froze at the laughing from all around her.
Cole stood directly behind her ruffling her hair smiling wide and goofily. having had enough she swung at him and clipped him on the chest he glared instinctually switching to his sword Ruby made him. Inside she was jumping for joy seeing crestfallen in his hands but outside she merely smirked and connected the scythes together creating a scythe staff and used her semblance to turn into a razor wheel of silver and red hitting cole from every direction as quickly as possible, and with deadly precision and accuracy.
retaliating he shot at her left thigh, her body moved an inch to the right and crashed into the crates and barrels burying her in wood and metal rings, "something to work on little branwen" he said before rushing in charging his lightning into a two handed swing tossing an arc of orange gold energy at the pile and watched it burn in all its fiery glory before turning around receiving the backs of her dual scythes to the middle three ribs on his right side knocking him on his back and wrapped her legs around him from behind trapping his head between the blades smiling "you leave the ground using your left leg before activating your semblance" she stated pulling him to his feet "you leave your right midsection completely exposed after swinging your sword like that"
hearing this he tried to scowl at her for pulling off such a dirty tactic but broke out in a fit of laughter hugging each other, as they shared a laugh Ruby jumped on him, wrapped her legs around his chest and pinned his arms behind his head "im sorry for not warning you but I'm winning this thing" she said whispering in his ear. He tried to get out of the hold but was rolled into a triangle choke hold, her grip tightened, and after a few moments she was making him see spots in his vision before he tapped out.
"the winner is private brown" ironwood said with a tone that sounded like he knew more than he was referring to and left it alone "just don't lose track of him and keep him and a short leash"
cole gritted his teeth at that guy and threw a big orb that looked like a ball of plasma scorching the speaker system. "I really hate that guy" he muttered following Ruby out of the large hallway and grabbed her helmet for her noticing it looked like a smaller version of a motorcycle helmet but the front was pointed like a bird's beak and had her initials on the inside near the lower left corner.
'I wonder if weiss- damn it, not this again; no one would date me even before beacon' he thought mentally smacking himself, with a mad blush creeping on his face, 'at least I'm with her instead of someone I'd end up killing' They walked into separate stalls and got dressed in their normal clothes, Ruby wore short shorts, black tights, boots augus got her, a red tshirt, and a standard issue Atlesian military hat. Cole had an easier time changing into the armored bodysuit Ruby designed for him under cargo pants, he kept his boots but wore an Atlesian military coat with C-013 on the back and put crestfallen in his sheath along with a new dagger (probably snuck in from Ruby) a broken silver and black sword that looked like a broken longsword and was confirmed when he read the note:
"I found your old sword and repurposed it as a dagger and since you broke it, it would make a big difference if you lost crestfallen; the dagger is called Haiiro no shi, it means grey death in mistralian
Ruby branwen -xoxo
he looked over the broken blade and noticed that in small words along the grove in the center of the blade read 'the music of life is cut short' in mistralian "well shit rubes, that's beautiful and super dark at the same time it's not funny" he said putting the blade in the sheath on his back and walked outside to see a crowd swarming Ruby with questions.
Getting closer he noticed that the crowd made her feel overwhelmed so he decided to grab an hk p30L pistol from a guard's hip and fired a round into the air scaring every specialist and militant away from the duo in a five foot radius but also gave them a reason to pull their guns on him ready for the kill.
"put your weapons down and back away from her!" cole ordered charging his arms and held them out to his sides "you wanna test me?! fucking try it, I'll turn all of you to ash" after a few seconds they all put their weapons away turning stiff at attention and saluted.
Cole stopped and turned around to see Ironwood, six black armored guards and five council members. All watched him like a zoo animal on display ready to run "and you said that woman is his...leash holder?" one councilman said with a condescending tone. "yes councilman, but even she can only do so much to tame him...but I doubt he'd go against her wishes" ironwood said with a knowing smirk telling them both that he knew the truth. Gods how cole hated that smile of his it made his stomach churn. His thoughts were interrupted when an angry woman that practically radiated entitlement said walking up to him with disgust in her eyes "don't think that for a second you and your new master are going to traverse remnant's surfaces without being watched 24/7, we will hear and see everything you see and hear got it?"
Ruby opened her mouth but cole grabbed her arm and said "you got creepier with every second that sentence came out of your mouth and worse of all you thought it wasn't fucking disgusting; two friends that travel together is all we are, so i suggest you leave us to our business and shut the fuck up"
She stood there shocked to her core and Ruby was rendered speechless. "how dare you speak to a member of the council of remnant!?" she squealed loudly.
Cole smirked wide and replied "wow, already hard of hearing? Well it is that time isn't it." He looked at ironwood with a devious smile that looked shark-like and said "you are sorely mistaken if you think either of us have to listen your entitled asses, im not a weapon at your beckoned call, im not her slave" he stopped to point to Ruby and charge himself full of lightning draining the electronics all around them. "and im sure as hell not going to tolerate you people talking to us like you own us" he ended his sentence with a quick grab of his dagger and took out the droids in seconds before putting his dagger back.
motioning for Ruby to his side they walked towards a bike. A head sizzled and popped, two droids fell to the ground with holes in the chest and back, and the last three fell to the ground slashed in half from their waistlines.
"general, as council woman of Mistral I order you-"
"to do nothing, you are mistaken if you think you can order me around council woman; mr.valentine is ms.branwen's responsibility now, and if im not mistaken he's still a beacon student" he turned to lead them into the base when a lizard Faunas council member stopped him "what about his crimes and everything he did in his life, you going to just ignore all of that?! You'll lose everything you-" cole clapped his hands together using his electricity to create a concussion wave interrupting her "just shut your Atlesian hole and be glad im not like the white fang; try and just live with the fact that you can't control everyone with your word of mouth"
He turned to look him and the others in the eye ignoring the two that sat and watched "as far as remnant is concerned cole was only guilty of beating his classmates in an all out altercation in a training arena, ditched school, and destroyed Atlas military property. I doubt those crimes equate to imprisonment or enslavement as penance...if anything he was redeemed when he uncovered that haven's headmaster was a traitor and I feel that is enough to let him go...under the pretenses of serving remnant's best interest at heart" he walked past them and held out his hand "from this day forward you are no longer a wanted man, although I can't guarantee the rest of the world will be as kind so I suggest you get back to beacon" cole took his hand and shook it before driving away without a word.
_
Thanks for reading I hope to improve the next chapter.
I'm limiting each chapter to 4000 words or less from here on.
Comment anything you think could be worked on at:
H6pp1n355_in_misery.
Criticism is appreciated
