Volume II: Episode 5: Capture the Flag
Second year was when Velvet realized that there was a reason Professor Port was a teacher at Beacon. As much as his braggadocio made first year Grimm Studies an absolute chore to get through, the man was a brilliant instructor in Military Strategy. It wasn't that his voice was any less droning or that he was any less prone to drifting off to another tale of self-aggrandizement so much as it was that his stories were more relevant to the subject of strategy than the nature of Grimm and, well, the in-classroom lecture was only an hour long. He also conducted more practical exercises on the weekends.
Case in point, this Saturday, he'd gathered up four second-year teams - one from each of the four academies - and brought them to the Beacon Cliffs overseeing the Emerald Forest.
"All right, students!" he bellowed. "For today's exercise, we will be playing a game of capture the flag. Each team will be launched toward a different area of the Emerald Forest which contains a clearly marked flag; a fifth flag is also hidden somewhere within the exercise area. I shall be waiting at the bottom of the cliffs, and whichever team turns in the most flags to me before the end of the exercise will be victorious! And earn extra credit.
"For those of you visiting, understand that there is quite the population of Grimm in the Emerald Forest, but worry not! I have acquired the assistance of some of our guest professors to monitor your progress. Link up your scrolls. If your aura drops into the red, you are considered eliminated and will be escorted to safety. The exercise will begin in twenty minutes and will last four hours; I strongly suggest you take the time to confer and prepare your landing strategies."
With that piece of advice in mind, Velvet turned to the rest of Team CFVY.
"So," Coco began, "what do we know about the competition?"
"Team Indigo seems to favor bladed weapons," Fox said, the blind Vacuan nodding to the all-female team on the field. "Probably rely on dust for ranged options, though their leader does have a crossbow."
"I have spoken with Team Beechnut's leader, Joseph Balkun," Yatsuhashi said. "He's a professional, though not particularly imaginative, and I cannot speak for his team."
Three pairs of eyes swiveled to gaze on Velvet expectantly.
"Wot?" was her indignant response.
"Team Ruffle," Coco prompted. "C'mon, V, fill us in on your boyfriend's team."
"He's not my boyfriend," Velvet mumbled. They'd only known each other for... what, a week now? "A-anyway, I don't know much about Rain, but the twins are... they're kind of rough and tumble. They're... not exactly subtle guys."
"You took my place, you faker!" a shout interrupted their discussion. As one, Team CFVY turned and saw Team BCHT holding back one of their own as he jabbed an accusatory finger at a wide-eyed Lavi.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Lavi stammered.
"The Stalls have served Atlas for generations, and Mantle before that," the BCHT member snarled. "I should have gotten into Atlas, just like my brother and our father before him, but then you showed up!" His eyes narrowed. "I don't know how you did it, taking our name like it's your own, imposter, but I know you're the reason Atlas rejected me. Do you know how humiliating it is? To be the first member of the family to get rejected! Even my little sister got in!"
"Simmer down, Tom, he ain't worth it," BCHT's leader, Joseph, ordered calmly.
"Shut it, Joe," Tom retorted. "I had to settle for Haven! Haven!"
"Ow, harsh," said the lone female member of Team BCHT. "I mean, it's true, but still, ow."
"Hey! Hey! Break it up!" declared Coco as she walked onto the scene, drawing the attention of everyone else. "I'm glad to see some competitive enthusiasm, but how about you save it for the game, eh?"
Tom broke away from his glare and fixed his gaze on the fashionista. He gave a curt nod. "Fine by me." He shot one last glare at Lavi. "I'll be taking my name back; count on it."
The scuffle broke apart, and Teams RRFL and CVFY approached each other. Reg, as always, was munching from a bag of nuts in his hands; today, it looked like walnuts.
"Thanks for the backup," Rain said, offering an easy smile. "Don't think that means we'll go easy on you, though."
"Wouldn't want you to," Coco snarked back.
"Lav, is something wrong?" Velvet asked, noting the odd expression on the Atlesian's face.
"Hmm?" Lavi blinked and looked at her, then shook his head. "Oh... nothing. It's just... I wonder if he's right."
Velvet blinked. "Excuse me?"
"I've met Barrel Roll, and Bombstrike's a first-year," Lavi answered with a shrug. At the rabbit faunus's confused look, he explained, "Sorry, Barrel Roll is Tom's older brother, and Bombstrike's his younger sister. They were surprised he didn't get accepted into Atlas; they'd thought it was a sure thing. I mean, he got top marks in combat school and has a whole family of alumni. But me? Name aside, I'm just some nobody who didn't even go to combat school, just got some private training, and yet... I made it into Atlas Academy, and he didn't." He frowned. "I can't help but wonder if someone made a mistake, got the wrong Stall."
"Stop that," Velvet scolded with a frown. "You're here, aren't you? Representing Atlas at the Vytal Festival?"
Lavi blinked owlishly at her. "I... guess?"
"Well, that's a pretty big bloody deal," Velvet continued. "Forget what happened before you got into Atlas, because it doesn't matter. You got here on your own merits."
Lavi seemed to think that over for a moment, and he gave her a lopsided smile. "Thanks, Velv."
"Maybe he'll listen to her," Rain rumbled quietly to Coco. "He seems to have a soft spot for your teammate."
"Maybe it's a shutterbug thing," Coco suggested. "Personally, I think it's pretty adorable."
Reg chuckled darkly, eyeing Team BCHT. "Oh, this is going to be fun. I enjoy cracking nuts," - he pulled another walnut out and cracked it to demonstrate the point, then popped it into his mouth - "and it looks like Team Beechnut is in need of a good crackin'. A great way to start off the week."
"But it's the weekend," pointed out Fox.
"What is the end of a week but the start of another?" Reg replied.
"He's got you there," admitted Coco.
Fox just shrugged with a smile.
"I'm curious," started Yatsuhashi. "Do they have manapults in Atlas?"
"You mean man-cannons?" asked Ferris.
"No, he's probably talking about the manpads," corrected Reg.
"ManPADs are something different; he's got to mean the student slingers," Rain told him.
"'Student slingers'? Are those like faunus flingers?" asked Velvet with a shudder.
"No, you're thinking of people poppers," said Coco.
"I thought they were like human hurlers?" inquired Fox.
"We're still talking about those spring-loaded platforms that launch us great distances, right?" asked Lavi in a somewhat confused tone.
"I... think so?" Yatsuhashi relented slowly.
"Then, yes, we have them," Rain confirmed. "It's a popular choice for Huntsmen who want to visit Mantle on the weekend. Saves time waiting for an airship."
"Neat," summed up Fox.
They broke apart themselves after that, going into their own little huddles. They still had to discuss their strategies, after all. Coco, as always, had a cunning plan for victory.
"We'll win."
It was a bit light on the specifics, but Velvet was pretty sure they could get it to work.
Each member of Team RRFL had their own landing strategy.
Rain - Vanguard - possessed a cat-like agility that allowed him to spring off the trees, allowing him to transfer his downward momentum into lateral movement as he hit the trees running. The twins were a fair bit more destructive, just smashing their way through with their hammers... much like how they treated most obstacles. Finally, Lavi - Black Out - had by far the simplest and most obvious landing strategy; he just had to spread his wings to catch the air, then land normally.
Not that he intended to land quite yet.
Rather, he flapped once to get some altitude and instead glided toward the clearing where he could see what had to be their flag - pale blue with the Atlesian seal on it - fluttering in the wind.
Once he claimed the flag, rather than wait for the rest of his team, Black Out unslung his dust rifle, Lea, and loaded a gravity round. He fired at the ground to give him a bit of extra boost as he launched himself back into the air and took flight once more; he wanted the altitude to avoid interception.
They'd already discussed the plan. No point in waiting around.
"Ho ho!" Professor Port cheered as he accepted the flag from Black Out. "Getting an early start, eh? How industrious!"
Black Out smiled earnestly. "Thank you, Professor."
Now to rejoin his team.
Tom wasn't a big fan of forests. The sight lines were too short, and even the Valish spring weather felt just a touch too warm for him. At least the humidity wasn't too bad.
"Team Beechnut, check in," came Joe's voice over his earpiece. Joe - perfectionist that he was - had made sure they each had a short-range radio with an earpiece for field use; they were more rugged than scrolls and had much lower power consumption.
"Curt here, locked and loaded."
"Julie, on the ground and ready to rock."
Tom opened his mouth to add his voice to the channel, but a shadow passing overhead drew his eye. He looked up to see a familiar, hated silhouette gliding over him.
You son of a... he snarled silently, then the Beacon team leader's words echoed back in his mind.
"I'm glad to see some competitive enthusiasm, but how about you save it for the game, eh?"
Tom's lips curled into a smile, and he clicked off his radio. His team could handle themselves.
He brought his rifle, Longshot, up to his shoulder and aimed.
Crack!
Team CFVY paused as the loud gunshot echoed across the Emerald Forest.
"Lone Grimm, maybe?" Velvet suggested.
"Maybe..." Coco mused doubtfully.
"We have our own problem," Fox warned, just before a group of Boarbatusks burst out of the trees toward them.
"This brings back memories," mused Yatsuhashi as he unslung his giant sword Fulcrum and swatted the first spinning porcine Grimm aside as it charged him.
"Took my advice, I see," Coco noted as she shook her handbag, Gianduja, unfolding it into its rotary machine gun configuration and opening fire.
"It was good advice," Yatsuhashi said easily as the team dispatched the Grimm.
"Hey," Coco said from off to the side of the clearing, "look what I found." She held up a small green Vale flag triumphantly. "Here, Yatsu, you hang onto this."
She tossed the flag over to Yatsuhashi, who deftly caught it in one of his big hands. He looked over his body before finally tucking the flag's pole between his shirt and robe. He finished with a smile and a thumbs up at Coco.
"Should we head back to Professor Port now?" asked Velvet.
Coco pursed her lips, considering that for a moment, and then she shook her head. "No . We should try to find at least one more flag. We aren't going to lose this, remember?" She paused thoughtfully, then ordered, "We'll spread out with Yatsu in the middle. Velvet, you keep an ear out for threats. Fox, I'll cover you when combat starts. Everyone got that?"
They gave their affirmations, and the group set out in search of their next target. The search lasted for some time, perhaps half an hour, an eternity in Huntsman years. They were able to find their target though, and it gave them pause to see.
"Is that… an Ursa Major with a flag on its head?" asked Yatsuhashi uncertainly.
"That does appear to be the case," replied Coco.
They had come upon another clearing in the Emerald Forest, and inside it, they had found the black and white bear-like form of an Ursa Major. It was a very old and very large Grimm that, quite frankly, the Emerald Forest didn't seem capable of supporting. How it got there, though, was of no importance to Team CFVY; all they cared about was the flag - black with the image of a Grimm skull above a pair of crossed femurs - sitting atop its head with the pole dug into a mound of grey adhesive.
"This thing is going to be a bullet sponge, I just know it," complained Coco before sighing softly. This was going to be expensive. "Well, nothing else for it. Velvet, Yatsu, you two stay back. Fox, you're with me. You get it busy, and I'll get it from the side."
With that, Fox keyed for ADA - the Accessibility Dialogue Assistant, a virtual intelligence built into both his scroll and a small earbud - to activate its single target takedown mode. His scroll began emitting radar pulses, and ADA's beeping let him know how close he was to his opponent and would use other audio cues to update him on the position of the Ursa Major's claws, head, teeth, and legs, all on a projected x- and y-axis that extended in a five-foot radius around Fox. In this strange way, he could start to "see" his opponent.
He rushed forward, and delivered a swift punch to the Ursa Major's chest. The bladed tonfas attached to his arms, named Sharp Retribution, fired using the guns built into them. The bear-like Grimm seemed staggered at that, but it was only a ruse. Fox had to jump back to avoid a swiping counterstrike from the Grimm.
Just as planned, Coco came in from the side and started plastering the Grimm's armored hide with fire from her rotary machine gun. She had been right; the fiend was turning out to be quite the bullet catcher. Everything had its limits, though, and today, they were going to make this old beast meet his.
Suddenly, a cry came up from behind.
"Blimey! Beowolves!"
That was Velvet, and presumably Yatsu too, given the sound of that big sword of his hitting things. The Grimm, it appeared, had sprung a trap. Of course they had. In retrospect, the flag was far too tempting of a target, and the old Ursa must have known that somehow.
That was the trouble with Grimm. Sometimes they were stupider than the dumbest animal, and other times, they were as cunning as, well, a fox. It was one more reason that the world needed Huntsmen like Team CFVY ready to answer the call.
Yatsuhashi could handle himself though, and so could Velvet, usually. He needed to focus on the foe in front of him. The very large and angry foe. Why not try to make him angrier?
Fox cocked a smirk as he began to dance around his target, skillfully avoiding the areas where Coco was bombarding the thing with a maelstrom of metal. The Ursa Major seemed to be getting madder, more desperate. It was guarding less, lungeing more.
Coco, get ready to juggle it! Fox sent through his telepathic semblance.
Fox pivoted around and dropped into an L-shaped handstand. The Ursa leapt for him, and his legs managed to catch it in the chest. Immediately, he pushed off the ground and fired a pair of gravity dust rounds from Sharp Retribution that launched him even further into the air. The Grimm was flying along with him, but not for long as he fired another pair of rounds that rather forcefully separated them.
There was the roar of a rotary machine gun, and he knew that right now, Coco was tearing it apart in the air. Remarkably, it worked. His leader gave a little cheer when the flag fell into her hand.
Not a bad showing, Fox thought. I wonder how things went for the others?
They were just Beowolves, and Velvet had Yatsuhashi backing her up, so she had decided it was a good opportunity to brush up on her unarmed combat skills, rather than burn through her precious photos and expensive hardlight dust to use Anesidora. Of all the skills she'd picked up with her semblance, unarmed combat skills were the ones she practiced most. She started by shifting into a loose boxer's stance she borrowed from Yang.
Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she ducked a claw swipe from the Beowolf in front of her and jabbed forward with a kidney punch. The next lunge, she sidestepped, rolling with the turn and bringing her hand in a straight chop to the back of the Beowolf's neck, near the base, dropping it like a sack of potatoes. That last move had come straight from Ren.
She smiled. The transition between the two fighting styles had gone much more smoothly this time. As she reset to face the next Beowolf, she could see Yatsu carving his way through the pack with Fulcrum, the gigantic greatsword's mass and edge allowing him to cleave them apart easily.
Maybe a more aggressive style this time? She shifted her stance again, but before she could launch into an attack, gunfire erupted, ripping the Beowolf in front of her apart.
"Hey!" she protested. "That one was mine!"
"Sorry, V," Coco said unapologetically. "But I was getting bored." She held up the Grimm skull and crossbones flag and waved it around. "Here, Yatsu," she said, tossing it at the big Mistrali. "You hang onto this."
"What's the plan now?" Yatsuhashi asked, stowing the flag away.
"Now?" Coco replied. "Now, we go hunting."
Black Out nursed his wounded wing. His aura had taken the brunt of the shot, but the round had been powerful enough to still wrench the wing back, twisting it painfully. He wouldn't be flying again soon.
And besides, he had bigger problems to worry about.
He was being hunted, and he didn't like being hunted.
He left Field sheathed but clear. Right now, the long bayonet wasn't particularly useful, but if a Grimm or his opponent's teammates managed to close in...
He shook the thought off and moved through the brush, abandoning the little spot between three trees he'd been taking shelter in; it was too obvious a hidey-hole. Sight lines in the forest tended to be short, making Lea a less than ideal weapon; his rifle was better suited for the icy tundras of Solitas. Still, there were occasional clearings, rocky outcroppings, streams, and other things that broke up the density of foliage.
Tall trees, hills, and scattered ruins could also be used to give him an advantage in this arena by allowing for longer lines of sight, but they would also leave him exposed. However, if he could pinpoint… yes, that was a plan he could put into motion.
He crouched down and brought out his scroll.
"Vanguard, Black Out. I have been engaged by enemy sniper fire. No visual yet."
"What is your current location?" came the reply, and on the other end, Vanguard paused to allow Black Out to give his best estimate. "Copy, we're inbound. Stay in contact."
"Will do."
Black Out set the scroll into stand-by mode and checked the magazine of his rifle. It was loaded with custom 7.92x56mm cartridges he had reloaded especially for an engagement in forested terrain like this. The bullets were snub-nosed and heavier compared to the normal pointed bullets he preferred, but hopefully, that shape and weight would allow them to fly farther through the brush without being knocked off course. It was an unconventional tactic, but it could work.
No mistakes so far; that was good.
He worked the bolt of his rifle to chamber a round and gave a little smile upon seeing the cocking handle protruding out the back. He was ready to go. Now all he needed was a target. Black Out knew, though, that his opponents would likely be operating as a team to track him down, and so he crouched low, shouldered his rifle, and tucked his wings in as he crept through the underbrush. His aura would be hard at work repairing any injuries to his body, so he had to be ready for when it finished and he was able to take to the skies once more.
Out in the distance, his keen eyes caught sight of a glint of reflected glass, and he brought Lea in to look through the rear aperture of its iron sights. Gone. Gone, but not forgotten.
Carefully, quietly, he keyed his scroll and whispered, "Vanguard, Black Out. Just caught sight of possible target. Please confirm location."
The two quickly relayed their positioning data, and it confirmed Black Out's theory. Somewhere out there was his opponent, and he had yet to reveal himself in full. They didn't need to reveal themselves in full, though.
Unseen, and unnoticed, the noose was tightening around them both.
There was a crack, and a series of twigs exploded in his path. It seemed that the noose had come for Black Out first. He was forced to dive to the ground and behind more solid cover.
Fortunately for him, his opponent has given himself away completely, the twigs having shattered in a line that pointed back toward the shooter. Black Out quickly relayed his target's position and waited. He didn't have to wait long; there were flashes of movement, and then someone who he recognized as not being part of his team came into view.
He steadied his breath, pulled the hook-shaped trigger of Lea, and dropped the sear. With the sear dropped, there was nothing holding the tension of the spring wrapped around the firing pin back, and the small metal rod rushed forward through the rifle's bolt to strike the primer of the cartridge. That tiny explosion set off the much more powerful secondary blast of the dust fitted snugly behind the bullet, and just like that, the metal projectile was gone. The large - if only in relative sense - pill shot through the air and impacted into the target's aura with a dramatic flash.
On instinct, he had already brought the bolt handle up and back slowly. The matte brass case only came out slightly, then fell to the ground from the lack of force. Much more swiftly then, the bolt handle was driven forward and down, locking in another round while the cocking handle on the opposite end of the bolt was sticking out active, as if it had been left behind. Absentmindedly, he reached down and picked up the spent case for reuse later.
"Black Out, Vanguard. Target is down; area is clear."
Black Out smiled at that and began walking over to where his teammates were to see what exactly he had hit. To his surprise, it was Tom. Poor guy looked like he had been knocked into a tree when he got hit with that bullet, and their scrolls were reading his aura as in the red too.
"Damn it," Tom cursed. "I had you dead to rights."
"You did," admitted Black Out. After all, if his team hadn't been there… but they were. No sense fretting over what could have been.
"It should have been me."
"No," Vanguard disagreed. "This just proves the General was right to reject you. We are put on teams for a reason. So where's yours?"
Tom looked like he'd just come to school in his underwear, but before he could say anything, Professor Flint came in and began escorting the shamefaced boy out.
It was a good question though, all things considered. Where was the rest of Team BCHT?
"Yatsu," Coco prompted. They'd run into Team BCHT, but four on three hadn't been a particularly tough fight. Maybe if they'd had someone providing cover fire to pin Team CFVY down, it might have been more challenging.
The big guy leaned over and plucked the flag from Team BCHT's leader as Professor Appel - or was that Apple? - from Haven began escorting his three defeated students out of the Emerald Forest. "Done," he said, tucking it between the Grimm flag and Team CFVY's own flag.
"Wonder where their fourth teammate is?" Velvet mused aloud.
"Does it matter?" asked Coco dismissively. "We got their flag; that's what counts, right?"
Velvet frowned slightly at that. No, technically, what counted was getting the flags back to Professor Port. She opened her mouth to remind their team leader about that, but she was interrupted when a whirlwind of knives suddenly came shrieking out of the brush toward them.
"Scatter!" Coco ordered, and the team dove apart as the whirlwind cut through where they'd been standing a moment ago. The whirlwind died away just as it crossed the clearing, the flurry of knives falling toward the ground, but a whirling purple and black figure spun out into the cloud of falling blades, and Gwen Darcy of Team NDGO caught her knives, stowing them away in her skirt.
Pretty sure we're surrounded, Fox sent the thought through his telepathic semblance as he brought Sharp Retribution up to parry the blade of Nebula Violette's crossbow sword as Team NDGO's leader leaped from the foliage at him.
Octavia Ember charged at Coco, who unfolded Gianduja, but just as she brought the rotary machine gun to bear, Octavia began slashing at the ground, sending fiery shockwaves through the air that kicked up the loose dirt. Coco instinctively flinched back, blinking, despite the protection her aviators provided. She fired, sending rounds thundering out, but as Octavia glided across the ground, she found it difficult to bring the heavy barrels to bear, and within moments, the Vacuan girl was up in her face, slashing at her with her kris.
Yatsuhashi brought Fulcrum up against his opponent, Dew Gayle. The green-clad Vacuan girl's spear clashed and rang out against Yatsu's greatsword several times before she broke off and backed away. His eyes narrowed. He had to be the target - the flags tucked into his robe were plain to see - but it begged the question as to what her tactics would be. He watched as she began twirling her spear, and wind began to blow... but he didn't let her finish. Instead, he brought Fulcrum up into a high guard and charged, forcing her to abort whatever she was planning as she dove to the side.
For her part, Velvet was extremely glad for her semblance. The ability to perfectly mimic the movements she'd seen in action meant she had quite the library of skills available when it came to certain common combat tasks. Such as dodging. And with the veritable storm of knives Gwen was throwing her way, she used every scrap of those borrowed skills to weave through them. She brought Anesidora up, flicking through her options. There! A picture from that visit to the city with Jaune that Coco had somehow felt the need to set up. They'd spotted Pyrrha and invited her to join them; the snap had been of Pyrrha laughing at something Jaune had said, a rare, unguarded expression on her face.
Golly, they'd make such a cute couple, she mused as she reminisced. Briefly, as a dagger flying past her face reminded her of her current situation.
Hardlight copies of Pyrrha's sword and shield formed in Velvet's hands, and she turned to face down her opponent. A trio of daggers flew toward her, easily deflected by the copy of Akoúo̱ as she charged. She expertly parried the next salvo using quick motions with the sword-form Miló, deflecting them one at a time in blinding succession. Her opponent's eyes widened as Velvet got closer, the next three salvos failing to penetrate her near perfect copy of the Invincible Girl's defenses.
Near perfect. Velvet wasn't sure what she was missing - or even how she was missing something - but there was a reason she didn't copy Pyrrha very often. It always seemed ever-so-slightly harder for her than Pyrrha made it look, and she always had to make minor adjustments that her semblance normally took care of. Everything just felt slightly... off whenever she fought using Pyrrha's skillset.
It was like Pyrrha was fated for victory, while Velvet still had to work for it, even with her semblance letting her borrow Pyrrha's own formidable skills.
But near perfect was plenty good enough for dealing with Gwen as she lashed out at her with the ersatz Miló, driving her back. Once the girl broke off, she turned and surveyed the situation. Coco was crossing Gianduja's handbag form with Octavia's kris, Fox was going blade to blade with Nebula, and Yatsu... Yatsu was flying?
Oh no.
The copies of Miló and Akoúo̱ faded as Velvet switched weapons. This time, she chose Ruby's Crescent Rose, which she anchored, scythe point down, into the ground before firing at Dew, breaking the pattern in which the Vacuan girl was moving her spear - and the wind dust crystal in its head - to create the whirlwind that had suspended her large, Mistrali friend in mid-air.
Yatsuhashi hit the ground running, but not at his erstwhile opponent. Instead, bringing Fulcrum up overhead, he charged toward where Fox and Nebula were dueling, bringing the greatsword down in a blow that had Team NDGO's leader jumping back, cleaving her away from Fox. The blind Vacuan redhead pivoted and charged toward toward his own team leader, flicking Sharp Retribution out in a flurry of swipes and slashes that sent Octavia backing away...
...and giving Coco the room she needed to unfold Gianduja again and bring it back into play as the two teams regrouped on opposite sides of the clearing.
Coco smirked. Big mistake. No more stops on the Hype train; Hype, of course, being the official name for her semblance, which allowed her to amplify the volatility of dust. Like in the dust rounds she had loaded into Gianduja at that moment.
She kept the rate of fire throttled low as she cut down Team NDGO. No need to go overboard, after all, and at maximum rate of fire with the best ammo on the market? She'd run the numbers once, and that would cost her something like 100,000 lien for just three seconds of fire. She wasn't made of money, and winning a training exercise certainly wasn't worth that much.
After she stopped firing, Gianduja's barrels whirred to a halt, and Team NDGO lay groaning on the ground. Team CFVY approached warily, then relaxed as Professor Freisov leaped into the clearing to escort the defeated team out. Yatsuhashi stepped forward to claim the flag.
"That's four out of five," Velvet noted happily. "Shall we head back now?"
Coco checked the time on her scroll, then shook her head. "Nah, we've got time. I want to make this a clean sweep. We're the best, after all. Let's make sure we show it."
Velvet frowned and exchanged a concerned look with Yatsuhashi, but neither said anything further. Yatsu was always so soft-spoken and inoffensive; with his sheer size and strength - and his semblance of memory erasure - he'd learned to be passive and careful, lest he accidentally hurt someone. For her part, Velvet found it hard to be the first person to speak up in general. She looked at Fox, who just shrugged noncommittally; growing up in Vacuo, he'd long since learned to live in the moment and go with the flow.
Velvet had a bad feeling about this.
Coco snarled as she let loose another burst from Gianduja, but her target - one Reg Rogue - dove into the foliage and disappeared. Again.
The twins on Team RRFL may not have given the impression of subtlety, but they were proving just as capable of it as their teammates, and it was driving Coco into fits.
Team CFVY had wasted an awful lot of time searching fruitlessly for Team RRFL, only to find them after they'd given up and started heading back to the cliffs. Or rather, that's when Team RRFL found them... or perhaps had chosen to reveal themselves, to a frustratingly limited degree.
A dust round pinged off her aura, and she swung the multi-barreled gun around, letting off another burst. If she hit anything, she couldn't tell. Again.
Why is Atlas the only academy with a ninja program? she wondered viciously. Heck, Haven doesn't have one, and ninjas are from Anima!
The rest of Team CFVY wasn't faring much better. Velvet was serving primarily as a spotter; Coco hadn't wanted her to waste what she'd been building up with Anesidora on a training mission and had made that clear after the fight with Team NDGO. Yatsuhashi could do little more than hunker down and use Fulcrum as mobile cover. The guns built into Sharp Retribution coupled with Fox's reflexes and ability to sense minds with his telepathy semblance gave him an edge... but apparently, Atlas taught anti-telepathy exercises too!
The worrying part was that they were being herded. At first, they hadn't thought anything of Team RRFL's skirmishing tactics, trying to pursue the Atlesian team, but as time began running out, they'd tried to disengage... and that was when the herding became obvious.
Team RRFL had a plan, and that plan involved them going to a certain location. Coco had no intention of letting their plan succeed, whatever it was.
Fox, she sent through the telepathic link Fox had set up, where's an opening?
North, he replied immediately. While the Atlesians were apparently running through random thoughts that made it difficult to predict their actions, he could still get their current positions.
If they want us going north, then we head south, Coco sent. Fox, you and I will provide cover. Yatsu, clear a path. Velvet, spot for us.
A wordless sense of agreement was their reply, and Coco began firing a long burst, kicking the rate of fire up a notch and arcing her fire through the trees. It was a good thing she hadn't loaded the expensive stuff.
Fox's fire was more precise, aimed at seemingly random spots, and Yatsuhashi drove southward, Fulcrum slashing through the vegetation, Velvet following behind, her ears twitching back and forth...
...and then their scrolls blared.
Coco blinked and checked. Four hours had passed since they'd been launched into the Emerald Forest. The exercise was over.
Team RRFL seemed to melt out of the forest, with Lavi even offering a friendly wave.
She sighed. Well, time to head back, I suppose, she thought.
"You are very frustrating to fight," she told Rain as the two teams started making their way back.
The other team leader offered a shrug in return. "I know some people enjoy fighting, but I prefer to win my battles with a minimum of violence. If fighting us is unpleasant, well, that's just another weapon at our disposal, you could say."
Coco frowned, but she couldn't find fault with his logic.
Eventually, the two teams emerged from the forest at the base of the Beacon Cliffs, where Teams BCHT and NDGO and the professors were waiting for them. NDGO looked a little put out, as expected, but BCHT looked a step beyond that. Tom was sulking sullenly by himself, while his three teammates were glaring at him. Judging from the venom in Joe's expression, this wasn't going to pass quickly.
"Welcome back, students!" Professor Port boomed. "And congratulations are in order! Team Ruffle, you have won today's exercise."
Coco blinked. She couldn't have heard right. She looked over at Yatsu, who still had the four flags: CFVY's, BCHT's, NDGO's, and even the one they'd taken off the Ursa Major.
"But... we have four flags!" protested Coco.
"Haha!" Port laughed. "As if that matters! The objective was to turn in the most flags before the exercise was over, not have the most when it ended, and Team Ruffle turned their flag in within the first fifteen minutes! Imagine if they had been, say, critical medical supplies that had been stolen? Or ammunition for a village's defenses?"
Coco worked her jaw silently at that, her hands and teeth clenching. Within the first fifteen minutes? That meant... that meant they'd just wasted all that time hunting for Team RRFL after they'd beaten NDGO.
She looked over at the victorious Atlesian team.
And they knew it, she realized. They weren't herding us toward something. They were just keeping us away from the cliffs.
...
Bastards.
"Perhaps next time, Miss Adel," Professor Port said, his voice uncharacteristically serious, "you will remember to pay attention to your objectives."
"Those… jerks," Coco cursed as Team CFVY grumbled its way to the cafeteria. "I can't believe we lost to those cheating losers."
"With an oxymoronic phrase like that, it's no surprise we lost," complained Fox, as usual filling the role of being the one whispering into Coco's ear that she was not a goddess.
"Shut it. We'll get them back next time," shot back Coco.
The team entered the dining hall and started walking their way to the distribution point to pick up their dinner. To their surprise, they found Jaune there. That on its own wasn't especially noticeable, but the cart he had with him that he was stacking with takeout was.
"Hello, Jaune," greeted Velvet, noticing that there was something… off about him.
"Hey, guys," Jaune greeted sedately as he took another box before looking at each of them. "What's got you so down?"
"What's up with all the boxes?" prodded Coco curiously.
"Just bringing stuff up to the dorms. We wanted to eat in private tonight," he replied. "So, what's the matter?"
Yatsuhashi glanced around at his sour-faced team. "We suffered a loss today."
The blond boy paused and got a melancholy and memory-filled expression. "Figured it was something like that. Blake beat herself up the same way when one of our missions a few weeks ago didn't exactly go according to plan."
"How is she handling it now, then?" asked Velvet curiously. "I mean, she must have gotten over it, right? You said it had been a few weeks, and she seemed pretty together this week."
Jaune seemed to hit a snag at that, and briefly did a poor job making to reply before actually forcing something out. "She... she's gone."
As a group, Team CFVY immediately got quiet, and as they collected their food and left Jaune for a table to eat, they remained like that for the rest of the night. All their problems seemed a lot pettier, a lot less important. After all, it wasn't exactly the best kept secret in the school that Teams RWBY and JNPR were constantly going on "extra credit" missions together. It was something Team CFVY understood.
There seemed to be one special team every year that Professor Ozpin chose to draw attention to - like Team CFVY for their year - whether to motivate the rest or to push that team harder to be models for the rest, to be as exceptional as everyone expected them to be. Except this year. This year was a little different.
This year, it wasn't hard to see that, for whatever reason, both Teams RWBY and JNPR had caught Professor Ozpin's eye. Then again, Team RWBY was led by a prodigy admitted two years early, while Team JNPR had Pyrrha freaking Nikos on it. It really wasn't surprising for Professor Goodwitch to take such a personal interest in them, much like Professor Port had taken an interest in Team CFVY. It also wasn't hard to figure out what had happened to Blake, as it was a fate that more than one Beacon student had shared over the years, a fate that would likely end most of their careers after graduation: She'd left on one of those missions and just never returned.
Silently, Velvet found herself praying that Blake was in a better place now.
Blake double-checked the address and looked up at the warehouse looming over her. This was... a risky move, but right now, she had nowhere else to go. With cat-like tread, she slipped into the building, her amber eyes almost glowing as they captured even the least bit of ambient light.
"So, you're Ann's little prodigy," a male voice with a faint southern Animan accent echoed out of the shadows. "So far, I am not impressed. Your situational awareness could use some work."
"Show yourself!" she demanded, her hands clutching fruitlessly for Gambol Shroud; in her flight, she'd left it back at Beacon.
A figure clad in white seemed to materialize out of the darkness. Her eyes widened. That's impossible! she thought. To hide in shadows from a faunus's night vision while wearing white of all colors?
"Who are you?" she asked warily.
"My name, Little Knightshade, is unimportant," the white-clad figure said, "but you may call me Storm Shadow."
Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):
So, here we go, a little more on Teams CFVY and RRFL. We hate writing fight scenes, but given the franchises we're working with, it wouldn't capture the same feel without them. And man, if you want to talk about people being out of the loop...
This chapter was pretty heavily inspired by After the Fall, the official young adult novel focusing on Team CFVY in Vacuo a year after the fall of Beacon, sprinkled with lots of flashbacks to their time at Beacon. The writing... leaves a lot to be desired and reads like an amateur author's third fanfic, up to and including illogical name drops of canon characters. Seriously, Team CFVY specifically mourns characters we saw on screen, like Penny, Pyrrha, and Team BRNZ... and literally no one else, and we learn the name of precisely one other second-year student (also the only new Beacon student introduced)... assuming she even passed initiation, the flashback to which was her only appearance. We hardly learn anything about Coco's family, nothing about Velvet's, and all we get on Yatsuhashi's is a flashback to him learning why he shouldn't abuse his semblance. Fox gets a pass due to being serial orphaned... but we didn't even learn the names of any of their parents, for crying out loud!
After the Fall makes clear, though, that Coco is a pretty terrible leader with an ego problem, Team CFVY has poor unit cohesion, and they still think Velvet is a helpless damsel who needs protecting, which she's pretty darn sick and tired of. Oh, and the mission we see them returning from in "Field Trip" was Team CFVY's first loss, which is kind of mind-boggling, considering they're second-years by then. Rather than just discard this canon nonsense, we decided to build upon it here and give them some growth that doesn't involve a civilian body count.
The whole Sumire thing from two chapters ago also pulls from After the Fall, but only for the village name and Ed and Gus Caspian. I feel I should note, we had to invent basically everything, including names, for Gus's parents.
On an unrelated note, I'm kind of sad we don't have any Mythology Gag or Shout Out entries on our TV Tropes page. We work hard to slip those in, and no one seems to notice any of them.
And as for that final scene: Dun dun DUNNN!
If you're wondering why he's calling her Knightshade - with a K - that'll get some further explanation later.
Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):
No, Blake isn't being made into a villain. Yes, we have a plan here. More than that, we have a timetable, and everything needs to go off in a certain order to work properly and with minimal casualties. (This chapter was painful to write, for the record.) We can't just rush ahead of the creeping barrage, after all. That'd just be silly. It'd be like trying for a breakthrough before the diversionary attacks begin.