Chapter 73

"Did you hear about that terrorist?"

"Can't believe Ironwood would hire someone like that!"

"I swear I've seen him before…"

"Wasn't he in the Vytal Tournament?"

"Wait… didn't he maim a student!?"

"Shit I think he did! And Ironwood wants him around?"

"Why isn't he arresting him!? He's a menace!"

"Who's going to stop him if he starts attacking Mantle? He was dangerous already, but now he has Atlas's authority!"

All around Mantle, the tension-filled city began to boil over.

"Tch." Joanna scowled as she shot down another Sabyr. Nearby Fiona and May dispatched an icy Beowolf. Robyn was behind them, firing bolts in between them with great accuracy.

"Joanna! Left side, three Sabyrs! Climbing through the rubble!" Robyn's voice was loud and authoritative as she called out to her friends and allies. Joanna's body moved without a thought and fired her next bolt, cutting down a Sabyr who was trying to sneak around to flank them. Joanna smiled and rushed in to cut down the other two.

Several minutes later the Happy Huntresses sat down in a huff, tired after having fought to clear the hole in the wall yet again. If only Atlas got off their ass and fixed this thing. Joanna grumbled to herself. The hole in question was large enough for a couple teams to stand side by side, and easily large enough for Megoliaths to enter. The massive Grimm had thankfully not come today, but it was only a matter of time.

"The people are more anxious than ever." May said with a snarl. "Damn Schnee, riling them up."

"Doesn't help that Ironwood's 'solution' is just to trust a dead man's judgement. Can't actually do anything real, can he." Joanna scoffed back.

"Hey, Robyn… you talked to him right?" Fiona asked, looking to their leader. "Is he… what the rumours say?"

Robyn thought for a moment. "He carries himself like someone trained in the White Fang that's for sure. But… meeting him I knew he wasn't a member anymore. I'd say he hates them. He wants to be a Huntsman saving lives."

"You trust that?" Joanna asked.

"I didn't need to use my Semblance to know it was the truth. Besides, I warned him. If he tries anything, we'll take him down."

"So he's being lied about then?" Fiona mumbled.

"Is it a lie if it was true?" May questioned.

"It is if it ignores how he's changed. A lie by omission." Robyn countered. The other three nodded.

The shuffling of boots on the ground alerted them to the presence of their replacements, led by Crimson. Robyn smiled. "Alright. Let's head back and start reassuring people. Hopefully, it'll cut down on the Grimm coming in so we can focus on the election."

Joanna and the other two let out a short 'yea!' before following their leader away.

"Show me what you got!" Cardin roared and slammed his mace into the floor, sending a rippling wave of flame across the floor.

Adam nimbly jumped over it, spinning in the process and used the momentum to whip out his blade into an immediate slash. The crimson sword was blocked and forced back, throwing Adam into the air. He quickly fired from his scabbard, keeping Cardin from unleashing an attack of his own.

"Come on! Show me the new stuff!" Cardin challenged as Adam hit the ground with a roll, springing back onto his feet.

"You first." Adam threw back, sheathing his weapon. Cardin scoffed, smirked and charged. The man quickly became a battering ram, forcing Adam into a dodge. But Cardin expected that and Adam wasn't expecting the mace to come flying his way so much faster than ever before. The mace came in, seemingly weighing nothing, but just before it struck it seemed to increase its weight by a massive amount.

"Gaah!" Adam cried out as the heavy weapon crushed his chest and threw him back. He rolled and pulled himself to a stand. "Gra…. Gravity Dust?"

"Yup." Cardin smiled and spun his weapon like it was nothing. "Took some getting used to, but changing the weight is well worth the effort. Less energy to move it and it hits harder." His eyes asked a simple question. "How about you?"

Adam smiled. He clutched his weapon tight, switched the blade to his Frost Dust sword and motioned for Cardin to charge again. Cardin shrugged and did so, coming like a wrecking ball. Adam didn't move this time. He squatted a bit and held a hand to the hilt of his sword.

Once upon a time he'd had no defence against particularly fast opponents. But after training with Ruby to counter Blake and now training with the Ace-Ops and Harriet in particular he had the capabilities to do far more than just block. As Cardin raced in, his armour's Dust lightening him to be faster than he'd ever been, Adam let out a deep breath.

Cardin entered his range and Adam struck. He angled his weapon just right and pulled the trigger to launch his sword. But instead of letting it fly out like he used to, he pulled it along in a standard draw with his hand. The draw was faster than any he'd managed before, and it cut right into Cardin. Both used Aura to keep it from being too damaging, with Adam using his to freeze Cardin instead of simply cutting him down.

Adam stepped to the side and sheathed his weapon once more, allowing an icicle-bound Cardin to fly past. He smirked. "So, how was that?"

Cardin grumbled as he started to break free. "That was pretty good Taurus. It looks like the gap won't close anytime soon."

"The gap?" Adam quirked his visible brow up as he helped Cardin stand.

"The gap in our skill." Cardin huffed.

"I see… I have been fighting for longer than you though…"

"Sure." He shrugged. "And I had some of the best tutors money can buy. At least outside the Schnee's. Old family, old money. Still can't catch up to you or Pyrrha. Heck, even Jaune's passed me by." Cardin frowned. "I want to do my job and save lives. I can do that well, but I want to do it better. I… I don't want to fall behind."

Adam frowned. "I… I get that. I never wanted to fall behind Atlas. I did though. But… eventually I surpassed enough of them. It takes time and honestly if you focus on how you fight compared to others, you'll always come up short. You'll always see how you don't shape up, rather than how you've grown. Who would win, current you or racist you?"

"Current me. It'd be eas-... Ah." Cardin let out a heavy sigh followed by a short laugh. "Thanks. Guess I'd better keep training then."

Adam nodded. "Even if you can't catch up, you've got to keep moving." Cardin raised an eyebrow. Adam shuffled for a moment as he thought. "Stagnating won't help anyone, least of all yourself. Even in the event you can't catch up, that doesn't mean you should stop. Then you'd fall even further behind. Have to keep moving, keep advancing… keep growing. Otherwise, you'll one day wonder if things could have been different…"

"Hmm…" Cardin nodded. "I get ya. Ready for round two?"

Adam smiled. "Sure."

After many days of training…

"You've all done well. Take the rest of the day off. No matter the results of tonight's election, things are bound to get… tense." Clover gave them their orders.

"Ooo what should we do guys?" Ruby excitedly asked as everyone wandered on back to their dorms.

"Oh, I hear there's a new Spruce Willis movie." Jaune replied. "I figure that'd be fun."

Pyrrha smiled. "That does sound fun."

"Oh, I'll come!" Oscar called.

"I got a message from FNKI asking if we wanted to go party at a club." Yang waved her scroll, glancing at Adam.

Blake sighed. "We can always spend time helping the Faunus in the crater." Ilia nodded.

"I think time off is supposed to be relaxing…" Ruby frowned.

"As good as it is to help people, Ruby has a point…" Weiss agreed.

"Oh hey! What about Robyn's rally!" Nora shouted. "That'll be fun."

"I don't think it'll be 'fun', Nora…" Ren mutters.

"Ooo Penny said she'd be there! May as well join her." Ruby said.

Weiss sighed. "Well, I guess I'll join the movie trip. The lovebirds probably need a chaperone anyway."

Jaune and Pyrrha both blushed hard and glanced away.

"So… Adam, you wanna go to the club or…" Yang asked.

"Hmm…" The bull Faunus hummed for a moment. "I guess everybody will be busy watching the election, so we may as well enjoy ourselves a bit."

"Sweet! Let's get ready." Yang grinned.

"Mm. Blake, Ilia. You want to join us?"

Blake shrugged. "I guess. Better than sitting around or going down ourselves."

"Yeah…" Ilia bit her lower lip and glanced away.

Yang's smile twitched. "Right. Yeah. Let's all get ready then." She marched away.

Adam raised an eyebrow as he watched his partner leave. "Hm?"

Ruby shook her head. "Ahhh… kids. Ow!" She playfully cried out as Weiss slapped her head lightly.

"Hmm…" Adam stared after Yang for a few long moments. Maybe I shouldn't have asked Blake to come along…

The thumping of the music drove itself into his mind as Adam walked to a mildly quieter area of the massive club. He sighed and found a seat to relax in. How long had they actually been here? Long enough that he'd lost track of pretty much everyone.

Neon was still visible though, if only because she was leaping around and so brightly coloured. And I'm sure that's Flint's trumpet in the music somewhere…

Adam leaned back in his chair and let out another sigh. Suddenly, a glass was placed before him and Yang flopped down into the seat across from him, a cocktail in her hand.

"Looking a little tired there, Taurus." Yang smirked at him.

Adam grinned back. "Hmph. Looking a little young there, Xiao Long."

"Oi! I am old enough!" She pouted.

Adam scoffed. "Physically you might be… but mentally? Eh… could use a couple more years."

"Oi." Yang scowled.

And then they both laughed.

"Cheers." Adam took up his glass, clinked it with Yang's and downed it. Hm. Bourbon and cola. "So…"

"So?"

"Thoughts on how things are going?"

Yang sighed. "Hmm… it's been fine, I guess. Once Amity is up… maybe I can talk to dad. Been a while, after all."

"Hm. Hope he's doing well."

"Same. I want to tell him I found Ruby and made sure she's safe. I want… to tell him he was right for trusting in me."

Adam smiled again. "Mm… it'd be good for me to check on Ghira too. How his efforts against the last of the White Fang went."

"Probably pretty well. Doubt they're that tough without Blake leading."

Adam shook his head. "They do have a leader right now. My old lieutenant. Big, strong and hates the Schnee's. Not leader material usually, but I doubt he'll go down easily."

"Hmm… we should expect to see them again then."

"Probably." After a moment's pause, Adam sighed. "Sorry. This is supposed to be our time to sit and relax and I'm using it to talk about work…"

Yang shrugged. "Meh. I didn't really expect you to be able to relax. Still, you've tried. That's what counts."

"Thanks, Yang."

"Heh. It's nothing. Just doing my duty as your partner."

Adam smiled. "Since when were you so dutiful?"

"Since I had to cover for your dumb ass."

"Hm. Quite a while then. Would have thought you'd be better at it."

"Well, you're hard to keep up with, always rushing off to get yourself in danger."

"Ha! As if you're any better!"

The pair grinned and laughed, then clinked their glasses together once more. A bit of tension finally left Adam's shoulders.

However…

"Hm?" He felt his scroll vibrate. A shiver ran down his spine as he read a message from Ruby. "We need to go, now."

"What's happening?"

"Mantle is boiling over."

… That tension returned a hundredfold as the news came in.

Tyrian had attacked Robyn's rally, and now Grimm attacked Mantle's streets.

They had to hurry and join Ruby.

A/N: I return after an unintended hiatus. It's a thing. Can't promise anything, but we'll see if I can't get back into this. Anyway, Mantle is in trouble. Though when is that ever not the case?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed and I'll catch you next time.