Transcript 1: Machine issues

Safe to say, Gale's enthusiasm perked up when she found that Atlas dorms too had bunks housed in the walls.

"Three times! Three times!" she had repeated to herself the night before as she claimed the top left bed and hoisted her suitcase up there before anyone could stop her. "I've never seen so many bunk beds in all my life!"

The next morning after what seemed like scarcely minutes of sleep, they were woken by the sound of a sharp ringing coming from behind the door.

"Is that… the bell?" blinked Nero.

"Stupid time zones," moaned Jasper. "Let's get going."

Many other dishevelled and hungry Valeians filtered into class that morning, having much like Team JNGL forgotten about the early start and the few hours difference between Atlas and Vale. Team CFVY however, sat resolute and upright in their chairs, and if Jasper could trust his blurry eyes, in a lot better condition than the others.

In contrast, the Atlas students were neatly dressed and ready to learn, although those sitting closer could see the thinly veiled disgust on their faces at the apparent incompetency of the visitors.

Glynda Goodwitch and Ozpin stepped onto the large podium at the front of the room with General Ironwood and a white-haired young Huntress, followed by a short, powerful man dressed in Atlas Academy uniform, who presumably was their lecturer to begin the morning. The general motioned him to take the lectern, and he immediately did so.

"Good morning, students."

"Good morning, Dr Shale" boomed the response, making Gale and some of the other Valeians jump.

"As you are now well aware, today is your first day with the visiting Beacon students, who will continue with us for the remainder of this week and the next. Classwork will continue as normal, and the combat sessions will allow more regular access to the training facilities to allow you and the Beacon students to develop your skills against more unfamiliar opponents. I expect you to bring out the best Atlas has to offer towards the visiting students, and want you on your best behaviour."

He turned towards the general and Professor Ozpin. "And now a word from the headmasters themselves," he said as Ozpin took up the position in front of the students.

"Thank you for that warm welcome, Dr Shale" commended Professor Ozpin.

"Warm welcome?" Fox sent telepathically to his teammates. "It sounded like he wanted them to show us who's boss!" They nodded in silent agreement.

"As there is no tournament this year, General Ironwood and I brought it upon ourselves to find a replacement for the fine-tuning of combat skills and cultural experiences unique to the Vytal Festival. The general graciously suggested that we could visit Atlas Academy and share your facilities to provide a similar learning experience. Although Mistral and Vacuo are not represented here, we hope that this experience brings a deeper connection between our two kingdoms than might be achieved with all four. As all second-year Beacon students and above have previously experienced the Vytal Festival in one or both of its previous iterations, only the first year students have accompanied us in this venture."

And, thought Ozpin to himself, because they are less experienced and less likely to recognise undercover strategies like this one. Did I really just mention a 'deeper connection'? So hypocritical.

General Ironwood took the stage as Ozpin finished speaking, and droned out another formal welcome to the students, at which point even the Atlas students began to look human and show their boredom with the formalities. They recovered somewhat when the lesson began, which was distinctly more technological and weaponry flavoured than the military strategy lessons given at Beacon. Then again, the visitors reminded themselves, Peter Port's lesson structure wasn't exactly typical, or structured whatsoever.

It was a surprise then, to find they felt like they had learned less than in one of his lessons than back at home.

"Did… we just learn that Professor Port's extravagant and painstaking ramblings are actually… useful?" commented a flabbergasted Nero.

"I can't believe it!" said a shocked Lina. "It felt like all that Dr Shale told us was point gun, shoot gun, back, forwards, reinforcements. At least Port's have details."

"The food's better, though" munched Gale as she plowed through a pie. "A military might needs good grub to maintain that superiority complex twenty-four hours a day."

A passing second year student opened her mouth to protest, but found no suitable comeback to that devastating blow, and kept walking.

"This machine, how exactly does it work?"

General Ironwood stood motionless inside the winter Maiden's medical room, wondering how to frame his words to avoid mentioning the PENNY project.

"It was designed by our top scientists a few years ago to extract aura from a person's body and feed it back to them at a stable level. As you know, a person can increase the amount of aura they have overtime if they train hard, while this removes that need. By removing a fraction of their aura for extended periods of time, it stimulates the body to generate more, and although painful, can assist the recovery process for major injuries quite remarkably once they have raised it high enough, and the remainder of their aura is given back to them on top of that."

"That's remarkable, James. Extracting aura? How did you manage to do something like that?"

"It took a long time, and a lot of experimentation to get it working properly."

"Experimentation? I hope you haven't been too hard on your scientists, James."

Ironwood felt his brow becoming damp, but he pushed on stoutly.

"Dr Pietro Polendina was particularly taken with this project and volunteered himself for much of the testing stages. It took a toll on his health, but he perfected it in the end. That man is a genius, and a true servant to this world."

"Why doesn't he use it on himself? Would it not work?"

"He felt the time spent recovering would take away from his work, and the experience isn't particularly enjoyable. We did ask him, but its use was mostly intended for unconscious patients who wouldn't experience the uncomfortable healing process."

"I see."

The general saw an out to his current predicament, and grasped it with metaphysical hands.

"The design had one eye on Fria, as well" the general said. "Her health has got a lot worse over the past few years, and she's been unfit for combat for a few more before that. If she gets any worse before I find a good replacement for her, this might be a great help. That's why I thought it might be useful for Amber."

And for removing any chance of something going wrong during the transfer, thought the general.

"You mentioned it has aura transfer capabilities when I talked to you back in Vale, is there more to this machine than just healing?"

Saw straight through me, thought Ironwood regretfully.

"You're right. If Fria goes downhill, especially with her Alzheimer's, we have little way of controlling who gets the power next. Since the magic is tied to a person's aura, this might be a way of stabilising the process."

"Your scientists know about this?" asked Ozpin questioningly. "And this would kill the maiden inside, you know that, general?

He wasn't calling him James anymore. That was a bad sign.

"No, they don't know. But I made specific enquiries about the workings of this device to make sure it could be used for something like that.

"That's taking a life, James."

"And you might just have to do that" snapped the leader of Atlas Academy. "Amber's condition is far more dangerous than Fria's. You don't know what to expect. I'm not saying it's good… but it's the road we just might have to take. We don't even know what might happen to the recipient, but it's a much better alternative than our enemies taking the power for themselves."

Ozpin narrowed his eyes. "Amber's my friend, James, and yours too. I'm shocked you would so easily do something like this, preparing in advance to hurt people we both know so well. You know I can't let her die like that."

"Then just keep her in the machine. Maybe later you will change your mind. And in waiting, who knows how many of our friends will get hurt, let alone others if Salem's faction has a rogue maiden. Especially a full maiden."

Both headmasters glared at each other, neither giving way. But Ozpin knew, in his heart, that the general was probably right. Probably.

Finally, Ozpin backed down.

"Hopefully, we won't have to make such a hard choice."

Transcript 2: Poise and Style

A sea of white and grey uniforms led the way into the cavernous training room, which seemed like a colosseum of giant bricks with luminous blue mortar.

"They certainly like hard light dust here, don't they?" said Lina to Coco.

"Not a problem for me!" smiled Velvet, thinking of Anesidora.

The Beacon students followed in afterwards, and Velvet's ears pricked up as she spied a familiar face.

"Vega!" shouted Coco and Lina at the same time, and burst away from the two teams, leaving them somewhat bewildered. Velvet turned to explain but the girls were already shepherding another figure toward them. The newcomer was a little shy but very smiley, and Jasper couldn't help but feel like she was less prim and proper than most of the other Atlas students, who might have protested at such a treatment. She also looked a little familiar, but he couldn't quite place her. Lina spoke first.

"Guys, this is Vega, she attended combat school with Velvet and us at Pharos."

"What, I attended combat school with you? That's all you can say?" she teased.

"Oh come on, Vega" put in Coco. "These poor people have never met you before, I had to warn them at least."

"Ignore her," said Lina. "She's the friendliest person you could imagine, although she looks shy, she could quietly talk your leg off, then stand over your fallen body and keep going until the other one came off."

"That's a bit harsh."

"Is it though?" smiled Velvet, snapping a photo of Vega's arm-mounted grappling hooks to replace the copy she used during initiation.

"No."

A few introductions later and Vega Bleu already felt like the fifth member of both teams, merrily mixing with the others and exchanging stories

"Watch yourself though," warned Lina. "She'll use that against you if we fight just now."

Gale flew back and smashed into the hard light-infused walls, the blocks tumbling down around her.

"Ow!" she winced, pulling her hair out from under the blocks.

"I told you!" yelled Lina as she flew overhead, leaving a trail of fiery explosions in her wake.

"A semblance based on trust doesn't make that stunt any less devious!" she returned fire as she picked up her sword and faced her nearest attacker. A pair of curved scimitars clicked open to reveal hidden pistol barrels, which rained yellow electric dust bullets all around her as he jumped. Gale defended with her oversized blue katana, which might have been a mistake, except her leather arm guard greatly reduced much of the shocks from the attack.

Then he was upon her, swordsman against swordswoman, with Gale's extra reach and weight yielding stronger blows, but the extra speed from the lighter scimitar and the extra weapon poking holes in her weaker defence. She grunted as a point caught her shoulder, then jammed it in her guard and twisted it out of his grip, sending him stumbling forwards. Gale ducked the second sword and swept his legs out from underneath him, before belting him away with a kick from her other leg as she spun. Sometimes a better drilled technique needed to be met with some unexpected improvisation.

Over in the southern corner of the room, the situation was completely different. Vega continued to pursue after Lina, sinking her grappling hooks into nearby towers and swinging after Lina as she continued to climb. Lina knew that experiencing the best of Vale and Atlas's styles of training had turned her into a fearsome fighter, and she had to keep her distance if at all possible.

She batted away one of the claws as the grappling arm threatened to loop around her, and fired into the tower that the other claw was attached to, sending Vega spiralling down for a split second before she regained control and regripped a column closer to Lina. But the split-second indecision was enough for Lina, who fired a precision blast into her attacker's chest, stalling her and allowing Lina time to regroup.

She looked around to see the boy Gale had kicked struggling to his feet against a wall, much like Gale had seconds earlier. He was down a weapon but didn't seem particularly fazed as he rushed back towards her. Lina turned her head to see Jasper desperately warding off the other two of Vega's teammates, who were swinging what looked like a giant pick and an axe towards him. He finally saw an opening and blasted one of them with his Glassfinger punch, but was caught full in the stomach by the other's axe, and with a flash of green and red auras, both of them fell on the ground, out of the fight. Gale's assailant called the axe-wielder over, and began advancing on Gale once again.

Then with a gasp, Lina herself fell on the ground, tied fast by the iron-strong polymer grappling rope and saw Vega grinning over the top of her. Why had she let her guard down? She couldn't have helped Jasper and Gale anyway, they were too far off, and had waited too long to make her next move.

Then, shockingly, with an equally surprised gasp, Vega too fell on the ground, as Nero swung up on top of the column holding Quarter out from his body, the end wrapped around the helpless Vega.

"You're not the only one who can swing around, you know" he said dryly as he unhooked Lina. Nero tightened his grip and smashed Vega into the side of the column in a blaze of fire dust, then threw her over the ten-block wall which marked the border of the arena.

"That's two down," said Lina, brushing herself off. "Thanks Nero. But Gale's in trouble! We have to get down there!"

"Not necessarily," replied the gladiator, twisting his whips together in a spiral above his head.

Lina frowned. "What are you doi-"

Nero threw his arms down and unzipped the helix in a silver blur, sending a massive wave of flaming purple towards the three fighters below them. It was a perfect shot, landing right behind the two Atlesians and blasting them high into the sky, while Gale was blown back only a metre. From there, the weakened students were easy shots for her bow.

"Since when were you able to do that?"

"Always. It just takes a long time to set up and aim right, so I haven't been able to use it in the singles or paired fights back home. I was hoping to keep it a secret until we started our team fights where I'm less of a constant target."

"I never would have thought… that's incredible, keeping your best weapon until last. You weren't our top fighter last semester for nothing."

"Vacuans always have their tricks and ways of doing things. Helps us survive. But I couldn't let us lose to Atlas."

Nero caught himself for a brief second. Did he just identify as Vacuan? After making up with his parents, or at least beginning to, he thought Vale would feel like he'd come back home. But it hadn't quite been that way, especially when he told them he still wasn't going to come back.

Lina nodded. "It looked like we were going to. They split us up perfectly, got you isolated, then teamed up on me before going for Jasper while I ran away. Good strategies."

"And good technique," said Gale, returning to the group as they hopped down and walked towards Jasper and Vega standing at the edge of the arena.

"I saw that, Nero" Jasper said. "Dez and I both did as we walked off. Haven't seen that since the Emerald Forest. I told him I thought we were done for, and then you go and pull that."

"No faith," pouted Gale facetiously, sticking her chin in the air.

"True though," said Dez. "We couldn't see you properly up on top of that platform, and I hadn't sighted Nero for half the fight."

"You're good fighters, Karomel, Vega, all of you," praised Jasper. "They train you well up here in Atlas."

"Yeah, but you're sneakier," said Chain, rubbing his abdomen where Gale had kicked him.

"Maybe you're not sneaky enough!"

He snorted. "Us? They'd skin us alive if we were as wild as you guys."

Nero opened the doors to let the next set of teams in as they exited the arena, and waited for feedback from Professor Goodwitch and Professor Flame.

"Better watch out when if you're up against Vacuans in next year's Vytal Festival," he said jokingly. "You're sure to qualify."

There it was again. He hadn't meant it intentionally, but Nero felt included in that joke, or at least sharing in the reverie. Maybe he was Vacuan, or a Vacuan becoming Valeian rather than an escaped Valeian returning home. It made sense, given he didn't really cling to those memories of the past.

Unaware of the swirling thoughts in Nero's head, Jasper was pleased with how quickly they had settled into the Atlas lifestyle even in just three or four days. They had made good connections with teams like Vega's in a very short space of time, faster than he had when they started at Beacon, although maybe that was because of the limited timeframe. Whatever the reason, this trip was turning out to be a great success, and a masterstroke on Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood's part.

Unbeknownst to him, that thought was a frighteningly accurate description of current events.