Transcript 1: The neglected city
The trip down to Mantle took longer than the one from Beacon to Vale, and made it feel isolated somehow. Sure, it was easy enough for the people up top to fly down in one of their shiny ships, drop off food and other supplies generated in the artificial conditions, and pick up the dust mined down in the cold. By the common folk, the real citizens of this continent, who were the only ones getting their hands dirty. Everything about Atlas was artificial. Including their perception of Mantle.
Which is why Jasper and the others were met with even sourer looks than the ones they had received on their initial reception into Atlas. That mood had lightened somewhat now that both sets of students had had time to mingle, but a second cold welcome down in Mantle came as a bit of a shock to the Beacon troops.
"Oh look,"
A tall woman in her thirties inspected the half-dozen cargo ships as they landed in the central drop-off zone, and the students began to creep out. "They brought some little friends along with them." She snorted and turned away, back around the corner where her friends were. "Maybe this time they'll actually do a proper job of clearing out the city surroundings. It seems they forgot last time. As usual. They always forget about us."
"Don't be so harsh on them, Robyn" caressed a shorter woman with fluffy hair and sheep ears. "They probably have no idea of the situation here. See? They look just as surprised as we were when we heard that mine explosion the other day."
"And how are those two things related?" came the gruff reply, and then a pause. "I'll tell you how. Both are direct results of Atlas incompetence, their failure to protect the people of this kingdom, as they sit in their mighty city high in the sky safe from any consequences or reality."
"Robyn, that's enough."
"Is it, Joanna? Is it really? It's not enough. One day we will be treated with respect, not condescension. I'll make sure of it."
"How are you going to do that?" asked Fiona Thyme in her innocent inquisitiveness.
"The council. The people of Mantle know they are being mistreated, and I'll be their voice."
"But the elections are more than two years away!"
The leader of the Happy Huntresses folded her arms. "I never said we couldn't do anything in the meantime. The voice of the people needs to know the people, and make it known she stands for them. It wouldn't hurt to give a little back to Atlas for the way they've treated us now, would it?"
"And you're sure we'll do this through strictly legal avenues? We wouldn't want to jeopardize our chances."
Robyn laughed.
"That, my girl, is the one thing I will definitely not guarantee."
Yatsuhashi looked around and tried to resist frowning back at the gloomy people looking at him and the rest of Team CFVY. Or maybe it was just the gloominess of the old buildings and dull colour palette that encompassed all.
"It's not great down here, is it?" Coco murmured to the others, JNGL and other students included. She would have preferred the privacy of Fox's telepathic group messages to avoid the citizens hearing them, but only Velvet and Yatsuhashi were privy to Fox's abilities, and they preferred to keep it that way.
Their mission today was to start from the centre of the city with the accompanying Atlas students, and fan outwards to capture any small Grimm which might be hiding within the city walls, before clearing a perimeter outside the city as well. The mines were more dangerous work, loaded with explosive dust veins and nooks and crannies for the Grimm to hide in, and were being left to the third and fourth-year students, as well as any huntsmen that Atlas could spare for the job. Which was usually none.
"Look at that!" choked an aghast Brett Salmon as a mining truck rolled past, full of dirty faces and drooping heads. "They look half dead! What are they doing to them down here?"
"They're half Faunus too, if not mostly Faunus" whispered Velvet. "I knew it was bad down here from what my dad told me last summer. But even though I was up in Atlas for only a few months, I'd nearly forgotten about it. It sort of became normal… not to think about it." Her ears drooped and she turned away shamefacedly.
Fox nodded. "Looks like that's the norm around here. See no evil, hear no evil, and you think you're doing no evil, and that's often the case. Doesn't help fix the problem though."
They assembled around the edge of the circle and began radiating outwards in groups of two teams each, one Atlas and one Beacon. CFVY quickly claimed Vega Bleu and the rest of Team BDCK (Bedrock) as their partners and shot off towards the southeast, leaving JNGL by themselves. They grouped up with CHRC (Charcoal), a team of second-years who had paid more attention to their last fight. Of course, CFVY flattened the best Atlas team in the glory fight and had gained most of the limelight, but many teams hadn't bothered to watch JNGL, assuming Team BDCK as one of the stronger first-year teams would roll right through the Beacon students. When the opposite had occurred, they had gained a little respect from Team CHRC and a few others but were mostly forgotten in the fanfare of the title fight.
So for the first few minutes while still inside the city walls, the two teams were able to chat a little, while dealing with mostly small Atlas Grimm which had evaded the last sweep.
"I hate those things" said Nero as he dispatched another sulphur fish. "They're too much like the desert nasties back in Vacuo."
"They're like tiny versions of a death stalker" said Lina as she looked behind a trash can.
"Not exactly," commented Crystal Shine, leader of the team. "They're arguably nastier. Have the professors taught you about them while you've been learning about the native Grimm?"
"A little, but not exactly" said Jasper as he crushed another. "How can they be worse?"
"One at a time is easy enough, but outside the city they come in swarms, like packs of beowolves or sabyrs, only in the hundreds. Then if that doesn't work, they group together to form a much bigger, nastier beast, with a lot more adaptability than you'd think possible at that size. Plus their tails are like little branding irons." She lifted a sleeve to show a patch of burn scars. "Had a close shave a few months ago. You need to be vigilant, and very coordinated with your team to handle these suckers."
"Far out. Not even the cold can stop the Grimm out here being nasty."
"It does to a degree. But people on the ground has drawn them in ever since the kingdom was established, and they've adapted very well over the centuries."
They soon reached the wall of the city, which seemed in worse shape than the rest of the place.
"I hope this wall is sturdier than it looks" observed Lina. "It doesn't seem enough without the regular patrols you guys do."
A shadowy figure watched them as they reached the top and disappeared into the snow on the far side. Having observed the students' conversation and attitudes towards Mantle, they turned and headed back from their eavesdropping.
"Believe me," muttered Robyn Hill ominously as she walked through the cold. "It's not."
Transcript 2: Lessons learned
"I can't believe we're leaving already."
"Neither can I, Lina" agreed Jasper as he stuffed the last pair of red and green coat tails into his suitcase. One corner hung out, the silver streaks running along the red reflecting light into Jasper's eyes. He blinked, and zipped up the bag, pushing in the bulging clothes with one finger.
"Ow!" Jasper exclaimed as his finger got caught and stuck it in his mouth to numb the pain.
"I'm sure those tests were wrong; your semblance is definitely just being a klutz!" grinned Gale.
"Shut up, you fell off the wall when we were clearing Grimm in Mantle!"
"On purpose! Only a klutz wouldn't know the difference between controlled falling and an actual trip."
"Hmm, you sure about that? You brought up the trip, not me."
"So you admit it then, you don't know the difference?"
The banter continued the whole way down the elevator and across the platform towards the ship. Coco and Lina listened on in amusement, enjoying listening to the sparring match rather than participating for once. Once they reached the ramp up into the ship where Room 3 awaited them, they suddenly realised the significance of reaching that destination.
The white tip of Lina's fox tail brushed against the concrete, and she looked up at the Atlas students who had come to bid them farewell.
"I'm not going to see you again Vega, at least not until the Vytal Tournament."
"Ah, don't worry. I'll have something to focus on until then anyway."
"What?"
"I'll make sure I definitely beat you there, so I'm looking forward to meeting up."
"I hate you so much."
She shook her head and flashed her enchanting smile. "I don't believe you!"
After exchanging few remaining goodbyes and good lucks with the Atlas students, the Beacon students were waved off in a refreshing break from their usual formality. Just like they had when they arrived, they crowded around the windows to catch their last glimpse of the city and students, but instead watching it grow smaller, and with a bittersweet mix of sadness and fondness for their Atlas counterparts.
"It's a lot different to what we thought, wasn't it?" said Nero.
"In more ways than one."
"They really did warm to us, didn't they Gale? Took a while, but they aren't as stone hearted and strict as I thought they might be."
"They are people, Nero. Background isn't everything. You of all people should know that."
"You're absolutely right."
"I do feel sad for the people down in Mantle" put in Lina. "I got the impression they are a convenient blank spot in the memories of a lot of people in Atlas. But we had no real way to help them."
"Maybe that's what the people up top think too," said Gale.
"I know, and that's the problem. They each think they can't make a difference, so they don't try. It's much easier to follow routine and keep it the same way it has always been, but it only takes one person to start change."
And as the morning sun rose high into the sky, with Atlas casting a huge shadow on Mantle in more ways than one, a tall woman set out to do just that.
The first-years sat at their makeshift desks, listening to Professor Ozpin talk about Atlas history. But in contrast to the lack of enthusiasm shown on the trip up, most of the students stayed glued to their seats, drinking in all the factors which had built up and ultimately affected their new friends.
"And so, as they were no longer able to mine in Vacuo after the Great War, Nicholas Schnee set out to bring new sources of power in the tundra of Solitas, which ultimately led to the mines we see today. Now depending on who you believe, the conditions may not as favourable as they once were, or instead a great improvement on how it used to be. But above all, your experience down in Mantle would have taught you - or at least made you realise to some degree - that to understand someone, you have to walk a mile in their shoes. Whether it be people from other kingdoms or parts of kingdoms, Faunus or alternatively humans, you all have different experiences which you hold throughout your lifetime, and those experiences combined is what makes up history itself."
After that profound end to the lesson, the students dispersed mainly to their rooms, with JNGL and AKKH staying out and finding some lunch from the tiny pilot's kitchen which was hastily repurposed to accommodate nearly fifty people's wants and needs. After digging up a cold lasagne and jamming it in the microwave, the group pottered about the large central area containing the desks, looking out the windows over the seascape as they waited for their meal to heat up.
They crossed into the south-west corner of the ship, where the equipment picked up from the Atlas trip had been stashed.
"What a bunch of garbage!" exclaimed Knight. "Look at it, it's all just flashy buttons and steel."
"You said the biomes generator for Amity Colosseum was junk when you first saw it," retorted Harley. "And you were wrong there too."
"He's not wrong though," commented Jasper as he touched the outside of a collapsible television screen which was going up inside the main announcement hall. "All of them are very much over the top."
"Yeah. These two look like a set of coffins on a bed."
"They wouldn't bring a coffin back, idiot" said Harley. "They're more like a fridge. Besides, it even has a window in the front of it."
"Fridges don't have windows."
"Well I don't care what it is, but it isn't a coffin."
At hearing the raised voices of the Hayze twins, Ozpin looked up from his desk in the small room adjoining the pilots' and felt his blood freeze. It sounded like… like they were over with the machine. He couldn't run over there and stop them, that would look far more suspicious than doing nothing at all.
He stood up and closed the door, locked it, and put his card back on his desk. Nothing at all. If they couldn't ask questions, they would get no answers.
Not that he planned on giving them, anyway.
The second night was nearly over when a bump and a hiss woke the first-years, and they heard movement in the front of the ship.
"Ohhh," moaned Gale uncharacteristically. "I wish we could just stay here. I hate having to move our stuff all the time."
"You're just sleepy, its 3AM. Time enough to get back in our own beds for a few more hours."
"Oh Lina, but it's worse than that."
"How so?"
"That's the end of the bunk beds, isn't it?"
Lina rolled her sleep encrusted eyes and stretched.
"Only you would say that, Gale."
