In this chapter of Thorns for the Roses, my co-author (Firestorm0110 from DeviantArt) makes her first appearance! And in the process makes my writing look bland.
Without further ado, let the show begin!
Ruby POV
"Well, okay."
For someone who had all but goaded her into joining his school with cookies, Ozpin had a funny way of showing his approval. Ruby paced about her Signal academy dorm room, plucking her belongings and her thoughts. Sure, she was a capable fighter; growing up surrounded by great huntsmen will do that to you. Being raised by Taiyang Xiao Long? Even more so. But being taught how to fight by Qrow Branwen? That was like strawberries on top of the cake. Even with this in mind, Ruby had a dark feeling in her chest and felt frazzled as she stuffed her possessions into her suitcase.
Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon, had personally invited her to jump two years ahead of her class and enter his academy. He had only seen her fight once, several hours earlier, and yet he was convinced of her skills immediately. Ruby didn't doubt her handiwork with Crescent Rose, her sniper-scythe, but she was also unsure if her presence among the older students would be welcome. They would be two whole years older than she, with two more years of fighting under their belts; wouldn't they scoff at her, a younger girl arrogant enough to enter the academy with them? Along with the older students, she would also be training alongside her sister, Yang. At this thought, she flopped down onto the carpet and dialed her sister's number into her phone. It rang once before Yang clicked into existence in her hand.
"Yellow!" Her older sister greeted her with a pun once again. "What's good, riding hood?"
"Nothing much, I'm just...redy to see you."
A small snort could be heard on the other end. "I've taught you so well. Oh, ready to see me? Are you inviting yourself to come hang in my new dorm?"
Ruby smiled cheekily and spoke slower. "Actually, Professor Ozpin did the inviting for me."
"The headmaster himself? Whatcha mean?"
"Short story shorter, I got caught red-handed taking down some goons today by a Beacon professor. She took me to see the headmaster and he said, 'You are the greatest huntress-to-be I have ever seen. Please train at my school and fulfill your duty as a huntress, and I will reward you with as many cookies as you can eat.' So now I'm packing my-"
Ruby pulled the phone away before Yang made her deaf with her gleeful screaming. After she calmed down, Ruby raised the phone again. "You done?"
"YOU GOT ACCEPTED INTO BEACON?!"
"I know, right? What's that headmaster thinking?"
"Ruby, this is amazing!"
"Yeah, I guess. I mean I just skipped two years in, like, two minutes."
Suddenly, the dark-haired girl's head spun. Two years in two minutes. Was this really happening? Surely she wasn't dreaming or tripping on one too many cookies. What was in the cookies Ozpin gave her again? Ruby felt sick with the realization that she had basically taken food from a stranger. Within minutes of meeting a real Huntress, she'd broken one of the most basic rules: trusting people she had just met. Of course, she knew who Ozpin was, that he was Beacon's headmaster, that he was a professor. Even if it was polite to take things offered, she should have been more on guard; all that adrenaline from the fight had gotten to her. She definitely shouldn't mention the treats to Yang.
"Ruby, this means we could be in the same classes." Her sister halted the excitement and took a long sigh of relief, then continued. "I'm so so glad, now I can keep copying your dust homework like before."
"Yang no."
"C'mon, who needs to know what dust is made of? All that matters is how you use it."
"You mean who you punch it with."
"You mean who I punch it with."
"I'm hanging up-" Ruby meant that as a joke, only she accidentally hit the "hang up" button and heard the beginning of Yang's protest before it got cut off.
She sat up and messaged her sister quickly to defer any misunderstandings. The heavy feeling in her chest had loosened a bit after talking with Yang. Wishing her sister sweet dreams, she pulled herself up and finished packing her things. She even went so far as to lay out an outfit for the next day, a habit she already knew she wouldn't keep for long, although the feeling of starting somewhere new left her with anticipation and an itch to get there. She also felt a little silly: she'd been worried about going to a school with older students and hadn't fully thought out the fact that her sister would be there nearly every step of the way. Maybe she really would let the older brawler copy a couple assignments.
Next day, 1100 hours,
Amelia POV
Amelia watches in amusement as Neo stands in the fighting ring with four recruits facing her, her daughter wields her pink parasol, holding it open on her right shoulder.
Without a doubt she's about to watch these cocky FNG's get their asses handed to them, and she grins wildly before blowing the whistle to start the match.
The four recruits surge forward, but Neo doesn't bat an eye as the four try to rush her. Amelia knows what's happening, but the recruits fresh out of training are completely oblivious until the lead one punches Neo square in the jaw, and she shatters like glass.
Suddenly Neo is behind them, and she grins before hitting one of them across the neck with her parasol, knocking him unconscious with the aura-enhanced blow.
The others wheel around when they hear their comrade hit the floor, and one rushes at her, a pair of brass knuckles clenched in his right hand.
Neo waits until he swings, and then jumps up, grabbing his arm and swinging herself around so she's sitting on his shoulders. In one fluid motion she grabs her parasol at either end and pulls it hard against his throat, crudely choking him out while his friends circle them, not capitalizing on Neo being preoccupied.
It's only when the man falls to his knees that they rush forward and try to grab Neo, but again her form shatters like glass when they touch her, and she's behind them again. She swings her parasol like a baseball bat and knocks the feet out from under one before giving the other a swift kick in the back, sending him sprawling across the small arena. The soldier Neo knocked down gets up and tries to grab her small form around the waist, but she swiftly jabs him in the groin with the pointed end of her parasol, causing most of the onlookers to grab themselves protectively as he drops to his knees, his voice a few octaves higher. Neo bends down and gives him a peck on the forehead before driving her knee into the same spot, knocking him unconscious.
The final recruit rushes at her, and Neo ducks low, in between his legs before tripping him up and sending him over the ropes, finalizing her victory.
The crowd cheers and bet money exchanges hands as the veterans embarrass the recruits.
"That's my girl!" Amelia claps as Neo front flips over the ropes and lands gracefully before making her way through the crowd up to her mom.
"Good job kiddo, I don't think they're going to talk shit any time soon!"
Neo shrugs it off and Amelia opens a mental link.
"'It was nothing, I didn't even break a sweat. And I didn't even get to play around with them.'"
Amelia smiles and rubs her head, messing up her hair and earning a death glare from the pint-sized badass.
"Didn't get to mess with them? What do you call giving them a kiss before knocking them out?"
Neo smiles and shrugs again.
"'Gotta give them a kiss goodnight, y'know?'"
Amelia shakes her head as the two leave the hand-to-hand facility and walk towards the HQ, where they tally up another win for Neo's hand-to-hand chart, which only has two losses for the year.
"If you stopped challenging your dad and I you wouldn't have any losses."
Neo glares at her before walking out, leaving her to do weekly casualty reports.
POV change- Kimberly, 3rd person
Caution: sexual references ahead, you have been warned.
Kimberly walks down the lines of tanks in the vehicle depot, her crew follow close behind her while HMMWV's roll past, their embarked infantry ready to go outside the city walls.
"Alright! Our job today is simple! We're just going to the outskirts of Mt. Glenn for some exercises, then when we're done there we'll come back and have a girl's night out on my wallet!" Kimberly yells over the sound of the vehicles, receiving a nod from each of her crew as the other crews behind them climb into their respective tanks.
They finally reach a Merkava with a purple spade painted on the gun barrel, identifying it as Kimberly's personal tank.
Dawn climbs in first, easily twisting herself around to drop into the driver's hatch before closing the hatch over her head.
Amanda and Christie climb up onto the vehicle, and Amanda drops into the commander's hatch while grabbing the rim and pulling herself forward, which swings her into her seat all in one motion. Christie takes a slower approach, and simply climbs down into the vehicle, since her seat is not fixed in position.
Finally Kimberly climbs in, giving Dawn the okay to start the engine while Amanda starts trying to get the finicky Grimm sensor system on the outside of the vehicle to work.
Christie checks the ammunition load and loads the coaxial machine gun in a practiced fashion, which had been drilled into her mind through countless times of doing it.
Kimberly notes the change of her usual fifty caliber MG to an upgrade to the Mk19, capable of launching grenades further than the original weapon. She hefts the heavier box of ammunition up onto the turret roof and loads the weapon, while Christie finds that her roof mounted 7.62mm MG has been replaced with a fifty caliber MG, which packs more punch, but also has larger ammunition, making the overall ammunition count inside the vehicle less.
When she climbs back in Kimberly can hear Amanda impatiently cussing out the sensor system over the sound of the engine, even with her helmet on.
She quickly turns her intercom on.
"Hey, you alright? You're much more irritable than usual. Is it that time again?"
[Yeah, sorry chief. That asshole of a boyfriend I had broke up with me, just because I spent more time here training than I did with him!]
Christie pats her on the shoulder reassuringly over the large breech of the main cannon.
[Sorry to hear about the boyfriend, but if you want help with that know that I'd be willing to help.]
Amanda flips her off and goes back to working on booting up the sensor system while Christie sits in her seat with a wry smile.
[Count me in on some of that!] Dawn adds in from her station, separated from the rest of the crew.
"Okay you lesbo's, get a room." Kimberly says with a roll of her eyes.
[Gladly Captain, care to join us?]
Christie gives a shit-eating grin as Kimberly glares at her.
"No thank you, I'm straight as an arrow."
[So is spaghetti until-]
"I swear Christie if you finish that sentence!"
Christie wisely turns off her microphone and sits with a grin while Kimberly checks in with the other vehicles.
It takes another five minutes before Amanda pumps her fist in celebration.
[Finally! Sensor system is fully functional chief, my optics are warming up now, but we should be ready to go.]
Kimberly claps her on the shoulder and double checks with the other vehicles before giving the order to move out, the platoon this time consisting entirely of Merkava's, with Kimberly's tank having a plow on the front for pushing anything from debris to snow.
"Alright Dawn, let's kick this overgrown vibrator into gear." Kimberly says with a chuckle before they start to roll forwards.
The convoy of tanks leaves the city walls shortly after, to find that the convoy of trucks and HMMWV's is stuck in the deep snow, and Kimberly quickly pulls ahead, using her plow to push the snow off the road.
Due to the slowed pace of the larger convoy they're joined by two copies of the Leopard 2 Marksman heading out for field testing, and the self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles are positioned at both ends of the convoy, with the lead one behind Kimberly's Merkava.
[Razor, this is Bullseye, we've got half a dozen contacts to our front on radar, slow movers, probable hostiles.]
Kimberly swings her hatch open and sticks her head out, scanning the cloudy skies ahead of them, it only takes a few seconds to find the black dots against the gray clouds.
"That's confirmed Bullseye, contacts are hostile, you're cleared hot."
[Roger that, Bullseye firing.]
The turret of the marksman behind her turns slightly before elevating its guns and firing. The twin 35mm cannons give a throaty chatter that Kimberly can feel in her chest as they spit high-explosive ammunition into the sky, ejecting the spent casings off to the sides of the still moving vehicle. From the rear of the convoy the second marksman also opens fire, and the combined firepower of the two vehicles shreds the flock of nevermores.
[A/N: If you've never seen or heard a Marksman SPAAG fire, I suggest you check it out, because words don't do the sound justice.]
Once the convoy reach the ridge above Mt. Glenn they spread out, overlooking the snow-covered wasteland, where some burned trees are still standing, a memoir to the fierce fighting to save the civilians that occurred in the infancy of TCC.
[Here we are, look familiar captain?]
Dawn speaks for the first time since they encountered the Nevermores.
"Yeah. I feel proud for what we did that night, but damn I hate this place."
[Why's that?]
"We were flying over here when the vice-commander got spiked with feathers from a Nevermore. She couldn't lower her gear all the way, and she crash-landed her plane on the runway, but one of the gear caught in the ground and spun her sideways, then the plane rolled down the runway. That was the crash she lost her leg in."
[Damn…..]
"Anyways, enough about my past. Load HE, target is a pack of Beowolves three clicks out."
Christie jumps up from her seat and folds it out of the way before grabbing a shell out of the storage and slamming it into the breech.
[Up!]
The turret slews right before settling, and the gun depresses.
[On target!]
"Fire."
Amanda pulls the trigger on her traverse handle, and the gun fires, kicking up snow around the vehicle as the HESH round screams in and smashes into the lead Beowolf more than three miles away, leaving a gigantic crater where the beast once stood.
"Good kill."
The other tanks on the ridge open fire, and through her binoculars Kimberly watches them impact various Grimm scattered throughout the forest below. The infantry lay in wait, having formed a perimeter around the tanks, knowing good and well that the noise of the guns will attract Grimm.
The tanks continue to fire for half an hour until they run low on ammo, then some of the trucks from the convoy roll up and they begin the painfully slow procedure of restocking, hefting the large 120mm rounds up onto the turret and into one of the two hatches.
Restocking in itself takes an hour, and while they're working the infantry fights to keep Beowolves and Ursai at bay, implementing everything from small arms to directional anti-personnel mines and rocket launchers.
When the tanks are restocked all the crews mount back up and protect the infantry while they mount up in preparation to move back to base. To ease the pressure off them Kimberly calls in artillery, and the large guns back at base fire dust-infused shells that bracket the area in flashes of ice and electricity.
On the impact of the first shell all of the infantry jump up from their positions, gather their gear, and quickly mount up in any available vehicle. Once the last person is in a vehicle Kimberly gives the signal to move out, with the light HMMWV's and trucks in the center of the convoy, protected by the heavier tanks and SPAAG's on the ends.
They're nearly back to Vale before Kimberly realizes something is wrong inside the tank.
"Hey guys, is it me or is it kind of cold in here?"
[It's definitely cold in here, and I fucking hate it.] Christie voices her discomfort while she rubs her arms to keep warm.
[I agree, turn up the heat.] Amanda complains, which is unusual for her.
Kimberly pulls around a display on her hatch ring so it's hanging in front of her and runs a diagnostic of the air conditioning system. Two minutes later the diagnostic is finished, and Kimberly doesn't like what it tells her.
"Well girls, it would appear that our climate control system has taken a shit, my diagnostic just gave me a negative on functionality of it. So huddle up if you can."
Christie gives an audible groan with her microphone off, and Amanda hesitates before climbing under the gun breech.
[Alright Christie, if you try anything I'm gonna kick your ass. You know I'm in heat, so no funny business.]
[Yeah I know, just try not to rub up against me too much, the last thing I need is your damn pheromones all over me.]
The two huddle up while Kimberly stays in her seat, after all, somebody has to be on a gun, they're still in Grimm territory.
Twenty minutes later Kimberly hears a giggle and looks over to find Christie running her hands up Amanda's front while Amanda sits in her lap.
"HEY! NO SEX IN THE TANK!" Kimberly yells at them, throwing her metal coffee cup.
Amanda jumps off Christie with a yelp as the cup glances off her shoulder and hits Christie in the forehead.
[OW! Alright! Yeesh, it's really hard to resist when she's pumping out pheromones like there's no tomorrow.]
"If you need her that bad you can use the damn guest bedroom in my house, just don't destroy anything!"
Christie grumbles as Amanda snuggles up against her side and wraps her arms protectively around the bear Faunus.
"And Amanda! Stop trying to seduce a crew member in the middle of a mission!"
Amanda just rubs her face into Christie and falls asleep with a drunken smile on her face.
"Jesus Christ…this is the only time I regret having an all-Faunus crew…" Kimberly grumbles, since Amanda and Christie have taken off their helmets Dawn is the only one to hear her.
[Hey now boss, to be fair, you just haven't had a Faunus that's in heat in bed. And also I'm not a problem, because I'm separated from you guys.]
"You're right, you're not a problem, but these two are. And I have no intention of getting one of my subordinates in bed."
[Boss I'll give up a month's pay if you try it and don't like it.]
"...you just really want to get me in bed don't you?"
[Damn straight, so you willing to try it?]
"...fine."
[WOOHOO!]
Kimberly rolls her eyes at Dawn and looks over at Christie and Amanda, who both have fallen asleep.
"What am I going to do with you two….?"