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The Lazing Gunman
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"Too cool for school."
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The land webbed with cracked fissures. Lava flowed in the space between, threatening to flood over with every quake of the earth.
In the distance, stood a mountain as black as soot. Its peak sharpened to a point, like a syringe's needle.
And within the mountain, a dragon rested on its self-proclaimed throne. It leered with wrath unreserved. Its scales dyed black and gold as the molten rock surrounding it.
The monstrosity stretched its wings, showing the right to be torn and tattered. An old wound which was still covered in rotted flesh. The appendage bled with no sign of ever truly healing.
At the dragon's feet, lay countless weapons. So many of them there were, every inch of the floor was covered. Broken and stained with blood, some with their previous owner's hands still locked in its grip.
Along the sides of the chamber, arms were pinned to the wall by the weapons they once held. The dragon's most prized possessions. Her favorite trophies of her hoard.
Adam's katana.
Neo's parasol.
Weiss' rapier.
Ruby's scythe.
Yang let out a deafening bellow—
Of grief, of rage, or madness, she did not know.
But she could not deny the instinct that drove her to take more. To seek out more foes and conquer them. To strike down anything that opposed her on a whim. No threat existed to her.
This is true freedom.
Being weak shackled me.
But no longer.
…
…
Yang woke up with a jolt, gulping for air.
Realizing it was just a nightmare, she rubbed her eyelids and felt the sweat on them. Her whole body was practically drenched. Clothes stuck to her skin and her breath was short.
Her brain was still jumbled, but it worked to make sense of her surroundings.
The bed still felt unfamiliar to her. The room she slept in reminded her of Beacon's dorms, but with fancier décor. Judging by the light shining through the curtains, it was midafternoon.
Yang and her team had grown accustom to sleeping during the day and being active at night.
Speaking of her teammates, she felt a small body snuggle up under her breasts, wrestling for a more comfortable position. A head of black hair burrowed against her, making the heat increasingly unbearable.
"She snuck in my bed again…"
With Yang's one good arm, she freed herself from Neo's embrace and crawled out he covers. Upon doing so, she saw the one sleeping in the bed beside hers had wrapped themselves in their blanket like a cocoon. Yang thought how it might be possible for Emerald to wake up with butterfly wings and hopefully a better personality.
"My feet are on wrong…!*mumble mumble* … Can't stop walking backwards…! No! Noooo…!"
She heard Mercury mutter something nonsensical in his sleep, while hugging his mechanical legs to his chest. His bed on the far side of the room, beside Neo's vacant one.
"Weirdo."
Yang changed out of her pajamas and into her school uniform. She grabbed her prosthetic arm that rested on the nearby table.
Ember Celica clamped on with the same painful bite it always did. And the biting metal of the artificial limb never failed to shake her out of any stupor.
As Yang was ready to leave, she wondered if she should wake Neo. Her partner got huffy whenever she left without her.
Yang stroked her head softly. Neo's alternate appearance was still something that needed getting used to.
When she saw the pair of green eyes open momentarily, she smiled.
"Hey, I'm heading out. Wanna come with?"
Neo shook her head lazily and smooshed her head back into the pillow.
"Alrighty, then."
It was the answer Yang was hoping for, as she readily dashed out the door with ease of mind.
The school campus of Haven Academy greeted her, when she left the student dorms.
As she wandered around, professors lectured in their respective classrooms. In some parts, gunfire could be heard going off, probably from the live combat sections. The smell of burning Dust wafted to her nose.
The school wasn't too different from Beacon, as far as the facilities were concerned. Maybe more dressed in aesthetics, but functionally the same.
It had been two months since the team arrived at Haven.
After meeting Raven and being recruited into the White Fang, and by extension, Mistral's military—Team ENMY had no trouble finishing Junior's delivery. With their job done, they found themselves once again, living the lives of students—at least for appearance's sake.
Yang was surprised by how easily she was permitted entrance into the Academy. Almost as surprised as how nonchalant the school was about readmitting Neo, Emerald, and Mercury. Along with their dorm expenses paid, they were granted a generous stipend by the school. It seemed only Yang found all this suspect, as the rest of her team acted as it were simply due process.
If she thought about it, the strange treatment began as soon as they reached Mistral's border office. At the immigration center, Yang presented her birth certificate—one of few things Emerald specifically told her to bring from home.
She remembered the officer turning their nose at them at first, but stiffening after reading their papers. When she later asked Emerald about it, the girl only told her to shut up and be glad they could take things easier now.
As Yang continued to perusing the school grounds, she entertained the thought of attending one of the classes, more out of curiosity than anything. But after letting out a tired yawn, she realized she would probably pass out if she did.
She was never a model student, as Weiss often reminded her, but being surrounded by new like-minded teammates only made it worse. And the need to attend classes fell ever farther down her priority list.
Yang ended up walking in a daze until she heard lone gunfire coming from one of Haven's outdoor targeting ranges.
Following the sound of the firearm she recognized, she arrived at a wide grass clearing. An android rabbit sprinted across the greenery when a bullet shot clear through one of its eyes and out the other.
Yang heard the bolt-action rifle slide with a satisfying ring, ejecting the spent round and loading the next into the chamber.
A robotic bird was released this time. It cawed once, before being shot in the same fashion as the rabbit.
Yang couldn't help but be impressed.
Numerous robots lay broken across the grounds. Each bore a single hole through the center of its eye. The targets varied in size and movement for maximum difficulty. And if that wasn't enough, the shooter was set up farther than the range was supposed to allow.
Yang made the long trek over and collapsed next to the other student. The two laid flat on their backs for a while, relaxing in the soft grass and pleasant sun. Perhaps, more enjoyable because they were skipping classes.
"I wanna die~" Yang yawned.
"And a good afternoon to you too, Yang," the other girl greeted.
Her name was Inna Kao. A Faunus with two small horns protruding the sides of her head, but were covered by her cowgirl's hat. Her skin was tanned a sweet brown, accompanied by bright hazel eyes. She wore a tan-hide vest over her school uniform, and whenever Yang saw her, she always seemed to have a stem of wheat bobbing between her lips.
"Fancy seein' you," Inna smirked. "You and your team are usually sleepin' round this time of day, ain't cha?"
"Yeah. Well, I had one of those freaky nightmares that makes it tough to fall back to sleep. You know the ones."
"…Sure thing. You gonna attend class while you're at it?"
"Nah. Not like there's much of a point."
"Fair nuff. Yer team takes on more jobs a week than most do a' year."
Unlike Beacon, Haven accepted "extracurricular" credits in place of attendance. This took the forms of community service, outside projects, volunteer work, and even mercenary employ. In fact, it was on one such extracurricular mission Yang and Inna's teams met.
The reasoning was that as long as the student was contributing to society and furthering their education in some practical form, it would be counted as time in class.
As a result, Team ENMY frequently took on high risk, high difficulty jobs that earned them enough credits to miss all their classes thus far. Although they had this going for them, there were still limits on how far they could exploit this system.
"Yer gettin' awfully close to the minimum attendance limit. And what are ya'll gonna do about the tests comin' up? Plan on skippin' thems too?"
"Probably," Yang only shrugged. "Maybe we'll go to some classes to avoid getting kicked out, but…yeah."
"That's a shame. Woulda' been fun meetin' ya'll on the tournament ladder."
"Hehe! True," Yang grinned. "But I can't see my team fighting for fun. Much less, grades."
"Yeah. You got yerself a prickly bunch. Don' see 'em enjoyin' a friendly scrap. More like the type to take things too far!" Inna chuckled. "'Specially that teeny chihuahua of yers! Tiny ball a' hate, if I ever did see one."
"Neo does have a mean streak."
"That's puttin' it lightly. She's sweet on you, though. I've seent her stick three top-tier students, like pigs on a skewer in two seconds flat. Just for lookin' at her the wrong way."
"And you still think having a match with us would be a good idea?"
"Hell, yeah!" Inna tipped her hat higher. "Got the best crack shooters in all Remnant runnin' in my crew. Make good game pittin 'em against yers. The strong gotta fight the strong, am I right?"
"Maybe. Better not to mention that to Neo. She's liable to stab you in your sleep."
"Eesh. I'm inclined believe that. Why's yer team got so much crazy innit? Not to mention yer name—Team Enemy. Ya'll just lookin' to pick a' fight."
Inna began flipping her rifle through the air like a baton, then catching it with a deft handling.
From the motions of the firearm, Yang could tell how meticulously crafted it was. And the way the sharpshooter handled it with such familiarity brought a smile to her face. Though, as quickly as the pleasant thought set in, so too came a hint of dread.
Yang witnessed up close how skillful Inna and her team were. They were a thoroughbred firefight squad with experience and attitude to match. Yang could only wonder how deadly they would prove in the times to come.
"I wonder what'll happen next…" she sighed.
"What? You mean with the war an' all?"
"Yeah…"
"Hm. Well, I know me an' my gang are ready to throw down," Inna answered confidently. "Born and bred to aim straight, bullets live."
"You're not worried about taking another person's life?"
"Got too much ridin' on me to think twice about pullin' the trigger. For one thing, my family's been poppin' out gunslingers as long as there's been Dust for rounds. I got a legacy to uphold. And for another, I don' know if you've noticed, but I'm a Faunus," Inna added with a slight tense. "This war's a chance for our kind to earn some damn overdue recognition."
"Is Mistral really making amendments to Faunus civil rights?" Yang asked. "People have been talking about Parliament taking action for a while, but is it really happening?"
"Damn straight it is! It ain't finalized, but I heard it was part of the deal they cut with the White Fang. And it's finally time, Yang. No more bein' treated like riffraff or second-class citizens. They'll actually make discrimination against Faunus illegal. ILLEGAL! The law will be on our side for once!"
Inna paused for a second, before taking off her hat, revealing her small horns.
"I don' know if you can understand that, you bein' you—no offense. But our folk have had it rough since the first human was smart enough to tell the difference between you and me. These new policies… they're the real deal."
Yang closed her eyes. Memories of Blake, Sun, and Velvet drifted to mind. How Velvet was bullied so openly at school. How quick people were to blame Sun for any crime (granted he did stow away illegally on a boat and stole food often).
"I had Faunus friends at Beacon," Yang replied. "I saw the way they were treated. One of my teammates…went through a lot because of it."
"Few who haven't," Inna spat her wheat out bitterly and started chewing on a new stem. "Vale, huh? Heard treatment over there's bad. Nowhere near as raw as Atlas, but they ain't winnin' any awards neither. That's another thing I can count on. Once Mistral wins this war, we can set those other Kingdoms straight."
"Just one more reason."
"I'd be lyin' if I said I wasn't lookin' forward to standin' on the right side of history. Also be happy to be puttin' one between the eyes of those Atlas humps, who've enslaved my kind for generations."
"Not everyone in Atlas is bad. At least some of the ones I met."
"'Course not," Inna waved. "Just the ones who've ever profited from child Faunus labor. Anyone who's pushed poor and sickly folk to work their damn refineries till their fingers bleed. Yeah, I got some custom-made rounds set aside for those pricks. Primed and initialed by yours truly."
"Anyone making the top of the hit list?"
"I can name you the first four or the first forty. Easy to remember. It's Schnee, Schnee, Schnee, and Schnee."
Yang imagined Weiss and Inna standing across the ends of a battlefield. How fast Inna would pull the trigger. How quick Weiss would need to dodge it, or would she notice the shot being fired at all.
Her former teammate was in Vale the last time they met, but she doubt the heiress hated her home enough to abandon it. Whenever Atlas made their move, Yang knew it was only a matter of time before Weiss took action, too.
What would she do if her two friends met?
Would she side with one over the other, if at all?
What if there was another way? Would there be another way?
If I had enough power, would I be able to stop them both?
If I had more power…
More…
Something hot bubbled in the pit of Yang's stomach, and she felt like throwing up. It was the same sensation that threatened to consume her in her nightmare. A mixture of greed and rage that burned her from the inside out.
"Enough talk 'bout that." Inna elbowed Yang. "I can tell it's startin' to harsh yer mellow."
"Yeah. I just wish things went back to when the biggest problem on everyone's mind was the Grimm."
"For humans, maybe."
"Sorry."
"Nah. I'm just bein' bitter," Inna apologized. "But, hey. The world's still gonna need Huntresses when the war's over."
"Now that, I could get behind." Yang laxed her hands behind her head.
"You would need to start getting' yer ass to class, though. And your team would need to participate in the exam matches."
"Ugh! True," she frowned. "I did want to become a Huntress once upon a time. But…that might not be in the cards anymore."
Yang went solemn for a quiet minute.
If she was being honest, she no longer cared about becoming a Huntress. Somewhere along the way, that goal died—drifting far out of sight, and she made peace with that fact. The rest of Team ENMY could care less about having some license to slay Grimm. Yang's own ambitions of joining up with her mother and fighting in the war left little room for much else.
"It used to be my dream to become a Huntress—wandering Remnant, helping people. Just adventuring…" she sighed. "But the dream might be dead now."
"That's rough, partner."
Inna plucked a stem of wheat and put it in Yang's mouth to chew.
"That's rough."