Chapter 23
Atlas was an incredible sight. It was night time a day after we left Beacon. And when we arrived, Liya and I were amazed at the sight of Atlas for real. While something like the floating kingdom of Atlas and the crater that Mantle surrounded was incredible to see in the animated show, seeing it in real life with our own eyes was much more incredibly amazing to see.
We were approaching Atlas after over a day of traveling by airship. I thought it would've normally taken much shorter as seen in the shows, but when I asked why the trip was over a day, Clover gave a surprisingly simple answer - airways.
Kingdom owned airspaces permit intercontinental travel in certain paths through and around kingdoms. Military assets had to usually go around kingdoms unless in a permitted and informed emergency. Cargo or commercial passenger transports had their own airspace open paths that allowed them to go through the kingdom. Though waters between kingdoms more or less were free reign. And airships owned by their respective kingdoms had their own less restrictive airspace paths to follow.
And here I was, thinking they were simply taking the scenic route. Though I guess it made sense - with the CCT down past Volume 3 in the original timeline - that travel would be easier with all sorts of panic happening during that time.
Atlesian Airships weren't deployed in defensive positions like last time, rather in scattered groups over both Atlas and Mantle. However, there were not only Atlesian airships in the skies, but large swarms of older dropships and Mantas aircraft.
Mantle had a wall around it like last time, but it seemed different. It took me a split second to realize why. The wall had towers built into them, one every 50 or so meters. Each tower had a V-14 Light Stiletto Railgun of my design mounted on it. I felt a small amount of pride of my drawing and info being put to use, as well as shame of someone else's design in another universe being used here without any credit to them. Though, I only did it to help this universe survive the coming apocalypse.
"You like them?" Clover said, coming up to stand by me. He stood between me and Liya, looking out of at the window of the airship with the both of us. "The general had them put into testing a while back. Never seen weapons work like that before. Takes a real special mind to come up with an interesting concept like that."
If only he knew who designed those guns. Well, maybe not directly who, but if only he knew who gave them the designs. I thought Ironwood would trust the Ace-Ops a lot more earlier on, especially since I told him about how his paranoia would negatively affect this timeline.
The airship rose in altitude to fly above Atlas, heading straight for Atlas Academy near the center of Atlas. The edges of the floating land had more of those light railguns in turreted tower mounts, as well as those large hard-light Dust barrier spire generators.
The landing didn't take long at all. The airship reached the academy and landed on one of many landing pads near the academy. The academy wasn't as full as I thought it would be, likely due to many students attending the Vytal Festival at Beacon. Still, it seemed busy enough, and many stopped to look at who was arriving.
Many seemed to stare in awe at the large airship's arrival, before going back to whatever they were doing. I should have remembered that the Ace-Ops are a big deal in the whole kingdom, being some of the most elite fighters Atlas had to spare.
"This way, please," Clover said, as I shook myself out of my thoughts. I'd forgotten that we were heading somewhere and I quickly moved to catch up with the others, passing many students and a few guards here and there as we entered the academy. Like in RWBY Volume 7 and 8, the interior of the academy was very militaristic, with Atlas symbols here and there in every intersecting hallway. The hallways were very simple, with pillars and wall lights styled like torches.
"Sightseeing, huh?" Liya asked as I slowed my pace to match my partner's relative walking speed adjacent to her. "First time seeing Atlas?"
"Yeah, duh," I muttered. "You?"
"Obviously," Liya said. "Honestly, I expected Atlas to have a lot more flair to its looks."
"Atlas has always prided its practicality over frivolous things such as aesthetic," Vine said. "It's how we've succeeded for generations."
"Yeah. Hey, where are we going?" I asked.
"You're going to be tested," Clover said. "Combat and tactical abilities. Ironwood sees something in you that was worth noticing and having you brought here, and he wanted a full assessment on your capabilities."
"Uhh...OK. Who am I fighting?" I asked.
"You'll see. We're heading to the training grounds right now," Clover said. After a ten minute walk, we all reached the training room, which - just as before - was a massive room of hard-light Dust tiles set up as a grid. Inside, it was all empty. "Huh," I mumbled. "Where is-"
I heard the hiss of the door sealing itself shut and I turned to see the Ace-Ops and my partner were no longer in sight. "Oh, that's how it's gonna go," I mumbled. "What to do now..."
I was interrupted by a hum, and I turned to see some of the ground lifting up in large towers - easily set up as obstacles to stage as cover on the floor and high ground up high. One of the hard-light tile towers was rising in front of me, so I quickly stepped on the tower to get to the high ground.
Heh. Kenobi moment.
The tower stopped elevating moments after, and I looked around. "What now?" I mumbled. Then my ears twitched. Something was coming. Behind? No, above!
I leapt out of the way just as a white blur slammed down on the block I was on, shattering it behind me. With reflexes trained to the max at Beacon, I acted. Neural and fire Dust formed plates of Mass Effect style tech armor over my body just like in initiation, with fire Dust forming in the edges. I had gauntlets formed over my wrists with Neural and earth Dust, forming smooth rock melee gloves.
I recovered with some grace on a platform close to about a dozen meters away, having jumped back quite a distance. When I stood up fully, I was both surprised yet unsurprised at who was challenging me.
Winter Schnee dashed right for me again, her sword - or swords - pointed right at me. It glanced off my Dust armor as I barely sidestepped her attack, and I swung hard. My arm impacted Winter's side, but her aura flickered, light blue blinking over her side waist as we passed each other.
Winter had a lot of aura. Likely not as much as Jaune, but she had plenty. I could tell because I could feel how hard I hit her, and not only did her aura feel like a tank, but she hadn't even flinched or moved upon the hit. She spun around with graceful balance and went straight for me as well.
My Dust gauntlets turned into a single large gray Captain America shield, deflecting her rapid and precise hits. As fast as I continued to counter her, she was slipping her attacks through the cracks, way too many for me to realistically keep up. And she hadn't even drawn her second blade. By now, my aura was already at 62%.
It was likely that she was keeping the second hidden sword secret, unaware that I knew about it because I was a big RWBY fanboy. I leapt back, and jumped off the hard-light Dust tower, landing between two. Winter relentlessly pursued me, and I started to branch out on my abilities a bit. Like Docor Octopus times four, I formed several Dust tendrils, each mixed with either fire, ice, or Earth dust, before launching them towards Winter at full tilt. She dodged all of them, vaulting over one, sliding between two, and slashing one immediately.
When she was halfway to reaching me, I recalled all the Dust at once, sending a wave of about four kinds of Dust slamming into her back. Leaping over, she crashed into a set of hard-light Dust towers behind me, an explosion tearing them apart. That had to cause some damage. I pulled back all my Dust, having lost a good amount of what I sent that wasn't neural Dust. "That work?" I muttered. Who was I kidding, it didn't work.
I was sent flying as an ethereal blue glowing Beowolf slashed into me out of the smoke. Winter emerged alongside three other Beowolves, attacking me alongside them as I struggled to gain some distance. But needless to say, I collapsed after about a minute and a half of being attacked by four semblance summoned wolves and an Atlesian specialist.
They didn't stop when my aura reached the red, they went on until my aura hit a perfect zero percent, before she personally yeeted me into the ceiling for good measure, landing on the floor with immense bruises and a lot of pain. "Ow..." I groaned, knowing I was in for an even rougher time if I was even allowed to recover. What was that for anyway? Judging by the way the Ace-Ops and Liya ran straight for me from the door in controlled panic and clear concern, this likely wasn't supposed to happen. I closed my eyes as I sighed. "God fucking dammit..." I mumbled, passing out as Liya reached out to me.
...
I woke up presumably many hours later in an infirmary. Atlas Academy's infirmary was much cleaner than Beacon's. Not that Beacon had any sanitary or hygiene issues, but that Atlas Academy's infirmary was just so...white. White walls, white floors, white ceilings. Guess that's what I expected from much more high quality hospital-like conditions.
I could feel the aura boosters working, and there were a lot of them. Sitting up, I felt my ribs aching terribly - more from the movement than the healing. "Ow..." I mumbled as I looked around. There was a window next to the door, and I could see Winter and Clover standing outside.
Eventually, Clover turned and saw me awake before nudging Winter and gesturing to go inside. I sighed as she did so, briskly without any sort of emotion. She closed the door behind her and stood in front of my bed, hands behind her back with a professional expression. Clover leaned on the door with his arms crossed as he waited.
There was silence between us, awkward silence. While I felt very awkward indeed, "H-hi..." I said nervously. "I-I'm Markus Onissa. And you must be Winter Schnee. I know your sister, and I wasn't being creepy, it's just the white hair. And you aren't exactly a secret and whatnot. I...I just wanted to say that I enjoyed that workout earlier. No one ever trashed me that hard before-
"I would like to apologize for my behavior earlier today," Winter said as she looked over my head at the wall. "It was...it was very rude of me, as well as very unprofessional when it came to combat etiquette."
"Oh. It's alright. Though, why did you attack me like that in the first place?" I asked. "I doubt a professional would forget to hold back like that. Or was that intentional? Or-"
"I-that is not your concern. It's my issue, not yours-" Winter said before Clover cleared his throat from the doorway. He had the look of a parent scolding a child for trying to lie, and Winter spoke up again. "I...I was angered at you."
"Why?" I asked, genuinely concerned. Had I done something wrong? No, was this a favor issue with General Ironwood? Maybe my neural Dust caused some sort of problems with the Schnee Dust Company, maybe I-
"I...believed you unworthy of courting my little sister," Winter continued, making me freeze mid-thoughts. "I realize now that it is not my right to judge, and that it is her right to choose who to romantically affiliate with- "
"Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa," I said, before adding one last "whoa" in the very end for good measure. "I'm not dating Weiss."
"You aren't?" Winter said with visible relief. That stung, not gonna lie. I actually thought of saying that I was dating Whitley as a joke just to see the shock, but he was very much younger, and I was worried that I'd cause much more rage as well as a terrible chain of events for the foreseeable future to come.
"No. I'm dating someone else. Weiss's teammate but not Weiss. We're friends, sure, but not dating," I said, closing my eyes. "Why did you think we were?"
"Well...Weiss sends me letters of her progress in Beacon," Winter said, while relaxing, also still speaking with an aura of professionalism. "And, she speaks highly of you. She admires you very much. A little too much for my taste."
"Wow. I...I didn't think she respected me that much," I said. "Uhh, should you be telling me this?"
"I won't tell you the specifics, and you do deserve to know the reason for my inexcusable behavior," Winter said. "Plus...I may have gotten a tip from an old informant."
I had a decent idea of who it was, judging by the grimace on her face. "Does it happen to be gray haired and drunk?"
"You know Qrow Branwen?" Winter asked, a little bit surprised at my "guess".
"No no, not personally. I just know that he's the uncle of the girl I'm dating," I said. Winter sighed as understanding, realization, and pure unbridled rage flooded her face. I might as well plan out how I'm going to explain that I knew who Qrow was. Maybe I'll say that Yang mentioned him a while ago and she forgot she told me.
"So he used me to get to you," Winter said, her shaking fist slowly calming down. "I can't believe I ever believed the words of that constantly intoxicated oaf!"
"Hey, no hard feelings?" I asked, hoping to stop Winter before she either stormed off to Beacon to search for him or something else.
"None," Winter said, coughing awkwardly. "I'm glad you are so understanding."
"Yeah, well...I've dealt with misunderstandings before," I said as I sighed. "I'd like to recover in peace now. Unless I'm almost done?"
"Not quite. A few more hours in bed and you'll be alright," Winter said.
"Wow. I expected to be in bed for like a few more days," I said.
"Well, you need not worry about that," Winter said, her chest puffing up in patriotic pride. "Atlas is the leading competitor in medicinal and technological advancement, after all."
"No..." I said. "I wasn't too worried about that."
"Hmm? Then what were you worried for?" Winter asked, her pride turning into confusion.
"I meant by how hard you beat me," I said, and the two of us flinched. Clover looked away, hiding an amused grin and I quickly kept talking. "I-I didn't mean to sound like I was accusing you again, I was just...you hit hard. And I meant that a-as a compliment."
"Well, I suppose such strength is seen as respectful," Winter said. "Even if it stemmed from a rather significant lack of self control. Thank you, Mister Onissa."
"Markus," I said. "The teachers call me by my last name. Just call me Markus?"
"I-very well. Markus," Winter said, bowing briefly. "I shall leave you to continue your recovery." She left with a professional aura about her and I sighed as Clover left as well, closing the door behind him. I heard the door open and Liya entering the room a few minutes after.
"How are you feeling?" she asked in clear concern.
"I'm fine," I said. "Winter and I made up."
"That's a relief. Because I was not looking forward to demanding an explanation from an Atlesian specialist," Liya said, and I chuckled. "Why did she attack you anyway?"
"It was a misunderstanding. Winter thought I was dating Weiss and got mad. I explained everything and like I said, we made up after that," I said. "Just don't tell the others, I don't think it'll do well for the others to know I got my ass kicked on the first day of arriving at Atlas."
Liya winced and I frowned. "Liya..."
"Yeah?" Liya asked.
"You already told them," I said. Liya didn't need to nod, and I sighed. I could only imagine how the others were acting.
- elsewhere -
"She what?!" Yang cried, eyes red as she struggled for Weiss, held back by Ruby and Blake. "Let me at that bitch!"
"That bitch is my sister!" Weiss shouted back, equally angry.
"That bitch of a sister beat the daylights out of my boyfriend! Let me at her!" Yang snarled.
"She's in Atlas!" Weiss shouted.
"Like that'll stop meeeeee!" Yang shrilled as Ruby and Blake pulled her further and further away from the Schnee Dust Company heiress.
- back in Atlas -
"I'm sure she'll take it well. She's not a time bomb 100% of the time," Liya said, casually waving it off. "And I was scared, do you know how worried I was? I had to tell someone, right?"
"Yeah. yeah, I suppose you have a point. I don't think I'd be able to stay quiet if I was so worried about you dying," I said as I rubbed between my eyes. "Thanks for caring."
"No problem," Liya said. "Ironwood texted me, by the way. Said that once you were done recovering, he wanted to have you call him."
"I could always call him here," I said, reaching for my scroll before forgetting that I was currently bedridden and naked save for a hospital gown. "Why did he text you?"
"Oh, he tried calling earlier and found out the situation with you being in recovery," Liya said. "So he asked Ozpin for my scroll info and texted me. And now I have General Ironwood's number."
"Wow, I didn't know you went for the older types," I said jokingly.
"I can still kick your ass, you know?" Liya said threateningly with no real bite, but the anger was still there. "I don't feel that bad for you."
"Noted," I said, not at all scared about that since I wasn't going to keep bringing it up and lowering my life expectancy. "Anyways, I could call him now."
"I guess you can," Liya said, pulling out my luckily undamaged scroll from her pocket. "I'm not surprised that you have Ironwood's info on your scroll."
"You looked through it?" I asked, a bit too wound up to really get upset about that.
"Yeah," Liya said. "Don't know why you don't put up a password for it."
"I...I don't know either," I mumbled as I called Ironwood. As the signal began to ping, I sighed. "Can we have a bit of privacy?"
Liya walked out after a bit more bickering between the two of us, and I called Ironwood the moment she closed the door. The scroll rang for a good minute or so, before the general finally picked up.
"Onissa. Glad to see you're doing alright," General Ironwood said. "This line is personally secure from my ship."
"OK. What did you wanna talk to me about?" I asked.
"It's about Roman Torchwick. He's in custody, and he claims to be the perpetrator of the entire operation. I know for a fact he's lying, so what is he planning?" Ironwood asked.
"He planned on hacking your battle droids aboard your flagship by having his associate sneak aboard and break him out," I explained. "Though it shouldn't be a problem since you didn't prioritize bringing them there, but-"
"I'm sorry. You...he plans on what?" Ironwood asked, interrupting me.
"Hacking your battle droids aboard your...flagship," I said, having neglected to remember the fact that Torchwick also gunned down a few other Atlesian battleships with Ironwood's stolen battleship. "OK, you might wanna move him."
"And where do I move him?" Ironwood asked, clearly upset that I had withheld information from him. Though I could tell he was holding it back due to me clearly having forgotten about that little tidbit. Not that my carelessness could be excused in any way.
"Sorry, I missed that," I said as I began to think. "Move him to...hmmm..." I said. "Lock him in the jail of the Vale Police Department. His involvement kind of becomes irrelevant later."
"Meaning?" Ironwood said.
"He dies later. So he doesn't really do much other than spur his partner into an even more murderous psychopath that becomes a problem much later on," I said. "Roman needs to live to prevent Neo from becoming a big ally of...her."
"Neo?" Ironwood asked.
"Her real name is Trivia Vanille, Roman took her in a while ago, she was abused for being mute and they're thick as thieves. Or...thick," I said awkwardly. "We can avoid Neo being a big threat if you just keep Roman safe. Or out of the way."
"How dangerous is Neo?" Ironwood asked.
"Super dangerous. Illusionary semblance. Blake, Sun, and I couldn't beat her at the rally, and she took me down within a minute on the train before the breach. She's not just Roman's lapdog, she's an insane crazy assassin," I said. "I don't think you could beat her one on one. So it's best to take away her reason for joining her in the first place."
I knew the line was secure, but I had a habit of avoiding saying Salem's name. Ironwood seemed to have that habit as well. "Very well. I'll have Torchwick moved somewhere else discreetly. Anything else?"
"Yeah. I don't think the only reason you called me was over Torchwick," I said.
"It's not. I came to warn you about Schnee," Ironwood said. "And before you say I was too late, I meant the other Schnee."
"Jacques Schnee?" I asked.
"Yes. He heard about your Dust weapon," Ironwood continued. "And he wants his hands on it."
"Umm...doesn't the Schnee Dust Company manufacture this stuff?" I asked.
"Not all Dust. Neural Dust is manufactured specifically by the Atlesian Research and Development branch. And even then, it's incredibly time consuming and expensive to make. There's a reason why our combat androids use so little of it," Ironwood continued. "Which is why I was so surprised when you popped up out of nowhere, having enough neural Dust to enhance an entire battalion of our Atlesian Knights."
Did that mean the droids only had such a little amount of Dust? Or if I had such a large amount of it? A bit of both? I don't know.
The military has the most use for it, though Jacques always wanted his hands on every kind of resource available, even if it's not good for commercial use," Ironwood said, scowling darkly. "And since I refuse to let him get his hands on a military asset-"
"He'll try to get mine," I said. "Can't I just avoid him?"
"Not really," Ironwood said, and I saw a bit of pity in his normally stony expression. "He invited you to a Schnee hosted fundraiser for the recovery of Vale. Several tens of thousands of Lien in damages, as well as the funding of millions to seal up every inch of the tunnels between the city and the tunnels."
"Sounds dangerous," I said.
"Don't worry about that, we have professionals on the job," Ironwood reassured me. "But he specifically invited you, as he wished to have a...ahem, survivor of the event say a few words at the fundraiser in order to prove his sincerity."
"More like help him pretend he has any," I said. Ironwood chuckled. "I'll go. I promise I won't let him anywhere near my belt. But I'll do it for Vale."
"I wouldn't expect anything less. It was merely a warning," Ironwood said, sighing as he rubbed the side of his head. "Now that that's done-"
"Wait. I may also have some more ideas to help Atlas's defenses," I said. "I could submit it to the scientists here if that's OK, but I wanted to run the idea by you first-"
"Go ahead," Ironwood said. I explained my first idea, which was an air plasma jet engine. These were large generators that compressed matter from a gaseous form to a plasma form, creating a form of propulsion that would not require Dust or fuel, rather just power. He approved that easily as long as I knew what I was proposing it for.
I explained what the engines were for, a new Atlesian airship that was both efficient, powerful, and ideal for kingdom-wide security. He didn't approve it right away, rather he assigned me to draw up everything I could on the proposal so he could look at it in person. As soon as I hung up, I asked a nurse for some paper, pencils, erasers, and a flat board in which I could draw on top of.
As soon as I got what I needed, I started drawing up the proposal: the Project Insight Helicarriers.
(AN: Forgive me Marvel Cinematic Universe)