A/N: Okay guys, first I just want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed Not What You Expected. I'm grateful, honest.
Second, the original plan was to have all this happen in one chapter. But, I managed to hit 10k words and still going, so I needed to break it in half. So be ready for a new chapter shortly.
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"Trust me, I know almost exactly what I'm doing."
O'Neill's fist landed in the middle of the suit wearing thug's face, staggering him hard enough for the Colonel to dive forward, tackling the armed man to the ground. A rattle of gunfire left the thug's pistol looking contraption, hitting nothing but the walls on its way out of his hands, tumbling safely out of his grip. The thug's target didn't seem to notice, being preoccupied by a pair of similarly clad men who were clearly in trouble.
Landing in a thrashing heap, he drew back to punch the struggling man again, and again, and again. O'Neill wasn't holding back much, yet the suited thug kept yelping in pain with every blow, blindly throwing his own hands out trying to force him off. With a snarl he broke the man's nose, finally getting him to go limp.
Taking a second to breathe from all his exertions, the Colonel rose to his feet, groaning while he took stock of the situation. He ignored the first and second men's pained moans, knowing they were rendered harmless via the time honored technique of being shot in the legs.
Qrow was fine; surrounded by a small crowd of unconscious suited men in various poses while stumbling to the bar, but otherwise in a good shape, lacking any fresh bullet holes thanks to O'Neill. Teal'c was in a similar condition, leaving his brief melee in one stoic piece. Although not before passing a man who was moaning in agony, which earned the luckless guy a hard smack from the staff's base. Eliane still looked distinctly unhappy with the location, even leaving out the two unconscious women she left behind. One was lying facedown with an arm bent the wrong way, the other had her head buried in the wall, both were limp save for some shallow breathing.
Stretching out, O'Neill winced at a spike of pain in his knee. There was plenty in his chest too, but that wasn't something to get concerned about. Gingerly avoiding another unconscious bouncer he broke a stool on, he strode across the eerily quiet dance floor towards the bar, going around the incapacitated remains of the club's security detail.
Unlike Qrow, he wasn't after a tall glass some frightened patron left behind, but a sharply dressed barman slumped against the front counter. He was still breathing fortunately, hissing while he delicately felt the arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Upon noticing the incognito Colonel and two of his companions coming to a stop in front of him, the bearded barman put on a hate filled glare. "You... better pay... for this."
"Yeah, sure. If you hadn't flipped out when we dropped in, none of this would've happened." O'Neill explained loftily, nudging a rocket launcher firmly out of his reach. "This is on you buddy."
When a strobe light flicked on in a dizzying flashing spectacle, Eliane glanced up to frown. In one smooth motion she notched a fresh arrow, drew it back to aim, and let loose. A brief shower of sparks put an end to the display, as well as making the barman snarl.
"Hey, that's expensive!" he gasped, immediately grabbing his injured shoulder.
Slamming the glass down, Qrow sighed happily before turning away, a fresh spring in his step when he rejoined the group. The disapproving frowns from Teal'c and Eliane made him shrug, raising a brow at them.
"Really. Say, how much money do you got sunk into this joint?" O'Neill asked devilishly, grinning while he felt the grip of his strapped P90.
As if on cue another light came on, this one flashing in a multicolored display. As the closest Teal'c turned to face it, waving Eliane down before raising his staff. The top bulb split open, energy crackling over the tip loud enough to echo in the cavernous room. A bolt of searing plasma left the weapon, crossing the distance to completely obliterate the strobe light in a flash of sparks.
"Okay, okay!" the barman cried, sticking a hand out with his palm splayed. "Just, stop breaking the lights, they're brand new."
"Now we're talking." Qrow commented approvingly, arms crossed and weapon slung away. He hadn't drawn the sword once since they left Beacon, resorting to fisticuffs during the brawl to great effect.
Backing away, O'Neill let Teal'c step up to face the barman, his expression a hard mask. "Tell us the whereabouts of Tyrian Callows."
"Don't know him." he replied immediately. But a few seconds of Teal'c glaring made him groan. "I know of the guy, but I don't deal with the kind of crazy that whacko has. Just been keeping my ears open if or when trouble comes raining down."
"And?" O'Neill prompted expectantly.
The barman sucked in a breath. "You'll find him holed up in the docks, either palling around with the White Fang or running solo. Those faunus stick together, so I'd say try your luck with them."
"You know, I did suggest checking that place out first." Qrow said dryly, briefly sending a weighted stare towards O'Neill. "Anyway, care to be more specific?" he inquired, giving the numerous bottles on the far wall a longing glance.
"All I know. No one deals with his type for long, either the law gets 'em or he does. That's it." the barman hissed.
Exchanging a look with the others, O'Neill shrugged. "Pretty sure that's all we're gonna get out of him. What do you say?"
"Acceptable." Teal'c rumbled, clicking the staff to close the top.
"Good enough. Least he's in the city." Qrow agreed, dropping his arms to shrug.
O'Neill nodded. "Works for me. Now let's get out of here before why is Ellie missing?"
The two men immediately glanced around the room to make the same observation as him: Eliane was nowhere to be found. Frowning unhappily, O'Neill turned to raise a brow at the barman, who winced indignantly at the silent accusation. Deepening his look made the man sigh, thumping his head against the wall.
A set of footsteps coming from a door beside the bar caught the men's attentions, though the trio relaxed when the hooded blonde left the entrance with a small grey box in her grip. Stopping beside them, she unceremoniously dropped the clattering prize to the floor. She finished by giving it a stomp, thoroughly crushing the fragile looking machine.
"Is that..." the barman trailed off, his quivering eyes wide at the destroyed box.
"Your central computer node yes. I disabled all the phone lines and erased the security footage for the past two days as well. Your network security needs updating, badly." Eliane replied flatly, tapping her boot to get bits of plastic off.
Both O'Neill and Qrow blinked in surprise, the former whistling impressively.
"Thorough." Teal'c noted with approval. The barman groaned despairingly.
"I also tipped off the police to an illegal Dust shipment that will arrive tomorrow, it was heading to this club." she added, steeling her gaze when she turned to O'Neill. "I told you I don't like places like this. Now you can see why."
Inhaling deeply the Colonel brought his hands together, a variety of expressions flashing over him.
"Alrighty, so this did end up working out, great." he sighed deeply, spinning towards the door to point. "Okay kids, back to the yellow brick road. By the way, what'd he mean by faunus?"
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Pyrrha was worried, very much so. The redhead sat on one of the beds with her hands in her lap, unable to keep entirely still. For the life of her she couldn't keep track of the conversation going just a few meters away, too enveloped in her feelings to really care about the subject matter. She wanted to get involved, to leave the nasty lump in her guts behind and simply enjoy the company of her friends. But she couldn't.
"Not quite all of them, we had a run in with one who wasn't what I'd call nice." Carter explained to the uninformed audience, laying a hand on the borrowed P90 beside her once she finished gesturing.
Given the situation they found themselves in, most of the occupants chose to sit on the beds. Carter and a sullen Daniel were on one, with Yang and Blake on the opposite side, closest to the door. To the side of them Ren, Nora, and Jaune had a makeshift seat, with the latter utterly silent since he returned to the room. Pyrrha's chosen spot was held by Ruby, and on the same side as the Earthers Weiss sat alone on a bed, facing the adults. Without exception, everyone in the room had a weapon.
"But they pretend to be gods too, like the Goa'uld." Weiss pointed out, frowning in confusion.
Glancing beside her, Carter nudged Daniel (who was occupied by massaging his face), making him sigh when he looked up. "They told us as much, the Asgard only do that because there's no other way for them to guide humans on protected planets. Thor doesn't like being worshipped, but he knows he can't stop it, so he uses the god angle to get his message across."
"Still, its a little hypocritical for them to be against the Goa'uld for claiming to be gods." Weiss continued, Blake nodding in agreement.
"The Asgard don't like the Goa'uld for a lot more than that." Ren spoke up, unmoving from his seat. "The god claim is a major issue, but far from the most important."
"Yeah, Thor doesn't have many kind words for them." Carter agreed, something flashing over her face for a split second.
Blake took a deep breath, leaning back on the bed. "Well, thanks for answering my question."
"Yeah, that cleared stuff up. This short though..." Yang shook her head, huffing at the revelation they were given.
"No problem, not like there's anything else we should be doing." Daniel muttered ruefully.
"Well, least you had a good day, right?" Ruby checked, her features darkening when she saw Weiss looking away.
"I did anyway. Got the chance to look over several Atlesian androids, mechanically speaking they're remarkably simple once you understand the basics. I'm not entirely certain if I can reprogram one right now, but I'm sure I could if I needed to." Carter replied, idly moving the gun to her lap.
"Yeah, met a supposed history buff who has a decent sized collection... and none of it was cataloged. Found out he's only researching history to settle a bet." the doctor groaned, taking off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. His own P90 was in arms reach, but unlike Carter he didn't keep touching the weapon every minute or so.
"So today sucked, but that's okay." Yang summarized, a grin coming over her. "You can either mope, Thor look at the bright side." she finished, earning a dry stare from both Daniel and Blake. Weiss did the honors; she snatched up a pillow and threw it, smacking the blonde in the face hard enough to knock her over.
While they talked Pyrrha stole glances at Jaune, anxiously noting his posture. The blond payed even less attention to the gathering than her, hunched over with his hands intertwined, staring a hole in the floor nearby her seat. Although his bangs obscured much of his face, she could easily tell his expression was one of sullen anger. His exposed thumbs idly moved to and fro, as if they were grappling with each other. He hadn't spoken a word since he flopped onto the seat, all he did was breathe and play with his thumbs.
A beep from a scroll caught the redhead's attention, peering over to the source while the room fell silent. Hesitantly opening the device, Ruby sighed dejectedly at the icon of whoever was calling her. Her finger hovered over the display for a moment before landing in a tap.
"Hey Val." she greeted tiredly, glancing around the crowded room.
"Hi Ruby, sorry for calling this late." went a voice Pyrrha recognized, recalling the successful dialing back on Earth. "Um, you busy right now? Thought I should check in before dropping by."
Ruby sighed. "I am actually, sorry."
Valentine groaned over the line. "That sucks, and I finally have some free time after this giant test marathon too. Just wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out tonight, I invited Oscar too."
"I'd love to, but like I said, I have something going on right now. Tomorrow then?" Ruby asked, sparing an apprehensive look towards her companions.
"Yeah, sure, tomorrow. Later then, good luck with what you're doing." Valentine spoke glumly, the scroll chirping a moment later.
Sighing as she closed the device, the red toned girl leaned back once she put it away. Carter clearing her throat made Ruby glance over, the blonde woman giving her a curious look.
"That was Valentine Trail, he's a first year here. He doesn't know anything about, you know." the huntress gestured around rather than finishing.
"Thanks. But unless I'm mistaken, I've heard his voice before. During the test dial back on Earth. You two were there too." Carter pointed two fingers, one aimed at Weiss, the other at Pyrrha.
Finally broken from her mood, the redhead snapped her gaze over while automatically straightening up, just in time for the white haired girl to cough.
"Yeah, we um, took Valentine and his team out for a training exercise as a cover so we could find the gate." Weiss quickly explained, her throat bobbing with her gulp.
"Yep, just tagging along so we could go hunt for you guys is all." Yang jumped in, swinging her fist through the air in forced cheer.
"Its okay, I'm not upset about your methods. You did what you had to do." Carter spoke fast, waving off any protests. Daniel sighed again, but whether it was because of his teammate or the ongoing situation was unclear.
Nora looked between the speakers, a sly grin coming over her when she settled on Ruby. "I think Val boy here has a crush on you."
"What?! Not at all, no!" Ruby immediately denied, waving her hands about almost far enough to smack the redhead. "He's just a friend, that's it."
Despite Ren elbowing her ribs, Nora's grin increased. "Nah ah, he has a crush, I know one when I see it."
"Well..." Blake hummed, pointedly looking away.
"Val doesn't have a crush on me." Ruby declared with a jab at the others, amidst Yang's snickering.
"I think Oscar has one on me, but hasn't done anything about it. I think his teammates won't let him get a date, poor guy." the blonde shook her head in apparent pity.
"Plus you're taken already." Weiss added smugly, smirking at her revenge.
"I am?" Yang went, turning to her friend with a brow raised. Suddenly she widened her eyes. "Ooh, right, Kyle... Cirrus I think? Um..." scratching the back of her head, she let out a weak chuckle. "I, uh, forgot to mention we broke up like four days ago."
"Aw, I liked his baking." Ruby said dejectedly, slumping.
"Heartbreaker." Daniel commented dryly, falling back on the bed to stare at the ceiling. "Uninterested historians, leaving authorities out of the loop, and schoolyard gossip. This is my life now. Verdammte kinder." he muttered, wincing when Carter rapped a knuckle on his knee.
"Speaking of dating, what about you guys?" Yang turned around, glancing towards Nora in particular. "Jaune said there's six billion people on Earth, there has to be a few worth checking out."
Ren coughed into a hand. "We don't get out much. It took close to a year just to be able to head into Colorado Springs unsupervised."
"Cheyenne Mountain and Area Fifty One have a lot of cute guys though. There was this one who used to work in the mess, I flirted with him a lot a while back. But you know, that wasn't ever going anywhere, so oh well." Nora half rambled, finishing with a clap on her thighs.
"How abhorrent." Weiss muttered ruefully, wincing a second later when she saw Daniel flopping his head up towards the girls, giving her an unhappy look.
Ruby suddenly frowned, turning to the redhead beside. "Hey Pyrrha, are you seeing anyone?"
Jaune abruptly stood up, taking a second to stretch his arms. The fact he drew the groups collective gaze went disregarded. Without looking at anyone, he strolled across the room at a stately pace, one hand resting on the base of his sword.
"Getting some air." he said softly, not pausing until he reached the door.
"Right, don't go far Arc." Carter ordered cautiously, raising a brow when he nodded.
"Yes ma'am." he replied without looking, barely an octave louder than before.
Glancing around for a second, Carter latched her gaze on the redhead. "Nikos, go with him. If anything happens get back here right away."
"Yes ma'am." Pyrrha was on her feet in a heartbeat, all but sprinting after Jaune when he left the room. She barely slowed long enough to swing the door closed behind her, the latch softly clicking shut.
Once outside she had to jog to catch up to Jaune's long strides, the blond not appearing to notice her until she was right beside him. Even then it took grabbing his arm to make him finally stop, forcing him to whip around to face her.
"What're you doing?" Pyrrha demanded, all of her attention locked onto him.
Jaune huffed, rolling his head over his shoulders. "I'm going after them. You're welcome to tag along."
"Tag along-" Pyrrha shook her head, running a hand down her face. When she looked up again, his expression hadn't changed. "Colonel O'Neill specifically ordered us to stay in that room." she said forcefully, jabbing a finger back the way they came.
"And how many times has he disobeyed orders for a good reason?" he replied, crossing his arms. His determined look wasn't flickering at all.
"This is completely different. You were right there when Ren and Nora reported what happened, now how can you compare this to SG-1 saving the Earth?" she snapped, more harshly than what she wanted.
Jaune narrowed his eyes.
"Because they need us." he said lowly, turning to slowly walk towards the window. "We've been here for almost a week, and what have we done? Just hang out, practicing some swordplay, and wasting time. Now we have a chance to show O'Neill we have what it takes, and we're busy gossiping instead."
Features wrinkling, Pyrrha could only stare when his hands came to a rest on the windowsill. "Do you even hear yourself? This isn't a contest, lives are on the line here."
"I know." he muttered, facing away.
Swallowing a lump, Pyrrha reached out to his shoulder, planning on trying to talk him out of his inane idea. She didn't realize what he was doing until it was too late; a quick shove opened the window to the outside, letting in a cold gust which made her involuntarily shiver. It was a delay of only a couple seconds, time enough for him to grab the sill to vault feet first out of the opening.
"Jaune!" she cried out, dashing to the window to half fling herself over the ledge, fear written all over her expression. The second story drop he willingly took ended in a roll, the young man releasing a pained grunt before rising. As she watched he ran off in a jog, vanishing into the darkness.
Grimacing, Pyrrha sucked in a breath while she clutched the ledge. For a moment she tested the sill, guardedly peering over the low drop. But when she tried putting some of her weight on the frame, the redhead sighed and backed away, rubbing her brow.
"Whatever you thinking?" she murmured to herself.
"The worst ideas are the funnest."
Whirling herself around, Pyrrha had Miló and Akoúo in her grip in an instant, briefly freezing at the sight of a stranger barely two meters away. She tensed up regardless, her face a hard mask. Though she was distracted aplenty, the redhead was fully aware they were alone a moment ago.
"Hiya." greeted the girl with a small wave, gripping her elbows once she finished. She was leaning against the wall with one foot resting atop the other, completely at ease. "You know, if he wanted out so bad, there's a set of stairs right over there. Oh well, hindsight."
Pyrrha took a step back, keeping her shield between her and the oddly familiar goat horned girl. "Who are you?"
"Oh, where are my manners." the girl in the blooming white and red outfit left the wall to stand up straight, before bending over and throwing one arm to the side; an exaggerated curtsy. "I am Masculum Ovis Aries. Liar, cheater, and prankster extraordinaire, hailing from the lands of ashes and broken dreams. At your service." she spoke formally, standing up again with a grin. "You can shorten that to Mask if you want, but only my friends get to call me Ram. Because of the horns." she concluded by tapping on the grey horn sprouting from her scalp.
"Yeah, I know about you, now why are you in this hallway?" Pyrrha questioned tightly, gripping her weapons tighter. The girl appeared unarmed, but that made no difference to her.
"Got lost, this place is a maze you know. Correct me if I'm wrong, but were you on the VIP landing pad the other day?" Masculum asked innocently, leaning to rest against the wall once more.
"How'd you get in here?" Pyrrha continued, moving so she had room to fall back.
Masculum snorted bemusedly. "Never tell the truth to those who aren't worthy is one of my mottos. Now, if you were to answer my question first, that'd be different."
Letting out a breath through clenched teeth, Pyrrha narrowed her eyes. "I was there yeah. Now how'd you get into this building?"
"You say that like its hard. The guest dorms are left open most of the time, but even if they're locked, it's pretty easy to find another entrance. The staff don't really care if students come in here for some quiet time. For studying of course." Masculum explained evenly, her smirk unwavering. "I just gotta say, I'm a huge fan of Pumpkin Pete's, but they haven't had a good mascot since you were replaced."
"Thanks." Pyrrha muttered, finally lowering her weapons. Without putting either one away she began stepping in reverse, unwilling to put her back to the girl.
The faunus nodded, still keeping her smirk. "Say, you're friends with Ruby Rose, right?"
"Yeah, have been for a while." she replied, making no attempt to hide her suspicion. The odds of this girl being here by coincidence were too low for her to even think about.
"Then you know what she did." she said offhandedly.
Pyrrha stopped, leveling a hard stare on her. "Excuse me?"
"Oh c'mon, its one of the worst kept secrets around here." Masculum shrugged off, the glint in her magenta eyes sharply changing. "I've been wanting a first hand account from the girl herself, but so far no luck."
"What're you talking about?" she questioned coldly.
"Hold on a sec. You mean, you don't know?" the goat horned girl tipped her head back, covering her mouth to hide her toothy grin. "Not a very good friend, are you?"
"I asked you a question." Pyrrha reminded, tightening the grip of her weapon.
Masculum's smirk grew, the girl pushing herself off the wall to cross her hands behind her back. "Everybody knows about the Battle of Beacon, all you have to do is look around to see how the boondoggle turned out. But do you know what kicked it off?"
"I know the broad strokes." Pyrrha replied, tensing when the faunus began to step closer to her.
Pausing a body's length away, the girl briefly shifted her weight from heels to toes, broadly grinning.
"If you really wanna find out, then tomorrow go to room twenty seven in the main dorm, eleven ay-em sharp. Be there, and be ready for enlightenment." she said enigmatically, finishing with a wink. A quick twist of her feet whisked the girl around, taking off in a cheer filled walk.
"What makes you think I'll come?" Pyrrha challenged.
"You will when you ask Ruby about the Vytal Festival." was Masculum's reply, not even slowing down.