This Will Be the Day 3.1
Lightning
Alec stared down Lisa. She held a long stick made of some kind of plastic, slightly narrower at one end—not enough to be sharp, but enough to know which end to poke someone with. He had a shorter stick of a similar material, with a heavier head at one end. Alec tossed his stick in the air, watched it twirl, and banged his knuckles against the handle while trying to catch it.
Lisa charged, jabbing Alec and knocking him backwards. He scrabbled forward, grabbed his stick in both hands, and blocked a swing from Lisa. As Lisa brought back her stick for another attack, Alec pushed himself up and stepped forward. Lisa adjusted her grip to deal with Alec being close, but he quickly aimed a swing between her legs. Lisa blocked the stick with her knee before clumsily swinging her weapon at Alec. Alec sidestepped the blow, before driving his shoulder into Lisa's chest. She fell, her stick knocked out of her hands. Lisa tried to grab her weapon, but Alec used his power on her. He felt his Aura slowly ebbing as it forced aside Lisa's, letting his power twist Lisa's arm away from her weapon. He moved forward and stepped on the stick.
Alec turned to Ms. Goodwitch, the Huntress from the night before. "Did I win?"
"The purpose of this exercise is not to determine winners or losers, Mr. Blanche. We are here to determine what weapons you are suited for."
"...But did I win?"
"You have completed this bout," Goodwitch said. "Ms. Sturm, Ms. Terzi, have you picked your weapons?" Aisha and Sabah nodded. The former had two very short sticks, with crossguards near one end; the latter had a short stick with a cord attached to one end. "Very well. Mr. Blanche, Ms. Woda, return your weapons to the rack and have a seat."
Alec and Lisa did as requested. Lisa went to chat with Taylor and Brian about things that were important, but boring. Alec wanted to talk with Aisha, but she was busy; he would have watched her fight, but Alec knew her power would make that pointless. So he looked around the empty, cavernous arena-gymnasium-thing, and he thought.
Two days ago, they were afraid—afraid of the White Fang, afraid of thorough investigations, afraid of their luck running out. Something like twelve hours ago, they were getting their asses handed to them by common crooks. Now...now, they were on a path to being some of the top heroes in the world.
Alec didn't care much, but he did have some concerns. Alec could fake being a good, well-adjusted kid—he could fake just about anything, if he felt like it—but the others weren't so lucky. Taylor, Sabah, and Lily were close enough to normal that they didn't have much to worry about, and Lisa wasn't much worse, but Brian was too mature, Aisha too immature, and Rachel was...Rachel. Add to that the fact that they were literally out of this world, and they would stick out like a sore thumb.
Alec wondered what it would be like, going to school. He never went to an actual school school; Heartbreaker just had some of his women educate his kids with some direction and let them learn whatever else they wanted from the Internet. Spending time with a bunch of well-adjusted children (well, teenagers) in an organized, supervised setting...When I think about it like that, it sounds even worse than home. Okay, not that bad, but still.
Aisha's match was over, and Goodwitch called Lily and Lisa to have a fight. Goodwitch asked Lisa to try a longer stick this time. Alec waved Aisha over, and she came.
"Hey," Alec said.
"Hey. I don't get why she doesn't just let me use that knife I found."
"Maybe you can keep it anyways. Use it as a, what's the word, main-gauche."
"I'm surprised you know much about swords and stuff."
"One of my big sisters was into swords and stuff. I was her favorite training dummy."
Aisha winced. "Ouch."
"Hey, she gave me weapons to defend myself with. Though there was this one time she broke a couple bones in my hand once. Dad didn't like that..."
Alec and Aisha watched the fight. Lily was using her sword-ey stick skillfully, but Lisa was using her long spear-ey stick to keep her out of reach.
Aisha broke the silence. "So."
"So...school?"
"Ugh. I hope it's not like Adams back home. That place sucked."
"Beacon looks better-funded, at least. And if the teachers are Huntsmen, there probably won't be many miscreants."
"There's probably something good about it, too." Aisha grinned.
"Heh, yeah. If they let kids have guns they can't be all bad."
"...The headmaster seemed nice."
Alec shrugged. "I bet Armsmaster acted nice to the Wards."
"Well, we're the headmaster's Wards, aren't we?"
"Point."
"...That sounds wrong, you know?" Aisha chuckled. "We're like Wards. The Undersiders are superheroes now."
"Yeah...It's funny. With Junior and all, I thought we were just going to pick up in Vale where we left off on Earth. But Junior bought the farm, Lisa said 'let's be good guys,' and now we're good guys."
Aisha nodded. "Is...is it going to work?"
Alec shrugged. "Probably. I mean, it can't be that different from what we did at home. We've got a lot more experience beating other villains than most Wards do, and I bet the students here have less experience with that than most Wards. Probably."
"Heroes need to be respected."
"Respect, fear, same thing. Keep doing the same stuff we've done before but make sure they know we're on their side."
"It sounds so easy when you say it."
Lily darted past Lisa's stick. Lisa tried to knock her out of the way, but Lily stayed on her feet and threw Lisa to the floor.
"It's not that I make it sound easy," Alec said as Goodwitch helped Lisa to her feet. "I just make it sound familiar."
Goodwitch called Rachel and Brian over. She gave Rachel a big, funny-shaped club and Brian some heavy gloves. Rachel charged at Brian as soon as the sparring match began.
"...Are you sure?" Aisha asked.
"Of what?"
"That things will still be the same at Beacon as they were with Coil. Because it seems like it'll either be really weird or a lot like school."
"Well, it's basically a superhero school, so it won't just be classrooms and stuff. Besides, people are basically the same everywhere."
"I'm not so sure about that..."
"I mean, every person is different than every other person, but when you get enough of them together they always act basically the same." Alec began gesturing. "My family wasn't that different from Coil's coalition, present company excepted, and the Protectorate and the Merchants and Empire 88 aren't that different from them, even though none of them seem much alike. I've never been to a real school, but it seems like it would basically be the same."
"I don't think that's as helpful as I think you think it is."
"Why?"
"...If all these big groups are so similar, even the ones that look different on the surface, then groups that look similar would be basically identical, right?"
Alec shrugged. "Probably, I guess?"
Aisha brought her knees to her chest. "I...don't do well in school. I'm afraid that I'll ruin everything for us."
Alec put an arm around Aisha's shoulders and tried to bring her close, but Aisha shoved him away. Alec sighed and tried to think about what might make Aisha feel better. "Didn't you think the same whe—"
He heard Goodwitch calling for him and Sabah, so he threw something together.
"You'll figure it out," Alec said quickly. "You probably know more about school now than you did about being Imp when you started that. You're smarter than you think."
Aisha smiled. "Kick her ass, alright?"
~0~
Alec kicked Sabah's ass, but the other Undersiders were harder to beat. Most of them had more experience or practice in beating people up; for only the second time, Alec wish he paid more attention to Brian's self-defense lessons.
The Undersiders sparred for a couple of hours, while Goodwitch took notes. Afterwards, they spent about half an hour at Beacon's firing range, trying out various ranged weapons—pistols, rifles, shotguns, bows, and so on. Goodwitch observed their performance, taking notes on how poorly most of them were doing. Something about Goodwitch made Alec slightly uncomfortable, like she was a mixture of the strictest and most boring parts of Brian, Coil, and Armsmaster; Alec looked forward to messing with her.
It was still midmorning when the Undersiders finished their tests. Goodwitch lead them to the gates of Beacon. "Before you go, I have a few words for you."
The Undersiders stopped. Alec wasn't worried, but he knew some of the others would be. He glanced over to Lisa, who looked calm, so Alec knew the others probably wouldn't worry. Aside from Sabah, of course.
"Headmaster Ozpin believes you have the potential to be great Huntsmen and Huntresses. That is, after all, why you are here. I and most of the faculty here at Beacon will believe him; Ozpin's wisdom has showed him greatness where no one else could predict it too many times to do otherwise. But not everyone knows Ozpin as well as we do. There are many important people who will question his decision, to bring eight children into Beacon on the basis of having interfered with a robbery."
"I ques—" Aisha stopped talking when Brian elbowed her.
Goodwitch stared at Aisha for a moment before continuing. "If you fail to live up to Ozpin's expectations, it will reflect badly on him, and on Beacon and its graduates." For each group Goodwitch named, she gestured sharply with her hand. She looked at each of the future students in front of her, one by one, before continuing. "For your sake, Ozpin's sake, and Beacon's sake, you will exceed his expectations. Do I make myself clear?"
The Undersiders nodded quietly.
"It will not be sufficient for you to act like children, as so many students here do. Not even acting as students will be satisfactory. Ozpin believes you attempted to stop Torchwick because you are Huntsmen at heart. You will act like it. Whether you lead your teams or whether you must follow, whether you are with one another or with other students or alone, whether in class or in the field or in your dormitories, you will act with the bravery, kindness, and honor which one would expect from a Huntsman, acting as a role model for every other student. Do I make myself clear?"
The Undersiders nodded again, more slowly.
"With this in mind, you must also remember your place. You are here to learn. One day, you will be Huntsmen and Huntresses. One day, you will protect the world—but that day is not today. In particular, you are not to continue to hunt Roman Torchwick or his associates."
Alec suspected that she was attempting reverse psychology. It fit better that way, especially with how she wanted them to act Huntsmanny. I'll need to ask Lisa about that. I wonder if her ass is on the line, too.
"You lost to him once," Goodwitch continued, "which is nothing to be ashamed of. You were unarmed, untrained, and unready. Here at Beacon, you will be made ready to face the forces which threaten humanity, but until you are ready, your focus must be on becoming the best Huntsmen you can be. Do I make myself clear?"
The Undersiders nodded for a third time.
"Good. Return here tomorrow; Ozpin should have found most if not all of your weapons by then. The day after, you will officially come to Beacon, and the day after that is initiation. Be familiar with your weapons by then. I look forward to seeing you then."
Well, that's fucking ominous.
