Mission Start
Malak wakes up earlier than usual, 3 hours early to be exact. He tries to go back to bed but is unable to, due to a nightmare that caused him to wake up in the first place. Seeing that he couldn't go back to sleep, Malak gets dressed in runners clothing and sneaks out the room quietly. After making his way outside he runs the perimeter of the academy, enjoying the crisp night air. A man in a suit sits on a bench staring up at the night sky a Beacon mug in his hands. His silver eyes twinkles as he looks down at the mug. He doesn't need the drink, but he could never say no. He sighed as he touches his numerous scars on his face. They were visible but didn't hurt anymore. Not like the ones on his soul. Insomnia is the worst, he knows this. But at least he has the quiet and aloneness he craved As Malak runs around the academy he notices the man in the armor. ( Isn't that the guy who Revan was fighting?) Malak makes his way towards him. "Can't sleep either, sir?" He looks to Malak.
"You have me mistaken for someone else I'm sure." He fixes his tie. "Either that or you're more perceptive than I expected."
"Well I might have or might have not, whether I'm right or wrong is not my point of talking to you though. I just thought of saying hello."
"Well, that is...friendly of you. Hello...Malak is it?"
"So I was right?" a small smiles forms on his face then extends his arm for a handshake "Yes I am, and you are Argent right?" Argent shakes his hand.
"Argentum Stella. Most call me Argent."
"So are you a new professor at the school?"
"No. Ozpin requested me. I've been...away for a while. He asked me to help him with something here."
"I'm going to guess that 'something' is classified?"
"Not really." he offers Malak his cup of coffee. "it does me no good." Malak accepts the coffee then takes a sip then cringes a bit
"I see you like to take your coffee exactly on how it was brewed." Hands back coffee "So can you tell me on what the professor had you called down here for?"
"I do?" Argent looks confused at the coffee "I don't drink it, so I wasn't aware that that was something you were supposed to do." he tosses it but keeps the mug. "Ozpin needs me to do some field work. But he wants me to work with...others. I don't work well with others anymore. So this will be difficult" he looks Malak in the eye "For both parties. My suggestion? Forecast says snow tomorrow. I'd bring a jacket."
"Well that was certainly ominous for you to say." Malak says looking at Argent straight in the eyes as well.
"You know what they say? expect nothing and everything. Take it or leave it. As it is I'm just supposed to be a soulless statue that stands around and...forgive me, that was out of malice. I should excuse myself." Argent gets up towering over Malak. "I hope your run is well. I wouldn't worry about rest too much. The birds are saying they'll be much not to do on the horizon. Until next we meet." he crosses his chest with one arm and does a slight bow and starts walking away
(Certainly the most interesting person I've met here so far.) Malak returns back to his run and does it for the next 2 hours before returning back to his dorm.
Argent is practicing his hand to hand in his room. Out of breath and tired, he walks over to his suit of armor on its stand. He equips it and kneels before the bureau and clasps his hands together bowing his head. He clasps a necklace with a ring and earring on it. He gets up putting it around his neck and donning his helmet. He walks away from a picture of four people with the title ARGT on it. He slings his sword over his shoulder and walks out of his room.
The time to wake up for Team MRUVJ comes and the groups wakes but sees Malak is dressed and waiting for them to be ready again. A knock is heard from the door
"I got it" Malak opens the door. Vincent wakes up seeing a fully dressed Malak and a stranger at the door. After scratching his eyes the stranger seemed a whole lot more familiar.
"Who is that Malak?" Vincent asks as he gets out his bed. There's a small student standing there.
"umm is Vincent here?" He asks.
"That depends, why do you need to see him?"
"Umm mmm professor oobleck needs to see him... in the courtyard okay Bai"
he runs off.
"I wonder what he wants you for Vincent." Jasper says as he starts to get out of bed.
(This is certainly a weird day) "Hey Vincent, Professor Oobleck needs you at the courtyard."
"Huh...me?" Vincent asked as he got into his school uniform. "Well I guess I won't keep the good man waiting." Vincent says as he hurries on to the courtyard wondering along the way. (A professor asking for a one on one conversation? Hope I'm not in trouble for that incident with Rankorr).
"Wait why in the courtyard?" Says Ully.
Argent sees Vincent hurrying by. (strange. Where's the rest of his teammates?) he debates finding Malak and the others but simply follows him at a distance. There is a figure in the courtyard.
"I'm curious of the same thing as well. Come on let's see if something else is going on." Malak sets off to the courtyard. Ully and Jasper followed Malak out.
Malak leads his team through a couple of shortcuts and manages to arrive there before Vincent does. He has the team hide while having a good vantage point on the courtyard. " Huh, where's the good professor?"
Vincent makes it to the courtyard with his scroll on hand. When he reaches the courtyard he sees a lone figure standing by itself. (Is this who wanted to see me, seems kinda...gloomy) "Hey did you want to see me?" Vincent ask loudly.
The figure speaks "Yes I did." Rankorr steps out from the shadows "You owe me some blood." His teammates surround Vincent. Argent sees this and is angered.
"Bullies. I should help..."
"I knew it!" Malak runs out of his hiding spot and reveals himself to the attackers "AND WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"
"Do you have a receipt for that claim? If not I suggest you go back home." Vincent states as he puts his hand behind his back to tap his coordinates to his locker on his scroll. Vincent then sees his teammate Malak join his side. Although happy to have a helping hand they were still outnumbered by Rankorr's team. Vincent backs up closer to Malak before putting his scroll away into his pocket. "Hey, any ideas? My lockers gonna take a minute to get here," Vincent whispers.
Argent backs off (Well Ozpin did want me to observe...) Rankorr stares at Malak.
"Not your place now if you don't mind." his team closes in on Vince
"Vincent is part of Team MRUVJ, and I am their team leader! And as team leader I decree that if you mess with one of us then you have to deal with the rest of us!" Whispers to Vincent "I say wing it."
"That's fine. We'll put you both in the hospital" he grins and his cronies laugh as they draw their weapons.
"What the hell? Where did you get those? Eh, whatever I'll still kick your asses bare handed!"
Unlike you little pansies we aren't stupid enough to come empty-hande-
A locker flies in at the same time as Vincent's does. Jasper walks up grabbing his weapon. "Nice to meet you lovely folks. I have good eyes and saw yall chilling." He says readying his stance. Jasper's sudden appearance and weaponry caught Rankorr off guard.
"The hell?"
After slamming into the dirt it the other locker opens up to reveal Vincent's halberd. (Professor Goodwitch is going to be so mad at me) Vincent hurries over and grabs his weapon, taking a combat stance ready to take on Rankorr's team with his own. Dante doesn't care to bring his locker into the fight as well and takes on the challenge of fighting without a weapon and gets into his combat stance
"Well, you still up for this dick-head?"
Rankorr Thug 1: "Umm boss with all due respect fuck this. It was just supposed to be the one."
"Shut up we'll just kill em all." Rankorr punches his fists together and the thugs do some weapon flair. Malak and Vince waits for Rankorr and his men to charge him Jasper has his weapon in staff form.
Rankorr throws a punch at Vince. 1 and 2 attack Malak with nunchucks and 3 throws some caltrops at Jasper.
Vincent sees Rankorr's blow a mile away and quickly responds by swinging his halberd to parry the powerful attack. He then spins his weapon once before attacking with a hard strike from the left to hit Rankorr's face. (Two on one against Malak? Seems fair to me)
Jasper swings his staff hitting all of the caltrops in one direction in a group so that he knows not to step on them. And charges towards 4. Swinging his staff towards the man's gut like a baseball bat.
Rankorr takes the blow in stride getting thrown back a few feet. 4 gets thrown at Rankorr
"We're getting killed man!"
Malak sees the two going at him and gets excited at the fact he's fighting two at the same time. He let's the two get in close and when he finds the opportunity he sides steps to his left then kicks thug's 1 knee in then follows it by pushing him towards thug 2.
"You're so useless!...Actually" he grins menacing "HEADSUP!" Rankorr picks up 3 who is screaming and chucks him at Vince. 1 falls over 2 and they whimper.
"Come on, what's wrong? Use your superior numbers and beat us already! Come on, hit me, fight me, give me a hug!" Says Malak laughing.
Vincent sees Rankorr tossing his companion at him. He sighs with a grin before grasping his weapons with both hands. At the last second Vincent swings a powerful blow at the flying student to send him flying back to Rankorr. ( Students tossing students? Can this place get any weirder than Mistral?)
1 and 2 get up trembling loading their guns for long ranged combat as they run off firing at Malak and the others blindly. Rankorr punches 3 into the sky pulling a Team Rocket as he stomps the ground "I will break you in two!"
Jasper starts to run at Rankorr from behind. Malak dodges the bullets and gets behind cover, afterwards he uses his semblance and absorbs as much of the sunlight as he can. Once he finally has enough his speed is increased and he charges towards 1 and 2. He left hooks 1 then goes for a tornado kick towards 2's face.
Rankorr attempts to grab Vince's leg. 1 and 2 go down with a round object dropping from 2 that makes a fast beeping noise. 3 falls back down towards Jasper wailing.
"Oh shite!" Malak acts quickly and kicks the object towards Rankorr
Jasper, using his momentum he dashes to the side and throws himself away from what looked like Malak kicking a bomb his way and dodging 3 as he collapses into the ground. Vincent seeing Rankorr's display Vincent could tell he wasn't as coordinated as a hunter should have been. (Whelp time to put this weapon into full use) Vincent reloads his halberd with fire dust and fires his halberd at the beeping object as it flies towards Rankorr. The object explodes into a flashbang blinding Rankorr and anyone looking at him. he weakly swings as he collapses the rest of his cronies feigning unconsciousness
"Well that settles that." Says Malak.
The group hears Revans voice in the distant. "Now finish them!"
"AND WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?" Yells Malak.
"I'd prefer not to be charged for murder." Jasper calls back.
"You guys are no fun."
Vincent walks over to the downed Rankorr and shakes his head before planting his foot on his chest. "So I hope you've learned your lesson. You are never gonna be a hunter if you keep acting like this buddy."
"Good fight guys. I wish someone would have called me but I would be too much for them." he says with a joking shit eatin grin on his face.
"Come on Vincent, that's enough boasting already. But, I did enjoy my fight."
"Boasting? I was giving this troubling student honest advice. Either way who is gonna clean up this entire mess?" Vincent says to Malak. Argent approaches the team from the shadows.
"Go."
"Argent? Uh, yeah, come on guys." Malak begins to walk towards class
"Alright" With the victory over Rankorr's team Vincent felt that there was no need for any further surprises and the team follows Malak. Argent thinks for a minute.
"I should simply report this to Ozpin. They'll probably get expelled. Hmmm…"
The team all makes it to their next class in time and takes their seat. Then they await patiently for their professor.
Meanwhile with Argent (well, I'm sure they learned their lessons. Rankorr may be a coward, but he does have strength. His lackies LACK a backbone) he chuckles (but they can be taught. Yeah, I think I'm just gonna take them back to the dorm).
"Ugh...whats with you soup can?" Rankorr says groggily. Argent stares blankly
"Oh whoops I tripped." Argent drops his armored knee into Rankorr's face knocking him out cold. "There. Now you learned your lesson. Possibly. You may have a concussion…" Argent shrugs taking them back to the dorm.
Back to Oobleck who just entered the classroom. "Hello, and good morning students. Please submit your research prompts!"
Malak has his paper ready and awaits for his teammates to had theirs to him
(This paper took some time hope it matches up to everyone else's) Vincent thought as he handed over his papers to the good professor. The rest of the team follows and turns in their papers.
"Splendid! All right so pop quiz time!"
(God fucking damn it.) Malak says to himself.
"So tell me when did we fir-" A knock on the door interrupts his question. "Excuse me." he quickly "teleports" to the door.
"How the he-... probably the caffeine" says Malak.
"Team MRUVJ you have been called to the headmaster's office." Says Oobleck. Team MRUVJ heads to Ozpin's office as instructed.
"Ah, thank you for coming here so quickly. I'm afraid that while your education is of the utmost importance, a situation has arisen. There's been a troubling development. Trains have been getting raided as of late by an unknown party. Atlas is short staffed and we are short on Hunters at the moment so I need you to accompany a huntsman to find out what's happening. It's just recon but if something were to happen... Well I know you are some of the more experienced students here. Will you lend yourselves to this task? It is not a command. You may decline.
"Sir, I'll speak on our behalf and will gladly accept this." Says Malak.
"Think carefully now. You will be gone for awhile. You will miss the field trip to Forever Fall. It may be incredibly dangerous."
Revan speaks up. "You had me at situation."
"Hmmm. I'm fine with this professor, something this dangerous takes priority over everything in my book. What do you guys think?"
"Doesn't seem that hard and field experience beats book experience." Says Ully.
"I agree with Malak, if this is as big of a problem as it sounds I say we go check it out. If there is anything too big for us to handle we'll just get out of there." Vincent states boldly.
"We can handle it sir." Says Revan.
"Very well. I'll speak to your professors. Meanwhile pack your bags and take whatever you need. Please report to the ship outside when you are ready. The huntsman will be waiting. And I thank you on behalf of everyone for this."
"Anytime professor." Malak packs a week's worth supply of clothing and hygiene gear, afterwards he retrieves his huntsman gear from his locker. Once everything was packed he heads to the site and awaits for the rest of the team. Revan grabs his weapon from his locker and grabs some power and heads to the ship excited to go on his first real mission. Ully packs his weapon crafting kit along with provisions clothes and different dust bullets and heads to the ship. Jasper brings his weapon and basic things he would need to last a week.
(A week long fieldtrip for something this serious? Beacon is definitely for talented huntsman) Vincent thinks to himself as he tows away his bag and halberd on to his back. Finally Vincent places his helmet on top of his head as he meets up with his team nearby the ship.
Argent is standing near the ship and waves them down "All ready to go?"
"OH MAN NOT YOU!" Revan exclaims.
"You're the hunter we'll be accompanying?" Asks Malak.
"Funny how fate works." Argent stares at Revan, his face hidden behind his helm "I hope you followed the forecast warning. If there's anything you forgot or unresolved business, I'd take care of that now. There may be no turning back."
"I did. I have a winter set in my bag right now." Says Malak.
Staring at Argent, Revan finally speaks. "I'm good."
"Really? You brought food? Survival gear?"
"Yes.. maybe don't worry about it."
"You warned us about this so I'm fairly certain all of us have the equipment we need to survive. Any reason why this will take a week?" Vincent asked the older huntsman.
"Surviving shouldn't be that hard especially for a week hell I did it for most my life." Says Ully.
"It may be as short as 2 days. Half a day to go out, half a day to come back, a day to assess. It may be a week. We may be there for weeks. We are there as long as it takes. We may not be in contact with anyone else. And it is my job to worry. I gave Ozpin my word to bring you back, so long as you followed my lead. I don't need your blood on my conscience. If you think you're ready, only you know."
"I'll follow your lead." Says Malak.
"The cold never bothered me anyways. Let's get this show on the road tin man." Says Revan.
"Yeah, Atlas ain't gonna scout for us. Let's get this show on the road," Vincent says as he waits for his teammates to get into the ship. (Lets hope this mission won't bring too much trouble)
"Vince don't copy me" Revan says as he walks onto the ship
"This going to be a long week..." Malak says as he boards behind the two.
"As you wish." Says Argent as he allows them to board.
"I don't see a copyright on that statement buddy," Vincent jokingly says as he gets in the ship.
"You win this round."
"Let's just go." Says Ully. As everyone boards, Argent knocks on the side of the ship signaling them to depart he gets in and closes the door and crouches down to avoid hitting his head as they fly off
"So, Argent, are there anymore details that you can share to us about this mission?" Asks Malak.
"Ya except for train watching."
Argent kneels down in the center of the group and lowers his bag pulling out a map "Well, the attacks started 2 weeks ago. At first it was thought to be a random grimm attack. There were no survivors. But the damage shown on this line he points to it was not random. Whoever attacked it, were methodical. They were looking for the cargo. And they made sure to leave no survivors, for no witnesses. Over the next couple of weeks, 3 trains were hit in an identical fashion. The mechanical guards and cameras were disabled long before anything had happened. Atlas refuses to release a manifest to us, under the premise that it is of the highest security. And Ully, is it? to answer your remark, do not be mistaken. We are not watching anything."
"But why us? Why not the almighty pyrrha and her team or that 15 year old girl and her team?" Asks Revan.
"Do you want the honest response or the Ozpin-approved response?"
"Honesty."
"Both" says Malak.
Argent looks at Revan and Malak. "Ozpin would tell you that it's because they're needed exactly where they are. But really. They're not expendable."
"So we're the expendable ones?" Asks Malak.
"I like those odds." Says revan.
"I couldn't agree more." Says Malak.
"You can really tell the school cares." Says Ully.
"That's correct. Look at you. 5 members? you're an aberration. No one even knows your name. If this goes to hell, you will die and you will be mourned. But they will move on. Pyrrha is the greatest fighter of your class, possibly even in the history of Beacon. You think they'd waste her here? You are a test run."
"So we die no one cares that's great."
Jasper speaks up. "I would care."
"Eh, wasn't so different for me back at Atlas and Ulysses, welcome to the huntsman life."
"It's just a title."
"But they didn't count on something. They didn't account on me. Ozpin and I go back. You were supposed to come on your own. I requested this assignment."
"Why is that?"
"Because I want you to live. There is Darkness out there. We need everyone we can get."
"Doesn't surprise me. Grimm activity has been getting worse lately." Says Ully.
"Wow when did you become a nice guy?" Says Revan mockingly.
"It has. I'm glad you've noticed that. This will be a two-prong mission. We can see how bad the borders are as well as the train situation. And Revan, I've never been a nice guy as you say. But we have a job as Huntsmen, and I intend everyone who made a pledge to keep it. That being said, we're not far from Beacon. Give the word and I'll have the pilot take you back. I can do this on my own. No one will have to know. I'll tell them that Atlas cancelled our assistance. It's your call."
"Please, I've never backed down before and I'm not going to stop now." Says Malak.
"Leave? WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE?! COWARDS?!" Says Revan.
"There's nothing in it for you. Ozpin was fully aware of how dangerous this mission was. He was also aware that this can easily be done by me. He just wanted to see how obedient you were. Like dogs."
"Who you calling a dog ozpin has you on a leash." Says Revan.
(OH SHIT!) Malak's eyes go wide.
Argent stares blankly at Revan "Get some rest. It's about 12 hours." he walks into the back of the ship closing the door behind him.
"I think I just hurt a hunters feeling. Do you think he is going to cry?"
"I would say nice burn but he's our only means of survival." Says Malak.
Ully lets out a sigh. "Why do you have to start a fight Revan?"
"ME?! HE IS THE ONE WHO STARTED IT."
"Has anyone ever taught you on how to control yourself?" Says Malak.
"Have you ever heard of be the bigger man." Says Ully.
"Ok I'm sorry. Next time someone calls you guys a dog I'm just going to agree with it."
"You don't have to agree with him. You just don't have to say anything."
"Like I said, be the bigger man. Words are just words. Why do you think I didn't fight that asshole back then."
"Now, when it comes to fighting when you got no other choice I'm all for it but Ulysses is right, they were just words."
As the team argues a black speck off in the distance turns it's attention to the ship and flies towards it
"He is just a punk in a metal suit and I'm not going to let him talk down on us like that. He doesn't even know us."
A piercing screech is heard and shortly after that alarms flash and wail. The pilot's voice comes on the mic "Nevermore inbound! Repeat Nevermore inbound! Buckle in taking evasive maneuvers!"
"Well now, looks like the mission already started." Says Malak.
Revan takes his seat and buckles up "Well isn't this just peachy."
"Nevermore this far out. That's unusual." Says Ully.