A/N: As a gift for my inactivity, I grant two chapters! Technically three, but chapter 2 would've been too short to care about, so I extended it a little.
The three left the basilicom, as they learned that was its name, "Guys, where the hell do we go to accept quests and stuff?" Dusty inquired the two allies he had with him. "I have no idea, what about you Aqui?" Miguel stared in Aquila's direction. "My name is Aquila, don't call me Aqui, and to answer your question, I also have no idea." Aquila responded with a very small edge to his voice.
Dusty, being the blind idiot he was, ran into someone and fell backwards. "The hell did I bump into?" were his first words before he was helped up by Miguel, "Oh, I apologize for my lack of attention, I kinda zone out a lot when I'm thinking." Dusty added after realizing he was kinda ignorant of the person he bumped into.
"It's ok, people seem to bump into us a lot, it can get a bit obnoxious at times." A strange girl with long brown hair that had a leaf bow in it said. "We're trying to find a place called a… Guild, I think that's what Histoire said it was?" Dusty looked back at Miguel and Aquila to receive confirmation that he was right. Miguel shrugged and Aquila nodded.
"The Guild? Funny you should mention that, Compa and I were just on our way there." The girl answered Dusty, regardless of whether or not he actually addressed her. "Wait, but you appear alone, what do you mean by 'Compa and I' if I can only see you, is Compa like a ninja or something, maybe a stealthy assassin or something." Miguel finally blurted out, getting weird looks from all three of the people there and especially a glaring one from Aquila for bringing up Assassins. -I'll question him later and see if he knows about the assassin's guild in Mistral-
"Oh right, she's a bit on the shy side, Compa, these people don't seem bad and they appear to know Histoire." A taller girl appeared from behind IF's back, she had cream colored hair and a headband that had a "C" on it. "How the hell did she hid behind her?" Dusty asked quizzically. "Dusty, don't question things, it only makes life difficult." Miguel answered Dusty dismissively.
"Whatever, Miguel, time for introductions at the least, even if we've used our names a few times around these people. My name is Dusty, he's Miguel, and that guy over there is Aquila, or maybe it's Aqui, I don't remember, Neptune called him Aqui, but that weird raven-haired chick called him Aquila, 'tis confusing." Dusty finished his monologue and looked over at the two girls, "And you are?"
"My name's IF, and she's Compa." The brunette stated before continuing, "So, you three needed help finding the guild right?"
"Yes, we're not the best at directions, at least I know me and Miguel aren't I only just met Aquila a few minutes ago so I don't know about him." Dusty answered modestly, "If you could be so kind as to guide us to the Guild that'd be wonderful."
Aquila leaned in and asked Miguel a very important question, "The hell is up with him, he doesn't seem comfortable talking at all?" Miguel smiled back, "My not-so-sure friend here really doesn't do well with asking people questions, and he isn't comfortable talking with girls, matter-of-fact this is the first time I've seen him talk to a girl at all." Miguel stopped smiling because of Dusty's stare, Dusty looked away upon seeing nothing was off, "So, do you think I could get away with petting one of them?" Miguel asked Aquila in a very hushed manner, "Something tells me that would be a bad idea."
"Hey, Miguel and Aquila, stop dawdling I got these two to take us to the guild, if you don't hurry the hell up you two are on your own in finding the guild." Dusty called out to his two comrades before turning back to follow IF and Compa.
"All right, we're here." IF and Compa stopped in front of a building, "Now then, Compa and I will be heading inside to get some quests, you three should probably stop by registration first and get that sorted out before you look for quests to do." Dusty sighed, "I hate registration forms, reminds me of Atlas."
Miguel smiled at his friend's expense, "Don't be so down, you managed to get out of that overly organized hellhole." Dusty glared back, "Atlas is a truly power hungry place, it doesn't fit a guy like me to be from there." Dusty perked back up, "Either way, let's just get this paperwork out of the way, it's boring as balls."
After a long time of working through papers to establish themselves and several magical tutorials on how to perform a quest, the team was ready to accept their first quest, but they ran into a slight problem, "They say to just do an easy quest, but I don't want to be bored out of my mind while we do it." Dusty sighed at the prospect of the simple quests and their boring requirements of Herb gathering.
"Well, Dusty, if you want to find a 4th person to help us in some of these harder quests, then go ahead and be my guest." Aquila finally responded after not talking the entire time. Unfortunately, Aquila's attempt to diffuse Dusty only gave him a sparkle to his eyes. "I'll go right away." And just like that, Dusty went to travel around the Guild to look for potential helpers.
Miguel stared at Dusty, "I'll go after him, keep looking Aquila." Aquila sighed very heavily, "God these two are such a heavy burden, how the hell can I stick with these two idiots?"
Miguel spotted Dusty right as Dusty spotted someone who was alone, Dusty approached and began to speak, "Hello, uh, might sound a bit weird, but my team is missing one person and I was curious if you'd like to join us for the time being?"
"A-Are you talking to me?" The girl stuttered. "Yes, you seem to be the only person who doesn't have anyone to work with." Dusty replied calmly, quite the contrary to his mind's state, -Something tells me this is a bad idea, just talking to girls in general is a bad idea for me- "Oh, well, no offense to you, but you seem like a scary person." The girl added
In the background, Miguel is witnessing these events, and silently mocking Dusty for his faults. He decides to 'assist' his friend, because Dusty has no idea what to do in this situation. "Hey Dusty, are you making friends without me?" Miguel called out to Dusty, much to Dusty giving him a very ominous glare. "Pardon my stupid friend, Miguel isn't the brightest cookie in the crayon soup."
"Well, isn't that an interesting thing to call your friend." The girl tried her best to say something to prevent a fight, but it was clear what Miguel was intending. "Wow Dusty, didn't know you liked to insult faunus, guess you really are like an Atlas citizen." Miguel knew he struck several nerves, because Dusty clenched his fists and started to grit his teeth and began to shake a little at the mention of Atlas, "How many times have I told you that Atlas is not my home anymore." Dusty said through gritted teeth, -Miguel is deliberately doing this because he's trying to instigate a fight to repel her, maybe he should just take a moment to chill- Sensing Dusty's movements to pull out a vial of Dust, Miguel went in to attempt to catch Dusty off-guard, what he was met with was clashing steel, because of Dusty's dagger.
*Splash*
Miguel was knocked back a little after being splashed by blue dust, Dusty ignited the dust and watched the ice trail up and trap Miguel's arms and legs in ice. "Don't insult me, you know that you can't win a fight of strategy." Dusty's hot-bloodedness was showing at that remark, and Miguel thought, -Dusty's the idiot here, that girl probably is startled at the fact he would attack one of his own friends- The girl didn't move, but she did seem startled, "I'm sorry, I didn't even take the time to ask your name, ignore Miguel, he started the fight." Dusty attempted to keep her attention off of Miguel's state.
"Oh, my name is-" She started but was cut-off by a knife whirling past Dusty into the wall. The knife whirled back to it's user, where Dusty saw Aquila standing, the two stared at eachother for a while. "So, may I ask why you froze Miguel?" Aquila said after a long wait,
"He was trying to keep me from seeking assistance, so I proved why we needed assistance to him." Dusty answered back with a small smile to attempt to give off an aura of innocence and honesty.
"Bullshit, I call your bluff, you can't possibly be telling the truth." Aquila pointed out Dusty's lie perfectly.
-Damn, Aquila is almost too smart, this could be bad- "Hey Aqui, I know you're next written dialogue line, 'The hell is with you, why are you so hot-blooded?' Now that's a truth." Dusty smiled innocently, fooling no one who knew the events.
"The hell is with you, why are you so hot-blooded?" Aquila stated very loudly, before responded with a shocked gasp, "I see, you've actually gotten to my nerves and are pulling silly tricks to attempt to dissuade me from fighting." Aquila threw his dagger at Dusty, which the latter blocked before noticing a vital flaw with Aquila's designs on his daggers.
Aquila launched another blade at Dusty, the latter of which dodged narrowly before grabbing the steel cable and pulling forward. Fortunately for Aquila, Dusty was lacking in the physical department and was pulled back by Aquila, who would proceed to kick Dusty into the ice trapping Miguel. "Fucking Christ, that hurt a lot." Dusty got up and clutched his right wrist attempting to move his wrist caused pain to shoot up through his arm.
"Dusty, stop fighting, you're injured!" Miguel roared despite the fact that Dusty had previously trapped him in ice.
Dusty stared at Miguel for a long moment before lifting himself upright, "I'm fine." He said as he proceeded to flick his wrist, wincing at the pain in his wrist.
"Stop bull-shitting me, Dusty, we both know you can't be fine if your hand is limp like that." Miguel shouted, despite having walked up to Dusty.
Dusty looked away from Miguel, noticing that the girl was still standing there, even after witnessing such a turn of events. "I-I'll go get Compa." The long-purple haired youth said before running off.
"Compa? Wasn't she one of the people that guided us here?" Miguel looked over at Aquila quizzically.
Aquila nodded, "Yeah, her and that IF girl. Who'd have thought she'd know something about medicine?"
"Aren't we jumping the gun assuming Compa knows medicine, I mean, it's likely since that girl just ran off looking for her, but we can't know for sure." Dusty responded and started to analyze his wrist, before wincing and constantly saying, "Regret" every time he caused pain to himself.
"Dusty, stop that before you break anything else." Miguel quietly yelled at his injured friend.
"I can't help it, this is an oddly great sensation and still superbly painful! It's a truly conflicting image!" Dusty said excitedly before ceasing his actions after seeing Miguel skeptically looking at his friend.
"Are you sure you only hit your wrist on the wall after freeing me, because you're displaying an awful lot of indications you've lost your damn mind." Miguel said to Dusty, who could've very well lost his mind.
"Either way, I want to know how I bent my hand to the way that I did." Dusty still sounded way too happy to have potentially lost use of his right hand.
"Well, you bent your right hand inwards instead of outwards, likely in a moment of confusion and desperation, so the back of your hand attempted to take all the weight from your body impacting the wall, causing something in your hand to bend too far and likely losing use of your right for a long time." Aquila explained in a scientific and anatomical manner.
"Thanks for the science lesson, Professor Aquila!" Miguel answered sarcastically before turning his head to the three figures heading towards them, thankfully all three of them were good signs and well recognized by the crew.
Miguel picked up Dusty, much to the latter's protest, and carried him over to the three people standing there, "So Dusty did a thing to his wrist, and we aren't sure what it is."
"I'm 85% sure it's just sprained, I can still maintain use of my right hand." Dusty displayed his use by twirling his hand around, wincing as he did it.
Compa quickly grabbed his hand and started looking at his wrist very closely, "Nope, you broke your wrist." She said with such confidence.
"I'm sorry, that doesn't seem right, I know I hit the wall at an awkward angle, but that seems a bit outlandish, don't you think?" Dusty said, attempting to persuade himself that Compa wasn't right.
"Nope, it's pretty broken, you're lucky it can still move at all." Compa reassured Dusty, regardless of how much he wanted to deny it.
"Either way, I have some news for you three, because of some unknown reasoning, Histoire said that you three would need to travel around the world and find some things to attempt to establish a link to your world." IF said calmly while Miguel kinda listened, Aquila paid close attention, and Dusty still lamented over the inability to use his right wrist without pain. "The first place we know of that you should head to is Lastation."
"Lastation, isn't that a place nearby where I was found?" Aquila asked calmly. "Yeah, now I remember, it was the large city where that one girl took me to, in order to meet her sister."
"Good, but you took air travel over here to Planeptune, so you'll have to travel on foot, with a debilitated member." IF said, "Sounds simple enough, right? Well, thankfully we've established a safe route between Planeptune and Lastation, so it'll be an easier journey."
IF handed Miguel a map and pointed out the route they'd be taking, making sure to outline that they were to follow the route strictly. "Alright, well then, Aquila and Dusty, keep up with me." Miguel motioned and the two immediately snapped to Miguel and followed him out of the basilicom.
When Miguel took the three outside the city limits and started to follow the map like it was his religion, a very alert Aquila noticed something scurrying along the nearby woods. "Miguel hold up a moment." Without hesitation, he tossed a blade over at a bush, getting a startled shout from the denizen of the bush.
"Come out, right now and reveal who you are!" Miguel roared commandingly, and out of the bush stumbled a familiar short-haired purplette that no one could forget, if you haven't got what the narrator has said yet, it's Neptune.
"Hey, long time no see, I was just following because it seemed odd that you three would be heading to Lastation without telling little old me first." Neptune said her excuse immediately, fooling practically no one, even if Histy didn't tell Neptune why they were leaving in the first place.
"We're going to start getting things to get back home, to Remnant, so unless you have a valid reason to accompany us over to Lastation, I suggest going back to Planeptune and doing whatever you CPU's do as work." Dusty said sharply, ensuring that every word stuck in Neptune's head.
"Wow, are you sure with that attitude it's just to look for items? You and Noire seem like you'd get along, nah, both of you are too good at deterring people to make any friends." Neptune started going on talking, Dusty narrowed his eyes before Miguel intercepted Dusty and shook his head before moving on, now with Neptune following them.
After a day of walking and traversing the long, straight path, the team had made it to Lastation. Dusty was overjoyed at the sight of civilization, "Thank you, that path was truly something I want to forget about in this world." Miguel and Aquila looked at Dusty, who was overly energetic despite having been exhausted just a few moments prior. Neptune was behind them all, watching Dusty instinctively hug a building on the edge of the city.
"Some things just can't be replaced, can they Aquila?" Miguel whispered to Aquila, "I liked that pathway, the trees were great, reminded me of the forests near Mistral." Aquila responded, before poking Miguel and pointing at the girl standing over at the city limits, staring at Dusty's antics. Miguel called out, "Just ignore him, he's got a bit excited that he's in a new place."
"So, I take it you three are the ones that Histoire told us to watch for?" The familiar short raven-haired girl said, "Noire had urgent business to attend to, so I'm going to be your guide through the city."
"Wonderful, just the person I'd rather forget about." Aquila answered sarcastically, "Seriously, what did I piss off to deserve this?" He shook his head as he looked at the City in Black.
"She seems like a pleasant person, I'd say there isn't a real reason to distrust her-" Dusty started but was cut off by Uni, "Wow, two of you are level 2 and one of you is level 1, no wonder you took the route." Dusty glared at her, "I take it back, she's dead to me already."
Miguel smiled at the way events were playing, "So then, please guide us through Lastation, we're in desperate need of getting back home and we were told to check here first." Miguel held his broad smile for several moments before getting a response.
"I've got orders to take you three to the basilicom, more importantly, why is Neptune following you?" Uni took heed of the purplette hiding behind a rock.
"I've been spotted!" Neptune said in a very dramatic manner, before comedically pretending to fall over, catching herself before she fell too far before saying something in a teasing and fakely cross manner, "Wow, none of you went to save me from my fall, how unromantic of you guys."
Dusty rolled his eyes, Miguel kept smiling and Aquila did… I don't know what Aquila did, his hood is always up. "Regardless, you three need to follow me, it's no time to be fooling around." Uni barked orders at them.
On the walk towards the basilicom, much to weird, inquisitive looks from the Lastationese populace, because Lastation wasn't used to serious guests, let alone male guests. "So, can I ask why you were informed to come and pick us up instead of your sister?" Aquila asked.
"Well, Noire had an important matter arise involving some terrorists along the Lowee-Lastation border, so she went to deal with it herself." Uni said, before stopping in front of a building that Aquila would like to not have recognized.
"Wow, this architecture is fantastic, now if only the people living here were as graceful and complex as the architecture." Dusty admired the buildings design, and also insulted the residents of the building at the same time.
"Dusty, now is not the time, I imagine they have good reason to be taking us here." Miguel said, also in awe of the building's design.
"Either way, Sis should be getting back soon, so you three should be patient and wait here for a little bit." Uni said, and then went on, "Be sure to be prepared, Noire won't have patience for any misconduct."
Once Uni has left the lobby, "Hey, Neptune, something's been bothering me about that girl, Uni." Dusty started, "She's been acting weirdly by normal standpoints, so is she what I think she is?"
"A Tsundere, yes, not only is she one, but her sister is as well!" Neptune explained, "So I take it you have a soft heart for that type of personality?" She put the question forward with a relatively joking face.
Dusty wasn't good at taking jokes, "No, I actually have a bad track record when it comes to them, I guess you could say they are the worst people to exist in my eyes."
"Then you have some really narrow eyes, hating only one type of person." Neptune said, still jokingly, again Dusty can't tell sarcasm, "Neptune, something important to note, I hate everyone, just some people have earned less hate than the rest of them." He glanced over at Miguel, who was checking the time.
The door opened shortly after, and the 4 waiting stood up. "So I assume the ones that aren't Neptune are the three Histoire told us about, Uni?" Noire said in a calm voice. "Yes sis, those would be the three there." Uni responded in an equally calm voice. "So, do you two have any leads as to what we're looking for?" Miguel asked with a broad smile, trying to show a peaceful gesture but Aquila was still a little tense from the last meeting and Dusty had narrowed his eyes at the sight of them.
Neptune cut in, "Hiya, Noire, long time no see, you haven't been responding to my messages so I figured I'd pay a visit, and would you believe it, three people were already on their way to Lastation!" She said cheerfully, only to receive a look from Noire, "We'll talk about it later, right now I have business to attend to." Noire said calmly to her fellow CPU.
"So we're just more cumbersome business to you, oh I'm so sorry for taking your time, Goddess of Lastation-" Dusty started to talk sarcastically, but Miguel cut him off, "Dusty, shut the fuck up! I apologize for my friend, Dusty has quite the grudge to people calling him an object and treating him as such." Dusty followed Miguel's order without question, but not without a slight eye twitch from Dusty to signal his distaste at being told what to do.
"Well, I've been trying to gather data on that particular subject, as a matter of fact, Kei found the information, but she insisted that in exchange, you three have to help Lastation out with some of its problems." Noire stated. "One or two odd jobs shouldn't be that hard for the three of us, right?" Miguel looked back at his teammates. Noire started up again, "It's actually information worth 3 "S" Rank quests, and as part of the deal, you have to do them on your own without help from other sources aside from your team of three."
Neptune's jaw dropped, "Isn't Kei being a bit unreasonable? S rank quests are notoriously hard, even for us goddesses to solo, it usually takes a CPU and a candidate to do one quickly, and you're telling them to do a difficult mission as humans?" Miguel intervened, "I'm a Faunus, get it right."
"So you're using us to make your life a little easier, I see how it is." Dusty narrowed his eyes even further, "We're only tools to make your city better, once we get our information and move on, I'll be glad to never have to return here." Miguel again kindly reminded Dusty to shut the fuck up, "You aren't tools to make our work easier, I could do all this work on my own, but Kei insists that if we are to be cooperative we ensure that Lastation receives something out of this as well." Noire said in a very defensive manner. "Besides, you won't be helping them until your wrist is recovered, it'd be pointless to carry around a member that can only use one hand to fight."
"EXCUSE ME?" Dusty roared, "Are you implying that I am useless because I can't use my right wrist? I can assure you I am just as combat proficient as Miguel, so I can easily carry my own in a fight with my weapon, Ocular Deception." Miguel tried to calm down Dusty, but he only got angrier as he thought it over more, "As a matter of fact Ms. Tsundere Goddess, I could probably beat your sister in a fight!" It was clear that Noire unknowingly struck a nerve.
"Dusty, this is the last time I'm telling you, shut the fuck up." Miguel responded to Dusty's sudden aggressive outburst. "We're not here to start fights, so put aside any sort of petty grudges you have against them and agree to cooperate, an Atlesian would know exactly where to draw the line, so why don't you?"
Dusty mumbled something quietly, Miguel asked for it to be louder expecting a passive response, but it was quite the opposite. "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT ATLAS! I LEFT THERE AT A YOUNG AGE BECAUSE EVERYTHING WAS SO CUT AND DRY, I WANT TO LIVE ON MY OWN MERIT NOT ON THE MERIT OF A GENERAL I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT!" Dusty shouted loud enough for an echo to be heard. "Now then, if you would kindly stop ordering me around so I can prove myself, that'd be really nice of you Miguel."
Miguel was speechless, Dusty didn't lose his temper this much as a general rule, so seeing him just fully give into anger must mean something about the situation, but Miguel found the words he was looking for, "Dusty, they're superior to you in just about every way except maybe intelligence about random things and strategy. I even doubt you could land a hit against them." Miguel continued, "You're even lower level than I am, what makes you think they'll even accept in the first place? They don't even have orders to test our strength, just what they're supposed to do and fighting isn't one of them!"
Uni cut Miguel off, "I'll fight him." Both Miguel and Noire looked at Uni in surprise Noire spoke first, "Uni, he's crazy, he hardly looks like he's fit for fighting a dogoo, let alone someone at your level." Uni replied, "He's insulted you and I through his words alone, and clearly has some unfounded hate, and he's got a superiority complex if he's saying it's true. An egotistical guy like him shouldn't be a challenge for a CPU Candidate."
Dusty smiled, "Wonderful, is there any place where this fight could be performed safely?" Noire pointed towards a conveniently built staircase that led to a large fighting arena. "This'll do just fine, perfectly suits my taste, boring as hell!" Dusty said sarcastically.
A/N: Cliffhanger! I mean, anyone who has read our past stories will understand that it's a fight scene next, so whatever and it's pretty obvious who's gonna win. Unless you're one of those people who believes in the Dusty bias, but that's something for a later date. Also, the next chapter may take a while because I'll be playing Panzermadels and have to deal with writing a more Ecchi scene for the next chapter, so it'll be a while before it's ready. You all might understand and you might not, but the important part is patience, something lacking in me, but you all are better than me I hope.