Author's Note: Sorry for the wait folks, between constant chapter writing and finals, we haven't had much time for posting things. Since it's summer break, expect more chapters even after Angel, the previous chapter poster, moved. I, his friend, who worked on the project since the start as the narration writer, will continue this project with some influence from Angel occasionally. Remember to Praise the Red Gradient.
Team MADD woke up, got a shower, got dressed and headed towards the cafeteria for breakfast. Miguel broke the sacred morning silence "So, Dusty, what do you think the training will be today?" Dusty replied, "I have no idea, if I did I would've told you by now." They got to the cafeteria and got their food with Miguel leading them to where Team RWBY and Team JNPR sat. Miguel was the first to initiate a conversation with Weiss asking what todays training was. Weiss answered with "Today is when you will face your fears." "What do you mean?" A confused Miguel asked, "I mean you will actually have to face your fears," When told this Miguel and Dusty both froze for a second, " first off I need to know your fears, so I will start with you Miguel, what're you afraid of?" "I'm scared of being locked in a dark room with complete silence." "Thank you Miguel, now how about you Dusty?" Dusty said, "I refuse to answer that question." "You will answer the question or how else will you overcome those fears?" "As I said, I will not answer that question." Devon decided to ruin it for Dusty, "He's afraid of Heights and talking to girls." "Thank you Devon." Ruby broke in for a second, "but aren't we on a cliff currently?" "Don't be that person Ruby." Weiss interrupting the conversation between the two. "Continuing on with what I have in plan, you two will face your fears, Dusty we can easily create the scenario for yours since we have six girls here and we can easily figure somthing out for your fear of heights, but Miguel your fear is gonna be more challenging to create a scenario with." Miguel cutting in. "Good besides you probably don't know where to find a sensory deprivation tank." Dusty informing his leader, "Remember we are speaking to the heiress to the Schnee dust company, they probably have a white room as well." Weiss speaking up "Dusty I didn't know you knew about the decorum of my family's estate, plus we do have a white room for "persuasion"." Miguel horrified "Don't put me in there, if you do I will force feed you your own entrails!" Dusty cutting in again, "calm down Miguel they are probably just gonna lock you in a closet or something." "That is not facing my fears that would be kinda fun but Weiss if you do lock me in a closet don't forget to tie me up and gag me that would be quite fun." Yang butting in, "told you he's a pervert or what people call nowadays "adventurous"." Weiss getting annoyed by the idle chatter. "Miguel we are putting you into a sensory deprivation tank at this instant!" Miguel already feeling defeated. "Alright but for how long?" "As long as I see fit." "Ok but before you put me in there let me do one thing first." "And what is that?" Miguel with a smile on his face. "Let me pet the red gradient." "The what?!" Dusty cutting in, "Miguel remember what we promised on day one." "Two words my comrade." "And?" "Fuck it." "Ok well at least explain to them what the red gradient is." "Do I have to, you know what i'm talking about so you can." "Fine, when Miguel is referring to the red gradient he is referring to your leaders hair." Yang cutting in "not this again you promised you would not pet her or touch her in any way." "Technically I promised to keep it to a minimum and we both agreed and besides it is up to Ruby to see what happens." Yang looking to Ruby hoping she sides with her, Ruby finally speaks up. "What's so bad about petting people?" Yang looked at her sister "Do you not remember what I told you about men, they are pigs." Miguel speaking up, "but i'm a jaguar not a pig and besides you make it sound, like when I pet people I pet their nether regions which I don't because that's weird as fuck." "Well then I guess the person who likes petting people has some sort of sense of justice." Weiss cutting in "Miguel, we are going now!" Miguel stretched his arm out to try and reach Ruby's hair, but Dusty drew his blade and held Miguels hand away, long enough for him to be dragged off toward the tank yelling along the way, "But the Red Gradient!" Dusty sheathed Ocular and sat down taking a sigh of relief that his leader was being dragged away. Yang looked at him as if he tried cut off another strand of hair before asking him, "Why did you block your own leaders hand?" Dusty smiled and replied, "You have no idea how long he goes on about the red gradient, I'm glad he's being dragged away." Miguel heard this and shouted at Dusty, "You're an asshole, Dusty!" Dusty ignored him, Yang then questioned, "So, he's actually a pervert?" "Yes and No, He's only obsessed with Ruby, but not quite perverted." Weiss cut into the conversation, "Yang, is Dusty still weaker than you?" "Yeah, why?" "Good, It'll all make sense when the time comes." Dusty almost certainly knew what was gonna happen, and he didn't like it. Weiss spoke to get everyone up and moving to the edge of the school overlooking the cliff, Dusty, back to the cliff so as to not see the height was being told how close he was to the cliff, relying on others sense of depth to not fall, Weiss nodded to Yang then yelled at Dusty to turn around, he obeyed, knowing his own fate. "Now Yang, Tackle him and hold him down, so he has to look down the cliff face!" Yang didn't hesitate and rushed Dusty knocking him down and forcing him to look down to the far off ground below. Dusty knew that if he panicked, that would make him look weak and likely be what Yang wanted, so he just stared into the abyss below and poker faced it, keeping all his whirling emotions inside, he silently vowed to get payback on Devon for causing this trouble. Weiss finally called Yang to let go of Dusty, so they could move to the second test, meanwhile Miguel was still being dragged away, with Blake supervising the whole scenario. The tank was in place and Miguel, at that very moment realized, he fucked up. They stripped miguel of his clothes and threw him into the tank without hesitation, leaving him in his dark prison for several hours. Dusty was forced to follow them back towards the main hall, to meet up with the rest of the crew, so they could discuss a plan of action and what would make Dusty get over his fears the fastest. Dusty tried to escape numeral times, but to no avail, he was outspeed most of the time and had almost no ability to fight back, and any clever plan he had, he hesitated too long and was forced to keep pace, mostly at the threat of Yang. After a while, Weiss ordered Dusty to stand up from the bench, but Dusty refused, this only made Weiss more frustrated with Dusty, "Y'know for a person who is afraid of talking to girls, you sure know how to refuse a lot of things they ask, now stand up." "No, I will not stand up, if you really want this so badly, then make me stand up yourself rather than have Yang force it." "I'm trying to help you, without me, you wouldn't stand a chance against Yang in round 2, but if you insist on sitting on that bench, then fine." Weiss walked away from Dusty, after which Dusty had this type of smile, the one where you know you did something wrong, but you don't quite care. Dusty stood up and walked towards the dorm to take a break from all the chaos, on the way he maintained the same smile, feeling pride for the first time at any point in his life. Once he got to the dorm room, he opened the door, walked in, closed the door and proceeded to laugh maniacally at the situation he caught himself in, he had upset two people in the span of 3 days, who knows how many more he could upset. Meanwhile Miguel was finally freed from the tank and quickly got dressed, moved to where the teams were and noticed a lack of Dusty, so he asked the still frustrated Weiss, "Hey Weiss, where'd Dusty go, he talking to a girl elsewhere?" "No, your idiotic teammate refused to stand up when I told him to and when I walked away he got up and left us, straight up just leaving to the dorms." "That isn't Dusty though, he usually never rebels against anyone, just let me handle it from here." "Fine, it's up to you to get Dusty down here." Miguel rushed off to his teams dorm, only to be open the door to find Dusty sitting on his bed, realizing Miguel had entered, Dusty just kinda stared at him, until he asked, "So, how can I help you?" "You can help me by explaining why you acted the way you did towards Weiss." "She claims she's trying to help us, but barking orders at me ain't gonna help me beat Yang, no amount of push-ups can get me to the level of out matching Yang in a competition of strength, I just need to use more tactical cunning, otherwise talking to girls ain't gonna help me fear Yang any less." "Why are you so insistent on fighting against the mentor?" "You can't surpass your mentor without challenging them, now can you?" "Stop answering my questions as if it's an argument for philosophy!" "Fine, I'll go and apologize to Weiss for my actions, but it still won't take down my spirit at this point." "Awesome, let's go." "One more thing, I have a duel to win." "What do you mean?" "You'll see." And just like that, the two friends moved back down and met up with the crew again, Weiss promptly yelled at Dusty, "You can't just go about disregarding orders like that, and then just leave like it's no big deal, do you even know how angry I am at you right now?" Dusty replied, "Yes, I understand your rage, but seriously tone it down a bit, I profusely apologize on my behaviour, it was uncalled for and seriously immature, but before you even try to get me to talk any more, I have a Duel to fight and win." "What do you mean by that?" "You're about to find out." Dusty drew Ocular switched it to Longsword and held his blade to Devon, speaking clearly so that Devon could hear, "Devon Aqua, you have committed an offense to your kinsmen, and therefore I challenge thee to a proper duel, meet me at the arena in 15 minutes armed with Wit and Weapon." Devon shocked replied with a smug grin, "Fine, I accept, but you have no hope of winning." Dusty nodded before putting back Ocular and heading off towards the Arena to prepare for the oncoming duel, leaving everyone else to wonder why Dusty would challenge Devon to a duel, Ruby spoke first, "Maybe It's got something to do with Devon leaking his secrets?" Yang agreed with Ruby, but Aquila was sure it had something to do with past grievances between Dusty and Devon.
When everyone made it to the arena, it seemed as if the fight had gained some infamy as a crowd was already in the bleachers waiting for the fight to start, however before the fight could start, Professor Goodwitch stopped the fight and told them to find some other time to talk this silly challenge away. Dusty wasn't too happy with the fact that his one chance to take down Devon's ego was interrupted. Dusty's temper had hit it's peak, changing the normally quiet Dusty into a harsh fighter, once everyone else left, Weiss decreed that a training match between Dusty and Miguel would take place, when the two took their spots, Miguel noticed the flames in Dusty's eyes that meant this fight wasn't going to end in defeat so long as he had aura. Weiss shouted, "Begin!" Miguel moved forwards but wasn't ready for Dusty's leap towards him, allowing Dusty first strike and inflicting serious pain to Miguel, "Fuck, chill out Dusty!" Miguel shouted at him. "Focus on fighting Miguel, I don't have time for a throwaway fight." Dusty replied with an edge to his voice. Fine, but atle-," Miguel started but didn't finish because Dusty had performed another dash towards Miguel landing another strike, Dusty commented, "Less Talk, more fight." Dusty turned around and rushed Miguel knocking him back several feet before Miguel landed a hit on Dusty to give some space between the two. Miguel noticed his aura was low and decided to be relentless, forcing himself to run at top speed towards Dusty, but to no avail, Dusty parried the strike leaving Miguel open to a counterattack, however Dusty merely kicked Miguel away knocking him far back and causing him to fall down, after the fall Dusty spoke up, "I forfeit, this match is hardly worth the time to finish this." Miguel was shocked, Dusty wasn't the type to leave something unfinished, "But Dusty, what about just ending this, you could literally end the fight right now." Weiss asked out of confusion, "This match was unsatisfactory, my opponent underestimated my abilities, there is no point in winning a hollow victory, now if you excuse me, I'll be in the dorm room until Lunch, see you then." Dusty walked off on his own. Afterwards Devon commented on Dustys obvious rage, "So, he's mad at something, what did you guys do to break him?" Yang replied first, "Funny, I thought you might've been able to shed some light on this situation." Weiss followed up with, "Either way, it seems we underestimated him, it seems his true power only awakens when he has something bothering him, should we send someone up there to ask?" Miguel and Devon replied at the same time, "NO!" "Why not?" Miguel answered, "The last time this happened someone we sent up there was sent to the hospital because Dusty enters an enraged state. He fights you and in order to get information you have to beat him in a duel." "So, why don't we send our best duelist?" Everyone looked at Weiss, Ruby spoke up first, "Weiss, we can't risk anyone, he is unpredictable and very dangerous, we need to just wait this out." Devon answered, "That'd be useless, someone else will get hurt and I know Dusty would target another just to prove his strength and wit in battle." Miguel who was awkwardly silent spoke up, "He said he'd never be as physically strong as Yang, no matter how many push-ups he does. I'd say that Yang is our best chance at it, and if he lost a duel, he'd be so distraught, it would tone down his rage and ego by a dramatic amount." Silence ensued for a short while, before Weiss took a sigh and everyone looked towards Yang. Incidentally, Blake asked the question, "Yang, we need you to fight Dusty, it shouldn't be that hard." Yang clenched her fist before answering, "I'll fight him, I have my own score to settle with him anyways." Weiss responded, "Very well, Aquila, go retrieve Dusty from the dorm and inform him a challenger awaits him in the arena." "Understood!" Aquila was off towards the dorm to inform Dusty. Once he arrived at the dorms, he was greeted by a hostile glare from Dusty, who asked, "Why do you dare interrupt me in the middle of my rest?" Aquila returned the glare, "I come to inform you of a challenge from someone, they await you at the arena." Dusty, not willing to back down accepted. Aquila dashed off leaving Dusty behind to report his success to Weiss. After a short while, Dusty arrived at the Arena to face his foe, upon realizing it was Yang, a brief moment of fear shown in his eyes, but quickly turned to determination and hatred, both walked to the center and at equal heights glared at each other before moving back towards their spots and preparing for a true no holds barred battle. Once both sides heard start, they rushed at each other and neither would give an inch. Dusty forced himself to fight harder than ever before, just so he could prove that he was worthy to be here. Yang was fighting for personal reasons and for the sake of her team. One would land a hit and then the other would retaliate, making it more of a trade-off than an actual lead, eventually Weiss forced the two away from each other after noticing both had low auras, however before either could leave, Dusty slipped past Weiss and cut another strand of Yang's hair in order to provoke her to attack him, which lead to him receiving a few jabs, an uppercut and a knockdown courtesy of Yang. Dusty, upon realizing what happened and figuring out he lost, immediately apologized to everyone for the inconvenience. "Sorry, I caused so much trouble, I can't forgive myself for this especially not for losing." Miguel sat down with Dusty to reassure him that his actions were not his own but rather his other half, Dusty didn't believe Miguel and insisted all his actions were his own arrogance and will. Miguel laughed, "That's the Dusty I know, always blaming himself." "Please, we all must be willing to admit we did something awful." Dusty said, still in disbelief of what Miguel was saying. Dusty continued, "I must go seek assistance for my lack of control over my rage." Miguel stopped him, "That's why you need to take some anger management courses, it'll keep you from becoming an unstoppable tank next time." "That seems counter productive, wouldn't better control allow me to have a dramatic boost during fights and be cohesive enough to predict enemy movements?" "Yeah, it's the best training you can have!" "I can't take that offer, I'd become too strong, I enjoy being weaker, it has something for me to aspire towards." "Let's just head off to lunch, it's been an eventful morning." After lunch, Weiss decided to give Team MADD a break from training so they could go and see the town, but would rendezvous back at Beacon for dinner.
Things to come: We do actually have a ship idea story-wise, and yes we actually got the original three to approve it, that would be Me (Derek), Angel and Jace (Proofreader for one paragraph in chapter one), because of this we do plan on expanding on that thought for a while, but likely not until chapter 11 as 7-9 are premade and I have a pretty extreme goal to reach with Chapter 10. That ship should be fairly obvious so I won't reveal it until the time is right. Hi-Res Out.