Author's Note: The longest chapter we've made, and it's a bonus for Father's Day! Hope you enjoy this behemoth of a chapter, it was 11 google doc pages long.
Nothing special happened on Thursday, Dusty wanted to recover a little bit more and Miguel continued his training under Mercury. Devon and Aquila did some trivial training matters and worked on what they had to do before Friday rolled in. Before they all went to bed, Dusty asked them all a question, "How do you guys feel about fears?" Aquila and Miguel pondered why Dusty would ask this now. Devon pointed out, "You only ask questions when something's on your mind, so then Faggot, What's up?" Dusty noticed both Aquila and Miguel staring at him, he paused for a moment before he spoke, "I've been having terrifying dreams lately. They all end in the same thing, me being engulfed in a either a flame or complete darkness, I'm having issues discerning what's a sign and what isn't." Aquila spoke up, "Maybe it has something to do with Yang?" Dusty shook his head, "I doubt it, if she had something to with it, I would've figured it out. I'm assuming it may be a sign I'm losing what makes me, well me." Miguel joked, "Well you haven't lost yourself yet, but if you have, there's a mirror in my bag." "Now is not the time for jokes! This is serious, if I lose who I am, I may not be a good teammate or even a partial ally at all. If this were to happen, and I lose myself, I want you guys to find someone who can defeat me and end my suffering, but until then we're a team. We stay as one for the rest of this year, at least I hope we do." Dusty on this somber tone fell asleep leaving Devon, Aquila and Miguel to question what Dusty mean, Aquila talked first, "I think Dusty is losing his mind and his sanity, think the stories are true and people can become Grimm?" Devon smirked and said, "That's impossible, a human cannot become a Grimm, I think his obsession for beating Yang is making him lose himself." Aquila stared back at him, "Don't Faunus choose whether or not to become Grimm?" Miguel looked at him before speaking, "Silly Aquila, Faunus don't become Grimm, the White Fang don the masks of Grimm, but that's the closest anyone is towards actually being a Grimm." They all agreed that Dusty was simply being odd and they went to sleep, for the next day to start. On Friday morning, the crew walked towards the cafeteria for breakfast, in which they noticed Dusty was back to normal, but they did notice he was a lot quieter than normal Dusty. While Dusty was moving a significant distance ahead, Miguel and Devon had a brief conversation, "What made Dusty this quiet?" Devon asked, "It may have something to do with his loss to Yang, Dusty has only a small amount of pride, but he makes sure it stays intact, so to lose to Yang probably affected him so dramatically that he wants to reclaim his lost pride, but that's just a guess." Miguel said, but Devon replied sarcastically, "But Dusty said yesterday that Yang had no part in his recurring dreams, therefore that can't be the reason!" Dusty noticed that they were talking, and yelled at them both to move faster, else they would be late to History. The class was still just as fun as before, granted only Dusty really enjoyed learning and showing off his knowledge, but everyone else enjoyed Professor Oobleck's swift movements around the classroom. After Oobleck's class, the crew joined team RWBY and JNPR since it was lunch time. everyone was talking while they were walking down the hallway, except Dusty who stayed about ten feet ahead at all times, within earshot in case someone talked about something relevant, but far enough away that no one would talk to him. Once everyone was at the table, conversations resumed as normal, Dusty still quiet and very reserved, Miguel socializing with everyone, Devon and Aquila talking with Team JNPR. Dusty suddenly got up and prepared to leave, Miguel, as leader, asked him why he was leaving so early, Dusty simply answered, "Preparations aren't done." Miguel asked for clarification, "It's been a week since we arrived, right? Well then, I feel like I need to prove myself, otherwise I'm only a failure to myself and my team." He then walked off without another word.
Once the rest of his team arrived at the dorm for preparations, since the last class was sparring, and it was clear that they had to be prepared and ready to fight, in the event they were called, but none of them wanted to fight, the rest joked about how their matches went last time, but Dusty still remained quiet, even with Aquila asking him what was wrong, Dusty simply shrugged and said mental preparation. Once they got to the arena, they noticed that Dusty started talking more, more like normal Dusty. This relieved everyone on Team MADD who were at least worried for their teammates sudden quiet personality. Two matches passed by, and neither really affected Team MADD, then Professor Goodwitch called for one last volunteer, and Dusty simply smiled and raised his hand. "Mr. Quintessence! Thank you for volunteering, allow me to look for a sparring partner." She goes to flick through her scroll but Dusty cuts her off, "That won't be necessary, Professor." "Oh, so you actually care who you fight today?" "Yes, and I would prefer, much against my teams better will and judgement, to fight Yang Xiao Long." Dusty continued to smile, almost as if he had been planning this fight since he began attending Beacon. Professor Goodwitch looked at him as if he was crazy, given that Dusty and Yang never got along, surely it would lead to disaster. Dusty briefly looked over at Yang, likely to ensure his opponent would accept his challenge. Once Dusty was in the locker room, he thought to himself -It's finally time, my time to get revenge is here. You have beaten me twice, Yang Xiao Long, and now I plan on taking back the pride you made me lose, I won't give up no matter what 've me embarrassed me too much and now, I will fight until one of us is defeated- Once the two foes walked onto the stage and took their places, Dusty still maintaining that smile finally turned it into a frown, while Yang stared him down with the same hatred she had when, he first tried to speak with her, when Miguel had just gotten punched through a wall and he had no other choice but to help his leader.
Once the Professor called to begin, Dusty immediately switched to gunlance and fired a high-powder round behind him, and switched to longsword, for the red-hot steel was very efficient at defeating his foes previously. Dusty was being extremely ruthless this time, not allowing Yang to get any hits mostly due to the fact that his blade was basically on fire and getting hit by the fire would only distract her, so she had to block with her gauntlets. Miguel was surprised at Dusty's sudden increase in strength, but he checked Dusty's Aura only to notice it was dropping really quickly everytime he struck Yang's Gauntlets, but Yang was still losing by a small margin. Dusty wound up for a up slash to break her guard, but he missed and was forced to take a hit from Yang. Once Dusty had retreated far enough away, he reignited his blade and prepared for round two, landing his guard break and hitting Yang with a few slashes knocking her back, but then Dusty finally calmed down, and he started to feel the fatigue of battle, knowing he was only one slash away from winning, he charged at Yang before tripping over air, making him lose balance and having to topple down to his knees, using his blade for support, he failed to notice his blade starting to break and before he could fully recover, the blade shattered into two pieces. Without his blade for support, Dusty realized it was over, and he hit the ground, and only had a moment to try and recover before going unconscious and losing the battle.
The professor called a pause after Dusty's collapse to ensure he didn't die or go into a coma, (that last part would just be too cliche) Dusty was still breathing, he just fell unconscious for a while. Miguel just kinda stared at Dusty and laughed to himself, Devon did the same and Aquila just kinda sat there, processing what just happened. After the fight, everyone was at dinner except Dusty, and Miguel recalled how ironic it was that Dusty said that it was gonna be a special one week anniversary, since he didn't attend dinner the day that he lost to Yang. Miguel and Aquila reminisced about one week ago, when all this chaos started, their first fights, Devon's arrival in the middle of training, Weiss' harsh training methods, all of that. Afterwards, Team MADD walked to the infirmary where Dusty was currently laying, really bored because he didn't like not being able to move freely. Miguel motioned to Aquila, and Aquila then pulled out the two fragments that Ocular had split into right before his defeat. Dusty was heartbroken to see his weapon in such bad condition, and he vowed that he would rebuild Ocular once he had recovered, no matter how long it took. After Team MADD left, Professor Ozpin walked in and moved towards where Dusty rested, still gazing at his broken blade. Dusty didn't notice Ozpin enter, but he did hear his footsteps. "Professor Ozpin, what do I owe to your visit?" Dusty asked politely, "Well, I can tell you're in a bit of a pickle right now." Ozpin said, but Dusty sarcasm still had no brakes, "Really? I couldn't help but notice that either, it's like it's just echoing around!" "Your sarcasm is noted, but you did something that could be interpreted as either courageous or stupid." "I'd say stupid is more accurate of the situation." "That's not what you would've said before the fight, now is it?" "Yes, of course, I did because I wanted to end this constant stream of torment." " You see, I proved a valuable point right now, did you catch it?" "No, I can't say I did Professor." "I have proven to you that people change as events happen." "It still doesn't explain why I thought I could defeat Yang though." "Ah, but that's where you're wrong it does explain why." "I'm sorry, could you explain in greater detail?" "You're going through the five stages of grief, you were in Denial over losing to Yang the first time, correct?" "Yeah," "You also suffered great anger afterwards, but you hid it, so as to not harm anyone. When you're team was given the opportunity to train under Weiss, you did everything you could to get that training, that's the third stage, bargaining." "There's five stage though." "Yes, and you built enough courage to fight Yang, however since you've lost, you are going through the fourth stage, Depression." "That's not helping right now, Professor. May I know the fifth stage?" "There will come a time when you will reach that stage, we shouldn't try to break the cycle and ruin the surprise, now should we?" Ozpin left without saying another word, leaving Dusty to ponder the possibilities of the last stage. Dusty eventually went back to staring at his blade, feeling as if it's broken blade was a symbol of his shattered pride.
On Saturday, Miguel woke up, looked around to notice everyone else was asleep. Miguel instinctively poked Devon, "Wake up, Faggot." Devon looked at him and said, "I ain't your slave, leave me be." Devon rolled back over and fell asleep. Miguel pulled out a megaphone, and yelled at Devon and Aquila to wake up. Aquila looked around the room, and asked where Dusty was, Miguel replied, "He's OOC," "What?" "Out of Commision, for today at least, he recovers quickly, but he'll likely be repairing Ocular." "Why?" "Because that weapon is more important to him than any girl he's ever met." "That reminds me, does Dusty have any girl he likes?" "No, he's just very antisocial, he enjoys being around friends, but the only reason he was so open to me was because he was desperate for a friend and given how he only talked to Devon at the time, I see why." Devon butted in, "That's cold, ya Faggot." Miguel gave him a dirty look and then went back to talking to Aquila, "So yeah, even being one of Dusty's oldest friends doesn't guarantee you'll get everything he has to say." "Damn, that means I have nothing to use against him." "Just be patient, Dusty has faults, He just is really good at hiding things, like how the hell he knows why I received a picture of a bell." "Why a bell?" "Nothing, forget I said anything, or else I will gut you and your entire family." "Ok." "Actually, one time while we were walking he jumped over some sand and said Sand was his one natural weakness." "What?" "Just throw sand at him, he'll likely never forgive you, or he'll just dislike you for a while." At Breakfast, Miguel asked Weiss what they'd do while Dusty's recovering, Weiss answered, "We'll just find someone else to spar with you, simple as that, although we wouldn't be in this predicament if Dusty didn't let his own wants take control." Miguel for once in his life, defended Dusty, "He doesn't exactly care, he needed to fight back otherwise, Yang would've continued to torment him." Aquila looked at him, "So, have we agreed that the flame that engulfs Dusty in his dream is Yang, or is it some other cause?" Miguel replied, "We don't know, it's a possibility, but with Dusty who knows, maybe it's combustible sand." Devon laughed at that, "Shut up, Devon, you faggot." "At least I didn't get rejected." "At least I didn't walk away." Aquila intervened, "Both of you need to shut the fuck up." Miguel whispered to Weiss, "I think I'll take the day off and go to the town." Weiss Whispered back, "If you don't mind losing to Ruby again, go ahead." "Then so be it, I rather train alongside Dusty." "You two don't even train the same way." Miguel ignored this and walked away. Soon after he was in the city of Vale, "now what should I do?" Miguel soon decided to just walk around, walking down main street he decided to walk through an alleyway as he thought to himself -nothing can go wrong.- As he walked upon a group of people, -weird, who would want to hang around in this alleyway, sure it does connect to the main street but why just sit around here." Miguel stood there and just stared at them for a couple of minutes, as he noticed the neapolitan hair of one of the strangers, -that hair, must pet, least this time I won't get punched through a wall.- As one of them spoke up, "give us your dust!" "That was uncalled for at least tell me your names." "Why do you need to know our names cat boy." "I'm a jaguar, but technically a cat, but the only reason I need your names is so it would be easier to find out where your possible relatives live and then proceed to gut them alive and then strangle them with their own entrails, or I can just give them a big smile if they need and by that I mean cut the corners of their mouths to their ears, and all because a certain someone they know attempted to mug me for some dust, but hey not my fault." "You know we are not just your everyday street thug or whatever, so a comment like that doesn't even faze me." "What about the neapolitan blend right there standing next to you?" "If she spoke she could probably say worse, so just give us the dust if you don't want this to get messy." Miguel sat down on stoop of stairs in the alleyway and looked at them. "No I like to get a little bit dirty." "Neo, it's time to do our job." "Neo, so that's her name." as the two girls rushed at Miguel. "Since you will probably not live through this I will tell you my name which is Emerald." Miguel moved out of the way of Emeralds attack and stepped into Neos. "Now then, why don't I get a closer look at you Neo." Miguel caught Neo by surprise, Miguel took this chance to lift her up. "If this wasn't such a bad situation I would ask you to dinner but instead I will just take a few pictures for the hell of it." Miguel took out his scroll and snapped a few photos of Neo then he proceeded to put her down. "I must go now, since I don't want to spend too much time in an alleyway, and by the way I don't use dust I have hollow points." Miguel soon left leaving the two girls to their own devices.
Miguel boarded the ship to head to lunch back at Beacon, once he made it to the cafeteria he was met with the usual people. It wasn't long until Dusty, still not fully recovered, strolled by to the table to chat, "Hey guys" He said nonchalantly, Miguel replied, "Hey Faggot" "How's it going? Training being rough?" "No, I took the day off since you'd be recovering, but that's not stopping you." "No, it hasn't stopped me from thinking, and thought can only lead to disaster. Now if you excuse me I should leave before I start getting hungry." Weiss interrupted him as he was walking away, "What about training?" Dusty said calmly, "Training can wait, Ocular's repairs take top priority right now." After Dusty left, a confused Weiss immediately turned to Miguel and Devon for answers. Miguel was the first to answer, "Ocular is basically Dusty's one love in life, he takes care of that blade more than he has of anyone else." Weiss responded, "So his obsession with his weapon is kinda like Ruby's obsession with Crescent Rose?" "No, he has gotten to the point where we have to hold him back if anyone else touches his weapon without permission." Miguel finished, yet Ruby started talking, "I don't see much of a difference, except the part with having to be held back." Miguel started up again, "You see, He may be Masochistic, but he is also Sadistic at the same time. So any pain inflicted to either side, he benefits. The harder his opponent fights, the more enjoyment he gets out of it." Miguel realized he talked too much and shut up for the rest of lunch.
The next day, Miguel woke up and noticed that Dusty was still missing from the room, so he woke up Devon and Aquila and then moved down to the weapon modification center and checked the room. He noticed that Dusty had passed out and was asleep on the floor. Miguel pulled out his megaphone and yelled at Dusty, "Wake up, Faggot!" Dusty slowly woke and looked at Miguel, "How long was I out?" "I don't know, maybe 6 hours?" "Perfect timing, Miguel." A timer went off in the background, Dusty walked over to the timer and turned it off, before opening the door to the electric furnace and pulled out the improved Ocular, much lighter due to some material being unsalvageable. As Dusty quenched the blade in oil, he looked at Miguel and said calmly, "So Miguel, how was yesterday's trip to downtown Vale?" Miguel responded excitedly, "Dusty, I ran into that pink-haired girl you ran into that one day."Dusty looked legitimately surprised and curious, "Really, How did you deal with that situation?" "I dodged and took a few pictures; here check them out" Miguel pulled out his scroll and showed Dusty the pictures of Neo he took. Miguel then walked off towards the cafeteria once Dusty explained he still a little bit of work to perform on Ocular before it was ready for training.
At the cafeteria, Miguel arrived later than everyone else, but not by much. He took his seat, and started talking to Weiss, "Dusty's almost done with repairing Ocular, I'd say an hour or so until it's done and Dusty can resume training as normal." Miguel said, Weiss replied pleasantly, "Good, that's about what I want to hear, any other news?" Miguel shrugged, "Nothing that I've been informed of," Dusty walked through the door to the cafeteria, clearly not done with Ocular's repairs. Miguel immediately called him over, "Dusty! Ocular's repairs can't be done that quickly." Miguel said, Dusty nonchalantly replied, "You're right Miguel; Ocular isn't done, but I figured that since I have a little bit of time before I need to get to work I might as well make a stop by here and chat." Dusty looked up from Miguel and looked at Aquila, "Aquila, may I speak a few words in private?" Aquila looked surprised, "Sure Dusty, I don't know what I've done to earn this." Dusty shrugged and said, "In about a minute I'll explain why." Once they were a safe distance away, Dusty looked at Aquila, "I know I don't have a right to ask this, but I have a favor I need someone for, and you're the perfect candidate." Aquila looked questioningly at Dusty, "Sure, what do you need?" Dusty wasted no time in explaining, "I have to explain a thing about Miguel, you see a couple years back, he asked this girl he liked to go to homecoming with him, and he was around his friends and her friends, she denied him and Devon hasn't let him live that down." Aquila looked at Dusty horrified, "You want me to silence Devon?" Dusty looked back and quickly replied, "No, not that, I hate Devon but not enough to kill him. It's about my hatred for Yang, as I said yesterday at lunch 'I've been thinking and thought can only lead to disaster' well I was wrong, it hasn't lead to disaster, but rather a revelation, I want to forgive Yang for my behavior, but she won't listen to me. That's why I chose you, Aquila, she hates Miguel, not as much as she hates me, but still, I need you to relay what I just told you to Yang, about the 'Bell' incident and also tell her I sent you to relay the facts, Oh and here's something to prove I did send you, *Dusty pulls out a small bell with the serpent insignia on it, verifying it as something Dusty made* I crafted it out of the unsalvageable material from Ocular, hand it to her during training." *Dusty hands Aquila the bell* Aquila simply responded, "Alright Dusty, I'll do that." Aquila headed back to the cafeteria while Dusty headed back to Weapon Modification to finish repairing Ocular.
At the arena, Miguel is sitting on the bench while Weiss is impatiently walking back and forth, waiting for Dusty to show up for training, the rest of Team RWBY and Team MADD are waiting in the bleachers, Devon is deep in thought about Velvet and Aquila is sitting next to Yang, explaining to her what Dusty told him earlier, "So basically this bell that Dusty handed me is supposed to be a way to get back at Miguel for petting Ruby's hair back on day one." Aquila finished explaining, Yang started talking, "Why would Dusty of all people go this far out of the way to try and make amends?" Aquila shrugged, "Maybe it's something to do with paranoia? Anyways, here is the bell." Aquila hands Yang the bell, Yang quickly hides it, "Thanks."
Meanwhile, Dusty has just finished with repairs, and decides to stop by the dorms to pick up the munition he left under his bed. Once he's in the dorm room, he realizes that Miguel left his scroll and once he checks under his bed, when he obtains the rounds he left there he notices something shining under Miguel's bed. When he goes and reaches under Miguel's bed to see what's causing such a shine, because Dusty is distracted by shiny objects, he pulls it to the light only to realize it's something in a bag, except he realizes that Miguel was hiding two strands of Yang's hair in a bag. Dusty whispers to himself, "Miguel, I have no idea why you're hiding this, but now I have a way to not get murdered for my actions today." He puts the bag back where he found it and grabs Miguel's scroll, which was left unlocked by its owner. Once Dusty checks the message tabs, he notices a lot of messages from Ren that seem like Miguel's been doing something wrong. Once Dusty goes back to the main screen, he notices a folder labeled 'Red' and immediately Dusty realizes what the folder is for, he puts Miguel's scroll in his bag and starts heading off to the arena, and debates if this activity of Miguel's warrants telling someone else. Dusty's thoughts have become a battlefield -Should I tell someone about what Miguel's actions? Maybe a teacher, no that won't do anything except just force some trivial punishment, Yang? No, I don't want anymore trouble with her. Aquila? Nope, Devon? Hell no.- Dusty arrived at the arena and upon walking in notices Yang's glare isn't as severe as it was. -Thank you Aquila- he walks over to Miguel and hands Miguel his scroll, 'You left this at the dorm, Miguel." Dusty, trying his hardest to not break down, Miguel simply looks at Dusty, "Dusty, why were you in the dorm?" Dusty, grateful for the change of tone replies, "Sorry, what? Oh yeah, I was getting some rounds for Ocular." Weiss intervenes, "Now then, can we start getting you two back to training?" Both respond, "Yes, Ma'am!" They assume the spots on the stage and prepare for combat. When Weiss shouts "Begin!" both of them dive at eachother, Miguel landing the first hit, but Dusty repels the next attack with a parry before switching to longsword and diving back at Miguel, this time due to the swords lighter weight, Dusty no longer needs two hands to wield it, allowing him to use his offhand to block Miguel's kick. When Miguel blocks to stop Dusty's vertical slash, Dusty immediately switches the blade below Miguel's for the guard break, landing it and allowing Dusty to knockback Miguel for some breathing room, "Nice one, Dusty." Miguel says, Dusty smiles and replies, "Not too bad yourself, Miguel." Dusty is significantly more fatigued than Miguel, but Miguel has sustained much more damage than Dusty. Miguel pulls out Div's sheath and takes aim, firing several rounds into Dusty, Dusty responds by switching to lance mode and loading some Cryo rounds, firing all five in a row, launching several large ice spikes at Miguel temporarily rendering him unable to move as Dusty dashes forward to inflict serious damage to Miguel and end the fight there.
Dusty helped Miguel get free from the crystals, and afterwards both stood at attention as Weiss gave them their battle scores and Pro/Con speech, "Dusty, you've not had many winning fights, I believe the last time you won a fight was against Mercury?" Weiss started, "Actually that's irrelevant, Miguel the last time you fought was against Cardin, as a way of getting even, and it really shows you aren't very reliant on your weapon and can handle your own against your opponent without your weapon, maybe before Dusty broke Ocular that tactic would've worked, but with an extra hand to block, it isn't as effective, and Dusty, you're weapon may be repaired but you clearly were distracted as you shouldn't have taken as much damage from Miguel as you did, but you did well by using the Ice to your advantage, surprising given how the last time you used them was on your first day here, where you were promptly given a beatdown by Yang. Ironic how those rounds vanished from your arsenal after that fateful day, they're effective, use them more." Weiss concluded the training and gave them their assignments for the next training session on saturday.
At Lunch, everyone was talking and it seemed like a normal day, Dusty was talking with Devon about the old days, Miguel was talking with Team RWBY, and Aquila was talking with Team JNPR, "So Devon, I talked to Aquila about that incident a couple years back." Dusty was talking to Devon, who replied, "Really? Awesome more people to support me when we torment Miguel!" "Yeah, but you know he is stronger than me and Aquila, so I wouldn't torment him and Aquila is far too passive for that." "Whatever, we both know who would win in a fight between me and Miguel." Devon was bragging as Dusty was sheepishly responding. Aquila was explaining why he needed so much equipment for his job, "My job isn't easy, I don't enjoy being chased; That's why I carry a large amount of equipment." Aquila then went through and detailed everything he had. Miguel was joking around and being his normal self, when out of nowhere, Yang pulled out a bell and rung it a few times, Miguel asked with a mix of curiosity and aggressiveness "Yang, why do you have a bell?" Yang replied, "Payback" Miguel only got angrier, "Do you even understand the significance of the bell?" "Is there even an importance to it?" Miguel quickly lowered his voice and anger upon realizing Yang may not understand the importance of that sound, "Oh, Nevermind, I was mistaken." He did catch the reflection of the serpent on the bell, identifying it as something Dusty made. Once his team made it back to the dorm room, Miguel grabbed Dusty by his collar and shoved him against the dorm wall, angrily questioning him, "Why the fuck did you make a bell for Yang!?" Dusty smiled and said, "I'm trying to make amends, It's the only way I thought I could." Miguel only got angrier, "So you're jeopardizing my health to secure your own safety!" Dusty said calmly, "Miguel don't do anything rash, otherwise I may have to send someone to show 'this' to Yang." Dusty pulled out the bag that had two of Yang's hairs in it.
Aquila looked shocked and Devon was a bit surprised himself, Dusty continued to smile while Miguel dropped him in horror. "Dusty don't you fucking dare, you're putting me in danger." Dusty simply continued his smile, "Well Miguel, I would be willing to not tell Yang, if you promise to not kill me for this." Miguel begrudgingly replied, "Fine" before hopping onto his bed and looking at his scroll, Dusty walked over to Miguel and whispered in Miguel's ear, "Don't think I don't know your secret, you perverted bastard." Miguel simply glared at him.
The next day was a monday. Our ragtag group of heroes got up and heard a knock on their door, Dusty was promptly first to answer. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Professor Ozpin at the door, "Professor, what do we owe this surprise visit?" Dusty asked questioningly, Ozpin replied, "You four technically never did initiation, so today is when we amend that. Meet me and Professor Goodwitch at the forest in half an hour.
Team MADD were lined up on four of the launch pads, Ozpin gave the initiation speech and then launched them into the air over the Emerald Forest. When the four of them were in the air, they proceeded to each start preparing their landing strategies.
Miguel's landing strategy was reaching for a tree branch and try to climb down. He missed his branch and proceeded to fall several feet, all while yelling things like "Ouch" and "Fuck" until he landed on the ground, surprisingly on his feet to which he yelled, "Nailed it!" before moving forward.
Aquila's landing strategy found him using a prototype parachute to land successfully and safely, to which he heard gunshots, which he decided to avoid because he knew Grimm would be heading in that direction.
Devon's strategy had him attempting to increase speed and land on the ground like a badass, instead he went face first into the ground.
Dusty's plan was simple, he used Ocular to catch a branch and proceeded to jump down to lower branches until he landed at the ground. He dusted himself off before noticing three Beowolves staring at him.
Dusty stared at the Beowolves, they stared back, Dusty spoke to himself, "Wow, now I know how Miguel felt on Day 1." One of the Beowolves rushed him, but Dusty already had Ocular drawn, giving Dusty the upper hand and quickly dispatched of the threat. Dusty switched to lance, and loaded two Cryo rounds, firing them both and locking the beowolves in place long enough for Dusty to start running.
Devon was dashing through the forest, looking around for any sign of activity, he stopped briefly and noticed that the branches above him looked bent and broken. He remarked, "Someone seems to have fallen from here, they must've been too fat for the tree."
Aquila was traveling through the forest, walking calmly and quietly, he came across a clearing. The clearing was calm and peaceful, but he noticed a shaking bush. Out of the bush stumbled two Beowolves, the pair seemed enraged, as if someone had already found them. He wasted no time and tossed his blades at them, killing one and mortally wounding the other. He let the other one run away, but it didn't get far before being intercepted by a flaming shell to the head killed it. "You can come down from there, you aren't very sneaky, Dusty." Aquila shouted at the branches, Dusty jumped down and responded, "Well, I was sneaky enough to outsmart a pair of Beowolves, I think that's good enough."
Miguel was simply staring at his surroundings, trying to figure out which way to go to move to the temple. He heard a noise and dove under some brush to hide, out came Devon, who looked at the tree Miguel fell from and remarked, "Someone seems to have fallen from here, they must've been too fat for the tree." Miguel walked about from his cover and stared at Devon before speaking, "Well atleast I landed on my feet." Devon looked at Miguel and replied, "Well, I guess we have to deal with each other until we get to the temple, so let's move Miguel!" The two moved onwards, despite Miguel not liking having to work with Devon.
The two teams were nearing the temple, they didn't encounter each other until they had reached the temple. Once there, they noticed that only two pieces remained, The Black Rook pieces, They two teams decided to walk back together, but Aquila noticed something was off with the grass, and several trees were severely injured. When they reached the stone clearing where they had a clear vision of the cliff they were launched off of, Aquila caught up to Dusty and asked a question, "Can you feel that, something's off?" Dusty prepared himself and waited for the right time, allowing the rest of the team ahead and he drew Ocular switched to Longsword and waited. After several minutes of waiting, Miguel motioned for Dusty to move ahead, when out the forest a King Taijitu dashed at Dusty, Dusty turned and slashed upwards. Forcing the creature to back up.
"Aquila! Devon! With me! Dusty Keep it side tracked!" Miguel roared as he noticed the King Taijitu's failed attempt at attacking Dusty.
"Miguel, I have no reason to trust you, Dusty looks capable of handling this himself." Devon responded as Dusty was in the air, continuously dodging the serpents strikes and slashing down it's back whenever possible, before being flung back into a stone pillar.
Miguel, tired of Devon's shit, yelled at him "Devon, get the fuck into position, we need to prepare for the attack." Devon begrudgingly moved into position. Dusty finally prepared his longsword once again and rushed the snake once more, this time waiting for the serpent to open it's jaws, and once it's jaws opened Dusty swung his blade horizontally and broke both it's fangs. Dusty jumped back, switching to lance and loading the last High-Powder round he had, which wasn't fire dust, but rather ice and the reaction on impact created a fast crystallizing ice spear, which on impact with a target froze them solid. He fired the round and watched the serpent thrash around until it was frozen solid, much to Dusty's relief as he didn't know if it would work on such a large foe. Miguel shouted, "NOW!" and like clockwork, Aquila, Devon, and Miguel rushed the frozen serpent, Miguel scaling up one of the beasts heads, while Aquila scaled the other head, and once they were ready Devon fired a fire dust round point blank at the King Taijitu's side, inflicting massive trauma on the ice and forcing the serpent to break free, however the other two quickly dispatched of both the heads and jumped down as the colossal beast fell.
As the team got back to crossing the stone clearing, they were talking and joking about the encounter with the Taijitu. They made their way up the cliff and went back to where Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch were waiting, after turning in the two pieces, they were finally able to return to their dorms for the time being.