A/N: Somehow I was able to get another chapter written on my phone. Hope you e joy, and as always, leave a review.
Francois stepped out of his car and began walking towards the rebuilt school in front of him, thanking the gods that his father was retired. Were it not for him, he wouldn't have been able to finish his education at Beacon after Jonathon was born and Bea left.
He frowned at the thought of his rabbit Faunus ex-wife. He had loved her with all his heart and soul, and she had run off to Menagerie with some other guy less than a month after Jonathon's first birthday. He had gotten over her to be sure, and all that mattered to him was that he had Jonathon, but it still left a bitter feeling whenever his mind drifted to her.
Besides, last he'd heard of her, karma had hit her like a ton of bricks; the guy she had left him for had kicked her to the curb, she'd had two more kids, but the fathers had taken custody, and she had been forced to living on the streets of Menagerie.
He shook himself out of his memories as the Huntsman Corps building came into view. He walked inside and headed for the locker room. Upon arriving, he found his locker, punched in his code, and the door swung open, revealing his gear: His silver plate armor, maroon Fleur De Lis painted on the top of each shoulder and in the middle of his chest, his matching combat boots, his maroon gloves with silver Fleur De Lis on the palms, and his beloved weapon, Midnight Hour, a two-handed broadsword that could quickly switch into an M4 assault rifle.
He checked his watch, it read 1800 hours, plenty of time for him to change, and get some marksmanship training in before the Bullhead arrived. He stripped off his clothes and donned his armor before finally grabbing the handle of his sword, attaching it to his back, and walking to the shooting range.
"Hey boss!" Francois turned and saw Rufous jogging down the hallway.
"You're here early, what's the occasion?" Francois replied.
"Was hoping I might get in some combat practice before heading out... and I might want to talk to Velvet."
Francois shook his head, "Dude, she's been shooting you down for the past three years, let it go."
Rufous blushed, "I can't help myself man, ever since things ended between her and that Jaune guy, I've been hoping for a shot."
Francois rolled his eyes, "Yeah, because you're such an upgrade over one of the four people that saved Remnant." He said sarcastically.
Rufous shrugged, "From what I hear, it was him that ended it. Apparently he still hasn't gotten over what happened to Nikos, that's why he also ended things with Yang Xiao Long. Freaking Yang Xiao Long! How do you end things with a chick like that?"
"Well, you never stop loving someone that did what Nikos did for him I suppose... but anyways, go get changed and I'll meet you in the training arena, I'll run the simulations for you. I'll be in the shooting range in the meantime."
Rufous nodded and walked back to the locker room. Francois headed the opposite direction and pushed open the door to the shooting range.
He pulled Midnight Hour off his back, switched it into rifle mode, flipped the safety switch to single shot, and punched in the simulation.
The scoring system was simple enough, a headshot on an enemy was worth five points, a body shot worth one, a miss was negative one, and a shot civilian was negative ten if non-lethal, negative one hundred if lethal.
A buzzer sounded and targets began popping up, he dispatched each one with quick efficiency and his score began climbing quickly. Target after target popped up around the room until a second buzzer sounded, signifying the end of the simulation.
"New personal best!" The computer called out as it tallied up his score. Put his weapon back in its holster and walked over to the computer. The screen flashed "183" back at him. The all-time leaderboard popped up and his score was placed in the number three spot, behind the top score set by Pyrrha Nikos (296), and her teammate, Lie Ren (190).
"Puts you into some pretty elite company, if I do say so myself." A sultry voice spoke from the doorway.
Francois spun and saw his friend and fellow team leader, Coco Adel, standing in the doorway, her trademark shades lowered.
"Not elite enough. Though gods only know how anyone could possibly break Nikos's score, literally one off from being a perfect run." He replied with a smile.
She pushed her shades up and walked over to him, hips swaying as she did so. "You'll always be elite to me, handsome."
Francois smiled back and hugged her as she got to him, "Good to see you again too, Coco."
Coco let go, looked up at him and frowned, "You can't resist my charms forever, Francois. I'm gonna get you to flirt back with me."
Francois grinned, "Oh, you were flirting? I didn't notice."
Coco's mouth opened, then closed, "Now you're just messing with me."
Francois's grin got wider, "What are you gonna do about it?"
Coco took her sunglasses off and looked him in the eyes, and leaned in as if to kiss him.
*CRASH!*
Francois went flying back and slammed into the wall. He slowly got to his feet and saw Coco standing with a smile, her fist still out in front of her.
"Ow," he said flatly, fishing his scroll from his pocket to check his aura level. It read 95%, Coco must not have put much effort into her punch. He looked down and saw a slight dent in his chest plate, "You're gonna pay for the repairs."
"And if I don't, what will you do?" She replied in a flirty tone.
He was about to retort when Rufous, already clad in his sea foam green armor, appeared in the doorway.
"Hey boss, I'm ready whenever you..." he trailed off.
Francois looked at his teammate, "I'm fine, let's go before anyone else takes the room." He pushed past Coco and walked with Rufous to the training arena, not noticing the hurt look on Coco's face as he was suddenly ignoring her.
"What really happened, Francois?" Rufous inquired as they walked down the hall.
He sighed, "Just Coco being Coco. She got flirty, I acted like I didn't notice, and she got offended and punched me to the wall."
"Well, why don't you just indulge her? She's obviously got some kind of feelings for you. Just give it a shot. Other guys would be falling over themselves to be in your position."
"I'm not 'most guys', Rufous, and you know exactly why."
"Jonathon," both men said in unison.
"I couldn't ask her to step in like that."
"Well, it's not like she HAS to be a mom. That'd really be up to her. If she's not, then it's obviously not gonna work out. But if she is..." he trailed off.
"Rufous, that's enough. It'd be extremely selfish of me to expect her to step in like that. Just because I had a kid while I was in my fourth year, doesn't mean I should try and force him on Coco, especially seeing how she and her team missed a year while Beacon was being rebuilt."
"But it's not selfish to make that decision for her?"
"I said that's enough!" Francois snapped back. He pulled out his scroll and called the rest of the team.
"Where are you guys?" He asked as Tiffany and Silver picked up.
"We're stuck in a bit of traffic, we'll be there in about five minutes." Replied Tiffany.
Francois checked his watch, 1820. "Alright, when you get here, come to the combat arena after you get changed. Rufous and I will already be there. See you soon."
He hung up the scroll and turned to Rufous, "Come on, we don't have a lot of time to waste."
They arrived at the training arena a minute or so later, Rufous going into the arena itself while Francois went up to the control center. He punched in the command, giving Rufous a challenge, but nothing that would overexert him.
Rufous stood in the center of the arena with his his weapon, Rapier Wit, a rapier with a desert eagle in the handle, capable of firing different types of ammunition thanks to the Schnee Dust Company, already drawn and readied.
Francois hit the execute button, a buzzer sounded, and five Atlas robots appeared, weapons at the ready.
They opened fire and Rufous jumped in the air, flipping and spinning as the bullets from the robot's rifles missed him by centimeters. He landed behind one of them and skewered one before it could even turn around, the others spun and opened fire. Rufous ducked just in time, and two of the robots accidentally took out each other with their own crossfire. He jumped up and tackled another robot, holding it in front of him like a shield and charging towards the last one as it fired over and over. As he got to it, his sword moved blindingly fast as he took it apart, limb by limb. He then took the robot he was holding as a shield, bent it at the waistline, and hit it with a pile driver, shattering its dome.
A second buzzer sounded and the lights came back on.
"Good work Rufous, you've improved a lot on avoiding attacks rather than letting your aura absorb them," Francois called down over the loudspeaker.
There was suddenly a sound of applause from the doorway. Francois turned and saw the rest of his team standing there.
Silver Slinger, horse ears standing straight up, dressed in his brown leather armor, his weapon, Silver Slugger, a baseball bat with a shotgun attachment, sat in its holster on his left hip.
"Great job partner! You killed it man!" He called out, still clapping.
Next to him stood Tiffany Gumbs, Francois's partner. She stood dressed in her black and dark orange digital camouflage, her weapons, Sturm, an air-powered pistol capable of shooting darts laced with a knockout tranquilizer or a lethal neurotoxin, in its holster on her left shoulder, and Drang, an extendable baton capable of discharging a shock strong enough to knock out an enemy, stuck on her right hip.
"Good work Rufous!" She called out as Rufous exited the arena.
Francois exited the control booth and came down to greet the rest of his team. As he came down, Rufous, Silver, and Tiffany locked arms in preparation of their normal greeting whenever they came together, Francois joining in the huddle when he got there.
"Forest on T! Forest on T! F!" Shouted Francois.
"R", said Rufous.
"S", called Silver.
"T", shouted Tiffany.
"Forest!" All four shouted as they broke the huddle.
Francois checked his watch, it read 1845.
"Alright team, let's go get locked and loaded. Transport will be here in fifteen minutes."
They left the training area and headed to the armory to get supplied and ready to go. In addition to loading up with hollow-point bullets, Francois grabbed a silencer and a scope for Midnight Hour, Rufous taking an assortment of elemental bullets for Rapier Wit, but taking more fire than any others, Silver took some slugs and "dragon's breath" rounds for Silver Slugger, and Tiffany loaded up with equal amounts of lethal and non-lethal darts for Sturm, as well as placing a brand new dust crystal into Drang.
"Everyone locked and loaded?" Asked Francois. Nods from his team indicated that they were ready.
"Alright, bring it in," they all got into a huddle once again.
"WHO ARE WE?!" Francois called out.
"FRST!" Replied his team.
"WHO ARE WE?!" He yelled again.
"FRST!" Again called back his team.
"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!"
"WIN!"
"THAT'S RIGHT! HANDS IN!"
They all put their hands in the middle.
"1, 2, 3!"
"FRST!" They all called out as they broke and jogged to the bullhead docks.
A/N: Holy crap! Another chapter already? Yeah, a combination of extremely slow days at work (I work in a gas station) giving me the time, and the anniversary of Monty's passing giving me the extra motivation to get this chapter written.
Before anyone asks/complains; no, there won't be any real shipping between members of CFVY and FRST. Velvet will do nothing but keep shooting down Rufous, and Francois and Coco will just flirt with each other.
Until next time, love you all.
Johnny