It had been a few months since the start of Vertiya's time at Atlas, and she was settling comfortably into it. Sure, they'd only really been doing lessons on various aspects of being a Huntsman or Huntress, but it was the sort of thing Vertiya had signed up for, and what she enjoyed. Granted, she wasn't quite as confident in the spars yet – she'd been in the best part of six, only won one, and even in that one she was half convinced Pluto was going easy on her even though he wouldn't admit it – but she was slowly getting there with help from her team. Slowly. She was in one duel a couple of weeks ago against Yi's now-girlfriend, Aurolia, and that was an incredibly embarrassing moment for her.
"Vertiya, Aurolia, when you're ready," Professor Lazuli said from the side of the dojo arena.
Vertiya nodded towards the teacher, before turning to Aurolia, a yellow card flipping through the fingers of her right hand. Vertiya knew full well that Aurolia was much stronger in close quarters than at range, as she had both a long sword and dagger up close but her ranged weapon was only a crossbow with a long reload time, so provided she could keep her away she'd stand a better chance. She was just about to toss the yellow card, when Aurolia's golden eyes went pink, and just like with Pechus back in the initiation stage, Vertiya's mind went blank. There was a slight difference to the time with Pechus, however. Rather than becoming filled with a rage towards Aurolia, Vertiya was consumed by something that more resembled lust. Vertiya was transfixed, astonished by how perfect Aurolia looked in front of her, to the extent that the card in her hand dropped to the floor.
However, not long after, Vertiya's mind came to, and Vertiya realised Aurolia was looking at her with a curious, yet inquisitive look. She wasn't the only one though, as the rest of the spectators were staring at Vertiya with mixed expressions, and it was then that Vertiya realised her posture. Her head was slightly forwards, shoulders down and back arched forwards towards Aurolia with her arms draped slightly in front of her torso, and her mouth was still slightly ajar.
"That's… odd," Aurolia said, scratching her head as her pink eyes returned to their usual gold. "My semblance has only ever worked on guys before," she continued. Vertiya suddenly remembered what Aurolia's semblance was – it was referred to as a 'charm', where the target was succumbed by a paralysing longing, resulting in them becoming unable to do anything. "Unless you're not entirely straight?"
Vertiya's back shot up straight and her eyes widened at that, causing her to freeze. Colour started rushing to her cheeks as she realised what Aurolia was implying, and she was left stammering. "I… um… well… er…" Vertiya managed, with difficulty. She felt far more embarrassed than she ever had, and she was not a fan of it.
"Oh, oops, didn't realise," Aurolia said, her curious look becoming a little more sympathetic. "If it's any consolation, you are kinda cute, I just prefer your brother," she added, looking over to Yimesz with a wink before turning back to Vertiya. "Anyway, aren't we meant to be duelling?"
Since that day, it was pretty common knowledge that Vertiya was bisexual – she'd had to, with great difficulty, explain that she wasn't lesbian, just that she wasn't entirely sure where her preferences laid – but to be honest, not many people really seemed to care, and Vertiya was slowly getting accustomed to people knowing. Most people didn't treat her any differently, however, but more like the bookworm she was known to be. To be honest, Vertiya preferred that anyway. It had been quite some time since the initiations, the takedown on the Nevermore had lost its hype factor, and the Hylae twins were back on the usual scale of popularity – Vertiya stayed more in the background, and Yimesz was the king of the social crew.
Team VYPR, however, were becoming really close as a team, and more importantly friends. Ruzovi was less shy amongst the three of them now as she'd warmed up to them all, allowing herself to be a little more 'childish' for lack of a better term. Vertiya was happy to see that side of her, though, as she knew full well Ruzovi only ever really knew training and not what it was like to be free, plus it was almost like having a younger sister. Pluto was a mixed bag – when sober, him and Vertiya had become close friends, as they shared a similar level of intellect, yet when drunk him and Yimesz were as thick as thieves. Yimesz was, well, Yimesz, but Vertiya had been able to deal with him for sixteen years, and the other two were now accustomed to his reckless and carefree style of life.
However, none of the teams really knew how well they'd work together yet as none of them had really done anything as a team outside of the initiations. Spars were rarely team efforts – more solos or duos – and theory wasn't something that necessarily required ample amounts of co-ordination. Vertiya had tried to keep them in some form of training outside of lessons, but as far as curricular activities went, there was nothing. That was about to change.
Vertiya woke up a bit earlier than usual, before Pluto, to find something that had been posted underneath the door of their dorm. Rubbing her eyes as she wandered over to it, she picked it up, holding a pink card for light to see what it said. The contents of the note definitely got her excited.
"We're going out… on missions?" Yimesz repeated, still yawning as Vertiya had woken the others up. "What told you… that?"
Vertiya sighed, brandishing the note at Yimesz before chucking it on her bedside table, throwing some clothes on. "According to what it says, it's first come first serve, and I don't know about you but I'd rather be doing something interesting rather than collecting dust."
"Wait, that's a mission?" Yimesz exclaimed, suddenly bolting upright. Vertiya knew full well that Yimesz would rather be out fighting Grimm than menial tasks like that, and by suggesting he could end up doing that, he suddenly became a lot faster in getting out of bed, to Vertiya's liking. Pluto was already good to go, taking a swig from his hip flask as he chucked clothes over to Ruzovi, who sleepily yet effortlessly caught everything, pulling her usual sweater over her head before standing up off the bed. Much like how Vertiya and Ruzovi had an older sister-younger sister style relationship, Pluto fitted somewhere in half way between a brother and a dad. He was almost like a dad of the group as it stood anyway – well, at least whilst he was sober. Not in the way that Vertiya led the group, as she kept everything in order, making sure everyone was doing what they needed to do and such, but rather instead in making sure everyone was actually alright and coping.
"Everyone good to go?" Vertiya asked after a couple of minutes, getting a 'Yep' from Yimesz, a nod from Ruzovi, and some hand signal from Pluto mid-drink to signify he was ready, and as such she headed out of the dorm door, the other three following soon behind her.
To little surprise, VYPR were the first of the first-year teams to make it to the main hall, where some of the other teams were milling around as well from other years, others heading over to where airships were parked. Vertiya, however, headed straight over to the giant touchpad screens on the sides by the walls, and was immediately scrolling through the potential list of missions.
"I told you there was a dust collecting mission," Vertiya said to Yimesz, pointing out the title, which literally read 'Dust Mining Assistance'. Annoyingly, there were seemingly few options, as many of the missions listed had a higher year as a requirement. Vertiya scrolled past objectives like 'Mantle Grimm Clearout' and 'Saffyer Factory Defence' – it could have been interesting to see Ruzovi's family business, but that was a third year plus mission – until finding one that sparked her interest.
"A city sweep? I'm surprised that doesn't require a higher skill level," Pluto said, when he spotted the one Vertiya was looking at. "That being said, it could either be remarkably enjoyable… or remarkably boring. Depends on how many Grimm there are.
"Well, it is only twenty miles out from here, and it says that we'd be going with a Huntsman/Huntress on the synopsis," Vertiya pointed out. "Everyone good with it though?"
"A Huntsman? Ooh, wonder who we'd get," Yimesz said, with a curious glance at the screen as though looking at it would tell him the answer. "I reckon there's probably some decent ones that work with Atlas that we'd get to choose from."
"By the looks of it, I think they're designated to us, rather than us picking from them," Ruzovi piped up, also looking up at the screen as she was a little underneath eye level for it. "Also, I'm pretty sure a lot of the teachers are or were Hunstmen and Huntresses in the past, so chances are they'd be the ones we go with as they wouldn't need to be called in. Also, to answer your question, I'm more than happy with doing that mission."
"One of the teachers? Hope it's Lazuli," Yimesz said. Professor Lazuli, the sparring and combat coach, was one of the favourites of most of the students. Cool, calm, and calculated, Professor Lazuli had an aura of 'badassery' which a lot of the students were in awe of. A couple of times some of the students had wanted to try and challenge him in a spar, but every time he refused, pointing out that there would be nothing gained from such a venture. "To be fair, granted it isn't Orange, I'll be fine."
Vertiya sighed at hearing that. Orange was what some of the students called Professor Naranja, and although Vertiya was fine with her, she was one of the stricter teachers, and as such Yimesz and her butted heads a little. There were a few other teachers in subjects which weren't exactly as enjoyable, but quite a few of them didn't always pay as much attention to the students, and as such Yimesz was able to get away with more. With Professor Naranja, that wasn't the case. "Well, I guess we'll find out," Vertiya said, locking her team in to do that mission, which sent information to each of their scrolls, telling them to head out to where the aircrafts were parked and which one to go to.
The four of them got into the aircraft pretty hastily, getting seated and comfortable within minutes, yet the aircraft pilot was still hesitant in taking off. When asked why, all he responded with was, "Still waiting on the Huntress." That at least told the four of them that they weren't getting Yimesz's favourite Professor – he was male after all – but nothing else as to who they were getting. Their unasked questions were soon answered, however, as a familiar ginger woman entered the aircraft, and Vertiya could almost hear Yimesz's inaudible sigh.
"Professor Naranja!" Vertiya said, with a smile. Although Yimesz may not like her, Vertiya got on with her well. Besides, one of the topics that interested Vertiya most was the Grimm, and that was what Naranja taught. "Are you coming with us, then?"
"Sure looks like it," she replied, taking something off her back as she took a seat in the aircraft. As she placed it in front of her, Vertiya soon realised it was a shield. A giant kite shield. Sure, Professor Naranja was a tall woman – taller than her, and maybe an inch shorter than Yimesz – but the shield she had was easily larger than Ruzovi.
"A shield, huh?" Yimesz said, looking it up and down, unimpressed. "Can't see how it would be great in a fight, but to each their own, I guess."
Professor Naranja looked at Yimesz with little more than a raised eyebrow. "You know, your father said the same thing to me once, just before we were meant to have a duel. So, naturally, I destroyed him."
That got a stifled snicker from Ruzovi, and it changed Yimesz's expression of indifference to one of shock. Even Pluto seemed a little fascinated. Vertiya, however, was more intrigued about the first part. "You knew my – our dad?"
Professor Naranja let out a rare smile, raising her voice a touch as the aircraft started to take off. "I suppose Hal doesn't really talk much about his time as a Huntsman, does he? He always preferred making the weapons to actually using them. Still, he was a pretty good shot," she explained.
It became pretty clear at that point that Professor Naranja not only knew Vertiya and Yimesz's dad, she knew him well. Vertiya knew that Hal was her dad's nickname – his actual name was Halfayruz – but very few people ever called him that unless they knew him well.
The rest of the journey wasn't filled with much in the way of conversation, but thanks to the fact the aircraft moved with such a high speed, it didn't take longer than five minutes anyway. The five of them hopped out, with the aircraft flying up into the air, however it didn't fly off back to Atlas immediately, but instead retreated up into the clouds.
"Is that a safety precaution, then?" Pluto asked, taking a swig from his flask whilst looking up to the grey sky. It wasn't as though there was much to look at in the city – all the buildings had been damaged in some way, some more derelict than others, and as such it was just as grey as the sky. The sheer lack of nothingness gave a dead feeling to the area, and it gave Vertiya a shudder through her spine. However, there weren't any Grimm in the area, so at least whilst the five of them moved through the city, going between and in buildings, they weren't caught unaware by any surprises.
"So how did you know my dad then?" Vertiya asked Professor Naranja, causing the teacher to turn to her whilst they were walking through an alleyway, just about to meet a main road.
"Don't you think that's a conversation you should be having with him?" she replied, her expression curious, but still humoured. "If you must know, we- get behind me!"
The next thing Vertiya knew, Professor Naranja had grabbed onto her, and pulled her close to her. Vertiya was a little taken aback but immediately realised once she felt a shield behind her, and impacts hitting onto it. The cry of a Nevermore was heard overhead, and once Professor Naranja let go of Vertiya, Vertiya saw what was down the road – an army of Grimm, that had all turned to face the five of them.
"Well, like I said, this one could either be remarkably boring, or remarkably enjoyable," Pluto said, finishing off the last of his drink and changing his flask into his cannon. "Looks like this one will be the latter."