Ch17: The day we've waited for.
(Saturday, Y+1, M+0, D+0)
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY KURT!" Yang and Ruby yell.
I grumble/yawn and sit up, stretch and see Yang and Ruby right next to me.
"Ehhh. Vhat?" I say, my German accent showing more than usual.
"Happy birthday!" Ruby and Yang repeat, much more quietly than the last time. i respond by staring at them questioningly.
"Since you didn't remember when your actual birthday was, Dad decided to make the day I found you your birthday." Ruby explained, extremely happy.
"Oh yeah." I say, remembering that today is my 17th birthday.
"C'mon, we've got presents for you." ruby said, before grabbing my arm and dragging me to the family room.
"Happy birthday Kurt." Dad said, gesturing to the four boxes stacked on the coffee table.
"Danke!" I say, walking over to and sitting down on the couch in front of the table.
I pick up one package and tear off the wrapping paper, finding a large, metal box of .30-06 ammunition.
"300 rounds of thirty ought six AP ammo. Sweet." I say. 'No such thing as too much ammo.'
"Thought you'd like it." Taiyang said, chuckling a bit.
"Open this one next!" Ruby said, pushing a present over.
"Alright Ruby, just a sec." I say, picking it up and slowly picking at the tape holding the paper on. "Hmm. I wonder what it could be?" I question rhetorically, still moving slowly.
"Open it." Ruby pouted. 'No! Not the puppy dog eyes! Anything but the puppy dog eyes!'
"Alright." I say, pulling off the paper to find… 'Well, wasn't expecting that to show up.'
"Are you alright Kurt?" Ruby asks after a minute of me staring at the contents of the package, slightly confused and a bit sad that I may not like her present.
"What… How… Where did you get these?" I ask, holding up one of the books, titled For The Emperor!, the cover picture showing a man nonchalantly holding both a banner and an oversize pistol.
"I got them at the bookstore. Tuckson's." She said. "Do you not like them?" she asked, starting to tear up.
"No, actually. I love these books. I remember them from home actually. Of all the things that could have been the same from Earth, Warhammer and Ciaphas Cain are probably the least likely things I would have thought of. Seriously. I can tell that the universe is messing with me even more than it usually does."
"Soo you… Like it?"
"Oh, definitely. It's just REALLY weird. As in ludicrously weird. The odds of these being here are so small as to be almost zero. I'm not complaining. but I'm confused." I ramble on. "Why'd you pick these out, by the way?" I ask Ruby.
"The cover has a guy with a large gun and what looks like a chainsaw-sword. I had a hard time thinking of anything you'd like more." She said, smiling.
"Your logic is entirely correct. On every level. Ever." I say entirely seriously while internally freaking out about the piece of Earth that the universe had thrown my way.
"Soo." Yang said, pushing another present my way. "I guess I'm next."
I open the present, to find a set of portable speakers. "I like it." I say, glad that one of the first things I had done upon getting a scroll was to find a way to transfer my music to it. It took a month or so but I'd managed to do it, thanks to the fact that Remnant's version of wireless was compatible with my Iphone.
"So, there are three of you and four presents. Did Zwei decide to get me something?" I ask, looking at the corgi in question, who hopped up onto the couch and used my leg as a pillow.
"Yep." Dad said, smirking.
I open the present to find a nondescript cardboard box. I open that to find another, slightly smaller box. And another. And another. And another.A few boxes later, I finally arrive at what I hope is the final box. I open it to find two small pieces of metal connected by a length of ball-chain.
"The dog got me dog-tags." I say, scratching Zwei behind the ears, much to his delight. "Wagner, Kurt X. Y., 634-41-8567, A Pos., Murphyist." I say, reading the lines stamped into the metal.
"So. What do you want to do for your birthday?" Dad asks. My response is an evil smile.
"Laser tag." I say, standing in front of the building, a large warehouse-like structure painted dark green with stylized scorch-marks added for style points.
"You sure Kurt?" Dad asks.
"Yes." I say,the same evil smile still plastered on my face.
About fifteen minutes later we were standing in the laser tag place's armory, yet another reason Remnant is, in certain ways, much cooler than Earth. '*Angelic choir*' "I'll take THAT one." I say, pointing.
I grabbed my weapon of choice, Dad grabbed an assault rifle, Ruby grabbed a DMR on my recommendation, and Yang grabbed a shotgun. Next we grabbed the safety gear; helmets and vests liberally studded with sensors to detect hits from the laser guns.
"So, the setup is two teams of ten, a red team and a blue team." I say, looking at the team selection screen outside the field. "I'm going blue." I say, tapping that box. Our vests and helmets quickly change their color to match.
A minute later we're all standing in the waiting area with the other six members of our team, waiting for the match to begin.
"Ruby, you and I are on over-watch." I say, checking my weapon.
A buzzer sounds and we rush out onto the field, littered with pieces of cover, small buildings made of black plastic, and parkour-ish bits for those of us whose semblances and training allowed us to reach them.
I tap Ruby on the shoulder and point to a ledge with a good view of the field. I then bamf on top of a building and survey the field.
"Time to rock and roll." I say to myself, looking for a suitable target. "SUPPRESSING FIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE!" I shout, shooting at anything wearing the wrong colors, especially people who were shooting as opposed to attempting to hide. 'MORE DAKKA AHAHAHAHAHA!'
A few minutes of "suppressive" fire later.
"It's just me and you." I say to Yang. The rest of our team is out and we're up against three other people. All of whom are bunkered down in one building. "I've got an idea." I say to her, "Hang on and shoot anything that moves." I say. *Bamf* *PEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEW* 'Missed one.' *PEW*
"ROUND OVER: BLUE TEAM WINS" A video-game style announcer states calmly over a loudspeaker while the three reds and Yang are still trying to figure out what just happened.
"Kurt. The room's spinning." Yang says woozily, her hand pressed up against her temple.
"Oh… Yeah… You may feel some nausea after we teleport." I tell Yang belatedly.
"Thanks for the warning." She grumbles, leaning on the wall to steady herself while the reds file out.
"C'mon." I say, supporting her and leading her out to the field exit.
A few rounds later, we decided to go home.
"That was fun." I say, sitting on the couch reading For The Emperor!, using the box of ammo as a footrest.
"Hey Dad!" Ruby says, walking into the room. "Can I go to from Dust Till Dawn?" She asks, a smile on her face.
"Why?" Dad asks.
"The new issue of Weapons Magazine is out." She says, excited as usual about the bi-weekly publication.
"Alright as long as Kurt goes with you. It's getting late so be quick."
"Alright Dad. C'mon Kurt, let's go!" She says, pulling me up.
"Alright, yeesh." I say, putting my greatcoat on and slipping my book into one of the many pockets.
After a bit of walking and using the tunnel-tram, we finally reached the store. I follow Ruby to the back, lean against the wall, put on my headphones and read my book to the wonderful tune of Sabaton's Night Witches. A few minutes later, the song is over and White Death starts playing.
"Are you robbing me?" I hear Ruby say, looking up to see a goon in a black suit with red sunglasses and a hat.
"Yes!" He responds. I mark my page and slip my book into my greatcoat, sighing. 'I'd love to go to a Dust shop one day and leave WITHOUT the place getting robbed.' I think, a bit annoyed at my luck. 'But then again, beating up criminals is fun.'
And, with that thought, I launch a running, Aura-infused punch straight into the thug's gut, launching him across the store.
I nod to Ruby and pull Marxman from its holster, flicking the safety off and pulling down the hammer. 'All alone, a man with his gun, wanders into the wild.'
[Seconds later]
Ruby plants the tip of her scythefle into the ground.
"Get her!" I hear a familiar voice say. 'Oh yeah, Episode 1.'
I bamf into the street and pull out my headphones, blaring my music for all to hear.
{You're in the sniper's sight, the first kill tonight, time to die, you're in the bullet's way the White Death's prey, SAY GOODBYE} The music blares before I put my hand into my pocket, and turn it off.
"So." I say, aiming Marxman in a two-handed Weaver stance. "Who's next."
"Get them!" Torchwick says, annoyed.
As Ruby takes on two thugs, I put two rounds into a third thug who apparently didn't know when to stay down, the first breaking his Aura, the second passing straight through his right shoulder, putting him out of action.
"You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." He says, before lifting his cane and firing a firework-like thing at Ruby, ignoring me completely.
as she dodges, he runs off to a ladder on a nearby building. I look over to ruby, who managed to jump over the blast.
"Let's go after him." I say, pointing to the rooftop Torchwick is on.
"Got it." She replies, jumping up.
*Bamf* I teleport to the rooftop, to see Torchwick.
"You again?" He says, finally recognizing me from our first encounter.
"Awww. He remembers me." I say as sarcastically as I physically can, before he steps onto the bullhead hovering nearby that I somehow failed to notice.
Ruby landed next to me as Torchwick's Bullhead took off.
"End of the line kiddies!" He says, tossing a red Dust crystal our way and firing at it with his cane.
"ACH!" I shout, grabbing Ruby and bamf-ing a few yards to the left, a yard or so from the edge of the roof.
"Whoa ho-ho-ho-"*CRACK!*"oh shit." He laughs before I bring up Marxman and fire around that narrowly misses him. 'YOU HAD ONE JOB SCOPE! ONE JOB!' I rage internally.
I look to the right to see Goodwitch shooting all kinds of crazy Dust magic at the bullhead. And in response, Torchwick runs to get the pilot who, quite irritatingly, manages to block everything me and Ruby fire at her. WITH HER HAND. "DAMMIT LADY DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE BULLETS ARE!" I shout, quite annoyed at wasting the rest of the magazine. I switch the empty magazine for a full one and rack the slide back.
"Hold your fire. We're just wasting ammo." I say, flipping Marxman's safety on, dropping the hammer and holstering it. "All we can do now is watch the fireworks." I say, gesturing to the battle of magic being waged in front of us.
Once the battle was over, we walked over to Goodwitch.
"You're a Huntress!" Ruby says, excited. "Can I have your autograph?" she asks, awed.
Goodwitch looks at her, then at me.
"So, where to now?" I ask.
[About fifteen minutes later]
"You put yourselves and others in danger." Goodwitch says sternly, continuing with her reprimand.
"They were criminals, they started it, and they threatened us. I see no reason why what we did was, in any way, a bad thing." I say, looking up from my book before promptly returning to it, barely paying attention to the goings-on around me. I notice Ozpin enter the room, put a tray of cookies down on the table and say a few things.
Eventually I decide to put away the book as Ozpin asks Ruby whether or not she wants to go to Beacon.
"And now we get to you, Mister Wagner." He says, looking at me.
"Indeed we do." I reply.
"I know you wish to come to my school. As a matter of fact, you were accepted to my school."
"Indeed I was."
"And why is it that you wish to become a Huntsman?"
"Because there is no position I hold in higher regard than one who is willing to die to defend others." I say, entirely serious. "Plus," I add with a smirk, "It's quite fun."
"The life of a Huntsman is no game." Goodwitch sternly says.
"Is that all, Professors?" I ask, quite eager to return home, read my book in peace, and prepare my things for my stay at Beacon, which begins on Monday.
"Yes, it is. You two are free to leave." Ozpin says, gesturing to the door.
"Wanna bamf home?" I ask Ruby.
"Really!?" She asks, excited.
"It'll feel a bit weird, so be ready." I warn, putting my hand on her shoulder.
"Okay!" She says enthusiastically.
"On three. I say. One… Two… Three!" *Bamf*