Ch41: A day at the festival
(About an hour later)
[K(rak)IN Dorm]
AN: Didja miss me?
"Wow. Physics just died. All of it. Everywhere." I say, after watching Ivan's video of the Qrow v. Winter fight. For the fifth time. To put it mildly, I was impressed. Even after seeing it previously four times. I look over to Neo, lying faceup on her bed that she rarely ever uses. "So, Neo, do you-" I ask, stopping when I realize that Neo isn't moving and that I can't feel her a few feet away from me. I walk over to her bed, when I tap her and she (predictably) shatters.
'"Neo."'
'"I'm in your hangar."'
'"*sigh* I'm guessing there's something you'd like to talk about in private."'
'"Yep."'
"I'm going to The Cave." I say to Ivan
"See you tomorrow." He says with a smirk, before proceeding to screw around with something on his scroll.
*bamf*
"Hey Neo." I say, walking up to Neo, who was sitting on the couch I'd set up in The Cave's living area. "You wanted to talk, I'm guessing."
'"I missed you."' She says a bit sadly, as I recline on the couch next to her. '"I thought I'd lost you."' She sobbed into my shoulder.
"But you didn't." I hug her tightly. "And I didn't lose you." I bring our faces close together. "And nothing will ever break us apart." I say softly, kissing her deeply.
'"And one day soon-"' Neo says as we break the kiss.
'"We'll make them pay."' We both say simultaneously, small grins on our faces.
We both quickly break down laughing at our apparent madness.
"It's good to be back." I say after we manage to pull ourselves back together.
'"It's good to have you back."' She replies, as we drift off to sleep in each other's arms.
(Mon, Y+1, M+5, D+3)
[The Cave, way too early]
"Kurt. Wake up. Yang's match is today." I hear Ivan say, as I feel something hard jab my ribs.
"Alright, alright, I'm up. Just stop jabbing me with that thing." I say, seeing a metal pole in Ivan's right hand.
As I climb off of the couch, he tosses it to the side and hefts his weapons: his rocket-launcher that also functions as a hammer and his AR that also functions as a gun.
"You two gonna get your stuff or what?" He asks.
"Sure, just give us a sec." I say, pulling Neo up onto her feet. "So, today's the first day of finals. Ivan!" I say, pointing to him.
"Da?"
"If you were a terrorist or malcontent, what is the most likely target in the city today?"
"The Amity Colosseum, I guess."
"Precisely. And therefore we shall not let our guard down. No matter how awesome the fights are." I spin around and point at Neo. "Neo, you're going to wear some concealed armor. I was working on some for you before I was interrupted most rudely. Unfortunately all I've got for you is a chestpiece that can go under your clothes." I walk with her over to the armory and we get prepared for the day to come. "Alright, we're in Section 4, seats 6, 7, and 8 in the row closest to the field." I say, leaving the armory with Neo. I hold onto both her and Ivan.
*bamf*
"Why are we at the airship docks?" Ivan asks.
"Because I need to know where the colosseum is to actually get to it. I can't go somewhere when I have no idea where it is or what it looks like." I explain, taking a few moments to stare at the colosseum and snap a few pictures with my scroll. "Alright. Let's go." I say, bamf'ing us to the colosseum.
"Ivan."
"Yes?"
"Now we're on the colosseum."
"I noticed."
"Neo?"
'"Yes?"'
"You noticing anything out of place?"
'"The fact that the place is swarming with Atlesian troops and androids."'
"Precisely. I'm seeing at least a platoon of droids and a squad of stormies."
"Huh?"
'"What?"' Both of my companions question my terminology.
"Droids and stormies: Androids and Soldiers." I explain.
'"I'm not even going to ask."'
"It's a Terran thing." I say quietly. "But there's something else." I mutter. "Something just feels a slight bit off. Just a bit." I say quietly. "Be ready for anything. Especially you Ivan." I say
"Why me?" He asks, sounding a slight bit insulted.
"Because you're our plan B. B of course standing for boom." I reply, pointing at Ivan's as-of-yet- unnamed M202 FLASH/Warhammer… of death… and bludgeoning.
"Got it. Anyone want some snacks?"
"One-" Neo gives me puppy dog eyes, "Two-" Still with the eyes. "Ten cans of People Like Grapes, and I'll say maybe four large popcorns." I tell Ivan, forking over some Lien. Neo smiles happily.
"That enough?" He asks sarcastically.
"Not even close. Teleporting is actually rather tiring when you're dragging along someone with you."
"There are two of us."
"Surprisingly enough Neo doesn't affect my bamf-ing at all. It's either that she's a teleporter too or just because she's small-ish, but it really doesn't matter. We'll be waiting at our seats." I say, as Ivan wanders off to the concessions stand and Neo and I make our way to the seats.
We chat a bit and eventually Ivan arrives with our foods. We continue to chat until the various contestants line up in the arena: Yang, some guy who looked like a musketeer, Sun, some probably-Atlesian guy who looked reasonably competent (meaning he was wearing armor), a dark-skinned guy with blue clothes, gold armor and red face-paint, Penny, mercury, and Phyrra. We listened as Port and Oobleck explained how the finals worked and the spinning wheels of destiny chose Yang and Mercury as the first match.
"I don't trust that Mercury guy." I whisper to my teammates, discreetly patting myself down to make sure my personal armory was where it was supposed to be. The wonderful part of bamf-ing onto the colosseum was that we managed to avoid the security personnel which, although accepting of the fact that most Hunters are habitually armed, would have likely had some sort of minor aneurysm at the arsenal I pack.
We watch intently as Mercury and Yang trade blows in a rather awesome battle. Mercury does this weird breakdancing/bulletstorm thing and the (literal) whirlwind of shots all hit Yang full-on, leaving a cloud of smoke and dust. I wince a bit. 'That's gonna hurt.' Mercury calmly turns away with a smirk on his face, not bothering to even check if Yang is out. Soon he regrets that mistake as the cloud dissipates, revealing a rather pissed-looking Yang. She makes short work of Mercury and it looks like she even shatters his Aura.
'"And suddenly I'm a lot more scared of your sister."'
"Yeah, she can have that effect." I chuckle as Yang is declared the victor. I watch as she walks away, something feels off. Part of me is seeing her walk towards the exit and part of me sees her walking in a circle around mercury as he sits on the ground. Mercury leaps, and at the same time stays still. Yang blocks with Ember Celica, firing into his leg as she does so. And at the same time she fires into his leg without provocation.
"Problem." I say. Suddenly I feel like something else is wrong. I don't know what but soon the sensation passes and I can see Yang being surrounded by two stormies and eight droids.
I can neither see nor sense Qrow, Ozpin, Goodwitch, or any of the other teachers, only Oobleck and Port.
Neo and Ivan are sitting speechless. After she busted our door down, I'd made both aware that Yang was a perfectly safe person to be around unless you messed with her hair or threatened her friends or family. This was entirely unexpected.
"What the hell just happened." Ivan asks.
"I don't know but this doesn't feel right. seriously, something felt… off. I don't know what." I say shivering a bit. I can actually feel the anger, disgust and shock. It feels horrible.
I see one of the Atlesians disarm Yang as the other handcuffs her. They lead her out of the stadium, hands behind her back and several guns pointed at her. Meanwhile Mercury is being carried out on a stretcher by a pair of medics provided by the Vale Hospital System.
"Something wrong Kurt?" Ivan asks while Neo looks at me a bit concerned.
"I can actually feel the hate and disgust. It's rather unpleasant." I shiver again and stand up a bit hesitantly.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain calm and exit the colosseum in a calm and orderly fashion. The tournament will restart tomorrow. Do not worry, " Dr. Oobleck says over the PA system. The crowds quickly start to file out to the colosseum's airship docks, and I move to find RWBY and hopefully prevent them from doing anything stupid. I quickly find RWBY, Ruby, Weiss and Blake all sitting in their seats trying to come to grips with what they just saw.
"Why would she do that?" Weiss asks, shocked.
"There has to be some reason." Blake responds, equally shocked, while Ruby is still processing.
"C'mon, let's get to Beacon." I say to them. "You can talk to Ozpin and maybe get this sorted out."
"Are you alright Kurt?" Blake asks, looking a bit concerned.
"Not really. Just being close to so much hate and disgust." I wince. "Is actually becoming acutely painful." I brace myself on Ivan, a painful grimace on my face. "So I'm going back to Beacon, if you girls want to follow then be my guest." I say, standing up straight and walking towards the airship docks nearest to Beacon, attempting to conceal my discomfort as much as possible.
"Wait up!" Weiss says, Blake and Ruby following her as she comes up beside me. "Winter's this way, we can go with her." She points towards Winter, Dr Grey and their guards. Also with them is a soldier wearing black armor with red shoulders and accents. And a small flag painted onto the left side of his chestplate. 'Wait. Wait. What. That's. I know it's nordic. Oh holy shit. He's a Swede.' I stop dead in my tracks as the realization hits. 'We're not alone. Somehow, there are at least three Terrans on Remnant.'
''Kurt? You alright?"' Neo asks, looking up at me. I shake my head a few times to clear it.
"Yeah, just a bit of deja vu." I say, tapping Ivan on the shoulder. I wordlessly point to the black-armored soldier. He looks to the soldier, then back to me. Then back to the soldier, blinks a few times, and looks back to me with a questioning look on his face.
Neo just looks at the two of us like we're a bit insane.
I shrug and follow Weiss as she goes up to her sister. Weiss reaches Winter and they begin to talk, I'm just standing around with Ruby, Blake, Ivan and Neo. Dr Grey sees me and smiles happily, she walks over with the black soldier in tow.
"Hello Kurt!" She says in her normal happy tone. "We were going to head to Beacon later today to talk to your headmaster, but I guess now's as good a time as any." She says, before dropping the happy tone and leaning in to say something. "I'll see if I can pull some strings to keep Yang out of trouble. I may have been fired from the SDC but I've still got some friends on the inside. I trust what your sister did was entirely abnormal." She whispers. Out of the corner of my eye I see Blake look over at us and relax a little.
"Quite. If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed what happened." I whisper back. Both Grey and I are Faunus so I guess she wanted to keep this secret. "Off the record, what happened felt weird. Something felt off about the whole thing. Not much but that's what my mindpowers-magic-psychic craziness tells me. Not that I can prove it in any way, but keep an eye out." I say. "If you need a marksman, you know who to call." I say with an exaggerated bow. Grey laughs a little.
"Actually, I was wondering if you could do us a favor while we talk to your headmaster?"
"What's the favor?" I ask suspiciously.
"We just need you and your teammates to show someone around Beacon. We're trying to get him enrolled into Beacon as a transfer student from one of our special operations training programs." She gestures towards the soldier. He walks over and removes his helmet, revealing a rather light-skinned teen about our age with short-cropped blond hair.
"Sven Hall. Alpha Company." He says, snapping a salute. Grey smiles and walks over to her girlfriend.
"Kurt Wagner. Beacon Academy." I say, and return the salute. "These are my teammates, Ivan and Neo." I gesture to my teammates. "And we are team KrakIN. I guess we're showing you around today. Sorry if I seem a bit off, but most of the people here are some level of disgusted or angry and it's rather unpleasant for me to be around." I say, somewhat morosely. "By the time we get back to Beacon I should be feeling much better."
"So. I guess we're saving questions for the trip?" Sven asks.
"Yeah. C'mon." I say, waving for the rest of KrakIN to follow. RWBY, Winter, Dr Grey, and their guards are heading towards their airship and none of us want to be left behind.
Soon we reach their transport. It appears to be a Bullhead gunship with a multi-barreled chaingun mounted under the nose, missile pods under the wings and two pintle-mounted miniguns sticking from the sides of the troop bay.
"Oooooh. Fiiirree suppooorrtt. Glorious fire support." I say, admiring the sheer beautiful firepower.
"I guess you're the team weapons-nut." Sven says with a small smirk.
"Hey. It's pronounced firearms enthusiast." I reply, twirling one of my combat knives in my right hand. I toss it up and down a few times before sheathing it on my thigh plate. "To me, going to an armory is like going to an art gallery. I take my weaponry very seriously." I say, smirking as we board the ship. "How'd you get this thing. Something tells me that this shouldn't be legal."
"We registered it as heavy-duty farming equipment." Grey says a bit too cheerily.
I break out laughing. "How does that even work?" I ask after I've finished laughing.
"I honestly don't know." Sven says, shrugging. "But sometimes it's best not to look a gift horse in the mouth."
"We're almost there." Ivan says, pointing out the open bay door. Just past the pintle-mounted, rotary-barreled buzzsaw is the much less interesting sight of Beacon Academy.
"Alrighty then." I say as the Bullhead lands. "The Beacon Academy grand tour begins now." I say, clapping my hands together as we step off of the ship.
"So I'm guessing these are the airship docks." Sven says.
"Da." Ivan answers as we walk down the road to the Academy itself.
"So, welcome to Beacon. Vale's training academy for aspiring Hunters and Huntresses. Most of whom much prefer to use melee weapons instead of sensibly reducing their opponents, usually in the form of soulless monsters who prefer to close to melee-range, into meaty chunks at range. Despite the fact that most of their weapons are at least part firearm." I exposit.
"Grand looking buildings and minimal defences. And this is supposed to be an academy for training warriors?" Sven asks as we near the entry to the Academy proper.
"Considering the fact that everyone here is combat-trained to some extent, it's rather defensible. Even the janitors, surprisingly."
"Our janitors are combat trained."
"How combat-trained?"
"We rotate our base security between patrolling and janitorial work."
"That's cheating."
"You're just jealous." He says as I lead the group into my favorite building on the campus.
"And this is the Forge." I say, as we enter the building. The entrance is a massive storage area for components and materials. The rest of the building is a complex of rooms, each a miniature forge that contains everything a student can use to create their own weapon. There are three other rooms, however, that I find much more interesting. The first is the testing range, the place you go when you want to make sure that the weapon you just built won't explode on you. The second is the fabrication room, filled with machines able to fabricate anything from stamped-metal ARs to rounds of all shapes and sizes. The third, and my favorite, is the Primary Forge. This is where the Forgemaster, one of Beacon's most valued teachers, does his work. Beacon Academy's Forgemaster is Forgemaster Stahlfaust, most of us just call him Stahl. Stahl is, without a doubt, my favorite teacher and the only person who spends more time in the forge than I do. He can usually be found helping students forge their weapons and armor properly. He always makes sure to remind his students that a shoddily-crafted weapon can easily ruin your day.
"This is Forgemaster Stahlfaust, if you need help building anything you go to him." I say, gesturing towards the Forgemaster, who is currently trimming a piece of metal on a lathe. He looked up, saw us, and turned the machine off, placing the tools he'd been using on the table behind him and walking over to us.
"Wagner." He says, pulling his gloves off. He looks us over. "I know those two." He points to Neo and Ivan. "But who's he?" He points to Sven.
"Sven Hall, Alpha Company Private Military Corporation. Pleased to meet you sir." Sven says, holding a hand out.
"Nice to meet you too son." He shakes Sven's hand. "I guess you're his new teammate."
"Nobody told me that." Sven and I say simultaneously in almost the same tone. We both look at each other and smirk.
"It just seems that you pick up strays left and right. You used to be in a five-person team, then you find him in some White Fang compound," Stahl points to Ivan, "Then you and Ivan pull her out of some massive firefight with the White Fang." He points at Neo. "I guess it's lucky for Remnant that teams are usually just four people. Maidens know how much damage there'd be if you found anyone else to save." Stahl chuckles. "Anyways, you've been out awhile, what've you been doin'?"
"I got captured and tortured by the White Fang." I say, a bit angrily.
"Oh. If you ever need to talk to someone Kurt, I'd be more than willing to sit down with you." Stahl said. I could tell that he meant every word.
"I will, maybe we can talk it over next time I drop by." I say to Stahl. "But right now I've got a lot to do. See you around Stahl." I say, leading my team to our next stop.
(A little while later, outside hanger B-17)
"So Sven, this is the last stop on the tour. The Cave. My own little home-away-from-home-away-from-home." I open the (reinforced) door. "Welcome." I say, stepping into the room and sweeping my arm across the hangar.
"Did you make those?" Sven points to Da Trukk and a stripped-down, mostly disassembled, Raider.
"Yep. That one's being scrapped for parts." I point to The Raider. "It didn't work as well as I would have liked so I'm going to make something else. I call the other one Da Trukk." I point to the large red MRAP with WAAAGH! daubed on the side in black paint. "It can fit 10 people and two crew. Driver and a gunner. Armed with twin .30-06, belt-fed miniguns." I say, in a car-salesmansy voice. "Technically I used a few jeeps to make it, so the really complicated parts aren't custom."
"That's still pretty cool." He says, impressed.
"And that brings us to the next point. The armory." I walk over to the shipping-crates. "it used to just be one of these crates, but I took out a few walls and tripled the size." I say, opening the door and flicking a recently-installed light switch, illuminating racks of weapons, crates of ammunition, and a few suits of armor on stands near the back.
"And suddenly I feel like I'm back on base." Sven says, "Where'd you get all this?"
"Most of this stuff I made in The Forge. Most of the cheap ARs are on extended loan from the White Fang."
"So you stole them." Sven remarks.
"I borrowed them with no intention to return them. After I killed them of course. It's not stealing, it's battlefield salvage." I defend. "Either way, I've got enough guns to fight off anything short of a tank company."
"Cool."
"Yeah, I used to have a lot of free time. Now I have a team to lead, so I've got a little less time." I look at my watch, built into my armored vambraces. "Hey lookit that, time to check out the caf."
"Dinner?" Ivan asks.
"Yeah, today they're serving Mantle Forest Cake and some other Atlesian stuff. It's been awhile since I've had good Atlesian food and I'm not going to miss out."
A few minutes later we're sitting at a table with RWBY and JNPR.
"So, Sven, is it?" Pyrrha asks, Sven nods. "I've never heard that name before. Where are you from?"
"Up north."
"Atlas?"
"Falun." He sees Pyrrha's confused expression. "Small town outside Atlas. Rather cold."
"That sounds nice." Pyrrha says, trying to strike up a conversation.
"Not really. It was boring." Sven says, sounding a bit bored. "Nothing to do. Being a merc is much more fun." He smirks, before digging into his food, preventing further conversation.
"So, Kurt where've you been this past week?" Jaune asks, not noticing team RWBY all motioning for him to stop.
"I was kidnapped by the White Fang, tortured, killed, and then I woke up and killed them all." My voice gains a dark echo on the last words and my eyes flash dark blue for a second.
"Oh." Is all Jaune can say. JNPR sits there stunned, even Nora is quiet.
"I also found out I'm some sort of psychic. Somehow." I say, lifting up a knife with my mind and setting it back down. "It's been a strange week." I say nonchalantly. "So, how've your weeks gone?" I ask.
"Pyrrha made it to the finals!" Nora says, quickly snapping back to her upbeat self.
"Nice job Pyrrha." I say. "Do Beacon proud." I say, raising my glass in salute.
I hear a faint ringing coming from Sven. He unclips his helmet from his belt and puts it on. A short time later he takes it off and stands up. He looks at me. "Ozpin requests our presence. Just us two." he says as Ivan, Neo and I stand up. Neo and Ivan look to me and I nod. Neo and I have a short mental conversation and we smirk.
"We won't be gone too long." I say, leading Sven to the wizard's tower.
"So, what do you remember about Terra?" Sven asks.
"Not very much. Early 2010's, you know the spiel. The usual wars in the Middle-East, Putin throwing his weight around, all sorts of general craziness and news outlets treating celebrity news as if it were actually important." I say, idly twirling a combat knife in lazy circles.
"Wow. 21st Millennium. The historians are going to go nuts." Sven says. I just look at him, processing. "I guess that flag on your shoulder dates you, the American flag hasn't looked like that for a while. At least while it was still around."
"Ummm. You're going to have to go through this with me." I say. "Ya know, I'm usually the guy that drops these kinda bombs on people."
"Okay, from the top." Sven says, as we near Ozpin's tower. "By our calendars, this is Monday, February 1st, of the year 2641. Since you've been gone there have been four world wars, two failed world governments, innumerable small wars, technology advances beyond number, the eradication of a couple dozen diseases, the creation of a few more and a growing reliance of governments on PMCs and weapons-manufacturers."
"And I'm guessing a millennium of history that I really don't have time to learn." I say, rubbing the heel of my hand into my temple as the elevator doors close. "So, what kinda guns've you guys come up with while I was gone?"
"MBTs with railguns, standard-issue gauss weaponry, spray-on thermite, and some rather large starships."
"Sooo…"
"No, we don't sell tanks."
"Damn."
"But we do sell gauss tech." I smile. "But it's quite expensive."
"Do you take goods in trade?"
"That depends on what they are."
"High-quality hand-made weapons. Ballistic and melee." I say, using the salesman-type tone I put on when talking to a potential customer.
Not long after, the elevator door opens.
"It sounds like a good deal, but I'll have to get one of our Requisitions Officers to actually get everything set up." Sven says, typing something into a screen built into his left vambrace.
We walk into Ozpin's office and see Ozpin and his usual group: Goodwitch, Qrow and Ironwood standing near Ozpin's desk facing another group of individuals.
Winter is wearing a grey and blue Alpha Company dress uniform, or at least that's what I think it is. With her are five guards in grey and red combat armor, two with ARs, two with automatic shotguns, and one carrying what looks to be a drum-fed MMG. All five appear to be wearing some sort of jump-pack. To me, they look like a sort of special-operations team.
Standing in front of all of them is a single man standing at slightly under seven feet tall. He is wearing matte-black armor with purple shoulder armor, elbow guards, knee guards and weapons-belt. His helmet is clipped to his belt, revealing a weathered face scarred by innumerable battles topped by a grey crew-cut. His hardened eyes are those of a veteran who has seen far too much. His armor is rather plain, except for the aforementioned purple and his pauldrons bear the sigil of a pair of crossed golden gladii. Strapped to the left side of his back is a sword and at his hips are what appear to be matte-black Desert Eagle-type handguns. All in all, he looks every inch the warrior that he undoubtedly is. His armor displays no identifying marks aside from two rows of five small silver skulls set into the armored plate over the left side of his chest, about where the heart is on a normal person.
Currently, this unnamed warrior appears to be having a… disagreement… with Ozpin's group.
"I don't care what you say. I know that one of you currently possess something of ours. A black slab of stone, About four feet deep, four feet wide and seven feet long. Inlaid on the top is a silver version of this symbol." The warrior points to the emblem on his pauldrons. "Along with the phrase mortis en machina inlaid in gold lettering above the word Lupus, below which is the word Shrike, both also inlaid in gold lettering. If that doesn't bring anything to mind, I have a holo of the item in question." He says, pulling a small black disk from one of his armored belt pouches and pressing a button on its side. He tosses it onto the floor between the two groups.
A large blue wire-frame box appears in the air about three feet above the disc, a shimmering blue cone of light is being emitted from it, linking the wire frame and the disc. A second after the wire-frame appears, color and detail snap into being, displaying a slowly-rotating model of the box that the soldier, I'm guessing a highly-ranked member of the Alpha Company, described. For a split second I thought I saw a degree of surprise from Goodwitch, but if it was there it disappeared quickly.
"I've never seen that before in my life." Ironwood says.
"Is there a point you're trying to make Mr. Brimstone?"
"Yes Headmaster." Brimstone replies, Ozpin's title dripping with scorn. "If my instruments are correct, then the artifact is directly beneath us. About one hundred meters below ground level, in fact."
I sense a level of surprise from Ozpin's group, with the sole exception of the headmaster himself. Considering the fact that I can barely ever sense any sort of emotion, they're rather surprised by this development.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ozpin says.
"We both know that's a lie." Brimstone says calmly. "Headmaster, you have five days to hand the artifact over to us or we will be forced to take what is ours. And I would hate to have to bring the resulting devastation to such a tranquil city." He says, with every sign of honesty.
"Are you threatening us Mister Brimstone?" Ironwood asks confrontationally. "It would do you well not to threaten the most powerful military power on Remnant."
"I'm not threatening you soldier. I'm making a promise. And I always keep my word." Brimstone says. "IGNIS! Form up!" He barks out an order. At his command, four soldiers in black armor with red highlighting deactivate what I assume is some sort of personal cloaking or active camouflage device. One of the four feels different. I can't place it, but he feels different. The four, two on either side of the clock window behind Ozpin, snap to attention with a crash of armored plates. Goodwitch, Qrow, and Ironwood whirl around and stare in disbelief at the soldiers that had been standing behind them for Murphy-knows how long. Then I realized that I hadn't detected them either. There are two possible reasons for this, neither of which I like. The first is that they have some way to mask their presence to my abilities and the second is that I'm off my game. I'm going with the first one.
"Have a nice day ladies and gentlemen. I leave the rest to you Lieutenant." Brimstone says, marching out with his men, his point made.
"Prefect!" Sven says, standing at attention and snapping his right fist to his left breastplate just above his heart in a strange salute.
"Initiate." Brimstone replies, returning the odd salute. He walks into the elevator with his guards and the door slides closed. I detect a faint smirk on Winter's face.
"So, Kurt. What is your opinion of Mister Hall?" Ozpin asks me.
"He's alright. And solid soldier, if his kit is anything to go by." I say, noting the displeasure on Goodwitch and Ironwood's faces. 'They seem to be agreeing on something for once.'
"Ozpin, you surely can't be thinking about letting this mercenary-" Ironwood says.
"James, I will run my Academy as I see fit." Ozpin says, taking a sip from his coffee. "If his company wants him to train with the best to become a defender of Remnant, I see no reason to deny them that." He takes another sip. "After all, what better way to keep an eye on him than to have him under our roof?"
"And what, precisely did you want me up here for, Headmaster?" I ask, idly twirling a combat knife and then balancing it on a fingertip. "Because as interesting as this all is, I do have a lot to catch up on." I toss the knife into the air where it twirls in glittering arcs, when it falls I snatch it by the hilt a sheath it within my greatcoat.
"It was my intention to inform you that Team KrakIN is now a full-strength team. As a matter of fact, you're standing right next to your new teammate."
"Damn." I mutter.
"Something wrong kid?" Qrow asks. Sven raises an eyebrow.
"Not really, just that I lost a bet with Neo." I chuckle. 'Although, it was the kind of bet that I am more than willing to lose.' "Guess I should have listened to Stahl, I really do seem to be picking up teammates left and right." I smirk. "Would that be all, sir?"
"You two are free to go." Ozpin says with a slight smirk.
"C'mon Sven, we've got an announcement to make.." I turn towards the elevator doors with Sven. "Do svidaniya comrades!" I say aloud as we enter the elevator, tossing a jaunty salute back towards the Headmaster and his associates.
We make our way back to the cafeteria, chatting about various things: weapons technology, tv shows and books from Remnant, the past and the present, and the almost disturbing lack of fire support available to Remnant's militaries and Huntsmen.
"So, ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement." I say to my team, RWBY and JNPR.
"Is tomorrow pancake day!?" Nora asks "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Nor-" Ren says.
"Oooh! Was it supposed to be a surprise! May-"
"Nora!" Ren shouts, quieting her.
"Thanks." I say to Ren. "Back to the announcement." I clap my hands together. "Team KrakIN is now a full, four-person team. And, unsurprisingly, the new member is Sven. Welcome to the team kameraden." I clap my new teammate on the back and, taking the initiative, he bows to the assembled teams.
"Thank you, thank you. It is an honor." Sven says theatrically.
"Ooh! What weapons do you use!" Ruby asks rather excitedly.
"You'll see. I'm in your duelling class." Sven explains. "I also need the rest of my kit transferred over. Replacement armor plates, special munitions, personal effects, stuff like that."
"Knowing Ozpin, it's probably in the room by now." I say. "We never showed you the room, did we?"
"No, you didn't"
"Well, I know what we're doing next. C'mon, time to show you our dorm." I say, waving to my team to follow. "Aufedersein Kameraden." I say cheerily, yet again twirling a combat knife in my right hand.
"See you later Kurt!" Ruby says.
"See ya sis." I pause for a second. "Good luck Pyrrha, fight well." I smirk. "As if you could do anything else." I walk off with my team.
"So the red one's your sister?" Sven asks.
"And so's the yellow one with the long hair. and yes, I know we all look nothing alike. I'm adopted and they're stepsisters." I explain.
"You get that a lot."
"Waaay too much." I smirk.
A few minutes later, we're standing in front of the dorm.
"And this is our dorm: 636. Willkommen." I say, throwing open the door. On the fourth bed that none of us ever use is a small pile of mil-spec plastic cases and a couple sets of school uniforms, textbooks, etc.
"I guess my stuff is here." Sven says.
"You don't say." Ivan remarks, "That company of yours sure moves fast."
"That they do." Sven replies with a small smirk.
Neo looks into my eyes. '"How about we go and discuss the terms of our little bet."'
"Hey guys, Neo and I are going down to The Cave. Don't interrupt us." I say to Ivan and Sven as I leave with my girlfriend.
Ivan snickers a bit and smiles at me. "See you two tomorrow." he says. "And don't forget protection!"
I just chuckle and Neo shoots Ivan a glare. He's too busy laughing his ass off to notice.
A few minutes later, Neo and I are intertwined in The Cave, our clothes scattered around us, the door locked securely, the troubles of the world far from our minds.