(A/N) Another Saturday, another update! Well ok, this update is a few hours late so, strictly speaking, it's not quite Saturday anymore, but you'll all forgive me for that, right? This chapter is brought to you by Ayane458 (I've run out of adjectives, but you know she's great), from the perspective of Agent Massachusetts, or Massa, as her friends call her.

Hope you've all seen the "Black" RWBY trailer unveiled at PAX East yesterday! Our very own Jerem6401 was down there, having a great time (I am incredibly jealous). Looking forward to the special podcast on April 1st! Expecting to see the Season 11 trailer!

Less than a week now until we stop taking applications guys, so if you want to be a part of this collaboration, please, go onto our forum and fill out an application immediately! Our forum has the same name as our penname, and can be found if you add /forum/The-Freelancer-Collaboration/125781/ to the end of the fanfiction URL.

We're still taking applicants for Maine, Wyoming, North, South, Georgia, the Counselor, and any OC Freelancers or Project Freelancer personnel. We'll be looking forward to your application.

Once again, enjoy!


Chapter Seventeen – Unwanted Advice

Agent Massachusetts

Written by Ayane458


"Verily, a man without fear is either dead or happy to die."― Wayne Gerard Trotman,'Veterans of the Psychic Wars'


Massa, being a medic and having had all possible routes to the recovery bay hammered into her skull, led the way through the halls with Florida and York close behind. Florida was, as usual, cheerful to the point of slight creepiness. Even though Massa knew the guy was capable of kicking butt, she still found it hard to believe with his attitude.

York, on the other hand, was laid-back as usual, only a hint of nervousness there. Understandable, Massa thought. If there was one thing Penn had established about himself, it was that he did not take losing with grace. He probably wouldn't be too happy to see the winners around. If he was awake this time round, which he should be.

But surely he couldn't take a concerned visit to the Recovery Bay so harshly, right…?

Well, Massa could hope. She had no desire to make an enemy so early on, especially one who was supposed to be on her side. It was true that, in her old company, there had been some real… characters, and that was a part of the reason she was here. In such a small group, however, she wanted everyone to at least not hate each other. Of course, considering the growing hostility between Carolina and Virginia, the thinly veiled contempt that Penn held for them all, particularly Alaska, and the way all of these relationships were shaping up so fast… hope was really all she could do.

The lecture she planned on giving him probably wouldn't win her any points, either. Word had spread pretty quickly about what exactly had gone down during Team B's mission, mainly from Wyoming. While Massa didn't exactly trust the man, most of what he'd said had been corroborated by Alaska. Who she at least trusted not to lie for no reason.

"Oh, by the way," York said suddenly, causing Massa to stumble and Florida to hum curiously, "I was thinking about having a sort of victory party later on. What do you two think?"

"I think it sounds great, York," Florida declared. "A real bonding experience."

York looked to Massa for a second opinion.

"I agree," she shrugged. There was, however, something on her mind. "How on earth –can I still say that here? –are you going to get supplies for a party?"

York frowned at this, but they arrived at the Recovery Bay's door before he could continue. Someone was already outside.

Carolina glared at the door as if it had personally offended her, deep in some mental debate about whether she should enter or not. Through the window, Massa could see Penn gazing away from them, towards a couple of medics. It was probably best to go in before he started demanding to be released…

"Hey, Carolina!" York called eagerly. Carolina wasn't as easily surprised as Massa, and just looked up at him with a vaguely affectionate look. As far as Massa could tell, this indicated that she was head over heels in love with the guy already. If her guess was right, the feeling was–

"I'm sorry about how your team went, but you were still amazing, so I guess it didn't really effect you much. I mean, I'm sure you'd have won if…"

-wholeheartedly reciprocated.

"So, we're all visiting Pennsylvania, huh?" Florida asked, interrupting York's awkward rambling.

"I suppose so," Carolina replied. "I figured I should, since I was team leader. He got injured on my watch." Despite her words, Massa did feel a bit of suspicion towards her intentions. Did she really care her teammate got injured under her command? Or was she just upset this could look bad on her record?

Looking at Carolina's facial expression, Massa figured it was at least mostly the former.

"We just wanted to wish him a get well soon!" Florida declared. Carolina nodded curtly, before opening the door and leading them in. Their presence had apparently taken away any apprehension on her part.

Penn's eyes snapped to them as soon as the door opened, and his scowl grew far more pronounced. He projected an air of hostility that could be felt throughout the room, making the nearby medics shift uncomfortably. Only Florida seemed unaffected, and Massa was willing to bet that was because he chose to ignore Penn's aggression rather than actually being ignorant of it.

Massa, electing to allow York, Florida and Carolina to handle Penn's initial response to their arrival, walked over to the medics, giving Penn a quick, unreturned smile as she walked by. The air of hostility felt as if it were turning to one of murder frenzy, but that might've just been her new proximity to the guy.

"Hey, guys," she greeted. She knew the two medics vaguely, having been introduced to them when the Counsellor was explaining what would be expected of her around the ship and on missions because of her medical training. Their names were Brown, a timid man of small stature, and Clarkson, a lovely blonde woman with a strong New Zealand accent.

"Good morning, Massa," Clarkson replied as cheerily as she could, while Brown murmured something to that effect. "Back again to see him?"

"Wondering how the patient is," Massa replied. While she was concerned about Penn, she sort of wanted to minimise her association with him around people who were so clearly uncomfortable with him around.

Brown noticeably paled at the words and Clarkson's smile became more strained. It seemed that Penn had made an impression.

"Well, his shoulder wound has been healed almost completely," Clarkson said, still trying to stay happy. The woman acted like scowling was a crime. "His chest wound is a little more serious, but he should be fine soon enough." Here, her smile faltered some more. "I don't want him out of here just yet because… well, he needs to relax a bit to ensure it heals well."

Meaning she didn't trust him not to run straight into the gym and destroy a few punching bags, whether those punching bags be inanimate or unfortunate passers-by.

Apparently Penn really had intimidated the medics. Being the biggest guy on the team, he wouldn't have to do much to achieve that effect. Sitting and staring silently would probably work well enough.

"I'll talk to him," Massa promised, leading Brown to heave a rather obvious sigh of relief.

"Thanks," Clarkson replied, grasping Brown's arm and leading him away towards the corner of the room and as far from Penn as was possible.

Massa raised an eyebrow at this before turning on her heel to join the others.

York seemed to be carrying an awkward conversation while Florida occasionally piped in, either ignorant of or ignoring the uncomfortable atmosphere. Carolina, for once, seemed to be leaving everything to York. Penn silently scowled at whoever was talking at that moment.

Massa arrived, smiling defiantly at Penn's scowl and addressing him directly.

"The docs say you can leave about now," Massa told him. No reaction to this news. "Put too much strain on your injuries and you'll be right back in here, though."

"Dude, that's great!" York yelled, apparently reacting for Penn. "We should so have a party for that!"

Massa and Florida shared a look while Carolina seemed a little lost. Penn seemed very indifferent, although Massa noted that his hands were slowly clenching into fists.

"Anyway," Massa continued in an attempt to distract Penn from York, "if you agree to stay out of training and missions for a few days, you can leave."

"…Fine," Penn muttered. At this point, Carolina was steadily edging towards the door with York closely following. Florida, seeming to think everyone was leaving or just wanting to take this opportunity to leave, followed after them with no attempts at stealth, earning him an exasperated glare from Carolina.

Massa took a closer look at Penn's injuries as the others walked away. He had been lucky. The shots had both missed anything too important.

"You should be more careful," Massa said, not entirely sure what response she was expecting.

Penn looked at her. He had been cheerier when he hadn't been injured. And not kicked down to the bottom of the board. Oh God, had he seen that?

"It was a fluke." His tone stated that any continued conversation wouldn't be welcome.

Against her better judgement, Massa pressed on. If Penn's MO was always going to be about proving that he was the best, he could end up being more of a danger to them all than an asset to anyone. She'd already seen the damage arrogant bastards could do. That wasn't going to be repeated on her watch.

"Nobody's going to be impressed with you bleeding dry in the middle of a mission because you're too damn stubborn to recognise your limits." His lip twitched downwards and she tried to figure how much she could get off without some serious backlash. "I'm here to patch people up. So are they," she nodded in the direction of Brown and Clarkson, neither of whom were happy to be drawn attention to. "But there's only so much we can do."

Massa was about to back off, when a hand gripped her arm with painful strength. Penn had stood with surprising speed. She looked up –not an easy task, with his height –and their eyes met.

Jesus. She'd pushed him too far, she could tell. Was he really going to hurt her, though? Surely he'd know there'd be consequences. Cold fear began to creep its way through her body as she realised that she sure as hell couldn't take him hand-to-hand. Her eyes flicked away, trying to subtly seek out any potential weapons… in that drawer were some scalpels. There were some syringes stashed there, and some pretty heavy sedatives within those cabinets. If she could get him down, she'd have time to grab a syringe and fill it with sedative… scalpel would buy her time…

His grip on her arm tightened, drawing a grimace of pain from her and forcing their eyes to meet again. He opened his mouth to speak.

York ran back into the room before he could get a word out.

"Hey, Massa, you aren't going to believe what just happened!" York huffed. The excitement in his eyes faded as he stared at the two of them. "What's going on?"

Penn shoved Massa's arm back at her, forcing her to stumble back a step. Massa looked at him fearfully. "Nothing," he growled, moving back to his bed and glaring at Massa.

She breathed deeply for a moment, before turning back to York, grinning wide enough to potentially damage her muscles and completely ignoring the fact that she had been planning the best way to pump Penn full of sedatives a moment ago. "You were saying?" she prompted York.

York, catching her drift, continued a bit more warily. "Alaska and Florida got into this huge fight. They're going to have a match down in the training room. We're all going to watch, so…" he trailed off, giving his invitation while not entirely sure how far it extended. Massa immediately zeroed in on the participants.

"Florida and Alaska, huh?" Florida had always been cheery to the point of idiocy. But with this new information, maybe her theory about him obfuscating stupidity was right. As for Alaska… well, he was a bit of a wildcard, so who knew? Maybe this was normal for him.

"Yeah, I know," York nodded, his previous enthusiasm returning. "Want to go?"

"Yeah, let's!" Massa urged. She moved to leave with York, hesitating at the door.

She turned back to Penn. "Coming?"

Penn nodded once. It wasn't a particularly rude gesture, but something about him made Massa sure they weren't going to get along around here.

His loss, Massa decided. You can't please 'em all.