*Once again, The Theme plays and The Booth comes into view. Doc is sitting behind the desk with his ever-present companion Insan... Oh, uh, I mean Chi. The little hologram sitting cross-legged on the desk to Doc's left and regenengel3's right. *
"Ah, Beacon. So many wacky things that can and have gone down in those somehow pristine halls," the author remarked. Doc sighed.
"Judging from what regenengel3 said last time, welcome to the new year folks. I honestly have lost all track of time here, trapped in the fourth wall with only my thoughts and the... humor? Fragment of the Alpha A.I. based off of a grieving/mad scientist for company."
"I'm Chi, usually referred to as the Sarcastic One, Church," the A.I. said. "And I'm here to inform you that regenengel3 still doesn't own a thing in regards to Red vs Blue, RWBY, or any other work referenced. She is doing this for her own enjoyment and if others enjoy these stories she's thought up all the better!"
"The last time we left Beacon, young Mr. Arc was a moaning wreck in the infirmary, Marley was out on a date with Butch, Emily was freaking out not only her remaining teammates but Butch's as well with SCIENCE! and the boys consequently ran like a horde of Beowoulfs were on their heels," Doc said.
"And now we're looking in on them for the..."
{Show 12: Birth of a Mad Medic}
"... as if they both weren't already," Chi drawled.
"Shut up, you're little more than a plot device," regenengel3 snapped with little heat as The Booth's feed shrank down to reveal Beacon Academy in all it's glory.
/*/
Marley and Butch had enjoyed their date and made plans for another with the understanding that school, safety, and missions came before their personal plans. "Someone's happy," Caleb remarked after the fifth time the woman began humming 'Whispers in the Dark.'
"Butch had a crush on me as well and we have plans for further dates," Marley informed her teammate. "Why wouldn't I be happy? Ya take it where ya can, savvy?" Jay laughed while Caleb shook his head in resignation.
"Yeah, alright," he allowed. "You ready for our first mission?"
"Heck yeah!" Marley called, picking up both her weapons.
"Still haven't picked a favorite?" Emily asked, checking the Dust level in her weapon. Marley shrugged helplessly.
"How can I pick when they're both so awesome?" she asked. The boys shared a look and a shrug. Who were they to talk?
/*/
"Easy. You guys don't have two weapons!" Chi barked.
"Totally my fault there," regenengel3 admitted. "I didn't have a clear thought as to what her weapon would be when I started writing and then I liked both ideas I came up with and... yeah." The two men stared at her. "Stop that. You should know by now I'm slightly insane." Having no answer to this, Doc and Chi turned back to Beacon.
/*/
As a newer team, JEMC was partnered with another rookie team. When they saw Marley, two of them screamed and hid behind the other two, who were distinctly unamused. "What's with them?" Caleb asked. Jay shrugged.
"I mean, I know Marley and Em can be scary, but that's only when they're in SCIENCE! mode. Which they aren't," he said.
"Y-you survived the Mad Medic in SCIENCE! mode?" one of the hiding boys asked, peeking around the much smaller and quite unamused form of his teammate.
"How?" the other asked. Jay and Caleb slowly turned to a mildly sheepish Marley. And when they called her 'mildly sheepish' they meant 'we can only tell she's a little embarrassed because we've been stuck with her for months.'
"Marley?" they asked dryly. If they hadn't been looking, they wouldn't have caught the tiny flinch. "Care to explain?"
"Well, you see..." Marley started before she clammed up. Emily sighed and stepped up, putting an arm around her shoulders.
"You remember when you heard what her Semblance was?" the other Combat Medic asked, looking the boys in the eyes and holding her best friend close. The pair nodded, twin shivers running down their backs at the memory of that day. "Well, back then... the bullies... they..." Emily took a deep breath and closed her eyes with a pained expression. "They weren't completely wrong. See, Marley didn't have the kind of control over her Semblance she does now so sometimes... sometimes her emotions leaked out. Sometimes, she made others feel exactly like she did. Other times... other times she amplified their emotions, dialing them up to eleven. And then there were the times where she... well. It's hard to explain but, it was like she... absorbed their emotions. Those were the times she'd go a little... weird. Even after she was accepted into the medic program, where we became friends, Marley's Semblance would act up at times. Especially during a battle. The Grimm are drawn to negative emotion, right? What do you think happens when a team of Hunters-in-Training get their emotions jacked up during a mission?"
"Yikes," Jay said with a wince.
"Yeah but... Mad Medic?" Caleb asked.
"Yes. Marley didn't like it when she messed with others emotions, courtesy of her bullies, so she tried to draw her Semblance in when on a mission. Unfortunately, she would get so focused on drawing in the emotions she felt that..."
"She drew in the emotions of those around her as well," Jay finished with wide eyes. Caleb winced at the thought of holding all that in.
"Exactly. And when that happened, and Grimm attacked..." Emily said, trailing off meaningfully. The boys looked down, suddenly finding their boots endlessly fascinating.
"I went full Berserker," Marley said softly. "All that fear and anticipation and anger, even a bit of outright blood lust... it was too much. I had to let it out. But I thought... I didn't think my team could handle it all so..." she took a deep breath and forced her head back up, straightening her back. "I let it out against the Grimm. They're not really effected by my Semblance, so I channeled it all through myself. My Blade Tonfa, to be exact. And I laughed. The mist and stench of disintegrating Grimm filled the clearing and my arms burned and scratches littered my body and everything hurt but I just kept swinging and laughing. I... don't really remember much about those times, when I allowed my Semblance to overwhelm me, but I do remember the laughing and the exhilaration. That's why they called me mad."
/*/
"Dang, regenengel3. Did you have to give her such a disturbing story?"
"Chi... this wasn't what I had planned three months ago. This wasn't in my plans at all." Doc turned to the author.
"Regenengel3... if this wasn't in your outline..." She snorted at the trapped medic.
"I honestly don't have an outline for this story, Doc. It's why I haven't written anything for it since the middle of March. It's why I haven't posted since New Years Eve, 2017. But I know what you're asking. 'Why is it her story now?' right?" Doc swallowed, clearly uncomfortable, and nodded. "It's because I was feeling guilty for leaving this story alone for so long, I've been on a Percy Jackson kick, and her Semblance was a perfect excuse for her have two names; the Surgeon of Death and the Mad Medic. It also explains why she prefers the Surgeon of Death moniker. She doesn't like being reminded of what her Semblance made her into as recently as two years ago."
"But... wasn't she okay with putting Caleb into a state of frozen calm a few minutes after they'd talked about her bullies and turned her into an insecure mess?" Chi asked. Regenengel3 shrugged.
"I'm thinking it was because Emily had gone into SCIENCE mode and Marley's control was slipping so she caught the science bug and then, because they were on the same wavelength, so to speak, Marley's Semblance created something like a feedback loop which drove them both even deeper into Mad Scientist territory. Also, my attempt at an example of how Marley's Semblance could be applied while also trying to write a humorous one-shot. Which this one isn't going to be because RvB Backstory Syndrome is a thing and Marley White just got hit with it in the RWBY universe. Go figure."
"Man, I have that Syndrome," Doc muttered darkly. Regenengel3 winced, remembering when the purple armored medic got hit with that very syndrome only a few days after landing in Blood Gulch.
"Tell me about it," Chi groused. Doc chuckled.
"When this show is over, we'll compare backstories," he said. "Regenengel3 gave me one harsh history."
"Well excuse me for trying to give you some depth and a reason for being a pacifist!" the aforementioned author huffed.
"That what happened to the Grifs? And Doughnut?" Doc asked.
"The Reds have partial backstory provided by Roosterteeth. Not completely my fault."
"Wait... go back. What was does Percy Jackson have to do with this version of Marley's Mad Medic back story?" Chi asked.
"Mr. D, Greek god of wine and madness. My first thought was to have her drive her team insane with anger and blood-lust, kinda like Mr. D might have back in the old days. Then the whole idea of her getting driven mad by her own power came to me and I was like 'why not?' So... yeah." Neither man could think of anything to say to that, so they turned back to Beacon where Emily had picked the story back up.
/*/
"Yeah, and then you'd walk over to your pack, all scratched up and covered in blood and grit, with a grin on your face. Then you'd pull out your med kit, spread it out, and turn to the rest of the team and say, 'the doctor will see you now~!' like some thing from the dark side of Wonderland," Emily said with a shake of her head. Marley flushed and looked back down.
"I'd still be riding high on adrenaline and what emotions the fight didn't let me vent," she said in an attempt to defend herself. Emily chuckled blandly, shaking her head.
"Doesn't change the fact that you looked mildly deranged, at best," she pointed out.
"They called you mad too," Marley said with a pout. Emily just threw back her head and laughed.
"That's because I am!" she said. "I'm a certified genius, a medical prodigy, your best friend, I sing opera while conducting field surgery without anesthetic because it was too expensive to use outside of school, I love psycho-analyzing others, and if you've ever seen me with a patient you know that I describe their various injuries cheerfully and in great detail. How could they not call me mad?" Jay and Caleb shared pained looks.
"Why'd we have to end up with the psycho chick?" Jay asked.
"Because Ozpin is a troll and she happened to be the first person to look into my eyes when we got launched into the forest," Caleb drawled.
"Oh yeah. Stupid partner rule..." Jay muttered. Caleb clapped a hand on his shoulder in a show of support while their temporary back-up(or was JEMC the back up, since they had two medics/doctors/surgeons?... man were Marley and Emily over qualified for their age...) exchanged worried glances. This could only end in tears, they just knew it.
/*/
Lucky for the unnamed team, the mission was a success. Unluckily, they got banged up pretty bad and had to be treated by both Mad Medics. Jay and Caleb sat on the other side of the ship and snickered at the suffering of their temporary teammates. "If you'd stop squirming maybe it wouldn't hurt as much!"
"I'd rather if you just put a plaster on it and let the doctors at Beacon finish it."
"Young man I am a doctor and if you continue to be difficult I will list myself as your primary medical practitioner, am I understood?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Um... Emily... Would you... please stop... why Avia Maria?"
Oh yeah, and the 'banter' between the doctors and the patients was rather amusing too. "So glad we didn't need stitches," Jay whispered to Caleb, who nodded.
"Way more fun on this end."
"Oh most certainly."
"You boys are getting full check ups as soon as we're dismissed from the briefing."
"Yes ma'am, Dr. White!" both Caleb and Jay said, snapping a salute. Marley nodded, then frowned at the boy under her hand who was trying to edge away.
"On no you don't," she growled as her hand began to glow a faint silver. A moment later and the boy's eyes were glassy, as though he were a few seconds away from passing out.
"Is that... Frozen Calm?" Caleb asked, leaning forward slightly. Marley nodded with a pained expression.
"Yes. I can't hold it for long due to his previous panicked state, but it'll hold long enough for me to finish my work," she said, already setting her needle back to the boy's skin.
"That's what she tried to use on you when she wanted to figure out how your Semblance effected your muscles, right?" Jay asked. Caleb nodded.
"Yeah. At the time it was terrifying but seeing it now... yeah it's a little creepy but... I can see how it's helpful," he said. Jay nodded his understanding. When Marley sat back and released her pateint from her Frozen Calm, the boys noticed she looked a little winded. "Hey... when you said you couldn't hold it for long... did you mean the more panicked someone is, the more energy it takes to put them into such a calm state they nearly pass out?"
"Yes. I'm going to be a little weak and sleepy for a while," Marley said, leaning against the bulkhead. "Would you wake me when we land?"
"Sure thing, Dr. White," Jay said with a warm smile. Marley gave him a wan smile of gratitude before slipping down down a nap. Jay got up and sat beside her, lifting her head onto his lap and tugging her Scroll out of her pocket.
"What are you doing?" Caleb asked warily.
"Sending a text to Flowers, asking if he's on campus," Jay answered softly, thumb tapping away at the screen. Not long after, they got a reply from the sniper asking when their ship would land. Grinning, Jay asked him to meet them at the docks in roughly half an hour. Caleb chuckled and shook his head.
"I hope she appreciates this because if she doesn't... well. You do realize we share a room, right?"
"Totally worth the risk, Caleb. Totally worth it," Jay countered, smiling down at the young woman resting on his lap. Caleb smiled and couldn't help but agree. Emily was nearly squealing in the corner.
"I just love family fluff~!" she squee-ed. The boy she'd been treating rolled his eyes.
"How do you know it's family and not a love square?" he asked.
"Have you not been listening? They called her boyfriend and told her to rest. Classic Big Brother behavior."
/*/
"And that's a wrap for this one! Also, spotted a mistake in one of my previous end notes. 'Before He Cheats' is actually by Carrie Underwood. Whoops! Sorry Carrie! I'm just really bad with my musicians, especially when I'm not the biggest fan of their genre."
"You do know she's not going to read this, right?"
"Thought that counts, Chi. Thought that counts. Anyway, next time I post (no clue when, sorry!) we'll be looking in on the former Agent Louisian AKA Louie as he makes things go BOOM!"
"I'm scared."
"When it comes to big booms... most people are, Doc."
"Too bad regenengel3 doesn't seem to be 'most people.'"
"Yeah... but at least we're in the Fourth Wall Booth."
"Huh. Good point."