ONYX DATABASE VERIFICATION REQUEST
ACCESS REQUEST: █████
Item: G. Auburn
Threat level: high
Description: Grace Auburn, the unlawful child of the infamous 'Allburn' duo. Dumped at the house of her grandmother after her birth, she was raised in a proper environment to keep her away from the same activities her parents dedicated themselves to. She inherited her mother's gift for demolition jobs though, so terroristic tendencies are to be expected.
Open attachment Alpha: Auburn is currently left in the darkness about the status of the remaining Allburn member. Steps must be taken to prevent leakage of Intel.
~0~
Physical Education or Physical Exercise…Jaune wasn't too sure about the meaning of the PE. It was very much exercise, but education? Not so much. Still, it was funny to see how certain things might be educational when looked upon in that way. Team CRDL was one of the primary courses of education during this exercise: they taught him how not to mindlessly rush onwards in an obviously sabotaged obstacle course. Especially if that course was rigged by a Beacon Professor.
"Tell me Jaune, what do you think about Cardin and his…friends?" Lovely Pyrrha asked him.
Well…they were bullies that seemed to think that they could do everything that they wanted to. Also, they acted mean against people that obviously did not deserve such treatment. And: they had encountered a nasty trap that had sprung on them, of which they had not said a single thing to the rest of the teams. They had obviously hoped that the rest of the first-year students would spring the same trap, getting absolutely smothered by mud and other dirt in the process.
And that was after all the girls had given their well-reasoned arguments on why they should NOT get smothered by mud and other dirt, making that action even more disgusting to him.
"I don't like them," Jaune quietly replied, making sure that nobody stood behind him as he as he insulted them. "They are mean and egoistical…quick to judge and…" He remembered the misjudged attempt to push the relatively nameless student in the mud –via a shove in his back. "…and sneaky. I don't like sneaky…"
"I agree; sneaky people are bad." Pyrrha replied. "And team CRDL is not very deserving of a second chance, even though I'd like to give them a second one. I don't want to judge people by their behavior in the beginning, but they are getting on my nerves."
The black-clad student moved past them, probably staring straight ahead with that visor of his. Pyrrha's gaze followed his movements and her eyebrows narrowed, signaling a bad mood rising. "And they are not the only ones."
Jaune looked back and for the between his partner and the student, trying to determine what was wrong. "Him?" He whispered. "He gets on your nerves too?"
The long-haired girl waited until she was well out of hearing range before continuing. "His asocial behaviour is not easily accepted…and he should not have been rude against you."
Rude? Against him? When had that been? "Refresh my memory, please?"
"When you tried to be a good leader and get to know him, by offering your hand? And he ignored it?"
Oh yes…that. That had not been very nice. "I guess that was rude, yes."
"Well…if we finish this course we can relax back in our room."
That was a pretty good idea…it had been a pretty long day…morning…partial day and he longed to simply lay back and relax. But knowing the teachers, they would probably have large amounts of homework to do.
"Hey guys!" Ruby yelled from the leading position. "You need to see this!"
He looked at Pyrrha, who nodded at with a faint hint of a smile. "I'm coming!"
After crossing the distance between team RWBY and them, he stepped next to the young redhead.
"Yes?" He asked her.
"That looks like the end of this course…" Blake Belladonna said with crossed arms. He could see Ren frown from the corner of his eye and realized that the boy did not simply believe them. And he had to admit…he was being a bit skeptical too. After the things that they had been through, it was really hard to believe that the end of the PE course would simply be there already. Glynda Goodwitch did not seem like the type that let them off the hook so easily.
"The end?" He asked her, feeling a bit scared that there would be something even worse waiting for them.
"I don't know…" Jason Cho said, joining them together with his team. "The end…just like that?" He looked at his leader before adding: "Glynda Goodwitch?"
"Yeah…" Lisa replied. "Gotta be something wrong with that."
"But what?" Ruby then asked. "From what I can see, it's just a straight run down this field of grass, across the obstacles and through those structures. Should be easy, right?"
"And," Weiss suddenly said, "how easy do you suppose that will be without our weapons and equipment?"
"Not to mention our aura?" Ren added.
"And dust?" Weiss again.
"We work together, that's how!" Yang yelled cheerfully. "I'm for running down there and taking the fight to them!"
"They are wooden obstacles, Yang." Grace carefully told them. The blonde turned around gave her a questioning glance.
"I know that?" She said and then gave her an exaggerated look.
"Just checking!" The demolitions expert said and took a step closer.
"So that's it then?" Pyrrha asked in general. "We finish this and then we're done? Kind of a shame, I was just beginning to enjoy this."
"Speak for yourself…" Weiss muttered. She had a minor point…all these exercise and double-crossing obstacles were annoying. After the mudbath and the strange rope-system, they had stumbled upon multiple other contraptions that they had to navigate using the most outrageous ways possible. At one point, Nora almost got a heart-attack because team JNPR had to imitate sloths to get past one particularly smart set-up of steel cable between trees. It did not help that team LACG had been forced to keep a tight hold of said cables while his team traversed them, while team RWBY was busy to prevent said trees to keep from crashing down into the ground, ruining the entire thing. It had been a really messed up exercise; large trees containing proof of success, steel cables to use to climb them and ropes that had to be pulled from four different directions to prevent the trees from falling down, seeing as they had nearly been cut down at the base.
The damn thing ended with Yang pulled two ropes simultaneously because Weiss and Ruby messed up their own side, while the helmeted student had to help team RWBY by grabbing the rope that Ruby had to let go in order to assist Weiss
And Jaune had been absolutely terrified during the whole ordeal; between LACG dropping the ropes and letting them plummet to the ground and RWBY letting go of THEIR ropes and letting them plummet to the ground, the third possibility had been HIM letting go of the rope, before plummeting to the ground.
The wooden contraption after that had been even worse: with rotating bridges, dozens of suspended ropes and poles and even more dozens of traps hidden between the frays, they had been lucky to come out of that alive. Grace's deal with the devil had come in ultra-handy: she and Alessa had worked together to no end in removing all of the traps and ambushes. It had been so bad that all of the teams had to work together in order to transport those two across the mind-boggling collection of wood, rope and bomb. How a blindfolded girl was better at seeing paintball-shooting mines than he was still boggled him though.
And now, after everything the three teams had been through, they could simply move through some tall grass, jump some hurdles and then call it a day? They had been doing this for more than an hour now, so what were the odds that they could simply finish it like that? Not very likely in his eyes.
"What do we do now?" Ren asked.
"We might want to think this one through…" Pyrrha told him.
Thinking it through was becoming sort of hard now, if he was honest to himself. He was very eager to return back to his dormitories and chill for the next few hours –or hour, depending on what their schedule had planned for them- but on the other hand, eagerness had gotten the better of team CRDL at least twice now and if that had served any purpose at all, it was to show them that eagerness would mean problems. If they proceeded with too much eagerness now, it could cost them the exercise and quite possibly, all of their clothes with it,
"This is a tough one…" Lisa mused and placed her hand on her chin, in a thinking manner. "Because I have seen enough ambushes, traps and things-you-shouldn't-trust to know that this has bad news written all over it."
"You would say that?" Grace asked her.
"Can we focus on the task at hand?" Cho asked them, getting his team to focus again.
"So we either take or time or we move now, but let's not dwindle around the decision please!" Weiss angrily snapped.
Now there was extra pressure on him –as well as on Lisa Adamant and Ruby Rose. Because if they delayed the decision long enough, they would anger Weiss Schnee; apparent heiress to the Schnee company. Why did these things always had to happen to him?
City districts- 11:23
Matt Adamant was pondering. Sure, he wa~0~s also driving and keeping a good eye open for interesting things, but deep down he was pondering. Pondering on Roman Torchwick, and the events of that bloody, stormy night. The most cruelest of choices, the most painful of decisions.
Truly, the age of the current Hunters was over. They were teachers. Didacticisms left for this generation. He had based half of his life knowing that the new generation would eventually overtake the old one. He was only twenty-three years old, but he had already wasted his life as a Huntsman. Because the Hunters of mankind were supposed to serve as protectors. Just like his family. He had spent so much time as a Hunter, later even more with redeeming, that he had forgotten that life went on. Ozpin needed his help and he owed the man so many things that he could not have possibly refused.
And it was a chance to see his beloved sister again. He missed her; he truly did. Even though he had taken great care to see her at least once a week during his work, he still did not believe that was enough to make her happy. The family situation was a very tricky one…and he was not making it easier on the girl. But…if he was truly being there even more frequently now, then why wasn't she happy with that? She had never seemed worse off than now…why was that?
A car honked in the distance and he quickly jerked at the steer, hoping that he had not accidentally messed up yet again.
But the honk was not meant for him! One hurrah! Meaning…back to brooding. So Roman Torchwick…most likely affiliated with a small gang of secretive criminals…and a letter. The letter was linked to the Operative at Beacon, meaning that he had to be an enemy. But he couldn't prove it. He had to open the letter and read it, but he couldn't. Not yet. If he were to simply give the documents to Ozpin without properly reading them through himself, he might risk something. He was not sure what, but he would still risk it.
At least Alessa had found a proper team to work with. He had never been sure of what was the best for her, but now he knew that Beacon was the right place. It was…a peculiar thing that she had been teamed up with Lisa and Grace, of all people though. And while he did not anything about Jason M. Cho, he still had many files on the kid from the VPD: The Vale Police Department. Mauve was a good one. He meant well.
He noticed an intersection where he needed to go right and promptly swung the steer around, sending his car to the left.
"Why are you never looking behind your back, Professor?" He grumbled to himself while he checked the rear-mirror. "I don't know, I am thick and stupid and getting old. And I'm still young."
Someone was tailing him; had been doing so for a while, but he had been too busy with reading, driving and thinking at the same time to notice. Why couldn't he have chosen something easier than driving to do in the car? Like brushing his teeth for example.
The large, black van behind him took the sharp left too and continued to follow him.
The car tailing him did the same and the person riding shotgun in it took the liberty of taking his name too serious: he promptly pulled out a shotgun and pumped it. No fair! He had no 'one to ride shotgun with him! Nobody did appreciate the subtle arts of his humble vehicle.
"I know!" He replied to his own musings and turned into a small alley, hoping that he could shake the follower by taking such a suicidal move. "But can you explain the thick part?"
The man aimed his gun carefully and fired off a shot, the pellets from the slug impacting on the four-inch thick reactive armour-plating of his car without leaving as much as a scratch. Seriously; he had just not painted that thing? Why would these people start hosing him now!
He could be mister soldier and return fire, killing them without a problem. But that was the problem. He had broken the oath once and he did not want to do so again.
Another slug hit his car and the sharp 'ping!' amused him slightly. His car bashed through an iron fence and headed into the city, forcing him to avoid civilians, kids and even some laundry-poles as he crashed with his large car through civilization.
Reaching for something in the back of his pockets, he fumbled around with his jacket until his fingers closed around a small, elongated object.
"Be careful for stray shots you idiots!" the Professor yelled at the tailing people and opened the window. His vehicle raced through another laundry-pole and two bras were flung inside of his car, obscuring his vision and his hand simultaneously.
He always knew that women would be the death of him. He shook his head wildly, hoping that between one arm being stuck to the steer and one arm bungling outside the window with his defensive weapon at the ready, the bra would somehow dislodge itself off of his head.
It worked…partially. One eye received green-light for receiving light and he could see again, but with one eye aimed at dozens of objects per second while he raced past them in a high-velocity race where the only possible outcome would be death or victory, with the fate of Beacon and countless of innocent people hanging in the balance…it was slowly getting harder to aim his device at the following enemies.
He shifted his gaze from the road ahead to the side-mirror for a split-second; taking in all the possible information before he made the necessary corrections to his aiming, before channeling his Aura into the device and shortening out every piece of electronic circuits in their car.
The black van burst into smoke as even the engine suddenly gave out and all the doors flung open, the inhabitants seeking fresh air from his counterattack.
His little device was a channeling node for his aura; with it he could manipulate the manifestation of his soul up to the smallest point possible, allowing him to mess with almost everything that he could point it at. Well, everything at a range of up to thirty meters. The results were really all dependent on how he used his aura. He could manipulate the flow of energy to such a point that he unlocked a door in the middle of the night by shifting the mechanics in its lock, or…well, windows never really stood a chance to the shockwaves of well-performed aura-channeling.
He stopped his car too and got out as well, hoping that this impulsive action would turn out good for him. There were a total of four people that had been following him; one of them had a shotgun, another one wielded a katana and the other two were seemingly unarmed. So they were confident in their own combat abilities or in those of their comrades…but a katana and a shotgun weren't the biggest threats out there. What were they thinking?
"Hello there!" He cheerfully said as he walked up to them, ignoring the threatening glares behind their red sunglasses and black hats. What a particular sense of fashion…all clad in fancy black suits with red ties and matching shoes. Well, all but one. A fifth member stepped out of the car and he did not look like he was one of their seemingly funeral-attending ranks. He looked less fancy…such a waste. And he was…was that man really…
He felt his smile disappear as his gaze truly took the newcomer in. The man had short, moss-green hair and was wearing a completely white suit, with multiple golden buttons attached to it. There were at least three bulbous sections covering his back, their purpose still unknown. His arms were seemingly reinforced by steel cables running alongside them, each one ending in the same solid clump of steel hanging next to his hand.
They resembled knuckle braces, but way more advanced and way meaner. If he saw it correctly, the man could probably extend those things to a considerable range. But wouldn't they play havoc with his flexibility? Either way, he would find out son. And to top that all off: the man had one fancy-ass moustache on his face. His grey moustache did not clash with his grey hair and the fabulous piece of hair seemed even better than Port's.
"Hey! You!" said one of the unarmed goons. "You ruined our ride with your tricks!"
"Well…ruined? I wouldn't say ruined, you just need to replace everything…electronic…plus the engine…and the mirrors," Professor Adamant replied, realizing that he had indeed ruined their ride. But it was their fault for trying to make him wear a bra! No, wait a minute: not a bra, they were tailing him. That was their mistake, not fashion. Well…fashion could also be a mistake; they were wearing fancy suits on a hot day. But he wasn't the police for that.
The white-garbed man nodded with his head and on that signal, the katana-wielding man stormed him while the shotgun-wielding man cocked the weapon and prepared to fire.
He sighed deeply and stepped in front of the katana-wielding man, just as that one was about to take a swing. He placed one hand on the sword-wielding hand and with his other hand he grabbed the man's face. Then he started walking forwards, constantly letting the man stumbling backwards as he forced him into the path of the shotgun-wielder.
"Get out of my way!" The gunner replied, unable to fire as his buddy was shotgun-cock-blocking him.
"Not. That. Simple," the man with the squeezable face growled.
When he was close enough to the gun-wielding enemy, he took a larger step forwards and flicked with his wrist, sending the man crashing to the ground as his balance gave way. The path was now clear –for him.
"Hold it right there!" He man with the shotgun said and gestured with his gun to emphasize his words.
He sighed and tucked his hands in his pockets, letting his gaze run over the next problematic man. Looking at the sunglasses that adorned the next target's face, he decided that those might look better on him instead.
The armed goon stared at him and he stared back, realizing that a shotgun-blast to the stomach might not be the best way to finish his little information gathering. That shotgun looked really fancy as well: with a drum mag underneath it instead of simply holding the shells inside. He wanted that drum-mag too…for science.
He kicked the underside of the shotgun with his foot, dislodging the drum-mag and allowing it to clatter to the ground, together with all the remaining rounds inside of the weapon. It seemed that a right shake at the right place could indeed tear through ammunition like that. He would have to give his old friend a drink for that.
"Mind if I kept that?" He said and pointed at the fallen magazine. The man he was talking too sighed and lowered his head.
"Sure…go ahead…" He said and threw the shotgun to the ground.
Smiling with satisfaction, he scooped up the strange magazine and then reached out and yoinked the man's sunglasses from his face.
"Well chaps…that was not very productive. Well then." The white-suited man sighed and hit himself in the face with the palm of his hand. "Can't you do anything at all?"
He beckoned for the two unarmed men to attack, but they seemed tentative to do so.
"Boss! I think I recognize that man!" One of them said.
"Good job my man! You identified our target as our target after we engaged him; you must be the smartest guy at home, aren't you?"
"No sir, that would be my brother."
These guys had to have been hired entertainment for him. No way that they would simply engage him without even knowing who he was.
"You know…" He said, preparing to unleash his greatest weapon as he placed the red sunglasses on his face. They probably did not look very well on him, but he could take them with him as a souvenir. He might even make someone happy with them; like Yang Xiao Long, for example. Yes, he would give them to her. "I don't think I have introduced myself properly-"
"-That man is Matt Adamant!" One of the henchmen suddenly snapped. "I know him from the magazine 'hunters united'! Last year, he won the price for the most handsome Huntsman, the most ridiculously clothed Huntsman and even the most talkative Huntsman! All at once!"
Ridiculously clothed? Him? That was just silly.
"You are subscripted to 'hunters united'?" Their boss snapped. "Why don't you ask him for an autograph now that you are at it!"
The two unarmed men looked at each other and then walked over to him, suddenly pulling pen and paper from underneath their suits.
"Hang on to your coats gentlemen; I want to ask a few things first. Most importantly…" The Adamant pointed at white-suit. "Why is THIS man wearing a bowtie?"
"This is NOT what I thought it to be!" Lisa angrily yelled as everything around them seemed to be trying to kill them.
"Less talking more running!" Yang happily replied, overtaking all of them with ease, running with glee. "Ruby, still there?"
"Still somewhere!" Ruby replied to her older sister. She knew –she KNEW that something like this was going to happen. Glynda Goodwitch might be an awesome Huntress, but her style as a teacher was just plain cruel. The tall grass was not only filled to the brim with obstacles and odd structures they had to ascend and descend: it was also filled to even more brim with traps. Painful ones.
She had known that the ominous message on the scrolls of the teamleaders would spell trouble. Because the Professor had sent them a message saying that they had "only five minutes to get to the finish-line."
And the finish-line was in sight –it was in sight! That was what made it so cruel. The goal was right there in their sights but they would not simply get there without living through some intense pain. Even though Grace and Alessa were very capable in guiding their own team through the rigged areas –and with that, teams RWBY and JNPR as well- there wasn't much time left. By the time that they had crossed one-third of the track, only two more minutes remained.
And she did not want the first PE courses she took as the leader of her team to end in failure. That was never an option.
So they had decided to vote for it. And with all twelve people for –of course mister grumpy-face hadn't taken the trouble to give his opinion- they had decided to make a run for it. Running was the least sensible thing to do in that position, but it was a simple choice between victory and defeat. Well…success or failure. Bruises healed –pride wouldn't.
Of course Yang had been happy to oblige. So now all thirteen of them were charging through the tall grass, barely seeing anything as paintball rounds and other objects sailed through the air.
"I. Hate. Paint. Balls." Jason Cho stated as he tried to maintain his breathing.
"Will someone move ahead and take that paint for us!" Weiss angrily yelled.
Yang laughed loudly and looked back over her shoulder. "What; are you unable to keep going strong while faced with the terrible paint- OUCH!" She took a paintball to the stomach and promptly kept her mouth shut.
She winced as she saw her sister taking the round; that could have been any of them. And Yang was the strongest one of their team; so it might as well be her that took the rounds instead of…anyone else.
"This reminds me-"Grace panted. "-I will need more armour."
"Speak for yourself…" Lisa replied.
But Weiss had been right; some people could take those rounds better than others and if they were to take the lead, then the rest could continue on without too much trouble. It would be using people as living shields, yes. But it was not like these rounds were lethal and besides; Yang could take worse.
So that was Yang taking the lead…and Grace's chest was covered with armour. So that were two girls who could take the lead…but both Jaune and Pyrrha were not allowed to use their shields to defend them, so that left them out of the question.
"Grace, can you move up to Yang and take some hits for us?" She asked the girl, hoping that she would be sensible.
"Did I do something to you that demands payback?" The brown-haired girl replied.
"Ehm…no? But you and Yang are better suited to take hits?"
"In my line of work…that's a bad thing. But yeah…I can move up. Just…a minute…"
This charge across such difficult terrain was taxing on all of them. But with those two girls leading the way, the rest should have more leeway to move.
But wait a bullseye-possessing minute! There was someone else who could take hits with relative impunity. A certain mud-covered, helmet-wearing and social-skill lacking young man, running along with them at a mere two meters distance.
What was his name again? Oh yes, he had yet to give one. Not very nice of him. "Hey! Mister grumpy-face!"
Did she seriously use the term 'grumpy-face' aloud? Like in actually speaking it? With sounds? That could not be a positive thing…why? Why did she have to speak her mind in such a way?
His helmet shifted an inch to her direction, indicating that she had his attention.
"Can you join my dear sister and lovely Grace who totally did not sell her soul to the devil by the way?" She needed more impulse control.
The student did not reply in any way, but he did increase his speed to such a degree that he could move in front of them.
"Ruby…you are a genius!" Weiss happily cheered. And that was a positive thing!
A nearby 'thunk!' got her attention and as she turned to see what was happening, she saw the helmeted boy wiping a hand over his visor, trying to get the red paint out of his field of vision.
She swallowed and tried to block the thought out of her mind that that might as well have been her taking the impact. She considered upgrading her hood with bulletproof fabrics…that might work.
"Nearly there!" Jaune yelled. "Keep going strong!"
He was one of the people that were sounding the most exhausted, but what did that matter anyway? He was a leader; it was his job to motivate them like that. And he was right; they were nearly there. The white-black finish on the ground was just a dozen meters ahead and they only had to cross it to win.
"I have a funny feeling!" Grace breathed.
"Bathroom later Grace!" Lisa replied to her friend.
"No! Bad-funny feeling!"
"We might want to slow down…" Alessa muttered.
What was that about? Slowing down? No way! They were nearly there and they just had to cross that line!
Grace, Yang and the helmeted student crossed the line first, after which they immediately dropped their speed and slowed down. A few seconds later, the rest of the teams crossed the line –with Jaune and Weiss coming in last.
"Woohoo!" Yang yelled and more people were just about to give their awesome speech themselves, when a subtle but very audible 'click' shut them all up.
"uh-oh…" Lisa muttered.
"Don't say I told you so-"
"-told you so-" Grace and Alessa were able to start a minor conversation before the ground slid away underneath their feet, dropping all of them into an ice-cold pool filled with water.
She yelped with surprise when her body lost virtually all of its heat, but that was it. Just surprise. Because she was able to resist coldness much better than most of the other students, as signaled by the sudden chorus of swears and screams that followed her.
It did appear that the entire finish-line itself was a trap; dropping them in a pit of water at least three meters deep. If they worked together, they could probably get past the one-meter tall walls around them and crawl back up again.
At least, in theory. The teams had disintegrated into chaos and everyone was desperately trying to get out of the water before they all 'froze to death.' The only ones that remained calm were Yang –whose body could heat itself up in a matter of seconds- the blindfolded Alessa –who probably had more experience with resisting the cold than the rest of her team- and the helmeted student –who was either cheating with his suit, or unable to feel human sensations like cold and heat either way.
So that left only one way to resolve the trouble.
"Hey Yang!" She yelled and caught her sister's attention. "Can you work with someone to get Jaune and Lisa out of here? Then the rest of their teams can follow!"
"Sure thing sis!"
And while the blonde worked together with Pyrrha to get Jaune out of the pitfall, Alessa tried to work with her entire team to get Lisa out.
"I hate the cold…" Lisa muttered.
"Then we better start m-m-m-m-m-moving!" Grace said, causing at least seven people to snicker if not downright laugh at her pronunciation of the word 'moving.'
"Alright Grace!" She happily replied. "Let's get mmmmmoving!"
"G-go swing a-a scythe."
"I fail to see how my bowtie is relevant to your current position kind sir!" The wannabe said and took a combat position. "But if you can spare a moment of your time to stop messing with my men, that would be splendid indeed."
"Run along fellows…" he softly said and gestured for the two henchmen to leave them. "This is going to get messy."
The bowtie-wearing moustache-bearing angrily-glaring hostile activated his strange gauntlets, preparing to smash him into oblivion. And if one of those heavy gauntlets hit him virtually ANYWHERE…it would not be pretty. He briefly wondered what would be better for his body: to get hit by this guy, or by Yang. Well…he really didn't want to find out either way.
But that was no problem for him! He prepared his own device and waited for the faker to start his own attack. And that didn't take long; the man uttered a victorious "hah!" and charged forwards, using his exo-skeleton to enhance his blow and deliver the most powerful smash.
He dodged the steel fist that was attached to the real fist and tried to discern what the best course of action was. The man was obviously using some power-source to drive the mechanical fists on his arms, but if that was the case then he could simply use his Aura to pierce that mechanic and destroy it.
He rolled to the side with the greatest of ease and poked at the man's eyes; nearly blinding him and causing him to stumble backwards. "Saints onions!" The man cried and took another swipe at him. "I knew that volunteering for testing experimental tech wouldn't work out!"
"Speak for yourself. You just need a proper plan."
"I do?" The man replied and took another swipe at him, nearly hitting him in his chest. He twisted sideways and took notice of a few wires sticking out of the bulky gauntlets.
That looked interesting…and very important. In the brief time between dodging the blow, looking at the enemy's equipment and coming to the conclusion that he should do that, he pulled one of the wires.
The man twisted around and he dove to the side again, not even bothering to seriously fight this one. He seemed like a reasonable man…perhaps he could be persuaded to stop his silly practices? "Yes!" He replied. "You start with a bit of theory…followed by a scientific question. You work towards answering that question."
"Hmm…continue?" The man replied with his bowtie.
He found himself torn between utterly beating this man for daring to wear a bowtie and feeling slightly connected to him for being a man of science…and bowties.
Well, if this man proved to be able to listen to reason then he might go easy on him.
"Yeah, right well: then you form a hypothesis; something that YOU think will happen during your experiment. After that, you formulate a manner of working and write down your results."
"And then?" The man replied and swung a piece of metal at him, probably found it lying around somewhere.
He dodged it and came in close, tearing free another cable without being noticed. "Then, you conclude what you found in a conclusion: in which you discuss your own hypothesis and whether it was correct or not. In the end; you formulate what could be better and what went wrong in a discussion."
The man seemed thoughtful, a condition of which he made full use by pulling two more wires loose.
"True…but what do you do when you have no results?"
"In that case you either start anew, or wonder why you don't have results."
"Hmm…jolly good idea mate. The problem lies here: I was instructed to kill you and take back the valuable information that you took."
So this man was either an agent for The Black Angels or sent by Ivan to get the Intel back…no, Ivan did not have enough courage to do so. Somehow the Angels found out about his deal and wanted to shut him up before he got to do anything with it.
That was problematic…because he had only recently received the information and only Ivan and his men knew of it. Meaning that this man belonged to either Torchwick or to the Angels…and those two were inadvertently linked together. So Torchwick wanted him dead? Tough luck,
"Will it help to ask you who sent you?" He asked the would-be assassin.
"I do not think so. Even though you helped me momentously with the experiments, I still have an order and I always get my man."
"Yeah, well I am afraid that you won't be getting this man." He said and took a few steps forward. He dodged both underhand blows with ease and pulled the final string, causing the exo-skeleton to sputter and fail. "On the contrary…I will be getting you now."
"Silly man! I am in the process of beating you to death!"
"Think so?" He smiled and walked up to the man, reaching out for his bowtie. "In that case…stop me."
The man huffed and reached for him with his own hands in turn, but found that he was unable to. His own hands responded alright; but the mechanical add-ons stayed exactly where they were. Bungling uselessly above the ground, that is.
"What…oh buggery, I seem to be disabled. Hmm…how awkward."
"This isn't awkward. Awkward would be me pulling your pants down just as a bunch of ladies were watching us."
"You are a cheeky one."
"Or if you were unable to lift those fists in the first place."
"Not my first choice, you daft man!"
"Or if you needed to see a man about a dog…when you in fact do not possess a dog, but a man."
"Will you get this over with already?"
"Right then. Ehm…here is how it is going to work." He then said, hoping that he could pull some information out of the man. "I am going to ask you a question. If you do not give me the answer I want, we are going to have a problem. And if we have a problem, I have a problem. So instead of giving me problems, give me answers. Right?"
"Can you say that again?"
"I don't think so. Now then…who are you working for?"
"You can place your lips on my behind and kiss it repeatedly!"
"That is not very nice."
"I will be totally snookered if I tell you who I work for."
"What makes you think that you aren't totally snookered with me here?"
"Mind your language chap."
"Right. Sorry. Now then: who do you work for?"
"Let's just say that you are being too nosy and people do not want that."
"Oh please, I think I know who you mean."
"Do you now?"
"Why, yes. The Black Angels are staging something together with Roman Torchwick and it involves Beacon and a certain Operative. That or you are affiliated with a certain 'O' meaning a connection with Beacon either way."
The man swallowed and his eyes shifted from right to left. "I see…in that case, you will need to let me go, right?"
The faint blaring of police sirens was slowly becoming more pronounced. "Not exactly. Apart from the obvious attempts at my life –which I can totally understand- and the repeated orders to henchmen to murder me –also understandable- you committed two major crimes I cannot ignore.
He brought his face closer to the man. "First and most important of all…blind firing a shotgun in an area filled with civilians? That is never, ever acceptable. You could have seriously injured someone."
The man huffed. "Collateral damage young man! You still need to learn!"
Collateral damage? Civilian casualties is collateral damage? Funny.
He stroked the man's bowtie once, before ripping it off. "No, chap, you need to learn." The sirens of the VPD were getting even more noticeable and he determined that they had to be very close. "You need to learn three monumental things. One: never, ever dare to get to me by hurting innocent people. Two: Start thinking about lives in such a way and I might consider yours…forfeit. Three: your taste in fashion is…admirable. Bowties are cool."
"You my sir, are a very strange critter. "
"Why thank you…now then…be a good man and surrender to the police…or I will find you and take you down myself."
"I shall consent…for now. You have been an amusing opponent for sure, that is about right."
"Don't sweat it…a lot better than you have fallen a lot easier than this."
"Sir, I take that as an insult."
"Take it how you want it…I am going now."
He stepped back in his car and –feeling slightly less certain of himself now that The Black Angels had managed to outmaneuver him, if only for a moment. There was a leak somewhere…a leak that had compromised the Intel that he had Intel. That was a hole he had to plug somehow…but that didn't matter. For now, he had a souvenir for Yang.
And also a souvenir for Ozpin.
Beacon obstacle course -11:29
Of course the finish line had been a trap; it was so blaringly obvious that it had completely tilted over to the other side, making it not obvious at all. So in that sense she had been beaten by a trap. Well, it isn't that bad actually. She had still managed to feel that something was wrong right before said something WENT wrong, so there was that. That was positive, right?
But they had all gotten out of the pool and even with soaking and freezing clothes, they had all returned to Glynda's starting area. Hell; Yang and Ruby had been in such a good mood at one point they had actually teamed up with Lisa to push the nameless faceless student back into the pit after he had refused help and tried to get out by himself.
Of course they had apologized a minute later when he had suddenly appeared next to them, telling him that he was still 'dirty' from his recent mudbath and that he needed to be clean.
He had accepted that without a word of course…a total sociopath in Grace's eyes.
But he wasn't the only thing that baffled her like that…well, actually he was. Because Alessa was not baffling her, only mildly confusing her at best. But her most recent action had been…particularly confusing. It had just been a few minutes ago, but it felt like it had been way longer.
Back when they had all gotten out of the pool, she had wanted to get the blindfolded girl to be a bit more talkative. She had asked her whether she was alright or not, and the girl had merely shrugged. So in order to emphasize her question, she had attempted to grab her hand and pull her with her to join the rest of the team.
The bare instance that she tried to touch her, the girl had pulled her hand back violently. No, not just like that. Alessa had actually flinched when she tried to touch her; as if something had scared her. Like a simple touch of a human being could burn her alive…causing her to retract her hand as quickly as she possibly could.
It made her realize that even if she did understand the girl better now, she was far from actually getting her. If she could still not understand why Alessa would flinch at a friendly touch just like that, then she was not very far as her teammate. She would need to understand her better in order to help her.
And even if she did not know whether other students saw that as well, she knew that the necessary attention was already aimed at her friend. And she had no desire to watch Alessa buckle underneath all the stress.
"Hey Grace, coming?" Lisa asked her.
"In a minute…" Grace replied. Yes they were done with the exercise for now…and yes, they could simply return to the dining hall to have some good food. But still…Alessa's reaction troubled her.
It had really been out of the blue, too. They had ended the PE lessons without any form of trouble whatsoever; they were victorious for crying out loud! They had survived chaos, pain and traps and even treachery at the hands of CRDL! And then, in the end, they had even worked their way past a swimming pool that was a trap inside of the finish line.
So what was bothering that girl to such a degree?
"Goodwitch is just ahead, come on hurry!"
"I know!" She decided to simply store her thoughts for now and followed her teamleader. The teams had organized in a neat way again; JNPR, LACG and RWBY moving towards the Professor at the starting area in that specific order.
When all thirteen of them were standing at attention and actually listening to the Professor –both Lisa and Ruby had received a warning from her- the Huntress started talking.
"You have successfully completed the exercise. Teams JNPR, RWBY and LACG have crossed the finish line, but from the information I have gathered I can conclude that you need more training before you can continue. You were too hasty and time-pressure caused you to make mistakes that would have cost you all dearly."
That was not a very nice thing to say; they had worked very hard and even though they had set off some decent amount of traps, they had pulled through! Not even as one team, but working together as three!
"All in all, your performance was sloppy and unacceptable but…but in the end, you made it and team CRDL did not. You can all return to Beacon now. Teams JNPR, RWBY and LACG are dismissed.
And with that, they were all allowed to leave. Well, all twelve of them. That left only one person to stay behind and have a little chat with Goodwitch but frankly, she didn't care about that.
Lisa and Cho were both bearing multiple burn-wounds on their legs. But they weren't that severe thankfully. Alessa was also a bit seared, but less so than the rest of her team.
Weiss and Blake had both been lucky; aside from a few splatters of red paint on Weiss' part, they were unharmed. That in direct contrast to team JNPR, of which the members not only had burn-wounds but also all kinds of other scrapes and bruises.
It seemed that the PE session for the day really had taken its toll on all of them. But as long as they were done, they could simply move to the dining hall and grab dinner. She was starving –and the rest of her team was bound to be hungry too.
"Got a new message…" Lisa called and activated her scroll.
"It can wait." She gave her reply and led the way back to the main building of Beacon. "For now, I am hungry. I hope that they serve something good today, because if they don't I will have to get in the kitchen and cook all by myself."
"We all know how that is going to end." Cho flatly stated and followed her.
"Just because I use a flamethrower does not mean-"
"It does!" Both Lisa and Cho then said, raising their voices.
She merely laughed at the situation and proceeded into the castle-like structure. The beauty of beacon really was unmatched in anything she had seen before, including her previous school. In its short time of existing, Beacon had managed to grow into a fairly well-developed reputation.
And it had yet to do anything to compromise that reputation. The lessons were good, the teachers were great and they had plenty of spare time. The food…was still something she had to grow accustomed to, but nonetheless.
It didn't take long for all of them to return to the main dining hall, but once they did it was apparent that they were yet again the only ones there.
So the three teams to undertake the PE sessions together were also the ones to dine together. And as all twelve of them entered the large room again, she felt a familiar surge of happiness that they had once again pulled through.
"You said something about a message?" Cho asked them.
"Yeah…hold on." Her teamleader once again grabbed her scroll and started to read the message. Her expression changed during the time she took to read it, and by the time she was done she was full-out frowning.
"So…we received our schedule…" She said. Behind them, teams RWBY and JNPR were also busy with their scrolls, no doubt reading the exact same message that they were. "We're not done for today…we have an hour to eat, shower and dress properly before we need to go to…the hell is scenario training?"
"Scenarios are certain situations that demand proper responses." Cho said, actually clarifying the word for her too.
"So basically…" She then said, keeping an eye on the other students in the hall. "we need to come up with stuff that demands stuff to be done in order for the…other stuff to be complete?"
"Welcome to the basic life of my brother…" Lisa sighed and placed her head on the table. "I'm hungry…who wants to get some food?"
"I call dibs on the hamburger!" She replied to her childhood friend and stood up from the chair she was sitting in.
"Do I hear hamburger over there?" Yang called from RWBY's table. "Sorry guys, but the meaning of 'scenario' or whatever will have to wait; right now I'm hungry!"
"You are always hungry!" Ruby yelled after her, but the blonde merely gave her a smile and continued onwards to the dinner-counters, where multiple metal caskets were already waiting for them.
"She got the right idea." Jaune said and got to his feet. "After all the things we went through I really want to dig in!"
"I think it is safe to assume that we can talk after stuffing ourselves?" She softly muttered. Both Lisa and Cho ignored her and moved to the food-trays, but Alessa did give a reply. Well, as much as something was a reply in her eyes, considering the fact that she merely shrugged. Still; it was indicative of her listening, making it less bad.
She sighed and tried to ignore the rising feeling of anger. Is this what Jason felt like all the time? Being ignored by his team? "So…hungry?"
"Kinda."
So the girl was not mad at her for trying to touch her, neither was she feeling guilty for reacting in such a…extreme way. So it was a natural reaction to her? The girl couldn't be very trusting if that was the case.
But the only persons still lingering behind were Blake, Ren and them. Meaning that they would have to wait a while for the rest to grab a tray and fill it with food. But it smelled so delicious! All those various smells of fried potatoes...roasted meat and various spices were making her stomach rumble rather loudly and even Alessa was making noises with her belly.
"So…the Beacon equivalent of gym is amusing." Ren hesitantly said while he waited patiently for his own turn to come.
"Amusing? Yeah, in a morbid nearly-getting-killed way!" exclaimed Jaune.
"At least those weren't live rounds, it could have been worse…"Said Grace.
"I don't think there is a single school out there that employs live ammunitions on exercises." Blake said, ever the voice of reason. "Or at least I never heard of one."
"Signal didn't do it." Ruby said.
Lisa shrugged. "I didn't really spend a lot of time at a school, so I wouldn't know."
"Really?" Weiss said with a condescending tone. "How come you're at Beacon if you didn't partake in a lengthy education?"
"Ever heard of home-schooling you little-" Lisa angrily started, but Grace already saw what was coming and quickly interrupted what would be a very vulgar comeback.
"-not like a private-teacher thing anyhow!" Grace said and gave Lisa a subtle jab in her ribs, warning her to mind her tone. "Benefits of having a skilled Hunter as family."
Weiss raised her eyebrows in surprise when she heard the word 'family', but chose not to pursue the subject.
Pyrrha, however, was interested. "You mentioned a brother helping you design you weapon some time ago. Is this the same person?"
Lisa nervously rubber her shoulder and tried to find a way to get out of that awkward situation. She wouldn't find one. "Well…yeah, sort of."
"Sort of?" Blake asked.
"Yes…I have an older brother who is a Huntsman…why don't we keep it at that."
Yang, immediately interested by the concept of an older brother, tore into their conversation from the head of the line. "Older brother? Handsome?"
Cho's face remained impassive as he made a silencing gesture to Yang, but the damage was already inflected.
Grace looked back and forth between Cho and Lisa and felt an idea rise in her head. She brought her foot close to her teammate and stomped him on his toes, causing him to give to softly curse.
"What was that?" Ruby curiously asked him.
"I said…that I wonder where CRDL is." He came up with that one VERY quick. Was he already getting used to his position in the team? If so, then they could do this quite a few times.
"I don't think I want to know how severely disappointed Goodwitch will be with them…" Grace told her teammate. "They DID ignore everything that she told them and if she scolded US for it…I shudder to imagine how they shall be treated."
Everybody shuddered at the mere thought of what terrible fate awaited poor team CRDL.
The letter was open. Nude, open and bared. It lay in his lap and he stared at it and the letter stared right back. Matt Adamant had not expected to see what he was seeing now. The letter was not from Vale, that much was obvious. But where was it from? It did not make any sense.
To: Two-Oxford ███████.
Hostile groups identified as led by █. ███ and Stahl █████. Black Angels are aware of your interception and are taking measures. Suggest immediate [EXPUNGED, REFER TO ATTACHMENT 4B] to take care of █-level threat.
Alert; conclave held over 72 hours. The window is brief and perfect. Exterminate █-class crime lords and destroy sensitive documents held by [REDACTED].Ensure Ozpin's ignorance of the matter and wait for the right moment to ████ him.
From: █.Eventide
It was a message, to the boy at Beacon. A message telling him to murder every single criminal, gangster and don attending…some conclave, then head to Ozpin and…do something blacked-out to him. Seriously, what was with all the black ink? What sort of nasty government types were behind this? He needed more proof though. He couldn't show his colleagues this yet…they wouldn't understand anyway. No, what he needed to do was make sure that this "student" would not create a new bloodbath in Vale. Even though the criminals were nasty types, they did not deserve to be murdered by some stone-cold psychopath with a gun.
And Stahl was a pretty good guy, too. The Adamant Code enveloped all; Matt knew what he had to do. But not yet…not yet. When the time was right.
Sometimes it was hard being an Adamant. Sometimes he hated it.
"Time tells us of many legends. Tales of heroes, brave men and women and feats beyond our imagination. Stories left behind in the wake of the war, finding their ways into poems, child-stories and books. But not every story has a human face. Accounts of angels falling from the sky in a storm of fire to save villages long forgotten, horned demons holding strategic points long since given up on. Shadows of the night, guarding mankind."