XX - Ring

Sorry for the absence. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

~~~(XX)~~~

It was combat class again.

Oxon had been training whenever he wasn't busy watching the teams he was assigned to. Team RWBY's members were acting cagey, not just Blake. He'd tried to ask if anything was going on, but they deflected to other topics.

I'll need to ask some of the others. Team JNPR aren't my biggest fan, so they're out. Maybe team SSSN, Sun's a decent fellow and not the most secretive. Plus he's obsessed with Belladonna. Cinder thinks he's no longer worth investigating.

A spar between Yang and Pyrrha had just finished. The blonde had tried hard, but Nikos came out on top without any aura missing, a terrifying performance. For her part, Yang didn't seem to put off by it, after all, Pyrrha was yet to lose to anyone.

"Well, for our next bout, how about Mr. Ahdmad against Mr. Wukong."

A stroke of luck. With this he'd be able to talk to the monkey man in private without going out of his way. Oxon left his "team" behind and went to get geared up in the locker room. He met Sun in the hallway and Sun began to chat as they got ready.

"C'mon man, what's taking so long?" Sun was using his staff like a walking stick or cane, leaning on it in boredom. "We have a fight to enjoy."

Why is he so impatient today?

"Not all of us have an unbuttoned shirt as a combat outfit." Armor like his takes time to get right, he didn't want pinches mid fight. "Seriously, the hell kinda person wears literally nothing over their vitals?"

"Someone who's too good to get hit, that's who."

Point to Sun, I walked right into that one.

Once he had his gear on in a satisfactory way, the two made their way to the ring. They passed Yang and Pyrrha in the hall, waiting to use the room once they were done.

"G'luck Ox, don't let Sun lead you by the horns, yeah?" Her trademark smirk was on full display. There was a muffled giggle from Pyrrha as she left to shower.

"Well, I'll try to at least land a hit." He'd seen her fight with Nikos, she wasn't able to land one solid hit today.

"Oooh, not bad." The girl turned to her fellow blonde. "I made sure Ruby has Blake pay attention."

"Awesome!" With her wingman duties promised, Yang also left to get cleaned up.

"Are the combatants ready?"

Ms. Goodwitch looked over the two of them. Sun was trying to get Blake to look at him, but sadly even Ruby couldn't get the girl out of her scroll.

"I'm ready." Oxon readied his rifle so as to pop off a few early shots.

"Any time, teach." He got in a lazy stance and ignored the narrowed eyes from the combat instructor.

After the countdown had run its course, the fight was on.

Oxon immediately raised Bulls Breath and took aim at Sun. With three loud pops, three rounds were deflected by a fast staff spin. With a curse, he fired a few more at different targets hoping to catch one shot.

No luck with ranged combat, why is everyone in this school so good at blocking bullets?

Moving past the clear bullshit, he got ready for melee combat.

Sun was a whirlwind of movement. Like many other fighters, he utilized fast speed to overwhelm opponents quickly. Luckily for Oxon, he had a pretty solid defense. His armored arm protected his face and left torso while Bulls Breath guarded the right.

Oxon was waiting for a moment to counter attack, he was taking a good number of hits, but his thicker armor lessened the aura drain caused by the blows.

After half a dozen hits, Oxon moved. Sun had been wailing on him for a bit with no counter, so when Oxon grabbed the end of the staff with his left hand, he was unprepared. Oxon pulled the red pole to the side, bashed the end into Sun's face, and one arm aimed his rifle into his sternum.

"Parry this, asshole." Oxon pulled the trigger when the barrel's end was only a few inches from the faunus. This rifle was meant to fire powerful ballistics a hundred or so yards, so getting shit from a few inches no doubt hurt.

Oxon lifted his thumb, allowing the ax head to pull down the barrel while holding the lever. He chambered a new round by bringing it back up with a wrist flick and fired again. He managed a third shot before Sun got past the shock and got his weapon free and punched Oxon in the nose on the way out.

"Damn dude, not even a little mercy?" Sun rubbed his chest and began to look a bit more serious than he was at the start.

"If you'd just let me shoot you earlier, I wouldn't have gotten pissed."

"C'mon man, I'm just trying to impress Blake." The two began to circle each other. Oxon held Bulls Breath in a high guard while Sun held his staff diagonally over his body. "She's been a bit snippy lately, more so than usual."

As usual, Sun was chatty, even in a fight. "Why's that?" Oxon swung down when in range of the blonde, but the staff fighter was too nimble. Oxon was able to thwart a charge by quickly drawing Patris and shooting at his feet. Or not, as the team leader flipped over the shots and closed the distance. With a gun in his hand he could only get a sloppy guard up.

A quick thrust from the staff's tip into Oxon's shoulder disrupted his guard. "Not sure, probably due to the whole Torchwick thing. Hasn't stopped investigating him and the fang." Sun then swung low with his staff and tripped Oxon into an awkward roll.

Using the last of the ammo in Patris, he was able to stand up and gain a bit of space from his opponent. It was surprisingly easy to get information from Sun, the guy must be pretty worried.

"She's still going after them? Why not leave it to the authorities?" Before he could say anything more, Sun broke his staff. Then he broke it again twice more and suddenly Oxon was on guard.

He only had a brief look at the weapon when he caught it, but now the trigger-like parts made sense. He didn't know how/ what those fired, but he did not want to experience it. The staff had turned into a pair of nunchucks with a firearm feature.

Great…

Looking with more focus, he saw a familiar but of tech. "I see you are also a man of culture." Oxon made a show of levering a fresh round into the chamber.

"Hey, it's a hell of a loading mechanism." With that but if camaraderie over, they clashed once more. In response to a swing from Oxon, Sun began to spin his nunchucks.

Suddenly buckshot and sticks were flying at him. He could block most of the kinetic attacks, but each blast of pellets tore into him and was rapidly depleting his aura. His reserves were getting close to the orange and he didn't see a way out. Then an idea popped into his head. Instead of guarding, Oxon dropped his weapon and went for a tackle.

Taking the hits with stride, he managed to pin the unarmored blonde and begin landing hits. It seemed the nunchucks weren't suited to such close combat, and he wasn't able to reform the staff. Blow after blow, Oxon was laying into Sun from above. With each hit, the taller teen began to glow. A shining film encapsulated his form and was glowing brighter with each hit.

Oxon took a glance at the scoreboard, he was at 24% while Sun was at 35%. He just had to land more heavy hits and he'd win this.

Before he could return to the beating, the monkey faunus glowed brightly below him for a moment. When it was gone, there were two more astral copies of the guy.

"What in the gods da-" Oxon didn't get to finish when two sets of fists slammed into the underside of his jaw. The barrier he had charged up protected him from taking much damage, but he was distracted long enough for the real Sun to wiggle free.

The light clones struck one powerful blow each before bursting apart, blinding Oxon. Suddenly disoriented, Sun was able to knock Oxon down and press the remade staff to his throat.

Oxon could tank a good many more blows thanks to his activated semblance. But it would only delay the end, so he raised his hands in submission.

"I surrender." Oxon had no offense besides fratris, patris was empty and he'd abandoned Bulls Breath in his last ditch effort.

"And that is the match, with Sun Wukong as the victor." Oxon accepted the hand offered by the grinning blonde, not really feeling the same energy.

"Mr. Adhmad, while smart to catch an opponent off guard, never take your eyes off of them or give them a chance to recover. It could mean the difference between life and death." He nodded at the criticism.

The strict woman then turned to the victor. "Mr. Wukong. While you won, you could easily have lost. Getting trapped under a larger enemy is a difficult situation to get out of, either remain out of reach, or have better plans of escape."

She looked at her clipboard and then the clock and returned her attention to the seated students. "That does it for this lesson, remember what was said to each fighter, the experience can be lifesaving."

"Good fight man, didn't expect a tackle." Sun seemed to be in a joyful mood after the spar. The blonde waved proudly at Blake, who offered a small wave of her own before leaving quickly.

"She really does seem more disinterested than usual, huh?" He'd gotten a little info during the fight, but now he might get more. "You said it was because of Roman Torchwick?"

"Yeah, ever since the docks." The blonde scratched his head as they walked towards the lockers. "I know she's worried about him and the Fang, but she's really obsessing."

That wasn't good for their plans. Her obsession caused a major fiasco at the docks. If she was still looking into their group…

"Is she letting you in on anything? You helped her before, right?" Roman was still miffed about that banana sun hit him with.

"No, actually." The blonde sighed in frustration as they entered the lockers. It seemed that he truly wanted to be in on whatever was happening with the girl. Sun was a good guy.

"I really want to help, ya know? I can't just let her rush into danger on her own again."

Knowing that made him even more guilty. If only he could be as selfless. But he continued to dig, because if Oxon didn't even try, then cinder would burn him to coals.

"I've noticed her whole team has been a bit more focused than before. Think they're working together?"

Sun placed his weapon in his locker and changed into a fresh shirt. Unbuttoned, of course. "I hope so, if their whole team is involved, it'll no doubt be safer. I just wish she'd come to me, too."

"Wouldn't it be better if she just let go? Again, why not let the police do their jobs?" If she could just not be nosy, then she'd probably live longer. Cinder wasn't forgiving in any capacity.

"I tried that, she's just too stubborn."

Hmmm…"

Oxon finished changing into his uniform finally, and the two made their way out of the building. Neptune was there to greet the two. The suave bastard was casually leaning against the wall like he was on some photo shoot.

"Hey Sun, nice win." He nodded at Oxon as well. "Good fight dude."

Oxon just shrugged at the compliment. He doubted the guy really cared. "Eh, I tried, but it didn't take root."

Sun patted Oxon on the back. "Hey, don't worry, I'm sure you'll get me next time." With the, well, Sunny personally of the guy, Oxon was wondering if he didn't have a golden retriever faunus parent.

Neptune pushed off the wall to walk beside his partner. The three of them made their way to the dorms. Oxon was content to listen to the two of them chat. It was mostly about the Beacon girls they were into. Nothing of real interest.

It seemed Cinder pulling strings to get them in the dorms away from other transfers backfired. He'd gotten a few questions from the three teams he talked to about why. He told them the truth, he had no clue and didn't care.

"Seriously, you're so damn lucky to be in this building." Neptune hit him with a jealous look. "I'd give anything to trade with your team!"

"I bet Weiss would enjoy the switch too." Sun patted his partner on the back as they exchanged grins. What a weird occurrence, a pair of teammates fell for two separate girls on the same team. They'd jump at the chance to be even slightly closer. They'd told him enough times.

At least it's not some trashy inter-team love triangle

"You can beg all you want, I personally wouldn't give a shit, but the rest of my team has already settled in." That and Cinder wanted a bit of space from the others of their Mistralian school.

"What a let down." Said the guy who's been practically stalking Blake since he arrived in the city.

"Sorry man, I'm sure you could always climb the tree by their window or something." He idly realized his comment could pass for racism, but Sun was chill. That and the guy has been known to hide in trees to nap in the weeks that he's been here. Oxon had been doing maintenance on his gear under one of the oaks when the guy let out a loud snore. He'd almost shot up the branches on instinct.

"Hmmmmm, not a bad idea." Damnit Sun, he might not have been grinning, but it was meant to be a joke. They better not say it was his idea. The two went back to their own building and left Oxon to go to his.

As he walked through the courtyard of the building, he noticed a fairly large branch on the grass. The chunk of wood got him thinking, thinking of things he'd left behind back home. He picked up the branch, it was roughly the size of his arm, and walked into the building.

~~~(XX)~~~

Emerald was pissed. After her shitty "teammate" got his ass handed to him by that yellow tailed exhibitionist, she got cornered by Little Red and the rest of the color brigade. Apparently they were curious about the broody coward on her team.

She was cautious at first since the hornless ox didn't seem the type to be good at this line of work and thought they'd figured something out. It would be bad if they were on to them, but no, it was somehow worse.

The multicolored group, with the exception the ex terrorist, wanted to know if she had any info on him and his past. Because they were concerned about him. The thought that he'd somehow gotten these three to pity him was flabbergasting. At least they didn't suspect anything criminal about him or the team.

She had to bullshit some excuse about respecting his privacy and not prying into it. Thankfully the dopes bought it, though they seemed disappointed at her uselessness. Screw them.

She left the goody two shoes as quickly as socially acceptable and retreated to their room. Once there, her frustration turned into a migraine.

Once she opened the door, she saw an absurd sight. Dirt, bark, moss, sawdust, and wood chips covered two pushed together desks on the wall near the door. The annoying gloom lord was at the center of it all, carving away at a chunk of wood.

"The hell is this mess!?" The dumbass had the stones to glare at her.

"Just a bit of stress relief, I'd rather chop down a tree or three, but I'm pretty sure the groundskeeper and Goodwitch would kill me." How the hell was chopping a tree relaxing? Maybe Red was right, the guy had issues.

"And so you're doing what? Creating carbon based snow? Or are you gonna snort this trash?"

Emerald watched as he raised a chunk of wood for her to see. "No, bitch, I'm carving the wood." Sure enough, in his hand was a small wooden squirrel, Emerald had to admit, it looked well made, not like she'd ever say that though.

"Am I supposed to be impressed? Or maybe even forgive you for trailing sap and twigs into the room?" At least he looked a bit abashed at that.

"Ah, well, I'll clean up the mess once I'm done." He then went back to his woodcarving. Whatever, at least it was contained and not near her bed.

"Team RWBY was asking about you today." There was a slight pause in his work as he glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. "It was some inane stupidity likely brainstormed by the little tike of a team leader. They were asking about your past or some crap."

"And what did you say?"

"That I didn't know anything." At that he resumed his work. "I can't believe Cinder chose you to deal with them. The job was for You to investigate them. Not the other way around. We don't need them snooping on us."

"That makes two of us, greenie, though none of us are exactly socially competent. Cinder talks like a sociopath looking to get some; Mercury acts like a dick to anything with atoms; I'm from a destroyed, isolated mountain village with little knowledge of modern life; and you're a kleptomaniac that's obsessed with our boss's ass, yeah, I've seen you looking." Oh, that was it, she was going to choke him the fu- "In my mind, you're the better choice for the job, you at least know how to act. I'm blundering through almost every interaction."

Hmph, she'd wait on his asphyxiation for now. "Exactly, plus I'm actually skilled in information gathering."

"Maybe if they catch on to me, the rest of you can claim not to know. I was graciously plucked off the streets after all." Her seated teammate blew dust off his work and began to inspect it. It was about four inches tall and showed a running squirrel balanced on a flat disk. Decent work, but a waste of time. "One down. Countless to go."

"More!? You're going to make more little tree rats?" What was with him and the rodents?

"Nah, only the one little guy, my family is next." As if that made any sense. Emerald had had enough brain power wasted talking to the weirdo. She flopped down on her mattress and began to check the local news on her scroll, checking on the police and their investigation.

Emerald idly thought about the two bovine associates in their cabal. Themed names, similar levels of brooding, and aggravating personalities. At least Adam had the horns and the skill. She would celebrate the way neither were necessary.

At the desk, Oxon began preparing a new wood chunk.

~~~(XX)~~~

Well his teammate was a bust. Ruby was disappointed with how little Emerald knew about the guy. Did she not care? When she and Weiss became partners, she did her best to learn as much as she could, same with Blake. So she thought it was odd that Oxon's team didn't try to get closer to him.

"Was cornering that girl really necessary?" Blake was the only one on the team that wasn't even a little curious about the grumpy transfer. If it wasn't Torchwick or White Fang related, then she didn't even pretend to care.

"Eh, not like beef boy has been all that forthcoming." Yang was on the lower end of the curiosity scale but still helped Ruby talk to the green haired girl. "Guy is as chatty as a log."

"Ugh, maybe his other teammates will have something." Ruby decided to let the issue go for now, they had other quests to conquer. "In the meantime, any updates on our plan?"

At that, Blake finally began to enter the conversation. "I've narrowed down a few likely locations. All in downtown vale, the warehouse district specifically."

"I'll need to go to the CCT to get the necessary information." Weiss chimed in, which was a good idea. Since her family ran the SDC, she could easily get the information they needed about the robberies.

They were almost ready to strike another blow against the dark forces in the city. Only a few more days until the weekend. She couldn't wait!

~~~(XX)~~~

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