LXXII - Desert
Been looking forward to writing this arc for a while now, I hope you guys enjoy it! :)
~~~(LXXIII)~~~
Oxon checked his scroll as the Manta he was aboard sped away from the kingdom proper. He'd received a few good luck texts from the gang even though they saw him off before they had their own meeting with the general directly after his own. He smiled at their enthusiastic kindness and sent reciprocal messages back promising not to die. An all caps one from Ruby yelled at him to not jinx himself.
Death flag shmeath flag, I should be in and out in a day or so. Honestly, I'm just glad I don't have to walk the whole way to the site. I can't imagine how miserable that would be. Although the twist is not exactly something I'm thrilled about.
The meeting with the general had not gone as he expected. Oxon had made sure to be as polite as possible and not make a fool of himself in front of the general. A feat he was very proud of.
For the mission, Oxon had been given modified Atlesian Soldier armor. It was that or have his own painted white so that he would blend in with the tundra. He hard passed on that. His father loved the color brown and he wasn't about to remove all color from the chest guard.
It was similar to his own gear, albeit made of some composite material instead of leather and steel. To help with the warmth, there was a fur pelt attached to his shoulders that wrapped around the back of his neck. Some sort of native animal or something; whatever it was, damn was it soft. He has also made the choice to leave Virginiana behind. The weight could make trekking on the ice treacherous as well as the fact he would need more agility and stealth while in the area.
Most of the Grimm had moved further east. He has a feeling that some of the teams deployed to Essen would be familiar to him, but that was just a guess. Thinking back, the general was visibly stressed during the briefing. What was going on here wasn't the only place this was happening and it was having an affect on the man.
~~~(LXXIII)~~~
Wearing a new suit of armor, Oxon entered the general's office. It was a magnificent one as it overlooked all of Mantle. It seemed he'd taken inspiration from Ozpin's office in its view.
"Oxon, good." The man stood up from his desk before activating the hologram feature. "I'm taking a risk by assigning this to you, but others that could investigate are busy dealing with other situations. I'm sure you understand."
"Of course, Sir. I'm more than willing to give my aid." Oxon gave the best salute he could; the general waved it off before zooming in on Essen and the surrounding tundra. There was a mass of red dots heading towards the settlement.
"As of now, the vast majority of the Grimm have left their original gathering point and are in course to hit Essen."
"So, it's time to go? Will I be accompanied during this assignment?" There were strict rules in place since his parole began. As long as it wasn't Winter or that asshole Almond, he'd be fine with whoever. Well, Winter might not be a horrible idea if it meant showing her he was serious.
"I wanted to send another one of my specialists or a squad of Knights alongside you for this, but the situation throughout the kingdom is worse than anticipated. This makes it too dangerous to redistribute any available forces not guarding the kingdom away from the places under threat." He pressed a button and one of those hover bots he saw when they first arrived entered the room. "Knights are unfortunately not yet at the point where they can make long treks outside the kingdom, something that we are very much working on."
"So I get a little pal as an escort? Can't say I expected that." Walking into the tundra was a daunting task, but to do it with only an unarmed drone as his only backup? That seemed a bit frugal. The thing was useless aside from scouting, which was his entire job here. Surely the only benefit is that the grim won't bother to notice something that small. "I can work with that."
"Not quite, the sentry will be for monitoring you specifically in case of what we have already gone over." Oxon wanted to snort, but he held it in. "As for an escort, it's true that while specialists, huntsmen, and military personnel are being sent to various vulnerable areas, there are other means of manpower we can tap into. It may be best to wear your helmet."
Raising an eyebrow at that, Oxon unclipped his helmet from his pack and placed it on his head, steel mask obscuring all but his eyes. Once it was secured and his face hidden, the general pressed a different button and spoke at the table. "Send them in." The door opened for the second time, and instead of a second robot, it was a team of four kids.
"You wanted to see us, headmaster?" Oxon looked at a quarter of young teens and back to the general a few times in surprise.
The one at the front, the leader perhaps, was a young girl with rich blue hair and deep red eyes. She wore a long black robe with flowy sleeves. Keeping it from moving was a gray belt. On that belt was a large pouch that clinked as she walked. Oxon couldn't see anything as a visible weapon. She had a nervous yet sure look on her face.
The second of them was a boy that had black curls done in a bun alongside azure eyes. He wore black pants held up by bleached white suspenders. A dark gray, white, and blue camo jacket was worn over his shoulders but he did not have his arms through the sleeves. The relaxed teen had a large variety of guns on his person. Two revolvers on his hips, four clip fed pistols; two on his thighs and two under his armpits, there also appeared to be a large form on his back as well, but he couldn't identify it.
The third, a rather short girl he had to admit, had brown eyes. Whatever hair she had was hidden by a blue and white camo parka, the hood was up and only let Oxon see from the bottom of her nose to her eyebrows; the only outstanding feature was a significant amount of freckles covering her face. Her pants were equally as puffy and a slightly darker shade of blue. The weapon that he could see appeared to be a large pick hoe, the glowing light it gave off alongside a quiver of arrows alluded to a second form. It was hard to read her emotions from eyes alone.
The final was yet another girl, one that seemed entirely too confident, keeping up the back. She had a long and thick cloak wrapped around her entire body and looked oddly shaped. Something of good size was hidden underneath. He couldn't make anything out other than the orange hair pulled back in a ponytail and excited green eyes. The girl looked him up and down and rolled her eyes.
Don't like that one…
"Thank you for meeting me here Team BLBD. Your kingdom, and I, have a great task for you."
The group shifted from their prior emotions and snapped a solid salute to the man. "Yes sir!" As one, the three shouted.
Unlike when Oxon gave him one, the general reciprocated their gesture, allowing them to shift to a more natural stance. "I'm sure you may have noticed an uptick of activity in this kingdom, and that is all for a very dire reason."
"Is it the other kingdoms, sir?" The hooded girl asked the general with a voice that made it clear she was worried and trying to hide the fact. "Is Vale coming for us?"
"No, the other kingdoms are not seeking to attack us right now and we have no reason to fear retribution from Vale."
"It's Grimm, isn't it? This is about what happened to Hammerfest?" The blue haired girl took a half step forward, a grim expression on her face.
"Unfortunately, not just that town." The map on the table zoomed away from Essen and towards a new settlement or something named Crossed. The last time he'd seen it it was blue, now though, it was red. "Crossed fell suddenly last night, there were no warning signs, no justifiably large enough increase of negativity among the population, and it was well defended. The Grimm overran it at two thirty this morning."
The reaction from the kids was immediate. Shock, anger, grief were all there and in fluxion between them all.
It was a surprise to Oxon as well. Between this meeting and the one a few nights ago, another incursion had occurred. Looking at the slowly moving mass of dots, it was clear that another one was about to occur. Even so, the implications of these student's presence needed to be addressed.
"Who're the kids, and why do I feel uneasy?"
"This is Team BLBD, or Bluebird." The general gestured at the four. "In order, we have Blaise Pitch, Donovan Lagoon, Trudy Bright, and Delaney Shock. They are led by Miss Pitch, the girl with blue hair stood up straighter at the acknowledgement. "They will be accompanying you on this mission."
The group turned to him, easy curiosity on their faces. Of the four, it was their leader who spoke up. "Is he a specialist!?" Blaise looked at him with wide and excited eyes. Oxon had to shut it down quickly.
Two voices rang out in tandem. "No." The immediate rebuke shocked the girl and her team. He and the general locked eyes at the synched response.
"General, I understand we need answers, but I can't be expected to watch over these students as well, especially out there." The four took his dismissal of their presence as well as expected. They were very vocal, but Oxon drowned them out. "They aren't ready! Besides, I can do this on my own, quicker and safer than in a big group."
"We're the best in our year!"
"We've beaten second years in training before! We can handle anything you can!"
Their "claims to fame" only made him have more questions. "Are they first years!?"
The general placed his hands behind his back, a calm expression on his face. "The same year as a certain group of girls who worked on similar missions. Fighting similar foes."
"And I am intimately familiar with those foes." Oxon glanced back at the now defiant seventeen year olds. "They. Aren't. Ready."
"Team BLBD are exceptional students and have experience beyond our walls, they will not slow you down. While I cannot send them to the front lines at their age, this scenario can be a great learning opportunity for them and an opportunity to grow. The mission is of great importance and one that they are ready for."
Oxon gave the man an Incredulous look, which was ineffective due to the mask. With facial ques out of the picture, vocal ones would have to do. "And if it's her and hers?"
"Then I'm sure you will know what to do."
"Uh, if he isn't a specialist, then who is he? A foreign huntsman?" It was the judgy one, Delaney, was once again inspecting him. Her critical green eyes looked at his gear before focusing on his face. The two green eyes met briefly before he focused back on the general.
"Nobody worth remembering, that's for sure. Just someone who's here to help out." Oxon's words did not have any affect on her or the blatant curiosity. Choosing to ignore her for now, he turned back to the general. "Fine, I don't like it but I guess you know them best."
"Del brings up a good question, one I agree with." The silent until now gunner spoke up with a raised hand. He seemed more polite compared to the ginger. "I would like to know who we are working with."
The general coughed into his fist. "This is Timothy Burgundy, he is a huntsman trained agent brought on board for this scenario. He will be the lead on this operation. He has already been briefed on the mission, now I will fill you four in as well."
Oxon crossed his arms as the older man explained the situation.
Give me winter, I'm begging you.
~~~(LXXIII)~~~
"We are currently en route to object site W, ETA: nine minutes."
At least the trip to the drop site wasn't going to take long. He had to hand it to Atlas, their ships were much nicer than Vale's. Company though, was up for debate.
"This is our chance guys! With this, we can really make a name for ourselves."
"It shows that we have come a long way since we began, and that we will be reaching new heights soon; finding the cause of the anomalous Grimm activity will save lives."
"This is so exciting, a real mission! And before everyone else in our year!"
"I can't believe The General Ironwood selected us for a mission! The guys on Team MLCH are going to be sooo jealous!"
The members of BLBD bustling with excitement, one Oxon wasn't exactly feeling right now. Sure, at least a spy drone wasn't his only companion, but it seemed like the good general was determined to create his own Team RWBY; haphazardly dangerous missions and all. And this time, he wasn't in the know on the enemy's plans.
Either way, depending on what we find, it could be the last time I deal with them. They'll go back to classes and homework and me to training. Perhaps even to Vacuo. Damn, I really don't want to go to Vacuo.
Content in his deductions, he decided to get a bit of rest before arrival. He shut out the sounds of the birds and closed his eyes.
What felt like seconds had instead been roughly twenty five as he was awoken by the pilot's voice informing them that drop was in three minutes. As he woke up, he felt eyes on him. Without opening his eyes, he spoke to the group. "Can I help?"
"Who are you?" He recognized the voice as the ginger in the full body cloak. "Like really? We see a ton of huntsmen and specialists at the academy, but you're too young, and I've never seen you in classes here. And no soldier wears unique armor unless they're a high ranking officer; except no soldier would be allowed to wear a devil horn helmet."
"They're bull horns."
"Okay, but what about the rest?"
"Easy, I'm not from Atlas." Short, sweet, and concise. They never met because he's never been here. Not that that stopped them.
"Vale?"
"Not quite."
"Mistral?" Gods give me strength…
"Definitely not."
"Vacuo?"
"I'd rather die than ever visit there, let alone live there."
"But are you from there?" The kid clearly isn't good at taking hints.
"No."
There was a pause and some muttering.
"Menagerie?"
At that, Oxon opened his eyes. The fiery girl was crouched in front of him, looking for any hint of his identity. And unless she could read minds, she wasn't getting anything.
"I ain't got a drop of faunus blood in me." Oxon chuckled to himself as a joke ran through his head. "Though I guess you could say I have some family down there."
That seemed to get a reaction. The girl's eyes widened and she stood up sharply and backed up.
"Enough questions, you're not getting anything more from me." Standing up, he looked over the four and looked at their gear. "I need to know how you fight, your weapons, your semblances, and your tactics. That way I can figure out how I can work with you all."
"You're going to adapt yourself to our style?" Blaise Pitch stepped forward to stand in front of him. "Normally upperclassmen and graduates have the students
"Well I'm not an upperclassman or a member of any groups, and I'm used to filling roles that need filling." He gestured to the three of them. "No armor as far as I can see, shooter boy looks like he's long range, puffy looks like a mele or midrange fighter, no idea on Orange, and you look like either a martial artist or some other unarmed fighter. How close am I?"
"About half right?"
"Then correct me."
The girl took a breath before gesturing towards the girl in the jacket. "Trudy Bright is my partner and a skilled frontline fighter with Trawler, her pick-bow. Its blades can fold up into a mace or extend to form a crossbow. Her semblance allies her to find weak points in armor, rock, or anything that needs breaking. The SDC has been trying to poach her from the academy for a while now."
"To no success, I hope?" The girl perked up at the positive tone in his voice and shook her head. "Good, Fuck Jacques."
Up next was the gun covered, solo boy of the team. "Donovan Lagoon, he's our long range hero and Delaney's partner. As is plainly obvious, he uses a multitude of firearms to fight. His semblance is localized time reversal, it's very limited and can only affect inorganic material of small sizes like dust rounds. He uses it to reverse the use of his ammo in certain scenarios, allowing him to sustain prolonged fire with any weapon."
"And the faunus?"
"Delaney? Yeah, she-" The leader was interrupted when she was suddenly pushed aside by the more suspicious of them. The girl had wide eyes and heavy breathing.
"How did you-!? What gave-!? I never showed-!" Each of the rapid, unfinished questions was accompanied by her getting closer and closer to his face. The normally confident girl now appeared incredibly nervous. "Tell me how you figured it out!"
He put a calming hand on her shoulder, one that she stepped back from. Recalling Ilia's story, he could guess why. He had to show he wasn't like the rest of this kingdom. Shuffling his belt, he showed the girl his most recent sash. The one given to him by Ka'ahupahau and the rest of Wai'Ānapanpa.
"One, I'm fairly experienced in figuring things out. You could say I had to get good at paying attention like my life depended on it." Cause it very much did. "I've known a few faunus that hid their features before, and you seemed to act similar. Two: I have had a few run-ins with the White Fang and many interactions with other very nice faunus in Vale and Menagerie. Three: I heard the rustling under your fabric. Wings?"
"You- what- huh?" Orange seemed to be short circuiting.
"And, just to get ahead of any worry, I have no hate for the faunus. The White Fang? Sure I don't like 'em, but faunus in general are good in my book." Oxon gestured to his most ornate sash. "I can't prove it, but I went to Menagerie for some… work and ended up pretty much getting adopted by a very nice cat faunus family on the island and given this memento is from me cleaning up a bit of litter on the island kingdom."
"You, don't care?" She was warry, and her team were clearly protective of her if the defensive formation was anything to go by. "You're not lying?"
"I've told a few in my life," Their eyes narrowed. "but I promised a few people, including one I care very deeply about, that I would change. So you can trust that I won't treat you any different from the rest of your group."
Any response to his words was interrupted by the ship's pilot speaking over the intercom. "Alright, we've arrived at the drop site. We're a few miles away from the objective due to a few lingering Grimm, we don't want to alert them to our presence. Good luck." The lights in the hangar turned green as the rear door opened.
"I'll have you and Blue tell me what you can do on the ground. For now, we need to hurry and drop. Hope you have a landing strategy." He pressed a button on the wall and spoke into the com. "Miss Ederne, if you wouldn't mind?"
"And I thought the general was joking." After a few seconds, the tall woman stepped out from the cockpit. The sudden arrival of the high ranking specialist shell shocked the four. What happened next, even more so. "Is this really a part of your strategy?"
"Yup, usually it's Xiao Long, but she ain't here. Do you mind?"
The older woman shrugged and turned to place her shoulder by him. "Not really, go for it." Having the necessary consent, he slugged the Ace-Op as hard as he could. Immediately, Oxon was coated in a luminous green glow.
"Not a bad right hook, but not as good as mine."
"What just happened..!?"
He turned to the students and motioned for them to follow. "Less talk, more jumping, don't make Ederne throw you out."
"It would be very fun."
"You know what they say." At the woman's joking threat, Oxon walked to the rear door and stopped a few feet from the edge. "Timber!"
With a one eighty turn, Oxon casually strolled off the ramp and out into the sky.
~~~(LXXIII)~~~
Fun fact, while being incredibly icy and snow covered, Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.
So apparently the cure for my migraines is headache meds and caffeine. So I look like a degenerate every now and then when it hits in the morning and I'm chugging a monster. I feel like I have the image of a highschooler who doesn't understand what a bad mistake is.
~~~(LXXIII)~~~
Omake- What's Behind the Mask?
Earlier, as Oxon rested-
"Are you sure he's asleep?"
Blaise leaned over Trudy's shoulder as the pair inspected their new and mysterious ally. He came recommended by General Ironwood, and that meant a lot, but that didn't mean they were going to accept the frankly very odd introduction so easily.
"Rhythmic breathing, twitching eyes behind the eyelids, and no response when you made a gentle breeze on his eyes." The girl made a wave in front of the shiny mask, they could even see themselves in its reflection. "He's out."
"I don't think I like that you know how to test a person's consciousness, Trudes." If she could sleep with one eye open, she would.
Her partner rolled her eyes at the mild suspicion. "If you had hyper restrictive parents, you'd pick up similar skills. Anyways, why'd you want to know if he was out?"
"Cause things aren't adding up." Blaise was normally a pretty trusting girl and not one to have crazy doubts or theories. "Look I talked to Alan right before we left, and he knows every Huntsman and Huntress in the kingdom. The thing is, when I asked about one "Tim Burgundy" he had nothing."
"You went to Alan? Isn't that guy, like, obsessed with getting every Huntsman and specialists autograph?" Delaney shuddered at the thought of the guy. "He even hounded me for mine after we dunked on Team OPPL. Don't tell me you actually promised him something."
"I asked him for a favor, and he looked into Mr. Tall, masked, and mysterious; he got nothing. And I mean nothing, no academy has had anyone by the name of "Tim Burgundy" or anything similar." She stood up and calmly walked over to her friend. She then pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from within her sleeves. "Oh, Del, you mind signing this for me real quick?"
The girl recoiled from the items like they were Grimm. "I knew it!"
"It's what he asked for in return! Literally only this for him looking over the list of huntsmen and students in other academies that was in the last update before the CCT crashed."
"He probably has a spreadsheet and just had to press Control F on it!"
"Even if it was a three second search, a one second signature is just as easy." Blaise pressed the stationary into Delaney's hands. "Seems like a fair trade."
Blaise could see the girl thinking of ways to say no. It was an understandable inner conflict. The girl, while outwardly confident, was a very private person and not one to trust others. It took weeks to get the girl to open up about herself when the team first formed. Eventually, the flighty girl sighed and took the pen in hand and signed her name.
"Happy?"
Donovan grinned at the submission. The rest had already given the nerdy second year theirs, Delaney had been the last holdout. "Alan sure will be." She gave a rude gesture to her partner, causing the other three to chuckle.
The fiery girl gave her partner a hard shove and the rest a scowl. "So what do we know so far? Burgundy is a weird guy in a mask, he doesn't sound old but clearly has a ton of experience to be assigned this, he's got a grumpy personality, and wears heavy armor. Anything else?"
"Besides the strange subtext throughout the entire meeting?" Donovan pointed out. "The whole thing was full of double meaning and spoke of some kind of strange history between them."
"And not an incredibly pleasant one."
"Well, we don't know his age, it's kinda hard to tell if we can't see his face."
"Think he'd answer any questions?" Trudy was still staring at the guy, looking for any clue of his identity. Besides the odd helmet, the only thing that stood out were the pieces of fabric on his belt. There were more than a few and each had different designs. Some were simple and others were more artistic and none were close to looking similar. "Maybe he will tell us what's really going on?"
The four didn't know, but they knew they had to try. Blaise and Delaney may be the only native Atlesians, but they all loved the kingdom they called home, the good and the bad. This mission was proof that something was going on and they wanted to help. With Ironwood putting his trust in them, they knew that failure wasn't an option.
~~~(LXXIII)~~~
Yes, I've introduced a new team. I hope they will grow on y'all.