Chapter 3: Full Metal Saybr

A/N if you can guess what the title is a reference to you get a cookie, hint it's not FMA

After taking a LONG shower that was desperately needed, all things considered. Viralious grabbed his bag and weapon then made his way towards the weapons workshop following the instructions Eckhart had given him.

Stepping inside the first thing he notices is just how much cleaner it looks compared to the one back at Signal, no scorch marks lining the tables, no dents from students dropping weapons. No, it looked clean and artificial.

Viralious moved to an empty table and began to remove the curved blades from his weapon, placing them on the table. He then began to deconstruct his weapon and laid its pieces out on the table. He then looked down at the pieces

I have no clue what I am going to make with these.

He had a choice, remake the weapon based off of his uncles? Sure he had spent most of his life training to fight with that one but it only reminded him of betrayal and anger. Two emotions that were not a boon when fighting Grimm.

Sighing he puts his bag on the table and begins to search its contents for a spark of inspiration. After twenty minutes he finds none.

Placing his head on the table he then notices something in the picture that he brought with him. Glancing at the four people in the picture he thinks of each weapon… Him and his sister used similar weapons only difference is his was dual sided, blade on each end while hers was designed to be reverse gripped. Then he remembered his mother's dual blades.

With a spark lighting an idea, he begins to measure the length of his blades, 54 cm each.

"A little on the smaller side but it could work…"

Tapping the console on the table to wake it up. He began to create blueprints for the weapon, only to be interrupted by a soft whirl of a drone.

Confused, Viralious looks behind him and notices a small drone no more than 18 cm with a camera and… is that a gun?

"If that's your weapon design then you're already dead in a ranged encounter." said the boy from before as he walked up to Viralious.

"What? I can easily cross the distance to clear out any Grimm, range isn't an issue!"

"Sure let's test that theory," the boy scoffs before a shot rings through the workshop striking Viralious in the arm.

Looking around for where the shot came from, Viralious notices a second small drone, hovering nearly 4 meters off the ground.

A second shot rang out, this time Viralious dodges it causing it to strike the floor and bounce.

"You have zero way to reach the target minus throwing your weapon at it, leaving you wide open to attack. You should at least add a pistol to the design."

Small bits of frustration both at the boy's method and that he was in fact right leaked through onto Viralious' face as he states

"So who are you anyway and why do you care about my weapon?"

The boy's smirk widened to a smile as he spoke regally

"My name is Eckhart Slate. Soon to be first year at Atlas Academy and eventually the next general of the Atlas Military. As for why I care about your weapon, I would like for you to survive this upcoming test and make it into Atlas."

Viralious stares at Eckhart with a look of pure confusion before asking

"And Why would you like me to stay?"

Stepping forward, Eckhart places his scroll on the workbench, causing an upload to begin.

"Because you are the perfect distraction for Ironwood. You may not know this but Ironwood tends to hyper focus on one thing at a time, it's why he can't spare the Dust necessary for me to finish these drones!" as he mentions the drones begin to fly back toward Eckhart stacking neatly ontop of eachother then attaching themselves to his back. " With you as a distraction Ironwood wouldn't be as focused, making it easier for me to take his position in the future."

Viralious looked at Eckhart like he had grown a second head before smirking and saying,

"You sir are living in a fantasy world if you think I'm going to cause Ironwood to become distracted enough to let your pompous ass become general.

Eckhart looked at Viralious silently raging

How could this filth talk back to me after I gave him this opportunity?

Faking a smile he turns away from Viralious grabbing his scroll and says

"Well then I can look forward to the primitive bone weapon you make to fight the Atleasian knights with tomorrow"

And Eckhart leaves the workshop.

Viralious stares at the empty space where Eckhart was, his words echoing in his head before returning to his weapon.

"He's a pain in the ass but he's right I do need a gun… How do I build one though?"

Something on the screen then catches Viralious' eye, blueprints for some weapon designs he never recognized

Eyeing them slowly, he decides it would be worth it at least seeing how a firing mechanism works.

"A halberd with a rail gun flashy but too large for my blades… and perhaps a little too complex…"

Digging through the files he sees one that catches his eyes.

"Dual SMG designed to Mechashift into two blades… this is perfect! Wait, it's not complete"

Viralious looks at the weapon design and sees its gun mode is completely finished but the actual sword part is missing some important features such as space to put your hand.

Copying the file over onto his scroll he begins to modify the design to fit in line with his initial dual blade sketch. After hours of modifications the weapon was ready for prototyping.

"Ok, two swords 60cm in length that mechashift into dual SMGs with a length of 45cm with an ammo capacity of 32 rounds each. Has an effective range of 150m… it's missing something"

The weapon felt forign, hollow, sure he had modified his blade design to work with the SMG portion; it just still felt… too Atlassian; it was missing him in the equation.

Glancing down at his scroll and cursing it was approaching 5 PM his stomach began to growl.

Deciding to take a break he saves the design to his scroll and leaves the equipment after locking down the desk and makes his way towards the Cafeteria hoping he could find Vending machine he could buy some dinner from.

"What are you doing here? I thought students didn't arrive for two more days." a soft, but cheerful voice echoed behind him

Turning around he sees a tall woman with short brown hair and hazel eyes, her outfit was simple military uniform with brown highlights, behind her is a big bushy squirrel tail, larger than any faunus tail Viralious had ever seen. He can't see any weapon on her but notices her legs seem to at least be partially armored.

The faunus woman sees his puzzled expression and states

"Hello is there anyone in there? You gonna answer my question or keep staring at my tail?"

Coming to his senses, Viralious quickly stammers out

"I'm a prospective student who's undergoing an aptitude test tomorrow to see if I get in. I was working on my weapon and decided to step out and get some dinner."

The squirrel faunus looks at him before smiling

"Oh, so you're the one Ironwood has been complaining about, why didn't you say so. I'm Professor Makoto. I teach Applied Sciences here at Atlas" The professor sticks her arm out for a hand shake.

Nervously Viralious shakes the professor's hand,

"It's nice to meet you professor, my name's Viralious"

The professor raised an eyebrow,

"Normally people have two names but who am I to judge! Anyway you said you were going to get dinner, well you're going the wrong way, come on!"

Makoto began to drag Viralious away before he could even respond.

After a short walk the two arrived in the cafeteria.

It was larger than the one at Signal, which surprised him. There were rows upon rows of metal tables each with two chairs to a side lined up in groups of three before there was a small break to allow for people to cross.

Opposite of the main entrance was where it looked like students… or faculty would get their food.

Gingerly, Viralious followed Professor Makoto and grabbed a simple meal consisting of a obviously precooked chicken sandwich, a simple soda, and a side of carrots

His professor on the other hand loaded her plate with what looked like a mountain of sweets and her main course was a "salad" that looked like there were more toppings then lettuce.

The two then moved to the middle row and sat next to what could only be more of the faculty.

They all slowly broke away from their conversations and turned a head towards Viralious. There were three of them, each seeming to bore a hole into him with their eyes.

Across from Makoto was a buff gentleman with maroon hair that was surprisingly unkempt for Atlas personnel, though his skin betrayed him as Mistrialian in an instant. His clothes were similar to Makoto's just with highlights of maroon. He was the first to speak in a boastful commanding voice

"And Makoto who would this young man happen to be? The new Student Counselor?"

A small girl sitting next to Makoto with white hair and large glasses was the next to speak up. Her uniform looked almost undistinguished from the rest but with a checkerboard pattern going down her arms and legs. She had large mouse ears and seemingly sunk into herself when she spoke.

"Umm… Murt don't you think he… well loo-looks a little yo-young to be a Counselor?"

The last was a tall yet muscular man who wore his green hair in a bun atop his head. He wore the basic military uniform but what made him stand out is the green scarf and… was that a cape draped down his back. His tone was pompous.

"Come now Basil, you're barely out of the Academy and yet you're teaching here, this young man might just be a spring chicken rather than a winter mouse."

Makoto gives the green man a side eye and speaks a tone dripping with playfulness

" wow Beryl I wouldn't have expected you to make harmful remarks based on a faunus' features I'm hurt"

This "Beryl" began to quickly apologize and reaffirm that he would never say anything that was harmful to the faunus. This caught a slight laugh from everyone at the table minus Viralious.

"He's not a member of the staff actually, he's a prospective student, I'm quite surprised he decided to sit with all of you though" a stern voice interrupted the laughs only for general Ironwood to place down a tray of food across from Viralious.

"I thought student's weren't getting here until the day after tomorrow, I'm not done setting up my detention thrower." Murt blurted out.

This got a slight chuckle out of all of the other professors and a side eye from Ironwood.

"You still have time Murt," clearing his throat. He continued,

"Viralious, allow for me to introduce you to the new staff of Atlas Academy this year, Professor Makoto will be teaching Applied sciences, things like basic chemistry and physics. Professor Beryl will teach history. As for Professor Murt, he's recently come back from an injury out in the field and has decided to retake his position of Grimm Studies and last but not least Professor Basil will be teaching you the intricacies of Dust."

The four looked at Viralious with smiles and anticipation as he was obviously there for a reason… but that reason they couldn't tell.

"Umm… so Viralious.. Wh-what's the reason you're here early? If y-you don't mind me asking." Basil stammered out quickly.

"Certainly there must be a glorious reason that you are here early instead of arriving with the rest? Care to regale us with the tale?" Beryl added

Viralious sighed quickly then addressed everyone

" I'm here because I was originally going to Shade but… complications arose with one of the professors there so I felt there was no reason to go. I decided to come here and ask Ironwood for a chance to apply, he's allowed for me to take the aptitude test tomorrow to see if I get in."

The professors looked at him as he finished

Makoto was the first to break the silence.

"Oh, ok… um do you mind if I asked what your weapon and semblance are?" her voice starting stern then turning cheerful.

Viralious sighed, noticing a slight wince from professor Basil as he did.

"Well, for my weapons I'm completely overhauling right now, it's sitting in the workshop ready to be prototyped but it just feels like it's missing… well it's missing a part of me. For my semblance your guess is as good as mine, don't have one as far as I can tell"

Murt raised an eyebrow

"Made it this far into huntsman training without one, impressive. I can't wait to see you in action tomorrow!" boasting loudly while placing a hand on his stomach.

"Indeed the semblance is a window into ones soul you simply haven't found the right canvas to display it on!" Beryl added.

"Viralious… what do you mean that your weapon is missing a part of… you?" Basil said with a tiny squeak.

Turning to her, Viralious pulls out his scroll and slides it to the middle of the table to show everyone.

"It's got the Mechashift between the SMG and the dual blades it just feels too artificial and not me enough. I chose dual blades because that's what my mother uses but it still doesn't feel like my weapon"

Makoto examined Viralious up and down before placing her hands together

"Well this isn't something that we can help you with then, as it would just be something from us and not from you Viralious. Although I leave you with some advice, think back to the reason you made the weapon you tend to find your answer there"

With that everyone except Viralious went back to eating, he followed suit shortly after but Makoto's words bounced in his head.

Ironwood was the first to finish even though he was the last to arrive, thanking everyone and reminding them all that they now had an aptitude test at 2 PM the next day thanks to the student sitting there with them.

Viralious was too busy thinking on Makoto's words to notice

The reason I made the weapon, I'm making it to get away from my uncle, to prove my worth, to avenge my mother… my mother

"So in other words you're my little Poison, something that helped me move forward Viralious. And helped me find my happiness."

Standing shifting to alert Viralious turns to professor Basil and Makoto and asks,

"Do you two mind helping me finish my weapon, I'm not the best with Dust diffusers and I would like some input on how to make them work for poisons as well"

Professor Basil's ears perked up at the ask for help with the Dust Diffusors and Professor Makoto shifted to a smug grin at the mention of poison.

Both nodded in agreement as Murt and Beryl looked on in shock and horror respectfully.

– 2 hours later

There it stood, fully prototyped and ready for use his new weapon

He gave it a few test swings allowing for him to understand the weight of the weapon

It's lighter than I expected

Though it was approaching 7 PM and the sun had begun to go down the two Faunus professors looked at him satisfied with their work in helping him find his preferred path. The two then turned and left the Workshop to prepare for the next day.

Viralious stood there, allowing the weapon to shift in his hands, from blade to gun then back again, over and over getting a feel for the weapon.

Smirking at the weapon held in his hands.

"I think it's time to test these out"

A/N

The title is a reference to Xenoblade Chronicles X and the Full Metal Jaguar class within as they wield dual SMGs and dual blades thought it was fitting.

As for the characters we saw a little bit more of Eckhart's thought process and attitude, wondering how that will play into the future. But more importantly we met some of the Professors!

These are not all of the Professors as there are two more we have yet to meet but I thought it would be interesting to have Viralious meet them before classes and we could get to know them a little bit more before hand rather then instantly put them off to the side like the actual show does, that being said Oobleck is still one of my favorites #bringbackthecokeduphistoryteacher.

As you may have noticed, two of them are Faunus in Atlas which historically has been the place where Faunus are treated the worst. There is a reason that will be addressed further in the story, that being said I do not plan to make racism a major plot point in this story BUT just like in everyday life though we wish it wasn't there it can show its ugly head. I added these two as I want to show that yes even though the Faunus are treated worse in Atlas, like Marrow in the show they still rise to the top and do well but otherwise it's for the plot.

As for the individual Professors we will see more of them as the story continues.

Up next is training with the new weapon, and the aptitude test.

-Xcom Out