Chapter 4: Twin Training Test

The Atlas Academy training rooms were huge, at least triple the size of those in Signal. Large open space with what looked like reinforced paneling to ensure even the toughest of fighters couldn't break it. Wide lighting that seemed like you could sync to your scroll to simulate various times of day and even a rudimentary weather generator if you wished to practice in the pouring rain or snow.

But most importantly was sitting in the center of the back wall, the main control panel. With this you could choose from a variety of simulated opponents which would be either filled with Atleasian robots or holographic projections. It was futuristic and leagues better than what he had used for his entire life.

Choosing to focus on improving his skills with this new weapon, Viralious chose to go through a variety of training courses. Starting with a full suite program.

This program simulated a quick combat scenario where there were 15 Grimm on a path that he was trying to reach the end of in a minute. This suite is meant to improve hand eye coordination with firearms while moving; perfect for him.

Lining up at the starting point he waited for the countdown to finish before taking off!

The first 3 targets were easy, simply lined up on his left, the next 5 were in the air so he shifted his right to aim towards them, missing a few times as a result. The last 7 were scattered at all sides in front of the end line, forcing him to move both hands independently.

Crossing the line, Viralious looks at his scroll and ignores another call from his uncle to see what his score was.

Calculating performance please wait…

"I mean I was top of my class at Signal, how bad could this be"

Results

100% target eliminations

82% time parameters

65% accuracy

Final total 81%

"It's going to be a long night"

After hours of training Viralious was eventually able to get each score on the training suites to a baseline of 85% he would normally go for 90% but he was short on time.

He would take breaks between the runs to practice with his weapon to ensure each run was an improvement at least.

Sliding across the ground while firing his twin SMGs into the poor robot's side, Viralious uses his momentum to collide with the target and knocking them into the air. Swapping his weapons from gun to sword quickly he hooks himself around and does two quick slashes to the target before kicking them down towards the floor causing them to fall with a hard thud.

After landing he takes a quick water break and checks his scroll

11:12 PM

-2 C Cloudy

72 Missed calls

One alarm set for 6:30am

Frowning he thinks

I was hoping they would have stopped calling by now

As he starts to put his scroll away to give another go at speed reloading it begins to ring

Incoming call

Zeliska Rustiva

Accept? Decline?

Viralious looks down at the scroll and contemplates declining the call, but something urges him to pick up the phone…

Eventually the call in the back of his mind forces him to press the green button.

Meekly Viralious speaks

"Hey sis I-"

Red eyes peer into Viralious' purple. Zeliska looks similar to how she did in the picture, Grayish purple hair braided and swept to one side and behind her ear trying to give a regal appearance. Purple, white and red armor to display nobility and Silver glasses over her eyes reflecting his face back at him slightly

"Viralious Thank Oum you answered I've been trying to reach you since Q-

"I know sis I know… i've"

"So, when are you arriving in Vacuo? You weren't on the airship today and classes start soon."

Softly, Viralious speaks

"I'm not coming to Vacuo, I'm applying elsewhere"

"Viralious… Look I was told what happened, you blamed our uncle for Killing our mother and attacked him causing a fire in the house."

Wincing slightly at hearing his actions back he listened as his sister continued

"But it doesn't matter your still family and one fuck up wouldn't change that… Even if it's a pretty big one"

"Zeliska, I burned down the house I don't think that can be forgiven"

"And I broke Mom's blades while we were training, you know the ones that were a gift from her father, accidents and mistakes happen Viralious part of being family is forgiving them"

Sighing, Viralious looks at his sister contemplating if she's right and he should just tell Ironwood to send him to Vacuo.

But in the end, he resolves himself to his decision to stay in Atlas.

"Zeliska I'm undergoing an aptitude test tomorrow to attend Atlas Academy"

A shocked expression appears on his sisters face as he continues

"If I pass, I'm staying here, if not I'll go to Shade like we initially planned all those years ago"

"Why? Why do you not want to come to Shade, Viralious? Being on a team together, being huntsmen together was our dream… Do you not remember our promise?

"I do sis, I do but something changed… Look, I don't expect you to understand but our mother wasn't killed by the Grimm."

"Viralious the autopsy said-"

"It was wrong… I saw her body afterwards. It was a singular gunshot through the heart… the only other people in the forest were me and my uncle, sis… He killed her"

Both paused for a moment, his words sinking in. Breaking the silence, Zeliska shouts

"He would never! He thinks of us as his own Viralious. Why would he kill our mother it's-"

"That exact reason, he always wanted us to be like him, look at your weapon, it's nearly a spitting image of his, only reversed!"

"You're wrong" Zeliska spits out with venom "Viralious I knew you were stubborn, but this takes the cake." Sighing "I'm not going to change your mind on this aren't I?" She says while moving her hair between her fingers.

Hesitating for a moment to find his resolve he sees a small glimmer of hope appear in his sister's eye,

"No, I'm sorry Zeliska. I really am but I have to do this"

The glimmer fades away quickly but is replaced with one of solemn understanding. Before she smiles,

"Honestly I don't know what I was expecting from my younger brother."

This brings a slight smirk to Viralious' mouth as he retorts,

"Hey, I'm only a minute younger than you."

"Yet that minute makes all the difference… Viralious, go and pass the test."

This catches Viralious off guard he was expecting her to still want him to fail

"I will but I'm a little surprised you want me to Zeliska, some ulterior motive from the 'Queen of the Sands'?"

Laughing Zeliska says,

"No Ulterior motive, I just want what's best for my brother"

Smiling Viralious looks at his sister

"Thanks Sis"

"Well, I also want to prove that I'm the better twin so the best way to do that is to beat you in the Vytal festival in front of everyone right?

Laughing a truly genuine laugh, something he hasn't done since his mother died Viralious responds

"Oh, there's the motive I was looking for… But you're on."

They both share a quick laugh at the comment then Zeliska looks Viralious straight in the eyes

"Well, you have an important day tomorrow so you should probably get some sleep, isn't it almost midnight in Atlas?"

"Yes, but I was hoping to train more with reloading."

"Oh, you finally took my advice and added a gun to your weapon, seriously I don't know how you made it this far when your only option was to THROW the whole thing at the target."

"Well, it was still enough to beat you"

"We have an even win rate Viralious"

"Then the Vytal festival will be even more tense"

Zeliska's gaze shifts from one of joy to one of solemn resolve

"Hey Viralious, I know we don't say this enough in Vacuo, but after losing Mom without saying I… I love you and stay safe."

He sees his sister flustered at the words with a slight smile he replies

"I love you too, Sis, and good luck"

"Same to you"

With that Viralious hangs up and glances down at his scroll

11:26PM

-1 C Cloudy

72 Missed calls

One alarm set for 6:30am

"How does one short phone call take more out of me then hours of training"

He then grabs his belongings and walks back to his room resolved to get a good night's sleep and continue training in the morning.


Character Change: Viralious - Zeliska Rustiva

Location Vacuo: Duvel District


Zeliska Looks down to the empty screen on her scroll. Her smirk drops into a frown as she slips it back into her pocket.

She leans back onto the faded couch sighing to herself

Just then her scroll starts to ring, pulling it out she notices it's from her uncle.

Viralious's words echo through her head.

Would he have really killed her? No, he couldn't but Viralious thinks so.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts answering the phone

"Hello"

"Hey kid, you have any luck reaching out to Viralious?"

Contemplating telling the truth she freezes

Do I tell him the Viralious is in Atlas? He'd go hunting for him to bring him here… but that would only cause more problems. But if I tell him no, he'll continue to worry.

Deciding to follow her mother's lead whenever she talked about their father she tells a simple half-truth.

"Yes, I actually was able to get through to him. He-"

"That's great! Is he alright? Did he mention where he's at? Did it seem like he calmed down?"

She takes a deep breath before answering,

"He's doing fine, and he seemed more calm then what you described, though he was in the middle of training it looked like."

Here uncle seems to breathe a sigh of relief at this and stares waiting for her to continue

"As for his location, he doesn't want to be found"

"Zeliska, I know he doesn't want to be found or he would have answered his scroll, you're the first person who's been able to reach him. But that being said, he can't just run off after what happened, he's not thinking straight."

"I know that, but he was adamant in his decision, and you going to get him will only make this worse"

"He can't just stay out on his own Zeliska, if he wants to be a Huntsman he's got to go to Shade."

"Does he? There are other schools in fact he's already been accepted to another one"

"WHAT!? WHERE?"

"It doesn't matter, he's going to be fine. Besides, when he comes to his sense's he'll transfer to Shade."

"Zeliska, he's making a mistake"

"It's his to make, so please cut my twin some slack. He'll be fine"

With a deep sigh her uncle responds

"You two are just as stubborn as your mother you know that, fine I'll lay off for a few days. Now how do you feel about this whole thing?"

Looking at the ceiling Zeliska closes her eyes and sighs,

"It sucks honestly, we always said that we would go to Shade together and make our mother proud but It doesn't matter what I think. Sure, I'm disappointed but It's his life not mine."

Then moving to a smirk,

"Besides this gives me an opportunity to kick his ass during the Vytal festival"

Her uncle gives her a light chuckle

"Well then, guess you should practice more, he always did have you beat on the weapon front, I'll call you back later kid"

With that he hung up. Zeliska looked down at her scroll before placing it in her pocket. Getting up from the couch she picks up her weapon and unfurls it.

The long hilt reached down her whole body making the weapon stand taller than her, the curved blade at the end extending the length of her arm.

Steeling herself, she swings it around backwards causing the blade to stick up behind her pointing toward the ceiling.

"Might as well prepare, who knows what Shade's initiation will be this year"


Character Change: Zeliska Rustiva - Viralious

Location Atlas Academy: Guest Dorms


Waking up to his second alarm of the day, Viralious slowly gets up and begins to prepare for the day. Making a mental schedule to track his day until the test.

OK, it's 7 AM so I can get some quick breakfast after a quick shower that will take eh 30 minutes, that leads me with just under 4 hours to train then get to lunch. After lunch I will run through light weapon maintenance and arrive at the test early. Yeah, that sounds about good.

Snapping back to reality, Viralious decided to put the plan into motion.

*CRACK*

The training robot's armor was cut into thirds from Viralious' overhead strike; he had been practicing a variety of tactics and techniques for the past three and a half hours ranging from swift attacks with his blades, acrobatic jumps with his SMGs and combos swapping between. However, most importantly he was adjusting his body to be accustomed to fighting with the new weapon.

Sure, he had made good strides, but he could tell his skills were not perfect, he lagged behind with his left blade in dual strikes, and led off his left for most attacks. But hardest of all was blocking ranged attacks, with his old weapon he could spin the blades creating a shield of sorts, now these blades were separate, forcing him to parry more expertly.

Landing on one knee, Viralious used his momentum to shift backwards then brought his blades parallel and dashed forward to do a quick spinning splash through his target's midsection. Connecting with a hearty crunch the poor training robot crumpled in on itself from the force of impact.

Satisfied, Viralious glanced down at the broken robot. He had lost count of how many were destroyed by that point.

If what I'm fighting in my test is anything like these then I'll pass with flying colors.

Shifting his weapons into their SMG form, he starts to walk toward the control console when his scroll goes off.

Glancing down he notices that it is in fact 12:25 signaling he should go to lunch and prepare his weapon for the test.

Sighing, Viralious sheathes his blades and walks towards the cafeteria.

The training room had transformed from last he saw of it, now instead of wide open space it looks to be sectioned off into quadrants. Separated to allow for each part of the test to not bleed into each other.

In Front of him stood the General and Professors Makoto and Beryl, the two professors seemed to be holding their weapons. Ironwood stepped forward and cleared his throat to speak.

"Today's Aptitude test will consist of three small tests." The general's tone was stern with no warmth to be found. "First you will have to avoid Shots from Atlesian Knights while attempting to make it to this yellow line." Pointing to a line about 200m away in a straight line reaching it should be simple… except there were small barricades and robots armed with rifles in the way. in this section you will be graded on speed and amount of hits your aura takes."

So, it's striking a balance between dodging accurately and moving quickly. Ok it's similar to Signal's final exam… Except with live fire ammo

"After passing this line you are expected to reach the top of this structure and eliminate targets as you descend on the other side" Ironwood stated while pointing to a large wall that looked like it had a few points sticking out to climb onto, on the back side Viralious could have sworn he saw holographic targets floating in the air. You will be graded on speed, accuracy of eliminations"

In other words, testing my efficiency.

"The final test will be a one-on-one tournament style match between you and either Miss Makoto or Mr. Beryl here. Due to the difference in skill level, the match will be capped to a three-minute duration. Success will be achieved if your Aura remains above 15% when the timer expires, or you manage to knock your opponent's aura below 30%. Now Viralious, which one of the Professors would you like to facilitate this last portion? Miss Makoto or Mr. Beryl?"

Glancing over to the two Professors, Viralious slowly begins to take in each of their weapons, Starting with Beryl he sees his weapon is a small flute-like device that looks like it has multiple types of Dust loaded into it.

Shifting his gaze, he notice's Makoto's weapons are shielded gauntlets that cover up to her elbow and armored greaves that extend from her feet to her knees.

A musician or a brawler… Beryl would make sense to target considering his weapon doesn't leave that much open to blocking compared to Makoto's shields but to use a weapon like that there must be a pretty powerful semblance… Makoto would be an up-close fighter so her semblance probably favors that type…

Racking his brain for what felt like hours, Viralious finally decides.

"General, I'll face Professor Makoto in the final portion of this test."

Makoto's smirk shifted into a wide smile then to a stern gaze before walking towards the end of the testing area. Beryl meanwhile shrugs slightly before chuckling "Good luck, kid" and walking away.

The general Stands before him, eyes piercing into Viralious' soul. Eventually he says one final message before boarding the elevator to the viewing area.

"Good luck and get yourself to the starting line"

With that, Viralious moved to the line, unsheathed his weapon and spun it slightly in his hand. Feeling its weight and the weight of the moment, he drew a deep breath and watched the countdown tick to zero.

He then burst forward, moving to prove that he meant to stay in Atlas.

The first test one simply gets to the end of the 200m stretch while avoiding or blocking the bullets flying at him from all angles. There were what seemed to be 15 Atlesian Knights firing at him with simple dust rifles. This on its own wasn't a problem, it was their positioning that was. They were spread out all throughout the track, some in front of him others off to the side, it only meant one thing. He was taking fire from all directions.

Moving his weapon in blade mode he made sweeping slashes to block the shots he wouldn't have been able to dodge with his momentum, then seeing the one robot standing right in front of him halfway through the track he made a decision.

Shifting his stance lower, Viralious used his momentum to shift into a power slide into the robot, switching his blades into their SMGs in the process.

Colliding with the robot he shifted and used his momentum to kick him and his target off the ground.

Raising into the air he shifted his legs around the poor robot he slid into and swung it around as a Shield to block the incoming fire until he reached his desired height. Once at the maximum height, Viralious began firing quick 4 round bursts from his weapon aimed at the head of each Atlesian Knight.

Out of the 32 shots he fired, 25 hit their mark, but it was enough to disable at least half of the Knights. Using the Knight, he piggybacked off of, he launched himself towards the finish line and tucked into a slight roll to preserve his momentum.

He then used said momentum to push himself the rest of the distance, clocking in at 32 seconds. Slowly catching his breath and reloading his weapons, this time reaching into the bag on his back and loading a white cylinder into each, causing the edge of his weapon to gain a small white outline. He turns to the imposing wall in front of him and smirks, breaking into a full sprint towards the wall.

Above him Ironwood and the other professors were monitoring his time

"32 seconds that would place him as 5th quickest this year… Kid's definitely got skills, especially with that trick he pulled." Murt practically shouted to the others in the small box.

"Indeed, he seems to be doing well but that was still only one act of this play, let's see the rest before we give a standing ovation." Beryl replies

Ironwood looks down at Viralious as he reaches the bottom of the wall and thinks

I may have underestimated him 200m in 32 seconds would place him at 6.25m/s a quick pace normally but when also taking and returning fire?

Turning his scowl to a smirk he trains his eye to see Viralious using his weapon as a pair of climbing axes except instead of going at this slowly like a sane person, he's digging both into the wall and basically pushing himself up with a jump, a risky but rewarding strategy.

Professor Basil then pipes in with a little squeak

"The air dust he diffused into his weapon is allowing for him to gain small amounts of extra height, he's releasing the effect the moment his blade is angled downwards granting him a small boost of 5m per jump, at this current rate we should expect him to finish this half in the next 15 second"

Murt gives her a side eye before saying

"How the hell could you figure that out from here?"

Basil simply pushes her glasses up and replies

"It's precisely what I would have done, and no one is better with dust than me, Murt."

Ironwood shakes his head slightly

Well, he's made an impression on the staff.

Viralious ejects the final portion of the air dust as he crests over the top of the wall using it to center himself, the small white glow fades away. He glances over to his targets for this final portion. 30 half-meter wide holographic targets floating at different heights and distances as he would descend the wall.

Viralious glances at his weapon thinking

Next time I see Eckhart I need to thank him for getting me to add a gun, this would be ridiculous without one

Before shaking himself back into focus and focusing on the targets.

Beginning with the targets closest to him (big surprise) he fires his weapon in small single shot bursts, he then shifts to the targets over the wall. Realizing that the best course of action would be to hit the targets as he went down, he shifts the SMG in his left hand into a blade and loads a red cylinder into it, causing a small red glow on the edges.

Once the glow appears on his weapon, he drives it into the side of the wall and flips himself to where he is hanging from it. His weight mixed with the dust diffused within caused him to begin to cut through the wall, causing him to descend. He takes this time to steady his right hand and fire on the targets as he goes down.

Sacrificing the speed of just running/jumping down for accuracy

Once he reaches the bottom. He ejects the spent cartridge from his weapon and reloads them both.

Looking over to his final obstacle he sees the squirrel Faunus with a stern look on her face, her arms crossed.

"That puts his time at one minute and 15 seconds, which is slower than I expected… If he would have diffused a mix of 53% fire dust, 42% air and 5% water dust would have reached his target 22 seconds faster" Basil says with a scholarly tone.

Everyone looks at the Mouse Faunus like she just said she was a Schnee.

Seeing everyone's gaze Basil droops her ears and timidly folds into herself

"I mean h-he's still do-doing great… It still pl-places him in the t-top- top 5 incoming students."

Murt Chuckles at this before boastfully saying

General Ironwood, where did you find this boy anyhow? He's making me think my homework cannon is going to be obsolete! Also, Basil, have confidence in yourself it suits you."

Ignoring his co-workers' questionable worries, the general responds

"Where he came from doesn't matter, he still has the final test"

Walking towards the microphone in the room, Ironwood turns to the two figures standing below him.

"The final portion of the test will begin on the buzzer. Remember if your aura falls below 15% before the timer is up the test is over. That being said, if you can keep your aura above 15% when the timer goes off or drop your opponent's aura to below 30%, we will consider this portion a success. Are there any questions before we begin?"

Neither of the two combatants on the ground made any notion that there were. With that, Ironwood began the countdown and powered on a large screen showing the aura percentages of each combatant. Sitting down he gives Viralious a small smirk then gazes over to Makoto and says out loud to the rest of the staff.

"I wonder if Cinnamon will go easy on him"

The countdown reached zero and Viralious immediately shifted his weapons to fire a hail of bullets at his opponent, from her weapon he had correctly assumed her to be a brawler, meaning if he could keep her at a distance, he could easily survive the full three minutes. Sure, it wasn't the most exciting way but playing it safe was his best bet.

Once his weapons were dry, he ejected the mags and launched them towards his opponent, swiftly he reloaded and began to refocus on his target, noticing she was still about 20m away. As he begins to pull the trigger to fire off another volley a fist connects to the side of his face sending him flying.

Flipping midair to center himself he shifts his weapons into their blade forms and digs his left into the ground, coming to a rest he looks over at his opponent and sees two Makoto's, one with a cheerful expression the other an exacerbated look.

"Ugh Makoto you could have waited until I was close enough to capitalize off of the attack, or you know sent him flying towards me." The stern one said

"Oh, come on Cinnamon, you were taking too long! I just couldn't sit on the side lines!" the cheerful one shouts back.

Shaking his head Viralious looks at the pair of squirrel Faunus and gets an idea

"Hey, what the hell is this? Makoto, you have a twin or something?"

Makoto then turns to him and says "Oh it's our semblance, me and Cinnamon here are basically like two minds sharing one body! It gets tiring after a while, but our Semblance allows for us to uhh split ourselves for lack of a better term, though we only have half of our aura capacity during it. It's really quite interesting and it allows for some awesome tea-"

Dashing forward Cinnamon delivers a kick that Viralious was barely able to block with his weapon, preventing him from finishing loading the red cylinders into his blades, causing him to throw them on the ground further away from him.

Cinnamon then jumps backwards landing next to the small cylinders before turning to her other half.

"Makoto please shut up and focus, remember he can win by stalling us out. Also, what have I told you about oversharing?

Makoto puts her tail up in a huff before "innocently" replying

"What this is nothing like last time, I didn't tell him about what we get up to in the bedroo-"

Interrupted by an explosion at Cinnamon's feet, sending the two Faunus flying back before Viralious is scared at the thought of what his professor does in their private time.

The two Faunus look at their opponent and they notice he has his weapon shifting back from its gun form… Putting two and two together Cinnamon says

"There. that's a prime example of what happens when you overshare, it distracts me causing him to blow up a fire dust cartridge"

Makoto just pouts before rushing Viralious,

Viralious raises his blades to block Makoto's incoming punch, steeling his left foot forward.

Makoto's strike connects with his left blade with a clash, Viralious then begins to push forward, swiping low at Makoto's exposed legs, getting a glancing blow as she turns clockwise and landing a strike square in his chest, knocking him off balance.

Makoto takes this opening to land a flurry of strikes ending by backhanding him towards Cinnamon who delivers a savage kick, throwing him to the other side of the arena.

Getting up slowly, he glances over to the large display showing aura levels and time remaining

Viralious 35%

Makoto 35%

Cinnamon 37%

Combined: 72%

Time remaining 1 minute and 30 Seconds.

Gritting his teeth, he knows he's out matched and his only chance is stall tactics but splitting between two targets will make them only half as effective.

Then Idea flashes into his head, quickly he fishes around in the small bag on his back containing his dust cylinders and pulls out two different looking cylinders that are labeled with red, white, and yellow, and loads them into his weapon. No glow appears on the edges.

Quickly he shifts his weapons back into SMGs and begins firing short burst alternating targets. This lasts for only a short amount of time as Makoto is already upon him and trying to grapple him.

In response, Viralious drops to the ground, catching the Faunus off guard before he unloads the rest of the clip into her stomach. Once the weapon is dry, he ejects the mags and kicks Makoto's shins to propel himself backwards.

Landing only a short distance away, he quickly reloads his weapons and shifts them into their blade forms. Makoto recentering herself once again begins to run at him but noticeably breathing heavier, however his target this time is Cinnamon.

Blocking Makoto's punch with the tip of his blade, he dashes past her and begins to block Cinnamon's kicks with his blades. Then shifting his weight onto his right foot, he jumps backwards and propels himself midair to deliver a slash that sends him over his target and reaching her back which locks his right blade around her waist. Using his momentum, he curves his arm causing Cinnamon to stumble forward, catching her stomach in Makoto's Punch.

Glancing back over to the large display, Viralious shifts his blades into dual SMGs, plants his left foot on the ground and flicks the secondary fire option on his weapon. Holding his breath, he pulls the trigger.

Viralious 30%

Makoto 31%

Cinnamon 29%

Combined: 60%

Time remaining 52 Seconds.

A cloud of yellow smoke explodes out of his weapon engulfing the three before he jumps backwards from his left foot out of it.

Ejecting the spent cylinders from his weapon his arm spasms a little but he's able to keep it under control. Then the cloud clears.

Where it was stands the two Squirrel Faunus they initially seem unharmed but alarmed before they start to rush him again.

However, before they make it even halfway they drop to the ground and don't get back up.

Ironwood looks down in horror at the scene unfolding below him, checking his scroll he looks at the current standings

Viralious 29%

Makoto 30%

Cinnamon 28%

Combined: 58%

Time remaining 45 Seconds.

That attack was so light on damage, yet it was able to paralyze both of his opponents.

Glancing over to the other professors, Murt and Beryl share similar faces of surprise

Basil on the other hand looks oddly proud.

Sensing she knows what's going on Ironwood asks

"Professor Basil, what was that attack?"

Her ears standing alert, she responds

"The correct application of his first lesson… Diffusing dust to vapourize paralytic poison"

6:37pm yesterday Weapon's workshop

Professor Makoto had just stepped out to use the restroom and allow for Basil to help him put the finishing touches on the diffusion system.

The mouse Faunus then looked down at the incomplete weapon and spoke

"The poison diffusion method you're using right now doesn't do that great of a job against something with an Aura you know"

Viralious looking at the Professor with confusion, slowly asks

"Isn't that why we're coating the edge to try and catch past the aura to make it easier to enter the bloodstream?"

Basil nods

"Yes, but it's still inefficient. You are maybe getting 5% of the poison into the target's system per cartridge and that's not enough to give more than light annoyance."

Viralious ponders this for a second then nods.

"Ok then what are your ideas to improve it?"

Basil smiles at this comment

"Simple you bypass their Aura entirely"

"How would I accomplish that?"

"By vaporizing it, of course, all things need air. Sure, they'll heal the poison a bit quicker if they have aura, but once they have it in their lungs, it will spread through the body quickly."

Shivering slightly, Viralious finds a newfound fear of the mouse professor, which is then replaced with respect and curiosity.

"How do I vaporize the poison with my weapon then?"

Turning to the table Basil grabs an empty cartridge and the air and fire dust vials filling the cartridge with a small amount of each.

"Simple, fill the container with 7% air dust and 4% fire dust, then add your poison. If you want to improve the effects of a paralytic one add 1% of electric dust or for lethal doses 1% plant or gravity"

Smiling Viralious begins to follow the instructions

Present day Atlas Training room:

Viralious stares down his professors lying on the ground, their bodies slightly twitching on the ground.

Slowly he breathes and ejects the cartridges from his weapons, swapping his weapon back to its blade mode and loading a yellow cartridge, he begins to walk toward Makoto.

As he approaches, a sharp pain emanates from his body causing him to drop down to one knee. Digging his right blade into the ground to remain upright, he begins to spasm like he is caught in an electric net.

Gritting his teeth, he pushes up slowly. Wincing with pain he drags himself over to Makoto who is starting to move her arms to try and push herself up.

Standing over her, Viralious places his blade on her back and activates the dust flowing through his weapon. Sending waves of electricity through Makoto's body.

Not long after Makoto's body fades away, crumbling into paper like light that flies towards Cinnamon who has just stood up… Eyes wide and burning with anger.

Viralious 29%

Makoto ERROR

Cinnamon 58%

Combined: ERROR

Time remaining 17 Seconds

Rushing forward, Cinnamon moves to catch Viralious with a Kick to his left side.

Viralious jumps backwards to dodge the Faunus' kick, and as he lands he digs his heel into the ground and brings his blades to block an incoming high kick.

Cinnamon then shifts her leg lightly, hooking it to Viralious' weapon and forcefully shoves it to the side. She then spirals and is about to hit Viralious square in the chest with a powerful strike when.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

The timer reaches zero, Cinnamon stops mere millimeters away from Viralious' chest. Shifting herself to a non fighting pose she extends her hand out to Viralious

"Devious trick you pulled there with the poison, sure we knew you were planning to incorporate that somehow into your weapon… We just didn't think you would have any for this test." Sending a glance towards a mouse Faunus riding down the elevator with Ironwood and the rest of the professors " that being said-"

Suddenly Cinnamon's stern but respectful face shifts to a somewhat pouty and childish one,

"Ouch, that last attack was uncalled for, you know! Don't you know what electricity does to my tail!" said appendage sticking upright and having a frizzy appearance

Suddenly a paperlike light effect shimmers off of the professor's body and begins to converge on a point to her left. Leaving a carbon copy of the squirrel Faunus standing, their arms crossed.

"Makoto, I was talking to him" Cinnamon says with a slight twinge of anger in her voice.

Her other half winces at the sharp tone and moves behind Viralious as if to use him as a shield

Clearing her throat Cinnamon looks to Viralious

" Now where was I… Your plan to make the two of us lose our breaths causing us to breathe in the cloud quicker was well executed, you have our vote in you enrolling here."

Viralious perks up at the complement before turning to the now arriving Ironwood.

Ironwood stares at Viralious with a cold expression and speaks

"You were able to complete the full aptitude test. For the first two portions of the test you performed well, placing you on a level comparable to new students, so your skills do match what you said before."

Viralious smirked slightly, feeling nice to be vindicated

"As for the final trial, you were able to keep your aura above 15% until the timer expired, even when faced with Professor Makoto and Cinnamon's… Unique semblance"

Cinnamon gave a light chuckle at the General's words while Makoto stuck her tongue out at the man. Ironwood ignored it and continued.

"That being said, your use of poisons was reckless and could seriously harm yourself and another student. So you will only be allowed to use pre approved combinations and especially if you are going to be mixing dust into it"

Viralious looks at the general with a slight wince, not picking up the subtext in the previous message.

"Who will approve my poisons then?"

Professor Basil steps forward before Ironwood can speak

"I will, that being said, nothing lethal, only paralytic."

Ironwood looks at the Mouse faunus before glancing back to Viralious

"Yes Professor Basil will be in charge of your poisons and making sure they are… Safe for use"

Stepping forward Ironwood extends his hand to Viralious

"Congratulations Viralious. You've officially been accepted to Atlas Academy"

Slowly processing the General's words, Viralious looks down at his weapons still in their blade form in his hands. Breathing in, he sheathes his weapon and shakes the General's hand.

"Thank you General, I'll be sure to make Atlas proud.

A/N + Extra Short story

Ok this Chapter was MUCH MUCH longer then I initially planned (about 6.5K words and takes up 22 of my current 56 page outline\script), it kind of just kept going as I wrote it and I needed to get through all of this before we start the initiation. As you may have noticed there are still two whole members of the team that haven't appeared in the story that will be rectified soon. Now then let's go over what happened in this chapter.

One thing you also probably noticed is I tried to cut down on a lot of the Character A said then Character B retorts in the text as it can get a little too repetitive. I hope I was able to convey who was speaking each time well enough.

Starting with Viralious' training I wanted to show a little bit of Viralious' style, his moves are based on some FMJ Arts from Xenoblade Chronicles X (Specifically Sliding Stinger and Sky High in SMG mode. Backslash and Shadow Strike as blades)and the dual blades from Monster Hunter. The hope was to try and show he's agile and quick-witted but he has to pull back to supplement his attacks with dust or poison or even reload 64 shots on a burst fire weapon, which is not a lot.

The call with Zeliska originally wasn't going to make it into the chapter, he was going to block the number but then I decided that It would build a little bit more of Viralious' character as someone who cares about family but is set in his choice to go against his uncle. Now full disclosure I am not the best when it comes to writing the opposite sex so I have a great feeling that there are many examples of men writing women in this chapter and story to come. I also thought that it would build a bit of a nice sibling rivalry for later in the story. disclosing this now Rustiva is not Viralious' last name, they have different last names (though being twins) and will be expanded on the reason in later chapters.

For the Zeliska portion in Vacuo I needed to find a way to get his uncle to stop looking for Viralious but not think he's dead (plot reasoning). Originally I was going to have Ironwood tell him but then he would know Viralious' location as Atlas. So Zeliska gets to be best sister in the story so far and gives a tease to what Viralious' weapon was originally giving hints to their background (TBH I fully expect people to know the plot twist after the first chapter or two so I'm not going to drag it out that much longer, it's pretty obvious IMO)

The Secondary point of training is just meant to show Viralious is confident in passing the exam but wants to be ready.

Onto the Aptitude tests, the first two are just to show off Viralious' new weapons in action as well as find it nearly impossible to describe how arts from Xenoblade X translate to text form T_T. The short course and the wall were honestly just two ideas that popped into my head while writing the chapter so not much to say about them so let's talk about his weapon's dust application.

Viralious' weapon doesn't fully coat the blade in dust it diffuses it into the edges of the blades (The sharp ends) and into the front of the barrel, this gives his weapon small characteristics of the given element, so with fire it will heat the blade to a higher temp, Ice the opposite with freezing the vapor around the slashes. Electric and air basically just emit from the weapon. Gravity you will have to wait and see, Plant I have no idea but it hasn't shown up in the show yet so I think I have a pass on that one.

As for the cut ins to the professors it was meant to give a little bit more characterization to them, but the spotlight ended up being taken by Basil who is slowly becoming one of my favorites to write. She will play a large part in the story so it's important to set it up now.

Now onto the main event, The fight between Viralious and Makoto+Cinnamon, betcha didn't see that semblance coming! It's called Dissociative Divarication, basically it works by splitting the squirrel Faunus into two beings, each getting 50% of their aura. (Their total aura count was being counted by the combined counter on the screen so if that reached less than 30%, Viralious would have won before time ran out). It's a fun semblance to describe and work into the story. I look forward to showing how it's used to teach classes. As for the squirrel Faunus' fighting style it's loosely based off of the Malachite sisters from the show proper, one focusing on kicks the other punches but that's about where their similarities end! Their playful banter was fun to write and will be the subject of the short story at the end of this author's note (Based off of one comment Makoto made during the fight).

Next is Viralious' win condition, the poison. Viralious' root comes from Viral (infection specifically) which means of the nature of, caused by, or relating to a virus or viruses, I shifted this to apply to something a little bit more controllable than viruses so poison I thought was a good choice. The Idea of creating a cloud of the poison actually came to me While I was hunting a Rathalos in Monster Hunter Rise and saw a Paratoad go off, it gave me a great way to work poison into the weapon and a way to get around pesky aura considering the poison has to get inside the body to work.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Even though it was quite a long one, I don't expect the next couple to be this long. So your reward for reading this author's note and long chapter… A bonus story about what Makoto and Cinnamon do in their private time(Yes this is canon to my story at least)… Enjoy


Makoto stepped into her Bedroom attached to her office, promptly running the events of the day back in her mind. First, she was informed that the new student counselor wasn't going to be showing up so they were now looking for a new one right before the semester started. Then she fought Viralious and he had vaporized paralytic poison in the middle of their fight… THEN had the nerve to helectrocute her. lastly Beryl offered to take Viralious down to Mantle to do some shopping, which to be honest was something he desperately needed, his fashion choice was a little rough.

Sighing, Makoto makes her way towards the small kitchenette hoping to find some form of snack to tide her over until the cafeteria opens at 6. Suddenly paper like light emanates from her body forming her other half Cinnamon right in front of her.

Raising an eyebrow Makoto asks

"Hey Cini what's up?"

Cinnamon had a look in her eyes that Makoto knows all too well before she says

"Makoto, get on the bed now" in a commanding tone.

Blinking once Makoto smirks playfully

"I love it when you are assertive"

A few Minutes Later

"Oh that feels SOOOOOOOOOOO good" Makoto says sprawling out on the bed.

Cinnamon rolled her eyes as she shifted the comb into her other hand and began combing the other side of Makoto's tail. A warm smile appearing on her face.

Makoto looked at her other half with a content grin, if there was one thing that you wouldn't expect from the stern and cold Cinnamon, it would be that her two favorite things in all of Remnant were fancy dresses and brushing their tails.

"That electricity did a number on our poor tail… I wish we had a bit more time before the buzzer went off so I could have repaid the favor" Cinnamon said softly

Makoto sat up and looked into Cinnamon's eyes

"Hey it's fine at least it's just a little bit of frizzy fur. It could have been fire, or worse, plant"

Thoughts of picking small thorns out of their tails caused them to shudder.

Then Cinnamon shifted, laying down onto the bed and handed the comb over to Makoto.

"There yours is done, now it's your turn to brush mine"

Makoto looked at her other half and chuckled slightly

"I will never not enjoy this" before starting to run the comb through Cinnamon's fur.


This was the plan for that line since the beginning, I'll have you know. These short stories won't happen all the time but sometimes if there is a joke or fluff that I can't fit in that isn't vital to the story I'll make one and throw it in as one of these. With that out of the way I'll see you in the next chapter where we meet a simple heiress.

Xcom out.