Chapter Eleven: Inauguration and Insurgence.
It was only a few hours later that everyone had been gathered into the amphitheatre again. Neo had seen this one room used for so many things that she was beginning to wonder just how many school activities were held here. Announcements, award ceremonies, sparring, semblance testing, weapon augmentation and testing… Honestly, why didn't they just copy and paste this room all over the campus, instead of making dorm rooms and study halls?
Where was she? Oh, right. The ceremony. It seemed that Ozpin didn't intend to waste any time after that initiation, since he was doing the team announcements the same day, only a couple of hours after the results were conclusive. Naturally, Neo was bored. The man wasn't drawn out in his speeches – in fact, he was incredibly brief – but Neo was still finding herself uninterested in the subject matter. These may have been her fellow students finding their feet and learning who they'd be with and what they'd be known as from now until…well…death, probably. But it didn't directly impact Neo, and any important information could easily be learned afterwards. Perhaps that was selfish of her but, honestly, she had much bigger fish to fry. It'd been an entire day, now, and she still had no clue what was even going on about…well…anything.
Forbidden knowledge of things which haven't yet come to pass, an inconsistent lapse in memory, the odd desire to stay true to the laws of civilisation… What if she had a family out there? Were they looking for her? What would she do if –
Oh, wait a minute, looks like it was her time to step onto the stage, alongside… oh, those three. She should have expected that. It was Thea, Weird-Creepy-Smug Guy and… Armour…Person. Apparently, they had retrieved a similar artifact to Thea and herself. Honestly, she didn't mind sharing a room with Thea, but she was unnerved about the other two.
Smug Guy really pushed all of her buttons in the wrong way as soon as she'd met him. 'Smug' was her thing, and he was just butchering it. You can't be smug all the time! That derails the point of being smug! Plus, he was a snobby know-it-all who was all about 'efficiency.' Had Neo been less inclined to behave, she'd have efficiently shoved a pineapple up his rear end and a cactus down his throat, then shaken him around until the spines intermingled with the pineapple and became the world's most painful thing to have surgically removed. Alas, she had neither a cactus, nor pineapple to hand.
Armour Person was seemingly tolerable, but it really did grind her curiosity gears to not know what they looked like, why they insisted on wearing their helmet all the time and what gender they even were. Sure, she'd probably find out in time, but showing restraint until then would be aggravating and tiring.
She sighed as the group of absolute misfits stepped atop the stage, towards Ozpin. A large screen depicted the four of them overhead for the crowd to see. Neo, herself, took a moment to look up at it, but instantly cringed internally. They looked almost like mugshots to her. At least hers had a nice rosy background colour, though she wasn't sure when the picture had been taken. Thea's was like a dark blue, almost like the setting sky just before the stars came out to play. Mister Efficiency's colour was black but seemed oddly personalised since it blended into a purple hue near the top of the image. Maybe he paid extra for that. Armour person's portrait was one which Neo had hoped to display their actual face. Alas, even in the picture, they still wore the helmet. Their background was like a faded golden colour. If gold could rust, that was what it would look like. Naturally, the four of them together looked like she'd flipped to a random page in the book about the 'Girl Who Fell Through the World.' They just did not look like normal people. Including herself, to an extent.
She had only just snapped herself out of her thought-induced haze to pay attention to what Ozpin was saying. Sure, she may not have cared what the other teams were called, but this was her team. Misfits and weirdos or not, she would be stuck with them for quite a long time. She could always decide to go solo after the four years were up, anyway.
"Neopolitan, Thea Paradox, Rylee Zoram, and Oberon Clattanoia. You retrieved the Twin Orbs of the Moon. From this day forward, you will work together as… Team Nitro. Led by… Neopolitan."
Neo blinked in confusion as the crowd began to clap for the newly founded quartet. Hang on a minute… why was she the leader? That seemed to be the wrong call. Like, she was a really good second-in-command sort. You know, the right-hand woman. Being the leader did not sit well with her. Not to mention… Leaders have to be good at communicating. And she was mute. Heck, she couldn't even express concepts outside of basic expressions towards one member of the group. It's not like she could just… whoosh up some kind of advanced sign-language class and get them learning it, either. Talking through text would be impossible on the battlefield, too.
Why couldn't Thea, or Armour Person be the leader? Heck, she'd even accept that weird handsy dude being the leader. Like, literally anyone else.
She turned her complicated face towards her newfound teammates, only to see a mix of expressions. Thea was smiling gently but trying not to show it in order to maintain her pseudo-edgy vibe. Rylee (or Armour Person, as Neo had taken to calling them,) was…well…just clapping their hands along with the crowd whilst facing Neo. Hard to tell if they were being genuine or sarcastic. Any expression could be hidden under that metallic visage. Oberon's face had, for the first time that Neo had seen, stopped being smug and, instead, seemed to be seething. Maybe he thought he would be the leader of Team… Wait, Team Nitro? That's not the name which Neo had been expecting.
She thought it'd be something like… Team Notorious, or… Team Turnaround… Or, Neo's favourite, Team Tyrannosaurus. Well… at least it was better than Team Rotten.
"This is going to be a very interesting year…" Ozpin murmured to himself as he observed the four very different reactions to Neo's promotion.
"You said that three days ago." Glynda sighed, still juggling all the leftover paperwork which Ozpin had left her with.
"And I meant it then. But I particularly mean it, now."
The rest of the school day had flown past remarkably quickly for Neo. Her head was racing with ways to try and be an at least acceptable, or competent, leader. She'd tried coming up with effective ways to communicate, from Text to Speech, to coded gestures. Each of them came with their own impossible circumstances. TTS would be awful during battle since it would take time to write out. It could work out of combat, but it would feel hollow and degrading. In fact, just writing out messages for people to read for themselves was defacing enough on its own. She had only done it out of necessity before now. As for coded gestures, she may as well have just taught them sign language.
Now, she was standing in her new dorm room. It was about time; sleeping on the floor of the amphitheatre had been rough and she imagined it was even more troubling for the other three, who had been doing it since Beacon opened its doors this year. However, the room left a lot to be desired. It was… small and cramped. Just four beds, some bookshelves, a small closet, and a bathroom. There was barely enough space to fit the four beds into the room, honestly. Still… at least each person had their own bed to sleep in, right?
She had immediately flomped onto the leftmost bed and claimed it as her own, without waiting for anyone else's input. She lay face-down in the pillows in an attempt to blot out the world and all of its troubles for just a few moments. She failed. Something was poking her. She tried to ignore it. She failed once again.
Slowly, begrudgingly, and forcibly, she turned her head to face Rylee, who had been gently – yet firmly – tapping her shoulder almost as soon as she had laid down. Neo didn't really want to have a social interaction right now, but she felt that it would not be right as a Leader (even though she did not believe herself to be leader material, whatsoever,) to ignore one of her team members. And so, she rolled onto her side in order to give the armoured character some attention.
"Um… Sorry if this is a bad time, but," (It definitely was.) "I wanted to introduce myself. You know, formally." The armoured character took a step back and placed one hand over where their heart would be, and the other hand went horizontally across their back, making a stereotypical 'stand to attention' pose. "My name is Rylee Zoram. This is Sunderstorm, my weapon." They stated, gesturing to the halberd which had been unceremoniously propped up against the wall.
Neo sat up a little, since it was clear that this wasn't going to be a quick and easy conversation to have. When she did so, she noticed a series of hands floating around the room and measuring absolutely everything. The height, width, and length of the beds, how high the ceiling was, how wide and long the room was, the dimensions of the bookshelves, closet and even the large window in the middle of the room. Despite wanting to bring that up, she elected to ignore it for now. She only had problems with measurements when someone called her 'short' or began assessing her unmentionables.
As such, she simply reached forward and tapped Rylee's helmet with a questioning look, as if finally addressing the elephant in the room. Rylee tilted their head in confusion, before understanding what Neo was attempting to say. 'Why the helmet?'
"Sorry… I'm… not ready to take it off, yet. I understand that you are probably curious but… I don't… well… I've only just met you, honestly…" They replied, moving the hand which once loomed over their heart to the back of their head in a stereotypically bashful expression. From that reaction, one could have thought Neo was asking them to wear a bikini or something. She just sighed, calmly, and tried to engage in sign language as a test.
'Do you know sign language?' She signed. Judging from the lack of a response (other than confusion) from Rylee, it was assumed that they did not. However, she was stunned to see that someone else did react to her question. One of the floating hands had stopped measuring the length of Neo's bed and floated over, before signing: 'Yes.'
She instinctively glanced over to the corner of the room, where Oberon had been leaning up against the wall like some kind of edgy wannabe teenage gangster which one would see in a bad 'college movie.' He was looking back at her with an amused expression. Of course, the one person in the world which knows sign language would be this asshole.
'Would you kindly translate for me?' She asked, gesturing for him to come over. He sighed, rolled his eyes, and then walked on over, before sitting down on the opposite bed to her. Rylee just glanced between the two of them, untrustingly. Like they were throwing gang signs and signalling some kind of attack on them or whatever.
'My name is Neopolitan. It's nice to meet you.' She signed, with Oberon speaking the words she signed with a particularly bored and dissatisfied tone which really drained the mood.
"Oh, I see. You're using sign language! You're…umm… vocally impaired?" Rylee asked.
Neo just sighed and rolled her eyes. She honestly preferred the term 'mute,' instead of this dumb political correctness talk. She then just nodded to Rylee, confirming that she was, in fact, not a talker.
"Anyway, I… really like your eyes and hair. Are they natural?"
Neo paused. Natural? Well…technically they were…but, only her eyes were like that at birth. Her hair had changed colour as a result of her semblance, but she did have control over her appearance. Whilst she could have simply explained through sign language, she felt it was more fitting to simply give Rylee a more… literal explanation. And so, she did one of her favourite party tricks. With a blink, her eye colours swapped places. And then, back again after a second blink.
Rylee was stunned. How in the world did she do that? They obviously weren't contact lenses, and she must have done that on purpose, implying that they have control over such small and trivial details as their eye colour! Did that mean her eyes could be any colour? Or did they just have to be some combination of pink and brown? Was this the power of her semblance? Or was she just some kind of magician?
Looks like her party trick had also made Mister-Six-Hands blink in confusion, as if he hadn't been expecting that, either. And then Thea poked her head around the corner, wondering what all the fuss was about. Neo just sighed and buried her head in her palm, whilst they all began to ask questions, make witty remarks, or just ask what was going on. Neo could not be bothered to even try and address everyone everywhere all at once, so she just resigned herself to laying down on the bed and pulling her hat over her eyes. Sure, she hadn't expected having a team would be easy… but could she not just have a moment of peace? Was this how it was always going to be? Or were they just rowdy because they were excited to get to know their newfound team members?
It didn't take too long for people to begin to dissolve into their own conversations and activities. Oberon and Thea sat down in the corner playing a board game or something, whilst those hands continued to float around and measure everything. He was taking notes with one hand on a large holographic screen and browsing the internet with the other, stopping only to take his turn in the game of… checkers, it seemed, and he was still winning. Rylee had gone into the bathroom to take a shower.
Whilst it should be frowned upon for Neo to think this, she was very much considering using her semblance to try and sneak a peek… Not because she was a peeking tom or anything but, rather, because she just wanted to know what they looked like under their helmet. However, she quickly shut down this train of thought on her own before the Gods could smite her for even considering the possibility.
It was about thirty minutes later that they emerged from the shower. Neo covertly tilted her hat up to get an idea of what they looked like but, alas, they weren't dressed in towels like Neo had imagined but, rather, a particularly covering set of pyjamas… and the helmet over the top. Gah! Even now, they were wearing the helmet?! And a pair of particularly well-made combat boots, too. Then again, they were always wearing those. At least the pyjamas looked nice. Can't go wrong with Pumpkin Pete, even if it didn't really give any insight as to their gender. Still looked quite androgenous, due to the fact that their shirt was several sizes too large, and their bottoms were extra baggy. The shirt was long-sleeved, too, shunning any chance of looking at their toned and deceptively muscular arms.
"Is Neo awake?" Rylee asked. "I didn't get to ask her what her plans were as leader.'
"I think she's asleep. Hasn't moved in the last half an hour, and it has been a rough day." Thea responded, before ultimately losing the fifth game of checkers in a row. Neo simply remained motionless, as if she actually was sound asleep, wanting to see where the conversation went.
"Why do you think Ozpin made her the leader, anyway?" Oberon frowned, with dissatisfaction growing in his tone. "She doesn't even talk; how could she possibly lead us to victory?"
"Woah, hey, you shouldn't talk about her like that." Rylee quickly responded.
"No, he does make a valid point. A leader should be a good communicator and… well… through no fault of her own, Neo is quite handicapped in that department." Thea admitted.
"I always just thought that Ozpin picks out a word and whoever's initial it starts with is the leader. It might not have anything to do with her in particular. Like that Jaune kid. I thought for sure that Pyrrha would have been the leader of Team JNPR." Rylee continued.
"You mean 'Vomit Boy?' He's got charisma… if nothing else. Bad combat skills, outdated weapon which is basically a relic with more of a place in a museum than on a battlefield, and no semblance to speak of… By all means, he is only a liability on the field. But that's beside the point." Oberon sighed, before getting onto the true matter at hand. "I think I should be the leader, instead. I'm smarter, stronger, and come with the added bonus of being able to communicate more efficiently."
Of course, Neo had been listening to everything they said and, honestly, she agreed with them, but their words still hurt. She never even wanted to be the leader to begin with and her disability was particularly debilitating for being the leader of a group of combat-ready huntsmen and huntresses. Whilst she didn't want to be taking orders from Oberon, of all people, it was the most logical choice.
"What?! No way, you can't just say that!" Rylee exclaimed in utter disbelief. "Give her a chance to actually be a leader before you make that assertion!"
"Why waste time? It's better to sort things out earlier rather than later. The sooner we get organised, the more successful we will be as a group. It's basic common sense." Oberon sneered. "What do you think, Thea?"
"Whilst I agree that you would probably make a better leader… I don't think it would be fair to jump to conclusions. In fact, I don't think we should even be having this conversation behind Neo's back like this. We're supposed to be a team. I know we only just got together, but…" Thea then stopped and turned around, shortly before Neo suddenly appeared behind the three of them. She'd seen her coming, even though Neo had used her semblance to blend in before her presence was revealed.
Her eyes had swollen with tears, and she wasn't wearing her usual smug look. Neo wasn't exactly sad, but she was hurt that her team would disregard her as leader just as quickly as she had done, herself. She had hoped that they would have stuck up for her a little more, or at least given her a chance.
'I didn't ask for this, you know?' Those were the words she signed to Oberon. 'I didn't ask to be leader. But I want to try.' Neo forced as gentle of a smile as possible, but it was ineffectual. Oberon smirked and announced to the other two.
"She says she didn't ask to be the leader but will duel me to decide who will be the leader. That makes sense to me. The strongest and smartest should be the leader, after all…" He chuckled. Victory was in his grasp. First, he'd crush her spirit in battle and prove his dominance to the others. And then… they'd be the best team in history.
Writer's Note:
Thanks again for reading my content. I really appreciate each and every one of my readers, and your opinions on my writing. I just wanted to clarify a few details of the story, so that things aren't lost in translation.
Firstly, though my story will be featuring original characters, they will not be the main focal point of the story. However, they will still have a part in the story. Each member of NTRO (Nitro) has their own miniature character arc and progression, as well as weapon names, semblances and personalities, but they will be side content to the main plot of the story which is centred around Neo and how her actions cause ripples in the new dimension which she has found herself in. These next few chapters will likely focus on Neo's team, but once they've had their time in the spotlight, they'll take a backseat. Still very much around, but not as prevalent in the narrative.
Secondly, I wanted to thank everyone who's written a review to my content. I love to hear both what you guys enjoyed, and constructive criticism, so don't be afraid to speak your mind, so long as it's not tooooooooo harsh. I may not reply to every review I get - since that'd probably be annoying for all parties involved - but if you have a specific question, or an interesting thought on the matter, or an idea for the future of the plot, I might reply to you. Don't feel that you have to respond, if that would make you uncomfortable. Heck, you could even just delete it without looking at it, if it's too weird. Basically, I really like to hear what my readers think, since I want to make this little project of mine enjoyable to as many people as possible, and having a nice chat with my readers makes me smile.
Lastly, I'm trying to upload every few days or so. At least once a week is my minimum. This is to help myself stay productive, and to help you guys not lose too much interest whilst you wait. I don't have an actual schedule, since my writing is rather mood dependent. Sometimes, I feel like writing. Sometimes, I would rather just get destroyed in Darkest Dungeon. So, be patient with me and know that I will be aiming to upload at least once a week. Stay tuned for the next chapter, where Oberon clashes with Neo for the chance to steal the unwanted title of leader away from her.
