Author's Notes
Warning you in advance – there will be geese, but it's not THE goose. I don't want to get your hopes up too early and disappoint you. That goose will be coming soon, but her time is not yet.
Happy rats, and don't do crime!
Chapter 35 – peaK form
Visible to Adam were a two corvids, V of geese, a squirrel, and a scrub jay. Adam inhaled deeply and readied himself.
Wait until the geese are further away. The squirrel first. It'll run away the fastest. Follow up with the jay since it's close by, let the scatter down the geese, and round it off with both black birds in one hit.
His right hand rested on Blush. Then in a flash of four instantaneous shotgun rounds being fired within the span of two seconds, his targets were all reduced to puffs of fur and feathers.
…all save for one of the pesky blackbirds. A rather noisy crow, this one had flapped into the air as soon as Adam fired upon the jay, evading the shot. Adam lined up Blush to finish off the last of his quarry, but the crow dove down and started making short and erratic movements in the sky. Adam tried to get a lock on it, but the bird was in a frenzy, flapping about wildly and never staying still. In the end, Adam decided not to waste the ammo; he would never have made the shot.
The whole point of this exercise was making sure his aim was still on point after the Mountain Glenn incident. His injuries had fully healed, but he was out of practice after not being able to train for the second week. At least with Time's Up Tock dead, there wasn't going to be a third. He could have gone to a gun range and practiced on targets lined up in a row, but his opponents in the Vytal Festival Tournament weren't going to be stationary bullseyes waiting for him to mow them down. Moving creatures of varying size and distance were the perfect prey for Adam.
He'd missed the damn crow, but three out of four with a shotgun was still decent. Adam collected the downed animals and checked the time. Ruby had said he had one hour before their leader-mandated team bonding time, whatever that meant, and it had been forty minutes so far. Factoring in the bullhead ride out of Forever Falls, that meant that he needed to depart…five minutes ago.
Shit.
Adam rushed out of the forest, the birds and squirrel flopping about wildly against his legs as he returned to the pickup spot. Dropping them would allow him to get back faster, but doing so would also be wasteful. He'd only chosen such prey because he knew that he could consume them after the fact. Adam didn't particularly care for the sanctity of life, but discarding food was one of the few sins he refused to commit.
Still, this practice was well worth the risk of coming back late and earning Ruby's ire. The tournament was now mission priority number one, according to James' revised orders. When they'd told the general about the power that the maidens possessed, and when Ilia explained just how valuable it was considered to the differing factions currently warring over it, he'd told them to acquire the maiden powers for Atlas at any cost. Blake was their preferred candidate, given Ozpin's preference towards her, but Ilia would do as well.
Thus, they needed to be in peak fighting form to win the tournament. Penny was also fighting, but her allegiance to Atlas was more obvious given her transfer status, so it was unlikely the headmaster of a Valean academy would willingly surrender his coveted magicks to a foreign national. In the end, it all came down to K.
The aura transfer device had been bumped down in relevance. It was still essential to recover, but not as pressing anymore now that they knew why Ozpin needed it. There were no superhunters coming out of it or plans to use it as enhanced torture; the old man simply needed a way to move maiden from host to host. It wasn't a long term solution to leave it in his hands, but Atlas could essentially regard his possession of it as a non-threat until a more secure means of retrieving it presented itself.
Team Sword would crumble easily if they faced them in the tournament, and if they came up against Penny, she would throw the match (discreetly, of course). Pyrrha Nikos might have been a problem, but she wasn't really behaving like much of a problem since Jaune left. She hadn't really been behaving like much of anything. Yang was doing her best to keep up a chipper attitude, but Team Yellowjacket-P was broken, and Adam wasn't sure if anything could repair it. At least one good thing could come out of Jaune departure – with Nikos neutralized, the biggest roadblock in K's way had already been cleared. He'd have preferred neither to have occurred, but he couldn't change them either.
That left Team Coffee of Beacon, Sun Wukong's team, and several extras from Vacuo and Mistral. If an Atlesian team was up against K, James could easily order them to either lose or forfeit. Such were the benefits of a streamlined nation whose military managed its education. Truly, all the kingdoms should be managed in such an efficient way.
And Cinder. I can't take my eyes off of her for even a second.
James' initial reports on Cinder and Team Cinnamon had seemed like nothing. An otherwise normal team, they had no criminal records, no black marks, no dark mysterious pasts to speak of whatsoever. Then, he'd shown their pictures to Ilia, who instantly identified the final member, Mint, as the Neo girl from Beacon. Adam had compared the image to the remains of Neo's face that they'd brought back to Beacon for an autopsy and hadn't seen any resemblance. Still, Ilia had insisted on recognizing a 'hungry look in her eyes, like she craved making a homicide flavored pudding using your bones for gelatin and your intestines for flavoring.' Blake had trailed their team one night just to put Ilia at ease, only to discover that three of the four Cinnamons' beds were filled.
A missing teammate, right after Neo died? The timing was too close to not be related.
Neo ties Cinder to Tock and Hazel, which means she's after the maiden powers as well. And she wouldn't have come to Beacon without a plan. I bet that the prom night distraction was the beginning of it. If we get the chance to kill her before the tournament, we need to take it.
K had one advantage – they were looking at Cinder, but Cinder wasn't looking at them. Tock had known who K was, but she must not have told Cinder, or the fiery huntress wouldn't have used Adam as an alibi the night of the dance. Doing so had been essentially feeding him intelligence about her movements, which meant that she hadn't been suspicious of him at that time. Unless Tock had contacted Cinder in the 48 hours before her death, Cinder was in the dark. And I doubt the arrogant crocodile did. She had fully believed that she was going to slaughter all three of us and Ruby in Mountain Glenn.
Now that he had a single goal in mind and a streamlined way to go about achieving it, this mission seemed so much easier. No more mysterious crocodile women looking to eat him or hidden underground pipelines of saltwater or banana robots tapping their noses slily. Coming out on top in a series of contiguous fights was something Adam could do.
Beat the opponents, win the tournament, get chosen as the maiden, skedaddle, and ideally destroy the machine on our way out.
Oh, and somehow convince Ruby to join K.
Blake wasn't going to question why Adam had come back to the dorm an hour late and with a roast goose dinner for each member of the Team, as well as an extra squirrel for Ruby. She also wasn't going to question why Ruby had offered to split the squirrel with her. And the last thing she wasn't going to question was how Ruby had proceeded to eat the whole squirrel when Blake had declined and somehow still had room for her goose.
"I couldn't eat another bite," Ruby said after the meal, belching loudly and patting her stomach.
"Oh," Adam said dejectedly. "What'll I do with the rook-meat Danishes, then?"
"Dessert? Weeeeeeeeeeeell, maybe one more bite…"
"I swear, Blake, your girlfriend has to be a closet Faunus," said Ilia. "A pot-bellied pig Faunus."
Ruby chewed down a fowl Danish and swallowed before speaking. "It's funny you say that, because I always thought that if I were a Faunus, I'd be a–"
"DON'T FINISH THAT FUCKING SENTENCE!" screamed Ilia, so loudly that Blake flinched.
Then, Ilia threw down a ten lien chip onto the table.
"Betting pool – we each guess Ruby's spirit Faunus. Ten lien each, and the closest guesser wins the entire pot."
"How do we define closest?" asked Adam, grabbing out some money. "Like, is a fox closer to a dog or a cat?"
"Are you guessing fox Faunus?"
"No, that's just an example."
Blake answered, looking at her scroll. "Foxes and dogs are both Family Canidae. Let's just do the closest taxonomic rank. Ties split the money."
"How about I be the tiebreaker?" asked Ruby. "Since I can't bet on this because I'm too me to be involved, I can be the mediator."
"Fine by me," said Blake.
"Of course it's fine by you – you're her partner" bemoaned Adam. "She'd choose you over either of us mortals in a heartbeat."
Ruby met Adam's rolling of his eye with a stare of her own. "Really? Have I ever even once shown Blake favoritism as team leader?"
"No."
"Do you truly think I'd cheat in her favor?"
"N-No." Adam looked away first, losing the contest of wills. "Fine. You mediate."
Blake couldn't help but snicker at how much ground he'd given up since they started at Beacon. Originally, Ruby was a nuisance at the best of times and a meddlesome human (Adam's words, not hers) at worst. Now, all three of them had collectively agreed that the fourth spot in K should be reserved for her at the conclusion of this mission. General Ironwood had even given it a conditional stamp of approval, although it may have had something to do with the fact that Ruby was Ozpin's first choice for the next Fall maiden.
"To prove that I'm being extra fair, I'll write down my answer before any of you, so you know I haven't change it." Ruby grabbed a pen and paper from her desk, scribbled something down on it, and held it closely to her chest. "Now let's get some guesses, ladies and gentle-Adams."
"Toucan Faunus," said Ilia. "Noisy, colorful, and perpetually looks out of place no matter what its surroundings are." Ilia leaned back and crossed her arms behind her head. "Easy one."
"I think she'd be a cheetah Faunus," said Blake. "They're the fastest animals around."
"Fastest land mammal," said Adam. "They're not even top ten for fastest animal. Those are all birds."
Blake had considered the falcons that made up that list, but she figured that whatever Ruby chose for herself wasn't going to be a bird, as she probably didn't know that level of trivia and had just chosen cheetah for the common knowledge connotation with speed. Besides, she didn't want to tie with Ilia by choosing some falcon and finding that it was the same class or order as the toucan.
Adam took a second to think on his answer. "I'm going to go with…a gravy boat Faunus, but it spilled over, and all the gravy poured out."
"That's actually pretty good," admitted Ruby.
"So?" cried Ilia, eying the lien. "Spill, sister. What's the answer?"
Ruby smiled. "I went with chameleon Faunus."
Ruby turned over the paper she'd written her answer on. Lo and behold, there was the word 'chameleon,' hastily scribbled in her scratchy handwriting.
"C-Cham…how?" Ilia groaned.
"Well, I've got a pretty long tongue. See? Laaaaaaaaah." Ruby stretched out her tongue. "Wouldn't that be so cool, though? Imagine it: me with lizard powers. Chameleons' color changes based on how old they are. Did you know that? Maybe it would be red as a kid, and then purple as an adult, and then – Ilia, stop! You're mushing your Danish!"
Ilia was, in fact, squeezing her bird-flesh flavored dessert into a fine paste. Her eyes were closed, her breathing was heavy, and she looked like she was about to suffer an aneurysm if this conversation went on any longer. Blake decided to throw her a lifeline and steer the discussion in a different direction.
"So, Vytal. What're our strategies?
As Ilia and Blake split the money (none of their animals were even remotely close, but at least they'd guessed animals), Ilia noticed that Ruby had nothing to offer.
"Hello? Remnant to Rubes!"
"Yeah?"
"I mean, as our team leader, aren't you supposed to be the one brainstorming and formulating and whatnot?"
"Well, we fight."
Ilia gestured with her hands for Ruby to continue. "Aaaaaand…?"
"And we win," Ruby said with a confident nod.
"That's all we're planning? Shouldn't we, you know, think about ways to counter powerful opponents or utilize our semblances in tandem?"
"But it's just a fun tournament. Sure, it would be great if we took home first place, but I don't wanna scheme against the other teams." Ruby wiped her nose. "'Cept Weiss. We can beat her."
"Don't you want to win?"
"Not really. It's just a game."
"Bring home a trophy? Impress the folks?"
"Dad doesn't care about, well, anything, and Yang's also in the tournament. Using my knowledge of her weaknesses feels like cheating…"
This might be a problem. K needed to win the tournament if they were to get Blake chosen for maidenhood. Taking the power by force seemed like a recipe for disaster, and stealing it would require access to Ozpin's underground lair, which they presently lacked. Their only option was the legitimate route.
But if Ruby doesn't try hard and we do, Ozpin might not want–
No! I shouldn't think like that! Sabotaging my friend, a future member of K, that's just wrong…except I'd probably be doing Ruby a favor by not putting this burden on her shoulders.
"Wouldn't it be fun to do some super cool combo moves?" asked Blake. "I think that it would be really fun to go all the way in the tournament. And I was kind of hoping to make it to the singles round."
"Oh, well…" Ruby blushed. "I-If you want to, I guess I wouldn't mind putting in a little effort. Maybe just some team attacks."
Blake nodded and gave Ruby a quick kiss. Ruby's cheeks started to get so bright red that Ilia genuinely reconsidered if the girl actually was a closet chameleon Faunus. It wasn't easy, moving on after so long, but Ilia at least now had some closure. She'd told Blake her feelings, and the uncertainty and crushing fear of rejection or disgust was gone. And who knew? The tournament had brought a whole slew of hot transfer girls into town. Maybe among them was the perfect lady for Ilia.
"Oh, I just remembered!" Ruby stood up. "I made a new friend, per Blake's orders. I gotta go grab them so I can introduce you."
"Ruby, you don't need to–"
"It's actually fun. Plus, like you said: the more friends, the better!"
"I never said anything remotely sim–"
"I'll be back in just a minute!" Ruby ran out the door, leaving behind three exasperated Faunus and a half-eaten Danish.
"You sure do know how to pick 'em, Blake." Adam collected their used dishes. "I still can't see how you find Ruby romanceable."
"She's just so…sweet."
"You have such a way with words," said Ilia. "Hey, what actually is our plan for the tournament? Doubles wise? I know that Blake's a shoe-in, but who'll the other one be?"
"Not Ruby," said Adam. "We don't want her doing too well. I'm the best fighter on the team. I should be the one to go on."
"Well, I don't me to brag or anything…" That was a complete lie. Ilia was definitely bragging. "…but I don't remember you being the one to get a triple kill in Mountain Glenn."
"I dealt with the two Faunus that Tock set on us, not to mention Torchwick the day before."
"Oh, we're counting extras? Then I guess I was really meaning to say quad-kill, because I took out the other Faunus that was bamboolzifying Ruby."
"Fine. You're an accomplished murderess. Happy?"
"Quite."
"But I don't think that you'll be able to dump hydrogen cyanide down Pyrrha Nikos' throat in front of the entirety of Remnant as witnesses."
"I've been meaning to ask about that," butted in Blake. "Are we really just comfortable with showing up on everyone's TV screens? I thought attention was bad for us."
"Answer me honestly, Blake," said Ilia. "Do you remember anyone from the tournament three years ago besides the grand champion? Audiences forget anyone who's not the winner. Teammates, runners up, competitors – they don't really matter."
"Great," Blake said sarcastically. "So if we succeed, only I'll be made. How reassuring."
"You could let me be the maiden," joked Ilia. "I wouldn't mind getting all supernaturaled up and whatnot. I could be like: pewpewpew!" Ilia pantomimed firing laser beams out of her hand. "Whoosh zapablewey kablammo!"
Adam held up his hands to quiet them down. "If either of you become the Fall maiden, I'm not sure K is going to be doing espionage anymore."
Ilia looked at him curiously. "What's that supposed to mean? K has always been infiltrators. That's our forte, it's what we do."
"We'll have a cosmically enhanced cat/chameleon Faunus on our team. Can either of you honestly say we'd serve Atlas best by sneaking around and playing spies? Plus, we'd need to fit Ruby into our ranks, and she's about as stealthy as a Beowolf in a tutu. No, I think we'd be better off doing a complete overhaul of our organization. If there were ever a time to switch to plain old combat, this is it."
Ilia frowned. "You're essentially saying we become speshies. A second Ace-Ops."
"I'm saying we adapt based on our strengths, however changed they may be, and serve Atlas' needs. With Blake both becoming publicly known and gaining maiden powers, we should seriously consider branching out."
Ilia wanted to argue more, but the sound of Ruby opening the dorm room door forced her to stop. B̶e̶s̶i̶d̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶e̶x̶a̶c̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶r̶g̶u̶m̶e̶n̶t̶.̶
In came their fearless leader, along with a familiar teenaged boy caught in her grasp. Gray hair, gray shirt, gray pants – everything about him was gray. Ilia had only seen his photograph briefly, but she instantly recognized him from his boring color scheme and his distinct sneer.
"Guys, this is – stop struggling, stoppit! – this is my newest friend, Mercury Black!"
How will our heroes prevail against the dastardly infiltration attempt by the scoundrel Mercury Black? Find out on Friday's updates in the next thrilling chapter: merKury part 1!
Same Faunus time, same Faunus channel!
Omake
Ruby: What a tasty lunc–
Adam: *in a manic frenzy* What happened to the scrub jay? Did I drop it?
Author's Notes
These geese were weak and fell in battle. Our true goose and savior, Weiss Schnee, shall be more threatening when her time comes. *ominous wind blows*
So, 'Empty Seat' Ruby is a rook, and 'K' Ruby eats rooks. It's clear which the superior alpha Ruby resides at the top of the food chain.
Also, I want to make it clear – I am aware that chameleons do not change color due to age. That was a joke, not me being a dumb.
Remember to fill out the Marrow Murder Mystery poll, if you haven't already! Here's the link: (forms dot gle /3EGGEfhxs1cgYrZE7). Results so far:
QUESTION ONE: WHO KILLED MARROW AMIN?
Ruby Rose – 11
Marrow Amin – 10 (holy fuck, can we get two more and beat Ruby you guys?)
Weiss Schnee – 3
Ozpin – 3
Blake Belladonna – 2
Ilia Amitola – 1
Dove Bronzewing – 1
Pyrrha Nikos – 1
QUESTION TWO: WHO IS THE GOOSE?
Weiss Schnee – 10
Happy rats, and don't do crime!
