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Chapter 69: Integrate

Monday morning and the return of classes had come with all of the inexorable and unrelenting swiftness one might expect and yet despite this even the most groggy students and those whose dispositions were ill-suited to the early hours, a group of which Athena-Jade Slate was a stalwart member could not find it in themselves to begrudge their alarm clocks as they signalled the start of, what was for many students within Halo Academy's floating campus the beginning of their time at in New Vale in earnest.

Team MARZ had awoken and prepared themselves with the intention of making their way to the campus canteen for breakfast as had been their custom at Breaktide Academy only for the last part of this endeavour to prove itself more difficult than initially expected as the four of them once again, though this time with the excuse of the specific brand of tiredness brought by Monday mornings, took several wrong turns on their way towards their destination though were were ultimately steered back on course before Regalia was forced to use controlled bursts of her Semblance without a proper vantage point by familiar faces coming to their aid, namely fellow Breaktide Second Year students Team NUGT whose sudden appearance had led to realisation that the transfer students were seemingly not grouped by class or academy and were more randomly dispersed which only fuelled Astra's desire to meet with their new neighbours and establish good terms between them. At present however the four of them were at a fortunately vacant table within the canteen, steadily working their way through their breakfast and enough caffeine to render them functional for what was to come whilst at the same time perusing the various articles of paperwork that none of them had seen fit to devote any time or attention to immediately after their orientation and also exchanging in some good natured grumbling.

"I didn't think you'd miss an opportunity to show everyone how bad-ass you are" Astra noted pointedly, only for Athena-Jade to roll her eyes and scoff in response.

"As if you're one to talk" Astra merely shrugged as the Bear Faunus continued "And look I love Combat Class, it's one of my favourite subjects and I'm great at it-"
"And you're also so humble about it-"

"And also shut up, you suck" Athena countered Astra's latest interruption "But….Does it have to be first thing on a Monday Morning?"

"On the bright side it does allow me to cover my neck" Zirconia mumbled, barely audible in her shame even as it coloured her cheeks; true enough Team MARZ had dressed in their usual combat attire in preparation for the upcoming lesson with Professor Nora Ren rather than their Breaktide uniforms which had allowed the Grasshopper Faunus to wear the black shawl which had become a customary replacement for her old faded scarf around her neck where it masked a series of plainly visible Hickeys from the make out session that Astra and Regalia had inadvertently walked in on the previous evening. Athena for her part wrapped an arm around her partners' shoulder and tried to seem apologetic and as embarrassed as Zirconia was but simply could not keep from looking entirely too pleased with herself whilst Astra simply decided that this was a private matter which they wanted no part in and quickly turned their attention and briefly wondering what exactly she had added to her scrambled eggs to turn them to their current colour before deciding that they did not want to know and finding another avenue of conversation.

"What're you reading?" Regalia's took a moment to divert themselves away from the document currently displayed on her scroll, which Astra found considering that it seemed to be vast reams of text and bullets points forming lists; all of which resembling something far too close to studying for their partners' usual tastes.

"The schedule for the year and our time here….Guys, we've got our first mission as second years in a week"

"Damn" Astra breathed out, mildly annoyed at how the fact managed to catch them off guard and voicing their reasoning the moment it occurred to them "I think we've all spent so much time focusing on the tournament and qualifying for it that we kinda forget everything else for a while"

"Chasing accolades to the point of excluding everything else….A bad sign for a Hunter" Zirconia murmured, turning her attention away from her own partner for just long enough to offer that insight which, whilst possibly enough to turn Astra towards introspection at another moment currently did nothing more than irk them.

"Thanks for that" they muttered before returning their attention to Regalia "Don't worry, we'll be fine; it's not like we haven't been training. What else is coming soon?"

"Uh…." Regalia trailed off until she found something which made her eyebrows arch until they were lost beneath the frames of her goggles "Oh, there's a dance before the tournament and festival even start….Like way before, only a couple of months away; do you think it's gonna like the parties we've been to before?"

"No" Astra could only laugh at that "It's gonna be a different kind of party….The fancy kind and we're gonna need to go shopping….Or AJ can lend us all some of the designer suits and dresses that she's definitely got-"

"You're a pest" the Bear Faunus herself chimed in, visibly debating throwing a blueberry muffin at her team leaders' antlers but ultimately deciding that to do so would be a waste.

"You're right, you're way too short and none of your clothes would fit the rest of us" Astra nodded sagely as they deftly ignored what Athena had actually said, drawing an amused huff that sat at odds with the smirk she wore from the vertically challenged, but broad shouldered young woman.

"My suit jackets would hang off of you anyway, you're thin" she countered, leaving Astra pretending to flounder in mock outrage whilst both Zirconia and Regalia rolled their eyes at their partners' antics.

"Anyway, on the subject of clothes and stuff" Astra's tone made it clear that the subject was being changed and that no dispute on the matter would be heard

"Should we be looking for some people not wearing uniform to follow? They'll probably be heading to combat class as well right?"

"Not necessarily, Shade students don't actually have uniforms" Athena pointed out; shrugging under the looks that this brought upon her from her team "What? I applied and actually had provisional offers from Shade, Haven and Halo as well as Breaktide"

"Weiss Schnee's daughter at Shade….Yeah, I don't think the Vaccuans would have let you do your own thing and get away from the family name" Astra noted.

"Right, that's why I didn't go. Anyway, people heading to class?" Athena's tone was as blunt as Astra's own had been and the Deer Faunus understood implicitly that the subject was to be dropped and forgotten about. Turning instead to the crowds around the canteen as a whole Astra searched for any sign of someone they or their friends might recognise or could safely assume was a fellow second year and thus a new classmate of theirs, in doing so they found themselves taking several of the other members of the student body from Halo Academy students whose uniforms bore marked similarities to that of Breaktide, which was understandable given that both academies were founded by alumni of Beacon and then the jet black of Haven students' uniforms with their coloured arm-bands to denote year groups and the pristine and utilitarian whites and greys of Atlas Academy students, many of whom Astra noticed cast somewhat regular glances in Athena-Jade's direction reminded the Deer Faunus of just how famous their friend was and then finally to the transfer students from Shade Academy of Vaccuo who went entirely without uniform, one student in particular catching Astra's eye as they were barrel chested and that chest was entirely bare despite the season which revealed that the young man was in fact a Flying Squirrel Faunus, the hair adorning his back and chest resembling thick fur in places whilst thin membranes of skin intended for gliding stretched from his hips up to his wrists. Astra was unashamed to admit that their eyes followed the stranger for several seconds before it finally registered that he had started talking to a member of one of Breaktide Academies' other second year teams.

"Yes the half naked guy is your type Astra, but you're allowed to blink" Athena's teasing demanded Astra's focus and to answer it they simply flipped her off before hopping to their feet.

"He's going the same way as us by the looks of it" Astra reached under the table for their bag and gestured for their team to follow "Let's go show Halo Academy what we can do"

With that Team MARZ set off, the burly squirrel Faunus becoming suddenly irrelevant in Astra's mind as Athena-Jade, Regalia and Zirconia fell into place around them.


Qrow Branwen, as a Professor of an entirely elective course available only to older students supposedly enjoyed the luxury of not having a lesson to attend to first thing on a Monday morning however despite what his official schedule might proclaim it was a luxury that the ageing veteran Hunter rarely managed to properly appreciate.

Rather than sleep in until midday, recovering from a state of ruination entirely of his own making whilst telling himself that it was in the service of gathering intelligence on possible foes during the nights as he might have done during his younger years, a habit started during the years he had served under Ozpin's wing, Qrow instead had found himself waking early these past few years even when his official capacity did not require it with a regularity that was born of several factors which conspired to make the predicament a regular issue.

On the one hand, Qrow Branwen was old and closer to frailty than he had ever expected to live long enough to experience; his hair and grizzled beard having lost their colour to a spreading, silvery grey and the crimson eyes his only daughter had inherited being surrounded by a generous amount of ironically named crows' feet which had set themselves deep into his already heavily lined and weary face and these age came with certain physical discomforts which were only compounded by the injuries that had seen him confined to a many-limbed mechanical chair unless he used his avian form to fly. Further to this Qrow, being quite fond of the role of Uncle he had enjoyed for so long with his two nieces often found himself venturing into the part of the shared grounds which contained the orphanage attached to the academy and making himself useful there in any way he could whenever his services were not required elsewhere, an effort which had required him to be ready to sacrifice mornings and the occasional night. More frequently than not however the reason for Qrow Branwen's inability to enjoy the simplicity of a late morning was due to his own devotion and dedication, which often bordered on obsession with the task he had taken upon himself; picking up the mantle left by Ozpin and Glynda to oversee the city and maintain a web of connections across Remnant as a whole to fend off any attempts to overthrow the established order or sow chaos and discontent in a way which would excite the numberless tides of Grimm, a monumental task that he could not help but feel as though he was failing at in recent months given that the identity of the shadowy 'Benefactor' figure was still unknown to him and more importantly that the person who had almost seen Port Alistair felled in part of some greater scheme remained at large and was doubtlessly still plotting against the Kingdoms to some nefarious end.

At present however it was none of those things which had awoken Qrow and the battle-weary, beleaguered old man was allowing himself to enjoy one of his few great pleasures even if it was accompanied by the promise of work.

"Good morning Uncle Qrow!" Ruby's voice was warm and chipper in a way that reminded Qrow of the child she had once been, something an onlooker might find at odds with the scarred, tattooed and muscular woman in her mid-forties with a cybernetic eye currently visible on his computers' screen but still it was so distinctly a part of her that he could not imagine anything else.

Ruby was not contacting him from her own home however and the cheer in her voice, something which suggested that those students of Breaktide who had not qualified for the Vytal Tournament would soon forget their misfortune if she could help it was balanced against the fact that she was quite clearly situated in Coco Adel's office, with the Headmistress of Breaktide Academy sat beside her; the expected cup of coffee strong enough to give a lesser person a heart failure steaming as it rested between her hands.

"Hey squirt" Qrow managed a wheezing chuckle before nodding curtly to Coco, with whom he considered himself well acquainted and a former mentor turned friend; yet still would never have the same closeness that he did with Ruby and Yang.

"Qrow" Coco returned his nod and offered him a faint smile "The kids giving you trouble?"

"Your kids or mine?" he answered enigmatically.

"It shouldn't even be a question" Coco sighed "If any Breaktide students embarrass themselves or my academies good name you have full permission to test your latest assault course on them, the unwinnable, inescapable kind that I've heard so much about"

"Duly noted" Qrow's return smile and the low, purring voice he answered with held a sudden air of barely restrained violence about them which left both Ruby and Coco suddenly very concerned for the next student to invoke the ire of Professor Branwen; yet the conversation could not remain focused on academic matters or pleasantries.

"But onto business" she sighed, taking a moment to adjust her beret and don her signature sunglasses to assert the image that had come to define her "As much as I would enjoy being able to stay and talk I have other things that need my attention. Is there anything that I need to know about, recent developments?"

"Rest assured that if there was something serious involving our main problem right now that required your attention I wouldn't have waited for you to contact me" Qrow noted, to which Coco nodded as if to say 'fair enough'.

"There was a Hunter with a suspend licence and a handful of other criminals with Auras at their disposal travelling through various cities on Menagerie; as far as I can tell no connection between them and it's been flagged with the relevant people" Qrow continued "But nothing relating to the Benefactor or their goals, whatever those may be….We still have nothing"

"Nothing on our end either" Coco admitted, clearly begrudging the words that left her mouth "No sign of anything that might point to ongoing activity from their people….No sign of the missing members of the Cult of the Apex Being either-"

"Good" Ruby grumbled.

"Hammerfall Outpost conducted aerial sweeps but reported back that there was no trace of them" Coco added "Which could just mean that they changed out of their dumb little costumes and are laying low"

"More and more of the same" Qrow murmured "And on that note, there has been something have an up-tick in gang activity, or at least sabre rattling between factions from what I can tell which I believe is tied to a few cases of missing people….The worrying part is that it's from gangs whose members have been known to use modified mech-suits to combat Hunters and if they start using those against one another in public it's going to be a mess"

"Those are the gangs we believe the Benefactor was supplying?" Coco noted, honing in on the important kernel of information.

"Do you have anybody inside those gangs?" Ruby was hopeful, expression falling as her uncle shook his head.

"I've let myself slip….My contacts in those kinds of circles have all grown up" the veteran Hunter noted with an almost wistful smile "That being said I might be able to turn this to an opportunity; this Benefactor, whoever they are must still be getting parts for these machines from somewhere so if a few of them get damaged fighting one another then I can try and find out who is supplying who"

"Have Antonia Arc look into it" Coco advised, the oldest of the late Jaune Arc's sisters and the mother of Qrow's daughter was the head of Poly-Tech, the company founded by Penny Polendina's late father whom she had served as an apprentice under, buying Penny's inherited shares in the company after the old scientists' passing, which would certainly give her an insight into the state of the robotics business in one of the Kingdoms' Capitals. With that decision seemingly made Ruby chose that moment to interject with something of less immediate and potentially world-changing importance.

"Well if there's nothing immediately worrying us, what about the students we ear-marked for special training?"

"And I'll pretend I don't know exactly which team in particular you're asking about" Qrow beamed, crimson eyes filled with faint mirth

"She's my niece" Ruby shrugged "We're not in class I'm allowed to have favourites….But we did pick out Team MARZ and Team WULF, mainly because of their ability to find and deal with trouble even when we tell them not to, we're going to keep on giving Team WULF nudges while they're here"

"Well the older students we've been keeping an eye on throughout their training will be treated accordingly, although I do need some pertinent paperwork from Penny….And an opportunity to brainstorm with her" Qrow answered, pausing to consider the results of a collaborative effort between himself and Penny Rose as the two of them were both Professors in the same specialised subject of underhanded tactics.

"As for Team MARZ" Qrow snorted "They didn't arrive with the rest of the students, pulled up the next morning with Nora waiting for them"

"Oh for the love of-" Coco's tirade was cut short with Qrow's silent gesture.

"I checked, they were with Team FADE at my old place….Fluffy picked them up and dropped them off, no chances for them to get into any trouble"

"Well that's good for them" Ruby nodded "Are you gonna give them some additional training, maybe make it look like you're steering them towards their subject because of some of the stuff they've already done; it'll seem less obvious to anyone looking at it that way?"

"I can do that" Qrow nodded.

"Just look after our students Branwen" Coco murmured, even in her gruffness betraying a hint of the deep caring below whilst Qrow merely smiled in response.

"The plan is to train them so thoroughly that they don't need me to" that response sent a shudder down both Coco and Ruby's spines; both of them after all had heard and experienced first hand some of the extremes Professor Qrow Branwen was willing to subject his students to in order to ensure that a lesson was thoroughly learned.


Nora Valkyrie stood before the eager and bolstered mass of her students as held her position in the centre of the arena like stage of her classroom; Second Year students from each of the five academies staring down in anticipation from the raising levels of seats whilst two waiting combatants flanked the diminutive redhead on either side, trying to maintain a level of composed decorum for at least a few moments and pretend that they were not eager to knock one another's teeth out in an effort to settle an ongoing grudge between them.

The class had begun with Nora giving those newly under her instruction a brief and clear recitation of how she operated as a Professor and what it was she expected from each of them in terms of their conduct and work ethic both in her colosseum like lecture-hall and out of it. From there Nora had declared, in a voice that brimmed with pride that she would allow two students of her own academy to step forward and take part in an exhibition match to showcase their abilities for the benefit of them transfer students, so that those from Breaktide, Haven, Shade and Atlas could see the practical applications of an education given by the same Professor who had taught Team FADE; naturally each and every one of her students had volunteered themselves eagerly though it had largely been a ruse on Nora's part as her chosen fighters had already been selected in advance, a pair of team leaders whose ongoing enmity had been an ongoing source of annoyance and unwanted friction, though had never reached a crescendo of ugliness where any Professors had been forced to step in which had led to an ongoing misery for all involved which threatened to cause long-term rifts in at least one of Nora's most promising teams and so, in her usual direct manner she had decided that it would come to a head here and now, under her watchful eye and that the two of them would shake hands afterwards.

To her left stood Tiger Santara of Team TRQS, to her right Snapdragon Majus of Team SHMR.

Snapdragon's attire and demeanour was overall a stark and seemingly almost deliberate counter to Tiger's layers of practicality accentuated with ornate and bejewelled metalwork along with the carefully maintained air of restraint and deliberation she carried herself with in the moments before a fight began, vivid green eyes hard as they glared out from between her golden headdress and the black veil covering her face.

Snapdragon stood several inches shorter than her opponent with a build that was equally athletic if perhaps in a different sense, less lean and possessed of a powerful core and sense of explosive power complemented by a complexion that was more rosy than tanned in its' healthy glow which was understandable given the season. The leader of Team SHMR had a distinctive style which Nora had, in her private thoughts described to herself as what Coco Adel might have looked like if she had ever discovered a passion for theatre and abstract art, with much of the young woman's form often being hidden beneath a well-fitting coat which reached to her calves and sported an upturned high collar partly covered her ears with heavy silver buttons and buckles adorning its' sleeves and its' entire length from end to end whilst its' colour was some all together more difficult to describe as it was in fact not one single tone and was instead comprised of angular, jagged and uneven swathes of fabric like a broken stained-glass window with a hot, neon pink being the most prominent shade though lime green, baby blue and a creamy white could also be seen to varying degrees. Beneath her eye-catching, if somewhat impractical coat Snapdragon wore a simple black t-shirt which left her midriff uncovered with its' simplicity balanced out by the leather harness slung around her chest and shoulders which held countless small Dust samples whose various colours glinted in the overhead lights whilst below this assembly she wore slacks whose creamy white colouration matched portions of her coat and were held up by a variety of black belts with gleaming silver buckles each worn at a slightly different angle with small chains and trinkets woven between them. At her feet Snapdragon wore what were evidently her weapons in a partly collapsed form, a pair of knee high boots whose polished black material was almost entirely lost beneath layers of armour plating and visible mechanisms of pistons and rotating chambers in various shades of silver and gunmetal, with hints of Dust being visible at certain angles.

Snapdragon's hair was a deep and shocking shade of maroon, tied back into a loose and messy ponytail which hung over one shoulder with a wavy strand falling in front of her face in a way that was almost certainly intended to evoke a young Coco Adel, especially when paired with the beret she wore which was black and bore a pin bearing her personal emblem of bright pink dragons' head in a cartoonish style with overblown teeth and jaws positioned next to a small flower of a less vibrant shade; her features were almost the opposite of Tiger's in that her face was naturally hawkish and angular yet seemed to radiate a warmth and exuberance even with her pale pink, almost grey eyes hidden beneath a pair of overlarge sunglasses whose rounded lenses were a reflective neon pink.

"So, how's your morning going Tiger? Have a fun weekend? Got any plans for tonight….Anything, anything at all?" Snapdragon's tone could almost convince an onlooker that her words were friendly, her tone innocent and upbeat even as her lips twisted in an expression somewhere between grimace and snarl before finally settling back into a confident, inviting smile which Tiger used to continue her trend of serving as her adversary's opposite by remaining silent, with her obscured features set into a harsh scowl that carried into the glare she maintained until finally Professor Nora Ren gave the two of them the permission they had both been seeking.

"Begin!"

Tiger knew that Snapdragon Majus was fast and capable, the two had sparred on more than one occasion and had come perilously close to risking their places at the academy by coming to blows on several others, further to that she had watched her the girl she had come to consider a bitter foe ever since their initiation a year prior and developed a good sense of how she moved and fought yet despite all of this she was almost left sprawled on the ground by Snapdragon's opening gambit.

The multicoloured coat swirled dramatically around her as Snapdragon herself spun and leapt to deliver a spinning back kick to answer Tiger's charge, her mechanical boots which she had named 'Shuffle Kicks' in a display of juvenile idiocy which only annoyed Tiger even further whirring into life and deploying the Dust based emitters fitted into their soles; a devastating mixture of Gravity, Fire and Hard-Light Dust being discharged in successive bursts so close together that there was no chance to react between them in a salvo that was meant to stagger, assault and then displace an opponent. Tiger managed to narrowly avoid the barrage condensed into a single blow by pivoting on her ankle with enough force to almost injure herself before flipping aside, landing in a crouch and promptly launching herself back onto the offensive from a new angle whilst Snapdragon's response being to languidly continuing the rotation of her spinning kick as she landed on the toes of one foot with absurd grace and skill whilst in the same motion shedding her coat and setting it gently down as if to declare that the fight would now be getting serious.

"You'll have to better than that if-" Snapdragon's casual disregard for Tiger's efforts was turned against her and silenced when the leader of Team SHMR adjusted her beret slightly before delivering another kick, this time a leaping front kick from her leading leg which sent arcs of Dust fuelled lightning ripping through the air, where it was quietly absorbed by Nora's Semblance in a passive display of control only for Tiger to weave in close and under the blow and surge upwards to drive her elbow into the back of an outstretched knee and throw Snapdragon off balance, the shorter of the two fighters landed and her boots, with some degree of automation managed to offset at least some of the impact and keep her from stumbling too much yet before she could recover Tiger was on her again and this time the leader of Team TRQS finally drew her open weapon.

Fearful Symmetry.

The twin capes of her outfit flew out behind her as she reached to her waist with her armoured right hand, only to drop her weapon from its' current storage within the billowing sleeve of her left arm in a display of sleight of hand before unfurling to several times its' collapsed size out into a trident with a black shaft with faint orange stripes and whose three broad and flat blades were a golden colour so heavily polished that they were reflective, allowing Snapdragon to see her own look of surprise before being struck around the face with enough force to send her backwards, head over heels and with her glasses askew. Tiger, seeing that Professor Nora had no intention of stopping things just yet allowed herself a moment of satisfaction before shifting her weapon into its' ranged form; central tip of its' trident folding backwards whilst the shaft of the weapon split to accommodate the motion, revealing a pristine white inner section which formed the barrel of an oversized handgun with a grip and trigger mechanism contorting itself into place whilst the central blade serving as an oversized hammer to the weapon and its' outward facing, broader blades angled themselves in such as way that the weapon could either be described as a faux-crossbow or as having two pseudo bayonets.

"Are you ready to take this seriously now?" Tiger snarled, teeth bared beneath her black veil which now seemed to give the unmistakable air of an executioner which was a comparison she would not be averse to in this instance; Snapdragon however, now that she was fully mobile once again simply offered another of her half-grimace smiles and a mocking bow.

"Oh anything for you, anything for Ravi's favourite-" her words were cut off as Tiger opened fire, the words needling in a way that she would chastise herself for allowing herself to fall victim to and allowing Snapdragon the opportunity to act; as she leapt aside from Tiger's gunshots which echoed painfully loudly in the arena like classroom the leader of Team SHMR dropped into a crouch and launched a low spinning sweep, its' initial motion disguised by the evasive action and promptly used the Dust compartments of the Shuffle Kicks once again to coat the ground beneath Tiger's feet in a sheet of ice so slippery that the leader of Team TRQS was forced to convert Fearful Symmetry back into its' trident mode and drop into a crouch as she stabbed downward to keep some balance.

When she looked for her opponent a moment later she found that Snapdragon was flying.

"You're a coward and an imbecile, your insistence of cheap tricks and performing instead of actually fighting is going to get people killed" Tiger hissed, disgust seeping into each vehement syllable whilst Snapdragon's answer was a nonchalant and exaggerated shrug with her hands splayed wide

"And yet you're down there and I'm still winning" she called back from her position above Tiger, the Shuffle Kicks using a Gravity Dust concoction similar to that which kept Halo Academy itself airborne to allow their wearer to hover and to a limited extent fly, albeit at the cost of all other functionality whilst doing so; Snapdragon punctuated her retort with a small but flamboyant dance whilst still in the air which only infuriated Tiger even more severely.

The stern and harsh leader of Team TRQS found herself realising that this would be a difficult bout for her to win and that hurling her trident at her rival as though it were a javelin would do more harm than good.

No matter how satisfying it might be.


Team MARZ had watched the sparring match between Tiger and Snapdragon with rapt attention from a reasonably clear vantage point that they had managed to secure for themselves amongst the seating, which was more crowded than they had been used to in their education thus far though not to such an extent that it made following the proceedings below them difficult.

The two leaders of Halo Academy Second Year teams had continued to fight on, with a ferocity which had seen Astra whisper in their friends' ear suggest something more personal than simple competition until finally a victor had been decided once Tiger, in a state of sweat-sheened and bloody-lipped exhaustion managed to counter an aerial assault from Snapdragon with an approach that was admittedly rooted more in desperation and near-frenzied anger at her opponent than the masterful technique she had begun the bout with; sinking the blades of her trident into the ground and waiting for opponents' next downward kick before simply seizing Snapdragon by the legs and bodily hurling her against the surface of the forcefield that prevented stray shots from tearing through the crowd and leaving the transparent energy field shimmering and rippling faintly with each impact against in until finally Nora had declared Tiger Santara the victor. It was here that Astra, along with the rest of Team MARZ had properly took notice of the fact that Team TRQS were in fact almost directly in front of them, with Stygian, Rye and Amaya cheering out for their leader in a way that was entirely at odds with their interactions the previous afternoon; a united front to show in public. Tiger for her part simply stalked away from the arena, pointedly refusing to shake hands with Snapdragon who simply gathered up her multicoloured coat and limped back towards the rest of Team SHMR.

At which point Astra had something of a revelation.

"Hey, hey check out her partner….I can't be the only person seeing this right?" the Deer Faunus hissed with a sense of urgency that was somehow playful, the kind that preceded gossip that had been deemed important and upon hearing their tone the rest of Team MARZ chose to humour their friend and take a moment to study Team SHMR as a whole, paying the most attention to the brown-skinned young man that Snapdragon lowered her glasses and exchanged what appeared to be several pleasantries with as she sat behind him, each of them coming to the same realisation as they took in his features.

The resemblance he bore to Tiger, whom Snapdragon had just fought and seemingly had something of a standing rivalry with was remarkable

"Well that's gotta be a little bit awkward" Athena-Jade whispered, almost to herself though prompting Zirconia to interject.

"Let's not make assumptions" her rasped warning in turn drew a shrug from Astra who leaned over a row of seats, taking careful heed of the fact that Nora was still speaking and also that Tiger was fast approaching as he tapped Stygian on the shoulder to get the Mouse Faunus's attention.

"Hey, what's the deal there" they gestured from Tiger to Snapdragon and her partner, hoping that Stygian would understand their meaning; the grimaces and winces that passed through Team TRQS as a whole suggesting that they had.

"Pretty much what it looks like" Stygian shook his head, blue dreadlocks falling in front of his face as he did so "That's Ravi Santara, Tiger's twin brother and Snapdragon's partner-"

"Oof" Athena-Jade visibly cringed as she chimed in.

"Yeah" Stygian murmured in agreement "Apparently they tried to partner up during initiation but Snap found him first and, well for how tough she tries to act I don't think Tiger's really ever forgiven either of them for it"

"Hardly their fault though?" Astra noted, eyes darting quickly to Athena-Jade as they remembered the fallout of Team MARZ's formation that had plagued the interactions of their early days, the Bear Faunus's anger at failing to secure a leadership position colouring every moment; they quickly felt a stab of pity for Team TRQS upon seeing them as a team that had never grown beyond their initial complications though before they could find a polite way to broach that subject as though it were their business Rye, the mammoth of a teenage boy spoke up with an air of warning

"Yeah, but we don't really talk about it; especially not in front of Tiger herself"

No sooner than Team MARZ had collectively nodded their agreement than Tiger herself reached them and returned to her seat, veil retracting back into place between a headdress that was then roughly discarded to reveal a nerve twitching beneath her right eye as she slumped back into her seat with a demeanour that would suggest that she were not the victor; shoulders visibly straining against the urge to hit something.

"Hey Tiger, good match" Regalia offered the compliment with a bright smile and it was seemingly her unmistakable earnestness that kept Tiger's temper in check as she whirled around in her seat with a speed that immediately set Astra on edge.

"Not even close to the match I wanted" Tiger snarled the words out through clenched teeth "She fucking coasts, she's never had to try at anything and losing doesn't even make her want to be better; I hate it….Just once I want to knock that smug fucking smile off of her face in a way that sticks, make her actually start to try and earn her place here"

There was an awkward silence that lingered for several moments as none of Team MARZ could find the words to answer the forceful vehemence and intensity that Tiger seemed to carry around her and wear like armour at all times; ending only when Professor Nora called down the next pair of fighters, an Atlesian team leader who seemed to try and fail to catch Athena-Jade's eye as they passed and Nugget, the Chicken Faunus who had surprised all of Breaktide Academy by seeing Team NUGT into the tournament with the actions of the Atlesian student, whatever their reason might have been setting gears in motion in Stygian's mind which culminated in the dark-skinned and tattooed boy taking a break from watching and taking notes as the next sparring match got underway to turn and lean over his chair to speak to Athena-Jade himself.

"Hey Athena….So I'm thinking the Breaktide syllabus might be a little different to ours, so maybe we could get a little study group going or something, maybe hang out?"

"Studying sounds like a good idea" Athena answered with a huff of annoyance which spoke volumes on its' own before making a point to lace her fingers through Zirconia's in a way that left little room for doubt or interpretation "But what you're doing now….Stop it, not interested"

"Message received and understood and….It's Zirconia right? No offence meant, you can definitely hang out sometime as well" Stygian nodded and raised his hands in an apologetic, if somewhat defeated gesture which did little to lessen the harshness of the glare that Zirconia was currently treating him to; seeing the situation slowly unfolding Astra and Regalia shared looks with one another and then with each of Team TRQS who continued to demonstrate their lack of familiarity by doing nothing at all and a moment later the Deer and Racoon Faunus had come to a silent agreement.

"If you're looking for someone to hang out with then you can hang out with us" Regalia offered, quickly directing Stygian's attention away from Athena-Jade and Zirconia before the boy could continue to make a fool of himself.

"We didn't really get a good look at the gym on the tour yesterday and I haven't trained all weekend" Astra noted and Stygian, sensing what was happening nodded in understanding

"Yeah, I'll meet you there after classes and stuff" he turned to the rest of Team TRQS and added "You guys coming as well, make it a whole team thing?"

"Sure, I'm in" Amaya nodded whilst Rye simply nodded in silence whilst showing himself to be a good study and continuing to take notes despite the distractions happening around him. Tiger for her part merely gave a wordless growl that could only be assumed to be an affirmative.

Though from the rest of her teams' reactions Astra sensed that this could be considered a positive, which only painted a worse picture of what they saw as normal.


Within the remaining Hive Towers of Neo Vale the climate was a regularly controlled thing and night and day were an automated cycle which took place outside of the normal passage of the sun through the sky, hours decided regardless of the time of year and given variation only by damage done to the workings of the towers' infrastructure in their lower and more impoverished bowels. In the lowest reaches of Neo Vale as a whole however the approach of winter and steadily earlier nightfalls which accompanied it seemed to embolden the cities' criminals; as though the night provided them with a cover of darkness in any meaningful way in the metropolis of steel and neon where darkness, at least in the most literal sense could never truly take hold.

Amongst the many criminals to see the broken moon looming overhead between the various monolithic buildings and floating platforms of the city despite it being only early evening was Petrol and at that very moment the poisonous Avian Faunus was thoroughly enjoying the electric thrill of adrenaline that surged through him.

"YO! BRING THAT DOWN, THERE'S GONNA BE HUNTERS HERE ANY MINUTE NOW!" at his words metallic screeching filled the air and grated against nerves and senses with deafening clarity whilst beneath the din gunshots from multiple angles and the dull roar of straining engines punctuated the chaos of the impromptu battlefield that a small and isolated part of the city had become.

The target of Petrol and his gang of now heavily armed hooligans malicious attentions were a rival gang, whose members without Aura at their disposal were currently taking cover behind walls, vehicles, shipping containers and other general scenery and detritus that might be expected to be found at a small labourers' yard in an industrial part of the city and more importantly a heavily modified mechanised battle-suit at the rival gangs' disposal. The machine stood three times the height of a man and despite being of a type originally intended for construction and heavy lifting rather than warfare of any variety the thing had been repurposed by the same benefactor whom Petrol had sold his loosely organised factions' services to; armour plates being added to secure joints and pistons along with vital areas such as both the cockpit which had covered by little more than a roll-cage previously and a larger generator to accommodate for the additional weight, the arms of the machine had also been replaced with mobile and humanoid limbs to enable the battle-suit to heft its' weapon which was an equally heavily modified piece of artillery taken from salvaged remains of New Vale's former perimeter wall that had been remade into something resembling a colossal shotgun.

Petrol had shown a level of cunning by attacking here, at the place where the rival gang stored their lone battle-suit which was in truth a rather slapdash, low-budget and feeble example of the Benefactor's work as the pilot could scarcely risk firing the oversized gun the thing carried without risking exceptional levels of damage to the gangs' own territory and other assets and this had allowed Petrol to direct his cohorts to act with a precision and focus that had been entirely absent from the jumbled chaos that he had been forced to endure from his contemporaries at Forever Fall; the Avian Faunus standing atop one of his accomplices' cars and barking orders whilst those not in the midst of shooting and stabbing their enemies circled around the premises in another car and a collection of dirt-bikes laden with heavy chains which, after several aborted and fumbling attempts they had finally managed to secure to legs and back of the battle-suit.

Before revving their engines and speeding off in different directions.

"GET 'EM BOYS!" Petrol whooped, almost overcome by the delirium born of violence and victory as the rival gangs' war machine, their pride and joy and the threat which they held over the heads of those they extorted was dragged backwards and off-balance before finally toppling to the ground with a deafening crash, the sound of screeching metal reaching a violent crescendo as straining engines and screaming tires finally did their duty by ripping sizeable chunks of the machine including half of a leg and a portion of the armour around its' power supply away in an explosion of fluids and dangerous sparks.

"TIME TO GO! GO, MOVE GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" Petrol yelled gesturing wildly to his companions, with those not currently in vehicles taking advantage of the momentary shock of their enemies to run from cover and leap into cars or onto the backs of bikes before fleeing the scene, some of the younger and more reckless members disregarding the approaching sirens and taking the opportunity to deliver a final, grievous blow to the nearest member of the opposing group in displays of bloodthirsty dedication which Petrol would see them rewarded for.

At present however Petrol had a more immediate concern.

"Come then! Do it you pussy!" he taunted as a rival gang member came hurtling towards him in a desperate charge which the Faunus answered by leaping down from the roof of his friends' hatchback and opening one of the back doors with such violent force that the incoming thug crashed face first into the window and sent a web of cracks across its' heavily tinted surface before being set upon by Petrol himself as the young man leaped around and dragged his opponent clear of the car before withdrawing a bowie knife from where it was tucked at his waistband and plunging it into ribs and flank. Petrol paused as hot blood splashed across his hands, ripping the knife free before pushing his savaged victim aside and focusing on his Semblance, dredging up the glowing and corrosive sludge he produced and spitting a viscous glob of it onto his weapon in order to dispose of it, ensuring that no traces that could be tied to him in a way that would convince a jury would remain; from there he readied his Semblance again before leaning back and spitting another, more forceful mouthful of glowing filth in the general direction of the felled Battle-suit before finally throwing himself into the back seat of the car he had been stood upon and slamming the door shut behind.

"YO FUCKING DRIVE MAN!" tires shrieked on asphalt as the car peeled out, sirens still clearly audible above the sound and yet still almost lost in the wake of the way Petrol's heart thundered against his ribs and consumed most of his senses until finally the sounds of chaos and swiftly approaching law enforcement finally began to wane, the engine of the car roaring as the vehicle tore through streets that were mercifully clear of the last of the evening rush hour traffic in this forgotten and unwanted corner of the city, with the familiar sense of breathless elation beginning to wash over Petrol as the first text messages began to reach the scroll in his pocket, the device being a disposable object which he did not truly consider his and would be rid of in a few short moments, the messages being sent from similarly short-term devices in the possession of his accomplices and consisting of codes and a slang that was almost as decipherable as the codes themselves for any not familiar with it, each informing the Avian Faunus that the police and Hunters had focused their efforts on the gang with a battle-suit in their possession which had forced that gang to flee and abandon valuable resources which; with the extent of the damage to the cameras in the area would allow for a clean getaway.

There would be fallout and repercussions later, but for the meantime Petrol could bask in the glow of his victory.

"Yo don't spit that shit up in my car man!" the driver in front of him called back indignantly upon seeing Petrol prepare to use his Semblance to destroy the scroll rather than simply toss it out of the window; following up with a muffled complaint "Already busted the window-"

"Shut the fuck up" Petrol shot back, somewhere between annoyance and disbelief at his accomplices' temerity "We're burning this car anyway, gonna have to get rid of all the rides we used for this and invest in some new ones….It's cool though, we've got Lien like that now so-"

In his eagerness to retort and remind his friend of the new order of things Petrol failed to spot a lone, burly figure step out into the road and approach the speeding car at an angle before unleashing a Semblance of their own which manifested itself as an explosion of spears and blades formed of deep, arterial crimson.

"YO WHAT THE FUCK!" Petrol tried to keep his words from becoming a scream as the car was sent veering off course, the driver managing to duck before skewering points that tore through windows and chassis could harm him and ripping the keys free of the ignition to bring the vehicle to a halt before it could slam through the verge that separated one side of the road from the other, sparks jetting out from wheels that no longer had the luxury of tires as the ground against the road. With his heart once again hammering and vision occluded by smoke that spilled from beneath the hood of the now ruined car Petrol frantically tried to right himself and kick the already cracked window open so that he could aim a weapon through it, the driver too distracted with keeping their face elevated and stemming the flow of blood pouring from where the steering wheel had split their eyebrow to contribute; before the Avian Faunus could act however the door was torn a way in a single violent motion that put Petrol's own earlier efforts to shame and the sound of a shotgun, of the absurdly powerful variety that could only be wielded by a Hunter being cocked pierced through the ambient sounds and the buzzing static of Petrol's own thoughts.

Revealing Carmesi Hueso.

"A nice evening for a drive" the Komodo Dragon Faunus noted conversationally, looking utterly relaxed in the cold air despite having his shirt unbuttoned almost entirely to reveal scales and flesh that had been horrifically scarred, his hair blowing about his stubbled features and hateful crimson eyes as he languidly aimed the larger of his two weapons in its' ranged form at the younger criminal, effectively holding them in place in the back of the halted car without needing to physically restrain him.

"What the fuck man?" Petrol spat, confusion meeting with a desire to have at least some pretence of control of the situation.

"What the fuck indeed" Carmesi rumbled in a voice Petrol felt as much as heard "You attacked another of the gangs that the Benefactor has supplied to, that were part of his operations….Care to explain yourself for his benefit, or shall I just dispose of you now?"

"Yeah I can explain" Petrol fought the urge to gulp or worse still whimper, he had known that a confrontation like this would come from the moment he had settled on a course of action in the wake of the previous days' conversation with Carmesi and the Benefactor; though he had hoped to at least make it back to his home, such as it was first and mentally prepare himself however now that he had the rogue Hunter looming over him Petrol could appreciate that it was a foolish notion and that he would never be properly prepared to face down Carmesi; yet as the older man, by only a few years even if it seemed far more gestured for him to speak Petrol mastered himself and resolved to give a good showing.

"We spoke about this yesterday, I told you some of the crews with mech-suits are gonna be on my peoples' backs, your Benefactor told me to sit tight and wait for more heavy equipment; that didn't sit right with me" the Avian Faunus pulled himself into a more upright sitting position and forced as much steel into his words as he could manage "I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand I send a message to the crews around here that my people aren't to be fucked with….On the other hand I'm sending a message to you and your boss, I'm not the guy you can set up and stab in the back; these are my streets and all these other crews are gone-"

"I don't think you understand-"

"I don't think I give a fuck either" Petrol interrupted, feeling none of the bravado he spoke with "You wanted my people on an exclusive contract, okay cool but then that's gotta work both ways….You don't have any other crews on your payroll and you don't supply weapons to the other gangs around here. Trust me aint shit optional about this because my people are gonna hit every other crew where they stay at and shut 'em down personally"

"You're a brave little man Petrol, if not a very clever one" Carmesi snarled, baring sharp teeth as he considered the terms being proposed; Petrol for his part was keenly aware that his companion was still conscious and would report on the gang leaders' actions here and now to the rest of their allies, which meant that he could not afford to show weakness or let the insult slide, yet by the same token he had no illusions as to the outcome of any attempt to enact retribution for it.

"Clever enough to see that you're trying to snake us" Petrol raised his chin defiantly "You think I can't figure out that you made the same offer I got to every other crew that was out in Forever Fall with us? Fuck all that let's get things clear, you work with us and nobody else or you don't work at all….You wanna do your big league, high society crime or whatever that's on you; but understand you've gotta make those suits and bring those guns in from somewhere and I'm ready to have my people hit every factory in this city until we find yours. How do you wanna do this?"

Carmesi seemed to consider the challenge for several tortuously slow moments before letting a low, menacing laugh that chilled Petrol to his core before the Komodo Dragon Faunus leaned into that wrecked car.

"I hate people like you boy, I think you're everything that's wrong with Remnant….You're a disease that makes the Kingdoms fester and rot; I think that if everyone like you was dead then the Grimm would be less of a problem as well because we'd all be happier" he paused for a moment, tone softening yet becoming no less threatening "But scumbag as you are, I'll admit….You've got some balls and a level of commitment that I can almost respect, almost. I'll pass your message onto the Benefactor and then I'll sit back enjoy watching you vermin kill each other and ridding this city of a problem. We'll supply to you until somebody more capable replaces you….Take what you need, but don't jeopardise things more important than yourself by drawing too much attention"

With that Carmesi turned and strode away, leaving a numb Petrol to take several seconds to try and slow his breathing, ears straining for any sound of sirens or a possible ambush before finally accepting that there was none and turning to his driver.

"You good man?"

"Yeah, can't really drive though" the bloodied young man answered in a pained voice.

"Fuck it, we're burning the ride here then" Petrol replied, the lack of argument being a sign of how stunned his friend was and rendering the Faunus concerned that they were concussed until he heard him speak again in a voice that was equal parts awe and simple, base panic.

"Bro, what the fuck even just happened?" Petrol took a moment to consider his answer before giving a wide smile that showed stained and dirtied teeth damaged by his own Semblance.

"I think we run the city now"


Classes at Halo Academy had ended several hours ago and the student body were blissfully ignorant of the internecine conflict taking place between criminal factions in the depth of the Capital city below them and the sprawling conspiracy whose influence had permeated it in the form of influence and aid.

Instead for many of the students the setting sun had brought a return of kinds of activities enjoyed by students everywhere, including levels of procrastination that were almost impressive and enjoying active social lives that took them out across the city of Neo Vale from whence they would return in several hours to sleep far too little before the next day began whilst others, Team MARZ amongst them chose to spend the evening of their first day of classes in a new academy starting in a way they tried to convince themselves that they would continue; productively in the gym.

Astra had, as agreed upon earlier met with Stygian Blue and they along with Regalia had kept the Mouse Faunus away from Athena-Jade and Zirconia in order to keep him from making another well-intentioned, yet undeniably flirtatious comment that might get him throttled; the time spent in the gym had been productive and enjoyable for the physical aspect of it and the mental release that came from the exercise however these were not the only things Astra had sought to gain from the venture and the Deer Faunus had, armed with their partners' natural cheer, exuberance and winning smile and sculpted abs and the knowledge gleaned from Stygian who had witnessed the arrival of the other exchange students begun to make introductions and acquaint themselves with their new peers. Astra for their part had explained their desire as in keeping with the spirit of cooperation that he Vytal Tournament represented, forming insular cliques by not reaching out of existing spheres felt the Deer Faunus as though it might make the whole thing redundant.

Upon hearing this Athena-Jade had given her own, far less charitable explanation.

"Right, and the fact that you're single and that everyone you spoke to was hot had nothing to do with it at all?" she snorted and rolled her eyes as she delivered a few more punches to the pads that Astra was holding for her for good measure. Team MARZ had reconvened and Regalia and Zirconia were close by, the Grasshopper weaving around feints and blows that the nomad dished out with her own padded mitts after Astra had noted that Athena-Jade and Zirconia knew one another's moves to such an extent that the two of them drilling against one another was almost counterproductive. Stygian for his part had taken Astra's polite recommendation that he leave and keep some distance in good spirit and was currently helping Amaya spot for Rye Fairfax whilst the behemoth of a boy bench-pressed a truly absurd amount of weight whilst Tiger, despite her earlier agreement to join them was nowhere in sight though her team-mates had not remarked on her absence.

"Can't it be both?" Astra laughed, the sound being cut short by a few thudding impacts from Athena "I'm right, we should be getting to know the students from other academies; the Professors at Breaktide would be disappointed in us if we didn't….But also, everyone looks good in yoga pants right?"

"You'd don't suck and you're not wrong….But you're still a dumb-ass, somehow" Athena paused to make a show of pretending to contemplate the matter, only to find her thoughts redirected as she caught sight of a gathering crowd thronging towards the entrance to the gym; though without any of the telltale sounds that might accompany a Professor arriving or a fight breaking out. With a silent gesture Athena-Jade managed to get the attention of each of her team-mates and Astra reached out and tapped a passing student who, if memory served was a First Year student of Halo Academy itself to the get their attention.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" the younger student paused for just long enough to answer a brief, yet succinct answer before departing again.

"Older student, really cool….Her parents take her team out on missions on weekends sometimes and the Professors a cool with it because she's just that good; she's kind of a big deal here"

"That sounds a little bit Team MARZ and Team WULF last year with our extra training" Zirconia murmured as she and Regalia drew closer.

"Yeah except they just made whoever this student is sound like the coolest person here!" Regalia chimed in, seemingly excited at the possibility of making another new friend.

"AJ, gimme a glyph" Astra requested, waiting a moment for the shimmering surface to appear before them and then hopping onto it so that they could be lifted high enough to be able to see over the heads of the crowd and identify the source of all the excitement; in the centre of it all was a small entourage of the promised older students which seemed to be formed of a single team and their close friends, the resident superstar student being guarded from the most ardent of her supporters by a young woman whom Astra assumed was her partner in more than one sense judging by the glances the two shared whilst the focus of the attention seemed, for her part eager to be free of it all so that she could simply attend the gym in peace. She was of an average height, though only if one failed to include her Faunus attribute of a pair of rabbit ears with golden brown fur which lightened as it met a curly mop of golden yellow hair which had been cut to shoulder height and looked as though an attempt to style into ringlets had been given up on at some point in the recent past whilst her physique was powerful in the same way as Regalia's, though her complexion was far fairer, all lean muscle and obvious power which bulged even beneath the fabric of the grey sweatsuit she currently wore and in contrast to the silent presence and sense of awe she exuded the young woman's deep blue eyes scanned her surroundings in search of an escape whilst her expression was one discomfort that brought her to the edge of nervous laugher.

She had been wearing armour and had appeared far more confident and in her element the last time Astra had seen her.

"Honey! Honey Scarlatina!" The Deer Faunus called out, the sudden surprise of unexpected familiarity giving way to the same sense of being in the presence of greatness that had no doubt drawn the other students to her like gravity; seeing the rabbit Faunus look up in their direction for a brief moment Astra felt a need to remind her of just who they were "We met at that expo at Signal a few years ago remember? Professor Xiao Long wanted to test her students against all the other prep schools and independents in the Kingdom-"

"Oh yeah!" Honey Scarlatina's expression visibly brightened and she spoke in a voice that might be described as cute if one were not too intimidated by her to utter such a thing "I threw you through a couple of walls right? You didn't have the Mohawk before, I didn't recognise you there kid"

"I'm not-" Astra's petulant effort to deny being a child, possibly following up with the information that they attended Breaktide Academy and studied under Professor Scarlatina all being rendered null and void by Honey's friends and entourage decided that enough was enough and beginning to disperse the crowd before their friend could become to uncomfortable and seeing this in progress brought Astra down from the glyph to face Team MARZ once more.

Regalia looked confused whilst Athena-Jade and Zirconia shared smirks.

"That" the Grasshopper sighed "Was pathetic and almost painful for us to watch-"

"Well now you know how all of Remnant felt watching you two pine after each other" Astra shot back, leaving both Zirconia and Athena-Jade flummoxed as various retorts of varying degrees of unpleasantness struggled to be given voice, with Regalia taking advantage of the moment of silence from the pair to speak up.

"Who was that?….You knew her?" hearing the question left a palpable change in the mood as Astra and Athena-Jade locked eyes with one another, both of them being familiar in some respects with the rabbit Faunus in question and now that the initial fanfare of her appearance was over they were beginning to realise what it meant for them.

"That was Honey Scarlatina….She is probably a once in a generation kind of Hunter" Astra explained, shaking their head at resurfacing memories "You've seen the old videos of Pyrrha Nikos from when she fought in tournaments….That's what Honey is; that level, won some of the same tournaments"

"And she threw you through a wall?" Zirconia noted.

"Several walls" Astra winced "I was fifteen, no Semblance and my weapon wasn't finished yet….Seriously, I was honoured that Professor Xiao Long even let me try-"
"That doesn't make sense?" Regalia was beginning to grow visibly frustrated "You're you Astra, you being honoured that somebody beat you up is just….wrong; I don't get how that Honey girl can be that special, she can only be a year or two older than us-"

"She's third year, a year older than us" Athena placed a hand on Regalia's shoulder "You heard her last name?"

"Scarlatina" Regalia nodded "Okay, so is she Little Fox's brother?"

"Cousin" Athena continued, pressing on to drive home the point for the Racoon Faunus "Professor Scarlatina, Headmistress Adel and Counsellor Daichi are her Aunts and Uncle on her Dad's side and her Dad did a stretch in the Atlas Freelancers before moving back to Vale, my Dad knows him. On her Mum's side she's an Arc, which means that all of her Aunts and Uncles and her Grandparents are famous Hunters….She's Eagle's cousin, which means she's also kind of related to Qrow Branwen-"
"And to us" Astra noted "I mean….Only if you wanna count Hunter teams as family, but I mean the Arcs call everyone family according to Eagle, but both of our brothers are the same team as Honey's cousin so….Distant relative twice removed….Kinda?"

"That's a stretch, I mean we're friends and not family and we're as connected to each other as she is to us" Athena-Jade shrugged before turning back to Regalia "But the point is this….Honey Scarlatina is a natural; someone who was born gifted and then was lucky enough to be surrounded by people who have helped her train and hone and refine that gift into something even greater. You weren't raised around Hunters in the way Astra and I were-"

"I mean I watched as much stuff as I could" Regalia pouted, earning herself a good natured pat on the shoulder from Astra

"But it's not the same as being on the inside of it like I have been since I first met Felix" they explained "Honey Arc is a child prodigy"

"Seriously" Astra added, almost breathless "She could probably fight everyone in this gym at the same time"

"And now we're here, at the academy she attends; preparing for a tournament that she will be competing in" Zirconia rasped out, delivering the crushing blow to the conversation that both Astra and Athena-Jade had been keeping at bay; the sound of the words finally being spoken aloud being enough to leave the Deer Faunus visibly sagging in a way that stood as an almost perfect mirror to the way they had almost bounced with excitement at the sight of the blonde Faunus only moments ago.

"Yeah" they finally sighed, casting their eyes over to where Honey Scarlatina and her team were "And I know we all said some stuff about us winning the whole tournament but now, honestly I think we should be happy with whatever our best looks like….We can't beat her"


Time had lost all sense and meaning as torture disguised as research and research disguised as torture intertwined and merged into one another within the fluid-filled containment tube within the deepest recesses of the man-made den that the captive Grimm had heard named 'The Chamber' and yet through it all, even with their mind and newly twisted and abominable body betraying them at every turn the hybrid Alpha did not fade away in a final moment of defeat and nor did they cease their violent resistance.

Gestalt-Prime would not be laid low.

The lab-coat clad human with the dark skin and white hair sat before them, the one whom the other prey had named 'Albion', a detail Gestalt-Prime had discerned as their mind slowly began to piece itself together once more, disparate constituent parts of their psyche and various thought processes congealing within the hybrid Alpha to form something which more properly resembled their previous ferocious might. Albion had not left their vigil at the mass of computers responsible for controlling the implements of Gestalt-Prime's misery since the Alpha had reawakened, uninterested in partaking in whatever comings and goings had spurred the other prey who Albion was subservient to in some way despite the fact that it had been over a day by the Grimm's reckoning; this was to Albion's detriment however and the hybrid Alpha, reduced as they were in their new, bloated and pupating form could see that the man was tiring by the various drained cups, some of which still steamed with the heat of their already drunk contents which surrounded him and the way that despite this the man raised his gold-rimmed glasses to rub at ice blue eyes which were now bloodshot and laden with dark rings and heavy bags every few minutes

Which Gestalt-Prime, even in this state could see as an opportunity.

They had come to understand what it was that their prey was attempting, beyond the violence which to the Grimm was the natural part of their state of captivity; each new assault was an attempt to establish contact with Gestalt-Prime in a way that the Creatures of Grimm understood and bring forth some tattered remnants of their higher consciousness so that they might be forced to engage in whatever as yet unseen designs the black clad human Alpha who was currently absent might have, all whilst being unaware that the aspect of the Alpha that they sought was present and lurking just below the surface unable to bridge an unfathomable gulf between, with Albion's attempts dredge up something from primal recesses and pluck at the tactical sense which allowed Gestalt-Prime's body to avoid and respond to incoming attacks in a way that suggested capability and thought doing little direct good.

Though they had, finally provided an opportunity.

Albion, exhausted as they were was in the midst of surveying and calculating the damage even as it slowly recovered that his latest attempt to force and establish a connection through which they might communicate had meted out and in order to do so he had deployed several mobile, scurrying things into the fluid filled tank which moved independently of the various armatures and cables which Gestalt-Prime had been unable to integrate into themselves without having limbs severed by Hard-Light planes, each of the things scuttling along surfaces as though the transparent viscous sludge which surrounded them were empty air. Each of the things was an insectoid machine roughly the length of a forearm fitted with six segmented and modular legs attached to a loosely cylindrical body from which a bulbous head covered in sensors and blinking red lights protruded; with a sense of oddly lifelike deliberation before the final approach one of the machines, a robot no doubt of Albion's own crafting began to scramble from the armature it had perched upon, across the twisted and mauled stump of one of the Alpha's four mantis-like primary limbs and finally onto the bony carapace of their contorted and arched backwards form which hung inverted like some foul and tumorous cocoon, deploying several small but relentlessly probing drills from each of its' limbs that began to burrow into the surface of Gestalt-Prime's form all whilst Albion Herringbone made the mistake of focusing more on his various readings than on what was occurring directly before his bleary eyes.

It was then that Gestalt-Prime acted.

Alarms began to blare and scream beyond the confines of the containment tank, with weapons deploying from several hidden places as Albion began calling the robots back and entering several commands however it was too late, the machine which had burrowed its' weaponised appendages into Gestalt-Prime was given the access to the innards of the Alpha that it had sought albeit in a much more final sense as bone parted and nightmare-black tissue gave way and liquefied, its' viscous and protean state both rushing aside like tides in order to allow the machine to sink into the waiting darkness and at the same time creeping upwards inexorably along metallic surfaces to drag and ensnare and expedite the inevitable until finally the robot was subsumed entirely.

It was then that the latest of Gestalt-Prime's transformations began and though outwardly it was small, barely noteworthy distinction in appearance to the hybrid Alpha themselves it was everything as the influx of new information, accompanied by an action so fundamental to their prior being that it formed a keystone and binding agent for their ruined psyche all at once allowed various components of the Alpha's self to be combined once more, though in new and different ways to what had preceded it.

To Albion the transformation and integration of the new material involved the shattered fragments of Gestalt-Prime's Cyclopean and lupine skull shifting and bulging, with the broken and flattened portions of the lower jaw which had been reduced to a mask like state being pushed out as new tissue grew below them, forming muscles and tendons and housings until finally the bone and teeth was left forming armour plating for separating and unhinged jawbone from which the mechanical and segmented legs of the robots protruded to form chittering, grasping mandibles which flexed incessantly and at the same time cracks in the bone around Gestalt-Prime's lone eye appeared, forming circular pits whilst boils with a bloody light within them emerged in a grisly fashion from obsidian flesh along the sides of what might generously be called a neck, though was in fact simply a more narrow portion of their bulging mass until finally they ruptured revealing the various sensors and blinking red lights of the stolen robot; though whether these new additions were simply decorative in the way that a butterfly might sport false eyes upon its' wings or if they were indeed true sensory organs that would allow Gestalt-Prime to see beyond simple sight was something that Albion, in their current state of abject terror had no answer for.

The mangled husk of Gestalt-Prime's savaged mantis-like appendage regenerated at a speed closer to what they had once been capable of and the hybrid Alpha examined the new growth for several moments, comparing it to the remaining three segmented arms of their distended maggot-like mass before reaching out, slow and deliberate and making a point of rapping the limb against the surface of their containment tank; the motion bringing Albion Herringbone's frightened gaze squarely to them and giving Gestalt-Prime the proper opportunity to give the man exactly what it was he had fought so hard for.

When the Grimm spoke it was no longer in the disjointed fragments of words and sentences plucked from jumbled memories and stolen data, instead it was a smooth and basso tone, as though oil had been granted speech yet still with the quality of being comprised of multiple voices at once and projecting a nauseating sense of dread with every syllable, which Gestalt-Prime tried to mitigate and actively suppress.

"You wished to know if I was a thinking being, one you could communicate with….Let us talk human"

Author's Notes:

And that ladies, gents and esteemed others is how you do a cliffhanger.
Also Chapter 69….I want you to know that I didn't have a chapter title and the placeholder was indeed just 'Nice'
Overall Vol.04 of this story feels a little jumbled to me and I feel like it's because of the paradigm shift that the mid-season finale presented and the way that's left me progressing the plot and having to introduce enough new characters that it feels like world-building at the same time but honestly I think that this was still the best way to do things; otherwise second year would have to be four volumes and we'd have too much filler prior to Astra and Wolfram's showdown.

But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
You know things are going good when everyone is happy to be up on a Monday morning.
Survival guide for colleges, new jobs and the like….Sometimes you don't need to know where you're going, just stay next to someone who looks like they do.
Poor Zirconia.
So, missions in a week because obviously we need a proper finale for Vol.04.
"Chasing accolades to the point of excluding everything else….A bad sign for a Hunter" Zirconia keeps dropping little lines like that that we have the benefit of knowing have layers of meaning.
A quick look at the various students from the different Academies, of course the Atlas kids keep looking AJ's way….Also, flying squirrel Faunus might end up being a recurring background character because the idea of them just amuses me.
Qrow Branwen sets his own schedule and absolutely does not do Monday morning classes.
Crow's feet; not sorry.
No but seriously, you can't tell me that he doesn't do the whole Uncle Qrow routine for the orphanage kids that share the campus.
Ruby and Qrow interactions are always fun to write.
Hammerfall Outpost absolutely knows where the Path are, they're just not sharing that information because both parties are working for Nero.
The missing people are the members of different gangs that got killed in Forever Fall on the job with Carmesi and Petrol, the fact they didn't come home has naturally caused some friction.
Of course the extra training Team MARZ were subjected to isn't gonna stop when they're right here with Qrow Branwen himself.
And now, into the spectacle….We haven't had a good throwdown for a couple chapters and honestly, this is RWBY what better way to introduce some of the new teams and establish them as characters with pre-existing realities than have them face off.
Snapdragon Majus, her last name is from the scientific name for the Snapdragon flower.
Coco but theatre kid, that is certainly an aesthetic choice….Her name is Majus so I didn't wanna lean too hard into a warlock type vibe, but that coat is definitely a look.
Oh, she's a talker when she fights….This is gonna have potential.
Her weapons, the Shuffle Kicks….Imagine Mercury's weapons but with more range and versatility.
Tiger has a weapon called Fearful Symmetry; I shouldn't have to explain.
"You're a coward and an imbecile, your insistence of cheap tricks and performing instead of actually fighting is going to get people killed" is definitely the kind of comment that has some history behind it.
So Tiger did end up winning, but not before making sure even the new students figured out that it was a grudge match.
They cheer for their team leader in public because Team TRQS are, despite everything else a cohesive unit when the time comes.
So the R of Team SHMR is Ravi, Tiger's twin….Which gives a fresh context to a lot of Tiger's comments about Snapdragon.
Snapdragon is a gifted kid and a natural, Tiger is someone who trained every single day.
Stygian is a flirt, but not a creep….However Zirconia might just lose her temper at some point.
So yay, hanging out and new friends acquired.
Because what's a Monday without a little gang violence?
So that's obviously one of the battle-suits that Nero provided, Petrol knew that he was gonna have to deal with those gangs at some point and decided to make the first move.
I don't care how gangster you are, if you haven't had to hop into the back of the getaway car and immediately start screaming at the driver you had a good upbringing.
Well, good thing they were getting rid of that car anyway.
Gotta admire the balls on Petrol, Nero told him he wants to hire his crew exclusively and Petrol's response is to go and start shutting down all the other crews because if he's gonna be an exclusive contractor then he's gonna be the only person the client can use.
Carmesi's insults just have a distinct vibe about them that's hard to put into words.
"I think we run the city now" if you only think, then you don't.
"Armed with their partners' natural cheer, exuberance and winning smile and sculpted abs" some thoughts about Regalia there Astra?
Astra understood the objective….Make connections and figure out the social scene in this new academy, whilst also being a thirsty disaster.
Another student who gets additional training, an older student because well….We don't currently have a 'Senpai' team for Team MARZ at the moment.
So for the people who read FADE: Legacy, surprise! I bet you weren't expecting to see any of Eagle's Cousins/Jaune's other nieces and nephews here?
Yes Astra did go full 'Notice me Senpai' on sight, but the context for why makes it almost acceptable….I mean look at that pedigree and then consider that she has all of Snapdragon's natural skill, all of Tiger's drive and all of the connections to make the most of both.
"We can't beat her" well, that's what we call foreshadowing.
Albion has been drinking Monster, Red Bull and Coffee while torturing a Grimm for a whole day because fuck it why not.
There's the balance you've gotta find when interacting with anything that used to be a Geist, everything you use against it runs the risk of being integrated into it….And this idiot slipped up and allowed his pet robot to get eaten.
So only a slight upgrade this time, an actual mouth full of sharp bits and LED lights around a brand new head and neck, which may or may not actually be eyes.
The Grimm literally knocked on the fucking glass.
Okay so, here's the moment we've been waiting for….And Gestalt-Prime has actual speech now, not just scrambled fragments of streamer speak.

Thank you to OrcPaladinArthur for their reviews on the last chapter.
Badger Faunus? Whomst?

As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.