Chapter 17: Adventure is Out There

We're all friends here, right?

"Where do you guys think Jaune goes at 6pm every night?" Russel asked casually as he sipped soda. He laid sprawled out in his bed while Pyrrha read from a Grimm studies book.

"I'm not sure, Russel," Pyrrha answered politely. She was nice like that. Russel liked her. "He has seemed to improve in combat class, so maybe he's been out training. And by improved, I mean stopped dropping his sword all the time."

She and Russel laughed, but Dove continued to polish Hallshot. What was with him? He and Russel were always best buddies since they'd been kids, and now Dove wasn't even looking at him. Well, as much as Dove looked at anyone, given his blindness.

Russel knew what he had to do. He wasn't a heavy hitter like the others. Jaune could lead, Dove was smart, and Pyrrha fought like a motherfucker, but Russel was a background character. He supported the good guys without having his own story. It wasn't something he was bitter over; he actually preferred to be out of the spotlight.

But it did mean that he had to be the team's social glue. His role was to smooth over their personal issues and keep the team working like a well-oiled machine so the others could fight or lead or be smart. Like how he'd made sure Pyrrha wasn't constantly upset by everyone bringing up how she was a celebrity. Russel noticed that she twitched when someone called her the Invincible Girl (or even when someone said the word invincible), so he'd asked everyone to tone it down. Dove hadn't put up a fight, Jaune never called her that, and Pyrrha's new BFF Ruby was happy to oblige. Now, Pyrrha was happier, so Team Adventure's combat score was breaking Beacon records.

That was just who Russel was – the pit crew. He scoped out the team's problems and fixed them so everyone else who was special could focus their 100% on making Team Adventure great. So now that Dove was being mopey, it fell to Russel to sort it all out.

He had a pretty good idea where to start.

"Jaune's really shaping up, isn't he?"

Pyrrha was always happy to talk about Jaune. "Yes, he most certainly is. He really has taken to the role of team leader well. I'll admit, when he first started, I had my doubts. I even thought about offering to train him, but then he started turning things around."

Russel kept his eyes on the soda can in his hand, but he could practically feel Dove tensing as he pretended to do maintenance on Hallshott. They were on the right track.

"I know, right? He seemed underconfident at first, but now he acts like he's got a twelve inch dick." Russel tried to cleanse his brain of the look on Pyrrha's face when he said that. "Hey, maybe that's it. You think he's sneaking off to bang some girl?"

The soda can Russel was holding crunched, splashing him with the sticky drink.

"GAAAH! What the fuck?" he cried out.

"Oh Dust, I'm so sorry! It's my semblance, polarity – I control metal. It went off by accident. I'm sorry. I promise I'll buy you another," Pyrrha apologized. She tended to do that a lot. Maybe when Russel finished on Dove, he could try to unlearn her some of those excessive manners. Or get her and Jaune to fuck. Both would do her a world of good.

"No worries," said Russel. "But does he have a girlfriend? That would explain the confidence boost."

"But not the increase in Arc's combat skill," Dove mumbled.

"Maybe they train then screw. Maybe they train while screwing. Oh, what if it's a different team leader and she's teaching him how to lead? Could be Nora, or maybe Ruby…"

Pyrrha shook her head. "Ruby would never do that to me."

Dove and Russel turned to look at her, and she corrected a little too nervously. "I-I mean, Ruby would never…she's too young for that sort of thing." It was so cute how she tried to pretend like it was a secret. Pyrrha's crush was about a big of a secret as Weiss and her Grimm protector. The news of that had made its way around the school faster than the wildfire that the two met in.

Russel decided to get back on track. "Nah, you're probably right. Jaune's too timid to be sneaking off for secret mid-evening trysts. Dove, what do you think he's up to?"

"I do not know. None of us have seen where Arc goes, so none of us can speak to his mysterious actions."

Time to twist the knife. It would hurt, but some discomfort was inevitable if the team was ever going to get over this. Team Adventure wasn't going to work if one member refused to participate.

"Yeah, but you're probably the second most leader material-y guy on our team. You probably can figure out what he's thinking better than me or Pyrrha."

Pyrrha looked uncomfortable now that it was out in the open. Dove put down his sword. Both seemed to know that Russel was forcing a painful but overdue conversation.

Both spoke at the same time.

"Dove, I'm sorr–"

"I messed up."

"You first."

"No, you."

"I insist."

In the end, Russel had to mediate. He was nice like that. Pyrrha liked him. "Pyrrha, you apologize first. It's probably shorter, and I have a feeling that Dove has got a lot he wants to get off his chest."

Pyrrha heaved out a sigh. This was going to be rough. She often found herself apologizing over nothing, but now she actually had something to be sorry for. Dove had been so disgusted with her behavior that he hadn't even been able to look at her for weeks now.

"Dove, I…I was wrong about you. I talked about things I didn't understand during initiation, and I behaved horribly. You have to understand, as a tournament champion, I never had real friends. Everyone thinks it's all sunshine and roses, but it's not. Everyone put me on a pedestal. People were either so in awe of me or afraid of me that they just assumed me to be impossible to approach. I could only have superficial relationships and fair-weather friends who wanted money or favors from me. But when I came to Beacon, Jaune didn't know who I was. You guys know how he came from an isolated community called Ansel? Apparently, it was so isolated that he never caught wind of some Mistralian Invincible Girl thousands of miles away. I guess I latched onto him and lost all perspective.

"I finally had my first friend, and I got so focused on protecting him. I had seen you two approach him, and then all of a sudden you were giving orders during the initiation, and I lost it. I remembered how people tried to take advantage of me and projected that onto you. You were being nice to Jaune earnestly, you were leading us because you wanted to see our team succeed, and I turned that into some kind of evil scheme. When that Grimm attacked us, you stood alongside Jaune and risked your life to protect him. You were never trying to use him. I'm so, so sorry, Dove. The worst thing is that, in trying to grasp onto my first friend so tightly, I may have pushed away my second one. H-Have I, Dove?"

Dove was silent.

Russel tried to break the tension. "Hah, well I guess I was wrong when I said Pyrrha's apology would be short. But I'm sure it's all water under the bridge. Right, Dove?" Russel nudged Dove. "Right?'

"Nikos, I…I…"

Pyrrha closed her eyes in shame. She was too late. Her hysterical accusations had driven Dove away. Dove, Jaune, even Russel – all of Team Adventure was going to suffer because she was so damn stupid. Pyrrha felt tears begin to pool at the corners of her eyes.

"I asked Professor Port to make me the leader instead of Arc."

Pyrrha opened her eyes.

No, that wasn't right.

The Invincible Girl opened her eyes.

Uuugggggghhhhh. Ruby was so bored.

After getting her butt kicked by the flippy dippy Grimm in Forever Fall, Professuncle Qranwow had forbidden her from sparring with anyone or even coming to Professor Goodwitch's combat class so she could reCoVEr hEr sTreNgTh. Ruby would've sold her soul to the God of Darkness if it meant she could have some action.

Any explosion rang out from outside their dorm room. Dust Yeah! Just what I was hoping for!

Ruby was out the door in a flash of rose petals before her team could even react. Two students were fighting. Sweet, time to witness a sick brawl between…Pyrrha and…

Uh oh. Very uh oh.

To call it a fight was to insult Pyrrha. Dove didn't seem to be attacking, but he wouldn't have had the chance even if he tried. All sorts of metal objects from the hallway pelted him continuously as he tried to flee. Doorknobs, curtain rods, nails from the walls, even scrolls from other students who'd stepped out of their rooms to see what was going on. Dove was lucky he hadn't been wearing his armor. Based on the ferocity of Pyrrha's attacks, she might've been willing to crush it and choke the life out of him. Russel watched with sheer terror written on his face as his teammate tore into his partner.

"You piece of garbage! How long did you wait before stabbing him in the back? A day? Two? You couldn't be bothered to give him a chance before you tried to usurp him, you monster!"

"I'm sorry–"

"I bet you were laughing on the inside when I apologized!" She imitated Dove. "Hahaha, Nikos is such a dumb female. Telling me how I'm such a good friend to Arc when I did my best to fuck him over in the FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL!"

A ceiling light tore out of its fixture. Dove would've been caught in a shower of broken glass and fragmented metal if Ruby hadn't pushed him out of the way.

"Ruby!"

Akoúo̱ whizzed through the corridor and abruptly stopped above Ruby's head. It floated there and rendered the hailstorm of glass and steel harmless. Pyrrha's barrage stopped now that her friend was in the line of fire.

"Pyrrha, you need to stop! You're going to hurt him."

"He still has aura," Pyrrha gritted out, glaring at Dove.

"Pyrrha, please!"

"Listen to her Pyrrha," said Russel.

The Invincible Girl turned on him. "Did you know? Tell me!"

"No! I swear, I didn't! But you can't kill Dove."

"I'm only roughing him up. I'm not going to kill him, but he would deserve it."

Horrified, Ruby looked at Dove as he lay defeated on the floor. What could he have done that was so bad to put kind, polite Pyrrha on the warpath?

She voiced this question, and Pyrrha spit out the answer with rancor.

Oh.

That would do it.

Ruby reached above her head and grabbed Akoúo̱ out of the air with both hands. She then smashed it onto Dove's head. His aura broke as he slumped down. Ruby couldn't tell if it was from unconsciousness or shame.

"Now we're all done," Ruby said.

"Pyrrha! Russel! What's going on?!"

Jaune stood in the other end of the hallway. "Dove!"

He ran over to his downed friend teammate, but Ruby stopped him. "Jaune, I think there's something Pyrrha would like to make you aware of."

"But Dove is–"

"It's about Dove. And you'll want to hear it from her, or you might not get the full story. You might just get a heap of lies."

Ruby walked with Pyrrha and Jaune towards Team Adventure's dorm room. She wasn't directly involved, but she figured they might benefit from having an independent party involved, especially since she was a team leader herself.

Russel was looking down at Dove, who in fact turned out to be still conscious. Ruby saw a mixture of sympathy and disgust on Russel's face, but disgust won out. He joined the others in their dorm without offering to help Dove up. Maybe Russel was a good guy after all.

Team Adventure closed the door on Dove Bronzewing.

Omake

Pyrrha: You can't even look me in the eye, you coward.

Dove: *maniacal laughter* I can't look anyone in the eye, you fool. I'm blind!

Next Chapter: Sun's Out Guns Out – In which a trip to the docks turns out to be quite revealing for two Faunus.