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Cerulean woke up early, before the sun had even risen, and enjoyed his time. The hotel he'd gotten with the Lien that was dropped into his account - one that Qrow's man had set up for him, Guiding Light told him - had been more than enough for a night at a decent hotel. And he enjoyed its shower, where he cut away the stubble he'd grown and cut his hair short enough to be comfortable again, and the complimentary breakfast the little Ghost ordered up for him. It was simple fare, scrambled eggs and cheese with a couple biscuits and sausage, but it filled him up and kept him running happily enough.
So, pulling on his armor as the sun dusted the horizon, he asked, "You read the brief?"
"Right after you did."
"Anything you noticed?"
"You read it too, partner." His Ghost sighed playfully, "That forgetful?"
"That careful." He corrected him with a smile as he picked his helmet up off the table he was sitting at and pulled it on, comforted by the feeling of it enclosing him once more. Already, he could see the habit forming, as little as there was he could do to avert it. Setting that aside he said, "Let's hit the bullet points. We have time to burn."
"I suppose so…" His Ghost relented, "Very well then. To start - Mountain Glenn."
"It's outside the city." He nodded, "On the other side of the mountain range."
"Indeed. Original construction began in Vale proper, digging out, securing and building a rail-line through to an enclosed area where construction began on a multi-leveled settlement that was to be a proper extension of the Kingdom-city itself." Guiding Light nodded, no doubt digging through online sources to present the information if he hadn't already. "After some description of a 'riot', whose cause is unknown-"
"Faunus?"
"Possibly." Guiding Light chirped, "Regardless, at the same time, Grimm breached the outer-defenses. Reports say they were drawn by the negativity. Evacuations were undertaken but… The Grimm breached the train tunnels before most could escape."
"Casulaties…?"
"Thousands dead." Guiding Light answered quietly, "The tunnels were sealed thoroughly using explosives planted by Hunter teams, many of whom also perished in the ordeal. I suspect the White Fang cleared them for their own ends."
"Mhm." He nodded, absorbing the tragedy of it… There was nothing he could do, of course, and he knew that. But even so he couldn't help the sour taste it all gave him. Ignoring it, he asked, "Why set up in there, though? So many Grimm, it can't have been easy."
"Somehow I doubt they're used to doing things the easy way…" Guiding Light chuckled weakly, "Regardless, a part of our purpose, alongside the other teas being dispatched, is to find out the answer to that question."
"Fair enough."
"And on that note…"
"We meet them in an hour." He nodded, "I know."
"Good." Guiding Light chirped, "Wanted to make sure you didn't forget that, too."
"I didn't forget, I just-"
"I know, Guardian." His Ghost chuckled, rising with him as he stood from the table and rolled his shoulders. "Still… The briefing for contact protocols has me a bit concerned."
"Hm?"
"It says… Well, it says we're merely looking for evidence of survivors. But under that, under 'rules of engagement', it merely says 'free'. Which implies…"
"More."
"Indeed." He bobbed to the side suddenly, almost like he was cocking his head, when Cerulean's Scroll went off on the table. And then, as if it was tied right into him, said, "An officer is awaiting you in front of the hotel presently, and will transport you to the unit you will accompany."
"Atlas doesn't trust me to show up on my own?"
"Atlas is discussed online as being rather controlling…"
"Hmph." He sighed, pulling his rifle onto his shoulder and adjusting his axe on his belt. "Let's go, then."
The halls were still sparsely populated at dawn, and understandably so, with as many people checking in after a long night who drunkenly stared and called after him as there were people checking out who stared more quietly. And, he was sure they expected, more subtly, too. He didn't pay them much mind, though, until he stepped onto an elevator with a child no older than five and who he assumed was her mother, dressed in loose and comfortable clothes and with little ram-horns curled along the sides of their heads.
After a moment, as they descended, the girl asked, "Are you a Huntsman?"
"Ray," her mother chided, reaching down to poke the top of one of her thinner horns, "don't bother him."
"She isn't." He grunted, turning and looking at the woman. When she shrugged, he looked down and chuckled as the girl sort of… Scrunched down and into her mother's leg, nervous now that he was looking at her. Even so, he said, "I am."
"Thank you…"
"For?"
"Fighting the monsters." She said, looking at the floor and twiddling a finger in the hem of her shirt. "They're scary."
"They are." He nodded, "But people like me will deal with them."
"Promise?"
"I promise." He nodded, looking up as her mother cleared her throat.
"Our house was damaged by a Grimm that got in." She explained, smiling apologetically, "She's… Nervous about them, now."
"Ah." He hummed before, slowly, kneeling down and leaning over to meet the girl's eyes. Quietly, he said, "You know, I met a little girl a lot like you. On my mission, before I came back and fought in the Breach."
"Like me…?"
"A faunus." He nodded, "Scared of the Grimm. I found her, hiding in the woods. And kept her safe. Brought her to Beacon."
"Really?"
"Mhm." He nodded, reaching out to rap his armor knuckles against her shoulder gently. "Hunters protected her, and we'll protect you, too. So don't be scared, okay?"
"Okay." She nodded, eyes flickering side to side before she asked, more curiously, "What kinds was she?"
"Hm?" He blinked, "Ah. She was a turtle Faunus, her name was Teal."
"Did she have a shell…?"
"She did." He nodded, standing as the elevator dinged and slid open. He let them go first and watched them walk away, the little girl waving as she went, and asked, "Guiding Light, can you draft a message to Goodwitch?"
"To ask about the girl?"
"Mhm."
"I will." He answered, "And good work, Guardian."
"Mhm." He turned as he felt someone paying him, specifically, attention and met the gaze of a steely-eyed woman in a nice uniform, with her white hair tight into a tight bun and a saber hanging off her hip.
"Cerulean, correct?"
"Mhm." He nodded, turning and resting a hand over the head of his axe comfortably. "Can I help you, Miss…?"
"You're joking."
"No?" His brows furrowed, "What would I even be joking about?"
"Not knowing who I- Nevermind." She sighed, waving the matter off with a hand in a gesture that looked very much like she was trying to air-dry it after discovering there were not towels, flicking water away from herself and grimacing. Moving on, she said, "I am Specialist Winter Schnee. The one in charge of the operation you will be joining in on."
"I see." He nodded, holding out a hand, "Pleasure to meet you, Ma'am."
"Indeed." She shook it and turned, gesturing with her head for him to follow and talking as they walked, passing out into the still-quiet - at least for a city, he supposed - streets. "I've heard about your activities, so I came to meet you myself, or else I'd have sent along a simple liaison."
"Oh?" He hummed, "Is there a problem?"
"You have performed above expectations on your operations. Even saving lives where others would have reasonably left them behind." The Specialist observed, flicking her a look, "All of which is commendable, if a bit… Anomalous, for a mere frontiersmen."
"I'm talented." He shrugged, "And as lucky as I am hard to put down."
At least permanently…
"So I hear." She nodded, taking a long stride to step ahead of him and adding, with something of an edge to her voice, "And I hear you're somewhat… Sympathetic, to the Faunus as well."
"Oh dear…"
"That a problem, Specialist?" He asked, taking a long step of his own so he could turn and meet the woman's gaze.
"It can be," she answered sharply, pulling him to a stop at a crosswalk and adding, "considering we're fighting them."
"The Fang and the Faunus are separate, Specialist." He growled, turning and looming close, into her space, to make it clear that the matter could not be argued. Not so far as he was concerned, at least. Pointing past her, toward the square the Breach had happened in where he could already see cranes being hoisted to rebuild, he added, "The Faunus did not do this."
"Some would disagree." She argued, "Some would say this is born of the Faunus.
"Some would be fools." He shrugged, shaking his head and stepping back, raising his chin to ask. "Are you a fool?"
Her eyes narrowed and her lips thinned but, as the light turned green, she only turned and grunted, "Come on then. We've a bit of walking yet, to get where we are going. And can't waste time if we don't want to be tardy."
"Mhm."
"And for what it's worth, I'm no fool, Cerulean." She offered under her breath, ignoring him and staring straight ahead when he turned to her. "I am only… Concerned. That, if it comes to it, you may not be willing to do what needs to be done when we face the Fang down. You would not be the first I've seen freeze when you find a person, rather than a Grimm, at the end of your sword…"
He flicked her a look before he grimaced and turned, staring at the ground ahead of them and sighing. "We'll see what happens…"
"Yes," she nodded, "we will."
He only hummed, distracted by what she'd said… But not enough to catch the last bit, and notice the way her hand tightened around the hilt of her saber.
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Eventually, the Specialist lead him to the same docks he had launched from to head to Pinewood. Except now it was quiet and, for the most part, empty. Bays one through six were occupied, though, by sleeker looking Bullheads with Atlesian markings and small pods for missiles nestled under the wings, a foot or so away from the turbines which themselves looked to be built on a more loose hinge. Presumably to let it orient more easily and quickly.
One had a woman in armor like he'd seen Atlesian soldiers wearing after the Breach, with her helmet tucked under her arm and against her hip and a rifle hanging from a strap across her chest. She was taller than he was by a bit, with dark skin and bob-cut dark blue hair that clashed with her bright, scarlet eyes.
She snapped a salute as Winter reached her and then grunted, "This him?"
"Indeed." The Specialist nodded, gesturing at him with a hand, "Cerulean, a Hunter on pay to fill in on your squad. Cerulean, this is Corporal River."
"Good to meet you."
"Not really." The woman sighed, running her fingers through her short hair, "If we're meeting then that means someone needs getting shot at."
"Not necessarily…"
"We're Kingdom Security." The woman sighed, shaking her head tiredly and tapping a little wolf's head emblem barely as wide as his thumb on the center of her chest piece, "Not Mobile Infantry."
"Meaning…?"
"Kingdom Security is trained thoroughly to fight internal and external threats capable of strategic thinking, mobilization and application of combined arms to varying extents." Specialist Schnee explain in a clipped, tight sounding voice. "In short… Counter-terrorism."
"Meaning they are trained more to fight people than Grimm." Guiding Light murmured in his ear, voice laced with something approaching dread. "This is, as the briefing suggested, certainly not just an investigation."
"Mhm…"
"What'd the briefing say?"
"Investigation for remaining White Fang and whatever their goals were." Cerulean grunted, answering before the Specialist could. Quietly, he added, "Details were hazy about what to do if we find anyone."
"Simple," River said, smirking toothily, like a cat with a mouse pinned between its paw and the ground, "bag the high value ones who might know something, and put the rest in the ground."
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Blake hesitated at the edge of Beacon's light, splashing across the woods that already obscured her in long, bright pseudo-fluorescents. She turned back, looking up at the Academy and at the dorms where her team would be heading after their showers, ready to complain about their mission, the fight- Everything. Yang would make hot chocolate like she promised Weiss, of all people, and Ruby would smuggle cookies out of the cafeteria.
And they'd all come back, wondering where the hell she was…
But she couldn't rest. Her time at Beacon had started with death, and now more had died. And more would yet, if she couldn't do… Something. Anything. Because if Atlas launched one of their reprisals, and it was the main Vale cell that had done all of this…
"No Faunus will sleep in peace if Atlas gets free reign in Vale…" She murmured, kneeling and throwing herself against a tree on old, ingrained instinct as an Atlesian Bullhead drifted by overhead, casting lights down into the forest in a standard patrol route.
Quietly, she slipped into the forest.
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Lea :
Practical armor choices DO cause problems lmao.
HelloEver :
No problemo!
MM browsing :
I would say a couple weeks, maybe three, until Festival start. With the Dance in between those iirc on canon.
BD Skunkworks :
Uh, dunno where this wire got crossed, but-
Jaune died in this, waaaaay before the Breach. Cerulean is Jaune resurrected by Light.
Lightning Lord Kaji :
The helmet is a full one and thus muffles his voice a bit. So no one recognizes it well - and would assume he just sounds like Jaune even IF they heard his voice and thought they recognized it. Like, would you assume the lady is your mom months after her death or that she SOUNDS like her? Lol
Cousin687 :
Other elements will show up, depending on how you define that word lol. However I WILL say that I don't plan on making new Guardians.
Dinoguy :
Not leadership, per se. More like… Heavy support, and a guiding hand.
Wdog :
Why would they? He never really met Ozpin except by proxy, and here and now there's something more important than Cerulean's face to deal with. No one has asked because no one has had reason and time to do so.
CNwamadu :
It is more inclusive. I don't care if people think 'men' somehow magically includes women, to me it does NOT.
So when regarding people as a whole I say 'Hunters' since they are (semi)canonically also referred to as 'Hunters of Grimm' and I prefer inclusivity in my terms. 'To taste' and all that ya know?
Poofy Ohio :
CRDL canonically assaults another student, in a cafeteria, based on her race. Irl, that would merit expulsion immediately - if not criminal charges, if the victim was willing to press charges, but expulsion is regardless of this. CRDL gets no such thing. They are shown multiple times making racist remarks and abuses against students and NOT showing them being punished is, so far as I am concerned, an assertion it is protected enough for them to not be.
This is setting aside, like, hate crime laws which would similarly probably apply.
Blake asserting such discriminatory laws and the ones we SEE - in Mistral there's literally a 'No Faunus' sign - it's more than reasonable, imo, to assume Beacon can't do much.
You are free to disagree but, respectfully and genuinely so, this is where things stand so far as I see and I'd prefer to move on.
