Argus
Yang, pulling the trailer with the rest of the group on it, finally made it to the gates of Argus. Peter, seeing the Atlesian guards coming down to greet them, instinctively zipped up his jacket to better hide his suit. If nothing has changed, it's how his Spider Sense reacts around the military. Great. he mentally groaned. "Excuse me, ma'am." one of the guards said has he held out his hand to stop Yang, "We'll need to be asking you a couple of questions." Yang rolled her eyes in response, "It's standard procedure, ma'am."
"Then you'll have to talk to me." Qrow groaned as he hopped out of the trailer, "She's just the dee-dee. I was a little...under the weather." The two guards looked at each other and nodded. "You guys go lock up the bike and grab your things. I'll catch up with you soon." Yang nodded and she rode the bike to the storage lockers located just outside the gates of the city.
When at the lockers, Oscar looked up to see the massive wall that surrounded the city. "Probably what keeps this place warm." Peter mentioned.
"I'm sorry?" Oscar asked with a confused face.
Peter pointed up to the walls and then back where they came from. "You didn't notice? Back there it was frozen, ice cold, a regular winter wonderland. The whole topside region of this continent seems to be pretty frozen over." Peter smiled and gestured to the town, "But this place isn't. Why do you think that is?" he wagged his finger as he smile grew larger, "I have a theory that these walls protect from dangers. Both physical and elemental. Hell, this whole city probably has a grid to give it some sort of synthetic weather patterns. Maybe it's some sort of weather machine!" Peter gasped at the thought, "But would Atlas really be so insane as to make something as dangerous as that?"
"Or," Blake started, "Maybe they just realized they could heat everything from underground." she cocked an eyebrow, "Think about it. Snow lands, it melts, enough melted snow goes to the sewer system, where it goes to a water treatment facility. Water is treated and is used for everyday use. Be a lot faster than going to the hills over there and manually getting ten gallons of snow just to melt into a gallon of water."
Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Or it's because it's the coast and it rarely snows on the coast?" she scoffed, "Honestly you two, not everything is some weird government conspiracy or weird science project."
Weiss began walking away with Oscar, Ruby and Maria following close behind. Yang, now finished with locking up her bike walked up to Blake and Peter and let out a scoff, "Looks like Atlas has her hardwired to believe all the cover-ups they tell the public. Keep your third eyes open, guys!" the three of them shared a laugh and they soon followed the others into the city.
When the group walked through the gates they could see the immediate hustle and bustle of the every day life in Argus. There was a lot of people at the gate, probably there to greet people they were expecting. The train that the kids took to Argus wasn't the only one after all. Despite lack of communication, work still must be done. So it's safe to assume, in Peter's mind, that the people here likely came on a different train and were here either for work or to visit family. The group began looking around, hoping to find any sign of Jaune and the others. Thankfully, they wouldn't have to look hard.
Peter's ears perked up at the sound of panting. Looking to his left he saw Nora slide and screech to a halt, "Cute. Boy. OOOOOOZ!!" She shouted out with glee, pointing directly at Oscar. The poor boy didn't even have time to react as Nora tackled him to the ground in a hug, "Come here you!"
"Are you all okay?" Ren asked as he and Jaune quickly followed after Nora, "We were so worried. Ren went and hugged Peter before hugging Yang. Jaune gave Blake a shoulder hug before he and Weiss exchanged smiles. Oscar, now free from Nora, gained help from Peter as the hidden vigilante lifted the young farm hand to his feet.
Yang sighed and rubbed the back of her head, "Honestly, it's just been one crazy trip."
"That's an understatement." Weiss smirked.
Nora looked up from her proned position and pointed up to Maria, who had just walked up behind Yang with Qrow not far behind. "Wait...who's the old lady?" she questioned, receiving a sigh from Ren who seemed displeased at his childhood friend's rudeness.
Ruby stood silently, her hands clasped against each other. She looked over to Jaune and he looked to her, both gave had expressions of relief as they embraced in a hug. The two separated and looked at each other, Jaune nearly on the verge of tears. "Hey," Ruby said with a smile, "I promised, didn't I?"
Jaune let out a chuckle as he wiped away a tear, "Yeah, you did. It's good to see you guys."
"Hey, that crying better be because you're relieved to see us and not have to deal with Deadpool anymore; as opposed to, being relieved to see us because you thought we died!" Peter laughed.
Jaune chuckled again before clicking his tongue, "Eh, bit of both." He and Peter laughed before they embraced in a hug themselves. Jaune cleared his throat before gesturing towards the middle of town, "So, shall we get going? We can take you to where we've been staying." Jaune, Nora and Ren lead the group to a trolly that they would take.
Looking around, Peter noticed the homes had a lot of...verticality. Two story homes with not a lot of space in terms of width. Many of these homes sat on a large grade, "Place kinda reminds me of this city on the west coast back home. San Francisco: The Bay City." he explained, "Only...a lot more cold." he then chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head while the group got on the trolly to travel through town, "Of course, I have never been there myself. Kinda just basing my information off movies set there and the rare chance the Giants travel to play the 'Niners."
"What?" Weiss asked.
"Oh, they're sports teams." Peter mentioned, causing Yang to chuckle, "What? What's so funny?"
"Since when do you watch sports?" Yang asked, trying not to laugh.
"Always!" Peter defended, "I'm a Giants fan and a Mets fan." While the teens continued through the city, Peter took notice of the environment. Lots of well paved, well kept, walkways and roads. Shrubs lining the roads, it was actually really pretty with how the city tried to keep itself. He saw a couple people jogging past them going up the hill as well as countless other citizens just minding their business heading who knows where. It was a lot more peaceful than the last few places he's been, especially compared to Mistral. Peter then noticed something peculiar. He saw snow on the rooftops, he saw snow on the lampposts and statues, even the shrubs. But there was no snow on the ground! Anywhere! "Heated roads and walkways. Blake was right." he gasped quietly, Blake heard him with her enhanced hearing and let out a snort.
"Lot bigger than I thought it would be." Yang said with a whistle as she leaned against the window of the trolly. She then preemptively hit Peter on the chest, "Don't say it." Peter couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Speaking of inappropriate jokes, I can't help but notice we're missing our annoying mercenary." she noted, "So...where'd Deadpool run off to?"
Jaune practically jumped in surprise at the question, "Oh! He's...safe." he said with a nervous chuckle causing the others to give him questioning glances while Nora and Ren just cringed.
"To answer your previous question, Yang," Ren started, hoping to quickly change topics, "Argus is actually one of the largest non-capital cities in all of Remnant."
"No way!" Ruby gasped in surprise. Even Peter was shocked by that information. "Wait, wouldn't it be hard to settle something this big away from the main kingdom?"
"That's probably why Atlas has their largest out-of-country military base around here, Rubes." Peter mentioned as he lightly tapped his leader on her shoulder.
"That's pretty close actually!" Jaune said enthusiastically, "It was definitely hard to settle here, you know, until Mantle showed up." he explained, "Early settlements in Mistral...didn't exactly go well. But, colonists from Mantle were able to help them brave the cold climate in return for goods that Solitas couldn't provide."
"So basically...everything that isn't ice?" Peter joked.
"And wine," Qrow added as he took a swig from his flask, "They have a HUGE winery in Mantle."
"The two nations worked together to create a hybrid city." Ren continued, "While still falling under Mistral domain, Atlas keeps a military presence here to help keep the people safe and to keep trade between the two nations steady." As the two boys explained this Peter was able to see kids playing at a park, city workers fixing a pipeline, people having coffee at outdoor cafe's. It's weird how much this reminds me of home. Peter thought, This place isn't really that close to Vale in terms of style, but I guess it's good enough these days. Vale? Ero asked, Not New York? Peter blinked a few times and realized what he was thinking, Yeah I meant New York...obviously. You hesitated. Shut up!
"Steady...until recently." Nora sighed leading Ren and Jaune to frown.
The trolly finally came to a stop as the group was now well within downtown, getting pretty close to the bat actually. "We should probably start looking for a ship." Yang mentioned as the group got off.
"The sooner the better." Peter nodded, "But also a place to rest, because four days of switching between Blake and Yang as drivers was absolute hell. One drives really fast, the other seems to hit all the bumps in the road! Both make for difficult sleep." he complained as he put his hand to his face. Peter's eyes then shot open in realization, "Hey, wait a minute. You guys said you had a place to stay, right?" Jaune nodded, "Where?"
Jaune chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. He was about to say something when a woman called out to them, "There you are!" Behind Jaune, and across the street was an blonde woman. Looking to be somewhere in her late twenties or early thirties. She wore a beige vest with an orange tank top underneath, as well as brown pants that had orange laces on the outside of the thighs and brown winter boots. Peter also noticed the woman was holding a small child, no older than two or three years old. The baby had a light tan complexion, brown hair and eyes and wore a white long sleeve shirt with thin blue stripes. Over that he wore overalls. The woman waved and smiled as she chuckled.
Yang blinked a few times, "Wait, is that--?" her and Peter said at the same time.
"Hey...Saph." Jaune said as he slowly raised his hand to wave. Ruby gasped as she began looking back and forth between Jaune and the woman named Saph. "Guys, this is my eldest sister."
The group was shortly taken to Saph, or rather, Saphron's home. It was nice two story home on the hill, much like the others as Peter had noticed. A bunch of cookie cutter homes all lined up didn't surprise him. Inside was quite pretty though. To the left of the entrance was a small kitchen and to the right was a stairway. The middle was a living room with two couches and a round coffee table in the middle. The interior boasted red walls and cream colored suade furniture. On the left side of the living room was a large bookshelf with dozens of books reaching all the way down the shelf. Behind the couches was a were glass double doors that led to the small backyard that was littered with toys.
In the room, Saphron, Jaune, Ren and Nora sat on the couch that faced the front door. Maria, Oscar and Ruby sat on the other couch that faced the stairs, below them sat Yang, Weiss and Saphron's son, Adrian; Yang was playing with Adrian by having a toy Bullhead fly over him before she gave it to him so he could do the same. Qrow and Blake decided to stand by the bookshelf, and Peter thought about hanging from his webs...but something told him that was a bad idea so he opted for standing next to Nora.
"I can't believe I'm meeting your sister!" Ruby exclaimed, "Oh, I have so many questions!"
"Oh, I can give you the rundown later." Nora said with a wave of her hand and an extremely smug smirk.
"Hey, as long as this one doesn't try to arrest me." Peter stated. He looked to Jaune who's eyes widened and he was quickly making a cutting motion with his hand by his throat to tell Peter not to mention it.
"Arrest you?" Saphron asked, "Did you get in trouble with the law?"
"Misunderstanding!" Jaune said quickly, a nervous smile ever present on his face, "Peter here was a freelance photographer on the side and was getting pictures of Spider-Man back in Vale. Sierra thought he was tampering with evidence."
"Ugh, Spider-Man." Sierra groaned immediately making Peter's heart sink, "Such a dangerous person. You have no idea how worried I was whenever I saw him make the news. He blew up the docks at Vale, rammed a train through a wall and let hundreds of Grimm into the city, he evaded and harmed military personnel. He does whatever he wants and answers to nobody." she sighed, "I'm actually shocked Sierra had let him go."
"Well," Jaune gulped, "he DID save her. You know? The guy is trying to do good. He's a hero!"
"He's a menace." Saphron argued. Ouch. Hadn't heard that insult in a while. Peter thought. "I appreciate him saving Sierra, really, I do. But what he does, and how he does things? It isn't right. He's no huntsman and certainly no officer of the law. He's some vigilante." she sighed, "I know you want him to be like the heroes you read in comic books. But the reality is nobody's moral compass is that great. There's always and ulterior motive." Saphron then clicked her tongue, "Ah, we don't need to talk about that though. Let's talk about you!" she teased as she grabbed Jaune by his cheeks, "After all I love talking about my baby brother." The others laughed at Jaune's expense, but they knew...they could feel the atmosphere get tighter in this home. Peter zipped up his jacket a little more, making sure none of his suit got exposed. It's clear that if found out...he wouldn't be welcome here.
Jaune feeling annoyed, both from what Saphron had said unknowingly at Peter and also her treating him like a child, got her hands off him, "Stop that. I'm not a baby, that is a baby." he pointed to Adrian and folded his arms. Adrian looked up to Jaune and tilted his head slightly, then once he got a good look of Jaune's expression, he mimicked him.
"Oh!" Yang and Weiss said in unison as they baby talked the the child. Yang then looked back to Peter, the look of seeing how precious Adrian is still apparent on her face.
Qrow looked to Yang and then to Peter who's eyes widened slightly and a blush forming, "Hey, hey. Shut that down. Last thing we need is two chuckle-wits running around."
"Two Yang's running around would be kinda punny though." Peter replied gaining a click of the tongue from Yang.
"I meant two of you." Qrow groaned.
Blake smirked, "You know, Peter has two brothers. And according to him they all look alike." Qrow let out a long groan at just the thought, "Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky and meet them one day." Again, Qrow groaned leading to the teens to laugh at his expense. While chuckling, Blake looked onto the bookshelf to see a photo of what she assumed was of Jaune, Saphron and all their siblings, "So, Saphron," she began, "Are you the only Arc living out here?"
Saphron stopped messing with Jaune and smiled, "Yep, moved out as soon as I could. Jaune, Sierra and I are the only one's away from home. Though, to be fair, it sounds like Sierra is leaving Vale and is taking a Commissioner's job back in our home town. So...now I guess only two of us are away from home." she laughed, "I suppose Jaune just wanted to be like his big sisters." she teased.
"What?" Jaune asked, "I...uh..." he was at a loss for words.
Saphron smirked and leaned closer to her sibling, "You didn't deny it!" she teased as she pinched his cheeks again.
Peter wanted to laugh, but really he was just to worried and self conscious about being here now. If Saphron were to figure out who he was then he may jeopardize everybody else's stay. He gulped and began heading to the kitchen to get some water, maybe it would cool his head. His Spider Sense went off and the front opened. Through the door was a woman who shouted in surprise at seeing someone she clearly didn't recognize in her home. In the excitement the woman had dropped her paper bags of groceries. Thinking quickly, Peter grabbed the first bag as it fell, then he kicked his left leg back and launched the second bag in the air before catching that. As he did that, though, several apples flew out of the bag which Peter caught by moving the bag to their locations as they fell.
The woman held her hand against her chest as she gripped the door. "Great reflexes, kid." she said as she tried to catch her breath. She was a young woman too, about the same age as Saphron. She had a molotto complexion, she had short dark brown hair and eyes. She has a single smooth bang that goes down her forehead and in between her eyes. On her face rested a pair of red framed glasses. She also wore a dark navy collar shirt with a light-blue cardigan, dark-gray jeans and red sneakers. Peter had also noticed a wedding ring on her hand, "Scared the jeepers out of me though, I'll tell you that much."
"My bad." Peter apologized, "I was literally just going for a glass of water." Peter walked to the kitchen with the bags in hand and placed them on the counter. He then then reached for a glass and got some water in the sink. AAAAAAAAAAAH!!! What the hell was I thinking? That was way too suspicious! Relax. Ero stated, trying to calm him down. Relax? How can I relax when after doing that? Do you know what could happen if Jaune's sister figures out I'm Spider-Man!? It usually doesn't end well!
"Everyone, this is my wife, Terra Cotta." Saphron said as she pointed to the woman who walked in. Everyone waved and greeted the woman as she walked into the room and picked up Adrian to kiss his forehead before setting him back down.
Terra laughed as everybody greeted her, "Thank you, thank you." Terra let out quick breath as she realized the situation, "Boy, Saph wasn't kidding when she said there'd be a bunch of you."
"Uh," Peter called out from the kitchen, "I don't mind putting stuff away...but I have no idea where you want what."
Terra chuckled, "Don't worry, I've got it!" she called, "Hun, you mind helping me put real quick?" Saphron nodded and both she and Terra entered the kitchen while Peter came back out and crouched next to Yang.
Adrian looked at Peter and tilted his head. "What?" Peter asked, "Do I have something on my face?" Adrian reached his hands out and Peter went and gave him a light high ten thinking that'd solve the issue. However, Adrian still held his hands out like he was trying to grab something. In an instant Adrian grabbed what he was reaching for and pulled an object that was slightly poking out of Peter's pocket. It was his mask. Peter, Yang, Weiss and Ruby all gasped as they tried to get the mask out of young Adrian's hands...but his grip was surprisingly resilient for a toddler. "C'mon Adrian, let go, you're gonna get me in trouble here."
"Okay!" Terra called out, "Now that that's done, let me have some one on one with my little man." Peter, Yang, Weiss and Ruby began to panic as they bunched up in a group to try and hide the mask. Finally, after coaxing Adrian with his toy, Yang was able to take the mask back and quickly hid it between her cleavage and zipped up her jacket all the way. "What are you kids all bunched up for?" Terra asked as the four all gave nervous smiles, Peter somehow ending up with Adrian in his hands.
"Uh...I didn't really get a chance interact with Adrian." Peter lied, "So I wanted to at least play a little bit with him before giving him to you."
Terra smiled and took Adrian from Peter, "Awe, ish Uncle Jaunie not enough for you." she said in a cutesy voice as she carried Adrian to the couch where she was soon met with Saphron. "Ugh, it's nice to actually get off my feet and relax after work, you know?" she laughed, "Plus I get to spend time with this little guy." she then began poking Adrian's cheeks all over and he laughed in response.
"In that case, you must be hungry." Jaune suggested, "Actually...you all must be hungry. Why don't Ren, Nora and I make some sandwiches. If you don't mind?" Jaune looked to Saphron who just beamed an unbelievably bright smile at him. "Right," Jaune clapped, "Hope you guys like ham and tomato."
"Extra mustard, please." Peter called, "And cut off the crusts!" That comment received a laugh from Ruby, "Don't make fun of me. You pick off the tomato and lettuce from your burgers."
"Euuugh, rabbit food." Ruby grumbled.
"So, you're really okay with us staying here?" Blake asked. The group now had a large helping of sandwiches, enough that Ruby was eating two at the same time.
"Of course!" Terra replied with a wave of her hand before she took another bite of her sandwich, "We're proud to host huntsman and huntresses. I mean," she looked around and noticed Yang's prosthetic arm and the scar Blake had on her abdomen from Adam, "you all risk so much to keep people like us safe. It's the lease we could do." she then looked to Qrow and pointed, "Especially for such an elite huntsman like yourself. Although...I will say I was surprised to hear that you have students helping you. Is that even...legal?"
Qrow didn't say anything at first, it took Ruby hitting him on the shoulder before the drunkard could even start coming up with an excuse. "Erm...of course." he lied, "Think of it as just an extended training mission." Maria rolled her robotic eyes, she was certain the married couple could figure out he wasn't exactly telling the truth. "Trust me," Qrow waved his hand nonchalantly, "I was a professor, even went to the same academy as them. And let me tell 'ya, these kids are way better than we were at their age."
"Some of them...are better than others." Maria said with a chuckle.
Qrow scoffed, "Yeah, well, not better than me. Specifically." he chuckled. Qrow then looked directly at Peter and frowned, "They have a lot to learn before they can even think of surpassing me." Peter himself frowned at the comment, knowing Qrow meant it basically like a threat.
A ringing was heard, breaking the tension. It was Terra's scroll. Terra looked to Saphron who nodded understandingly. Terra then picked up Adrian and gave him to her wife so she could stand up and take the call privately upstairs. "Is...everything okay?" Blake asked as Terra answered her call just before she began to walk the stairs.
Saphron frowned slightly as she bounced Adrian up and down on her lap, "Yeah, it will be." she sighed, "Terra's a technician for the town's relay tower." she explained, "Unfortunately, the military's radar system is also housed there." Saphron clenched her teeth and rolled her eyes, "Guess what's been on the fritz lately and who's getting falsely blamed." Terra, overhearing her wife explain the situation popped her head from the stairwell and pointed to herself, 'Me.' she mouthed. "But, what's your plan for tomorrow?" Saphron asked, "Anything exciting?"
Everyone turned to Ruby who was now double fisting the last two halves of her second second sandwich. Ruby felt all the eyes on her and gave an embarrassed blush before swallowing her food. "Well, we're trying to make our way to Atlas." she explained, Saphron nodded as she seemed to have already gotten that much information from Jaune, "I'd say we'll probably start with the military base." Nora and Ren both looked at each other with frowns.
"So," Jaune chuckled, "We kinda already tried that. Didn't have much choice since we had to wait for you guys...um...it didn't go...super well." he inhaled sharply and nervously pulled his collar.
"Oh come on," Yang laughed, "How bad could it be." Already Peter was rubbing his temples in frustration and the other teens seemed to follow suit.
"Um...remember when you asked, 'Where's Deadpool'?"
Peter began slamming his head against the coffee table, "Oh, God--!"
The group was now at the front gates of the military base which was on a small, really small, rock island just off the coast of the city. The group had walk on a floating bridge structure just to get there. The base itself was mostly built into a natural sea spire that rested attached to the island. Actually, Peter was kinda thinking if it was possible that the whole island was man-made to blend from invaders. Regardless, just inside the gates near the entrance to the main building of the base were a set of cages labeled 'Holding Cells'. In one of those "cells" was Deadpool who definitely took notice that the teens had arrived. "GUYS!" he shouted, "You have to get me the hell outta here! They have had me in this cage for almost a week! THEY'RE TREATING ME LIKE U.S. IMMIGRATION CUSTOMS!"
"Daaaaaaaaaaamniiiiiiit." Peter groaned.
To be continued...
A/N: Hey guys, I'm back. I'm gonna do a couple chapters here before going back to the other story, Huzzah. No, but seriously, it's good to be back and I'm gonna ease into it...with this hopefully being the only mellow chapter. I wasn't sure what I was gonna do for this arc because...well...it's pretty filler at times. No, that's disingenuous, it isn't really filler. It had good ideas at times and it does move the plot along. It just wasn't super well executed. Like, the Adam fight? But he kinda just showed up at the end of the season. I'll try to fix that, somehow as well as the other thing that kinda takes away from the characters'...character. I also don't believe they figured shit out in like a day. The timeline for RWBY has always been jank, like the first season is a whole semester. Then Season 2 and 3 is another semester. 3 and 5 is like a six month period. 6 is...awkward. 7 is probably a couple weeks to a couple months. It depends how long that montage lasts. And Volume 8 is supposedly 2 days, but even I think that's awkward pacing.That's RWBY's true villain, pacing and time. I like volume 6 overall. I think in terms of story it's probably one of the most solid post-Monty. But I think they should have made it longer so that the last half didn't feel so rushed.
Anyways, I'll see you guys next time when we'll see Deadpool and likely how he got into his sticky situation. Remember to Favorite, Follow and leave some Reviews. PM if you have any questions. I usually answer, but FanFiction doesn't always notify me. See ya!