Chp. 12: Aces and Wild Cards
Atlas Academy, Atlas
Headmaster's Office
A couple of hours had passed as Keaton, Alex, Cassandra, Bulldog, Steel, Ice Pick, and Missionary were all inside General Ironwood's office by themselves waiting for Lieutenant Colonel Olive Harper to arrive.
"She's supposed to show up anytime now," Cassandra said.
The doors open, catching everyone's attention. A young woman enters the office through the doors. She has short black hair, olive eyes, and has a light brown complexion skin. She wears a standard Atlas military uniform consisting of a white sleeveless coat that reached down to her knees and wrapped halfway around her right leg. Her coat has a blue collar top, matching accents, silver brooches on her shoulders, a black belt with a silver buckle around her waist, a red pin on the right side of her chest, and two red crescent shaped stripes on her right hip. On her forearms were a pair of silver arm guards with a vertical blue stripe and a pair of black arm warmers underneath. She also wears a pair of blue and black trousers and a pair of blue knee high boots. This is one of the Atlas military's top ranking officers, Lieutenant Colonel Olive Harper.
Harper walked up to the seven Americans as they all stood in attention.
"I take it that you're the Lieutenant Colonel?" Keaton asked.
"Yes, Captain Gordon. You guys did the right thing by coming to see me at Bram Thornmane's recommendation," Harper answered.
"Lieutenant, would you happen to know anything about where that orb came from?" Cassandra asked.
"No, it all sounds very unusual to me. It's probably nothing worth losing sleep over," Harper answered.
"We found it just after we had finished fighting off an onslaught of Grimm alongside the Ace Operatives," Keaton said.
"Sounds like you guys made quite the scene," Harper said.
"Ain't that the truth," Steel said.
"If it is Atlas military tech, isn't it strange that it would be there without General Ironwood's knowledge in the first place?" Bulldog asked.
"Tell you what. If it'll ease your minds, I'll put some feelers out and research this for you. Just follow up with me later. By then, I'm certain I'll have found a lead," Harper replied.
"That would be great," Keaton said.
"It'll take a bit, but in the meantime, the Ace-Ops will soon be arriving to speak with you about your next mission," Harper said before pausing and looking out at the door hearing footsteps. "Ah... I do believe that's Clover I'm hearing out in the hall right now."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Keaton said as he gave a salute as Harper saluted back in response.
As the Americans started to leave, Alex looked behind him as he saw Harper pull out her Scroll and start going over it. Cassandra turns her head to Alex and notices him looking at Harper.
"I saw how you were eyeing the Lieutenant, Alex," Cassandra said with a smirk.
"What can I say? She's quite a looker," Alex said.
The Americans all exit out of the office and saw Clover out in the middle of the hall. The marines and soldiers approached the leader of the Ace-Ops.
"Your timing is impeccable! We're about to have our daily Ace-Ops assembly. I'd like you guys to join us today," Clover said.
"Sure, of course we'll join you," Alex said.
"Excellent. The other members of the team are arriving momentarily," Clover said.
Just then, Marrow, Elm, Vine, and Harriet all came and approached the others.
"So, that was the third time I got banned for life from the Atlas Cafeteria. Now the fourth time was the craziest because-" Marrow gets cut off by his team leader.
"That's enough chatter. Let's settle in everyone!"
"I was just getting to the good part," Marrow whined.
"We have special guests for today's assembly," Clover said, gesturing his hand to the Americans.
"Sup, Operatives," Keaton greeted.
"Captain Gordon and his men here have just successfully taken down a Megoliath on their prior mission," Clover said.
"Nothing we couldn't handle," Missionary said.
"Congratulations, you guys! We're glad you all could join!" Elm said.
"Today, as you all know, all Ace-Ops will be embarking on our individually assigned solo missions," Clover said.
"'Be strengthening oneself, united we grow strong.' Yeah, yeah, we know the drill," Marrow said.
"Precisely! However, today is a bit different. We won't be entirely on our own," Clover said before turning his attention to the Americans. "I'd like the Ace-Ops to be able to lean on you for our missions today."
"Roger that. We'll be with you," Bulldog said.
"Such enthusiasm!" Elm said.
"Don't you mean 'fresh meat?'" Marrow asked.
"Are we sure about this?" Harriet asked.
"Ironwood told us to keep an eye on them," Vine said.
"We're ready when you all are," Steel said.
"We may not be Huntsmen, but make that up with sheer determination," Ice Pick added.
"And now it's time for you to prove it," Clover said. "One more thing, keep a positive energy out there, team. Remember, negative emotions are the very thing that attracts Grimm. Panic, sadness, and anger have no place in our missions. Stay focused, and stay vigilant. You fight not for yourselves, or even the ones you love, but for all of Remnant. All right. You're dismissed. Let's make it happen, people!"
Everyone walked down the hall and off to their assigned missions.
Atlas Main Street
February 25, 2020
A few days had passed as Keaton, Alex, Cassandra, Bulldog, Ice Pick, Missionary, and Steel had been helping out the Ace Operatives in their missions. Right now, the seven Americans were in their undercover attires as they were all sitting at a couple of small tables next to a cafe drinking coffee.
"Those tasks the Ace-Ops gave us were... something," Cassandra said.
"Helping Vine find some archaeological findings at the Tumak Ruins was the only task that had some sensible importance. Helping Marrow find his goggles and getting Elm a grape soda were not even close to important," Bulldog said.
"Well, we killed some Grimm while we were at it," Missionary said.
"So what are we to do after our break?" Steel asked.
"See if any of the Ace-Ops got anything else for us to do," Keaton answered.
Suddenly, an explosion was heard up the street as they all turned their heads to see what was going on. They see several Atlesian soldiers surrounding a building that was on fire with their guns pointed out. Harriet soon dashes up to the soldiers and starts waiting for something to happen.
"Let's check this out," Keaton said.
The Americans got up from their tables and ran up to where the action is. Keaton walks up to Harriet as she readied Fast Knuckles.
"Bree, what's happened? What's going on?" Keaton asked.
"Robbery in progress!" Harriet answered. "You guys are welcome to join us!"
The Americans all got into positions and pulled out their pistols and took aim at the building. Suddenly a few people inside began shooting at the Atlesian soldier as they and the Americans began to open fire. A woman armed with a high tech tommy gun and began opening fire forcing the Atlas soldiers and Americans to take cover.
The woman had long dark brown hair and wore a gray vest with a white dress shirt and a black belt around her waist. She also wore a black coat that was yellow on the inside, matching pants, a pair of brown high heel boots, and a brown holster strapped to her left thigh.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" she shouted with excitement as she continued shooting.
A couple more men came out carrying rifles and started shooting alongside the woman. Alex noticed something off about the guns the two men were carrying. He narrowed his eyes for a moment before gaining a shocked look on his face. Alex turned his head to Keaton.
"Captain, they're carrying our guns!" he shouted.
Keaton, Cassandra, Bulldog, Steel, Ice Pick, and Missionary widened their eyes before taking a look at the guns the two men were carrying. And sure enough, those rifles were American.
"How the hell did they get their hands on our weapons?!" Ice Pick angrily asked.
Another explosion was heard from inside the building, and after a moment two more people came out from the windows. The first was a man with messy brown hair, wearing a gray double breasted coat, dark dress pants, and a pair of brown dress shoes. The most noticeable feature about him was his right arm was a large prosthetic that also acts as a large oversized bat.
The second was a woman with light brown hair that was tied into two long ponytails. She wore a white t-shirt and black cargo pants that was held up by a brown suspender strapped over her right shoulder. She also wore a pair of red gloves and a pair of brown boots. She was carrying a large oversized gold and brown pole grabber.
Two Atlesian soldiers armed with swords charged over at the man with the prosthesis and woman with the grabber. The swung his arm at one of the soldiers sending him flying into a car as the woman latches on to the other soldier with her grabber before slamming him to the ground. Harriet dashes towards the woman with the grabber and hurls a few jabs at her. The woman tried to swing her grabber at Harriet, but the Ace-Op dashed to the side with her semblance. The man with the prosthesis came up and rushed at Harriet and swung his arm at her, but Harriet dodged his attack before giving a punch that knocked him to the ground.
The woman with the tommy gun and the two other men with her all reached into their pockets and each pulled out a smoke grenade. The woman tossed her smoke grenade in front of The man with the prosthesis and the woman with the grabber, while the two other men tossed their smoke grenades in front of them and the woman with the tommy gun. The smoke grenades then explode releasing smoke all around them. Harriet then dashed around the smoke with her semblance in an attempt to blow it away. When the smoke cleared away, the five robbers were gone.
Keaton angrily stomped his way towards Harriet and grabbed on to her arm getting her attention.
"We need to talk!" he said.