It was around 2 PM in Atlas. Atlas Academy and the main military hub were as busy as they usually were; missions were being sent out to various Specialist teams, lessons were underway for some of the students. For most members of RWBY and Zeta Squad, they had some busy schedules, but not all with military matters.
Yang, Blake, Kevin, Min, and Rook had been chosen to deal with a small Creep infestation plaguing one of the Atlesian frontier towns. Ruby and Ben were sent for a quick sweep of Mantle's outskirts with Rex, but after that they had planned a full day for themselves. Ceres was working on...something. She didn't give any details, just that it was important and that she'd be pulling several all nighters. That left Weiss and Kylie with a relatively normal day, or as normal a day as a Huntress and an Osmosian can have.
Kylie arrived five minutes later than usual, she had lost track of time trying to plan the next arc of her story. She had made some progress, but not as much as she hoped. She pressed a button and opened the door to the training room. She peeked her head in and looked around; Weiss was nowhere in sight. It wasn't like her to be late.
Kylie pulled out her scroll and sent Weiss a quick text, asking where she was. It'd probably take a few moments for a response...now to wait.
Around that time, Elm was walking over to the training room, hammer on her back and scroll in hand. She was reading over the report about the Corrodium, specifically its effects on people and Grimm.
"What a horrifying discovery..." Elm muttered to herself. "I gotta make sure I'm in top form if I go up against one of these guys."
She scrolled down through the report some more, almost bumping into Kylie as she walked. She managed to stop herself before actually knocking into her.
Kylie turned around and bumped into her instead. "Ah! Sorry!" She blushed, stepping back.
"Oh! Sorry, that's on me," Elm said as she put her scroll away. "Reading up on those mutant Grimm Ben and Ruby found."
"Ah, yeah...it's...it's a bit hard to believe, isn't it?" Kylie said hesitantly.
"A bit, yeah. You get used to normal Grimm and then someone finds a way to make them worse," Elm sighed.
"Yeah," Kylie said, scratching the back of her head. She had a question in mind-
What was this woman's name again? She knew she was an Ace Op, but beyond that, who was she?
"It's Elm," the Ace-Op said.
"Huh?" Kylie blushed even harder. "How did you-?"
"I've seen that look a lot. People forget names so they always have this look like they're trying to hide something. Not something bad, but still."
"Ah. Well, uh...do you know MY name?"
"Kylie, right?"
"Yeah, Kylie Dombrowski." She nodded. "What brings you here?"
Elm shrugged. "Needed some training done. I usually spar with Vine, but he's busy."
"Funny, my partner's busy too," Kylie noted.
"Huh. Well, wanna spar till one of our partner's shows up?"
"Works for me!" It was the first time Kylie had spared against Elm- she knew her weapon was a hammer, but...that was it. In a world of guns mixed with the weirdest shit possible, a simple hammer was just that. Simple.
"Go easy on me, okay?" Kylie said, only half-joking.
"Alright. No alt-mode for my weapon then." Elm beamed.
Kylie didn't know what that meant. "Right. Well, uh...best of luck!" she said, loading her weapon.
Elm actually took her hammer off her back and checked to see if it was loaded. It was- she took out her rounds and put them in an ammo pouch. Actually, she put the whole pouch on a bench outside the main sparring room. The ammo...were small rockets.
"What the hell?" Kylie asked incredulously. "Okay, time out! What is that!?"
"What?"
"What is with that bag of rockets?" she asked, walking over. "You don't just casually pull that out!"
"That's...ammo for my weapon?" Elm said, confused. To further her point, she had her hammer fold up and retract its handle to show it's rocket launcher form.
"W-wait, your weapon is also a rocket launcher?" Kylie asked. "That. Is. AWESOME!"
"Heh, thanks," Elm said, smiling sheepishly. "It was one of those things where you're wondering 'ok, how do I get range in my weapon too?' Y'know?"
"I dunno why I haven't made my axe into a gun yet," Kylie wondered out loud. "Would be a lot easier to have one total weapon and not two different ones, you know?"
"Oh yeah. When I was making it, I was always asking 'Do I want a hammer or a rocket launcher? Why not both?'" Elm chuckled.
"I just took my violin and wondered what weapon would work best with it," Kylie admitted.
"Sounds like what that Flynt kid thought when making his," Elm said, shifting her weapon back into hammer mode.
"Well, mine's more refined...and not focused on my lung strength," Kylie quipped.
"Let's put that to the test." Elm smirked as she got into position, hammer hefted over her shoulder.
"Well, hold on, I'm just interested in why you just combined a hammer and a rocket launcher. Why those two things?" Kylie asked.
"Well...honestly I was thinking of what weapons would work well with my Semblance. I root myself in place; that takes care of the launcher's recoil and with the hammer, I don't have to worry about getting thrown off balance."
"That's a great strategy, actually." Kylie nodded. She was stalling for one of their partners to come in. No way she was fighting someone with a rocket launcher.
"But you do have an advantage here. I already told you I'm not using the ranged mode," Elm pointed out.
"I know, I know, but I'm not taking chances," Kylie laughed.
"Ha! Fair enough." This should be fun. Elm hadn't really don't much training with the other members of RWBY and Zeta. Really, she only knew the moves of Yang, Blake, and Ben.
"So...uh, what do you do for fun?" Kylie asked, trying not to sweat.
"For fun? I mean...I don't usually have too much leave time," Elm said.
"Really? Are you...just on duty all day, every day? No hobbies?"
"Well, not EVERY day, but most days. I mean we're the best of the best. Not exactly a lot of room to relax there."
"Well, still. No other hobbies?" Kylie pressed.
"Well...hmm." Elm thought for a moment.
Kylie really hoped that she wasn't just working 24/7. She seemed very nice.
"I don't have much time for it, but I'm actually into volleyball," Elm admitted.
"Volleyball?" Kylie blinked. "Well, you certainly have the thighs for it..."
"Heh, yeah, I've heard. People really like pointing that out for some reason." Elm smirked. "Guess a lot of people are into that."
"How good are you at volleyball?" Kylie asked. "I'd rather get destroyed there than in a fight..."
"Like I said, I don't get to practice much, but I'm decent." Kylie wasn't certain if Elm was just being modest or being serious.
"Well, can I see your skills?" Kylie asked hopefully. "I'd like to get to know you better."
Elm looked bemused. "I mean...we can if you want?"
"It'd be a better use of time than waiting around here for our sparring partners."
"Ok...but where could we set up a court?"
"Hmm." Kylie looked around. "Maybe around here?"
"Could work. Though we'd still need a net."
Kylie pointed. "I think I saw one in a closet by the door."
"Alright," Elm said, putting her weapon into its compact off mode before heading over to the closet.
"Ok, where...no that's not it," she muttered as she moved stuff around.
Kylie and Elm began looking around, unaware that the door was closing behind them.
"Ah! Here it is!" Elm exclaimed, pulling the net out from the pile of clutter it was buried under. "Seriously gotta get this place organized better."
Kylie and Elm turned to leave...only for the door to shut and lock.
"What," Elm deadpanned when she heard the lock click.
"Uh oh," Kylie muttered. "That's not good."
Elm walked up to it and tried the handle just in case. No give. She tried forcing the door, slamming into it with her shoulder. Again, no give.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
"Is there a vent in here?" Kylie asked, looking around.
"Vents here aren't-" Elm started before she remembered. "Wait, your Semblance. Related to gasses, right?"
"Yep!" Kylie smiled. "Now, where's the vent?"
As the two looked they found that, unfortunately, there didn't seem to be one here.
"Shit," Elm muttered.
"Hmm...maybe I can sneak under a crack or something," Kylie mused.
"Maybe," Elm said as she went back over the door. "Think you could go mist and slide under the door?"
"I think!" Kylie said, turning into gas.
Elm had to admit, this kind of Semblance was unique, at least to her. She hadn't heard of a full conversion Semblance like this before. Maybe it was just that rare.
"See if this thing needs a key or a passcode," Elm ordered as she watched Kylie pass under the door.
She happily opened the door from the other side. "There!"
"Thanks." Elm smirked, tossing the net over her shoulder and walking out. "Oh, crap, we need a ball. I got one in my quarters. You set up the net, I'll go get it?"
Kylie nodded. "Sure thing!" She went to set up the net while Elm went to her room.
On the way back, Elm passed by Harriet. The speedster was heading to the hangar by the look of her.
"Where are you going?" Harriet said, seeing her teammate.
"Oh, uh, forgot some ammo back in my room. Just getting it real quick," Elm lied.
"...Elm. You had ALL of your ammo pouches when you left. I saw you leave, remember?"
"...oh yeah..."
"What are you doing, exactly?" Harriet sighed.
'I'm still getting some training in," Elm defended herself. "Just...a different kind of it."
"Hmmmm," Harriet mused. "Well, alright...suppose it wouldn't hurt to change it up. See ya." With that she rushed off.
Elm let out a sigh of relief. Knowing Harriet, she probably wouldn't approve of this. Well, she might, Elm didn't really know. In any case, she worked her way back to her room and opened up her closet. She easily found the volleyball and made sure it was full enough. Once that was done, she rushed back to the training room.
"Alright, got it!" she yelled, holding up the ball.
Kylie finished putting up the net. "Alright, sweet! This is gonna be an interesting exercise."
"You know how to play right?" Elm asked as she took to her side of the makeshift court. "Don't want this to be unfair."
"Oh, yeah! Totally." Kylie nodded.
Elm raised an eyebrow at that, not entirely convinced. "Alright, if you're sure," she said. She started off the game herself, serving the ball and hitting it over the net.
Kylie dashed towards the ball, deflecting it with her forearms- yeesh, it hurt.
The game went on for at least an hour, made of multiple rounds. Elm had been modest when she said she was decent at volleyball. If she hadn't decided to enlist, she probably could've gone professionally.
"G-gahhh..." Kylie groaned. "A-what's the score?!"
"Um, I kinda lost count around 15-3," Elm chuckled sheepishly. "I just...got into it."
"It's fine! You're really good at this!" Kylie cheered.
"Heh, thanks. Like I said though, don't get much time to practice."
"Busy on missions? I know the feeling. Can barely find the time to write anymore."
"Yeah...wait, you write?" Elm asked curiously.
Kylie shrugged. "Kinda, yeah. It's a hobby."
"If you don't mind, what do you write?"
"...poetry," she lied, like a liar.
Elm blinked. "Poetry? Huh. Never took you for the type. Vine probably wouldn't tell you himself, but he writes some himself. But it's that special kind of poetry, haikus I think?"
"Interesting," Kylie hummed. "How long have you and Vine been partners?"
"A while. We weren't partners during our Academy days though," Elm added. "Totally different there."
"Wait, really? How was it different from Beacon?"
"Well, see, I was originally part of team BEGE and Vine was on team VVID. When the Ace Ops were looking for new members after we graduated, we both applied and passed."
"Interesting- you guys didn't know each other before? No friendships?" Kylie asked.
"Well, I'd seen him around before. But we didn't really talk before the Ace Ops."
"So, all of you were...essentially strangers." Kylie chuckled. "Reminds me of when I first met Rook and Ceres."
"Really? Huh, starting to see a lot of similarities," Elm said, smiling.
"How well do you get along with your team?" Kylie asked.
"Pretty good. Vine and I work well together. Well, after a few missions we did. Clover's an alright guy too. Harriet's...well...she can be kind of hard to deal with sometimes. She really wants to show that she's better than her roots. Marrow's the newest guy, so he's not used to how we do things yet. And Rex? Well, he's more on your team now, I guess?"
"Yeah," Kylie said, beaming. "You guys sound kinda close knit, like us!"
"It's...not really like that, though," Elm admitted.
"What do you mean?"
"I only know about Harriet's background because of her file," Elm explained. "Clover's an alright guy, but I only ever see him on the job, never outside of the military base. I don't even know what Marrow does in his free time. Hell, the only reason I know about Vine's haikus is because I caught him writing one, one time."
"Wait, seriously? Most of the teams I've met with are friends in some capacity," Kylie said.
"Yeah, I know. It's weird. We're just...teammates, not friends. I don't even know if some of them leave the base. I've NEVER seen Harriet in Atlas when she has leave."
"Wait, seriously?" Kylie shivered. "Freaky."
"I know, right?"
"Yeesh...that sounds pretty-" Kylie's eyes went over to the door. Harriet was walking in.
"Uh, well, gotta go find Weiss! Let's do this again sometime!" Kylie said, not knowing what else to say.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. See ya later, Kylie," Elm said, playing along once she noticed Harriet.
Kylie quickly walked off and took a deep breath. "Auughhhh...that was a close one..."
(But only for Kylie.)
"So, this is what you were doing. You turned one of our sparring rooms...into a volleyball court," Harriet said, unimpressed. "I didn't even know you played."
"I figured. We don't really know that much about each other. And I mean that about the whole team," Elm said bluntly. She could see the look on Harriet's face, one she'd seen plenty of times. This was her 'you broke regulations and I'm going to let you know it' look.
"So, instead of doing something productive like training or reading over reports, you and the Dombrowski kid decided to just...play a game."
Elm felt a headache coming on. "Hare, I was reading a report before I got here. Or were you just expecting me to be glued to my work 24/7 like you?"
"I expect you to take your job seriously. We can't afford luxuries like hobbies or breaks. I honestly expected to have this kinda conversation with Rex or Marrow. But you? You weren't on that list." Harriet had the audacity to look disappointed.
"Maybe you should get to know me a little better, then," Elm spat out before she grabbed her ammo bags and weapon and left.
The speedster Ace Op rolled her eyes and, in a flash of Semblance-powered lightning, quickly disassembled the impromptu volleyball court.