Ch. 37 Preparations on all sides
"Jaune?"
"Ruby, good you're here."
"Well? What is it you wanted to show me?"
Jaune smiled as he beckoned her towards the anvil. On it laid an unassuming piece of metal. Its colour was an almost white matte silver but other than that it was just a rectangular sheet.
"Ok? So what is it?"
"This may be the answer to our problem with the fire dust alloy."
"Jaune! You promised you wouldn't do any more volatile dust tests without me!"
He could see a mix of annoyance and worry in her demeanour and while technically he didn't break that promise he could see why.
"I didn't, this is a stable air dust alloy. I haven't tested how long it can be used for yet, but it definitely does what I predicted it to do."
"And you didn't think to call me over to help with it?"
"I… didn't really think… it was more of a flash of inspiration. I just had to try it right there and then."
"Well did you at least make notes while you did it?"
"I did, ratios by volume and the basic workflow. But that isn't important right now, what is important is that the alloy literally makes air. Oxygen rich too if the forging process is anything to go by."
"Oh! So the fire dust! If we can use a far smaller amount of it and use it as just a source of ignition…"
"That's what I was thinking! We can probably get around the forging deterioration with this. Not with this one though. I kinda need this one for my next piece of armour."
"Jaune… we leave on our mission tomorrow morning!"
"Which is why I'm in such a hurry to get this finished. I'm done forging. All that is left is to cut, bend and weld it into shape, but the properties shouldn't change anymore…"
"Not my point. I want to run tests on it now! Ballistics, gas pressure, composition, flammability! But we don't have the time! I want to test the fire dust and now I have to wait for days! Weeks!"
"It's just a few days. Plus we get to go after Torchwick, that is bound to take your mind off of this."
"Ugh, you're lucky I like you. Fine, as the awesome team leader I am, I will be patient and focus on the mission… for now anyway. But you have to promise to let me run the tests later!"
The way she was both excited and annoyed about what he achieved and that he did it without telling her was… Jaune would say cute. Yeah cute seemed like the correct description. He was a bit afraid that she would be angrier, but luckily that wasn't the case.
He could deal with the occasional silent treatment when it stemmed from something like eating the last piece of dessert. Those only lasted for a few hours at most. If she was actually cross with him about this, it could last for days and they had to work as a team on their mission.
A schism like that would be a disaster.
=O=O=O=
"I just can't believe he managed to convince you."
Blake was trying her hardest to ignore Weiss. Had she known that agreeing to Sun's idea would aggravate Weiss so much she would have chosen something else for their mission. They were all supposed to be packing but while Blake was already done, Weiss spent the past fifteen minutes pacing around the room.
"Oh come on Weiss, let Blake pretend it was all her idea."
Cocra was lazing around on her bed with her head hanging over the edge while Maroon packed their bags. They were going to stay in Vale and could theoretically return to the dorms if they needed to, so all of them packed light. Light enough that Cocra decided to share Maroon's bag.
"Plus it makes sense for us to stick to an urban environment." added Maroon.
"Speak for yourselves."
"Fine, it makes sense for most of us. Not my fault you didn't get to have fun growing up." Maroon retorted as she dropped a wad of mismatched socks into her travel bag.
"What does that even mean!" Screamed Weiss. She has been rather irritable as of late, though whether because she didn't get to go after Torchwick with her sister or because of Sun's involvement in choosing their mission was anyone's guess.
"That you didn't get the Vacuo experience of running on rooftops following the thief that stole your valet. Trust me, you didn't miss out on much."
"Pfft, she missed out on learning freerunning and parkour."
"Ugh, Maroon, please let it go. And Weiss, could you start packing your bag?"
=O=O=O=
"Ozpin, do you think this is wise?"
"The student's have chosen their missions. For once I had little to do with their choices."
"Except for planning the missions and making sure the descriptions appealed to specific teams?"
"James, what is this about?"
"We agreed on prioritising the immediate issues. So why is it that you're sending what seems to be one of your most combat oriented first year teams to survey the aftermath of an already wiped out threat. Why is it that the specialist I lent you specifically so that she could hunt down Torchwick is saddled with a team of first years. And why did you send Qrow of all people to follow a parallel line of investigation."
"The answer to your first question is simple, the two girls are candidates and I'd like one last confirmation of their character before I bring them into the fold. As for Winter, I believe I have already expressed my doubts about how well the people of Vale would receive someone from the Atlasian military solving the problem. And as you know team RNJR is more than capable enough for the mission at hand, after all their leader nearly managed to capture him on her own a few months back."
"And Qrow?"
"We've exhausted most if not all our leads. At this point I have to believe Torchwick is somehow connected to what happened to Amber. And by extension…"
=O=O=O=
"Hey sis! You in there?"
The knocking on the door so early in the morning was somewhat unusual especially since everyone should be preparing to leave soon, but considering it was Yang, Jaune just opened the door. It was just a bit too early to question her hijinks.
"Hey Yang." welcomed Jaune as he let Yang into the entryway of their room.
"Jaune! Good morning. Is Ruby awake?"
"In the shower right now. Also you woke up Ren…"
A loud crash sounded from behind the blankets that separated the entrance to the room from the inner fort.
"...and Nora apparently."
"Yah, whatever. WE GOT A PACKAGE FROM DAD!"
A sound of crashing shampoo bottles could be heard from the shower followed by frantic rustling of clothes. Within a few seconds Ruby burst out from the bathroom, hair still wet, dressed in just the skirt and grey blouse without the other accessories her outfit normally consisted of.
"Yang, has anyone ever told you that your very presence is destructive?" questioned Jaune.
"All the time. Ruby, dad sent a package!"
"I heard you the first time. What do you think he sent?"
"Let's find out!"
As Yang opened the tubular package and let its contents out, Jaune had no real expectations. The black and white corgi that came out however, certainly caught him off guard.
"ZWEI!" yelled out the sisters, confirming Jaune's guess.
"Right, you mentioned you had a dog back home."
Ruby immediately picked the dog up as if it was a plushie, squeezing him to her chest in a hug so tight Jaune made a mental note to check if Zwei had activated aura. While rare it wasn't entirely unheard of and would go a long way to explain a few things.
"Yes! Jaune, this is Zwei. Zwei, meet Jaune."
"Uh, why did your dad send him in the mail?"
"Oh he does stuff like this all the time!"
"Zwei or your dad?"
"Both. I once found Zwei in my lunchbox while at Signal. And by the way the two acted afterwards I'm convinced it was dad's idea." said Yang in a conspiratorial tone.
Honestly, if he didn't just witness the dog come out of a tube half the diameter of his head, Jaune wouldn't believe her either.
"So did your dad include an explanation or just the dog?"
"Dunnow, let's see!"
As Yang shook the tube to release the contents Jaune's eye twitched a bit. The tube no larger than Yang's forearm somehow contained a dozen cans of dog food and a can opener along with a letter, which Ruby snatched out of the air, letting go of the dog who was also contained within the tube a minute ago.
"So is your dad's semblance some sort of spatial expansion or is it Zwei's? Cause otherwise Weiss will have an aneurism when she finds out how they used spatial dust."
"I'm… not sure actually. I mean, it isn't dust. Dad isn't that well off, you know, single father and all. But we don't know what his semblance is."
"You don't?"
"Don't know Qrows either. They're weirdly secretive about it. It could be Zwei though. Dad unlocked his aura when we were kids."
"Trust the guy who lost two wives to make sure his dog lives for decades."
"Too far Yang. Anyway, let's see what dad wrote." Ruby deftly changed the topic before the issue of their mothers became the focus of their conversation.
"Dear girls,
I've got to leave the island for a few days so I'm sending Zwei to you to take care of. Enclosed is all the food you should need.
Love you both,
Taiyang"
"Well this explains nothing." noted Jaune after Ruby read the letter out loud.
"More importantly, how are we going to take care of him with the missions coming up. Me and my team are going out of Vale to survey the aftermath of the horde CFVY and Qrow took care of."
"I'll take care of him. We're going to stay in Vale."
"Yeah? What are you going to do?"
"We'll shadow an Atlesian specialist that's going after Torchwick."
"Fifty Lien on that specialist being Weisses sister."
"No bet."
=O=O=O=
Neo was positively annoyed. After she had finally made progress with Cardin they would now be separated for several days. Classes were mostly cancelled too, which normally she would rejoice about since she could hang out with either Cardin or Roman.
Cinder had other plans though. She had managed to get them assigned to one of the few unsupervised missions that wouldn't take them too far out of Vale and tasked Emerald and Mercury with making sure it gets done. As for Neo, she would help Roman with whatever it was that Cinder wanted from them. Not exactly the hangout Neo hoped for.
Though she supposed it was still better than having Cinder looking over her shoulder all the time. The bitch was so certain they wouldn't go against her… which to be fair they haven't yet.
At the same time though, Cinder has grown complacent with them. There was no longer any pretence of them being anything other than a tool and once they served their purpose she would discard them.
Whereas in the beginning the choices were to obey or die, now they
were starting to turn around. And Neo would make sure that Cinder never saw it coming.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
So uh, the supervisor for my bachelor thesis might be reading this since I've given them the link. So in case you're reading this - "Hello, I hope you liked it."
As for the story, I have ideas and very little time! There's so much that has to happen in the next few chapters and I can't forget any of it.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch.38 Mission start