Small Issues
AN: Welcome back folks for the next part of Small Issues. A big thanks to those who have faved and followed me and my work so far, I hope you all are enjoying my little spin on the RWBY series. I've seen from others that they believe it's an improvement, so I hope I don't disappoint.
Anyways... on with the show!
Trains
The scenery in the forest of Forever Fall is one that is breathtaking on any given day. Most of that is because the dominant species of trees in the region do not have green leaves but have their normal colors being that of most leaves in autumn- a mix of various shades of reds, browns, and yellows.
Green leaves are typically reserved for the occasional patches of grass and low bushes, though a few trees from the Emerald Forest would occasionally grow in the valley, adding a slash of color to the canopy.
Sitting in the middle of a small clearing filled with red grasses swaying from the breeze thanks to the nearby cliff, a girl sat on a boulder apparently just enjoying the peace and quiet of nature.
"Blake, it's time." Adam says as he walks into the clearing.
The girl, Blake, turns her head to look at her old friend and mentor, who was often her partner for things like what was to come. As much as they were both getting into the mindset to get their job done, there was a certain touch of fondness in their words that only the other heard. "Okay." She needed to lift a hand to keep her long black hair from blowing into her amber eyes.
The girl wears an interesting choice of attire- black high -heeled boots with the cuffs folded down around her ankles, tights that ran up her legs fading from a royal purple at the ankle to black where they disappeared under her tight white shirts which interestingly had a zipper on each leg to the waist.
Her top consists of a white sleeveless shirt that exposes her stomach with a black vest overtop with coattails that reach her knees. The front of the vest has a pair of gold buttons to secure it under her bust but the cut still left her belly free.
Add in the black scarf around her neck, and taking in account for the shoulders of her vest, the white shirt took on a loose cat head in appearance. She also wears some black ribbons around her right wrist while her left arm has a detached black sleeve held up by a metal cuff at the middle of the upper arm that runs down to her wrist. Plus she has a large black bow on top of her head.
On her back, she wears a magnetic plate, which while offering some protection for her shoulders, keeps her hands free of the sword that is held there. All black aside from a few touches of white details, it resembles a large cleaver more than anything else, not even the black ribbon dangling from the hilt helped with that image.
Time wasn't to be wasted and the pair ran away in a pair of black blurs towards the cliff overlooking their goal.
Traveling through an even lower part of the valley, a massive cargo train barreled through at high speeds. A large part of why it could go so fast with so many cars attached was the fact that it took up both pairs of tracks, widening its points of contact for increased stability. That also meant that there was a larger engine and more points of contact for the drive wheels to power the entire behemoth of a machine.
Stopping briefly to assess the speed of the train and ensuring that they wouldn't go too soon, they both leapt from the cliff and slid a fair amount of the way down on the slope before jumping off towards the train.
Performing flips to twist their bodies into facing the right direction, the pair landed on a roofed car, Adam landing on his feet while his sword dug into the metal to help him keep from falling. Meanwhile, Blake landed on all fours, keeping her body low after absorbing the impact even as she slid back a short distance thanks to the change of speed.
It only took them a few seconds to stabilize themselves in the wind and the rattling of the train under their feet, Adam walking over to the roof hatch and his sword flashed from the sheath almost too fast to be seen, already having the blade returned by the time the lock fell away.
Lifting the hatch and dropping into the car, they found themselves in a dark room. They could see well enough that they read the label of the crates around them as high value merchandise. That was only bolstered by the laser grid that they had inadvertently tripped.
The tripping of the lasers activated the guards that were stationed along the walls at both ends of the car, machines of roughly human size and build, covered in grey armor plates and the optics behind their face plates glowed red.
Finding themselves quickly surrounded, both Adam and Blake kept a hand on their weapons hilts but didn't draw them in case they would cause the mechs, Atlesian Knights 130 to be exact, to attack them on sight.
"Looks like we'll be doing this the hard way." Adam comments, though the smile could be heard in his tone and making it known that he had anticipated and would enjoy this.
Blake rolled her eyes, used to his behavior and drawing some amusement from it. "Don't be so dramatic." She chides with a smirk.
The Knights took up defensive positions, all but ensuring that the pair could not turn anywhere without finding one. Then one of them shifted its arms, the hands resetting to reveal themselves to be barrels of a limited rotary gun.
"Intruders! Identify yourself!" The mechanized soldier demanded in a deep voice that reverberated through its mask and echoed in the car.
Silence was heavy in the car as the train kept moving. Adam's grip shifted slightly on his sheath as he stared down the expressionless face.
Bang!
With that gunshot, Adam's sword, Blush, was hurled into the face of the robot. The head rocked back from the force and before it could recover, Adam had dashed over, took his blade from the air and cut through the waist of the robot, already crouched and slowly sheathing the crimson blade as it fell apart and collapsed.
The result was instant, several of the Knights deploying blades from their wrists and charging at the duo while others hung back and readied their rotary guns.
Blake drew her cleaver and deflected the first mechs blade, following that up with a decapitation. She dodged the next strike coming from the one next to the falling robot, cutting off a leg at the knee as she did. Rising back to full height, she turned and ran for the front of the car, leaving the rest of the mechs from her end to try to catch up.
Or they would if Adam hadn't turned to deal with them, cutting them down in short order as he had done with the others that had chosen to fight with swords.
Yet the mechs with their guns ready, now without needing to worry about friendly fire, spun their barrels and unleashed a storm of bullets at the pair.
Blake was able to crouch low and keep running, staying just out of the line of fire while using her broad blade as a shield to deflect the rounds coming her way.
Now in too close for the guns to be truly effective, Blake gripped the back of her large blade and pulled, revealing that she has a short katana hidden within- one with an odd hilt and guard, the spot where she had pulled on proving to be a handle she could maintain a reverse grip.
Now with two swords, she slashed at the mech that had shot at her, leaving it to fall in several pieces.
The next few in her end fell to a similar fate, their blades being of no use against such an obvious skill difference and the guns weren't worth the time in such tight spaces.
Adam was done just as fast, his blade work being even faster and precise. And against such enemies, he felt the need to show off, kicking the last ones feet out from under it and slashing its back with his sword- the spine of the sword- causing it to rise into the air so that it was now eye level with the tall man. Wilt was aimed and fired in a moment, making electronics scatter over the floor thanks to the head shot.
Turning to find his partner done, he smirks at the ease that they worked together as they had for years. "Move onto the next car."
The next car turned out to be open, little more than a platform on wheels, covered in steel shipping containers almost haphazardly arranged. It was so bad that the pair wouldn't be surprised if the rail line worker who left it like this would be fired from the job.
But that thought wouldn't last as dozens of Knights came running from the cars ahead, leaping the gaps, onto and over crates, their shared network alerting them to the intruders location.
"Let's do this!" Adam grins.
Chaos ensued as the battle began, the pair running to meet the guards partway. Adam slashing through several in a second without hesitation as Blake jumped onto a crate to attack from the higher ground, fighting the rushing wind as much as she did the robots, cutting them down with ease.
In just a few seconds, they had cut the numbers down to half before another wave came.
Blake took advantage of the open space available, adjusting her grip on her katana slightly and flicking a switch with her thumb. That triggered the weapon to change, the blade separating a third of the way off the hilt and allowing the upper portion to fold back on a hidden hinge. Meanwhile, the lower part folded down to lay horizontally across the guard, leaving the upper portion to have part of its length pointing at its user.
As the blade locked in place in its new configuration, a block slid up from the guard to lock the hinged end in place… and revealed a barrel underneath.
In a moment, Blake hefted the odd pistol and aimed, putting several rounds into the nearest trio of mechs that disabled them.
As more kept coming, Blake took a slightly different approach to her combat after dispatching another robot with her cleaver that had gotten close, she leapt into the air as she put the cleaver onto her back, and threw her pistol- with the blade configuration now acting more as a kusarigama- while keeping hold of the ribbon.
Said ribbon stretched to several times its original length as the weapon passed by a few mechs that paused to see what she was doing and how to react. But they didn't get the chance as the ribbon pulled the blade back and it caught the shoulder of one of them, slicing through with little difficulty.
From there, the platform became an intricate dance as Blake jumped and spun and twisted in the air on and off the crates to guide her whirling weapon in an unorthodox attack that could not be deciphered by the robot's processors fast enough to find holes to exploit.
Yet Adam had no problem leaping into the carnage, agilely stepping around the ribbon to cut down their enemies and adding to the confusion. More than a few fell off the platform, though most of them had already been damaged in some way before that, the fall merely ensured that they wouldn't return.
With practiced ease, Blake pulled back on her weapon and caught it by the hilt, reconfiguring it with a snap of her wrist after releasing the switch.
Walking to the next car, she almost casually cut the head off one last Knight that had thought that it could jump her by hiding behind a crate.
"Think that's all of them?" Adam almost laughed.
"Not likely. Probably the rest are guarding things ahead." Blake shrugs, giving her head a small shake to keep her hair from blowing into her eyes. "Let's get what we came for and go."
A quick examination of the crates on their current car revealed that while the cargo was indeed valuable and something that they could use, none had their target. The next two cars proved to be the same way, though thankfully the second of them was enclosed.
It was the fourth one where they got lucky, opening the crate to find the targeted cargo. It seemed that this car was also one for a variety of questionable goods, many bordering the lines of legality or outright crossing them.
"Perfect." Adam grins as he reaches for a bundle under his coat that was strapped to his belt.
"If the public saw what is in here… it could do a lot of damage to their image." Blake comments as she points to the logo on the crate.
It probably isn't the wisest choice to move such goods in containers branded with the company's trademark all over them as it would raise many questions about the business practices. Practices that almost couldn't be ignored and investigations would find much more for sure.
"We have another way to hurt their image." Adam chuckles as he reveals what was carrying, a bomb. It may not be very big but placed correctly it could cause a lot of damage. An entire train derailment was not out of the realm of possibility.
"What about the crew members?" As much as she wanted to see the company that owned the train and cargo to be hurt, she didn't want to risk killing anyone just because they happen to be here. She doubted that the engineers running this train even knew what they were transporting, only that they were paid for moving it from one station to the next without trouble.
"What about them?"
Those three words… how they were said, no amusement to hint that it was a joke, no inflections of a question. Just a sneer that made it clear that he didn't care about the lives of the workers.
And she had been afraid that he'd do this.
He hadn't always been this way but as long as she had known him, he had a chip on his shoulder that only seemed to grow. And as it grew, accidents became more frequent until they weren't accidents. Now he was just becoming as callous and cruel as the ones they fought against.
"A-Adam? Please don't do-"
RRHHRRGGNNKK!
They had been so caught up in what they were doing that they had missed the new danger.
Turning to find a massive machine almost silently lowering itself from the ceiling, a massive machine dropped the last few feet to the floor, its four feet landing with a thud.
It rose to its full height, probably programmed to do so to instill fear in its targets. Painted in all black with a few red highlights on the edges of its armor plating.
Standing on four legs with each knee equal in height to Adam, the mech stood at least twice as tall as the man. The legs met at a central hub where they could all move independently and the main body sat atop of that. That body is mostly a large block of metal with a few odd angles in a vaguely humanoid form, though with a large hole in the chest. Its head sat atop the body with nothing to call a neck. It's arms though, two of them came from the shoulders as most arms do, but there was an extra pair that rose from the back of the shoulders as well.
But what made them scary is that each arm is a large gun. Or rather, several large guns. And each of those guns are a Dust cannon that fires a concentrated burst of activated Dust energy after blending it in the chambers.
And all four arms were aimed at the pair.
"Problem!" Blake was almost ready to panic. She had heard how machines like this were purposely built to be mobile artillery and could decimate nearly everything they aimed at. General instructions for encountering one of these Praetorian's was to run away.
They only had a moment to realize that it was not going to attempt to take prisoners as each of the cannons glowed from the power being charged up inside, Blake and Adam being forced to separate as the guns fired in quick succession.
Dodging was the only thing that they could do as each shot tore apart the steel floor with ease, the various elements tearing apart the material at a nearly molecular level.
With the upper arms having two cannons each and the main arms with two more, that was eight shots in less than three seconds, not to mention that the arms were tracking the targets and adjusting their aim in the process. And the shots kept coming in rapid bursts, destroying the car slowly and some of the cargo as well.
Blake managed to use one of its legs as a temporary shield as she ran to the machine and leapt for its head with her katana ready, only for the mech to prove that it was faster and smarter than she expected, head butting her entire body in one simple move. The force threw her back with a yelp of pain, hitting the floor and rolling to a stop just short of one of the larger holes.
The mech two steps forward to press its attack on the downed girl but Adam rushed in to deliver a series of slashes at the head that did little besides forcing the machine to back off, if even slightly.
But as soon as he landed on the floor, he was kicked away with an "Oof!"
The swordsman managed to recover and land on his feet but he couldn't really recover as he was under fire already, several shots had been purposefully fired wide to account for his dodging. Though every shot missed, the volley proved to be a distraction as the mech moved to stomp on Blake, the girl sure not to do well under a ten ton machine.
Still, Adam was able to rush over and pick up the dazed girl before the foot came down and brought her over to the front of the car to be sat on her feet.
"We need to get out of here!" Blake tells her friend, recognizing that they were at a severe disadvantage in these tight confines.
When Adam didn't say anything, or even acknowledge that she had spoken, she was almost offended.
Almost because she realized that he wasn't ignoring her because he didn't want to listen, rather he was in awe of the mech and what it was doing.
The Praetorian spread its legs and lowered itself as the four arms shifted to lock in place in front of itself and the cannons lengthened. With an increasingly loud hum from the Dust cannons charging up with far more power than it had put out already, the organic fighters braced themselves as they had nowhere to run.
Just as the massive blast fired, Blake ducked behind Adam as he raised his sword, keeping it partly in its sheath for additional bracing.
In a flash of intense white light, their world became one of pain, their one saving grace being that the beam of energy tore apart the wall behind them before they slammed into it.
It didn't help them too much as they were hurled onto the next car, their defensive auras low and Blake's in danger of failing if they continued to fight for much longer. Another blast like that would certainly end her, permanently.
As they struggled to their feet, the rushing winds of the open car not doing them any favors, the Praetorian followed after them, clearly intent to finish the job. It stepped over the floor that had been gouged by the latest blast and through what little had remained of the wall. Some debris swirling around it as the still intact portion of the car caught the wind.
The car that Adam and Blake found themselves on was partly empty, though it seemed to be more because the cargo had been destroyed or blown off the train seeing as what little was left was on the sides of the car and askew. The rough track down the middle that continued onto the next open car lent more evidence to that being the case.
"But me some time! Make it mad!" Adam shouts over the noise.
"Are you sure?" Blake was worried about what his plan is now. As much as she trusted that he could handle himself in a fight, goading the robot into attacking them like it just did seemed suicidal.
Then again, jumping from this high speed train wasn't looking very pleasing, as much as she wanted to simply run from this.
"Just do it!" While he was angry, it wasn't directed at her. It actually sounded more like he was angry that this machine was pushing him so much that he had to make a huge gamble to win.
Blake sprinted at the Praetorian, drawing its attention from Adam as he crouched to focus as much as possible.
As expected, the guns trained on her and the volleys began. This time though, whenever a Dust cannon seemed to hit the girl, she faded away as if she was never there only to be found again nearby. The use of these Shadows made her take an erratic path across the damaged platform, jumping onto a crate for extra height before leaping high, ignoring that a shot destroyed the crate as soon as she left it.
The wind helped to carry her as she flew over the mech's head and threw her kusarigama so it would catch on an edge of plating, allowing her to swing around and further confuse the machine.
Landing on one of its legs, her weapon slipped free and was drawn back into her waiting hand in time to use another Shadow to dodge an arm swinging at her.
She landed on another leg and the cycle repeated itself as she flipped and jumped, slashing with both blades at any part she could reach. Even landing on one of the main arms didn't deter it from shooting at her, the shoulder cannons firing at point blank only to hit a Shadow.
The girl reappeared on top of its shoulders and aimed her pistol at its head, unloading her entire clip into the armor. While it didn't do much in terms of damage, the upper arms striking at her did a fair bit more, yet still couldn't get a solid hit on its target.
Blake flipped over the platform, riding out her momentum from nearly being crushed and narrowly escaping. She finally stopped by Adam's side, looking up in time to watch the Praetorian transform to use the big blast again.
"Move!" Adam shouts as the cannons reach critical levels. Blake wasted no time not just getting behind him, but ensuring that she was on the next car ahead.
The Dust cannons fired, bathing the car in blue-white light and deepening the shadows.
Adam stood firm, raising his half-drawn sword to intercept the beam.
From behind, Blake watched as the attack almost looked as if the beam was being absorbed into the red blade, some of it being deflected away. Yet she saw the bomb that was on his waist as his coat fluttered in the wind, reminding her of what he was going to do with it.
In a few moments, the clash ended with Adam standing strong- if pushed back a little- with every bit of red on him from hair to his shoes glowing a brilliant crimson.
Between the man and the machine, the platform was barely intact after two shots, showing the power of the main cannon even with an indirect fire.
And the mechanical opponent seemed to take offense to him surviving yet again and ran forward as fast as it could on the now exposed frame of the car and jumped with the clear intent to crush the man before it as the cannons cooled.
"Hehehe!" The cruel laugh was uttered just before the sword left its sheath as the foot was almost upon him.
The world seemed to turn red as the Moonslice was unleashed. Not only did it allow the metal of the blade to cut through the leg as if it were wet paper, but the energy that was captured from the previous blasts was now turned against its originator.
The massive machine was torn apart, as was much of the rest of the train car and what little cargo had survived until this point. In mere moments, everything touched by the attack was drifting away like petals in the wind, leaving little evidence that they were ever there in the first place.
With a flair for drama, Adam sheathed his sword in time with this attack ending its effects, looking pleased that the robot was gone.
Granted, so was much of the car as it was little more than damaged framework everywhere in front of him. Even the car behind suffered more damage, enough that the roof tore off in the wind. Honestly, it was more amazing that the car he was on was still able to pull the others behind it.
He turns around to see Blake on the next car and walks towards her confidently, reaching back to the bomb on his waist.
Instantly, her eyes snapped down to it. "Didn't we do enough today?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you really want to destroy more?"
"I'll do whatever it takes for our people."
Those words made her eyes go wide and filled with tears. She reached to her back and drew her full cleaver sword. "But I can't. Not anymore…. Goodbye."
Adam watched in stunned silence as she used what remained of her aura to assist in cutting through the already damaged coupling, separating their cars. His hand reached out for her and he took a step, only to freeze as a tear splashed against his cheek.
From there, he could feel his end starting to slow down as Blake pulled away, the two of them watching in silence until they vanished from view.
—
Adam sat on the edge of the train car.
He had been there since Blake had gone out of view. Just sitting there.
"Haha! We'll be set for months with this load!" Ever since his troops had caught up and began going through the cargo to load as much of it as they could on their trucks, they had been saying such things but he couldn't share in their joy.
His student. His friend. His partner. His confidant.
Gone.
And he could only hope that this was only a spur of the moment thing and she'd return after having some time to calm down from the fight and think.
Seeing his Lieutenant approaching him, he knew he had to push through this slump, at least for his men and their mission.
—-
Blake sat on the back of the train and cried.
She had just left behind her friend and mentor. The man who constantly put himself at risk for others for years, fighting for those who couldn't.
But this wasn't the first time she had run away from those she cared about and she hated herself for that.
—
Jaune finished his chores for the day and snuck away to one of the supply sheds. He had managed to squirrel away some pieces of armor that had been in storage.
Honestly, it wasn't anything special, mostly just some training equipment consisting of a cuirass that covered his chest and upper back, a pair of pauldrons that covered his upper arms, and a pair of bracers, though they only provided protection for his wrists. The brown gloves he'd found have plates on their backs.
Any of the really good armor was on display and would be noticed missing the moment anyone walked by.
But the big thing that he 'obtained' was his Great-Great Grandfather's weapon that he had used back when he had gone to war and had become a hero… Crocea Mors.
Compared to most weapons nowadays, it was simple. However, its simplicity along with care over the years had kept it in good condition. A simple sword, two sharpened edges with a sharp tip, a golden cross guard and pommel, and blue leather wrapped hilt along with a shield that served as the sword's sheath and is capable of folding in on itself thanks to the segments. It still weighed the same but was easier to carry thanks to being smaller.
Heck, the only reason he could get away with taking Crocea Mors at all was the fact that it had recently been pulled from the display racks for routine maintenance and his father simply hadn't bothered to put it back. Mostly because he was too busy running the family business.
He quickly put the gear on over his hoody and the second belt that holds his sword around his waist.
Stepping out from the shed, he looked around at Vin de L'Arc-en-ciel, gazing out at the rolling hills covered in vineyards and several orchards and fields of fruits and basic staple crops like wheat and barley.
Much of the town was dedicated to agriculture but only had a limited amount of livestock yet the fishing was good just offshore. In fact, the town had actually been founded in large part by the man who had owned the sword and shield Jaune now carried, Magnus Arc. The man had been almost legendary during the war, not just leading troops into battle but for his own feets during the conflict. But once the war ended he settled in this area south of Vale and started up the wine production that had become the family business.
Of course, there had been a line of Huntsmen that came from the family as well that wound up ensuring that the town would be well protected whenever Grimm would come around. At least until Mirage came into the picture.
Jaune's father had undergone the usual combat training from his own father, preparing him to be the next defender of Vin de L'Arc-en-ciel. But that didn't last as Grandfather Sol fell to a Grimm before Jaune was born… and Mirage refused to fight or train his own son or any of his daughters in combat.
So Jaune had to do whatever training he could on his own.
Unfortunately, Mirage Arc was a bit distant from his family, constantly busy with work. He always proved that he loved his family but those moments were often seen as fleeting, yet because of his efforts with the business they never had to worry about money or food, even with their large family.
Much of the actual family bonding came from Prisma Arc, Jaune's mother. Raising eight children kept her busy but thankfully by the time the younger ones came around, the older ones were able to help. His eldest sisters Rouge and Saphron were almost mothers to him, while Verte and Bleue were essentially his best friends. Blanc and Noire were the 'Terror Twins', always ensuring that things were never boring, while his only little sister, Violette, did her best to help her only brother.
Speaking of his family, he had to do his training quickly and hide everything before going for dinner. His greatest experience with swordplay before this was having fights with his sisters using sticks as their weapons, their father at best showing them how best to hold them if they were going to 'duel'. Their father may be distant while mother had her attention split between her children, but there was no denying that the family was close, even if Saphron had moved to Argus with her wife and Rouge had moved into one of the nearby homes owned by the family with her husband to raise their son with a daughter on the way.
If he was lucky enough to be accepted by Beacon, his niece would be born before he'd have to leave. That thought put a smile on his face as he stretched and began his 'practice'- copying moves from a variety of games and movies he had watched over the years.
—-
It had been nearly a week since Blake left and the entire camp had noticed. Not only was she liked well enough for few to have had any problems with her while those that did refused to speak out because she could outfight any of them at any time if she wanted to. And that didn't include that Adam was sure to hear about it, though Blake would be the one to talk him down from being overly harsh- the beating that she would deliver being enough to sting their pride.
"Sir, I can send out a search team immediately. I'll find her, I swear it." The massive man who was Adam's Lieutenant insisted as the two of them were in the new tent set up as their temporary headquarters.
They had moved the entire camp a few miles after raiding the train, far enough to make any searches for them take longer, close enough that Blake would find them easily if she returned.
That was the hope by Adam, at least.
"Don't bother." His tone came off a little harsher than intended, the frustration of Blake's leaving and his inability to vent to her adding up. "We have other things to work on." He'd delay a bit more with the hope that she'd return.
Then screams from outside the tent along with the sounds of combat.
"What the… Grimm?!" Adam grabbed Wilt and Blush from the table and ran outside, followed closely by the Lieutenant with his chainsaw sword. What they saw made them stop dead in their tracks in surprise at what they saw.
The camp was in chaos as fires burned everywhere and the soldiers were either scrambling to put them out, save supplies, or tending to the injured while others fended off Grimm drawn by the fear and anger. Yet among all of the chaos, three people seemed unreasonably calm, two of them kneeling with grey briefcases in hand.
"You know, we could have gone to anyone for help." Cinder smirks as Mercury and Emerald open the cases to reveal one full of vials of Dust, the other full of Lien cards. "But we wanted you." The woman walks towards the men, throwing her twin swords to the sides to continue unarmed yet even more confident than ever.
Her eyes burst into flames made of aura and a thin wall of flames burst into existence between herself and Adam.
"Now do I have your attention? I assure you that our goals will align."
Adam could only look around the camp and see the losses piling up. The resources, basic supplies, the personnel. All of it could be lost after years of hard work. Everything that they had strived for for so long could be brought to a screeching halt because of this woman.
And he had to preserve what he could.
"Put out the fires and we'll talk."
Cinder turned towards the camp and waved her hands, the infernos around them being quickly snuffed out. The flames from her eyes extinguished as well as she turned back to the White Fang leader. "Better now?" She asks with a coy smile.
Adam didn't need to remove his mask for everyone to know he was glaring with all of the intensity of the fires that had been started. Yet he still reached back to open the tent for Cinder. The woman smiled as she entered, her followers closing their cases and walking in after her.
"Organize the clean up and get a squad up here, just in case." The Lieutenant nods and moves out to follow the orders.
Stepping into the tent to find the trio on the opposite side of the tent by the map on display. "Now… what is it you really want?"
—-
Applications continued to roll into Beacon Academy for the staff to go through. As one of the most prestigious Huntsmen Academies in the world, they received plenty every year, though there were a few that stood out for their records at the other schools such as Signal and Sanctum. Meanwhile, there were others that seemed to be lacking in certain areas, either from information that seemed to be skipped, omitted, or fabricated.
The Headmaster actually preferred to take a look at the list of lacking transcripts. Some believed that it was his way of amusing himself, others found that occasionally that there were simply mistakes made that he was able to handle. Those that paid attention would realize that every so often, he'd give some of those applicants a shot.
There was a reason that the school has initiations after all.
AN: So... what do you all think? Adding more to Jaune, Blake, and Adam's characters is both hard and easy at the same time. Hard because there was so little ever truly given in the main series, with so little to actually becoming meaningful later on. Easy part was following the hints and trends that were already there and building off of them while making some plans with/from other fans with similar ideas. So once there was a bit of groundwork, it all came easily after that.
Still, it sets things up for later and how they come into play. And those of you who have read the next part of the Issues series, Big Issues, will have seen how those changes happened and are still falling into place.
Now it's time to write up the next chapter of Larger Issues, it's gonna be action packed there for a while. But I think I may have Small Issues finished by the end of the year, even as I keep switching back and forth between writing Small and Larger Issues. Thankfully Big Issues is done after 94 chapters.
Come to think of it, this entire series is going to be a beast to read straight through once it's done, even though it has yet to finish. Fun part is that I've been getting offers to have this adapted into a comic format, though I lack the kind of cash to make that a reality, even if I have quite the gallery of pictures made for certain scenes that I have commissioned over the years and even gotten fan art. Maybe I should try to look into setting up a donation page to help fund the comic?
Something to ponder for a later time.
I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter and the series thus far! Reviews are welcome!