Ch. 41 Experimentation
A boom, soon followed by a distant clang of bullet against metal. Ruby took her eye off the scope of her sniper, grinning like a maniac.
"That's the stuff…"
"Don't you think you're overdoing this?"
"Pfff, of course not, you know how much I was looking forward to this, let me enjoy it."
"...and here I thought I managed to get your mind off of these things."
Ruby blushed at Jaune's insinuation. To be fair he was right, she didn't think about the ballistic tests for the past few days.
"...you were an adequate distraction… now let's hurry up, I want to see how well those shin guards held up."
Jaune smiled as Ruby rushed off to pick up one of his shin guards from downrange. They thoroughly enjoyed each other's company for the few free days they had in Vale, where no one they knew would question if they were dating. Not that they left the hotel room much, or the bed for that matter.
Though the moment they came back to Beacon Ruby's fervour for these experiments was suddenly renewed. And so here they were, testing the one successful example of a stable air dust alloy.
The first tests were mostly focused on what the dust could achieve, the pressure it could generate, the flammability or rather oxidising properties of the gas, and most importantly the wear of the parts. Unlike the dust alloys in Jaune's weapons that got replenished by his semblance, in any other application it got depleted eventually. Such was the case with the first shinguard. It wasn't a perfect measurement by any means, after all, Jaune had already used some of the dust up during their mission but it gave them an estimate.
The second set of tests were more destructive. Ballistic tests on the other shinguard. Again it wasn't perfect, but comparing the impact deformations with other known metals and alloys gave them a good idea of its capabilities.
Of course that meant a total destruction of this piece of armour. Jaune didn't mind though. These shin guards were a rushed job and weren't meant to be a permanent addition to his arsenal in the first place. They were at best a proof of concept.
"So? What's the verdict?"
"Comparable to some milder dust steels. Comfortably stops small rounds, struggles with rifle rounds and got completely shredded by Crescent Rose."
"I mean, did we expect a different result?"
"Not really, but it's nice to have confirmation."
"You mean you wanted an excuse to take Crescent Rose out on the range."
Ruby pouted in the face of such baseless accusation.
"...Maybe…"
Jaune laughed and gave her a kiss on the forehead. They were alone on the range, as most other teams were taking a day off after returning from their respective missions.
"Anyway, the material is pretty amazing and has quite a few potential applications in gunsmithing. As a traditional weapon though? I wouldn't recommend it. It's light and using the dust emissions would be counterproductive in most cases. Somehow your shin guards are one of the few offensive applications that make sense. Other than that, aerial mobility is a potential field for this. Maybe other utility applications, like rebreathers for underwater or something. Either way, it suffers on all fronts in one aspect…"
"The durability, I know. The dust gets depleted pretty fast."
"I have a bunch of ideas for how to use it, but the wear on those parts would be insane."
"Yeah, I had a few ideas too. But we can work on those later. Right now, I'd like to see how well that fire dust combination will work. I also may have another idea, though that will have to take the back burner for now."
"Hmm? Why?"
"Well thanks to somebody, I need a new set of leg armour." pointed out Jaune in a joking manner. Ruby snorted before elbowing him in the ribs.
"Jerk… Let's go back to the forge"
=O=O=O=
"Ah, Peter. It's good to see you back. You're here to talk about team SWNY I presume? Well, what are the results of this experiment of ours? I've read the official documents of course, but I assume you have more to say than the praises attached to the survey report."
"Indeed that would be the case. For what it's worth, mister Lark showed a great improvement in his leadership abilities. Though he doesn't lead from the front yet, I believe his teammates are pushing him in a good direction. Mister Winchester especially seems to have taken on a supporting role there. Both boys are working together to overcome their misgivings that were apparent after their last outing. Though, that isn't what you wanted to hear about, is it, headmaster?"
"Ever the astute observer Peter. No, while hearing that this leadership issue is getting resolved is reassuring, that indeed isn't the reason I asked you to observe the team."
"Well then. How to put it. The other pair, surprisingly, has a far more individualistic dynamic to them. Certainly they work together as partners and support each other, despite being cut from very different cloths. Miss Xiao-Long tends to be more emotional in her responses. Whether it be battle fervour, happiness or anger, she tends to play into her emotions. This proved to be a detriment when faced with the hardships of the drying out swamp. Her emotions were running rampant for the first two days before she got tired. I wouldn't call it shellshock, but her emotions were muted, to the point where it started to affect her semblance and combat ability. Miss Nikos on the other hand had a measured approach to the whole thing. Not really showing the frustration brought about by the environment, nor expressing herself in combat beyond being efficient. She neither suffered burnout, nor did she give it her all. Both the girls supported each other in non combat situations, miss Nikos mostly helping miss Xiao-Long keep her emotions under control. In combat however they seemed to prefer staying out of eachothers way unless mister Lark considered the threat to require using the whole team's prowess to dispatch the Grimm in question."
"I see. Which one would you consider to be the more… responsible one from the pair."
"That would be difficult to judge from this one mission alone seeing as the whole team deliberately left the responsibilities on the shoulders of their leader. Something they premeditated amongst themselves as I understand it. In general I would consider miss Nikos to be the more responsible where school is considered, but given miss Xiao-Longs family history of caring for her sister, I would hesitate to call her irresponsible. Perhaps rebellious would be a better description of her attitude. Seeing as compared to some of the things she experienced, school may seem as a tedious low stakes environment to have fun in."
"Thank you, Peter. That will be quite enough for now."
"Are you sure you don't want to disclose whatever this is about? I may be able to help more if I knew what sort of a decision you are trying to make."
"No Peter, that is quite alright… It would appear that choosing one over the other may be folly anyway."
"If you're sure… I'll take my leave then. I need to prepare for class tomorrow."
=O=O=O=
Neo sat with Cardin, silently retelling the events of the past week. Sky lay on his bed tuckered out after the horrors of the swamp. The girls of team SWNY commandeered the bathroom for themselves, as they endeavoured to rid themselves of the stink and mud that clung to them. Supposedly it was Yang's idea to have Pyrrha help her, but Pyrrha certainly didn't mind the help.
And so it was that Cardin listened to the relative silence of their room as he watched Neo's retelling of her fight with Arc.
"And he didn't figure it out?" he finally asked.
Neo glared at him.
"Just asking…"
"What are you two talking about?"
"Mint bumped into her uncle while on the mission."
"And what did that mischievous minx of yours do to him that he didn't figure out yet?"
"Sorry, that's kinda personal."
"Oh so he doesn't know you two are dating? Relax, it's not like I'm gonna tell him."
Neo at this point signed a few things with a shiteating grin, the contents of which made even Cardin blush. Regardless he took the cover for what it was and hoped she wasn't being serious. Though knowing Neo… yeah.
"Actually, I think he knows everything about that, including details he didn't want to know and didn't happen… yet."
That last part made Neo turn to face him so fast her twintail slapped him across the face. It was worth it as she was now sporting a blush that matched his.
=O=O=O=
Blake found herself alone in the library. She had a book open before her, but her mind was elsewhere.
The past week or so was… eye opening. The work they did with team SSSN was simple, yet fun, especially when they got to work together. Sergeant Høyrød was put in charge of team BSMT and true to his words offered to let them choose how they would partner up. Blake chose to go with Weiss at the time, though she spent a lot of her time off duty with Sun.
It was so simple to see now, but the work they did, as simple and fun as it was, made Vale a better safer place. They didn't fight Grimm. They barely even fought criminals, Blake managed to take down two pickpockets during their tenure as Junior Detectives, but that was about it. She heard from the others that she along with Weiss was actually on the busier end of the spectrum when it came to actual crime. Cocra and Maroon mostly helped with lost children and she heard from Neptune how Sun broke up a fight between some locals and a group of tourists. Sun was aghast when she brought it up, he thought he sounded so uncool during the altercation, all "Come on guys, there's no need to fight."
To Blake though, his attitude was night and day from what she experienced before, from what she experienced with Adam.
…Adam
That was another thing that happened. Team BSMT had the dubious honour to patrol the place the morning after the altercation. Weiss radiated pride when she heard praise for her sister from the locals that watched the fight from their windows. Winter Schnee apprehended Adam Taurus.
It was all over the news. Sergeant Høyrød personally told her that he was detained and even let her look at the files and photos from the arrest.
But to an extent she still had trouble believing it. She was free from him. No more nightmares of Adam dragging her back to the Fang, making her do…
Blake was at the brink of tears and she had difficulty recognising whether they were from pain or happiness.
This was the first time she was truly alone with her feelings, but there were two people that she knew were there for her, waiting for her when she came back.
She sniffed and suppressed a chuckle as she realised how similar the two were.
"What are we Blake?"
A question both of them had.
"We're friends."
"Are we?"
"And is that enough for you?"
Weiss was trying to be brave about it, but she felt so afraid of being left behind again.
Sun on the other hand let her know, he would like them to be more.
Weiss was so fragile, even as Blake tried in her own way to make her understand how much she meant to her. A touch here, a caress there. And yet it was Blake who ended up a sobbing mess as Weiss held her, comforted her through the night.
Sun was… He was gentle. He pulled her into having fun, whether it was with his team, with hers, or just the two of them alone. He was eager, yet never pushed her more than she was comfortable with. But for what it was worth, Blake couldn't be emotionally vulnerable around him. Not really. Or perhaps just not yet.
Blake smiled through the tears as she closed the book in front of her, resting
her cheek against the leather binding.
"Why is love so difficult…"
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
The last segment turned out more emotional than I expected. I hope those of you with experience in discovering your orientation find my portrail of it to be somewhat accurate.
By the way I'm running behind on everything, exams are starting next week and I feel like I don't know jack about shit.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch.42 Mad scramble