Sandstorm Over Remnant
Chapter 11
Call the mailman!
Six let out a long sigh as he fell his body beg for him to stop. He had forgotten how long he had spent here on the gym. He faintly remembered that he had walked into the gym sometime after breakfast.
"Right…" he watched the sun begin to set, he really needed to get one of those scrolls thingies he thought to himself with a chuckle "…guess I got a little distracted" the courier from the Mojave muttered to himself.
Resting in one of the benches he was just glad that most of the teens were practicing in ways to fight one another and that left the weights all to himself. But what he really liked was the training dummy that lit up when hit green meant that you had landed a successful blow and red meant that you had seriously hurt your opponent. It had been blast illuminating the room like it was that ancient holiday with the name that escaped his mind now.
Grabbing his trusty vault thirteen canteen he downed half of it enjoying the taste of the Quantum he had decided to bring with him, he enjoyed it even more now that he mixed with some whiskey. Cass was right this was such a great fucking drink "See Winter I am well behaved" he chuckled at that. His girlfriend had left Beacon and informed him that she would be gone for at least a week, so that meant that the construction on the portal had been halted.
It sucked mostly because he had nothing to do other than sit around on campus and look like a complete tool. After ten minutes of doing nothing he asked for directions and spent the rest of the day here, looking down at himself he snorted as his body already recovered all the stamina that he had spent punching for hours straight.
It was both a blessing and a curse, it made sleeping a bitch and a half but when it came to cardio there was no other man quit like him, the doors opened taking him out of his thoughts as red head walked in to the gym "Oh sorry, I didn't think anyone would be here at this hour"
Six smiled "Don't worry same reason I'm here"
The teen smiled politely at him but stared at him waiting for a reaction. The courier internally rolled his eyes, was he expecting to swoon over her or something? But as a small second passed the girl visibly relaxed and gave him a grin "So… you have been training hard huh? Are you a student from the other schools? I don't I recognize you"
The courier returned the smile "You flatter me, but no I am not that young. I am… helping the atlas military under Specialist Schnee, maybe you know her little sister" by the way the eyes lit up in recognition he assumed he was right.
"Oh so you're the guy Ruby spoke about, nice to meet you I am Pyrrha. We are the team that lives next to them." they shook hands and Six was pleasantly surprised by the strength behind it. "So you get to hear all their arguments huh?"
Pyrrha smiled "Not by choice if that's what you are asking"
They shared a small laugh as Six motioned to the gym "Well don't let me keep you waiting, I am sure that you are getting ready for the tournament and all that" there was a small pause as a frown marked the features of the beautiful warrior.
"I… don't know, I think I no longer feel like just punching will solve the issue" Pyrrha said as Six felt his senses begin to pick up an issue "Something wrong kid?" the red head let out a sigh "I don't want to bother you"
Six chuckled "You don't have to worry, you're a friend of Weiss you are a friend of mine" [Speech 25]-Successful Pyrrha smiled at that "Thanks, I guess I just feel like I am missing something in my preparation for the tournament. I need to practice with something unexpected, someone that is not from my team or Beacon… but I don't know how to approach people like Sun or Neptune without scaring them"
Pyrrha looked at her feet embarrassed "Sound kind of pathetic when I say it out loud" she laughed as her cheeks reddened a bit "Not all, variety keeps you sharp. Hmm there might be a way for me to help" Six said as he motioned to the boxing ring that was in the middle of the room.
"Like... right now? I don't know I don't want to hurt you" Pyrrha commented but Six saw the spark of competitiveness lit up in her eyes. So he decided to add some fuel to the fire "Don't worry about me, I can fight better than the average man" [Unarmed 50]-Successful.
The red then smirked and pointed at the ring "Then let's see what you are made of."
The two opponents entered the ring and prepared themselves for the fight, Six rang the imaginary bell and ran to the middle of the ring. Faster than he could see the girl almost became a red blur only slower than Ruby, as she jumped towards him she somehow twisted in midair to land a powerful blow on his side. Six gritted his teeth and grabbed her leg and tried trowing her to the side her to the side, but years of fighting experience made her land gracefully and jump in for another attack.
She watched in confusion as his red eye seemed to scan her and faster than she was expecting an uppercut almost grazed her chin, Six for his part was surprised that anyone could evade a hit on VATS. But he still had another arm to do the job, punching her straight in the center of her stomach Pyrrah was sent flying back as she gritted her teeth at the way her aura flared.
"You're strong" Pyrrah said with a small grin, the courier made a pained noise as he pointed to his side and then chuckled "Right back at you, ready for round two?" both combatants prepared themselves and ran towards one another countering and trading blows, Six could feel the teen enjoy herself as she ramped up the speed and she tried bold new strategies to break his guard, but she did not leave many openings. The courier couldn't help but smile 'This kid is really something else' she landed a picture perfect upper cut on his chin sending him stumbling back, Pyrrah almost jumped in for the kill but stopped herself, giving Six enough time to tackle her to the ground. Standing back up he smiled down at her "Not bad at all, you have a good heart kid. I would have finished the fight."
Pyrrah accepted the hand he offered to help her up "I didn't want to hurt you, your face is bruised. Did you not use you aura" Six blinked as he tried to remember what was his excuse "I don't have aura, an accident left me unable to use it" he pointed at the scars on his forehead "Let's just say I am lucky to survive"-"… I'm sorry"
Six raised his hand "There's no need to apologize kid, I omitted the fact to get a good fight" Pyrrah studied him for a second as she felt her semblance spark up as he walked towards his canteen, she could feel bits and pieces of metal all over him. Every time his heart pumped blood into his system she could feel something akin to metal expand and then return to normal, his brain seemed to click as he walked.
"That was awesome!" a yell from the side made them both turn as Six spotted Ruby and the rest of her team along other three that he did not recognize, but from the way they clapped and looked at Pyrrah he assumed they were her teammates "I cant believe you managed to tackle Pyrrah" Yang.
The courier shrugged "Your friend is a good person, when she saw I had no aura she hesitated and gave me an opening, simple as that. But the winner of this spar is her, if she had gone all out I would be in the floor seeing stars" the courier extended his hand towards the champion as he gave her a large smile "Thanks, I had a nice time" as the red head and the courier shook hands the invisible hand of destiny began to tie their fate together, Pyrrah's bright blue soul linked to Six's purple one.
"That was pretty cool Six, and without aura" Ruby said as she appeared next to him. The courier ruffled her hair "What can I say, I can fight better than ever before" he looked at the group and tilted his head in confusion "What are you all doing here, done with classes for the day?"
Blake shrugged "No really, I guess we were all just wandering around and then we heard the noise coming from the gym. Jaune here is apparently as psychic because he somehow knew Pyrrah was here"
"Worried about your girlfriend eh?" Six said making both teens blush, Yang and Ruby snickered amongst themselves. Weiss on the other hand seemed to be more preoccupied with her scroll "Six sorry to bother you but I just got a message from Winter, she says and I quote 'Tell that man to answer his PipBoy or I will strangle him' end quote" Six felt a cold shiver go down his spine as he reached for the machine on his wrist and checked his mail, there was indeed a message from Winter, brief and to the point like always.
"Atlas is interested in RobCo, I would prefer if you don't give them something too destructive" Six hummed as he read the message and wrote a small reply "Mr. Handy units and Protectrons, those are the ones that would cause the leas trouble, sorry about the wait"
Six began to plan on when to open RobCo Remnant but it would must likely be after they finished the portal, but he would have to wait fro the green light "Is everything ok?" Weiss asked softly as Six snapped out his small trance "Oh yeah, sorry I was just planning ahead. Well the one that is in trouble is me, Winter is doing just fine from what I under"
"Ah that's a relief, then we should probably get going we need to practice" the white queen said as Yang nodded "Yup, we're going to wipe the floor with everyone" the only that didn't seem to share the enthusiasm was Blake who lagged behind as everyone left to train "Something wrong?"
Six was surprised when a familiar book was handed to him "I… borrowed a book from the hotel we stayed at, sorry" the courier looked at the cover and let out a small whistle "Now this is some old school stuff. Don't worry, the intact books that I find on the wasteland I usually just bring them home so that they don't get ruined out on the wasteland, I forgot I even had this one" Blake looked at the cover and frowned "How can you forget something like that?"
"I've read worse, Legion propaganda is even harder to sit through. They don't have pretty pictures" Six said as he looked at the book, he felt some emotion run through him as he faintly recalled… someone made him read this, before. The Victory of America, that was it was called.
A piece of propaganda by the government that was released shortly after their crushing defeat of the red army, it was a fascinating little piece of pre wasteland history. One that he was sure it was best left forgotten "Want to talk about something?"
Blake nodded slowly "I guess I am just a little shocked, the hatred and the passive aggressiveness against life in that book scare me. I don't want the hatred of… the people of remnant to escalate to such a level, I don't want us to end up like you" Six opened the book and stopped at one of the pages that showed the power armored clad soldiers ripping the opposing army in half, the opponents depicted as demons.
"They were human too" Six heard Blake say, the courier nodded "Yeah, but once the fires of war start is easy to blur the lines. Savages, animals and more names are what are usually thrown around in the battles I have taken a part of" Six saw how Blake tensed at the word animal.
Six placed a hand on her shoulder "Don't worry kid, I don't think your world can hate at the level that mine did. They were running out of everything, their very existence was on the line and they decided that eating eachother was the only option"
"War… why does it always come down to war and violence?" Blake said as Six remembered a small message, from one courier to another "If war never changes than we as people have to change and the roads we walk"
Six said as the lessons of the Divide and the words of Ulysses echoed in his ears, he did not believe in or rather he did not understand some of the actions of the Courier that had once belonged to the legion. But those words seemed to echo with Blake who smiled "That's nice way of thinking things Six, thank you for listening to me"
Six smiled "Don't worry, helping out is what I do best" it was kind of a lie, he did not help people out of the goodness of his heart but he did have a soft spot for the team that Weiss belonged to.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Weiss was Winter's sister.
"Helping huh? Then you might be able to get a lot of jobs right around now, because of the tournament it seems everyone is having a hard time finding time to do stuff" Six felt as if a lightbulb appeared over his head and grinned "Anything that a mail man might be able to help"
Blake shrugged "Maybe, I think its best if you ask the headmaster"
Ozpin studied the courier with slight amusement as he sipped from his coffee "Helping around campus? If you can it would be most appreciated, but what made you want to do this?"
Six shrugged "Bored honestly, I am not one to sit around doing nothing and because I can't start work on the portal yet I think the best use of my time is to offer my services" the headmaster nodded "I can understand that, tell me how good are you with plants"
"I can take care of some plants" [Survival 30]-successful, Ozpin nodded as he wrote something down "And are you good with medicine"
The courier chuckled "You mean like… amputations?" [Medicine-25]-Failed; Ozpin shook his head as he made a line over something "And tell me… are you good at listening to other people's problems?" Six nodded "Sure, I like to help out people when I can" [Charisma]-10 Successful, Ozpin smiled as he handed him a list of things. The courier smiled a bit as he watched the part that said medical wing scribbled out, what did surprise him is that he had a long list of things to do "I would suggest that you start with the garden on the back, it was a project assigned to some second year students but with the tournament I don't think they would be able to attend it properly, maybe you can help them keep their grade"
"Yes I got heart cache by the number, troubles by the score~" Six sang as he twirled a shovel as if he was dancing with it, looking at his work the courier nodded in satisfaction as he stared at the newly watered and properly tended to flower and trees. He did not know why hunters needed to know botany but he was not about to question the curriculum choices of Ozpin and Co. He also made a mental note about how this part of the school was mostly deserted and hade a nice view of the emerald forest, a nice way for someone to sneak in.
Six scratched his neck as he sat down on the small office that was given to him for the rest of the day, for appearances sake he had put on a suit that in his humble opinion made him look like a jackass but by the nod he got from Glynda that came to check on him not so long ago it seems that management approved of the more serious look, a soft knock made him stop looking at his suit "Come in" the courier said as he prepared to play psychologist to whatever teen entered through the door "H-hello, is this… erm Mister Six?" the courier looked with surprise as he spotted a set of rabbit ears on top of the head of the kid "Sure is, how are you doing today?" they shook hands as he motioned for her to sit.
The rest of his way went like that, hearing teenage problems and offering some insight on how to solve their issues and give them some confidence, what most of them needed was actually a boos in their looking down at his PipBoy as another student left he began to type something for himself "Reminder to add students to the list of do not harm on the robotic units", Yes Man was quick to reply "Right! Consider it done :D"
Laughter and the sound of the gambling tables filled the air, the city of vice and sin made Nate sick, it paraded the dead body of the United States on the street and acted as if it was the real thing.
It was nothing more than a lie, a bitter and pathetic excuse for a joke.
The monsters and the rich of the wasteland traveled here to live out their dreams of fortune and fulfil their carnal desires. At least raiders were honest… they did not parade around pretending to be something that he had once loved.
The Sole survivor let out a sigh as he looked at the big tower, plan A was not going to be possible. There was no way he was going to risk the lives of his fellow brotherhood members for this monstrosity, he would just resort to plan B. Nate looked to the PipBoy on his wrist as the machine marked the one hundred percent, standing up he left the caps on the table and marched outside.
"Baby lets go to the ultra Luxe! I want to see the people in the masks!" a couple walked hand in hand as they walked towards the luxurious hotel, Nate felt an aching pain on were his ring used to be. It was nothing more than an echo of the past too, something else that he himself paraded around only in his memories.
A/N: Hi, small chapter before we move on to the juicy stuff, CEO Six is next, snowflake on the sand continues with new Couriers coming from different dimensions and Blood From Vault 18 we see the teens survive in the wasteland. Thank you so much for your support in this trilogy, see you soon!