A screen glows in a monochrome static, slowly zeroing in on a signal. An image played in the silent fuzzy hum, an over the shoulder shot showing a blur in the near distance. The world sapped of colour makes it difficult to notice the figure that stepped out of the blur; skinny, dark suit, tuxedo? The stand out feature was the violently shaking line of white she held where the image seemed to spin. Shouts go into the radio but no one knows if they came back out.
He was familiar with the woman's blade, an iridescent sword. It shimmed like anodized titanium and looked so thin you could almost see through it, "aaaaand here we are again!"
The blonde woman slammed the blade into the concrete floor in front of her and put both hands on the hilt like a cane, bright purple lipstick grinning from ear to ear with her file sharpened teeth. Behind her were a small squad of armed thugs, uniformed in black and yellow fatigues, in front of her was Topaz.
His face was different to when she'd last seen him, his jaw had been relocated and he had a new pair of circular glasses, she could tell the nose hadn't healed yet. Behind him was a taller man, white fang mask said all that needed to be said. In one hand a pair of black backhanded gauntlets, trimmed with gold, in the other hand a large rifle, the barrel planted into Topaz's spine.
Topaz was dressed in his own black and yellow outfit, not like the guards though, this one more like a cat burglars' with a tight long sleeve shirt and loose cargo pants, all tied together nicely with a heavy duty pair of handcuffs. He had to admit he felt a bit of panic about being back before this woman, but despite how it seemed he had a trick up his sleeve this time.
"I trust you'll hold up your end of the bargain Fuega" the Faunus said in a gargled voice that almost sounded alien coming from him.
"Boy first, the girl later. I recommend getting some distance between you two, this might get a little messy" she cooed.
The Faunus behind him thrust him forward with the jab of his large firearm, supported in one hand by a strap going over his broad left shoulder, "So how should we do this little panther? You got new spectacles so how about a little more glass in the eye; it couldn't have been that bad last time if you went out and got another pair".
She pulled at the front of his shirt with one hand and uncoiled her body to pull the other behind her at break neck pace, her sword left standing between her and her bees. Topaz launched himself to the side, his arms still bound behind his back. Fuega was focused on her wriggling prey, a focus that was broken with the sound of the skies being torn apart by thunder as a torrent of heavy metal bullets slammed into her aura.
The Faunus tossed the gauntlets to Topaz as the magnets deactivated on his restraints. Slipping the bulky backed gauntlets over his fingerless gloves, three golden claws shot out from the protruding knuckle casings.
The brown haired boy leapt at the stylish slasher, she had already drawn her blade from the ground and caught her sword between two of his claws. She turned the blade to tilt him off balance, and with speed he couldn't process she slammed a fist into his gut and grabbed the wrist of his other arm.
He was held apart wide open, one wrist down and the other forced away in a blade lock, she bared her teeth and lunged for his neck like a swooping Nevermore. Her face changed from a lustful gluttony to surprise as a hockey stick struck her just above her rainbow heels, sending iridescent colours pulsing from the impact sit. As she was falling sideways a downwards kick hit her with the force of a meteor, a winged woman had broken through the ceiling, slamming Fuega's head into the ground with a gold metal boot causing her aura to shatter with her nose.
Topaz, still catching his breath, realised the fight was over, the combined fire of Sal's heavy munitions and Emma's hocky-stick/rifle had made short work of most of Fuega's bodyguards. The rest fled outside straight into an ambush of leather clad vigilantes.
Shouldering her semi-auto hocky-stick, Emma slid over to Topaz on her own patch of ice, "You'd think after repeating a year you'd get better" she said with a mocking grin.
Through gasps Topaz responded, "I have, just had to keep her distracted. How's Sal's kid?"
Despite his condition, the girl clad in a green hoodie and ice blue leggings continued to mock him, "Yeah, the others got her a few minutes before you got got. To think the fiery little guy I met at the start of the year would care about a Faunus's kid, let alone one from the white fang"
"You…" Gasps "…are a devil woman. I haven't been like that in months"
"Oh yeah, didn't think you could reform 'em like you did" gargled Sal, the small white tentacles flanking his smile like a long moustache, giving Emma and Topaz a pat on the back.
The wings cast a shadow over the trio before retracting into a more compact form behind her back. The gold clad woman approached the group, dragging Fuega behind her with the restraints Topaz bought with him, "I would like to remind you this is not part of the usual curriculum. Emma has certainly earned her marks with that performance."
"Thank you very much Presso" the girl's prideful beam turned to a smirk as she looked at Topaz, "I'm sorry buddy but if we're getting graded on that fight…" she finished with a fake wince.
"Oh no, Topaz more than earned his marks, he put half this thing together after all…you did fumble it at the end though but let's look past that" the professor said with a wink.
Topaz's response was a mix of beaming and stammering, "Really!? A are you sure? No, not going to risk it, thank you very much Professor Miras. You've really helped me, like allot this past year…"
Miras interrupted and put a hand on the boy's shoulder, "I'm a substitute, I've only been here for the past three semesters…but you're welcome, you've improved a hell of allot from the… fiery little guy I met back then" she said with a mocking grin, turning Topaz's face red as his eyes.
Emma covered her mouth but couldn't stop the laughter coming out.
"Also don't tell anyone about us working with a white fang member or I will revoke that mark" she finished with her tone snapping back to its normal sternness.
"SoMrTopazWhyDidn'tYouChooseShadeHmmm?" The green haired mad scientist threw the words at the pale boy on the other side of the table faster than he could catch them.
Topaz had to admit he didn't think the interview would be in what looked like an interrogation room. Lit only by a single light that left the rest so dark you couldn't even see the walls, "I…pardon sir?"
"GoingFromYourReportsYouImproved DrasticallyBothPhysicallyAndMentally,MadeAStron-gFriendshipGroupAndEvenStoppedAHumanTraffickingRingSoWhy…"
Topaz lurched up with his hands out, his eyes practically pleading, "Sir can you please slow down, I don't even know who you are!"
"Right, right, my apologies, Professor Oobleck" He said pointing to himself with the flask still in his hand, "I was just asking about your records. Someone who flunked their way to the last year at Parismati combat school, failed so badly they had to repeat said last year, only for the next year to blow everyone away."
"In that year you basically formed a premature huntsman team, solved so many of your…personal issues, and topped it all off with organising an extracurricular fifty man operation to take out a crime ring the police hadn't known about."
"Okay well they did know about it, it was more of a not caring enough issue" Topaz stated with a grimace.
"Exactly! The four of you took up a mantle you shouldn't have had to and did better than the half city's police department."
With a snort and a smile Topaz interjected, "well, to be fair it wasn't just the four of us that took down the whole organisation, we got help from the…" Topaz's humble-bragging was cut short by his own reasoning "…Ms Miras also helped"
"But that brings me back to my question…why Beacon? Both your parents went to Shade, you know half the teachers through them, that whole team you were a part of is going there…minus Ms Miras of course…so why choose to go in blind?" the professor leaned forward, his chin on his knuckles, his thick glasses reflecting in the light so Topaz couldn't see his eyes.
Looking into the two reflections of himself he felt small as he looked. His eyes went down to his fidgeting hands in his lap, "I…I just wanted to get away I guess. I'd always had so much…expectation that, until this year, I had failed to meet at every turn. Exams, socially, just…just being a decent person" he said the last words with notable venom.
"I feel like I've been given a new lease on life and I just want to do it make sure I do it right this time…you know? A fresh start"
After a brief response Professor Oobleck spoke again, "That's perfectly understandable, well…if that's all you wanted to talk about…"
"You were the one talking sir"
"Then I guess we should get to the paperwork, here are you forms, please just sign here, here, aaaand here, oh and write your details of course." A small pile of forms were slid in front of Topaz and the mad man left him in peace.
Topaz sat in silence for a while just staring at the name section, "do I really want to do this?", "is it too far?", "you can't really go back from this you know?", "fuck it, we're all in!" cutting off their internal monologue (for better or worse) they scriggled letters into the boxes.
Name: Teph Talnami.