The Courier wondered what would happen if he were to take both Mentats and Party Time Mentats at the same time, would he become the genius that Arcade wished he was during crucial moments like these? The Courier couldn't say that it was the first time he had to fight teenagers, normally he wouldn't have the heart to even harm a child but after rationalizing that teenagers are just really, really young adults he realized that it wasn't so bad.
He, like a very good person, tried to object the prospect of sparring with the students, citing reasons such as 'moral correctness' and 'guilty conscience stopping him from harming children', Goodwitch just stared at him blankly and ordered him to do it anyways, of which he immediately caved and complied.
Now he's here, standing alone in the locker room, readying himself to potentially harm about fifty or so superpowered teens, no, young adults in the training hall. Grasping tightly onto the Old Glory, the Courier wondered what Ulysses would say regarding his situation here, being an assistant teacher, fighting kids, being recruited to some shady group of ragtag teachers and drunkards and army commandos, somehow developing a superpower himself… et cetera, et cetera.
He'd probably just say something about the Bull and the Bear before lamenting about his past in the Legion; maybe he'd teach him a new recipe or give him more rockets for the Red Glare or whatever it is that he scrounged up in the Divide. Besides, seeing as how Ulysses was a part of the Legion at one point, he'd probably be fine with beating kids to make sure they grow up stronger.
After all, will morals help you survive in the wasteland? Probably, but not all things have a good ending to them. The Followers of the Apocalypse came to mind, good people sure but hopelessly naïve as well, usually got them into danger because they wanted to help people. The Courier admired them for this quality, this selflessness, if only they'd ask someone else to do their work instead of him all the time.
Stepping out onto the training hall, the Courier stood there awkwardly, like always, listening to Goodwitch talk about… something? He wasn't paying attention. When the spars began, the Courier felt bored, like his mind wasn't paying attention to any of the things he was doing, only significant bits and bobs here and there or so. This is probably because he took several hits of Jet and swallowed several packets of both Mentats and Party Time Mentats before he got here.
The combination of drugs mellowing him out tremendously while also making him a extremely successful sweet talker and a veritable genius thanks to the Mentats. Now if only he could find a way to make that permanent… He'll have to ask the brains when he gets back.
Goodwitch said that this is training for the upcoming Vytal Festival or something, where they pit teams or duos against one another, a glorified Legion fighting pit basically, like the one that Lucius or Red Lucy ran. Goodwitch wanted everyone to be on their 'A' game when they come into the festival, so she brought in him apparently, as if the Courier had any teaching experience at all.
After the introductions, the Courier began the gauntlet of teenagers. While he was beating down these young adults, he'll also be telling Goodwitch about the flaws he sees in their stance and way of attack, she'll then add her own criticisms and relay that to the defeated fighter.
That brown haired kid with the mace, knocked out by the Old Glory, held his own for a while but sloppy strikes and poor footwork put him out quick.
Young kid with the red streak in her hair, big ass Scythe, too predictable, overemphasized on big swings made her easy to parry, Semblance was nothing that he can't deal with, intercepting a fast object is easy when you have experience, quick reaction times made sure that she was knocked out quick.
Blonde haired kid that was dressed scantily, she hits hard but have bad accuracy, strikes are easy to read and easy to counter if one knows basic hand-to-hand, used the Ranger Takedown on her, ragdolled like a fish, easy to take out when she's on her back.
Red haired girl dressed like a Legionnaire, tried to use her Semblance on him, something to do with Magnetic Forces he presumed as he felt some of his bullets be attracted towards the girl, to no substantial effect as the Old Glory was mostly wood and gold. Put up a good fight though, great handling of her spear and shield, great footwork, an all-rounder but her moves are too technical, too 'nice' so to speak. The Courier reached into his duster and threw some sand in her eyes; the Khan Trick always worked on fighters who are too preoccupied with fairness. Goodwitch stopped the match, saying something about the Courier doing a 'dirty trick', he tried to defend himself.
"I'm trying to teach her that respecting the opponent will only get you killed!"
"This is not a life and death fight, Mr. Courrier! It's a festival!"
"Oh."
Maybe he should lay off on the students a bit, the red haired girl was nice though, shook his hand and thanked him even though her eyes were red from the sand, he felt bad now.
After that he fought a boy with a pink streak in his black hair, real agile one, always running and jumping around, the Courier sometimes felt himself start to relax and put his guard down for some reason, must be the kid's Semblance. Activating Implant GRX, the kid stood no chance.
Fought an orange haired girl with a big hammer, this one was simpler than most, dodged a wide overhead hammer strike and 'homerun'd' her right in the face.
After that was some nervous blond kid with a sword, did the Range Takedown on him and he fainted as the Courier swung the Old Glory down on his face. Poor footwork, slow reaction time, this kid needed training.
He then fought that Blake girl that Adam always waffled on about, now this one was an interesting one; the Courier never fought someone who could play tricks on his mind like this. Started out pretty basic for a spar, he went in for a backwards jab with the Old Glory and she jumped out of the way, looks like his beating back on the train stuck with her since she's not even trying to get close now.
Sent her shadow clones at me, don't see what the point is if she just left the clone behind and ran at me, every time I reached out with the Old Glory and swung at the closest clone its always her, got a good head on her shoulders though, moves are quick and unpredictable enough to get an opponent on their toes. The only flaw about her is her frankly shit use of her Semblance, why bother using clones when you're always the closest one to the enemy?
Had the pleasure of fighting some of the older ones too, now these ones he remembered vividly, probably because they fought as a team against him and not just one on one, tough match but not tough enough, not like Lanius or those fuckers in Caesar's tent.
The Courier came into the fight with his Old Glory already out, facing down team CFVY with his flagstaff. He eyed the competition, big brawny guy with a large sword, blind dude, girl with purse and another girl with a camera and bunny ears. He shouldn't let his guard down, knowing this world and its obsession with transforming weapons. Arcade would've liked it here, y'know, if he wasn't too busy being the good doctor for the Followers, maybe he should take him here one day, who knows?
Following the trend of transforming weapons, the girl in sunglasses, not cool ones like the Courier's just basic ones, transformed her little purse bag into a minigun, the Courier would've been surprised if not for the fact that it took quite some time to rev up, leaving her open to a quick dash and swing of the flagstaff. The girl was saved by big sword dude, who surprised the Courier somewhat by blocking a full swing from the Old Glory, although the force of the strike did create a small crater where he was standing in the first place.
Big sword means slow strikes, and since the Old Glory was basically a glorified stick with no ridges or bumps, the Courier slid the flagstaff along the blade and up towards the big guy's chin, who barely tanked it with his Aura as he was pushed back quite a fair amount, what a strange design for a sword, no crossguard or hilt? The blade just ended at the handle? That means a poor defence and can be exploited easily by opponents with more agile weaponry.
The Courier turned around to block a swing from the bunny girl, who was now holding a replica of the Courier's Old Glory, although it looked more like a hologram. Unfortunately for the bunny girl, the Old Glory's just a basic flagstaff with nothing special about it; it was the Courier's own strength that made it powerful. Besides, the Courier used the damn thing almost always, so of course he'd know all about the weaknesses of using something like a flagstaff without proper training.
The bunny girl replicated some of the moves he had pulled on big sword guy and sunglasses girl, large open swings with lots of openings for counterattacks, the only reason why those moves worked at all was because the Courier have been dosing on Implant GRX before taking any swing.
Blocking a wide swing from the bunny girl, the Courier held onto the Old Glory with one hand as his other one reached out to grab the replica, twisting the fake flagstaff to the side and allowing the Courier to jab the girl with the tip of his flagstaff, the gold ornament impacting against the girl's Aura as she recoiled but wasn't pushed back, since the Courier still held onto her replica of the Old Glory. Realizing this to be a great time to test out his new weapon, the Courier took out his new revolver that he quite literally dug up from the ground and fired at the bunny girl, who was launched towards one of the walls as if she was hit by a Boomer artillery shell or something. Her Aura shattered when her back hit the concrete.
She must've noticed this too as she let go of the replica and bounced back a fair distance, hearing the revving of the minigun that sunglasses girl had, the Courier activated Implant GRX again and dashed towards her, appearing right in front of her as he kicked the barrel of the minigun to the side and kicked her in the stomach in a quick twirl after. The girl's Aura shattered the moment her back hit the ground, no melee option when most of your team's melee based, weapon's not a sharpshooter type in the first place, not allowing for precise shots that wouldn't cause friendly fire, miniguns are slow too, not great when fighting a quick opponent.
Girl must've held off on firing because her teammates were in close melee combat with the Courier, no real way to aim a minigun when an enemy is standing next to your friend. Blind kid dropped down from above, must've used his Semblance to either stay hidden or made it so that the Courier forgot about him entirely, although the big sword guy did look a lot more tired than usual, even after being smacked in the chin with his flagstaff.
Turning around quickly, the Courier parried a strike from the blind kid's weird backwards blade gauntlet by hooking it into the ridge that separated the kid's elbow from the blade's false edge, fortunately for the Courier; his arms were longer than that of the blades, allowing him to keep the blind kid at a literal arm's length. While his Old Glory was being held in between the blind kid's blade gauntlet, big sword dude appeared behind him, readying an overhead strike on the Courier.
The Courier twirled and kicked at the big sword guy's arm, diverting the overhead strike to the side as he yanked the Old Glory out of the blind kid's grasp and smacked him in the face with the bottom part of the flagstaff, quickly activating Implant GRX, the Courier swiftly turned to big sword guy and delivered a flurry of blows against his face with the Old Glory, knocking both fighters on their ass. Both of their Auras' shattered.
Blind kid knows when to strike but having the blades be backwards severely limited his range of motion and actual range of the weapon as well. Big sword dude's sword is poorly made, not material-wise but shape wise, looked more like an oversized knife than a sword, no crossguard or hilt to parry or protect the hands or arms, allowing for easy counters, like the Legion's machetes, at least those ones are short.
The Courier mentally thanked Arcade for teaching him all of this inane Pre-War stuff, who knew he'd actually use it in a combat situation one day? Arcade said that he should know about swords and stuff because the Legion might come back one day and with better weaponry, there's a fine line between being prepared and being paranoid, Arcade's walking on a tightrope there in that situation.
Bunny girl had a good idea, catching the opponent off guard by using their weapon and copying their skills, unfortunately, you can only get so far with a replica of someone's weapon as the person you're copying from will always have more knowledge of their weapon than you. Unless you're fighting someone who hasn't realized the potential of their weapon, then you might as well take up a more sneak attack role like that blind kid.
"Good effort," the Courier said, watching as the team struggle to get to their feet, "You did a lot better than the other kids, now get some rest."
Goodwitch nodded, "While Mr. Courrier's methods could've been less… violent, I do believe that what happened today would be a great lesson for all of you."
The students leaned forward to hear what she was saying, all of them either clutching parts of their torsos or have ice packs on their jaw or chin, "We are several days away from the Vytal Festival and by proxy, the Tournament, I want all of you to be at your peak when participating," Goodwitch glanced down at her tablet before continuing, "I have also sent you all a digital copy of the document that I used to write down all of your flaws and mistakes during your spar with Mr. Courrier, go through them and make sure that these mistakes are not prevalent when you enter the Tournament."
"Understand?" "Yes, Ma'am!" "Good, class dismissed!"
As the students filter out of the training area, Goodwitch turned to the Courier and said, "This is Ozpin's idea, another test to see your Semblance but from the looks of it, it didn't activate now did it?"
"I guess so, nothing strange happened during all the fights…"
"We still need to know everything about your Semblance, most importantly being the activation requirements."
"I thought it was a Passive Semblance?"
"We still don't know yet, it could very well be Passive but we need more information on it."
"Alright, just call me when you need something… or update me if anything new happens, okay? I'm going to wander the school now."
"Sure, see you later Mr. Courrier."
"Bye."
Obligatory Author's Note.
I've been revisiting all the old Need For Speed games.
Most Wanted 2005 was a banger, fuck the Drag races in that game though.
Carbon hits different, Canyon Duels are sick.
Hot Pursuit 2010 also hits different, that turbo sound is chef's kiss perfection.
Rivals makes me really feel like an adrenaline junkie.
Payback's car handling can suck it, the game can suck it as a whole.
Heat was pretty neat, the police chases are pretty awesome although I wished they'd kept the Pursuit Breaker mechanic from Most Wanted 2005 and Carbon.
Unbound looks awesome, the burst nitro takes some time to get used to though, and the whole grip turning thing.