Chapter 80- Cove ATC - Wetwork

Cover Art by Mi Chumi

72VE, May

Rosso's face broke the surface, but he carefully kept his mouth closed and his neck below the water. The sandy bottom of the Aquatics Center was smooth and comforting beneath his fin-clad feet, with a perfect balance of firmness and give. In his left hand, he held a fire-dust-propelled speargun that held six rounds, and in his right he gripped an oversized diving knife, nearly a short sword.

To his right, he knew, their instructor and leader Salt Boudda was lurking silently in the water. They'd learned early on that regardless of what their brains told them, if he was in the water and being still, there was just no freaking way to tell exactly where he was. The fact that he would often allow himself to freaking drift about didn't help matters. And from what they'd seen, he was indeed nearly invisible to Grimm when he did it, but it only worked in water.

The number of times he'd thought the retired Huntsman was in one location, and then the man suddenly spoke from a few feet from his ear, was unnerving.

The rest of the Tier 1 Aquatics Crew were waiting with him, here inside the enclosed 'beach' that made up the bulk of the building.

Today was their trial by fire.

Midterms.

He looked to his left. Close enough that they could cover each other, he and Nina Pololia had become something of a duo. His ability to stay underwater allowed him to cover her from direct attacks from beneath the surface, and her faunus trait of being able to shoot envenoming darts from her fingertips made sure that anything that got close enough to attack him was quickly disabled. It was unfortunate that Grimm didn't need to breathe to live, or that would have been the end of them as they were paralyzed and drowned. As it was, they'd learned early on that her venom lasted about an hour for the smaller Grimm they'd encountered so far, but the stupid things still needed to be finished before it wore off.

Further in front of them floated Mau Naia, the merfolk faunus, completely in his element. He didn't have a combat semblance, but he was freaking fast, and agile, and he was deadly with the spear / dagger combo that he wielded. Neither weapon was technically mechashift, but the dagger held a few nasty surprises for any Grimm that got past the spear.

Just behind the duo was Xantham Fisk, mounted on the front of a 2-man jet-skid, with a second merchantman riding shotgun with a rather large-caliber bolt-action rifle that could fire various dust-rounds or physical projectiles mounted so that it and its gunner could swivel nearly 270 degrees. Fisk was nominally the crew chief, though he tended to defer to Mau during combat and mostly played backup. Both of the jet-skid riders were fully fitted with lightweight emergency SCBA paks and emergency flotation, but their goal was to stay topside if at all possible, to hit hard and fast while staying out of range of any Grimm.

And behind those guys was Hot Rod, floating on a short bodyboard that featured a set of custom sheathes for dual cutlasses. He was the reserve and ambush protection. He likewise had an emergency SCBA pak on, though they'd all learned that when his Semblance was active he didn't need it. And when his Semblance was active, he could move even faster than Mau or the Jet-Skid could on the surface.

Somewhere behind them on the shore, a half-dozen adults including several Huntsmen were monitoring by camera and eyeball. To the right, a fully-armed and armored small patrol vessel was ready to intervene as well. This was supposed to be a test, not mortal combat.

"Alright," Salt's voice came from Rosso's right, making him flinch. Gods how did the crocodile faunus do that? He'd been on the left a minute ago. "Everyone ready?"

Mau made eye-contact with each of them, and then replied, "Ready, Salt. Let's make some waves."

"Open the gates!" Salt yelled, and then fell silent.

. . .

At the far end of the building, an underwater gate began slowly shifting aside. For months, that thick steel mesh had been one of two openings that separated the water of the Aquatics Center from the shallow bay beyond. The second had been the solid-metal egress gates for the patrol boats and jet-skids to enter or leave. For months, Team Salt had been spending an hour a day on weekdays, along with extra training time on the weekends, inside the Aquatic Center, protected by that thick metal, but clearly visible to anything that might swim past outside.

For months, the random aquatic Grimm who had entered the bay by chance had been gradually attracted to the Aquatics Center, sensing the souls inside if they came within range. The fact that there were periodic spikes of anger or frustration as the team tried to work out how to best fight together in and on the water ensured the Grimm lingered. It wasn't a huge amount of Grimm, but it was enough. And by now, they were frustrated as all hell, Rosso imagined. He'd watched them, more than once from the upper balcony of the Aquatics Center: Cuda swimming back and forth ceaselessly. Capivara trying fruitlessly to climb the smooth walls of the center. It had gotten to the point that when a vessel or watercraft needed to enter or leave the center, they'd had to send Salt out first toward the opposite side of the building to lure them away so they could open the larger sea-doors long enough for the vessel to enter or leave.

There'd even been a few land-based Grimm attracted to the building, but Salt and the staff had made short work of those.

Yesterday, the staff and some of the older students from the main campus had also culled the aquatic Grimm from the shoreline.

But they hadn't killed all of them.

The result was, indeed, some really pissed off and frustrated Grimm. Grimm who had been swimming back and forth in front of the building for days now, desperate to get at the people within. Had they been larger, they might have tried to tear their way through the metal barriers. But anything big enough to do that was blocked from entering the bay at all.

But now, the barrier that had kept them out of the building was moving.

Now there was nothing to stop them.

First one, then a second, and finally all half-dozen Cuda charged through the opening, bone-like skull protrusions cutting through the water, red eyes glowing and seeking their prey, mouths open to reveal hundreds of spiked teeth protruding like the spines. Those teeth were designed to grab and tear, to drag their prey beneath the surface where it could be destroyed in a frenzy.

And behind them came a herd of Capivara, just shy of a dozen, long spiked tails swaying back and forth and propelling them through the water at more modest pace. Their long, clawed arms were hanging back by their sides, to improve their hydrodynamics, but they still were less than half as fast as the Cuda.

. . .

"I'm still not completely comfortable with this," Director Nagata said with a frown.

Daisy spared him a brief glance. The older man's face was tense. Hell his entire body radiated tension.

In fact, it was a good thing he wasn't closer to the shoreline than he was. With the kind of stress he was radiating, the freaking Capivara might have ignored Team Salt and gone for him instead.

"You said it yourself, Director," Daisy replied quietly as she turned quickly back to the scope she was using to monitor the progress of the Cuda closing in the several hundred yards from the far end of the Aquatics Center, "we can't manage the kind of age-based test that we should for Team Salt. It's a mixture of pre-Academy and Academy-aged students."

"But still. I wish I hadn't let Salt talk me into allowing Ms. Pololia and Mr. Aukei to participate in this particular—gods those things are fast."

"Too late now. And you really shouldn't worry Director, both of them have gotten a crash course. This may be their first year at a Combat School, but Aukei is already fighting at the level I saw third-year Combat School students back on the continents." Her left hand tightened on her weapon. "And he won't let anything near his partner, so she's solid. And the rest of the team aren't going to let anything happen to them." She spared another glance. "And we've got enough firepower trained on those Grimm right now to kill them ten times over."

"Before they can do serious damage?"

"Long before that. Trust me. Salt alone is a force to be reckoned with."

"Should have chosen a Huntsman to lead this, not a jumped up administrator like me," Director Nagata muttered. "I don't have the nerves for this."

Daisy smiled. "You could have stayed in your cushy office and watched the video afterward, you know."

"Cushy office my ass," he growled. "And I'll be damned if I sit up there safe and sound while my kids are putting themselves through the ringer."

And that's why you're the right choice for this, at least for the time being, Daisy thought.

. . .

Rosso could see the Grimm cutting through the clear water toward them. The view was only slightly distorted by his goggles. The roof of the Aquatics Center allowed significant light in, without turning the entire building into a sauna. The first wave was series of dark, knife-like shapes undulating left to right in sharp movements and propelled forward at a frightening pace. The Capivara would be behind that first wave. They'd discussed this in Grimm Studies, and discussed their own tactics in their own Aquatics Class.

Grimm, at least base-level Grimm like these, did not plan. They don't do tactics. They don't use the landscape to their advantage. Had they done so, outnumbering Team Salt by about 4-1, they would likely have overwhelmed the students quickly and it would have turned into a free-for-all.

But base-level Grimm just charge in. That meant that the Cuda would arrive a full minute before the Capivara reached them.

That didn't sound like a lot of time, but as he'd learned during spars, a minute can stretch out to an eternity in the middle of a fight. Team Salt believed that would be enough.

"Steady!" Fisk yelled from his perch atop the jet-skid, which was positioned sideways to the incoming Grimm to allow his gunner the widest range of fire. He was standing up, hands gripping the handlebars and ready to adjust his position as needed. He waited a few more seconds as the Cuda closed. "Steady!" He glanced over his shoulder. "Mids, Ice round two yards past the first wave on my mark."

Behind him, Rosso heard Midshipman Eriks reply "Aye sir."

He gave Nina another reassuring glance, and she nodded, and he lowered himself down fully into the water so that he could let his faunus trait work at its fullest. He let his vision adjust, let his brain compensate for the way the water distorted distance, even with the goggles, and eased himself closer and just ahead of Nina.

And there they were, a half dozen deadly Grimm in a tight school with two in the lead, each at least four feet long and all razor sharp teeth and sharp-edged fins. Bone-white skulls and red eyes glowing with hate, heading right for them.

Rosso felt the weirdest mixture of calm and terror that he'd ever felt in his life. It was the adrenaline high he got when he was about to spar in the Arena, combined with the fear of a nightmare. Irrational. Fight or flight.

But he wouldn't run, because Nina was counting on him. Mau and the others were counting on him.

It's a truism that Grimm are drawn by two things, Aura and negative emotions. Their tight-knit group, other than Fisk and Mids, all had Aura. But of the rest, Ross figured he and Nina were the most terrified right now.

They'd planned on that too. They were, in many ways, willing bait.

Gods those things are fast, Rosso thought, gripping his speargun and diving knife tightly.

And then the first two Grimm made the first and last mistake of their lives. They tried to bypass Mau and zero-in on Nina. With a flash of silvery blue and the sound of micro-bubbles being formed and collapsing, Mau launched himself upward, out of the water, and came raining down on them like an avenging god from above.

They weren't prepared for that. The first was skewered by his long spear, its forward momentum adding to the damage as the bitter steel ripped through it's midsection. The second caught a backward slash of Mau's dagger as he passed, shearing off one of its pectoral fins completely which caused it to lose partial steering and swerve off to the right instead of bearing straight toward the two younger students.

Behind him, there was a muffled crack that transmitted through the hull of the jet-skid, and Rosso saw the water ahead of him, behind the remaining Cuda, turn opaque. Mids had fired the ice-dust round, and formed solid wall of ice between the Cuda and Capivara, buying them additional time to deal with the first threat.

Two more Cuda, deciding that Mau was indeed a threat now, converged on the older faunus who had continued his path to the left, tearing his spear out of the Grimm he'd impaled and leaving it flopping and flailing in his wake. The first managed to score a bite against Mau's Aura, causing the young man to grimace as it flashed, but wasn't able to do any physical damage otherwise. And it caught a dagger in the eye for its troubles. The second tried to circle around and attack Mau from behind, but from behind him, two needle-like darts, propelled by tiny gas jets, sped like miniature torpedoes. One missed, Nina was still working on dealing with parallax and the Cuda was moving fast, but the second struck the Cuda in the side, causing it to lose all motor control in a fraction of a second. Instead of trying to latch on and tear at Mau's exposed back, it rammed into him, bounced off, and began slowly sinking to the bottom, red eyes glowing in impotent rage.

Then there was a flash as Mau activated the dust chamber embedded in the dagger, which blew the head of the one he'd stabbed clean open even as it thrashed and tried to reach his flesh.

That left two more.

One decided it had something passing for a brain, and circled far around to the right. They'd seen this tactic before, where a Cuda would build up speed and launch itself out of the water, attempting to snag a faunus on the way and either mortally wound it or use its momentum to knock them into the water where it would finish them off. More than one fisherman had lost their lives that way over the years.

Which was why they had Hot Rod in reserve. Rosso had to assume he could handle that one.

Because the last one was heading right for him, teeth-filled maw open. Rosso slowed his breathing and brought the spear-gun up.

The closer the better.

From his left, two more darts flew out, but the Grimm had seen those in action, and jinked to the left. Unfortunately, that was just as Rosso had fired his speargun, and that shot also missed. He cursed internally. Something he'd gotten good at. Trying to curse under water just made a bubbly burble, and half the time he sucked water into his lungs instead of his gills, which didn't do any good at all.

And then the damn thing was within arms-reach. He dropped the spear-gun and parried with the large diving-knife, deflecting its bone-like jaw and saving his Aura a nasty strike, but the momentum of the thing was no freaking joke. It was like getting slammed by a six-inch thick log moving at speed, and nearly knocked the knife out of his hand even as it spun him around. He felt a searing pain as its razor-sharp dorsal fin scraped across his arm, tearing at his Aura, and he struck out blindly, feeling a resistance as his blade cut into the thing more by sheer luck than skill.

There was a flash of black, white, and red as the thing curled back around for another pass, and Rosso noted that a good quarter of its caudal area, fin included, had been sheared off.

Take that, ya bastich.

From this angle, Rosso could see Nina to his right, and she had ducked under the surface so she could aim better. And this time she didn't miss. As the Cuda zeroed back in for another strike, a third set of darts powered their way through the water, and both nailed it this time, turning it from a guided to an unguided hydraulic missile.

One which Rosso sidestepped and then scored a mortal gash down the entire length of its side as it sped past.

Woot!

He spun around as Nina breached the surface to breathe, after giving him a thumbs-up, and saw the Capivara had finally made their way in two groups around the ice barrier, some to the left and some to the right, and were converging from both sides. Mau was charging the larger group even as a series of dust-rounds drove metal projectiles into the mini-herd, causing at least one to begin dissolving into inky blackness which slowly drifted with the minimal current inside the building.

Rosso turned his attention to the second group, which was finally converging, and eased closer to Nina. She had four shots left, unless he'd missed one volley, and there were about eight or nine of the Capivara incoming.

Something exploded in the middle of them, scattering them.

Make that seven.

Some of them veered off, probably headed for the jet-skid, which Rosso couldn't allow. He pulled on the loop of his speargun, raising it back up to hand and selecting a fire-dust tip, and fired at the densest group of them, more or less aiming for one and hoping.

He got lucky. The projectile managed to nip one of the Capivara, and that activated the round, causing the fire dust to activate and creating a yard-wide sphere of superheated steam, which pretty much cooked anything that was still in that ball of vapor.

Six and several wounded and pissed off.

That caused the bulk of those to veer back off toward him.

Great….

He fired again, scoring another hit, before they got within melee range, and saw another freeze in mid-undulation when another of Nina's darts hit it.

Four.

And then they were on him. It was, to put it mildly, a complete cluster. Basically a brawl with claws, and teeth and diving knife. Capivara weren't extremely tough, but they were in their element, and there were three of them, and they felt like they were all over him at once, tearing and biting. If he'd been an air-breather, he would have been in serious freaking trouble, because he'd have to worry about drowning while fighting, or stay on the surface. But he wasn't.

Rosso Aukei was in his element, too. He slashed and stabbed even as he felt the pain of their attacks tearing at his Aura, and the water began to go inky with the dissolving body-parts he carved off. He had one moment to see that Nina had moved further back, retreating toward the jet-skid. She'd probably used up all of her darts, and would need time to recharge them, but there wasn't a Capivara crawling up her butt, so she was okay. Fisk and Mids would cover her.

Of course they couldn't cover him, cause he had Capivara all over him, trying to drag him to the bottom and drown him.

Stupid Grimm. Rosso Aukei doesn't drown.

Still their claws and teeth hurt like crap. And he could feel his Aura slowly depleting.

And then there was suddenly a lot of dark ink in the water, and Salt was standing to his left, and Mau to his right, and there weren't any more Capivara within arm's reach.

Rosso blinked inside his goggles, and his eyes stung. Some saltwater had gotten inside. But still. He looked around as the inkiness slowly dissipated.

No more Grimm.

Standing and straightening so that his head broke the surface, he found that Hot Rod had also moved up behind him. Nina was further back, closer to the jet-skid, and grinning.

And there were people yelling and clapping. He felt Salt's hand on his shoulder, and he looked to his right.

"Extremely well done, Rosso. Good tactics, good execution, and good use of your trait."

Rosso winced, and looked to see that his skin was bruised and purple in at least a dozen spots. But no blood. "Feels like I got attacked by a blender."

"Yeah that'll happen. Capivara aren't strong, but if they get hold of you, it's like trying to fight off rabid squirrels underwater," Salt said with a smile.

"Rosso you idiot!" Nina yelled. "You ddn't have to throw yourself in front of them like that!"

Rosso blinked. That hadn't been on purpose. But then again… "To protect the fair maiden? C'mon Nina, it's practically a rule."

"Hmph. I need to get a knife, too. I can't retreat just because my darts have run out."

"We'll work on that," Salt replied. "For now, take some time and relax. Head to the conference room in, say, thirty minutes, while I finish off any Grimm that Nina nailed. We'll give you formal marks over the weekend, but I don't mind saying you all passed with flying colors."

. . .

On shore, Director Nagata sagged in relief. "Couldn't see what was going on half the time!" he muttered.

"That's why Salt is in the water with them, Director," Daisy replied evenly. "He or Fisk would have signaled if they were in any real danger."

"Right. Right." The older man pulled out his scroll and typed out a quick message to Chieftain Ursulus. They'd agonized over whether they were making the right decision, using blended-age training. It seemed the only solution due to the huge age diversity in student body, and it looked like it was paying off.

Oh, they'd had a hell of a turnover, the first two months, it was true. The initial crop of students, from Combat School-aged through adults, that had signed up had spread the word like wildfire among their family, friends and neighbors. And that had caused a literal flood of applications, far more than their already stretched staff could really handle, though they'd powered through it with a lot of crying and bitching.

He, and they, had done their best. They'd tried to fit everyone in, even those who clearly weren't cut out for Huntsman training. Some they coopted into non-combat staff. Others they asked to reapply the next year.

And then, the second month, they'd started losing students.

It was to be expected, Lionheart had assured him. Combat Schools had an attrition rate that was pretty dramatic, and what they were doing here was even more unorthodox. Not only were they accepting students that most Combat Schools would have turned away, they were pushing them harder, and dealing with blended-age teams.

The result was that the number of students had halved by the end of February, putting them basically back to where they'd started in early January, though not the same students. They'd retained a smattering of the late arrivals, and lost a smattering of the early signers. And then, month after month, they'd continued to attrit students. Mostly Combat School age, thankfully. The older ones seemed to understand better what the expectations were. And any adults who'd sighed up, post Academy age, had clung to the dream of Huntsman status stubbornly. Hell, two had trained themselves into the ground, and earned themselves an extended stay in the campus medical clinic, and still refused to quit.

And no one had actually promised them, at least not in writing, that Huntsman status is what they'd end up with. But that's what they hungered for. They could taste it. They could feel that was what the end game was here, regardless.

It was the worst-kept secret in Remnant by now, at least in Menagerie. Cove ATC, no matter what it called itself, was training Huntsmen.

He shook his head as he rode back up the cliffs toward the main campus. The Lancers had been thinned out by multiple expeditions of older students, so it was rare the skycar was molested these days. That meant he could ponder how glowing his report to Ursulus would be. Salt would send him the final grades in the morning. The kids, hell the entirety of Team Salt, had exceeded expectations.

And that report would get forwarded on to Lionheart for his feedback, and to see what his advice was about the other matter.

They were halfway through the school year, and Director Nagata had already had one kid, a seventeen-year-old faunus transplant whose family was originally from Vale, ask about the process for applying to Beacon Academy come November.

He sighed.

That is when things will apparently get interesting.

[A/N]

And a bit of time skip. Six months this time to the middle of Vytal Era 72. This year the November Vytal Festival is being held in Vale, and it won't cycle back around to Vale again until Year 80VE (which in Canon is when everything goes to hell. But in this timeline? Who knows what'll happen?)

Special thanks to my recent reviewers Rookie80 and AtomicR47!

AtomicR4y: Yep, Watts a total dweeb, and he'll eventually get what he deserves, though not before he causes a wyvern's worth of heartache and headache. TLH may have prepared for him, but he's a wily bastard.

Rookie80: Yep, the TLH aren't perfect and they aren't omniscient. They're gonna miss stuff. I'm glad you found the difference in response of the future Vacuo baddies versus Adam Taurus believable, and you correctly point out that just because Adam doesn't fall for this bait, doesn't mean he won't still fall to his baser temptations. Time will tell because as you say, its a different world we are dealing with here.

I enjoyed writing this chapter for the first look at what aquatic combat might entail. I also introduced a new Grimm of my own design, Cuda (modeled after barracuda) and we get our first look at Capivara which exist in canon but are only mentioned a few times there. This was my first foray into more detailed combat descriptions, and it involved partially underwater action, but I'm pretty happy how it turned out. Hope you found it so, as well.

And a bit of foreshadowing. At some point here, the cat(fish) will be fully out of the bag, and I (and Director Nagata) now expect it's going to come when our first Academy-age students start applying to the legacy Academies and listing the Cove ATC as their source of training.

Some folks are going to start asking questions then, I bet.

Happy reading! I think next chapter we catch back up with our beloved Ren and Nora, not to mention Dania (Deedee) in Kuroyuri! Stay tuned for Chapter 81 - Kuroyuri - Ride of the Valkyrie!