"Vic...?" Paul, the man clad in a strange uniform with a blue, white and red flag patch on his shoulder paused. He scanned the boy from head to toe, noting some of the chemical burn scars on his neck and and the tired smile of the young man. He also noticed the four girls behind him, all of whom seemed surprised to see another person in modern military kit. He'd ask about them in a sec, though, focusing on Vic and taking his mask off.
"Holy shit, dude..." Vic commented, then walked up to him and smiled brightly, much to the surprise of his newfound friends. He told him, "Heh. Didn't expect to see you in a Froggy uniform, considering what your reactions to them are usually like," and he pointed at the Foreign Legion badge on his right shoulder, plus the FAMAS on his back. It was truly a sight to behold, considering the nationalism of the Hungarian.
"Had to get into Russia somehow and our shitboot of a prime minister wouldn't support the UN's Task Force going in," Paul commented, then sighed deeply as he said, "Probably still hoped the rumors of the Ruski Prez's suicide weren't true..." only to pause as he saw more of the marks of battle. He told him, "God damn, brother, look at you. You look worse for wear..."
"Heh. You're one to talk, you Hungol jackass," Vic grinned and pointed at his buddy's face, "You look like you got whipped across the face by metal chains multiple times."
"I'm still the more handsome out of the two of us, Gypsy Boy," Paul shot back, poking the Romanian on the forehead and garnering a laugh out of him, much to the confusion and surprise of team RWBY. Wasn't 'Gypsy' a sort of ethnic slur for nomads, all four girls thought. They probably used it more as a nickname, considering soldiers were strange like that to normal people.
"In your dreams," Vic shot back, then lifted his hand. Paul grabbed it and the two... Well, they didn't 'shake' hands per se, but they did butt helmets with a strange amount of joviality behind giving each-other a concussion. Yang and Blake honestly almost couldn't help themselves, smiling at the interaction, while Weiss herself seemed a bit surprised at the lack of professionalism being exhibited. Yes, soldiers were still humans, but...
"Ehm... Victor?" Ruby was the most confused out of the lot, however, surprised by the sheer fact that another of Victor's teammates had dropped in. Much more, that said teammate was from another nationality. The two looked to the girl for a moment, with Paul's eyes slightly widening. He saw Blake, who soon noticed him, too, blushing as she stared at the French Hungarian.
"Oh, right, shit," Vic clapped his hands together, then stated, "Suppose it's only natural we do introductions now, then," and he threw his arm over Paul's shoulder, starting, "Paul, these four are team RWBY, students at Beacon. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao-Long..." As the three others greeted calmly. He stopped at the entranced Blake, whose face was red, then asked her warily, "You okay, Blake?"
"Huh? Uh. Yes," Blake replied, blushing healthily. The rest of her team and Vic had probably noticed it ahead of her and Paul, who seemed all the more oblivious to it, but Blake probably had a crush. It was kind of funny to think of the fact black-haired, auburn-eyed girl in front of them had a kind of crush on a guy from another planet, like Paul. Then again, Yang was one to think that way, considering her own view on Vic.
"Bonjour, I guess..." Paul greeted kindly in French, smiling. Blake visibly shivered at that, approving the language change, while her comrades seemed a little confused at the accent and word. Hungarian accents apparently matched French decently enough that it got Blakey into a bit of a momentary fugue. Vic snorted at the sight, however, ensuring he kept his face hidden.
"Girls, this is one of my best pals from KFOR," Vic spoke as he patted Paul on the shoulder, then crossed his arms to his chest with a smile. Truth be told, Paul was one of a dozen 'best pals. They'd always said to themselves you can have a group of Best Friends, people one would share what was closer than a blood bond with some times. Blood of the Covenant being sweeter than the water of the womb and all that.
"Nemeth Paul, Corporal in the French Foreign Legion and Hungarian-born..." Paul nodded, cradling his own light machine gun in his arms. He added, "Nice to meet you, girls," with a kind smile that seemed to get Blakey a lil' red in the face again, confirming Vic's and the others' belief that, yes, the girl did have a crush on him and that it was, in fact, very obvious.
"There's no man I'd rather have covering my ass from behind the scope of a DMR, even if he's a bit of a dumbass," Vic quipped, then looked to Paul and added jokingly, "Comes with being born in his country," and that got a few chuckles out of the girls, even though they didn't know what country Vic was referring to. The age-old 'hostilities' between Hungarian and Romanian were still felt, though it was more just yanking each-other's chains here.
"You're one to talk," Paul shot back, gently slapping him on the arm, right on his Romanian flag, and stating "We come from similar shitholes, after all."
"Ha," The Romanian snorted, then hummed and observed, "Also, hey, you switched to a Minimi," While pointing at the French version of the US Military's M249 Light Machine Gun, the Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW. He nodded approvingly, asking as more of a joke, "Accuracy by volume of fire enjoyer now?" even though he knew the man was more of a sharpshooter.
"Nah. I still like my groupings tight," Paul shrugged, hinting at the fact he fired in bursts. He smirked and added, "Finding 5,56 is kinda hard in the Motherland's corpse..." while noting the looks team RWBY was giving them. Those looks being of surprise, still. They did seem acclimatized to the idea the boys had come from another world and fought other humans, at least, so that was good.
"Boo. Boring," Vic teased, smiling. He looked over to the four girls, noting that they, too, smiled at the sight of the Romanian soldier's own more happy attitude, then raised a brow. It didn't take Paul as long as it would take Vic to realize that the girls were probably happy they were seeing him smile, if he'd been around for longer than the Hungarian had been.
"Heh. You two seem like brothers from where I'm standin'," Yang quipped, grinning, as she saw the two boys interacting. It was a rather wholesome sight for the blonde as she pulled Ruby in for a hug as well. Blake and Weiss nodded approvingly at the sight, then looked at one-another and smiled, too. Weiss had truly grown as a person if she could simply smile at her friends like this now.
"It's nice to see you smiling, Vic," Ruby offered, noting Vic's confusion. She told him, "You looked a lil' worse for wear when we first met," and the rest of the squad gave nods of approval. He chuckled awkwardly, while Paul gave him a light pat on his back, grinning a little as she saw Yang staring at him with the kind of eyes he'd only seen once before. Then, his grin slowly turned into a frown he hid from the team and Victor.
"Seeing old friends tends to bring one's morale up, yeah," Vic, thankfully oblivious to his friend's reaction, nodded.
"Speaking of..." Paul remembered. He turned his head right and yelled, "Paula!" allowing the other member of the duo to come along. A blonde-haired girl with blue eyes(a seeming common in their lives in terms of sisters, thought Yang) walked out, cradling an FN SCAR-H PR with attached scope, bipod and strange rubber grip, as well as a 30rd Magazine instead of the standard twenty-rounder of your normal armed forces.
"Howdy, Victor," The twin sister of Paul spoke warmly. KFOR had been the last time they'd seen each-other, but the fact Vic saw them both still in the same unit was a welcoming sight. He knew they'd be hard to separate. Watching her walk into the light, he saw she bore some scars, too, though the young Hungarian woman hadn't changed all that much physically.
"Hehehe. Heya, Paula," He smiled, "Been a while..."
"Yeah," She smiled back.
"Sis is here, too, same as my Platoon," He then offered and raised a brow, "Where's your squad?"
"Probably got scattered..." The girl shrugged and hummed. She looked over to their newfound friends that were team RWBY and said to both them and the two boys of the squad, "Anyways, we should all probably head on outta here and back to whatever OP you guys have set up. Best to rally up and start figuring out a plan of action... Seeing as we're on another planet."
"Agreed," Vic and Paul nodded in agreement, then turned to Ruby and the others.
"Follow us," Ruby said proudly as she led the group out. The walk was calm and unsurprisingly not quiet, the boys and girl starting up a chat about past experiences that devolved into twenty random topics they were each covering one after the other. Half the stuff they were talking about passed over all four Remnant-born girl's heads as they walked to the landing pad for the Bullheads heading to Beacon, the sun starting to set in the distance.
Boarding the aircraft despite a momentary hesitation from both Paul and Paula(Seriously, why? Why hesitate? The Bullhead was perfectly safe. And why name twins like that?) the girls watched the trio of soldiers converse exactly like they'd expect old friends from the military to chat. If there had ever been one common them about soldiers in war movies that the girls had seen, it was the fact that they maintained a sort of camaraderie that was hard to replicate in any other profession, save maybe for Hunter work.
Before long, however, Paula pulled out her strange phone and thumbed the screen a couple times. A nice guitar riff started playing, alongside the steady beat of the drums and the keys of an electronic keyboard. The three started moving to the beat of the song as the lyrics started playing, smirks on their faces as the aircraft flew toward Beacon now. They kept chatting, before starting to sing to the tune.
It was honestly like watching how Ruby probably thought they'd be in like in 10 years of their lives. Twenty-somethings, sick of the crap they had to deal with, but still enjoying each-other's company. They bobbed their heads and tapped their feet as they sang to the tune of a song the girls would later find out was called 'Rebel Yell'. Honestly, all four thought it was a good tune. Difference was Ruby was bobbing her head with them, while Blake simply hummed the tune. Weiss was sat there, impassive... And Yang was headbanging.
At the household of the Romanians, Vic entered, leading the pack with a smile and stating, "Sorry, I didn't get anything that nice, boss! Just a pair of Hungarians in French uniforms!" and Diana and the others straightened up. Vicky's face immediately glowed as she saw Paul and Paula step in, the Romanian twin jumping to her feet with a grin and running up to the pair, immediately hugging them like an old friend would hug those she hadn't seen in a long while.
"If it ain't two more of the Misfits!" Smirked Diana, arms crossed to her chest, "It's good to see you two again, Corporals," before she looked over to the rest of the Romanian squad. She gave a motion of the hand and said, "We'll let you folks catch up on your own, alright?" then she stepped out for a patrol with the rest of the squad. And to probably talk to Ozpin, she thought. If more of the Misfits were gonna show up, they'd need to set up some sort of larger base of operations.
"Didn't expect to see your squad here, you two," Paula spoke calmly, "Hell, when we lost contact..." and she sighed deeply. Paul nodded in approval. They'd lost hope that the team was still alive and, then again, the Misfits had long-ago lost contact with one-another out there. Russia was a large hellscape, so distant and abnormal that it made it nigh impossible for even entire units to keep in touch properly at times.
"Yeah, trust me," Vic smiled a little sadly, "I didn't think they'd follow me here, either," and, in truth, he'd hoped they would live at least, to get payback for him and for everyone else that died securing that shithole of a country. Sighing deeply, the other three nodded in agreement, before looking to one-another, with Vicky immediately getting a fun quip to put out.
"Glad to know we've got extra firepower on us, though, honestly," She grinned, arms crossed, then said the quip with the grin widening, "A whole MRAP full of wallet-stealers," which got a laugh out of her friends and her brother. Common jokes among the Misfits were the various stereotypes of their respective countries, like the Hungarians being the bad end of a Mongol invasion, or the Romanians and Bulgarians being thieves(of wallets and cars respectively) or the Chinese Lieutenant being a bat-eater, or the Americans being stupid. Basically, their entire humor was stereotypes they could all laugh at.
"Heh. Well, better than nothing, I suppose," The male Hungarian-French twin joked, garnering a few more short laughs, then he murmured, "Wonder if our squad's gonna show up, too, considering we all got caught in the same thing," as he and Paula looked to one-another. She shrugged, unsure if that was gonna be the case, considering everything. They didn't know how this crazy revival mechanic even worked.
"Huh..." Victor blinked, then inquired, "Right, how did you two die, anyway?"
"Omsk," The man replied. Vic and Vicky both blinked, confused, which led him to clarify, We were investigating rumors of some new faction being propped up in the area when a series of explosions rocked the city as we entered it. An entire city block was destroyed and us with it..." as he rubbed his arm. He'd felt the explosion's shockwaves snap his bones before he went and died.
"The Black League, if they really do exist, made sure to welcome us properly in their city of birth," Paula offered, arms crossed.
"Shit... We're sorry, you two," Victoria winced, rubbing the back of her neck. At least, the blasts must've made it quick enough for the pain not to linger, she thought hopefully. The little mercy the universe could afford for them, honestly, if nothing else. Her mind also wandered to the others, the rest of their friend group. Sammy, Jim, Hassan and the others.
"What about you two and the rest of your squad?" Paul asked, taking her out of her trance.
"Struck by gas," Vic replied, his voice a growl. He sighed deeply and rubbed his eyes as he explained, "Chechen Special Operations unit..." which caused both the Hungarian twins to pause, while his Sister tapped her PSL, rather annoyed when thinking back. They should've seen them coming, should've had time to put their MOPP suits on, but the attack came way too quickly...
"... The same ones as...?" Paul hesitated, a bit wary of reawakening Vic's memory of the matter of Vesna. The Romanian man nodded solemnly, however, which caused Paul to sigh deeply and walk up to his friend, gently setting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a reassuring squeeze. No man deserved to see the love of their life dead in a ditch, especially not like that...
"... I'll be damned," Paula murmured, meanwhile, though she looked sympathetically to the Romanians, too. She then spoke loudly to Paul, "Would explain why Lita and Ayesha were so god damned livid when we found them," and received a nod of approval. That came as a surprise to the others as Vicky went to start brewing some coffee for herself and them if they wanted it.
"They're still alive?" Both she and Vic asked. The last they'd known of their reformed Russian Republican Army brigade, they'd been shadowing them across the Caucasus in the fight against the Chechen rebels and the entire clusterfuck in that area. The Ethnic tensions were some of the harshest there'd ever been in the Caucasus since the Chechen Wars.
"Fighting against the Neo-Communists and the Black League's own troops, last we heard on Radio," The Hungarian male sibling replied calmly, "We met them when we were heading into the Caucasus to try and find you, way before we went to Omsk..." and he hummed, noting their confusion. He raised a brow and asked, "Something the matter, you two?"
"I know you mentioned it before in this very convo," Vic replied, crossing his arms to his chest. He asked, "What is the Black League?"
"It's the organization under whose umbrella most of the hardliner ultranationalist and pro-War elements of the Russian government fell after our beloved presidential dictator shot himself in his bunker at Sochi," Paula explained as she approached to help Vicky with the coffee. She told them, "They want to continue the 'War against NATO and its lapdogs' from within the Motherland itself. They, alongside the Neo-Soviet Union, are supposedly two of the major rising factions in Russia's Civil War. The Neo-Soviets are also reportedly backed by the Chinese."
"Wouldn't surprise me," Vic shrugged, a tad surprised that the situation had gotten that fucking bad in Russia. He sighed and continued, "Commies propping up other commies... Still..." it was like the world was going mad. He wondered just how many people actively supported either side. He was pretty sure Iran was gonna be supporting the League.
"The fact it looks like it'll be a Three Way Civil War's kinda worrying," Victoria spoke, looking between the three other members of the Misfits present. She continued, "Especially considering the nukes we still haven't been able to retrieve. So many of'em went missing..." before sighing deeply. This was really turning into a clusterfuck. She hoped that, if they ever found a way back, they'd have a home to return to.
"Yeah. It'll be a tough fight for whoever's left out there..." Paula nodded, then sighed and decided to finally address the elephant in the room, noting the Romanian guy's stare. She looked to him and started, "Vic?" while Paul and Vicky both seemed to know what she was gonna say. Yes, it was a bit of a pity party, but they were trying to make sure he was alright.
"Hm?" He raised his brow.
"... I'm... So sorry. We're so sorry," she spoke kindly, then rubbed her own arm, averting her gaze. She continued, "For Ves... For what you must've gone through when you found her," and looked to Paul, who gently patted Victor on the shoulder again. They'd learned of how he and Victoria had found Vesna only through a photograph sent via Whatsapp. The military had allowed them phones to independently document some of the crap that was going on for Geneva.
"Yeah... It's alright..." Vic smiled sadly.
"At least we know Lita and Ayesha are still kicking people's teeth in back there," Vicky grinned, giving him a gentle elbow in the shoulder. She continued jovially, looking at the Hungarian siblings, "Probably causing the Reds and Blacks plenty of pain. If there's anyone out there that can make a Russian Ultranat or Soviet quake in their boots, it's probably those two."
"Heh. I'll be damned if that ain't right," Vic seemed to perk up a little at that. Mentioning the two friends of his long-time crush, two of the people who basically helped push him and Ves to be together, brought him out of his momentary fugue. He spoke jovially, |Li's ten pounds of anger in a two pound bag and Ayesha'll tear someone's throat out for talking shit..."
The group laughed happily, then sighed. Yeah, their friends were something else, honestly. Lovely women and amazing guys that just wanted to hang out together and be the way they were. Yet here had come the War in Ukraine, which tore asunder a beautiful country that had been their neighbor ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, all because of a madman in charge of the largest country in the Northern Hemisphere, at least in terms of landmass. The same country they'd waded through, only to find poor villages and peoples killing each-other over a pot of water with some porridge.
It was disheartening. Moscow and Sankt Petersburg had remained the centers of Russian culture and the most developed parts of the former Superstate, much to the detriment of every other sector of the country. Not to say there weren't some other pockets of civilization in that mess, but, to the people that had walked into Russia to ensure that her nuclear arsenal did not fall to bad actors after she collapsed into strife, it had proven one thing. The fear of everything save for their Warheads was unfounded... The Bear had long been a shadow of her former self when she bit with her rotten fingers into the apple that was Ukraine, shattering them in the process.
... Which just hurt them all the more when they thought of the three girls and what they'd gone through. A War led by incompetent people and fought alongside Conscripts with both no will to fight and the hate of being thrust into something they wanted no part of. Victor's heart sank whenever he thought of the peppy, happy Vesna Novikova going through the modern equivalents of Stalingrad, having to hide from First Person View Drones and suicide bombs, not to mention fighting in the midst of it all. After the smoke had cleared and Ukraine had come out victorious, there was joy and jubilation. Then, for him and Vicky, there was concern of their friends... And then...
He shook his head. His friends and sister noted the stare he had, looking into the swirl of the coffee's foam. They knew what he'd wanted. He would have probably gone into Ukraine earlier if something hadn't held him back, gone to help her get out of that hell, alongside the others. He wanted her in his arms, to hold her close and reassure her that, whatever had happened to her in Ukraine, whatever she'd seen, he'd be there to help. He'd be there for her. If she was here, he... He swallowed empty, then took a sip from his coffee, hands shaking as the images of her corpse under the tarp played back in his mind like a vivid nightmare he would've done anything to escape from.
He wanted her home. He wanted to apologize to her now. For failing her...
As if God would grant him that mercy. Maybe when he was finally, properly dead.