Blue Team and the others had taken to their new surroundings with fairly open minds. When the bunk beds arrived, NOBLE had gotten to assembling them for the whole team, within a wider room that fit them all and their kit. Ozpin's, Chief's and Penny's worries alleviated, the team could go on about their business as usual. Chief, in the meanwhile, had received a request from headmaster Ozpin to come meet him at his office, alongside Penny.
Of course, Chief did as requested, heading for Beacon tower with Penny in tow. He hummed, watching as the usually-peppy girl strode beside him with a more composed, worried gait. Even Cortana had noticed this, clearly, as she was staring at Penny through his helmet's VISR system. Now, Chief was definitely not the best at interpersonal relationships, especially with people whom he had viewed as Civilians before his first meetup with Hunters proper.
So, he figured it was okay to ask. What harm could it do?
"Are you well, Penny? You've been... Awfully quiet, compared to when we first met."
She yelped, quickly suppressing the redness in her cheeks as she turned to the Chief. She smiled awkwardly, then said "I'm okay, Chief! Honest!" then she hiccupped. The Spartan raised a brow, then hummed and gave her a simple, quick shrug as if telling her 'you can tell me if and when you feel like it'. Indeed, she watched the man lead the way, past students that still stared, but way less intensely and those who didn't care and she followed. She could tell him... So far, he had not lied to her. He had been as open as his training allowed him, she presumed.
She found no reason to not be honest... About something, at least. Her mission remained a top-secret one.
"Dylan?" She asked with half a mouth, stopping the Spartan. Cortana grinned, dipping back down under the hood and parsing through data as she tracked more contacts coming toward the RV point. He'd give the order to send out Foe Hammer for recovery, but right now, he wanted to hear what Penny had to say. He turned to her, arms crossed to his chest, then nodded. She rubbed the back of her neck, "We've known each-other for all that amounts to a week, but yet when Ruby asked you, a while back, when we barely knew each-other, you said you are my friend."
John nodded, "That, I did."
"I wanted to ask you," She shifted on her own feet, unsure of herself, her gaze on the ground instead of staring right at him, "If... Say... I had some sort of incredulous secret... Something that could possibly be horrific... Would you still consider me... Err... Would we still be...?" She tried to find the words, but for the first time in her life, Penny's tongue twisted in her mouth(figuratively, of course!) and she didn't know what to say. So, she just said it, her voice as low as it could be, "Would you still be my friend...?"
Of course, the armored suit's audio-suite had picked it up, even as quiet as Penny had been. There sat the ginger girl, fiddling with her thumbs and staring at the floor. Cortana let out a loud, "Awwwww..." while Chief pondered it. To be completely fair to her, John had yet to find anything weird about the girl. To note that she had been the one to put it out there that she may have a secret like that was courageous and, clearly, she was showing remorse for keeping it.
The Chief sighed, taking two steps to the girl, towering over her by about fifty centimeters, so the girl's forehead barely reached halfway up to his chest. He stared down at the girl, lifting a hand and surprising her as Cortana gasped. Then, he did what neither he, nor the two girls(one AI and one real) expected him to do. He pat the girl's head gently, causing her to look up, while Cortana became a mess of happy noises.
"Penny. You haven't given me a reason to distrust you. The fact that you're even offering to let me know there may be such a secret shows that you trust me a lot..." He replied, "Even if we've only known each-other for a few days, as you said..." And to be fair to her, he had his own secret. That she'd trust him enough to admit was sign he should do the same, "I've seen you fight and I know how you act. So, if you were to have that secret, I trust it's for good reason... And that you will tell it and others you may have to me when you felt it appropriate to. And to be quite honest to you, Penny... I do have my own secret."
She couldn't... Believe it. Her ocular sensors narrowed, watching as the Spartan took his helmet off and stared into them. Her cheeks were now tinted a deep red, weirdly enough. Strange that her father would put that function in, but... Alas, she had it. He continued to speak calmly, "I'll tell you my secret when and if the time comes, too... And I trust you'll tell me yours," giving the girl the smallest, most calm smile that she'd ever seen.
With a beaming smile, the girl nodded rapidly, "Of course! I promise!" her voice sharp. Chief felt her put her whole weight behind charging him and wrapping his arms around his waist as she spouted "Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I won't break your trust, I swear it! And I'll tell my secret when you're ready to tell yours as well! Oh! Idea!" then she backed off and extended her right hand, lifting her pinky and stating "I do believe this is a good enough settlement! An oath of sorts, called a Pinkie promise!"
"Aha..." John paused. He hummed, then sighed, watching as the smiling girl tracked his hand. He 'shook' with his own pinkie and the girl's smile grew almost tenfold, metaphorically speaking. They continued their trip, Penny actively bouncing jauntily. He slid his helmet back on his head and Cortana appeared in front of him, proud and clearly happy about the development.
"That was sweet," She said, "What got into you?"
"Frankly," Chief replied, "It's an out with her, at least, if our cover is ever blown."
"That's a good point... No other reason?" She smirked, fully aware there was more to this and what it was. John wasn't a bad person, not by a long shot. Pragmatic, sure, as one would be if their whole life was the military, but he was a good person. She knew and had seen it in the way he treated his comrades. Still, he answered with a deep, thoughtful hum. She chuckled, "It's alright, John... I get it."
The two and the AI entered Beacon Tower, took the elevator and were met by the headmaster's gaze again, with Glynda right beside him. She had her hand extended toward the holographic screen that appeared from the glass desk. Ozpin smiled as he saw them enter, then said "Ah, mister Braun, miss Polendina, welcome back," and opened his arms in a sign of welcome.
"It's good to see the both of you," Glynda nodded, "We have a few things to talk about."
"Sir, ma'am?" Chief raised a brow.
"First of all, Chief, do you remember the talk you've had with the good headmaster?" Glynda asked. He nodded. The uniforms.
"Well," Ozpin shrugged, "I am afraid that we cannot acquire or design any uniforms for the 'security' personnel, so to speak. Our budget for this year has already been allocated and we cannot slot in any sort of ideal design that would work... Next year, perhaps."
"I understand, sir," John had to admit, he felt more or less relieved he wasn't the one who was gonna have to tell the squad they had to ditch the armors... Then he realized, "There is, however, a 'but', in there..."
Ozpin smiled, "Of course... Seeing as to how many students, despite what you may've seen in the courtyard, still ask that you and your team get yourselves more acclimatized so they don't feel like they are in a military unit, I have decided that the best course of action and... A, perhaps, temporary solution... Would be to ask you to attend Beacon's courses as transfer students... At least for what is left of this second semester, so that you may get Beacon student's uniforms as substitutes."
And if John thought it wasn't possible to see Penny's smile grow brighter, he found himself on the side of being wrong for once in his life. Ozpin continued, "With the approval from general Ironwood, of course, we will be allowing you to join Beacon for now. Welcome, Dylan Braun and Penny Polendina, to Beacon... Properly, this time..." He smirked, "And to your comrades as well."
John nodded, feeling a little blindsided by the sudden situation and unsure of how to respond. He stared at Ozpin for a moment, then sighed as he turned to Penny and saw her bouncing happily. With a nod, he said "Very well, Headmaster. If you could provide an itinerary, class hours, things like that... So we know when to attend and what to do," watching as Glynda nodded.
"I will have the data sent to your scroll, mister Braun," the Headmistress of Beacon spoke.
"Is this all?" He asked.
"I will also be sending you your first official off-site mission, Chief, with a full briefing for you and your fellow soldiery," Replied the Headmaster, "That'll be all."
"Thank you, sir, ma'am," John replied, nodding, "Let's go, Penny."
Stepping out of the place, Penny dragged the Chief toward the food court, while Cortana seemed to await the arrival of the next message from the Headmaster. The two burst into the cafeteria as lunch was going on, garnering a few looks and a wave from Ruby. She'd dragged him along to have lunch with her friends. Of course she would've. She was Penny Polendina.
"Well... Time to put on your people face, John... Helmet off," Cortana quipped.
Knowing full-well he wasn't going to convince her otherwise, he undid the seal of his helmet and slid it off his head, revealing his face yet again to the masses as he approached team RWBY's table... And saw that there was another group of four in there. A blonde boy with blue eyes, another ginger, this one with teal eyes, a beauty of a redhead with green eyes and a welcoming smile and a black-haired boy with sharp, Asian features and lilac eyes.
"Chief! Penny!" She happily cried, raising her hands up to the sky, "You guys are here!'
"Yes! And we have good news!" Penny smiled, then looked to the new team here and smiled at them too "Oh... Greetings."
"Ah, right!" Ruby beamed, "Ladies and gents of the wonderous team JNPR, this is Penny! You remember me telling you about her, right?"
"Yup," The blonde boy nodded, smiling.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Penny," The redhead looked to the girl, then she looked over to the Chief and said "And you must be Master Chief Dylan Braun. Hello to you as well, sir," She smiled at him as well.
A whistle and a swoon from the second ginger in the place and Chief found himself face-to-face with the N of the team. She smirked, then said "Hey there, pal! I'm Nora! That's a pretty nice suit of armor you got there, not gonna lie," and John immediately pegged her as the hyper one of the gang, similar to how Ruby was the hyper one of her team. Team Juniper, huh?
"Thanks," Chief nodded.
"Heh, sorry about her, Chief," The blonde boy to the right said, "I'm Jaune Arc. Team JNPR's leader."
"My name is Pyrrha Nikos. I am Jaune's partner in arms," The redhead noted, "Ruby really didn't short-sell that armor... Or your height."
John nodded, awkward. He wasn't sure what else to say.
"Lie Ren," The young Asian man nodded, a small smile on his face, "It's very good to finally meet you face-to-face. And hello, Penny."
"Hello to you as well, Ren!" The lead ginger beamed, while Yang stared with a grin at the Chief.
"Pleasure to meet all of you," John offered to JNPR.
"Rubes, you never mentioned the Chief's this handsome," The blonde spoke rather proudly, causing her sister to yelp, her face red as her cape, while Blake planted a palm on her face and chuckled, while Weiss rolled her eyes, nursing a glass of what he would assume was apple juice from the carton on her tray. He didn't know how to take that civilian a compliment, honestly...
So he said, "Thanks... I guess..."
"No problem," She winked, "Anyway! Penny! You said you had something big to tell us!"
"Oh, yes!" She perked up, remembering, "Well, two somethings, really! First of all, I, Dylan and his comrades are going to partake in Beacon's classes for the duration of our stay here!"
That short line had set off Ruby's cheering once again, "WOO! COOL NEW CLASSMATES!"
"Wait, run that by me again..." Weiss jumped, aware now, "COMRADES?"
"Yes! Approximately... Ooh... What is it? Thirteen others!" She nodded.
"... By the Gods..." Murmured the white-haired Atlesian, "How did general Ironwood take this?"
"About as well as he could have," John shrugged, "He welcomed us with open arms and asked me to vouch for my platoon to cooperate with Atlas. We agreed, of course," And both saw Weiss seemingly trying(and slowly managing) to calm down. The white-haired heiress sighed, looking to the Spartan and nodding. She finally managed to look him in the eye and realized what a mistake that'd been. She blushed, averted her gaze and hoped nobody saw her.
"Well, anyways," Ruby hummed, "You two wanna join us? We're having lunch. The stuff the lunchlady made today actually tastes pretty good, compared to the other days," She winced, then pleaded, "But don't tell her I said that, please! She'll yell at me again..." before sitting herself down next to her friends. Penny nodded, agreeing to join with a smile, then looked to John.
He hummed, "I'm gonna go talk to my platoon about the new arrangements. I figure it's best to let them know ahead of time, so they can prepare to change out of the armors."
"It's just armor," Yang suggested, "Can't be that tough to take off."
"Without the right tech, it'll take us half an hour to remove it. Another half to put it back on," John replied, "Eitherway... I'll be going now, girls. You have fun," And with that, he stepped off, sliding his helmet onto his head. Penny sighed, sitting herself down next to her friends as they started talking, Ruby describing to them the other Spartans while they ate.
John entered the house a few moments later, finding Carol already dealing with reloading her firearm while her co-pilot checked data in regards to their Pelican. Kelly leaned against the wall, staring at John as he entered, her helmet off her head. He spoke to her, "Rally everyone up in the kitchen. We have something to talk about. It's fairly important everyone agrees to it."
"On it," Kels nodded, smiling now.
A few moments later, the Spartans of the two-and-a-half fireteams had gathered up, with Chief and Cortana at the front. Chief took his helmet off, removing the chip and letting Cortana appear in front of the team in a much younger form than previous, in the sense that she lacked the many 'synaptic' links that you'd normally see in an AI of that age. She looked almost the same as she had once looked during the First Battle of New Mombasa. She smiled, then said "Good to see all familiar faces and the 'new' old folk. Noble team."
"Ma'am," Carter nodded, "You're that AI that Six and Emile got to the Autumn, right?"
"That was a specialized fragment of me, but yes, in essence," She nodded, "Sam, Daisy, Cal. I'm Cortana. Been Chief's AI for the better part of several years now."
"Pleasure to meetcha," Daisy voiced, taking her helmet off.
"Agreed. Hey," Sam waved.
"Yeah," Cal nodded, "Anyway... What's up, Chief? Kelly told us you needed to talk to us about something."
"Mhm," John nodded, "Headmaster Ozpin has received several complaints from local students regarding seeing us out and about in armor. Makes them feel like they're staring at the military, which, while not exactly wrong, probably doesn't paint a good picture about Beacon as a whole to some..." He sighed, watching some of the Spartans pause, while Six hummed. He continued, "With that in mind, he stated he sadly cannot provide properly-designed security uniforms to wear. He has offered a temporary solution:Having us as exchange students."
"... So we're gonna wear the Beacon uniforms?" Fred raised a brow.
Cortana nodded from beside the Chief, "That about sums it up, yeah."
"It necessary?" Linda asked, crossing her arms to her chest. John nodded, assuming that the Headmaster really did want his students to feel at home. The girl sighed, then said "Alright. At least it'll give us some cover while we learn a bit more about the wider world of Remnant... I mean, it means we get access to the libraries, right? And the rest of the school facilities."
"I'd assume so," John nodded, "I know it isn't going to be easy to get acclimatized to not wearing our armors, but I do think it's for the best. We are, after all, guests to the Headmaster and his people."
"That's fair enough," Fred shrugged, "On your orders, Chief."
"Yeah," Daisy nodded, "Say... Doesn't anyone else feel weird about the Headmaster? Like... He's very familiar."
"Eerily, but I think that figures of authority blend with one another over time," Cal remarked, "Aside from Mendez, of course. Nobody can be like that man," She smirked. Every Spartan in the room nodded in agreement. Cal then said, "I guess we're on board for now, Chief. That's gonna have the headmaster sending us the uniforms, I presume, so... Yay?"
"Right..." John nodded, "Welcome to school, then... We're about to have one strange half of a year."
Fred smirked, "We've gone through worse and weirder, John. Now, what's first on our agen-" He paused as John's scroll rung with a three-tone song. The Spartan lifted it to look at it, then saw a message from the Headmaster detailing their first mission. This Sunday, they'd have a job to do regarding a minor White Fang operation within Vale. White Fang being the Faunus revolutionaries seeking the betterment of living standards and opinions on their race.
"I guess, that..." John replied, "Sunday. We got a scouting job on the White Fang's base... Everyone read up on them?"
They all nodded. Good, he thought. His friends remained aware of the importance of information, even after their surprising revival. He typed an answer on his Scroll to accept the contract, which was paid as extra work, then slid the device into a pouch on his belt. He looked around at his fireteam, then waved Blue Team over, letting Cal, Daisy, Jorge and the rest of NOBLE interact. Carol gave Chief a thumbs up, having heard the short briefing, then said "She'll be ready to go by Sunday."
"Thanks, Foehammer," He nodded, "We'll also need to take trips and recover the other friendlies."
"Was already in the plans, too, Chief. You just had to give the order."
He nodded, then walked with Kelly, Fred, Linda and Sam out into the open air of Beacon's courtyard. All five Spartans of BLUE Team marched forward, their weapons hanging off their backs as they headed toward Beacon's landing pad. Sam started, "So... Uh... Is anyone going to brief me on what happened with the war? I've only just woken up, y'know..."
"We won..." Fred stated solemnly.
"At a great cost, though," Kelly added, "Not just material... We lost you and so many others."
"Plus the worlds the Covvies burned," Linda hummed, "Thirty-Three billion lost on last checkup."
"But we made it," John finished, "Humanity endured. And we've got a new job, a new lease of life now, all of us. Remnant," and, once they reached the landing pad, where their bird was sat, untouched, they stared out at the grand city of Vale, a sprawling megalopolis of incredible size. They had a new mission:to protect the citizens of Vale, the people of Remnant as a whole. To operate to their utmost ability. They had much to do.
Sam hummed, then nodded and smiled, "Let's get to work, then."
They had their job cut out for them.