So, I have been vague with Felix's and Locus' age during the past chapter. To be specific, Felix is 20 years old while Locus is 23. I think for me; Locus' age fits him in this fic due to him being one of the group's more mature members while just right enough to pass as a student for the academy. I mean, look at Cinder, she was in her 20s but still managed to pose as a student.
I do not own RvB, the lore and items of Halo, nor RWBY. They belong to 343 Industries and Rooster Teeth.
Footsteps echoed throughout the pristine white halls of the Academy's lunch hall. Those footsteps came from a girl wearing the academy's uniform that consisted of a grey vest and skirt with white sleeves. She scanned the hall with a critical eye as she carried a tray of food. The sound didn't stand out so much due to the idle conversation being held within the very room. It was occupied by a mix of upperclassmen and freshmen as they talked mainly about upcoming schoolwork while the latter focused mainly on their excitement to be here.
The girl then sat at the table where her group chose to claim for themselves with not one of them allowing to have a stranger or a new student join them. Her peers engaged in small talk while she ignored it and went to silently consume her meal. She was interrupted by a slight elbow to her side. She glanced at the person who rudely interrupted her but slightly calmed down when she saw that it was Wash who did it. The rookie of the freelancers tried to flash a friendly smile as he wanted to socialize. Due to him being the new blood, no one would often talk to him, other than North or York, but then he would be just ignored by the rest. What set him different than them was probably because of his idealistic and naïve personality, which might probably have still retained due to not fighting as much battles as them.
"So, uh hey Tex. Um, how do you feel about Atlas? Heh." Wash began. He seemed to be more awkward and less bold than her idiots back at Blood Gulch, which was somehow a bit ironic due to him being a Freelancer while Church and his little group were Sim-Troopers. But in the end, both parties still serve the Gulch military which meant they were seen on equal terms by the others.
Tex then played with her salad using her fork as she tried to formulate a response. One that wasn't bitchy and harsh, just less professional and casual.
"It's cold, I guess." She responded.
Wash nodded and continued their chat. "I know, right? I mean why suspend the kingdom in such a high place when it's already a cold continent."
Tex nodded at that. It's as Wash put it. It's a floating Kingdom. Why do this when the area is already cold. But that wasn't what Tex was aiming for. This was the most advanced and technological kingdom of Remnant (if you count out Gulch), which meant this place contained lots of pride. Especially in its military that it likes to boast and flaunt and make propaganda about. Even the huntsman academy was connected to its military. One reason of this was that the school's headmaster was the General of Atlas' army.
So much for digressing, she couldn't help but silently scoff at the place. They seem to think of themselves as a technological powerhouse of Remnant and had the sheer gall to place their kingdom in a giant floating rock to only brag about its beauty. Well, it did kind of protect the people from the roaming grimm, but Tex felt sorry for the people and the city which was left below. Mantle. It was poor there. They of course get some form of protection from squads of soldiers and have walls that surrounded them, but even that wasn't protection enough since the barriers were easily breached. Why not use their technology to help the area below instead of separating themselves and float high in the sky? It only posed more danger because if there was a chance that one of the generators that kept the city afloat in the air was failing, then that would mean it would crash down back on the ground, killing not only their citizens but the people of Mantle as well. Gulch far outclassed the kingdom when it came to technology and military prowess, but even they didn't do something as foolish and petty as this.
Her chain of thought was interrupted by the noisier dialogue of her companions.
"Why so stressed out there Carolina? You seemed to wake up in a bad mood." York prodded. The team leader of their group sighed tiredly as she dropped her utensils on her tray and frowned.
"This wouldn't have been stressful if those guys quit hitting on me every other minute." Carolina said as she indicated a group of boys that were flexing for the girls in the other lunch table.
"Oh boo-hoo there glorious leader." South mocked as she nonchalantly tossed a piece of grape up in the air and plopped it in her mouth. "I don't mind the attention, and plus, you need to quit at being such a hard-ass."
"Now now, South, you know how Carolina is? It's just part of her charm." North spoke up.
Carolina hummed in agreement and replied to the brash twin of the Dakotas. ''Like your brother has said, me being a hard-ass helps us achieve the mission. So, don't expect me to become warmer anytime soon."
"Afraid of trying to act like a girl?" South goaded.
"You shut your mouth, you attention-seeking hog." Carolina shot back as she spooned some eggs into her mouth.
"Bitch." South retorted. Her brother placed a hand on her shoulder to avoid rising up and start another confrontation. Meanwhile, C.T. just sighed and sipped her warm coco. "Will you guys quit it? It's still breakfast time."
"I agree, it's too early to start a squabble like this." York added. He then decided to change the topic. "Alright, so what's the game plan?"
Carolina answered to him. "It's too soon to come into contact with General Ironwood. Besides, he might grow suspicious that a bunch of supposed first years are sharing to him some vital intel regarding another country."
"I agree with Agent Carolina's words." A new voice joined in on them.
The rest were shocked to hear this. Carolina then stared at York as she slowly pleaded.
"York, please tell me you didn't…"
"I did." Came the firm reply of her partner. The brown-haired freelancer fished something out of his pocket and placed it on the table. He looked around to see if other students were watching or listening to them and leaned forward. The others did the same to block it from the view of others.
"Alright D, you can come out now."
The green A.I then materialized in front of the huddled group. "Greetings." Delta greeted the bunch.
"Why did you bring him man? I just left Theta on the ship." North asked.
"Look, for this mission, we need all the help we can get" York reasoned. "And what better way to help us than have one of the most logical AIs we have in our arsenal. Besides, Delta can be subtle if he wanted to."
"Agent York is correct." Delta added. "I can be of great assistance to you all. If you want, I can give you the schematics of the school, even their secret areas and could hack into their network."
"Very well." Carolina finally agreed. "But we'll only call on you when necessary, okay? We wouldn't want you now to be accidentally discovered."
''Acknowledged." Delta answered and disappeared back onto the chip.
"Okay, what the fuck. How come you get to do that?" South questioned.
"Who, me?" York pointed to himself. "I have my own AI South and I know when is the right time to use them. That means now."
The bell then rang which meant the beginning for their first lecture. Before they were accepted to the academy however, they went through initiation which pitted them against combat droids in which all freelancers easily defeated.
"Alright everyone, form up. Let's head to our first class." Carolina ordered as everyone complied. Tex remained silent throughout the whole ordeal as she thought of how Church and the rest of the gang were doing at the other kingdom.
"I'm booooored" Grif repeated for like the hundredth time. Simmons kept rubbing his temples as the two of them walked in Beacon's halls. The headmaster's speech was a downer. It wasn't anything special nor important because the Sim Troopers just went outside to wait until it concluded. After it did, they heard that they were made to sleep in the ball room later that night, which seemed like the only sort of news that the sim troopers accepted. But evening was still a long thing to come as it was only morning which gave them time to explore the campus.
"Grif, if it means that it gives you something to focus on, why not take in the sights of the Academy. There are lots of interesting stuff, like take this wall for example."
The said soldier only scoffed as he replied to his partner. "Yeah, 'cause only people like you would be interested in stacked hollow blocks that's covered with plaster. What else is new Simmons? You like to watch paint dry?"
Simmons glared at his partner as he berated him "You didn't even look at the wall jackass! Can't you even see the mural they have? It's art Grif and people these days have taken less time to appreciate its beauty."
Grif turned to the wall and saw the painting. It was, nice, period. Now he was bored again.
"Uhhhhhhhh." He groaned lethargically. "Why did I even agree to this? If I can't do stuff I normally do, I'd just use my phone. But I can't cause I have to use this frigging Scroll. These things don't have the apps that keeps me entertained." He lamented.
"Come on, they're not that bad. Look, you just split them open like you would do with a paper scroll and then bam, you can now access stuff here. Ooh, let's see, they have a camera, a map, a gallery, and uh… yeah, that's just about it. I don't even know the artists and songs here in the mp3." Simmons shut the doohickey off.
"You see, it's tedious. What's even worse is that they don't even serve us snacks. I mean come on! What are they gonna do to us? Starve us to death!? I'm basically running on empty here." The orange shirted teen stuffed his hands into his baggy ripped jeans' pockets.
"Can't you quell that hunger of yours? It's like you can't even go a full 2 minutes without eating. I don't know how you survived basic training with a gluttonous attitude."
"I was made special Simmons." Grif quipped "And being special means that it comes with a unique stomach. If there's no food, I can't process anything."
Simons scoffed at his reasoning. "Oh really? I'm sorry about that but I can't help notice that you barely even process anything. All things just fall into two categories for you, stuff that you're lazy to finish and stuff that you don't give a shit about."
"Simplicity is life Simmons. You people need to reject the complex ways of doing stuff in your lives and go back to the easy and basic ways." Grif gave his insight.
"Whatever." Simmons sighed, not wanting to continue their usual banter. He gave a look at his surroundings that he realized that they were in uncharted territories. The two were so caught up in their conversation that they didn't pay any attention to where they were walking.
"Dang it, we're lost." Simmons cursed.
"Nice job mister navigator." Grif mocked.
"Hey, you weren't even paying attention to where you're going!"
"I stopped paying attention around fifteen seconds ago."
Simmons pinched his brows and straightened up. "I'll go find us a directory." Before the two could go, they heard a snap of a familiar camera. The two rounded the corner and saw that it was Donut busy taking pictures.
"Isn't this amazing Doc? The architecture here is very different than what we have back home."
Doc nodded at the pink grenadier's words. "I agree. Most of our buildings utilize modern and futuristic aesthetics. It's nice to see people retaining the classical styles of old."
"Well said, mi amigo." Donut smiled.
The other two then formulated their next move. "Okay, here's the plan. We sneak off silently so those two don't spot us." Simmons offered his suggestion.
"Why not make a break for it?" Grif asked.
"Do you want to get caught by those two and have them drag you in their discussion in interior arts and designing?
"I thought you were all in for that?"
Simmons shook his head before answering back. "As long as it doesn't involve Donut's tirade of neoclassical and romantic era construction, I'd take it."
"Oh, there you two are! I've been looking all over for you." Donut suddenly greeted them.
Both men screamed in fright.
"How'd you find us!?"
Doc meekly answered for them. "You guys weren't that quiet when you were planning."
"Damn it Grif."
"Hey, don't pin the blame on me! I didn't do anything."
"That's exactly why I'm blaming you! You didn't do anything to help!"
"Hush now my friends." Donut said to them. "I shall take you on a magical tour in this very institution that shall soothe your nerves and bask in the ever-living grace of the masterful engineering of this beautiful academy."
Doc seemed to go along with it while the other two paled in horror.
"Yo Tucker, Tucker hey! Tucker, listen to me man!"
"Blurgh, huh?" The aqua clothed teen shook his head from his distracted state. He turned to his side as he saw Church shaking him rapidly.
"What did I do?"
Church sighed as he replied to his teammate. "You've been staring at the statue for minutes now. What made you like sculptures all of a sudden?"
"Eh, nothing worth mentioning for. It's just cool."
"Okay, then why keep your eyes on that girl huh?"
Tucker turned back and indeed he really was in front of the stone carved warrior. Two people were depicted in the sculpture, a man and a woman, standing over a large rock with a Beowulf cowering beneath it. But Tucker's attention was solely focused on the cloaked woman with an axe, who was graced to be carved in a shapely form.
"Your thing for ladies even extends to rocks?"
"I need a smorgasbord of selections dude, you won't understand."
"Which is why you are still single."
"At least I'm not the one in a relationship where your girlfriend controls the pants all the time." Tucker retorted.
Caboose suddenly gasped at this revelation. "Church and Tex share the same pants? Does it mean they wear buddy pants? I want one!"
"Caboose, that's not a thing."
"I know… but I want to make them. How about we could make a triple buddy pants. I'll make it so big that you me and Church can fit in them."
"Not happening dude." Tucker waved off his offer.
"Ah, don't worry Tucker. You'll be the first one who gets to wear it!"
"Alright cut the crap assholes" Church interrupted, "why the hell are we out here?"
"Uh, nothing wrong with being outside, is it?" Tucker spoke up.
Church ran a hand through his fohawk haircut and scratched his head. "What I meant was, of all the places we could be exploring, why choose to return to this stupid statue? We've seen it for like fifteen times now."
"Maybe the statue was trying to tell us something…" Caboose said in a mysterious voice. "I think it wants us to listen to him." He then faced the statue. "Yes, your great rockiness! I shall hear you speak your wisdom!" he prostrated in front of the structure.
Passersby gave the group inquisitive and strange looks before ignoring the three of them. Church groaned in annoyance as he walked away with Tucker and Caboose following closely. "You know, I keep asking myself on how are group has survived this long. I mean, for all occasions that we get involved with, they always seem to have us get killed or obliterated but somehow, we still live." the sniper pondered.
"What can we say, it's cuz I've got skills." Tucker preened.
"Skills that don't involve cheap flings or stashing porn mags?"
"Shut up."
Church smirked and chuckled. "Well, for what it's worth, I'm thankful that I still breathe. But preferably not you two."
"Asshole." Tucker muttered as he stretched his arms and slung back the VK78 Commando back on his well, back.
"What can I say man? I'm just taking precautions. You know, the more adventures we three take up, it always seems that I am always the first one who has chances of dying. Somehow Caboose gets to survive from all the shit that we faced."
"Well, you're still here aren't ya? Quit complaining you big baby." teased the aqua aficionado.
"Easy for you to say. If you were in my shoes, then you'd know."
"The gods must have blessed me to not put me in them, then."
The trio of blues kept patrolling around the school ground for hours until they were bummed out of repeating looking at the same objects they come across. Tucker tried to flirt with some of the other female students but boy did they turn him down quickly. One of them tried to kicked him in the groin while a few others threatened to rearrange his face the next time they see him. Before things could escalate, and that the others may label their group as sexual harassers, Church dragged the three of them inside where they could lay low and wait for night to arrive.
As they went inside, they bumped into Felix who was smugly smiling back at them.
"Where the hell have you three idiots been?"
"Just strolling around" Church replied. "How about you?"
Felix's face then turned to a proud expression and showed the group a piece of paper with numbers written on them.
"No fucking way, they gave you their numbers!?" Tucker exclaimed in disbelief.
"That is how a professional does his job. Don't worry, I'll be sure to give you some lessons if you wish." He added the last part as a taunt.
"So, who was the lucky girl's name?" Church asked as he crossed his arms and leaned onto one of the lockers.
"Tiffany" Felix smirked and grabbed his Scroll " and I'm dialing her now.". The tapping and beeping of the scroll followed right after and then came the voice of the contacted person.
"Hey there gorgeous" he began smoothly.
"Hello and thank you for calling Marcel's pizzeria! How may I help you?"
Felix snapped the scroll shot as he was perplexed and stared at it with wide eyes. To add salt to the wound, it was on loudspeaker which meant that the blues heard the call. He turned back to see Church and Tucker laughing their assess off while Caboose just forced one out, not knowing what the situation was.
Church continued to laugh before ridiculing the mercenary. "Hey, don't be rude man. Why didn't you tell her that you'd call her back? Hahahahahahaha."
"That was some quality talking with her man, so smooth." Added Tucker as he wheezed out some pure laughter.
Felix growled as he stormed away. "Hey dude, wait up. Where are you going?" Church called out but was still in a state of laughter after what went down with the prank call.
"Going to the ballroom, this day was a bust." Felix sneered as he quickened his pace.
"Don't be a sore loser man. That girl got you good!" Tucker chortled.
"Shut up." The mercenary snapped.
The four then arrived in the ballroom to see that it was vastly empty, with the only people inside were Locus who was busy arranging all their sleeping rolls in a strategic position and Lopez who was setting up Locus' laptop and communication network. There were tablets that leaned against the suitcase where the laptop was sitting atop of it along with routers that could give them reliable connection. And there was also Sarge who was unpacking some MREs
Sarge then saw the four approach and said to them. "Where in Sam Hill have you been? You could have helped us establish our forward operating base."
"You mean this campsite?" Tucker raised his eyebrow as he looked at the neatly arranged pile of their sleeping materials.
"Call it whatever you want, blue."
Church ignored them and approached the mercenary who was tidying up his spot. "Hey man, why set this up early? It's still like, three in the afternoon."
Locus stopped what he was doing and faced the blue's leader. "It's that so we don't have to fight for space later in the evening." He nodded to where Sarge was preparing the MREs "And that we don't have to go to the cafeteria for dinner. You can just go to the restroom which is near and then after that, you can return back and just rest and be ready for tomorrow."
"You're smart." Church complimented.
"It's not just about smarts Church, it's also about making the right choices and decisions. You don't have to be smart to come out on top." Locus advised.
Church nodded and asked one more time. "So, what now?"
Locus made his way to where his laptop was and answered. "You can do whatever you want, but make sure it is something that is productive."
The cobalt member of the blues sat on his sleeping bag and relaxed into it. He thought of what he could do so he just decided to check up on his sniper rifle.
"That was fucking torture" Grif breathed out. It was a miracle that he and Simmons survived Donut's rambling about Beacon's interior design and his critiquing of it. He just wanted to pass out and just be lost in his thought without having to hear another one of Donut's sessions ever again.
As he began to fell asleep on the floor, he felt someone lightly kick his sides and say his name.
"..if…rif…Grif…Grif!"
"Huh?"
"Wake up dipshit, we're here."
Grif saw his buddy Simmons point out to where their sleeping area was and dashed right towards it. He leaped onto his sleeping roll and hugged it as if it was his long-lost family. As he closed his eyes again, the scent of warm MRE went right through his nostrils which woke him up with more energy. Doc passed him one where he snatched it like a rabid animal and devoured it with intensity.
"Geez, looks like someone got deprived of it. What the hell happened to him?" Tucker commented.
Doc chose to answer for him. "You see, when we were exploring the campus, Donut dragged us into his lecture of his analysis on Beacon's design."
"Well, that makes sense."
On the other half of the group, Simmons approached his superior where he asked him something.
"Hey Sarge, did you get that staff job that you were looking for?"
Sarge shook his head and faced his trusted second-in-command. "Unfortunately, not yet Simmons. You see, they still need me to take this damned initiation to prove myself and then they're going to start to find some available slots for me to take up."
"Well, that's stupid."
"Nothing in life ever comes easy son, keep that in mind. Even if it is a menial setback such as this."
When evening finally arrived, the group were now in a circle formation as they ignored the rest of the other students. The group was now busy planning their strategies for tomorrow's event.
"So, what's this initiation that I keep hearing about?" Tucker asked.
Locus who was on his laptop researching the answered Tucker's question. Everyone listened as they were contemplating on what they are going to do about this.
"There's eleven of us. And it says that teams are made up of four. How are we going to do that?" questioned Simmons as the maroon member of the reds was unsure about this.
"Don't worry" Locus spoke, "the headmaster will take care of it. All we have to do is complete this first."
"Speaking of the headmaster? Why did we not approach him earlier when we had lots of time to do so?" Felix pied up as he laid down onto his sleeping roll.
"There was a reason for that Felix. If we do reveal our plans directly to him, he may grow suspicious of us and the operation won't be successful." The stoic mercenary replied. "Let's just give it some time before we fully come clean."
"And another thing" Doc chimed in. "What about during initiation. You said that we are launched in the air and our only landing method is that we come up with it ourselves."
"So?" Church asked.
"We don't have aura. We'd die if we crash down. Do we use the armor?" Doc asked. That was a very valid question as each of them looked amongst each other for clarification.
"We'll use it."
Everyone turned to Locus who broke the silence.
"But only when we need to crash down. Like you said, we don't have aura so we are going to use our armors to protect us from landing. Then we deactivate it and use our military training and weapons to kill the grimm."
A few of them groaned after hearing this. "Aw, why do we get to use it sparingly? They already gave us state-of-the-art power armor and yet we can't go a full minute of using it." Grif grumbled his complaint.
Others voiced their agreement in this.
"Because there will be questions if some were to witness it. We are supposed to be undercover and making our presence known as we wear them will blow it."
"They can't see us in the forest." Simmons added.
"Fine." Locus relented. "But do be careful."
Sounds of cheers came after. Church then decided to ask the next question.
"Well, we do have some gunpowder ammunition left. Do we use it?" he asked as he showed them magazines of his sniper rifle.
"We only use it on the grimm. And if it is against other huntsmen or for training purposes, we use dust."
After their planning, all the soldiers from Gulch directly went to sleep and woke up early the next day. They then ate breakfast and proceeded to go to the cliffs where they were meant to gather. A short speech from Ozpin detailing on what they were supposed to do followed and then whoosh, they were launched to begin Beacon's rite of passage.
Church soared high in the air as his hoodie's hood flapped against the wind revealing his face. The teen looked left and right to see if there were people near him and to his relief, there wasn't. His teammates were scattered and made to stand on different platforms so finding them would be his priority after he landed.
Now for the landing bit, he saw that there was a large tree in his path. He quickly activated his armor and shielded his face with his arms.
*SMASH*
The blue sniper smashed right through the tree trunk cleanly. His armor was extremely durable and resilient and could tank serious hits. It was the perfect combat armor to go on missions, so a tree trunk or a hard wall aren't big issues.
After crashing right through the timber, he now rolled and bounced on the ground to his frustration.
"Fuck, shit, son of a bitch! Cock sucking, motherfucker!" he cursed every time he rolled and bumped on solid ground. It reminded him of the gravity ramp from Valhalla which launched him 80 feet high in the air and came crashing back down to the ground. He now relived that stupid memory.
"Ugh, son of a bitch. Why the heck can't they do normal stuff here!?" he roared as he looked up to the sky.
He sighed as he looked round and saw that he was alone in the middle of the woods. He checked his HUD's motion trackers and saw red dots that was nearing his location. "This can't be good." He muttered. The bushes rustled and revealed three ursai who must have been drawn to his negativity earlier.
The grumpy leader leveled his sniper as he took aim. The first grimm roared and lunged towards him. It was too close for a precision weapon so Church rolled to the side and fired his weapon. It missed the grimm much to his anger. He wasn't the sharpest of shooters in their group but he liked to think that he wasn't that crappy either.
"Fuck." He cursed.
The ursa changed its direction and charged at him again. Then *BAM* it dissipated to ash from that headshot.
"Score!" Church cheered as he nailed the grimm right onto the head. His sniper rifle fired APFSDS rounds (armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding sabot), so dispatching these ugly pieces of shit won't be a problem. Church turned towards the other two as he grinned in smug satisfaction.
"Come at me you fuckers!" he jeered.
END
10/13/'23
Fixed some grammatical errors. I adjusted Felix and Locus' ages a bit.