AN

Much like with that twist in TCOS, I find myself surprised and relieved at how well received the last chapter's twist went.

Relieved in that I was worried it could burn the story down with it, and that everyone loved it.
Surprised in that, though you all seem to have not seen it coming, you're all surprised I went there.
I mean... I did say that I didn't want to tell the same story we could all find on Youtube, or RoosterTeeth's website. What'd you think I meant, Aldric would just poke and prod here and there? That it's the same story... But with a new guy? Fuck no, what we'll have going forward is going to be increasingly unrecognizable.
For chrissakes - I just nuked Los Angeles and Remnant in the same chapter.
I am not going to tell the same story we know and love... And I'm not done, either. As of publishing this chapter, I'm... Seven ahead of you all, in drafts.

And in the amazingly appropriate words of Barry Seal (from American Made):
We can stop now, if you want. 'Cause it just gets crazy from here.

Chapter 30

For the Record

I don't know how, I don't know why, but Salem has managed to invade Earth.

This changes everything. Before now, I always took solace in the idea that, no matter what happened here, Earth - my home, my friends, my Mom - they would all still be kicking even if I wasn't.

But now they're fighting Grimm.

I guaran-goddamn-tee it, that they'll eventually connect what happened to LA to that little production studio in Texas, if they haven't already.
I didn't tell Ozpin this - though I think it's already crossed his mind - but this act may have lost us any chance at all of getting the terrans as allies, if we needed them.

They're mad now - for fuck's sake, the United States invaded, conquered, and locked down two whole countries over two buildings and a few thousand people.
But this was all of Los Angeles - the west coast New York - and this wasn't some terrorist attack. Either you spin it as an alien or a demonic invasion - but it's still an invasion, and it managed to scare the White House so much that they wiped LA off of the map.

GONE!

This won't just galvanize my country, or NATO - my entire planet will get in on this. This is an outside, existential threat, that they all but know will attack them again.
This will piss off my entire species, and if they ever find a way to get to Remnant - which is an astoundingly real possibility, once it occurs to them that Dust exists on Earth and they start turning the entire planet inside out looking for it - they will take all that rage, all that anger, and all that fear...

And they'll heat it up until it fuses, and they'll drop it on Remnant. I fear they won't even ask for surrender, not with the threat they face.

I wonder if this may not be Salem's plan. To piss off Earth, to get the tension boiling on Remnant... And then open a permanent bridge between the two planets and pit them against eachother, and to use her Grimm to wipe out whatever's left when the dust settles... If she even needs to in the first place.

Remnant has quality, in the huntsman. Just one of them could probably tear through dozens of terran soldiers before they were overwhelmed, and through Atlas, they have advanced robotics and unmanned armies. Every one soldier from Remnant - be they a Huntsman or otherwise - could stack up to dozens of times their number on Earth.
But Earth has quantity. Remnant is just four kingdoms cowering behind their walls, barely taking up a few percent of their planet's surface area. But Earth? The terrans have access to their entire planet. There are seven billion of us - while I hesitate to even say there is a tenth of that here on Remnant.

And beyond the sheer numbers we have, the terrans also can pull resources from their entire planet - and even worse is that we have the technology, right now, to feasibly change the orbits of asteroids such that we could take their resources - whereas Remnant is limited solely to what is close to the cities and to what outposts they can defend, and that's not a lot... At all.

And then there's the obvious: Remnant doesn't have access to nuclear weapons.
So even if their quality brings the advantage terran numbers has to zero (which is a great possibility), we can just turn right around and split the atom on their ass.

So if the United Nations and the Four Kingdoms went to war... It doesn't matter who would win - a lot of people would die. Millions - perhaps even billions.

We may very well kill eachother off, or bring our respective populations so abominably low, that Salem could just stroll right on in and finish the job.

Jesus fucking Christ... She's changed the game, here.

What the fuck do I even do?

I can't believe I'm saying this - but I'd rather be getting the shit scared out of me by Neo, right now. At least that I can deal with.

Jesus.

Ozpin's going to use Ironwood to tap some geologist contacts, see if the bomb they launched made it through, and if it did, where it detonated. The theory we're running with is that it had to have taken two Masters to open and sustain the wormhole to Earth, and enough power from both of them that if the bomb made it through and exploded, they wouldn't have been prepared for it, and as such were probably annihilated.

Considering the five names on the manifest (myself included) that I could never match to bodies, that means Salem potentially still has two more Masters on her side, and the League's war got a whole lot harder.
God forbid there was a third there with the ones keeping the portal open, whose sole job in life was to protect the first two in case the terrans somehow launched a counter attack. That would mean, aside from killing a shit ton of Grimm, the terrans wouldn't have done any lasting damage, whatsoever.

I can only hope that she was staging that invasion from her creepy ass castle, and that it got destroyed by the bomb, and she's on the backfoot as she relocates outside of the radiation hot-zone.

One could be so lucky, right?

Also, this didn't occur until right about now, but it's been bugging the shit out of me, and it took up a lot more presence in my mind once Ozpin said I was basically in some sort of hyponitized trance, explaining everything I saw on Earth.
I possessed a dude.
Like... I found some random asshole on Earth, completely overwrote his free will, and took him over... And not once did I feel any kind of struggle from him.

Does that sound familiar?
Because it almost sounds like what Ozpin's capable of.
And that makes me wonder: Who the hell have I been speaking to, this entire time? Which Ozpin? The Wonderful Wizard? Or the silver-haired body he's possessing at the moment?
If we were to refer to the reincarnating soul as the Wizard and the body he 'linked' as just, the Body... Have I ever spoken to the Body? Or has it only been the Wizard?

A lot of folks mentioned how Ozpin seemed 'different' in the opening ceremony - was that the Body? And if that's the case, why only then and not ever afterwards? Why have I never spoken to his Body? Why has he never come back around? What is the relationship between the two Ozpins? Is it as benevolent as he would make it seem? Or is there some kind of something going on, here?

I don't want to not trust Ozpin, but... This is concerning. It calls his nature into question, because if we disregard the 'prophet' theory I mentioned to him, and instead conclude that Earth and Remnant are still of two different universes (which has scientific basis, due to wormholes being capable of bridging two locations literally anywhere and anywhen), then we would have to look at things narratively, and from that standpoint, his reincarnation could be described as having thematic similarities to demonic possession... Foreshadowing and planting the idea that he's still around not because of some divine curse, but because he's so dead-fucking-set on not dying so he can win his war, that he's willing to keep himself alive by leaching the life from other people, and convincing them he's doing right by the world.

Throw a stone at a handful of sci-fi/fantasy stories, and that wouldn't describe the 'wise mentor' or the 'hero' - that would straight up be describing a stealth villain, essentially doing the opposite of what I'm doing: Being seen as a hero, such that he won't be suspected to be the opposite.

Even Salem could be explained by this theory, as a once-hero who had to make the hard choices and was willing to be seen as a villain in order to more freely war against the larger threat. (And doesn't that sound familiar?!)

Fuck, you use this theory and you could call Ozpin a power-mad alien invader bent on conquering a world, and Salem a fallen angel of sorts, willing to do anything and everything to ensure he doesn't win, even if it means destroying what it is he wants to win.

And even if you take Ozpin's idea about us being in the same universe at face value, and thusly have to believe in my 'prophet' theory as fact as well, that doesn't ruin this theory, merely makes it more complicated. As I said to Ozpin, the best way to make everyone believe in his vision and take its information at absolute face value would be to spin it as a work of fiction, and work it as such. If we believe him to be a seer, we don't know how much Oum saw, and he could very well still have been trying to work some sort of warning about Ozpin in there, by means of a 'plot' twist, as it were. We just don't know, all we can do are note thematic similarities.
All that to say... Might I be on the wrong side?

Aldric didn't sleep. He had one of those nights where he drifted in and out, but remained lucid enough throughout the entire ordeal that he wasn't even sure if he had or hadn't slept in the first place. His mind was ablaze with what he had seen and what had been discussed with Ozpin that night, how it had started so 'innocent', in a manner of speaking, and then had devolved into figuring out his world could very well be in the middle of, or on the precipice of, a war like it has never seen before.

And Aldric was sitting here, in a goddamn school, sleeping in a comfy bed, pretending like nothing was wrong. Yes, he knew - what could he realistically do? What was he really capable of that could solve that problem? Sitting here and brooding over it wasn't going to solve anything, and risking his life forcing the full awakening of his powers without Ozpin's supervision would solve even less, but the point remained that he still felt as though he should be doing something. That he could be doing something.

It was moments like this, when the universe showed him exactly how small he was, that he began to sincerely, truly, doubt everyone who was telling him how big of a player he was. He was just an idiot with a tin arm and a head full of too many comic books, and Roman Torchwick, Adam Taurus, Cinder Fall, if you believed Neo, Neopolitan herself - even Professor Ozpin! - they all believed he might be a major influential factor in the fate of the world. Two worlds, now.

The idea baffled him. It made him question reality, once again trying to discern whether or not this was real, or if something had happened and he was in a hospital bed somewhere, pumped up full of drugs, stoned off his ass, and so deep into a coma that he wouldn't know which way was up.

But, as the sun came up and shined through the window and onto his sore eyes, Aldric pushed all of that as far down as he could. He shoved it as deep down into his mind as it would go, locking it away behind a door marked 'Nebo Aldric', such that it wouldn't interfere when he opened the one marked 'Goud Etiolate'. He had to drop the exhausted frown and pick up the goofy grin; he had to leave behind the growing cynicism - which Ozpin expressed doubt in - and pick up a stunning idealism. He had to set aside his droll amusement and adopt his acerbic wit.

Who knows: Maybe if he pretended to have a little fun, he may have a little.

Ecru certainly seemed to agree with the unspoken sentiment, because her scroll began sounding off at first light, with the loud, reverberating, harsh sound of an iron bar striking a metal can. She leapt out of her bed and snatched the scroll off of the nightstand, but instead of killing the alarm, she turned it up.

"Reveille, reveille!" She shouted, waving the scroll around, "wake up, GEMS!"

Aldric groaned loudly, pressing his hands against his face, but this turned out to be the wrong idea, as it gave her a target for her satanic wakeup ritual, and she threw the scroll at him. It hit his chest with a loud 'thud' and he grunted, coughing, as he sat up.

"Holy fuck, I'm up!" Aldric chucked the scroll back at her, and she caught it with one hand, a grin on her dark face. "Stop with the artillery barrage!" And as he complained, Srebro swung her long legs out from her bed, and Myrtle sank deeper into her blankets, using them to cover her ears.

"Come on, you three!" Ecru gleefully called out over her continuing alarm, as though she hadn't just tried deafening the whole dorm. "Gotta get used to this!" She snapped her scroll shut, and the sounds died.

"Aren't I supposed to be the goddamn leader?" Aldric breathed, as he slipped out of bed, and tidied it up. "Can't I veto you waking us up three hours before class?!"

The amazonian woman across from Aldric raised her hand after running it through her dark dreads, quietly intoning, "I vote yes."

"These are team building exercises, guys!" Ecru rolled her eyes, turning to notice Myrtle still in bed.

Aldric then watched with fascination as Ecru marched over to Myrtle's bed and flipped it end over end, as though its weight was nothing. Myrtle cried out in shock, before being buried by the mattress, squished against the ground. It appeared to shake and rumble for a moment before she sprouted up from between it and the wall, a feral grin on her face, as she used the wall as a springboard to launch herself at Ecru, leaping onto her like a spidermonkey. The two tussled and wrestled, slowly drifting towards the center of the room.

Aldric snapped his fingers to get Srebro's attention, as he twisted his metal arm into place. She gave him a look, and he pantomimed clobbering both of their heads together. Srebro, however, got wide eyes and shook her head vigorously, vehemently whispering 'no'. The two kept up a mostly silent argument for a moment, before Aldric shrugged, and with a roll of his shoulders, got to his feet.

It took three steps to get to the two of them, and only a single push of his semblance to separate them. Myrtle was left floating in the air, and Ecru was on the ground, albeit in an awkward, uncomfortable position. Aldric gave them each a dull look, ensuring that they each made eye contact with the dark pits in his head.

Then he grinned and bounced the both of them off of the ground, used his semblance to summon his white cane, and he smacked each of them on the head with it.

"Appreciate the enthusiasm girls, but how about we save it for team training?" He drawled, resting both of his hands on top of the white cane.

"Okay." Said Ecru, beaming.

"Yeah, sure." Myrtle responded, equally as jovially, as though the two hadn't just tried tearing eachothers' hair out.

When Ecru managed to secure her spot as 'first' in the bathroom, and Myrtle busied herself with fixing her bed, Aldric noticed Srebro tentatively come closer to him, as he pulled his uniform out of the nightstand next to his bed.

"How did you do that?" Srebro whispered, so quietly that, if he hadn't seen her lips move, Aldric wouldn't have even known she'd spoken in the first place.

Aldric grinned, and pointed at Myrtle, and then the door to the bathroom. "Those two?" He rumbled, barely loud enough to be heard by the amazonian next to him. "You and Myrtle had the initiation to see eachother in action, so Myrtle already has an idea of who and what you are. I wouldn't go so far as to say 'respect', but you've already at least proven your worth to her. And the same goes for me and Ecru, we fought next to eachother." He explained, "now we're all trying to figure out the power dynamics of the team." He indicated Srebro and himself, "you and I? I may be an idiot, but we're reasonable enough." He paused a moment, "unless, you know - the 'gentle giant' thing is an act, and you're just waiting to deck me, in which case... Nice." He grinned, and she shared it.

"Those two, though? I pegged them the moment Myrtle tried to one-up Ecru with that 'on the back of the nevermore' stuff. They're fighters, they respect power, so they threw down the moment they could. Determine who stands where, and how tall. I knew this, so I -" He pantomimed separating them with his hands, "- showed 'em who's top dog, and showed 'em I won't like in-fighting unless it's in a ring."

"You figured all of that out in a day?" Srebro gasped.

Aldric's grin turned wider, and he gave Srebro a nudge with his elbow, "a lot can happen in a day." He said, raising his voice to conversational levels, as they heard the shower turn on. "Just wait until we get into the ring. Then we'll really get to see who's top dog." He pointed at her specifically, "I'm almost willing to bet money that of all of us in here, you're the most dangerous."

He'd meant it partially as a joke, in reference to the quiet ones always being the most dangerous, but when Srebro didn't answer, he would admit, he became curious. But she didn't give him the chance to go any further, as she retreated to her corner of the room. Aldric decided he'd let it drop for now - he had all year to drag depth out of these three. The next hour was spent in relative silence, as everyone's morning rituals were done, and they all found themselves dressed, and making way for the cafeteria.

The day's interest waned as it went on; besides the clear emphasis on public service and killing demons, Beacon reminded him of any average school, from back home. He played his role, and watched a few canon events roll on by in Port's class.

After Port's class came lunch, but as he left the classroom, he noticed two of his teammates stick around. Ecru went to speak to Port after Weiss, Myrtle walked right up to Port's desk and began soundlessly rifling through it until she found a small stack of papers, rolled them up, and stuffed them into her jacket. What floored Aldric was that no one noticed - not even Port! Attention was, admittedly, focused on anything else - class was over and it was time for lunch - but still, she brazenly just waltzed up to the desk and started stealing out of it. The fuck?

As a result of Ecru and Myrtle's little soujourn, and Srebro dashing off to their dorm to swap out her text and notebooks for the rest of the day, he was left alone to grab his food, but only momentarily, as a certain snow-haired heir found him when he got in line for food.

"Ash!" He heard Weiss greet, as she came up behind him.

Ah shit, and here I thought I'd get to know my team today. "Is that Weiss?" He tilted his ear in her direction.

"To your right." She said, with a nod, "do you know what you'll be eating today?" She asked, politely.

Aldric knew exactly what she was doing, but he decided to play along, he had to establish some kind of camaraderie with RWBY. So he shook his head, "no, actually. I have no idea what they're serving." He tapped his cane on the ground a few times, as though it were a staff. "Have a little problems with the eyes, you see." He grinned.

She smiled, "you're very brave, you know. Making light of your ailments." She said, "I could help you, if you wish?"

I wonder who's playing into who's hands, here. Me, for doing what she hopes I will? Or her, for doing exactly what I'm expecting her to. He nodded, "by all means, my team seems to have abandoned me this afternoon."

Weiss let out a breath of air, "I wish I could say I had the same problem." She said, neutrally enough, though with an edge to her voice.

"Oh?" He said, "didn't you get matched up with Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long?" He asked, "I've met them a few times, you know." He nodded, "they can be a little rambunctious, I'll admit."

Weiss nodded, "I believe that would be an understatement." She muttered, "but it appears as though you know where I am coming from?"

"Oh, definitely. The blonde broke a few of my ribs, once, and her sister shot me and broke the rest. Back when I had eyes."

Weiss blinked, "she did what?" She asked, aghast.

He nodded, a grin playing his features. "Just ask her about 'Beebee', she'll tell you the story in a heartbeat." He said,"rambunctious, aye, but they're pretty cool once you get to know 'em. Give 'em a little effort, and I think you'll be surprised what they give back in return."

"Great minds really do think alike, Ash." Weiss complimented, smoothly. "That would be the second time you've reiterated a point someone else has made." She said, with a pensive hum, "and I suppose that would be why I am here."

"Because I'm blatantly stealing from people?" And he wasn't wrong, either, it was arguable both ways, that he had and hadn't stolen Pyrrha's fighting style, Captain America's shield, kind of stole the Green Lantern's powers, Ozzymandias' morals, the Green Hornet's modus operandi, Ash Williams' name, and was actively making plans to steal a Jedi's lightsaber.

She grinned, as they reached the food trays, and she grabbed one for each of them. "Because much like Pyrrha, it's clear you're far more than a skilled fighter, Ash." She said, "I know there isn't much we can do in the way of changing our teams, but I was hoping, perhaps, the two of us could work together, in some form."

Actually, her mentioning this did give Aldric an idea. He was intending to put some serious time and effort into using his Power Glove to build a lightsaber, under Ozpin's idea that he was unconsciously using his magic to turn his once hardlight shield into the real effing deal vibranium disk from Marvel Comics, and Aldric's understanding that he was using his Power Glove as a focus to do so. His idea was that, much like how he'd used the glove to create the shield's initial hardlight wireframe, and then had altered its settings to create something more accurate to his memories, he could do the same thing to create a lightsaber, and if it worked, he'd need to be pretty damn good with a sword to avoid slicing his own limbs off.

His initial idea had been to ask Pyrrha to help him out, but Weiss coming here gave him another one. Pyrrha would no doubt be able to show him how to fight, and fight well, with a sword and shield, under the idea that Aldric would eventually find a situation where his fists wouldn't be effective, and his shield would have to shift from an offensive role to a purely defensive one, and the lightsaber could replace his fist. But with Weiss here, it occured to him that there may come a time when Aldric had only one or the other, and while if that 'one' was his shield, he'd be absolutely fine - he'd been operating with only it for a while now - but if that 'one' was the saber, then he'd be in trouble.

Weiss, however, had that exact combat style: One sword, and nothing else. While her combat style may be more evocative of fencing, instruction on the ability to defend, counter, and counterstrike with only his blade could be invaluable, even if the blade in question could cut through functionally anything. Weiss wanted to be on his good side because he had a reputation seconded only by Pyrrha, specifically because he'd fought her and given her a better fight than anyone else in the school, thus far, and she was, right here, asking if there wasn't some way to form some kind of alliance or friendship between the two.

So, Aldric's response was obvious. "Well, it's funny you should ask." He said, instantly obtaining her undivided attention, and a hesitant, kind smile. "I've been holding hopes recently to add to my arsenal." He grinned, "add a gaudy sword to match my gaudy shield." He got a light chuckle for his trouble, "but my problem is that I would have absolutely no idea how to use it, and, you know - it's not a good idea to use a lethal weapon with no training." He did know that lightsabers in canon had low-power settings that wouldn't maim or kill, but he still would much rather lower that risk by receiving training. "And as I'm trying to figure out how to execute my blind swordsman routine, lo and behold - a swordswoman comes out of the woodwork.

"So, if you want to work together... The first three days of my week are dedicated to team training. One day out of the weekend will be dedicated to some hardcore self-study... But the other days are free." He gave her a brief nudge with his cane, "you give me a day, you help me with my sword, I'll see if I can't help you out with those 'things' you said you noticed in the entrance exam." He said, "sound good?"

Weiss considered it, as they moved down the line. "I think that sounds great, Ash." She said, with a formal nod. "Now... Today it looks like they're serving..." She then narrated everything she saw on the lunch line, and after the two of them filled their plates, they sat down to eat.

The conversations they had during their lunch were mostly idle, and when they were finished, the rest of the classes began shuffling on by with little to note. When Oobleck's came, Aldric, keeping in mind Ozpin's 'request', set the standard, sitting in the back of the class and out of sight, lowering his head and using the class as a chance to catch up on his sleep. If Oobleck noticed, he never did anything - either because he was too busy with his beginning of the year greetings, or because Ozpin had let him in on the fact that Aldric was, at this point, his pet project, in a manner of speaking.

No, the person that did something was Srebro, to Aldric's amusement. She noticed rather quickly when he dipped his head, and without breaking eye contact with the front of the class, or even stopping writing her notes, she elbowed him in the ribs to get him to wake up. She didn't reciprocate Aldric's faux-angry glare, still staring dead ahead, attentively, and when he tried again, he found himself elbowed again.

With Srebro refusing to let him bow out, that left him with the issue of where and when would he be able to fix his sleeping problem, especially now that he knew what he did about his Master abilities and the Power Glove, and how many late nights he'd have to be spending, experimenting with that, especially now that he was outside of Cinder's watchful eye.

Maybe I should see if I can't crack open the magic and use it as a means of replacing sleep. That made him grin, that'd solve a lot of problems, actually.

Regardless of the sleep problem, the day continued on. The schedule was soon established, the educational classes taking up most of the day, and sparring matches capping it off before dinner. The rest of the night was the students' oyster, and it began at dinner. Aldric's team slid into place at the first available table they found, whereupon Ecru dramatically let her head fall onto the table with a 'thwack'.

"We got homework on the first day." She mumbled into the table.

"How didn't you hit your food?" Aldric asked, staring at her tray.

"It wasn't that much..." Srebro voiced.

"The food or the homework?" Aldric gave her a concerned look.

"Yes." Said Srebro, as Myrtle slid into place - her tray piled high with more food than the three of them put together.

Aldric commented on this, "jeez, woman! How can you eat all that food?"

"How can you see?" Myrtle deadpanned, an eyebrow arced.

"Touche." Aldric broke eye contact and started digging into his food, as Ecru straightened up, turning to Myrtle with a vicious grin on her face.

"So when were you going to tell us?"

Myrtle didn't respond, prompting a raised eyebrow from Aldric, who, upon giving it a bit more focus, noticed something peculiar in Myrtle's jacket.

"Is this about those papers with Port's handwriting in her jacket?" He asked, to which everyone present snapped their heads up to him.

"How'd you see me?" Myrtle asked, aghast.

"How do you know she has those papers?!" Ecru demanded.

"What just happened?" Srebro gasped.

Aldric shrugged to all of it, "in order: I'm pretty sure I've answered that already..." He said, "see the first answer, and..." He frowned, turning to Myrtle. "If I shouldn't have been able to see you, would that make your semblance invisibility?"

"How?" Myrtle whispered, swiping her blue hair out of her face, "how do you know?" She looked equal parts aghast and amused, "yeah, it's invisibility, but it's more than that! It muffles my noises, suppresses my scent, makes anything I touch invisible, I can reach through objects... I can't even be seen by motion detectors! How'd you?!"

"Lady, everything you ask me can be answered with one phrase: Magical blind man." He said, "my semblance is telekinesis, I can move stuff with my mind, but..." He swept his hand back and forth, "I can go a bit further, by using it to 'feel' things around me. Like everything within a set distance has a nerve ending. So if it has physical presence, I can see it." He then raised it higher, in a defensive manner. "And because I know you'll ask, no, I can't see down any of your shirts." A lot of straightened postures and tensed muscles relaxed at that, and he had to suppress a grin. "It takes enough concentration as it is just to get a... Call it a radar image, if you will. To see further than that - color, details, things of that nature - it's like an endurance test. Thus -" He waved his hand at his white cane. "The cane."

"Oh!" Ecru called out, leaning back and pointing at Aldric, practically stamping her feet in excitement. "That's how you see while you're fighting!" She leaned back forward, "that's so cool!"

"So your... Active radar, that's how you saw me in Port's class?" Myrtle confirmed.

"I mean - there was a freakin' Grimm in the room. I wasn't leaving anything to chance." Aldric nodded.

"Wait -" Came Srebro, who leaned in over the table and lowered her voice, her long dreads flowing over her shoulders. "- Myrtle what did you take?!"

Myrtle shrugged, and lowered her voice as well. "Port said we would have a test next week. I wanted to know what it would be about." She said, nonchalantly.

"Holy fuck!" Aldric chuckled, clapping his hands, as Ecru gasped, and tried to hide her growing smile from Srebro, who looked like she was about to faint, right next to her. "You pretty much stole secret documents right out from under the nose of a huntsman, good enough to capture a live boarbatusk and haul it into his school. Bravo, lady - that takes balls."

Srebro, however, had this to say. "Myrtle! Myrtle you need to give that back right now!" She whispered, visibly shaking. "If you get caught -"

But Myrtle shook her head, "I won't get caught, don't worry." She said, waving her hand back and forth. "School I came from before here, that kind of stealth was a right of passage. It's how I got the Tosser."

Aldric choked on his food, "the who-what?"

"My crossbow."

"Oh."

But Srebro pressed on, practically freaking out at this point. "But Myrtle! You can't - you -"

"Srebro." Aldric grunted, holding up a hand. "Calm down." And as he spoke, the papers slipped out of Myrtle's jacket, rolled up like a newspaper, and landed in his hand, Myrtle jumped at this, but anything she would have said was silenced when Aldric smacked her with it, with a light 'thwack!'. "Do I have your attention?" He asked, as Ecru held back laughter.

Myrtle nodded.

"Good." He gave her another thwack. "Now, we're a part of a team. You steal something and fuck up -" And he raised the stack of papers again, threateningly, when she perked up to argue, "- whether or not you think you won't. Doesn't matter. If, somehow, you do. Shit rolls downhill - your getting in trouble will affect all of us." A while ago, he had figured out how to slow down atomic movement to create ice, and had learned how to do the exact opposite to start a fire during his little trip with Emerald, this trick worked wonders right now, as it let him light the entire stack ablaze almost instantly. The girls gasped in surprise, "but that also turns right around." He said, turning to Srebro. "We may not agree with what she does, but we have to support her in it. Like it or not, we're a team for the next four years, and teammates help eachother, through thick and thin. Hence, the burning." He said, using his semblance to catch the smoke as it wafted up into the air, such that no one would notice the fact that he was burning stuff in front of God and everybody.

Of course, he did note the irony of what he was saying: That they should all work together and support eachother, when he was actively working to bring down everything they stood for, and murder the people they had sworn to protect.

And, while it did seem as though his point did register with Myrtle, she had to get a few shots in, to recover her image. "Did you just come up with all of that off the cuff?"

To which, Aldric grinned, as the papers became unrecognizable, almost completely burnt to ashes. "A little bit of yes and a little bit of no." He responded, as he compressed the 'orb' he'd caught the burning papers and the smoke in, until it was the size of a soft ball. The flames were quickly smothered as all of the available oxygen was eaten up, and Aldric hid the telekinetic cage in one of the pockets of his jacket, so he could dispose of it later. "But suffice to say, it's something I believe in."

Ecru nodded, "ah - that's why you have a shield and you wear a cape!" She grinned, "fancy yourself a hero, don't you?"

Aldric shrugged, and dug back into his food. "I repeat: It's something I believe in." He said, starting what would no doubt be a long road of turning Ash into the idealist, so as to make him a much greater candidate for martyrdom, in the proper circles. "As opposed to hoodie and a baseball bat?" He added, his grin turning to a teasing one.

"Bah!" She waved him away, "don't you make fun of my lovely lady!" She played with her food, "so we've got - a master thief with invisibility and a crossbow." She indicated Myrtle, who nodded. "A superhero, cape, cowl, the whole nine yards, with telekinesis and an impregnable shield." She indicated Aldric, "a - stunning, might I say - street fighter, with enhanced reflexes and a shotgun bat axe."

Don't call it a bat-tle axe. Don't call it a bat-tle axe. Don't call it a bat-tle axe. Though he was intrigued to hear she had heightened reflexes, that'd definitely come in handy once he figured out how to rip off other peoples' semblances.

Ecru turned to Srebro, "so what can you do?"

Srebro shrugged, "nothing very impressive." She said, "my weapon is a zweihander... And I can increase or nullify impact force."

"Lady, you're in Vale. If you're about to claim that your 'zweihander' doesn't have a name and is just a sword, I'll call so much shenanigans." Aldric deadpanned, as he finished off his dinner. "So..." He leaned back, giving an exaggerated frown as he thought. "It's rocket powered!" He said, pointing at her.

Srebro grinned, "no."

"It's... Also got a cannon!"

She stifled a giggle, but shook her head.

Ecru joined in, "it's razor sharp!"

"No."

"Is it really difficult for you two to believe a weapon has only one function?" Myrtle asked, an eyebrow arced.

Aldric turned to Myrtle, "you're not from Vale, are you?"

"Vacuo."

"No shit?" He nodded, "okay, then you don't know." He gave her a push on the shoulder.

Myrtle rolled her eyes, "coming from the guy from Mistral!" She countered, "only person here that was born in Vale is her!" She pointed at the dark skinned member of their quartet. "What else does your shield do, huh?" She pressed.

"It doubles as a ranged weapon and a crowd control implement!" He then flicked his arm back and forth between all four of them, making bouncing noises as he did so, before he landed on Srebro, "it's got a heating element!"

"It wouldn't make much sense to call something that could superheat itself 'Skye', Ash." Srebro said, still smiling, but she shook her head. "No... It's just a very big sword. I spared secondary features for metals that could conduct my aura better." She explained, "such that I could increase its impact force much higher than I could without those metals."

"You just double down on your semblance, don't you?" Though he was interested in seeing this thing, and her, in action, and against his shield; it seemed the only one of the three that had any idea of exactly how it worked and what it did was Ecru, and he was pretty sure she'd be underestimating it too, had she not landed on it and had her momentum arrested by it twice.

"It's a good semblance, Ash." Ecru murmured. "It lets me double down, as you say... I don't need much in the way of defense when anything that hits me gets nullified as long as I've got aura."

And there it is. She had a naturally occurring impregnable defense, but once she lost aura, there it went; Aldric gave her a conciliatory nod. "Oh, I don't disagree. Part of the reason I use the shield is because of how damn good it is at increasing my defense." He pushed his tray back, "so, I'm thinking..." He pointed at Srebro, Ecru, Myrtle, and himself, in turn. "Tank. Support. Subterfuge. Assault." He said, "we get into big team battles... Srebro attracts attention and goes for the heavy hitters, Ecru keeps an eye on everyone and helps who needs it, Myrtle stays out of sight and takes the cheap shots, and I keep them off balance by going for their leaders. Yeah?"

Myrtle nodded to the side, as she finished her food. "It sounds good in theory, but it may be better to wait until we've had a chance to fight eachother, before we make those plans."

"I think he was more going off of what we got out of tonight, than making ironclad plans." Ecru defended.

"Well, yeah, but still."

"What are we thinking for training schedules?" Srebro asked, bringing the topic back around.

Everyone looked to their leader, who nodded, sliding his hand through his hair. "Thinking, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that's us. That's GEMS days. The rest of the week, and the weekends, we do with as we please. Train with eachother, with other students, set up sparring matches with other teams, sleep, study, etcetera." There wasn't much argument with him there, and the rest of dinner devolved into idle chatting and cementing their training schedules.

Once the food was gone and the shattered moon had fully replaced the sun in the sky, they retreated back to their dorm, getting to work on the assignments they'd gotten through the day. When the clocks struck the late hours of the night, they all began gearing up for bed, and as much as his increasingly sleep-deprived body protested the actions, much like the previous night, once everyone was fully asleep, Aldric got back up.

He fished his backup Power Glove canister out of his coat and slid out of the dorm, running his hand through his shaggy locks and letting out a long, tired sigh. When he rounded the corner and stepped outside onto the academy's main grounds, he found something interesting; a familiar looking cat-faunus, perched up in a tree, book in hand. They soundlessly exchanged a nod with eachother as he passed on by, no words really being needed, as they both seemed to be capable of recognizing a person with nocturnal tendencies.

But past her, perched on a distant rooftop, was another faunus, so seamlessly blending in with the rooftop she was pressed against that she almost appeared as invisible as Ecru could be. She glared down at Blake from her great distance, her face shielded by a Grimm mask, and her presence serving as a reminder of the consequences his presence was having on this world.

On both worlds. He thought, frowning, as he idly jiggled the spare Power Glove back and forth in his hand.

The faunus did give him a brief glance, but didn't seem too concerned with the pajama-clad teenager walking around in the middle of the night, wearing sunglasses. That being said, it never hurt to touch base, and while he still had distance from her, Aldric dipped a finger into the canister. He came out with a small amount of Power Glove nanites, and with a thought, a rudimentary face mask appeared in his hands, which he hooked on his ears. He knew well and good that it didn't really mean anything - Taurus was smart, and Aldric had met him twice, and fought him once, before his little mask and scarf ever entered the picture. So while it was clear to him that Taurus obviously knew who he was already, the mask at this point was a matter of principle.

Though he did note the irony that, at this point, the only people he was successfully keeping his identity from were simultaneously the people he respected and trusted the most.

Once he was far enough away from Blake that she couldn't see him from her vantage point, Aldric kept walking, but used his semblance in conjunction with it, making it appear as though he were walking up a flight of invisible stairs, until he reached the Fang's roof. He now had her undivided attention, her eyes were wide underneath her mask and her jaw was set, ready to spring into action at any moment.

"Word to the wise." Aldric rasped, kneeling down right next to her. "If I can see you, Headmaster can see you. Go back to your boss. Tell him to contact Roman Torchwick. Can set up a meeting, get in the same room, touch base." Aldric felt an unholy amount of temptation to go full Heisenberg and say 'stay out of my territory', but felt that would go against the point of his alliance.

There was silence for several moments, as she eyed him warily. "Does she know I'm here?" She whispered, so quietly that she almost couldn't be heard over the night's ambient noise.

"Doubt it." Aldric said, "would have run if did. But has better eyes than me. If I could see you at first opportunity, she'll see you eventually." He really needed to get one of those voice modulators Ozpin had mentioned, before he started sounding like Christian Bale all the time.

"And what are you doing here?" She asked, pointedly.

Aldric straightened up, and started sliding from the sloped rooftop. "Working." He said, before he dropped from the roof.

He landed softly on the ground, as though he hadn't fallen thirty feet, and kept walking, until he found himself at the edge of Beacon's grounds. Once he started seeing more grass than he did stone, Aldric wandered around until he found a nice looking boulder, which he decided would serve as his little slice of Beacon. No Goud Etiolate, no Nathan Drake, just Aldric.

It's not a boulder... He thought, with a grin, as he hopped up to the top of the boulder, and sat down with a light grunt. It's a rock!

He poured out some more Power Glove, a dollop the size of a raindrop, and took a long, deep breath, as he stowed the spare canister, and pulled out his scroll and a wire. With a thought, the nanites in his palm flared to life, and, with the image of one of the lightsabers he'd had as a toy in mind, the wireframe shell of a lightsaber's hilt appeared in his palm. He flipped it around a few times like a knife, before he placed it on the rock and he connected it to his scroll.

He spent the next hour fiddling with the Power Glove's settings, getting the colors right, everything he knew about star wars flowing through his mind as he did so. He had to admit: It had been a long time since he'd experimented with the glove like this, granted that was primarily due to a lack of time to do so and because, as Ash, he couldn't do so without outing the fact that he had a whole host of unregistered weapons. But, if this worked like he and Ozpin thought it would, if the Glove really was a focus for his powers, then it had even more applications than he'd initially thought. It wouldn't merely be a Green Lantern Ring in name, but in practice as well.

Hell, maybe I'll make one of those, too. Now that would be interesting, wouldn't it? Him, as a Green Lantern. Or, fuck. Make a White Lantern ring and basically be God. Solve all of my problems in an hour. He grinned, continuing to adjust the settings, very thankful that lightsaber hilts were, by and large, monochromatic. It didn't cut down on the time he had to spend making sure everything was just like he remembered from the movies, but it helped make it easier.

After the hour came and went, and Aldric had successfully turned it softly glowing, muted blue wireframe, into the metallic grays and blacks, with little flecks of color on its buttons and knobs, he killed his scroll and leaned back. He popped his back with a light groan, before he straightened back up and scooped the hilt up in his hands. It was a bit heavier than he expected, but he realized he couldn't use that as any kind of indication for one way or the other, as he hadn't had the wherewithall to judge its weight when he made it the first time.

Welp... He sighed, thumb on the bright red button. Moment of truth, Ozpin. And he clicked it.