The query was uncannily calm, given the situation. Which is to say, calm for being prepared to dive headfirst into a potentially very dangerous mission. They'd chosen it for that very reason. Something big, something dangerous, something difficult; all to show that they could hang in there like the rest of them. Ben knew that, maybe, that wasn't quite the healthiest attitude. Charging at the world with something to prove tended to make people stupid. But, knowing that something isn't wise isn't the same as being able to change it. He did have something to prove. They all did, and they all knew it.
Looping Artorius and Lawnslot through their holders, finally satisfied that they were ready, he surveyed his team. BAST. Bastion. Most teams at Beacon weren't quite what you'd expect, but his was definitely the misfits. Dropouts, slackers, antisocials, and the too social. All the terms most would apply to them. Terms even Goodwitch probably applied, even if she didn't say them out loud. But none of them were quite true.
He had something to prove. But he was damn proud of the team he was on, too.
"Gonna be a hell of a ride. Anyone needs anything else, I'd get it now."
Murphy smiled at the inquisitive Beacon Officer students. "Ah don't you kids worry your little heads about it. The rest of this is all in police hands now. Speaking of which..." he said as he turned toward the entrance of the building. The metal shutters barracading it were soon blown away in similar fashion to Murphy's entrance and a squad of Vale's SWAT team poured through, handcuffing the unconscious White Fang members and civilians that participated in illegal gambling. There were several more explosions on other sides of the building where more of Vale's finest infiltrated the building.
Murphy turned back to the hunters-in-training trying to remember what Luke had asked when he first entered the building. "Oh yeah, the fox faunus! Yep, she seemed alright. Got in a fight with the bouncer outside then bugged out. She seemed fine to me though I lost track of her pretty quickly. Anyway, let's get you kids back to Beacon. Wouldn't want you to miss any classes." Murphy then led the three members of Team JMCL outside to the streets where police cruisers and SWAT vans filled the streets with bright, loud sirens as well as the small Bullhead that would take the team back home.
And that, it seemed, was enough to tide the eighteen-year-old pugilist over. An easy enough end to leave things off on, in the hands of much more experienced sleuths than he or any of his peers.
Instead, he spent the short walk back in a comfortable, tired silence, idly examining his bared arm and lamenting the loss of the jacket's sleeve.
Still, though, better a sleeve than my arm. That Byakko is one heck of a weapon...
He glanced over to Ciel, trying to read her for a moment and not doing an exemplary job, before looking back to the forearm. Perfectly healed, the only sign of ever being damaged in the first place lying in his memory.
While it wasn't a flashy or particularly offensively powerful semblance, it was hard to deny that his was useful.
Ciel walked slowly to the bullhead that would bring them back to the academy. She needed to work better something to help protect against illusions in case she were to face something like that again. There were multiple ways to break through illusions from her knowledge force of will in some peoples case or pain in order to bring herself out of it. Still she supposed as she looked as she saw Luke glance at her "im sorry Luke I attacked you." She said quietly as she tried to withdraw into her hood out of shame of what she has done.
"Don't worry about it." he said with a reassuring smile. "This isn't the first hoodie I've ruined sticking my nose into funny business. I'm fine, see?" He accompanied the statement with a gentle pat on the back, and an impromptu display of charred-off sleeve yet decidedly un-charred arm.
"It's not your fault, anyway. Your eyes were lying to you, right? None of us knew that was gonna happen. You don't need to beat yourself up over something you didn't know about, y'know?"
If that were the norm, he'd be in a much different place right now, and probably would never have gotten anything done with his life. Seriously though, the better thing to do was learn and move on. Couldn't just wallow in negativity.
Speaking of...
He pulled her hood back down, dialing the grin up to eleven.
"Besides, you were pretty smart back there to come up with a way out of it so fast. Never even crossed my mind."
"What're you two talking about back there? Come on! Maybe if we're fast enough we can get something to eat", he called back.
"Oh wait... Hey Murph, Mokuren, she going to be okay...? I mean... She is still part of this team, we can't leave her here...", he stopped in his tracks as he commented this. It was true, as anti-social as she was, she was assigned to this team, and thus it was duty they work and stick together. He knows they lost track of her, what was she doing? It matters most that she make it back to Beacon too, but it'd be a lot easier if she didn't just disappear like this.
Mokuren, the fox faunus everyone was talking about, had not gone very far. She went off to get something to eat, sort herself out, and then came back to a nearby building to watch for when they came out. Which they did, eventually, along with some police men and enough bodies for her to assume they had won. Which, was pretty amazing, considering that God-Tier bouncer was still around. Or, maybe he just wandered off after being so irritating.
So, when she saw the group exiting the casino, Mokuren exited her encamped spot, and -hearing the way Jack seemed so worried about her - snuck up to him, her movements silent and soft. Once behind him she prodded him in the head softly. "Your concern is touching, but unnecessary. I am both fine, and here. Curious, but fine and here"
Standing beside her team leader, Gratia silently provided her assent to the accurate assessment of their assigned accommodation as her eyes roamed the room, taking in the sight of the expansive area with careful consideration. It seemed to be a multi-faceted residence, with the living room they had strolled into serving as a bedroom for all members of the team as well, with the only separate room being that of a washroom. Such an arrangement, she mused, was likely the motivation behind the construction workers having fabricated a living space of large proportions; it was necessary to fit an entire team within, though it could be slightly cramped.
However ...
Her onyx eyes hardened, glancing over at her blonde "compatriot". The cheese-eating monkey still had that fucking smile plastered all over his face. There was definitely no way she would even contemplate sharing a room with Fiordilatte; they did so once during their time at Haven, and that one time would be, if she had any sway in the decision-making process, the first and last time such an event would ever occur. She preferred her privacy not to be defiled by the presence of men of Neapolitan persuasion, thank you very much.
"Fiordilatte," she said haltingly, forcing herself to try and willingly address her hated "teammate". "I would share this fucking room with you, but it so happens that I have the barest of standards and you're shit enough to fall right before the cutoff line."
Upon feeling a touch on the back of his head he instantly doubled back into a dash and a rotation. It was Mokuren. Speak of the devil.
"Goddamnit, just say you're there...", he sighed, relaxing, taking his hand off his blade. She moved quite silently... Honestly he'd rather prefer she use those skills a little more wisely. In any case, they were all here, so that means it was time to go home.
"Well anyways, let's head back, I'd like something to eat", he walked up onto the transport and took a seat, waiting for everyone else to get on board too. So what to do now...? Guess they earned themselves a little break. He learned a lot about his skills and limits in just a single mission though... Imagine how much more he could learn in even more missions? The thought excited him, but he'd much prefer something to eat now.
He gave a small, miffed grimace at Jack's urgings. They were keeping pace just fine, weren't they? It wasn't as though talking and walking were mutually exclusive. They'd all had a bit of a rough time, tit wasn't like anyone was getting left behind.
Not to mention, didn't he already ask abou--
Oh, there she is. he thought, as she silently crept up into the thick of them all. His eyes slightly widened, a little surprised--that was actually really sneaky! He hadn't even noticed her until just before she'd spoken up!
That did beg the question though...
His head tilted a bit in befuddled contemplation.
Why didn't she try to be that stealthy when we were on the mission?
Nonetheless, everything was all said and done, and everyone was here again.
Turning to Diamond, Oswald frowned. "Looks like you were right, Rice really screwed these people over. There's some...ancient Grimm here. It's what controls those damned bugs, apparently. Spoke to the Faunus' leader, she wants us to kill it, and the jammer goes off. Then we can talk about how we settle this. You wanna go after Rice?"
Dissolving the shadow wrench she's been using to tighten the replacement tire on, Diamond turned around. "Damn straight I want to go after the fatso, but this is more important." she shrugged, "It's a danger to both the people here and gods know how many others if we leave it and it goes loose. Or follows us home."
"Besides, the man is a coward. He would have gone straight to the local Schnee HQ or the docks to offload the cargo, depending on whether he's more afraid of us or his boss. Either way, he can't hide in the city form me." Diamond thought out loud, popping her fingers nastily. "Any idea where that thing is, or what's it look like for that matter?"
Letting out a sigh, Oswald hopped off of the Unsubtle and handed Diamond the map he'd gotten. "I think Marcus has gone haywire again. Here, they gave me a map. Said the thing has no real shape or form. It's some kind of liquid-like creature. They're not certain of where it is, but they put down a few places it might be."
"And you're probably right about Rice. This thing's the bigger threat right now. That jackass ain't going anywhere any time soon. We kill this thing, get this hellhouse sorted out, and we can find him later. Maybe Schnee will give us a bonus for exposing a corrupt executive. They're not exactly good people, but I doubt they'll just let something like this go."
"Marcus needs to hold the fort down here anyway. It's not the Faunus I'm worried about, but the guards looked ready to kill everything that moves. And Aurelius should probably go slap some sense into the truckies and drive outside of the jamming and radio for backup too." Diamond said, not feeling really comfortable making any decision.
"Liquid like? Well that's great. I suppose these could come in handy then..." she said, fishing one of the ice dust capsules she picked up earlier form her pocket and tossing one over to Oswald, keeping the other. "No clue how to set those off but I vaguely remember one chick doing so by sneezing, so it doesn't seem to need that much. Let's go find the thing first."
Carefully catching the dust capsule, Oswald frowned again. "Damn. Powder dust always makes me nervous. Too fragile, too unstable. For this thing, though...I'll take that risk. Whatever it takes. Guess Marcus can hold the fort. You think the two of us can handle a horde of those bugs? Worst comes to worst, I can try and find that Grimm and kill it before we get reduced to pulp." Turning to the Unsubtle, Oswald shook his head. "Sorry, Marcus, think you can hold down the fort here, while we take care of that thing? Much as I'd love to have that tank along for the ride...I can't trust these people. You, I do trust. Make sure they stay put."
"We don't have much choice. It's still bugs though. I saw some makeshift torches over there-" she pointed to a remnant of a supply shed, "-Fire gotta keep them at arms length." I bloody hope so. she added for herself.
Oswald nodded to Diamond before making his way over to the shed. "I'll grab the torches, then." As he walked, Oswald checked over his equipment, making sure everything was affixed properly. Now that things were about to heat up, it would be disastrous for some of his armor to fall off halfway through the fight. After seeing what the bugs were capable of, he wasn't sure how much protection his armor would offer, but it was better than nothing.
Returning from the shed with a few "torches", Oswald handed one to Diamond, keeping a pair of torches for himself. "Strategy? How are we gonna tackle this thing?"
"I'd try to stay hidden until we find it - avoid any bugs as much as possible. If we get the drop on it let's try to hit it without it knowing we're even there. Failing that, improvise. The first week of classes wasn't exactly clear on how to fight something that isn't made of solids. So unless you have an idea, shall we move out?" the thug thought out loud, fishing the lighter from under her hat and lighting the torch.
Following the map given to him by the elder fauna, Oswald and Diamond set out into the plains. Most of the grass near the camp had been flattened or obliterated from the recent explosion, with nothing but insignificant bug life scurrying about. Stealth largely consisted of being able to lay low and not disturb the grass, at least not too much to send all the insects flying. And there were many insects, not all of them freakish mutants, but there were a few. The first flew locations marked off on the map showed no signs of life; too close to the camp. There were other locations further out, but the crudely drawn map had no accurate indicator of distance and only vague land marks in the form of some sort of quartz formation. It only took the two about ten minutes of walking to find one of the possible locations of the BB.
The grass was still tall, all the way up to Diamond's chest. The ground was damp and some parts muddy, and there were five quartz crystals sticking out of the ground. One of them had strange branch-like protrusions making it look something like a tree, which was the landmark on Oswald's map. Initially there was nothing. And then there were buzzing.
Mentally cursing as the buzzing started, Diamond ducked in the grass. The mud on the ground didn't make moving silently any easier, especially in shoes meant for pavement. The girl made a mental note that there would be shopping to do once - if - they returned from here.
Taking her hat off, she carefully poked her head above the grass to get a look at what was heading for them, hoping for their target rather than a cloud of random insects. Hah. Wishing for a grimm to find us. Oh sweet Irony. she thought bitterly.
Ducking down next to Diamond, Oswald took a slow, deep breath, and held it for a few moments before releasing it. He wasn't going to let his own breathing get them caught, not after they'd come this far. If the bugs attacked them, they might be able to fend them off with Dust, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn't be seriously weakened or wounded.
Trying to look between blades of grass, Oswald rolled his eyes when he realized that it was still too thick for him to see through. Trying to ignore the buzzing, Oswald decided to rely on Diamond to tell him if anything happened. There was no point in both of them sticking their heads out and risking detection.
The buzzing intensified. Soon an entire swarm of mutant insects were flying above Diamond and Oswald, searching for them. It wasn't particularly hard since Oswald's black/red armor meshed poorly to the beige colored grass stalks. There was little warning as the swarm began to spread out, and than converge into the grass to latch onto the two hunters. Stingers, claws, pincers, mandibles, all sorts of small yet powerful jaws and limbs tore at the hunters, latching onto any exposed flesh, trying to undo the latches and buttons of their armor and clothing to create more exposed flesh to attack. Individually it was slow work, but thousands upon thousands worked together to consume their foe.
Cursing loudly, Oswald stood up and drew his sword, slashing in front of him as he advanced, his Aura defenses trying to repel the insects from his body. Grabbing a yellow Dust crystal from his pouch and quickly putting it into his blade, Oswald transformed his blade into katar form and continued slashing, trying to move forward. "Diamond, anything you can do with that shadow of yours? Maybe make a big-ass flyswatter?!"
Answering with a feral growl, Diamond continued to seemingly flail her arms around. Closer inspection would have revealed the ice dust capsule with the lid opened ever so slightly spewing it's contents evenly around the duo. When she thought the amount of dust in the air was just about right to encase the insects in ice but leave them more or less intact, Diamond reached for her lighter again and stuck it, the sparks setting the dust off.
The dust exploded, causing the swarm around Diamond and Oswald to freeze solid. but that was just thousands out of hundred thousands, and it didn't even stop them. They simply came in at greater force now that they knew were Diamond and Oswald were. Oswald's swiped killed a few droves, but not nearly enough to do any meaningful damage, and after his first few attacks the insects were able to dodge out of the way of his swings. That wasn't the worse of it; as the swarm continued to cover Oswald and Diamond, one of the quartz formation was getting shifted. And slowly, lifted.
"WHAT" was all Oswald could say as I saw the quartz slowly lifting from the ground. Turning to Diamond, he pointed at it. "Run, there. The dust didn't help. We have to find that Grimm and end this before these bugs end us. Take the map, you're faster than me." Grunting as he felt his Aura diminishing, Oswald reached into his pouch and pulled out a red Dust crystal. "I'll see what this does." Activating the crystal, Oswald grunted and pitched it into a group of the bugs, hoping that it would at least thin the herd.
"I'm not in the business of noble sacrifices, mine or anyone else's!" diamond grinned back as she thought of a slightly crazy course of action, seeing what just happened. A bit of a firestorm surrounded her teammate and briefly cleared the area around him. Well, if he wasn't coming, he could at least get behind cover. And cover she could provide.
Making a quick circle around Oswald before the bugs could get back in, she left a trail of the ice dust behind her. With a flick of the lighter she set it off, erecting a wall of ice around Oswald. "Plug the top yourself!" she hollered over, noticing her own supply was down to third of the capsule.
With any luck the swarm would be busy trying to break through to Oswald for a while and less bugs would focus on her as she ran towards the hovering structure, her shadow flowing over her, slashing at anything close to her skin. The constant shift was tiring her somewhat, but the adrenaline rush was helping a great deal.
Grunting angrily, Oswald pulled out the ice dust capsule and worked to form a ceiling for his little shelter. He wasn't sure exactly how to do it, since he was unfamiliar with powder dust, but he poured some on the edges of the wall, trying to direct the dust to form a top over him before he was overwhelmed with bugs again. "Diamond, if you get more than fifty feet from me, I can't get out of here without busting out. If you've got any more ideas, now's the time!"
"You'll thaw out eventually, as long as you left a hole for air!" Diamond laughed of all things. Combat high, that was a new feeling. She picked up the pace, charging towards the hovering quartz block to cut the distance in shortest time.
Oswald's fiery explosion caused the bugs to scatter, giving them just a few seconds of reprieve. But as the swarm rallied, the two hunters might have noticed that some of the insects who were caught flame were still flying. Like the bugs from before, these insects were highly resistant to fire, but very flammable. They rallied together with similar bugs and turned into a mass of flame, charging strait towards Oswald right after the wall of ice was erected around him. They used a combination of their mandibles and flaming bodies to chew through the ice, and would get through in less than a minute with their combined efforts. The rest of the swarm hung near by, getting ready to charge through the opening when it was made.
Mean while the quartz rose into the air a good five feet, and showed no signs of stopping. not only that but it was moving towards Oswald to. But Diamond's movements weren't missed either. As she was charging towards the quartz, something grabbed both her feet and gripped tightly. If she could see through the grass that would cover her face, she may see skeletal hands. More of them began to rise out from the ground, latching onto Diamond. Underneath her were a murky black substance, and not too far from her, a white mask...
Groaning as he saw the ice above him thinning, Oswald turned to the side of his shelter and reached back into his pouch, pulling out his last red dust crystal. "I'm gonna need to stock up on more than two of each type...I'm almost empty as is." Removing the unused yellow crystal from his weapon, he replaced it with the red crystal, then pointed the blade of his sword at the wall, pulling its trigger.
Within seconds, the layer of ice had a hole melted through it, and the edges were still in excess of a hundred degrees, quickly melting the ice at the edge of the hole. Jumping through the hole, Oswald cursed yet again as he saw the quartz crystal flying towards, him. "Diamond, where the HELL did you go?!"
Splat! Diamond went face first into the mud. She'd never clean that off of the coat again. That made her as livid as she could get. Getting up to a crouch, she noticed the mud didn't exactly stick. In fact, it was the mud that grabbed her by the ankles.
Wait, the heck?
Gears spun in her head and finally clicked into place. Right, fluid grimm. She already had a plan of attack in mind, but attack where? She needed to see dammit!
Taking a hold of her shadow, she turned it into a bigass scythe and spun around, mowing the grass around her. As she spun around, she caught a glimpse of a speck of white. Turning, she spotted it.
There, a grimm mask.
Turning the scythe into a dagger, she cut through the hands holding her legs. Plopping the case of dust open she tossed it towards the mask. The container left a trail behind it, serving as a fuze cord to the container that landed near the mask. With a sadistic smile, Diamond set it off and followed.
Aside from the ice, she didn't really have any idea how to tackle this thing. It was a risky bet, but she put faith in putting her aura on the offensive. During the initiation, several people were able to severely damage large grimm with aura alone at the very least. If she could just grab a hold of the Grimm's head, then she could try to blow it clean off.
The creature, the Black Beast, recoiled as Diamond cut the hands from her. It didn't hurt him so much as make him weary, as she managed to escape his grasp. It beat a hasty retreat, hiding back in the tall grass. Mean while the quartz crystal diverted it's path from Oswald to Diamond, since she was closer. The ground beneath her gave her very little traction as the mixture of slick mud and loose grass threaten to make her slip, and if she fell the quartz was ready to fall on top of her. The rest of the swarm went after Oswald as soon as he emerged from his icy prison and resumed their tireless assault.
Diamond's ice dust did do something however. It froze a part of the black beast, forcing him to shrink down towards the base of the ice. Still, thanks to it's naturally fluid body, it was able to become miniscule, and work it's way to free itself from the ice. The bugs continued to attack the two hunters, with the quartz moving in to crush Diamond.
Diamond didn't spot the approaching quartz until it eclipsed the sun, it's shadow looming over her ominously. Just how powerful was this thing? Were they dealing with yet another bloody riesen here? Well, at least it didn't seem capable of taking over her mind or body.
Well, she could hardly do anything other than dodge it. The only way she saw herself being safe from it was to stay close to the monochromatic bastard and hope it wouldn't crush itself. It wasn't like she didn't intend on doing that anyhow.
The ice slowed it down for long enough for her to get close. Her aura flared up, covering her person in a foul looking black tendrils. "Let us see who's dark side is greater, shall we?" the thief grinned. Using her shadow to get some traction on the strange surface, she made a jump and grab for the mask.
As Oswald sprinted towards Diamond, he sheathed his sword and replaced his shield on his back, reaching into his pouch to grab his second, and last, freeze dust crystal. Grinning as he reached the point at which his Semblance was usable, he suddenly appeared next to Diamond and turned towards the strange Grimm, realizing what Diamond was doing. Appearing behind it, Oswald's similarly dark Aura surrounded him as he dove into the shadowy creature's body to distract it.
"Kill it, quick! I can handle the beating, but a multi-ton crystal is where I end up a splatter on the ground!"
The Black Beast was not going to go out without a fight. The bug swarm went to it's aid, converging onto Diamond and Oswald. At the same time it produced bone-like appendages to flail and smash the two hunters with great strength. It would very well knock them off their feet and into the ground if they weren't careful. And lastly, the flying quartz crystal was merely seconds away from touching down, like a four ton guided missile. The Black Beast screeched loudly, it's defiant and possibly last war cry.
"Kill it quick - HOW THE FUCK?" Diamond barked back after third unsuccessful attempt to get close enough to strike with her aura. She never fought on long range and lacked the ability to project it too far. It looked like the only option was the most risky one, and even then - could the fluid bastard even be crushed?
It wasn't like anyone was giving her any better ideas though. It better work then. the crawlers that were starting to swarm her again now that Oswald was no longer providing distraction were adding extra difficulties. This needed to end fast. Fortunately the large quartz mass seemed only couple dozen seconds away, and it showed no signs of slowing down, even though it was headed for them and by proxy to the head of the grimm itself, being well in the range of the impact.
"No other way, stick around until the last possible moment, then jump away and hope it's caught under the thing and we aren't!"
Sighing, Oswald turned to Diamond, grabbing at one of the Grimm's bone appendages with his hand not holding the dust crystal, which was starting to become awkward. "Diamond, just run. Stay about forty feet away, if you could, please?" Confident that as long as he kept an eye on his teammate, he'd be able to get the hell out of dodge.
"Done!" Diamond said, bolting without hesitation. She had an idea of what Oswald had in mind and made for the area where she cleared the grass to be seen more easily. while her own aura was lashing againsst the bugs swarming her, the girl put her hand on the ground and sent her shadow towards Oswald, surrounding him with a sheet of shadow as thick as she could manage to make the bugs travel around, hoping to buy a little bit of time.
Smirking as Diamond's shadow covered her, Oswald awkwardly put the dust crystal he was carrying back in his pouch, grabbing for another one of the bone appendages with his hands, and pulled as hard as he could, trying to snap the limbs with brute force as the crystal barreled onwards.
As the massive crystal closed in on Oswald and the Black Beast, one of the Grimm's boney appendages snapped in Oswald's hand, causing the monster to let out a shrill, pained scream as it thrashed about in agony.
Making sure to get a good look at Diamond, Oswald willed himself away from where he was, appearing near Diamond, his breath heavy. Backing away, he watched as the multi-ton crystal crashed into the bellowing Grimm, annihilating the beast under its immense mass as the quartz shattered into thousands upon thousands of pieces at the impact.
The rampaging, infuriated bugs stopped their stampede as the Black Beast perished, returning to a more normal behavioral pattern, swarming down into the grass to feed.
"Diamond....let's get the fuck out of here. I'm done with this bullshit."
Nodding weakly and brushing the sweat away form her forehead, Diamond agreed in part. "Yeah. Let's gather our pieces and call for backup, let someone else handle this. But I still have a corrupt coward to catch. Not particularly mission specific, but it would make me feel reaaaaaal nice on the inside." she said with a frown.
"Agreed. I'd like to talk to the Faunus again before I leave, though. You think you can take care of Rice on your own?" Oswald was deadset on making good on his word to the Faunus' leader. Whatever had happened through all this, he had to make sure the responsible parties suffered for their crimes. "But first...let's get back to the camp."
In the end, Rice ended up hiding exactly where Diamond predicted. Getting into the building took some shouting and photographic evidence, but once the thug threatened to send the pictures of the maimed Faunus right next to the SDC logo to the media, suddenly the desk clerk was very accommodating in showing her to Mr. Rice's office. After reciting what Marcus told her before - specifically about how leaving fellow humans and faunus to the Grimm was a valid ground for capital punishment in the field - the man was all too happy to 'just' accompany her to the Vale PD station. Diamond was happy to leave the rest to them.
As he returned to the base camp, the guards had rushed up to Oswald, the Unsubtle's turret pivoting to ensure they kept a respectable distance. The first words the huntsman-in-training uttered were, "You are all under arrest. Any attempt to resist will be met with an extreme over-reaction, limbs potentially being broken, and lots of pain. Do not forget that I can teleport."
Pushing through the stunned guards, Oswald entered the mine once again, accepting the escort to the leader of the Faunus. "The Black Beast...is dead. It wasn't easy, and I'm fairly certain that I'm running on less than a fifth of my Aura reserves after what those bugs did, but...it's done. We've got the guards on a temporary arrest until someone figures this out, my teammate is hunting down that fat bastard, Rice, and on the off chance that you'd like...we're willing to escort you to Vale. But I have a feeling that you'd prefer to stay on your own land, now that you won't be threatened again."
Sighing, Oswald moved onto the most important topic. "As for the Schnee Dust Company at large, you won't be seeing them again. We'll be taking evidence of what happened her. They'll back off."
"Oh...uh, thank you!" Sepia said, startled by the knights suddenly being behind her. Trusting that her teammate knew what she was doing, and needed no help with the questioning, she took one of the hammers and backed up a few paces. "I would use my own weapon, but if this guy is crooked enough to put a secret sweet spot on the ursa, he might accuse me of cheating."
Letting out a short huff, Sepia took advantage of her distance from the target and got a running start. As soon as she was within range, she dropped into a quick crouch. Like a released spring, she uncoiled with a snap and slammed the hammer into the underside of the ursa's chin. Feeling her momentum give way to gravity, she gently landed on the balls of her feet with a soft click.
"That was fun." Sepia gave a soft giggle. "Thanks for the tip."
Ciel kept quiet as she watched her team interact Mokuren was being her normal self and it seemed that all was well with everyone. "At least the mission is done with" she said aloud as she continued to trail behind her team a bit. Her hood was down since she still haven't put it back up since Luke took it down and she had to admit he did have a point everyone was alive so she should be happy about that. Her own quick thinking and Luke willing to go along with the plan was probably what made the entirety of the mission to go as well as it did. "Glad everyone is alright as well" she continued after a bit it was their first mission all things considered it could have gone worse so she was happy with the overall result she supposed.
"At least the mission is done with." Ciel said from behind.
And she could say that again. The short walk back to the aircraft had apparently been enough to suck the last bits of adrenaline out of his system, and the full brunt of the day's many, many stresses resurged with wild abandon. With going through such a tense situation, you could liken it to an experience such as an adrenaline dump, but on the psychosomatic level as opposed to purely physical.
Actually, the better, more accurate term was likely something along the lines of "stress burnout".
Either way, he only knew one thing as he stepped aboard the Bullhead.
He wouldn't at all mind collapsing onto his bed and lying there for an hour or two once they got home.
"Feel like I haven't sat down in weeks..." he murmered wryly, mostly to himself, as he inelegantly plopped down across from Jack.
"'Ugh' is right," Clair said, dropping her bags on the floor.
Day one at Beacon Academy, the school of her dreams, had only turned out to be an exercise in sensory overload. Between her arrival, sudden introduction, and the drama that unfolded in the dining hall, there was nothing more that Clair wanted to do than to collapse on Sarina's couch, but she couldn't think of her new room assignment as anything but surreal.
Do all Beacon students get to live like royalty, or is this kind of treatment reserved for upperclassmen?
Back in her cozy single in Haven, she could scarcely fit more than a desk and a dresser, let alone her bed. In comparison, Sarina's dorm room was like a penthouse apartment, the kind that millionaires buy for themselves in crowded cities. All of the furniture was spotless, as though it had just been assembled in the hallway outside and brought in moments before her arrival. The only exceptions to this were the other three beds, all pushed together in the corner, gathering dust.
"Well, looks like I'm home," Clair sighed. She pulled a bed away from the other two and dusted off the bare mattress. Sarina's belongings occupied most of the usable space in the room, making it hard for her to stake a claim for herself.
"Hey, Sarina," she began.
Any chance you could move all of your crap? Living in a royal suite must be nice, but I'm here now, so -
"No, never mind," she said. "I'm exhausted." She fell face-first onto her bed. "Tell me there's nothing else I have to do today, Princess."
The trip back fortunately didn’t go as FUBAR as the mission. For which Diamond was glad. She thought the initiation was tough, and sure, it was, but there they only were in danger of dying. Turning a bunch of friendlies into a pile of ashes was a bit too much to take even for her, and she’s seen some messed up stuff before. Frankly, she wasn’t certain how long it would be before some of them were kicked out, notably Aurelius who had the habit of doing massive collateral damage..
What bothered her most though was how useless she found herself facing those bugs. She just had nothing good to hit such an opponent with, and yet there were Grimm just like it. And to top it all off a Grimm with liquid for a body. Diamond wasn’t 100% sure before - the procedure she considered undertaking was fairly safe, but some risk was involved. Now though, she found herself without a doubt. The girl supposed that was why the professor wanted to wait until after the mission.
Speaking of which, Diamond froze as her eyes met that of professor Goodwitch’s. There were no words exchanged. The teacher scowled and looked at her datapad, before looking back up and giving Diamond a look, as if expecting her to react. The girl straightened up and gave the teacher one nod of the head.
Losing the scowl and taking on a more neutral expression that threatened to turn into a barely noticeable smile, Goodwitch returned the nod. “Meet me in an hour at my office.” she simply said before walking away to attend other business. Turning to her teammates, Diamond sighed: “Don’t wait for me with dinner today.” she simply said before walking off herself.
At the specified time, she knocked on the professor’s office. A sharp ‘Enter!’ ushered her in. When the door clicked shut behind her, Diamond stood still, not quite knowing what to do. A hand waved her to a seat in front of the table though.
“I assume our earlier exchange meant that you are certain about your decision. If not, kindly stop wasting my time and leave.” Goodwitch said, albeit in as non conflicting tone as those words could carry. When Diamond didn’t move a muscle, the professor relaxed a little. “I am not quite sure yet whether to allow you to proceed. I have to say your minimal experience is giving me some concern. If you lose control of your abilities, the end result could be quite disastrous. However that is a decision for you alone.”
“What I am more concerned with is that your mission didn’t exactly deserve a perfect mark. In fact a few people would like to see your team in court, something about mass murder. Care to comment on that?” Goodwitch inquired.
Diamond knew this game though. If there was any danger of legal process, it would have been happening already. No, the teacher was just trying to see if she would buckle under pressure. Fat chance of that. “They could try, and they might succeed with some of us, but I’d walk. The only thing they could have on me is the destruction of one of the trucks - suggestion there of, mind you - and that was to save the other two, so I doubt any reasonable judge would give me any trouble. As for the alleged murders, I have been gathering intel inside the settlement when that happened. Short version: I did what I was asked to do to the letter. If you want to fail our team as a whole, fine. But I don’t see a reason to obstruct me any further.” the girl said with a confident look. “As for the other problem, I would actually like to take an extra class, if that’s acceptable. It’s time better spent than botany if you ask me.”
Thinking for a while, Glynda finally nodded. “Are you aware of the dangers of the procedure?” she asked. Diamond affirmed.
“Very well then, if you are willing to undertake it I will not stop you, though personally I would advise getting at least some practice with other dust uses beforehand, but I can see how you would be in a hurry. I will send you the schedule of my other classes, I am sure yours and mine would overlap somewhere. The procedure is quite costly though, and what you specified is a dose that would last you well over the four years you will be studying here. How do you intend to fund this?” the witch continued her inquiries.
Diamond expected that one, and simply passed over her scroll with her bank account details displayed. It earned a raised eyebrow from Goodwitch: “I have my theory of how a street child came to possess such resources. I do not approve but I will admit to some degree of respect for getting away with it.” She sighed and took a sip of tea.
“But I can’t prove any of it and with the dose you are getting, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you intend to actually keep doing what you study here for. Just know that If you betray that trust, someone will take care of you.” she said, and the look in her eyes was easily the most threatening Diamond has ever seen. Not able to openly deny the accusation under that gaze, the trainee huntress stayed silent.
“Well, now that that’s taken care of, the last piece of the puzzle is the place. Fortunately the school’s infirmary has the equipment, so you will not need to leave the premises. And you will be able to keep up with your homework and studies during your recovery.” she reminded her, and Diamond had no doubt it caused the older woman a good deal of sadistic pleasure.
“And about said recovery, it varies from individual to individual, usually from a few hours to a few days. I’m sure the doctors will tell you more. I’ll also inform the rest of the faculty of your situation and excuse you from the classes you might be missing. Telling anyone else is up to you. When should I schedule it?” the teacher asked.
“As soon as possible. I would like to be ready for next Friday.” Diamond answered, earning an approving grunt from the professor. After a few seconds, Goodwitch looked up: “Why are you still here Ms. Frost? Go get ready!” Snapping a quick nod, Diamond promptly vacated the office and headed to the infirmary.
When she arrived, a nurse was already waiting for her. “Wow. Best way to spread information is to tell a woman.” Diamond snickered, earning a giggle from the nurse. “Please excuse the staff, it’s not too often we do a procedure like this. The doctor is downright ecstatic.” the nurse confided while giving Diamond a body hugging grey suit. “Go take a good long shower, we need you as clean as possible so the tank sterilizers won’t have to work overtime. I’ll be along shortly to help you put this on, it needs to adhere to the skin and it tends to stick and tangle up together.”
Diamond took the garment and followed the instructions. It indeed took them ten minutes to put the sticky material on right. When she emerged from the changing room, the doctor was already waiting. “Ah, Ms. Frost, good! Sit down please. I am legally obliged to tell you about the procedure, please excuse the rant.”
“You are about to undertake a dust infusion procedure.” the doc begun reading the pamphlet, “You are aware that there is a risk of a bad reaction of the selected dust variety to your aura and that there will be a notable recovery time after the completion of the surgery. Such negative reaction may include but is not limited to nausea, irritation of skin, erectile disf… never mind and in an extremely volatile reaction, death. The procedure will be done using the dust shunts and requires full narcosis in a life support tank. You undertake this willingly and understand that in case of your aura rejecting the infusion, no treatment of the following complications will be covered by your health insurance. Please, sign here.” he finished, giving her the document. A quick scribble later, Diamond was lead into the operating room.
Two techs scurried around, finishing the assembly that dominated the center of the room. A glass cylindrical tank half the time as tall as she was, with pipes and cabling running to and from it. To the sides it was surrounded by a metal staircase and behind it on the upper level was a catwalk which would be used to get inside. “I need you to walk up Ms. Frost, then leave the rest to us.”
Diamond did as she was told. She didn’t have any doubts about wanting the end result, but now that she saw the infusion shunts that ended in some particularly painful looking needles on one side and hoses on the other, she couldn’t help but get a bit weak in the knees. But alas she’s gone too far - now there was no turning back, not if she didn’t want to feel ashamed of herself in the foreseeable future.
Once up on the catwalk, two medics grabbed her by the arms and one gave her a shot with the sedatives. Within few seconds, Diamond was blissfully asleep. It wouldn’t do her well to see herself being connected to life support equipment, lowered into the tank and being skewered by the shunts on several places along her back and down her arms before the tank was finally flooded.
The doctors waited an hour, monitoring the patient’s vital signs. When she appeared stable, they ran the test. A small dose of each of the kinds of dust was pumped down the shunts to measure her body’s reaction. The chief surgeon smiled when no red flags were raised, and gave the procedure a green light.
Over the next two hours, a good amount of Freeze and Kinetic dust was pumped down the shunts and into Diamond’s nervous system, blending and binding with it. Fortunately for the girl, it appeared she took the substance in without any complications. Once the infusion itself was done, the medics pumped a dose of regenerative gel down the shunts before disconnecting them. Now it was only up to Diamond to wake up.
As the anesthetic started wearing off, Diamond started waking up into a great discomfort. She felt as if she was floating. She must have still been in the tank then. The girl didn’t muster the courage to open her eyes yet, but she did try to move around for a little bit. The resistance of her surroundings only confirmed her earlier guess. Strangely, the suit made her feel quite comfortable once immersed in liquid.
That did pathetic little to help with how cold it was. She was fucking freezing! Couldn’t they dial up the heat a little?
But then the mother of all aches exploded along her spine and arms. She flailed around, her hands rubbing the arms where she could reach them, but only slightly helping with the irritating feeling. There was a cracking and smashing sound she couldn’t quite place. It did get somebody outside to notice though, as a weird sound registered against her eardrums. Diamond couldn’t help but think she was being flushed down a toilet.
The tank indeed drained, slowly lowering her to the floor. She finally opened her eyes, shakily standing on her own legs again. “Please remain calm and still Diamond, we’ll have you out in no time.” a voice she couldn’t identify told her. No problem. She wouldn’t move if they demanded it of her. It was bloody arctic there!
A harness was lowered down the tank and then lifted her up, transferring her to a gurney. Once she was lying down, her awareness once again waved the white flag and she fell asleep for a few more hours.
She woke up again, glad for the multitude of pillows under her back and arms. The slight haze on her mind meant that somebody very thoughtful pumped her full of painkillers. No wonder - she had a look at her arms and saw the marks where the shunts went in. “Ah, you are up! How are you feeling? The nurse from before asked, leaning over her and shining an annoying flashlight into her eyes.
Trying to move her limbs around a little bit, Diamond found out she was good enough to sit in the bed, and did so. “Hey take it easy!” the nurse panicked, but calmed down once she saw Diamond was doing fine. There was something different with her. She couldn’t point a finger at it, but there was something there she did not feel before. She took a deep breath and was surprised when she could see it despite being in quite a warm room.
“Do not worry, your body is still adapting to the dust. It’ll be leaking out for a while, so to speak. Just be glad you did not choose something like Fire dust.” the nurse tried to lift her mood. Diamond actually chuckled. “I can feel it. It’s nothing like I imagined from what I’ve read. I don’t really have words to describe it, but… I just know… it’s there. It’s like an extra arm, or a pair of eyes...” she said excitedly, watching her arm as she flexed it in front of her. A blue flash ran alongside the veins in her forearm and a small cube of ice appeared in her palm.
“It could be a result of your semblance requiring great degree of mind control to use, much like the dust you now have in your system. You just might be a natural.” the doctor said, coming over from the hallway. “And about the leaking, we’re adding some medical glass to your bill. When you flailed your arms around in the tank, half of the glass from the LS tank just blown up into the room.” he said, an amused smile spreading on his face as he saw Diamond’s jaw hanging agape and eyes avoiding him in embarrassment.
“Any other side effects I should be aware of?” she asked. “A few. It is very individual how the body deals with the dust circulating through it. From what we could say, it did not affect you all that much, but there is something.” he said, holding a mirror over her shoulder. “Cool!” Diamond giggled when she saw a blue pattern on her back, as if she got inked. “That’s not all.” the doc said, holding the mirror in front of her face. Diamond gasped. It wasn’t as big a change as her back and it was still her lovely face. But her eyes now had a faint eerie blue glow to them.
Diamond made a remarkable recovery, something the doc credited to her good physique and, in his words, mighty fine aura. Even then it still took several hours and a good, long sleep. At least she had the sense to shut down her scroll so it wouldn’t wake her up. If something really important happened, her team certainly would have asked the faculty of her whereabouts. In any case, she was walking back to the dorm by Saturday four o’clock. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and took a step in, her hat pulled into her face. “Guess who’s back!” she said and pulled the hat up, giving the team a shining blue glance.
Something was amiss though. Aurelius seemed to have shrunk overnight and grown a few bits he didn’t have before. Diamond couldn’t say it wasn’t an improvement though - quite the opposite. “Hey Boss? Who’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and where’s Moneybags?” she inquired about the nature of the change in the room’s occupants. Oh yeah, Oswald was still there, as unnoticeable as ever.
Immediately upon his return to Beacon, Oswald stepped off of the Bullhead, making his way to the Armory. His sword and scabbard were covered in blood, and he needed to make sure his armor hadn't been torn up by those damned bugs. He'd let his teammates know what he was doing, and promised to discuss the consequences of what had happened with them later.
When he made it to the Armory, Oswald walked over to the cleaning cabinet, gathering an armful of supplies to clean the dried blood off of his precious weapon. Carefully getting to work, he tried to ignore the whispers he was hearing. Only some of them were being uttered by other people.
Despite his willingness and apparent eagerness to do so, Oswald did not enjoy killing other people. He did so out of a sense of justice, a way to promote a greater good. While it didn't stop him from wondering about the admittedly small number of people he'd killed, believing that his actions were just did help him to sleep at night.
As the last droplets of blood were removed from his gear, Oswald set about inspecting his armor. Overall, it was in good condition. Only some of the plates of his brigandine had been damaged, and the rest of his armor was thankfully intact. No more than a few dents here or there, which were easily dealt with.
When he was finished, Oswald stood and stretched. His shirt had been torn in multiple places, he was rather sore from the stress and running he'd done, and he was feeling miserable overall, but he was still alive, and that was nice.
After gathering his gear and cleaning up the mess he'd made, Oswald returned to his team's dorm and dropped off his armor and weapon, something he hadn't done very often. Normally he wore his equipment through the day, but for the moment, he needed the freedom of movement.
For a short while, he just wandered around the Academy grounds, before abruptly stopping and taking a deep breath. There it was. The overpowering need that had once driven him to gain fifty pounds and ensure he was accepted to Beacon. Quickly making his way to the training hall, Oswald set up the heaviest sandbag the Academy had.
For over an hour he punched it, his knuckles long ago having torn open, leaving bloody stains all over the bag. Self-flagellation in the pursuit of strength was an unhealthy habit he'd developed, but after a while, the pain stopped and all he could feel was rage.
Rage at the world for constantly sending death and destruction to the good and the innocent.
Rage at the warmongers, the murderers and the torturers for needlessly hurting and killing their fellow men and women.
But what Oswald felt most was rage at himself. Rage for failing to protect those he'd sworn to defend, the people he was molded to shield against the darkness.
Letting out a feral growl, Oswald punched the bag one last time, sending it careening away, and turned before the heavy pendulum returned and crashed into his back.
Barely catching himself as he slammed into the floor, Oswald looked at his knuckles. Raw, bloody and throbbing. As the emotions that once threatened to consume him faded into memory, Oswald felt his hands stinging quite a bit. With a slow breath, he winced as the skin repaired itself, urged on by his Aura. It was always interesting watching flesh knit itself together as if by some magical force.
As he stood up and began to wipe down the bloody bag, Oswald thought about what he would spend his weekend doing. He just hoped it wasn't something completely absurd.
Emerald’s eyes looked incredibly wide, more so than usual, as she observed Diamond for the first time. After a long moment of gawking at Diamond’s glowing, blue eyes, she ran right up to her, a grin growing on her face as she looked up at the taller woman.
“Hi I’m Emerald Felica! I’m your new teammate!” She was so happy she wasn’t the only girl on the team.
Diamond processed the new information, little stunned by the energetic response. It told her a few things. One, Aurelius’ absence was most likely permanent, as evidenced by the lack of 5th bed, and after closer inspection, of his stuff. Second, the replacement was already here, someone who Diamond would have described as bouncy, bristling with energy. Bouncy. It had a ring to it. It would do for a nickname. And those eyes! Diamond could get lost in them, not to mention the overly cute appearance all in all. Pigtails, really?
“Teammate… Does that mean I can keep you?” Diamond said dreamily, fighting not to pet those ears. She knew from experience it didn’t get much more racist than that. “So… Bouncy here is replacing Moneybags? I’m Diamond, pleased to meet you.” the older woman said with a bow and a hand-kiss.
Getting kissed on the hand surprised Emerald a bit, she couldn’t recall anyone ever doing that before, wasn’t sure what to make of it. But as Diamond did her bow, her wonderful hat came right into Emerald’s view.
I…I must touch it! It was a simple matter to make a stray gust of wind attempt to blow the hat off and into her hands. Diamond would never know! Or so she hoped.
Unfortunately for Emmy, the tool-laden hat took a greater gust to move than an usual article of clothing, causing Diamond’s hair and coat to flutter as well on top of scattering somebody’s homework papers all over the room. “Hey!” Diamond barked, her shadow suddenly coming to life and swirling into her hand, forming her trademark cane which promptly shot forward to catch the hat.
Replacing it where it belonged, Diamond poked Emerald’s chest lightly with the cane: “Watch it, that is of great sentimental value!” She couldn’t stay mad with that face staring on her for too long however. “Well, semblances introduced, I got a free afternoon, wanna hang out for a while?” Diamond winked, nodding towards the door and the guys completely forgotten.
Emmy squeaked as she was poked with the cane, blushing slightly at being caught. She found the shadow trick pretty interesting though.
“Sure!” She finally chirped. “I haven’t seen the entire school yet, it’s so big!”
“Then by all means, let’s give you a grand tour!” Diamond smiled, easily falling in sync with the new arrival’s energy. A few moments later the door clicked shut behind them and she was leading them out the dorms. “So, what do you want to see first, the classes or the fun?” the thug grinned, hoping for the latter. The procedure left her on IV or downright empty stomach for it’s duration, and she hoped to swing by the cafeteria to pick up something with an actual flavor to eat.
“The fun of course! Classrooms all look the same anyway, dull and boring!” One thing Emmy wasn’t all that enthusiastic about was classes, or school work in general. Unless it involved fighting.
“Oh oh! We should stop by the lockers at some point, I can show you my weapons!” She loved showing people her guns.
Diamond gave an approving grunt and a nod. “Tell you what. We’re going to need to know much more than what weapons we carry, but also how we use them and whatnot. Team thing, you know. I’m new to that but I’m told that’s how it works. Why don’t we swing by the buffet to get me some grub and then I’ll see if there’s an arena free? Feel like taking on ol’ me?” the asked with a sly wink. She might get to test her new enhancements sooner than she thought. Good. The sooner she grabs a firm hold of her new abilities the better.
Emerald bounced up and down excitedly, clearly liking what she was hearing. “Yeah! Will go get food, eat our fill, and then fight to the death!”
She paused, looking confused for a moment, the last part didn’t sound quite right. “Well, not to the death...but yeah we’re gonna fight!” The way she was bouncing on her heels made it seem like gravity was having a hard time keeping her on the ground. She was quite eager to show Diamond what she could do, and to see what Diamond could do as well.
Giggling at Emerald’s eagerness, Diamond lead them to the cafeteria. She was trying to guess what weapons and style someone like Emerald might use in a fight. Probably a bowling ball with the way she was bouncing around. “Right. I’m going to get the biggest sandwich I can find. What would you like?” Diamond asked, subtly hinting that she’s paying.
Emerald caught on to the hint with relative ease, and scratched her head as she thought it over.
“I think I’ll have...fish!” It may have sounded stereotypical, but she really liked fish. “Any kind of fish will do.”
“Not sure if they have anything fresh but I’m sure there’s a tuna sandwich somewhere in there. Let’s see.” Diamond noted and walked them to the line.
The wait wasn’t too long as everyone was already done with lunch at this time. At Diamond’s insistence they left the mess hall to go eat outside in peace and quiet instead of the murmur of the few late eating stragglers.
“Welcome to my sanctuary.” the thug said as she sat herself down on her favorite bench and started eating with the violence of someone who has been starving for two months, not two days. She also took her scroll out and accessed the school intranet, looking over the room assignments. “We’re in luck. Arena 2 is free the whole day. I’m reserving it.” she nodded approvingly.
Sitting next to Diamond, Emerald had gotten to work on her tuna sandwich, nibbling at it happily as her tail swayed back and forth behind her. She only stopped her consumption when she spoke. “Alright!” She exclaimed, before looking at Diamond with a curious face. “How big are these arenas? Can they handle a lot of punishment?”
“Not sure. How big of a punishment are you talking about and should I be worried? I just had a massive amount of dust dumped into my nerves, frankly I wouldn’t mind if you eased me into combat from the start.” Diamond said, waving her hands in front of her defensively. “But 2 is an outside arena near the survival class course, so we shouldn’t catch much flak if we go a little overboard.” the older girl shrugged, finishing her sandwich in a few more bites. Her hands wanted to reach into her pocket and light a cigarette, but nah, that wouldn’t make good impression.
“So, How’d you end up here? I mean I know why you’re on the team since we needed replacement, but how are you at the school? I didn’t see you at the initiation, you one of them transfers?” Diamond inquired more of her new teammate.
Emerald nodded in understanding, she’d have to make sure she didn’t overdo it in the arena. Especially if Diamond had just gone through a dust treatment.
She finished off her tuna sandwich before looking at Diamond, fidgeting a bit in her seat. “I transferred from Haven. I’ve always wanted to go to Beacon, and the exchange program was my way in.” She explained.
“Heh, must be nice to have a dream like that. I might as well tell you about myself before they guys do, I figure it’s better that way. I’m here actually to avoid getting into trouble. I wound up in Juvy because undercover cop caught me pickpocketing. I’m a street kid.” she said, watching for Emerald’s reaction with interest. Usually people checked their pockets when she shared the story - or what little part of it she dared.
Emerald looked at Diamond for a long minute, looking the older girl over. Her expression was one of curiosity more than anything. Mostly she eyed her hat.
“Hmmm, yeah I guess you do look like a thief!” She giggled at that. “A rather classy one though, no wonder you got caught! That hat gives it away.”
“Why thank you! … I guess.” Diamond grinned, running a hand gently along the brim of the hat. “It’s actually the only thing I have as a reminder of the woman that took me in after my sorry excuse for a mother left me at her doorstep just a few hours old.” the girl said, deep in memory. “Unfortunately she was rather old and passed away when I was five. I barely remember how she looked like. Saved my life though. I’m just sad I had to break laws to survive afterwards. I don’t think Mrs. Frost would approve.” she continued, surprising herself with how easily that came out. Aside from Amy she didn’t tell that much to anyone yet.
“Well, let’s go grab our gear, shall we?” she winked, ready to go test the new her in a fight.
Emerald’s ears drooped as Diamond explained the history of her hat. She felt kind of bad for trying to snatch it earlier. Her mood quickly improved when she mentioned their gear however, and she perked right back up with energy.
“Yesss let’s go!” She practically jumped out her seat, the only thing keeping her from running off was the fact she didn’t remember where the lockers were.
“That-a-way.” Diamond pointed knowingly, barely able to contain the giggle.
A few minutes later they were at the lockers. Diamond opted to wear her PE gear rather than her usual battledress to see what other side effects might pop up once she actually started using the dust that coursed through her now. Maybe the blue pattern on her back would glow like her eyes? That would be awesome!
“You ready?” she hollered over the line of lockers, putting the hat in hers and tying her red mane into a bun. She walked around the corner to check on Emmy, starting the warm-ups on her arms.
As Diamond came around the corner, she found the cat faunus was still wearing her green outfit, skirt and all. What had changed however was the fact that there were shotguns attached to each of her arms, looking rather big on the smaller girl. Emerald noticed Diamond as she approached and turned and gave her a salute. “I’m all set!”
Diamond stopped mid step. “Woah, big guns!” and those were going to be shooting at her?! Oh wonderful! “What have I got myself into?” she shook her head, but pointed to the exit anyway. “So, any rules you’d like to set up before we start? Or bets?” she winked.
“Hmmm…” Emerald thought it over, her head cocking to the side and her tail flicking around behind her. “Call it quits when we get tired?”
“That’s a given. Dunno how you worked in Haven, but here the rule is that if your aura drops to red, you’re out.” Diamond explained just to be sure. “Just let me test this out, I want to see just how the dust works - or not - before I actually try to hit you with it. Wouldn’t wanna encase you in ice.” Diamond chuckled.
She gone to the supply shed and brought back a couple of target dummies, hanging them on the proper racks and standing a few meters away. “So the doc said that given my semblance working similarly this might be a second nature, but I have no clue what’s going to happen. You might want to take cover.” she hinted and got to combat stance.
Ever since the procedure, she could feel the dust as if it was another limb. Always there at the back of her mind, ready to spring into action at her command. Eyes fixed on the first dummy, she reached with her senses and imagined the effect she wanted the spell to take.
For a while nothing happened. Alright, different approach. Trying again, Diamond added a motion of her arm, swinging it in a low punch and opening her fist at the end of the swing. No luck either. Alright, think, Dee. It’s not magic, maybe a projectile then?
Cocking her arm back, Diamond thrown a punch in the dummy’s direction. The blue tattoos on her back came to life, flashing the same glow as her eyes before a blue sphere left her fist and slammed into the dummy, freezing it over in an inch thick ice. “Alright, that’s one.” she nodded for herself.
Moving to the other dummy, she switched her focus to the kinetic dust in her system. Now that she had an idea of what to do, she simply swung her other arm forward in a pushing motion, and the dummy was sent flying half a dozen feet back.
Bobbing her head from side to side stretching her neck, Diamond smiled smugly. “That’ll do. Ready when you are.” Diamond shouted over the arena, taking her spot.
Emerald’s mouth made an ‘O’ shape as she watched Diamond successfully try out her newfound powers. She snapped out of her daze as Diamond took her spot. She put her game face on as both her weapons clicked, indicating they were now armed and the safety was off.
“Born ready!” As soon as the words had come out of her mouth she’d aimed her right arm toward Diamond as she started running towards her, getting in the proper range.
Diamond charged as soon as she saw Emerald move, her eyes glued to the two shotguns mounted on the faunus’ arms. If she got close, she would win, but getting there might be a bit of a problem. Her time was running out as Emerald closed in on her, doubtless she would enter firing range soon.
Grunting with effort, a shadow platform appeared below Diamond’s foot on the next step, giving her a boost to the air. The thug hoped Emmy wouldn’t expect a vertical fight and give her a split second more time. Deciding to give her new abilities a run, Diamond’s right arm went forward sending a kinetic blast against her opponent.
Emerald gasped as the kinetic blast pushed her back, knocking her off her feet. Her eyes burned with determination as she looked up toward Diamond, with a glow of her eyes she activated her own semblance, causing a strong gust of wind to come at Diamond. With any luck it would push her closer as Emerald intended as she fired a round from both her weapons.
Diamond expected something to happen in retaliation, but a blast of wind from the back wasn’t it. To the side, from the front, alright, but actually pushing her closer? She stumbled on her platform and lost focus, the shadow dissipating. Landing in a roll, she flattened against the ground barely in time as two bangs that reminded her more of the Unsubtle’s cannon than a gun announced the arrival of hurt. She felt a few bits bouncing off of her back, blocked by her aura.
The thug realized that as long as Emerald could fire at her, she was at a disadvantage. The way she saw it, she had two options: Somehow disable the weapons, or make it harder for Emmy to aim. Choosing the second option, she called upon the kinetic dust again. Roaring, Diamond slammed her fist to the ground, raising a cloud of dirt that would hopefully hide her from Emerald’s eyes for a little while. There was still her damn faunus hearing, but if she was careful...
Holding her breath to make as little noise as possible, Diamond crept in the direction she last saw the other girl. Of course she could have moved as well, but then she would lose all aim as well. Her shadow forming into a katana held firmly in her left hand, Diamond got ready for a strike as soon as the dust settled.
As Emerald got back on her feet, she found her view of Diamond was shrouded by the cloud of dust that now flew through the air. Emerald slowly backed away, weapons raised as she looked around carefully. To the thief’s credit Emerald couldn’t find her with her ears.
She didn’t like this, Diamond could easily strike before she had time to react. So Emerald quickly came up with a plan of her own. With a small giggle, she used her semblance once again. Instead of trying to blow away the dust as Diamond might of expected, Emerald disturbed even more dust, two could play this game. It was just like hide and seek!
Emerald slowly moved around the dust cloud, she couldn’t see anything, but neither could Diamond. Emerald was betting on the fact that she had better hearing, Diamond would make a sound eventually.
To Diamond’s dismay, Emerald had other plans. The giggle was the last she heard of her before the kitten raised even more dust. Well, if she wanted to play that game, so be it. It would be all about who would make a sound sooner, and Diamond had a plan on how to achieve just that.
Crouching as silently as she could, the thief put her right hand on the ground and focused. A sheet of ice started crawling from the point of origin, slowly spreading to the edges of the arena, turning it into a slippery trap. Diamond made an observation that the less she rushed the intended spell, the less it seemed to drain her aura (which was now reduced to about half to her dismay - she has yet to even hit the cat faunus).
Priming her ears to hear the expected thud of a body falling, Diamond slowly exhaled and took in new air to get ready to lash out and hit.
Emerald thought she heard something, breathing perhaps. Figuring it was her chance, she swung her weapons toward the direction of the noise. Though as she fired she found herself slipping, falling on her ass as both her weapons fired in random directions.
It wasn’t the thud she was expecting, but Diamond could hardly misplace the noise now. Unfortunately one of the blasts grazed her again, and her aura tumbled further down. In hindsight she realized she should have just thrown a pebble or something and attack with her conventional style rather than rely so heavily on the dust she was far from mastering, but alas that was not the point of this exercise.
Forcing her strength onto offensive, she leapt in the direction of the sound and brought a shadow pole down. Sliding on the icy floor, she reshaped the pole back to a sword and fluidly went into several slashes, hoping to hit Emmy somewhere if the first strike didn’t connect.
Emmy was scrambling to get back on her feet when Diamond attacked, the first strike effectively hit her, her aura taking the blow but draining it considerably as she was knocked backwards. Not wanting to lose the fight, she raised her weapons where she lay, combining her semblance with her weapons and firing blasts of air that served to both clear the dust and send Diamond flying away from her.
Victim of her own tactic, Diamond stood against the wind gusts, but was pushed away on the slippery surface. Growling in frustration, the woman called upon the kinetic dust one last time before her aura would drop so low she wouldn’t dare lest she left herself completely open to attack.
Slamming her hand to the ground again, the ice sheet cracked and shrapnel of ice shards flown upwards a few meters before falling back to the ground all around her. Not waiting to see whether it did any significant damage, Diamond charged through the clearing dust cloud to where she saw a speck of green, sword at the ready.
Emmy grimaced as the ice shards rained down, her aura again protecting her but weakening it all the more. She had to get on the offensive again, or she was gonna lose.
She didn’t have a choice, she had to use it. Diamond was charging her fast and she didn’t have time to get back on her feet. She brought her weapons together, they clicked as they began to merge, quickly becoming a rather massive looking canon. It was meant to end fights, but the downside was it would use whatever aura she had left to fire, she only had one shot.
So just as Diamond got in range of striking Emmy, she cried out and fired.
It became painfully obvious that her earlier assessment of Emmy’s weapons was correct, or in fact an understatement. The blast the kitten unleashed put the Unsubtle to shame. There simply was no time to slam on the breaks nor did she have enough Aura left to reflect or block the shot. All Diamond could hope for was dodge.
She did, but didn’t celebrate her success for too long. Just as she was about to thrust the Sword in Emmy’s direction, the mother of all shockwaves slammed to her from behind. She was sent tumbling over her target, getting a mouth full of dirt in the process.
When the air cleared, she found herself lying upside down and next to the cat faunus, panting heavily. The twin honk of the horn announced what was painfully obvious - both of them were down for the count. A quick glance at the aura bars on the main screen confirmed it, both of them deep in the red.
“Wow.” Diamond exclaimed between breaths. “You pack a lot meaner punch than you let on, Bouncy.” she grinned, not quite ready to try and get up yet.
Emerald panted heavily for a while, before she finally gathered the strength to reply. “You’re pretty strong...for a thief with a silly hat.” She gave her a weak grin and then closed her eyes, content to just lay there for a while.
Chuckling, Diamond managed to sit up. “The hat has saved my life more than once. Don’t diss it until you know all of it’s magic tricks!” she grinned weakly as life slowly returned to her limbs. “I think you’ll do well here. Welcome to the team.” she smiled.
“Thanks.” Emerald said, as she slowly sat up, still looking pretty woozy but otherwise fine. “I have just one question though...do you think Marcus will let me take his tank for a spin?”
“Damn the tank to the moon!” Diamond roared with laughter. “We might as well name the team ‘Tankmen’ like that shitty flash movie series. Doesn’t it bother you that you’re in the shadow of a thing?” the older girl exasperated. “He did mention something about an upgrade to fit more crew. Who knows, with that gun of yours, he might put you up to shooting the damn thing.” she smiled, getting up and offering Emerald a hand. “Come on, let’s hit the showers early. You got everything you need with ya?” she asked, knowing how it sucked to arrive somewhere only to find out you forgot to pack your shampoo and toothbrush.
Emerald took Diamond’s offered hand, letting herself get pulled up to her feet as she nodded her head. “Yeah, I made a list when I packed so I wouldn’t forget anything! I even remembered the dental floss!”
“Good girl.” Diamond grinned as she went back to the supply shed and deposited the training dummies there. Waving Emmy over, she went back to the lockers to grab her stuff. “So, what do you make of Beacon so far? Any other place you missed you want to see? You’ll get used to where the classes are easily, the rest of the team is spread between them somewhat evenly so just tail one of us or ask whom to cling on to until you get your bearings. As far as fun stuff goes, we’ve been to the gardens, food place, gym… Not sure whether you’re into music, but I believe going to the town is a better option for that.” the thief thought out loud.
“Oh I love music! As long as they aren’t blasting it, that hurts my ears.” Emmy said with a nod. She then skipped over to her locker and put her weapons away, and taking out whatever she needed for her shower, like a towel and shampoo. She was pretty dusty after their fight in the arena, for obvious reasons.
“I haven’t seen the town yet, come to think of it.” She said as she undid her pigtails.
“Hold on, you want to use the bathroom at the dorm. Trust me, the faucets here in the gym are just plain unsanitary.” Diamond said, her nose wrinkled in a disgusted frown. However, Emmy’s last sentence put another idea to her head. “Oooooor...” she said as she checked her clock to see if there was time for that, “We could head to the town, there’s this lovely spa close to the airport? And it’s weekend so no curfew, if you want to hit the clubs… How old are you again? You don’t need your parents here to stay out after dark, right?” Diamond grinned cheekily.
“Hey I’m sixteen! I don’t need my parents permission!” She exclaimed indignantly, her cheeks flushing. Her ears flicked, she’d never been to a club before, but she wasn’t gonna tell Diamond that.
“It sounds like fun, how far is it?” She asked curiously.
Giggling with Schadenfreude, Diamond was barely resisting the urge to ruffle the kitten’s hair. “It’s OK, even if you did, I could probably pass for your mom.” she winked. Hold on, when did I start even remotely thinking about being a mom? Wake up Diamond, you’re far too young to give up on fun, irresponsible life! she told herself. Scary thoughts. Back on topic, she scratched her chin. “The spa is a few streets over, and clubs, depends on where you want to go. I like the few old fashioned ones - you know, music from 30 years ago, proper wine and liquor alongside some decent, fresh made snack. But most people our age prefer those with the ear hurting blast, some of those fancy mixed drinks and no snacks at all but plenty of drugs.” she said with disgust, her tone clearly stating what she thought of the state of society. “Call me born into the wrong age, but I think in the end, I am the winner.” she shrugged, “Anyway, wherever we decide to go, it shouldn’t be hard to get a cab.”
Emmy was getting the sneaking suspicion that Diamond wanted to be a mom. She quickly lost that train of thought though as she got excited about going out.
“Let’s go to the spa, and then you can pick whatever club we go to afterwards.” Emmy had never been in town so she figured it was best to let Diamond pick where they went, she was sure she’d have fun regardless. The spa was sounding really nice, especially now that she was sore from the fight.
“Heh. We’ll see. We might end up just being too tired. The hot bath has a way of making one want to curl up in the sheets.” the older girl said.
A while later after picking some necessities from the dorm and telling the guys they’ll be gone for a while, the duo took an airship to the city and in a few minutes they stood in front of the spa. Diamond was already so sore from the fight and the sitting on the ship that even the thought of a relaxing, aromatic bath made her melt.
“Ever been to one of these before?” she asked, casually swiping her scroll through the cash register as she walked by without a pause towards the changing rooms.
Emerald shook her head. “No, this will be my first time.” She admitted as she followed Diamond. She had to admit the place looked pretty nice, she’d never seen the inside of one before. Back at home it was...well it just hadn’t been possible.
As they entered the changing room Emmy could smell the hot water, even from there. It made her quite eager to get in. So she quickly found an empty locker and began to change, taking out her pigtails again, she never went anywhere without them.
“Well the way this works you first scrub yourself clean, and then there are several things. Aromatic baths are my favorite, but there are saunas, cold ponds and the likes. They have instructions on how to properly use each of them somewhere close by. It’s healthy too! There’s one that is basically alternating cold and hot water you walk through - they say that is good for your heart and veins somehow.” Diamond gone off on a little tangent explaining. “And when you get tired of water, you can get a massage.” she said dreamily. Of course, she had a personal masseur, but that was another topic altogether. “I’ll see you there.” she called out, picked up her towel and sheet and headed for the showers.
Emmy nodded, trying to take in everything Diamond said. She found it overwhelming honestly, it was a lot of information. Though she was sure if she just followed Diamond she’d figure it out. The first part was scrubbing herself clean, easy enough.
She quickly realised she’d been standing dumbstruck in the changing room for a good minute and snapped out of it, heading toward the showers like Diamond.
Before, the hot water used to make wonders for her. Diamond clearly remembered it used to feel like the stress and wear itself were washing off. So why on Remnant was it so bloody agonizing right now?! She actually had to stop, the hot water feeling like needles on her skin. “The heck?” she wondered aloud. Then her gaze fell upon the mirror. Her eyes were growing rather brightly.
Joy. More problems and power seeping out of her. On a hunch, she flipped the handle to the other side and tried pouring ice cold water onto herself. Strange. she should have leaped away with a gasp, but it was actually comforting. The girl just hoped it wouldn’t stay like this forever.
She walked out wrapped in the provided sheet, looking no better sans the dirt, as evidenced by the pout on her face. Seeing Emmy’s wide eyes lifted her mood a little though. At least somebody was in wonderland. “Well, what’d you like first? Hot or cold?”
Emmy snapped out of yet another daydream when Diamond spoke. “Oh! Ummmm….hot. Yeah I’ll go with hot.” Still Emmy kind of just stood there, a bit dumbstruck.
Great. “This way.” Diamond nodded in a direction. The aisle took them towards one side of the complex. Pointing towards each door in a line, the thief explained what was where “Rightmost is a sauna - a hot room. You go there, warm up, than you’re supposed to take a dip in that cold pool over there. The middle door is steam bath, basically the same but with really humid air. Personally I have trouble breathing in there. Last but not least, the bath I mentioned.” she finished, letting Emerald pick.
They all sounded like very enticing choices, but Emerald found herself going straight for the bath. She was tired, and didn’t really feel like doing much else but soaking in the hot water. As she approached the bath she dipped her foot into the water to test it. It was very hot, which was perfect. She slowly eased herself into the water, it stung for a moment, but as she got used to the heat it began to feel nice.
“Breathe in, it’s scented and salted and does wonders for the sinuses.” Diamond hinted, so far still looking at the water with distrust from the outside. She sunk her hand in to test it out, but pulled it out immediately with a hiss. “Okay, this has to stop!” she growled.
What was the problem? She didn’t lose control of the dust this much even in her sleep. Right now she must have been freezing to touch though. What was different? the only thing she could think of was the fact that her aura was down and recovering. Could that be it? Only one way to find out. Diamond focused her will, trying to get a hold of the dust’s effect and calm it down consciously.
She was surprised that it worked at first try. It was taking considerable effort, but finally she was able to slip in alongside Emmy and let her muscles relax, even though her mind had to keep up the effort. “So, you’re not from a big city I take it?” the thief said, wondering about how emerald was eyeballing just about everything.
When she saw the look of bliss on the other girls face, she almost gasped. “Ok, I know it’s racist and stuff, but seriously - if you start purring, I will have to pet you.” she grinned.
“Nope...I grew up in a small faunus village…” She purred, before realising what Diamond had said. She opened her eyes and looked at the other girl with surprise.
“I-I don’t purr!” She said, hoping the hot water prevented Diamond from seeing her blush.
Diamond managed a weak chuckle, although on the inside it was a big disappointed Aw… “I figured as much. You do look a little lost. Don’t worry Vale is actually not that big, or at least the part worth seeing. Not much to do in the docks and work areas. The shops in the center are nice but then again, most of what you need for school you can actually get on the campus.” Diamond shrugged.
As her aura started regenerating slowly, it became easier to keep her power in check and allowed her to relax more. She almost melted into the water, setting her head on the edge of the pool, her eyes closed. A happy moan escaped from her core. “I needed this. Infirmary beds are horrible.”
Emerald found herself simply humming in agreement. It was all too easy for her to go into her own little world as the water warmed her body. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the edge. So blissful.
Then she started purring, again. Unfortunately for the faunus she never seemed to notice when she did.
Diamond wished she had her scroll on hand to record this for future evidence and possibly blackmail. She managed to keep her composure, but on the inside she lost it. Uwaaaaa! I love youuuuuu! she squirmed, deciding to capitalize on her warning as one of her arms slowly crept towards Emmy’s head from behind, true on it’s target. Once her hand reached the kitten’s ear, it started to give it a gentle rub.
Emmy felt something rubbing her ear, at first she wanted to say something, object to the indignity of it all! But...but it felt pretty nice actually...brought back memories of when she was little. The feeling made her melt and her head instinctively moved closer to the hand. Her purring got more erratic.
The thief was worried she might squeal in delight, but as Emmy got even more comfortable under her touch the excitement got replaced with just a general happy and fuzzy-warm feeling. Good grief. She was actually turning out to be the caring, family type? With her background? It sort of frightened her.
Overpowered by the tiredness of the past few days though, her hand eventually slid off on the ground and her mind clouded with a haze as she started falling asleep. It didn’t last long. As her focus dimmed, the water in the pool rapidly went from it’s hot state to barely above 10°C, giving the duo a very rough wakeup call.
“C-Cold!” Emmy exclaimed as she quickly got out of the water. Her tail stood up on end as she looked back at the water with surprise, wrapping herself up in a towel as she did so.
Surprise. Panic. Diamond learned quickly that panicking in the foreseeable future could be fatal. For a second she completely lost her grip. And before she managed to scram out of the water herself, she was covered in tiny ice crystals. It suddenly hurt to breath and her heart was beating like insane to get enough blood through the contracted veins to warm her up.
Swearing profoundly she made a grab for her own towel, brushing the ice off of her. After a few ragged breaths she managed to win the control back. “Damn it. So sorry about that.” she apologized. Damn, way to ruin a moment. The only saving grace was that she was finding about this now rather than in the middle of a fight for her life.
“It’s alright…” Emmy said as she calmed down. It had been quite alarming, but no harm had been done. Obviously Diamond was still learning how to control her dust powers.
“Probably about time we left the bath anyway, I was about to pass out.” She giggled.
“Yeah, it wouldn’t do well to fall asleep and drown. Told you it has that effect on a tired person.” And it apparently makes those danger to their immediate surroundings.
The rest of the visit fortunately went without any incidents that would involve sub-zero temperatures or items randomly getting up in the air and smashed against the closest wall.
As they got out of the spa, Diamond spared the clock a look. Still plenty of time, but given how sleepy they were… “Well, now what? Want to know where something is, or do you feel like sleeping?” she inquired, not really in favor of either of the options.
Emerald tilted her head to one side as she made sure she didn’t have water in any of her ears, Jerking her head a bit before switching to the other side. “Well...I was sort of curious about what this old fashioned club of yours is like…” She stifled a yawn. “If you aren’t too tired that is.” Emmy was looking pretty tired herself, but she was still pretty curious about the clubs.
She thought about it for a while, and then waved her hand at the issue. “Oh what the heck. We’re already here, might as well get an early dinner.” And scout the places to go to tomorrow along the way. she thought for herself. She better not drag on too long into the night. Not only did she had plans for tomorrow but there was no need to corrupt the almost-minor with her… too much.
She waved a cab over and ushered Emerald in. When inquired about the destination, Diamond thought for a while, giving Emerald a once-over. “McGuinness’ please!” she decided. Part of her former ‘job’ was blending in and when she took in Emmy’s rather conservative - and green - attire, the choice was rather easy.
The cab ride wasn’t too long and soon they were in front of a small pub. the exterior was white with dark green accents and a pleasant mix of a fiddle, guitar and accordion could be heard from the inside. “A heads up, a friendly bunch gathers here. Give ‘em a handshake and a hello and call them by their given name, they expect that.” she notified as she lead them in.
The interior was made of dark wood. the ceiling was a bit low, suggesting the house was of older build date, but the overall atmosphere it created was comfortable and cozy. there were small tables with light wooden chairs scattered around, and the whole locale was dominated by the bar opposite the door with an impressive display of liquors and beers.
“Hello, Desmond!” she called out to the barkeep who turned around to greet them. “Oh, welcome Diamond. Long time no see! How was your day?” the owner returned as they shook hands. “Ah, down and then up. Got out of the infirmary today morning, but I walked home to find there’s a new addition to the family - this little treasure! Desmond, this is Emerald Felicia. Emmy, Desmond McGuinness, he runs this place.” she introduced them.
“Oh yes, I remember, you’re in the hunter school now. It’s a pleasure to meet such a lovely young lady.” he smiled, offering a hand to Emmy.
Emmy was already getting distracted looking at the decor of the bar, it had a very homely feel to it, she found it rather pleasant. She snapped to attention when Diamond began to introduce her to the barkeep.
Emmy took Desmond’s hand, shaking it enthusiastically and giving him her best smile. “Thank you! A pleasure to meet you too!” She found herself more at ease in unfamiliar surroundings when the people she met were friendly and polite.
Nodding towards on of the tables, Diamond had a quick glance to the shelves. “Give us a round on my tab. I’ll have a glass of Harp, you?” she asked Emmy with a questioning look, not knowing whether the younger girl liked beer or fancied alcohol at all.
“I’ll um…” She fidgeted a bit, she had no idea what to pick. Her experience with alcohol was rather limited, only had it once or twice before, in secret with her friends back home because she hadn’t exactly been allowed to. But now she was at an actual bar, and she had no idea what Harp was.
“...I’ll get a glass of Harp too.” She said finally, figuring she might as well try something new.
“Heh, wouldn’t have pegged you for a lager.” Diamond grinned. “If you don’t know what something is ask away, Des will be happy to tell you more.” the thief encouraged.
“Would the ladies like something to eat too?” The barkeep called over from the spigot. “I’ll have a boxty and she’ll have...” Diamond thought for a while before deciding to pick for Emmy this time rather than explain the variety of the traditional dishes, “smoked salmon?” she suggested, looking over to catch any possible disapproval from the other girl.
Emmy was more than fine with salmon. “Yeah that sounds good.” She said with a nod, she really did love her fish.
“So um...what does lager mean anyway?” She inquired naively.
Diamond laughed, wondering what else could she have gotten Emmy to drink if she didn’t offer to explain. “It’s a type of beer. I can’t promise you’ll like the taste, it’s a fermented drink, but it sits well with food and won’t get you wobbly after one glass… Hopefully.” Oh, this girl will require some more work. No matter, Diamond had four years to teach her some class.
Speaking of which… “So, what classes did you pick? I’m in Grimm Studies, PE and Computers. If you didn’t make a choice yet, do yourself a favor and don’t pick the GS. The teacher is absolutely useless. You’ll be learning from the book anyway.” she shared an actually immediately useful information.
Emmy gasped. “Oh that’s right! I still need to pick classes!” She had completely forgotten about that, she’d been so excited to be at Beacon it had slipped her mind. She cocked her head as Diamond explained her dislike for Grimm Studies. “Is the teacher really boring?”
“Boring? Try full of himself. Three quarters of the time he is telling stories of his days as a hunter. And while they might be good stories and even have some moral lesson to them, his delivery is fit for a six year old audience, not sixteen.” Diamond rolled her eyes, taking a sip of the beer Desmond brought in the meantime.
“The alternative is armory, which looks to me would be a better fit for you given those siege cannons you mistook for bracelets.” she grinned. “For the second period, you have the option between PE, Survival and practice. The last one might be up your alley since you are a ranged person. As for PE and survival, they do not differ all that much. Both are extreme cases of physical exertion, but PE is more focused on athleticity, strength - you know, short term but peak performance - where survival is a lot about stamina, or so I hear.” she continued offering advice. “Finally you have a group of computer science, music class and language course. I already know the individual languages of the kingdoms well enough from before and everyone speaks common anyway and I don’t really think music should even be a class in a hunter school, so it was a clear choice of CS for me.” the thief shrugged.
“There are some electives, Art, botany and the likes, but I didn’t even spare them a glance, I like my free time spent as I see fit. Usually by that point the other classrooms are unoccupied, so you can for example book an arena like we did today and go train or what have you anyhow.” she finished just as her nose picked up the scent of potatoes, her stomach grumbling in impatience.
Emmy nodded her head as Diamond went on with her explanation, doing her best to pay attention. Unfortunately being as tired as she was and having the tendency to let her mind wander, she was thoroughly distracted once the beer arrived. She looked into the large glass, staring at her reflection in the drink for a moment, before giving it a curious lick. This caused her to jerk back and make the weirdest expression on her face.
“Wow! That’s really...strong!” She exclaimed.
Diamond paused mid sip, pointing her glowing gaze at the girl. finishing up, she kept the stare. “Beer strong? It doesn’t get weaker than that! Okay, next time you’re getting a lemonade. Then again your liver will probably thank you in the long run.” she grinned. “Oh, they also make great tea here. You may want to give that a shot.” she suggested, trying to remember what they were talking about before. “Oh, yeah, about the classes, what do you think?”
Emmy forced herself to take a sip, she didn’t like how it tasted at all, but she swallowed it down anyway. “Well, I’m probably going to take armory, practice, and computers. The other classes don’t really sound like good picks for me.” She took another sip, it was easier to get down this time.
“It’s true that they’re the most fitting for your current skill set, but you might want to think of taking another class simply for expanding your horizons, or abilities. I would think that your aim would already be pretty good since you’ve been using guns for some time now. And believe me, even when I made you slip today or knocked you back, your shots grazed me despite the interference. But - pardon me - you don’t strike me as someone who could lift a lot or run for a long time. Maybe another class in the second group would be better. Just a food for thought.”
”Considering the remaining options in the other two groups seem quite useless for a hunter, I can’t disagree with choosing those. Cheers.” she said, raising her glass and emptying the rest of it in one go just as Desmond brought their food. Both of them had eyes instantly fixed on the plates as the baiting smell of fish and potatoes filled their surroundings. “Bon appetit.” he wished. Before he left, Diamond asked for a tumbler of Tullamore after they were done.
Emmy fidgeted, she’d wanted to avoid PE or survival, but maybe Diamond was right. “Hmmm, you’re probably right, I’ll decide later.” She said with a shrug, taking a longer swig of her beer before glueing her eyes to her fish, the smell of it was overwhelmingly good. She stabbed it with her fork before putting it a piece in her mouth. She washed it down her her beer, which didn’t seem quite as awful as before. She’d managed to down about half the glass. She giggled a bit, feeling warm and tingly inside..
Good rest in the spa and now a full stomach did wonders for Diamond’s aura, the glow in her eyes gradually fading into almost nothing. It suddenly started to feel quite warm as well, having to shed her coat. “Well, I already milked you for info enough. Do you want to ask something?” she said just as Desmond brought her whisky. Setting it to the middle of the table, Diamond gave Emerald a questioning look. “Wanna try a sip?” she said with an evil half-smile.
Emerald stopped eating as Diamond placed the whisky where she could reach it. She wasn’t sure if she should or not, but curiosity got the better of her. She reached for whisky.
Diamond’s half smile turned to a grin as she slapped Emerald’s hand away. “Ahahah! This isn’t Mistral, lady. Learn your laws. Below 18, you don’t get hard stuff. And I told you I’m done breaking law, right? Wouldn’t want to do time for corrupting a youth!” the thief teased before emptying the tumbler.
Emmy’s face went into a pout. “Awww…” But then she reached for her own glass and finished off the rest of her drink, somehow managing not to gag before putting the glass down on the table enthusiastically.
“Refill!”
“The fish or the beer?” Diamond asked with a giggle. “Sure you don’t want to try something else? Maybe at least a different kind? A stout perhaps? Or if you want a different flavor, there’s mead made from honey or ciders which are based on fruit juice.” she suggested, “Careful though, you don’t want to get too wobbly because I will be taking blackmail pictures!” the thief grinned.
Emmy scrunched up her face, before looking at Diamond indignantly. “Blackmail!? What would you need to blackmail me for?” She stuck out her tongue before looking back at her empty glass. She did like fruit juice so…
“I’ll try the cider.”
As their glasses were swapped out for full ones (Diamond wanted to end on Irish coffee), a small plate of sweets also shown up on the table. “Nothing yet.” she smiled, “Pays to be prepared for everything though. Take the mission we just did on Friday. We were supposed to escort a few trucks that previously couldn’t make it to their destination for some reason. Naturally we pegged it on grimm, White fang or pirates. Nope! Friggin bugs!” she shuddered.
Wanting to change the topic away from school (It was weekend for the love of gods!) she looked around the locale and her eyes fell upon the floor with a mic next to the hi-fi. “Hey, do you sing?”
Emmy took a sip of her cider, she found she liked it a lot better than the beer, it tasted sweet. She started to drink it enthusiastically. After a few moments she put it down to answer Diamond. “Sing? Suurrreee I can sing! Though I don’t know if I’m familiar with....” She hiccuped. “...the songs they play around here.”
“Why don’t you go look through the collection, see what they have?” Diamond said. She already knew her song, but she wanted to see if Emmy could still walk straight. If there started to be difficulties, they were leaving before it got dark outside. No sense in risking any… incidents.
Emmy gave an exaggerated nod, before looking at her cider, deciding she didn’t want to part with it, she chugged the rest before pushing her chair out and standing up. “Okayyyy then! Here I go!” She laughed as she stumbled forward, bumping into the table as she moved toward the collection of music. “Woah...floor seems a little unsteady...Desmond should probably fix that…”
Nodding towards Desmond and doing the ‘check please’ sign, Diamond hurried to Emerald’s side and turned her around, marching her back towards the chair. “Hey you know what? I just realized it’s not really a proper ‘welcome to the team’ party without the rest of the team, is it? Let’s go buy some drinks to bring back to school and let Marcus and Oswald have some fun too, no?” she suggested, sugarcoating a ‘You’re drunk, I’m taking you home’. They weren't of course going to bring a six pack to the school, that was just asking for trouble. But Diamond had a feeling she oughta smuggle one item of something weak to help fix Emmy’s head in the morning.
“Oh...no singing?” Emmy asked as Diamond brought her back toward the seats. “Well alright, that sounds like a pretty good idea! We’ll get the guys and….and uh...party!” She giggled.
The thief quickly called a cab, picked up a beer can which she hid under her hat and dropped some money on the counter. “Oh you can still sing, With that voice, everyone has to love it.” She smiled. “Any favorites? What do you listen to?”
“Well...anything with a good beat to it really...I like stuff that’s energetic and um...bouncy!” Emmy bounced a bit for effect, giggling while she did. “As long as it doesn’t hurt my ears...ya know?” As they got seated inside the cab, she decided to lean against Diamond’s shoulder, maybe the world would stop moving so much that way.
Bouncy didn’t look so bouncy anymore. In fact she appeared to be quite comfortable rested where she was. Diamond on the other hand was getting uncomfortably hot having a quite pretty girl leaning on her. Nope! No! NO! Don’t even think about it. Stop before you’ll need brain bleach. Oh hell too late. she squirmed, wishing to unthink the image her mind conjured right now.
Blushing furiously she looked out of the window, hoping to avoid being seen by the Faunus. Telling herself to save it for tomorrow didn’t exactly help with that, and the thief prayed they would arrive to the airport already.
Oblivious, tired, and drunk, Emmy paid no mind to Diamond’s predicament. She was busy giggling to herself, deciding to wrap her arms around Diamond’s arm and give it a tight hug. She purred erratically. “Woo this cab is going fast!” At least she thought so.
Leaning forward in the seat, Diamond tapped the shoulder of the cabbie and silently told him to drive them all the way to Beacon rather than the airstrip. Emmy didn’t appear to have any stomach related trouble in the car, but Diamond wasn’t keen on testing whether she’d take flying just as well. It would take them a bit longer to get there, but it was something she could put up with.
The argument that Emerald was barely over age, hammered and vulnerable and thus using that would be really shitty thing to do finally managed to derail Diamond’s ecchi train of thought as well. Feeling the pressure on her arm, and the familiar sound indicative of the kitten’s happiness, she instead freed the arm and pulled Emerald into a hug. Deciding to bet on the fact that she could be as tired as Diamond was herself, the thief started humming lullaby softly in hopes of putting her friend to sleep.
Emmy closed her eyes as Diamond wrapped her into a hug and started to hum. It didn’t take much for her to begin to lose consciousness. Today’s events had put her body through a lot; battling in the arena, the spa, getting drunk...they made it all too easy for sleep to overtake her.
Smiling as the younger girl dozed off, Diamond returned to observing the scenery behind the window. The sun was setting by the time the car pulled up by the school’s gate. The thug pulled the still sleeping faunus out of the car after paying the cabbie and held her in her arms, hauling her to their dorm.
The girl squirmed a little as they ascended the stairs and Diamond slowed down to dampen the bumping, not wanting to wake her up. “One lesson from today, Kitten, know your limit.” she whispered, unsure whether Emerald could hear her and making a mental note to repeat that in the morning. “If you learn nothing from me but that, ‘Never let them see you bleed’ and ‘Always have an escape strategy’, You’ll do me proud.”
Kicking the door open, she walked into the room and settled emerald on her bed. “Eh, kinda overdid it with the welcome.” she shot an apologetic look to the other half of the room, “Word of advice, don’t let that girl drink. All this took to do was two beers.” she grinned, reaching below her hat and setting the beer can on Emmy’s night table. “Point her to that if her head’s pounding in the morning and I ain’t here to do that myself.” she said, heading for the bathroom to get ready to sleep.
Sunday morning… Given how exhausted she was after the events of yesterday, Diamond didn’t even flinch when the first sunlight fell into the room. It usually woke her up instantly, but today she snoozed quite a few hours past her usual.
Even waking up took longer than usual. Whereas normally she’d be ready to go into war in ten minutes, she just lied there in her semi-conscious state. The sheets seemed strangely soft and warm today. It dug up a long forgotten memory of when she was little, her adoptive mother always waking her up with a morning kiss. She reacted instinctively, hardly in control of herself.
*Mwah*
Huh. Well that was strange. Either she was having a really vivid imagination, or… Her hand slid up over the sheets, reaching for whatever it was in front of her.
It found hair and furry ears.
Diamond’s eyes slowly opened to investigate, and fell upon Emmy’s face not farther than an inch from her own. Oh. No wonder the bed felt so smooth and warm.
…
WHAAAAAT?! Eyes wide in surprise, Diamond broke off the still lingering accidental kiss with a start.
Emmy groaned, slowly opening her eyes. First thing she noticed was that her head really hurt, and that Diamond was looking at her in shock.
Wait…
“What are you doing in my bed?” She asked, still half asleep.
Diamond nearly shrieked when Emmy spoke up. Oh dear lords, this was happening. “What am I doing here what are you doing here! This is my bed!” she said, one of her arms knocking on the wall behind them, identifying it as such without a doubt.
She could feel the heat flooding her face. “U-um… Please tell me you’re wearing something.” she stammered, really hoping that soft feeling material was Emmy’s arm and nothing else. She took the Faunus into her sight again, and frowned: “Something other than my hat.”
“O-Oh!” Emmy immediately became more alert and awake as she realised she was not in her bed after all. “I’m s-sorry I...don’t remember how I ended up here...I went to the bathroom last night and then…” She was drawing a blank, what had happened after that? And speaking of clothes...she looked at herself, thankfully she was wearing what she usually did at night, shorts and a tank top.
“I’m clothed, don’t worry.”
More than a little relieved, Diamond let out a sigh of relief. “Goodthat’s...good.” she said quickly, desperately trying not to think of any other scenario. After all, today she had scheduled a date…
Welllllll shit. How’d she supposed to look Amy in the eyes now without feeling massively guilty? She hoped Marcus and Oswald were still asleep! It was wishful thinking to believe they’d keep their mouths shut and hey’d never live this down. It didn’t help that now that she had a very close look, Diamond could see that Emmy was not only kinda cute, but also smoldering hot.
And her hat made everything look even better. Unable to smother a snicker, she nodded towards it. “You know it suits you. Kinda adorable if you ask me.” she noted as she got up.
Emerald felt her face get hot, enough that she pulled the hat over her eyes to hide the fact. “I-I’m not adorable…” She wasn’t sure why she was getting so flustered, people had called her ‘cute’ and ‘adorable’ before.
Oh. Oh this was too good an opportunity to pass up. “Yeah right. You totally are.” she said in the cutest tone she could manage. Seriously though, misunderstandings needed to be prevented in the future. “Um, hey… I know you didn’t really have a chance to see much of me, but… It isn’t exactly a secret I like other women, so… Think of that next time you’re looking for a teddy bear.” she said what needed to be said, although it didn’t make her blush any less.
Emmy’s face went into a deeper shade of red, last night had been a lot of fun, but she’d been pretty clueless about Diamond’s preferences. The way Diamond had been looking at her sometimes made a little more sense now. “Nothing wrong with that…”
“Well duh!” Diamond rolled her eyes, “And everybody who has a problem with it can speak about it with my cane. I just thought I should tell you where things stand so it isn’t horrendously awkward later if one of us misunderstood something.” she explained.
Emmy nodded, slowly sitting up in the bed, she immediately regretted this as the pounding in her head intestified, hangovers sucked. After taking a moment she looked towards Diamond, pulling the hat up so it wasn’t covering her eyes anymore. “You really think the hat makes me adorable?”
Looking over her shoulder from browsing her wardrobe, Diamond gave Emerald a stern, measuring look before smiling. “Hat’s got nothing to do with that, although it gives you some spice and class.” the thief smirked.
Emmy looked away, blushing again. Why was she so embarrassed? She usually took compliments in stride no matter who gave them. She decided it had to be her hangover, she wasn’t thinking clearly.
“My head really hurts...I don’t want to drink ever again…” She rubbed her temples.
Remembering the contingency for just that, Diamond stopped what she was doing and walked over to Emerald’s night table, tossing her the contraband can of beer. “Best way out of withdrawal symptoms is to ease yourself out. With the way you can’t handle the stuff, don’t take more than two sips, but it should help somewhat. And not drinking ever again is a great plan. And while you’re at it, stay away from smokes as well, it is not worth it. Take it from someone who knows.” she winced.
Grabbing the change of clothes she picked, Diamond promptly vanished in the bathroom. Couple dozen minutes later she came out and headed for the door, needing to set up a few things for today.Stopping mid-step though, she realized something was still missing. Walking up to Emmy she lowered herself, her eyes once again level with the faunus as she reached over and lifted the hat form the Kitten’s head and put it on hers, mouthing the word ‘adorable’ in the process. With a wave of a hand, she vanished in the hallway.
As she walked through the hall, Diamond tried not to think of what just happened, but it kept coming back to her like a disease and doubt started worming itself into her mind. Doubt about whether going out with her old acquaintance was the best idea. Sure, it was nice to have someone with whom she didn’t have to hide who she was. But she wanted to bury that person anyway - why reopen old wounds?
And now that she was thinking about it… What did Amy and her actually have before? A business relationship, as the hawk put it in her own words. Stopping in her tracks, a cold sweat of uncertainty popped up on the back of Diamond’s head. Was that really worth pursuing? It certainly didn’t sound healthy to try and build a sensible relationship on grounds such as those.
It didn’t help that right now she couldn’t get Emerald out of her head. The Kitten really was as adorable as she said. That and she could still recall how smooth her skin felt, and that kiss, however accidental, still left a warm feeling on her lips.
But… Did she really have a choice? Diamond didn’t really know if Emmy even swung that way. Or did she? What was it she said when Diamond told her how she is?
“Nothing wrong with that.”
Did that mean…?
Too conflicted about her feelings, she never showed up for the date.
Mokuren cocked her head softly as Manthing-13, which called himself 'Jack' told her to just say she was there. "But, where is the fun is simply announcing my precence?" She asked, before looking to Manthing-18, 'Luke' said it was good to have her back. "I am glad you are feeling happy, but I was never gone, so your comment is void and/or insane. I think you need to see a doctor". With that, Mokuren got onto the flying machine, and waited for it to take off, looking to the other girl in her group, but not saying anything, because she had not said anything.
And it, indeed, was strange, but it was not the kind of strange she had become accustomed to. She found it strange because there were people like her in it, alongside a plethora of different kinds of people. Strangeness had become something she had grown used to, but she realized that there were different kinds of strangeness one could confront. The strangeness of unfamiliar things, the strangeness of learning.
The strangeness of living amongst people.
Warm-blooded people, because no person was cold-blooded. In the end, even the seemingly coldest person hides a fire that burns violently or warmly. The cause of the fire was what determined their motivation, and their motivation determined their end goal in both activities and life itself.
Sangue Naga followed her leader with a silence that had become more than a habit. Her scarred eye remained slightly closed, and her other eye let itself remain half-open. Her blade, her claw, her will- she carried these weapons with diligence.
"..."
The red-haired woman nodded, and her teammates seemed to be plentifully ready themselves.
