Hello everyone! Decided to update today as opposed to this upcoming Monday as a result of the Monty Oum Project. For those of you who don't know, February first marks the day that Monty Oum, the creator of RWBY, passed away. The Monty Oum project is a thing some fans take part in where they start creating something new on today. I didn't have anything new I'm working on that I can post today, but I do have TBH. I hope that you all enjoy the chapter, and remember to keep moving forward.
The next week for Daniel was not what he had expected.
He hadn't planned on jumping out of the hospital bed and continue his training the day he woke up, but he had hoped for something more than more testing. Instead, he found himself taking part in a week of tests and drills to see how his body reacted to the intensive procedure. Weight lifting, reaction times, endurance tests, everything was checked and compared to scores he'd gotten while at Beacon. Because of it, Daniel found himself laying down in a loaned bed every night, his body aching from the day's workout. And they still hadn't even shown him how the artificial Aura even worked.
"We have to be certain that there aren't any complications from the surgery," one of the scientists told Daniel when he asked about all of the tests. "General Ironwood has given us a week to be certain you are ready, and that's not a lot of time to test the results of a new procedure. If you ask me," he added, "it's nowhere near enough."
There were some differences, Daniel had noticed. His back was slightly less flexible than it used to be, the slabs of metal making up the Aura generator and whatever had replaced part of his spine preventing him from twisting his back all the way. It also made sleeping more difficult. Daniel usually slept on his back, but the implants made this position too uncomfortable. In the past couple of days, he found himself switching to a side or stomach position before falling asleep.
Despite this issues facing him, Daniel was getting tired of waiting. He'd had too many problems recently because he couldn't generate an Aura. He wanted it in now.
On the sixth day of tests, his wish was granted.
It was towards the end of the day. Daniel was lying on his back, his body drenched in sweat after the set of crunches he'd just finished. One of the scientists was watching him and clicked a stopwatch before recording his time on his clipboard. "Six minutes and twenty seconds," he announced. "Not bad Mister Grigio, not bad at all. You seem to be in good shape for someone who just had a spinal bypass"
"That's, good, I guess," Daniel panted as he rolled over to his stomach and pushed himself onto his knees.
The scientist handed Daniel a water bottle and a towel before walking over to a table and picking up a metal suitcase that had been sitting on top of it. "Now then Mister Grigio, I understand that you have been waiting for this moment for some time. Which is why General Ironwood has asked that I insert the Aura generator."
In an instant, all of Daniel's exhaustion from the past couple of days were gone. "Wait, really?" he asked as he jumped to his feet.
"We have no further testing, so yes," the scientist said. "Now, I need you to take off your shirt and lean over the table so I can install the battery."
Daniel did as the scientist directed, pulling the sweat drenched shirt off and bending over, putting his hands on the table for support. The scientist pulled the plastic top off the implant before opening the suitcase. Daniel turned his head to see him remove a cylinder-like object from inside and turn back to Daniel. He slotted it into the generator, pushing Daniel down towards the table, as he twisted it until it clicked into place.
"The system should begin powering up momentarily," The scientist said. "You should feel an increase in your energy when it starts up. Tell me when that happens."
"Not yet," Daniel said, frowning as he reached up and scratched the inside of his ear. "I'm not feeling any, did it get quiet in here or, holy ." Daniel's comment was drowned out as a surge of energy blasted over his being. It was like drinking five cans of Rage and sticking a fork in an outlet all at the same time. The energy washed over his body, down his limbs, and enclosed itself around his fingers and toes. It felt like his body was entirely encased in a warm blanket. A white noise he hadn't noticed until now was erased, leaving him with what felt like heightened hearing.
"You feel it then?" the scientist asked, turning back towards the suitcase.
"Yeah, this is, wow," Daniel said, completely in awe of what was going on. "Is this how huntsmen feel all the time?"
"I can only assume," the scientist said. "Now then, if you aren't overly exhausted, go take a shower and meet General Ironwood. He has asked that you meet him in his office in twenty minutes. He wishes to discuss your entrance into Atlas academy. The generator is waterproof, so there is no need to cover it while in the shower."
"I'd better get going then," Daniel said as he took off towards the showers. "He asked that you wear the Atlas uniform," the scientist called out. It was too late though. Daniel had rounded the corner and was long gone.
General Ironwood was behind his desk reviewing papers when Daniel arrived twenty-two minutes later. He glanced up briefly as the door chime went off, letting out a brief "Enter," before returning to his papers. The door slid open to reveal Daniel, wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt over his implant.
"You wanted to see me sir?" he asked with a smile.
General Ironwood glanced up at him. "Yes, Mister Grigio, I did. You will be pleased to hear your test results have come back fine. It would appear that neither the generator or spinal bypass caused any, unexpected side effects."
"That's good to hear sir," Daniel said, "I was getting tired of all the tests."
"As I could imagine. Tell me, did Doctor Bay put the generator in yet?"
"He did sir," Daniel answered, his smile getting even bigger. "I think it's working great. I haven't felt like this in my life!"
"Good," General Ironwood said. "Daniel, I have one final test for you before we continue."
"Oh," Daniel said, deflating slightly.
"Just a small test," General Ironwood assured him. "One question only. Do you trust me?"
The question surprised Daniel. He hadn't been asked if he trusted someone like General Ironwood before. Before he had asked, Daniel could have easily said he trusted him; but now that whether or not he trusted him had been called into question, Daniel wondered if he should.
"Do you trust me Daniel?" General Ironwood repeated sternly.
"I guess?" Daniel said apprehensively.
"That's not an answer. Do you trust me."
"Ah, yes. Yes sir!" Daniel said.
"Thank you," General Ironwood said before raising a massive revolver from underneath his desk and firing three shots into Daniel's chest.
The heavy bullets slammed into Daniel and threw him backwards into the wall. There was a crunching sound as the wall buckled under the collision, and Daniel slid down to the floor, dazed. Daniel's hands shot towards where the bullets had struck, only to find that he was unharmed. Not that it didn't hurt; the last time he'd felt this bad he'd taken a glancing axe blow to his chest. Unlike that time however, there was no blood to be seen.
"You shot me?" was all Daniel could get out. He hadn't expected anything like that to happen, and
"Obviously," General Ironwood said as he opened his revolver cylinder and began extracting the spent casings. "I imagine that hurt quite a lot."
"Yeah, it did!" Daniel replied. "I mean, not as much as it should, I think, but it hurt!"
"Good," General Ironwood said. He stood up from his desk and walked around to kneel next to Daniel. "The first round was to test your aura, but the next two were for being late and out of uniform. If you're going to become a huntsman, then the special considerations end here. You now have an Aura, and you are now one of my students. You will be treated as such, and you will treat me as such. Is that clear cadet?"
"I, yes sir!" Daniel stammered, trying to wrap his head around the sudden change in Ironwood's personality.
"Good," General Ironwood replied. He stood up and walked back around his desk and sat down. "Now stand at attention cadet. Normally I'd send you to your bunk to change into uniform, but my schedule is full and I don't have time to wait for you." He glanced up at Daniel from his revolver and snapped the cylinder back into place with a flick of his wrist. "That was an order cadet."
Daniel scrambled to his feet, desperate to avoid further shots. He snapped to attention upon regaining his footing, and pulled his right hand into a salute.
"At ease cadet. Now then, I'm going to introduce you to the senior team that will be getting you up to speed by the end of next semester, at which point you will join the rest of next year's class and be assigned a team. Understood?"
"Yes sir General!"
"Good." Ironwood reached over and pressed a button on his desk. "Send in team Grey please."
Daniel turned in surprise to see the door open to admit Greeve, Rojoe, Ebon, and Yarrow, the four Atlesian Huntsmen-in-training that he'd encountered several weeks ago. The four of them came to a halt next to Daniel and snapped off salutes to the General as well. "You wanted to see us sir?" Greeve asked.
"Yes Greeve. This is Daniel Grigio. He is the student I want the four of you to mentor for the remainder of this semester and the next. Has your team read the briefing?"
"We have memorized your briefing sir, and are confident in our ability to carry out your orders!"
"Good," General Ironwood said. "With your skills in Dust, and mister Sapphire's recent focus on biomechanics, your team is the best prepared to assist mister Grigio with his implant, should the need arise."
"It won't be a problem sir!"
"Very well, I'll leave the five of you to get acquainted. Dismissed."
Team Grey turned and filed out of the room in military precision that Daniel tried to emulate. The team continued along this way until they had rounded a corner and were out of sight of General Ironwood's door. They then stopped and turned around to face Daniel. The sight of four upperclassmen in imposing military dress stopped Daniel dead in his tracks.
"So," Daniel began, "It's been a while. Good to see you guys again."
Greeve didn't say anything, but instead continued to glare at Daniel, seeming to size the younger teenager up. To his side, Rojoe shot Daniel an apologetic look.
"I guess you guys are going to be training me then. Kind of, ironic don't you think?" The deafening silence continued. The only reaction that Greeve showed was the slight raising of his eyebrows.
Realizing that his attempt at conversation wasn't going to work, Daniel took a deep breath and changed tactic. "Okay, look; I am really sorry for what happened in Vale. That got out of hand really quickly"
"Your actions cost us weeks of planning, and execution" Greeve said, finally breaking his silence.
"Well, maybe, but I had no idea!" Daniel said. "I didn't know any of this would happen, especially training with you guys!"
"The same can be said for us then," Greeve said.
"Oh, come on Greeve, you didn't have your suspicions?" Yarrow asked. "Rojoe rushes into the briefing, tells us first thing that she met one of the guys we fought and that he doesn't have an Aura, and suddenly we get a briefing to train one guy and that it required our two very specific skill sets to maintain a piece of tech he'd be wearing, and none of that tipped you off? Which reminds me, Ro told me about what happened, sorry for hitting you," he added, glancing at Daniel and giving him an apologetic look.
"I didn't consider it until after I read the briefing," Greeve replied.
"Whatever, Ebon still owes me twenty Lien. Pay up Agent Flaming Hoops."
"You made that bet after we got the briefing, I'm not paying you jack," Ebon replied, crossing his arms like Greeve had.
"Why you no good double crossing-"
"Boys!" Rojoe said loudly, "Maybe we should focus on the situation at hand? Like what are we going to do with Daniel?"
"We do as we're ordered," Greeve answered. "General Ironwood wants Daniel ready for initiation in two semesters, and we're going to make certain he is." "Duh you two, that was kind of obvious," Yarrow commented. "Disobeying an order from the leader of the largest military on the planet isn't the best career move. Especially if he's our headmaster, and probably our boss in a year or so."
"No, what I meant was what are we going to do with him on missions?" Rojoe said. "We can't take him on most of our missions, he's too inexperienced! No offense," she added. "It's fine," Daniel said, "It's not like I've got a good track record anyways."
"Wellllllll, you did take on a professor at your school," Yarrow said. "That's something at least."
"We will make that decision on a mission to mission basis," Greeve said with finality. "Right now, Daniel needs to get into uniform, and we need to help him move in."
After picking up Daniel's backpack from the room he'd been in since the operation, the five of them took a quick jaunt through an ice cold courtyard, up a concrete staircase, and through a hallway filled with doors and the occasional student to finally arrive at their dorm. The interior was noticeably different from that of the dormitories at Beacon. The floor was covered in a dark gray tile with the walls being painted in a slightly lighter shade. Four immaculately made beds lined the back wall underneath a window looking out into the courtyard. The overall color scheme seemed to be in shades of gray, with the exceptions being a large chalkboard with complex mathematical equations written on it, a poster for a boyband Daniel had heard was doing an international tour, and a table with vials and crystals of Dust interspaced on the surface with explosion marks. A violin sat on one of the beds, its bow laying across it.
"Welcome to casa del grupo grey!" Yarrow exclaimed. "Bathrooms are down the hall, emergency fire extinguishers are an added feature, and complimentary flea preventions once every twelve weeks."
"You know that one day someone is going to hear that and take it the wrong way, right?" Ebon asked.
"Which is why I kept my best material to myself during that White Fang op," Yarrow replied.
"You guys fought the White Fang?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah, we were in Vale trying to find those two that your old team fought a few weeks ago. Vale police found one of their hideouts, and asked us to tag along for the added manpower," Yarrow bragged. "We had to hide Ebon's tail since the Fang has it out for Faunus that fight them, but it was no biggie."
"Okay Yarrow," Rojoe interrupted, "Inflate your already massive ego sometime later. For now, how about we help Daniel unpack his things."
"There's a problem with that Ro," Ebon said. "I'm no Dust prodigy, or whatever the hell Yarrow is-"
"Hey!"
"But I do know there's no room for another bed. Not in our dorm."
"He's right," Greeve said. "The table takes up the one available space we have."
Yarrow put his fingers into a rectangle and held them up to one eye, picturing the room. "Bunk beds and a hammock," he said after a moment.
"Say what?" Rojoe asked.
"Bunk beds and a hammock," Yarrow repeated. We loft the beds with some four-by-fours, and string a hammock diagonally between the two. Everyone gets a place to sleep, we free up more floor space, and Daniel doesn't have to learn how to make a bed military style."
Ebon and Greeve both turned to look at the beds and ponder Yarrow's idea. Occasionally, Greeve would count on his fingers, as if doing some sort of mental math.
"That, could work," Ebon mused. Assuming of course that we can get some wood to loft the beds. And a hammock."
"Not a problem," Yarrow said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them. "So it's settled then? Greeve and Ro take the left bunks, Ebon and I take the right?"
"Um… Well… I suppose," Rojoe said, suddenly a bit flustered.
"It's settled," Greeve answered. Ebon and I will go find the wood; Yarrow, you find a way to connect the wood to the two beds."
"Greeve, you're talking to the guy who has access to both the student labs and the non-student labs," Yarrow said. "All I need is fifteen minutes on a milling machine, some metal bits, and a power drill. Worst case scenario, I pull out a saw and screwdriver."
"Good. Ro, you stay with Daniel," Greeve instructed. "Help him unpack, and try to get a hammock from the quartermaster."
"I, yes sir!" Rojoe said, snapping into focus.
"And one more thing. Yarrow, if you will."
Yarrow reached into his uniform pocket and withdrew a scroll. "New Scroll," Yarrow said as he held it up for Daniel to see. "Latest model, all the bells and whistles, yadda yadda yadda, also one of the few phones that can do this." Yarrow tapped on the screen, and Daniel gasped, feeling as if the wind was rushing out of him. The feeling of power, the energy that had been flowing through him since the generator had been slotted in, was gone. And with it came the quiet white noise he'd just gotten used to not having.
"Sorry about that, but you can't exactly recharge like the rest of us," Yarrow explained. The battery lasts 48 hours cycling, or a couple minutes in a fight, so you're only supposed to turn it on when you need it."
"That's not a lot of time," Daniel said, slightly concerned. "What happens if I run out of it?"
"Same as the rest of us; you fight without it," Ebon said.
Yarrow patted Daniel on the back reassuringly. "I wouldn't think too much into it. Greeve's got the best Aura between the four of us, and he still lasted less than a minute in the Vytal festival finals last year."
"Don't you all have jobs to do?" Greeve asked.
"You mean use a milling machine to mill some wood no one has gotten for me yet?" Yarrow inquired innocently as he reached into a pocket and brought out a carton of cigarettes, opening it up and knocking one out. "No, not really. More of a waiting game at this point." He had the cigarette in his mouth and was fishing for a lighter when he caught the look on Greeve's face. Very slowly, he pulled his hands out of his pocket and removed it from his mouth. "Ah, your new no smoking rule. I should probably take this outside then, keep it away from any fire dust."
Greeve's frown deepened, unamused by Yarrow's comment.
"Right, right," Yarrow said. "I'm leaving." He threw a bright yellow lab coat over his uniform and sauntered out of the room and into the hallway. Greeve and Ebon followed suit a moment later, leaving Rojoe and Daniel alone in the dormitory.
"Looks like it's just you and me then," Daniel said. He glanced around the room, scanning it for a place he could put the meager number of personal belongings. "Uh, where should I put my stuff?"
"Uniform and long sleeves go in the closet, the rest of your clothes go in the top drawer," Rojoe said as she went to the violin sitting on one of the beds and picked it up.
"Thanks, but I don't think I'll need the closet," Daniel said. He unzipped his backpack and started pulling out the changes of clothes he'd brought with him to Atlas. Between the clothes that he'd lost fighting Glas, mock fights with his old team and LSTR, and his fight against team GREY, many of the clothes that he'd bought months ago with Tiberius' Lien were ruined beyond repair. All he had left were two pairs of jeans, a couple of shirts, and half a dozen pairs of socks and underwear.
Ro was put the bow to the string and was about to being playing when she saw Daniel zip his backpack up. "Is that it?" Rojoe asked in astonishment. "No boots or anything? Not even have a jacket?"
"I had a jean jacket," Daniel answered with a sigh. "But then Yarrow hit me in the chest with an axe. Not something you can really sew back together."
Rojoe stared at Daniel for a moment, still in shock, before pulling out her scroll and hitting a number on speed dial. "Yarrow? It's Rojoe. Go out and get Daniel some cold weather gear and a coat, you owe him one. Yes, you. Why? Try when you hit him in the chest with your weapon! I don't know," she said, glancing over at Daniel, "he's about Ebon's height. No you're not stealing one of his and giving it to Daniel, go and get one!"
Rojoe ended the call and let out a huge sigh. "Honestly, why do I even bother with these idiots. I'm not even the leader, Greeve is. So why do I always have to deal with Yarrow? It's like he wants to be beaten up by everyone, and I have to make sure he doesn't. If Greeve wasn't so-,"
Rojoe paused in mid rant, abruptly and acutely aware that Daniel was not only still in the room, but had also paused the folding of his clothes and putting them into the drawer he'd been pointed to.
"You didn't have to do that for me," Daniel protested. "I could've gotten by."
Rojoe shook her head. "You're five foot eleven, maybe a hundred and sixty pounds," she said. "You would freeze to death before winter even sets in."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Daniel said sarcastically
"Besides, despite our rocky meeting, you're part of our team now," Rojoe added.
"So, no hard feelings then?" Daniel asked. "Not even when Lunare knocked Greeve into the sky?"
"Oh, Greeve rarely takes things personally," Rojoe answered. "To him, everything in a mission is just business. I doubt he'd even try to get even with him if they ever met. You all did come out on the losing side after all."
Daniel paused in his folding of laundry. "Didn't we send you guys running in the end?"
Rojoe put her hands on her hips. "Only because our targets escaped and we had to chase after them. You want to see how we fight for real? Rest up and be ready tomorrow, your training starts at O-five hundred."
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