Lewis watched the video of Daniel’s father giving away Daniel’s secret to the world in silence. When it ended, he fell back onto his bed with a plop and pulled out a joint from his pocket, lighting it. “Well, that’s that man.”
“That’s that?” Daniel said practically hysterical. “My darkest secret was just unveiled to the world, and all you have to say is ‘that’s that’?”
“Well, yeah man,” Lewis answered. “I mean, it’s not like you were gonna keep it a secret forever, right man?”
“That’s just it Lewis, I didn’t plan on keeping my condition a secret forever. I knew sooner or later it would have to come out”
Lewis looked at Daniel quizzically. “So, why are you so upset man?” he asked in confusion.
Because I had a plan for all of this!” Daniel cried out. “I, figured I’d become a Huntsman, make a name for myself, become respected, and then let Remnant know that I did all of this without an Aura. But now I’m just a student with barely any training, and a dirty secret! That’s not how I wanted this to go! I- I- I-”
Daniel was suddenly cut off by a paper bag thrust into his hands. Nick, who had entered the room silently without Daniel noticing, had been on a trip to the store to purchase Dust to make his special reduced shot bullets. Upon seeing Daniel’s predicament, he had poured the Dust out of the bag so he could hand it to Daniel. “Breathe,” he whispered to Daniel.
Realizing what Nick was telling him to do, Daniel shoved the bag over his mouth and began inhaling and exhaling rapidly into the bag. Slowly, the red color on his face from exertion began to fade, and he was able to calm down. The whispering voices, which had crept up on him unnoticed died down once more. “Thanks Nick,” he said as he handed the bag back to his friend.
Nick nodded briefly in response, then refilled the bag with the Dust vials and tossed it on his bed. “What happened?” he whispered, then coughed violently and grasped the area around the still red scar on his neck. The small scar was just over the thickness of a pencil, but was the most vivid reminder of the events that occurred just over two months ago. Of the nine students that had been involved in the Glas incident, Nick was the only one that still needed to have regular visits to the doctors so they could view how his vocal chords were healing. He had been freed to speak since he left the hospital, but was advised to limit himself to less than one-hundred sentences a day to prevent further damage. Nick had evidently reached and passed that limit already.
“You need anything man?” Lewis asked as he extinguished the joint and flicked it into the trash can. Daniel quickly moved over to the window and flung it open, allowing the smoke to drift out of the room and clear the air for his friend.
Nick shook his head at Lewis, then waved his hand at Daniel to begin his story.
“My dad just went on live television and told the world I had no Aura,” Daniel said, sitting down on Dakota’s bed. “Now the entire world is going to learn about me. Ozpin will probably be pressured into expelling me, and I doubt my dad will take me in again. Bottom line, I’m up the creek without a paddle.
Nick thought for a moment, then reached into his brown duster and pulled out a pencil and a small notepad. He flipped to a fresh page, and began writing in it. When he finished, he reversed the notepad and handed it to Daniel.
I don’t know what will happen if you will be expelled from Beacon, but you won’t be on the streets. I We’ll see to that.
“Thanks Nick,” Daniel said as he handed it back to him. “I appreciate that.”
Nick shrugged as if to say “it’s nothing,” but Daniel saw a tenseness in his teammate that he had rarely seen. Nick was actually worried about what was going to happen. Daniel didn’t think he had ever seen Nick worried before. Which immediately worried him all over again.
Suddenly the door burst open and Ryler raced inside only to slam the door shut behind him. He looked around the room with a desperate light in his eyes before diving to the ground next to Lewis’ bed and squirming underneath it.
“Ryler, this isn’t a good-” Daniel began
“Don’t tell anyone I’m here!” Ryler whispered fiercely with a tremor in his voice. “If Schatten and Tiberius find me, I’m a dead Huntsman!”
Before Daniel could ask what Ryler meant by that, two circular blades burst from the wall around the door, and slid down the length of the wall. Three familiar claws cut into the wall at the top of the vertical cuts and connected the two. Without any support from the wall around it, the door fell forward and collapsed into the room. Behind the newly expanded doorway stood a very furious looking Tiberius and Schatten.
“You- hippie. Where is Ryler?” Tiberius seethed. Underneath the bed, Ryler whimpered quietly.
“Hey dudes; how’s it hangin’?” Lewis asked calmly, unconcerned with the deadly ‘royal pain’ hovering over Tiberius’ head.
“How’s it hanging? I will tell you how it is ‘hanging’,” Tiberius said angrily. “That flower loving vegetarian I am forced to call a teammate placed his clothes in the same washer as mine and Schatten’s clothes!! Because I was testing out the suit setting on the washer, my dress shirts and pants were in there as well!” Tiberius gestured to the clothes he was wearing as he said this.
“And?” Lewis asked, eyes blinking at them innocently.
“And his clothes bled pink all over everything!” Tiberius roared, shoving his sleeves in Daniel’s and Lewis' faces. Daniel stared cross-eyed at the fabric and was able to see that it did seem to have a faint pink tinge to it. Nothing that someone besides Tiberius would probably notice on first sight, but in the situation at hand he didn’t want to argue with Tiberius.
“I, see,” Daniel said carefully, not to antagonize Tiberius. “Schatten, what got pink that’s yours?”
Schatten turned to the side and crossed his arms on his chest. “I’d, rather not say,” he answered with a flush of embarrassment not unlike the color of Tiberius’ shirt.
Daniel’s eyes widened. “Oh, uh, Sorry to hear that. I uh, hope you, ah, catch Ryler and make him pay for what he did!”
“Yeah, speaking of which, where is he?” Schatten asked, eager to change the subject.
Without hesitation, Nick raised his hand and pointed towards the still open window. Tiberius eyed Nick for a moment, suspicious of how quick he’d answered Tiberius. He soon seemed to accept Nick’s testimony, and strode over to the open window, scanning the area outside. “Blast! He’s escaped! Schatten, I require your Faunus abilities to locate our target.”
Schatten strode over and took a deep sniff of the outside. “I smell something,” he reported. “Could be him, but the wind’s blowing too strong to be sure. Stay here and I’ll get higher ground. Might be able to get him from there.”
“The suit is ruined anyways,” Tiberius said. “Retribution for this atrocity can only be achieved with the blood of our teammate.” Tiberius tossed Royal Pain out the window where they hovered in the air, dust crystals glowing a pale blue. He stepped onto the two chakrams and levitated up towards the roof of the dormitories. Schatten clambered out after him after a moment’s hesitation, and the stress in the air lessened somewhat.
The moment they cleared the top of the window, Ryler scrambled out from under the bed and shut the widow with a satisfying snap. “Thanks guys,” he said with relief, “I really don’t know why Tiberius is so darn fixated on those suits!”
“No worries man,” Lewis said. “I’m sure Tiberius will forget it all soon.”
Nick, who was writing on his notepad once more, finished writing and handed it to Ryler. Ryler accepted it and quickly read the note. “Good thinking Nick! I really should lay low for a while. It’ll give Schatten and Tiberius even more time to cool off. I’ll go hide with Lunare for the day. That’ll be good for a start.
Ryler stepped over the destroyed door and had entered the corridor when Daniel suddenly had a thought. “Wait, Ryler, is Dakota still working with Lunare?”
Ryler paused and scratched his pink hair in thought. “I think so,” he answered slowly. “If he’s still Lunare’s assistant, it would make sense that he’s still there at this hour.”
“I’m coming to then,” Daniel announced as he threw on his jacket and followed Ryler out into the corridor. He didn’t think that Dakota would be able to give any further advice on dealing with his secret being out, but both team DDLN and LSTR had surprised him on countless other occasions. Besides, ever since Lunare hired Dakota as his assistant, they barely saw Dakota outside of classes and meals. Daniel could only hope that they wouldn’t be too busy.
“I don’t care how effective it would be at fighting Grimm, I am not going to help you put a twenty millimeter cannon on Scrapmetal!”
Lunare, who was standing behind the table holding up the parts to the massive weapon, pushed his glasses up by their bridge and folded his arms in determination. “I fail to understand why you are so adamant about keeping this incredible find of mine from being mated with its one true pair, Scrapmetal.”
“Okay, your strange fetish with shipping inanimate objects together aside; you pulled me off assembling your Aural Disruptors to give my opinion on your new toy, and my opinion is that this is a terrible idea!” Dakota shot back. He was grease stained and had ditched his battered old leather jacket for a grease stained apron covered in rough pockets that seemed to have been sewn on by Lunare in an extreme haste. All pockets were full to bursting with scrap and tools that Lunare was too busy to put back, and Dakota had no idea where they belonged.
Lunare stared at his assistant coolly. “And what exactly is your reasoning behind this opinion?”
“Well for starters that drum magazine is not meant to be taken off in combat,”
“I’ve already retooled the release mechanism and designed a more compact drum that has a ten percent increase in capacity with a fifteen percent weight reduction.”
“It’s way too heavy for anyone to turn on their own,”
“Electronic servos built into the mount will allow the cannon to be controlled by an old gaming controller I found in a scrapyard. In the event of a power failure, secondary hydraulics allow manual firing to be an option.”
“And there is no way that thing is street legal,” Dakota finished. “I mean, how did you even get a cannon in the first place?”
“I have full permission by the Vale DMV to register Scrapmetal as a homebuilt vehicle, along with any and all of its variants. As to how I obtained a cannon, I took it as part of my payment for supplying Atlas’ military police force with the Aural Disruptors you are now building. I assumed a cannon was a small price to pay for supplying them with a revolutionary method of suppressing individuals without permanent damage.”
This argument would have continued further had the garage door not been opened at that moment. Lunare ducked under the table and pulled out Nieh Mehr, ready to defend himself from any Atlas soldiers wanting to arrest him for taking a cannon from them. He lowered his gunstaff when he saw Ryler’s familiar pink poof of hair dart inside.
“Hey Lunare!” Ryler called out. “I hope your day is going better than mine.”
“Well it would be going somewhat better if I could get assistance from the assistant I hired specifically for this reason,” Lunare said as he eyed Dakota, who had returned to his workbench where he was assembling the latest batch of Aural Disruptors. “What brings you to the garage?”
“Oh nothing much,” Ryler answered as he ducked under Scrapmetal to reach the table with the cannon on it. “I need a place to lay low until Schatten and Tiberius don’t want to kill me anymore, and Daniel needs help figuring out what to do since his father told the world he had no Aura.”
A sharp crack could be heard as Dakota snapped the casing of the disruptor he was assembling. He whirled around to look at Ryler with shock written all over his face. “He didn’t!”
Lunare already had his phone out and was looking it up on the internet. “Unfortunately it appears that he did,” he confirmed. “Daniel’s father did indeed let the proverbial cat out of the bag.”
Dakota looked back at Ryler. “Ryler, where is Daniel right now?”
“Here,” Daniel called out, ducking under the garage door. Dakota instantly gave Daniel a once over, searching for any sign of stress. He was definitely tense, but he seemed calmer than what Dakota expected. Which was a good sign considering ‘the beast’, the name they had come to use for the state Daniel went into during his fight with Glas, seemed to come from moments of pain and fear.
“You all right Daniel?” Dakota asked his friend. “I mean, your dad just, damn.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Daniel answered.
“Any voices?”
“A bit,” Daniel admitted, “But Nick calmed me down.”
“Good thing he was there then,” Dakota said. “Daniel, what the hell are you going to do?”
“That was kind of why I came here,” Daniel admitted. “Nick had no idea, so thought you might have an idea.”
Dakota scratched a bit of stubble on his chin. “Well, the best case scenario is people don’t pay attention-”
“Already trending on Basebook,” Lunare confirmed. “Anyone named Daniel Grigio is being bombarded with messages.”
Caught off guard, Dakota thought once more. “Well then, hopefully everyone thinks it’s a hoax.”
“Several polls have already been created,” Lunare replied once more. “Eighty percent of voters seem to agree that your father is telling the truth.”
Dakota turned to Lunare. “Okay, is today just ‘let’s prove Dakota is wrong day’ for you?” he asked irritably.
“Lunare, I’m scared to ask this, but what are they saying about me?” Daniel asked carefully. This was the moment of truth. It alone would decide if Daniel’s fears were correct about what would happen when people learned of him.
Lunare pushed his glasses up and scrolled through the comments, absorbing what they were saying. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally looked up from his scroll. “There are those who are calling for you to be locked away to be studied, or even shot like the filthy Grimm you are. They hope that you, oh my. That is an interesting usage of a fence post and a coil of barbed wire.”
Curious, Ryler looked over Lunare’s shoulder. Upon reading the comment, his eyes widened and he covered his mouth as he raced over to a trash can. Retching noises echoed from its depths as he emptied his stomach.
“So, that’s what the world thinks I am then,” Daniel said. His spirits lowered, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t expected.
“Not entirely,” Lunare corrected. “While the majority do believe that you should be locked up or executed for the safety of the people, a close forty-eight percent believe that you should be sympathized with. Studied perhaps, but not locked up.”
“Well, at least there’s that,” Dakota commented. “I could live with those odds.”
“There also appears to be a small but growing population that believe you should not be training to become a Huntsman; be it because of you lack an Aura, or because you are ‘learning our ways to report back to your Grimm brothers’. I can see Atlasdidmtnglen97 has been doing their homework,” Lunare added with a hint of sarcasm.
“Oh come on!” Daniel said exasperatedly. “I am not a weakling! I took on Professor Glas and won!”
Dakota opened his mouth to comment, but was interrupted by the furious beeping of Lunare’s computer. Lunare set down the final piece of the cannon and strode over to the monitor to see what was going on. “There’s a police chase,” he said. “Two individuals, aura trained, Huntsman level abilities. This could prove beneficial to us both, Daniel.”
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked as Lunare slotted the final piece of the cannon into place and hefted it onto his shoulder. Stumbling slightly, he moved around to the right side of Scrapmetal and lowered it onto several chain loops
“This is a perfect chance test for the new variant of Scrapmetal I have dreamed up.” Lunare answered as he hoisted the chains up. “In your case, you will be able to prove you are capable of combat and that you pose no threat to humans or faunus alike.” Lunare then clambered onto Scrapmetal’s roof and began attaching it to the mount.
“You’re seriously going after those two?” Dakota asked in astonishment.
“Why wouldn’t we?” Lunare asked as he fiddled with the controller and caused the cannon to swivel on its mount.
“I wasn’t complaining,” Dakota said as he threw the apron onto his workbench and donned his leather jacket. “Hell, it’s about time something happened. Glynda hasn’t had us fight in over a week!” He strode over to Scrapmetal and after a moment of hesitation, threw open the door and claimed the shotgun seat. Daniel followed suit and strapped into one of the back seats. Ryler however remained hunched over the trash can. Curious, Daniel poked his head out the window.
“Hey Ryler, you okay?”
“My innocence!” Ryler sobbed into the trash can. “Ruined! Destroyed! Smashed beyond repair! I can never look at a fence again!”
“It would appear that Ryler will be unable to join us this time,” Lunare said as he dropped down from Scrapmetal’s roof and slid into the driver’s seat. He turned the ignition and Scrapmetal’s V8 engine roared to life; louder than before it seemed.
“THUNDERBEE variant Mark-One!” Lunare shouted, “Designed for intimidating the opposition through high volumes of sound!”
He floored the accelerator, and Scrapmetal blasted out of the garage. Instead of climbing the houses like he normally did, Lunare instead swerved right and followed the cracked and pitted street towards the freeway. Despite the incredible din Scrapmetal’s engine was making, Daniel could already hear police sirens.
A lot of them.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
