Hey guys! I'm updating a day early this week, because I'll be away from the computer for most of the day tomorrow. I tried to make it so that I got the stuff done today, but I had to work around other people's schedule. I hope that you all can refrain from voicing you disappointment at getting the chapter a day early.
In case you couldn't figure it out, that last sentence was me being sarcastic.
So anyways, How about that last chapter eh? We finally learn what Glas wanted from Daniel, learned there's someone else he wants for the experiment. There's a hint or two in the chapter, so keep an eye out for them. I'll see you all at the end!
"Tactics, students, are how you avoid having to use the first aide tools that I have taught you," Professor Glas lectured from behind his desk. "If you can use them correctly."
It was a usual Tuesday morning; Nick was sleeping, Lunare was tinkering, Lewis was high. If it hadn't been for the fact that unbeknownst to the class, Daniel and Dakota had been kidnapped and were about to be dissected alive by the very man lecturing in front of them, nothing would be different from any other day in class.
"Tactics are any plans for gaining the advantage and winning the fight," Professor Glas said. "By using your manpower, resources, and terrain to your advantage, there are few battles you cannot win. This is apparent in events such as the Faunus war, where an incompetent general failed to account for his adversary's most valuable resource for night fighting: excellent night vision. Despite having the superior army, his forces were defeated and he himself was captured when they tried to attack the Faunus during the night. Had he taken this class, things might have ended differently for the Faunus. Not to say they would have been for the better," he added hastily. "I use this instance since the general's failure was so great that events today are still being shaped by it."
Professor Glas stood up and walked along the line of tables at the front, staring at each student in turn. "To avoid similar fates, you and your teams must remember one thing; when your lives and others lives are on the line, there is no such thing as cheating. There is only the victor, the one who had the superior tactics, and was not afraid of breaking any social, cultural, or legal rules to succeed."
At that moment, a shrill beep echoed throughout the school, signaling the end to class. Professor Glas looked up at surprise, then at his watch to check the time. According to his watch, he still had five minutes left. Lunare, who had been tinkering up until that point, carefully slid his contraption into his pocket. Earlier, he had made every single clock in Beacon five minutes fast, giving them more time before the next class to talk to Professor Glas.
Having apparently deciding that his watch was simply five minutes too slow, Professor Glas stopped lecturing. "Before you all leave, I have an assignment," he called out to the students as they stood up. "Choose a battle, and write a three page essay on how the winning side won, and what the losing side could have done to triumph. You have three weeks to complete it, so I expect very good essays from all of you. Dismissed."
As the rest of the teams filed out of the lecture hall, LSTR and DDLN met off to the side, waiting for the rest of the class to leave. Back down at the stage, Professor Glas had returned to his desk and was working furiously on something on his laptop.
"You know guys, he looks kind of busy. Do you think we should try again later?" Ryler asked.
Schatten shook his head. "Something like this shouldn't be put off anymore. It's high time we find out where the hell our friends are."
As they approached, Professor Glas continued working on his computer, evidently too focused to notice them. It wasn't until Lunare coughed slightly that he was aware of their presence. He looked up in shock at them as his fingers flew over the keyboard and his hand fumbled with the mouse before clicking on something they couldn't see. "Goodness children, you scared me!" he said, panting slightly.
"My apologies sir," Lunare said. "We just had a question we felt you would be the best to answer."
Professor Glas visibly relaxed at this. He pushed his chair back and closed his laptop. "Seems like a large group for one question," he commented with a bit of a laugh.
"It involves all of us sir," Schatten replied. "And we think it'd be best if we heard your answer together."
"Well then, I'm all ears," Professor Glas said. "Spit it out."
Tiberius did the honors. He looked right at Professor Glas and asked "Sir, do you know the whereabouts of Daniel and Dakota?"
The grin that had appeared on Professor Glas' face disappeared in an instant. He looked down at his desk and sighed. "I suppose that would require all six of you. Mr. Blanc, I've seen you and your team sit next to team DDLN. I assume it is safe to say you all are friends with Daniel and Dakota?"
Tiberius shrugged. "Due to certain members of their team," he said, eying Lewis as he did so, "I personally would use the term 'friendly acquaintances'. But yes, we are friends with them."
Professor Glas shook his head. "I wish it didn't have to come to this. You and your friends, you're too young for this to happen to you," Professor Glas looked up at them. "I'm afraid Daniel and Dakota will no longer be attending Beacon."
"You mean they're dead?!" Ryler cried out in shock.
"No, no! Nothing of the sort," Professor Glas said hastily. "Both Daniel and Dakota are to the best of my knowledge in good health. Although, you might rather they weren't."
"What do you mean by that Prof.?" Nick asked in a deceptively calm tone.
Professor Glas sighed once more. "I regret to tell you all that Daniel and Dakota are not the people you thought they were. They are criminals, wanted by the authorities for multiple felonies, including murder, kidnapping, and grand theft auto. They used false identification to enter Beacon, but soon after we left the police station Saturday morning, the authorities were able to pierce their disguises and arrest them. Barely fifteen minutes after we had left the station, my car was surrounded by a dozen police vans. Daniel and Dakota were taken away, and I was in police custody until late Sunday," he added bitterly.
Teams LSTR and DDLN were left dumbfounded. Daniel and Dakota, were criminals? It just didn't make sense.
Professor Glas saw their confused expressions and softened a little bit. "I know it's difficult to process," he said, "Even I had no idea those two were capable of the atrocities they've committed. Quite ingenious really. They arrived at Beacon on completely separate days and seemed to hate each other on first sight before bonding during the initiation. It was a very elaborate ruse."
"But why?" Lewis asked desperately, his face sweating, his body trembling. "Why'd they lie to us like that?"
Professor Glas shrugged. "I don't know. They could've been trying to lay low. Possibly, although highly unlikely, they were trying to escape and start anew. The most likely answer however, is the most chilling."
"Meaning?" Lunare asked.
"I believe that their entire pupose for being at Beacon was to gain training as warriors so that they would be more successful in their crimes," Professor Glas said seriously. "They might have even attempted to harm all of you."
"Never!" Lewis shouted. "Daniel and Dakota, they-they'd never try to hurt us! They're our friends! I mean, sure Dakota was in a gang in all but-"
"Lewis, I'm sorry that you feel that way, but I'm afraid this is the truth. They killed members of their own gang once. Killing six teenagers they'd only known for a handful of weeks would be child's play for these two."
Nick leaned on the desk and peered at Professor Glas. "Where are they?"
"Excuse me?" Professor Glas asked, confusion written on his face.
"Dakota and Daniel. You say they're behind bars; where? I need to hear from their own pie holes that they lied to us, and could've killed us without a second thought." Nick demanded.
Professor Glas blinked and looked to the side. "I'm, afraid I don't have that information," he said. "All that I know is that Daniel and Dakota have been transferred to a maximun security prison for their crimes. You could ask the officers that arrested them, but I doubt that anyone would-"
At that moment, Lewis stiffened up as his limbs began flailing around insanely. Lunare, who was right behind him, grabbed him and held him as Lewis abruptly stopped and collapsed into Lunare's arms, unconscious.
"Good Lord! Not again!" Professor Glas cried as Lunare gently eased Lewis onto a slightly less cluttered part of Professor Glas' desk right next to his laptop. "I assumed that you cleared everything up with him!"
"Evidently the realization of Daniel and Dakota's true selves has pushed him over the edge," Lunare said. "Our two team have come to the realization that Lewis has a disturbingly fragile emotional shell."
Professor Glas reached into his jacket and brought out a rectangular box with several scalpels sticking out. He selected on and opened up Lewis' hand, allowing him to slice a small cut into his palm.
"With all due respect Professor," Lunare said while still holding Lewis down cautiously, "I don't think that cutting Lewis' hand open is going to fix him."
"I don't have time to get into the nuances of my scalpels Mr. Nacht," Professor Glas snapped as he replaced the bloodied scalpel, "Just understand that they are capable of determining what is wrong with a patient."
Professor Glas turned the box over and viewed an LCD screen on the back and frowned. "Aural levels and blood pressure point towards fainting, but I can't tell what could have caused the muscle spasms. The readings suggest a possible electric shock, but that can't possibly be correct," he tapped the screen multiple times before looking at Lewis, who was starting to moan and come around.
"Uggghhhaaaaahhhhhh," Lewis mumbled. Blearily, his eyes tried to focus on something, eventually settling on the person leaning over him, Professor Glas. His eyes sharpened, and they filled with pure rage. "Faunus caffeine knife young upset," he chanted. "Faunus caffeine knife young upset! Faunus caffeine knife young up-"
Professor Glas hauled off and slapped Lewis across the face. Lewis' head whipped to the side, a red mark appearing on his face. Professor Glas looked up at the astonished faces in front of him. "My apologies," he said without a hint of regret in his suddenly hard eyes. "I've often found that unorthodox methods of treatment work better in place of regular ones.
"Dudes," Lewis said slightly dreamily and back to his self, "We're gonna be so late for class,"
Six heads whipped up to the clock on the far wall. Sure enough, ten minutes had passed. Even with the clock pushed forward five minutes, they were hopelessly late.
"If Mr. Lemon is capable of removing himself from my desk, I will send a message to your teachers informing them that it was I who kept you back," Professor Glas said sharply.
They looked at Professor Glas, wanting to ask more questions about Daniel and Dakota, but the hardness in his voice signaled that they had overstayed their welcome. Lunare shifted his arms and helped Lewis to his feet. The hippie swayed and tottered for a moment, but managed to get his footing and stride at a decent pace towards the door. The others soon followed, Lunare hesitating long enough to cast one final glance at Professor Glas before leaving. Satisfied that they were gone, Professor Glas sighed in relief before reopening the document he was working on before he had been interrupted. At long last, he was confident that he had found a suitable third candidate for his experiment. While de doubted she wouldn't be missed, like with Daniel and Dakota, he was confident he would be done long before he was found. Now all he needed was a way of acquiring her.
Teams LSTR and DDLN sat on the roof of their dorm, watching the sun slowly set. They went up there regularly to work on homework together, figuring they'd either all pass, or all fail. It was the reason they went up this time as well. The only difference was that save for Lunare who was working on a tablet, no one seemed to want to do anything other than sit and talk about Daniel and Dakota. Even Tiberius, who normally was extremely studious, seemed to have taken a day off.
"Man, I can't believe it," Lewis lamented. "Daniel and Dakota; not cool man."
"I thought they were our friends," Ryler said. "Even if Daniel didn't appreciate my mother's work in plants, he still was nice enough."
"I say good riddance," Tiberius said haughtily. "I can't believe I associated with such criminals. I consider it no small miracle that we weren't affected by their actions,"
"Stow it Tiberius," Schatten said. "Professor Glas says they might've tried to kill us, but I doubt they could have done something like that."
"Do you really?" Tiberius asked, standing up. "Do any of you truly believe that Daniel and Dakota weren't capable of fighting and even winning against us? You all have seen Dakota's capabilities; Schatten saw those firsthand mere days ago over the break. And as for Daniel, hey may not have been a particularly good fighter, but during our initiation, he took out dozens of Grimm with a mere pistol! With Daniel as the brains and Dakota as the brawn, they would make an excellent duo."
The rest of teams LSTR and DDLN, save for Lunare, looked at each other. No one dared speak up, since they would only confirm what Tiberius had said.
"They would fight extraordinarily well," Lunare commented. "Between the two of them, I doubt there would be anything heist they couldn't pull off."
"My point exactly!" Tiberius said in triumph.
"That is, if they actually were criminals," Lunare mentioned.
Tiberius rounded on him. "What do you mean by that?" he asked. "We were told by Professor Glas himself what happened."
Lunare finally looked up from his tablet at Tiberius. "If they are in fact criminals, then why do they not show up in the police database?"
"You're in the police database?" Tiberius asked in shock. "That's classified material!"
"If they wanted to keep me out, then they shouldn't leave usernames and passwords on sticky notes," Lunare said. "The database contains the arrest that happened on Saturday, but no previous arrests that fit Professor Glas' description. There are also no arrest warrants out for any teenage duo in Vale."
Lewis scrambled over and peered at the tablet as Lunare scrolled through it, showing Tiberius his findings. "Stop!" Lewis cried as Lunare was about to turn to a new page.
"What do you see?" Tiberius said, "Is it Daniel and Dakota?"
"No man," Lewis said, "go back two days, select drug arrests, and delete my name and information."
Tiberius looked at him with unamused eyes. "You want us to expunge your criminal record?"
"I was on a spirit journey," Lewis countered. "It was when I decided to come to Beacon."
"In that case, change his charge to murder, and his release date to escape," Tiberius instructed Lunare.
"Lunare," Nick said, attempting to difuse the situation, "If they aren't criminals, why would Professor Glas lie to us?"
"That was exactly what I intended to find out when I learned of this yesterday," Lunare answered. "Lewis' reaction upon seeing Professor Glas seemed odd, and far too coincidental when his worry for Daniel and Dakota is taken into account. It seemed as if Lewis' subconscious was attempting to say something, but was unable to get anything coherent out. This is why I used a lower power Aural Disruptor on Lewis with his permission to cause a distraction so that I could use," Lunare said as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a socket wrench. Everyone stared at Lunare until he noticed that he was holding the incorrect contraption. Lunare's face turned red with embarrassment as he pocketed the wrench and brought out the contraption he had been working on in class. It had a USB stick jutting out from a bundle of wires and computer components.
"What did you build this time Lunare?" Schatten asked in a resigned tone. He had long ago accepted the fact that his friend constantly built contraptions to suit his needs, usually on the fly, and often not entirely legal.
"I don't have a name for it quite yet," Lunare admitted. "Its function is to copy everything from a source over at an extraordinary rate, allowing an entire computer to be backed up in a mere thirty seven seconds."
"You took everything off of Professor Glas computer?" Tiberius said in shock. "You not only undoubtedly violated his warranty, but also set off numerous alarms, telling Professor Glas what you did!"
"The device negated the alarms, and warranties are for those without any mechanical ability," Lunare said simply. "Although, at the speed required to download such a large amount of information, there is a high likelihood of certain files being damaged, or completely corrupted."
"Dibs on his music," Lewis chimed in.
"Duly noted," Lunare answered. "I have been uploading Professor Glas' computer to a virtual machine on my tablet while we were working. It should be completed right about,,,, now," he pulled up the virtual machine and the two teams scrambled to their feet and crowded around Lunare to get a glimpse.
Lunare opened up the documents tab and began scrolling through it. The items were mostly about teaching and medical histories, a receipt folder; nothing that had anything to do with Daniel and Dakota. There was however a folder titled "Games". Lunare selected it, and a long list of games and their save folders appeared. MOBAs, MMOs, shooters and platformers, Professor Glas was evidently an avid gamer.
"Ooohhh! Dead or Alive!" Ryler said in excitement. "I got dibs on that."
"Ryler, we're not going to start taking Professor Glas' stuff for our own," Schatten admonished.
"Come on Schatten, Lewis already has claim on his music," Ryler pouted. "If I can't have that, what can I have?"
Schatten was about to reply, but was cut off by Lunare. "Hello, what is this?" he asked as he pushed his glasses up by the bridge.
"What is it boss?" Schatten asked Lunare.
"There's a folder for a game called 'Surgeon Simulator', but it lacks a startup icon," Lunare said.
"Perhaps he uninstalled the game and didn't delete the folder," Tiberius said dismissively.
"Perhaps," Lunare said, pushing up his glasses. "Or perhaps this it is something more." He tapped on the folder, and five subfolders opened up.
X-rays, Medical Histories, Preliminary Results, Operation Procedures, Likely Candidates.
"Curious names for game files," Lunare said, selecting the folder marked X-rays. Inside were two folders. Both of their names were corrupted and illegible, so Lunare slected one at random and pulled up the first document at the top, a picture.
It was an X-ray, just like the folder name suggested. The picture was messed up, but enough could be seen that it was of the torso of a human. The name of the subject was also visible
SUBJECT: Grigio, Daniel
"Now then," Lunare murmured as the rest of the two teams started talking, trying to make sense of what they were seeing, "What else are you hiding Professor?"
Lunare continued through the photos. Many were completely unopenable, some were only sightly corrupted. But those that had a visible subject name all had Daniel's name printed on them in the handwriting they had all come to relate to Professor Glas comments on their classwork.
Lunare went to the second illegible folder. It too had X-rays. These belonged to Dakota.
"What on Remnant is going on here?" Tiberius asked, all animosity towards Daniel and Dakota forgotten, replaced by sheer confusion.
Lunare went back to the original folders and selected likely candidates. Daniel's name was on a folder, among many other names. His folder contained medical histories, as well as surveillance camera footage of Daniel entering an office in Beacon after being led there by a rabbit Faunus, only to be launched through the wall mere minutes later. There were several word documents and PDFs, but they were corrupted and Lunare couldn't open them.
He then opened the operation procedures folder. Much of what was in the folder was corrupted, but from what was not, they got a pretty good picture. Before it was all over, Ryler had thrown up over the edge, and Schatten had cussed out Professor Glas on multiple instances
"That bastard son of a shisno!" Nick growled when Lunare finished showing the viewable files. "He kidnapped our friends, and lies to us that they were outlaws?"
"What does it say he's doing next Lunare?" Schatten demanded.
"It would appear that he requires a Faunus for his experiments," Lunare replied. "According to this document, he has decided upon someone with a V in their name."
"I don't suppose you could get any more specific Lunare?" Tiberius asked.
"Unfortunately the document is corrupted," Lunare answered. I am unable to get any further information from it."
"What I don't get is why both Daniel and Dakota, and only one Faunus," Schatten asked. "If he really wanted whatever experiments he's doing to be accurate, he should get a second Faunus as well!"
Lewis and Nick looked at each other. They had a feeling they knew why Professor Glas had taken both Daniel and Dakota. They silently agreed that this outweighed their commitment to keep Daniel's secret from team LSTR.
"There's somethin' y'all should know 'bout Daniel 'fore we continue with this," Nick said to them.
So a few things before I leave you guys. First of all, I can't believe I completely forgot to mention this earlier. Lunare's name is pronounced Lune-air instead of Lune-are. Counfusing? Yeah, welcome to the club. But since I didn't create him, it's not my call. And for a character that awesome, I think I can take his name being a little odd sounding (kind of like those weirdos who pronounce Han Solo's name like the word hand instead of like fawn, the way civilized people pronounce it). Besides, I think his creator said it was French. I put an explanation for it back in chapter five or six, but I knew that some of you might not go back and read those chapters, so I put it up here for everyone who's caught up.
Second, I finished Heroes of Rune last week. It's the first bit of fiction I ever finished, and I'm immensely proud of the achievement. If you want to go check it out, it's on my profile.
Lastly, I've got the plot for the second TBH book finished, and am working on the third. I don't know when I'll begin posting chapters of book to (definitely after this book ends) but I'll keep you all informed.
I'll see you all in two weeks!
-Wrench
ns 15.158.61.20da2
