Chapter 5

Well, Come to Beacon

"Hurry up Laurel!" I shouted from the door. This was a complete mirror of my first day at Signal. I stood out the door, waiting for Laurel to finish breakfast. She ran out of the door chewing her last bite of a bagel. Laurel had quite a few bags, two duffel bags and two rolling suitcases. I, on the other hand, had only my helmet box and my laptop bag. Still, no idea how it can store so much.

"The airport is this way!" I started running off towards the Beacon airport. Airports here were much different. Due to the VTOL capabilities of the airships, they weren't long landing strips, but rather were designed like a kind of honeycomb. Interconnected hexagonal platforms with walkways in between. They were often called Hives because of the little Bullheads commonly seen zipping around above it.

"Dammit, slow down!" Laurel shouted back, lugging her bags along. The walk was long, but not long enough to warrant using a bus.

"Not my fault that you need to pack ten pounds of crap!" I retorted.

"I need that five pound bag of jerky!"

"Yeah, and I needed that extra twenty minutes of sleep."

"Packing takes a while!"

"I need to get you a bag like mine."

"Damn right you do!" Laurel grunted, pulling one of the suitcases free of a rock. We continued off until we reached the Hive. We walked into the lobby where a food court and flight check in. We scanned our tickets and walked through the buttloads of security.

While in line, none other than Weiss Schnee bypassed the entire line, looking all smug and important. Lots of people cheered, but some flipped her off and even cursed at her. I pulled out a scrap of paper and scribbled a message on it. I then wrapped a plain metal dart with the paper and fired at the sheath for Myrtenaster. When the heiress noticed it and read the message, a slight hint of suppressed fear entered her eyes.

"What did you write?" Laurel asked.

"The Fallen hates the corrupt," I recited the message.

"Nice."

We progressed up to the top of the Hive and entered the connecting pathways. They were like tubes of glass that jutted out in each platform. Due to the increased platforms, wait time was shorter than on Earth. When we reached our platform, we could see that the entire group was all Beacon students.

"Hey, Kyle!" A male voice called out. I looked over to see Sam waving me over. Eve was sat next to him, reading a book.

"Who's that?" Laurel asked, looking at Sam.

"His name is Samson, but call him Sam. He was a mercenary before he applied here. Next to him is his friend, Eve. Don't know much about her," I explained to her. She nodded and we walked over.

"Hey, who's your girlfriend?" Sam asked cheekily. He has tried so many times, but failed miserably.

"This is Laurel, and she's not my girlfriend. Your joke sucks," I gave him a straight face.

"Eh, I tried," He shrugged. We conversed as we waited for the airship. I got Sam and Laurel better acquainted and got Eve to talk a bit. Soon the ship touched down on the pad and opened the hatch. We boarded the craft and found a little area to hang out. Jeb had transferred to flight school for three years after the year I joined Signal and would be coming next semester.

I tried to keep away from the crowd. Honestly, I hate people. With a passion. Because of this, I knew Ozpin would make me leader of my team. And if the irony of the anime held up, I would be on a team with Laurel, Sam and Eve.

I got interested in the news report that popped up early on. Most people were looking up when I popped up on screen as The Fallen. I then realized I had fans. Jeez, I was like Spiderman. Or Batman. Yeah, I like Batman more.

Then Goodwitch showed up, blah, blah, blah, narrative, narrative, narrative. When we left, Jaune had just finished at the trash can. I just reached the center of the courtyard when I heard the explosion.

"Give me a sec guys, got to fuck up some plot," I put my stuff down and went over to the scene. Obviously, Sam and Eve were confused.

"Sorry? Do you have any idea how much damage you could've caused?!" I heard the line from the heiress.

"Hey bossyboots, did she cause any damage?! No! Calm the fuck down!" I shouted at the heiress. She turned on me.

"And who do you think you are?" She demanded.

"Why so serious?!" I said in my Joker impression, pulling out my Twin Scorpions and getting right in her face.

"Are you insane?" She shouted at me, backing off.

"No, I'm getting a point across. If she was insane and you threatened her like that, she would take that scythe right off her back and lop your head off. Be careful who you fuck with." She looked really pissed.

"Shut up you insubordinate ruffian! Do you even know who I am?!" She shouted. I rolled my eyes. Stupid and rich doesn't make a good combo. I grabbed her neck and brought the pincers of one of my Twin Scorpions really close to the flesh.

"That's my point! I'm in control over you right now, not the other way around! Shut your face and you'll keep your face!" I spat in her face, demonstrating my power.

"Remember, this is Beacon. The only people who are unequal are the dead ones," I released my grip on her throat before walking away. I left the furious heiress behind and grabbed up my stuff. My friends were already ahead, no need to try to keep up. I decided to admire the beauty of the academy in real life. I mean, I had seen the school a lot in the show, but that's just a 2D image projected onto a screen in a way that makes it appear three dimensional. This is the real shit. The place was bigger than everything I had ever seen in my entire life put together. It wasn't necessarily tall, but the campus stretched the entire massive plateau. The natural structure was probably so big that you could clearly make it out from low orbit.

I managed to sneak into the back of the auditorium before the ceremony. I stood at the back, not bothering to look for my group. Ozpin came up, more pointless narrative we already know.

The thing about the show was the fact that they never showed what happens in between the ceremony and the ballroom scenes. I see it was mercifully cut. It was just people walking around and looking at the map, trying to memorize the school. Most buildings have some trick to learning them, but this was an exception. The school was a massive sprawling mess of rooms and other unnecessary shit. Why do they need six foyers? Why does one have a gong?

I had officially gotten lost when the sun started to set. At this point, no one was about. Teachers, students, all that. I reached into my pocket and pulled out Aegis.

'It's about time!' Aegis wrote in himself.

"Sorry, but being a vigilante is time-consuming. Between trying to lower the risk of fans swarming me and the criminal menace still wild in the city, I'm packed," I said tiredly.

'Oh, and you need to play Warframe and Binding of Isaac for four hours?' Aegis complained.

"Yea, why would I not?"

'I see you have special needs. Okay, not my place to judge,' Aegis mocked.

"Hey, everyone needs to relax a bit!" I argued.

'Apparently some more than others,' the book muttered. I heard footsteps and quickly slipped Aegis back into my pocket. I darted around a corner and set my stuff down, just in case it was a professor. I took a peek and saw none other than Weiss Schnee.

"Half of me wants to just go out and give her a good ass kicking. The other says to appear like you're trying to work it out, but just kick her ass in the end," I thought. Leaving my gear around the corner, I stepped out into her way.

"Oh, not you again," She scoffed.

"Oh, it's not me? Then who is it?" I mocked.

"You really annoy me," She scowled.

"Oh, okay O'-great-and-powerful-one, I'll just leave," I mocked, backing away behind the corner I hid my stuff. I popped my case and donned The Fallen's helmet. I deactivated the mirage dust hiding my clothing details and came back out.

I wasn't able to get a look around the corner without one of the horns showing, so I produced a tiny dragonfly-like robot and tossed it into the air. The robot flapped its tiny wings and started tailing the heiress silently. I wanted to make sure she wouldn't connect the dots and find out. I followed the progress of my robot on a small screen projected onto the lenses of my helmet's 'eyes'. I waited until she was in a different part of the school until I made my approach.

Soon, the heiress found a balcony to watch the sunset. I grinned and recalled the robot, taking my chance. I snuck up behind the heiress, standing slightly to her left and just watched the sun descend beyond the horizon.

I stood there for a while, unmoving and stoic. It seemed that Weiss was staying for a while. As soon as I considered provoking an interaction, she turned away from the sun and conveniently saw me. I kept my position and didn't move at all.

She didn't run, but didn't seem fearful. Either it was stupidity, arrogance, or just plain ignorance, because she just stopped. Not froze, stopped. She walked away in her typical fashion.

"Before you proceed, may I ask you with one question?" I stopped Weiss before she left the balcony.

"Why would I help a brute like you?" She scoffed more than questioned.

"What is human?" I asked, ignoring her response. I wanted to make sure Weiss didn't upset Blake, thus making sure they never have the run-in with Torchwick and Blake doesn't go insane trying to find him afterward. The key to defeating the bastard is not letting him get in your head. He tried it on me once, but it didn't work.

Weiss just rolled her eyes and shook her head, trying to leave again. I ghosted over in front of her.

"What is the most human thing in the world?" I tried to broaden the question.

"Let me leave!" She demanded, drawing Myrtenaster. I did my best to remain calm and collected.

"Give me an answer first."

"Fine! Then it's love!" She obviously didn't think.

"That answer tells me that you are either deprived of true joy, or you are not a real human," I responded before ninja-vanishing as she thrust her rapier forward. I planted the seed, I was in her head now. I just have to wait for it to grow.

I grabbed my stuff from the corner and made it back to the ballroom. I removed my helmet and put it back into the box with my staff. I scanned the room and found that Sam had set up in the center of the room with Laurel and Eve. Although she could deal with one-on-one conversations, Laurel hated groups as much as I did. The two girls had seemed to just sit by on their own while Sam talked to a bunch of people. I sighed and gave in to his trap.

"Hey Kyle! Where'd you go?" He waved enthusiastically.

"I went to a magical place where I don't have to deal with your shit," I muttered, sitting down next to him reluctantly.

"Oh, that's no fun!" He said enthusiastically.

"Shut up Sam," I groaned.

"Why would I do that?" He continued to mock me. I brought up my fist and fired a sleeping dart at his neck. He dodged the dart and it went sailing past, finding its mark on the floor next to…

"Dammit," I cursed to myself. It was already being looked at by the one person who would know who it belonged to. Yep, Ruby got it. Rather than being scared shitless, she seemed excited. Probably because she wanted to see my weapon.

I quickly laid out my sleeping bag and hid in it before she could trace it back to my location. I just hoped she wouldn't find me.

"Not me, but…" Sam was about to sell me out. I burst from the bag and pinned the berserker to the ground, using the mandibles to completely trap him.

"Sam, shut up! The last thing I need is all of my effort I put towards keeping that secret laid to waste by you!" I whispered harshly, slowly closing the blades.

"Alright, cool it," He whispered back. I removed the blades and ran out of the room, abandoning the mission. I went to the balcony outside of the ballroom to hide. I sat on one of the benches and sighed.

The stars above caught my attention, drawing my gaze up. The lack of the tilted axis made the galaxy above look like a straight stripe across the sky. I smiled and just looked up to the sky, relishing the peace and quiet that I would never get in there.

"I was way too obvious with that," I said to no one in particular. There was no way that Ruby didn't know at this point.

"Indeed."

I looked back to see Ozpin looking off into the horizon. I just looked back up.

"Ozpin, are you going to help me or kill me?" I asked.

"Do you enjoy attention?"

"Fuck you."

Finally, a new chapter! Sorry about the delay, school just started for me and I've been getting a lot of shit. I'm fairly certain I'll get better at managing my school stuff and writing at the same time. I've got the ideas, but not the time. You'll see more, just be patient and keep the support going. Thanks for reading. Necrorizah, out.