-last pre-chapter. Hopefully. It's difficult to write 1000+ words...-
-also thinking about a monster hunter fic-

-immediately after last pre-chapter-
Pilot Armstrong knew they were at the door before they even knocked, so he went, in casual clothes, to open the door for them.

Tai was the one who had knocked, a sour expression was on all four faces, though.
Armstrong sighed, and welcomed them in, playing the part of a welcoming host to some who were most certainly not.

"So... we are investigating a man we only really know as Armstrong, would you happen to know his whereabouts?" Qrow asked, drinking straight out of a bottle of whiskey.

"Why do you ask?" The Pilot inquired back.

"We're hunting him down, he's got a heavy bounty, and there's a more... personal reason," Raven cut in, hand on her katana.

Armstrong sensed the change in mood, which made him tense up imperceptibly, as he started to anticipate an attack from the group.

He prepared to draw his cleaver if they attacked, while serving out some alcohol to them.

"Eh, I don't know much about his whereabouts, heard he'd set up camp in Atlas or Mistral," he said, figuring that if STRQ were here, they knew that some of the locals knew about his operation, if only out of necessity or mistakes.

The team loosened up, becoming inebriated rather quickly, while he was still just fine.
Qrow would be his biggest problem, the guy could really hold his alcohol, and it impressed Armstrong.

"So, let's be serious here, I'm damn sure you're Armstrong, I could see the knife you got on you, and it looks like something he used. Who are you really?" The still-sober Hunter asked once his compatriots were asleep.

"Fine, maybe you're right and I am Armstrong, how would you fight indoors? The others are out like lights, I'm impressed on your alcohol capacity. But if I am him, how would you fight in here? Your big frog-sticker would definitely get stuck. And then there's the kid, what about him?" Armstrong spoke in an even, calm tone, which unnerved Qrow, and when he told the alcoholic that he had a son, it made the dark-haired huntsman stop thinking of a fight.

"Armstrong, settling down and having a family?" Qrow asked, "you're a changed man."

Armstrong chuckled, giving up the pretense, "yes, I am. His mother's off working, and I got my job, too."

Qrow made a soft noise, "but seriously, a cottage? A man of your capabilities? And farming?!"

Armstrong nodded, "it's... a peaceful life."

"I envy you for that, it's a bit of a dream for me... settling down with a pretty lady, living a peaceful life with a child or two if we'd want..." the huntsman said, staring off wistfully.
(I made Qrow into a bit of a dreamer and alcoholic. I'm gonna abridge several more characters as well)

"It's nice most of the time," the Pilot said, a smile on his face that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"I remember that you had a fourth guy, the one who took Raven's arm," Qrow said, curious.

"Gone, sacrificed himself for his buddies..." the Pilot said sadly.

After a few more minutes of random dialogue, Raven, Summer, and Tai woke up groggily, putting the Pilot into defense mode as his hand slipped easily down to the cleaver.

"So..." he said, drawing his weapon, "shall we?"

Tai was the first to move, and Armstrong easily slipped past it, since he didn't have his Pilot suit to soften any blows thrown at him.
Qrow would have hit him with a devastating overhead blow, but it was blocked by the crossbeams holding up the second floor, so it was a weak, easily dodged blow.

Armstrong then noticed Summer, his least threat, as her weapons were useless in such a close quarters area.
He swept her legs from under her, flipped upright, and landed a powerful blow to Tai's gut, then hitting him with a strong kick to the groin, making the large male bend over in pain.

"Sorry, I was aiming for your head!" Armstrong said, empathizing with Tai, and Qrow was doing the same.

One of Raven's portals appeared, and he deflected her sword with the flat of his weapon, creating sparks and heating up the katana.

Tai then came in and threw a powerful haymaker, but Armstrong dodged by a few centimeters, the pressure from the swing did slightly move the Pilot as well.

Armstrong then came up with a powerful uppercut, aided by the support of the cleaver's handle.

Qrow finally got back into the fight, and the Pilot locked his glowing knife into the steel of the sword, literally cutting though the big blade the longer they were in-contact.

Raven started to help her brother, and they began pushing Armstrong back, when he suddenly removed his weapon, slid between them, and swept Raven to the floor with a low kick, then slamming his foot into the back of Qrow's knee, causing him to stumble and try to change his weapon's form, but realized that the metal had fused together enough to stop the mechanism from being able to form the scythe blade.

Raven went on the offensive as Armstrong tried to deflect the Katana, eventually slicing off the edge with a well-but-accidentally-placed slash, rendering Raven's weapon unable to switch either.

Tai came in with a powerful haymaker, and then felt a sharp pain in the middle of his left hand: the cleaver had accidentally penetrated the thick metal of his gauntlet and hit his arm underneath, likely melting the metal and bone.
The yellow-haired huntsman groaned in pain as the weapon exited the hole it made, when Summer decided to be useful and fly-kicked the Pilot into a window, causing him to fly out in a cloud of glass, into a space more advantageous to STRQ, and the four went outside to find a giant robot, the Pilot in his suit already, as the machine had kept it stored in its pilot area, and they prepared to fight the hunters.

"Let's go!" Tai said, ignoring the pain of his wound as he charged into a kick from the Titan as Armstrong finished up with the Manual Control sequence.

"Let's see how long you can keep it up!" The pilot shouted from inside his mech, his voice sounding more metallic/robotic.

"Pilot, hostiles to our left," RZ said, turning around as Armstrong piloted him, only to have Summer's Kurigasama(think that's it) wrap around the left arm as she dug her heels into the earth as a brave form of attempting to restrain the Titan, who simply swung his arm and caused her to hit Raven as she jumped out of a portal to attack the Pilot and Titan.

"You really want us to fuck you, don't you!?" Tai shouted.

"It's fuck you up," Summer whispered to him.

(Why is the script like this sometimes?)

Tai looked confused, and the Vanguard Titan had closed the distance.

"Upgrade Core online," the mech said calmly.

"Good, activate it," Armstrong said, as RZ adapted to the fighting styles he and his pilot had seen.
(Upgrade core is gonna be more of an adaptation ability rather than a "more abilities" ability)

After hours of fighting, the two parties were tired, with Armstrong out of his suit and STRQ all tied up in Summer's kurigasame chains, all looking rather defeated, with their broken weapons —and Tai's left forearm— on the ground that was a battlefield, which was so churned up you could grow crops in it and they'd grow better than regular tilled soil.

When the Atlesian force tasked with hunting him down arrived, he spoke to the hunters.

"I want one of you to look after Simon, my son... promise me that, at least," he said, no weapons but a revolver that only had one bullet on him.

Summer and Tai nodded, agreeing.
But they felt like they were obliged to because of the fact this guy was going off to his death instead of being a father.
They were misguided, a lot.

He walked out to meet the force of soldiers, standing with dignity and pride, while the soldiers approached him, when suddenly, he drew the pistol, and fired it at a car.
Every single soldier opened fire on him, in front of cameras, as the bullet did minimal damage to the car.
If he couldn't do regular war, he'd do it post-mortem, and disgrace the Atlesian military.

In his little room upstairs, Simon watched the scene unfold.
He felt someone put a hand on his shoulder, he looked up at the dark-haired woman behind him, and she had him follow her to a car, and off the island on a private boat where RZ and the Pilot suit and training machine where.