8 days post arrival

"These are bullheads... how the hell do these things fly? They're so massive, they can't be made of steel... it doesn't look like aluminum either. The dust thrusters on these things must be something else." My workshop is under construction, and the only thing left on my immediate list of tasks is to arm myself. Ozpin kept true to his word and sent me direct instructions from the private Beacon bullhead pad at the public terminal. Besides myself, it seems the only other souls aboard are miscellaneous staff, a ... rather large professor, and a single student. 'A Faunus no less, and what is that? A rabbit? I may as well greet her. Need to get to know people, they may be useful later.'

As I cross the bullhead, she notices me about halfway, and we exchange waving at each other. "So," I start, seating myself across the table from her. "I'm a bit new here, might I ask your name?"

"Velvet Scarletina" she says with a small smile "and, what's your name?" 'Well, at least she cooperates like a normal human' "I'm Marcus, Marcus Aurelius. Like I said I'm new here, so I'm trying to get to know my peers. Are you perhaps a second year student?"

"Yes I am, how did you know?"

"It's quite simple. The only people at the academy presently are upperclassmen. As far as I can tell, I'm the only first year to have arrived early. So I assumed you were a second year or above student." Her face gained an ever so slight shade of red. "Well when you put it like that it sounds simple." I shrugged "No more simple than anything else really, I'm just pretty observant. Well since we're both heading to town, where are you headed to once we land?"

"I'm off to meet up with a teammate. She'd gone shopping downtown and forgot her wallet. I have stuff to do downtown as well, so I'm not bothered having to play along with her forgetfulness. What about yourself?"

"I'm headed to a weapons smith in the middle of town. Ozpin himself recommended I go there. I'm pretty sure it's called 'Atlas' Finest.' She raises her brow at the statement. "Do you not have a weapon? How'd you get to Beacon without one? Only reason you wouldn't is if you fight unarmed, but then you wouldn't need one." 'Shit, said too much' "My previous weapon was irreparably damaged in an encounter with a Goliath out in the Emerald Forest. Wouldn't have been a problem, but there were others, and so I had to flee. I might as well get a new one.

Velvet is visibly shaken at thought of getting ambushed by a Goliath. That or she's a gun nut who couldn't bare having her weapon broken. "At least you escaped alive, that's something to be thankful for." I incline my head in acknowledgement, and we drop the conversation, simply enjoying the view.

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The rest of the trip continued without incident, and I had no problems reaching the establishment thanks to the directions on my scroll. Thing is, nobody is here. He better not be closed, it's four on a Friday.

It seems to be a somewhat average store. Well, as average I can expect from a place with Transformer guns. Glass display cases, some rifles behind a counter, and enough rounds to start an army. I ding the bell on the counter and continue observing the weapons on display. They seem to be made with great skill, though I don't care as long as it functions long enough for me to forge my own weapon.

"Be right with you!" A heavily accented German shouts from the back room. Soon enough, a man in a drab green military uniform exits the back room. "How may I assist you?"

"Hello, I come from Beacon, Ozpin should've mentioned I'd be coming." The smile on his face broadens "Ya, he did indeed, come on into the back room, I just finished your rifle. He leads me into the back room, revealing it to be a small forge. "It should be around here somewhere..." he says, searching through a number of weapons lockers.

"So, these weapons, they seem expertly crafted. I don't think I've seen any of their like bef-"

Cutting me off, the man spins around, clacking his heels together, standing at attention and yells "You utter fool! Atlesian science is the best in THE WORLD! Look at my arms!" He says as he rolls back his sleeves.

His arms, all the way up into his shoulders, are completely cybernetic. As far as I can tell there are concealed weapons inside them as well. "What happened to your arms?" His face gains a smirk "I am Rudol von Stroheim, I once proudly served the Atlesian special forces. I was given the opportunity to have my body enhanced with the most advanced of Atlesian technologies. I accepted, however, I no longer fight. No, now I enable others to fight with glorious Atlesian arms. Ah, here is your weapon. It may appear to be just a rifle, but you would be an utter fool to believe so! It is not only a rifle, but..." Stroheim pushes a button on the side of the weapon, and after a series of transformations, it solidifies into a large single edged sword.

"Wow... I'd heard of these transforming weapons, but this is my first time seeing one of them in person. Color me impressed Mr. Stroheim. I'm gonna have to look into these transforming weapons at some point." With each compliment of his wares, the smile on Stroheim's face grew ever larger. "It is as I said! Atlesian science is the greatest! Now, here is the ammunition for the weapon. As I understand it, Beacon has an ammunition press, but if you ever need... specialized rounds, you come here, understand?"

"I hear you, thank you for your services Stroheim, the transaction should have already cleared electronically, yes?" Stroheim checks his own scroll and nods in an affirmative. "Then I will be on my way. Thanks again for-" Stroheim once again cuts me off.

"Wait young man! You don't know how to properly maintain a weapon such as that do you?" Thinking on it, it must be a pain in the ass keeping this thing at optimal condition. There's a lot of moving parts, and while I'm sure Stroheim does all he can to keep these things the best, it's inevitable that user maintenance would be required. "No, you're right I don't. Could you teach me how to?" Stroheim scoffs at me "Of course I can, I was the best mechanic in the ASF. Come, let me teach you."

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'Gah, that took ages. That was horrible! I mean, I guess it wasn't so bad. I'd rather not be eaten alive by the Grimm, and I guess I really don't have much to do until my workshop is constructed. Now, where did Stroheim tell me to go to acquire dust for bullets? Oh, there it is.'

Marcus approached a small building sandwiched between two larger buildings on a quiet street. Seeing that it was so late, nobody was out. Among maintenance, Stroheim taught Marcus many things about dust firearms and the appropriate handling of different kinds of dust. He even taught him some tips and tricks he's picked up over the years. Things you wouldn't learn from books. Overall, Marcus was pleased that he acquired a vast amount of new knowledge, he just wished it wasn't so late.

"Dust till dawn eh? Seems a nice little joint." I pushed open the door and greeted the old man behind the counter with a two fingered salute. He nodded and went back to whatever he has reading. Tubes filled with various colors of dust lined the walls, and the old man stood over the finely cut crystals in their glass display case. I slipped a pair of earbuds out of my pocket and linked them to my scroll, listening to a radio station. I confess, I greatly enjoy music, but all of the music I love is back on Earth, so I have to find new music here. Whilst doing so, I spot the only other inhabitant of the store, a small teenage girl with a red cloak reading magazines in the back. A newspaper rack is adjacent to where she picked up her magazine. 'A newspaper is just what I've been looking for.'

I make my way to the back of the store and pluck a newspaper from the rack. The girl glances at me from under her hood but her attention is fixed on the comic. I crank up the volume, the track on the radio is a bit quiet for my liking. A few minutes go by like this, but then I become vaguely aware of a voice, another customer I guess. Then a hand pulls the hood off of Cloak's head. I glance over as a man motions for her to take of her headphones. I do so as well. Immediately, I notice his outfit, and the four other men in the room dressed similarly. If I'd concentrated, I could have seen this happen with my sixth sense... I really oughta train that.

Time seems to slow down as I take in all the new information. Five men, some armed with swords, some with pistols. Black suits, red ties, red shades, possibly mafia. One man, white suit, grey bow tie, bowler hat, likely the ring leader. Two are draining dust from the tubes on the wall with small black cylinders, one is shaking down the shopkeeper for crystals. The boss is at the counter as well, leaving us two with the last one.

"I said put your hands in the air, NOW!" The yelling brings me back to the situation at hand. Cloak looks at the man confused. "Are you... robbing me?"

The gangster grows an even larger frown, and lets out an exasperated "YES!" I slowly reach for my rifle, in it's concealed mode, I don't wanna judge a cloak by it's cover, but Cloak here doesn't look like much of a fighter. She lets out a prolonged "Oh" as if she just realized something that was bothering her. Then, in a series of movements I could barely track, she elbows him in the stomach, dashing into him while he's caught off guard. She then kicks the gangster so hard he easily flies ten feet, crashing into the front of the building. Another thug investigates the disturbance, yelling at her to freeze, pointing his handgun right at her. This time, she moves faster than I can see, and drop kicks this guy so hard, they both fly through the front window into the street.

Completely dumbfounded by what I just saw, she slowly stands, unfolding a scythe that must be at least 7 feet tall. I stand completely and utterly corrected. Do not fuck with cloak. She turns and looks at the thugs, and one dumbfounded Marcus, still holding my newspaper. She then flourishes her scythe, planting it at least 4 inches deep into solid asphalt, and turns off her music, now blasting loudly as her headphones were disconnected. The boss, however, seems unimpressed, and orders the thugs to take her down. She mounts and spins around her scythe twice, and the first poor sod who got to her ran face first into a double footed kick.

'What the hell are these people!' I would help, but you see, I have no soul magic bullshit to protect me from lethal wounds, I get shot in the face, I'm fucked. I'm gonna go ahead and assume from all the crazy BS I'm seeing Cloak pull that she does, and she means business. She probably goes to one of those combat middle schools.

Cloak fires a round from the end of her scythe... not even surprised anymore. And uses the recoil to smack one of the goons with the blunt end, launching him over a two story building. She keeps spinning with the momentum, and slams the next guy into the asphalt. One of the goons whips out a full auto PDW and starts spraying. Cloak shoots four times, each shot sends her speeding down the street, then she dashes towards him. Her speed sends her baseball sliding into the guy's feet, knocking him into the air. She plants her scythe into the ground to halt her forward momentum and spins around, up into the air, and slams down onto the guy, sending him cracking down to the feet of their boss.

"You were worth every cent, truly." He says this without a hint of anger, he almost seems amused. He pulls the cigar from his lips, drops it and stamps it out with his cane. "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around..." he aims his cane up at Cloak... Red... whoever. "I'm afraid this, is where we part ways." A crosshair pops up from the bottom of the cane, and fires an explosive flare. She aims downward and fires to escape the explosion, but her vision is obscured.

When she glances back up, facing the storefront, the boss is gone. "Cmon,where did he go?" I decide to step in, fashionably late. "Hey, Cloak, he's over there." I say, pointing behind her to a ladder that leads onto a roof of a building across the street. "Thanks!" She goes to leave, but I stop her. "Let me help this time." I'm not exactly sure what idiocy made me say it, but here I am, so let's make the most of it. I run to scale the ladder as she says something to the shopkeep. Cloak just shoots down and propels herself up right as I reach the top. Show off.

"Stop right there!" I shout at him. Unfazed, he mutters something under his breath, and a small VTOL rises from the opposite side of the building next to him. A spotlight points right at us, it blinds cloak, but I turned away, and squinted back into it. He climbs into the VTOL, and shouts back down at us. "End of the line, you two!" And holds a bright red crystal up before chucking it at us. It does nothing, but before I can sign in relief, he aims his cane at us.

"Son of a bi-" the crystal explodes as the flare hits it, but surprisingly, I'm not scorched. The smoke clears, and it's Glynda Goodwitch to save the day. She's projecting some kind of shield through her riding crop, proceeding to push her glasses up in a very anime protagonist manner, and sends some kind of purple energy attack into the ship. The missiles knock the ship around, but do no visible damage. It tries to leave, but Glynda summons forth a localized storm and rains large ice shards down into the craft. A woman with glowing clothes steps to the hatch and launches a fireball at Glynda, which she blocks. However, the fireball seemed to shatter into glass like shards, which glowed red hot and emitted a screeching noise under Glynda. She backflips out of the radius of the detonation, freezing the shards of debris in place and forming them into large spears and launching them at the ship. The woman in the ship attempts to blast it apart, but they simply reform into three thinner, longer spears. The woman in the ship lets out a massive burst of flame that incinerates the spears circling the ship.

Cloak and I begin firing at the woman in the hatch, but she blocks the bullets with her hand, and summons forth more circles of screeching flame. Glynda uses her telekinesis to throw us out of harms' way before she dodges, but this distraction proved enough time for the airship to pull away.

Cloak sheathes her weapon and looks at Glynda in awe. I dust myself off, "thanks for that Glynda,  I appreciate not being turned into fried chicken." Glynda shoots me the kind of glare that could burn through the Nostromo, so it's probably best to be quiet. Cloak brushes past me and asks Glynda for an autograph. I'm pretty sure I heard something break when Glynda's eye twitched, but she simply said "Come with me, both of you."

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Cloak and I are sitting at an interrogation table in the VPD police station. Why am I here? Buggered if I know, I work for you guys! And I stopped a robbery! Never mind that it was all Cloak.

Glynda paces behind Cloak and I rambling on and on about how our actions won't be taken lightly, and how we put "ourselves and others in great danger." Yeah right, blow me Goodwitch.

"They started it!" Cloak childishly, but rightfully retorts.

Continuing unfazed by being smacked in the face with logic. "If It were up to me, you'd be sent home with a pat on the back... and a slap on the wrist." She brings her crop down on the table next to Cloak's hand, who recoils with an "eep!".

"But.. there is someone here who would like to meet you." Ozpin enters the room with a platter of cookies, and his signature mug. "Ruby Rose... you... have silver eyes." Cloak, er, Ruby, looks perplexed at this blatantly obvious statement, and brilliantly replies with an "uh..."

"So! Where did you learn to do this?" Glynda spins around the data pad she was holding and reveals CCTV footage of her going all Jackie Chan on the thugs. "S- Signal Academy."

"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" An overstatement, but okay Oz, whatever boats your float. "Well, one teacher in particular." Ozpin sets the cookies down between us. Ruby immediately fixates on them, then looks at me. Without a word, I slide the plate closer to her. She immediately devours the plate of cookies.

Ozpin continues, "It's just that I've only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before. A dusty, old crow." Ruby, with a mouthful of cookies and the elegance of a bear decides to talk. "Mmh! Thash muh uncle!" She swallows, and wipes her mouth. "Sorry, that's my Uncle Qrow!" He's a teacher at Signal." She goes on about him for some moments about his tutoring. Ozpin asks why she wants to be a huntress and Ruby explains that-

'Blah blah blah oh my god is this ever going to stop I do not give a damn why am I even here?' I'm vaguely aware of Ruby mentioning she and her sister are applying to Beacon, but she has two more years at Signal. Silence follows Ruby expressing her love of hunters and huntresses, she seems to have a really romanticized view of the matter.

"... Do you know who I am?"

"You're Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon."

"Hello." Ozpin says as if this whole time it was just a chat between friends.

"Nice to meet you." Ruby what are you doing Ozpin what is going o-

"You want to come to my school?" Ruby leans forward as Ozpin did, "More than anything."

Ozpin looks at Glynda out of the corner of his eye, only getting a "hmph" in response. He turns to Ruby once more "Well okay, you're accepted. Now run along, if you accept, you should start packing for Beacon immediately, shouldn't you?"

Ruby's eyes and smile continue to widen as she dashes out of the room faster than I would've been able to sense, were I not using my sixth sense. Oddly enough, she left a trail of rose petals in her wake.

"Now Marcus."

"Yes Ozpin?"

"Why didn't you return to Beacon after retrieving your weapon?"

"Stroheim held me back to teach me proper dust bullet manufacturing, weapon maintenance, and other things he's picked up. That took a while, but he insisted on teaching me about why Atlesian science is the best in the world. So it was around ten by the time I left. He directed me to a store where I should grab some dust. It happened to be the one Ruby was present at. You know what happens next."

Ozpin sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose and mutters "Stroheim" under his breath.  "Oh well, at least you are unharmed. I have reviewed your proposition for installing defenses on Beacon campus. I will allow it, but I want you to be one hundred percent sure that they are hidden, and that their targeting is rock solid. I don't want friendly fire incidents."

"You don't have to worry about that Ozpin, I can start constructing them once my workshop is complete. By the way, it should be done by the time the new students arrive, right?"

Ozpin nods "So long as you add nothing new to the plans and there are no unforeseen setbacks, yes."

"Good." I rise from my chair and stretch. "Now, let's get back to Beacon, shall we? I'm tired as all get-out."