The bottleneck created a low hum in the line. Everyone was pissed off about the delay; they all just wanted to get to Beacon already. After all, the Headmaster was giving his speech to the applicants today, and Initiation was tomorrow morning.
"No large appliances or pets allowed!" the guard at the entrance to the airship repeated. The massive machine rested on its landing skids, its silver plating and panoramic windows gleaming. Through the glass, you could already see future students.
The only catch was that to join them, they had to ditch the TV and the octopus. Magenta was already crying off to the side, saying her goodbyes to her pet, but their tame Vacuo thug wasn't going down without a fight.
"This TV costs more than you make in a year! Get lost, you piece of shit!" He would have looked threatening if it weren't for the television strapped to his back, which was a good time and a half wider than he was. Yort was carrying two stuffed suitcases in his hands, which was the only reason he hadn't grabbed the guard by the collar yet.
"You're not even students yet, you're just flying in for Initiation! Leave it at home."
"You see," Egrer chimed in, "we don't have a home in Vale. We were just renting a crappy apartment."
"You should have received the Beacon dormitory guidelines on your scrolls." Really? Guess nobody bothered checking... "And it clearly states that large appliances and pets are NOT allowed! Shoo, stop holding up the line!" The guard was losing his patience, just like the students behind them. The grumbling grew louder. At this rate, they were just gonna get tossed out.
"Back off, gramps, or I'll—"
"You'll what?" Buried under the bags, Yort wasn't scaring anyone. "I'm a fully trained Huntsman, so either you leave your junk behind, or I'll personally throw you out of the airport!" He probably wasn't bluffing. It made sense to send someone tough to keep an eye on these Huntsmen-wannabes.
"Do it! I'm not giving up the TV!" Yort was about to keep arguing, but a simple phrase from his leader cooled his jets.
"Our odds?"
"Fifteen." Egrer threw his hands up, as if to say, we're screwed. "But that's plenty for me! I'm gonna kick his—!"
"Chill!" Egrer dragged the giant aside and took his place. A nervous smile plastered itself across his face. "We'll get rid of the extra stuff, but you'll take these, right?"
He pointed to a bunch of backpacks and suitcases, the box containing the drum kit, two guitar cases, a folded-up synthesizer, and... well, a lot of other shit. Magenta's flamethrower was even sitting there. It was too big and clunky to carry around casually, so its owner tried not to lug it around without a good reason.
If it weren't for Yort's brute strength, they would have had to make three trips back and forth just to grab all their crap. How did all this even fit in their dingy studio apartment?
"Set them aside. While you sort yourselves out, they'll load it into the cargo hold."
"Thanks." Egrer winked at Yort, and with a heavy sigh, the giant set his suitcases on the ground. They quickly stepped out of the way.
"If you don't have a plan, I'm gonna deck you." He cracked his knuckles menacingly.
"I got a plan, don't worry."
"Oh, really?" The Vacuo dropout-bomber, or whatever he was, raised an eyebrow. He settled down and was ready to listen, but first, they needed to calm down the most emotional member of the pack.
"Ozpinopuuuuus! My little Ozpinopus!" Magenta wailed over the aquarium. If it didn't have a lid, the water level would have noticeably risen from her tears alone. Bystanders kept throwing her weird glances. "I'm not going anywhere without him! Nowhere, no-way, no-how! We had so little tiiiime together!"
"Hush now," the leader hugged Magenta. "We'll have to ditch the tank, but not your octopus! I have a plan."
"But we can't bring... we can't..." She started stuttering. "My Ozpinopuuuuus!"
"Here, hold this plastic bag." Magenta grabbed it and immediately blew her nose into it. "Not for that! Listen to me carefully, we're only getting one shot at this..."
***
Over the PA system, they announced that the airships to Beacon were departing. The ship their pack was supposed to be on closed its doors, and a second later, its engines sparked, blasting streams of hot air into the ground. Slowly, the ship began to gain altitude.
"Let's go!" Egrer yelled, jumping out of the decorative bushes. The others sprinted after him.
Bystanders watched in shock as Illmond threw a lasso and snagged the ship's retracting landing skid. Four pseudo-students immediately started climbing up the rope while the vessel picked up speed.
"Hey! Hey!" the guards finally snapped out of it. They were airport security, not Beacon guards, so there was jack shit they could do to stop them. "Where do you think you're going?! Get back on the ground, now!"
Yort flipped them the bird and yelled at them to go fuck themselves in a Vacuo casino. The wind was picking up, and the people below gradually shrank to the size of breadcrumbs. Eventually, it even became hard to breathe. But the pack kept climbing up, no matter what. Egrer was at the front, tasked with the most important mission.
Reaching the very top, he pulled out an unremarkable handle and immediately activated his Needlestick. The object snapped open, drastically extending in length, and wedged itself between the ship's belly and the skid, preventing them from closing together. Something shrieked and clanked, the mechanism jammed, and now there was a convenient little spot for them to sit.
"I hope we don't get punished for this..."
"Yaaaaay!" Magenta tried to shout over the wind; she had never looked this happy. Her octopus, on the other hand, had already shit itself from sheer terror—the water in the bag was completely black. It was too scared to even poke a tentacle out.
Illmond climbed up next. He instantly clung to the skid with a death grip and squeezed his eyes shut. It took so much damn effort to drag him into this stunt! He seriously wanted to ditch the pack and just board the ship normally; he didn't have any pets or TVs, he had everything he needed on him. Come to think of it, Egrer could have done the same, but as a good leader, he had a duty to help his friends with everything, not abandon them for the sake of his own comfort.
After reaching the proper altitude, the ship's speed began to increase drastically. Way too drastically. The oncoming wind streams weren't just making it hard to breathe anymore; they threatened to rip them all right off and throw them back down to the ground! Egrer and Magenta had to lie flat, just like Illmond, otherwise they would have simply been blown away.
"Fuck, Eg!" came a yell from below and behind. Yort hadn't managed to climb onto the skid in time and was currently dangling on the rope. The massive TV strapped to his back was creating so much air resistance that you could practically use it as a glider if you wanted to. Yort started slipping. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! I'm gonna fucking kill you! You hear me?!"
"Hold on, I'm on it!" Egrer patted the eyes-shut Illmond on the back and shouted into his ear. "Make another rope!"
"You want me to die!? I need both hands, I'll fall!" A particularly violent gust of wind shook the ship, and the whole pack screamed. Only Magenta was laughing herself hoarse, shouting incoherent sentences into the air like she was on a roller coaster.
The land beneath them ended, giving way to the sea. In his genius plan, Egrer had once again failed to account for one tiny, minor detail: this vessel flew about three times faster than a standard Bullhead. He had hoped to rely on his experience of hijacking aircraft mid-flight, but technology had apparently advanced a lot since those days.
Tears were streaming from his eyes, and his face was already burning from windburn, but Egrer still managed to look ahead. In the distance, the spires of Beacon came into view.
"Yort!" Egrer yelled back. "Beacon is like five minutes away, can you hold on?!"
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" That scream could probably be heard all the way in Atlas. It was the first time there was actual fear in his voice. "I'm gonna die!"
"Then drop the TV!" Silence in response. Maybe he didn't hear him? "I said, drop the TV!!!"
"No!"
"Why?!" Silence again. "I said, why?!"
"Because! Fuck off! I can hold on!"
"Madge, Ill, any ideas?" Egrer got no response, and not because of the heavy wind. Magenta was too busy screaming in pure joy, and Illmond was chanting mantras, trying to calm himself down. Which meant there was nothing left to do but pray for a miracle. "Twin Gods, I'm begging you, help this idiot survive!"
And the Gods listened! Soon, the ship began to decelerate; Beacon was right there. When it was safe to sit up on the skid again, Egrer checked on Yort. He was hanging on by a thread, head thrown back, panting heavily. Sweat had soaked through his shirt, and thanks to his slippery, clammy hands, he was slowly sliding downwards.
As the airship came in for a landing, Yort's face dragged along the asphalt, but he kept his grip out of sheer habit. Or maybe his fingers had just locked up and couldn't unclench.
Egrer collapsed the Needlestick, and the pack jumped down to help him since the height was safe now.
"You good?"
"I'm... gonna fuckin' kill you..." He's grumbling, which means he's fine. Perfect.
Egrer inspected his favorite light-brown suit jacket and almost burst into tears. Not only was it wrinkled to hell, but it was also covered in ink stains. His pants were ruined too; if it weren't for the intricate yellow pattern on them, the black patches would have been somewhat hidden. Damn octopus. Some of the water from its bag must have leaked onto his clothes. Even his new hairdo didn't cause him as much horror. His hair was sticking straight up in every direction, like he'd been electrocuted. No amount of hairspray was gonna fix this mess.
The others didn't look much better, especially Yort and Magenta. The former never really cared about his appearance anyway, but now his usual pineapple-hair looked like a literal explosion, and his clothes looked like they'd been sitting at the bottom of a dirty laundry hamper for a year. Magenta had it even worse: her hands, face, and hair were smeared with ink, and her clothes... yeah, let's not even talk about the clothes.
And this was how they had to present themselves to the entirety of Beacon. Fucking humiliating...
With a soft hiss, the ship touched down completely, and its doors began to open. The pack scrambled; nobody could see them with a TV and an octopus. Illmond grabbed Yort by the legs, Egrer grabbed his arms, and they hauled ass toward the bushes in one of Beacon's courtyard parks. This place had a ton of greenery; honestly, if you removed all the ponds, flowerbeds, pathways, and gardens, the academy would just be a couple of towers.
"Here," the leader said, and the pack stopped in a secluded corner between some building and overgrown bushes. They laid Yort on his stomach, untied his TV, and threw some branches over it. "There we go. After Initiation, we'll sneak it into our room."
"Mine," the son of the Vacuo mafia grumbled weakly, without opening his eyes. "Don't forget."
"Yeah, yeah, I remember." Egrer sighed heavily, realizing the utter futility of his attempts to prove his friendship to Yort. So much effort, so many sacrifices, and all for nothing! It was like the guy was terrified of trusting anyone. Fine, whatever, he could offer his friendship to someone who actually appreciated it. "Then... I guess I'm releasing you. Like we agreed."
An uncomfortable silence hung in the air; even Magenta stayed quiet.
"We're heading out. Good luck." Egrer led his people out of the park; they still had to figure out what to do with the octopus.
"Uh-huh." Yort didn't even look in their direction.
It sucked parting ways on such a sour note. Their crew had lived together for so long, gone through so much, but apparently, they couldn't offer Yort anything besides frayed nerves. He could have at least pretended to be sad about it, but no, the guy was all about strength: strong friends, strong enemies, big guns.
Power, power, power. He didn't give a damn about anything else.
You might think he plays the drums just for fun, but nope. He plays them because you have to hit them really fucking hard!
Also, it kind of stung Egrer that someone had voluntarily bailed on his pack. Losing his primary brawler was a hit to the rest of the pack's morale and to his authority as the alpha, even if Yort had never actually acknowledged his rule. Dictators probably felt something similar when their empires crumbled. But he squashed that feeling in the bud; he was a good leader, and if someone wanted out from under his wing, then so be it.
Still, was there any chance he could have kept him? Doubtful. Yort had said it himself earlier—his mind was made up.
Suddenly, Illmond stopped. He tore his eyes away from his scroll for a second and looked back with a sleepy gaze.
"Hey, say something, man." No response. "This is messed up, you made Madge sad."
A heavy sigh seemed to echo across all of Beacon.
"I'll never understand you guys. Just go. I don't owe you shit anymore."
"You never owed us anything." Yort didn't answer, but you could tell he really wanted to. He just waved them off dismissively.
The thinned-out pack retreated to a nearby pond, leaving him alone.
"That's so sad." Magenta was the first to break the mourning silence. She was incredibly sensitive when it came to friendship, even more so than Egrer. "Why doesn't he believe you, Eg? You're a good guy."
"Wish I knew. Childhood trauma, maybe."
Standing by the water, she raised her plastic bag to eye level. The always-cheerful butterfly looked dead serious right now.
"Are you gonna leave me too?" The octopus didn't answer; it just poked its head out slightly. "Just don't forget me, okay?"
Crouching down, she released him into the pond. Ozpinopus didn't linger near the shore, immediately swimming out into the deeper water.
"One less friend..." Magenta stared sadly into the water.
She was always so flighty that nobody expected Yort's departure to hit her this hard. Egrer knew Magenta the least out of anyone in the pack; for such an open girl, she shared surprisingly little about herself. All he knew was that she had a happy family and lived in a settlement not far from Vale. When their butterfly got her compensation money, she even flew out there to visit them.
"Don't be sad, Madge." The leader placed a hand on her shoulder. "You can still visit him."
"Yort will always be around, too," Illmond added, even though he couldn't stand the guy. It was rare to get that kind of empathy from their pessimistic artist.
"No, he won't." Magenta pouted childishly and turned away.
Please don't tell me she caught feelings.
Either way, words weren't going to cure her blues. Magenta almost never got sad, but when she did, you needed a whole arsenal of fun, distracting maneuvers and a lot of time. And they needed to start right now.
"Alright, time to go get our stuff. Let's go impress that guard."
***
The auditorium was slowly filling up; Headmaster Ozpin's speech was getting close. The crowd wasn't huge yet, but spotting the right person was still a hassle. Since a spot had just opened up in the pack, they needed to fill it, and Jaune had mentioned he could play acoustic and even sing. Three guitarists was pushing it, but they could always stick Illmond on something else—he used to play the triangle and shakers, after all.
It would be nice to convince him to pick up something else, preferably something more impressive, but Illmond was already bored of music. Like he said, back in the day, he was the best among his peers, so he got bored with it. This habit of dropping everything he was good at seemed a little unhealthy to Egrer, but hey, at least their resident hikikomori was a jack of all trades.
The people around them kept their distance and whispered behind their backs, which was a no-brainer given how they looked. But Egrer was the only one noticing all the bewildered stares—Magenta was walking quietly, lost in her own thoughts, and Illmond was literally drawing on his scroll while walking.
Ah, there's Jaune. As the ancient wisdom goes—seek and ye shall find. It just leaves out the part where along with what you're seeking, you might also find a whole lot of trouble.
"Nope, fuck that." Egrer spun around sharply, but he'd already been spotted.
"Eg, hey! Come here!" Jaune waved. The girl standing next to him looked over to see who he was calling out to and turned pale. Egrer paled too, because it was the exact same blonde who had demolished Junior's club.
But since he'd been called over, it would be rude to just dip.
"Hey." They shook hands. This time, the leader was a lot more careful with his grip strength, but it still hurt Jaune. "How was the flight?"
"Awful... uh... how was your flight?" He was staring wide-eyed at their battered appearance, especially Magenta, whose uncharacteristically quiet behavior made it seem like she'd just survived some severe trauma. "What happened to you guys?"
"Rough day." Egrer tried to slick his hair back, but it was useless. "And it promises to get even rougher."
The blonde gave an awkward little wave. She was crab-walking further and further away, hiding some little girl behind her back.
So she actually was applying to Beacon. Egrer had hoped that after that rampage, she'd be scrubbed from the candidate list, but no such luck. She was probably too strong, and Ozpin didn't want to lose out on that kind of "talent."
Let her leave, Egrer wasn't going to stop her. But Magenta suddenly decided to pay attention to the outside world.
"Forces of evil, you don't want to destroy Beacon, do you?" The terror of Vale's nightclubs backed away even faster.
"Yang?" came a voice from behind the blonde. So her name is Yang, gotta remember that. "Do you know them?"
"So you guys know each other!" Jaune lit up, but Egrer rushed to explain.
"I mean, kinda. Remember the nightclub where we first met? Yeah, she trashed the place, and we introduced her face to the floor tiles." He couldn't resist a little jab. Because of her, Egrer had lost his gig and spent all this time bored out of his skull at home. So she deserved it.
"Promise me you won't blow up Beacon," Magenta demanded. "My friends and a lot of really nice people are going to study here."
"My little sister is going to study here, I'm not blowing anything up!" The butterfly nodded and sank back into her gloomy thoughts. But Illmond, upon hearing a familiar voice, finally deigned to lift his head. He blew his bangs out of his eyes and said in surprise:
"Test subject?" Oh, what a reaction! This Yang looked ready to bolt. Had she been genuinely traumatized? How cute.
"Stay back!"
"I have no interest in 3D thots," their hapless artist stated with dignity.
"Oh, really?" She clearly remembered the satisfied look on his face while he was tying her up.
"That was purely for scientific research."
Egrer was too tired to even react. Normally, he would have facepalmed, yanked Illmond back, or done something. People were already giving them side-eye because of their battered appearance, and now this. But he only had enough energy left for one thing: peacekeeping.
"Like they say, winners aren't judged, and woe to the vanquished," he said, cutting off the brewing argument. "Consider that payback for the wrecked club, so no hard feelings."
"Uh-huh, you know what, Vomit Boy? You guys are friends? Right, well, we're gonna go and not get in your way!" She turned around and started shoving the girl hiding behind her forward. "Bye-bye!"
Jaune didn't know how to react to that and just stayed awkwardly silent.
"'Vomit Boy,' huh?" Egrer asked. "Cute nickname. How'd you earn that one?"
"I... well... I threw up on her boots." It apparently happened on the airship. Egrer would have chucked both the TV and Ozpinopus just to get a glimpse of that.
"Karma's a bitch, but she gets the job done."
"Are you holding that much of a grudge against her? She seemed nice to me."
"She beat me up, beat up my friends, destroyed my source of income and PR," Since Yort wasn't around, there was no point in hiding it. "And now she's gonna be studying here. If she apologizes, cool, but I haven't heard any remorse from her yet."
Two booming taps echoed from the speakers. The steady hum of the crowd ceased, and everyone in the hall looked toward the stage, where Headmaster Ozpin was tapping the microphone. Egrer's knees immediately started shaking. What kind of parting words had the strongest man in the world prepared for them? When the silence became absolute, he spoke.
"I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy." What a strong opening. "You are searching for purpose, for a path, and you think Beacon will provide it. But in this school, you will quickly realize that knowledge, strength, and glory will not cure your problems. In any case, this is the first step."
Good thing Egrer and his pack didn't need knowledge or anything else from Beacon, just the diploma. Not everyone in the hall shared that mindset; most were completely shocked, as if the Headmaster had just opened their eyes to a global conspiracy.
Ozpin's deputy took his place at the podium.
"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your Initiation begins. Until then, you are dismissed and free to explore the academy grounds."
"Kinda brief for such a major event." Egrer scratched his cheek. "Whatever, I need to ask where the bathrooms are. I'm not walking around looking like this any longer."