Ep. 17 - Vacation at Last, Second Semester Starts

My little stunt last night didn't go unnoticed. Everyone knew about the gunfight at the docks and the 'fireworks'. The video of the fight somehow leaked. I think Cinder might have done it for some reason. People were watching it on their scroll every time they could. Obviously, my face couldn't be seen, but my armor could. This means that every student knew it was me, since I used it during the sparring sessions. 'With the benefit of hindsight, I should have switched it up a little, thought the archetype and weapon would have given me away anyway.'

After realising it was me at the docks, someone theorised I was protecting the Schnee Company since, you know, I'm a couple with the heiress. It works for me and gives me an alibi. Unfortunately, the good news stops there, as many connected me to the White Fang hideout incident. Now, it's only a hole in the earth, but the police somehow connected with the group. 'They're right, but I want to know how they actually came to the conclusion.'

Some were also scared because of me killing in cold blood. Weiss wasn't since I told her about the Destiny universe, therefore that I already killed and will kill again. In the name of defence, obviously. 'This is something I never understood. These kids are literally training to become killing machines. They will kill Grimm, but the concept of taking a life shouldn't be that scary. Now that I think about it, this was a thing in other fantasy worlds I read about. The fuck should I do, let a psycopath live because 'killing is bad'? Hell no!'

Anyway, with few eventful pieces of news, the first semester ended. One piece of news which I paid particular attention to was the Dust. The police had raided Roman's hideouts and recovered most of the stolen Dust. That was normal since I gave them the locations. What I was kinda surprised to hear was that the team tasked with the Torchwick's HQ was attacked by Cinder before she fled, probably alongside Mercury and Emerald. No one was harmed luckily, apart from a few bruises and burns. Nothing a doctor can't fix. I think this means she has abandoned her original plan. She should be furious and/or desperate right now. I mean, her master plan was thwarted in one night, by one armored freak (you talking shit about me?).

Since the semester ended, I proposed that we go to the resort-like planet, to start the vacation with a 'Yang' as she would say. I regret nothing.

And so, we (meaning team RWBY and me) met up with team JNPR the day after the semester ended.

"Alright! We have two weeks of vacation and a whole planet to explore! Shall we go?!" I asked, excited to go on a vacation with my friends. 'It's just a different feeling compared to going alone.' As a side note, Weiss will be 18 in about a month and a half. It's April now. I already planned to gift her a ring. Maybe talk with her family about our relationship, in particular a nice long 'talk' with Jacques.

The gang went to pack some stuff so that we could stay a week or so. 'I should set a timer. I didn't bother checking how long a day is on that planet.' With that out of the way, I had MoonRay trasmat all of us to the ship. It was JNPR's first time inside, so they were quite shocked by how big it was. That… sounded wrong, didn't it?

I had MoonRay set the course to planet Resort, as I started calling it, while answering some questions my friends had.

After answering the usual questions, such as "How does this work?", "Where did you get it?", and a surprising "Can you make me one?", I decided to turn on the projector, in order to show them space. They were quite awed. Dust doesn't work outside the atmosphere, so satellites and space telescopes aren't a thing. While they were doing that, Weiss looked quite proud, maybe because she had already seen it with me or because I am just that amazing.

In the meantime, I decided to create a useful gimmick: a shield generator that will start from the beach and extend outwards towards the ocean. It will allow the water to pass through, though the marine life will be pushed out. It will basically create a pool of water. Then I remembered the crux of the whole trip: swimming, skiing maybe, just having fun in general. The temperature on planet Resort is cold. Like, real fucking cold, and the atmosphere isn't even breathable. To solve this, I created what I would call a 'local terraformation device', which basically creates a hospitable area inside of a shield. I had to make several to spread them around our campsite.

When we arrived, I started telling the gang a few things.

"Okay! We're here. Now, keep your armor on when we arrive, otherwise you'll freeze or die due to respiratory problems. Neither of the two are nice to experience. I'll set up a terraformer so that we can take the gear off."

"Got it!" was the collective answer.

We trasmated to the surface and I quickly set up my terraformation device. It was quite easy: plop it down, set a few parameters, and hit a switch. From the device, a pillar of light came out and formed a bubble, starting from high up in the atmosphere. The temperature started increasing to acceptable levels for a beach resort and the air was being changed.

"In a few minutes we will be able to take the armor off. In the meanwhile I will set a couple more of these things so that we have space to have fun. You guys can start unpacking or just go exploring. If you do go out, take one of these, it's a modified Scroll to work even here." I said, while passing some wristbands to the guys and bracelets to the girls. The wristbands are just that: bands, nothing fancy about that. The bracelets are more personalized, but the functionality is the same.

I then trasmated my sparrow down. 'I think this is the first time I use it.'

I got on the thing and darted off towards the edges of the barrier.

Meanwhile, Jaune said "I want one of those."

He was met with several nods.

The week was spent between lazing around, playing sports, swimming, and eating. Oh, and sleeping. I quickly set up the terraformers and that 'safe pool' gimmick, so we basically immediately started enjoying our vacation. Ren and Nora explored the surrounding area and found an interesting cave system. It looked like that volcano from 'Journey to the center of the Earth': riddled with gemstones and subterranean streams. I sent a scan and found that this isn't what I thought in the beginning. The 'mountain' continent is in reality the accumulated debris on a colossal creature. The scan couldn't make out the exact look of the thing due to the interference of unknown materials in the cave system. What I know is that it is most likely dead. I didn't bother telling the gang as they would freak out. 'When it was alive, this monster must have been something similar to the Hive Worm Gods. Good thing it's dead or slumbering, at least.'

Forgetting about the beast, I enjoyed my time by sunbathing with Weiss, though we didn't get tanned. I physically can't get a tan, while Weiss has genetics to blame. 'I can't really picture a tanned Weiss.'

I was also convinced/forced to make the gang a sparrow each. That was annoying. Sparrows are damn complicated to make, plus I had to give the things the capability to miniaturize, otherwise they would have to leave them on the ship and basically be useless. I spent a whole night enhancing and miniaturizing the sparrows, though it was worth it. After getting the hang of it, we decided to race around the continent during the last two days. The new sparrows were fast, so it was possible. It was fun as hell, it reminded me of SRL, though I sucked at racing.

Jaune got burned while sunbathing. I may or may not have agreed with Pyrrha to give hima burn with Solar energy, so that she could nurse him on the way back. That was fun.

At the end of the week, we were all refreshed and happy.

After returning to Beacon, we attracted a lot of attention, not only because I didn't care anymore and arrived with the ship in full view, but also because we were still wearing our swimsuits/shorts and beach attire. Someone ogling at Weiss might have fallen on his ass after I glared at him.

A tanned Jaune was surprisingly popular, much to Pyrrha's displeasure. They were making progress though.

At the start of the semester, Ironwood and his fleet arrived, along with the students from Haven Academy. 'If Neptune tries anything, I'll cut his dick off.' I thought.

Currently, we were in the library reviewing last semester's material or, in my case, looking at how a confused Weiss tries playing a board game with the rest of team RWBY. Pyrrha was reviewing with Jaune, Nora was sleeping, and Ren was looking through his notes. I was secretly creating a shock blade like those used by the fallen when I remembered that Sun has been jailed, so he had no interaction whatsoever with team RWBY. But I was proven wrong by the power of plot.

"You!" a certain monkey stowaway shouted while pointing at me. I found it amusing, so I replied in kind.

"Me!" I said while pointing at myself.

"Man, that was not cool! You got me arrested! Only for two days, but still!" he said.

"Hey, nobody forced you to run into my fist!"

"What do you mean 'run into my fist'?! That was obviously on purpose!"

"Anyway, calm down. This is a library. Let's start anew, shall we. I'm Tula." I said, while extending my hand for a handshake.

"Fine! Still not cool though. I'm Sun, from Vacuo." he said, shaking my hand.

"Hello! I'm Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake."

"And I'm Yang." they all introduced themselves.

Then a wild Neptune appeared. Weiss noticed the knife I was holding and got a little worried.

"Well, let me introduce you to my friend here." Sun said, looking at the blue-haired guy. 'I've got to give it to him. He's pretty cool. I want glasses like those. On second thought, no. They wouldn't suit me.'

"Uh, aren't libraries for reading?" he asked, looking between our table and Nora.

"Yes, they are. But when you are on top of the coursework you tend to have free time, you see." I answered. 'Nope, don't like him one bit.'

"Hm… I'm Neptune, by the way."

"Tula."

We stared at each other for a split second. Then Weiss asked him: "Neptune, are you here for the tournament?"

It was a question out of pure curiosity. I'm better than him in any possible way. Definitely.

He started doing his thing: "Hey there. And… I don't believe I cau-"

"Try anything and I will cut you up." I said, staring at him while pointing my knife at his waist.

"Got it!" he shouted and saluted.

"Calm down. Even if he tried, I'm not interested. And don't just threaten other students with knives! Idiot!" Weiss said. I lowered the knife, then crushed it in my hands. It came out like a paper ball. I don't know why I did that, but I did.

"You know, um, Neptune? You just dodge a bullet there. He'd do it for real." Ruby said, causing him to shiver.

I turned my head to Ruby and smiled at her.

'Neptune's out of the picture. Good for me. Now I need to understand if Cinder is actually coming to Beacon along with those two. Tukson was found dead in his bookstore, so I guess that stayed the same. Theoretically, Ruby should meet her tonight. Otherwise I will have to wait for the mixed sparring sessions next week.'