Chapter 36

Making sure to stay out of sight, I crept into the empty room. Thankfully there didn't seem to be any cameras here like Glynda's class.

"Okay let's see..." I pulled open the box, seeing the ping pong balls with the names written on them. "Let's see...ah! Jaune." I took Jaune's ball before grabbing another. I'm gonna put you with Pyrrha. You two aren't on the same team anymore so this little bonding experience should help push you two together again." I nodded in satisfaction having put them together. I'm really good at this huh?

"Let's see, who's next? Ruby? Hmm...let's put her..." I grabbed another ball "With Jacey. Sorry Pyrrha, I know you said you'd handle this team problem on your own. But just think of this as a helping hand. Which reminds me. Sophie, since you seem to be having issues with Pyrrha, why don't I give you someone you'll have some REAL issues with like Cardin. Maybe that'll teach you to appreciate what you have."

Wow, this is really fun. It's almost like I'm deciding their fates. "Okay, so now to make sure Nora's not with any of CRDL...I dunno, Blake. You're paired with Blake now. Now, where is Yang's..."

All of the sudden, the scroll in my pocket vibrated causing me to panic. "He's coming back already?!" I fumbled with the remaining balls before throwing them back in the container and closing the box. I just barely made it out of the room, when someone grabbed onto my shoulder, gripping me tightly.

"Well now, what do we have here?" said a familiar voice.

'Oh no...' I turned around, my heart thumping seeing Cardin behind me with a smirk. And it wasn't just him, the rest of Team CRDL was there with him as well.

"Look, it's our good pal Aero, isn't that right guys?" He said with a dark grin.

The other three chuckled menacingly. "So!" Cardin shoved me backward, Dove catching me as he did, forcefully holding my arms behind my back. "What do you say we hang out for a bit? I Haven't gotten much time to see you since you've been hiding behind your team." Cardin smiled cracking his knuckles before punching me across the face.

"Gah!"

Having lost my aura in the spar with Ren, my lip started bleeding. "Ah ah ah..." Cardin grabbed my shirt using it to wipe the blood away. "We can't have anyone getting the wrong idea about what happened here. We still gotta pay you back for the fun time you gave us back at the cafeteria." I struggled fiercely as he sneered at me, managing to get an arm free, only for Russel to grab it and lock me back down. "C'mon pal, you just got here, you gonna leave us so soon?" Cardin wound up his arm back, his fist hitting me in the gut and knocking the air out of me.

"Guh...you're..."

"What's that?" He moved closer to my face, standing right in front of me, leering at eye level with a smile. "I'm sorry were you trying to say something?" Leaning back, I headbutted his face as hard as I could.

"GAH!" Cardin grabbed his nose staggering back.

"I said...you're a wuss." Ignoring the pain, I smiled up at him. "You talk a pretty big game about me hiding behind my team, then sucker-punch me while hiding behind YOUR team. What's wrong? Can't take me yourself? I guess you need it to be four on one in order to stand a chance..."

"What did you say?!" As expected, Cardin took the bait, a vein popping out of his forehead. "I don't need ANYONE to crush someone like you!"

"What is going on here?" Having been so caught up in what we were doing, none of us noticed Professor Port approaching. Russel and Dove immediately released me, stepping back.

"Oh this?" Cardin shrugged with a smile. "We were just helping our friend here learn about dealing with multiple opponents. Like you said professor, no one's gonna wait for you to adapt right?"

"Oho! Already taking my lesson to heart, I applaud you Mr. Winchester. However, please don't make it a habit of practicing this indoors as you may cause damage and a scene."

"Don't worry teach, we won't." Cardin gave a fake smile pulling me close to him like I was his friend before whispering. "You're off the hook for now, but we WILL settle this one way or another. You take too long and I'll drag your team into this!"

"You son of a bi-"

Cardin gave me a rough shove forward, the professor still watching. "Alright Aero." he said in a cheerful tone. "I'll see you later, I'm SURE of it..." As Ren, Jaune and Nora arrived, he frowned, turning around to leave with his team.

"Aero!" Nora rushed over, squishing my face in her hands as she examined me. "Are you alright?! Did they hurt you?!"

"I'n fshine..."I answered, trying and failing to remove her hands from gripping my cheeks. No sooner had I said this when the cut from Cardin's punch earlier, reopened due to Nora's squeezing my face and starting to bleed again. "Ah! You're bleeding! I'm gonna-"

"Nora."

A calm voice came from Ren, and despite that fact it could barely be heard due to her shouting, Nora immediately stopped. "Yes Ren?"

"Why don't we just ask him what happened?"

"Oh...right...duh." Nora lightly knocked herself on the head. "I just got carried away and..." she immediately whirled back to me. "What happened?!"

A sigh escaped my mouth as I was met with Nora's intense gaze. It probably wasn't a good idea to lie right now. "I managed to get into the classroom and rig some of the results as I planned. But as I was leaving the room I was grabbed by Cardin and his team. I thought Cardin was just mouthing off when he said this wasn't over during the Velvet scene. Because neither he nor his team had bothered me up to that point. Turns out they were just waiting for me to be alone so they could ambush me."

"I knew it! First Jaune, and now you." Nora pounded a fist into her palm. "Time to go break some legs..."

"Nora, no."

"Nora yes! C'mon Aero you said it yourself, you can't just let some jerk walk all over you!"

I sighed once more pinching the bridge of my nose. "I won't okay? I'll take care of it."

"You don't have to do this alone." Jaune lightly elbowed me with a smile. "Just say the word and I've got your back too."

"Well look at you Jaune I'm impressed, I thought Cardin scared you, when did you grow a backbone?" I chuckled.

"W-what? Take this seriously, I'm trying to help you!" He rubbed the back of his head. "Cardin does make me a little scared, but if you're not gonna let that stop you, then neither will I."

"Heh. Thank you. All of you. But no."

"Why nooooooooooot!?" Nora pouted. "C'mon, know he deserves a broken leg or two..."

"Because we'd get in trouble. Evidently, this school doesn't care about bullying, but if we start a fight THEN suddenly it's an issue. They'd ignore what CRDL did and say that we were the ones at fault and punish us. Don't worry, I've got my own plans for Cardin and his lackeys. I'll make sure they pay. You should be more worried about your grades Nora."

Nora groaned at the mention of grades. "Ugh fine..."

Honestly speaking, my grades were even worse than hers. But it's not that I trying, I just had to catch up to gain basic Remnant knowledge before I could properly learn everything. And I refuse to have worse grades than Nora! "It's time to hit the books!"

After the study session, I went to bed and I couldn't help but be worried. I didn't actually have a plan to deal with CRDL. And Cardin wasn't just going to magically let this go. If I didn't find a way to settle this, he'd involve Ren, Jaune, and Nora. They might be fine with it, but I'm not.

These sorts of thoughts plagued me for about half an hour before finally dozing off.

"Huh?" As soon as I fell asleep I found myself in a white void. A vast emptiness appearing as far as the eye could see...save for one person. Looking around, in the void, I could faintly see the body myself standing opposite of me. And when I say myself, I meant my REAL body, the body of Nathaniel. My body looked at me in surprise, the two of us silently observing each other for awhile before drawing closer.

"This is an unusual dream." The other me spoke first, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

I looked him up and down, getting an odd feeling from seeing myself. "This is a pretty surreal dream if you ask me. Wouldn't we be unaware that it was a dream if that were the case?"

He didn't respond, giving me an unusual look as if I were a stranger. "Who are you?"

"I'm you...I think? I'm Nathaniel."

He widened his eyes upon hearing that. Reaching out a hand to me, he was about to say something when-

BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! An alarm clock screamed out ripping me from my weird dream.

"AAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGH!" I instinctively swung out with a fist, hitting the alarm clock and sending it crashing into the wall where it fell to the ground in pieces. "Hah...hah..." My heart furiously pumped in my chest still alert from the rude awakening. But as I calmed down and got out of bed, I got a strange feeling of déjà vu. Looking around, my teammates were nowhere to be seen. A familiar TV could be seen, the many video games I've played over and over again were neatly shelved on a shelf. This place wasn't where I went to sleep, but I'd recognize it anywhere.

"Is this...my room?!"