WAR! 3
AndrewJTalon
Experienced.
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The term Nurses Office normally invokes the image of a quaint little room off to the side of a major hallway where with a handful of beds where a sick child can wait for their parents to swing by and pick them up for a trip to the family doctor's practice or a hospital. The Nurses Office of Beacon Academy didn't match that description.
Beacon's Nurses Office was a full blown medical wing packed full with state of the art medical equipment, a suite of high end examination and operating rooms, and enough beds to hold all the students and faculty that would be on campus during a normal semester of school. As such it was only called the Nurses Office in the common vernacular of students and faculty because of the way it was normally staffed: five nurses guarding the medical cabinets to make sure nobody tried to swipe the opioids and other such drugs for recreational purposes.
Now Beacon did have a full blown doctor on hand at all times, but she spent most of her days in a classroom the next hall over teaching students first aid and field medicine.
Now the reasons for such extensive facilities with such a small medical staff were multi faceted. For one thing virtually everyone on school grounds had their Aura unlocked, as such any minor injury would resolve itself fairly quickly and any injury worth getting additional medical attention for would require the state of the art surgical rooms. In other words it was logistically easier to have a miniature hospital on school grounds and fly additional medical staff in as needed than it was to fly critically injured students into a hospital in the city.
Now medical emergencies like that didn't happen every day, once again because everyone on campus has an unlocked aura, so when Ozpin brought Moses down from his office to deal with the boy's growing migraine he expected to have the full attention of the nurses on duty. That was not the case.
Three of the nurses were fussing over a rather resined looking Mercury Black. A pair of prosthetic legs sat on the table beside them, one of them noticeably melted, and the nurses were debating about how salvageable the mounting points on Mercury's legs actually were. Ozpin supposed the young man got caught up in whatever mess that was causing his team leader to chase their teammate Emerald around the courtyard.
The other two nurses were giving Sun Wokong and an attractive young woman (a chameleon faunus if the way her skin colors kept changing meant anything) an in depth lecture/demonstration of all the ways you could tie someone up without restricting blood flow or causing any other long term injuries. They were also making the two practice, having Sun tie-up and untie the chameleon woman again and again until his knots met their professional standards.
It always made Ozpin glad to see students take their education seriously: the ability to properly restrain a recently captured foe when aura suppressing cuffs weren't available was an incredibly useful skill for a Huntsman or Huntress to have. Ozpin mentally commended Sun for taking the initiative to learn these skills on his own. Though perhaps it should be made a proper class next year. An elective perhaps? Thoughts for later.
Not wanting to distract the nurses from their work Ozpin simply lead Moses to an available bed and attended to the lad himself.
"Do you have any medical allergies?" The old wizard asked as he examined the over the counter pain medications stored near the bed.
"Nah," Moses muttered, "I don't."
"Then take two of these, and if things don't get better within an hour you can take two more," Ozpin instructed as he selected a bottle of pills and filled a glass with cold water, "but don't take more than six."
Moses took the recommended dosage and drank all the water in three long gulps. The boy then fell back into the bed with his eyes scrunched shut.
"Now my recommendation is for you to try and sleep through the worst of this headache," Ozpin said as he pulled a piece of equipment from behind the bed's headrest. "Now I'm going to place this headband on you, it will monitor your brain activity and get the attention of the nurses if anything alarming happens, alright?" Moses allowed him to place the headband, and Ozpin wrote a note explaining what the nurses needed to know about Moses.
With the note written and placed where the nurses would find it when they turned their attention to the boy Ozpin quickly glanced around the room to see what everyone was doing. The nurses on duty were still focused on what they were doing before he came into the room, and Moses seemed pretty out of sorts. That meant he was free to flex a mystical muscle or two without real scrutiny.
Ozpin ran two of his fingers over Moses' forehead, muttering words in a language that had died the day Salem spat in the face of the Gods: a simple cantrip to help ease the mind into pleasant dreams. As Ozpin felt the spell take root in Moses' mind he turned to leave, only to hear Moses whisper two words in that dead language:
"Thanks Dad."
If a wizard trips over his own two feet, but nobody noticed, did he actually trip over himself?
On most days Ozpin is honest enough with himself to admit the answer is yes.
--------------------
Finding a few seconds respite, Ash activated a switch on the side of his dagger, making it shift in size to the length and girth of a proper longsword. The new length added to the blade made it easier for him to force Petra to keep her distance, as his weapon now had superior reach when compared to her wooden hook sword. If the girl had still had two of them then perhaps the reach advantage wouldn't have mattered as much, but Petra had lost one of her blades to Dorothy a couple of exchanges ago.
And yet as Ash tried to press his newfound advantage Nicholas was suddenly between them using his glyphs as shields that blasted both of them back when their swords made contact. And with that Petra was now fighting Nicholas, while Ash suddenly found himself fighting Leander while Ashly grappled with Leandra right next to them.
How many times had he switched opponents now? Six? Seven? More? He knew he hadn't crossed blades with everyone here, but it sure felt like it.
At this point it was clear that Ashley's long shot plan was toast. It kind of hinged on their Dad getting to know their Mom under conditions where both of them could be vulnerable, hence the need to get everyone else out of the way. But now their Mom was here chasing Auntie Em around like a rabid dog and screaming expletives like a raving lunatic in front of Dad, and it was hard to imagine Dad letting his guard down after seeing that.
Ash jumped over Leander and kicked behind himself while Ashley performed a similar maneuver on Leandra, and suddenly the faunus twins were fighting Pyrrha while Ash and Ashley were back to back keeping their eyes peeled for the next approaching challenger.
"You didn't happen to come up with a backup plan at any point, did you?" Ash asked his sister.
"Nope," Ashley popped the p.
It was then that Ash noticed his father take a step forward from the edge of the courtyard towards the battle, then another, and another; a look of determination growing stronger and stronger with each step.
Jaune Arc took a deep breath, and then projected his voice the way he had seen his own Father Nick do when things got out of hand.
"HEY! CUT IT OUT!" Jaune bellowed, "NONE OF THAT! SHAME ON YOU!"
If Ash and Ashley hadn't already been standing still the raw authority their Father managed to put into that shout would have made them freeze in their tracks. Apparently all of their paradox half-siblings were of the same mind, for all of them came to a complete stop by the time their Father had completed the first syllable. It didn't take long for the mothers to follow suit. Pyrrha, Weiss, May, Blake and Arslan all froze by the time the second syllable was finished. Ruby, Yang and Auntie Em all came to stop in the middle of the third syllable, and their Mom...
...Their Mom wasn't stopping.
Their Mom wasn't stopping and her eyes were filled with all consuming fury.
Their Mom wasn't stopping, her eyes were filled with an all consuming fury and her face was a rictus of rage.
Oh Gods; Their Mom was going to KILL Auntie Em!
Ash moved, and Ashley moved beside him. In three leaping bounds they were between their mother and Auntie Em, their hands stretched out before them as they both cried out: "Mom! Sto-"
Cinder Fall lashed out with both hands wreathed in arcane flames, and Ash and Ashley's world was filled with searing pain...
--------------------
Cinder had learned at a young age that anything she didn't directly control could and would hurt her. The so called 'family' that raised her. The huntsman who taught her to fight. The witch who made her an apprentice. All of them made that truth as clear as the sun on a cloudless day. And so Cinder had sought power for control, for if she had enough power she could control everything and then there would be nothing that could hurt her ever again.
Emerald's infatuation with her was a useful tool to that end. That infatuation meant the dark skinned thief wanted to be under Cinder's control, and made her actively labor to that end. All Cinder had to do was whisper a honeyed word there, show a small smile there, leave an implication dangling down the road and Emerald would do all she could to place herself beneath Cinder's power.
That devotion and willingness to be under Cinder's complete control made Emerald different from everything else in the world: Emerald was safe. Emerald could never hurt her, for Emerald had traded away her ability to do so for the low low price of the occasional indulgence in the idea of a possible romantic future between them. And so Cinder would give those small indulgences even though she felt no tangible attraction, for the value of having something that was actually safe in this world was incalculable.
And then the time traveling child had abruptly barged into the room and ruined everything. That child meant the price payed for Emerald's submission would go up and up and up until Cinder couldn't pay it. That child meant Emerald would have a reason to labor for something other than Cinder's favor. That child meant Emerald's infatuation would disappear and be replaced with a love for someone else. That child meant Emerald was no longer safe.
And so Cinder threw down the gauntlet, and then Emerald proved that the child had already pulled her out from under Cinder's power; proved that Emerald could now hurt her. Rage had filled Cinder's heart, and she lashed out at the one who had lied about her unshakable devotion and the child that made that devotion shake.
Everything after she threw the burning glass knife was a blur. If she were to try and recall it later she would only be able to say that Emerald fled, and so she pursued. Through the halls, up and down the stairs, through classrooms and locker rooms and out into the courtyard was all just a blur as she chased the false promiser who had lured her into a false sense of safety and security.
When two strangers jumped in front of her there was no thought beyond the instinct of the fighter: grab their heads and knock em together. The desire to burn the false promiser bled into the action, enveloping her hands in the Maiden's flames.
Twin screams of agony pierced through her rage. How could they not? They were almost identical to her own cries when others had hurt her. Cinder stepped back and looked down at the two fallen figures, writhing in pain in the same way she had writhed when Salem had shown her the true nature of power. She could see their faces, so much like her own even as fire danced across half of them and burned into their aura. The two of them were somehow hers. Somehow there was someone who could make her feel safe enough to risk the vulnerabilities of pregnancy and motherhood.
How? Who?
She looked up, and saw that the eyes of everyone in the courtyard were locked upon her. Then the boy Jaune Arc charged towards her, the others followed.
Cinder turned and ran. As she built up speed the powers of the Maiden surged within her. Flames gathered in her hands and feet and soon they shot out like a rocket, propelling her into the air and away from those who pursued her. In a few moments Beacon Academy was far behind her and she was a speck on the horizon.
--------------------
No one pursued Cinder Fall. Jaune Arc didn't even notice her running away. All he knew was that the two kids screaming the most agonizing screams he had ever heard were somehow his kids and he'd be damned if he didn't do something, anything, to help them.
Jaune went to his knees on the ground between them, placing his hands on their shoulders in an effort to stop their violent thrashing about. The instant he made contact with them he felt something strange happen with his aura; it was actively being pulled out of him and into the kids. He felt faint and lightheaded for a moment, but through that lightheadedness he noticed that the burning consuming their faces was slowing down, and so he let the pulling happen.
Then the eye each kid had that wasn't wreathed in flame stoped twitching about in an unfocused manner and gained focus locking onto his own in shock. Then they shocked Jaune by closing their eyes and twisting the parts of their faces that weren't burning in a look of concentration, and Jaune felt the pulling on his aura stop.
Why did they stop? They needed his aura to stop having their faces burn off! This was bad, very bad. So very very bad.
But if they weren't going to take his aura, then maybe... maybe he could give it.
Jaune's face contorted with focus and grim determination, and he felt his own aura surge within him. As it surged he did what he could to push it through his arms. That was surprisingly easy. Then the tried to push it out his hands. Also easy. Out of his hands and into them? Now that he was doing it it was easy.
Jaune's aura moved through the two kids and pushed back against the flames trying to consume their faces. As Jaune focused and pushed the flames were overwhelmed and extinguished, and the burnt flesh knitted itself back together; albeit not the way it was before.
The two kids had mirrored burn scars on their faces in the vague shapes of a hand. The boys covered his right eye, the girls her left. It didn't look pretty, but their pain subsided and they slipped into blissful unconsciousness.
Then the doors to the courtyard slammed open again.
--------------------
"STOP THIS FOOLISHNESS AT-" Glynda cut herself off as she saw that the riot had somehow ceased before her arrival. Instead of a scene of violence she instead saw the sight of Jaune Arc trying to cradle and comfort two black haired fraternal twins who had fresh burn scars on their faces, both of them in some kind of fitful sleep. The women and children who had been fighting so violently just a little while ago stood around Jaune in a manner that was simultaneously protective and confused.
Of course now all eyes were on her.
Glynda heaved a mighty sigh before she took control of the situation. "Mr. Arc, Lie Ren, please take those children to the infirmary and then join us in the Headmaster's office once they've been settled in."
"Yes Ma'am" both boys replied.
"The rest of you will be following me," Her tone brokered no argument, "And if you try to slip away I will look for you, I will find you, and you will wish you didn't try to worm your way out of what's coming."
Nobody present was foolish enough to object.
Beacon's Nurses Office was a full blown medical wing packed full with state of the art medical equipment, a suite of high end examination and operating rooms, and enough beds to hold all the students and faculty that would be on campus during a normal semester of school. As such it was only called the Nurses Office in the common vernacular of students and faculty because of the way it was normally staffed: five nurses guarding the medical cabinets to make sure nobody tried to swipe the opioids and other such drugs for recreational purposes.
Now Beacon did have a full blown doctor on hand at all times, but she spent most of her days in a classroom the next hall over teaching students first aid and field medicine.
Now the reasons for such extensive facilities with such a small medical staff were multi faceted. For one thing virtually everyone on school grounds had their Aura unlocked, as such any minor injury would resolve itself fairly quickly and any injury worth getting additional medical attention for would require the state of the art surgical rooms. In other words it was logistically easier to have a miniature hospital on school grounds and fly additional medical staff in as needed than it was to fly critically injured students into a hospital in the city.
Now medical emergencies like that didn't happen every day, once again because everyone on campus has an unlocked aura, so when Ozpin brought Moses down from his office to deal with the boy's growing migraine he expected to have the full attention of the nurses on duty. That was not the case.
Three of the nurses were fussing over a rather resined looking Mercury Black. A pair of prosthetic legs sat on the table beside them, one of them noticeably melted, and the nurses were debating about how salvageable the mounting points on Mercury's legs actually were. Ozpin supposed the young man got caught up in whatever mess that was causing his team leader to chase their teammate Emerald around the courtyard.
The other two nurses were giving Sun Wokong and an attractive young woman (a chameleon faunus if the way her skin colors kept changing meant anything) an in depth lecture/demonstration of all the ways you could tie someone up without restricting blood flow or causing any other long term injuries. They were also making the two practice, having Sun tie-up and untie the chameleon woman again and again until his knots met their professional standards.
It always made Ozpin glad to see students take their education seriously: the ability to properly restrain a recently captured foe when aura suppressing cuffs weren't available was an incredibly useful skill for a Huntsman or Huntress to have. Ozpin mentally commended Sun for taking the initiative to learn these skills on his own. Though perhaps it should be made a proper class next year. An elective perhaps? Thoughts for later.
Not wanting to distract the nurses from their work Ozpin simply lead Moses to an available bed and attended to the lad himself.
"Do you have any medical allergies?" The old wizard asked as he examined the over the counter pain medications stored near the bed.
"Nah," Moses muttered, "I don't."
"Then take two of these, and if things don't get better within an hour you can take two more," Ozpin instructed as he selected a bottle of pills and filled a glass with cold water, "but don't take more than six."
Moses took the recommended dosage and drank all the water in three long gulps. The boy then fell back into the bed with his eyes scrunched shut.
"Now my recommendation is for you to try and sleep through the worst of this headache," Ozpin said as he pulled a piece of equipment from behind the bed's headrest. "Now I'm going to place this headband on you, it will monitor your brain activity and get the attention of the nurses if anything alarming happens, alright?" Moses allowed him to place the headband, and Ozpin wrote a note explaining what the nurses needed to know about Moses.
With the note written and placed where the nurses would find it when they turned their attention to the boy Ozpin quickly glanced around the room to see what everyone was doing. The nurses on duty were still focused on what they were doing before he came into the room, and Moses seemed pretty out of sorts. That meant he was free to flex a mystical muscle or two without real scrutiny.
Ozpin ran two of his fingers over Moses' forehead, muttering words in a language that had died the day Salem spat in the face of the Gods: a simple cantrip to help ease the mind into pleasant dreams. As Ozpin felt the spell take root in Moses' mind he turned to leave, only to hear Moses whisper two words in that dead language:
"Thanks Dad."
If a wizard trips over his own two feet, but nobody noticed, did he actually trip over himself?
On most days Ozpin is honest enough with himself to admit the answer is yes.
--------------------
Finding a few seconds respite, Ash activated a switch on the side of his dagger, making it shift in size to the length and girth of a proper longsword. The new length added to the blade made it easier for him to force Petra to keep her distance, as his weapon now had superior reach when compared to her wooden hook sword. If the girl had still had two of them then perhaps the reach advantage wouldn't have mattered as much, but Petra had lost one of her blades to Dorothy a couple of exchanges ago.
And yet as Ash tried to press his newfound advantage Nicholas was suddenly between them using his glyphs as shields that blasted both of them back when their swords made contact. And with that Petra was now fighting Nicholas, while Ash suddenly found himself fighting Leander while Ashly grappled with Leandra right next to them.
How many times had he switched opponents now? Six? Seven? More? He knew he hadn't crossed blades with everyone here, but it sure felt like it.
At this point it was clear that Ashley's long shot plan was toast. It kind of hinged on their Dad getting to know their Mom under conditions where both of them could be vulnerable, hence the need to get everyone else out of the way. But now their Mom was here chasing Auntie Em around like a rabid dog and screaming expletives like a raving lunatic in front of Dad, and it was hard to imagine Dad letting his guard down after seeing that.
Ash jumped over Leander and kicked behind himself while Ashley performed a similar maneuver on Leandra, and suddenly the faunus twins were fighting Pyrrha while Ash and Ashley were back to back keeping their eyes peeled for the next approaching challenger.
"You didn't happen to come up with a backup plan at any point, did you?" Ash asked his sister.
"Nope," Ashley popped the p.
It was then that Ash noticed his father take a step forward from the edge of the courtyard towards the battle, then another, and another; a look of determination growing stronger and stronger with each step.
Jaune Arc took a deep breath, and then projected his voice the way he had seen his own Father Nick do when things got out of hand.
"HEY! CUT IT OUT!" Jaune bellowed, "NONE OF THAT! SHAME ON YOU!"
If Ash and Ashley hadn't already been standing still the raw authority their Father managed to put into that shout would have made them freeze in their tracks. Apparently all of their paradox half-siblings were of the same mind, for all of them came to a complete stop by the time their Father had completed the first syllable. It didn't take long for the mothers to follow suit. Pyrrha, Weiss, May, Blake and Arslan all froze by the time the second syllable was finished. Ruby, Yang and Auntie Em all came to stop in the middle of the third syllable, and their Mom...
...Their Mom wasn't stopping.
Their Mom wasn't stopping and her eyes were filled with all consuming fury.
Their Mom wasn't stopping, her eyes were filled with an all consuming fury and her face was a rictus of rage.
Oh Gods; Their Mom was going to KILL Auntie Em!
Ash moved, and Ashley moved beside him. In three leaping bounds they were between their mother and Auntie Em, their hands stretched out before them as they both cried out: "Mom! Sto-"
Cinder Fall lashed out with both hands wreathed in arcane flames, and Ash and Ashley's world was filled with searing pain...
--------------------
Cinder had learned at a young age that anything she didn't directly control could and would hurt her. The so called 'family' that raised her. The huntsman who taught her to fight. The witch who made her an apprentice. All of them made that truth as clear as the sun on a cloudless day. And so Cinder had sought power for control, for if she had enough power she could control everything and then there would be nothing that could hurt her ever again.
Emerald's infatuation with her was a useful tool to that end. That infatuation meant the dark skinned thief wanted to be under Cinder's control, and made her actively labor to that end. All Cinder had to do was whisper a honeyed word there, show a small smile there, leave an implication dangling down the road and Emerald would do all she could to place herself beneath Cinder's power.
That devotion and willingness to be under Cinder's complete control made Emerald different from everything else in the world: Emerald was safe. Emerald could never hurt her, for Emerald had traded away her ability to do so for the low low price of the occasional indulgence in the idea of a possible romantic future between them. And so Cinder would give those small indulgences even though she felt no tangible attraction, for the value of having something that was actually safe in this world was incalculable.
And then the time traveling child had abruptly barged into the room and ruined everything. That child meant the price payed for Emerald's submission would go up and up and up until Cinder couldn't pay it. That child meant Emerald would have a reason to labor for something other than Cinder's favor. That child meant Emerald's infatuation would disappear and be replaced with a love for someone else. That child meant Emerald was no longer safe.
And so Cinder threw down the gauntlet, and then Emerald proved that the child had already pulled her out from under Cinder's power; proved that Emerald could now hurt her. Rage had filled Cinder's heart, and she lashed out at the one who had lied about her unshakable devotion and the child that made that devotion shake.
Everything after she threw the burning glass knife was a blur. If she were to try and recall it later she would only be able to say that Emerald fled, and so she pursued. Through the halls, up and down the stairs, through classrooms and locker rooms and out into the courtyard was all just a blur as she chased the false promiser who had lured her into a false sense of safety and security.
When two strangers jumped in front of her there was no thought beyond the instinct of the fighter: grab their heads and knock em together. The desire to burn the false promiser bled into the action, enveloping her hands in the Maiden's flames.
Twin screams of agony pierced through her rage. How could they not? They were almost identical to her own cries when others had hurt her. Cinder stepped back and looked down at the two fallen figures, writhing in pain in the same way she had writhed when Salem had shown her the true nature of power. She could see their faces, so much like her own even as fire danced across half of them and burned into their aura. The two of them were somehow hers. Somehow there was someone who could make her feel safe enough to risk the vulnerabilities of pregnancy and motherhood.
How? Who?
She looked up, and saw that the eyes of everyone in the courtyard were locked upon her. Then the boy Jaune Arc charged towards her, the others followed.
Cinder turned and ran. As she built up speed the powers of the Maiden surged within her. Flames gathered in her hands and feet and soon they shot out like a rocket, propelling her into the air and away from those who pursued her. In a few moments Beacon Academy was far behind her and she was a speck on the horizon.
--------------------
No one pursued Cinder Fall. Jaune Arc didn't even notice her running away. All he knew was that the two kids screaming the most agonizing screams he had ever heard were somehow his kids and he'd be damned if he didn't do something, anything, to help them.
Jaune went to his knees on the ground between them, placing his hands on their shoulders in an effort to stop their violent thrashing about. The instant he made contact with them he felt something strange happen with his aura; it was actively being pulled out of him and into the kids. He felt faint and lightheaded for a moment, but through that lightheadedness he noticed that the burning consuming their faces was slowing down, and so he let the pulling happen.
Then the eye each kid had that wasn't wreathed in flame stoped twitching about in an unfocused manner and gained focus locking onto his own in shock. Then they shocked Jaune by closing their eyes and twisting the parts of their faces that weren't burning in a look of concentration, and Jaune felt the pulling on his aura stop.
Why did they stop? They needed his aura to stop having their faces burn off! This was bad, very bad. So very very bad.
But if they weren't going to take his aura, then maybe... maybe he could give it.
Jaune's face contorted with focus and grim determination, and he felt his own aura surge within him. As it surged he did what he could to push it through his arms. That was surprisingly easy. Then the tried to push it out his hands. Also easy. Out of his hands and into them? Now that he was doing it it was easy.
Jaune's aura moved through the two kids and pushed back against the flames trying to consume their faces. As Jaune focused and pushed the flames were overwhelmed and extinguished, and the burnt flesh knitted itself back together; albeit not the way it was before.
The two kids had mirrored burn scars on their faces in the vague shapes of a hand. The boys covered his right eye, the girls her left. It didn't look pretty, but their pain subsided and they slipped into blissful unconsciousness.
Then the doors to the courtyard slammed open again.
--------------------
"STOP THIS FOOLISHNESS AT-" Glynda cut herself off as she saw that the riot had somehow ceased before her arrival. Instead of a scene of violence she instead saw the sight of Jaune Arc trying to cradle and comfort two black haired fraternal twins who had fresh burn scars on their faces, both of them in some kind of fitful sleep. The women and children who had been fighting so violently just a little while ago stood around Jaune in a manner that was simultaneously protective and confused.
Of course now all eyes were on her.
Glynda heaved a mighty sigh before she took control of the situation. "Mr. Arc, Lie Ren, please take those children to the infirmary and then join us in the Headmaster's office once they've been settled in."
"Yes Ma'am" both boys replied.
"The rest of you will be following me," Her tone brokered no argument, "And if you try to slip away I will look for you, I will find you, and you will wish you didn't try to worm your way out of what's coming."
Nobody present was foolish enough to object.
