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raebaekaedae · 3 years ago

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Volume One, Episode Four: “Pericles”

Series: SCWR Rating: PG-13 (Foul Language, Violence against Fantasy Monsters, Death Mentioned?, Prominent Themes) Summary: (3,990 words) “Haddy’s been settling into his routine with the help of his teammates. So, when they don’t show up for class one day, he’s rightfully a bit concerned. After learning the significance of the day’s date, Hadrian sets out to learn more about Team Prosciutto's leader; Pericles.”

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"Mr. Snow."

His head snapped to attention as he whipped around from staring at the door to the instructor. Mrs. Heather placed a hand on her hip as she looked up at him, narrowing her reddish-purple eyes on him. She was very stern and constantly smelled like too much cosmetics, but he always enjoyed her class. Her sunny hair was done up in a loose, thick braid that rested on her shoulder and secured with a red tie.

She continued, "Care to tell us where the rest of your team is today?"

The past few weeks had been easy. Hadrian had been on time for every class, never missed a lecture, and already had top grades. All of this was mostly thanks to his teammates. Ryder kept him on track, Robyn made sure he knew where he was going, and Monroe helped him catch up on missed work from the previous semester... so, when the three of them didn't show up to class this morning, it concerned him.

He swallowed hard as he stood up and answered, "I'm not sure, ma'am. I've messaged them, but haven't gotten a response."

"Mr. Snow," Mrs. Heather sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "Please refrain from using your scroll in class."

"Of course, ma'am!" The faunus exclaimed, sticking the new scroll into his pocket with a hasty salute, "Sorry!"

As snickering filled the classroom, the professor again sighed, "This isn't Atlas Academy, Mr. Snow. You don't have to salute the teachers. Please, take your seat."

Hadrian quickly sat down as the giggling and amused murmuring faded out. As Mrs. Heather went back to her lecture on the anatomy of a Deathstalker, he silently pulled his scroll back out and glanced over his team. All of them had been offline since earlier this morning. They'd seemed quiet-- well quieter in Ryder's case-- when the team had gotten ready after waking up, but nothing that gave him cause for alarm. He sighed as he went over the team's private group chat one more time.

HDRN: Guys, Prof. Heather is super pissed. When you get this, shoot me a text.

When no one responded within a minute or two, he slumped back in his seat and stared at the ceiling. He sat there for a moment before his scroll buzzed. He quickly scampered up and looked at the screen.

QROW: Still no word?

Oh. He glanced up and to his side, where Qrow was sitting a row above him, and watched as the gothic teen made an apologetic face.

QROW: Sorry, didn't mean to get your hopes up.

HDRN: It's fine, dude. I'm just worried.

QROW: I asked Tai, and he said he hasn't seen them.

QROW: Did you check their locations?

HDRN: Yeah, they've been offline since breakfast.

QROW: That's not surprising, given the date.

That caught his attention. He looked up to see Qrow, but he was still immersed in his scroll. So, he was quick to reply.

HDRN: And that means...??

This time when he looked up, the crow-haired teen had a look of regret on his face as he nudged his sister and showed her the messages. Hadrian watched in slight confusion as Raven rolled her eyes and tried to push Qrow off of her; but when he wouldn't relent, she quietly groaned and took the scroll from him.

QROW: It's Peri's birthday.

Peri. Short for Pericles. Pericles Vasilikós. Team PRCW's leader. He'd been told his name before he'd arrived at Beacon. He knew that his team had lost their leader over summer break and that he would be his replacement; but, other than that... he didn't know practically anything about him.

HDRN: Oh... Do you know where they might be then?

Qrow snatched his scroll back from Raven and exchanged a glance with Haddy before he replied.

QROW: Not sure. I think he had family here in Vale. They could be visiting. That might be a good place to start.

The rest of the period went by slowly. He had trouble focusing on taking notes, but he needed to if the rest of the team was going to understand the lesson without a tutor. As soon as the bell rang, he was up and out of his seat, ready to go on a one-man search party across all of Vale if he had to... just one problem; he had no idea where to start looking.

A tap on his shoulder broke his focus as he turned around to see Summer standing behind him. She smiled, "I think I can help... Qrow filled me in..." He didn't even feel her approach.

He rubbed the back of his neck as he replied, "Any help is appreciated, thanks!"

"Qrow was misinformed," she started, taking Hadrian's elbow and leading him off to the side of the hall so they didn't block the flow of traffic in the halls, "Peri didn't have any family in the city, but he did have an older friend. A faunus named Rayne Pleia; She's got some kind of bull horns, I think. She works down at the docks. She should be there today."

He was half-tempted to ask her about her sources, but he decided to not look this particular gift horse in the mouth. "Thanks, Summer. I'll start there," he smiled.

With that, he took his leave, quickly changing out of his uniform and grabbing his weapons just in case anything happened to his new team. Within ten minutes, Hadrian was catching an airbus down to Vale. It seemed like the ride took longer than normal, but that was probably just his nerves. When he touched down, he was out on patrol before the landing gear fully settled.

He made his way to the docks in search of this faunus woman who was supposedly friends with Team PRCW's leader. He wandered the harbor for hours, asking anyone he passed if he or she had seen his missing team members or the mystery woman he was in search of. The sun was setting over the gently rippling waves of the port, allowing a beautiful dance of pinks and oranges to grace her waters. He sighed as he sat down on the edge of one of the docks.

"Hey," a voice from behind him called.

Hadrian turned to see a brutish woman with cinnamon skin and short, dark hair leaning up against an old fisherman's hut with her arms crossed. She was wearing thick overalls and a tight undershirt that exposed her burly biceps. She had a judgemental frown on her face as she stared at him... it was only then he noticed the horns curling up from underneath a tied bandana.

He quickly stood up and exclaimed, "Hey! You're--"

"Rayne," she cut in, still frowning, "You've been looking for me." It was definitely a statement, not a question.

When she didn't move to greet or approach him, he nodded in response. "Um, yes ma'am, I'm looking for my teammates. I was told that you might know where they were?"

The woman examined him from afar with a critical eye. After a moment she rolled her eyes and asked, "You Hadrian?"

"Yes ma'am!" He answered with newfound hope.

Rayne rolled her dark eyes again and stated, "Cut it out with the ma'am shit, kid. I'm not that much older than you."

"Of course!" He apologized with a light blush, "Sorry."

The woman rolled her eyes once again as she shifted her weight to stand up straight. She walked to the end of the pier, looming over Hadrian like a statue and blocking his escape if needed. She glared down at him, silently judging whether or not he was worthy. However, he stood firm, proudly standing his ground against the stubborn faunus.

She raised a judgemental eyebrow as she replied, "You don't scare easy, do you, kid?"

"Not when it comes to my teammates, ma'am," he replied boldly.

Rayne narrowed her eyes on him, before shrugging her shoulders and leaning back, "Alright, kid, what do you wanna know?"

He paused to think over his choices. He didn't know how long the leery woman would tolerate him. "I'd like to know... more about Pericles."

That seemed to stump her, it was obviously not a question she had expected. She waited, silently examining, before she replied, "Well, for starters, no one called him 'Pericles'."

Hadrian listened intently as Rayne divulged her secrets, "He was Peri. A noble, kind-hearted kid with only the best of intentions. He was snarky, had a real sassy streak about him; but, you could tell he cared... the stars almost seemed to shine in his eyes... as if he could just blink and bring them down from the night sky, but not because he controlled them... because they respected him...

"He saved my life. I was involved in some... less than legal activities when I was younger. When he and Monroe moved here to go to the Academy, their team caught me stealing from some merchant. Instead of arresting me or punishing me, he offered a solution. He knew the docks were looking for a good set of arms to haul crates, so he put in a good word for me and got me this job.

"He was... a good kid, y'know," she finished with the faintest hints of a smile.

For just a moment, the two stood there silently. No words needed to be spoken. However, after that minute or so had passed, Rayne's thick exterior was back as she asked, "You need to know anything else, or you just wasting my time?"

Hadrian smiled, not because it was polite or what someone expected of him, but truly a genuine smile. Peri. He meant a lot to a lot of people. "Yeah, um, do you know where Monroe, Robyn, and Ryder are?"

She took a deep breath and sighed before she nodded, "Yeah... I got a pretty good idea..."

It took him just under two hours to hike his way out of the city and through the autumnal forest. Every once in a while, he would look down at his scroll to check the directions Rayne had given him but other than that, he was focused on the trail ahead. The sun had long since set and cast shadows in the dark of the woods; his path illuminated by star shine and moonlight.

Grimm roamed Forever Fall Forest throughout the night, hunting for unsuspecting and naïve people to prey on. He hated the idea that his teammates were out in the middle of the woods after dark, but he knew he had to remain calm or else those very grimm would stalk him from their shadows and tear him down. He looked down at his scroll one last time, before reaching up and moving some overgrown brush out of the way.

Before him was a small alcove of trees enclosing a small bush of wildflowers and weeds. Hadrian hesitated and looked around before he called out to the shrub, "Um... guys? You there?"

When he got no reply, the faunus took another step towards the brush, "Monroe? Robyn? Ryder?"

Crickets chirping were the only noise that followed, so he breathed in a deep sigh before stepping over some of the weeds and approaching the bush of budding flowers. He knelt down, feeling quite silly-- as if talking to a bush wasn't absurd enough-- as he reached underneath the shrub and felt around. After a moment, his fingers ran across a latch; which, he flipped.

He stood up, taking the leafy hatch with him. The bush levered up and rested against its hinge as a tunnel opened up from underneath. A wooden ladder made from thick sticks and twine led down into the secret base. Hadrian took one last look around before he stepped inside and started the quick climb down, turning the flashlight from his scroll on as he did.

The ladder itself was shorter than he was; his head was still sticking out of the top of the hole. He awkwardly turned around and got on his hands and knees to begin the crawl into the clubhouse. It wasn't much. There was a tarp with supporting beams overlaid for the ceiling that had soil and fallen leaves atop it to conceal the presence of a base. It was no bigger than his bedroom back home.

There were tree roots coming through some of the packed dirt walls that had pictures tacked to them and pillows were thrown across the floor. He could tell that everyone had their own little corner. One was dug out to be deeper than the rest to accommodate Ryder's size. Another had plenty of flowers and pillows piled high into a make-shift throne. Across from that, there was one pillow sitting alone. In the final corner, there were pillows, but a small indent had been carved out. Inside this shelf, there were knick-knacks and trinkets.

In the middle of the room, there was a small lantern. He crawled over to it and lit the bulb as he further examined the decorations. There was an intertwining web of fishing lines that hung from the rafters that were adorned with flowers and wildlife, as well as little beads and pieces of colorful tile. As he looked around, he was drawn to the pictures first. There were six hung up on the roots.

One was of the entirety of Team Prosciutto. Much like his own team's photo, Ryder had Robyn up on one of his shoulders with a wide grin as she threw her arms into the air. Below them on one side, Monroe had rolled her eyes but was smiling as she had crossed her arms on her chest. She wore her hair pulled back out of her face, unlike how she styled it now. The final figure, who he could only assume was Peri, was laughing as he rested a hand on Ryder's back.

Peri's hair was a wavy, royal purple color that rested shortly on his head. His eyes were closed, but Hadrian could see the happiness in them. He wore similar attire to Monroe, except more pronounced and extravagant with emphasis on armor over presentability. He was armed with a sheathed sword and quiver that rested against his hips on opposite sides.

He looked so... alive.

Hadrian forced himself to turn away from the picture and look to the others. Most of them looked to be taken from Robyn's perspective. The first was of Ryder standing atop a mound of fallen Ursa, spraying a hail of bullets down on approaching grimm from the opposite side of the pile. Peri was a partial ways up, posing for the camera with a 'rock on' hand signal and his tongue sticking out of his mouth, mid-laugh. Monroe yelled at both him and Robyn while fending off one of the beasts.

The next was a sight. Ryder laid back as he bench pressed a few reps out with both Peri and Monroe on the bar. The blonde was beet-red as she was in the process of losing her balance and falling while her counterpart seemed to be cheering on the burly faunus beneath them. You could tell that Robyn was laughing, because of the shakiness of the picture.

After that was a selfie. Peri stood with his back to Robyn and Ryder with an extended arm towards the camera. He was trying not to laugh as he bit into the fist over his mouth to keep himself from waking the red-haired girl. Robyn was sacked out as Ryder gently wrote on her face with a marker. She already had a mustache, monobrow, star over one of her eyes, and a heart beneath the other as well as the word "Babybird" written across her forehead.

Robyn took the next picture. It seemed to be during the construction of this very clubhouse. They had all changed into casual clothes as they cleared away brush for the hole Ryder was digging out. Peri was knee-deep in the dirt with him as he hauled buckets of debris away. Monroe sat in the background, smiling as she worked on creating the hidden roof.

The last photo caught him a bit off guard. It was another selfie, this time from Monroe's perspective. She was smiling as she looked into the camera's lens with a light blush across her cheeks. Peri's cheek was resting against hers as he also grinned at the scroll. It was clear to see that his arm was resting over her shoulders and hers was wrapped around his back to his side.

Hadrian sat back as he looked over all of the photos again and again. He felt like he knew Peri a little bit better after examining the memories memorialized on the walls of his and his team's secret hideaway. However, he realized that was still no closer to finding his teammates than he was before. Maybe they had gone back to the school when night fell.

As he turned around to turn out the lantern and crawl out of the hole, a small glint caught his eye. He blinked as he looked up for the source of the shine. From the corner furthest from him, on the shelf carved especially for it, his eyes spotted a bit of metal. Curious, he inched over to it.

There were plenty of trinkets on the two-layered shelf. A silver medal from the Vytal Festival. An empty dust cartridge labeled, "First Shot at Beacon!!". Key chains from each of the major kingdoms, except for Atlas. A matching pair of tarot cards; the Tower sitting upright. But, what had caught his eye before nearly brought his heart out of his chest.

Sitting proudly at the front of the shrine of Team PRCW's accomplishments, were a trio of metal emblems, each wrong but still cherished. A row of circles encased without a line through them. A windmill with only one beam between the blades. And his own emblem, perfect and resting in the center. A label sat beside them; "First Mission of Team SCWR".

He reached into his pocket, where he found the blonde pirate's incorrect, metal emblem. He pulled it out and looked at it for a long while before he sighed with a hesitant smile and closed eyes. He stretched forward and set it with the others. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a complete set; one that fit together perfectly.

After a moment, he turned back and flipped the lantern off before climbing out of the hideaway. Hadrian pulled the bush back down over its post and latched it closed. He moved to start his trek back to Beacon when his head snapped to attention. He whipped around as the distinct smell of gunpowder and dust drifted through the air. That was when he heard the faint boom of gunfire.

His feet were moving before his mind had time to catch up. Twigs slapped him across the face as he sprinted through the thick brush of the autumnal forest. When things cleared up, he used his semblance to speed himself up. He armed himself and caught his picks on tree trunks as he passed to guide himself in the direction where the scent was thickest.

He broke into a clearing and stopped short as he watched the show in front of him. A Deathstalker rampaged through the forest, easily pulling up trees and tearing up the long grass. One of its claws snapped a log in two like it was made of brittle glass as it whipped around and threw the broken pieces.

Riding atop the scorpion-esche grimm, Robyn had a death grip on the Deathstalker's stinger. She was swinging around wildly as she kept the thing from stabbing anyone and it tried to throw her off. Ryder had one of the stinging arachnid's claws embedded in the ground underneath his hammer as he was pulling back to work on the other. In front of the grimm, Monroe's aura had clearly broken as she took pot-shots at the beast with dust rounds from her revolver, just trying to keep its attention off of her team.

Hadrian could only watch in horror as the beast retaliated. It whirled its free claw around into Ryder's chest, sending him flying as his golden aura shattered. He tumbled off into the long grass and out of view.

"Ryder!" Robyn yelled, still swinging from the Deathstalker's stinger.

She was the next to go. The grimm's tail spun through the air and ripped Robyn's grip apart. The ginger hit a tree as her own red aura fragmented, but held strong. She fell to the ground behind some bushes as the Deathstalker turned its attention back to Monroe. Hadrian watched as she stood frozen in fear. A fear he knew all too well. The grimm attacked, aiming to gore her through with its venomous barb...

And she wasn't moving.

In one fluid motion, Hadrian assembled his rifle and pulled a dust cartridge from his side. He didn't even register which type of elemental ammunition he'd picked until his finger was pressed against the back of the trigger guard. An explosion of icy energy fired out of the barrel and struck the Deathstalker right between its eyes. Frost and ice suddenly encased its head and quickly moved up the rest of its body, finally reaching its stinger only inches away from Monroe's heart.

A tense silence fell over the clearing as seconds passed like hours. After what seemed like ages, one of the grimm's claws broke apart and fell to the ground. It wasn't long after that the rest of the Deathstalker followed suit. As the beast shattered and slowly started to dissipate, Monroe fell to her knees with her shoulder slumped so far he was surprised they weren't on the ground. Both Robyn and Ryder stood up, rubbing their wounds. Hadrian let out a shaky breath he didn't know he was holding in.

He fell back onto his butt as the trio noticed him. They scampered up and quickly ran across the field. Robyn skidded to his side on her knees, putting a hand on his shoulder, while Monroe and Ryder stood in front of him.

The ginger hastily asked, "Hadrian! Are you okay?!"

"ME!?" he replied, half-scared and half-surprised, "You guys were the ones getting tossed around by a Deathstalker in the middle of the woods!"

They all seemed to notice that everyone else was fine at the same moment because the entire team burst into a peal of chuckling laughter. Ryder extended his hands down to help both Robyn and Hadrian up as Monroe shook her head in disbelief, recovering from her initial terror.

Once the laughter had died down, the blonde asked, "What are you even doing out here?"

"I was looking for you three," the husky faunus answered honestly, holstering his weapons. He continued, "You weren't answering your scrolls, and I was a bit worried."

The three looked to one another, before each pulled their scroll out and checked their messages. Monroe pondered, "We must be out of range of the communication tower..."

"Sorry, man," Ryder apologized, rubbing the back of his neck, "D'dn't mean t' startle ya."

Hadrian smiled, "It's all good. I'm just glad I found you all in one piece."

"We decided to take the day off, because--" Robyn started.

He smiled as he held up a hand and cut in, "I know. It's okay. It's cool."

The silent acknowledgment that the three weren't in the wrong was felt between all of them. They stood under the stars for a moment longer before Monroe spoke up, "We should... probably get back to the school."

"Yeah," Ryder remarked, "I's gonna b' Hell tryin' t' catch 'p on cl'sses we miss'd."

"Don't worry, I got you guys covered!" Hadrian smiled.

Robyn punched his arm lightly as she smirked, "Thanks, Hadrian! Knew we could count on you."

"Um, actually, My--" he hesitated, taking a good look at each of them and contemplating his decision, before he finished with a faint smile, "-- my friends call me Haddy."

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