I do not own anything relating to RWBY and Battlefield 1. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Battlefield 1 belongs to DICE and EA. All names mentioned in this fanfic belong to their respective owners.
The ideas in this fanfic belongs to me.
All criticisms are welcomed, especially the ones that are constructive.
After the viewing of the first chapter, everyone left the cinema for other facilities to cool their heads. The little reaper's uncle, Qrow, along with General Ironwood, Headmaster Ozpin, Professor Glynda, Torchwick and Neo chose the bar; team SSSN and JNPR went to the swimming pool, much to Neptune's dismay. Currently, team RWBY along with Summer, Penny and Winter were taking their time relaxing in an indoor garden.
Two hours later, everyone began to return to the cinema to continue with the second chapter. At first glance, the natives from Remnant all seemed to have recovered from the roller coaster of emotions which was "Through Mud and Blood", some of them were not entirely okay, evident by the uncertainty shown through body language of some or the redness on the cheeks caused by alcohol. Though overall, all of them were ready for the next one.
"I hope everyone had a good time.", Eli warmly said.
"We did, Mr. Eli. Thank you for your concern.", Summer replied. Everyone else also nodded in agreement.
The Host then switched his attention to Qrow, Ironwood, Torchwick and Neo. "I also hope that the bar has everything to your liking."
"It sure does, Eli my man.", Qrow chuckled. "We especially enjoyed your totally-unreadable brand of vodka. It makes the Six Swans' tastes like tab water."
"Ah you mean the ТОВАРИЩ! (TOVARITCH), yes?", Eli replied in the Russian accent. This caused everyone to look at him weirdly.
"What's wrong with your voice?", Pyrrha asked.
"Yeah, you sound like uncle Qrow whenever he's drunk. Which is always.", Yang added. Snickers and giggles could be heard coming from Ruby, Summer, Winter and Glynda, while the man himself groaned and rolled his eyes. His niece wasn't totally wrong, after all.
Eli chuckled a bit as he answered. "Haha, very funny. For your information, there was nothing wrong with my voice. I just imitated an accent from a country called Russia, the place of origin of the alcohol that Qrow said earlier."
"So does that word have a meaning or it's just some random name for an alcohol brand?", Ozpin inquired, interested in learning the language.
"Hmm... that depends.", the Host replied, drawing gazes of confusion from everyone. "Did Roman and Neo share a glass with you and the General, Qrow?"
"Well yes, why?", the man in question answered, puzzled as to why Eli would ask such a strange question.
"In that case, I shall be a good friend of everyone and choose not to answer the Headmaster's question.". That kind of respond only deepened the confusion. "Trust me. If I tell you the meaning of the word 'Tovaritch', I bet my money on you and Ironwood making a beeline for the restroom."
That suddenly made everyone to become a bit weary. Is a meaning of a simple word that bad that Eli even willing to bet his money on it? However, since money was now involved, they couldn't ignore the fact that they may have an opportunity to pocket some easy and free lien cards. Just the thought of it made it very enticing to all of them.
Roman Torchwick, true to his title and affiliation, "represented" everyone and confidently said. "How about we make a deal, Eli? If we win, you will give each of us 10 lien cards; if we lose, each of us will give you 10 lien cards.". The rest of the audience stared at Torchwick in disbelief. Since when did a criminal have the right to speak on everyone's behalf?
"I have an even better deal.", Eli replied immediately, which narrowly prevented an everyone-minus-Neo versus one verbal fight from going on. "You lose, y'all give me 10 lien cards each. But if I lose.". Eli then leaned in.
"10000 lien cards. Each."
That basically shut everyone up, though some of them a bit begrudgingly. That was, to their minds, the best deal they had ever heard in their lives. So it came with no surprise that everyone immediately settled down and accepted the bet.
What they didn't expect was for Summer of all people to jump out of her seat, dashed towards their Host's seat, grabbed and violently shook the man's hand; her silver eyes had literally stars in them.
"IT'S A PLEASURE DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU, KIND SIR!!!", the Rose matriarch shrieked in great excitement.
"Okay, okay! I get it! Please return to your seat, Mrs. Rose! The movie is starting now!", Eli loudly exclaimed as the woman then released his hand and dashed back to her seat.
As soon as Summer sit down, the screen slowly lit up as the familiar sight of a blue sphere, Earth, began to appear.
"This sight never gets old.", Sun and his friends chuckled as they looked at Earth in fondness.
"Despite the flaws of the people there, Earth still looks beautiful from afar.", Glynda commented with a smile. Unbeknownst to her as well as the rest of the audience, at the back of the cinema, Eli's gaze on the majestic sight of us was more than just fondness. His gaze also contained nostalgia... and grief.
'Wish we just got along in the first place...', Eli thought. He then looked at everyone in the cinema with a sad smile. 'I sincerely hope they'll never find your planet. Almost three decades of war is enough.'
"Before I got to Europe, I had never seen an aeroplane in real life.", a voice narrated as the view very slowly zoomed in on a specific region.
"High above they twisted and turned, like flocks of birds dancing! There was a romance around the pilots – these new swashbucklers of the skies."
"These pilots sound so awesome!", Jaune and Ruby exclaimed with glee. When it came to adventures, virtually nothing could stop those two.
"They also sound like fine gentlemen, too.", Blake commented with a smile. "From what the narrator has said, the way the pilots fight sound like something comes right out from a romantic tale involving knights in shining armors."
However, a certain brawler just had to ruin her faunus teammate's day-dreaming. "Smoking hot aviators in your area~"
The immediate response was priceless for Yang as Blake's face was as red as a tomato. Though they both settled down and turned their attention to the screen.
"But the reality was... most of these brave young men would eventually end up back on the ground in twisted smoking wrecks."
The screen finally finished its zoom on France and slowly turned black. Before long, lines of text began to appear one by one.
VOSGES, FRANCE. SPRING 1917.
The allies are losing the war in the air.
Germany's Air Force dominates the Western Front with a range of superior aircraft and a roster of famed "ace" pilots, each claiming scores of kills. Britain's Royal Flying Corps struggles to compete.
Most replacement pilots have experience of less than 10 hours.
The average lifetime of an RFC combat pilot is 17 days.
"An honorable death sentence, then.", Neo showed her scrolled to Torchwick.
"That pretty much sums it up.", Roman sighed.
"While they're victorious on the ground, the Germans dominated the skies.", Ironwood referred to the last viewing. "A perfect counterbalance.". The staff of Beacon Academy along with Qrow and Winter nodded in agreement at the General's sentiment. After all, what he said wasn't too far from the truth.
"The fact that the British had to deploy pilots with barely enough time to familiarize themselves with flying aircrafts speaks great volume of how desperate they were.", Weiss muttered to herself in sadness, though it was audible enough for the rest of her team as well as team JNPR to hear. They too also shared the same feeling.
"What makes humans unique is their adaptability and will to overcome the odds.", Penny said with confidence and certainty in her voice. "I believe they would eventually find a way to beat their adversaries and level out the playing field."
The words then disappeared to make way for new text to take place.
A steady flow of new aircraft designs are launched into the skies above war-torn France.
New innovations are a gamble. Some are effective. Some are not.
Aviators risk their lives with unproven technologies.
Those that beat the odds either adapt quickly – or are lucky.
"Better than nothing, I guess.", Qrow shrugged and took a quick sip from his flask.
"It's just sad that many major innovations and breakthroughs owe their success to times of instability.", Winter grimaced. "That fact is still true nowadays."
Ruby glanced at her robot friend, Penny, after hearing the words of the Atlesian Specialist. She couldn't help but wonder if the android girl was also a product born with the sole purpose of countering threats from Grimm and White Fang. If that was the case, would she and Penny still be friends? Or would they have to separate and walk their own paths?
The young Rose shuddered at the thought. The last thing Ruby wanted was for she and her eccentric and unique friend to be separated.
Ruby just wished that everyone on Remnant would just get along with each other and live in harmony.
How naive of her.
The screen then brightened up, showing the audience a dirt airfield surrounded by numerous trees with lush foliage. In it, numerous tents, two large hangars, and few vintage-looking biplanes took residence.
The scene then switched to inside of a hangar, where a biplane with the characters "A1257" could be seen being pushed backwards into said hangar by two men. On its tail, a roundel consisting of three colors red, white, and blue was painted on.
"I have nothing left to bet, you idiot.", a man off-screen said in exasperation as once again, the scene changed to show few chips lying on a table along with some miscellaneous items.
"Bet?", Ren raised an eyebrow.
"Is he really gambling when there's a war going on out there?", Pyrrha asked in disbelief.
"Such unprofessionalism.", Weiss shook her head in disapproval. "No wonder their enemy has the upper hand."
"You guys are such party poopers!", Nora exclaimed while throwing her hands up in annoyance. "He's indeed a soldier, but he's still a human, not some kind of living war machine! Besides, this guy is clearly on break so a little game of gambling is not that bad!"
Blake narrowed her eyes a bit at the bubbly girl. "He and whoever he's gambling with can use this free time to train, you know?"
"Well maybe they just finished training and are having a nice friendly game with each other.", Yang shrugged nonchalantly. "A good fighting force is a happy fighting force... or something like that, I don't really remember."
As the raven-haired cat faunus and the Schnee heiress about to counter Yang's statement, Jaune came to the rescue. "She isn't wrong. An army's effectiveness depends on its size, training, experience, and morale; and morale is worth more than any of the other factors combined."
The blonde boy's answer made everyone to literally do a double take. The ones from Beacon Academy had already known that the young Arc boy was a capable leader despite his lack of combat skills, but they didn't expect him to be able to deliver such a convincing speech. With those words alone, Jaune managed to make the two girls from team RWBY to sit down in silence.
"That was impressive, Mr. Arc.", Ozpin complimented with a smile, causing the boy in question to shyly laughed and scratch the back of his head like a dork he was.
"Indeed.", the Atlesian General also complimented. "You will suit the role of commanding officer perfectly if you decide to choose the military as your future career."
That statement immediately drawn Ozpin and Glynda's attention as they silently glared at him disapprovingly. They would need to have a little chat with Ironwood later.
At the back, Eli snorted to himself in amusement. 'Seems like having a French-inspired name somehow give you Napoleon's vibes, huh'
"The plane.", another man replied in a familiar voice, causing both men to chuckle.
The audience all raised an eyebrow as they heard the oh-so familiar voice of a certain "someone". Immediately, their frowned... except for the criminal duo.
"It seems that we're gonna watch Roman Torchwick's war story.", Penny groaned which made everyone sighed in return.
"What's a lowly criminal like him doing in the military?", Scarlet quipped.
The man in question just rolled his eyes in annoyance as there was literally nothing he could do to defend himself against such biased people.
"What a nice reception you got there.", Neo showed her scroll towards her partner with a smirk.
"That's rich.", the other man said. "Why the hell not? I've got you beaten anyway."
"That's a pretty big bet there, buddy.", Torchwick whistled, Neo also nodded in agreement.
"Imagine his face when he loses the bet.", Qrow chuckled to himself.
"What've you got?", the man in brown uniform asked.
In response, Torchwick, who was sitting opposite of him, dropped his cards confidently, as if knowing for sure that he won. However, what he didn't expect was that when his opponent laid his cards down on the table, they were four Aces and one seven, which meant that the man in uniform was the winner.
The uniformed man then laughed triumphantly and collected the chips, while his opponent just sighed.
"Wipe your mouth, Torchwick."
"That wasn't supposed to happen.", Torchwick replied in fake defeat.
Everyone found it was both ironic and satisfied seeing Remnant's most notorious crook lost, except for Torchwick who frowned in annoyance and Neo who was teasingly smirking at her partner. To see such a person fail at his own domain was amusing, to say the least.
"Hah! Serves you right!", Ironwood laughed mockingly.
"That's why you shouldn't involve yourselves in gambling, girls.", Summer sternly reminded her daughters. "As enticing as it is, gambling is bad. You can lose everything from it."
"Eh, it's not that bad, as long as you control yourself.", Qrow shrugged. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine as the older Rose glared at him. "Okay, I'm shutting up now."
Far from them, Neptune silently whispered to the rest of his team. "Ruby's mother sure is scary."
Torchwick then stood up and said in a suspiciously casual tone. "But, you know, I'll be taking that plane anyway."
"What the...?", the other man exclaimed in shock and confusion. He then tried to stand up but something was holding his leg. He then looked down, only to find his left leg was somehow tied into the chair. "Bloody hell!"
"Wait WHAT?!", most students exclaimed in surprise.
"That's impossible!", Winter uttered in equal surprise at such a twist.
"How in the hell can that criminal do that?!", Sun blurted out loudly, making his teammates to cover their ears lest they became deaf.
"Sun Wukong, can you not?!", Scarlet snarled at the monkey faunus.
"You lost, I beat you!", the man said angrily as he tried to untie his leg.
Torchwick ignored the man's words as he casually collected his opponent's personal items. He then slowly walked towards the man. "The thing is, Rackham, it's a very beautiful aeroplane and-"
"-you're kind of a jack-ass."
"I beat you fair and square, goddamnit, stay the hell away from my kite!", Rackham launched himself from the chair as far as he could and tried to grab Torchwick, only for the guy to step back. The cheater then forcefully pushed Rackham, making the aviator to fall backwards and knock the chair behind him. "AH! You bastard! You can't do this to me, I beat you!"
Torchwick just walked past the downed pilot with a wide grin, ignoring the man's angry words. "I beat you!"
"My name's Roman Torchwick.", Torchwick narrated. "I'm a pilot and a gambler."
"And also a cheater.", Glynda huffed. Everyone also agreed with her opinion.
"I'm George Rackham! I'm George bloody Rackham, listen to me!", Rackham shouted indignantly as Torchwick exited the room. His shouting continued even as Torchwick closed the wooden door and locked it.
"You bastard! Keep off my aeroplane!"
The audience couldn't fathom what kind of military would allow such a dishonest person to join their ranks or how he even managed to join. They all just chalked it off as Torchwick lied his way in, as expected of him.
"That's very ungentlemanly of you, Mr. Other Me.", Torchwick said with a slight frown.
"Oh? Since when did a lowly criminal like you know what a gentleman is?", Winter sneered in contempt.
Torchwick, totally unaffected by the specialist's condescending words, just shrugged in response. "Since forever."
"Pray tell us, what makes you think you are worthy to be called a gentleman then?", Blake sarcastically inquired as pretty much everyone, except Neo, glared at him.
"Despite being a criminal mastermind, unlike that asshole on the screen, I never cheat in bets.", Roman smoothly replied. "You can ask my cute assistant over here for confirmation.". On cue, Neo turned to everyone and waved with a smile on her face.
"Hmph! If you think we will believe anything coming out of your mouths then you two are sorely wrong.", Weiss declared with finality in her voice.
"You do you, Ice Queen. Not like I care.", the thief waved his hand dismissively, leaving the Schnee heiress to fume in her place.
"If you ask me to name my biggest fault, I'd have to tell you-", Torchwick continued to narrate.
"-I'm just not a very honest person."
"Yeah, no shit.", Yang snorted in amusement as she threw a lien card into her little sister's infamous jar without prompt.
The scene then changed to show a biplane sitting inside a hangar as a man hold its propeller and turned it, starting its engine up.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Torchwick then walked towards the plane fuselage as a man, who was standing up from his seat, greeted him with a broad smile.
"Welcome aboard! I'm Ozpin, by the way. You must be George Rackham.", Ozpin offered his hand to the gambler.
Torchwick immediately shook the offered hand and returned the smile. "Sure, I'm Rackham. I'm your guy."
"You also appear in this one, Headmaster sir.", Glynda muttered to her superior with a smile. The man in question chuckled in amusement.
"Let's see how my other self performs in this viewing, yes?"
Ironwood frowned in distaste. "And now that criminal has the audacity to steal another's identity."
"The list just goes on and on, huh.", Qrow sarcastically commented.
After the quick round of introduction, Torchwick stepped onto the bottom wing of the aircraft and climbed on board. He then marveled at all the instruments as well as the plane's fine wooden interior. Satisfied with everything, the pilot then turned to Ozpin behind him. "Come on, let's get this kite up in the air."
And just like that, Torchwick taxied the plane out of the hangar and onto the dirt runway at full speed. Few seconds later, him and Ozpin took to the skies.
"You're George Rackham?", Ozpin asked. "Son of the fourth Earl of Windsor?"
"That's right! Pip-pip, old bean!"
"Hang on.", Penny cocked her head to the side in confusion. "It seems like Mr. Ozpin on-screen somewhat knows about the real George Rackham. Then how come he still believed the man he's flying with it's Mr. Rackham?"
"And that "Son of the fourth Earl of Windsor" or whatever title, too. Sounds like Rackham is pretty well-known.", Sage added.
"Hmm... Maybe that Ozpin guy is just dumb?", Nora commented semi-innocently, making her teammates as well as team RWBY to sweatdrop.
"Nora, that's just so mean.", Pyrrha said.
"Well it's either that or fake Rackham is just very good at impersonating people.", the explosive girl shrugged as she continued stuffing her mouth with pancakes.
Penny's statement, as well as Sage's and Nora's to some extent, was enough to make the audience pause and think more critically. It definitely didn't make any sense as to how a man who had already known the basic background of his wingman to be that easily deceived. Something fishy was definitely going on here.
"Hey, Eli. Would you mind explaining the reason here?", Jaune asked the owner of the theater.
Immediately, all eyes focused on the man in question. Eli contemplated for a few seconds before answering. "Gray"
"What?", pretty much everyone asked back. In response, Eli just shrugged.
"That's the answer. Gray."
Ren narrowed his eyes in slight annoyance. "That isn't cryptic at all."
"Well.", Eli chuckled, much to the frustration of others. "If you want a more direct answer, I suggest y'all watch towards the end."
Knowing there was nothing they could do, the audience reluctantly settled down and returned their attention towards the screen.
A great snow-covered mountain range appeared on the screen; its vastness even rivaled the greatest ranges on Remnant.
"The Bristol was everything it was advertised to be, a pure joy to fly.", Torchwick narrated.
To the people originated from Atlas, the snowy sight hit close to home.
"It's beautiful.", Winter uttered in fondness.
"Indeed, dear sister.", the specialist's sister softly replied. "It's also nostalgic, even. Really gives you the feeling of home."
At the mention of home, both Schnee sisters suddenly grimaced. Despite the love they gave to their kingdom was unquestionable, they both were not that keen on returning to their home. There was one single reason why both siblings left their home, after all.
Torchwick continued on narrating as the screen kept showing the great views of Vosges mountain range.
"It was a crisp, sunny day and everything would have been perfect had I only been alone."
A familiar biplane with equally familiar passengers then flew into view. As they approached the rendezvous point, Torchwick loudly spoke to his wingman.
"Hey back there. It's a great day for a picnic, don't you think?"
"Right. See that plane up ahead, you need to catch up with it!", Ozpin practically ignored what his pilot just said.
Squinting his eyes to look for the plane his tail gunner talked about, Torchwick finally found it far ahead close to a mountain top and went full throttle towards the allied aircraft. As they were on the way, the cunning gambler continued his previous unfinished conversation.
"Yeah, yeah. So listen, I know this little French place, maybe we pick up a couple of girls..."
"What are you talking about, girls?!", Ozpin retorted incredulously. "This is a test flight! You need to follow the route that plane is setting for you!"
"Okay. You're the boss... apparently."
The audience chuckled a bit in amusement at the conversation of those two on screen. As much as they hated to think about, they couldn't help but wonder if these two men, one was laid back while the other had his focus solely on the mission, could get along as the story progressed.
"Other-Headmaster really has his priorities straight.", Neptune commented.
"Yeah, I just wish our leader were the same.", Scarlet quipped and glared at Sun. Beside him, Sage also grunted in agreement.
In response, Sun just sheepishly scratched the back of his head.
"Everyone, take Mr. Other-Ozpin's example as a lesson for all of you.", Glynda said to both team RWBY and team JNPR, who raised an eyebrow at their professor's choice of word but nodded nonetheless.
"Indeed, Professor Goodwitch.", Summer added. "Always remain focus while on mission, everything else can wait after the mission is over."
"Well, I can confidently say for team RWBY that we'll never get distract from mission objective; especially when there's literally a war going on like on the screen.", Ruby confidently said, her teammates all smile and spoke words of affirmation.
Torchwick flew the Bristol close to the allied plane, though he still kept a safe distance away from it.
"Now let's get a feel for the yoke, stay close to his tail!", said the tail gunner.
Torchwick obeyed as he flew a bit closer to the other plane as it made a sharp left turn very close to the side of the mountain. The gambler, not one to be deterred by such a thing, also made a sharp left turn just as close to the mountainside while slowly inched closer towards the plane in front of him.
Ozpin, seeing that the distance between two planes was close enough, called out to his pilot. "Alright, keep this distance.". In response, Torchwick released the throttle a bit and maintained the gap.
"I know Mr. Torchwick is a cheater and a criminal but you have to admit, he's a pretty good pilot.", Ozpin commented as he took a sip.
"I agree.", Ironwood hummed in approval, but then he realized something. "Though if he's a pilot, then why wasn't he issued a plane of his own? Why steal someone else's aircraft?"
"Maybe his plane was an old model so when he saw that brand new one rolled in, greed took over him?", Qrow hypothesized. Some people also shared the same view as him. The concept wasn't too far fetch since the Torchwick they knew was a very well-known criminal, after all.
"That might be the case. The way he flies the aircraft shows that he already has some degree of experience.", Winter commented.
"Only few minutes in and so many questions and mysteries already!", Nora whined. "My head's gonna explode!"
The orange-haired girl's antics caused Ren to sigh as he proceeded to calm her down, as usual.
"Hang on, Ozzy!", Torchwick exclaimed jokingly as he and the other plane did a sudden 90-degree bank to the right before making another smooth left bank close to the mountainside. "Piece of cake!"
The allied biplane suddenly pulled up and did a vertical climb, prompting Torchwick to do the same. As two planes were climbing, Ozpin said to his buddy.
"Let's see how she handles in a gunfight. Guns are on safe just in case you get some fancy ideas!"
"You're starting to get me! How sweet!", Torchwick sarcastically shot back as he pursued the other aircraft while simultaneously keeping said plane in his scope.
Weiss snorted in amusement. "As if that criminal would dare to shoot his ally."
"You will be surprised at how trigger-happy some people are, Ms. Schnee.", General Ironwood sighed. "There's a reason why every firearm has a safety switch."
"Wait, you're telling me that trained soldiers can sometimes accidentally fire their weapons on friendlies?", Sun asked in shock.
"Only sometimes when they're under too much stress, but most of the time it's the recruits that are at fault. The causes are varied: a loose finger, negligent discharge, adrenaline or worse, just for the hell of it. I've personally escorted many to the court-martial that I have grown used to it by now."
The allied plane then made a steep dive back down towards the ground. Instead of doing the same maneuver, Torchwick waited until the other plane was virtually next to him before he too changed course, instantly closed the gap between two planes. The allied one then executed evasive maneuvers to try and shake the Bristol off its tail, but it was no use as Torchwick expertly piloted the aircraft to the same directions as the other flying machine, still keeping it in his sights.
"The Bristol will handle like the other planes. Less throttle means you can make tighter turns.", Ozpin informed.
"Just like cars and bikes.", Yang commented. "The slower you are, the tighter you can turn."
"That's how physics works!", Penny concluded perfectly.
"I'm having fun!", Torchwick exclaimed excitedly. "Are you having fun yet, Ozzy!?"
"It's Ozpin! And pay attention! Eyes forward!"
Torchwick just rolled his eyes in response and resumed chasing the allied aircraft. Every maneuver that the other plane did, the gambler mimicked it nearly perfectly. For the people who were fortunate enough to witness the show of skills, it looked like two people dancing to a romantic and elaborate symphony.
At one point, however, the allied craft suddenly did an unexpected dive while it was gaining altitude, briefly cutting off its tail.
"Open the throttle and stay on him!", Ozpin spoke to his pilot, who immediately did so while flying his plane towards the direction where two planes would once again dangerously close to each other.
Satisfied with the maneuverability test, Ozpin said to Torchwick. "Good flying, though some of it wasn't exactly by the book!"
Other-Ozpin's attitude caused some people to roll their eyes.
"Ya know Jimmy, that guy reminds me of you and your whole damn army.", Qrow remarked earning him a glare from Winter.
"Yeah, same as Weiss here.", Ruby playfully said. "Sometimes you just need to think outside the box."
Weiss, not one to let that slide, huffed. "Oh yeah? Prove it then!"
"Literally your fighting style, Weiss.", Pyrrha deadpanned, making the Schnee heiress to do a double take.
"Pyrrha's right. As elegant as your moves are, they are very easy to predict and counter.", Blake added in, further rubbing salt into the wound that was the heiress' pride.
Deciding not to dig her own grave any deeper, the younger of the Schnee's quietly settled down and continued watching the movie.
Torchwick, annoyed at Ozpin's stuck-up attitude, quipped. "So toss the damn book and live a little! Where's he going now?!"
"Leave him!", Ozpin answered. "See those target balloons!? Weapons check. Fire at will."
"I can do that.", Torchwick acknowledged. He then steered the Bristol towards the closest blimp and fired the plane's forward-firing machine gun. Due to these blimps being stationary targets, Torchwick had no problem blowing up the explosive-rigged blimps to pieces.
"Yeah! This is one heck of a kite!", the gambler remarked.
"There are still more balloons, move in and fire!", Ozpin reminded.
"Roger that!", Torchwick replied as he moved on to destroy the rest of the targets.
Despite being primitive to their standards, the Remnant natives still got impressed by how nimble the classic Bristol biplane performed.
"That plane looks cool!", Nora exclaimed excitedly. "We should make one based on that model when we have time, guys!"
"NORA/MS. VALKYRIE, NO!", the entirety of teams RWBY, JNPR, SSSN (mostly those that knew the girl's explosive nature) and surprisingly, Glynda, yelled back at her, who in return just pouted.
After the pilot had finished off the last blimp, Ozpin said to him. "You see those targets on the ground?"
In return, Torchwick banked to the left and slowly flew in a wide circle. He then looked towards the ground and saw three smoking wrecks of aircrafts, their country of origin unknown.
"Yeah I see them!", the crook replied.
"Try using the rockets on them, get a feel for hitting ground targets."
"Heck yeah, dude! Bring out the big guns!", Yang said as she and some students got hyped up, though none of them noticed a certain girl was the most hyped person among them, forcing the boy next to her to how her down on her seat.
"For such an old design, the British really know how to make the most of their aircrafts.", Ironwood analyzed.
Ozpin hummed in agreement. "Indeed they are. Too bad that such ingenuity was used to produce these machines of war."
"Were they on Remnant, these people would no doubt make amazing things to improve everyone's life.", Glynda commented, making many nodded at her statement.
"This might not be much but these weapons of war are eventually used as tools of defense as time goes on.", Eli said.
Torchwick did as he was told. Instead of diving towards each targets, he decided to go for a strafing run to save time as well as minimize the risk of crashing onto the mountain. After gaining more altitude and positioning the Bristol in a favorable strike path, Torchwick fired a rocket on each wreck, turning them into three balls of flame.
"Your other self is good at his job.", Neo showed her scroll to Torchwick.
"As expected, Neo.", Roman snorted in amusement as he patted his assistant's head. "I always get the job done."
"Although I'm not a military expert in aviation but I can say for sure Other-Torchwick's choice of tactic is very good.", Summer said.
"Despite being a criminal both on-screen and in our world, I have to admit he is very proficient at both flying and planning a suitable course of action.", Winter reluctantly complimented with a frown that looked as if she just ate a lemon.
"Okay, that's the last one!", Ozpin said as the plane leveled out. For a few seconds, none of them spoke a word to the other person. The tail gunner then decided to awkwardly spoke up first.
"So. Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure!", Torchwick replied.
"Why does George Rackham, son of the fourth Earl of Windsor, sound like an American?!"
"Uh oh...", Scarlet silently muttered with a slight smirk.
"Busted!", Neptune and Sun laughed.
"Ha! Just as expected. Your journey is over, you lying criminal!", Weiss quipped with a triumphant, and somewhat savage, grin. "The court-martial would love to have a chat with you, Roman Torchwick~"
"Well, to be fair, Torchwick is a very good pilot. I'm sure the judge will put that in consideration as Britain is currently very short on good pilots.", Penny said in defense of the aviator in question, surprising some people.
"Hey Eli?", Ren asked. "What's 'an American'?"
Eli hummed in thoughts before answering the question. "An American is a citizen of the United States of America, but most people just call that country America for short."
A chorus of 'oooohhhh' resounded the theater as everyone nodded in understanding. Jaune then asked. "Will we see them in action later on?"
"Sorry, no spoiler~", Eli teasingly replied. "Anyway, let's get back to the movie."
Torchwick, who had already come up with an answer long ago, answered easily. "I pick up accents easily. Probably be speaking French by the time we've got the Jerry's beat."
Ozpin narrowed his eyes skeptically, but decided to give his partner the benefit of the doubt. "...I see!"
"You're a very suspicious man, Ozpin.", Torchwick commented jokingly. "Has anyone ever told you that?!"
Torchwick then flew the Bristol into formation beside the other allied plane. Just as Ozpin was about to answer the pilot's question, he suddenly heard buzzing noise from above. The gunner looked up towards the source of the noise only to gasp in horror.
Ozpin hurriedly patted Torchwick's shoulder in shock and pointed towards the sky. "Jesus Christ, Germans! What do we do?"
Torchwick also looked up where his wingman was pointing at and found four red and white German triplanes diving towards his position. The gambler, however, was not intimidated by them at all.
"What do you think? We shoot them down."
"Hold on there, pal. This ain't the time to play hero!", Qrow exclaimed at the display of both courage and stupidity.
"They're outnumbered two to one! They should evade and get back to base, not head straight into the fight!", Pyrrha hurriedly said.
"Idiot!", Winter exclaimed in exasperation.
"Well, too late for that now.", Eli commented. "Those two planes will have to fight their way out of this one."
The audience leaned forward in anticipation. All of them subconsciously hold their breaths as they waited for the inevitable two versus four aerial dogfight.
As the planes flew closer towards each other, both sides opened fire on each other, traces of bullets flew every direction. All planes then scattered in order to dodge the incoming tracer rounds, though Torchwick turned in the same direction as the enemy aircraft in front of him. He carefully led his shot and fired a rocket ahead of the other aircraft which seconds later made impact, turning the half red half white plane into a burning wreck as it spiraled to the ground.
"I thought they'd put up more of a fight!", Torchwick cockily remarked as he turned towards another enemy aircraft.
"This is more than enough fight! It's PLENTY of fight!", Ozpin shot back as he fired his own machine gun towards the enemy.
"That attitude will be his downfall, someday!", Torchwick scoffed.
"Uh... You always act arrogantly, you know?", Ruby "reminded" the criminal with a frown.
"I'm not cocky, Little Red. I'm confident.", the criminal retorted, causing pretty much everyone else to roll their eyes.
"Sureeeee, whatever suits you, I suppose.", Sage sneered.
"Bloody hell! This is. Really. Bloody. Dangerous!", Ozpin put an emphasize on each word as he and Torchwick engaged in a dangerous dance of death.
"Yeah, no shit!", Yang nervously laughed and put a lien card into Ruby's jar.
"If it's on the ground then a two versus one gunfight wouldn't be that much of a problem.", Blake commented.
"That's right.", Penny nodded. "In the sky, it's a totally different story."
Torchwick stalked a plane which was tailing the allied aircraft and fired his machine gun, causing small pieces of the enemy plane to fall off but not enough to bring it down. Nonetheless, he succeeded in making the German plane to give up the chase.
"You got us into this bloody fight, do something about it!", Ozpin angrily shouted.
"Sheesh, chill out man. It's not like that criminal isn't doing anything!", Sun remarked in slight annoyance.
The Rackham impersonator slowed his airspeed and performed a tight turn which put the Bristol perfectly behind the German fighter. With the enemy in his sights at close range, Torchwick fired the machine gun gutting the German aircraft, sending it falling out of the sky.
Smirking, he and the allied aircraft began to turn and search for the two remaining aircraft. They didn't have to spend too much time looking, however, as those two red and white painted aircrafts made themselves known by showering their position with lead from high above, some of which tore through the wings and fuselages of both planes.
The audience lightly gasped as they witnessed the British planes got shredded by bullets. Most of them believed that was end of those two.
"Oh no!", Summer yelped.
"They've got ambushed!", Neptune blurted out.
"The hell are you two doing?! Evade!", Ironwood loudly exclaimed.
In response, Torchwick immediately steered the Bristol away from the kill zone, causing the enemy planes to zoom past the British planes.
"What the-!", Ozpin yelled as a bullet whizzed past him.
"Jerry is playing for keeps, hold on!", Torchwick yelled back as he turned his plane to pursue the enemy. Firing his machine gun, he managed to hit the German plane's engine just as it turned and flew towards him, making the engine to catch on fire. As the German flew past him overhead, Ozpin opened fire with his own weapon, finishing off the burning aircraft.
"Looks like there's only one left!", Ozpin reported.
"They're working very well with each other.", Ozpin said as he observed the air battle intently.
"I degree.", Glynda nodded. "Despite not flying with the man he was supposed to, your other self still performs very efficiently."
"Hmm...", Ironwood contemplated on what the Beacon faculty staff just said.
"General?", Winter stared at her superior in confusion.
"Nothing, Specialist.", the Atlesian General dismissed. "I'm just simply thinking about assigning our pilots to routinely work with other pilots that they're not familiarized with."
"I don't think that's a very good idea, General. It might weaken the cohesion."
"Your opinion is noted, Specialist Schnee. But still, such a strategy might help in case of emergency. I'll need to meet with other officers to think about it."
After looking around for a few seconds, Torchwick finally found the last German plane as he went full throttle towards it. Just as he was about to engage and destroy the last bandit, the German plane got shredded by a hail of bullets and exploded, courtesy of his ally who flew by and gave him a quick two-finger salute.
Cheers erupted throughout the cinema as everyone clapped their hands, whistled, or offered words of compliment as the air battle was finally over with the British came out victorious.
"Superb performance, boys!", Nora shouted in excitement with others sharing the same thought.
"Indeed, Nora. Indeed.", Ren chuckled in agreement.
"Finally.", Blake let out a sigh of relief. "They can safely return now."
Qrow laughed out loud and raised his flask towards the screen. "Good job, boys! This one's for you!". He then swigged the alcohol in one big gulp and let out a satisfied sigh. Behind him, Summer couldn't help but face-palmed and sighed in disappointment at her former teammate's antics.
"That was too close for comfort!", Ozpin exclaimed.
"You can say that again!", Torchwick replied as he pulled up beside his ally's plane again. As he leveled out the Bristol, he involuntarily winced at the allied aircraft's condition; bullet holes littered the aeroplane's wings and body. It was a miracle that it was still capable of flight.
As the planes started to return to base, Ozpin suddenly yelled out in alarm. "More Jerries!"
"I see 'em! Hang onto your knickers!"
The audience all stared at the screen in shock as the second wave of German fighters appeared flew into view, some even let out gasps of exasperation.
"Oh gimme a break!", Sun yelled out in annoyance.
"Two damaged planes versus five perfectly good planes.", Neo wrote in her scroll with a frown. "I do not like these odds."
"Neither do I, Neo. Neither do I.", Torchwick sighed.
"I-I'm sure they will come up with something!", Ruby tried to lift everyone's hope up. In return, all she received were weak nods of acknowledgement.
Torchwick turned the plane towards his adversaries. Doing a quick check on his plane's weaponry, he saw that his plane still had four rockets and the machine gun was half full, meaning he could still fight off these German fighters without expending all of his ammunition.
Still a bit far from the enemy, Torchwick decided to engage the enemy first by firing a rocket towards the closest fighter, scoring a kill. The remaining aircrafts immediately scattered, prompting the two British planes to give chase. Torchwick chased one of the bandits with his gun blazing while at the back, Ozpin was doing his best to fend off another tailing aircraft. After a few moments of intense firefight, the rear gunner was finally able to destroy the tailing aircraft by shooting its pilot dead.
Just before he got the chance to celebrate his kill, Ozpin bore witness the sight of his ally's plane blowing up in the distance, caused by another German aircraft.
"Friendly hit!! He's going down!", Ozpin reported.
"Damn!", Torchwick cursed in frustration.
"Shit!", Neptune blurted out.
"Now it's a 1v3 situation. They are greatly outnumbered!", Jaune summarized the situation perfectly.
The Remnant's residences did not like those odds at all. To them, it was basically a death sentence. Earlier, it was due to the Bristol having a rear-mounted machine gun that a 1v2 fight was possible. Now though, that fighting chance was practically nonexistent.
"They should really retreat now.", Weiss muttered as she narrowed her eyes. "If not then they will need a great amount of luck."
As if his ally's death triggered something inside him, Torchwick's bullets finally met their marks as they literally cut the enemy plane in front of him in half, sending the two chunks of wood and metal towards the snowy ground.
Torchwick then turned the Bristol around to meet the last bandit head on. As the two opposing planes flew towards each other on a collision course, the German plane opened fire with its machine gun, though none of the bullets hit the Bristol. In return, Torchwick fired all three rockets towards red and white fighter, all of which hit their target head on, making it blown to pieces.
"Watch it!", Ozpin yelled as Torchwick changed direction, narrowly avoided the falling wreckage.
"Alright, one more to go! This should be easy!", Yang hollered in excitement.
"Yang sweetie, you shouldn't underestimate the opponent like that. It's still too early to say anything for certain!", Summer reprimanded her step daughter, who just pouted and crossed her arms.
Seeing the last German plane from afar, Torchwick turned the plane towards its direction and pursued. Instead of engaging, the red and white aircraft suddenly changed course and flew away from the area of operation.
Ozpin observed the hostile aircraft in confusion. "Where do you think he's going?"
"That way. And we're goin' after him!", the gambling aviator replied as he stalked the German aircraft.
After around two minutes of flying, the German fighter flew into the clouds and basically just vanished. Torchwick, however, continued to follow after it.
"Okay, now he really is a big idiot for flying into such a dangerous area!", Winter exclaimed in irritation.
"Definitely, dear sister.", Weiss nodded with a frown. "If I were him, I would have chosen to return to base as soon as the enemy aircraft disappeared into the clouds."
Nora, however, begged to differ. "Maybe they might find something of value to the war effort?"
The young energetic girl's logic made some people to turn their heads towards her in surprise. Never had they heard something logical came out of her mouth. Sometimes she did have great opinions but those were on very rare occasions.
"Wow, Nora.", Pyrrha uttered in surprise.
"Was that another one of those Nora moments, Ren?", Jaune asked his other male teammate, who simply nodded with a smile.
"Anyways, let's get back to the movie, shall we?", Nora said with an awkward laugh.
"What are you doing? We should turn back!", Ozpin was appalled at his pilot's reckless action.
"Ah, to hell with base.", Torchwick just simply waved his gunner off with a laugh. As he was busy looking around the aircraft to find any sign of the German aircraft, he unknowingly pushed the yoke slightly forward, making the plane slowly lowered its altitude.
Ozpin immediately noticed the change in altitude.
"Pull up", the gunner told his pilot, though unfortunately he couldn't hear him.
They then flew out of the cloud, but what greeted them was not the sky. Rather, it was a German fortress built on top of a hill...
...And they were flying straight towards the side of said hill.
Gasps of alarm and horror resounded throughout the theater.
"Ay ay AY, EYES FRONT!!!" Neptune yelled out in alarm.
"OH NO!", most of the huntsmen and huntresses-in-training, including Summer, Glynda and Winter, shouted as the plane was only few seconds from crashing into the hillside.
"Pull up!", Ozpin yelled again, this time his pilot finally saw that they were flying towards a hillside and immediately opened the throttle and pulled the yoke, effectively avoided a plane crash.
Back on the fortress' wall, a group of three nearby German soldiers heard a rumbling noise and turned to investigate. Just as they turned around, all of them were both shocked and horrified to see an aeroplane flying towards them in extremely low altitude. Two of the soldiers was quick to drop to the ground and avoided being hit, while the remaining man wasn't that unfortunate as he got hit right in the face by the plane's left wheel, knocking him down to the ground out cold.
The audience winced and even felt pity towards the stricken German. Being hit by a fast moving object like a biplane in this instance would definitely leave a scar, even if that soldier had aura for protection.
"That clang when that German got hit sounds painful as hell.", Qrow cringed at the sight.
"Totally.", Torchwick and the other adults agreed with him.
"From what I can see, he will get a scar, fractured skull, concussion, and in the worst-case scenario, a coma.", Penny theorized. "Such a strike is not something one can just brush off."
Torchwick looked back towards the group of soldiers he just passed by before returning his focus towards the front. Immediately, the skies above the fortress were littered with anti-air flak rounds and bullets of various calibers from the machine guns as well as rifles and SMGs, all of them were sharing the same goal of swatting the hostile aircraft out of the sky.
"Take cover!", Torchwick yelled just as he did a steep bank to the left to avoid incoming fire from the ground, forcing Ozpin to let go of his weapon and sit down.
"They really stirred up a hornet's nest, huh.", Yang nervously said.
"More reasons for them to fly out of there!", Blake exclaimed. "It's a miracle that they haven't been shot down yet!"
Many people found themselves on the same page as the cat faunus. Hell, Torchwick should had turned around when that German plane flew into the clouds, not joined it into this mess!
As the plane was banking left, Torchwick looked towards the ground and had to do a double take. On the ground was numerous military vehicles, tents, cannons, artillery batteries, stockpiles of artillery rounds, all sorts of extremely valuable pieces of intelligence.
Jackpot.
"Well, look at that!", Torchwick exclaimed in slight shock.
Taking out a camera from a compartment in his seat, Ozpin stood up to try and take as much pictures as he could of this intel goldmine. Torchwick then made a pass across the base in an upside down position as his partner took pictures of the base.
"This guy is insane!", Torchwick shouted in excitement as his partner in crime, Neo, stared at the screen with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.
"Impressive, stupid, and reckless. That man is literally an embodiment of all three.", Ironwood commented with a slight smirk.
Nora crossed her arms and smugly puffed her chest out triumphantly. "See, guys? I was right!"
Over at team SSSN's place, Sage said matter-of-factly. "That Torchwick guy is basically you, Sun. Reckless and stupid."
"No, I'm not!", the monkey faunus retorted.
"Yes. Yes, you are.", the other members of team SSSN deadpanned.
After he's done with the low upside down pass, Torchwick leveled out the plane just in time to dodge a flak round which exploded shortly after. With adrenaline still pumping through their veins, both men laughed triumphantly at the feat just now.
"You okay?", the aviator asked his tail gunner.
"Yeah, I'm okay.", Ozpin answered just as he put away the camera inside the plane. "Let's get these pictures back to base immediately!"
"That's how we accidentally discovered where Germans were keeping their munitions for half the Western Front-", Torchwick narrated off-screen.
The scene then transitioned to both Torchwick and his rear gunner, Ozpin, walking down a dark hallway talking to each other as the gambler continued to narrate. "-and Ozpin's pictures would help HQ launch a major assault. There was just one problem."
"I'm not sure about this.", Ozpin said with a somewhat nervous face. He and his pilot both stopped in the middle of the hallway.
"Oh, come on. We did a great thing. We'll get medals for this.", Torchwick tried to convince his partner.
"We weren't even supposed to be there!"
"When the Commander sees these pictures, he won't care. We did a great thing."
Ozpin was still indecisive so the gambler tried convincing him more. "We can do it again."
Finally, the rear gunner eventually relented, but not without a condition. "I'll make you a deal."
"If we pal up on this then you need to promise me-"
"-that you'll get me back in one piece."
Torchwick replied with a cocky smirk. "Sure thing."
"Promise.", Ozpin cut the pilot off. "I need your word."
"Okay, I promise."
"That's a very hard to keep promise there, Torchwick.", Qrow chuckled grimly as he took a sip of his alcohol.
"It's also a very big red flag.", Ren commented with a slight frown. "Never make such a promise or else karma will punish you."
Both men continued their walk towards their destination, the Commander's office. Upon arriving at the door, Ozpin put his hand on the door handle but didn't open immediately. He then turned to Torchwick and spoke to him seriously.
"Stay here. And don't cause any trouble."
Ozpin then opened the door and entered, leaving his pilot outside the doorway to wait for him.
"You know, I did like the guy, but he was kinda naive.", Torchwick narrated.
The rear gunner's voice could be heard coming from inside the room as he presented his findings to the Commander. "Sir. You might wanna take a look at these."
"Saints alive!", the Commander in question couldn't contain his shock as she looked at the pictures. "Your man must be one hell of a pilot!"
"-one hell of a pilot...", outside, Torchwick said the last words perfectly at the same time as the Commander with a grin.
A/N: Asian University sucks ass. I almost forgot that I own this story now, lol.