The Serpents' Shadows

Chapter 9

SOMEWHERE IN ATLAS:

A uniformed man stepped into a very dimly lit office and saluted to a chair that was turned away from him, "Ma'am, squad 204 has gone dark, last words, 'help us,' we presume killed by the escaped Alpha." He reported to a woman in the chair.

The woman in the chair sighed, "We cannot afford another failure like this, how many squads has Alpha 6 taken down?" She asked.

"23."

The woman stood up slowly and pressed a button on the wall, "Bring out the last Theta with Squad 412, standby for further orders." She spoke softly into a wall speaker.

ACRONIAN:

It was hard sleeping for the first time with three other people, because his plain black pajamas now also had to be bandaged over. It was hard enough trying to deal with other people outside of his room, but now the spacious room was crowded with armaments, medical equipment, beds, dressers, and other stuff. Acronian's space shrank over the course of hours to just a corner next to a window with his bed and his dresser, and the four had gone to sleep rather awkwardly. Lux was having the hardest time, since she was completely new at Beacon, and everyone else knew each other, but within an hour after lights out, she was asleep.

Acronian, being the only one awake and not feeling very sleepy, went to the window as quietly as he could and left the building. He climbed the side of the dormitory to the roof to look at the stars. He found it amazing that something so big could spread it's light so far and look so small, there were just too many of them, and he loved to count them. He parked himself on his back to begin counting and had just started when he heard a loud thump and the sounds of battle. Acronian perked up as he looked over to see two people fighting and stopping, then starting again. They were training, and upon closer look at the two silhouettes he could see that one was male and the other was female, and the female was the instructor.

For the next few hours, Acronian watched as the two figures twirled and talked until he heard a snap behind him. Acronian subconsciously flipped himself from lying down to knock down the thing behind him, he put his hand on the things' throat.

"This one is a jumpy one, is he not?" Said the person he had just flipped over in an amused, slightly raspy voice.

Acronian snapped out of his stupor to find he was looking at male person about his age, covered by basic leather armor and no apparent weapons, he looked like a thief with a hood covering most of his face, everything but his mouth and... were those whiskers?

"Who are you? You from the academy?" Acronian asked threateningly, trying to be terrifying.

Whisker Man chuckled a little, "Ohohoho, Dez Frazado likes a show, do keep him entertained." The snake faunus' act withered and he sighed, getting up.

"Okay so you saw through me, but just answer the question; who are you? Where did you come from?" Acronian asked.

The Whisker Man got up, "Ah, Allow Dez to introduce himself, he is Dez Frazado, but you may call him Dez. Where does Dez come from? He comes from Atlas academy early with his team to shadow a huntsman." He said.

"Wait," Acronian said, "You talk about yourself in the third person?"

"Do you have a problem with the way Dez Frazado speaks of himself?" Asked Whisker Man, who began pacing.

"No, just curious," he said, "You're a Faunus, right? I haven't seen one with whiskers before."

Dez wiggled his whiskers a little, "Dez Frazado is a Faunus, yes. He is one of a kind, as you might say... But cats tend to have whiskers, do they not?"