Son of the Branwen

Chapter 72: A Night Off

Hawk stood leaning up against a wall inside one of the training rooms, reviewing the Atlas reports from the riots that happened through most of the night after Jacques closed down SDC facilities in Mantle. The reports showed damaged property, flipped cars, androids torn apart, and some minor injuries to the general public as well as Atlas peacekeepers who were working in Mantle at the time. Attached below the report was a document of the large amount of arrests that were made after the riots ended.

Hawk sighed softly as he swiped his finger across the screen, dismissing the reports to pull up the live feed from the news. The newscaster was currently interviewing Robyn about the riots.

Newscaster: "Although rioting in Mantle is finally under control, how does it feel to know that the majority of those involved were your supporters?"

Robyn: "I don't condone rioting, especially when our city is being denied aid for the hardships we've already had to go through, but Jacques Schnee's latest stunt is holding the city hostage for his own political gain."

Robyn looked away from the newscaster, and looked directly into the camera, giving a strong but encouraging look as if she was speaking to all the viewers directly.

Robyn: "So I understand their anger, but ask that they show it not in the streets but at the polls today."

Nora: "HEADS UP!!"

Hawk's eyes shot up to see a rubber ball come speeding towards his head, sparking with pink lightning. Hawk quickly leaned to the right as the ball crashed into the wall where his head was.

Hawk: "NORA!!"

Nora: "Sorry Hawk!"

The teams were currently training to push themselves even further than before, in preparation for whatever might come next after seeing the riots. Farther down the room, Blake and Yang were training together, Blake leaping from pillar to pillar in a game of keep away as Yang stayed hot on her heels. Blake wanted to push her capabilities in avoiding faster opponents, after admitting she had a horrible nightmare about her fight with Adam.

Hawk smiled as he looked from the two to watch Weiss' training against Winter. Winter's summoned Beowolf charged towards Weiss, but Weiss held out her left hand, flicking it outwards as she created four black glyphs around the Grimm. Then Weiss pointed with her sword and began slamming the Grimm into the glyphs repeatedly, before creating a large white glyph in front of it. The glyph shot the Grimm flying back at Winter. Winter raised her weapon up, about to create a glyph to counter the attack, but yelped in surprise and pain as she suddenly was knocked to the ground. Winter looked behind her to see a miniature version of Weiss' knight had just smacked her in the heel with its sword. The knight rested its sword on its shoulder and struck a proud pose. Winter turned to give Weiss an annoyed glare, and Weiss gave a smug grin before giggling at her sister.

Hawk: "Nicely done Snowflake!"

Hawk had walked over and pulled her into a celebratory kiss, which she happily returned swinging her arms around his neck.

Winter: "Save it for when training has finished you two."

The couple broke the kiss and looked at Winter, who couldn't help but smile seeing her sister so happy. The pair glanced over to watch Nora helping Jaune train with his aura. Nora was batting rubber balls at Jaune, who was blocking them with his shield. Nora smirked as she activated her hammer's upgrade, sending an electrical current through the metal to power herself up as she hit the last ball. Jaune narrowed his eyes as he projected his aura onto his shield, blocking the full force of the ball. He slid backwards as he defended it, the ball disintegrating into ash as Jaune dropped to one knee momentarily. Then, his aura flooded back to him while Oscar sat on the side lines monitoring his aura levels. He watched Jaune's aura go from 100%, down to 65%, and then rise back up to 95%.