Chapter 3
"Well, a week is almost up," Damien said, ignoring the fact that nobody was around. "Better get prepared!"
He turned to face the forest. His arms spread out in front of him, and the world pulsed at his command. "Time to get the army primed and ready to invade!"
"Listen, all that I'm asking is to take an enthusiastic walk in the woods. Is that so hard?" Chase asked, exasperation drawing into his voice.
"You're a flight risk." said the pale woman. Chase recognized her when he first saw her. Salem, except without the exposed veins. The Grimm Queen. Except, now she was the Headmistress of Beacon. 'Damien won't be as lost as I am.' was all he thought as he tried to convince her to let him into the forest bordering Beacon.
"Well, alright then, just keep me here. Where my friend is going to come looking for me. With an army. That can tear down walls like they're made of paper. That can slaughter hundreds of well-trained fighters. So that your students are at risk. That sounds smart." Sarcasm dripped from his voice.
"An army?" Salem questioned, fishing for more details.
"Listen, there is an army out there that can tear down Beacon and any student standing in its way. Do you really want to take a risk that I'm lying?"
She stared for a moment, before, "I will allow it, however, I wish to accompany you."
"Fine," Chase stood up, ignoring the fact that he was half-naked with only a pair of dress pants on. "Let's go."
So, they made their way into the forest. Chase ignored every student that stared at him until he noticed a red-haired man. "Is that..? I think it is. Hey, you!" He shouted over to the red-haired kid.
"What?" came his gruff voice.
"Is your name Adam?"
"...Yes?" he said confusedly.
"Alright, I got something for ya." Chase reached into his pocket and pulled out a ribbon, which was pinned onto the man's school uniform. "There you go." Then Chase raced off into the forest, Salem rushing after him.
Adam removed the ribbon, before reading what it said in the middle. "'Not as big as a jerk as you could have been.' What?"
They made it into the forest. "Where did you get that? I'm sure we searched you thoroughly."
"Well, obviously you didn't. God, I could have had a weapon in my pocket and none of you would have noticed. How disgraceful, not searching a person thoroughly enough that they could hide something like a ribbon with a metal pin. I could have stabbed somebody. You what else you missed on me?" He reached into his pocket again and pulled out a walkie-talkie. "You missed my damn walkie-talkie. I am so disappointed." A static noise came from the walkie-talkie, before a voice.
"Oh, you actually got… I mean! I had full confidence in you escaping, yes I did." There was a crashing noise throughout the forest that echoed into the radio. "You heard nothing."
"Yeah, yeah, I know you're creating the army. Just put it on standby and come meet with me."
"On it!"
Within minutes Damien appeared from the foliage. "Who's this?"
"My keeper to make sure I don't run away. She needs to ask us questions when we get to Beacon."
"I thought that..." Chase glared at Damien, who immediately shut up. "Alright."
They made their way back to Beacon in one piece, no grimm encounters and no students came to bother them. Salem ushered them into a room far away from the rest of the school, up near the towers. A simple table was in the center of the room, and chairs were placed against the walls. They all pulled up a seat and the interrogation started.
"Now then, who are you two?"
Chase and Damien blinked for a moment, before they muttered to themselves, "That right, we don't have a reputation here." They shook their heads.
"I'm Chase. That's Damien. We're travelers. When we get bored, we wander. Nothing else to it."
"You'll have to excuse me if that sounds far-fetched. Especially considering you interrupted the first year teams official naming ceremony."
"Oh, I interrupted that?" asked Chase.
"Yes, you gave my students quite a scare, considering you dropped down from the rafters screaming, 'Cinder's a student here!'"
"Yeah, that was an overreaction on my part. I'm not apologizing, though."
It seemed like Salem was done with the nonsense. "Give me a reason to not put you in a cell somewhere far away in Atlas."
"No prison you have can hold us?" question Damien.
"We're very valuable people if you can get past the deficiencies of common sense and morality?"
"We're used to breaking out of maximum security?"
"We don't feel pain at all, so there is nothing we won't do to escape?"
"And we're your elders? You should know to respect us." finished Damien, nodding. Salem decided to ignore that.
"We can also be… dare I say… Good students?" Chase spat out the last bit like it was something bitter.
"You want to be students." It wasn't a question.
"Well, not really? We just want something to occupy the time."
"Hmm, how do I know that you're even cut out to be Huntsmen?"
Chase and Damien looked at each other, then at Salem. "We avoided you trying to capture us, didn't we?"
"I survived in Grimm infested forests for almost a week straight."
"I didn't even flinch when Hazel broke my arm and didn't hesitate to jump out a window."
"That means you could be suicidal. Not necessarily Huntsmen material."
"We each have years of combat experience."
"A trial, then. If you succeed, then you can be a two man team here at Beacon. Understood?"
"Yep, fine here." The two answered dully.
Salem nodded and left the room. Finally, Damien turned to Chase. "Who the hell was that?"
"That was Salem. You don't know her."
"I only watched Volume One. Past that, I only know memes, Chase. Memes!"
"It's fine. You don't need to worry. I am the one that needs to worry because have changed. I need to be on the lookout for differences." Chase turned to look at Damien. "You only watched the end of Volume One?"
