I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.


I don't like Ironwood. But I don't know who does.


Chapter 3


Ozpin could only sigh as he sat in the transport jetcopter that was moving towards the origins of the mysterious, massive power surge which had come and gone just days before. He had been very insistent on being among the group sent to check the area, since it had previously been home to a small band of faunus that had been too afraid to return to the cities after the end of the war.

He wanted to be part of any effort that would help those people in case there was a disaster, in hopes that it would help them come to terms with the passage of time and accept safe haven inside of the city walls. But unfortunately, he was not the one in charge. And it was set to be a military operation, not a relief effort.

The headmaster of Beacon Academy took a long sip from his coffee mug. He may have been getting along in years, but he was still a very strong presence, whether on a battle field, or at his school. He stood at an impressing height of six feet six inches, and his calm expression behind his spectacles and wild gray hair gave him the look of experience that one would expect of a man like him. And yet he was losing the respect of the Council due to his insistence that a time of peace should be used to enjoy peace and show how foolish war was. But the Council could only understand war and conflict, actions that only created more enemies.

"You aren't still sore that the Council picked me to lead the search, are you Oz?" Ozpin looked up to see an old student of his, Ironwood, standing over him.

"That they picked you? No, it's good experience for you General. The military force that you decided to take with you... that troubles me," Ozpin said, taking another swig from his coffee. James Ironwood was just as tall as Ozpin himself, with a military poster-boy look about him. His black and gray hair was well groomed and he was in a sharp, white military uniform. Just above his right eyebrow was a small piece of metal from his days as a soldier.

"Oz, we might be dealing with a new weapon. We can't go in unprepared. You know that these faunus could be working with the White Fang," Ironwood said, looking at his old friend.

"Or they could just be scared and innocent bystanders in whatever has happened, and we're only going to reinforce the fears they have about human kind only wishing to imprison them. You could have at least considered bringing one of our faunus Huntsmen as an messenger to try and find out what's going on," Ozpin replied, disappointed at Ironwood's stern look, "We are at peace General, shows of military might will only scare people."

"So you would rather we go in blind and accept the consequences!" Ironwood asked angrily.

"I didn't say that," Ozpin said with a sigh, "I am just saying that discretion is the best policy. And I don't think that we are searching for a weapon. I can't image a group of misguided terrorist like the White Fang could produce a weapon that could generate energy on the scale that our sensors detected."

Ironwood and Ozpin sneered at each other for several moments before a voice over the speakers interrupted them, "General Ironwood, sir, we will have visual of the site shortly."

"Bring it up on the monitors," Ironwood instructed. But when the images came to them he almost wished he hadn't seen them, "My god."

"The village has been destroyed," Ozpin said drily, "We were too late." More than half of the building had been smashed to the ground, clear signs of a Grimm attack.

"We need to search for survivors."

"Right," Ironwood said, pressing a button for the intercom, "Send in the Atlesian Knights, the 200 models. See if we can't gather up any of the witnesses."

Ozpin's eyes nearly bugged out. "James, you can't be serious!" He said losing all pretense of respect in his disbelief, "Whoever has just survived this will be terrified, you can't send your heartless machines down there!"

"Would you prefer I send my living, breathing men down there to risk their lives?" Ironwood countered, "I'm sure you would have sent a few of your children down there to try to sort things out."

"Yes I would, because this situation requires thinking, feeling, people. These military drones are not like that Penny girl you're so proud of. They don't have souls, they don't even look all that human," Ozpin said, desperate for his old student to show some sense, "Please, I will go alone if I have to, just don't send in the bots."

"Oz... this is my operation," Ironwood said before giving the signal to continue the launch of the androids. The pod doors on the outside of the ship opened and a dozen white armored androids dropped from zip-lines down to the earth, "Don't worry Oz. You can calm everyone down once we've made sure that there is nothing dangerous down there."

The bots pulled out their guns and began to move through the village with caution. Ozpin and Ironwood observed their progress onmonitors that displayed the first person view from the androids' cameras. "Something is missing here," Ozpin said after a few moments.

"What?" Ironwood asked, not understanding, "It looked just like any destroyed village."

"Yes, but where are the bodies? The Grimm are never this thorough. We should at least see some bones," Ozpin said, "There are patches of blood, but the bodies are gone."

Ironwood noticed what he was saying. "So there must be survivors to bury the dead," He reasoned. As if on cue, the androids stumbled across a few fresh, if poorly made, graves. They were arranged in three rows of twelve with crosses made out of bound twigs marking each of them. In front of them all was a large slab rock with four words burned into it: "May They Know Peace".

"We need to evacuate any survivors before more Grimm come," Ozpin said, knowing full well how the despair of those who grieve for the dead attracted the Grimm.

"Agreed, but I do wonder how anyone in a simple village like this survived an attack from the Grimm," Ironwood said as the androids were directed to move on. But as the bots reached the village square they were greeted by quite a sight. "What on earth..?" Ironwood said, shocked.

There was a wide cone of destruction in the middle of the area, and in the center of it was the body of a Goliath, still dissolving after being impaled through the head by what looked like a giant ice crystal.

"A Goliath! Something out there took down a Goliath!" Ironwood shouted, more than a little shocked. The Goliaths were the powerhouses of the Grimm world, having lived for hundreds of years. Most fully trained Huntsmen and Huntresses wouldn't risk a confrontation with one if they could help it.

"Indead, I wonder what happened," Ozpin said, more curious than scared.

The sound of a bucket falling against the ground caught the androids' sensors and their heads and guns turned to see a small faunus girl, only around five years of age, standing with terrified eyes at the mobile unit. She had dropped a bucket of water at the sight of the droids. She turned and began to run, her floppy rabbit ears bouncing as she went.

"Follow the girl, she'll probably lead you to the other survivors," Ironwood said sternly.

"It would probably have gone better if we had living people down there," Ozpin grumbled, "Poor thing is terrified."

"Phantom! Phantom help!" The girl was screaming.

"Is she calling for the others?" Ironwood said, confused. Five of the monitors died, messages of lost signal flared up on the screen. "What?" Three of the bots turned to see five of the androids on the ground, cut to pieces. A bright flash of green light appeared on some of the screens before those too died, their droids laying on the ground with holes melted through their heads.

The dozen androids were picked off one by one until only one remained, it was turning about rapidly, its gun raised, trying to find the attacker. Suddenly it had its legs pulled out from under it and a image of the sky was all it could see, until a white gloved hand brought down a crystal knife into the camera. The only thing that the General and Huntsman would see of the individual that took out their droids.

"Well that was certainly interesting," Ozpin said, doing his best to keep a cheeky smile off of his face.

"Interesting? There is a hostile force down there that took down a dozen of my state of the art Atlesian Knights, and all you can say is that it's interesting!?" Ironwood yelled.

Ozpin couldn't help but to roll his eyes, it was like watching one of his less mature students throwing a hissy-fit about a smudge on their brand new spear. "Saying that it's a hostile force might be going a bit far don't you think? Whoever it was heard the girl's cries for help and came and took down what he saw as a threat to an innocent child's safety," Ozpin said, getting up and pouring himself another cup of coffee, "But I do think that I would like to meet this man."

"Where are you going?" Ironwood asked as Ozpin walked to the back of their transport and pulled an emergency evacuation lever that caused a door to pop off.

"We tried things your way, now it's my turn," Ozpin said, his trusted cane in hand. "I'll contact you when I'm done," He finished before stepping out of the jetcopter, ignoring the General's shouts of outrage.

Ozpin cleared his landing without a problem, not even spilling a single drop of his coffee. He then proceeded in no hurry towards where he knew the living people to be. It was another reason that sending in a Huntsman or Huntsman in training made the most sense. Huntsmen could sense the aura produced by souls, a skill that Ozpin put a lot of weight on in his school. It was invaluable when performing rescue missions.

As he passed the slowly decaying corpse of the Goliath he put his hand on the spike to confirm his suspicions; it was made of ice. Based on the incision it made in the earth he concluded that it had become smaller since it had been placed there, but there was no sign of water. This meant that it was no ordinary ice. "It would have taken a lot of highly refined dust to make this," Ozpin mused. "I'll need to get a sample of this before I leave," He said before checking on the droids. He found the final droid to be destroyed, a knife still pressed into its head. And just as Ozpin expected, it was ice. Ozpin took the dagger and placed it in a small case that he had in his pocket.

Ozpin then walked towards one of the many ruined house, the only one that had any signs of being under repair. He could sense what felt like four souls inside. He lifted a hand and knocked on the door three times.

After a few moments the door opened and Ozpin was in for another surprise. Standing in front of him was what looked like a normal human boy, about fifteen years old with raven black hair and astonishingly icy blue eyes. He was holding himself in a defensive manner, one foot slightly forward, shoulder back, body slightly angled, as if he wanted Ozpin to know that he was ready for a fight if Ozpin made any move.

"Can I help you?" The boy asked, suspicious but not altogether cold.

"Yes, I'm Professor Ozpin; I'm with a group that was looking for survivors," Ozpin said. It was the truth, if not the whole truth. Ozpin took note of the dagger made of ice in the boy's hand, halfway hidden behind him. The boy just looked confused.

"You're a professor?" He asked raising an eyebrow. He had to look up to see Ozpin face.

"Well, actually I'm a Headmaster." He said, a small smile playing his lips. He was amazed by the boy's aura. He had believed that there were four people in the house at first, but now he could see that there were only two, and that the boy was producing as much aura as three normal adults. "I assume that you're the one that destroyed the those androids?" Ozpin asked.

"You could say that," The boy said, tensing up a bit at the mention of the bots.

"I must thank you then. I'm hoping that this will teach one of my former students the importance of diplomacy before sending in armed robots," Ozpin said, shaking his head, "And you did a very impressive job."

"Why were you here again?" the boy asked.

"Well, I was hoping to convince the survivors of the village to take up shelter inside of the city walls where they would be safe from the Grimm, but it seems like it's too late." Ozpin said sadly looking about the destroyed village. "They died not even knowing that the war had been over for almost a century."

"Phantom?" a small voice asked curiously. Behind the boy was the little faunus girl that had been running from the robots.

The boy backed away from Ozpin and put the knife down. Ozpin didn't know if that was simply a test to see how he would react or an actual show of faith, but it was a step in the right direction. "Don't worry, March. It's safe." He said ruffling the little girl's hair.

"Phantom? Is that your name?" Ozpin asked the boy.

"Yeah, my name's Danny, Danny Phantom," He said, looking towards the Headmaster. Ozpin momentarily thought about how Danny was an odd name. "So you're going to be taking us to this city, then?"

"Vale is one of the four safest places in Remnant," Ozpin said simply, "But I'm afraid that it might not be the nicest place to grow up for orphaned faunus children." March hugged herself to Phantom's leg. "But I do have another offer for you. How would you both like to stay at my school? I think that you have potential to become a great Huntsman," Ozpin asked with a smile.

Phantom was quiet for a few seconds before he spoke again. "We were just about to eat; maybe we should discuss this over a meal," he said, leading Ozpin to a kitchen area. There, Ozpin explained everything about Huntsman and Huntresses, and Danny agreed to go with him as long as he could remain with March, who he seemed to have adopted as a younger sister after her parents' deaths.

At the end of it all Ozpin couldn't help but smile. Not only did he just gain a promising student... but he also had one more thing that he could rub in Ironwood's face.


I am not sure if I made myself clear enough the last chapter. I was drunk when I first started this story. And I had no intention of continuing it. But since people are asking I guess I will put out another chapter.

Not sure if I will continue again or not.

If I do continue this, what group would you like Danny to be a part of? What point in the story would you suggest introducing him in? What weapon should he have?


Chapter betaed by Jysrin