Ozpin did not remember being truly young so much. As long as he had wandered this world, the things he had seen, the beauty, the horrors, not many things were able to raise his interest past a certain threshold. It was the curse of great knowledge, he thought, that the small things in life seemed to lose their charm. An exception of this, were his students. He suspected he would never run out of surprises as long as he would run this academy. The whole student body, team RWBY ahead were a melting pot of ideas, wishes, desires and impulses that it was impossible to even plan a day ahead without expecting the unexpected.
Today however, the headmistress, Glynda Goodwitch, in her unending wisdom had expelled him, the headmaster from his own office. The many long nights he had sat at his desk, preparing for the Vytal festival, planning his moves against the great enemy and evading having to explain himself to the Council had apparently taken their toll. So much that he himself had been too preoccupied with staying awake to notice that he was just barely managing just that.
So right now, with his mandatory leisure time, what was a man like him to do? He had tried catching up on sleep, but it evaded him as much as the idea of keeping himself idle for extended periods of time. Instead he had decided to continue teaching himself on the mysteries of Remnant. Yharnam was still an enigma for him. For everyone and he had hit a wall trying to form any connections between the large quantity of materials he had sifted through. So he concentrated his efforts on another urban legend that had found it's way to his ears. The southern planes of Mistral.
According to some traveling merchants, many hobby-explorers and a few huntsmen and huntresses, the area along the southwestern shore of Mistral was almost entirely free of creatures of Grimm. Sure they were present, but spread so thin that they didn't pose a major threat to even the most uneducated individual with a gun. The tale had persisted for some time now and so, had found it's way to some of the more well versed participants on the social media platforms. Some, whom he even knew as decorated experts in the fields had voiced theories that the lack of Grimm was the result of an unprecedented power struggle between the usual population and a single or a small group of particularly powerful specimens, but almost everyone was careful to mention that theories were still just theories.
To Ozpin it was still to early to draw any conclusions. A lack of Grimm in an unpopulated area was strange, sure, but didn't warrant any baseless speculations. Adding to this that he had seen much less probable things in his life, it was not too exceptional compared to let's say: the Maidens, Salem, or even the Grimm themselves.
A forum in particular seemed promising enough. An agent and his assistants from Atlas, contracted by a wealthy Atlesian businessman had pursued a lead to a peculiar patch of land in the relevant region and had been as surprised by the comparable safety as everyone else. He however had come into contact with another human being or as he claimed, something disguised as a human.
His explanations counted down events of uncanny nature. A night he had been forced to set up his camp in a large clearing in the middle of a heavily wooded area. During the night he had been woken by a particularly stressful nightmare and had left his tent to refresh himself at the nearby stream. There, the man he said to emanate an unnatural presence had waited for him, sitting on a stone and had issued his first warning to him.
He said that a terrible power lay hidden beyond the shores of these lands and that pursuing his cause, which he apparently had possessed intimate knowledge of, would inevitably lead to his and his colleague's demise. Naturally the agent, a grounded man with no particular religious or superstitions tendencies, had been putting the whole thing off as a strategy devised by the competition to scare him off and carried on regardless.
A few days into their venture, all members of his group were being haunted by bizarre nightmares, all revolving around weird and mostly indiscernible shapes emerging from the ocean, many smaller ones, some of large size, maybe thirty to fifty meters in height, but to the terror off all of them, even these were overshadowed by a gigantic, more detailed silhouette. Impossibly high, the shoulders and head almost entirely disguised by the dark clouds, a towering creature had been in all of their dreams.
It didn't possess any legs, according to them, instead slowly but steadily moving forward using its many arms, which bent in numerous directions through a disgustingly large number of joints. The shoulders seemed to serve no real purpose as most of these arms were attached to the terribly malformed humanoid torso and the head that sat atop the behemoth was featureless and static, almost as if it was fixed upon the body like a hat. Then, the creature emitted a terrible sound. A blaring like from a horn, but too powerful and violent to be properly compared to a musical instrument. It shook their surroundings and reverberated in their bones and then-
-then they woke up. All of them at the same time.
It was then that the agent decided that his client could not possibly want to acquire a piece of land where he would be haunted by terrible dreams each night and retreated hastily.
Out of curiosity, Ozpin ran a few light backround checks on the agent and his group. All five of them were said to be reliable and confidential enough. Also there were no signs of latent psychological illnesses or drug abuse. Maybe the southwest of Mistral had unexplored reserves of natural gasses that seeped to the surface and caused hallucinations? Then however, all five of them had apparently experienced the exact same thing. Extremely unlikely for a bad trip. And what was with the man? The area showed only a single, lonely adress, near the shore registered with the postal service. No street name, just a set of coordinates and a description of how to reach it.
More information wasn't to be gained. No one in the region's postal service had ever stepped forward or made any blunders regarding confidentiality. Not that he actively seeked such things, but others had already tried and failed to dig up this information. Maybe, if he had the time...
Cinder was still struggling with her composure. The house was nice. Wooden wainscoting in a homely dark tone covered the walls where no bookshelfs lined them. Those shelfs, she noticed were numerous and filled to the brim with thick tomes, that bore titles of peculiar nature or in languages she was unable to discern. Some were covered in the runes they had found on the obelisks and headstones they had found in the woods. A fact that only furthered her uneasiness.
It wasn't typical for Cinder Fall to feel this vulnerable. Normally, she was the one in charge, the one to be feared, but here, in the figurative lion's den, she was haunted by the inquisitive stare that Johannes The Hunter threw her way and no less for some reason, by the lighthearted attitude that the platinum blonde girl exhibited.
Johannes had introduced all three of them to the happily smiling young woman and Cinder was unable not to notice how much the two seemed to contrast. Apparently her name was Maria and she had lived here for as long as she remembered. Emeralds rather passive aggressive question if she was Johannes' lover were quickly and with much blushing negated by her. He also wasn't her father, he told them, well... not her biological father at least. He had raised her and cared for her, but he would not disclose the circumstances under which he had met her. Cinder knew better than to pry into the life of a man who radiated such wrongness.
Maria however seemed to feel comfortable around him. It was a bond of trust, she suspected, since her affection for the man seemed so genuine.
"Coffee or tea?" Maria's voice chimed from the small kitchen adjacent to the living room in which they were seated. All three had noticed a strange accent on the girl. Somehow Cinder thought she sounded eastern, but in the east, past Vale there was only vast endless ocean.
"Tea. Thanks a lot."
"Me too." Emerald said and nodded thanks. Mercury chose coffee and thanked Maria with a smile. Shortly after, she came out of the kitchen, a tray in her slender hands, carrying five cups. Three filled with tea and two with coffee.
"You want to take milk with it. The coffee Maria brews tends to be quite strong." Johannes said with a nod towards Mercury, while taking a sip of the steaming beverage.
Mercury smiled. The boy had endure much pain in his former life. Surely a stiff cup of coffee wouldnt hurt him. Confident in himself he raised the porcelain vessel to his lips and immediately recoiled sharply, struggling to keep the cup upright and not spill anything on the floor.
"It also tends to be quite hot when it's fresh." Johannes added, slightly chuckling as Mercury rubbed away the pain in his burnt lips and Maria failed to suppress a melodic laughter. Suddenly, the atmosphere seemed to lighten. The little bit of slapstick humour doing wonders in raising morale in the three travelers, even though it was at the cost of their male companion.
"Maria. Be a dear and bring A glass of cold water for Mr. Black here."
"Sure!" She answered enthusiastically and hurried off. Cinder saw this as her queue and cleared her throat, but Johannes raised his hand.
"Let us discuss when she is back."
"Are you sure she needs to hear these things? Surely you know that this is not to be taken lightly."
He just nodded, patiently waiting for the girl to come back. "If we are to depart, she will come with me. I would have to lock her into a block of steel to keep her here while I am gone. And while I concur that a lot of times ignorance is safer than knowledge, being unprepared is much more dangerous."
"She will come with us?"
"She will go where I go. It does not matter terribly much. If we fail, nowhere will be safe."
Cinder heard Emerald swallow loudly beside her. They knew what Salem planned was bad, but to hear it from the man made it seem much worse immediately. Even the return of Maria with a glass of cold water didn't raise the atmosphere too much.
"So what is going on?" She asked, the same innocent smile on her face as before.
Johannes put a hand on her arm and looked her in the eyes.
"There will be a hunt." He said calmly, her expression suddenly hardening. She nodded.
/
@U332, this is C.G.S. Lumen, do you copy?
@Lumen this is 332, we read you. What do you got?
@332, be advised, there seems to be a large aquatic Grimm coming towards you on your 45.
@Lumen, we're not picking up anything. Your feelers alright?
@332, weve already diagnosed our sensor suite. There is definitely something big coming towards you. 1.6k and closing in.
@Lumen, there's nothing. Is this a prank?
@332, be advised, unknown object is 1.2k and coming closer. Object is either a large swarm or at least 600m in diameter.
@Lumen, be advised that this is a confidential channel reserved for military and coast guard vessels only. Please refrain from abusing this frequency for any reason.
@332, for fucks sake, look at your close range echo or something! This is not a joke! Object is large and within 1k m of your position!!!
@Lumen, we aren't picking up anything. We
@332?
SOS
This is an automated emergency message, issued by [Atlesian Submarine MiCar U332]. If you are receiving this message please forward it to EOPS and any emergency recovery service available.
SOS
opsissued:run/auto/chatforwardedto:allclearance4/submittedby:OPSjamdi
opsissued:notificationlvl9:allclearance4/submittedby:OPSjamdi
/
"General, sir?" Winter Schnee asked. She tried to straighten her hair a bit, but it was of no use. Being woken up at 2 A.M. did things to people. Things she was powerless to correct right now. General James Ironwood didn't seem to be much better off. His eyes were cast on a map of the atlesian sea and his expression was one of hard worry and a bit of stress, but only because people who had experienced as much as him were rare.
"Specialist Schnee. Good that you're here. We have a delicate situation on our hands?" He stepped aside and allowed her full view of the map, where numerous holographic markers symbolised ships and aircraft.
"Exactly twenty seven minutes ago, a coastguard ship has issued a level nine alarm notification regarding the submarine missile carrier U332. According to the log, somethisomething massive had been approaching the ship before it vanished."
"Vanished sir?"
"Yes. It's gone. No ship, no wreck, no crewmen. The A.A.S. Hammer is present and is scanning the whole area, but so far, nothing. But that's not the weirdest thing." She nodded to signal her attention.
"Of course the echologs are documented and coherent to the report, show a humongous unknown element approaching U332, but as well as U332, in the exact moment of the ships dissappearance, it too just vanished."
"Maybe the crew of the U332 detonated the warheads as a last resort and destroyed the object." She knew she was speculating, but no other scenario came to her mind.
"Maybe, but unlikely." Ironwood leaned again on the map. "We would have found debris, large aqua dynamic readings from the coast, anything. But even though U332 was a huge ship, there didn't seem to be even any water displacement upon it's dissappearance. not even mentioning the unknown object, which was easily thrice the size of the sub. It went dark and was gone. As if it had never existed."
Winter was unsure if how to respond to that. Never had she heard a story this unbelievable, but the general seldom joked, much less on such serious matters.
"Then... what could have happened?" Her tone was wavering and uncertain, even though she tried her best to keep it as stoic as usual.
"I don't know." Ironwood was faring better, but not by too much. "I will travel to Vale. I need you to meet with the A.S.S. Hammer. I want eyes and ears out there. Everything you find out, you report directly to me. Understood?"
"Perfectly sir. What am I looking for?" This was what she was used to. Orders, simple as that.
"While the loss of the U332 and her crew is tragic, their whereabouts are only our secondary concern. Whatever swept it off the map is undoubtedly dangerous and needs to be neutralised. Focus on that."
"Yessir!"
/
Cinder was still unsure what to think of Johannes. He was undoubtedly powerful, his numbing presence alone was testament to that. Beyond that, he didn't seem taken aback by the news in the slightest. He had patiently listened to her explanations and only occasionally asked questions to very specific topics. Even more unnerving was the fact that he apparently knew about Salem and her involvement on the global powerplay.
"She sent you to find an artifact?" He had asked, even though Cinder was sure he already knew the answer.
"Seven to be exact. Some are connected to the legend of the Maidens and some just seem random. We were to break into Beacon first. You know about Beacon?"
"A place of learning, as far as I know." While they talked he was ruffling through a large case in a part of his house he called his "workshop". To Cinder it seemed more like a place of occult rituals, with what seemed to be blood stored away in vials, eyes and other organs preserved in jars and carefully shelved off, vicious looking blades hanging off a wall and a small piece of cloth draped delicately over a stone altar, a spot of dry blood still visible on it. Peculiarly, the cloth seemed to radiate a power similar to what one could feel in the Hunter's presence.
"It is. It is also built over an enormous vault which is said to maybe harbor one of the Maiden's artifacts. The others should be hidden beneath Mistral's, Vacuo's and Atlas's schools, but where the remaining three are supposed to be..." She trailed off. The thought still chilled her, after all what she had learned.
"The phtenumeran bells, the chalice of Rh'elle and Madman's Knowledge." He pulled a heavily engraved double barrel shotgun from the trunk and broke it gently over his arm to inspect it's innards, before snapping it shut and attaching it to a loop on the harness that he now wore under his long coat.
"How do you know?" The raven haired girl asked with curiosity in her voice. Not that she wasn't still scared, she wasn't used to be so obviously outclassed by anyone else but her master, but ththe thirst for knowledge won over her fears. At least temporary.
"Johannes has studied these things a lot." Maria answered for him. She was sitting next to a tall doll that was propped up in a rocking chair in the back of the room. Emerald had already noticed the remarkable likeness that the object shared with the happy girl. It was uncanny seeing her next to the doll, the only obvious deviations between the two their dress up. While the doll wore a voluminous, frilly dress akin to a woman from times long past and a cap wrapped around her face, Maria now sported a blood red coat, not unlike Johannes's if not for the colour. Her head was covered with a tricorn similar in style to Johannes's as well, but undamaged and with a white feather arching upwards to hang down the back of her head. Lastly a piece of thick cloth hung from a brooch over her right shoulder, like a cape.
"The books you have seen in our house, they all are about the parts of Remnant's history that nobody should know about. I always wanted to read them, but Johannes doesn't want me to learn the languages." The hunter wandered over to her and gently placed his hand on her head.
"Ignorance of the right things is as sharp of a blade as the Rakuyo. You will know when it is time for me to teach you those cursed letters. Until then, the lack of knowledge will be your shield." A metallic clunk was heard and Maria's eyes lightened up as she looked upon the object that Johannes had presented her with.
The sword was obviously expertly made, judging from the sheath and the grip alone. A long curved blade terminated in a long, two handed grip, from which one larger crossguard protruded at the top and one smaller at the middle of the grip.
"I can?" She asked almost tentatively if it wasn't for the enthusiasm in her voice. Johannes just nodded, widening her smile even further as she took the, by comparison with her slender frame, large blade.
The hunter then turned back to the three. Cinder, Emerald and Mercury were not feeling well. Though that feeling did not originate from the space they now inhibited as much as from the thought of what Salem would do should she find out that they had turned against her. Maybe she already knew, one could never be sure with that... thing.
"I wish we may have no use for armaments such as this, but as of now, I cannot be sure where our Investigations will lead us." Again, the low voice. To Cinder it was as if the growling near-whisper came from every direction at once. Maybe even from within her. It was off putting, though not inherently unpleasant. Time would tell if she could grow accustomed to it.
"Do you know what we're up against? Salem is powerful." There was no doubt in Mercury's voice as he spoke, but a certain concern. The witch had obviously sent them after Johannes because she thought him to be a threat to her plans. How she had imagined them fighting someone so obviously powerful was still beyond him and the other two.
"I know Salem." The Hunter again retracted his hands from the trunk and revealed two menacing looking weapons. One hand held a crooked shortsword made from a black metal that seemed to shine dimly in the low light of the workshop, in the other hand was a long staff that all three at once, could identify as an enormous scythe made from a similar material. Their eyes widened once again as the weapons dematerialised in front of them, leaving nothing but a pale, evaporating mist in Johanness hands.
"She is of the impression that no one is stronger than her and that everything exists only to do her bidding. That is where she is wrong. While she is certainly powerful, her might and influence pales in comparison to the things that are hidden in Remnant's soil and waters." Numerous silvery bullets found their way into pouches on his belt.
"Thusly, my concern lies not entirely with her, but with the things you told me she would try to wake. Should she succeed, there is no telling of what might befall this world." He paused briefly. His eyes fixating a nondescript point on one of the shelves until he spoke again.
"It's been a while. You might not like where I intend to go. Who I'd like to visit."
"Where would that be?" Cinder asked, fearing the worst.
"An old friend of mine. I heard he is headmaster of a school now. Somewhere in Vale I'm sure."
"Ozpin?" She thought they would be charging directly into the depths of hell with how slow and cryptically the man was with his distribution of information. Meeting the headmaster of the school they were going to infiltrate for what was basically going to be a terrorist attack didn't seem so bad, if she wasn't sure that Johannes would make them spill every piece of information they had.
"Johannes! Can I? This time?" Again it was Maria, her joyous nature piercing the menacing shadow that the looming man casted.
"You know how inept I am at flying that godforsaken thing, so... yes, you can."