The familiar ground that Weiss had fallen back on was stripped from under her feet as she found herself thrust into a rather strange social engagement. There was this strange 'food' item on the tables within the room that Ruby had declared as 'pizza' before making a bee-line for what appeared to be one with chunks of pineapple and some sort of meat on it. There was a variety of choices spread out on the tables, with several cases of soda and one of bottled water off to one side of the room.
For as many types of pizza on the tables, there seemed to be just as many ways to eat it. Ruby and Yang seemed to be trying to inhale their slices whole, while another student dipped it into what appeared to be ranch sauce before taking a bit. One more used a fork and a knife to slice it into pieces, and various stages in between. It was, to be honest a little overwhelming.
Edging near the pizza, she began looking at them, noticing that many of them were labeled. Apparently the sisters enjoyed a Ham and Pineapple pizza, while many others liked a greasy looking one called pepperoni. She noticed that there was one marked with anchovies off to one side away from the others, which a black-haired girl seemed to have claimed a monopoly on and was blowing off the slice on her plate. Trying to pick a good pizza for her first, she searched through the titles for a clue. It was when she came across on labeled 'White Pizza' that she felt that she had a good omen. It did not have the red sauce that the others had, which meant that she wouldn't have to worry overly much about stains, was mostly cheese with herbs on top.
Taking a slice, she placed it carefully on a plate to let it cool off a little while she went to get one of the bottles of water. She had barely made it across the room when a tall, blue-haired boy stumbled into her path as a blonde monkey-faunus shoved him. She barely had time to yank her plate out of the path, saving her slice from a trip to the floor. Giving the pair her best glare, she felt it falter when the blue-haired guy just smiled and winked at her.
Returning to her quest for a bottle of water, she just wanted to eat in peace for a moment. It was strange to her that there was no social etiquette for this food that she could observe, let alone that she was going to be eating around others. However, this was something she had been looking forward to, and she was going to put her best foot forward. Never let it be said that she wasn't courageous and adventurous, and what was that growling noise?
She was about to look at her stomach when she noticed that she wasn't the only one to hear it. Following the eyes of the assembled students, she turned to the doorway she had just crossed, only to find teeth greeting her eyes. Teeth and drool, and a horrible smell that she was sure would have turned her stomach had she not been too busy being terrified. The maw opened up, revealing long dagger like teeth, easily bigger than her hands.
It was at this point that time seemed to slow down for her, somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard a scream. The maw was coming closer to her, ready to engulf her whole in a single bite. She could even see the bumps on its tongue seeking out a taste of her blood.
The next second there was a blur of yellow, and the beast was gone, mostly. Whatever had hit it had managed to knock it hard enough that a singular red orb spun lazily in the air before her, only to land with a squelching noise on her slice of pizza.
She stared at the red eyeball that was staring back at her from her slice of pizza, she could feel some unknown rage boiling inside of her as there was more screaming, mingled with roars from more of whatever it was that had just tried to eat her. Turning away from the ruined slice, she let it fall from her hands as she saw Yang pummeling the beasts with a strange pair of yellow gauntlets on her hands, while Ruby had her back, spinning around a flagpole while shouting something about needing to find a charm. A redheaded female was using a side table as a shield, while a leg served as a spear of sorts as she protected others from a group of the beasts. There was an orange haired girl that had grabbed what appeared to be an entire table and was currently smashing it into anything that got near her or a boy with a pink stripe in his black hair. Elsewhere, more pockets of protective resistance formed to ward off whatever type of creatures that had attacked the gathering.
In a moment of clarity, she had been able to study the beasts, and found them to be almost like wolves, if wolves came in the size of a small car, with pitch black skin, white bones over their faces and back, and gleaming red eyes that was. She found herself grabbing a metal leg that had broken off a table, and assuming the first position as her instructor in sword fighting had told her. A deep breath to ready her nerves and she was on the offensive, something that only the sisters seemed willing to do. The broken pipe like length of metal pierced the eyes of one beast, before being ripped out and slashing across the neck of another. As she attempted to recover from her over extension, she found that she hadn't pressed forward on her own, as a table pushed by a trio of boys slammed into the beast that was about to rip her to shreds. A small smile spread over her face, letting her gratitude show for the assistance before returning to the fight at hand.
Another of the beasts sprang up in front of her, and she lunged forward under its reach and jammed her pipe sword into its ribs before rolling to the side to let it die as she continued to press the attack on the creatures. Her pipe sword ripped open another beast, which vanished before her eyes, just as the sound of a sharp voice cut through the sudden silence. "Well then, I presume that there is a good explanation for this?"
Her eyes widened in terror as she turned to see the stern scowl of Glynda Goodwitch looking over the scene of… where was all the bodies of the creatures? Some of the students had injuries, but there were no creatures. It just looked like several students assaulted their classmates in a mad bid to escape the room for no reason.
The pipe clanged from her hand, echoed by several other improvised weapons falling to the ground in an unceremonious cacophony of noise. Even as Goodwitch glanced around the room, the Headmaster Ozpin walked in with a deep frown on his face. "I believe that we will have to investigate the matter personally Glynda, but first some of these students require medical aide. Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long: My office please. Those of you that are uninjured go to your rooms and await my summons. Those requiring medical aide, please stay here."
With a heavy sigh, she started to move towards the doors so she could go get her mind together after whatever just happened here. Her departure was stopped by a hand resting on her shoulder. Turning to look back at the hand's owner to ask who dared touch her, she found herself staring into amber eyes. The eyes were locked on hers with a concerned expression before they glanced down to her right side. "You are hurt, you should stay here," the black-haired woman stated softly as she moved Weiss towards a seat. "Hold still."
Settling down on the chair, she looked over at her right side and saw that she had gotten hit sometime. With the adrenaline draining out of her, the pain started to wash over her as the gash in her arm began seeping blood into her shirt sleeve. Had it been in that initial skirmish, or possibly when she had over extended and left her right side exposed? Oddly enough, despite the pain in her arm, she found herself watching the blood soaking into her clothing with an almost detached interest. A strip of black fabric, maybe even silk ribbon, cut into her vision and began cinching up the wound tightly. "Hey, you're Weiss, right? I think you are in the room across from mine." The woman stated, her eyes glancing up to ensure of something with Weiss.
This, along with a sharp stab of pain from her arm being bound, seemed to bring Weiss back from the edge of wherever her mind was slipping to. Letting out a hiss from the pain, she focused on the strangely calm girl binding her wounds. "Please just call me Weiss, am I to assume you are Yang's roommate then?" she asked, as the raven haired woman leaned in to bite a tear into the ribbon.
"Blake Belladonna. As for Yang, yes, but I have not met her yet. I had other business to attend to after the ship," the woman explained as she checked over the field tourniquet and dressing that her ribbon had been turned into. Seemingly satisfied, she moved to go sit next to Weiss while favoring one leg. "You were pretty good with that pipe against… whatever those things were."
"Thank you," Weiss offered as she looked down at the woman's leg, noticing the ankle of one was fairly swollen, looking over the rest of her, she saw that there were tears in her clothing in a similar fashion to ones where the creatures clawed into the wall. "Are you alright?"
"Just a sprain from when I got hit by a flying table," she answered, shifting in her seat, the start of a bruise peeking out of the tears in her clothing. The grimacing on her face spoke volumes about the amount of pain she felt at that moment. "It doesn't feel broken, but I don't like that I felt it pop when I got hit."
"That sounds rather horrible, to be honest," Weiss stated tiredly as she leaned back against the chair she'd been seated in, letting her eyes close as she took a deep, calming breath. "What on earth were those things?"
"No idea," Blake responded, keeping an eye on the heiress that had inadvertently saved her life. When the table had clocked her, a creature was about to tear her to pieces until a pipe pieced through its eye and a swirl of white danced into her vision.
A part of her wished nothing but a horrible death for the woman beside her, a small bit of suffering to mirror that which her family her family had inflicted on a countless number of faunus throughout the years. It was however, a tiny part of her and there were other opinions rolling around that countered it, or were completely unrelated. The most vocal wished she had scarfed down another slice of that anchovy pizza, but another reminded her of one fact that turned her stomach more than the thought of the atrocities of Gelb Schnee.
She, Blake Belladonna, owed Weiss Schnee, her life.
While no one could blame her for washing her hand of the situation, some instinct of her would not allow her to just walk away from this. This woman, whom she had every reason to hate, had selflessly risked her own safety to save her. Even if she hadn't been aware of it at the time, Weiss had saved her, and her pride refused to just let it go. It wasn't like the old days where she would be her servant for the rest of her life, but there she still needed to do something to soothe her wounded pride.
"Wish I could have at least tried that slice of pizza…" Weiss didn't quite whine, but it was close enough to make Blake give her a sympathetic smile.
"I'm sure that once they finish looking us over, they will check to see if we need anything to eat," Blake tried to offer hopefully while knowing full well that hospital food could be about as bad as survival rations, or worse since they wouldn't let you add any sauce, spices, or other things to make it taste like food.
At least rations always came with chocolate cookies with cream in the center.
Weiss seemed to mirror her thoughts about the hospital food as she let out a piteous little whimper. "Haven't we suffered enough?" she asked while looking around the room at the others that had stayed behind.
There were a few that Blake recognized, the monkey faunus and his blue-haired friend were off to one side holding their shoulders which had been braced against the table that had saved Weiss. A blonde boy that had been rather sick in the flight over was by them holding a cold water bottle to his face in hopes of lessening the swelling there, he was also holding a scrap of fabric just above the bottle. It would seem that he had gotten a nasty smack across his face from something with sharp edges.
Otherwise it was a girl who had been using tables as mallets, a black-haired boy that was fussing over her sliced leg with a deep frown using one hand while the other was cradled against his chest swelling up a nasty shade of purple. Finally, there was one face that she actually recognized, and was surprised to see in public without swarms of media flocking around her. What the hell was Pyrrha Nikos: the star of the track, field, and more of the latest cheesy action films than she cared to think about, was doing here? Shouldn't she be in Hollywood or something?
She needed someone else to confirm this, just to know she wasn't going insane and seeing things. "Weiss, is that Pyrrha Nikos over there? Helping the blondie that probably took a table leg to the face…" she asked, getting the heiress' attention and directing it to the person in question.
Weiss looked over, blinked very slowly before turning to look back at Blake. She worked her jaw a moment before speaking up. "Yes… unless we both took blows to the head."
Neither girl wanted to put that past the realm of possibility for the night, however silence grew between them as they waited their turn with the medical staff. Their thoughts eventually turned to the two who had been removed, wondering just where their roommates had gotten off to.
As it was, they were in the headmaster's office facing down a very pissed looking Glynda Goodwitch, a displeased but oddly thoughtful Ozpin, and an annoyed Elphaba Thropp. "Seriously, the Grimms just popped up out of nowhere," Yang defended as she slammed her fists into the desk before her. "What the hell happened to the ward? It's supposed to keep those bastards away from the campus, right?"
"It was taken down so we might add in the new students, including two whose magic would have had a rather volatile reaction to it should that precaution not have been taken," Elphaba snapped back sharply, glaring the blonde down with an irritated frown. "That was the reason for the social gathering in the first place, so all the students could be added at once."
"Were the wards back up everywhere else?" Ruby asked looking concerned as she glanced out the window at the campus as though expecting it to be under siege by legions of those Grimm again. However, all she saw was peace and tranquility.
"No, and that is what makes this attack all the more worrisome, someone went after the first year students, and only them. We do not know the reasoning, nor the method they are controlling the Grimm," Ozpin answered with a slightly annoyed tone to his voice. "Miss Xiao Long, I expect your patrols will be even more dangerous than anticipated. For the first few weeks, you will be accompanied by a member of the staff."
Yang looked ready to protest, but a glance from Ozpin, and a twitch of Goodwitch's crop held her tongue. "Miss Rose, you will be joining Miss Thropp in the WARD and the both of you will be reviewing any access to our wards that could have led to an attack of this magnitude. I ask that you have your weapon at the ready, because I believe that your department will be the first to be attacked should a follow-up operation occur."
Ruby still felt cheated that she wasn't out on the frontline; however the order was coming from the head of the local council, so she felt that she had to at least listen to what he was saying. The pause caused her to consider his words, and realize that though WMMR was not the glamourous and flashy position that PPGM was, it was an important and dangerous job in its own right. "Yes sir," she answered after a moment, her eyes focused on the agitated woman that had been controlling the wards. "What will happen to the others? I don't think anyone else was magical there…"
"We have ways of dealing with that; however we ask the two of you to be mindful of your classmates, magic is not without a chance of failure, and if they are showing signs of remembering tonight accurately, please inform a member of the council. We will have to figure out an alternative course," Ozpin offered with a frown as he reached out and curled his hands around his coffee mug. It looked like he had much more on his mind than what he was revealing to the girls, but they also felt that they should get used to it.
"Ozpin, we should see to the other students as well, and since their dinners were interrupted, I suggest we also find a replacement for that as well. This late at night, there are few options," Glynda cut in before other topics could be broached, her tone making sure that both girls knew that the other avenues of conversation were closed off.
"The ones going to the medical wing will be fed after they are looked over by the staff there. Please ensure that they know that their dinners were interrupted. Dr. Feelgood will want to know in particular. Those that did not require medical attention will have to do with supper in their rooms," Ozpin stated with a heavy sigh. "Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long, I ask that you both return to your rooms and act like you are confused about the incident until one of us tell you otherwise. None of the others in your grade know of Grimm."
In a room of the dorms, a mint green-haired girl slumped down on her bed, letting out a sigh. "I'm telling you Neo, the boss should have let us know she was sending in Grimm," she groaned out as she kicked off her heels, letting them land where they may. Her arms stretched out over her head as she rubbed the dusky skin and let out a groan. "Or at least wait until we could have gotten some pizza squared away to take back with us."
Across the room, one brown and one pink eye rolled up to the ceiling as a indulgent smile crossed the girl's face. Brushing her pink and brown hair aside, she looked over at her roommate and gave her a helpless shrug. Leaning down to unbutton the sides of her boots so she could take them off, she just let her companion rant.
"Ugh, I'm hungry… they better feed us something, and give us the day off tomorrow," the chatty one continued, while flipping her long ponytail out from under her spine. "If not I'm going to rob the kitchen, want anything?"
Neo looked up with a warning look to her suddenly brown eyes, which the green-haired girl ignored as her cell went off. Picking it up, she let out a groan of dismay as she saw just who it was. "It's Roman… ugh, why doesn't he get with the times and just text you?"
"Yo, Emerald here," she answered putting the phone to her ear. As her attention was focused on him, she missed the mischievous gleam of white and pink eyes watching her. "No, it went perfect; tell the boss that I'll send her a message soon about the results. No, I still have the class roster, so our part is secure. Mercury better not screw up his part."
Listening to the other end, she rolled her crimson red eyes as her hand began mimicking a talking mouth in the air above her. "Mmhmm, yeah…" she encouraged him to continue going on as Neo stifled a laugh behind her hand, pink eyes shining with mirth. "Look, we can't talk long; they'll probably send a cover-up squad soon. Yeah, we'll 'forget' about everything until tomorrow night. I'll give Neo your love, and tell her you were worried sick about her."
The explosion of cussing caused her to lift the phone away from her ear, only to cut it off with a simple press of a button. Turning to look at Neo, she sighed as the girl flashed her a few hand gestures. It was meaningless to most, but Emerald had taught her the silent language of her former crew to keep their memory alive. "No, I'm pretty sure he might be full on narcissistic, but his reactions are too much fun to pass up. But he did ask if you were hurt, so there has to be some care there…"
Emerald closed her eyes as she let her body relax, slow and steady breaths were used as a way to calm her body to focus on the tasks at hand. She and Neo would be able to play the part of distressed students later, but for now she had to be able to deal with information, names, and observations. "Let's start reviewing the reactions of our classmates… Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long went exactly as expected. Did you catch what Ruby was trying to say?"
At Neo's head shake, she frowned slightly. "Damn… would have been a good addition to the report… The heiress and our little run-away were a surprise, both leapt into the fray instead of holding back… Are you writing any of this down?"
Neo tapped her pen against the paper, indicating that she was indeed taking notes. This was going to be a long night… hopefully they would bring some caffeine or something with the meals they had damn well better provide. She could feel her stomach growling hungrily from the missed meal.
"Right… so those two… the war hero's great-something or other grandson was a bit of a letdown, but I… sense potential. He might be valuable. Especially if we can get to Pyrrha through him, she would be exquisite to get," she broke of her thought as she slipped into silent musing; though her face betrayed nothing, instead looking like she was trying to recall the others of the first year students. "The two Atlasian plants seemed competent, and there were a few more potentials in the rest. Overall, I would say that we can focus our efforts on the ones specified…"
As Neo finished writing out the notes, and adding in her own comments to various people, Emerald found herself flashing back to the fight, and focusing on a single face. "Hey Neo, did the boss lady say anything about the old monarchy of Mantle? One of the first years reminded me of some pictures I saw of their old queen before the Atlas coup."
Getting a shake of Neo's head, she sighed and closed her eyes. It was entirely possible that it was a coincidence, but still… she didn't like it. She would just keep watching the student until she had proof one way or another, it wasn't like the boss needed to know about it.