I HAVE RETURNED! KNEEL BEFORE ME! MWAHAHAHA!

Hi. This is J. Van A... and that was weird. That was Evil Van. He's just been sitting in my head for the past few days brewing while I was silently hating the people in my classes. So don't mind him when he appears.

WHICH CAN BE ANY TIME!

Anyway, I'm back, and here's the newest chapter of Shine Bright Like the STARs. It's not that great, but there are several good plot points and comedy (even a little easter egg for a certain wolf). Now, going along with the theme of my stories, STAR is going on a mission, at the end of the chapter. They actually get to the location, but then it stops.

Enjoy

"Come on, at least think about it," Aeron said following Rexan out of the bathroom carrying a Beacon uniform.

"No," Rexan said stopping in front of her using his semblance to throw the uniform out of her hands, "I only went to buy civilian clothes with you guys to wear every once in a while, not that I was going to stop wearing my robes. Seriously, those things are way too restrictive for my fighting style and messes with my meditation."

"You're not fighting or meditating all the time, seriously, just try to be normal. You're not even religious so you're really violating the dress code when you're wearing that," she said to him gesturing towards his outfit. "One simple conversation with Goodwitch and you'll be in trouble. Then I will gladly burn all of your robes."

He pulled back in mock shock. "You wouldn't dare?" He then smirked. "If that were to happen then you'd have to worry about whether or not there'll be spare pants for you to wear."

"You wouldn't dare?"

"Are they seriously arguing about this?" Scott asked turning to his partner who was groaning in annoyance as she stared at her robe on top of the dresser. "Right, I'm the only one who is at least normal when it comes to daily appearances."

"Look, all I'm saying is that I like to wear my robes, and you wear my pants. You force me to wear the Beacon uniform and you lose the pants forcing you to wear the skirts," Rexan reasoned with his partner.

"Right, well, I'm going down to the training rooms and I'm gonna fight the atlesian knights, if anyone's interested," Scott said leaving the room with JACK following behind. Nobody seemed to notice as he left since they seemed to be too absorbed in their own affairs.

Leaving the dorm room Scott headed to the lockers to retrieve his weapons with JACK silently hovering behind him. Then JACK flew next to the soldier and let out a series of beeps that sounded like a concerned question.

"It's nothing, JACK," Scott sighed as he exited the building and headed towards the training building where the atlesian knights were stored. "Well, I guess it might be something. Rex seems to click so easily with everyone on the team and he's obviously the better fighter than me, so why am I the team leader? I haven't even done anything too great. The most I did was come up with a temporary plan until Rex came up with a better one to kill the brumak. I probably shouldn't really talk with you about these sort of things, you're only just a robot."

"But I'm not, Mr. Alasdair," a voice said from behind Scott making him jump. Turning around he saw Liza Neros the Negotiations and Hostage Exchange teacher standing behind him (What? Were you expecting Ozpin?). She looked over to JACK which now was activating its camouflage. "Now, that is an interesting trinket."

"Oh, sorry Mrs. Neros," Scott apologized somewhat embarrassed from her overhearing his conversation.

"Ms.," she corrected him. "I'm not married, well, not anymore. So, you are feeling as if Mr. Ando would make a better leader than you?"

"No… well yes, but that's not what I'm getting at."

"Really? Than what are you 'getting at'?" she asked him raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it just seems weird," he told her. "I am more of a soldier than a leader. I take orders, not give them. So, I honestly didn't think Ozpin thought over the whole 'making me leader' thing very much."

"Really? You think Ozpin didn't think that over?" she scoffed. "I have known that man for my whole time working here. Sure, he may do things on the fly a lot, but when it concerns his students he get's very focused. He goes through every possible worst case scenario to try and find the best way to keep students safe. He may not show it, but he treats every one of his students as his own child literally bursting into tears whenever one dies. So, if he has made you the leader of your own team, then you are the best possible choice for team leader."

"Thanks, I guess," he said then pointed his thumb over his shoulder towards the training building. "Well, I am going to go train now, so if that is all-"

"Actually," she interrupted him, "I wouldn't mind observing your fighting technique. In the mean time, would you please tell me more about your friend Rexan, I'm curious."

"Are you sure about this Ironwood?" Ozpin asked the general over his scroll as he looked over the files projected on his desk. "A whole town missing?"

"Ozpin, I would not be contacting you about this unless I was sure," James replied on his end. "Our scanners didn't catch any human or faunus life in that whole town."

"And you didn't even try to contact that old wolf?" Ozpin asked smirking at his joke.

"I tried to contact him, but you of all people should know that if he doesn't want to be found he won't be."

"And did you even bother to call his wife?"

"She hasn't been answering my calls for ten years, so I don't think she'll be answering my calls anytime soon," he replied then pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Look, I'm not asking for a lot, but could you please send a team in to investigate."

"Fine," Ozpin sighed, "but I'll need you to send in one of your people who knows the area because I'm a little short on available hunters at the moment."

"Or you could get out of that tower of yours and go yourself," Ironwood said receiving a glare from the headmaster. "Fine, I'll send someone in."

Scott tensed as he rested his back against his cover. Apparently his parents had programmed some test simulations into JACK that he could program into any atlesian knight to make a more realistic training session. That plus the training building's ability to make concrete structures by raising sections of the floor and Scott had a realistic training simulation.

Looking around the corner he spotted three of the knights carrying out their search and destroy program by looking into a box shaped structure similar to a building. He didn't have an exact number of opponents that JACK had programmed, but Ms. Neros wouldn't allow JACK to make an unsafe number… Right?

Pulling out his snub nose and combat knife charged the group and fired off two shots that hit two of his targets in the head deactivating them. Just as the last remaining knight turned around Scott stabbed his combat straight into the robot's head deactivating it.

Then as he pulled out his knife he had to duck as two groups of three knights approached him on opposite sides of the makeshift street. Jumping into the building Scott sheathed his knife and holstered his pistol. Pulling one fire dust grenade off of his belt he threw it to his left into the group of knights killing them as soon as the grenade exploded.

Then pulling his gnasher shotgun off of his back he waited for the group of knights to reach his location. Just as the first knight walked into the room Scott kicked it in the chest then fired off one scattershot into the robot's chest blowing it back from the impact. Then flipping the gnasher around in his right hand he pulled his combat knife out from its sheath and stabbed the robot on the left in the head before pulling the blade out throwing it into the right robot's head distrating it long enough for Scott to finish flipping the lever action shotgun loading another shell into the chamber and fire it off into the robot destroying it.

Then he heard the movement of the first robot he hit with his shotgun. Not even blinking he quickly drew his snub nose and fired off a bullet into the robot's head. As soon as the lights flickered off in the robot's helmet the walls around him began to slowly descend meaning the simulation was over.

From the sidelines Ms. Neros was slowly clapping as she approached Scott with JACK folling behind her.

"Interesting, it seems as though you would have been more suited to be in the Atlesian Military than to be a hunter," Ms. Neros commented as JACK flew past her and activated its camouflage as it reached Scott.

"Well, my parents were soldiers and I was trained by them," he said scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, I know, I've seen your file," she said pulling his file up on her scroll. "You were trained by your parents and even went on several missions with them. Ozpin told Glynda immediately that he was going to put you as the team leader on whichever team you were placed on after he had read your file. Though I thought that you would probably end up in the Atlesian Military after you graduated, which is not uncommon, but I don't know at this point."

"Uhh… thanks, I guess," Scott said chuckling uncomfortably.

"What. The. Hell. Happened?" Scott asked Aeron and Tiviah as he entered the dorm room to see what could only be described by him as a disaster.

All the furniture in the room had been thrown to the walls in haphazard piles. Tiviah was standing on one side of the room wearing her jumpsuit that seemed mostly unzipped, holding a pillow panting, and her hair was completely messed up. Aeron was standing on the other side of the room half naked with her hair in similar condition, but she was carrying a mattress. Around Aeron's neck though was Tiviah's cloak fluttering in the wind, even though they were inside.

"Tiviah tried to pull a fast one on me trying to snatch her cloak when I was distracted with Rex," Aeron said between taking breaths, "but I was able to stop her. Then one thing led to another and this happened."

"Why won't you just let me have my cloak?" Tiviah asked her blowing some hair out of her face.

"Where is Rex?" Scott asked ignoring Tiviah completely after he noticed the distinct lack of a monk.

"He left before the carnage happened," Aeron explained looking out the window. "He also took his weapons out of the nightstand because he thought that we might pull something stupid and use them."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"He said he was going to the library to study for classes."

"Thanks," Scott said leaving the room just as Aeron swung her mattress throwing Tiviah into the wall.

'You seem to be adjusting to team life well,' HK-47 said to Rexan as he flipped through his book on different types of guns.

"Well, I am kind of stuck with them for the next four years, so I might as well enjoy it," Rexan said coming up to a page with a picture of a large railgun with the name 'Flame Railthrower.' "Anyway, HK, how much longer until you're operable?"

'I should have finished building my body around next Wednesday,' HK replied then the screen on the scroll switched to a video chat with Scott.

"Yes Scott?" Rexan asked his leader looking over from his book surprising Scott.

"I didn't even get to say one word," Scott commented looking at his scroll.

"HK received the message and opened it up," Rexan explained to his leader as he closed his book. "So what's up?"

"Apparently the girls are destroying the room-"

"That's a given."

"And I got a message from Ozpin saying that we should go up to his office. Since the girls are kind of wrapped up in their naked pillow fight-"

"Wait… naked pillow fight?"

"Yes, well half naked, anyway, I need you to come up with me to Ozpin's office."

"But I need something from the dorm room."

"Just get over to Ozpin's office, trust me, it is better to fantasize than to be caught in the carnage."

"But Scott-"

"Now!"

Rexan sighed. "Fine, I'll meet you there in a few minutes." Hanging his head in defeat, Rexan closed the video chat with Scott and collected his books before heading to the main tower.

"I hate you now," Rexan said meeting up with his leader in the main tower elevator.

"Trust me, you did not want to be present for that carnage," Scott said to his teammate as the elevator door closed and began rising to the headmaster's office. "Aeron managed to wield a mattress instead of a pillow. Poor Tiviah."

"But I could easily defend myself."

"Are we seriously having this conversation you pervert?" Scott asked Rexan attempting to hold his glare with him before they both started to laugh.

"You can't blame me," he said with a grin on his face as he silently chuckled.

"No, no I cannot," Scott replied as the doors opened and the duo exited the elevator and approached Ozpin's desk.

"Mr. Alasdair, Ando," Ozpin greeted the two gesturing to the seats in front of him. "I take it the rest of your team couldn't make it."

"No," Scott said as he and Rexan sat down in their chairs, "they are a bit… busy at the moment. So, can I ask why you called us here?"

"Right to the point then," Ozpin said typing several commands on his scroll causing the room's lights to dim and several aerial photographs of a town were projected onto the window behind him. "This is a town that my friend James Ironwood passed over Vacuo returning to his military base. He told me first that it appeared eerie so he had several of his crew members scan the town as they flew overhead. What they found was that the town had no living people there. Grimm had even started to go into the town which means that the town had been abandoned for at least two weeks."

"So, towns outside of the walls tend to get attacked by grimm so they abandon their homes unless they were protected," Rexan said getting Ozpin's attention. His only response was raising an eyebrow.

"This town was most definitely protected, Mr. Ando," Ozpin replied projecting several more images of hooded figures onto the window. "This town was built as a cover for one of many bases for a secret organization of peacekeepers known as assassins. They are completely independent and mostly stuck to themselves, but after a while they partnered up with the Atlesian Military making their existence known to a select few, me being one of them. If anything, compare them to the Enclave."

"Enclave?" Scott asked turning to Rexan who sighed.

"What? Do you seriously not know about the Enclave?" Rexan asked turning to Scott. "They are a group of people with my semblance who are political advisors. I guess they don't get that much press, but they are still well known."

"Ok, well I guess I don't care much about a group of monks," Scott grumbled as he slouched back into his seat.

"Anyway," Ozpin said getting both of their attention, "Ironwood was expected back at the military base so he couldn't stop and investigate. He contacted me and requested my assistance. So I am sending your team to the town where you will meet up with a sergeant from the military who knows the area. You all should only stay there for one to two days and report back to Ironwood then me with the findings. Any questions?"

"Uhh… what do we do if we run into trouble?" Scott asked the headmaster who held his coffee mug up to his lips.

"Then I trust you can deal with it accordingly," he replied then took a sip of his coffee.

"I still can't believe you managed to destroy the room," Rexan said to his partner as he waxed the Ebon Hawk in the Academy's Bullhead.

"Oh shut up," Aeron said resting her arm on her helmet. "You could've just walked in there to fix it using your semblance."

"Not exactly," Rexan said finishing the job tossing the rag into the small garbage bin. "My semblance is similar to telekinesis, but it takes years of training to be able to manipulate individual molecules to fix things. Glynda could just walk in and use her magic stuff and the room would be fixed, but I couldn't do that."

"Come on, first you say that your semblance surpasses telekinesis, then you say it's sub-par to it. So why don't you just settle with one thing," Aeron complained tossing her head back. She sat there for a few moments before Rexan tossed one of his beam saber hilts to her. "Now what?"

"Hold onto it for a second," Rexan instructed her. Holding it in her hands she was surprised by the weight of it.

"It's heavier than I expected."

"Good, now turn it on, and please don't let it hit anything. That one has my purple crystal in it." Pressing the button on the hilt a four foot purple laser shot out yet again surprising her by the weight.

"It's the same."

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere," Rexan said pulling out his other beam saber turning on the red blade. "The laser has no weight which makes it difficult to wield properly unless you have my semblance. It protects me allowing me to sense where the blade is in correlation with my body so that I don't hit myself. Every person who wields a beam saber goes through training so that they don't burn themselves, and the fighting form they learn is called Ataru."

"Ataru?" she asked tossing Rexan back his beam saber after deactivating it.

"Ataru," he repeated holstering both of the deactivated blades on his belt. "It is the most common fighting style with beam saber wielders. Most can take it further and fall into one of the six other forms of fighting, but that is only possible with our semblance covering our ass. It is similar to telekinesis due to the ability to manipulate objects with my mind, but that is as close that can get. The real power it gets is making us really good swordsmen. If you were to give me a pair of swords I could be a lot more proficient in combat, but we don't do that to help us keep our heads from getting too big. Though it has several more interesting applications, the combat ability is a lot more interesting."

"So, what form do you use?"

"Well, it's more of a homemade technique with a blend of three different forms," he explained looking to the side. "My first teacher Willow used two green sabers and a fighting form known as Jar'Kai which is a more advanced fighting technique using two sabers-"

"Similar to what you do," she interrupted him.

"Well, kinda," he said chuckling, "I was learning Jar'Kai from him before he died. But my second master used a more dirty form known as Tràkata where he would deactivate his saber in battle to get into the opponent's guard then reactivating it allowing him to get a direct hit. My form is known as Vaapad, which is basically where I can fight in a flurry while hitting my opponent accurately. Though Vaapad is more of a single saber form."

"So, you're saying that you know the basics of those forms and apply them to your fighting?" she asked him walking over to the speeder.

"Yeah, basically," he said as he began looking over the rest of the Ebon Hawk.

"So, what is this?" she asked lifting the back of the seat slightly before Rexan used his semblance to slam it shut.

"Storage compartment," he explained engaging the compartment's electronic locks from his scroll. "The things in there are personal and I'd appreciate nobody going through it."

"Alright, geez," she said holding her hands up in a surrendering position.

'Hey, guys, we're landing in a few,' Scott said to them over the intercom.

"Wait, was he the one flying us the whole time?" Aeron asked her partner.

He shrugged. "He said that he learned from his parents." He reached over to the bench and grabbed his black sleeved cloak before pulling it on.

"So, where have you brought us, Scott?" Rexan asked his team leader as he drove the Ebon Hawk out of the bullhead.

"Well, Ozpin never really did tell us the name of the town, he just gave us the coordinates," Scott explained to Rexan as he closed up the bullhead.

"If I had to guess, I would say we are at the town's park," Tiviah interjected.

"Well, I can tell that," Rexan said then pointed to an old statue with moss growing on it. "This guy must've been a town hero and that's why they would build him a memorial which would logically be located in the park."

"Hey guys," Aeron said from the base of the statue getting everyone's attention, "there's some writing on here."

Walking over to the statue the team looked over the statue and inspected the plaque. "It's Ancient Vacuoan back before the kingdom's all agreed on one language worldwide," rexan explained looking at the plaque. "I don't think many people know how to read it."

"Well I do," a voice said from behind the group. Jumping they turned around and looked at the origin of the voice. What they saw was a man wearing a long white hooded trench coat in a similar style to the ranked officials of the Atlesian Military. He had slicked back spiky black hair along with a neatly trimmed beard and looking closely they could see his right arm was metallic. "I was here over twenty years ago when that stupid statue was built. That idiot had the biggest grin on his face when he saw it. I bet he regrets it now because of how stupid it looks."

"Care to share what it says?" Scott asked the man as he approached the team and looked at the statue.

"Oh sure, it's a simple translation. It says, 'Blood Moon,'" he said looking at the statue before turning to the teens. "Oh right, the name's Sergeant Logan of the Atlesian Military, Iron Branch. This is Eriford, my hometown."

Dunn, dunn, DUNN! We now have BLZEing Remnant characters here. Now I know there are several inconsistencies here with the timelines, but just don't think about it too much, I know I haven't. Basically the BLZEing characters are older and any past about them I tell will be what this story's history is.

Anyway, I've started school again, I'm now a senior in my high school. Which means I will be a bit busy with homework. Actually after I post this I will be going to my room and doing my college human bio homework which isn't that much and isn't due until the end of the quarter, but I'd rather get it done ahead of time.

Other news, I will be posting the guide to writing some time soon, but yet again, my time is stretched out.

So, all of you have yourselves a great day,

-J. Van A