Chapter 7: A Team's Formation & A Beginning Mission

After a few minutes of riding, Sunset and Tempest eventually arrived at Beacon. "Come on, I'm curious as to what Ozpin wants to see us for," Tempest said as she turned off the bike. As they entered the school and started to head towards, the two bumped into two people who were running the opposite way. The four of them fell on the ground after they bumped in.

"Sorry, we were in a hurry," a girl said.

"Its fine, it was our problem for not paying attention," Sunset said as she and Tempest got up. When Tempest saw the people who they bumped into, her breath caught as she noticed the girl in particular.

"Well, then sorry, but we have to go," the male told them before they both ran off. As she girl ran past, Tempest noticed a familiar weapon on her hip.

"I recognize that weapon," Tempest thought.

"Hey, come on, weren't you the one in a rush?" Sunset asked, breaking Tempest's trance.

"Oh, yeah I'm coming," Tempest said as she followed Sunset. Eventually, the two arrived at Ozpin's office and saw a girl in a red coming out of the office.

"Oh, you must be students that Ozpin wanted to meet with," the girl said as she turned to them.

"We are, why do you ask?" Sunset asked.

"Well, because Ozpin said that he was going to meet with two potential students and I figure you two must be them," the girl said in an upbeat tone.

"Oh, well that makes a bit of sense," Sunset said.

"Wait a second, are you a student here?" Tempest asked curiously.

"Yes, I started last semester," the girl told Tempest.

"Well, you must have impressed Ozpin a lot. You look to be about two years younger than most of the students here," Tempest commented.

"You noticed, well you're right. Ozpin actually offered to make me come to Beacon after seeing how good I was after an incident with someone," the girl said.

"That's amazing, what's your name?" Sunset commented and asked.

"The name is Ruby Rose," the girl said.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Ruby, but we have to get to a meeting," Tempest said as she opened the door.

"It was nice meeting you two, I hope to see you next semester," Ruby said as she walked off.

"She seems nice," Sunset commented as she entered the room.

"Ah, I see you two have met with Ruby. She's a good kid, but I expect great things from her," Ozpin commented as they entered the room.

"Did you need to see us Mr. Ozpin?" Tempest asked curiously.

"Well, I wanted to speak with you and Sunset about a mission before you enter Beacon," Ozpin told the two as he stood from his desk.

"What was the mission you had in mind?" Sunset asked.

"The mission I had in mind is for you two, along with some of your friends, to go to an abandoned White Fang base on the edge of Vale," Ozpin told them. Ozpin then went to his computer and pulled up a map on a screen.

"A few days ago, before I met either of you two, we received information that there were multiple abandoned White Fang facilities located throughout the surrounding area. We thought nothing of it, until we decided to send Tempest to investigate one in the forest. Tempest, after analyzing the files you gave me from that mission I gave you to see if you were ready, we found that there was only one file in there and it was labeled Project: Freelancer. Does that ring any bells?" Ozpin explained.

Tempest and Sunset thought about the name in silence until Tempest snapped her fingers in realization. "I recognize that name; it's the code name for the Atlas Project to make a small, specialized army of Hunters and Huntresses known as Freelancers. What would the White Fang be doing with that?" Tempest commented.

"Well before I get to that, Sunset have you read about that Project?" Ozpin said to Sunset.

"I think I remember reading about that a while back," Sunset said.

"Well, what both you and Sunset read about was the information that was released to the public. Atlas didn't release much except the basic details about the Project. The unsettling thing is that the files we found in the White Fang's position were nearly complete files about Project: Freelancer. Most of the details about the Project were present and that made me wonder if Atlas had been hacked into," Ozpin explained to the two of them.

"Wait, you said most of the details were present, what did you mean by that?" Tempest asked.

"Well, from what we deduced, it appeared that someone did try to stop the data from being stolen because we noticed that some of it was deleted. All the real names and code names of the agents were not there and all the logs that pertained to missions were mostly destroyed or some parts were missing," Ozpin explained.

"So, I'm going to guess that you're telling us this because it pertains to the mission you're about to give us?" Sunset asked curiously.

"Exactly, what I want you two to do is look to see if you can find if that place has more information on Project: Freelancer or anything else like that," Ozpin told the two.

"Very well, how will we let you know when we are done?" Tempest asked. Ozpin thought about that for a second and thought about a good place.

"I would like you to meet me at a coffee shop that I like to go to by the name of Stellar Roast," Ozpin told the two.

"That seems fair, when should we do this mission?" Sunset asked.

"I would recommend today as starting in two days, I need to start preparing things for next semester," Ozpin said.

"Very well, is that all you wanted to speak to us about?" Tempest asked.

"Yes it is, you may go now," Ozpin said. The two turned and walked out of the office. After they both left, Ozpin heard a call coming in from his computer. He turned to his computer and saw who was calling. "Well, I wasn't expecting a call from her anytime soon," Ozpin thought as he answered the call.

"Hello, Ozpin are you there?" the caller asked.

"I'm here and by myself, what did you need to talk about Sol?" Ozpin responded.

"Well, I just thought I would call and see how everything is going before you started up school again," Sol told Ozpin.

"Well, it's going well, I just sent two new students on that mission I was telling you about. How about you, how has your life been going?" Ozpin said.

"Well, it's about the usual, the only interesting thing that has happened recently is my student becoming like me and having her own castle," Sol told Ozpin.

"Ah yes, how is your student doing by the way?" Ozpin asked.

"She's doing relatively well, the pressure of her job is getting her, but her friends are there to help her through a lot of the troubles," Sol said.

"Ah, it's good to see that she has help from her friends in that case," Ozpin said a smile forming on his face.

"Well, I better get going, I have thing that I need to do," Sol said.

"See you later Sol," Ozpin said before he hung up. After he hung up, he got up and left his office to go for a walk around Beacon.


"Ok, so what exactly are we going to do about this mission?" Tempest asked as they walked up to Tempest's bike. Sunset thought about that for a moment before she heard her Scroll ring as someone called her.

"Hang on, I'm getting a call," Sunset said as she got out her Scroll and answered the phone.

"Hey Sunset, are you there?" Nova's voice came from the Scroll.

"Hey Nova, what did you need?" Sunset asked.

"Well, you see something weird happened. Me, Storm, Nitro, and Nitro's family all got a message on our Scrolls," Nova told her.

"Really, who sent the message and what did it say?" Sunset asked curiously.

"Well, Ozpin sent us the message that said to meet together so that you and someone called Tempest could talk to us about something," Nova explained. Sunset processed that information and sighed as she heard Tempest do the same.

"Ok, where are you right now?" Sunset asked.

"Well, we're at Nitro's house," Nova told her.

"Wait for me there, I'm on my roll," Sunset said hanging up the Scroll and putting it away. Sunset then saw Tempest sitting on the bike.

"Let me guess, your friend called you and said they were waiting at a house because of a message of they received from Ozpin?" Tempest asked as Sunset got on.

"Same happen to you?" Sunset responded as she put on the helmet.

"No, I overheard the conversation that you two had. I know where to go, so hang on," Tempest said as she started the bike. Sunset grabbed on and the two headed off to the meeting place.


After a few minutes, the two of them arrived in front of Nova's house. "So, this is the house that they are meeting in?" Sunset said as she took off the helmet and got off the bike.

"Yes it is, I know pretty much all the people that live here by the way," Tempest told Sunset as they approached the door. Tempest knocked on the door and it opened to reveal Nova on the other side of the door.

"Sunset, there you are. How did you get here so fast?" Nova asked.

"Well, I rode with Tempest here, the other student Ozpin mentioned," Sunset told him.

"Oh, then I guess we can introduce everyone and you two can explain what we are doing," Nova said as he let them in. After introducing everyone to each other, they all meet up in the living room of the house.

"So, what did Ozpin talk to you about in terms of the mission?" Phaze asked as she brought out drinks for everyone.

"Well, do you guys know of any White Fang bases around Vale that have been abandoned?" Tempest asked.

"I know of a few, I like to wander and see what I can find," Wind told the two.

"The one we're going to look at is the edge of Vale," Sunset mentioned.

"I think I know the one you're talking about, it's the one that is located to the northeast of the city," Nova commented.

"That is correct," Tempest said as she brought out the map of where they are going.

"That's awesome, when do we get to go?" Emrel asked in an excited tone. Shade then smacked the back of her brothers head which caused everyone to giggle at the sight.

"You and me can't go you dummy, we have to stay here," Shade told Emrel.

"You two can actually come along," Phaze told the two.

"Really, we can!" they both exclaimed.

"Well, Phaze can't necessarily leave you two alone, plus I think I'll take both of you with me to help," Tempest told the two.

"So, I imagine that you two will need teams to help with the task?" Nitro asked.

"Well, I think that is why Ozpin sent you all the messages, he wants you all to for teams with either me or Tempest," Sunset explained.

"Well, if it's ok with you all, I'm going to stick with Sunset," Storm said after being silent for the entire combination.

"I think me and Nova are going with Sunset as well," Nitro said.

"I think that it would be good if we are with teammates who we are friends with and have two separate teams," Tempest suggested.

"I actually think that is a good idea, it's easier to have better cooperation with people who know each other," Nova commented.

"That does make a lot of sense, so I imaging that you two will choose the teams in that case?" Wind asked.

"I think that will be a good idea, so do you want to go first Sunset?" Tempest asked curiously.

"Well, if we want to go with people that I know of as teammates, I believe that I want Nova, Storm, and Nitro on my team," Sunset said.

"In that case, I guess I'll take Emrel, Phaze, Shade, and Wind for my team," Tempest said. After the teams were decided and everyone moved to their respective leader, they all decided to work on a plan together.

"So as far as me and Tempest know, we don't know anything about the layout of that place or where anything is stored and we can just assume that it is completely abandoned," Sunset explained to everyone.

"Well, I've seen that place from a distance and it looked completely abandoned. No guards looking over the place, no people that work to maintain it, it looked completely abandoned from where I was standing," Nova commented.

"Well, how about we make two different jobs for each team?" Wind suggested.

"That would make the most sense, especially because if we have two groups doing two different things, we can get this done faster," Tempest commented.

"I can see the advantage in splitting into two groups, but how should go about deciding which of us goes where?" Sunset asked.

"Well, since Wind knows what the general area and shape of it is, I would say that Sunset's team should take the outside and see if anyone is coming to the facility," Tempest suggested.

"I think that sounds good, so I guess that means that you five will take care of the inside of the facility?" Sunset asked curiously.

"That would be correct," Tempest said.

"So, is that all we are going to do in terms of planning?" Phaze asked.

"I think so for now, we can decide what to do for our individual teams when we arrive at the facility," Tempest said as she got up.

"I agree with that," Sunset said as she got up.

"Well in that case, should we go to the facility?" Tempest asked. Everyone nodded and they all took off to the abandoned facility.


After about an hour of travel, the nine of them arrived at the facility they were going to investigate. "So, now that we're here what is the plan?" Wind asked as he looked over the facility.

"Well, since we know what team is going where, we know which part of the facility we are going to go," Phaze told Wind.

"Hey Sunset, what is your team going to do on the outside?" Tempest asked.

"Well, I suppose that my team can be on the lookout for anyone that happens to come by," Sunset said.

"In that case, we should keep in constant contact so we know what is going on," Tempest said as she got out her Scroll.

"I think that is a good idea for everyone," Phaze commented to the group. After about a minute or two, everyone had exchanged their Scroll information with each other.

"Now that that is done, shall we get this mission started?" Sunset asked everyone. Everyone nodded in agreement as they all started to go and wait for their leaders.

"Hey, good luck to you," Tempest said extending her hand.

"Same to you," Sunset said as she shook her hand. As Sunset shook Tempest's hand, she felt a tingling sensation go throughout her arm. Thinking it was her imagination; she finished shaking Tempest's hand and went to go join her team.


After separating the two teams, Tempest and her team had entered the inside of the facility. "Why is there an open window?" Wind asked Tempest.

"Someone must have left it open before they evacuated," Tempest said.

"Maybe there is someone in this facility," Shade suggested.

"Whatever the reason, it might be smart to keep an eye out for anyone that we might see or any computers that have been recently used," Phaze said.

"Well, I think that we should stick together and try to look for leads to Project Freelancer," Tempest told her team.

"Ok, so we have to look for thing like computers and marks right?" Emrel asked curiously.

"Well, that would be ideal," Tempest told Emrel.

"Would the claw marks at the end of the hallway count as a good direction to start?" Emrel said as he pointed at the farther end of the hall. When the team looked over at where Emrel was pointing and saw several claw marks close to the end of the hall along the walls.

"I think that it would be worth checking out, nice eye Emrel," Tempest said as she hurried to that part of the hall. As Tempest got to the end of the hall and looked around the corner, she saw a sight that horrified her and left her speechless.

"Hey, what did you find?" Wind asked as he and the others arrived. What they saw Tempest looking at was a hallway that was covered claw marks and blood along parts of the walls.

"Oh my god, what happened here?" Phaze said out of astonishment as she looked at the sight in front of her. No one said anything as they all looked at the scene in front of them.

"Hey, should we get a move on?" Wind asked awkwardly. Phaze, Shade, and Emrel all agreed to that, but Tempest stayed silent. "Tempest, are you going to go see if you can find anyone alive?" Wind asked her.

"I'm going to do that and I don't care if you have any objections," Tempest said.

"We're not going to say anything; you go do what you have to do," Wind told her. Tempest simply nodded and ran down the hall to go see if there was anyone left alive.

"You know, that girl might be a good leader, but she is really thick headed when it comes to helping people," Phaze commented.

"I agree, come on let's look for evidence of Project Freelancer," Wind told the remaining three. They all nodded and proceeded to go away from the hall where Tempest was running down.

"So what do you think that we'll find?" Phaze asked as they started to walk down to the other end of the hall.

"Maybe some more of the documents, remember Tempest and Sunset mentioned that the files they had had a lot of the data missing," Shade commented as she remembered what the two had told everyone.

"Well, I don't think that it will be easy. I think the files will be hidden behind a lot of security," Emrel chimed in.

"Emrel's got a point there," Wind said. Emrel smiled at that compliment and walked a little faster.

"Well, even if we aren't able to find anything on Project Freelancer, we should be able to find at least some form of information regarding what they we're doing here," Phaze said.

"So, what are we going to do in terms finding a computer room?" Wind asked the group.

"Well, we could search for a computer room," Shade suggested.

"That would make the most sense," Emrel said. With that, the four of them went off down the opposite end of the hall to look for a computer room of sorts.


Meanwhile, Tempest was running down the bloodstained hall looking for anyone that was alive. "Hello, is anyone here?" Tempest called as she passed by a room. She quickly stopped and turned around to check the room she just passed. When she looked inside, she saw what looked to be an observation room. "An observation room? Why would the White Fang have something like this?" Tempest thought as she stepped into the room.

As she stepped into the room, she noticed that the noticed that the window on the room was mostly covered in blood. "That is never a good sign," Tempest thought as she looked around the room. She walked up to the desk that was in front of the window and looked through the papers that were left on it. "Most of these are completely illegible from being torn up, but who or what tore these up and for what reason?" Tempest thought as she looked at the papers.

She was about to stop when she came across a clipboard and folder that seemed to be untouched. Curious, she grabbed the folder and opened it to view its contents. What she saw in the folder stunned her and she understood why the hall was the way it was. It was at that moment that she heard crying from the room that was being observed. "Is anyone there?" Tempest called out.

"Hello? Who's there?" a female voice replied. Thinking quickly, she put the folder and clipboard in her bag and hurried to the source of the voice.

"I was sent here by Beacon to investigate this place, but I mean you no harm," Tempest told the voice.

"By Beacon you say? Why do you want to help me?" the voice replied.

"It's just part of who I am," Tempest said as she entered what looked like a surgery room of sorts. The voice didn't reply as Tempest looked around the room. When she did, she saw several corpses of White Fang members around the room.

"Are you still there?" the voice called out. Tempest turned to her right and saw a White Fang member cowering behind a barricade.

"Of course I am," Tempest said as she got closer to the person. The White Fang member seemed to flinch away at first, but she recognized the voice immediately. "Here, you look like you could use some help," Tempest said as she extended her hand. The White Fang member slowly grabbed the hand and was helped to her feet.

"Thank you, who are you by the way?" the female Faunus asked. Tempest pulled the Faunus in close and leaned close to her head.

"The queen makes checkmate," Tempest whispered. That phrase made the White Fang member go wide-eyed. "Keep that a secret. Call me for Tempest for now," Tempest said.

"O-ok, you can call me Porom," the Faunus told Tempest.

"Well then Porom, would you like me to lead you out of the compound?" Tempest offered.

"I can't, I need to find my brother before that thing gets to him," Porom responded in a shaky voice before running off up the stairs. Tempest ran after her and grabbed her arm in the observation room. "Let me go, I need to find him," Porom said as she tried to escape Tempest's grasp.

"If you just go blindly without any way of finding your brother, you'll probably end like the other White Fang members that were here," Tempest told her in a commanding voice. That made Porom stop struggling and start to tremble. "Look, I'm on your side, I want to help you, but I need you to cooperate," Tempest told her in a caring tone.

"Fine, I'll cooperate. I just want to find my brother and get out of here," Porom said in a worried tone.

"Ok, let me contact another team that is here and see if they can help us," Tempest told Porom. Tempest let go of Porom's arm, took out her Scroll, and was about to call Sunset when she got a call from Storm. "Storm? What does she need?" Tempest thought as she answered the call.

"Hey Tempest, are you there?" Storm asked.

"Yes I am, what did you need?" Tempest asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Were you in the middle of something?" Storm asked in a disappointed tone.

"Kind of, I was going to call Sunset to see if she could help me find the brother of a Faunus girl named Porom," Tempest told Storm. There was a moment of silence from Storm as she asked someone a question that Tempest couldn't here.

"Hey, could you put the call on speaker?" Storm asked.

"Sure, but why do you want me to do that?" Tempest responded.

"Just trust me, you'll have an easier time understanding if you just do it," Storm told Tempest. Tempest decided not to question it further and put the call on speaker.

"Ok, the call is on speaker for me," Tempest told Storm.

"I don't see why you're doing this; we need to find my brother," Porom told Tempest. Tempest was about to respond when an unfamiliar voice came through the Scroll.

"Porom, is that you?!" a voice said from the other end. Porom was very surprised and responded to the voice.

"Palom, is that you?" Porom asked out of surprise.

"It is me, without a doubt. Where are you sis?" Palom responded.

"I'm still inside the facility. Where did you go, I've been worried sick," Porom said.

"I was knocked out by someone, tied up, taken to a warehouse on the edge of the compound, and stuffed in a crate. I would have been stuck there if it weren't for Storm and Nitro here," Palom explained.

"We were just looking through some of the crates here when I happened to find him," Nitro chimed in.

"Thank you both for finding him, I really appreciate it," Porom told Nitro and Storm.

"It's no problem, but what were you two doing here anyway?" Storm responded. Palom and Porom both fell silent as they thought about what to say.

"Should we tell them sis?" Palom asked.

"I don't see why not. Besides, I don't think we should stick around with the White Fang any longer," Porom told him.

"Wait, are the both of you with the White Fang or not?" Tempest asked the two of them.

"Well, it's a long story, but let's just say that we've wanted an excuse to get out of the White Fang for a while," Palom responded.

"Ok, what do we do with you two at the moment?" Storm asked the two. Palom and Porom were both silent as they considered their options.

"Well, at the moment, I think the best thing for us to do would be to meet up," Porom suggested.

"I agree, the sooner we get out of here and away from that thing the better," Palom said. It was at that point that Tempest realized something.

"Hey Palom and Porom, what exactly were the White Fang doing here anyway?" Tempest asked curiously.

"I don't know the exact details, but I know it had yellow eyes," Palom commented. That statement caused Tempest, as well as Storm and Nitro, to involuntarily tense up.

"Hey Palom, was this thing a Grimm by any chance?" Storm asked.

"It was, why do you ask?" Porom responded. When Porom said that, Tempest immediately looked back at the door to the surgery room.

"Ok, so how about we go meet up with the rest of our respective teams and leave the compound?" Tempest suggested.

"That seems fair; we'll call you later and see where we can meet up?" Storm responded.

"Ok, see you later," Tempest said before hanging up the call.

"So, where is the rest of your team?" Porom asked as Tempest put away her Scroll.

"Well, I might have an idea, just follow me," Tempest told Porom. Porom nodded in response and the two went back to the hallway there Tempest's team entered.