AN: As said in the uploaded chapter 19v2 this chapter is no longer going to be used in its current state with the new chapters being cooked up. V3, destroyer of writing! Some of this might be used regardless, but we'll see. For now, 20v2 (that's right, the second writing of chapter 20) will be entombed here.
The Vytal festival was probably the single largest carnival on remnant when it came down to the academies getting together, and it showed. As Team RWBY set foot on the main road out to the cliff they could see large pavilions being erected. One for each of the kingdoms; Vale, Mystral, Vacuo and Atlas. They were all strikingly different and quite large enough that hundreds of people could peruse through the different stands and not feel cramped.
Beacon itself didn't need a locale since it was being hosted on their grounds, but the other academies of the kingdom had their own stands to tend. To facilitate that a cluster of arches and spires had been crafted in a style very similar to Beacon's own. Arches rose to keep the stands dry in case the souring clouds above decided to start bleeding rain. Spires looked like they were simply aesthetic, though the empty alcoves looked like they could hold some torches.
With time to spare, and having not seen the construction of the pavilions before the group approached from one of the side entrances, slipping past workers moving various materials likes boards and signs to and fro.
"This wasn't here this morning, was it?" Ruby said in wonder as she marveled at the construction. It looked like it was made out of old stone, cracks, moss and all. "How long does it take to make these things? They're huge."
Blake reached out and touched one of the walls and felt around until she found a thin seam. Using a nail she was able to trace the razor-thin gap for a little ways to either side. "Feels like they made it somewhere else then cut it to pieces to transport it here…"
"Seems like an awful lot of work when they could make something more lightweight." Weiss 'hmphed' as they walked through another hallway and found themselves in what looked like a courtyard. "And… I now see why."
From outside the seemingly scrambling structure it was impossible to see, but the arches actually had stained glass set into them, not stone. Looking up from the clearing various tapestries could be seen made out of that glass. One showed a dragon sheltering figures from its flames as it set formless shadows aflame just outside the city limits. Yet another showed a team of four people holding up crystals of what they could assume were dust.
There were many tapestries showing man, that dragon, as well as various other regal figures who were impossible to differentiate. The colors were dull thanks to the poor light given by the stormy sky but the images were still clear enough to appreciate.
"Liking what you see?" Someone said, approaching them from the front and motioning for them to step more fully into the large circular area just underneath the arching glass. Yang looked forward to see a woman in a dark pea coat and slacks with a surprisingly warm smile on her face.
The four stepped forward a bit as Ruby's head bobbed up and down swiftly, her face split into quite the grin. "It's really cool! I didn't know that that would be there, I've never even seen anything like this before!"
"The architects make sure that every new layout for the 'Château Froids' has a different placement of the stained glass." The woman explained as she motioned up towards the artwork. "This year they had the idea to put it all in one place as to condense the building. Normally it's actually quite wide, and not very tall."
Yang scratched her head for a moment before speaking up, "So that's glass?"
"Stained glass is an ancient technique for creating art dating back to the founding of Vale, though to date only a few pieces of original work from the time still exist." Blake recited with ease. "But these must be recreations of the originals, correct?"
"Correct," the woman nodded, "the originals are far too fragile to be moved to a place like this. The best we can do is create similar pieces with modern glass-making techniques."
The group of four hummed for a moment as the woman looked between them. "Ah, I should probably introduce myself. The name is Gige – sounds like Gi, written like Gi-geh – Soole. I'm a member of the Valean council and today sort of an exhibitor. If you have any questions about the pavilion I'm your source."
The four nodded and the woman inclined her head politely before walking towards a man with a clipboard, a bit of bounce in her step.
"That woman…" Yang mumbled, drawing the attention of her teammates.
"What's wrong?" Weiss asked, concerned, though that was quickly laid to rest.
"She has a 100 strand Fishtail conch spiral." She whispered in near-reverence. "Taxes go into that woman getting one of the most difficult braids in the world put into her hair by a professional on Vieux Street in the north end." When nobody said anything the blonde shook her head and met Ruby, Weiss and Blake's eyes one at a time. "The configuration of her hair masterpiece is worth over a hundred and twenty dollars, let alone craftsmanship-."
As Yang continued to ramble on Ruby shrugged at Weiss. "She isn't too big on clothes or shoes, has a thing for some of the 'Achieve Men', but the only thing she really, really likes is hair."
"Duly noted." Weiss said flatly though the corners of her lips curled up in a smile. The smile grew even more when she saw Blake pulling Yang by the collar away from the direction of the woman so that they could check out the rest of the art before the Wolf arrived.
/
Kang was surprised by how quickly the Beowolf solved the problem of exclusion from the pack.
Caucus wolves, much like any other natural canid, were very selective of who they let into their small packs. Usually they needed to be young and female to be even considered, let alone ancient and not even of the same species.
The wolves were well over a meter tall and 250cm long from muzzle to rump, making them easily the largest of their kind, bred specifically to be lone hunters against grimm not requiring the support of a human. They were about as long as the grimm was when it was prone, but not nearly as tall. Their armor had already been applied with armor having been applied along the spine and chest, and also along the top of the snout down to the nostrils.
Faced with creatures which shared a fairly similar profile to the Wolf, the professor noted that these animals needed far less armor to protect themselves compared to a beowolf. No doubt a response to the fact that they have their aura to protect them…
Kang began speaking but Oobleck was lost in thought. That hypothesis is lacking. Does the grimm need armor? 'Flesh' of grimm quite resilient to the effects of blade and dust normally, sufficiently powerful lesser grimm need nothing to block a blade. Is a Beowolf's armor for redundancy's sake?
"Sir?"
"Apologies, repeat if you would please I was lost in query for a moment." Oobleck replied wearily, shaking his head. Collecting himself he spoke at his normal breakneck speed. "Or not, need Beowolf to prove that it is not Caucus wolf in order to avoid standard territorial behavior when member of different pack approaches such as but not limited to cannibalism."
"Ah. Yes." Kang shifted from one foot to the other. "These wolves are tamed but maintain their instincts. If you would-"
"Say no more." Oobleck walked up to the beowolf which was prone and looking through the window at the napping animals. "Stand."
The Wolf glared over at the human for suddenly commanding it but acquiesced. It rose to its full height, now eight and a half feet tall with the changes to how it was able to stand. It towered over Oobleck and had to lean forward to keep its head from touching the ceiling. As it did so its joints inverted and moved so that they changed from the forearms and legs of a wolf to more humanoid limbs.
The malleable material which the officers had put over it to seal the scent of a grimm flexed like rubber over the shifting limbs and muscle. The pieces of plating which had been put along the back to simulate the Caucus, or change the shape of the legs, did move a bit. They now hung as quite awkward protrusions, definitely not the natural growths from before.
All in all, definitely not what they had groomed it to look like. Maybe not grimm either, as the eyes were still covered and it didn't quite look like a beowolf.
"Caucus remember by scent. If they see a humanoid first, the association will be permanent. Least chance of territorial display, no need to show off to non-Caucus." The professor explained with a circular motion using his left hand. "Good pets for children, had three."
After entering the room it took the grimm all of five minutes to get used to the two others, and vice versa. It could sense the auras of the two wolves and found them remarkably similar to those of humans.
Now prone and on all fours like a wolf it was able to mingle with the other two in the open room without any grumbling or growling. The two animals were remarkably calm from what it could sense, even more so than sleeping humans (or those that slept in RWBY's dorm when it had spent a night on the roof). It was somewhat refreshing from the emotional turmoil of humans.
Eventually that same turmoil reached it through the walls of the room, which surprised it. More surprising was when the floor started to lower down.
The whooshing of air filled the room as the platform they were all standing on dropped still lower. At its full extension the wolves, beowolf, lieutenant and professor were standing on a broad platform extended down from some flying ship. Looking around through the space between the floor and the edge of the airship the beowolf could easily tell that they were flying over Vale.
Which seemed a bit odd since it had thought they had landed a little while ago. It remembered getting off the bullhead and stepping into some large room with other bullheads, but though that was somewhere on the ground.
Turns out it had been wrong.
It followed Kang and Oobleck to the very corner of the platform and looked down at the ground below. The reason for the sudden flux in emotions became quite clear when the sight of Beacon academy met its eyes. Far below the pavilions which had been erected were now seeing some visitors. There was a light rain which had dispersed people from the main thoroughfare so the beowolf could only guess at numbers from the people loitering around outside.
From below it a host of positive emotions were wafting up. Joy was chief among them, something which puzzled it. Happiness was a common enough emotion, usually some sort of pervasive and consistent baseline to humans which weren't too strongly emitting feelings of sadness, anger or envy. Joy, on the other hand, was something which was usually found in short supply. The sort of emotion which it didn't know the characteristics of aside from its different scent. It was rarer, and based on its current prevalence, probably had something to do with congregations.
It noticed the wolves approaching from behind it and turned its head to see their eyes fixated straight forward. They marched to the edge near to where the beowolf was and sat back on their haunches, eyes focused on the lieutenant.
Hearing a rise in the noise below the beowolf looked back down. People started to stream out of the pavilions, some obscured by the rain protectors they used, collapsible circles on a stick from what it remembered. Their eyes turned upwards, many becoming excited with what they saw. The beowolf was fairly certain it was not the origin of the good feelings so it tilted its head slightly.
After a moment of waiting a part of the crowd began to separate, a broad circle forming. Flashing blue and red lights ringed the circle and then turned green. Without warning the wolves leapt from their places towards the ground a couple hundred feet below.
Concerned, it looked to Oobleck, who was only motioning for it to do the same.
A bit surprised that they were just going to drop a grimm in the middle of the crowd it hesitated before the images of RWBY forced it to take that step off the side.
It took a while to fall and as it did the intensity of the emotions of the humans started to increase steadily. A few seconds before it hit the ground a sudden burst of shock hit it broadside. The sound of the wolves hit the ground at the same time, letting it know that they probably hadn't been expecting this.
Landing much more heavily than the wolves that could mitigate the force with aura, combined with the puddle it fell on, meant that a sudden spray of water heralded its collision with the ground. There was some swearing and a few sputtering voices, but the sentiment remained more shock and interest than annoyance. Looking up, though the faces immediately around it were a bit displeased, but the people behind them were craning their necks to see what was going on.
Pulling itself up from the crouch but remaining on all fours it turned to see where to go from there. The canids shook themselves off and immediately walked towards the tall, somewhat square-like building not far off. They walked calmly through the crowds, leaving the perimeter and breaking line of sight.
It seemed a bit suspicious, but the beowolf had little choice. Before it could move it was immediately flanked by four heavily armed soldiers. They held their weapons at their side but had an air which made it clear that they would use them at any moment if they thought they needed to. They marched forward in a box formation around the beowolf who trudged along to match pace.
From the center of the perimeter set up by those men it was able to peek at the crowd. Scanning left and right it was able to watch the body language of the people and keep an acute awareness of the emotions around it. More intrigue surrounded it than anything, a bit of confusion here or there. Overall, however, people were happy to watch the beast get chaperoned through a crowd of umpteen dozen.
It was a somewhat relieving experience, though it was suspicious as to why. That aside, it was actually quite pleased.
Walking between humans without an immediate response of fear, anger, or a whole host of less savoury emotions was a bizarre experience. Though they were held back by the presence of the men guarding it there was some certainty in its mind that the people would have tried to reach out to it. Something about that would have insulted it before, being equated to some sort of pet. Given the circumstances though that was a bit of a benefit.
It'd much rather be treated affectionately by those that would be shepherds than with suspicion or contempt.
As it passed by a man who was wrapped up quite heavily it scented a bizarre smell. It had no effect over it but it was quite distinct from the regular scent of man, and was quite as repulsive as the aura of dust. The man also emanated a feeling of cunning. He had planned something, and something akin to anger was coursing through him now, like hatred but more pointed.
It ignored the man, uncaring about his intentions and even then unwilling to cause a fuss surrounded by humans, well-liked at the moment or not. It didn't know what was going on but was fairly certain that any number of humans near the place that trained people to become shepherds were dangerous.
Disappointment and confusion echoed behind it, from the same man, raising even more suspicion from the Beowolf. Unable to do anything directly it just lifted up its head and looked back the way it came. The man was already gone, merged into the crowd, but it did get sight of particularly bright eyes.
Red was not-so-subtly following it from behind, as was Yellow and Black. White was somewhere off to the side from what it could tell… It blinked at the fact it knew that as opposed to just inferred it from the fact the other three were there. It looked around the other side to see if White was somewhere nearby. She was, but only once she came into view, some annoyance pouring off her at being forced to push her way through like a common urchin scrambling for scraps.
What?
Shaking its head it faced back forward and continued to match pace as they approached some sort of building with open sides. A tall ceiling rose quite high above with lines of white lights tracing out a word...
'Atlas'.
Looking back to the front a raised platform that would sit just above the average man's height had the other wolves sitting atop it. Hopping onto it from a range the guards hadn't been expecting it landed about midway on the stage it approached them, only to get cut off when a black-haired man in a white suit stepped in front of him.
He was instantly placed as the man with bizarre emotions weeks ago just before it had been sent to the cliffs.
/
Ironwood was silent as he looked down at the blindfolded eyes of the beowolf. He had the distinct sensation that the Grimm was looking him in the eyes. Reports he had received seemed to prove this thought, that as well as what he had just seen of it looking back at team RWBY. Doctor Stein had come up with that hypothesis, but the fact that he was correct opened more questions. Questions he intended to have answered by the end of the event.
Motioning for the Grimm to follow he lead it towards the rest of the wolves, aware of the fact that the wolf didn't follow his heel, and instead walked beside him.
"You're position is between the two others, look alive." He said in a measured tone, well aware that there were people close enough that they would be able to hear him speaking to what they thought was a wolf as if it were human. He didn't expect it to perfectly understand, but he had learned enough about it that he was sure it could figure things out. Ironwood held a grip on the beowolf for now, and he would make use of it while it was tight.
When the beast nodded, or bobbed its head, Ironwood resigned himself to being impressed with Belladonna. Much of the information he knew now came from what she had accomplished. The amount of vocabulary she had taught wasn't clear, but the fact the beast could understand commands such as that was a commendable feat by the instructor.
He stopped, testing this, and watched as the wolf loped towards the dais between the two real canids. Again he was forced to observe the abilities of the grimm. It moved like a Caucus, a breed that only lived in the highlands of Atlas, meaning that it had learned how to move in the short time it had spent with the real thing. It was an impeccable weapon, and perfect for what he needed.
/
"I finally get a breath of fresh air after being stuffed in that shit-hole and I get to strap myself right into the first cramped piece of metal I find. Of all the rotten…" Torchwick complained as he tried to get comfortable in his seat. Crossing his legs and putting them over one of the lower monitors he pulled his bowler hat forward over his eyes. "Thanks anyways for the break-out hun, just try to time it so I don't get locked in another trash can right after. Or get me earlier so I get a break. Either one really, just don't leave me to rot for an inconvenient amount of time."
Neo, whose face was visible on one of the side monitors, glared slightly. She glanced off to the side and gritted her teeth before regaining her serene composure and nodding.
On the monitor beside that one Cinder's face blinked on, her smug grin filling the screen.
"If you fall asleep on the job again you're going to wind up in the Citadel again." She menaced cooly, eliciting a peeved snort from Torchwick. "Though this time they might just put a bullet in you and be done with it."
"You want a dead super-mutt. I can deal with a dog, big or small." Torchwick dismissed as he pulled the rim of his hat down an inch further. "What's more of a problem is that you want to do this in the middle of a large crowd of kids." He made a mocking concerned tone and lifted his had all the way off and crooned; "What if we crush a few brats under our feet on landing?"
"Then clean it off the legs of the Paladin." She said dryly. "Which I'm sure the faunus girl will be doing with her blade if you continue to act cocky."
Making a 'tch' noise the wanted man tossed his had so it hooked over the image of Cinder before bringing his hands behind his head and grumbling quietly to himself. She's right though. I thought the kid was gonna open up my chest for a moment there. Might want to deal with her inside the Paladin, or make sure she doesn't have any more clone tricks up her sleeve.
Frustrated, he scratched the sides of his hair where they brushed his ears before leaning back forwards and flipping a few switches on the control panel. The display came to life as the external cameras and a few feeds from operatives they had at the even filled what were before dead screens. A few diagnostic screens opened above his head which he only glanced at to make sure the readings were green, not caring about the fine details.
What he focused more wholly on was one he expanded to the full screen in front of him. It was a video feed being streamed from in the Atlesian pavilion. It showed a throng of people waiting in front of a stage while three giant dogs were waiting near the middle of it. It was an official stream being hosted by the Vale News Network and was a hell of a lot clearer than the grainy ones being sent by their operatives.
Zooming in on the one in the middle Torchwick took a moment to examine the target. Aside from it being much stockier than the others and looking somewhat machine-like it was hard to tell what exactly set it apart. The White Fang trapper said that it was 'immune to hysteric compounds', whatever that meant. Torchwick would have chosen it for the fact that it looked a hell of a lot meaner.
That and the fact it had been walking around blindfolded. That meant that you could gouge its eyes out or otherwise blind it and it would still kill you. That was horrifying, but also very useful.
"I hope your clones are half as rowdy as you look to be big guy…" He murmured, finally sitting up straight. "If not, I'll have squished all these kids for nothing…"