Amerdism- Right now.

Guest- You need to have an account to PM I believe.

Chapter 21

Principal's Office

"Now that everyone available is here, I would like to call this meeting into order." Ozpin spoke to four anonymous holographic panels from the comfort of his personal chair. "Regarding the dust robberies and the upcoming Vytal festival. In case none of you are aware, there has been a large issue with robberies, especially that of dust. Other smaller crimes have also increased in activity over the same period of time."

"With all due respect, are we sure the festival should be held at Beacon Academy? Given these incidents you have described, there is a chance that students may be in danger." One of the panels spoke with a concerned tone. "If we are to hold it within your jurisdiction, Ozpin, I would suggest deploying my soldiers and a fleet of airships as a safety measure. Showing our enemies an ounce of our strength will surely convince them to have second thoughts on causing trouble."

"Lots of men and lots of guns, very much like you Jimmy." Qrow's voice came from one of the panels. "You know that lots of people from across the world will be coming in person and a lot more will be tuning in. What do you think anyone with a few brain cells would think if they saw that a couple hundred men with guns standing around like they were about to fight a war. We don't need anyone talking about things they don't know, especially the news channels."

"Which is to say, during a time of peace an army would be a sign of oncoming dangers, and those negative emotions would bring about an increase in local grimm activity. Therefore, It would be ill-advised to deploy weapons unless they are apart of the festival." Ozpin corrected in hopes of saving face.

"While that is understandable, I would agree with General Ironwood." An uneasy man spoke softly. "It would be better to have Huntsmen and Huntresses instead of soldiers, but unfortunately locating enough of them and scheduling would be too much of a hassle. Most of mine have been… unavailable… and won't be able to assist."

"The safety of those children should always be at the top of our list of priorities. They are the future and we should care for them the most." The fourth and final panel spoke in a calm and calculating tone. "My students are more than capable on their own. Even a wide-scale grimm invasion would be little more than a training exercise. Do whatever you all please, but any incident will be your responsibilities."

"Vacuo's true leader, pleasant as always. Whoever you guys decide to put at the front gates to check IDs is none of my business. You all can figure out the details of security later without me too. So let's get to the dust issue while I'm still sober." Qrow remarked, prompting a throat clearing from Ozpin and Ironwood alike. "Anyways, to reiterate the first problem, Dust is disappearing and going nowhere. None of its circling back into the system. Prices are skyrocketing all over the world. The best info I can dig up is that it's local. The robberies are pretty much only happening in Vale, but there have been some rumors of incidents in Mistral's slums and Vacuo's Vacuo. I suggest both of you start looking into it before it gets out of hand." He directed two of the four headmasters as if he was their superior.

"O-of course." the cowardly man replied.

"My huntsmen are already investigating the issue. Over a dozen criminals have been apprehended." Shade Academy's headmaster declared. "Which is more than what can be said for Vale, I believe."

"Unfortunately so." Ozpin replied. "Locating Roman Torchwick has been more difficult than previously believed. According to reports acquired from Qrow, he has been travelling internationally for unknown reasons. We do not have information on his current whereabouts. For now, all we can do is prepare our best defenses, with discretion of course." he explained.

"But what will we do when discrete stops being effective?" General Ironwood asked. "The enemy will make itself known sooner or later. When they do, we need to be ready for them."

"And we will be, but keeping them in the dark would be the smarter decision." Ozpin answered. "We do not know what they are capable of, which keeps us from making any large-scale moves. We should extend the same courtesy and keep them at bay as well."

"Agreed." Qrow concurred. "Now then, I'll be taking my leave now. I have some business to take care of." and with that, the seasoned Huntsmen's panel disappeared.

"Now, is that all we are here to discuss?" General Ironwood asked. "I believe that we all have domestic matters to take care of."

"Um, before we conclude this meeting, there is one thing I would like to request." Haven's headmaster asked. "I would like to request the implementation of a new program between our schools."

Southern Training Yard

"So this is what, like the eleventh time this since the year started?" Weiss asked the black-clad girl beside her.

"I stopped counting." Blake replied, staring indifferently at the feud between the other half of their team.

"Just how many times has this happened total? No doubt it numbers in the hundreds. What does their overall win/loss record look like?" Weiss wondered as she watched.

Ruby sidestepped, avoiding the impact a golden gauntlet-clad punch and redirecting the arm with an upward kick. She fired a shot from her weapon's sniper form at the ground in front of her, flinging her back and creating a ten meter long gap between her and her sister. She took aim and fired three more bullets. Two were blocked, but one broke through Yang's defenses and scraped against her cheek, chipping off a chunk of her aura cloak in the process. She charged, firing shells behind her to act as thrust.

It wasn't time to worry yet. Ruby knew that she was still faster than Yang was even with the increase in speed. In an instant, she dashed into her sister's blindspot, and swung her scythe diagonally.

"Nope!" Yang shouted as she spun her body around, pushing off the blade and avoiding a direct hit. With one hand still holding onto the head of the scythe, she pulled the tip of the blade deep into the ground, trapping it where it landed.

Without her weapon and her enemy at such a close proximity, Ruby was forced to abandon her beloved Crescent Rose and switch to hand to hand. Obviously, she was at a severe disadvantage. Yang was much more proficient in that area of combat than she was. Her sister's combination of kickboxing, mixed martial arts, her gauntlets, and above all her semblance made her a nightmare to trade punches with. The only advantages she held were her smaller frame and superior speed. Her best choices were either to slowly widdle down her sister whilst avoiding any direct hits, or slip past and retrieve her scythe from the earth. Unfortunately, both would be extremely difficult for her and her small noodle arms. Nonetheless, she had to act quick and make a decision.

Yang punched downward at the ground, creating a small quake that broke the floor into spiked fragments of stone and dirt. With the terrain uneven, it would be harder for Ruby to build and maintain the high speeds that were her lifeline. However, this also meant that the restraints that held the red scythe had also weakened. As such, Yang repositioned herself in a more favorable position, standing directly between Ruby and her beloved weapon.

"Get ready to lose again, little sis!" Yang shouted, switching out the shells in her gauntlets with explosive red colored slugs.

Ruby growled back, staring into her sister's lavender eyes and digging one of her feet into the dirt. She ran at top speed directly towards Yang, her entire body transforming into a red blur. it was unexpected, for her to take such an approach, but Yang did not waver. If Ruby continued in a straight line, all Yang would have to do is sidestep and swing down. A well placed chop to the neck could take her out of the fight entirely. She raised her arms and prepared to counter, but the large swirling mass of rose petals never touched her. Yang was left frozen and speechless, as hundreds of rose petals flew past her. She tried to turn around, but felt two feet planting themselves into her back of her neck and head. She stumbled forward, flailing her arms wildly as she struggled to stay on her feet.

"What was that?!" Yang asked herself as she glared fiercely. "Since when did Ruby ever do that?"

"Phew, I didn't think I could pull that off on my first try." Ruby told herself with a nervous smile.

"Hey, where'd you get that fancy move from?" Yang demanded to know. "Did you learn that from Madara or something?"

"N-no. That was… the secret power of my eyes." Ruby replied back. Of course, she was entirely bluffing. Her eyes were silver, nothing more. To think that they would do something like cast illusions or turn her body into her trademark was utterly ridiculous. Nobody would be able to do something like that.

In reality, what Ruby did wasn't anything more than another ability of her semblance she unlocked at some point during their seven day field trip. It was akin to a short ranged teleportation; she could split her body amongst small lightweight objects and reform somewhere close by. The trade off was that the technique itself costed a large amount of aura to perform meaning that, for the time being, she could only use it once or twice in a single battle. Luckily she didn't need to use it again, she had managed to successfully return to her scythe's side. The head was still partially buried, but it didn't matter. The petite girl grabbed the pole of her weapon with both hands, one of which slid down to a button just above the trigger. She pressed it, and the entire scythe began to hum. The hum slowly escalated into a piercing screech, as electricity sparked from the head. The ground the held it down was pulverized, and Ruby lifted it upright.

Weiss and Blake were dumbfounded at the sight. The gray blade of the red scythe was covered in a cloak of transparent white and blue crackling energy. No known dust could create those effects let alone cause such destruction to its environment. The best guess either of them could make was that this was the "modification" she had performed the day before. Which only warranted the question: what kind of modification did Yang's gauntlets have?

"Take this!" Ruby shouted, leaping into the air and firing a bullet behind her.

A head on clash was undesirable for Yang. The incoming attack was more than she could handle. Even with her gauntlets as a shield, a direct hit from the lightning charged blade would shred her aura apart. She hadn't sustained enough damage or felt enough anger to get any effective use out of her semblance. It was going to take a slightly smarter approach. Luckily, Yang noticed that the she could use the situation to her advantage.

"Yea~no." she smirked as she dashed away from what was about to be ground zero.

Ruby gasped as Crescent Rose, which she had already swung, hit the ground once more. However instead of trapping itself again, the lightning channelled through it was sent into the rock and dirt and caused an explosion of energy. A large amount of debris was thrown into the air, blinding and inducing a serious cough among the girls. Luckily, they didn't have to suffer the after effects for any prolonged periods of time. Thanks to the help of a small amount of wind dust, courtesy of Weiss, the debris was blown away allowing her allies to breath and see once more. With the cloud of particles cleared, they were speechless to see Ruby lying beside her weapon in a large crater of her own creation. It was at least a meter deep, with a four meter radius, all caused by the electric discharge from Crescent Rose's blade.

"Woah…" Yang stared. "Glad that didn't hit me, still my win though." she chuckled lightly.

"Is she… still alive?" Blake asked, with an actual sense of worry in her voice.

"Oh she's fine~. Hey, Ruby!" The blonde older sister called out. In response, there was a low and pained groan coming from the epicenter. "See? Give her a moment, she'll be back up."

"In what world does that mean 'okay'?!" Both Weiss and Blake thought as they glanced back and forth between each other and their leader.

"Quite a show, ladies." the composed voice an old man emerged from behind, along with sipping from a coffee mug. "I do hope you know what you are doing though. Our nurse cannot heal every kind of injury."

"Professor Ozpin?" Weiss asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, as it so happens, there has been an addition to your curriculum at this school. Rather, it would be more appropriate to say outside of this school. A colleague of mine had suggested, and gotten approved for, an exchange program. To put simply, the four academies will be temporarily sending their students to one another. We will be receiving students from Haven, Shade, and Atlas. Likewise, we are recruiting students to explore their facilities and cultures as well." Ozpin explained, pausing for the girls to process the information.

The four members of Team RWBY looked at one another, leaving communication to be done through their eyes. Ruby and Yang hadn't been outside of the Kingdom of Vale before. Yang wanted to save that pleasure for when she was a fully fledged Huntress. Ruby, however, simply never found a reason to. She was more than comfortable with what she was familiar with. She never encountered a situation that the need to travel out of the kingdom would arise. From Blake's perspective, there was nothing at any of the other academies that she could stand to gain. The things she wanted and needed were well within the boundaries of the kingdom. Most importantly, the risk of being transferred to Vacuo was the biggest deterrent. There were more than a few things housed within the desert kingdom that she would much rather avoid. Weiss, unlike the her team members, was the only one who had been to Mistral before. Unfortunately, there was an inexplicable feeling that urged her to remain at Beacon. In accordance with Murphy's Law, leaving the academy at this time would be a grave mistake.

"Sorry Professor Ozpin, but we will have to decline the offer." Ruby spoke on behalf of her friends. Ozpin blinked once before nodding in acceptance.

"I understand. Have a good day, ladies. Remember to clean up the mess you've made before leaving. These grounds are used by other students… oh yes, one last thing. A few students from Haven and Shade academy will be arriving this afternoon and most of tomorrow. If you encounter them, please give them a warm welcome." and with that, the gray haired man turned and departed, leaving the girls with a large hole to figure out what to do with.

"We're going to need a lot of earth dust… Weiss?" Yang asked, as a long and heavy sigh followed.

"What am I, a janitor?" she asked herself, retrieving several vials of brown colored dust powder from her hidden dust holster. "I should just have them carry dust too. Maybe that'll make them a bit more responsible." she wondered, but quickly perished the thought as she remembered just who the people she was thinking about were.

"Well, let's get this stuff cleaned up and greet our guests!" Ruby commanded. "I can't wait to see what kind of weapons they use. I bet they'll be really cool!"

"Before that… your weapon." Blake paused their leader and pointed at Ruby's scythe. "That wasn't dust, so how did it do that?"

"Oh, uh, I don't really know how exactly." Ruby said as she scratched the back of her head. "It's a little complicated. Back when I first made Crescent Rose, we melted an old sword Madara had and used that metal for the blade since it was sharper and more durable than any of the other materials. A few days ago he helped me attach a weird slip of paper or something onto the back of the blade that's inside of the head, but there was no way to trigger anything to happen, so we added this button that would make the paper do whatever it does. Now whenever I press the button, the blade gets covered in electricity and becomes ten times sharper and faster. I don't know how the lightning thing works though. I think it has to do with something called Chakra, which I think is just a fancy way to say Aura." Ruby tried to explain with the little expertise she had on the subject.

"He was going to do something similar with mine, but I said no thanks. I like these babies just the way they are." Yang said, smiling while looking down at her golden bracelets… and absolutely nothing else.

"Madara again… where and how is he hiding all of these things." Blake wondered. "If he wanted, he could probably mass produce whatever those papers are and sell them to weapon companies. If one tag could do that, then a couple hundred could completely destroy any amount of grimm no matter the size. He could be one of the richest people in the world if he really wanted, so why doesn't he?" she asked herself.

The mystery surrounding the boy with pitch black hair and blood red eyes was more than she could understand. The more she thought about it, the more unanswerable questions arose. More and more, his mere existence made less and less sense. He had elemental control on a level that could be nearly indistinguishable from magic. He had the ability to imbue that same kind of power into weapons and people alike. He was acquainted with massive beasts capable of human speech. His eyes changed both color and design, and seemed to give him access to even more abilities. It was as if he played by a completely different set of physical laws, assuming he even did that. Despite being the same age as her, he could perform acts that nobody she knew could. Despite not even being a professional huntsmen, he could beat Adam Taurus like he was nothing. He could face an army of thieves and murderers without flinching. Heck, If a god were to stare him down with the intent to kill, he would probably laugh in its face. He had the potential to be one of, if not the most, powerful man in the entire world, more so than even the king of Vale that ended the great war. All of which begged the question, why was he going to a school? According to Yang, he was skilled enough to fend off Beowolves at eight years old like it was nothing. He didn't need the training that Beacon could afford. The only explanation she could think of was that he was either searching for something or he was waiting for something. Above all, the integral question was: who, or what, was Madara Uchiha?

Team JNPR dorm room

"Hey, Pyrrha, did you also receive the message from the school?" Jaune asked, pointing to an open email on his scroll.

"Yes, Jaune." Pyrrha replied. "I just… don't know whether or not I should do it. I would like to visit my old classmates once more, as they are probably attending Haven Academy, but we have been away from the school for an entire week just recently. Leaving again so soon feels wrong. Maybe I am overthinking this, but I think that there is something wrong with this program." Pyrrha began muttering to herself. "Nevertheless, I don't think I would feel comfortable leaving my team again."

"Pyrrha…" Jaune stared. "If you want to go, then go ahead." he reassured his partner, placing a firm hand on her shoulder as he smiled warmly. "It's not everyday that you get a chance like this. You won't be gone for long anyways, and we can hold our own until you get back. I promise."

Pyrrha looked at her team leader's confident smile, a smile he very seldom wore. It wasn't long ago that he had been a cowardly boy who barely understood how to hold the sword he constantly carried. Even now, he was just barely below the level where he could fight on his own against another student. He was always missing some things that no one seemed to be capable of identifying. He wouldn't ever be truly ready until that was changed, and he could break through his shell completely. Even so, with the few times he smiled sincerely, he never quite gave up no matter how difficult the task he was given.

"I see." Pyrrha glanced down at herself, looking back up and Jaune. "If you are sure, then I will go, but make sure you do not skip out on your daily practice."

"I… I won't." Jaune said in the least convincing way possible. "I promise, and if I forget, you can scold me as much as you want when you get back."

"Ugh, get a room you two!" Nora chimed in with her expected level of restraint and subtlety.

"Nora… this is their room." Ren was quick to point out, as if their exchange was rehearsed. "Pyrrha, do not worry, we will make sure our team leader stays diligent." he promised.

"Thank you, Ren. I trust all of you from the bottom of my heart." Pyrrha replied. "Who else might be visiting Mistral I wonder… it's odd. Despite my comrades' reassurance, I can't help but feel that I have made the wrong decision. It's not that I don't trust them… right? No, that's ridiculous. They are my team members, my friends."

END

Murphy's Law: A rule that states, "If something can go wrong, it will." An addition to this law reads, "and usually at the worst time." I.e. The chance of a piece of bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet

Yeah, sorry for the short chapter everyone. Not one of my best weeks. Hey, more stuff will be happening soon though. Shoutout to anyone go got the reference the first time over. What reference? You can look for it, but you're not getting a shoutout.