AN: Just want to give a quick Shout-out to my friend UmeMuhinyi99 on deviantART. She's the one that did the new cover and she has many more great drawing over on her profile. So go check her out she's awesome at what she does. Also I'm kinda alternating between Ricky and Richard I hope that isn't too confusing, I've just gotten used to writing Richard after the Prequel Story.
"Come in."
Ruby and Richard walked into Ozpin's office, General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch where inside with Ozpin.
"Sorry it took so long, someone accidentally hit all the buttons in the elevator on the way up here" Ruby said, "It wasn't me."
Richard knew it was she but didn't say anything.
"Thank you for coming you Ruby, Richard, how are you two feeling?" Ozpin asked.
"Okay I guess, I'd feel better if my bad guy catching record wasn't O-for-3."
The three adults just stared at her in silence.
"Okay so that's the tone we're going for, got it" Ruby said scratching behind her head.
"Ruby, I feel its appropriate to let you now that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a huntress is all about, you recognized a threat, you took action, and you did the very best you could." Ironwood said putting his hand on Ruby's right shoulder. All he gave Richard was a look and Richard didn't take it very friendly. Richard didn't know if Ironwood didn't trust him because of his Faunus roosts or maybe he knew he was in the creed, he is a friend of Ozpin after all.
"Thank you sir" was all Ruby responded with.
"Now, the general here has already informed us of the events that…transpired last night, but now that you've rested we were wondering if you two had anything to add." Ozpin said to the two.
"Was anyone else with them, did they look familiar to you at all?" Goodwitch asked.
"I don't know, they were wearing masks, they never said anything to us, but I know the woman fought with glass, I don't think that was her semblance though, both of their cloths lit up whenever they attacked" Ruby answered.
"Safe with a glass, that sounds the woman I fought the night we met Ruby" Goodwitch said.
"Embedding dust into clothing is an age old technique it could have been anyone" Ironwood responded.
"What about the other one?" Ozpin asked.
"He was quiet the whole time as well…I think his semblance allowed them to escape, there was black smoke where they disappeared." Richard answered wondering who it could be, he knew Cyrus had that ability, but it couldn't be him, could it?
"Wait, you think these two are connected to Torchwick and the white fang?" Ruby asked.
"Its possible" Ozpin answered, "but we still lack the required evidence to link the two together."
"Actually, I think I remember them saying something about a hideout, in the southeast, just outside the kingdom." Ruby added. Richard instantly realized the discrepancy in Ruby's report. He wasn't the only one.
"I thought you said the intruder never-"
"Thank you for your cooperation Ruby, why don't you go and spend sometime time with your team, you have a big day ahead of you."
"Anytime" Ruby said making her way out with Richard.
"And miss Rose," Ozpin said before they exited "Please try and be, discreet about this matter."
"Yes sir" She answered.
"Also, I'd like to speak with you again Mr. Kenway, if you could wait outside my office, I will call you in again when we're finished discussing this matter."
"Yes sir" Richard answered and walked out with Ruby.
Once the door closed behind them Richard asked, "What was that?"
"What?" Ruby asked back.
"You said they never spoke, which they didn't, then said they mention something about a hideout?" Richard explained a little angrily.
"Well how else am I suppose to let Ozpin know that?" Ruby asked in her defense.
"Ruby, that was info Ozpin probably knew already."
"Well I'm sorry, Ugh! Why does everyone treat me like a child!"
Richard realized what he did and looked Ruby in the eye to respond, "I'm sorry...I just...I've already lost one teammate Ruby, I don't want to loose another."
Richard looked down in defeat, but soon after he felt Ruby hug him, he hugged back. After a short time Ruby let go and said "I'll see you later" and walked back to her team dorm.
Richard let out a sigh and then looked to see Ironwood and Goodwitch exit Ozpin's office.
"Ozpin would like to see you now" Goodwitch told him. Richard nodded and entered the office once again.
"You wanted to see me again Ozpin?" Richard asked as he entered the office.
"I did," Ozpin said turning around in his chair to face Richard.
"Team RICH is still down a member, am I correct?"
"Yes sir, Cyrus has still not returned and we have no idea where he could be."
"hmm" Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, "well I cannot let an incomplete team go on a mission, so the best course of action for me to take is to divide your current team and place them with another."
Ozpin took out his scroll and did something on it, shorty after Richard's own scroll beeped and he took it out to see what it was. Another Headmaster's note, 'Richard Kenway will be accompanying team RWBY on their first mission due to the disappearance of team RICH member Cyrus Len. Any mission team RWBY accepts he will accompany them on. - Headmaster Ozpin.'
Richard looked back up to see Ozpin, "what about Harper and Iris?"
Ozpin took another sip of coffee before saying, "Harper will be with team SSSN and Iris with team JNPR."
Richard looked back down at the note on his scroll. he reread it to see if there where any detailed he glossed over. He closed his scroll, put it away, and said "Very well" to Ozpin before exiting the office.
Outside Richard was about to make his way to his dorm when a cart almost crashed into him. It stopped right in front of him and there was a student that was pushing it around, the cart was full of mail.
"Hey slow down" Richard told the student driving the cart.
"Sorry! I'm kinda in a rush. I'm I woke up late and its mail day and need to get all this delivered before the first year students go on their first mission." The student spoke quickly and hastily. "Wait are you Richard Kenway!?"
"Yes" Richard answered.
"Uh! Thank god! Package!" the student said handing Richard a rather large package.
"Can't stay and talk gotta deliver!" the student said running off down the hall.
Richard looked at the package, the return post was the homestead. Second package from them, but Conner just dropped off the first, guess he was extra busy this time. Richard walked back to his dorm with his package in hand he didn't know what it was but he decided to wait until he got back to his dorm. He entered his dorm room, but Harper and Iris where gone, most likely gone to notify the teams they were assigned to. Richard set the package on his bed and began to tear away at the brown paper covering the item. Once it was all off there was a red cylindrical tube laying on his bed. A small grip with a button on it also came in the package. Richard held the grip in his left hand and the tune in the other. He pushed the button of the grip and mechanical sounds from the tube could be heard. There where smaller rods inside that where turning and screwing on arrow tips, it was an advance quiver, one that could hold multiple arrow tips so any one that was needed could be chosen.(Basically think of Hawkeye's quiver from the Avengers) Richard was actually surprised to see that the people back at the homestead sent him this. He took off his quiver that rested on the back of his belt and hung it up on the door hook that was on the closet. Then he slung his new quiver over his back, parallel to his bow. He placed the grip on the left side of his belt. He pushed the button once more and a arrow popped up from the quiver. He pulled it out and saw the tip was red. He placed the arrow back in the quiver and pushed the button three times, the arrow tip screwed off and the rod was placed back in line with the others. After the experimenting with the quiver Richard checked his other weapons, he had his pouches full of ammo for his pistols and his sword and tomahawk blades were sharpened. He walked out of his dorm and made his way to team RWBY's.
He was outside about to knock when he heard a bark and then screams, one was "Zwei!" He also could hear Blake's voice "He sent a dog!?" then Weiss "In the mail!?" It didn't surprise Richard that Ruby would have a dog, for better or for worse. He knocked on the door and heard shuffling and Yang ask "where can we hide him?" then metallic noises. After a while Yang opened the door. "Hello!" she greeted Richard very friendly.
"Hello Yang, I was wondering if you guys got a message from Ozpin about first missions?"
"Hmm, nope can't say we have." She answered rather quickly.
"Well then theres something I need to tell your team...can I come in?" Richard asked since Yang didn't move from the door way.
"Oh, sure" she said moving aside to let Richard in.
The first thing he noticed when he walked in was a pile of canned dog food in the middle of the floor.
"Uh, may I ask what this is for?" Richard said looking at the pile.
"Its for Blake!" Ruby quickly answered.
"Wha-" "yeah, she may be a cat but she loves dog food" Yang said covering Blake's mouth before she could say anything.
"Right..." Richard said. "Well going on about what I need to tell you all," he handed Ruby his scroll with Ozpin's note on it "looks like I'm back on team RWBY."
"What?" Weiss asked.
"He's right, Headmaster's note right here says it all" Ruby said handing back the scroll.
"Any mission you guys choose, I'm going with you."
A dog popped up from the pile of dog food in the middle of the floor, right in front of where Richard was standing. Richard looked down to see the black and grey corgi currently in the middle of the pile. Everyone else stayed in silence to see what Richard's reaction would be. He slowly kneeled down continuing to stare at it eye-to-eye. He got closer to examine the dog and he kept a straight face the entire time, meanwhile the dog was showing all kinds of energy panting away. After a while Richard got really close and just stared into the dog's eyes. The dog responded with a lick on Richard's cheek.
"This your dog?" He asked looking up at Ruby.
"Please don't tell Ozpin" she pleaded.
Richard stood back up and said "kinda always knew you would have a dog."
"Really? How?" Yang asked.
"Just a sneaking suspicion" he said scratching behind his wolf ears and looking at Ruby. She knew what he meant, the others, not so much.
An announcement came on "would all first year students report to the amphitheater."
"Well looks like we need to get going, I'll see you all during mission selection." Richard said walking out of their dorm.
He made his way to the amphitheater and found Harper and Iris, they already told their respective teams as well.
"Quiet, quiet please" Professor Goodwitch said trying to get the large crowd of students' attention. "Professor Ozpin would like to share a few words before we begin," she said, and then left the stage to Ozpin.
"Today we stand together, united, Mistral, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale, the four kingdoms of Remnant. On this day nearly eighty years ago the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression. A war that was about much more than where borders fell or who traded with who, but about the very idea of individualism itself. We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression, and as you are well aware that was something many could not stand for. As a result those who opposed this tyranny began naming their child after one of the core aspect of art itself, color. It was their way to demonstrate that not only would they refuse to tolerate this oppression, but neither were the generations to come and it was a trend that is held to this very day. We encourage individuality, expressionism, and unity through diversity. As I said today we stand together, united, but this bond cannot exist without effort. Which is why today while the rest of the world celebrates peace, Huntsmen and Huntresses will work to uphold it. As first year students you will be tasked with shadowing a professional Huntsmen or Huntress on a mission, some of you may be taken out of the kingdom for several days, others may work within the walls for the rest of the week, but no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember you training, and remember to do your very best."
The crowd applauded Ozpin's speech as he walk of stage and shortly after all the teams moved to the screens that had appeared to select their first mission.
"This is perfect," Ruby began as Richard approached team RWBY, "all we have to do is shadow a Huntsmen working in the southeast."
"Yeah, well follow them around by day and give them the slip at night," Yang said.
"Lets check search and destroy" Weiss suggested.
Richard deduced that they were going after the white fang once again, and while he didn't exactly agree with the fact, he was glad he could follow them on their mission. They made their way to the search and destroy panel to check what jobs where available.
"Here we go, Quadrant 5 needs grimm cleared out" Ruby said pointing to the mission on the panel.
"Well its in the southeast" Blake said.
"Sounds perfect" Yang added.
Ruby selected the mission and typed in the team name 'RWBY' and entered it, but a message came up that said 'Mission unavailable to fist year students.'
"Wonderful" Weiss said after seeing the message.
"Any other ideas?" Blake asked.
"We mail our selfs there."
"Well thats one option," Ozpin said in response to Ruby's suggestion. "unfortunately we determined that the concentration of grimm was too extreme for fist year students. It seems that particular region is quiet popular, in fact I have the sneaking suspicion that the four of you, pardon, five, will make your way there no matter which job you choose."
Richard and the rest of team Ruby gave a look to their leader, she had her hand behind her head and said "whatever makes you say that?"
"I'm still curious as to how you all found yourselves at the docks last semester, I'm interested to know how you really learned about a 'Hideout' in the southeast, and I'm certainly wonder why witnesses reported seeing robots and rose petals in a dance club some time ago."
"uhhhmm...uh well..." Ruby couldn't find an answer. Richard knew that Ozpin knew everything he had said he didn't, he knew because he told him all that info.
"I doubt I'll ever find the exact answers I'm looking for, so how about this, instead of waiting for you to break the rules, why don't we just bend them." Ozpin tapped on his scroll and something changed on the panel with the mission.
"We won't let you down, thank you professor." Ruby thanked Ozpin.
"Do not thank me for this, team work and persistence have carried you far, but you must understand, the things that await you beyond the protection of the kingdom will not care. Stay close to your Huntsmen at all times and do exactly as he says he will be leading you on this mission and he can have you sent back to Beacon if he finds you skills to be unsatisfactory."
Ozpin walked away leaving team RWBY and Richard with those last few words before popping back in to say "Good Luck."
His speech seemed to degrade team RWBY's confidence since they didn't exactly walk out with smiles on their faces, except for Ruby.
"That wasn't exactly uplifting" Yang stated as they walked out.
"But it's the truth" Blake replied.
"Its gona be tough, but I know we can do it" Ruby said trying to raise her teams moral. A student came running pat them saying "Hey team CVFY is back."
They all looked to see the returning team walk by. They knew one person, Velvet, a rabbit Faunus. They walked over to try and talk to them.
"Velvet?" Blake asked in concern for her fellow Faunus "are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I had Yatsuhashi to look out for me." The Faunus answered.
"Your mission was supposed to end a week ago, what happened?" Weiss now asked.
"Nothing happened, it was just, there where just so many" Velvet answered thinking back at the mission she just came from. "Oh but don't worry, you first years are just shadowing Huntsmen so you should be fine."
"Right" Yang said.
"I should go, be safe okay," she told the five of them before walking off.
They all looked at each other before Ruby stepped in and said, "we can do this, we've never backed down before and we're not going to start now."
"Right" Blake said agreeing with her leader.
"Besides it won't only be us out there, we'll be fighting along side a genuine Huntsmen!" Ruby said excited.
"Yeah!" Yang joined in her sister's excitement.
"Why hello everyone, who's ready to fight for their lives!?"