"You can't be serious."
"It's the choice I have made."
Flare stared at the headmaster, hand on his forehead.
"Mr Archid, I believe we already have had this discussion, and regardless of what the first years have decided, I will not be changing it. We both know how dangerous it is to provoke their trouble-senses. If I am correct, you have something else to discuss?" Ozpin sipped his coffee, hand slowly drumming a slow beat atop his cane.
"All the information I have on Mountain Glenn is-" Flare began, but he noticed Ozpin's eyes narrow ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly.
Flare sighed, but gave in. "We've stumbled across a few things, nothing major, but I think we can identify at least some connection between a few of our enemies. Just… I'm not a professional at this sort of thing, Headmaster. I kill things, I don't investigate crimes."
Flare paused for a moment. "We know that Torchwick is working with the White Fang, and we know the Black Masks are working with the White Fang, so we can reasonably assume that the Black Masks and Torchwick are working together, right?"
Ozpin nodded, sipping his coffee.
"Then there's the mysterious woman. She's only been seen twice, once with Torchwick, and once alone in the CCT, but we know that she's new to town. Torchwick has Neo for stealth, and the Black Masks have some method of staying undetected, so why send her?" Flare spoke, pacing back and forth.
Vier materialised, floating behind the guardian. "It is possible that the unknown woman wanted the CCT job done a specific way, Guardian. They say if you want a job done well do it yourself."
"Right, yeah. So there's a chance this mysterious woman is their leader, or at least someone significant in their group, whether it's an organisation, a conspiracy or something along those lines, or simply a gang with some pretty big plans, and even bigger connections." Flare stopped pacing to look at the headmaster.
"Interesting claims you are making, Mr Archid. Something that should definitely be considered in future. I'd had my suspicions, of course, but hearing you come to the same conclusion is a great benefit. Keep focusing on the Black Masks, as you call them, and I will have a professional investigate the claims that you and I are making," Ozpin said, before frowning as his scroll buzzed.
"I can see you're busy, sir, so I'll get out of your way. Good luck on your end," Flare said, backing away from the desk and exiting the office.
"Good luck to you as well, Mr Archid."
"I don't like it."
"You don't have to like it, Flare, it's what's happening."
"I know, Lillith, but why are they sending a group of first years out on a second year mission?"
Flare was pacing again, although this time it was up and down their dorm room.
"Flare, it's because RWBY wouldn't back down no matter what. They would've stowed away on a Bullhead or stolen a car or something. One's a wilful heiress, another's an ex-terrorist. Just between the two of them I'm pretty sure they could go anywhere."
Lillith was laying on one of the couches, weapons magazine resting on her chest.
"I mean, I'm worried about them. They're our friends, and our students. We've seen how good they are at getting into trouble."
"Flare, relax. They're shadowing a professional Huntsman."
"Do you actually know who that Huntsman is?"
"No, why?"
Flare stopped pacing to stare at his girlfriend-slash-partner.
"Oobleck."
"Oh. Well, now you've got me worried. Although, he is a professional Huntsman, and you don't get there by being bad at it. They'll be alright. There aren't any Hive in Mountain Glenn anyways."
Flare lifted Lillith's legs, plopping down into the couch and resting her legs atop his.
"So, remind me where Iren and Tera are?" Flare asked.
"Probably enjoying their day out somewhere."
Flare hummed a committal sound, closing his eyes and leaning back into the cushions.
A moment passed, the two enjoying the peace and quiet, before it was interrupted.
Flare palmed his scroll, answering it and putting it on speaker as Iren rang.
"Flare, Lillith, how fast can you get to Vale?"
Flare looked at Lillith, who held up five fingers. "Five minutes."
"Meet us at the shuttle dock, Tera and I might've gotten a lead on the Black Masks."
Flare stood up as Lillith retracted her legs, joining him in verticality. "We're on our way."
Stepping over to the table, Flare tossed Lillith her weapons, before quickly unholstering Sunshot and checking the magazine. It was full, thankfully, red dust rounds sitting still inside, the converted firing mechanism still appearing to function correctly.
"Ready?" Flare asked, grabbing his helmet.
"Always," Lillith replied, grabbing her own.
"We really need to get you guys new helmets."
LINEBREAK
The two stepped off the Bullhead, pacing quickly towards the other two members of FLIT, who stood at the exit.
"What've we got, Iren?" Flare asked.
"I was thinking, and I realised that there is a group of people who would know of every single person who passed through the North Gate in the Vale Wall," Iren replied.
"Yeah?" Flare said, falling into step alongside his taller teammate as the two girls brought up the rear.
"My father works on the Wall, for maintenance. He's got contacts throughout all the guys who work it, and one of them would have to have seen the guy we're looking for," Iren explained. "Unfortunately, I don't know where Dad is at the moment, but that's why I figured we'd go see someone who does."
Flare quirked an eyebrow. "And that is?"
Iren sighed. "My mother."
Fifteen minutes of walking around inner Vale, the four came to a stop out the front of a small two story building.
'Flower's Flours' sat at almost a wonky angle, the building old and worn, but it was clear that it wasn't due to misuse.
Iren stepped through, Tera and Lillith following him in, Flare bringing up the rear of the party.
"Mum?" Iren called out.
"Iren, darling, is that you?" The voice was distinctly feminine, but it had a remarkably familiar feeling to it, and Flare struggled not to laugh as a woman that looked like a female version of Iren stepped around from the kitchen behind the counter.
"Hey Mum." Iren greeted.
"Iren, darling, it is you! And you brought the nice members of your team! Hello Tera, hello Lillith!" The woman greeted in return, a beaming smile on her face.
Tera gave a wave, and Lillith smiled. "Hey Mrs Roust."
The woman scoffed. "Bah, I told you to call me Flower! Now, I don't mean to be rude, but I do hope you didn't bring that awful leader of yours!"
Flare was really struggling not to laugh at this point.
"Not exactly, Mum. He left at the end of the first year, remember?" Iren said.
"Oh yes, I do recall you mentioning that…" Flower trailed off.
"This is Flare, our new leader. Flare, this is my mother."
Flare stepped forward and felt his wrist become paste underneath the powerful and enthusiastic handshake the woman provided. "A pleasure to meet you, Mrs Roust."
The woman released his hand, to his undying gratitude, scoffing once again. "You can do the same as the girls, Flare! Call me Flower!"
Flare gave a nod and a smile, stepping back into his place.
"So, Iren, what brings you around to see your poor old mother?" Flower asked, a good-natured frown on her face.
"Have you seen Dad? We need his help." Iren asked.
Flower scoffed again, a recurring theme. "I'm afraid I have no idea where your father is, darling." She noticed the horrified look on her son's face and quickly amended the statement. "This morning he was being reassigned to a different section, but neither of us know where that is. If you need to speak to him, I suppose you are just going to have to wait, or I can get him to call you if you are in a rush."
Iren turned to look at Flare, a questioning look on his face.
"I don't think we're in a rush, so if you don't mind us lingering…" Flare said, and Flower jumped at the chance.
"Of course, of course! You're welcome to stay, take a seat! Iren, there's a batch of loaves in the oven, number 6, could you be a dear?"
As Flare, Tera and Lillith sat, the three watched in amusement as the biggest person on the team nimbly donned an apron and followed the quickly issued orders of his mother.
It was a far cry from any of their home lives, seeing as one was an orphan, one had a rather complicated past she hadn't yet gone into, and one was an alien warrior from a different planet that fought against other alien warriors from different planets.
"So, Flare, I feel like I should ask about you! Where are you from, how did you end up as the leader of… well, I suppose I don't know the team name now, do I?" Flower laughed, taking a seat with the rest of them.
"It's FLIT. I'm from the wilds, around Patch specifically, that sort of area, but I've just been wandering for a few years. I met Ozpin through a friend, and he appointed me the leader, seeing as I already had significant combat experience," Flare explained, only half-lying.
"Ah, yes, of course. It's good to hear that my boy is with a capable leader now," Flower said, as Iren stepped back into the room, behind the counter, a raised eyebrow on his face.
"Oh shush you, we all agree your previous leader wasn't very nice to say the least. At least you have manners!" Flower said, her left hand performing a complicated series of movements.
Iren sighed, and bent underneath the counter, reaching into the display cabinets and rearranging various pastries.
Flare had to chuckle at the subservience Iren showed.
"So, Tera…" Flower began, and Flare watched in good humour as Tera flushed bright red, and began stammering as Flower immediately picked up on the underlying message and brought it right out into the open.
Flare pulled out his scroll, and with the assistance of Vier quickly tapped into the CCTV cameras that lined the streets of Vale.
"Vier, keep an eye out for anything strange, and doubly so our friend Regis. Keep an ear out for secured communications, too, but be careful. We still don't know if the CCT is compromised," Flare subvocalized, Vier pinging an affirmative.
Flare tuned back into the conversation as the relatively short discussion about Tera and Iren's relationship ended, only to realise that the woman was about to move onto a significantly more relevant relationship.
"So, what about you Lillith? Found someone?" Flower asked, a cheeky grin on her face.
"I like to think so, but it's up to him whether or not it goes anywhere," Lillith snarked.
"Yeah yeah, not like I have much experience with people to begin with, let alone relationships," Flare replied, a smirk on his face.
Flower burst into laughter. "You two are so much like myself and Steyel."
Flare made the rapid assumption that Steyel was Iren's father. At least he knew who named his large teammate.
"You called?" A voice rang out, deep and gravelly, but light-hearted nonetheless.
"Oh, Steyel honey, how are you? Iren and his team have stopped by, he was asking after you," Flower said by way of greeting.
Steyel stepped inside, and it was clear that the genetics for Iren's size was an equal split, the bear of a man stepping over the threshold and effectively blocking all the light from the doorway. "Hey there Tera, Lillith, how have you two been? Feels like it's been ages since we've seen you!"
Tera and Lillith both greeted the bear of a man.
"And you, I don't believe we've met. I'm Steyel Roust, nice to meet ya!"
Flare felt his proffered hand cease to exist. To think he thought that Flower had a powerful handshake.
"I'm Flare, the new team leader. Likewise," Flare grunted out through the pain, doing his best to make it seem like he wasn't in agony. Maybe it would've been better to have replaced both arms with mechanical prosthetics.
Although, that line of thinking was probably what led to the origin of the Exo, so he wasn't a hundred percent sure accidentally birthing a race of sentient machines on Remnant was the greatest idea.
Steyel released his hand, and stepped back. "Iren, boy, what'd you need to see me for, 'cause I assume it isn't just to see me!"
Iren stepped out of the kitchen, apron coming off, as Flower stood up and took his place.
"Hey Dad, good to see you. We're tracking a man by the name of…" Iren trailed off, and Flare supplied the name.
"Regis."
"We're tracking a man called Regis, he was last seen around this area. We're thinking there is a chance that you or one of the other maintenance guys saw him," Iren explained, as Flare withdrew his scroll once again and supplied an image.
Steyel put a hand on his stubble, stroking his chin as he hummed in thought. "Hmm… I don't recall seeing him, but maybe one of my guys did. When do you 'reckon he got through the Vale Wall?"
Iren turned to Flare, and Flare spoke up. "A week or two ago at most, but that's a real rough estimate. Pretty much all the intel we have on this guy is guesswork."
"I'll toss it 'round to the guys that worked during that time, see if they come up with anything, but that might take between a few hours to a few days, so you've got some time to kill," Steyel replied, as Flare sent Iren the image, who proceeded to send it to his father.
"Anything is better than nothing though Dad, so whatever you can do would be really helpful," Iren said, as Steyel helped himself to one of the pastries in the display cabinet, ignoring his wife smacking him on the shoulder with a wooden spoon.
"Well, I'll send whatever I get to you as soon as I do get it, so you shouldn't need to worry." Steyel bit into the pastry, jam and pastry flakes exploding around his mouth. "Mmf, gud!"
Iren just shook his head at his father's antics, likely used to this sort of thing. "Well, we've got to head back to Beacon, but thanks for the help Dad, and it was nice to see both of you."
Flare, Tera and Lillith stood up as Steyel and Flower hugged their son, waving the team out the door.
The four walked down the streets of Vale, the sun setting leaving the atmosphere peaceful, a pleasant orange-pink glow in the sky.
"I'm surprised you don't have some angsty background story or something like I do, Iren," Flare said, laughing.
Iren laughed in reply. "Yeah, yeah. Mum owns and runs a bakery, Dad's a welder, a really good recipe for drama. I can't turn into shadows or teleport, so I'm not much for the angsty background."
"At least you have your family, Iren," Tera said, a little sullenly.
"You guys are a part of the Roust family, they won't let you say no," Iren replied, a small smile on his face.
Tera caught Iren by the arm, clutching him a little closer. Flare stretched his arm around to encompass Lillith, and the four walked through the quiet streets.
"I wonder how RWBY is doing?" Flare asked, as they walked.
"You are far too worried about them. We helped train them, even if it was only for a few days. They can handle themselves, and Oobleck is there to back them up," Lillith replied.
"Besides, not like the White Fang are actually threats to those guys. I mean, they've got Blake. What's better to counter a terrorist organisation than an ex-terrorist?" Tera pointed out.
"With Blake and Cerulea working as intelligence, we'd be able to take down the White Fang no problems," Iren said with a chuckle.
"Let's focus on finding Regis first, shall we?" Flare asked.
"Well, I'm not really that hard to find."
Cliffhangers, man.
Oh, OnePunchPlayer, I know, the name is pretty close. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not.
Speaking of names, what do you guys think of Flower and Steyel? Coming up with names on the spot isn't a specialty of mine, but I think they stick pretty damn close to the naming conventions RWBY follows, despite the obvious misspellings I've been using to give some variety. Steel isn't a memorable name, but Steyel is in my opinion.
Also, it's been a while since we've had a fight. I look forward to changing that.
And, as always, see you next chapter
~AFatFlyingWhale