Chapter 23: Heading Out

Criminals and Mentors

"So, uh, what do we take with us?" Damion, Bethany and Samantha were standing in their dormitory, pondering what they were going to take onto their mission. Each student was allowed to bring a small bag containing any necessary supplies.

"We don't have to take anything with us if we don't want to. Besides, what else are we going to need aside from our weapons?" Samantha said.

"A bit of extra dust couldn't hurt." Bethany said, picking up a few crystals of fire and ice dust. "Apart from that-"

Damion was filling up a water bottle and held it up. "How about the very essence of life itself? Making sure we don't get dehydrated? How's that for a idea?"

Bethany and Samantha both pulled out small water flasks.

"Okay then. That should be us then. Hopefully at least. This is going to be great! We get to go off our first mission with a professional huntsmen or huntress!"

"I hope we wind up with Amy or Lily." Samantha said.

"I'm sure they would be more than willing to tell us their missions. After all, we are their favourite students." Damion stated.

"Do you really think so?"

"Well, uh, yeah. We are the one's they spend the most time with and stuff, so, I think that's a fair assumption to make."

Damion and Samantha walked out the door. Bethany took a final scan around their dorm room.

Well, if we forget anything, I'm sure our huntsmen or huntress will have some stuff with them. At least I hope so…

Shrugging inwardly, she went after her team. She thought back to last night, the dance… She stared at Damion, who was talking excitedly to Samantha about what mission they might go on.

"Maybe we'll get to hunt a giant Grimm! Or, uh, what other kinds of mission are there?"

"Well" Samantha said. "There's Search and Destroy…" Samantha began listing off the different missions available to them. Bethany wasn't really listening. She remembered how she had basically began bawling into Damion's shoulder, quite embarrassing indeed. However, he hadn't seemed to mind, which she was very thankful for.

And then there was what Lily had said to her…

I know what it feels like to watch them walk away and know you can't do anything to bring them back…

Before Alan had left, Amy had told them about how Nicole had died, and Daniel had pretty much went mad about it. She hadn't thought about that much, due to what Alan was doing, but she wondered what it was like to know that your teammate, someone you trusted, had taken a very dark path.

I wonder if they still care about him.

If somewhere in there hearts, they held some love for their former teammate. If they had ever encountered him.

Raising her head, she saw they were nearly at the hall, where Professor Ozpin was due to give a speech.

No time to think about that. Just focus on your mission.

Criminals and Mentors

Amy was standing with her back propped up against a wall, on the stage where Ozpin would soon be giving his speech. Lily was away talking with Glynda about something. She hadn't told Amy what, and simply told her "I'll tell you when I get back."

Amy ran a hand through her hair, and watched as the students walked into the hall. She was honoured to have been chosen as one of the huntresses to lead the first years on their first missions. She already knew which mission she was on.

A expedition into a small village in the North of Vale, a village called Eika. There had been several disappearance's around that area lately, and there was no real clues as to who or what had taken or killed them.

Detective work. Shouldn't be the most boring thing in the world.

She knew that most first years would have a very glorified version of missions, killing giant Grimm, saving cities and towns from hordes of them. Unfortunately, that wasn't all there was.

Amy knew that this probably wasn't fair of her, but she was secretly hoping that she would get Bethany, Damion and Samantha as her students. Not necessarily because she would admit to caring about them more than the general student population, but also because they had just lost a teammate. Whether he was a complete jerk or not, that was still a hard hit to take. One less person to watch your back if something went wrong. Most huntsmen and huntresses didn't know what that was like. She did.

Then again, Alan probably would have only watched his own back, never mind anyone else's. She knew that Bethany in particular held strong feelings for him leaving, Damion and Samantha had both just kind of shrugged it off.

She looked through the crowd of students, and was immediately able to pick them out. Bethany's pink hair was probably the main reason why she was able to. Damion and Samantha were talking to each other, and Bethany was looking around the hall, and caught sight of Amy. Amy waved at her, and she waved back, albeit with much less enthusiasm than Amy would have expected from a student going off on their first mission.

I mean, if you really want them as your students, you could just tell them what your mission is.

That would require her to find them amongst all these students when they went to pick their missions, which was the hard part.

"Today we stand together, united-" Amy nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden loudness of Ozpin's voice. She hadn't seen him walk up onto the stage to the microphone. Amy Ivankeo, slayer of some of the most powerful Grimm in the world, scared by a old man walking up and speaking into a microphone. Simply fantastic.

Ah, now this is the really boring bit.

Never mind going off on boring missions, hearing him waffle on about the Great War, the idea of individualism, the fact that people began naming their children after colours…

Not everyone follows that.

There were plenty of people who weren't named after colours. She was one of them. Unless there was some secret meaning she had never bothered to find out about, Amy was not a colour.

Ozpin continued to drone on and on and on and on…

Man, I know this stuff is important, but come on!

She had heard this speech several times, and it wasn't any more interesting. She noticed that Damion seemed to be feeling the exact same way, as he was constantly whispering to Samantha, who elbowed him in the ribs. He then looked over at Amy, and then she had a idea.

Let's hope he can lip read.

She lifted her hand and pointed right next to her, and mouthed "I'll meet you here." He leaned forward, and raised his hand to his ear in a "Say that again" gesture. She mouthed it again, pointing next to her again. He nodded and gave her a thumbs up, just as Samantha elbowed him in the ribs again.

I really hope he read that right. He might have thought she was saying something completely different.

"Remember to stay safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best." Ozpin walked off stage to a uproar of applause. Students began to move into the room where the panels to select the missions were set up.

Amy patiently waited for them to come up. Luckily, Damion's lip reading abilities weren't too bad, as he pointed to her, and the three of them walked up to her.

"So, I assume you three want me as your huntress?" Amy spread her arms out.

"Well, uh, we would like to, yes. But, it's not guaranteed." Damion said.

"But I know what mission I'm going to go on, so therefore I can tell you, unless you don't want me to."

"Oh, no, that would be very helpful actually."

"Well" Amy gestured to behind her. "What are we waiting for then?" She lead them over to the panels, where there were several missions laid out. It provided a name, as well as a description.

Search and Rescue

Grimm Infestation

Amy continued to scroll down, until she came across a mission which was titled Disappearance's in Eika.

There have been reports of disappearances in Eika, a village in the North of Vale. The villagers suspect it may be Grimm, however, dead bodies have been reported with none of the usual marks that you would expect from a Grimm attack. There may be something more sinister going on.

"There you are."

"Oh, well, that's great then!" Damion pushed on it, and it came up to enter there team name. Bethany began to type it in, and then hesitated when she came to hit the A. She looked at Amy.

"Do I put it in, or do I leave it out?"

"Well, Alan never actually announced his resignation from Beacon, so he would probably technically still be a part of the team in Beacon's files. I would reckon you should probably put it in."

Bethany nodded, and then put the A and the S in. When that was done, it came up Mission Accepted.

"Right, so, I'm glad you all seem ready to go, because this is one of the missions that starts today."

"Today?"

"Yeah, some of them start today, some of them start tomorrow, some of them are later than that."

"So, when are we going then?" Samantha asked.

"We are leaving in about…" Amy took out her scroll and checked the time. "Fifteen minutes. We should go and wait outside."

Where is Lily? I want to see her before we go… Bethany, Damion and Samantha had already began to make there way outside. Amy followed after them, and soon they came to the area where the bullhead would be landing to take them to Eika.

"So, how are you guys feeling for your first mission?"

"I mean, so long as none of us die, or get injured, we should be fine!" Damion exclaimed. Both Bethany and Samantha glared at him.

"That doesn't exactly convince me your feeling confident." Amy said. "But, alright then."

"Oh no, I'm very confident. Confident that something is definitely going to go wrong!"

"Damion, shut up." Samantha said. "We're going to be fine."

"Well, to be fair, we are down one teammate." Damion pointed out. "That's one less person to help out." He looked at Bethany, who was staring off into the distance.

"Technically, we do only have four people." Amy said. "But, in reality, we actually do have five, because I'm worth two people I'm that cool." She grinned at them.

"I can't really argue with that." Damion said.

"I wonder what's happened to those people." Bethany said suddenly. They all looked at her. "I hope there okay…"

"So do I." Amy said. "But unfortunately, we can't guarantee that they'll be okay. Something really bad could have happened. We can only hope."

"I guess so…"

"Hey, guys!" Lily had came over. Amy stood up and walked over to her.

"So, do you know what mission you are leading then?"

"Well… That's actually what I was talking to Glynda about. I'm not going to lead a mission."

"Oh, right. Fair enough."

"So, uh, where are you guys going then?"

"We're heading out to a small village in the North of Vale called Eika. Some disappearances have been reported around there."

"Grimm?"

Amy shrugged. "Presumably so. If it isn't the Grimm... then I don't know what it could be."

"Hey, be careful now, won't you be?"

"Lily, careful is my middle name. I'll be fine, they'll be fine-" She motioned to Bethany, Damion and Samantha, who were talking to each other.

"Just don't do anything stupid."

Amy raised a eyebrow. "What are you implying? That I do stupid things?"

"With all due respect, yes. No offence."

"None taken."

"How long do you think you'll be gone for?"

"Who knows? You know yourself that when it comes to these things, time is extremely unpredictable."

"Yeah, I know, it's just..." Lily sighed. "If anything were to happen to you-"

Amy reached down and wrapped her arms around Lily, embracing her. "I promise you, Lily, I'm going to be fine. I won't do anything stupid or dumb, like I know I can at times." Lily reached up and embraced her back. They stayed like that for a moment, before the sound of a bullhead landing was heard. Amy patted Lily on the back and let go.

"That'll be our ride then." She looked back and saw that team BDS had already begun to board it. She began to walk towards it, casting a final look at Lily.

"Best of luck!" She called out, before turning and beginning to walk back to the main building. Amy boarded the bullhead with the others, and it began to take off.

Criminals and Mentors

"So, where exactly is Eika?" Samantha asked. They were in the air now, flying high above Vale.

"It's somewhere in the North of Vale. I couldn't tell you exactly where though." Amy said.

"Don't you have a map or something?" Damion asked.

"No, because we don't need one. Our pilot is the expert, he'll take us right there."

"Okay then!" Their pilot called out. "So I actually have to admit, I have no clue where Eika is."

Amy suddenly burst out laughing. "Now I don't usually like pilot's jokes, but that, that was a good one!"

"Uh, I wasn't joking." Amy stopped laughing.

"Wait, you were being serious?"

"Yes."

"So, where are we being left off then?"

"Your being set down in a area in the North of Vale, which I think is somewhere near Eika."

"You think?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure though."

Amy groaned loudly. "Dear me, you are the most useless pilot I think I've ever seen."

"Hey, it's not my fault! I'm new to this job and I don't know this area of Vale!"

"Well, that's a problem." Amy turned to the other's. "I guess we should have brought a map then."

"You don't say." Damion muttered.

"Maybe there will be signs or something? A local we can ask?" Bethany suggested.

"It really depends on where our completely useless pilot" Amy raised her voice suddenly. "Decides to leave us off."

"Call me completely useless again and I'll set you down right now and kick you all off!"

"Don't you have a GPS or something you can use?" Samantha asked.

"If there's a GPS in this thing, I certainly haven't found it." He called back.

"Apologies guys." Amy said. "Guess we will be on this mission for a little longer than anticipated."

Criminals and Mentors

"Sir, Sir!" Two members of ShiverBane burst through the doors of the small hideout that Gale had provided for them. "We've just received word!"

Zane looked up at them. "Word of what?"

"It's Gale! He's been reported missing! We checked his building, all there is a broken window in one of the rooms, but we couldn't find a body!"

That fool... Daniel and Lucy must have got to him first. He had told him that playing that waiting game would cost them in the end, and he had been right. But of course, Gale hadn't listened to him. He was just like his old friend Magnus, self centred and arrogant.

"We were speaking to some of his men who we found unconscious, and they were saying about how one of our own was with them! Some girl with black and white hair, wearing a half mask!"

Luna... So that's where she had ended up. Not dead at Daniel and Lucy's hands, but instead, she had turned on their gang, turned on the place which had practically been her home, turned on him. It was disappointing, but he would have never have described her as loyal.

But there was no time to think about that now. No time to waste. If Daniel and Lucy had figured out where Gale was, it was only a matter of time before they came for him too, only a matter of time before they came banging on the front door. They had to leave now.

"Gather everyone up." He instructed them. "We need to leave Vale, tonight."

"Wait, why?"

"Why do you think? Daniel and Lucy have got Gale, there's no reason to think they won't be after us now too."

"But where will we go?"

"Mistral, Vacuo, maybe even Atlas, somewhere that isn't Vale."

"Got it." The two ShiverBane members rushed out and began shouting to everyone that they were leaving, and if no one wanted to be left behind, they should come to them immediately.

It was certainly a shame that Gale had died. He had provided them with this hideout, amongst other things. But Zane had never got the impression that Gale had really cared about them. He probably just saw ShiverBane as a pawn to be used in his grand plan to kill Daniel and Lucy, which he had obviously failed to achieve.

For a man who hated them so much, it was quite surprising that he seemed to wanted to wait for the right opportunity to strike them down. We knew where they were, so why we didn't attack them immediately is odd.

Gale had said his master plan was to wait until Daniel wasn't around, draw Lucy in, and then use her as a hostage, before killing them. It sounded like a good plan on paper, but it was clear that Gale made a mistake sending Luna, he had made a mistake convincing Gale that she was strong enough to scope them out on her own and possibly even capture one of them.

Zane honestly had no idea where they were going to go. He hadn't planned anything in advance in case he did want to leave. That was foolish of him.

He just had to hope for the best.

Criminals and Mentors

Just going to leave this Vol 5 reference here.

Amy: So do you know where Eika is?

Pilot: Officially, yes. Actually, no.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!