Knock Knock Knock!
"Hmmm…" Vince groaned as he awoke. He put his hand on his forehead and took his sleeping mask off of his eyes to see the time on his alarm clock; 4:00 AM "Oum, is that the time?"
Knock Knock Knock!
"Hang on…" He got out of bed and opened the door trying his best not to wake his sleeping teammates, but with the noise coming from Daisy it doesn't seem like it would matter. Their mentor and guide, Jonathan Jade stood outside along with a large black book in his arms
"What are you doing here, Mister Jonathan?" Vince tiredly rubbed his eyes
"Get dressed and come outside," Jonathan told him "We need to talk"
Later, in Combat Class
"Hiya!" Jaune growled as he swung his sword at Vince, who simply dodged. Jaune continued to swing at his opponent, keeping his shield up and forcing him back. Once Jaune saw an opening, he lunged forward and swiped down on him. Vince countered with Red Return and the swords clashed. The two struggled against each other trying to better their opponent until Jaune threw Vince off balance and bashed him with his shield. Vince slid away a few feet but remained standing
"Come on, Jaune!" Nora chanted "Break his legs!"
"You got this, Jaune!" Ren cheered
"Keep it up, Jaune!" Pyrrha shouted. Jaune tried to swipe at Vince from above but his sword was parried by Red Return. Vince then knocked Jaune's shield aside and shoulder-charged Jaune, pushing him away. Jaune quickly got back on his feet to see Vince standing between him and his shield, holding his sword correctly. Jaune gripped Crocea Mors with both hands and charged at him once more. Vince dodged his first swing then lunged in to counter. The pair of swords battled fiercely until Jaune swung down on Vince. He intercepted the strike with Red Return, catching Crocea Mors on the cross-guard and striking Jaune's face with his fist. Jaune stepped back dazed, giving Vince the chance to lay a heavy strike on his chest, disarm him of his sword then delivered a roundhouse kick to Jaune's cheek and sending him to the floor with a crash.
"End of match!" Qrow called. Vince sheathed Red Return and walked over to Jaune. As the blonde shook off his headache, he saw his former opponent extend a hand to help him up.
"Thanks," said Jaune accepting his help.
"Impressive attacks, Arc," Qrow continued. "I can see you have been improving, try to keep it up"
"Yes, Professor Branwen."
"As for you, Vermilion, good show but I think you can do better"
"Yes, sir," Vince replied
"You all may be wondering why I have you all doing so many sparring matches. Well, for some reason The Council decided to hold another Vytal festival to make up for what happened at the last one. It's only four months away, and this year, Shade Academy shall be hosting the entire event. It won't be long before students will be selected to transfer to Shade in order to participate in the festival, so be sure to keep practicing. Those who are chosen to compete in the combat tournament shall be representing all of Vale."
Everyone reacted to this in their own way. Nora began to shadow box with an invisible opponent; Axel had an unusual grin on his face; Daisy began to giddily move about in her seat, slightly squealing as she did so; while Ren kept his ever-neutral expression the same.
And Pyrrha? She didn't even acknowledge Qrow's announcement, opting to look at her leader in concern
A while later, the bell rang.
"Dismissed." Qrow turned around and walked off as Jaune retrieved his weapons.
"Hey," Vince said to Jaune. He turned. "You did pretty good out there"
"Thanks," Jaune replied. "You did awesome too." Cam nodded in response and headed off as Jaune rejoined his team.
"Unlucky Jaune," Pyrrha said
"Can't win them all I guess."
"Still, quite the improvement compared to when you first started last year," said Ren.
"Right!?" Nora shouted, "You had that guy on the ropes for a while!"
Jaune's lips formed a smile thanks to his friend's encouragement. "Who's up for food?"
"Yes please!" With that, the team left the amphitheater for the cafeteria
Weiss left the library with a satisfied look on her face. She'd just finished her research project for Professor Port an entire week before it was due. And she didn't just slap something together sloppily like a certain blonde teammate either. Instead, the research was on the anatomy of Beowolves and why they were considered dangerous even though they were technically the weakest Grimm
Weiss was walking back to her dorm when a distraught-looking Daisy crossed her path, not even looking at her as she went into her dorm room and slammed the door shut. The force of the blow was hard enough to leave cracks in the door frame
'What happened to make her that upset?' Weiss wondered to herself before continuing to walk towards her dorm, stopping when she heard Yang and Ruby arguing... probably over something ridiculous. Deciding to play it safe, Weiss leaned against the wall, waiting for the argument to stop, when Vince rounded the corner with an expression to the one that Daisy had previously worn. He didn't even stop to look at Weiss as he went to his dorm, the same one that Daisy had gone into. But he didn't go in, he just stood there for a few seconds before walking off
'And Vince is looking even worse than Daisy. What happened?'
Later at Beacon's docks
Team RWBY began to walk over towards the airship docks as their mission was leaving immediately.
"So why are we coming out here?" Yang sighed
"To meet our classmates coming back from a Top Secret mission that may have something to do with Cinder" Blake replied
"Also I heard there were students from Haven coming in and I want to properly welcome them," Ruby told her teammates "Also check out what kind of weapons they have!"
"Hey! Team CFVY's back from their mission finally!" one student called out as groups of students approached the landing airship with Team RWBY quickly making their way over to check to see how they were doing.
As Team CFVY stepped out of the airship, they looked normal as always except for the extra addition walking with them. As they got closer the members of Team Rwby could see looks of frustration on their faces.
"Are you guys okay?" Blake asked with concern
Velvet just offered the best smile she could give her. "We're fine. It's good that Violet was around to help..." she commented, pointing to her. She gave a slight wave as Fox followed behind her
"You guys were supposed to come back weeks ago, what happened?" Weiss added
"I didn't want to leave while Violet was recovering from an injury she got while protecting me" Velvet looked down
"Violet?" Ruby asked, "Who is that?"
"She's a second-year like you guys" Velvet looked around for the mentioned girl to see that she wasn't around "It seems she already left to meet her teammates" She adds with disappointment
Yang jogged to catch up with Coco who didn't stop to talk to the others "Hey Coco!"
The brunette stopped and turned to Yang "What's up?"
"I heard a rumor that your mission involved Cinder and I was wondering..."
"If it also involved Mercury?" Coco finished her sentence
Yang simply nodded
"Yes, it did" Coco sighed "I was hoping to get some revenge against him and Emerald for our loss in the Vytal Festival but it didn't end well"
"What happened?"
"I'd love to tell you but we need to report what happened to Professor Ozpin," Coco told her "Velvet we need to go!" she called out to her teammate before walking off
Later, in the streets of Vale
The streets of Vale were busier than usual, with the Vytal Festival fast approaching, many shops were preparing special items to take to the festival. One such shop was Medallion Gadgets that was offering a special deal on dust enhancements. The owner, Kameron Mentagio, decided to offer the special to celebrate his apprentice finally being able to enhance weapons with dust, but business was as slow as it normally was, so Kameron was busy offloading spare parts from the back of the store.
He had finished unloading the last box of parts when the lights in the building cut out "Odd... I could have sworn I paid the electricity bill last week...May!" Kameron walked out front to check if his apprentice caused the power to go out again with another of her inventions, and he just so happened to spot a couple. A brown-haired girl with her lips pursed in a kissing fashion and a grey-haired girl with a bored expression on her face
"Welcome to Medallion Gadgets! How can I help you?" he asked as the girl was looking through the weapons.
"Hey, I was wondering if you had any electric dust crystals," the girl asked.
"We do... In the back, I could get you some if you'd like. I apologize for the state the store's in, I know I paid the electricity bill and I was in the middle of reorganizing." he explained.
"Oh, it's fine. And I was just wondering... Hmm... How about gravity dust ammo rounds?" she asked.
"They have it, up here." the grey-haired girl stated.
"Options sure are nice, aren't they?" the girl smiled as the other just let out a sigh. "Emilia, do you see any dust infusion stations?"
Kameron just chuckled a little. "They're by the front. You might have an easier time finding what you're looking for once I can get the lights back on." He reached for his scroll but it suddenly dropped from his hand. "That's odd... I could have sworn I had a firm grip on it. "It slipped out of his hand and this time into a crack beneath the floorboards he could have sworn wasn't there a second ago as the girl smiled at him. He also swore he heard what sounded like a snake's hiss from the back of his mind.
"How about aura disruptors?" Emilia asked, her pleasant tone immediately dropping.
"Aura distup- Oh..." Kameron glanced up at them, having figured it out, but he decided to not bring it up. "Well...that's not an item something stores like mine carry."
"Oh..." the male dropped the dust rounds he was holding as he turned to the man.
"That sucks doesn't it, Levi?" Emilia asked her.
"Yeah, I was hoping to get some." Levi chuckled.
Kameron groaned while taking a step backward. "Well, aura disruptors aren't items that can legally be sold anymore."
"I'm sure you got some around." Levi glared.
"I take it you've already guessed why we're here then," Emilia stated.
"Yes." the man nodded.
"Our bosses aren't exactly happy about your recent 'customers'..." she stated.
Before she could say another word, Kameron turned towards the back of the store and ran for the back room, thankfully the visors on his helmet allowed him to see in the dark, however, he would stop when he made it to the back room and grabbed his scroll.
"Jonny!" Kameron looked over his shoulder as he recorded his voice. "You guys have to get out of Vale! They know-" he would stop when Emilia's staff struck him, shattering his aura instantly as he was slammed back onto a shelf full of books that all fell onto him. As he sat himself up as Emilia and Levi were both looking down on him.
"Are you not going to fight back?" Emilia asked, resting her staff on her shoulder with a pout. "That's boring."
Kameron grit his teeth and claws came out of his gloves. "Shut up!" he swung at Emilia, but she merely ducked, just in time for Levi to punch him in the face with one of her gauntlets that fired the gunshot that would be the last thing Kameron saw.
Emilia stretched as she waited right outside of the store.
Levi stepped out, flipping the sign near the window to closed as she was now holding an instruction manual in hand.
"What took you so long?"
"It isn't exactly easy getting stains off these ya know." she gestured to her gauntlets.
"And what's with that?"
"What? I need to tune up my gear." Levi stated as the two left the scene.
Later, Team Rwby's Dorm
Yang was snapped out of her short moment of rest when her teammates entered the room.
"Yang. We should talk." Blake insisted as Yang stood up.
"I'm sorry but I can't talk right now..." Yang started towards the door, wanting to find another quiet space as Weiss then grabbed her arm
"No! We're having a discussion as a team!" Weiss insisted, Ruby, closing the door as Weiss pulled a chair up for Yang to sit at while the others would sit on their beds
"This is about Mercury, isn't it?" Ruby frowned
Yang just inhaled deeply "Yes, it is"
"Well Professor Ozpin and the authorities are already working on it and I mean if Cinder is up to anything we'll be fine here at Beacon." Blake reasoned
"That's just it. I can't just stay here doing nothing!" Yang began. "Not while they are out there doing, who knows what?!"
"Well, the authorities should be able to take care of it." Weiss reasoned. "Ozpin sent Team CFVY after them, so he must have a way of tracking them down right?"
"Yes. But there are no guarantees that he'll be able to do that again. It's clear that Team CFVY failed to capture them!" Yang argued
"Then there's no way we can do it!" Weiss stomped her foot down "We couldn't even stop the Phantom Thieves!"
"We can never know if we just sit here and wait for others! Like it or not, our enemies are out there, planning their next move and they're not just gonna sit around and wait for us to graduate!" Yang crossed her arms
"Well, what do you think we do then?" Weiss asked
"I don't know! I just need to-" Yang was stopped from leaving again when Ruby hopped up onto the chair she was just sitting in, now standing in front of her sister.
"Who votes that the four of us team up with Ozpin and other Teams to stop Cinder Fall and any others conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale?!" Ruby asked speaking rather fast
Weiss let out a sigh. "Fine. It not like anything bad happened to us the last time we tried"
"This conversation feels oddly familiar" Blake added
"Then it's settled, our new investigation starts-" Ruby went gray for a moment when she realized something "I FORGOT I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO PROFESSOR OZPIN'S OFFICE!"
"There it is" Weiss facepalmed before Ruby rushed out of her room in a blur of Rose petals and slammed directly into someone, falling on her back as she groaned
"Watch where the hell you're going." The person she slammed into said coldly
"S-Sorry!" Ruby rubbed her head before looking up at Tourk Agrios in a blazer who was followed by her teammates
"Are you guys new here?" Ruby asked
Not responding to the redhead's question Tourk raised her hand, a pair of shark teeth materializing behind her.
"Young Master wait!" Emilia called out to her leader.
Tourk ignored her and sent the teeth in Ruby's direction.
Rose petals filled the hallway as Ruby sped around the teeth in a blur, landing behind Tourk and her team "What the heck was that for?! I said sorry!"
Tourk turned her head to look at Ruby with a small smirk "Interesting..."
She continued to walk down the hallway with her teammates following as if nothing happened.
"What's her deal?"