"This cord goes here, and that one-there." Tobi muttered to himself as he worked on the main circuitboard for his arm which housed the central processor for all three limbs.
Normally he'd ask Naya to help but he was on a strict time limit and he was about to meet up for his joint-team assignment later this afternoon. It was tricky working with one hand, and the precision required to make a full system reset wasn't lacking in tricky wiring either. Thankfully Naya had the forethought to color code everything making his life easier. Once all the wires were connected the last thing to do was slot the circuitboard back into its chamber.
"How strange-still some latancy that needs resolving. Hello Chrome." Tobi's attention was brought to his onlooker as he felt a very familiar weight on his shoulders.
"Even still? Geeze I'm never gonna sneak up on ya at this rate; what gave it away?" Chrome was surprised, he reacted to her faster than last time too.
"Is it wise to continue using your Semblance to attempt to arouse me? I'll be blunt, your bustline isn't as memorable as you think; but your constant teasing with your semblance is. If I may make a suggestion Chrom, that parlor trick is best used to boost your tips at your day job." Tobi had found out Chrome worked at a bar to help pay rent at her and Naya's part shop, he also knew she wasn't above using womanly wiles to earn an extra buck.
"Ow, what sorta moonlighting ya think I do? I serve drinks; not morons ya know?" Chrome stated as she folded her arms and backed off. "What's got you so grumpy anyway?" She had to admit he was a bit more snark than usual, an impressive feat given how he was usually monotone.
Tobi had to admit his critique of her flirty behavior was a bit cruel today, but that was what made it a bit of a game. Chrome liked teasing boys ad nauseum without any ill will, and the clever ones typically called her out on it. He knew she was a good mechanic and deep down she really was fairly harmless.
"This blasted latency-that's delayed response time; and I've had it since I initially woke up from stasis. I don't understand what's causing it either, I've repaired the circuits exactly as father once shown me every time." Tobi explained simply and concisely, hoping that she would understand.
"I see, and how did you and your old man get on?" Chromes fox ears perked up the minute Tobi mentioned his father, now she was interested.
"For lack of a better word; our relationship was...turbulent. What does that have to do with a delayed response times in my modifications to what's left of his hardware?" He was certain that she was merely pestering him for more personal details while he was vulnerable.
"His hardware you say? Interesting, how turbulent are we talking here?" Chrome raised a brow, that was certainly an odd word to use to describe a relationship with family.
"For lack of better phrasing? It was like being in the eye of a storm; everything was mostly peaceful, but the dangerous edge was always there. What does that have to do with my latency issue?" Tobi was a bit surprised she was making an effort to care, normally Chrom was aloof or even absentminded.
"Daddy issues, can't say I didn't see that one coming. Come on and open up mister stoic; I know exactly what the issue is, especially if the redesign was Naya's work." Chrome stated as she put a foot down on the back of the bench.
Tobi was perplexed now more than ever, Chrome really only ever showed concern for Naya. Her flirtatious behavior was mostly toward males, but she didn't seem to be flirting. After giving it some thought he decided to open up the main chamber of his prosthetic arm where the main circuitry was held.
"Make it quick; and what do you intend to do-oh, that." Tobi blinked as he watched his teammate shrink down to the size of one of those small army figurines and climb onto his shoulder.
"Trust me I got this one boss, I know Naya's handiwork like the back of my hand!" Chrome chimed playfully as she climbed into the chamber.
Once she was inside the arm Tobi elected to give her some privacy to avoid drawing unwanted attention to himself. He figured Chrome had all kinds of tools on her belt to allow her to work in the enclosed environment. Apparently this was how Naya was able to craft such fine circuitry work. After a few moments of anxiety ridden waiting he heard her banging on the outer shell for some fresh air.
"The latency...it is practically nonexistent, what on earth did you do?" Tobi rebooted his limbs program once Chrome was outside and back to normal size. He more than a little surprised what the tiny mechanic had accomplished.
"I re-soldered some of your contacts, loosened a coupla screws and replaced a bum wire that's been shorted for a week. Simple math really, you had all your gear wound up way too tight." Chrome stated with pride in her tone as she folded her arms.
"You...added imperfections? Excuse me for asking but-ow." Tobi bit his tongue mid sentence when Chrome bonked him on the head with her wrench.
"You're a dork ya know that? It's not just an arm, it's a human arm, and humans ain't perfect man, or Faunus for that matter. The sooner you stop treating these three machines like well, machines the better, doctors orders!" Chrome had to admit his innocence was adorable at times but most of the time it made him kind of an idiot.
"An odd statement that; I never thought of my prosthetics as actual limbs. Perhaps your opinion does hold some value once in a while Chrome. My distaste for my father's procedure may have stunted my growth in understanding their limits as well." Tobi replied as he stood up and stretched a bit, making sure nothing else was out of order by inspecting the inner workings of his legs as he did.
"Dude, was it seriously that bad of an operation?" Chrome placed a hand on his left shoulder so he could sense the compassion.
"The operation went off without a hitch actually, I was completely unconscious most of the time. And what little time I was conscious was quite interesting with all the doctors patting themselves on the back." Tobi gently shrugged her hand off his shoulder after he finished stretching and turned to face her with a satisfied half grin on his face.
"Then why spite your old man so much? You're...a lot of words, but you don't really strike me as the grudge holding type." Chrome's ears twitched as she admitted that, figuring him out was like trying to solve one of those puzzle cubes with lots of colors.
"Ah, so that's what that sensation is called; jokes aside, try taking off a blindfold only to find your cybernetic limbs incomplete as you stand front and center at a board meeting. Sure the eggheads and business suits are clapping, but a majority of them are in the pocket of the military. Oh, and the head of the project, my father, felt the need to keep this a secret from both me and my mother." That part was what angered Tobi the most, that his father betrayed his mother at the drop of a hat.
To be honest he really didn't mind the military that much, he'd helped them complete plenty of projects growing up. But then that was the kicker, as far as he and his mother knew his limbs weren't a military project. Their passion for others had been taken advantage of, all to stroke his father's ego and line the pockets of the suits they were selling the project to.
"Ow, I bet you took that as well as Naya did when she found out what the military was using her research for. Long story short, you certainly don't want to see her pissy side, trust me the icey fireworks ain't worth the energy. Oh I unlocked a nice sub feature for your rail canon by the way, try it out maybe?" Chrome replied with some actual sympathy for once, considering he knocked the wind out of Yang unintentionally she did not want to see Tobi's rage mode active.
"Ah yes, one of those 'features' she mentioned a while back I presume?" Tobi searched his databanks for any new subroutines and found it. Once he activated it the spaces between his fingers began pulsing with an electrical current. "Ouch...painful, but non-lethal; and the use of this function is what exactly?" He questioned shaking off the sudden numbness from his organic hand. Granted he was expecting a shock, just not one so volatile or quick.
Chrome grinned a bit. "Stun gun, perfect for putting the hertz on some White Fang goons; it'll knock em out cold in seconds, harmlessly." She chimed with a bit of pride in her tone as she strained her brain a moment to make that pun work.
"Hertz is frequency Chrom, not intensity, that would be watts. Nice try anyway, er-good pupper...or something?" Tobi shut off the stun gun current before giving her a head pat for the effort. In her defense Yang was probably on the floor laughing regardless of the distance she was from that pun.
"Hey I like a good head pat as much as the next canine but do you seriously need to suck the fun out of everything you touch?" Chrome backed away from his head pat before her tail could impulsively wag, appreciation or not instincts were embarrassing.
Tobi crossed his arms to think for a second. "It's a bit of a hobby for us analytical, data hungry and number crunchy types." He sighed realizing that was a sad attempt at sarcasm. "In all seriousness is it any different from your womanly wiles being flaunted for amusement?" He questioned somewhat seriously as he raised a brow.
-[a week before the dance]-
Tobi wasn't confident enough in his leadership skills to lead the mismatched group. And over the course of the several hour long helicopter ride to their mission location he had many things to ponder. The first of which was why Ozpin was bothering with a so called dry run mission to begin with. The second was the fact that Ruby seemed to give him the evil eye, however briefly when she thought he wasn't paying attention. And most importantly what miss Hazumi had said about Cinder, something about her only taking half of something. That alone didn't trouble him, but paired with how she claimed Cinder wouldn't be much of a bother despite doing so.
"We should be arriving any moment now children. Miss Rose, please remind the group what your objective is for me." Ozpin was addressing the group through a monitor hanging from the ceiling of the helicopter during transport.
"To investigate the suspicious terrain activity in the abandoned dust mines!" Ruby stated in a chipper tone with her usual enthusiasm backing it.
"And?" Ozpin smiled coyly and leaned forward onto his desk as he spoke.
"Ugh, and if we encounter any sneaky sneak bad guys or dangerous Grimm we're supposed to abort mission immediately and return to the rondevu point as safely and quickly as possible." Ruby finished with her entire being oozing dejection or disappointment.
"Don't try to be too discouraged Rose, not every hunter mission is about breaking up a crime ring or bashing in bandits heads. Tobi...I see your gears turning, out with it." Ozpin smiled confidently as he spoke, there was a certain glint in his eyes.
Tobi sighed. "If there's something so precious in these mines, why can't you get it yourself? Also, you're smiling, again...I don't like it when you smile." He stated bluntly as he tapped his toe on the floor of the chopper while it began to land.
Ozpin chuckled. "Observant as ever." He paused and adjusted his glasses. "A certain...individual owns this land, and she's too...persnickety for my tastes. Honestly it'd be concerning if she took an interest in Rose. She's mostly harmless, but her hobbies are...dangerous. I merely need some dust samples from these mines alright, that good enough for you?" Ozpin spoke to Tobi as if he'd known him for ages.
Tobi shrugged and smirked. "What is it with you and dangerous women Ozzy? It's almost like you're cursed or something." He stated sarcastically as he watched Ozpin frown. "Oh my, did I strike a nerve? My apologies headmaster..." He had to admit that he'd gone a bit too far, but even Ozpin needed a reality check once in a while.
"Funny Tobi, very...funny. If you all don't mind I have an important meeting to get to. Just complete your mission and report back as soon as you're able." Ozpin replied in a very unamused tone as he cut the transmission.
As the chopper touched down to the ground the group remained silent for what seemed like an eternity. Tobi noticed that the three girls were looking at him funny, and not in a good way. Explaining things would take way too much time, so he was puzzled at what to say. After a few minutes passed you could cut the tension with a knife. Eventually he raised a hand up to speak, but found himself at a loss for words.
"So..." Yang spoke up first, dragging out the phrase as she put her hands together and stood up, slowly stepping out of the chopper.
"Awkward?" Ruby questioned sarcastically as she quickly scrambled to join Yang's side.
"Yup! Suuuper awkward! Let's just pretend that conversation didn't happen." Tobi wasn't surprised that Naya felt similarly to Ruby about the situation. She scrambled out of the chopper as well.
"Feh, Ladies, am I right?" The pilot quipped with a sarcastic tone as Tobi unbuckled his belt.
Tobi shrugged. "You...have no idea." He stated with a sigh of frustration as he got out of the chopper and joined his makeshift team.
After that incident, Tobi concluded it would be best to remain silent for the time being unless he was spoken to. He felt similar amounts of awe as the rest of the group as they entered the mineshaft. The whole structure was equally pristine and broken down, or rather it was sort of well preserved. Most of the probably original construction was still there. The girls seemed to relax more as they went deeper into the mines. The deeper they went, the more complex the paths became, thankfully their scrolls had GPS tracking and an old map of the place so they could keep track of what they were looking for. Every now and then Tobi felt something strange, like a sort of pulse through his body even his mechanical limbs.
"Did...you lot feel that just now?" Tobi raised a brow as it happened again, as if something inside of him had been stirred awake.
Naya shrugged. "What? The earth tremors? They're only registering a 0.1 on the richter scale on my scroll. Nothing to really worry about, mine shafts like this are built to last decades!" She replied in a chipper tone as if she was trying to reassure herself more than the others.
"N-no, and why do you have...nevermind. Not that...it's something else, it feels...like aura, but somehow...not. I can feel it...everywhere down here, it's suffocating almost. I'm not quite sure how to put it to words." Tobi really was puzzled, the feeling got stronger and occurred more frequently as they went deeper into the mines.
Yang walked over to Tobi. "You just did dude! Don't be so self conscious all the time. But if you must know, no, I don't feel anything weird like that. Hell, I can't even feel other people's auras...maybe you're just super sensitive to that stuff?" She stated seriously while she put a hand on his shoulder. It was interesting that Tobi bothered to speak up at all.
"Perhaps..." Tobi put a hand to his chin. "No, no...that's too unlikely, implausible even. There's no record of something like that." He blinked as he realized he was talking to himself. "S-sorry, do you lot think...maybe...something about this place is stirring my semblance?" At this point there were very few logical conclusions to make. Even if it was his semblance, he had no idea what the trigger was, nor how to use it as skilfully as these three did theirs.
"I mean, Nora's showed up when she didn't die after getting struck by lightning. So maybe, but...don't get your hopes too high, you could wind up with something boring like invisibility. It's not like..." Naya paused as a sparkle caught her eye in the more broken down shafts. "Eee! A fresh dust vein! And this stuff looks super pure too! Guys I bet if we follow the vein we'll find loads of fire dust!" Naya could barely contain her excitement when she checked the readings with her scroll.
Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Uh...you want us to go down that path? The one with broken, flickering lantern lighting and derelict support beams?" Ruby questioned sarcastically as she watched small rocks fall from the ceiling of said shaft with the latest tremor.
"Yeah, let's all hold a vote on that." Yang took a step backward when a blood curdling monster roar howled through the remaining tunnels.
"All who vote we go down the path without the echoing creepy growling?" Tobi raised a hand as he spoke, not really being sure what to think of those howls.
"I vote yes!" Ruby stated as she rushed in front of the group to head down the tunnel.
"It was my idea in the first place!" Naya quickly joined Ruby at her side without hesitation.
Yang grinned. "Come on guys it's not that ba-" Her face went pale as the howls came once more, sounding much closer this time. "On second thought, derelict tunnel diving it is!" She joined her little sister without giving it a second thought.
"The fickle nature of females is quite...amusing." Tobi stated quietly underneath his breath as he joined the rest of his group.
As the group proceeded to explore the tunnel further, the thin vein of dust crystal became slightly wider. Tobi ran his organic hand along the vein as he walked, making note of when he felt the strange pulses. The pulses seemed to radiate from the dust itself, but that couldn't be possible could it? Certainly not, despite the fact that dust contained a great deal of energy within, it typically required an outside source to access or expel said energy. The faintest memory Tobi had of his semblance was that it had something to do with light, but what role did dust play in this fact?
"Hold a moment, just what are we looking for exactly? Ozpin said to look for unusual dust, but to me all dust is unusual. It was still hard to obtain back in my time." Tobi paused for a moment as he felt another pulse. There was no doubt about it, something deep inside him had awoken.
"I dunno? Maybe some new kind of dust that hasn't really been found naturally yet?" Naya replied tilting her head to the side as she thought about it. "This vein is a pretty odd color, I don't think I've seen dust that's blood red before. I mean fire dust of course, but it's not usually this dark." She was fairly certain that fire dust was more milky and clear than this dust was.
"The dust has grown deadly due to the tea chugging wench girlie. Her experiments have made a frightful mess of my lair." The voice came from behind the group as the lights went dark all of a sudden.
Naya's ears twitched backward. "Please tell me that was Tobi doing a creepy voice just to spook us." She stated nervously as she slowly turned around to face the direction the voice came from.
"Well I could admit to that, but I'd be lying." Tobi turned around as well, prepping his arm canon to fire when ready. "Enough games, reveal yourself and no harm will come to you intruder." He had to admit he was feigning ignorance once more, like he did with Tenebres.
The group slowly stepped backward as several footsteps came forward. It was not a man, it was a very large Grimm. It was around the size of a Death Stalker, it had eight legs and a large thorax. The unknown creature was essentially a giant bone plated spider. It seemed to move with purpose and intent, far from the instinctive behaviors of regular Grimm. The beast seemed to have seen many battles, as there were gashes and scars across various points in the bone armor. It had large pincer like fangs. And it reeked the scent of blood, as if it had recently claimed a victim.
The Grimm cackled. "Surprised? This one is not. Not all of my kin were driven mad by the witch. I'm one of the lucky...few." It's voice was hollow, void of any kind of emotion. Even Tobi's speaking had more tone and inflictions than it and that was saying something. "Gehehe. How...lucky, I haven't feasted on your type in ages. Little red welp, perhaps I will eat you first." It was seemingly pleased at such a prospect, despite its monotone voice.
"My...type? What's so special about me?" Ruby raised a brow as she thought aloud, she'd never considered an intelligent Grimm before.
"Gee...I wonder Rose, it's almost like every important person you meet comments on it." Tobi stated adjusting his glasses. "You sure you don't want to eat me first? I'm high in iron, its good for strong bones." He paused and shrugged when he saw the awkward faces his team were giving him. "What, I make morbid jokes when I'm nervous..." He stated awkwardly as he crossed his arms, he had his own questions.
"Got it in one. It would be best to eat her first, before her eyes...ripen. It would be bad to have yet another of your ilk in the world. We Grimm fear little, but there is one thing all Grimm know to fear. Pathetic humans with silver eyes, they aren't quite as pathetic...and that's putting it mildly." The Grimm stated with a little bit of amusement in its tone, saliva dripped from its mandibles as it spoke.
Naya raised a hand. "Question!" She spat it out quickly. "Do Grimm...go to the bathroom? Ever?" She was mostly being a wise ass, but she had to admit that she was curious.
"We finally meet one that talks and that's your stupid question of the day?" Yang questioned Naya as if she were a disappointed mother.
Tobi grinned. "Better question, do Grimm have preferences? There doesn't seem to be any logic in which humans you lot choose to attack." Tobi was also kind of being a wise ass, at least his question made a bit more sense than Naya.
"The iron legged one, no we do not have...preferences. Food is food, we feast on whatever fancies us in the heat of the moment..." It turned its focus to Naya. "Seriously? We are biological weapons, we don't feel remorse or expel waste." It stated with a bit of annoyance in its tone.
"Well, I've had my fill of random facts for the day. Let's kill it." Tobi stated bluntly as he cracked his knuckles.
"But professor Ozpin..." Ruby paused, it wasn't like Tobi to rush into something blindly.
Tobi shrugged. "Said nothing about a Grimm smart enough to speak. Surely it can't handle all four of us at once." He was itching to fight something since the mission began, he wasn't exactly thrilled to be doing a boring old recon mission.
"Impudent brat, barely old enough to walk and you think you can-hey!" The Grimm flinched when Ruby fired her riffle at while it was talking.
Ruby cringed a bit. "My bullet just bounced right off. It's bone plating is way harder than the stuff we usually fight...in...training." She shifted Crescent Rose back into it's scythe form. "You're intelligent enough to talk, you're smart enough to tell there's four of us. Surely you see that conflict wouldn't be worth the energy." She stated with a bit of seriousness, surely it had some form of survival instinct.
"The witch may have been on to something consuming dust to enhance her prowess. I should have killed her when I had a chance to, now she's even more of a pain. Sadly, the scent of a silver eyed one has made me peckish." The Grimm clearly wasn't interested in a peaceful solution to this situation, and it was also somewhat arrogant.
"Which Witch are we talking about here? I only know of...one. Either way, you would do well not to underestimate a student of Ozpin, much less four of them. I speak from experience, this is your last chance to walk away alive friend." Tobi was fairly certain the Grimm meant that Hazumi woman. He wasn't even sure the other candidate was still alive or not.
"Oddly civil for a buncha hunters in training. All this talking has made me...hungry, so do be good little children and die peacefully." The Grimm was essentially taunting them now, hoping they would indeed become reckless.
Naya winced. "Do you want us on a platter, glazed, baked in an oven or...?" She stopped when she got a weird look from the rest of the team. "What? I'm nervous!" As if that was any excuse to joke like that, she was too freaked out by the fact that it could talk.
"Cut the chatter. Ruby, use your speed to keep it occupied. Naya, do what you can to pin it down. Yang...uhm...get angry and punch something?" Tobi was familiar with how Yang sparred, but he hadn't seen her combat with her teammates at all.
"What? That's not *all* I do!" Yang was slightly annoyed, even more so when Ruby did her best to hide a snicker. "Not. Helping. Sis." She stated with frustration chucking a small rock at her. "Fine, but it's not like I can just get angry whenever I want!" They had to admit to that much at least, although she had to admit her buttons were rather big and easy to push.
Naya grinned evilly. "That's okay, just pretend he sees you as something you're clearly not." She knew there was one blatantly obvious insult the creature could go with.
"Like what?" Yang raised an eyebrow as she spoke, did Naya really think she was that easy to piss off?
"A blonde haired bimbo? I'm pretty sure his body language is giving off those vibes!" Naya didn't hesitate to say that at all, partially because she really believed it.
"Ok, I'm not that easy to piss off...all the time..." Yang was trying to hold back her anger, and not doing a good job at hiding it.
"I'll admit I haven't feasted on someone so...juicy in a long time...perhaps I'll save you for last." The Grimm stated sarcastically, even though it had just fed on humans a few days ago.
"That's it! You better change your name to mince meat, cause that's what you'll be when I'm done with you." Yang replied back with frustration in her tone as she charged forward while cracking her knuckles.
Tobi winced. "I'm surrounded by morons..." He uttered quietly as he powered up his arm canon and took a fighting stance.
Fighting in quarters this close was quite complicated to be quite honest. The tunnel was long enough that they could bolt to either side of the beast and attempt to strike it. But the Grimm was so big that attacking it from the side was hardly an option. The mixed up team was pretty dysfunctional, one would be attempting to strike while the other was in the line of fire. Tobi had a difficult time even finding an opening to take a shot. Ruby managed to get her scythe crammed in a small crack in the Grimm's armor but she was quickly bucked off without much effort. Naya freaked out when the Grimm fired some sort of thread at her, and spend a good while untangling from it. Yang's blows were doing next to nothing other than leaving burn marks from close impact gauntlet fire. The beast thrashed about enough times that the walls opened up a little bit, but that proved to be a hindrance as there were now small boulders littered about the tunnel. It seemed like the harder they tried to work together the easier the beast trounced any attempt to strike it down. Even when Tobi found a decent shot to make he had so little time to aim that the beam just kind of skated across the Grimm's thorax. Eventually the beast managed to find a way to block their path better.
"So...this is going well..." Yang was for once a little exhausted, she underestimated how taxing it would be to fight in cramped quarters like this.
"Still...super gross." Naya was incredibly uncomfortable, even after getting the last of the string off of her clothes.
Tobi sighed. "It's Ozpin's fault things are going this pear shaped." He stated bluntly as the group started falling back deeper into the mines.
"Do you blame everything bad on Ozpin?" Ruby asked seriously as she fired off another shot, it still just plinked off the Grimm's armor like it was nothing.
"Just the things that his decisions ultimately lead to." Tobi wasn't even trying to hide his bitterness that time. Time Travel indeed, it wasn't all that greater than a standard cryo chamber.
"As I stated before, you pests are barely old enough to walk. Now stop fighting and give up already!" The Grimm was showing clear signs of agitation, it had to admit that none of it's prey had lasted this long before.
This creature was disgusting, Grimm were already somewhat unnerving but this thing was beyond sickening. The way it scuttled forward made Tobi's skin crawl. He already hated arachnids, a Grimm version made it even worse. The worst part was the extra large mandibles, they too were bone plated. For the most part, the inside edges near the jaw seemed to have exposed flesh or something like it anyway. He formulated a quick plan to help his teammates escape, it wasn't perfect but he had little choice.
"Rose, when I make my move take the rest of the team and bolt..." Tobi stated bluntly, his face was visibly pale at the thought of getting that close to that thing.
"And leave you behind, are you crazy?" Ruby questioned seriously with some amount of shock in her tone as she spoke.
Tobi shrugged. "You see any other options? Now get ready!" He powered up his taser function and connected it to the power core for his arm cannon. "Hey bug-face, I'm gonna show you wat's up." He rushed forward, jammed his mechanical arm into the jaws of the Grimm and fired the tazer. Sending a powerful surge of electricity directly into the beast.
"Ugh...seriously, that's my job!" Yang groaned in annoyance as she rolled her eyes. It honestly wasn't that bad of a joke, but now wasn't the time.
"Impudent whelp! Unhand...me this...instant!" Tobi was surprised that the Grimm could speak cohesively while being surged with electricity.
"Not gonna happen." Tobi stated as he cranked up the juice. "Now or never girls, get your asses in gear and get help already." He added seriously with annoyance in his tone.
Naya and Yang nodded and snuck past the thrashing Grimm when they had the chance. As they did another tremor struck the mines. At the same time the Grimm's thrashing was crashing against the support beams for the section of the tunnel that they were in. Ruby started to retreat with Yang and Naya, paused, then ran back to Tobi's side of the fight. The ceiling was threatening to come down at any moment. Tobi was dumbfounded, why on earth would she come back to aid him.
"I'm...a leader too, I can't abandon a teammate just to save my skin. We can...fight this thing off together!" Ruby changed Crescent Rose into its gun form and lined up a shot. "I just need a perfect shot." She finished seriously as she prepared to pull the trigger.
"Nieve little...I said get going before it's too-" Tobi winced when the beast tore away from his gripp with great force, severely damaging his arm. Once it was free, it quickly burrowed deep into the ground just in time for the cave to collapse on around them.
Both pairs had to retreat in opposite directions to get away from the rubble in time. Tobi had no idea how far apart the two pairs were but he had a feeling they were still in the same shaft. Though discouraged he immediately dusted himself off once he regained his senses. Ruby on the other hand had immediately began to pace the floor with haste. He wasn't overtly concerned at the moment since his scroll still had bars somehow. After he collected himself he sighed in frustration as he realized something.
"Bah, a feisty arachnid and a rocky endeavor indeed..." Tobi paused to check the damage to his arm, thankfully it was mostly internal and could be repaired. "Rose? You should probably stop pacing, at this rate you'll wear a hole in the floor." He finished seriously as he watched her movements further, she seemed more anxious than normal.
Ruby scoffed. "Oh what, you're going to tell me not to panic next? Because this is a perfectly good time to panic!" She snapped irritably as she tapped her foot on the ground while she tried to calm down.
Tobi put a hand to his chin. "Really? And why is that?" He was genuinely curious, since panicking was in general a waste of energy and brain power.
"Hello? We're hundreds of feet underground? Frequent Tremors? No bars of reception? Talking Grim? Limited Oxygen? Naya and Yang could be seriously hurt? Who knows how old support structures for the whole place? Any of that ringing a bell?" Ruby replied with a sigh of frustration, at times Tobi played a genius, but he really was quite dense otherwise.
"Our Scrolls still have good local reception, so we can contact them at any time. It's a mineshaft so duh. The tremors didn't cause the cave in alone. Panicking expedited the oxygen depletion. And mineshafts are built to last centuries. And that Grimm isn't invincible. Anything else you want to get off your chest?" Tobi had elected to cross his arms as he spoke, probably to indicate he was taking her comment seriously.
Ruby took a deep breath. "I heard this really weird rumor that Ozpin sent an untrained huntress on a suicide mission, and she died. I've never heard about you getting angry before and the one time I did hear about it you hurt Yang. Do you have *any* idea how hard that is? I heard Naya goes crazy when she's stressed out. And if I'm stressing out that means she's definitely stressing out! And on top of that, you moved faster than me!" Saying it all in one breath made her wonder how Ooblecks lungs even functioned.
"Ah, Yang told you about that." Tobi shrugged slightly. "Two things: First...it takes a special...something to incite my anger and frankly neither you or your sister have it. Second, in my defense her aura at the time was pretty well spent, what little she had wasn't strong enough to weather the blow. As for that rumor, Ozpin wouldn't send you to your death. He's many things, but barring his personal obsessions, sinister isn't one of them. As for Naya I'm pretty sure she's only triggered by very particular impulses as well. Exhaustion does expedite those impulses, but from what I understand common stress isn't enough to trigger that...state of being." He explained seriously with a sigh as he said it.
"So...how...do you know professor Ozpin?" Ruby asked curiously as she decided to calm down a little bit and change the subject.
Tobi tilted his head slightly. "Eh? What brought that up all of a sudden?" He was much less caught off guard and more surprised. True Ruby was the nosey type but she also didn't seem to pry unless it was relevant.
"I dunno, it's like...even the grown ups are super intimidated by him. And you're...clearly not, you talk to him like I talk to Blake or Weis. It's...weird, and he talks to you like you're so...familiar." Ruby replied seriously with confusion in her tone, she was genuinely curious. Particularly that snide comment about a curse.
Tobi shrugged. "Ozpin carries himself in such a way that unaware types are distinctly paranoid of how knowledgeable he is, especially those in power. I personally don't blame them, the similarities between him and...someone from my era are striking. Call me crazy, but it feels like the two people are one in the same. Perhaps Ozpin senses this, and behaves acordingly...just like how he reads everyone like a damn book." He crossed his arms and sighed. "I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. He's too smart, and he has too many powerful people nearly in his pocket, including you. Take my advise Rose, he is not what he seems." He was pretty sure Ozpin's ears were burning at the moment, there was no way that he could get away with saying that openly in front of him.
"Okay...not the gossip worthy answer I expected..." Ruby slouched forward as she said it. "You know you're super weird. Sometimes you're short and curt and other times you give way too much detail. Can't you ya know, make up your mind?" She had to admit she was just venting at this point. "Also what's with using my last name, you seem super selective of who you call by their first name." Well she might as well get some information for the rest of her friends while he was feeling talkative.
Tobi chuckled. "Oddly inquisitive today aren't we?" He shrugged and thought for a moment. "I...don't really know honestly. I've always been...cold...logical, to a fault even. This whole friendship concept may as well be an alien language to me. I always felt the need to be formal until I really got a good read on someone. Lately things seem...different, I'm acting more impulsively...making...friends, and finding myself paralyzed by choice. Frankly I'm done with it, sometimes I wish I could go back to the old me but that just won't happen. People often say I think too much, but I can't help it...is that a satisfactory answer?" He stated as he raised a brow at her, now things were getting kind of personal.
"Just...one more question, why is it so bad for you to make ya know...friends? Even Ren finds company when he's in the mood. I'm sure your team would be super hype if you just accepted them." Ruby had to admit that was a bit blunt, but she had to get it off her chest. Again, it was rare that Tobi was quite this open for discussion about personal matters.
"..." Tobi clenched a fist. "Emotion for me can be...dangerous, particularly...attachment. It's not nearly as bad as I once was, but...I am uncertain." He sighed as he shrugged it off. "Let's just say you don't want to see my bad side, even Ozpin seems cautious of it. For good reason, once I get started...it's...difficult to stop. Like that instance with Yang for example. Are we done talking, we should be contemplating a way out of here." He really didn't want to go any further than that. Bringing up some of his past brought on some painful emotions.
Ruby shrugged. "You said yourself you aren't the same as you were before right? Maybe that part of you changed just like the rest has. As for a way out, can't you ya know, pew pew with your arm canon?" She wondered why he hadn't thought of that idea before even asking about it.
"Right Right, because my rail canon is totally that powerful. It can't even pierce a simple electro magnetic force field. I could use it, but I already burned up today's charge on that little zap attack on our wizened Grimm friend." He paused and crossed his arms. "Still, we do know it's fleshy bits are vulnerable to attacks now. I wonder how best we could use that knowledge." He finished with a bit of seriousness in his tone.
"Doesn't matter if his fleshy bits are vulnerable if the stupid thing won't hold still. You're sure you can't use your arm canon to I dunno, blast holes in his head through his eyes?" Ruby questioned with a raised brow, it seemed like Tobi's weapon was shot for the day even with repairs.
Tobi shrugged. "I've never lowered the diameter of the beam quite that small before so even if I could I'd be concerned it would overload the circuitry. Still...there may be a way...if only..." He bit his lip as the thought crossed his mind, it burned so badly that he was so close yet so far.
"So we just gotta brute force your semblance! No other way around it but that right? You did say you had a theory on what your semblance was in class once." Ruby stated with her usual blind confidence as she sat down for a moment.
"I wish I had your confidence..." Tobi stated with mild frustration. "I know my semblance has something to do with light, dust, and the energy stored within dust. I also know that my aura somehow resonates with that energy allowing me to manipulate it after today's experiences. Many semblance users tell me to just 'feel it'. But what am I supposed to 'feel' and how am I meant to use that?" He had to admit he was rather confused, the instructors and classmates clearly weren't talking about emotion.
"Gah! You...think like way too much. Seriously! Stop thinking and start doing!" Ruby shouted quickly without thinking, this part of Tobi's personality was super annoying to deal with.
"Bah, Ozpin said the same...but I..." Tobi trailed off, he wasn't even sure why he was so unsure about his theory. The logic was sound, he just hadn't worked out how to apply that physically.
"No Buts! Not even Chrome's perfect butt, just freakin do it already." Ruby was mostly joking about Chrome, though she did catch Blake staring longingly once.
"Heh, I'll be telling her you said that..." Tobi had to admit Ruby wasn't lying. "My arm canon just finished internal repairs, so I may as well give it a go." One of Naya's little tools had also just updated as well in the process of repairs. It would be useful for the current task so he decided to test it out.
First Tobi chiseled out some dust samples from the large vein of dust in the wall. Then he used the new laser cutter to carve the larger chunks into smaller roughly bullet shaped hunks. He then organized them from most clear to least clear just for the sake of it. Finally he cleared his mind of any excess thoughts, raised a hand over one of the bullets and focused on it. He didn't think, he didn't feel, he was entirely focused on the energy within the dust.
"Come on, come on..." He muttered quietly as he intensified his focus further.
Slowly the dust crystal he was focusing on started to give off a glow. First it was very faint, then it grew more noticable. As the glow grew brighter, the crystal began to rise off the ground. At first it struggled to lift off the ground even slightly, but then it glowed brighter and brighter. Tobi could feel the energy inside the dust compounding as the crystal rose to his open palm. It got so bright that it actually managed to add some extra light to the dimly lit room. Tobi felt a bit of excitement, but then the dust crystal cracked before exploding into powder.
"Dammit. So close..." Tobi was completely flustered, he couldn't even put what he felt just then to words. It was an entirely new sensation, even different from the short bursts of energy he felt in the quakes earlier.
"So...what...the hell...was that?" Ruby blinked as she processed exactly what had happened. She knew damn well most dust couldn't levitate on it's own let alone spontaneously explode into powder.
Tobi sighed. "As I said before, it appears to me that I have some...connection to the energy within dust. I can...'feel' it, draw it out, amplify it...but it goes beyond that. I think...I can expel that energy somehow, all I need to do is find the trigger." He was mostly talking out of his ass at the moment, but that had to be it. There was no other way to explain that little parlor trick.
"What did I say about thinking too much? Just try stuff until it works! That's what most noobie superheros do in their origin stories!" Ruby was now absolutely curious about what Tobi could do with that energy.
"Again, I wish I had your confidence..." Tobi uttered begrudgingly as he thought about it. "Still, you have a valid point. Perhaps I should change my approach." He was determined this time, he was so close it was within arms reach.
This time he repeated the process, using his organic hand instead of his mechanical one. Once he had a sort of grip on the energy inside the dust, he changed his focus. Instead of amplifying it further, he envisioned several different motions. Opening a door didn't work, pressing a gas pedal didn't work, hell even pretending his hand was a pistol didn't work. It was infuriating, being so close yet still so far.
"Dammit, fire already!" Tobi blurted it out by accident in his frustration. As if responding to his anger, the energy inside the dust compounded at the tip of the dust crystal before spiraling forward. It was effectively a bolt of raw energy. When it made contact with the boulder in front of him, the blast dissipated and left a red hot burn mark on the stone.
"Huh, neat." Ruby commented after processing exactly what Tobi had just done to the dust.
"That's...all you have to say? All that energy wasted, and all you say is 'neat'?" Tobi raised a brow at Ruby as he spoke. At least he didn't feel exhausted like he thought he would after using it.
"What? You wanted a gold star from Goodwitch? So you figured out how it works, and that's neat. But no way that pitiful display is useful for combat." Ruby had to admit she was being awfully blunt, but she wanted to motivate Tobi into trying harder to work his semblance. "We're trapped here in a cave with jack all to do until we're rescued, so you might as well get on it." She finished with a big grin on her face.
"Point taken, and here I thought I was the blunt one." Tobi sighed. "If we're going to train, I'm going to need more dust crystals. Thankfully we're stuck in just the right place." He was grateful for that at least, being trapped underground was the only downside here.
*meanwhile*
Naya's tail twitched fervently as she paced back and forth. They had thankfully outran the collapsing ceiling and managed to escape unharmed. The only problem was that they were now trapped, with no reception outside of the mines themselves. She knew there was at least fifty feet of rubble between them and the other half of the team. The boulders would take days to move at minimum if they manually moved them out of the way.
Yang crossed her arms. "Dude, can you chill?" She stopped talking as the area got noticeably colder. "Ohhh...right, ice powers. Um? Calm your tits then? We'll get help somehow." She had to admit that the pun was unwarranted and inappropriate for the situation at hand. Deep down, she had to make the joke anyhow.
"I would if I had a pair!" Naya snapped sharply with frustration. "Sorry, sorry...unexpected isolation makes me edgy. This cave in was bad enough that it should have tripped some kind of security alarm if the mines even have one. I'm not worried about us though, we can get out just fine." She sighed as she turned her attention to the rubble blocking the way.
"That Tobi kinda crumbles under pressure doesn't he? It's kinda interesting that he acts all confident and unbreakable but you know...breaks so easy. It was pretty easy to mess with him the other day. Poor guy didn't even know what a size four was." Yang knew Tobi had several social shortcomings but she had no idea it was quite that bad.
"He does fold pretty easily, but it's really something else how quickly he recovers. Logically I bet he's already figured out how to off that stupid bug. He's gonna expect us to be a well oiled machine the next time we fight it." Naya stated seriously as she crossed her arms to think about it.
Yang took a step back. "Seriously? He's only seen our team in an actual fight like, a good five minutes! That...does sound like him, dudes got serious chops when it comes to deciphering fighting techniques." She paused after her selective hearing picked up the rest of what she said. "Wait, you actually want to fight that thing again?" She always figured Naya was a timid little wallflower, but she had some real quirks.
"You know, some Grimm are actually kinda cute. But that thing, no, it can rot in hell. Anything that knows about Ruby like that should be dealt with anyway. Don't tell me you aren't concerned?" Naya stated as she thought about it. "The surprise in your tone earlier really told me you have no clue do you?" She finished tilting her head to the side a little as she said it.
"Are my sister's eyes really that huge a deal?" Yang stated with curiosity in her tone, she didn't like the condescending tone just then. But Naya had a point, she really knew jack all about her sister's eyes.
"You heard it too right? That dumbass spider made a big deal about finishing her off 'early' for crying out loud. As for why her eyes are important, I really shouldn't tell you...but..." Naya trailed off, she'd done plenty of research years ago on silver eyes. Not research that she wanted to do, she was more or less forced to.
"Ca...ou...he..us?" Naya jumped out of her skin when her scroll activated as she was about to open her big mouth.
"Yo! We can but the receptions kinda borked, glad to know you're safe." Yang stated playfully after swiping the scroll out of Naya's hand.
There was a brief pause. "Better? I modified the frequency a little, should function just fine down here for now." Tobi replied calmly despite the situation. "Guess what, Tobi figured out his semblance! And it's really cool!" Ruby chimed with excitement in her tone. "I thought you said it was only neat..." Tobi quipped with annoyance in his tone. "Yeah but that was before we figured out how it worked." Ruby stated with a more serious tone than usual.
"That's...cool I guess? I mean what exactly is it?" Naya asked with a raised brow, Tobi seemed uninterested in it at the moment.
"It does...this." Tobi replied seriously, the sound of a laser pistol could be heard, along with an energy bolt ricocheting around a few times. "Hey! WARN me before you do that!" Ruby snapped sharply with annoyance in her tone. "You're pretty fast, I figured you would duck..." Tobi answered with a smug tone.
"You do know these scrolls aren't video phones right?" Yang stated bluntly with a bit of confusion in her tone.
"Ah, yes, lost technology, completely forgot about that." Tobi replied in jest, though they did have hologram decks now as well. "Why don't you lot make your way back to us, so when that abomination does return we can kill it and be done with this horrid place." He asked seriously without considering the obstacle between them.
"Oh sure, let's move hundreds of pounds of solid rock out of the way." Naya moaned sarcastically as she examined the stone barrier between them. "This is mostly sandstone and clay, but it's packed so tightly that simply frosting it over wouldn't do jack to it." She finished with a lack of hesitation, Tobi was stubborn sometimes.
"Can't you just, freeze the water particles already inside the stone and make it more brittle? Yang could easily shatter it then, think of it as concentration training." Tobi didn't waste time on a strategy to move things along quicker.
"That would take hours!" Naya remembered her concentration training at the research facility, training until the point of passing out wasn't pleasant.
"As opposed to dying of oxygen deficiency over the course of a few days waiting for proper rescue teams to arrive?" Tobi questioned with a taunting tone in his voice, hoping to push her along with his plan.
Naya groaned. "Why do you gotta be so practical all the time? Fine! But Yang's gotta pull her weight too!" She finished seriously with annoyance in her tone, it wouldn't be quite that bad if she could keep calm.
"Punch a few rocks? Easy!" Yang was itching to get going so they could get out of the mines honestly.
"Ohhhh no, you aren't getting off that easy. In order for this plan to work you need to hit every frozen boulder pile at exactly the right point with exactly the right amount of force. Otherwise they won't shatter completely, and we'll have to do each pile more than one time." Naya quipped sarcastically with a little bit of a sinister tone.
"Wait? I have to do math, to punch rocks?" Yang wasn't the least bit interested in crunching the numbers herself.
"I'll do the math, you do the punching." Naya was somewhat amused how quickly Yang's interest in the task dwindled once math was involved.
Tobi chuckled a little. "You two will be cogs in a machine before you know it." He paused for a moment. "While you two work on that, I'll consider seeing about testing my theory about Ruby's potential ability to run through solid walls." He finished seriously as he prepared to end the call. "You think I can WHAT?" Ruby's voice was cut off at the last minute, though she was clearly in shock.
"He thinks Ruby can run through walls...damn, he's tenacious if anything else. I'd hate to be on his shit list though, he's way too quiet and collected for that to be a dangerous side to see." Yang was a little surprised by that statement, more so how confidently he brought it up.
Naya tilted her head. "You think so? I'm not so sure I'd worry about that. If he's anything like me, it takes a certain...quality to get on his shit list. Anyway we better get moving before he convinces Ruby to ram herself face first into a rock." She was certain of this, despite her short time knowing Tobi. He didn't seem like the type to get bent out of shape over just any old thing.
That being said, the task ahead wasn't an easy one. Not only were each pile of rubble uniquely shaped, but the rocks were in different formations as well. So each pile of rocks needed a separate calculation. At the very least Yang seemed to understand the angles and pressure required, even if she didn't understand the math. Any time Naya felt on edge she took a deep breath and counted to ten, it was surprisingly effective at melting that sensation away. Using her semblance for extended periods was frustrating because the exhaustion put her in a particular mood. That mood was kinda locked away with hypnosis and a safety word, but when it did get out she got kinda murdery.
"I still don't get it, what does mass and acceleration have to do with how solid something is?" Ruby questioned seriously with her arms crossed, all this science talk was kind of confusing to her.
"All you need to know is that if your atoms vibrate at just the right frequency and move at exactly the right speed, you can pass through solid matter. Oh...but only for an incredibly short period of time, maintaining such a travel speed for too long can be...dangerous, even for you." Tobi made it clear with his tone rather than his words, this was a feat not to be taken lightly.
"Has...anyone ever done that before? I can't have been the only person with super speed right?" Ruby asked out of curiosity, she hadn't thought of someone having the same powers as hers.
"In my time there was a speedster who could do that...in...a comic book..." Tobi felt bad leading her astray, but he had to admit she at least had the potential.
"So you have no proof it'll work? Oh well, I got nothing better to do with my time so I might as well try." Ruby stretched her muscles before beginning to take a running start.
"You realize what 'in theory' means correct?" Tobi questioned seriously as he felt the room get a slight bit chilly.
"Nope! Proving that I can do it is gonna be awesome! Don't try to stop me." Ruby chimed confidently as she started to focus on her ability.
Tobi crossed his arms. "I mean if I don't, the wall probably will." He stated with a chuckle. "You have talent Rose, but you aren't quite there...yet." Tobi had noticed the rocks behind them icing over as he spoke.
"Yet? Come on, now you're just encouraging me more. Just watch, I'm gonna go right through...hurk." Ruby was cut off when something had grabbed her scarf, almost choking her as the rest of her body slipped out from under her.
"Hold it right there squirt, just think how annoyed dad is gonna be when he finds out you concussed yourself trying to imitate a comic book." Yang had stopped her sister's stride just in time, she could sense her semblance building for a second there.
"Yang! I'm super glad we didn't die of oxygen whatever!" Ruby rushed to her sister's side to hug her as she spoke.
"Ugh, sisterly bonding..." Naya was physically and mentally exhausted, and watching the two sisters was annoying in this state.
Tobi smirked. "Don't be like that, you'd react the same way if you were separated from Chrome like that." He paused and approached her calmly. "There there, you did a great job getting through all those rocks to save us." He stated with a soft grin as he gently rubbed the top of her head with his hand. Making sure to scratch her behind the ears a bit with each pass.
"I guess so..." Naya started to feel all warm and fuzzy for a moment. "H-hey! I never said you could pet me like that...w-weirdo." She jerked away from him after realizing she was still purring. Stupid animal instincts, always getting ahead of her.
"Oh what, you don't like him petting you?" Yang questioned with a smug grin. "I've never tried to pet Blake, she'd...probably break my wrist if I did." She paused and hummed in thought. "Maybe it's a sign he trusts you enough to not snap at him all paranoid or something. Didn't seem to me like he was patronising you or whatever." She finished with a bit of seriousness in her tone.
"It's not that, it's just-" Naya turned beat red. "I'm really only used to Chrome petting me, so it's kinda weird when someone else does it. Is that weird? I feel like it's kind of weird, maybe I am paranoid." She had to admit that she didn't seem to mind Tobi petting her. There didn't seem to be any malice behind his movements.
"How about a compromise then?" Tobi put a hand to his chin. "I'll only pet you if I have permission to do so, or if you really need it. I realize I'm not Chrome, but as our team's leader it's my duty to comfort my team when I can." He wasn't sure this was the right move, but at the very least he could settle for this until she trusted him more.
"Hmm?" Naya crossed her arms for a moment. "I guess I'm a little jumpy cause I'm exhausted. I can accept that, but I don't know what you mean when I 'need' it?" She was slightly confused by that statement. As far as she could tell Tobi was a stoic, so how would he know when she needed it?
"I'm stoic, not heartless, even I know when someone needs a hug. It's difficult to explain in words, but my stoic ness is purely external...if that makes sense?" Tobi explained with a bit of confusion in his tone.
Naya tilted her head. "So what, when confronted with emotions you get I dunno, paralyzed by choice or something? So you'd rather not emote at all? How did you deal with that before?" She was certain he'd explained it briefly before but he was pretty kurt with his answer.
"Precisely. And, you recall removing a chip from my brain stem during my repairs yes? That chip was a stimulant, it sort of overridded the chemical signals from my brain whenever negative emotions were in play. However it didn't take long for the flaws of that system to show. The researchers were quick to sort of reprogram me as they pleased. I eventually found out about it but by then it was too late to reverse the unfortunate side effects. I recovered a little bit when I met a certain individual, but let us say those moments were...fleeting. I'm relieved to know that all those like Ruby aren't as sickly as she was." Tobi let out a sigh and shook his head. "I'd rather not think about her if I can avoid it, it only reminds me of how silly I was despite my own age. Can we move on, we're wasting time and we've found some interesting dust samples. I'd say that qualifies our mission as complete." What was left of his heart did ache when he remembered her. She treated him as an equal despite the age difference, even recognized his intelligence when other grown ups chose to be ignorant.
"Wait! There's other people like me, with super speed?" Ruby raised a brow, she figured that semblances were a case by case basis.
Yang bonked her sister on the head. "No dumb dumb, he's talking about those eyes of yours. I think?" Yang was pretty sure it was this, considering that most adults commented on them with little hesitation.
"That can't be right, I've never met someone with silver eyes. I don't even think mom had silver eyes if I remember right." Ruby was fairly certain, but she was still pretty young so maybe her memory was foggy.
"I'd be surprised if you had met another silver eyes, since even in my time they were hunted for sport. Honestly you're pretty damn lucky to have gone this long mostly undetected. Then again, I guess living out in the sticks does have it's advantages." Tobi shrugged as he spoke, wanting to move the subject away from the current topic.
"Hunted?" Both Ruby and Yang spoke at the same time, equally in shock.
"Don't worry about it! If someone wanted to find you they'd have found you already. And you, chill with the dangerous exposition, you're freaking her out." Naya snapped sharply in a panic, seriously Tobi had a problem with honesty.
Tobi chuckled. "We're lucky Ozpin found you, or perhaps...unlucky, only time will tell. He's...changed a bit since I last met him, for the better or worse...again time will tell." He was surprised how cautious Ozpin had become lately. Then again he was fairly certain his past mistakes had a lot to do with that.
"You've really gotta hate boner for Ozpin huh, what did he even do to you?" Yang was mildly curious, especially since the pair seemed to behave like old friends would have.
"A few things actually, and none I'm in the mood to disclose at the moment. If you must know I suggest you pester him for answers, granted I doubt he'll ever give you a chance." Tobi replied bluntly before starting to head toward the exit of the mines.
The group remained fairly silent on the way out of the mines, they only brought up how deep they had gone when realizing how long it was taking them to get back to the surface. It had easily been at least a day in there, and that wasn't counting the time that they were trapped. The closer they got to the surface the more on edge Tobi felt. After such a rough encounter with a beast like that their escape was going too smoothly. Right around the final leg of the hike Tobi noticed dust falling from the ceiling.
"What are you stopping us for? It's just earth tremors..." Naya stated seriously as she tried to get Tobi to put his arm down.
"Do you really think it would let a potential meal get away that easy?" Tobi replied with hesitation as he kicked a pebble forward. "Besides, we'd be pretty dang delectable if we died so close to freedom." He wasn't even being sarcastic, there were intelligent Grimm out there, and this was one of them.
"I like the way you think boy." The voice came from underground, it belonged to the Grimm from earlier.
Tobi sighed as the Grimm emerged from the ground. "Sometimes I hate being right." He assumed his battle stance. "Ruby, keep his focus forward, Naya see if you can lock it in place somehow, Yang?" He almost started to laugh when he gave Yang a nod. Sometimes that really was all she did.
"I know I know, get angry and punch em. Geeze, I get famous for one strategy and people think that's all I can do." Yang replied with a groan of annoyance as she took her fighting stance.
The mismatched team operated a bit more smoothly this time, their attacks were much more coordinated. Yang would land a blow and nick a chip off of it's bone plating. Ruby would fire a bolt into that spot causing it to flinch. Naya focused on it's legs and began to freeze them slowly. As she began to freeze them the Grimm seemed to be shaken up a bit.
"Impossible, the little twat is too young!" The Grimm shouted in disgust as it tried to break free from the ice encasing it's legs.
Tobi grinned. "Naya, make your movements more subtle, Ruby, make it look like you're doing a thing." He whispered quietly, just barely loud enough for his teammates to hear what he was saying.
"Shows what you know, me and my team uh...make the impossible possible! Or something?" Ruby tried to play into that order. She wasn't entirely sure what Tobi was getting at or why the Grimm was panicking but the plan seemed to be working.
"You think weak ice like this will hold me, amateur? I have felled several hunters of your make." The Grimm was clearly struggling to break free, however it was gradually cracking the ice.
"Stowe it." Tobi stated coldly, Naya was about to say something. "Here's the options I see for you, since you clearly are intelligent. One, you let us live and you get to stay alive. Two, you still die but you tell us who's controlling the Grimm." He explained seriously as he adjusted his glasses. "I suggest you choose your next words carefully." He finished preparing eight small dust crystals with his semblance.
"Why the hell would anyone choose either option?" The Grimm replied with fury in it's voice as it struggled to get free.
"Ah it seems you aren't intelligent then, very well." Tobi flicked his wrist gently and concentrated beams of energy came pouring out of the dust crystals. The beams bore through the creatures eyes and eventually the back of it's head, killing it. The dust crystals cracked and fell to the ground shortly afterward as the Grimm faded into dust.
"Cool, never seen dust do that before. Is that your semblance dude? How's it feel?" Yang questioned with a big grin as she watched the dust disperse.
"Feel? How do you mean, feel?" Tobi crossed his arms as he spoke, genuinely perplexed about her inquiry.
Naya groaned. "Seriously? You know, use your words! Is it zappy, maybe burny, or even chunky!" She knew Tobi was always like this, but somehow it was incredibly annoying in the heat of the moment.
"Chunky? I assure you it does not feel 'chunky' when I use it." Tobi paused and hummed in thought for a moment. "In a word, I suppose it feels...simple. Sure, I can use it well enough. But I don't know...something feels...off. Like I've only found a small piece of a larger puzzle." He put a hand to his chin and smiled. "There are many kinds of dust, I wonder how my semblance interacts with those." That did get his gears turning quite a bit. Of dust's many forms, fire was the most common and potent. But that wouldn't stop the other elements of dust from being useful.
"Splendid simply splendid dear, not many would make such an astute observation upon activating their semblance the first time! I can see why miss Amber took a shine to you." The applause was coming from a single person who seemed to come out of nowhere.
"Oh great, the crazy tea lady is here." Naya wasn't at all enthusiastic about spending any time with her. She hadn't personally met her, but there were rumors, and not all of them were good.
Hazumi frowned. "Now see here young lady, there's no reason for name calling. Besides sweetie, you think *I'm* crazy you should meet my cousin. Don't you children look simply exhausted?Why don't we have a spot of tea...hmm?" She paused the instant she spotted Ruby, her entire being seemed to light up. "Oh my, oh my my my! Yes, good, strong...spunky, a dash of rebelliousness...oh yes, yes! Absolutely charming, perfect even!" Hazumi proceeded to sort of smother Ruby, doing various things like taking her height measurements, taking a small lock of hair and even her temperature. Eventually she knelt down and gave her a suffocating bear hug.
"Yang...help?" Ruby could barely breathe, she was used to Yang's hugs, but it was rare that an adult could compete with her.
"Hey! Lay off my sister, you're weirding her out." Yang crossed her arms. "Don't make me separate you two by force." She was of course joking, but she would if the lady kept the act up.
"Yang I'm well aware of how invincible you think you are. But I strongly advise against angering our guest. She has reasons for being so persnickety about Ruby, isn't that right ma'am?" Tobi was certain even Yang should fear this particular woman's ire. He had a feeling this was the woman that Ozpin was talking about earlier.
Hazumi took a step backward. "Goodness deary, you are a sharp one. Boo on you for being so clever, I guess there's no point in wearing these." Hazumi took off her sunglasses and placed them in her pocket. "Now do you see why I'm so excited darling?" She asked with a wry grin, she opened her eyes, revealing silver color she normally kept hidden.
"Eep! Yang! Look, look, silver eyes! Just like me!" Ruby lit up in excitement, she had thought that Summer was the only one like her.
"I...see that...dork, what's the big deal?" Yang raised a brow, this lady definitely had silver eyes, and she wasn't wearing lenses that change color either.
"The 'deal' is, it's a genetic trait. We don't know where it originated from, only that it's passed down through particular bloodlines. The actual history of the bloodline isn't all that interesting. More interesting is that most confirmed cases have been female. The odd thing is how far flung the bloodline actually is, and that it won't appear in just 'anyone' in the bloodline. In fact it's strikingly rare for it to be passed on through one generation." Tobi remembered reading his company's research notes on the matter. The particular details weren't important for now.
Hazumi took a step back. "Goodness deary you are a bookish devil aren't you?" She questioned crossing her arms. "Can I point out that not just 'anyone' should know these things dear? How on earth did you come to know this information? Come on, out with it." She finished seriously as she regained her composure.
"My father's company was...unique. It's main product was information and technology, as such he had a wide variety of employees. As the owner's son it was my duty to know everything potentially valuable about each and every face I dealt with. That included a rather sickly and meak friend of mine, who also bore silver eyes." Tobi explained with a bit of seriousness in his tone.
"Sickly? What, you mean she was anorexic or something?" Yang asked out of curiosity, it was kind of rare for Tobi to bring up anyone besides his father when talking about his past.
Tobi grimace a bit. "If only it were that simple." He stated, biting his lip for a second before continuing. "How can I put this, in layman's terms her semblance was...toxic. And on top of that she had a weak immune system. It allowed her to create a raw energy from nothing, much of that energy was used further advancing her father's technology. Imagine if every time you used your aura you caught the flu, or lost all physical stamina for several days. It was like that. One time the doctors thought she was in a coma, but she woke up two days later perfectly healthy." He sighed and blushed. "She was one of the few I actually felt...compassion for, in any logical capacity." That was about as much detail as he was willing to give at the moment.
"So in spite of that her dad used her as a living battery? Dude, that's fucked up. How did you resist wanting to snap the jerks neck?" Yang was surprised to hear of a situation like that. True her current family situation wasn't great, but she'd bust Taiyang's teeth in if he ever thought of taking advantage of Ruby in some way.
Tobi smirked. "Oh believe me, I did everything I could to make his life annoying. My father didn't like my methods, but he agreed the man needed to be taught a lesson. My...setbacks were mostly harmless anyway, nothing too bloodthirsty. Just random things like changing his shipping address and stuff along those lines." He found it funny that this was one of the few things his father agreed with him on.
"Oh my, you were a vicious little scamp then? Remind me not to get on your bad side dear!" Hazumi was mostly teasing, but judging from the strength of his aura she did think caution was advised. "Would you lot care for a spot of tea? I've been dying to try out my instant brewing teapot and there's nobody out here brave enough to try it." She stated pulling a few small cubes from her purse and setting up a table and chairs with them.
"Don't take this the wrong way but we don't have time for tea. We should really be getting back to Beacon." Naya wasn't interested in drinking tea crafted by a madwoman. Though if the rumors were true her tea had special qualities, some healing, others not so much.
"Nonsense! Everyone has time for delicious, nutritious tea!" Hazumi chimed playfully as she finished setting up the table and chairs. "Besides I already radioed Beacon for help when that cave in happened, my old flame was quite fraught with worry when he found out. He'll be here any second to pick you lot up and whisk you away to your dorms." She added with seriousness in her tone as she prepared a tea kettle from her backpack and some tea to brew as well.
The group simply gave eachother a slight shrug and decided to comply with Hazumi's suggestion. They discussed tea's historical significance and it's many healing properties while enjoying a brisky mint flavored tea. Naya was impressed with how quickly the tea stewed, Ruby kept asking for more lumps of sugar, and Yang tossed her tea over her shoulder when Hazumi wasn't looking. Tobi felt a strange charge of energy with every sip he took. It lead him to believe that this wasn't normal tea.
"Miss Hazumi, this tea is...invigorating. You say this tea is home grown, what on earth is your secret?" Tobi had to admit he was mildly curious, especially since they had tried at least three flavors at this point.
"Oh? Well a skilled artisan never reveals her secrets dear!" Hazumi paused and hummed in thought. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. I fertilize each tea flavor's soil with a different kind of ground dust powder. It has this astounding affect on your aura too. Why, drink enough of the stuff and your aura can deflect bullets even. Well...it's worked for me at least." She was certain it was because she had drank quite a lot of the tea over time.
"Fascinating, I had noticed a slight change in my aura after drinking a few sips. Perhaps this tea will make a useful component in my semblance usage." Tobi was interested in this mysterious tea of hers, it did feel quite interesting for a bit when he drank it.
The rest of the group seemed surprised at Tobi's interest in the tea. Considering it wasn't healthy to absorb dust directly into the body in any way. However before any of the three could protest they were interrupted by the sounds of a helicopter landing not sixty feet away from them. The children and Hazumi eagerly approached the helicopter while anticipating who had come to pick them up. And who other than Ozpin himself stepped out of the doors of the chopper to greet them.
"Ozzykins~" Hazumi rushed behind him and jumped on his back. "It's been ages darling, simply ages, and you stopped answering my letters!" She didn't even mind that Ozpin struggled to free himself from her hug. He always was a bit touchy about personal contact.
Ruby snickered. "Pfft...Ozzykins?" Ruby was trying her best not to laugh, Hazumi's enthusiasm was pretty hilarious.
Ozpin let out an exasperated sigh. "Hazumi, how many times must I beg you to act your age?" He questioned seriously while brushing off his shoulders. "I'm glad you all are well, when Hazumi radioed about the cave in I was very concerned for your safety." He finished as he quickly regained his usual composure.
"You mean you're relieved Ruby is safe." Tobi stated bluntly as he found himself inwardly amused at Ozpin's reaction to Hazumi. "You wouldn't have come here personally otherwise, am I right?" He was sure that had to be it, since he knew Ozpin's motives quite well.
"Oh boo Ozzykins, you used to love piggybacking me when we were younger. And speaking of the little red one. Could I borrow her, for a few months? Pretty Please?" Hazumi asked in a chipper tone as she gave him puppy dog eyes.
"Absolutely not, she's far too young." Ozpin answered sternly, before putting his hand to his chin. "Come children, we should leave this estranged woman to her hobbies." He finished seriously before boarding the helicopter.
The group decided it best not to argue with the headmaster. To be honest they were all hoping for a chance to relieve themselves of Hazumi anyway. She honestly wasn't all that bad, but her obsession with tea was suffocating. On the ride home Tobi had a lot to think about. But namely, he pondered about his semblance. If Hazumi's tea did prove beneficial to it's use, he would certainly acquire more. But more importantly he wanted to figure out if his semblance was really as simple as it seemed.