"What do you mean, it just turned itself on?!" Ironwood demanded. Just moments ago, one of his soldiers had ran up to him saying that the portal in the ancient tomb that he was told to guard had somehow activated. Now, he and Winter were running down to the entrance as fast as humanly possible until they finally arrived at the tomb entrance, where, to their surprise, one of the guards was actually talking with a young man in a green suit of armor that he had never seen before; it was high tech, but it was no Atlesian suit.
"What is going on here?" Ironwood demanded. The guard shot to attention, saluting the general.
"General Ironwood, sir!" he said.
"At ease," Ironwood replied, "What happened?"
"Well, sir, the portal opened up by itself. I stayed behind to see what would happen and saw this one come out of it. I've been talking with him this whole time; he seems friendly enough. I can assure you he has no intention of harming us."
"Are you absolutely certain?" Winter asked walking up to the other figure, "What if that's what he wants us to think?"
"Look," the figure said, "First of all, you're going to have to do a LOT better if you want to intimidate me. Second, my intentions are hostile only to the monsters that live here."
"So, you're a Huntsman?" Winter asked.
"In a way. Where I'm from they call me Novus Sureya, the New Slayer. I was told to come here by one called Samuel Hayden. Do either of those names mean anything to you?"
Winter narrowed her eyes. "Hayden sent you, huh? General, what do you think? General?"
Winter looked to see Ironwood's face in a sort of shock.
"General?" Winter said.
Ironwood shook his head as if coming out of a trance. "Sorry Winter, but I recognize both of those names, all too well. I need to speak to this one in private."
Winter and the guards nodded and walked off, then Ironwood turned to face the Slayer. "You're not THE Slayer, are you?"
Slayer shook his head. "No, that Slayer is my father. However, I am just as skilled as he is."
Ironwood nodded in understanding. "If you are affiliated with both him and Dr. Hayden, then I have every reason to trust you."
"Of course you do." said a robotic voice. Ironwood turned around to see Dr. Hayden himself walk up to them.
"I hope your trip went well, Novus." Hayden said.
"Fairly," Novus replied.
"So you did bring him here?" Ironwood said to Hayden.
Hayden nodded. "VEGA has detected spike in activity from her realm. I feel we may need some more power on our side if she decides to strike."
"And where do you intend to send him as of right now?"
"Wherever, he is needed most. I feel like Vale would be a suitable place, what with the Vytal Festival coming up."
"I agree," Ironwood said after a few moments of thinking, "I'll send him down there with Polendina. He can act as a bodyguard of sorts, while keeping an eye out for trouble."
Hayden nodded. "If that is what works best for you, than do it. I need to begin overseeing preparations for when we arrive to Vale ourselves, so I will leave this to the two of you."
Ironwood nodded, and Hayden turned to leave, saying. "Good luck, Sureya." Before walking away. Ironwood turned back to the newcomer.
"Alright, well, Polendina's ship going to Vale will leave soon, so we should get you down there."
"Who's Polendina?" Novus asked.
"Her full name is Penny Polendina. She's one of our…special fighters. She's extremely valuable to us, so we're in need of a bodyguard to protect her, if you're willing."
"Sure, why not," Novus replied.
"Do you need any weapons at all?"
"I brought a few of my own, but, since you asked, would it be possible to get one of those blasters your robots use?"
A few minutes later, Ironwood led Novus, now sporting a new Atlesian rifle, to the hangar and towards one of the transport ships. At the exit ramp stood a young girl with bright red hair that curled at the sides. With her was and old man with dark skin that was in a mechanical chair of sorts. The man noticed their approach and turned to salute.
"General." The man said.
"Salutations!" the girl said.
"Pietro. Penny." Ironwood replied.
"I was just giving my daughter some farewell advice before she left." Pietro said.
"I understand. And how do you feel about this, Penny?"
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Penny replied with a cheery tone.
"That's good to hear. I'm also sending someone with you," Ironwood said, motioning for Novus to step forward, "Novus here will act as a bodyguard and teammate for Penny during her stay. We can never be too careful."
"I suppose not." Pietro said, "And he certainly does look like an impressive fighter."
"I think you'll find I pack more of a punch than you'd expect." Novus said.
Penny ran up and shook his hand, gripping way tighter than he had expected. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Novus." She said.
"Likewise," he replied, massaging his hand after letting go. "Wow, you've got a surprisingly good grip."
Pietro chuckled. "Well, you two should get going if you're going to make it to Vale in time."
Ironwood nodded before returning his attention to Penny and Novus. "Good luck, you two."
"Thank you both!" Penny replied, turning to run into the ship, "Come on, Novus!"
"Alright, I'm coming," Novus said, going to walk onto the ramp. On the ramp, he turned to give Ironwood one last salute, which the General returned with a nod. Once Penny and Slayer were inside the ship, it took off and shot out of the hangar towards Vale. Novus leaned back in his seat, Penny sitting next to him.
"So, have you ever been to Vale?" Penny asked.
He shook his head. "Afraid not. You?"
"No, this is my first time too. But that means we both can explore together!"
Novus shrugged. "I guess so."
Penny then hugged tighter than he had expected. "This is going to be so exciting! And now I can explore a new place with a new friend."
Though surprised at first, Novus chuckled to himself; Penny was a very interesting girl, and he decided that she might actually be a good friend to have in this new world.
…
The next day, the students were sent on a trip to the Forever Fall forest with Professor Goodwitch. Their task was simple: split into pairs and fill as many jars as they could with the trees' sap. What for, Julius had no idea, but he didn't really have a choice when it came to doing the task. Here, he decided to split off with Blake. As Julius carried most of the jars, the two reached a vacant tree and began filling the jars using the tools they were given to drain the sap from the tree.
"Do you have any idea why they're making us do this?" Julius asked.
"Not really," Blake replied, "but there's no harm in doing it."
Julius shrugged. "Fair enough."
The two continued in silence for a few moments before Blake said. "By the way, what you did yesterday, taking down Cardin in the arena just to stand up for that faunus girl, that was really amazing."
"It was, wasn't it?" Julius admitted, "but I wasn't doing it just for her. I was doing it for all faunus. They deserve as much of a chance as the rest of us."
"You really think so?"
"I KNOW so."
Blake's expression turned to one of concern. "You realize that's not a popular opinion with other humans."
"Yeah, I know. I just don't care. Not very many people stand up for you guys, so I will."
Blake nodded, then froze; Julius had said you guys when he referred to the faunus, which meant he KNEW.
"How…?" Blake gasped.
Julius chuckled. "I lived with a bunch of other faunus that had disguises of their own. The bow ain't fooling me."
Blake's look of surprise turned to one of worry. "You're not going to tell the others are you?"
"Not if you don't want me to."
"Please don't. Not yet, at least."
Julius smiled warmly and winked. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."
Blake smiled back. The two had just finished filling the last of their jars, and Julius put the lid on the final one.
"You know, you should smile a lot more." Julius said, "You'll make friends a lot faster. Plus, it makes you look a lot prettier, but that's just my opinion."
Blake blushed and turned away, though she was still smiling a bit. Suddenly, the two heard a scream from the distance. Drawing their weapons, they ran to the source, and saw some of Team CRDL running by yelling. "Ursa! Ursa!"
"Let's go!" Julius said, running in the direction the other had run from, Blake following behind. As they got closer, they could hear the tell-tale roar of an Ursa and arrived to see Jaune fighting the Grimm itself, Cardin lying nearby, weakened. Julius raised his pistol and prepared to fire a shot at the creature, but, to his surprise, Jaune unleashed a flurry of attacks that quickly killed the beast off. Julius put his pistol down, surprised but impressed. Jaune leaned over to say something to Cardin, then helped him up and walked away.
"Those were some impressive moves, Jaune," Julius said, patting Jaune on the back, "Keep that up and there'll be very few Grimm that will dare challenge you."
"Thanks, I guess." Jaune said, going over to reunite with the rest of his team. Then, he turned to Blake.
"We should probably get our jars of sap now." she said.
Julius nodded. "Right." He said, and the two ran off back to the tree where their jars still were. As they did, Julius realized that Blake might not be the White Fang soldier he had first fought her as. He recognized her then, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen her earlier than that. He was going to have to check his sketchbook, but for the time being, he was just glad he found a new friend in the faunus Huntress.
…
Later that night, Roman Torchwick was in his warehouse looking over a map of the city. He had recently gotten the message from Julius that he had arrived in Vale, but getting face-to-face meetings was still going to be hard, with his other accomplices here due to show up at any time. He was also scheduling his next few robberies, though that was only in his own self-interest, not HERS. God, he hated that woman, and those two little brats she kept with her. Fortunately, thanks to his true partner, he now might have a way to be done with them, but right now, he was going to get these next few dust robberies out of the way. He turned to one of the thugs standing nearby.
"We have work to do…" he said.
Author's note: Novus Doom Sureya is a nickname for new Slayer that was actually recommended in a review by one of my readers/fellow author(Milo S Darek), and I liked it enough to use it. Two confirmed OC ships have been started in this chapter; I'll let you figure out which ones, as well as try and name them because I am terrible with ship names.