Episode 6: New Beginnings
BLEEP, BLEEP!
Jaune groaned as his hit his alarm buzzer, deafening the demented sound.
"Wait what?" He mumbled as he looked around the unfamiliar room.
That confusion then turned to full blown panic. Where is his room, and why the hell is he in this one? He shot up straight, nearly falling out of bed as he started hyperventilating before a calming realization rush over him.
Right, he tracked down dust shop robbers, fought a giant scorpion grimm, was asked to join an all-girl team of huntress's in training and had been living in a hallowed-out mountain for the last week. Was he absolutely sure that wasn't a dream? Thankfully, a sharp pinch to his arm seemed to indicate otherwise.
After he shook himself off, he was able to get up and was surprised to find that he was actually up on time, giving him time for a shower and a chance to eat a proper breakfast, Score!
He grabbed his clothes for the day, a grey t-shirt, and jeans, leaving his Pumpkin Pete hoodie at home as it was quite warm out.
He enjoyed the most incredible shower he had ever had (wow Oz really went all out with this place), and with a skip in his step he headed down the magnificent staircase, past the massive mission room, and into what he hoped was the kitchen (navigating really wasn't his strong suit.)
To his surprise he got it right and found Weiss and Pyrrha, sitting and enjoying breakfast, with Weiss reading a book on long side of the large L-shaped island, and Pyrrha on the short, giving him a friendly smile as he walked in. He returned the gesture, and feeling unusually confident decided to test his luck.
"Morning Snow Angel" He flirted as he passed Weiss, who was wearing a light blue fancy looking short sleeved night gown.
"Nope" She replied coldly, not even looking up from her book, as she all but ignored him.
Huh so that's not happening then, Jaune thought to himself as he grabbed himself a bowl of cereal and sat himself next to Pyrrha, who seemed to be in a far more conversational mood, wearing a orange pajama shirt with black sweats.
"Did you sleep well Jaune" Pyrrha asked in her usual pleasant, but formal and hesitant manner.
"I mean I have a king-sized bed in the middle of a beautiful mountain, on what's essentially an island paradise" Jaune replied honestly "No complaints here. How bout you?"
"Well like you said, it's pretty great here" Pyrrha responded with a shrug of her shoulders. "Are you excited for your first day of school?" with little indication that she was being sarcastic, which honestly threw Jaune off.
"Well, my stuff is together, and I got my lunch together the night before" Jaune said with a small bit of pride in his voice "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
"At least you'll have Ruby to help you out and show you, around right?" Pyrrha said encouragingly, as Jaune's expression turned a bit nervous.
I mean, would he? She was like 15, right? She would be a sophomore, and wouldn't be in any of his classes. Also, this apparently was a school for geniuses. Great, he was screwed then. Jaune wasn't a bad student or anything. I mean besides a mild case of ADHD, a lack of discipline, and a severe hatred for history, he did alright, but he certainly was no where near genius.
Jaune quickly changed the subject and proceeded to ask Pyrrha what she was planning to do with her day, and listened while he ate his cereal. After she told him about a workout regiment that frankly exhausted him just hearing about it, he heard the ding of a doorbell that could only mean that either Ruby was here or there was one very lost postal worker.
He got up from his conversation with Pyrrha, and strolled over to the front door (ie. The only exit that wasn't beachfront or contained airships.) He opened it to find Ruby, who gave him a big hello, and an incredibly perky smile, especially considering where they were headed.
It was certainly weird seeing the girls in their civilian clothes, although Ruby really didn't change that much from her combat outfit, at least not in the colour scheme, and wore a simple red hoodie and black jeans.
"Hey Jaune, you all ready to go" Ruby asked in her usual chipper voice.
"Hey Ruby, uh yeah, just wait one sec, I gotta get some stuff." Jaune responded quickly, realizing that he had nothing packed, and rushed back into HQ, nearly tripping on his own shoes that lay near the door.
He rushed up to his room, nearly right into a surprised Pyrrha who had probably come by to say hi to Ruby. He ran up to his room and tossed whatever scattered items he might need for school in his backpack that laid on his desk. He should have knew that there was no way this could be a relaxing morning.
He then threw his backpack over his shoulder and rushed downstairs to the entrance where Ruby was still waiting, having what appeared to be a pleasant conversation with Pyrrha, who seemed to be very interested in the science babble that Ruby was telling her about. Jaune couldn't even begin to understand it, which certainly didn't bode well for the day to come.
After saying goodbye to Pyrrha, they headed off, with Jaune hammering Ruby with various questions about his schedule, which she seemed perfectly happy to answer.
"Are you excited?" Ruby asked, with her usual spring in her step "I mean the equipment we got to work with at school is pretty state of the art. I even designed Crescent Rose with the stuff there."
"The six-foot long scythe and sniper rifle combination?" Jaune asked bewildered "You designed THAT in school?"
Ruby's eyes shifted back and forth "They don't ask a lot of questions, also you never answered mine." Pointing her finger at him in joking accusation.
Jaune tugged on the collar of his shirt nervously "Well I mean I'm a bit nervous. I mean, this stuff seems pretty advanced. Not sure we really covered a lot of this at my old high school."
"Oh, I'm sure you'll be fine" Ruby responded quickly, unsure as to why but he seemed a bit uncomfortable with this, before her eyes lit up "Hey you never did let me have a good look at Crocea Mors?"
"Oh yeah right, I mean if you want you can have a look at it tonight before the mission." Jaune replied a bit more positively, seeming a bit more comfortable now that the topic had changed.
Ruby then started talking at a million words a minute, raving about all the upgrades she could give it, how she could give it the ability to change into a gun like her uncles (Harbringer was her uncle?!) or maybe even convince Weiss to give him some dust to give it elemental abilities.
"Oh" Jaune said as he rubbed the back of his neck "I'm not sure about that, I don't think Weiss likes me very much."
Ruby stopped to consider this for a second "Oh don't worry about that" She replied cheerfully "She was like that with me and Yang at first, but you just gotta break her down. Now we're BFF's!"
Jaune was very surprised at this. Ruby Rose, the condensed embodiment of friendliness and joy was besties with the cold-hearted Ice Queen. Well, he supposed if Ruby managed to become close with her, maybe he had a shot.
"Anyways are you feeling ready for your first mission?" She asked with some added bravado "We're gonna bust some dust robbers!"
"Yeah, kinda" Jaune shrugged "I'm just acting as support for this one, right? Shouldn't be anything too crazy just sitting on a computer screen."
"Hey! You'll be our eyes and ears, as we're knee deep in enemy territory, without you we'd be going in blind!" Ruby argued, with some added excitement to hype him up!
Jaune looked a bit more enthused at this "Yeah, at least I don't have to go on that bullhead again, I nearly puked on the Wizard on the trip there.
Jaune then turned a deep crimson, as Ruby stifled a giggle "You nearly puked all over Ozpin..."
With that she burst out laughing, imagining Jaune puking all over the most powerful huntsmen on earth.
"Hey motion sickness is a far more common problem than people let on." Jaune squeaked in embarrassment.
"Whatever you say vomit boy." Ruby teased, giving him a good-natured poke in the ribs.
Jaune groaned. That was going to be his nickname from now one wasn't it.
With that they had made it to the school, the time having flown by talking to Ruby. Despite his embarrassment Jaune was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to talk to Ruby, like talking to a friend he had known all his life.
For the first time he was genuinely smiling as he came through the school doors, before he slammed into a very large object and fell flat on his butt. He looked up to find one of the biggest, and meanest looking guys he had ever seen.
Jaune wasn't a short guy by any means, but he probably only came up to this guy's nose, and Ruby probably wasn't even at his chest height. Also, he was probably as wide as two Jaune's, and judging by the impact of running into him, made of solid muscle.
"Sorry about that." Jaune muttered as he struggled to get up, kinda wishing he had activated his aura before he left HQ.
"Watch where you're going little man!" The giant shouted aggressively, as he turned around. He was wearing a grey and black letterman jacket, and had short orange-brown hair, not to mention an obviously bad attitude.
Ruby bent down to help Jaune get up, as the guy started laughing with his buddies at them, and Ruby glanced nervously around.
So even a brainiac school like this had a resident bully, must be some sort of universal thing, Jaune thought to himself as he got up, and tried to walked past the asshole, stumbling a bit as the jerk tried to trip him as he passed.
"Sorry" Ruby mumbled as she caught up to Jaunes longer strides "I should have warned you about Cardin."
Jaune shrugged and gave a fake laugh, as he tried to play it off "Don't worry about that, there's jerks like that at every school, this is nothing new, just hazing the newbie."
Ugh there goes my good mood he thought to himself, as Ruby directed him to his first class.
Location: HQ, Island of Patch
"Man, I really need this" Yang thought to herself as she rode into HQ on Bumblebee. University was nothing if not intense today. Yang was a smart girl, but even she was unsure of what the hell her professors were talking about in her calculus class today. Due to her work load she hadn't had as much time to train this week. She really needed this mission to blow off steam.
She parked her bike and strolled over to where the rest of the team was waiting to get started on their briefing for the mission. Apparently, they had found one of the warehouse sites, where the stolen dust was being guarded. It was their job to infiltrate the site and detain the guards, so that they could be questioned.
"Sorry, I'm late" Yang called out as she entered the mission room, where Ozpin was briefing the team on the giant monitor "Class ran a bit long today and traffic was nuts."
Ozpin gave her a polite nod and a smile "It is perfectly alright Golden Dragon, please have a seat."
Yang nodded and lounged back on the large couch in the middle of the giant room, next to Jaune who gave her a friendly grin and slid over to let his fellow blond sit. He was tapping his foot nervously at the anticipation of his first mission, even if he was only acting as a support role.
Pyrrha sat next him and also turned to give Yang a smile and a nod, before turning her attention back to Ozpin calmly absorbing the information that he was giving them.
Ruby who was sitting next to Pyrrha, turned, and waved at her sister with a toothy grin, before turning back to Ozpin, also tapping her foot, but that was likely due to her ADHD ridden excitement at the prospect of some action.
Weiss sitting straight up, eyes wide and glued to the screen, writing notes on a notepad, barely turning her eyes to look at Yang before they went right back to the monitor. Yang smirked at Weiss being her usual hardass self before Ozpin began addressing them again.
"…as I was saying, this mission should be fairly straight forward, there are nine warehouses that you will infiltrating and securing under the cover of darkness. We have done adequate research to ensure that the guards of the site are not employees of the warehouse company but are instead hired muscle, who are very likely connected to Roman Torchwick. Apprehend them, so that we can interrogate them later…"
Yang's eyes lit up at this.
"…No, Miss Xiao Long, you will not be performing the interrogation."
Yang frowned but said nothing. Ruby and Jaune giggled, and Ozpin even gave a small smile before continuing.
"…. So, suit up and be on the Bullhead in twenty minutes, you will be dropped off in the industrial sector of Vale in two hours. Mr. Arc if you would please join Violet Witch in the field support room, she will be helping coach you through your first mission."
Yang gave him a pat on the pack as he got up, with Pyrrha and Ruby wishing him good luck and giving him words of encouragement. He turned back, probably to see if the Ice Queen would say anything to him, but Weiss didn't even look up from her notebook. He looked slightly less nervous now that he knew that Goodwitch would be helping him through this.
Yang understood. Goodwitch might be strict and intense, but her experience was no joke. With her coaching Jaune he would be less likely to make a rookie mistake, that could result in the mission being compromised, or one of them getting hurt.
With that Pyrrha and Weiss got up and headed towards their rooms to get into their combat gear, and to collect their weapons. Yang and Ruby, who didn't have a room, headed to the changing rooms in the gym, where their gear and weapons were stored. As tradition, Yang gave one of the punching bags a love tap with Ember Celica as she and Ruby left the gym all suited up for their mission.
Unfortunately the punching bag was not calibrated to handle Yang's super human strength and swung wildly when she struck, nearly flying off the chain from the impact, and only Ruby and Yang were only narrowly able to avoid it as the punching bag swung back.
Yang rubbed the back of her head in mild embarrassment, as Ruby playfully scolded her sister for nearly giving them a concussion. With that they jogged to the Bullhead just as it was about to take off, with Weiss and Pyrrha strapped in on one side of the aircraft and Ruby and Yang took their spots on the other side.
They briefly discussed how their days went, with Ruby telling how Jaune had nearly been pummelled by Cardin Winchester, the quarterback of Patch's football team and from what Yang understood, the resident school bully.
She had gone to a few of their games with Ruby and her friends and could tell that the meathead was no joke, getting into the academy due to a football scholarship. Granted his strength wasn't even close to the level of those who could use aura, as huntsmen and criminals were typically the only ones who were trained to use it, and its use was banned in most sports. But the guy was still well over six feet and likely weighted twice as much as Ruby. He probably made the less popular students lives hell. Granted, Yang had seen Jaune take a hit from a giant scorpion without aura, so she doubted the idiot's ability to actually hurt their team's resident goofball.
Pyrrha had shown considerable concern over this, which made Yang chuckle to herself. Maybe vomit boy was more of a lady killer than he appeared. Although, he was certainly wasting his time trying to get Weiss to notice him.
Pyrrha and Weiss had mostly just trained during the day which made Yang a little bit jealous. She liked her program in university, especially since it gave her ample opportunities to work on her bike, and could definitely see herself working as a mechanic, if being a huntress didn't work out or she retired.
But Weiss and Pyrrha could spar and workout whenever they wanted, with equipment and sparring partners that could actually handle their huntsmen abilities. Granted Weiss was too fragile to handle fighting against Yang in close combat, but Yang always looked forward to her and Pyrrha's sparring sessions, even if Yang had yet to pay her back for the loss she suffered at Beacon.
Plus, Yang certainly didn't mind getting up close and personal with Pyrrha. She had no idea how Pyrrha looked that good with very little amounts of make up, and don't even get her started on the redhead's physique. Yang knew full well that she looked good and certainly enjoyed showing that side of herself off, but damn Pyrrha was something else. While she only saw her as a friend and teammate, Yang would be lying if she didn't feel a mixture of attraction and jealousy towards the spartan.
The Bullhead landed in an empty field on the edge of Vales industrial district. Thankfully, the warehouses that they would be sneaking into were only a few blocks away, and since it was getting dark earlier, they were unlikely to be seen.
They attached their scrolls to their hips, and secured their earpieces. After a brief period of static, Jaunes voice was heard.
"Can you guys here me?"
"We hear you loud and clear Vomit Boy." Yang teased.
Jaune sputtered "RUBY, I TOLD YOU THAT IN CONFIDENCE!"
Ruby turned red as both Pyrrha and Weiss stifled a giggle.
They heard Goodwitch berating Jaune, before the boy added, using Ruby's code name "…Sorry Reaper…"
The four girls burst out laughing, and Yang was genuinely surprised they didn't blow their cover then and there.
Jaune groaned before continuing "…Anyway, if you guys leap over that fence you should be able to access all the warehouses and luckily it seems that there isn't to many guard's active tonight, so you should have no problem taking them."
Ruby, who as usual took the leadership role, used her semblance to soar over the fence, before landing with her sniper rifle out, scanning the environment for targets. Weiss used her glyphs to jump over and Pyrrha easily pole vaulted over the fence using her spear. Yang used Weiss's Glyphs to get over, unfortunately unable to use her gauntlets to launch her over as that would attract to much attention.
When they all got to the other side, Jaune instructed them to each take one of the four warehouses in front of them, and when they were done with that to clear the other four behind them before all converging on the last one as a unit. They all ran off to accomplish this, with Yang cracking her knuckles in anticipation of the beatdown that was about to occur.
She kicked open the door, expecting to find a room full of burly crooks, but to her surprise it was silent and appeared empty. She scanned the room and while she did find the guards, they were all already knocked unconscious. Disappointed and confused, she did a quick sweep of the rest of the building to find the same thing. Granted the dust was there, so the mission was technically still a success.
She shattered the window at the top of the warehouse, and leapt from the building, rolling as she hit the floor, and raced to the next warehouse. She launched herself into the air, sending a blast from ember celica through the window to break it apart. She wanted to make a big entrance for whoever just did her job for her.
However, she landed in the next warehouse to find the same thing as the last. Just a lot of unconscious goons and dust. So at least she knew whoever took care of them wasn't a crook, as all the dust was still there, likely making them an ally. But Ozpin had confirmed that no huntsmen were assigned to this mission, so who could it be?
After clearing the warehouse, she raced outside to reconvene with the rest of the team, and found that like her, all of them had found empty warehouses, save for the 3 dozen knocked-out guards, and reported this to Jaune and Glynda.
"Whoever did this would have to have been a master of stealth and combat" Weiss whispered "There's no way anyone than a huntsmen or huntress could take out these many people, and it doesn't appear that any of them even were able to sound the alarm before they were taken out."
"Agreed" Pyrrha added "We'll need to be careful if we come across them. They might be the enemy of Roman and his goons, but that doesn't mean that they are our friends.
"Okay" Ruby said in a hushed tone "Jaune, did the cameras pick up anything earlier tonight?"
"Sorry guys, but whoever or whatever this was they weren't detected by the security cameras, so you'll be going into the last warehouse blind." Jaune responded
"Perhaps it would be best to call for back up from a huntsman in the area?" Goodwitch suggested
"No" Yang interjected "there's four of us, we should be able to take whoever this is, and this is our mission. Whatever is going on, it's our job to handle it."
The other four agreed with this, as calling a pro to fix this went against the very reason, that they formed this team to begin with. This was their mission, they'd handle this.
"It is your mission and the Wizard trusts you four to make your own decisions, but I'll ask huntsmen in the area to keep a lookout" Glynda said, "If you are unable to deal with this matter, or I think it is too much for you to handle, I will call them in."
"Be careful you guys, whoever this is they are definitely an aura user and a skilled fighter" Jaune added "Don't do anything too risky."
"Like I don't know, going to stop a dust robbery with no training and a sword and shield." Weiss teased coolly, surprising everyone.
Jaune was quiet after that.
"Okay, Weiss you should go in with me, Pyrrha you take right, and Yang take left." Ruby quietly suggested "I don't think we should engage, unless absolutely necessary."
They all agreed, before they quietly opened up the door to the warehouse. It was dark and motionless like the others, but they heard the sounds of a conversation, with both participates talking in a quiet and hushed matter. However, the shelves of stolen dust obstructed their view.
They snuck through the shelves, trying to avoid making a sound. They made it through the rows of dust to find the center of the warehouse clear, except for two figures in the middle, barely illuminated by the dim light. One which appeared to be female was on top, and while their conversation wasn't clear, she appeared to be integrating the person on the bottom.
Ruby nodded to her teammates and they surrounded the two figures, who were both too preoccupied with each other to notice the intruders.
"Who are you?" Ruby shouted, with Crescent Rose raised, ready for combat.
The woman on top rapidly shifted to her feet to look at the four women surrounding her. Now that they were closer, Yang was able to get a clearer look at her.
She was wearing a black buttoned vest, over a white sleeveless crop top, with black pants and boots. She also had black ribbons on both of her forearms, and was wearing what appeared to be a bow on the top of her head, with raven hair that was nearly as long as Yang's, with a black mask covering the lower part of her face. She had a slender build, but was not as petite as Weiss or Ruby, but noticeably shorter than Yang or Pyrrha. Despite the darkness, Yang could tell that she was quite pretty. Her eyes narrowed at them.
"We are huntress's" Ruby announced, "Please stand down, we don't want to fight, we just want to talk to you."
The black-haired woman crouched, and Yang could tell she was about to bolt.
"Don't let her get away!" Weiss yelled.
Weiss used her glyphs to try to rush in and take the woman, but the woman moved with impressive agility, and step sided Weiss's strike, and knocked her away with a kick.
Ruby shouted in anger and used her semblance to try to take the woman by surprise but when she slashed at the woman's back with crescent rose, she easily ducked under the strike, which carried Ruby over her.
The woman countered by slashing at Ruby's back, with what looked to be a short katana, knocking the huntress forward, and was safely caught by Pyrrha.
The woman rushed Pyrrha and Ruby, who quickly had to toss her friend aside to raise her shield in defence. Instead of attacking Pyrrha with her sword, the woman used Pyrrha's shield as a launch pad and used it to carry her into the air, trying to escape through the windows!
"Oh no you don't" Yang called out, and used her gauntlets to launch herself into the air, trying to tackle the girl. However, when she was in arms reach of the woman, she disappeared into the darkness, leaving Yang with nothing as she crashed into the ground.
The woman then reappeared above Yang and broke through the window, disappearing outside the warehouse. The four huntresses rushed outside to try to cut her off but when they exited the warehouse, they found nothing, and their target had disappeared into the night.