Author's Headnote: Now we get into the juicy interrogation of the first-year students. Here's a little fun fact, the chief of police: Paul Blue, is based off a sim I made back in around 2017, I only remembered about him when I was writing this, basically he was the single father raising a daughter, and since I had the Get To Work DLC, I decided to use this sim to get to know the features of that career. Now anyways, I know what you are thinking? When are we going to have Blake and Ruby join JNPR's Investigation? We'll see.
RWBY: Festival of Blood: Interrogation and Investigation
Blake Belladonna:
Aura Status: 100% (Why wouldn't it?)
Blood: 100% (Needs to feed Ruby later)
Semblance: Shadow Clone
Grades: Unchanged
Team Activity (Required for advancement to second year): That's Ruby's decision!
Team Relations:
-Ruby Rose (Main Character): Blake never had a full-on conversation with just Ruby until her vampirism, she'll need to feed Ruby when she wakes up!
-Weiss Schnee: Surprisingly accepting for a Schnee, she's closeting her crush on Jaune and Blake knows it!
-Yang Xiao Long: Her and Sun would make a cute couple, just got to give them a push in the right direction!
End of Major character status report
Beacon Academy, 1:29 PM, Tuesday, RWBY Dormitory
Five hours have passed and Blake has done nothing but read 3 chapters on her book and studied for math, in reverse order that is. The start of the second semester will take in a new schedule, either literature or mathematics will be swapped out for trainee level missions. Third- and fourth-year students don't take either, but first and second year students will be taking one. Which one they take will be decided on the very first semester in beacon. The common most case is that they take out the one the student scores higher in-place of the missions, and that class will be demoted to an elective for the student should they wish to take it again. If one has failed the math or literature part of the application, they'll be required to take a basics class for those and are barred from an elective or two until second year.
The cat faunas with her book open, reads it. She's at an interesting part of the story, the main character is in the middle of a love pentagon, constantly having to compete with their rival for their love interest, whilst also dating said rival, then their best friend gets involved and their rival's best friend and it just gets intense! She's at the climax of the novel where-
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
INHALE "! I'm up! I'm up! Just please stop making that noise!" Ruby said from across the room.
I set the Alarm to 4:30, why is it going off now!?
Blake investigates heads towards Ruby's alarm and investigates it, apparently around 8AM, someone updated it to be set to 1:30 PM instead. Weiss most likely, she has this thing about having the 'right amount' of sleep, and figured that 11 hours is too much. Ruby doesn't really have that much of a timeframe to walk outside anymore due to her condition, thankfully the day span is getting smaller so the amount of sun-time will increase. Speaking of, it'll likely make the spring break for team RWBY a bit awkward since Ruby can only hang out at night, not to mention her lack of puberteric growth.
And that's when it hit Blake, she was still going through puberty when she was being turned, so she's stuck in the mid-change stage of puberty perpetually. It's going to be a lot harder masking her vampirism in the long run.
"Morning Blake." Ruby said, likely force of habit but chances are she'll no longer be saying that anytime soon.
"It's 1:30 in the afternoon, Ruby." Blake responded.
"WHAT!?"
"Calm down Ruby, you're going to need to drink."
"Like... oooh. Ya, right. I just remembered about my... ya know."
"Just come down here and bite my neck already and get it over with."
"You sure about this? What if it hurts?"
"I'd rather have neck pain than have claw marks all over my dead body!"
"Claw marks? Oh. Ya. Sorry, forgot."
"Just hurry up before Yang or Weiss come and walk in on you biting me!"
"Alright fine."
Ruby climbed down her bunk bed and reached the floor. Ruby lowered the bandanna down to her chin, showing her lips and the purple veins that show from them.
Blake bends her neck sideways to make it easier for Ruby to bite. She prepares for the initial pain the bite is going to take.
The fledging in red bit the cat faunas, Blake feels initial pain from the bite, along some slight pain from having blood sucked from her. Blake knows she has to tolerate this for the sake of Ruby and the sake for everyone in Vale, a feral vampire is something she wouldn't want on her worst enemies. After a whole 9 seconds, Ruby releases her fangs from Blake's neck and wipes the leftover blood off of her lips. Ruby than presumes to put her bandanna back up covering her mouth. Blake, on the receiving end feels woozy from the loss of blood, she also felt colder from smaller amount of blood in her body. She knew what she was getting into when she offered to help Ruby with her cravings.
"Did it hurt?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, it did Ruby, you literally bit my neck." Blake replied.
"Sorry Blake, I didn't want to hurt you."
"Don't be sorry, you need this. I guess this'll take getting used to for both of us."
"I... I... understand."
"Good, now excuse me while I clean myself up, can't have a bite mark on my neck; people will ask questions."
Character Change: Blake Belladonna - Ruby Rose
Beacon Academy, 1:31 PM (Daytime warning), Tuesday, RWBY Dormitory
Blake was cleaning herself in the bathroom, Ruby waited while getting out clothes for her to change into for the rest of the day (and night), after she takes a shower of course. Ruby's smell would more than likely catch the attention of animals and to an extent, some faunas. The sight of daylight through the window makes her uncomfortable, she didn't mind it yesterday, yet again, she wasn't a vampire until last night. As soon as Blake stepped out from the bathroom, with the bite mark of the neck looked patched up, Ruby entered the bathroom to take a shower.
The fledgling feels the cold water run through her body, the chill from the water relaxes her undead body. She is somewhat surprised by her choice in cold water again, normally she would have gone for warm or hot showers, but this merely the second time, it could be a coincidence that decided to take a cold shower again. She cleans herself with her bodywash, if she grabbed Weiss, Blakes, or even YANGS shower-stuff, the consequences will be dire! Each member of team RWBY has a unique-scented body-wash, soap, shampoo, and conditioner. If a member grabbed the wrong one, the others WILL know.
After 2 minutes and 46 seconds, Ruby heads out of the shower, fully cleaned and fresh (masking her vampire smell, but that's a bonus to Ruby). She dries off her hair, head and body, so she can put her bandanna back on. She steps out of the bathroom in a towel and her bandanna, she than gets dressed with the clothes she had picked out ahead of time. The main difference between this outfit and her normal one is that the black and red parts of the outfit are inverted, she decided to change things up a bit today. On the bright side about her condition, she wouldn't need to shop for new clothes since she'll never outgrow them. Which would be suspicious as heck in the long run, she'd likely need to find a cure for her condition or look for a way to 'age' her corpse somehow.
Ruby walked out of her team dorm, and put her cloak hood up. She'll need to be hood up when going outside during daylight hours. She opens the door and pulls her hand out.
Sizzling!
"YEOUCH!"
That was a bad Idea. Thankfully, only 1% of her aura was lost from that stunt. Hands in her pocket, she rushes into the main building using her semblance, leaving a trail of wilted rose petals, her exposed flesh feels burning as she's outside.
"Looks like Ruby's awake." The first voice said.
"How can you tell?" The second voice asked.
"Can you NOT see the trail of rose petals? Although you do have a point, they do look off."
"Eh, must be nothing."
Beacon Academy, 1:36 PM (Daytime warning), Tuesday, Beacon Corridors.
As she entered the halls, her senses cleared off as she doesn't feel her flesh burning from the sun. The fledgling scythe-wielder just remembered that she could feel negativity, and there's a lot of it, worry, fear, impatience, anger, embarrassment, stress. It feels like Ruby is being squished together against all of remnant with this new sense. Ruby needed to concentrate, she didn't let herself cook out in the daylight just to go back in the dorm and sneak out and feeding off some random mooks. She inhaled, then exhaled. Breathing as she's trying to reach a calm, as she's breathing, the negativity cramps her less and less, she still finds it uncomfortable, but she can tolerate it enough to focus now.
Ruby checked her aura with her scroll, 94%. So, she mis-read about the covering head thing, it slows down aura drain, not blocks it out completely. Thankfully she doesn't have classes until next Monday so her unfilled aura won't be known to all. As much she doesn't want to, she'll have to turn down any sparing matches today until she feeds again, and Ruby doubts Blake would want to lose more blood in such a short time, so she has to stick with conversation and reading...
"Will all first-year students please report to the interrogation room for questioning about the blackout for yesterday? Second-year students are free to return to their regular activities and-" a man on the Intercom said before being interrupting. Must be important.
"YEOCH!"
"Don't you have anything better to do other than interrogating every student in a combat school, all of which could rip you a new one?" Coco said on the intercom, who knew she was this harsh?
Ruby rushed down to the interrogation room, before even Nora arrives. She sees Coco walk away, defiant as ever. Ruby feels anger coming from her, the fledgling's still uncomfortable feeling negativity.
"Tip of advice petals, he's just wasting our time, just put up with his bull until he gives up." Coco said to Ruby, before walking back to her team. She never calls anyone by their actual name outside of her own team for some reason.
Beacon Academy, 1:37 PM (Daytime warning), Tuesday, Interrogation room.
The interrogation room, not unlike the one in VPD, except the main difference is the room is a slightly greener than the one in the PD. Another difference is that there's a coffee brewer in addition to one of those water cooler/heater things. Ruby doesn't know what they are called, but she's seen them in older TV shows. The room is also in poor condition, must have been Coco's doing. Then the other person in the room, a man with a slightly athletic build, but at the same time, slightly fat. He has brown hair and blue eyes, and wears the VPD Chief of police uniform (without the hat for some reason). Ruby can feel anger and embarrassment from him, along with stress.
"My apologies for looking unprofessional, Miss Adel roughed me up after I asked her a few questions about yesterday." The man said.
"That's fine, Coco's like that sometimes. She's quite the jerk sometimes, but she's a good person in heart." Ruby said to the man, smiling (although the smile cannot be seen from her bandanna).
"I'll be asking the same questions to you Miss Rose. Yes, I know your name. I used my authority to acquire documentation on all students who currently attend Beacon."
"Well, ask away."
"Where were you when the blackout happened?"
"I was in the gym, doing cardio after a little hand-to-hand training with Jaune and than all the sudden 'Bzzzzzzuuuuh' 'Jap Jap Jap' 'Zi Zi'! The lights went out and Yang got punched in the eyes and her contacts broke!"
"Did you just try to imitate the blackout noises?"
"Yep!"
"Anyways, continue."
"Right, so I was getting Yang back to the dorm to put her glasses on, and than I tried to order her contact lenses online and than I saw our scrolls had not signal in Beacon! So, I grabbed Crescent Rose in case I find some trouble."
"Crescent Rose?"
"It's my Scythe! It's also a highly customizable sniper rif-"
"I don't care about you weapon, just continue!" The man interrupted.
"Okay... Anyways, I took a bullhead downtown to the one eye-care facility open after-hours."
"The one with the vacuan doctor?"
"Yep! And I have to back to him this Thursday, or Yang won't get her contact lenses!"
"And than you went back?"
"Yep!"
"There's a time gap in your story, if that was the case, you'd be back at around 8:27 PM telling that the contact lenses would be picked up on thursday, but this is not the case."
"Huh?"
"The bullhead autopilot reports say that you came back around midnight, leaving 5 hours uncalled for... what happened between those 5 hours?" the man said, with Ruby now sensing paranoia.
"The line was long?"
"I'm not buying that, my daughter wears glasses, I should know that the lines cannot be long for eyecare in Vale, especially at night."
Ruby had to come up with something, something to throw him off.
"I went to a party, I got distracted and lost track of time!" She lied, hopefully throwing him off.
"That explains a bit, although if you're a huntress, why did you not try and stop the nostferatu?" The man asked, interrogating her.
"The what?"
"you mean you don't know?"
"I don't know what?"
"The nostferatu! That grimm that attacked 5 people last night!"
"I haven't seen a grimm when I was coming back from the party."
"The attack was all over the morning news! How did you not hear of it?" the man said with his stress and paranoia are growing.
"I was asleep all morning!"
"You were asleep all morning?"
"Yep."
"If I did the math correctly, you were asleep for 12 hours, no one sleeps for that long."
"Some do."
"Oh... I see."
"So... can I go now?"
"Nope. I need to know one more thing. Why are you wearing that bandanna?"
"I think it looks nice on me!"
"hmmm... fine, you can go... But expect to be called back."
Ruby left the interrogation room, and she just noticed Jaune recording the audio of the room. He must be serious about the investigation.
Character Change: Ruby Rose - Blake Belladonna
Beacon Academy, 3:24 PM, Tuesday, Interrogation room.
Blake just entered the interrogation room; she noticed entire room looks like a mess, as if someone said the wrong choice of words. She notices the chair wet with water. She takes out some towels and dries it off, she's not going to dampen her pants for the sake of an interrogation.
"Good, now we can begin." Chief blue said, as he looks like he was beaten up.
"Now you know. You've called me for a reason, spill it out!" Blake demanded, as she is sitting down on the chair now covered in towels.
"Don't you bad cop me!"
"Stop stalling my time and ask me the questions."
"Where were you when the Blackout occurred?"
"I was in the Library, with Sun and Velvet."
"Sun Wukong? He's a Haven student, what's he doing in Beacon early?"
"He stowed away on a boat."
"Really?"
"Yes. Two of your officers were chasing him."
"Oh, that monkey faunas."
"Yes. Anyways, we were doing our own thing in the Library and all of the sudden the power went out. I was shocked since I couldn't see a thing, but Sun and Velvet opened some of the library windows to let some light in."
"Odd, Miss Scarlatina says you three just left the library and went back to your dorms."
"We did that after we opened the windows, those two were faunas, I'm not. I'm a human with no animal traits whatsoever, I can't see in the dark!"
"Oh ya, you're human, unlike the faunas you were accompanied with. should have assumed that. Next question, what was Ruby doing around 6AM?"
"Sleeping."
"your other team-mates said otherwise, them and Miss Valkyrie said Ruby was up all-night making breakfast."
"They likely mis-remembered, that was yesterday."
"Really? Three people, mis-remembering a specific event that occurred when both of your team-mates said your leader went to sleep after making breakfast, yet you and Ruby said she went to sleep first thing."
"What about it?"
"Either three people mis-remembered an event, or you and Ruby are hiding something. I would investigate it, if it weren't for the fact that your alibi's are legit. They are both backed up by third parties. I'll investigate this later, but know I'll be on to you and Ruby after we find who caused the blackout."
"So be it."
Blake left the interrogation room. She sees Ruby and Jaune near the exit of the room, they look like they were waiting for her, perhaps it was related to the interrogation.
Character Change: Blake Belladonna - Ruby Rose
Beacon Academy, 3:27 PM (Daytime Warning), Tuesday, Beacon Corridors
Blake walks up to Ruby, with a curious look on her face, Ruby feels her worry (literally). Jaune on the other hand is nervous, he looks confident, but Ruby knows he's nervous. Ruby of course can't re-assure Jaune because that'd be suspicious.
"Were you two seriously waiting outside the room to talk to me?" Blake asked.
"Nah, I was actually eavesdropping on the interrogations. Nora's covering for me in the clinic with guard duty." Jaune replied.
"I was just curious to why Jaune was recording the conversations while putting his air against the wall." Ruby said.
"So why did you stay with Jaune instead of you know, hang out with some friends?" Blake asked Ruby.
"I don't know where Weiss is, and Yang and Sun are outside someplace." Ruby replied.
"Why does them being outside complicate things?" Jaune asked.
"She has her reasons Jaune." Blake replied in a hostile tone.
"I was just curious, Blake. No need to be hostile."
"I can tell from you snooping around the interrogation room for information." Ruby stated.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" Blake asked.
"Well I do have this plan Sunday night, but I'm browsing around for more information so we don't go around accusing anyone." Jaune answered, in an awkward tone.
"Well, do you mind if you take in two more people?" Ruby asked.
Blake looked surprised when Ruby asked that. She can feel a small amount of embarrassment coming off of Blake, but Ruby doesn't believe that's the only feeling she has in there.
"Sorry ladies, this is a JNPR operation. No need to get friends in danger of our dangerous exploits!" Jaune said with confidence, although Ruby can feel his nervousness.
Ruby giggled a bit, thinking about the time Jaune's 'dangerous' 'exploits', like the time he 'slayed' a borbatusk after Nora tired it out, or how he was trying to keep Pyrrha from the kitchen when she got a cold, or the time he threw up after drinking Ren's herbal remedy.
"I'm sorry, but I feel like you're going to need our help. Besides, it's better to get help ahead of time than ask at the last minute." Blake said.
"That's what what friends are for after all, Jaune!" Ruby added to Blake's point.
"What about Weiss and Yang?" Jaune asked out of curiosity, although Ruby can feel he's a bit nervous.
"Yang's spending time with Sun so we don't want to ruin fun. As for Weiss, I feel like she's looking for you actually." Blake stated.
"Besides, we're going to have a Girl's night out on Saturday so we have Sunday night free." Ruby added.
"We are?"
"Yep, and it's going to be great!"
"I suppose there's no convincing you otherwise, meet me in the JNPR dorm when the rest of the first years are done being interrogated by Chief Blue. We'll talk there." Jaune stated in defeat, Ruby no longer feels the fear on Jaune.
I guess he really wanted us to join, but wanted to sound like he's some cool dude. He wasn't impressing anyone anyways; Blake and I seen him fight!
Jaune went back to eavesdropping on the interrogations, he's likely going last for the line-up.
Ruby and Blake than walk down the corridors, avoiding any open doors to the outside so Ruby's aura doesn't get (further) damaged.
"So... what are our plans for the night on the town?" Blake asked in a curious, yet smug tone.
"For starters, I know bars and nightclubs are off limits. Last time Yang went to a bar, she snapped the neck of the bartender! You know how hard it is to cover that up? Very!"
"That didn't answer my question, Ruby."
"Right, I figured we'd catch a late-night film, those are enjoyable on their own."
"Most films aired at night are rated R or NC-17, Ruby."
"oh... didn't think about that."
"And we can come to a nightclub if we just avoid the ones Yang has caused trouble in."
"Like all of them?"
"I see your point."
"I'll check and see what events will occur Saturday night, and tell you up on them on Friday."
"sounds like a plan."
"Yep."
"Well, I'll see you at JNPR dorm Ruby."
"ya... bye Blake."
Blake walks off to the beacon courtyard to read, and ruby watches her walk into it. Ruby is shortly distracted by the slightly of Blake's lower assets. Afterwords, she heads into a weapon forge to start a project, an eccentric weapon Idea she calls it. Sure, no weapon can top her sweetheart, Crescent rose. But Ruby just wants to make her sweetheart a little sister, simply for fun of course, she'll never abandon Crescent Rose in the long run, or at all.
Beacon Academy, 3:31 PM (Daytime warning), Tuesday, Weapon Forge
Ruby enters the forge and begins to draft a blueprint. She's looking for something out of the box, and something eccentric. She thinks of chakrams, a throwing weapon for the ranged counterpart, sure it doesn't shoot bullets, but after seeing gameplay of Empires of Selinar, Reckoning, they look badass! As for the melee part, she couldn't think of anything that could change into a pair of chakrams, sword blades would end up being too dull with that many motors. Polearms are out of the question too since the pole would be too bendy to be used in the melee form due to the chakram characteristics. The only possible combination that wouldn't go wrong or break easily is the humble pizza cutter. Sure, Ruby's a genius, but this weapon is a side project for her, she won't dedicate every second of her life trying to perfect a pair of sword/chakrams or a double-headed scythe that bends into a pair of chakrams. She could make those, but both of those are a bit predictable even for Ruby anyway.
She gets the blueprints, and begins drawing the design in her dead. The pizza cutter will contain 2 blades, both of which can be fired as bladed discs, like chakrams, but unlike chakrams, they do not have handles and can only be used by the Pizza-cutter typically hosting the blades. The pizza-cutter base has a specialized cartridge designed to spray dust onto the blades, adding flaming, electric, or ice enhancements onto the blades. The blades will be launched via a trigger on the base, the blades will behave in a pattern akin to chakrams, and will return back to the base after a short time. For the melee features on the other hand, a pizza-cutter truly is an eccentric choice, so adding a motorized saw to rotate the blades will make it's melee feature much more practical, and can cover for powering the attacks of the launch.
As for size, she's thinking the height would be the size of a hand-and-a-half sword, but the width of the Chakram would be 1 foot, making it barely a one-handed weapon wielding melee (Perfect to duel-wield with crescent rose!), but needs 2 hands to launch the blades. Now Ruby is calculating the precise material with the proper magnetism to behave like a chakram being launched instead of thrown. She first would need to make the cutter base and then make a series of test blades to see which metal would behave properly. But she doesn't have time for that, she has to meet up with JNPR to talk about the investigation.
Ruby checked the time and sees it's been a whole 40 minutes that she was designing these blueprints. She puts the blueprints into Ruby's locker in the locker-room, solely because launching it in beacon would not only be unwise, but it would cause damage to both Ruby and the building. She than used her semblance to rush back to the dorms, leaving a trail of wilted rose petals!
Beacon Academy, 4:13 PM (Daytime warning), Tuesday, JNPR Dormitory
Blake is just outside of the dorm room, waiting for Jaune. Ruby shows up, albeit her aura damaged from being in the sunlight (some more), being reduced down to 86%. Ruby would pray to some divine being that JNPR has a carton of blood, but she's pretty sure that any god up there would smite Ruby down just for existing!
"Jaune's arriving soon, he texted me. He's being questioned by the chief as we speak." Blake stated in a serious tone. Considering it's about catching whoever's responsible for the blackout at beacon (and indirectly Ruby's vampirism), it's a serious topic.
"Right, gotchia." Ruby responded.
While waiting for Jaune to show up and let them in, Ruby did some slight hand gestures. Nothing drastic happened to Ruby while she was doing hand gestures, then she was simply checking social media. Everybody's been talking about the blackout and the 'grimm attack' at downtown. Apparently, everyone thinks a grimm called a 'nostferatu' caused the attack, so no forensic analysis is done on the bodies, since grimm do not possess DNA. Ruby sighed in relief, because she didn't want to get arrested for 5 counts of murder.
After 13 minutes have passed, Jaune finally walked up to the JNPR Dorm door. He looked like the questioning was especially rough for him.
The chief apparently didn't like Jaune snooping around 'official business' from the looks of it, hopefully this doesn't interfere with our plan with him.
"That took longer than expected, he was questioning me about literally everything I did yesterday and today!" Jaune stated.
"Great, now if you please let us in your dorm so we can discuss the plans for Sunday night." Blake responded.
"Oh, right. I'll unlock the door!"
Jaune used the ID card to unlock the JNPR dorm, opening the door. Jaune took off his shoes as he entered the dorm with Ruby and Blake following.
JNPR's dorm is cleaner than the RWBY dorm. The main clause of this Ren of course, he always organizes and cleans all of his workspaces, even when sneaking! The beds aren't bunked of course. Ren was glaring at Ruby and Blake's feet, likely hinting to take their shoes off. In hindsight, Ruby should have known this, as he saw Jaune entering the dorm shoes off. Ren was definitely hinting at Ruby to take her boots off, since she can feel the anger coming from him, along with fear from Nora. Ruby took her boots off and placed them next to Jaune's, Blake than followed, realizing that she should follow suit from Ruby when it comes to this.
The anger from Ren and the fear from Nora faded.
"Great, now that your shoes off. We can begin. I was afraid Ren may have given you the death glare for the entire day." Jaune stated.
"Jaune, I thought you said this would be a team-only thing?" Ren asked.
"No worries Ren, I believe their past experience with Torchwick could help our investigation." Jaune responded.
"What does Torchwick have to do with the blackout?" Nora asked.
"There's a possibility a student in beacon could be aligned with the White Fang, and took the dust capacitor from beacon to them." Ren stated.
"What does Torchwick have to do with the White Fang?" Nora asked again.
"Back during the dock attack, Torchwick's mooks were members of the White Fang. I've been meaning to investigate on why that's this case, I see this as an opportunity to take on 2 birds with one stone." Blake answered.
"Wait, we can't just investigate the White Fang. Sure, they're a likely candidate but we need to explore all likely outcomes." Jaune stated.
"I've already stated I'll hack into the CCT to get any information on the SDC and any records of Atlas military operations in Vale." Ren said.
"Right, and I know a guy who knows things. I can talk to him and see if knows anything about a Dust capacitor." Jaune said in a serious tone.
"Right, me and Ruby will be heading to a White Fang rally to get more information on Torchwick and the White Fang." Blake announced.
"Are you sure about that Blake? Ruby's not a faunas and Torchwick could easily recognize her." Pyrrha asked out of concern.
"I'm sure Pyrrha, I know what I'm doing." Blake reassured her.
"Before we begin, I suggest you two grab a quick snack from the fridge on the right-side." Jaune said, considering that this discussion will be a long one.
Blake opened the right-side fridge, and looked surprised.
"Jaune, why do you have a carton of Frog-blood in your fridge?" Blake asked out of curiosity.
"Oh, that's Ren's, there was no more room on the left fridge for it, so I put it there." Jaune responded.
"Can I drink some?" Ruby asked, sounding erratic to everyone in the room, especially Blake.
"Are... are... are you sure?" Jaune, Ren, and Blake all asked at the same time.
"Let the girl drink it! Renny uses it for that tasty dipping sauce in it, so It must taste good!" Nora said.
Blake, Pyrrha, and Jaune all look at Nora and Ren in a concerned manner, but Ruby didn't care. There was a literal carton of blood in a fridge, Ruby wondered if it would taste different from Blake's blood, that which tasted exceptionally well for her. Ruby grabbed a glass and poured a glass of the frog blood into it. Everyone else in the room was arguing about the frog blood for some reason.
She downs the entire glass and...
"Bleurgh, gag! Ack Ack!"
This is stuff is horrible! Why did I think drinking blood from an amphibian is a good Idea? It tastes worse than Weiss' cooking! It's just awful! At least my aura is back up.
"Told you she wouldn't like it Nora." Blake said.
"Frog's blood is only a base for the ingredients to be mixed in, the flavors from the many remedies dilute the taste of the frog blood, and the thickness of the liquid make's it good for a condiment." Ren stated.
"In hindsight, that was a horrible Idea. I won't be drinking raw frog's blood again." Ruby said.
Or at all for that matter.
"Now that we're done with the whole frog blood thing is done and over with, can we begin discussing the investigation?" Jaune demanded.
"Let's save the world!" Nora said in enthusiasm.
Ruby and Jaune being team leaders, exchanged tactics, of course this is something the tactics professor despised, but Ruby's sure he'd make an exception due to the drastic measure of what they are getting into. Jaune plans on bringing Nora with him incase some intimidation is needed, and Pyrrha with Ren incase a distraction is needed. Of course, Blake and Ruby will be heading to the rally. Blake stated that a possible suspect for the blackout would be-
"PENNY!?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, Ruby. Penny." Blake replied.
"Why her?"
"We haven't seen her since the attack on the docks, she could have snuck into beacon and stole the capacitor and went back to wherever she was."
"She looks like she's a student from Atlas!" Nora commented.
"How do you know what she looks like, you've never seen her!?" Blake demanded
"Ruby showed me a picture of her she took with Penny after she disappeared."
"Huh."
Ruby showed a picture of Penny she took with her. Everyone else gathered towards it.
"See? Told ya she showed a picture!" Nora said in victory.
"I didn't say she didn't have one, Nora." Blake said, followed by a facepalm.
"Something's... off about her." Pyrrha commented.
"Ya, she doesn't look natural." Jaune stated.
"I don't even know what she'd use as a weapon." Ren said, out of curiosity.
"She has a backpack containing sixteen swords, five of them are attached to strings. Combining them will create lasers somehow." Ruby answered Ren's implied question.
"That's not a usual weapon one would have. If I used my semblance carelessly on her, I could end up killing her!" Pyrrha commented with a concerned tone, Ruby could feel worry and stress from that comment.
"We don't want to kill anyone Pyrrha. Blake, who else do you suspect?" Ruby reasureed Pyrrha and asked Blake.
"Well, not to sound paranoid, but I have a hunch it could be Weiss." Blake answered.
"Weiss was playing a long game of mahjong with me... I would have won if not for the blackout." Ren stated.
"Why were you two playing mahjong in the first place?" Jaune asked out of curiosity.
"It's a long story."
"I'm sure it is."
"Jaune, you were eavesdropping on the interrogations, who do you think it could be?" Blake asked Jaune.
"I have my suspicions on Coco and the third year." Jaune answered.
"Why those two?"
"Coco openly attacked chief blue from what we all saw evidenced, all that Russel did was spill his water. As for the third year, they never showed up to be questioned."
"they didn't show up?"
"yes, it was weird. As if they were hiding something."
"Say... we've never seen the third year in person, people talk about them as if they were some eldritch being! Spooky!" Nora commented.
"Come to think of it, we've never even seen the third-year at all, not even during lunch-time." Blake said.
"Yes, that is weird." Ruby said.
"What are we going to do about security? They've guarded the entrance and exit to and from Beacon!?" Jaune stated.
"Not all of them." Blake started. "They've guarded the bullheads, but not the launching site! We can sneak into Vale via. the Emerald Forest."
"But how are we going to get back up? Are we gonna ride a nevermore!?" Nora asked excitingly.
"No Nora, we're not riding a nevermore. We can use our weapons to get back up like reasonable huntsmen and huntresses." Jaune answered and Scolded.
"Oh? And how would your shield and sword get you up a cliff?" Blake asked intrigued...
"..."
"That's what I thought Jaune."
For the next 4 hours, Jaune discussed about the plan he came up with to get a lead on the investigation, and eventually, catch whoever caused the blackout. His plan is well thought out, it covered just about every known potential enemy, emphasis on the known. This would not cover if the vampires were behind the attack. Ruby did remember about 2 of them planning to use her to make the rest of the students cattle, whether this is connected to the blackout or not is unknown. But Ruby would likely need to find a reason to get back into the catacombs, and the experience needed, she cannot handle a horde of vampires on her own, whether they were mooks or not. She also couldn't risk her team or her friends ending up being cattle, so she had to think of something.
Eventually, it became 8 PM and Blake and Ruby had to leave. The two went back to the launching site to have a discussion.
Author's Footnote: Woo-wee, this chapter is long compared to the other-ones. Yet again, we are approaching the events that will take place in Volume 2, so that figures. I originally planned on not touching volume 2 other than Ruby not helping, and that would be suspicious as heck, so this would be a work-around. JNPR + Ruby and Blake instead of RWBY + Sun and Neptune. Albeit the approach for all the events will be different from the canonical counterparts of those events (different people, different approach and all). I'll be taking the Ladybug slowly, since you cannot rush romance! Of course, you know I'm hinting for White Knight and (Sun Dragon? What is the ship name for Yang and Sun anyhow?) to be in the background of course, because none of the characters are a focus of the story (Jaune maybe, but we'll see). If you have any questions, suggestions, feedback, etc. Let me know in the reviews.