Author's Headnote: Heeeey... the poll is still up, Only got like four answers on it so far... and it's a tie... so... ya... other than that, here's the intermission.
RWBY: Festival of Blood: Intermission: Of Tasks and Knowledge
Mistral Wilderness, March 1, Thursday, 8:00 PM, Hidden Outpost
Well... getting out of the palace is a good change of pace for Mercury. His new boss, Arthur Watts is having him do mundane tasks for him while he's having Torchwick kiss up the headmaster of Haven Academy.
The operation has been... quiet since Cinder's death. Mostly focused on covert work. Salem wasn't too happy when she learned that Cinder's contact in the White Fang defected. Which means that if the plan for Haven were to commence, she would have to get the leader of the organization: Sienna Kahn to Co-operate. Alternatively, there are rumors that a senior member of the White Fang, Arris the Wolf is still alive, and could be used to coup the White Fang.
But that is up to Arthur, and then Salem. He's just the muscle to Arthur's operations, his words accordingly. And if he refuses, he disables his legs. Well, that's what happens when one gets reckless fighting a vampire.
But here he his, with Emerald and Neo, tracking a Moon Dragon yazuka outpost in the anima wilderness. From Salem's debriefing, the Moon Dragon yakuza is the base of the Mistrillian vampires. Unlike Valean, they employ humans to do their dirty work, and hardly turn others. Being that only high-ranking members of the Yakuza are vampires. Although there are Mistrillian vampires not in the Yakuza, although that is rare since they are commonly culled by the Yakuza. Wherst Vale's vampires focus on domination, the Mistrillian vampires focus on subterfuge.
Not that it mattered to Mercury anyway, he's here to take out an outpost.
"I don't get why we're doing this; we should be hunting down Ruby!" Emerald complained.
"Emerald, the girl managed to defeat me in combat, and managed to KILL Cinder, how much of a chance would you have?" Mercury retorted.
"I could just use my semblance to..."
"Sure, sure, and drain your aura when she doesn't fall for it."
Neo snaps her fingers.
"Yes, yes... we get it. You don't care, you're only here because you need something to do while Roman is sucking up Haven's headmaster." Mercury retorted.
Neo rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." Mercury retorted.
And that's when the three of them went to confront the outpost. It had looked empty on the outside, so Mercury kicked the door open, leaving a large bang. To draw the guards out. Except there was one problem... no one was in the station. But a bunch of bone cracking can be heard... it appears to be a turret made entirely out of grimm. It started firing bolts of green fire, in which Mercury roll-dodged. He then fired a couple of wind bolts by kicking his leg, destroying the 'grimm-turret'.
The turret didn't bear the red-veins the creatures of grimm normally have, it was rather purple. However, it is not controlled by Salem, otherwise it wouldn't have attacked Mercury. And speaking of...
"Well, it appears we're fighting grimm, not people." Mercury said, in a disappointed tone.
"Grimm?"
"These ones are purple, not red."
"Meaning?"
"Whoever they obey, it's not Salem."
There was a pause.
"Neo wants to know who Salem is." Emerald yelled.
"That's not your concern, Neo." Mercury retorted. "Now can you two get in here?"
The two of them followed Mercury inside.
"The Yakuza apparently have grimm of their own." Mercury stated.
"Well, that's unfortunate. My semblance doesn't work on grimm, but it does work on vampires, though." Emerald said nonchalantly.
"Well, no less. We need to clear out their base."
The three of them went to investigate the outpost... when the three of them got in the next room, Mercury could hear groaning... something like a grimm would sound like... and a lot of it. When they opened the room... a bunch of humanoid grimm is seen. They resemble the human mooks in terms of the outfit, the difference can be seen their choice of movement and the grimm-mask. Likewise, it's purple instead of red. And they are all armed with various weapons.
"Guess making beowulves was too bland for the Yakuza?" Mercury joked.
"Just... what do we call them?" Emerald asked.
"Non-existent in a couple of minutes."
Neo rolled her eyes. She had gone and confronted the strange grimm. One of them started shooting an automatic gun toward Neo, in which she opened up Silence's parasol and went toward the grimm. And then whacked it, rainshade open. She then snatched the gun, an automatic pistol, and shot the grimm's mask and shattering it, killing the grimm, she then opened fire towards the rest of the grimm.
Emerald on the other-hand went and covered Neo's flank as more grimm showed up from where they came in, coming through door, and liquidating from the walls and ceiling and solidifying back to their normal shape. In which Emerald decided to use thief's respite the drap them toward Emerald and decapitate the grimm one by one, making sure they're down for good.
Mercury was walking playing with the grimm before kicking it down, more appeared and it did a jump rotating kick, activating lightning dust to add more punch into the attack, after that he went on a kicking spree to relentlessly attack the various grimm surrounding him. Afterwards he went and used wind dust bolts to finish off the ones attacking from a range.
As they kill grimm, more appear. They keep killing them, and yet...
"They keep popping up." Mercury stated.
"Thanks captain obvious." Emerald retorted.
"Well, it seems attacking them directly is pointless..."
Neo then lighted a match.
"That seems like a good idea, just burn the place. That solves two problems at once." Mercury praised.
Mercury had jumped from a nearby window, and Emerald used thief's respite to grapple on something to escape, Neo had lighted the match and escaped using her rainshade weapon.
"Well, that was a job well done." Mercury commented.
"Great, that just leaves finding the spring maiden." Emerald retorted.
"Damnit, I knew I was forgetting something. Well, Cinder's replacement can recover that."
"About that, I've never seen her. How do we know if she exists?"
"Only one way to find out."
Neo was looking at the two confused.
"Alright, fine. I'll get you the brief version. After that, can you stop giving me weird looks?" Mercury complained.
Neo nodded her head.
"You are one insufferable prick, you know that?" Mercury retorted.
Neo made a smug look.
Pine Farm, March 1, Thursday, 4:00 PM, Oscar's Room
Well, this is not where Oscar would find himself. Here he is... in his room at his aunt's farm, talking to a voice in his head that claims to be the late headmaster of Beacon Academy. It didn't pop up until he looked at a reflection in a pond while it was raining an hour ago. After that, he was trying his best to ignore it. But it's been getting out of hand.
"Are you ready to talk now?" the voice in the head asked.
"I am clearly going insane." Oscar said aloud. "There is a voice in my head, telling me that fairy tales are real. What's next, vampires?"
"Funny that you mentioned that."
"You have got to be kidding me!"
"This is a tough experience for both of us... given that we have to stop Salem, and her associate Cinder."
"Uhm... who?"
"I'll explain on our way to Mistral."
"So... you expect me to run away from home... to go to Mistral?"
"From there, you'll need to head to a bar in there. A man in a red cape will have a cane, you'll need to ask to have it back."
"What? And why?"
"He'll help you from there. But for now, we need to start."
"How do I know if you're telling the truth?"
"I haven't lied thus far. I'll give you all the time you need."
"That's... actually fair. I don't have to actually leave home for good, do I?"
"You want to be more than just a farm hand?"
"Well, ya... but not like this."
"This is an opportunity."
Well, the voice in his head does have a point... whether or not he's actually the headmaster of Beacon Academy... he does have a point; he could be something bigger. And whether or not vampires and maidens do exist as well as these relics... well, he'll just have to wait and see. He's not going to pack up and leave right away, this is still all new to him. He's going to give it a week or two before making a decision. Which would be enough time to comprehend the knowledge he has just been given.
However, he wouldn't want his food to be cold since his aunt called him for dinner, sure it isn't that good, but beggars can't be choosers after all. And it's worse when it's cold. So, he went down to eat the dinner now.
Vale Wilderness, March 1, Thursday, 4:00 PM, Road to Bloodshire
Well, without the knowledge of those nine kids, Qrow followed them from Patch. Well, for two reasons. One, Yang's father wanted someone to look after her. The poor guy lost Summer and Ruby already, he didn't need to lose someone else in his life. As for Qrow's loss on Ruby... well... he keeps it stuffed inside. Mostly because he knows he knows that she's still out there. He only found one of her cloaks and her belt buckle. But not Crescent Rose. She'd never leave Crescent Rose behind. However, he's surprised she had it in her to land a killing blow. Either way, Cinder got what she deserved.
He's still mourning the loss of Summer through alcoholism; he doesn't need to make it worse now. Of course, he knows he's going to outlive The Xiao-Longs. Being that Qrow is 71 after all. Still quite young for one whose father's a vampire.
His vampiric heritage, although doesn't give any special vampire powers, in which unknowingly from Ruby, draws from a vampire's own blood. So, one who uses vampire powers more often would get thirstier than one who seldom uses them.
But that's getting off-topic, it seems the van is heading toward Bloodshire, the only route to head to Mistral, no doubt that whoever Ozpin re-incarnates into, would end up going there too, more reason to follow the van at a distance. If he gets too close, he'd end up screwing up their luck. And as for why he didn't intervene with Arris, Violet's a smart kid, he has a plan with dealing with vampires. Qrow taught him well on this stuff. The use of the flashlights has been good, that's going to be useful when dealing with vampires. As for Qrow, not so much...
Another objective is to find the location of the Spring Maiden, he obviously ruled out his sister, being too old to even become the Maiden in the first place, even back when she attended Beacon. She's 71, just like her brother. Although biologically she's younger, ever since that mission on Vacuo. Salem doesn't have the Spring Maiden either, otherwise she wouldn't have had her puppet attacking fall. It's going to be a huge setback to Salem's plans now that the Fall Maiden is dead, the problem is finding whoever is the next Fall Maiden.
Can't be Ruby, the power of a Maiden can't transfer to vampires on regular means, and Cinder had bled out all over the scene of her death, which means Ruby didn't drink from her.
But regardless. He has a van to track, thankfully that magic that Ozpin gave him allows him to catch up to a speeding van. He can transform into a bird, albeit the story about how he got the ability was a bit embarrassing... him and his sister were in that shape for about a month before learning how to change back. Summer did enjoy feeding him and Raven crackers though. Thankfully, no pictures were taken during that, otherwise Taiyang would have to explain to his daughters to why Summer had two pet birds... and he'd make a up very, very, bad story that only a kid would fall for if they knew the actual context.
And as he went to follow the van, various creatures of grimm block the path, in which Qrow deals with so it wouldn't slow down their journey. Using his Sword to deal with his opponents at a close range, the grimm are affected by Qrow's passive bad luck semblance, which makes fighting them a lot easier. However, when he's not fighting anyone, his semblance is more so a nuisance.
Atlas Academy, March 1, Thursday, 6:00 PM, Ironwood's Office
"You've wondered why I've called you all here?" General Ironwood asked.
"Of course." Winter stated.
Context: While the heroes of this story were busy on various side quests, General Ironwood concentrated the strength of his military... and his insanity. With Penny gone and destroyed beyond repair, her creator Pietro Polledenia had shut down and the quality of his prosthetics declined with the seemingly permeant death of his daughter. This isn't something that he couldn't just build another of, he has been working on Penny's AI his entire life. To add salt upon wounds, the people of mantle were not too happy that their supposed protector was not only a machine, but destroyed.
The only thing keeping him from being dishonorably discharged is the fact he holds 2 seats on the council. Being that he failed to protect Beacon, Vale, and he failed to give Mantle their protector. Sure, he knows the person responsible is dead, but it does him no good that the incident had humiliated the Atlassian Military greatly. At the aftermath, he had transferred all four-person teams to Atlas Academy, to make up for the casualties of Atlas students that had died protecting Beacon and Vale. He went to find a harder encryption on the military VI to ensure the knights and paladins won't be hacked, and doubled the production on both. He issued a conscription service across the kingdom's borders to bolster the size of the military.
He had closed down trade and borders across the other kingdoms immediately. He had invaded and occupied the major cities of Argus and Scorpio, the former to make sure Mistral doesn't evict Atlas forces, and the latter as a plan to restore order to the former Kingdom of Vale. He seeks to prepare the kingdom for an invasion, from all sources. Salem, Vampires, even the other two remaining kingdoms.
Winter, along with the ace operatives were sitting in General Ironwood's office at the top of Atlas Academy. It was white and blue, in a much similar shape of Ozpin's office. From there, all of Atlas can be seen, and some of Mantle. Of course, unlike the other three offices, this one has added defenses.
"There has been an issue of security since the Vale incident. Of course, you know that so I'm not going to remind you." General Ironwood stated. "So, I'll cut right to the point. The attack was orchestrated by an enemy named: Salem, the queen of grimm."
"You can't be serious!" Clover objected.
"It's true. I was as surprised as you are when I heard about it from Ozpin. And then, the more you think about, the more it made sense. The maidens, the vampires... the relics."
"Sir, can you please slow down?" Winter asked.
"Oh, right. I need to tell you this stuff first." The general said, stopping to slow down. "But our defenses aren't enough. Which is why I've introduced a new project. I call it: Project Archangel."
"And can I ask what that is?"
"Of course."
"What is it?"
"Since you know that Penny is well... errm... gone. We're going to need to give Mantle a protector. Sure, we have a possible candidate, but she's far too old and weak. Which means we'll have to build one. I've gathered a team of programmers to develop an AI capable to take this burden, and a team of engineers to work on the project's body. However, the public will know of the mechanical origins of this protector, unlike Penny."
Context: General Ironwood doesn't want to risk the factor of Salem stealing the powers of the Winter Maiden from him, so he's building a Penny Mk II.
"And as for the other stuff?" Clover asked.
"Of course, that is something everyone in this room needs to know." The general stated.
Author's Footnote: Well, that's the intermission. I originally planned to do a scene in Salem's Palace, but I do not wish to reveal the identity of Cinder's replacement... not yet. I figured I'd keep some things in their pace before our heroes head to Mistral. Like I've mentioned, there's a poll. Make sure to answer it... it's only got four answers, and it's on my profile page... So... ya... see ya next chapter.