AN: Little shorter chapter this time. I'm happy to see you guys trying to figure out which Final Fantasy characters I'll be adding.
With that said, enjoy!
Chapter 39
"I guess I just never saw you as much of a fighter," Yang said to Doctor Oobleck while the five of them were in the Bullhead on their way to their mission location.
"I admit I fancy myself more of an intellectual," he said. "But I can assure you, as a Huntsman, I've had my fair share of tussles. Besides, given my expertise in the field of history as well as my dabblings in the archaeological surveys, our dear headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular…assignment!"
"What does history have to do with this?" Weiss asked.
"Why, what a preposterous question, you silly girl!" he said, supremely offending Weiss. "Why, history is the backbone of our very society! And the liver! Probably the kidneys, if I were to wager."
"And that means…" Weiss said.
"The southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves, but it is also the location of one of the kingdom's greatest failures!"
"Mountain Glenn," Ruby said.
"That's right," Yang said. "It was an expansion of Vale, but in the end it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off from the rest of the city.
"Correct!" Doctor Oobleck said. "And now it stands abandoned as a dark reminder."
"And a likely place for a hideout," Blake commented.
"Precisely!
The group could see Mountain Glenn as they approached their destination.
In a word, it was depressing. They could see all the hallmarks of a modern city: tall buildings, storefronts, public parks, and residential areas. Only they were in various states of disrepair. Cracked pavement, half-crumbled buildings, and overgrowth permeated the landscape, serving as a reminder that this was once meant to sustain life.
When the Bullhead was low enough, the team jumped out, weapons drawn.
"Ladies!" Doctor Oobleck called. "You may still be students, but as of this moment, your first mission as Huntresses has begun! From this point forward, you need to do exactly as I say! Do you understand?" Team RWBY all nodded, but then the doctor looked fiercely at Ruby. "Ruby! I thought I told you to leave all of your bags back at school."
"But, uh, you hadn't told us to listen to you yet," Ruby said. "So I didn't."
"She's not wrong," he mumbled. "Very well, Ruby. Leave your bag here, we can pick it up upon our return."
"But I, well, uh—" Ruby said in a panic. It would be a really bad idea to leave the bag considering what was in it.
"Young lady, what in the world could you possibly have in that bag that could be so important to bring it with—"he was interrupted by the bag opening and Zwei sticking his head out of it. Everyone stared at her when they realized that she had brought her dog with her.
"Get back in the bag," she said to Zwei through grit teeth. Zwei just barked, making it clear that he was there.
"We're here to investigate an abandoned urban jungle teeming with death and hostility, and you brought…a dog?" Doctor Oobleck asked.
"I, uh…" Ruby stuttered, trying to come up with a better excuse than she thought he'd be lonely.
"Genius!" the doctor yelled happily, zipping behind Ruby to take Zwei out of the backpack. He lifted the dog up in the air and spun around with him, surprising the girls. "Canines are historically known for their perceptive nose and heightened sense of sound, making them excellent companions for a hunt such as ours!" Zwei barked happily, as if he could tell he was having praise heaped onto him.
"I'm a genius," Ruby said smugly, making the rest of her team roll their eyes.
"So, what are your orders, Doctor?" Blake asked.
"Ah, yes, straight to the chase. I like it!" Doctor Oobleck said, putting Zwei down. "As you've been informed, the southeast area has been marked as a recent hot spot for Grimm activity. Now, there are several possible explanations for this behavior, one of which being…Grimm."
"What?" Ruby asked.
"Grimm. A creature of Grimm approximately one hundred yards from us at this very moment."
"What?!" Yang asked, turning around and spotting a lone Beowolf. The team drew their weapons.
"Stop!" Doctor Oobleck commanded. The girls were confused, but lowered their weapons anyway. "There are a number of reasons why Grimm will congregate in this particular area, the most likely of which will be their attraction to negativity: sadness, envy, loneliness, hatred. All qualities that are likely held by our hidden group harboring ill intent."
"So, what now?" Ruby asked.
"We wait. We track. If this specimen leads us to its pack, that pack may subsequently lead us to our prey."
"How long do we wait?" Blake asked.
"It's uncertain," Doctor Oobleck said. "Hours, days, weeks. Why, lone Grimm have been know to stay isolated from the pack for months, and there's the pack."
"What?" Weiss asked, and saw several more Beowolves following the first one.
"And now they've seen us," the Doctor said.
"What?!" Weiss asked again.
"AND NOW THEY'VE SEEN US!" Doctor Oobleck shouted in Weiss's ear.
"I take it tracking them is out of the question?" Ruby said.
"An accurate assumption, yes."
"What's the plan, then?" Yang asked.
"Show me what you're capable of."
"Excellent work, girls!" Doctor Oobleck said, after the fight had brought them several streets away from where they started. The team noticed that they pretty much did all the work while he just kind of looked at plants or something. They weren't happy. "Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any signs of criminal operations I this sector. Oh, well! Moving on!"
"Hey, Doc," Yang said, getting frustrated at his inaction. "Y'know, I was actually looking forward to seeing a 'pro Huntsman' in action. Like, fighting, or at least, helping us fight?"
"Ah, but I am in action!" Doctor Oobleck said. "Scouring the ruins of this once-great city for any signs of irregularity! Not every mission is filled with daring and heroism, girls. Sometimes it's just a heightened form of extermination! Remember, this is a job you all signed up for it. I do hope you understand that."
"Well yeah," Yang said. "Of course."
"Tell me Yang," Oobleck said when the two of them were briefly separated from the rest of the group. "Why did you choose this line of work?"
"Huh?" she asked. His gaze was surprisingly intense. "Well, to fight monsters and save—"
"No, that is what you do," he interrupted her. "I want to know why you do it. The honest reason as to why you want to be a Huntress."
"Honestly? This is all for Ruby's sake."
"How so?"
"She's been training with our mom since she was little. When she finishes her training, she's going to go on a journey all across Remnant. We've just had each other for so long, so I want to be there for her when she starts her journey. Going to Beacon and becoming a Huntress is pretty much the best way to make sure that happens."
"I see."
"And you, Miss Schnee?" this annoying little—I mean Doctor Oobleck asked Weiss a few minutes later." "A girl born into fame and fortune such as yourself certainly doesn't need the extra work. So, why choose this over a cushy job in Atlas?"
"It's exactly as you said," Weiss answered after impaling a Beowolf while the teacher sat there and watched. "I'm a Schnee. I have a legacy of honor to uphold. Once I realized I was capable of fighting, there was no longer a question of what I would do with my life. It was my duty."
"Interesting."
Blake opened up a door to an abandoned building, only to release a swarm of baby Nevermores. She shot them all down with Gambol Shroud's pistol form.
"And what about you, Blake?" Oobleck asked. "You seem to carry yourself with a sense of purpose."
"There's too much wrong in this world to just stand by and do nothing," she said. "Inequality, corruption…Someone has to stop it."
"Very well. How?"
Blake's eyes opened wide, the girl realizing that she didn't have an answer to that question.
Ruby was playing around with Zwei before she realized that Doctor Oobleck was looking at her.
"Sorry!" she said. "Uh, are we ready to keep going?"
"Nope!" he said. "I believe that will have to do for today. It's going to be dark soon." He threw his bag to Yang, who grunted when she caught it. "You three, set up camp in that building. Oh, and please do make sure there are no more of those creatures. Your leader and I are going to secure the perimeter. Come, Ruby."
The two of them walked several blocks away from the team, when some giant creatures caught her attention. It was a line of what looked like giant black and white elephants.
"What is that?" she asked. "It looks awesome!"
"That, my dear girl, is a Grimm," Doctor Oobleck said. She had no idea that Grimm could get that big. She summoned her Keyblade.
"Let's kill it," she said.
"I'm afraid your sword will do nothing more than agitate a Grimm of that size," the doctor said. Ruby seriously doubted that, but it's not like he knew what a Keyblade was.
"But what if it attacks us?" she asked.
"Fret not, Ruby. Those Goliaths are not concerned with us. Ruby, not every Grimm is mindless, or rather not every Grimm remains mindless. You see, the Grimm you see before you are so powerful, so superior to the Grimm you fought, that they've undoubtedly lived for hundreds of years, and in that time between killing humans and attacking our borders, they have done one important thing: They've learned. They've learned that when they attack our borders, they're likely to die, and what we lack in strength, we make up for in will, and that killing one human will only bring more."
"Then why are they so close to the city?" Ruby asked. "What are they doing?"
"Waiting." They continued to watch the Goliaths walk through the wilderness, knocking trees over in their path.
"Doctor Oobleck?" she asked. "I was wondering…"
"Wondering why I've been interrogating your teammates all day?" he asked.
"Actually, I was wondering…Why did you want to become a Huntsman?"
"Look around you and tell me what you see." She did as she was asked and looked.
"Lots of old buildings, uh, empty streets…"
"I see lives that could have been saved. As a Huntsman, it is my job to protect the people, and although I am capable of doing it with traditional weaponry, I believe I can make a much larger impact if I do it with my mind. As a teacher, I'm able to take knowledge, the most powerful weapon of them all, and place it in the hands of every student that passes through my classroom. I look at this wasteland, and I see lives that could have been saved, but I also see an opportunity; an opportunity to study these ruins and learn from this tragedy, and therefore become stronger.
"I am a Huntsman, Ruby, because there is nothing else in this world I would rather be."
"I can't believe we didn't find anything," Yang said, herself, Blake, and Weiss huddled around the campfire they built in the building.
"We've always been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time," Blake said. "I guess we can't always have luck on our side."
"…That's not what I meant," Weiss said, despite not having said anything earlier. Yang and Blake looked at her in confusion. "Earlier, about…upholding the legacy. There's more to it than that."
"Really?" Yang asked.
"I don't know either," Blake said. "I know what I want to do, but I figured I'd always take things one step at a time."
"Well, it doesn't matter," Yang said. "We know why we're here, right?"
"Ah, wonderful!" Oobleck said as he and Ruby returned from their patrol. "A textbook campfire!"
"Fire!" Ruby cheered, and she and Zwei sat down, with Ruby holding her hands up to it. "So…warm…"
"Very good!" Oobleck said. "Eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for first watch?" Ruby raised her hand, volunteering herself. Oobleck rushed off somewhere, and Ruby got up to head to the lookout point.
"Hey," Yang said, stopping her sister. "Did Oobleck ask you why you wanted to be a Huntress?"
"No, he didn't," Ruby said. "Weird. Oh well. Good night guys!" She left the room, Zwei following right behind her. The rest of the team set up their bedrolls around the fire, settling in for the night.
Something told Yang that this was going to be a long mission.
AN: I actually always enjoyed Oobleck's speech in that scene. We're probably never going to see Oobleck or Port again in the show, though, considering Joel being fired and everything that happened with Ryan.
Not much else to say, so as always, thanks you reading, and I'll see you all next time!