Field Trip


[Restarting. . . Aura detected. Primary systems online.]

Penny's spirit flooded back into her body. Her eyes snapped open, and she forced herself to sit up. At last, she'd gained full control! She looked down to find herself in a plain hospital gown with a number of wires trailing down from her back towards a terminal and, for just a moment, wondered if she was rescued from whatever villainous base she was being held in.

"Why, good morning!" Her head snapped over to look at Roman Torchwick sitting in an out-of-place, black office chair in front of her.

Nevermind. She was still captured. Penny did not answer at first, instead examining her target. He looked haggard: his hair was messier than her image references, and darkness had begun to grow beneath his eyes. His cane was leaning against the terminal, and his hands were stuffed into his pockets. The target looked like he'd been waiting there for a while. Why?

"Merlot may be a little too focused on the 'whys' and 'hows', but I had a sneaking suspicion the only reason you couldn't move was because your aura's powering everything and this little gadget right here"—Torchwick pulled the bulky cuffs from one of his pockets—"kept disrupting it. Am I right?"

Penny didn't answer.

Torchwick rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, General Compensation told you never to give information to the enemy, right? Some military mumbo-jumbo about discipline?"

"... I do not recognize that general."

"Aaah, she speaks at last! You know, General Compensation? Ironwood?"

Caught off-guard, Penny innocently asked, "Is that a common codename or nickname for General Ironwood?"

Torchwick stared at her for a few seconds, then grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Yes. Yes, it is, Penny! You're a quick learner, aren't you?"

She smiled. "Affirmati—" Remembering her protocol, Penny went silent, pursed her lips and glared at Torchwick.

He scoffed and rolled over to the terminal, typing at something. "Look, kid, if I just wanted to interrogate you, I'd just go looking through here or... I don't know, change your protocols. There's a lot you can do when you have a direct line to someone's head." He looked over at Penny. "What, don't believe me?"

She shook her head.

"Well, at least you're honest. I learned code like this to keep myself one step ahead of the curve: the world's goin' digital, kid, and I'm gonna be at the forefront of Cross Continental Net crimes, just you wait! Oh, don't tell the cops I said that."

"Request denied."

"Worth a shot. It helps that you people have such pathetic security! I'm pretty sure even I could break into the CCT if I wanted to. Here's the proof: you think you're top-of-the-line? Try throwing one of your little swords at me."

Penny narrowed her eyes at Torchwick's provocation, weighing directives not to listen to the enemy versus the possibility of stopping him here and now. Her eyes flashed, she threw out her hand and... nothing happened.

Torchwick smirked and typed something into the terminal. Penny felt a faint sense of unease at knowing how easily she was just being changed like this. "And... tada! Just like that, your weapons are fully online again." Torchwick expectantly looked over the screen at her.

"... Online?"

"Tha~at's right."

The two stared at each other for a moment. Penny looked down at herself, then up to Torchwick. Herself. Torchwick. Herself.

Six gleaming blades whipped themselves out from her upper back and prepared to launch themselves at the criminal. An equally sudden shock cut her hopes at attacking off, causing her to yelp in surprise as it disrupted her power and left her blades dropping worthlessly around her.

Torchwick sighed and rolled his chair back in front of Penny. He drew out a little remote and waved it teasingly at her. "Ah-ah-ah, that's not how this works. You're supposed to say, 'but why would you let me keep my weapons'? And then I'm supposed to say 'because unlike your side, we trust people.' Got it? Great! Alright, and... go!"

Penny lunged for him again but was still too slow to prevent another shock.

Torchwick sighed once more. What ever happened to the good old days when the naïve ones let you try to corrupt them properly!


Yang and Weiss leaned closer to the door, the latter willing to put how uncomfortable she felt with Yang in her personal space aside as long as she could hear just what Adam was telling Ruby. It helped that Zwei had managed to sneak his way between the two, sniffing around at the door. Unfortunately, even with their ears an inch away, they could only hear the faintest of murmurs, then nothing at all. In a panic, they pressed themselves to the door in a last, desperate attempt to catch anything, but either they were heard, or the two had walked away. They listened for a couple seconds more—

KNOCK KNOCK

And flopped over onto their backs as someone knocked hard on the door.

"Hello~o! Anyone home!" Nora called out before banging on the door again.

"Not so loud, Nora! You could've scared them!" Jaune's voice came just as loud as Nora's, but at least he tried to sound hushed.

Grumbling as they both got up to her feet, Yang opened the door and glared at the two. Pyrrha and Ren stood behind them with embarrassed and stoic looks, respectively.

She didn't even have time to say hello before Nora sprung uncomfortably close to Yang and started jabbering away: "Hey, you two! Where's Ruby and Adam? Both of them have been really broody lately are you two okay I heard you got personally targeted by super secret assassins and that must've been just the worst thing ever so we came to see if you two were doing okay but then we never got the chance and you guys seemed alright at the mission selection so I was also curious about—"

Pyrrha tugged her back. "What Nora is trying to ask is: are you all doing alright? Being attacked like that is just a... terrible experience."

"Well, about the fifth time around, I think you start getting used to it," Weiss bitterly retorted, her mood having only soured from this sudden change in both Ruby and Adam.

Pyrrha let out a tiny, mirthless chuckle.

"Sorry." Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sorry, that was awful of me."

"No, no! I understand, trust me. You earn a lot of enemies being a champion for so long."

The mood only dropped further.

Yang brought a hand through her hair. She missed having friends that had more social skills than wet bread.

"Sooo, what mission did you guys go for?" she asked.

Instead of giving an answer, Nora suddenly yelped and jumped back, looking around.

"Something furry touched my leg!" Everyone's gaze drifted towards the floor, where Zwei was sniffing around at the new four without a care in the world. Nora squealed and brought Zwei to her chest, springing into a rapid-fire chain of baby talk and giggles that none of them could understand.

"Hey, Zwei's mine!" Weiss complained and stepped outside the door to reach for Zwei only for Nora to lift him up away from her.

"Uh, Weiss? He's our dog," Yang pointed out.

"I will buy him." As Weiss stared back at her, Yang could not tell if she was joking or not. That worried her.

"Uh, guys? Aren't pets sorta... not allowed, or something?" Jaune offered a meek protest and scooted away from Nora and Weiss.

"Don't be lame, Jaune," Yang said.

"Aw, come on, I'm just saying! I'm—some people could be allergic to dogs! Back me up, Pyrrha!" Jaune looked back to his partner for support, only to find her staring wistfully at the cute little corgi, too shy to actually ask if she could pet him. Ren stared at the group without so much as a gleam of emotion in his eyes, offering only a helpless shrug when Jaune's gaze reached him.

"You know, since our mission's coming up today, we could always use some help taking care of Zwei while we're gone," Yang offered.

"Oh, I don't really know. Jaune's right! I don't think it would be allowed..." Pyrrha sighed, not even convincing herself.

"You can pet him whenever you want." Yang sweetened the deal too much for the champion to take. With Pyrrha in, Nora still holding Zwei away from Weiss and Ren not voicing an opinion in either direction, it was a two-to-one decision: JNPR got the dog for a couple days.

Jaune once more looked between his team in a panic, but was outvoted without even ordering a democratic vote in the first place.

"But... you can't just... but I'm—yeah, whatever, we'll take care of the dog. Just..." Jaune sighed, surrendering at last. "Be back soon, alright? We'll be guarding a village with Professor Port in three days."

Yang took a sharp breath through her teeth. "Ooh, Professor Port? That's rough."


The walk towards the helipads was an awkward one for Team RWAY. Ruby had returned saddened, yet carrying an accepting smile. Slowly but surely, she had returned to her usual self over the course of their preparations, excited for their first mission as Huntresses(and Huntsman). Weiss and Yang grew more suspicious by the moment, especially with Adam having done the opposite: while Ruby was almost a ball of sunshine again, yet Adam was quiet, brooding, and clearly perturbed by something. They just had no clue what, and they couldn't stand it one bit.

However, whether it was from willful ignorance or being genuinely oblivious, Ruby skipped along at the front of their group, backpack secured and humming quietly to herself as if the rest of her team was not shrouded in a cloud of tension. She only paused when she noticed people starting to gather around near one pad in particular, and it was easy to see why, especially considering how that absolute giant of a man, Yatsuhashi, was easily visible towering above the crowd: CFVY had returned.

"Ruby! Adam!" Velvet managed to wriggle her way out from the crowds to jog over to the team the moment she saw a sign of them. "Are you all alright? We tried to get back as soon as we could when we got the news!" She pulled Ruby into a hug.

Ruby blushed faintly at the attention and contact but giggled as she returned it. "We're fine, Velvet, really! We didn't even get hurt. Thanks for being so worried about us, though."

"We should—" Adam was cut off as Velvet hopped over to hug him as well, and his lips twitched up into the slightest smile. He would've returned the affection, but he wasn't blind: he could see—and feel, for that matter—the judging stares of Velvet's team. "... Should be asking you the same thing: last time I checked, your mission was supposed to end last week."

"You were around Mountain Glenn as well, weren't you?" Weiss stepped forward into Velvet's view and the conversation both. "What happened?"

With an annoyed snort, Coco and the rest of the team strode closer, students giving them a wide berth.

"What didn't happen is a better way of putting it," Coco grumbled. "That place was more of a mess than I thought it was going to be."

"We were attacked by a Grimm dragon," Fox stated, staring through them with a blank gaze.

The freshman team reeled back in horror at the thought, but Velvet only rubbed her temples.

"No. Ignore him." Velvet waved away the now-snickering Fox and her leader, who was obviously holding back a laugh of her own.

She reluctantly stepped away from Adam. "Nothing happened," she stressed. "It was just... something's wrong, over there. There weren't more, but they were all... smarter. Stronger." The chuckles of Team CFVY started to fade.

Velvet offered an apologetic smile to them both.

"I'm just glad you four aren't headed out there, just yet."

Coco whistled to Velvet and drew her attention away from the various looks of feigned innocence from Ruby and Yang or consternation from Adam and Weiss. The crowd was getting a little too large: time for them to pack it up.

"Stay safe out there, you four!" With a last wave to them, Velvet rushed back off towards her team, leaving RWAY left only with a lingering sense of dread replacing the tension that surrounded them before.

"Well! That's not foreboding at all!" Yang said with a giant grin.

Adam and Weiss stared after Velvet, unknowingly sharing the same thought: they could understand the Grimm being overwhelming in number so close to a supposed White Fang base, but being smarter? Unless there was a horde of century-old Grimm, there was something far worse going on, and no doubt related to the White Fang. More than anything, 'intelligent Grimm' made their chances of survival sound far lower than just waves of them...

"Don't worry, it's gonna take more than some brainy Grimm to stop Team RWAY!" Ruby declared. "We never backed down before, and we aren't going to stop now, so come on, team: let's go save the world!" Ruby cheered while she led the team to their helipad.

"Geez, you four didn't get enough of that with the giant robot?" The team looked over to find Sun strolling beside them as if he wasn't obviously eavesdropping on their conversation. Beside him, however, was someone they'd only seen before at the dance: a taller, sharply dressed teen in a red coat with almost neon-blue hair swept off to one side. He nodded over to the girls of RWAY with a confident smirk.

"That was only step one of our master plan!" Ruby declared with a proud grin.

"Was getting chased across half the city part of it, too?" Sun joked.

"Was totaling someone else's car?"

"... Good point."

"I don't think I've seen you around here, before," Weiss thought aloud and not-so-subtly shifted closer to the blue-haired newcomer, making no attempt to hide her wandering eyes. "What might your name be?" she cooed.

Yang disguised a laugh behind a cough.

"Neptune. Neptune Vasilias, I'm just hangin' around because the last time my team left someone here alone"—Sun whistled and paid him no attention at all—"he wound up in Vale months earlier than he should've been. But enough about me: what about you, Snow Angel?" Neptune laid it on just as thick as Weiss was, and from the heiress' charmed giggle, it was actually working.

"I don't believe this is the time to get distracted with flirting," Adam said without a care for whether or not it was obvious.

Whereas Weiss was left flustered and blushing by his insinuations, Neptune wordlessly conceded the point with a smooth wave of his hand.

Yang, however, groaned. "Awww, come on, Adam, don't be such a stick in the mud!"

"We have a professor to meet up with approximately thirty seconds ago," Adam countered.

"What a coincidence, so do we!" Neptune piped up. "We're off to shadow a crime specialist. All inner city detective stuff, and we get junior badges." One could practically see the stars in both Weiss and Ruby's eyes, albeit for different reasons.

"So, who's your Huntsman?" Sun asked the group just as they came to a stop at their Bullhead. He received no answer, as RWAY stared on in various levels of disbelief at the man standing in front of them.

"Why hello, students!" Doctor Oobleck sprung out of the Bullhead and swung his arm in front of him with great gusto. "Who's ready to fight for their lives!"

Sun took a sharp breath through his teeth. "Ooh, that's rough."


Sun and Neptune didn't even bother sticking around, only giving a pat on Yang and Weiss's shoulders and zipping away before they managed to get sucked into whatever chaotic mess was about to happen. Completely unperturbed by the looks of exasperation and confusion on his students' face, Oobleck paced to and fro in front of the team as he gave them the quickest briefing they'd ever heard:

"Congratulations, Huntresses-and-one-Huntsman-in-training on selecting this reconnaissance mission, however I regret to inform you that as such we will not be establishing a base of operations: rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous urban wasteland and making camp on any defensible positions we may stumble upon. That is correct by the way I did say 'reconnaissance' and not 'search and destroy,' for I have been made fully aware of both yours and the Headmaster's final goal and objective in this reconnaissance mission!"

After giving them a brief moment to process the rapid-fire words, Oobleck spun on his heels to face them: "I understand that what happened was terrible, but do remember that this is still a mission and that we will be scouting as a team. Do not be impatient, and do not try to give me the slip. Now then!" He flashed past them beside the Bullhead. "I have packed all of our essentials myself, plotted the aerial course, readied the airship and, considering that we are three minutes behind schedule, I recommend we start our trip immediately! Come along!" And Oobleck was gone into the Bullhead before they could blink.

Ruby was the one to break the stunned silence left behind. "Well, it could be worse!" She tried to keep her hopes afloat.

Yang snorted. "Can it?"

She deflated. "Yeah, no, not really. Better than nothing, though!"

"I can hear you from inside here, Miss Rose!"

"Oh, uh, sorry, Professor Oobleck!" Ruby scrambled into the Bullhead, leaving her team to follow. Barely even five seconds after they had gotten in, the Bullhead rumbled and took to the skies, soaring off towards mountains off in the distance. Mountain Glenn was not particularly far away from Vale, but the uncivilized land between Vale's walls and the ruined city were some of the most dangerous in the entire continent. Walking between them, even for a team led by a full-fledged Huntsman, would effectively be suicide.

While Weiss watched their position get closer and closer to the faint, green dot marking Penny's position on her Scroll's map from beside Oobleck, their leader desperately tried to save face. "I didn't mean to offend you, I just never saw you as much of a fighter! I mean, uh, I didn't mean I thought you were weak, I just thought you liked teaching more and I should really shut up right now, shouldn't I?" Ruby squeaked out.

"Nonsense! If you see me as a paragon of intellectualism rather than combat even in a combat academy, then that means I'm doing my job!" Oobleck wasn't just unfazed by her words but was downright amused. "But the good news is that while I am a doctor, not a professor, who considers himself an intellectual, I am also a Huntsman who has had his fair share of tussles! Due to my expertise in the field of history and the fields of warfare our dear headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular... er, assignment!"

"Wait, what does history have to do with this?" Yang asked.

"Ha! What a preposterous question, you silly girl! The southeast may be known for large forests and deep caves but it is also home to one of if not thee greatest failure of our fine kingdom: Mountain Glenn."

An unnatural chill whipped through the Bullhead as they approached the city. Pale buildings of gray and white reached up from empty streets to the skies, old billboards and signs stood faded, yet still readable, and cars just old enough to have begun rusting filled the streets with their dulled colors. The city had fallen so recently that it still held the visage of a normal city, but without the sounds or signs of life, it only left it all the more like a corpse.

"Mountain Glenn has plenty of history."

A shadow passed across the Bullhead and lingered, though there were no clouds in the sky. In fact, there was nothing blocking the sun's rays at all, yet the light had begun to dim until it was barely brighter than a stormy day. Even the colors they wore became desaturated and dull as if the very life was being drained from the air, leaving the team looking around in confusion.

"So, uh, can someone clue me into what's going on, here?" Yang asked.

"The true effects of the Grimm. Pay close attention, children, for this is what the creatures of darkness bring: destruction not just to humanity, but to life and light itself," Oobleck spoke slowly, intending to let these words settle. "When the Grimm overran Mountain Glenn, they tainted the entire region. Without nature's own aura to help cleanse the abandoned city ruins, it has become shrouded in stagnation, with only the former negative emotions borne from this tragedy to inhabit it. Loss. Misery. Sadness. " He pointed off towards the center of the city. Its last line of defense was now shrouded in permanent darkness. "This 'watering hole' for the Grimm now serves as a dark reminder of what we've lost."

Though Grimm could be seen atop the buildings of the once-vibrant city as shadows and blots of black, they remained oblivious to the Bullhead soaring above. For all intents and purposes, they appeared invisible to the creatures.

"It's a perfect cover," Adam realized. "With so much negativity, even an army one thousand strong could hide without the Grimm attacking."

Oobleck nodded. "Precisely. But this does not mean they won't still draw attention. The instincts of the Grimm will still subconsciously bring them closer to particularly strong sources of negativity, even if it is not sufficient enough to warrant an assault. The higher concentration has cut down the possible locations from an area well over eighty square miles to only twenty!"

The time to even pretend to search over such a wide, urban area was far too much, in Weiss' opinion. They knew exactly where they needed to be, but how to explain it to Doctor Oobleck if he was not told about Penny already? The moment he knew about their true purpose, Ozpin-sanctioned or not, she was sure they'd be sent right back to Beacon.

"Why, Miss Schnee, I do hope whatever is on that Scroll is worth missing out on precious knowledge!" Oobleck chimed from just beside her, jolting Weiss and causing her to fumble the Scroll in her hands.

"W-well, you see, Professor—"

"Doctor," Doctor Oobleck corrected her with a strained smile.

"I was..." Weiss' eyes darted between the members of her team but found that—with the exception of Adam, who looked more amused at her distress—they were just as surprised as she was that Oobleck had caught on already. "I was... using our current information and Grimm concentrations to mark the most likely location for the White Fang base."

"Is that so?" Oobleck studied Weiss carefully, then turned his attention to the map itself. He let out a low, suspicious hum, then snatched the Scroll out of the heiress' hands. "Why, that is brilliant! A location close to the final evacuation routes of the city for the highest amount of background negativity, decaying bridges providing excellent strategic chokepoints in case of an assault, a suspiciously high concentration of Grimm surrounding that very area, and all within the region already selected, a perfect hiding place for our opposition! What an excellent show of intuition! You students should take notes from this young lady!" He praised her and handed the Scroll back, leaving the team to mask their collective relief.

"However, I am afraid there is one small problem with your choice, Miss Schnee, and that is that it is dangerously close to the city center itself. Approaching too closely by air leaves us at a substantially higher risk of observation, identification and immediate attack by older and more intelligent Grimm. We must still make our way there on foot."

A loud caw echoed through the air, followed by a flurry of beating wings.

"And that is our sign to land! Bring us down!" Red lights flashed inside the cabin, followed by a metallic ringing assaulting their ears from sharpened feathers striking their vehicle.

"On second thought, students, jump on three!" The Bullhead lurched and dived in towards the ground towards the empty, urban sprawl. "One-two-three-jump!" Oobleck waved the students off, making sure he was the last to make the jump to the streets below.

It was not the greatest height they had all fallen from, but the controlled leap from atop an airship or the launch into the Emerald Forest with plenty of time to prepare for was nothing compared to the abrupt nature of plummeting into Mountain Glenn. Instead of brightly-lit skies or well-lit city streets, they faced obscuring shadows and darkened alleyways, and rather than empty air, a flock of Nevermores circled them as they dropped towards unevenly spaced towers and ruins of varying heights.

Overall, it made for a decidedly harsh landing. Ruby carved her way through the Grimm, and each one slowed her fall until she could jam her scythe blade into the side of a ruined building and carve her way down its side. She was still left many stories in the air, but reaching the ground was as simple as hopping her way down the windowsills. Weiss was the most elegant, yet perhaps the most wasteful: bright glyphs lit her path to the street beside Ruby, letting her jump and control her descent with perfect, albeit flashy, control. She grimaced: it was a very visible way to enter their area of operations.

Almost as visible as the burst of light and fire ahead of them heralding Yang's destructive landing, or the Nevermore crashing to the ground behind them with Adam standing atop its back, blade embedded inside its already fading body. Rubble and dust rained down from their various different ways of entering and low rumbling still echoed through the streets.

While Oobleck daintily landed behind them without a care in the world, the four students scanned their surroundings with weapons drawn and ready. Rough. Loud. Bright. Attention-grabbing. All of their entrances carried these aspects, which would no doubt summon Grimm en masse in these parts. Yet, as they looked upon the shadows of Nevermores crossing the dark, dulled skies above or scanned the crumbling streets covered in loose papers, plaster and rusting cars, they found... nothing.

No attacks. Not even a sign they had been noticed. Their Bullhead was visible through the shadowy haze, banking across the sky with not even a Griffon on its tail: the Grimm had simply forgotten its existence as a whole.

"I don't understand this one bit," Weiss mumbled. "Surely, the Grimm should have noticed us by now. Our auras should stick out like a sore thumb!" Though it was not a question, Weiss turned to Oobleck in hopes of an answer.

The doctor took a quick sip from a thermos. "Does anyone here know how many people lived in Mountain Glenn before its fall?"

Dropping her combat stance, Yang raised her hand. "Ten million."

"Very good! Ten million. Ten million citizens under constant assault by the creatures of Grimm and pushed back slowly but surely towards this very center of the metropolitan area over the course of two years. What you see here"—Oobleck motioned towards the strangled sky—"is the combined negativity of ten million people concentrated into the area of one of their final points of resistance against the largest recorded horde of Grimm. In the skies above we were like a star in the night sky to them, but even we who have our auras unlocked and strengthened are mere embers in the shadows down here."

Ruby couldn't help but shudder: the reminders of how they weren't just surrounded but shielded by the ghosts of tragedies long past were not bringing any pleasant thoughts.

"How do we get the supplies you brought?" So, she changed the subject.

"Our Bullhead should draw substantially less attention from the creatures of Grimm without us onboard therefore it should have no problems whatsoever in delivering our supplies on a second run. Our coordinates are constantly being broadcast to them so there is no reason to dilly-dally!" He took a lightning-fast drink from his flask. "As of right now your first mission as Huntresses and Huntsmen has begun! From this moment, I will be your commanding officer and thus you must listen to everything that I say, am I understood? Yes? Marvelous! We have our first task courtesy of Miss Schnee, so let us begin immediately!"


Seconds passed by silently in a stark white lab, where the two occupants leveled their glares at one another. On one side sat Torchwick, his well-known white coat covered in nicks and scratches. The rim of his white bowler cap had a section of it quite neatly sheared off. On the other, sat Penny, glaring back with defiance and a number of faint singe marks across her. A pair of swords hovered behind her, and Torchwick's thumb hovered over a remote.

The swords rose higher. Torchwick's brow rose. More seconds passed in silence.

Penny sighed, and her weapons returned to her back. "... But why would you let me keep my weapons, Mister Torchwick?"

"Because unlike your side, we trust people!" Torchwick replied with a triumphant grin. "Hey, would you look at that, you're learning! And it only took us..." Torchwick leaned over to look at the terminal. "Twenty minutes of this! Now, look, I'm pretty sure you're confused on where's the trust if I'm just zapping you, but there's a difference! See, at least you've got a choice! Sure, it gets you electrocuted, but a choice is a choice, right?"

Penny blinked. She cocked her head to the side and furrowed her brow. "I do not understand." People were very strange outside of Atlas. She thought she was getting so much better at figuring them out, too...

The criminal rubbed his temples. "Alright, yeah, I admit that we might've lost the point a bit around the ten minute mark. Look, tell you what, kid: I've got a couple questions for you. Answer them, and I'll be on my way."

Penny did not respond, for her attention was brought elsewhere: a notification that five Beacon Scrolls were active and close to her position. She could recognize two, already: Ruby and Weiss. They'd come to save her! All she'd have to do is keep Torchwick and her other captors busy while not giving away any classified information—a simple task.

Penny nodded.

Unfortunately, Torchwick wasn't interested in classified information.