Cause Worth Fighting For
The sheer extent of Mountain Glenn's decay only became apparent from up close. Though the shadow-clad city held onto some semblance of life from a distance, walking down the lonely streets let one see Mountain Glenn for what it truly was: a pallid, bloated corpse. The roads were cracked and strewn with rubble, the buildings' paints and facings had peeled away to show the stone and metal beneath, and every rumble from distant Grimm left the skeletal structures groaning and yawning with strain. Grimm crawled and leaped across buildings, and Nevermore circled the skies like vultures, yet even when they were close enough to make out clearly, they did not so much as turn a glance in Team RWAY's direction.
Their supplies dropped off to them and carried along by Doctor Oobleck, RWAY carefully made their way through these ruins.
"Please remember, students, that even though we may have a location to start with it is still the first of many possible... locations!" their chaperone reminded them. "This has not yet become a 'search and destroy' mission and it will remain that way until we have direct confirmation of criminal activity. Stay focused, watch your surroundings and report back with any potential evidence. Any questions?" Oobleck was only met with determined gazes. He narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. "That's... odd."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Odd?"
"Yes, very odd indeed. Look over there at that Grimm atop the building two blocks ahead of us." He pointed off behind them, and the team followed his hand up to a flat, stout, and half-collapsed building. Stalking atop it was a young Beowolf without the common, ivory plate or even the shroud of darkness the other Grimm brought. What attracted their attention, however, was the color of its eyes and maw: sea-green. Flecks of the same color ran across its fur—a sign of the early growth of spikes.
"It's just a weird-looking Beowolf, right?" Ruby asked.
Oobleck furrowed his brow. "I don't believe so: there have been rumors of Grimm with pale fur, yes, but most believe them to have been particularly ancient and heavily-armored specimen. No one has claimed to have seen a Grimm bearing discoloration this bizarre. Recognize that the fall of a city of Mountain Glenn's magnitude is an extraordinarily rare event, matched only by the Oniyuri Disaster in Mistral one decade ago. It is completely possible that what we are seeing is a mutation of Grimm that has also seen us."
Weiss blinked. She turned to the doctor. "What?"
"It has also seen us!"
Sure enough, though the far older Grimm of the city did not notice them once since their arrival, this strange pup had leveled its gaze directly at them. The team readied themselves for combat, the pup stood tall in the ruins... and ran off.
"Well, that was weird." Yang lowered her fists. "It's the only one that could see us, but now it's running away?" The words had barely left her mouth when the pup had returned, but now with an alpha on its tail, heavy plating and countless spikes marking its age.
Ruby stifled a snicker, seeing no threat in only Beowolves. "Do Grimm usually go get their dad?"
Oobleck did not share in her humor. "No. No, not at all. Beowolves may operate under a facsimile of a canine pack structure; however, there have been no signs of intelligent cooperation among them beyond just following their alpha. The alpha should have been seeking out the members of its pack upon locating a threat, not the other way around."
The alpha rose to its full height and sniffed at the air, but was interrupted by the mutant growling and swiping off in their direction.
While the alpha let out an echoing howl, Oobleck furrowed his brow. "A younger Grimm ordering around an alpha, let alone a Beowolf? This is unprecedented! Alas, the situation leading to this may never be known," he bemoaned as Beowolves crawled out from the building and the alleyways surrounding it en masse.
Ruby brought her scythe behind her and pulled back the bolt. "Orders, Doctor?"
Oobleck sighed. "Show me what you are capable of."
With a wide grin, Ruby turned to the rest of her team. "I already see twenty! Bet'cha I'll get the most!"
Yang cracked her knuckles, not caring in the least about the approaching Grimm or Oobleck's curious stare in their direction. "You are so on!"
A single blast of her shotgun gauntlets and Yang was flying into the fray. A poor Beowolf attempted to leap up and intercept her, only to be punched down hard enough into the ground to scatter the rest of the pack. She hit the ground running and moved straight for the alpha, but rather than fight her, it went on the defensive, ducking under her blows and backing up towards the building.
Ruby was little more than a blur of red as she zipped through a pair of Beowolves, leaving slain Grimm and rose petals in her wake. She spun to a stop and looked over her handiwork, expecting to find herself pleased. Yet, looking over the shreds and limbs, Ruby found herself shuddering. Too many reminders of the night before—no! Her gaze hardened. She wasn't going to let that stop her! She spun on her heels and brought her crimson scythe through a Beowolf that believed she was distracted. Her attention was naturally drawn to the black and sea-green mutant on the building: it wasn't just staying out of combat, it was stalking back and forth on the roof. Its eyes were not on her or her teammates, but on the Grimm below.
Like a commander.
"Weiss, get the weird one! I think it's up to something!" Ruby shouted over the signs of combat before blasting herself off towards the largest pack of Grimm that were attempting—and failing—to land a scratch on Adam.
Weiss withdrew her rapier from a dissipating Grimm and cast her gaze up towards the mutant. On the outskirts closest to Oobleck, she had a clear path towards its perch. She spun the rapier's cylinder just as the mutant jerked its head in her direction and roared. Two Grimm broke from the rest in a desperate, feral dash towards her.
Velvet's claim of more intelligent Grimm rang in Weiss' mind as she was forced to dart forward and dispatch the first in a single strike into its head. Still, as she was able to twirl past the fading body and plunge her rapier through the center of the second before it could react, it was clear to her that they were still Beowolves. They were still weak. Since the mutant was turning and getting ready to run with its tail between its legs, Weiss could assume that stood even for this particularly smart one. Weiss sped her way across and over the battlefield on a stairway of shining glyphs and stepped down onto the roof of the mutant's building just as it was about to leap from the ledge.
A flick of her rapier sent a spear of ice clean through its center, pinning it to the roof's edge. The sea-green glow surrounding it faded away, leaving the body dark. Instead of dissipating into mist, it decomposed into a black, viscous liquid. Weiss narrowed her eyes and filed that away for later before putting her new position to good use and watching over the battle. The sense of cooperation among the Grimm had collapsed completely, and Ruby and Adam were not standing still for even a fraction of a second as they took advantage of their daze and shredded them in blurs of black and red. They were fine. That just left Yang.
"Stand! Still! You! Wimp!" The blonde was shouting and punctuating each word with another devastating swing at the alpha and presumed leader of the pack. Each one went flying over or just short of the Beowolf's face as it hopped and dodged backwards. It was on the complete defensive, and from how far back it had been pushed, it had been so for a while. At the least, the alpha was completely separated from its pack, but so was Yang from her teammates. Weiss' eyes widened as she spotted gleaming rubies lurking in the ruined buildings surrounding Yang.
"Yang, you're too far out: it's a trap!" Weiss shouted and rose her rapier up at the same time the alpha roared. Four Beowolves leaped out from where they had been waiting this entire time: it was a setup from the start.
The closest to Yang was pinned to a wall by a bolt of ice, giving Yang enough time to pivot and bring her fist into the core of a second, fire her gauntlet and slam her elbow down into a third. It was only when Yang bull rushed the final one into a wall that she heard the alpha growling behind her. She grinned when she saw it approach in the remnants of a broken window, dug in, swung herself around when the alpha thought she wasn't paying attention and—
"Mine!" Ruby rushed by the alpha, cleaving its arm off with one pass and its head with second. The alpha was dead before Yang's fist had even reached it. At least it made a satisfying explosion of shadow and ivory plate on impact.
She threw her arms up in frustration. "Aw, come on, I totally had that!"
Ruby whistled innocently and rocked back and forth on her heels. "Why, I don't know what you are talking about at all, dear sister! All I know is that I got my sixth Grimm. How many do you have?" She put on a toothy grin and leaned forward, only getting a snort and grumble under her sister's breath for her troubles. "Hmmm? I can't hear you..."
"Three! It's because of that stupid alpha running away, though! I thought they were supposed to be more... I don't know, aggressive?" Yang huffed.
"If it helps," Weiss began as she daintily dropped down from the building's roof beside them, "I only eliminated four. Of course, the enemy commander was included among the casualties which, if you ask me, should place me at the top of the list!"
"Pssh, as if!" Ruby crossed her arms with a smug grin. "Numbers only!"
A dissipating Beowolf body landed between the three of them, and Adam—left alone with the lion's share of the Grimm—joined with the rest of his team. "Well then, I guess that puts me at the top. Eight," he said with a smirk.
As Ruby stammered and tried to say that the alpha totally counted for more after all because it was way tougher, Oobleck stared down at the team from the mutant's former perch with a mix of amusement and disappointment. As if able to sense someone judging her, Yang cast a half-agitated look at him from over her shoulder. Oobleck put on a smile and left the students to their devices for now. He had other business to attend to: the remains of their strange little foe. He slipped on a glove and carefully swept one finger across the very edge of the sludge left behind.
Even when separated from the rest, the darkness was barely fading at all. Instead, keeping this tar-like viscosity, it almost felt... stable. Intelligent, stabilized, discolored Grimm leading across even age barriers. These findings were very curious, indeed. Oobleck clicked his tongue. He'd need more examples than just this! Alas, a mutation of this level seemed far too new to occur more than once.
Doctor Oobleck was gravely mistaken: not only had they found this type of mutant more than once, almost every encounter with the Grimm had included one of them in their ranks: giant Beowolves with misshapen heads and countless, coiling crystals in place of spikes, Ursa that looked more like porcupines from the sheer number of spines in its back, even brief signs of a mutated King Taijitu lurking in one of the empty shells of buildings. And there were many encounters. More than any mere high concentration could justify.
Strangest of all was their effect on the surrounding Grimm: compared to normal packs of Grimm, even without any outward sign of command each individual would be too intelligent for its age. They showed no signs of overwhelming increases in strength, however, and thank the Brothers for that: traps, pincer maneuvers, even a tactical, fighting retreat made it clear that, were they actually a match for his students in the first place, they may not have made it out without more than losses of aura.
Doctor Oobleck did not like this. Doctor Oobleck did not like this one bit. As he scribbled down more observations of the use of intelligent—no, sapient—tactics after one of their many battles, however, one of his students saw fit to interrupt him.
"Hey Doc, I was kinda looking to see a 'pro Huntsman' in action," Yang said, trying and failing to hide the irritation in her tone. "Do ya think you could... I don't know, help?"
Doctor Oobleck glanced over his glasses at the impatient girl and put on another smile. "Ah, but don't you see? I am! Scanning, analysis and judging is what I specialize in: look here and tell me what you see!" He flipped over his notebook and pointed out on a copied map the rough positions of each encounter they had faced thus far. Already, it was so full of information, even from the sparse dots and crosses.
Yang, however, did not appear to see the same patterns he did, instead flicking her sight from the book to him until she shrugged. "I... I don't know? That there's been a lot?"
His smile slipped. "Not exactly. The Grimm we have faced thus far have been roughly equidistant from each other and focused on reasonably defensible positions. What that tells me is that the Grimm appear to have been placed purposefully as a form of defense, perhaps even using these mutated Grimm to guide and keep them here."
Yang stared at him with only a hint of comprehension in her eyes.
"In other words, Miss Xiao Long, your teammate may be onto something. More importantly, our enemy may have found some rudimentary way of controlling the Grimm themselves!"
This did not wipe away the irritation and frustration in Yang's eyes, even if it did give an excuse for his lack of fighting. As Oobleck looked across the rest of the team though, he found that they were not much better: Ruby's silver eyes darted from building to building, barely staying on him for more than a moment. At the least, Weiss held herself well, yet with lips drawn into a thin line and eyes aimed at him yet unfocused, it was clearly a mask hiding whatever lay within. The eldest, Adam, the one he would have expected to at least have had some knowledge of what it truly meant to be a Huntsman or at least a soldier, looked on in the face of such news with an impassive, dead stare.
They were the picture of impatience.
Oobleck sighed. "Not every mission will be the extermination of Grimm or the height of excitement. Reconnaissance, search and rescue, patrol: some, if not most will just be a heightened form of examination. Remember, this is a job that you all signed up for." He took a drink from his thermos and strolled further down the tattered streets. "Come along students, your auras are still above fifty percent, so let us cover at least five more blocks before we begin setting up camp."
Something would have to be done about this.
It was close to the usual distance between Grimm hordes, when Oobleck suddenly spun to face the team. "Tell me, Yang: why did you choose this line of work?"
Not expecting to be put on the spot like this, Yang stammered and glanced around at her teammates. "Well... I, uh, wanted to fight monsters and save the day—"
Oobleck clicked his tongue. "We are well aware of what a Huntress does, I am asking why you do it: the honest reason why you want to fight monsters and put yourself at risk for the greater good."
"The 'honest reason'?" Yang repeated. "Well, that's..." She trailed off, having expected the answer to come easily only for it to die on her tongue. Yang's glance at her teammates held more nervousness: now, it was joined by flickers of embarrassment and irritation at the curious looks cast down all around her. She needed an answer fast, and decided to just go with what her heart was telling her.
"I'm... a thrill seeker. I've always wanted to go travel around all the four kingdoms and get wrapped up in as many adventures as I can. If I'm not strong enough to go on a walk through the woods, that'll never happen. I guess... I guess saving people's a bonus, y'know?"
She fidgeted under Oobleck's judging gaze for a few, long seconds.
"Hm, is that right?" And he kept walking.
The mere flicker of irritation turned into a burning flame. "Wait, now hold on, what do you mean by that!"
A low howl and countless, vicious growls from ahead signaled the arrival of a far larger horde of Grimm.
"Ah, it seems we're getting closer to our faunus friends! Our little conversation will have to wait!"
Before Yang could protest further, the first of many Beowolves crawled out from a precariously leaning skyscraper. She wouldn't forget this.
"And what about you, Miss Schnee?" Doctor Oobleck spoke without even glancing at the heiress behind him, instead preferring to mark down further findings of a mutant Grimm she had so helpfully encased in ice, keeping it from dissolving entirely just yet. The sound of combat was beginning to die off around them.
"The heiress to a vast company, born into fame and fortune in the center of a kingdom's power. So, why choose training for a dangerous world of Grimm over the wealthy world of business?" he continued.
Weiss allowed a smile to grace her features while Oobleck had his back turned: she had expected this question soon enough. "As you said, Doctor: I am a Schnee and the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. The moment I had found out about my potential in combat, there was no longer any question as to what to do with my life. It is my duty to follow in my grandfather's footsteps and uphold my family's legacy of honor," she said with practiced ease.
Their teacher turned around to reveal not the smile she expected, but a subtle, judging frown. Her smile slipped. Briefly, she wondered just what about that would have displeased him.
"Interesting. Do tell, though: to uphold a legacy of honor, shouldn't there be one left in the first place?"
Taken aback and left with her mouth agape, Weiss prepared to ask just what he was implying when Ruby whistled to the two.
"We got 'em all, Professor! Can we move on?"
"Doctor!" He marched past Weiss, leaving herself as the only one who could answer his and her questions both.
Deep inside a crumbling skyscraper, a Beowolf burst through a rotting wall, roaring at its target. Adam spared it a single glance and, with a blur of his hand, sliced off its head from afar before it could even get into arms' reach. Alone and now surrounded by dissipating Grimm, Adam allowed his posture to falter and leaned up against one of the pillars holding the building together. Fifty Grimm. Fifty Grimm fell by his blade alone in a single day. During his time under Raven and in the White Fang he had to exterminate Grimm often, but not like this—not in these numbers. Yet, for a city of ten million to fall, the number of Grimm that rained down upon it must have been nightmarish. Unimaginable.
Adam scowled and prepared to move up to the next floor. Grimm nest after Grimm nest, but not a single sign of the White Fang. Not even the more subtle signs they would use to mark positions. This was beginning to look a lot like a trap.
"Glad to see you're taking this seriously."
Adam whipped himself around, hand on his hilt, only to find Oobleck standing in the stairway down with no minor amount of amusement behind his glasses.
"While our headmaster has not given us faculty much information of your past, I've gathered enough to be intrigued on why you're here. You carry yourself with purpose and I would be a liar if I said I was not curious as to exactly what that purpose is."
Rising out of his combat stance yet making sure not to show any signs of weakness, Adam snorted. "As you may have guessed, there was a point in my life where I brought darkness and corruption with my actions. It is time for that to change: I must wash away my misdeeds."
Oobleck nodded slowly. "A fair line of reason, Mister Belladonna. How many Grimm slain do you believe it will take to equal the damage that you have caused?"
Adam narrowed his gaze. Did he really think that his plan came down only to killing Grimm? He had done far more than that: he'd stifled his own former organization on numerous occasions and... and... what, exactly? What, beyond reacting and minor inconveniences to his foes? He'd been passive. Defensive.
With only a quiet hum, Oobleck traveled back down the stairs.
Adam made no attempt to stop him.
Penny blinked and tilted her head to one side. "... I still do not understand." This wasn't what she'd expected at all.
Torchwick leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. "You know, for a sentient computer, you can be awfully dumb sometimes, you know that? Let's try making it simpler, then: why do you fight?"
Ooh, that, she understood! He wanted to know her objective: that fit much more cleanly into her expectations for information gathering. Scarcely even a second after the words left Torchwick's lips, she sat up straight with bright eyes and responded. "I'm sorry, but my primary directive is classified—"
"No, wrong! If I wanted to know your objectives or your 'directive' or whatever, I'm pretty sure I could just find it in here or have Merlot do the hard work for me." He knocked his fist on the terminal. "So, why don't you tell me the real reason why you're fighting? They gave you free will, didn't they? And you're supposedly a 'real' girl, right?"
"Yes, I'm real!" Penny snapped, surprising herself. She didn't recall being this adamant about being human.
Rather than the agitation or fear that she expected Torchwick to show at being shouted at, however, the crime lord only smirked. "Go ahead, then, prove it: real people have motivations and dreams. What are yours, kid? Why do you fight?" he repeated.
Penny was never told how to answer that. If he wasn't talking about her primary objectives, what was he talking out? The thought left her frustrated, but she couldn't let this criminal know that. Her only choice was to fall back onto her knowledge and protocols.
Penny kept her face and tone neutral as she recited, "I fight because I am a student and loyal soldier of Atlas Academy."
Torchwick stared at Penny for a few long, quiet seconds before calmly pulling a box of cigars from his pocket. He lit one and took a long drag from it. "Hooo boy. Alright, let's just go from there: why?"
Penny, who hadn't moved an inch during that pause, tilted her head to one side. "Why... what?"
"Why are you a 'loyal soldier of Atlas Academy?' "
She narrowed her eyes. "Why are you asking me these questions?"
"Call it curiosity!" He waved his hand, spilling ashes across the clean ground. "I want to know just what General Compensation thinks free will is."
The room was quiet for a moment longer.
"I am a loyal soldier of Atlas Academy because I..." She fell silent and turned her gaze away. No one tended to ask Penny about her opinions on matters in Atlas. This simply was not a question she was prepared to answer, and it just didn't stop bothering her. "Because General Ironwood and my father told me that I was going to save the world."
"So you fight because you're told to?"
Penny perked up and her eyes brightened. "Yes! That is correct! I..." Her voice trailed off and her excitement faded when she noticed Torchwick's amused expression had faded.
Without warning, he grabbed his cane and forced himself to his feet.
"Well, I think Merlot might kill me if I keep him away from his precious computer any longer. Nice talk, though! Re~eal eye-opening." He typed something into the computer, and walked off towards the door, not even bothering to reattach the bulky, aura-restraining cuffs. "Ciao!" And then he was gone, leaving Penny more confused than when he'd walked in.
People really were strange, out here...
Merlot was waiting just outside the door for Torchwick. He made no effort to look like he was not listening in to their conversation. "Well? What is your opinion on our chances of success?"
"Honestly?" Torchwick took a long drag from his cigar. "If Ironwood told her to leap off a bridge, she'd smile and do flips all the way down."
"Then she's a slave to her programming, after all." The scientist grinned as he walked past Torchwick into the impromptu lab and cell. "This shall be even easier than I thought."
