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BRBEEP! BEERP! BEEPEREP! A muffled cacophony of phone calls rang through the hologram as the figure of Ironwood turned off to the side to observe the source of the sound in a resigned fashion, soon moving back to face Mr. S with a look of...almost annoyance…
"Huh," he sighed, "I've got to go; the heads are looking for someone to blame," he said, focusing a serious look on Mr. S. "Take care of things on your end, I'll talk with you at our next meeting," he finished with a short nod before the hologram cut out and a blast of wind rushed past Mr. S.
Mr. S's eyes widened in surprise, the tips of his mustache drifting lightly in the current as Schwarz appeared suddenly before his desk. Shifting his head up from where he'd been looking at the holo-projector, he caught Schwarz taking a defensive stance before him. Blake, who, for the most part, looked as if all the blood had been drained out of her, hardly mustered any reaction to the secretary as Yang and Ruby quickly moved to flank either side of the catatonic faunus, forming a defensive barrier between her and Schwarz.
Weiss watched on worriedly before rushing forward and skidding to a stop inches from the right side of the desk.
"Well?" Weiss asked, almost breathless with anticipation and a well-hidden sense of anxiety as she tried to occupy Mr. Schnee with the falling stock prices, hoping for the first time that he'd keep his sudden turn of opinion and not call security, or worse.
"Sir, I highly recommend we call security," Schwarz suggested with a steady, though strained, tone as she stood steadfastly, glaring at Blake. Weiss, meanwhile, mentally applied some choice words to the secretary.
"Eh, yeah, just calm down there for a second, Schwarz," Mr. S replied in a casual, half distracted, manner as he nervously eyed the falling stock numbers, putting forward as much concern as he could muster about the Blake situation. Noticing the panicked expression that Schwarz directed towards him, he quickly threw back a look of 'geez, calm down, my company's dying here!' as he made a mental note to talk to Schwarz about her priorities. I mean, terrorist or no, they were dealing with a teenage girl here, she wasn't hurting him period, especially when considering that they were in a room filled with eight other people, at least one of whom didn't want him dead.
Dismissing her concerns, Mr. S quickly turned his attention back to the stock screen, watching the red line continue to fall as he experienced his stomach turning with every dip and rise of the graph, once again pressing back into his chair as if the graph were a crashing plane that he'd been strapped to. He stared, entranced, as every sudden, upward jerk of the numbers shot a beacon of hope into his heart that the trend might start reversi- Beep Beep Beep!
He was drawn back into the present as he found himself in a loud room filled with quiet people, the clamor of the "investors next door" playing through the walls like they were surround-sound speakers as another phone went off.
Beep Beep Beep! There was that noise again.
The sound rung out once more as Mr. S looked about in confusion before whipping his head toward Schwarz.
"I thought you turned the phone off?" He asked.
"I think that's you, sir," Schwarz responded without looking away from her target, prompting Mr. S to quickly pull the glowing scroll from his pocket.
Looking confusedly at the opaque screen for a moment, he swiped his thumb over the fingerprint scanner, clearing away the frosted glass effect and revealing the mystery caller.
'Huh, so I do know her…' he thought, tilting his head at the confidently smirking, cherry red lips of the alluring woman on the screen. Strangely enough, no name showed up anywhere with the profile photo of the blonde.
Shifting the phone in his hand, Mr. S pressed what looked like the "pick up call" button but was actually the "speaker" button.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the voice on the other side rang out, one lightening-and-thunder sound effect away from impersonating Maleficent. "I didn't think I'd be seeing the fall of 'the great Mr. Schnee' so soon, fool," the harsh voice announced through the now relatively quiet room. "And oh, what a wondrous fall it was," she continued in a giddy tone of voice. "You have no idea-"
'I think she's been saving this up," Mr. S thought with a curious expression as a sudden change of tone brought his attention back to the monologue.
"-AHAHAHA, you should just retire now! And I hope you won't be brave enough to show up at this months STOCK meeting...because you're a laughing STOCK! HAHAHAHAHA! And I'll be sure to be laughing with the rest of them!" she said, pausing a moment to catch her breath and savor the moment. "But really, truly," she said, putting a brief stall to her tone, "I hope you see now how little respect you had without your wife's name, Jaquez." she finished with a sneer, taking back control of her frenzied sentence.
"I'm sorry? Who is this?" Mr. S asked.
"AGHHH!" she sneered out before the line cut off abruptly.
"Hehehe!" Mr. S chuckled lightly, shaking his head in amusement at the now blank phone screen.
"What are you laughing at!" Weiss interrupted, slamming her palms down on the edge of his desk. "The company's dying!" she announced with a panicked look as Winter looked on from behind with a curious expression.
"Since when do you care, anyway?" Mr. S asked defensively, "You're the one that caused this in the first place!"
"I don't hate the company, I just hate you!" Weiss responded yet more aggressively as Mr. S felt like he'd just stuck his face behind a jet engine.
'Ouch.' Mr. S, thought.
"Ok, so we're all being very candid today," Mr. S responded calmly, raising his palms up in a calming gesture. "So, candidly, let me ask, of all the faunus in the world," he circled his hands, "you couldn't have chosen one that wasn't, and, I repeat, wasn't a terrorist?"
'Ooooh, burn!'
"She's not a terrorist!" a chorus of voices responded from all non-Blake members of team RWBY.
"Right, right, she's a 'freedom fighter'," Mr. S replied, making air quotes.
"No, the news is lying!" Weiss responded. "She's actually not a terrorist," she clarified further, folding one arm across her chest as a hand rose to rub at her temples, hoping that he'd forget about the dressing down Blake had given him just moments before becoming very arrest-able.
"Wait, really?" Mr. S asked, swiveling his chair around to face Weiss at that declaration.
"Wait," Weiss drew back, folding her arms in on herself as she looked blankly down at Mr. S along with the rest of the room. "Wait, what?" Weiss asked, making sure that she was hearing that hopeful tone in his voice right.
"I'm asking if you're really not affiliated with the White Fang," Mr. S said, swiveling once more to address Blake through the crowd of people standing between the two of them. "I'd really like to clear this up with the press."
"Uh...well," Blake struggled, desperately wanting to say "yes" but somehow unable to spit out what would be a technically false answer."It's...complicated?" she finally said.
"Sir, I'm calling security," Schwarz said, grabbing the phone.
NTTN
