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I'm also posting this story on Space Battles. com, feel free to look it up there since I'm more active in the comments section over there.
Mr. S sighed into his palm, feeling more and more hopeless by the moment.
"But," Schwarz said, shooting happiness straight into Mr. S's heart more effectively than any drug, "we can have it washed in the laundry room."
"Excellent," Mr. S replied before moving off the desk he'd been leaning against and facing the left wall. "You, you, come with me," he said, gesturing towards Ruby and Blake respectively before heading towards the door.
"Wait, you can't go alone with he-"
"Schwarz," Mr. S interrupted softly, "do you trust my judgement?"
"Eh..ugh...yes," Schwarz admitted, looking as if she were swallowing mud.
"Good, now-" Mr. S began.
"But...how am I supposed to do all of this by myself! I'd need your help and authorizatio-"
"Delegate!" Mr. S said, walking backwards towards the exit and tossing her the master access card he'd grown so used to using over the course of the work day.
"Wait…" Schwarz said, broken out of her argument and catching the card, reverently holding it in two palms, "you're giving me...permission to lead?"
"Yes, do whatever you have to do. I trust you to succeed!" Mr. S shouted back as he walked out the door.
"Wait a minute!" Weiss shouted, rushing out behind him, causing the rest of team RWBY to follow after her, Ruby and Yang herding the still dazed Blake along with them.
Schwarz stood disbelievingly, staring, wide eyed, at the card in her hand as the rest of her visitors sat awkwardly alongside her in the encompassing silence.
Of course, something had to come along and break the peace.
"Schwarz!" the distant voice of Mr. Schnee yelled.
"Yes, sir!" Schwarz yelled back.
"Where is the laundry room!" she heard, shouted back.
"It's on the third level of the basement, sir."
"How many levels are there in the basement, again?" Mr. S asked, as if he were trying to remember the answer which he totally knew all along.
"Ten, sir." Schwarz replied, already swiping the card over her tablet as she sent out the necessary orders.
"So, is it on level negative three or level negative seven?"
"Level negative seven, sir," Schwarz replied.
Once again, there was a quiet, as schwarz tapped away at the tablet she cradled in her forearm.
"...Schwarz, where's the elevator?"
"On your left, sir," Schwarz answered, not looking up from her tablet.
Weiss and company followed furiously behind Mr. S as they came upon the elevator.
"What are you up to?" Weiss asked suspiciously, her heels clicking furiously as a now partially awake Blake trailed behind her, sending worried looks in her direction.
"I'm going to wash my shirt, Weiss," Mr. S answered, annoying her with the misuse of proper dress terminology.
"You could wash it on your own, you know," Weiss pointed out aggressively, "why try to drag Blake and Ruby along with you."
"Oh, I thought I could use the company," Mr. S replied with a casual tone. "Also, I thought it might be important to know more about the "not-a-terrorist" that's managed to get famous all of a sudden."
"Then why did you want Ruby," Weiss said with complete disbelief before pausing a moment and sending an apologetic look back to the pouting, and slightly annoyed, Ruby behind her.
Mr. S paused a second, thinking of a way to formulate his answer without using the phrases, "Napoleon Complex","Anger Issues","Axe Murderer", or "Uni Bomber-Kitty".
"Well, to be honest, she seemed to be the least insane person in your group," Mr. S settled, stopping at the wall of elevator doors and pressing the summon button, really wishing he still had his master access card, which would have given him priority.
"And why should we follow you?" Weiss responded with a heated tone, just as a bell chimed and the elevator doors opened.
"Because you already are," Mr. S responded, stepping into the empty elevator compartment before him.
"Just answer the question," Weiss retorted as she stepped in behind him and the rest of team RWBY followed behind her. Despite her stoked fury, Weiss was curious to know the answer; she couldn't return to the office as it was, in any case.
"Because you don't want the company to fail any more than I do," Mr. S responded evenly, "and I'll need your help to give it the best chance of survival," he finished, looking over at team RWBY and Blake in particular.
Blake shared a sideways glance with Weiss before turning to look at an empty corner of the elevator.
Mr. S was regretting not asking Schwarz what room number the laundry room was in...until the elevator doors opened, that is.
Ding! The bell sounded as the metal doors glided silently apart and the sound of laundry washed over them. Stepping out of the elevator felt more like walking into a museum than any laundry room. In fact, calling this place a "laundry room" would be an injustice; It was more like a laundry level, with whirring machines embedded across every wall, covering every surface up to the high ceiling as crawling machines trawled along the walls, carrying baskets of laundry to and fro as a large sign reading "Trapp Laundry" hung visibly across the opposite wall.
The center of the room was a clean, white tiled, endeavor with "shelves" of machines lining the space as maids patrolled the isles, carrying hampers and staring, wide eyed, at the newest visitors.
Ding! The next elevator door opened as several, heavily armed, security bots exited, leaving behind a worried group of executives as they stepped onto the floor and turned mechanically, heading towards Mr. Schnee.
"Oh, great, who sent these things over?" Weiss asked with a tone of contempt.
That response, coupled with the lack of screaming and running from anyone on the floor, hinted to Mr. S that these killer robots were of the "come with me if you vvant to live" variety, causing him to ignore the following robots along with the staring maids as he hurriedly picked out the fanciest looking machine within reach and strode towards its location, followed closely by team RWBY and again by team Robot.
Stopping just before the rainbow colored, sleek, and ivory chromed washing machine, Mr. S...stared at it in confusion, too afraid to ask where the buttons were.
"Uhm...sir?" Ruby asked, leaning over to look past Yang's shoulder, "do you...not know how to use that washing machine?" she asked with a soft tone.
"Apparently not," Mr. S replied with a resigned voice, still leaning down to stare into the glass globe protruding from the center face of the machine.
"Would you like me to help?" Ruby asked just as softly.
"It would be appreciated," Mr. S replied as Ruby slinked past Yang's worried grasp and stalked slowly over to the machine in question.
'Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods!' Ruby rapidly chanted in her head, 'I can't believe I get to touch a RAZR BACH 9000! '"It's more expensive than the Razr Bach 6000, but it's filled to the brim with all sorts of fun features!"' she thought, mentally reciting the slogan that had been drilled into her head from childhood. 'I can almost smell the chrome-titanium heating units.'
Mr. S decided to ignore the giddly jumping girl as she smiled maniacally and expertly pulled apart the configurable units of the machine, instead looking over at Blake, who leaned against the wall of washers with her arms crossed as she tried to huddle herself in the barrier the rest of the team had formed around her.
"Blake, was it?" He inquired, drawing the sulking girl's attention to him as he removed his suit coat and gently folded it up in his hands.
"Yes," she replied coldly, not seeming to understand his words as her distant eyes quickly turned back to examine the flooring ahead.
"Huhhh," Mr. S sighed at the attitude. He knew that look from all the little kids he'd seen sulking at the youth center he volunteered at, and he knew he wouldn't be getting any help until her issues were dealt with. "You know, you've been unusually quiet lately," he ventured, trying to start a conversation and earning the defensive glares of Weiss and Yang as they closed in closer around Blake.
Blake didn't respond, merely gazing in between the statuesque security bots, watching their sentinel like forms in her periphery as she became lost in the view of the laundry room before her.
"Look," Mr. S started easily, "I realize that you're not having the best of times right now, being accused of being a terrorist and such," he continued, earning another glare from Yang as Weiss continued her last one, "but if we want to salvage the company and your reputation, I'm going to need your cooperation," Mr. S proposed, holding the long silence after he finished his speech as he waited anxiously.
Blake held her own silence, staring at the reflection in the tiled floor for over a minute as she lethargically moved herself to answer, fighting against the defeated spirit inside of her that was worrying over how this would affect her life at beacon and really just wanted a cat-nap for the next twenty four hours. "What do you need?" she asked, sounding more like a prisoner than she'd intended.
"Just tell me about your time in the White Fang and your affiliation with them. Feel free to go into more detail, we need a story to give to the press," Mr. S quickly answered, eager to move the conversation along.
Blake took a moment to formulate her words while Mr. S waited to the side with a patient mask. "I never killed anyone," she responded coldly.
"We're all well aware," Mr. S interrupted with a calming tone, "we wouldn't be having this conversation if you did."
Another silence.
"Is there anything else of importance to the case you'd like to reveal?" Mr. S asked.
Blake stayed silent while Mr. S continued to wait with an expectant look, even past the point where he knew he wouldn't be getting any more answers.
"Umm, sir," Ruby said in a strained voice, drawing Mr. S's gaze to her struggling form as she forcibly held together a flashing module in her arms, pulling it away from the washing machine it was attached to with a rip chord as she braced a foot against the washer itself and supported the module on her raised knee. "If you could hand over your coat," she continued breathlessly, "... hurry!"
Quickly, Mr. S tossed the coat towards Ruby, causing the girl to lurched forward with great effort and catch the article of clothing in the modular basket she'd forced open in her hands.
SNAP!
The box snapped shut around the coat and the rip-chord reeled the object into the larger machine, where Mr. S was sure several tornadoes subsequently apparated as the noise level of the machine rose incredibly, though somehow still oddly refined.
Within seconds the box popped out and snapped open, revealing a clean, dry and freshly pressed suit that was warm to the touch and felt like heaven. Mr. S tried not to show any signs of being impressed as he took the coat and put it on, leaving the machine to snap shut and reel back on itself once more as he stepped away from it.
"Huh," Mr. S closed his eyes to sigh as the comforting weight of the suit rested once more upon his shoulders, making him feel just slightly more evil in the process. This had not been a productive trip. Although, he had to admit, the suit just looked better without the stain, really rather put-together as a whole.
NTTN
