The Kingdom of Vale was starting to get more than a little busy lately, what with the Vytal Festival coming in just a couple of months. Businesses were busy preparing for the influx of tourists from the other Kingdoms, the airship ports were working overtime to deal with the numerous ships going in and out, and an air of joviality filled the city streets.
At one of the ports a cruiser airship landed and opened its offloading ramp to let the passengers off. Most were from Mistral, a bit less called Atlas home, but two in particular came from a bit farther away. They, along with about 20 some odd people, got onto a transport bus that took them from the terminal into Vale proper and got off on the first stop once they were in the city.
The younger of the two jumped off the bus onto the sidewalk and looked up at a nearby building with a small amount of awe in her red eyes. A bit of wind blew her hair, black in color ending in red tips, along with her red cape and black combat dress belted down in the right places. She smiled toothily as she tapped one of her black combat boots against the pavement, more than ready to see the city.
She probably would have drawn more than a few stares if not for her companion, whose long blonde hair would draw a gaze no matter where she was. Not that the rest of her wasn't as eye catching, with bright lilac eyes to compliment her hair, a short leather jacket with a yellow undershirt that were both short enough to expose just enough of her midriff, black shorts and a leather half-skirt, and leather boots to complete the outfit. All in all it seemed deliberately coordinated to be functional and distracting, which seemed to work since she saw two guys ogling her out of the corner of her eye before turning away when they saw her looking at them.
The blonde chuckled to herself as she turned to her companion and asked, "If only they knew, huh Ruby?"
Ruby looked back, catching the looks some of the guys and girls were giving her companion, and rolled her eyes in response. "Yeah, sure Yang. Now come on, I want to look around before we have to get to work." Yang chuckled a little but followed Ruby regardless as she started walking through the streets. As they walked, dodging pedestrians and staring into shop windows along the way, Ruby couldn't help but marvel at how different the city was from the last time she had been here. 'It's quite different from that view on Griffon back would have said.'
"You're really playing the 'wide-eyed tourist' to a T Ruby," Yang commented cheerfully, which earned a glare from Ruby that quickly turned to curiosity when Yang started pulling on her fingerless gloves to adjust them.
"Why are you doing that?"
"Huh?" Yang wondered before she saw what she was doing and stopped, rubbing the back of her head with a small laugh. "Sorry, force of habit. When you use this Glamour a lot, habits like playing with clothing become second nature. You should try it more often Ruby, you can't even get your eyes fully done."
"I never had that fine a control over Glamour like you do Yang," Ruby shrugged and pulled out a scroll, opening it to once again make sure all the information was correct on it for her to pass as a Student of Haven Academy. "I'm not too worried in any case, I saw a girl with hot pink eyes on the flight over. I should be fine."
"True enough. So what's on the agenda for today?"
"We need to find Cinder to let her know about the change in plans," Ruby answered and stopped at an intersection while Yang hit the crossing button. "After that, we'll need to figure out weapons. It's a little weird for Huntresses to not have weapons."
"Fair enough, I'm still a little annoyed I couldn't bring my shotgun with me. I'll have to figure something else out." The walking signal turned on and Yang tapped Ruby on the shoulder as she started walking along. Once they were clear of the street Yang asked, "And what about our 'teammates'? You think they'll be here?"
"Weiss and Blake never failed us on that before," Ruby answered and put away her scroll, "so I wouldn't worry too much. We may have to come up with an excuse for why they aren't here, but that shouldn't be too hard."
"We can just say we had staggered arrival times, it seems to be fairly common for exchange students here." The pair started turning a corner when Yang smirked and crossed her arms behind her head, "You know, I've never actually seen the 'dolls' before, so I can't help but be excited to see what they're like."
"I think we know exactly what they'll look like, so I wouldn't worry too-" Ruby stopped short as she and Yang saw a police cordon up ahead. They glanced at each other and ran to see what was going on, same as everyone else in the crowd.
"Everybody stand back, this is a crime scene!" A detective with a beard and sunglasses shouted while waving his arms widely, "Let everybody do their jobs ok?"
"What happened?" Yang asked no one in particular, though a middle-aged housewife with a tacky purse heard and answered.
"The owner of that store was murdered," she whispered to Yang.
"Murdered?" Ruby asked and tried to look past the crowd at the store.
"Oh yes, I heard a boy went in to buy a comic book and found the body lying in the middle of the store! The police took the body away and Mrs. O'Grady said that he was missing most of his head from what she could see through the sheet." The housewife shook her head and added, "Such a tragedy, especially with the Vytal Festival right around the corner." She then left the crowd just as Ruby stopped jumping and glared at the crowd.
"Grr, I can't see the store with these people in the way!" Ruby complained and looked at Yang, giving the taller girl a silent order. Yang nodded and started pushing through the crowd, disappearing in the throng of people and coming back a short while later.
"Tukson's Book Trade," Yang said once she come back and crossed her arms with a thoughtful expression. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Blake talking about someone with that name a while ago?"
"You've gotta be… come on," Ruby turned and started walking away from the crowd with Yang in tow. Once they were far enough away Ruby said, "And you're right, that's the same guy. And Blake gave Cinder's man here the task to 'take care' of him." Ruby rubbed her chin in thought and turned to Yang, who was grinning widely as her eyes turned a bright red.
"Are we doing what I think we are?" she asked.
"Yes. Let's find this 'Torchwick' and ask him why he did such a sloppy job."
"Oh ho ho, I can't wait to see the heads roll," Yang said while cracking her knuckles.
"They will if they have to," Ruby agreed. She was suddenly cast in shadow and when she looked up she saw a small fleet of airships fly overhead blocking out the sun briefly.
"Atlas? What are they doing here?" Yang asked, flicking her hair.
"I guess someone decided to come a bit early," Ruby answered biting her thumb slightly, "things are going to get interesting."
The Atlesian fleet flew toward Beacon Academy and took up position in the air around it, the larger ones taking defensive positions around the school while the smaller ones moved to the landing pads to deposit their passengers. Most of the students and faculty who saw it gaped in awe at the sudden arrival of the fleet. Two people in particular atop Beacon Tower had very different reactions.
"Ironwood certainly knows how to bring his work with him," Glynda commented with no small amount of annoyance.
"Well being a general and the head of an academy means he has quite a bit of work," Ozpin replied as he looked at one of the larger battleships, "those are a bit of an eyesore though."
"And knowing him, he'll make his way here as soon as he can." Glynda's words were proven true not even a second later when a hologram indicating a permission request popped up on Ozpin's desk.
"Come in," Ozpin called as he moved around his desk. One of the elevator doors opened to reveal a clean shaven middle aged man that gave off the aura of a lifelong military man, from his cleanly pressed white military suit and straight back demeanor. Ozpin returned the demeanor as General Ironwood walked in and grinned.
"Ozpin," he said while opening his arms in a friendly gesture.
"General," Ozpin returned professionally.
"Oh come now, let's drop the formalities. We've known each other long enough." Ozpin did just that and relaxed his stance to shake his old friend's hand while Glynda walked up next to them. "Glynda, you're looking as lovely as always."
"Thank you," Glynda replied with the smallest of eye rolls, "I'll be outside." She walked past both men and into one of the elevators, leaving the two of them to talk without her.
"Well she hasn't changed," Ironwood said good naturedly as Ozpin walked to his desk and the pot on top of it. "Oh none for me, I'm still a little lagged from the flight."
"It's not coffee," Ozpin clarified as he poured a cup and held it out to Ironwood. He took the cup and gave it a quick sniff as Ozpin walked around his desk with the pot and another mug. "If there's one thing I look forward to after the first semester, it's a return to normality, in a manner of speaking."
"Well when you put it like that, I guess I can have one cup," Ironwood said with a shrug as Ozpin sat down and poured himself a cup.
"So what brings the headmaster of Atlas Academy all the way to Vale? It's unusual for Headmasters to travel with their students after all," Ozpin said and looked up at Ironwood as he took a sip and scrunched his face up slightly.
"Well you know I like Vale at this time of year," Ironwood answered as he took out a small flask from his coat and poured a little of its contents into his cup. Ozpin always made his hot chocolate too sweet for Ironwood's taste and something, anything, bitter helped it go down a little better. "And I thought it would be nice to catch up."
"While I agree with you on that, I hardly see how bringing a small fleet is necessary for that."
"Ozpin, you know why I brought those men," Ironwood commented grimly and put the flask away.
Indeed Ozpin did, if the way he sighed and carefully set his mug down meant anything. Ironwood probably rushed over with the fleet as soon as he got Ozpin's report about recent happenings. While Ozpin didn't agree with the methods his Atlesian counterpart used, he did know his heart was in the right place and that protecting the people of the kingdoms would always be a priority.
"We're living in a time of peace," Ozpin finally said and turned his chair slightly to gesture at Ironwood's airships, "military displays such as that just give the wrong impression."
"But if what STRQ said is true-"
"If what they reported is true, it will need to be handled tactfully," Ozpin countered and clasped his hands together while leaning forward on his elbows. "We have to remember the Vytal Festival is right around the corner. Tensions will already be higher than normal and any one bit of information slipping out will cause an unnecessary panic." Ironwood took a drink from his mug, savoring the taste for a moment before replying.
"And what about the Generals? You didn't say anything about Death showing up at your doorstep at the beginning of the year, so why say anything now?"
"Small sightings of the Generals happen all the time. You should know that better than most with your war against Moon."
Ironwood scrunched his face in disgust at that. When he first found out about the Generals of Grimm from Ozpin and the Moon General in particular, he spared as much resources as he could to try and rid Atlas of its biggest pest. It helped that a number of the cults that sprang around it were actively disruptive so he didn't have to worry about council approval even without his two seats, but the more organized ones and the Grimm they were centered around were more slippery than Ironwood liked.
"I will get it soon," Ironwood said as much anger in his voice as there was determination.
"And I hope you do, truly," Ozpin said with a nod, "ridding the world of the Moon General will help our odds immeasurably, though I don't need to tell you that." Ozpin picked up his mug and took a drink from it before holding it with both his hands. "As for my silence on Death's appearance, that has to do with the fact that it was actively scouting out the school. Whether any of them were still doing it or not, I wanted to play my hand close to my chest. I just wish my suspicions weren't confirmed by the Hierophant appearing so close as well."
"And you're sure it was the Hierophant?" Ironwood asked. Ozpin replied by taking out his scroll, placing it on his desk, and with a touch brought up a picture that nearly caused Ironwood to drop his mug. Of course seeing a clear picture of any of the Generals was a rarity, impossible even, but actually seeing the Hierophant with two members of the White Fang certainly was a sight.
"I'm positive."
"My god!" Ironwood moved closer to the picture and set his mug down to lean against the desk as he took in every detail with wide eyes. "Who took this?"
"Velvet Scarlatina of Team CFVY. They were helping STRQ with their stakeout at the docks when this happened, and I don't think any of them were expecting it." Ozpin looked at the picture and stared at the Hierophant for a little longer than necessary before shaking his head. "I wasn't expecting such a clear picture myself."
"And you're not worried about them seeing it!?" Ironwood asked loudly.
"Not in the slightest. Glynda and myself debriefed everyone that night and, outside of STRQ, every one of them were under the impression that it was a particularly old Creature of Grimm that was brought by the White Fang. They weren't wrong, so I didn't correct them." Ozpin swiped the picture away to show a new one of the Hierophant intimidating Roman Torchwick, who was wisely flinching away from it. "Still, the idea that local criminal elements are working with the White Fang and any small handful of Salem's forces is… troubling, to say the least."
"So what are we going to do about it?"
"STRQ defeated the Hierophant at the docks and are cautiously optimistic it was killed. Even if it wasn't, they have been pushed away from Vale for the time being. Summer is intent on rooting out Torchwick and the White Fang, so I think I'll leave that to her team." Ironwood blinked and pushed off the desk, his worry replaced grim concern.
"So you're leaving this threat to be dealt with by a second year team, even if they are exceptional?"
"It won't be the first time they prevailed over a criminal organization."
"And do you really think your children will be ready to fight a war?"
"It's not a war yet James, and even if one does come I pray they won't be the ones fighting it." Ozpin drained his mug and stood up, taking his cane off the desk as he walked around it. "So, unless there's something else you wanted to discuss privately James, why don't we take a walk around the campus. A lot has changed since you were last here and I do actually want to catch up."
"Before that, there is one other thing," Ironwood said picking up his mug and swished the half-drained liquid around, "I wanted to hear STRQ's story about what happened at the docks for myself."
"They're not going to say anything different than what was in the report."
"Still, I think it's better to hear that kind of thing in person rather than in a report. There's more you can pick up in how someone says something than what they say."
"Well, as long as you don't mind me sitting in on these talks you may. They are my students after all." Ironwood nodded in agreement and drained the rest of his hot chocolate in a single go and set it on the desk before he walked to the elevators with Ozpin.
"So, where are Team STRQ?" Ironwood asked as the doors opened and they stepped in.
"The cafeteria most likely. I believe they're serving waffles today."
Indeed the cafeteria was serving waffles that day along with an assortment of vegetables, bread, hamburgers, steaks, and many other foods. One table even had a whole swordfish, to the bemusement of the students who sat at that table. For you see, this day was a day that the staff of the cafeteria of Beacon Academy looked forward to when they saw it on their schedule. A day for them to really cut loose and show their culinary skills by preparing a wide assortment of food for the students and staff.
For them, this was Wild Card Day!
On this day, the students had a choice in how to proceed: stick with what they usually got if it was there or take the plunge in adventure by choosing something outside of their bubble in the gamble of finding something they might like. On this day, Team CRDL was not one of the latter.
"So she has these things, bigger than either of your heads," Cardin said excitedly while gesturing with his hands, "and she walks on stage with them and is kinda struggling but she is going for it."
"That's insane!" Dove said with a small chuckle with Russel and Sky nodding in agreement on either side of him, "So what did she…" Dove trailed off and Cardin raised an eyebrow at how his team was suddenly sitting stiff.
"What's wrong with you guys? You look like you… oh crap." Cardin looked behind him to see Summer Rose staring down at him and his team holding a tray of food.
"Keeping your nose clean Cardin?" she asked evenly.
"Y-yes, very clean!" Cardin replied, barely keeping his panic in, "no need to involve yourself in my life at all! Ha ha ha… ha."
Summer continued to stare at Cardin for a few more seconds before she nodded and said "Good," before she started to walk away to leave CRDL behind to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Too close," Russel whispered, "so what did she do with the cannonballs Cardin?"
"Huh? Oh right, so she loads them into these gigantic cannons right, and-"
'What could they possibly be watching?' Summer wondered and shook her head, 'I'll never get reality television.' Thankfully she didn't have to think on this for much longer since she reached the table her team was sitting at along with JNPR. Taiyang was nice enough to move over a space so Summer could sit between him and Raven, who was busy bouncing a ball repeatedly on the ground. "Sorry for taking so long, Wild Card days are hell for getting my usual stuff."
"It's fine, we've been keeping ourselves busy," Qrow said holding a cracker up between his fingers. "Saltine," he said and threw the cracker at Nora, who tried to bite it out of the air only to miss and watch it fly past her to the ground.
"That stupid game again?" Summer asked as Nora frustratedly pounded the table with a fist.
"They won't listen to us when we discouraged them," Pyrrha said as Nora called and threw an apple slice at Qrow, "but they did say they'll clean up after themselves."
"They better, and what is that you have Raven?"
"Bouncy ball," Raven replied and held up said bouncy ball, black and green in color and big enough to fit in the palm of her hand.
"…Where did you get that and why?"
"The internet and because it's fun." Raven looked behind her at Maribelle and Redd walking behind JNPR and smirked. "Like so. Fore!" Raven threw the ball at the ground and watched bounce from there to the wall and from there back toward the walking girls. Redd saw the ball flying toward her and quickly held a hand out to block the ball. When it hit her hand it hung in the air long enough for her to rear her other hand back and punch it back toward the wall, where it bounced off and flew back into Raven's hand.
"Good parry Redd," Maribelle said and gave Raven a look before they both walked away as Raven waved them off.
"See what I mean?" Raven asked looking at Summer.
"Whatever Raven, just don't hurt anyone ok?" Summer replied and started poking at her food with a fork when Jaune cleared his throat.
"I uh… like what you did with your hair, Summer. It looks good on you," he said pointing to a part of Summer's bangs that had been dyed silver all the way up to the top of her head. Summer glanced at the hair and back at Jaune.
"Congratulations Jaune, you're the first person who's noticed that in the week since I've done that," Summer said as she glared at her team.
"You know, I thought you changed something but I didn't want to say anything in case I was wrong, you know?" Taiyang defended pointing a spoonful of pudding at Summer.
"You were talking about it a while ago, so I didn't think it worth mentioning when you did it," Qrow said before calling and throwing an orange slice at Nora, who caught it in her mouth. The two met eyes and the air between them grew more tense.
"Fore!" Raven shouted and threw her bouncy ball at the wall and watched it fly to a nearby table and hit a bunch of glasses, all of which shattered with a satisfying sound. Raven pumped a fist and held a hand up to catch the ball when a first year threw it back at her.
"…See what I have to deal with Jaune? At least your team is semi-normal," Summer said with a small sigh.
"Food war!" Nora shouted and spat the orange slice back at Qrow who tried to catch it with his teeth only for it to fly past him and land on the bench next to him. Qrow growled in frustration and buried his head in his hands while Nora jumped to her feet and shouted, "Yes, five points!" as she held her arm over her head.
"Well most of them anyway."
"You get used to it," Pyrrha said and smiled at Summer, "but I agree with Jaune, that looks good on you." She looked at Ren as he nodded as well and suddenly felt a weight on her head that felt like a pair of arms.
"I was wondering when they'd notice that Sum," Velvet said grinning widely at the underclassman team. Raven turned around to look at Velvet with the rest of her team and instead looked at Pyrrha.
"The hell are you blushing so much for?" she asked.
"I don't know!" Pyrrha said as she tried to move her body, only to find it was frozen stiff. 'Whatever you do Pyrrha, don't think about… oh no, now I am.'
"Oh don't worry about Pyrrha here," Velvet said and pat Pyrrha on her head, which did nothing to help her with her blushing problem, and pointed at Summer. "I wanted to ask you about that… thing that we were working on. You know, like 'when are we getting back on that since it's been two weeks'? Questions like that."
"Later," Summer answered as she ate a bit of waffle.
"Later as in…?"
"Later as in 'shut up about it while around nosy first years' later." Summer pointed at Pyrrha, who by now had decided to ignore everything around her (like Nora poking her in the cheek with a breakfast sausage) and stare at her food with narrow pupils. Velvet leaned forward to look at Pyrrha and watched as her eyes shot to look at her for a second before returning to her tray.
"Ah, I gotcha," Velvet nodded and took herself off of Pyrrha, "guess I should have figured huh? So when should I-?"
"Later," Summer repeated and made a 'shoo' gesture at Velvet, who stared flatly at her before walking away while muttering 'Be that way.' The table watched her walk away and sit with her team and Jaune poked at his partner's shoulder.
"She's gone now Pyrrha, you can breathe again," he said with the only response he got was Pyrrha taking a deep breath a few seconds later and going back to staring at her food. Jaune shook his head and looked back at Summer. "She'll be like this for a while, but she'll be ok once her brain restarts."
"She chooses the weirdest things to have a panic about," Raven said smirking at the red head, "but that's part of the fun of having her around. Fore!" Raven threw her ball at the wall and watched it bounce off toward Ren, who ducked it and let some poor first year walking behind him take the hit and collapse with an exaggerated scream.
"So what were you guys doing with CFVY?" Nora asked while Ren picked up the bouncy ball and gave it back to Raven, "some kind of super-secret spy stuff with jetpacks and those water squirting flowers you wear on your lapel? Peach Marmalade by the way."
"Ugh, no thanks," Qrow said and ducked under the latest attack in this game of food, "and don't be ridiculous. Do we look like the kind of people to have jetpacks lying around?'
"I wouldn't be surprised," Ren replied.
"Well we don't, awesome as it would be," Taiyang said and gestured at JNPR with a spoon, "and don't any of you worry about that or us. We have it under control."
"Well maybe we could help," Jaune said motioning at his team, "we've gotten better since the start of the year after all. Don't you think so Pyrrha?" Jaune looked at Pyrrha, still frozen in shock, and his expression fell flat as he stared at her. He held out a hand and Summer silently put a cupcake in it. Jaune unwrapped the cake and held it in front of Pyrrha's nose, waving it around slightly to make sure it got her attention, and smiled a little when she took a bite out of it and set it in Pyrrha's hand.
"What were we talking about?" Pyrrha asked now a little confused as to why she was eating a cupcake.
"Helping Summer out with whatever she's doing."
"Oh, yes. I'd love to help if you want."
"The answer is no," Summer said firmly, "just because you have some experience now doesn't mean you are ready for what we do. You all would just be dead weight." Summer took a bite of a strawberry strudel gestured at JNPR as she chewed and swallowed. "Besides you all have your own worries coming up. The Vytal Festival is almost here and Huntsman teams from the other academies are coming in. Everybody will be judging each other and us most of all as the hosts. So please try and behave yourselves ok?"
"I don't think it's us you have to worry about," Nora said pointing at Raven, which Summer could only nod in agreement at.
"I have no idea what you guys are talking about," Raven said smugly and reared back for another throw. She threw it with another callout of 'Fore' only to jump to her feet when the ball hit the wall and bounced into a pillar. "Crap, bad angle!" Raven watched the ball bounce to the right and hit another pillar, bounce off it into a wall, and shoot straight at a sitting Coco Adel and hit her right in the face.
Coco's head shot back, her beret and the ball hitting the ground along with one of the lenses from her sunglasses, and everybody around her came to a dead stop as they watched her. After a moment Coco put her head forward and glared at Raven through her broken sunglasses before she took them off and crushed them in her hand.
"Raven…" Coco growled venomously as Yatsuhashi and Velvet looked STRQ's way and Fox started to stand up.
Raven, for her part, could only utter a small, "…Shit."
Once again a chapter ended up longer than I'm comfortable posting as one shot. Part 2 will be tomorrow.
I've also been getting help ironing out grammar issues that I just never noticed on my own before. My memory isn't the best when it comes to who helped me with what, but I do appreciate that help.
