Big Issues
AN: I just want to give a thanks to Sonikah for following this series. Those like you and others who enjoy this fic help to give me more motivation to continue it. Not that I have any plans to stop but I'm glad to see this is enjoyed. Also, I have some artwork for this over on my DA page. A few are actually for future events when things really start to diverge from canon.
Mountain Glenn Part 1
"Professor Oobleck?" Weiss was certainly surprised but managed to be the voice of her team.
The man began pacing in front of them as if he were an Atlesian drill instructor while maintaining the same fast paced speech he used within the classroom. "Yes, I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary girls. Seeing as you've opted to shadow a Huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission. I can assure you we will not be establishing a single base of operations. Rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland, and making camp in any defendable locations we may stumble upon. I've packed all our essentials myself, provided the air course, and readied the airship."
He paused to raise a finger to the air, "And! "He turns quickly and bends down to be eye level with Weiss and close enough that the brim of his hat was in her bangs. "It's Doctor Oobleck." It was the slowest they've ever heard him speak. "I didn't earn a PhD for fun, thank you very much."
"Uhh…" Weiss had nothing to retort with as the man left her personal space as quickly as he had entered it. She did share a questioning glance with Blake who sported a look of shock combined with 'I think you insulted him but I'm not really sure how.' The sisters weren't much better as they simply kept their mouths shut, relatively, to not draw attention to themselves.
Oobleck now stood in front of them at a parade rest, though he raised a finger high into the air. "Come now children. According to my schedule, we are already three minutes behind, schedule." As soon as he said that he zipped off to the Bullhead, reaching it in moments and leaving four pudgy and surprised girls behind.
Ever the optimist, Ruby put on a smile and gave a thumbs up. "All right then, looks like we're going to save the world with…" Her cheer faded away as well as the rest of the teams. "Doctor Oo-bleck. Okay, yeah. When you say it out loud it sounds worse." The four of them hung their heads.
"Save the world!?" A familiar loud voice screeched from behind RWBY who turned to see Team JNPR walking up. "You're going on world-saving missions with out us!?" Nora continues with her complaints. "I'm hurt and sad!" Her stomach growls. "Maybe a little hungry? That last one's not my fault, Ren." She accuses her best friend who simply looks away indignantly.
"Sounds exciting. Where are ya going?" Jaune asks with his hands on his hips and a smile on his face.
"Oh, just outside the kingdom." Ruby answers vaguely.
"Hey! So are we!" Nora was as perky as always, the little jump she did making her legs shake.
"Ren and Nora wanted to shadow the sheriff of a nearby village." Pyrrha elaborates.
"We set out tomorrow." Ren concludes with a nod.
"Then you can party with us tonight." Neptune suddenly joins the conversation with Sun by his side, the blonde crossing his arms over his exposed chest. "We're shadowing a crime specialist." Neptune checks his nails and rubs them against his jacket briefly. "All inner-city detective stuff. We get junior badges." He boasts.
Jaune was amazed, complete with his hands on his cheeks.
"We normally go to the city with you guys." Sun adds while pointing at RWBY. "Which means stuff's always exploding and junk. So, we thought this might be a better way to check out the kingdom when it's, y'know… normal." He finishes with a small shrug of his shoulders.
"Four minutes ladies!" Oobleck calls out from the loading ramp of the airship causing the team to wince. The ten teens gave each other awkward smiles since everyone now knew who they female team had to deal with for the mission.
"Well, uh, wish us luck." Ruby asks with a small pump of her arm before turning to walk to the aircraft.
Blake stops when her shoulder was tapped. Looking back, she finds Sun looking embarrassed, a dusting of red on his cheeks. "Um… You know I know that you can take care of yourself… but… um…" He trailed off as he couldn't meet her eyes himself. "Try to be careful out there." He manages to get out quickly but quietly.
Amber eyes widened in surprise before looking at the blonde with softer eyes. "I'll do my best. Thanks." The last she saw of him before she turned away was his relieved smile and his eyes finally meeting hers. Moments later, she was with the rest of her team boarding the Bullhead.
"That's it?" Neptune had walked back to his best friend who had yet to move, just standing there watching the craft take off and fly south.
The question snapped the Faunus out of his own thoughts. "W-what?"
"C'mon, 'Be careful out there.'?"
"So what? She can take care of herself and she's got her team with her." Sun dismisses his buddy before walking to catch up with Team JNPR with his hands shoved in his pockets.
Yang watched the scenery change below her feet from the city, to passing over the wall protecting the kingdom, to the quilt-like pattern of farmer fields and orchards with the occasional patches of trees. Granted, looking straight down at the sight has given her problems over the past two years- mostly because her chest had grown enough to block a fair portion of her downward view. She'd gotten used to not seeing her boots without having to first put her leg out or leaning over for a better angle. Now, her girls had grown even more and had a shelf of their own to sit on that prevented any chance of looking between them for what's below her. So, she had to settle for looking at the passing landscape sideways.
"I guess I never saw you as much of a fighter." Yang admits as the team of five made small talk over the sound of the engines and the wind rushing past the open side bay doors that she stood next to. Her hand holding onto a dangling handle to help keep her balance in the wind and turbulence. Everyone else except their Huntsman were holding onto one, he stood close enough to the door separating them from the pilot to not require one… along with surprisingly good balance.
"I admit that I fancy myself as more of an, intellectual, but I can assure you, as a Huntsman, I've had my fair share of tussles." The Doctor responds confidently, humble enough to not be considered bragging.
"Like the mushroom?" Ruby asks as she scratches her head.
Blake leans a little closer so she didn't have to speak louder. "Those are truffles."
'It's been nearly a year since I've had a truffle.' Weiss thinks to herself as she places a hand on her soft belly, the surface shaking thanks to the wind buffeting their transport but her new addition kept everything under control.
"Like the sprout?" Ruby questions.
It was Yang's turn to correct her. "Those are brussels."
'Maybe I should ask the kitchen staff to serve more vegetables. I haven't seen brussel sprouts offered on the menu in nearly a month.' Weiss makes a mental note. Maybe she could leverage her name for the food item. Sure, there were plenty of carrots, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and such on offer and the students ate them well. But maybe a little more variety would be a welcome change.
"Besides, given my expertise in the field of history, as well as my dabbling's in the art of archaeological surveys, our dear Headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular, assignment." He answers proudly. Given that he was a fully trained Huntsman as well as historian, archaeologist, and teacher, he had plenty to be proud of. Even the weight he had gained from the Issue only seemed to fill out the normally lanky man so that he didn't look so thin. Though his hyperactivity may be a good reason as to why he fared the best among the staff and students so far. His friend, Professor Peter Port… was not so lucky.
"What does history have to do with this?" Weiss asks from next to the teacher, rather grateful that the handle she was using had a strap that stretched so she wasn't dangling. Ruby was in much of the same position as she was, though the other half of their team were tall enough as they didn't need their arms fully extended.
Oobleck glared at the Heiress briefly. "My, what a preposterous question you silly girl!" He reprimands her quickly. Why history is the very backbone of our society." He pounds a fist down onto his open palm for emphasis. "And the liver!" He adds as an afterthought while raising a finger to the ceiling. He turns away from the students to look out the door at the approaching dead city. "And probably the kidneys if I had to wager."
"And that means…" Weiss needed some clarification from the fast-talking Huntsman.
Oobleck kept his left hand on his hip as he turned back to the shortest member of the team to look her in the eye, a finger raised near her face. "The southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves. But it is also the location of one of the kingdoms greatest failures."
"Mountain Glenn." Ruby answers for him, showing that she had been paying attention to history class… either at Signal or Beacon. Hopefully both.
"That's right, it was an expansion of Vale." Yang chips in before her tone turned somber as she continued with the detailed summary. "But in the end, it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off from the rest of the city." She didn't graduate as one of the best from Signal for nothing.
"Correct!" Oobleck congratulates the sisters for their knowledge. "And now it stands abandoned, as a dark reminder."
Blake glances out the door quickly before turning her gaze back to the Huntsman. "And a likely place for a hideout."
Oobleck adjusts his glasses on his nose with a grin, these girls weren't simply learning on the job, they had done plenty of studying beforehand so they knew some of what to expect going in on this mission. "Precisely."
The Bullhead made its final approach to the dead city, a moderately open area surrounded by tall, multistory buildings and wide roads. The air and even the sun seemed to be darker now that they were in Mountain Glenn proper, a side effect of having so many Grimm concentrated into a relatively small area. Nowhere near enough to blot out the sun, but the difference was like that between a sunny and cloudy day, and it here it was as dark as an overcast sky.
The aircraft descended to the open area and slowed to hover a few meters above the ground, allowing the Huntsman and his four shadows to jump from the right-side bay door to the ground below. They landed without issue and weapons at the ready, except for Oobleck who took a deep drink from his thermos as the Bullhead took off once more for Vale.
Blake landed with her usual cat-like grace, and was very glad for her new additions that gave her much needed support so her rear didn't shake too much. It didn't mean that she wasn't ready to draw Gambol Shroud at moment's notice or her eyes and ears searching her surroundings for trouble.
Yang briefly questioned as to why she had insisted on having the cutout for part of her belly to be shown as it jiggled there the most. Yet the rest of the supportive garment kept everything else in place as her fists were raised and ready to punch at anything with a white mask.
Weiss had dropped to one knee upon making contact with the ground, her sword in hand and ready to strike as her empty hand helped her maintain balance. Not that her balance was a problem for the bottom-heavy girl in this position and her new leggings kept everything wrapped up tight.
Ruby was the last to drop out as she had to wait for the others due to her having the largest weapon by far and she wasn't about to risk hitting her team with it. She landed on her toes and just kept her knees from touching the ground as her impact was absorbed. She found it hard to ignore the shockwaves moving up through her body but nothing like before the body glove she now wore.
All around them, skeletons of buildings stood. Time had taken its toll on the fallen city after the Grimm overran it. Bricks and concrete littered the otherwise empty roads, tufts of vegetation poked through the rubble, broken glass glittered on the ground, tumbleweeds and trash blew between the remains of buildings, some buildings were leaning heavily as their bases had given way while others had fallen completely.
In short, it was a stark reminder of what all civilization faces if Huntsmen and Huntresses ever fail to hold off the Grimm. A reminder that throughout known history, dozens upon dozens of cities had fallen in similar ways. How even today, small towns on the frontier disappearing from the maps was not unexpected.
The lack of threats allowed the four girls to relax and for Oobleck, who had seemed completely unconcerned, to address them. "Ladies, you may still be students, but as of this moment your first mission as a Huntress has begun. From this point forward, you are to do exactly as I say." He gestures with the hand holding his thermos and splashes some of his coffee onto his vest. "Do you understand?"
The Huntsman looks at his charges to see them all nodding in agreement with him, giving him satisfaction… until he noticed the backpack on the youngest's back. "Ruby!" He shouts and drawing the rest of the teams' attention to her. I thought I told you to leave all of your bags back at the school."
Ruby flinched under his stern words and the slight irritation from her team, she raises a finger as she tries to find an excuse. "But, uh… you hadn't told us to listen to you yet… so I didn't." The glares from her team faded due to them all hanging their heads in shame of their leader.
Oobleck turns his head while raising a hand to cup his chin as he thought out loud. "She's not wrong." He mutters to himself before addressing the girl in question. "Very well Ruby, leave your bag here and we can pick it up upon our return."
"But I- uhh…" She tries to get anything resembling words out, only succeeding in aggravating her teacher.
"Young lady, what in the world could you possibly have in that bag that could be so important for you to bring it- "Oobleck's tirade was cut off by Zwei poking his head fully out of the backpack and looking around with a panting doggy grin. The three other girls leaned around their leader for better angles to confirm what they had just seen.
"Get back in the bag." Ruby whispers to the dog who only turns to her and barks.
The Huntsman did not look amused.
"We're here to investigate an abandoned urban jungle teeming with death and hostility and you brought, a dog?"
"I… uh…"
"Genius!" He shouts as he steps away in excitement before returning in a blur, plucking Zwei from the confines of the bag and knocking Ruby over, her team simply content to watch her drop onto her own fat butt.
Oobleck spun the dog high in the air on outstretched arms as he spoke in his usual rapid-fire pace. "Canines are historically known for their perceptive nose and heightened sense of sound. Making them excellent companions for hunts such as ours!" Zwei seemed to be enjoying the attention and the new viewpoint, even as he was spun around.
Weiss was completely confused at the Huntsman's change of attitude… and a little wary of the possible results of him spinning so quickly with the dog. Blake seemed to take it in stride, though more grateful that the dog was further away from her than before. Yang… was not so impressed with her hands on her hips she shook her head at the antics of her sister and teacher and the dog enjoying the attention.
"I'm a genius." Ruby declares proudly, complete with pointing her thumb to her chest. The rest of her team hung their heads, Weiss and Yang facepalming out of embarrassment.
Blake steps forward to get the mission moving again. So, what are your orders Doctor?"
Oobleck stops his spinning and looks at the faunus. "Ah yes! Straight to the point, I like it!" He says before dropping Zwei, seemingly forgetting about the dog in favor of the mission at hand. "As you have been informed, the Southeast area has been marked as a recent hotspot for Grimm activity. Now there are several possible explanations for this behavior. One of which being, Grimm." He stops suddenly and stares into the distance over their soften shoulders.
Needless to say, the four girls were confused at his sudden ending to his speech. "Uh… what?" Ruby manages to say.
"Grimm. A creature of Grimm approximately one hundred yards away from us at this very moment." He replies. The four girls twisting at their thickened waists to see a Beowolf sniffing around at the end of a street in the middle of an intersection.
"What?" Yang voices their surprise.
A second later and four Huntresses in training had their weapons at the ready to kill any Grimm.
"Stop." Oobleck orders.
"Huh?" Blake intelligently replied. The girls lowered their weapons as they turned to him, except Ruby who squeezed her eyes shut in frustration briefly but then kept her gaze on the Grimm.
"There are a number of reasons why Grimm would congregate in this particular area. The most likely of which would be their attraction to negativity." He explains, the girls turning back to watch the Grimm as they listened to him. "Sadness, envy, loneliness, hatred, all qualities that are likely held by our hidden group harboring ill intent."
"So, what now?" Ruby asks the Huntsman as Yang places her fists on her plush hips.
"We wait, we track, if the specimen leads us to its pack, that pack may subsequently lead us to our prey."
"Yeah, how long do we wait?" Yang was never really one for patience when action was usually demanded.
Oobleck cups his chin again in thought. "It's uncertain, hours, days, weeks. Why Grimm have been known to stay isolated from the pack for months." Movement caught his eyes, making him straighten up in surprise. "And there's the whole pack." Several more Beowolves had joined the first in the intersection, sniffing, searching, climbing fallen concrete piles. Their growls could be heard by the Huntsman and Huntresses.
"What?" Weiss was shocked at the packs sudden entrance.
"And now they've seen us." Oobleck says blandly as if he were reading from a script.
"What?" Weiss asks again, clearly not expecting things to change so quickly.
The situation would have been funnier if it also wasn't so dire as Oobleck nearly yelled into the Heiress' ear, "And now they've seen us!"
Ruby raises a hand. "I take it tracking is out of the question?" She asks meekly.
"An accurate assumption, yes."
"What's the plan then?" Yang asks as a trio of Grimm began their charge. While she and the others knew what they should do, they also knew that they had to wait on the Doctors orders. The four girls looked to him, waiting for his decision as he in turn looked at each of them in turn.
"Show me what you're made of." Was his simple request.
"Fluff?" Ruby timidly jokes as she pokes Weiss' widened hip before resetting her grip on Crescent Rose. While the Heiress did initially flinch from the touch and accusation, she also knew that to be true. Next to her, Ruby twirled her massive scythe once around to drive the sharp tip into the broken road. "Cover your ears Zwei!" The dog does just that with a whimper.
More than a dozen Beowolves joined the charge against the five mortals. Yang was more than happy to meet them halfway. The one in the lead lunged at the charging chubby girl with full intent to tackle her to the ground while ripping her throat out with its teeth, only to receive a right haymaker to the face with a shotgun shell unloaded into its skull for good measure. The beast was easily driven to the side of Yang, dead and limp, as she moved onto the next Grimm after she barely lost any momentum from delivering the punch. Several of the Grimm followed after her s she rammed her fist into yet another Beowolves chest and shattering its ribs before the gun fired. Another came from the side, she spun as she leapt up and kicked it in the face causing it to hit the ground hard where she landed and drove her gauntlet into its skull with her full weight behind the punch. It was dead without using another shell.
Blake had split off from the rest of her team, the bottom-heavy girl standing now in an otherwise empty road, baiting the Grimm to attack her while she had a hand on the pistol grip of Gambol Shroud. They charged and the faunus began to unsheathe the sword within the bladed sheathe. The first swiped its claws at her only to find nothing of substance, the clone fading as the girl came from above swinging her blade through the beasts' waist and killing it. Another came at her quickly, receiving the cleaver-like sheath to the shoulder and the smaller sword scratching at its face, the attacks making it rear back in pain as the girl performed a backflip, catching the Beowolves chin with her heel, before she lunged forward to cut that one off at the hip. A third tried to take advantage of her distraction only to find itself cut in half like its packmates when Blake used another clone to gain height in the air and bring her blades into its back.
Weiss raced through the street with a small pack on her heels. One leapt at her only to receive a trio of slashes from her thin blade into its weak points as she jumped over it, leaving it dead by the time it hit the ground. She lands in a crouch and spots another four running at her. She counters their charge with her lunge, Myrtenaster sweeping through the creatures in a flash, dropping them to the ground where they began to fade into ashes after she struck vital points.
Ruby took a different approach as a dozen Beowolves ran at her, she began shooting them in rapid succession, the large caliber rounds tearing through their bodies with ease. Zwei began running around in circles just behind her in excitement before stopping to watch as Ruby withdrew her blade from the ground and held it behind her. There was one last Grimm for her to take care of and she took off at it with a combination of a high-powered round and a brief use of her semblance. The two approached at high speeds, scythe and claws ready to rend the flesh of the other. But it was the Grimm that was cut in half at the waist to fall dead on the ground.
Ruby landed close to the rest of her team in another intersection, surrounded by the dissolving bodies of Grimm and Zwei choosing to sit by Yang's feet. She hefts her weapon easily in her hands as she looks to Doctor Oobleck as casually approaches the girls. "Heh, piece of cake." She grins, ignoring the slight growl in her belly at the mention of good food she hadn't had in months.
The Doctor did not seem impressed. "Do not celebrate yet, for I am certain this was the first bout of many." He was being serious and cautious. Then he grinned, "Shall we continue?" He raises a fist as if he were ready to fight himself.
"You know, someone might start to think you really care for them." Anya says as she walks up next to Denko. They were stationed on top of the southeastern portion of Vale's protective wall and he was caught staring out into the distance to where the city of Mountain Glenn could be seen, notably by the dark haze that hung over the ruined city.
"How can I not care about my friends?" He responds, barely giving her a glance.
"You do spend a lot of time with them."
"You could too, if you wanted to."
"You know why I don't get close to people, I'm dangerous." She gives him a slight glare.
"We're all dangerous. We've trained to be fighters. We're among the strongest teams I can think of that are still in school." He reminds her.
A punch to his shoulder rocked him but only raised a grin from the boy. "You KNOW what I'm talking about." She hugs herself tightly. "I can't let just anybody be close to me. Not anymore."
"At least you aren't calling your semblance a curse anymore."
"Only because you and your sister wouldn't stop bugging me about it." Another glare but there wasn't any heat to it, they've had this conversation too often.
They stared out towards the ruins in the distance together, feeling the breeze in their hair and sun on their faces.
"You know that they are on a mission that normally would have been given to our team?" Denko asks.
"You mentioned it when we got this mission." Anya shrugs as she glances at the Bullhead on a small landing pad built into the wall.
His gaze finally broke from Mountain Glenn to look down at his feet. "I know they are strong, better than most first years I've seen. It's just… that two of those girls helped to save me and sis from the streets. Helped us actually live instead of just surviving." His right hand wrapped around his left wrist; the arm guard he wore prevented him from feeling the scar that was there. He had one on each wrist and ankle from his time at the orphanage, the torture that he suffered there.
Anya saw the familiar gesture, he rubbed over his scars nearly as much as she called her semblance a curse. She had seen him bare the skin often enough that the sight of the ruined skin didn't bother her but they were a constant physical reminder of what he had gone through as a kid. They were the reason why he wore the armor on his limbs, a subtle way to shield himself from the world.
"You might want to trust them more then." Anya was surprisingly gentle when she said it, prompting Denko to look at usually brash girl. "I've seen how much you've been training with Yang. And she's been pushing the rest of her team to train harder as a result." She looks up at her leader. "Trust them to take care of themselves out there."
Denko sighs and runs his hands through his hair. "I guess you're right about that."
"You guess?" She mocks sounding hurt by the accusation. She laughs a bit, "But we are the ones who are supposed to help them if they get in over their heads. If we're lucky, your worries will be for nothing and I'll make sure Yang laughs at you about it." That said, the black and red clad girl walks back into the guard tower where the rest of the usual guard and her team.
Denko looks to the Bullhead nearby before pulling his scroll out of his pocket. Opening it up, he checks the status of Team RWBY and finds that Oobleck had yet to adjust the scale for which they had to prepare to assist them. Currently, it was still green with a large zero over it. It was only set to go up to three which would stand for immediate extraction. One was to be ready and two for prepping the airship.
"Be careful out there." He mutters as he pockets the devise and heads inside the tower himself.
The fighting continued in small bursts throughout the day. Every time the girls had finished one fight and caught their breath, another pack would show up to begin the cycle again. Needless to say, they were all getting tired and feeling the strain. Adding to that was the fact that their Huntsman had yet to attack any of the Grimm they had encountered, preferring to examine pieces of trash, tufts of vegetation, the damage done to various buildings… seemingly ignoring the Grimm bodies that fell around him that the team had finished off.
"Excellent work girls!" He congratulates them all. Ruby was leaning on Crescent Rose for support to remain standing, Yang was rolling her neck and shoulders to try to loosen them up, Weiss rubbed her sleeve across her face to clear it of the sweat buildup, while Blake panted and wavered on her feet. "Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any signs of criminal activity in this sector." He sounded as disappointed as the team at the revelation. "Oh well, moving on!" And his attitude did a complete reversal as he marched away from this newest battleground.
Ruby spins her scythe as it collapses into itself and holsters the weapon, giving Zwei a small wave to follow her.
"Hey Doc, you know I was actually looking forward to seeing a pro Huntsman in action. Like fighting or at least helping us fight." The blonde was visibly getting annoyed at the man and it was inflected in her tone.
He was undeterred by her attitude as he explained with a smile. "Ah, but I am in action, scouring the ruins of this once great city for any signs of irregularity." He stops to look back at the team. "Not every mission is filled with daring and heroism girls. Sometimes it's just a heightened form of extermination. Remember, this is a job and you all signed up for it. I do hope you understand that."
Yang thought it over for a second or two. "Well, yeah." She pauses as she notices Weiss giving her a knowing look for which she gave the girl a small glare. "Of course."
Another small battle in a fairly cramped area against more Beowolves left the team to close ranks and fight nearly back-to-back and use ranged attacks.
"Tell me Yang." Oobleck asks the blonde once the fighting settled and the team spread out again. "Why did you choose this line of work?"
"Huh?" Was her response as she wasn't expecting the question. She turns to face him. "Well, to fight monsters and sav- "
She was cut off. "No, that is what you do. I want to know why you do it." He waved his arms to the sides. "The honest reason as to why you want to be a Huntress." He points at her for emphasis.
"The honest reason?" Yang pauses as she looks to the side to collect her thoughts. "I'm a thrill seeker. I wanna travel around the world and get wrapped up in as many crazy adventures as I can. And if I help people along the way, that's even better." She waved her arms as she spoke. "It's a win-win, y'know?"
A moment of silence. "I see." Clearly, he bought her words and tone as much as she did.
Another active battle and Oobleck was sitting in an old window, casually writing in a journal. "And you Miss Schnee. A girl born into fame and fortune such as yourself certainly doesn't need the extra work. So, why choose this over a cushy job in Atlas?" He looks up in time to watch the girl stab her rapier through the chest of a Beowolf.
She takes her time withdrawing the blade to think before turning to the man. "Its exactly as you said, I'm a Schnee. I have a legacy of honor to uphold." She finishes as she takes a few steps closer. "Once I realized I was capable of fighting, there was no longer a question of what I would do with my life. It was my duty."
They locked eyes for a few heartbeats. "Interesting." Was his only comment before jumping down from his perch.
Blake cut a rusted door in half to make it collapse under its own weight and a murder of small Nevermore flew over her head to escape through the opening. The faunus ducks and does a backflip to give herself some distance where upon landing she switched to pistol form and shot up into the air at the retreating Grimm. A series of quick shots brought them all down, if her bullets didn't kill them, their uncontrolled fall to the hard ground did. A moment passed before she sheathed her weapon on her back once more.
Oobleck stuck his head around the door frame to examine the confines of the building as Blake walked towards him. "And what about you Blake? You seem to carry yourself with a sense of purpose."
"There's too much wrong in this world to stand back and do nothing. Inequality, corruption, someone has to stop it."
"Very well, how?"
The simple question confused the girl, she had no ideas or answers… just a goal. "I… uh…"
"Hmm…" That hit as hard as any dismissal and he left the cat girl to stand there to contemplate.
Next, Oobleck found Ruby in the middle of the street playing with Zwei. "Sorry. Uhhh…. Are we ready to keep going?"
He had his backpack in his hand now. "No, I believe that will do for today. It's going to be dark soon." It was somewhat harder to tell the time by the sun since the presence of so many Grimm in the city seemed to cut into the suns power. The Huntsman didn't even look when he tossed his bag to Yang, striking her in her very padded front and causing her to grunt from the unexpected blow, though she caught it. "You three, set up camp in that building. Oh, and please do make sure that there are no more of those, creatures." He didn't even spare them a glance the entire time until giving his final order. "Your leader and I are going to secure the perimeter. Come Ruby." He waves for her as if she were a dog. Zwei had no issues with following both humans.
Blake was the first to turn away from her leaders retreating back while Yang was obviously the last and most worried about her sister going off with someone who hadn't proved himself in combat but are now walking around in a monster infested city.
Walking the streets of the ruined city, Oobleck led the way on the patrol when he found a gap in the buildings that gave an excellent view of the surrounding forests. But it was what was in the forest that garnered the most attention.
"Woah! What is that?" Ruby asks him as they watch a herd of Goliath marching in a line around the city. "It looks awesome!"
"That my dear girl, is a Grimm." Was his simple answer.
Ruby stared in fascination at the elephantine monsters that were tall enough to stand above the trees, their roars and grumbles echoing through the wilderness. "Let's kill it." She draws Crescent Rose and deploys its rifle form.
Oobleck shakes his head at the idea. "I'm afraid your sniper rifle will do nothing more than agitate a Grimm of that size.
"But what if it attacks us? My friend Denko was able to take one down."
"As for your friend, Mr. Mori, I've read about the events of Cloudspire. He was lucky that it had already been injured by debris and mounted weapons. He was merely the one to facilitate its defeat." He turns back to face the Grimm. "But fret not Ruby, those Goliaths are not concerned with us."
He turns to look her directly and began to speak slower and gentler. "Ruby, not every Grimm is mindless. Or rather, not every Grimm is still mindless. You see, the Grimm before you are so powerful, superior to the ones you've fought, that they've undoubtedly lived hundreds of years. And in that time between killing humans and attacking our borders, they've done one important thing, they've learned. They've learned the when they attack our borders, they are likely to die. And what we lack in strength, we make up for in will." One of the Goliaths stops and turns its massive head towards the pair in the city. Just staring at them. "And that killing one human, will only bring more."
"Then, why are they still so close to the city? What are they doing?" Ruby asks with a slight shake of her head as she tries to understand the complexities of the Grimm and their motivations.
"Waiting." Oobleck says with a serious face. The Goliath finally turns away and begins moving with the herd again. The man walks away from the sight, leaving Ruby to look back and forth between the creatures and teacher before she stowed her weapon and began following him.
"Doctor Oobleck?"
"Hmm?"
"I was wondering- "
"Wondering why I've been interrogating your teammates all day?"
"A-actually, I was wondering… why did you want to become a Huntsman?" Ruby asks, unknowingly reversing the position that he had been in with her team.
He waves his arm at the city. "Look around and tell me what you see."
She does, her eyes wandering from place to place but without any real focus. "Lots of old buildings, uh… empty streets…"
"I see lives that could have been saved." He states before beginning to walk again towards their camp with Ruby and Zwei following closely. "As a Huntsman, it is my job to protect the people. And although I am capable of doing so with traditional weaponry, I believe that I can leave a much larger impact if I do it with my mind. As a teacher, I'm able to take knowledge, the most powerful weapon of them all, and place it into the hands of every student that passes through my classroom. I look at this wasteland and see lives that could have been saved. But I also see an opportunity. An opportunity to study these ruins and learn from this tragedy. And therefore, become stronger."
He faces her fully and stands tall as he makes his next declaration. "I am a Huntsman Ruby, because there is nothing that I would rather be."
Base camp wasn't anything special. Little more than an old apartment that had a few rooms a few stories up with one of the outside walls shattered and missing. Being so elevated, it kept the light of their small fire from alerting any and all Grimm that they were there while the missing wall ensured fresh air for them and the flames. Their height from the ground also provided them time to prepare if any Grimm did find them as they would either have to scale the outer walls or try to push their way through the halls of the building.
The girls had rigged up several choke points where they could fit through… the holes had to be larger than what they would have preferred due to their own growing girths. At the same time, they had completely blocked off certain passages they had found when securing the building. In short, nothing should reach them without alerting them unless they knew where they were and could fit through the gaps.
Right now, Blake was crouched in front of the fire with Weiss standing nearby. Yang walks across the room to the source of heat. "I can't believe we didn't find anything." She complains.
Blake looks up to her friend. "We've always been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time." She looks back to the flames. "I guess we can't always have luck on our side."
"That's not what I meant." Weiss suddenly says, drawing attention to her outburst.
"Huh?" Blake my have been tired but the sudden change of subject caught her off guard.
"Earlier, bout, upholding a legacy." Weiss starts to explain while holding her hands out. She looks down to the floor. "There's more to it than that."
"Yeah, no me too." Yang caught on to what she was saying, referring to Oobleck's questions to them. Next to her, Blake stands up to be eyelevel with them. "I mean, I don't know."
"I don't know either. I know what I want to do but, I figured I'd always take things one step at a time."
"Well, it doesn't matter, we know why we're here." Yang tries to lift the mood with her confidence. "Right?"
"Ah wonderful!" Oobleck didn't keep his voice own as he raced into the room to stand by the surprised girls. "A textbook campfire!"
Ruby and Zwei entered the room shortly after. "Fire!" She gasps as she kneels by it with her hands open to absorb the heat. "So warm..."
"Very well, eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for first watch?"
"Yo!" Ruby raise her left arm. The Huntsman didn't waste any more time to be by himself in another room. The girl rose from the fire and walked by her sister towards the hole in the wall.
"Hey," Yang's voice stopped the hooded girl in her tracks. "Did Oobleck ask you why you wanted to be a Huntress?" The blonde turns to face her sister. "I mean, what did you tell him?"
"Hm, no he didn't, weird." She dismisses the thought. "Oh well, goodnight guys."
Yang watched as Ruby made herself comfy on a ledge overlooking the city before looking back into the fire with a lot on her mind. Nearby, Blake set out the bedrolls for them all to use around the fire. Weiss rested her head on the small pillow in an attempt to get some rest. Yang sat on her bedroll and ate at her rations, mildly wondering if she lost any weight thanks to how much energy was spent fighting all day as she rubbed her potbelly.
Soon, the three girls were stretched out in their beds but sleep wasn't coming easy. Outside, the howls of Beowolves could be heard and Zwei ran over for comfort with Ruby. Don't worry, things will be better tomorrow." She says, if it was to herself, her dog, or her team, she couldn't give an answer.
AN: We have some action here but the real action will be building up over the next few chapters, most of us know the events of Mountain Glenn but not everything will be the same. Honestly, I can't wait for the events of Volume two to be over. The amount of flipping back and forth between the writing and watching the series at an almost frame by frame level is exhausting and time consuming. The small fights in this chapter alone required a couple replays to see details, some of which I hadn't noticed before even after watching nearly the entirety of RWBY several times over.
But things should be easier for a bit as there will be a small break between V2 and 3 for some fun filler chapters that I've been planning in my head for weeks, if not months. Should help to make up for the longer waits between updates thanks to life hitting me hard. Nothing like being the human forklift for when your sister moves houses.