"Ahem!" Ruby started. "... Ahem… Ahemy hem he—"

"Rubyyy," Weiss sighed.

"Okayyy, okay." She shuffled her feet a bit, then began reading. "''Small Grimm have been spotted in a Saffron Hills neighborhood and been frequently harassing residents and their pets. Sightings are a… Huginn'?'" She squinted at screen. "What's a huginn?"

"Grimmified raven, I think," Weiss answered. She'd seen the name in the index of their Grimm Studies textbook.

"Indeed," Professor Goodwitch confirmed.

"That sounds wimpy and pathetic," Yang commented, still leaning on one foot in over-exaggerated pain.

Weiss had a feeling she'd pay for stomping on her foot later.

"Mm," the professor said dryly. "They're mostly just annoying. Their screeching is unbearable. They typically don't get aggressive unless there are other Grimm around or there are enough huginns to present a threat together, and when they do attack it's… well, dangerous to civilians, but… yes, wimpy and pathetic for us. They do present a danger of Grimm infection, though. They lack the strength to kill but can easily dish out small wounds that might get infected with Grimm blood. And they can be obnoxious to kill depending on your weaponry because they're so small and mobile…"

"So we gotta get rid of them so they can't infect any of the normies or pets in the neighborhood?" Ruby surmised.

The phrasing made the professor smile ever so slightly. "Yes, we must protect the normies. Now keep reading."

"'Sightings are a Huginn and a'—hehehe!"

Weiss leaned forward a bit to read the next word. "What's so funny about… a Sith?" she asked.

"Hehehehe!" Ruby giggled again.

"It's a cat Grimm," Weiss stated, wondering if Ruby was confused.

"Orrrr, is it an evil master of the Force bent on dominating the galaxy through oppression and fear?" Yang asked.

"... I…" Weiss looked over to Blake for help, hoping she'd know what the Crucible these two idiots were talking about, but she was just staring blankly down at the table. She'd kinda been in her own head for a while now.

"I'll bet you a plate of cookies there's two of 'em," Ruby said. She adopted some goofy, croaky voice and said, "Always two there are. No more, no less."

"What are you talking about?!" Weiss demanded.

"It's a movie," the professor sighed.

"It's a movie series, ma'am, excuse you," Yang grinned.

Professor Goodwitch blinked back at her. "... Weiss, I might need you to go to the whiteboard and start tallying all the detentions Miss Xiao-Long is getting. I'm losing track at this point."

"Hol'upaminute!"

"Ruby, please just keep reading," Weiss groaned.

"Okie! 'The sightings are a Huginn and a Sith, as reported by local resident Heather Mayfield. When going to investigate, Lt. B Gibbly confirmed seeing a lone Huginn on top of the neighborhood's CCT tower.' Whoa, they have their own CCT tower?" Ruby asked.

"You probably don't see too many in Patch, do you?" the professor asked, to which Ruby and Yang shook their heads. "CCT towers in neighborhoods is fairly common here in the city. Higher population density needs higher density coverage. Saffron Hills is also an affluent neighborhood."

"Affluent? Like farts?" Ruby asked.

"It means rich," Weiss corrected.

"Ah. Okay."

Ruby gave Weiss a look, maybe thinking 'your people' or something, though Weiss was certain her family was in an entirely different tax bracket than anyone living in a Vale City suburb. The Winchesters were one of, if not, the richest family in Vale and they had a third the net worth of the Schnees.

The Schnees had their own estate and grounds, they weren't anywhere near a neighborhood with other people in it.

"So should we call these people?" Weiss asked. "The police officer and civilian?"

Instead of answering, the professor waved a hand around at the team and asked, "What do you all think? What's our first step?"

"I guess call the policeman first?" Ruby asked more than answered, looking at the team. "Let him know we're working the contract and ask him what he and the police know and have done so far?"

"Good. It's important to let authorities know when you're Hunting. The police if you're working in cities and villages, the military if you're going into the wilds. What next?"

Everyone looked at Ruby again, who made her awkward duck face as a nervous reaction to the attention.

Weiss found it cute.

"I guess… call the lady? Let her know we're on the way, maybe ask if she's home so she could show us where she saw the Grimm?"

The professor gave one strong nod. "Good. Yes. What else should we do before we go?"

"Uh…" Ruby looked at the rest of them.

Weiss wasn't sure what else there was, and blinked blankly at her partner to communicate that.

"Ammo and Dust check?" Blake suggested.

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "Good. Yes, make sure you're supplied. For this situation, you're fine. You won't be needing more that what you've carried with you. But on bigger, longer missions, you'll need to make sure you've stocked your Armadillo. Not just ammo and Dust, but camping gear, food, water, mechanics and first aid kits, and whatever else you might need, depending on the Hunt."

Ruby gave her team a questioning thumbs up.

In the name of due diligence, Weiss double checked Myrtenaster's chambers and patted her belt where her backup Dust cartridges were, then gave Ruby a thumbs up back.

It felt weird. She couldn't be sure, but this might have been the first time she'd ever made this silly gesture.

"Lesgoooo!" Yang cheered.

Ruby threw her fists up in the air with an excited, "Wooooo!"

"Let's call the police officer listed here. Let me do the talking. Just listen, learn, and do not interrupt with random goofy interjections." She looked directly at Ruby at that last part.

Ruby looked down at her feet and shuffled them a bit. "Whayoumean? That doesn't sound anything like me."

"Mm."

The professor pulled up the lieutenant's scroll profile and dialed, the ringing noise projected from speakers in the table for all to hear.

"This is freakin' sweet," Yang commented.

"Shh," the professor chastised.

"It's like the Revenger's war table," Ruby added in a whisper.

"Shh!"

"Sorry."

At the fourth ring, there was a click. "Hello, this is Gibbly," came a tenor male voice.

"Hello, Lieutenant Gibbly, this is Professor Glynda Goodwitch from Beacon Academy. I'm training a team right now and we're calling about the contract you posted about the Grimm spotted in Saffron Hills."

"Ah, right. Let me pull it up… Alright, how can I help?"

The professor watched the team as she spoke, making sure they were paying attention.

"First, the Grimm sightings. We see Huginn and Sith here. Who saw them, where, when, and how many?"

Gibbly cleared his throat. There's just one reported Sith that was spotted by the primary witness, Miss… what was it? Mayfield. She believes its her cat, who went missing three weeks ago."

"Awww," Ruby lamented quietly.

"Hm. Concerning," Professor Goodwitch commented. "And the Huginn?"

"Hard to know for sure how many. I know I saw one on the CCT tower, and there were other birds around it but I'm couldn't tell if they were, you know, Grimmified. Or whatever the technical term is. They were staying away from the Grimm one, though, which I assumed means they weren't also Grimm? If… if that's how they work?"

"More or less," the professor agreed. "Were they staying away from the Huginn but still grouping together?"

"Umm… I suppose, yeah."

"That's good. Any other sightings of Huginn?"

"Yeah, Mayfield and a few of the neighbors have said they've seen a few over the past couple days. Like, at the same time. So it's possible there's more than one, but they might be misidentifying the Grimm with the regular birds. They're small and don't look too drastically different."

"Hm. And this Sith, you said it's likely the cat that went missing three weeks ago, but when did Mayfield first see it as a Grimm?"

"Four days ago. She saw it walking across the top of her fence in her backyard like her cat used to."

"That sounds creepy," Ruby remarked loud enough that apparently the scroll picked it up.

"Yeah, she was real freaked out," the policeman agreed.

"Did you canvass the neighborhood for other pets?" Professor Goodwitch asked as she started tapping the screen, pulling up some sort of database search.

"Nnnno, why?"

As the professor got further into filling out her search parameters, Weiss was able to make out what she was looking for: other missing pets reports in the VCPD database from the same neighborhood.

Nothing. Search came back empty.

"Hm."

"You think these Grimm might have attacked other pets in the neighborhood?" Blake asked.

"Yes," the professor confirmed. "Though the biggest danger is if more pets have been corrupted."

"What about the people in the neighborhood?" Ruby asked.

"Someone would have definitely noticed an Apathy shambling around. Though it couldn't hurt…"

The professor expanded the search for missing persons in the neighborhood, and again, nothing.

"It's not definite, but we can reasonably assume nobody's been hurt or corrupted. Yet. Lieutenant, is there anything else we should know about the situation or neighborhood?"

"Um. Not really. It's a upper-middle class suburban neighborhood. Good amount of kids that go to the school nearby. Um. And a lot of the residents have made donations to the CHF. If that matters."

Weiss noticed Blake sneer a little at that for some reason.

"It doesn't. Alright, thank you, officer. We're heading out to Saffron Hills now. Contract should be completed in a few hours." Professor Goodwitch ended the call and looked at the girls. "So, thoughts?"

There was a short silence as they all tried to figure out what they were supposed to say, broken when Yang eloquently said, "Ummm."

"You brought what he'd written in the report," Weiss quickly replied. "Asked for more clarification."

"Yes."

"And you asked about pets," Blake added. "And looked up the missing reports. Trying to figure out if he'd missed anything."

"Yes."

Ruby rubbed at her chin like a thoughtful philosopher. "So your biggest priority is figuring out how dangerous the situation is? I'm guessing in case it might not be a 'Green' contract after all and you don't want to get overwhelmed from unexpected enemies, and in other contracts we see in the future this is a good lesson so we know when to bring more than the minimum number of teammates?"

Professor Goodwitch cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes, regarding Ruby for a moment behind her glasses.

"... Yes… Exactly."

'Tsk! I could have figured that out,' Weiss grumped to herself.

"And last you asked him an open question of just 'what else do you think we should know?', but I'm guessing if this was a more complicated Hunt or somewhere far away, you would ask, like, what's the village organized like or how does the mine handle food and sleep schedules and all that kinda stuff so we can know how to prep and what to bring with us for long stays and whatever?"

The professor smiled. "Very good, Ruby."

"When did you get so smart?" Weiss asked her partner. "It's unsettling."

Ruby grinned. "It's my Thinking Pose. See?" She exaggerated her current stance, tilting her head to the side and staring off into the distance as she rubbed her chin.

"Huh," Weiss said, fighting back a laugh. "You should do that more often and less… Normal Pose."

With a somber expression, Ruby lowered her hand and shook her head. "I can't. My brain is too powerful. If I Thinking Pose too much then all of reality will break from the overload of super smarts I'd be projecting."

"Aaaaand she's back to being a goofball," Weiss sighed.

"It was a good run," Blake smiled.

"At this point, that's a price I'm willing to pay if it meant less nonsensical noise," Professor Goodwitch bemoaned.

"Hey!"

"Now, let's call the resident, this Heather Mayfield," the professor told the team. "Let her know we're coming. We don't have to fully interview her if she's at home as we can do that in person, but we'll ask if she's home and available and let her know that her contract is being addressed."

She pulled up the woman's scroll ID on the table and called.

"I'm not nonsensical noise," Ruby pouted to herself as the scroll rang.

"Shh," Weiss said gently. She reached out and gave Ruby's back a rub so it was clear she wasn't being hostile. "Yes, you absolutely are."

Ruby turned her pout to Weiss, and all Weiss could do was grin back at her. Eventually, Ruby grinned back to, then turned back to the table when the call was answered.

"Hello?" said a woman's voice.

"Hi, Miss Heather Mayfield?"

"Yes?"

"This is Professor Glynda Goodwitch from Beacon Academy. I—"

"Oh, good! Are you coming to take care of the Grimm?"

"Yes. I and a team of trainees are about to drive out to Saffron Hills. Will y—"

"Good, good." This time the professor rolled her eyes at the interruption. "Azure's at work and Cobalt's at school, but I'm about to be home from pilates. I'll greet you at the door." Professor Goodwitch opened her mouth to respond but the lady kept talking. "I believe I still have some lemon custard tarts on the island. I'm sure you'll enjoy them. And I can show you pictures of Jane to help you identify the Sith when you see it."

The professor's incredulous expression made Weiss think she was going to point out a Sith would be pretty easily identifiable, but then she just closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose.

"Looking forward to it. See you then."

"You too, Miss—"

Professor Goodwitch ended the call.

"You can't tell me all suburban human wine moms aren't all the same person," Blake said.

Weiss found that a little offensive, but the professor huffed out a laugh.

"I feel like we don't need a picture of the lady's cat to recognize a Grimm, but maybe that's just me," Yang commented. "Is it in the Huntsmen rules that we have to still be nice to annoying dummies like that?"

"No," Professor Goodwitch sighed. "You should always be courteous, barring extreme circumstances like people impeding you from protecting others and whatnot. You are representing the entire institution of Huntsmen when you're out in the field, remember that. But I just wanted the conversation to be done, and the best way to make that happen with people like that is to just say yes and move on."

"Like trying to correct Weiss," Yang quipped.

"When have you ever corrected me?" Weiss demanded haughtily. No way was she going to take that sass.

"I'm sure it's happened."

"It hasn't."

"Girls," the professor cut them off.

"Anybody else feel like Jane is a weird name for a pet?" Ruby asked nobody in particular.

"Jane is a normal name," Weiss replied.

"Exactly! Pets shouldn't have normal names, they should have pet names! Like Buttons or Toodles or Fluffers or something. Ya know?"

"Not really, no."

"Or you could do what we did and name them after weapons, like Zwei!"

"Focus," the professor ordered. A few taps on the screen brought the Hunt info back on the screen. "Miss Team Captain," she addressed Ruby, "what kind of potential combat scenarios should we be prepared for?"

The spotlight made Ruby squirm adorably again. "Oh, uh… well, the Grimm are tiny birds and a cat, so… make good perception checks?"

"... Wat?" Weiss asked.

"You know, like… look around carefully?" Ruby amended.

"Mm, so you want to address the enemies first," the professor remarked. "Okay, so yes, you'll need to look carefully. Sith can hide in foliage and shade quite easily, and Huginn can be hard to spot in the city because people tend to just look past birds. Now, assuming we find them, what is the best method for your team to deal with these particular Grimm?"

Ruby shifted in her seat to look at all of them.

"Fast, mobile fliers? Mmmm… Probably Weiss Dust shenanigans and Yang shotgun blasts?"

Weiss gave a nod. She had an assignment, a role. She liked that.

"And dealing with the sith?" Professor Goodwitch added.

"A good lightsaber, obviously," Ruby grinned.

Once again, Weiss had no idea what Ruby was talking about, but the professor looked particularly unimpressed.

"Mm," Ruby hummed with a frown at the lack of reception. "I guess… if it's a small, fast, annoying cat…"

"So, a cat," Weiss joked.

Yang snorted out a laugh to Weiss' delight, though Blake gave her a squinty glare for some reason.

"True," Ruby agreed, nodding sagely. "I think if we can spot it, a good ol' snipe would probably take care of it?" She looked at Professor Goodwitch for affirmation.

"I would hope so," the professor replied. "So, what else is there to consider?"

There was a long pause before Weiss and Blake said simultaneously, "The environment," and, "The neighborhood."

"Oh, right," Ruby agreed.

"Yes. So what considerations should we make to account for the people and property that will be around us?"

Ruby looked around again. "I guess… No random gunfire? No risking stray bullets?" She looked at Yang and Blake. "Especially shotguns and machine pistols."

"My shotgunning is very accurate I'll have you know," huffed Yang.

"And… I suppose no blowing houses up with Dust magic." Ruby looked at Weiss at that.

Weiss bristled. "I don't 'blow up' anything!"

"Whatever! Like, no ice walls across the roads or earth rifts through backyards and whatnot."

The professor nodded. "Yes. We need to cause as little damage as possible. If someone's in danger, of course, do what you need to do to save lives, but otherwise it's always appropriate to value the structures of the city over a killing blow on a Grimm. It takes us less time and effort to chase them down a little longer than it takes to repair a wall or road or home."

"Not to mention the people that might be hurt or displaced," Blake added, finally speaking again.

"Precisely."

The two sisters seemed a little miffed by this, which Weiss figured was due to them enjoying going all out, but she didn't mind. It just meant precision was the name of the game here. And Weiss was precise!

… Mostly.

"And lastly?" Miss Goodwitch prompted. "There's one more important thing we're missing."

"The normies!" Ruby squeaked.

"I… yes. The civilians. When we get there we'll need to make sure that after we ask the citizens if they know anything, we tell them to get inside and stay away from the windows just in case. And get a handle on any children that they have. Unfortunately, kids are dumb. They're likely to just wander into a Huntress-Grimm battle out of curiosity or obliviousness if they're not supervised."

"Maybe they just wanna fight the Grimm too," Ruby said, making her awkward duck face.

"Yes, well, most kids don't have Huntsman parents that trained them and gave them a ridiculously oversized weapon to kill monsters with. Luckily, it's a school day during school hours, so we likely won't have to deal with too many children. Alright, that covers everything," Professor Goodwitch decided. "Go strap in, girls. We'll get going."

"Can I ride shotgun?!" Ruby squeaked.

"I assumed you would," the professor replied in a tone that Weiss couldn't quite determine if it was tired or just stating the obvious.

"Try not to bother her too much," Weiss chided her giddy partner.

"I'm just saying," Yang said to probably nobody in particular, "I feel like I should be riding shotgun, ya know? It just makes sense. Thematic and whatnot."

"You're so dumb," Weiss sighed as she sat down and strapped in to one of the backwards-facing seats against the wall. Of course, that just made Yang grin because she was an absolute goomba.

Er, not goomba. That was a ridiculous word.

'Where did that come from?'

"Strap in, ladies," the professor told them as she walked up to the front, Ruby bouncing and yapping at her heels.

Yang and Blake sat on one side, Weiss sat on the other. The buckles of the seats were an intense over-the-shoulder thing that told Weiss this thing was built for some very rough driving. Would they be gassing this behemoth into packs of Grimm or something?

"So how 'bout our tank?!" Yang cheered. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Blake took a moment to look around. "Makes me feel badass," she decided.

Weiss nodded. "Prett. Ty. Cooool," she said, dragging out the word to imitate Ruby.

The truck made a hard turn and they all swayed a little in their seats.

"The back is so gargantuan it's basically a garage," Yang said. "I bet Bumbleby would fit back there."

"Your bike, right?" Weiss clarified.

"Mhm."

She didn't have any personal experience to know how big a motorcycle was, but Weiss assumed it could fit. This truck was massive.

"And we could set up your fancy Dust stuff over there," Yang added, pointing toward the workbench-looking area. "And maybe Ruby could bring her weapon repair kit. And… what would you bring, Blake? Ribbons? Books?"

"Shut up," Blake grumbled, bashing Yang with her shoulder. "... But just ammo, really. And some Dust of my own once I get better with it." She looked around a bit, then perked up when her gaze settled on the war table. "I do want to play with that, though."

"Yeah?" Yang grinned. "You a big fan of maps and dossiers?"

"I mean, yeah. Like, maps are whatever, they're kinda cool, but huntsmen dossiers? I bet there's all sorts of neat people with cool stories in there."

"You sound like Ruby," Weiss remarked.

"She's got good taste."

"She'd be nerding out over the weapons and semblances," Yang said, giving her arms a stretch over her head.

It felt like she was just showing off her ridiculous chest, but whatever.

"Can't wait to learn how to drive this monster."

"Mm," Weiss replied. There were thin windows set into the two sides of the truck wall, so small that they were likely just there to help the passengers back here keep their bearings than take in any scenery. She could make out other cars on the road beside them, precariously close to the sides of the truck. "It's a good thing the streets in Vale are so wide. I don't think this thing would fit on the roads in Atlas."

For another twenty to thirty minutes they sat and talked about nothing much and a whole lot. Eventually, they all lurched again at another hard turn. It felt like a roundabout.

There was a staticky crackle above Weiss' head followed quickly by a loud burst from a speaker Weiss hadn't known was there.

"Ahem!" said an unmistakable, adorkably squeaky voice. "Is this thing on? … This button? It—okay. Ahem! This is your captain speaking. Hehe, get it? I'm your captain like captain of the plane but also I'm, like, actually your team c—" she was interspersed by shrill scolding that Weiss couldn't make out, though Professor Goodwitch was loud enough that she was audible both over the speaker and down the corridor. "Okay, okay!" Ruby surrendered to the completely deserved reprimand. "We're gonna be there in one m—okay, well, like, thirty seconds now 'cause I got interrupt—"

There was the crackle of a scuffle before the noise abruptly cut out.

After a brief pause, Weiss sighed. "Yang?"

"'Sup?"

"How does your sister… happen?"

Yang tilted her head and thought for a moment. "Trauma and cookies."

The answer startled Weiss. It was impossible to know what to make of it. She wasn't sure if it was a joke. The 'trauma' part obviously wasn't meant to be humorous, but the 'cookies' part was… right? Unless… Weiss could see a profound intent behind it, like... maybe Yang was saying Ruby was treated like a child, which is why she still acts like one now... or something, but…

Nah, Yang wasn't that clever. It was probably a joke.

Blake quietly mumbled something to her partner, to which Yang rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, well I can't know if you're right until you decide to actually share whatever tragic backstory you're holding on to."

The venomous barb made Weiss raise an eyebrow. "What did she say?"

The truck slowed to a stop.

"Nothing," Yang said with a wave of her hand. "Just Blake thinking she has a monopoly on pain."

"I didn't—!"

Yang narrowed her eyes and that was enough to make Blake snap her mouth shut and hang her head. It was hard to tell if it was from shame or embarrassment or to hide her anger, but Weiss didn't have time to look harder because just then Ruby come bouncing into the back with a flurry of rose petals.

"I think I made the professor madge," she informed her team.

"Whaaat?" Weiss said with a grin. "That sounds so unlike you."

"I know, right! I'm adorable! I dunno what she's mad about."

The professor in question entered the back of the truck as Weiss was rolling her eyes. "Yang, I believe your sister will be joining you in detention."

"Wat!" Ruby squeaked.

"Wait, the whole detention thing wasn't a meme?" Yang blanched.

Professor Goodwitch gave Yang a level stare. "I do not meme."

"What did I do?!" Ruby whined.

"You talk. SO. MUCH." From the look on the professor's face, Weiss would think she'd just pulled herself out of a warzone or something.

She couldn't help it. She laughed.

"I can empathize," she said.

"Oh yeah?" Ruby grumped at her. "Well… I'm not even sure what that means!"

"Girls, please," Professor Goodwitch sighed. She walked to the back of the truck and flicked a switch on the overhead panel and the ramp started to lower. "I swear you're shaving years off my life."

The girls all gathered behind the professor as the ramp touched down to the ground.

"Ruby?" Weiss said.

"Wat?"

"Maybe dial your Ruby meter back a little bit. Channel a little Blake."

"Hmph!"

"Come," Professor Goodwitch declared, heels clicking down the ramp. "We'll interview the witness first. Let me do the talking and just listen, learn, and stay quiet." She glared pointedly at the two sisters.

"Well I don't wanna talk to her anyway!" Yang huffed, unwilling to not have the last word.

"Yeah!" Ruby agreed.

With a roll of her eyes, the professor turned and lead them forward.

The neighborhood looked like what Weiss had seen from the little TV she'd watched. Lifeless brick houses with boring, flat designs lined the street, each with a small joke of a driveway and a "lawn", some of which were bordering on unkempt. Cars sat in some driveways, some just on the street. Mailboxes stood on the curb.

It occurred to Weiss she wasn't sure how the Schnee Manor got its mail. Klein would always just have it ready to pass out during breakfast.

There was a car in this driveway, so presumably Miss Mayfield had gotten home.

Between this row of houses and the one behind it rose a CCT tower, grey metal lifting up the familiar tall cylinder and steepled top with its giant antenna. There were a few birds perched on the railing around the top edge, too small and far for Weiss to be able to make out any details on them.

"You think any of those are Huginn?" Weiss asked the team as they walked.

Blake had already been looking up there too, and nodded her head. "At least two, I think."

"You can tell from here?" Ruby asked.

"I have good eyes," Blake said with a shrug.

"I know," Ruby replied. "It's still whacky."

"Maybe your eyesight's just really good for hunting birds," Yang said with a grin.

Weiss didn't understand that at all, but it got a reaction out of Blake, who elbowed her partner in the ribs to little effect.

Ruby stopped the team before the small porch, probably wanting to keep from crowding the entrance, while the professor stepped up to the door and rang the doorbell.

Subconsciously, Weiss reached up and straightened Ruby's hood and smoothed a wrinkle in where her cloak sat across her shoulders. Just to make her a little bit more presentable.

The woman that answered the door was… well, maybe there was something to what Blake had said. White skin, brown hair in a bun, retail store blouse and skirt… She looked like every woman that came to do ad reads for the SDC Home Dust Systems.

"Welcome! I'm Heather Mayfield. Miss… Goodwitch, was it?"

"It was. And this is Tea—"

"My, there's quite a lot of you, aren't there?" The woman leaned to look at the team around the professor. "Hello, little ones!" she cooed like they were schoolchildren.

"Little ones?" Yang bristled. "I'm like a whole head taller than you!"

Professor Goodwitch turned to shoot Yang an icy glare that Weiss aspired to attain one day, then gestured at the girls.

"This is Team RWBY, my trainees. We're here to deal with the report of the Sith and Huginn you filed with the VCPD."

Miss Mayfield blinked. "I… I'm sorry, what is a Huginn?"

"A raven Grimm," the professor answered.

"Ah! Yes, the policeman that was here mentioned he saw that. I'm sorry, I didn't see them myself, just my poor Jane. But come in! Come in!" She waved them over her threshold. "I'm not sure I have enough tarts for all of you, but I'm sure I can find something."

The house was nice enough. It felt cramped to Weiss, the foyer and stairs and dining room that she could see all laughably small to what her experience with such rooms had taught her, but it was clean and the furniture was nice. It had a bit of an overwhelming fruit scent, though, like there were a billion scented candles burning just behind the corner.

"That's fine," Professor Goodwitch said. "We're not here for snacks."

"Welllll," Ruby sang with a devious grin. The professor held an imperious finger up, though, not even turning to look at her, and Ruby immediately went silent and pressed her lips together to erase her smile.

"Could you show us where you saw the Sith, and where your cat usually wandered outside?"

"Of course!" Miss Mayfield lead them through the living room towards the backdoor. "Did you want to see the pictures of Jane?"

"That won't be necessary," the professor quickly replied. "Grimm are pretty easy to recognize."

"But what if the cat Grimm—the Sith—isn't my Jane?" The lady looked like she was desperate for a possibility that her cat wasn't a flesh hungry monster now.

Weiss felt a little bad for her now.

"Then we wouldn't be able to tell anyway." Professor Goodwitch's tone was her flat, grumpy normal voice, but she softened a bit when Miss Mayfield's eyes cast down and said, "I'm sorry."

"Yes, well… Right out here, then."

They were lead outside to a small backyard with the tiniest pool Weiss had ever seen.

"Whoa, your backyard is huge!" Ruby gasped, making Weiss look over at her to make sure she hadn't hit her head.

"And that's a nice pool," Yang added.

Had these two, like, headbutted each other quietly before they'd walked outside? The yard couldn't have been more than a couple thousand square feet, and the pool was less than six hundred.

What kind of yard had they grown up with?

"Thank you," Miss Mayfield said. "Jane would like to sunbathe on that rock by the pool over there, and… walk along the top of this fence to taunt the neighbor's dog." She seemed to be having a hard time getting the words out.

Professor Goodwitch looked over quickly. "The dog. Is it missing as well?"

"Oh, no!" The woman stepped over toward the north side of the yard and yelled toward the neighbor's house, "You're still here, right Scrunchy?"

"Woof woof!" came an enthusiastic response.

The sisters both perked up, grinning at the dog noises, then Ruby looked over at Weiss. "See?" she whispered. "That's a good pet name."

Weiss rolled her eyes.

"And would your cat go anywhere else?" the professor asked, all business.

Miss Mayfield cast her eyes about. "She'd… wander around to people's backyards sometimes. She'd mostly stay inside unless Cobalt came out to play with the other kids in the neighborhood." She pointed to the back fence of the yard, towards where the CCT tower was. "There's a big open field here between the houses on this street and the one across the way. The kids like to play windball and whatnot back there and Jane would watch and hang out in one of the trees… She was a good girl."

There was a long, sad silence.

"I'm sorry," Ruby finally said. "Yang and I have a pupper. I couldn't imagine how we'd feel if… you know…"

"Yeah." The woman looked down at her feet. "... It sucks."

"Miss Mayfield?" Blake spoke up. "Did Jane like to chase after birds? Ever try to eat them?"

Professor Goodwitch turned to give her a smile. "Very good, Blake," she said.

"I mean, as much as any cats do, I suppose" Miss Mayfield answered. "Though the birds mostly hang out on the tower. Jane usually chased the squirrels that live in the trees in the field back there, if anything… I don't think I've ever seen her actually catch anything though."

"Hm," Blake responded.

The professor clasped her hands behind her back. "What's the most concerning thing about this contract, girls?" she asked the rest of them.

"How Grimm showed up in the middle of Vale City," Ruby answered immediately. She looked over at Blake. "You thinking… Huginn fly in from beyond the walls, cat ate one thinking it was just a regular bird, got corrupted from its blood?"

"Makes sense," Blake said with a shrug. "Weird that Huginn would fly so far, but… it seems a more likely theory than a housepet found and took a swim in a Grimm pool in a suburban human neighborhood three hours from the city walls."

"Hm."

Weiss looked between her two teammates, then at the professor.

"Ma'am?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"Is that likely? A Grimm pool here?"

Ruby and Blake were pontificating but Weiss had no basis of knowledge to contribute anything here.

"Not likely, no. Possible, though, if we entertain the first half of Ruby and Blake's theory." She looked pointedly at the two girls.

Blake frowned. "You think… Huginn could have gotten here and died? And left a Grimm pool behind that the birds and cat could have gotten into?"

"No shot," Yang chimed in. "Huginn are too small. They'd dissolve, not leave a pool. Even most Nevermores don't leave a pool."

"Quite right, both of you," the professor said. "It's simply a possibility. The most likely explanation is Blake's theory, but it cannot be proven. There's no way for us to prove that Miss Mayfield's Jane consumed Huginn blood. However, we can eliminate the other possibilities, which would be prudent anyway. It's always good to ensure there are no Grimm pools in the area."

"We can't really prove the absence of something either," Weiss said, mostly because she just wanted to have something to say. "Even a Grimm pool."

Professor Goodwitch gave her an unimpressed look that made Weiss feel like she should have stayed quiet. "Yes, but Grimm pools are quite noticeable and it sounds like the cat didn't wander too much. We'll need to check any obscure corners, nooks and crannies. Again, though, there likely isn't a pool at all. We should just do our due diligence."

"Will you be needing to go back to the field, then?" Miss Mayfield asked.

The professor looked at Ruby. "What do you think you should do first, Team Captain?"

Ruby looked around at them and did that cute nose scrunch she did when she was trying to work something out.

"Hmmmm…"

"You should try your Thinking Pose," Weiss teased her partner.

"Weiss, don't be ridonkulous," Ruby sighed. "This is clearly not a Thinking Pose moment, come on."

"Wait, what?" Weiss had no idea what qualified as a 'Thinking Pose moment' then.

"Just so silly, I swear," Ruby grumbled, shaking her head.

"You—!... Ugh!"

The dolt gave her a devilish grin, for some reason delighted that she was annoying enough to get on Weiss' nerves, then said, "I think dealing with the birds first would be smart. They can easily get away at any time so the sooner we boop them with a bullet the better. Plus, we know where they are."

"Not sure I can help with them very much," Yang reminded her.

Ruby frowned. "Yeaaaah… Aight! Let's do this. Blake, come with me, you and your freaky telescope eyes will be my spotter. Yang, Weiss, you start looking for the Sith. Check the neighbors' yards and anywhere else that wouldn't be visible from the field. If people come out to be, like, 'yo what are you doing, bruh?' then tell them what's going on and ask if they've seen the Sith or any other Grimm."

Ugh. Going with Yang? And talking to random people?

"Sounds good," Yang answered.

Well now Weiss had to be okay with it.

Ruby looked to the professor for approval. "Is that a good plan?" she asked.

Professor Goodwitch nodded. "Very sound. Just be mindful of how you deal with the Huginn. If you spook them and allow them to fly off, things will get very difficult."

"Right!" Ruby chipped, undeterred. "Let's go, team!"

They jogged to the back of the yard, Miss Mayfield following awkwardly. She didn't have the immense skill and grace required to run in heels that Weiss had.

"Sorry, the gate is locked!" she huffed behind them. "I have the key… Oh, no, it's in the house. I can go—"

"No need!" Ruby cheerily replied. She then burst into a torrent of rose petals and zipped over the fence.

Weiss conjured a series of glyphs to make a staircase for the rest of them and they walked up and over to join their leader.

"... Oh, right," the stunned civilian blinked behind them.

Blake turned and gave her a little wave. "Thank you, though," she said before backflipping off the glyph she, Weiss, and Yang were standing on, joining Ruby on the ground below.

"Blake, with me," Ruby ordered. "Weiss, Yang, check the other yards and talk to neighbors. Look out for the cat."

"Aye aye, Cappy!" Yang acknowledged with a goofy salute.

Weiss just gave Ruby a 'how could you do this to me?' look.

Ruby grinned at her. "Alright, break!"