Another chapter, since I have some free time during this Christmas break. Enjoy, and dont forget to leave a review if you have any thoughts or comments on oversights I've made thus far.
My time in the Lockbox was nearing its end. The Atlesian Railgun had been fully dismantled and put back together in a central clocktower in Vale. Neo, bless her small and nimble hands, made the job a wide margin easier. Her small frame betrayed the heavy lifting she was able to do, and by the end of the week we had it positioned. She brought a small device along on the last day, a remote-access computer that Cinder would be able to use in order to maintain her position, but also to alleviate any threat of the operator being destroyed when a gunship inevitably knocked the tower down.
The bomb, on the other hand, proved a more difficult task. We discovered in our advents that it's priming and control mechanisms were removed some time ago, leaving the warhead to be little more than unstable metals and dust. Without a convenient way to fire it off, I convinced my fellow schemers that the bomb would have to be abandoned. My personal plan differed in this respect. Once I had slaughtered everyone of any reputable combat skill in this town, I would activate the bomb manually using a large surge of my own energy in order to level the city.
All of that brought me to the day before the duos tournaments would be held. Weiss, early in the morning, received some message on her scroll that left her giddy all throughout breakfast, and she dashed off to the courtyard of the school as soon as the clock struck noon. Ruby tagged along with her while I followed from a distance. Cinder had informed me that some higher ranking soldiers were coming via airship all the way from Atlas, bringing the second half of their fleet with them.
In the courtyard, as I mingled among the growing crowd, I bore witness to the second most decorated specialist in all of Atlas, Winter Schnee. Wiess' older sister had clearly earned her mettle, her hard eyes and prim posture bearing every measure of the perfectionist that Weiss herself aspired to be. Of course, as her human soldiers left her presence to establish positions around campus, her expression softened as she greeted Weiss properly.
Wiess seemed surprised when Winter congratulated her openly on a swift and decisive victory, even going so far as to mention the strange runes that she used during combat. Wiess informed her sister of my presence on the team, and I heard Winter say that she would like to meet me at any convenience, if nothing more than to thank me for furthering her combat studies.
As the trio of them left to see our team's dubious quarters, and I began to lose my interest, something caught my eye. As the bullhead Winter rode in on began to close its doors, a single hand reached out from under it and hauled the door open enough for a man to crouch out. The man, drunk and stumbling as he was, immediately caught my fixation.
The man, clad in a grey and white half-suit with a black and red flowing cape, was one of the few men I had ever seen move with absolute certainty. I watched him stumble into the pair of robotic guards tailing the Schnees and, as if somehow one of them offended him, he tore off the head and tossed it like a crumpled can at Winter's back.
"Hey." He said, garnering the attention of Wiess and the immediate glare of Winter. "Yeah, I'm talkin to you, Ice Queen."
A perfect bait, but it brought in the wrong prey. Weiss, offended in place of her sister, strolled up to him with the intent of giving the man a piece of her mind. However, in the midst of her words, the much taller and older man placed a hand halfway on her face and halfway on her head, shoving her backwards and shushing her before leisurely tossing the heiress out of the way.
"Not you." He walked at Winter and glared at her. "I saw that gaudy ship of yours fly through town, and I figured you were here too."
Winter sneered at him. "I'm standing right before you."
The older man squinted heavily at her, as if validating his own eyesight and her words, before grinning and agreeing.
The conversation went downhill quite quickly. The man was a master at his craft, insulting her and her soldiers in every way with as little effort as breathing, even referring to the advanced robotic soldier he dispatched as 'sentient garbage'. The conversation only devolved sooner, the man's laid back anger bringing out an unbridled rage within the older Schnee, and soon she rushed him.
It was then that the show I had been hoping to see finally began. The fight began with Winter trying a variety of stabs, and the skill gap between them made itself known instantly as the man moved mere inches away with ease, even so much as dodging one with a mocking bow before drawing the wide blade he had on his hip, pirouetting and swirling the blade in a way that made use of proper sleight of hand. Winter fell for it at first, watching the empty hand before she realized the man's sword was poised at her waist.
The fight began truly after that. While the specialist was certainly high caliber, the man was in a league of his own. Striking with rotating swings that put the full weight of his body behind every blow, he forced Winter on the defensive and kept her there through the remainder of the fight. He far outclassed her in strength, agility, and most jarringly, experience. The speed of their movements was hard to follow, his default speed nearly matching Ruby's own without Velocity. Wind flew from the meeting of their blades as they danced around the courtyard.
Through some cheering nearby I learned two things about the man. Firstly, his name was Qrow, and secondly, he was Ruby's uncle. The battle left the central courtyard soon after that, the entirety of the north campus becoming grounds for destruction. Yet the leisure at which Qrow fought only reinforced their gap in skill. She fought with anger and with full effort, and Qrow smiled like this was some funny joke of a sparring match.
The only moment in which Winter seemed to gain ground was when she showcased her summoning glyphs, sending a swarm of doves after the man while he let himself fall into defense. But only for a moment. After the assault let up, he straightened his back and flicked some mechanism in his sword. The simple change in posture and the defiant look in his eyes told me that he was about to start fighting seriously.
Blasts of steam released from the notches of his sword, earlier showcased to function as a hand cannon as well, and the blade extended before beginning to curve. Winter prepared a glyph to charge him, but something caught the man's eye and he swiftly put away his weapon. The crowd moaned in protest, but then Qrow leaned forward and, with a terrible glint in his eyes, taunted the specialist.
Winter obliged, sending herself careening towards Qrow only to be stopped an inch short by a loud and curt voice calling her name. General Ironwood, having appeared suddenly in the courtyard, began ridiculing her. Qrow's plan unfolded and she was made out, not entirely without cause, the be the aggressor.
My interest was lost not long after that, as Ozpin and Glynda both appeared and, after a brief announcement to clear the area and Glynda's reparation to the intensely damaged courtyard, summoned both Qrow and Winter to someplace unbeknownst to me. I left quickly, my attention on the prime skill of a fully realized Hunter. Qrow was in a category belonging to himself, far outclassing the old and near-retired Oobleck. His presence made me quite excited for the days to come. I wondered if it would be possible for me to get in a test fight before we battled to the death.
Third-Person, Ozpin's Office (After Winter's Dismissal)
"So you tell me, James, when you brought your army to Vale, did you think you think you were being discreet? Or did you just not give a damn?" Qrow's anger punted the room into a heavy silence, but it was a silence quickly broken by Ozpin.
"I brought him here. You know this." Ozpin spoke calmly, staring at Qrow behind his glasses. Rather than cooling the Qrow's anger, it seemed only to fan its fire.
"Yeah, and that was a damn mistake. Do you know what people are thinking right now? The kind of rumors that spread when this kind of power is shown off in leu of 'defense'? They're all asking themselves, 'If this is what were bringing to defend ourselves, just what are we expecting to fight?'." Ozpin stood up abruptly, cutting Qrow off from finishing his tirade.
"It is not just Salem." The mention of their ancient foe, in name no less, brought an even heavier and more stunned silence to the room, allowing Ozpin a moment to breathe and continue.
"There is more than just the threat of Salem, our infiltrator in our school, and the Grimm that could be brought of all of it. We have a wildcard in our midst, stalking Vale and taking lives. James, if you would, please pull up the information for the Azazel File." Ozpin slowly sat down as James nodded and streamed data to the projector on Ozpin's table. Images taken from Atlesian soldiers in the Emerald Forest. Images of a split-faced man with pale skin, reflective purple eyes so dark as to nearly be black, covered in tattered black clothes and wielding a saw-toothed greatsword.
The images were taken in varying states of combat, a few showing the bloody-mouthed killer in midst of attack, with the final image showing him holding the heart of the soldier whom the body camera belonged to.
Qrow stood in stunned silence for a few moments, gazing at the images with mixed sickness, confusion, and finally a struggle of memory. Ironwood began dictating the details to him.
"These images were taken a few months ago in the Emerald Forest during a routine scouting mission, and a preliminary test of experimental weaponry on the local Grimm. Then, he made another appearance briefly before the explosion in the underground railways connecting Mt Glen and Vale. Team RWBYD encountered him while on a research mission lead by Doctor Oobleck."
"Ruby's seen this freak?" Qrow absentmindedly spoke to himself as he scanned the images over and over, looking for something.
"Yes. Doctor Oobleck made a stand against him, directing RWBYD to attempt to disarm the explosives on the train. The train was armed to the teeth with stolen Atlas gear, White Fang Members. Were unsure if the two are working in cohesion. But we are certain of the outcome. Doctor Oobleck lost his fight and his life against this creature." Irownwood finished.
"Creature..." Qrow spoke again to himself.
"Something apparent to you?" Ozpin asked. Qrow shook his head uncertainly.
"I'm not sure, Oz. Do you have the full footage from the Emerald Forest? How did this freakshow fight?" Qrow looked towards Irownood, who in turn looked at Ozpin. He nodded.
"Yes. A warning though, it's more than just a bit gruesome."
"You know I'm no stranger to the ugly things in life, James. Send me the footage. I have a hunch, feel like I've seen something like this before, a few years ago." Qrow could not remove his eyes off the figure in front of him, some old memory scratching at the back of his mind.
"I suppose you'd be the most likely out of us to have seen strange occurrences like this. What is it you think you've seen?" Ozpin asked.
"A town real far out, Carria, near Shimatani. I was making to pass through it about four years ago, but it was destroyed. I thought it was Grimm at first with the way the corpses were destroyed, but the lines were too crisp, the kills to direct. Too much running for Grimm. Grimm don't play with their food, but whatever did that let the people run everywhere. I found bodies over a mile away from the town, having crawled away before getting impaled from the back. And footprints following them. Human footprints."
Ozpin gazed at Qrow from behind his spectacles. "Well, then you'll be informed as to anything new that occurs with the Azazel Files. I hope you can understand my apprehension at bringing the Atlesian military to bare, with so many threats coalescing around my school at once."
Qrow nodded. "Yeah. He took down Doc, not to mention a whole squad of Atlesian knights with experimental weaponry. Between that and the rest... Well, we still can't be giving people the wrong idea. Actually, that'd be the right idea that we can't afford to let slip."
"Not to worry. I've outfitted all of my cruisers with celebratory fireworks and have the weapons stowed away from public eye. They'll be seen as mere devices of grandeur to the public majority." Ironwood attempted to appease Qrow, but he simply waved the general's words aside.
"I've got work to do. Keep me posted." Qrow turned and briskly walked out of the room. The other's in the room slowly found other ways to busy themselves, and their impromptu meeting was completed.
A smaller chapter, and mostly a plot setup. Another one should be coming within the next few days.