Disclaimer: Brotherhoof12 doesn't own these two franchise.
(Chapter 22: Bring down the Iron)
When this year started, Ozpin thought that what he had to worry about was making sure the Queen couldn't reach Amber within the Academy. It did make him a tad nervous that the White Fang and other dangerous groups have started to make their move in Vale. Yet, he didn't have to worry too much knowing that a certain youthful group have made several attempts to stop any dangers appearing in the city.
"And here's today morning reports." Glynda levitated a large stack of papers on the headmaster's desk. The sheer size alone could block Ozpin's vision. "Oh, you also need to remember that you will make a public statement about the damage team RWBY caused a few nights ago."
'Perhaps I shouldn't go too far and say I'm not worried.' His peace were ruined thanks to the stack of papers in front of him. Ozpin picked up a folder on top of the tall stack.
"…" Glynda, ever the stoic woman she is, stared as her boss stood on his toes to reach for a folder too high for him to reach.
She sighed after seeing that the man wasn't going to stop. The mature Huntress used her riding crop to levitate the folder into the headmaster's hands.
"Thank you, Glynda." He said with a smile. Opening the file to read its contents, Ozpin's relaxed demeanor soon dropped after reading it. "Another family requesting to transfer their child out of Beacon?"
"One of them, Ozpin." With a flick of her riding crop, her Semblance levitated several other folders, each one with different families having the same request. "This is far more than the last time we received these after the so called 'Sandman' incident that had young Sun and Neptune interfere. Though, that time we only had a handful, now we have a stack load. I fear the next amount we'll get won't be just paper, but their parents themselves knocking on our front door."
Putting down the file he was holding, Ozpin removed himself from his desk and walked to a window behind him. Looking outside to see Vale made the grey-haired adult lost in thought, and he usually does his best when doing so.
Ozpin, for all his years of experience, never thought that he would meet this dilemma so soon. Of course, he expected to see some unease within the people. The White Fang and Roman's increase in stealing are just a few things that he was tracking.
He had no doubt that these instances are part of the Queen's doing, which was why he called Qrow to come back to the Kingdom. The enemy was no longer outside of Vale's walls, each passing day, he can tell that this beautiful Kingdom will become a deadly battleground soon.
The highway incident was just a small-scale example of how much Vale will receive when this so-called Queen springs her attack. Though, he can't just assume that Roman wasn't the only one that can take all the credit for what happened that night.
No, that can also be tied together with Team RWBY and the school that houses them.
"Any word on Qrow?" He asked Glynda. "I know that he has been visiting his nieces since they were done at the station."
"He says that they are doing fine, though they still have some lingered guilt regarding their encounter with the Paladin." She answered.
"I see. I understand that they are not entirely to blame for the destruction on the highway, but they still need to answer for the other accidents they themselves made, correct?"
"Yes." Glynda made another motion with her weapon that made half the paper stack float. The other half that remained on the desk had the top folder removed by Ozpin himself. "Though Officer Stacy did say before that their 'arrest' was just for show, there are eyewitness accounts for things that team RWBY did that wasn't from the Paladin."
Combing through the long list of eyewitness' testimonies, it showed that each person explained how team RWBY caused more harm than good when defeating the Paladin.
One citizen claimed that he saw one Huntress make a floor of ice on the road, causing him and his son to crash. Another says that a Huntress with black hair was the cause for the large explosion near one of the roads, not before she made several vehicular 'hit and runs' when she and some other blonde teen decided to jump on cars. But above all those testimonies about what the team did that night, only one thing stood out the most.
When the people were caught in the crossfire, not even one of his students acted on trying to save them.
"The report also says here that there was a fog that made it impossible for anyone on the road to see." The headmaster said to his deputy.
"Yes, Miss Schnee and Miss Xiao long both confessed that they caused the fog. However, if you read further in the report, you see that team RWBY also voiced their own reasons as to why they did such acts."
"I see." Reading the rest of the report from the Vale police station, Ozpin closed back the folder and set it aside on his desk. "It does paint a very morbid picture about them."
"That's taking it lightly," Glynda sighed. She never did it as often, but with so much flak coming their way, it was starting to become a habit. "Thankfully enough, team RWBY won't be charged with heavy crimes such as public destruction."
"However…" Ozpin knew there was more to this, so he said that.
"However, they still have to deal with some crimes that they are charged with. Public endangerment is one of them, but fortunately, there wasn't enough evidence to stack more charges on them."
"And since they stopped the Paladin from causing more harm, they don't have to worry about any major punishment." The headmaster clarified, already making sure Beacon's legal team had enough to defend the students.
"That is good news." Glynda sounded off when she said it.
"Oh? Something on your mind, Glynda?"
Contemplating on what she's about to say, the mature blonde looked at her boss with a conflicting look.
"I'm happy knowing the fact that team RWBY won't be charged as criminals for defending the city from that Paladin, even more glad that the damage they made are just superficial, but don't you think that this will cause more harm to Beacon's image?" She asked him.
"Is it bad that we try to help a young group of innocent girls from being sent to jail?" He raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"No. Never. I'm more worried about how this will look to the people of Vale. They already see us in a bad light, Ruby and her team just made it slightly worse, but won't they see it differently? That instead of upholding the standard, we try to escape from it."
People already started to have mixed feeling about Huntsmen, even before team RWBY were formed and made trouble, but this might be the one that will finally break the camel's back.
"You're saying that we aren't taking full responsibility of our actions?" The grey-haired headmaster asked.
"In a way, yes. We are Huntsmen, sworn to uphold peace and fight the Grimm. But in the eyes of the people, all we're doing is helping a group of heavily armed people get out of jail with no consequences."
Glynda looked away from Ozpin and used her Semblance to retrieve a folder with a picture of a student attached to it.
"I know this one, he's a third year. He had a bright future here and I had no doubt he would become an excellent Huntsman. Most of these students in this stack had bright futures, but their parents say otherwise." Setting the folder down, Glynda rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"It's becoming more apparent now that the new generation of Huntsmen are becoming too lax in their duty. I see it in our school, in hallways, the cafeteria, and even more so in my class. It's not just me either, Ozpin. People are no longer seeing us as elite warriors, but a school for the privileged brats."
"Glynda, I know that this paints us in a bad light, but you and I both know why. There are darker forces at work that needs more attention than us trying to put up appearances." Setting aside the legal ramifications in his head, the headmaster set his sights towards his goal.
"Team RWBY will be a great help soon and we can't have them taken out when they just started here." Going back to his desk, he pulled out his tablet from one of his drawers and handed it to Glynda. "Not just them either, several other students are needed for what's to come. Amber can't hold out much longer, and you know how this will play out if we decide to play by the book."
"You're… right." She looked at the Fall Maiden's decline in health on the tablet and gave it back to Ozpin. "I always knew those girls would be trouble after the initiation, I just wished that it didn't have to play out like that. I saw how crushed they looked, Ozpin. They did good, yet, the people still hurled insults and trash at them."
"It's common nature to shift blame. With Roman escaping, they had no other target to let out their frustration other than the Huntresses that saved them."
"That's where you're wrong, Ozpin. True, team RWBY bravely faced off with a criminal master, but the one who really saved the day was Spider-Man."
Hearing the webslinger's name, Ozpin typed him up on the internet and what rewards him was a flood of Spider-Man feeds. There wasn't many civilians when the attack happened, but there was still those who were saved by the webhead that decided to record the hero's actions as he flipped, webbed, and lifted people to safety.
"Over a million views, I would say this certainly beats watching cute cat videos online." He commented.
"That's not all, people are already in the hero craze due to Spider-Man, but after that night, it became more. Now, people has no longer expected us to help, they're now relying on one man instead. I'm not saying that I'm ungrateful, far from it. He saved not only the people, but also team RWBY."
"Yes, it was thanks to him that they won't be labeled as murderers. Huntsmen are trained to fight Grimm, but we also protect what's left of humanity. It would be quite a sorry thing if we can't do both." He said while scrolling through countless comments about Spider-Man's actions. "Though, even if people try and hold them accountable for that, it would be far more difficult to do so since they stopped Roman from causing more harm." He continued.
"Regardless, you still need to make a statement on this. It was team RWBY who caused this to blow out of proportion, who knows if this will make other students to do the same." Glynda can take care of students like Cardin and his bullying for so long.
However, she fears that if he doesn't change his attitude soon when he graduates, his status as a Huntsman could send a bad image on the community.
"Since they only got a slap on the wrist by the police, I'm sure more of our arrogant students will try and push their luck." She said while counting the numbers of said students in her head.
"You mean, try and uncover some nefarious shadow group within Vale?" Ozpin raised a single eyebrow from Glynda's statement.
"No." She rolled her eyes at the headmaster. "What I mean is, what would happen if they decided to go out and decide to drink? Or get in a fight? We see them as our students enjoying their time at Beacon, while normal citizens see them as potential bombs ready to go off. People are already out for blood and we can't keep things under wraps forever."
She would be lying if she didn't see that already in full-fledged Huntsmen, but they were adults who understand the consequences of their actions. As for the students, she had her fair share of breaking up fights on or off the campus, with the latter being a broken bar or someone's personal property in the process.
"Your concerns hold weight, but I doubt our students would try anything right now, not when we're on the magnifying glass. Don't worry, even though they did stop Roman, they're still not licensed Huntsmen and will be punished for going off on their own. That's why I limited them to just there room and have no other student make contact with them." Putting the tablet down, Ozpin reached for his cane and started to walk to the elevator.
"Team RWBY's punishment aside, the council still needs to talk to me before I go to the public because this also has to do with them as well." He pressed the button to have the elevator arrive to the top floor of his office.
"Yes," Glynda followed Ozpin inside the elevator. "I'm sure they're also trying to work this around to make sure that they aren't responsible either. After all, since they also put time and Lien training the next batch of Huntsmen, they want to make sure their 'products' won't be stopped due to complications like this. That is why we're still holding the girl's name out of the news correct?"
"That was my suggestion to withhold the information." Ozpin clarified. "If I'm the one being in the center stage giving out an apology, I might as well be the one who tells them the truth."
Pressing the button to reach to the bottom floor, both adults stared ahead as the elevator brought them down to the main lobby. As they continued to stare, they were greeted to see more signs of Spider-Man's rising popularity in the city. Billboards, giant posters on tall building, even people wearing more Spider-Man merch seemed to multiply even further since word started to spread of the heroics he performed that day.
'Speaking about popular heroes.' Wanting to change this topic to something else, the headmaster of Beacon turned to Glynda and asked her a question. "Let's focus on a different matter, shall we? One thing I heard was there is another sighting of this 'Iron Man' who was in Mistral."
"Iron Man?" Glynda was now the one to look confused at why a so called 'hero' would decide to move to Mistral. "I heard that he usually stays in Atlas, mostly around the outskirts of villages that can't afford to be in the major city."
"It seems while our own hero in Vale stays within his home like a spider to its web, Iron Man seems to fly wherever he pleases."
"That certainly doesn't seem wise." The blonde woman said as she continued to stare ahead at the Kingdom. "Seems to me like it's a breach of territory. If the stories from the villages that are saved by Iron Man were true, then any Kingdom would feel like they're being invaded by a one-man army than an actual superhero."
"James had the same idea when he heard that Iron Man invaded Mistral airspace." He silently chuckled as he remembered James storm out of his office, red in the face at how his soldiers were not allowed to enter Mistral air space. "He was quite peeved at what Iron Man did over at Mistral. Apparently, Iron Man taunted his men to try and capture him and they were still denied in entering the Kingdom."
"Was that all? I thought Iron Man usually rescues people, not goads the military."
The Huntress may have some things against Ironwood's brash military might. But, hearing what the metal man did makes her understand James's opinion over this flying hero a bit understandable.
"Well, it seems that when Iron Man was in Mistral, there was an air show that had many influential figures who were invited to see new models show how fast they can perform." Ozpin moved his eyes to look at the deputy.
"Influential groups were all invited to the show, from political head in Vale, Vacuo, and even Atlas."
Catching on to what Ozpin had said, Glynda voiced her thoughts on what conclusion the headmaster had.
"So, you're saying that the people who were invited to the air show, specifically Atlas, could be this flying metal man?"
"It does add weight as to why he was there in the first place. As fast as he was shown to fly and save the pilot, it would still be impossible for him to fly from Atlas and all the way to Mistral. I find it even more unlikely that he somehow knew that there would be danger on that day and time."
"Unless you think it was planned?" She questioned. "You know how popularity are in Remnant. With how Spider-Man is becoming a staple in Vale, it doesn't really surprise me that people will go to great lengths to try and be famous."
Glynda knew that what she said is a stretch, if it was all a set up, then the villages saved by Iron Man must take a great deal to set up.
"True." Ozpin agreed as he nodded. "But even then, this Iron Man is just starting to get noticed because of that incident while our resident wallcrawler already have his webs tangled in the Kingdom and is almost taking hold of Mistral and Vacuo."
"The way you said it, Spider-Man sounds more like a brand name rather than the hero himself." Looking closer outside, she could see the people of Vale wearing colors of a certain red and blue vigilante. "Then again, you're not wrong either."
Finally, after hearing the elevator doors land on their requested floor, both adults walked out and entered the busy lobby of their school. It was still morning, and every staff member and student were on their way to their respective destination.
Walking out of the front door of the Academy, they were greeted by freshly cut grass and the sound of birds as they continued to walk.
(BURP)
The birds soon flew away after they were startled by a massive belch caused by a familiar drunkard sitting lazily on one of the school's benches. Wiping the dribble off the edge of his lips, the red eyed Huntsman looked back at the two fellow co-workers and gave his usual greeting.
"Morning." Qrow put the cap back on his flask and placed it on his hip holster. "Been waiting, what took you guys so long?" He asked.
"We had morning reports that needed our attention." Ozpin told Qrow. 'Hopefully Glynda won't remind me to put them away. I did just walk away from the stack that's still on my desk.'
"But enough about that, how about you, Qrow?" He asked. "I know you're also worrying about how your nieces are. So did visiting them work things out?"
"Not much, really." The black and red Huntsman shrugged his shoulders. "They're tough kids, they have to if they want to be a Huntress. But I can still see that they're hung up about what happened."
"Did they tell you what happened at the station?" This time, it was Glynda who asked the question about the girls' state of mind. "I arrived at the police station, but by the time I entered, they were already waiting in the lobby and I didn't want to ask them so soon."
"Not really anything soul crushing. Ruby told me that they were in different interrogation rooms and was just asked simple questions about what happened." The middle-aged man was also going to add the fact that they gave her cookies, but he held off on that.
"Listen, Glyn-woah!" Getting up from the bench too fast made him stumble a bit. "Ok, I'm centered." He says after fixing his footing. "Anyways. Glynda, I know my nieces, and I also seen their partners too." He told her.
'One young huntress in particular. Oh, man. I can already imagine the look on her face when she hears what her little sister did. Pure comedy…' The drunk Huntsman thought deviously.
"They have thick skins, a little bit of alone time and enough space will be enough for them to bounce back." He said.
"I guess you're right." Glynda placed her faith in Qrow's belief. "Then it just leaves us with going to the Council and having Ozpin make a public apology."
Hearing about what their plan is today made Qrow turned to his boss with mild disdain about where they're going.
"The council? That pit of snakes? Why would you go to them? This is Beacon's problem, after all." He spoke distastefully.
"I know you dislike them, friend. But this isn't something we can handle ourselves. We can handle things like a disturbance caused by our students or a minor conflict..." The grey-haired headmaster trailed.
"Or destroying businesses such as... oh, I don't know. A bar?" Glynda poked a reference at Qrow regarding Yang's first time in Vale.
"That place was shady, and you know it. Besides, if the owner of that dive bar has hired two young girls as bodyguards, then you know that place is trouble." He defended Yang's reason as to why she made Beacon pay off the damages she caused.
"Which makes this an even bigger problem, Qrow." Ozpin brought back the conversation to the main topic. "Problems like that is something we can handle, but this accident was in a more public area, not some bar full of questionable people, full of civilians and property damages that are connected to the Council. We can't fix this alone, that's why they called me so we can discuss how we can solve this together."
To normal people, it would sound really odd that a school would pay for a student who destroy personally owned establishments, and they would be wrong. Since this is an Academy to train teens to become the next generation of Huntsmen to fight the Grimm, the Council gives the proper amount of funding to the Academy so they can handle the students and not lead it straight to them.
That wasn't the case anymore, not after the night when that Paladin and team RWBY fight it out in the middle of a highway. This can no longer be settled with the school alone, not when this situation will also have a negative effect on the Council as well.
"Well, have fun with that, Oz." The black-haired adult pulled out his scroll. "I'll just stay in Beacon, maybe check with Ruby and Yang later."
"And what will you do right now?"
"Sit on my butt and watch this video someone recorded." He showed the video to his co-workers. "Some guy recorded this when Mistral was showing a premiere air show that went horribly wrong."
Both watched the video play as one of the new model flyers Mistral was showing started to malfunction with a wing producing smoke. Said wing exploded and sent the plane to nose dive with the pilot still inside the cockpit.
Hearing the people scream and shout in fear gave Glynda a thought that perhaps this wasn't a set up after all. As the people continued to panic, the video soon zoomed into the sky when the person recording the event saw a fast object intercepting the falling machine.
"That must be Iron Man." Glynda spoke out loud as she saw the armored hero save the pilot before he could crash. "Though the video is lacking proper resolution to see the full detail of the hero."
"Hey, I said it was some guy recording this on his scroll, not some camera man." Pressing pause and opening a new window, Qrow searched the news and was happy to read what people were saying. "Hope Iron Man keeps pissing off Ol' Jimmy. A guy who can do that is a hero in my book."
"Well, we won't stop you spending your time by yourself. Enjoy the rest of your day." Ozpin walked along with Glynda then stopped midway when he remembered something. "By the way, have you... by any chance…?"
"Tracking Spider-Man?" He finished his boss' question. "Haven't seen him for the past couple of days. I mean, have you seen what's happening in the city? Everywhere I go, I see Spider-Man's face plastered on everything."
It seemed that the first time they met wasn't really a great way to start things off, but maybe the next time he finds the wallcrawler, Qrow can at least apologize to him with a drink.
"Don't worry. Tonight, I'll try my luck again." He reassured Ozpin. "Just worry about dealing with paperwork while I report on what I find tonight."
Trusting his subordinate, both Huntsmen walked to the school's parking lot, leaving the drunk uncle to himself. Watching the two walk off towards the distance, the veteran Huntsman went back to sitting on the bench, pulled out his flask, and continued to read the news about how Atlas was turned away from Mistral.
"I'll get right on it." He promised as he took two large swigs from his flask. "Tonight."
As the morning continued with the bustling of both students and staff members getting started on the day, only one team was still in their room, not by choice, but by orders from the headmaster himself.
They weren't under complete house arrest, far from it. They can still go out and do personal tasks. The team was just told that they couldn't attend class or most parts of the academy until they say otherwise.
That still didn't stop Glynda from dropping off their course work, saying that they can still do school work even if they can't go to class.
Still, hearing that they don't have to go to class would have been great news to them. Well, 3 out of 4 would agree that it sounds great. Only instead of using their free time to goof off, team RWBY simply used this time to either rest in bed, read, or even keep their minds sharp by going over classwork.
Each one kept their minds preoccupied with something, all except one huntress who kept tossing and turning in her bed. Her scroll in both her hands as she continued to stare at what the news has to say about the recent tragedy that happened that night.
In the screen, Ruby saw the same female reporter, Liza Lavender in front of all the rubble that was still being cleaned up by Vale construction crew.
"What you see behind me is the remains of one of the main highways used by many people. Now, it has been closed off until it can be properly fixed, leaving many people quite mad that their usual route to work had been cut off."
The camera then showed to the workers controlling heavy machines to move all the destroyed cement. As the camera kept showing the manual labor, the female reporter continued to talk.
"That night can still be talked throughout the Kingdom, with many citizens starting to ask questions. The most notable question they ask, is the Huntsmen community's lack of effort around Vale."
Changing the scene yet again, the news was now focused on a man that had a brace around his neck.
"Tell me sir, in your eyes, how did the event play out?" She asked him.
"Well, uh..." The man fumbled with his words. "I was driving on my car, then out of nowhere, I saw this large robot heading straight at me. So, before it could hit me, I swerved out of the way and I hit a light post."
"And did you know where is was heading?"
"Well, last thing I remembered before I blacked out was that the road I was driving on was leading to the highway." He answered.
When he finished, images of that night were played on Ruby's scroll. Crashed cars, injured civilians, they even showed the results of her teams fight with Roman.
"Just as he said, the machine that was piloted by the notorious criminal: Roman Torchwick, was seen heading to the highway. A weapon that large was also connected to a White Fang rally thanks to multiple phone calls of concerned civilians. The police were able to arrive at the location and apprehended a handful of White Fang members and confiscated multiple weapons and Dust."
"While we can thank the police for their effort to bring down the Fang's illegal weapons and rally, it cannot be said for the Huntsmen that was fighting the Paladin in the highway."
Hearing that the news was going to talk about them, Yang, Blake, and Weiss stopped at what they were doing and listened to what the reporter had to say.
"We were able to talk to a few witnesses that was on the same highway Roman was on, including their experience when seeing both the paladin and the Huntsmen fight."
Once again, the news showed different people either looking completely fine or had a cast due to them still healing from their injuries.
"What were your thoughts on that tragic night and how do you feel about the Huntsmen and Roman's urban battle?" Was Liza Lavender's question that was answered by multiple people.
"It was scary. I thought I was going to die and when I saw some Huntsmen chasing the Paladin. I thought I was going to get help, instead, they just kept running to the robot, not even noticing I was there."
"The entire thing was a nightmare, cars were thrown, dense fog showing up, people were scared, and where were the Huntsmen in all of this chaos? Nowhere!"
"I was just driving with my son, and soon I saw this woman with a white pony-tail jump out of nowhere and formed ice on the road."
"I worry that Huntsmen just think about fighting rather than making sure us normal people are safe."
"What is Beacon teaching these kids?! More importantly, so these kids even have a license to carry such dangerous weapons? If so, then they should all get confiscated!"
Each comment made each Huntress in the room sink their heads lower at how people saw them after their fight with Roman.
"As the hearts of many go out to the people who went through such horrible trials, we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that no lives were lost that night. All thanks to our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."
Just after she said that last sentence, the screen then shifted to a different set of people who were also caught in the fight.
"I swear, I thought I was done for until Spider-Man saved my life."
"He was so brave, helping all of us with no one helping him. Makes me glad heroes really do exist in Remnant."
"My kid can't stop talking about him! I mean, he's such a fan for Spider-Man, he asked me if I can help him make a costume just like his!"
"I just find it kind of ironic that the vigilante we've heard from the news can be completely different from the hero we met. The same can go for the Huntsmen, our protectors of humanity, be the opposite of what we imagined."
"Honestly, I just feel like Huntsmen nowadays lost sight of why they earned the title of being what they are. Makes it look really embarrassing that some guy in a mask knows more about it than them."
"Spider-Man! Spider-Man Spider-Man! We all cheered his name for what he did for us. Heck, if I ever see him again, you know I'll keep chanting!"
Camera focusing on the reporter again, Liza raised one hand in the air and a small chart appeared next to her. On it, was two meters, one for the Huntsmen, the second, for Spider-Man.
"For the past couple of months, debate has been going on for some time whether or not Spider-Man is doing a better job than the Huntsmen. Now, with this recent development, it seems that the meter for the Huntsmen are gradually lowering while Spider-Man's popularity steadily increases."
Chart disappearing, Lisa talked more about the group that fought Roman.
"We have yet to know the group of Huntsmen who took part in the battle or any other information. But some speculate that they were young Huntresses, leading us to believe they might hail from Beacon. One person in said group was one girl being more noticeable then the others. Rumors implying that it is the Mr. Schnee's very own daughter, Wei-"
Pausing the news, Ruby turned the screen off and shoved her scroll under her pillow. Not wanting to hear it anymore, the young redhead simply laid on her bed and closed her eyes to calm down after watching the current events on Vale.
Relaxing being ever so elusive, Ruby tried turning in different sleeping positions to try and get a better chance to unwind. The rocking motion made the one using the bottom bunk to voice her complaint.
"Ruby..." She peeked over to her leader's bed. "Can you just lay still? I'm trying to study."
"Sorry, Weiss." Ruby turned to her side where she can see snippets of Spider-Man taped to her side of the wall. "Just thinking about how we messed up."
Hearing what their leader had said, the rest of her team stopped what they're doing and went lost in thought about that night.
The girls were cooperative when the police interrogated them about what went down in fighting the Paladin. Well, Weiss still did her usual business talk about her rights before answering the officer's questions. She was raised to lead the SDC in the future, after all.
Even if the mistake was behind them, the lingering sense of failure still remains in the room. People shouting of threats, profanity, and foreign object really made them take a step back to see the big picture.
That big picture, was them only seeing what was in front of them and hurting the people around them without even having a single thought of what might happen afterwards.
"I know we did the best that we could," She told her team before any of them could speak. "It's just… I wish that we could have done more..."
Silence soon enveloped the room, listening to what Ruby said really made the other girls to look inward and think about what they could've done better if they did it a second time.
"Maybe I should've tried a different way to bring down the machine rather than make ice on the road." The heiress admitted her mistake, a rare thing since she always tries to hide her insecurities.
"What are you talking about?" Yang asked the Schnee. "You weren't the one who decided to lose control and decide to hit the thing without a plan. It was me who went all gun-ho about beating it with my fists."
"No. You're wrong, Yang." The blonde's partner entered the self-blame game. "This is all on me. No one else. I was arrogant, thinking that I can do this on my own and leave you guys here and not get hurt. Your semblance helped us take it down, but it was me who led it to all those people."
"All of you are wrong." Hearing all her teammates voice their problems, Ruby got out of her bed and was now in the center of the room. "You all did great out there!" She called out.
"Weiss." Ruby looked at her partner. "Your Dust and glyphs gave us the support we needed to even the playing field with Roman's fire power."
The silver eyed teen set her sights to her older sister.
"Yang, you helped us with how you took it head on so the rest of us can get in position to help you. If you weren't the one tanking all the damage, then I doubt the rest of us could do it."
Finally, looking at the girl who started it all, Ruby's gaze made Blake squirm as she couldn't keep eye contact with their leader.
"And Blake," Ruby's stare softened. "We already told you after we were finished at the police station that we forgive you. I know you still have issues about trusting people after the whole 'leaving the White Fang thing', but that was in the past. Now you're in team RWBY, and if one us is in danger, the rest will always be there to help."
After saying what she thought about each of her teammates, Ruby looked down at the floor and talked about herself.
"If anyone is to blame, then it's m-MPFF!" She was struck by a pillow right when she was going to say it.
"Oh, you're not carrying this all on your own, Rose!" Weiss tossed her last pillow at the scythe wielder. "I know you're trying your best to be a great team leader, but saying that you should be the only one to take the blame is way too much for just you."
"It's true! I was the one who gave the or-WAAH!" As she was looking at her partner, Ruby was struck again with a pillow from her older sister.
"Those orders helped us beat Roman as a team!" Yang smirked, her usual upbeat attitude returning. "If it wasn't for your quick thinking, then all of us would be doing our own thing rather than working as a unit."
"I-EEEH!" Knowing how this will play out, Ruby Rose braced herself for another pillow to the face by the last member of her team. "Uh?"
Looking at Blake, the cat Faunus did not throw her pillow like the rest. Instead, Blake was trying her best to cover her mouth before she couldn't hold it any longer and started to laugh.
To see Blake, the quietest and most mysterious of the team, turn to a giggling girl made a chain reaction for the rest of the Huntresses to follow suit. Laughing at how silly they've been acting, the first to stop was Weiss who wiped a stray tear from her eye.
"Ok, pity party over. Now, did everyone get it out of their system?"
Everyone in the room nodded their heads.
"Good, so how about we stop blaming about what we did in the past and work on how we can approve ourselves next time it happens?"
The entire team agrees silently with each other.
"Great." She smiled once that this was past them. "I think the first thing we should do is tell Pyrrha and her team about helping us."
"Sounds like a good way to increase our numbers." Yang shifted from laying on her bed to sitting on it. "I mean, the more the merrier is fine by me. Sun and Neptune joined us, so it doesn't sound too bad to have more help."
"Then we'll do it after they're done with class. Maybe even message them, the headmaster did say that we are limited to the people who can talk to us. " Blake added her own thoughts. "Maybe when they reach their room, or else, we have to deal with the paparazzi."
"Yeah, and we're already on thin ice as it is." Yang remembered how at the police station, one of the officers, Officer Stacy, if she recalls, told them to lay low and not cause any more trouble. "Even though the people at the bridge saw us, it was still dark out, and I'm sure most of them forgot how we look. It was... what? Three... maybe four days ago? Whatever the day is, I'm sure people have already forgotten how we all look."
"Easy for you to say." The well-known heiress groaned. "Do you know anyone else with natural snow-white hair? Or maybe someone else with a family name famous for Dust? If anyone here is going to be noticed after the debacle we did, it's going to be me."
"Ozpin did say that that he'll try and make sure our names won't be revealed." The cat Faunus tried to give out some good news. "We are still technically minors, so they can't really hold us in court. I mean, yeah, we did help in destroying the highway, but no one was badly hurt or… something worse."
"And we all know who we should thank for that." Ruby Rose looked away from her team and to the newspaper clipping on her side of the room.
"In the end, I was wrong about him." Blake looked at Weiss as if she grew an arm out of her belly button. "Don't mistake it as me turning into a fan like you and Ruby. I said I was wrong about him cutting ties with you. He's still considered a vigilante, and nothings changing my mind about that."
"I'm not a fan." Blake corrected Weiss. "Still..." The bow wearing girl hugged her pillow. "It was still pretty amazing how he was able to do everything on his own."
"Yeah..." The youngest in the team agreed with no hesitation. "Looking past the group of people saying mean stuff about us, Spider-Man has saved so many during all of that."
Normally before all of this, if they heard about a single person being able to save that many people, then the team sans Ruby would be hard pressed to believe it.
Every girl in the room knows that while being trained as a Huntress, they must expect losses to happen when they graduate out of Beacon.
Qrow himself made sure he reminded Ruby that every time they trained together, it even helped her believe in that fact when living outside of Vale.
That same mindset her uncle put in her head so long ago, unfortunately, has come loose after spending so much time learning about Spider-Man.
Perhaps it's because of too many stories her father told her as a kid, about heroes saving the day and getting a happy ending. Or it was seeing Spider-Man on the news or in action might have made her delusions of grandeur take root.
But likely, she wanted to believe what her father told her about her mother and how she was also one of those heroes that saves the day.
"And that just gives us more motivation to train harder!" She pumped her arms in the air. "We're training to be a full fledged Huntress, so that means we can't slack off! Starting now, we're going to work even harder than before!"
"I hope that means you'll start getting more focused in the knowledge part rather than the combat." Ruby's partner said. "Because you're still lacking in that department." She bluntly told her without any sugar.
Cheeks getting red for being called out about her general studies, the rest of the girls chuckled at their team leader's flustering.
Their team bonding moment was soon cut short when Weiss's scroll began to sound off. Reaching for her device, she read the caller's I.D to see who was calling her and paused at who it was.
'Father.' The young Schnee stared at her scroll. 'Why is he calling again? Usually, he only calls once and only once. He once said to me, that if the person isn't picking up the call from a Schnee, then they aren't worth calling again.'
"Can't he take a hint?" Weiss mutters under her breath. Looking back to her team who are still teasing Ruby, the pony-tailed girl pressed the 'end' button and set her scroll aside.
(KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!)
Hearing someone knocking on their door, all four girls looked at their only entrance and then looked at each other in confusion.
"That's weird," Yang was the first to speak. "Professor Goodwitch already gave us today's paperwork, so who's the one at our door?"
"I'll get it!" Wanting to get out of her embarrassment, Ruby zoomed straight to the door, reached for the handle, and opened it just wide enough to peek outside. "Hello?"
While Ruby was at the door, the three other girls started to talk amongst each other.
"You think it's your Uncle?" Blake asked her partner.
"I don't know? What time is it?" Yang asked both Weiss and Blake.
"It's close to around 9 in the morning." Weiss pressed her scroll to check the time.
"Then no. I'm sure he's somewhere right now, drinking."
"Didn't he still drink when he came to check up on you and Ruby?" Yang's partner said.
"He tries to drink less when around family, but when he's alone, that's when he starts drinking." The buxom blonde clarified.
"How about Ozpin?" Weiss tried to guess on who's at the door.
"Might be, but he told us that he won't be coming often because the Council keeps calling for him." Yang shot down the snow-haired heiress' question.
"Um... Weiss?" Ruby closes the door and cuts off her team from guessing who she was talking to. "There's someone here for you."
Getting out of her bed, the rich girl walked to the door and grabbed the handle.
But before she opened it, Weiss questioned Ruby. "Can you tell me what he looks like?" She asked. "I don't want to open the door and find out it was just some photographer lying to you so he can get pictures of me."
"Well... he kind of looks really important." Ruby used hand gestures to help her explain. "He's wearing a dark blue business suit and-oh! Bald! Really bald!"
"Someone wearing a business suit is something I see at home, but bald…" Putting a finger under her chin, a light bulb lights up in her head at who might be on the other side.
Opening the door, Weiss greeted the stranger with her best smile she always uses.
"Weiss!" Just as Ruby described, a tall, bald man smiled at the Schnee and placed his arms on her shoulder. "It's good to see you again! My, you've certainly grown a few more inches since you've been here!"
"It's good to see you, Mr. Stane." Taking a back step, the elegant Huntress curtsied. "I can't believe you're here."
'Why are you here?' Her eyes asked him.
"You know this guy, Weiss?" Never seeing Weiss this polite except for the teachers, Yang walked up to them, so she can get a better look at the man. "He's kind of a bit old to be your butler."
Dropping her gentle smile into a sneer, Weiss gave Yang the stink eye and whispered in the blonde's ear.
"You clod! That's one of my father's business partners, Obadiah Stane!"
"You make it sound important, but I never heard of him to care as much." Yang whispered back.
"All you need to know, is that he works close to my dad and is one of the richest, maybe even the second most influential man in Atlas." She explained. "Now, if you don't mind…"
Gently pushing herself away from Yang, Weiss turned back to Mr. Stane and put up her usual professional façade.
"If I knew you would be here, then I would have made sure our living quarters would be up to standards."
"Now, don't worry, Weiss." Stane stepped in and looked around the room. "I'm not a stickler like your sister, I'm here to make sure you're ok. Even asked your father if I can leave Atlas for a bit to make sure you're doing fine."
'No wonder he tried to call me.' Weiss bit the inside of her cheek. 'Of course he watched the news about what happened with the Paladin. I'm stupid to think that he stopped trying to take me back home, Stane only proves it by coming here.'
"Speaking about siblings, I think you'll enjoy hearing that one of them also tagged along."
"You mean..." The Schnee looked ecstatic. "Winter is here!?"
"No." He laughed at how quickly she can show her true emotions so quickly. "Another one of your siblings. One who really missed you the most, Weiss."
(KNOCK! KNOCK!)
"Ah! Speak of the devil, there he is now."
'He? Oh, no. Not him.' Her enthusiasm deflated, Weiss turned around to see someone she thought she didn't had to see for a while.
Turning her body to face the door, she immediately did a double take at what she was seeing and who was leaning on the door frame.
The person leaning on the door frame looked like him, only he seemed taller, more athletic too, but the telltale features of snow white hair and arctic color eyes was already a dead giveaway at who he was.
"Hello, dear sister." The young boy strolled into the room and ignored the rest of her team. "I'm glad I can see you again."
As if to add another new trait from him, the boy then proceeded to give Weiss a hug before retreating to give her some air.
Completely off caught off guard by this development, the eldest Schnee in the room could only stare in shock at who was in front of her now.
"Whitley?" She sounded like she herself can't believe who she was looking at. "You look…"
"Different?" The youngest in the family decided to humour her and did a full turn to show her how much he's matured. "You didn't expect me to be the same, would you?"
Adjusting his tie, Weiss could see he was wearing a pitch-black shirt underneath his usual white and blue apparel.
"I'll have you know, I didn't stop growing while you were away from Atlas." He let out a calm and collected business man aura.
Author's note.
Well, things are starting to move forward with a new added visitor in the mix. Hope you like the surprise guest at the end of this chapter, though I'm sure some of you knew this was coming. Anyway, this chapter is just Beacon's side on how they're dealing with RWBY's public disaster and also the team themselves trying to get past it.
I also wanted to make it some what realistic on how Beacon treats their students. I remember in the first episode Ruby was in an interrogation room, that was why I had Qrow make that reference. Another thing about them being in house arrest is that Ozpin withheld information about them, since I believe that since he's the headmaster of the school, then he should be the one to say it in his own words and not have it spoken by the news and have them shape it in a different outtake to the public.
Apologies to some of you if you thought this chapter would be more angst with team RWBY, but I'm sure we all had our fair share of every show and other stories that play it out too many times. I also don't want people to think that I'm bashing on their favorite characters (Even though Ruby Rose is my top pick).
I wanted to make this chapter a few days ahead so I can add in the news and how they're getting results on how well Spider-Man is becoming. For the team, I also know that some people still have some doubts that they are fully responsible, but I can at least only half agree.
Even though Roman did cause some heavy collateral damage, RWBY also caused some problems that can still be considered to be dangerous to the public. With Weiss forming ice on the dense highway road, Blake jumping on cars, the fog they made, and also how they don't even react to the people in trouble can still hold a great weight on them to carry. But, since we're dealing with Ozpin and the Council, then they will try to curve the situation to lessen the blame the people accuse them of. Their still in a form of house arrest, but the only thing they can do is still go out in Vale and not really go anywhere in the Academy. With a technicality of them partically not responsible, they still have some freedom, they just have to lay low and not get noticed as much.
Weiss, being the one who will likely be the most targeted due to her status as heiress, will lead her father to make sure her problem won't reflect the SDC. Following up to why I had Obadiah Stane finally showing up, since he's here to help her not get in court, followed by Whitley who wants to visit his sister. I'm sure you guys also noticed the slight changes I gave him, well that's because I don't like how RWBYverse already written him off as some bad guy. I wanted to write him as someone who really did change while Weiss was gone and I'm sure you guys will soon see how much he changed.
This chapter may seem short compared to the previous one, and the reason for that is that I'm trying to push out chapters a lot more faster. Hope you guys liked what I did to the team and also with the Beacon staff and if you're new, follow, fav, and leave a review on your thoughts on this chapter.
I like to thank my beta for helping me get this chapter fixed up and you should check his stories to see his work of fanfiction. Thank you.
(Omake: The Pizza. Part 3)
Right where we left off, Jaune, the owner of the house, a mad man with a bow, and a now dead mercenary were all in a single room. For the webhead, fighting people with the intent to kill was his usual day at work, but since he is still Jaune Arc, he has to play the role as a helpless victim.
'If I find a solution without having to resort to fighting, then who is going to give me the Lien for the pizza?' He thought to himself as the man notched a bow and aimed it at the center of Jaune's head.
"Thought Deadpool would've already killed you guys, but I'll just step up to the plate and do it myself. Need to keep up appearances and you two are loose threads."
'No choice, I need to get this man away to safety!' Tensing his leg muscles to dodge the arrow, the corner of Jaune's eye caught sight of the now dead mercenary moving. 'Focus, that must have been the wind or muscles on the dead body finally going into rigor mortis.'
"Can you at least tell me why you're trying to keep up appearances?" Jaune stalled for time. "Never even heard about you around these parts. I usually hear about Spider-Man. Speaking about him, I'm sure he'll come soon and save us."
"I won't take long in killing you guys." The bowman still held firm on his arrow. "I'll be heading back to Atlas to get back to my original job, not that you'll know since you'll be dead."
'Someone hired him? To kill Deadpool?' Looking back at where the dead body was, Jaune soon quickly closed and reopened his eyes to see if he was not crazy. 'The body, where did it go!?'
Focus now disrupted, Jaune's eyes were no longer on the arrow as it was soon released and was heading right between his eyes.
"Bang!" Someone shouted as a bullet intercepted the arrow, causing it to hit the wall behind the pizza boy.
"I can't believe they sent someone like Hawkeye to kill me?!" The new resurrected Deadpool said with both sadness and joy. "Finally, maybe I can start getting into the main storyline soon!"
Reaching for another arrow, Deadpool used the small delay to charge at the killer and slammed him on the ground. "Though, I thought I would see you more Jeremy Renner or voiced by Troy Baker."
'Ok, I think I filled up enough on whatever they're talking about.' Using this as a chance to take the also confused civilian out of the house with both crazies too busy to notice them.
"I need you to call the police! Also!" Jaune said in a serious tone. "A reminder, it'll be around 12 Lien for the pizza, plus tip." He also said with a stony face.
"I left my phone in my house." The owner of the house raised a shaking finger at the house now being filled with arrows and gunfire.
"Who leaves their phone in one place? We practically shove it in our faces 24/7!" Calming himself down, Jaune gave him a different order. "Go to a pay phone or if you see a squad car, try to get its attention."
"What about you?" He asked.
"I'll go in a different direction, it can go faster that way. Now go!" The pizza guy shouted.
Seeing the owner of the property run to get help, Jaune waited a couple of seconds before running the opposite direction. Stopping between two houses, Jaune checked to make sure no one was around before heading to his bike that was owned by his boss. Hanging from the bike handle was his backpack that also housed his costume. Opening the bag, Jaune quickly suited up and web lined back to where the action is.
"Ok, time to wrap... this...up?" Arriving to the house, he looked on as the building was now on fire, even though he was only gone fore a couple of minutes.
"Seriously, what the #!%* is going on?!" Spider-Man shouted and then proceeded to jump through the window and into the blazing fire. Landing in a crouch, Spider-Man scanned the area to see that Deadpool is fighting the unmasked bowman.
With a new challenger appearing in the house, both killers looked to see that Spider-Man was now in the burning house with them.
"Spidey! Good to see you!" Deadpool said while grappling with the man who 'killed' him. "I just found out that it wasn't Jeremy Renner or Troy Baker!"
To show what he means, the merc did his best to shift his opponent to have Spider-Man see his face that had a large circle on his forehead.
"He's Bullseye!" He said in triumph before the man called: Bullseye broke Deadpool's hold and gave a swift right rook.
Seeing both maniacs duke it out, fire getting worse and worse, Spider-Man said what his mind was screaming at him to say.
"Who's Bullseye!?"