Transcript 1: All smiles
"There's so many!"
Three days into their stay at Longsaw, and Jasper still couldn't believe how many Grimm there were outside the Kingdom. Every morning as they travelled out into the surrounding farmlands, he still had to shake his head to believe it was real. Yes, there were Grimm back home in both the Emerald Forest and Forever Fall, but he reasoned that the number of trained warriors pottering about kept the numbers down in the immediate areas just outside Vale. In Longsaw, that responsibility was held by just three – the two resident Huntsmen and the Sherriff himself.
Even with five, the job was a chore, and not to mention dangerous. Gale had nearly had an arm ripped off by a ravager yesterday when it caught her from behind, and he himself had had a scare this morning when he stumbled upon a Creep den before the Lina came to his aid. Thank goodness for their protective aura, he thought.
The new fire dust cartridges in his gauntlets had helped a lot. Sherriff Leatherjack had doubled down on his comment from the other night and insisted that he improve the long-range capabilities of his weapon to assist in fighting Grimm.
"No point in getting close to those nasty teeth and claws if you can do it from afar!" he had said cheerily.
And he was right, as usual. After some arguments with the village blacksmith to hold off butchering his precious gauntlets, he had come away with a new raised slit above the second finger which fitted some smaller fire dust cartridges. Enough to deal with the smaller Grimm that fell in the pit on the night watch, which was sufficient for a specialised hand-to-hand weapon. He'd been working on using the new modification in conjunction with his more powerful ice dust shots as a long-distance shattering mechanism, which had turned out to be more successful than his first attempt at using the more volatile fire dust with his semblance. He'd promptly exploded all the dust in his left gauntlet when fighting an Ursa, which had done a real number on the Grimm but also left a stunned Jasper flat on his back.
Not a great look if there were more of the beasts closing in on you.
The four members of Team JNGL reconvened at the far corner of a large potato field, where the Sherriff was waiting for them alongside one of the many farmers who patiently waited each morning for the Grimm to be cleared that day.
"Well done, all of you!" he greeted. "I noticed only… six slip ups this morning!"
"Six?" said Lina, aghast. "I thought we were pretty safe and coordinated today."
"Jasper's idea to fall into a Creep den was worth three, so it's not so bad as all that!" grinned the large figure.
The look of relief on Lina's face was far too obvious, and he let out a loud guffaw. "Come on, you youngsters," he instructed. "It's time to teach you some more subtle skills, ones that don't require swinging a sword." His eyes fell on Gale. "As you know already from what you've learned on night patrol, there are certain ways you can make people… volunteer information."
Brandy Leatherjack smiled at the two girls over his chestnut moustache, with one reciprocating his grin and the other looking away in embarrassment. He had told Gale and Lina the morning after their watch that he had heard their conversation, and turned that into a lesson too, specifically on how it was important to hold your tongue when necessary. The next words out of his mouth were even more of a surprise than what he had told them that previous morning.
"After talking with Gale here this morning, I found she already has many of the necessary fundamentals in this area, mainly to do with making your audience feel… comfortable, shall we say. She'll catch up with you for the second lesson tomorrow when you've had the chance to get more up to speed with the topic."
Nero raised his mental eyebrows. They all knew Gale had a way with her tongue, whether perfectly executed insults or highly persuasive sweet-talking, but he hadn't expected her skills to leave as big an impression as it had. Whatever the outcome, Gale looked delighted with the results, and was practically itching to abandon them as soon as possible.
"Ohh! Thank you, Sherriff!" she exclaimed. "Does that mean they will be busy all afternoon?"
"Most of it, my dear! You're free to do as you like in the meantime" he said, reading the investigative glint in her eyes and nodding in confirmation.
The three others waved goodbye and left with the Sherriff towards the eastern side of the town, leaving Gale with a handful of farmers just starting up their machinery. She trotted over to the one which had been standing beside Sherriff Leatherjack just before.
"Excuse me Mrs Phlox!" she trilled to the woman. "How do you do? Are there any places I would find on this side of the town which might be good for a girl going… sightseeing? I'm sure there must be lots of marvellous spots in a place like this."
Sightseeing, as it turned out, was a loose term for blindly adventuring into the wildest parts of the surrounding area. As she dispatched another marauding Beowolf on the end of a metallic blue arrow, she continued towards a decently sized hill a few kilometres to the west of the town. She stooped to retrieve the arrow after a few paces, having yet again come out clean when Grimm dissolved into black smoke. After fighting so many Grimm over the years, especially back home at Hammerhead Point, it was almost hard to remember that the result would be very different with a person on the end of that arrow. Grimm had no blood, only occasionally a spattering of black goo on some varieties, which too dissolved away when the creature died. If such a thing could be considered alive in the first place.
The base of the hill was fast approaching, the dark grey granite and patches of yellow grass stark against the white caps of the even higher Spineback Mountains in the distance. It reminded her of Wasteland's Edge near her town back home, the unofficial border between the greens of the forests and grassy plains near the ocean settlement, and the beginning of the more arid edges of the desert beyond. She had climbed those too, for the sheer fun of ignoring the local warnings, and the area beyond reminded her a lot of Longsaw and its surroundings, with the desert just visible far in the distance.
Which is what had drawn her to climb this comparatively tiny hill in the first place. It was barely higher than the drop from Beacon Cliff, but enough to see for many kilometres across this relatively flat area. How grand would it be if I saw the ocean! She thought to herself as she clambered up with relative ease. Then it really would start to feel like home!
There was no river here though, she thought, or train line. Gale frowned. Come to think of it, where did the village water supply come from? They must have dug a pipeline to the inlet a dozen kilometres away, but even that must have been a chore. But then again, you had to be resourceful to survive out here, and she guessed the fertile land must have been worth the effort.
She reached the peak and looked up, and to her surprise the sun showed it was already getting late in the afternoon. She had been so lost in her thoughts of home and the adventures she had had back there and hadn't noticed how far the trek had taken her. Gale looked around. She could see the little streak of blue ocean which marked the inlet to the north of Longsaw, and just as when they were in the air, a patch of golden sand on the opposite side of the town.
Gale turned away and looked at the snowy backdrop of the towering mountains behind her. It was a little too much like Hammerhead Point in some ways. She was sometimes homesick… even today when she set out on this trip… but she didn't quite feel as excited about returning this summer as she had expected.
What had stopped her from continued to tell Lina about the town during semester break? Lina's dad had mentioned the Algrens in their conversation too, and that had pricked something in her, and she had changed the topic then too, for a reason neither of the two parties knew. Gale shook angry tears from her eyes and wiped her face a second time to no avail. Why? Why had she made that choice? A split-second image flashed in her mind, something which had changed her life forever, and none of her attempts to grasp it in the following seconds could bring the memory back.
It was the first time since she had arrived at Beacon that Gale had broken down like this, or at least, the first she could remember. She hated this. She hated not being the happy-go-lucky Gale she truly thought she was and had wished to be. It wasn't an act, all her smile and bounce back at Beacon, but it was sprinkled in between with lows which were far lower that might be expected for someone of her bouncy and frivolous nature, and she hadn't stopped to ponder that. Especially after Lina's near encounter with the Griffons with her unrelated prank that morning, and when nobody asked her to the dance, before Fox showed up.
Gale picked herself up and ran at the highest rock on the peak, then with a blue flash rippling across her body, launched herself into space. She knew it wouldn't hurt her, with a reduced mass softening her landing significantly as she tumbled down the hill, but it felt good to release and throw something back at the world, even if it was herself. Lightweight Gale flew across the plain back towards Longsaw, her tears drying themselves as the wind burned past her face. After what felt like an age compared to the seemingly quick walk out, she reached the edge of the Grimm pit surrounding the village. Undeterred, she reactivated her semblance and leaped high into the air, her activated aura and training driving her already much higher than a regular human without combat experience, plus the huge boost from her reduced weight and powerful legs sending her in a huge arc right across the thirty-metre gap, landing with a foot to spare on the other side.
She slowed down and gasped a few long breaths to slow her thumping heart, then steadied herself, and walked calmly if a little shakily up to the cottage where they were staying.
"Oh, hi Gale!" called Jasper from the kitchen, brandishing a tray of freshly made garlic bread.
Gale stopped short for a second, surprised that they were back this early. Sherriff Leatherjack had made it sound like rest of the team would be going all afternoon.
"We finished a little early, and I thought I'd make some hot food while the others went out to get some fresh stuff. Here, have a slice while it's still hot."
Gale took two pieces and chewed the first thoughtfully as her mind raced on how to appear as if all was normal. Could Jasper tell that she had been crying?
"You look a little red Gale, are you alright? Didn't get sunburnt parading around the place today, did you?"
"Yeah," said a relieved Gale, not technically untruthfully. "I probably did."
Transcript 2: Reports
The final day dawned slowly on Nero, watching as the horizon turned from black to grey, to yellows and oranges, then blinked as the first rays of the bright yellow orb breached the horizon and set sail on its daily journey across the sky. His mind floated briefly towards the age-old fairy tale of the sun falling to earth and a replacement being made by people in the old times of Remnant, and in that moment, he wasn't completely convinced they weren't true. Watching the sun or moon in times of beauty like this often put this thought in mind, just as Gale had when she saw Nero and Lina together after the dance a week ago.
He looked over to her sleeping form, sprawled out under her thin lilac blanket she brought from the cottage last night. She certainly was beautiful, he thought. Not many people ever got to see this softer side of Lina, the outer feisty show of confidence she put on throughout the day. Hell, he had barely seen it before the offer of the dance and was surprised how refined and feminine she had seemed at times since then. Nero smiled. Maybe it was a good sign, considering she wasn't trying so hard to shed every resemblance to the Lavender name. She'd even wanted people to start calling her Lina again, instead of Rosy.
He stretched his stiff legs and yawned, his leather gladiator sandals creaking in the cool morning air. He reached down and touched Lina lightly on the shoulder.
"Hey."
"hmm…" stirred a bleary-eyed Lina.
"It's morning. Our last patrol shift is over, we get to go home this afternoon."
"Oh… good." She sat up slowly and screwed up her eyes as the bright rays of sunlight struck her face. "I'll miss it though. I was just starting to really like this place."
"I will too. It's very… real and refreshing. I've actually been able to use some of the things we've learned, not just stuck doing exercises in class."
"Not to mention all the things we learned while we're out here" responded Lina. "Personal interactions. Teamwork and adaptability on the fly. Learning to read new environments – and believe me, this has been a totally different environment to Beacon. As the Sherriff said, a day out in the real world is worth a week in school. It's a pretty common saying among the graduates apparently."
"I'd believe it too," said Nero, and offered a hand to help her up. "Let's get going then. We've got to go and get ready for the fake world again."
"That was a pathetic joke, Nero."
"I know."
Back in Vale, not so far from the "fake" world in question, a man with a bowler hat and cane had already been up for hours. A cigar hung from his lips and he puffed resignedly as he waited for the latest shipment of dust to arrive outside this abandoned warehouse. An old, crackly television set buzzed in the background and a bob of purple hair appeared as Lisa Lavender prepared to announce the six o'clock morning news.
"A large Nevermore was killed near Moss Grove early this morning after breaching the Kingdom wall and damaging several houses. The official report states that a malfunction in the South Tower's Grimm-spotting algorithm allowed the creature to remain undetected until it was engaged by Huntsmen patrolling the wall. No one was injured."
The man flicked his cigar, sending a puff of ash falling to the ground where he crushed it underfoot. He brushed the orange hair out of his eyes and looked over at the television again. Where were those goons? They were usually here by now. He didn't get up this early every single day without good reason. Screw the "early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" mantra. Crime waited for nobody. It was as simple as that.
"A gang of mask-wearing men were arrested this morning after attempting to rob a dust store in Vale's northeast. Although none of the group were Faunus, it is suspected they may have links to the recent White Fang attacks around the city over the past few months. The men have been taken into custody for questioning."
Roman scowled and turned off the screen, throwing his cigar down on a nearby table. So, they were delayed yet again. Why couldn't she send him some competent goons to do this job? Cinder knew Roman was the best in the business for organising these underworld tactics, only he couldn't do a thing if the men he received were a bunch of incompetent, braindead idiots who managed to blunder right into the authorities' arms every second week. It was infuriating. Almost as infuriating as being associated with those stupid animals who called themselves the White Fang.
Roman looked up at the huge pile of locked crates in the corner opposite him in the warehouse. He didn't need the White Fang. He was doing just fine stealing all this Dust on his own. And he would continue to do so, with still much to be done over the next year before their plan was complete.
He scratched his chin. What was the plan, anyway? Cinder had never told him anything about that, but he knew better than to argue against that bitch. That bitch with the sickly-sweet talk and the hair over one eye. And underneath her equally horrible smile, he could see in Cinder's eyes that she thought him less than dirt, a fact that wasn't particularly well hidden. Her dealings with Roman had a distinctly condescending attitude, like she thought he was an insignificant child. Much like how she treated her two baby-faced recruits, although the girl didn't seem to recognise it.
He hated her, but she was strong. More deadly than any muscle he had happened to meet before in the underworld, and he had seen plenty across his career. And if she was subservient to someone else who he wasn't even allowed to know about, then Roman wasn't going to get tangled up in a war against them. He would stick to what he knew best, and what he did best. He grinned. And that was lie, cheat, steal, and survive.
A low, ringing crow of laughter echoed across the warehouse, before a disquieting silence regripped the room as the sinister chuckles subsided.
"Brandy Leatherjack's report just came back with Team JNGL," announced Glynda Goodwitch, uploading a file to Ozpin's scroll.
Professor Ozpin sat with his hands together, resting under his chin contemplatively, and eyed the screen beside him.
"Hmm," uttered the Headmaster, wondering what might have been revealed during the trip. Ozpin knew Team JNGL would have taken that mission, with the attraction of an out-of-kingdom experience grabbing the attention of the two members who had spent significant portion of their lives in such conditions, and more than likely eager to show their other teammates what life outside Vale was all about. He also was interested to see if Leatherjack's uncanny intelligence techniques might have revealed anything of note. "Thank you, Glynda."
He opened the file, quickly scrolling through the regular list of student activities in Longsaw without finding much of note. They had made a competent effort, especially in regard to the Grimm clearing activities as might be expected with their varied styles and weapons complementing each other's fighting, but it wasn't quite to the standard of some previous teams he had sent there, specifically STRQ and EMLD. The last time two people from outside the Kingdom had been sent there, Leatherjack had only been a very young man, only a few years graduated and not much older than the students sent there themselves.
Which is when he had learned, as he had suspected, that there was a lot more going on with the Branwen twins that had met the eye.
Brandy Leatherjack had been a good student himself in his time at Beacon, but he had an exceptionally useful semblance for intelligence missions or student operations such as this one. On physical contact with a person, he was able to see what the other person was experiencing, even from long distances away, like an untraceable, undetectable hidden camera.
He had once tried it on Ozpin himself, and was only caught out purely from Ozpin's experiencing thousands of years of souls moulded together, and so Ozpin had quickly realised the change and additional presence tied to his aura, but had revealed more than he wanted known before he could confront a terrified young Brandy.
There was no going back from that point, and he had gradually been inducted as a sort of consultant for Ozpin's inner circle, Brandy himself not wanting to involve himself further in the details of the terrible things he had so briefly discovered.
Which is why Ozpin was unsurprised that the Sherriff had learned of Ms Grigia's breakdown, although the lack of dialogue meant he couldn't tell what had caused it specifically. Ms Lavender appeared to be accepting her family ties at last, although maybe not all of them quite yet. Mr August had had some sort of rough upbringing by the sounds of it, but there was nothing else significant, as they had already known most of the details of Mr Glass' troublesome semblance.
"It's a shame we didn't learn anything about Mr Glass," said the professor disappointedly. "That's the main reason I wanted them on this mission, to see if Mr Glass had any remaining suspicions towards our situation with Amber."
"Maybe that's a positive," replied Glynda Goodwitch. "If he didn't reveal anything it's unlikely he suspected much to begin with."
"Possibly. It's bad enough that he heard me speak when I barged in so carelessly at the beginning of the year, but the look he gave me when I told him Amber was still recovering at the end of last semester made me worry. He's a smart young man, second only to Ms Scarlatina in marks, and three months bed-ridden recovery is enough to surprise anyone."
"Why would he have reason to suspect anything? In that case it's even more likely he would know there are plenty of situations that require significant long-term recovery. Amber's situation may not be normal, but it certainly falls into the latter category."
"That is true. Still, I would prefer to have Amber up and about to dispel any ideas he might have. Which is why I want to take her out sometime next week to monitor how she has recovered." He closed his eyes and grimaced a little. "I hate seeing her in pain like that. Taking her out for a while will ease her suffering."
"Is it really going to happen though? She's not going to recover in a week from her state."
"I pray that she will."
"And what if she doesn't?" snapped Glynda suddenly. "What if it's not working?"
Ozpin was quiet for a moment, and he resumed his pose with his hands locked under his chin.
"Then I suggest we start making preparations for our next guardian. Did that Ms Nikos win the Mistral Regionals again during the break?"
"Utterly outclassed them. That's four in a row now, a new record."
"Then I suggest we contact her in the following weeks, before Leo convinces her to come to Haven."
"Only if Amber isn't going to make it, Ozpin."
The pair locked eyes, again clashing over which constituted the lesser of two evils.
"Only if Amber won't fully recover," he corrected solemnly.
