Chp. 49: A Morning Out
Knoxville, Tennessee
Prescott Residence
June 11, 2020
It was morning and at the Prescott household. Jacob and Keaton wear getting ready to leave to meet up with Qrow and the others. Leon walks up to the two brothers with Judy behind him holding Ashley in her arms.
"You guys are leaving?" Leon asked.
"We're meeting up with the others in town to try and figure out our next course of action," Keaton said.
"We're still going to be in the city," Jacob added.
"After yesterday's attack, we are getting more and more worried. Especially that you've nearly got killed by your father, Jacob," Judy said.
"I've gotten careless at the time, Aunt Judy. I'll be more careful next time," Jacob said.
"You better. Otherwise I might have to do that thing that I did to you when we were younger," Keaton said with a smirk.
"I can still feel those woodpecker noogies you give me," Jacob said with a glare.
A knock was then heard at the door, getting everyone's attention. Leon walks over to the door and opens the door to see Professor Ozpin and Oscar.
"Professor Ozpin? Oscar? What are you doing here?" Jacob asked.
"That's just what I was wondering," Keaton said.
"Hello, Mr. Gordon. Captain Gordon. I came here to see how you are all handling what had happened yesterday," Ozpin said.
"And I just wanted to come and see Earth," Oscar said.
"I assuming you one of Mr. Gordon's guardians?" Ozpin asked, facing Leon.
"Yeah, I'm Leon Prescott. This is my wife, Judy, and our niece, Ashley," Leon said, shaking Ozpin's hand.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Ozpin said.
"I hate to interrupt the meet and greet, but we need to get going," Keaton said.
"Of course. We'll save our conversation later. We must go now," Ozpin said.
"We'll catch you later, Uncle Leon, Aunt Judy," Jacob said.
"Be careful boys," Judy said.
Jacob, Keaton, Ozpin and Oscar make their exit out the door.
Rodeway Inn
Meanwhile at the hotel, a black Ford Transit Wagon drives up and parks into the parking lot. Cassandra, Alex, and Steel step out of the van and begin to wait for their Remnan allies to get ready.
"Okay. We rented a van for the kids to ride in, got them the clothes already, and got reservations for breakfast. Now we wait," Cassandra said.
A moment later, Teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY, and Ilia, Qrow, Amber, and Cade began to exit out of their hotel rooms. RWBY and JNPR were all in their Earthly attires they had worn when they last came to Earth. Qrow, Amber, Ilia, and Team CFVY were all now wearing different attires.
Amber wore a black t-shirt with an image of a yellow traffic sign with a wizard holding a staff in one hand, and a sword in the other, and words that read 'You shall not pass!' beneath the wizard. She also wore green leggings and a pair of black sneakers.
Ilia wears a sleeveless, rainbow striped shirt with text on it that read 'Sound's gay. I'm in.', a pair of black leggings, and black sandals.
Qrow wears a red buttoned t-shirt, a white under shirt, a pair of black jeans, and still retains his black dress shoes.
Coco wore a white t-shirt which had text that read 'Awesome Shirt' on it. She wore a pair of tan cargo pants and a pair of black boots. She still retained her sunglasses and her beret.
Velvet wears a large, brown beanie on her head to hide her rabbit ears, She wears a black t-shirt with fiery text which read 'DOOM' on it, a brown unzipped sweat jacket over the shirt, black leggings, and light blue short shorts over it.
Fox wore a red t-shirt, a black leather jacket, a pair of black pants, and a red cap with the letters LA on it, on his head.
Yatsuhashi wears a white sleeveless shirt with words that read 'Old School' on it, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of brown boots.
When they approached Cassandra, Alex, and Steel, the three noticed Jaune and Ren looked tired and walked with a slight hobble.
"What's up with you two?" Alex asked.
"They did it with their partners," Coco answered.
"Loudly," Weiss added.
"Nora was the loudest out of the rest of the team. Shouting out stuff like 'Boop me, Lie Ren!' or "Be rough with your bitch!'" Amber said.
"I had to check on Team RWBY's hotel rooms at a couple points to make sure that my nieces weren't doing the dirty with anyone," Qrow said.
"Kids will be kids, I guess. So like the clothes we got you?" Steel asked.
"They're horrendous! How would you all even call these rags clothes?! Coco asked, gesturing to her clothes she is wearing.
"She's been complaining about the style of the clothes you gave us ever since you gave them to us," Velvet said.
"As long as it helps us blend in then that's fine by me," Ilia said.
"Now we'll just have to wait for the captain and the others to arrive. Once they do, we will head to a restaurant and have some breakfast," Cassandra said.
A red Ford F-150, a silver Volkswagen Golf, a dark gray Chevrolet Silverado 2500, and a white Nissan Altima drives up and parks next to the van. Exiting out of the Ford truck was Keaton, Ozpin, Jacob, and Oscar, out of the Chevrolet was Robert, Kendra, and Rebecca, out of the Volkswagen was Allen, Kelly, and Ricky, and out of the Nissan was Britney. They all walked up to the group that was waiting for them.
"Professor Ozpin. Oscar. You're here too?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yes, Ms. Nikos. I want to know what we can do to help," Ozpin replied.
"We've got reservations at a restaurant where we can all get some breakfast," Steel said.
"Then we better get going. I bet a lot of you are starved," Keaton said.
"Yes! Mama wants pancakes!" Nora exclaimed.
"Most of you will ride in the van we bought, but some of you will ride in the other vehicles," Steel said.
"Will have CFVY, Qrow, Amber, Cade, Ilia, Oscar, and Ozpin ride in the van with Cassandra and Alex. RWBY will ride with Britney, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Steel will ride with me and Jacob, and Ren and Nora will ride with Allen and Kelly," Keaton explained.
"Now let us be off," Ozpin said.
Everyone began to walk over to the vehicles and one by one stepped inside them.
IHOP
Several minutes later, everyone had arrived at a nearby IHOP restaurant. They all sat at separate tables while being at close proximity with each other. After several minutes of ordering their food, they began to talk amongst each other, while they waited for their food. Ozpin, Keaton, Alex, Cassandra, and Steel sat at the same table and began to make out plans for their next move against Salem.
"Salem had orchestrated these attacks to most likely create division, tension, and conflict between Earth and Remnant. So the question now is where she is and what her next move is," Keaton said.
"So far from what I recently looked up, countries like North Korea, China, Iran, Vietnam are starting to make laws to ban Remnans from their soils, especially the Faunus, least the want to get arrested or even killed," Alex said.
"They would seek to punish everyone just for the actions of a few," Ozpin said.
"That's how some people on Earth are," Steel said.
"Militaries all over the globe are now issuing a massive manhunt on Salem and her followers," Keaton said.
"That is if she's still on Earth," Cassandra said.
"If she is, we'll find her. Salem can't stay in hiding forever. She's practically the new face of terror now," Alex said.
"And what will you do if you find her?" Ozpin asked, then sipped on a mug of hot chocolate.
"Not pulling off a General Ironwood if that's what you're wondering," Steel joked.
"We'll analyze the environment of her hiding place and come up with what strategy to take. on what numbers we should have, what equipment we should use, and what careful action to take. We don't want any innocent lives to get caught into the crossfire," Keaton explained.
"So for now all we need to do is have patience and wait," Ozpin said.
"Guys, look outside!" Ruby called out, pointing at the window.
Everyone turned to look out the windows to see that outside were hundreds of ecstatic people in the parking lot. Some were holding up signs and some were dressed up as several different characters of RWBY.
"Fans of RWBY," Kelly said.
"Guess the clothes didn't help us blend in," Ilia said.
"That and Professor Ozpin and Oscar aren't disguised," Weiss realized.
They all turned their heads to Ozpin and Oscar and realized they were still in their normal attire.
"Shit, you're right," Kendra said.
"Oh, well," Ozpin said, then sipped from his mug.
An hour had passed as everyone had their breakfast and are walking out of the restaurant where all the fans cheered upon seeing them.
"We love you, Ruby!" one fan shouted.
"Arkos for life!" another shouted.
"Will you make out with me, Blake?!" a cosplayer dressed as Yang asked.
Blake blushed from being asked that question.
"You should give something to excite these fans a bit," Rebecca said.
"Like what?" Yatsu asked.
"I know!" Nora said.
Nora grabs Ren's shirt and pulls him to her, planting a kiss on his lips. Ren kissed Nora back as all the fans around them cheered. One of the fans loudly cheered as he drew foam from his mouth and then fainted from excitement.
"We better go before they get too excited," Fox said.
As they start to walk over to their vehicle, Amber suddenly gets tackled by a Grimm. The fans quickly screamed in fear and began to run away. Amber quickly rolls to the side as it tries to pounce on her with all its weight. She looks to see what attacked her.
The Grimm was large with a short, wide snout with its teeth overlapping over its jaw. The Grimm lacked eyes, but had canine ears and quill-like spines on its back, one of the former notably having been seemingly sliced off. It had a tar-like body, often dripping Grimm Liquid from its primary mouth and body. It has two mouths in its body, the primary jaws and a second pair located on the back of its neck. This is Salem's experimental and intelligent Grimm, The Hound.
"Amber!" Cade shouted.
"The fuck is that thing?!" Kendra asked as she and everyone around her pulled out their weapons.
Amber tries to stand up only to be bitten by the arm and get flung to the ground once more. The Hound pounces on the Fall Maiden with all its weight, causing her Aura to shimmer. Amber tries to crawl away, only for The Hound to bite one of her legs and slam her to the ground a third time. With a final swipe with its paw, Amber's aura breaks and she gets knocked unconscious.
"That's got to be The Hound from Volume 8," Weiss said.
The Hound howls, before its body begins to twitch and spasm. It's body pulses and morphs, as everyone around it looks on in horror. The Hound stands up, revealing that he assumed a bipedal form, resembling that of a werewolf, in order to lift and hold the unconscious Amber with one hand.
Kelly, Ren, and Blake began shooting at The Hound's back, getting it to turn around. Ruby, Qrow, and Rebecca charged at The Hound with their scythes ready to attack, only to stop when The Hound held up Amber in front of it. Jaune and Jacob charged at the Grimm from behind, but The Hound quickly took notice and swiped its other arm at the two knocking them away. Yatsuhashi, Pyrrha, and Nora were about to charge at the Hound, but it quickly held up Amber in between them, making them stop.
"Put her down now!" Keaton ordered the intelligent Grimm.
The Hound turns its head at the marine captain as its neck pulses and shifts.
"No," The Hound growled.
Everyone grew terrified hearing its voice.
"Okay. Despite knowing it can talk, that scared the crap out of me," Ricky said.
"Yeah, no shit," Robert said.
The Hound pauses, it's back pulsing and morphing again. Several cracks could be heard as it twitched and howled. With a final roar, black ooze erupts from it's back to reveal red, bat-like wings on its back. It grabs Amber with it's mouth, before taking off to the skies.
"It's getting away with Amber!" Ruby said.
"We got to go after them!" Oscar said.
"We will. The government had put a tracker on her incase we lost Amber. I am able to track her," Cade said.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Yang said.
"Hold on a moment. Remember when we were going over Volume 8?" Keaton asked.
"Yeah. Why?" Coco asked.
"Think for a minute. In the volume, The Hound kidnapped Oscar and took him to Salem," Ozpin said.
"So that means with The Hound kidnapping Amber who has the tracker on her..." Blake trailed off.
"They can lead us straight to Salem," Weiss finished in realization.
"Exactly. Which means we need a plan of approach if we hit two birds with one stone," Qrow said.
"And fast, because otherwise Amber will be killed and Cinder will become the new Fall Maiden," Britney said.
"Right. Move out!" Keaton said.
Everyone ran to their vehicles and were quickly getting ready to track Amber down.
