Professor Ozpin was nearly burying his head under his hands. The news footage he went over did anything but put him at ease. Same could be said for Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, who were standing in the office with him.
"Oz, this isn't right." Peter said. "Yang wouldn't do this."
"I believe you." Ozpin said. "Unfortunately, the public begs to differ."
"Look, if Peter says Yang wouldn't do it, then we should stand by him." Mary Jane said.
"I want to. Believe me." Ozpin said. "Unfortunately, the council begs to differ. And Atlas is in charge of the Vytal Festival security, so it's up to James to make the hardest decisions."
"Meaning what?" Peter asked.
"Based on this, the best thing I can guess is that Ironwood will have to disqualify Yang from the tournament."
"But something's not right." Peter said. "I mean, my Spider Sense…"
"Yes, I've been meaning to talk to you about that." Ozpin said. "You said your Spider Sense activated when Yang attacked Mercury after the match, right?"
"More like right before that." Peter said. "I don't get it though. Usually, my Spider Sense only tingles when danger is about to impact me, but this felt different. It was like something else was triggering my Spider Sense. I can't make out what it is."
"Well, unfortunately, my hands are tied." Ozpin said. "I couldn't help Ms. Xiao Long no matter how much I want to."
"What about Mercury?" Mary Jane asked. "Maybe he could shed some light on what happened from his perspective. Perhaps he noticed something strange happening to Yang before she struck him."
"Perhaps." Ozpin said. "Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait. Mercury's team rushed him back to Haven to be with his family. They're probably about halfway there by now. Until they land, no one can question him."
"Well, this stinks." Peter said. "What did Yang say?"
"According to her, Mercury tried to attack her first. She's insisting on that story even though she's seen the footage herself."
"Maybe I can figure something out myself." Mary Jane said. "If you don't mind, professor, I'd like to conduct my own investigation."
"If you insist," Ozpin said, "But I must ask you to take caution. The public's already at our throats as it is."
"Then I guess I'll check on how Team RWBY's doing in the meantime." Peter said.
Ironwood had just finished delivering the bad news to Yang. After that, he immediately returned to his airship. He wanted to see if there was any good news, so he checked up on his most troubled doctor. Much to his delight, when he entered, Otto Octavius was in his room with no metallic arms anywhere in sight. He just stood there with his lab coat and working on a black, mechanical helmet with a red visor across the eye part of it. It was drawn on a piece of blue paper.
"Ah, Otto." The general said. "It's great to see you taking my advice."
"Yes, amazing how someone changes that quickly, isn't it, James?" Otto asked.
"So what are you working on?" Ironwood asked looking at his blueprints.
"It's a new helmet that comes with auto-assist. We've been studying Grimm habits for generations. This helmet can have a predictive algorithm that tells when and how they're going to strike. Could come in handy for Huntsmen, don't you think?"
"I gotta say, I'm impressed." Ironwood stated proudly. "If you can get it written up, I'll sign off on it myself. I told you that you didn't need your harness." He turned around and left the laboratory.
Otto gave a cold scowl before lifting the back of his coat. It revealed his mechanical arms slithering out. One of those arms held onto a small object. It matched the blueprint image and it was working in his hands.
"You give Otto Octavius too much credit, James." The doctor said. "It all ends tonight."
Peter put on his costume and swung around Beacon to clear his head. He was passing over the dining hall when suddenly, he heard his scroll ringing and he answered it. "Hello?"
"Pete."
"MJ? What's up?"
"Something strange is happening. I've been looking into Mercury's recovery in Haven. I called the landing site for upcoming airships and told them that I was a relative of Mercury concerned for his safety."
"And they bought that?"
"Like discount pizza. Anyway, they told me that Mercury's airship hadn't made it to Mistral. In fact, the ship never scheduled a landing there."
"That's odd."
"That's not all. I'm sending you a picture." Spider-Man moved his scroll away from his face to see an image of a familiar, green-haired girl standing among the crowd in Vale.
"Emerald?" Spider-Man asked. "Why'd you send me this?"
"Pete, I slipped into security to get a look at that footage." Mary Jane said. "This isn't an older image from the other day. Pete, this was taken an hour ago."
Underneath the mask, Peter gave a confused expression. "You're saying Emerald is still here? How? People saw her getting on that airship by Mercury's side."
"I don't know." Mary Jane answered. "That seems like something you should look into."
"Thanks, MJ." Spider-Man said before hanging up. He then swung over to Amity Colosseum to investigate further.
On the way to Amity Colosseum, Blake couldn't help but think about her earlier conversation with Yang. Before, she expressed her doubts about Yang going too far considering her experience with her ex-boyfriend, Adam Taurus. Even though Yang insisted on her story that Mercury attacked first, the Faunus was still unsure.
One way, her eyes caught a familiar man. He was on his scroll. She recognized him as a policeman she knew, Jefferson Davis.
"I understand." He said. "Don't worry, I'm not mad. I love you. Bye." He hung up and sighed before he noticed Blake. "Oh, hey. Blake, right?"
"Yeah. Officer Davis. Thanks again for not telling on us."
"About what?" Davis asked with a smile. "Not to worry. You and your friends are just trying to do the right thing. You remind me of my son in a way."
"Your son." Blake said. "Was that the person you were just calling?"
"Yeah." Jefferson did his best not to frown. "I thought Miles could make it to visit me for the festival, but he has duties over at Atlas. It's no problem. At least he's with his mom."
"You keep in touch with him?" Blake asked.
"Yeah. I'm still married to his mom. She's just volunteering at Atlas so she can be with Miles. Me, however, I'm stuck here. What about you, Blake? You got a family."
Blake made no effort to hide her frown. "Kinda. My parents live in Menagerie… but they probably don't want to see me."
"What? Why?"
"I may have said some things to them, things that I regret saying now. But it may be too late to make things right with them."
"Are your parents good people?"
"Yeah. My dad is a good man and my mom is one of the kindest people I know."
"Then of course, it's not too late to make things right. It's never too late."
"You don't know…"
"I know this sort of situation 'cause I've lived through a similar thing. My brother made some bad choices, and the last time I saw him, I told him I never wanted him to come near me or my family again. Of course, that was a lie. If he ever came around, I'd welcome him back in a heartbeat. If I can forgive him for the things I caught him doing, then I know your parents will be happy to let you hug them no questions asked."
"But what if they don't?"
"You never know unless you ask."
Blake smiled. "Thank you, Officer Davis. I needed this."
"No problem. Now, why don't you head on with your friends? The show's about to begin."
Blake nodded and walked away.
Spider-Man perched himself high above the stands while everyone was getting ready for the next match to start. He slowly scanned the crowd until he found a flash of green hair. Sure enough, it belonged to the red-eyed, tan girl he wanted to talk to. As the match was about to start, Emerald spotted Ruby Rose who spotted her back. The green-haired girl then ran to the nearby exit tunnel. Spider-Man zipped his way over the crowd and into the tunnel.
He walked in and met up with the silver-eyed huntress-in-training. "Hey, kid."
"Spider-Man!" Ruby greeted. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question." Spider-Man replied.
"Well, I saw Emerald and I followed her in here. Same as you?"
"Yeah. Something strange is happening, and I think she has all the answers."
Suddenly, the door to a connecting tunnel opened, and much to their surprise, it was Emerald's friend. This is the same gray-haired boy who Yang punched. Only, he wasn't injured and he definitely wasn't going home.
"Mercury?" Ruby asked. "You're not…"
"Injured?" Mercury asked. "Nah. But the real show's about to begin."
Spider-Man was about to say something, but then, a thunderous voice echoed from the stadium and into the tunnel. It was Professor Port's voice announcing from the Amity skybox.
"It looks like our first contender is… Penny Polendina from Atlas! And her opponent will be… Pyrrha Nikos from Beacon!"
"Ooh. Polarity versus metal." Mercury said. "That could be bad."
"Oh, no!" Ruby gasped.
"What?" Spider-Man asked. "I don't understand."
"Spider-Man, Penny's a robot!" Ruby confessed.
"What? That little girl is a robot?"
"One with an aura, yes. But she's still alive."
Spider-Man gave it a thought only to figure out a terrifying truth. "With Pyrrha's magnetic Semblance, she may unintentionally mess up Penny's metal body!"
"Now, you're catching on." Mercury said smugly.
"I don't know what any of this has to do with winning the Vytal Tournament, but…"
Spider-Man was interrupted by Mercury's laughter. "You still think this is about this stupid tournament?"
"Well, I did… until you chuckled."
"I'd explain it to the two of you," Mercury said, "But it's a waste to reveal information to someone who won't live long enough to understand."
"We'll see about that." Spider-Man said. "Ruby, let's…"
He turned, but suddenly, a mist of green smoke blocked their path. Mysterio appeared floating on top of the green smoke. "No one's going anywhere!"
Author's Note: Merry Christmas. Been waiting all week to post this one today.
Any and all comments are welcome.