So, aside from DMC5, I do play Fate Grand Order too, as I believe I may have hinted at. Just beat Beast III/R semi-recently, with about 12 days left before the event was over… and by God, farming enough KP for all the Kiara Punishers was ridiculously long! But it was worth it – fully debuffed her and still had a fairly challenging fight, if only due to my craptastic team composition, ha ha. Also, managed to get Kiara herself after rolling pretty much all of my Quartz.
Only got the one copy of her though, so her NP damage is quite lackluster even with some buffs. Would be nice if maybe Delightworks would buff her NP in the distant future, but I'll make do.
Ah, but anyways, the point of my little spiel just now is that recently the Fate series in general has been giving me ideas for an actual Fate fic one day. Nothing too concrete just yet, just a very basic premise and the characters I would like to have involved… but of course, whether or not it would work is a different matter entirely.
Also been thinking of making a Maken-Ki fic of all things too. Not sure why though. Sure, I read it and its fights are fairly entertaining, but I never once thought of it as something that would stoke my writing streak like this.
Odd to say the least, but hey can't complain, right? It's always nice to have new fic ideas, ha ha!
But enough of that – onto the chapter!
Chapter 12
"…And that's what happened, headmaster," finished one Blake Belladonna.
Ozpin lightly wiggled the fingers resting atop his cane in response to what his student just explained. "I see," he stated in response. "Quite the surprising day you've had, Ms. Belladonna."
Just a little while ago, he, or rather Beacon, had been contacted about an incident involving a student of his – one Blake Belladonna. Apparently, a shooting had occurred at a small bookstore in Vale that she'd been present at about ten minutes prior to the call itself.
Seeing as this was the second incident the young Blake was involved in directly and with only a few days apart, once Ozpin learned of this incident, he'd decided to go to the police station himself to deal with the matter.
Glynda had enough on her plate as it is and he wasn't in a mood to be sitting at his own desk for much longer anyways.
On that note, he hadn't been the only one contacted, for the rest of team RWBY had evidently been called and had rushed to the scene and he himself had arrived in the nick of time to keep the temperamental team from physically steamrolling their way into the station.
They hadn't been the only team there either – team JNPR had been there as well alongside Ms. Belladonna and another man that he learned was named Tukson.
After having seen himself into a private room with these aforementioned people, he'd politely requested them all what exactly had happened.
Ms. Belladonna had done most of the talking, a mild surprise considering her normally withdrawn nature. The only times she didn't speak was when the other man, Tukson, had to interject and add on to some things since he was also directly involved.
…It was clearly obvious too that the two were hiding something from him. If he had to hazard a guess, it was likely White Fang-related. After all, Blake Belladonna here was once a member of the organization, now seeking to change her life around. And given her close friendship with Tukson along with the man's general build and demeanor, the ancient headmaster was willing to bet the man was a former member as well.
No doubt, they were trying to look into the recent actions of their former group and discreetly at that too.
Alas, as much as he'd like to ask them about it, doing so here with so many others here wouldn't be wise. Besides, though the B of team RWBY has come a long way in such a short time since starting Beacon, forcing her to tell him all her plans and the like wouldn't make her comfortable. Plus, her friends here would likely jump to defend her if they thought he even sounded accusatory.
Best to just keep his thoughts to himself then for the time being.
"So, to summarize," Ozpin began. "You headed to Mr. Tukson's shop for a new book and to catch up with him, and during this time he'd just been about to close the store for a while to open up and place new stock, something you decided to help him with. During this time that the store was officially closed, two people snuck in with the intent to not only burglarize the place but rob you two once they became aware you were there. Since the inside of the store was so confined, fighting them off and vice versa wasn't quite possible, so you deliberately fired shots to get the police's attention and then escaped through the back while the two were caught off guard. You also called Mr. Arc and his team for backup in case the robbers pursued."
Ms. Belladonna nodded. "That's right, sir."
"And you corroborate this?" he then asked of both Tukson, the other person directly involved and Jaune Arc, who was the one who received the call.
Both men nodded in agreement.
"I see," Ozpin mumbled. "Interesting. Firstly, let me start by saying that I'm glad all parties involved were all right… but if I may, I've a few questions of my own."
Though outright asking the two Faunus here of their real reasons for what happened was out of the question, prodding into it a bit more subtly was fair game.
"To reiterate, these two attackers of yours… one was a young man, the other a girl, yes? The man was grey-haired, light skinned and fought primarily with kicks while the girl was either teal-haired or had mint-green hair, brown skinned and wielded two sickles that could also extend to become chains?"
The two Faunus confirmed this.
Vale was a very diverse place, second only to Mistral really. Physical descriptions alone would only get them so far and that was assuming they even had any records. Finding the young man may be outright impossible without something truly distinguishing, but the girl may be possible to research – weapons were very distinct, after all, so looking into who possessed weapons similar to what was just described should be easy.
In any case, he very highly doubted these two were simple robbers. They were just too distinct and very few criminals in Vale were capable of going up against a huntress in training, even when taking into account the enclosed space of Tukson's bookstore.
Even if they really were robbers, targeting a bookstore for either lien or actual product to steal was bizarre, so much so that it was a first as far as he could recall. Thus, it was clearly wrong that they were robbers.
"You said you'd closed up the store before they'd gotten in?" he asked Tukson.
"Yeah, that's right."
Yet another thing that disproved the whole robber thing. No robber would spend time silently creeping into a place only to then engage in a fight that would naturally be loud, even when not factoring in the possibility of gunfire.
Whoever these two were, they hadn't gone into that store to rob it. Nor would the two Faunus have called for backup if their attackers really had been robbers. The mere fact they'd considered the strong possibility of being pursued by them meant the 'robbers' were actually after them…
Or rather, after just one of them…
Ozpin eyed Tukson silently.
Just when it seemed like the man was getting all too aware of his staring, Ozpin switched gears and proceeded to ask a few more questions. Nothing too special about them, just random standard questions that shouldn't raise any suspicion on anyone's parts.
As tempted as he was to just outright ask them about the real reason for all this, he felt it best to ask them a little later, away from prying eyes.
He held a great deal of faith in humanity – if he didn't, he wouldn't be opposing the queen this much, after all – but he was not so blinded by this faith as to believe the likes of Roman Torchwick didn't have his ways of digging up whatever dirt the police may find. If not him, then people far worse than him.
Call it paranoia, but he wasn't willing to discuss sensitive matters out in the open like this. So, he'll just have to do so later once back in his office, where it was secure and safe to discuss much more private matters.
With this in mind, he finished up his questions and then shook Tukson's hand. "I'm sorry for the damage done to your store. If it is all right with you, allow Beacon to take care of the expenses for repairing it."
"O-Oh." Tukson sounded surprised. "Much obliged. Thanks."
"Seeing as you're a friend of one of my students, would you like it as well if I took care of providing you temporary room and board? Not necessarily at Beacon, I'm afraid, but footing the bill for a hotel isn't out of the question. After all, I imagine staying at home after what just happened may be a little much, even for a man such as yourself."
"Ah, no, but thanks for the offer, headmaster," Tukson replied gratefully. "I can manage that part well enough on my own."
Ozpin nodded and then turned to address his students, most of whom had remained quiet up until now. "Well then, students, I believe it's time for us all to take our leave. I've a few things to discuss now with the police myself, so you all may enjoy the rest of your day… and Ms. Belladonna? Do try to avoid getting dragged into anymore scuffles." He said that last part with only a hint of bemusement.
"…I'll do what I can, headmaster," the teen replied.
Then without another word spoken, Ozpin left them all be, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before they all no doubt started discussing what really happened today.
And as much as he'd like to be a fly on the wall during that conversation, it would only be a matter of time before he can discuss it with the involved parties later at Beacon.
Until then, he really did need to speak with his police contacts. All this trouble that has been occurring in Vale recently was truly starting to get suspicious.
His instincts, sharpened over entire lifetimes, was telling him this was all nothing more than the prelude to something much bigger.
He had to start preparing for whatever it may be.
Once again, when Ruby began her day, picturing yet another newsworthy incident going down hadn't been something she'd been expecting.
Especially not one that Blake got wrapped up in, again.
Seriously, she hoped this wasn't going to become a regular thing!
Anyways, after she, Weiss, and Yang had stormed over to the police station to check on Blake and her friend, that Tukson guy, it'd come as a real surprise to see the headmaster there too.
It'd scared her a bit to see him there, worried that maybe he'll somehow find out about Blake's White Fang history and have her locked up, but amazingly nothing of the sort happened, which really did wonders for her nerves.
But it sure had been a surprise to see team JNPR there too, but somehow wasn't a surprise at the same time.
Probably because as of now, she was just starting to get used to Jaune being involved all the time now. He was a super big helper like that. But just what had he and his team gone into Vale for, though? The whole time the headmaster had been asking questions, her fellow leader had looked like a man on a mission.
This was something her friends seemed to notice too, but in their own ways.
"Hmph, and even after our 'heart to heart' conversation, you do this," Weiss grumbled. "Do you still not trust us?"
"And you call Jaune up instead too~. And only him at that~," Yang teased. "Oho, look out, stud, I think someone has a crush on you!"
Again, Ruby thought in slight embarrassment, her friends noticed this in their own ways.
"It's not like that," Blake mumbled, too tired to really protest either of their comments. The B of the team looked to Pyrrha, however, who was sporting a troubled expression. "And it's really not like that," Blake stressed to her.
Pyrrha looked away, embarrassed by something. Ruby wondered why.
Anyways, this is how time was passed as they all left the police station, Weiss grumbling, Yang teasing, and Blake refuting them while she, team JNPR and that Tukson guy merely watched on with varying levels of amusement.
It wasn't until they left the station and were well away from it that things took a change.
"So," Ruby began, taking the initiative here. After having wallowed in confusion and sadness when Blake's Faunus heritage and White Fang background came to light, the young girl refused to allow that to happen again.
She had to be a better leader, for both her sake and for her team's sake. That meant learning how to be a bit more decisive on what to do and doing it swiftly.
"What really happened, Blake?" she asked, doing her best to look serious.
Amazingly, it worked; the humorous conversation that had been going on now came to a sudden end and Weiss and Yang shot Blake some super-intense looks while team JNPR remained quiet and watched.
And unlike before, when Blake had been all too hesitant to really express herself until Weiss had pushed her buttons one too many times, this time Blake merely sighed, but nodded all the same.
"…Let's find a place to sit down first."
Either by pure coincidence or some hand of fate, they were near that café they'd been to before, where she'd called team JNPR over to tell them about Blake.
Due to the time of the day, the streets were bustling with more people than ever and this included the café, but they were still able to find a large empty table off near the back of the entire place.
They took the time to order something to drink and after grabbing a few extra chairs from a nearby table to accommodate everyone and getting comfortable, the talk finally began.
"Like Blake, I used to be a part of the White Fang too," the Tukson guy began quietly.
That sure threw them all for a loop.
Ruby nearly choked on some of the chocolate chips in her ice cream shake from the surprise.
Now that was one way to suddenly start a conversation!
Trying not to be too obvious as she pounded her own chest to regain control of her breathing, Ruby then spoke up. "So," she wheezed out in between a cough or two. "Was your 'catching up' really about… well, 'them?'"
Blake nodded and took things from there. "After the organization radicalized, all of its human members were kicked right out and any and all human support was ignored from then on, if not outright dismissed. The White Fang had decided that if it was to achieve its goals, it would be through Faunus hands and Faunus hands alone. Help from humans was simply not in the picture anymore."
"So now that Torchwick seems to be helping them…" Ruby provided.
"Something big must be going on," Blake confirmed. "There's just no other way that they'd work with a human at all, much less a bastard like him."
"Hmm, I see. So, I take it you went to him here to come up with some kind of plan?" Weiss asked as she folded her arms across her chest.
"And you were intending to leave us out of it?!" Yang sounded positively hurt at being left out.
Blake at least had the decency to look apologetic. "Sorry, it really wasn't my intention, but I just thought I should first see what we were dealing with before bringing it up with any of you. I swear, that's what I initially was going to do."
"And would we have been included in this too?" Ren suddenly piped up from where he sat. Unlike the rest of them who'd bought drinks here, he'd brought his own self-made health shake. The sickly green color of it was nearly enough to make Ruby gag. Just how could he drink those?! And why was Jaune drinking one too instead of these awesome shakes?!
"Yes," Blake admitted. "You helped in looking for me when you didn't have to. That's more than enough for me to confide in you guys too."
"Unfortunately," Tukson spoke up. "Despite Blake's heartwarming words here, there's really not much to confide. At least, not yet."
"What do you mean?" Now it was Pyrrha that spoke, somehow managing to look every bit the serious champion she normally was in the midst of a spar despite taking comically large sips from her shake in between each word.
She must really like that shake, Ruby felt.
"Back in the day with 'them,' I was mainly in a support role, doing equipment maintenance and monitoring various radio channels, that kind of thing. I wouldn't quite call myself a tinkerer, but that stuff was something I genuinely liked to do," Tukson explained, pausing now to take a large sip of his own shake. "Even though I've left the group, I still do what I can to monitor their radio channels, even maintain my own information network. It's not much worth boasting over, but it's enough to get the job done. Leaving the group in the dead of night isn't exactly something they turn the other cheek to, so I have to stay aware of their movements in case it seems like they might've figured out where I've gone."
Ruby's eyes practically lit up at those words. This Tukson guy was basically a spy of sorts! How cool!
Quickly reigning herself in before she could squee, however, she asked him something. "So, does that mean you know about their movements here in Vale?"
Tukson shrugged. "Somewhat. I'm aware of them doing the Dust thefts, but them working with Torchwick was news to me when Blake told me what was going on. She told me about the docks already too."
"Then," Ruby began, trying not to sound hesitant here. "Do you think you'd be willing to help us?"
The man smiled a little. "Don't have to ask, kid; would've been monitoring them much more thoroughly anyways. I may not be some paragon of virtue, but I left the group because their increasingly radical views and methods were sickening me. And watching them continue to degenerate like this without doing anything isn't my style."
Ruby could do a dance for joy right here and now, except she didn't know squat about dancing and she was still trying to be a more serious leader too. Serious leaders don't break out in song and dance, at least not publicly.
"While that's great to hear," Pyrrha then said, sounding apologetic. "If you do find out what the White Fang will be up to next, what will you do with the information? I mean, wouldn't it be best to give the information to either the police or to Beacon?"
"Pyrrha's right," Weiss commented. "Though we're all aspiring to be huntresses and huntsmen, we can't just go about taking the law into our own hands. Unless there's absolutely no choice but for us to act as quickly as possible, I don't think we can just leave the headmaster and the police in the dark. What if something goes wrong? What if we jump into things and get stranded without any immediate backup? Blake, you and Sun could've possibly been killed at the docks if Ruby and Jaune hadn't been in the area to provide assistance. Do you intend to try repeating that incident so soon?"
Blake flinched, but looked Weiss in the eyes when she answered. "I know it sounds like we're being too reckless here, dumb even… but Weiss, please remember our situations here. Tukson and I… though Vale is much better than I initially thought it was, racism is still present here. And racism is something the two of us grew up dealing with. It's what led to the divide between humans and Faunus in the first place and during these conflicts, figures in power have never done us much good. In fact, quite a lot of them have done the Faunus harm, in some cases intentionally."
Now it was Weiss who flinched but relented with grace. "…Right. Sorry."
"It's fine." Blake smiled softly. "We're trying to be better about all this, but it's not exactly something we can get over in just a few days time."
"Not only that, but it depends on the info I can dig up anyways," Tukson added as he quickly finished off his small shake. "Whatever I find next could just be some random stuff that'll serve us no purpose or will be so vague that reporting it to anyone will only lead to pointless goose chasing. If the goal is to stop these Dust thefts and subsequently whatever the White Fang have planned for afterwards, then we need something to really work off of…. And that kind of information isn't something that'll just conveniently pop up in a day or two."
"Bah! So we gotta wait before kicking some butt?!" Nora whined, thankfully in a quiet enough voice to not draw unwanted attention. Ruby was amazed the girl could be so quiet yet somehow yell anyways.
"Eh, not much we can do about that, right?" Yang commented with a shrug. However, it was obvious she was a bit bummed too. She may not exactly be the most fight-happy person around, but Ruby knew her sister was itching for a little real action.
Ah, but there was one person who hasn't made his opinion known just yet though…
"What do you think, Jaune?" Ruby then asked her fellow leader, who has been remarkably quiet this entire time.
All of them turned to look at him as he sat there, polishing off his health drink ("Ugh!" Ruby mumbled under her breath at the sight of it), seemingly lost in his thoughts the whole time. He blinked a few times in dull surprise when all their eyes were on him.
"Hm, what?" he said oh so eloquently.
"You've been awfully quiet about all this, Jaune," Pyrrha replied to his words.
"Yeah, makes us feel kind of awkward for leaving you out of this, stud," Yang said next.
"Come on, fearless leader! Tell us to smash up some criminals!" Typical Nora.
"Or," Weiss began flatly in response to Nora's words. "Do things the legal way and avoid any potential PR messes."
Jaune blinked again before finally speaking. "Oh, well there's really not much we can do about that just yet. In fact, until we do have some info to work with, there's no real reason to do any extensive planning."
Tukson nodded in agreement. "He's right. Having plans is nice and all, but no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Realistically, all you guys can do is just stand by until I figure out something first. Then, depending on what my efforts turn up, you'll either have no choice but to move in on your own to deal with them or go to the authorities with it. It'll ultimately depend on the circumstances at the time."
Ruby did her best to not let out a childish groan – she drinks her milks, for crying out loud! She's no child! – but failed somewhat, earning her some looks of amusement from the others. "But…!"
"Ruby, Tukson and Jaune are right. There's really not much to do until he does what he can first. Speaking of which… what do you plan to do from here on out, Tukson?" Blake spoke.
The man shrugged. "Well, first thing first, head back to my place, assess the damages and see if it's worth the risk of staying there. In all honesty, most likely not, but better to be sure before doing anything that might somehow put me in danger again any time soon. No guarantee those two assassins won't be gunning for me again, assuming others don't get sent my way instead."
"Don't you have anywhere else to go?" Ruby asked in worry.
"I do – a safehouse, a personal one of mine," Tukson replied. "I haven't had any reason to use it though, so it's a little barren. Will have to grab whatever essentials I need from home first before heading there if need be. And I don't just mean basic necessities like clothes and the like – I'm talking about my personal equipment too. I'll essentially be moving the equivalent of a comms center elsewhere, not exactly something that can be done quickly… but doing it during the night should be easy enough."
"How we will stay in contact with you?" Weiss asked.
"Gave Blake my number earlier. It's obviously not a number in my name or anything, so if anyone somehow gets a hold of her scroll or is otherwise monitoring it, they'll just think it's a sale call or something. The two of us also have another way of staying in touch, an old method used by the White Fang – and don't worry, it's not a method anyone else can interfere with or anything; it's safe."
"I still feel iffy about this…" Weiss mumbled.
"I do too actually, but it's all we can do for now. Alerting the authorities won't do much good if we don't have anything to tell them in the first place," Blake responded.
"I know, I know, it's just…" Weiss huffed. "I don't like being on the sidelines here anymore. After what you and the others went through at the docks…"
"Don't worry, something will come up," Tukson said. "Once I put my mind to it, I'll find something out. It's just that up until now, I haven't had any reason to dig too deep so long as I was still safe. But obviously things have changed."
Tukson then stood up with a slight grunt. "In any case, I think we've figured out what has to be done… not that there was that much to figure out anyways. Not yet at least. Time I get going – sooner I'm back at my store, the sooner I can get started on all this. As sudden as this all was, nice to meet you all. Any friends of Blake are friends of mine."
Offering them all a small smile and patting Blake gently on the shoulder, Tukson turned and left, throwing his now empty shake in the nearest trash can as he did so.
They bade him a quick goodbye as he did this and sat there in silence until a few minutes after he left.
"So," Yang began. "Is there really nothing we can do. Cause I'm not sure I can just kick back and twiddle my trigger fingers until he does whatever he has to do."
"Seems that way…" Pyrrha murmured uncomfortably, undoubtedly feeling the same way.
They all felt that way, really.
All of them except for Jaune, it seemed.
"Not quite," the blond said. Once he had their attention, he spoke. "Yesterday, I went back to the docks to try and backtrack the bullhead's flight path. I was able to follow it to Vale's older districts, the abandoned ones. Someone even confirmed a bullhead having gone in that direction."
Ruby perked up in her seat. So was everyone else.
"Wait," Ren suddenly up. "Is that where we were going earlier? You never quite made it clear what we'd been about to do."
Jaune nodded. "That's right. I'd actually found their base – well, their former base, that is. I've no idea how far away they could've gone but given whatever plans they have in mind for Vale, they likely couldn't have moved that far away from Vale. After all, if they plan to rob anymore Dust stores, they'll have to do some surveillance first, get a lay of the surroundings and plan out their entrance and exit routes. Having to travel far distances to do even that much would be impractical if they're on some kind of deadline."
Whatever feelings of anxiety Ruby was having along with the others were now gone. "Seriously?" Ruby practically squeaked out, positively happy now. Super-impressed too by that detective work, but mainly just happy.
Jaune nodded. "Earlier, in between classes, I looked up how much fuel a bullhead can carry along with its efficiency rate. I'm not exactly a mathematician or anything, but I've a basic idea of how far they could've gone, so it's just a matter of forming a perimeter for the search area and looking there… but of course, there's still a chance they may have accounted for that."
"But there's still no way to know for sure, right?" Yang asked.
"Right."
Yang was pretty much standing now. So was Nora and surprisingly Blake was too. Or well, not so surprisingly in hindsight – all this White Fang stuff was pretty personal to Blake, Ruby realized.
"Then what are we doing standing around here?! Let's go sea-!"
"Wait," Weiss said. "As great as that all is, I can't imagine the search area being on the small side. Would I be correct in this assumption, Jaune?"
He nodded calmly. "If I'm right about the search area's size, we're looking at a search radius of at least fifty plus miles. This is assuming they flew that bullhead on much less than half of its fuel tank to begin with. And again, accounting for the sake of their own convenience, it's likely a bit smaller than that…"
"But no way to know for sure," Weiss finished for him. Jaune nodded again. "I see. And if I recall correctly from Beacon's history and economics books-."
"You actually read those kinds of books?! For fun?!" Nora sounded absolutely shocked.
Weiss turned to her, bemused. "Yes, I do. Anyways, those districts, though abandoned and run down, are by no means small and simple; the further in you go, the more convoluted the streets and alleyways become. To be expected of Vale's initial construction efforts back then. Since it's highly unlikely they'll be advertising their base of operations, if we do search, we'll need to go from building to building and clear each one thoroughly…."
On and on, Weiss droned. And the more she talked, the more discourage Ruby felt now.
Sadly, her partner made a darn good point. That was a lot of ground to cover. And with no way to know when the next big theft will occur, it'd be way to impractical to search for them unless they had a way of seriously narrowing down the search area.
Not only that, but it wasn't as if they could just search indefinitely; they all had to eat and sleep and stuff, not to mention classes.
Argh, being a hero sure was tough!
"But even so, we got to try, right?!" Ruby said fervently.
And Jaune, despite his comments indicating he agreed with Weiss, immediately nodded in response. "Of course," he said, as if what she'd said was the most natural thing in the world. "Searching so large an area may be impractical, even detrimental, but doing nothing will only achieve nothing. We will never know for sure if we never even try. Unfortunately, since it's now late, searching for them during the night won't be practical. Given this is the White Fang we're talking about, they have the advantage of night vision in addition to whatever weaponry and manpower they immediately have on hand. While I'm confident in our own odds, there's still a chance we could end up endangering some of the surrounding districts in Vale, the populated ones – and I swore to them that no more harm would come to them."
Not for the first time, Ruby blinked. She was totally on board with everything he'd been saying until the end there. Once again, it looked like there was a lot more to Jaune than meets eye.
Ah, but that was cool too, the way he just talked all seriously and leader-ly like that!
She still had much to learn, clearly. And the more she saw Jaune in action or heard him speak, it became that much clearer that he had a lot of experience.
She couldn't imagine what sort of experiences he must have had prior to Beacon to end up this seasoned a trainee… but for the sake of fulfilling her dream of becoming a huntress and helping people, she definitely wouldn't mind learning from him.
And that was something she now intended to do much more thoroughly from here on out.
But first…
"Yeah, you're right," she said. "So how about this weekend, we all meet up bright and early in the morning to do this search. We'll two full days so we're gonna have some chance at finding these crooks, right?"
Everyone then made their affirmation of her proposed plan known in some way.
Weiss, Jaune and Ren nodded quietly but with firm resolve, especially Jaune, always the intense one.
Yang and Nora grinned and fist-bumped, no doubt already imagining finding the White Fang and Torchwick and kicking butt and breaking legs in stylish fashion.
Pyrrha smiled and mumbled a soft 'yes!' under her breath, but there was no mistaking the enthusiasm in that one word.
As for Blake, the B of team RWBY looked around at them all and then to Ruby with what the girl could only describe as disbelieving hope. Like, she was surprised over everything playing out this way, but now that something was actually being done and sounded possible, that it was okay for her to truly hope again.
And as if realizing this herself, Blake mouthed a silent 'thank you' to Ruby.
Ruby felt her smile grow even more in response to her friend's now swelling faith in her. The young leader could even feel hope blossom within herself too.
This was it, she thought, the beginning of what may be a grand adventure.
Despite the high stakes, the silver eyed girl couldn't wait to see what was in store for them all.
Several hours have passed since Mercury and Emerald returned from their stroll through the city. And before they'd even made it through the door to the base, Cinder had already seen on the news what had happened.
Needless to say, when the two had given their report to her of what had happened, which only expanded on what the news had said, it was as clear as day that her two normally competent lackeys had messed up.
And needless to say as well, Cinder wasn't all that pleased with how things had gone.
Even now, she was inwardly seething despite her best efforts to remain calm. It'd taken an effort to keep from burning the two for their failure, and Roman's silent mocking of those two as they'd explained hadn't helped her mood.
It was ridiculous how childish and petty three of her many pawns were.
It was even more ridiculous to think still that Mercury and Emerald, both fairly skilled and powerful themselves, had flubbed an otherwise simple assignment.
That said flub had occurred pretty much first thing upon their arrival here in Vale and right after chiding Roman for his own recent failure seemed like a bad dream.
Further igniting her temper was what her two subordinates had told her. Rather, how Roman had reacted to what the two had said.
When they'd described the appearance of the teenaged girl who'd interfered with their assassination, Roman had taken a quick second to point out it was the same girl who'd initially tried to stop the operation at the docks.
"I'd recognize that stupid cat anywhere now," he'd said at the time.
According to what Roman had then said after that, it would seem this girl – one Blake Belladonna – had once been a part of the White Fang, having gone rogue semi-recently. He knew this because some time after the docks incident, word of what had happened there spread through the White Fang grapevine and some of them identified the girl and passed this info back to Roman.
It would seem the girl had not only gone rogue but now clearly didn't have a problem making a ruckus for her former group. And judging by the docks incidents, she clearly had friends that didn't mind backing her up.
Really now, Cinder decided with a huff, how irritating.
…No matter. As frustrating as it was for two speed bumps to suddenly present themselves, they were still ultimately speedbumps. If this Blake girl and her friends intended to keep interfering, there was only so many times they could stop her pawns from carrying out their assigned roles. So long as Roman continued to make up for his recent failure, the plan with the train will proceed on time.
As for this Tukson, he was ultimately the White Fang's problem, one she'd merely thought to help deal with if only to keep those self-righteous idiots placated without having to outright threaten them. In any case, he will still be dealt with at some later point in time, but there wasn't much need to rush things now. Besides, the man was no doubt now on guard and would put up a fight and thereby cause another unneeded racket.
The real problem came in the form of the girl's presence there, actually.
Judging by what she's learned about the docks incident, this Blake was likely affiliated with Beacon in some form or another, perhaps even a student herself somehow. Cinder came to this conclusion through the simple fact that there's no way several teens of such apparent skill and ability could not be huntsmen and huntress trainees.
Oh, sure, it was possible they weren't, but those odds weren't exactly high, especially when considering how willingly they'd thrown themselves into the conflict to try and stop Roman and the White Fang grunts he'd been given.
Given that part of her plan had been to infiltrate Beacon as transfer students alongside Mercury and Emerald, that was no longer an option now that the girl knew the latter two's faces and had likely passed this knowledge onto others.
This was the only real pickle she had to deal with here. And unfortunately, there weren't exactly others lining up at her door to take Mercury's and Emerald's places in this plan.
But she was adaptable, had to be in order to make it this far in life and to bring her plans to this stage. It would be a while before she was supposed to infiltrate Beacon anyways so she would have until then to figure out how to address this problem.
Worst comes to worst, however, she may have to forgo posing as a student and infiltrate another way. Maybe not as a professor but perhaps some other form of faculty or staffing.
If need be, she could commandeer that Neo girl that always hung around Roman and use her semblance to provide a decent disguise. But that wasn't a card she felt too inclined to play unless left with no other choice.
Cinder sighed. It would seem she's underestimated the diligence of her potential obstacles a fair bit. This won't happen again, she resolved.
…
…
Thinking long and hard for a while, Cinder eventually picked up her scroll and called Roman.
As annoying as the thief could be, he was nothing if not punctual – he answered on the first ring.
"Something come up again?" he grunted out, not hiding his annoyance that much with her.
"No. I've merely thought up something and I need some people on it," she said.
"Oho. Hold on a quick sec then – let me get some breathing room on my end." Earlier, after having passed on the name of that Blake girl to her, Roman had to head out elsewhere, specifically the club of one Hei Xiong, otherwise known as Junior. He'd gone there with the intention of paying the man for some extra manpower.
With numerous members of the White Fang caught at the docks and others still injured from that same incident, Adam Taurus' White Fang cell wasn't all too eager to be sending even more people their way, especially since it wasn't as if they had an infinite supply of manpower. So Roman had to improvise and try refilling their lost ranks another way.
"Alright, so what do you need now?" Roman finally asked after a moment.
"I take it someone as brilliant and feared as you," Cinder drawled out, not quite able to keep from sounding sarcastic. Though not as angry anymore, her mood was still rather sour. "Has some connections with the police, yes? Or at least some way of obtaining records from there?"
Roman glowered in response to her sarcasm but didn't comment on it. Good, looks like he still knew better than to test her patience. "I've my ways, yeah."
"Good. Then try and get the reports for either the docks incident or this recent one. Confirm whether or not this Blake Belladonna is affiliated with Beacon in some way and then try to do some reconnaissance – I want this girl watched just in case she tries to interfere again," Cinder began.
"…Alright, that can be done. Not right away, but by next week at the latest," Roman replied. "And I take it you want to find out who she's friends with too? Get them surveilled too?"
"If at all possible, yes. You did say three others had been there at the docks as well. They're allies of hers at the very least and it wouldn't surprise me if they'll get involved too. Watch them and if it seems like they may be stumbling onto our operations again that they either get deterred… or are taken out for good this time."
"That'll really be stretching our manpower thin, you know."
"I'm not asking for an entire squad to be watching each individual, Roman. Just pick a few of the most competent people you have at hand and have them watch out for these pests during the early weekday afternoons and through all of the weekends."
Roman sighed. "Most competent… the bar for competence here is pretty low, you know? These damned animals are useless for the most part outside of firefights with the police and your other average law-abiding chumps. And Junior's guys don't have that stellar a track record either in my personal experience."
"I'm well aware," Cinder replied in a flat tone. "Just pick the ones you believe will be least likely to ruin this and get them on it. Either that or call in that little imp of yours. I'm certain Neo would be vastly more preferable than them in handling this assignment."
"Fine, fine," Roman said, mildly frustrated. "I'll do what I can, alright? But either way, we're really stretching ourselves thin here."
"I'm working on ways to rectify that. You just focus on what needs to be done now," Cinder responded. "Now get to it. The sooner this is addressed, the sooner you can be done with your part in all this."
She then hung up before Roman could continue to complain.
But for all his complaining, he was right. What forces she had at her disposal were being stretched thin indeed. And despite the hold she had on Adam Taurus and those under his command, there was only so much she could make him do considering his own circumstances. And while she really couldn't care less for any of her pawns and their pathetic issues and crusades, abusing them needlessly will not lead to anything productive.
Like she told Roman just now, she really would have to work on better ways to figure this all out.
For now, however, as long as Roman carries out what she told him and the people he selects to do this new job don't screw up like the others have so far, things should hash themselves out well enough.
As long as she was still able to get the train ready in time for the next phase of her plan and take over the CCTV tower in one way or another, everything will still proceed smoothly. For at that point in time, all she'll have to do is just kick back and wait for the right time to bring this illusion of peace crashing down on the world.
And then… once that's done, she'll finally be just one step closer to her true goal.
Yet another set-up chapter. Hope you guys don't mind. It's not yet time for it to be just one action scene after another just yet, ha ha.
So yeah, from here on out, Cinder will be more active and reactive to the going ons of our protagonists and vice versa, though the latter are obviously not yet aware of everything in play.
As for Ozpin, he too will start to play a bigger role in all this as well, but gradually so. He won't truly be stepping into the limelight for quite some time, but when he does, I hope I will be able to make it suitably epic.
Until next time, everyone. Take care!