Editorial Note:

Within the following day, Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch and General Ironwood were gathered in headmaster's office to discuss the previous day's attack shortly before the freshmen were gathered for their first mission. Ruby was also briefly summoned to the meeting to provide her observations for the said attack.

The Ozpin Logs: Beacon Tower Raid: The Morning After

It appears that during yesterday's dance, inside this very tower, the communications floor was raided by an agent of Salem. James immediately notified us when he witnessed the detriments of the building and the unconscious bodies of the guardsmen that were under his command.

Furthermore, he also saw a certain prodigy at the scene when he arrived when she was supposed to be enjoying the night with the rest of her friends. She claimed that she confronted a hostile infiltrator who managed to escape before James' arrival. Of course, since Ruby had no reason to attack James' men and that the recovered security footage proved her claims, it was unwise not to believe her. I admit, Beacon was not the best when it came to security but it should be noted that Salem chooses her henchmen very wisely and carefully, so even if our fortifications were more adequate, they would have still found a way to get through.

We decided to discuss the incident first thing in the morning; it was dead of the night and everyone needed some rest after investigating the commotion for a short period.

Once the sun rose, the three of us convened at my office to put yesterday's attack into discussion. I also convoked Ruby to provide us with her eyewitness accounts. Being a step forward for Salem's plans, it instigated James' usual paranoia.

"They were here..." James muttered before furiously slamming against my desk. "Ozpin, they were here!"

"We're very much aware of that! Thank you, James," Glynda replied. "Fantastic! You're aware! Now are we going to do something about it or should we just stay the course and continue to ignore what's right in front of us?!" he yelled when a signal came from the entrance, prompting me to open my office's door.

"Come in."

"Ah! Sorry, it took so long." Ruby said, emerging from the entrance. "Someone accidentally hit all the buttons on the elevator on the way up here… It wasn't me."

"Thank you for coming, Ruby. How are you feeling?" I said.

"Okay, I guess. I'd feel better if my bad-guy-catching record wasn't oh-for-three," she answered cheerfully but with noticeable trepidation on her voice. She then made a faint chuckle before seeing all of our unamused expressions. "Okay, so that's the tone we're going for, got it."

"Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a Huntress is all about," James walked towards her and held her shoulder. "You recognised a threat. You took action. And you did the very best you could."

"Thank you, sir."

It was pleasing to know that despite his flaws, James proved that Atlesian military officials can be reasonable. Although he did worry her yesterday, not many authority figures are willing to hear what their subordinates have to say.

"Now, the general here has already informed us of the events that transpired last night," I said. "But now that you've rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add."

"Was anyone else with her?" Glynda stepped in. "Did she look familiar to you at all?"

"I...I don't know. She was wearing a mask, and she never said anything to me. But I know she fought with glass [1]. I don't think that was her semblance, though. Her clothing lit up whenever she attacked." she answered, hence bringing us the mysterious figure on the Bullhead during our initial meetings with Ruby.

"Save for the glass, that sounds like the woman I fought the night we met Ruby." Glynda pointed out.

James was rather sceptical, however. "Imbedding Dust into clothing is an age-old technique. It could have been anyone."

"Wait. You think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?" Ruby asked.

There was a short pause for a moment. While I am not going to deny the possibility as Salem is known for using proxies and scapegoats for her schemes, it is yet to be confirmed that those criminals have any sort of connection to her and her inner-circle. "It's possible. But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together."

"Actually, I-I think I remember her saying something about a hideout or something… in the southeast. Just outside the Kingdom."

Although it did contradict her claim that the assailant did not mouth off a single word for her, I cannot be helped but be intrigued by her statement. Southeast outside Vale? That is where Quadrant 5 is located, the region containing Mountain Glenn. "Interesting."

"I thought you said the intruder never—" Glynda attempted to point out before I interjected.

"Thank you for your co-operation, Ruby. Why don't you go and spend some time with your team? You have a big day ahead of you."

"Any time." smiled before making her way to the exit.

"And Miss Rose…" I called her out before she was able to leave. "Please try and be... discreet about this matter."

"Yes, sir." She nodded and left immediately.

Once she was no longer on the premises, Glynda and James turned back and faced me. "Well, there we have it. We send as many troops as we can to the southeast, find out exactly what's going on, and eradicate any forces that stand in our way." James proposed.

"Why must your answer to everything involve a triumphant display of military bravado!?" Glynda huffed. "You treat every situation like it's a contest of measuring di—!"

"Glynda!" I raised my arm and cut her off in the midst of her sentence before she could induce her unprofessional and unladylike vulgarity, which is especially unbearable when she is influenced by alcohol during a certain special day.

"Well, he does." she hissed, which I cannot deny; despite his best intention, James can be very reckless. Even if he was not wrong, regular humans have no place in a Huntsman's business, I have known that fact for far too long now and we are not to be denied of our own duty.

"She's right. As much as I too would love to end this situation once and for all, we must remember that this may go beyond Vale; Beyond Beacon. And if this truly is part of some master plan for which we know not the final move, we mustn't be so bold. Nor can we risk the spread of panic."

"I have served you faithfully for years..." James uttered. "But if you mean to tell me that your plan is to really hold the defences, and wait—!"

"It is not!" I asserted, standing from my chair. "You're a general, James. So tell me, when you prepare to go to war, which do you send in first? The flag bearers, or the scouts?"

He sighed and crossed his arms. "Are we going through this again? Even if I do send in my own scouts, I know you would still insist that they would be nothing more than rabble that can neither be trusted or counted on. I'm guessing you want one of your Huntsmen to investigate the scene?"

"That is correct. Because day is the day when the first-years have their first missions; there is a mission at Quadrant 5 that is yet to be accomplished, the same region where the Southeast outside of Vale is located. And I know a team suited for the job, and you wouldn't need to risk the lives of any from your feeble lackeys, you should be thankful for that." I smirked as he glared at me with indignation.

James and I had always have conflicts over non-Huntsman combatants, he placed too much trust over them when I know better. They have done nothing but disappoint and die around me for all these years that I was convinced that they have no place in our holy mission other than to be protected. A Huntsman already exist to do things than an ordinary man cannot do, and it infuriates me to no end that some are attempting to undermine that, including James. Nevertheless, he is still a good ally in this war against Salem, if only he could see the truth in this.

"But isn't that mission restricted to upperclassmen?" Glynda reminded.

"I'll be taking advantage of a loophole within the school's system," I said with an affirming nod. "I know that this mission is dangerous for freshmen, but it is not ordinary freshmen I will be sending."

Glynda puffed; she already knows which team I was referring to as they made spectacular performances in her class. "Wouldn't this be violating staff protocol?"

"Remember who you are talking to, Glynda." I firmly reminded. "As you know, I have done far worse deeds in the past to meet ends. And being the headmaster, the rules I made and dictate cannot be above me. I'll change them for myself if I have to."

"I only hope you know what you're doing."

"I'll agree with your proposal for now." James conceded but his demeanor remained stern. "But remember, just because you are putting your trust in talented students, it does not change the fact that you are gambling the fate of the world with the lives of children. Pray that this does not go out of control, Ozpin, many lives are already lost because of this war."

Both of them gave me doubtful expressions, but despite this, they know that all they could do was comply. "I can assure you. Neither of you would be disappointed."

Nor would they disappoint me. So Salem thinks she made some progress, doesn't she? Well, it is time to make ourselves even then.

=o=

1. While it's possible to create glass through dust—specifically fire dust, the investigatory report of the attack actually indicates that the infiltrator used ice dust, which was proven after it melted minutes after.

Chapter 9

Animal Control

Become a Huntsman

They say you'll be a hero

But is it worth it?

-A Mistrali poem (a haiku, to be exact) found near a skeleton of an unidentified Huntsman inside a deep cave.

As much as I want to deny it, but unfortunately, today's the day every blood-thirsty student was looking forward to. It has been bugging me the moment the dance was over. It was the first thought that came to me when I heard my alarm and woke up. I went to the bathroom to clean myself up, I washed my own face before gazing my own reflection at the mirror and convinced myself to relax; I have formidable teammates and I don't necessarily have to pick for something risky. First missions are usually made to be tame since we're just freshmen who're barely old enough to drink. Not to mention I heard that some experienced Huntsmen would be accompanying us so there's not really much to worry about.

Leaving the bathroom to take my breakfast. I went for a round of tanna and florn cakes. As I was enjoying it, I almost spilled my drink after hearing Nora suddenly scream when she learned that her box of pancake mix was empty. Glancing at my side then seeing Ren rubbing his belly with a satisfied look, he immediately stood upright and changed his expression back to its usual stoicism when he noticed me staring at him. But unfortunately, if Nora's face was any indication, she wasn't buying any of it.

So this how they both start this morning after their totally-platonic night together and even winning Best Couple. Well, I was done eating before things got heated between the two anyway.

I immediately went to literally pack my bags for the journey ahead of me. We plan to travel light, so we only carried what we need; it would be a pain in the ass to carry a stockpile of items while hunting for Grimm on a glorified errand that could last for days depending on how unfortunately long our assignment ends up becoming.

I looked away from my bag for a moment and looked at Pyrrha, she looked at me back and sported a blush at me, remembering the wonderful night we had recently.

"Good morning." I greeted her.

"Good morning…" she replied sheepishly, glancing back to her bag for a moment

"So… big day ahead of us, huh?" I said while I was at the process of organizing my bag.

"Indeed it is," she nodded before giving a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we'll be right behind you.

I brightened up knowing that my teammates still down with me, even though I still intend to use them to carry me out of unwanted trouble.

I zipped my bag closed and stood up. "Alright, is everyone all set?"

"I'm ready," Pyrrha stepped in, now wearing her sling bag.

"We're all geared up and ready to go!" Nora looked like she's cheered up, though she's noticeably agitated at Ren for eating her last batch of pancakes.

"Will all first-year students please report the amphitheater." Miss Goodwitch's voice annoucned on the dorm building's P.A.

"That's our cue," I led my team out of the dorms and navigated our way out of the residence hall.

"Hey guys, is it just me or do you guys hear barking?" Nora said while we were walking down the hallway before making a shrug. "Eh, it's probably just me."

"Speaking of animal noises, you still got our codes, right?" I asked.

"Yes, we do." Ren nodded. "Everything's the same, but if you haven't heard by now, my team attack with Nora are bear roars henceforth."

"That settles it then." I opened the building's door and left the building. "Okay, here we go." I breathed out.

We went to the auditorium and saw it packed full of students on their combat outfits who all looked eager for their upcoming field trip. We dropped our bags on the corner so we don't have to stand here for minutes with this weight. We stood behind the crowd of Beacon students, few of whom glanced upon recognizing us, particularly me and Pyrrha. I glanced around when I spotted Nebula and her team among the throng of Shade students who were right beside the column of Beacon's students. She waved at me as I waved back since I had a pleasant time her and her team yesterday, it was rude not to.

The murmuring faded once Miss Goodwitch spoke up. "Quiet! Quiet, please. Professor Ozpin would like to share a few words before we begin."

The Great & Powerful Ozpin came into the podium and began his speech. "Today we stand together—united. Mistral. Atlas. Vacuo. Vale. The four Kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago—the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression. A war that was about much more than where borders fell or who traded with whom, but about the very idea of individualism itself. We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression. And as you are well aware, that was something many could not stand for. As a result, those who opposed this tyranny began…" Blah, blah, blah. History. History. Colors. Colors. Freedom. Freedom. Freedom. Peace. Harmony. Despotism is bad. You're gonna be Huntsmen. It's almost time for the Vytal Fiesta, amigos.

What, you really think I was going to write his whole speech word for word about things your history teacher already told you countless times now?

"…As first-year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional Huntsman or Huntress on a mission." He continued his speech as holographic boards containing missions began appearing around the sidelines. "Some of you may be taken out of the Kingdom for several days. Others may work within the walls for the rest of the week. But no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best."

Well, that speech was a lot longer and less harsh than the one on our first day, that's for sure. At least he didn't make any subtle messages directed at me this time around.

The audience clapped at his enlightening words of encouragement as he walked away from the podium. Everyone on the crowd began to disperse as they went to a board so they could select a mission.

"What are we waiting for?! Come on, let's go!" Nora excitedly squealed before dashing to the nearest board, prompting the three of us to quickly follow her.

I only needed to pick the least dangerous mission I could get. I should also stay away from missions that take place inside Vale. I'm sure White Fang hit squads are still looking for me for what I did last week. When we browsed the board, we were met with three options and it felt like looking to a video game's difficulty selection that disregarded order. [1] The board made it perfectly easy for me on which to pick.

Search And Rescue:

• Missing Supplies

• Quadrant 4

• Mission Start: ASAP

Search And Destroy:

• Moderate Grimm Activity

• Quadrant 5

• Mission Start: ASAP

Village Security

• Increased Grimm Attacks

• Quadrant 5

• Mission Start: One Week

The second one sounds simple enough as all we had to do was clear an area out of any Grimm and then we're off. The first one, while it certainly sounds trivial in paper, it'll probably be an annoying scavenger hunt, it would involve trekking through the wilderness which are densely packed full of Grimm, and who knows how large the search radius would be if we were going to look for several missing supplies; the journey would wind up longer than expected. The third one—Village Security wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for the label 'Increased Grimm Activity', plus, it doesn't start until next week; its credits to carrots that the village would have been destroyed by the time we get there if someone recently requested for Huntsmen once Grimm were multiplying in that location. Search And Destroy appeared to be less complicated than the other two that they were barely even a choice for me.

"All of these sound boring," Nora sounded disappointed for the lack of missions that would have caught for her excitement, meanwhile I was pleased with the straightforwardness of the near-absence of complexity from the second one.

"I suggest we take the first one." Pyrrha chimed in as she took a step forward. "We only needed to look for supplies while dealing with a few Grimm."

Normally, I would agree with Pyrrha's proposals, but this wasn't one of them. "Thank you, Pyrrha. But I believe we should start with the second one—Search and Destroy with moderate amounts of Grimm. Know we trained ourselves for this but we should start with something nice and slow for now. We just need to warm ourselves out before we take on something more challenging."

"Sounds like a reasonable choice, I really don't mind at all," she said; thankfully, without any further objection. This was not something I want to argue about.

"That's good enough for me!" Nora cheerfully complied. "The only thing I wanted is to smash Grimm with you guys again!"

"I don't know." Ren skeptically uttered. "Don't you think that this mission sounds a little too easy to be true?"

"What do you mean by that, Ren?" Pyrrha asked, looking as confused as I do.

"The mission says it only has moderate Grimm activity, but Village Security takes place in the same quadrant as that while it says that Grimm attack there are increasing."

Now that he mentioned it, it does seem odd that region says that the Grimm attacks were growing, yet only says it has moderate Grimm activity. But I thought he was worrying too much and I wasn't going to waste an opportunity into getting an easy mission.

"You're probably overthinking it. It probably says Grimm activity would only increase if the threat wasn't dealt with by now."

"Then why is the mission being placed along with it? It doesn't make sense." Pyrrha pointed out.

Gee, I don't know. I just wanted to take the relatively safest mission we could get for crying out loud.

"No, maybe you're right." Ren shook his head. "I'm overthinking this. Being in the same quadrant doesn't really mean it's in the exact same area. Let's just take what you're going with."

I sighed. "Search and Destroy it is then." Without further ado, I reached the selection with my finger. I typed in my team's name and entered it when a message popped up saying that we accepted the mission and gave us instructions on what to do next. I turned to my team and nodded at them. "Alright, our Huntsman would be waiting for us at dock 13. Let's get to it."

"I can't wait! I've never been this excited since we got to Beacon. May the rise of Team Awesome commence!" Nora pumped.

Yeah, hopefully, it won't involve any stupid large-class Grimm that complicates things nor would it become an annoying mishap like that time with Forever Fall. I have been through enough misadventures for the past week and the week before that I hope that this would be over before I know it. With the training I've been giving my team these past months, I hope it pays off.

And was it just me or was I being watched all of the sudden? Either way, I didn't want to think about it.

Since the missions begin the moment we accepted it, we picked up our bags and immediately left the amphitheater and traversed through the courtyard that was populated with students who were also heading to the Bullhead docks after getting their own assignments as well as uniformed upperclassmen who were either watching the freshmen or were minding their own businesses. Among these was Coco and Velvet who were taking a snack at a bench, with the former still wearing her signature beret and sunglasses combo even with her school uniform. Coco noticed me and shot me a finger gun gesture with a smile as her way of giving her regards.

We made our way to dock thirteen, with the Bullhead and the Huntsman waiting for us. His stature was somewhat lanky, he was wearing a safari outfit that contained a brown longcoat and pith helmet. We did not notice who it was until he turned to face us. Much to our surprise…

"Why, hello my good students!" Our history and social studies teachers pumped up, with all of us confounded at this unexpected revelation that even Nora was baffled.

"Professor Oobleck?!" I exclaimed. Having my jabbering teacher of mine was not exactly something I anticipated.

"Yes, I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary, children, seeing as you've opted to shadow a Huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission. I can assure you, we will not be establishing a single base of operations; rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland and making camp in any defendable locations we may stumble upon. I packed all of our essentials myself, plotted our air course, and readied the airship." He rambled, waking back and forth in front of us. By some sort of enigmatic miracle, I somehow managed to record everything he said despite his chattering being so rapid, it was borderline incomprehensible. He then leaned in front of my face to remind me of something I should have thought when I was at his presence, at least he spoke comparatively clearly this time. "And its Doctor Oobleck, I didn't earn a Ph.D. for fun thank you very much."

He got off my face and I was still unsure of how to think of this. "Come now, children! According to my schedule, we are already three minutes behind...schedule!" he said for the lack of a better word dashing to the Bullhead within a second.

Well, I didn't know what to expect. Every professor here were all fully-trained huntsman after all but with all due respect for the guy, pro—Doctor Oobleck wasn't exactly the first person that comes to mind when one thinks about an experienced Huntsman. The thought only made you think about him killing Grimm by utterly babbling them about Remnant's history or politics.

"That was a surprise," Pyrrha said, giving us a flabbergasted look as she was noticeably grasping that an eccentric social studies professor would be our chaperone for this task.

"Well, he did manage to be qualified enough to become one of Beacon's teachers." Ren pointed out.

"But still, who would have known we'd be saving the world with him of all people?" Nora asked rhetorically, and this was his fellow member of the motor-mouth club.

"You guys are going to save the world?" Another high-pitched voice said. We all turned back and saw Ruby and her team approaching us. "You're going on world-saving missions without us? That makes me a little jealous, but I'm really happy for you."

"Don't sweat it, Ruby. We're all working on saving the world. Our mission isn't really that much of a big deal." I reaffirmed warmly. "Speaking of missions, where you guys going?"

"Oh, just outside the kingdom. We couldn't get our hands on the mission we wanted so we just decided to go protect a village. The Huntsman we are shadowing is some kind of sheriff, I think."

"Unfortunately for us, the mission does not start until next week." Weiss irritatingly murmured.

Protecting a village that starts next week. Huh, sounds like the same mission on our board. Though it's pretty weird why they would wait a week for a defense mission, these aren't exactly the type of girls I expected to take that mission.

"How about you? Where are you going?" Yang inquired.

"Oh, just somewhere outside the kingdom like you guys," I answered. "Nothing really special, just going get rid of the Grimm lurking around the area."

"Search And Destroy, right?" she replied and gave an envied expression. "Lucky you, we were considering that ourselves, but we ended up with this because the stupid board says the one we were picking was not for first years and it was already taken, bah."

"Aren't there any other Search and Destroy missions you could find?" Ren asked.

"Not really." Blake shook her head, looking disinterested again. "We decided to go with Village Security because Ruby wanted to help some locals. Not really the mission we exactly wanted, but at least we'll be protectors or whatever."

I hummed for a moment. For whatever reason, my internal lie-detector told me that there was something they weren't telling. It didn't really bother me much so I dropped the thought.

"Yo, a little birdie told us that you girls won't be leaving till next week," Sun and his partner suddenly jumped in.

"Then you can party with us tonight!" Neptune proposed.

"Sounds cool. Anything to keep me busy while I'm stuck here." Yang assented. "Where are you two off to, by the way?"

"We're shadowing crime specialists. All inner-city detective stuff. We get junior badges." Neptune answered.

Looks like Sun really kept his word about assisting Vale's police, that's nice. I always wanted to be a detective; solving mysteries, fighting crime, all saving the day, all that kind of stuff. If I wasn't fretting about White Fang assassins, I would have certainly chosen to go on a mission inside the safety of Vale's walls and do missions that involve minimum fighting such as that.

"We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always exploding and junk, so we thought this might be a better way to check out the kingdom when it's, you know... normal." Sun shrugged at the last word. Like I previously said, I would have done the same if I wasn't trying to lay low from those terrorists after facing them exactly three times, especially when they had a homicidal killer on their side.

"Well…" I tried to speak when Doctor Oobleck shouted from the Bullhead, reminding us about the task at hand.

"Four minutes, children!" He instantly returned back to the Bullhead afterward.

"Sorry, guys." I apologized to the girls. "Duty calls."

"You guys are going with Professor Oobleck?" Weiss raised her brow and looked at us disbelievingly.

"Don't worry about him. The doc is completely transparent with us. He may talk too fast, but I'm sure he means well."

"Well, suit yourself," Yang said. "Good luck out there."

"Stay safe, everyone!" Ruby cheerfully waved her hand.

"Kick some ass for us, Jaune. We wish you luck." Sun encouragingly said, leaving as well with Neptune.

"You too, guys," I smiled at them before turning to my teammates. "Alright, let's not keep the doctor waiting."

"Search And Destroy, here we come!" Nora enthusiastically pumped as we went to embark on the Bullhead.

Staring at the Bullhead. I gave an agitated sigh as I have to travel by air again and to think I would have gotten used it by now considering how many times I went to the city and back to Beacon.

I really should have brought promethazine[3] with me.

=o=

1. Missions Variety is limited for students at combat academies. While higher level missions are restricted to upperclassmen, many other high-tier missions are outright unavailable to students. Granted, these types of missions require full-huntsman training before they become available.

2.. To anyone who is interested, Team RWBY's aforementioned mission is featured in the extras titled 'Another Side, Another Story' when it gets released

3. A drug used to treat motion-sickness and allergies. Back when Jaune used to have motion-sickness, he usually brings one of these with him. Obviously, this is not one of those times.

The ride to our destination only took fifteen to twenty minutes, but for me, it felt like it took hours. I have spent these minutes trying to get ahold myself while I try to endure my stomach's abysmal relationship with air travel. At least the air is open this time, I hope Mother Nature doesn't mind getting puked once... or twice.

"I recommend you inhale the fresh air, Mr. Arc. It would help you tolerate the flight slightly longer." Doctor Oobleck advised loudly enough so I could hear him while we were traveling on the Bullhead, which would have been helpful if I wasn't doing that because the open air was right in front of me for the entire duration of the flight it was why I even lasted that long.

I decided to just throw it outside to the woodlands at the outskirts of Vale, making feel a little better but I was still having headaches from the flight. There goes the florn cakes I just ate.

"It was a surprise to see you accompanying us, Doctor. We didn't see you much of a warrior." Pyrrha remarked.

"I admit I fancy myself more of an intellectual. But I can assure you, as a Huntsman, I've had my fair share of tussles."

"Tussles? You mean like the mushrooms?" Nora said after mishearing the doctor's uttering.

"They're truffles, Nora." Ren corrected.

"Like the sprout, right?"

"Those would be brussels."

"Whatever. You still owe me food, Ren." Nora growled. Ren just sighed and looked away from her.

"Besides, given my expertise in the field of history as well as my dabblings in the archaeological surveys, our dear headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular... assignment!"

I finally caught my breath and spoke. "So, not only we are on a hunt for Grimm, but we're also on a history tour."

"That's one way to put it! The southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves, but it is also the location to one of the kingdom's greatest failures!"

"Mountain Glenn..." Pyrrha uttered.

"Huh?" I did hear about Mountain Glenn but unfortunately, I haven't been paying attention enough to know more beyond its name, appearance, and location.

"Mountain Glenn was an expansion of Vale before it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off from the rest of the city," Ren explained.

"Precisely, Mr. Ren! And now it stands abandoned as a dark reminder." Doctor Oobleck added.

I gulped upon learning about it being overrun. In hindsight, I should have avoided this quadrant but I was so attracted by its apparent simplicity I didn't think of how eerily dangerous this region was.

There wasn't much time to panic and it was too late to convince the pilot to go back because we already have gotten past its walls once I found out that going here may not be a good idea. The place looked as bad, if not worse, as Ren and Doctor Oobleck described it to be. It was literally a ghost town, with nothing but defunct roads and dilapidated buildings everywhere, along with an eerily monotonous atmosphere, containing almost no color aside from shades of black, white and maybe brown; even the sky looked like it was desaturated the moment we entered the area. I spotted a few Grimm in the area too, hopefully, those would be the only Grimm I would encounter in this wretched hive.

I noticed the walls presenting the region had its text crossed out with black paint along with the large words written 'KEEP OUT'. Wonderful, I felt like I won a ticket to what could be the worst vacation spot in Vale.

"We're in the pipe, five-by-five!" the pilot's female voice announced. No turning back from this, unfortunately. This had better be a quick tour.

The Bullhead descended and hovered above the empty street. We all leaped off the Bullhead before it flew away. We all had our weapons ready—except for the prof..erm..doctor, who just made a sip from his container because even in this mission, he still can't let go of his coffee. I would have brought my tanna too if we didn't leave our bags at Beacon due to his instructions and because we want to do this with as little weight as possible.

We scanned around the abandoned ruins of a city, armed and ready, only to find nothing but maybe a few tumbleweeds at a distance despite this place being said to be overrun. It was a relief, honestly; a place with little Grimm was somewhere I wanted to take as my first assignment. Maybe this place wasn't as bad as I thought.

Doctor Oobleck broke the silence and called for our attention. "Alright! You four may still be students, but as of this moment, your first mission as Huntsmen has begun! From this point forward, you need to do exactly as I say! Do you understand?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Nora saluted.

"Just call me doctor, Miss Valkyrie. No need to be so overly formal now. I may be far above your ranks but I still prefer my humble title as a doctor."

"Of course, doctor!"

"So, what do we do now, doctor?" I asked.

"Ah, yes, straight to the chase; I like it! As you've been informed, the southeast area has been marked as a recent hot spot for Grimm activity. Now, there are several possible explanations for this behavior, one of which being... Grimm."

"Grimm?" I said as we looked at each other confused at his redundancy.

"Grimm. A creature of Grimm approximately one hundred meters from us at this very moment." This prompted us to quickly turn around spot a single Beowolf coming emerging from a corner.

We went to combat stances before Doctor Oobleck ordered us to halt. "Stop!" We lowered our weapons and stare at him puzzlingly. "There are a number of reasons why Grimm will congregate in this particular area, the most likely of which will be their attraction to negativity. Sadness, envy, loneliness, hatred. All qualities that are likely held by our hidden group harboring ill intent."

I immediately got what he is trying to convey, making me rather glad that we didn't storm the Beowolf the second we saw it as it would undoubtedly attract a horde. "So... what do you suggest we'd do?" I asked.

"We wait. We track. If this specimen leads us to its pack, that pack may subsequently lead us to our prey."

"How long do we wait then?" Pyrrha inquired.

"It's uncertain. Hours, days, weeks. Why lone Grimm have been known to stay isolated from the pack for months."

That long? Now I know why Team CFVY's mission took almost a week.

"Waiting, schmaiting. Couldn't we just blow them up?" Nora impatiently suggested.

"That would be a foolish move, Miss Valkyrie. While Grimm is known to be attracted to negativity, they can sense noise as well similar to that of an animal, and let's not forget about their reactions to said noise," He explained. Nora calmed down after his lecture but still noticeably her aggressive self per the norm. Doctor Oobleck then noticed a disconcerting sight. "…and there's the whole pack."

We alarmingly looked back and saw more and more crawling out shortly before they turned to our direction and growled at our presence.

Oh crap, I thought. I gripped the handle of my sword firmly as they stare at me with their red eyes as they began charging at us.

"And now they've seen us."

Yeah, we could see that!

"I guess tracking them won't be necessary," I aimed my pistol at the pack who was getting near us by the second. "What should we do now, doctor?"

"You topped combat class last semester with flying colors, did you not? I'm sure you know it by now, Jaune!"

I started to ponder hastily what to do with this horde while trying to calm down and not feed more fear to the incoming Grimm. Fleeing was simply not the option; I'm supposed to be a fearless leader, after all. I've managed to make the coin drop before the pack was able to get close to us. "Nora, smoke."

"Without a 'nother word!" Nora expeditiously changed her hammer to its launcher form and fired a smoke grenade within the pack.

The Beos went to a halt as pink smog began taking over their surroundings. I turned over to Pyrrha and nodded to her. I expanded my shield before Pyrrha got on it and I threw her to the pack as Pyrrha began spinning with her spear. Ren, Nora and I charged in, clearing the area of remaining Grimm.

Thanks to our weapons being slightly upgraded, the Grimm fell quicker than they were before. My laspistol managed to shot down the Beowolves with only one or two shots, this pistol was made to cut down aura and since the Grimm lack any of them and Beos being one of the weakest, they were barely a threat.

A distant growl was heard as another batch of Beowolves began rushing toward us. We all switched to our range weapons and opened fire, running a third of the wave before switching back to melee once they got close (also so I could save ammo. Laser ammo packs are not cheap, especially since I wasn't able to loot anyone recently.) With our coordination and combined strengths, they never stood a chance.

"Fear us, soulless creatures, for we are Team Awesome!" Nora smashed the head of the last Beowolf flat. "All your attempts to destroy us are in vain."

If the Grimm wasn't souless, they'd be wetting themselves by now, not because of Nora's cheesy boasting but on how effective we operated, and we would have gotten home and called it a day.

"Excellent work, students, as expected from a team with the likes of yours." Doctor Oobleck remarked. "But let us not celebrate yet. This is without a doubt, the first of many of Grimm encounters we will be having inside this desolate community. Let us move forth."

My teammates all nodded and followed him while I panted for a few seconds before complying as well. Our weapons still unsheathed as Grimm could be around every corner.

It's pretty obvious that I don't like this place; I already wanted to get out and I've only been here for a few minutes.

=o=

1. The quadrant was not in the city itself but considered itself as a part of the kingdom prior to being overrun and becoming too inhospitable.

To summarize what we have been doing for the past couple of hours, we have been doing the same routine of wandering around the ruins and killing every Grimm we come across as I look around and scour for things I could use. We have been racking kills off a substantial amount of Grimm and it is still said that the Grimm numbers here are still far more than plentiful, making me question the actual degree of Grimm activity around this area. Honestly, it was refreshing to fight the Grimm again; I almost forgot how easy it is to take out the more common, lower-class Grimm, especially with teammates at your side.

"Alright, now. That's it for the duration of the morning! Let's take a short break and have your midday meals. We cannot afford to have empty stomachs during a hunt, it would be unbeneficial for the morale. So sit down and rest! I have brought food for us to eat." Doctor Oobleck announced.

"Oh, finally!" Nora said before turning to Ren. "You better not hog the food this time, she growled. He replied by rolling his eyes.

I pulled my sword from one of the Beowolf's decaying corpses and went to catch up with the others. "Hey, Doctor. Correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't this area supposed to only have moderate Grimm activity?" I questioned. "This is literally the 157th Grimm we just killed; I know this because Nora was keeping track of our total kill count. I don't know exactly how many Grimm defines what's high or low, but I'm pretty sure that number is not moderate."

Doctor Oobleck took a few seconds to stare at me and be baffled by my statement. "Moderate Grimm Activity? On Mountain Glenn? Is that what the missions briefing told you? Surely there has to be some error at the mission board. Mountain Glenn has been destroyed for more than a decade, it's ridiculous to think that it would contain only a moderate amount of Grimm after years of infestation! Come to think of it—this mission was not supposed to be available for freshmen, which makes it strangely suspicious that you managed to take this assignment in spite of how hazardous it is. Then again you are considered to be one of the most exceptional freshmen we had in the long run and you have been doing spectacular so far. So regardless of what the answer is—this is our mission now and we are not going anywhere until it is completed or if there is a particularly dire situation that would force us into a retreat."

This pretty much confirmed my fear of this being a more dangerous mission than it was presented. If I were aware that this would be a high-risk mission inside one of the worst places in the kingdom I would have been searching for missing supplies on the woods like crazy by now or maybe even wait for a stupid settlement defense mission for next week that takes place on the very same quadrant. I was terrified but I also was curiously suspicious at what made the board label it as something easier than it is, it really made me think.

I also realized something—Yang mentioned earlier that they were trying to sign themselves up for a Search And Destroy mission but said that it was restricted to them since they were first-years and that it was already taken. This could be the very same mission that they were trying to take but ended up going to me because for some reason it presents itself to us as a task that was considered to be neither too easy nor too difficult and even allowed us to take it. Something or someone wants me here and I intend to find out. I don't know why would Team RWBY want this particular mission [1], but whatever the reason, I'd kill to switch places.

I silently groaned and decide to go and take my lunch. I lost my breakfast earlier on the Bullhead, so my stomach was lacking some food.

"Sounds a little scary, but I'm okay with it! I get smash more Grimm and have more fun for a bit longer." Nora cheerfully chirped. "We shouldn't have too much trouble because we're like the best of the best!"

Thankfully, even with years worth of achievements on her belt, Pyrrha wasn't overconfident. "We should be more careful regardless. If it's true that this mission is actually more dangerous than what it is presented to us, then we should stay alert as something unexpected may happen.

Ren chimed in her. "Pyrrha's right, Nora. While we may be recognized as one of the most, if not most remarkable first years of the academy, we cannot afford to be reckless at something more serious than we anticipated. This is still our first mission, after all."

"I couldn't agree more," I uttered before settling down and taking my lunch. Nora frowned before nodding at the acknowledgment of how rigorous this mission could be. At least, some sense is knocked into her.

We were all sitting down at a circle, taking our respective meals that the doctor brought for the trip. All I ate was canned soup, which wasn't much but at least I got something to eat; beggars can't be choosers, as the saying goes. Luckily for Nora, the doctor for whatever semblance of reason brought a turkey which Nora was able to have most for herself. It wasn't cooked when it was shown to us but there's nothing a little fire dust won't do. She did share a few of the pieces for us (well Ren got the smallest there is but he doesn't seem to mind, at least it made Nora let go of her grudge.), but she ate almost the entire thing within four seconds. I kid you not, four seconds; I counted. Makes me wonder why she isn't fat by now.

In the middle of our break, something went to Pyrrha's mind and decided to ask Doctor Oobleck about it. "Excuse me, doctor. I ask this with all due respect and forgive me if I offend you, but shouldn't you be assisting us in combat? You're an experienced Huntsman, are you not?"

She did brought up a good question. For the past couple hours of wandering around this place looking for Grimm to kill, I haven't seen him take up arms and fight so far, he only stood behind the sidelines while occasionally providing instructions if necessary (which is something I wish I was doing instead) and analyzing anything anomalous that caught his attention. I know that the Huntsman you are shadowing isn't exactly here to hold your hand and it's more rather that we are here to assist him, but I haven't seen him do Huntsman stuff yet.

"Ah, but I am in action! Scouring the ruins of this once-great city for any signs of irregularity! Not every mission is filled with daring and heroism, children. Sometimes it's just a heightened form of extermination!" Doctor Oobleck answered. "Remember, this is a job, and you all signed up for it. I do hope you understand that."

Except this was not exactly what I signed up for. I muttered to myself as the good doctor finished eating picked up his belongings and began leading the way.

We caught up and finished our lunch before going back to following on whatever we were doing for hours to come.

=o=

1. Few days prior to that mission, we discovered that the White Fang was holding a hideout somewhere in the southeast of Vale. When our attempt to take the Search and Destroy mission failed, we decided to take the Village Security since it was located in the same quadrant. We were hesitant to choose that mission since it begins within the following week and Blake wanted to stop the White Fang a soon as possible, but it was the only alternative we could make. We planned on scouting the area in the meantime but we would later discover that it was unnecessary thanks to a certain someone's actions.

I don't think it's necessary to write down what I did the whole afternoon, otherwise, I'd be telling you that we'd trekked around, found some Grimm and killed it, took any items of value, rinse and repeat.

Much to my relief, despite being a place that was supposed to be extremely hazardous, it wasn't really that exciting as I worried it would be. We just fought the same Beowolf pack with a few Scavers and an occasional Ursa. It was actually less dangerous, if a bit longer, than the missions I took at Pucelle during the break. I don't know if it's because of my team's cohesion or is it because the quantity of Grimm on the area was just so high that it was classified as difficult, but in actuality, this mission isn't actually all that bad.

"Alright students. I believe that will have to do for today. It's going to be dark soon." Doctor Oobleck finally announced after we finished dispatching the last Grimm pack as he removes his backpack. Everyone was panting for air out of exhaustion while wiping off their own sweat. "You three, set up camp in that building." he threw his bag to the group before Pyrrha catches it. "Oh, and please do make sure there are no more of those... creatures. Your leader and I are going to secure the perimeter. Come, Jaune." he walks forth, gesturing me to follow him.

"You're the doc, doc." I nodded as I trail him to wherever he is taking me.

He took me around the edge of the mountain that overlooks the forest. There I witnessed six mammoth-like Grimm—Goliaths, to be exact—all lined up marching through the forest, one of them making a howl loud enough to be heard from where I was.

Knowing that these Grimm were far too much for us to handle, it was obviously better to keep them unprovoked. "I'm guessing we're only going to watch them until they go away, right?"

He nodded "Correct, and since even the strongest of our combined attacks will do nothing more than agitate a Grimm of that size, there was no reason for use to induce its wrath."

I made a relieved sigh. "So, what'll we do if it comes here and attack?" I asked for good measure. In case they could feel our emotions and aura from our location, it was better to stay prepared.

"Fret not, Jaune. Those Goliaths are not concerned with us," he responded before giving me another lecture, unlike most of his history lessons, this one was engrossing enough that I was able to perceive his every word. "Not every Grimm is mindless, or rather not every Grimm is still mindless. You see, the Grimm you see before you are so powerful, so superior to the Grimm you fought, that they've undoubtedly lived hundreds of years, and in that time between killing humans and attacking our borders, they have done one important thing: They've learned. They've learned that when they attack our borders, they're likely to die, and what we lack in strength, we make up for with will and that killing one human will only bring more."

So, what he was telling me is that the Goliaths have lived long enough to gain the ability to think. Grimm are still Grimm, though. Intelligence or no, the only good ones are dead ones and it was our job to make them 'good'. Remnant is never going to know peace until the very last Grimm is vanquished. Someone needs to get rid of those things and that person is sure as hell won't be me. As much as I wanted them gone like any other normal person, Doctor Oobleck was right about them being too dangerous to provoke.

"What do think they're doing near the city anyway?"

"Waiting."

I widened my eyes and turned my head to him. "Waiting for what exactly?"

"Their next prey; the meaning of their existence; maybe even death. All we know is that they're waiting for something." he answered as he stood firmly at the group, one of them was facing right toward the city before turning back to follow the rest and continued to follow the others.

Since the Goliaths were leaving and apparently have no intent on going to the city (hopefully). Doctor Oobleck decided we were done watching over them and left the post.

"So… doc." I began uttering as I follow him back to regroup with the others.

"What is it, Jaune?"

"Mind if I ask you something?"

"Let me guess, you are wondering why I've been interrogating your teammates all day?" he stopped as he turned toward me.

Wait, you have? I thought as I paused seeing he hasn't questioned me yet before going back to ask him. "Actually, I just wanted to ask on what made you become a Huntsman." I mean, he could have just chosen to be a regular professor—I mean doctor or whatever, but I was curious about what made him follow a life of a professional monster-slayer.

"Look around and tell me what you see."

"A ruined city beyond recovery that is filled with monsters?" I answered. Hey, don't judge me, I only did what I was told.

"In a way, that is correct. It's true that this ruined city that was once a prosperous community. But you have to ask yourself, what if it was never successfully overrun by Grimm? Of course, the answer would be is that this place would still be full of life and no one would have fell victim during its fall. But that's the point, to think about the lives that could have been saved during that tragedy." he said, continuing to walk as I followed and listen.

"As a Huntsman, it is my job to protect the people, and although I am capable of doing it with traditional weaponry, I believe I can make a much larger impact if I do it with my mind. As a teacher, I'm able to take knowledge, the most powerful weapon of them all, and place it in the hands of every student that passes through my classroom." We stopped and he looked at our surroundings. "I look at this wasteland, and I see lives that could have been saved, but I also see an opportunity—an opportunity to study these ruins and learn from this tragedy, and therefore become stronger."

The doctor briefly walked away from me as I stood to ponder his words. When he mentioned about what could have been, I only thought of something that I didn't want to think about as I had been trying to bury that memory for years now. It may have been his motivation for becoming a Huntsman, but to me, it was why I gave up on my old dream of becoming one. I'm just not cut out for this job, no matter how many people say otherwise.

"I am a Huntsman, Jaune, because there is nothing else in this world I would rather be." He halted shortly afterward to ask me one more question. "What about you?"

"What about me?" I looked back up to face the doctor and answered firmly as I masked my own insecurity. "Not only I want to live up to my ancestor's greatness, but I also want to help those who couldn't help themselves. I couldn't just stand there and watch people suffer, I have to do something. Hence why I'm here." I answered. If I was talking as my younger self, I wouldn't be lying. But I am no longer the boy that I used to be. Now I'm just some guy who was unfortunate enough to be living his childhood dream who is just afraid of losing his life and dignity.

"I hope you're being sincere at what you just said." The doctor gave me a smile before he turned his back to return to the others as I stood there for the minute, gazing at the sky before the sun sets.

Sadly, I'm not…

Hours have past and it was already night. We all sat around a campfire inside one of the city's crumbled buildings that were fortified enough for us to stay the night. Somehow, it wasn't that uncomfortable; the temperature was adequately warm, and there weren't a lot of mosquitos unlike most other times I went camping with my family. I also didn't have to worry much about the Grimm because the surrounding area was devoid of them since we spent almost all day clearing the ruins. Still, I'll keep my pistol under my pillow as I can't really be a hundred percent sure.

"Here's a meal you children look like you could use." Doctor Oobleck tossed a pack of marshmallows that was caught by Nora.

"Marshmallows!" she cheerfully squealed as she tore the plastic open.

"There's more food at my bag; feel free to have them. Now, eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for first watch?"

Pyrrha raised her hand. "I'll do it, Doctor."

"Splendid! I'll be upstairs if any of you need me for anything if so, do not hesitate to call me. Have a pleasant night, children!" Doctor Oobleck said before bolting away leaving only us four around the campfire.

We all unfolded our sleeping bags around the fire. Before going to bed, we all gathered around to roast our marshmallows. In retrospect, I would have brought my guitar and play some acoustics to add to the camping feel and make the atmosphere of this wasteland less ominous. But then again, Doctor Oobleck said that we don't need to carry anything unnecessary so the only thing I could do was a whistle. It did its job of lightening the mood, so it was better than nothing.

Nora munches on her marshmallows once it was roasted enough, meanwhile Ren approached me to ask about something.

"Hey, Jaune did Doctor Oobleck asked you about why you wanted to become a Huntsman earlier?"

While I was rather surprised by that question, I was rather glad that I wasn't the only one that was asked with that. "Yeah, why?"

"Nothing. Just checking to see if the doctor interviewed everyone regarding that."

"So what did you tell him?" I asked out of curiosity. While I've been with Ren for months now, I didn't really know much about him aside from his fighting style, his companionship with Nora and the fact that they were both orphans who just go wherever fate takes them. We rarely go on lengthy conversations so I was interested in what he has to say."

"Nothing much. I just told him that aside from because I was good at it, I also don't want people to suffer the same fate as mine."

I raised my brow at his answer as more questions began popping up my head. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's a long story—even if it was shorter, I don't feel comfortable enough to tell you," he said. I saw Nora frown after she heard our conversation. Seeing their expressions and knowing how it feels to have something in the past haunting you, I decided to respect his decision to digress.

"It's alright Ren, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I assured him.

He gave a friendly smirk. "I'll be sure to tell you someday. Right now, I just want to rest. It's been a long day of exterminating the area of Grimm that I could use a good long sleep." he said as he went to lie down on his sleeping bag.

"Yeah, you do that."

"There's still a few more marshmallows left," Nora showed me the remaining marshmallow on the pack. "Want some?"

"Thanks." I gave her a smile as I took two marshmallows and impaled them with my stick. Nora took the last three of them before we hovered them near the campfire.

She went and sat at my side. It was mostly silent, with the only sounds being the chirps of a few crickets, the campfire crackling, and even a Beowolf howling at a distance. It wasn't until I decided to speak up that I find myself in a conversation again.

"So, the doc asked you too, didn't he?" I asked, with my eyes gazed at her.

She silently nodded without a word, which was a little strange given her talkative nature. I made a hum and went back to watching my marshmallows heat up.

"You know, before I went to Beacon, I never had any friends apart from Ren," she suddenly spoke, getting my attention as I turned to her again.

"Why is that?" I inquired, surprised upon learning that. Girls like her normally tend to be more outgoing, so I find it weird for a bundle of joy and energy to be lonely if it wasn't for someone who she has been sticking with for half of her life.

"I wasn't always like this. Y'know the happy-go-lucky gal who likes smashing Grimm," she began. I leaned in and listened closely to her while she cleared her throat. "Before I met Ren, I was just a lonely little girl with no friends, no family, and no home. I just wandered from place to place looking for someone to take care of me. That's until I met Ren. I found out that he was also alone and that we only have each other." she spoke in a tone that was much calmer than her usual self. "So we became best buds for life and went from place to place, looking for whatever adventure we could find. We eventually found ourselves hunting for Grimm and I started enjoying it. I was loving the feeling of excitement and the satisfaction of slaughtering Grimm that I started savoring all the fun I have and told myself to stop worrying and be happy."

So this is where her zany personality came from? That's a little dark, but otherwise, it was heartwarming to see that she was brightening up, no longer alone and found her identity as a Huntress.

"Adventuring and killing Grimm became our life. So we went to every academy where we could get ourselves into so we could become full-fledged Huntsmen. [1] Ren was my only family until I became part of this team. For my whole life, I never knew what it felt like having a family until now." She turned to me and gave me a heartfelt smile.

I rested my eyes at her and was touched at what she told me and it made me more regretful of secretly treating her as a meatshield while still not letting go of my intention to keep using her as one. But even though I'm using her as a glorified bodyguard of these school years, she was still a good friend that I'm grateful to have. "Well, I'm happy to know that we have you here with us. We'll stick together until this is all over."

"I hope it never ends then."

I could only keep resting my eyes on her and just smile, feeling ambivalent about the thought of staying with this team even after the end of the school years. I stayed like this until I noticed my marshmallow suddenly started burning after neglecting it for too long. I flinched before hastily blowing away the flames until it was extinguished. My marshmallow was now burnt black that it was barely edible anymore, much to my disappointment.

"Here. You could have mine," she handed me her stick that impaled her three roasted marshmallows. "I'm full anyway."

"Thanks," I took her stick and munched the soft, warm marshmallows.

"I'm going to bed now. Goodnight, Fearless Leader. This day has been fun, and I hope tomorrow would be more exciting!" she chirped as she went to her bedroll and laid down on it.

"Goodnight, Nora," I said while hoping that the following day is more exciting won't be the case, at least not for me; I don't mind Nora having fun as long as it doesn't put me in grave danger.

I remained seated near the campfire for a few more minutes before going to bed as well while asking myself one thing that has been bothering me for a while again.

What am I really going to do with these people once this is all over? Who really knows? I'll just have to live with it and see.

=o=

1. There were some minor Huntsman academies that do not require formal education and accepted orphans. Hence, why Ren and Nora were able to attend such academies despite lacking any guardians nor having not attended any schools prior.

I couldn't sleep that night. Either because I was thinking too hard about the future, or because I was not comfortable sleeping somewhere in the ruins even though the place was wiped clean of any Grimm and Pyrrha was watching over us, or it was simply because of Nora's loud snoring.

Regardless, I decided to get up and check on Pyrrha and see how she is holding up. I thought that it could kill off the insomnia that was bothering me then.

I went to her post and saw that she was watching over the streets, holding Miló while it was on its rifle form. "You okay there, Pyrrha?" I carefully approached her.

"Oh, Jaune," she turned her head to me. She looked fine for someone who assigned to look-out for a fourth of the night. "I'm doing fine. What do you need?"

"I couldn't sleep. I thought you could use some company."

"Fine by me," she said. I went next to her side and sat as she continues to guard our camp.

We both sat there, just watching the ruins for any potential Grimm that comes near. I did my best not to feel perturbed since it might attract Grimm into coming here; thanks to Pyrrha being at my side, I was a little more at peace. The sky was starless and cloudy but despite that, the ruins look slightly better at night. It's probably because the night sky offered more color than the dull, almost-gray color the sky on this place had during the day.

"Hey, Jaune. About last night..." Shesuddenly spoke.

"Heh. I was waiting for you to bring that up." I chuckled. I was so busy doing the mission for the entire day that I almost forgot to ask her about that. "That night won't be something that you're going to forget, would it?"

"I definitely won't. It was just as fun as the food fight we had last Monday. It was one of the only gatherings that I enjoy so much that I didn't want it to end."

"It was a pleasure to make your night, and I intend to do it again if you don't mind," I smirked.

"I would love to have more nights like that." She happily said before turning back to watch the area. "This week is off to a good start, don't you think?"

"Yeah…" I muttered before being reminded about Doctor Oobleck's inquiry about our decision to become Huntsman. "So, Doctor Oobleck asked you about why you chose to become a Huntress, did he? What did you tell him?"

Pyrrha briefly frowned before answering. "Well. I told him that I chose to become one because I wanted to make good use of the training that I had since childhood than just use it to uphold my family's tradition of being a warrior." She then looked down and sighed as her tone becomes noticeably downtrodden. "But the truth is a lot more complicated than that. I wanted to see if becoming a Huntress would make me more than just a mere warrior, so I trained hard while doing my best to honor my family. As you could see, I was good at it that I won Mistral's Regional Tournaments four times in a row. But I never wanted to be this good, I just wanted to make my family proud. Now that my friends have abandoned me, I was afraid of disappointing my family that I could not afford to lose a single competition. I have become so fixated with winning that I almost forgot that I was finding why I chose this way of life."

She bobbed her head upwards and her face brightened as she turned back to me. "But thanks to you, Ren and Nora, I think I now have my answer."

I continued to look back at her silently and kept listening. "I have forgotten what it felt like to have friends until I became part of Team JNPR. As I follow you and do my part as a teammate, I have grown to care about my newfound friends. That is when I began to realize the meaning of why I became a Huntress. To fight, not just for honor and for glory, but for those you care about."

She finally finished explaining her motivation when something hit her. "Oh, Brothers above!" she blushed, putting a palm on her face out of embarrassment. "I'm sorry for making you hear me ramble again. I think I have gotten too ahead of myself."

"Don't be," I reassured her, giving a chuckle. "It's nice to learn what you are fighting for and knowing that there was more to you than just winning." I puffed for a moment. "We're not that much different when it comes to upholding my family's honor. I'm still doing my best to live up to my ancestor's legacy and all that."

"I don't think you need to worry about that. From what I've seen from you, I could say that they'll be proud of you." Pyrrha replied as she tried to comfort me back.

Sure, it does look that way but little did anyone know that I wasn't keen on becoming like them nor do I believe myself to be that much of a great hero, especially when my so-called 'heroic acts' was only done to keep my dignity intact and to keep me out of harm's way.

"I can't really say that for myself, but I appreciate it," I looked back at her. "You know, you're not the only one who consider themselves to be lonely in this team. I just learned that Ren and Nora had no one but each other until they went to Beacon and as for me…" I hesitated for a moment, but I still managed to get her to say it without exactly ringing out something that I have been dodging for all these years. "I didn't have a lot of friends outside of my sisters. Most people I called friends back at home felt more like acquaintances at best."

"I'm glad we have each other then," she put a hand on my shoulder.

"You're right on that one," I showed her a smile.

We returned to gazing over the ruins, satisfied with being comforted with one another. There was no denying that Mountain Glenn was a desolate wasteland, but as long as we were together, there was nothing to be scared of.

"So, Jaune… Do you have anyone particularly special in your life?" she suddenly asked. That question caught me off-guard. I did my best to not look surprised when she suddenly asked me that.

"No, not yet," I answered, taking a deep breath. "I did date a lot of different girls before but I haven't gotten anywhere with them. Soon after, I just decided to stop dating for a bit since I decided that it wasn't worth it."

She a game pitied look. "Oh. That must have been hard for you."

"Don't worry about that; it's in the past. Besides, I was better off not staying with some of them." I reassured her. "I may have stopped but I haven't given up yet."

"That's nice to hear," she said before taking a brief pause. "So… you don't mind if we spend more time together. Just the two of us? As partners?"

I took a few more seconds to ponder what she just asked. "I'll be glad to, Pyrrha." I smiled at her as she looks back with a satisfied look.

However, the peaceful atmosphere between partners was short-lived when we started hearing footsteps around the area that I started to wince at the sudden sound.

"Did you hear that?" Pyrrha asked as she stood up tensely and gripped her weapon.

"Where's it coming from?" It couldn't have been Ren or Nora, they were both asleep and it couldn't have been Doctor Oobleck either because I assume he was asleep as well, and even if he was, it couldn't have him because his footsteps sounded more distinct, these footsteps, on the other hand, sounded it was coming from two people.

She looked around before spotting something, making her hunker down and dragging me down with her.

"What's going on?!" I almost shouted at her abrupt action.

"Shh," she hastily shushed before going to my ear to whisper. "You might want to see this."

She let go of me and I went up to peek from cover to see what she spotted. I then saw a sight that almost startled me—two armed White Fang troopers on the road, and their accents made that clear.

"Ye' hear somethin'?" one of them asked.

"I thought it was ye', must be a Beowolf then," replied the other.

The first member puffed. "Let's just get back to base, I don't like patrollin' this shithole in the night one bit."

"Ye' tell me."

Oh great, not those extremist assholes again. I was almost close to avoiding these terrorist dipshits for a full week. What the hell are they even doing at an awful place like this?

Unless… Oh crap. Don't tell me they managed to track me down here—or worse—have a base set up on this mountain, I thought to myself.

"We should follow them." Pyrrha proposed, much to my shock.

"What?!" I shouted quietly. I was mentally asking her why should I even put myself in even more trouble with the White Fang?

"They may be up to something and we may never be able to stop if we wait," she explained. "We beat them before twice, we could do it again."

I wanted to tell her that we should leave them alone because they were unprovoked and they haven't spotted us yet but I didn't want to look like a coward in front of Pyrrha so I went to the insane notion of agreeing with her. "Alright. We'll have to follow them ourselves. Let's leave Ren and Nora for now, we can't be stealthy if all of us are trying to sneak."

"Good call." Pyrrha concurred before we left our safe haven and follow these two terrorists so that we may find their hideout.

I already have my weapons ready so we decided to quietly and inconspicuously trail the two members across the street. It wasn't easy because there wasn't a lot of hiding spots aside from buildings, but we still managed to do so. Thanks to some miracle, our armors did not make any noise when we were sneaking behind them.

We stopped after we saw them enter an old sewer entrance, indicating that was where they were hiding.

"Alright, that must be the entrance to their hideout," I concluded before turning back to Pyrrha. "We must go back and tell the others so we could take care of this tomorrow or maybe even later."

Pyrrha nodded in agreement as we turned back and headed back to camp. We were better off fighting those guys in numbers, they never had a chance then.

On our way back, I heard cracking noise as I looked down and saw that there was a crack on the asphalt below me. before I was able to throw myself out of there, the road collapsed open and I fell down towards its pit.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha cried out. I saw outlines around my armor before quickly disappearing within less of a second, indicating that she tried to pull me back out, but it was too late since I was out of her range.

I screamed for a few seconds before landing on my back. The fall hurt a bit, but thanks to my aura, the impact wasn't that bad. When I looked around, I immediately knew that I was somewhere underground, but strangely, this place also has the same desolated-looking buildings as the surface had. It looked like I ended up at an abandoned underground city, which seems to be the case. [1]

I looked upward at the hole which was deep and dark enough that I couldn't see the surface. "Pyrrha!" I called out for her as loud as I could, hoping that she would at least heard my echo.

Shortly, I could hear echoes of her voice coming from up there. Before I was able to make a reply to that, two White Fang troopers suddenly barged in from a door and pointed their gun at me.

"Freeze!"

Oh, fuck me with a stick.

I turned back at them, almost shrieking at them barging in, but when they saw my face and realized who I was, they were immediately petrified.

"Wait a minute." One of them dropped their jaw. "Oh fec—"

Without delay, I panickily pulled out my pistol and blasted them both down. I panted heavily out of agitation that I was facing the White Fang yet again. Another squad of White Fang soldiers came from the door with their guns drawn. Since I had nowhere to go, I leaped from the cliff behind me before I was able to be hit by one of their gunshots.

Once I hit the ground, I started running around the abandoned underground berg, going from cover to cover to avoid enemy gunfire as I desperately look for an exit while I heard an alarm blaring. I took out my scroll and tried to contact my teammates, but I wasn't able to due to the abysmal signal I was getting on that hellhole. So I was on my own until I somehow reunite with my team.

Sigh, I knew that this was a bad idea.

I kept running around while I cover myself with a shield as the White Fang tried to chase me down. I followed a trail of train tracks that led me into a tunnel. After going past the tunnel, I saw a few trains stationed on the rails. Little did I know, the tunnel actually led me to MORE White Fang members. Even worse, when I saw that they even had one of those fucking robots that Team RWBY faced off last week, which dropped a container when it spotted me. The terrorists all turned towards me and began to shoot. I raised my shield to deflect their gunfire before trying to run back, only to have the other White Fang members coming through there.

I went to the nearest cover and started blasting off the White Fang members trying to kill me while thinking of a way to get out of this mess because I cannot take on all of them, especially when they have an Atlesian Paladin on their side.

The gunfire stops as someone began marching in. "Alright, who has been causing this ruckus?!"

I leaned out from cover and saw that the voice belonged to Roman Torchwick, still puffing a cigar even at this moment. "You! You nosy little brat. You just couldn't leave us alone, could you?" he growled when he saw me and threw away his smoke. "At least, you don't have Red with you, that twerp was getting on my nerves."

I took this opportunity to look around to find something that I could use to my advantage. There, I saw a bomb on the open, with a few White Fang members around it. I took a deep breath as I changed the clip of my laser pistol.

"Hopefully, you won't be as bad as her. I don't care if they are calling you the 'Valish Defanger'! Why don't you do me a favor and make my job easier by holding still and just cease and desist already!" Torchwick snarled before turning back to his faunus goons. "What are you idiots waiting for? Kill him! You want him dead, right?"

The troopers pointed their guns at me again while that one Atlesian Paladin began marching forward. My eyes only focused on that one bomb they made a mistake of placing there.

"No, I don't think so!" I aimed at the bomb and squeezed the trigger, firing a straight blast of laser fire toward it. The bomb instantly detonated, sending nearby White Fang members flying, if they didn't blow to smithereens.

Welp, it's time to become the White Fang's Angel of Death again. If there was something we both could agree on, is that this wasn't a good thing.

Some of the remaining members became more furious while others started trembling before me. Regardless, I was determined to get out of this mess. So I got out of cover, charging with my shield as they try to shoot at me. I bashed at first member before slicing the two other troopers he was with before taking him down as well with a vertical slash.

I collapsed my shield and grabbed my gun and began firing at hostiles at a distance while I clash with nearby White Fang members. One such member tried charging me with an axe before I deflected it with my sword and fired his chest with my laser pistol then kicking him down to the ground.

After getting rid with most of the troopers in the area, left and right. Torchwick began firing missiles at me. I hastily dodged all of them until he started to command the Atlesian Paladin. "Get him!" he pointed at me.

The Paladin started arming its missiles and fired them at me as I quickly hunkered down and expanded my shield, managing to deflect the projectiles, but the impact of the explosion lead me flying before falling on the ground on my back. I faced the mech again and saw that it was readying its next weapon while I began rolling before standing back up. I knew that I had to run away because the way it's designed made little way for me to get rid of it without something to exploit.

"Enemies everywhere!" A White Fang member suddenly shouted. I looked at my back and saw terrorists began running away as my teammates and Doctor Oobleck finally arrive when they mow down White Fang goons on their way toward me.

"The cavalry is here, Fearless Leader!" Nora shouted as she was rushing toward me in the distance.

"Oh, for crying out loud! More punk kids?!" Torchwick made an infuriated yell before turning back to the Paladin. "Get rid of these pests right now!"

I saw the Atlesian Paladin adjusts and ready its missiles toward them. "Nora! Brr!" I bellowed, mimicking the sound of a bull. She fired her launcher at the Paladin, temporarily staggering it. She then grenade-jumped toward the Paladin as she changed to her hammer and smashed it down as neat as you please. She broke through the mech's torso until she founds it pilot before violently throwing him away.

"Oh, that's it!" Torchwick began to run toward the train. I tried to shoot him down, but I was only able to hit his hat and make it fly off its head. He was obviously irritated but didn't have time to retrieve it so he went straight toward the train. While I didn't know what was important about the train, my conscience intuitively told that it has to be stopped at any cost or else my life isn't getting any easier. Sadly, this means I don't have time to loot again. I would have gone straight to the exit on this whole, but I figured that letting Torchwick go free won't exactly put me in a better position.

I can't believe I'm doing this, I thought.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha and the others finally got next to me. "Thank goodness you're alright. What's going on here?"

"I'll explain later, right now we need to stop that train!" I started leading them toward the train.

"What's on the train?" Ren asked candidly as he reloads both of his machine pistols while following me.

"I don't know—all I know it's nothing good!"

"Look!" Nora pointed to the open cargo on the other track, revealing items that they weren't able to load to the train on time. They consisted of a few weapon caches and some stolen Atlesian machines but most disturbing above all—a bomb.

"But these tunnels are sealed and the tracks lead to a dead end! If they're transporting bombs… then it must be…" Doctor Oobleck mused before getting to a seemingly terrifying conclusion. "Oh no…"

"Get to your places, we are leaving now!" Torchwick's voiced announced via a speaker.

"Oh, dear mother of mercy…" Doctor Oobleck muttered before shouting suddenly. "Stop that train immediately!"

Without another word, we all dashed to the train at a much quicker pace as the train began to depart. Fortunately, we all managed to make it to the last car. Now, all we need to do is figure out how would we exactly prevent this train from reaching wherever it's heading.

=o=

1. Mountain Glenn once had a subway system where it would be able to safely transport citizens to the main kingdom. The underground project became so ambitious that it became its own district. When Grimm attacks increased, the civilians tried to use the lower city as an evacuation site. Unfortunately, the Grimm managed to breach the walls and the Kingdom had to desperately seal off the tunnels.

We went inside the first boxcar and saw a lone guard in it. Doctor Oobleck used his adjustable mace-slash-flaregun thingy, which also happens to be his thermos, to knock him out. Strange choice of a weapon, if you ask me. But it could have been worse, at least it doesn't have anything ridiculous like something sharp on the top, just imagine that.

"It really is those bandits again!" Nora examined the member's uniform, she probably didn't link them to the terrorists I fought last Tuesday which was all over the news.

"I don't think they're bandits, Nora!" Ren replied.

"Mr. Ren is correct. Judging by their uniform and emblem, they appear to be members of a White Fang. An organization that I already mentioned in some of my previous lectures that it is unnecessary to elaborate them further." Doctor Oobleck informed. At least he described them quickly enough that we only lost a trivial amount of time.

"What do you think is going to happen if we don't stop this train, Doctor?" I asked.

"It would crash right somewhere in the middle of the city! So we need to make sure this train doesn't reach its destination while figuring out a way how to defuse the bombs."

I gulped, realizing that now I'm in a middle what is essentially a bomb crisis. "But where do you think the bombs are placed? I don't see any of them here, and judging from what I've seen of them, they're not small."

"The hatches above the car!" Nora reckoned. "They're probably hiding it in there."

"You're a genius, Nora!" Doctor Oobleck commended. "Alright, children, everybody at the top of the car."

We all quickly climbed above the train's car and opened the hatch and found a bomb there, confirming Nora's guess. I admit, while Nora was infamous for her being inhumanely insane, she does have some decent ideas and surprisingly possesses a good amount of knowledge on technology if she's not talking about weird crap she was taught from a machine cult at least.

"Well, there it is. How do we defuse it?" I hastily asked.

"We could pray to the machine spirit to convert it to our side." Ren proposed, making all of us—but Nora—stare at him in confusion. He stared back at us and went with an alternative. "Or you could cut the wire."

I examined the bomb closely and saw that it has three wires—two blue and one red. "Which wire?"

"I-It's usually the red wire," he answered unsurely. "And even then, it's not guaranteed to stop the bomb unless the other wires are cut in a particular order."

Well, shit.

"Hostiles up ahead!" Pyrrha pointed at our front, showing a wave of White Fang soldiers climbing above train and is approaching us.

"Well, I didn't expect them to go easy on us!" Doctor Oobleck remarked.

To make things worse, the bomb's screen began flashing red, indicating it's about to detonate. I decided that defusing this bomb was not worth it. "Forget it! Let's get out of here! Everyone to the next car! Ren, disconnect this car before the bomb blows up."

"Good call, Jaune!" Doctor Oobleck remarked as Ren nodded.

We all leaped to the next car. Ren went to down to the connectors to detach them. While they were detached, Ren apparently wasn't responsible for it. "It decoupled itself!" he said.

"What?" Doctor Oobleck exclaimed out of bewilderment.

"That takes care of that?" I ambivalently, watching the detached car distance itself before exploding.

"There's more of them!" Nora yelled. The Doctor and I quickly looked back and saw another bomb on the hatch.

"No, no, no!" The doctor quickly went to the next car to find another bomb on its hatch. "They all have bombs!"

This day just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? By then, I wished that I was back to securing a Grimm-infested wasteland, even if it would take a whole day.

The car we were at also suddenly started detaching with the bomb on it about to detonate as well. With that, we quickly leaped to the next car.

"What do we do now?" Pyrrha asked as we turned back to Doctor Oobleck.

"We'll worry about the bombs later! Right now, we have hostiles on our twelve!" Doctor Oobleck said as the White Fang soldiers coming to approach us as from a few cars away.

I turned to the mob of White Fang soldiers I was about to face. Doing my best to restrain both my anxiety and motion sickness, I took up a confident face. "Alright team, you heard what he says. We just need to get rid of any White Fang troopers standing on our way. Remember, we're not fighting the Grimm, so don't give away your attacks." I said as I rallied them forward.

My teammates nodded and leaped toward the proceeding cars above the train. It felt a little nauseous moving around while the train was speeding, but it did not bother me that much since my motion sickness wasn't much of a concern because I had worse things to worry about. We shortly got near a mob of White Fang soldiers. "Get the humans!" One of them cried. We went to a formation with all of our weapons ready. Pyrrha still stayed at the front, she switched Milo to its spear mode and attached a wind dust crystal to create a powerful wave from a single horizontal slash that sent the terrorists on the front flying then falling off the train. Nora leaped in and smashed the top of the car, stunning the nearby hostiles as Ren charged and slashed all of them down. Pyrrha and I went to the next car to deal with another batch of White Fang members. Pyrrha charged in and dealt with the group while I stay back and provide covering fire while striking down anyone who has gotten next to me, kicking down even one of the terrorists off the train.

Once it was clear, I checked the hatch to see if there were still bombs just in case. Turns out there wasn't any, same goes for the previous car where the other three was at since Ren checked it himself. Well, at least we don't have to worry about those things blowing up anytime soon. [1]

Speaking of which, we looked back and saw the last bomb-attached car explode. The explosion made a hole on the walls of the tunnel, giving Grimm an entrance.

"He's leading Grimm to the city!" Doctor Oobleck cried out.

"What?!" I exclaimed as I went to look at the tracks and found a horde of Grimm coming in a distance.

"It's the cars! They detach and explode, creating openings for the Grimm!"

"But why would they do that?!" I asked, puzzled at the White Fang's decision.

"I don't know but I do know this: Since this train leads to somewhere below Vale, it would crash into the barrier between this tunnel and Vale itself, giving Grimm an entrance to the city; if that happens history could potentially repeat itself! Only worse!" He explained as quickly as he could.

Everyone gasped except me. "What?" I was confused at what specific part of history he was referring to.

"Oh right, you weren't there." Doctor Oobleck said.

"W-W-Wait! You're telling me if we don't stop this train, it'll give the Grimm a breach toward Vale?" I said, straightening things out.

"Precisely! You know how horrible that would be so there is no time to discuss this further! With the train carrying fewer cars, it now has less weight and more velocity, which means it has less time to reach the end of the tunnels! So we must hurry to the locomotive and stop this train at all costs!"

We hastily complied with the doctor's word, leaping from car to car on the effort to prevent a major terrorist attack from happening while I muse on how crazy the White Fang is for trying to go through this and mumbling on what I have gotten myself into.

Seriously, how is this going to promote equality somehow? What kind of psychedelic drug did they take that made them do this? They really are batshit insane.

As we were getting closer to the locomotive, a stolen Atlesian Paladin leaped up at our front, putting all five of us to a halt. I find it pretty odd that they stored Paladins on this train when they intend to use it break inside Vale. It felt like a waste of good robots. [2]

"Stand aside, children!" Doctor Oobleck stepped in and chugged his thermos before transforming back to a weapon and fired a single flare which was enough to knock the Paladin off the train before crashing to the ground then blowing up.

While these mechs were normally formidable, it wasn't a good idea to pilot something two-legged and heavy above a speeding train, which was why I was barely threatened with the following Paladin. A single sweep on its legs with Nora's hammer was enough to deal with it.

We continued to go off ahead when suddenly a White Fang member appeared out of a hatch. He was no ordinary member by the looks of it. He was large, muscular and he carried a chainblade; he wouldn't be out of place on a slasher film of sorts.

"I will destroy you!" he said in a deep, menacing voice after making a sinister laugh. He swung around his chainsword as its saws revved.

However as scary this guy was, I didn't have time for showoffs. So I nodded to Pyrrha, prompting her to use her polarity to pull his weapon while he was still holding it. He was struggling to control his own chainsword, and his refusal to let go of it caused him to be pushed into falling off the train and became Grimm food or something. Good riddance.

"There's more of them coming from behind!" Nora pointed at our backs and saw more Paladins and White Fang members coming out, late for the party."

"Nora, come with me! We're going to hold them off." Doctor Oobleck ordered. "The rest of you, keep moving! If my calculations are accurate, the train is halfway its destination—so best for you to make haste!"

"You sure you'll be okay doctor?" Pyrrha asked.

"You can trust me on this one, Miss Nikos, this isn't my first rodeo. I'll be teaching these deviants a lesson." he nodded.

"Be careful out there, Nora." Ren regarded, displaying off his more emphatic side which rarely happens.

"You too, Ren!" Nora cheerfully followed the doctor as she charged with him.

"We better get moving," I told them. Pyrrha and Ren both nodded as they accompany me to the flatbed car containing a few Atlesian Paladins. I would have loved to take one of those bad boys home with me, but sadly I had to stay focused, especially that we were racing against the clock. Innocent lives were at stake and failing to stop this breach won't be good for my rep.

We went inside the train. There were few more cars remaining before we could reach the engine. We had our weapons ready as there won't be a single doubt that we would be facing Torchwick.

Speak of the devil.

After getting in one of the third last cars, the first thing we saw was a hatless Torchwick standing in the middle waiting for us.

Yeah, I'm not really used to seeing this guy without his hat. Looking at him without it always gives you the impression that there's something missing, especially with clothes like that.

"I'm gonna have to stop you right there, kiddos," he said. "These area is strictly off-limits to children. So why don't you all buzz off?"

I responded by firing a blast at him, which he dodged by making a hasty sidestep. That sucks because I wanted him shot and have this over with so we could focus on stopping a literal train-wreck from happening.

"I knew you were going to do that," he uttered before his tone becomes more infuriated. "You still owe me a hat, y'know? Do you even know how much that costs?! Bring it on!"

He pointed his cane at me and fired at a missile which was blocked by Pyrrha's shield when she went in front of me. Ren charged in and clashed both of his daggers with his cane. Pyrrha joined in and went to Torchwick's back and fought with his xiphos. Torchwick was noticeably having trouble dealing with two Huntsman back and forth, and it was a good opportunity to bypass him."

"You go on ahead, we'll handle him!" Pyrrha said, parrying all of Torchwick's attacks.

I quickly ran to the door of the car. Torchwick noticeably tried to fire a missile at me before I closed the steel door, slightly feeling the missile detonate behind it.

I ran straight through the last cars before finally making my way to the locomotive as fast as I could, knowing we don't have a lot of time. Looking to the front window, I could visibly see the dead-end from a couple of miles away. I quickly looked around the controls for a brake before spotting the lever.

I was overjoyed after seeing it that I immediately went toward it. As I was about to pull it, someone from behind began to choke me with an umbrella and I was pulled away from the train controls. I tried struggling my way out while an umbrella was pulling my throat. I reached for my pistol and began firing at my back, making the assailant dance around until they were forced to let me go.

I gasped for air as I looked up to see my attacker. Horrifyingly, it was none other than The Neapolitan Butcher herself. She blocked the train controls and wagged one of her index fingers.

I almost shat at the mere sight of her. There were a lot of things I wasn't looking forward to seeing, but she takes the cake. I swear, I would rather charge at an army of Atlesian Paladins head on with only a plastic spoon than to look at her eye-to-eye or even be in the same room.

Torchwick probably knew that he wasn't going to win this and was trying to hold off us for as long as he could. He only let me go because he knew that his pint-sized sidekick was waiting and I was too caught with the stuff that has been happening that I forgot she existed.

There was no turning back from this. I had to get rid of her as quick as I could and pull that brake before it was too late.

I holstered my pistol, raised up my shield and charged at her. She dodged to her right and pulled me with her umbrella's crook handle so I could stay away from the controls as she shifted in front of it again. I threw quick slashes at her, all of which she managed to dodge and repel. She pulled her blade from the umbrella and tried to stab me with it but I was able to block it in time.

She started fencing me with her blade, even occasionally trying to hit me with her umbrella sheath. I looked at the window behind her and saw that the dead-end was less than a kilometer away, prompting me to swing my sword around, desperately trying to hit her or at least get her out of the way.

She continued to parry my attacks before she began rapidly stabbing, pushing me back every time she hits my shield. Suddenly the door behind me opened and I heard Pyrrha call my name. With that, I stepped to my side as the Butcher was pulled to the last car when Pyrrha magnetized her weapon.

Without wasting another second, I moved toward the brake and pulled it as hard as I could. The rails began to squeal as the speeding train decelerates while its momentum pushes it to get near the wall within a half a mile. I quickly looked back and saw the Neapolitan Butcher widened her eyes as she looked into the front window and suddenly disappear. Pyrrha and I watch the locomotive's window as it shows tunnel's end getting closer. I slowly walked back as the train increasingly slow down as it was reaching the wall within a few more yards. While the locomotive's very end touched the wall, the train fully stopped, with the barrier barely scathed.

I almost fainted as I caught my breath, panting heavily and wiping off my sweat, mumbling in disbelief that we actually made it. "W-We did it..."

Pyrrha later entered the locomotive and rushed to check on me, no longer was she engaging the Neapolitan Butcher as she suddenly just vanished. "Jaune! Are you okay?"

"Yeah… we made it…" I puffed, mustering words with my remaining strength. I felt nauseous after holding it off since I rode this train and because of all the adrenaline that pumped inside me. "I think I'm going to throw up."

I exited the locomotive and vomited near the rails. After being a student on Beacon for almost half a year, this may have been the wildest event I have experienced, putting every other adventure which I had the misfortune of being into shame, and I was not happy about it. Still, it could have been much worse, which is why I was glad that it came to this instead.

Pyrrha and I headed back to the preceding cars while going around, searching for items, even breaking some crates in the process since I wasn't able to loot bodies on the rush. I found some ammunition and a few dust crystals, while they were underwhelming—they were good enough for me. At least I'm not leaving this mess empty-handed.

Strangely and also amusingly, I also found a well-hidden stash of human porn on the caches; this is rich coming from a group that despises humans. [3] I suppose it's true that people tend to fetishize what they hate. I decided to take it when Pyrrha wasn't looking.

We reunited with Ren and saw Torchwick lying on the ground, cable-tied and handcuffed. I can already see that he ran out of aura. Good, at least he's not getting away this time. Pyrrha probably made sure of that.

Ren was leaning on the wall, panting. "Is it over?"

"Yep. There won't be any breaches at this hour." I asserted with a smirk.

"What a relief." he remarked after taking a deep breath, still panting off the excitement he had been having.

Torchwick just chuckled. "You only won the battle, kid, but not the war." He sneered before coughing. "You can't hold me like this forever! I've broken out of the joint before and I'll do it again!"

We decided to just ignore him, it's probably just ramblings of a defeated criminal after an operation he must have spent months of planning was botched.

Nora and Doctor Oobleck arrived a few minutes later. Both of them looked just as tired as us, which was saying a lot since these two are known for having energy that's off the charts.

"You guys did it!" Nora bounced to Ren and gave him a hug while still holding her hammer on its full form with only one her hands.

"We did it," I corrected Nora. Honestly, while I mostly said that because I thought it would make sense for me to say it and simply because it was simply a fact. I doubt that I would have been able to reach the end of the train if it wasn't for everyone's help

"You sure right we did!" She chirped, letting go of Ren and pumped a fist.

"Outstanding work, children! Simply outstanding!" Doctor Oobleck congratulated. "I have accompanied students in my lengthy career for more times than I could count, but this is the easily the most remarkable one to date, which is especially more impressive when you consider that you are only freshmen on your first mission! So, I guess it is true that this generation of Huntsmen would be extraordinary." he looked over to Torchwick who stared at him back in disgust. "Not only that you were able to prevent a terrorist attack that would have resulted in a breach that would threaten the safety of the kingdom, but you managed to seize a major criminal that the authorities had been hunting for a long period of time.

"Good gods! Take a damn breath. Geez, Louise." Torchwick shook on the ground whilst still tied and cuffed. "This nerd here is your teacher? Holy crap, I can't imagine how you catch up with this guy. Now I remember why I dropped myself from school; teachers just don't know when to shut up."

Believe me, I know the feeling. But if there was someone who deserved to shut up, I'm pretty sure the answer is obvious and it's not the doctor himself.

"Fancy meeting you too, Roman Torchwick. Wanted for several accounts of armed robbery, racketeering, kidnapping, arms dealing, parole violation, possession of illegal items, hijacking, grand larceny, and more recently, being an accessory to terrorism." Doctor Oobleck replied.

"Why, I'm flattered with the recognition. Too bad I can't sign you an autograph when I'm tied like this." He scoffed.

"That wouldn't be a problem. I'll be more delighted in seeing you in a maximum-security cell."

I looked around inside the train car and picked his cane after I found it. "Hey, don't touch that," Torchwick yelled.

Oh? Alright then, I'll just give it to Nora. I tossed it to her and when she caught it, gave a nod as she already knows what to do with it. She gripped it with both of her hands and bends it firmly until it snapped into two pieces.

Torchwick's reaction was what you'd expect. With that, he had lost his smug demeanor. "Gods Damn You! This is some Grade-A bullshit! That was my sweet little baby!" he threw a temper tantrum on the floor. "Neo! Neo! Where is she?! What have you done to her?!"

Being reminded of his womanlet of a sidekick made me a little more cautious, knowing she's still likely alive and could ambush us off-guard at any moment. But to my surprise, she thankfully didn't appear at all when I expected her to.

"Do you even know who you're up against?!" Torchwick continued to snarl. "I work with pretty dangerous people, White Knight. When you find out who they are, you'll be wishing you had stayed at home today. Mark my words!"

I faced away and took a few steps. The thing was, I already wished I stayed at home. And it's true that I have no idea who is even behind Torchwick, but I do at least know that he lost and I threw a wrench on his works and I couldn't be bothered to listen to him babble. While I was indeed terrified of whoever Torchwick is working for, these people could use a hint. As shameful it would be, I am the Hero of Podunk, after all; so maybe they should be reminded of that.

"Nora." I gripped my fists and turned to her, making her stand upright as she waited for her order. "Break. His. Legs."

For a second she paused, unsure if I was serious but then she made an affirmative smirk and readied her hammer. "With pleasure."

Torchwick froze in fear and prayed to himself that I'm bluffing. "You wouldn't!"

"No brakes on the pain train!" Nora said as she slowly walks to a tied and panicking Torchwick.

"I don't think I want to see this..." Pyrrha calmly, yet nervously remarked as she turns away for the impending violence.

"Trust me, you haven't seen the worst of her yet," Ren responded.

I looked away too; the thought was already terrifying enough that I'd rather not think about it on my sleep by witnessing it with my very own eyes. The sounds were no less haunting, with Torchwick screaming as his bones break while a large hammer thump. If this wasn't someone who committed numerous amounts of crimes and almost made Grimm leak to the city while giving liars and cheaters like me a bad name, it would have been a million times more uncomfortable.

"A rather ferocious move, but necessary to keep criminals like him in line, I'm afraid." Doctor Oobleck commented.

Nora was finished turning a crime lord to a cripple. With that, it was safe to turn around and look at him again. "That… was uncalled for! Arg!" he grunted, weakly shaking his upper body as his lower body remained numb.

"Like bombing the tunnels to summon Grimm trying to crash a train so they could get in the city?" I snidely retorted.

"Screw you, kid! My employers are going to kill you and they are dead serious about it."

"I looked forward to seeing them then. Your boss needed a message." I feigned confidence to give him an impression of the hard as balls hero I've been pretending to be since the beginning. I admit, it felt cathartic but I really hope his employers would just buzz off and realize that I'm not worth it. Really, they'll be doing both of us a favor.

"Yeah, tell 'em, Fearless Leader!" Nora cheered. "Whoever they are, we'll be ready for them!"

He groaned. "I knew working with those stupid fucking sheep wasn't worth the pay," I heard him mutter to himself.

"Alright, that's enough." Doctor Oobleck stepped in and took everyone's attention. "Now, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Grimm are still on the tunnels, and given the amount of negative energy within this train coming from the defeated opposition, they will arrive shortly."

Oh, crap we almost forgot. While they were a couple of miles away with the bodies for them to play with, which gave us time, there was still a massive horde that would overwhelm us and which we wouldn't be able to handle because we used almost all of our energy and resources on the previous battle.

"The good news, however, is that there's an emergency exit nearby that would lead us to Vale's sewers. After getting through that, we'll be home in no time."

"The sewers? Eww." Nora repulsively said.

"It would be worth getting through that if it means getting back to Beacon," Ren stated.

"I agree, after everything we've been put through, I'd say the stench of the sewers is the least of our concerns." Pyrrha chimed in.

No objections. It was easier to smell shit for a short moment than hold a line against the Grimm in a long tunnel. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go home before the Grimm catches us."

Everyone went to get off the train. Nora carried Torchwick while he's still tied. We could already see the emergency exit from a few feet while hearing growls of incoming Grimm from the tunnels.

"At this point, I just want the Grimm to just kill us all already!" Torchwick yelled. I had a feeling that he is just going to keep talking until we put him out of his misery. Not a chance, he's going back to jail with broken legs and we're going to get paid for it, one way or the other. Just need to make the trip back to civilization a little more bearable. I wasn't going to have him throwing a fit in my whole way out here. I prefer that he saves it for the cops.

"Somebody, please shut him up," I demanded. Nora complied and tapped his head hard, putting him out cold and decreasing the negative energy in the area to feed off the Grimm in several ways, one of them being that it gave us peace and quiet now that we don't have to listen to his whining anymore. "There, that'll knock some sense to ya'."

Once we made it to the exit, it was pretty much over. Traveling through the sewers felt like a walk in the park compared to what we had to go through.

That was one hell of a first mission. I knew that a mission labeling itself of having moderate Grimm activity sounded too safe and easy to be true.

I really need to sleep; I haven't slept all night. It's been a hard day's night as a certain band would say.

=o=

1. The White Fang was only able to make a few bombs since they weren't able to gather enough resources to make a sufficient amount, their previous failed robberies being one of the few factors. That is not even mentioning the bombs that were not able to be loaded due to Team JNPR's abrupt entrance.

2. They were supposed to be unloaded but due to Team JNPR's discovering one of their hideouts, Torchwick had to depart the train early.

3. Additionally, they are staunchly against interracial relationships, viewing them as much of an act of degeneracy the same way their human counterparts hate it.

"So let me get this straight: You subdued an entire base of a terrorist cell, captured one of the kingdom's most wanted criminals and prevented a breach that would have cost hundreds of thousands of damages—all because they were blocking the exit?" the Great & Powerful Ozpin asked with his brow raised after I told him the whole thing. While he appears to believe it for the most part—he was having trouble being convinced that I was trying to escape and I thought that trying to stop the train was one way to do it, which it was, judging that I was able to make it back here.

"That pretty much sums all of that up," I answered.

It was seven hours after we arrived back to Vale. After going through the sewers, we left Torchwick to the nearest police patrol, and have him taken to the precinct while also reporting them the White Fang presence on the subway to Mountain Glenn. I'll expect the bounty reward soon. We took a Bullhead back to Beacon; all exhausted and stinking from the dirt we got during the fight and after making a trip through the sewers that everyone was staying at least ten feet away from us. Doctor Oobleck patted all of our backs and then we went back to our dorms. Each of us took a quick shower before plopping ourselves to bed for a well-deserved sleep.

After waking up at the start of the afternoon, we were all told to be summoned at Ozpin's office with Doctor Oobleck. He commended us for our work after hearing Doctor Oobleck's remarks about our performance. He then sends everyone off while telling me to stay so we could have another private chat about my recent exploit.

"If that's ever truly the case, then it's certainly astonishing to see what you'd do just so you could make your leave," Ozpin stated. "So far, you are the only person I have known that truly earned the right to brag about preventing an outbreak and having a wanted criminal apprehended on their first mission as a freshman—yet, you chose not to. Choosing to instead refer to your success as a result of sheer luck."

That and mostly because my teammates were there. Honestly, I shouldn't be getting most of the credit here, most of what I did was pull a brake. Granted, we were racing against the clock and it took some blood and sweat while we were on hell's railroad with the worst of the White Fang on board, but let's be honest, anyone could pull a brake. [1]

"Professor... Please be honest with me." I took a deep breath and inquired the question has been long been bugging me since yesterday. "Did you manipulate the mission board so I could pick that one particular mission?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny the possibility, Mr. Arc," he remained firm and still.

I begged to differ, there was no smoke without fire and all of the smoke seems to be coming from him. "Sounds like a 'yes' to me."

"And assuming that's even true, what would happen if I did not set the mission up for you? Do you think that things would have gone better?" he asked as he calmly retorted.

"Maybe. Maybe not. I mean, there's always Team RWBY." I pointed out. "I mean, we're not the only option you have."

"A welcome alternative if you ask me. However, I would have been skeptical considering that Team RWBY—while there's no denying that they are exceptionally skilled especially when they truly work together—they were too problematic to be trusted with something within this scale," he responded. "I prefer for them to take time and work on their internal affairs first."

"Is that why you picked me instead?" I narrowed my eyes slightly at him.

"You should look back and observe what you've managed to accomplish, Jaune. You just need to put some faith in yourself and you will understand," he said before he grabs to finish his mug. "Because regardless of what motivated you, a breach would have been a huge problem. It would hurt the kingdom economically with the potential damages, civilian casualties, and lawsuits while it negatively impacts the upcoming festival as the civilians' safety is threatened."

"I guess you're right if you put it like that." I murmured. "But still, I did not appreciate going through all of that."

"Then be glad it resulted in this instead of your funeral. Like I mentioned previously, I would never send you on tasks I know you cannot accomplish and you were able to handle this efficiently." Ozpin asserted.

"Whatever," I said, rolling my own eyes. "Just let me celebrate for not dying in the suicide mission you sent me."

"As you wish, then. Just remember at what you managed to fulfill," he declared as he continues to stare at me stoically. "You now have my permission to leave. Thank you, Mr. Arc."

"You're welcome, Ozpin, the Great & Powerful," I said before turning away and leaving his office.

I took the elevator and descended back to the ground floor and exit the Beacon Tower and reunite with my team who was waiting for me on the courtyard. Team RWBY was also there and by the looks of it, they were surprised to hear about everything we went through this morning.

"Oh look, he's finally here!" Ruby pointed at me chirped. I noticed that she was wearing a backpack for some reason.

"Here he is, our knight and shining armor who made all of this possible!" Nora cheerfully gestured to me as I approached them"

"Is it true? Did you really got what Torchwick was coming to him?" Yang excitedly asked.

"Yeah. Let's just say you won't be hearing anything from him in a long while." I said.

"Serves that jerk right," Ruby remarked.

"Also, breaking his legs? I would do that myself but good to know that he'll be spending prison on a wheelchair." Yang remarked. Well, I guess there was no room for secrets now that they know about that.

"Yeah, we definitely showed them!" Nora chirped.

"Does anyone else know about this?" I asked hoping that they would say no but unfortunately…

"Uh, yeah. Word about it just spread recently." Ruby answered.

I just stared at her with a straight face while shouting a million cries internally that would have been so powerfully loud that I could make both of the gods' divine ears bleed. This only guarantees that I would find myself in another scenario such as this. I don't know who started it, whether it was Doctor Oobleck, Ozpin or someone from my team, I'm definitely going to have less sleep these days.

"Hey, Jaune. You guys were at Quadrant 5, right?" Blake suddenly asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Have you, by any chance seen a bull faunus with a red sword?"

While what happened was a little blurry, I definitely haven't seen anyone with a red sword of sorts that is not Pyrrha's weapon. "No, I can't say I have."

"That figures," she said, slightly disappointed. "At least, Torchwick won't be causing trouble in a while. I doubt that this is the end for the White Fang though."

"Maybe not but this is a huge blow to them," I said to her. "Especially if you consider that this is what they've been trying to work on ever since they started robbing dust stores."

"From peacefully protesting to trying cause a breach," Blake muttered and asked rhetorically. "How low does the White Fang could get these days?"

"Regardless of how peaceful they were, they are now a shadow of their former selves." Pyrrha chimed in.

"It's for the best, Blake." Weiss put a hand on her shoulder before she hesitantly looks back at me. "Good work, Arc… that is all that I could say."

"Uhh, thanks," I said, not knowing what to make up of her rare compliments. I then realized something. "Wait, I've been thinking. I just realized that the mission we took doesn't actually have moderate Grimm activity, and you girls said that you've tried to take a Search & Destroy Mission but you couldn't because it wasn't available to students."

They all widened their eyes and glanced around in embarrassment before reluctantly admitting it. "Heh! Well, you got us." Ruby confessed. "We thought that we could use it to help Blake out to stop the White Fang but obviously we couldn't so we just with the other mission because it's on the same quadrant, we just have to wait it out."

"Well, good thing we were there to stop them ourselves then," I remarked.

"Yeah, it's pretty convenient," Yang commented. "Looks like we don't have to go snooping around the place for the hideout then."

"I'll have to disagree. We would still have to check to see if they were any remaining White Fang posts there. There might be some info that they weren't able to dispose of last morning." Blake said.

"Then it begs to ask, why were you able to get the mission when we couldn't? And why does it label itself to only saying that the Grimm activity there was moderate?" Weiss inquired to us with clear bewilderment and suspicion.

"Gee. I have no idea." I slightly glared back at the top of the tower.

Before we could discuss this further, a creature jumped out Ruby's backpack. It was a puppy—a corgi to be exact with black and white fur.

Sigh, dogs. I'd be happy to see one if it wasn't for my terrible history with them. I could still remember one biting me hard as a kid that I had to be sent to the hospital like it was yesterday.

"Zwei, I told you to stay in the bag!" Ruby told the dog. "You know we'll get in trouble if people here see you." Fortunately, the courtyard wasn't that populated. You'll get a few students passing through but that was it. It probably has something to do with most first-years being away for their mission. [2]

"This is your dog?" Pyrrha looked at the dog chase its own tail and bark.

"Aww~ he's adorable!" Nora squealed as she leans at it.

"I thought Beacon doesn't allow pets. How did it get past security?" Ren inquired.

"Oh, Dad snuck him in via mail." [3] Yang answered.

Well, that and I remember Bleu telling me that Beacon has rather mediocre security.

"At least it's not a cat," Ren remarked, making a certain faunus to narrow her eyes at him, causing him to quickly apologize and rephrase his statement. "Sorry. I mean, I'm not particularly fond of four-legged felines myself."

"Look, Zwei, these are our friends from Team JNPR," Ruby said as she turned it toward us. "There's Ren, Nora, Pyrrha and their leader, Jaune!"

Zwei pants while it happily looks at my team until it turned toward me. I nervously took a step back as it stares at me for a couple of seconds before it started snarling and pounced to my feet then it started to biting off my pants.

"Zwei! Get off him!" Ruby rushes in as she pulled it away from my pants. "Bad dog! Say sorry to Jaune!"

Zwei whimpers at her before turning back to me and growled again.

"That's weird, I haven't seen Zwei act like that to other people before," Yang remarked, noticing how Zwei seems to dislike me for whatever reason.

"I think that animals just don't like me," I responded. Seriously, just go ask Verte and she'll be recounting all of the times when her pets attacked me.

"Why would they? You're such a nice guy," asked a puzzled Ruby.

It's maybe because it could sense me being a fraudulent bastard, I thought. "Beats me."

Nora's stomach growled. "Hey, guys, I'm hungry. Let's get to Vale and get ourselves something to eat."

"Sounds good. We could use it to celebrate our recent success." Pyrrha replied.

"Let's come with you!" Ruby suggested as she puts Zwei back to her backpack. "We still haven't got our lunch. Oh! We should go for tacos, it's Taco Tuesday, after all." She then glanced at Weiss. "Guess who will be paying."

"Don't get too used to it." Weiss narrowed her eyes to her.

"Tacos would be nice." I nodded in approval.

"Okay, tacos it is—!" Yang chirped before remembering something. "Aw crap, I almost forgot. I can't go with you guys, I'm still not allowed to go to the city for a few weeks." She frowned.

As much as I was tempted to have her team ditch her and go to the taco place anyway, the thought doing so didn't sit well for me. Everyone is praising me for the things that I apparently did while they are still being condemned for their mistakes when I have done worse myself. Even if I insist, I don't think her team would abandon her like that, and I'll just end up looking like a selfish jerk. "Well we can't just go out with your team without you, this is suppose to be a time for all of us. So how about we just eat in the cafeteria?"

"That's fine. Are there any tacos there?" Ruby gave a curious look.

"There are burritos, and I think that's good enough for me!" Nora smiled, of course she would know these things.

"Well, the cafeteria it is then!" Ruby bubbled, raising one of her arms.

"I hope it's not gonna end in another food fight," Blake jested with a light smile followed by laughter from the group.

"You guys are really sticking around for me?" Yang looked at us in amazement. "Thanks, I really appreciate it."

I smiled, knowing it made her day better. Sure she was being taught a lesson because of her devil-may-care attitude but at least she had friends that aren't going to leave her behind just so they could have a good time. "Alright, let's not dilly-dally around here any longer. My stomach is killing me." I said.

So we all went to Vale with Team Ruby, Weiss and Blake. Yang was still not allowed within city grounds for a few weeks so she had to stay. It was one hell of a first mission we had and I was still recovering from that. I really hope that the mission just went wilder than expected and the following missions should be less complicated. At least, I won't have to worry about Torchwick and his White Fang slaves for a while.

Unfortunately, I think I might have pissed off his employers if they aren't trembling because I'm a fuckup to their operations. If they are not going to avoid me, then it's sure that they are now looking to teach me a lesson.

Way to go, Jaune.

=o=

1. While not exactly false, this is blatantly just another example of Jaune attempting to downplay his achievements to make himself look selfish and less-heroic. Remember that his leadership is what led to making his victory possible as I doubt that other people would be even able to reach the brake, considering what he had to face.

2. Although they began the operation early, the White Fang intended to start the breach during that week, when most of the Huntsmen were away doing their missions.

3. Speaking of which, Ruby did consider mailing all of us to Mountain Glenn when we realize that its mission was not available to first-years. I personally glad we didn't since we would have a lot of trouble breathing inside boxes.

Editorial Note:

Once again, I am going to add an excerpt from the White Fang as they detail the aftermath of their failed operation, to give you an impression of the impact Team JNPR left on the organization that day.

It should be noted that the author of the previous reports was killed in action during the train battle, it is unknown if his death was caused by the team or the Grimm. Regardless, this report was written by someone who stayed behind the Mountain Glenn base when the train departed and managed to avoid being arrested when it was raided by the military. The differences are quite apparent judging how the writing is less eloquent than the previous reports.

The White Fang Reports: Trouble at Mountain Glenn

Alright, where do I start?

Do you remember the operation what we been working on for months ever since Adam made a deal with some mysterious people?

Well, to put it lightly, it went to shit.

Sorry, if reading this sounded a little unprofessional to you, the guy who was supposed to write these things died that day. I'm in charge with these reports now and I'm not really much of a writer, so please bear with this for a moment; I'm still trying to get used to this.

Here is everything I could recall during that day.

The truth is that we actually had to make the train leave earlier than expected because The Valish Defanger came in and started fucking everything up so much that the train departed before we were done loading and unloading stuff. Hell, there were some bombs that we haven't been able to load inside it and we were still missing on some of htem

While we managed to blow up some holes on the tunnels for Grimm to enter, the train wasn't able to crash into Vale's barrier. No one was able to come back from the tunnels alive—even Vandyke Fawkes was reportedly killed by the Grimm. But somehow the Defanger and his followers managed to make it out with Torchwick captured.

The Grimm later ended up infesting our underground base at Mountain Glenn that we had to move out. VDF and Atlesian forces soon arrived and started shooting and arresting every White Fang member they see. I was one of the few that managed to escape to the woods and reach one of our hidden outposts.

We later learned that Torchwick was now arrested by the Atlesians and was put on a death row for his crimes. I know that none of us liked that asshole anyway but everything we worked up for was all for nothing. Why are we even working with these stupid humies anyway, and what was the point of it? This was their idea, and we lost half of the cell because of it.

Adam was just as furious as us but wants us to stay focused. Although this cell is now crippled, we still haven't lost everything yet. There is still hope and we could build our way back, he told us to think of all the oppressed faunus we are fighting for. He is someone all of us faunus look up to. I believed in him and I only hope that he is right that we will soon have our vengeance.

I guess this is the part where I write: The Revolution Will Not Be Humanized!

Update: We just found out that Torchwick's companion—The Neapolitan Butcher, or Neo, I think—has survived. I really don't know how she did it because none of our men came out of there alive and she wouldn't tell us because she won't say a damn thing to begin with. But we do know that she plans to break Torchwick out of prison somehow.

Well, whaddaya know. A seemingly cowardly, self-serving semblance-less Jaune managed to prevent the infamous Breach of the Volume 2 finale, something that even overpowered Jaunes with ridiculous semblances failed to do (even if he's backed up by both Team RWBY and _NPR.) But seriously though, the breach is preventable, you just need to not screw around and focus on stopping the train.

While this story is done covering Volume 2, we're not going to Volume 3's events yet. The story needed to cover five chapters per arc and I've only finished the fourth chapter of this one. Meaning there is still something to be done before we go to the Vytal Festival.

Until then, have a Happy Valentines/Singles-Awareness/White Trailer Day.