It was finally here, the day they would pick the mission they would complete over the next few weeks instead of normal classes. And Ruby barely managed to keep her enthusiasm contained. Even then the half Grimm woke the rest of her team at the crack of dawn so they had enough time to prepare for their mission, which would take them into Mountain Glenn if Ruby had anything to say about it. So the girls mainly packed gear the would need for navigating and surviving in the urban ruins.
The four of them packed enough ratios to last them a week, as they were not sure how long their mission would take and were sure they would not find much food in the abandoned city, well all but Ruby, who was confident she could survive of only the negative emotions radiating out of the ruins for a week. instead she filled the bottom of her pack with Zwei's dog food, unwilling to leave him alone for however long their mission might take.
Once they were finished with packing, the four girls shouldered their backpacks and made their way to the auditorium, where Ozpin would address all students currently at Beacon before they could select from the available missions.
Trying to keep the corgi in her pack quiet, Ruby only listen to the speech with half an ear. Once the speech had concluded, the wolf eared girl led her team towards the area displaying missions to the southeast of Vale. Looking through the ones still available, Ruby could find only one that would take place in Mountain Glenn, a search and destroy mission. Reading through the missions description, Ruby barely managed to choke back a laugh, as it read 'find the large pack of Beowolves roaming through the ruins and get rid of them'.
"This sounds like the perfect mission for us.", Ruby said as she turned to ehr teammates, a grin spread across the visible parts of her face.
"Well then select it before some other team does.", Weiss said to the redhead, stemming her hands on her hips in annoyance.
Heeding her teammates advice, Ruby quickly typed in their Team ID, after which a short success message was displayed before they received more details about their mission on their scrolls. They were informed that the mission would start at their earliest convenience and that they should report to their Huntsman escort at the airfield immediately.
Arriving at the designated airship after a short run across the campus, they were just as surprised to see prof. Oobleck waiting there, as he was to see a team of first year students.
"Hello students, why are you in such a hurry to get here?"
"We were told to meet up with the Huntsman leading our mission at this airship immediately.", Weiss replied quickly, still panting a little bit and trying to hide her surprise at the teacher's presence behind a polite smile.
Hearing this, the green haired professor pulled out his own scroll and checked his new messaged before looking at team RWBY once more.
"It seems there must have been some kind of mistake, while you are indeed logged as the team following me on my mission to Mountain Glenn, it should have only been available to teams with prior mission experience."
Nervously tipping her fingers together, Ruby addressed the glasses wearing Huntsman before her, "Well we do actually have mission experience. We even helped the VPD to catch Roman Torchwick last semester during it."
"Well in that case come aboard, but I will have to inform the Headmaster about this.", Oobleck replied as he pulled out his own scroll and began typing down a message to Ozpin, "Now hurry, we could have been on our way minutes ago."
Stepping into the airship with all due haste, the four students soon stood next to their professor holding onto nearby railings as the Huntsman told the pilot to take of.
As the hatches closed, Dr. Oobleck turned to face his students and begin their mission briefing.
"We are flying to the ruins of Mountain Glenn, as you already know, but let me remind you what we can expect of them," he began informing the students, but took a short break to take a sip of coffee from his thermos, before he continued, raising his voice to be heard easily over the noise of the engines, "Shortly after it was abandoned, Grimm began to flock towards the city in large numbers for as of yet unknown reasons. Now the ruins are teeming with the creatures of Grimm. While most of them are simple Beowolves, we can't dismiss the possibility of older or more dangerous Grimm being present."
Taking a look out of the window next to him, the Huntsmen continued, "But get ready now, we should cross the cities borders any minute no-" "[Delicious]", sounded a loud howl, much to close for the professor to feel comfortable.
"Did you hear that girls? That was the howl of an Alpha Beowolf, probably close to twenty years old and on top of a nearby building for us to hear it so clearly," as he informed the girls of this factoid, he was too focused on deducing more information about the source of this sound to notice how miss Rose was holding her mouth shut with her gloved hands.
A few moments later their pilot ahd let them of in a plaza near the center of the remains of Mountain Glenn.
"From this moment onward you must do exactly as I say, understood girls?" the Huntsmen addressed them as the airship took off again. After the girls nodded to signal their understanding, taking another drink of coffee, Oobleck continued, "Very well then first please leave your bags here for now, we will retrieve them once we have a better idea of our immediate surroundings."
"Is that really necessary?"; the half Grimm asked, rubbing her neck, while the rest of her team were already storing their belongings in a nearby building that appeared mostly intact.
"Miss Rose, what could be so important that you can't leave it here for a day at the most?"
With impeccable timing Zwei choose this moment to finally get some fresh air and stuck his head out of wolf eared girl's backpack. As the corgi gasped for fresh air, Oobleck quickly pulled him out of the girls bag and brought him closer to his face to inspect the animal.
"What an ingenious idea miss Rose, your dogs keen nose and superior hearing will be an invaluable asset when scouting through an area like this. I must admit I did not expect such planning and preparation from a team of first year student,"the professor praised the wolf tailed student, still holding up her dog.
With her tail wagging from those kinds words, Ruby mumbled "Thank you professor."
"Well then please put the rest of your belongings with the bags of your teams now so we can start to move.", the professor instructed the student once more, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
Finally complying with his orders, Ruby stored her pack in the same building her teammates had, after that the group of five and one dog began to traverse the remains of Mountain Glenn. As they moved slowly from street corner to street corner, all of them kept a constant vigil so they would not be surprised by any Grimm.
All the while, Ruby felt the emotions that had been 'burned into the cities foundation' during its fall seeping into her. About fifteen minutes after they started moving, she felt the same strange sensation, she had felt when she drank the sap in Forever Fall, spreading along her fur.
Not long after that, they laid eyes upon a single Beowolf, but before he could caution the girls not to alert it to their presence, Oobleck was surprised to hear a series of sharp barks and loud howls coming from behind him.
"[Bring your Alpha here, I will take over his position]", as he turned around he was shocked to realize that those Grimm like sounds were coming from the throat of the Grimm faced girl. But the next surprise did not take long, as the Grimm before them run away, his tail tucked between its legs.
"Miss Rose what did you just do?" the professor asked aloud, his eyes wide behind his glasses, his mouth barely not hanging open.
Stepping up to her teacher, the redhead said confidently, "I just begun to take care of the Beowolves in this city."
Before the green haired Huntsman could ask her to clarify, Ruby took another step forward to meet the arriving pack of Grimm, still being filled to the brim with all the negative emotions coming from all around her. As the Beowolves were taking positions along a rough circle around Ruby and what she assumed to be their Alpha, she felt her feet change even more than last time, forcing her to walk completely on her toes, while her Gloves had already been pierced by her growing claws.
When every Grimm was standing still, Ruby turned towards her team once more, just as the claws growing from her toes peaked out of her boots.
"Don't interfere with this," she said calmly before she moved to look the packs leader in the eye, getting ready to stop its charge as soon as it came close to her. But unlike the younger beasts she had defended her own position against, this one was older and thus more cautious so the two combatants merely waited who would make the first move for now. Deciding to try and dictated the flow of their duel, Ruby sprinted forward, feigning a swipe at its throat with her left the Alpha raised unto its hind legs to avoid her attack, she thrust her legs forward and slid beneath its legs, tearing deep wounds into its right leg with her other hand. But when the Grimm reacted quicker than she expected, she was not prepared to dodge and so it's tail flung her against a nearby Lamppost, draining her Aura form both impacts.
Getting up slowly, Ruby decided to take it up a notch and, with the help of her semblance moved onto the Alpha's neck, wrapping her legs and hands around its throat to hold on, digging into its flesh with her claw tipped fingers. Leaning forward she barked into its ear, "[Submit to me, or I will rip out your throat]"
She gave the alpha a few moments to realize it would not be able to shake her off, digging her claws in deeper. When it finally laid down and growled, "[I give, Alpha]", Ruby stepped off it's back, her now digitigrade feet slipping out of her combat boots.
Turning around she saw all the Grimm surrounding them laying their heads low before her as well. But when she looked at her team once more, she was met by the shocked filled face of Professor Oobleck.
"I can explain all this," the half Grimm said just as her sleeves were pierced by a row of bone spikes growing out of her arms, which seemed to stop once they were as long as her hands.
As always thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did it would be ice to leave a review why you did. If you did not enjoy this, please yell at me so I know what was wrong for you.
Short warning: next week's chapter might be delayed unitl Monday, as I am on a LARP that weekend.