A small ding! Sounded and General James Ironwood stepped out of the elevator and onto a crime scene.
"At ease." He dismissed the guards before they could even salute, much less speak. He then looked over the crime scene, overlooking the C.C.T room, swarmed in both police and his own men. And at the centre, overlooking the body was Ozpin himself.
"Ah, James nice of you to join us." Ozpin called out as Ironwood went over to greet him.
"Sorry, I was... delayed." Ironwood apologised. "But a very interesting report, happened to come across my desk that we have to discuss."
"Very well, I was about done here anyhow." Oz pause. "Would my office do?" Ironwood nodded and the pair entered the elevator.
"Have you established a cause of death?" He asked Oz curiously.
Ozpin nodded. "Stabbed from behind by a large blade, it split the spine in half and killed the night guard almost instantly."
Ironwood grimaced, that was a horrible way to go. "Do we have any ideas about what the intruder was doing?"
"No. There was no sign of sabotage or tampering that our technicians could see, and no evidence of anyone else than the night guard in the room."
"What about the cameras?"
Ozpin signed. "Nothing, in fact all the footage is simply gone, no trace even if records show that they were on."
The door then opened and they stepped into Ozpin's office as James sighed in frustration. "Do we at the very least have a time frame?"
"We do." Ozpin nodded. "The time of death was just a few minutes after midnight, in fact it was exactly half an hour after I had left for the night."
"Dammit, dammit!" Ironwood banded his hand on Ozpin's desk as the man himself took a seat in his suspiciously phallic chair. "There's nothing for it, when we're done here i'll call in experts from Atlas to have a look."
"I appreciate it James." Ozpin tilted his head. "Now why don't you take a seat and tell me about this interesting report?"
He took a deep calming breath and sat down. "Right."
He opened his scroll and bought up winters latest report. "A few days ago I dispatched specialist Schnee and a small squad to investigate a missing squad that crashed in the swamps of Mistral." He explained. "When they found them the missing squad seemed to have been torn apart, and after a brief encounter with some local Grimm they encountered someone."
"Who?" Ozpin asked.
"Qrow."
Oz frowned and suddenly looked deep in thought. "I see... I sent him out to Mistral a month ago to investigate strange reports of Grimm activity." His frown deepened. "But that is much further north than the swamps..."
"Do you think he could have been tracking a lead?" James suggested.
"Possibly..." Oz trailed off. "Is there anything else of note?"
"yes. Qrow was not alone." He opened and showed the image Winter had sent him. "He was with a suspicious unknown, female in full black armour, it's of no known design and no one matching her description can be found on any database."
The image he showed Ozpin was of a the unknown that was captured by one of the helmet cams of the squad she'd been assigned. It was a tad blurred but was enough to get the point across.
"Hmmmm, do we have a name?"
"No it wasn't given."
"I see." Ozpin then sighed. "Well, i'll ask Qrow about this the next time he contacts me." He promised. "But until then do you have anymore business to discuss?"
"No that was it." Ironwood shook his head.
"Splendid." Oz said as Ironwood left the office. "Have a good day James.'
"You too Oz, you too."
"Thank you all for meeting me here." Wash greeted everyone on the top of the roof.
"Ah you know it was tough trying to fit it into my schedule, but you know I managed." Caboose said brightly.
"Schedule? Caboose, we are a literally ghosts that can only be seen by a single person an heard by another." Church said shortly. "What could you possibly be doing?"
"Oh you know singing." Caboose explained casually.
"Singing." Church repeated dumbfoundedly.
"Yep, you know I have to practise for the dance tomorrow, were I will sing the best song ever!" Caboose proclaimed proudly.
"Are you serious, you know that no one can hear us right?" Sarge asked.
"I think it's the thought that counts."
"Hey! Can we please stay on topic?" Wash interrupt before things could deviate further.
"Right. what did you call us here for?" Sarge asked.
"We need to talk about Felix." He said seriously.
"What, you mean that mercenary guy you saw?" Church questioned. "Cause well, he doesn't seem like much of a threat. And he hasn't really done anything yet."
Wash sighed. "That doesn't mean anything, he is still very dangerous and is probably planning something right now."
"Please, let him try." church dismissed. "I mean you idiots beat him didn't you?"
"We had actual physical bodies back then." Wash reminded him.
"Yeah, plus despite our incredible defeat of Felix, it was really Carolina and good ol' agent Washington here that made him beatable." Sarge admitted.
"Well I could take him." Church claimed.
"How?" Wash challenged at the same time Caboose proclaimed "I believe you church!"
"Two words: Ghost powers." Church said boastfully. "Get me close and i'll just straight up possess him. Make him throw away his gun and take off his armour."
Wash blinked. "That's... actually fairly decent, at least as far as your plans go."
"I'm surprised as well, who knew that a blue could come up with a good plan." Sarge voiced his opinion.
Wash nodded. "Then it's settled, next time we meet Felix church will use his A.I abilities to-"
"Ghost." Church cut in coldly. "I am a fucking ghost and at this point i'm just absolutely sick of repeating it."
"That's because you-" Wash tried to say but Church cut him off.
"No, no, no, why can't you just be alright we me being a ghost?" Church demanded. "Is it because that Epsilon thing messed you up? Is that it?"
"Church, first of all despite that fact that Epsilon 'messed me up' I am perfectly fine today, i won't be having another mental breakdown anytime soon. And secondly, the reason i don't like your insistence of being a ghost is because it means that you are still refusing to move on."
"Well maybe I don't want to." Church said darkly before sighing. "Look man it just really bothers me, can't you just leave me to my own devices?"
"Alright." wash said softly.
"Well, on a slightly less awkward topic, what makes you think you won't have a mental breakdown anytime soon?" Church changed the subject.
"Because I've mostly managed to get it behind me, and the worst of it is tied to specific triggers, phrases and things that could cause a breakdown, that only the Councillor knew and as far as I know he's still alive and in prison." Wash explained.
"Neat." Caboose said suddenly, making Wash painfully are that they'd briefly forgotten about Caboose and Sarge.
"What, argument over already?" Sarge asked, sounding disappointed. "Shame, watching you blues argue is better than any of Donut's shows."
"Right, well lets head back and rest up, the dance is tomorrow after all."
But as they exited the roof everyone stopped in their tracks as a massive "Yeeeeesssssssss!" Echoed across the entire school.
Sarge said what they were all thinking. "What in Sam hell was that?"
It was a very quite night at their room for once. Pyrrha had taken Yang with her to the gym, leaving Blake alone with Ruby. Now Blake had thought this would be an excellent time to do some light reading and generally relax herself before the dance.
But unfortunately Ruby was proving very distracting. and not just in the attractive, can't stop looking at someone sense, (although there was a little of that at play).
No. Ruby was proving distracting because she'd been mumbling to herself across the room, hunched over a little notebook for the last few minutes.
Normally this wouldn't be too much of a bother, but thanks to Blake Faunus hearing she could hear the incoherent sentences as if Ruby was directly talking to her.
"What if I- no, no, no, that's what Cardin's advice was, but it's just like Church's maybe it counts for something? But that's like the opposite of General Ironwood's and Doctor Oobleck's advice, maybe I can connect them? no, that wouldn't work." Ruby mumbled to herself from across the room.
She then saw Ruby flip the page on her notebook.
"Oh but wash said to do something we both enjoy, but then again Weiss said to just ask her, but then Coco says that it needs to be a grand gesture..." Ruby then gave a low depressive moan. "Why can't anyone agree on anything?"
"Tal vez sea porque el tema del romance es un tema muy debatido, y diferentes cosas a menudo funcionan para diferentes personas". Lopez Rose suggested from beside Ruby.
[Perhaps it is because the subject of romance is a heavily debated topic, and different things often work for different people.]
"You said it." Ruby agreed to whatever the robot said. "I wish i could understand you."
"Yo también"
[Me as well.]
"Your right Lopez, I can't give up!" Ruby declared defiantly.
"Eso no es lo que dije" Lopez complained
[That is not what i said.]
It was at this point that Blake gave up on trying to read her book, after having tried to read the same paragraph five times in a row. As such Blake set down her book, got up from her bed and strolled over to see what exactly Ruby was doing.
Blake gently tapped ruby on the shoulder. "Ruby?""
Her team leader jumped and slammed the small journal closed before turning around with wide silver eyes to look at Blake.
"Hey Blake! I uh, forgot you were still here..." Ruby awkwardly trailed off. "Whats, uh going on?"
"I just wanted to see what you were doing." Blake explained. "You were doing quiet a lot of mumbling and seemed frustrated, so I wanted to see if I could help."
Ruby's face went as red as her name suggested. "That's alright, it's nothing important, well it is important, but I don't want you involved, well I do want you involved, but uh not yet." Ruby half explained.
"Come on Ruby, we're friends, you can tell me." Blake encouraged.
Ruby then took a deep breath. "you're right, i can do this, i can totally do this." Ruby muttered to herself.
Ruby then looked Blake right in the eye. "Blake, if it wouldn't be too much of a bother..." she took a deep breath "Wouldyouliketogotothedancewithmetomorrowit'salrightitfyoudon'tandwanttogowithSuninstead." Ruby rushed out, most of her words blurring together into one long incomprehensible one.
"What?"
"I said... would you like to go to the dance with me tomorrow, it's alright if you don't want and go with Sun instead." Ruby said much slower this time.
"Like... like a date? A proper date?" Blake questioned, causing Ruby to shyly nod in conformation.
Huh, a date. It's been some time since she'd ever been on one and that was a recon mission with Adam, not exactly what one would call 'romantic.' And while the thought had occurred to her a few times, Blake had never really expected any form of romance would happen in Beacon, much like how she expected that if she were exposed as a Faunus her team and team leader would cast her aside. But Ruby Rose always seemed to be willing to prove her wrong, always showing the best of humanity. It was probably why Blake liked her so much. And as she looked into Ruby's hopeful silver eyes, Blake found herself smiling, and knowing exactly what to say.
"Ruby, it would be my genuine pleasure." Blake told her sincerely.
"Really?" Ruby asked causing Blake to nod in confirmation, Ruby smiled brighter than the sun.
"Yeeeeesssssssss!" Ruby screamed so loud all of Beacon could hear it, jumping up and down as she did so.
"This is going to be the best dance ever!"
Notes:
And that's the end of that chapter.
There isn't much to say in terms of 'behind the scenes' stuff with this chapter. All I hope is that everyone is enjoying the story so far.
As always i'd like to thank everyone for reading and give extra thanks to those who comment/review. You groovy dudes are awesome.
Next time i'll be covering the full Beacon dance, featuring; Romance! Friendship! Humour! Caboose! Penny! And much more! But till then i'll catch ya'll on the flip flop!
review replies:
ReaderWarrior: Good to see that your continuing to have fun reading. And wow someone coming to me for advice? I never thought i'd see the day. And to answer your question, what I typically do is use one character as the 'focus' for any one particular scene and let their view point colour the scene. That's the method that works for me, but it is by no means the only one. You can most certainly focus on just one character or go for all of them, i'd advise experimenting until you find a style that works for you and to check of r/fanfiction on reddit who can give much better advice than I can.
BrainH.H: thanks dude!
AnonamousElephent: Always good to hear from you, and to put in my two cents I think that dust rounds would be slightly stronger than gunpowder, if only cause of how it can do additional effects. But gunpowder isn't entirely outdated as to quote Simmons "You know, I've been working with weapons a lot lately and I'd just like to point out, that the standard UNSC weaponry can still put a fucking hole in your skull." And also yes Locus has his stealth unit, but it is currently locked up with the rest of his equipment.
Lesbiannerd107: To answer your question, no while it has been on the list for a while I haven't gotten around to watching John Wick yet, but there's still plenty of time for it. And i'm very glad to see that your enjoying the story, also no need to apologise for rambling, it's half of what writing is anyway.