Parking his bike at the edge of the fairgrounds, Ray made his way onto the fairgrounds, where he hoped to speak with Team RWBY after their victory over Team ABRN from Haven, Mistral. He spotted them quite soon, seeing Ruby jumping in the air was a sure way to get anyone's attention. As he moved towards Team RWBY, Ray spotted Emerald and Mercury from Cinder's team walking towards them, with Emerald pickpocketing Ruby, just to get her attention. Standing a few meters away from the mint green haired thief, Ray smiled as Team RWBY played the friendship part very well, even though Ray could see that Team RWBY was furious at the mint green haired thief and her partner, who was sniffing leather boots, probably to see and smell if it was a good quality leather.
"See you around." Emerald called, as she waved to Team RWBY, before she turned around and walked away with Mercury, her face morphing into an angry face.
"How are our new friends?" Mercury asked, as he used his hands to quote 'friends. Ray watched still several meters away, as Mercury and Emerald moved away from the boot vendor, never seeing a shimmer of air behind them, nor seeing that shimmer hiding between two stands, or Harry Ozpin removing his invisibility cloak. Harry looked around the grounds, hoping that nobody saw him, until his eyes fell upon Ray's. Ray winked to Harry and moved away, hiding a smile on his face. Ray knew, as Harry Ozpin, that he had been spotted by a student, but said student had never said anything about him appearing out of thin air. It seemed that he had met Ray Star once before, just as Ray Star had met Harry Opzin.
Shaking his head, Ray made his way towards the walking Emerald and Mercury. Using some quick reflexes, Ray switched Emerald's full wallet with a empty copy. Letting the two criminals walking a few meters, Ray decided to call them.
"Hey Emerald." Ray called out as he made his way to the couple, who looked at who had called them.
"Oh, hello." Emerald said with a polite smile, that Harry could see right through. The criminal wasn't happy to see him.
"You dropped this." Ray said as he held up Emerald's wallet.
"Excuse me?" Emerald said as she started to locate her own wallet, before she placed her hand on her back pocket where she kept her wallet.
She felt one sitting there, but the wallet in Ray's hands was so familiar that she had to check. Pulling the wallet in her back pocket, Emerald looked in it, finding it empty, except for a written note. 'Do this again, and you'll lose more than just your wallet.'
"How?" Emerald asked as Ray pulled two notes from her own wallet, that he had clearly had taken from her, without her knowing.
"That's a trade secret, right?" Asked Ray as he showed the two notes to Emerald en Mercury in his hand. One fifty Lién note and one twenty Lién note.
"These two will be with me, for keeping my silence." Said Ray as he looked at Emerald, who started back. "Do such a thing again, and I will hand you over to the security bots around here."
Throwing her wallet towards her, Ray turned around and moved away from the two criminals.
"Should we take revenge?" Harry heard Mercury asking Emerald, as he made his way to the food court, where he knew Teams RWBY and JNPR were eating. "No. Remember what Cinder said. Don't cause any trouble." Said Emerald, never knowing that Ray had used the small time between grabbing Emerald's wallet and alerting the thief to place an eaves dropping charm on the wallet that she still held in her hand.
Smiling, Ray moved towards the stand where he knew Teams RWBY and JNPR were eating. As he walked towards them, he received a text message on his scroll from Nova. She told him that she was successful in convincing Team ABRN from returning to Haven. Smiling, Ray soon found Teams RWBY and JNPR sitting at one of the food courts that was scattered around the fairgrounds.
"Morning all." Ray said as he sat down on an empty barstool. "It's afternoon." said Weiss as she nodded politely towards the leader of Team RAVN. "Afternoon then." Ray said back, as he looked at Weiss, who was eating some noodles.
"Congratulations on passing the four-on-four rounds." Ray said, nodding towards Team RWBY. "I just heard it over the radio, while I was patrolling. Ironwood doesn't want us to watch the games, so he sent us out on patrols through the city." Said Ray as he ordered a glass of water from the stand-holder, who gave it to him within seconds.
Ray watched with a smile as Team JNPR, who sat with Team RWBY started to talk about their chances for the tournament. It did surprise Ray a bit that Nora and Ren were orphans, but he smiled as his plan might be even easier than he originally thought.
"Hey, did you get a message from the little kid?" Ray asked as he looked at the two teams.
"What little kid are you talking about?" Asked Blake as she pushed her bowl away, and placed her hands on her stomach, rubbing it with a small delight, having eaten some very nice fish with the noodles.
"He's talking about Harry." said Weiss as she pushed her own bowl away from her place, holding her own stomach with a slight pain on her face, as she had eaten a bit to much.
"Oh yeah." Said Ruby as she smiled and placed both hands on her stomach, enjoying the feeling of it being full. "Yang and I have asked our dad for permission, but we still haven't received an answer. We hope we can come though." Said Ruby as she nodded towards Ray.
"Yeah." said Yang as she looked up from her own empty bowl. "I'm sure that dad wouldn't mind us visiting Harry and his friends. Although I think that he would prefer that we come home soon afterwards."
Ray smiled as he thought about his plan. Teams RWBY, JNPR and CFVY needed to remain at the beach houses of Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch for a few weeks extra, giving them the time to explain everything that was going on. Looking at his watch, Ray waved goodbye to the two teams, wished Team JNPR the best of luck and drowned the last of his glass of water, before he made his way back to his bike. Jumping on it, Ray started the bike and slowly turned around, waving one last time to Team JNPR as they made their way to the airbus that would bring them to Amity Colosseum.
Moving down hill from the fairgrounds next to Beacon Academy, Ray moved down what was known as Beacon's road. It also had a nickname, as most people rode that road up and down to Beacon Academy. 'Star road' was it's nickname, as most people believed that those who came back from Beacon Academy were the stars that protected them from the creatures of Grimm. Ray found himself all to soon in the commercial district and back on his patrol. Ray's job was to patrol the commercial district, while Angel and Vixen would patrol the Agricultural district. The other three, the Residential, The Industrial and the upper-class districts would be patrolled by Atlas troopers or Atlesian-200 knights. Nova however, was on Amity herself, patrolling and removing any trouble makers. She was also there to address any team that lost in the four-on-four round of the tournament, to persuade them to hold of their return to their own school. Ray knew that she would do her best to persuade every team that failed to proceed to sat at Beacon for a few more weeks.
TIME SKIP
Ray parked his bike in the garage of Beacon Academy and quickly walked towards the docks of Beacon Academy, where an Airbus was unloading It's passangers. If he was on time, he could prevent Qrow being spotted by Mercury. All Ray and his team had to do, was prevent Mercury seeing Qrow and telling Cinder about it.
As he made his away towards the docks, Ray stopped. He sensed a presence, a dark negative force that was watching Beacon. It was a presence that brought forth memories of fighting an Alpha Beowulf. Ray knew that day well. Even with Team RAVN to help him, the Beowulf Alpha was skilled enough to escape them, retreating back into the Emerald Forest. Looking around, Ray found nothing out of the ordinary, but the presence was still there. Calming himself, Ray extended his Aura to the fullest and soon located the source of the presence. A crow with red eyes looked at the main strip of Beacon Academy that led from the school to the docks, where just now a large ship was docking. Knowing he had little time before Winter Schnee and Qrow Branwen would meet and fight over some poorly chosen words, Ray sent a wand-less spell at the crow, who could only look at the incoming spell before it hit and vanished into thin air. Smiling slightly, Ray checked to be sure and found the dark presence to be gone. Now Ray made his way to one of the benches where he sat down and waited for the confrontation between Qrow and Winter.
Said confrontation happened all to soon, as Qrow insulted the Atlesian military and it's general. Winter Schnee, a highly decorated officer in the Atlesian special forces retaliated and attacked Qrow. The experienced huntsmen easily dodged all of Winter's attacks before he grabbed his own weapon, a single edged great sword and started to fight the Atlesian Specialist. Ray watched as Weiss and Ruby cheered their respective family member on, before he spotted Mercury. Mercury saw the fighting figure of Qrow doing battle with Winter Schnee, and with a look of shock on his face, ran away. That was what Ray was waiting for. The chase.
Jumping away from the spectators that watched the fight between Qrow and Winter, Ray ran towards the retreating Mercury Black. Wandlessly, Ray shot several stunners at Mercury, who was able to dodge most of them, but some did hit him. His aura absorbed the most of it, and he took a moment to shake the feeling off. That was all Ray needed to jump towards Mercury, intending to erase both the sighting of Qrow and of the small chase. At the last second, Mercury jumped away, leaving Ray crouched on the floor, his fist two inches deep in the concrete.
"What the hell?" Shouted Mercury as he spotted Ray pulling his fist from the concrete. "What the fuck are you doing?" Mercury shouted.
Ray spun around and shot three spells in Mercury's direction. Two spells hit the floor near Mercury, but the third connected with him, forcing him to step back a few feet. Making a motion with his hand, Ray shot two more spells. They collided with the floor near Mercury's feet, causing the floor around Mercury to become unstable. Before he could jump away, Mercury saw hands rising from the concrete. Hands that grabbed his feet and held him in place.
Ray moved fast, colliding his fist to Mercury's face, causing Mercury to fall back and collide with the concrete, knocking him out for a short period. That was all that Ray needed. Taking his wand from his wand holster, Ray cast three charms at Mercury's face. The first was an obliviation charm, causing Mercury to forget both the arrival and fight of Qrow, as well as the fight he had with Ray. The second and third charm were time delayed charms, aimed at his knees. When Ray would say so, Mercury's artificial legs would fall out from under him, revealing his little secret. Removing the concrete hands that still held Mercury's legs, Ray cast two charms before he walked away. One to remove the swelling of Mercury's head, and the other to remove any trace that there had been a small skirmish.
Having completed his work, Ray made his way back towards the main strip of Beacon Academy and smiled as Winter Schnee was called back by General Ironwood. Nodding to the headmaster of Beacon Academy for a mission complete, Ray made his way to the elevator that would bring him to Ozpin's office. Stepping into the office, Ray was greeted by Nova and Angel, who had made their way in the office earlier.
"Ray, I erased every single picture and videotape of you assaulting Mercury. With your actions, we have brought Cinder's plan one step closer to complete failure." Said Angel as the elevator doors opened and both General Ironwood and Specialist Winter Schnee stepped out of it.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"Asked Ray as he locked eyes with Winter. "A Schnee who failed to capture a birdy?" Ray asked sarcastic, causing Winter to glare daggers at Ray.
"Star. Still pretending to know the fate of the world?" Snarled Winter back.
"Schnee, Star. Enough." Commanded Ironwood. Ray held up his hands in a surrendering gesture, while Winter started to pace around in Ozpin's office.
The elevator pinged, bringing the attention of everyone in the room towards it. The doors slided open, brining into view Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch, as well as one of the best huntsmen that ever walked the face of the planet, Qrow Branwen. Behind them, there stood a girl with orange hair and purple eyes. She smiled and waved towards the rest of her team as the three adults stepped out of the elevator.
"What were you thinking?" Winter blurted out as she saw Qrow stepping out of the elevator. "If you were one of my men, I would have you shot." Ironwood said, emphasizing on 'shot'.
"Charming fellow, isn't he?" Asked Ray quietly to Angel, who nodded back, holding her hand in front of her mouth to hide her smile.
"If I were one of your men, I'd shoot myself."Qrow responded as he grabbed his flask and started to screw the cap off.
"While I won't condone his behavior, Retaliating like you did, certainly didn't help matters." Goodwitch said as she stood on the side line, watching both Winter and Qrow staring at each other. "He was drunk." Winter argued, stepping closer to Goodwitch face.
"He's always drunk." Goodwitch said, turning towards Winter.
Both woman turned their heads towards the huntsman in question, who causally drank from his flask, before he noticed that he was stared at. Pulling the flask from his lips, Qrow looked at the two staring females before he looked at his flask. Shaking his shoulders, Qrow took another sip of the drink in the flask, before he closed it.
"Well, he sure had no problems with admitting that he's drunk." Said Ray as he handed Nova, Vixen and Angel a cup of hot chocolate, before he looked at the glaring huntsmen in the room. "What?"
Shaking his head, Ozpin sat down in his chair. "Qrow, why have you come here?"Ozpin asked.
"What?" Qrow asked as he looked at Ozpin. "James has contacted you weeks ago, ordering to come back." Ozpin explained.
"He didn't." Qrow replied as he sent a glare at the General of Atlas.
"Odd, because he told us, he did contact you to return to Beacon." Said Ray as he looked at the General.
"I was unable to contact him, because he wasn't answering his calls." said James, as he looked around.
Ray just shook his head. "Really sir? That's all you can say? 'Qrow wasn't answering his calls.'" Ray said as he imitated James Ironwood's voice.
"I didn't answer my scroll, because I was deep inside enemy territory, James." Said Qrow as he looked with his red eyes straight into James blue eyes. James flinched slightly. "I found out that she can create things that will give even the toughest huntsmen alive nightmares. She knows what is playing at Beacon. She knows that you have students here who are the enemy. She knows, because she send them."
"We know." Said James as he leaned against Ozpin's desk. "Team RAVN has been tracking their movement from the start."
"Well, good for you." Said Qrow as he looked at James with almost murder in his eyes. "It's nice to be informed about such things, in advance, before I find them out myself. But here's some new information for you. She's planning to use her mole here to collect Autumns power and bring it to herself. She needs that power for some reason." Winter looked at Qrow with a raised eyebrow but held her tongue.
Qrow removed something from his back pocket and placed it on Ozpin's desk. It was a small metal bar, no longer than an inch, but it was decorated with a few dust crystals. "I found this near her hideout. I think you need to look at it James."
General Ironwood, Specialist Schnee, Professors Goodwitch and Ozpin looked at it. Team RAVN looked at it as well, having walked around the table to look at it.
"What is that?" Asked Nova as she looked at the small metal strip.
"Those were the bars of my last specialist who went missing in the night-world." Said Ironwood with a heavy sigh. "Leftenant Dye went missing in action seven months ago. It is why Ozpin and I requested Qrow's involvement into this investigation. Something is going on. The Grimm are getting bolder, the attacks more organized. It's like they are being led by a commander of their own."
"Sir?" Winter asked as she looked at her commanding officer.
"Winter, what is going to be told is strictly need to know. Qrow's slip of the tongue might endanger you. Are you sure that you can hold this secret?" Asked Ozpin as he looked at the Schnee girl.
Winter looked at the people around the table. She looked into every eye she could see. Slowly she nodded. "Yes. I'm sure that I can keep this secret. I mean, how much bigger can it be that the total yearly income of the Schnee Dust Company?"
"You mean the 8.67 Billion Lién that goes into the vaults of your father every year?" Asked Ray in an innocent voice. Winter looked at him with wide eyes. "The same 8.67 Billion Lién that should be devised between the Faunus workers in the mines, in my honest opinion?" Ray asked, his voice still innocent. "This secret actually places that number that your father places in his vault to a minor note in a report." Said Ray as he looked at Winter.
"The real reason why you are here, Winter, is because we need you to train your sister in her summoning." said Professor Goodwitch. "In addition, a threat has come to Remnant, one great enough to destroy the entire world as we know it. While we don't tell each and everybody about it, Remnant is under attack."
"We've got two weeks." Said Nova as she held out a remote. "General, if you please?" She asked the General who looked at her with searching eyes before he took the remote and pressed the obscenely large red button on it. An explosion was heard by all and everybody looked outside. There in the distant sky, they could see several explosions destroying pieces of Amity Colosseum.
"General?" Winter shouted as she looked at her commanding officer. "Winter, stand down." Ironwood said as he handed the remote back to Nova. "This will buy us two weeks. Those two weeks are necessary for us to prepare the trap for our little terrorist and her following lab-dogs."
Ray nodded, before he spotted Ozpin reaching out for the school-wide broadcasting system.
"Attention all students. Seconds ago, several explosions were heard and seen from the Amity Colosseum. As of right now, all fourth year students will report down in the great hall for a briefing. Any other student who is outside their dorms, will be expelled from your school. Whether you are from Beacon, Haven, Shade or Atlas, you will follow these orders. I repeat. All fourth year students report to the great hall for a debriefing. Any other student out of bed will be expelled from their school."
Looking at Glynda and James, Ozpin nodded, dismissing the two teachers. As he waited for them to exit his office, Ozpin took a long sip of his now lukewarm coffee. Hearing the elevator doors closing, he looked at Winter, who was still looking at the fires that were at Amity, even from this distance.
"Why? Why did the General did that? Why did you bomb our symbol of unity?" Winter asked, as she turned towards Nova, her eyes turning ice cold.
"Winter." Ozpin forcefully said, bringing Winter out of her ice cold personality. "Sir?" Winter asked, her attention focused on the headmaster of Beacon Academy, hoping to get some answers.
"About that super secret," Ozpin began, getting Winter´s full attention. "How well do you know your fairy tales?"