Beacon Academy: The Professor.

Awe man, these prosthesis hurt. Swear I can't ever get them to sit right. Need to get to the lab. I know they're Grimm But they just don't act like one…..

"What the hell is it?!" I know it's important. I know it piggybacks on Beowolves and other mammalian Grimm. But it doesn't do a blasted thing. Hell they don't even seem to die in captivity. They just sit in there little vials and scurry around.

"Are you OK Professor ARC?... You seem agitated." The young equine Faunus girl always trying to be helpful. She may make a great Grimm researcher someday. If I could only convince her of it. Still in her lab coat from class.

"Actually Zeria follow me. There is something I could use an opinion on." I've been studying this thing for two years now.

"Yes, Professor." She always seems eager to help.

"Zeria, I need you to promise me that you will not talk about this. I don't want any half cocked theories going around the Academy. The Head mistress knows a bit about it but so far I haven't come up with squat."

"It won't be a problem professor."

Coming up on my lab there she is, She looks so beautiful today.

"Juane… They canceled the first years classes what's going on?"

"Pyrrah, dear.. There was an incident in the forest. Almost half the students are not going to be taking classes for quite a while." I hate giving her bad news. I can see how much knowing her students are hurt kills her.

"Oh, dear I must go see what I can do."

"Zeria, Stay right here I'll walk her to the Medical Hall and be right back."

"Oh no, Jaune you have entirely way too much to do. I'll be fine."

"But Pyrrah….."

"No…." She cut me off so quickly, "I have walked these halls long enough that I will find the way." I can see that she is a little agitated. At least Ruby was nice enough to install a little bit of metallic decor around the school to help her navigate. She hates feeling line a burden. I just wish she knew she never is.

"If you're sure."

"I am sure." She still seems a bit annoyed at me.

"Pyrrah, I love you." As soon as I say it her mood completely changes. Even angry she's perfect.

"Jaune, I love you too" she turns away with a huge smile on her face. Damn I'm one lucky guy.

"Professor that was sweet."

"Well I'm a lucky guy. But back to business."

Through the doors we go and….

"I've been waiting on you Jaune." Ruby seems in a bad mood. With the whole thing that went down in the forest I'm not surprised.

"What exactly happened Ruby?"

"Everything hit the fan!" Man she's fuming pacing back and forth as best she can waving her arms like when she was a kid. "First we lose scroll positional tracking, Then com's go to complete crap, after that literally thousands of Grimm appear in the forest. Some not even found anywhere near our region. There was an Arachne and a Rex reported damn it!"

"What?!" Seriously a Rex in Emerald Forest, crap this isn't good. The Arachne on a rare occasion had been seen but…. "The last Rex sighting was in Mistrial. How'd they get this far?"

"That is not the only issue. There were dust weaponized Beowolves and Ursa."

"Ruby tell me you're joking. We haven't seen those in years."

"No Jaune, a few of the survivors reported Dust infused Armors and Bladed weapons grafted to the Grimm."

"That should be impossible. We can't even contain them without them dying."

Ruby finally noticed I wasn't alone. She glared at me for a moment . "Zeria Singleton!" I could see the shock in Zeria's face. We hadn't even realized she was here during our exchange. She's the last surviving member of her team. She is a second year student another Red Queen Tragedy. Her instructor snapped on a mission she's been bugging Ruby for a new team assignment since.

"Yes Ma'am"

"You wanted another team?"

"Yes Ma'am"

"Report to my office immediately I'll be assigning you and Umber Thorn to a new team get him on the way."

"Ma'am he's in.." Ruby cut her short.

"I said NOW!"

Zeria hit the door at full sprint. Ruby's on a rampage. Man this day can't get any easier.

Ruby took a couple of breaths to calm herself a bit."Jaune, two new students….." She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"I heard. It doesn't fit the pattern does it? Does she know?"

"No she just got out of surgery. I need you to bring her the files when she's well enough to go through them."

"I understand, Ruby I wanted your opinion on something as well. I've been working on it for a few years and can't quite figure it out."

"Jaune I just don't have time to deal with the bug thing right now."

"Damn it Ruby Look at that damn cage. Those things have been in there for over a year without food. They don't feed they don't do a damn thing but t they're on Grimm all the damn time"

Finally she looked at the sealed Glass cage. "Well they seem to be going nuts now!"

"WHAT!?" The half dozen small insects in the cage were swarming the side of the cage. This isn't right, they hardly ever move.

"Ruby, look at these notes! They show almost every characteristic of Grimm minus until now the aggression."

Rubbing her temples she calmly tells me, "Jaune, listen we just lost dozens of students to Grimm. That immediately poses a danger. The forest is swarming with thousands of Grimm right now. Those students that got extracted are all in Medical hall. Please let's worry about something a little more pressing than bugs." She limps out the door. I really wish she would use a cane instead of Crescent Rose But now she never goes unarmed.

"Damn it! I know there is a reason for these. Are they making Grimm more aggressive? What the hell are you little bastards" Slamming my hand down on the lab bench. The cage slips to the floor and crashes. "Oh crap…. Wait there just slowly wandering again. They don't even act like I'm here.

What the hell is going on. Cleaning up the mess Count them out, they're all there. This one, One in a sealed vial for some study and the rest into a new cage.

Well over to the computer, need to download the files to my scroll, Azure Pritcher, and Saphire no last name for her. That's strange oh well. Both exceptional students, stable family, never taken a life in battle but for their ages and backgrounds that's not surprising. This doesn't fit the Red Queen Pattern at all. Every Red Queen patient has usually had a huge body count and have been through at least one war.

"Why does it change now?"

"Why does what change now?" What?! Why is he out of class?

"Stiles, what are you doing out of class?"

"Well some Faunus Chick interrupted the ranged combat class and dragged Umber to the Head mistress's office. Something about Team assignments"

"That doesn't answer my question Stiles." Man this guy reminds me of Neptune sometimes.

"Professor let us out cause we were all distracted by the news. Team selection exercise went to crap and lot of casualties. Most of the students in that class have first year family and friends." Finally an answer.

"Listen Stiles, I need you to look here and tell me what you see."

"Um… Little bugs in a box?" I can see this isn't going anywhere.

"Well their backs do kind of look like little the armored portion of a Grimm with the White and Red. New Grimm you discovered Professor." Really I've had dozens people look at these things and this guy gets it.

"Well I thought I was the only one who thought that."

"Hey come to think of that, I thought I saw something like that crawling up my cousin Saphire's back at breakfast this morning. But it was probably a tick or something. " He doesn't know yet. Oh man. Luckily she survived but barely.

"Stiles you really need to get to Medical. Saphire's there She may need your support."

"Nah she's tough. Probably a few bumps and bruises."

"Stiles go it's important. She's not conscious now but trust me when she wakes up you will want to be there." Didn't need to say much more than that. Almost didn't get to finish he hit the door in a sprint and most likely won't stop till he gets there. Sadly they are in for one heck of a shock.

Crawling up Saphire's Back, "Hmmmm" These things don't normally seem interested in people.