Chapter 15:
Headmaster Ozpin made a decision. He finally decided to walk among the shadows, and get his hands dirty for a change. Not that he wanted to be shunned by society; its just he had work to do. Ozpin had decided in his mind, 'enough of this shit! I am sick and tired of things going on under my nose.' So the headmaster decided to investigate where all these things came from. Only mentioning a few was, who authorized the building of the walls? And what brainless piece of shit would dare to undermine his authority at the academy?
Ozpin had been the Headmaster at Beacon Academy for a long time. Not once in all those years had any thing or person ever threatened the safety of the students in attendance. Further solidifying the fact of him being just so fucking awesome at his job was this; when someone else besides him tried a different method to protect the Academy, using of course an idea that wasn't his, the performed a perfectly executed failure.
Ozpin was composing his notes, he liked to take them and then burn them in the fire. Writing was sort of pointless when you had more important things to worry about. Like who the fuck let a grim inside the school grounds and let it infect 22 humans and 26 Faunus? Something was up. Ozpin had a gut feeling that something needed to be done around here. And he being the Headmaster should be able to do it.
The only piece of evidence the Headmaster could go off of was Ruby. Not necessarily the all amazing soon to be warrior herself, merely where the hell she got a Class 0 Power Suit. Those fucking things were rare as shit that actually smelled good.
Ozpin used this analogy because he had once gone to the local desert. Upon going there he discovered a live non-Grim sphinx. Now that creature's shit actually, and this shocked the Headmaster at the time as much as it did now thinking about it, really good. He didn't want to think about the descriptive scrolls he had found, and read. They had outlined in explicit detail what the locals did with sphinx shit.
Very disgusting and disturbing, yet highly intriguing, 'I mean who wouldn't want to learn more about shit that actually smelled really good?' Ozpin though to himself, as he began feeding his fire with all the burnable materials he could get his hands on, except for his desk, chair, and walking stick.
The forms and papers he was burning were from the Schnee Dust Corporation. After digging through some files, Ozpin discovered a transaction report. What was intriguing was that the report was filed under the fabric enchanter of the Schnee Dust Corporation. Suddenly Ozpin came upon the actual files, in the midst of the burnable material he was feeding to his fire. For the sake of recapping, and refreshing his memory, Ozpin decided to read them all over again.
The first item was an ancient manila folder. Inside of it was a transcript establishing the Schnee Fabric Enchanters Association, and a poster. The poster read,
There is no better way for the Schnee Dust Corporation to express hopeful wishing than to hire you, a group of prospecting Faunus. When we at the Corporation learned of your races remarkable ability to enchant fabric, well we were at first stunned to silence. Not anymore! We have decided that as a company we need to expand, and we need your help. Join us and have a wonderful experience. All we want is for you to express and practice you abilities. Doesn't that sound like the opportunity of a lifetime? If it does then come join us and become the official workforce of the SFEA, we hope you will recommend working with us to your friends.
This document was blatant and scandalous slave labor. Telling a race of people to work under you and not mentioning benefits of any kind, work type, salary, work conditions, or an employee commitment policy was discrimination. Headmaster Ozpin had finally found a reliable lead to investigate, it would be like taking down two targets with a well planned and executed attack. On one hand Ozpin would be able to do some more of his job, protecting the Academy. On another hand Ozpin would be able to investigate where Ruby had gotten the Class 0 Power Suit.
Over the next two hours Headmaster Ozpin prepared himself to leave Beacon and find the headquarters of the Fabric Enchanters. This would be a long journey, and would hopefully provide the answers he was looking for. After Ozpin had finished preparations he set out.
The journey took him close to skirting the edge of the Desert Vanitate, which was vastly unexplored. Passing an oasis situated between two immense half sunken monoliths of stone, the headmaster suddenly stopped. At first Ozpin couldn't find the reason for his abrupt stop, then he saw indistinct tracks leading off into the desert. The footprints were oddly small, almost childlike.
The Headmaster suddenly had a revelation. A thought entered his head suggesting that Ruby had come this way to get the Class 0 Power Suit; this was a well-known Schnee Dust Corporation testing sight. Deciding to save himself some time trying to find the actually location himself, Ozpin decided he would go in Ruby's direction. Only logic could be used it situations such as this.
The next leg of the journey took the Headmaster across a very long expanse of flat desert. Not knowing exactly how Ruby managed to make the journey, Ozpin decided to press on. The crossing of Desert Vanitate took nearly 5 days and 4 nights.
This of course starved and dehydrated Ozpin. When Ozpin came upon a large self sustaining farm, he didn't hesitate to kill a few of the animals, and cook them for his meal. Nor did Ozpin the Headmaster of Beacon Academy flinch to steal from a well to get a drink.
Ozpin left the farm in the perfect condition it was in before he came, despite the few missing livestock, nothing weird would get out, and nothing would be reported to any living soul.
After the brief stop to recuperate, Ozpin continued to press forward. Each day that passed meant one more day closer to Ruby's death. The now infamous leader of team RWBY had less than 8 days left to live. Ozpin wanted to help in all the ways that he could. One of the reasons he took on this journey was to become and expert tattoo artist. Not only that he wanted to become the best tattoo artist.
After he got to the headquarters Ozpin had decided to steal some transport. After all once he learned to graft the magical properties of dust onto the skin, he wanted to find Ruby. If the headmaster managed to pull this off before the leader of team RWBY died, the Journey wouldn't be a waste of time.
It was mid afternoon when Ozpin first sighted the Schnee Dust Enchanters HQ. Due to it still being some distance away, Ozpin took out some high tech binoculars. Zooming in on the structure, again treating the architecture with the same distance he treated Beacon's architecture with, Ozpin found the security to be nonexistent. Supposedly some security would be in place for such an important establishment, the people who ran the place apparently thought that the remoteness and the high chances of not surviving the journey to reach it were guardians enough.
However no guardians could stop Headmaster Ozpin when he intended to go somewhere. No one person could keep him from any information that he desired. The case with the Schnee Dust Enchantment HQ was no different from any other.
Reaching the building Ozpin considered his entry options. He could go in through the front doors, if such a place had any. Any skylights would be convenient; all he would need was a simple low power blast charge to gain entry. If Ozpin found any doors that couldn't have their locks picked, then he would have to plant Highly Explosive C4 Dust Bombs. These explosives could blow any door off its hinges, that meant all Ozpin had to do was find a door in order to gain entry to the building.
Circling the building Ozpin found only one entrance, a 5-foot thick door made of solid steel. Thankfully the door wasn't made of dust augmented metal, or Ozpin would have to use up a lot more of the explosives he brought with him to open it. Ozpin had with him a large combat carrier bag; it allowed him to carry a few hundred pounds of ordinance and sill able to travel.
Thanks to the three hours a day for the past 30 years spent working out Ozpin was able to carry tremendous weight over such a long distance without stopping. Taking the bag off, Ozpin unzipped it and began to extract the explosives. Taking out four small and one medium explosive packet he placed them on the door. Ozpin linked all five bombs to go off at the same time of the activation of the switch he held in his hand.
Taking the bag and retreating back several hundred steps, Ozpin crouched preparing himself, needing time to formulate a plan. Ozpin took out a high caliber dust powered AK-47 assault rifle. The weapon was and looked like it could take on an army when used properly. The weapons power supply that provided the ammunition had an absurdly high cap point. Before going on the journey Ozpin used the money he had been saving to have the power supply stocked up all the way, and then sealed with a replenishing spell that wouldn't ware out for at least a couple hundred years. This would be Ozpin's main offensive force; it would also be what he used to threaten the doctors and any security personnel within the building.
Taking the weapon is his right hand and the explosive detonator in his left hand Ozpin breathed deeply. Looking at the building itself wouldn't reveal the actual size; its true size would be underground. This meant the actual dimensions of the building would be a lot larger than what is seen on the surface. Flipping the safety of his weapon off, and putting his finger above the switch of the explosives detonator Ozpin counted to thirty.
Once the countdown was complete Ozpin activated the switch. A massive explosion completely annihilated the silence, leaving no doubt to anyone inside the building that someone had just arrived. Once the smoke cleared, a gaping hole stood where the door should have been, in its place there was nothing except scorched half melted metal walls. The C4 dust bombs could create intense heat that could incinerate anything within a 15-foot radius when detonated. Since the door was only 5 feet thick it was completely destroyed, no traces of it remained. This would make for an easier getaway than what Ozpin had been expecting.
The bag was now strapped to Ozpin's back. Raising the assault rifle Ozpin advanced through the entrance. Sweeping his gaze from side to side Ozpin saw no one in the first room. Coming to another doorway Ozpin decided to use his weapon to bust down the thick oak door that now blocked his path. Smashing the butt of the weapon over and over again into the wood made no progress. Ozpin shot the corners of the door, hearing metal breaking loose from the oak wood. Now when Ozpin hit the door with the butt of his weapon the wood started to crack and splinter. After a few minutes of heavy pounding Ozpin finally made the door fall flat on the floor, granting him entrance into the next room. The metal must have been enchanted with strength dust, as well as the wood.
There had been many other doors Ozpin could have chosen, however once seeing how much protection was put on this one he knew the door he had chosen was the right way to go, and it was. Inside the room were two armed guards which, thanks to complementary bursts of fire from Ozpin's weapon, had their heads blown right off their shoulders. Thanks to a report found on one of the guards Ozpin knew he would find no other resistance moving forward.
A staircase led down into darkness. Ozpin before going down searched for a torch. Ozpin found one on the same guards belt that he had found the report. Taking an attachment out of the bag Ozpin attached the torch to his assault rifle, creating a tactical weapon. Switching the torch on so the beam of light cut through the darkness, Ozpin descended the staircase. The passageway had smooth steps descending all the way down, however the walls and ceiling got more and more cave like as Ozpin went farther along.
Stepping onto a flat surface, Ozpin found himself in a dimly lit chamber. The ceiling of which extended perhaps 200 feet above the ground where Ozpin stood. The walls formed a rectangle 50 feet wide and 75 feet long. At the bottom of a 25 foot wide and 200 feet deep chasm which stretched from one wall to another, and which was situated approximately half way across from the entrance Ozpin just came through, was an underground river.
Carved into the wall on the opposite side of the chamber was another staircase descending deeper underground. Now Ozpin had to get across the chasm and get to the staircase on the other side of the room. Taking several lengths of heavy rope and some lighter segments of rope, Ozpin decided to build a rope bridge to traverse the chasm.
The task took Ozpin little under two hours, he wanted it secure for his return to the surface. Leaving the bag, because of the extra weight, but taking his weapon Ozpin started across the rope bridge that now traversed the chasm. After crossing, Ozpin walked over to the new staircase. This staircase was as unequally unlit as the other staircase, but not the chamber. The river running under the chamber contained a dust that caused whatever liquid it was submerged in to glow brightly, the glow had been enough to illuminate the entire chamber allowing Ozpin to assess the rooms dimensions.
Before Ozpin had finished descending the second staircase he noticed his light was brighter than before. Switching it off Ozpin realized he was coming upon a light source other than the dead guards torch now attached to his weapon. Ozpin decide to creep forward with his light off since there would be no need. After a few tense minutes Ozpin finale walked the last few steps of the staircase and out into a room.
The main labs, or what actually was only one lab, of the Schnee Dust Enchanters HQ. The temperature-controlled room contained all the equipment to successfully enchant any desired material. All of them weren't what Ozpin was looking for, so he treated them with the same disinterest he treated architecture with. Tucked away into the corner was a fairly large professional tattoo kit, complete with an instruction book. Along side this were three small thin booklets that must have contained numerous tattoo designs that one could etch on the skin.
Ozpin sat down in a chair positioned in front of the professional tattoo kit, and over the next 5 hours poured over the equipment, learning its ways. After that time Ozpin left taking the same rout in which he came in. Leaving the entrance of the now deserted HQ Ozpin set out on the journey that would take him back to Beacon Academy. The bag which now contained the tattoo kit, instruction manual, and three design booklets was slung over Ozpin's back noticeably lighter than when he started this journey.
Rejuvenating himself at the same farm he had found on his first journey Ozpin again used the same rout he had used before. The only difference this time was that he was traveling in the opposite direction than when he had originally used the rout. The journey also took a lot less time than before thanks to a versatile messenger vehicle Ozpin had found in a garage next to the main building.
By the time Ozpin had gotten to Beacon Academy, taken control of the situation, and was walking towards his office with the newly acquired and mastered tattoo supplies did he learn the terrible news. When he had taken his temporary leave Ruby had gotten kidnapped by a gigantic Beowulf, apparently the infamous leader of team RWBY had been taken to Roman Torchwick. As of now, when Ozpin had gotten back, she hadn't been found.
On top of all the bad news Ozpin learned Ruby had little less than a week left before the Darkness Plague claimed her life. In spite of Ozpin's recent victory, things were starting to look hopeless.
…
Thank you for reading Chapter 15 Season 1 Finale. Feel free to leave your honest reviews, telling me what I should/shouldn't change about the story. Each season will last 14 episodes. A season finale will appear, such as the one you just read, every 15 chapters. The next season finale will be Chapter 30. Again thank you for reading Chapter 15 Season 1 Finale.