Chapter 4: The Investigation
Having been wonderfully satisfied with their lunch, Team RWBY left the restaurant and began walking down the streets of downtown Atlas until they came to a plaza with plenty of open space and a large decorative fountain at the center.
"This looks as good a place as any to call Ozpin." Yang piped up. "Ruby, would you do the honors?"
"You got it, sis!" Ruby chimed back, opening her scroll and selecting Professor Ozpin's entry in her contact list. After a short time, the call was answered, Ozpin's face appearing on the screen.
"Ahhh, Ruby Rose! It's been too long. How did your mission with Ms. Belladonna go?" Ozpin greeted with a smile upon seeing who was calling him.
"Uhhh, yeah, about that…" Ruby began hesitantly, "it was a complete failure. I, uhh, we actually called you for help finding the reason that it was a failure."
"The reason?" Ozpin raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
"There was a strange man there." Blake spoke into Ruby's scroll. "There was no possible way he could've gotten there, and his presence resulted in the destruction of any information being kept at the safe house. When Ruby and I encountered him, his simply being there caused us to… well…" Blake trailed off, still a bit embarrassed at her failure.
"I see. He must be rather dangerous if he caused two of the best Huntresses in Remnant to lose their nerve. What can you tell me about this man?"
Weiss was the one to chime in this time, "From what Blake and Ruby could tell us, he's about nine feet tall, probably an inch or two less, has long black hair, blood red eyes, grayish skin, wears pretty much all black, and carries a sword on his back. He said his name was Kelas and stated that he was titled 'The God of Nothing'. He should stand out in pretty much any situation, but he just as easily could've gone into hiding."
Ozpin's brow furrowed, clearly concerned with the appearance of this person. "I'll make sure Glynda gets this information distributed as top priority immediately. In the mean time, you might try checking with the Atlesian Intelligence Committee. I heard they picked up strange readings from the area of your mission, and have recently picked up similar readings from the Military Detention Center shortly before the disappearance of Cinder Fall and Roman Torchwick from their cells just this morning."
"WHAT?!" the four girls shouted in unison. Two of the biggest criminals in the history of Remnant, whom the team of then Huntresses in training had fought so hard to bring down, were now missing from the most secure prison in Remnant, coinciding with the sudden appearance of a strange man that clearly was out of place. This could not be good.
Ruby sighed, "Thanks for the help, Professor Ozpin!" Ruby chirped at her scroll. "We'll head over there right away."
"Good luck girls," Ozpin replied, "and be careful." he said the last part with a tone of importance.
Ruby put away her scroll before Weiss began to lead the group in the direction of the Atlesian Intelligence Committee. Yang piped up with a thought.
"Hey, didn't Drake and Ikari get recruited into the AIC after graduation?"
"I think they did." Weiss replied. "We should call them now, let them know we're on our way."
"Already on it." Blake stated.
Cinder entered the musky bar briskly, the tall man behind her having to duck slightly to make it through the doorway. She scanned the room before locking on to a table in the back corner of the bar, at which an orange haired man in a black suit and bowler hat, and an extremely short pink-and-brown haired woman were seated. Cinder walked up to the table and sat down, the orange haired man being the first to speak.
"It's about time you two showed up, we've been waiting here let me tell you this place is a bit of a dump." the man complained, causing the short woman next to him to roll her eyes. "Cinder, you remember my associate, Neo, right?" gesturing to the short woman, who gave a half-assed wave of acknowledgement.
"Of course I do, Roman." Cinder replied in a casual tone. "How could I forget?"
Neo glared at Cinder before tapping Roman's shoulder and gesturing towards the red eyed man that stood at nearly twice her own height.
"Ah, right. Neo, this is our new employer, Mr. Kelas Sekarian." Roman said, having somehow overlooked the presence of the dark giant among the group. "For the time being, we will be receiving our orders, and our paychecks, from him."
"A pleasure." the giant said, bowing formally to the dwarf before taking his seat at the table. "Now, to get straight to business, we are going to need a base of operations somewhere private. I leave the location and means of acquisition at your discretion, but public meetings like this won't suffice as anyone who has purposefully honed their senses could easily resist the effects of my perception filter. Also, it would be a good idea to set up a front for our operation as a source of steady income in order to obtain any material resources we might require, that also being a task I leave to your discretion." the man explained in an authoritative manner.
Cinder spoke up first, "I can get a front for our operation set up, as well as secure some lackeys to take care of the more trivial tasks."
"Excellent!" Roman chimed in sarcastically. "While the manipulative bitch takes care of that stuff…" this earned an irritated growl from Cinder "...we can secure a means of transportation for ourselves and any cargo we may wish to requisition. There is a prototype stealth VTOL craft stationed at a high security Atlesian military base, but I'm sure someone of your caliber…" gesturing towards the dark haired man across the table "... would have no problem getting us in there and out with the vehicle without much trouble. As we are doing that, Neo here should have no trouble finding us a suitable venue from which we can plan our future nefarious deeds."
"Then it's settled." the tall man stated. "Everyone knows their roles. Take the day to prepare, we move at sundown." the man got up, turned towards the door, and left the bar.
"This is going to be quite the ride." Roman mused, watching the man leave.
"Keep your mouth shut and it might not end with you as a pile of ash." Cinder shot at the orange haired criminal, before standing up and exiting.
"Quite the ride indeed…"
Five men sit in the shadows around a table in a smoky, dimly lit room. A young business man in a black fine tailored suit was the first to speak.
"What do we know about the activities of Cinder Fall, Roman Torchwick, and this new player who has joined the fray?"
The cigar smoking man known as Mr. Alhest spoke up. "One of my guys said they showed up at a dive in Atlas, called the Blood Gulch Blues Club, along with that mysterious fellow." he coughed before continuing "The guy couldn't remember much, like it was as if they weren't there even though they clearly were, but he said it sounded like they were laying down plans for their own little operation." he finished by taking another puff from his cigar.
"Interesting…" the young businessman contemplated this new information. "Dr. Zichermann, what has your research turned up?"
"That statue of yours was most definitely an artistic rendition of a puma, done in solid gold!" the madman in the lab coat stated enthusiastically.
The young man covered his face with his hand in annoyance and let out a groan before asking again. "What did you find out about the escape of our old colleagues?"
"That, of course! How could I forget!" the scientist seemed to switch between mania and cold calmness on a daily basis, though both sides were equally psychotic. "My informant in the AIC said that strange readings had been reported around the time of Ms. Fall's and Mr. Torchwick's disappearances. Similar readings were picked up from the area of the now ransacked White Fang safe house the day that it was raided!"
"That was yesterday you dipshit." the masked man in the black trench coat growled at the scientist.
"Right, well, still quite the coincidence, don't you think? The same readings taken around this strange and fascinating man's appearance show up the next morning at the disappearance of our former colleagues, only to be seen later the same day together in a bar?" the scientist stood, waving his arms wildly in the air, before slamming his hands onto the table and leaning in towards the center. "Sounds like a scandal to me." he whispered, grinning maniacally.
"This is a definitely a matter worth more investigation. I expect each of you to conduct independent investigations into these events. We will reconvene at the same time tomorrow, and will continue to meet nightly until this matter is resolved." the young man grinned for the first time that anyone else in the room could remember. "Good luck, and godspeed to you all."
Team RWBY approached the headquarters of the Atlesian Intelligence Committee as the sun was setting, finding two figures waiting for them at the entrance. Leaning on one of the supports of the building was a girl with waist-length black hair worn as a ponytail. She wore a black and red accented outfit comprised of a two layered jacket, the second layer extending almost to the ankles in back, over a red pleated skirt with matching thigh high leggings and short boots and matching detached sleeves covering the backs of her hands. She had her eyes closed, clearly focused on the metal music blasting out of her headphones audible from a couple feet away. Sitting on the ground a few feet away from her was a blond haired man wearing a trenchcoat over a dark purple t-shirt with gray cargo pants and a pair of blue tinted sunglasses. Inside his coat and the pockets of his pants were an array of gadgets, the purpose of some being fairly obvious, others for more mysterious purposes.
The blond man looked up at the approaching group before speaking. "I was hoping I'd never have to see you four again, but I can't exactly say no to a mission." he shouted sarcastically.
"As much as I'd like to avoid you Drake, we kinda need your help." Yang shouted back, playing along with the sarcasm.
"Yo, Ikari, eyes up. We've got company." Drake shouted to his comrade, flicking a pebble at her arm. This caused the black haired girl's eyes to snap open, sending a glare in the man's direction before noticing that Team RWBY had arrived.
Taking off her headphones, she addressed the group of new arrivals. "Long time, no see. How's it going?"
Weiss was the one to respond. "We're actually here for some very specific information, Blake may have told you about it when we called you." the two intelligence agents nodded in unison. "We need information about the readings taken surrounding Blake and Ruby's mission yesterday, as well as the disappearance of Cinder Fall and Roman Torchwick this morning. Ozpin should've sent our authorization down already."
Drake checked his scroll quick before waving Team RWBY towards the building, "Yeah, you're cleared. Follow me and I can bring that information up for you."
Inside the building, the six Hunters huddled around a large holographic display, showing graphic readouts of satellite readings and various scientific writings on theoretical principles of space and time. Drake spoke up to explain, Ikari having already gone back to her wonderland of heavy metal.
"Lately, scientists across Remnant have been looking into the more theoretical aspects of space and time. Various research instruments have picked up strange energy signatures, unlike anything that has been seen before, far outside our galaxy. Further investigation of the source of these energy signatures have revealed spatial events that seem to defy our understanding of the laws of the universe."
"How does this have anything to do with the information we asked for?" Blake asked.
"Well, we have never seen these kind of energy signatures before anywhere within our galaxy. The strange readings from the area of your mission and around the disappearance of Cinder and Roman were localised and vastly amplified occurrences of that same energy signature. Even in small amounts, this energy is theoretically strong enough to warp space and time. Whatever caused those readings must've literally ripped a hole in reality." Drake said in a very serious tone.
"None of that sounds good, but why was the room in the safe house destroyed, but the prison seemingly untouched." Weiss questioned.
"The readings from the safe house incident were about 500 times stronger than the ones taken from the prison, and the readings fluctuated wildly whereas the prison readings were fairly stable. The working theory is based off of the Multiverse Theory. Think about trying to punch through paper with a plastic knife. From what we've learned, or at least think we've learned, the first incident was like trying to stab through a stack of paper a few dozen sheets thick, The knife isn't going to go through cleanly, nor is the knife itself going to come out unscathed. The second incident was more like trying to cut through one piece of paper that was folded. A lot cleaner, but it leaves two holes instead of one." Drake explained, before the display behind them turned red and started letting off an alarm, startling Ikari. "Looks like someone's trying to punch another hole through space."
Intermission: The Dangers of Interdimensional Travel
You may think that as a God, Kelas can do anything and everything flawlessly. Interdimensional travel, however, is tricky for even the most omnipotent of beings. Every reality is governed by its own set of rules and conditions, and every reality goes through a variety of changes throughout it's lifespan. Those with the ability to freely and purposefully travel to whatever dimension they desire, a category of which Kelas is NOT a part of, are extremely rare even for universes that are extremely gifted in the area of powerful individuals. Among established means of travelling between realities, a scythe that literally rips a hole in the multiverse is quite crude. This, along with Kelas' simple lack of caring to refine this ability, tends to result in many MANY mistakes along the way. Detailed here will be a few of the dimensions Kelas came across before finding his way to Remnant.
Kelas emerged from his portal in what appeared to be a cloud of matter, only to immediately start plummeting through the cloud. After only a couple of seconds, his freefall reversed course entirely before flinging him off to what was at that moment, only then to change directions at a 116 degree angle from his course towards some direction in front of him. After half an hour of random freefalling, he finally got fed up, freezing himself in place and opening a portal out of the infernal dimension.
Kelas appeared in what appeared to be an ocean of bioluminescent fluid. Unsure of which direction gravity would pull him in this dimension, he erased all matter within 20 meters of himself, only to find himself stationary as the fluid rushed in from all sides to fill the void he had created. He decided to move a few miles in a random direction before trying the experiment again, only to achieve the same result. He tried again, this time extending the radius to 20 miles around him which only served to slightly increase the amount of time the fluid took to fill the void. He tried once more, with radius of 20 light years, before realising that the fluid moved faster in relation to how much he erased, causing him to become frustrated and resulting in him erasing the universe altogether before leaving.
The third attempt at finding an interesting playground brought him to a very colorful world that seemed to be inhabited by a race of poorly detailed extremely small multicolored quadrupeds, some of which seemed to have the ability to fly, causing him to turn on his heel and walk back through the rift which he had just exited.
-End Intermission