Hello and welcome to a new chapter of this story. You know how I said that the last chapter was relatively shorter, well this one is even shorter than that. This one sets up the next arc that I am going to write.
Enjoy
"So, how is he?" Lucia asked the nurse in the medical wing.
"Who? Blaise, he'll be fine," she told Lucia.
"What? He breathed in toxic gas. Nobody should be just fine after that."
"Well, he shows no sign of poisoning. We even ran his blood and nothing showed up."
"Then why is he still unconscious?"
"I'd put my money on the whole body slam from the tarantulus," she said walking over to Blaise, "If he did breath in the toxic gas and was poisoned he would've been dead by the time you brought him here." Pulling a needle from the tray next to Blaise she stabbed it into Blaise's arm for a moment before pulling it out. In a fraction of a second Blaise shot up and clasped his arm right where the needle just was. "And if he was poisoned he wouldn't be able to do that."
"What the heck?" Blaise asked as the pinprick closed from him using his aura. "Was that really necessary?"
"It was either that or just wait for you to wake up and the second year students are sparing a few minutes, and typically team CFVY sends some injured students my way. So we're probably going to need open beds," the nurse explained as she checked Blaise's pulse then ran her hand over his forehead doing final checks on him. "And you're perfect, now get out." She didn't even wait for a response before she pushed Blaise and Lucia out of the room.
"Is she really qualified to take care of students' health?" Lucia asked as she and Blaise headed down the hallway to the exit.
"Yeah, I don't exactly know. I was suspended from fighting for about three months after she checked on me after my first mission where I fought with Sedric," Blaise explained looking at his coat making sure it wasn't damaged. "Now I just avoid her because every time I visit she tries to get me out of combat. Not to mention, are you even qualified to teach?"
"Did you see what I did in there?" she scoffed.
"Actually no, being knocked out kinda has that effect," Blaise said receiving a playful punch to the shoulder.
"Well either way, you breathed in that poisonous gas," Lucia said raising an eyebrow as she looked at her brother.
"Well, if I had to guess, I'd say the grimmification Lucius did to us back in the day kinda made us have grimm immunities," Blaise guessed.
"So does that mean we have a soul or we don't?" Lucia asked making Blaise think for a moment before he quickly moved his fingernail across Lucia's arm causing it to bleed for a moment before it healed. "What was that for?"
"That is your proof," Blaise said pointing to the now healed area on Lucia's arm. "The fact that you can use aura should be proof enough."
"Good point," she replied, "but next time, tell me that before you cut me."
"Alright."
"Hey Blaise, Lucia, mail call," Lapis said tossing a package at the two siblings as they entered the dorm room.
"What could possibly in this?" Lucia asked as she shook the package in her hands.
"I don't know," Blaise said as he shook his. "Maybe we should open them."
"Thanks for the suggestion smartass," she replied as she opened the package. Inside the box was a pair of boots with some metallic attachments on them, then on the side of the box was four small cylinders filled with a strange black dust. "Boots… not really my style but there is a note. 'Dear Lucia, I know you probably were mad about thinking I was dead for over a year. I did actually try to come in contact with you guys a couple of times, but you know how hard it is to find any of us. So moving on, I know your birthday is in a few months, and I thought to myself, 'What kind of girl doesn't like new shoes?' These are a pair of gravity boots, the name pretty much explains all that it does. If you have any questions just ask Blaise or any of his team members. Love, Your older brother Lucius. P.S. - Marilyn and the kids say hi'."
"I wonder what mine is?" Blaise asked as he opened his box.
"My dad sent me some more specialized arrows," Eva said as Blaise struggled with the package.
"Come on Blaise, you can punch a grimm in the air yet you can't open a box," Lapis chided him.
"Oh shut up," Blaise said as he ripped off the top cover. Reaching in he pulled out a white mask shaped like a wolf with red accents to look similar to grimm armor. "What the hell?" Checking the return address he saw it was sent from Eriford in the west part of Vacuo. "Well, this is definitely not from Lucius. It seems like a White Fang mask."
"Where is it from?" Lapis asked as he took the mask from Blaise to look at it.
"Somewhere in Vacuo in a town called Eriford."
"So what are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"It is someone saying that you're White Fang," Eva said. "They probably think you're part of the White Fang and are trying to intimidate you by saying they know."
"And you guys are jumping to conclusions," Blaise said taking the mask back from Lapis. "If anything it is some person playing a prank. I'm sure several other faunus students also got a similar package in the mail." Sliding his hand over the inside he pulled a small paper out and with a slight of hand he hid it in his pocket. "Anyway Lucia, do you want to try out the gravity boots? We could all use some practice fighting in them."
"Well, why not," Lucia said causing everyone to smile.
Zaria bounced up on her bed and launched herself off of the wall to the closet on the side of the room. Opening it up she reached into the top shelf, pulled out several gravity boots and threw them to their respective owners who caught them. Pulling on the boots they each snapped their fingers simultaneously. Lucia watched as they did all this and just before they all jumped out the window they stopped and looked at Lucia.
"Well, put on your boots," Blaise said and she did that in a couple moments. "Now snap your fingers once and be careful of where you step." After he said that he pulled on his coat and ran out the window aiming his feet at the wall.
"That was insane," Lucia laughed as team BLZE and she entered the room nearly laughing hysterically from their practice.
"Yeah, that tends to happen when you're running across the walls and someone trips causing them to be suspended in mid air for a moment before stabilizing," Blaise laughed as he flopped down on his bed.
"So do you guys spar normally with those?" Lucia asked the team who all took off their boots and flopped down in their beds.
"No, I think one of us would get away with using it saying its our semblance, but if all of us started to use it then people would get suspicious," Eva explained propping her head up on her pillow to look at Lucia who flopped down on Blaise's back.
"Can't… breathe…" Blaise wheezed trying to roll his sister off of his back.
"Then is anyone heard that these boots existed then people would demand some," Zaria said.
"And these boots were only designed to help with research," Eva continued. "Lucius had developed a newer, more durable model and asked us to test them out. So we are probably going to use them for missions."
"Good point, now let's sleep," Lucia said then flopped her head down on Blaise's bed and fell asleep almost immediately.
The rest of the team didn't even bother to argue as they all fell asleep… except for one. They all didn't even seem to notice when the black figure grabbed the grimm mask off of the desk, put on their boots, and jumped out the window.
"Finally! Spring Break!" Zaria exclaimed jumping off of her bed, landing on the two siblings with a loud. 'Oof.' Then jumped off of the two before they attacked her and landed on Lapis' side waking him up before she took cover behind his back from the incoming pillows from the siblings.
"Is it really Spring Break?" Blaise asked as he did a slow push up off of his bed rolling his sister onto the floor.
"Yeah," Eva said opening up her scroll to look at the calendar. "Apparently we were so wrapped up in the drama we forgot the dates. We have only a few more weeks until the dance."
"What should we do?" Zaria asked bouncing off of Lapis' bed backflipping to land on the dresser in the other side of the room in a sitting position. "We should go to the beach."
"Actually," a voice said from the other side of the door as it opened. Turning they all saw Ozpin standing there as he took a sip of coffee. "There is a matter of more importance I wish to speak with you all about."
"What? Am I in trouble for sleeping with a student?" Lucia asked confusing everyone for a moment before she continued. "Not like that. With Blaise… not like that! We just slept in the same bed. Jeez you guys, get your minds out of the gutter."
There was a slight awkward silence in the room before Ozpin continued. "Well, this is more of a different matter than that. I was informed that Mr. Campione had received a strange package from Eriford. That package basically inferred that Blaise had been a member of the White Fang."
"And for obvious reasons we must investigate these sort of packages," Glynda continued from behind Ozpin as she entered the room. "So I am sorry to tell you this team BLZE, but you won't be spending your Spring Break doing what you want." Suddenly all the occupants in the room groaned simultaneously.
"When do we leave Ozzy?" Lucia asked standing up off of the ground.
"Well, they are leaving as soon as the Revenant Wing reaches the campus docs," Ozpin explained making Lucia look at him surprised. "You on the other hand have a job for me to do."
Now here we go. Who sent the package from Eriford? What did the note say? What is Lucia going to do for Ozpin?
Find out in the next chapter
-J. Van A