Chapter 2: Exposing the Damage.
Providence, Southern Vale
11:00 am
The talon airship carrying the WHITECROSS soldiers and the injured girls arrived back at the quarantined mining town in the mountains, and the medics and soldiers were scrambling as an innocent child's life hanged in balance. They landed in the makeshift airfield, and were greeted by a medical team from the task force there, which had consisted of 7 highly trained doctors. They immediately rushed Weiss and Ruby to the medical tents to retrieve treatment for their injuries, while Yang angrily confronted Dante...
" What the hell is going on?" Yang demanded.
" Excuse me?" Dante responded.
" What the hell were you talking about when you said Blake was infected?" Yang asked, before feeling a pain in her left shoulder.
" I'd better take you to talk to my boss." Dante said.
He signaled Yang to come along, in which she followed into the Advanced Mobile Command Platform's Holo-Chat room and had the technician put them on a direct line to Xavier's office...
" Miss Xiao Long." Xavier said.
" You're WHITECROSS's head administrator?" Yang said.
" I know, it's hard to believe." Xavier said in a humored tone. " Anyway, Dante messaged me ahead of this conversation that you have many questions." He added.
" You bet your ass I do, what's going on? What did your boy here mean that Blake was infected? Infected with what? " Yang asked.
Xavier stood up from his chair, revealing his cybernetic leg and he began to speak. " We at war, nobody wants to admit it, but we are all under attack. While you have been going about your daily lives at Beacon, a virus has been ripping its way across Remnant, turning people wild savage like the Grimm through the use of hallucinations and a raging fever. We have called this virus GRV-131, or Grimm Rage Virus if you want to use the long term." Xavier said.
" How long has this thing been spreading?" Yang asked.
" Over a month now, but our organization has been on the frontlines fighting this thing." Xavier explained.
" How does Blake fit into this?" Yang inquired.
" Your friend had survived an encounter with an infected Faunus one fateful day, am I correct?" Xavier asked.
" Yeah, she said she was visiting an old friend in the city." Yang explained.
" Well, that old friend tried to kill her, only for her to be exposed to their infected blood." Xavier explained to the young teen.
" Oh my god." Yang said, appearing visibly shaken by what has just been told to her.
" I know this a lot to take in. But you should look after your sister at this current moment, leave the virus to us." Xavier said.
" How did?" Yang said.
" Dante mentioned that too." Xavier said, concluding the call.
After the call, Dante took Yang over to the medical tents to get the pain in her shoulder checked out, while Xavier contacted Professor Ozpin to update the situation regarding the girls...
" Professor Ozpin." Xavier said.
" Xavier, how goes that situation with the distress call? " Ozpin asked.
" We have the team in our care, though three out of the four girls are injured." Xavier explained.
" Listen, the team you have in your care is Team RWBY, lead by Ruby Rose." Ozpin explained.
" Does Ruby Rose wear a red hooded cloak?" Xavier inquired.
" Yes, why?" Ozpin asked.
" Because she's one of the three injured, and she is currently in critical condition." Xavier explained.
" What? How is she in critical condition?" Ozpin asked.
" She suffered a severe stab wound to the torso, with the blade exiting out her back." Xavier said with a stern tone.
" My god, what about her other teammates?" Ozpin said.
" Miss Xiao Long's injuries haven't been confirmed yet, but Miss Schnee has been confirmed to have received moderate injuries." Xavier said.
" Understood, I'll shall inform Miss Schnee's sister on the matter." Ozpin said.
" If you want to find them, they are currently in the mining town of Providence, and Miss Belladonna is under quarantine." Xavier said.
" Why is Miss Belladonna under quarantine?" Ozpin asked.
" She has been confirmed to be infected with GRV." Xavier explained.
They concluded their call and Ozpin looked up and Winter Schnee had arrived in his office, angered over the fact that her sister has been gone this long after she left for a hunting assignment a while ago.
" Ozpin, where is my sister?" Winter demanded.
" Winter, Calm down." Ozpin said.
" Where is she?" Winter asked more calmly.
" She and her teammates are currently in WHITECROSS care." Ozpin said.
" What are they doing in WHITECROSS care?" Winter asked.
" There has been an incident on their assignment, one of her teammates turned out to be infected with the virus WHITECROSS is trying to defeat." Ozpin explained.
" What?" Winter said in a more concerned tone.
" Your sister and two of her teammates have received serious injuries, though Ruby Rose is in the worse condition." Ozpin explained.
" How is her injuries worse?" Winter asked.
" She suffered a severe stab wound to the chest, with the blade exiting out her back." Ozpin explained.
Winter was struggling to keep her calm and collected composure, until Ozpin told her about Providence and she stormed out of the building, and hopping aboard her personal airship and flying to Providence to get to her sister and her teammates.
Providence Medical Tents
11:15 am
Yang and Dante walked over to the medical tents to address the shoulder pain Yang had been experiencing ever since they had arrived at the quarantined mining town. They approached the head doctor, Mason Fairday, in which he confirmed that Yang had a dislocated shoulder, but he noticed something else...
" How long have you had those burns?" Dr. Fairday asked.
" What burns?" Yang asked, with Dante listening in.
" These burns." Fairday said, pressing the retract button on her Ember Celica.
Yang was horrified, her arms had been severely burned by the over charging of her semblance, and the doctor carefully got the gauntlets off her arms. Yang looked like she was gonna be sick, so Dante put a bucket in her lap, and she vomited into it.
" How did this happen?" Yang exclaimed.
" Must have been a result of you overcharging your semblance." Dante figured.
" What?" Yang asked.
" Overcharging, means you pushed your semblance too hard, beyond the safest point and that harmed yourself and could have harmed those around you." Dante explained.
" How?" Yang said.
" When my guys came over the hill to you and your teammates, you were blowing anything in your path away. I first saw one of your teammates shielding your injured captain should you have fired in their direction." Dante explained.
" Oh." Yang responded.
" Anyway, I got something that can prevent these burns from getting infected." Fairday said, walking over to a cabinet on wheels, pulling out a bright blue gelatin-like material and two rolls of gauze and medical tape.
" What's that stuff?" Yang asked.
" Sapphire gel, it's a WHITECROSS material used in burn treatment." Fairday explained.
He and Dante each took a glob of the gel and carefully applied it to Yang's burns, and then wrapped them in gauze and sealed them with the tape. A doctor came out of a covered area, taking off blood-soaked gloves and washing his hands in a sink, and Dante walked over to speak to him...
" How is she, doc?" Dante asked him.
" We've done all we could, but she needs to be brought to a hospital." Dr. Reinhardt explained.
" Is it really that bad?" Dante asked.
" Yes, she's lost too much blood, and the blade had fragmented upon impact with her spine." Reinhardt said
Dante turned around to see Yang starting to cry, and he turned to the doctor as he continued where he left off...
" We've managed to remove as much of the shards as possible, but we could remove the others without causing more damage." Reinhardt said.
" How many shards are left?" Dante asked.
" Around six." Reinhardt said.
While Dante was getting the lowdown on Ruby's injuries, Weiss was about to make some new friends...
WHITECROSS Advanced Mobile Command Platform mapping room.
11:07 am
Weiss, though injured, limped her way into the AMCP's mapping room, where she crossed paths with Virologist Blaze Sackett and his assistant, Eric Weinstein, were trying to search for the origin point of the Grimm Rage Virus, but were constantly bickering amongst themselves...
" This virus is clearly biologically altered, see if there's any reports of the virus among bio-labs or research institutes." Blaze ordered.
" Here, I got reports of an infected bio-lab engineer in Vacuo." Weinstein pointed out.
" NAME ME ONE GODDAMN PLACE IN REMNANT THAT DOESN'T HAVE ONE OF THOSE." Blaze exclaimed.
" Hey, don't be so hard on him." Weiss said.
The two individuals were startled by the unheard arrival of Weiss, who had limped into the room, and sat down in a chair with Blaze's help.
" What have you guys been up to?" Weiss asked.
" We're trying to accurately pinpoint the source of origin for this virus. What are you doing here?" Blaze asked.
" One of my teammates was infected and she injured me and my team captain." Weiss explained.
" She's one of the Beacon Academy students the Field Marshall brought in." Eric explained.
" Oh, well introductions then, I'm Blaze and this is Eric." Blaze said.
" I'm Weiss." Weiss responded.
Blaze explained their predicament, because of the chaos created by the viral outbreak, information has been slow to get around so they are having serious difficulty in accurately locating Patient Zero of the outbreak. Weiss suggested a helpful idea to them: find out which kingdom had the most cases of infection, and narrow it down there...
" Weiss!" Dante said.
" Mr. Perez?" Weiss responded.
" Do you know anybody who is flying a Four-engine airship?" Dante asked.
" Winter?" Weiss said.
There you have it, Winter is actually showing emotion as she is racing towards Providence to acquire Weiss, Ruby, and Yang. Yang is shocked she had injured herself by overcharging her semblance, and Ruby's situation grows more grim by the minute. Weiss has decided to aid the Chief Virologist in his hunt for Patient Zero of the outbreak, and is shocked Winter is on her way to Providence. The next chapter starts with an angered Winter threatening to carve her way through WHITECROSS'S numbers in order to get to Weiss, and the infected Blake is approached by an old friend...
WAIT AND SEE.