Ironwood pulled at the collar of his coat as Winter stood next to him, as she looked to Ironwood, and the woman suddenly spoke, "General Ironwood, permission to speak, sir."
"Permission to speak, granted. What's on your mind, Winter?" Ironwood asked as the woman, sighing as she said, "I didn't mean to start that fight, but Qrow wouldn't stop, and I started to-"
"You don't need to apologize, Winter," Ironwood interrupted her as he said, "Qrow can get underneath anyone's skin when he is drunk. Was that all you needed to say?"
Winter gave him a sideways glance as she suddenly asked, "That boy, Gaara. You looked as if something was bothering you when you shook his hand. Do you know him, perhaps?"
"No, not personally," Ironwood said, "Although I have….heard from him before. From Ozpin."
Winter nodded, but something about his response didn't sound right. She felt as if he was hiding something.
As the elevator that they were in opened, Winter and Ironwood stepped out into Ozpin's office, which was at the top of Beacon, and Ozpin was sitting behind his desk, chatting with Qrow, who sat next to his desk, while Professor Glynda Goodwitch stood next to him.
Ozpin saw the pair coming as he said, "Ah, James, Winter, a pleasure to see you both."
Qrow turned around as he swiveled in their direction on his chair, saying, "Ah, here comes Mr. Paranoid and the Ice Queen."
Winter felt her face flush as she said, "What exactly was that out there, Qrow?! What were you thinking!!??"
"I would tell you, but then again, I don't think your little brain icicle can comprehend exactly what goes on in here," Qrow said as he tapped his head, as Glynda sighed and said, "Winter, please, recompose yourself."
"He shouldn't have done that out there!! That was irresponsible!" Winter said as Glynda pursed her lips, as the woman responded, "He was drunk!"
"He's always drunk!!" Winter shot back at her as Ozpin suddenly held up his hands as if to try and calm down the mood as he said, "Now, now, everyone, can't we just calm down?"
"Winter, at ease," Ironwood said as Winter gave a leer at Qrow before she quieted down.
Qrow chuckled as he crossed his arms, as he looked at Ironwood, saying, "Heh, you really like to pick the soldiers with a little ice in their veins, eh?"
Ironwood scoffed as he said, "You know, if you were one of my men, you would have been shot."
"I would have shot myself if I was one of your men," Qrow said as he drank from a flask of liquor.
Ozpin sighed as he sat down behind his desk, as he asked, "Qrow. Why are you here?"
"You've been out of contact for weeks! You can't just go dark like that!" Ironwood pointed out as Qrow chuckled, saying, "Don't get your panties all knotted up just yet. And besides, I'm not one of your special ops task force troopers, Jimmy."
"General," Winter growled, correcting him as Qrow waved his hand, "Whatever. Anyways, you sent me to get a little intel on our enemy, and believe me when I say that our enemy is here already."
"We know," Ironwood told him as he crossed his arms
Qrow gave a mock chuckle, as he spatted, "Oh, alright, so you know. Then I'm glad that I'm risking my neck out there just to keep you all informed. Communication is a two way street, bub. Ya see this!?"
Qrow pulled out his scroll, pointing at the phone as he said, "That's the send button!"
"There certainly looked as if there were signs that you've been compromised," Winter snapped at him as Qrow leered at her, shooting back while gesturing to her, "And I have reason to think that there were signs that you weren't invited here. Seriously, who invited her here?"
Ironwood sighed as he said, "Schnee, we'll discuss this incident aboard my ship."
"But sir! I-"
"Winter! Leave, that's an order," Ironwood repeated, and Winter sighed as she walked out of the office, taking the elevator and leaving
"Alright, go on," Glynda said as Qrow sipped from his flask again, taking his time to drink it, and after he swallowed, he said, "Ya see, our little, uninvited guest isn't just another game piece. These guys, oh, THESE guys are the ones responsible for Autumn's condition."
"What?" Glynda said in surprise as Ozpin leaned forward, asking, "How can you be sure, Qrow?"
Qrow looked at the grey-haired man, as he spoke back, but not answering his question, "The world thinks that we're Teachers, General's, Headmaster's. Everyone in this room, plus the Headmaster's from the other two academies, we are the people that protect this world from the godforsaken dangers that no one in this world even knows about."
Qrow suddenly eyed Ironwood, as he walked towards him, speaking as he stopped in front of him, seeming to square him up, "So that's why we meet behind closed doors, why we work in the dark where no one can see. So, James, when you decided on that little project to get rid of Salem and not tell us anything, were you simply being discreet and subtle, or did you just not give a damn? Just like you are now?"
"Ironwood, what is he talking about?" Glynda asked as Ozpin said for him, "Apparently, James has recently started back up the Dimensional Collider Program."
Ironwood and Qrow stared at each other, glaring daggers at one another when Ironwood sighed, saying, "When I did it the first time, I wasn't trying to be discreet. I had meant to tell you all, but then the accident happened."
Qrow chuckled, crossing his arms as he said, "Oh, yeah, like when that kid fell out of the sky? The one with the red eyes and all?"
"Please, can we not bring back the past?" Ozpin said as Ironwood sighed, before saying, "However, this time, I'm not going to wait to tell you. You see, we've been studying that child, while making sure that he is indeed cared and nursed for, and we've discovered something very interesting. You all remember the reports about the energy he possessed, one that resembled aura but was still entirely different?"
"Of course, how can we forget something you told us years ago?" Qrow said as Ironwood ignored him, continuing, "Well, we've found that besides summoning fire and many other elements and bending them to his will by concentrating them into his hand and molding it, we've also found that it can be used for more than just that."
Ironwood suddenly pulled his scroll out of his coat, setting it down on the table as he tapped on the screen, and a blue hologram of camera footage appeared, as Ironwood said as it popped up, "Apparently, one of the nurses who takes care of Project O, Alyssa Sengen, had sustained a burn on her arm. And so, Project O, having seen it, used that same energy that he possessed and healed it."
As the camera footage showed a blonde, young lady communicating with what seemed to be a teen, who wore a blue coat and looked as if he had a headband wrapped around his arm, and a pair of goggles on his forehead, and how the scene unfolded just as Ironwood said, Ozpin, Glynda, and Qrow suddenly realized where he was going with this as Ozpin said, "So, you mean that if this child could do this with that multipurpose energy, you are restarting the program to further research into his homeworld to see if you could harness some of this energy to……….. heal Autumn and possibly help her out of her current condition?"
"Yes. Matter of fact, I restarted the program a long time ago," Ironwood said, and Qrow suddenly asked, "What was the name of that energy the kid used again? Cha-, uhh, chakaram? Chaka-something?"
Ironwood sighed as he said, "As if you'd be able to pronounce it right, Branwen. It's called-"
"It's called Chakra," A voice said from above, interrupting Ironwood as the general looked up above him, as Gaara stood above, standing atop a platform of sand that hovered in the air.
Gaara had been following Ironwood since that moment when they left the courtyard. And as for how he got into the office without them knowing whilst not letting off any alarms, well, Gaara had his ways.
Gaara looked down at the astonished adults, as he gave a smirk, saying, "Greetings, General. Miss me?"
Ironwood stared up at the floating boy in disbelief, as Glynda put her hands to her mouth in awe, whilst Ozpin just simply gave a knowing look, and Qrow pointed up at the red-haired boy as he asked, "And here I thought that I couldn't be surprised by anything. Gotta say, that's a new one."
Ironwood growled silently as almost as if on instinct, he drew his pistol out and pointed at Gaara, and the red haired boy wagged his finger, saying, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Gaara pointed down, and Ironwood raised a eyebrow, before suddenly looking down at his foot, only to find that a snaking trail of sand had circled around his feet, and upon more inspection, a circle of sand was at each of their feet, as Qrow chuckled, saying, "Heh, this kid is good."
Gaara took on a hardened, more serious expression as he slowly lowered himself down, his platform of sand lowering itself from the air until it was level with each of their heads as Gaara said, "Now, about this boy. What is his name? And I don't mean your laboratory assigned name. What is his actual name?"
Ironwood looked at Gaara, his expression neutral as he said in a flat tone, "That is classi-"
"Wrong answer, General," Gaara said as suddenly the small ring of sand around him moved, albeit slightly, but enough to make Ironwood become silent.
"Now, Ironwood. I will ask again. What. Is. His. Name?" Gaara asked, but now his tone of voice was much more aggressive, as Ironwood looked at Qrow, but the man only got a smirk from the black haired drunkard, and when he looked to Ozpin, he only got a questioning glance from the grey haired man, the eyes behind his glasses asking a question.
'What will you do?'
Ironwood sighed as he looked back up at Gaara, as he said, "He….went by the name Obito."
Gaara raised an eyebrow as the name rang through his ears, as he repeated to himself, "Obito?"
Mercury looked to the left, then to the right as he slipped his keycard into the keyhole, hearing the door click as he opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind him as the grey-haired boy walked in whistling.
As he walked in, Emerald, a green haired girl with red eyes around his age, and Cinder, a woman in a red, slim dress and wearing a singular, rudely made braid that covered one of her eyes.
Cinder looked up from where she sat on the bed of the dorm lended to them, since they were faking being from Mistral for the Vytal Festival, and asked, "Well, find anything interesting?"
Mercury nodded as he suddenly held up his scroll, having taken a video of Qrow and Winter bickering, and their ensuing fight that was interrupted as Mercury said, "Yup. That guy is here. If he sees us, we'll, we're in a bit of a pickle."
"Well, if that is to ever happen, then our mission would end in failure. Therefore, our only solution is to simply not let him spot us," Cinder said, and Emerald looked up at the woman as she said, "You do know that is much harder said than done."
Cinder gave a small chuckle as she held up a small, hooked finger to her lips, which were curled slightly in a smile as she said, "Nothing good comes easy. And besides, where is the challenge in something, oh, so easy to attain?"
Mercury chuckled at Cinder as he said, "Heck, you scare me a little sometimes."
"It comes with the job," Cinder replied
The transparent violet arrow whistled through the air as it hit the target dead center, a piece of wood that had two red circles painted onto it, a small circle inside a second, bigger circle as Clarice immediately formed two other violet, transparent arrows of violet energy, nocking them both at the same time into her bow as Clarice let them both fly, as the two arrows sailed fast and true, both hitting the target right next the the one that was hit in the center, before she suddenly formed three more arrows as she suddenly fired them all at the same time making her mark perfectly as she suddenly formed a perfect circle around the arrow that had lodged inside the bullseye.
Clarice took in a deep breath as suddenly a voice behind her said, "Getting some practice in?"
Clarice turned around to see the Bunny-eared Faunus, Violet, behind her as Clarice slicked her dyed hair to the side out of her face as she said, "You could definitely say that. Whatcha doin here, Violet? I would have thought you would have been with your team, or perhaps, a certain someone?"
Clarice had said the last part with an eyebrow wag, as she smirked, making Violet blush as the faunus replied, "Aw, quit it. Anyway, I was here because some friends of mine were supposed to come over here to train."
When the Vytal Festival had started, Beacon had also set up a sort of training grounds for all teams to use, hence why there were targets set up that Clarice was shooting at.
Clarice's vanore bow folded up into it's more compact form as Clarice looked up at the girl, putting her bow on her back as she asked, "And have I met these friends before?"
"No, I actually met them during the Vytal Festival. They said that they planned on helping me out a bit with my technique," she said as suddenly, the sounds of a struggle could be heard, alongside the sound of metal clanging on metal, and the two girls looked at each other for a hot second, before they suddenly dashed towards a part of the training grounds.
After a few moments of hard running, the the pair came to a stop as the girls had stepped onto what seemed to be the wooden mat of the sparring ground as suddenly two boys were fighting with ferocity, one of them wearing a white jacket with black stripes going down his sleeves, white short hair, black pants, and what seemed to be a half mask made of some kind of black metal, as he suddenly held two white metal bars in each hand, both about two feet long, as he twirled them around skillfully and while at the same time lunging and jumping around acrobatically, blocking, deflecting, and dodging what seemed to be a black ball of metal with glowing blue stripes on it, a metal string connected to it.
At the other end of the metal string, another boy held the metal strong which was attached to a metal band around the wrist of his right arm, his black hair tied back into a pigtail, a blue doublet with the long sleeves rolled up below his elbow, brown pants and black boots that went up above his ankles, and fingerless blue gloves on his hand.
"Hey, is that a Yo-Yo?" Clarice said to Velvet as the bunny-eared faunus shrugged, replying, "Yeah, I guess so. That's kind of the only other way to describe it," she said
The boy brought the yo-yo flying back, bending his arm as the metal twine wrapped around his forearm as he spun around, swinging the metal yo-yo back in a curved arc towards his opponent, he swung one of his metal batons, deflecting it as he ran towards him at the same time, and as the yo-yo was sent flying back at the wielder, he suddenly jumped up, spinning horizontally as the metal yo-yo suddenly glowed, the blue striped pattern becoming a bright cyan light as it spun around him, before the boy sent it flying back at his opponent.
The white haired boy with half a mask held both batons backwards, and held both in front in front of himself as the yo-yo collided with the two white batons, hitting it so hard that a shockwave shot out in every direction as the boy slid back, losing his balance and he struggled to stay on his feet.
"Heh, take this, Zero!!" the boy with the yo-yo shouted as he landed on his feet, spinning his yo-yo around himself skillfully when suddenly it hit him in his own face, and he yelped as he fell backwards onto his butt, as the white haired boy who was presumably Zero stood up, sliding his half mask to where it rested on top of his head and revealed his face.
"Hyun, you are still too reckless with that thing," he replied as Hyun chuckled and shot back onto his feet as he said, "Heh, just got too carried away."
Suddenly, Velvet stepped forward, waving her arms as she said, "Hyun! Zero! What are you two doing?!"
Zero and Hyun turned to Velvet, the pair blinking at the faunus as they suddenly both smiled brightly at the girl, Zero saying, "Ah, Velvet, right? We didn't think you'd be here so early, so my and Hyun had decided to get in a little training."
Hyun had a cocky smile as the two walked up to Clarice and Velvet, as Zero hung his two batons on the belt on his waist, and Hyun began playing with his yo-yo as Clarice inspected them both closer.
Hyun had a slightly chubby face with freckles and clear blue eyes, whereas Zero had a face that looked as if it had been sculpted from ivory, not a blemish on his face as his eyes were a hazelnut brown with a sharp gaze.
Velvet rubbed the back of her head as she replied, "Uh, yeah, it's Velvet. And I didn't really have much else to do at the moment today so I decided to come here a bit more early."
Hyun chuckles as he gestured to Clarice, asking with a childish smile, "So, who is she? A teammate or something?"
"Uh, no, I'm from team GPHC," Clarice answered, as she brushed one of her dyed violet bangs from her face, and Zero, for some odd reason, seemed to be staring at her, but immediately averted his gaze as he said, "Well, Velvet, being here early does indeed have some good in it. So, you say that outside of using your semblance, you've had a little trouble at fighting hand to hand?"
"Yes," Velvet said, although a bit timidly, her bunny ears dropping slightly in what seemed to be an embarrassed manner as Velvet added, "I've been getting a little help from my team, but I'm still a little lacking."
"Aw, don't worry about it, Velvet. I mean, it ain't like everyone doesn't have fla-" Hyun had said while spinning his yo-yo around in a circle next to him when he felt himself get hit by his own Yo-Yo as he grunted in pain, wincing and clutching his forehead as Zero simply said, "It is quite obvious what your flaw is."
Hyun looked at Zero as he said, "And exactly what is that?"
Zero held up two fingers, counting off as he said, "Overconfidence, cockiness, and clumsiness."
Hyun blinked at Zero, as he suddenly held up a two fingered peace sign and said jokingly, "You cut me deep there man."
Zero rolled his eyes as Clarice put a hand on her hip as she said, "So, Velvet, these guys must be something if you are kind of getting advice from them about fighting."
Velvet turned to Clarice and gave an embarrassed look as Zero said, "Well, I won't exactly say that I am the greatest fighter out there, but I will say that I am in fact very skilled."
Clarice smiled as she suddenly pulled her compact weapon from her back as it transformed into her vanore bow, the bars on each side of the handle purple blades as she said, "Alright then, let's see."
In a unknown forest, a crow with red eyes soared through the skies, as it's black wings caught onto the wind, and the black bird glided through the air as it's black beak looked side to side at a downward slant, before it flew downward towards a clearing in the forest, as several people milled about, several tents set up about, with a giant tent at one end of the encampment as the bird suddenly flew through the treetops of the forest nearby the camp.
As the bird went through the canopy, a women suddenly bursted out of the canopy to the ground below, as she was covered in red armor, a red katana at her side, her red eyes looking around her as she straightened her long, raven like hair, which she crudely combed out with her hands as she suddenly walked through the shrubbery and around the trees in her way as she suddenly came into view of the camp.
However, as she suddenly entered the camp, all eyes turned onto her, as every single person began to step aside for her.
As she stepped through the crowd, she suddenly came to the throne that was set up in front of the largest tent, turning around and sitting atop it, crossing her legs as one went on top of the other as she looked around at the people whom's eyes were turned onto her.
Raven leaned her head on her fist as she waved her hand at the crowd, shouting, "What are you all gawking at!? I am tired, can't I sit down without you all staring at me!!?"
Immediately the crowd averted their eyes and went back with what they were doing as they began milling about, giving Raven occasional side eye glances.
Raven sighed as she leaned back in her throne, as she began to contemplate everything she had seen.
The Vytal Festival had already started into it's full swing, so Raven wasn't exactly surprised that Ironwood and his little mindless drones and robots had come along with him, and was actually looking forward to seeing her brother Qrow teach a lesson or two to that spoiled Schnee about what a Branwen was made of.
Raven had watched the entire thing transpire from a light pole while in her Raven form, so she was actually surprised when one of the students had stopped the fight before it could start with a rather interesting semblance.
She could still remember it clearly, how the giant geyser of sand bursted out between Ironwood's prime operative and Qrow, the geyser wide enough to easily swallow four men, and tall enough to stack three Ursa's atop each other.
Even Raven was momentarily caught off guard by that display of control and power over such a semblance.
But what confused her was how that much sand accumulated in such a short time. Surely there wasn't that much sand underneath. Unless he made it.
Raven had taken an interest in the red-haired boy after that as she had started flying above and following him and his rather large group of 'friends.'
She had learned many things from listening in, learning that he went by the name of Gaara. Gaara of the Sand to be exact, which was ironic. However, she didn't really think that was his real name. Most likely he gave himself that name. And she didn't think that he was as reserved or tough as he portrayed himself.
During the entire time she had watched him, he rarely spoke, only speaking when he was spoken to, and always keeping a neutral expression. Raven, however, couldn't help but feel as if he wasn't like his group of friends that surrounded him. Unlike his other group, he acted more mature, more experienced, and above all, more wise.
She had been watching him and his group for a good three hours, and she kept wondering, just exactly who he was, and above all, what he was doing here.
The way he talked, which had a air of authority and maturity to it, and the way he looked around as if he was always on guard And even more what chilled her was how she kept swearing that the boy had made eye contact with her a couple of times, as if he….knew. Knew that someone was there.
Raven sighed as she felt her hand rest on the handle of her weapon, a katana that she had named Omen. Raven pulled the blade out of its sheath, as she held the crimson red color of the blade in front of her, and its sharp side.
Raven held the blade backwards, stabbing downward as the blade sunk into the ground next to her throne as she rested her hand atop of the handle, and leaned back into the chairback, saying to herself, "This Gaara could certainly be of use."
"What was that, Raven?" a voice asked as Vernal, a tan skinned girl with freckles and her hair tied into a bun, walked up from behind her, as Raven had a small, yet sly smile as she simply replied, "Oh nothing, Vernal."
