Bronze Signal
'Alright go!' the young boy thought to himself as he darted out from under the safety of the dry station platform and through the gap between the covered area of the platform and into the door of the passenger car. He pulled his collar around his neck as best he could to try and keep the rain out of his shirt. It was just a few quick steps to the train car and he had made it inside, looking around quickly and finding that no one else was on this particular car. He walked down the aisle until he was near the center of the car and slid into one of the booth style seats, all the way to the window.
As Oscar relaxed into the seat and set his backpack down on the seat beside him he looked back out into the rain. After several seconds the train's whistle sounded and they began to pull out of the lonely countryside station. He knew he lived pretty far out of the way but he was surprised to find that he was the only person who had boarded at this station. As they began to move on the lights in the car dimmed down automatically until they were off. The sky was overcast and night was approaching quickly and the trains were designed to allow people to sleep in peace, with small personal reading lights hanging down from the walls in each booth.
He elected to keep his turned off as he turned in the seat and layed down, making himself more comfortable, stretching out in the booth before leaning back against the wall of the car.
"Is it safe to rest here?" He asked out loud, quietly.
"I believe it should be. If not I can wake you up rather quickly mentally. You will need your rest Oscar. You'll be on this train for nearly ten hours, so get as much rest as you like. Once we arrive in Mistral you'll no doubt have plenty of work to do."
"What do you mean by that?" he questioned as he cocked his head, luminous green eyes peering through the darkness at nothing.
"Hmm? Oh, nothing, nothing you need to be worried about. Get some rest."
"Huhhh...alright," he groaned, knowing he wouldn't be able to get any answers out of his new partner. He had learned very quickly that Ozpin wasn't very good at divulging information.
Oscar shut his eyes and began to shift in the seat, trying the best he could to make himself comfortable enough to sleep. He had a long ride ahead of him, and he didn't want to show up totally worn out from traveling.
Oscar awoke to a loud screech as the train's brakes locked up, sparks flying from it's wheels as it began to grind to a halt. It stopped so fast that Oscar slid forward in his bench seat and onto the unforgiving floor. As he rubbed his hands through his hair and slowly began to open his eyes the train came to a complete stop. The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't see anything.
He had no idea how long they had been on the move but it was clear that the sun had gone down but he had no idea how long ago. As he felt himself over for injuries he stood up, staggering in the darkness before resting his hands on the back of the seat in front of him to steady himself.
"What's going on," he whispered to himself as he began to squint, trying to adjust to the dark.
'I'm not sure, be on your guard. The trip had been perfectly normal up to this point,' the voice in his head rang out.
"Hello?" Oscar called out but found no response.
'No one has boarded our car since we set off,' Ozpin added.
Oscar began to slowly traverse the coach before responding. "I know I live in the middle of nowhere but we've been on this train for hours, how has no one else gotten on?" He began to walk down the aisle now, slowly, with his arms outstretched, his eyes barely beginning to cut through the darkness.
'Head to a window,' he heard Ozpin suggest as he stopped and went down a row of seats to one of the windows. 'Slowly Oscar, don't be too obvious.'
"Alright," he breathed out as he crouched down and lifted the shades up. "I don't see anyone outside the train...we aren't at a station," he said quietly as he squinted and tried his hardest to look toward the front of the train. Up in the distance his eyes caught a glimpse of something amber colored shining in the night. However it soon disappeared, only to come back moments later. Then it swiftly changed to red and began to flicker, before turning green, only for all of the colors to soon begin flickering on and off.
'Broken signal huh?' He heard Ozpin think out loud. Oscar began to relax as he sat back into the bench chair in the aisle he was in, letting out a sigh of relief. 'Don't relax just yet.'
"Why not? It's just a broken signal?"
'These things don't just go haywire Oscar. A broken signal means a Grimm got at it or...it could have been sabotaged,' he thought intently. 'Go to the next car.'
"Fine..." He sighed as he wiped his weary eyes again and stood back up, feeling his way to the door at the end of the car, opening it slowly and walking out into the night air. As he reached for the door into the next car, he looked out into the night, squinting to see if he could catch a glimpse of anything or anyone watching him. Having seen nothing he opened the door, finding the light off in this coach as well and again, no passengers. "Am...am I the only person on this train?" He breathed out as he shut the door behind him and walked through the car. Through the window of the far door he could see the back of the engine's tender.
'This train is going right to the capitol of the continent...it doesn't seem possible that you'd be alone.'
"Well do you want me to go out and check what's going on?"
'Best let me do that, if you don't mind.'
"Huh? How are you supposed to go out there? You're just in my head."
'There are things about our connection you do not yet know. For instance, I can take control of your body at any time so long as you let me.'
"Wait...really? You can do that...? Does it hurt? What happens to me then?"
Oscar heard Ozpin laugh a little inside his mind before his older counterpart responded. 'No it doesn't hurt. You'll feel quite exhausted when we switch back but other than that it won't hurt a bit. You become the voice in my head. But I'll need to be quick. The switch won't last for very long the first several times we try it. As we do it more often our connection will become stronger and the change will last much longer.'
"Alright well...what do I have to do?"
'You do not have to do anything Oscar, simply say the word and I will take over.'
"Oh...that's awfully simple, well, go ahead then," Oscar shrugged his shoulders before he began to feel a surge of energy flow to the forefront of his mind. His eyes began to glow green and he felt as if he were being dragged backward, though his body didn't move. Everything in his field of vision seemed to be sliding away from him as everything became smaller and smaller until his vision snapped back to normal.
However as he tried to speak up and discuss his apparent hallucinations he heard himself talking, but noticed that he couldn't move his body at all. His body then began to move on it's own.
'Woah this is really weird,' Oscar thought to himself before he heard an unexpected response.
"The nausea will fade, don't worry," Ozpin replied as he began to walk toward the front of the coach to the exit door. He breathed softly, calming himself before reaching for the door knob and twisting, opening the door slowly, immediately hearing the hissing of the steam from the engine, the cloud of super-cooked water hugging the ground around the engine in the darkness of the night. Oz poked his head out from the coach and looked out in front of the engine, seeing a flashing amber light out in the distance.
Ozpin looked out into the distance, not able to see a thing more than a few yards from the train, having stopped in the middle of a dark forest. As he walked down the few short steps to the ground he turned and headed to the front of the train. As he reached the engine he looked up into the cab and found it empty.
"Hey!" Ozpin jumped, reflexively taking a battle ready stance as he whipped around and found a elderly man leaning around the front of the engine in uniform.
"Hahhh," Oz breathed easy as he quickly relinquished control of Oscar's body, Oscar's consciousness being pushed to the front as he fell to his knees, completely exhausted and breathing heavily.
"Woah, kid are you alright?" The man jumped down off the front of the engine and jogged back to Oscar and helped him to his feet.
"Why did you switch back?" He whispered under his breath.
'You're not in danger,' Oz replied. 'Gather information Oscar.'
Oscar took a deep breath and looked up into the face of the old man and plucked up courage. "Sorry about that I...I was just wondering why we stopped?"
"Oh," the old man let out with a questioning look before he sighed and shrugged his shoulders. He swiftly turned back toward the front of the engine and turned Oscar's attention with him, "Well then we are wondering the same thing, boy."
"What do you mean?"
The old man pointed toward the signal that had caught Oscar's eye earlier off in the distance. "All the times I've run this route that signal has never been anything other than green."
Oscar watched as the signal quickly flashed to red before flashing back to amber. "Huh..."
"Soon as it came into view it flashed red and then went back to amber. I can understand a proceed with caution if there's Grimm around but we've been stopped here for almost five minutes and I haven't heard or seen anything!" He sighed loudly as he adjusted his hat and Mistral Railroad uniform.
"So...no one else has come out to talk to you?" Oscar wondered aloud as he looks back at the coaches again.
"No, not even one, in fact," he looked down to the young boy, "I suspect that there may be no one else on board. I wasn't even sure if you still were."
"How can we be going to the capital of the continent and not have anyone else on board?"
"It's a rare thing to be sure, kid, but it does happen from time to time. Once we get closer to Haven more and more people will get on I'm sure but until then it's pretty slow business out here."
Oscar looked up into the cab again and another question popped into his head as he scrunched up his face in wonder. "Where's your fireman?"
"Haven't got one," the old man sighed and let go of Oscar, walking back toward the front of the train. Oscar began to follow him as he spoke again, "Called in sick today and there weren't any on hand out your way in the sticks. I'm picking one up on the way in I believe."
"So...we are just sitting here waiting for the signal to fix itself?"
"Nope," he chuckled as he clambered back onto the front of the engine and smacks the side of the boiler. "We are running it," he said loudly as Oscar walked to the front of the engine to get a look at what the driver was doing.
"Can't we just call for help?" Oscar asked as he watched that the driver was adjusting the smoke deflectors and shining up the glass in front of the headlamp to make it shine brighter into the darkness ahead.
"A few months ago yeah we could have, but with the fall of Beacon Tower the lines are weak and an old radio on an engine like this isn't going to reach far enough to call anyone who can help us."
Once he was satisfied with his work he hopped down and started walking back toward the cab. "We are THAT far from a signal box?"
"Yep. The Railnet out here wasn't built until after the towers were operational so the signal boxes were stationed as far apart as possible assuming the towers were still working. Now that one is down, the boxes are too far apart to reach each other."
"Alright well...I guess I'll go sit down then?"
"Nonsense kid," The driver laughed as he climbed his ladder up to the cab and looked back down to Oscar, "If I'm gonna run a signal with no fireman then I'm gonna need a lookout. Jump up."
"Wha...really?" Oscar asked nervously.
"Yeah come on, all you gotta do is look," he laughed as he grabbed the fireman's shovel and opened the firebox, beginning to shovel red Dust crystals into it.
'Go on, I'd rather be up here so we know when something goes wrong instead of back in the coaches.'
"If you say so," Oscar muttered and climbed up the short ladder into the cab and walked to the front of the cab. "Do I need to do anything or just look?"
"Well I suppose it would be a good idea for you to know where the brakes are in case I can't get to them for some reason," The man chuckled out as he pointed to the large brake lever.
"Alright," Oscar rolled his eyes before looking back through the window. "Go ahead then."
As the driver released the brake the engine began to creep forward toward the signal. Slowly Oscar started to realize how far they actually were from the signal and how powerful the light must be to have shone so far into the distance. They continued forward slowly, Oscar squinting out into the darkness to try and keep an eye on the track. As they came closer and closer to the signal Oscar began to think he was seeing something or someone in the distance beside the signal.
"Can you see the signal yet kid?"
"Yee...Yeah I can," he shouted over the locomotive, "I think I see something."
"Something what? At the signal?"
"Yeah, A person I think," he decided as they got closer and closer the shadowy figure seemed to take the shape of a human rather than grim. "Should we stop?"
"I mean...an argument could be made for either option," the driver shrugged.
'Don't stop,' Ozpin demanded as Oscar's attention was snapped back to the figure.
"What? Why?"
"You talking to yourself kid?"
'Trust me Oscar.'
"Keep going, don't stop, they...are probably the one who disabled the signal, it could be a bandit trap."
"Well if they look that shifty then you don't need to tell me twice. Bandit attacks on trains are pretty common out here," the driver thought aloud before releasing the brake all the way. The engine immediately jumped forward, before he increased the throttle and the engine took off down the track. As they come closer and closer to the signal Oscar was able to make out a very nondescript figure in the darkness. As they finally passed by the figure it turned to watch them go by, Oscar swearing he could see the figure's smirk below their brown hood.
Oscar's attention returns to the front view port as the Driver speaks up. "So? We should've passed him by now. What happened?"
"He just...stood there and smiled."
'Keep on your guard. He could have been a distraction. I suggest we spend the rest of the night up here. We should arrive tomorrow morning anyway.'
"Do you mind if I stay up here all night?"
"Not at all, I could use the company kid," he smiled as he slowed the train to normal speed and the two settled in for the rest of the night.
However, unknown to the two of them the rear door on the final passenger car was slammed closed, interior lights flickering on, revealing two silhouettes standing inside who quickly took a seat in different rows.
"And you were worried," one's voice, female, rang out.
"Don't gloat alright? You're annoying enough without it."