The military outpost was a sight in just how ruined after being left abandoned for at least a couple of decades. The snow which covered the ground, however, showed a series of footprints that were like those of a wolf and Human crawling on all fours, leading into one of the buildings. Tortuga turned to Winter and Clover, the two Ace Operatives who followed the prints of the creature they belonged to alongside him.
The Team Leader of the Ace Operatives, Tortuga Glenn stood at around Clover Ebi's height, his skin a faint tan while he gazed out with pale green eyes. His Specialist uniform stood out, as he wore over it a set of armor plates which formed polygonal shapes that conformed to his torso and limbs, carrying a tower shield that curved along the corners in one hand and a spear in the other.
"Looks like this is the place. Vine, Elm, everything clear on your end?" he asked quietly, whispering into a radio bead in his ear. There's no knowing how far his voice would carry, especially since the snow is still fresh and create plenty of noise already. They had been tracking the beast to this location, and if the slowly fading trail of blood indicated anything, it was both not a Grimm, and also regenerated even as it fled from them.
"We're good to go. Say the word, we'll come around to flank it." Vine chimed in, equally as serious as the leader of the Operatives.
"Good. Heads up, though, the creature appears to have already healed itself, or is administered first aid somehow on its way inside." Winter warned, examining the trail.
"Are you serious, even though we have been chasing it for at least three days now? These... things, just don't know how to die do they?" Elm asked, tone annoyed and incredulous at hearing this information.
"Wait, it shouldn't be able to regenerate. We broke its Aura just yesterday, before it slipped out from under our ambush." Vine pointed out.
"Alright, enough chatter, we're moving in. Vine, make a notation that these creatures can heal even with their Aura broken." Tortuga ordered, heading in towards the outpost while Winter and Clover followed behind. They then gathered at separate areas, Clover dropping to the ground and hiding behind a snowbank, while Winter got behind an abandoned truck and Tortuga a wall next to a door. After a second passed on him inspecting the doorway, he turned on a radio, whispering quietly.
"Alright, Winter, follow me when I go in, Clover will-" Clover suddenly cried out, interrupting the team leader.
"Holy shit!" he exclaimed, jumping out of the snowbank and backing away, but doing so in a manner that he was stepping only in his footsteps. Winter raised an eyebrow, knowing like any of the other Ace Operatives, Clover was supposed to be a consummate professional.
"What's going on?!" their team leader demanded, clearly annoyed with Clover freaking out like a child. In turn, the man called out to the other members of his team, activating his radio to inform Elm and Vine of what he found.
"Guys, there's an I.E.D., repeat, I just saw an honest to Gods I.E.D.!" he exclaimed, continuing to back up away from where he dropped to the ground. Winter paused, and looked at Tortuga, who was already issuing orders to Elm and Vine, looking into a window.
"Elm, forget any orders about giving covering fire with the Light Mortar Assembly."
"Already packing it up sir. Vine and I will head down to assist personally." Elm replied. Winter watched as their Captain widened his eyes while looking into the window, then pulled his radio to his mouth.
"Belay that, soldier!" Tortuga snapped loudly.
"Sir, we have to be able to support you and the others in some way. That's what makes this team so efficient."
"Not this time around, I just found another one rigging the door I was about to breach." Tortuga explained. What he just said hung in the air, and he spoke again.
"Had Clover not called out what was going on, you all will running this snow through a sieve. I didn't get it when I first looked into the building, but there's a bunch of broken pipes, and a janitor's closet that must have been recently opened and had its chemicals stolen. Whatever these not-Beowolves are, this one has apparently been busy rigging this place into a minefield. So stay where you are, and let us handle this." Tortuga ordered Elm and Vine. Winter, during this, checked and inspected the truck she was using for cover, which was how she noticed the exhaust had a pipe stuck in it. Her eyes widened, then she ran as she saw it was bundled in wires.
"I.E.D.!" she screamed, as the pipe bomb detonated, the force of it traveling through the truck frame setting off a chain reaction with what leftover Combustion Dust in its engine remained, blowing it apart. Winter was knocked back, but due to using her Glyphs Semblance to raise an stone wall, she avoided the worst of the debris, but still felt some of it striking her like a sledgehammer, breaking her Aura as she fell to the ground. She collapsed, and when she tried to get up, Winter fell back down with a yell of pain as a flash of pain in her back and legs kept her down. She squirmed and groaned, ears ringing from the explosion, her Aura protecting them from the worst of it and ensuring they weren't destroyed.
"Winter!" Clover cried out faintly as she slowly recovered, while he and Tortuga ran to cover her. Winter looked over her chest to inspect her stomach, and saw she didn't have anything sharp impaling her. However, she could tell that she had multiple dislocated joints, and what might have been a internal bone fracture.
"Specialist Ebi to Mission Control, this is Specialist Ebi to Mission Control, Specialist Schnee has been downed, repeat Specialist Schnee is- OH FUCK!" Clover cried out, his distress call interrupted as Winter felt something whiz over her, and explode where she heard his voice.
"Clover?!" Winter exclaimed hoarsely, grasping at her ear that was now ringing again from the blast.
"I'm fine! Bastard just chucked one right at me, he's crawling around in the motor pool!" Clover called out, voice finally clearing up that Winter knew her eardrums weren't permanently damaged by the beast's ambush. It was then the stoic and resolved voice of James Ironwood radio'd in.
"This is General Ironwood to Specialist Ebi, what's the situation and Specialist Schnee's status?" he asked.
"Sir, the hostile is using I.E.D.s, and possibly rigged the damn base- SHIT, GET THE FUCK OUT HERE YOU BOMB SLINGING BITCH!" Clover roared after dodging another bomb, Kingfisher's line cracking in the air as he apparently whipped it at the creature attacking them, pulling out a handgun, shooting several shots. A hail of gunfire replied back and Clover cursed some more as he ducked behind cover.
"Hostile is armed, but I got his attention away from Specialist Schnee." he hissed, and it was then Winter felt a pair of hands grabbing onto her, and pulling her up. She whinced in pain, and saw it was Tortuga picking her up in a bridal carry. Clover could be heard taunting the monster they chased here, swinging Kingfisher he guessed it to be. More gunshots rang out, with Specialist Ebi dodging and running from cover to cover to keep it from getting an accurate shoot.
"Specialists, a Medievac Bullhead is coming to your location at full speed, but you'll have to hold on for three minutes." General Ironwood's voice intoned.
"Roger that sir." Clover replied. After a moment passed, Winter Schnee looked around, a faint blurring at the edges of her vision as she spotted Tortuga inspecting her, grunting and flinching at just the faintest touch.
"This is Specialist Captain Glenn, I have taken Specialist Schnee out of the combat zone, but she appears to have a concussion, and likely has multiple internal injuries." the man intoned into his radio, pale fingers holding her head up by chin as he noticed her eyes fluttering.
"Hey! Do not fall asleep on me!" he roared, startling Winter back awake, and she widen her eyes, just in time to see a figure lolloping on all fours towards the two of them, ignoring Clovers' shots.
"Captain!" she and Clover both cried out, and Tortuga turned just in time to see the creature leaping at him, letting out a howling scream that unlike a Beowolf, had the intonations of a Human voice mixed with those of a wolf. As Tortuga reached for Galapagos, his shield and mace, the not-Beowolfs' mouth snapped open to an unnatural degree, warping its scream as it slammed into Tortuga, swallowing his shield and the arm holding whole and-
Winter gasped, breathing heavily as she shuddered. The Specialist felt damp all over her body, and she took a moment to calm down. Climbing out of the bed she was sleeping in, she looked around the rest of the Airship cabin reserved for the Ace Operatives, and noticed all but one was woken up by her abrupt awakening. Recomposing herself, she looked over at the newest member of the team, a Dog-Faunus by the name of Marrow Amin who was clearly startled.
Nodding to acknowledge him, she got up and walked to one of the bathrooms in the cabin, she took a mokent to wash her face, and then inspected her reflection. After taking a moment to brush aside some loose hairs, she looked over to the side to see her comrade walking over to her.
"Yes Marrow?" she asked.
"Tortuga?" the Dog-Faunus asked. Sighing, Winter nodded.
"Yeah, well, that whole mission was absolute hell." the eldest of the Schnee children replied. Marrows' tail flicked back and forth as he examined her body language.
"Well... I uh, never heard much about what the rest of you found, other then that there was some new form of non-Grimm monster the brass up top thinks is related to, uh... her." he answered.
"Well, I am... not in the mood to talk about it, to be it lightly. I'm going to go to the gym, later the others know if they wake up before I return." Winter said, and walked past Marrow.
While in the airship gym, she focused on stretching her limbs out, and then began running on a treadmill, her Scroll set on a display in case she received a call or text. Due to their status as a national security branch of the Atlas government, agents of the Special Operations Unit were granted a specially reserved, and encrypted channel for their private use within all Airships registered for travel without the use of the Cross Continental Transmit System, so that they can have 24/7 communications with the chain of command at all times within the government. An alert came up on her Scroll, and when Winter looked at it, she saw that it was displaying the national symbol of the Kingdom of Atlas, and she pulled out a pair of earbuds and stuck it into her ears.
"Specialist Schnee reporting." she said into microphone of her Scroll, and to which General Ironwood answered.
"Specialist Schnee, this is Ironwood." James replied, his voice emotionless and monotone. Schnee frowned lightly, as she and the others noticed ever since Tortuga's death, their commanding officer had his Semblance, Mettle, on for longer periods of time outside of his communications with the Ace Operatives during missions. Before, he only ever kept it on during missions where they were particularly stressed, and while at first gave the impression among General Ironwood's subordinates that he didn't care about them, time and time again showed that his Semblance allowed him to take the reins of whoever he was commanding, and get them out of danger.
His intervention during the Corporation War showed that spectacularly, as it was the use of Mettle allowed him to lead the Atlasian Army to rein in the worst excesses of the SDC without it devolving into a civil war on his part. Winter frown turned back into a neutral expression, and replied back to Ironwood.
"General, has something come up?" she asked.
"Yes, and it pertains to the last mission Specialist Glenn was active on. As soon as you and the others get off at Atlas City, report to me at once. This is something that must be kept confidential and spoken about in person." Ironwood answered and explained. Winter swallowed the knot that formed as she recalled waking up in a medical facility.
"Yes sir, I will be reporting in." Specialist Schnee replied.
"Acknowledged. General Ironwood, over and out." and with that, James ended his communication, leaving Winter back in her lonesome within the airship. After finishing her exercise, she packed up and left the gym, making her way back to the cabin where the other Ace Operatives were waiting for her.
Thankfully, Weiss is in safe hands with Headmaster Ozpin and his staff at Beacon... she thought to herself.
Beacon, Professor Ports' classroom
Weiss was silently gritting her teeth as she listened to the man known as Professor Port ramble on about when he fought a pack of Grimm. The man was droning on and on, but it wasn't the only thing pi... proving to be an annoyance to the high-class sensibilities she was raised on.
Ruby was openly goofing around with Yang and Blake, while the Professor somehow wasn't reacting to this display of insubordination. In fact, most of the class wasn't even paying attention, save for the Raccoon Faunus Eleanor Vandervelt, who was for some reason writing every single word Professor Port was saying like it was some form of holy scripture! The rest of Team STEL were clearly awake and alert, only paying intermittent attention as the story was finished.
"The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable!" Professor Port exclaimed. Weiss grit her teeth, as she saw Ruby was balancing a book and an apple on her head instead of at least taking note of this, and the other traits their current teacher was listing.
"A true Huntsman must be dependable!" as Ruby once again fell asleep, startled awake by Yang elbowing her.
A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated and wise!" At that point, Weiss was already seeing red at her quote-unquote 'Team Leader' being uncouth, and thus she saw that she had to take charge of Team RWBY...
"Is there anybody who considers themselves the embodiment of these traits?" ...and immediately Weiss raised her, sensing an opportunity to take charge and show the other students what a true Huntsman should aspire too being. Maybe if Ruby saw Weiss' example, she'll start taking her duties seriously.
"EXCELLENT, let me get Blowhard!" Port bellowed loudly, grabbing his weapon while a few students chittered and/or giggled, a Blunderbuss/Ax that was hanging from the wall. Ruby, Blake and Yang began cheering on Weiss, causing her to sigh, then she looked over to where Team STEL was out of the corner of her eye.
While earlier they were just as bored as everyone else was, Stanton and his comrades were now watching with a hawk-like focus, with Eleanor even having a pen and paper ready. While the other students were of course watching, the expressions Team STEL had were different, calculating intent in their body language, especially with how Eleanor was writing notes while looking at the other members of Team RWBY.
Are they... analyzing us? Weisss pondered, then was snapped out of her thought by Professor Port.
"Now then, Ms. Schnee, come and face your challenge!" he cried out with dramatic flair, swinging Blowhard down and chopping off the cages' lock, making the door swing open from the force exerted in doing so. A growling sound was heard from it, then Weiss dodged to the side to avoid the Boarbatusk that launched itself out at her.
A few minutes earlier
"Hmm..." Ozpin hummed to himself, looking over at the different photos that he had collected of the newly discovered threat. He had sent out a message to some of his more... gifted pupils, and they said they'd look into what the Ace Operatives found. In this case, it was a colored drawing of what they encountered.
It was sketches of a man, with several others to his right depicting his body growing increasingly more lupine features, such as his hair growing into fur and his mouth elongating from a human jawline into the fang-filled maw of a wolf. Ozpin never seen anything like these creatures before.
So why am I feeling such intense deja vù looking at this? He wondered, furrowing at how he knew absolutely nothing about them. Worse still, was the texts he received from over his Scroll from his 'gifted pupils' as he would call them. He went and took a look at the exchange they had with each other, and re-read them;
Spring: Am I the only one feeling oddly familiar about these beasts?
Summer: No, you aren't, and the fact Monarch mentioned similar thoughts is something I am just as concerned about.
Winter: Make that five of us, Fall also mentioned to me privately that they stoked some sense of having encountered them before. Whatever the Grimm Witch has come up with, we must proceed with caution regarding tracking and hunting them down.
"Well, if this is her handiwork, she is getting... creative." he mumbled, then pausing as he uncovered a photo of the corpse of the creature that was slain by the Ace Operatives at the cost of one of their own. The photo was focused it transformed back into the guise of a human man, taken from the chest up.
What drew Ozpin's eye, was that his chest was emblazoned with several scars, but purposely done to assemble a series of clearly defined markings.
On his left pectoral muscle, was a mark that appeared to be a nearly complete circle, starting with the tip being in a point, then widening gradually at the base that stopped just short of meeting said tip with a wide end, possibly meant to be a claw shape, or perhaps... he blinked, and looked at the moon. Not sure why his mind attempted to try to connect it to the moon of Remnant, he turned back to the photo, taking a paper and quickly sketching out the marking.
The next marking, placed on the dead creatures' right pectoral, was three straight lines that formed a box shape, with a single vertical line, with both ends meeting a horizontal line that moved to the left perpdicular to the vertical line, and parallel to each other. After writing down the other, he looked over to the third marking, which was in the center.
Scored across the sternum, the third mark was a think line, which tapered into three points at one end, and a blunt shape at the other. Across and through the middle of this mark, two sharp hemi-circles went through it, like claws or fangs biting unto what Ozpin suspected to be a representation of a bone. He examined the drawings he made, and took a picture of them with his Scroll. After doing so, he felt a need to check on Professor Port, and got up to do just that. By the time he'd get there, it should be just about ending.
What he saw upon reaching the classroom, was Weiss storming out, with Ruby running up behind her.
"Weiss!" Ruby cried out, red hood cape flowing behind her.
"What?!" the Schnee heiress exclaimed, turning around as her Captain addressed her. Intrigued, he observed closely without making his presence known. He was more then patient to let fate decide when it was time to speak.
"What's wrong with you?!" Ruby exclaimed, during which Ozpin looked over to see Professor Port watching as well.
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?! You're supposed to be the leader, but all you have been is a nuisance!" Weiss yelled back. During this, with a few subtle hand gestures and mouthing Schnee, Ozpin told Peter to speak with Weiss after she and Ruby finished fighting. The man nodded and went back to his classroom to finish with whatever he had to take care of.
"Weiss, where is this coming from? What did I do?"
"That's just it! You didn't do anything to earn your position, you acted like a child in the forest, and still do!" Weiss shouted, before turning to walk away as Ruby reached out to her.
"Weiss, what to working as a team?"
"Not one led by you. Ozpin made a mistake." with that, the conversation was clearly over as Ozpin walked forward with a frown. Best to work quickly and get things back on track for Team RWBY.
"Well, seems like things are not working out between you two." he said, getting Ruby's attention. He watched as the teenage girl, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes.
"Did... did you really make a mistake?" she asked. The Headmaster took a deep breath, and exhaled it quietly.
"That's remains to be seen. It's only been a single day... and while I have made more then my fair share of mistakes dear Rose, it's far, far too soon for me to consider your appointment to be one of them." he answered, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She calmed down as she processed his words, but was still somewhat saddened by them.
"I would add a bit of a remark, that being a leader isn't just a title you carry to battle, but a badge you must carry every day wherever you go. If you aren't always striving to be your best, what reason do you give others to follow you?" Ozpin let go of Ruby's shoulder, and proceeded to walk away.
"I'll let you think about how best to do that." he added, then pulled out his Scroll, and examined the picture of the sketches markings he made. He then brought up the group chat reserved for his inner circle, and sent it to them to examine:
Monarch: Here's something that I believe we will need to look into... Summer, you have been helping Fall track a Spectre through a museum right? [1 Image attached]
Summer: Yes.
Monarch: Show these symbols to the Spectre when you succeed in subduing it. See if they recognize them, and how they react to them.
Upon getting a confirmation from them, he went back to his office, passing by Team STEL as they made their way to Glynda's Combat Training seminar. While doing so, the sense of deja vù returned with a completely different sensation as he almost brushed arms with one of them, prompting Ozpin to slow down, and look back down at the Cadets as they walked down the hallway.
He would've normally ignored the sensation, but this time, he could tell something was off... because there were only a certain type of being, that was not of the Human race, not of Faunus-kind, nor even Grimm that gave that kind of electric tingling that Ozpin felt down his spine when he encountered them. Beings not of this realm that he and his gifted pupils as he would refer to them in public to ensure that they never brought harm to it.
"Hmm... even so, they're not of those beings either, just related to them." he contemplated, tapping his fingers against the head of The Long Memory.
Author's Note: And with that, the chapter has ended. I will let everyone who read this try to guess some stuff about the world-building, and as to how Ozpin and his "Gifted Pupils" are related to Team STEL, if at all.
Reviews offering any criticism about the story are welcome.