A/N: Chapter 21 of REKT. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or teams of RWBY, they belong to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum. What I do own are the characters and teams of my OCs: REKT, GTSY, KACE and DAZE.

Special thanks to the reviewers and to the readers who Fav/Alert this story, I really appreciate it.


Chapter 21: Search and Destroy

Outside...

"Professor Oobleck?" Weiss said as we continued staring at the huntsman with a varying levels of facial expressions. The other students around us didn't seem to mind or couldn't care less about our predicament. "You're the huntsman in charge of us?"

"Yes I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary ladies and gents! Seeing as you've opted to shadow a huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission." The green-haired professor exclaimed as he paced back and forth in front of us. "I can assure you with up most certainty we will not be establishing a single base of operations."

"Whoop-dee-doo." Kairos muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes as she said so. "A camping exploration. This will most definitely be fun."

"Rather we will traverse several miles of hazardous wasteland, and making camp in any inhabitable locations we may stumble upon. I've packed all our essentials myself, provided the air course and readied the airship."

"How much coffee did he drink this morning?" Efram whispered loudly enough for us to hear. "He's talking extremely fast that I'm having a hard time keeping up."

"And! It's Dr. Oobleck." He pointed a finger at Weiss and shook it slightly. "I didn't earn a PhD for fun thank you very much. As to how much coffee I had, I had enough to know that this mission is very critical to your very survival!"

"Uhh...sorry?" The heiress replied, looking at Blake confusedly. The faunus mirrored response and then shrugged her shoulders.

"Come now children, according to my schedule we are already 3 minutes behind...schedule." In a blink of an eye he was already zooming across the campus and stood next to the waiting airship. "Lets not dilly-dally!"

"Well alright then looks like we're going to save the world with, Dr. Oo-bleck...okay yeah when you say it out loud it sounds worse." Ruby trailed off as everyone released a collective sigh of defeat and hopelessness. "Wow this is gonna be great..."

"Save the world?" Nora's peppy voice spoke up and the orange haired huntress of JNPR waltzed in with the rest of her team not too far behind. She was waving an enthusiastic arm in our direction. "You're going on world-saving missions without us?!"

"I mean we're here too..." I stated but Nora continued her dramatic scene without missing a beat.

"I'm hurt and sad! Maybe a little hungry?" She leaned into Ren with an accusing look. "That last one's not my fault, though, Ren!" The man turned his back to her and folded his arms across his chest with a huff.

"Sounds exciting, where are ya going?" Jaune asked us.

"Oh just outside the kingdom." Ruby answered.

"Hey! So are we." Nora exclaimed happily, getting a few questioning looks from us. "It's gonna be a whole lot of fun!"

"Ren and Nora wanted to shadow the sheriff of a nearby village." Pyrrha explained to us with a smile on her face. "Tomorrow's when we'll leave."

"This is basically just us sending you guys off on your trip." Ren added. "Thank goodness we made it in on time."

"Then you can party with us tonight since we aren't leaving till tomorrow either!" Neptune and Sun barged in on our little pow-wow session, goofy grins on their faces. It was nice to see them as well. "We're shadowing a crime specialist. All inner-city detective stuff. We get junior badges."

"Oooohhhhooooohh!" Jaune let out what appeared to be a moan of delight when he heard those words, you could practically see the little stars dancing around his face. "So cool!"

"We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always exploding and junk." Sun said, giving us in particular an apologetic look. "So we thought this might be a better way to check out the kingdom when it's, y'know, normal."

"Well-"

"Four minutes children!" Oobleck's voice in the distance cut Ruby off, the man was tapping a finger against his watch. "Chop chop! Don't keep me waiting for too long!" The other teams gave us sympathetic glances in return, knowing we'd have a swell time.

"Wish us luck!" With that we parted ways and hopped onto the airship. The blades began to spin and the craft took off into the sky. Since there was a lot more of us the craft was slightly bigger than average however we still had to huddle together and hold on to the straps dangling from the ceiling. My guess was it was easier to perform a landing strategy if we were standing instead of sitting.

"I guess I just never saw you as much of a fighter." Yang had to talk loudly over the whirring of the blades and the roar of the engine in order to be heard. "Must be the professor appearance..."

"I admit I fancy myself more of an, intellectual but I can assure you, as a huntsman, I've had my fair share of tussels." Oobleck replied as he stood next to Weiss who gave him an expression I couldn't read.

"Like the mushroom?"

"Those are truffles." Blake said when Ruby asked.

"Like the sprout?"

"Those are brussels." Yang answered this time.

"Besides, given my expertise in the field of history, as well as my dabblings in the art of archaeological surveys, our dear headmaster saw it fit to assign me to this particular, assignment."

"What does history have to do with this?" Weiss questioned, getting lost in the huntsman's speech.

"My, what a preposterous question you silly girl! Why, history is the backbone of our very society." Oobleck exclaimed. "And the liver! And probably the kidneys if I were to wager."

"And that means...?"

"The southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves. But, it is also the location of one of the kingdoms greatest failures."

"Mountain Glenn right?" I asked.

"That's right, it was an expansion of Vale." Yang nodded. "But in the end it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off from the rest of the city."

Overrun by Grimm huh...Is that why Ozpin gave me that warning? I mulled over the thought and unconsciously placed a hand over my right shoulder, brushing against the mark that laid underneath the cloth. It pulsed a couple of times before falling silent and my brows furrowed with concern. I got a really bad feeling about this...

"Correct! And now it stands abandoned, as a dark reminder." Oobleck's voice cut through my inner thoughts and I shook my head to clear any negativity.

"And a likely place for a hideout." Blake commented, getting the huntsman's approving look.

"The only thing that'll remain as a reminder will be this mission once it's over..." Kairos grumbled, prompting me to elbow her in the ribs. She's was a bit...disappointed to having Oobleck as the leader but deep down she knew she couldn't wallow on the thought for long. The most important thing now was to show him just how capable the team was as successful huntsmen and huntresses.


Southeast Quadrant...

Once the airship dropped us off we were greeted the sight of an abandoned ghost town, definitely something I wasn't expecting to see. Tumbleweeds everywhere and old worn out building structures. It was kind of ...unsettling to say the least but that just added to the suspense. The amount of dust being thrown into the air thanks to the breeze gave the sky a little yellow color.

"Ladies and gents, you still may be students, but as of this moment your first mission as a huntsman and as a huntress has begun." Oobleck took a sip of coffee from his thermos as we stood around him. "From this point forward you need to do exactly as I say. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir!" We replied in a loud voice.

"Ruby! I thought I told you to leave all your bags back at school."

"Yikes!" She yelped, flinching back from his sudden outburst. "But, uh you hadn't told us to listen to you yet...so I didn't." The rest of us gave him one of those 'She's got a point there' kind of looks.

"She's not wrong." Oobleck muttered before clearing his throat. "Very well Ruby leave your bag here. We can pick it up upon our return. No worries, it'll be safe."

"But I-whaa!"

"Young lady what in the world could you possibly have in that bag that could be so important for you to bring it-" A shuffle from the parcel stopped Oobleck's rant and Zwei popped his head out. The dog panted excitedly as he surveyed his surroundings, taking in all sorts of smells and people scents.

"Get back in the bag." Ruby whispered, knowing all of our eyes were on the small creature. He barked at his master's command.

"We're here to investigate an abandoned urban jungle teeming with death and hostility and you brought, a dog?" Oobleck quirked an eyebrow. Then he exploded. "Genius!"

"What?" The rest of us looked at him as if he popped a screw loose. He quickly scooped Zwei in his arms and twirled around, knocking Ruby over.

"Canines are historically known for their perceptive nose and heightened sense of sound." Oobleck spewed, holding the dog up like a trophy. "Making them excellent companions for hunts such as ours!"

"Ruff!"

"Well he's taking it very well."

"Who knew Oobleck was a dog lover..."

"That wasn't the reaction I was looking for but I'd take it."

"I'm a genius!" Ruby exclaimed, getting all sorts of reactions including a couple of chuckles. Yang and Weiss both face palmed in unison while Blake looked unamused. "What?"

"So, what are your orders doctor?" The cat faunus asked, putting a stop to the foolish acts.

"Ah! Yes! Straight to the chase, I like it!" He dropped Zwei, eliciting a yelp from the animal. "As you have been informed the southeast area has been marked as a recent hotspot for Grimm activity. Now there are several possible explanations for this behavior."

Here we go...I steeled myself for a barrage of facts. This is gonna be even worse than a one hour lecture...

"One of which being, Grimm."

"...did he just..." I was just as baffled as everyone else. "Did he just make a pun?"

"Nope. Grimm, a creature of Grimm approximately 100 yards for us at this very moment." When we turned a Beowolf casually walked across the street and we got our weapons ready. "Stop. There are a number of reasons why Grimm would congregate in this particular area. The most likely of which would be their attraction to negativity. Sadness, envy, loneliness, hatred, all qualities that are likely held by our hidden group harboring ill intent."

"So what now?" Ruby asked. Obviously we were all ready to smack it but we had to listen to his orders and he told us to stop.

"We can't let it run away right?"

"We wait, we track, if the specimen leads us to its pack, that pack may subsequently lead us to our prey."

"How long do we wait?" Yang asked in a monotonous voice, getting a few nods from Efram and Timber as they thought the exact same. "It better not be years cause I don't have much to spare..."

"It's uncertain, hours, days, weeks, why lone Grimm have been known to stand isolated from the pack for months- and there's the whole pack." More Beowolves soon made their presence known as they crawled out from behind the building, following the first one we laid our eyes upon. Their lips were pulled back and they constantly made growling noises.

"Wow, that was a fast reaction." Kairos spoke. "And they came as if you summoned them. Good going Professor."

"What?" Weiss gawked as if she hadn't seen a Grimm horde so massive.

"And now they've seen us."

"What?!"

"And now they've seen us!" Oobleck yelled when the Schnee heiress continued to question everything.

"Then tracking is out of the question...right?" Ruby asked.

"What's the plan then?!" Yang added as a couple of the wolves charged forward.

"Show me what you're capable of." Oobleck commanded. After ordering Zwei to cover his ears, Ruby stared off with a couple rounds, shooting the creatures with deadly accuracy. Each girl from RWBY split up, tackling their own small pack of wolves with their weapons.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Ride 'em lil doggies!" Efram yelled as he twirled his trident around, smacking Grimm left and right. "Wow, I should work out more often. These guys are great warm ups!"

"Keep my eyes on the target..." Timber whispered as he held his weapon confidently and pulled his arm back. The thin string could be seen within his fingers and after taking a deep breath he released it. The energy bolt soared through the air, incinerating the small amount of wolves in a flash. "Phew...and that's that." He turned just in time to see a lone wolf stalking Weiss from behind; the heiress was too occupied to notice. Changing the form of his weapon he pulled his whole arm back and let it fly. "Weiss look out!"

"Huh? Waaah!" She yelped and ducked as the weapon soared overhead, knocking the wolf back while it decided to pounce. It tumbled and shook its head, pulling his lips up before getting smacked again. "Hey Timber! I thought your bow wasn't a boomerang!"

"It can be!" The boy shouted as he caught his weapon, shooting out a normal looking arrow to kill the creature. "I never said it couldn't!"

"...You're just full of surprises aren't you?" Weiss scoffed, watching a grin form on his face.

"C'mon! Is that all you got?" Kairos called as she threw herself into the fry, shooting Grimms before changing her weapon's form and slashed through flesh. Corpses of Beowolves laid by her feet with their tongues sticking out of their mouths. Releasing a humph she looked around for more opponents to fry.

"Don't celebrate yet, for I am certain this is the first bout of many!" Oobleck called as more, hearing the commotion, can running in. "And I told you so."

"I got this!" Summoning an Aura Sphere within my hand I jumped straight into the air. Narrowing my eyes I picked a point within the massive moving dots and dove for it. That's when something strange occurred. The Beowolves parted just before impact so my attack reduced the ground into dust but continued moving forward, oblivious to my presence. "What the-?"

"Huh? Her attack didn't go through?" Kairos watched with confusion. "I know for sure she never misses..."

"But look closely!" Yang pointed with a finger. "It's like they don't even want to deal with Reina herself. Almost like they don't want to harm her."

"How is that possible? Are you implying that those mongrels have brains?!" Weiss snapped, flicking some blood and fur off her weapon. "It's not like she's Queen of the Wolves or something!"

"Doesn't matter right now, we have to get rid of this batch before the next one comes!" Kairos roared. "We're almost out of energy as it is!"

"My attack...it didn't hit them...Hey! Come back here!" I cried out as the creatures ignored me, running straight for the others but didn't once look back at me. It was like I was invisible to them. "Damn it...!" Every time I moved to attack, the Beowolves continued to dodge or avoid me; running around, somersaulting over my head. I was getting more and more frustrated, knowing that Oobleck would send me back to Beacon if this continued further.

"Well done group." The green-haired professor spoke once everything had been cleaned up and everyone except me was panting with exhaustion. "Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any signs of criminal activity or operations in this sector. Oh well, moving on!"

"Hey doc you know I was actually looking forward to seeing a pro huntsman in action." Yang spoke up. "Like fighting or at least helping us fight?"

"Ah, but I am in action, scouring the ruins of this once great city for any signs of irregularity." He responded before turning to face us. "Not every mission is filled with terror and heroism girls and boys. Sometimes it's just a heightened form of extermination."

"You okay?" Kairos asked. I was silently looking at my right hand and plodding along behind, watching the aura shift around in my mind. "What happened back there?"

"I don't know..." I muttered. "The wolves...it was like they knew to avoid me, to avoid engaging in battle. I don't understand."

"It was pretty weird. Even I was confused." She nodded her head in agreement.

How can I prove to be a good huntress...if my enemies won't fight and take me seriously!? "Fuck!" I slammed my palm against a nearby building in frustration. All the pent of emotions exploded and the blast ripped the building off the ground. It flew a couple feet away before crashing, sending a huge plume of smoke into the air. The others jumped at the loud sound or the shaking of the ground and looked in my direction.

"Reina, keep your emotions in check! We don't want to alert anything else in the area!" Oobleck chastised me.

"Yes sir." I mumbled sulkily. "Sorry."

"Remember, this is a job, and you all signed up for it. I do hope you understand that."

"Well, yeah." Yang spoke after sharing a look with Weiss. "O-Of course!"

"Hmm..." Oobleck's eyebrows knitted together but he continued walking as if nothing happened. For the next several minutes we were continuously hounded by Beowolves and nothing more. I learned that the same thing occurred where all the Grimms avoided me and went after the others. It was infuriating.


Several hours later...

"Tell me Yang, why did you choose this line of work?" Oobleck asked out of the blue. We were resting for awhile to catch our breath after fighting...well the ones that were capable to whack Grimm around.

"Huh?" The blonde huntress turned to face him and address his question. "Well, to fight monsters and sav-"

"No, that's is what you do, I want to know why you do it." He stopped her and emphasized his question of why. "The honest reason as to why you want to be a huntress."

"The honest reason? I'm a thrill seeker." She replied. "I wanna travel around the world and get wrapped up in as many crazy adventures as I can. And if I help people along the way then that's even better. It's a win-win y'know?"

"I see." He nodded before leaving her to her devices and questioned the next huntress of Ruby's team. "And you Miss Schnee, a girl born into fame and fortune such as yourself certainly doesn't need the extra work. So, why choose this over a cushy job in Atlas?"

"It's exactly as you said, I'm a Schnee." Weiss replied after impaling a Beowolf in the chest. She looked over to see the professor scratching some sort of notes in a notebook. "I have a legacy of honor to uphold. Once I realized I was capable of fighting, there was no longer a question of what I would do with my life. It was my duty."

"Interesting." Hopping off the ledge he followed Blake as she casually fired shots at mini Grimm Nevermores. She released a sigh and sheathed her weapon, gazing around with golden eyes on full alert. "And what about you Blake? You seem to carry yourself with a sense of purpose."

"There's too much wrong in this world to just stand by and do nothing." She replied. "Inequality, corruption, someone has to stop it."

"Very well, how?"

"I...uh." At this she stumbled and mumbled around, formulating her thoughts that were jumbled up within her mind. Seeing his answer Oobleck left to let her dwell on the question. "I don't know..."

The last one, Ruby was busy taunting Zwei by putting a roasted turkey on top of Crescent Rose. The dog barked excited and even did a back flip. When Oobleck showed up she hastily put her weapon away and looked innocent.

"Sorry! Uhh, are we ready to keep going?"

"No, I believe that will have to do for today." Oobleck announced before looking up towards the sky. "It's going to be dark soon."

"Uuf!" Yang grunted when he threw the large bag in her direction without warning. "I could've used a heads up next time you throw something my way."

"You three, set up camp in that building. Oh and please do make sure that there are no more of those, creatures." Oobleck turned to face them with a knowing smile. "You four, go and search for either food or start and make a fire. Get comfortable, it's gonna get chilly."

"Build a fire?" Kairos looked up at the word and smiled. "I call dibs."

"If it's anything like that time you almost blew up the kitchen with Nora we might need to reconsider that. Ow!" Timber rubbed the back of his head when the girl hit him with a fist. "I was joking!"

"In the meantime, Ruby and I will secure the perimeter. Come, Ruby." On that note, the two of them left leaving the rest of us to go about our business with no room to complain.


Elsewhere...

I leaned against the far wall of the building, arms folded and a bitter expression on my face. All day we have been wandering around and I haven't killed a single Grimm. Zero. Nada. It was upsetting and I couldn't understand why. My fingers curled and uncurled by my side but I hardly paid attention to it.

"I can't believe we didn't find anything." Yang's voice caught my attention and I listened in to the conversation. Ruby's team were huddled around the fire while my team members stood along side them. "It doesn't make sense to me somehow."

"We've always been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time." Blake's voice followed as she looked at her partner. "I guess we can't always have luck on our side."

"That's not what I meant." Weiss spoke up getting a few heads to turn. "Earlier, about, upholding the legacy. There's more to it than that."

"Yeah, no me too." Yang agreed before glancing down at the ground. "I mean, I don't know."

"I don't know either." Blake added, looking very concerned. "I know what I want to do but, I figured I'd always take things one step at a time."

"Well, it doesn't matter, we know why we're here. Right?" Yang asked, looking around at the forlorn expressions on their faces.

"I wonder what Oobleck told you three but don't worry too much about it." Efram said as he grabbed a few provisions from the bag, separating them out rationally. "Wow...look at this grub!"

"You only think about eating don't you?" Kairos chuckled as she cleaned her weapon with a cloth.

"Not true! I think about other things..." He replied hotly. "Just right now, eating seems to be the best option!"

"A textbook campfire." Oobleck zoomed in, lighting up the mood a little. "Perfect!"

"Fire!" Ruby gasped as she walked in with Zwei on her heels. She knelt down and held her hands out. "Sssooo...warm..."

"Eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a long day ahead of us bright and early!" Oobleck scurried around shouting orders. "We'll need everyone to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode, any volunteers for first watch?"

"I'll do it." I spoke up and made my way to the opening where I could see the broken moon in the sky. "I'm not tired anyway."

"I can do it as well." Ruby spoke up and followed after me. She paused when Yang pulled her aside to whisper something in her ear. After exchanging words with her sister she bid her team mates good night and sat opposite of me. Within my mind I could see the others positioning themselves around the fire: Yang, Efram, Weiss, Timber, Blake and Kairos in that particular order.

"The Grimm are restless." I mused as we listened to the distant howling. "Just like us I suppose."

"You've been looking sad all day today." Ruby said. "No frowning."

"What do you think?" I asked her as Zwei curled up next to her. "Even if I attacked them they didn't seem interested with what I was doing. In the end I don't think I was able to prove anything to Oobleck."

"Don't worry about it." She placed a hand over mine and gave it a small squeeze. "Tomorrow's going to be better for sure." I smiled at her before the pulsing from my shoulder started up and I winced slightly. Thinking that she hurt me she removed her hand quickly. "A-Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." I replied, waving my hand in dismissal. "Don't worry about it." I placed a hand over my shoulder and thought some more. Weird...my mark hasn't been giving me trouble...why would it start now?

"The moon looks beautiful tonight." Ruby commented, causing the two of us to look up. "So white and always shining bright."

"Yeah...you're right." I smiled gently, taking my mind off the weird sensations. "The moon is beautiful tonight."


Meanwhile...

Not too far away a pack of Beowolves watched the ruins with their beady red eyes. Their claws scraped against the ground impatiently and their tails moved back and forth behind them. One by one they lifted their heads to chant:

The curse...has arrived. The Great One shall not be harmed. Destroy everything around the Great One. We must help the Great One...towards revival and awakening. Everything will be done...in the name of the Great One.