A/N: Patrick is expelled from Beacon Academy. That is gonna be a major issue for Team PASM, as well as for the young Shadow Hunter who won't be visiting her comatose sister anymore. But we all know that Patrick is innocent, right? ...Right?
Chapter 33: Expelled
Glynda escorts Patrick to her office. The rest of Team PASM can only stand back and watch their leader leave. They cannot believe what just happened. There's evidence that Patrick is guilty of the crimes that have been happening for the past several days. They feel conflicted. They believe that Patrick is innocent but the evidence is overwhelming. Mashika takes notice of the event that's happening and just watches as Patrick enters the elevator.
Mashika approaches his team. "What's going on?" She asks them.
In the Headmaster's office, Patrick is standing in the center of the room, looking down in shameful defeat. While Glynda sits at her desk glaring at him. "Patrick Aki. I-"
Glynda is shortly cut off when the elevator bell dings, and it opens to have Team PASM bursting him. "WAIT!" They all said, and with Mashika coming in from behind.
Patrick is astonished to see him. "Guys? What are you doing?"
The girls ignored Patrick's question. They stand by his side begging at Glynda. "Please, Professor Goodwitch. You can't expel Patrick. He's innocent." Marlene says.
"I agree. Patrick is a lot of things, but there is no way he would ever do something so dishonorable and scandalous." Akira says.
"We know we don't have proof of his innocence, but if he says he didn't do it then..." Selena looks at Patrick, then grabs hold of his arm as she turns her attention to Glynda with a serious look. "We believe him!"
Glynda doesn't say anything for a moment, then speaks. "I know."
"Well if you won't change your mind then you'll have to-" Selena is suddenly silent as she and the other girls look astonished. "Wait. What did you say?"
"I know Mr. Aki is innocent." Glynda says. Hearing this has the girls confused. "There's a timestamp on the video footage of the scene of the crime, and I...happen to know where he was."
Patrick takes notice that Glynda was looking directly at him. That means she knows where he was: The Vault. "Well then, why did you make such a scene and expelled him?" Marlene asks.
"To lure the real culprit off guard. The figure was committing crimes and leaving clues and tracks that would lead to young Patrick Aki here. If we were to count on that they were fake and he's innocent..."
"He'd realize the heat and will try to cease and escape." Patrick says.
"Indeed. Which is why I had to put up the act of expulsion." Glynda says. "But I am glad the rest of Team PASM is here. I want you three to take the lead in finding the real culprit behind this crime." Glynda looks directly at Patrick. "Mr. Aki, until this matter is resolved, you will be living somewhere outside of the academy, in hiding."
The girls of Team PASM help escort Patrick out of Beacon. In doing so, the female students are all lined up, shouting and booing at People, shouting comments like 'Pervert' 'Insane abuser' 'You should be ashamed, creep'. The girls of Team PASM are taking this hard, knowing how innocent Patrick is. To Patrick, it's nothing but a bitter reminder of his past.
Team PASM gets settled in at Gaia's old apartment home. And have a discussion about the situation.
"Who do you suppose could be behind this?" Marlene says.
"Someone who has it out on Patrick would be the obvious answer." Selena says.
"Yeah, but that could be anybody, given his reputation," Akira says. That earns her a glare from Patrick.
The girls put their heads together and think, then it hits Selena. "Wait. What if it's the same person that set Patrick up in the girls shower room?"
Hearing that startles Patrick, and confuses Akira and Marlene. "What do you mean?" Akira asks. Selena tells Marlene and Akira about what happened with Patrick, and how he got trapped in the girls' shower room and was almost caught. "Really?" Akira turns to Patrick. "Is that true?"
"Unfortunately," Patrick says in defeat. "Instructor Kirei had me taking care of cleaning up the restrooms for the Student Council. And while I was working on the girls' room, well...the rest is history."
Akira is about to say something, but then realizes. "Wait...In that sauna room, we heard something...Underneath the bench...That was you?"
"Yes. I was gonna hide out until everything passed but my situation only worsened. I only made it out because of Rin, who made up that whole Meteor Shower thing just to distract the girls." Patrick says.
"I'll say this, you were very lucky." Akira says. "But why didn't you say anything to us?"
Patrick is about to speak, but he and Selena, and Akira noticed something, from Marlene. The young girl is standing there, her head steaming, eyes with a panic look, and her face completely red. "Oh, man! P-P-Patrick...Was in that room...And I was seating...on top of him...In the nude!"
Then Marlene faints, resulting in Patrick saying, "That's why."
After they finished dropping off Patrick, the girls returned to Beacon. They hang out in their dorm. They pace around trying to figure out what to do. Marlene already tried to track down the culprit with the photos and the symbol on it, but came to nothing. They are entrusted with Glynda to find him but they are trapped at a dead end.
Then Marlene realized something. "The video. Maybe it'll have a clue on our culprit." Marlene says.
Akira and Selena don't understand it but they decide to follow Marlene's lead. She goes to the Student Council, which wasn't easy to get into due to its members being busy but they demanded to see Rin. Marlene explains everything to Rin carefully, making sure that nobody is listening. "So you see, Glynda has entrusted us to solve this case, and I was hoping to find any real proof in that video footage."
"Very well." Rin goes through her messy desk until she finds the Scroll that contains the footage, and hands it to Marlene. "I am counting on you to prove Patrick's innocence."
"We will not fail you or Patrick, Ms. President," Marlene says.
Marlene, Akira, and Selena return to their dorm. Marlene uploads the video onto her laptop and she gets to work on coding it. "What are you doing?" Selena asks.
"This video is showing that Patrick is the one behind all of this, but we all know he didn't do it. So I believe that this video was rigged or edited with Patrick's face on the real culprit's face." Marlene says.
"So you're trying to decode that edit to see who it really is." Akira says.
"Yes, at least that's what I think. But we're about to find out." Marlene says. Marlene spends the next few hours working on the video. Each attempt she has gotten nowhere comes across the same result: Patrick is the one behind the crime. After hours of this, on her final attempt that failed, Marlene groans in frustration. "It's no use. I've tried everything, and nothing changes. Whoever encrypted this must be a greater genius than my father."
"What else can we do?" Selena asks.
The girls take a moment to think. Then Akira gets an idea. "We'll have to do a stakeout, at the crime scene."
Selena and Marlene hesitated, but they agree with Akira's idea.
Later at night, the hallways are empty. The Bulletin Board is very much clear. The nighttime is long and quiet. Selena pops her head out from behind a potted plant, she takes out her Scroll and speaks. "This is Selena, checking in. Everyone in position?"
Akira reveals herself from behind a curtain. "Akira, in position."
Marlene shows herself from a closet door. "Marlene, in position."
And lastly, Mashika who is watching above on the support beam. "Instructor Kirei, in position."
"Excellent. Everyone stay hidden, and keep an eye out for our culprit." Selena says, and with that everybody returns to their hiding positions.
They waited. And waited. And waited. All night long. Some of them are starting to get tired. Nothing happened. Selena checks in for any sights, but nothing's changed. Past midnight, it's still quiet and empty. Akira and Marlene have already fallen asleep, and Selena is struggling to stay awake, feeling dazed as she starts to drift into sleep.
"Girls, girls, I'm getting something!" Selena jolted awake hearing that. She sticks her head out from behind the plant to see what is happening. There's a hooded figure walking down the hallway.
"Guys, wake up!" Selena says in a loud whisper. Akira and Marlene are alarmingly awake. Marlene's reaction is a little too alarming, she starts banging in the closest, which startles the mysterious figure. Everyone else is getting nervous at Marlene's clumsiness up to the point where the closet door opens and Marlene falls out of it covered in cleaning supplies. Marlene looks up to see the mysterious figure before her and chuckles nervously, then the figure runs.
"Don't let them escape!" Mashika says as she jumps down and chases after the figure. Akira and Selena follow Mashika, while Marlene is just left behind trying to get out of the predicament she's in.
The figure makes a run for it in the hallways. Dashing in the dark night to make its escape. Akira is on its tail, she leaps onto the wall, running on it as she locks her eyes on her target. As she draws close, Akira takes out her sword and leaps onto it. The figure sensed Akira's presence and dodged the attack. The figure sweep kicks Akira off her feet and then resumes running. Selena is the next one to confront the running figure. She readies her staff as it channels Fire and Lightning Dust Crystals. Selena slams her staff to the ground, unleashing a wave of fire and lightning directly at the figure. The figure slams an Earth Crystal, crating an earth barrier in front of it to block the attack.
The smoke from the explosion clears, and Selena sees the figure has vanished. The confused idol looks at her surroundings, on alert. But then gets hit from behind, and the figure takes her staff.
The figure runs all the way to the foyer. Its about to make its exit until Mashika jumps in front of the entrance. The figure is surprised to see her. Mashika charges at the figure and overpowers it quickly. Mashika has the figure pinned down. "All right, whoever you are! Explain yourself!" Mashika removes the hood, revealing the figure's face, and it shocks Mashika. "What the? ...Patrick!?"
The figure's face is the same as Patrick's. An exact duplicate image. In Mashika's moment of hesitation, the figure takes advantage and strikes at Mashika to knock her off of him. The figure gets back on his feet and positions to fight. Mashika gets back on her feet and does the same, still confused but then puts on a serious face. "You're not Patrick. Who are you, really!?"
The figure doesn't speak, for he only dashes towards Mashika and strikes. Mashika reacts quickly to block the incoming blows. The figures' attacks are swift and powerful. But not the kind of fighting style Patrick would have. Mashika fights against her opponent with all of her skill and might.
In the end, Mashika deals the last blow, striking the figure in the stomach. Knocking him back, and the recoil causes a Scroll to come out of his pocket and fall on the floor. Mashika stands blocking the exit, her weapon at hand trying to an incoming attack. The figure focuses his attention on her, thinking of his next move, then that changes when he hears footsteps and turns to see the rest of Team PASM joining in, surrounding him. Though they are astonished to see the culprit is wearing Patrick's face.
"You're surrounded, give up. There's no escape." Mashika tells him.
The figure looks around his surroundings, then stares down right at Mashika. He readies the staff and charges right at her. Mashika braces herself for the incoming attack. But only several feet away, the figure jabs the staff to the ground and launches himself over Mashika. Mashika watches the figure as he flies over her and lands on the other side, making his escape. After a moment of astonished hesitation, she chases after him.
Mashika, Selena, Marlene, and Akira all reached outside of the school. But, much to their surprise, the figure is nowhere to be found. He only just went outside two seconds after they did and he's vanished. Even the dark night can't cover him that well.
"Where'd he go?" Mashika asks. The four of them look around, confused.
After losing their target, the girls returned to the Dorms, with Mashika joining them. On their way, Marlene finds the Scroll the imposter dropped and has an idea of figuring out who it is. Marlene gets to work on decrypting the scroll while the others put their heads together.
"It doesn't make any sense. How can the culprit have the same face as Patrick?" Selena asks.
"It does explain how Marlene couldn't remove the face edit on the video footage." Akira says. "Still, that doesn't explain how he could have been framed for the crime." The whole time, Mashika is silent, deep in her thought. "What is it, Instructor?"
"I was just thinking." Mashika says. "The way that guy fought, it wasn't anything like Patrick's combat style. Yet he still carries his face, like a perfect duplicate. Hmm..." Mashika is silent as she thinks. "It must be some kind of Semblance."
"If it is, it's not like any Semblance I've heard of." Akira says.
"It does sound accurate." Selena says.
"I'm in." Marlene says. Everyone rushes to Marlene's side and looks at the Scroll she's opened. Marlene scrolls through the information and is frustrated. "Nothing. This Scroll doesn't carry any form of identification. He's really thought it through."
"There must be something, let me take a look." Mashika takes the scroll and searches all over. Until she finds something that caught her attention. "Check this out." Mashika shows the text to everyone and they look at it. There's a text conversation with a blocked number.
'You are to post these pictures I made onto the bulletin board, and make sure they have this symbol on it.' Followed by the picture of the S.H. made of arrows.
'Phase 1 is complete. Now for the next phase. You are to post more but appear as that traitor and purposely become seen by the security cameras.'
'He is expelled, now for the final part of the plan. You are to post this picture of Headmaster Glynda. This will get that bastard arrested, and hopefully executed.'
When they scrolled to the bottom, they are all shocked at the sight of the picture of Glynda. So repulsive and revolting that the author of this story refuses to give even a simple description.
"Well, it's a good thing we stopped him, Glynda would murder Patrick for this, and she knows he's innocent." Selena nervously says.
"But at least we can locate our culprit." Marlene takes the scroll. She hooks it up to her laptop and begins typing. "If I can trace the signal of the Scroll that's been sending these messages..." Marlene types on the laptop like a wiz until she finishes, and gets a pinpoint on the signal location. "Bingo!" Marlene looks at the location and looks conflicted. "What the...This can't be right."
The other girls look at Marlene's laptop. "Wait. That location, is it..."
Akira gives a stern look. "Somehow, I am not surprised."
In the early morning, Kasheer Hamato is just waking up in his dorm when there is a loud banging on the door. Kasheer grumbles tiresome as he walks towards the door and opens it. Much to his disapproval, it's the girls of Team PASM. However, just the sight of Akira is more revolting enough for him.
"What do you want?" Kasheer asks in a grumpy tone.
"We need to talk, Kasheer." Selena says. The girls invited themselves into his room despite Kasheer's protest. "As I'm sure you are aware, there has been a crime going on of indecent pictures of the female students at this school being posted on the bulletin board."
Kasheer crossed his arms. "Yeah, and that loser Patrick is the one responsible for it."
"That is not true." Marlene says.
"Yeah, we have evidence of Patrick's innocence." Akira says.
"Last night, we investigated the bulletin board and we found the culprit behind those photos." Marlene takes out her scroll. "As we encountered him, we have found the Scroll he left behind, with messages on the tasks he received. We traced the number to this location...And now..."
Marlene starts the call request to the number on the scroll. About three seconds later, Kasheer's Scroll starts vibrating. Kasheer doesn't move at all, just sneers at Marlene, which makes Selena grab the Scroll from his pocket and reveals it's receiving a call from a blocked number.
"You're the mastermind behind this!" Selena says.
"So what if I am?" Kasheer says.
Akira crosses her arms glaring at Kasheer. "You've had some serious problems, Kasheer, but this is a new low."
"What I can't figure out is why did you frame Patrick?" Marlene says.
"It's obvious. I was the star of the Kendo Club, and I was about to put you..." Kasheer points right at Akira. "In your place like the animal you are, Faunus! But then that bastard had to expose my secret."
"Secret? You were cheating!" Selena shouts.
"Potato, Po-ta-toe." Kasheer says. "He betrayed humanity so I did what I had to do to put traitors like him in his place. Everything was going so well until you Team PASM Meddled."
"You're a disgrace to Beacon." Akira says, aggravated.
"Beacon is a disgrace to humanity!" Kasheer says. "Headmasters Ozpin and Glynda are weak and foolish allowing the Faunus to taint this school with their existence. And the fact they so easily bought the whole setting Patrick up trick shows just how gullible they are!"
"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Kasheer is surprised by a new voice in the room when suddenly Rayla and Glynda appear out of nowhere. Not only that but Rayla is holding up a Scroll, and its record light is flashing. "Framing an innocent student with such a crime. What terrible manners."
Kasheer laughs nervously as he is being stared down by Glynda. "H-h-headmistress Goodwitch. I-I can explain. I-"
"My office! Now!" Glynda says.
Kasheer is sent to Glynda's office, where he admits, in defeat, of everything he has done. He even confesses to Mashika about setting him up in the girl's shower. On that confession, Glynda expels Kasheer from Beacon, and Akira along with some other Faunus's personally escorted him out as another form of punishment. He did not like it.
Later that day, Patrick returns to Beacon. On his way, some of the other students welcomed him back, as well as apologized for falsely accusing him. He finds the company unwelcoming but doesn't complain. He returns to his dorm where the girls welcome him back with open arms. This time he actually enjoys the company.
Once the welcoming committee is done, the girls explained to Patrick what has happened.
"It was Kasheer this whole time?" Patrick asks. "Somehow, I am not surprised."
"That's what I said." Akira says.
"Well, at least he's been dealt with." Patrick says. "Though I could have given him a more suitable punishment." The girls don't like the way he said that with his tone.
"What I still don't understand is how did the one that planted those photos looked like Patrick." Marlene says. The girls are puzzled over that mystery, and so does Patrick. But thinks differently.
"The person looked like me. Could it be...No, it couldn't." Patrick says.
Later, the nighttime comes. Kasheer is walking on the streets of the town. He stops by at the entrance of an ally, once he sees the coast is clear he walks inside. In the ally, he stops by the dumpster. "I'm here." The Patrick look-a-like comes out of hiding, much to Kasheer's disappointment. "Would you remove that repulsive face?"
The body and face changes, and behind it reveals Neopolitan. "The plan failed. His little team girls and that Faunus exposed it." Neo uses her power to transform into Selena, then Akira and then Marlene. "Yes, I'm well aware you had your encounter with them." Neo turns back into her old self. She holds a hand out, demanding pay. "If you think I'm gonna pay you, you're nuts."
Neo puts on a serious face. Then uses her semblance to take the appearance Akira. He takes out her weapon, pulling out the blade as she approaches the frightened Kasheer with a devious smile on her face.
Kasheer is in a really bad predicament.