Ch. 38 Mission start
Students and huntsmen alike congregated around Beacon's landing zones. Most students were the first years that got their first assignments mere days prior and were brimming with excitement.
Well most of them were…
"Ah, team SWNY. Ready for your first mission? Of course you are! Why, I remember when I went on my first mission…"
Yang looked on with a blank stare. This was a nightmare, it had to be. Unfortunately Sky went out of his way to confirm that, yes, this was real.
"So when the mission said that we'd be shadowing an experienced huntsman it meant…"
"Yes, me! You may consider yourself lucky, but I assure you any other huntsman here would do just as good of a job. And do not worry, I won't steal your glory, I remember my first mission when I got to fight a giant Deathstalker…"
As the professor trailed off Yang nearly crumbled to her knees. They were going on a mission with Peter Port and she was already dreading the upcoming flight.
=O=O=O=
"RNJR, you've finally arrived. Miss Rose, have you received your briefing?"
"Yes, sir, ugh maam?"
"...specialist…" supplied Jaune with a whisper.
"Yes, specialist!" Ruby saluted with renewed vigour and certainty.
"Good, now board the transport."
The team quickly followed specialist Winter Schnee and boarded the Atlesian ship. As the doors started to close Winter turned around and surveyed the team as they secured their baggage and started strapping themselves in. Then a movement caught her eye from amongst the bags. Before she could come closer to inspect it however the intruder made themselves known.
That is to say, Zwei popped his furry head from the inside of Ruby's bag and made eye contact with Winter, before yawning and sticking his tongue out with a head tilt
"I was not made aware that team RNJR included a canine unit. Care to explain?"
"Oh, uh. This is Zwei, and he's only been a part of our team since earlier this morning. Dad sent him in the mail."
Winter had a look of incredulity on her face as she looked around the team for any more comprehensive explanation. It was then that Ren's years of dealing with Nora's way of explaining things kicked in.
"If I may, specialist, while the canine hasn't been officially included in the mission, he has unlocked aura and as I understand it has been a part of more missions than we have."
"That's right. Ruby told us about how Zwei sometimes comes hunting Grimm with her dad." added Nora, her carefree demeanour making it obvious that she wasn't trying to lie.
"As in this is Taiyang Xiao-Long's dog… why am I not surprised? Don't take this the wrong way miss Rose but your parental figures are all unhinged. As if it wasn't enough I had to deal with Branwen's insanity… No matter, the canine… Zwei may join us on this mission so long as he doesn't compromise it. That means I reserve the right to make him stay behind at my discretion."
=O=O=O=
A large man with long blood red hair flowing from underneath his peaked cap approached the group. Dressed in the navy blue Vale Police Department uniform there was no doubt that he was the officer sent to collect the two teams.
"Right, so there's supposed to be… eight of you? Good you're all here then. I'm sergeant Perry Høyrød. Welcome to the force. I'll be taking you to the station and will likely be in charge of some of you later. We usually split you guys up into pairs, most often by your academy partners as you're already used to working with each other but we're willing to accommodate other pairings if you'd like."
"We may take you up on that offer." said Weiss as she looked at Sun with a cold glare. She had no doubt he planned this.
Of course if she thought about it a bit more she would recognise how unlikely it was that Sun planned this, or anything really. He led his team together well enough, but none of the guys would ever accuse Sun Wukong of planning ahead.
"Sure, no problem there, we're just happy to have you guys. While some of us went to a primary huntsmen academy you guys are better trained for direct combat. Not that you're likely to actually get into combat, it's more of a deterrent thing. We'll see where exactly we'll assign you but expect a lot of patrolling and making people feel safe. We get the occasional pickpocket or thief but nothing too serious. Not that there aren't any serious crimes, but you're not really trained to deal with those yet. Those are usually left to senior investigators or referred to trained huntsmen. We have a few we tend to rely on with those cases."
The talkative officer motioned them onto their transport. Since the officer seemed lost in his explanation both teams followed in silence, listening to the extended explanation of what awaited them.
"Either way, you guys will do just fine, most first years do. Now don't worry, you won't get stuck on traffic duty. With the Vital festival coming up we have a lot of tourists coming in so you'll get your fair share of petty crimes like pickpockets and such. Those will be your bread and butter for most of your tenure with us. Most officers can't easily catch up to those, but I suspect you'll be able to. Some of you are somewhat adept at evading arrest already, so I hope you'll do just as well on the other side."
Blake was a bit shook by the jab and tried her hardest to convince herself it wasn't about her. After all she didn't actually do anything illegal in Vale, except maybe entering the city illegally a few times.
Cocra shared a look with Maroon, who was most definitely reported to the police at least a few times. The time she assaulted random people who resembled Blake probably wouldn't end up being an issue, but it definitely meant that the police were aware of her. Though she was pretty sure she didn't do anything too illegal otherwise… other than trespassing when taking shortcuts.
Sun, who this jab was actually directed at, was blissfully unaware of it. The VPD were very aware of him ever since he arrived by stowing away on a boat. The amount of petty crimes he committed was also fairly high. The charges of petty theft (mostly fruit) and disturbance of public order were probably enough to at least fine him, but for whatever reason the headmaster of Haven academy worked very hard to keep all of his students out of trouble, even going as far as paying their fines.
Sergeant Høyrød took note of the reactions, committing it to memory to look into that later. He understood that huntsmen in general had their quirks. Most people in vocations that could kill them any day would have those. Add in the fact that half of these students weren't even from Beacon and you had a pretty good reason to ignore their peculiarities. Especially when they weren't anything major and you needed to work with these people.
"You'll also learn how to do the proper paperwork for fines and arrests, but I wouldn't worry too much about that if I were you. The officers in charge of you will make sure you didn't make any mistakes there. Oh and you'll get badges, they say Junior Detective on them to separate you from Recruit Officers. Technically you're both under the rank of Police Officer and have some of the powers of a full fledged Detective.
Oh and I should tell you, though I'm sure you're going to hear it time and time again before you get to go on patrol. As per your station as Junior Detectives you are allowed to use your weapons but be mindful of collateral damage. You won't be fighting Grimm so ideally you shouldn't need to shoot at all but if you do, make sure you only hit whatever it is you're aiming at. You don't want to shoot some innocent bystander. And even if it isn't a person you've hit, property damage still comes out of your pay."
"You'll be meeting the captain in charge of our station when we land. Captain Iswed is an iron lady when it comes to police work, but she has a soft spot for newbies like you, so you're going to be fine… probably."
=O=O=O=
"Ah! It would appear we've arrived! Alas I'll have to finish the story some other time. Pick up your gear, students. We'll be dropping in shortly."
Team SWNY were nearly catatonic. They thought classes with Port were bad, but they didn't know a thing about the suffering that was the several hours long flight with the boisterous professor.
Cardin managed to mostly ignore the bragging and kept himself busy by thinking about Trivia. The problem was complex enough and the girl was close to his heart so it didn't take long for the loud voice of the Grimm studies professor to fade into the background, much like it did during his lessons.
Sky and Yang weren't so successful. While they also dissociated from the monologue, it was because their minds have turned to mush. Yang's more so than Sky's.
While Sky managed to convince himself that he could find some useful advice in the professor's story, he soon descended into a state of mild panic. The professor's descriptions of Grimm were both vivid and rather unhelpful, and the team's leader was trying his hardest to make sure he didn't repeat his mistakes from Forever Fall.
Yang on the other hand had nothing to focus on. She tried to occupy her mind with worrying about her sister and their dog. Or trying to figure out why their dad thought it was a good idea to send them Zwei when he had to know they were going on a mission too. Allas none of it helped and soon she was sitting there, mindlessly nodding her head every once in a while, and hoping the flight would end soon.
Pyrrha was by far the most involved in the conversation, if you could call Port's monologue that. She listened politely and offered the expected reactions during the story. She doubted half of what the professor said was true, but in her time at Beacon she had learned that if nothing else, Port's description of Grimm and their abilities were accurate.
That of course didn't mean she was unaffected, the polite smile she had plastered on her face was cramping after keeping it up for hours without rest. And while she learned a thing or two about Griffons, she felt herself give up on retaining the information. There was just something about the way Peter Port talked that made it difficult to pay attention to him.
As the students got ready to jump out of the bullhead, they were greeted by a sight of the destroyed landscape. The swamp that got dragged here by the Gheist variant was pretty much dried out by now, the dry mud that covered everything gave the land a wastelandish appearance. With everything covered in tones of brown and grey including all but the tallest of trees the view was muted, colourless and depressing.
"Well, no time like the present! Follow me!" yelled the professor, seemingly bringing back the noise of their transport coming in through the open bay door.
Before the students could shake themselves from the jarring experience the portly man had already jumped. Shaking himself out of his stupor first was Sky, who for once acted as a leader and started instructing his team.
"What are we waiting for! Go, go, go!"
The short time they spent in freefall once again afforded them an unobstructed view of the land. Though this time they had no time to marvel at the reach of the destruction and focused instead on landing as close to each other as possible.
The moment they did land however they were met with two surprises. The first was that the mud was nowhere near as dry as it appeared. The hardened crust immediately gave way under the force of their impact and made them lose their footing, landing them in various amounts of wet mud.
The second surprise was the stench. High up above they couldn't tell, but now when they were not only closer to it, but partially covered in the stuff, they suddenly understood why many of the people that went to this place initially had to get counselling.
As team SWNY got back on their feet, covered in mud. They were met with the figure of professor Port, practically clean except for his boots.
"Well, I see you've already familiarised yourself with the terrain. I'll give you a few minutes to clean off the worst of it. There are a few points of interest we need to check out. Hopefully we'll be able to locate a good place to camp before it gets too dark."
Yang would later unashamedly admit that she wanted to cry at that moment. And anyone who dared to make fun of her for that would be silenced with a promise of an involuntary mud-bath. And for once, her whole team would aid her in making that promise a reality.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Poor Yang... stinky mud is no fun.
As for the original missions, specifically the one to Mt. Glenn... without RWBY's medling it isn't really a priority to investigate there. But hey, we get the urban adventures that have so far been missing. Then again Blake is kept on a shorter leash by her team so things will pan out very diferently.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 39 Partners in crime