Quiet Meeting of the Heart and Fists
The old man now revealing to be known as Master Gouken is holding Qrow and Winter by their weapons, and the old Qrow man looks kind of scared out of his pants upon seeing the old man like he is seeing a ghost.
"So, you're here in the school as well." Qrow gulped.
"Indeed, Qrow, and it looks like you are still impulsive with your actions as always." Gouken said with one scolding look from his eye.
"And you have also cause problems for another again, I take it." Gouken looked over to Winter.
"I get the feeling they're in trouble." Yang whispered to her little sister.
"What is going on here?" Ironwood called out.
"Oh, definitely big trouble." Ruby nodded.
Ironwood is marching forward with Ozpin, Glynda, Cammy, Chun-Li, Summer and Raven right behind the Atlas general who is not looking happy right now as he can see with the gathered crowd that there was a commotion. Penny is also with them followed by two Atlas soldiers.
"General Ironwood, are you enjoying yourself outside the office?" Gouken greeted.
"I would be if I wasn't here to see about this odd fighting about a Huntsman and one of my best soldiers is fighting out in the open like it's an extra match for the tournament." Ironwood glared at Winter who looks nervous from the sight of the general.
"General Ironwood, sir!" Winter stands in attention.
"What in the world do you think you're doing?" Ironwood asked, approaching closer to Winter with a firm look on his face.
"He started the altercation, sir!" Winter said pointing at Qrow.
"That's actually not true. She attacked first." Qrow grinned, leaning himself to his right in a relaxing stance with his hands behind his head.
"That is only because you allowed your emotions to get the best of you, holding grudges and letting out your anger is very immature." Gouken pointed out while stroking his bread, that causes Qrow to groan.
"Whatever." Qrow crossed his arms.
"Would you mind telling me what you are doing here exactly, Qrow?" Ironwood asked.
"I could be asking you the same thing." Qrow glared.
"Now, now, I believe we should take this talk into the office." Gouken advised to take their adult business in a private area.
"Thank you, Master Gouken." Ozpin nodded in agreement and look towards the crowded people.
"Now, now, everyone. There is a sanctioned fight happening just around the corner at the Colosseum, that I can assure you has better seats... and popcorn." Ozpin advised the students to go continue watching the matches.
"Break it up, everyone! We will take care of this mess." Glynda glared at the four, more on Qrow and Winter.
"Let's go." Ironwood ordered with Winter to follow without any arguments, but she still felt a little angry at Qrow.
Penny follows Ironwood as well, but not before turning around to wave at Ruby with a smile and the red hood girl smiles back with her own wave.
"Qrow, would you mind telling me what was that all about?" Summer asked with a scolding glare at Qrow.
But before Qrow could try to come up with an answer.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby screamed with excitement as she latches onto his right arm and he easily lifts her up.
"Hi. It's so good to see you! Did you miss me? Did you miss me!?" Ruby asked with a joyful looks in her eyes, glad to see her uncle again.
"Nope." Qrow answered jokingly and petted her head.
"Oh, you're going to wish you had missed her when you get up to Ozpin's office for trashing the courtyard." Raven pointed out with a grin.
"Wow, you're in deep trouble now, Uncle Qrow." Yang chuckled.
"I can see why Master Gouken said you suck at even doing the Drunken Fist style." Sun stated with his girlfriends laughing at Qrow a little.
"Hey, it's not my fault I ger dizzy every time I drink." Qrow defended himself.
"Which is why you also have not been doing well in meditations as well." Gouken said walking past Qrow who groans.
"Sun Wukong, it is so good to see you again?" Gouken said as they both bow to each other.
"Great to see you again too, Master Gouken. I can't believe you came all the way out here for the Vytal Festival, bet you saw how awesome I was in that fight back there." Sun smirked.
"Yes, a little rough around the edges and too much jumping around the battle, but that's to be expected from the one who was born a monkey." Gouken commented making Sun almost trip.
"It's wonderful that you came here on such short notice, I hope it wasn't trouble." Cammy greeted.
"I'm always on a call for my friends and rivals, especially when it comes to the pure darkness of the world that we must do our best to protect." Gouken stated.
"And do you mean by that?" Mika asked.
"Sorry, but I'm afraid that's official business for us to talk about." Summer said as she pushes Qrow to the tower from behind.
"We'll see you girls later." Chun-Li waved goodbye as they leave the scene.
"Don't do anything I would do, even though it would be tempting and awesome." Qrow waved goodbye with a grin and got forced forward by Summer with a glare making him feel shivers down his spine.
"Wow, your uncle is pretty cool." Sun complimented to Ruby and Yang.
"And suddenly, your recklessness makes sense." Weiss said, crossing her arms and glaring at Yang and Ruby.
"You're just mad because he whooped butt." Ruby grinned with a light pat on Weiss's shoulder.
"That was a draw, at best!" Weiss proclaimed.
"Nah, I think that was gonna be Qrow's win, but your big sister was an awesome fighter. I can see where you got your awesome moves from." Sun winked at Weiss, making her blush a little.
"W-Well, who else did you think trained me?" Weiss turned around to hide her blushing cheeks.
"I believe we should be heading back to the fair ground, there is this interesting little plushie I've been wanting to get my hands on for quite a while." Menat smiled.
"Oh, I think I know just the plushie you're talking about." Yang nodded.
"I wonder what kind of meeting our moms and Uncle Qrow are going to have, besides the fact that Uncle Qrow and Weiss's big sister were fighting." Ruby asked.
"I'm pretty sure it's nothing big." Sun shrugged.
(Ozpin's Office)
Ironwood, Winter, and Raven are there in the office waiting for the others to arrive, and the elevator door opens showing a grinning Qrow being accompanied by Ozpin and the others.
"What were you thinking!?" Winter asked angrily at Qrow.
"If you were one of my men, I would have you shot!" Ironwood stated.
"If I was one of your men, I'd shoot myself." Qrow stated back, showing that he never wants to work for Atlas in a million years even on his deathbed.
"Now, now, everyone, let's all just calm down and think calmly even though the earlier incident was unexpected." Summer tried to calm the atmosphere down.
"Tell that to the specialist woman who was retaliating like she did certainly didn't help the situation." Glynda pointed out Winter's flaws.
"He was drunk!" Winter said.
"He's always drunk!" Glynda countered.
"It's too bad when it comes to the ladies talking about you, it's not about being in love. Not that it would ever happen to you." Raven teased her twin brother.
"Shut it." Qrow said, a little angry while drinking his flask.
"I believe we should be getting down to what we were going to talk about, but Winter will have to go." Gouken said.
"What?" Winter shocked.
"Do not take it personally, Young Winter. This is the kind of meeting for the higher ups such as the headmasters and selected few others like myself." Gouken explained.
"In other words, you're not on the list." Raven chuckled.
"I'm very sorry about my brother-in-law, I promise to give him a good scolding and some more after this meeting. And believe me, it's one of his worst nightmares." Summer glared at Qrow making him quiver behind Raven in fear.
"They're right, it's best that you have. Perhaps you could go spent time with your little sister, now go and that's an order." Ironwood ordered her second-in-command.
Winter didn't want to leave her general, but she couldn't disobey the order from Ironwood and maybe it was time to go see her little sister to find out how she has been doing more.
"Very well." Winter nodded and walked out of here, leaving into the elevator.
"Honestly, couldn't you two control Qrow better whenever he's around?" Glynda asked Summer and Raven.
"Hey, it's not our fault that Qrow is always drunk." Raven said.
Then everyone turns to see Qrow is about to drink his alcohol from his flask only for Master Gouken to snatch the flask away from his hand.
"Hey!" Qrow yelled.
"You can have this back when this meeting is done." Gouken said.
"Are you shitting me right now? You're going to treat me like a kid?" Qrow asked complaining in a slight groan tone.
"Well, this reminds me of the time you and your friend were training under me for a while. You would even complain a lot about how you wanted some drinks whenever you wanted, and I had to knock some sense to have you focus on training." Gouken remembered.
"Only because of how painful you put me through!" Qrow pointed out.
"Well, at lease the other two were more patient." Gouken said.
Then Qrow decided to teach this old man a lesson by using what he learned from this old fossil and show him how "mature" he is.
"Shoryuken!" Qrow threw the uppercut of the Ansatsuken he learned.
But Gouken saw this coming with caught the fist with one pinky finger easily pausing the attack much to the drunken man's man, and then Gouken simply flips Qrow into the air making him spin for about five seconds then falls onto the floor.
"Are you done?" Cammy asked, Qrow mumbles yes with a nod.
"Qrow, why are you here?" Ozpin asked, wanting to get to the question with a sigh.
"You've been out of contact for weeks! You can't just go dark like that in the field!" Ironwood mentioned.
"I'm not one of your special operatives, Jimmy!" Qrow glared.
"Qrow, please. We have no time for grudges." Cammy pointed out there are important things to do.
"Whatever. You sent me to get intel on our enemy, and I'm telling you, our enemy is here." Qrow stated with a glare.
"We know, one of the students encountered one of the enemies trying to sneak into the CCT but we were unable to find out what they were up to." Cammy explained.
"But what we do know is that Shadaloo is also involved in this mystery including the incident with the Grimm Breach, they're up to something big which may also include this Vytal Festival." Chun-Li believed stroking her chin a little.
"Well, at least that is good for you guys to know because it's way better than this little thing!" Qrow held out his Scroll.
"We know you're trying your best to lay low, but you should at least let us know a bit more." Summer concerned.
"Not when we're dealing with the big bad queen." Qrow said.
"Anyway, the infiltrator isn't just another pawn for the Queen. They're the ones responsible for Autumn's condition." Qrow revealed.
"What?" Glynda shocked.
"And you are sure about that?" Gouken asked.
"Yeah, all of my investigations lead me to that inclusion before coming here." Qrow nodded.
"Despite what the world thinks, we're not just teachers, or Generals, or Headmasters, or others like police officers and such. The people in this room, the leaders of the other two academies, we're the ones that keep the world safe from the evils no one even knows about!" Qrow reminded them before getting closer to James.
"It's why we meet behind closed doors, why we work in the shadows. So, you tell me, James, when you brought your army to Vale, did you think you were being discreet, or did you just not give a damn!?" Qrow asked angrily.
"Discreet wasn't working." Ironwood said as he places his Scroll onto the desk then a hologram project of the Vale kingdom appears at the center of the room with Beacon Academy, the CCT, and the Atlas fleet.
"I'm here because this is what was necessary." Ironwood proclaimed.
"You're here because Ozpin wanted you here! He made you a part of this inner circle and opened your eyes to the real fight that's in front of us!" Qrow pointed out.
"And I am grateful." Ironwood said.
"Oh, well, you've got a real funny way of showing it." Qrow rolled his eyes.
"The people of Vale needed someone to protect them; someone who would act. When they look to the sky and see my fleet, they feel safe, and our enemies will feel our strength." Ironwood said strongly, believing that his way would keep the kingdom safe from danger.
"I'm afraid that is not going to work in the long run." Gouken said with his eyes close.
"What do you mean by that?" Ironwood puzzled.
"While your fleet is strong with the size and numbers, I fear that is something the enemies are expecting for that to happen and will search for an opportunity to use all of that strength against you." Gouken said, feeling a hunch from his instincts.
"Atlas security is top notch, state of the art in the world. No one would be able to hack into our systems." Ironwood refused to believe any is capable of taking over his system.
"That maybe the case, but I heard there have been a couple of cases that your system has been hacked back in Atlas." Gouken mentioned.
"That's right, and one of them was when I was about to leave Atlas when I was pregnant with Sun." Cammy remembered that incident.
"But that was back then, we've improved the system." Ironwood said.
"That won't stop them from trying to use your army and fleet to harm this kingdom and spread fear to the people." Gouken stated.
"And fear will bring the Grimm. A guardian is a symbol of comfort. But an army is a symbol of conflict. There's an energy in the air now, a question in the back of everyone's minds... "If this is the size of our defenses, then what is it we're expecting to fight?"" Ozpin gestured to the hologram display.
"Ironwood, while your intentions of protection are good, you are putting out too much that is barely leaving any freedom to the people you are trying to protect." Gouken walked up to James.
"If you keep trying to pile things up too high then all of that will end up breaking down including your own self, which is why one must always think calmer and clear your mind from all the negative thoughts that clouds your minds." Gouken advised.
"The infinite wisdom of the old street fighter." Qrow commented.
"But what if there is something big going on and I'm not strong enough to stop it." Ironwood asked with a sad expression as he looks down at his right arm.
"Worry that even a metal fist isn't enough?" Gouken asked.
Before Ironwood could react, Gouken thrusted his fist right past his head unleashing a strong wind pressure that hit the glass causing a small shockwave though no damage to the glass.
"There are times when even a strong man can find himself being unable to climb over a tall wall or even a mountain by himself, but you should remember that you are not alone in this secret war." Gouken gestured his hand around the room.
"You have friends and allies by your side. You don't need to shoulder everything on your shoulders just because you feel like it's your responsibility. Let them help you carry those burdens and let them into your hearts for that will give you strength." Gouken advised.
"Wouldn't say I'm a friend of his exactly." Qrow muttered, earning a slap in the head by Raven.
"We even have the next generations of warriors to help us should we need them the most." Gouken pointed out, thinking about Sun.
"Speaking of warriors, I believe it's time we select our guardian and have her be prepared for what might come." Ozpin suggested.
KO a new chapter is done and hope you all enjoy it!
Gouken certainly gave Qrow a run for his money when he tried to attack the old man and the fighting master even try to help Ironwood be calm about the situation and remember about his allies, let's hope that'll be enough to get James a clear set in the mind.
KO comment, favorite, and follow through of how this story will go!