At around 10:38 PM, Vale's alleys were treated by a man, and henchmen were accompanying him. These henchmen wore all-black suits and a fedora with contrasting red sunglasses and tie. They had machete-like swords, blades coated all red, and some large laser pistols by their side. Every other henchman carried containers specialized to store a certain material safely.
The man they are following bore a red-lined white suit with long black pants and shoes that no ordinary citizen could afford. On top of his orange hair laid a bowler hat. It had a red band and feather tucked under it on the left side. He walked confidently in a swagger motion as he casually lit a cigar with the butt-end of his cane.
By the time they came out into the streets of Vale, nightgoers instantly recognized them and hugged the sidewalks tightly. No one dared to contact the police or fear something bad would happen to them. Even the police were not patrolling this part of the city during this time.
Furthermore, they had entered a small Dust shop with an elderly man at the cash register and behind the displayed Dust gems of varying sizes. The bowler hat walked up to the cashier while tapping off the burnt pieces of his cigar onto the glass display table,
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?"
As he spoke, one of the henchmen pulled their pistol out at the elderly man who was panicking,
"P-Please! Just take my Lien and leave!"
"Shh, calm down, don't worry about that… However, the dust here is worth more than whatever you have in that measly register of yours. But thank you for offering ahead of time." Bowler Hat pompously scoffed, "Grab the goods."
The henchmen then put the containers on the display cases to reveal canisters and slotted gem holes for the Dust to be collected. After the henchmen grabbed the canisters and went up to the valves containing Dust. One by one, each of them placed a canister on the valve and the Dust flowed into it carefully.
"Burned. Uncut." A henchman coldly demanded with a container opened.
As another henchman was about to drain more Dust, he noticed a young girl at the back reading a magazine. From the back, the girl was wearing a red-hooded cape and a black long-sleeved blouse with a black skirt with red lining.
"Alright kid, put your hands where I can see 'em!" The henchman demanded while pulling out his sword. The girl seemingly ignored him, irking the man, "Hey, I said hands in the air! You got a death wish or something!?"
The henchman marched over to the girl and placed his hand on her shoulder which dropped her hood; revealing that the girl was wearing headphones with rock music bleeding through.
"Huh?" Red Hood is surprised as she turned to face him. The henchman then pointed to his ears to prompt her to take off the , "Yes?"
"I said, put your hands in the air, now!"
"Are you… robbing me?"
"YES!"
"Oh…" Red Hood said with astonishment.
An Aura flared up and she charged up a kick that launched the henchman across the store. Bowler Hat and another henchman saw the aftermath. Swiftly checking to see where the henchmen flew from, a henchman noticed Red Hood; prompting him to pull out his pistol on her.
"Freeze!" He exclaims.
Not long after, Red Hood blitzed into the henchman to drop-kick him, sending both careening through the store's window. The shattered glass could be heard from an alleyway close by.
"Now what…" A man's voice in the alleyway stated before rushing toward it.
Stepping off the unconscious henchmen, Red Hood pulled out a large mechanical rifle from behind her before pressing a button on it. Bowler Hat and the rest of the henchmen look out of the broken window to see her rifle turn into a scythe. Red Hood then flailed around the scythe before slamming it into the road. After, she swiftly grabbed her headphones, still playing music, and turned them off.
"Okayyy… Get her!" Bowler Hat commanding the henchmen.
The remaining henchmen rush out of the store with their sword-like machetes to take Red Hood down. One of them tries to slash at her, but she dodges while spinning on top of her scythe to kick him away. She lands on the ground while wielding her scythe behind her back as three more henchmen charge her. Triggering a button with her right hand, she fires a shot from the head of the scythe spin before launching one of them in the air. Continuing with the momentum, she slams the scythe on the blunt side down on the other henchman collapses to the ground.
The last one then pulls out a rifle and starts to fire at her, before she utilized the recoil of her scythe's rifle to dodge the initial rifle shots. She fired a few more shots to bounce around before using the momentum to sweep the last henchmen into the air. She slammed down the scythe to stop her momentum to then transitioned to spinning around on the tip. Not until she lets herself into the air to slam down the goon with the scythe. Bowler Hat carries one of the containers on hand before dropping it on the floor.
"You were worth every cent. Truly, you were." Bowler Hat sarcastically said with annoyance as Red Hood landed, "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening. But I wouldn't mind taking this dance before I head off."
He grabbed the cigar from his mouth to flick it in the girl's direction. She sliced it with her scythe and Bowler Hat's had sprinted. A quick hit from his cane landed on her and she slid across the road and Bowler Hat chased her. Red Hood quickly recovered and fired a shot behind her to propel at him. He easily dodged the attack and used the hook of his cane to hook her under her right armpit to throw her over himself. This took the wind out of her and Bowler Hat casually walked over to the container to pick it up. He then turned to face Red Hood as she tried to recover and pointed the butt-end of his cane at her.
"I'm afraid this is where we part ways, Red." He said with a hint of tiredness.
A cross-hair flipped up from the butt-end and clicked a button on the underside of the hook of his cane. A large blast shot out from it and about to hit Red Hood, a grenade was thrown across in between the bullet and her. A rock wall expanded from it in a flash before the shot destroyed it causing a huge dust cloud to form.
As the dust settled, a woman wearing a white long-sleeved, pleated blouse with a black high-waisted pencil skirt dropped in between the two. Without hesitation, the woman flailed around the riding crop she wielded to send forth multiple purple projectiles toward Bowler Hat. He rolled out of the way and tried to counter-attack with another blast before more projectiles tracked him. He continued dodging and managed to fire a direct shot at her. The woman summoned a purple glyph in front of her to block it. The rubble from the ground transformed into needle-like projectiles to send his way. Bowler Hat desperately smacked them to deflect but they overpowered him and sent him back to the storefront.
At the same time, Red Hood looked in awe before noticing someone from the alley, staring at her. The person was wearing an olive green overcoat with metal body armor underneath it. She could not see their face as they retreated into the alleyway.
In desperation, he went through the container on the floor to throw a fire Dust crystal in front of the woman. He fired at the crystal and a loud explosion occured, causing the woman and Red Hood to flinch. The concussion from the blast broke the nearby buildings' windows too. Luckily, the woman managed to block the blast, but the dust from the explosion dispersed to reveal that Bowl Hat managed to sneak away.
The woman sighed and was going to check until Red Hood rushed up to her.
"You're a Huntress!" She exclaims, "C-Can I have your autograph?!"
The Huntress stared blankly at Red Hood before glaring at her; destroying Red Hood's excitement.
"You're coming with me." The Huntress commanded.
"Ooo ooo, are we going to your special base?!" Red Hood excitedly said.
With sirens blaring, the police arrived on the scene and began to search around the area. Meanwhile, the Huntress led Red Hood a few blocks down the Dust shop; seemingly to an abandoned apartment building. Heading into an elevator, they go to the second floor and walk over to a room with no number.
"Young lady, you may enter." She said as she opened the door for Red Hood. "On the other side of the table."
The room consisted of a headlamp, the only light source, two metal chairs across a table, and a scroll tablet on the table. The Huntress grabbed the tablet to pull up something as she started scolding the young girl,
"I hope you realize your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady. You put yourself and others in great danger."
"They started it!" Red Hood was appalled.
"And there are protocols to get away from goons like those, had I not interfered, other than that mysterious Dust grenade. You would have very much been sent into the hospital or better yet, dead."
The Huntress then slapped the table with her riding crop near Red Hood's hands and she yelped.
"Now, now, Glynda. What she did before facing that criminal was pretty impressive." A man's voice spoke behind the woman. "At least give some credit."
Glynda sighed before moving away from the doorway to reveal a middle-aged man with a plate of cookies and a cup in each hand as he strolled in. He dawned an unzipped black suit over a dark green, buttoned vest and green shirt and a belt around his green pants. His figure presented professionalism at its finest while having an affable Aura to Red.
"Ruby Rose…" The man said before going up close to her face, "You… have silver eyes."
"Um…"
"For someone of your age, your combat skills are most praiseworthy and exceptional. But where did you learn this?"
Glynda held up the tablet as it replayed camera footage from nearby security cameras from different perspectives.
"S-Signal Academy."
"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?"
"Well, one teacher in particular."
"I see…" The man said with curiosity as he handed the plate of cookies in front of Ruby.
Hesitating for a moment, she cautiously grabbed a cookie and devoured it. Her desire to engulf the entire plate took over and finished in seconds.
"It's just that I've only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before." The man noted before looking up to the roof, "A dusty old crow."
"Hmmm…! Thash muh unkul!" Ruby says with her face stuffed.
The man looked at her with a wince of disgust as he sat on a chair the Huntress pulled back for him.
"Sorry," Ruby said after wiping her face, "that's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal! I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing. And now I'm all like- Howrah! Witchaa!"
"So I've noticed." The man was unimpressed with Ruby's martial arts charade. "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"
"Well… I want to be a Huntress."
"You want to slay monsters?"
"Yeah! I only have two more years of training at Signal! And then I'm going to apply to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress. And I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, 'Hey, I might as well make a career out of it!' I mean the police are alright and Minute Men are almost the same, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and really, gosh, you know!"
Glynda grimaced with concern from her fantasies running amuck. The man, still straight-faced, asked,
"...Do you know who I am?"
"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster of Beacon."
"Hello."
"Nice to meet you."
"You want to come to my school?" Ozpin says as he leans towards her.
"More than anything…!"
Ozpin looked at Glydna for approval and she rolled her eyes while looking away.
"Well okay," Ozpin says with a smile. "Head over to the skyport when the academy starts. You're officially a student of Beacon Academy."
Ruby smiled from ear to ear and tried to hug him over the top, but Ozpin stopped her before she jumped over the table.
"I'm sure your father is pretty worried about you. How about you start heading home, Ms. Rose?"
"O-Oh wait, did you manage to catch the person who saved me from the cameras? I noticed them from the alleyway on the left from where I was."
Glynda and Ozpin looked with slight concern before Ozpin told her,
"Unfortunately, it seems this mysterious savior noticed where the cameras were and stayed out of sight."
"Okay…"
After handing the tablet to Ozpin, Glynda led Ruby back to the elevator and he analyzed the footage closely. All could get was a glimpse of the assailant's clothes but no further clues were found. He could at least tell it was a man.
"I wonder who our mysterious assailant is…"
Later that same night, Daniel emerged from the alleyway, without the body armor, and he went across the streets to a butcher's shop with a key to open the front. He entered, only to then hear an angry man coming from the back saying,
"Where the hell have you been, son?!"
The angry man was revealed to be a dog Fanus, a human with dog-like features like the ears and tail. The ears and tail resembled a bloodhound, including the droopy eyes. His body was scrawny, but toned muscles protruded from the man, no older than 30 years old.
"Oh, you shut your dog face! Can't a man like me go into the night in peace?! And besides you look like you need some sleep." Daniel said as he locked the door.
"I always look like this, you dumb monkey boy. Now where were you?"
"Saving some girl's life from Roman Torchwick," Daniel said as he went behind the counter to go up to him.
"Well, no crap he'd be doing some of his heists during this time. But why is he messing with some girl? I thought you wanted to be on the down low with your 'Hunstmen' duties?" The dog Fanus asked as he checked the slices of meat on display.
"Would you believe if I said it was to save the girl of my dreams?" Daniel said while cleaning the cutting area.
"Okay, now you just messing around with me, boy."
"But I'm serious!"
The bickering ended when a woman appeared out of the freezer and was shocked to see Daniel.
"Daniel, where have you been?!"
"Hi, Mrs. Goldstain."
The woman in question was a petite lady with blue eyes and brown hair wearing a green apron. Her arms had scars scattered around, but her face was spotless, to say the least.
"You know you shouldn't be staying up this late since you got your Minute Men business later down the road." She said as she slaps his left arm.
"Okay, ooww. And Beacon doesn't start until next week."
"Yes, but you shouldn't be developing these bad habits of staying up this late."
"...I've been staying up for long hours since my caravan and supply run jobs. You think I can't sleep whenever I need to?"
Everyone was silent for a moment and the dead air persisted for a minute or two.
"...Daniel, why do you need to be a Minute Man? You could easily become a Huntsman with your skills." Mrs. Goldstain asked.
"...It's just something I have to do. Besides, I can easily become a Huntsman later down the line."
"Just let the boy do his thing. Gerald would have wanted him to let him do what he wanted anyway."
"Howard…!" Mrs. Goldstain exclaimed.
"It's fine, Mrs. Goldstain. Your husband is right about my old man."
The conversation ended there and they continued cleaning up the shop and headed to bed.
"You have good rest now, Daniel." Mrs. Goldstain said.
"Now don't you stay up too late, boy? We need you to help the shop out later."
"Alright, you got it, boss."
Upon entering his bedroom, a small room with the bare essentials of a bed, a chair, a table, and a shelf. Daniel first took off his green olive overcoat before taking off the rest of his clothing. In a matter of seconds, they disappeared after a bright flash of lightning. Shortly, he summoned some nightwear and changed into them before hopping in bed. Getting snuggled into the bed as he wrapped himself like a side-opened sleeping bag.
Staring up at the ceiling, he closed his eyes to concentrate to listen for something.
" The time… approaching… find her… "
"...You don't have to tell me twice…"