Beneath the Broken Moon - Chapter 2 - Zeroth17 (2024)

Chapter Text

RWBY and World of Darkness is owned by Rooster Teeth and White Wolf respectively.

A whistling sound came through an empty hall in Beacon Academy as someone rolled a bucket to a certain spot. The creaking of wheels following as it passed a corner and then a polished wooden table with an old red vase sitting innocuously, where the whistling turned to a soft humming. A wet sound of something sloshing in liquid followed by dripping sounds before a drenched mop fell to the floor, sifting around a pool of red.

The humming continued as the mop rose and dunked into the bucket to get rid of the red before it came back out and slapped back onto the stain. The red was slowly being cleaned off from the floor, now resembling a spiral of numerous red slivers in the white of the floors. The mop then retreated and placed back in the bucket, letting it rest in the dirty water.

A hand holding a dry towel then came down and began wiping the red off the floors, the humming still soft and melodic. The cloth made half of the red disappear in three strokes, the hand folding it and using a side not stained in red for the next half. When it was finished and the hand retracted the cloth, a sniff echoing in before then the whistling returned the bucket was then wheeled forward.

It kept moving and the whistling kept echoing through the halls of Beacon, mixing in with soft footfalls as it turned another corner. There was another spot of red near the bucket that needed cleaning.

"Tsk. Vampires." A voice came out of the darkness as the mop suddenly emerged from the bucket. Just as it was raised, it fell to a press before a hand grasped a lever and then pushed it forth, causing the mop to be squeezed of all excess water. It was released before it fell into the bigger pool of red on the floor, swirling around as it thinned it to a mere hue on the floor.

And with another wipe from the towel, it was gone from the floor like a hand wiping a tear from a cheek. And the hand stuffed the towel into a pocket before both hands pushed the wheeled bucket forth.

The whistling continued, echoing as a figure passed by the door to Team RWBY's dorm, then the door to Team JNPR's dorm, then the door to Team CVFY's dorm. The sound echoing in their rooms, but not waking those still sleeping in their beds. A shiver passed through Blake though when the whistling reached her ears.

Soon, the figure came to a door, wooden with a silver knob. A clawed hand, skin pale and rubbery, grasped and turned it, letting it open up. The door opened to a room clad in darkness where the bucket was pushed into the blackness, before someone entered. The whistling then turned to a soft humming before a light was turned on.

The sole occupant was a tall man in a janitor's uniform, humming as he took off his hat, brushing a hand through his bleach-white hair. Rolling his shoulders, the janitor took off the upper part of his uniform, revealing a black shirt with his skin pale with a grey hue and rubbery like that of a shark.

Before he continued, the janitor stuck his head out of the room, the overhead light revealing his face. He possessed bleached white hair that reached his shoulders, the forehead exposed with the bangs framing both sides of his face, his face possessing pitch black eyes and that same shark-like skin. And after a look from side to side, he grinned, revealing jagged shark-like fangs before he retreats back into the closet with the door closing behind him.

"Hey, its me." A voice came from the closet, "Yeah, there's vampires in Beacon. Had to clean up a few spots in the hallways." A pause that lasted for a minute and a half, "Alright, I'll keep looking. Just pray Victor will be good at his job." Another pause, this time for half a minute, "Okay, got it boss. I'll see you tonight."

With that, the light in the closet was extinguished.

And silence took hold of Beacon once more.

Vale

Back in Vale, thing seemed to have calmed down since last night. However, despite the work of the police, the people were more than a little on edge by the news of the attack last night, wait with all the recent disappearances and murders.

The old owner of the Dust shop "From Dust Till Dawn" hummed to himself as he was hanging a sign declaring its re-opening, but still his mind kept going back to the news from last night. That Josh boy was so nice to him, but the police say they found him torn apart, so much so that they wouldn't let the family see the body. By the Gods, he won't wish something like that on his worst enemy...

Just then he adjusts the sign at just the right angle, the owner began to climb down from his ladder, humming to himself before he missed a step. Just as he stumbles and falls. Just as he forced himself back up, a young woman appears next to him.

She was a young woman with medium-brown skin and dark-red eyes. Her hair is a light, mint-green with a straight fringe and bangs as well as two long locks on each side in the back. Her attire consisted of an intricate white top and an olive-colored crop top, on the back of which is her personal emblem, which seemed to be in the shape of a cut gem. This was intended to be accompanied by white shorts, decorated with what appears to be a gold coin-plated belt with four gold chains draping around her back from two of the coins and what seems to be a green loincloth.

She also wore two bronze-colored rings on her middle fingers, a gold, three-ring armband on her left arm and a string of gold beads near the same wrist. She also sports white cropped pants with brown chaps that attach to her brown belt with a pair of strappy high-heeled pumps on her feet.

The green haired woman, Emerald, looked down at him while giggling, "'Scuse me, sorry. I'm not really from around here." She extended a hand out and helps him to his feet, before she asked, "Would you mind pointing me in the direction of this shop?"

Emerald produces a piece of paper with "TUKSON'S BOOK TRADE" written on it. The shopkeeper takes it and looks it over before he pointed to a shop down the street. With that, Emerald nodded and walked away from the shop owner as both waved their goodbyes, but he never noticed that his pocket was void of something.

Flipping the stolen wallet between her fingers, Emerald passes Mercury Black at a corner, who was leading against the wall. He was a fair skinned young man with grey eyes and grey hair slicked back while unkempt at the front. He wore a slate gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket that covers his upper body, with a single notched belt with what appears to be a sash or bandana draped over it. Protecting his arms are a set of rerebraces and vambraces, with some burn scars covering the skin of the elbows.

Mercury smirked mockingly, "I knew you were lost."

"Mercury, I will seriously pay you to shut up." Emerald shows him the wallet filled with Lien and waves it in Mercury's face, who just stared at it.

The grey-haired man gained a flat expression as he deadpanned, "That's not your money."

"But it can be yours for 5 minutes of silence."

"Mmmm..." Mercury pondered for a second before he replied, "No deal."

Emerald groaned in exasperation, "Fine." The mint haired thief takes the Lien from the wallet and tosses it over her shoulder, turning to walk away.

Mercury rolled his eyes at her, grinning, "Whatever. You want me."

She scoffed in disgust at the thought of being with this man. They saw the rest of Vale, watching as bullheads and other flying ships came by, passing by other stores and restaurants while other people passed. They soon passed by a cafe, which had the sign "KING COFFEE" which even had a crown on it, where the two eavesdropped on while they walked by.

"Did you hear that the guy that got murdered last night worked here?" One woman told her friend, who listened with rapt attention, "They say that he was ripped apart by a Beowolf."

"A Grimm? This close to the city?" Her friend said, putting a hand over her mouth, "That's terrifying to think about."

Emerald would have scoffed but kept it in, while Mercury just rolled his eyes out of annoyance. After several moments of walking out of earshot, Mercury plainly asked to alleviate the soul crushing boredom he felt, "So, how much farther?"

Emerald answered without looking at him, "A few blocks."

The grey-haired teenager nodded but groaned, "Ugh... this place is so dull."

"Eh, I kinda like it." Emerald replied, looking around the place, "Tall buildings, diverse culture..."

"And nice dopey people who are easy to pickpocket." Mercury finished for her.

Emerald stops and stares at Mercury, "That's every city."

Mercury smirks and then play acts as a victim, speaking in a mocking high-pitched voice, "'Ooh, Emerald! Master thief! Please don't take my money! I barely have enough to get by!'"

Emerald glares at him, groaning angrily before she then walks away from him, not in the mood to humor him.

The assassin frowns as he follows behind her, "Ugh... you're no fun today."

Despite that he followed Emerald as she came to the polished wooden doors of their destination, the mint haired thief opened then to reveal a shop, the carpet and painted walls dark with shelves lined with books of various kinds. Mercury's head perked as he heard the shop owner can be heard humming a tune, stopping near the door to look at the books while Emerald approaches the counter and rings a service bell.

"Be right there!" The voice of the owner came out as Emerald looks back at Mercury who nodded.

The thief saw the shop owner through a set of double doors carrying stacks of books as he walks backwards and out toward the counter. He wore a short-sleeved quarter-zip burgundy and black shirt with a visible white undershirt, with brown pants and light brown shoes. His hair was cleanly cut, amber eyes, and he had noticeable sideburns, along with hairy, muscular arms.

"Welcome to "Tukson's Book Trade", home to every book under the sun!" The owner greeted jovially as he sets the stacks down on another counter before he turned to his customers, "How may I..." However, the moment he turned around, he gasps and hesitates upon recognizing the two of them, seeing the mint haired girl at the and the grey-haired boy is now holding a book, but he steadied his nerves, "How may I help you?"

Although the book he was holding was open, Mercury's gaze was firmly locked at Tukson. "Just browsing." He harshly shuts the book with a single hand for dramatic effect.

Emerald then leaned in and asked, folding her hands and resting her chin on them, "Actually, I was wondering, do you have any copies ofThe Thief and The Butcher?"

Blinking in surprise, Tukson regardless calmly answered, "Yes we do."

The mint haired girl responded excitedly, "That's great."

"Would you... like a copy?" The store owner hesitantly asked, still wary of her and her companion.

"No, just wondering." Emerald replied as Mercury looked at and closes another book, "Oh, oh! What aboutViolet's Garden? In paperback?"

"He's got it." Mercury called as he produces a book while looking through the pages, "Hardback too."

The thief crooned, "Ooh, options are nice."

"Eh, no pictures." The grey-haired man closes the book harshly, before he turned to Tukson, "Hey! Do you have any comics?

The owner pointed to one part of the store on the left side, "Near the front."

"Oh, no, wait!" Emerald held up a hand and then asked, "What... about...Third Crusade?"

Tukson hesitates at that request, visibly unnerved, "Um... I..." He tried to catch his breath as Mercury and Emerald began eyeing him carefully, "...don't believe we carry that one."

Mercury slams another book shut, eyeing him, "Oh."

Emerald let her chin rest on a hand, "What was this place called again?"

"Tukson's Book Trade." The owner answered, lightly twitching for a second.

Emerald then pointed at him, "And you're Tukson?"

"That's right." The owner said stiffly.

"So, then I take it that you're the one that came up with the catchphrase?" The mint haired girl asked as she leaned in, getting him to step back an inch.

"Yes."

Mercury continued for her, "And what was it again?"

Tukson calmly replied, flinching as if he was holding something back, "Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."

Mercury mockingly said as he crossed his arms, "Except the Third Crusade."

Tukson's voice seemed a bit more tense as he was barely restraining an urge, "It's just a catchphrase."

Mercury yelled out, "It's false advertising!"

"You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson." Emerald began as Mercury activates a switch near the entrance causing a front window to darken, "I hear that you're planning on leaving. Moving all the way to Vacuo." Mercury then activates another switch and the window in the front door darkens. "Your brothers in the White Fang won't be happy to hear that." And then Mercury activates the third and final switch, darkening the last window as he smiles creepily at Tukson, "And neither are we... You know who we are, don't you?

Tukson merely exhaled, resigned to his fate, "Yes."

Emerald rose an eyebrow, "And you know why we're here?"

Tukson repeated, his lips pulling back, "Yes."

Emerald blinked at his calm and collected expression, hesitantly asking, "So... are you going to fight back?"

"Yes!"

Suddenly, before they could react, Tukson's face distorted into a snarl as he grew fangs, features becoming feral as his skin darked while a dark coat of fur grew from his pores. His muscles bulged as his clothes ripped into tatters, claws unfurling from the tips of his fingers, his shoes ripped to reveal clawed feet. Emerald and Mercury suddenly jerked back, stepping backwards as their bravado vanished.

In front of them was an 8-foot-tall fusion of man and Puma, black fur like the night sky, covered in the tatters of his clothes with rending claws. The muscles tensed as his fingers curled into talons, black hide bristling in unfelt wind. Amber eyes burned at them as pearl white fangs were revealed from parted lips, letting out a growl that left a wave of minor Delirium at the two, who flinched while their expressions slackened.

Tukson roared as he lunged at Emerald, claws extended but she jumped to the side with a scared yelp, barely avoiding being cleaved in half but a claw left a large slice on her arm before she grabbed her weapons and fired both of them at the werebeast. The twin green revolvers with retractable scythe blades fired on Tukson, striking only his sides as he dashed at her too swiftly for her to dodge before he was suddenly kicked in the face by Mercury. Tukson stumbled before he raised an arm to block another kick and then lashed his claws out at the grey-haired man, who barely moved his head out of the way from the almost decapitating strike before he threw himself back, somersaulting when the beast swung both claws down.

Just as he got back on his feet, Tukson was already on Mercury, ducking under one punch but he was unable to dodge a slash. The claws slashed Mercury across the face, leaving deep gouges before he kicked the Bastet on the neck, sending the latter back. Emerald slashed both of Thief's Respite across the Fera's back while he was distracted before he attempted to backhand her across the jaw, but she swiftly ducked back, narrowly avoiding the razor claws that would have racked her face if she was a millisecond slower.

Before he could attack again, Mercury spin-kicked the werebeast on the back of the head, staggering him before the grey-haired boy grabbed it from behind and attempted to choke him. Tukson however clawed at Mercury's arms, nearly cleaving into his vambraces but they managed to hold enough for Emerald to shoot the beast twice in the chest. But just as the bullets pierced his chest, the werebeast drove both his elbows into Mercury's ribs, breaking two of them before he broke out of the grip and lunged at the terrified looking Emerald.

The thief rolled out from the lunge as Tukson crashed into the shelves behind the spot where she once laid, shredding some of them before he turned to her, the Rage billowing inside him like an inferno. She flinched at his gaze snapping towards her, the pits of amber fire in his eyes like burning spears from hell, before Tukson blocked a strike from Mercury, gripping his leg but before he had a chance to break out of it, the beast vertically slashed him across the chest with his free hand. The attack nearly cut his guts open, blood spilling out of the tears but gave no grunt of pain before he was thrown to the floor and the beast attempted to chomp his head off, but Mercury managed to grab Tukson by the throat and pushed him up.

Mercury gagged as he tried to fight against the strength of the Fera above him, drool spilling onto him as the nearly destroyed vambraces began to crack. He could barely keep Tukson's snarling face back as drool splattered onto his clothes, but then gave a smirk. Suddenly, Emerald, seizing the opportunity with his distraction, shifted Thief's Respite to its scythe configurations before she trusted the two blades into Tukson's backside, stabbing him in the kidneys and causing him to arc in agony with a roar.

Just when the beast's arched from the pain, Mercury thrusted his foot to where Tukson's heart was before-

BANG

BANG

BANG

The beast suddenly vomited copious amounts of blood on Mercury, who let out a sound of disgust, before it slowly began to grow still. The large smoking holes in the Bastet's chest, blood flowing out of the welts and onto his leg before it limply dropped onto Mercury's legs like a sack of potatoes. Mercury panted before he collapsed with a sigh in relief, coughing out when he saw smoke coming out of the edge of his shotgun greave.

The two of them panted after Emerald helped Mercury push the corpse off of him and onto his feet. By this time, the corpse had turned back into Tukson, his tattered clothes still clinging to him, but now sported a gaping hole in his chest with no exit wounds. Blood began to pool from the body, while the light in the eyes had gone dull forever.

"I told you those silver bullets would come in handy." Mercury rubbed that fact into Emerald's face before he hissed as he felt the scratches and gouges all over his body from Tukson's claws, "That's gonna leave a mark."

"A Bastet!" Emerald threw her hands in the air, utterly exasperated that none of the White Fang told them about this, "He was a Bastet!" However, in her exasperation, Emerald instinctively stepped out of the shop and into the street, one that was filled with people who could be in on the shadow side of this world, shouting out. "Not only was he a Puma Faunus, but he was a f*cking-!"

Seeing a possible breach, Mercury quickly panicked and clamped his hand on Emerald's mouth, just before someone turned to them when she shouted out those words, not seeing the bloodstained boy behind her. After that, he dragged her back into the bookshop as she kept shouting into his hand, his eyes darting around to in case anyone had heard her.

When he saw that they were in the clear at least, the grey-haired man glared to the mint-haired thief, who had just realized what she just did.

"Are you insane?!" Mercury harshly whispered into Emerald's ear, causing her widened dark red eyes to lock onto his grey ones, "What if one of those guys outside worked for the Garou Nation or the Camarilla?! Cinder, Roman, and Victor would go apesh*t on us!"

The mint haired girl nodded fearfully, causing Mercury to release his hand from her mouth. She let out a breath as she shuddered, "Sorry, was just frizzed after seeing that. What was that feeling? It was like I couldn't think straight."

"It's called the Delirium." Mercury replied, looking around to see the shop had a bathroom, "Every Fera emits it when they enter their War form, though to varying degrees."

"Ugh, that's comforting." Emerald replied as she dusted herself off before she saw Mercury finding a bathroom, "What are you doing?"

"I'm wiping all the blood of my clothes! If I don't, the cops will suspect us of killing him and Victor won't be able to bail us out!" Mercury called from the bathroom, the sounds of rushing water coming from it.

The thief let out a grunt of begrudging agreement before she pondered something that caused her brows to raise to her hairline.

"Hey, you're not going to turn into a were-whatever he was, right?" Emerald asked with a hint of caution in her tone, still new to the supernatural side of Remnant.

"That's not how it works, Em." Mercury corrected as he washed the blood off his shirt, "You have to beborna Fera, it's not something that can be passed on though bites or scratches."

"Oh, good." Emerald breathed in relief, thankful for that fact given that she saw a huge scratch on her arm. Somehow, Tukson's claws seemed to bypass her aura entirely, though it was healing the wound.

Mercury then emerged from the bathroom, his clothes cleaned from all the blood that had coated them since Tukson's death, but the slashes still remained on both his clothing and flesh. He didn't seem to be worried as he gave a nod, "Now, let's get out of here before the cops show up."

The mint haired thief nodded, more than happy to get out of this shop while they could. Just as the two got to the edge of the door, Emerald looked back to the corpse of the Bastet one last time before she turned back with a sneer.

No one saw the two leave just as the police came two minutes later.

Beacon Acadamy

The morning couldn't come soon enough for Team RWBY. All four girls soon got out of their beds, groaning as they tried to push through the aches from that fight last night. Ruby and Yang mostly took it in stride, Blake and Weiss, however... not so much.

"Man, what a way to start off the semester." Yang breathed, still looking tired despite having a good night's sleep, "Fighting a werewolf before our first day of the semester..."

Ruby nodded while Blake shivered, the latter almost having nightmares from the snarling face of the werewolf.

"That couldn't have been a werewolf." Weiss denied, looking utterly shellshocked and trying to find something more logical to explain the encounter, "It must have been... something else! Yeah, something else!"

"Really?" Yang asked the heiress incredulously, "What else could it have been?!"

"I-I don't know." Weiss admitted with a hesitant studder, "But regardless, I still refuse to think that-"

"Weiss, it stood on two legs, it had jet black fur, the head of a wolf, a snout with razor sharp fangs, rake like claws, was strong enough topull a tree out of the ground and use it as a club, beat us to a pulp, didn't have a Grimm mask, and more importantly,bleed." Yang listed off, before she asked the heiress again, "What else could it have been?"

Weiss stammered and tried to come up with an answer before Blake put a hand on the heiress' shoulder, calming her down, "Look, let's talk about this later. Maybe the teachers will know something."

"Yep!" Ruby exclaimed, acting quicker than the rest as she disappeared in a flurry of pedals and reappeared in front of her surprised teammates fully dressed in her uniform and ready to go. "So, ready?"

With that, the other three girls got out of bed and dressed into their uniforms after washing themselves from last night's endeavor. Their uniforms consisting of brown shoes, red tartan skirt, white blouse with maroon trim and thin red bow, a brown vest with gold buttons and maroon blazer with gold trim, alongside full-length black stockings. Ruby however still had her cloak pinned to the blazer.

And with that, they departed their dorm.

Just as they got out of the dorm, Ruby suddenly bumped into someone, nearly causing the two to fall before they saw each other. It was Jaune, a tall young man with fair skin, blond hair and dark-blue eyes. He is quite toned, having strong muscles in his arms, shoulders, and upper chest.

"Oh, hi Jaune!" Ruby cheerfully greeted him as the rest of Team RWBY came out of their dorm, meeting him and the rest of his team whom were all dressed in their school uniforms.

Nora was a fair-skinned young woman with orange hair and turquoise eyes.

Pyrrha was a fair-skinned young woman with her red hair in a waist-length ponytail, curled slightly into a loose ringlet. She also wore light-green eyeshadow around the far upper corners of her green eyes. She was tall and quite muscular compared to most of the other girls at Beacon.

Ren is a young man with long black hair that ends midway down his back. There is a magenta streak on the left side of his hair while his eyes match the streak in his hair.

"Hey, Ruby." Jaune greeted her, the rest of the latter's team coming out behind her, "Did you guys sleep well?"

Ruby nodded, "Yeah, it was a little rough at first, but I eventually nodded off. What about you guys?"

"We slept well!" Nora cheerfully replied, wrapping her arms around Jaune and Ren, "But Jaune was snoring like a Boarbatusk!"

"Nora!" Jaune said, his face turning redder than Pyrrha's hair, and causing a bout of laughter to echo in the halls. Speaking of Pyrrha, the champion remembered something that she was going to ask them.

"Hey, not to butt in." Pyrrha gently interjected, trying not to open wounds, "But I heard you guys encountered... something last night. What was it?"

Team RWBY suddenly sucked in a breath, their leader shivering slightly, Weiss shaking her head in disbelief, Blake shivering in terror at the memory, and even Yang rubbing her arm in discomfort.

Pyrrha winced as she began to profusely apologize, utterly flustered and waving her arms, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean-"

Ruby held up a hand that cut the red-haired champion off, "It's all right, Pyrrha. It's just that... we don't want to talk about it right now."

Before their conversation could continue however, a whistle echoed through the halls. For an odd reason, a feeling akin to an ice bath came through their veins, causing them to turn to the source.

It was the Janitor. A man taller than Yatsuhashi, dressed in a grey janitor's uniform with black slip-on shoes and a grey baseball cap, his skin pale and rubbery with his hair bleached white like Weiss' that reached his shoulders. It was then that they noticed shark-like teeth past his grey lips, so sharp like they could pierce bone with a single bite. But their blood seemed to freeze in their veins when they saw his pitch-black eyes; there were no irises or sclera, just pure blackness.

"Um, who's that creepy guy?" Yang asked, pointing a finger at the janitor who kept working despite the stares.

"Oh, him?" Pyrrha questioned, before she explained at their nods, "That's the janitor, Mr. Kurze. He was hired by the headmaster a few years ago." She then winced when his black eyes met her green eyes, "But yeah, he is really creepy."

Seemingly in response to the red head's words, Kurze looked up from his work and looked at the two teams. They flinched at his piercing black eyes, before he spoke in a gravelly voice, "Team RWBY. Team JNPR." They froze before he continued, "What are you all doing in the halls while you have... duties to attend to?"

Ruby stuttered in fear of the janitor's gaze, "Well, uh, we were just... getting to it now, Mr. Kurze!" She then fearfully turned to her team and Team JNPR, "R-right, guys?"

"Yeah, we were just heading out, Mr. Kurze!" Jaune said nervously as he and the others backed away from the really intimidating janitor.

Kurze then narrowed his black eyes, getting a flinch, "Then get going."

The two teams immediately made tracks, terrified of the janitor.

However, Blake remained behind for a few seconds, staring at the Janitor who only locked eyes with her for a single moment. Her amber eyes grew wide as they met his pitch-black orbs, seemingly peering into her soul. She saw no iris or sclera, only the deep pits of blackness in his sockets that seemed to be as endless as the night sky. A second then passed before he merely looked away and paid his attention back to the floor as he continued to mop.

The raven-haired Faunus felt a breath she didn't know she was holding in, before she quickly ran after her friends.

Just a seconds after she left, the janitor suddenly grinned, turning away as he placed his mop back in the bucket and walked off before he kept whistling. He passed other students, who immediately got out of his way like he was a beast, even as he smiled pleasantly and waved at them. He admits that seeing the students squirm in fear of him gave him some jollies.

However, the moment that he came to the next hall, the janitor happened to come to the person he was hoping to meet.

It was Victor, dressed in a dark azure dress shirt with a cornflower blue tie and a black dress vest, black dress pants and black polished shoes, a closed Prussian blue blazer under a black leather trenchcoat. His hair was slicked back but unkept, same with his beard. There was a cigar sitting in his lips, taking a puff that exhaled through his nostrils in the form of blue smoke.

And he happened to be reading from a small book that had the title "Ninjas of Love" on the cover, with an orange filing envelope tucked in his arm.

"Hey, Vicky." The janitor grinned while walking beside him, knowing that Victorhatedthat nickname.

"Carcharodon." Victor greeted plainly without looking up, too focused on his book to care.

Carcharodon frowned at the lack of a reaction before he looked over his shoulder at the book he was reading. And after reading but a few lines, the janitor understood what the big deal was with the book.

"Nice." He grinned in approval, this finally getting Victor's attention but all he got was a curt nod.

"Yeah, the author's got talent." Victor replied before he closed it, looking to the janitor, speaking hushed so that he did not attract the attention of the other students around them, "So, how did the students react to the news from last night?"

"It's been mixed." Carcharodon reported also in a hushed tone, "Many don't believe that Team RWBY were actually attacked by a werewolf. Others believe that it was an Alpha Beowolf that wandered into the forest, but a small part of the student body believes that there really was a werewolf."

"And gave you learned anything else about from the gossip?" Victor whispered to the janitor, who gave a nod.

"Yeah, Oz is apparently keeping several Kindred that are being hunted by both the Camarilla and the Sabbat here in Beacon." Carcharodon reported in a whisper, his black eyes coming to a pair of students as they walked, "From what I could get from eavesdropping, the vamps are only allowed to feed at night and some of them were moved to certain parts. Some of them might even be posing as students."

"I thought sunlight kills vampires?" Victor asked, his voice still subdued.

"It does, but word on the streets is that there's some mages that will lead their services to Kindred that want to walk during the day." The janitor replied, looking around as they walked together, "For a pretty penny of course."

The detective nodded as he then saw the elevator that led to Ozpin's office, turning then to the janitor before he explained, "All right, then keep an eye and ear out for anything that might be of interest." Before he then turned his piercing yellow eyes to Carcharodon's black pits of terror, "And remember: In. Cog. Nito." He harshly whispered to him at that last part for emphasis.

"Relax, you know me." Carcharodon waved off, knowing to keep a low profile, "Now hurry up, Oz is waiting for you."

Victor nodded, his eyes moving off Carcharodon and to the elevator, breathing deeply and hoping things would go as well as he hoped they would.

Ozpin sipped his coffee as he saw the camera feed of Victor entering the elevator to his office, setting the mug down as he expected the other ones he called to this meeting to arrive. Glynda Goodwitch stood at his side, trying to maintain her composure at Victor coming.

Glynda was a middle-aged woman that has very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes are bright green, and she wears thin ovular glasses, with dangling teal earrings that match the hanging pendant on her collar.

She wears a white long-sleeved, pleated blouse that has a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flare in pleats at the wrist. Her lower body is covered by a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black fading into brown stockings, black boots with bronze heels and a cape that is purple inside and black on the outside. The cut of the cape is stylized to end in flames and arrows, with a row of diamond-shaped bronze beads on the back. Above this line of beads appears to be an emblem of a tiara.

"Must we rely on him?" Glynda inquired to the headmaster, trying to remain professional but slivers of disgust were slipping through the metaphorical cracks, "That man is nothing butfilth." She said that work like it was bile in her mouth.

"I understand your dislike of him, Glynda, but regardless, Victor is a skilled detective, and he is the only one on the police force who possesses the authority needed for Huntsmen to act whenever a disturbance occurs." Ozpin explained his reasons to his deputy headmistress.

"Still, it wouldn't kill him to show some manners." Glynda commented, still shuddering in disgust at the detective's disposition and demeanor.

"I suppose." Ozpin agreed as he heard the sounds of the elevator ascending.

Just a moment later, the elevator doors opened to reveal Victor, who at the very least, looked cleaner than he usually was. He strode into Ozpin's office, blatantly ignoring Beacon's no smoking policy, humming an offbeat tune as he stopped at the feet of Ozpin's desk.

"Ozpin, Glynda." The detective greeted plainly, extending a hand that had the envelope in it. Suddenly, just as the headmaster took the envelope, Victor's cigar was ripped from his mouth by Glynda's semblance of Telekinesis, flying to her hand before she dropped it and crushed it under her heel.

"Please refrain from smoking in here,detective." Glynda spat that last part like it was something vile on her tongue as her eyes met his.

The detective gaped at the action before he sneered under his breath, "Bitch."

Glynda seethed at the detective but kept it down. The headmistress never knew why but whenever Victor was in proximity to her, she could barely control her anger at him. Maybe it was the fact that he was somehow an even bigger and cruder drunk than Qrow. Or maybe the detective was just unpleasant in general. Regardless, they did still work together so she tolerated him, but barely at that.

"By the way, when are the others gonna get here?" The detective asked, putting his hands in his coat.

As if the universe answered, there was a pinging sound on Ozpin's desk, signaling that someone was calling him. And then, with the windows closing and engulfing the office in darkness before Ozpin pressed a button. In another moment, a blue light shone through the floor, before it morphed into an image of someone.

It was a tall broad man, with black short hair that possessed grey at the sides. He wore a white overcoat, with a gray undercoat, black sweater, a red necktie and a white glove on his right hand. His suit pants shared the same color as his overcoat and were tucked into silver boots accented in gray. And on his forehead was a band of metal across a scar.

General James Ironwood.

"Ozpin." Ironwood greeted jovially before he saw Victor with them and his expression morphed into a frown, "Victor."

"General." Victor mockingly greeted, not bothering to show him any respect.

Ozpin frowned. Neither James nor Victor ever made any attempt to hide the fact that they disliked each other, but regardless the two at least tolerated each other's presence.

"General." Ozpin greeted, would have taken his hand had he been there in person.

"Please, drop the formalities." James requested from the headmaster; his pleasantness returned the second he turned from Victor, "It's been too long." He then turned to Glynda, who didn't look as enthused.

"James." The blonde headmistress greeted as if she was excited to see him before she returned to her usual persona, flatly continuing, "I'd walk out if I could."

At seeing that, Victor gave a smirk as he mouthed to Ozpin as he took out his flask and took a drink from it, "They like each other." Ozpin ignored him and turned to his desk as another ping came. This ping however was different from the first, meaning that the Council was calling.

The headmaster pressed the button on the desk, causing more holograms to form from the light as well but these ones were different than before. These ones had their faces obscured while their bodies were shown entirely.

"Councilors." Ozpin and his circle greeted, though Victor was unnoticeably snide.

"Ozpin." One of the councilors greeted back, "I assume you have a reason to call us while we are busy with the Vytal Festival's doings?"

"There is." Ozpin replied, showing them all Victor's envelope as he opened it, taking out several papers and photos and gently laying them on the desk, "Last night, a Garou was sighted near the edges of Vale."

The very second that sentence was finished; Ironwood's brows shot to his hairline with his eyes wide while the obscured councilors' postures had stiffened. Glynda couldn't blame them, and neither could Victor; they couldn't even count how many Huntsmen and Huntresses that had been killed by the Garou.

"A Garou?" Ironwood before he turned to Victor, "Is this true?"

"It is." Victor confirmed to Ironwood, holding up the transcripts from Team RWBY's interrogation for him and the councilors to see, "We haven't identified the breed or tribe it belonged to, but the account of Team RWBY and the illustrations provided by the sketch artist gives us that they weren't facing a Beowulf." He then held up the sketch, showing a bipedal creature that resembled most interpretations of a werewolf, "By some f*cking miracle, the thing spared them. We found them with their auras shattered and some cuts and bruises. The four c*nts were lucky."

"Before it attacked Team RWBY, it killed a teenager." Ozpin continued for the detective, "Victor has the reports on the autopsy." The detective nodded and took the report into his hands before divulging them.

"Heart, lungs, and intestines were torn out, head was ripped off and caved in," Victor monotonously read off, having seen so much of these that he's just numb by this point, "Arms below the elbow were ripped off, ribs were ripped open, and most remaining organs were nearly pulped. Lacerations resembling claw marks on the back and sides, and crushed knees." He finished before setting it down, "The f*cker wanted the boy deader than dead. But we don't know why or what was the motive, could be a message for the company or the Garou just frenzied, and he was the closest thing there."

"Thank you, Victor." Ozpin responded, before he thought of something, "By the way, who was the boy that was attacked?"

"Don't know. Autopsy and identification came back with a lot of interesting data though." Victor said as he brought up a lighter and lit another cigar, ignoring the frowns of disapproval from both Glynda and Ironwood, "His name was Joshua Brown, age 19, remaining relatives were his father and younger brother. Father recently lost a leg and has been unable to afford a prosthetic. Apparently, the kid worked at a King's Coffee, constantly downing the stuff."

At the sound of the shop, the three frowned. That shop belonged to a subsidiary of Pentex, one of the greatest sources of misery in the kingdoms and a corporation with so much clout and power that most attempts to bring them down have been pyrrhic at best. And that's not getting into how them, the Camarilla, and the Garou are trying to stop the conglomerate from expanding their areas of influence.

One of the councilors stepped in, a female one as she spoke in a filtered but still feminine voice, "How is a coffee shop owned by a subsidiary of Pentex related to the Garou?"

"Let's just say the Garou and Pentex have a lot of bad f*cking blood." Victor vaguely said, before he continued on, "Anyway, the labs came back with a lot of interesting stuff. Take a look at these pictures."

He placed them on Ozpin's desk, where another blue light ran across the photos repeatedly. Just a second later, the holographic copies of the photos appeared before the gathered members of Ozpin's circle, their morbid contents visible for all.

The first showed the headless and torn open corpse of Joshua Brown. The head was missing, most of the skin and muscle on the torso ripped away, the chest cavity was open and exposed with the ribs broken and rent apart. The forearms were severed off with the limbs placed on other trays, while the organs were missing entirely, only the lower half was intact but had no visible injuries.

As Glynda examined it more closely, it was then that she noticed something that disturbed her greatly.

There was... a face in the skin of the right leg. Or at least, something that took the shape of a face. It was stretched beyond proportions in a deathly scream, eyes wide with terror and the mouth more like a tunnel of agony in the red.

It seemed that the others noticed the face as well, their expressions growing disturbed when they noticed it in the leg.

"A minor Bane." Ozpin mused as he stared at the photos on, fingers tented while he pondered, "Perhaps that's why the Garou attacked the boy."

"Could be." Victor shrugged his shoulders but then, "But I admit I don't know a lot about Taint, so what's your opinion?"

"The Taint of the Wyrm is slow and insidious, working slowly filling the hole in a person's soul." Ozpin summarized to Victor and the other two, as well as the councilors, "But it seems that other than that, the boy was innocent. Were there any other signs of corruption?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Victor admitted, raising his arms before letting them drop to his sides in a smack, "The coroner told me that the kid's blood was black, the pancreas and gallbladder seemed to have decayed faster than we thought. Maybe postmortem reaction to the Taint in his veins, but I'm not a coroner nor an expert."

"We should have pushed harder." One of the councilors huffed as he squeezed a fist, "We should have pushed those corruption charges on Pentex until we won!"

"It wouldn't have worked." A female councilor replied to her fellow member, sounding more mature and dressed in white business dress, "The CEO of Pentex's clout is near impenetrable, even Jacques Schnee doesn't possess that kind of protection or connections."

"We still could have done something!" Another council said feistily, this one also female but a red business dress.

With that the council began to argue on what should have been done with Pentex and the tentacles that slithered into the cracks of Vale. Ozpin, Glynda, and Ironwood had expressions of disapproval, but they understood their rage. Ever since the conglomerate was linked to several disappearances, the council has tried everything in their power to restrict or at least stop Pentex from causing more trouble for them and the public, but nothing they did caused anything meaningful to change, much to everyone's chagrin.

Victor just had a deadpan glare at the Council's bickering, muttering under his breath, "Doss c*nts..."

Glynda glared at the detective for his words, "There will be no 'c*nts' in this meeting, detective."

Victor gave a deadpan look at her before he snarked, "Oh, are you quitting?"

Ozpin let a snort pass his lips at that as he took a drink to hide his smirk. The Vale Council's bickering stopped as they immediately had to stifle their snickers, some even clamping their mouths with their hands. Ironwood sucked in his lips to hold in his laughter before he exhaled through his nostrils and schooled his expression, even if the tips of his lips quirked up slightly.

The headmistress looked like she was about to murder Victor as her face flushed and she made a choking sound, before her rage suddenly ceased and she hung her head in shame, "Oh, damnit, I walked into that one."

Suddenly, before the meeting could continue, Victor's scroll began to ring.

Victor, gaining an expression that mixed both annoyance and embarrassment, held up a finger to Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood, and the Council, whom were now staring at him, "Excuse me." The detective quickly fished the device out of his coat pocket and brought it to his ear.

"Cherry, this had better bef*cking important!" Victor yelled at whomever was on the other side of the call, before his expression became one of annoyance, "Oh, Gods, another one?" His expression then turned to one of confusion, "What do you mean 'interesting?'" A minute past before his expression became one of veritable shock, "What?" Thirty seconds before his next response, "You are kidding me." 20 seconds before he replied, "Look, just send me everything." Another moment before he finished, "I see... Goodbye."

Victor then turned to the other members of the meeting, having a look of exhaustion on his face, "Headmaster, Glynda, Ironheart," Victor intentionally misnamed when he got to James, getting a frown from the general, "Councilors. It seems there's been a wee little development."

The headmaster and Glynda look at each other before Ironwood asked the question that they were all thinking, "What is this 'development?'"

"My boys just found the owner of a bookshop dead. Tukson's Book Trade to be specific." Victor began before he took in a breath and dropped the bombshell, "And they just pulled three silver bullets out of the f*cker."

That certain got expressions of alarm to form on the group's faces, as they knew exactly what that meant. This was an assassination, and the target was a Fera.

"What kind of Fera was the owner?" Ironwood outright demanded from Victor, who blinked at the sudden forceful tone of the general before he relaxed.

"Well, there's no way to tell but the boys think he was a Bastet given that he was supposedly a Puma Faunus." The detective answered, lighting his cigar again.

Now even more alarmed than before, Ironwood then turned to Ozpin, "Since when do Bastets venture into Vale?"

Ozpin had an equally troubled expression as Ironwood's when he replied, "Not for an age." He folded his fingers together before he recalled a time long past, "Not since the Great War."

This more than anything got most of the Headmaster's inner circle worried, judging by the way Glynda and Ironwood looked at each other.

Blake rested her head on her hand as she drew pictures in her notebook, the hand that she used to write seemingly acting on its own while the noise of the cafeteria buzzed in her ears. Her drawings include the White Fang insignia, a small sketch of Adam Taurus, Adam's rose, and which she was currently finishing, the head of a snarling wolf.

A light scowl appeared on her face while thinking about it and the White Fang. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop thinking about what happened last night. It was almost like a nightmare come to life, snarling and clawing at her thoughts even when it poked and prodded at the back of her mind. However, Yang then slides up next to her, breaking her.

Yang attempted to look at the stuff in her notebook, "Whatcha doing?"

"Nothing." Blake closes her book before she had a chance, "Just going over notes from last semester.

Yang opens her mouth and catches a grape in it without breaking eye contact, "Lame."

Out of the corner of her eye, Blake saw Nora giggle as she continues to toss grapes at Yang with her spoon. Yang catches the fruit in her mouth with ease, giving Nora the thumbs up while Weiss scoffs at their behavior. Suddenly, Ruby, after giving an enormous heave, slams a binder onto the table, causing her team to jump in surprise. On the cover of the binder is written "Vytal Festival Activities" and "Property of Weiss Schnee" with the second part having been hastily crossed out with a red marker pen, and with the same pen, a new title, "Best Day Ever Activities", was written underneath.

Ruby, after clearing her throat, gestures to everyone at the table, "Sisters..." She motioned to Yang, "friends..." She motioned to Blake before she came to the heiress, "Weiss."

Weiss looked affronted as she barked, "Hey!"

The team leader continued without acknowledging that, hoping to move on from that incident with the werewolf, "Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."

"This ought to be good." Yang grinned as she catches another grape in her mouth.

"A dream that one day, the four of us will come together, as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!"

Weiss interrupted Ruby's speech when she noticed her name scribbled out in red on the binder, and then looked at Ruby with an accused gaze, "Did you steal my binder?"

Ruby, in response, makes "peace" signs with both hands with a cheeky smile, "I am not a crook."

Blake, curious as to what her leader meant, asked, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" Ruby bombastically announced as she points her finger at a startled Blake.

Yang grinned, "I always kick my semesters off with a Yang!" She nudged her elbow at her unamused little sister, "Eh? Guys? Am I right?"

Her response was an apple that was thrown by Nora, who stole it from some other student's lunch, and hits her in the face. "Boooooooooooooooo!" The blond brawler glares fiercely at Nora as she picks up the apple.

Ruby ignored that and continued on, "Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today."

"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store." Weiss admitted in worry while Yang threw the apple across the room. Unfortunately, Nora, who saw it coming, leaned out of the way causing the apple to hit another student in the back of the head, causing his face to plant in his food. The male student, after lifting his soup covered face, shouts "Hey!" as Nora giggled at Yang's failed attempt.

"I don't know. I think I might sit this one out." Blake politely declined, seemingly uninterested in whatever Ruby was doing to distract herself from the thoughts of the werewolf.

"Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team!" Weiss insisted.

"I got it!" Nora shouted as Yang's eyes then widened as she ducked under the table.

"I for one think that..." Weiss was interrupted by a pie smacking on her face, the white cream spewing out like a balloon filled with milk.

Nora, her arm positioned in a way that was obvious on who threw the pie, sits down and points at Ren, who has his head in his palm in exasperation. Pyrrha's hand was over her mouth in shock while Jaune simply sits staring wide-eyed while covering his ear with his palm. The pan slid off Weiss' cream covered face, before her ice blue eyes were revealed in a piercing glare that were filled with absolute lividity.

It was at that moment that both Team RWBY and Team JNPR realizes... peace was never an option.

Outside the cafeteria, Carcharodon hummed as he rolled his bucket through the halls, picking at his teeth with a clean toothpick. Two other students that passed him, causing him to pause.

The first was a tan-skinned boy with short spiky light-blonde hair and blue. He wore two red wrist bracers over black fingerless gloves and an open loose-collared white jacket with no shirt underneath, displaying his muscular physique with a black cord around his neck with a round pendant bearing his monkey emblem. On his lower half was a pair of blue cargo pants tied up with a white belt and white bandages on his legs and has a chain hanging from the belt loop on the right side of his pants and black and yellow sneakers.

The second was a teenage boy with tan skin, blue eyes and messy light-blue hair in the form of an undercut and a pair of yellow-tinted goggles typically worn on his forehead and black fingerless gloves. He wore a white dress shirt and black tie under a red jacket adorned with a wide, upturned, black collar and a silver reticle across the back, and a pair of gray jeans with black padding strapped to the sides as well as black shoes fastened with straps instead of laces.

The janitor stared at the two as they walked past him, not recognizing them before he remembered that they were transfer students from Mistral. "sh*t. Is it that day already?" He whispered to himself, thinking out loud slightly while still running his pick between his teeth, "I got to hurry. The festival is coming up fast." Suddenly, he caught something in between his teeth.

Annoyed, he dug his pick slowly under the piece before he repeatedly tapped at the bottom to force it up from between his teeth. Once it came to the edge, he dug his finger and thumb in and plucked the piece out from his mouth.

It was a small piece of flesh, raw and red with small slivers of skin. No blood came out of it, and whatever blood that was there was diluted with saliva and coagulated in chunks. He stared at it before he merely swallowed the piece whole, flicking the pick into the trash without him even looking.

"Damnit, Car, this is why you brush your teeth after you eat." The janitor muttered out as he used his tongue to lick his teeth clean. True, he could have just ripped those fangs out, but it would have been a waste of time to get new ones.

Regardless, he turned a corner, looking around as he saw another hall covered in dust. Sighing, he took out his mop and was about to begin cleaning another hall floor.

"FOOD FIGHT!"

The janitor was then interrupted from his duties when he suddenly heard the shout. Before he could react, he saw a stampede of students running through the halls, panic and terror splayed on their faces as they ran for safety. Dust kicked up behind them, ruining his work and staining the windows as a veritable hurricane passed through his halls.

"What the hell?!" The janitor yelled as he saw the massive amount of students running past him and down the hallway.

However, then he got his answer when he saw a can of soda fly out of a broken window that he caught in his left hand reflexively. Scowling at the hall that led to the cafeteria, he cracked the can open and chugged down the contents until it was empty, where he then resumed his glare at the closed doors of the cafeteria.

"Oh, every godsdamn year." Carcharodon growled as he crushed the empty can. Leaving his bucket behind but still holding his mop, the janitor threw the empty can behind his shoulder, not seeing it land into the trash bin.

Marching up to the doors to the cafeteria, he saw various foods splatter on the walls and near the windows, the sounds of fighting and yells, and furniture breaking. An angry scowl forming on his face, Carcharodon then reared his leg back and unleashed a scissor kick that blew the doors open while his hat flew off his head from the force. The door broke off their hinges, revealing the ruined mess hall and Team RWBY and Team JNPR fighting while using food as weaponry, with the two other students, which he believed to be Sun and Neptune, watching.

Just as Yang was stricken by a baguette from Pyrrha, Ruby jumped and surfed on the table with a lunch trey, spearing through the abandoned lunches that were blown off the tables as she slid. Suddenly, seeing a baguette spearing toward her, Ruby jumped into the air and used the trey to bash the bread back at Pyrrha who rolled forward to avoid it, letting it crash into the ground. However barely before she could react, Ruby came flying at her with the trey as her weapon, only giving the red-haired girl time to raise her forearms as a defense, letting it collide with her just as Ruby jumped off and caused her to go flying from the force.

Just as Pyrrha tumbled to the ground, Ren and Nora dashed in. Before they could get far however, Ruby spun out of the way as Weiss charged forth, grabbing a bottle of ketchup along the way before spinning and thrusting down like a sword and then squeezing it. The red condiments spewed across the floor in a blast of red, causing Ren to slip and crash into the pile of tables and chairs behind Ruby and Weiss like a bowling ball.

The crash caused all the tables to go flying before Nora jumped up and onto one of them before she jumped off and grasped a flagpole that she tore off. Just as she was sent flying down, the ginger speared the flagpole into a watermelon, creating a makeshift version of her weapon. She raised her weapon in an attempt to crush Weiss, but Ruby got in the way just as the makeshift hammer slammed into the floor, the shockwave causing the reaper to go flying as the heiress rolled out of the way.

Acting fast, Weiss grabbed a swordfish and then speared forth, channeling her aura into a thrust that sent the ginger flying when it struck her. Nora dug her heels into the floor to halt her momentum before she leaped back into the fight, ducking under a swing from Weiss as she landed before she twirled her makeshift hammer around, parrying two of Weiss' swings before she rammed her hammer into the heiress' gut, sending her flying. The flying Weiss crashed into a pillar on the other side of the room, shattering it as she fell.

Just as she did, the debris threatened to crush Weiss into a paste as she falls, but fortunately for her, Ruby saw her partner in trouble and dashed into the air. Just as she launched herself into the air, she caught her partner and tumbled to the ground in a ball, rolling out of it as she held the unconscious heiress bridal style.

"WEISS! WEISS! DON'T LEAVE ME!" Ruby cried out as she cradled her knocked out partner, trying to rouse her but to no avail before crying out, "NNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

And it was when the collapsed pillar collapsed behind the wailing Ruby with food flying everywhere was when the Janitor decided to bring his voice.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?!" Carcharodon roared out, his voice loud enough to echo throughout the cafeteria.

Suddenly, at his shout, the entire battle stopped. All the combatants and Neptune and Sun immediately froze before they rigidly turned to the rather pissed off looking janitor, their eyes wide with their pupils as small as pinpricks. The silence was broken by Ruby with an awakened and petrified Weiss still in her arms, the former of whom squeaked out in a small and barely audible voice, "Oh, crap."

Carcharodon breathed in and breathed out through his nostrils, his expression way too calm before he began, "Team RWBY. Team JNPR." Said teams flinched at the deadly calm tone of his voice, his features steady but seemingly ready to morph into a scowl at any moment, "Would you mind explaining why the mess hall is in ruins? Which, I have no doubt, I will have toclean. Up."A sliver of rage bled into his tone, gripping the shaft even tighter.

The kids looked at each other, wondering what to say to the angry janitor before Weiss suddenly spoke up, jumping out of Ruby's arms while hiding the swordfish behind her back, "Mr. Kurze! Well, we were just..." She trailed off as she tried and failed to come up with an explanation, "Uh..."

"Well..." Nora scratched the back of her head, a little scared of the janitor.

"Yang and Nora started it!" Jaune immediately spouted, pointing at the two who gawked at him for throwing them under the bus, "They were throwing food at each other, then Nora threw an apple at Yang, and then Yang threw it back, and then Nora threw a pie into Weiss' face and..."

"It just sorta went from there..." Pyrrha finished for Jaune, her face practically matching her hair in embarrassment.

The janitor's face hardened into a scowl, causing them all to flinch as he drummed his fingers on the shaft of the mop."I see..."Carcharodon stated, his tone still even despite the look in his eyes.

None of them liked that look on his face, tensing as Ruby squeaked, "Are we in trouble?"

"Oh, don't worry. I know exactly. What. I'll.Do." Carcharodon growled, gripping the mop so tightly that a crack formed.

The students backed away as they gulped, fearing what punishment the janitor might inflict on them. Suddenly, the janitor flipped a piece of the table from the pile with his foot, landing in front of him before he jumped on top, raising him up like a pedestal.

"HELLO BEACON ACADEMY!" Carcharodon bombastically announces out, holding his mop like it was a microphone as he pointed a finger at the stunned students, "We have a hardcore 4V4 elimination match today! Where only two teams enter, and only one comes out! Right, boys?"

The janitor turns to Sun, who, after blinking in surprise, immediately gave an eager grin as he took the mop and acted like it was a microphone.

"That's right, Kurze!" The monkey Faunus played along, announcing bombastically, "We got a hell of a show for you all today, and we're right here in the action!" He pointed a finger at the stunned Team RWBY, "In this corner, we have Team RWBY! Consisting of the speedy Ruby, the icy Weiss, the mysterious Blake, and the fiery Yang!" Before he then pointed at the equally surprised Team JNPR, "And in this corner, we have Team JNPR! Consisting of the knight Jaune, the invincible Pyrrha, the borderline insane Nora, and the stoic Ren!"

The students regained their enthusiasm as they raised their food weapons up to continue the fight.

"We're in for a helluva match today, folks!" Carcharodon yelled as he took the mop back, seeing the students regain their enthusiasm, "So, let's get cracking!"

And with that, Team RWBY and JNPR leaped back into the fight, more eager than ever.

Back at Ozpin's office, Victor's collected expression betrayed the fact that he was currently tunning out the rest of the meeting before something caught the corner of his eye. It was through the darkly tinted window of Ozpin's office, where he saw a blond student flying in the air, causing him to walk to the window with a stupefied expression on his face as he saw her sailing in the air.

"Uh, Oz?" Victor questioned the headmaster, getting the latter and Glynda's attention, "Is there a training session scheduled in the cafeteria?"

Ozpin rose a brow while Glynda's brows shot to her hairline in alarm, the former answering, "No, I don't belief so. Why?"

"Because one of yer students just got launched into the air." The detective pointed to the flying form of Yang Xiao Long through his darky tinted office window.

"Oh, not again." Glynda groaned before she turned to the holograms of Ironwood and the council, "Excuse us, everyone, there is something urgent that we must attend to."

With that, the meeting was halted as Glynda zoomed out of the office with Ozpin and Victor running behind her.

Back in the cafeteria, Carcharodon and Sun's commentary only seemed to cause things to get more hectic. And it only got worse when Nora launched Yang through the roof with a strike of her hammer.

"Things are intensifying, folks!" Carcharodon yelled as Blake grabbed a link of sausages and whipped them around like Gambol Shroud, "Blake just grabbed another weapon and is taking a stand with her Gambol Sausage!" Using the link of sausages as a whip, Blake lashed at Nora with enough force to send her crashing into the vending machines that rested at the base of her fortress of tables, causing them to dispense all their contents to the floor.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt!" Sun commented with a grin, before he saw Nora recover, "But what's this?"

The ginger bomber then grabbed two of the several soda cans and threw one at Blake, which exploded once they hit the ground like grenades, but the cat Faunus jumped back from the pink colored liquid blast. Blake flew away before she caught herself and backflipped away before landing back on her feet, just as Nora threw two more cans with the former jumping out of the way of the blasts of green and pink.

"Nora's got the soda can grenades!" Carcharodon roared out, raising his arm to the air, "Team RWBY is in for trouble! OH, sh*t! Looks like the Invincible Girl has an idea cooking up!"

Pyrrha did indeed have an idea when she saw all the tin cans on the floor. The Invincible Girl thrusts a hand to the floor, sending a pulse of her semblance through all the cans before they lifted into the air from her semblance and then sent them flying at the cat Faunus. Blake didn't even have a chance to react as she was pelted with explosion after explosion of the onslaught of soda, sending her flying.

"HOLY sh*t, FOLKS!" Carcharodon roared out as he saw the barrage of cans launch towards Blake, "THIS IS IT, THE FEARED, THE HATED, THE FINAL MOVE OF PYRRHA NIKOS!IT'S THE POLARITY STOOORM!"

Pyrrha blushed at that announcement even as she kept up the barrage, keeping Blake pinned to the walls of the cafeteria and continuing to pelt her with multicolored explosions before the former eventually ran out of cans. The defeated Blake slid off the walls and fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, while Ruby stood up and gave a at the remaining members of Team JNPR.

"AND DOWN GOES BLAKE!" Carcharodon called, with Sun and Neptune whooping while raising their arms, "The crowd is going wild while things are looking hopeless for Team RWBY! With only the leader, Ruby herself, still standing, how will the reaper of red turn the tables on these three?"

As if she was about to answer him, Ruby took a stance like that of a runner about to begin a race before she speared towards them faster than she ever had been before, practically summoning a storm of wind and rose pedals. As she zoomed past the commentators, the tailwind from her dash dragged all the air born food in the room along with her, warping into a spear as Ruby twirled with her cloak wrapping around her like a drill as she transformed into its tip.

"BY THE HOLY sh*t, FOLKS! RUBY GOES IN FOR THE KILL! SHE'S ROARING FASTER THAN THE WINDS THEMSELVES IN A WHIRLWIND OF FURY!" Carcharodon roared as the spear of rose that launched itself towards Team JNPR just as Jaune recovered, "SHE'S ABOUT TO SEND TEAM JNPR INTO HELL WITH HER SPECIAL MOVE:THE CRIMSON SPEAR!"

Just then, Ruby abruptly stopped, internally squealing at the cool name that Carcharodon gave her attack, causing the winds to below forth towards Team JNPR like a lance. The gale forces were too powerful for them to resist against, causing the four to be sent flying and crashing into the walls of the cafeteria, leaving a crater where they impacted. Unfortunately for the team, that was not the end as the food and soda that Ruby had dragged along with her impacted them, splattering them in gunk as the winds finally died down.

By the time the storm left behind by Ruby's move finally faded, Team JNPR remained unmoving and covered in the food splatter before they flaked off and fell to the floor, utterly defeated.

Sun and Neptune were too stunned to say anything, overtaking by the awesomeness of the scene, the latter especially as he forgot about the fact that he was currently soaking in grape soda. Meanwhile, Carcharodon, grinning like a maniac, produced a cigarette and lighter before placing it in his mouth and lighting it before he then inhaled deeply, dragging the lit end across to its butt before he exhaled a cloud of blue smoke, "Kitchen's closed, motherf*ckers." Carcharodon and Sun then did a secret handshake that ended with a fist bump before mimicking an explosion.

"AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!" Ruby cheered with her arms raised up, childlike glee practically radiating off of her.

"Awesome..." Neptune said despite the fact that he was soaked in grape soda.

"Ditto..." Sun grinned like a maniac.

Suddenly, the doors flung open, causing all of them to turn to see the rather cross visage of Glynda Goodwitch walking into the cafeteria, practically irradiating irritation and fury as she snapped her wand out. At that motion, an aura of purple pulsed through the room, and suddenly every table, broken or unbroken, lifted into the air and set back into place and cleansed off all stains and damage. The collapsed pillar raised into the air and forced back to the place, with the pieces fusing back together, while the hole in the ceiling that Nora made when she launched Yang into the air was patched back at up with the splintered rafters repaired.

"Children..." Glynda grits her teeth as she adjusts her glasses, "Please... do not play with your food."

All was silent, no one daring to speak when suddenly Nora burps loudly while a screaming Yang falls back through the ceiling and crashes into one of the tables, causing the students to laugh and Glynda to sigh in irritation as she waved her wand to repair it again. Not even Victor did such things.

Speaking of Victor, he came into the cafeteria right behind her before he took in the sight of what just happened. "f*ck me rigid..." Victor breathed as he looked around the food stains around the cafeteria, his sour demeanor temporally forgotten especially when he saw the state of Team JNPR, "I thought my Sunday night bar fights were intense."

Glynda grumbles at all of this, but Ozpin, who had arrived lastly, approaches and places a hand on her shoulder in a calming gesture, "Let it go."

The deputy headmistress sighs deeply, but relaxed, "They're supposed to be the defenders of the world."

"Glynda, they're a bunch of hormonal teens who would rather fight and f*ck each other." Victor deadpanned, especially when he saw Nora making moon eyes while dusting the gunk off of Ren, "Saving the world is the least thing on their minds, right now."

"Come on, Glyn." Carcharodon patted her shoulder goodheartedly, getting a look of surprise from her, "They're still kids, so let them be kids. After all..." He turned to the teams as they were cleaning all the food junk off each other, taking special notice in Pyrrha turning red as her hair as Jaune brushed some gunk off her blazer, then just gave a melancholic sigh, "It's not something they're gonna have for very long."

A similar expression then came on Ozpin's face, "Indeed."

Glynda just turned to the janitor and asked, "You do realize that it is your job to clean up the remaining mess?"

Carcharodon just grinned, showing off his maw of shark-like teeth before he gave a thumbs up, "WORTH IT!"

"Never a dull day, eh?" Victor said in amusem*nt as he and Carcharodon fistpumped.

The headmistress rolled her eyes at the detective as she and him walked back to Ozpin's office to continue their meeting, "I detest you."

Victor just gave a smirk that was filled with his greasy charm, "That's not you said to Ironwood in bed last week."

Carcharodon tried to hold it, but he failed as he burst out laughing, holding his gut as he continued to cackle. Glynda's cheeks turned scarlet as she sputtered before glaring at Victor first before glaring then at the janitor, practically screeching in denial, "There is nothing between me and James Ironwood!"

"Right." The shark-like man said with a drawl and grin that clearly indicated that he did not believe her.

The blonde headmistress snapped her wand at the janitor's throat, the promise of murder in her eyes.

"Okay, okay, fine, there's nothing!" Carcharodon relented, putting his hands up in a placating gesture, "Sheesh, what is with you today?"

Glynda didn't answer him, only walking out with a huff.

2 hours later...

After they helped Carcharodon clean up the mess they made in the cafeteria, both teams returned to their dorms and changed into their regular outfits. Team JNPR met them in the hallway.

Jaune's outfit consists of a black short-sleeved hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves and a dark brown image of the bunny rabbit Pumpkin Pete trimmed in white with cute black round eyes. Covering his hoodie and hiding the Pumpkin Pete symbol is a white diamond-shaped chest plate cut off above his lower abdomen, and placed over his shoulders are a pair of white spaulders with rerebraces set under them. Below, he wears blue jeans with a white patch placed on the left knee and black sneakers which have "left" and "right" written in black on the respective shoes' soles.

He has two belts crisscrossing his waist, both different shades of brown, with a pair of small pouches on them, and brown wrist-length gloves with exposed fingertips and small metal plates over the back. His sword is strapped to his left hip in a sheath that doubles as a collapsible shield.

As for Nora, she wears a collared black sleeveless vest, with a blue central front section with red accents, her vest has her emblem, on the back. Under the vest, she wears a white sleeveless t-shirt with a heart-shaped cutout above her breast line in the center accompanied with a pair of white detached sleeves on each arm, and a pair of light pink fingerless gloves. She sports a short pink skirt with a single white layer under it. Her white ankle boots sport pink soles with part of her emblem, the lighting bolt, on them and low heels with pink laces, the tops are folded over revealing the pink lining. She also wears a silver armor piece that wraps around waist, under her breasts and around the back on her neck with metal connecting each piece together at the front.

For Pyrrha, she wears a brown overbust corset with a vertical strip of lighter brown in the center, an elastic, black, A-line mini skirt and brown opera-length gloves on both arms, and a red ankle-length sash that wrapped around her skirt. As for accessories, there was a small circular bronze plate on her right hip opposite two pouches with both connected to a belt. The plate bore her emblem. Underneath her hair, she always wore a brown circlet adorned with a pair of small, green, teardrop-shaped emeralds on thin chains. She also sported a large bronze gorget around her neck and a bronze bracelet on the upper half of her left arm.

Unlike most of the female students at Beacon, Pyrrha wore armor. She has elaborate bronze greaves that started below her mid-thigh before continuing downwards into her boots as well as a pair of cuisses that began mid-thigh and ended slightly above her knees, also equipped with a bronze bracer capable of connecting with her shield Akoúo̱ atop the sleeve on her left arm. Her high-heeled boots were brown with bronze trim, matching her skirt and sleeves and reaching up to mid-calf.

As for Ren, he wears a dark green, diagonally buttoned, long-sleeved tailcoat that is red on the inside, with black and gold trimming and pink cuffs. The trimming goes down the right side of his torso and forms a black collar. Along with this, he wears a black, long-sleeved shirt beneath the suit and light-tan pants with black shoes. He ties his hair back in a low ponytail.

The two teams managed to make some talk about recent events, laughing at a few jokes from Nora and Yang, but then as she thought about it, Ruby decided that she has to tell them about what happened last night.

"Hey, guys?" Ruby began, causing them to stop walking and turn to her, "About what happened last night..." Seeing her team wince while Team JNPR gained interested expression, the red reaper inhaled and exhaled before she began, "It all started when I was in Vale after visiting that old man I saved from Roman. When I was walking back to Beacon, I heard this scream and... something in me kept pulling to investigate."

By that time, they stopped, and listened into Ruby's story.

"By the time I got there, the guy who screamed was already dead. And the thing that killed them..." Ruby trailed off, rubbing her arm as she shuddered.

Jaune, concerned, put a hand on Ruby's shoulder, "Hey, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, I need to talk about it." The reaper insisted, steeling herself, "The thing that killed him... I think it was a werewolf."

Team JNPR were silent, having looks of utter stunned muteness on their faces before Jaune broke it with a simple sentence, "A werewolf?"

"Well, Weiss doubts it." Ruby pointed out.

"And with good reason." The heiress cut in with a doubting look and her arms crossed.

"But still, whatever it was, it definitely wasn't a Beowulf." Ruby shook her head, "I took down dozens of Beowulfs and that thing wouldn't stay down no matter what we did to it. It kept fighting and fighting until it beat us."

Team JNPR was still stunned but the silence was broken by an awed "Whoa..." from Nora before they heard the sound of whistling coming from another room. And following it, came the humming of a tune that they didn't recognize. Just as it suddenly grew louder, the two teams suddenly tensed in paranoia... only to be in relief when they saw who it was.

It was Professor Port, whistling jovially as he drank from a cup of steaming tea, visible in the door to his classroom and holding a plant that he placed by the doorframe, "Ah, it does tie the room together." He mused before he turned to see the two teams standing in the hallway, "Oh, Team RWBY, Team JNPR, what are you doing out here?"

"Oh, Professor Port!" Ruby exclaimed, somewhat nervously as she didn't want him to get into another one of his boring stories, "We were just walking around Beacon, just thinking about things!" Her cheery cobbled together excuse got a few pointed looks of incredulity, but it seemed to work as Port gave a jovial laugh.

"Well, since you are already here, could you help me please?" Port kindly requested, "One of my captured Boarbatusks went wild and I had to put it down. It made quite the mess though."

Ruby looked at her teammates and the other team, and they seemed to just shrug their shoulders, not minding the request, causing her to nod, "Alright, why not?"

The girl and her friends followed the professor back into his classroom, before they saw the extent. It wasn't as damaged as they thought, but desks were flung across the room, there were scratches all over the walls and floor, and there was a massive web of cracks in the wall. Team RWBY took one side of the room while Team JNPR took the other, silently setting the chairs and desks back in place.

But by the fact that something like this happened showed them that they still had a lot of work to do if they wished to be true Huntsmen and Huntresses. However, just as they hauled the professor's desk back to its proper place, Weiss continued their conversation from before.

"Look, to get back to what we were talking about before, I still don't think it was a werewolf we saw last night." Weiss said as Jaune and Red placed the professor's desk back into place, "Seriously, a werewolf-"

CE-KSK

The sharp shriek of a cup of tea falling to the floor and shattering caused both of the Teams to stop. Professor Port had suddenly gone still, his posture straightened, his jovial humming having suddenly ceased.

"A werewolf..." Port breathed, his eyes wide with shock and horror, his gaze firmly on the surprised Team RWBY, "Are you being serious, Ms. Rose? Was that what you encountered last night?"

Ruby, taken aback by the look of utter seriousness in Port's face, gulped before she replied, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a werewolf."

Professor Port continued staring before he took in a breath and exhaled, straightening his posture and adjusting his ascot.

"...Then, Team RWBY," Port began, exhaling again as he steadied his heart, "You four are unfathomably lucky."

Unknown to all of them, someone who happened to be around the corner of the room where they were speaking while mopping up the floor heard the Professor.

By sheer coincidence, Carcharodon happened to be near the corner where Professor Port's classroom was while he was cleaning the halls after the teams helped him with cleaning up the cafeteria. And at hearing the normally bombastic retired huntsman speaking so seriously, the shark man gained an interested expression as he leaned into the doorframe of the classroom, trying to make it so that he could hear the Professor while not making himself seen.

"Wait, you know about werewolves, Professor Port?" Blake asked, surprised at the usually bombastic teacher knowing such things.

Port was silent at that request. Knowing that all professors and doctors in Beacon were knowledgeable on the supernatural, Ozpin told the teachers to only tell the students about such creatures if they deem it absolutely necessary for the student's wellbeing. Peter Port was never one to go out of his way to break the law, but if he had to choose between doing what was lawful and doing what he believed was right...

"I do, in fact." The professor began, motioning for them to sit down and listen to what he had to say. The students did so by grabbing some chairs and sat down, for once listening in on the professor's stories.

"Werewolves are among the most terrifying creatures in Remnant." Peter began, intertwining his fingers together, "Their origins are unknown but what I do know is that they are the most numerous and respected of the Fera, created as soldiers for a war we barely understand. Their claws can rend most forms of armor, they can survive wounds that would be fatal to other men, and they are able to kill even the most trained Huntsman if they aren't careful."

That certainly got the alarm from the two teams, especially from Team RWBY. Yang and Blake looked at each other, while Ruby and Weiss stiffened at the statement.

"But before I continue, I must ask something." Port inquired of Team RWBY, getting their attention, "When you fought the Garou, did you feel... scared? Anxious? Panicked?"

Ruby, after looking at the surprised expressions of her teammates, answered in equal surprise, "Y-Yeah. When I first saw the werewolf, I was... scared stiff. I couldn't move, I couldn't think, and it was like I couldn't even breath. It was only when it noticed me that I could run."

"Yeah, it was then same when we caught up with Ruby." Yang cut in, remembering it like a nightmare, "I was never as scared as I was in that moment. Like my veins were filling with ice. Weiss and Blake were as frozen as me and Ruby when we saw it."

Weiss and Blake nodded as well, the latter shivering and rubbing her arms in terror at the memories of the wolfbeast.

"I see, then that confirmed that you indeed faced a werewolf." Professor Port confirmed before he continued, "What you experienced was the Delirium, an effect that the Garou have when they enter their war form. When someone sees a Garou transform, they tend to... panic."

"Well, I think I'd do the same if I saw a guy turn into a big hairy wolfman." Jaune joked, causing the others to laugh.

"Well, obviously, but that's not what I meant." Port corrected him, though he did chuckle at the joke, "Supposedly a gift from their 'creator', whenever someone sees a Werewolf transform, they... react. They panic, run, forget, or in some rare cases attempt to fight. It is an involuntary gift, but one they exploit with ruthless efficiency."

Jaune blinked but replied, "Well, yeah, they sound dangerous, but I don't think-"

Port interrupted Jaune by placing a firm hand on the boy's shoulder, his serious expression boring down on him to where he reeled at the sight.

"No, Mr. Arc. You are not ready. And I doubt you will ever be ready." Port firmly stated, something that unsettled both of the teams at once, "Werewolves are killing machines. As I said, they are supernatural soldiers fighting a war we barely understand. Do. Not. Fight them. Do not look for them. Do not even think about hunting them down."

Jaune's eyes were wide as saucers at the utter seriousness from Professor Port, as were the rest of his team and Team RWBY.

"My friend Boyd thought the same as you did." Port began, thinking back to those days when he just a fresh-faced young lad, "We were tasked with hunting the Hound of Baskerville."

"The Hound of Baskerville?!" Ruby gasped loudly, her hands covering her mouth, "I thought that was just a fairy tale!"

"It was real, Miss Rose." The normally boisterous professor confirmed to the young reaper, his tone ominous and rigid, "It was very much real. And it was more terrifying that any book could ever describe."

Ruby gasped again, but so did Blake. The raven-haired cat Faunus had heard of the Hound of Baskerville from her mother telling her stories when she was young, but she never imagined that they would be real.

"Wait," Nora cut in, having a confused look on her face as she never heard that fairy tale, "What's the Hound of Baskerville?"

"It's a story about a wolf-like creature that terrorized the village of Baskerville. It was said to be half the size of a Goliath and it's snout had dozens of razor-sharp fangs that could break a man in two." Blake explained, shuddering due to her cat instincts that she tried to shove down, "It was eventually driven out of the village by a hunter and some brave villagers." She then turned to Professor Port with an awed expression, "You were that hunter?"

Port chuckled but shook his head, "I can't take all the credit. It was actually an effort by four teams of Huntsmen and Huntresses.

"It was 30 years ago in Autum." Port began, this time his students looking at him with rapt attention, "It was a southeast village between Mount Glenn and the shoreline that was so small, it was not even on the map. It went by the name of Baskerville. By the time we got there... it was an army had come in and butchered everyone. Men, women, and children, whatever did it left no one alive."

"We then came to the center of the village where a church was." Port continued, looking at his hands as he recalled, "The people had tried to run and get to it, but whatever attacked was faster than them, and butchered them all the same. One of the huntresses in my team vomited at the sight of the massacre, but little did she or I know that... this was only the beginning of the horrors."

The two teams' eyes widened at that, but the professor continued, "By the time we scouted the area for the beast, it seemed like it had either left or was hiding. Night had fallen and the only sources of light were the fires around us... And that was when we saw the Beast."

"D-Do..." Ruby gulped, shivering at the tale from the normally bombastic professor, "Do the tales do it justice?"

"No, they do not." Port shook his head as he continued, "They do not even compare to the horrid presence of the beast."

Ruby and Blake's eyes were wide as saucers, as was the others that listened. Even Carcharodon's pitch black eyes were wide slightly as he eavesdropped the story.

"It stood as tall as two men, its hide black as night and several blades and arrows stuck in its body, eyes burning red with saber long fangs and claws like garden rakes. I had faced things like it before, but nothing, absolutely nothing could compare to the beast." Port replied, pouring a cup of hot tea for himself, "When I saw it, I was so terrified, so much that I couldn't raise my weapon, none of my comrades could."

He let out a shuttering breath, "The Hound was like a tornado of claws and death, ripping through us like we were paper. Roland's head was bitten off, Anna was practically ripped in half, Sera's throat was slashed open and impaled in the stomach, and Johan's neck was snapped. All four were trained heavily, I saw them take down hordes of Grimm on their own. Yet they were slaughtered like they were mere rookies."

The students were wide eyed and horrified; Ruby's hands were pressed against her mouth, Weiss' eyes were wide in disbelief, Blake was trembling, and Yang gulped at the story. Jaune gulped loudly, Pyrrha had copied Ruby in pressing her hands to her mouth in horror, Nora's bubbly persona was gone and was replaced by a fearful tremor as she clung to Ren, who was also staring in shock and horror at the story.

"After that it was just me and Boyd, but the Hound had nearly ripped him in half and severely wounded him." The professor continued, "After he was taken to safety, I took his rifle and aimed while it attacked the other Huntsmen that had come with my team. Boyd's rifle, hoo..." Port breathed in admiration, "I saw him destroy a Boarbatusk with a single shot of that rifle."

"And... did that do it?" Ruby meekly asked, hopefully.

"I shot in the shoulders, the chest, the knees, and in the snout." Port shook his head, before he revealed,"That barely even slowed it down."

The stunned silence that followed from the students were all that needed to be said.

"I kept firing. The bullet holes that I made just sealing up like they were liquid." The professor continued, "But then I ran out of ammo and was forced to run just as it charged. I ran through the forest, hoping that I had thrown it off my tracks. However, it was already on me, cleaving through the trees like it was a chainsaw Just as it was about to strike, I grabbed my father's silver knife and plunged it into the beast's guts!" Port regained some of his bombast, before it stopped as he continued, "It then transformed."

"It transformed?!" Nora shouted, causing the others and the professor to jump.

"Yes, and that was the books did the Hound justice." Port said as he calmed down, but still shuddered at the memory, "It was larger than a truck, teeth and claws like swords, and it seemed to almost heal from the wound I inflicted. However, my friend, Richard Grey, came to my rescue, shooting it in the leg, and managing to get me and him out of the forest just as the other huntsmen attacked at a range with silver bullets. But after it was injured enough, the Hound fled into the forest, with Grey running after it."

"Well... what happened to Grey?" Ruby asked, concern on her face.

Professor Port gained a regretful expression as he muttered out, "To this day, I don't know. He never made it back to the group, and... Well, I... couldn't face that beast again, so I... I never looked." He coughed before he continued, "After we limped out of Baskerville, the village was slowly rebuilt and repopulated, but we never heard from the Hound again. Whether it died, or whether it's still alive, I don't know, but regardless, I hope I never see that beast again."

Team RWBY and Team JNPR were shocked by the story, and the fact that the former had encountered such a creature last night did not fill them with much effort.

"This world has many dangers, students, but that only means that there is so much more to protect." Professor Port finished before he regained his cheer and thanked them, "But regardless, thank you for helping me with my classroom. I hope that all of you will be able to grow to be amazing huntsmen and huntresses."

The two teams smiled before Ruby said brightly, "You're welcome, Professor Port. See you tomorrow!"

"Good night!" Professor Port jovially replied as he got back to work.

However, the moment the two teams exited the classroom, the fake smiles fell off their faces as they continued to think on what else awaited them...

Hours later...

Night had fallen over the academy as the quiet overtook it again, save for someone who happened to be in the library. It was Blake, who was by a long table with a red book with "The Hound of Baskerville" written in black cursive on the front cover, her eyes scanning the pages frantically.

While her team and Team JNPR returned to their dorms, Blake snuck out from her dorm and snuck into the library as she read Beacon's copy of The Hound of Baskerville. After hearing the story from Professor Port, she had to know if there was anything more to it than what he told them. And after shifting through the library for any copies of the story, she found one that she found the truest that matched Port's description of the story.

As she read through the story again, more and more she realized how much it seemed like the monster that nearly killed them the previous night.

"'Just as the hunter came to the opening and the fires that spread around the village burned brightly like the morning sun, the beast emerged from the glen. The wet, rigid trees parting as it's black balefire-like fur brushed against their bark, its claws cleaving through the moist grass and dirt, its lusterless scarlet eyes sat like twin gates of hell on a snout filled with sabre shaped fangs." Blake whispered as she narrated a passage of the story, her amber eyes glued onto the old pages, "'The villagers were frozen, blood turning to ice in their veins despite the blistering fire around them. The hunter pulled its rifle up, aiming it down and the Hound issued a howl so deep and reverberating that it echoed through the village like a beast from the burning agony fields of abyss...'"

It sounded just like... sounded like...

Pain in her gut

A hand covered in blood

His masked face grinning

Strapped down as they wheeled her away

A sheering pain on her arm

A grinning face with matted red hair and eyes, holding the needle close

Screaming

Screaming

Screaming

Screaming

SCREAMING

Blake's breath suddenly hitched as she felt something inside her begin to flare up again. Dropping the book, she clenched her left arm as the sheering pain returned, before a horrid sight greet her wide amber eyes.

The skin on her arm began to squirm and writhe like liquid, her nails slightly elongating into claws while sickly green scabs began to form on her forearm.

Panicked, Blake began to breathe in to calm herself down. Her hand then came to her chest, feeling her heart pounding against her ribs, her lungs expanding and contracting slowly as she took in deep breaths.

Just as she began to calm down, her skin settled down and the claws and scabs receded back into her arm.

Blake, letting out a shuddering breath, merely shook it off and the thoughts plaguing her. She then got out from the table and placed the book back onto the shelf with a calm expression, trying to keep herself from panicking again. But that calm soon broke as a worried expression overtook her.

"Even thinking about him is causing flare ups..." Blake whispered to herself, trying to reign herself in. She then shook her head again, shaking off those thoughts again. Maybe she just needed to rest and take her mind off of this.

Wiping the sweat off her brow, Blake walked out of the library ...never noticing Carcharodon spying on her behind a bookshelf. He had a surprised expression at her sudden jerk and that thing with her arm... before a shark-like grin grew on his face.

"Interesting..." The janitor crooned so softly that not even Blake could hear as he slowly slithered back into the shadows.

Vale

Vale was still reeling with the most recent murders; the police were now patrolling the streets, the robbers belonging to Roman becoming even stealthier as they tried to avoid the honest and trying to bribe the corrupt, and the innocent huddling in their houses as the fear that was generated drew in more and more Grimm from the barest fringes from Mount Glenn. The things that writhe in the shadow of infrastructure or masquerade slow creep through, watching in the dark as the werebeasts in the forest prowled as the silent guardians.

Meanwhile, two figures came to the doors of an old warehouse, knocking on the doors rhythmically. A moment later, and the doors slowly parted by two White Fang grunts, the light shining on them as they ended.

"Yeesh, dramatic enough?" Mercury snarked.

"Up yours, Mercury." His companion replied as they saw the White Fang are moving crates onto the bullhead as Emerald and Mercury enter. The grey-haired teen had chained into another jacket of his that looked exactly like the one that Tukson ripped apart.

"Oh, look! She sent the kids again! This is turning out just like the divorce!" The two were unpleasantly surprised when Roman approached the two from behind and wraps his arms around them in a group hug. Both of them winced as they felt the tightness of the 'hug', knowing that he was not pleased.

Emerald, shivering in disgust, replied to the criminal as she pulled away from Roman while Mercury just brushed his hand off, "Spare us the thought of you procreating."

"That was a joke." Roman waved off, before he then produced a piece of paper, "And this..." He showed it to the two, which happened to be the same piece of paper that Emerald used to find Tukson, "Just might tell me where you two have been all day."

"What!?" The mint haired thief shrieked as she checked herself for the note, finding it gone, before groaning in disbelief at Roman pickpocketing her, "Agh..."

"I'm a professional, sweetheart. Pay attention, maybe you'll learn something." Roman replied before holding up the piece of paper up to his eyes, the contents making him frown as he then turned to the two, "Why do you have this address?"

Emerald pointed to him and remarked, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yeah, I would." Roman retorted as he approached them again, "Now where have you been all day?"

"Cleaning up your problems." Mercury began before he remarked, "One of them, at least."

Roman didn't look too pleased at that retort as he all but growled, "I had that under control."

"Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale said otherwise." The assassin snarked at the crime lord, angering the latter further.

Roman glared as he got closer to Mercury while raising his cane for a strike, who merely smirked at the attempt of intimidation, "Listen, you little punk. If it were up to me, then I would take you and your little street rat friend here and..."

"Do what, Roman?"

The ginger haired criminal froze, his blood practically turned to ice as he turned to see Cinder on a platform above them, her footfalls clanking like they were cold iron and glass. She stared at him as she steps onto an automated lift, her amber eyes burning into him like furnaces while the rest of her remained cool and collected, riding it down to their level.

Roman, immediately losing his nerve, laughs nervously as he lowers his cane, "I'd, uh... not kill them?"

Emerald turned to her, excitedly exclaiming, "Cinder!"

The moment the lift stopped, Cinder stepped off and approached Roman, the clanking of her shoes echoing out through the warehouse, "I thought I made it clear that you would eliminate the would-be runaway."

Roman nervously gulped as he tried to explain, "I was going to..."

"He was going to escape to Vacuo!" Emerald explains, smugly watching as Roman squirmed at Cinder's gaze, "Mercury and I decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat."

"Ironic, Em, as it turns out the guy was a Bastet." Mercury revealed, earning surprised looks from Cinder and Roman before he motioned to the slashes on his face that left a scar, "As you can tell, he put up a fight before we put him down."

"Wait, wait, what's a Bastet?" Roman asked, genuinely confused.

"A werecat." Cinder replied, surprised herself, before she schooled her features, "However, that's not what I meant. Roman, could you explain?"

"See, here's the thing." Roman said with a smile, but the look in his eyes told them the opposite, "I got a call from Victor when he got out of his meeting and the funniest thing happened! When the police arrived on the scene and did their investigation, they contacted Victor, who was in his meeting withOzpin, forcing him to tell the headmaster about it. And as it turns out, there werecamerasin the bookshop that caught you two!"

"Oh." Mercury gulped, seeing at how this might be a bit of a problem for their boss.

Now incredibly nervous, Emerald tapped the tips of her fingers together bashfully as she meekly said, "Oops?"

"Quiet." Cinder's calm expression did not change, though her eyes narrowed dangerously, "Did I notspecificallyinstruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?" As Cinder speaks, Roman points a finger at the pair while laughing like watching a mother scolding an unruly child.

While Mercury glared at Roman, Emerald stuttered out, "I just thought..."

Pointedly ignoring Roman uses his fingers to mime a knife slitting someone's throat, Cinder interrupted her, "Don't think... obey."

Emerald looked down apologetically, like a child almost, "Yes ma'am. It won't happen again."

"Be glad that I ordered Victor to have the footage confiscated and hidden." The raven-haired woman replied before she turned to Roman, who immediately tensed at her gaze laughing nervously, "And you. Why wasn't this job done sooner?"

"Uh..?" Roman incredulously says, as he points to his right to the crates, "Eh..?" Then to his left, where the shipping containers were, "Eh..?" And then behind him where the metal crates were, "EHHHHH! Sorry if I've been busy stealing every speck of Dust in the Kingdom!"

"Oh, yeah, you're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask." Mercury sarcastically remarked, actually getting a laugh out of Emerald.

"Look around, kid. I've got this town running scared!" Roman explained, pointing with his cane, "Police camping out at every corner, Victor's been keeping Oz and huntsmen off our tracks, Dust prices through the roof," He then turned to all the crates and packaging filled with all the Dust he's stolen, "And we're sitting pretty on an old warehouse with more Dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with!" He paused a second before turning towards them again, "Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn't mind filling me in on your grand master plan, it might actually make my next string of robberies go a littlesmoother!" He emphasizes the last word by clenching his fist.

Cinder smiled seductively as she approaches the criminal, "Oh, Roman. Have a little faith." She places her hand on his face, her touch almost like that of a gentle breeze, "You'll know what you need when you need to know it." Her voice like lathered honey as Roman seems entranced, but then he looks away with a brief begrudging grunt, "Besides, we're done with Dust."

The crimson clad temptress begins to walk away while Roman looked confused at her proclamation, "O-okay, then what now?"

Cinder replied without looking back at him, "We're moving. Have the White Fang clear out this building. I'll send you details and coordinates tonight."

Roman raised an eyebrow at that, "Coordinates?"

Cinder, looking back at the ginger haired criminal, merely smirked sinisterly, "We're proceeding to phase two."

With that done, Cinder, Mercury and Emerald began to walk away. Scoffing, Roman pulls out a cigar and attempts to light it, but he found that his lighter was missing from his coat pockets. Suddenly, Emerald turns back to face him as she holds up his stolen lighter, flicked open and alit, before she sticks her tongue out defiantly.

Instead of getting angry, Roman smirked and closed his fist. And then, he raised the closed fist to a confused Emerald before he opened it.

And in his hand was an exact copy of his lighter, which he then flicked open and used to light his cigar.

Oh, the delight he took in Emerald's floored expression.

And that's a wrap!

I admit most of this is a modified version of Best Day Ever, but it shows the introduction of a prominent OC beside Victor and another that will appear soon, Carcharodon. As for why the rest of the meeting between Ozpin's circle and the council hasn't been shown... You'll see soon.

As for Professor Port's tale, I was mostly inspired by the fairy tale he was based off ofPeter and the Wolf, with the Garou of the story being a reference to theHound of Baskervilles. Since Professor Port is indeed a seasoned huntsman, it'd make sense to me that he'd encounter a Werewolf in his younger days.

As for Blake's sudden "flare up" in the library? ...(Chuckles evilly) You're just gonna have to wait for the next chapter~!

Also, if you're wondering the tune that Carcharodon was whistling in the beginning of the chapter, it was "A Hunting We Will Go."

See ya!