Beacon Academy

Ruby: Aaaaaargh!!!!

Weiss: Oh come on Ruby, it wasn't that bad.

Ruby: Yes it was! Professor Oobleck spent two and a half hours talking about what type of rock Grimm tend to sleep on!

Weiss: That information could be useful for futu-

Ruby: TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!!

Weiss: *sigh* okay, it was pretty uneventful...

Yang: I don't know what you guys are complaining about, I had a great time.

Blake: You fell asleep after five minutes...

Yang: Yep! Best nap I ever took!

The members of team RWBY were walking from their most recent "lecture" from Professor Oobleck, which was mostly him talking endlessly without stop.

Ruby: Ugh! Nothing exciting ever happens anymore...

Yang: Yeah! The last exciting thing that happened to us was "initiation" and that was weeks ago! You know, I thought Beacon Academy would be more exciting than this.

Blake: You two should be careful of what you wish for.

Weiss: Yeah, besides, you guys have fun sparing with team JNPR, right?

Yang: Oh yeah! It's stupid fun to fight with Nora!

Ruby: Ugh... speak for yourself—That woman is an inhuman machine...

Blake: Well, even if you guys are bored now, eventually we'll be Huntresses and we'll have plenty of action for ourselves. We might even look back at times like this and wish we cherished them more.

Ruby: I know... I just... want to do something other than wake up, go to class, then go to sleep, and then repeat that day after day...

Yang: Don't worry Ruby, I'm sure we can do something to cheer you up.

As the team walked down the hallway, they turned a corner and ran into someone familiar.

Ruby: *gasp* UNCLE QROW!!!!!

Qrow: Huh? Oh hey Kiddo- Oomf!!!

Like a human rocket, Ruby flew directly at Qrow and hugged him as hard as she could, causing him to stumble back.

Qrow: Yeesh. What are they feeding you kid?

Ruby: Heehee!!

Yang: Nice to see you again Uncle Qrow!

Qrow: Hey, firecracker, nice to see you too.

Weiss: This is your uncle?

Weiss looked Qrow up and down.

Weiss: I thought Huntsmen were supposed to dress professionally?

Qrow: Yep. You're Winter's sister alright.

Weiss: You know my sister?

Qrow: Yeah, much to my dismay...

Blake: Pleased to meet you, I'm Blake Belladonna.

Qrow: Well at least one of you has some manners...

Ruby clung to Qrow with an iron like grip.

Ruby: What'cha doing here Uncle Qrow?

Qrow was now trying to pull Ruby off to no avail.

Qrow: *grunt* I'm here on official Hunstmen business, kid. Oz called for me personally.

Ruby: WOW! Are you going to slay a super big monster? Oh! Or are you going to singlehandedly fight off an army of Grimm?

Ruby was now squeezing so hard that she was slowly pushing the air out of Qrow.

Qrow: Easy kid! I don't even know yet!

After more effort than he'd like to admit Qrow managed to pry Ruby off of him, causing her to fall to the floor.

Ruby: Ow.

Qrow: Phew. It's nice to see you again kid, really. But I can't talk about what I'm being assigned to.

Yang: Aw. Why not?

Qrow: It's against Huntsman policy.

Weiss: I've never heard of that rule.

Qrow: Uh... it's new. Look I gotta get going, Oz doesn't like to be kept waiting. I'll see you guys later.

Qrow ruffled Ruby's hair and entered the elevator to Ozpin's office.

Ruby: Wait!...

Ruby shrugged as she watched her uncle disappear behind the elevator leading to Ozpin's office.

Ruby: *sad* And there goes the most interesting thing to happen to us...

Weiss: If by "interesting" you mean sloppy, then yes. Very interesting.

Yang: Hey! Don't badmouth our uncle! He may dress poorly, drink a lot, and smell kind of bad, but he's still family!

Blake: I'm pretty sure you insulted your uncle more than Weiss did...

Yang: I'm allowed! We're family.

Ruby, still on the floor, started to whine.

Ruby: Q_Q Uncle Qrow, come back... adventure....

_____

_____

Ozpin's Office, Beacon Academy

Qrow took a swig from his flask as the elevator doors to the headmaster's office opened up. Inside, Ozpin was sitting in his chair and Glynda was by his side.

Ozpin: Ah, Qrow, I'm glad you got my message.

Qrow: Hey, you said it was an emergency, so... here I am.

Qrow sauntered into the office, and slumped into one of the open chairs in front of Ozpin's desk. After which, he pulled out his flask, yet again, and drank from hit, irritating Glynda.

Glynda: Could you at least try to act with some decorum?

Qrow stopped and then looked at his flask, then at Glynda, then back to his flask.

Qrow: No.

Glynda: *sigh*

Ozpin: Now that you're here, we can begin. A few days ago I sensed a spike in energy in the wilderness South of Vale.

Qrow: It's probably just a bunch of idiots messing with Dust.

Ozpin: I never said I sensed Dust.

Qrow stopped himself from drinking and looked at Ozpin, his expression more serious.

Qrow: Was it "her"?

The atmosphere in the room was now far more tense than it was when Qrow first entered. Ozpin closed his eyes and went into deep thought before giving Qrow an answer.

Ozpin: I'm not sure...

Qrow leaned forward in his chair.

Qrow: You're "not sure"? What kind of answer is that?

Ozpin: An honest one. I will not lie to either of you, I have never sensed something like this before. And that isn't the only strange thing to occur in that area.

Glynda: There's more?

Ozpin: The concentration of Grimm in that area has dropped considerably.

Glynda: What?

Ozpin: While I haven't been able to confirm it officially, I can sense "her" grip on that area drop to a mere fraction of where it was before.

This time, it was Qrow's turn to go into deep thought.

Glynda: Where did they go?

Ozpin leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his tea.

Ozpin:That is why you are here, Qrow. I need someone to investigate the disappearance of the Grimm as well as the spike in energy in the area.

Qrow chuckled when he heard Ozpin's request.

Qrow: Wow. I never thought I'd see the day where we'd be worried about the disappearance of Grimm...

Ozpin: Yes, it is quite ironic, isn't it?

Qrow: So, where should I start looking? Or am I doing this the long way, again?

Ozpin: Don't worry Qrow, this time I have an actual location for you.

Ozpin tapped his desk and a map of Vale displayed itself for everyone in the room. After a brief moment a small dot appeared south of Vale.

Ozpin: Here. I managed to triangulate where the spike in energy occurred as well as the decrease in Grimm activity.

Qrow looked closely at the location. The location marked by Ozpin was fairly close to a town called "Trist".

Qrow: "Trist", huh?

Ozpin: It is within the area I want you to investigate, yes. It's a small town, while I doubt they'll have the answers we seek, it will be worth while to at least visit.

Qrow rose from his chair and took the swig from his flask that he was going to take earlier.

Qrow: Welp. I'd better get going.

Ozpin: Good luck, Qrow.

Qrow glanced back and gave Ozpin a thumbs up.

_____

_____

Beacon Academy Hallways

The elevator to Ozpin's office dinged and the doors opened allowing Qrow to start heading out. However, he was not prepared for what happened next.

Ruby: Uncle Qrow!!!

Qrow: Oh no...

Qrow quickly looked around and spotted Yang, Weiss, and Blake leaning on a nearby wall but he did not see Ruby. He looked left and right and couldn't find her anywhere which made him sweat more.

If there was a time for the "Jaws Theme" it would be now.

Seeing the worried look on his face Yang gave a smirk to her uncle and pointed upward. Seeing this, Qrow looked up and saw Ruby had expertly clung to the ceiling—just moments before she launched herself.

Qrow: Ruby! Don't. You. Da-

It was already to late as the red huntress in training launched herself like a bomb and body slammed into her uncle yet again.

*SLAM*

Qrow: Ow.

Ruby: What's your mission!? Is it to slay a super Grimm? Or maybe to stop a band of bandits? Or maybe-

Ruby began to shout out an endless list of "potential" missions the she had heard Huntsmen and Huntresses usually take as she hugged Qrow even harder than before. Qrow, on the other hand, was face down on the floor wondering-

Qrow: Where did I go wrong?...

Yang: Ok Ruby I think you messed with our uncle long enough.

Yang managed to pull Ruby right off of Qrow and helped him up.

Qrow: *grunt* And here i thought you were the firecracker here.

Yang: Oh? Would you have preferred it be me that tackled you?

Qrow shuddered at the thought of taking a full on tackle from Yang.

Qrow: Don't joke about that.

Ruby: So what's your mission Uncle Qrow?

Qrow: Sorry kiddo, that's between me and Oz.

Ruby: But. But.

Ruby gave Qrow the biggest puppy eyes a little girl could muster.

Qrow: No means no Ruby. I'm not telling you about my mission.

Ruby's eyes grew even wider and filled with more tears.

Qrow: T-that... won't, w-work. I'm not... y-your dad.

Instantly after, Yang jumped next to Ruby and gave her own puppy dog eyes. If one set of puppy dog eyes managed to shake Qrow, two of them utterly broke him down.

Qrow: Gah! Fine, fine! I'll tell you just stop the "eyes" already!

The two girls instantly stopped and gave each other a high-five.

Ruby: Yes!

Yang: Alright!

Qrow: You two are terrible...

Ruby: None can withstand the power of our puppy face!

Yang: It's even more powerful if we had Zwei with us.

Qrow dragged his hand down across his face to display his shame in losing in this test of wills.

Qrow: Ugh... Look, it's nothing grand like slaying a Grimm or anything, I'm just being sent out to investigate an explosion in the wilds south of Vale, okay?

Blake: An explosion?

Qrow: Yeah, freaked a lot of people out. So Ozpin is having me go and check it out.

Weiss: Hmph. so much for that "Huntsman Policy" nonsense.

Qrow simply shrugged at Weiss's comment.

Qrow: So that's what I'm doing, so if you'll excuse me, I have work to do.

As Qrow began to walk away, he was stopped by Ruby yet again.

Ruby: Can we come!?

Qrow: No.

Ruby: It'll be a good way for us to watch a professional Huntsman at work!

Qrow: You got me to spill the beans on my mission, you are not coming with me on this. It's out of your league kid.

Weiss: I thought you said that it wasn't going to be anything "grand"?

Blake: Or involve slaying any Grimm?

Qrow cringed as he realized that he had talked himself into a corner.

Qrow: Look, I can't just bring you along. Oz would kill me if I took you from your classes.

Ruby: It's just an investigation, right? It won't take long, right? We don't have any more classes today!

Qrow: Not happening kid.

The moment he said that, Ruby gave her powerful puppy dog eyes again.

Qrow: Those won't work again.

Yang joined also.

Qrow: Enough. I'm a veteran Huntsman, those puppy eyes won't work on me twice.

_____

_____

A Few Hours Later

The Skies Above the Wilderness South of Vale

It worked twice.

Qrow: You two are evil.

Ruby: Yay! We get to go on a field trip!

Yang: No more lectures! No more schoolwork!

Qrow had begun lightly hitting his head against the side of the drop ship they were on.

Weiss: "Hunstman Will of Steel" huh?

Qrow: Glynda is gonna kill me...

Blake: What exactly are we looking for?

Qrow: Oz said that there was an explosion in the forest around here, so we just have to look for any signs of an explosion.

Blake: Couldn't it have just been a natural gas leak that exploded?

Qrow: Could be, then again, I doubt Oz would send me on a mission like that.

Ruby: So what's the plan then?

Qrow: First we have to actually confirm that there was an explosion to begin with. Then we need to determine what caused it.

Weiss: Do we know exactly where this explosion happened?

Qrow: No. But there's a small town in this area, we can ask around there first.

Drop-ship Pilot: Uh, I don't think you'll have trouble finding it.

Qrow: Hm? We have a lot of ground to cover. It might just be-

Qrow leaned his head out of the drop-ship to get a good look at what was ahead, only to see what the pilot saw.

Qrow: A... small... crater...

This time, the rest of team RWBY looked and saw the enormous circle of scorched ground.

Ruby: Woah.

Yang: That's one big boom.

The crater they were seeing was a perfect circular black spot in an otherwise see of green trees. It would be difficult not to see it from the sky.

Weiss: Could that have been caused by a natural gas leak?

Qrow: Not in this universe...

The drop-ship circled the large crater, allowing those on board to get a good look on how big it truly was. Everyone was in awe at the sheer size of burnt forest, eventually, Qrow was the one to break the silence.

Qrow: Okay. Here's the plan: Ice Queen-

Weiss: Hey!

Qrow: -Blake, and myself will get off here and investigate the crater itself. Ruby, you and Yang will go to the nearby town of Trist and ask the locals if they saw anything out of the ordinary the past couple days.

RWBY: Right.

The drop-ship lowered itself toward the crater and allowed Qrow, Weiss, and Blake, to hop off. Following that, the ship flew toward the town with Ruby and Yang in tow.

The Huntsman and two Huntresses-in-training, watched the ship fly away and then turned their attention to the task at hand.

Blake: The explosion here should have been immense.

Weiss: What? This isn't immense?

Blake: No I mean-

Qrow: She means that—if this is the epicenter of the explosion—why is the forest around here still standing?

Blake: The force of the explosion should have torn away at all the the trees around here, but they're still standing.

Weiss: Could someone have been messing with Dust?

Qrow: That's why we're here. I'll search the center, you two, investigate the surrounding area, maybe there's some shrapnel or something.

Weiss and Blake nodded in acknowledgment and started their investigation toward the outer edges of the crater, leaving Qrow to look around the epicenter.

Now somewhat alone, Qrow was now able to look more closely at the ground he stood on.

Qrow: This wasn't caused by any natural gas leak, nor was it caused by some idiot with too much Dust...

Qrow looked around more before he noticed something, interesting. At the very center of the blackened crater the ground was slightly more indented than the crater around it. The shape of the indent was what caused Qrow some pause...

Qrow: It looks like... someone was laying here?