A few weeks had passed since Acnologia had started to help out his students. Jaune had grown in his ability as a Huntsman by leaps and bounds in the short few weeks and Team CRDL were finally getting along with their classmates as well as operating as a team much more effectively. During a short sparring match, they nearly defeated team JNPR but Pyrrha still seemed to be out of all the students league. Cardin had grown as well, shaking hands with Pyrrha at the end of the match and congratulating her instead of plotting to have Rapier Wasps attack her. Or so Acnologia hoped.
However the school was in a bit of a flux right now. Classes had ceases for a few days due to other teams from the other three schools beginning to show up for the Vytal Tournament leaving Acnologia to his own devices for the short while that he wouldn't be teaching. And right now, he was taking Ozpin's advice and he was exploring the city of Vale.
-Earlier, The Docking Area-
Acnologia stood at the side of the schools docking bay entrance as he watched ship after ship bring in students of all kinds from the other three Academies. Ozpin found his way next to him and they both began to talk as the students filed in.
"A magnificent thing isn't it? To see so many young faces trying to help make the world a better place." Ozpin asked his fellow teacher. "I still have withdraws of having children fight, but yes it is nice to see them doing something of their own volition rather than having been forced down this path."
"This time of year always brings a smile to my face. It makes me proud to be a teacher here." Ozpin said, waving to some of the students who recognized him from previous tournaments.
"I've only been here a short time, but it does have a certain appeal to it. But I have the feeling you came to talk about something other than my pride as a teacher here." Acnologia told Ozpin as he turned to the white haired headmaster.
Ozpin laughed as he was found out,"Always straight to the point. Its nothing of importance of course, it just occurred to me that you've never ventured out of the school except to the Forever Fall Forest on the one field trip. I only came to suggest that you should go out and see the city of Vale and get comfortable with it."
Acnologia's face scrunched in confusion,"Why should I do that?" Ozpin tapped his staff against the floor under him. "This place will become mostly vacant for the better half of two weeks once Winter break hits and even more so during the Summer. You will need something, other than missions, to dull your boredom until the school season starts again after those long breaks and Vale is a great way to do that. You have another day or two until all the students arrive so I suggest that you go and explore the city. You may even find something you like there." Ozpin then held out a card to him. "Here, its called Lien. Its currency here in Remnant. Consider this an advancement on your first paycheck."
Acnologia took the card and looked it over,"This is currency? A simple card?"
"It connects to a banking system that holds all your money. Consider it a way to get easy access to all your money. Your first paycheck is a little over six hundred Lien. More than enough to get you anything you could want food wise for the better half of two or three days with the way you eat." Ozpin said with a laugh.
-Now, The City of Vale-
Acnologia looked up to the massive buildings that surrounded him. "Vale huh? What a strange place."
He continued down the streets of the city, until a loud voice caught his attention. The mages ears twitched and he decided to follow his curiosity to a gathering at the towns center. There was a soldier demonstrating something called "Atlesian Knights". Acnologia recognized the Atlesian part as being from the country of Atlas.
Six sets of large crates opened up behind the man and six metal soldiers walked out. The soldier began to describe them to the crowd leaving Acnologia with a bad taste in his mouth. He let out a quiet sound of disgust which didn't go unheard by a man standing next to him in the crowd.
"Not a fan of the Atlas tech?" The man had red-ish orange hair and a black bowler hat on. He held a cane in both hands similar to how Ozpin normally stood. "I'm not a fan of any military equipment."
The man let out a agreement in the form of a groan,"Don't have to tell me that twice. Seems kinda pointless with all the Huntsmen we got running around. To be honest with ya, I don't really like them either." The man told Acnologia. The mage finally looked at the man,"Is that so?" The man quickly held up his hands,"I don't mean to insult you, I had no idea that you were a Huntsman. Its just that I've seen a lot of them go off their tracks and do some pretty bad stuff."
"Tch. I've seen a fair share of that myself." Acnologia told him in half truth. "So you get it then. See your the kind of Huntsman I can appreciate." The man told him swinging his can around. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be a teacher at Beacon would you?"
"I am." Acnologia told the man while he looked back to the presentation.
The man snapped his fingers,"Ah, I knew it! I got a nose for these kinds a things see." The dragon slayer raised an eyebrow,"You didn't pick up that I was a Huntsman when we first began to talk. Your nose must be a little faulty."
The man put a hand over his chest,"You wound me dear sir! A man can slip up every now and again can't he?" Acnologia said nothing in return. This man reminded him of the dragon slayer he murdered at the beginning of his hunt for the dragon slayers. The strongest of the wizard saints, God Serena.
On the platform that the soldier was on, a giant hologram of what he called an "Atlesian Paladin" appeared. The man beside Acnologia let out a long whistle,"Man, I wonder how much money they wasted on that thing."
Acnologia said nothing but let out a grunt as he listened to the man. "I bet that things got some fire power though. Makes you kind of curious doesn't it." The man said slyly. Acnologia's face scrunched in confusion and he turned back to the man,"What did you say your na-" The man had dissapeared. The dragon slayer turned and looked around for him and found no sign of the man. He couldn't get a whiff of him with so many people so close together either.
The dragon slayer let it go and decided to leave the demonstration, its contents were beginning to sully his ears.
He walked on, coming to a corner of a street. He was about to turn when a blur of red crossed his vision and he was hit in the chest by somebody. He staid upright but the person fell onto their back. "Oh Oum, I'm so sor-Professor Acnologia?!"
Acnologia looked down to find Ruby laying on the ground in front of him. "Ruby? What are you doing in Vale all on your own?" He asked her as he helped her to her feet.
"She's not on her own." Acnologia turned to find Yang and Weiss running up to them. "Yang, Weiss.....wheres Blake?" Weiss scoffed,"Probably off with her White Fang degenerates." Ruby quickly turned to her teammate,"Weiss your not helping!" Weiss got offended and turned to her leader,"Oh, so I shouldn't refer to her as what she is? Should I stop calling this street light a street light, or this trash can as a trash can?"
"Quiet! Both of you!" Acnologia ordered in a growl, shutting both of them up. "Now someone, calmly explained what happen. Yang?" The blonde brawler explained what had happen the following day and what they were doing now.
"You all seriously didn't know that she was a Faunus?" Acnologia asked looking them over. "Wait, you knew?" Yang asked him. "Not only does she smell like a cat she covers her ears with that black cloth on the top of her head." The mage said pointing to the top of his own head.
"But she wears a bo.....ohhhhhhhh." Yang went into a sort of understanding as she realized that the bow was her ears.
"Now then. Weiss, would you care to explain what your hatred for my kind is?"Acnologia looked at Weiss who's eyes widen. "Your a faunus?!" Acnologia twisted his arm and allowed his scales to shine in the sun,"Do you not recall out first meeting with each other. Ozpin asked what I was remember?"
"I didn't hear that, I was to busy trying to help them!" Weiss said pointing to her teammates. "Regardless of my race and what you know of it, why do you hate Faunus kind?" Acnologia asked again. "I don't hate them, I hate the White Fang." The dragon slayer's eyebrow raised as he stared at her,"Then why do you hate Blake?"
"She lied about who she was. She was probably a White Fang spy or something!"
"Weiss!" Ruby yelled out but Acnologia raised his hand to silence her. He calmly looked at the Shcnee heiress.
"Weiss, do you have proof that Blake is with the white fang?" Weiss looked up at Acnologia, her confidence wavering. "Well, uh, not exactly-"
"Do you have proof that Blake was spying on you at all?" Weiss's head dipped,"N-no."
"Do you know why Blake hid her true nature from you?" Weiss stood still and looked to her feet,"No."
"Then do not judge her. Faunus kind have a hard enough time being ridiculed by normal people, led alone people that they are teamed up with." Acnologia let out a sigh before he looked back to Yang and Ruby. "How long has she been gone?"
Ruby looked to Yang who was counting on her fingers,"She's been gone foorrrrrrrrrr......almost twelve hours." The mages eyes widen for a moment,"Then we need to find her." He raised his head to the sky and shut his eyes. He waited for the wind to blow and when he felt the wind hit his face he took a deep breath in. The wind came from the docks, where Acnologia could smell a collection of human and animal scents as well as that of Blake.
"She's at the docks with several other Faunus. Lets go." Acnologia told them and began to run towards the end of town. Everyone followed behind, having a hard time keeping up with the dragon slayer. Weiss began to spout out more controversial sayings,"See I told you she was a spy!"
"You don't know the situation Weiss. I would advise you take heed of what i tell you and find a way to silence yourself." Acnologia warned with another growl and he picked up his speed. Ruby was the only one who could kinda keep up with him as Yang and Weiss fell a distance behind.
Acnologia kept his senses trained on the docks, unsure of what could be happening. Then it happen, his ear twitched and he heard gunfire. He let out a particularly nasty growl and he floored it. Even Ruby couldn't keep up as he began to run faster than humanly possible, hurdling over a car as he crossed an intersection. He made it within a minute or two to find Blake and a blonde haired boy with a monkey tail running way from people with Grimm like masks. They were firing at them and their were a lot of them.
"Blake! Get down!" He shouted out. The cat faunus barely had time to register Acnologia's presence at he launched himself into the air. She managed to look up in time,"Sun move!" She pushed the boy next to her out of the way and then dived behind a cargo container. Acnologia's arm began to glow blue as he summoned magic power. A magic circled appeared in front of him as he swiped his hand out in front of him,"Calamity Spears!"
The faunus chasing them looked up to late as several blue bolts of magic energy began to rain down from above, knocking several of them away in a series of explosions that covered the area in smoke.
Acnologia landed in front of the smoke and charged up more magic energy and then raised his hand in front of his quickly. Another explosion cleared the dust and sent another wave of faunus flying back. A few made it through and began to charge at him with swords and other weapons. Acnologia let out a roar fitting of a dragon and charged towards them. The first faunus slid to a stop out of fear of what he just heard come from the dragon slayer. Acnologia jumped forward, hitting the man in the face with his knee cracking the mask that he wore. Quickly flipping over him he grabbed the man by his collar and then used him as a projectile to knock over more of the people that threaten him.
More came forward and Acnologia charged them to. He threw down his foot and then twisted his body around, nailing another of them in the head with his heel sending the faunus flying away. The mage continued to twist, letting his other leg leave the ground and using his hand to hold his weight, as he pushed himself into the air with a vertical dropkick taking another faunus into the air with him. Acnologia grabbed the head of one that he cleared and brought all of his weight down with him, sending the faunus into the ground head first. The dragon slayer quickly threw out his hand as a magic circle appeared and blocked a blast from a dust round causing an explosion that covered him in smoke.
The faunus that fired the round smiled as he believed he had hit him, that smile was wiped from his face as two glowing blue eyes shined through the smoke. More blue light dimly shined through the cloud of smoke before it was ripped apart by another set of Calamity Spears from Acnologia. They easily knocked back the next wave of attackers and Acnologia walked forward out of the smoke,"Who's next?!"
Blake and the monkey faunus named Sun had taken cover behind a container. "Blake, who is that guy?" Sun asked while Acnologia tore through wave after wave of attackers with zero signs of slowly down. "His name is Acnologia, he's one of my Combat Professors at Beacon."
"Thats your teacher?!" Sun yelled out in shock as the container they were hiding behind was shook by a faunus getting thrown into it, severely a side of it.
Acnologia stood tall as three faunus's charged towards him with their weapons ready to strike. The dragon slayer tilted his head to the side as a sword came slicing by his ear, the faunus's eyes widen under his mask as Acnologia pulled back his fist and then brought it straight up into his chin. The faunus went flying back as his comrades moved around him, one with a spear and the other with a set of daggers. Acnologia quickly began to dodge the one with the daggers as he came in swinging violently. Each strike came close, but the dragon slayer knew that none of them would land. The one with the spear drew his weapon back for a thrusting attack, but Acnologia had a counter to this as he grabbed the wrist of the faunus with the daggers and then twisted the boy and held his arm at an awkward angle behind his back. The faunus with the spear barely managed to stop his spear from colliding with his comrade and then pulled his spear back. The mage however had a different idea and pushed the boy towards his comrade. The one that had the daggers stumbled forward and fell onto his friend while more of his comrades came to attack Acnologia.
The dragon slayer moved backwards as another sword tried to swipe at him. He quickly kicked the one that tried to cut him in the face, sending him flying before dropping to a crouching position to dodge an axe that came flying towards his head. Acnologia quickly threw up his fist and hit the axe wielder in the chin forcing him into the air. The mage then quickly jumped backwards into a spin as a mace hit where he was standing. Acnologia landed from the spin and continued to let his arm move, letting it swipe out in front of him as a magic circle formed,"Apocalypse Wave!"
A wave of blue magic energy hit another wave of attackers and sent them flying backwards. Acnologia then closed his fist with the exception of his index finger and then waved it in a specific pattern in front of him. A group of faunus coming at him slid to a stop as little blue dots surrounded them and then exploded, sending them flying in different directions.
The whole area in front of Acnologia was covered in smoke from his attacks and it looked like no more attackers were coming. The dragon slayer let out a sigh before he heard a feminine grunt from behind him,"Let go!"
Acnologia turned to find the man with the bowler hat from earlier holding his cane under Blake's neck and keeping her from moving. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the man,"You. I knew something was off about you."
The man laughed,"I guess your nose is just as bad as mine. Now stand down, or the girl gets it." Acnologia growled before movement caught his eye. Sun had taken down the faunus that had distracted him and was now on top of one of the containers surrounding them. "I said stand down!" The man yelled at Acnologia again.
The dragon slayer growled at his tone, but slowly began to get to one knee. Blake looked him in the eye and gave him a nod. She and the boy had a plan,'Smart girl.'
"Thats right, good teacher." The man said, loosing his grip on Blake's neck slightly. Blake took this and quickly threw her head back into the mans nose, probably breaking it. He let out a yelp of pain and stumbled back. Blake jumped away and Acnologia shot forward from his kneeling position, using it as a spring to jump forward and punch the man in the face breaking his nose for sure this time.
The man rolled backwards with several groans. He forced himself to his feet, holding his nose as he did. "You little.....you broke my nose! Do you know what this face has gotten me out of?!" The man didn't have a chance to charge forward as Sun came flying down with his staff. The man used his cane to block his attack and then jumped to the side, getting backed to a container. Blake ran to the other side of Sun and Acnologia walked forward,"Your trapped. Surrender now and you'll get off with just the broken nose."
The man wiped the blood that dripped from his nose lightly, careful to not hurt his nose any further. "Surrender? Why would I do that when I have you all right where I want you?" He pressed a button his cane and then swiped it forward causing a red wave of dust to go flying towards his three attackers.
Sun and Blake jumped out of the way but Acnologia put his hand in the way of the wave and forced it to dissipate just in front of him, cutting the wave in half. The dragon slayer looked back to where the man had gone to find that he was now on a ladder hanging from a bullhead. He used a free hand to take off his bowler hat and wave at them,"It was fun Professor! But I'll have to bid you adieu!" He said slightly bowing before putting his hat back on and climbing to the bullhead. It began to fly away and a few others came flying forward, their doors sliding open and men with dust launchers trained their sights on Acnologia.
Not threaten in the slightest, the mage looked back to the two behind him. "You may want to back away." They did as he said and the launchers fired at the dragon slayer.
Acnologia let out a deep breath as the missiles closed in before he widen his stance and began to breath in. The dust in the missiles began to drain and their containers fell helplessly in front of the mage. Their users dropped their weapons and jaws in shock before they began to yell at their pilots to leave. The dragon slayer was not allowing it.
Blue magic energy began to swirl around Acnologia, particularly near his mouth as he began to lean back with his arm out in front of him. The wind began to change direction and grow stronger as the energy continued to build. The man with the bowler hat looked out of his own bullhead and his face dropped. "Oh crap."
The energy stopped building and Acnologia began to lean forward swinging his arm backwards as he did so. The man turned to his own pilot,"Evasive maneuvers, NOW!"
"Black Dragon: ROAR!" A massive blue beam of pure magic power fired from Acnologia's mouth, slicing into the bullheads that fired the dust missiles at him and parting the water they flew over into giant waves. The man with the bowler hat's bullhead turned to the side just in time as the beam rocketed past them.
The beam continued for a moment before it exploded in the distance, causing a massive light to be cast in all directions and sent a massive gust of wind that forced Blake and Sun to cover their eyes from the dust it was kicking up. The mans bullhead began to shake from turbulence and Acnologia watched it struggle to stay in the air while his cloak wiped around behind him. The bullhead straighten and flew off into the distance. The dragon slayer let out a growl as the wind died down and then quickly turned around,"You get to escape today."
Sun and Blake moved their arms and watched Acnologia walk pass them before turning back to the peer. Their eyes widen as they saw there was a massive chunk of the dock was missing and that the water had had a massive curve that went for miles in it that was slowly coming back down.
"T-that's your combat teacher?" Sun asked, repeating his question from earlier while looking back at the dragon slayer who was walking towards the building that they were in earlier. Blake couldn't even answer as she watched the water return to normal. If he had done that the first day they had met, she wouldn't be alive right now.
"Blake!"
The owner of the name turned around only to be tackled by Ruby and Yang. She lout out a yelp as she was forced to the ground,"We were so worried about you!"
They continued to hug her for a small while before they let her up. She smiled before she saw Weiss coming towards her. "Oh boy."
Weiss stopped in front of her, a scowl on her face. "Do you know how long you've been gone?" This is not what Blake was expecting,"Uhhhhhhh-"
"Twelve hours......I've had twelve hours to think it over, and you know what....I don't care." She told her teammate. Blake was taken back by that,"You don't care?"
"I don't care if your a faunus or not, I don't care if you were with the white fang as long as your not with them anymore.....are you?"
Acnologia growled loud enough for everyone to hear him while he looked over the people he had knocked out, searching for information.
"No I'm not." Blake assured her. "Then I don't care. Just don't hide anything from us again, alright?" Weiss prompted. "Alright." Blake said smiling a little now. "Good. Now don't ever do that again." She said before hugging her friend, showing that she was obviously worried about her. Blake stumbled for a moment but quickly hugged her back.
"Soooooo.....I'm here to." Sun said walking up to the team. Weiss looked him over,"I'm not sure how I feel about you." Sun just chuckled nervously before putting his hand behind his head."The names Sun."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, if your all done with your making up session I could use some help searching these guys. I want to figure out who that man was." Acnologia said tossing an unconscious faunus to the side. The team laughed nervously before the three that didn't see Acnologia's roar looked and saw the destruction that he left in his wake. "Woah, what happen to the docks?! It looks like a bomb went off!" Yang cried out at the massive missing chunk of dock.
"Acnologia did it." Blake said pointing to their teacher. "What?! How?!" Ruby shouted out in shock. "Magic!" Acnologia said, getting impatient at his lack of finding anything. "That guy that we were fighting, his name is Roman Torchwick." Blake told the dragon slayer. "Roman Torchwick?"
Blake nodded confirming the name of the man that got away. "What was he doing here, with this....White Fang?" Acnologia asked, still unsure of what the group was. "He was trying to sell them weapons in exchange for dust. Sun told me about the meeting so we came to stop it."
"And that didn't go well did it? Your both lucky I showed up when I did." Acnologia walked towards them. "That was careless of you to try and do this with only.....what was your name?" The mage asked the monkey faunus.
"Sun Wukong, Sir Acnologia Sir." He said bowing mostly out of fear of being scolded by the dragon slayer. Acnologia only raised an eyebrow at the boys actions. He shook it off and return his gaze to Blake,"Regardless of who you went with, it was careless. If you plan to do something like that again, at least go with your team." The mage said pointing back to the other three smiling members of team RWBY. "Its pointless to try and tell you all to not try and do something reckless like this. I have a feeling you would do it regardless of what I say."
The five students in front of him laughed out, confirming his belief. "Instead, lets make a deal." They all twisted their heads,"A deal?" They asked in unison. "Keep me in the loop about what you find out about this Torchwick and his weapon trading operation, and in return you have both my support and approval to continue on finding out and stopping him. Deal?"
Team RWBY quickly nodded,"Deal." Acnologia turned to Sun,"And you....I haven't seen you before. Your here for the Tournament aren't you?"
"Yeah. I'm from Haven." Sun told him,"Where is the rest of your team?"
Sun laughed a little before answering,"I went on ahead of them, they'll be here in a few days."
"Hm. I'm assuming your going to be helping these four out of your own interests....or boredom, I honestly don't care which....but I expect you to follow the same terms that I have set, or else." Acnologia told him. Sun let out a little bit of sweat,"Or else....what?"
Acnologia didn't answer and began to walk off. "Or else what?" Sun tried again, fear creeping into his mind,"Do you guys know what he's talking about?" Sun asked turning to his new friends. His face paled as he saw the worried expression on his face. "Guys?"
Ruby, Yang, and Weiss walked away, just shaking their heads. Blake put a hand on Sun's shoulder,"If you mess up......I hope you've lived a full life." She told him before going after her friends.
"Wait what?!" He shouted out at her.
"What does that mean?!" Sun cried out chasing after them. Acnologia just let out a laugh as he heard the worry in his voice.
It was nice to be him.