Inter Mission: Beacon

I left the airship at Beacon with an Emerald and Mercy solidly under my control as well as a small pillow with a bone face on it in my bags. Now I know what your thinking; Cinder you could have picked any Grimm, why a Geist? Why not in fact the very Wyvern that destroys Beacon you're supposed to stop? Or maybe you don't actually know anything about the fall of Beacon, I suppose it's possible, in which case your probably thinking what the hell is a Geist?

So let me rewind a bit. Capturing Mercy didn't take more than a few really fun hours thanks to Aggressive Initiations. With her erogenous zones on overdrive and the libido boost of the Tempest jewelry a fumbling idiot could have set her off like fireworks and I am not an idiot. Also Sticky Fingers, which is kind of cheating but hey I am the bad guy, certainly did it's part. She was only worth a measly five credits, but then her skills did have a lot of overlap with Emerald's so not much in the way of rebates. Getting her did finish both sub and side quests so she had her flight Semblance back and I got a free Grimm.

Grimm, if you are for some reason unfamiliar with the world of Remnant are basically monsters drawn by negative emotions that hunt and kill humans and Faunus. What's a Faunus you ask, I'll get to that one later. Grimm generally look like big inky black animals with red eyes and bone like spikes and growths all over them, oh and when they die they dissipate like smoke. I'm supposed to be working for the woman that controls the Grimm, or at least the body I'm in is. That's kind of the whole point in my taking Cinder in the first place. How do you stop the fall of Beacon? Well jacking the body of the woman responsible is a pretty good first step I'd like to think. Oh and because of that I can control Grimm myself, even ones that aren't in my Retinue, but not in opposition to Salem herself.

So taking control of the Wyvern might have been a really stupid way to let Salem know I'm no longer following her orders, and also I didn't know if doing so would have woken it up and made it come to me. Which would probably have caused a shitstorm of panic which could have set off a massive Grimm attack and caused the fall anyways, only early. I didn't even know that I'd get that Wyvern in particular as the wording on the reward was pretty vague. Good reasons for not picking a Wyvern then, yes? Thank you.

Still, but why a Geist? Well they have some very interesting abilities. For one they can pass through solid objects being basically ghosts, and since Aportation lets me teleport to a retinue member not a bad way to get past obstacles. For another they can posses solid objects, like a suit of armor or a giant pile of rocks or a fucking tank. Or in this case a small pillow, so it could be easily snuck into a school dedicated to teaching young women (no men in this version of Beacon...) to hunt Grimm. That and I had a super funny idea using a Geist and Hybrid Advanced Tempest Runes.

And it turned out to have been a super good idea to not have picked Wyvern because as soon as I chose Geist one appeared next to me which would have been really fucking bad if for instance I'd picked something big enough to swallow an airship whole. Also I actually got ten credits with it so a rebate for something and I wasn't complaining. In fact I spent twenty points on the Hybrid ATR's right then so I could make someone a hybrid human/Grimm, which is pretty funny if you are aware that Cinder becomes one after the events of the fall of Beacon. Technically I'd be something of a hybrid now with the beetle that let me steal half of Amber's power infused in me but apparently Body Tune-Up had cleared that. Oh and checking my Company device, called a "scroll" in this world but was basically a smartphone, and my newest member was currently listed as Geist/pillow which almost caused me to bust out in more maniacal laughter but we were trying to pose as Haven academy students arriving early for the Vytal Festival. A big sharing of cultures between the Kingdoms event that was happening at the end of the year. And yes the Festival is vital to the events I'm trying to prevent, you'll see or you know.

I was super glad to have Cinder's memories of scouting this place out earlier because Beacon was huge. It was very much like a collage with dorms, classrooms, at least one big library, cafeterias, all the things you'd expect to find on campus. Of course some of these classrooms were like gladiatorial pits where the future Huntresses, that's what you call a professional Grimm hunter apparently, engaged each other in combat for training. Of course the three (4?) of us weren't actually students but thanks to the traitor in charge of Haven academy we had full credentials.

Now I could have taken us straight to our rooms but that's not how things played out for real and this was too good a opportunity to pass up so I took us to the Beacon dorms I'd scouted before while having our luggage sent on to our rooms. I didn't know exactly where I wanted to go but this should be pretty much scripted so the three of us just wandered the halls until a door ahead of us opened up abruptly and a young woman rushed out yelling behind her "I'll be right back!" then ran right into Emerald.

Emerald seeing her coming had plenty of time to brace so the short haired girl just bounced off of her landing on her ass. "Oh gosh sorry. Are you okay?" She asked from the floor.

Emerald unfazed replied "I'm fine, just watch where you are going."

The klutz still sitting on the floor laughed "Right, sorry. I'm Ruby, are you new?" Emerald was trying to get past the obstacle and Mercy was smirking behind her. Time to strike.

"Visiting from Haven actually." I said stepping forward and extending a hand to pull her to her feet. I gave Ruby a quick look over, short black hair with red highlights, pale skin, and silver eyes. The short skirted black dress looked good on her and the red cloak not nearly as silly as I would have thought.

"Oooo you're here for the festival" she replied "but exchange students have their own dormitory."

"I guess we just got turned around." Mercy joined in on the conversation, she must have gotten the hint this was what I was looking for since she was faking friendly.

"Don't worry, happens all the time. Your building is just east of here." Ruby was still looking at me, probably because I hadn't released her hand just yet.

"Thanks. You're part of team RWBY aren't you?" I asked and the young woman's silver eyes got big.

"You've heard of us?!" She enthused now clasping her other hand over mind holding it in both.

"Word gets around when a first year team goes toe to toe with criminals and gets the upper hand." I winked at her and I think Sticky Fingers was having an effect just holding her hand because she blushed bright red. Adorable.

"That was supposed to be a secret." She whispered back looking embarrassed.

"Well I won't tell a soul, but we really need to keep in touch. In fact I have a present for your team." I pulled four of the five silver bracelets off of my right arm. They had a red, white, yellow, and black gem respectively.

Ruby's eyes got even bigger as she looked at the four bracelets noting the one still on my arm with a fire opal then Emeralds with an emerald and Mercy's that had jet. "We'll be bracelet buddies!" Shit I didn't even need to activate Jewels of Discord, she couldn't put the one with the ruby on fast enough, and now of course would never take it off. I did think to activate it for her teammates though who were much less trusting.

"You'll be sure to hand out the others to your team then?" I asked "and keep in touch?" I held up my scroll and she quickly tapped it with hers exchanging contact information.

"Absolutely, they'll love them. I love them. Oh I have to get my game!" And with that she was off, just a trail of rose petals flashing away down the hall. I checked my bracelet as we walked on. Well well. Looks like innocent, trusting, gullible Ruby Rose would only take Tempest Jewelry 72 hours to capture. By the time we made it to our room Weiss Blake and Yang had put on their bracelets as well. Go with the flow Yang Xiao Long would also only take 72 hours but stubborn Weiss Schnee and perpetually suspicious Blake Belladonna were both high on the scale. 130 for Weiss and a maxed 168 hours for Blake. I'd have to do something about that.