~ Warning and Boredom ~

Narrator POV:

It's almost at the end of Professor Ports' class, Grimmerin is sitting at the very back, not paying attention to the boring dribble coming out of his old mug.

Out of the sheer boredom that she's feeling right now, she has a bright idea to spy on the students' conversations, since most of them are talking to each other. So she does just that, by slightly upping up her hearing, but only in one ear, she puts her palm around that unenhanced ear to block some of the professor's nonsense and focuses on her task.

As she listens to many whispers, some boring hanging out stuff, some useless school information, and something a little bit more interesting. Like the fact that two female students are betting if they'd get caught masturbating in Port's next class and that's as interesting as it gets, but at least Grim now knows that Crystal might not be the only shameless individual in Beacon.

As she listens, she hears something that's extremely hilarious and pathetic to her.

"So, Weiss, y'know, uh, I-I was thinking after this, maybe we could go grab a bite to eat?" Jaune turns to the teacher for a second, then turns back around "And, uh um, I-I've got two tickets to that new Spruce Willis movie, if you wanna make the trip to Vale. I hear it's awesome" He pauses as his words have no effect "Aaaand maybe after that, we could study together? I mean, you're smart and I'm, uh... Y'know"

Jaune, oh, poor, poor... Yeah, he's not so poor, he's just dumb. Both of his female teammates and the rest of team RWBY are higher quality than Weiss... And even still, she is still above him in every regard... Aiming way too high, but at least he's trying...

Grimmerin cringes slightly from inadvertently complimenting the Schnee... But she gets over it as she changes that thought for the better sounding thought of dissing Jaune over complimenting her.

Grim hears the shrill beep from the clock that's somewhere in the classroom and she stands up, finally free from this death-inducing nonsense.

However, as she starts walking. alongside others, the Professor loudly and more seriously calls out to everybody, bringing their attention to him for the first time since they got inside this room.

"Ahem, listen, everybody, some of you might've heard this already and some of you will most likely hear it later from the news... But yesterday, very late in the night, somebody attacked the soldiers of Atlas, now why am I the one telling you this? Simple, it's to warn you to be careful. This is not a joke. 17 Soldiers were found dead in ways that wouldn't be recommended to be seen by anybody. Only one, the 18th soldier was left alive, barely, with one of his arms and legs missing. He was interrogated as soon as he woke up, but almost all of the details are classified and hidden by Atlas. So... the only thing we know is that the attacker loves torturing people, doesn't matter who they are. So, please, be careful and don't stay alone at nighttime, you may now go"

And Grimmerin resumes walking, hearing all kinds of whispers, some unbelieving ones, some righteous, some boasting, but her favorite are the fearful ones. Especially the one boy that's trying to comfort, what Grimmerin assumes is his girlfriend who's quite distraught by saying drivel like 'Don't worry, baby, with me around? Nothing will happen to you, I'll protect you'

Grimmerin can't help but roll her eyes as she passes the duo, but as soon as she does that, she smirks grimly... Good little boyfriend, protecting his sweet girlfriend... But the Boyfriend is the one that would need protecting instead... Though perhaps she'd use the girl for fun in front of the boyfriend's 'protecting' eyes... No, she has higher standards, she'd just kill them both.

So Grim leaves the classroom, she stops in place and puts her head on her palm in a thinking motion... Now, what shall she do, how to kill this boredom... She could go and talk to Cinder... She did say that yesterday, she would show up to check on her... But she can't be bothered. Grim takes out Crystal's scroll from the pocket and calls their girlfriend.

It's picked up soon after "Yes, Grim?"

"I am just calling you to tell you, that you can heal your pretty face with your aura, I am too laz- I mean, I am bored and don't want to come there just to check. So you can just do it..."

"Right. Okay"

"Mhm... Hey, did you hear about the attack on Atlas soldiers?"

"Yes"

"Oh, how unfortunate, whoever could've done such a horrible thing," Grimmerin says with sarcasm.

"I have no idea... But I think it might've been somebody with, red hair, two red-tails... Oh, and red contacts" Cinder plays along.

"Oh... What a good answer, I think so too. If only we knew where such a person might be..."

"Indeed"

"So, how'd you like my work?" Grim asks enthusiastically.

"Nothing I haven't seen before, but..."

"But?"

"Isn't your average around 22? Why only 17?"

"Oh, so you want me to play with more? What a supportive girlfriend we have, how sweet"

"If it were me, I'd want none of it, too much attention... But you do like the spotlight, so it fits you"

"Ha, of course, if there isn't anybody to appreciate your work, then what's the point? Well besides having fun with it, but the fun is limited no matter what, the excitement runs out, so showing it to somebody else can renew that... So the spotlight just calls out to me naturally"

"Mhm... So?"

"Oh, right, why not 22... Frankly? Because these were more competent than the usual batch, so I had my fill without needing to go overboard, besides there was this one girl... She fought so desperately, challenging me so, so hard, not once begging me to stop... Oh, what a delightful drive she was... So I only finished her off mid-point, stopping and leaving her aching for release with tears streaking down her red and panting face, she could barely move, let alone walk, it was quite the pleasurable sight"

"I would comment on the 'overboard' thing, but even now, I still can't get over the fact that you make dismembering somebody's limbs and leaving them alive with terror in their eyes sound erotic... It's as if I was listening to Crystal's latest sex story... There might be some people staring at you right now with flustered faces if I am not wrong"

"Oh..." Grimmerin looks around, seeing just what Cinder described, she smiles at the audience "Well if it isn't the spotlight I so seek... So? Do you want to hear more about how to make your partner squirm under you? I might even give a demonstration right here. right now... Hmm?" Grim raises an eyebrow as she looks at all the girls with a predatory glint. Of course to the others, it might've seemed sexual... To her? It was an honest question, a true life or death question.

The students quickly disperse after being caught blatantly staring and listening, not to mention the question didn't help at all. So Grimmerin was soon left alone with her scroll in hand and a disappointed look. She sighs and goes back to Cinder.

"Well, I seem to have lost my spotlight"

"That's what happens when you ask if you could show a demonstration of how to kill somebody"

"Trueeee... Anyways, I'm going to find something to do, bye"

"Mhm"

Grimmerin puts her scroll back in her pocket and resumes her previous motion of thinking... Vale... Sleep... Fun... Room... Teams...

Rooms of teams... Jaune... Weiss... RWBY...

Hmm... Team RWBY's room... Aha, let's go make fun of RWBY some more since she barely had time to do something like that yesterday. And with a smile, she makes her way to her new target.

Meanwhile in RWBY's room.

"I thought that class would never end," Says Blake tightening her wraps.

"Alright, guys, today's the day! The investigation begins!" States Ruby happily, jumping off of her bed, landing in front of Weiss.

"I'm glad to see we're taking this so seriously" Weiss answers sarcastically.

"Hey, we've got a plan! That's... moderately serious" Yang says somewhat seriously.

"Right!" Ruby starts and looks around at her teammates "Everyone remember their roles?"

"You and I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem" Weiss answers first.

"The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning" Blake goes second.

"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard..." Yang finishes.

Great! We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we found" Ruby says pumping her fist "Let's do this!"

"Yeah!" Team RWBY shifts their attention to the window to see a smiling Sun Wukong as he hangs upside-down by his tail. The whole team is taken aback.

"Sun!" Blake shouts alarmed.

"How did you get up there?" Asks Yang.

"Ah, it's easy; I do it all the time" Answers Sun.

"You do what?!" Inquires Weiss.

"I climb trees all the time!" Sun doesn't react to Weiss' scowl and he flips into the dorm room "So, are we finally getting back at that Torchwick guy?"

Blake steps forward "We are going to investigate the situation... as a team"

"Sorry, Sun. We don't want to get friends involved if we don't have to" Ruby adds.

"Psh! That's dumb! We should always get friends involved! That's why I brought Neptune!" Sun answers gesturing to the window.

The girls lean out the window on top of one another to see the aforementioned teammate of Sun's standing outside, cool as can be.

Neptune looks back at them "'Sup?"

"How did you even get up here?" Ruby asks.

"I have my ways" He says cooly, even if he's standing on a very thin ledge.

"Seriously, though, can I come in? We're like, really high up right now" He asks nervously.

Neptune gets inside the room, after he does that, he looks at team RWBY and asks them a question.

"Are you sure, you should be doing this now?"

"Uh... What do you mean?" Asks Ruby.

"The very next day after the attack that claimed 17 lives?"

"Oh..."

"I guess, the Professor mentioned something like that" Weiss adds.

"Ha! There's no need to worry, we got this, even if we do get attacked, the attacker should be the one scared of us" Yang answers back with confidence, throwing an arm around her sister.

Blake's ears twitch as she hears a snort from somewhere "Guys? Did you hear that?" She asks the rest.

"Hear what?" Sun asks.

"Hmm..." Blake hums then shakes her head "Nothing, continue"

The others look at Blake, then turn their attention back to Ruby as she starts laying out the new plan.

"Alright, I'll go with Weiss; Sun, you can go with Blake" The captain pushes Neptune past, Weiss, he slips her a wink. Weiss looks mildly shocked but then comes to her senses quickly "And Neptune, you can go with Yang since she doesn't have a partner. Everyone good?"

"Actually, Ruby, why don't you go with Yang? After all, she is your sister" Weiss asks.

Ruby pushed Neptune, who is stiff as a board, up next to yang. When she is done pushing him, he rocks back and forth looking nervous. Yang put her hand on his shoulder to stop him from rocking. And so, the captain turns to look back at Weiss.

"But, Weiss, who would go with you, then?"

"Well... I guess Neptune could come with me"

Neptune puts on a suave look and points at Weiss as the team leader cracks up "Hahaha, nah!"

Weiss is obviously less than amused, yet is powerless to stop Ruby from pulling her by the back out the door.

"But! But!" Weiss says sticking her arms out, as she gets dragged out of the room.

"But, but, what? Schnee?" All of them hear a new voice.

Ruby stops pulling Weiss, she turns to look in the direction the voice came from, only to see Grimmerin, of course none of them know her name yet.

The rest of team RWBY, along with Sun and Neptune come out of the room.

"Crystal..." Blake starts, then thinks for a bit "So that's who I heard..."

"Yep, indeed, you should really close your doors... Not to mention your windows, so easy to eavesdrop, I heard all of it..."

"Hi... Crystal" Ruby says, waving her arm slightly, seeing Grimmerin look back at it, with a raised eyebrow, she puts it down and hides it behind her back.

"Oooh, look at that, the kiddo is getting smarter, Yang should learn something from you... That baseless confidence is going to bite her in the ass in the future"

"Hey!"

"Yes, hey back to you too... 'The attacker is the one that should be scared of us', what kind of nonsense is that? You have no idea who it is, they could surprise attack you and you'd have no way to fight back... Yet you say that you can win, so... I am pretty sure that what I said is valid here"

"She has a point," Neptune says from behind Yang, getting punched in the shoulder by Yang right after.

"What's with the red color on your tails?" Blake asks "I saw it back in the class, but had no way to ask before"

"Mhm... It's to show who's in control of the body, Crystal likes her tails like how they are, silvery-white, me? I love them red, so I changed them"

"Blood... Right..." Blake mutters.

"Wait... Wait... Control of the body? Crystal? You? What's going on?" Sun asks in confusion.

RWBY turns to look back at Sun, then Weiss answers him "The one who stands here, isn't the previous Crystal... This one is even crazier"

"Careful, snowflake, before I prove that statement" Grimmerin answers "Oh, but she is correct, I ain't Crystal"

"Okay..." Sun says scratching his head.

"So..." Ruby gets Grimmerin's attention "I am Ruby... What is your name?" The captain puts her hand in front.

"Wow... I will retract that previous statement, about you getting smarter, you do realize that you're jumping right into the beast's den... right?"

"Um..." Ruby slowly moves her hand back "So... Is that a no to the introduction?"

Grimmerin shakes her head exasperated "Fine, I'll humor you, the name's Grimmerin" Grim puts her hand in front of herself. Ruby smiles and does the same.

The two connect them in a handshake, but Ruby's smile quickly disappears as she didn't expect Grim to grip it so tightly, Ruby's eye twitches slightly, but she holds out, Grim raises her eyebrow in challenge, which Ruby accepts and she starts tightening her own grip and they stay like that for a few seconds, squeezing their hands. Grimmerin nods in approval after some time and finally releases the captain's hand.

Who pulls her hand away, looks at it nonchalantly even if she sees it turn red... After a moment, however, she put her hand up to her lips and starts blowing on her palm to minimize the pain. Grimmerin only grins at that.

"Grimmerin... Who gave you that name?" Blake asks her.

"Oh? What about it?"

"It has Grimm in it?" Neptune adds as if it were obvious.

"Indeed it has, wow, such amazing observational skills, is it the blue hair? Or perhaps the dorky glasses? Or might it be the stupidly 'cool' face?" Grim sarcastically answers Neptune, who gets ignored right after "I did it, I gave the name to myself"

"You called yourself after the monsters?" Sun asks.

"Of course, a monster to another monster is like a sibling. So I honored them by naming myself after them, oh and I added Erin to it... That part was just a process of elimination out of multiple others"

"A monster? You know... Forget it, what are you doing here, Grimmerin?" Blake asks, jumping right over the topic of her name.

"Oh, I am so glad you asked, I came here because I was bored"

"You were... bored?" Yang asks.

"Yep!"

"Uh... How are we supposed to help you with that?"

"You already are"

"Oh, we are? That's great" Ruby says happily.

"Indeed, making fun of you is just so entertaining"

"Oh... I am glad to be of help...?" The captain says more than a little confused.

"There, there, you did it... But now? After hearing you talk about hunting down some information, it has gotten my attention. So? I will be following after one of your groups in shadows"

"What? No!" Weiss jumps up at that.

"Listen, Schnee, you have no say in the matter. I didn't say that I will come with you... I said that I will follow you and that's my choice, so just shut it, before I rearrange your face, so not even Schnee employees could recognize it"

"I... But... Haaah" Weiss gives up after sighing, getting a pat on the back from Yang.

"Who are you going to follow?" Asks Sun.

"Good Question, unfortunately? There's no answer to that question"

"How can there not be an answer?" Neptune asks.

"By there simply not being one"

"Yeah... Every question has an answer" Yang adds.

"Right... Right... Then how many females has Crystal slept with?"

"Uh... How am I supposed to know that?" Yang scratches her cheek, not being able to answer such a question.

"Exactly, neither I nor she knows. And there you go, nobody can answer that, so? Not every question has an answer... Now are we moving, or are you going to stand here like the losers that you are?"

RWBY looks at each other and starts moving out, Sun and Neptune following after.

"Ha, you started moving to the term 'losers', you literally just proved that you are indeed losers, hahaha"

The 6 hear Grimmering mockingly laughing at them from behind. So they speed up, except for Blake who stays back a little because she has a question to ask her.

"Blakey, to whom does Crystal owe the pleasure?" Grim asks sarcastically.

"Grimmerin" Blake says seriously, stopping Grim from joking around.

"What?"

"Those 17... 18 soldiers from Atlas..."

"What about them?"

"It... Wouldn't have been your doing...Would it?"

"Who knows" Grimmerin says mysteriously and walks ahead, Blake stands in place looking at her back, as she starts to move, she sees Grimmerin's tails go below her head and across in a cutting manner, like when somebody gestures it with their hand to 'slit' somebody's throat.

Blake, understanding the subtle message, shakes her head in disappointment and moves ahead of Grimmerin, to get back to her team.

Once Blake passes Grimmerin, Grim rolls her eyes at the cat Faunus. And starts thinking, whose group should she follow... Decisions, decisions.

~ End of Chapter 21 ~