In an effort to improve moral the council and Ironwood have agreed to Yang's plan and instigate the largest hide and seek game ever (TM) with a billion lien prize utilizing Penny as the seeker while the military holds a military "Exercise" outside the kingdom.
Nora wins
A few weeks later Jaune shows up and asks if the game is still going on.
The Hunt
Ironwood: Attention people of, Atlas, and Mantle! Today we will be conducting the worlds largest game of, Hide, and Go Seek!
Ironwood: Now I know many of you find this stupid, and silly. But, I am sure that for a prize of one billion Lien will change your minds! That's right people, the last person found, be they be male, or female, young, and old, human, and faunas alike will receive a prize of one billion Lien to do whatever they desire to do with it!
Ironwood: Now then, our seekers for this game will be, Atlas's proud Knights, and our loyal defender, Penny Polendina! Take it away, Ms. Polendina!
Penny: Thank you, General Ironwood! Salutations everyone! As the, General said, we will be hosting the worlds largest game of hide, and go seek with the grand prize for the last person found, winning one billion Lien! Now the rules are simple! Hide, and don't get caught! Of course we must advise you to hide in safe places, ant to not go anywhere that could get yourself hurt!
Penny: Now I have a complete data base of every individual who lives, in, Atlas, and Mantle. So I will be able to tell who has been found, and who is left to be found~! So don't worry, I won't leave a stone unturned in this great hunt!
Penny: And, with that, you all have five hours begore the game begins! Starting... Now!
Penny: Good luck everyone, and let the games begin!
~~~ Penny: Aren't you going to hide, General?
Ironwood: Me? No, nonono, I am not interested in playing this game. Go right on ahead, Penny. Happy hunting.
Penny: I will do, Sir!
~~~
Penny: 1 hr 37 mins have elapsed since the start of the game: 1,721 players, and counting have been found.
Penny: ...
Penny: 1,722 players have been found; Hello friend, Blake!
Blake: What?! How did you find me so fast?!
Penny: Your hiding spot was not out of place, but empty boxes do no jiggle.
Blake: Shit! Knew I should have grab something to read that wasn't so spicy...
~~~
Penny: 2,520 players have been found, and 5% of, Atlas, and Mantle have been explored.
(Smash!)
Penny: 2,521 players have been found; Hello, Specials Ederne!
Elm: Hi, Penny... was it the fact I knock over the shelf that gave me away?
Penny: Negative. Your head is peeking over the top shelf.
Elm: Dammit! Curse my tall muscular build!
~~~
Penny: 3,791 players have been found, and 9.61% of Atlas, and Mantle have been searched.
(Creak)
Penny: Hmmm?
Penny looks up, and sees a bundle of read cloth hanging precariously from a chandler.
Penny: Hello, Ruby!
Ruby: H-Hi.. Penny...
Penny: How did you get up there, Ruby?
Ruby: My semblance.
Penny: Fascinating.
Penny: ...
Ruby: ...
Penny: Do you need help getting down?
Ruby: YES! Please help me I'm going to fall!
Penny: On it!
~~~
Penny: Hello, Friend Weiss!
Weiss: Oh? Hello, Penny. Would you care for a cup of tea?
Penny: No thank you.
Weiss: Tell me, how did you find me?
Penny: You mentioned where you were going to hide when this game was mentioned to, Yang; So, I just had to look. But, I must ask, how did you get a tea set all the way up here?
Weiss: Ahh well...
Weiss, and Penny look down to see the beautiful landscape of, Atlas, and Mantle.
Weiss: We Schnee's have our ways~!
~~~
Penny: 5,782... Correction, 5,832 players have been found, 13.9% of, Atlas, and Mantle have been explored.
(Ca-thunk!)
Penny heard a sound emanate from within a broom closet.
Penny: Hmm? Investigating.
Penny walked to the closet, and opened the door, inside she found, Specialist Bree, and Ebi, within.
Penny: Salutations, Specialist Bree, Specialist Ebi! Only parents, and their young children are allowed to be together during the game of, Hide, and Go Seek. You two being together disqualifies both of you.
Clover: O-Oh does it? Shoot. I was running out of time to find a hiding spot, and I just jumped in here. And, well Harriet was already here, and the game started so... I just stayed here.
Harriet: I would have kicked him out, but it already started... So...
Penny: Understandable. Well, I will leave, and continue my search! But, before I go, Specialist Ebi?
Clover: Yes, Penny?
Penny: Your uniform seems to be undone, and there appears to be smudges on your face.
Clover: Oh did it, I hadn't notice.
Penny: Did something happen?
Clover: Ohh... Just got a little lucky. That's all.
Penny: I understood. Now then, the hunt continues!
Clover: Good luck, Penny!
Harriet: Bye.
Penny shuts the door, and the two stand there in silence for a moment before, Harriet slaps his chest.
Harriet: 'Got a little lucky?!' We finally have a chance to have some fun, and that's how you play it off?
Clover: Hey. I got to spend time with you, I can name a thousand reasons why that's considered lucky by anyone.
Harriet: Oh shut up, and kiss me.
Clover: Oh how lucky me~!
~~~
Penny: 7,127 players found, 27.3% of Atlas, and Mantle have been explored. Continuing the search. Hmm...?
Penny stops, as she sees a can on the side of the road being kicked to the side, and yet she saw no one was around to kick it.
Penny: Investigating... Heat Vision Activated.
Penny: Scanning...
Penny: Heat source detected, Knight's been issued to conduct search.
: Ahh! Whoa hey hey hey?!
Penny: Contestant found. Identify yourself.
: May. May Marigold...
Penny: Contestant, May Marigold has been disqualified from game for cheating.
May: What?! I'm disqualified for using my semblance?!
Penny: Negative: You are allowed to use your semblance if it allows you to stay hidden; But, you are disqualified for moving about, instead of staying hidden.
May: That's...!
May: That's fair...
Penny: Punishment has be administered. The hunt shall continue.
~~~
Winter: Oh, hello, Penny.
Penny: Salutations, Specialist Schnee!
Winter: I see you found everyone in my family. Please tell me my mother wasn't in the wine cellar...
Penny: She was not, she was in the kitchen making a cup of tea.
Winter: She was making a cup of tea? That sounds... okay...? I'll need to have a word with her... that's odd...
Penny: I was unable to find, Jacques Schnee. Do you perhaps have any ideas where I could find him?
Whitely: Father locked himself in the families panic room all by himself. He locked himself in there well before the competition started so no one else could get in.
Winter: Still as petty as ever... I'll show you to the panic room, I'm not interested in letting him win. This way, Penny.
Penny: Thank you~!
Winter: Here it is, just hack the door, and you should get in.
Penny: Hacking...
Whitely: Isn't this cheating? Telling your friend where, Father is?
Winter: She was going to check anyway. Might as well speed things along.
Penny: Vault open.
Winter: Alright, Father you have been found might as well...?! Whitely stay back.
Whitely: Why? I need to...?!
Winter: I said, stay back!
Penny: Oh, this is unexpected...
Jacques Schnee, was lounging peacefully in his chair, his head staring at the ceiling, a cup of wine sat before him, his once proud white business suit, stained red with his blood.
Jacquess Schnee's throat had been slit.
Jacques Schnee, was dead.
~~~
Ironwood: You found his dead body in a panic room behind a locked vault door?
Winter: Indeed sir.
Ironwood: Suicide?
Winter: No idea, Sir. We will know more once the autopsy has been completed.
Ironwood: I guess someone thought that this game of hide, and go seek would be the opportune moment to commit a crime. But, within a locked safe? This makes no sense...
Winter: Records indicate that the door was only opened twice; When he went in, and when we went in to check on him.
Ironwood: Peculiar... Hmmm... Assemble whatever, Specialist's that have been found, and start investigating this at once. The fact that it was your father who was killed is one thing, but the fact that it happened behind a locked door is something else entirely.
Winter: At once, Sir!
Ironwood: They waited until the game began, and then killed him when no one was looking... This isn't good... Not good at all.
~~~
Penny: 9,723 player's, and 52.6% of Atlas, and Mantle have been searched.
Penny: Friend, Ren?
Ren: Oh, hello, Penny.
Penny: How did you get that tea set up in that tree? That is a potential fire hazard.
Ren: Don't worry, it's an electric heater, no open flame of any sort. Tell me, have you found, Nora yet?
Penny: Negative. Friend Nora has yet to be found. Do you have any idea where friend, Nora might be?
Ren: I don't know where exactly, Nora is. But, to give you a clue where she might be; Nora is probably in a place that doesn't seem physically possible to be in.
Penny: What? But how is that possible?
Ren: It's, Nora.
Penny: I do not understand?
Ren: Neither do I.
Penny: Oh... Okay...?
~~~
Penny: Remove yourself from the premises at once.
Oscar: What? H-How did you find me?
Penny: The Vault is routinely monitored. You were found instantly hours ago the moment you walked into the premises.
Oscar: What?! Then how come you didn't call me out sooner, I've been waiting here for hours!
Penny: It was not to be checked until 70% of Atlas's, and Mantle's total population, and 80% of it's territory had been searched.
Oscar: Aww man... I waisted my whole day here...
~~~
Yang: Sup, Penny~!
Penny: Friend, Yang... W-Why are you in my room...?
Yang: Cause of all the places I thought you would never look, I doubted you would look in your own room.
Penny: That is correct... 99.9%, 15,971 inhabitants of Atlas, and Mantle have been found. And, 100% of the grounds of Atlas, and Mantle have been checked. Your guess that this would be the last place I would have check is correct.
Yang: Does that mean I won?!
Penny: Negative. The last individual to be found is, Nora Valkyrie.
Yang: Damn! I was so close. Well, lets meet up in the, General's office to announce the winner.
Penny: Very well.
Yang: Oh, and, Penny?
Penny: Yes?
Yang: About this, Ruby Chibi-ish plushie you have here...
Penny: W-What plushie...? Hiccup!
Yang: Relax, I'm totally fine with you two being a thing. That's not what I wanted to ask you about at all.
Penny: Oh? Then what is it?
Yang: Where can I get one~?
~~~
Ironwood: So you found everyone, Penny?
Penny: I have found everyone, but one.
Ironwood: Then we have a winner then?
Penny: Yes, Sir. Nora Valkyrie is the winner.
Ironwood: Then we shall announce that the game is over so she can come out of wherever it is she is hiding.
Penny: Very well, Sir!
~~~
Yang: So, wait, he was found dead in a panic room?
Weiss: Yes, apparently that is where, Winter, and Penny found him.
Blake: I would say I'm sorry, Weiss.
Ruby: But...?
Blake: What? I said, I would say I'm sorry, but come on, it's Jacques Schnee!
Ruby: But, he's, Weiss's dad!
Weiss: Nonono... It's alright, in fact I believe that the moment it is made public there will be people celebrating in the streets.
Yang: Whoo! Block party!
Clover: So where did they find you two?
Marrow: I was hiding in a locker, but it turned out to be a rocket locker, and I got sent out into the wastelands by accident. So I spent my time out there waiting to be picked up.
Vine: I was hiding in the, Bullhead that was sent to pick him up.
Harriet: HA!
Clover: Tough break.
Qrow: The found me after they knocked over a wine barrel, and it smashed on the floor.
Yang: I thought you gave up drinking, Uncle Qrow? What were you doing in a wine barrel?!
Qrow: It was empty! And, I don't know, I just sorta... fell into it.
Oscar: Just your semblance playing up on you?
Qrow: Oh shut up.
Oscar: Sorry.
Ironwood: Ahh, I see everyone's here. Good, since you're all close friends with, Ms. Valkyrie, perhaps one of you could tell us where she could be?
Weiss: You still haven't found her?
Blake: Have you tried notifying her on her scroll?
Penny: We have, but we have received no response.
Ruby: Hmmm... Hey, are those coffee cups?
Blake: They have, Nora's name on them.
Ren: Oh... oh that's not good.
Ironwood: Why, what's wrong?
Ren: Nora is hyperactive as it is, when she has coffee she gets super charged. Which results in... incidents happening.
Ironwood: Incidents? What kind of incidents?
Yang: Yes.
Ironwood: Okay...?
Clover: Then how do we find her to let her know she won?
Nora: I WON?!
RW: AHHHH!
Elm: Oh gods!?
Yang: The hell?!
Blake: NYAAHHHH!!!
MV: AHHH!!
Ironwood: Wait... did she...?
Penny: Hi, Friend Nora!
Nora: Hi~!
Nora: So, did I win?!
Ironwood: Yes, Miss Valkyrie, you did win.
Nora: FUCK YEAH!
Ironwood: I must ask though, where were you?
Nora: I drank two espressos here, and phased between realities, until I was in the null zone, where I excited in a state of non-existence. There I stayed until I was summoned from the void, and brought back to the material realm.
RWBYRO: ...
Qrow: Uhhh...?
CHEVM: ...?
Penny: Really?
Ironwood: Huw... there's video of her standing here in this room, then she just disappears... What?
Ren: Best not to dwell on it, Sir. It's just better that way.
Ironwood: Very well? Haaa... Very well, we shall announce the winner.
Nora: Whoo!
RWBYRO: YAY!
Winter: Ahh... I see you found, Miss Valkyrie. Where was she?
Ironwood: She was here.
Winter: Here...? In this room?
Winter: ...
Winter: Where?
Clover: We'll explain later. I hope...
Winter: I see...? Well then, congratulations then, Miss Valkyrie. You won, Atlas's, and Mantles first game of Hide, and Go Seek.
Nora: Yes! I win, I win~! DadadaaaDA!
Winter: Once, again I offer you my congratulations. I think you, and your friends should get together to... Hold on... Two, four, six, seven... We're is, Jaune?
Nora: J-Jaune...?
Weiss: Jaune's not here...?
Ruby: What? D-Didn't we see him... somewhere?
Yang: He was in this?
Blake: D-Didn't he tell you where he was hiding?
Ren: I thought he told you...
Nora: OH NO! We did it again! We all forgot about, Jaune!
Marrow: Wait, didn't you say you have a registry of everyone in, Mantle, and Atlas. You used it for the game.
Clover: Didn't you find everyone?
Harriet: You said you searched all of Mantle, and Atlas, right?
Penny: Checking...
Penny: ...
Penny: File corruption detected... Correcting...
Penny: ...
Penny: Corruption fixed. One file of, Luna Jaune Arc has been found. 99.9% of all inhabitants of Atlas, and Mantle have been found.
Blake: Wait, his first name is, Luna?
Ruby: Did you guys know?
Nora: No?!
Winter: Oh gods... Penny, do you know where, Jaune is?
Penny: Yes! I can track where his location is with his scroll!
Winter: Good, where is he?
Penny: He is...? Odd... He is located around the park in downtown, Mantle?
Ironwood: How is that odd?
Penny: I check the park myself... Myself, and thirty Knights were in the area... a-a-and we d-d-didn't f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-find HIM?!
With that, Penny short circuited, and fell to her knees. Everyone began to freakout, Penny's mind rebooted, and she quickly shot up, and saluted everyone!
Ruby: P-Penny, are you okay?
Penny: I am combat ready! Why, did something happen?
Clover: You found out where, Jaune is, and you...
Penny: Really? He is the winner of the game; Where is he?
Clover: The park in downtown, Mantle.
Penny: Really? I checked there, and I didn't see him there at all! I wonder where he was hiding?
Clover: Uhhh...?
Ironwood: I think we need to have, Dr. Polendina run a diagnostics on, Penny after this.
Winter: I agree, but first we must find, Jaune.
~~~
Team RWBY, Nora, Oscar, Penny, and Winter head towards the downtown, Mantle park. They noticed the various people who lost the game going about their day. They had happy faces, and they they could over hear them chatting about how much fun they had playing a massive game of hide, and go seek.
But, as they moved past the various happy faces, they eventually found one that stood out all on his own. A dour, and quiet expression was present across his face as he sat alone, playing a game of chess all against himself.
Nora: Jaune!
Ruby: Jaune, you're here!
Weiss: What are you doing here?
Jaune: Yeah... I've been here all day. Didn't you...? No you didn't see my note since you're asking me, 'What am I doing here?'
Yang: So, you've been here all day?
Jaune: More, or less. I did leave for a bit to grab a drink, and a hotdog from a hotdog stand. Good hotdog...
Jaune gestured to a pile of trash next to him.
Blake: Oh, you spilt some ketchup on your hand.
Jaune: Oh, I did...
Jaune licked his thumb before rubbing the smear off his hand.
Jaune: So, what's up?
Penny: Congrats, Jaune! You won!
Jaune: ...
Jaune: Won what?
Yang: The massive game of hide, and go seek... you won.
Jaune: Wait, we were doing that? I thought that was just a thing, Yang talked about.
Ruby: Yeah, d-didn't you know?
Jaune: Nope.
Ruby: Well we did...
Penny: And, you won!
Jaune: Yay.
Yang: Jaune, you won the one billion Lien prize!
Jaune: Again... yay.
Ruby: You don't care?
Jaune: ...
Jaune: Meh... maybe.
Nora: But, Jaune! Think of all the pancakes you can buy!
Jaune: Guys... I don't care. I'm just here playing chess.
Winter: By yourself?
Jaune: Well, people could have joined me, but they were all busy playing hide, and go seek, so...
Weiss: Okay...?
Ruby: So, uhhh... Should we go, and announce that, Jaune won?
Penny: General Ironwood plans to announce the winner tomorrow. So, we are fine.
Yang: In that case, where did you get that hotdog? Cause damn, am I hungry!
Jaune: It's somewhere on the other side of the park. It's easy enough to find.
Ruby: Awesome! Let's go guys!
Yang: Whoo! Hot dogs!
Oscar: I haven't had one in ages!
Nora: I'm gonna eat out their stall!
Weiss: I've never had a hotdog before.
Blake: I don't think I have one...
Ruby: What?! We must rectify that at once!
Swiftly the members of, Team RWBY, Nora, Ren, Oscar, and Penny swiftly left to enjoy hot dogs, leaving, Jaune all on his own once again. Or, so he thought.
Cause standing there, looking down on, Jaune from his seat was one, Winter Schnee.
Winter: Were you really all 'alone' today, were you?
Jaune said nothing, but his gaze darting to the side said everything.
Winter: May I... join you for a round, or two?
Jaune stares at, Winter for a moment, before resetting the chessboard, and turns it so that white is facing her.
Jaune: The first move is yours.
Winter smiled as she sat down, and made her first move.