It was just after mid-day when the yellow motorbike pulled up outside Tukson's Book Trade. The rider of the bike, one Yang Xiao Long, took off her helmet and inspected the sign hanging above the door to make sure that it was the right place.

Having confirmed she was exactly where she wanted to be, Yang dismounted her bike and went inside. As she entered she was greeted by the sight of a decently sized room with dozens of shelves and all of them packed with books.

While the store had a large collection of books, Yang knew it was nothing in comparison to Beacon's library. However what Tukson's Book Trade lacked in size, it made up for with certain type of explicit literature that a certain Faunus friend of Yang's was interested in.

The store didn't have many customers at the moment. Just a mother with two small children being seen to by what she assumed was Tukson and a boy, with hair the same colour as her own, that Yang could only guess was around her age.

The boy wore a black hoodie and jeans and over that he had a white chest plate and white spaulders. To Yang's knowledge there was only one type of person who wore armour when walking around town. This boy was a wizard just like her. Not wanting to spend any more time than she had to in the store, and with the owner already occupied she headed over to the boy.

"Hey. Bookworm," she called out.

The boy's head snapped up from the book he had been engrossed with and looked to Yang, then looked around to see if she had been directing her comment to someone confirming there was, in fact, no one else nearby he asked "Uh… where you talking to me?"

Yang rolled her eyes. "Do you see anyone else around that I might have been talking to?"

"Well no," came the awkward response. "It's just that I don't have a lot of people come up and start talking to me. Especially beauti-" He quickly cut himself off before he could say anymore and Yang could see his cheeks become a little red. Yang smiled to herself, this was just too good an opportunity to let it slip past.

"What was that last part you said just then?" Yang asked feigning innocence.

"Nothing!" her fellow blonde quickly replied. "I-I just said that I don't have many people come talk to me."

"Really? I could have sworn you said something else towards the end there," Yang couldn't keep the smile out of her voice as the boy in front became even more red and suddenly became very interested in looking at anything that wasn't her.

Deciding she had had enough fun, Yang decided to get back to what she had originally come over to ask.

"You know there was a reason I came over here and believe it or not it wasn't to see your impression of a tomato. Do you happen to know where they keep the…" She leaned forward as though she had a secret to tell and the boy reflexively did the same. "Adult literature?" she asked in a stage whisper.

Yang hadn't thought it possible but somehow her fellow blonde's face became even redder than it was before.

"I-It's uh, over that way," the blushing boy managed to stammer out while point to a shelf in one of the store corners furthest from the door.
With a quick thanks, Yang left the boy and headed in the indicated direction. It didn't take her long to choose a book, mostly because she just grabbed one at random that didn't look familiar, and she was soon paying the store owner for the book.

"Enjoy your book," Tukson said with a mischievous smile that said he knew exactly what the book she brought was about.

"It's not for me," Yang explained. "It's for a friend of mine."

"Sure it is," Tukson agreed with the same smile.

Yang opened her mouth to argue her innocence when the squeal of a car suddenly braking outside interrupted her. Her head whipped around to investigate the noise and was greeted with the site of a white van that had stopped in the middle of the road just outside the book store. A moment later the side door was thrown open revealing three masked men wielding machine guns.

"GET DOWN!" Yang yelled as she threw herself to the ground a split second before gunfire tore through the book store.

Bookshelves splintered and broke while books were blown apart by the continuous gunfire. When the bullets finally stopped flying Yang raised herself up on one knee, ready to tear those idiots apart for shooting at her and filling her hair with debris, only for her expression to turn from anger to fear as a trio of red dust grenades came sailing through the destroyed windows and exploded across the already damaged shelves.

Above the sound of the rapidly spreading inferno, Yang herd the van speed away but she had more important things to deal with. Reaching over the counter, she grabbed Tukson and pulled him over before half leading half dragging him outside. Once outside she released the shocked store owner, she pushed her newly purchased book into his hands before heading back inside.

As Yang re-entered the now burning store, she struggled to see anything through the smoke and flames. The building's sprinkler system had activated but the store filled with paper books and wooden shelves had quickly become an inferno. As a fire wizard the heat was no problem, but the fire was quickly eating up all the oxygen in the room and sadly putting out fires with her type of magic was a lot harder than starting one.

To her knowledge, the only other people in the book trade were the family and the boy she had been talking to to prioritise the family, she headed over to where she last remembered seeing them. It only took a matter of seconds to find the family, but the attack had caused a lot of damage and Yang had to lift a fallen shelf in order to get to the family that was huddling together.

She was halfway through lifting the shelf when she heard a loud creaking noise. She looked to the terrified family and to her horror saw that the shelf they were next to, damaged by gunfire and further weakened by flame, was about to collapse right on top of them. Yang pushed with all her might and threw the shelf clear, but the other shelf was already falling and she knew she wouldn't make it in time.

"Light Make: Shield!" A loud voice proclaimed and a heater shield composed entirely of brilliant white light appeared above the family, stopping the falling shelf in its tracks. Yang looked towards the voice and saw the boy she had been talking to earlier, except now he looked a lot less awkward.

His hands were clasped in front of him as though in prayer, there was blood running down the side of his head and his teeth were clenched together in determination.
"Get them out of here!" he growled.

Yang hurried to obey, running over to the family and quickly guiding them out from under the shelf. The moment they were clear the shield blinked out of existence and the shelf came crashing down loudly. She burst out of the burning store with the family and they all started trying to cough out the smoke while simultaneously trying to pull in as much fresh air as possible. As Yang started to get her bearings she, for arguably the first time in her life, was glad to hear the sirens of the emergency responders.

Despite the relief she felt at seeing the fire department arrive on the scene something didn't sit right. A few moments later she realised what it was, the blonde boy, she was really going to have to learn his name after this, hadn't come out.

She was about to head back in and look for him when he came stumbling out only to drop to his knees and start coughing viciously. Yang rushed over to her fellow wizard and pulled one of his arms over her shoulders and helped him to his feet and over to one of the ambulances that had just arrived.
"I thought you were right behind me, why did it take you so long to get out?" Yang berated the knight in soot stained armour.

"I had to check the back rooms, make sure everyone else was out."

The revelation came crashing down on her like a ton of bricks. She had been so occupied with getting those she knew of out that she completely neglected to check if there was anyone else. It didn't help that his throat was so dry the words came out as barely more than a whisper, reminding her that not everyone shared her invulnerability to heat. Not to mention the way he had selflessly risked his life trying to save people, reminded her of someone she definitely didn't want to imagine running through a burning building.

"Well now that everyone else is safe, let's get you looked after superhero."

"Jaune," Came the quite reply.

"What was that?"

"My name is Jaune."

Yang smiled. Thanks for clearing that up. "Jaune huh? Well I'm Yang! I would like to say it was nice meeting you, but to be honest this a pretty horrible situation to meet someone in."
This evoked a laugh from the newly named Jaune that quickly dissolved into a coughing fit. When Jaune finally got the coughing under control they were nearly at the ambulance.

"You're going after them aren't you?" Jaune asked suddenly. All traces of humour disappeared from Yang's face and was replaced with unflinching determination.

"Oh yeah."

"I want in."

Hearing this, Yang smiled. "I was kinda hoping you would say that. But right now you need some medical attention." Seeing Jaune open his mouth to argue Yang cut him off. "I'm not saying no. As it happens I'm going to need to pay someone a visit to find out who these jokers are and where their hiding. Once I'm done I'll contact you on your scroll and we can meet up then head over."

This seemed to set the knight at ease as he didn't resist when Yang deposited him in the open rear of an ambulance. While the paramedics set about cleaning his head wound and checking him for any other injuries, Yang quickly exchanged numbers with the injured boy before walking over to her bike. It was time to pay Junior a visit.

It wasn't much later that Yang was once again turning her motorcycle onto the street that gave access to Tukson's Book Trade, or at least what use to be Tukson's Book Trade. This time around she was forced to park a lot closer to the turn in as fire-trucks and ambulances clogged the street further down.

She had barely turned off her cycle when she spied the tall form of Jaune jogging towards her. As he got closer she noticed that he was now sporting a bandage around his head at forehead level, but despite this obvious evidence to a recent injury, the boy was still smiling happily as he approached.

"Hey, Yang," he greeted happily.

"Hey," Yang replied far more casually as she took her helmet off but remained seated.

"So did you manage to find out anything?" Jaune asked eagerly.

Honestly he was starting to remind her of an over eager puppy. Shaking the mental image that thought came with out of her head, Yang regained a bit of her composure.

"Yeah, the guy I talked to was able to tell me that the group that attacked the store are a local gang with a strong anti-faunus sentiment. They never really been a major problem before, but recently someone has started arming them with serious hardware. Those guns and grenades they used in the store today are just some of the new toys these guys have been supplied with. And if my contact is as good as he claims to be, then we will be able to find these thugs hiding out in an old house not too far from the docks."

Jaune stared at her with eyes wide and mouth open. "How the heck did you manage to find all that out in less than an hour?" he asked in astonishment.

"I know a guy," remarked Yang proudly, as she enjoyed the ego boost Jaune's awe provided. "He claims he knows just about everything that goes on anywhere."

Jaune paused in thought for a second before asking, "He doesn't sound like the type of guy who gives away information freely. What did he want in exchange?"

"He just asked that I give him some information in exchange for what he gave me," Yang replied, happy that Jaune seemed quick on the uptake.

"Knowledge for knowledge sounds fair. What did you tell him?"

Yang opened her mouth as though to say something, before pausing as though she were changing her mind. "Nothing important. Now are we going to stand around asking questions all day or are we going to get some payback?"

"Actually, there is one last thing," Jaune said surprisingly.

He reached into a pocket, and when he removed his hand from his pocket he was holding a book. He passed the book over to Yang and as she took it, she realised it was the one she had brought earlier that day.

"The store owner gave that to me, apparently you left it with him and forgot to take it back," Yang quickly stored the book as Jaune continued talking. "You know when you asked where the uh, 'adult literature', was I thought it might have just been a bit of a joke but I guess I was wrong."

"The books not for me," Yang corrected.

Jaune just smiled. "It's okay Yang. I'm hardly going to judge someone who risks their life running into a burning building to save strangers by the books they read."

Yang fixed her fellow blonde with a glare. "Shut up and get on the bike or you can forget about this team-up."

Jaune instantly straightened up. "Yes ma'am," he said hastily before climbing onto the bike.

"Oh and by the way," Yang started saying as she put her helmet back on. "If your hands go anywhere they shouldn't be, I start breaking fingers."

And with that she pulled out into the road.

"I thought your guy said they were hiding out here," Jaune queried as he stared at the suspect house.

"He did," Yang confirmed as she looked at the same house.

"Well this doesn't look like any sort of hiding I'm familiar with."

Jaune was right. The house they were looking at was old and dilapidated, with loud music blasting out from inside, graffiti with various anti-faunus slogans covered the outside walls, rubbish littered the front yard and the same van used in the attack was parked right out the front.

"Look on the bright side. At least we know we're dealing with a bunch of idiots and don't have to worry about them having set up any traps." Yang commented.

As they started walking towards the building, Yang turned to her companion. "I probably should have asked this earlier, but you use maker magic right?"

"Yep," Replied Jaune proudly. "It's a pretty rare type actually, it's called Light Maker Magic. I actually came to Vale because I was trying to find out more about it."

"Huh," Yang replied as she processed this information. "So other than that shield you used earlier, what else can you make?"

"I can make a sword," Jaune proclaimed proudly.

"Cool." Came Yang's response. "So what can this sword do?"

Jaune had a look of confusion on his face. "It can cut stuff."

"And?"

"It can stab stuff?" Jaune said, sounding even more confused.

"So you're saying that you create a magical sword out of light and it just does what any ordinary sword can do?"

"Well it doesn't sound nearly as cool when you put it like that," said Jaune with a downtrodden expression.

"So do we actually have any sort of plan of attack?" Jaune asked as they approached the guarded door.

Yang smiled. "I only ever have one plan. Attack," as she said she climbed the few steps to the door and the guard stepped into her path. She punched him through the door without the slightest hesitation.

"Yeah, I was kinda afraid you would say that," Jaune admitted as he hurried to follow Yang into the house.

Upon entering the house Jaune realised that the inside was somehow even messier than the outside. He struggled to see a single piece of floor that wasn't covered in garbage and a single inch of wall that wasn't covered in bad graffiti, not to mention that now they were inside, the music had escalated from loud to near deafening.

Despite all the noise, Yang punching a guy through a door had somehow managed to get some attention. She was now standing halfway down the entry corridor, and staring down at least five guys at the far end that all seemed armed with guns that seemed way too high end for guys living in such a dump.

"Are you guys the assholes that attacked that bookshop earlier today?" Yang shouted over the music.

"Hell yeah we are," the tallest and most ripped of the thugs called out as he stepped forward.

This guy was clearly the leader of the bunch and as Jaune took in his appearance, from the shaved head, to the menacing tattoos and finally to the pistol he carried, that Jaune noted seemed to be about as big as his head, he cut quite the intimidating figure. Yet none of this seemed to even phase Yang in the slightest from what he could see standing behind her.

"In fact, the boys and I were just having a little victory party. So how about you tell your boyfriend to scram and join us? I sure we would all enjoy your company."
Jaune wasn't sure what response the idiot was expecting, but he was pretty sure he wasn't expecting an aura of fire to explode out of Yang. Jaune took a step back in both surprise and to avoid the intense heat of the human inferno.

"First of all," Yang growled out. "He is not my boyfriend. Second, I'm not here for a party. I'm here for payback."

As the thugs realised the obvious danger in front of them they quickly raised their weapons. Thinking quickly, Jaune tried to conjure a shield just like he had in the bookstore, except this time instead of being above a family, in front of Yang.

"Light make: shield!"

Things did not go to plan. As Jaune was still pretty new to magic, he completely misjudged the distance. Instead of a shield about a meter in front of Yang, the shield appeared just in front of the raised guns of the gang a moment before they opened fire.

The result was instantaneous as bullets ricocheted off the construct and back into the assembled hoodlums. They quickly stopped firing before they sustained serious injury, but received no reprieve as Yang leapt right over the shield and punched out sending a fireball that scattered the thugs.

The terrified criminals tried to flee with Yang in hot pursuit. Jaune was about to follow when a side door opened next to him revealing another thug, this one armed with a shotgun. The two stared at each other in surprise for a moment before the thug aimed his shotgun and Jaune conjured another shield.

The shield protected him and Jaune heard his opponent cry out in pain as his shot ricocheted. Before he could recover, Jaune dropped the shield and punched his opponent in the jaw. The sucker punch was nothing fancy but it was enough to leave the hoodlum unconscious on the ground.

Jaune tried meet up with Yang, but was once again interrupted as a man stepped into the hallway from the far end with the biggest machine gun Jaune had ever seen. Without any element of surprise, Jaune knew he couldn't get a shield up in time, and instead dived through the door his last opponent came through as bullets tore through where he was a second ago.

Jaune spotted another door and ran to it hoping it lead to an adjoining room and not a cupboard. Just as he got close the door was opened, and instead of trying to stop he sped-up and barrelled straight into the unfortunate man who had been trying to use the door.

Looking around, Jaune noticed he was in what was once a laundry area but had been reduced to a garbage dump now.

On the far end was a door, and something told Jaune that this one lead to the far room that the original group of thugs had come from and so was also likely the same place where the dude with the big gun was. As much as the idea of facing off against that weapon scared him, he could hear the sound of fighting past that door, and that meant Yang was that way. If that's where Yang was, then that's where he was going.

He gingerly opened the door, and once he was sure no-one was waiting on the other side of the threshold, he peaked a kitchen area with a counter running around the edge, he ran and dived behind the counter and not a moment later gunfire tore up the ground behind him.

The gunfire then started cutting through the counter and ever closer to Jaune. Fortunately for him, the gun suddenly jammed and the thug started cursing as he tried to work out how to fix the gun. Seeing his chance, Jaune charged and as he did, he held his right hand out to the side.

"Light Make: Crocea Mors!"

As he said the words, white light gathered in his hands and took the shape of a long sword. Once formed, Jaune gripped it with both hands, and as soon as he was close enough he sliced up and cut clean through his opponent's weapon. As his momentum carried him forward, he brought the pommel of his weapon straight down on the man's head hard enough to knock him out.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jaune took stock of his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that the music had stopped, likely due to the fact that there was a person in the stereo system, and Yang's rampaged had torn down multiple walls and started more than a few small spot fires.

Hearing footsteps coming from the corridor he had originally been in, he turned and faced the doorway just in time to see a red dust grenade, just like the ones from earlier, come sailing towards him.

Reacting purely on instinct, he swung his sword like a bat and smacked the grenade away. His eyes tracked the grenade, widening when they saw it was headed straight for a pile of weapons and ammunition.

"Oh shit."

Yang was not having a good time. She had been expecting this to be a walk in the park, just a bunch of idiots with guns, nothing she hadn't dealt with before.

She had not been expecting their leader to be a wizard as well. And this guy's magic was particularly annoying. He was able to turn his arms into metal, and had so far been able to use this to great effect to weather everything she could throw at him. He had even managed to land a few glancing hits of his own.

Their fight had caused serious damage to the house and brought them outside. Not to mention she had no idea where Jaune was or how he was faring in all this. I've had had enough of this. Yang decided it was time to use her trump card. She charged the gang leader and deliberately over reached with a right hook. A more skilled opponent may have realised the intentional opening and avoided it, but the gang leader was no such opponent.

He raised his left arm, already in metal form, and blocked the hook while retaliating with a steel punch straight to the middle of Yang's chest with his right hand. It was a solid hit and Yang was knocked off her feet and sent back a few meters.

"Have you had enough or do you want some more?" her idiot of an opponent gloated. As Yang got to her feet she could feel as her magic worked to turn the damage she had taken into power. Power she would send crashing into that moron's face.

Yang laughed. "You just activated my trap card."

With that magical energy once more exploded out of her in a fiery burst as she charged forward, ready to deliver an attack that would smash through any defence this guy could put up. But just before she made contact, the house erupted. An explosion tore the place apart and sent a large object flying out straight into the gang leader, taking him out in a single hit.

Yang stood stock still, capable of nothing but blinking as she tried to process what just happened. When the dust settled, Yang saw that the large object that had stolen her win was none other than Jaune, who was currently sitting on her opponent while rubbing his head and muttering something about 'never doing that again'.

Yang looked between the wreckage of the house and the blonde who looked surprisingly well off for someone in the middle of such an explosion. How the hell does someone blow up a house with a sword and shield? Yang couldn't help but wonder.

"Hey Jaune?"

Jaune looked up as he seemed to notice her for the first time since his short flight "Oh, hey Yang."

"You haven't joined a wizard guild yet have you?" Yang asked.

"Nah, I just got to the city and only recently started magic. Why do ask?"

Yang smiled. "You heard of a guild called Beacon?"

AN: This is my first attempt at writing a fanfic for the RWBY fandom, so any constructive criticism is appreciated. As this fic is set in an AU inspired by Fairy Tail, there will be events that resemble events from there. However I will try my best to avoid making it too similar. To this effect I will not be including dragon slayer magic in my fic.

Beta reader: Wyncrer the Sage