Every night since she woke up in Patch, Ruby had been having nightmares. In fact, she had them whenever she closed her eyes. The nightmare was always the same; it was just Pyrrha dying while Ruby felt helpless, and while Ruby felt the pain of a friend dying. It didn't help that Ruby woke up to the remainder of JNPR arguing outside of her tent.
"Nora," Ren said. "Don't."
"You'll wake Ruby." Jaune told the ginger.
"She doesn't sleep much, anyway." Nora nonchalantly said.
Ruby could almost see Jaune's confused glance in her mind. She didn't move, worrying that they would scold Nora for waking her, when it was the nightmares that woke her.
"What do you mean?" The blonde asked.
"Well, I mean, she saw…. It happen." Nora told him. "She saw Pyrrha…" She trailed off. Even for the cheery girl, this was a touchy subject:
"That's exactly why you should let her sleep." Ren told Nora. "We have a lot of walking to do for the next few days and she's tired enough already."
"Fi~ne." Nora said, stretching out the 'I' syllable. Ruby heard her throw something down. "Not there, Nora!" Jaune shouted. Ruby heard the familiar screeching of fireworks, followed by a loud thud. Another one went off and this time, there was an explosion. The three began shouting in a panicked fashion. Ruby heard Nora yell, "I killed E.T., Ren! I killed E.T.! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry E.T.!"
Ruby's curiosity got the best of her, and she got up, slipping on her boots. She had been sleeping in her regular combat skirt, just because it seemed like she shouldn't wear her pajamas, and because she knew she wouldn't be asleep for long, and usually kept watch most of the night. Her lack of sleep didn't bother her, she was nearly immune to fatigue. It was part of her semblance.
Ruby unzipped her tent, stepping out to see a bag of fireworks sitting on top of the fire, shooting their colorful beams into the night sky, and JNR all standing, looking down a hill. "What's going on?" She asked. They all turned around, and Jaune told her, "Nora shot down a spaceship." In a tired fashion.
"I don't think it's alien." Ren said. "It's probably military." Ruby looked down the hill and saw a white mass at the bottom.
"Stay here." Ruby told them. "I'm gonna go check it out."
"I'm coming with you." Jaune told her. She was about to protest, but realized the they were both leaders, and she couldn't really tell him what to do.
Ruby and Jaune began to walk down the hill. Nora went after them, and Ren tried to stop her, but she caught up to Ruby and Jaune, causing Ruby to tiredly sigh. Once Ruby made it to the blue and white spaceship, the blue windshield opened up. "Ew!" Nora said. "It's a dead body."
"It's not a dead body." Ruby told her. "It's— A gun?!" Ruby dashed to the gun/gauntlet she had found, picking it up, she tried to put it on her left hand, but soon found that it was for her right hand. "Mommy likes!" She declared as she slipped it around her right arm.
"Ruby," Ren said. "You should probably put that back. As he said this, Nora picked the boots out of the ship. "Sweet!" She declared. "Dibs!"
"Dibs!" Ruby called out.
"Dibs?" Jaune called, picking up the helmet. "This is pretty cool." He said. "My mom made me wear a helmet until I was fifteen, but that was just because she was a little over protective."
"There's a trigger in here, but it doesn't do anything." Ruby said as she began to point the gun at Jaune making explosion noises with her mouth until Jaune put the helmet on and his face was magnified. "You look like you've got your head in a fishbowl!" Nora told him.
"What?" He asked. "Not again!"
He was obviously joking, trying to lighten the tense mood that had accumulated over the past few days.
Ruby picked up the other gauntlet, trying to hand it to Ren. "Come on, Ren. It's only fair." She told him. He sighed, slipping his hand into the gauntlet, both gauntlets began to spin and tighten around their hands. Ruby and Ren began to scream as their auras were broken by the armor. The boots began to do the same to Nora, but she didn't react.
Once the pain stopped for Ruby and Ren, Jaune said, "That wasn't so bad." They all heard metallic clicking and looked over at Jaune just in time to see the helmet burrow into his skull. He screamed in agony and terror. "How do we get these things off?!" Ruby shouted, trying to tear the gun off her arm. In her struggle, she accidentally pulled the trigger, firing a shot at Ren, who put his arms up in defense. A shield came out of his gauntlet, blocking the blast and sending it flying at Nora, who dashed out of the way, her boots allowing her to run at a speed similar to Ruby's. The shot hit their camp, decimating it.
Almost immediately after, the military showed up, brandishing their guns at the four. "Freeze!" They shouted.
"We didn't do anything—" As Ruby spoke, she accidentally pointed the gun at the soldiers, causing them to hit her with a taser. Ruby grunted in pain and fell to the ground, convulsing. "Ruby!" Jaune yelled out. The soldiers fired a taser at him, Ren stepped in front of him, blocking the barbs with his shield. The barbs bounced off his shield and hit Ruby, causing her to begin convulsing again. "Oh, come on, Ren!" Jaune said, throwing his hands up.
Once she felt the electricity stop flowing through her body, Ruby began to stand, but they tased her again. "Please," Jaune said. "Ruby. Just stay down this time."
Another soldier tried to tase Nora, but as fast as she was running, he accidentally hit Ruby. "You're going to kill her!" Jaune told the soldiers. The combined electricity from both tasers was enough to render Ruby unconscious, falling onto her face, she grunted, still convulsing. Because of the event that had just transpired with Ruby, Jaune failed to notice the soldiers coming up behind him and Ren. They clubbed both of them over the head, putting bags on their heads.
After running so much, so fast without an immunity to fatigue, like Ruby, Nora passed out. "Did we take her out?" One soldier asked.
"No, sir."
"Take her out again."
The soldiers went up to Nora and began to beat her with batons, shouting, "Stop resisting!"
[Later]
When Ruby woke up, she was still sore from the tasing, her body ached, burning all over. Ruby tried to move her head, but her body screamed in protest, so she just went limp. She felt her head hit a table, but she did not move. Someone roughly grabbed her and pulled her back. "Sit up!" He shouted.
"Don't touch her!" Taiyang shouted from the other side of the glass, but the soldier couldn't hear him. When Ironwood had called him, Qrow, and Jaune's father, he didn't know what to expect. They had just been told to come down to the military base. When Taiyang had seen his youngest daughter, unconscious in an interrogation room with a bag over her head, he had almost flipped. Qrow managed to calm him down, and Ironwood almost didn't tell him what happened. "I just want to say," Ironwood said. "Before you find out from someone else. There may have been an accident when we apprehended them."
"What kind of accident?" Jaune's father asked, crossing his arms.
"The tasing kind." Ironwood said. "When Miss Rose surrendered, she accidentally pointed that weapon on her arm at a few soldiers. They panicked… And well she got tased."
"That doesn't sound so bad." Qrow said.
"They tried to tase Mr. Arc as well, but, Mr. Ren stepped in front and blocked the barbs. Which hit Miss Rose." Ironwood continued.
"She can take it." Taiyang said.
"I'm not done." Ironwood said, causing Qrow and Taiyang to groan. "She began to get up, so they tased her again."
"Jesus Christ, Jim!" Qrow said, face palming.
"Still not done." James said, looking down at the ground. "Miss Valkyrie ran by. They tried to tase her as well, but—"
"Let me guess!" Taiyang said. "The barbs hit Ruby?"
"Yes. But this time, it was at the same time as the third." Ironwood said. He was embarrassed and a little surprised that Taiyang didn't flip his shit.
"No wonder she won't sit up." Qrow said, watching the soldiers struggle to keep Ruby in her chair, only to let her hit the floor. They sighed and picked her up, setting her in the chair.
"Why'd you arrest them in the first place?" Jaune's father asked, still cringing from hearing about Ruby's taser incident.
"Well," Ironwood said. "They stole some military technology." He pointed to the armor on the four, except for Jaune, whose head was covered. "Take them off of them, and let's go." Taiyang said.
"They can't." Qrow told the blonde man. "Or they would have done it before we got here."
"What are you saying?" No one had noticed that Taiyang's oldest daughter had come with him, not wanting to be alone.
"The armor locks on to their genetic traits and binds itself to them." James told them. "The only way to get the armor from them would be to cut it off of them. And that would mean that Mr. Arc would not survive… But we need that armor. In four days, an alien threat will arrive to do battle with whomever is wearing that suit, and I don't know if they're qualified."
"What are you going to do with them?" Jaune's father asked.
"The only thing we can do; we're going to have to train them to save the world." James told him. He turned to a button on the wall, pressing it, he leaned into a microphone. "Un-bag them." He ordered. The soldiers immediately reached over, tearing the bags off of each, exposing their eyes to the blinding light.
"What's going on?" Jaune asked.
"I think they gave me amnesia." Ruby said, trying to lift her right arm.
Jaune twitched. "Anesthesia. A chemical most widely used for medicinal purposes—." Jaune stopped himself, twitching again. "What was that?" He asked.
"It seems as though they've paralyzed the parts of our bodies with the armor on—" Ren began, being interrupted by Nora. "This is stupid! I'm outta here!" She stood, only to collapse onto the table. "Maybe if you had let me finish talking…" Ren said, sounding a little angry as the soldiers forced Nora back into her seat. Yang and Qrow couldn't help but chuckle at this sight.
Ironwood walked into the interrogation room, and a very large blonde man took his place. He wore a white jumpsuit that was very… Form fitting, revealing a lot of his bulky mass. He stuck his hand out to Taiyang, "My name's Adam." He said, smiling. "You may know me as the person who was supposed to get the armor that your daughter is wearing." Even though Adam didn't stop smiling, they could all tell he was very hostile about the situation. "I just wanted to let you know, that if your daughter isn't ready before her four days are up, I will tear that armor off of her with my best hands." Before Taiyang could respond to this, Adam walked off, going into the interrogation room.
"Who's this jerk?" Ruby asked, seeing the anger plastered on his face. "I'm the rightful owner of that suit. I'm the Champion of Remnant!" There was silence for a moment before RNJR began to laugh. "More like; Champion of Swimteam!" Nora added, making the others laugh even harder. "Yeah," Ruby said. "Did that suit break your… Um… Y'know. Situation?"
Adam ignored the question and went behind Ruby, placing his hands on her shoulders. "How about I break you?" He asked.
Ruby froze, feeling him tighten his grip on her. "I prefer if you didn't do that." She squeaked, terrified.
Adam slowly backed off of her, pacing around in front of the four. Ruby's wide eyes carefully watched him, worried that he would attack her at any moment.
"Mister Champion?" Jaune asked.
Adam angrily turned to Jaune, "What?!" He asked.
"The sixth amendment of the Vytal Treaty states that, 'In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence'."
Adam growled and stormed out of the small room, slamming the door behind him.
"What was that?" Ruby asked Jaune. "Where did that come from?"
"I don't know!" Jaune said. "It just popped in there!"
"Great." Ruby said. "Now he's gonna kill us!"
She threw herself back in her chair, accidentally brushing against one of the guards, and quickly apologizing.
"I don't think they'll kill us." Ren said.
Ruby sighed in relief, but Ren continued, "But if they do, it will be undeniably Ruby's fault."
Ruby shot forward in her chair, leaning onto the table so she could see him, despite the burning pain.
"My— ah! My fault?!" She asked. "Nora is the one who shot down the spaceship!"
"True." Nora said. "But you're the one who insisted we grab the weapons!"
"Yeah," Ruby said. "You put a weapon in front of me, and I'm gonna check it out!"
"Guys!" Jaune interrupted. "Stop fighting."
Ruby slowly leaned back in her chair.
"Be nice if I could use my right hand." She mumbled.
Jaune turned to her. "You're left handed, aren't you?"
"Yeah…" Ruby said. "But not being able to use an arm sucks, whether it's dominant or not."
Jaune rolled his eyes.
A/N: I've been listening to the Lazer Team OST a lot recently, because I just found that they put it on Spotify, and I wrote most of this back when the movie came out, but I knew I needed to finish this story and put it up. It probably won't be an exact clone of the movie, but, y'know it had a very specific premise. I'll see what I can do with what RT gave me.