This race we run.
Disclaimer: The following is a non-indorsed fanfiction. I do not own RWBY series. It is owned by Rooster Teeth and the estate of Monty Oum. Please support the official release
It was a late Wednesday afternoon in the Beacon Library as several of the schools more infamous teams sat around doing work.
Teams RWBY and JNPR were working on a particularly difficult assignment form Dr. Oobleck, partially because each group was forced to discuss one of the different conspiracy theories about how the moon broke apart.
Team CRDL had been 'helping' but after one too many snide comments the librarian kicked them out. Only for their spot to be taken over by team CFVY. As a teaching assistant, Velvet was grading some tests and her cohorts where around doing… something.
Yang was also not being overly helpful as she kept trying to distract the two groups with random questions or topics only to be shot down by Blake or Ren. As she cast her eyes around the room for something to do her gaze fell upon the red skinned member of CFVY.
"Hey Ruby." The blond brawler nudged her sister. "Who do you think would win in a race? You or Mr. Sightless over there."
"It think that would be obvious. Me." Ruby responded with the smug satisfaction of a child.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that Ruby." Ren responded as he added the last citation note on JNPR's joint paper. "Fox is very fast on his feet."
"That is true." Weiss put in, "But he's only human. Ruby's semblance allows her to travel as superhuman speeds to the point that Blake can only keep up under the effects of my time dilation glyphs."
Both sets of Blake's ears perked up with that one. "Are you saying that semblances can supersede skills?"
"Not universally but in most cases yes." Weiss responded as she filed her nails.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Pyrrha defended. "I have a semblance too but in most cases that is rarely the determining factor of my fights."
"That's because your too modest with it Pyrrha." Jaune said as he re-read JNPR's paper. "If you wanted to you could probably use all the gears in Ozpen's tower giant projectiles."
"That wouldn't be very fair would it?" Ren asked rhetorically he and his blond leader finished proofreading their work. "And how many fights will happen in an area with giant gears anyway?"
"We are getting off topic." Yang reminded them as RWBY's own paper was left black. "A show of hands, who thinks Ruby would in against Fox in a race."
"Now that's not all that sporting?" A voice behind them said.
Everyone turned to see Coco Adel standing behind them. One hand on her hip and the other one pulling her glasses down so she could look at the two teams properly.
Pyrrha recovered first. "Hello again Coco." She said with a smile. "I'm sorry we didn't mean to be rude. YANG," the champion shoot a look at young woman, "is just trying to get out of work."
"Be that as it may," Coco responded with her eyes firmly locked on the blond brawler. "Why debate something when we can just prove it."
"You mean a race?" Ruby squealed in excitement.
"Are you sure?" Blake asked looking over at Fox's back.
"He'll go along with it. I just have to promise not to molest him for the next few days." Everyone but Coco went a little red at that. Then called over her shoulder, "Isn't that right Foxy?"
Fox shrugged his shoulders and the librarian came down to kick the lot of them out for being too noise.
"Well." Blake huffed. "Now that we got booted out of the best room in the school why don't you just do this?"
"Where at?" Nora asked.
"The track would probably be best."
Half the group looked at Yatsuhashi like he grew a second head.
"We have a track?"
The big man gave them an equally suppressed look. "You didn't know?"
RWBY and JNP shoot their heads while Ren just hung his in disgust at his friends. "It's behind the gym over there." The green gunner said.
"The gym that only 5% of the school uses?"
"That's the one."
"Why would they put it back there?"
"Probably because running is a form of exercise, like what a gymnasium is used for."
"They should have put it someplace more noticeable."
"You have to pass it to get to the combat training hall."
"…"
Ren spent the next few minutes in what he considered a pointless conversation about school layout. He couldn't help it if nobody bothered to read the school manual they were all given after the teams were selected. Although it did surprise him that a book worm like Blake didn't read such an important document and made a note to force his team to find and read their copies.
Team CFVY followed a few paces behind with Coco making a running commentary on 'underclassmen' to a team that was only partially listen out of curiosity.
They rounded the building to see the topography take a dip downward into the afform mentioned, but somehow overlooked, running track that circled a sports field.
"… how did I miss this?" Weiss asked rhetorically. "How big is this place?"
Fox broke off from his team to move into though an opening in the low fence that surrounded the field. "The track itself is 1 km in circumference."
Yang and Ruby followed him while the various other them members, and some onlookers curious as to where so many teams were going, positioned themselves along the lip of the field to watch.
"English bub." Yang responded.
Shaking his head at the lack of mathematical education he responded, "About 3/5 of a mile." To which Yang was satisfied.
Ruby's eyes darted around the circular field trying to see if there was some trick she was missing. "So what… we just run a lap around it?"
"Basically." Fox responded as he started to stretch himself out a little on the rubbery track surface.
Ruby felt a little let down. She was hoping for something a bit more exciting than the races she had since she was 8.
"And no weapons." Fox added.
"Why no weapons?" Ruby asked as she too did a few stretches.
"You will see." Was the only response she got.
Back up on the hill, Coco was in full swing. "Alright people place you bets. Betting is open. Rules are simple. Who will win? Winner gets double, loser gets nothing."
Several takers were lining up but Coco having difficulty keeping up as she could only work one person at a time. "Slow down people or I'll drop kick you into the Emerald Forest!"
JNP and WB were holding back a bit from the betting until the line cleared but still discussing the outcome.
"Of course Ruby will win." Weiss almost bragged about her partner. "She's the fastest girl in the year."
"I'm not too sure." Was Blake's hesitant rebuttal. "We know Velvet and Coco fairly well but besides their brief skirmish when Roman breeched the walls, we know little of their abilities. We can't even say for certain what Velvet's WEAPON is much less her team's full abilities."
"I'm with Weiss. Ruby all the way!" Jaune declared.
"Thank you. Some support. Why?" Weiss asked with some suspicion. Jaune had definitely backed off on trying to 'wo' her and supported her and Neptune's blooming relationship that still didn't stop her from thinking of him as an idiot. Only now he was an idiot she could be friends with rather than one that merely annoyed her.
"Because I know her."
"And thus you prove my point." Blake put in. "We know Ruby, we don't know Fox."
"I don't see much of a problem with it." Nora interjected. "When eating, you will always have what you know is good before you try something new." She paused for a second. "Where's Ren?"
Yatsuhashi sat down next to the younger teams with a thump followed by Velvet. "I'm going with Fox. No offense to your team leader," he looked at Weiss directly, "But she'll never keep up with my red man."
"Derogate terms aside," Pyrrha said with a glare at the giant, "I can't help but feel that Ruby will pull through. She is well aware of her abilities and Ozpen himself was willing to let her into Beacon two years early. That should speak volumes of what she is capable of."
Weiss smiled at the champion glad that someone of 'sense' was on her side.
"Sorry Yatsu but I'm with them as well." Velvet apologized. "In any other situation I would say Fox has it in the bag but Ruby's semblance is literally Speed." She looked down at the field. "I can't help but feel that our Fox can't overcome that kind of natural advantage.
Meanwhile, Coco was about to pull her hair out. "SLOW DOWN!" she screamed as Brawnz Ni of Shade's team BRNZ and Sky Lark of CRDL were practically punching each other to make their own bets. She backed away from the feuding pair to try and give herself some breathing room.
"Not that I mean to criticize." A voice from above her said and Coco looked up to see a boy of her age hanging by his knees from a tree branch. His half cloak falling down from his side. "But why are you using such a basic system for the betting?"
Coco was in no mood for being second guessed by a student from another school. "Because I fail at computer programing and like money." She shot tartly back at him. "You don't think my fall fashion selection will pay for itself do you?"
The young man let go of the tree branch with his legs and flipped down in what was a notable piece of acrobatics. "Not I mean why don't you have a bloody computer program to do that for ya?"
"Listen Mr." Coco cut herself off. She had seen this red head around but besides from being from Haven academy, she knew nothing about him.
"Scarlet David." The man supplied bowing.
"Listen Mr. David. I don't have a computer program because this school doesn't have those kinds of things and I don't make enough to hire some to build one for me."
Scarlet was shocked for a second. "Oh. Ok then hold our your scroll." He hit a few commands on his and then did what he said.
Coco was hesitant for a second but as her unwanted companion didn't seem like he was going away she gave up and did as asked.
Her scroll made a few sounds and when she looked down again saw a new command on the screen.
"What did you do?"
He shrugged, "Gave you my gambling system."
When she didn't stop glaring her continued. "Like you I run the ponies at my school. Rather than remember everyone I made a simple program to track it all. Just hold up your scroll with the scroll of someone betting," he explained and did, "That gives you their data and you just put in the amount." He stole her scroll out of her hands and put hit a number. "It creates a short wave gambling HUB with your scroll at the center. Anyone who is a part of the network can bet on whatever you set up. Let me show you."
In a voice much louder then his usual dower tone the caped red-head called. "Race is starting in five minutes! Get your bets in!"
People started swarming the pair and David quickly took over the process while talking to CFVY's leader.
"It's rather simple. Run's off of short wave radio waves rather than the more complicated but longer range towers. It's good for all kinds of things. That way, even if you're out in the middle of nowhere as long as someone connected to your scroll is within ½ a mile you can still work with them."
The betters were cleared out and sat down to watch the match while Scarlet turned his attention back to the fashionista. He held his scroll out to hers again and all the betting information he just gathered when strait to her.
Looking down Coco nearly had a heart attack. "this can't be right." She mutter to herself. According to her scroll, 72 individuals were betting on the race but looking around, not even a third of that number was even in the area.
"I might have sent you some of my contacts as well." David said without shame. "Just to make it more interesting."
Coco looked down and saw that even Professor's Port and Ozpen had weighed in on the upcoming race.
Then she noticed the amount of len being thrown around and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "3000 len?" She asked herself before looking up at Scarlet.
He shrugged like it was nothing. "I have quite a network."
From the bets, twice as many people though that Ruby would win over Fox but the people supporting her teammate were placing the larger bets.
"It's starting." Scarlet directed her attention back to the track as he sat down and pulled his cape over his face and pointing the video recording function of his scroll on the track.
"Aren't you going to watch?" Coco asked.
"No need. I don't have any money down." He responded.
Back down at the track Yang had vacated to join the rest of the spectators leaving only Ruby, Fox and inexplicably Sun as the referee.
The monkey had set up some tape on a few logs to mark the finish line.
"Ruby are you ready?" He asked as he peeled a banana.
"Born ready."
"Fox are you ready?" The blond faunus stuck half the fruit in his mouth.
"Always."
"Alright then." He held out the empty skin and let it drop.
The moment it hit the ground Ruby and Fox took off. Ruby's semblance giving her a distinct edge as she flew down the straight away before the boost ended and she chanced a look over her shoulder to see how far of a gap she had, only to find Fox gaining on her quickly.
Taking a deep breath the young girl focused and took off again as fast and long as she could. Only to slow down rapidly as she came into the turn of the loop.
Fox was now neck and neck with her as Ruby's semblance only allowed her to go straight. She always had to stop it in order to turn or pivot and on the large oval loops it was all but useless. Fox immediately used it to his advantage. Pumping past his younger opponent in the turn he hitting the second straight way several seconds before Ruby could.
However they both knew that the instant Ruby had a straight surface in front of her, she would catch up. And catch up she did. However her legs were hurting. Uncle Qrow had always warned her about over taxing her semblance as it relighted very heavily on her physical condition.
She was breathing heavy and sweating profusely as she caught up with him part way down the straight away and moved past him using her semblance in shorter, more controlled bursts to try and conserve energy for the finish while Fox himself kept motoring along at an almost mechanical pace.
As they approached the second oval that was just before the finish line Ruby had a choice to make. Fox proved that in the turn he could out preform her with ease. So it was a question of either trying to outpace him in the beginning or pray that she could keep up and user her semblance at the end to win by a nose.
She went for the outpacing and disappeared in a flurry of rose petals until she hit the turn… With Fox right on her heels.
Ruby knew she lost as he pulled past her. Even if she tried to boost to the finish he would have already made it through and won. But Ruby was also NOT a quitter. She tried using her speed in the turn but only was able to arc it just slightly. Hoping that a slower speed would allow her more control she didn't move as fast and while that did work to a degree, the only way she could get the level of control needed was to drop down to speeds that were well below the thundering Fox.
He hit the finish line a full four second before she did.
Ruby passed through and skidded to a halt, her hands resting on her knees and breathing deeply. She hadn't had to run that hard in years. Even while training or in the middle of battles, she could always move at a rate she was conferrable.
She saw a shadow over her and looked up to see Fox holding a water bottle out. The girl took it and chugged half its contents in an un-ladylike fashion but didn't care. She was replaying the race in her head.
"You want to know why you lost?" Fox asked.
"Yay." Ruby huffed as the spectators dispersed.
Some of the spectators moved to collect their winnings form Coco while the others wondered what other secrets the school could hold if a giant outdoor track could go unnoticed by them. The free members of CFVY and RWBY moving down to their teammates while JNPR stayed at a distance to allow the participants some room.
"It all has to do with how you run." Fox explained. "You are all about speed. You uses your semblance and those rounds from your rifle to give you enough speed to slice through your opponents in hit and run attack. Each move building momentum for the next one and when that momentum is broken, you have to start from scratch." It was easily the most Fox had ever said to Ruby. He usually just responded to everything with one sentences.
"Usually in a fight that matter little. When your semblance is waning, you just fire a few rounds from your scythe to make up the difference until you can activate it again. The only time you lose all speed is when you are well away from your opponent giving you enough space to build it up again. Other than that, you have little in the way of physical strength. That's why you were captured by the White Fang in Mountain Glen."
"How do you know about that?" Weiss asked. Nobody noticing that Velvet moved slightly behind the hulking Yatsuhashi and Blake found a pebble on the track very interesting.
"I was read Dr. Oobleck's after action report in the library just before this all began." Was Fox's imperceptible lie.
"You also took off too fast at the beginning, hoping to make it a test of speed rather then stamina." Fox continued. "Not remembering that the track was over ½ a mile long."
"It has nothing to do with your own short comings." Fox was finishing up. "In the straight paths you dominated me, I merely understood the track better and could see you weaknesses."
At this point Coco joined the part on the field. She had left Sun and Scarlet by the fence line after sharing some secrets on poker. "Fox done explaining why you lose?"
Ruby nodded.
"Knew he would. This fellow" she tried to pat his backside only for Fox to slide away, "Is destined to be a teacher at this school sooner or later." The fashionista got a malicious gleam in her eye. "Unless Velvet or I turn him into our baby daddy first."
"COCO!" Velvet screamed in shock and Yatsu put a controlling hand on their leader's shoulder with the warning to tone it down.
To derail the conversation, Fox turned to asked his rabbit teammate, "What were the times anyway?"
She looked down at her scroll to avoid eye contact. "You did it in 2 minutes 32.24 seconds." Then to Ruby she added, "You were at 2 minutes and 37 seconds." Velvet then smiled and said encouragingly. "That would have put you at 4 minutes 13 seconds for a full mile. Just one second shy of the woman's world record."
Ruby perked up at that little fact.
"That's rather impressive Fox." Yang said to the victor. "Especially seeing as you can-"
Weiss cut across, "have never run a race against Ruby before."
Yang looked at the heiress in confusion. "No. I was going to-"
Blake elbowed the blond in the ribs.
"You are about to make a joke about my supposed blindness." Fox said matter-o-fact looking at the blond brawler in the eye.
"Er…" Yang realized the mistake her friends were trying to prevent her from making. "Sorry."
The scared man looked down at the ground before muttering, "I'm not blind…"
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
When Fox didn't answer and with Coco and Yatsu also looking unconformable Velvet stepped up to support her friend. "He is legally blind. And don't you give me that look Coco. Fox is blind under the definition of the law but that doesn't mean he can't see."
This got people looking between the rabbit faunus and the red skinned man.
"He suffers from a genetic defect called Monochromany." Velvet continued when nobody would speak. She had suffered a few times for being a faunus without retaliating, she was not going to let one of her best friends be criticized for an unwillingness to speak. "In his case the cones or color receptors in the eyes never developed meaning he can't see any colors other than white, black and gray."
Fox look them each in the eye. "But that don't prevent me from 'seeing'." At this he gave a small laugh. "Did you really think Professor Ozpin would let a blind person fight Grimm?"
"But what about your eyes?" Ruby asked with complete innocence.
"The Creator Oum has an odd sense of humor." Fox responded. "He never blessed me with the ability to see color, but gave me a semblance that allows me to see in infrared and low level night vision. I can only see in black and white, but when darkness falls, all color disappears and I can see as clear as day. The lack of noticeable iris or pupil is merely they physical representation of the semblance being active."
"Full monochromacy is a very rare trait." Blake said. "Only a few kinds of faunus have it and in humans it is almost unheard of."
Fox let a sad smile out at that one. "What are the rules of inheritance on Remnant?" he asked.
Ruby jumped up and down like she was trying to answer a question in class. Fox nodded to her. "Humans give birth to humans. Fanuns to Fanuns." She stated proudly.
"Half credit. The third rule?"
They were all silent for a second. Fox's fellow teammates didn't want to interrupt and let RWBY come to the conclusion themselves. Fox had done something similar when Coco first asked.
"The rule of half." Blake finally answered.
Fox nodded. "A child born of mixed parents has a 50/50 chance of being on or the other."
"Then you are…" Weiss said slowly so as not to jump to conclusion like she had not too long ago with Blake.
"My father is a human. My mother is a fox, in the figurative and literal sense." Fox himself pulled out his wallet and opened it to a photo. It showed five people. Fox was front and center. Even though he was years younger then what he was now, the young man's eyes would be recognizable in any crowd. Next to him were what must have been his family. A stick of a man with a overly short hair, two children younger than Fox, both fanus and a mother in a blue flowing dress. Her long fluffy red tail wrapped up and around her husband's shoulders like a mink scarf.
"Some of us are able to embrace what we are." Fox said nodding to Velvet. "Others find it easier to hide themselves in plain sight." His eyes moved to Blake. "And those like myself who aren't quite fanuns or human just do what we can."
They were silent for a second. "You know don't you?" Blake asked tense as she shoot a look at Velvet.
Yatsu let out a small chuckle. "The only people you are fooling with that bow are those that don't look." He said. "And no, before you think it Velvet didn't tell us even after we told her we knew." He defended his rabbit partner. "She still keeps insisting that you are a 'funny' person."
"How did you figure it out?" Yang asked.
"You hang out with the Velveteen Rabbit here enough and you start to notice where to look." Yatus responded.
"It also helps that your 'bow' twitches whenever you see fish." Coco added. "And the fact I'm allergic to cats helps."
Fox merely tapped his eyes. "That cloth doesn't prevent heat from being seen."
"So what now?" Yang asked.
"Now Ruby and I start putting together a program for her to work on her stamina." Fox responded turning back to his defeated racing opponent. "You need to get a lot better if you ever hope of beating me in the Vytal Tournament."
"Really! You'll help me?" the cloaked girl squalled. Completely forgetting the series conversation about fanuns and genetics in place of the race that started this all.
"I didn't do this to show off." Fox responded.
Ruby nearly ran around the group in excitement. "I will be the best student ever!"
Coco turned and started walking off the track with everyone following. "We need to pick up the lollygaggers." She said as the forgotten JNPR waited patiently at the fence line. "Then how about some dinner." She held out her Len card. "I made a killing in betting on that race."
"You guys go ahead." Fox said as her broke off to talk to Scarlet and Sun. "I'll be around in a minute."
As the larger group left trying to determine what restaurant they would spend Coco's winnings on, Fox approached the two waiting men.
"How did it go?" Scarlet asked.
"It was a bit more probing then I would have like but they know everything." Fox responded. "Velvet lead the conversation where I hoped."
"So Blake knows you're background?" Sun asked.
"Yes."
"Thanks man. I owe you one." Sun patted Fox on the shoulder.
"You owe my cousin the favor not me." To said cousin Fox asked, "Did you record the race?"
Scarlet held up his scroll with the video of the race playing. "Every detail. As asked." He then sent it to Fox's account.
"Thanks." With that Fox left to join his friends while the two members of SSSN went in the other way. Sun talking about how he hopped Blake would feel better about her fanuns heritage now she knew there were more of them at the school while Scarlet just nodded, wondering how he could use the new favor to pull a prank using his trickster captain.
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Author's notes. This came out of four different points all coming together.
One: the common idea in the fandom that Fox is completely blind. I reject this because in his two notable appearances in Vol 2 and 3, the breech and CFVY's fight against Mercury and Emerald. he can be seen several times turning to face others and scanning areas. A person who is completely blind will move their ears closer to a disturbance then their eyes.
So I looked up vision disorders and found Monochromacy. A disorder in humans but a normal state for marine mammals as it allows them to see better in deep water where little light penetrates meaning that colors are useless.
While a real feature in both humans and animals, as far as I can tell foxes can see in full color. My explanation, a recessive trait in both parents that happens to be expressed in Fox himself.
Two: the simple and silly 'here are two fast people who will win in a race' that has been around since the Olympics in ancient Greece.
Three: an idea of Coco running an illegal gambling ring and Scarlet cleaning house. Plus as Scarlet and Sage have so little personality as of the end of volume 3, why not give Scarlet David some as technology savvy but dower individual.
Four: that I have read from a RWBY wiki that faunus and people can have children but that it was rare due to the social constraints.
Much like the children between at white and black parent during the Jim Crow laws era in the United States, they would probably face a notable degree of discrimination by those that want to maintain the social structure and be ostracized. The common anti-fanus rhetoric that Roman Torchwick represents and is stated to be the norm of the world would want to kept them down to maintain a human majority. Thus when someone like the White Fang comes along and gives them a point of inclusion that all humans need, they would jump at the chance. That is where I at least suspect a lot of the White Fang's recruitment comes from. Those that first tired to work inside the system only to be disillusioned and go to the extremists as they can show 'positive' results. Blake all but admitted to it and that she only left because the 'extreme' become too much for her.
I partially suspect that Qrow and Raven might be the human products of such a human/fanus union and that would explain both Qrow's apparent shape-shifting semblance into a bird and Raven's willingness to apparently work for the White Fang and their current genocidal ideals. If they were children of a Bird Fanus and a human but had to hide their heritage to be successful, it would breed resentment. I believe the tv series Law and Order episode also discusses such ideas as well.
Sorry about the ranting filibuster on point four. Sometimes I overthink the technical details of my stories at the expense of the narrative as a whole.
Five: the creator Orm is in reference to College Fool's story "A Farmer or Something". An interesting story in my opinion but perhaps not for everyone.