Chapter #3: Night Ops


Friday afternoon marked the beginning of team RWBY's investigation into the activities of Roman Torchwick and the White Fang in Vale. Ruby had organised them into three teams based on their own suggestions.

Her and Weiss were to go to CCT and check the Schnee records for any Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Blake was to head to a White Fang recruitment meeting, hoping she could get in unrecognised and see if she could find anything they are planning. Yang would revisit an old 'friend' on the shady side of Vale to find out what he knew.

And after that they'd all meet near wherever Yang ended up. That was until Sun showed up hanging outside their dorm room, his monkey tail hanging onto the branch of a tree. Blake wanted include only her team otherwise she would've asked Pyrrha along and Ruby told him they didn't want friends involved.

Naturally Sun brushed it off with a snort and said they should always get friends involved and proceeded to point out that he brought Neptune along. So with the two boys now knowing their plan and adamant about helping Ruby shuffles them into teams of two.

Yang gets paired with Neptune despite Weiss blatantly trying to convince Ruby to pair him with her. Her attraction to the blue haired boy obvious for all to see and hear. It didn't change Ruby's mind and she paired Sun with Blake seeing as they were both Faunus and could both get into the meeting and support one another.

Blake felt uneasy about going with Sun, sure he was a good guy but he was much too focused on Blake. Still, she was glad to have herself a partner finding herself returning to a somewhat familiar place where she used to often be part of the recruiting team.

After tracking a few Faunus to the meeting Blake and Sun entered. Both being presented a mask to hide their faces.

"I don't get it. If you believe what you're doing is right, why hide who you are?" He asks looking at his mask.

"The masks are a symbol". Blake begins. "Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters".

"Grimm masks. That's kind dark". He responds.

"So was the guy who started it".

"Always sunshine and rainbows with you". He complains before they both placed the masks over their faces and entered the meeting where the recruits were on one side and the fully-fledged members were on the other.

Horns, tails, ears, paws, a vast variety of Faunus had gathered for the meeting. A whole lot of knew soldiers for the White Fang if they managed to be convinced, of which Blake knew the majority would.

On the stage before them a black curtain with the White Fang emblem on it shielded something from their view as one the members welcomed everyone. Nothing special, but his special guest caused a bit of a stir.

Torchwick's here!? Blake thought in disbelief, but there he was walking across the stage with a stupid grin on his mug. Her focus was so transfixed on him that she failed to see the small girl with multicoloured hair stand diagonally behind him.

A Faunus girl asked why he was there and he began to explain, taking shots at humankind, his own race. She couldn't tell if he was being serious, talking about locking Humans up or even killing them. Sun too was confused and whispered a question to Blake who elbowed him in the ribs.

He began pointing out the sources as to why the Faunus and lowly Humans like him were oppressed. The Governments, military and schools run by those in power, all Humans. The crowd cheered in response, something she didn't think a Human at a White Fang gathering could do.

He continued his speech and ordered the curtain to fall, unveiling behind it a mech unit of which neither Blake or Sun had seen before. It was armed to the teeth, Blake knew that if the White Fang had that on their side well, a lot of civilians would be injured and the military would have to get involved which would only make things worse for the Faunus in general.

The cheering continued as Sun croaked out how big the robot was. "As some of you may have heard, this right here is Atlas's newest line of defence against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my employer, we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, hit the shelves". Roman explains after tapping against one of the robot's metal legs.

He continues, and it is there that Blake hears something useful. A new operation in the south east, just outside of Vale. We've got to look there after this. I knew there was something bigger going on. A small smile grew on Blake's face as Roman told the Faunus that was the kind of arsenal he could provide for them.

Sensing the crowds joy and excitement of being able to fight back with such weaponry, Blake whispered to Sun that is was time to leave. Only, the new recruits including her and Sun were being slowly herded forward.

Blake searched for a way to escape as she felt her feet being forced forward. With all the White Fang members around and Roman on the stage she finally spotted a chance.

"Uh, he sees us". Sun said beside her.

"But he can't see in the dark". Her response was followed by a gunshot as she knocked out the lighting. Faunus had better eyesight in the dark where Humans could barely see at all. He called for them to be caught but they were already out the window.

As they touched the ground and went running, they only made a few meters before a loud crash came from behind them. Both turned their heads to find the mech online and chasing after them, having left a large hole in the buildings wall. Great, I love being chased.

As they ran rooftop to rooftop Sun asked about a backup plan. Blake clawed for her scroll and started to ask her team for backup when.

"HELP! They got a robot and it's big, really big! The Torchwick guy's inside it! But not like, it didn't eat him, he's like, controlling it or something!"

Blake just let Sun vent, it made it easier for her to focus than argue with Sun's screaming. They soon found themselves on a highway, jumping from car to car as the robot and Torchwick chased after them.

Blake could hear the commotion behind her. The sound of horns blaring, wheels slipping and skidding. The sounds of cars crashing into each other and the robot. Glancing back after one safe landing she sees that some of the cars Torchwick had run into had gone airborne. A pang of guilt shot through her, but not enough to make her stop, they couldn't take that thing out by themselves.

The sound of a few shots grabbed their attention and turning back they found Neptune with his weapon stuck into the back of the mech.

"Neptune, hang on!" Sun called. Blake could only watch as the mech began to shake and Sun did something similar to her own semblance. Glowing clones of himself, two of them appeared and ran at the mech, both landing kicks. He can control his clones?!

Her excitement is however, short lived as when Sun jumped to help attack the mech, Neptune was thrown off. They both collided mid-air and fell over the edge of the highway railing.

Following that and thanks to the intervention of Weiss and her covering the ground in ice, the mech falls, crashing through the barrier and down to the concrete below. As it landed, so did everyone from team RWBY. Weiss and Yang worked together creating an ice screen with one of Ruby's named attacks. With it, Torchwick couldn't see.

But with the robot's laser sensors he began to scan all around him at once. Three of the team remained running around the hulking piece of metal as Ruby waited patiently for her time to strike.

As Blake and Yang crossed paths and narrowly avoided a shot from the mech, Ruby launched and struck it. "Checkmate!" She orders with another name, signalling for Blake and Weiss to attack as a team.

So, teamed with Weiss, they strike the legs of the mech before Weiss jumped and stabbed her rapier into one of the sensor scanners. Black saw a big metal foot coming down for her only to be whisked away by a glyph that Weiss had used. Thanks Weiss. She trusted the heiress a lot more since her being a Faunus had come out, and this fight was showing how much so.

When Torchwick sent missiles at them Weiss once again used a glyph to help them evade as they both used backflips to make room. Mid flip Weiss got caught with a shot that sent her flying back and all Blake could do was watch. She knew Weiss would be ok, her aura would've protected her.

A glyph appeared under her and she readied herself for an assault from the mech. As it launched another barrage of missiles Blake felt the glyph activate, enhancing her skills and reflexes to a level where she could swing her blades in a flurry of precise attacks that sent off light purple follow through arcs that sliced and cut through the missiles, destroying them before they could cause damage. Wow, that glyph was awesome.

From there once more, Ruby instructs the team. "Ladybug!" She calls and together her and Blake began striking at the inner parts of the mechs legs as the dashed back and forth, this time more effectively than her and Weiss did. Once Torchwick gets a lock they moved to the next part. A high jump to get out of view and when they came down Blake lead the charge, cleaving part way through one of the main guns followed by Ruby who finished the cut. The arm fell to the ground with a metallic clunk as both girls got up and ran.

This gave Yang an opening which she took, jumping onto the back of the mech and raining down blow after blow. The sound of her shotgun gauntlets cracking off round after round echoed.

But as she was getting the upper hand, Torchwick used the boosters to go backwards into a reinforced pylon. While Yang started to fall, Blake watched in horror as the mech's remaining arm punched Yang, her partner right through the pylon.

"Yang!" She screamed, not wanting it to be real, not wanting her partner and friend to be injured. This…. This is why I didn't want to involve you guys!

"Don't worry. With each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special" Ruby told Blake, who watched her partner stumble to her feet. She noticed that her hair was glowing brighter than normal and when the mech threw another punch Blake feared for the worst. She wanted to scream and take Yang's place.

Only the punch was stopped dead and Yang returns one that shattered the arm to pieces. Blake's jaw dropped, she had no idea that Yang was that powerful when her semblance activated. Best not to get on her bad side. She thought before Yang was kicked past them.

"Bumblebee!" Ruby yelled and Blake threw Gambol shroud at Yang who caught it. The ribbon around her arm and connected to her weapon stretched and held. With a hard yank, she flings Yang back around at the mech, narrowly missing. Stupid machine!

"We have to slow it down!" The reaper yelled, seeing her teammates miss as the mech jumped backwards.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Weiss growled.

"Ice flower!" Ruby happily chirped. Weiss organised three glyphs in front of Ruby's scythe in gun mode. Each shot took down one glyph and as they struck the mech they turned into huge pieces of ice sticking to the mech, making it slower and easier to hit.

Blake kept swinging Yang until the opportunity arose while Yang kept firing her gauntlet to further increase the speed she was travelling. Just like we practised, just like we practised. Blake repeated in her head to focus.

When the final ice bullet hit and stopped the mech she recognised the time and sent Yang right at it. Yang's red eyes blazed and her golden hair glowed beautifully as her right arm delivered a shattering punch.

The mech toppled over and fell to pieces with Torchwick stumbling to his feet looking a little worse for wear. Yes! We've got that bastard! Blake cheers within her head, a smirk on her face as Yang goes to deal one more blow. A shot fired from her gauntlets aimed straight at Torchwick. Blake felt the excitement, the finality that a big player was about to go down and they would take him to the police. Finally Blake would be able to relax.

A mixture of colour darted in front of Torchwick and Yang's shot exploded. Red, orange, and yellow stained the air for a few moments. Once it had cleared Blake saw an umbrella pointed at them. Slowly it moved and exposed the wielder to be a small girl with pink and brown hair and matching miscoloured eyes.

The grin she wore made Blake anxious, that and the girl seemed completely unfazed by Yang's shot. Who in Oum's name is that?

"Ladies, Ice Queen. Always a pleasure". Torchwick salutes. "Neo, if you would". The girl called Neo bowed, her eyes fixed on team RWBY as the girls got ready for another round of fighting.

Yang led the charge and struck the girl's umbrella. It shattered, she shattered. An after image like her own clones shattered revealing that both of them were already gone. As they all looked around the sound of an airship was heard, too late. Both Torchwick and the girl Neo were onboard. They'd missed him and his new sidekick.

"So, I guess he got a new henchman". Yang voice carried sound rough and annoyed.

"Yeah, I guess she really made our plans… fall apart?" Wiess counters with a pun that was as bad as Yang's. Ruby stifled a giggle while the brawler and the heiress argued about the time and place, and how it needed to be a good pun.

Blake was quiet on the way back to Beacon, they'd found Torchwick and beat him, were about to take him into custody when that girl showed up. Maybe if Pyrrha had of been with us we could have taken him down sooner. That thought stuck with her until they returned, but she went straight for a shower and bed.

She knew Pyrrha and team JNPR would likely learn about what happened. Ruby tended to have a big mouth when that team was around. She trusted them a lot, too much for Blake's liking. But she couldn't help but feel bad about not letting Pyrrha know. Perhaps she'd have a talk with her tomorrow.

Little did she know that while she was in bed, Ruby and Yang filled Jaune and Pyrrha in on the events of the night. Pyrrha in particular showing great interest and concern. Yang had heard Blake mention that she was one of the things on her mind aside from the White Fang. She was convinced that Blake had feelings for Pyrrha and wanted to talk with Pyrrha a bit about how she felt.


Hey all, out so quickly since it's from Volume 2, chapter 4, just with a few personal touches and what not. I did enjoy that episode but didn't want to involve Pyrrha in the mix as I have plans for the story going on.

So this chapter focused on Blake but the next will focus on Pyrrha and possibly little on Yang.

As always, if you want to leave a comment or so constructive criticism I'd appreciate it.