Saturday came so much faster than any of the members of Team RWBY had anticipated, like it had suddenly jumped ahead while the rest of the time had just evaporated into the ethers of nothingness. When Saturday actually came around, the group had to wait until nightfall, to be able to move around with less risk of detection.

So it was kind of like the time they took in the White Fang with Neptune and Sun, only without the backup.

Hero costumes were a no-go, unless they wanted to find themselves plastered on from of every single media outlet in Remnant. Best case scenarios, Heroes who worked outside of designated hours were sometimes considered to be lawful Vigilantes - People who were still students learning to become Heroes, not even graduated yet, that was very much illegal. It was all set up like this in the name of public safety.

Exceptions were made, but not often enough to warrant running the risk publically.

To that end, Ruby had equipped a different set of clothing to what she would normally throw on. Still fitting with her colour scheme, and still including that red cape that she almost considered to be an integral part of her identity, of course. She'd forgone the combat skirt and corset she normally wore as casual and

Hero attire, linking them too closely to herself. Instead, she opted for a cloak that was fastened just underneath her cape, dark scarlet with black and dark grey camouflage patterns. On her actual person, she had a combat vest on, and on top of that, was a red jacket. Unable to resist the urge, Ruby had customised said jacket with black trims at the ends, around her wrists. The jacket was designed to be combat flexible, and fireproof, on account of Weiss' Thermo Trait. Along with these, pure black, skin tight jeans were added on, again for the sake of remaining fireproof and retaining flexibility. Her boots however, remained unchanged.

She looked like a real Vigilante.

Yang and Blake also gave a distinct impression of Vigilantism, although to a far lesser extent than Ruby had. Their clothing remained similar to their casual clothing, with a few alterations and changes to that it was only recognisable to people who knew their clothing well - Limiting it down to pretty much just their team, and those who took a long, throughout inspection of it. They looked more rugged and less refined than they normally did, Yang looking like she'd just prepared herself for a street brawl with seven Abnormals and sixty Primals, while Blake looked more like she was ready to infiltrate a complex.

"Way to be subtle, Rubes." Yang commented upon seeing her sister's attire. It looked almost overdone and over complicated for a simple street skirmish, though Yang was fully aware of the stakes if they were found out by Heroes or any legal officials.

They could kiss away any hope they had of becoming Heroes.

"Like you're one to talk." Ruby retorted with a sisterly smile. "You might as well be holding up a big sign that says you want to fight someone." As if the help punctuate her point, Ruby then Teleported, just a few feet to the left. "I don't need to be too subtle, I can Teleport, remember?"

"Alright, fair enough." Yang chuckled and conceded her point, before shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket. The sides of said jacket reached down to her shins, but had no back or front piece, acting instead as side capes almost. The colour was brown far more dimmed than anything she'd normally wear, excluding black, which was the same colour as her boots. Everything she wore was ultra-durable and absorbent, which allowed her to unleash her explosions from wherever she wanted on her body without completely obliterating the clothes she wore.

And of course, she decided on keeping sunglasses handy. Sometimes Ruby wondered how she'd even be able to see out of them in the dark, but she found a way somehow. Yang claimed it was to do with her red eye visual quirk which gave her greater perception, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to anyone who didn't share that particular Quirk.

Which pretty much limited it to Blake, and Blake alone, at least within Team RWBY. Faunus shared the ability to see in the dark, although this wasn't exactly the same thing as Yang having a quirk that let her see in enhanced darkness. Regardless of that however, Blake stood poised, and was probably the most read and serious member of the team regarding this particular mission they'd given themselves. Stood in her black outfit, black jeans, long sleeves shirt, black practically everything. With the only white parts being around her joints, and the pouches that she kept fastened to a belt around her waist, which contained various bits of equipment, like smoke bombs or flammable powder, and other such assessors, she was more than ready to go at this stealthily if that was what was required, not that she couldn't handle herself against someone in outright combat. Her Trait would come in handy if that were the case.

"So, where's Weiss?" Blake questioned, glancing around the room, and noting that only the Schnee heiress wasn't present.

"She's still getting ready." Ruby informed her Faunus friend, using her thumb to point to the door Weiss had sealed herself behind a while ago, located behind the Dual Trait user.

This did feel rather excessive though. Ruby knew that Weiss usually took a while to get ready to go anywhere whatsoever, but she'd been sorting out her costume for the last twenty minutes. No doubt that she'd make up some sort of excuse along the lines of the thousands of Schnee expectations and rules and whoever knew what else. It had only taken Ruby about five minutes to sort out everything. She'd spent the last fifteen customising her jacket.

Deciding that they'd been waiting for plenty of time already - All three of them had rotated out of one of the rooms, each of them not taking long at all, while Weiss hadn't even finished in the time it had taken them all to get ready. Not that it was uncommon, Weiss did do this frequently - Yang made her way to the door

Ruby pointed to, and slammed her fist on the door three solid times before calling into the room. "Having fun in there, Ice Queen? We're waiting on you!"

"Be patient! I'm nearly ready." Came the same response Ruby had got the last two times she'd tried that.

"We're about to take on a bunch of Primals that Blake thinks are working with the White Fang, and you're taking this long? What, you going as an actual Ice Queen or something?" Yang asked, though she didn't get a response to her joke. She sighed and looked over to Ruby. Lowering her voice so the Atlesian girl behind the door she was by wouldn't hear, she whispered, "You feel like going and seeing what's taking her so long?"

All Ruby did at that was blush, before responding, "If you can promise she won't set me on fire or freeze me to death." She knew her sister was just teasing her. She'd been like that the minute she'd figured out Ruby was fond of her partner.

"Another good point."

"I can't imagine that Weiss would appreciate that." Blake commented. She didn't see much amusement in the situation, but considering her history with the White Fang, it was understandable. She probably wanted to just get to what they had planned to do.

While the group had to spend a short while longer waiting for Weiss, they were able to discuss strategy, so, they sat in a triangle, with a map of the docks in the middle of them. Blake claimed that the group were discussing a shipment of some description, so the air-dockyard made the most sense. Since she and Ruby had a vague understanding of the layout, since this was where she and Sun had attacked Roman Torchwick, during the whole revelation that she was a Faunus. Ruby had arrived with Penny, so she had at least a fleeting understanding of the base layout.

Still, a map was needed, since they had only been to a single section of the place.

Several identical docks existed, side by side, making it more efficient for multiple airships to land, restock and refuel in one swoop. That meant that the areas that White Fang members could be hiding was multiplied, though it certainly didn't make a whole lot of sense. They had been discovered there once, so Vale police kept a close eye on the area, in case some member who hadn't got the message that the area was compromised stumbled there accidentally.

Even so, it had been months. Maybe the White Fang figured that the Vale police had lessened their security there. And they wouldn't be wrong.

"We've got at least ten warehouses that they could be hiding in, and they've got their backs to the river, so we can't rule out the possibility of them using a boat or airship system to escape if we get spotted." Blake said, running her finger along the map as she spoke to punctuate the points she was making.

That made a lot of sense. If Primals were joining the White Fang, and the Pro-Faunus organisation hadn't made it clear that the species was welcome into their ranks, that meant that these guys were working in secret, or were on some deal. Either way, they would be paranoid, and ready to run like hell the second that they sensed something was wrong.

"So we need to block off those routes of escape." Yang nodded in her understanding. "Well the river should be pretty easy to deal with. Weiss should be able to freeze it, right? That'd cover any boat escape routes."

"It's not all that subtle though." Ruby pointed out. This was just common sense. "She'd be attacked as soon as they figured out where she was, and that she was why the water was freezing."

"Plus, her powers can't just freeze water instantly." Blake added on. "She alters temperature, she doesn't freeze things instantly. She's not Cryokinetic, she can't just generate ice instantly. She'd probably need a short while to actually freeze a large chunk of the river. But she can't use her fire powers while freezing the river..."

"...So she'd be defenceless." The youngest member of the team gulped. Someone needed to protect Weiss while she was doing that, and that was of she even could turn water into ice like they had theorised she could.

The group fell into slight silence for a short moment, recognising that, even if Weiss was willing to do that, it was probably one of the most dangerous parts of the operation. Not only would she be defenceless and making it clear where she was, the second that she did it, the ability for stealth would be completely gone. It would, with one hundred percent certainty, devolve into combat after that.

And that was assuming this was the White Fang. If this was a huge misunderstanding, Weiss was easily going to get the worst of the backlash for this. It could very easily cripple her ability to become a Hero like she wanted.

When they group thought about it like that...

Ruby took a deep breath. She would defend Weiss. It was only fair. Weiss was her partner, and the group had essentially decided Weiss' role without her say. If Weiss was going to be in the most danger, it was only fair that Ruby had her back. "...I'll - "

"I'll cover Weiss." Yang suddenly declared, the biggest grin on her face. As she spoke, her knuckles collided into one another in front of her, small sparks flying off her hands and into the room around them.

The sudden announcement threw Ruby off for a moment, her head snapping to look at her older sister. She had a smirk on her face that the younger sibling couldn't quite read.

"Agreed." Blake nodded. To her, the choice made a lot of sense, and it was going to be what she recommended that they go as anyway.

"W-Wait a second!" Ruby protested, catching the attention of both her teammates. "Shouldn't I be the one to cover Weiss?"

"How d'you figure?" Her sister asked, that grin still on her face, lopsided to the right.

"She - She's my partner, and I know her fighting style best. We've got good cohesion on our last assignment too!"

At this, Yang openly laughed at her sister's obvious fluster that she was trying to hide. "Rubes, I'm not gonna steal your girlfriend, don't worry."

Though she knew that Yang was just teasing, that it was just Yang's way of making light of the situations at hand like she always did, that Yang truly meant no malice, it was starting to irritate Ruby, just that tiniest of bits, that she seemed to assume anything involving Weiss was Ruby's crush talking. She did have the ability to separate her own feelings from the situation at hand. "That's not -"

"Think about it, Ruby." Blake interrupted the exchange between the two sisters, locking eyes with Ruby to acquire her full attention. "Weiss and Yang have the strongest powers out of our entire team. My Shadow Trait is useful, and so are your Kinetic Speed and Teleportation, but in a fight, we aren't the strongest. Our powers aren't designed for outright all out warfare. We have to use our powers and focus on their destructive capability to be able to fight, but those two don't even need to think about that. Their Traits are designed for combat, which makes pairing them up best for what I have planned. Weiss is going to be freezing the river, right? That means that Yang has the strongest power out of everyone left, plus she's got the most combat experience out of all of us. She's the best at close combat, and she'll only get stronger over the time of the fight. Weiss would be safest with Yang. Besides, I need you with me."

The logic being used was solid, and Ruby couldn't argue with it. It was true that inherently, Teleportation wasn't a combat focused Trait. Though she had toned her body to be physically strong, and had refined her muscles to help her achieve this goal, Teleportation was a travel type Trait. The same for Kinetic Speed, though less so than her primary Trait. That had combat capabilities, but it wasn't designed for it. She could use herself as a ballistic missile if the need arose, but she would suffer recoil damage herself, which limited how much damage she could do. She had developed a tolerance to it, but she hadn't developed an immunity to it.

Though she had learned to do so, Blake's Trait was also inherently not combat focused. Her power was designed for a creature to hide from the shadows, someone that didn't attack outright, but even a cornered animal would fight when it had to, hence her powers ability to fight effectively.

Weiss and Yang? Their powers could unleash chaos, and they would suffer minimal backlash. They were designed for combat. They could use their Traits to take out anyone who stood in their way.

To make it into an analogy, Ruby was like a rabbit, whose only defensive mechanism was their ability to run. The only difference was that Ruby had the intelligence to use her powers to fight. Blake was an ambush predator, like a hawk. She worked best when using surprise, but she could fight like hell when she had to. Weiss and .yang were like sharks, capable of unleashing untold carnage when provoked or the need arose.

If one of them was defenceless... Then it made sense for one of their best to be ready to protect them. Ruby couldn't argue with this. Though she did catch part of what Blake had said at the end of her sentence, and wanted to know more. "What do you need me for?"

Pointing at the warehouses on the map, the taller girl explained her thinking. "Once we find the warehouse the Primals are using to hide whatever it is they're hiding, you and I are going to need to sneak inside. If they have an airship or something inside, they could just get in there and fly off, and it also gives us a chance to make sure that these guys are actually White Fang." Knowing Ruby understood, Blake looked up at her team leader, sympathetic to her feelings, but determined to carry out this plan correctly. "You get it, don't you? I can disable any airships, and I should be able to overhear any conversations they have, but I'll need you to help me get from place to place. Teleportation will be really useful for this sort of task."

Blake had thought this out carefully. Of course, being one of the most intelligent members of the team, it shouldn't have surprised anyone that she could formulate elaborate plans like this. She had a talent for thinking things through while taking into consideration the powers and capabilities of those who she had command of. She probably had a few backup plans in case there proved to be an issue with the ones she had come up with, but if Weiss was willing to roll with the risks, this plan was perfect for the team.

And as much as she wanted to fight it, Ruby knew that Blake was right. She trusted her judgement. It had never steered them wrong before, and her hunches usually were correct.

"Once we finish inside, or we hear something outside, we'll go straight to help Yang and Weiss." Reassured the former White Fang member. "We should be done quickly. I promise."

Stopping her teasing for just a moment, Yang changed to a more serious, sincere tome. "She'll be safe with me, sis, don't worry."

She would admit, Ruby had originally felt rather apprehensive about Yang finding out about her crush on Weiss. How couldn't she? She herself barely knew what was going on with her own emotions. It took her the longest time to even admit it herself. Yang had taken a guess eventually, somewhat recently actually, and Ruby didn't deny anything. Aside from the continuous teasing that Yang specialised in every single time an opportunity presented itself, and her jokingly questioning her sisters tastes, Yang had been completely in favour of Ruby's thoughts and feelings, whatever they were. She was always on Ruby's side.

Though she had apparently let it slip to Blake, hence how she now knew. Regardless of that though, Blake had comforted Ruby in the same responses that Yang had. The Faunus girl considered the entire team to be like her family at this point, and that meant she felt the same sisterly affections for Ruby that her familial sister did. She'd been completely supportive and encouraging to her young team leader.

It was why, despite that slight irritation that Ruby felt when they kept teasing her, she was thankful to have been blessed with such amazing teammates. They knew and understood her when it came to Weiss. They knew she wasn't saying or doing anything just to be difficult. It was that they knew how she felt about their resident Thermo Trait user. It wasn't to be awkward. It wasn't to just hang out with her 'bestie'. It wasn't lust.

It was just a pure, affectionate crush. That was all. She cared for Weiss, and wanted to make certain that she was safe. She wasn't even asking for reciprocated feelings from her crush. Just her friendship was enough. As Yang put it, it was the 'Purest of crushes'.

For those reasons, for their understanding and support, Ruby trusted them completely. She'd out her life into any of their hands at any point in her life, and had faith that they would do everything they could to protect her.

It was that trust that made Ruby sigh, look at the map, and then back to her teammates. "Okay. Alright, I trust you both. Let's do it."

"Speaking of doing things," The blonde brawler raised her voice suddenly, "Weiss, you gonna be ready some time tonight?"

Upon the completion of her sentence, Yang was rewarded by the door that hid Weiss twisting, and then being swung open. With the overall simplicity of the outfit, Yang was partially convinced Weiss had taken so long purely to spite her and Ruby.

This was one of the few occasions that Weiss let her hair stay down, not bothering to do it up in her side ponytail that characterised her appearance. Unlike the others however, she had donned a eye mask, which she was wearing right now. The mask had loose large holes where her eyes were, making it thin at all points, and very long ties at the back, allowing the light blue ribbon material it was made of flow, long as her hair was. The ribbon reached the ends of the scar on her eye, but it didn't cover up the entire thing, anything inside it was still visible, along with her blue eyes. She'd forgone the necklace she normally wore, deeming it an unnecessary addition to the costume, unfit for purpose.

From the head down, she retained a corset-like outfit, which like everyone else's, was highly durable to flame and heat, though hers were capable of withstanding the damaging effects of flame and frost outfit was snow white, with black string laces criss-crossed and pressed across her stomach to keep it fastened to her. A posh jacket, no doubt brought from Atlas, expensive and a slightly darker grey, went over the corset. It reached down to her wrists. On the inside, much like her Hero costume, and her casual clothing, it was a bright red colouration, although it was not at all as obvious as her other outfits were. From the waist down, she retained the combat skirt style that she seemed so proud and defensive of, still added on with frills wt the end, though these were black.

Overall, she wasn't exactly hiding the fact she came from a wealthy family. It did a decent job at hiding her face, but it wasn't going to win her many points if someone saw her and knew that a Schnee studied at Beacon, it probably wouldn't take them long to figure out who she was.

It wasn't exactly subtle, but it did the job.

"You took your time." Stated Blake, glancing up to look at her teammate's attire before she returned to the map in front of her.

"I wanted to make sure everything was fit for purpose." Weiss responded, making her way over to the group. She was still in heels, which Ruby would never understand how she fought in. They had custom spikes in them, to allow Weiss to use them to prevent her from sliding everywhere when she used her ice powers.

"Is that a Schnee thing?" Yang questioned with a laugh.

"As a matter of fact, it is." Informed the heiress, glaring daggers towards Yang. "I might not have taken as long if I didn't kept getting disrupted." As she spoke, he glare then shifted to include Ruby into her direct sight, keeping both the half-sisters in her gaze. Such a ferocious stare threatened to generate static electricity if she kept this up.

Neither of the two girls seemed particularly phased by such a look anymore. They had grown used to these death stares from the Thermo Trait user. They had adapted to them quickly, and come to just shrug them off when they started up.

With a small huff, Weiss sat down next to Ruby, causing the triangle to become a square as she peered over to look at the map Blake provided. Ruby was normally able to control herself when it came to staring at her partner, displaying far more self-discipline than someone would expect from someone like her. Right now though, she just couldn't stop herself. She loved Weiss' hair when she let it down like this. Her ponytail had its charms as well, but there was something about how her hair was when she didn't keep it in that lopsided bundle. It looked softer, silkier than when she did it up. Clearly, she looked after her hair a large amount. The time it took her to just wash, condition and brush it was immense in itself. Ruby enjoyed her short hair, and felt it was more practical and suited her better, but Weiss's hair was always beautiful to her partner.

Ruby shook her head and forced herself to look away before Weiss saw her. Yang noticed and smirked, though she hid it well.

"So, what plans do we have?" Questioned the pale skinned girl.


It surprised the group just how quick to accept the role she had been given Weiss was. She didn't protest, or even ask for if there were any sorts of alternatives. She accepted the arrangements and the dangerous task she had been given without hesitation. Acknowledging it was their best chance for victory in this scenario, she made it very clear that she was willing to go along with their strategists plan. She even accepted Yang being her teammate for the purpose of this mission, agreeing that it was the most logical choice.

She had confirmed Blake's theory that she wouldn't be able to instantly freeze a large body of water. Her power worked by allowing her to either slow down or speed up particles, which led to her being able to either generate ice or fire. With a pre-existing source of liquid, she'd need time to slow down all those particles, meaning that she did need defending while she made herself an obvious target.

So that had settled it. As awarded their code names by Ruby, Team Freezerburn would focus on freezing the river water and preventing any naval attempts at escape, while Team Ladybug would infiltrate the warehouse, disable any airships that might be hidden, confirm their targets, and then move to help their friends. How Ruby came up with such ridiculous team names, Weiss really had no clue – She had been under the impression it had been her and Yang's special move, but apparently Ruby decided not to fix what wasn't broken - But the plan on the other hand, was solid.

Ruby would be able to Teleport the group over to the docks with two or three jumps, with a short few second break between each one. The reason she gave for this was that the more weight that was added onto her person, each Teleport became harder, and it drained her stamina quicker. By herself, she would be able to get there a lot faster, but the combined mass of her teammates meant she'd need to make a few more additional stops. She'd essentially be carrying three other people at once. One person was an easy task, and two was doable, but there wasn't any way she'd be able to instantly move three near full grown late teenagers.

So instead, they planned on making three stops. Ruby would be able to Teleport the three of them as far as the city of Vale's outskirts. Since she knew the layout of the city well, she could land them on the roof of an obscure building there, minimising the chances of them getting spotted. She'd then need a minute to catch her breath, and then she'd be able to repeat the process, getting them that bit closer to the warehouses. The final jump should get her to the warehouse outskirts, where the two teams would separate and carry out their separate objectives.

At about midnight, Team RWBY began to make their move. After encouraging words from her team, assuring her that they were confident that she could do this, Ruby activated her Primary Trait, and Teleported them to the City of Vale.

Emerging from the flurry of rose petals that her Trait caused whenever she used one of her powers, the group found themselves just on the edge of the city, atop a taller building, the tallest one on the edge of the surrounding buildings. Taller constructions existed, but from this distance, late at night, they would be covered by darkness. It had been a smart choice of building.

Though, the second that they reappeared there, Ruby fell straight to her knees, drenched with sweat and totally out of breath. Her face was as red as the cape that she customised everything with, and she seemed to struggle to even inhale anything. With how her powers worked, it wasn't surprising at all. She could possess enough energy to outrun a Jaguar, but when she had to carry and do her equivalent of running with basically three times her own weight strapped to her back, that energy was easily going to be used up.

"Whoa there, Rubes!" Yang reacted about as quickly as her sister had fallen. Reaching for a pocket in her utility belt, she quickly produced a metallic canister filled with water, coloured dark green and patterned with yellow splatters. Unscrewing the cap of the container, she held it out for Ruby to take. "Here, drink up."

Wheezing out some sort of noise that was made up of gratitude, Ruby took the canteen and began to greedily drink every single drop of liquid that was inside. She didn't even stop to take a breath between gulps. The second she was done, she let out the largest sigh any of them had ever heard, and tried to regain her breath. Yang took the canteen back into her hands and from the same pockets, produced a cookie, which she handed Ruby.

As the younger girl consumed the small treat to regain some of her energy, Weiss had to question the exact routine that was going in here. "Shouldn't we wait until we actually reach the warehouse before she replenishes her stamina?"

"If she doesn't do that now, then she's gonna lose distance on her Teleporting." Yang explained, patting her sister on the head like she was some sort of affectionate puppy. "If she's low on energy, then her maximum distance drops. Dramatically. You could say it falls Weiss down."

Sighing, Blake covered her face with her hand. "Really, Yang? That was a stretch."

"Don't be so - "

"Stop."

Though the Explosive Impact Trait user looked like she was ready to retort with another pun, tortured as it may be, just on the tip of her tongue, until she actually took account of the sheer amount of the water that her sister had ingested. Shaking the bottle to the left and right, hearing a slight metallic trickle hit the insides of the container, she realised that Ruby had drunk the entire thing.

"Ruby, you know this was the only water that we had, right?" As she spoke, Ruby's eyes seemed to grow as they shot open. She almost looked like she was begging

Yang to reveal it was some sort of joke. She had two more massive jumps like this she had to do, and now she was going to have to do them while immensely dehydrated. "Now water we going to do?"

"Yang - "

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood, okay?"

Weiss just sighed, and walked over to Yang and snatched the container from her hand. When Yang gave her an odd look, she just sat down near Ruby and began to activate her Trait. "Just give me a few minutes, I'll make some more water."

Freezing the moisture in the air around her wasn't much of a challenge for Weiss, nor did she even need to think about it. She froze layer after layer on a regular basis, which was how she generated her ice. Before long, the entire canister was filled up with solid frozen liquid. At this point, Weiss used her heat generation abilities to heat the ice and cause it to melt.

Sometimes her teammates forgot, between crafting incredible sculptures and glaciers of ice, and scorching and searing her targets in consuming flame, that she was capable of more refined, practical things with her Trait.

It marked one of the rare times that Ruby saw Weiss's right eye turn orange. Part of a visual Quirk of hers, somewhat similar to Yang's. It was an inconsistent one too, not really activating all the time. As her powers granted her both the abilities to create ice, and to create fire, sometimes when she used her heat based aspect, her right eye would turn orange for a few minutes, leaving her with temporary complete heterochromia. Normally, it wore off inside ten minutes, but it was an odd visual Quirk.

Besides, unique as it was, Ruby preferred her blue eyes.

"You dolt." Weiss suddenly chastised Ruby as she went about the task she was doing, looking at her like she was scolding an insolent child, though sometimes Weiss was convinced that this was the case. "What would you have done if I hadn't been here to do this? You'd be completely dehydrated and you'd struggle to use your powers."

"I guess I'd have to go buy some?" Ruby joked.

"Dressed like that?" The eyebrow above her orange eye now quirked up, though she did seem to recognise the tone Ruby had used. "Seriously Ruby, you need to take better care of yourself. You knew that moving all of us at once would put strain on your body, didn't you? Didn't you think that maybe bringing some water bottles would have been smart?"

"I... Uh... It slipped my mind?"

"Idiot." Weiss shook her head and handed Ruby the canteen, now filled with water. She had melted the ice down to water, and used her cold powers to cool to down from the warm point it had been at once reverted from its solid state. "There, that should be enough for the next jump. I'll make some more after that."

"Awesome! Thanks Weiss!" Ruby suddenly sprung into her feet, apparently having regenerated the energy that she had been lacking mere moments ago.

Her sister and her partner were on the other side of the roof, discussing something regarding the operation that was going on. Eager to let them know that she was better and ready to go, Ruby took a step towards them, and was about to call out to them.

"Ruby."

When Weiss said her name however, Ruby stopped and turned right back around. Weiss' amusement or the closest that one could get to charitably calling amusement was all but gone, replaced with a serious expression that suited Weiss like red suited the midday sky. It was a shame that she normally expressed herself such like this, but there was something different about it this time.

"Yeah?" Asked the young Dual Trait user, finding herself curious now. "What's up?"

"When we get back from this, I want to have a talk with you." That had been the last thing Ruby had been expecting to hear from her partner. Weiss seemed to almost be fidgeting, forcing her fingers to stay as still as possible, something that she never did. She almost seemed nervous to even be saying that, but forced herself to, like that was yet another creed of the Schnee family that needed to be obeyed at all points, regardless of personal feeling or belief. "It's important."

"Um… Okay?" Ruby agreed, though her voice wavered in her uncertainty. She had been caught off guard by that statement, and she wasn't entirely certain what it was that Weiss wanted. She had thought that she and her had been getting along as well as they normally did, even having the number of arguments that they normally had toned back quite a bit.

Was Weiss angry with her, or had something come up? Ruby honestly couldn't guess which of these the case was, but she openly and readily agreed to the conversation Weiss wanted to have once they returned to Beacon.

"Is it… Bad?" She decided to ask, desiring to get some information out of the cryptic Schnee. Anything at all.

"I'm not mad with you or anything, fi that's what you're concerned about." Weiss reassured Ruby before she stood up herself, and dusted down the Vigilante costume she had equipped herself with. "But as I said, it is important that we have this discussion."

"Well… Okay then, we'll talk when we're back home about… Whatever it is you want to talk about."


Twice more Ruby Teleported, and twice more the routine of her replenishing her energy was fulfilled, before they finally wound up on the outskirts of the docks. This late at night, it seemed almost like it had been abandoned for decades, not a single sound or any movement could be detected. Even Blake's enhanced Faunus senses couldn't find anything out of the ordinary occurring right now.

The prospect of this being some sort of wild goose chase wasn't one that any of them were particularly interested in. The past few days had been a tense guessing game whenever a Primal had walked into the room, looking at the out of the corner of their eyes. Watching out for any possible signs to indicate connections to the White Fang, though each turned out completely false.

As Ruby finished the water Weiss had made for her and stood up to join her team at looking over the edge of the building they were situated at, she found them scanning the entire port for something that might give away where their enemies might be hiding. From this point on, Ruby wouldn't use her Teleporting abilities to transport the group from various points. It would cause too much stress to her system and it would eat up too much time for her to replenish her energy.

One person along for the ride wasn't a big deal though, so the group elected Blake to go with Ruby to scout out the warehouses to see if they could find the one that the Primals must have been hiding in. With the natural night vision her Faunus heritage gave her, and how she also had senses far higher than that of an average human – Excluding those who had sense enhancement as powers – she would be the best suited individual for locating enemy combatants in darker conditions. She was the smartest choice to go scouting with Ruby, and it was universally agreed within the team that she should be the one to go.

As soon as they had set a time frame of perhaps ten or fifteen minutes of which to be back, Ruby and Blake disappeared in a puff of smoke and rose petals, leaving Yang and Weiss alone.

"Do you want some water?" Weiss offered, already using her powers yet again to freeze moisture in the air of which she would then melt. She almost felt like a glorified water cooler. She'd spent the last half an hour just generating water for the team, which came close to feeling like a waste of a Trait.

On the bright side, if they ever took a job in the Vacuan desert, they wouldn't struggle to get hold of water.

"I'm good." Yang responded, sitting down against a cube of concrete that, behind the door, resided a staircase of which most people would walk up and down in order to gain access to the roof. "I just need to sit down. Ruby's Teleporting always disorientates me after a while."

The Schnee girl just nodded, understanding that opinion, and agreeing with it also. Teleporting was a bizarre concept to Weiss, even though she'd seen Ruby do it a thousand times, and have been Teleported herself multiple times too. People who could Teleport naturally must have had some sort of immune resistance or something along those lines to the disorientation that being Teleported could make one feel.

How Ruby managed to do all those spins, jumps, strikes and achieve high speeds while Teleporting around like a lunatic was completely outside Weiss' grasp. How she didn't vomit on a regular basis was up to the science behind it. She must have some sort of immunity to the side effects, the Thermo Trait user was absolutely convinced of this.

Regardless of these facts, she also sat herself down on the spot, not against anything, just crossed legged while she used her powers to generate water. She was starting to regret not doing her hair up in a knot or pony tailing it or literally anything else. Part of it was the element of secrecy, since she'd seldom ever been seen without her hair done up neatly to the point where her teammates hadn't even recognised her at times, with her own reactions varying from amusement to downright hostility.

Regardless of this fact though, she was relaxed and rather quiet while she went about her work, finding the silence to be subtly comforting. Weiss wasn't the type to talk for the sake of talking, particularly not when a battle was imminent. She preferred to mentally prepare herself, as opposed to distracting herself from the incoming conflict.

"So, you and Ruby."

And there it was.

Weiss had known – Absolutely known for a fact – That Yang was going to bring this up again. It had been a case of just how long it was going to be before their brawler brought this topic up again.

Ever since the 'date' that Ruby and she had had, as the other two members of their team had put it, Yang had taken the opportunities she had gotten to prey into Weiss' thoughts and feelings – Every single chance she got. To her credit, she wasn't pushy in any particular way, nor was she intrusive or threatening, like one would expect from the blonde Explosive Impact Trait user.

The issue was simply that Weiss had no desire to talk about it, at least not with Yang or Blake. The issue was her lack of comfort about the topic with them. The two people who she and Ruby saw every single day were the last people Weiss wanted to know about what was going on in her head.

Letting out a very clearly irritated noise, Weiss glared towards Yang, trying to make it as clear as physically possible that she was in no mood for discussing this topic. "Can we not do this right now?"

"When're we gonna get another opportunity like this?"

"We'll get plenty as soon as we get back to Beacon."

"Yeah, but right now both Rubes and Blake are gone, so you've got the best chance to chat without one of them hearing you."

Another noise of exasperation left Weiss' throat. "Yang, can we please just not? I don't feel like having this discussion with you before we go and do something dangerous."

Were it not for their desire to remain hidden, Yang would have unleashed an explosion out of habit. Her fingers tenses up into claws, an action she only really took when she wanted to activate her Trait. Instead, a few small sparks flew off her fingers. She seemed to have a grin on her face.

Danger was what Yang practically thrived on. Weiss had forgotten, momentarily.

Relenting, Weiss just sighed, this time without any annoyance evident to her tone. It was clear Yang was just concerned about Ruby and her wellbeing. She was a lot like Winter in that regard, though perhaps not as cold.

It also seemed unlikely Yang would drop the discussion until she got an answer. She could be stubborn as hell when she desired to be. Relenting, Weiss answered. "Look, I don't know what I think, okay? I've told Ruby that I want to talk to her when we're done here. Could we please have this discussion after that?"

Yang's scepticism was well warranted at that point, and she raised an eyebrow along with it. "So you have no idea what you think about her, but you're going to talk to her about… What are you gonna talk to her about anyway?"

"Everything."

Before she could be questioned as to what on earth that meant, the two teammates found themselves suddenly surrounded by rose petals again, and from them emerged both Ruby and Blake once again, dropping back into the group quite literally, since Ruby had apparently caused them to reappear about a foot higher than the level of the building.

Both hit the rooftop at about the same time, and after a very brief rebalancing issue, Blake announced what they'd been waiting to hear.

"We've found them."


Storage warehouse D, three columns away from where Ruby had landed them at warehouse A. No wonder it hadn't taken too long, they'd barely had to even move to see the Primal group.

And a Primal group they certainly were. Their feats of physical strength were attest to that if nothing else.

Primals were different to Humans and the Faunus. Instead of possessed animal quirks like the Faunus did, the Primal species instead had large, intricate markings along the entire lengths of their arms, like tattoos, only natural. These markings were randomized depending on what powers the individual had, and every member there, bar maybe two, had those marking on their exposed, sleeveless arms – Another Primal unique trait. Their species held great pride in their markings, and for a primal to cover them up was a rare even indeed. So rare that if someone was indeed wearing long sleeves on their clothes, it was a fairly safe bet that they weren't a Primal.

The two that didn't have these markings were definitely Faunus. One had a large lizard like tail adorned with metallic scales, while the other one had what looked to be a set of gills in their neck.

Along with this, while Primals did possess powers known as Primalitys, they were estimated to be about only half as strong as the Traits both Humans and Faunus developed. However, in exchange, all Primals had superhuman levels of physical strength and ability. The worlds weakest Primal was easily stronger than the worlds strongest Human or Faunus, excluding Strength Enhancement Type Traits.

The White Fang masks also confirmed the fears that Blake had been carrying all this time and that was that the White Fang were recruiting not only Primals, but students as well. Her past with said organization had always been something that had influenced her, and such a revelation was bound to hurt in some way or another. Even if she was no longer affiliated with them.

That was why they were here though, to stop this from happening.

"So… We're sure they're not just really, really, really enthusiastic mask collectors?" Joked Yang while she moved into position with Weiss, ready to leap down to the ground and flank around the warehouse to get to the river.

"Remember the plan." Blake told her friends. "As soon as you freeze the river, everyone is going to head towards you. We'll pick off the ones we can once it's started."

"We know." Weiss confirmed, just as ready as Yang was to get to work with this plan.

"Be careful, guys." Ruby told her teammates before she placed her hand onto Blake's shoulder, and activated Teleportation once again, sending her and the cat Faunus into the warehouse location to begin their stealth mission.

"You ready?" Yang questioned, her teeth bare from her huge smirk. Weiss wondered if she'd seen Yang without a grin on her face for the entirety of the past week.

"Ready." Weiss confirmed, and at the same time, both the Heroes in Training / Vigilantes took one step forward, and allowed gravity to drag them down to the ground.

A two story drop wasn't a difficult thing to survive from, so both of them landed with absolute ease, before they made a quick dash to the nearest bit of cover, which was a selection of crates that directly adjourned the warehouse. Both of them doubles back to behind the building they had been standing atop of after realizing their options were far more limited than they had suspected from up top, and began to use the building as cover for as long as possible until they reached the edge of said building.

Between them ant the next bit of cover, which was another building which looked like it had seen better days, was about fifty meters of completely open terrain, flat and grey. Any colour that came into contact with that was going to stand out like a fire in Atlas, and have roughly the same results too. They'd be spotted almost instantly if they timed this poorly.

Yang decided to take the first lookout, while Weiss would make the first run to the next line of cover. They were waiting for about thirty seconds before Yang gave the signal to move, the Primals being distracted by something, whatever it was, that deviated their attention to the point that they were looking a complete one hundred eighty degrees away from the Vigilantes position Weiss made it across no problem, and Yang made it across too, in the same mad rush while the Primals were distracted. Had Ruby and Blake done that, or had that been a coincidence?

There wasn't time to dwell on it.

Both the brawler and the heiress made their way through the battered building, noting that it looked like it had just been hit by some sort of explosive device. Whatever had happened to it, it was still fantastic cover for them, as it kept them concealed until they reach a set of metal containers, which they were also able to navigate their way through with ease, and after that, they were outside their targets peripheral vision.

Though it seemed to only take a couple of minutes, they had in fact been sneaking around for a solid ten. By the time they managed to make their way to the river, it had been twenty. Yang and Weiss had never missed Ruby's teleporting abilities more than they had in that moment, disorientation be damned to hell.

"You think Ruby and Blake have had enough time to do what they need to do?" Yang asked, preparing herself by slamming her fists into one another, ready to start the fight that she knew was completely inevitable in the next minute or so.

"They better have." Weiss knelt down by the river. Submerging her hands into it, it was cold, and not exactly clean either. She swore she could feel moss on the banking, but she didn't allow this discomfort to stop her.

She looked towards Yang, who nodded.

And Weiss activated her power, stopping the particles from moving in the water and freezing the river in its tracks. It started very small, just around Weiss' hands to start with, a layer of ice freezing over her skin, but soon, it began to spread, caking the entire top layer of the water in an icy sheen within moments.

While this looked frozen, it certainly wasn't. The underneath of this thin layer of frozen water was just the tip – Any escape attempts by naval passage would easily manage to break this ice. This wouldn't even support a single person's weight. To freeze it down to the bottom, Weiss was going to need a lot more time to complete her goal.

Weiss worked as quickly as possible, trying to freeze the water as much as she could, when Team Freezerburn realized that Primals had spotted them, and had sent several of their goons towards them at speed already. That had been expected, but Weiss wasn't even close to being finished. They probably wanted to take both Yang and Weiss alive first, to see if they could get information from them.

Ruby and Blake hadn't shown up to tell them to cancel the operation either, so there wasn't any doubt.

These guys had to be White Fang, or someone just as bad.

For Yang, that was more than enough. "Keep up what you're doing, Weiss, I'll take care of these guys!"

The first Primal was charging towards the two of them while generating some sort of fire from his elbows giving him an incredible level of speed. Yang didn't even flinch for a moment, unleashing a huge detonation along her entire back, jumping her forward a good few meters to meet this opponent head on. The blonde girl dug her foot into the ground as she came to a sudden stop, and unleashed a series of explosions from her right elbow, propelling her first fist into the Primals stomach. Another series of explosions came from her elbow as she rocketed her fist in deeper. One explosion, two explosion, three explosion.

Finally, she unleashed a massive detonation from her fist which carried all the momentum that she had built up to that point and sent the initial Primal flying back across the route that he had gone down, sending him flying a solid fifteen meters backwards and five meters in the air.

Replacing the one that just got knocked back, two came into view, one already activating a power that allowed him to generate huge blades from underneath his skin, while the other one was preparing some kind of fireball that she would use to try to burn Yang into cinders. Yang unleashed another explosion, this time focused on her left leg, propelling herself towards the two at a high speed.

She managed to soar over one of the Primals, the male one in this case, grab him by the hair, and drag him off the ground by pure force and strength. She unleashed another explosion and threw the male into the ground below her, knocking him out in an instant. The female spun with impressive reflexes, ready to unleash an attack, to which Yang propelled herself again towards her target, and used a flurry or hand-to-hand punches and kicks to weaken her target, before she generated another explosion to finish off the target.

She was the team's main fighter for a reason – She was damn good at it. Weiss reminded herself to compliment ruby's older sister on her fighting once they were out of this mess.

Right now though, she had to focus on her own job.


Blake had screwed up. It wasn't the worst thing that she'd ever done, but it was enough of a screw up that she and Ruby weren't in the most ideal position in the world. It might be one of the more stupid mistakes she'd made. She was stealth orientated. She should have known better.

She'd known her mistake the very second that she made it.

Ten minutes of sneaking and being as stealthy as possible had earned them two titbits of information. The first being that the Primal's here did indeed have an airship, which they were able to disable with relative ease. All the Shadow Trait user had to do was cut the wires from the accelerator, and the job was done. Considering that the place was dimly lit, her Shadows had been able to move to cut the wires without any major difficulty whatsoever.

Ruby had complimented her on her work, and the two began their task of finding out any information that they could out of the targets. Listening for anything that would give them away as White Fang, excluding the masks, or the [plans that the White Fang had.

So far, they had identified two Primals by name, one with messy, curly red hair, who went by the name of Fliesch. He was the one whom Blake had been able to identify as having a second thumb on each of his hands. He seemed to be immensely apathetic and neutral in this whole affair, not really caring one way or the other about the goals of the White Fang, even showing signs of resentment towards the organisation he was now a part of. There wasn't a lot of logic there.

The other one seemed to be named Niiro, who sounded a lot more enthusiastic about the work that they were doing. He had black hair, with a large clump that covered his left eye, which was dyed a dark red colour, similar to the style of hair ruby had, only more centralised. Along his arms, dark scars and cuts along his wrists were evident, like he'd taken a knife to his own body. Despite the differences in philosophy between them about the work they were doing, they seemed to be on good terms, although he shared one particular opinion with Fleisch well.

He hated the Faunus. Both of them truly seemed to hate the Faunus with an absolute passion.

As a species, Primals were the only race that were treated even worse than the Faunus. Their animalistic origins gone, they were out-casted and hated as much as the Faunus were to Humans, and even more so by their own origin species themselves. They were the once race on the planet the Faunus were able to discriminate against.

And Blake wasn't proud to say that she knew her people had jumped at the opportunity. But this didn't make sense.

If they hated the Faunus, why were they working for the White Fang? They couldn't be planning something like betrayal, like a combing or something along those lines, the Faunus centric group had way too many members worldwide to make that even slightly manageable. They'd be hunted down faster than a Grimm in the middle of Atlas, so even trying that was stupid. Blake had managed to evade such a fate due to her enrolment at Beacon, a place very out of the reach of the Faunus cell.

Well, it had been, anyway.

Listening to their conversation was painful – Especially when they started talking about the students at Beacon.

"You know which one pisses me off?" Fleisch asked, his hand absent minded in his asking, messing with some pen that he was spinning between his fingers. With his second thumb, he was quite adept at doing so.

"I'm sure you'll tell me." Responded Niiro, stacking a box atop the pile he'd been working on for the past ten minutes, long before Ruby and Blake had Teleported inside.

"Those Team QRTZ and Team RWBY bastards."

Sending a glance at one another, Ruby and Blake kept listening, not entirely sure if they had been discovered or not. There wasn't any indication to suggest as much at that moment, so they didn't bail on the operation quite yet.

"Team QRTZ? What's wrong with those guys?" Niiro questioned as he tried to neatly arrange all the boxes so they stacked together atop one another exactly, so no corners were sticking out or one of the edges was leaning over the side of one of the boxes below. What was in those boxes was anyone's guess. "Aside from being so freakin' pleased with themselves."

"They're a Human, a Faunus, a Primal and an Abnormal all in one team. It annoys me."

"The fact that there's one of every sentient race on the planet in a team annoys you?"

"Damn right it does." Fleisch spat. "What, they just threw them all in one team to say 'No really, we're all equal here, look, here's our finest freaks of nature together to prove we're all buddy-buddy together.' Like that's gonna stop the Faunus from stomping down on us."

Shrugging, the other Primal stepped back to grab another box. "I guess so. They did promise equality between the humans and the Faunus after the war, lotta good that did 'em. Humans're a bunch of pricks, but you'd think the Faunus would understand our position a bit more."

"Hence why I hate that lot in Team RWBY."

"What, cause they're Human? I'm having a little trouble following your logic here, Fleisch."

"Oh yeah, the one that keeps a bow on top of their head, speaks up the Faunus to the Humans, can see in the dark, follows laser pointers and is afraid of dogs is definitely a Human."

"Wait, the one in black? She's a Faunus?"

"What kind of Primal even are you? Of course she's a freaking Faunus! Playing friendly with the Humans and goes on about how proud the Faunus should be and how they shouldn't have to hide, while hiding herself. She's a hypocrite and it pisses me off."

Niiro paused for a second, before he opened the box he was about to carry and rummaged around in the contents, all while seeming to mutter to himself. "What a shame. I woulda tapped that if she weren't."

What he pulled out was what caused Blake to take a slightly sharped inhale than she normally would do. Produced from the box, was a device known as a Nullifier. They were still in prototype stages, but Blake knew that the White Fang had been working on this sort of technology for a long time, and if the entirety of this warehouse was filled with Nullifiers, then it couldn't be good at all.

A Nullifier – A machine designed to completely nullify any and all superpowers within a fifty meter radius of its location. They didn't work yet… But these devices could help cause untold devastation. Heroes without their powers…

An entire superhero school without their powers…

As soon as Blake took that sharper breath, she realized the mistake she made.

"Tell you what, Niiro." Fleisch said, now standing upright, looking a bit peppier than he did not ten seconds along. "How's this sound for an idea - Tap whoever the hell this is."

Flinging his arm towards Blake and Ruby's location, Fleisch's arm suddenly disconnected from his body, instead turning into an orangey, gooey, gelatine glue like substance, speeding towards the two teammates like a bullet from a rifle. His entire arm had just left his body, instead now moving on its own, and attacking the two members of Team RWBY like a homing missile.

Ruby reacted first, quickly, she Teleported both her and Blake to the ground level, on the floor from the rafters in which they had concealed themselves. Both girls were on their hands and knees as they stopped, quickly picking themselves up as they reappeared on the ground floor, in front of Fleisch and Niiro.

"Well, look who the hell it is!" Fleisch suddenly began to grin like a maniac, his yellow eyes suddenly seeming to gleam as he laid eyes upon the two Heroes-In-Training like himself. "We were just talking about you!"

"We heard." Blake responded deadpanned.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun!" the Primal grinned. "You want to take the midget there, Niiro? The Faunus is mine."

"Done." The other Primal agreed, his hands suddenly clawed and rigid, almost in a manner similar to that of Yang's, only a bit looser around the finger regions.

It was Ruby who launched the first attack, recklessly charging in with Kinetic Speed. Without reference to what her opponents had as their Primality's, it was a very foolhardy move, but one that Ruby made completely regardless of that knowledge. Without making a move whatsoever, they were definitely going to be at a disadvantage, and if her sparring lessons with Yang and Weiss had taught her anything, it was that the person who attacked first had the advantage a lot of the time.

Not all of the time, but a lot of it.

With speed that threatened to pummel her chosen target into the next dimension, Ruby was by no means restricted to having to attack Niiro. For now, she'd has a slightly better glimpse at what Fleisch's Primality was – some sort of glue like deal – Which meant that her physical attacks weren't going to be useful against that sort of power, so Niiro was the logical choice anyway.

What she didn't account for was how quickly this Primal could move. Using his physical strength, Niiro ducked down with such speed that it was almost invisible to the naked eye. A second later, his hand slammed into Ruby's clothing.

And that was when Ruby began to bleed from the wounds this inflicted upon her.

"Araaaaahh!"

Everything was cutting into her – Her cloak, her cape, everything that wasn't directly hit by Niiro was suddenly sharp like knifes, slicing through her clothes and skin deeply. Frantically, she Teleported, leaving her cloak and cape behind her. Her wounds were deep, slicing through the jacket she wore, now soaked with her blood, she looked at the Primal she had collapsed behind, and not sure of what the hell had just happened to her.

"Ruby!" Blake attempted to run over, only to be blocked by a moving wobbling pile of jelly-like meat manipulated over to her by Fliesch, acting like some kind of warning sign to stay away.

"Looks like your clothes are a bit pointy for you." Niiro grinned, revealing a set of very sharp teeth. His hands were stilled clawed, though his fingers wriggled as he showed off his weapons, "You want to fight me naked? Can't promise that'll be enough though. People tend to get cut up with me."

Niiro Sarusaku – Primality – Sharp – Niiro has the ability to turn anything he touches, be it an object, clothing, or even a person's body, sharp, enough to cute atoms in two. He can apply this to anything. The only exception to this rule is himself, as he is not able to turn his own body sharp. With this exception, he is completely free to use his power as he sees fit. Overuse, however, will cause deep cuts to appear on his wrists and arms.

"What the hell – What's going on?!"

"The rivers freezing over!"

From the calls of the other Primals in the room, both the members of Team RWBY realized that their teammates must have begun their attack – Frankly, at this moment, it was perfect. Had they not launched their own assault, then the mission could have been a bust, given that the stealth element had been completely lost.

"Weiss must have started on her part of the plan!" Ruby said to Blake with a smile on her face, which Blake returned. They hadn't screwed up too badly then, but this still wasn't ideal.

"Okay, change of plans, I think." Said the Primal who now lacked his left arm to his colleague. "Niiro, you go help deal with the intruders back there, whoever they are. I'm gonna deal with these two myself."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Fleisch grinned. "I see two piles of meat in front of me that are practically begging me to consume them, and one of them's a Faunus – Yeah, I'm sure that I want this all to myself."

The Sharp Primality user nodded, and made a beeline right for the rest of his Primal and Faunus teammates, all rushing towards Team Freezerburn with the intention of stopping whatever was going on behind the warehouse.

"Ruby, you go to Weiss and Yang!" Blake yelled over, activating her Shadow Trait and producing a large number of tendrils, ready to take on the prejudicial Primal in front of her, matching him inch for inch in terms of not only height, but pure power display with their superpowers. Blake's Shadows were as large and as thick as Fleisch's jelly-like substance, and seemed to be equally as powerful, if judged by appearances alone.

"You sure?!"

"Yes, I'm certain!" It was Blake's fault that they were even in this mess. It felt only right to her that she took care of the problem that she started.

Without needing more persuasion, and apparently knowing that it would have been fairly pointless to even attempt to convince Blake otherwise, Ruby Teleported out of the area to try to help Team Freezerburn, leaving Blake to face the Primal alone.

"Why do you have those Nullifiers?" The Faunus girl questioned, producing another tendril from the darkness, and positioning it above her head, ready to make a downward strike when she felt like she had an opening. "Those were never developed past their prototype stages."

"You'd be surprised with what the Schnee Design Company will do if you offer them enough money. At least the workers, anyway. Give an elite enough cash, and they'll do anything you ask." Taunted the Primal, knowing fully well that the company he named had been responsible for lots of controversy regarding Blake's race. "If you want to know why we have them, let's play a game – If you survive getting swallowed, I'll tell you."

Fleisch then attacked.


In a short second, everything around then had changed almost instantly. Yang had been very easily beating down her attackers, of which three were Primals, and two were Faunus. Her Trait was immeasurably stronger than all of their combined, allowing her to generate explosion after explosion, the White Fang members or sympathisers, whatever they were, only continuing to fight out of sheer determination and stubbornness.

Weiss had managed to do the best job she would be able to do. The river was now frozen up to ten inches down, enough to not only freeze the laze solid, but enough to also freeze the engine on the naval boat to the point where it wouldn't even start. Her job was complete, and she'd done it perfectly.

The next step in her job was to help Yang, something that wouldn't be difficult to do once she had regulated her body temperature. Though she couldn't feel the cold on her body, she was able to see the ice that had formed on her skin. Her blood flow has slowed down, so she began to heat her body up as quickly as possible, trying to heat her body to the point where she would be healthy and able to move again.

In one second, that was completely gone.

Somehow - It had to have been some kind of knockout type power, Weiss felt every single bone in her entire body become as heavy as an anvil. It was instantaneous, from zero to one hundred in less than a second. Her bones increased in mass, or something such as that occurred, Weiss didn't know.

Her mind suddenly became a mess as she collapsed to the ground.

What had happened?

Somehow she was able to turn her head to look over to Yang, who had somehow managed to be taken down and wounded, a huge, bloody now going down the side of her left arm. For some reason, she wasn't using her Trait to keep fighting, which didn't make even the slightest bit of sense.

Were her powers out of energy? Was she out of energy?

Weiss didn't even get to question her own answers again before she suddenly felt herself being kicked in the side of the head by the Faunus she had spotted with a dragon tail earlier. Red eyes indicated a visual Quirk similar to Yang's, and the growling indicated hatred towards her specifically. "Fucking Schnee!"

Another kick landed on the side of Weiss' head. Her disguise hadn't done much to help her in this scenario. This Faunus probably had a particular vendetta against the Schnee family for whatever reason. Perhaps her father's work had affected this person directly. It was weird. Weiss didn't feel much pain from each kick to the face, but she knew that there should be pain there. She could feel the blood dripping down the side of her face.

She almost felt relaxed. Was this a side effect of the power she had been affected by?

As the seventh kick came barrelling in, Weiss saw rose petals appear behind her attacker, who suddenly went flying across the ground like he'd just been smacked by a tornado.

"Weiss!"

Ruby's voice

"Weiss, are you okay?!" The younger girl knelt down by her partner to inspect the damage those kicks had done to her. Except for the cuts and bruises that had been built up on, Weiss didn't seem to be that badly injured.

It was as Ruby pulled Weiss up to try and put her head on her lap that she noticed that Yang was now back in action, but wasn't using her left arm whatsoever. Perhaps she had just been badly injured and caught off guard, of had been under the effects of the same power that she had been under. Yang was attacking now with an absolute fury now, battering down each and every opponent that she saw with some of the largest and most concentrated explosions Weiss had ever seen her generate.

"I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt." She responded honestly, her brain still a complete mess right now.

"That's – That's normally a good sign, right? I still think you need a band-aid or something though."

"I don't think that's going to cover up the wounds, Ruby."

"Probably not." The Team leader chucked nervously. She was able to tell that her partner wasn't in any mortal danger. The kicks weren't even close to being that serious, but when the Schnee regained her sense of pain, she was not going to be happy about it.

Before Ruby could move Weiss to a safer area though, the wall of the building she had been inside of not thirty seconds ago obliterated as the same jelly-like substance smashed its way through solid concrete and brick, making way for the Primal Fleisch to make his exit, with the same grin on his face as he left.

Blake was nowhere to be seen.

The only thing that Ruby could do was swallow down her worries about her teammate and focus on moving Weiss. She didn't want to Teleport her away because she knew that it could cause sickness, and the last thing Weiss needed right now was to be sick as well as bleeding from the side of the face.

Yang didn't even know what had happened in the warehouse, but she had charged right in to attack this new enemy, using her explosions to propel herself forward at speeds she was convinced that her enemy wouldn't be able to follow her movements.

She was right, but it also was a mistake.

The current of what was Fleisch's Primality suddenly moved in front of him – Revealing Blake as being trapped within the substance. He revealed only her face, and nothing else. Her mouth was covered, completely silencing the Faunus girl who was clearly trying to scream at Yang something or other

Yang stopped using her Trait, and cancelled her attack when she saw Blake's face.

It resulted in her being slammed into the gut by the substance.

Fleisch Cartilage – Primality – Meat Grinder – Fleisch's Primality allows him to turn his own flesh, and the flesh of any meat-based substance he touches, be it alive or dead, into a jelly-like substance which he can manipulate. He can make this substance either hard as rocks, sticky, or incredibly soft, and he can add to this substance by engulfing other flesh-based objects or people within it. This also extends to entire people. The more flesh that he can control, the more powerful his abilities become, but the harder it is to control. A downside to this power is that while he uses his own flesh as a weapon, it tears itself off from his body, and has to be reattached at a later point. This does not hurt him, however, and can easily be redone. When his power deactivated, the people and objects he has manipulated return to their original forms.

It became all too apparent that Blake had been captured and engulfed within the Primal's Meat Grinder ability, and he had used her connections to her team against Yang, whom he had predicted would not go through her to attack him. He'd then used the opportunity to unleash a devastating blow onto Yang, knocking her back towards Ruby and Weiss' location, skidding to a halt just before colliding with them.

Ruby looked at Weiss, Yang, and then to Blake, who she could see was fighting like holy hell against the trap that she was in. How he had managed to out-speed her, Ruby had no idea. Somehow he had done it though, and he was relishing in the fact that he had.

"I can freeze him." Weiss suggested, though her bones still felt heavy like metal. "If I freeze him, he might have to let Blake go."

Right now, a full on attack was completely impossible, and everyone knew it. As long as Blake was being used as a meat shield, there wasn't anything that they could do.

At least, they didn't think that they could do. For one member of the team, something suddenly clicked.

Her friends battered and broken all around her…

Blake, being used as a shield…

Yang, battered like she'd never seen her sister before.

Weiss…

"Don't bother." Ruby suddenly said, standing up onto her feet upright. "I'll deal with him."

"Ruby, what are you – "Yang was the first one to respond, but she quickly became silent when she saw Ruby's eyes. When Weiss was able to see them too, any thoughts she had of protesting against Ruby's plan completely disintegrated into thin air.

Her eyes were on fire. They were literally small balls of white flame, bellowing and dancing in her eye sockets.

Ruby screamed, and the fire bellowed.


Sorry this is a day late, and is itself fairly late at the time of publishing this, but I had a lot of stuff I wanted to cover in this chapter. Now, I wonder what you guys shall be thinking of this here chapter. Lots of development in the story occurred, so next chapter we'll be getting a lot of character development as well.

There are links to the canon now, but I have an explanation for this in the AU itself that I think you guys will like. I wonder if any of you can guess. The information for the answer is all technically in the story – Let's see how many of you are observant enough to find it ^_^

And for those of you who know my hatred of Blake – Honestly, this is an occurrence where she's just a meat shield because it made SENSE in the planning stage. I pretty much just flipped a coin and Blake got the losing side, so yeah, my hatred of her has nothing to do with her being almost worthless this chapter. There are story explanations for her surprise, of which you will find out later.

Since Villain OC's are kind of a requirement for this sort of thing, there's only really three that I plan on keeping around. I'll go over their names here.

Fleisch Cartilage – Fleisch is German for the word flesh, or meat, which makes one think of an orange or red sort of colour, which is why he falls into the RWBY colour guide. Cartilage is a bone tissue, which relates to his powers, and is also a yellowy type colour.

Niiro Sarusaku – Niiro is the Japanese word for Red. It comes from his eyes and hair dye. His Power Sharp is one of my favourites.

At any rate, they won't be showing up constantly. Maybe once or twice more, depends how I feel. Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed this story, and I'll see you next time in whatever it is I write next. See ya guys ^_^