All for One, One for All

Part 2: Heroes United

Chapter 9: Fast as Fire


(Jaune POV)

The fact that Bryen was flirting with Weiss in my room was pretty blush-worthy, but seeing him in the first place was very surprising. I was glad that he was here.

"Say," Nora said out of nowhere, surprising everyone minus Ren and Bryen. "We forgot about Pyrrha's present."

The next thing I knew, she'd shoved the small box in my hands. Ren pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head as everyone wondered how Nora stayed hidden so well.

"Okay Nora," I squeaked, sounding like a pig with anger issues. I took care not to tear the paper, as it was folded in such a way that it wouldn't require tape. Inside the wrapping and the box was… I started to choke up when I saw it.

"What is it brother," Bryen asked, concerned for me. I pulled out the gift and looked at it for a while. It was a necklace, skinny chain with small links, whose main ornament was unbelievable: it was a triple-pendant necklace, with Luther's Rose in the middle, the Arc Family sigil to the left, and a side view of a lion head to the right. Luther's Rose was rose gold for the petals, white gold for the cross, and normal gold for everything else. The Arc sigil was the bright yellow brass on both arches, beveled and rounded with care. The lion head looked like it was made of silver with thin gold detail marks on the eyes and mane, giving it the appearance of white gold. Luther's Rose was the largest pendant of the three with a 1.5" diameter, followed by the Lion at 1" mane to snout, and finally the Arc sigil at a half-inch largest arch.

"Wow," I muttered softly. I couldn't believe it. This necklace was so beautiful. I immediately began to wonder if the Spartan made it herself. "Pyrrha, did… did you make this yourself?"

The Invincible Girl blushed and looked away for a moment, then nodded after a few moments of silence.

"Do you like it," she asked me. I unhooked the back of the chain, wrapped it around my neck, and clasped the ends together. I nodded, smiling the whole time.

"Thanks guys," I said, grinning bigger than I had in a rather long while. "This has been a pretty good birthday so far. Now let's get something to eat. Or did you already?"

A loud crunch from Ventus eating a bag of chips answered his question temporarily. Nora's stomach growled loudly while Weiss facepalmed, leaving a red mark where her hand hit her forehead.

"These morons decided to wait until you woke up and opened all these gifts," Weiss griped. "I on the other hand already went down and ate something."

"I didn't really need to," Bryen mumbled a response. "Besides, I had an excuse—I've been in that box for about ten hours now."

"Oh really," Weiss challenged. "And here I thought you shipped yourself here."

"Technically I did," he answered. "I got on the airship and snuck into you guy's room, got in that cardboard box, and just waited."

"And did you eat anything prior?"

"Didn't need or want to. The guys just bought a bunch of burgers and I decided to help 'em out and be nice."

"Which 'guys' are you talking about?"

"My pals at the police station."

"Humph. If only you actually worked with the police."

"You're right, I don't work for them, nor do I work with them. I just happen to do what they do exactly when they do, and they just so decide to pay me for the work."

"Do you really still have that much attitude? You really haven't changed at all."

"And you haven't lost any of that snarkiness, I see."

"Wait, what's going on," Ventus muttered aloud. Blake, the know-it-all of the group, shrugged as if she had no clue. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what was going on, and Weiss was going to kill me for speaking.

"The Armstrong Machinery, Steel, and Electronics Corps and the Schnee Dust Company are both popular for helping Atlas build their robots," I explained while the two heirs bickered. "Bryen is the sole inheritor of AMSEC, just like Weiss is heiress to the SDC. Turns out, Wilhelm Schnee and Aiden Armstrong wanted an alliance so they tried to get the two to erm…. 'hook up', for lack of a better term. At first they forced Bryen to flirt with her so much that she couldn't take it. And he didn't even want to; he really just wanted to be her friend or ally. Now that he's back, I guess she still thinks that he doesn't really care for her."

"It's not that I think he doesn't care for me," Weiss called me out. "It's simply because he only flirts with me because he was forced to. It's probably just some grand scheme to absorb my family business."

Bryen looked down at this, his orange eyes turning a dark red like a dying ember. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and let out a heavy sigh.

"Just because they wanted it doesn't mean I did," my old friend almost whispered. Weiss scoffed at his saying this, obviously not believing him. She was about to continue before part of Team SVTN intervened.

"Can we stop arguing for, like, two seconds here," Thor shouted with a heavy Scottish accent. "The birthday boy's got to eat, you know. So let's go and grab something to eat already."

The tall dwarf proceeded to grab me by the arm and pull me towards the cafeteria, followed shortly by Nadiya dragging Pyrrha by the wrist in hot pursuit. Soon, everyone in my team's dorm was following me, dragged humorously by a top-heavy adult with a cartoonish large hammer strapped to his back. I didn't even get a chance to grab Ancora and Veritatis, though luckily Ventus was able to grab it in a whirlwind before leaving the dorm.


(Ventus, 1st person)

Jaune's birthday thus far was relatively uneventful outside of all the insanity. Yang going crazy scared me into my Pure Light side, which is on the verge of impossible for me at the current moment in time. Ruby raced out the window, through which I literally flew and waited at the base of the tree with Ruby until Yang's pseudo-rage calmed down. After all, I'm not ready to die just yet.

Now that Jaune's going to the cafeteria, I decided to rush out the window with his new shield and spear, following Ruby to our destination. Like lightning, we raced to the mess hall and—.

I felt it hard to hold back an 'oof' when I tripped over this one guy's boot… wait, I don't remember seeing him there while I was running. At least I spared Jaune's toys and sent them to him via cyclone. I looked up from the ground to see this guy in some cultural outfit offering Ruby a rose, flames licking the ground behind him. How'd he manage that? Wait a sec…

"Una hermosa rosa para una mujer hermosa," said the young man as he tipped up his sombrero, revealing a cocky grin and fire-red eyes. Ruby was flattered, to which I just rolled my eyes. "May I have your name, Señorita?"

"Hold the phone, buddy," I shouted, stepping between him and Ruby. "I saw you disappear while I was running. Of course, that could just be me running near the sound barrier, but I barely saw you before I tripped. And here you are, holding a rose after leaving a trail of fire behind you. That makes me a bit suspicious… what's your name?"

"I believe you already know me, Señor Zephyro," said the boy. I raised an eyebrow in confusion, still not recognizing him. He then ran literal circles around me at well over Mach 2, leaving a trail of fire in his wake. Even though I now recognized him, I could hardly breathe from the flames. In response, I summoned a whirlwind around myself just in time to see him sweeping Ruby off her feet in almost every sense.

"Yo, Speedy," I called out to my rival. "I hope you realize that messing with her will make her sister wanna kill you. You know that, right?"

"And no matter how hard she tries, she will never catch me," said Speedy. He turned to Ruby. "I shall see you again, mi rosa."

He disappeared with a slang of Spanish words and a burst of fire on his tail. Ruby managed to shake herself out of it before staring at me in total confusion.

"Do you know this guy," she asked me, obviously head-over-heels for the Spanish Speedster. I nodded, glaring at the trail of fire.

"Sadly, yes I do." She gave me a perplexed look. "He's a notorious speedster, Robin Hood in a sombrero if you ask me. Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, but faster than the human eye can track. Scary part is that he's as human as you and I. They call him the Spanish Speedster of Atlas, but his real name is Speedy Gonzales."

"How do you know this much about him," she asked me. I shrugged before huffing in defeat when she gave me that curious look once more.

"Back when I was still racing under Ben, we ran into Speedy. Ben saw how fast he was and challenged him to a foot race around Vale. Speedy agreed and it was over in a half-second: Ben was a quarter of the way around the city when Speedy looped around it the second time. And you know how fast Ben is, right?"

Ruby nodded, totally in awe with Gonzales's speed.

"What's worse, he robbed us both blind so fast that even Ben had a hard time seeing him. I had no idea who it was at the time, only knew that there was a burning hole where my wallet should've been in my pocket.

"All I'm saying is be careful around him," I finalized. "Speedy may be soft for the ladies, but his dominant loyalties lie in himself and his people. Do not underestimate him."

That evening, we were having a picnic in a nearby park in Beacon when things went downhill fast. I was near JNPR's towel, eating a pack of Doritos, when time slowed down for me. I was able to see Speedy blaze through, steal Jaune's cake, and some necklace Jaune got from Pyrrha; he tried to grab my Doritos before I tossed them in the air and grabbed them all in one slow motion jump. All JNPR saw was a blue blur fly up into the air and a rush of hot air as Speedy passed by.

"Ventus," Nora shouted at me. "Did you eat Jaune's cake?"

"Dammit all, Gonzales," was all I said, clenching my fists to keep calm. A dark blue fog surrounded me as my anger began to get the better of me. I zipped home at the speed of sound and grabbed the backup basket I packed just in case Speedy did what he just did.

"Glad I brought extras," I said as playfully as I could when I reached JNPR's towel. I looked over to see that everyone but RWBY's towel was robbed as well. This guy was getting on my nerves and fast.


(The next day)

I had just grabbed my breakfast and was about to sit down when Speedy rushed past me, almost burning my feet when I stepped on the flames. I was immune to fire anyways, so I had no problems with him doing that—it's what he did last night that I had a bone to pick with him on. I stomped over to him, where he was flirting with Ruby and running circles around Yang. He tried running past me again, only to receive a fist to the face at well past the speed of sound as I changed from silver to blue. That should've broken his nose, but he only stumbled back a few feet. Almost everyone present, even Cardin, stared in awe at what just happened; not even Ben was able to land a hit on him, yet I just did.

"You're here because of me, aren't you Speedy," I demanded. Still surprised that I actually hit him, he nodded with a grin.

"It seems I have a new challenger," he called out to the crowds. Several people gasped in fear, as he was known to leave those he beat laying in pain in some ditch with Grimm surrounding them—exactly what happened to Ben a few years ago. I shot him a glare with green eyes.

"If it's a race you want, it's a marathon you'll get," I growled. I proceeded to shout to those in the cafeteria: "I hereby challenge Speedy Gonzales to a race around Vale and Beacon. Twice. Mach 1 is the minimum speed limit." Everyone stared at me in shock and horror. Not only did I challenge Speedy to a race, I called him out to a marathon. One which even I wasn't certain I could win.

"If I win, you'll wish you never challenged me," Speedy grinned devilishly. I gave him a daring glare in return.

"Winner is officially the Fastest Thing Alive," I pushed the limits. "You accept this challenge?"

"I accept. 5 this evening. Get ready to lose, Señor Zephyro."

(5 that evening, Vale)

"You sure you want to race this guy," Jaune asked me. "I mean, he beat your mentor-friend-guy, so he could easily beat you. Can't he?" I smirked and gave him a thumbs up.

"He hasn't seen real speed yet," I said, cocky as ever. "In fact, this time I might actually push my limits. Wish me luck."

I got in a running position as Speedy did the same. He tipped his sombrero to me in a sign of 'good luck'. I simply wiped my upper lip in a dismissive way, cocky grin ever-present.

"May the faster of us win with dignity," he said, reminding me of his race with Ben only a couple of years ago. I glared at him, then looked ahead at my path.

"Ready," Yang called out, holding her hands in the air. Both of us went to a serious mindset as we lined up at the starting/finish line.

"Set," Ember Celica wrapped around Yang's arms. I closed my eyes and prepared my body for the fastest run I've ever done while trying to push aside my fears.

She fired off a round from each gauntlet, then tried to get out of the way as a cloud of dust covered the start/finish line. The race was over in a second, with the winner standing over his challenger with pride.

End

A/N: I feel like I kind of rushed that. I have a plan for that, but for now I'll just go with the excuse that Ventus's mind works as fast as he is capable of running and his legs just have to catch up. I feel that's how 'baby Sonic' would've felt. Anyways, do you like the image for this fic? Tell me in a review.

SHN (Super Huge News): I have officially posted my first eBook/novella to Amazon Kindle, though technically I posted it back in July. It's called 'The Casebook of C.I. Oakwood', as cheap as they get (meaning 99 cents as I couldn't find a 'free' option. Sorry, I tried). Go check it out, it's pretty good for a first proper novel/la.

Anyways, I've got to go and post up on some other fics. And go look at my YouTube Channel on 9/11, I'll be posting a Tribute Speedpaint there right on the date. The time will vary depending on when I get around to it, but I feel oddly proud of it. Be sure to mark it down on your calendar. Channel Name: Joshua Clark (Face-First Gaming). Texas out.