Here it is, the RWBY Volume One Finale chapter.
First, Better strap in, 'cause this is gonna be a long one. Twice the size of most of my other chapters for a matter of fact. I wanted to make sure that this chapter pleases you all. I had wanted the first part of this story to go out with a bang!
Also, I'm updating this a day early for two reasons. The first is that I have a busy day tomorrow and wanted to post this on time. The second is because I will be taking a hiatus from this story for a little bit for personal reasons, so I at least wanted to give you all a complete RWBY volume one before I disappeared. This will give me time to take of my personal business, as well as work on future chapters.
As I've said before this chapter was ready, I have a whole explanation for how the omniverse presented in this story is laid out on my profile, which I update whenever new answers come to mind. Check it out if you'd like.
Now, let's send Volume One out with a bang! On to the disclaimer!
Disclaimer: The following is a crossover between Man of Action Studio's "Ben 10" franchise and Rooster Teeth's "RWBY" series. All characters and settings belong to their respective owners. The plot is simply a retelling of the original "RWBY" storyline if the cast had help from another dimension.
Chapter 10: Faunus on the Run
It was a beautiful day in Vale. The entire kingdom was preparing for the Vytal Festival, which Vale had the honor of hosting this year. The streets were lined with lights and banners were hung over every road. It honestly reminded Ben an awful lot like Christmas. While he didn't know much about the Vytal Festival, Ben wouldn't be surprised if it was as big of a thing in Remnant as Christmas was at home.
Ben was walking through the streets of Vale with a couple of grocery bags in his hands. He had come into the city to pick up a few things, mainly ingredients for smoothies and chili fries. He especially needed more ingredients for smoothies since he was experimenting with different flavors and the last few came out a bit sour to say the least. He was heading back to his parked Tenn-Speed a little bit of a ways from the store, since there was no available parking near his destination with everyone on the streets decorating.
As he continued to walk down the streets, Ben noticed something out of place in the corners of his eye. At the end of an adjacent street was a shop with its windows busted open and surrounded by police tape. He walked up to the store to get a closer look, but stopped when he heard a familiar voice behind him.
"Ben?" the voice asked.
Ben turned around to find Ruby calling out to him with the rest of Team RWBY not to far behind.
"What are you doing here?" Ruby asked.
"Just came into town to pick up some ingredients when I saw this crime scene," Ben said, "What about you girls?"
"Weiss's idea," Blake responded, "She wanted to spy on the students coming in from Vacuo for the Vytal Festival Tournament."
"You still can't prove that," Weiss defended.
"What happened here?" Ruby asked one of the officers.
"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle," the officer answered before he walked over to his partner.
"That's terrible," Yang sighed sadly.
"They left all the money again," the second officer said to his partner.
"Huh?" Ruby let out as she overheard.
"Sound familiar?" Ben asked her.
"Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense," the first officer puzzled, "Who needs that much Dust?"
"I don't know, an army?" the second officer guessed.
"You thinking the White Fang?" the first officer questioned.
"Yeah," the second officer agreed, "I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."
"Hmph! The White Fang," Weiss said with disgust, crossing her arms, "What an awful bunch of degenerates!"
"That's a bit harsh, even for you," Ben said offhandedly.
"What's your problem?" Blake asked defensively.
"My problem?" Weiss asked back as she turned to face Blake, "I simply don't care for the criminally insane."
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths," Blake defended as she crossed her arms, "They're a collection of misguided Faunus."
"Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!" Weiss responded angrily.
"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!" Blake continued, trying as hard as she could to get the blame off the Faunus group.
"Hmm... Blake's got a point," Ruby thought out loud, "Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy Ben and I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him."
"I was thinking the same thing," Ben added, "Maybe he's targeting all these Dust shops for some bigger scheme."
"That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum," Weiss said, standing her ground, "Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."
"You forgot survive," Ben joked, hoping to lighten the mood, "They wouldn't be around if they couldn't survive."
"That's not necessarily true..." Yang tried to counter, ignoring Ben's joke.
"Hey, stop that Faunus!" a voice from the docks screamed, as if to prove Yang wrong.
The group ran over to the docks to investigate the cry for help. After running the block to the docks, they saw a Faunus boy who looked about seventeen years old with golden hair, a monkey tail of the same color, and blue eyes. He wore blue cargo pants and an open white jacket with no shirt. The Faunus ran across the edge of a boat before jumping off of the vehicle and on to the docks, just before two sailors could catch him.
"Thanks for the ride, guys! Haha!" he shouted as he jumped off.
"You no-good stowaway!" one of the sailor yelled.
"Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught!" the Faunus argued as he hung from a lamppost by his tail and peeled a banana, "I'm a great stowaway!"
Before he has a chance to take a bit of the banana, one of the officers from earlier threw a rock at him to get his attention.
"Hey! Get down from there this instant!" the officer ordered.
However, the Faunus just threw the banana peel at the officer's head, causing the law enforcer to growl. With a laugh, the part monkey boy flipped into an upright, crouching position on the lamppost before running away from the cops. As he ran by the group from Beacon, he gave a quick wink to Blake, leaving her stunned as he continued to run.
"Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes..." Yang commented.
"Quick, we have to observe him!" Weiss yelled, holding a finger up.
The group began to give chase, though Blake stayed still for a little bit, still stunned by what had just happened. After regaining a sense of her surroundings, she quickly followed her friends after the monkey Faunus. As they ran, Ben handed his bags to Ruby while he began to dial in an alien to help in the chase.
"Hold these for me, will you?" Ben asked as he handed Ruby his things, "Let's see what monkey boy thinks of Spidermonkey!"
Slamming down on the Omnitrix, Ben transformed into another of his many alien forms. However, while he selected the blue Arachnichimp, a species with which resembled an Earth monkey with four arms and spider-like traits like six eyes and the ability to spin webs, he transformed into an entirely different species.
The species he transformed into resembled a humanoid cross between a grasshopper and a praying mantis. It had three jointed legs and a head with a large, segmented horn on top and two smaller horns on the side. Its entire body was covered in an incredibly durable, green exoskeleton. It wore a green and black body suit with the Omnitrix on the waist.
"Crashhopper?" Ben yelled in surprise at the form he received.
"Why do you bother yelling them out anymore?" Ruby asked.
"I ask myself that all the time," Ben lamented.
Making the best of the form he got he used Crashhopper's incredibly strong legs to jump high into the air to follow the Faunus, creating a cricket sound as he jumped. Landing on one of the rooftops, Ben noticed that Team RWBY had fallen behind due to crashing into someone. While the monkey Faunus had escaped them, he had yet to get away from Ben. Taking another jump, Ben landed right in front of the Faunus, cutting off his rooftop escape.
"Whoa!" the Faunus said in surprise, "Who or what are you?"
"The name's Crashhopper," Ben responded, careful to not reveal himself to anyone outside of Beacon, "and I'm the guy who's gonna take you down!"
Bending down, Ben jumped forward, intending to crash into the Faunus head on, literally. However, just before Ben made impact, the monkey boy jumped over him to dodge. He them used Ben's head as a springboard, jumping away to the next rooftop and driving Ben's head into the roof of the building they were standing on, leaving him stuck. Once he landed on the next rooftop, the Faunus boy turned around and laughed at the shape shifter.
"Well, you sure know how to crash, Crashhopper!" the Faunus quipped before making his escape.
"Aw, man!" Ben said as pulled his head out of the roof and transformed back to human.
Looking around, Ben realized that everyone was gone. The Faunus had escaped and Team RWBY was no longer in the general area. Figuring that they probably went back to the school, Ben decided to head back himself. He only hoped that Ruby still had his groceries. He really didn't want to have to go back to the store to get his ingredients after just returning to the school.
After finding his bike, Ben made the short trip back to Beacon. Once at the school, he made his way to the dorms, his hopes still set on Team RWBY still having his groceries. When Ben reached Team RWBY's dorm, he reached to knock, only for the door the suddenly fly open with Blake running out at an incredible pace.
"Blake, wait! Come back!" Ruby yelled as she tried to catch her runaway friend, barely noticing Ben now standing in the doorway.
Ben looked around the room to see Weiss looked down at the ground and Yang sitting in a chair with a stunned look on her face. All Ben could do in this situation was ask the obvious question.
"I was going to ask if you still had my groceries, but now I have another question," Ben said, "Did something happen?"
After being missing for the entire weekend, Team RWBY decided to look for Blake, since she seemed to not be coming back. Ben had also offered his help, since Blake was his friend too. The four teens were driving through Vale in the DX Mark 10. Ben was driving, Ruby was in the passenger seat, and Weiss and Yang were in the back. The streets were fairly empty, leaving the group to search openly from through the car windows.
"She's been gone all weekend..." Ruby said in worry.
"Blake's a big girl, I'm sure she can handle herself!" Weiss commented.
"Weiss, come on. She's one of our teammates," Yang said, trying to get Weiss to be a bit less cold.
"Is she?" Weiss asked skeptically, "We all heard what she said!"
"Actually, I wasn't there for that," Ben said from driver's seat.
"Weiss," Ruby whined, not appreciating her attitude.
"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Either way, she's missing, and we need to find her!" Yang yelled.
"A member of the White Fang! Right underneath our noses!" Weiss said outraged.
"I just hope she's okay..." Ruby whispered.
"Can you guys keep it down and stay focused?" Ben asked annoyed, "I'm trying to drive here."
After a little while, the group decided to stop the car in an attempt to call out to their missing teammate. That, and Ben couldn't drive properly with Ruby and Yang yelling out of the windows of his car. Ben could be reckless at times, but he knew better than to drive while distracted.
"Blaaaake!" Ben yelled.
"Blaaaake!" Yang called out.
"Blaaaaaaaake! Where aaaare yoooouuuu!?" Ruby screamed.
"Blake!" Yang yelled again.
"Weiiiiss, you're not helping!" Ruby whined as she turned to the Ice Queen
"Oh! You know what might be able to help? The police!" Weiss replied.
"Um, hello? Plumber/superhero?" Ben joked at an admittedly bad time as he pointed at the Omnitrix.
"Ugh, Weiss..." Ruby said as she crossed her arms, irritated.
"It was just an idea!" Weiss defended.
"Yeah, a bad one," Ruby countered.
"Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions," Yang said, trying once again to play peace keeper.
"You know what they say, 'Innocent until proven guilty,'" Ben agreed.
"I think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right!" Weiss argued.
"And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today!" a girl with red hair said from behind Weiss.
"Aaaah! Penny!" Ruby yelled in surprise," Where did you come from!?"
"Wait, isn't this the person you guys crashed into when we were chasing that monkey Faunus?" Ben asked in confusion.
"Salutations, my name is Penny," Penny said saluting, "Are you a friend of Ruby's?"
"Uh, yeah," Ben answered with a little uncertainty, "I'm Ben, Ben Tennyson."
"So guys, what are you up to?" Penny asked.
"Uhh..." Ruby said, unsure about how to answer.
"We're looking for our friend Blake," Yang answered for her.
"Ooooh, you mean the Faunus girl!" Penny confirmed.
"Wait, how did you know that?" Ruby asked as everyone stared at the girl.
"Uhh, the cat ears?" Penny replied, pointing to her head.
"What cat ears?" Yang said with a small laugh, "She wears a... boooohhh..."
The group fell silent for a second at the sudden, though admittedly obvious, revelation. They remained silent long enough for the wind to blow a tumbleweed past them.
"She does like tuna a lot…" Ruby whispered.
"Is no one else going to question what a tumbleweed is doing in the middle of a city, miles from any desert?" Ben asked, a bit distracted by the plant that should not be present.
"So, where is she?" Penny questioned, getting back on topic.
"We don't know," Ruby said sadly, "She's been missing since Friday."
"That's terrible!" Penny gasped as she grabbed Ruby's shoulders, "Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate!"
"Uh, that's really nice of you, Penny, but we're okay! Really! Right, guys?" Ruby said, forcing a smile as she looked to her friends.
However, Weiss, Yang, and Ben were nowhere to be seen. The absence of the DX Mark 10 only further proved that her friends had abandoned her with Penny. Ruby fell silent as another gust of wind blew the tumbleweed from earlier back in the opposite direction, passing the two girls once again.
"It sure is windy today!" Penny commented.
Elsewhere in the city, Weiss, Yang and Ben were continuing their search for Blake. Ben was currently leaning on his car in front of a shop. The door of the shop opened, revealing Weiss and Yang walking out, with Yang waving inside.
"Thanks anyways!" Yang said as she waved.
"Nothing?" Ben asked.
"No," Yang replied with a sigh, "This is hopeless."
Yang then noticed Weiss just looking around without a care in the world. Her actions indicated only one explanation in Yang's mind.
"You really don't care if we find her, do you?" Yang accused.
"Don't be stupid; of course I do. I'm just afraid of what she'll say when we find her," Weiss said over her shoulder, "The innocent never run, Yang!"
"Maybe," Ben cut in, "but the scared do. Maybe Blake is just scared of what you all would think of her."
"What do you mean?" Yang asked curious.
"You guys pay attention in class. The Faunus are segregated and treated poorly. She wears that bow to hide," Ben explained, "My best friend, Kevin, was in a similar situation for a good part of his childhood. When I first met Kevin when we were kids, he was a runaway who did a lot of bad stuff. He had these crazy powers that he couldn't control at the time and was called a freak by a lot of people. That drove him to a lot of deep ends.
"We were the worst of enemies. I had the Omnitrix, he turned into an amalgam of my ten original aliens and went insane. Every time we met we were at each other's necks. Heck, after I set him into a pocket dimension prison called the Null Void, he ended up the leader of a Ben 10 hit squad. Out of everyone I've ever faced, he was one of the worst.
"But he got better. After returning to a human form, escaping the Null Void, and four years of not seeing my face, I ran into him again. We started with our usual beat-each-other-up routine, but he ended up joining me and my cousin Gwen on a mission when the guys we were tracking cheated him out of some money. Since then, he has only gotten better. He's like a brother to me and has a stable romantic relationship with Gwen now. He's even a loving pet owner. Not to mention he built my car as a birthday present."
"What are you getting at?" Weiss asked, turning around.
"I'm saying that Blake and Kevin are in the same boat," Ben claimed, "When we find her, we have to let her explain her situation. We can't just walk up to her and accuse her of being a criminal, even if she might have been before. The innocent don't run, but the guilty can atone."
The two girls looked at the ground for a moment, contemplating Ben's words. Maybe he was right. He had dealt with the situation before, and he was definitely more experienced than they were. The two didn't ponder for long though, since Ben expectantly threw his keys at Yang, who quickly caught them.
"You two can borrow my car for a bit. Yang has a bike so she should be able to handle my car. Just try not to wreck it," Ben said as he dialed in an alien on the Omnitrix, "I'm going to look for Blake from the air. We'll be able to cover more ground like this."
Having said everything he needed to say, Ben activated the Omnitrix and transformed into Jetray. It has been a while since Ben had become Jetray, so he sported a slightly different look. While the body itself was still the same, the form now wore a skintight, black suit with a green triangle on the chest that split at his neck into two green strips that ran over his shoulders and along his back, and a hole in the back for his tail to pop out of. On his waist was a green belt where the Omnitrix was.
Now capable of flight, Ben took off into the air at near supersonic speeds. The two girls continued to stand in place, wondering as they watched Ben fly off to find their missing friend.
Elsewhere, Ruby was continuing her search for Blake, now accompanied by Penny. As they walked down the street, Penny asked Ruby multiple questions about the falling out her team was facing. While Ruby felt obliged to answer her, the constant questions didn't exactly make her too happy.
"So, Blake is your friend?" Penny asked.
"Yes, Penny," Ruby replied with a sigh.
"But you're mad at her?" Penny went on.
"Yes. Well," Ruby said before taking a double-take, "I'm not. Weiss is."
"Is she friends with Blake?" Penny continued.
"Well, that's kind of up in the air right now..." Ruby answered.
"But why?" Penny asked, not quite understanding the situation.
"Well, you see," Ruby began with a sigh, "Blake might not be who we thought she was..."
"Is she a man?" Penny supplied with a gasp.
"No! No, Penny. She's..." Ruby tried to explain, before stopping with a sigh and looking Penny in the eye, "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."
"I don't have a lot of friends," Penny advised, "but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things."
"Me too..." Ruby said as she looked at the ground and continued walking.
"Is Ben your friend?" Penny asked out of nowhere.
"Of course he is," Ruby replied, perked up by the sudden question, "He's helping us find Blake."
"Do you like him?" Penny questioned.
"That's kind of a prerequisite for being a friend," Ruby answered.
"You seem to like him a lot," Penny said, pushing the subject, "Do you like him that way?"
"Where is all of this coming from?" Ruby countered with her own question, flustered.
"One of the things I've always wanted friends to talk to me about is how we feel about other people," Penny answered obliviously, "Please answer my question."
"Yes, he's cool and I like him, but not that way!" Ruby said with a hard and slightly blushed face before her expression softened, "Well, maybe a little."
Meanwhile with Ben, the sun had just gone down and he was still flying over Vale as Jetray. As he flew over the docks, he noticed a figure he was all too familiar with. Laying down on the edge of the roof of one of the warehouses was Blake.
"Blake!" Ben called out as he flew down to meet her, catching her attention.
Noticing the Omnitrix on the alien's neck, Blake waited for Ben to land on the roof, where he transformed back to his human form. However, neither noticed a blond figure climb up on to the warehouse when Ben landed.
"We've been looking all over for you," Ben said in worry, "Where have you been all this time?"
"Um, excuse me," a voice made itself known behind Ben.
Ben turned around to see a familiar face, but not necessarily a good kind of familiar face. Behind Ben was the monkey Faunus that stowed away on a ship to Vale last Friday, holding a couple of green apples in his hands. He only hoped the Faunus didn't see him transform.
"One, do you know him, Blake? Two, who is he? And three, why was he a walking, talking, red, stingray out of water a few seconds ago?" the Faunus asked, raising his figures as he counted.
Ignoring Ben's crestfallen reaction to the last question, Blake answered the blonde's first question with, "Yes, he's a friend of mine, but he should explain the rest."
Figuring that his secret was exposed to another individual, Ben decided to introduce himself as politely as possible.
"My name is Ben Tennyson. I'm a shape shifter," Ben said holding out his hand, "It's nice to meet you again,"
"Sun Wukong," the boy said as he took Ben's hand, before noticing Ben's exact words, "What do you mean by 'again'?"
"We've meet before," Ben replied, "though you knew me under the name Crashhopper."
"That was you?" Sun yelled in surprise.
"Shush!" Blake shushed them as she took her position on the roof again.
"Stake out to prove the White Fang innocent?" Ben deducted.
"Yeah," Blake responded.
"And I'm helping," Sun added.
Ben remained silent for a second before he said, "I'm in."
"Really?" Sun questioned, surprised that Ben was so willing to help.
"Yeah, I do this kind of stuff all the time," Ben answered nonchalantly.
"Cool" Sun said before crouching down to talk to Blake, "Did I miss anything?"
"Not really," Blake responded. "They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there."
"Cool," Sun said as he offered Blake an apple, "I stole you some food!"
"Seriously dude?" Ben asked, slightly annoyed.
"Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?" Blake added.
"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" Sun defended, receiving an angry glare form Blake.
"That one's on you," Ben said as he patted Sun's shoulder.
"Okay, too soon," Sun responded.
Just as Sun finished his sentence, the three teens felt a gust of wind blow around them. Looking up, the group saw an aircraft flying very low to the ground above them. The model of the aircraft itself however was very familiar to Ben. The model, which he now knew was known as a Bullhead thanks to classes at Beacon, was the same model that Roman Torchwick rode to escape Ruby, Professor Goodwitch, and him when he first arrived in Remnant.
The Bullhead landed in the middle of all of the containers and opened up a ramp in the back. A hooded man with a silver mask walked out of the aircraft to scan the area. On the back of his outfit was an emblem that Blake recognized all too well. It was a blood-red wolf's head with a three-clawed scratch across it, the emblem of the White Fang.
"Oh no…" Blake whispered in disappointment.
"Is that them?" Sun asked.
"Yes…" Blake answered slowly, "It's them."
The first White Fang member motioned his rifle to the Bullhead, prompting several other White Fang members to flood out of the vehicle. They were then ordered to prepare to take the Dust via tow cable.
"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun asked Blake.
"No. I think deep down I knew," Blake said sadly, "I just didn't want to be right."
"So this is the White Fang," Ben mused.
The group looked on at the seen in thought for a second. However, they were interrupted when they heard a new, and to Ben, familiar, voice.
"Hey! What's the holdup!?" the owner of the voice said as he came out of the Bullhead, revealing himself to be none other than Roman Torchwick, "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"
"So hotshot there is connected to all of this," Ben observed, "I thought those robberies seemed a bit similar.
"This isn't right," Blake voiced, "The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that."
Not saying another word, Blake pulled her sword from its sheath and walked off the edge of the roof, intending to get answers in a more direct approach.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" Sun asked alarmed.
"If I had to guess, something stupid," Ben said as he pulled Sun up, "Let's move."
"I agreed to a stake-out, not a brawl!" Sun complained as he was pulled by Ben towards some of the containers on the deck.
On the ground, Roman continued to bark orders at the White Fang members like a pack of dogs. Suddenly, Blake appeared behind him, holding her blade at his throat.
"What the- Oh, for f-" Roman began to respond before Blake cut him off.
"Nobody move!" Blake ordered.
The White Fang members all readied their weapons, from machine guns to swords, and aimed them at Blake and her hostage. The slowly began to approach, hoping she would let Roman go without things getting messy.
"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady," Roman said, not feeling like getting shot or stabbed that night.
Blake silently took off her bow from on top of her head, revealing a pair of cat ears.
"Just like Penny said," Ben thought to himself.
"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?" Blake asked, still keeping Roman hostage.
"Oh, kid," Roman laughed, "didn't you get the memo?"
"What are you talking about?" Blake demanded.
"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together!" Roman explained
"Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation," Blake threatened
Before Roman could give a response, the air was filled with the winds and sounds of turbines.
"I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation..." Roman said as he looked up.
Above them were two more Bullheads, most likely filled with even more White Fang members. Distracted by the arrival of the vehicles, Blake failed to notice Roman fire his cane at her feet. The blast caused a large explosion that could be seen and heard a few blocks away from the dock to where Ruby and Penny were.
"Oh, no..." Ruby said worried.
Back at the docks, Blake had been knocked on to the ground by the explosion and a little dazed. She quickly got back up on her feet as Roman continued his onslaught. He fired his cane multiple times, but Blake dodged each one, causing them to destroy several crates of cargo. Eventually Blake managed to get behind some containers and out of Roman's line of sight.
"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…" Roman taunted as he searched for the cat Faunus.
Before he could continue, a banana peel unexpectedly fell on his head. Roman growled as he looked up to see Sun standing on top of one of the containers. Sun then jumped down from the container and landed on Roman's face, feet-first, before rolling a distance away from the criminal.
"Leave her alone!" Sun demanded as he took a fighting stance.
Up above, the Bullheads opened their hatches and let several White Fang members drop down into the fight and surround Sun.
"You're not the brightest banana in the bunch, are you, kid?" Roman asked sarcastically.
All the White Fang members surrounding Sun charged at him at once, weapons ready. However, Sun managed to dodge most of the attacks that were made while countering the rest with his bare fists. After taking down a few of the goons, Sun rolled away from the group as he pulled a red collapsing staff from under his jacket which he called Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang. Now armed with his personal weapon, the monkey Faunus easily took down the rest of the White Fang members attacking him.
"Hey, hotshot!" Ben called out to Roman from on top of the containers, "Remember me?"
Looking up at Ben, Roman instantly recognized the boy.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the kid who interrupted my Dust gig a few months ago," Roman mussed, "Still think you're some sort of hero?"
"I know I am," Ben said with a smirk as he lifted the Omnitrix to his face, "It's hero time!"
In a flash of green, Ben had transformed into Spidermonkey, throwing Roman for a loop with his transformation. The detail that surprised Roman the most however, was the black and green hourglass emblem on the form's chest, which was attached to a green belt that ran over and under the Arachnichimp's upper set of arms.
"So, you transform into monsters, do you?" Roman asked, "And you were also that building block gorilla?"
"Nice to see you figured it out!" Ben yelled as he jumped off the container.
Landing in front of Roman, Ben used his superior agility to his advantage. With monkey-like reflexes, Ben jumped from place to place around Roman, throwing several punches and kicks at the criminal. As Roman tried to swing at the veteran hero, the multiple consecutive attacks left Roman dazed for a second. This gave Ben the opportunity to use the webbing in his tail on the criminal's feet, leaving him stuck in place.
"He's mine!" Blake yelled as she rushed in out of hiding.
She swung at Roman several times, forcing him to focus on defending instead of freeing himself. Even with his feet webbed to the ground, he was able to defend against most of the attacks Blake threw at him and he threw just as many back. Roman landed a few good hits, but most of the time Blake either managed to dodge or use her Semblance to create a clone to take the attack for her. Eventually, Roman got a very good hit in, which knock Blake away from him.
However, as soon as Blake was down, Sun switched in and continued the onslaught on the criminal. Sun split his staff into a set of twin nunchucks, whose handles just so happened to also be shotguns. Seeing Sun's weapon, Ben quickly gathered some of the debris from the fight with his webbing and created four pairs of makeshift nunchucks.
"Monkey see monkey do!" Ben quipped as he joined in.
"I didn't know you had a monkey form," Sun commented.
"Arachnichimp technically," Ben corrected, "Just focus on fighting."
The two half-monkeys swung their total of six nunchucks at lightning speed, with Sun firing the shotguns of his nunchucks every time they were facing Roman. However, Roman still managed to deflect most of these attacks, even though it was two against one and he was immobilized. Eventually, Blake was able to get up again and land a solid hit on their enemy, freeing him from the webbing and knocking him a good distance away.
Getting back up with a growl, Roman noticed a container hanging by a crane just above his three opponents. Acting quickly, he fired a round at the container, causing it to fall. Luckily, the three managed to dodge out of the way before it crushed them. Unfortunately, Sun ended up rolling right in front of Roman and the business end of his cane. Before Roman could fire, a familiar voice called out from the roof of one of the warehouses.
"Hey!" the voice yelled.
Turning to the direction of the voice, Roman saw that Ruby was standing at the edge of the roof with Crescent Rose at the ready.
"Well, hello, Red!" Roman said with a wave, "Isn't it past your bedtime?"
"Ruby," Penny asked as she approached, "are these people your friends?"
"Penny, get back!" Ruby warned.
Seeing that she was distracted, Roman used the opportunity to fire one of his cane's rounds at Ruby, which knocked her onto her back on the roof.
"Ruby!" Ben yelled in worry as he transversed the docks to check on her.
Roman laughed at his own success. At the same time, Penny put on a serious expression at the sight of her friend being attacked so heartlessly. By the time Ben had reached the girls and was starting to help Ruby up, Penny took a few steps forward, as if to fight.
"Penny, wait! Stop!" Ruby cried in worry.
"Don't worry Ruby," Penny said over her shoulder before facing forward, "I'm combat ready."
Penny's backpack opened up like a set of mechanical doors and released a hovering, single-bladed sword. The single sword then divided and became a set of multiple swords, all hovering over Penny's back. Penny jumped off the roof of the warehouse and used three of the swords to take down two White Fang members without even touching the ground or the swords themselves. Penny continued to attack the White Fang members once she was on the ground. She slashed at them, stuck them to walls, and even used her swords like a shuriken to knock over several Faunus like a set of bowling pins.
"Whoa!" Sun said observantly as he ran for cover and to check on Blake.
Soon, three Bullheads in the sky started to fire on the docks. However, Penny used her swords to create a spinning shield to protect herself. She then released two more swords from her backpack which drove themselves into a wall several yards behind her. Penny was pulled in to the wall, as if she was attached to it by some strings. She then positioned her swords in front of her as they began to spin and generate a ball of green energy between them. With a thrust of her arms, Penny launched a green laser from her swords at the Bullheads, cutting all of them in half. White Fang members and what appeared to be a Raptor fell from the destroyed vehicles, which flew over Ruby and Ben before crashing behind them.
Stunned at what was happening, the two of them turned back to the fight to see Penny tether an escaping Bullhead and container with her swords. She began to walk backwards like she was holding a rope attached to the ship. Upon closer inspection, one could see that all of her swords were indeed attached to strings which connected to her backpack.
"How is she doing that?" Ruby asked to no one in particular.
"I don't know, but she a mean, green, fighting machine!" Ben replied as he became human.
Seeing that the operation was going south, Roman grimaced and made his way to one of the remaining Bullheads still on the ground. From the hatch of the vehicle, he could see Penny yank on the strings of her swords, pulling the Bullhead to the ground, destroying it.
"These kids just keep getting weirder..." Roman observed as he boarded his Bullhead.
With Roman now onboard, the Bullhead took to the air and flew off from the dock, a second Bullhead following close behind.
A little later, the police were on the scene to inspect the crime. Ruby, Blake, Sun, Penny, and Ben were all sitting on crates on the side of the investigation, having all given their eyewitness accounts. Soon, the DX Mark 10 pulled up to the group with Yang and Weiss walking out and toward the group.
"Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute..." Ruby babbled, but was ignored by Weiss as she squared off Blake.
"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-" Blake said calmly, but was cut off by Weiss.
"Stop! Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?" Weiss asked, "Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided... I don't care."
"You don't care?" Blake questioned surprised.
"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" Weiss responed.
"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-"
"Ah-bah-bah-bah-bah! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to your teammates. And not some..." Weiss started before noticing Sun and catching herself, "Someone else."
"Of course," Blake said as she wiped a tear from her eye.
Everyone remained silent and serious for a moment before Ruby had one of her excited outbursts.
"Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby screamed.
Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Sun, and Ben all gathered together in a circle, just to take in the moment. At least they did before Weiss pointed accusingly at Sun.
"I'm still not quite sure about how I feel about you!" Weiss stressed, causing Sun to laugh nervously.
"Hey, wait a minute... Where's Penny?" Ruby asked, noticing their friend was missing.
"I'm sure she's fine," Yang reassured her sister.
"Hey, I got an idea," Ben said as he held out the Omnitrix, "Let's make a pact on the Omnitrix to treat all humans and Faunus equally, and to give all of them the benefit of the doubt. After all, the Omnitrix is the ultimate device for understanding the beings of the universe."
"That's a great idea!" Ruby said as she placed her hand on the Omnitrix.
"This seems agreeable," Weiss said as she did the same.
"Count me in!" Yang yelled excitedly.
The only people not to put their hands in yet were Blake and Sun, who still seemed a bit unsure of the idea.
"Come on, you guys too," Ben insisted, "You two are the Faunus in the group."
Smiling at Ben's jester, the two Faunus put their hands on the device. However, as soon as they did, the Omnitrix exploded in a flash of green light, causing everyone to remove their hands. When the light dimmed, the Omnitrix was displaying a holographic image of a double helix of DNA.
"New DNA sample acquired," the Omnitrix said in a monotone version of Ben's voice, "Faunus transformation available."
"What does that mean?" Sun asked in confusion.
"I think it means I can transform into a Faunus now!" Ben exclaimed.
"Really!" Ruby squealed.
"What are you waiting for? Transform already!" Yang yelled.
"Give me a second," Ben said as he scrolled through the playlist.
Eventually, he came across an icon that closely resembled his own face. Seeing as none of his other transformations could possibly have a face a good-looking as his, Ben instantly knew it was his new Faunus form. Locking in his choice, Ben activated the device and was enveloped in a flash of green light. When the light dimmed, he stood as his new Faunus form.
The form closely resembled his human form but was more muscular, but just as lean. Instead of brown, his hair had become black. Behind him was a wolf's tail of the same color. He was dressed in a skintight, green, short sleeved shirt with a black stripe down the middle. He also wore black pants that had a green stripe running down each leg. Around his waist was a green belt with the Omnitrix as the buckle.
"This is amazing!" Sun yelled.
"This form needs a name," Ben commented.
"How about 'Ben Wolf'?" Yang suggested, "Ya know, since your Ben, and you're a wolf."
"A bit on the nose, don't you think," Weiss asked.
"Nah, I already used that name for one of my other forms," Ben waved off, "Plus, I replaced the name with 'Blitzwolfer'."
"So, now what?" Ruby asked.
"I've got it!" Ben exclaimed, "From now on, this form will be called 'Jade Fang'!"
"How did you come up with that?" Yang asked.
"Well for one, it gives me a name that relates to a color," Ben half-joked, "but it also makes me the same but different form the White Fang. Like them, I'll work to make Faunus equal citizens, but unlike them, I'll do it by helping to create an understanding between the species and make them feel safe."
"I like it," Blake said with a smile.
"Same here," Sun added.
Ben smiled proudly at his new form. The night vision and extra limb would be helpful in combat. Plus, he could play peacekeeper in a form other than the wise and patient Galilean, Gravattack. However, his musing was interrupted when an alarming thought came to mind.
"Wait, normally when the Omnitrix collects new DNA, I only have to be within a certain radius of the life form and my transformation looks identical to the source of the sample," Ben realized, "Why did I only get the transformation now?"
"Due to intense similarities with human DNA, Omnitrix was unable to differentiate Faunus DNA from human DNA," the Omnitrix explained in response to Ben's question, "Upon acquiring DNA samples from direct contact, Faunus form DNA was synthesized by combining fifty percent of the genome from each sample."
"I guess that makes sense," Weiss commented, "Humans and Faunus are biologically compatible, and when two Faunus of a different animal trait have a child, the animal trait of the child is usually random."
"Wait a second, if Jade Fang's DNA is made half of both of your DNA, then that means…" Yang realized, referring to Sun and Blake.
"…Jade Fang is Sun and Blake's theoretical child," Ruby finished.
An awkward silence fell over the group as a tumbleweed rolled passed them for the third time that day. Suddenly, Ben began to laugh out of nowhere, earning strange looks from his friends.
"This is not something to laugh about!" Blake yelled, blushing furiously.
"Sorry! Sometimes I laugh inappropriately in awkward situations," Ben defended, before he began to sniff the air.
"Ben, is something wrong?" Ruby asked.
"I smell something," was all Ben said.
As he continued to sniff the air, a truck that just so happened to be shaped like a pig drove by the crime scene. As the truck passed, Ben's eyes shot open and his mouth began to drool.
"Meat truck!" Ben yelled as he ran after the aforementioned truck on all fours.
"We have to catch him!" Weiss screamed, "Quickly, to the car!"
"He really is a wolf," Ruby commented as she got in the passenger seat.
"You guys really need to get your kid under control," Yang said as she started Ben's car.
"He's not our kid!" Blake and Sun yelled in unison as they got in the back with Weiss.
The rest of the night, Team RWBY and Sun chased Ben all over Vale until the Omnitrix timed out; trying to make sure he didn't eat a truck's worth supply of meat without paying for it or cooking it first.
Elsewhere in Vale, Roman walked into a warehouse exhausted from his failed robbery. As he put down a suitcase, a feminine voice made itself present in the room.
"How very disappointing, Roman," the voice said.
Roman turned around to find he had some unexpected guests.
"Whoa! Hehe..." Roman laughed surprised, "I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon..."
"We were expecting... more from you," the voice said, which was revealed to belong to a woman with yellow eyes and dark, flowing hair.
"Hey! You were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang" Roman defended himself.
"And you will continue to do so," the woman said as she created a fire ball in her hand, revealing several other people in the room.
Among the people present was a man with purple hair, a tan woman with mint hair and golden eyes, a black humanoid with glowing red tattoos all across his body, an eleven-year-old boy with white hair and red eyes, and a humanoid man with cyan skin, gills, and armor made from bones.
"We have big plans for you, Roman," the woman continued, "All we ask is... a little cooperation."
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Since this was the Volume One finale and was now at a point of the story covered by "RWBBYverse: Clash of Heroes" by Jade and Q, I wanted to make the chapter as entertaining as possible without reusing too many elements from previous stories. Sorry if Ben using Spidermonkey seemed a bit lazy, but come on, that was just too good an opportunity! I should at least get points for making Ben's involvement in the fight different.
So, Ben now has a Faunus transformation in the form of Jade Fang. I really hope you guys grow to like the form. I have been planning this from the very beginning and put a lot of effort into designing this transformation. If you couldn't tell, the form is meant to be a foil to the White Fang. They share the same name origins and goals, equality for Faunus, but go about those goals in different ways. The White Fang is a group that strikes fear in the hearts of humans for respect, while Jade Fang is a single person embodying harmony and coexistence between humans and Faunus. Not to mention Jade Fang's name follows the RWBY charater color rule and can be passed off as a first and last name. As for how he will fight, I plan to make him a Kicking Hawk/Bullfrag kind of transformation with a more balanced fighting style consisting of a mix of Asian martial arts, given who the DNA came from.
Also, yes, I am shipping trash, I ship blacksun, and I have a viable reason for why I believe the Omnitrix would behave like it did here. First, the Omnitrix never bothers to scan the DNA of a person with DNA extremely similar to that of a species already present in the Omnitrix, as was the case with Malware, Kevin, and anyone else who could qualify as a mutant or osmosian. Since Faunus are biologically compatible with humans, it would stand to reason that Faunus DNA and human DNA are very similar, and thus the Omnitrix couldn't tell the difference without closer examination. As for the taking 50% of both DNA samples part, the Unitrix, the most prototype of Omnitrix prototypes, has been seen to be able to randomize the contents of a species DNA sample, creating a form different from the source of the sample. So, why couldn't the final product do the same? All I did was give it a second sample to pull elements from.
Looks like this is it for now. Leave a review if you'd like. It would be greatly appreciated. Also, free Alien X smoothie to anyone who can guess who the three other figures with Cinder at the end of the chapter are.