I think I ended up waking up sometime in the very early hours of the morning. Nobody else was moving and I could only hear the occasional walking cycles of the hospital staff as they tended to various patients. Jaune was sleeping soundly on his bed as I walked past him. It still seemed odd that someone like him managed to make it into Beacon, but I also knew that it wasn't wise to judge someone by their appearance. The strongest fighters can sometimes be the people you least suspect.
Weiss probably wouldn't be ready to fight crime just yet. That didn't mean Blake and Yang wouldn't be ready. I smiled cheerfully to myself as I grabbed my clothes and left the hospital room without anybody noticing.
"Excuse me," said one of the nurses. "Weren't you being hospitalized just now?"
I turned around and smiled. "But I'm all better now!" I said loudly.
The nurse groaned and rubbed her forehead. "You still have to go through the process of payment and—"
"Weiss Schnee will take care of that!" I said. "She's in charge of Team RWBY's funds!"
"Team….RWBY….?" The nurse was clearly dumbstruck by what I was saying.
"Remember that name," I said with a clenched fist. "We're going to be a team that everybody around Remnant will know!"
"…Okay…." The nurse walked away as I returned to the main entrance.
Blake and Yang were both fast asleep. Yang had half of her body lopped on the chair next to her while Blake slept in a fetal position. I was about to wake then both up when I thought about how Yang might react. Sometimes she could be a little overbearing and would probably send me back to the hospital bed. Blake was used to navigating around cities at night and probably wouldn't force me back. Waking her up was probably the most logical choice I could make.
"H-Hey!" I whispered, shaking Blake's shoulder. Her eye slowly opened and stared at me.
"Ruby…?" she moaned, "aren't you supposed to be—"
I covered her mouth with my hand. "Shhhh. I know, but I'm better," I whispered. "I'm going to go into Vale and fight some crime. Want to join?"
"You're going to what?" Blake sounded a lot more attentive this time.
"Great!" I said with a slap on Blake's back. "I knew you'd be up for a little crime fighting action!"
"I'd rather be sleeping," Blake mumbled.
We stepped outside to see Vale at night. It looked almost the same as when we entered, but now the moon was clearly visible above the skyscrapers. I grinned at the people walking to and from their locations. This really was a city that never slept.
"So where do you think all the crime is?" I asked Blake.
"Probably in a low-income area," she answered. "People become more desperate when they live in poverty and struggle to afford the monthly—"
"This is going to be so much fun!" I squealed. "Maybe I should wear the hood over my head to appear more menacing. Or maybe I should act like a normal girl and then, BAM, Huntress activated!"
Blake stared at me and then sighed. I interpreted that as an "okay."
Downtown Vale was taking a lot longer to reach than I had initially planned. It turned out that Vale was divided into various sectors for different activities. There was a business sector, entertainment sector, and every other activity you could cram into a city. Blake walked past all the unique buildings and flashy billboards without a change in expression. Meanwhile, my eyes were glowing with admiration at everything we passed by. The largest city in patch was probably the size of a single sector in Vale. I just couldn't believe that something like this existed in the world.
The streets became less glamorous as we came closer to the poorer parts of Vale. I noticed more buildings with all the lights off and roads with visible cracks in them. According to Blake, Grimm often attacked these areas and this made the rent incredibly cheap. The only problem was that Grimm attacks scared off everybody but the most desperate who had nowhere else to live.
"Oh, look!" I said during the middle of our walk. There was a little store open that reminded me of the shops on patch. An old man was stood at the front of the store with his hands up. Surrounding him were several men with black suits and weapons out.
"We found our first crime!" I shouted.
"Don't say it so loudly!" Blake whispered. "We need to go in there stealthily. They're likely armed and carry a decent amount of dust on them."
I nodded to everything Blake said and then made a dash to the shop.
"RUBY!" I heard Blake say as I sped away.
"Sorry!" I shouted back. Justice never happens quietly!"
I ran so fast that I ended up breaking through the glass door and slammed into the dust section of the store. My nose twitched as multiple dust vials fell and broke on my face.
"Who is this girl?" asked one of the men.
"Seems like a Beacon trainee," said another one. "Those types always like to think of themselves as heroes."
I could feel an itch forming in my nose.
"S-Stop w-w-where you are!" I said as I curled my nose.
The men in black suits all laughed at me.
"Ya see this?" one of them said. "This little chipmunk thinks she's going to make us stop."
He got on one knee and leaned towards my face. "Listen here, girl. We aren't some petty thugs. This store here belongs to us!"
"A-And who are you?" I asked. My nose was beginning to grow stuffy as well. I wasn't sure if I could hold myself much longer.
"We're members of the Torchwick Syndicate," the man snarled. "One fourth of this city is under our control and it just so happens that this guy here owes us a debt."
Two men grabbed the old man and began to put him in a chokehold.
"You see," the man went on, "Boss Torchwick is a kind man. You find yourself in trouble and he'll help you out, but only if you pay him back. Fail to do that and we're forced to rough you up a bit. Now that you've learned your little history lesson, sit back and see what it means to take advantage of us."
My nose wasn't going to let me control it any longer. I opened my mouth and let out a loud sneeze. It was so strong that the dust surrounding me went off all at once; creating chain reaction that destroyed an entire section of the store.
The man closest to me was sent flying along with two others. I got right up and grabbed the old man.
"It's okay," I said. "You're with me now."
"W-Who are you?" asked the old man.
"Ruby Rose," I said with a smirk. "Leader of Team RWBY."
"Ruby?" said Blake. She ran into the store with her weapon out. "What happened?"
"I took care of business," I said.
"That's one way of putting it," said Blake. I could see her eyeing all the destruction my sneeze caused.
"Hey!" One of the men yelled. "We got a freak here!" He pulled out a red sword and ran towards us.
I looked at Blake with a smile.
"I don't even have to say a thing, do I?" Blake said.
Blake disappeared into a shadow clone as soon the man swung his sword. He gasped in surprise and then lurched backwards as Blake reappeared and kicked him right in the stomach. Another man came out wielding a pistol. I gently put the old man down and used my semblance to slam both of my fists into the attackers body before he could shoot. Four more men surrounded Blake and were all sent flying by her whip.
"What's with these kids?" one of the men asked. "We've dealt with Beacon kids before!"
"Yeah?" I said. "Well you haven't dealt with Team RWBY before."
"Don't get cocky!" the man yelled. He pulled out a dust vial from his jacket and raised his arm to throw it. I activated my semblance once again to kick him through the window.
"This poor man's store is getting beat up more than these goons," said Blake.
"Oh yeah…. you're right," I said quietly. I looked over at the old man to see if this bothered him. He looked happy just to be alive.
"You…." I heard one of the men say outside. Blake and I both crossed our arms and stared him down. "You're going to regret ever crossing paths with us. Boss Torchwick will see to that."
"Tell him to bring it on!" I said confidently. "There's nothing Team RWBY can't handle!"
The man stood back up and stared at us once more before running away. A couple of the other men followed him while many more lay unconscious. That's when it stuck me. Blake and I managed to take down criminals in Vale on our first day out. I would have celebrated more if it weren't for the beat up shop right behind us. Weiss's card was going to be run dry at this rate.
The criminals from earlier limp into a lavish room that's covered in expensive decorations. Exotic rugs cover the floor while elaborate paintings hang on the wall. At the middle of the room is a desk with a large leather chair behind it. A man with red hair and a black trilby sits on it. His jaw clenches as two men walk into his room with bruises and injuries.
"What is this?" the man in the trilby asks. "I send you to rough up an old man and you come back looking like you just fought off a Grimm."
"We were caught off guard by Huntresses…" says one of the beat up men.
"Huntresses?" The man in the trilby clenches his fist and stands up from his seat. "Has the city become so desperate that they're commissioning Ozpin and his little henchmen to fight us?"
"Well…no…" says the beat up man. "These….uh….these were students."
Torchwick's eye twitches furiously at this sudden revelation. "You mean to tell me that the feared and famed Torchwick Syndicate was thwarted by little girls playing superhero?"
His underling doesn't respond.
Torchwick's face burns red as he prepared to scream, but he holds it back and then starts to chuckle. "What an interesting twist of events," he says. "Tell me. What did these girls look like?"
"One of them was a little squeaky girl wearing a red hood," says the underline. "The other was a black cat faunus with yellow eyes you couldn't miss."
"Little red?" Torchwick says to himself. "I do like the sound of that. I think I'll pay this…. little red…. a visit."