On with the show!
RWBY Watches Classic Movies
Chapter 21
Though Atlas was considered the "better part" of the Atlas capital, it still had its slums, just like Mantle. However, due the affluence of certain residents, the disparities in wealth were even greater than in Mantle, and this was made apparent to Oobleck as he made his way into the so-called "Bone Slums" of Atlas' red-light district. The air was full of honking horns, massive chatter, disgusting smells, and even more embarrassing sounds coming from nearby buildings.
He shined a black light on the card Ironwood had given him and saw an image of a smiling Jack o' Lantern face. He looked around, but saw no obvious signs of what he was looking for, though he did see how the Bone Slums got their name; the rib cage of a long-dead Kaiju was towering over the shops and tenement buildings. He found a nearby sign with coloring that matched his card, and decided to take a look with his black-light. He found the same symbol on it, with a arrow pointing to the left underneath it.
"Liking where this is going already." Torchwick whispered to himself. Neo apparently heard him and gave him a small fist bump, clearly reading his thoughts.
'Might as well follow it.' he thought. He continued this process until it brought him to a balcony outside a shop a few miles away. Outside sat a pair of young women, twins in fact, one with long hair dressed in white and light blue, the other with short hair dressed in red and black. Oobleck checked out a pole near the door and found the symbol again. 'This must be it.' he thought before going inside.
The walls were lined with various toys and knick-knacks from around Remnant. Behind the counter stood 'Junior' Hei Xiong.
"So Roman owns a toy shop or something?" Ruby scoffed.
"It's called a front, Little Red." Roman said.
Seeing Ruby's innocent confusion, Blake explained, "It's a cover for his dealings. Black market anything isn't exactly legal, so he hides it behind something unassuming to avoid the cops. The White Fang does it all the time."
"Hey." He said quietly, "You looking for some Kaiju bone powder?"
"S-some bone- some bone powder?" Oobleck asked, confused. "No, why would I want that?"
"Male potency." Junior said with a grin. "I take it myself."
Yang gagged violently, but managed to keep it down. "Never say these words again." she said, her fist in front of her mouth, trying to regain control.
"I see." Oobleck grinned back politely. "No, thank you. I'm looking for Roman Torchwick."
Junior signaled the twins to lock the door before walking over to the wall opposite the counter. "Roman Torchwick, huh?" he said, pressing a hidden button on one of the shelves, "Good luck, kid." He motioned for the doctor to walk through as several more walls opened up, revealing a large busy room. All over it, people were working on Kaiju body parts.
"Oh my gods." Oobleck said in awe. "Oh my gods! This place is heaven!" he walked over to a nearby tank. "That's a lymph gland from a Category 2. And what are you working on here?" he asked a man who was taking a hand sander to what looked to be a large claw. "Is this a cuticle? In mint condition!?" he walked over to another man handling a large bug. "Is that a Kaiju skin parasite? I've never seen them alive before. They usually die as soon as the Kaiju fall! I thought you couldn't keep them alive!"
"Oh, Gods, is this what I'm like in a weapons shop?" Ruby asked, cringing.
"YES!" Team _WBY said, not missing a beat.
"You can if you soak them in ammonia." Oobleck turned and saw Roman Torchwick in his usual garb, Neo at his side. "What do you want?"
"I'm looking for Roman Torchwick?" he held up the card Ironwood gave him. "I was told he was here?"
"Who wants to know?"
"Man, talk about cheesy." Nora commented.
"Is there ever an answer to that that isn't?" Roman fired back.
"... Touche, sir."
"How about an honest one?" Ruby said with a little sarcasm.
"Ah, but where's the fun in that?" Roman joked.
"I really can't say." Oobleck said, trying to sound cool. Before he could react, Neo had walked up, drawn the hidden blade from her parasol, and shoved it in his nose. She slowly lifted, threatening to cut open the man's nostril. "AAH! AAH! JAMES IRONWOOD SENT ME!" Neo withdrew the knife, leaving no permanent damage. "GAH! Oh, that's great. So I take it you're him?"
"Sorry 'bout that kid, but you can't be too careful when your business is black market everything." Torchwick said as Neo wiped off the blade with a small rag. "Now tell me what you want, before I have Neo here gut you like a pig and feed you to the skin louse."
"Hey, Wolf Guy, I think Neo deserves a little treat for that performance!" Roman shouted.
"Sir, I am inclined to agree with you." Logan said. Next thing Neo knew, an entire gallon tub of her favorite brand and flavor of ice cream appeared in her lap and a spoon in her hand. Drooling, she tore off the lid and inhaled the sweet aroma of frozen deliciousness.
"Let me guess, Neopolitan flavor?" Mercury joked.
"Nope, Double Mint Chip." Roman said.
"What?" Emerald asked, having never heard of it.
"Mint Chocolate Chip with York Peppermint Patties." Neo clapped excitedly and began to tear the treat apart.
The pilots of Crocea Mors stood in the hallway outside of Ironwoods' office/quarters, an argument clearly audible over the concrete and steel walls. Jaune was pacing back and forth across the hall, while Ruby stood at ease against the wall across from the door.
"She can't control her Drift and he went out of phase first!" Yang argued.
"We all know what happened." Ironwood said calmly.
"We can't afford any mistakes!" Yang fired back. "The Kaiju keep evolving, and they keep kicking our asses! He's a has-been, she's a rookie. I don't want them tainting my bomb run, sir."
"You need to watch your tone, Ms. Xiao Long." Ironwood said as Yang opened the door and stormed out.
"Hey, stay there. Give me a moment." Taiyang ordered from the doorway before closing it.
"You two are a Gods-damned disgrace." Yang practically yelled to the pair. "You're gonna get us all killed, and here's the thing, Jaune," she said his name with enough venom to take down a Goliath. "I wanna come back from this mission, because I rather enjoy my life. So why don't you just do us all a favor and disappear? It's the only thing you're good at."
"Hey, Logan, any chance I could punch this version of myself in face?" Yang said, her eyes red at how her sister was being treated.
"Keep watching, Ms. Xiao Long, I think you will like your dopplegangers' ultimate fate." Logan assured her. not getting her way, Yang sat back in a pout.
"Stop, now!" Ruby said, taking a step forward before Jaune stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, that's right." Yang said with a grin. "You just hold back your little girlfriend. One of you bitches needs a leash." Before she even knew what happened, Jaune punched Yang in the face, followed by a left hook. Yang landed a left of her own, but Jaune recovered and blocked her next blow and drove her back with a few of his own, finishing with a heavy right to the face while Yang was on her knees.
"What if Mr. Arc's doppleganger does it for you?"
Yang considered it briefly, her eyes changing back to their normal lilac. "Acceptable."
"Apologize to her." Jaune said over the mutterings of the growing crowd.
"Screw you." Yang said as she stood up and swung at Jaune. He ducked the blow, and landed a kidney shot and a left hook. He pushed her into the wall and made to strike, but Yang ducked and drove him into the opposite wall. She soon found her arm locked under Jaune's and used to drive her into some piping. She groaned at the impact as a gout of steam whistled behind her.
"I said apologize to her." Jaune said. The pair squared off for a moment before Yang rushed him. Jaune blocked each attack and drove her to the ground in an arm bar submission hold.
"ENOUGH!" Tai yelled, breaking up the fight and causing the crowd to scatter. "On your feet, both of you!"
"Arc, Rose, in my office." Ironwood said with a sigh. Jaune backed up, staring Yang down. Yang took it as another challenge and went for him, but Tai held her back.
"No, this is over!" he said. "You're a Ranger for God's sake, why don't you start acting like one?"
"Jaune, this you has officially earned my respect." Yang said.
"Thank you?"
"I went out of phase first." Jaune argued, defending Ruby and his crew. "It was my mistake." They were in a pair of chairs in Ironwood's spartan office. The only noticeable feature was the window, which gave a beautiful view of Atlas.
"No." Ironwood argued solemnly, "It was my mistake. I should have never let you two in the same machine."
"So, what? You're grounding us?"
"Not you." Ironwood said, looking at Ruby. A look of realization crossed her face, followed by barely contained sorrow.
"Permission to be dismissed, sir?" she asked, barely managing to hold back the tears. Ironwood nodded and she quickly left. Jaune put his hands on his head in exasperation frustration.
"And now I wanna kill Ironwood for making Ruby cry." Yang growled.
"Blake?" Ruby said with a sigh, doing Weiss' trademark exasperation face. Blake slapped Yang upside the head. "Thank you."
"Sir, what are you doing? She is the strongest candidate, by far." He stood up and walked to the general. "What other options do we have? Huh? Tell me!"
"Do not let my calm demeanor fool you, RANGER!" Ironwood yelled, his anger boiling over, surprising Jaune. "NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOUR INSUBORDINATION. Ruby is too inexperienced to reign in her memories during combat." He moved to leave his chambers.
"Said every father ever, but not not in those exact words." Jaune said.
"Seven sisters?" Nora guessed.
"Seven sisters." he confirmed.
"That's not why you grounded her." Jaune said, stopping Ironwood in his tracks. The two men faced each other. "I was in her memories. I saw everything."
"I don't care what you think you saw."
Jaune flashed back to the end of the attack. When the Kaiju's roars had died down, Ruby exited the alley she hid in. The street was in ruins, and her attacker lay smote at one end of the road. Mechanical thudding drew her attention to the other end of the street, where she saw her savior: a crude, but unmistakable form of a Jaeger. The hatch on the head opened up, and out stepped a figure in all-grey armor. He took off his helmet to reveal a much younger-looking James Ironwood.
"Anything you'd like to say Ms. Xiao Long?" Winter asked smugly.
"He still made Ruby cry." Yang mumbled.
"I know what she means to you." Jaune told him. "I saw it. I- "Ironwood had heard enough and was walking away. "Hey! Hey!" he yelled after him.
"This conversation is over, Mr. Arc."
"General! General, can we just talk about this for one second?" Jaune yelled, grabbing him by the arm and spinning him around. Ironwood looked amazed he had dared to do that. "You were friends with her parents. When they died, you adopted her. You raised her. You are not protecting her now, you are holding her back."
"One, don't you ever touch me again." As he pushed the call button on the elevator. "Two, don't you ever touch me again. Now, you don't know who the hell I am or where I come from and I am not about to tell you my life's story. All I need to be to you and everyone on this dome is a fixed point. The Last. Man. Standing. I want neither your sympathy nor your admiration. All I need is your compliance and your fighting skills. And if I can't have that, you can go back to the wall I found you crawling on. Do I make myself clear?" When Jaune didn't respond, he simply held a finger to his ear and leaned in.
"Yes, sir." Jaune said reluctantly.
"Good."
"There's the James we know." Glynda sighed.
"It's not an inaccurate portrayal." Ozcar said, trying to be positive about it.
It was lunch time again, and there were no friendly faces in the mess hall for Jaune. When he descended the stairs from the lines, the room went so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and so tense that you'd need a chainsaw to cut it. all eyes were on him, and he knew why.
'I take it back.' He thought, 'Now it's like school.' He caught Ruby's eye across the room and they walked off in separate directions, meeting up outside the mess hall.
"I'm sorry." Jaune said when they sat down in a more private location, the Jaeger repair yard. "I should have warned you. First Drifts are rough. But you weren't just tapping into my memories, you were tapping into my sister's too. When Joan was taken we were still connected. I felt her fear, her pain, her helplessness, and then… nothing. She was gone."
Jaune tried to fight the angry tears, as Pyrrha took his hand. 'I know what to do, but it can wait. At least until after the movie.' he thought.
"I felt it." Ruby said, comfortingly. "I know."
Jaune sighed, and looked down. "You know, you live in someone else's head for so long, the worst thing to deal with is the silence. To let someone else in, to really connect, you have to trust them." He looked back up at Ruby and smiled softly. "And today, the Drift was strong."
A loud thumping drew Ruby's attention. "Her heart." She said. Jaune looked and saw a massive crane taking part of the chestplate off of Crocea Mors, exposing her nuclear power core. "When was the last time you saw it?"
"Not in a looong time." he said, admiring the sight.
In the control room, Nora was walking in with a pair of coffee mugs and a stack of pancakes eight layers thick. Just a light snack.
"Movement in the Breach." The AI voice of Penny reported. "Double event. Two signatures detected. Dilation indicator, Category 4."
Nora's plate shattered when she dropped it.
"Well, shit." Coco said, Velvet nodding in agreement.
"Hm, Arthur was right about something for once." Cinder admitted begrudgingly.
Hearing this, Salem thought to herself. 'This in-fighting is becoming a hindrance. Perhaps I should focus on something to make my council more... cooperative with each other. Some sort of psychic Grimm, perhaps..."
And done! That last bit there is something I started wondering when I was writing the reaction dialogue. If you really think about it, Salem's Evil Council of Evil is only held together by mutual fear of her. But fear as a method of control only lasts so long as they keep winning. In the show, they haven't exactly been on a hot streak. At best, they're .75-2 in their plans going their way. Just take a look at Emerald and Mercury at the end of Season 6. I don't think they're gonna stick around much longer, and Cinder and Neo are off doing their own thing.
On an unrelated note, the final chapter of Pacific Rim is currently about 75-80% complete, so we will be finishing it this month. The next movie will come out in May, and I'm torn between which to do next. On one hand, Star Wars Day is next month, so it would be a nice appropriate little treat. On the other hand, next month celebrates the 20th anniversary of The Mummy. Since, I can't decide, I'll leave it to you guys, my 500+ followers (HOLY FUCKING SHIT!), to decide, simply leave your votes in a review and the most votes will premier next month. However, please keep it fair and only vote once? I don't need a gagillion emails telling me what you guys want. My life is stressful enough as it is, thank you very much.
Please remember to Follow, Favorite, and Review, and I will see you all next week.
Next Upload: 4/16/19