Hey-o! Not much to say off the top of my head, other than I've been planning this for over a year, and a song will play, it's called 'Gold, guns, and girls' by the Metric for those of you who want to listen to it when it comes up. This is a long one, and it's chalked full of little moments, so I apologize ahead of time. Enjoy.
1:00 p.m. Three days till St. David's Day morning.
Contrary to Atlas's dead cold snowy weather, Vale received torrential downpour that left the skies above gray and opaque. This however didn't slow down anyone who had plans, but for those without instead they had a good reason to stay inside and lounge about. Jaune did just that. He pulled a bed up to the window in his team's room so he could lay his legs across the blankets while he leaned back into the window frame, watching contently as the raindrops pelted the windows. The lights were off, so only the gray haze outside lit the room. He strummed his fingers across the guitar Pyrrha gave him last St. David's Day, playing soft cords that spoke to a soft passage of time. The door was open, just like team RWBY's door in front of theirs. He knew Weiss was sleeping in Ruby's bunk, and was pretty sure she fell asleep to his instrument, but had no clue where everyone else was except for Pyrrha. Pyrrha had gone into Vale to deliver presents to some military friends she said. Jaune played on.
"Hey, you doing anything?" spoke Yang from the doorway in a mellow tone. Jaune jumped in surprise.
"Uhm, nothing why?" he looked side to side.
"Wanna help me with something?" she asked in equal measure as before, a small smile on her face.
The knight put down the guitar and stood up slowly, responding simply "sure."
"Great" she said, "follow me." She walked off before Jaune could tell her he needed to get his shoes and hoody on.
A few minutes after he had left with Yang, Ruby strolled into her room with a brown gift box in hand, as packaged by the Vale postal services during celebrations. A close look at the postage stamp would reveal that it was a specialty parts package from a machine company, a product Ruby had special ordered so she could mod her Crescent Rose. On her knees in front of Weiss's bed, she put aside the brown package and reached under the bed, pulling out her beloved weapon and giving it once over to make sure it was as she left it. Once Ruby was satisfied it was untouched, she meandered over into JNPR's room, only to find it empty. All was not in vain though as she spotted Jaune's scroll laying in the ruffled covers of the window side bed. With a clear conscience, she helped herself to opening it up and checking Jaune's internet history out of curiosity, though was quickly confused as to why his history was completely clear too. This did not make sense to her like it did for Weiss, for she believed Weiss's tidy nature matched up to her tidy scroll, but did not see Jaune's laissez faire attitude matching up with a equally tidy scroll. Ruby put away the thought along with the scroll, and left for the school foundry.
A short while passed, and the rain filled silence in the hallways were once again augmented by living beings. Sun followed behind Blake to RWBY's room, brown gift package in hand.
"You're still not going to tell me? If it's not for me, you can tell me who it's for" reasoned Sun regarding the package. He too had a curious mind.
"No, it's private" she whispered, pointing towards the sleeping Weiss.
"Oh, so it's for her?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes. "No, I mean, quiet, she's sleeping." The female faunus saw an almost identical brown gift package sitting at the foot of Weiss's bed, and figuring that it was someone's gift to someone else she pressed it with her shoe until it was hidden underneath so that no one's surprises could be ruined. Seeing as no one else was around however, she simply put her package atop the shelving unit below the window. Rustling briefly through some cardboard boxes under her bed, Blake pulled out her painting supplies and easel, then motioned to Sun that they were leaving.
As they left, Ren and Nora passed them by in the hallway, and the four gave each other silent greeting nods. Once out of earshot, the green and pink partners continued their conversation as they entered RWBY's room. "Anyways" started Nora, "who cares that the daily drama channel got shut down? The only good show they aired was-"
Ren cut her short once she reached into team RWBY's mini fridge and grabbed small containers of ice cream. "Wait, why are we stealing their ice cream?"
"Pfft, you said you wanted a snack right? Don't worry, all of Yang's ice cream is stolen from the underclassmen down the hall. Want one?" She held up one that was pistachio and the other chocolate and nuts.
He gave her a stern look. "Nora, you know I prefer pistachio. Wait, don't steal their spoons, I'm pretty sure those are theirs." She closed the silverware box.
"Yeah I guess we can just get the spoons from our room. Anyways, the only good show they aired was-"
"-'I Love Nova', I know, we watched that show all the time, remember?"
"Really?" she asked, head tilted. "I thought you said you didn't like 'I Love Nova'."
"No, that was 'Big Grimm Theory', I would stand behind the couch and watch 'I Love Nova' with you all the time." He tossed her a spoon from across the hall.
"Really? I never knew you were there... huh." She licked her teeth in thought as her eyes rolled around. "Anyways, that was their best show, and even that was 'eh', I mean that ending..."
The black haired boy jerked around to face her, spoonful of ice cream just short of his mouth, "what do you mean, that ending was great" he said calmly, yet a little less calm than the usual.
"Well it was great if you were a Nova and Liz shipper, but anyone sailing the Nova and Rebecca ship got torpedoed hard." Sighing heavily, she took a large bite out of her ice cream.
"Are you serious? Nova and Liz were perfect for each other, what about all the chemistry they had together? And you can't tell me that carnival date scene at the end wasn't a perfect example of their joy filled love" argued Ren.
Nora waved her finger disapprovingly. "Liz didn't deserve Nova, Rebecca was the quiet mature one, she totally completed Nova!"
A door down the hall opened up and from it came Ben's voice. "Nope! Nova was a loser, best girl Rebecca should've gotten with Timothy!" he shouted.
Further shouting could be heard from inside team BNSH's room, and this time it was Nola who shouted at Ben saying "Ben and Timothy are the real item, that skank Rebecca did no one any good!"
"Wait, Ben?" Ren whispered to Nora, perplexed.
She laughed through a frown. "Not that Ben Biscotti, Ben was the butler."
"That's right, I forgot about him."
Another door opened up down the hall, a woman's voice, Loraine. "Who the fuck just badmouthed Rebecca! Someone's going to get lynched!"
2:00 p.m.
With the flick of a switch, Yang's chilly in-town garage lit up with the buzzing of fluorescent lights, and the strong smells of oils and grease and metal could be traced to their appropriate origins. Jaune immediately recognized the brawler's bumblebee, the black and yellow super bike, but didn't have the same reaction to the somewhat dismantled bike to it's left, a bike he didn't recognize. He said just that to Yang.
"I just bought it, that's why you haven't seen it. I got it real cheap from an idiot who couldn't figure out why it stopped working, and I've got it almost put back together. I just need help for the last part." She said this as she put her hair in a dark beanie and donned blue greasy coveralls.
"Okay. So what was wrong with it?" Yang had pulled up two red rolling chairs on either side of the gray bike and motioned him to take the left side one.
"Well, this bike like any other product ever had some flaws upon hitting the shelves fifteen years ago. So real quick, take this and this," she handed him a small brush and a clear dropper of what looked like water but smelled... like something sweet, "and get every prong and female connecter along this harness. Just a drop of that and paint it on the brass. It's uh, a sort of conductor that insulates- never mind, it's basically a guarantee that the connection is there when you plug everything in." The gas tank was removed along with the seat and rear wheel, and the harness Yang referred to was a collection of wrapped wires running from a junction box to the steering head, with all shapes and sizes of connecters along the way.
"Okay, get the prongs wet, simple enough, go on." He started his gentle work while Yang rolled the rear wheel to the back and started her own task of installing said wheel.
"So as I was saying, it had issues. One being that the wheel sitting adjuster on the swing arm was prone to slipping, and anyone who tried to overcome it by tightening the rear axle could crush the wheel a little, so I bought an aftermarket swing arm that doesn't slip. Second thing was that the vacuum pump on the fuel line was way too weak, and if you were unlucky, the bike could just decide not to take in any fuel, otherwise, the engine might run lean." Jaune nodded his head to this, and though he understood the gist of what she was saying, he would be at a loss if he needed to repeat what she told him. "But the problem this guy had was something different. The springs on the clutch on this bike have a lifespan, and when that lifespan is over, the clutch plates don't have enough force to engage the transmission, so what you get is a horrible chipping sound of asbestos teeth bouncing against each other super fast, recking the clutch basket, and no torque or power for that matter."
"Sure..."
"So I bought aftermarket springs that will outlast the engine and a new clutch basket!"
"Okay... so uh, why'd you get it though?" Jaune asked, peeking at what she was doing only for a moment before focusing hard on petting the tip of his brush on the dropper to get the right hair saturation.
"You'll find out." A silver wrench flew around a circle, making Jaune take a moment to realize Yang was just tightening the transaxle bolt to the wheel.
"Okay... so like, how uh, powerful is it? Like is it more powerful than your bumblebee?"
"Oh yeah, and I put on a bigger brake disc, but uh, power? The bumblebee is 1000 cubic centimeters-"
"Oh... that's what that means-"
"And this is 250 cc's."
"Oh."
Silence fell between them. Jaune fidgeted.
"CC's aren't like shotgun gauges, where smaller is bigger, right?" he asked embarrassed.
"No, more cc's means more power. Usually."
Silence again. It was a respectful silence though, as together they finished their tasks, then together they taped the wiring harness to the frame, mounted the gas tank, put in the seat, and screwed on the side plastic panels. Out of the blue, before anything could be said however, Jaune had to ask a question that had been bothering him. "Yang?"
"Hmm?" she stopped halfway in her attempt to turn the ignition on.
"Do... you... does... are you... does your hand still hurt?" he stuttered out, pointing to the hand Adam stabbed through. On it, even through the black grime she had quickly accumulated by reattaching the brake caliper, he could see the fresh scar on either side of her palm.
"Uhm, a little, why?" she asked suspicious of him.
"Uhm, how are you? Since that night- you okay? I mean-" he took a deep breath and dropped his shoulders, continuing "I got to talk to Ren about what happened to him, I know how he's handling it, but I haven't asked you yet how your holding up. I've just been watching and you seem as cheerful as usual, like nothing happened, but... it had to be... something to fight Adam from what I've heard. What was it like?"
She grinned like a fool. "It was absolutely terrifying, I was sure I was going to die, or at least would've were it not for Nora."
He in turn frowned. "So what, do you just smile, and, the memory doesn't matter anymore? You took to it very well. Too well."
Her grin then turned around, but spoke softly. "Jaune, we all handle our shit differently. That wasn't the first time I've almost died, and it won't be the last, and the only hope I have of not going insane from the fact that the likelihood of me living to see my twenty fifth birthday is slimming down every day is to make sure I've had a good a time as possible for when I do bite the bullet... or knife... or whatever thing gets me." The corners of her mouth turn once more upward. "Which brings us here. Here's your St. David's Day gift."
"What?" he said dumbly.
"I saw this and thought... well a lot of things actually, one of which was however that we could have a great time with it before we run headlong into not nice things again." She looked confused for a second, then correcting herself said "actually, with these we would be running headlong into not nice things, just in this case the not nice things are walls and guard rails and not scary monsters and psycho killers." She held two thumbs up to give her approval.
"Well, that explains why you 'needed' my help. You could've done this alone but I guess this is a good way of presenting it." He looked her in the eyes when he mouthed the words 'thank you'.
"You're welcome. Now come on! Lets get this party going outside!" she exclaimed happily as she threw off her work clothes and picked up riding gear from the work bench against the wall.
The boy scratched at his light stubble, asking "shouldn't we first run it in here to make sure it runs fine?"
"Naw bro, here put on this helmet! It raining like crazy outside after all!"
Open were the doors to Beacon's foundry, and inside, Ruby found Gorm Crauch the foundry master talking economics with Neptune whom she didn't expect to see, but found it to be a pleasant surprise. "Sup Neptune" she called from across the workshop.
"Hey, not much."
"You and Weiss talking yet?"
"Nope, don't plan to either."
"Fair enough."
"You here to do the mod you were talking about ms. Rose?" asked the older, darkened man.
Slamming her weapon down onto the table beside them she nodded 'yes'. "It's going to be pretty cool Mr. Crauch, a little complicated, but if I can pull it off, it'll be- oh are you kidding!?" she shouted in anger and self disappointment.
"What?" the two men mumbled together.
Her hand drew to her eye, then rubbed her temple. "I forgot the mod in my room, I gotta go get it."
"Don't worry about, I was actually going to go get something from my room, I can pick it up for you" offered Neptune. "What does it look like, does it come in a box?"
"Thanks man, it's in a brown postal gift package box thing right in the open, can't miss it."
"Alright, I'll be back!" said the young man over his shoulder.
"Thanks Neptune! Alright, well I guess while we wait for him, I can dismantle Crescent Rose so we're ready..." she looked to the towering man. "You are helping right? Sometimes I can't tell with you..."
"No I'm helping" he growled kindly in his too masculine voice.
Running through the halls of Beacon, the blue haired boy saw little life, but had to stop on his way to the dorms to see what his best friend and Blake were doing in the garden. Only taking a glance at the scene, he felt gross and quickly moved along. "I feel like I'm being punished for something" gestured Sun. He was set to pose in a lean against a particular stone wall while holding a umbrella like a cane, letting the heavy rain soak deep into his skin while Blake stood under an overhang and painted on her foot tall canvas.
"Come on, it's not that bad" she giggled.
He let out an exaggerated shiver. "I'm a Vacuo boy okay, the most water I ever saw as a kid was in the shower, and even though it's not snowing, it doesn't change the fact that it's forty five degrees out and freaking cold!" He put on a brave face, moaned, complained, laughed, he did whatever to distract himself from the weather.
"Awww, but it's so beautiful... as long as I get that smile just right, this picture will say something along the lines of, 'persistent happiness'. It's neat. Besides, you don't do this and I won't get you your present..." Sun's back straightened and his legs crossed. Blake rolled her eyes, "get your mind out of the gutter" she said, which rewarded her with an angry scowl of a boyfriend whose head literally sat inches from the run off of the roof gutters.
Neptune was somewhat alarmed when he returned to the dorms and instead of the peaceful burrows he left them as, he instead found a storm of passionately debating people raging on about the show 'I Love Nova', a show that Neptune hadn't heard about until just then. Some students tried roping him into the arguments, but he resisted and waded through the crowded halls to his room where he picked up some pre packed sandwiches before heading over to Ruby's room. The door was open yet somehow Weiss was still sleeping up on Ruby's bunk. Thankful for his luck, he walked in and took a quick look around, saw the brown package on the window shelving unit, and took it back with him to the foundry, trying his best to ignore the insanity along the way.
"I personally didn't like the show that much," he heard one girl talk, "I feel it didn't have enough Mr. Willow in it. He was cool, had a real silver fox thing going on."
"He was a pedophile" another girl told her in disbelief.
"He was misunderstood" said the first girl. Neptune made note to avoid her from that point on.
"Hey Neptune? Do you have plans for tonight?" he heard Coco call out from somewhere out of sight. Although the boy kept walking, he still asked why. "Me and some others were going to hang out and get drunk."
"I'll pass."
"I'd like a visitor's pass" requested Pyrrha. She stood at the north side gate to the Vale military center that sat on the south eastern point of the city with a large umbrella that protected her and her presents from the ever falling rain. Today she chose to wear her gifted red cloak over her school top and a pair of Jaune's cleaner jeans, feeling that strutting around with too much skin showing might be inappropriate.
The woman in the booth was busy writing something down on a pad of paper to notice the huntress at first, and started grumbling something unintelligible until she lifted her eyes and discovered that no one other than the famous Pyrrha Nikos. "Oh! Hello Miss Nikos! Visitor's pass?"
"Yes" she nodded.
The gatekeeper typed into her computer beside the notepad. "Purpose of visit?"
"I'd like to deliver these gifts to Vale's first division first and second squads" she said, holding up the two white gift bags.
The gatekeeper smiled, saying "since you are Pyrrha Nikos, I assume I can trust you when you tell me that those bags do not contain explosive devices, prescription medication, or volatile chemicals, and that we don't need to search you?"
"Yes" she smiled back.
"Aright then, just give me a minute here..." she finished typing into the system, filled in a form, then printed out a lamented Visitor's pass that was good until midnight with Pyrrha's name printed in bold along with her picture. Snapping it to a lanyard, she handed it to Pyrrha through underneath the protective glass. "For first division barracks, go straight until you hit the communications tower, turn right, go straight past the administrative buildings, and it'll be the first warehouse looking building on your left. Have a nice visit Miss Nikos."
"Thank you, have a good day!" Following the woman's advice, the champion made her way and watched as jeeps drove around carrying officers, bullpups and what looked like a new atlas line of VTOLs lined up for inspections, and a fresh batch of recruits doing harsh drills under the heel of a grey haired sergeant. Upon reaching the 'cheap warehouse looking buildings', she knocked on the front door only to get no response. Inviting herself in, an unexpected wave of noise spilled out, lots of talking, hard rock blaring, and exercise equipment being tossed around. Inside was twelve bunkbeds to accommodate twenty four soldiers, six lining each wall starting at the entrance to the two thirds mark of the barrack; the first three squads of first division, eight people each squad, each person donning baggy gray cargo pants and black tank tops; weight lifts sitting at the back of the barracks along with miscellaneous toys and a gas heater, tables covered in playing cards down the middle along mismatching corse thread rugs, and a notably out of place book shelf at the door; two green footlockers back to back sitting at the foot of every bunkbed; a body harness hanging from each bed rack equipped with either a bandolier or two magazines, a long gun be it a type of rifle or a shotgun, a side arm pistol or even a second long gun, and a melee weapon in a standardized sheathe; and finally torn red banners nailed crudely to along the ceiling for a celebratory feel. While she took a moment to recognize a portion of the faces and take in the view, everyone immediately recognized her.
"Eyyyyy! Pyrrha our girl!" shouted squad leader Hazel from the back of the barracks. The fact that he was batting a hardball repeatedly into a greatly dented patch of wall did not go unnoticed to Pyrrha. "What brings you here!?" As he said this, half a dozen men got up and started towards Pyrrha while everyone else went on with their business.
Once more she lifted the two gift bags, this time pulling the contents out for display. With her she carried four one liter bottles of hard liquor, each bottle a different poison. Someone she didn't recognize tried grabbing a bottle from her but failed when she pulled it back and out of reach saying "no no no now, you have to promise to open them on St. David's Day, otherwise it's not festive" in a playful tone.
"Ah Pyrrha, you traditional piece of shit!" faux moaned one of the people of first squad.
Hazel sat down at the closest table to the champion, scooting over two guys who were playing poker. "Come sit young lil' missy, we have some catching up to do!"
"Actually, I'm sorry it took so long, but..." she put down the bottles on the table and reached behind her back and underneath her robe and drew the custom twelve shot revolver that Hazel had lent her during the siege on the White Fang hideout. "This is yours." She sat down, and within moments she was surrounded by fifteen or so people, only six of which she recognized.
The tall sharpshooter drew a quick breath of cigar smoke, blew it out his nose, then took back the gun while laughing "I forgot what my second holster was for! Thought I was going crazy!"
"Thought you already were sir!" said the one name Higgins. They all laughed.
"Real quick, before I forget, how's Weiss?" asked one of the unfamiliar faces, though Pyrrha though she had heard his voice before.
"Wait, aren't you the..." she stopped, thought, then snapped her finger, "wait! You wore the two face helmet! Right?"
"Ah she does remember" the darker young man retorted.
"Yeah, so, how do you know about Weiss?"
A brown haired man of equal age bumped the other's shoulder, "Diel here had a two month long internship program thing at the hospital in town and he told us about when your friend got stabbed through with her own sword. This guy here was the one who kept her alive long enough for them to fix her up!"
"Well I'll make sure she knows who she indebted to when I get back to Beacon. So, what crazy things have you guys gotten into?"
They all laughed again. "Crazy shit, you're gonna love hearing this" boasted the mountain of a man Samson, who yes, was named after Samson the Reclaimer he said before Pyrrha could ask the question.
3:00 p.m.
"Alright! You only dumped the bike twice and now you have the hang of it!" applauded Yang loudly so that Jaune could hear her through the sound of the beating rain and his engine revving and his insulated helmet. "Let's get some gas, and I'll lead you around town!" The two of them were still in the parking lot of the mini garage facility, but were ready to go now that the knight had learned to shift, brake, and accelerate reasonably.
"Alright, where are you thinking of going after we get gas?" he asked, somewhat giddy and excited.
She put on her gear and pulled her bumblebee up next to his silver grey bike, then pointed to her helmet. "Look, this is pretty cool, both of our helmets have short range radio that is tuned to a certain radio station I like, but if you say anything, it acts as a two way radio with my helmet. The uh, switch is on the left side to turn it on."
Searching with his fingers around the left part of his chin, he found a little plastic slider that moved easy enough and started picking up Yang's supposed radio station, of which was in the middle of a fresh boy band song. "Really Yang?" he said, shocked though when he heard his voice echo in Yang's helmet.
She laughed as she shook her head, stating "I like the station, just not every single song that it plays, okay? So! Are we ready to go?" He heard her voice twice, once muffled and a second time crackly from the radio.
"Yep, lead the way Yang oh fearless leader."
"Alright, here we go!" The click and sudden jerk of her bike signaled her switching to first gear and the pur of the bike picked up volume as she pulled out of the parking lot and into the clear streets as everyone was using the highways that ran over Jaune and Yang's heads. Jaune followed suit and while his initial shift and acceleration made a gut wrenching banging sound from improper clutch work, he rode out onto the street as well and quickly picked up his speed to thirty five miles per hour. He laughed as a funny sensation ran through his feet and hands, something about sitting on what amounts to a seat with two wheels and effortlessly speeding up to a speed faster than anything a normal person could hope to acheive by running, and the sensation of this fast seat that could lean over but will pull itself straight back up, and then the glee experience when turning the throttle and watching as the asphalt underneath goes whizzing by inches from your feet. Then Yang had him hit his first real turn at speed at the first intersection.
"What took you so long Neptune?" Ruby asked halfheartedly as she lowered a drill press onto her new muzzle compensator block, which was still a steel silver color. Gorm Crauch simply sat and rummaged through a drawer for carbon coated bolts and appropriate thread taps.
"The cafeteria was selling their old stock at ten percent the original price. I got you guys some chips and cookies that are only a few weeks expired." He put down the brown gift package onto the oily table top along with paper bags fill with foods.
Ruby chuckled. "Pfft, cookies don't expire for a long time, too much sugar." They didn't speak for the thirty some seconds where the metal cries of the drilled metal overpowered everyone's voices.
Crauch smeared black on his face as he itched his beard, muttering to himself "I know chip don't expire, but I'm pretty sure the same doesn't apply to cookies kid."
The youngest of them stepped to Neptune's side and thoughtlessly reached into one of the paper bags and stuffed her mouth with the first thing resembling a circle, spraying crumbs everywhere as she said something about something, totally unintelligible. She then took the brown gift package and popped the lid off and dumped the contents onto the black stained wood of the workbench, still smeared with black oil and red grease. But instead of seeing metal bits and pieces scattered across the table, the three of them gawked as black laced lingerie unfolded onto the tabletop, Ruby choking on her mouthful of food and spraying even more wet crumbs onto the mess. A second later they then all burst into a fit of laughter.
"What the actual fuck?" wailed Neptune through a shortage of breath, "I guess I got the wrong box!"
"I would say so, yes you did boy!"
"You sure you, heh heh, you went into my room, right?" asked Ruby.
"Yeah, Weiss was asleep on your bunk, which was weird because there was a lot of hallway traffic and arguing going on."
"Hmm, I guess this must be... Blake's I guess" she hit another snag of giggles.
Both men raised a brow. "You think so?" asked the younger.
"I'm not certain, but it's not mine- well I'm certain it's not mine, but it's not mine, Yang prefers white and tan colors-"
"-You mean like ivory and peach?"
"-Yeah whatever, and Weiss doesn't need a bra, so-"
Crauch's one hand slammed down on the table and the other was held to his mouth to badly suppress the laughter and Neptune was clapping, howling "it's true! It's true!"
They laughed some more, and once they settled down a bit just enough to catch their breath, a look at the pile of lingerie would set them off again. Eventually, Ruby looked at the postage stamp on the lid for clues. "Hmm. Doesn't say where it's from, just that it's to this Beacon P.O. box, so... whatever, I'll just put it back in the room and find mine. I'll be back quickly."
"Okay, have fun kid."
"Oh wait!" Ruby stopped before she began, "hey Neptune, I finished drilling this out, you wanna carbon coat it for me while I'm off?"
He didn't hesitate to take the surprisingly light clump of metal from her, but had to ask "uh, I do that with, uh..." he spun in a circle and zeroed in on a machine in the corner, "that thing, right?"
"Yeah" said the foundry master, "but you're going to need to refill it first."
"Oh, and round out this edges real quick too on the grinder, I don't want it chipping." Her instructions done, she sprinted off and out of the foundry. Then turned around and came back, grabbed the box of lingerie, then left again. She took a shortcut and went outside, jumped up onto a nearby roof, and made a beeline for her dorm. Stuffing the package into her hood and making use of her speed semblance, Ruby zipped along any flat she could touch her feet to before launching from a running jump, at one point passing right over the heads of Blake and Sun in a courtyard garden.
"So uh, using water colors in the rain, we're real smart" commented Sun as he stroked a thin brush of black paint across Blake's cheek. They sat cross legged on a bench facing each other, the girl's eyes closed as the other had his fun making patterns.
"I guess I'll just have to stay out of the rain then" smiled the faunus girl.
"I could say something right now, but I'm not" grinned the monkey.
She couldn't decide whether to scowl or smile, but said "now that's smart."
Ruby found herself atop her dorm room building fairly quickly. Knowing which window was the one to her dorm, she got to her knees and climbed over the edge of the roof, dangling directly above her target with only her hands gripping the wet and slippery concrete edging. Assuring herself she was lined up, a look downwards threw her off balance just enough for her fingers to slip, a single whisper escaping her mouth as she fell backwards, "shit." Speeding past her window, a boost of semblance upwards gave her just the right distance to grab onto the decorative stone below her window that once allowed Neptune entrance in. Barely managing to get her knees up onto the edge, she let out a sigh of relief when her window opened without resistance and allowed her to finally get in. She paid no attention to the mess she tracked in, closed the window, dropped the package from her hood onto the window shelving unit, reached under her bed for her actual package, and patted the still sleeping Weiss on the head. Deciding against making more of a ruckus, she took the hallway which was, contrary to what Neptune said, empty with the sole exception of Coco, whom was carrying a crate filled with beer to her room. "Mind if I ask what that's about?"
"Nope, you're too young. See ya" shot back Coco as she hurried along.
The young girl's eyebrows flicked up for a moment before returning to a sated state. However, just being mildly curious, Ruby checked into JNPR's room to see if anyone had returned. Sure enough, Ren and Nora sat with their backs to a bed as they watched something on the relatively untouched portable TV. "Hey guys, what'cha watching?"
Neither of their eyes moved to meet hers when they answered "I Love Nova," irking Ruby a bit in the process.
"Oh, uh, that's... interesting." They didn't seem at all interested in her presence, which in turn gave the curious girl an idea. "Hey, can I see your scrolls real quick?"
"Knock yourself out" said Nora after her and Ren tossed their precious scrolls behind their heads and onto the bed they leaned on.
Taking the chance before they changed their mind, Ruby scrambled onto the bed and opened up the scrolls, searching the history tab on both only to find both clean and clear. Ruby was further perplexed.
After hearing some tales for a bit, Pyrrha felt confident in her ability to name each member of the first two squads within the barracks, people who she was becoming good friends with at a rapid pace. Starting with the squad she met first when she and Mercury fought a year before on St. David's Day there was squad leader and their sharpshooter, the tall, eccentric, and laid back Hazel; combat medic Kringle, old and gaunt like, yet stern; heavy rifleman Samson with a boisterous attitude to match his massive frame; riflemen Higgins, Remarque, and Wash, the first a smaller man and gleeful counter to the taller and more stoic second, and Wash sitting comfortably in the middle; and the assaults Patic and Wilms, the former a keen eyed card player with hints of sadness because of his old friends Cage's death back at the White Fang's hideout raid, and the latter the newest member of first squad and the most timid soldier in the barrack.
Second squad she didn't know as well, but was showed the symbols they took on that they drew with chalk onto their black full face helmets, which turned out to be their nicknames. Their squad leader was Dusk Gaz who donned the skull helmet, Hese Albus Diel, a name Pyrrha immediately gave up remembering, was the medic who took on the two face helmet, Isaac Slate with the crying eyes, the woman favored a cat face, their sniper bared fangs, the pyro specialist enjoyed a helmet with a blank expression in the form of a straight horizontal line for a lip and two unequaled sized dots for eyes, the scary looking man drew a simple 'x' on his mask, and the squad's butt monkey sketched a smiley face. Rather simply, they went by Twoface, Cry, Cat, Fang, Blank, X, and Smiley respectively, Dusk being the exception as he was referred to as 'sir'.
There was one mask however that she remembered back during the raid that she didn't see anywhere now, which made her nervous to ask about as it didn't seem like a question to bring up while everyone was having a good time. The opportunity presented itself eventually though when the combined two tables of soldiers switched focus from Pyrrha to just messing around again, allowing the champion to ask Dusk privately about the crow face soldier.
"Oh that guy?" he said nonchalantly, "yeah that was huntsmen Qrow, he was undercover or something. He's fine."
"Oh!" chirped a relieved Pyrrha. "Qrow huh? I feel like I've heard that name before."
"Beats me, guy never said a word to us, though he seemed to like his alcohol."
Patic flipped his cards over and leaned back lazily, calling out his cards "three of a kind and a pair, I win." This was met with many moans and a few laughs. "Hey Pyrrha, you should come to our barracks party for David's day, we'll drink your things, we'll do some batting, light up a tree with lighter fluid, we'll call up some strippers..."
Her cheeks turning a hue redder she responded with Yang in mind, "well I could just give you my friend's number, but I don't think she would appreciate the notion very much."
They all laughed. "She's funny" someone said, but Patic just grinned while he shuffled the card deck.
"I don't know though, I'll definitely be hanging out with my friends, so wherever they'll be, I'll be."
"Not that it matters" said Samson, "but do you think you know where your friends are now?"
She tapped her nose a few times, pondering. "Knowing recent events, probably relaxing."
4:00 p.m.
Following behind Yang, Jaune raced along the twisting highways, bobbing and weaving their way through the slower traffic. At ninety mph, the wind beat their bikes around like a ship in a tsunami and at times pulled viciously their helmets up and down and side to side, the rain slammed hard enough for Jaune to reconsider his definition of 'pelting' and both were completely soaked through, the noise was so loud that they couldn't hear the screaming of their engines but just the radio and all the forms of water surrounding them, and the mist and spray kicked up by the regular traffic made even the red brake lights two seconds ahead of them invisible. Rain ran across Jaune's visor, obscuring his vision only slightly as the wind immediately blew it off. Before they knew it, some cars were following behind them, but they weren't cops, they were daily drivers who were getting excited.
"Hey Jaune" Yang spoke, "I say we push it harder."
If one looked at his current state, leaning the bike precariously as he raced past pedestrian cars, his body stiff with only his coat tails and his jean's ankle cuffs buzzing erratically in the wind like a jigsaw, head locked forward, it might appear he was focused and in the zone. That wouldn't be inaccurate. His eyes never averted from in front of him, and he was in a groove of sorts, but he was also giddy and shaking wildly, shivering even, this speed and danger irrelevant to combat was unique and truly delectable. At Yang's suggestion he didn't hesitate to answer "yes."
An electric guitar signaled the start to a new song, setting the two motorcyclists off like hot bullets. They went from ninety to one-twenty quickly, Jaune maxing out as he was in his top gear and the throttle was opened all the way.
The woman singing the song sang "All the gold, and guns, in the world, couldn't get you off.
All the gold, and the guns, and the girls, couldn't get you off.
All the boys, all the choices in the world~!"
Their engines screamed, and the red and blue lights of the police set off in pursuit of the two racers.
"I remember when we were gambling to win, everybody else said better luck next time,
I don't wanna bend, let the bad girls bend, I just wanna be your friend, is it ever gonna be enough?~" The last line repeated several times over, and echoed even more in the teenager's minds. 'Is it ever gonna be enough?' was the question indeed, as Jaune kept sacrificing any remaining illusion of safety to keep up with Yang, such as riding in between lanes to remove horizontal travel and hugging his bike even harder and closer to lessen his air resistance. The chasing cars were lost to the white mists. The bike felt like it was about to explode.
"All the lace, and the skin, in the shop, couldn't get you off~" Back in a courtyard garden, Sun had Blake pinned against a wall with his lips to hers and a hand crawling under her shirt.
"All the toys, and the tools, in the box, couldn't get you off~" Back in the foundry, Ruby drilled a small hole into her rifle frame just below the firing chamber.
"All the noise, all the voices never stop~" Back in Vacuo, Roman walked away from the deal with a briefcase filled with money in hand and his cargo stayed behind.
Jaune and Yang came up behind a truck and passed it on either side, but before they could get out of it's way, some gravel fell from it's hold and pegged Jaune's helmet, cracking the visor. With the force similar to that of a bullet hitting his head, he almost lost his balance, the gray bike wobbling terribly. Fortunately he saved it, though fell behind Yang some ways. "You're not getting away from me" he whispered, afraid that his breath would somehow make him lose balance again, though it only took him a moment to realize that the water spraying into his helmet was an actual concern.
The song hit it's last segment, the lines "Is it ever gonna be enough" and "more and more, more and more" were layered together and repeated over and over, somehow convincing the speeding knight to not stop. Yang's tail light was still barely visible ahead of him, and it's motions gave him fore warning of the turns ahead. He scooted his rear even further back on the seat and tucked his chin onto the gas tank and leveled out his feet, leaning hard right when the long curved section of the highway came up. The asphalt flew by an inch from his right foot toes, and the entire bike shivered like it's rider, the elements stacking against its efforts. Water continued to fill his helmet and shot up his nose, making so that Jaune had to cough to keep up breathing at all. Removing his attention enough from the road, he didn't notice the car he was coming up behind quickly enough for him to work around it, and instead hit the front brakes. The bike straightened up from it's lean with a shudder and lost traction with the road. "Shit" he whispered. Before Jaune could tell what was happening, his flying body set his line of sight went from looking down at the road to looking at the headlights of the cars he past to the white sky and then back to seeing the tail lights, that is before he touched back down to earth. Luckily for him, the highway had just straightened out from it's curve, making it so that his trajectory lined him up to follow the shoulder mostly, unluckily that didn't changed that he was launched from his bike at a hundred and fifteen mph. He bounced several times over as his shoulders and knees hit the ground before sliding on his back with a clockwise spin on his body. From his perspective he got a 720 degree view of the highway, this time noticing his bike sliding just behind him. The back of his head and shoulders hit the point of the road where the ground meets the concrete barriers, and acted as a extreme brake to his sliding, but was then countered when the heavier motorcycle slammed into Jaune's feet with it's headlight and the wheels rolled against the barrier. Almost standing on the front of the bike, he folded his arms and waited out the momentum that carried them onwards. Jaune passed out once he came to a complete stop.
"...ecked the bike. Oh, you awake?" he opened his eyes to Yang standing over him. She still had her glasses and helmet, and actually was sitting on her bike seat with one elbow resting on her gas tank.
"Fuck, what?" he mumbled incoherently. He looked around himself, every movement causing extreme pain. First thing was first, "is there a pool of blood anywhere?" he asked through his non-existent visor.
Yang clicked her tongue and examined him from her bike, saying "nope, do you think you broke anything?"
"I don't think so. Sorry I crashed your bike by the way" Jaune moaned, dropping his head onto the ground.
She waved her hands dismissively, saying "as long as you're okay you tough bastard. Besides, it's your bike. Ready to go home?"
"Uhhhhhhh... pain... it was fun, I can't lie about that, but... yeah. Let's go home." He weakly lifted an arm before dropping it down again.
"Okay, but let me real quick call the tow truck."
"Okay, so explain this to me, what is this weapon mod exactly?" Neptune asked the small girl as she took measurements of the receiver box.
Without diverting her attention from her disassembled Crescent Rose, she explained "I'm making it so that when my weapon here is in it's scythe form, it retains its locomotive recoil, but when I have it in gun form, it's recoil is dissipated so that I can reasonably use it as an actual gun."
"Wow you're boring" teased the blue haired boy. "Are you getting tired of having to stab it into the ground overtime?"
She reached for another stale cookie. "It's just more practical, I mean what would happen if I got caught in a fight in a tight hallway? Bad news is what you know."
"I was just giving you shit" he chuckled, then dumped the crumbs of his potato chips directly into his mouth.
"Anyways, yeah, I got a new muzzle compensator and drilled two directions of holes in it; one so that the escaping gases amplify the recoil and the other so that it brings the recoil force down. The sliders I was working on acts as a valve gate for the different holes. When Crescent Rose is collapsed, the slider is shoved forward and closes the forward port and leaves the rear port open, lessening recoil while drawing it out into scythe form pulls the slider back and the escaping gases aid recoil."
"Okay, what about what you're working on now?" he asked, pointing to the assembly behind the firing chamber and scope where the black ring use to be.
"I'm installing a selective blow back receiver, which will absorb recoil only when the whole weapon is collapsed. Later I'm going to come in and rework it so that I can have three modes of firing, but for now the two will have to do."
"She's going the distance on this weapon, and I can respect that" Crauch commented, "I would enjoy my job a fair bit more if I had to deal with more people like her rather than the little shits I get normally that build their weapons then leave it at that, break them, and leave them for me to fix."
Ruby's eyes lit up. "Wait! Neptune, can I see your scroll?" she asked. He handed his scroll over hesitantly, and sighed heavily when she grabbed it and immediately left black fingerprints on the white casing. "Okay, some one needs to explain this to me" she asserted with some frustration, tossing the scroll back to it's owner, "why is it that every person's history that I've seen is completely blank when I check it?" Crauch and Neptune looked to each other briefly with brows raised. "I know I've seen you guys use the internet, so why is everyone's history always clear? I don't get it?"
Neptune cleared his voice, "uhm, well, if you don't clear the history your scroll slows down-"
"Yeah no, I didn't clear my history once in the three years I've had my scroll, and while it slowed it down, yes, it still worked. That means the scrolls shouldn't slow down for a good while, so why does everyone seem to compulsively clear it when there is no real need to?"
"Well you see..." Crauch slowly spoke, obviously uncomfortable, "I'm going to tell you a secret, but you didn't hear it from me, otherwise I might get in trouble." Neptune took a step back, and Ruby leaned in. "Porn" he said.
At first, Ruby's face remained neutral, then went through a myriad of gestures and emotions that ended with her hands pulling at her hair, bemoaning "Ew! And I touched all of those scrolls! Neptune! You! I ate the cookies you touched!"
The boy looked offended. "Okay, first" he held up a single finger, "every guy does it, don't look at me like that. Second," a second finger arose, "grow up, I wash my hands. And third," his thumb stuck out as the third, "You've been covered head to toe in blood-" Crauch's face lit up with a blend of worry and surprise, "-so I don't see why some private germs are a big deal... oh yeah, and fourth, those cookies were expired anyways." Neptune tilted his head to dodge the wrench thrown at his face.
5:00 p.m.
It being the middle of winter, nightfall consumed the town in the blink of a eye, and the lights of the city were only now coming on. Jaune limped alongside Yang as they went up the cliff face walk way up to Beacon, their footsteps three inches deep in running water. A look over the water to Vale and they could see that the harbor was about to spill into the lower streets, something that made them both appreciate the high ground they lived on. While it wasn't silent by any means in their walk home, the two teenagers were too busy looking at the waterfalls and flooding around them to talk, at least until Yang finally spoke about what she had on her mind.
"Jaune, can I tell you something?" she asked, her voice vulnerable.
"Yeah sure, what is it?" He tried sounding supportive and confident, but he was scared by the possible routes this conversation could take.
"I feel alone..." Yang sighed.
It wasn't what he was expecting. "Oh. Why?"
Another sigh. "It's just, Blake's been super close to Sun, Ruby avoids socializing as much as she seeks it out if that makes sense, Weiss has been distant, and I guess, I don't know, I feel like everyone's got a certain... someone, but I feel like I've got- I mean, if everyone is with their someone, I'm left the odd one out." She looked to and fro while she said this, and whenever he saw her eyes they pleaded for help. "I guess I just wanted to hang out with someone one on one for a change. Who wasn't Blake. Don't worry by the way, I'm not going to steal you from Pyrrha or whatever."
"If I may ask, why me though?" He tried not to sound conceited or self absorbed, but he felt he needed to know why.
"That's easy, I obviously can't talk to Blake about it, Weiss and Ruby wouldn't be impressed by my non-fatal issues, Ren and Nora are kinda exclusive to each other, and Pyrrha I think would just be too nice about it." They chuckled. "I imagined you would have listened."
"Well, how do you feel now that you've gotten to hang out?"
A sigh. "Still lonely. And stupid. I can't believe I pushed you into crashing."
He fluttered his hand. "I enjoyed today. I think that it actually stomped out the rest of my motion sickness. As gifts go it was pretty cool."
"Thanks, but... I feel like I'm still missing out on something. Something besides the obvious." She ran a hand through her wet hair that stuck to her black leather jacket.
"Is there anyone you like? You can talk to me about it if you want. Maybe I could help you if I knew."
Her finger wrapped a lock of hair around itself, but once she thought about his question, it dropped the lock. "No. Not really."
"What about, uhm, how about Sage?"
"Barely talk to the guy."
"Uhm, I guess Scarlet isn't your type, uh... just making sure, you are into guys right?" he asked boldly. She returned a stern look. "I don't know what thats supposed to mean" he told her honestly.
"Jaune, you don't need to play matchmaker. Besides, you did good today, you gave this girl a good time."
The knight's face contorted. "It sounds bad when you say it like that. Look, I have an idea." He stepped ahead and turned to face her with arms wide open. "I think you might need it." She laughed. Shrugging as if to say 'why not', she opened up her arms and stepped into his embrace. They wrapped their arms around each other, and stood for a bit. He petted her hair affectionately and rubbed her back. While their clothes were wet and by no means warm, the space where they met felt much warmer then the wind and rain the rest of their bodies endured. He squeezed as a invitation for her to do the same, an invitation she took and almost crushed him with though luckily he resisted the urge to cough or let go. "See, you deserve this." When they separated, he patted the top of her shoulder once more and asked "you feel better?"
A look to the ground before raising back up again, she smiled and answered "yeah, I do actually. Thanks bro."
"No problem. Now lets go and see what fantastical trouble our teammates have gotten into." The knight held out his arm, of which the brawler wrapped her own around, and up the steps they continued. "Wow, I'm getting flashbacks right now. If we see any strangers when we get to the top, I suggest we run. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
"Oh look at that" said Ruby as she was packing up her gear. A look at her scroll showed that the council of Vale issued a evacuation order. "Hey guys, the water front of Vale is flooding. People in that area are being relocated to higher ground."
"Well shit son, the last time that happened I was still a boy" Crauch commented calmly. "It should be fine really. People get a little antsy, but once the water recedes it'll be fine."
Ruby smiled maliciously. "Hey Neptune, wanna go for a walk on the beach?"
"How about a 'no'?"
12:01 a.m.
"Wow, look at the time" yawned Pyrrha, checking her scroll. "Oh, I got a message from Glynda?" She sat with the rest of team JNPR and team RWBY minus Weiss in the former team's room watching 'I Love Nova' when she received the message.
"What's it say?" asked Jaune.
She pulled her hair back into a ponytail when she said "I'm supposed to meet her and Ozpin in his office apparently. I guess I'll be back guys."
"This is probably a good point to stop watching then" yawned Ren. Everyone else started yawning too as they stood up to change for bed.
Ruby was the first to the door. "Yeah, sleeping sounds like a plan. Goodnight guys." She let Pyrrha out first before crossing the hall to her room and opened the door to an interesting smell. She walked in a little and switched on the lights, almost shrieking when she looked to Weiss's bunk to find Coco, Sage, and Cardin asleep and naked underneath the covers based on the articles of clothing on the floor. Blake and Yang had similar reactions, all of them mostly furious at the fact that the three delinquents chose their room to take the after party. Feeling too tired to 'deal with this shit' as Yang put it, they pulled out the blankets from the bed and wrapped up the three now apparently drunk and passed out scandals, and dragged them out into the hallway still in the blankets, threw their clothing out the door, and locked it shut. Once that was handled, Ruby was the first to point out that Weiss was still asleep. "Weiss, you still asleep?" she asked loudly. No response.
"How is she still asleep? She's been up there for like twelve hours or something" postured Yang.
A chord of fear played within their team leader, prompting her to jump onto the bed and start shaking the heiress while calling saying her name. Blake and Yang looked to each other worried. When she didn't respond, Ruby started shaking harder and got louder.
"What?" the girl mumbled then coughed.
The other three let out a deep sigh of relief. "Oh thank all that is sacred" Ruby panted, "you've been asleep for like, forever Weiss, and three people had sex in your bed, why didn't you wake up?"
Her eyes were still fluttering and confused, and her tone gruffly. "I took some medication for a headache I had, and it put me to sleep- wait what? What about my bed?" She sat up, obviously disoriented.
"Never mind" the brawler said, "just sleep with Ruby tonight is all."
"Okay, but first, I need to eat something..."
For the next ten minutes, team RWBY did their night time business before lights out. Weiss ate some food and got real pajamas on, Ruby took a shower, Yang changed, and Blake opened up her package to find the black lingerie she ordered covered in crumbs and reeking of dirty oil. She was less than pleased with Ruby.
Cinder lowered her White Fang mask over her face and pulled up her hood. Mercury and twenty others stepped up behind her, fully clothed and armed. Together they stood on the corner of a street and faced one of the few shelters that was housing the evacuated citizens, with more still filing into it.
"Must be almost a thousand of them in there" Mercury mused. "Leave a few alive?"
Cinder laughed. "There are plenty of cameras inside. Leave those intact. Oh and the faunus too of course."
"Lets get to work then" growled a enthusiastic radical White Fang fighter. Thus began the start of a new time.
-End Chapter 25-
Are you guys ready?