Steam
The two teens walked out of the cafe, Jaune lifting his sights up to the sky and briefly taking a sniff of the salty scent of the docks in the area.
"That was a nice place, good call Cro. Not a bad brunch for our last one in Vale, don't you think?"
"It was," he replied leisurely as they walked along, "But it was a bummer we couldn't get rooftop seating. Would've been nice."
"Mm. Maybe next time."
Jaune glanced at his partner, the young woman sporting a cream colored puff sleeve blouse tucked in a pair of high-waisted trouser short shorts with a black butterfly bow tie under the standard collar. With every step, her knee-high brown leather lace-up boots clacked against the asphalt with their high heels, the rest of her legs covered with sheer black pantyhose between the boots and shorts. It was a good look, he had to admit, and she looked the part of a city girl with her tote in one hand and her forest green vest coat draped over the other arm.
"Really couldn't get rid of that bowler hat, could you?"
Amber scoffed in mock offense, making a scandalized face as she retorted, "And throw away the item which drew the first compliment from my dear partner? What gall!"
Jaune rolled his eyes.
Never even said that compliment out loud.
It is the 'thought' that counts.
Jaune closed his eyes, biting down a chuckle as she laughed at her own joke. Unable to hold back a small smile, he opened them to see that she had procured the key card to their condo from the upscale district they'd called home for the past few days.
"For what it's worth, I'll miss this place, though… Ugh, I just can't believe…"
Jaune caught her frown as she could no longer finish her sentence, feeling saddened as she sullenly handed the card over to him as if she couldn't bear the feel of it between her fingers any longer.
"Ammie, I'm really sorry for the mix up with the name. I should've thought twi-"
"...I just can't believe we rented out a whole month that we won't use anymore! Three weeks wasted, Cro! Do you know how much lien that is? Out the window?"
Jaune deadpanned at her tirade, all traces of sadness gone from her features as her only eye visible under her bowler hat and the other behind tufts of hair were practically glowing with righteous fury.
"Y'know… considering the things you choose to complain about at times like these, I'm starting to think I was getting the wrong idea of who was the real airhead back at Mountain Glenn…"
Amber gasped, lifting a fist in Jaune's face with narrowed eyes as she leveled him with a glare and an angered pout.
"You, take, that, back! I refuse to be placed at the same level as that Boobzilla!"
"Oh, c'mon! You're making a big deal over a couple hundred lien. We both know the price they gave us for that condo in the first place was a steal. We were lucky to be there during their slow season this time of year."
"Well you can't blame a girl for being thrifty, Cro!" she countered matter-of-factly, raising her arms as she continued just as hotly, And the only 'stealing' going on here is by my apparent alter ego which caused all this in the first place!
Well technically… we caused it. By blowing up that one guy's club.
Oh, PLEASE. I bet that sort of thing happens all the time!
Jaune huffed at her clearly obvious exaggeration, though glad to see that this major inconvenience of the past thirty hours or so hadn't done too much to dull her spirits. He glanced down at the card in his hand, the stylized script and Vale skyline highlighted along the background as he mused on how nice it would've been to enjoy such opulence for an entire month.
To top it off, Amber had turned out to be quite the awesome roommate… despite her quirks. Or maybe because of her quirks? He was still having trouble deciding on that last part.
Hey.
His train of thought put on hold, Jaune looked up to see that his partner had already calmed herself down for some time already, a brown eye leisurely observing him as he walked along, brooding on his own.
So what you wanna do for the next few hours?
Jaune shrugged.
I dunno, beats me. Race to Forever Fall and back a couple times or something? Mm, maybe best of fifty wins.
A glint of mischievous amusement twinkled in her eye, the eye itself and even the other hidden under tufts of brown hair soon glowing with Maiden energy. In the next split second, each teen took several concurrent glances around them for any cameras nearby before flashing each other twin grins.
"You're on!"
Cackling with electricity and practically blinking out of existence, only a small condo card was seen fluttering along the tailwind and settling down on the sidewalk as another pair of teens walked out the same cafe toward the sidewalk.
"So whatcha wanna do in the meantime? Catch a flick? Find a mall? I'm kinda looking for a place, too. We can maybe check some hotels while we're at it. Can you spare sixty lien?"
"Sun."
"Yes, Blakey?"
"Don't you think questions are more effective when the other person has a chance to reply to them first?"
"Bold of you to assume I know what 'effective' even means."
"..."
"I'm kidding! That was a joke! Yeesh, tough crowd. Hey, you think they serve pizza this early in town?"
"Sun, we just ate."
"Yeah well y'know, all this heart to heart over our cups of coffee earlier and the getting to know each other stuff really works up an appetite, and this six pack won't feed itself," he continued as the young woman rolled her eyes at his inability to tell she'd been drinking tea the whole time, "I know cuz Sage says constant snacking is great for metabolism and if Sage says it then it has to be true an- ooh, lookie here…"
Sun paused for a moment to reach down for a card along the sidewalk, acrobatically hoisting himself forward with a flick of his tail to nimbly catch up to his quiet companion who'd continued walking forward without him. Flipping his scroll out of his hand, he quickly typed in a few numbers from the back of this interesting-looking room key only for his eyes to widen upon realizing what the key unlocked.
As well as the fact that said condo said key unlocked had already been paid for all the way through until the next semester… it, it was a sign. It had to be! The universe was smiling on this wandering minstrel from Mistral today!
Quickly regaining awareness of where he was, Sun flinched with a wide look askance and furtively tucked the card away when he realized Blake was still not paying attention to him. At least it'd been sort of fun while it lasted.
"Well! Uh, brunch was nice… and would ya know it, looks like I did forget I had a little something to attend to!" he noted cheerily, his awkwardly nervous tone still quite evident to the ex-operative but brushed off just as easily even as he started heading due north in the opposite direction of the docks, "We'll have to catch up someday! Maybe next semester? I'll save you a pizza!"
"Uh-"
"Bye!"
Blake watched as the simian faunus simply high-tailed it away, only blinking for a second before letting out a small sigh and continuing toward the docks. It really had been nice of him to stick around for the past day or so, though his company at times had become quite obnoxious, but it was obvious he meant well by it. She'd even wanted to thank him before his departure, but it only stood to reason that from his perspective, it wouldn't exactly be a difficult choice to make to leave her side should better prospects arise.
She'd simply been momentarily surprised by how instant such a snap decision had been for the guy when it came down to it.
"Well… it's not like I'm the life of the party, myself."
However, such truths didn't bother her one bit. She walked on, temporarily checking her scroll which had buzzed for perhaps the third time in the past hour. The sender was not surprising in the least.
=𐊔=
YANG
Team: RWBY
Fireballin17
MSG: Blake, again? Seriously, do u really have to go AWOL on us every weekend? I get it, what happened in initiation was hard on all of us, but for the last time it's not ur fault, ok!? Goodwitch will crap bricks if Weiss tattles about u skipping on weekend team activities to play cops and robbers on ur own again!
ᙿᙿᙿᙿᙿ
Blake silently huffed at the message's content, wondering how they never seemed to understand that bringing up initiation like that at every turn only drove the dagger even deeper into her heart. It's like they never realized she wasn't very extrovertive to begin with, and had automatically ascribed every anti-social tendency she exhibited over the past few months to her feelings about what'd happened that fateful day.
Though... in honesty, they weren't exactly wrong, either. This was supposed to be a new life; no more screw-ups, no more needless deaths.
Even so, they needn't look further than the only 3-person team among the first years - PRN, or Persimmon - to know that she wasn't the only one duly affected by what'd happened. Blake set herself to typing a quick reply now that her ever-present companion of the past day or so had flown the coop.
=𐊔=
BlakeBelladonna
RE: Yang. Does it really not occur to you how strange it is that no one of greater authority than local detectives has yet to step in with all these Dust robberies going on as of late? Roman Torchwick clearly has Aura, but not a single Huntsman has been assigned to intercept his operations. Yet the moment the very same perpetrator blows up a single shabby club in the name of 'justice', now everyone and their mothers are suddenly out to apprehend him?
ᙿᙿᙿᙿᙿ
Blake watched her partner's profile image next to the text conversation flash green to show she had come online practically instantly upon receipt of the message. The next slew of messages back and forth practically continued in real time, sent and received while the other was still typing.
=𐊔=
Fireballin17
MSG: No no, that deflection wont work this time. Don't get me wrong, I love ur dedication girl, but this is driving Ruby insane and THAT'S where I draw the line. U been going on about Torchwick for a week and ya can't keep using injustice and inequality in the world as an excuse to be cold and distant forever. We all know ur just tryna distract urself from what happened last November and it's not healthy!
RE: Well Ruby would know better than most about how off these events regarding Roman are, and my personality has nothing to do with it! She's the one who said Roman had help from someone to get away when she crossed him last year, and whoever is with him now is either working with that woman, or helping Roman get *away* from her… didn't you get the VNN link I sent this morning!?
MSG: Well, yeah… Ruby's watched it practically a hundred times this morning. We still can't really believe our eyes either, but the eyewitness testimonies about his name and that pic you sent us a little while ago from that one dinky bar… practically confirms it. That might actually be Qrow, a Huntsman who teaches at Patch Academy… aka, our uncle.
RE: Well see!? At least SOMEONE'S trying to do something about all this!
MSG: Blake, we can't even be completely sure about the background info here… yeah, we know Qrow has always been a lowkey wannabe Grimm Slayer, but the stories around town. They can't be right. If they're all related, we're talking about kill counts that'd even make General Ironwood jizz his pants over in Atlas!
RE: And that's why I'm out here. To find the truth. Don't worry about me, I'll be investigating a tip I got about a possible Dust heist tonight and back in Beacon tomorrow morning.
MSG: Wait… will he be there!?
RE: I don't know. But someone might be. It's not like I'm in any rush, we have mid-semester break for the next fortnight, don't we? Plenty of time to investigate.
MSG: Blake. Blake, no. What if Torchwick isn't the good guy? What if it's not Qrow there, what if it's the White Fang or something!?
ᙿᙿᙿᙿᙿ
Blake closed her scroll, finished with the conversation and flatly ignoring the repeated buzzing not a minute later. It was surely from her partner frantically calling her upon realizing she wasn't going to be answered.
"Well... that's exactly what I'm hoping to find out..."
The bow on her head twitched as the young woman looked around her surroundings and briefly sniffed the salty air around her.
"Gack! Not the hat!"
A cart full of Dust was jostled and nearly toppled by the man who'd just crashed against it, the soles of his high-end shoes melting off on the heated ground around them.
"Urgh! For the last time, it's not me out there! That's just a load of fake news!"
Slow laughter rang out through the derelict warehouse, two shadowy accomplices stepping out into the light from behind their leader as the only male among them put his amusement into words.
"Y'know, if I had a chit o' lien for every time I heard a rat cry 'fake news', I don't think we woulda had a problem just buying all this Dust legally…"
His partner couldn't help but fill in a verbal jab herself.
"Honestly, I think we'd be able to buy the whole Schnee Dust Company with that kind of bank~"
"Cease," the fourth voice of the group cut in, immediately silencing everyone as its owner focused once more on the soot-scuffed man with her usual smooth tone, "And for your sake, Roman, I do hope you have something better to defend yourself with than… 'alternative facts'."
"Fer cryin' out loud, Cinder! Dontcha think if I was about to turn to the BORING side of the law, I'd do just a little more to cover my tracks than swap out Melodic Cudgel and part my hair to the other side!?" Roman countered desperately, flipping the tufts of his hair indicatively as he spoke.
"Good guyyy~" he drawled with a saccharine lilt to his voice before flipping the tufts back to the other side of his face with a lower tone, "Baaad guy."
He even did the same thing again for good measure, Cinder's companions glancing at each other as if realizing the facts and conceding the point.
"...Good guyyy~ ...Baaad guy. Seriously, we all know there ain't no police force, thief extraordinaire like myself, or even Huntsman who would cross you without paying for it."
Cinder snarled at the remark, a reaction he hadn't quite expected.
"I wouldn't quite say every Huntsman… which is why I had to be absolutely sure of your fealty, Roman, considering a few accounts about your supposed new partner in specific."
Stupid crook as the news outlets may make him out to be, Roman hadn't come to be at the top of the local underworld for no reason. Feigning innocent cowardice under Cinder's glowing glare, several things clicked at once for the criminal.
Cinder was at the wheel, but whatever their master plan was, there were obstacles actually capable of getting in her way. So far, he hadn't heard of anything or anyone strong enough to do that... and if anyone could smell a way out of a bad deal, it was Roman friggin' Torchwick!
So if there was a Huntsman who could give the likes of Cinder Fall and her merry idiots more trouble than they'd likely ever care to admit, and they also could give credence to those urban legends going around lately about overpowered Grimm killers, he was going to file that away just in case a way out of his forced recruitment ever presented itself.
"Well Cinder, you have it," he began, expertly weaving his composure back together as he now stood straight and fixed his singed scarf, "I've stolen every bit of Dust I could find so far, without even so much as knowing what the big plan is in the first place."
Another subtle grimace, one Roman quickly noticed wasn't for him. Another tidbit stored away for future reference.
"Plans change, Roman," she retorted simply, slowly sauntering toward him with a fireball coming to life over her palm, "And don't act like you're the poster child of fulfilled expectations… even after taking your recommendation to move the initial storehouse of goods months earlier due to the news of an initiation casualty in Beacon this year distracting authorities for a day, what we have with the extra time we were afforded are nowhere near the additional mountains of Dust and subdued city of Vale you promised. Not to mention the fact that nearly an entire week has passed since the first whispers of your name tying you to the events at Mountain Glenn without you having done anything to eliminate this doppelganger of yours…"
By this point, Cinder had closed in to where he stood, the heat from her aura causing a fresh sheen of sweat to coat the front of his body. The discomfort was torturous, causing his carefully crafted composure to slip just a bit.
"And you guys didn't know about it already, either? You already know I've been busy stealing every speck of Dust this town's got," Roman retorted hotly, his hands reaching back instinctively for the edge of the cart hindering his retreat to find a way further backward if possible, "So if you already knew about the fake Torchwick all the way from back then without coming to me about this before it became public news, then that means you either doubted it was really me the whole time too, or that Mountain Glenn getting blown up was so important that it messed up your pl-"
Roman clamped his mouth shut, realizing he was quickly saying enough to get himself killed when the lining of her dress flashed orange from the bottom up and a long blade of black glass erupted from her hand from where the fireball had been towards his throat.
Tilting his chin up to avoid the molten hot point of the blade that was already beginning to give the skin on his neck several surface burns, he thanked the stars above when she paused, cocking a brow and turning to glance back toward her now very uncomfortable associates.
"You know… Roman has a point. I'd have expected that my trust in your unique skill sets would've yielded more results over the course of eight days than the likes of him… after all, he's the only one tied down with orders keeping him in Vale at the moment. The same cannot be said of you both."
The young silver-haired male raised his hands in placation, quickly trying to diffuse any ire that may be directed toward them, "Well don't look at us. Me and Emerald did try and find the guy, but the man's a ghost… completely off the radar! And even if we did find him, your orders were not to get our hands dirty while we were in town!"
"Mercury is right," Emerald added, even more eager to placate the woman she esteemed so highly, "Mistress, we went as far as we could tracking the mission boards for registered Huntsmen who might've fit the description of the urban myths, or… of that other Huntsman from before… and the closest we got was to a pair of local Huntsmen who were somewhat consistently registered for missions on or near the accounts of major Grimm decimation over the past week…"
When the pause stretched on to a length that clearly meant there was no more they were going to say, an irked Cinder drawled out her next word with dangerous undertones of violent impatience just underneath the surface.
"And…?"
"And," Mercury began after trading glances with his partner and stepping forward to take the literal heat if need be for this, "And it was a dead end. They've got a long history in Vale. Half-assed fighters at best, barely earned their Licenses in the first place, and what little they earn they waste on drink. No one else ever registered for missions with them, and we know no one would do it incognito since there ain't a single Huntsman out there with half a brain who'd let themselves get scammed out of fair commissions by actually joining them without adding their names to the mission board."
Roman sighed out a breath of relief when the woman simply pivoted to fully face her accomplices and level them with evident displeasure directly.
"And what," she cut in with enough sharpness to cause each of them to flinch, "makes you both think that automatically makes them a dead end, hm…?"
"Because," the young man began, glancing at Emerald in an apparent plea to help him out which she thankfully did.
"Because frankly, Mistress… they're idiots."
With the entire warehouse floor falling silent for a long moment at Emerald's words, everyone was able to breathe again when Cinder finally let the glass blade dissipate with a flick of her wrist and then pinched the bridge of her nose. She turned back to face Roman, only then letting her hand idly drop to her side with all the charm and authority she had at the beginning of their unexpectedly early visit that day.
"Here is what you're going to do, Roman. You are to move forward with tonight's operation, except you are to double the bullheads and manpower of the indicated faunus I've instructed you to use. We do not need the Dust like before due to… unexpected developments… but the aim is to exacerbate public unrest."
Cinder glared at him, ensuring her point was driven home with only a single glowing eye visible from behind her obsidian locks.
"In other words, you are to take back the front page of every news story and headline as Roman Torchwick, Dust Thief at large. Do I make myself clear?"
Roman gave a cut nod, tipping his trademark bowler hat with his lips drawn into a tight smile.
"Crystal."
"Good. I'll take charge of investigating the identity of the pair of nuisances, and whether any leads are dead ends or not moving forward," she replied, then turning to walk out of the warehouse with her companions in tow, "And unless you'd like Mercury or Emerald to assist in order to ensure your competency in tonight's operation, I'd suggest you reach out for the aid of your elusive colorful business associate earlier than planned… or however it is you two communicate with her supposed condition."
Roman scowled as they left, knowing how irksome his afternoon and evening would become thanks to these developments…
Not to mention having to reel in his partner from her long-deserved vacation a few weeks early.
It was an annoyance he carried through their entire conversation, their entire debriefing of the White Fang later that day where he had to be the one to coordinate eight bullheads between himself and his fellow cat burglar, and through the idiotically taxing process of getting them to steal the stupid Dust in the first place.
"Hey! What's the holdup!?" he shouted with even more venom in his voice than he usually might've that evening, gesturing at the grunts merely walking back and forth with Dust crates in hand from the ramp of his bullhead, "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?"
The night was still young, but their operation really couldn't afford many delays, that with there being way more bullheads than what subtlety would call for. Why security in a place like this wouldn't be much tighter after a gigantic dust shipment came in was anyone's guess. Or perhaps more like an open secret borne from the SDC's arrogance and misplaced faith in Atlas androids that the Fang soldiers had actually done a decent job of clearing out after their arrival. He went down the ramp, already ringing his ice cream-themed companion for an update and debating whether he should accost the horned idiot nearby mishandling a simple rope when once such delay made itself known by a blade suddenly appearing at his neck.
"What the-? Oh, for fuc-"
"Nobody move!"
He watched the black ribbon float along the air, but before anyone, even the person apparently holding him at blade point, could say anything more, another woman's voice made itself known from behind some nearby crates.
"Ohh, so you weren't with the others. That makes sense now, we were wondering why you were just sitting by and watching the whole thing by yourself..."
Two people then walked out into the open from another side of the clearing, a young woman with a bowler hat and long green vest coat over her ensemble, and another person draped in a knee-length charcoal hooded cardigan. With such an unexpected development one after the other, the several dozen grunts present didn't quite know who to point their weapons at anymore. The one under the hood, who raised his face to reveal a pale complexion and small black oval goggles underneath the shadows, was the one who caught Blake's attention.
"You," she called out across the clearing, tightening her grip on her hostage who merely rolled his eyes in reply, "Are you the one known as Deathkiller?"
They really couldn't get you a better nickname?
I know, right?
"Yeah, sure," Jaune replied idly, causing a small wave of apprehensive murmurs around them before nodding at Roman's direction, "So who's that guy?"
"I'm-!" the hostage in question retorted, choked back by the presence of the blade but still clearly affronted by the lack of recognition as he continued, "I'm Roman Torchwick, you troglodyte! Ditch the shades if you can't see what's in front of you!"
"I can see fine," Jaune continued, his hands in his pockets as he took a leisurely glance at all the armed people standing around with goods, "So… you guys robbing the place or something?"
Blake, now the one clearly taken aback by his nonchalant demeanor, replied, "Wh-What do you think!? What I don't understand is why the brothers of the White Fang would ever aid this kind of scum!"
"Clearly you didn't get the memo, little lady," Roman retorted, impressively keeping his composure in light of the situation but really just stalling to point Melodic Cudgel at her feet, "The White Fang and I are going on a joint business venture together!"
"So that's the 'inconspicuous' operation you were shouting about earlier! I guess it's pretty low key, yeah, great for robbing stuff without being noticed by anyone," Jaune noted aloud, as if finally putting two and two together.
However, before Roman could balk or deride such a plainly obvious remark, the young man simply pulled out an unexpectedly metallic hand to everyone present and pointed its open palm towards a nearby container.
The palm lit up for a moment before firing a single incendiary shot, blowing up the entire container with a magnitude of force that knocked out several grunts with the blast alone.
"Welp… how 'bout now?"
In the distance, a pair of bright green eyes zeroed in on the location of the explosion.
Meanwhile, a rather ticked Roman growled at the men still standing.
"What, you mutts need a command to start moving!? Sic 'em!"
Timing the exclamation with the blast of his cane, the sounds of bullets and yells temporarily filled the air. However, by the time Roman had freed himself from Blake's grasp and landed to face the cat-eared teen in the cropped white zip top and black pants in earnest, he turned back to see that the rest of the clearing had already fallen silent again.
The young woman was nearby one of the downed Fang goons, softly kicking his side to roll him over.
"Hm, they honestly seem a bit weaker than even Junior's men, if anything…"
Roman's jaw went slack at the realization after putting two and two together with her remark and the bowler hat similar to his that she'd been wearing.
"You have got to be kidding me. You're the Torchwick from the news!?"
"So much for your little operation," Blake jeered from behind him, causing him to turn back and face her with a growing cruel smirk.
"I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation, kitty…"
"Oh, you mean the other three bullheads?" Amber interrupted with indifference that wiped the smirk off his face, suddenly beside them with speed that took each of them totally by surprise, "Yeah, me and Cro already took those out."
Blake's eyes widened at the use of the bird-themed name from the news story, glancing at Jaune with a mix of disbelief and awe now that she realized the Huntsman and the myth were one in the same. Roman, however, held no such regard, stepping back and raising the end of his cane at Amber's face with a little crosshairs lens popping up at the tip.
No sooner had the crosshairs even reached full extension when Jaune had appeared between them with a cackle of electric energy, elbowing Roman so hard in the gut with Harbinger that the man flew all the way back into a nearby Dust container, shattering his Aura and a few ribs with the one blow.
Roman awoke a few seconds later and grunted as he painfully got up to a seated position, holding his hand out at the young man clearly walking toward him with the intent to kill.
"Wa-Wait! Hold on, you've got this all wrong! I was ordered to do this! If you want to stop this, I-I can help you!" he began quickly, his eyes widening as he saw an eerily similar flow of Aura wisping around his hand like it did around Cinder's before creating glass, "There's a woman! I can take you to her and give you access to any resources you need and-MMMMPF!"
Roman would've continued but couldn't when Jaune grabbed the man's entire face with his pale white hand, taking hold of his goggles to pull them and his hood off with Harbinger in the same motion and instill delicious fear into the criminal's only visible eye.
"You know, usually, I'd have listened to your offer. But you've made two mistakes. One, you assumed I'm not aware of the woman already. We know, and I already plan to kill her personally when the time is right," Jaune listed out calmly amid Roman's weakening struggling, the pearly orbs of his frigid cerulean-red eyes causing more terror than Cinder's flames ever had, "And two. You dared to raise a weapon against my partner. For that, you'll have to die."
Cro, look out behind yo-!
Amber's mental warning came too late, a flash of pressure across the ether behind Jaune preceding the insertion of some sort of blade towards his kidney. At least it might've, had the blade had any luck trying to get through the aura and abnormally tightly knit sinews and muscles clenched in response to the pressure. It might've been sharp, but it was no Grimm claw, and he'd tanked enough of those piercing Grimm attacks to develop a decent sense of physical defense to them by now.
Thanks for the heads up. I'm fine.
Letting go of the unconscious criminal's empty open-eyed face, Jaune stood to see a small woman with a scowl and a chokuto in hand appear by Roman's side to wrap her free arm around him protectively. At the same time, blasts of wind from further down the docks swept the area, signaling that more bullheads elsewhere were taking off.
Cro, there were more… more of them are coming, and it looks like the bullheads are armed with gatling guns!
Got it, don't risk your cover and find shelter if you have to. I'm just wrapping up here.
Jaune continued staring at the young woman, Harbinger hanging at his side but lighting up with several elements as he spoke, "You attacked me with a toothpick, eh?"
Her heterochromatic eyes shifted from brown and pink to dual white as she noticed the wide one-handed broadsword slowly extending from his palm.
"So does that mean it's my turn to strike now?"
Jaune's attention was momentarily taken by yet another new contender entering the fray with a flash of green beams that cut through the sky, the ice cream themed young woman taking the instant of time Jaune had turned his head to blink out of existence with her partner. For the first time, Jaune noticed he could track the sensation of Aura somewhat like he'd done with Grimm if he paid attention well enough.
Her getaway hadn't been teleportation, or even super speed… it'd been an illusion, if the hint of pressure further in the distance matching the same aural signature was anything to go by. But unlike Grimm pressure, which was uniform even across species, Aura with its unique textures and flavors between different people would be a whole other matter to deal with another time.
Cro, we've got company! I'm going to find cover and call Candace to see if we can get an extraction!
He turned back with a scowl at his escaped prey, putting his goggles back on and facing the clearing in time to see a ginger girl leap in and finish slicing one of the four bullheads above them in half with a laser. At the sight of that, Jaune chose to make himself known by walking toward her… and getting her attention by using Harbinger to point and slice another bullhead in half with a red fire dust laser of his own.
Turning and glancing at his arm and back at him with wide eyes, neither of them flinched when the other two began raining gunfire onto them. The girl simply turned her head to face one of the bullheads, reaching out an arm and shooting several of what were apparently swords floating around her into it to pull the entire thing down into the dock area with explosive effects.
She turned to look back at Jaune with narrowed eyes as if challenging him, the young man himself simply levitating a small pearl-shaped sphere of polished Earth Dust with a dark purple Gravity Dust core into the palm of Harbinger before lifting it at the other bullhead and firing it into its hull without taking his eyes off her.
On impact, the entire side of the bullhead which had been hit collapsed inward like a crushed soda can, the craft careening downward and crashing elsewhere with equally explosive effects. For the first time, the girl, who seemed to look more like she was analyzing him at a scientific level than simply sizing him up, now spoke.
"I… do not like you."
Jaune scoffed. The way her Aura filled the ether was… off. Almost like the Geist ballooning to fill rocks so it could become a Petra Gigas. Except in this case, it was like a body being possessed with only a piece of aura trying to balloon outward and fill the gaps.
"Feeling's mutual, kid."
Somewhat surprised when the sounds of scroll ringtones filled the air nearby, Jaune cocked a brow as he noticed the girl raise a finger to her ear to answer as if it'd been embedded into the darn thing the whole time.
"Yes Ruby? ...Correct, I have located your errant teammate in the company of Roman Torchwick, a female Roman Torchwick, and the man from the news named Crow at the docks."
Ruby…?
Cro, time to go! Amber's voice flew into his mind, jarring loose his momentary hesitation at the sound of the girl's name as another distant whirring of engines could be heard, Al says the police are inbound and should be here any second!
As Jaune prepared to make a run for it, even ready to use a Light Step if needed, a pair of hands latched themselves around his arm. He turned to see a pair or triangular cat ears over pleading amber eyes just under his line of sight.
"Who are you…? I feel like I know you, are you a Faunus too? Wh-who do you fight for?"
Blake couldn't tell what was going on behind that man's goggles, but he hesitated with what she was positive couldn't be anything less than recognition before simply shrugging her hands off his arm and starting to run to the nearest space between containers at the sounds of her teammates approaching.
"Blake? Blaaaake!"
Penny turned towards the sounds of the voices, flashes of red, white, and yellow entering the clearing as she waved them toward herself amid the flames, debris, and unconscious men.
"Yes! Over here! We're here!"
"Damn girl, did you do all this?" Yang asked as the trio appraised all the damage in the area with no small measure of increasing respect for the odd girl.
The girl in question beamed at the attention with a grin so big her eyes closed with joy, though humbly correcting in reply, "I can safely claim credit for at least twenty-seven percent of the incapacitation of enemy forces, while the rest would belong to a combination of the rest of us here!"
The pause that followed was more than a little awkward, Weiss being the first one to break the silence.
"Uh, to which 'us' are you referring to?"
Penny's eyes blinking open with belated surprise, she turned back to see that no one was there behind her.
That is, without counting the bullhead which was now taking off further down the docks.
"Hey! Who's that over there!?" Ruby cried out, "Come back here!"
"Looks like we've been spotted," Amber noted from above, the pair watching the quartet of young women below beginning to aim weapons at their getaway craft, "Al, do we have any tactical shielding on board?"
Jaune was the one to answer, lifting a cackling Harbinger towards the young women that looked vaguely familiar from such a distance before aiming just a little lower at the Dust containers between them and the bullhead instead.
"I got your tactical right here."
ZzzZZzRAT
Large braided tendrils of electricity rained down on the dust containers, exploding them from a safe distance and lifting a veil of fire and mist to cover their retreat.
Jaune let the blast from his weapon die down, panting a bit which caught his partner's attention.
"You okay? You seem wrung out."
He sighed, cringing a bit with the mental effort of trying to figure something out as he gazed for a moment at the receding curtain of flames below them. Whoever those extra people were that showed up at the end, he'd at least made sure the affected containers were far enough away not to hurt them too badly in case they didn't have Aura.
"They just," Jaune began, his gaze never leaving the ruined docks as blue lights of police began filling the entire area, "I just can't shake the feeling that I used to know them… I think."
Amber's eyes widened at the unexpected fact, though any further conversation was stopped by the voice coming in through the cockpit.
"Ey uh, nice to see yous two and all, but I think we cut it too close. Wasn't expecting the Fang neither, but it'll cover our tracks nice since it just looks like we're one of 'em," the voice paused, Amber and Jaune nearly losing their balance as the bullhead suddenly lurched to the side, triggering alarms in the cockpit while sirens began wailing somewhere outside from other approaching aircraft, "Problem is, the heat picked up on our location and we ain't outta Valean airspace just yet... so, I'm open to ideas 'ere, but we gotta book it before they get a beat on my ship…!"
Amber turned to her partner for his input, but noticed him already next to a wall nearby tracing the metal with his fingers as if sniffing out something behind the hull. Apparently finding what he was looking for, Jaune took the points of his fingers on Harbinger and pointed them at the wall with a chopping gesture… and without warning, he did just that, piercing the metal with the tips of his fingers from only an inch away until nearly half his forearm had disappeared into the hull.
"Uh… guys, what was that…?"
"Hey Al," Jaune replied instead, "This thing run on combustion dust?"
The pilot hesitated for a moment without the answer to his initial question, but replied anyway, "Well yeah. The newer systems and NAV equipment run on Hard-Light, but the heart and soul o' this girl still runs on the good stuff. Why you ask, B?"
Nice, glad it's not Hard-Light at the engine level. Haven't had enough exposure to Hard-Light to really use it for anything up till this point.
"Good. Because I'm about to give this thing a little juice. Hold onto something, Ammie."
"Wait, wha-aaaaaaat!?"
Amber fell back, the entire bullhead lurching forward with a burst of speed as Harbinger clamped on a fuel line and pumped it with combustion energy via induction. It didn't take long to have gotten the mix right - fire and air with a dash of lightning gave the engines enough boost to have Al whooping for joy from inside the cockpit with the rush, any and all pursuers easily left in the Dusty dust after several long moments of suspense.
"And we, my G's, have the all clear from here to Mistral! Haha!" Al now exclaimed, coming back into the cabin a minute later with a celebratory flourish before picking up Amber off the floor and turning to see Jaune standing with an impish grin in front of a picture of Al and Candace on the wall that he didn't quite remember hanging there before.
"Thank you, Al," Amber began, slightly distracting him before his musing could become suspicion, "We really owe you one."
"Eheh, you owe me a couple grand, that's for sure," he retorted light-heartedly before softly clapping her on the shoulder, "But we can talk payments later - I brought on the bags from where you told me you'd left 'em, and if yous guys don't have a problem taking night shifts for security against any Grimm that come our way, I can take the straight shot right towards Shion. We could be there by… meh, maybe tomorrow afternoon?"
Jaune and Amber traded shrugs.
"Sounds fair. Don't see why not."
Fair? Ugh, prepare for a long night, Cro… and plenty of aerial target practice thanks to the Relic we're smuggling.
Jaune rolled his eyes as his partner wordlessly went over to pick up her bags and head to the passenger's quarters to sleep, happy to take on the first shift regardless even had she volunteered otherwise.
"Yeah I'll take first shift."
"No worries, boss. She'd have gotten mad tight witchu if you hadn't… it's friggin' brick out in the hold right now."
Jaune nodded sagely as if he understood what'd just been said.
However, meanwhile in said hold, a young woman shivering in a fetal position who'd heard the whole conversation rubbed her hands together in one of the custom smuggler's holds hidden underneath the empty hold itself. Breathing into them, the steam from her breath warmed them for a few seconds before tucking them into her pockets. Adjusting Gambol Shroud and leaning her shoulder on it, she prepared to rest if at least a little bit after an eventful evening.
After all, it was going to be a long flight to Mistral.
A/N: Canon peeps! And canon things! A few things are out of order, of course, but others have gone exactly according to canon. For example, RWBY hitting the town and running into Sun? Check. And shortly after, running into Penny? Check. In Vol 1, these are all things that happen with little input or interference from JNPR, so there's no reason to assume it'd be any different here. But why isn't (J)NPR around/mentioned anyway? Well, there might be a reason for that.
As for the differences - there are a few. One such one being that Roman was not the one to move Dust into Mountain Glenn. Cinder told him the coordinates in canon for him to move it, but since he's still stealing Dust this early into the game, the task presumably fell to her lackeys. Therefore, he barely knows about her greater plans, much less Phase Two. However, I'll say the largest noticeable one is that Blake hasn't been outed as a faunus. Why? Because the tension in canon (mostly due to an imperious Weiss with nothing else to grouse about) never got to get built since Weiss is not so presumptuous to tread on tension that's possibly linked to the death of a fellow student and Blake was mostly absent anyway. All little effects of a certain initiation gone wrong. This also has the effect of Sun sticking around Blake like he would've regardless, but it's much less emotionally charged now; he could tell she was a faunus and wanted to chill more that weekend, that's all... in other words, little more than just an attempt at socializing which in his mind would totally be superseded now by a killer score with an unused timeshare condo. So yeah, Sun is out of the picture for the foreseeable future. In any case, more RWBY dialogue to come! Oh, and yeah. Blake and Jaune in Mistral at least a year early? Kind of a big difference from canon too.
I find myself running into a bit of a funny impasse - Jaune and Amber are clearly much stronger than most people in canon as-is already, whether they realize it or not. So while I would *like* to write more action, frankly, there's not much to be had when Jaune is perfectly capable of just steamrolling over most obstacles. So at times I wonder, should I take it the No Game No Life route and have them logic the crap out of things to keep their relatively easy wins interesting? Or just hang a lantern on it like One Punch Man where he knows it's gonna be one-sided from the get go? It's a fun conundrum and I still have some time to lay out several of the fights he's going to have in Mistral, so I plan to make it my own as an author and Jaune's own as he comes into his own as a proper budding elementalist (yeah, thought I forgot the title of this fic, eh?). Of course, I always appreciate thoughts and references from my dear readers, so feel free to leave a Fave, Follow, and Review to share your thoughts! I try and keep up with PMs but for some reason I no longer receive email notifications for them, only for reviews and such. It's odd, but oh well.
Finally, I'll be going back to a two-week update schedule as I plan out the remainder of arcs II and III. I'd say not to worry and that I'm not going anywhere, but that hasn't done me very good in the past hahhh... but I'll have a new chapter up in two weeks regardless. In the meantime, take care, stay healthy...
And Happy Reading!