"You did not!"
"Oh I absolutely did!" Weiss answered with a laugh. The flight to Vale was still ongoing and would be for a couple more days, to Weiss' dismay. Blake had to be the one to break it to the Heiress that the world was, in fact, very big and it takes a while to get anywhere even by airship. Shut in or not, Blake was still baffled at Weiss' lack of knowledge on that front. With nothing better to do for the flight the two girls stole a table from one of the nearby booths along with a myriad of snacks and drinks. All the caffeine from the tea and coffee can't be good, but Blake figured they'd probably be lagged anyway so it wouldn't hurt.
The current conversation came about from the drive to stave off sleep. Despite her misgivings about her father Weiss was more than happy to talk about her family, especially her siblings. "I can't imagine your brother was particularly happy about that," Blake said, shaking her head.
"Oh he was absolutely livid," Weiss said with another laugh, "and he was like that for a whole week afterwards! He must have looked all over the manor before he finally went to Klein for help. I felt bad afterwards, Klein has a talent for scolding when he needs to, but Whitley looked so cute pouting and holding that toy walrus. I wish I had taken a picture then."
"I wish you had too. I could probably live happily for a few years on the money I'd get selling that." Weiss leveled a glare at Blake, who simply smirked back while drinking from her tea cup. Blake looked outside at the night sky, not really able to see anything beyond the ship's wing and the shattered moon, and looked back at Weiss as she leaned forward with a thoughtful look.
"You know, we talked a lot about my family, but I don't think you've talked about yours," Weiss said. The mention of Blake's family caused her to stiffen up and her mind to blank slightly, as well as hoping that her now exposed ribbon didn't move on its own. "What are they like?"
"I… I don't like talking about my family," Blake said with a sigh as she looked down into her tea cup. 'I need more tea. Could I use that as an excuse to get away or-?'
"Why? Do you not like them?" Weiss asked sitting up straight again. Her eyes sharpened at the way Blake flinched at the question and tried to look everywhere but at Weiss. Weiss sat in silence, watching her teammate fidget for a minute before she finally sighed and looked up at Weiss.
"It's more like… I hope they don't like me," she said and set her cup down on the table.
"What, why would you want that?"
"I had a bad argument the last time I saw them, an argument I absolutely was on the wrong side of, and I pretty much cut them out of my life since then." Blake looked down at her hands, rebound in clean bandages she had taken from the ship's first-aid kits, and tugged on her fingers in turn. "It's been about five years since I've seen them. They probably hate me and never want to hear from me again."
"How do you know that?" Blake looked up at Weiss' question, "Have you tried calling them and they said that, or is that just your own assumptions?"
"I…" Blake stammered, shocked at how effortlessly Weiss had cut through her arguments, and shook her head after a moment. "Even if I did want to talk to them, I don't know where they are. So it'd be impossible to find them on the CCT network." All a lie. Blake had learned through the grapevine that her Father had become Chieftain of Menagerie not that long ago and he and her mother were now living in the Chieftain's manor. Menagerie might not have a CCT tower of its own but it was still connected to the Mistral network and more or less easy to reach.
'But I can't,' Blake thought and clenched a fist under the table, 'after everything I've done, how could I? They don't need someone like me in their lives again. Just let them be happy.'
"It can't be that hard," Weiss said unaware of Blake's inner turmoil, "the operators should be able to find them with just their name and-"
"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Blake interrupted, catching Weiss off guard with how cold she sounded. A moment of stunned silence went by and Weiss nodded and looked out the window, which Blake was silently thankful for.
"What do you think Beacon Academy is like?" Weiss asked after a minute of silence, "I've seen pictures and read as much as I could in the last couple of days, but it's probably so much more majestic in person don't you agree?"
"I wouldn't know, I've never been," Blake answered looking out of the window as well, "But it's a school for Huntsmen, the warriors who protect the world and fight for what's right. I think that says a lot about what kind of a place that is."
"True. My sister is a Atlas Specialist, one of the best, and I've seen Atlas Academy once or twice. If Beacon is anything like that, then I'm sure even the students there are utter professionals. Facing down the monsters that would love nothing more than to end humanity, traveling the world and seeing the sights, it sounds so romantic."
"…Romantic?" Blake asked and raised an eyebrow at the heiress.
"What, is it not?"
"…I wouldn't know. Either way, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."
Things weren't going too well for Team STRQ. Summer gripped her sword tightly as she observed the situation she was in. Their foe was a tough one, even discounting the mech that Taiyang had managed to beat at great cost to his Aura. Summer and Raven were more than enough to deal with him at the moment, though Qrow's occasional potshots while he was fighting off henchmen certainly helped.
Summer thought over her choices, the fact that Taiyang still needed to heal after his unsavory beating and that Qrow needed to focus on the Dust thieves, and looked at Raven who looked back at her with a bored expression.
"Are you going to play or not?" she asked.
"Huh?" Summer said looking up from her cards at Raven, who had set her hand down to rest her head in a hand.
"You've been staring at your cards for a while now," Raven said and pointed at Summer's hand, "so are you going to play or not?"
"I'm thinking Raven!" Summer growled out and looked back at her hand and then at the board in the middle of the table. The library at Beacon usually had quite a bit of students in it, though if you got lucky on a weekend you could find a good table to get some good reading done or, in STRQ's case today, play a board game. Summer was adamant about using this one to tighten the team's dynamic in a fight without actually having to risk life or limb. Whether it actually helped them improve was up for debate, but it was still fun to do when they had time.
Summer took in the Villain's stats for this round: health, speed, attack and defense, the card deck denoting the Villain's next action, and especially the Fury counter at the top of the board. After a moment of pondering Summer finally took a card from her hand and set it on the board.
"I'll play Flowering Strike and tap my Semblance for a speed boost," Summer said and looked down at her scroll, tapping an icon on it to denote her spent Semblance, and nodded, "and that'll be my action."
"Finally," Raven said rolling her eyes and picking up her hand, "I'll help you out again and I'll play-"
"Raven, if you play a card with a lower speed than mine, I will murder you in real life," Summer interrupted. The girls shared a look for a moment and Raven moved her fingers off a card onto another that she set down next to Summer's.
"Glancing Blow it is then," Raven said with a sigh, "it doesn't do much damage though."
"It'll be fine."
Raven shrugged and pointed at Qrow. "You want in on this brother? I still have my Semblance ready to go so I can bring you in."
"I'm fine thanks," Qrow answered shaking his head, "and I'm trying to clear these henchmen out anyway."
"Fine. Why does my Semblance need to be so situational in combat?" Raven asked while shaking her head. "Well whatever, I guess that's it for me then."
"Healing," Taiyang said, looking just as miserable as he sounded from where he buried his head in his arms and lifted his head enough to discard and redraw a card, tapped his scroll to add a point of Aura to his health, and buried his head back into his arms.
"It's not that bad Tai, you did take down that mech for us," Summer said and leaned across the table to pat Taiyang's back reassuringly.
"I've never had such a bad run of luck," Taiyang murmured through his arms, "usually Qrow has that kind of luck."
"Very funny," Qrow said rolling his eyes and putting down a card, "and like I said I'm attacking these henchmen."
"Ok then," Summer said and took the Villain's top card, a subtle card, and flipped it after a quick count to three. She let out a small breath when she saw it didn't have any really debilitating effects and started with the speed calculations along with Raven's help. "And… beat him out by one point! And that means he takes… seven damage. Right?"
"Just about and it also means you are…" Raven said and moved Summer's player piece to the end of the Player Fury line, "here. So let's just get that turn out of the way yeah?" Summer stared at where her piece was for a second before she jumped to her feet and held her arms over her head.
"Yes! Eat shit, suck-haver!" Summer shouted and pointed derisively at the Villain token, "Feel my wrath again!" Summer then picked up her Ultimate card and threw it onto the board, giggling maniacally the whole time. "Cower in fear as I tear your children from your arms and give them better lives than you could ever hope to give them!"
"Ahem!" Summer stopped her victory celebration and looked at the next table where Team JNPR was studying, or at least that was the plan before Nora fell asleep in a biology textbook and Jaune lost himself in the world of comic books. Ren was glaring at Summer and gestured around them to remind her that she was in a library and, after a moment of awkward standing, she sat back down and cleared her throat.
"Let's… let's just tally the damage," She said and started doing just that with Raven. While they got ready for the next round JNPR returned to their studies, Ren doing double duty for Nora by taking easy to read notes for her later and Pyrrha basically forcing Jaune to study by taking his comic away. He didn't say anything when she then put it down open next to her own studies and started reading it.
"So I'm Active now right?" Raven asked once everything was done and cards were upgraded as necessary and got a nod from Summer. "Nice, now what do I have here?"
"Sup losers!" Most of the assembled group looked at Sun followed by a trio of boys as he walked over waving and stopped at STRQ's table. "I thought I heard Summer shouting, and look who it is. How's it hanging?"
"I didn't shout that loud," Summer protested.
"It was pretty loud," Qrow replied.
"Shut up Qrow."
"Hey Sun," Taiyang said, giving a small wave to the Faunus without lifting his head up.
"Why are you so dead?" Sun asked.
"Long story."
"Well whatever. I'm glad I found you guys anyway because I wanted to introduce you to my team. I wanted to do it the other day, but you had that wicked food fight so…"
"I was wondering about the losers behind you," Raven said and set a card down.
"Maybe, but they're all good guys once you get past that."
"Thanks man, really," one of them said with a shake his head, "ignoring him, the name's Sage. Thanks for putting up with our leader for the last little while."
"He's good for sandwich runs at least," Qrow said and played a card against another henchman.
"What!?" The boy with red hair shouted, earning another shush from Ren that was ignored, "Sun never does that for us! Why don't you do that for us!?"
"Because I was forced into the role Scarlet!" Sun growled out while glaring at Scarlet.
"That's no excuse!"
"Ignore them, they're dumb sometimes," the last one with blue hair said waving a hand at Sun and Scarlet as he walked up to Summer. "So, what's your name?"
"Uh… Summer. I'll help you out Qrow," Summer said and set a card down next to Qrow's.
"Well, I'm Neptune. Can I just say that your name certainly matches your beauty; just like a summer rose."
"Dude, can you believe this!?" Jaune muttered at the sight of Neptune's flashy smile and looked at Nora, who was still asleep and muttering about molten sugar.
"Wow, never heard that one before," Summer said deadpan and rolled her eyes as Raven flipped the Villain's card and started tallying the results. "Look Neptune, you at least seem like an alright guy, but I'm not interested. At all."
"O-oh, ok," Neptune stammered with a couple of blinks and looked at Raven, "So-"
"You even think about flirting with me and I'll wrap your goggles around your intestines and tie them as tight as they'll go," Raven said flatly and glared at Neptune.
"Message received on both counts!" Neptune said as he backed away from the table with his hands up. Once he was a safe distance away he put his hands down, "But in all seriousness I've heard nothing but good things about you all. The way Sun talked about it you guys were awesome to see at that dock fight the other week."
"What?" Taiyang asked, lifting his head up.
"Sun…" Summer growled out.
"It was a slip up! I swear they won't say anything else about that, right?" Sun said quickly and looked at each member of his team in turn ending at Neptune.
"Dude, I said we got it," Neptune said with a placating nod, "and anyway, aren't libraries supposed to be for studying?"
"Thank you!" Ren said from his seat, which woke up Nora who looked around the room groggily.
"So what's that about the docks?" Jaune asked just as he was about to stand up.
"None of your business Jaune, get back to studying!" Summer said pointing at Jaune, who sat back down slowly and sighed looking down at the textbook.
"It's boring though."
"Stop being a nerd Neptune, seriously," Sun said, moving next to Neptune.
"Hey hey, intellectual! We talked about this!" Neptune said and poked Sun's chest.
"An intellectual with bright blue hair? That'd be a sight to see," Raven said as she drew a card and sighed as she added it to her hand.
"Hey, I am one! You got something against blue hair?"
"Nah, it just means certain things where we come from," Qrow replied.
"And what would that be?" Scarlet asked.
"Daddy will pay the ransom," Raven answered. Neptune stood in shocked silence while everyone stared at Raven quietly until Pyrrha, of all people, started laughing quietly and buried her head in her arms before she could laugh any louder. "Why is she the one who laughs at that?"
"You're surprised?" Summer asked. Her scroll buzzed on the table and she picked it up to check her messages, sighing and shaking her head when she saw it. "It's Velvet again," she muttered and started typing out a reply. "Fuck off, I'm busy… and send. I don't have time for this."
"What's she talking about?" Sun asked as he leaned next to Summer.
"It's nothing, she's just bugging me about doing stuff," Summer replied while rubbing her eyes. Her scroll buzzed again and Summer checked it again with an exasperated sigh. "Goddammit, fine! Come by our dorm later if it'll ease your mind, just stop bothering me." Summer sent a text saying as much and set her scroll on the table to continue the game. "I'm just going to ignore anything else from her."
"What's going on?" Jaune asked having abandoned his studies to stand next to STRQ's table.
"Nothing that concerns you Jaune. Again. Leave it alone."
"But-"
"Do we need to have the 'dead weight' conversation again Jaune?"
"Fine, I can take a hint. So what is this game anyway?"
"I was actually wondering myself," Scarlet said, poking his head over Sun's shoulder.
"If you all will shut up while we play, you can watch," Summer said shaking her head, "So what's next Raven?"
"So much for a quiet study session," Ren lamented shaking his head as he watched Pyrrha get up to watch the game as well.
"Huh?" Nora asked groggily.
"I said-"
"Can we get some soda Ren?"
"…Only if you're good Nora."
"Kay."
Later in the day when the sun was just beginning to set, both Team STRQ and JNPR were walking back to their dorms. "Sun's team seems alright," Jaune said after they spent the walk in silence, "What do you guys think?"
"They… certainly have style," Pyrrha said carefully.
"I like Scarlet's coat!" Nora added.
"Hate Neptune, the other two didn't make an impression," Raven said while hunched over slightly to match her brother.
"That's just a bad first impression, you'll get used to him," Taiyang said as he pointed at himself with his thumb, "I mean you had a bad first impression of me, and now we're thick as thieves right?"
"…Yeah, sure."
"Like them or not, we'll be stuck with them for a while Rae," Qrow said putting a hand on Raven's shoulder, "so at least try to tolerate them ok?"
"Oh I'm good at tolerating people. I've been doing that with JNPR since they first showed up."
"Hey!" Jaune protested.
"You know what you did! I don't forget betrayal that easily." The teams rounded the corner to their hallway and Raven and Summer narrowed their eyes at a certain Rabbit Faunus standing in front of their door. Velvet met their gaze and pushed off the wall and started walking to them. "And look who it is."
"Yup," Summer said with a nod and looked back at Taiyang, "Tai, if you will."
"Sure thing," he replied and stepped ahead of the group.
"Hi guys, I was wondering where you were," Velvet said waving at Taiyang, "So can we- GAH!" Velvet suddenly found herself foisted onto Taiyang's shoulder and carried down the hallway. She pounded her fists on Taiyang's back and kicked her feet in the air while shouting, "Let go of me! Where are you taking me!?"
"Our room so we can talk," Taiyang answered as he stopped in front of STRQ's door, opened it, and walked inside with Qrow and Raven right behind him. JNPR watched in bafflement as Summer stood in the doorway looking at them with her hand on the knob.
"Begone," she said simply and closed it.
"Well alright then," Nora said before she turned and entered her own dorm.
"Should we be worried about all that?" Ren asked as he looked between his teammates and the door.
"I don't see why. They've handled some pretty big things right?" Jaune asked with a shrug, "If they really needed our help, they'd ask right?"
"I… guess you're right," Pyrrha said and nodded slowly. "In that case, we should leave them be. Midterms are coming up and we should get as much studying as we can."
"Oh crap, I forgot about those!"
Only a few feet away from Jaune's troubles Velvet was tossed onto Raven's bed and sprang to her feet as Summer locked the door. "What the heck guys!?" Velvet shouted.
"Yeah, why my bed?" Raven asked angrily and crossed her arms.
"Don't be a baby Raven, and you were about to blab in front of the first years again Velvet," Summer explained as she crossed her arms. "At least in here we have some privacy. So why have you been wanting to bug us lately?"
"You all know why!" Velvet shouted and closed her eyes and took a deep breath with her hand on her chest before she continued. "It's been two weeks since what happened at the docks and it just feels like everyone has just forgotten about it. The police and Professor Ozpin, it's just bugging me really bad especially considering what happened. If the White Fang is still out there, then-"
"We should do something about them?" Summer asked and sat down on Taiyang's bed. Velvet nodded and Summer shook her head. "Trust me Velvet, I would love nothing more than to get back on this case, but simple logistics are getting in our way."
"Huh?"
"We can't do shit if we don't know shit," Raven simplified as she dragged a chair out and sat backwards on it with her arms on the backrest, "Why do you think we waited until we had a solid enough lead before calling you guys?"
"I thought you called us because… never mind. So if that's all, why didn't you say so? I might know something that will help out on that."
"Because we didn't know you knew something," Qrow said and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.
"And we got our asses kicked pretty hard. I would think a break was well deserved," Taiyang said with a shrug. "So what do you have in mind?"
"Well… can you keep this a secret?" Velvet asked.
"Please, it's us. You have to ask?"
"Right. Well, I knew a guy who was in the White Fang."
"You 'knew' a guy? What happened?" Summer asked while clasping her hands together and leaning forward.
"He's… he's dead," Velvet replied sadly, her ears drooping a little as she spoke, "Murdered in the middle of his book store from the sounds of it."
"That's suspicious and sounds like the Fang are cleaning house," Qrow said and shared a glance with Raven before looking back at Velvet. "So how did you find out he was White Fang? I'd think that'd be something that would be kept under the lid."
"He saw I was a Faunus and made assumptions I guess. He was actually a pretty decent guy besides that."
"Nice or even decent guys don't last long in groups like the Fang," Raven commented while scratching her cheek, "he probably wanted out and got killed for it. I'd bet hard Lien on that."
"Agreed," Velvet said with a sad nod and started rubbing an arm. "He told me a good couple of things regardless. Apparently the White Fang hold regular meetings where they recruit and distribute orders. If I can sneak into one of these I might get some insight into what they're doing."
"That sounds unsafe. Are you sure you can do it?" Summer asked.
"We fight monsters for a living, everything we do is unsafe. Even a simple food fight can be dangerous."
"None of us are going to live that down for a while are we?" Taiyang asked.
"Probably not," Raven answered.
"Alright then." Everyone looked at Summer as she stood up and crossed her arms. "There are a couple of other things I wanted to look into as well, so we can tackle those while you're doing that. When are those meetings?" Velvet answered with only silence and a blank stare. "Right. Figure out when that'll be and get back to us."
"Of course. Um… thanks for being understanding and all that, especially since I kind of barged in with all of this."
"It's fine Vel," Taiyang said with a shrug, "Just be careful when you start asking around about this. It's possible the Fang will have an APB out on all of us after the stomping we gave them."
"I would be surprised if they didn't. Don't worry, I'll be careful; it's not my first rodeo after all."
"That actually brings up something else I wanted you to pass along to your team," Summer said and looked Velvet in the eye. "After this I don't want you guys to get involved in this anymore unless I ask otherwise."
"What, why!? This is just as much our fight as it is yours!" Velvet shouted with clenched fists.
"Because I'm concerned about your safety!" Summer uncrossed her arms as she started pacing the room. "I keep going over what happened that night at the docks and the thousands of ways it could have gone wrong. What if Penny had never shown up, what if we weren't on top of our game, just all kinds of what ifs that won't leave me alone and all of them end the same way: one or all of us dead, and I just can't accept that."
"Oh what crap! We all knew what we were getting into when we agreed to this."
"So you expected a Creature of Grimm like that to show up out of nowhere and wreck shop!?"
"None of us did!" Velvet and Summer stared at each other while Taiyang and Qrow stood around awkwardly and Raven sat wallowing in boredom. Soon Velvet sighed and said, "I get what you're saying Summer and I disagree with it, but now isn't the time to have this discussion. I'll let you argue with Coco about it, ok?"
"…Fine. Call us when you have the time ok?"
"Sure thing, but it may take a while so don't wait on pins and needles for me." Summer nodded and watched as Velvet walked to the door and grabbed the knob. After a moment of quietly staring at the door she looked back at Summer with a small smile. "Thanks for hearing me out on this. I'm sorry if I was pushy, but-"
"Again, we get it," Taiyang interrupted with a grin and two fingered salute, "just be safe ok? That's all we want." Velvet nodded and opened the door, giving the team a small wave as she walked out and let the door shut behind her. Once they were alone Summer found herself the center of attention as she walked to one of the study desks near the door. "So let me guess, 'minimizing risk' right?" Taiyang asked.
"Yes, and I'm sure you all know why," Summer replied while gripping the head of a chair tightly.
"I gotta agree with Velvet on that though," Qrow said, shaking his head, "it's not exactly fair to limit their involvement just because Hierophant showed up out of nowhere once."
"It would be so much easier if we could explain the Generals to them, but orders are orders as it stands." Summer let go of the chair and turned back to her team, her hands unconsciously moving to knead the hem of her cloak. "They're bound to come after us harder now that we managed to beat one of them. I just don't want people to get caught in the crossfire, you know?"
"That actually has been bugging me for a while," Raven said turning around in her chair and leaning backwards on it so she was balancing on two legs, "why would they be coming to Vale personally several times over and why would they work with people like Torchwick?"
"They don't exactly seem like the type to get along with people," Qrow agreed, "and Dust has still been getting stolen in the last two weeks."
"I'm starting to think something big is going on behind the scenes Sum," Taiyang said worriedly, "and that not even Oz has the full picture. We may have bitten off more than we can chew this time."
"Too late to worry about that now," Summer said with a sigh. "The only thing we can do is keep moving forward. Hopefully we'll find that magic exit as long as we keep doing that." Her team nodded in unison and they all started getting ready for bed, which was when Summer had a realization as she looked over the desks. "Where's my board game?"
"I thought you had it," Qrow said with his hands resting on the clasp of his cape.
"I thought one of you had it!"
"Well I thought Jaune had it," Taiyang said and, in the lull of the conversation, they had the same realization that was expressed with Raven sighing and pinching her nose.
"It's still in the library isn't it?" She asked with a shake of her head, "And that means we'll be in trouble with Professor Plum again."
"There's still half an hour before the library closes," Summer said lifting her hood over her head and moving to the door, "I can get there and grab it before then if I hurry."
"Godspeed," Raven said with a wave and watched as Summer opened the door and jogged out into the hallway.
Only to stop short when she saw a small group of Haven students walking the halls, who in turn stopped when they saw Summer. "Whoa, easy running in the halls," the one with gray hair and the only boy in the group said with a smirk, "you could hurt someone like that."
'Smarmy douchebag,' Summer thought at the immediate bad first impression, thought she said aloud, "I guess, but I wouldn't have hit you anyway. You're transfer students right?"
"From Haven Academy," the woman in the back said and walked to the front with Gray-hair and his Green haired companion moving out of the way to let her.
"Whoa!" Summer accidentally let out and flinched when she saw the woman's face, crisscrossed with scars of varying lengths and the deepest ones being one running diagonally from above her right eye down across her nose to below her left eye and one on her left cheek. After the moment of taking in the scars Summer realized what she was doing and fidgeted a little in place.
"There's no need for that," the woman said as she ran a thumb across a scar with a bitter look, "I'm well aware of my… complexion, as it were. A close encounter with a Creature of Grimm."
"Must have been a nasty son of a bitch huh?" The woman nodded, looking more bitter as she did so, and Summer crossed her arms with a nod. "Well, the important thing is that you're alive. My Dad always used to say 'a scar earned is a lesson learned'."
"And we have a lot of lessons to learn," the woman said sparing a glance at the green haired girl to her left, who fidgeted with a guilty look, "but I think the most immediate one is where our dorm room is. We may be a little lost."
"You're in the wrong building then. If you're Haven students your room will be in the East Dorm which… well, it's to the East. Just look for others wearing your school uniform and I'm sure you'll find it."
"Thank you," the woman nodded while her teammates walked past Summer and the open door where Raven was standing to watch the conversation. "Maybe we'll see each other again for the festival?"
"Maybe," Summer replied as she really looked the woman over as she walked past her to follow her teammates. She had barely made it to STRQ's door when Raven shot a hand out and grabbed the woman's arm stopping her in her tracks.
"Have we met before?" Raven asked, red eyes meeting orange and not noticing the woman's team stopping to look at her with worried looks. After a moment of staring at each other the woman shook her head.
"No, we haven't. I certainly would remember meeting someone as… memorable as you." They continued to stare at each other for another moment until Raven let go of her arm and she resumed her walk.
"Guess you just have one of those faces," Raven said and pointed at the two further down the hallway. "You two be good for your chaperone ok?" That caused the woman to trip on nothing and look back at Raven angrily.
"Excuse you, I'm a student too!" she said.
"Are you?" Raven asked and smirked at how the woman clenched her fists together.
"Leave her alone Raven," Summer chided shaking her head, "It's perfectly normal for some students to be held back a year."
"Yeah but that's usually a year, not ten," Raven replied and chuckled as the woman tried to sputter out a response. She soon gave up and settled on storming down the hallway past her teammates, who followed after trying to match her pace without running. Once they disappeared around the corner Raven looked back at Summer and said, "The library's still closing."
"Shit!" Summer shouted and took off running down the hallway, leaving behind a cackling Raven who soon walked back into the dorm and shut the door.
Further down the hallway Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury were walking further down the hallway and just reached the stairs. "So that's the famous 'White cloaked Huntress'. She doesn't seem impressive," Mercury said shaking his head as they walked downstairs.
"Most people aren't until you see them in a fight. Case in point, you," Emerald replied pointing at Mercury and looked back at Cinder. "And aren't they the same people from Mistral? Should we tell Ruby about this?"
"Why?" Cinder said shaking her head angrily, "the big, bad, almighty High General of the Grimm should already know everything there is to know about this school."
"Bitter pettiness doesn't suit you boss," Mercury said.
"Shut up!" Cinder shot a glare at Mercury, who responded by silently moving his hand across his mouth as if he was zipping it up, and continued on her way. "Ruby is bound to run into her sooner or later, so we'll talk to her about it then."
"And you're sure she'll be alright here?" Emerald asked, "She never seemed to be the type to know about human social norms."
"She'll be fine. What's the worst she could get into. And no, don't actually answer that."
"Ok, I'll admit it, I'm lost." Ruby sighed and rubbed her eyes as she continued walking down the hallway. When she was done she looked down at her Haven uniform with her red cloak still on her shoulders and tapped one of her uniform shoes against the floor. 'At least the Glamour is still holding. I guess Yang was right about the uniform being no strain at all. Maybe I should call her to ask her where the dorm is?' Ruby thought it over and shook her head. 'No, she'll hold it over my head for the rest of my time here. I'll just have to find it myself.'
Ruby reached an intersection and was now absolutely sure she wasn't anywhere close to the dorms given the double doors with a placard that said 'Library' that was in the hallway to her right. Ruby sighed again and shook her head. "Maybe I should just ask someone. I am supposed to be a transfer student, so it shouldn't be too odd to ask." With a plan in mind Ruby turned to walk to the library and ask there when the doors opened.
"Thank you so much for holding onto this Professor Plum! This won't happen again!" a girl called from inside before she ran out and right into Ruby hard enough to knock her backwards. Ruby had braced herself for the impact that never came since the girl had managed to grab the collar of Ruby's uniform before she got that far. Ruby swung her arms around a little on realizing she wasn't falling and got her feet under her again and the girl let go of her. "I'm sorry about that. I really should watch where I'm going."
"It's fine, I'm not hurt or anything," Ruby said brushing off her uniform, "Thank…" she drifted off and her eyes widened when she saw who she had bumped into. None other than the White Cloaked Huntress herself, holding a board game in her arms and looking at Ruby in concern. 'Of all the people to run into here!'
"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked tilting her head.
"Uh, yeah! Yeah, you just… I like your hair?" Ruby said pointing at the streak of silver hair she had.
"Thank you," she said and ran a few fingers over her hair as she looked Ruby over. "Wait, you're a Haven student? Aren't you a little young for that?"
"Maybe, but I'm a prodigy!" Ruby flashed the largest grin she could and gave double V signs at the Huntress. "I'm Ruby, leader of Team RWBY, with a W."
"Ruby, huh?" The White Cloaked Huntress asked while looking Ruby over again before giving her a soft smile. "Well you're certainly easier to be around than the last Haven students I met. I'm Summer Rose of Team STRQ."
"Summer… Rose?" Ruby asked and returned the smile, "I like that name. It just screams 'warrior' to me, you know?"
"You'd be the first person to say that to me. So, if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing at the Library so late?" Ruby's smile dropped at Summer's question and she slumped over in defeat.
"I'm lost… badly. I don't suppose you could help a poor girl out with finding her dorm?" Ruby asked and gave Summer her best puppy dog eyes, which only caused her to laugh at the sight.
"Sure thing Ruby, I can fit one more good deed into my schedule. Do you have your Scroll on you?" Ruby nodded, took out her scroll, and gave it to Summer who flicked it open and scrolled to Ruby's ID screen. She quickly looked it over before nodding and turning the screen to show Ruby. "Right there under your name is your assigned room. You're in room 305 of the East dorms. It's a little out of the way for me, but I'll show you there so you don't get lost again ok?"
"Yay! Thanks a bunch Summer!" Ruby cheered as she took her scroll back from Summer and started following after her through the school. She also took a moment to look away with a wide grin. 'This is perfect! Not only will I find my dorm room, but I also get to pump information out of one of my enemies! At the very least I can learn more about her and her team.'
"I get the feeling you and Raven would get along well Ruby," Summer said out of the blue and looked back at a confused Ruby, "if the way you cackle is any indication."
"Cackle, me? Nah!" Ruby said swaying her upper body from side to side before she picked up speed to walk next to Summer. "So you said you're on Team STRQ? What are they like?" It was Summer's turn to look confused and Ruby soon tilted her head at Summer as she stared at her. "Did I say something weird?"
"No, it's just… refreshing I guess to meet someone who doesn't know my team by reputation. Well, I guess you can say we're a Jack of all Trades team, so we're pretty good at everything. What about yours?"
"The same I guess. So, who's Raven?"
The conversation continued along those lines all the way to the East dorms, the two brunettes going over any small bits and pieces of their teams: Raven's endearing abrasiveness, Yang's odd fascination with low quality puns to annoy people, and everything in between. Summer also pointed out a couple landmarks to Ruby along the way. "Though to be honest, a map would probably serve you better than me," Summer would admit sheepishly once the pair reached the East dorms and climbed the stairs to the third floor and started down the hallway.
"304… 305, here we are," Summer said and stopped in front of the dorm room and knocked on it. Summer and Ruby shared a look at the sound of some shuffling from inside and the door was opened by a girl with long blonde hair in a Haven uniform.
"Took you long enough Ruby! Did you get lost or some…" she said and drifted off when she saw Summer, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Hello, you must be Yang," Summer said as Ruby peeked out from behind her, "And yes, your little sister did get lost. Which is why I'm here."
"Little…?" Yang said slowly and looked at Ruby, who quickly blinked one eye twice at her, after which she immediately perked up and grinned widely at Summer. "Oh yeah, my adorable little sister! I was just starting to get worried and go looking for her, but now I don't have to!"
"Hi Yang, sorry about-" Ruby started to say as she walked out from behind only to be cut off when Yang grabbed her and pulled her into a crushing hug against her chest.
"Oh Ruby! Don't you ever leave my sight again! Don't worry, big sis will always protect you now! My most precious and adorable little sister."
"Too much, too much!" Ruby screamed from her position and started punching Yang's stomach, which was enough for the blonde to let her go. Ruby glared at Yang as she brushed off her uniform and turned to Summer, who was smiling widely at them.
"You two certainly have a loving relationship," Summer commented with a laugh.
"A little too much sometimes. All the same thanks for helping me out, it really means a lot."
"No problem." Summer looked around the inside of the dorm room and raised an eyebrow, "It's just you two here?"
"The rest of our team is in transit and will be here in a few days," Yang answered and crossed her arms, "when they get here we should meet up with your team, have a little tour and maybe show us your room. Does that sound good?"
"We'll have to see," Summer said with a shrug, "and speaking of my room, I gotta get back to it. I'll see you around Ruby."
"Bye!" Ruby said waving at Summer, who returned it as she walked away. Yang shut the door and turned back to Ruby with a knowing smirk.
"You've made a friend already huh?" she asked.
"In a way. Her name is Summer Rose and she's the leader of Team STRQ," Ruby explained and moved to look out the window at the moon. "Your twins are on her team as well; Raven and Qrow Branwen. I don't know much about their last member, but just those three spell trouble."
"Nice, I can't wait to see them again," Yang said and hit her fists together, "and trouble most certainly describes them. Did you see her eyes? You think she's-?"
"No," Ruby interrupted.
"You sure?" Yang moved next to Ruby and put her hand on her shoulder, "because if she is-"
"She isn't. We all made sure about that a long time ago, so she isn't." Ruby pulled away from Yang and looked up at her with the most commanding look she could. "So drop it Yang, and don't talk about this to Queen or the others. They don't need a distraction that doesn't exist."
"Right right, I got it," Yang held up her hands placatingly and moved to sit on a bed. "So what do we do now that we're here and everyone else is having fun outside the kingdom?"
"Watch and wait. Despite my misgivings Cinder's plan is mostly solid. We'll let her do her thing and provide support where needed. Speaking of, did you get the weapon parts from Torchwick?"
"Oh yeah," Yang said with a smile and got off the bed before getting down to drag out two duffel bags. Yang handed the one with the red stripe to Ruby before throwing her own over her shoulder and walking to a table. "Everything we need to build the weapons we specified to Torchwick. I'm still bummed about my shotgun, but I should be able to put together something just as good with this."
"Good. This will probably be an all-nighter for us, so let's get to it." Ruby moved to a different table and opened the duffel bag to dig through its contents. "It should be easy to make a scythe with these. Just a simple scythe." Ruby quirked an eyebrow and pulled out a scope, looking through it for a second before turning it over and over in her hand. "Why is this here?"
"The times have changed Ruby," Yang said as she started laying out metal pieces on the table, "everything is also a gun now. I guess Torchwick got an idea or something, so just make the scythe a gun too."
"Guns are cheating, I told you that." Despite that Ruby grabbed her chin in thought as she set the scope aside and started really looking over the parts she had. Slowly, an idea started forming in her head.