Chapter IV – Showdown at the Poké Mart
Remnant
Ozpin's office, Beacon Academy, Vale
May 18; 9:08 CVT
Ozpin was sitting at his desk deep in thought. At the moment he was thoroughly reading through Professor Indy's journal, something he had been doing for nearly two hours now. And what he had found in there really intrigued him. Just like the professor had said, the journal went into detail about several hidden locations scattered across all four known continents on Remnant, most of them located inside ancient ruins, (such as the one in Forever Fall) where one could allegedly find the means to travel to other worlds. He had been said in the book that these locations were hiding some strange devices that could create portals allowing access between Remnant and said worlds.
The Headmaster was suddenly interrupted by his Scroll ringing. He picked his device up, opened it, and saw who was the caller on the other end:
"Hello, Miss Goodwitch!"
"Hello, sir! I just wanted to let you know that the bullheads are ready for take-off!"
"Thank you, Miss Goodwitch! Tell them I will be there in five minutes! Is that all?"
"Yes, sir, goodbye!"
"Goodbye!"
The headmaster closed his Scroll, put it in his pocket, sat up from his desk, grabbed his cane, and proceeded toward the elevator.
Docking bay 1
9:13
Miss Goodwitch was standing by the bullhead at the docking bay, waiting for Headmaster Ozpin to come.
And close to her, also waiting anxiously, was none other than Team JNPR: Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren. They were Team RWBY's closest friends and had become worried sick when they had found out from Professor Ozpin that they had gone MIA the other day. Thus, they had been quick to accept Ozpin's offer to accompany him on this search and rescue mission.
And they were not the only ones; with them was another team, CFVY: Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina, and Yatsuhashi Daichi. They were a second-year team that had also agreed to join the expedition. They also knew Team RWBY very well and wanted to do anything possible to make sure that they made it back to Beacon safe and sound.
"What do you say, guys? Do you think we will find them?" Velvet asked the rest of the group.
"I... *sigh* I wish I could say yes,..." Ren responded, "...but,... at this point... I am not sure."
"Come one, guys!" Jaune intervened, "You're forgetting one important thing: this is Team RWBY we are talking about. They have made it out alive from situations a lot worse than this."
Coco smirked and giggled, "Like a cliché mad scientist guy controlling an army of genetically modified Grimm?"
""Yup!"
"Oh, yeah!" Nora replied, "Lucky bastards, those girls! I mean, they are always getting the most awesome missions! It's so unfair!"
All Huntsmen and Huntresses present laughed at that. A good laugh was more than welcome to help relieve some of the stress gained thanks to the current circumstances.
A few moments later, Yatsuhashi, who was standing facing the academy's main avenue noticed Professor Ozpin coming toward them, "Look, there he comes!" The others turned around and saw the Headmaster.
After the Headmaster reached the airship he greeted Miss Goodwitch and the students.
""Sir!" the disciplinarian saluted. "Everything is ready!"
"Thank you, Glynda!" Ozpin then went past her and toward the students who positioned themselves in a row in from of the Headmaster. "Good morning, kids!"
"Good morning, sir!" all members of both teams responded at the same time.
"Where is James?"
"He had already left ten minutes with two bullheads full of Knights. He said he wanted to secure the area and make sure we won't end up in the same situation as Team RWBY. We are to meet him directly at the ruins."
"I see... I think he made the right call. Considering what had happened to the girls, it would be completely ill-advised to take any chances. Anyways..." the Headmaster turned toward the two teams of students, "Are you all ready to go?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Good! In that case, let's not waste any more time." Ozpin said as he went and climbed inside the bullhead, followed by the two Huntsman teams, and finally by Professor Goodwitch, who closed the door behind her.
"We are done here! You may take off!" she said to the pilot who gave a thumbs-up and, a few moments later, the ship took off the platform and went on its course toward the coordinates Ozpin had gotten from Professor Indy.
Not-Remnant
Team RWBY's room, Dandelion Hotel, Viridian City
May 18 (there was a calendar on the receptionist's desk, so now they know the date too – which just happens to be the same as on Remnant); 10:26
Weiss opened her eyes and laid in bed for a few seconds before she finally sat up at the edge of the bed and stretched herself. Afterwards, she took a look at the alarm clock sitting on the nightstand between the beds and saw what time it was. Holy moly, did we sleep that much?!... Actually, why am I surprised? After all, we stood up until pretty late last night and we really exhausted. The heiress then took a quick look around her and saw her three teammates still sleeping like logs and Yang snoring like a pig, as usual. It's a good thing I had gotten used to it in time, otherwise Ruby would have woken up a long time ago to find her sister with her throat slit. Anyway, I guess it's time I woke them up.
"Alright, girls! I say we slept enough, so rise and shine! Come on!"
The other three girls and Pichu moaned as they tried to wake up... except for Yang who was trying to go back to sleep. "Five more minutes!"
"That's exactly what you are going to say again five minutes from now, so get up!" the heiress then went to open the drapes.
"Weiss, if you open those drapes, I swear I'll..."
"Sure you will!" she snarked and opened the drapes, letting the sunlight in the room.
Yang groaned and rolled around on her stomach and covered her head with her pillow.
"*sigh* Come on, Yang! I am in no mood for...!"
"Weiss!" Ruby, who, alongside Blake, had already gotten up in the meantime, interrupted, "Please allow me!" She moved to her sister's side and continued: "I am going to apply my trademark method of getting Yang out of the bed, which I came up with when I was seven."
The reaper grabbed Yang's ankles and swiftly yanked her off the bed. The blondie yelped and fell, hitting her head on the floor. "Ow! Ruby!... Seriously? That again?"
"100% guaranteed efficiency!" Ruby said with a proud look on her face.
"I hate you."
Pichu, who was still sitting on the bed, giggled at what had just happened.
Ruby looked at the rodent Pokémon and went to him, "Good morning, Pichu!"
"Good morning to you, too!"
When she reached him, she lifted him up, sat him on her right shoulder, and looked at her human (and Faunus) teammates, "So... Have you all slept well last night?"
"Oh, yeah!... Like a baby that someone hit in the head with a mallet!" Yang replied after getting up off the floor.
"I'm pretty sure a baby would die if you hit them in the head with a mallet." Blake remarked.
"And don't dead people sleep uninterrupted for a very long time, too?"
"Yeeeaaah... Kind of a weird thing to talk about in the morning."
"Kind of a weird thing to talk about at any time." Weiss added.
"Regardless, Pichu, are you ready for a brand new day, where we are trying to make sense of everything?"
"Pichu! Pichu!" the rodent exclaimed joyfully.
"*giggle* I don't speak... Pokémonish, but, judging by that happy expression on your face, I am going to assume you just said 'yes'."
The rodent giggled in response.
"Oh, right!" The reaper slapped her forehead "How silly I could be! Pichu, we know your name, but we haven't told ours yet!"
Finally! I was wondering when you would bring that up! The yellow mouse thought.
"My name is Ruby Rose, and I am going to let the others present themselves."
Thus, one by one, the girls started revealing their own names to Pichu.
"Weiss Schnee."
"Blake Belladonna."
"Yang Xiao Long. And also, I would like to mention that you've made the right choice sticking with Rubes here. I'm telling you; she is anything but a pushover" the blondie explained as she patted her blushing half-sister on the back.
"And that is not all. Weren't you also supposed to do something with that Poké Ball thing?"
"Oh, yeah! Thanks for reminding me!" The reaper took Pichu and put him on the bed, after which she picked up the tiny Poké Ball off the nightstand, where she had left it the night before, and started examining it again.
"Sooo... What are we supposed to do with this thing?" Yang asked.
"Well, I can see a button here in the middle."
Ruby pressed the button and then something unexpected happened; the ball grew in size until it reached the dimensions of a baseball. And it happened so quickly that Ruby got startled and dropped the ball on the bed. All girls looked wide-eyed at the ball.
"What the...?!" Weiss exclaimed alarmedly, "Wh... Wha... How did it... I mean... What?!"
Pichu laughed, amused by the humans and the way they were befuddled by the Poké Ball. You should see your faces!
"Okay, I am no physicist, but I am pretty sure that is not supposed to be scientifically possible!" Blake said.
"Exactly! I mean... where the heck did it get extra mass from?!"
"Okay, okay, easy!" Ruby tried to cool her team off, "Let's not overreact to this and try and figure it out, alright?!" The reaper took the ball back in her hand.
"Alright..." Weiss responded, "So, we've made the ball double its size. Now what?"
"Chu, chu!" The girls looked at Pichu and saw him stretching his arms toward the ball.
"What is it, Pichu?" Ruby asked, looked at the ball, then at the rodent again. "Would you like to show us how to use this?"
Pichu stopped hopping and nodded, "Chu!"
"Perfect! Hold on a second." Ruby lifted the Pichu off her shoulder and put him on the bed, then gave the Poké Ball to him.
The yellow mouse took the ball then stood there for a moment, trying to remember how the thing worked Alright, so, let's see... If I remember correctly, I think I am supposed to hold this here? The Electric-type rodent pressed and held down the button for two seconds. Suddenly, the Poké Ball opened, letting out a beam of bright light. The girls watched as Pichu suddenly turned into a bright white silhouette that was seemingly sucked up inside the ball that closed afterward.
If the girls were baffled before, now they were speechless, none of them able to process anything of what they had just witnessed. Ruby lunged forward, grabbed Poké Ball and held it in both her hands 10 cm (~1/3 ft) away from her face and gazed at it. "Pichu! Pichu, are you there, can you hear me?" The reaper put the ball to her ear in hopes of hearing something inside. When she didn't, she moved the ball away from her ear and kept looking at it worriedly.
"Again, what?!" Weiss exclaimed again, "I mean, that should be just as impossible as changing size!"
After finally regaining her composure, Ruby continued, "Okay, okay, let me try something!" The red reaper stretched her arm forward holding the Poké Ball with the button pointed forward and with the middle finger on it and took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing!"
The reaper pressed the button and soon enough the Poké Ball opened and soon enough the same beam of light emerged out of it, followed by a ball of light that changed shape as it landed on the bed, turning into the same Pichu-shaped silhouette, and one second later into Pichu himself, while the ball closed again.
"Pichu!" Ruby grabbed the Tiny Mouse Pokémon and embraced him in her arms, sighing in relief "Thank goodness you're alright!"
"Chu-chu, Pichu!" the yellow rodent laughed.
"Okay, I would like to settle something once and for all!" Yang intervened, "I am not hallucinating, and this is not a dream, right? You are all seeing all this too, right?"
"Uuuh, yeah!" Ruby answered.
The brawler pinched her own arm a few times hoping she would wake up, but nothing. " "*sarcastically* Oh, I am so gonna start drinking once we get back home!"
"If we ever get back home!" Blake intervened.
"Ever the optimist you are!"
Before anyone could say anything else, the phone on the wall by the entrance suddenly started ringing. Weiss went and answered it. "Hello? Yes, that is us. I see... Thank you for letting me know, I will tell the others and we will leave, goodbye!"
The heiress put the receiver back on the cradle and returned to her teammates.
"Who was on the phone?" Yang asked.
"It was from the reception. She just notified me that we have until eleven o'clock to vacate the room. That means half-an-hour from now."
"Roger that!"
The girls and Pichu ate and drank what was left of the snacks they had purchased the other night. After they were done, they threw away the empty bags and bottles, Ruby took the Poké Ball, shrank it down and put it in the pocket on her belt, Pichu climbed back on the red reaper's shoulder. Afterward, they took the remaining room, left the room, retrieved their weapons, handed over the key to the receptionist, asked her about the closest store (and she gave them directions to a so-called "Poké Mart" ten minutes away) and exited the hotel.
Poké Mart
10:59
Team RWBY and Pichu (Team RWBYP? PRWBY?) wandered around in the store with new backpacks on their backs; luckily, there was a clothes shop right next to the Poké Mart, from where the girls had been able to purchase them. Yang was pulling a cart around, while her and the other girls were wandering around looking for food, drinks, hygiene products and other necessities they could find and bringing them to the cart, and Pichu was sitting quietly in the baby seat.
"Hey, Yang!" Blake attracted the brawler's attention while making her way back to them, then looked around, "Where are Weiss and Ruby?"
"We're here!" The girls turned their looks to the heiress and the reaper, who were coming toward them, "Is something wrong?"
"No, I just wanted to let you know that I've been looking around and by the cash register is a rack with digests. And in the rack I found this." Ruby and Yang looked at what the feline Faunus was showing to them – a digest-sized book titled Pokémon Training for Dummies. "I think you all agree with me when I say this this will be very helpful if we are to keep Pichu with us and take care of him. Not to mention, it may give us a better understanding of... the local fauna."
"Perfect!" Weiss said, "I also wanted to tell you something. There is an entire section dedicated to Pokémon – I guess that is why this place is called a Poké Mart – and there I recognized several of the products on the shelves from that vending machine back at the Center. I looked through them and I found something that may come in handy later."
"Pichu, look what I've found! It's you!" Ruby showed to everybody a bag containing a mixture of seeds and nuts. And judging by the strange rodents featured on the bag, (including one looking just like Pichu), it was a no-brainer that it was supposed to be rodent food.
"Pichu, Pichu!" the yellow mouse exclaimed joyfully.
The reaper giggled, "I knew you were going to love this!"
"HP? Like in video games?" Yang asked confused.
"And here is what I've got. First, this." Weiss showed to her teammates what she was holding in one hand – a purple spray bottle that had the word Potion and a Poké Ball logo on it. "According to what it says on the labels, a puff of this... 'Potion' is supposed to, quote, 'restore 20 of one Pokémon's HP', unquote."
"HP? Like in video games?" Yang became curious.
"I presume that is the local denomination for Aura."
"Hold on a second! So let me get this straight... You tell me that that substance could regenerate Aura by simply applying directly on the skin?" Blake asked baffled.
"Whoa! Now that is impressive, and every Huntsman and Huntress would sell their left testicle-slash-ovary for something like that. And what about the other one?" Yang pointed at the thing Weiss was holding in her other hand – a green spray can with the word Repel and another Poké Ball logo on it. "This one, as you can deduce from the name, is a repellant. More exactly a repellant against wild Pokémon. It contains some pheromone that Pokémon that are registered to Poké Balls are somehow immune to, so Pichu should not be affected, but it is otherwise insufferable to Pokémon. And the effect lasts for about a couple of hours."
"Why would we need that?" Yang asked.
"Since in this world such things as mice shooting lightning bolts from their bodies are common, we should expect these creatures to be capable of anything. Ergo, we should have a means of preventing another encounter with such animal that may be much less friendly than Pichu. After all, we are in enough trouble already with the Grimm that had arrived here with us through that portal."
"Oh... Eh, fair enough." Yang shrugged.
After they were done with their shopping, Team RWBY got with their full-to-the-brim cart to the cash register, which was being operated by a nice elderly lady and started putting their items on the desk. While they were doing that, they couldn't help but notice the knee-high pink ball of fur, with pointed years, wide blue eyes, stubby limbs and a curly tuft of hair on the top of its head (which, apparently, was also its body), standing by the opposite side of the desk.
"Aww, what a cutie!" Ruby gave in to temptation and started scratching the pink ball of fur on its head/body.
"Jigglypuff!" the Balloon Pokémon enjoyed the treatment it was receiving.
The old clerk giggled, "My Jigglypuff seems to like you."
"Pichu!" Ruby turned around and saw the rodent standing on the baby seat, hands on his hips and a grumpy face that could put Weiss to shame.
"Aww, come on, Pichu! You're not getting jealous, are you? You are cute too!"
The rodent closed his eyes and nodded toward his Trainer in an "I win" gesture, Thank you!
Yang cackled, despite her best efforts to keep a straight face.
After all items were scanned, the girls put them in their new backpacks, Ruby lifted Pichu up and put him back on her shoulder, and everybody left. However, the moment the they exited through the automatic doors, a group of four people, two men and two women, shoved them aside and entered the store.
"Move it!" yelled one of the men.
The girls stood there for a second and looked at them, perplexed by what had just happened. All four people were wearing black shirts, black pants or skirts, black caps, white boots, white gloves and white belts. Moreover, each of the four people was holding a baseball bat.
"Well, I never!" Weiss scoffed.
"Sheesh, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed!" Yang added.
"Yeah... They definitely don't have 'troublemakers' written all over them." Blake snarked, then came up with an idea, "Wait here a second." the black cat moved toward the front window, positioned herself by the frame of the doors, from where she saw the group heading for the cash register, and listened in; thanks to her second pair of ears, that had the added bonus of being cat ears, she was able to hear through the glass at least part of the conversation between the obvious thugs and the clerk. Meanwhile, the other three girls and Pichu were waiting nearby.
The clerk looked scared, "...can't... like this! ...raised the fee... past couple of months!"
The thugs on the other hand looked scary and furious. "If... cooperate... teach you respect! Come on... let's f... this place up."
Blake started to become worried and then she saw the thugs spreading throughout the store and starting to wreak havoc with their bats.
Blake ran back to her teammates.
"So? Is everything okay in there?" Ruby asked.
"No, those guys are apprantly running a protection racket and..."
"Say no more!" Yang interrupted and, without further ado, the girls headed back inside.
"HEY, ASSHOLES!" Yang yelled.
The "assholes" suddenly stopped what they were doing and looked at the Huntresses.
"Who are you?! What do you want?!" one girl with short brown hair, who happened to be the closest to them, yelled.
"Yeah, get lost!" one chubby guy who was nearby added.
"How about you get lost?" Yang responded deadpan.
"Did you just backtalk us?!"
In the meantime, the other two goons, who had heard the commotion, arrived. They were a skinny guy and a blonde girl with a long hair tied in a ponytail. Moreover, noe that the goons were facing the Huntresses, the latter could now notice the large red R's on their chests. "What is going on here?!" the skinny guy, whom Blake instantly recognized as the one who had been yelling earlier at the clerk and whom she assumed to be the leader of the group, asked, then he saw the Huntresses. "Who the hell are you?!"
"This bimbo backtalked us!" the brunette said.
"Is that so? Let me ask you something, do you have any idea who are you talking to right now?"
"A bunch of hooligans?" Blake replied deadpan.
All four goons were taken aback by the audacity of these girls.
"Alright, guys!..." Yang continued as she cracked her fists, "We could do this the easy way, or the hard way! And I've gotta tell you, I love the hard way!" Ruby, Weiss and Blake also positioned themselves ready to rumble.
Outside the Poké Mart
11:13
Several people were walking by on the sidewalk, minding their own business, when suddenly, everybody was startled by the sight (or at least the noise) of four people flying through the front windows of the Poké Mart and landing on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. And after the pedestrians took a better look at them, they all gasped and started whispering to each other when they recognized the clothes they were wearing.
"They're from Team Rocket!"
"What trouble have those hoodlums been causing now?!"
Said hoodlums were now lifting up grunting due to the pain they were feeling after being thrown through glass and landing on asphalt. "Everything... hurts...!" the chubby man said faintly.
At that moment, the eyewitnesses saw four young girls wearing different colors coming out of the store – one was dressed in red, another one in white, another one in black, and the last one in yellow – prompting them to whisper among themselves again.
"Who are those girls?"
"Were they the ones who threw these thugs through the window?"
The elderly clerk and her Jigglypuff. Also came out of the store and joined the rest of the crowd.
The girl in yellow suddenly started talking, "Alright, you guys give up, or are you thirsty for more?"
"You!...You have just done the biggest mistake of your lives, pipsqueaks!" the skinny guy said retorted at the girls, while still winded. "Come on, guys! Let's show these nosy brats how Team Rocket deals with those who cause us trouble!"
As the hoodlums were reaching for the Poké Balls hanging on their belts, they stopped when all four girls started cackling. Both Team Rocket and the bystanders were looking confusedly at the Huntresses, as their cackles turned to laughter.
"Team Rocket?!" Ruby finally asked "That is the name of your gang?!"
"Yeah, it would be a good name for a gang..." Yang added, "...if you were in second grade!"
"Uh... What?" the blonde Rocketeer said confused. And she was not the only one; the other grunts, as well as the bystanders, and even Pichu, were puzzled by the way the girls were amused by and laughing at one of the most notorious criminal organizations in the world.
"So, you think this is funny, eh?" the skinny gang leader responded to the girls' mocking, "Let's see how much you laugh after we're done with you! Guys?"
"Understood, boss!" his three subordinates confirmed in response, then all four goons took out one Poké Ball each and threw them toward team RWBY. The balls opened mid-air freeing the Pokémon held inside them: a light-brown bull with a dark-brown mane, two big gray horns on its head, three gray bumps positioned in a vertical row on its forehead and three tails each ending in a tuft; a green mantis-like humanoid with a reptilian head, cream-colored joint areas, large blades for hands and two pairs of wings on its back; a tan humanoid that looked like a boxer, five blunt protrusions on top of its head, pads on its shoulders, a light purple tunic, kilt and shoes, and boxing gloves on its hands; and finally... a clown with a round white body with a magenta circle in the middle, a light pink head and limbs, the latter of which were connected to the body through magenta spheres, magenta circles on its cheeks, an inward-curved jaw, two dark blue growths resembling clown hair on its head, white glove-like hands and dark blue feet curved upward.
"Tauros!"
"Scyther!"
"Hitmonchan!"
"Mr. Mime!"
That was the bystander's cue to back off to a safe distance, since everybody knew what was about to happen next. Even the clerk and her Jigglypuff goy out of the store and took shelter with the rest of them.
"You're gonna let your pets do the fighting for you?" Weiss scoffed "Talk about cowardice."
"Pff, Who cares?" Yang intervened, "Either way we get to kick some ass!"
"*chuckle* You and what army? That Pichu on Little Red's shoulder?" the blonde Rocketeer pointed at the Tiny Mouse Pokémon perched on Ruby's shoulder. "I mean, look at him! Look at how he's shaking!"
"Yeah, if each of you has at least half-a-brain in your heads, you would just run away while you still can!" the chubby Rocketeer added.
The reaper looked at the rodent and saw he was indeed visibly scared. The latter moved toward her impromptu trainer's head and put his hands on it, trying to find relief. The reaper took the rodent in her hands, "Hey, Pichu! Look at me!" The rodent obeyed and looked at Ruby, who had a comforting look on her face, "There is nothing to be scared off. These guys don't even look that intimidating. We'll take care of it."
"Awww, the little girlie tries to stop her widdle baby from popping himself!" The brunette Rocketeer mocked, which drew laughter from her teammates. "And you have the nerve to laugh at us!"
Yang, Blake and Weiss then looked at Ruby and saw something they would have never thought they would ever see: their leader with a look of anger. Then, another unexpected thing happened: Ruby yelled, "ALRIGHT, THAT DOES IT! YOU WANT A FIGHT?! ME AND MY TEAM ARE GONNA GIVE YOU A FIGHT FROM HELL!" the reaper then put her newest friend on the ground and sat on one knee, "Pichu, go take cover! We're gonna teach these guys a lesson. Remembering his past experience in the Viridian Forest, the yellow rodent knew instantly what was about to go down at that time. !" Thus, without having to be asked twice, he ran off to one of the groups of bystanders, and "took a seat" next to the elderly store clerk and the Jigglypuff. Does your trainer and her friends stand a chance against those Rocketeers?
*chuckle* Girl, you've got no idea! The Balloon Pokémon looked at Pichu, entirely confused by his remark.
The four Rocketeers looked pretty confused at the Pichu, then back at the four girls.
"Hold on a second! If Little Red sent her Pichu there, then who is going to fight against us?" the blonde Rocketeer asked.
"Isn't it obvious? We will." Ruby replied.
"Uh, yes, we can see that. But we want to know what Pokémon are you going to pitch against ours?"
Yang chuckled, "You still don't get it, do you? We are going to fight your Pokémon."
At this, the Rocketeers looked at the huntresses as if each of them had grown another head. "Uh, what?" the scrawny team leader asked confused.
"You see, we don't know how things work around these parts, but where we come from..." Team RWBY drew, unfolded and cocked their weapons, "...we are trained to fight our own battles."
At that moment, the hoodlums', their Pokémon and the bystanders' eyes grew wide. "Whoawhoawhoawhoawhoa!... You are planning to fight our Pokémon?!" the brunette Rocketeer asked incredulous.
"And... and are those... guns?" the blonde Rocketeer added, her legs starting to shake.
"They're also melee weapons." Ruby responded.
The stout Rocketeer finally manned up and said, "You know what, I'm getting tired of this shit! If these schoolgirls want to end up in the ER that bad, then I'm more than happy to oblige! Tauros, Horn Attack!"
At first, the Wild Bull Pokémon just stood there confused, trying to figure out whether his trainer was serious, but after a couple of seconds, he decided there was no point in pondering upon it, so he obeyed his trainer's order and charged toward the girls – more exactly, toward the one in black.
Blake was startled when she realized that the bull was charging straight for her, but she still maintained her position until... she vanished, leaving a stone replica of herself in its stead and reappeared by the bovine's side. The bovine slammed into the statue head-on and, being a Normal-type using a Normal-type move, was not even able to chip it, only managing to daze himself. This gave Blake the perfect opportunity to start hitting at her quadrupedal opponent with Gambol Shroud, while everybody else who was not Team RWBY stared in complete amazement and disbelief at what had just happened.
Eventually, the skinny Rocketeer realized there was no point in just standing there and staring, so she started giving instructions her Scyther, "Scyther, go help Tauros! Use Fury Cutter!"
The Mantis Pokémon immediately started flapping her wings and lunged toward Tauros' assailant, ready to strike her with her blades. However, when she was just 3 feet (1 meter) away from the girl in black, she saw with the corner of her eye a red blurry figure coming toward her.
"No, you don't!"
The mantodean immediately stopped midway and lunged backward and raised arm-blades. The blade of her scythe grazing against them, causing some sparks to appear, then she ascended a few meters above ground.
While Scyther remained suspended in the air, she saw the girl in red pointing her... RIFLE!... at her, ready to pull the trigger. The mantodean hastily dodged every single bullet, while gaining some more attitude to put some more distance between her and the girl in red. Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!
After neither of her shots managed to hit its target, Ruby returned Crescent Rose to scythe mode and flew upward toward her insectoid opponent.
Scyther's eye grew wide, refusing to believe what she was seeing. A human who can fly! Just what the fudge is going on here?!
In the meantime, the two remaining Huntresses finally decided to stop wasting time and ran toward the two remaining Pokémon, while their trainers looked in horror.
"Oh, crap!" the brunette Rocketeer exclaimed "Lizzie, you take Snow White, I'll take Goldilocks!"
"Roger that! You heard her, Mr. Mime!"
Mr. Mime and Hitmonchan did not need any more instructions and prepared for battle.
Hitmonchan greeted Yang with a punch which Yang dodged then responded with a punch of her own, which was parried by the Punching Pokémon. What followed was a regular boxing match between the two brawlers.
Meanwhile, Wiess was skating on a row of glyphs toward Mr. Mime and was ready to strike at her, when she suddenly felt like she slammed into something. After remaining stuck flat against the invisible "wall" of a few moments, the white princess fell on her back on the tarmac and, for one second, she could swear she heard some birds chirping.
"Good job, Mr. Mime!" Lizzie praised her jester-like Pokémon, "Now add to that a dose of Confusion!"
While the human white-haired girl was regaining her senses and getting back up on her feet, the Barrier Pokémon caused a small burst of telekinetic energy to appear right in the girl's face, pushing her a few step backward, but she still managed to remain on her feet.
Then, the Psychokinetic clown "checked" inside her adversary's mind and grinned when she "saw" her attack had the effect she was hoping.
"So? Is she Confused?"
"Oh, she is, alright!" the Barrier Pokémon answered telepathically, both her and her trainer adopting smug grins on their faces.
In the meantime, Blake managed to land a few more hits on Tauros before the bovine swung his whip-like tails and hit the Faunus in her left eye with the tip of one of them. The black cat stepped back, yelping in pain, and the Wild Bull Pokémon continued by spinning around and kicking the girl in her torso with his hind legs. Afterward, he spun around again and lunged at the Faunus, ready to hit her again with his horns. But, once again, the feline Faunus teleported and reappeared by the bovine's side landing one hit with her sword, but instead of keeping on hitting, she teleported and reappeared on the other side and hit again, then disappeared again. The Faunus kept doing this pattern of "teleport, hit, vanish, repeat" and the Wild Bull Pokémon, kept jumping and spinning around as if he went crazy trying with zero success to hit the girl, who kept disappearing and reappearing in a different spot. Around half-a-minute later, Blake noticed her horned adversary became slower and slower, due to fatigue and the multiple hits it had taken, so the Faunus continued for a few more seconds, then, when the bull was so exhausted and beaten down that he could barely move, she teleported one last time in front of it, swung her dual weapons downward upon its head, hitting it on more time, then switched her sword to gun mode, aimed it at its head, and...
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Wild Bull Pokémon, by that time barely able to stand up, collapsed on the ground defeated.
Blake stood there and chuckled, Well, that was one bull I'd had the courage to face in a fight!
Meanwhile, Yang and Hitmonchan were exchanging fists between each other, each punch either hitting its target, or blocked by the target. Eventually, the blondezerker managed to grab each of the brown-colored humanoid's arms with one hand, then headbutted him, making him step backwards. The buxom boxer smirked and was about ready to strike again when she was suddenly hit in her side by something hard and cold, like ice. Yang looked to her left and saw Weiss thrusting her rapier straight toward her face. The blondezerker dove backward, and Myrtenaster passed by and stopped, just inches away from her face. Then, Weiss immediately slashed the blondie's face with her rapier, making the latter step back even further.
The yellow brawler looked in disbelief at the white princess, who was also looking incredulously at the former.
"Wha...? Yang?!..."
"WEISS! WHAT THE FUuuuuu..." Yang's eyes grew wide as she was apparently staring into space. However, in reality, she was looking at a yellow strand of hair that was slowly falling down. And that was when the explosive diarrhea really hit the turbofan. The blondezerker immediately erupted in a blaze of fire, under the shocked looks of every non-Huntress present, "I'll FUCKIN' KILL YOU ALL!" She started running at top speed, but not against Weiss. Even though the Ice Queen was obviously the one who had the audacity of cutting off a piece of her hair, the blondezerker still couldn't find the heart to use one of her friends as a punching bag, so she decided to discharge all her tremendous rage on someone, or something else. And that unlucky something? Hitmonchan.
The blondezerker struck the Punching Pokémon with an uppercut in his jaw, and the latter flew upward like a firework. Afterward, the blondezerker also propelled herself upward with Ember Celica and, once she reached the boxer Pokémon, she pushed him even further up with a flurry of devastating punches, buffed up through the added help Fire Dust shots. And then, for the grand finale, the blondezerker grabbed the boxer Pokémon, held him upside down in her arms, then fell downward.
Thus, Yang's fight ended with an epic piledriver, the boxer Pokémon's head slamming against the asphalt concrete so hard it left a small crater in it and caused a small earthquake. The buxom boxer let go of the tan-colored boxer, the latter ending up lying flat on hit stomach, out like a light, while the former also lied there, winded, her blaze gone, relishing in her victory, her anger finally sated.
On the outside: "*sigh* Hehehe!... You mess with the hair, you get the Yang..."
On the inside: Ow!... My back!...
But what about Weiss? Well, in order to find out we will have to rewind time back to one and a half minute ago, where we can see the white princess fighting against Mr. Mime.
Immediately after she had been hit by that explosion that had come seemingly out of nowhere, the heiress dodged the jester-like Pokémon's fist that was headed straight toward her face, then responded with a thrust of Myrtenaster in the clown's own face.
However, there was something else going on – as Weiss kept fighting, she was feeling a little woozy. At first it didn't bother her, thinking it was just a result of that explosion from earlier, but after a few seconds, she realized that the dizziness, not only that it wouldn't go away, but it also started to increase in intensity.
The Barrier Pokémon stopped, looked at Weiss and smirked when she realized what was going on. "What's wrong? Are we feeling a little unwell?"
The white princess kept looking around, trying to comprehend what was going on, and the weird voice she had just heard in her head was not helping matters. Wh... Wha...?
Eventually, she regained her composure and saw the weird jester standing in front of her and just staring at her. Without thinking twice, the heiress activated her Semblance and created a light-blue-colored glyph in the air that shot out several icicles that hit the jester. Then, the heiress thrust her rapier at the jester, which the latter dodged, so the former swung her rapier, hitting the clown in the face.
And even better, the heiress finally felt the dizziness disappearing, but her relief was short-lived when she looked where the clown was supposed to be and was surprised to find Yang in its place.
"Wha... Yang?!..."
"WEISS! WHAT THE Fuuuuuu..."
Weiss did not have any more time to try and figure out what the heck was going on, because she received another fist from the jester, which this time she was not able to dodge and received it right in the temple, followed by a small burst of light.
The Barrier Pokémon harumphed when she realized the princess was not Confused anymore. So much for that. Then she kept attacking the princess with a combo of Mega Punches.
Back to Weiss, she was starting to get really annoyed by all this. So, when she was about to receive another punch, she produced another glyph, this one a regular white-colored one, that blocked the punch, making Mr. Mime bounce back. Before the jester had time to do anything else, the heiress quickly created an orange glyph right underneath it and soon enough, a large pillar of fire burst out from underneath, engulfing the jester, who started to scream in pain.
After the fire disappeared, Weiss looked at Mr. Mime and was a little surprised to see the jester covered in burn wounds that were glowing orange, like hot iron.
Ooooh-kaaay?... That is a little strange. she thought.
"Mr. Mime! Come back here!" Lizzie ordered to the Barrier Pokémon, who went back to her trainer, while trying to ignore the pain caused by the Burn he had just been inflicted with. The blonde gangbanger took out in her hand a green spray bottle that had Burn Heal written on its label.
But, before the goon could apply the first puff, something long penetrated the bottle and ripped it out of her hands. The goon looked to her right and saw the princess with her rapier stretched forward, and the bottle skewered like shish kebab.
After taking the bottle away from the goon, Weiss jumped away from her and the jester, "Don't you know you first have to take cover from the enemy before healing any wounded allies?" the white princess swung Myrtenaster to make the punctured bottle slide off the blade. "If you are so hot-headed, then please allow me to cool you off!" ... Did she just say a punny one-liner?... She may have spent a little too much time around Yang... Anyway, the heiress created a glyph in the air, in front of herself. Then, several blue projectiles of Ice Dust came out, hitting the jester and causing ice to form on its body.
Finally, she propelled herself toward her adversary with her weapon glowing yellow. The moment her rapier hit Mr. Mime, yellow lightnings burst out of its tip and hit the Pokémon, the ice on the its body shattering off and the Pokémon itself being flying backward and hitting the wall of the building behind before it finally fell defeated on the sidewalk.
And finally, above them all, there was Ruby was struggling a bit harder in her fight against Scyther. The mantodean Pokémon and the reaper were both moving mid-air in all directions trying to land blows, while dodging the ones coming from the other. In the end, when Ruby tried to land another blow, something completely unexpected happened – Scyther became two Scythers that were flickering as if they were holograms and when the red reaper swung her scythe downward, she hit the wrong one, and then the girl could only stare wide-eyed as the mantodean Pokémon swung one of her arm-blades, leaving a trail of yellow-green light in the air and hitting the reaper and making her drop her weapon, followed by a flurry of a few more hits, each one stronger than the last one.
After Scyther ended the Fury Cutter, the girl in red, having no wings like her adversary, could not stay suspended in the air without having to move around and fell flat on her back on the asphalt, just a couple of feet away from her weapon.
Then, the mantodean's skinny trainer came up with an idea, "SCYTHER, SWORDS DANCE, THEN HYPER BEAM, NOW!" The green insectoid, who had landed on the ground in the meantime, spread her arms and spun around, while several spikes of orange light raised from underneath around her and several orange-colored swords also emerged above her head, their blades crossing each other in some sort of cone pointing upward. She stopped spinning after a short while and the swords and the spikes of light vanished.
"Oww..." Ruby managed to regain her senses and, as she was about to get back up, she noticed the insectoid opening its mouth, which started glowing in an amber color on the inside, ready to launch a devastating beam at the Little Red, when...
"SCYTHER, BEHIND YOU!"
The insectoid suddenly felt something hitting her in the back. As a result, she involuntarily tilted her head upward, and the Hyper Beam thus missed its shot and launched toward the sky.
Infuriated, the Mantis Pokémon turned around. ALRIGHT, WHO'S THE MORON THAT DID THAT?! However, all she saw was the crowd of baffled humans and Pokémon, who were all standing a good distance away.
Down here, you butt! The Mantis Pokémon looked downward and saw a Pichu looking up at him with an angry face. Leave my trainer alone, you big bully!
Why, you little...!, the mantodean raised her blade, ready to strike the Tiny Mouse Pokémon when...
BANG!
...and something hit the mantodean hard in the back of her head, stunning her. When she turned around, she saw the red reaper sitting on the asphalt, aiming her big rifle at her, then...
Ca-click ca-clack BANG!
...another shot right in the forehead. The girl jumped back up on her feet, and, as she started walking closer to the Mantis Pokémon, she fired another shot... Then another one... Then, once she was only 6 feet (~2 meters) away from the now-wobbling insectoid, she fired the last bullet in her gun, which knocked the giant bug flat. Pichu had to jump to the side in order to not be squashed by the bigger Pokémon's plummeting body.
And thus, the fight was finally over. All that was left were the four Huntresses and the four Rocketeers, who were all by the fairly large number of humans and Pokémon, crowded up on the streets, or watching from the inside from the windows and balconies of the surrounding buildings, all of whom stood there wide-eyed and speechless. Trying their best to process anything of what they had just been witnesses to.
"Wh... What... the hell... just happened?!"
"Di-di... Did you freaking see all that?! Am I going crazy?!"
"Are they superheroes or something?"
With the Pokémon now defeated, the Huntresses turned their attention toward their masters and walked toward them, all of them sporting the most shit-eating grins in the history of shit-eating grins, maybe ever. The gangbangers on the other hand, looked like they were trying to prevent shit from getting out in their undies.
"Uh... Heheh..." the skinny gang leader faintly chuckled, "Wou-wou-wouldn't it be m-m-much simpler if-if-if we s-solved this m-more... peacefully."
"Well, I gotta say, those friends of yours were quite a challenge. Which is why, I don't know about my teammates here, but I am willing to try and keep the number of broken bones and teeth to a minimum." Yang replied while cracking her knuckles.
"Oh, yeah? You think you are all tough with those big guns of yours?" the gang leader replied as if he suddenly grew a new pair, while reaching for the. His fellow thugs saw him and did the same, and, soon enough, everybody gasped when the thugs quickly whipped out pistols from the holsters they were wearing at the back of their trousers, or tied to their thighs under their skirts, and pointed them at the girls, who also pointed their weapons back at the hoodlums, rolling their eyes. "Oh, yeah, that's right! We've got some of these too!"
"*sigh* You just don't know when to give up, do you?" Ruby asked, starting to get a little frustrated.
The hoodlums started moving backward, guns still pointed at the girls. "S-stay away from us, you bi-!"
"Ji-gga-ly-puff Ji-ggaly-y-y-puff! Ji-gga-ly-puff Ji-gga-ly-y-y-puff!"
"Huh?..."
Everybody looked and saw the Poké Mart clerk's Jigglypuff had approached the belligerents caught in a standoff and was now singing right next to Pichu. At that point, everybody except for Team RWBY knew what the Jigglypuff was doing – it was using the move Sing.
"Oh, for God's sake!" the gang leader went and aimed his gun at the Jigglypuff, trying to silence it. However, he and the rest of Team Rocket already started feeling drowsy, and he was so focused on trying to stay awake, that he failed to pull the trigger. "Shut... shut the... hell...*yawn*...up." soon enough, all four Rocketeers sat down on the ground, closed their eyes, and fell asleep.
Team RWBY stood there amazed and confused. Ruby was the first to say something, "Uh... What?"
"Are those guys... sleeping?" Blake added.
Ruby went and poked one of the sleeping goons with her now-folded weapon, "Yes, they are! That Jigglypuff put them to sleep..." she then turned her head toward her teammates, "...by singing them a lullaby."
"..."
"..."
Weiss pinched her nose, "*sigh* Good Lords, this place!"
Just then, everybody heard police sirens and, soon enough, four police cruisers appeared, two one each side of the block. Several cops got out of the cars and made their way through the crowds and pointed their guns at Team RWBY. One of cops, a woman with blue-green hair wearing a blue uniform, put a bullhorn at her mouth "THIS IS VCPD! PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN NOW!"
The Huntresses complied and slowly laid their weapons on the ground, then lifted their hands in the air. "Okay, easy there! We want no trouble! We are the good guys! We stopped the criminals!" Yang pointed with her head at the four hoodlums lying on the ground.
And cue the cops appearing right after the incident happened! What a cliché! Blake internally snarked.
"Officer Jenny, look!" said a cop standing next the woman with the bullhorn.
Officer Jenny looked and saw four people in black uniforms lying unconscious on the ground, people who she immediately recognized, "Team Rocket! Watson, Sanders, come with me!"
After the chief and the two other officers reached the girls and the sleeping Rocketeers, she turned her attention to the former, "You stay where you are, ladies, I will be with you immediately."
"Yes, ma'am!" the girls acknowledged.
"Sanders, go to the car and bring an Awakening!"
"Roger!" Sanders wend back in the crowd toward the car she and Jenny had arrived in.
"Well I'll be damned, it's the Carlton Crew!" Watson remarked in a manner that said 'This is just too good to be true!'.
Ten seconds later, Sanders returned with a light-blue spray bottle, which she gave to Officer Jenny. "Here!"
"Thank you!" the chief took the bottle and sprayed the liquid inside it on the four sleeping Rocketeers, who immediately started waking up.
"Rise and shine, sleepyheads!" Watson said.
"Wh... Wha...?" the brunette Rocketeer said groggily. Eventually, all four gangbangers were sitting up in the sidewalk, and saw they were surrounded by the four armed girls and... cops. "Oh, crap!"
"Good! Now that you are awake, I would like you to sit on your knees, hands behind your heads. I need two more people here!"
The hoodlums looked around themselves, desperate to find any way to get out of there. In the end, they gave up and complied. The cops handcuffed the hoodlums and took them to the cruisers.
Meanwhile, Officer Jenny turned her attention toward the four Huntresses. "Alright, ladies! I am Officer Jenny, and I would like to get your statements, if you don't mind!"
"Not at all, ma'am!" Ruby responded. "Anything you would like to know, we are more than happy to tell you."
"Pichu!" The reaper suddenly heard her little rodent friend squeaking and saw him hugging her leg and looking at her worriedly and teary-eyed.
"Oh, hey, Pichu!" The reaper crouched and petted her non-human friend on the head, "Are you alright!" The rodent nodded. "You don't need to worry about me, little guy! I will be with you on I finish here with miss policewoman, okay?"
"Chu!" Pichu acknowledged while wiping his tears and climbed up on the reaper's cape and sat on her shoulder.
"Okay, ma'am! I am here, what would you like to know."
"Well, for the beginning, I would like to know your names."
"Ruby Rose."
"Weiss Schnee."
"Blake Belladonna."
"Yang Xiao Long."
"Okay, and now I would like you to tell me everything that happened here."
Team RWBY told Officer Jenny about the Carlton Crew entering the store, asking for protection money and ravishing the store and how the girls went to them and threw the gangbangers out through the window after the latter refused to solve the problem peacefully.
"And then, they sicced those creatures on us, so we fought them and, well... as you could see, we won." Yang continued.
Officer Jenny then looked at the girls and noticed that the only Pokémon they were having with them was a Pichu, then she remembered they were carrying weapons when she had arrived. Thus, an idea started to form in her head, although she mostly refused to believe it, "Uh... And what Pokémon did you use to fight theirs?"
"Oh, well..." Ruby gave an answer, "It was mostly us, but I would be lying if I didn't give some credit to Pichu here. At one point, I would have lost my fight if he didn't intervened. Isn't that right, Pichu?"
"Pichu, Pi-Pichu-chu, Pichu, Pi-Pichu." ("Well, I wouldn't say it like that. All I did was Tackling that jerk. Any Mon could do that.") the yellow rodent scratched the back of his head shyly.
Upon hearing this, Officer Jenny was amazed by what the red-hooded girl had just said and looked incredulously at her, "Y... You tell me that you and your friends here have fought a group of Pokémon by yourselves?!"
"Yeah, pretty much." Blake answered deadpan.
"While that would explain those weapons you were carrying, I find hard to believe the fact that some humans engaged in a fight against some Pokémon and actually won. Do you have any proof of this?"
"Officer Jenny!" Before any of the Huntresses could respond, they heard another police officer calling for the chief while walking toward her.
"Is there a problem, Randall?"
Officer Randall lifted up a phone he was holding in his hand, "I've asked an eyewitness who had filmed the whole incident to send the footage on my phone. You really have to see this!"
"Okay, sure!"
The officer turned on his phone and put the video on it.
Officer Jenny's eyes had grown to the size of baseballs when she saw the four girls clearly fighting The Carlton Crew's Pokémon by themselves with some rather strange weapons... and what appeared to be superpowers. After a while she decided she had seen enough, "Th...Thanks for showing me." After Officer Randall left, Jenny returned to the Huntresses.
"So..." Yang said smugly, "Did you get any proof?"
"Y... Yeah... Who are you?"
"Just some people doing fulfilling their duty toward society and mankind."
Now that sound like something a comic book superhero would say. Officer Jenny internally chuckled, "Well, as... beyond belief as all this is, it would still be very rude of me not say 'thank you' to all of you, on behalf of the entire Viridian City, for what you have done. Truth is, those thugs back there, that was the Carlton Crew, a gang affiliated with Team Rocket. For years they have been causing trouble here in Viridian, yet they would always manage to get away. Until now."
"It was a pleasure to help, ma'am!" Weiss responded.
"Well, I guess since we have video footage of the entire incident, there would be no more need to interrogate you. You are free to go."
"Thank you, ma'am!"
Right after Officer Jenny left, another voice called them from behind, "Uh... Excuse me!" The Huntresses looked behind and saw the elderly store clerk, "I just wanted to also thank you personally for saving my store. Those ne'er-do-wells have been causing me and other shop owners trouble for almost a year now."
"It's okay!" Ruby replied, "And sorry for the window."
"Eh, don't sweat it! I could always replace that. Although, there is something else I've been thinking about. Are you girls from here, from Kanto?"
"Uh... no, we are not from around here."
"I see... And something else – when I checked you out, I couldn't help noticing that among what you had bought there was a Pokémon Training for Dummies guidebook. Are you planning on becoming Pokémon Trainers?"
Team RWBY paused for a second, not knowing what to say. Eventually Ruby said: "Uh... Yeah, sure, we are aspiring... Trainers."
"Hmm, a little old for that but eh, who am I to judge? Anyway, if you want to find more information I suggest you go see the region's Pokémon Professor, Samuel Oak, in Pallet Town."
"Samuel Oak?"
"Pallet Town?" Yang added.
"Yes, to the south. It takes around half-an-hour to get there by train. There is a taxi stand across the street from The Pokémon Center. You could take a cab from there to the train station."
"Understood, thank you!"
After the clerk thanked Team RWBY again, she left, and the Huntresses were once again alone, discussing their situation.
"Girls, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Blake asked.
"Depends, kitty cat." Yang answered, "What are you thinking about?"
"If this Professor Oak is some expert in Pokémon and, more importantly, a scientist, there is a chance he may help us with our situation."
"Huh... Then I guess we were thinking what you were thinking."
"That... is actually not a bad idea." Weiss said.
"It's settled, then." Ruby added, "Next stop, Pallet Town!"
Inside the train
12:13
The Viridian-Fuchsia regional train belonging to the Kanto Railways Company (KRC) was running on the tracks through the hills, which were noticeably lower than the ones north of Viridian City. The train was an important route connecting, as the name implied, Viridian City and Fuchsia City and anything in between, including Pallet Town and Cinnabar Island.
And at the moment, among the passengers were none other than Team RWBY. Ruby and Yang were sitting on one row, duking it out against each other in a fighting game on their Scrolls, through local multiplayer (which luckily didn't need access to the CCTS to work).
"You're gonna lose you little sucker!" Ruby yelled at her sister in a blatant attempt at showing dominance.
"Okay, one: I'm taller than you; and two: you couldn't punch a teddy bear."
Pichu was sitting on Ruby's lap cheering her on.
Meanwhile, behind the two sisters were Blake and Weiss, who were thoroughly looking over the guidebook about Pokémon training they had bought.
The four Huntresses were headed toward the so-called Pallet Town, where they would meet someone known as Professor Oak, in hopes he would give them some help about their predicament.
