Volume 2 Chapter 1: Pulverized Provisions

AN: Well, bad news is, it looks like ReNora isn't happening. Sorry, guys, but a whole bunch of crap has made life not that nice for me, and thus drained my enthusiasm for a new project. And editing the first part of the story is turning out to be a pain in my side; gonna need significantly more time on that project than I thought. Given that I've already written this and have a good idea on where I want this volume to go, we're kicking things back off early.

So, Volume 2, The Volume After Volume 1. Two things I want to bring up. Firstly, and I should have brought this up when we started the Interlude (forgot to, my bad), if you have any questions regarding Kassidy's backstory at this point, now's the time to ask them, because barring one final reveal we are now 100% done with setting up her backstory.

Secondly, and here's the big one: RWKY is an AU, and it's bigger than just Beacon. Yes, I finally finished a roadmap that will, if I continue on 2x/week uploads, will see us through a minimum of a further year of material. While Volume 1 was very much a "rewrite of RWBY with a new character", and Volume 2 will be much of the same, I am going to start introducing bigger elements and more characters. Certain canon characters WILL get warped to be OOC. Old villains will have complications, and new villains will join the fray. Kassidy may be on the titular team, but it's not all about her. Only most of it is.

Okay, on to the chapter summary, which seems to involve… yeah, do I even need to put a summary here? You all know what's about to happen. LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!

(Perspective: Kassidy)

Hmm… what's this? 'Schnee Dust Company stocks skyrocket as Jacques Schnee announces collaboration that has yielded next-gen CPU's with 70% increased speed over predecessors'? Looks like Bob might get some competition here in a few years or so, assuming someone's willing to throw millions of Lien at the problem of cutting-edge super-computing tablets. Actually, that might be something to take advantage of if I ever find myself with a large glut of cash; some of Bob's parts are getting a bit on the old and overworked side.

Kassidy continued swiping through the news of the world while nibbling on a sandwich she made involving roast turkey and the crustiest baguettes she has ever eaten. It wasn't Patch, but Beacon was as close to home as she's had in several years, and it definitely had its own charm. To her right, Weiss was studying last semester's notes (despite the fact that classes hadn't even started yet), while on her left Yang was busy catching food flung at her by JNPR, mostly Nora. Ruby had run off, oddly enough, to the library early in the morning and hadn't been seen since. Kassidy thought on it for a short while before the cafeteria doors opened, letting in a breeze that made her shiver and subconsciously snap her legs even tighter together. One of many reasons why I try to wear skirts as little as possible. Ugh, why do these stupid uniforms need to be mandatory? If it's not the potential for guys to sneak a peek, this stupid shoelace necktie thing feels like it's trying to choke me. This whole damn outfit is one big mass of cotton and bad design.

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Ah!" Kassidy dropped her sandwich and flailed slightly as Yang poked her face over, retreating only for as long as it took to catch a grape shot across the room before returning to be right in her face. Taking a breath and regaining her composure, Kassidy replied, "Not much, just keeping up with the times."

Yang leaned over to catch another grape, before looking back at her and remarked on the situation with a smirk and a quick, "Lame!"

Kassidy rolled her eyes and was about to snark back at her partner turned girlfriend, but spied Ruby dashing over with a gigantic binder and wisely decided not to start. When the foot-and-a-half high stack of paper and paperboard was dropped on the table with a 'clunk', Kassidy was able to see that yes, Ruby was indeed foolish enough to steal Weiss' school supplies for whatever she had been working on.

Her team leader picked this moment to clear her throat. Drawing in a breath, Ruby began, "Sisters! Friends! Weiss!"

The heiress in question fixed a glare on Ruby, and let out a soft, "Hey!"

Ruby refused to be interrupted, however, and she continued unfazed. "Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream-"

"This ought to be good," Yang interrupted, catching a grape tomato in the process. Kassidy briefly marveled at both Yang's ability to catch food with her mouth, and Nora's accuracy with a spoon, before remembering that Ruby was in the middle of butchering two separate historical speeches that she could have only gotten from Bob.

"A dream that one day, the four of us would come together as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had, EVER!"

Weiss leaned in, cutting into Kassidy's field of view, and took a closer look at the binder in question before asking, "Did you steal my binder?"

Ruby's answer, obviously, was to hold up peace signs. "I am not a crook."

Kassidy's mouth dropped open, before she started waving her hands in front of her. "Alright, stop, stop, everyone stop!" Having finally gotten everyone to stop talking, Kassidy sucked in a breath to compose herself, then attacked Ruby's speech. "In fifteen seconds, you just ripped off from the Gettysburg Address, MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech, and Richard Nixon. Just how much have you been talking with Bob recently?"

Her computer covered for Ruby, who was currently rubbing the back of her head and stammering quietly with a light blush. Bob, however, didn't have a much better answer. "I'm afraid I'll need you to clarify what you mean by 'recently'."

"Too much, in other words," Kassidy sighed. Grabbing her sandwich back up, she gave a, "Alright, carry on then, I guess," before returning to the all-important task of consumption. At the moment, Kassidy's idea of fun was eating all the food, and Beacon's kitchen staff had definitely went all out for the coming-back feast: everything from baguettes, to roast turkey, and Kassidy even believed she had seen a swordfish somewhere. Suddenly looking back up, she asked, "What were we even talking about, again?"

Ruby suddenly declared, "I'm talking about kicking this semester off with a bang!"

Kassidy's palm had already began the journey to her face, not even needing to guess as to what her partner was about to exclaim. Sure enough, Yang offered, "I like to kick my semesters off with a Yang! Eh, guys? Am I right?"

It was at times like these that Kassidy was glad that she recorded everything she ever saw or heard if she can help it, for it was at this exact moment that an apple flew by and clobbered Yang in the forehead. Looking across the way, she saw that Jaune, currently in the middle of booing her partner, was the one that had launched that particular projectile.

"Look, guys, it's been a good few weeks," Ruby explained, "and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But classes start back up tomorrow, which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today."

Weiss hummed in thought to Kassidy's side, before opining, "I don't know whether to be proud, or scared of what you have in store."

Kassidy chuckled as Yang returned fire with another apple, but then thought to all she still had to do, and her face fell accordingly. "I've still got a lot to do, not the least of which is making more ammo; seven mags isn't going to get me through the week, never mind the semester. I might just sit this one out."

Weiss stood up, and surprisingly came to Kassidy's defense. "Sit out or not, I think however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team. I, for one, think that-"

It was at this moment that Kassidy knew: someone fucked up. One might ask how she knew, which can be answered by the pie that had gone sailing across the room and impacting with Weiss' face. Kassidy waged an internal struggle between the fact that the scene was utterly hilarious, and her self-preservation instinct desiring not to have a pissed off Weiss Schnee after her. As the pie quite comically slid off her teammate's face, all four of them simultaneously looked over to see Nora sit down sheepishly and point to a facepalming Ren.

"That's it! Kassidy, give me that!"

Kassidy turned to her right, wondering what Weiss meant, before the heiress in question reached across the table, grabbed the quite delicious turkey sandwich, and chucked it at Nora. Kassidy reached out after her lunch as if she could catch it with telekinesis, and whimpered, "No, my sandwich! You were so tasty, too…" The mourning of the first course of her meal was cut short, however, when JNPR returned fire with a bowl of soup. All the members of RWKY hunkered down behind their table, and Kassidy could only think of one thing to save lunch. Fixing her mightiest pout on her girlfriend, Kassidy asked Yang, "Please don't tell me we're about to waste all this food. This wonderful, glorious, tasty food…"

Yang pulled her into a hug, cradling her head onto her shoulder, patted her back, and whispered, "Shh. It's okay, it'll be okay. There'll be more food after this." Kassidy pulled back, and Yang grinned at her while adding, "By the way, you definitely need to work on your pout. You've got nothing on Rubes."

Kassidy rolled her eyes with a snort and was about to comment on the snark, but froze as another bowl of soup came sailing over, this one landing on Yang's head and drenching her hair in chicken stock, vegetables, and cubes of what could only loosely be called meat. Yang's eyes slowly went red, and Kassidy very wisely stood up and started backing away. As soon as she had gotten out of arm's reach of her partner, she pointed at JNPR with narrowed eyes and yelled, "You ruined Yang's hair! You shan't get away with this!"

Humorously, and predictably, all four members of Team JNPR paled at the declaration, and it only took the span of two seconds for Jaune to call the retreat. While RWKY regrouped and Nora yelled something about building a castle, the food fight had begun in earnest. Ruby was helping Yang get the soup out of her hair and Weiss was wiping her face off, but Kassidy could only stare in horror at all the delicious food that was going to waste. She muttered with a slack jaw, "My delicious ones. You were so young… so uneaten…"

"Blame JNPR," Weiss interjected, pointing to the other side of the cafeteria. Kassidy looked over, and her jaw dropped upon seeing that in the span of about seven seconds, Nora had seemed to have singlehandedly use about two thirds of the tables to construct a facsimile of a castle, in complete silence, and was now proclaiming herself queen of that castle. Kassidy shook her head, and turned back to Weiss and Yang having visions of vengeance in their eyes.

Ruby grabbed a milk carton and stood on top of one of the few remaining tables. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be… delicious!"

"Yeah!" With the rallying speech given, RWKY rushed into the fray. While Yang took front, using whole roast turkeys as boxing gloves, Kassidy spotted a baguette and squirt bottles of ketchup and mustard. She flipped the ketchup to Weiss, grabbed the mustard for herself, and then leapt over her partner's head. Rolling under the first two watermelons, Kassidy batted the next one away with the baguette – alright, the hell did the chefs make these loaves out of? – and kicked the last away, just in time for Yang to take the fore again and launch her turkeys at JNPR's resident turkey, Jaune.

Kassidy recognized her opportunity, and immediately dashed ahead to lock firm rods of carbohydrates in mortal combat with Pyrrha. They both twirled away, and Kassidy returned to her habit of mimicking Weiss' guard, her left hand curled under her chin with the baguette sticking out. They circled around each other, and Pyrrha chuckled nervously before asking, "We're all still friends, right? That look you have is pretty terrifying."

Scowling, Kassidy shook her head. Pyrrha's face darkened before Kassidy replied, "You're bread to me."

Pyrrha choked, and had to fight back a grin as she twirled her weapon. "Alright, now I need to hurt you just for that pun. You've been spending too much time with Yang, haven't you?"

Kassidy shrugged, but that was all she managed to do before Pyrrha was on her. They twirled around each other, trying to find openings in each other's guard, but Kassidy knew she was going to lose in mere seconds if she didn't think of something fast. Well, it's not Rogue, but mustard to the face can't be nice. She ducked under Pyrrha's lunge, before squirting the bottle directly in her opponent's eyes and using the opening to stab her in the gut. Pyrrha twirled out of the way before more blows could connect, however, wiping her face in the process of dashing forward. Kassidy tried to block the predicted stab, but was surprised when her opponent swung for the fences to knock her baguette away before following up by planting her foot in her stomach. Kassidy folded over, glad she hadn't eaten that much yet, and flew backwards a few feet before getting her involuntary retreat arrested by a bench.

Yang leapt in front, intercepting a few baguette spears hurtling their direction before being tagged by a particularly vicious projectile and getting thrown back herself. Ruby came to the rescue, however, using a serving tray as some sort of surfboard and launching her own attack on Pyrrha. Before more could happen, Kassidy noticed Jaune coming in for a sneak attack on Ruby and Weiss' exposed flank. Snatching up another baguette, she rushed forward to meet him and batted his loaf away while launching with a mustard-powered counterattack. She would've been quite happy with continuing to beat the boy over the head with her baguette, but he snatched up his own serving tray and broke her newest weapon in half, before slamming it into her chest and forcing her to retreat.

"You seem to be without a weapon," Jaune taunted. Kassidy looked around, to see Ruby get launched by Nora and her newly crafted Melonhild, while Weiss abandoned her ketchup in favor of Myrtefishy. She watched with eyes wide and mouth agape at the continued carnage of the delicious foodstuffs surrounding them, and only barely noticed that Jaune had started swinging for her head.

A swing that, much to the boy's surprise, she caught in one outstretched hand. "You ruined lunch," Kassidy said darkly. Squeezing, she broke the baguette in her grip in half, making Jaune instinctively back up a few steps and cower behind his serving tray shield.

"Uh… Kassidy? We're still cool, right?"

"All that food I was going to eat, for nothing," she spat. Grabbing up yet another baguette, she stared into Jaune's soul, before declaring, "I. Will. Be. Fed!" And thus, with a war cry befitting more from Yang than her, Kassidy charged forward to deliver justice upon those who dared ruin her feast.

Jaune was the first to fall to her carbohydrate-fueled rampage, as he slipped on a sudden mustard slick before taking a golf swing upside the head and getting launched halfway across the room. Pyrrha returned to the fray at this point, again engaging in crusty combat. The duel seemed to be a repeat of their earlier confrontation for a short while, until Kassidy managed to duck out of Pyrrha's lunge. It was at this moment that Kassidy unleashed her ultimate weapon: her stomach. Pulling back from her lunge, Pyrrha was shocked to discover that her former baguette was now only a few inches long. Kassidy belched, and then smirked before counterattacking.

Just before she was upon Pyrrha, however, she had to duck under a flying Weiss. Nora and Melonhild, the obvious culprits, jumped in front of her and started swinging her weapon around with surprising speed. Still, Kassidy was faster, and after sidestepping a swing she lunged forward and knocked the watermelon off the end of the steel pole it had been impaled on. Nora flailed back, before catching a cucumber tossed to her by Ren. Kassidy soon found herself staring down a baguette, a cucumber, and a pair of leeks.

"Blacksmith!" Kassidy smiled even as she resisted the urge to turn behind her to the one who called it, already imagining the watermelons flying towards her. Leaping back, she watched NPR scatter from the fruity onslaught, before dashing back in to fight with Baguette-on and Rogue Mustard Bottle. Starches were swung, condiments were spread, and whatever Kassidy couldn't beat back, she ate. As her opponents, but a minute later, grabbed the last remaining 'weapons' in the immediate area, Kassidy was about to reengage before one of the tables behind her rattled loudly. Pyrrha and Ren's growing looks of shock confirmed that Yang had indeed launched her attack, and Kassidy tackled Nora to the side before hitting her some more with her baguette. Pyrrha and Ren attempted to dive out of the way, but the latter wasn't fast enough, and Yang was more than happy to slam dunk him into Nora's impromptu table castle.

Kassidy exchanged a few more blows with Nora before kicking her away, but then needed to leap back as someone found a ridiculously long chain of sausage links to use as a whip. Turning to the source of the assault, she saw Jaune with yet another serving tray and baguette, standing in front of Pyrrha, who was nervously wielding the impromptu weapon while asking, "Are you sure this will work, Jaune? She's already eaten, like… four pounds of food, and she doesn't show signs of stopping, either."

"C'mon, Pyr, we got this!" Jaune seemed confident in his chances, which didn't waver when Kassidy ate a full two-thirds of his newest weapon in one bite. Kassidy saw Pyrrha swinging the links several seconds before the attack sailed over Arc's head, and grinned at the thought of consuming several pounds of delicious spiced ground meat. Beacon's kitchen staff does have a real good grillmaster on house. Planting her feet, she caught the sausages in her mouth and started working her way down the massive chain. It wasn't until, a solid thirty seconds later, her immense digestive system tore the remainder of the sausages from Pyrrha's hand that Kassidy was happy. Jaune blanched and turned to his partner, similarly displeased with the results, before crying out, "Uh… retreat!" Kassidy smirked, stepped towards them…

… and then stopped as her stomach was complaining quite violently about the most recent happenings. Kassidy looked at her gut with a scowl, before her eyes widened and she turned a bit green. All right, maybe straight-up inhaling twenty feet of sausage links wasn't the best idea I've ever had. Actually, how did I even do that? The human stomach should not work like this.

"Um, Kassidy, are you alright?" Her eyes flickered to Pyrrha, who was continuing to try to talk to her, albeit with an increasingly quiet voice. Then darkness claimed her, and Kassidy collapsed to sleep off the sudden food coma.

(Perspective: ?)

The mint-green haired girl suddenly sprang forward ahead of the three of them, and started walking backwards while looking at him. "Alright, let's go over it again."

The man in question rolled his eyes behind his steel-plated mask, curious as to why his sole remaining friend didn't trust him to remember. His memory, like everything he did, was perfect. "Tukson is the owner of Tukson's Book Trade. Joined the White Fang, got cold feet, will be leaving tomorrow. Target doesn't have Aura, and refrains from carrying firearms while on the job, but has been known to use his claws in a fight. This is easy, Emerald. Walk in, shoot the guy, walk out."

Emerald tutted and shook her head. "You're forgetting the part where this needs to look like an accident. If it were as simple as walking in guns blazing, I would've had Merc do it. C'mon, man, we know you can kill him no problem; that's not what we're training you for. You need to work on your finesse, your subterfuge. Not to mention, we need to get used to working as a team."

"I don't forget things. Why would it need to look like an accident, when instead we can leave no hints as to who did it?"

"There we go, my man! Told ya my way would be the best way." The man to his side clapped him on the back, upsetting the delicate balance of his dark brown cloak in the process. It took him nearly a minute to dust off and resettle the balance of his cloak from the jostling it suffered at the hands of the insipid barbarian that was to his left.

"Alright, Emerald, what kind of accident would you like?" This made his companion scoff, but said companion got shoved into a brick wall when he tried to argue. "And don't touch me again, Mercury. Just because Emerald tolerates you, doesn't mean I do."

"You'll get used to him, unfortunately," Emerald offered, rolling her eyes. "Just see what you can make happen. Not looking for anything specific, and like I said, this is more of a dry run to give us some practice together. You can kill at range with the best of them. Now we just need you to be able to do it up close and personal. Sniper rifles aren't good for everything, you know."

"Watcher is a perfect weapon, flawless in its execution," he shot back. Honestly, the nerve they have, criticizing my weapon like that. Noticing they had stopped in front of the establishment in question, he looked in the picture window. One of the bookshelves looked partially rotten. If it got a big enough shove, it'd fall easily, carrying all… probably three thousand pounds of wood, steel, and merchandise with it. Why the bookshelves were that thick and heavy in the first place, he'd probably never know. "I don't suppose we'd be able to actually peruse its wares? It's been a while since I've had a good read."

Mercury groaned behind him. "C'mon, man, now that we got your nose out of a book, you've finally been speaking more than three words a day. Surely, you can't-"

"Shut up," he growled. The facts that Emerald tolerated him and that Cinder found the prick useful were the only reasons he hadn't put a hole through Mercury's head at 800 yards yet. "Actually, you're with me."

"Aw yeah." Mercury rubbed his hands together, then went in to the store and started picking through comic books.

Emerald put a hand on his shoulder and offered, "Be careful."

"I always am," he replied. He took the mask off, and brown eyes gazed once more into the store before he stepped inside. A need to conceal his identity wasn't necessary when there would be no surviving witnesses. A silenced pistol – adequately concealed by his cloak – sat in the second belt pouch left of his back, a knife rested exactly two inches up one of his long sleeves, and Mercury – for all his many, many faults – was at least adept in blowing things up. Emerald was even posted outside, in the five-billion-to-one chance that something went catastrophically wrong (all of which being Mercury's fault, as per usual). It had been established hours ago that Tukson leaving his establishment alive was a complete impossibility. And by the time the man suspected foul play… it would be far too late.

AN 2: So, managed to get this done in about fifteen hours. Hey, just because we're on hiatus, doesn't mean I'm being idle. I basically just wanted the excuse to have extra time to go back and rewrite the first half of V1. Speaking of which, the rewrite of V1C1 should be up now.

And yes, I have big plans for our newest villain. Very, very big plans.

If you guys don't mind me asking you a question: what's been your favorite chapter so far? Least favorite? Getting a better idea of what everyone liked and didn't like should help when I write different kinds of chapters in the future.

Anywho, I've still got pretty much all the chapters to update, some proofreading to do, and general school crap to take care of. Let's get to Reader Responses and move on from there.

Coming up next: Best Day Ever, Part II

EDIT: By the way, we broke 40k views, guys! And we're one review away from 300 (insert obligatory 'This is Sparta' reference here)! Well, now that we're a couple hours before upload time, and my plans to have the entire first half of V1 rewritten by now got bent over without lube, let's kick things back off early… with a Yang!

FloriteFlower: Yeah, hiatus sucks. At least we still have Chibi over the summer. And hopefully the hiatus will be well spent by Chicken Dentures to make Volume 5 awesome (and Yang's story less horrifically terrible. Seriously, she got shafted hard this season, if you ask me).

mcd3424: Believe me; I never went anywhere in the first place. The whole hiatus deal was more or less one big excuse to miss an upload or two while editing the first bit of the story. That being said, I do believe I'll be peeking over my shoulders now (well, more than I have been already).

AndJrew76: Well, the story with the insomnia (if you even care) basically consists of: no thyroid problems causing it, probably need to set up an appointment with Counseling services, and in the meantime found out that over the counter sleep aids exist. Thanks for the well wishes, and I hope life's been finding you well also.

Baconlord53: Interesting. I was always under the impression that it was due to a hunting trip where the Bull Moose refused to shoot a baby bear. Oh well. I can understand nobody in Remnant would understand the teddy bear name, but that sure doesn't keep Kassidy from referring to it as such.

Xandar Valle: So glad you've been enjoying it so far. As things stand now, it does look like I'll be back in business before March, but I didn't want to promise only a week or so off, then need more time than that.

AgentDraakis: Assuming, of course, we ever get a kiss. That being said, thanks for the ideas, I'm pretty sure they'll get used at some point. Thanks for the congrats, and I do believe I've already sent you a PM regarding everything else. Hope life finds you well. EDIT: I think I'm having problems with sending PM's to people, did you actually get one? If not, then I need to get in contact with support about this.

Annjames: Glad to hear you're enjoying it, my man/woman/Apache attack helicopter. Here's to hoping you find V2 and onward just as entertaining as V1 and I1.

Myrillis: Hey, you should never feel the need to apologize to me; you owe me nothing, after all. Unless, of course, you're that one guy who stiffed me those seven bucks at Denny's last week.

I'm digressing. I liked the change in pace myself, this Interlude was a welcome break from the near-constant drama and action in the volumes. It's important to remember (especially on my end) that Kassidy doesn't actually know all that much about… things. She's good with computers, she's good with guns, and barring typical benefits one gets from being smart that's about it. And there will definitely be more interactions between Yang and Kassidy, believe me. Glad to hear you're enjoying, hopefully that continues as I expand the 'RWKYverse'.