100 favorites! Thank you to all of those who have been reading my story. Here we are at chapter 21. Time to see if Yang is still alive, LOL. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 21. Enjoy.
Chapter 21: The investigation
A few days passed after the incident in the training room and Yang's little prank. Luckily, Yang is still alive. Unluckily, she has to write a 10,000 word essay on responsibility and acting like an adult. She would've got much worse if Ozpin didn't convince Glynda to give her some leeway. Velvet asked her why she tried to hit Ruby or herself with a pie, and Yang said she wanted to prank them, but did not mention the other reason behind her actions. Once more Velvet was getting a little suspicious of her actions, but knew it would have to wait since they have more important things to take care of, like start their investigation into Roman Torchwick and the White Fang. The team decided that for this investigation, they would need a change of outfits. There was just one little issue: Velvet didn't really have anything other than her usual clothes and some pajamas. Luckily, Weiss and Yang were able to help her with that.
…
Velvet, Yang, and Weiss are at one of the clothing stores in Vale, looking for a new outfit for Velvet for the investigation. However, there's another problem…They all have different tastes.
"How about this one?" Weiss presents her with an outfit that seems practical, but the different shades of blue and white were not to Velvet's liking.
"No," Velvet deadpans.
"Oh, oh! What about this one?" Yang comes up with another outfit that, while the colors were okay, the fact that it seemed a little too 'Yang-y' was an issue.
"Not happening," Velvet shakes her head.
"Come on Velvet, we have to find something for you. The investigation is tomorrow after our classes are done and we have to be ready for it," Yang whines.
"Not to mention the fact that you still haven't finished that essay for Professor Goodwitch yet and need time to work on that," Weiss reminds her, making Yang groan.
Velvet sighs, "Is this really necessary?" she asks.
"YES!" the two girls yell together.
Velvet groans, holding her forehead, "Fine. At least let me look for something instead of waiting for you two to find something. No offense, but your tastes in clothes are way different compared to mine," she says and walks off.
Velvet looks around, checking out all the different outfits and designs, but can't really find anything that would suit her. Being a wanted criminal and moving from place to place in destroyed clothes kind of reduced her sense of fashion…to the point where she really had none. However, her saving grace comes in the form of a certain brown-haired fashionista.
"Hey, you're Velvet Crowe right?" she hears behind her and turns around to see Team CFVY's leader, Coco Adel.
Coco Adel is a teenage girl with fair skin, short dark-brown hair, and dark-brown eyes. She has wavy locks on one side of her face, dyed with a gradient that starts in dark brown, and transitions to caramel. Her clothing consists of a long, cocoa-colored shirt with a dark drown waist cincher. She is wearing long, dark-brown trousers with ribbons on the left side and a brown belt with bullets. Above it, she is wearing another cocoa-colored belt of bullets with a gold crosshairs buckle. What appears to be a drape of black skirt is hanging on her right side. She is also wearing a pair of dark-brown, high-heeled leather boots with buckles. Her accessories include a bracelet with black roses as decorations, along with black gloves and necklaces, a beret of a darker brown, a pair of black, wire-rimmed aviator glasses. She is seen holding a black shoulder bag with gold studs, being held up by a bandoleer strap.
"And you are?" Velvet asks, hand on her hip.
"Name's Coco Adel, leader of Team CFVY. You helped out my teammate, Velvet Scarlatina. Remember, the Faunus girl with the rabbit ears," she says.
Velvet hums in realization, "Oh, so you're her team leader. It wasn't that big of a deal. What are you doing here anyways?" she asks.
"Well, my team and I have a mission coming up and we may be away for a while, so I thought I'd check out the latest designs here while I have the chance. You looking for something here as well?" she asks.
"Yeah, my team and I have some…business to take care of tomorrow, and they thought it would be a good idea to change outfits for it. Unfortunately, I don't really have anything else, and Weiss and Yang haven't really been helping with finding a secondary outfit for me," she explains.
At hearing this, Coco holds her chin in her right hand as she walks around Velvet, inspecting her from top to bottom, humming to herself, and creeping Velvet out a little bit. Finally she stops in front of her.
"I think I know something that may work for you. Quick question, would this little business of yours involve any fighting?" she asks.
Velvet shrugs her shoulders, "Maybe, we are huntresses-in-training after all," she replies.
"Well, then that narrows it down. Another question, my team was originally supposed to prepare the school dance coming up soon, but with this mission, we may have to give the job to someone else. Do you have a dress for the dance?" she asks.
"No. Not really planning on going. Dances aren't really my thing," Velvet says.
"Aw, come on. You only get one dance like this in your life. Look, I'm sure you've been through a lot before you came here, and as future huntresses, we're gonna have to go through a lot of tough times. But that's why it's important to enjoy events such as these. Besides, isn't there anyone you'd want to go to the dance with? Be with that special someone for one awesome night?" she asks, smirking.
At hearing this, Velvet was about to retort against it, but then stopped when the sudden image of seeing Ruby in a beautiful red dress made hear lose her words, but gain a slight tinge of red on her cheeks.
"Why did that image come up? And why the Hell did I like it?...Maybe Ruby would be a little upset if I didn't come…Maybe just for her, just this once," she thinks and then sighs as her blush disappears. "Fine, what do you have in mind?" she asks, wanting to get this over with.
Coco smiles, "Don't worry. If there are two things I'm good at, it's killing Grimm, and knowing my way around a clothing store," she says.
…
The next day, the team wait in Professor Port's class while he tells another one of his bogus stories, with Weiss looking at the electric clock in front of her, waiting for class to end.
Just then, Jaune moves next to her, "So, Weiss, you know uh, I was thinking after this, maybe we could go grab a bite to eat…And uh, you know well I-I've got two tickets to that new Spruce Willis movie if you want to make the trip to Vale. I hear it's awesome…Annnnddd then maybe after that, we could study together. I mean you're smart and I'm a, you know," Jaune says, trying to ask her out.
Then, the clock in front of Weiss hits 4:00 and the bell for the end of class rings. Weiss and everyone else begin to collect their books and materials.
"-And then I…Oh, uh, timed that one wrong, I guess. Well, the stunning conclusion to the story will have to wait…until next time," Port says, the bell interrupting his story telling.
"Weiss, did you hear me?" Jaune asks as Weiss gets up and leaves.
"No, no, no, yes," She answers to each of his questions, leaving the room.
Jaune just sighs and plants his head on the desk in defeat as the rest of Team RVWBY walk by him.
"One day," Yang says, patting him on the head as she passes by, trying to cheer him up.
"Yeah, good luck with that," Velvet says as she passes by, making Jaune groan.
…
Back in their room, the members of Team RVWBY are getting their new gear on, with Ruby tightening the straps on her boots, Yang cocking one of her gauntlets, Weiss checking her rapier, and Blake wrapping her ribbons around her arms.
"I thought that class would never end," Blake says as she's tightening her black ribbons on her arms and passing by Ruby and Weiss on their beds.
"Alright guys, today's the day. The investigation begins!" Ruby exclaims, jumping from her top bunk and landing in her feet, making Weiss jump back on her bed.
"I'm glad to see we're taking this SO seriously," Weiss deadpans.
"Hey, we've got a plan. That's…moderately serious," Yang reassures her.
"Yeah, that's reassuring," they hear behind Blake and all look back to see her coming out of the restroom.
Velvet is wearing a sleeveless white and black dress with a red skirt, and a red corset over it. She has on a brown belt with a square gold belt buckle in the center. Over the dress is a sleeveless red jacket with a long tail and gold edging. One her arms are detached sleeves in red and white edging, along with a black glove on her right hand. She is wearing a pair of knee-high black boots with two straps on each and gold buckles. Under the boots are thigh-length fishnet stockings. Hidden in her right detached sleeve is her gauntlet while her bandages are covered by the sleeve on her left arm (basically, her pirate costume from the game, without the hat and parrot). The rest of the team gawk in awe at her new outfit, but Yang notices how Ruby stares at her, with a heavy blush. She then gets an idea and smirks.
"Like what you see, Ruby?" Yang teases her.
Ruby shakes her head to get rid of her blush, "YANG!" she whines.
Velvet blushes slightly, but it quickly disappears, "Wasn't exactly my idea. Coco Adel found this for me. At least I got more help from her than from you two," she says, glaring at Weiss and Yang who laugh nervously. Velvet has her hand on her hip, "Anyway, do we all remember what we need to do?" she asks.
"Right, everyone remember their roles?" Ruby asks.
"You, Velvet, and I will head to the CCT to check the Schnee records for any other dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem," Weiss says, hand on her chest and confidence reeking from her posture.
Blake places her hands behind her back, "The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what their planning," she says.
Yang crosses her arms, "I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows EVERYTHING going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be TOO hard," Yang says.
"Right. We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we found. Let's do this!" Ruby says as she pumps her right fist.
"Yeah!" an unknown voice is heard.
Everyone look over at the window to see Sun Wukong hanging upside down by his tail, outside the window, smiling. Everyone takes a step back.
"Sun?!" Blake yells, shocked at his appearance.
"How did you get up there?" Yang asks.
"Oh, it's easy. I do it all the time," he answers.
"You do WHAT?!" Weiss shrieks.
"I climb trees all the time," Sun quickly answers, ignoring her scowl at him before he flips into the room and onto his feet. "So, are we finally getting back at that Torchwick guy?" he asks.
"WE are going to investigate the situation, as a TEAM," Blake emphasizes their positions.
"No boys allowed," Velvet adds.
"Sorry, Sun. We don't want to get friends involved if we don't have to," Ruby points out.
"Pfft, that's dumb. You should always get friends involved. That's why I brought Neptune," Sun says, pointing his thumb behind him.
Team RVWBY look out the side of the window to see Neptune standing on the ledge outside their room.
"'Sup," he greets them.
"How did you even get up here?" Ruby asks.
"I have my ways," Neptune replies, before he sees how high up they are. "Seriously though, can I come in? We're, like, really high up right now," he fearfully pleads.
After getting Neptune into the room, though he remains frozen in place, the group decided to rethink their strategy.
"Seeing as how we can't get rid of two of the three stooges here, guess we have no choice but to let them tag along. But having too many numbers together won't help the smaller groups, so we'll have to even this out a bit," Velvet deduces.
"Alright, Velvet, Weiss, and I will go our way. Sun, you can go with Blake. And Neptune, you can go with Yang since she doesn't have a partner," Ruby says as she pushes Neptune next to Yang.
Neptune, though, quickly unfreezes himself, "Wait. Why don't you go with Yang, Ruby? Sun told me you were sisters, right? I think it would be better if you two stick together," he says.
"But then, what about you?" she asks.
"I can go with Weiss and Velvet. I know their good, but having a cool guy like me around will definitely help. Right ladies?" he says as he goes into flirt mode and winks at them.
However... "Can I PLEASE throw him out the window?" Velvet asks, glaring at Neptune, while Weiss just rolls her eyes and crosses her arms.
"I…think it would be better for you if you just went with Yang. It's for your own good," Ruby retorts, sweating a little bit.
"Come on, Romeo, before you end up dead like in the story," Yang says as she grabs Neptune by the back of his shirt and drags him away.
"Aw come on!" Neptune yells as he's pulled out of the room.
…
A little later, Velvet, Ruby, and Weiss are out walking toward the CCT.
"Wow! I forget how big the transmit tower looks up close!" Ruby shouts with excitement as they near the tower.
"You should see the one in Atlas," Weiss says.
"Wasn't that where they built the first one?" Velvet asks.
"Correct. Atlas developed the Cross Continental Transmit System to allow the four kingdoms to communicate with one another. It was their gift to the world after the Great War," Weiss goes into student mode.
"Oooh, my name's Weiss. I know facts. I'm rich," Ruby jokes around and she starts snickering into her hands while Velvet chuckles.
Weiss scowls at her, "Don't be a pest. Besides, the only reason we're hear is because YOU like the tower so much. We could have just as easily made a call from the library," Weiss points out.
"She kind of has a point," Velvet notes.
"I know, but it's so cool! Oh, I'm gonna take a picture," Ruby says before she pulls out her scroll, but fumbles with it and it falls out of her hands.
The scroll bounces a few times before it stops when it hits someone's feet. That same person picks it up and it turns out to be their friend, Penny Polendina.
"Oh. You dropped this," She says, holding the scroll out to them.
"Penny?!" Ruby gasps.
"Uhhhh," Penny stutters.
"Where have you been? We haven't seen you since the night at the docks," Ruby notes.
"We were a little concerned when you disappeared on us after that fight. You never bothered trying to meet up with us after that," Velvet says.
"S-sorry. I think you're confused," Penny tries to act like she doesn't know them, but then hiccups, making the scroll bounce out of her hand and into Ruby's hand. "I've got to go," Penny says before quickly turning around and walking away.
"What was that about?" Weiss questions.
"I don't know...But I'm going to find out. You go make your call. I'll meet up with you later," Ruby says as she begins to chase after Penny.
"I'm going with her. Check in with you later," Velvet adds and leaves as well.
"Wait! Ugh!" Weiss calls out to them to no avail and can only shake her head at them.
As Penny is walking down some steps, Ruby and Velvet catchup to her.
"Penny, where have you been? It's been weeks!" Ruby asks her.
"There seems to be a…misunderstanding," Penny lies.
"What?!...Penny," Ruby says as Penny tries to walk away again, but Ruby slides down the rail bar in the center of the steps, with Velvet right behind her. "Is everything okay?" Ruby asks when they reaches the bottom, but Penny keeps walking away.
"That's enough!" Velvet says as she stands in front of Penny with her arms out wide.
"Penny, please stop!" Ruby stops her too, which makes Penny stop, look at her, then hang her head. "Look, I don't know what's wrong, but you have listen to us. Those guys we fought at the docks; we think they're up to something big, something BAD. I need you to tell me what happened to you that night. Please, as a friend," Ruby pleads with her.
"We're friends, aren't we, Penny?" Velvet asks.
Penny sighs before looking around at the people around them. She then walks up close to Ruby and Velvet.
"It isn't safe to talk here," she whispers.
…
"…I wish I could help you Ruby, but I don't know anything about those men," Penny says as the trio walk down a sidewalk past a local café.
"Well, what happened to you that night? We were all together, and then you just disappeared. Were you kidnapped?" Ruby worriedly asks her.
"Oh, no! Nothing like that," Penny quickly replies.
"I'd feel bad about any idiot who'd try to kidnap you after seeing you slice an entire airship in half like it was nothing," Velvet says.
"Well, then where did you go?" Ruby asks again.
"I've never been to another kingdom before. My father asked me not to venture out too far, but-Oh, you have to understand, my father loves me very much. He just worries a lot," Penny explains.
"Heh, believe me, I know the feeling," Ruby says, rolling her eyes.
"But, why not let us know you were okay?" Ruby asks.
"I…was asked…not to talk to you. Or Velvet, or Weiss, or Blake, or Yang. Anybody really," Penny explains.
"Asked'? Sure doesn't sound like that to me," Velvet mutters.
"Was your dad that upset?" Ruby questions.
"No, it wasn't my father," Penny begins until she hears a broadcast and they look over to the town square.
The town square has steps surrounding a square center, and on that center is a hologram of General Ironwood in front of two large crates behind six Atlesian Knight-130s. In the town square, they see a hologram of General Ironwood talking about his AK-130s before he then mentions a new robot soldier the Atlas military created.
"But, the kingdom of Atlas is a kingdom of innovation, and fine? Well, that's just not good enough, is it? Ironwood says as the two crate open up behind the AK-130s, revealing six new robot soldiers with more slender, humanoid looking bodies, and with white armor over the black inner workings still visible underneath. "Presenting the Atlesian Knight…200," Ironwood introduces the new machines, which kick over the older robots, standing on them, and making the crowd clap again. "Smarter, sleeker, and admittedly, a little less scary," Ironwood continues as the new machines do poses for the crowd. "These models will become active later this year, but they won't be alone. Now, the Atlesian military has always supported the idea of removing men from the dangers of the battlefield. However, there are still many situations that undoubtedly require…a human touch," Ironwood continues.
"Ruby…" Penny motions to Ruby, who continues to look on in awe, while Velvet looks on with her eyes narrowed.
"So…Our kingdom's greatest minds, in cooperation with the Schnee Dust Company, are proud to introduce…The Atlesian Paladin!" the Ironwood hologram explains and disappears as a larger machine takes his place, a hologram of the the Atlesian Paladin. "Now, we can't have them here for you today. But these mechanized battle suits will be seen defending the borders of our kingdom within the year!" Ironwood exclaims, making the crows applaud again.
"Reminds me a little bit of the Abbey," Velvet thinks with displeasure.
"Woah," Ruby says, jaw dropped in sheer awe at the site.
"…Ruby, maybe we should go somewhere else," Penny says, stepping back a bit.
Just then two Atlas human soldiers wearing gray-and-blue body armor, black pants, silver helmets covering most of their faces, and guns strapped to their backs, notice Penny and her friends. Penny turns and starts running away across the street and down a back alley.
"Penny? Wait! Where are you going?!" Ruby calls out, but turns back to see the two soldiers running towards them.
"We have to go. Let's follow her!" Velvet says and they run after Penny, with the soldiers behind them.
And that's the chapter. Sorry about cutting it off like that, but I didn't want the chapter to be too long like that one time, and to fit my usual limit. Don't worry, you'll find out the rest in the next chapter. I looked up Velvet's other outfits from the game and thought the pirate one would be the best secondary combat outfit for her with a slight alteration, so I do not own it. One more thing, I have something special planned in the next chapter. Pop quiz: can anyone guess what it relates to? Well, until then, please Read and Review.