Chapter 2
Soon enough, Team JNPR met the eccentric Doctor Oobleck just outside the school grounds. Behind him was a massive piece of military technology; a large, and imposing tank. "Greetings, students!" Oobleck shouted before downing a quart of coffee in one gulp. "Now, what you see here is a standard M808V Main Battle Tank! Capable of firing shells of 155mm, and functioning on all terrains! However, I believe its most notable feature is its 'SMART' features! In which, a simple A.I. acts as a sort of training program to better explain the more meticulous functions and capabilities installed within the vehicle! Although you are not scheduled to learn how to operate such a vehicle until next week, I believe we can utilize the time we have before them to study maintenance and technical operations!"
"Very impressive, Dr. Oobleck!" Pyrrha clapped.
"A.I.?" Nora scratched her head. "What's the 'A' stand for?"
"Artificial." Ren replied.
"Oh… what's the-"
"Intelligence."
"Ooooh!"
"You know what, Pyrrha?" Jaune's eyes sparkled. "You were right. This is way better than a car. I could blow up the whole damn world with this thing."
Meanwhile, Ruby Rose was currently in Team CFVY's room, helping Velvet improve her weapon while Coco studied for final exams. Although, what confused the shorter of the two girls was that it looked more like a camera than a weapon. But if there was one thing her uncle Qrow had taught her, it was that anything could become a gun. Suddenly, Yatsuhashi and Fox entered the room.
"Hey, that's not exactly what happened." Yatsuhashi said.
"Yes, it is." Fox replied, bitterly. "You said, 'I'm not going to Junior's Club.' And the next thing I know, Port is asking me why you hailed a taxi for Vale-!"
"Ahem." Velvet coughed into her hand. "Ruby, I could use a break. Do you think you could wait here for a few minutes?"
"No problem!" Ruby beamed. "I'm almost done with my part, anyway!"
"Good. Yats, come with me…" Velvet practically dragged Yatsuhashi out of the room and away from his argument with Fox.
"Thanks again for helping Velvet, Rubes." Coco closed her textbook and spun around in her seat to face their guest. "It really means a lot to her."
"I don't mind." Ruby replied. "I want all of my friends to be at their best when the Vytal Festival comes around!" It was then that Ruby remembered that she had left Crescent Rose back in her own room and headed for the door to retrieve it. "In fact, I was thinking after the tournament, we could - AAAAAAH!" Ruby's eyes widened in disbelief at the horrible sight before her. Yatsuhashi held a familiar rabbit faunus in his arms as she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. The two teammates were in the middle of a passionate make-out session, seemingly oblivious to the three spectators. "Velvet! How could you?!" Ruby cried. "You're cheating on Coco!"
The fashionista chuckled and ruffled her friend's hair. "Nah, it's fine, Rubes. We've been like this for a while now."
"What?!"
"It's true!" Velvet finally broke the kiss to acknowledge her fellow weapons enthusiast. "Sometimes Yats kisses Coco, sometimes Coco kisses me! We're all kind of just… a thing, ya know?"
"What?!"
"Sometimes we all go at it at the same time!" Yatsuhashi smiled.
Ruby felt as if her brain was malfunctioning. She turned to the only remaining member of Team CFVY with anxious terror plastered over her face. "Fox! Please tell me you're not involved in this!"
"Nah, they do their thing, I do mine." The blind student shrugged. "The whole 'romance' thing honestly seems too hectic for my tastes."
Ruby just sighed. "Fair enough. Anyways, I'd better get back to my team; if I recall correctly, they have an announcement tomorrow and I want to be well rested for when it happens...though I am going to ask Weiss and Blake about getting me some brain bleach."
Yatsuhashi raised an eyebrow at that. "You do know that my semblance literally involves wiping people's memories, right?"
Ruby snorted at this even as she leaves the room. "Yeah, thanks but no thanks. Even if the memory wipe wasn't temporary, knowing you guys, you'd spring the revelation on me right after making me forget just to see me freak out about it again."
Coco just sighed even as her fellow leader left the room. "Welp, there goes that pranking opportunity: no point in trying if she already has an idea of what's coming."
"Still, it was fun to watch her squirm." Velvet giggled.
"Not as fun as it is to watch you squirm." Yatsuhashi teased as he continued to pepper the faunus' neck with kisses.
"Oy vey." Fox rolled his pale eyes at the show of affection.
The next day, Team RWBY groggily got out of bed to begin classes. Their first teacher of the day, much to their frustration, was Dr. Oobleck. It wasn't so much that they minded his eccentric behavior, but it was often difficult to write notes on his lectures when they were unable to keep up with his pace. Nevertheless, they decided it was best to go ahead and get it over with.
However, once they arrived at the classroom, Dr. Oobleck was seen standing next to the school's esteemed headmaster and his second-in-command. "Good morning, students." Ozpin greeted. "Before we begin classes for today, I have an important announcement to make. With the increasing risk of huntsmen and huntresses missing in action, the collective huntsman community has issued a new bill. Every huntsman and huntress are to be given a special global-positioning chip to be implanted into their necks. This will allow any lost huntsmen and huntresses in Remnant to be located in dire situations. Waivers shall be handed out at the end of class, further explaining the process. Once you have filled out the forms, Ms. Goodwitch will escort you to the school nurse to receive the implant."
"And if you can't find me, don't worry." Goodwitch slapped her riding crop against Oobleck's desk, creating a painful echo throughout the room. "I'll find you." The students shuddered at her words. It wasn't a threat: it was a promise.
That wasn't to say that everyone was pleased with this new development. Case in point, Blake looked like she was going to blow a gasket. "...and exactly how is this any different than what Atlas was doing with their labor camp workers, particularly the Faunus, back during the Great War?" She asked.
Ozpin nodded. "An excellent question, and one I made sure to bring up to the council when the bill was brought to our attention. First and foremost, unlike in those labor camps, the staff are being marked as well." To prove his point, he lowered the back of his shirt collar to reveal a scar, no doubt where he himself had had his chip placed.
Glynda gave the "secret" faunus a look of understanding and compassion. "Secondly, the War taught us too well how easily a system like this could potentially be abused, so we made sure to install an automated distress call feature into the chip: it privately monitors an individual's vitals and let's us know if there's any sort of distress with an implantee not normally associated with any registered mission that they may or may not be on. When it goes off, a back-up team will be sent right away to provide assistance, evaluate physical and mental health, and - if necessary - deliver the appropriate punishments to those who think it okay to repeat the sins of the past."
Yang just placed a comforting hand on her partner's shoulder, earning her a nod of appreciation, before giving the vice-headmistress a nod of respect and approval. "Nice to see that, in the future, we won't be letting anyone get away with, say, trying to pull a rabbit faunus' ears off, right Cardin?" She stated, giving the aforementioned bully a glare that was soon shared by her teammates, as well as Velvet and her teammates.
Professor Port just gave the leader of Team CRDL, currently sweating bullets, a look of disappointment before shaking his head: "I'll deal with you later."
Eventually, Ozpin and Goodwitch left and classes ran as usual. Unfortunately Blake was still upset. As the final bell rang, she studied her waiver word-for-word, trying to find a loophole to get her out of receiving the implant. But ultimately, she found nothing. "This is asinine!" She hissed. "I won't do it!"
"Uh, Blake? Maybe you should keep an open mind." Ruby suggested, sheepishly. "You saw Ozpin. He got the implant, and he seems fine."
"That's not the point, Ruby." Blake pressed on as the group entered their dorm room. "He chose to do that, and that's fine. But if I want to be a huntress, I have to endure the same atrocious prejudices of the past! I mean, what kind of idiot becomes a huntress or huntsman without getting lost from time to time?"
Ruby slammed her fist against the wall, startling her teammates. "I said keep an open mind!" Her eyes welled with tears. "As your leader, I can't force you to get the chip! But as your friend who would be very sad if anything happened to you, and you went missing, and left behind two kids who would miss you if you meant missing and never came back, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND IT!"
With that, Ruby abandoned her team, slamming the door behind her. Yang instantly bolted to chase after her, but she had already used her semblance to speed away. The blonde brawler's eyes flared red as she glared at her partner before continuing the chase. "What is wrong with you!?"
Blake and Weiss were now left alone, both startled by what had just transpired. "Was it something I said?" Blake rubbed the back of her neck as Weiss shrugged.
Ruby was just slowing down as she reached into her pocket for her scroll. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she dialed up the only person she felt like talking to at the moment. "Penny? It's me, Ruby. Can you meet me at Beacon?"
Meanwhile Yang, who had lost track of her sister, came back to her two teammates with angry tears in her eyes, all but glaring at her partner. "Well, you got what you wanted: my 'idiot' of a sister is gone now...and after we had such a good time at the dance too."
Blake actually paled at this, especially so as she remembered an important detail that Yang had shared with her: their mother never came back from her last mission. "That's not...I didn't mean…"
Weiss held up her hands in a calming manner. "Whoa, easy there. I'm sure if we all calmed down and looked for her, she'll show up."
Somehow, this just made Yang even angrier. "Really, now? I wasn't going to say anything, given you were Ruby's partner and how you'd actually turned out to be pretty cool, but I can't stay silent anymore. How can I? How can I trust you to actually care about my family when I'm staring at a member of the same family who took my second mother away from me?!"
Weiss stumbled back in shock. "Wha...what!?"
With an angry sigh, Yang gave a nod. "Blake already knows that I nearly got myself and my sister killed looking for my biological mom...we're still going to talk about how she could be so callous about that after our little heart to heart, btw...but that was only one part of my conga line of trauma. The other part was how I had stumbled upon where Summer Rose - Ruby's biological mother - was likely killed or kidnapped." Shaking her head, she continued even as she started rummaging through her things, "I don't know the full story, and I never told Ruby about any of this...but how could I? How do I go about telling my baby sister that a couple years back, while looking for some clues about the whereabouts of one Raven Brawnwen, I stumbled upon the charred remains of an old abandoned compound, an SDC compound, where I discovered this?!"
Weiss felt like her heart stopped for a moment: there, in Yang's hands, was a beaten-up locket containing a photo of her two teammates when they were both toddlers. Normally, she'd be cooing at how cute Ruby, and by extension Yang, had been at the time, but given the situation...she grabbed Yang by the shoulders and starred the blonde brawler in the eyes. "Yang, I need you to listen to me very carefully: are you sure that the abandoned compound belonged to my father?"
Yang blinked at this. "Wait, what? I mean, I found plenty of old containers with your family's symbol on it, but I never said that…"
Weiss gave an uncharacteristic growl at this. "You didn't have to: only Jacques Schnee, the man who forced his way into my grandfather's business and family line, would pull something like this." She gave a nod. "Next time I see him, I'm going to have a little conversation with him regarding a certain abandoned compound that won't be too pleasant for him: he's gone too far this time."
Blake nods. "...and I'll help, and not just because of the pain he's caused the Faunus. I messed up earlier; I was so focused on the past mistreatment of my people that I forgot that there were humans in the Atlas labor camps as well - that my great-grandfather, according to his journals, had met his future best man, and inspiration to start an organization that was originally geared towards bringing humans and faunus together, in said camps. That if not for those camps, the White Fang and myself might not have ever been born." She sighed. "Maybe if I got that chip, it'll show how sorry I..." ...and that was as far as she got before both of her teammates enveloped her in a hug.
Yang just sniffled. "So that's why. How can I stay mad at you when this was your reason for losing your temper? I've certainly lost mine for less…"
Blake shook her head in frustration and remorse. "That doesn't make what I did right."
Weiss just sighed: "No, it doesn't, but like Yang said, it's clear you weren't trying to upset anyone. Besides, like Ruby said, we won't force you to do something that makes you uncomfortable. You want to make things right with our teammate? Help us find her so that you can apologize to her and explain your reasons to her in person. We can worry about this business with the chips after we've made sure she's safe."
Blake just gave a resolute nod: "Alright, let's go."
Before they left, however, Weiss had one more question; "So, wait, Yang, just to clarify one thing, Ruby's mother isn't really your mother? She had just married your father after his first love left him with you?"
Yang gave a shrug. "In short, yes. My real mom left right after I was born, so the only real mother-figure I had was Summer Rose."
Blake then blinked. "So, Rose isn't your last name?"
"No, but I thought you knew that."
Blake blushed. "Sorry: what is your last name?"
"Xiao Long."
Blake nodded. "Okay, so now - wait: 'Xiao Long?'"
"Yeah?"
"Are... are you Chinese?"
"Who, me?"
"Yeah."
"Does it matter?"
Blake held her hands in a calming manner. "No, I'm just curious."
Yang raised an eyebrow. "Well, if it doesn't matter, why are you curious?"
"Because I feel like that's something I should've picked up on."
Yang just gave a deadpan expression. "Y'know what else you should've picked up on? MY FUCKING LAST NAME!"
While Blake kicked herself for starting another exhausting argument, Ruby had met Penny in Vale. The huntresses in training walked down the cobblestone streets, headed towards Team CPPR's temporary home - the apartment above Tukson's Book Trade. By the time the sun started setting, Ruby had begun to calm down. She had been reading about Faunus history ever since Blake accidentally outed herself, so she could understand where her teammate was coming from. After spending some time with her best friend, she would apologize to Blake about blowing up the way she did.
"I am so excited that you wanted to spend time with me, Ruby!" Penny bounced with each step she took. "I am so excited for you to meet the rest of my team! And they'll be overjoyed to meet you!" A hiccup slipped through the android's lips; she had forgotten about Ciel. "... well, most of them will be."
"Well, in any case; thanks for letting me hang out with you, Penny." Ruby managed to smile. "I just needed to get away for a little while. And I guess it's about time I meet a few friends of yours that aren't fireflies."
The duo shared a laugh as they drew closer to the bookstore. But as they turned a corner, they were blinded by flashes of red and blue. Two police cars were parked outside the bookstore, blocking off the street. Much to Penny's dismay, she saw Ciel and Racheal speaking to two officers. Luckily, Jean spotted the two of them and rushed to embrace her teammate.
"Oh, Penny! Thank gods you're safe!" She exclaimed.
"Jean, what happened? Where's Mr. Tukson?"
"Oh, Penny, it's awful!" Jean took out a magenta handkerchief to dab her eyes. "The three of us went out for lattes to celebrate, but when we came back, you weren't here and Mr. Tukson was dead! They think he was shot!"
"He was what?!" came the shout of one Blake Belladonna. The cat Faunus showed up alongside Yang and Weiss - having correctly deduced that their teammate would be hanging out with Penny - all of whom were shocked by this new development. Though none more so than the ex-White Fang member, who looked like someone had punched her in the gut.
"Wait, what are you doing here?" Ruby stated in slight shock, both at the troubling news and at his new development.
"I was hoping to apologize for earlier," Blake explained, before looking towards the bookstore with a look of anger: "But that'll have to wait: we need to find out who would kill my uncle in cold blood like this."
"Your uncle?!" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.
Blake shrugged, sadly. "Well, okay: he technically was only an honorary one, but given how close he was to my parents back during my time in the White Fang, it wasn't hard for me to start seeing him as such. He actually left a few years before Sienna Khan took control of the organization, stating that he was called away by an old friend to take part in some sort of secret project in Atlas before coming here for a change of pace."
"Is that so?" Ciel lifted an eyebrow, curiously. "Perhaps you could tell us who would… how to put this? Hate Mr. Tukson? Enough to kill him?"
"Hey, back off, clock-girl!" Yang growled. "You heard her: this is as hard for her as it is for you-"
"It's alright, Yang." Blake soothed her partner before turning back to Team CPPR. "As for your question, Tukson was one of the White Fang's best enforcers. He had plenty of enemies. Too many for me to count."
"Merde. (Shit.)" Ciel muttered. "Pourquoi ne puis-je pas compter sur quelqu'un d'autre que moi? (Why can't I count on anyone other than myself?)"
Weiss leaned over to Ruby's ear. "What did she say?" She whispered.
"I don't know. I don't speak Spanish." Ruby shrugged.
"Don't mind her." Penny replied. "Ciel tends to speak in her native language when she's overly stressed."
"Well, she won't have to be stressed for very long." Racheal announced. "Those policemen just got off the phone with their superiors. Apparently, a Guardsman is coming to deal with this."
"Really? It's that serious?" Weiss sounded perturbed.
"What's a Guardsman?" Ruby asked.
"Guardsmen are independant." Weiss explained. "They're not affiliated with any conventional Huntsman organizations. They just travel all over Remnant and work for whoever has the most money."
Yang just sighed. "Well, here's hoping that this 'Guardsman' doesn't cause too much of a ruckus. Not sure how many more surprises I can take."
"Guess I could always come back later then."
Yang and Ruby shared a shocked expression, instantly recognizing that voice, despite how long it'd been sense they'd last heard it. "It...it can't be," Yang said with a whisper.
"Mom?" Ruby asked with a shake in her voice earning some shocked expressions from her teammates even as she and her sister turned towards the newcomer.
"I assure you: the rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated," Guardsman Summer Rose said with a chuckle. "I've always wanted to say that."
To be continued
