Replies to my Reviewers
Hirshja: That's a bit harsh but true. I also wanted to show the stupidity of a sniper looking away from an enemy who's she's confirmed to have long range attacks and has also done sneak attacks on her before.
NarutoDXD-6996: Jaune might get a harem but maybe for mostly sexy times. Also, may Black Panther's soul rest in peace.
Chapter 16: Kicking into High Gear
Tukson, a former White Fang member, hummed pleasantly while packing the last of his things in preparation for his departure the next day.
He had just dropped his bag while humming his tune, when he heard his counter bell ring.
'My last customers, huh? Did Miss Belladonna want one last thing?' Tukson thought. "Be right there!"
He backed through the doors, carrying stacks of books which he then dropped by the side. He then finally attended to his customers.
"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun! How may I..." Years of combat instinct and danger caused Tukson to hesitate as he observed his 'customers'. "How may I help you?"
"Just browsing." Mercury Black responded as he slammed a book shut. He was a pale, young man with gray eyes and gray hair, was dressed in a slate gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket that covered his upper body, a single notched belt with what appeared to be a sash or bandana draped over it and protecting his arms were a set of rerebraces and vambraces.
"Actually, I was wondering, do you have any copies of {The Thief and The Butcher}?" Emerald Sustrai asked in a falsely pleasant tone.
Emerald Sustrai was a young woman with medium-brown skin, dark-red eyes and her hair was a light, mint-green with a straight fringe and bangs as well as two long locks on each side in the back. She wore two bronze-colored rings on her middle fingers as well as a pair of strappy high-heeled pumps, a white top with a shallow olive green crop top which showed off her modest cleavage and dark brown chaps over white pants.
"Yes we do." Tukson answered.
"That's great." Emerald replied excitedly.
"Would you... like a copy?" Tukson inquired as his suspicions only kept rising.
"No, just wondering." Emerald responded as Mercury closed another book, louder than necessary. "Oh, oh! What about {Violet's Garden}? In paperback?"
"He's got it. Hardback too." Mercury said as he produced the book.
"Ooh, options are nice." Emerald put on a thinking pose.
Mercury looked inside the book. "Eh, no pictures."
He loudly closed the book and threw it back. "Hey! Do you have any comics?"
"Near the front." Tukson replied.
"Oh, no, wait!" Emerald spoke up. "What... about... {Third Crusade}?"
Tukson hesitated, visibly unnerved. '{Third Crusade} is a White Fang code! How do these humans know of it?!'
"Um... I...don't believe we carry that one." Tukson was now thoroughly unnerved.
Mercury loudly slammed another book shut. "Oh."
"What was this place called again?" Emerald asked.
"Tukson's Book Trade." Tukson replied.
"And you're Tukson?" Emerald clarified.
"That's right." Tukson confirmed.
"So then I take it that you're the one that came up with the catchphrase?" Emerald asked.
"Yes." Tukson replied.
"And, what was it again?" Mercury chimed in again.
Tukson sighed. "'Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun.'"
"Except the {Third Crusade}." Mercury pointed out.
"It's just a catchphrase." Tukson said.
"It's false advertising!" Mercury yelled.
"You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson." Emerald said in a calm voice. Behind her, Mercury activated a switch near the entrance, causing a front window to darken.
"I hear that you're planning on leaving. Moving all the way to Vacuo." Emerald continued as Mercury activated another switch and the window in the front door darkened as well.
"Your brothers in the White Fang won't be happy to hear that." Emerald said as Mercury darkened the last window as he smiled sadistically at Tukson. "And neither are we..."
"You know who we are, don't you?" Emerald asked. All pretenses were dropped and gone now.
"Yes." Tukson's brows dropped in anger.
Emerald follows up with another question. "And you know why we're here?"
"Yes." Tukson growled in a serious tone, now preparing for the inevitable.
"So... are you going to fight back?" Emerald asked her final question as Mercury walked to stand directly behind her.
"Yes!" Tukson growled as he brought out his claws and jumped onto the counter.
Tukson leapt from the counter, aiming a powerful strike at Emerald's head, but she dodged it with ease. He looked forward and was shocked at Mercury's position as he raised a leg for a kick with his shotgun-greaves.
"Tukson!~"
The door suddenly opened, causing everyone to look at the door in surprise. It also had the effect of saving Tukson's life as the bullet meant for his head, went to his shoulder instead.
"Argh!" Even as Tukson fell to the ground bleeding, all three of the still looked to the interloper in shock.
"Hmm" Daisy August rubbed her chin as she observed what she had just witnessed. Two unknowns trying to kill her drinking buddy.
"Hey, Tukson." She entered the shop and closed the door behind her. "There's no way... I can misunderstand... what these two were doing, right?"
"Daisy!" Tukson grunted as he clutched his shoulder, trying to stem his blood loss. "Run away! They'll kill you!"
"Too late!" Mercury closed the distance in an instant and kicked at Daisy's face, releasing a shot that caused some smoke to obscure her upper form as it detonated.
Emerald smirked in victory until a Hardened hand suddenly appeared out of the smoke to punch Mercury's face, sending him flying into Emerald.
"What the hell?!" Mercury said as he twisted around to his feet. Tukson very much felt the same. While Daisy had proven capable of defending her self from some thugs, these two were most likely assassins, and yet she had shown no signs at losing at all.
"Right now, I'm really tempted to kill you." Daisy spoke as the smoke slowly cleared, revealing her head to be clad in Armament Haki as well. "But my friend is bleeding out right now and he takes priority. Leave while you can."
"Sorry." Mercury said in an utterly unapologetic manner, stepping into another combat pose. Emerald got up from behind him, readying her weapons. "I don't feel threatened enough to leave quite yet."
"I see. In that case," The smoke finally cleared and the Armament Haki receded, revealing Daisy's full face, although one detail seemed to root Mercury and Emerald in their spots. Her eyes had started glowing with green flames matching her hair tips.
Tukson raised a confused brow as Mercury and Emerald seemed to flinch at the mere sight of her.
"I'll just kill you both, right now!"
Tukson gasped as air currents gathered into a sphere above Daisy's raised fist, compressing and strengthening into an Air Sphere.
"Wait..." Tukson suddenly had a bad sense of foreboding.
She punched forward with the Air Sphere. The closest thing Tukson would be able to describe what happened was that Daisy had somehow created a missile shaped tornado inside his shop with a punch. The aforementioned tornado blasted into Mercury and Emerald and utterly wrecked up the shop, slamming them into- no through the wall that led to the alleyway.
After a second of watching the hole she made, Daisy turned her attention to Tukson to help.
"Your windows are really durable." Daisy complimented how the windows had stayed unaffected as she pressed a cloth onto his wound.
"Thanks. Soundproof too." Tukson hissed as he was helped to his feet. "You're not going to ask why there were two assassins about to kill me?"
"It's not like you're asking how I did that without Aura." Daisy said as she helped Tukson continue packing the things in the backroom and prepare for his trip to Vacuo. "As far as I'm concerned, you're just my drinking buddy who's got a lot of fine literature."
Tukson chuckled as he stood by. "Well as far as I'm concerned, you're just my drinking buddy who makes damn good coffee and loves smut."
"It's fine literature, you damn puma!"
"It's smut and you know it, you shitty lioness!"
"Whatever." Daisy sighed as they left the shop through the hole, confirming that the two were gone. "Hospital?"
"Please."
Jaune Arc and Lie Ren dozed off again, during their lunch in the cafeteria on the last day before Second Semester truly began.
"Jaune." Pyrrha Nikos said good-naturedly. "While it's good you and Ren are training very well, don't you think you might be overdoing it?"
Ever since the trio returned from the break, Ren and Nora, remembering the rush they got from Fusion, strove to attain that level of strength on their own. Naturally, Jaune and Pyrrha joined in, each exchanging tips and skills as well as developing new ones. Now Jaune could proudly claim that every single member of Team JNPR was capable of Armament Haki.
Jaune merely smiled blearily at Pyrrha before resting his head on her shoulder.
"Sorry about this." Jaune mumbled, missing his partner's blushing face due to his position. "I'll make it up to you later..."
He dozed off again while Ren flat out dropped his head onto the table while Nora tossed various food at Yang's receiving mouth.
Unfortunately, Ruby suddenly appeared with an enormous binder that she slammed onto the table with a large thud, catching everyone off guard and waking Jaune and Ren up.
On the cover of the binder was written {Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Weiss Schnee}. This had been hastily crossed out with a red marker pen, and with the same pen, a new title, {Best Day Ever Activities}, had been written underneath.
Ruby cleared her throat in a grandiose manner and gestured to everyone at the table. "Sister... Friends... Weiss."
"Hey!" Weiss complained.
"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream." Ruby continued her speech.
"That's like one hour, forty five minutes, right?" Nora asked Ren who nodded, before throwing a berry at Yang.
"This ought to be good." Yang remarked as she caught the berry in her mouth.
"A dream that one day, the four of us will come together, as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!" Ruby declared.
"Did you steal my binder?" Weiss accused her partner.
"I am not a crook." Ruby responded. "I'll return after we're done."
"What are you talking about?" Blake asked.
"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" Ruby pointed her finger at Blake.
"I always kick my semesters off with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I right?" Yang chose to take this opportunity to make a horribly bad joke. A joke of which Nora immediately passed verdict on.
"Booooooooo!" An apple to Yang's face.
"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great!" Ruby told her friends. "But, classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today."
"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store." Weiss said.
"Why not both?" Nora commented as she dodged a retaliatory apple, which hit Dove Bronzewing in the head.
"I don't know." Blake said with a slightly tired voice. "I think I might sit this one out."
"Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team!" Weiss declared as she stood up. "I for one think that..."
Whatever Weiss was about to say next was lost as a pie smashed into her face at high speed.
Meanwhile, outside the cafeteria, a certain blonde Monkey Faunus was speaking with his blue haired partner.
"And then my brother actually squeezed my cheeks real hard for coming here so early."
"Dude, I'd squeeze your cheeks too." Neptune Vasilias agreed with Jaune's actions in the previous semester. "You ditched us. I'm still wondering why Headmaster Lionheart didn't stop you."
"Yeah.. But he was still awesome." Sun Wukong said excitedly. "While we're fighting this Torchwick guy, Jaune realizes that he'd probably have an accomplice and fought her off on his own. Though, he told me himself that she had just been 'playing' with him..."
"Man, that's harsh." Neptune commented.
"I know! While Jaune fought off the accomplice, Blake and I were fighting side by side." Sun rambled in a quick and excited tone. "She was super-fast, and I threw a banana at the guy, which sounds gross, but it was awesome."
"Nice!" Neptune responded.
"Right? And the best part is, she's a Faunus too." Sun said, then suddenly covered his mouth.
"But that's a secret, okay?" Sun stressed this point to his friend.
"Got it." Neptune agreed.
"And not a 'I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back secret'." Sun leaned in close in order to stress the importance of this secret. "I'm talking secret secret."
"Whoa, chill out, man, okay? I got it." Neptune said as he and Sun came to a temporary stop in their walk. "I got it."
"You better. I just don't want to screw this up, you know?" Sun continued walking, with Neptune alongside him. As they did so, Jaune was smacked into a nearby window before growling and returning to whoever threw him with heightened ferocity. "The people here are the coolest! No offense to you guys."
"None taken." Neptune said.
"They're just in here. I'm really excited for you to meet them, especially my brother. So be cool, okay? You're gonna be cool, right?" Sun asked his partner.
"Dude." Neptune commented, his teeth somehow gleaming as he smiled.
"Good point." Sun nodded his head at this. 'I really wanna know how he does that.'
Sun and Neptune then entered the cafeteria only to witness students fleeing and screaming in terror.
"Food fight!"
Several students yelled as they stampeded out the door, leaving the cafeteria in a hurry. Neptune looked around in surprise and worry, meanwhile Sun looked at it all and smiled in excitement.
"Ahahahaha!" Nora gave a maniacal laugh from the top of a makeshift fort made from tables. The rest of team JNPR stood around on different levels of the fort.
"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" Nora battlecried. Ruby stomped her foot on a table and pointed at Team JNPR.
"Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful!" A carton of milk she had been holding in her hand was swiftly crushed. "It will be delicious!" She raised her fist in a battle cry.
"""Yeah!""" The rest of team RWBY raised their fists in support simultaneously.
"Hold it!" Team CRDL appeared, Dove still holding the apple that Yang beaned him with.
"I say we get in on this." Cardin Winchester declared, crossing his arms for maximum attitude. "Considering that my teammate was the first victim of this fight, we got the right to beat you all down ourselves. Right boys?"
"""Damn right!""" The trio roared as one, Dove crushing the apple into pulp.
"Ha! We'll take you all out as well!" Ruby yelled back.
"More bodies for the pile then!" Nora declared as she jumped down from the top of her tower, and the Food Fight began. "Off with their heads!"
"Prepare the Watermelons!" Jaune ordered as his team got ready. "Aim and fire at will!"
Ren stomped the side of a tray holding Watermelons, launching them in the air. He then kicked them in the direction of the opposing teams. Jaune threw his own Watermelon as he performed a front flip, aiming for Cardin. Pyrrha threw two Watermelons, one for Weiss and Russel each. Nora upturned a whole table stacked with the fruit, causing a barrage of watermelons to head directly for both teams.
Beacon's Second Epic Food Fight had Begun!
Nora vs Blake vs Sky
Nora cackled as she rushed forward, jumping onto a table so that she could get a pole hanging from high up. As she fell down to the ground, she stabbed the pole into a Watermelon, creating a makeshift hammer.
Blake took cues from her and grabbed two nearby Baguettes, and then Hardened it with Haki. At Nora and Sky's shock, she smirked. "What? You think we wouldn't notice your team training like hell recently? Combined with that video of you fighting Sun's sisters and Ruby & Weiss' competitiveness, we've been busy too."
Nora smirked as well, Hardening her Melon Hammer as well. Sky looked between the two and leapt up to get a pole of his and stabbed two Baguettes into his, arranging them in a way that resembled his halberd then Hardened it similar to the girls.
"Come on!" Sky challenged with false bravado. 'Why was I the one to end up with Valkyrie?'
The girls briefly looked to each other before simultaneously, they attacked, swiftly hitting Sky in the stomach with their weapons and casting him out of the fight immediately.
"Now then." Nora turned to face Blake. "I might actually have to get serious with you."
Nora gathered her Aura and yelled out her she transformed into Super Hunter! Her hair blew outwards her turquoise eyes glowed pink and her already defined muscles bulged a bit further as her Aura blew outwards into a spiky appearance.
Blake crossed her arms to block with her weapons as Nora suddenly appeared, her Melon Hammer striking her Baguettes to send her flying despite the her successful block.
Blake slid backwards as she discarded the broken Baguettes for a long Sausage Roll to use as a whip. "Come on!"
She and Nora clashed again.
Pyrrha vs Weiss vs Russel
Pyrrha picked up a Baguette and wielded it like a sword, clashing against Weiss' Swordfish. Then to add further confusion, Russel suddenly joined in, wielding two fishes as his weapons.
For a brief moment, the three blade wielders stared each other down before Russel suddenly gunned for Pyrrha. Pyrrha blocked while kicking out to divert Weiss' strike. As her strike was pushed aside by Pyrrha's kick, Weiss kicked out herself into Russel's side but winced as his entire body hardened.
Pyrrha disengaged and flipped backwards, kicking Russel in the jaw with a Hardened kick as she did so. Weiss immediately took advantage of the opening to create a Glyph which launched Russel into the air and then with the creation of another Glyph in the air above him, he was shot down to the ground at triple speed.
"Well then," Weiss pointed her Swordfish. "Shall we continue?"
Pyrrha chuckled as she suddenly kicked the soda machine behind her. As the soda machine spewed out its contents, Pyrrha snapped her fingers, causing a wave of power to infuse all the ejected cans with her semblance.
Weiss stepped back a bit as a veritable wave of cans rose up into the air behind her.
"Very well, Weiss. Let's continue."
Ren vs Yang vs Dove
"Bitch!" Dove dashed forward, grabbing a Baguette to attack, ignoring Ren as he dodged aside.
Yang rolled over to some nearby turkeys and stuck her fists inside them, proceeding to block and counter Dove as he attacked her. However, Dove was the second strongest CRDL member for a reason, making sure to somersault and flip over Yang's punches, making sure to never let her land a hit on him.
Eventually Ren joined in, attacking Yang as well. When a window in Dove's guard appeared she quickly punched him away and used Ren's surprise to punch him away as well. As Dove quickly recovered, he was immediately hit by Yang's Rocket Turkey, which took him down. Ren was able to dodge his own Rocket Turkey, rushing forward to attack again, grabbing and Hardening a pair of Leeks on the way.
Acknowledging this, Yang jumped back into the action, reclaiming her Turkey fists and ran Ren with a kick, who responded quickly enough to block.
Yang and Ren then engaged in a flurry of blows which soon resulted in Ren being uppercut into the air. While in the air, he quickly turned his Leeks into projectiles to hit Yang with. However, Yang quickly jumped up as well, dodging the Leeks and then smashed him back into the ground with an overhead punch.
Jaune vs Ruby vs Cardin
The three team leaders glared at each other, stoically trying to intimidate each other through just glaring alone, as the battles between their teammates raged around them.
Or at least that's how Ruby wished the battle started.
When the battle begun, the two boys completely ignored Ruby and clashed against each other, with Jaune wielding a Baguette and tray and Cardin wielding a caveman meat.
With their weapons Hardened, the two knights exchanged a series of blows, clashing about which caused Ruby to feel left out. She then noticed that their battle was slowly moving farther away from her.
"Hey! Don't leave me out!"
Ruby skidded forward, riding on her own tray across the tables. She eventually did a jump so that she could pick up her tray and use it to send Jaune's Baguette back at him as he sensed her arrival and shot it at her similar to Pyrrha's spear, but he narrowly dodged his projectile.
Ruby continued riding the tray until she arrived in front of Cardin and used the tray as a platform to jump off when it slammed into the mace wielder.
Cardin wasn't phased in the slightest, easily blocking the tray Jaune used to try and bash his head.
"You're both annoying."
And then the World trembled.
The world thrummed and cracked and raged, churning out blasts after blasts of Power.
Power restrained in the form of a domineering Orange Knight.
Nobody in the cafeteria was knocked out, but neither was anyone nearby unfazed, their battles all but forgotten. The pressure was massive, crushing, suffocating, and growing heavier and heavier-!
"Knock it off, mongrel."
Forget tremble, the World cracked as a glowing White Knight challenged the Orange Knight, causing the pressure to double immensely, causing every window in the cafeteria to crack.
Ruby herself could feel her body shake from the force! She couldn't stop the shaking! She couldn't hear anything but her own heartbeat, thundering in her ears! She felt sweat break out instantly! She was panicking! Her legs felt weak, she was going to collapse! She couldn't raise her arms, the limbs only trembling violently as they remained at her sides. She felt herself fading. She was going to pass out!
'It's different from Archester's.' Ruby thought as she remembered the Fusion's own Conqueror's Haki. Once composed of two Kings against an enemy, now the Kings were now separate and against each other, no longer caring for anything in the World except each other. The difference was monumental.
As her vision got blurry, Ruby saw the image of Archester in her mind. This was followed by an image of Yang, Weiss, Blake, her mother, then for some reason, Mesrum!
'No!' Ruby screamed in her own mind! She raged against the force pressing down on her! She wouldn't fall! She wouldn't lose! She was going to win against these two! The pressure decreased a bit, something pushing back against the onslaught of force.
Ruby didn't notice, since her sight was blurred and her hearing deafened by her own heartbeat, but Jaune and Cardin's eyes widened as they felt a force pushing back against their Conqueror's Haki.
The two Knights turned to regard the third King in their presence as a lupine figure rose to challenge them. Two orbs of silver glowed where it's eyes were supposed to be, showing hints of long forgotten Divinity and a jaw wide enough to devour the World-
The pressure suddenly ended, causing an unspoken sigh of relief to resound among the the three teams sans the leaders.
"Unbelievable." Cardin rubbed his brows while Jaune ran and hugged Ruby in excitement.
"W-What was that?" Ruby was too mentally exhausted to protest or even blush at a boy hugging her.
"Congratulations, Rose." Cardin said, begrudgingly sending her a look of approval.
"Ruby!" Jaune stepped back, holding her arms in encouragement. "That feeling, whatever you felt just now, the anger, the rage, I don't know, I don't care, you need to remember it. Hold onto it. That feeling. Because what you just did…"
Jaune stepped back, holding out his arms for encouragement.
"That was a boot… clean through the door… of the Conqueror's throne room."
There was a bit of silence in the cafeteria before-
"Do we continue?" Nora raised a new Melon Hammer.
"Sure, lets." Yang raised some new Turkey Fists as well.
"I love these guys." Sun commented in excitement from the cafeteria front door, having seen the entire thing. Neptune, who was drenched in soda and was still shaking from the earlier Conqueror Haki Clash, definitely didn't share his leader's feelings.
The World pressed down as a force several times superior to Jaune, Ruby and Cardin combined, came down with a vengeance, with all the strength of a Constellation came down on all the students like a Meteor Shower.
The doors behind Sun and Neptune banged open and Glynda Goodwitch entered the room growling. She then proceeded to use Telekinesis to re-organize the entire room, even removing most of the food stains and fixing the cracks in the walls, the broken pillars and the shattered windows.
"Children, please." Glynda adjusted her glasses. "Do not play with your food!"
The 'Children' only stared at her with dazed expressions from Ozpin's own Conqueror's Haki, only for Nora to burp and release the tension.
Glynda grumbled at this until Ozpin approached from behind the wall where he had been and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let it go."
"They're supposed to be the defenders of the world." Glynda sighed.
"And they will be, but right now they're still children." Ozpin reminded Glynda. They watched everyone crowd Ruby, complimenting her on her newfound Conqueror's Haki. "So why not let them play the part?"
Ozpin then walked away from Glynda and headed back to the Staffroom. "After all, it isn't a role they'll have forever."
By Nightfall, Roman Torchwick was supervising the White Fang as they loaded up various crates. Then he saw something that made his day better.
"Oh, look! She sent the kids again!" Torchwick noticed Mercury and Emerald's entrance, especially homing in on their injuries. They didn't have any obvious wounds but their torn clothes and Emerald's occasional limping.
"This is turning out just like the divorce!" He approached the two from behind and wrapped his arms around them in a group hug.
Emerald shivered in disgust. "Spare us the thought of you procreating."
She and Mercury then forced their way out of Torchwick's grasp. Torchwick noted the extent of their injuries from that alone.
'Legsy seems fine but there was definitely a twinge from his midsection.' Torchwick noted as he walked back to his table. 'And Rookie definitely broke a limb. Probably reset it and let Aura do the rest. You two may have healed up but bone damage doesn't disappear as quickly as flesh damage does, even with Aura.'
"That was a joke." Torchwick then revealed the piece of paper Emerald had before. "And this... just might tell me where you two have been all day."
"What!? Agh..." Emerald checked her pockets, wondering how she lost it.
"I'm a professional, sweetheart. Pay attention, maybe you'll learn something." Torchwick held up the piece of paper to look at it, then took a more serious tone. "Why do you have this address?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Emerald gave a snarky response.
"Yeah, I would." Torchwick said bluntly. "Now where have you been all day?"
"Cleaning up your problems." Mercury said. "One of them, at least. Well, almost."
"I had that under control." Torchwick grimaced. "And guessing from your comment, I don't think either of you had it in control."
"It was only a circumstantial issue." Mercury said. "Besides, the fact we had to do anything, shows just how much control you've got."
"Listen, you little punk." Torchwick pointed at Mercury accusingly, smoke starting to waft off his arm. "If it were up to me, then I would take you and your little street rat friend here and..."
"Do what, Roman?" Cinder Fall's voice interrupted.
The three looked to see Cinder appear on a platform above them. She stepped onto an automated lift, riding it down to their level.
Roman laughed drily. "I'd suffocate them. Slowly."
"Cinder!" Emerald greeted excitedly, while Mercury eyed Torchwick warily.
"I thought I made it clear that you would eliminate the would-be runaway." Cinder walked to Torchwick, ignoring Emerald's attempt at approaching her.
Torchwick responded. "I was going to..."
"He was going to escape to Vacuo!" Emerald referred to Tukson. "Mercury and I decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat."
"And then they failed." Torchwick sang, which turned Cinder's attention on them in a bad way.
"Not only do you two ignore my orders to stay clean while in Vale," Cinder's right eye started to exude orange flames, similar to Daisy's green flames. "But you fail and leave behind a witness?!"
Emerald flinched under her glare but Mercury who looked unconcerned, stepped and said five words which killed her flames.
"Tukson got saved by a Maiden."
"What?!"
"Yup." Mercury raised his hands to put it behind his head in a seemingly bored manner. "We were going to win but then she appeared and only needed one attack to incapacitate the both of us. I decided that it was in our best interests to get the hell out of there."
Torchwick blinked in surprise as Cinder gained an outwardly troubled look on her face as she asked for more details.
'I'll have to look around on what I can find on Maidens beyond girls and fairytales.'
"And you. Why wasn't this job done sooner?" Cinder finally focused on Torchwick. "From what they described, the rescue was a circumstantial event rather than planned."
"Uh..? Eh..?" Torchwick indicated to crates his right.
"Eh..?" He indicated to even more crates to his left.
"EHHHHH!" He indicated to the mountain of crates behind him. "Sorry if I've been busy stealing every speck of Dust in the Kingdom!"
"You're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask." Mercury remarked which caused Emerald to laugh.
"Look around, kid. I've got this town running scared!" Torchwick boasted. "Police camping out at every corner, Dust prices through the roof, and we're sitting pretty on an old warehouse with more Dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with!"
"Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn't mind filling me in on your grand master plan, it might actually make my next string of robberies go a little smoother!" He emphasized the last word by clenching his fist.
"Oh, Roman." Cinder approached the master thief. "Have a little faith."
She placed her hand on his face. "You'll know what you need when you need to know it." Roman merely growled a bit, but then looked away with a grunt. "Besides, we're done with Dust."
Cinder then began to walk away, leaving Torchwick to furiously rub his chin where she touched him.
"Okay then, what now?" Torchwick inquired afterwards.
"We're moving." Cinder ordered. "Have the White Fang clear out this building. I'll send you details and coordinates tonight."
"Coordinates?" Torchwick asked.
"We're proceeding to phase two." Cinder looked back at Roman. "Rejoice, Roman. Yu won't be seeing our faces for a while."
Cinder, Mercury and Emerald began to walk away. Roman attempted to light a cigar, but realized he couldn't find his lighter.
He then looked up to see Emerald holding it while sticking out her tongue out defiantly.
"Haha." Roman said dryly, then suddenly sent a plume of smoke at her, instantly engulfing her. He then solidified it and hoisted her up. "I got that from Favor #03. Return it right now."
"Emerald." Cinder hadn't slowed down at all. "Give the man back his lighter. You and Mercury are the ones in trouble tonight, not him."
Omake
"Everyone! Come quick!" Thumbelina Peach called out to her fellow staff while she watched the security tapes in the cafeteria. "It's a Food Fight!"
"Ah, we haven't had one of this scale since Team STRQ's time here." Peter Port commented while rubbing his mustache.
"There's a reason for that." Glynda Goodwitch growled as she left immediately, with a sighing Ozpin following her.
"...Anyone wanna take bets before Glynda gets there?" Harold Mulberry suggested.
"Team JNPR." Ann Greene instantly betted. When asked, her reply was, "They have miss Valkyrie, don't they? That's enough."
"I don't know." Bartholomew Oobleck rubbed his chin speculatively. "I would wager Team RWBY. Misses Rose and Xiao Long have both inherited the competitiveness from their mothers."
"I would wager Team CRDL." Mulberry chimed in. "With Mr Winchester's rivalry against Mr Arc, he would hate to be left out or behind in anything."
"I assure you, Harold." Greene laughed. "Mr Arc considers it mutual with him."
"Ah. Glynda got there." Peach called out. "Every time I see it, I'm still jealous of her semblance."
"Who won?" Port asked.
"A Three way tie, as unbelievable as it seems." Peach said. "But still, now all of our First Year Team Leaders are Conquerors."
"Could this be a lead up to something?" Oobleck asked.
Everyone pondered on this for a bit.
"""""Nah."""""
KingVessel: The Conqueror's Haki scene was inspired by the Xomniac's One Piece fanfic {This Bites}, specifically Luffy's first use of it. Now that I think about it, all my Conqueror Haki scenes were inspired by this guy. His Fanfic is amazing enough to have gotten a Tv Tropes page. Please review both of us.