Author's note: I will be posting updates to this every Sunday until completion. Enjoy!

"Nora? I need your opinion on… something."

Nora Valkyrie, she of orange hair, loud voice, and manic disposition, looked away from the desk where she was prepping Dust rounds to her preferred level of volatile ("dangerously"). Pyrrha Nikos was standing at a distance, left arm crossed to hold her right bicep, eyes downcast like she was too embarrassed to look Nora in the eyes.

Nora (who'd never had that problem) grinned. In the classroom, Pyrrha was studious and sharp; on the training floor, tireless and stern; on the battlefield, dazzling and implacable. At her best she was a juggernaut of red and bronze, untouchable on defense, sudden death at any range.

Out of those places, she was painfully nice and painfully earnest, desperate to make friends despite not knowing how, exactly, that worked.

Whatever it was that could reduce Pyrrha Nikos to this uncertain, shifting, gooey mess, Nora was here for it.

"This oughta be good," said Nora, capping the Dust she was working with and gingerly (heh heh) setting the capsules aside. "What's up?"

Pyrrha opened her mouth, second-guessed herself, tried again. "It's about a… I have a friend," she tried.

Unlikely, Nora thought. "Is this question about your friend, or to help your friend?"

"To help my friend. Not for me, at all," said Pyrrha, and she sagged for a moment before tensing again. "Just… my friend has questions, and I didn't know how to answer them, but I thought… you might?"

This was getting better and better. Nora twirled around on her stool about 450 degrees to face Pyrrha head-on. "Tell me more!"

Her eagerness seemed to take Pyrrha aback, but she swallowed and continued. "You see, my friend was… curious. They were wondering—just out of curiosity—if someone…"

"If someone…?" said Nora, waving her hand in a circular fashion, so eager she couldn't wait for Pyrrha to get to the point.

"If someone wanted to cause some trouble…"

"Now you're speaking my language!" said Nora, pumping her fist. At Pyrrha's alarmed start, Nora settled herself back on her stool. "Continue."

"That is," said Pyrrha, looking away again, "if someone wanted to cause trouble around Vale—nothing serious!" she hastened to say. "Nothing bad, nothing that would, you know, hurt people or break things…"

"Aww, those are the best kinds of trouble!" Nora insisted.

"I'm… sure," said Pyrrha, with a tone that suggested she was not at all sure. "I wanted—my friend wanted—to know about these… less exciting kinds of trouble."

Nora cocked an eyebrow. "What is this, some kinda civil disobedience sort of thing?"

"No!" said Pyrrha hastily, waving her hands as if to shake the idea away. "Nothing like that! Just… idle curiosity, that's all! I don't know Vale laws, so I couldn't answer."

"I'm not from Vale, either," Nora pointed out. "I grew up in Mistral."

"I'm sorry," said Pyrrha, visibly wilting. "I shouldn't have…"

"But!" said Nora, cutting Pyrrha off, "I do so happen to know a few things."

"You… do?" Pyrrha replied with a raised eyebrow.

Nora shot Pyrrha a devilish grin. "Call it… idle curiosity."

"Oh. Okay." Pyrrha unnecessarily cleared her throat. "So… what are a few ways to cause trouble, you know, innocently?"

This was rich. Nora could just lap it up. Barely containing her excitement, she said, "We can start with some of the pettiest stuff. Like vandalism!"

Pyrrha squirmed and shrank back.

"Even some casual vandalism is too much for your friend?"

Pyrrha swallowed. "Do I dare ask what constitutes 'casual' vandalism?"

That put a damper on Nora's enthusiasm. "Are we gonna have to go all the way down to jaywalking?"

"Jaywalking works, I suppose," said Pyrrha cautiously. "Except I don't think it'd be that noticeable…"

"Oooooh," said Nora keenly. "We want to not cause trouble but also be noticeable, eh?"

"My friend was wondering!" Pyrrha insisted, blushing scarlet. "That's a hard square to circle, you know?"

"Okay," said Nora. "So the goal is to cause a little trouble, enough to be noticed, without doing any real damage. That about right?"

"That's what my friend was curious about," said Pyrrha. Her determination to stick to her story was as endearing as it was transparent. It was like someone holding a broken umbrella over their head long after they were soaked to the bone.

Like Nora cared. "So, if we were starting with jaywalking, it wouldn't just be jaywalking. It'd be jaywalking during rush hour traffic in downtown Vale, causing hour-long backups in all directions!"

Pyrrha blinked, caught off-guard. "That… sounds perfect, actually."

"You sure this isn't some civil disobedience thing?" Nora asked. "Y'know, like some non-psycho White Fang thing?"

"No, of course not!"

"Uh-huh." She clapped her hands together. "Tell ya what! I've got some explosives to finish mixing. Give me until after classes tomorrow. I'll have a whoooole list of ideas for you."

"…thanks." Pyrrha started to flash her generic for-the-cameras smile, second-guessed it, and struggled to put up something more genuine. "You're a good teammate, Nora."

When she was gone, Nora chuckled as she turned back to her Dust. "Girl, you have no idea."

One of the perks of being team leader was having access to everyone's schedules. Jaune Arc knew, for example, that at this point in the morning Nora was at her Logistics elective. Pyrrha was on the firing range, part of her daily training regimen. Lie Ren, the taciturn fourth member of Team JNPR, was meditating to prepare for his advanced aura training.

Through his friendship with Ruby Rose, leader of the across-the-hall Team RWBY, Jaune had also gotten an idea of that team's schedule. All of Team RWBY was out for now, which meant their room was almost unoccupied.

Almost.

"Okay," Jaune told himself. "Stay cool, stay casual. Yeah. Nothing sneaky happening at all, no sir!"

Grinning like a fool, Jaune slid out of his dorm room, glanced both ways down the hall, took two steps, glanced about again, and took another step until he was in front of Team RWBY's dorm. After a final round of glancing, he reached out one hand and knocked as softly as he could in a specific rhythm.

Before he could finish the pattern, the door opened.

"Arf!"

"Sshhh!" Jaune hissed. "Do you want to give us away?"

"Mrr?"

"Just lemme in already!"

"Arf!"

Perhaps some other perk of being team leader was getting to have your pets in your dorm. That was the only explanation Jaune had for the continued presence of Zwei, the small, black-and-white corgi that belonged mostly to Ruby and Yang but also to whomever would give belly-rubs on demand.

Zwei backed away from where the door was cracked, and Jaune (as sneakily as he could manage) followed into Team RWBY's dorm room.

"We're just in time," said Jaune, bursting with excitement. "I think we made the news!"

"Arf!"

"Here, let's get it on the big screen." In a moment, Jaune had pulled up the news on the larger screen normally reserved for video games and Movie Night.

A commercial for a chain of noodle shops (operated by a cantankerous and difficult-to-understand old man) greeted him. "We're a little early, perfect," said Jaune. "Man, I can't wait to see this! I think we've finally broken through to the big time, Zwei!"

"Arf!"

With a moment to reminisce, Jaune thought back to this latest moment of glory, the first in his career that he was sure was caught on camera…

"Litterer!"

His faithful sidekick at his heels, the HuntsMan pursues his quarry.

"Dude, what's your deal?!" screams the ne'er-do-well as he flees.

"Don't try to escape justice!" shouts the HuntsMan as he pursues, cape flying behind him, tennis shoes flopping on the pavement. "I saw you throw that burger wrapper into the duck pond! Have you no shame? No SOUL?!"

"Dude, I'm sorry, I—"

The fiend has come to a busy street, but the pedestrian light is lit to cross the side street. The vagabond corners sharply and pounds down the crosswalk.

"Tell it to the authorities!" hollers the HuntsMan. (Arfs of agreement sound by his ankles.) The HuntsMan cannily cuts the corner of the crosswalk. An innocent civilian momentarily blocks his path, but justice is not long deterred, and soon the HuntsMan is on the scent again.

He's gaining. Gaining. Ha! Vengeance draws close!

And there—perfect! The villain has run into local law enforcement. The cop's look of befuddlement is no doubt from how rare it is for her natural enemies to be delivered into her lap.

"Ha ha, you're caught now!" the HuntsMan cackles at his prey. "Policewoman, arrest that knave! Wonder Zwei, our work here is done. HuntsMan… away!"

Ah… the satisfaction of a job well done.

"In local news…"

Jaune snapped to attention at the sound of Lisa Lavender's voice. "This is it, Zwei, this is it!" Jaune said.

"…a masked maniac has been running around uptown Vale, knocking people out of his way. One of our viewers caught the latest rampage on their scroll."

The screen showed a blurry, indistinct figure running into a crowded sidewalk, several people dodging or diving out of the way, and one person knocked nearly over. Finally there was a glimpse of a fluttering cape before it disappeared around a corner.

"The maniac in question has been sighted several times now and has not yet been identified. The only constants are his hurry, his disregard for personal space, and his referring to himself in the third person. What will they think of next? Back to you, Reg."

The newscasters moved on to other topics. Zwei looked up at Jaune and gave a curious whine.

"This…" began Jaune. "…is… AWESOME!"

"Arf!"

Jaune danced about the room in exultation. "Did you see that?! ("Arf!") We were on the news! ("Arf! Arf!") Well, I mean, technically you weren't in the news, but I was, and we're a team, so WE. Were IN! The NEWS! We made it, Zwei! I've never been so proud of myself!"

Zwei was almost spinning circles with second-hand excitement.

"And mom said I'd never amount to anything," Jaune said smugly. "Alright, Zwei, here's the deal. We're gonna keep this up. I know the pickings have been a little slim lately, all the criminals we've run into have been small fries. I get it. But I… have a feeling."

"Mrr?"

"No, not the indigestion, I got over that, and I had words with Ruby about how many sprinkles are 'too many'. What I mean is, I have a feeling something major's in the works."

"Arf!"

"Our greatest enemy is lurking, even now," said Jaune, his voice getting low to help hide the magnitude of the secret he was sharing with his partner. "Plotting their next move, spinning their secret schemes."

"Grrr," growled Zwei with all the menace of a dog shaped like a loaf of bread.

"The Red Huntress is out there, I can feel it!"

Zwei's growls ceased. "Mrr?"

"I know, I know," said Jaune, pacing to and fro, agitated by the thought. "Torchwick and Neo seem like more conventional arch-villains. But they've kept their heads down since the Red Huntress appeared. I think… they're scared. What kind of mighty foe must the Red Huntress be to cow even hardened criminals like them?"

"Mrr?"

"A super-villain, that's who," said Jaune determinedly. "That's what we're up against now, Zwei. The worst of the worst. The most conscience-less, merciless, devastating enemy we'll ever meet. It'll take all our cunning and subtlety to take her down."

The corgi blinked twice, then barked again.

"For now, we'll continue this level of work," said Jaune, his voice slipping into the low register he'd adopted for his HuntsMan identity. "It'll keep her on her toes, let her know that I'm watching. But we'll keep our eyes and ears open. And our noses, I suppose," he added for Zwei's benefit.

"Arf!"

"We'll talk again soon, and then we'll patrol tomorrow like usual," Jaune concluded. "Until then, remember our secret identities. You're an adorable corgi, and I'm a green but earnest Huntsman trainee."

"Arf."

"Yes, I know you fit into character more easily. Until then…"

Jaune headed for the door and let himself out. The door shut behind him.

Back in the safety of his own dorm room, Jaune walked over to his bed. Sure, the dorm room had a closet, but one closet was woefully insufficient to hold four people's worth of belongings. Team RWBY had solved that problem with bunkbed engineering. Team JNPR had solved it with under-bed trundles.

Jaune removed the larger items of clothing to reveal what appeared to be the bottom of the trundle. Ha! Just because he couldn't build weapons didn't mean Jaune couldn't build stuff. Removing the false bottom allowed him to look at his costume in all its glory. He positively swelled with pride as his eyes feasted upon the mask. The hoodie. The cape.

There it was. When he donned that, he stopped being Jaune Arc and became the HuntsMan.

Plenty of people could become Huntsmen. The existence of the Huntsmen Academies was proof of that. But how many people could become true superheroes? Where was the superhero academy at, huh?

Jaune rested his case.

He felt a little bad, not including his team in this, but… it was for their protection, after all. If there was one thing Jaune understood from his years of reading comics, it was that maintaining his secret identity was an absolute necessity. It would cause trouble, if this got out. No, it was better this way.

He'd have to fight his war on crime alone. Well, and with Zwei, but he trusted Zwei not to talk.

Realizing he was running low on time, Jaune hurriedly replaced the trundle's false bottom, returned his clothes to their proper place above it, and then slid the trundle back under his bed. He was finishing up when he heard the sound of the rest of his team returning from their various obligations.

That was when it occurred to him that he needed a cover story for what he'd been doing while they were out.

Too late to grab some books and pretend to do schoolwork—his weapons were in his locker, couldn't pretend to be fixing them—

He went for broke and started doing jumping jacks.

There was a beep as one of his teammates scrolled into the room. Jaune completed a rep as his teammates spilled into the room.

"So I said—" Nora was saying.

"Please don't let it be another katana joke," Ren said wearily.

"Jaune… what are you doing?" Pyrrha asked, noticing how he was panting.

For a moment, Jaune's brain stalled out, as it sometimes did when Pyrrha looked at him the right way. He shook it off. "Oh, just trying to fit some exercise time in," he said. Yeah, suave. Good job, Jaune. They totally bought it.

"Ha! Perfect!" crowed Nora. "I'll join in! Maybe I'll even lead! How many reps are you doing? My minimum is two hundred."

"No, no, that's fine!" said Jaune hastily. "It was just a quick burst to keep the blood flowing, and now's probably time for me to study some more, so I'll, um, go check on… stuff. Okay bye!"

And he fled.

Pyrrha looked after Jaune's wake. "He's such a hard worker," she said, the fondness overflowing in her voice.

Nora shot Ren a devilish look. Ren face-palmed.

"You have my undivided attention!"

Pyrrha sighed happily at the memory. It was miraculous, in its own way. Jaune was many things, most of them good, but "observant" was not high on the list. It was rather low on the list, actually. Near the bottom, if Pyrrha was being frank. He hadn't noticed on his own that Pyrrha was crushing on him, and Pyrrha was terrified of going any further. What if she drove him away? What if she seemed too pushy? What if he wasn't 'in' to pushy girls? (Because she wasn't pushy! She wasn't!) What if what if what if-

There were so many what-ifs Pyrrha was sure she'd be buried beneath them. Maybe she could build a little fort out of them. Or a wall that kept her and Jaune very firmly in "just friends"-land.

On the other hand, high up on the list of Words That Describe Jaune was "ambitious", followed closely by "prone to getting in over his head". When Pyrrha found out about his notions of being a superhero, her first response was, "Wow, good for him!", followed immediately by, "Is he sure that's a good idea?" and, logically continuing the thought, "That's not a good idea, is it?", arriving inevitably at, "He hasn't thought this all the way through, has he?"

And so the Red Huntress was born, to let Pyrrha back his good intentions with her (if she were to stop being modest a moment) considerable power.

In hindsight, that last question might have applied to her plan as well. Because Jaune, in his guise as "the HuntsMan", had immediately, and wrongly, taken the Red Huntress to be his foe.

It wasn't all bad, though.

"I will chase after you day and night, and I won't rest until I catch you!"

That memory was enough to make Pyrrha smile and lightly blush. Oh, how she wanted to be caught!

Being a villain, though… that was turning out to be harder than she thought.

It wasn't the many curious and disbelieving eyes of the Vale citizenry that were bothering her. The costume was eccentric enough to attract attention, but Pyrrha had been a celebrity long enough to be able to tune out casual interest. No, the problem was that confounded blinky light. It was teasing her. The 'walk' signal beckoned, drawing her forth. It was so inviting! A bright, appealing color, a shape that so well suggested the proper response… who could resist such a thing?

No! She had to be strong! She had to defy her every do-what-you're-supposed-to instinct!

The 'walk' signal turned into the blinking 'stop' signal. Pyrrha was filled with the desperate urge to sprint across the road, before the light had a chance to fully change, before she was stuck in no-man's-land and…

Resist! Just a few more seconds!

The light went solid. A glaring, ominous color. It was forbidden to go now. Against the rules. Disgraceful. She didn't dare. It'd be wrong.

She gathered up every bit of her willpower and choked down her embarrassment. For Jaune.

She stepped into the crosswalk.

The first step was the hardest. But she stepped like a toddler might, and then again more confidently, and kept stepping, and—

Hooooooooooonk!

Without even thinking about it, Pyrrha raised her hands to use her semblance to stop the oncoming car. It hit the brakes on its own, though, even as the driver told her in no uncertain terms what he thought of her behavior.

She agreed. It was shameful. It was what a villain would do, though. And what would a villain think of someone honking their horn?

"I'm sorry!"

Not that.

It'd come out instinctively. It was certainly not what a villain would say. Unless… they were being ironic?

Pyrrha looked around. Several cars were mid-intersection now and honking lustily. She felt the nigh-unstoppable urge to apologize to them—and decided to make the most of it.

"I'm sorry!" she called as she reached out with her semblance and slung the front of the lead car sideways, making a barrier of it. "I'm sorry!" she called again, and tried to mold the phrase into a cackle, as she threw the back of the next car the opposite direction.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

By the last time she said the words, they'd become almost a crow. Cars all around the perimeter of the intersection were pointing different ways in a complex—but not impossible—jumble, even as all the drivers of those cars furiously worked their horns.

Pyrrha reviewed her handiwork with satisfaction.

Zero casualties? Check. Zero property damage? Check. Making a nuisance of herself in a very noticeable way? Check. Attracting the attention of "the HuntsMan"?

"Gasp! What fiendish villainy is this?"

Double check.

Pyrrha—er, the "Red Huntress", she corrected—turned to look at Ja… the HuntsMan. He looked truly outraged, as much as she could tell beneath the mask anyway. Her insides squirmed. This was going to backfire, this wasn't how it was supposed to go, this was just an act, she didn't mean to be bad, to do anything wrong…

Her mouth was open to blabber something along those lines when he spoke first. "What could you possibly hope to gain from this?"

"That's… a good question," said the Red Huntress. She'd heard people say their minds raced when under pressure, but her brain was not wired like that. It had turned to mush. No matter what demands she made of it, it produced not a single word or statement she could use. It was all goop and confusion and he was staring at her so hard which she wanted but also really didn't. "What… what do you think I gain from this?"

"I asked you first," said the HuntsMan.

"Uh… no backsies?" Pyrrha tried desperately.

The HuntsMan's eyes narrowed in concentration. "You've got me there. The thing is, I have no idea what you're thinking. The mind of a super-villain is a dark and strange place—oh, get over it, I'm saving you, aren't I?"

One of Vale's more impatient drivers had reached out their window to gesticulate vividly at the costumed traffic cones. Said driver did not appear convinced by the HuntsMan's argument.

Frowning, the Red Huntress gave the interloper's car a shake with her semblance, drawing all attention back to her. "Well, if you want to—uh—explore this dark and… no no no," she hastily corrected, fully aware that her mask did not cover her blushing cheeks. "I mean! If you wanted to know why! Why I'm doing this! You'll… have to wait and see what I do next!"

A police siren lit off behind the main jam of cars, and even with her mush-brain oozing out her ears Pyrrha knew she didn't want any actual law enforcement involved. "Red Huntress, away!" she yelled.

And she ran out of the intersection, following the crosswalks where possible.

"Don't think you can escape from me!"

She didn't want to escape, she wanted to be caught—this could be…

…disastrous!

If Jaune caught her while she was playing villain, that would ruin everything!

"She's getting away! Wonder Zwei, to the chase!"

"Arf!"

Pyrrha reached behind her blindly and pushed on whatever metal was on his person. She heard an 'oof' that confirmed he was sufficiently slowed, then sped up to make good her escape.

The HuntsMan's burning desire for justice had been turned (temporarily) to frustration and some skinned hands (which his aura patched up, but still.) There was no similar recovery for his dignity.

Thwarted! That she-witch!

Wait a minute…

Jaune Arc did not consider himself unobservant. He noticed things differently than his teammates, but he did notice them. And he'd noticed some particular details about the Red Huntress that he'd filed away in his mind for further consideration.

Those details dominated his thoughts as he, back in his mild-mannered alter ego, returned to Beacon. He was barely aware of boarding the shuttle up the cliffs. Someone saw him board and scurried away to another seat before he arrived, but they never entered his sight; they might as well have been a darkened silhouette.

"Arf!"

"Some help you were," Jaune muttered. Zwei whimpered and his ears dropped in shame. Jaune crumbled instantly. "Aww, I didn't mean it like that, little guy. The Red Huntress is a wily one, I never expected to catch her right away."

"Arf!" And just like that, Zwei was back to being a talisman of good vibes.

If only Jaune could shed his frustration so easily. How was he going to catch her? She was strong, smart, athletic, and she'd done something with her hand that had pushed him away.

Just like she'd pushed those cars around like they were nothing…

No way.

No.

Way.

"Zwei," said Jaune, swallowing heavily in a suddenly-dry throat, "I think I cracked it."

"Mrr?"

"The Red Huntress. She moves in mysterious ways, is always one step ahead, and can move things around with her mind, right?"

Zwei gave a curious whine, but there was no more room for doubt in Jaune's mind. The enormity of his discovery was crowding out every other thought.

"The Red Huntress… is Glynda Goodwitch."

In the seat behind Jaune, Pyrrha Nikos swallowed her scream.

Next time: Another night in a city that's good at keeping its secrets... but chooses not to because over-sharing is more fun. What dastardly deeds will Nora come up with for Pyrrha's edification? Will Jaune's suspicions about Glynda cost him his life- or at least his dignity? Will Zwei ever do anything? And did we honestly think we could make another spin-off without inviting Roman Torchwick? Find out in THVTRH:NON Episode Two: Lunches and Desserts!