Hunters of Justice (RWBY/DC)
Chapter 36: Fables Among Us, Part 1
November 27th, 11:00 A.M. (Eastern Standard Time)
Metropolis, New York, United States of America
Contrary to what many people assumed about her, Ruby had always been an avid reader. She had grown up on fairy tales, after all, and she had always sought to read as many of them as possible. One of many good things to come out of her arrival to Earth was her newfound access to tons of new stories to explore. She was particularly fond of Red Riding Hood, finding it surprisingly easy to slot herself into the role. Of course, she wouldn't be tricked by the Big Bad Wolf or have to be saved by the Huntsman. Ruby was a Huntress, so she'd save herself.
Of course, this train of thought was only tangentially related to what prompted it, namely the fact that she and the rest of her team were currently engaged in a fight inside of one of Metropolis' many public libraries, specifically against a monster literally made out of books and bookshelves.
"I told you! Books are evil!" Yang shouted as she dodged underneath one of the monster's bulky arms. The blow cracked the tile upon impact, and several of the books that made up the hand were thrown about, but the monster didn't care. Instead, it reared the arm back and swiped the other at Yang, throwing her through several bookshelves.
"Ow…" she groaned as she picked herself back up, only for the monster to stomp over and lift one of his massive feet over her body, fully intending to crush her underfoot.
Before it could do anything, however, a black ribbon was wrapped around the leg, pinned to it by the blade of Gambol Shroud. Holding the line taut, Blake pulled with all her might, throwing the book monster off balance and forcing it to step back and flail its arms around in an effort to grab onto something and break its fall. Unfortunately for it, there was nothing to grab and so it fell onto its back with a loud thud. Propping itself up on its elbows, its face was exposed, revealing a white mask with a single red eye in the center.
"Quick, kill the Geist!" Weiss shouted, forming several glyphs that kept the Grimm pinned to the ground.
Ruby, resting Crescent Rose on an upstairs balcony, leveled her rifle and aimed at the center of the mask, then fired a single shot. At the last second, the Libra Gigas snapped off half of its left arm from where the glyph held it and swiveled the remaining half up to shield its weak spot. The high caliber bullet still punched through the layers of leather, paper, and wood, but it was obstructed just enough. Rather than kill it, the blow merely cracked the mask and knocked it back down, slamming its back onto the ground and shattering the remains of wooden tables into thousands of tiny splinters.
"Darn it!" Ruby spat, reloading her weapon just as the Geist broke free of Weiss' binds, shattering the glyphs holding it down. The remains of its left arm were discarded in the process, forming a large pile of books that clattered to the ground, but the Geist immediately stretched out the skeletal image of its real arm to attach a bookshelf in its place.
Using the shelf as a battering ram, it charged towards Weiss who attempted to stop it with a massive wall of ice. Unfortunately, the freeze gas construct merely shattered upon impact and the shelf slammed into her chest. She was picked up and slammed into several of the shelves behind her, each falling over like dominos until Weiss was finally pinned against a wall, cracking it slightly.
"Gagh!" she grunted in pain, kicking and punching the shelf in an attempt to pry herself free. Unfortunately for her, Myrtenaster was thrown from her grip when the Gigas attacked her, and so she was unable to use it to her advantage.
Then the Grimm reared up its right fist in order to pummel her, making her cease her attempts at escape. Luckily for the Ivory Mage, she didn't need her weapon to channel her Semblance, and so formed a glyph in front of her just as the fist shot towards her. The limb was repelled while the glyph shattered like glass, and the Grimm growled angrily. Instead of feeling fear as the Grimm reared its hand back again, she merely glared defiantly towards its eye. Then, just before it threw another punch, a red blur slammed into the elbow, slicing right through it and causing half the arm to fall harmlessly onto the floor, revealing Ruby standing between them with Crescent Rose unfurled into its scythe configuration. At the same time, Yang slammed into the bookshelf pinning her to the wall like a flaming rocket, shattering the wooden structure completely.
The Gigas' body rumbled in frustration, stepping back as team RWBY surrounded it. Blake, running up behind the monster, tossed Weiss back her weapon before wrapping both of the Geist's legs with Gambol Shroud's ribbon. At the same time, Weiss formed a pair of glyphs that kept the Geist rooted in place, allowing Yang to jump onto the Geist's body and grip her fingers underneath its mask.
"Alright, you creep! Let's see what you really look like!" Yang exclaimed, pulling at the mask with all her strength.
The Grimm thrashed about, trying to protect itself, but it was no use as Yang slowly pulled the Geist free of its assembled body. A thick black body with no legs and long arms was revealed, and once the Grimm was finally free and thrown into the air above them, the body it had constructed out of books, tables, and shelves fell apart. Yang let out a startled yelp as she fell into the pile, quickly becoming buried while the Geist tried to flee, the only sound it made being a faint, ghostly whisper. Ruby didn't let it, however, and fired a single shot from Crescent Rose into its mask. The round shot clean through this time, hitting the previous crack and boring a hole that went straight through the head and out the other side. As the Geist went limp and fell out of the air, it disintegrated completely just before it hit the ground.
"Whew," Ruby muttered, collapsing her weapon and storing it on her back. "Glad that's over with."
"I'm just happy no one was hurt," Weiss pointed out as she and Blake dug Yang out from underneath her pile of books. A few moments later, they saw her mop of blonde hair, and they pulled the Golden Dragon free.
"Thanks," Yang said, wiping the dust off her body then placing her hands on her hips. "You know, I think this was the most excitement I've ever had in a library."
"I don't think 'excitement' is the right word to use here," Blake pointed out with a soft frown, holding up a book to her face sadly. She almost looked like she was about to cry as she beheld the devastation, and as she sighed regretfully, Ruby walked over and patted her back.
"There, there, Nightshade. There, there," Ruby soothed her teammate. At the same time, she looked over the devastation and frowned as well.
Today had been one of their off-days from work, which came at an opportune time. Grimm activity had been picking up all over the world, forcing the Justice League and the Titans to put them down. For the past hour, team RWBY had been chasing after a Geist that was spotted in the sewers, which eventually led them into the library where they finally managed to put it down. At the same time, team JNPR had been sent out of Metropolis to assist somebody named 'Danny Street' after a pack of Beowolves was reported near Springfield, Ohio. At the time, Weiss had wondered who'd name their kid 'Danny Street,' but they had to deal with the problem, regardless.
If Ruby was right, right about now was when JNPR should have arrived, and she wondered how things were going for them.
Team JNPR checked their scroll's GPS, trying to determine if they were in the correct place. For whatever reason, Danny Street had given them coordinates rather than a street address, and when they arrived they had found a single street lined with buildings on both sides in the middle of a field. The street itself had a sign that read 'Danny Street,' which confused them to no end.
"I…guess we're in the right place?" Pyrrha remarked, scratching her head.
"We must be," Jaune replied, collapsing his scroll and placing it into a pouch on his hip. "Come on, let's find Danny and figure out what to do next."
"Sounds good to me!" Nora exclaimed, pounding her fist into her palm. "Ooh, I can't wait to bash in the head of a Beowolf again. It's felt like forever since I've done that!"
"We've fought other things," Ren pointed out, but Nora shook her head.
"Well yeah, duh, but nothing like Grimm! Come on, Lotus, even you have to admit it's exciting."
"It has been quite some time since we've actually fought Grimm," Pyrrha agreed as they continued their walk into the strange street.
They couldn't help but look at the scenery around them, as it had a nice welcoming look to it. Danny Street was colorful and vibrant, seemingly ripped straight out of a 1950s catalog, and dozens of nicely dressed people from all walks of life were happily walking around, chatting among themselves and simply having a good time.
"Hey there, cuties," a boy roughly their age remarked as he walked by, giving Jaune and Ren an appreciative smile. A few others, both boys and girls, were doing the same from the sidewalks around them, and team JNPR couldn't help but look around at all the attention they were getting.
"What friendly people," Pyrrha finally said, giving a smile and placing her hands on her hips. Jaune, meanwhile, gestured to the boy who had compliment them and waved him over, who happily walked back and gave the White Knight his complete attention.
"I'm sorry, but I'm looking for somebody named Danny Street," Jaune explained. "Do you know where I can find him?"
"Oh, you're looking for Danny?" the boy asked. When Jaune nodded, the boy gently pounded his fist into his upward-raised palm. "Ah, you're the guys he was talking about. Here to take care of our little infestation problem."
"That's us," Ren added. "If you can point us in Danny's direction, we can eliminate the Grimm before anyone gets hurt."
"Of course, of course," the boy replied, then waved his hand. "Don't worry, Danny will come to you guys shortly. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves! We here in Danny Street just want people to be happy and accepted, so take a load off and relax."
He gave another smile towards Jaune and Ren then winked before walking away. Both Huntsmen watched him go, feeling flattered at the gesture if nothing else, with Jaune checking to make sure his full helmet was still on as they turned around to face their partners again. Nora was now holding a large ice cream sundae in her hands, eating out of it with a spoon while even Pyrrha was licking a cone of chocolate ice cream. Behind them, a man was pushing away an ice cream cart, telling the boys where they had gotten their frozen treats.
"Oh, guys! You need to try this!" Nora insisted, holding her sundae out to Ren who polite declined.
"Maybe later. Right now we need to find Danny," Ren insisted.
Jaune was about to agree, but he saw the sign over the cinema begin to shift and morph. The words, which were previously announcing times to see a selection of movies Jaune didn't recognize, changed before his very eyes. When they finished, it spelled out 'Welcome, friends!'
"Wha?" Jaune muttered as the other signs around them began to change as well. Nothing remained constant, from the stop signs on both ends to the signs in front of the various shops, all saying the same message. To complete the ensemble, a pile of leaves were picked up by the wind and carried over, which spelled out the welcoming message for all of JNPR to see.
The four teenage superheroes stared at the message incredulously, then Ren sighed and rubbed between his eyes.
"I can't believe I'm saying this…" he muttered, then looked at the floating words and asked, "Are you…Danny Street?"
In response to his question, the words shifted and spelled out, "Danny the Street, actually. So happy to have you with us!"
Team JNPR stared at the message, unsure of how best to respond, then Nora smiled and waved.
"Hi, Danny!"
"Reaper, are you going to help clean this up?" Weiss asked as she and the rest of RWBY sorted the pile of books scattered around the library.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry," Ruby replied, breaking out of her idle musing and walking over to her teammates.
It was going to take quite some time to clean all this up, but luckily their concern was mostly getting rid of the rubble such as bits of stone, nails, and shards of wood that could accidentally hurt someone. Plus, Metropolis did have a dedicated department designed to clean up after metahuman activities, so they'd make sure to put everything back where it belonged.
"Huh, this is a weird looking book," Yang called out, holding a thick tome wrapped in brown leather. She read the title aloud, "Book of Fables. Must be a collection of fairy tales on Earth."
"Oh, that's interesting," Ruby admitted. "Where'd you find it?"
"Near where the Geist's head was," Yang explained as she wiped off a large amount of dust from its surface. "Geez, this thing is old. How long has it just been sitting here?"
"Who knows, now put it back," Weiss insisted, piling books onto a neat stack. "We're not here to check out books."
"Fine, fine," Yang said, rolling her eyes. Hefting the book up to her chest, which was surprisingly heavy, she walked over to an intact table and placed it on top. Despite knowing that she was supposed to get back to work, a feeling of curiosity took hold of her. Staring at the ancient tome, she couldn't help but feel reminded of the stories she used to tell Ruby when she was kid, and a nostalgic smile broke out across her face.
"Hey, Reaper? Remember when I used to read you this kind of stuff before bed?" Yang called out, and Ruby nodded.
"Yeah, that was nice," she admitted, bringing her hand to her cheek. Weiss, meanwhile, groaned, while Blake simply gave the girls a flat stare. Seeing that Ruby was fidgeting in place, clearly wanting to look at the book more closely, the faunus finally gave in and sighed.
"Go ahead," she said, and Ruby disappeared in a burst of red rose petals to join her sister at the table.
Yang couldn't help but laugh at her sister's childlike excitement, and as she began to open the book, she stated, "Well, I guess one quick peek won't hurt."
No sooner had the words left her mouth and the book was fully opened, when an intense magical light shone out of it, temporarily blinding both girls and forcing them to avert their eyes. They fell to the ground with a yelp of pain, rubbing their eyes in an attempt to regain their sight while Blake and Weiss stopped what they were doing and shot upward.
"What the heck?!" Weiss shouted, pulling out Myrtenaster towards the now floating book, whose pages were rapidly flipping.
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. That book's magic!" Blake exclaimed.
"Yeah, I freaking noticed!" Yang shouted, finally regaining her eyesight and stumbling back to her team. She was blinking rapidly as a faint pool of tears welled up behind her eyelids.
"What's a magical book of fairy tales doing inside a Metropolis library?!" Ruby demanded to know, holding out Crescent Rose, blinking just as much as Yang.
Finally, the book's pages stopped flipping and rested on a page containing a portrait of a regal woman with pale white skin, a black heart-shaped mark underneath her left eye, and wearing a golden set of armor that was topped with a purple frill and red gloves that went up to her elbows. A golden crown rested atop her head, but they were unable to see any more as the light shined brighter than before, forcing all of the Huntresses to avert their gazes. When the light died down, they heard the book fall onto the table with a thud, and to their surprise, they saw the woman standing in the middle of the library, her back turned to them.
"Finally, after countless generations I am freed," the woman murmured, bringing her fist upward in victory.
"Um, lady? Who are you and are you okay?" Ruby asked, but the woman ignored her and her team as she walked off after spotting an inactive TV on the wall.
"Magic mirror! Show me the state of the world so that I may understand my new domain!" she ordered with a thrust of her hand towards the device, almost as though she was expecting it to turn on because she demanded it to.
"Magic mirror?" Blake asked herself, not understanding what was going on at all.
"I'm more concerned about 'new domain,'" Yang pointed out, chambering a shell into Ember Celica. That finally seemed to catch the woman's attention, and she turned around to look at all four Huntresses. To their surprise, the woman's eyes widened seemingly in recognition, then she scowled in furious rage.
"You…" she growled, staring at Weiss with utter contempt.
"Me? I didn't do anything to you, whoever-you-are," Weiss replied. Before she could say anything else, however, the woman laughed.
"Haha, you honestly expect me to believe that innocent act, Snow White?" the woman asked. "Please, I know far better than that, and I recognize the one who sealed me away all those years ago."
"What did you just call me?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't play dumb with me," the woman shot back angrily, pointing at her and the rest of team RWBY. "I must admit, though, you did choose some colorful company this time, Snow White. But Red Riding Hood, Beauty, and Goldilocks will not be enough to protect you from me."
"I don't know who or what you are talking about," Weiss replied, confused more than anything, then she raised her eyebrows. "Wait, are you saying I'm the Snow White? As in the fairy tale character?"
"Does that mean I'm Red Riding Hood?" Ruby wondered aloud.
"Probably," Yang replied with a shrug, figuring she herself was Goldilocks to the crazy lady, then turned to Blake. "That must mean you're Beauty."
"Yay," Blake dryly intoned. She didn't know what, exactly, was going on, but this woman was clearly trapped in the book for too long and now thought of her and her friends as the actual fairy tale characters.
"Look, ma'am," Blake said, placing Gambol Shroud back into its holster and walking forward with her hands raised placatingly, "you're delirious. I don't know how long you've been trapped in that book, but none of us are who you say we are. Those are characters from fairy tales, and they aren't real."
The woman was silent at first, and RWBY thought that they might have been able to break through to her somehow. Then she began to laugh manically, and shadows around the library began to stretch.
"Oh, that isn't good," Yang muttered as the woman began to float upward, and an intense wind picked up out of nowhere.
"You think you can play dumb with me, get me to lower my guard," the woman said, her eyes glowing white with magical power. "But that isn't going to work. I let you defy me once, Snow White, and I won't let you do that again."
"For the love of— I am not Snow White!" Weiss shouted, now fully identifying the woman as a threat. But before she and her teammates could do anything, thick thorny vines shot out and wrapped around all four Huntresses.
"But fine, let's play your little game," the woman said, dark magical orbs enveloping her hands. "You four seem to have forgotten your pasts. Let me rectify that for you. Consider it a gift from your Queen!"
Before any of them could say anything, the vines pulled back, dragging all of RWBY into the book which shut behind them, sealing the Huntresses inside. The Queen stared at the book, then began to laugh maniacally as the thorns spread around the library and beyond.
"AAGH!" Ruby screamed and flailed her arms around, trying to grab something to stop her fall. Everything had happened so fast. One moment, she was in a partially destroyed library. The next, she and her friends were pulled into a book and now she was falling through the air into a deep, dark wood. She didn't even have time to unfurl her glider cape before she started crashing into the trees.
Like a human pinball, she crashed through and bounced off tree branches all the way down. Each impact made her grunt in pain, but luckily her Aura took the brunt of the blows. Finally, she landed on the grassy ground, and for a moment she laid there in pain before the broken remains of the branches and leaves fell around her. Ruby covered her face with her arms to shield herself from the debris, and when it was over she cautiously sat up and looked around.
"Hello? Weiss? Blake? Yang?" Ruby called out, standing up and reaching for Crescent Rose. To her shock, however, she couldn't find it. Instead, she only found a basket, and she incredulously opened it to reveal that it was filled with various treats and jars of food.
She grabbed one of the jars, which was filled with a red jam, and stared at it with wide eyes. A heavy silence fell over her, broken only by the sound of buzzing insects and chirping birds. She then took a moment to check over the rest of her outfit, and she found that she was no longer wearing her superhero costume. While she was still wearing a red cape and hood, now she was wearing a white medieval-style dress. In fact, all of her outfit looked like something out of the medieval era, and the texture was rough and scratchy as though it was made of wool.
"What the…? Where am I? What's going on?" she muttered, turning around to get a better look at her surroundings.
As far as she could tell, she was in the middle of a vast forest. Nearby was a dirt trail, leading deeper into the forest in both directions. The immediate thicket on both sides of the trail was bright and inviting, but further in quickly turned dark and foreboding. There was a strange, saturated texture to everything, almost as though her environment was now one of those oil paintings Weiss bought to decorate their apartment.
"Am…am I in the storybook?" Ruby slowly whispered. Then, with a start, she thought back to what that 'Queen' had said about them forgetting their pasts, and she realized, "Oh no. I'm Red Riding Hood right now, aren't I?"
No one answered her other than the birds, and with a sigh she gripped the handle of her basket with both arms, picked a direction, and started walking.
"Ugh, I hope everyone else is alright."
More than anything else, Weiss was annoyed as she thought over the chain of events she had experienced once that crazy woman trapped her and, she presumed, the rest of team RWBY inside the Book of Fables. First, she found herself inside a massive castle, Myrtenaster nowhere to be seen, and now wearing a fine blue and white dress more suited for a medieval princess than a Huntress-turned-superhero. For whatever reason, she now had a step-mother, who Weiss knew was one of the wicked kinds just by taking one look at her, and then she was led out into the woods by a literal huntsman. It didn't take a genius to know that the man was told to kill her, so when he raised his knife she immediately put her recent training sessions with Yang to work by punching him repeatedly in the face and knocked him out.
"Okay, Weiss. Let's go over the facts," she told herself, walking back and forth in front of the laid out unconscious body of the huntsman. "You were in the library. Yang and Ruby opened a book which turned out to be magical and housed a sorceress who called herself a queen. Said Queen was crazy and called you Snow White, then pulled you and your friends into the book."
The huntsman groaned, and Weiss paused her pacing to deliver a sharp kick to his head, then went back to ruminating over her predicament. She thought over the scenario she found herself in, and after taking a moment to collect her thoughts, finally remembered that old Disney movie Ruby, Kori, and M'gann made her watch back in Jump City. The revelation caused the former heiress to groan.
"Oh my God, she made me Snow White," she groaned, pinching her nose and shaking her head. "Well, that's just perfect…"
With a resigned sigh, Weiss decided to move on deeper into the forest. While normally she would have gladly gone back to the castle to defeat that wicked stepmother, from the quick glimpse she got, the woman looked eerily like the Queen who had trapped them in the first place. Obviously that meant she was a powerful sorceress, and Weiss wasn't confident in her ability to take her out one-on-one without both her weapon and her teammates. No, right now her priority was finding the rest of team RWBY, and if she was lucky, they wouldn't be too far.
After what seemed like hours of walking, and with the sun about to set, she found herself in front of a quaint little cottage. It was nestled next to a gentle stream, a short stone bridge allowing for easy traversal. A dirt trail went out from the front door towards a nearby mountain, where she spotted the entrance to a mine. Wondering what to do, and recognizing the house as the home of the seven dwarves, Weiss tapped her chin as she shifted her attention between the forest surrounding them, the cottage, and the mine.
"Hmm, if these people are the dwarves, they'll probably be willing to help me. If nothing else, they might have a map in there so I can look for the others without wandering around randomly. A quick peek shouldn't hurt," she said to herself then nodded.
Making her decision, she walked up to the house and politely knocked on the door. When no one answered, she knocked again, only this time the door slowly swiveled open. Weiss peeked her head in, gently calling out for anyone inside, but none answered. Figuring that the homeowners must be inside the mine, Weiss tentatively stepped into the cottage and closed the door. At once she was bombarded by the sight of a completely unkempt household, one she normally wouldn't dare find herself in unless she absolutely had to.
"Ugh, these people are slobs. How do they find anything?" she asked herself as she began searching for any signs of a map.
Unfortunately for the Ivory Mage, everything was so disorganized that it was almost impossible to find anything. It didn't take long before she threw her hands into the air, giving up this fruitless pursuit to instead leave the cottage behind. But, when she tried to open the door, she found it mysteriously locked, and despite her best efforts, the wooden door wouldn't move.
"Oh, come on!" Weiss shouted, gripping the doorknob with both hands and bracing herself against the doorframe with her leg as she pulled with all her might. She strained her body as much as she could, but it was no use. The door would not budge, and now she was trapped inside a filthy cottage.
"Ugh!" Weiss groaned, gripping her hair tightly as she stomped over to the nearest bed.
She sat down onto it, crossing her arms across her chest and huffing in a childlike pout. Wondering what to do, Weiss hunched over, trying her best to ignore the mess around her until she began hearing a group of people walking towards the cottage. They were chatting loudly among themselves, and their voices grew louder and more distinct as they neared the door. Weiss could make out seven unique voices in total, and they opened the door without issue and stepped inside their home. At first, they didn't notice Weiss' presence, but soon they did and stopped what they were doing to stare at her with wide eyes.
Weiss, meanwhile, was doing the same. Not because she was staring at seven dwarves, but because the dwarves themselves strangely looked almost exactly like her family's butler, Klein Sieben. Each one was wearing a slightly different outfit, and the eyes were different colors, but the face was exactly as she remembered it. It was an almost uncanny resemblance, and Weiss felt her eyelid twitch before deciding to simply assume the Queen must have magically looked through her mind and selected Klein to be the seven dwarves for some reason.
Letting out a groan and rubbing her closed eyes, Weiss began to say, "Okay, look. Before we do anything, let me make this perfectly clear. I am not a burglar, your house is absolutely disgusting, and I am not Snow White. Got it?"
"Okay, Princess Snow White!" all seven dwarves replied in unison, prompting Weiss to slap her forehead in frustration.
Blake found herself sitting at the end of a long dining room table, which itself was dark and illuminated only by flickering candlelight. It was nighttime outside, with the moon nowhere to be seen. In front of her were numerous servings of lavish food, all being served to her by sapient pieces of furniture. Unlike the animated movie that Ruby made them watch, these servants did not have human faces on them and were quite silent.
"If you guys start singing, I am leaving," she declared, refusing to even touch the admittedly nice looking food in front of her. On the opposite end of the table sat the titular Beast, the master of the castle whose body was shrouded in shadow. All that she could make out was a pair of horns coming out of his head, but otherwise she couldn't recognize anything else, despite her night vision.
"Won't you please eat? I had this made just for you," the Beast offered, but Blake merely frowned.
"I'm not hungry," she declared, not even bothering to touch her utensils, causing the Beast to visibly frown.
Blake frankly did not care if her rough attitude was displeasing the Beast. Especially with how she found herself in this castle to begin with, being forced to take the place of her father lest he be held prisoner. Her actual father, whom the Beast had apparently been about to kill for the theft of a rose. Part of her knew it was fictional, but the rest of her simply couldn't bear to see her father suffer like that. It left her in a vulnerable position, one that she was currently searching for a way to get out of. She didn't know how long she had been in this castle, only that the Beast had repeatedly attempted to win her over with fancy gifts, lavish food, and other material comforts. She didn't want any of it, however, and so resolved to be as defiant as possible until she could find a way to escape.
"You know, you could afford to show a little gratitude," the Beast insisted with a low growl, but Blake was unmoved by his rough demeanor.
"When you've earned it, I will," she replied, staring the Beast down and daring him to do anything else. In response, his growl grew louder and more animalistic, and to her slight worry, the shadows of the room expanded.
Yang found herself in the middle of a vast wilderness, standing before a house. She was utterly alone, wearing a child's outfit instead of her costume, and with Ember Celica missing along with the rest of her team.
"Okay, so where the heck am I?" she asked herself, scratching her head. She looked at the house again, then shook her head. "No way am I going in there."
Deciding to try her luck in the forest, Yang walked off. As she entered the forest again, however, she felt a deep chill that caused her to stop and shiver. Rubbing her arms, she looked around her to see that the forest, which had looked bright and lively when she was near the house, was now dark, filled with knotted and dead trees that stretched on endlessly. Raising an eyebrow, she stepped back towards the cottage, and to her surprise the dead forest shifted back to a picturesque scene once she entered the small clearing that the house was residing in.
"Oh, I see," Yang growled, looking around and throwing her arms wide. "You want me to go into that house, right? Well forget it! No one tells Yang Xiao Long what to do, especially a crazy Queen who thinks I'm freaking Goldilocks!"
Readjusting her outfit, Yang stormed off into the forest, ignoring the sudden and dark shift as she left the house behind.
Ruby felt as though she had been walking for hours along this trail. Although she knew she and the others were in terrible danger, which she was admittedly growing somewhat numb towards due to how often it seemed to happen to them lately, at the moment she was completely and utterly bored out of her mind. Idly chewing on some of the snacks inside her basket, Ruby continued looking around for any sign of her team, but thus far continued to find none.
"I know I always said I wished the world was more like a fairy tale," she muttered, taking another bite out of a piece of chocolate fudge she had found, "but this is a bit much."
As before, no one answered, and Ruby sighed in resignation. Then, off to the side, she heard the snapping of a twig, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Ruby knew right then and there that she was being watched, a feeling that was heightened when she heard more snaps and cracks as something moved towards her. Placing the basket onto the ground, Ruby purposefully turned her back towards the sound, clenching her fists and slightly lowering her knees while she gently loosened the knots that held her hood tight. It was then that she saw a massive lupine shadow appear over her, and as it raised its claw, Ruby acted.
"Hi-yah!" she shouted, throwing her hood behind her back to cover her attacker's head. As she spun around, she saw a massive humanoid wolf flailing, trying to claw the red hood off of its face. Not wanting to give it a chance to recover, Ruby sped over in a burst of rose petals, delivering a powerful knee to its gut that sent it onto its back. Immediately, Ruby jumped on top of the wolf and began throwing punch after punch into its snout.
Then, to her surprise, the grunts of animalistic pain turned into actual words.
"Ow, ow! Kid, stop it! I'm not trying to-OW!" the wolf shouted with a deep voice, using its massive arms to shield its face. "Seriously, I'm not trying to hurt you!"
"Oh, please!" Ruby replied, continuing her assault. "Like I'm going to believe that! I've read Red Riding Hood, and I know for a fact you're the Big Bad Wolf!"
"Yes, but I'm trying to help you!" the wolf shot back as he pushed her off of him with his powerful hind legs. It was surprisingly gentle, only throwing Ruby away slightly and making her land on her back with a soft grunt. She quickly kipped up to her feet, putting herself into a lowered stance with her fists raised while the wolf threw the still intact hood off of him. He stared at her for a moment, rubbing his jaw in obvious discomfort.
"Geez, anyone ever tell you that you can throw a mean right hook?" he said, ignoring her muttered, "No, you're the first…" as he stretched out his jaw one final time before standing fully upright. He towered over Ruby, easily seven feet tall at the very least, but made no moves to advance towards her. Ruby, still scowling, prepared to attack once again, but this time the wolf raised its paws and backed up.
"Kid, trust me. I am not your enemy here, okay?" he insisted, but Ruby merely narrowed her gaze in pure disbelief.
"Prove it," she insisted. "You said it yourself, you're the Big Bad Wolf. The bad guy in this fairy tale."
"Which both of us are trapped in," the Big Bad Wolf revealed, bringing his paw to his chest.
"What do you mean, 'both?'" Ruby asked, raising an eyebrow. In response, the Big Bad Wolf nodded.
"The Queen of Fables trapped me in here, too. From the looks of it, just after you," the Wolf revealed.
"The Queen of Fables?"
"The woman that was sealed in this book for centuries," the Wolf explained with an angry snarl. "The woman you and your friends unleashed back onto the world. Do you have any idea what you have just done? You didn't just unseal an ancient witch or evil queen. You unleashed the Evil Queen, the living embodiment of evil in folklore!"
"Don't yell at me, I thought it was just an old book of fairy tales!" Ruby shouted back. "And even if I believe what you're saying is true, which right now I don't, who leaves such a super important book just laying around in a public library, huh?"
"The book was stolen from Fabletown decades ago, and we've been trying to find the damn thing ever since," the Wolf immediately replied. "When the Queen of Fables was freed, we detected it and I was sent to apprehend her before she causes more havoc. Unfortunately, I didn't last very long and was trapped inside the book."
"…Fabletown?" Ruby asked, giving the Big Bad Wolf an incredulous look.
"It's where nearly every fairy tale character lives," the Wolf answered. "I'm its sheriff, actually, hence why I was sent."
Ruby was silent for a moment, then she slowly started to recite, "Let me get this straight. The person that me and my friends accidentally unleashed, this Queen of Fables, is every evil queen from every single fairy tale rolled into one?"
"Started off as Snow White's, but yes," the Wolf replied.
"Alright. Next, you are the Big Bad Wolf, but you're not a bad guy. In fact, you're a good guy who's the sheriff of Fabletown, where all the other fairy tale characters live their lives in the real world," Ruby droned. When the Big Bad Wolf nodded, Ruby gave him a half-lidded stare, then said, "Yeah, I'mma start punching again."
As soon as she stepped forward, the Big Bad Wolf raised his arms protectively and said, "No, wait! I can prove it!"
"You have five seconds," Ruby declared.
The Wolf looked at her for a moment, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then, to her surprise, she saw his body begin to shift. His muscles lost their mass, and most of his body hair receded back. Even his snout shrunk back into a human visage, and when the transformation was complete, she was no longer staring at a werewolf. Instead, she was staring at a hairy, muscular, and very-much naked man.
Quickly averting her gaze and feeling an embarrassed blush come over her, Ruby shielded her eyes with her hand. The Big Bad Wolf, meanwhile, grunted in pain while kneeling on the ground, saying, "I don't know how long I can keep this form in here."
"Okay, okay! Just put some clothes on, please!" Ruby insisted. She heard the Wolf grunt in response, then the popping and pulling of his muscles and bones as he returned to his previous form. Once again they stared at each other, Ruby still apprehensive but the Wolf merely passive.
"Alright," Ruby began, "say I believe you. How do we stop the Queen of Fables?"
"That's the thing, you can't," the Wolf answered. Before Ruby could say anything, the Wolf raised his paw and cut her off. "Let me finish. You and I can't defeat her, not in a straight up fight. She's too powerful for that. But, here's the thing about taking personifications of fiction and bringing them to life. They don't work off of the same logic you and I follow. No, they follow story logic."
"What do you mean, story logic?" Ruby asked, thoroughly confused.
"Story structure. Beginning, middle, end. Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, you get the idea," the Wolf explained. "You can't defeat the villain until the end of the story, and right now we're still in the introductory phase. The only way we are going to get to the end of the story—"
"Is by going through it," Ruby finished, her eyes widening. "You're saying we need to complete the stories we're in, that way we can escape and finally take her down."
"Precisely," the Wolf said with a nod. "It also doesn't hurt that the Queen of Fables, like most Evil Queens, Wicked Stepmothers, and Witches, tends to be the root cause of her own defeat, usually by her vanity and hubris. We take advantage of that, move this story along to the climax, and she'll go down. If anyone tries to take her down before then, it's not going to work."
"I think I understand," Ruby admitted, still slightly confused but managing to follow along. "But, wait. What happens if we don't follow the stories and go off the beaten path?"
"In here? Nothing good," the Wolf grimly answered. "She not only wants us to go through these stories, she demands it, and in this book her will is absolute. If you or your friends try to not follow the story, the world isn't going to appreciate that and will try to force them to follow along, whether they like it or not."
Ruby thought of her friends, and she quickly determined that none of them would be following along with those story beats, whether due to ignorance or simply lack of desire. Gripping her fist, she then looked up at the Big Bad Wolf and said, "But we're not those characters, and most of the folk tales didn't end very well for them. In the original story, you ate Red Riding Hood, and I don't know about you but I don't want to be eaten today."
"I don't blame you," the wolf replied, "but those are the rules. Luckily, there are so many iterations of these stories that you don't have to follow them along step-by-step. So long as the general plot remains the same, we'll be fine. That gives us a lot of leeway."
"Yeah, I guess it does," Ruby muttered, nodding slowly while bringing her fingers to her chin. After a moment, she perked up and had an idea.
"You know, if I remember correctly, in some versions Red Riding Hood was saved by a hunter, not a woodsman," Ruby pointed out. When the Big Bad Wolf nodded, Ruby smiled and pointed to herself. "Luckily, it just so happens that I was trained as a Huntress back home, which is like a hunter, but better!"
The Wolf looked at her for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "I suppose that counts. Well then, I'll let you work out the details on how we get out of this mess. In the meantime, I'm gonna go eat grandma."
Ruby frowned, "Do you have to eat grandma?"
"Outside of you, me, and your friends, no one else here is real," the Wolf replied, waving her off as he turned his back towards the forest. "Besides, I'm starving."
"Eating people isn't nice, even if they're fictional."
"I'm the Big Bad Wolf. Sue me."
"That reminds me. If you and I are going to be working together for this, I can't keep calling you the Big Bad Wolf. Is there anything else I can call you?"
The wolf turned towards Ruby and nodded. "Call me Bigby. Bigby Wolf."
With that, Bigby Wolf turned back around and stalked off into the forest. As he did, his body shifted again from an upright werewolf to simply a massive quadruped, and he darted off into the forest out of sight. Ruby watched him go, then nodded to herself, picked her basket and hood back up, and continued down the trail. She kept up a brisk pace, making sure not to waste too much time, all the while formulating a plan for both herself and her friends.
At the same time, she wondered once again how JNPR was doing. Hopefully, their mission was proving to be much calmer, and more normal, than their own.
Ren stood in front of a massive chessboard built into an empty lot. He hummed while rubbing his chin, trying to see everything from all angles. After a few moments, he pushed one of his white pieces to a spot he felt was best, then stepped back to end his turn. A few moments later, a black piece was pushed forward by specially raised bricks on the ground, taking away one of his pawns and leaving his king trapped.
"Checkmate," Danny the Street revealed, the words spelt on the side of a building next to them via a mural.
"…That's a good move," he muttered to himself. Walking around the board again, he tried to see if there was any way he could get out of this mess, but to his dismay, there was not. He sighed, then said, "Good game, Danny."
"You too, Lotus!" Danny replied. Ren nodded, then walked away back towards his team, who was circled around Jaune as he looked over his scroll's GPS.
"Okay, so you said the Doom Patrol disappeared around here?" Jaune asked, pointing to a spot on the map.
"That's correct," Danny replied on a nearby sign. Jaune nodded, then went back to mapping out their route.
The discussion reminded Ren of something they had learned once they arrived. Apparently, they were not the first group of superheroes that Danny the Street had asked for help. They had at first brought in a group of superheroes called the Doom Patrol, only for them to lose contact about a day ago. That meant their mission had grown just a bit more complicated. Now, they not only had to eliminate the Grimm but also stage a rescue operation at the same time. Unfortunately, the Grimm were last spotted where the Doom Patrol disappeared, meaning that they were most likely killed and eaten. There was still a possibility that they were still alive, however, which Danny was holding out hope for. If only for their sake, JNPR decided to keep up that hope as well.
"It shouldn't take us too long to get there by foot," Pyrrha pointed out. "An hour or two, at most."
"Then we better not waste any time," Jaune insisted, standing up from his chair. He then turned towards the nearest sign and said, "Thanks, Danny. Don't worry, we'll get your friends back and kill those Grimm for you."
"Much appreciated," Danny replied. "Those things…they're just wrong in so many ways. I live off people's happiness, but those Grimm radiate violence and negativity like there's no tomorrow. The sooner you guys can get rid of them, the better."
"You can count on us!" Nora declared, giving the sapient street a salute. Jaune and the rest of JNPR nodded as well, then they turned around and walked out of Danny Street towards the Doom Patrol's last known location.
It was then that Nora noticed that Ren had a slight frown on his face, and with a knowing smirk, she asked, "You're upset you lost that game, aren't you?"
Ren didn't respond, but Nora knew she had her answer and she laughed.
By the time Ruby found her fictional grandma's house, she had formulated a plan of attack. It was a simple plan, but one that she was able to spin into a timeless tale starring herself. Bigby should be able to follow along fairly easily, and after tucking away a small hatchet she found embedded into a stack of firewood outside the house, she entered the building.
"What is good in the hood?" Ruby joyfully announced herself, opening the door with a strong kick that nearly tore it off its hinges.
"…Really? That's what you're starting with?" Bigby remarked, laying on the bed dressed in an old lady's nightgown, complete with reading glasses. When Ruby shot him an annoyed look, he rolled his eyes and played along.
"Hello, darling. So good to see you again," Bigby called out in his worst attempt at emulating a woman's voice. "And you brought me sweets, how delightful. Shame it took you so long to get here."
"Yeah, well, you wouldn't let us put you in a home, so…" Ruby waved her hand in a circle, then held up the basket. "Still, thanks for the birthday cards! We really loved those."
"So happy you did," Bigby sarcastically replied, then added a curt, "Hey, come closer. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be."
"Okay!" Ruby cheerfully said, then skipped her way towards the bed. Stopped next to Bigby, she dramatically gasped and declared, "Gee Grandma, what big eyes you have!"
"Wow, what an insensitive thing to say to your loved ones," Bigby replied, clearly wanting to get this over with.
"And what big ears you have!"
"You know I'm really self-conscious about them. Thanks for bringing it up."
"And Grandma, what big teeth you have!" Ruby dramatically finished, and Bigby rolled his eyes and got out of bed.
"Okay, you're just a rude little brat," he remarked. "I'm gonna kill you."
With his arms raised upward as though he was about to attack, Ruby gasped dramatically and yelled, "You're not my Grandma! You're the Big Bad Wolf!"
"Yes, it is I, brat," Bigby confirmed. "Now, there is no one here to save you, much like your dear grandmother."
At that moment, a nearby closet door swung open, depositing a pile of clean human bones across the floor. Ruby and Bigby stared at it for a moment, then the wolf shrugged while Ruby fell to her knees and cried.
"No, Grandma! You were too young to die, despite what most people would think, seeing as you were a grandmother! No!" Ruby wailed, and Bigby raised his eyebrow.
"Overdramatic, much?" he muttered under his breath, then he saw Ruby reach under her hood to pull out a hatchet.
"You won't get away with this, wolf! I won't let you!" Ruby insisted, pointing a finger towards him. "For I, Ruby Rose, am a trained Huntress with a deadly mechanical scythe!"
"What scythe? That's an axe, not a—" Bigby's words were cut off as the tool glowed, then grew larger and formed a massive scythe that easily overshadowed the girl herself.
"Yes, it worked!" Ruby joyfully exclaimed, then embedded the blade of the weapon into the wooden floor as Bigby cautiously backed up.
"Uh, that's a prop, right?" he asked. Ruby answered by chambering a round, and the Big Bad Wolf realized it most certainly wasn't.
"Back off, wolfy!" Ruby declared, then fired a rubber bullet into Bigby's chest. The round itself did nothing other than sting, but he played along and threw himself out the window.
"Hurk! Bleaghh," he gasped out as he 'died,' and laid there on the forest floor while Ruby dramatically stood over him. Neither of them moved, Ruby glancing around to see if anything changed.
"Oh, come on!" she groaned, hanging her head. "I thought you said that by ending the story we could leave!"
"We should, just give it a—"
Once again, Bigby was cut off as a wooden door rose out of the ground. It had an iron frame encasing it, with the door itself having an intricate, royal design that was capped off with four apples in the corners. In the center was a large mirror, showing Ruby and Bigby in full detail. To Ruby's surprise, she was now wearing her superhero costume, while Bigby was a fully clothed man. They looked at each other, sighing in relief that their story was done, then turned their attention back towards the doorway.
"So, any guesses as to where this will lead us?" Bigby asked, his tone making it clear that he already knew the answer.
"Yeah. This will take us into Snow White. To Weiss," Ruby answered, steeling her gaze and clenching her fist tightly. Bigby nodded, then moved forward to open the door. On the other side was a piercing white light, and like a gentleman Bigby held out his arm to allow Ruby to go first. She nodded, then took a step forward.
As she passed through the threshold, Bigby took one final look at the story they were leaving and saw that it was now losing its color and luster. The world was fading, and with a frown he stepped into the light, closing the door behind him.
[~][~]
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the latest chapter of Hunters of Justice! Special thanks to Jesse K and NaanContributor for their help in bringing this chapter to life.
The Queen of Fables is in town, but luckily for our heroes, Bigby Wolf from the DC/Vertigo comicbook Fables, as well as the game based off of it, A Wolf Among Us, is here to lend a hand. I know that one of your guys' biggest questions, common with a lot of these types of stories, was "will you reference RWBY's fairy tale inspirations in some way?" Now you have your answer: yes, yes I will.
Now, for the Q&A:
Viest-97: I actually already did DCeased as part of last year's Halloween special. I just said that I won't be doing Apokolips War as that is too dark for my tastes.
R3WY: Kingdom Come was already done, actually, as was DCeased. For The Dark Knight Returns and Injustice, you will have to wait and see if I do anything on that front.
Raven Myren: It's been happening in the background, really. No chapter has had the League entirely focus on taking on the Grimm, but that is about to change as you can see.
Gues (1): It was a bit of a reference to that, but also a reference to another Chibi chapter where Superman came into contact with a shard of red kryptonite, turning him into a wolfman. Mxy was the one who placed that kryptonite there in the first place.
RandomName3064: The 4th Wall does not exist for Mxy, and yeah it was great to have Ruby be the one to save the day while Nora had her best birthday ever.
Crossovernaru: Yeah, Nora vs Livewire was a matchup we were wanting to do for quite some time now. It was only ever going to end one way, let's be honest, and us having Blake and Superman have that discussion was also something we had been wanting to do for a while. Out of everyone in RWBY, Blake can understand where Superman is coming from the most and I wanted to emphasize that. But yeah, the real star of the show was Mxy. Him and all the shenanigans he gets up to are always a blast. You are correct that the people he was referring to were Oz and Salem. Let whatever he did to them fill your imaginations.
Batthan the Dark Knight: Yeah, it was a very 'Ruby' thing for her to do, which is why I had her do it.
Drake G. Reaper: Just to clarify, although this story's continuity is based heavily off of the DCAU, this story is not a crossover with the DCAU. It's its own unique continuity that allows me nearly unlimited creative freedom. This story isn't set before the CADMUS arc as that was a DCAU thing, not necessarily one I intend to use for my story.
Jinero: No, I'm basing it off of his appearance in the Batman: Arkham games.
Sora with an S: That was unintentional, actually. While I did read Connecting the Dots years ago, I based that explanation off of Superman's origin story in the comics where that happened. At least the more modern interpretations of it.
chidoriprime: Yes, yes it is.
bowser3000000: Probably not.
nobodyknowsimarwbyfan: I love DBZA, so throwing in a few references here and there when it fits is something I enjoy doing.
gordhanx: Yeah, last chapter was a bit of a breather. So is this one, but a different type of breather. I fully intended last chapter to just be a good time.
edinosaur25: He's trying to work up the nerve.
Jackalope89: He's coming, don't worry. Glad you liked the chapter, though, and yeah the opening bit was inspired by that comic.
Alank2: Never underestimate the Red Reaper. Just because you see her eating cookies does not mean she isn't plotting your demise. She made Crescent Rose, after all. And yeah, Mxy did only see this as a game and nothing more. There's no real maliciousness on his part. To him, we're just really interesting ants.
SulliMike23: Remember, space is big, so while he is coming, it is going to be a while.
NexusPrime42: Yes, and also a reference to last year's Halloween special.
That's it for this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy and let us know what you think!