Can I just say, the bathos present in writing a food fight as this ultra serious fight scene is delicious. I hope that the V2 animators had just as much fun making that as I did writing this.


Just outside of the Mess Hall Sun was regaling his team with the story of what he had been up to since had arrived in Vale. "So then the dude is looking for her and I drop a banana on his head, which sounds gross but was really cool at the time!"

"Nice," one of the boys with electric blue hair and a red jacket said with a nod. Even if Neptune had been angry with Sun he was certainly enjoying the story.

"And then more White Fang surround me and I fight them off, Velvet comes in with a kick like a rocket and knocks some guy right out! We fought the lead guy and I totally ended up saving Velvet from being crushed by a container."

"But he still got away didn't he?" Sage, the largest member of Team SSSN, asked. He most definitely was angry at Sun for ditching them, but the fact that Sun doing so led to him inadvertently stopping a major crime earned him just enough points for forgiveness. 'I just wish I could have been there.'

"Yeah he did, but I got a consolation prize of watching that annoying motherfucker of a Grimm get obliterated by a laser! I even helped get Summer out of the way just in time."

"Did you use a grappling hook?" Scarlet, the last member of Team SSSN, asked. Sun gave Scarlet a flat look and clasped his hands together.

"No Scarlet, I didn't use a grappling hook."

"Oh. Well, your way is a close second I guess."

"Shut up." Sun suddenly looked very panicked and jumped in front of his team, "I totally forgot, you can't tell anyone about that Grimm! It's supposed to be a secret!"

"Got it," Sage said while rolling his eyes.

"I'm serious about this! The headmaster of the school told me himself not to tell anyone. So don't say anything! Especially you Scarlet!"

"Why are you singling me out?" Scarlet asked.

"Dude, relax. We got it," Neptune said and nodded when Sun looked at him. "So, different topic, what are the second years like? You hung out with some of them yeah?"

"Oh yeah, Team CFVY and STRQ," Sun said and started to lead the way toward the front of the cafeteria, ignoring the yells and crashes coming from inside along with the food hitting the windows. "You guys will love them, second years are a whole world beyond us! Complete badasses every one of them!"

"Are the girls cute?" Neptune asked.

"And more than willing to kick your ass if you say the wrong thing to them. And stay away from Raven, I'm pretty sure she's killed someone for fun at least once."

"What is going on in there?" Scarlet asked being the only one on his team to notice the chaos inside the building. He jumped a little when an unfortunate blonde student got launched into the window, their eyes meeting as he slid down and out of view.

"Don't worry about that and focus on not making a bad impression," Sun said and waved for Scarlet to rejoin the group as they rounded a corner. "I'm pretty sure they actually like me and I don't want you to screw that up for me. So please be cool, ok?"

"Dude," Neptune said simply and crossed his arms. Sage posed next to him, leaning heavily on his left leg while his right was straightened out with his right arm mimicking it, and held his left hand in front of his face with his palm facing his face and his fingers spread out so he could peak through the gaps. Scarlet also posed, leaning against Neptune with his back to him and one of his feet hunched up and resting against his knee. His red pirate coat was nearly falling off his shoulders as he held his right hand up with a finger gun pointing up. All three of them then flashed a grin at Sun, their teeth sparkling just a little in the sunlight.

Sun stared at his team for a moment before he finally said, "At least I can count on you Neptune."

"Oh whatever," Sage said rolling his eyes again and he returned to a normal stance, "are we going to meet these second years now or what?"

"Didn't STRQ kill a Goliath without taking a hit?" Scarlet asked as they approached the cafeteria entrance, the crashes sounding a lot louder now, "I think I read that online somewhere."

"That's not true. They actually got hurt real bad in that fight and hate that rumor," Sun answered and turned to his team as they stopped next to the doors. "But as long as you don't bring stuff like that up they're real chill. It apparently takes a lot to rile them up."

Cue the doors bursting open as a stampede of students ran out in a panic. All of SSSN watched it until Sun reached into the crowd and pulled out a student with a mohawk. "What's going on?" Sun asked.

"STRQ and CFVY are fighting in there!" the student answered and wriggled out of Sun's grip and continued running, "Getting caught in their wrath once was enough for me!" Sun looked back at his team and they all ran into the cafeteria to watch the show. Inside they found most of the tables were askew and at the far end of the hall was what could only be described as a junk pile of vending machines and tables with Team CFVY and JNPR at various places on it.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" Nora shouted with a laugh, her words echoing easily in the hall.

"Those sunglasses cost 5000 Lien easily, and that's just the cheap version!" Coco shouted angrily and pointed down from her perch, "Now you're going to pay for the most expensive pair I can find STRQ!"

Summer responded from her table by stomping down on a tray and launching the food on it into the air. "Not a chance Coco, it was an accident! And JNPR, you fucking traitors, you better be ready to die on the hill that you chose!" Summer then caught a milk carton out of the air and crushed it as she shouted, "Because vengeance is coming, it will be painful and delicious!"

"Hell yeah!" Qrow agreed.

"Your dead meat Jaune!" Taiyang shouted.

"Why me!?" Jaune shouted back obviously terrified.

"Let's fuck them up!" Raven yelled, hefting a swordfish over her shoulder.

"Attack!" Coco ordered with a point forward. Jaune, Ren, Pyrrha, and Nora leapt off the mountain of junk and landed near a table of watermelons, the first three started chucking melons across the hall while Nora just flat out flipped the table launching the rest of them.

"Scatter and arm yourselves!" Summer shouted and Blinked away. Qrow followed after her while Taiyang and Raven charged to meet the fruit barrage. Taiyang made a quick detour to get some turkey gauntlets while Raven spun her swordfish in preparation for the fight. Once the melons were close enough she leapt into the air and started cutting apart melons with the fish, spraying juice over herself and the surrounding floor, and soon fell back to the floor. Taiyang covered her from getting hit with his new meaty weapons until he saw an opening and spun around to launch one of the turkeys straight at Jaune, who took it to the face and found himself sliding backwards into a vending machine.

"Jaune! Stop being useless and start collecting grapes!" Coco ordered as she jumped down to him.

"Huh?" Jaune asked and looked at Coco as she waved her bag at him.

"Grapes. Now."

"Y-yes ma'am!" Jaune nodded and started crawling along the floor while Coco returned her attention to the battle, particularly Fox and Pyrrha as they moved to intercept Taiyang and Raven.

They met in the middle of the hall, fist and turkey meeting lunch trays and fish meeting baguette. The fish dug into the bread, though Pyrrha shouldn't have been too shocked by that as she was, and Raven smirked as she made the push needed to cut Pyrrha's weapon in two and kicked Pyrrha away to help Taiyang with Fox.

Fox blocked a couple of Taiyang's punches before he noticed Raven's Aura was preparing for an attack and spun to deflect Raven's swordfish with one of his trays and launched the other at her to get some space. Taiyang threw another punch at Fox that was deflected by his remaining lunch tray before being grabbed with Fox's free hand. Taiyang soon found himself flipped off his feet and taking a kick to his stomach that launched back to the cafeteria's entrance.

Fox flipped out of the way of another slash from Raven and jumped onto a table when he felt two friendly Auras coming from behind. Raven saw them in her peripheral and easily deflected Ren's leeks with her fish and watched as Yatsuhashi jumped over Ren with his arms reared behind him. Raven twirled her fish and readied behind her before she swung it at him hoping to parry whatever attack Yatsuhashi could throw at her.

Instead she found her swordfish hit and dig itself halfway into a massive rack of ribs and get stuck there. Massive, unwieldy, dripping with barbeque sauce, it could hardly be called ribs as it were. Indeed it was rather a massive slab of meat. Raven narrowed her eyes at Yatsuhashi, who let out the smallest of smiles, and she angled her arms and let go of her weapon so the ribs crashed to the side and she jumped and kicked off of Yatsuhashi's chest onto a table.

As Raven ran to get a new weapon she passed by Velvet and Nora fighting Summer, who was keeping the other girls back with a pair of linked sausages she was wielding like whips. Velvet was keeping her distance and waiting for an opening wide enough for her to slip while Nora charged in at the first opening she saw. She reared back her makeshift hammer (a flagpole she had collected at the start with a watermelon on the end) and tried to bring it down on Summer only for a link of sausages to wrap around the pole and get yanked down far earlier than Nora had intended. The watermelon smashed into pieces onto the floor and the pole was yanked from Nora's hands before the other link wrapped around her neck.

Summer pulled back on the link sending Nora flying and threw the other one back to wrap around her ankles and, after doing a quick spin, threw the redhead back toward the vending machine pile before whipping a link at Velvet. The rabbit Faunus held an arm up and the sausages wrapped around her forearm before grabbing and yanking them out of Summer's grip. Velvet unwrapped the sausages from her arms and gave them a test crack before running at Summer and whipping the sausages at her. Summer did the same and the sausages met in the middle with a deafening *crack* and slipped away from each other before the girls ran past each other. They turned around and whipped the sausages again and the weapons clashed against each other over and over again, the girls attacking faster each time, until the links hit just right to wrap around each other and leaving Summer and Velvet holding one long chain of sausages.

Both of them grabbed the sausages and yanked on it, sending both of them flying toward the other. Summer blinked at Velvet, who managed to move out of the way of the kick in time, and both of them let go of the sausages as they flew past each other. Velvet watched Summer grab a handful of nachos and move to fight Fox before she saw a flash of gray taking the sausages and disappearing under a table.

That particular bit of oddity didn't get the best of Velvet for very long since almost immediately afterwards she heard Yatsuhashi yell and land on his back in front of her, his rack of ribs clattering out of his hand. "Yatsuhashi!" Velvet cried and rushed to her partner's side, kneeling down and taking in the multitude of corn dogs jammed into his uniform jacket with ketchup dripping down it. Yatsuhashi weakly held up a hand and Velvet took it in her own. "What happened?"

"Too… much… gluten," Yatsuhashi said weakly before he collapsed.

"No… Yatsuhashi…" Velvet let out and squeezed Yatsuhashi's hand. Naturally this sad moment was ruined by Maribelle crawling out from under a table and reaching toward Yatsuhashi. Velvet met the intruder's eyes for a moment before Maribelle pointed at a corn dog.

"You going to eat that?" she asked and Velvet shook her head. Maribelle took a corn dog, wiped up some of the ketchup from Yatsuhashi's jacket, and took a bite. "Thank you, you can go back to your weird drama now," was the last thing she said before vanishing back under the table.

"Velvet!" On hearing her name Velvet looked at Taiyang holding several corn dogs between his fingers while standing on a table. "This is how it always is isn't it? The two of us going against each other while the world burns around us."

"You…" Velvet growled out grabbing a fistful of Yatsuhashi's jacket, "You did this!"

"Well… duh," Taiyang waved some corn dogs around before throwing them at an approaching Ren. "Back off boy!"

"It's fine Ren, I can handle this," Velvet said standing up slowly and looking at Ren, "Fox could use your help more than me." Ren looked at her for a moment before nodding.

"Stay safe," Ren said and twirled one of his leeks before running to help Fox fight Raven. Velvet jumped and did a side flip onto the table and picked up a couple mushroom kebabs before she started to walk slowly toward Taiyang.

"Oh, you're approaching me?" Taiyang asked holding his corn dogs up to his face, "Even after what happened to Yatsuhashi you're approaching me?"

"It's because of that I am. I can't beat the crap out of you without getting closer!" Velvet shouted and flipped a kebab into a reverse hold.

"I'd like to see you try." Taiyang started walking to Velvet and a second later they ran and met in the middle of a table, corn dog meeting kebab, and pushed against each other as Summer Blinked next to them dodging soda can grenades. Summer managed to dodge two before she saw Pyrrha slam a hand on the ground and levitate several cans around her.

"Velvet, get down!" Nora shouted and Velvet looked back which gave Taiyang the opening he needed to kick Velvet away and follow up by throwing his corn dogs at her, most of which missed save for one that caught her in the shoulder. Velvet spun off the table and out of the way from the impact, giving Pyrrha a straight shot to throw her hand out to fire all the collected soda cans at Summer and Taiyang. Taiyang saw what was happening and jumped in front of Summer, shielding her from the majority of the sugary drink explosions while still knocking them both backwards. Summer slid along the ground with Taiyang on top of her until they hit an upturned table.

"Tai, are you ok?" Summer asked as Taiyang groaned and rubbed his forehead.

"Soda… is so hard to get out of clothing," he replied. They both heard Raven screaming and Taiyang looked up in time for his face to catch Raven's stomach.

"Ow," Raven said once she had settled on her teammates, "Fox hasn't been skipping leg day at all."

"Raven, get your butt out of my face!" Summer shouted and hit Raven's leg with a fist.

"Will all of you stop flirting!" Qrow said as he landed on a table next to his team, "we're in the middle of a fight!"

"And where the fuck have you been all this time!?" Raven shouted before Summer roughly shoved her off.

"I've been providing background support. I failed in that by the way."

"What?" Summer asked when something hit the table next to her head. A bit of juice landed on her face and she tasted it with her tongue and noticed Coco folding up her minigun into a handbag. She opened it so Jaune could dump a large plate of grapes into it, after which she closed it and turned it back into a minigun. Coco gave Summer an evil smile as she revved it up.

"Gatling grapes! Take cover!" Summer shouted and jumped behind the table as Coco opened fire. Raven and Taiyang were right behind her while Qrow made a dive to the table, catching just a tiny bit of the juicy barrage to his leg.

"Qrow!" Taiyang said as he and Raven pulled Qrow fully behind cover to get away from the grape barrage.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Qrow said as he massaged his calf and held up a hand covered in juice. "She's using red grapes too. Son of a bitch, she means business!"

"Then we've got enough wine without you adding more Qrow, stay focused!" Summer said and tried to peek around the table only to jerk her head back when a volley of grapes hit near her. "Damn, we're pinned down here!" Summer said looking at her team. "We need to think of a plan and… is that Maribelle?" Her teammates looked at where Maribelle was and watched her pick up a slice of barbeque chicken pizza, sniff it, and shrug before taking a bite. "The hell is she doing here?"

"Her team has been scrounging food this entire time, vultures of the battlefield," Qrow said shaking his head, "I'd be angry at them, but to be honest I'd be doing the same thing if I were in their place."

"Oh whatever!" Summer flinched as something hit their cover and a spray of orange soda flew over the table and covered her and Raven. "Damn, they're throwing soda again!"

"Don't suppose you got any ideas?" Raven asked and flinched at another soda explosion and opened her eyes to see a familiar black and green ball bounce past. "Oh there's my ball. I was wondering where that went."

"Wait what?" Summer asked and Raven pointed out the ball as it bounced against Maribelle's thigh and settled in a plate of spaghetti. A flash of inspiration hit Summer and she grinned widely. "That ball might just be the ace we need! We'll need MRGD to play ball though."

"They're neutral in this!" Taiyang protested, "they won't side with us against CFVY!" A barrage of grapes ran along the ground next to Qrow, causing him to jerk his hand back and shake it slightly.

"We don't have a choice, we have to at least try!" Summer laid across her teammates laps and stuck her fingers into her mouth to whistle and get Maribelle's attention. The sheep Faunus perked up and looked around before she saw Summer, who mimicked bouncing a ball with one hand and pointing at Maribelle with the other. She looked at the ball and picked it up, gently shaking the sauce off of it and holding it up for Summer to see. Summer nodded and gestured at herself just as another barrage of grapes hit the floor between the two.

Maribelle flinched at the fruity barrage and leveled a flat look at Summer. She then ate the rest of her pizza in one bite before rubbing her thumb and fingers together. "Make it worth my while."

'At least it's not a hard no,' Summer thought and rubbed her chin, 'but what could I offer her to get her on my side with no risk of her betraying me to Coco?' Summer looked around and found a prize worthy of Maribelle's undying loyalty, grabbed it, and held it up. Maribelle's eyes lit up and she started drooling at the sight of a whole turkey in pristine condition. Summer motioned between the two of them and Maribelle nodded vigorously before she looked around for where her team was situated.

"Let's see… Redd is risking CFVY's wrath to get some soda, Gale is pilfering vegetables like a weirdo, and Gray is still eating those sausages. If he can get to that flour… yeah, this could work." With a plan forming in her head, Maribelle rolled onto her back, braced her feet on the underside of the table she was hiding under, and started making a set of bird calls.

Her team wasn't the only one who heard it though. Coco halted her grape based salvo and held a hand up to halt fire on her side. "Did you all hear that? Was that a Mistralian Warbler?" Coco asked as she scanned the battlefield.

"It must be Maribelle," Fox called up from the bottom of the 'hill', "I felt several different Aura all around that wasn't us or STRQ. Now that I focus on it, it's probably MRGD scrounging."

"Scavengers. Whatever, as long as they don't cross me they can do what they want." Maribelle's bird calls quieted as Coco focused on the table STRQ was still hiding behind and shouted, "Summer, I've decided to be merciful in my victory! If you and your team come out quietly we'll end this peacefully. Nothing but fruity death awaits you otherwise!"

"NOW!" Maribelle shouted and kicked the underside of her table hard enough to launch it into the air. As it hung in the air Gale shot out from under another table and jumped up to the airborne table and landed feet first. The table shifted under her weight and she grabbed a donut out of the air along with three popsicles out of the air to shove into the donut. With her weapon ready Gale focused on Fox at the far end of the hall and pushed off the table, sending it flying backwards while she flew toward Fox.

Fox sensed Gale's Aura rapidly approaching and quickly held up a tray to block the attack, which he successfully did before the tray was ripped out of his grip and he caught a slash to his face on his eyes, nose, and mouth. He yelped in shock at the sudden cold on his skin and shot an arm out to grab Gale's wrist so he could spin her around once and throw her back out into the mess hall. She screamed in surprise the whole way until she landed in a pile of smashed watermelon, sending a spray of red juice and fruit into the air.

"Fox, you ok!?" Coco called down as Fox wiped the popsicle juice out of his eyes.

"It's green apple flavored!" Fox called back after tasting his wounds, "Why would she choose that flavor!?"

"Sons of- you would side with STRQ over us!? You'll pay for this!" Coco shouted and immediately caught a bag of flour to the face that had been launched her way. Nora saw that Gray had been the one who launched that attack and countered with a couple more soda grenades. He batted them out of the air with the sausage whip he had stolen earlier and, when he was safe from the orange flavored explosions, snapped the meat links around another bag of flour and whipped it at the 'hill' where it exploded into a large cloud.

With the opposition effectively blinded Redd saw her chance to escape back to the middle of the hall and saw her partner roll out from under a table and whistle at her pointing at a table. Redd nodded and quickly dropkicked the table so it was at a better angle for Maribelle to jump on. Redd looked down at her two prizes from her risky excursion and quietly lamented their sacrifice as she shook the soda cans before lobbing one under the table end Maribelle was at while dropping the other at her feet.

By this point Coco had wiped the flour from her eyes and resumed her grape barrage, just barely missing Redd as the soda exploded under her and sent her into the air. Gray saw Pyrrha reading a baguette like a javelin and whipped his sausages around one of the cafeteria's lights to swing up and successfully block his teammate from being hit by the bread when Pyrrha threw it. Redd silently thanked him as he fell into a pile of plates while she spun in the air and aimed for the opposite end of the table.

She landed just as the second soda she had exploded, turning the table into a makeshift catapult that launched Maribelle into the air over STRQ's hiding spot before she got cut down by Coco. Once she saw Summer she threw the bouncy ball down so it would land in Summer's lap and grinned when Taiyang threw the turkey up into her path. She grabbed it out of the air and hugged it tightly as she flipped and landed on a table, which was when she noticed Coco glaring and aiming her minigun at her.

"I regret nothing!" was the last thing Maribelle shouted before Coco opened fire and grapes started hitting her, her body jerking with every hit and staining her uniform and white hair, until she was finally thrown back off her feet into a punch bowl that upturned and dumped its contents all over her.

"That's what you get Maribelle!" Coco shouted just as a trail of white petals shot out from behind STRQ's table while Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow spread out. Coco focused on Summer, who met her gaze as she was rearing her arm back.

"Tai!" She shouted as she threw something. Coco dodged out of the way and saw the black and green ball that started this mess hit where she had been just a second before and bounced off the vending machine, off a table to a wall and toward Taiyang.

'Oh crap!' she thought as Taiyang braced a hand against a table and spun his body horizontally over the table so he could kick the ball back toward the hill with a callout to Raven. The ball flew back faster than before toward Jaune where it hit his groin before bouncing away leaving the blonde shrieking before rolling off the vending machine pile and onto the floor.

Raven reached her position in time to see the ball bounce off the wall toward her and lowered her stance before she put her hands together to volleyball check the ball upwards. The ball hit the ceiling, bounced off to the floor, and repeated several times until Raven saw her chance and dropkicked the ball toward Ren with a callout to Qrow, hitting the ground and rolling toward Summer when she was done.

Time slowed down for Ren and his eyes narrowed as the bouncy death rapidly approached him, though he was saved at the last second by Nora. She pushed him out of the way and punched the ball back toward Qrow, who had picked up a baguette and readied it like a baseball bat. He watched the bouncy ball and swung the bread to hit the ball back toward the hill faster, breaking the bread in half in the process. "Summer!" he shouted and looked at Summer, who was charging at Raven as she knelt and cupped her hands together.

Coco folded her gun back into her handbag and held it up to block the ball and hoped it would kill some of its momentum. No such luck as it flew again just as Summer was boosted into the air by Raven, spinning as she rose in the air with her cloak billowing behind her with rose petals flying off of her. Summer readied a kick and focused on the ball flying toward her.

"MOOOOONBAAAAALL!" She cried out just as she Blinked toward the ball and kicked it. For a brief moment Summer and the ball hung in the air fighting against each other and, to some of the onlookers, it looked like the color itself inverted around them before it was over. With a crack the ball shot toward Coco with Summer screaming as she flew in the opposite direction into Taiyang's arms and Coco could only look as her doom came to her.

"Oh son of a-" Coco started to say when the ball hit her in the face. That was only the start of the pain though as the ball bounced between everyone there, Coco to Fox to Pyrrha, sparring no one. During the bouncing the ball ricocheted into one of the vending machines and shot through it causing its contents to explode, which caused a chain reaction in the vending machines that caused more explosions of soda and sent the members of CFVY and JNPR into the air while still being hit by the bouncy ball to keep them suspended.

Soon the soda explosions ended with one massive carbonated explosion, sending the student Huntsmen flying along with anything that was too close and sending the bouncy ball back toward STRQ bouncing on both the ceiling and floor. Summer, having watched the chaos with her team, wriggled out of Taiyang's arms and walked to the still bouncing ball.

"Game: STRQ." she said before she swiped her hand at where the ball was bouncing and caught creating another small 'crack' and felt a stinging pain in her hand even with the Aura. She watched as her defeated opponents crashed to the ground and settled down, covered in soda and whatever foodstuffs they had landed in with the only exception being Fox having found himself hanging from one of the rafters. Summer looked back at her team as they all gave her thumbs up, Raven practically radiating sarcasm as she did so, and Summer grinned widely and fidgeted excitedly in place. "That was so fucking awesome!" she whispered at them, which got a couple eye rolls from her teammates.

"Bloody hell," Scarlet finally said after everything had settled, simply staring wide-eyed and ignoring the cherry pie dripping down his hair.

"I love these guys," Sun said happily having somehow managed to avoid getting a bit of food splattered on him.

"I can understand why," Sage said wiping a bit of jam off his face and flicking it to the floor, "That was cool to watch though." Neptune said nothing, covered in grape soda as he was, and glared at Sun as Yatsuhashi walked up next to him.

"Oh, hey Yats!" Sun said and nervously asked, "It's alright to call you that right?"

"I don't mind, but don't make it a habit," Yatsuhashi said and took a bit from one of the corndogs he had been incapacitated by. He motioned at Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune and swallowed his food before asking, "Are these your teammates?"

"Oh yeah, I'll introduce you to them later," Sun said and snagged a corndog from Yatsuhashi's jacket and took a bite. "You guys could probably use a rest after all of that fun."

"I'm just glad I wasn't in there," Yatsuhashi gestured to where his team and JNPR were laying as all of them started picking themselves off the ground.

The doors to the hall crashed open and a furious looking Glynda Goodwitch walked in, growling quietly when she saw Team STRQ once again in the middle of the latest mess. She stopped where the main mess started and started waving her crop around the room with the effects being almost immediate: tables shook and levitated back into the neat rows they had been in before, broken plates and glasses mended themselves and flew to their designated storage areas, spilled drink evaporated and all the food gathered up and were deposited into the numerous trash cans scattered throughout the hall. When all was said and done the cafeteria was back in its proper state and Team JNPR, Coco, and Velvet had been deposited at a nearby table still in something of a daze.

"Food is for eating, not playing," Glynda scolded and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she saw the ball in Summer's hands and, with another wave of her crop, pulled the ball out of Summer's grip and caught it in midair. "This is also confiscated."

None of the students dared say anything, simply standing there under Glynda's gaze, until Nora let out a large belch that echoed through the hall and Fox fell from the rafter onto the table which broke it in half. "Ow," was Fox's only reply as Glynda glared at the table she'd have to fix again and looked to the side as Redd, Gale, and Gray scurried to surround their fallen leader.

"Hey Mari, you ok?" Gale asked as she pulled out a couple of the feathers in her hair that had gone askew during the 'fight' while Redd and Gray looked her over.

"My body hurts," Maribelle answered quietly, "My uniform is ruined, my hair is sticky." Redd helped turn Maribelle around so she was sitting on the floor, where she grinned widely and held out the turkey for her team to see. "But the turkey is safe and sound!"

Redd and Gale stared at Maribelle for an uncomfortable couple of seconds until Gray started laughing and fell down and rolled onto his back, soon followed by Gale and Redd with Maribelle just chuckling to herself quietly. The laughter was infectious and soon JNPR joined in laughing, followed by Coco, Velvet, and Fox (him a little more uproariously than the others) and finally STRQ.

This was the sight that greeted Ozpin and Ironwood as they also entered the mess hall having followed Glynda when she got the report. Ozpin and Ironwood shared a look, the latter more than a little disapproving, and Ozpin shook his head as he walked past Team SSSN and a smiling Yatsuhashi toward Glynda and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Let it go," he said simply. Glynda looked back at him and went from 'furious' to her normal 'stern' as she looked back at the laughing students.

"They're supposed to be the defenders of the world," she said as she watched Yatsuhashi walk past her and STRQ to join his team.

"And they will be," Ozpin answered, taking his hand off Glynda's shoulder and looking around the hall, from Team MRGD breaking the turkey apart to eat to Yatsuhashi helping Fox out of the table and JNPR and STRQ simply enjoying themselves. "But right now they're just children, unknowing of their positions and simply enjoying themselves. Some never even had the chance to be children." Ozpin gently gestured at STRQ, with Summer clinging to Taiyang's arm while Raven and Qrow had their arms around each other's shoulders while they laughed. Glynda let the faintest hint of melancholy show as she looked back at Ozpin.

"Let them play the part," he continued and held his hand out to Glynda, who looked down at the bouncy ball and gave it to Ozpin. He gave it a couple bounces as he turned around and started to leave the cafeteria. "They won't be able to forever," he said to Glynda and looked at Ironwood, who nodded the slightest of nods in response. Ironwood watched Ozpin walk past him and looked at the students for a moment before sighing softly and moving to follow the Beacon Headmaster.

'I can debrief them tomorrow.'


"Now isn't this just the most beautiful thing Neo?" Roman asked while waving his cane around as he looked around the warehouse. Several White Fang soldiers were busy unloading equipment and Dust, at least the ones who weren't doing maintenance on the various Bullheads in the warehouse, and Roman was particularly proud of the many containers full of Dust that he had pinned his map of Vale onto. Neo herself was having fun being out of bed and fully recovered, which she showed by lying on the table Roman was working on kicking her feet in the air while Roman did his thing of gloating.

"It's amazing what enough hands, my brains, and your competency in keeping the mutts in line can accomplish, huh?" Roman asked, gesturing to the whole warehouse. Neo responded with a nod and then an eyeroll when Roman shooed her off the table so he could look over a couple of documents that the Fang took along with some Dust. "And with you back in action things should go even smoother! Now then, what should we hit next? Dust shops should be pretty dry by now, so why not a Huntsmen depot? Think you can do it?"

Neo shrugged her shoulders. It would be a good challenge, but she also wasn't too keen to go face to face with Huntsmen again after the last time. Her stomach still hurt at the thought. Neo glanced to her right and tapped on the table to get Roman's attention and pointed at the newest arrivals. 'Tweedledee and Tweedledumb.'

"Oh look at that, she sent the kids again!" Roman said, voice dripping with sarcasm, as he approached Emerald and Mercury and wrapped his arms around their shoulders. "It's just like after the divorce, right Neo?"

"Ugh, spare us the thought of you reproducing," Emerald said in disgust slapping Roman's arm away. As much as Neo enjoyed Roman's company, she definitely had to agree with Emerald on that and made a quick 'gag me' gesture. Roman took his arm off of Mercury and pushed between the two, his hand lightly brushing against Emerald's pants as he did so.

"Just a little joke on my part," Roman replied with a little humor and glanced at Neo, who mocked an innocent whistle, and held up a piece of paper he took from Emerald. "But this might just tell me where you two have been all day."

"What the-!?" Emerald checked her pockets frantically, "How did you-?"

"I'm a professional sweetheart," Roman answered as he turned around and leaned against the table, "so if you stick around a little bit, you might actually learn something." Neo made a finger gun gesture at Emerald, which did its job of annoying her, and looked at Roman as his face grew serious and he showed the paper to her. "Why do you have this address?"

'Address? What… oh,' Neo thought as she looked at the note and gave Emerald and Mercury the same dirty look as Roman.

"We were taking care of your mess," Emerald answered with a slight hint of smugness.

"I had that under control."

"Two packed bags and a ticket to Vacuo says otherwise," Mercury replied.

"Listen you punk," Roman said as he crumpled the note and approached Mercury, "I just about have half a mind to take you and your street rat friend out back and-!"

"You'll do what?" a voice, sleek and seductive, asked loudly and drew the attention of Roman, Neo, Emerald, and Mercury to the catwalk over the warehouse. There, leaning against the railing with a hand on her chin, was one Cinder Fall. She pushed off the railing and walked along the catwalk to a nearby lift, her glass heels clacking the whole way, and stepped on the lift to go down to the ground floor.

"Well…" Roman said carefully, "I… won't beat them to death?"

"Cinder, you're here!" Emerald said cheerfully, enough so that it made Neo gag for real. Cinder walked past Emerald and Mercury, deliberately ignoring Emerald opening her arms for a hug, and approached Roman before glancing Neo's way.

"You can go," she said waving her hand to shoo Neo away, "I need to talk to Roman for a moment." Neo glared at Cinder and was so close to grabbing her parasol when Roman put his cane in front of her and got her attention.

"It'll be alright," he said and pointed to an area past a shelf with his cane, "go get some fresh air. I'll come find you." Neo and Roman stared at each other for a moment, with him gesturing with his cane the whole time, until Neo slowly started to walk away past Cinder and her cronies. When Cinder turned back to Roman Neo flashed a reverse V-sign at Cinder as she vanished around a shelf, which certainly made Neo feel better.

Now with a bit more free time on her hands, Neo wondered what to do with it when she saw a White Fang soldier at the warehouse's entrance arguing with some girl. Figuring that would be worth watching Neo quickly camouflaged herself and made her way over.

"Look girl, I don't know what you're thinking coming here, but you better leave if you know what's good for you!" he said pointing behind the girl. Neo raised an eyebrow when she got a good look at the girl, mostly at the red cloak around her shoulders. She also didn't seem too fazed by the muscular Faunus threatening her if her bored expression and crossed arms meant anything.

"As I already told you, we know people here," the girl said calmly, "just go find Cinder and she'll vouch for us and we can-"

"I've never heard of this 'Cinder' and even if I did I wouldn't find her for you. Now get out!" He pointed behind the girl again and after a moment of the two silently staring at each other she sighed, turned around, and jerked a thumb at him.

"He's not listening to me Yang. Maybe he'll listen to you," she said and walked a few steps away to be replaced by who Neo assumed was 'Yang'.

'A blonde bombshell if there ever was one,' Neo thought as she looked Yang over as she stretched her arms over her head.

"Alright Ruby, I got this," Yang said as she stopped in front of the soldier and smiled at him, "so, how are you doing tonight? Seems lonely here."

"Look sweetheart," the soldier said, which caused Yang to drop the smile, "I don't care what you or the pipsqueak has to say, you're not getting-"

"Shut the fuck up." It took a lot to unnerve Neo, but Yang's words, tone, face, and the way she stood (even if it was just her standing there casually with her hands on her hips) just seemed to radiate malice. "I'm not as patient as my sister here, so I'm just going to give it to you straight. This talk will end in only one of two ways."

Yang started counting her fingers, "Either A: you let us through, we forget you exist, and we go about our merry ways, or B: you continue to bar our way and I kill you. Violently." Yang leaned forward and clasped her hands behind her. "So what's it gonna 'B'?"

"Tough talk, but I already gave my answer," the soldier said and pointed again, "Get out!"

"Strike one," Yang said as she straightened up and walked to the wall near the doorway, "better think real hard about what you want."

"You're not getting in, no matter what you-"

"Strike two." Yang grabbed a pipe on the wall and pulled it out as easily as a child would pick a flower, causing a clatter that caused the soldier to back up a step and drew the attention of a couple others. Yang patted the pipe against her hand a couple of times before glaring at the soldier with red eyes. "Last chance."

'This is where I would just let her through, but I doubt that he's that smart.' Neo was proven right when the soldier drew his handgun and held it up to Yang's face.

"No this is yours! Get back or get a hole in your-" he stopped when Yang grabbed the barrel of the gun and crushed it into scrap metal, her eyes now a very bright red.

"Strike three."

'Oh no, not good.' Neo started backing up as Yang grabbed the soldier and stabbed the pipe into his throat. He dropped his useless gun and started to grab at the pipe, trying to scream for help only to get a gurgle as blood poured out of his neck and mouth. And the way Yang grinned as she lifted him off the ground and watched him kick fruitlessly before pulling him further down the pipe was… disturbing to say the least.

'I don't think I have that much fun killing. Ok, maybe once, but it was a special occasion.' Regardless, Neo decided it was time to tell Roman about the new guests, especially since some of the White Fang were now scrambling for weapons. Neo broke the illusion on herself as she ran around the shelf back to where Roman and dodged around Cinder who was saying something about a 'phase 2' or something. By that point Neo didn't care what she was talking about and ran up to Roman.

"Whoa Neo, what's got you so spooked?" Roman asked when he saw Neo. He was answered when a loud metallic clang resounded through the warehouse, a bit of pipe shot through some sheet metal from where Neo had come from, and Cinder fell backward onto her butt with a scream of fear. "Oh what was that!?" Roman shouted and started to walk to the front when Neo stopped him and made a 'no way' gesture with her arms before frantically signing what she saw happened up front.

Cinder though, had a front row seat to what happened that Mercury and Emerald would soon see when they came around the corner to where Cinder was. They were taken aback as well when they saw the White Fang soldier pinned a couple of feet off the ground, struggling against the pipe in his neck as blood poured down his body from his neck, until he finally died with a very moist sounding rattle.

"Oh, that's nasty," Mercury said as he took the body in.

"Take this as a lesson!" Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury looked at the entrance and all three of them paled when they saw Yang walking into the warehouse, her fists clenched tightly to her sides and her hair alight. "When I say 'let me in' you LET ME THE FUCK IN!"

'What's she doing here!?' Cinder thought as her thoughts raced at a thousand miles a minute before coming to a dead stop when she heard several guns power up and looked at a squad of White Fang aiming submachine guns at Yang, who saw them at the same time as Cinder and started walking to them.

"Oh, you all want some too?" she asked loudly and cracked her knuckles, which caused the White Fang to back up slightly. "I'm more than happy to tear you all apart too!"

'Oh no. Nonononono!' Cinder looked between Yang and the squad and decided to diffuse the rapidly escalating situation. Thinking fast Cinder formed a fireball in her hand and threw it between the two sides where it exploded on the ground; it was more flash than bang, but it got the job done of stopping the fight from happening.

"Put your guns down now!" Cinder shouted as she got to her feet and stomped over to the White Fang soldiers. Only a few of them had ever seen Cinder before and only then they had seen the calm and collected schemer instead of this roaring fury that had them all petrified. The first soldier she got to had her gun slapped out of her hands before turning to the others. "Unless you want to get us all killed, drop your guns now!" she shouted and rolled her eyes over them all as they one by one dropped their weapons and backed away from both them and her.

"Oh come on, you're really backing down because of one woman!?" Yang shouted and pounded her fists together, causing her hair to flare up. "I'm warmed up and ready to spill some blood!" A hand landed on Yang's shoulder and she looked back at Ruby with a small smile on her face.

"That's enough Yang. I think they all got it," Ruby said casually. Yang blinked, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath to calm down. Her hair returned to normal and she opened her eyes so Ruby could see they were back to their 'normal' lilac.

"Right, I'm ok now," Yang said with a nod before she grinned and crossed her arms, "At least we're in right?"

"At least we're in," Ruby agreed and moved past Yang, her hand running down the bigger girl's arm as she did so, and led the way toward Cinder with any White Fang soldiers that were still around quickly went to find something else to do. "This is quite the surprise Cinder. I didn't expect to see you here, but honestly that saves us a lot of time. I take it things have been going well?"

"Why are you two here?" Cinder asked tensely.

"What, not even a hello for two of your favorite people in the world?" Yang asked with a shrug and a loaded smile.

"Answer the question," Cinder demanded again.

"I think it should be obvious why we're here," Ruby said lightly gesturing around the warehouse with her hands. "Since your group seems to be having problems cracking Vale, we were sent to get the job done if you can't. All of us." Cinder's face paled and she backed up a step.

"You don't mean.."

"Right now it's only the two of us, but all four of us are going to be helping with this," Yang explained while crossing her arms, "and we're not happy."

"What do you mean 'with a pipe'?" Roman asked as he rounded the shelf and saw the victim of Yang's wrath for the first time. "Oh, that's what you meant. Will someone clean that up!?"

"Oh look, the man of the hour graces us with his presence," Yang said loud enough to get Roman's attention and pointed at him. Roman looked at Yang, then the approaching Ruby, and finally at Neo with a quizzical look. Neo nodded and glanced at the girls cautiously, with Roman returning it and walking to meet the new arrival.

"You're Roman Torchwick?" Ruby asked with a smile that sent chills down Roman's spine.

"I am," he answered.

"Well it's nice to meet you at last. I'm Ruby and this is my sister Yang," Ruby gestured at Yang, who gave a two fingered salute, "I'm sure you've all about us from Cinder."

"I'm afraid not, but I can make some good guesses."

"Oh?" Ruby crossed her arms and tilted her head as Roman pointed at Cinder with his cane.

"Well… given how nervous she is, which only started when you got here, I can guess that you are to her what she is to me. Am I right?"

"Multiply that by twenty and you got it," Yang commented as she crossed her arms behind her head and smirked at the dirty look Cinder gave her.

"Right, and you pinned poor Larry to a wall back there," Roman pointed his cane at the dead White Fang soldier that some others were working to get down, "which pretty much says what you're capable of. In both cases, welcome to our little hideout! It's going to be an empty one soon, but until then you can make yourselves at home… Boss?"

"I like this guy already," Yang said pointing at Roman as she glanced at Cinder, "he's smart and knows his place. You know how to pick them, Cinder."

"I try," was all Cinder responded with.

"We'll see if 'smarts' will be enough to save him," Ruby said glancing back at Yang for a moment before looking back at Roman. "We have some concerns about what happened to Tukson."

"I had nothing to do with that," Roman said with a frown.

"Don't play dumb with me," Ruby dropped her arms to her sides, Yang doing the same behind her.

"To clarify, I was going to take care of him," Roman said holding up his hands and pointed at Emerald and Mercury, "but someone beat me to the punch. Any complaints about that should be directed to them." Ruby looked at the pair, who flinched under her gaze, and then at Cinder.

"Is this true?"

"…Yes," Cinder said with a nod, "they assassinated Tukson without my input. But I already-"

"Quiet," Ruby interrupted and looked back at Emerald and Mercury, slowly walking over to the pair with Yang. "Now what possessed you two to do that?"

"Well… you see…" Emerald stammered out while trying to find the right words for the situation.

"He was leaving for Vacuo," Mercury said with a roll of his eyes, "any day now from the looks of things. And didn't Bla-" Mercury stopped when Ruby shot a glare at him, her eyes turning black for a split second, "…Kuroshara say it would be a problem if he did leave? We were just cleaning up that mess."

"So your idea of 'cleaning up a mess' was to create an even bigger one by murdering him in broad daylight and then leaving the body in the middle of the store for any random child to find, which it was?" Ruby asked and rubbed her eyes with a sigh of exasperation, "You realize the point of being incognito is to not draw attention right?"

"What, you left him there!?" Cinder asked, her nervousness quickly replaced with anger.

"We made the store look closed," Mercury defended, "and the cops haven't found us."

"Give them time. Police are not morons and you didn't even lock the door!" Yang said, shaking her head and throwing her arms into the air. "I boggle at how you were the Black to walk away from that fight if this is your idea of a subtle assassination. Marcus wouldn't have made such a rookie mistake."

"What did you just say bitch!?"

"Mercury stop!" Emerald shouted holding Mercury back.

"Oh by all means, come at me!" Yang goaded with her eyes turning red, "see how well it ends for you."

"Enough!" Ruby shouted and glared at Yang to make her stand down. Once she was sure Yang wouldn't attack she looked at Roman pointedly. "I'm curious Roman, what exactly was your plan for dealing with Tukson. I'll just punish the one who has the worst plan."

"Right… well, my plan was pretty simple. I was going to sic Neo on him, since she did call dibs," Roman said with a shrug.

"What's a Neo?" Yang asked, which Roman responded to by pointing next to her. Yang looked over and jumped at the sight of the two-tone haired girl that had somehow managed to sneak up to her. "Oh god, I thought that was a dog or something!" Neo blinked a couple of times before she glared and started growling at Yang while bending her parasol to a dangerous degree. Yang blinked at that and grinned widely.

"Careful Neo, remember what she's capable of," Roman said. Neo and Yang stared at each other for a moment before Neo turned her nose up at Yang and stalked away from her.

"Aw what's the matter mutt? You don't want a biscuit?" Yang called and laughed at how Neo tripped over nothing and glared at her. 'She's going to be fun.'

"So you were the one who was going to take care of Tukson?" Ruby asked when Neo stopped next to Roman and she nodded. "Ok then, why don't you explain your plan to deal with him. Roman's life depends on it, so it had better have been a good one."

"Wait what!? I wasn't informed about-" Roman started shouting only to be hushed by Neo placing a finger on his lips. She then put her parasol away, cracked her fingers, and proceeded to explain her masterful plan to take care of Tukson. It was quite the work of art Neo admitted, using a method that Neo hardly ever used before and one that would ultimately not leave a trail back to Roman. The explanation took a couple of minutes and when she was done Neo clasped her hands behind her and smiled as she waited for the expected praise.

"Neo, while I very much appreciate your help and am in awe of your plan, I think you missed a very important part of the explanation." Neo quirked an eyebrow at Roman, who simply pointed at Ruby and Yang who were looking confused at her.

'Oh, right. Sign language.'

"So at what point did you think we understood any of that?" Yang asked and looked at Roman, "What's her deal?"

"Right… well, Neo is mute," Roman explained with Neo helpfully pointing at her mouth and shaking her head.

"Really? Why would-?"

"Because I don't need her to talk to do what she does best. I can translate so don't worry. Actually, what was that one word before poison? I don't think I've seen that one before." Neo rolled her eyes and took out her scroll to quickly type a word and showed it to Roman. "Oh, emetic. I probably could have inferred."

Neo put a way her scroll while Roman continued, "So the short version goes like this: Neo was going to let him leave." Ruby opened her mouth but closed it when Roman held up a finger. "Let me finish. Neo would have then followed him onboard the airship disguised as an attendant."

Neo activated her Semblance to show off the disguise she wasn't going to use, a blonde haired and green eyed attendant with a uniform she would have changed later to better fit in. Yang let out a low whistle at the sight and started rubbing her chin.

"Like so. She would then wait to give Tukson a drink and spike it with an emetic poison. He rushes to a bathroom and she drowns him there or stabs him to death, use your imagination on that one. Afterwards she exits the airship while it's airborne, maybe cause a distraction to better implement that, and once she's back on the ground she'd make her way back to Vale with everybody on the ship looking for a killer in the wrong place."

"That seems pretty broad for an assassination plan," Ruby said tilting her head, "Isn't that risky? What if she gets caught or something goes wrong?"

"She hasn't been caught before," Roman said with a shrug as Neo broke her illusion, "and broad plans like that are usually better for last minute adjustments. Assassination is a dirty business after all." Ruby and Yang stared at him for a moment, which unnerved Roman quite a bit, until Ruby nodded.

"Whether it would have worked or not is a moot point, at the very least she was trying to be stealthy." Ruby then looked at Emerald and Mercury and said, "No points for guessing who I think has the better plan."

"Look what should matter is that the job got done, not how," Mercury said.

"Oh, so it's ok to just murder people in the street and have cops and Huntsmen crawling over our operations," Yang said with as much sarcasm as her body could muster, "Good to know."

"You two seem to have forgotten exactly where we are," Ruby said as she spread her arms out and spun in a quick circle. "This entire city is enemy territory along with everyone in it. I'd go so far as to say even Roman over there is an enemy who'd sell us all out in a heartbeat if he could."

"She'd be right if I wasn't scared to death of all of you" Roman said looking over to where Larry had just gotten pulled off the wall.

"And yet, despite all of that, there's you two who seem to be going out of your way to make things more difficult for us. The police will be looking for Tukson's killer and I wouldn't be surprised if you two didn't bother to cover your hands. Do you even care what would happen to you all if Ozpin finds out about you all?"

"I-" Emerald started to say.

"Now I'd be alright along with Yang, and it'd be troublesome and time consuming to replace Cinder but it can be done." Ruby started walking to Emerald and Mercury with her eyes turning black as she got closer with Yang slowly circling around them. Mercury backed out of her way and bumped into Yang who grabbed his shoulders. Ruby soon stopped next to Emerald and looked up at her, managing to hide her enjoyment of the woman's fear. "You two though… are completely expendable."

"Ruby, there's no need to punish anyone," Cinder said walking over to Ruby, "I've already made sure that-"

"Yang, if she talks again shut her up."

"Got it," Yang said glancing at Cinder with a toothy grin.

"Look we were just trying to help," Emerald said as Ruby crossed her arms and looked around the warehouse, "and Cinder already scolded us." Ruby looked back at Emerald just as rose petals started flying around her until she was completely obscured from view. They then disappeared and Emerald found herself facing Ruby in her true form, looking oddly calm and ignoring the surprised gasps from those who haven't seen her like this before.

"We… already said it won't happen again," Emerald finished and felt her body refusing to move at all as Ruby moved closer to her and put her hands on her shoulders.

"No, it won't," Ruby said and wrapped her hands around Emerald's neck to strangle her. Instinctually Emerald grabbed at the Grimm's hands to pry them off only to find the grip too strong and was pushed onto her back with Ruby on top of her with a gradually tightening grip.

"Em!" Mercury shouted and tried to run forward only for Yang to grab his arm and wrench it into an uncomfortable position outward, forcing him to kneel from the pressure on his elbow threatening to snap it backwards.

"Calm down, you'll get your turn in a second. Just watch for now," Yang said as she gripped Mercury's wrist harder and put more pressure on his elbow. Mercury groaned from the pain but managed to keep an eye open to watch Emerald struggle to push and kick Ruby off of her. Her movements were getting less pronounced as the seconds ticked by and her wheeze's grew gradually quieter.

"Ruby stop!" Cinder shouted and ran to Ruby, shooting a glance at Roman who simply shook his head with wide eyes, and stopped next to her. Cinder grabbed Ruby's head and tried to get her to look at her, but the Grimm was as solid as a rock and focused only on Emerald who was starting to tear up. "I understand you're upset, but we need them for the plan! If you kill her, we'd be set back too-"

"Get replacements," Ruby replied coldly and tightened her grip, grinning just a little as Emerald's struggles became less pronounced, "Roman's dog should suffice I'd say."

"It's not the same and you know it!" Cinder let go and started furiously scratching at her head to think of something. 'I've never had to talk her down from killing before! Dammit, I can only think of one thing that might work!' After taking a breath Cinder shouted, "It's my fault they did what they did!"

Ruby glanced at Cinder, which was a good sign so she continued. "I don't know how they got that address, but I'm sure if I had been paying more attention to them they wouldn't have done anything. So if you're going to punish someone then punish me!" Ruby raised an eyebrow and Cinder was sure she heard Yang chuckle behind her. "I'll take responsibility for what they did, just stop-"

Ruby slackened her grip enough for Emerald to breathe, which she did deeply and raspily. She then found herself getting pulled up by her neck and looking into Ruby's eyes. "Cinder just bought your lives back," she said, running the thumb of her Grimm arm along Emerald's neck, "so be thankful for that. Don't put me in this situation again, because this was a one-time thing."

Ruby let go of Emerald and got off her to leave her coughing and breathing heavily on the ground. Yang let go of Mercury and left him massaging his arm to walk next to a shocked Cinder and put her arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry Cinder, we'll be gentle with you. You are important after all," Yang said and started leading Cinder away, the latter giving Emerald a threatening glare that she hoped gave the thousands of messages she wanted to give. Yang gave a low whistle when she saw a lineup of vehicles and whispered, "I like the looks of those motorcycles."

"Roman," Ruby said and turned to Roman, who jumped at attention, "My sister and I will be staying in Vale for the foreseeable future as Huntresses. We'll need weapons to better fit in, so I hope you can provide us with such. Can you?"

"Uh, sure," Roman answered with a nod and swept a hand around the warehouse, "I got weapon parts lying around all over, so have at it. If you need anything else just ask and I'll get it for you."

"Good, and anything Cinder told you still stands." Ruby turned and followed Yang and Cinder with the last thing Roman heard from her being a small chuckle when she saw the pipe still embedded in the wall.

"Creepy," Roman commented as Ruby disappeared around the wall and looked at the nearby Bullhead and some White Fang milling around near it. "What are you all looking at! We gotta move this stuff now, so get on it!" The soldiers jumped at Roman's voice and sprang to work while he started walking back to his map with Neo. After a few steps Neo tugged on his sleeve and tilted her head at him when he looked. "You just help me move this stuff for now. We also have that recruitment thing to go to once we get those 'special presents.' It's going to be a long week for us."

Neo nodded and went to see to her tasks while Roman went back to his planning table, leaving Emerald and Mercury on the floor to quietly shake off their quick brush with death.