Chapter 16

"Sooooo…" Ruby paused, trying to think of what to say, it wasn't going too well. "Uhhh. How are you guys?"

"Oh! We're alright I guess." Jaune said nervously, while he scratched the back of his head.

"Oh good. That's good!" Ruby replied with a nervous laugh and also started fidgeting nervously. Weiss and Yang facepalmed, Ren sighed, Nora struggled to keep her laughter in check and Pyrrha smiled politely.

Adam was rolling his eyes, not that they could see it of course. "Alright, enough of the awkward talk. We have a mission to plan."

Ruby jumped. "Oh right! Operation Rally Raid!" Adam could have sworn her saw Weiss' eyes twitch in annoyance. "So I don't know what Adam told you guys but in a couple of weeks the White Fang are holding a rally that we are going to raid!"

JNPR nodded along. "So what's the plan then?" Jaune asked.

"Ah… well, the plan is… uhhh… we haven't gotten that far yet!" Ruby admitted.

"Outside of getting inside the rally, we don't have much. As the only Faunus, it's up to me to get in, but that would leave the others standing around outside not doing much other than watching for trouble. I thought we could add you four into the brainstorming, maybe you'll think of something we can't." Adam interrupted before it got awkward again.

"Alright. What are we trying to do with all of this? What's our goal?" Pyrrha asked.

"We need to find out what the White Fang are planning and stop it! As well as getting whatever information we can from them!" Ruby said with a smile.

"We need information on the White Fang? Are there any other ways of finding what we need?" Ren asked with a ponderous look on his face.

"I could contact the SDC and request any data they have on the White Fang's attacks. They probably won't have much seeing as that information would mostly be in the hands of law enforcement. But, my father has his hands in more places than he'd admit, so there might be something." Weiss offered.

"I do know of a guy who might be able to help. He knows a lot of stuff. Or he's supposed to…" Yang said, an annoyed look crossing her face at the last part.

"I could ask a few of my old sponsors? They might know about anything strange going on in Mistral." Pyrrha fiddled with her fingers as she spoke. "It's a bit of a stretch though."

"I could call dad! He might be able to help. Oh and Uncle Qrow! They're both Huntsmen so they should know something!" Ruby added.

"Sounds like we have a few options." Adam said with a nod. "I would say we should split into teams and get it done quicker."

"Oh yeah! For teams… well me, Pyrrha and Weiss all need to go talk to people so we could go to the CCT tower for that!" Ruby said.

"Pyrrha, Weiss and I." Weiss muttered.

"Uh so then someone can go with Yang to talk to some weird guy and the rest hang out to cover Adam if anything goes wrong! How does that sound?" Ruby said.

"Wait, we want to do it all on the same day?" Jaune asked.

"Well, yea! Why not?"

"We have two weeks! We could do it all before then and then everyone could be waiting outside the rally."

"Do you think everyone here could sit silently and out of sight for several hours?" Adam asked.

"Well I… I guess not."

"Then everyone being there will likely alert the White Fang and get me found out. It's already going to be hard enough sneaking in without having to worry about you all outside."

"He's correct on that." Weiss interrupted. "We have some… loud people here." She looked at Yang and Nora. Yang whistled innocently while Nora waved. "We also have school to think about. We can't just drop everything to go fight the White Fang. Some of us are starting to fall behind on our homework." Weiss glared at Ruby who let out a nervous laugh.

"Once the rally is underway you might have a better chance to stay hidden. So once everyone is done with their own missions they can meet up a few blocks back from the rally. By the time you all get there, I should be inside." Adam offered.

"So it's really more something to do while Adam is infiltrating so that we don't get him caught?" Pyrrha asked. Weiss and Adam both nodded. "Alright then. What are we doing while we wait?"

Adam spoke up first. "The usual. Train. Learn. Improve in whatever ways you can." Ruby gasped.

"We should do some training together! Then we won't step on each other's toes during a fight!"

"That does sound like a good idea." Ren said with a nod.

"Yes, we don't want to injure each other in battle. Just as long as you don't use it as an excuse to avoid homework!" Weiss glared at Ruby as she spoke.

"I won't…" Ruby droned with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, who going Yang and whos going with Adam?"

They all thought for a few moments, before Ren broke the silence.

"I'm probably better to help sneak into the rally with Adam."

"If Ren's at the rally then I wanna be the one standing outside, ready to run in and break some legs!" Nora announced loudly.

"That's not the goal Nora." Ren quietly tried, and failed, to calm her down.

"So that leaves Jaune with me." Yang said, leaning in towards the other blonde. "We're gonna have plenty of fun." She winked.

"Alright! Now that we've sorted that, we should get to some training!" Ruby declared with a raised hand.

"Ruby! You have homework to catch up on!" Weiss said. Ruby eeped as Weiss grabbed the back of her hood to keep her from running.

They all laughed a little as Ruby whined to Weiss. As Ruby was forced into a seat to do homework, JNPR said their goodbyes and promised to meet up with them soon. Yang yawned as they piled out. Adam grabbed his bag and made for the door.

"And where are you going?" Weiss demanded.

"Out to train, as usual." He responded with a raised brow.

"Oh no! You're just as behind as Ruby! You don't have the excuse of being two years younger!" Weiss glared at him and pointed at an empty seat. "Sit down and do your homework. You can train tomorrow."

Adam stared a bit in disbelief. Since when did she feel like she could demand things from me? He chuckled under his breath. "Fine, fine." He put his bag back and sat down in the empty chair and got to work.

After a half-hour, while Weiss and Yang had some debate about Yang's essay, he leaned over and whispered to his leader. "You were looking kind of awkward during that talk."

"Oh yeah, just a bit. You hang out with Pyrrha and Jaune almost every day, but then I had to talk to their whole team about dragging them into fighting the White Fang!"

"Don't worry. If they didn't want in, they would say so. Just remember, I believe you can become a great leader." He leaned back and continued his work, ignoring the legendary smile on Ruby's face.

Even with Weiss' oversight, it took the pair of red-heads a while to finish.

"Hiyaaaaa!" Jaune yelled as he charged in and slashed at Yang. The other blonde ducked under it and fired her gauntlets straight into his shield arm. He grunted as he pushed through it, stabbing his blade downwards. She blocked it with her arm and pushed it to the side, coming in for another attack.

Jaune slammed the edge of his shield up into her arm and it was sent over his shoulder. He dropped his blade, grabbed her arm with his now free hand, dropped his body down low, pushed his shield into her stomach and sent her flying over him. Yang yelped as she was sent sailing straight into the ground. Jaune grabbed his fallen sword as she pulled herself back to her feet.

They both wore large smiles and charged each other. Jaune was still slower and weaker, but he had surprised her. She didn't give him another chance. She slammed into his shield with both her fists, discharging a pair of fiery blasts. His guard was thrown wide open. She swung her body with all the force she could muster sent her fist barrelling into his stomach and forced all the air out of his lungs.

He collapsed to the ground breathing hard. "You need to work on your strength Jaune! Don't let me break your guard like that!" She offered a hand up and after a moment he took it. She pulled him up with strength far above his. At least that's how it felt. "You lasted longer than I expected! 'Course you've been getting a lot stronger lately."

"Yeah…" He took a deep breath. "It's all thanks to them. They put in all the effort." He pointed at the pair of red-heads duelling on the other end of the room. Adam and Pyrrha had been going at it longer than any of them. To the rest of them, the battle looked like a stream of colour, twisting and turning. Flashes of reds and golds and blacks as the pair slashed and blocked and spun around each other.

It was… beautiful.

"Nah." Yang spoke up suddenly, making him jump. "They didn't put in all the effort." She clapped him on the back. "If you sat around and did nothing they wouldn't have bothered. Don't sell yourself short Jaune." She winked at him and walked away. Jaune turned and watched as the other blonde went to watch Ruby and Nora's spar. He sighed and followed.

A few minutes later and the spars had been concluded, at least for the moment. They took a break with a lovely packed lunch courtesy of Ren. They ate quickly and got ready once more to spar.

"Alright! Now that we've done someone on one spars, let's go for a team battle!" Ruby announced and soon they were all prepared. The screen counted down for them.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1...

Jaune roared as he charged. "Aaaahhhhhhh!" He was aiming for Weiss in an attempt to try and get close and stop her from using her more explosive varieties of Dust. Nora laughed as she launched herself at Yang. Adam and Pyrrha targeted each other straight out of the gate, again, which left Ren to chase after Ruby.

Weiss elegantly sidestepped his charge and thrust her rapier at his armpit. He managed to turn in time and deflect the blow off his shield and return fire with an overhead slash. He narrowly missed as she dodged to the side so he repeated his attack to much the same results. They continued this dance for several moments, before Jaune realised he was fighting a losing battle and had to take the initiative.

He charged back in and slammed Mytenaster to the side with his shield leaving the heiress open. Weiss jumped back, and attempted to spin the chamber on her blade. Jaune knew that if she managed to use her Dust, he'd be taken out so he did the only thing he could think of.

Weiss let out a surprised yelp as Jaune tackled her to the ground and trapped her there with his shield. With her arms and weapon stuck beneath him, she was unable to do anything.

"Get off me you ape!" Weiss yelled as she struggled to push him off.

"Sorry Snow Angel!" He yelled back.

"Don't call me that!"

Jaune kept Weiss pinned for most of the match and even managed to make a sizable dent in her aura with a few well-placed strikes. Sadly JNPR lost. Ren couldn't match Ruby's speed which led to him being taken out before long and from there Ruby ganged up on Nora with Yang. And after she was down? Jaune didn't last long against the sisters. Pyrrha soon after lost against the combined might of team RSTY.

Despite the loss, Jaune was pleased. He'd taken Weiss out of the fight for a while, now if he and his team could have capitalized on that…

He'd think of something. He wasn't the fastest or strongest, but he could try his hardest!

"That's what you're going to wear?" Weiss asked with a disappointed look. JNPR looked between themselves and shrugged.

"What's wrong with our clothes?" Jaune asked, already on the defensive.

"The rest of us are going in new outfits so as to not make the enemy aware, those, will give you away!"

"But they've never seen us before..."

"Ugh, fine! But if we get caught it's your fault!" She turned and stomped away. They had put a lot of effort into these new outfits!

Or most of them had. Weiss glared at Adam, who wore what made him look like an edgy civilian teenager. Black pants, black shirt, black hoodie, black boots, black beanie! Would it have killed him to add some colour! Her eyes twitched, which somehow gained his attention because he looked at her and sighed!

"I can't exactly go in anything like what I usually wear and I didn't bring any spares. I used to own something like this though. It was more like some kind of military spec ops. It didn't really fit what I wanted to look like, so it just gathered dust." He shrugged. "I left it in my tent, so it was probably thrown out."

Yang came over and gave Weiss' shoulder a pat. "Don't worry, they are meant to be blending in with normal people anyway. They'll be fine!"

Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, I suppose they will. I just want this to succeed."

"We all do Weiss. We all do." Yang gave her another pat before walking away to grab the last of her things.

Ruby jumped onto a chair and pointed a finger to the sky. "Alright! Team RSTY, Team JNPR! Our mission is a go!"

They filed out of the room and split up. Now was their chance to really put the White Fang onto the back foot.

A/N: Sorry for the lateness with this one. I had some... trouble with it. Even now I'm not fully happy with it but it does its job. Next chapter is the Paladin fun, I promise!

I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!