"AAAAHHH!" Ruby winced as Jaune got smacked across the face again by Cardin's mace. While her investigations into Torchwick at night were going fairly well, her team at Beacon seemed to be struggling. Not in the sense that they were falling behind, they actually were ranked second in the year, but rather because their teamwork needed a ton of work and her teammate currently in the ring apparently didn't know how to use his own weapons. When the buzzer rang indicating Jaune's aura had run out, Professor Goodwitch gave the both of them some pointers and then dismissed them.
"Maybe I should talk with him." Ruby heard Pyrrha whisper from beside her.
"No I'll do it," Ruby said, "I'm the team leader, It's my responsibility to figure out what's going on." Pyrrha paused and then nodded. Ruby checked the clock, it was an early release today for the weekend, and this was their last class for the day. Ruby made her way towards Jaune as he got out of the locker room. "Jaune!" Ruby called out.
"Hey Ruby what's up?" Jaune asked.
"We need to talk." Ruby said, as she grabbed his hand and activated her semblance. She wasn't able to drag him very far before her semblance puttered out, but they were now alone in a secluded hallway.
"Ruby. Don't do that again." Jaune said while settling his stomach.
"Sorry." Ruby said while panting from the exertion. After a few moments they both recovered.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Jaune finally asked.
"You." Ruby said, "Or more specifically your performance in combat class." Jaune seemed to sag as Ruby said this. "Jaune you've been in four fights so far and lost every single one. You didn't even land a hit in two of them."
"I know." Jaune said, she could feel the self defeating attitude radiating off of him.
"Hey, I'm not trying to make you feel down," Ruby said, "I'm just saying maybe you could use some help."
"You think I need help?" Jaune asked, he seemed to bristle as he said this.
"Jaune, I don't think, I know." Ruby said a little more firmly this time, "I don't know what your teachers were teaching you but apparently it doesn't measure up."
"Probably because there weren't any." Jaune said after a moment, "I lied to get in." Ruby paused wondering if she heard right, though her other half confirmed her ears.
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't take any practical tests, I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied." they both paused a little bit after Jaune's outburst, then Ruby snickered.
"W-what's so funny?" Jaune asked, as Ruby started into full laughter.
"That's it?" Ruby said, "that's what's bugging you?"
"W-well yeah." Jaune said confused.
"Jaune, I never went to combat school, I never had any sort of transcripts, and I never took any practical tests either" Ruby said. "Everything I know is self-taught."
"Yeah, but you can actually fight." Jaune said.
"Because I practiced." Ruby said. "I learned how to fight because I had to fight to survive. All you probably need is a little direction and a little extra time devoted to training."
"How?" Jaune asked.
"Well Pyrrha would probably be best to teach you cause of her style." Ruby said after some thought.
"I don't really want to bring everyone else in on the fact that I didn't train to get here." Jaune said apprehensively. Ruby paused for a moment, she wanted to help Jaune, but she couldn't do that while also trying to hunt down criminals. Unless…
'Oh, no no no.' her other half said, 'we have a hard enough time trying to maintain our cover without a newbie along.'
'But having backup could be useful in the long run.' Ruby retorted, 'and it's my responsibility to see to the training of my team'
"Well, I could work with you, but it will be difficult and dangerous." Ruby said.
"Dangerous?" Jaune asked,
"I'll explain later, but if you want to do it, meet me in the courtyard at ten tonight." Ruby said, "bring your sword but ditch the armor."
"O-okaay?" Jaune was looking more and more unsure.
"You don't have to come." Ruby said, "but you need to get stronger, you can do it this way or find another, but I am offering." With that Ruby turned around and walked away.
000000000000000
Jaune was in a full sprint, it was almost the time Ruby had told him and he didn't want to be late. When he reached the courtyard he began frantically looking for Ruby. He didn't see her, did he miss the time?
"I almost thought you weren't gonna come." Ruby said from somewhere above him. Jaune turned and saw Ruby perched precariously on top of the statue in the middle of the courtyard.
"Uh, yeah, I kinda lost track of time." Jaune said as he turned towards Ruby. Ruby seemed to freeze up and cover her face. "Ruby what's wrong?"
"What is that?!" Ruby said pointing at his jacket.
"What my hoodie?" Jaune said, "I've always had this." Ruby was trying to hold in a snicker.
"It's got a cute little bunny rabbit!" Ruby said, breaking out into laughter at the same time.
"It's Pumpkin Pete!" more laughter, "From the cereal!" even more laughter.
"So you got a bunny hoodie from some cereal!" said through her laughter as she hopped down from the statue.
"Yeah, it cost me like fifty box tops!" Jaune said.
"I don't know what those are." Ruby said, as she wiped her eyes, "thanks Jaune I needed a laugh today."
"Yeah, okay, no problem." Jaune said, slightly embarrassed still, "so ... are we going to go train?"
"Kinda." Ruby said as she turned towards the walkway that went down to vale, "I'm not much of a teacher so you'll be learning in the same way I learned, by doing."
"So we're going to fight?" Jaune asked.
"No, tonight we're going to do some investigating." Ruby said, "if somebody attacks us then we'll fight." They quickly went down the walkway and made their way into Vale. After making a quick stop at a convenience store to get Jaune something to disguise his identity, he settled on a baseball cap and sunglasses despite Ruby pointing out that they would be largely working at night, they continued down the darkening streets of Vale.
Throughout their walk they tried to appear nonshelaunt, appearing to window shop and take pictures at various places looking like tourists.
"So what exactly does what we're doing have to do with fighting?" Jaune asked after a little bit. Ruby turned to him.
"Right now I'm trying to teach you to blend in." Ruby said, "what I'm going to teach you is not simply fighting in the ring, but how to fight with your mind."
"With my mind?" Jaune asked.
"I told you I used to work as a PI, Right?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah…" Jaune responded.
"Well, that's how I'm going to teach you." Ruby said, "It's really the only thing I know, so you'll learn how to fight, how to spot clues, and how to look unassuming while doing it."
"Oh." Jaune said, "so do we have a case then?" Ruby smirked, pulled out her scroll and handed it to Jaune. When Jaune opened the scroll he was greeted by the very recognizable mugshot of a man with wild red hair.
"TORCH-!?" Jaune almost shouted but Ruby elbowed him in the ribs, hard. "We're going after Roman Torchwick?" Jaune said in a whisper.
"Yeah, I had a run-in with him when I first got to vale." Ruby said, "if the police haven't been able to catch someone like him yet, either they're incompetent or they're dirty." Ruby's statement made Jaune gulp nervously. "Either way he's still on the loose, and my code demands I go after him."
"Your code?" Jaune asked.
"I don't go after people who don't harm others." Ruby told him, "but that doesn't mean I only go after people who attack others" at Jaune's confused look Ruby elaborated, "someone who steals food from a small settlement is just as guilty of the deaths that will occur there as if they had just attacked and killed half the settlement outright."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense." Jaune said, "and I get that Roman is a big shot criminal, but what has he done? To your code I mean."
"Well, he has directly attacked people during his robberies." Ruby told him, "but another big thing is what he is stealing."
"What's that?" Jaune asked.
"Dust." Ruby said, "Torchwick has stolen so much from Vale that it's becoming difficult for many huntsmen and huntresses to afford what they need to arm themselves. What he is doing is even worse in my books because he is targeting the protectors."
"He's stolen that much dust?!" Jaune asked incredulously.
"Well, it's not just him," Ruby said, "that's actually our secondary objective. There's this terrorist group that seems to be stealing dust as well."
"Terrorists?!" Jaune said.
"Some group called the White Fang." Ruby said, "Faunus supremacists or something like that, my informant told me they were spotted at one of the robbery cites." Ruby paused and turned to look directly at Jaune, "Torchwick is our mission because he's gotten away from me once, but make no mistake terrorists with highly volatile materials are in a far better position to cause damage, if we see them we'll go after them first."
"Right, that makes sense, I guess." Jaune said. They continued on in silence for some time, until they heard what sounded like a crash coming from somewhere nearby.
"Come on!" Ruby said as she ran into a narrow alleyway and began leaping between the two buildings, kicking herself up higher as she went. Soon she was at the top of the building and running towards the sound. Jaune quickly looked for a way to follow her. Spying the fire exit on the side of the building Jaune ran and jumped to barely grab the ladder. After a few seconds of struggle he managed to lift himself up and began running up the fire escape. Once he reached the roof he found Ruby kneeling at the edge of the building.
"What took so long?" She asked, looking back at him.
"That thing you did." Jaune said while panting out of breath, "Yeah, I can't do that"
"Oh." Ruby said, "guess I'll have to teach you."
After she said this she motioned for Jaune to join her on the ledge. Down on the street below them stood a few dozen White Fang loading crates into several large trucks.
"Looks like it's the White Fang." Jaune said.
"Yeah, sure looks like it." Ruby said. No sooner had they said this than another figure emerged from the store.
"Could you mutts hurry it up please!" the familiar figure of a man in a white coat with a bowler hat called out. "I've got somewhere more important to be tonight so let's hussle it a bit." he clapped his hands.
"Wow, He's kind of a jerk, and a racist, and just kinda terrible." Jaune said.
"And actively working with the White Fang." Ruby said, she then stood up and drew her weapon, "let's end this." having said that Ruby leapt off the roof and dropped down to the street below.
"Yup, I'm certain of it now." Jaune mumbled to himself as he began looking for a way down, "She's crazy."
00000000000000000000
Ruby hit the ground with a roll and a burst of rose petals as she leapt towards one of the nearest White Fang grunts. A semblance powered kick connected with the lookout's face before he had even realized what was happening. She didn't even pause as she moved on to the next grunt. There was no way her entry was silent so she had to strike hard and fast. The next grunt hadn't even been able to grasp the saber on his belt before Ruby's blade slid through his midsection. There was a crate of boxes in between her and the third grunt, who had actually managed to grab the handle of his pistol by now. Ruby ran vaulted over the collection of boxes to attack the grunt, she batted his pistol down, just as it barely cleared the grunts holster. Ruby then swung her sword leaving a gash from hip to shoulder in the grunts chest before batting him away with a roundhouse kick. At this point the world around Ruby began to speed up and the senses granted by her other half registered the percussive sound of firing pins and primers doing their work. In response Ruby threw herself backwards and under the cover of the boxes she had just vaulted over.
"WHAT DO YOU IDIOTS THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" Torchwick's voice called out over the gunfire.
"We're being attacked!" one of the grunts responded.
"I can see that, why are you shooting at volatile dust containers!" Torchwick responded.
"Ruby could smell that the dust in the containers she had hid behind were those of gravity dust, useful in airships and bullets, but ultimately pretty harmless if inadvertently activated. However the fact that the White Fang grunt had a spike in fear and seemed to be rethinking the pistol in his hands indicated that he couldn't smell the same thing. Ruby smirked and stood up.
"Yeah wouldn't want this whole block to go up in flames now would we?" Ruby said as she looked directly at Torchwick.
"Oh, it's you." Torchwick said.
"Long time no see," Ruby said with a wave, "Roaring Candlestick, right?" she inwardly patted herself on the back at the way Torchwick gritted his teeth.
"Isn't it past your bedtime Red?" Torchwick spat out.
Ruby pretended to look at her scroll, never taking her eyes off of the criminal or his terrorist henchmen.
"Well would you look at that." Ruby said, "guess I'll need to hurry, could you just give up quietly? It's a school night after all." Torchwick frowned and looked at the White Fang grunts who were just standing around brandishing weapons.
"What are you animals doing?" Torchwick sounded very annoyed, "go get the brat." at that the grunts snapped into action and charged Ruby from every angle, or they would have had it not been for a mess of blonde hair slamming into one of the grunts from behind. After the initial exchange Ruby and Jaune found themselves back to back with only a few grunts still standing around them.
"Sorry I'm late." Jaune said.
"Found the stairs?" Ruby asked.
"It's actually called a fire escape." Jaune countered
"Really why?" Ruby asked, before Jaune could answer however the two heard the sounds of two of the truck engines starting. From where Ruby was at, she could see Torchwick climbing into the lead truck. "Jaune these guys don't have an aura but don't go easy on them, they're going to try and hurt people and we need to catch those guys before they get away." With her heightened senses Ruby could hear Jaunes gulp as he processed that information. With barely a seconds pause Ruby snapped into action accelerating even as the world around her grew slower. Her first target was the grunt in front of her, his reaction time wasn't even enough to get his blade into a block position before Ruby's slid between his ribs. The man hadn't even hit the floor before Ruby was on the next. Ruby quickly and efficiently finished the remaining grunts, save one. When she slowed down and the world snapped back into time she saw Jaune standing like a statue as one of the White Fang grunts slid backwards off of his now bloodied blade. Ruby ran over to where her friend stood frozen.
"Jaune! Snap out of it!" Ruby called while grabbing him.
"R-Ruby?" Jaune asked with a dazed look and tone of voice, "H-He was just…"
Ruby grabbed Jaune and forced him to look at her rather than the man he had just killed.
"We'll talk about this later." Ruby said, "you can process this after we catch Torchwick." Ruby pointed towards the escaping trucks loaded with stolen dust and terrorists. Jaune nodded and moved to follow Ruby as she headed to the remaining truck.
'Boy, is he going to be a handful.' the dark voice spoke from within Ruby's mind, 'still I think he handled that better than your first time.'
'Yeah, he did,' Ruby thought as she climbed into the cab of the cargo truck.
"Wait," Jaune suddenly said as he started to sit in the other seat, "Do you have a driver's license?"
"A what now?" Ruby said as she threw the truck into gear and it lurched out of its parked position down the road after the other two trucks.
000000000000000000
Jaune was on the edge of his seat, metaphorically speaking. Ruby had thrown the truck in gear and taken off before he had even managed to get his seat belt on, an action he noticed, that Ruby had failed to take. Speaking of Ruby she was also on the edge of her seat, literally, she was just tall enough that she could push the pedal all the way down from that position.
"You do know how to drive these right?" Jaune asked nervously, what they were currently doing was illegal, but apparently not in a way that mattered to Ruby.
"Of course." Ruby said as she turned around a corner in a way that made Jaune worried the truck was going to tip, apparently speeding didn't faze Ruby either. "I've had to drive one before." Ruby finished.
"Wait, One?!" Jaune said. Ruby rounded another corner and then rolled down her window.
"We've got a straightaway, take over." Ruby said completely ignoring Jaune and then hoisting herself out of the window onto the outside of the truck. Jaune barely managed to get on the wheel and pedals in time to see Ruby climb onto the hood of the truck and pull her weapon out.
"GUN IT!" Ruby shouted and Jaune complied, sending their truck into the rear of the truck ahead of them. The impact was light since both of them were already traveling at near max speed, but the impact was enough to give Ruby a boost onto the dust laden White Fang truck. No sooner than Ruby's feet had touched down did the White Fang grunts climb out of the cab of the truck. What Jaune saw next could only have been described as a swashbuckling swordfight if it had taken place on a ship on the high seas rather than a truck hurtling down the streets of Vale. Ruby dodged, pairied, and blocked her opponents sabres even as she delivered retalitory strikes of her own. Jaune watched as Ruby used her sword in one hand to deliver swift fast strikes, and as she transitioned to two hands to block a particularly heavy blow or deliver a strike that was almost as heavy. One by one she worked her way through the three grunts that had risen to meet her, each falling off of the truck as she slayed them, Jaune tried not to think about that part. As the last grunt fell Ruby began to make her way towards the other trucks cab, until it suddenly swerved to avoid another car. Unfortunately the White Fang driver overcorrected and Jaune was forced to watch as the trucked tipped over and began to flip, with Ruby still on top. Jaune immediately slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the truck. He rushed over to where the White Fang truck had come to a stop. As he approached he could see the flames that indicated the powder keg of stolen dust was only moments away from going up. Around the truck were several bodies including that of his small red and black friend. When Jaune reached Ruby he could see she was bloody in several places and her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing. There was also some kind of fine white powder surrounding her, but Jaune just chalked that up to dust from the truck. Jaune immediately picked her up and ran to the car that the White Fang truck had narrowly avoided.
"Are you okay?" the raspy voice of the old man said as he began to step out of his car.
"Please I need to get to a hospital!" Jaune said while holding his unconscious friend. The elderly man nodded and jerked his head towards the unoccupied passenger side of his car. Jaune quickly climbed in as the man took off towards the nearest hospital.
"Don't die Ruby, please don't die." was all Jaune could say.
0000000000000000000000000
So I recently had one of my reader very enthusiastically ask me to finish this chapter. So in response to their request, I sat at my computer for hours wondering how in the world I was going to finish this chapter. Eventually I gave up and went to talk with my writing buddy AKA Irlr Ori'kad, and talked it out with him. That's when the idea came to me, a car chase! So yeah, I still am writing this one and the others the only story I've given up on (at least until I figure out what I was doing with it) is A Family Business. So yeah enjoy the new chapter!