A/N: I own nothing, at all. Back to work this week, so heads up that this one and the next are likely going to be a little short as I get my life together.
Vale was in full swing, preparing for the Vytal festival. Streamers, balloons, and banners hung off of every building and streetlight. Weiss had convinced the team to come down to the docks, something about doing some sight seeing in town. Steele had never seen anything quite like it, on the frontier it was hard to get a full city together to celebrate anything short of the strike on Demeter.
Steele was used to the smell of the docks by now, he had pulled more than one operation in the area since he started taking mercenary work in Vale. It wasn't just the smell of fish; it was salt and hard labour. it was the smell of burning fuel- something not quite diesel- and oils. To Steele, it almost smelled like home.
He hated to admit it, but Steele missed the Frontier. He missed being the best, he missed having a purpose. Here on Remnant, all he had was a faint hope of the Militia restoring the portal and letting him come home. There was no war, he had no stakes beyond a paycheck in what few conflicts existed on this world. And while he had friends and a team, he had no brothers in arms, no true mentors, and no guiding purpose. He trained to become a Huntsman because that was the only thing he could be, there were regular mercenaries, but he wanted to be good, he wanted to fight for what was right.
Steele found himself fondling the safety on his rife- the odd three barrel he now referred to as the Torrent- a tic he had found himself falling into far more often as time went by. It had been months, his paycheck from Beacon- and some clever handling of his alternate finances- had allowed him to make it look like he had purchased his local weapons legitimately. He had dressed in his tactical outfit, as much as he loved his armor; he blended in much better wearing something made locally.
Steele had tuned Wiess out as she waxed poetic about the most boring parts of a festival possible: the organization. He was leaned over the railing on the edge of the docks, when he noticed the team was making their way to a Dust Shop that looked like it had been robbed. He tuned back into the world as they approached, his constantly expanding catalogue of implants now able to pick up details like footprints and bullet trajectories even this long after the event. It was one of Torchwick's jobs, him and a group of thugs that were probably leftovers from Junior.
Ruby walked up to the detective at the scene. "What happened here?"
The detective was almost comically stereotypical, gruff voice, short beard, greasy hair, shades, and an oversized hand cannon. "Robbery, fourth this week. The city has become a jungle, nearly got a gang war on our hands." He turned away from them muttering to himself.
Steele kept his opinion to himself, there was nothing to be gained by bringing attention to himself here. He felt a slight bit of responsibility, it was his fault that tension in Vale's underworld was so high. He tried not to think about it, he had done worse for a paycheck than cause an increase in petty crime.
"that's terrible." Yang spoke what everyone was thinking. It was terrible, but only because of how it fit into the larger picture. It was a tragedy that was becoming part of a larger, more sinister pattern.
"They left all the money again." The detectives had started up again.
"It just doesn't make a lick of sense. I mean who needs that much Dust?"
"I don't know, you know what I mean?"
"You thinking the White Fang?"
"yeah… I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."
Steele had to stop for a moment. It was disgustingly unprofessional, fingers on triggers, openly shouting out evidence and crime scene details, blaming an organization that hadn't been linked to a single one of the robberies- where evidence existed that the perpetrator was Torchwick-, and complaining about pay. Infront of the public.
Weiss started going off almost as soon as the Fang were mentioned. "Hm. The White Fang. What an awful group of degenerates." Well… that was going to start a fight.
"What's your problem?" Blake said with no shortage of hostility.
"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths, they're a collection of misguided Faunus."
"Misguided? They want to wipe humanity of the face of the planet!"
"then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale."
"Blake's got a point." Ruby interjected into the forming argument. "Besides, they never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago. Maybe it was him?"
Weiss wasn't letting that get in the way of her tirade against the Fang. "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."
Yang was showing her discomfort with the situation plainly. She hedged in. "That's not necessarily true."
There was a shout from behind them, towards the docks. "HEY, STOP THAT FAUNUS!"
The whole team turned and ran back. The ship crew were pointing at a monkey Faunus that was running through the crowd of disembarking passengers, he leaped up and hung from one of the lamp posts running along the pier.
One of the crew was shouting at him, as he ate a banana. "You no good stowaway!"
"HEY! A no-good stowaway would have been caught, I'm a great stowaway."
The detectives pushed past the team and down to the pier, the one that Ruby had spoken to threw a rock at him. "Get down from there this instant." He caught a banana peel in the face for his efforts.
The Faunus jumped down and ran up the stairs to where the RWBY and Steele were observing. He ran straight by them with the detectives right on his heels, if Steele believed his eyes, then the Faunus winked at Blake as he ran past.
Yang, as always, was the first to see the silver lining. "well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition. And there it goes."
"Quick! We have to observe him!" That explained why they were down at the docks, he realized that that had probably been discussed already.
The team gave chase into the city, taking the blind corners. Without his jump kit, Steele couldn't really get too much use out of the walls. If he had his gear, he would have been able to properly give chase. They kept it up until the moment Weiss took a corner blind, and crashed into some poor person just minding their own business.
Weiss had her priorities mixed up. "No! he got away!"
"uh… Weiss." Yang said, pointing at the girl beneath Weiss. Weiss scrambled to her feet with a shout.
"Salutations!" The girl said excitedly, drawing the word out.
The whole team was staring at Weiss and the poor girl she had run over. Steele suspected he was staring at her for vastly different reasons than the rest of the team, the girl was a Simulacrum; he could see it. Frankly, she was the most advanced unit he had ever seen. He was already in the middle of a scan when he realized that it wasn't polite to do so without permission and he had no idea what the simulacrum culture was like on Remnant. Or if they even had one.
Back on the frontier, things could be interesting when dealing with simulacrums. Not all of them knew they had died, some had delusions that they still had flesh, incredibly complete psychosis that convinced them that they still needed to eat or sleep. Others knew they were now machines and embraced it. And everyone was made by Hammond or Vinson, so while Steele wanted to ask who this girl's manufacturer was, that was probably not an opening question.
Thankfully Ruby was possibly more awkward than he was. Opening with "Hello" as the whole team stared at the girl.
Yang was more to the point. "Are you OK?"
The girl was still lying there on the ground where Weiss had left her. "I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking." Steele realized that she was just as energetic as Ruby, to his joy or horror he wasn't yet sure. Joy: she would probably be quite approachable and open towards his questions. Horror: he could barely put up with Ruby, dealing with another excessively energetic individual.
The team looked at each other with a fair level of bewilderment. "Do you want to get up?" Yang asked as Steele moved forward to give the girl a hand up.
She looked up at them, completely ignoring Steele as she thought. "yes." She executed a textbook perfect kip-up, again ignoring Steeles hand as the rest of team RWBY stepped back. "My name is Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you."
The team introduced themselves in turn except for Yang, who asked. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" quickly introducing herself after Blake hit her across the ribs.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Ok… not a properly adjusted simulacrum it seemed, probably recently transferred into the shell.
Weiss was the one who pointed it out though. "You already said that."
"so I did." Penny seemed to be just a little off her rocker. Whoever made her was a mechanical genius, but Remnant probably didn't have the proper tech for the transition. A few files must have been lost or mis-calibrated.
The team turned to walk away. Weiss apologized. "Sorry for running into you."
Ruby was kinder. "Take care, friend."
As they walked away Steele turned to the group. "You told me that you didn't have simulacrums on Remnant."
"I guess she was weird, but she wasn't a robot." Yang replied. Looking more than a little concerned by his accusation; and the encounter.
"Yang. I'm a cyborg full of military level implants that is set to be put in a 'robot'- as you put it- the moment I die. She's a simulacrum, and I really want to know who to contact to get an overhaul like hers."
Weiss was completely focused on hunting down the Faunus that they had been chasing. "Now, where did that Faunus riffraff run off to?"
As she finished her sentence, the team became very aware of Penny, who no one had seen move in front of them. "what did you call me?" Weiss immediately pointed her finger behind them to where Penny had been only seconds before, staring at Penny in horror.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I definitely didn't think you heard me." Not a great excuse, but there were worse out there. Thankfully for Yang, Penny wasn't interested in her at all.
"No, not you." Pushing her way through to Ruby. "You."
"Me… but I don't…" Ruby stuttered her way into an attempt at a sentence.
"You called me friend. Am I really your friend?"
Ruby looked over Penny's shoulder, looking for answers from the rest of the team. Yang, Blake, and Weiss were all frantically making gestures in the fashion of NO, Steele was unashamedly taking a low intensity passive scan; if they were never going to meet each other again he was going to get all the information he could.
Ruby promptly ignored all of this. "Yeah, sure. Why not?" The girls were not impressed, eyes widening in shock. Steele kept scanning; might as well commit once you start invading someone's privacy.
"Sen-sational. We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys." Penny seemed to be ecstatic over making a single friend.
Ruby leaned in towards Weiss. "Is this what it was like when you met me?"
"No, she seems far more coordinated."
Yang hedged in. "So… what are you doing in Vale."
Penny seemed to bounce. "I'm here to fight in the tournament."
"Wait, your fighting in the tournament?" Weiss interjected.
"I'm combat ready." Penny gave a sloppy but enthusiastic salute.
"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part." Weiss's superiority complex couldn't help but manifest when given the opportunity.
"Says the girl wearing a dress." Blake dug.
"it's a combat skirt." Weiss said. Ruby appearing at her side in a flash as they shared a high five.
Weiss seemed to realize something as they spoke. "Wait! if you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey tailed rapscallion!"
Penny seemed nonplused "the who?"
"the filthy Faunus from the Boat!"
Blake beat Steele to the punch. "Why do you keep saying that?"
"Huh?"
"Stop calling him a rapscallion. Stop calling him a degenerate. He's a person!" Blake had a spine for this fight. Steele was getting ready to throw in, but knew that he had to time things if he was going to have an impact.
Wiess on the other hand, was willing to dig herself deeper. "Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like me to stop referring to the trashcan as a trashcan, or this lamp post as a lamp post."
"Stop it!"
"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time, he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang."
Steele chose his moment. "Weiss, do you even understand why people join organizations like the Fang. Do you understand the horrible choice, to decide between giving up your few comforts in life and hopefully win a better life for your family and friends, or to suffer under the yoke of your fellow citizens who so blindly participate in your oppression. People like your family are the ones who do the most harm, you are central to the struggle. You kill and are killed in the name of the fight; they hate you because you are the cause of their pain. You hate them because they hurt you, in their pain, they are made blind to the pain they cause you. They don't join because they broke the law, they break the law for the same reason they join. There is no other choice, no safe path. They cant get jobs or run a business, they cant shop freely, not without the specter of the Fang protecting them."
"You dare?"
"You ignorant little brat!" Blake started to walk away as she shouted.
"I am your teammate!" Weiss followed Blake as they continued their fight.
"You, are a judgmental child."
Yang and Ruby decided it was time to head back to Beacon. It was slow and miserable going, listening to Blake and Weiss slowly escalate their argument. Steele decided to stay out of it as much as possible, lest he say something he would regret; it would be disastrous if he revealed that he had been doing mercenary work, and he didn't want to make a scene about his time under the IMC.
They were still fighting late into the night. It had thankfully not escalated, though it had not cooled either. Steele had decided to just tune them out and work on fixing the radio he had claimed. It was slow going without proper tools, but he was only a few wires away from having it working as intended and he figured he could get it running by the time he went to bed. While that was his intent, it became hard to follow through with when the proper shouting started.
"I'm a victim!" Weiss started. "do you want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? Its because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grand fathers company has had a target painted on its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I have watched family friends disappear, board members executed, an entire train car full of Dust stolen. And every day, my father would come home furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood."
Ruby tried to show sympathy, but Weiss wasn't having it. "NO! You want to know why I despise the White Fang? They're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"
"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" there it was, Blakes dirty little secret. A Faunus, hiding in plain sight. Hiding from her friends, her teammates, because she didn't believe she would be accepted. And there was Weiss, standing ready to prove her right.
Blake ran. Ruby chased her to the door. "Blake! Wait, come back."
It was with a satisfying click that Steele finally fixed the Radio. "Don't worry about it too much. She can take care of herself, and she has nowhere else to go, she'll be back." Somehow, they didn't clue into the fact that he had already known. The radio was silent, it was connected but there was no traffic. The Apex crew must have figured out that their comms were compromised, not unexpected but very inconvenient and a pile of wasted effort; kind of like today.