A day later, Team RWBY had received official notification that they had been requested for a mission by the Vale Police Department. It told them to arrive at noon next friday for their official briefing at the VPD main station. From then on the week could not have been over fast enough for Ruby, as the whole team was excited for working their first mission nearly a Semester before the rest of the Freshmen would get the opportunity to do so.
When the end of the week finally had arrived, the four girls were making their way to the airship landing, hoping to catch one of the earliest transports to Vale so they had enough time to arrive even if they were to run into trouble or distractions on the way.
"Weis," Blake started to apologize once more as they stepped out of the airship that carried them to the city "I just wanted to say again how much I regret what I helped the White Fang do to you and your Family, and-".
"Blake, " Weiss interrupted the Faunus, a hint of annoyance leaking into her voice, "I understood you were sorry after the first few times, so I don't need to hear it every other day. Besides you are here to make up for all that and bring these Good for nothing Criminals down, so please stop apologizing."
Behind the talking pair, Ruby and Yang stepped out onto the pavement, Ruby turning to follow the white and black haired girls, while Yang started to go the other direction, waving to the rest of the Team.
"See you guys later at the station," the blonde quickly shouted before rushing down a side alley.
"Where is she going?" Weiss asked, looking after their Teammate confused.
"Don't worry Weiss, Yang's just excited to take her motorbike for a ride." The half Grimm explained as she caught up to the rest of her team, "Now come on, the police station is this way."
With that the girls left the skyport and made their way through the city of Vale, taking in the sights and managing to move swiftly through the streets, at least until Blake suddenly stopped.
"Could we step in this shop real quick? My uncle owns it and I haven't seen him in a while." Blake asked, gesturing at a store as they passed it.
Stopping beside her, Ruby took a look at the shop Blakewas indicating. The writing on the storefront window proclaimed the small shop to be 'Tukson's Book Trade'. Through the window the half Grimm saw shelves lined with enough books that the slogan 'Home to every book under the sun' might actually be true. Turning to the cat Faunus, the wolf eared girl replied: "Why not, I mean we should have more than enough time, right Weiss? Besides I still need to get this week's X-ray and Vave."
Checking her scroll for the time, Weiss answered, "Yes we indeed have about half an hour before we would need to hurry up. Besides with a slogan like this, they might actually sell some of the books I've been looking for."
With the whole team in agreement, the three girls entered the shop, a small bell behind the door chiming softly as they stepped in the seemingly empty store.
"Be right there", a male voice called from the back of the shop.
"Ruby. he normally keeps the comics over there at the front." Blake explained, pointing to a decent selection of comic books on display. As she looked through the comics to find the new issues, the wolf eared girl heard Weiss talking to the owner after Blake vanished behind a different set of bookshelves.
"Hello sir, I was intrigued the slogan on your window, and was wondering if you had some old fighting treatise or copies there of for sale, maybe even a Fechtbuch from Blut Rose herself?" Weiss was asking, her voice sounding not unlike Ruby's own when she was talking about new weapon ideas.
"Well I don't have any here in the store, but I can some for you by next friday, maybe two weeks from now if you want specific ones. But they will cost you more than a few Lien." the man behind the counter replied.
"Don't worry about that, the price will not be a problem. No one I've asked has been able to find one that was even for sale, so if you can get me one I'll happily pay the price."
As the conversation turned towards the modalities of payment, Ruby's eyes fell onto a comic she had not expected to see until next tuesday. There, sitting right next to the issue of X-Ray and Vave she had been looking for, was next week's issue of Camp Camp. Taking it along with the comic she had been looking for, the half Grimm began to make her way over to the counter. To her surprise the moment he laid eyes on her the man behind the counter began shouting at her angrily.
"Why are you wearing your mask out in public girl? Do you want the police to throw you into prison?" The shopkeeper shouted.
"Why would they do that?" Ruby asked, slightly confused as she stepped closer to the counter, noticing the cat like scent coming from the man for the first time, "I mean just because I have wolf ears and wear a Grimm mask doesn't make me a member of the White Fang, does it?"
"You may not be, but do you expect the police to care enough to ask about that?"
"Yes," Ruby simply stated, "And if they don't I do have a police officer's number. And he would vouch for me." Finally reaching the counter, Ruby placed the two comics she had carried with her on top of it. Hoping to change the topic of their conversation, Ruby asked:
"So how much for those two?"
"That will be 8 Lien please." Tukson replied, dropping the topic of their conversation as well.
As Ruby started checking which of her belt pouches contained her wallet, Blake stepped up to the counter, a new book in her hand and a soft smile on her lips as she greeted the Faunus standing behind the counter.
"Hi uncle Tukson, how have you been?"
"Oh Blake, how nice to see you again," he replied, his face softening from the angry expression left from his conversation with the half Grimm, "I have been well, but a certain little mask wearing Faunus is making me worry the police will come knocking any moment now," he answered, looking at Ruby wearily, who had just finished fishing out the 8 lien for her comics.
"So you saw Ruby already? Please don't worry about her, she has some bad scars she is hiding beneath the mask. Which as far as I know was a gift from her late mother." Blake explained, hoping to calm her Uncle and cover for Ruby at the same time.
"Well it was nice meeting you sir, but I believe my teammates and I have to be somewhere soon, which means we need to leave now." Weiss spoke up, forgotten about by the two Faunus and one half Grimm at the counter. Placing a business card with a prominent snowflake in the center on the counter, she continued, "So, when you do get the books I ordered please inform me, my contact information is on this card."
With that the other two girls said goodbye to the shopkeeper and followed Weiss out off the shop. When the girls had left, Tukson picked up the card left by the white haired girl, his mouth gaping open as he read who he had just been talking to.
Ruby, Weiss and Yang were waiting in a conference room on the second floor of the VPD's main station, hoping that Blake would soon be finished with giving her initial Statement against the White Fang soon. Because as soon as she arrived, the team would be briefed on what role they would play to actually help the police to deal with the White Fang.
As she had finished her Comics roughly half an hour ago, Ruby had moved some chairs and a table to make some space, where she had started going through some mild hand to hand training with her sister. Just a Ruby had managed to pin Yang to the ground for the first time today, the door opened to let Blake and Officer Viridian step inside. The police officer sat down at the head of one of the tables still in place, his badge hanging over a lime green shirt.
"Oh hello Officer Viridian"; Ruby greeted cheerfully as she let go of Yang and helped the blond standing up before the two of them sat down as well.
"Hello miss Rose. Now, for the two of you who don't know me yet, I am Detective Gruoni Viridian. I am currently leading the anti White Fang task force in the Vale PD. As you are all aware, you are not just here so we could take your teammates statement," he said, gesturing towards Blake, who had sat down next to Weiss, "you are also here to help us with actual investigations and operations against those terrorists."
"So what will we be doing to assist your men?", Weiss asked.
"Well, as Junior detectives you are authorized to stop any illegal activities you witness, but your official tasks will probably vary from one operation to the next," He said. The Detective then handed each of the girls a simple badge, "But for now, welcome to the task force."
Examining her badge, Ruby was reminded of how she had been brought to this very station every other week by Beacon students working for the police just like they were now.
"We already have the first operation you will take part in set up for later today," Veridian said, pulling out his scroll and activating a projector on one of the walls. It was displaying a map of Vale's harbour, and a single pier highlighted in red.
"Today, a large shipment of Dust from the SDC arrived on pier 73. As miss Belladonna informed us that one of the bigger Dust robberies we initially ascribed to Roman Torchwick was actually carried out by the White Fang, we are going to monitor that shipment until tomorrow, when it will be distributed by train throughout the Kingdom. We are pretty sure that either torchwick or the White Fang will try to get the shipment when it is still all in one place.
To catch them red handed, we will be positioning rapid response teams in bullheads at these locations.", 4 locations where now highlighted in green, all close to the red pier, but judging on the Buildings visible on the map hidden from most observation from people at the dock, "You will be 'hanging out' at the docks, as soon as you notice any suspicious activities involving the Dust shipment, you dial this number", Above the Map a short scroll Number was displayed, "and the closest response team will arrive at your position within minutes, calling in the rest if necessary," he said, pausing for the Huntresses in training to save the number in their Scrolls.
"Now do you have any questions?"
As Ruby raised her hand, Gruoni gestured for her to speak up.
"How much fighting are we allowed or expected to do?" Ruby asked.
"Well, as long as no one dies you should be fine to use whatever force is necessary, but if you get overwhelmed do not hesitate to fallback after alerting the rest of us. Anything else?"
While the other three students were shaking their heads, Weiss raised her hand and spoke up, "Do we have time to make a short top on our way over to pier 73? I heard the students from Shade would be arriving in Vale for the Vytal Festival today and I wanted to welcome them to this Kingdom."
The Detective took a moment to think the question over before nodding "Well if you don't take too long, it should be fine."
"Well then we will be quick." Weiss said.
With no other questions to ask, Officer Viridian escorted the girls back outside, assuring Yang that she was allowed to keep her Bike at the station for the night.
While team RWBY was walking towards the harbour where the students from Vacuo would be arriving,, Blake thought about all the questions she had been asked. Most were rather obvious, like the locations of any hideouts or safe houses she could remember, who the higher ups were, and so on. Others were less obvious; how had the food supply been, how old the average member had been, things like that.
"Hey, stop that Faunus!" The cat Faunus was ripped from her thoughts by a shout, quickly bringing a hand up to her ears to make sure her bow was still in place.
Relieved that the shout should not have referred to her, Blake looked round and soon saw a Monkey Faunus hanging from a lamppost by his tail, casually eating a Banana as two cops shouted at him. As soon as he had finished his snack, the blond Faunus boy threw the peel of the fruit at one of the policemen standing beneath him before jumping over them and starting to run away.
As he ran past Team RWBY he gave a wink to Blake, just before he was concealed from view by a cloud of rose petals. When they settled down, Ruby had forced him to his knees, one foot applying pressure on his tail while her right hand held the boy's arm behind his back her left forcing his face up soe he looked into her bone covered face.
"Hey, not cool! I thought you White Fang jerks were all pro Faunus, why- Augh!" He was interrupted by Ruby leaning more onto his tail and pressing her thumb into his hand.
"I am not one of those Criminals," Ruby calmly replied, "How about you wait here until the nice policemen catch up?"
"But then why do you wear that mask?", he barely managed to get out as his teeth were clenched from the pain inflicted by the little redhead.
"That is none of your business," Ruby replied, slightly riled up by the question.
Before the conversation could go any further, the police finally caught up to them and as one took the captured Faunus from Ruby's hands the other began taking to her, "Thanks miss Rose, i hope you and your friends have a pleasant afternoon."
"We sure will officer.", the half Grimm replied as the police turned to bring the monkey faunus in.
"Nice to see there are at least some decent Faunus.", Blake could barely overhear one of the officers mumble to himself.
"Well that was unexpected," Yang commented, "Now come on, we have somewhere to be." With that Yang began to lead the way towards their destination which they finally reached about half an hour later.
After a short discussion, the team hid themselves atop the shipping containers. If some the White Fang did arrive, Blake and Ruby would jump in first, hoping to talk them down long enough for reinforcements to arrive as they were, or at least appeared to be, Faunus themselves. If it was not the Faunus terrorists, Yang and Weiss would join the fray immediately as well, otherwise they would stand back and make sure no terrorist escaped until the police arrived.
Then team RWBY waited, some more patiently than others, until shortly after nightfall a Bullhead landed between the containers, members of the White Fang, as evidenced by the masks and uniforms they wore, spilling out to secure the area.
Blake took a moment to take her scroll and dial the number to alert the rest of the operation as planned. Ready to jump in and try to talk her fellow Faunus down, the cat eared girl looked down to search for a suitable landing spot. But who she saw in the center of the group of criminals directing the Faunus around him made her blood boil. Jumping down she landed silently behind Roman Torchwick, pulling Gambol Shroud's blade with her right hand and holding it against his throat, while she removed her bow with the left. Looking around to the other Faunus standing around Blake raised her voice before she spoke up, "Brothers and Sisters of the White Fang why are you helping this human?"
"Didn't you get the memo? the 'fang and I are going in for a joint business venture." Roman snarked, apparently unfazed by the weapon at his neck.
"BLAKE, get back!" Hearing her leader's shouted order, Blake reacted as fast as she could, jumping back as a white Glyph appeared between her and the thief. before her feet touched the ground again, an explosion blossomed on the other side of the Glyph, rocketing Roman forward, as the suit clad criminal had not expected the small explosive to be stopped by the floating circle.
While the cat Faunus was still trying to process what just happened, a pair of Gunshot rang out from where her team was still standing in short succession. The first knocking Romans cane like weapon out of his hand while the second heralded the approach of a wolf eared redhead followed by a trail of rose petals.
As Ruby landed in front of Roman, the thief began talking once more, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he was unarmed before the scythe wielder, "Hello Red, how nice of you to join us," he said sarcastically,"How do always meet me at the worst possible times?"
"Stand down Torchwick and no one has to get hurt", Ruby proclaimed, Scythe held ready to defend herself if any of the Faunus were to attack her.
"Oh and let me guess then I should just confess all my crimes and be a good little inmate for the rest of my life?", Roman continued,"Fat chance Red, men-"
The Roaring of approaching Engines drowned out anything else Roman wanted to say.. When the Bull head came into view, and started illuminating the area with a pair of searchlights, Blake started to relax, their plan had worked well enough.
As Sirens began to chime in the distance, Roman's eyes widened and he called out to his men, "Crap, they're with the Cops!, We need to run, Now!"
But when the criminals tried to flee, they realized that there was no way for them to escape. Their Bullhead was scraped by what appeared to be a yellow meteor, which turned out to actually be an enthusiastic Yang, while the two ways out between the containers were blocked, the first one by a Wall of ice serving as the stand for Weiss Schnee, while the other was filled with Blake and Ruby, weapons ready to stop anyone trying to get past them.
With the Police force dropping in from the Bullhead above, Roman Torchwick was caught with no way out for the first time in years.
The debriefing for team RWBY had gone on for most of the night, but when it finally finished, the girls were allowed to use one of the resting rooms, normally used by officers on night shift, to sleep until early afternoon.
While the rest of her team was asleep, Ruby came to a horrible realisation, which she shared with them as soon as they were all awake again.
"Girls have any of you prepared something to play tonight?"
After both Blake and Weiss confirmed the redheads fears that they might have to skip their weekly game night this week, Yang spoke up.
"Well it's no board game but I do know the owner of a nice club here in Vale who still owes me a favor, so if we have to miss tonight anyway, how about we at least have a nice evening."
"Sounds good"; Blake agreed.
"Why not, it would be a new experience at least.", Weiss said after a moment's hesitation.
"Ugh, fine", Ruby said reluctantly.
When they arrived at Junior's later that evening, Ruby nearly crashed into a raven haired woman in a red dress hurrying out of the club as the rest of the team made their way inside. As she walked off, Ruby could not help but feel she knew the woman from somewhere, but when she stepped inside after her sister she had new concerns.
A respectable number of guns were pointed in Yang's face by gus in black suits with red ties. "Blondie, why are you here?"
"Isn't that obvious," Yang said with a grin, completely unperturbed by the array of firepower directed towards her, "Me and my friends are here to have a good time, so don't worry about getting your butt kicked again."
So thank you RaptorusMaximus, for helping me out as beta reader.
For you readers as always I hope you enjoyed the chapter, Comments and Critique is welcome, next chapter later today.