RWBY: Book of Thieves
The Menace in the Machine – Operation: Storm Breaker
Night had finally fallen over Gale Island – the clear, storm-free skies were painted with a tapestry of stars, giving the island an illusion of peace. But by the end of the night, it was going to be anything but peaceful if Ruby Rose had her way.
The Rose Gang's temporary hideout was alive with a flurry motion and the rattling of equipment as Ruby ran back and forth trying to put everything into their respective duffel bag, sometimes having to pause and go back when she realized she put Blake's "adult literature" (*cough*smut*cough*) into Weiss's bag. Blake was removing any trace of them ever being there from destroying and throwing out the stolen television monitors, to going over the abandoned pub with a magnifying glass and tweezers for any loose hair follicles; she was astonishingly thorough, which Ruby was grateful for. And the while, Weiss was practically hunched over her laptop with a furrowed brow, glaring at the screen like it had challenged her to an intense match of chess. Ruby's smartphone was hooked up to the laptop after Weiss had appropriated from her without explanation before telling her to start packing everything up. Sometimes Ruby wondered who the real team leader was….
Ruby had just finished zipped up the last bag when they caught a brief flash of headlights through the boarded-up windows and the crunching of gravel outside. Everyone went stiff when they heard the slam of a car door directly next to the pub. There was a short moment of silent…then the trapdoor in the ceiling opened up and a familiar blonde dropped into the bar with a crouch, grinning smugly and twirling a set of keys on her finger.
"Got the truck like you wanted, Weiss," said Yang proudly. "Not as good as the van, but it should get the job done."
"Did anyone see you on the way back?" asked Blake, plucking a strand of white hair from the bar and stuffing it in a ziplock bag.
"Nah, the place is practically a ghost town," said Yang, striding across the pub, taking a seat in one of the only good chairs, and kicking her feet on the tipped over table. "I could set off a bomb in the middle of the street and I don't think anyone would come looking."
"Then that means you've all done your jobs well," said Weiss, still tapping away at her computer. "Xiao Long's little bar fight scared off most of Watt's goons inside the town while Ruby disabling the alarms will prevent the guards on the outskirts of the island from being notified when we make heist. And thanks to the video from Blake's trip to Laboratory 6, I was able to send a ton of incriminating evidence to Winter anonymously; enough to justify an arrest warrant from INTERPOL."
"Which means we only have a couple hours before the entire island is swarming with police," said Blake seriously.
"That's right," Weiss acknowledged. "And now that Watts knows we're on to him, our window of opportunity is getting smaller by the seconds, so if we're going to steal back the pages, we need to do it now."
"What's the game plan, Weiss?" Ruby asked with a look of determination.
"Now that all the pieces are in place, it's time to start a little thing I like to call Operation: Storm Break," Weiss announced.
"Kickass name," Yang complimented.
"Thank you," said Weiss proudly, spinning her laptop around for everyone to see, showing off her latest slideshow. "As far as plans go, this one is fairly straight forward. With the recent break-in at Laboratory 6 and the wave of resignations from his henchmen due to Xiao Long's…influence, Watts has completely sealed himself inside his airship. Even with the lack of guards around the town square, there still the automated defenses around the elevator, if the good doctor hasn't already shut it down. There's no way of getting up to Watts through conventional means. Luckily, we were able to find something useful in Watts's servers. As it turns out, Watts has been developing a prototype cannon for long-ranged cloud seeding. But if we can take the cannon for ourselves…."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Yang sputtered, throwing up hers. "Are you seriously considering shooting Ruby out of a cannon? Are you out of your mind?"
"Look, I already had this argument with Blake," said Weiss exasperatedly. "I've gone over the numbers and it's our best bet of getting up to Watts's airship. I can readjust the pressure in the cannon's systems so that it can get her in the air without, you know, turning her into a smear all over Watts's windows."
"But that's – "
"Yang, it's fine," said Ruby, patting the blonde's arm reassuringly. "Weiss knows what she's doing, and it's the only way I can get up to Watts and steal back the pages from my family's Book of Thieves…. And besides, getting shot out of a cannon and busting into the bad guy's lair sounds so badass. Just imagine me smashing through his windows and going – " she started doing karate chops with a lot of exaggerated kung-fu noises, causing her teammates to shake their heads in amusement.
"The cannon is inside a small storage house on the south side town," Weiss pressed on. "As to be expected, the place is locked up tight. That's where Blake comes in with the Level 5 clearance card she swiped from Dr. Taupe. All she has to go is go inside and open the doors. You shouldn't expect too much resistance now, but be on your guard nonetheless. Once we've secured the cannon, Xiao Long will drive it to the outskirts – the greater distance will hopefully improve Ruby's odds of not being splattered on Watts's window and we'll already be on our way out when Winter's back-up inevitably shows. That just leaves Ruby to collect the pages of the Book of Thieves, paraglide to safety, and we'll all rendezvous with Matte Skye at the docks."
"You know Watts is going to be waiting up there," said Blake pointedly.
"I know," Weiss said with a determined look. "And I'll be ready this time. Ruby" – she unhooked the redhead's phone from her laptop and tosses it to her – "I've uploaded a program that will allow me to wirelessly tap into Watts's digital network once you are within range of her personal computer. Watts's is a scientist and a hacker, not a fighter. He'll be coming at you with his machines, all of which he will be controlling remotely. While you kick his butt physically, I'll be kicking his butt digitally."
"Sweet," said Ruby, grinning.
"By the end of the tonight, one way or another, Arthur Watts is going to pay for everything he's done," said Weiss fiercely.
Yang hadn't exaggerated when she said the place was a ghost town, Ruby thought. The Rose Gang had had tossed all of their bags in the truck bed with Ruby and Blake in the back while Yang drove through the eerily silent streets with Weiss tapping away in the passenger's seat. It was a ten-minute drive across town and their designated driver made no effort to be quiet the entire way; not that they needed to when there wasn't a single beefy, mustachioed goon in sight. Before the Rose Thief knew it, the truck came to a screeching halt in front of a small warehouse near the edge of the town boarder. Much like the coffee shop radio tower and the town square, the warehouse was among one of the only things on the island that had been renovated with its refurbished, steel double doors and plexiglass windows that would be impossible for them to break in their restricted time limit.
"The cannon should be just inside," said Weiss, never looking up from her laptop. "All you have to do is go in and open the door. Simple, right?"
"You know when you say things like that," said Blake, leaping out of the truck bed, "it always turns out to be less than simple."
"I could come with," Yang offered, flashing a wide grin
"The last thing we need is for you to hold us up because you can't keep it in your pants," Weiss snapped.
"Prude," said Yang, grimacing; Ruby laughed behind her hands.
"I think I can take care of myself," said Blake good-naturally, patting Yang's arm reassuring as she walked by. "I'll be in and out in two minutes."
"Only two minutes, huh?" said Yang with a smug grin.
"GODDAMN IT, XIAO LONG!" Weiss screeched, earning a cackle from the blonde.
Blake shook her head at her brutish girlfriend before walking around the truck to the warehouse front door. As to be expected of Watts, the door lacked any handle or knob, but had an electronic card reader bolted into the wall next to it. Blake whipped out Dr. Taupe's keycard with a flourish and swiped it; the door automatically slid sideways into the wall and the Faunus girl stepped inside.
The warehouse pitch-dark without any lighting, but it made little difference to Blake thanks to her Faunus heritage blessing her with the ability to see in the dark. Her golden eyes roamed around the storage unit. There were several workbenches on the backside of the warehouse piles high with blueprints, building materials, and greasy tools. In the corner was a small pyramid of cylindrical plastic shells the size of grown man filled with a strange fusion of black, green, and yellow liquids – probably the cloud seeder ammo, Blake thought. And in the middle of the storage space, thankfully on a mobile platform, was the cannon itself. It didn't have any of Watts's usual flair to it, though there were several unopened paint cans on the ground, but it did have a very long barrel with which Blake could easily imagine Ruby sliding into.
The black cat barely took a step forward before her feline ear's twitched at a subtle noise coming from the darkness and leaned to the left, narrowly dodging a laser shot that flew over her left shoulder. Blake straightened herself into her battle stance when three men suited up in sleek armor sprinted around from their hiding spot behind the cannon and formed a line with their rifles trained on the Faunus. Watts's elite guards – Blake had honestly forgotten about them.
"Intruder, identify yourself!" the leading guard grunted.
Blake squared her shoulders and stare them down with the most serious expression on her face, and she answered, "I'm Batman."
"…wait, what?" the guard said, tilting his head.
Quick as a flash, Blake reached behind, pulled Gambol Shroud from her belt, and snapped it at the guard's weapon. The blade of the kusarigama punctured the guard's rifle like paper, sparks exploding from the hole, as Blake pulled back on the black ribbon to rip the gun out of the guard's hands. It took a moment for the other guards to collect their wits and raise their own rifles to shoot. Blake twirled Gambol Shroud overhead, the first guard's rifle still attached to the blade, before she flicked it forward, sending the gun flying into the head of the next Elite. The guard fell back when the gun slammed against his helmet; the other two looked around surprised, granting the cat Faunus a moment to surge forward. She ducked down to the last armed guard, pulling them by the ankle, and watched the security officer fall forward face first onto the concrete floor, cracking the visor of his helmet.
Blake stood up when she heard the first guard yell behind her and twirled underneath his fist. She skillfully wrapped Gambol Shroud's ribbon around the guard's wrist a she passed overhead and pulled his arm behind his back, pinning him. She then pulled the guard around to the side as his comrade swung at the Faunus from the side, unintentionally punching his friend across the helmet (which also served to hurt his own hand as well). Blake grabbed the shoulders of the captured Elite to use him as support as she flipped over and slammed her heel down on top of the other guard's head, slamming him to the floor again. And once her feet were planted on the ground, the Cat Faunus used a hip throw to toss the first guard down with an audible "OOH!", then followed up with a sharp kick across the face.
Blake ultrasensitive ears twitched again and she rolled out of way as another laser shot flew overhead. The cat Faunus looked around; the third guard had retrieved one of the undamaged rifles and had a lock on Blake. The girl in black twirled Gambol Shroud, surging forward as the guard took another shot –
Meanwhile, back with the Rose Gang, Yang was tapping her finger on the steering wheel to the tune of "I Burn" while Weiss tapped relentlessly on her laptop and Ruby was flipping through a random magazine she found listlessly. They could clearly hear all the chaos going on in the warehouse.
"Should we be worried about that?" Ruby asked, not looking up from her magazine.
"No," Weiss answered immediately.
"Not really," said Yang, shrugging.
"Just checking," said Ruby.
The screams and gunshots continued to ring out for several minutes; neither Ruby nor her teammates make any effort to check in on Blake. Ruby finally tears her eyes away from her magazine when the warehouse suddenly falls silent. Moments later, the warehouse's double doors creaked open as Blake herself walked out, dragging one of the Elite Guards by the scruff of his armor before depositing him on the cobblestone road. Weiss and Yang exited the truck while Ruby hopped out of the cargo bed.
"These guys didn't you give you much trouble, did they?" Ruby asked as she prodded the unconscious guard with her foot.
"Nothing I couldn't handle," said Blake confidently.
"I like it when you're feisty," Yang said with a flirtatious wink.
"Save your disgusting courtship rituals for after the job is done," Weiss grimaced, rolling her eyes exasperatedly. She walked into the warehouse, stepping over the other guards lying on the ground, and tilted her head back for a good look at their latest acquisition. "Very nice. A little fine tuning and this will definitely get Ruby up to Watts's ship."
"And it's already set up for transport," said Blake, gesturing to dolly underneath the cannon. "Watts must have been getting ready to move it, but had to put it off when we showed up."
"Makes things easier for us," said Yang, grinning. "Hey, Ruby, help me load the thing!"
The blonde and redhead spent a good ten minutes hooking the mobile platform to the back of the truck with a length of chain that Weiss had the foresight to pack before jumping back in the vehicle. The other barely had time to seat themselves before Yang shot down the street at full throttle, tires screeching against the road, the cannon swaying dangerously as she sharply turned the corners. If it wasn't for the fact that they were already used to Yang's reckless driving skills, Weiss would surely be screaming her head off while Ruby and Blake clung to the cargo bed for dear life. In no time at all, they were flying out of the town's front gates and into the stormy outskirts of the island.
The Rose Gang skidded through the muddy terrain, narrowly dodging the drenched trees and rocky outcrops due to Yang's expert driving skills, until they found themselves back on the path from which the gang first arrived on. The two guards who had fallen victim to Operation: Anchovy were nowhere to be seen – whether it was because of the bar fight and the disappointing lack of pizza is anyone's guess. Yang all but slammed her boot on the breaks as they reached the top of the muddy hill overlooking the town, nearly throwing Weiss into the windshield; the cannon tilted dangerously behind them, but righted itself immediately.
Yang kicked the door open and stepped into the rain, her hair absorbing the moisture like a sponge; Weiss had the sense to pop open an umbrella (white with a light-blue snowflake, of course) before getting out, her attention still focused on her laptop. Ruby and Blake hopped out of the cargo bed, but while Ruby was protected by the cover of her hood, Blake was practically drenched from head-to-toe. If Yang wasn't afraid of sleeping on the very uncomfortable couch for the next six months, there would be a whole lot of wet cat jokes.
"This should be a good enough distance for the shot," said Weiss, shouldering her umbrella while she tapped away. "Let me just move it in range…."
With a few clicks of the keyboard, Weiss successfully hacked in to the cannon's integrated computer system. The cannon groaned as the barrel slowly turned to the left and rose higher until it was pointing at Dr. Watts's airship. Weiss wordlessly gestured for Ruby to get into the cannon while she set everything up and the Rose Thief complied. With a little help from Yang, Ruby climbed into cannon's open and eased herself into the barrel, wrapping herself protectively in her cloak. Even though she was the smallest of the group, it was a very tight fit that Ruby could barely move her hands by her sides.
"Are you sure this is safe, Weiss?" Ruby asked hesitantly, only now realizing the risk of her plan.
"Of course, I'm sure!" Weiss shouted firmly. "The risk of you dying is only fifty-two percent!"
"Oh, then that's fi – wait, what?!" Ruby sputtered.
"Pressure is optimal! Angle is set! Wind resistance accounted for!" Weiss announced, pointedly ignoring Ruby's panic. "Launching in three – two – "
"Wait, what was that abo – AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Ruby screamed as thrust out of the cannon with a deafening BOOM!
Weiss, Blake, and Yang watched the little red bullet fly across the sky, her shrill screams slowly fading as she drifted toward the airship…
"Eh, I'm sure she'll be fine," said Wiess, shrugging, earning strange stares from her partners.
CRASH!
Ruby imagined she must have looked so cool, like action shot from Yang's favorite movies. Smashing headfirst through the airship window, shards of glass flying around her, her cape unfurling in slow motion as she leaned forward and hit the floor into a roll, ending in a crouch with her head hanging dramatically. The Rose Thief held that pose for several seconds…until the adrenaline wore off and common sense kicked back in. Ruby patted herself down, her breathing frantic. Yep, all her limbs were still attached – thank goodness.
"I'm alive?" Ruby muttered surprisingly, then thrust her fists in the air and cheered. "I'M ALIVE!"
"Yes, how unfortunate."
Ruby's gaze quickly darkened into a deep scowl as she peered across the surprisingly sparse metal paneled room. She found Dr. Arthur Watts reclining casually in his high back upholstery armchair, lightly sipping a cup of steaming hot tea, his personal laptop opened on the table on his right hand side. He slowly set the tea cup down on its saucer and set them aside as he met with Ruby's stare. The good doctor acted like he was watching a mildly amusing program, not confronting the vengeful thief.
"I must say, I am impressed by how you have made it this far," said Dr. Watts calmly. "It wasn't just enough to sneak onto my personal island, impersonate one of my elite guards, hack into the island's security network, and beat up all my henchmen. No, you went above and beyond when you released all of my schematics and documents all over the internet. I say, this could set me back years. You really know how to hit a man where it hurts."
"Word of advice: Never piss off Weiss Schnee," said Ruby, smirking.
"Ah, yes, the fabled Snowpea," Dr. Watts hummed thoughtfully. "I had underestimated her talents and that came back to bite me. And now, here you are, an uninvited guest in my humble abode. I will hazard a guess and say that you stole the cloud seeder cannon to get up here. How…creative."
"I had proper motivation," Ruby sneered. "You murdered my mom and stole my family's legacy. You knew I was going to come knocking eventually."
"Oh, of course, the Book of Thieves," said Dr. Watts with a low chuckle. He reached into his coat and, delighting in Ruby's gasp, pulled out a handful of yellowed papers he knew the young thief would recognize. "These pages I acquired from the Book have been surprisingly helpful to me over the years. How humorous it is to imagine that it was your family's legacy that helped build all that you see here. I am indebted to the Rose Clan, no doubt, but it's become clear that we were careless that night. We had only left you alive because one of my accomplices demanded it. 'She's just a child', he said. Bah! That fool's sentiment will become his undoing. We should have nipped you in the bud when we had the chance."
"Shoulda, coulda, didn't," said Ruby. "And now I'm going to take back what's mine!"
With a furious war cry, Ruby sprinted across the empty room toward Dr. Watts. But the disgraced scientists raised his hand and, with a twitch of his fingers, his rings suddenly lit up with electronic lights. Ruby had almost been within reaching distance when a glass wall suddenly sprang up from beneath the floor, separating the thief from the doctor. Ruby pounded the glass with her fist three times, but knew it was no good – she recognized plexiglass when she saw it.
"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you, Miss Rose?" Dr. Watts chortled. "You are, quite literally, in my house now."
The disgraced doctor raised both hands and all ten of his rings lit up. Creaks and groans drew Ruby's attention to the rest of the room when she realized that the metal floor panels were sliding away and something – a whole lot of somethings – were rising out from underneath. There were at least two dozen hydraulic arms spread out across the room, each one with its own tool – one hand a buzz saw, another with a flamethrower, steel clamps in another, a pressurized hose, a heated laser, and so forth. And, with a single wave from Watts's hand, all of them were pointing at Ruby.
"Time to remedy an old mistake," said Dr. Watts nefariously. "Good-bye, Miss Rose."
The disgraced scientist swung his hands across the air and the hydraulic arms sprang to life.
Ruby vaulted over the spinning buzz saw swinging for her ankles, then immediately rolled away as another arm attempted to stab her with a sword, cutting a wide gash in the floor. The Rose Thief barely got to her feet before Watts turned the flamethrower on her and blenched out a burst of fire. Ruby hopped backward out of the flamethrower's reach, but felt a sharp jolt of electricity strike her back and dropped her to her hands and knees. The redhead glanced over her shoulder as a hydraulic arm equipped with electric prongs lunged at her backside again. Ruby leaned sideways to avoid the attack, grabbed hold of the arm, and forced it to spin around and connect with a neighboring arm wielding a small Gatling that looked like it was getting ready to shoot. Ruby jumped away as the electricity surged through the gun and promptly exploded, destroying both arms in the process.
"Hmph, impressive skill, Miss Rose," Dr. Watts complimented, swaying his hands around her he was conducting an orchestra. "But how long do you think you'll be able to last?"
Ruby was just wondering the same thing herself as she back flipped away from Watts's laser, dropped to the floor to dodge the saw blade again, and rolled to the side as a spiked hammer came down. For all his reflexes and agility, Ruby was still human, and thus prone to getting tired after a certain period. But she was up against inexhaustible machines that were being controlled by Watts, who had been sitting down the entire time behind the safety of his plexiglass wall. The obvious solution would be to take out Watts, but her scythe would barely scratch the protective wall and none of the weapons the doctor was using were strong enough to break it (something he had clearly taken into account when he had set up the death trap).
Ruby whipped out her scythe, clashing with the buzz saw as it came around for another swing, and knocked it away before jumping away to avoid being drenched by the pressurized hose. Unfortunately, the steel clamps caught her by the ankle in midair and slammed her down on her front. Ruby bite her tongue to stop herself from crying out as the clamps increased the pressure on her ankle until she her the bone crack. The red-hooded thief twisted her upper body and stabbed her scythe into the joints of the hydraulic arm, causing it to spark and sputter until slumped over, thankfully releasing her leg. Unfortunately, her ankle was definitely broken, meaning she would have to keep dodging with only one good leg. Not good odds….
"Weiss, I'm dying up here!" Ruby yelped into her earpiece, ducking the swinging laser. "I could use some help up here!"
"Do you still have your phone with you?" Weiss responded quickly.
Ruby threw herself on the floor, dodging the hammer, before digging around her pockets and retrieving her red smartphone, saying, "Yeah, I've got it right here!"
"Do you see Watts's personal computer anywhere?" asked Weiss.
"Yeah, I see it," said Ruby, glaring at Watts through the glass wall and then to his laptop. "The smug jerk has it out in plain sight."
"Perfect," said Weiss, sounding strangely relieved. "Just hold on to your phone a little longer. Give me a few seconds to…."
As Watts conducted his symphony of death with a gleeful smile on his mustachioed face, he didn't notice his personal laptop glitching every few seconds, a pale-white symbol briefly flashing in the background, unaware of what was happening inside….
The Datascape – the world inside computers – was an endless expansion made up entirely out of black geometric blocks with green outlines; never-ending chains of zeroes and ones covering every surface. It was in this region of the digital world where a column of light popped up from the floor and a chibi Weiss Schnee appeared. The adorable avatar had been outfitted with a suit of pearl-white armor, giving her the impression of a gallant knight. The avatar pumped her fist jubilantly.
"Yes! I'm in!" Weiss_Knight cheered. "Now let's see if we can't throw a wrench in the doctor's works."
The digital knight looked around the area that represented Watts's personal dataspace. Dozens of tower-like nodes were meticulously in four even lines, each of them stylized with Watts's loopy "W" emblem. Red lights were flashing on and off at the top of the node, seemingly at random, though Weiss_Knight noticed that some of them stayed on longer than others. The chibi knight approached one of the nodes, tapping the side with her knuckles and humming thoughtfully.
"This looks important," Weiss_Knight mused.
Grinning mischievously, Weiss_Knight raised her hands and summoned a pearl-white broadsword from a cluster of ones and zeroes. The digital knight slashed her sword diagonally across the node, cleaving it parts, and the tower exploded into nonexistence –
Ruby grunted aloud as she fell to her hands and knees, wincing from the laser burn on her right knee that had caught her totally by surprise. The Rose Thief could feel her body starting to slow down, her breath coming out harsh and uneven, sweat dripping profusely from her brow; and Watts was enjoying the whole show from his stupid, comfortable chair! The young thief pushed herself up to a crouch when she heard the whirling of blades coming from her side and realized too late that Watts's favorite saw blade was flying straight for her face! Having no time to dodge, Ruby closed her eyes and waited for the finishing blow to come….
Except it didn't….
Once it became apparent that she wasn't a bloodstain on the floor, Ruby hesitantly cracked one eye open, then stared open mouthed as the hydraulic arm started sparking unexplainably. The saw blade looked like it was having the mechanical version of a seizure, shuddering and going stiff, until it collapsed on the floor, lifeless. Ruby blinked owlishly before she noticed that the other arms were suddenly experiencing their own technical DIFFICULTIES before they all dropped like flies.
"Um…okay…," Ruby hummed strangely.
"What? No! All of my systems are crashing!" Dr. Watts cried. He was swinging his hands wildly, but none of his machines seemed to be responding. "That's impossible! How could - ?" His eyes fell onto his laptop, finally catching the snowflake emblem flashing on screen. "Bah! The Snowpea. Of course. Very well, then, if that's how you want to play it…."
The disgraced scientist cracked his knuckles as he rose from his chair, walking up to the side table and leaning closer to the screen with intense glare as his fingers danced across the keyboard –
Weiss_Knight sliced the last of the tower nodes cleanly down the middle, stepping back as the program exploded into ones and zeroes. The chibified knight holstered her digital weapon behind her back and looked around the dataspace. Without the tower nodes to block her view, Weiss_Knight spotted a large cube of red-and-black data blocks bound in eight lengths of chains held together by an old-fashioned padlock. The lock didn't have a keyhole, but instead an emblem of a vertical eye surrounded by an archaic circle with five crystals at the bottom – the banner of the Grimm. Weiss_Knight approached it.
"This must be the master control program," Weiss_Knight hummed, tilting her head back to look at it. "That's a lot of security. Then again, I wouldn't expect anything less from Watts. But if I could hack into Atlas's heaviest security mainframe, then this shouldn't be an issue."
The chibi knight withdrew her sword, heaving it over her shoulder as she prepared to swing. But the digital warrior noticed something sparkling out of the corner of her eye at the last second and held her sword vertical to her body. The broadsword deflected a wide yellow laser from the side, but the force of the impact sent the hacker flying across the map. Weiss_Knight bounced off the ground once, but righted herself in the air and stabbed her sword into the floor to stop herself. The chibi knight looked up with a glare, which quickly shifted into a dumbfounded expression.
"You're avatar is your mustache?" said Weiss_Knight, gobsmacked.
"Well, it is my best feature," said the giant, floating mustache, which twitched after every word like there was a mouth beneath it.
"…Riiiight," said Weiss_Knight slowly.
"You have been an unusually persistent thorn in my side, Snowpea," said Wattstache. "But our little game of cat and mouse ends now. I will take great pleasure in deleting you."
"It's not only until the last code is inputted," said Weiss_Knight, lifting her sword in both hands.
"Indeed," Wattstache remarked.
Empty pockets of space opened around the floating mustache, expelling several bolts of yellow lasers at the hacker. Weiss_Knight slashed her broadsword through the air with skill and finesse as if she were wielding her rapier, deflecting the small shower of bullets; one of which came close to burning the digital hairs off Wattstache's…well, you get it. Wattstache looked down at the ground and four saw blades popped out of the floor, spinning furiously before sliding across the map. Weiss_Knight deflected the last laser right before she noticed the spinning blade headed her way and leapt high into the air, performing a very elegant twirl before landing daintily on her toes. The armored hacker twirled smoothly like a ballet performer, extending her sword outward, before planting her feet firmly on the ground and swinging with all her might. A slice of white energy shot out from the edge of the blade, flying toward the floating mustache, but was unfortunately deflected by a yellow hexagonal barrier that popped up in front of Wattstache at the last second.
"Very impressive coding," Wattstache complimented as the barrier dissolved. "Rumors of your talents do not do you justice. It's refreshing to face a real challenge for a change."
"Oh, trust me, I'm not even warmed up!" Weiss_Knight shouted.
The chibi knight slapped her hand on the ground and a chain of blazing-red code spread from her hands, forming a small circle around her opponent. When the chains connected, a wall of flames roared to life, trapping Wattstache inside. Feeling quite proud of herself, Weiss_Knight turned her back on Wattstache and made a dash for the master control program.
"Hmm, very impressive firewall," Wattstache hummed. "Against the average mind, this would be a difficult program to decode. Fortunately, I am not average."
The electronic facial hair leaned forward, barely touching the flames, and the firewall was instantly dispersed into digital dust. Wattstache spotted Weiss_Knight making a run for his control program and, with a rather unsettling curl of his hairs, snapped a whip of yellow light at the chibi hacker's back. Weiss_Knight, meanwhile, had sprinted full force and took a desperate leap of faith toward the black-and-red cubes. Her forefinger only barely managed to graze the surface of the program before Wattstache's whip wrapped around her ankle, pulling her back sharply and slapping her face down on the ground. The armored hacker spun around, gasping, as Wattstache dragged her back across the map closer to him.
He didn't notice the slight glitch in the blocks where Weiss_Knight's finger had brushed against….
The armored avatar sliced her broadsword through the cord and rolled back to her feet. Data particles clustered around Wattstache, forming into black-and-yellow crystals, which shot across the map like bullets. Weiss_Knight smashed the first crystal with the broadside of her sword, but the code had a lot more weight to it than the lasers and made the hacker's slid back a few inches. She managed to smash a second crystal before a third one flew over the edge and slashed her armored shoulder, revealing a tiny sliver of ones and zeroes underneath. She slashed the next two, but the one after shattered the plating on her right leg, forcing her to take a knee. And more were only coming, faster and faster like a hailstorm – Watts was going all out trying to delete her avatar. But, even as the real Weiss's fingers started to cramp from rapid-fire tapping, Weiss_Knight stabbed her sword into the ground and a transparent dome with her snowflake emblem popped up. Wattstache's cyberattacks kept coming, but Weiss_Knight's barrier held strong.
"So you've activated a safeguard program," said Wattstache. "And a good one at that. It's such a shame we never worked together. We could have done so much."
"I would never work with a monster like you," Weiss_Knight growled. "Butchering people because you can't handle their flaws. Having flaws is what makes them human – "
"Yes, yes, I'm sure you have some rather moving speech prepared," Wattstache interrupted. "But the fact of the matter is that I don't particularly care for your opinion. You can't move without lowering your defense program, and if you do, my code will delete you. In the end, the superior hacker won."
But, the Wattstache's surprise, the digital knight smirked, and said, "You know, being on a team of thieves, you learn a lot of tricks of the trade that can surprisingly be applied to hacking, such as the art of misdirection."
"Hmm?" Wattstache hummed.
"You were so focused on me," said Weiss_Knight smugly, "that you didn't notice the Trojan virus I planted on your master control program."
At once, then digital mustache spun around and let out a terrified gasp. Three tiny chibi versions of Yang with devil horn, sharp teeth, and pointed tails were crawling all over the red-and-black cubes like adorable little gremlins, cackling wickedly as they punched, kicked, and bit into the program, tearing away the chains like they were made of cheese. When the last of the digital chains was broken and the padlock clattered on the floor, one of the Yang viruses pulled out a cartoon bomb complete with a skull and crossbones stamp from who knows and inserted into the blocks. Second Yang virus grabbed the third, cocking the gremlin like a shotgun, and breathed a spurt of fire like a flamethrower, igniting the fuse.
"NOOOOO!" Wattstache wailed.
Wattstache rushed as the Yang viruses, but in doing so cancelled out his cyberattack on Weiss_Knight. The armored avatar dropped her defense program, flying to her feet, and charged at the flying facial hair with her sword raised overhead with both hands and a furious battle cry. Her blade sliced Watts's avatar straight down the middle, cleaving him in two, as the Yang Virus's bomb reached the end of its fuse –
BOOM!
Dr. Watts tumbled back, coughing violently, swatting away the smoke of his now-destroyed laptop.
"No! No! That's impossible!" Dr. Watts cried. "You can't outsmart me! I'm a genius!"
"Hey, Watts!"
Dr. Watts grumbled under his breath and spun around, leering at Ruby Rose, who was sprinting all-out in his direction. The Rose Thief leapt into the air, diving toward him, while the disgraced scientist stood rooted in place, knowing she will just bounce off the glass wall…. That is, until he realized that the glass wall had been lowered back under the floor, most likely when Weiss destroyed his master control program. Before Watts could consider the possibility of running away, slammed her boot squarely in his face; the deafening crack indicated that his nose was broken. Dr. Watts was thrown back into his chair, which promptly fell over, and he flipped face first onto the floor. Ruby landed on his right side with a proud grin…until she realized that she had actually kicked the doctor with her broken foot.
"OW! OW! OW! WHY DID I DO THAT?" Ruby screamed, hopping up and down on one foot while holding the other.
"Ruby? Ruby? Are you okay?" Weiss called desperately over the comms. "Please answer me!"
"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine," Ruby answered, wincing as she set her foot down. "Just a beat up. Nothing I can't fix. Thanks for the assist, by the way. I don't know what you did, but it saved my butt."
"Obviously," Weiss scoffed; Ruby imagined she was flipping her hair right now. "What would you do without me?"
"I…I can't believe it," Dr. Watts groaned, weakly raising his head; his nose was definitely broken. "You…you beat me…. Unbelievable…. But…but don't get too confident because of this small accomplishment, Miss Rose. You may have defeated me, but you will never stand a chance against Tyrian, my insane, murderous cohort. Even if you manage to locate him, that psychopath will tear you limb from limb, giggling like the mad freak that he is. You'll see. Your days are numbered, Ruby – "
"Oh, shut up," Ruby commanded, rolling her eyes exasperatedly, before kicking him in the face to knock him out…with the same broken foot. "GODDAMMIT! WHY DO I KEEP DOING THAT!"
Ruby stood over Watts's battered and broken body, her single rose calling card tucked into his mustache, hands clutching the torn pages of the Book of Thieves with a proud glint in her eye.
"We had done it," Ruby narrated. "We had beaten Watts and retrieved the first section of the Book of Thieves back from the Grimm."
The first page on the stack had an oil painting of a redheaded Japanese woman with the Rose Clan's hereditary silver eyes, dressed in what would be considered a traditional kunoichi costume, which included a long red scarf wrapped around her neck and a cross-styled shuriken pinned to the front of her uniform. Ruby's mind took her back to ancient Japan, where she could clearly picture the kunoichi hopping along the pinprick points of spires and poles, lugging a bag of stolen good over her shoulder with a scroll in her teeth.
"I was excited to learnt hat one of the pages was written by my Japanese ancestor, Rose Akane, who invented and perfected the Shinobi Spire Jump. This technique allows anyone to land on small points that would normally be considered impossible to stand on – a technique she developed while sneaking into the heavily fortified castles of greedy feudal lords. Although, I didn't much time to read it before more 'uninvited guests' knocking down his door. Literally."
The elevator door to the airship suddenly blew open and Winter and Oscar appeared through the smoke, accompanied by a small squadron of INTERPOL officers. Winter narrowly caught a glimpse of red fly past the broken window and ran over, slamming her fist against the wall in frustration as she watched Ruby Rose glide away using her cape as a parachute. She didn't stay made for long when Oscar tapped her on the shoulder and pointed out the unconscious doctor on the floor.
"Winter looked pretty upset about not being able to catch me, but she got over it when she slapped the cuffs on Watts, who, thanks to the evidence Weiss leaked to INTERPOL, was arrested on multiple counts of murder, illegal experimentation, and cybercrimes, along with his associates like Dr. Taupe, who quickly threw Watts under the bus to buy himself a lighter sentence."
The Rose Gang were happily sailing away from Gale Island aboard Matte Skye's boat, cheers and high-fives all around. As they got further away from the island, the stormy seas noticeably got calmer and the dark clouds that choked the skies began to clear, granting them a beautiful view of the sunrise on the horizon.
"With Watts locked up and his storm machine out of commission, the storms finally cleared around the British shores and boats were back out into the open waters once more."
A few days later, the Rose Gang were standing outside of Buckingham Palace, smiling and flashing peace signs for the camera. Yang had gotten her tourist on and bought herself a Union Jack shirt and a pair of oversized sunglasses; Blake was disguised as one of the Queen's Guards with her own bayonet; Weiss had gotten herself a stylish white pea coat and was sipping tea like a proper British woman; and Ruby was grinning from ear-to-ear, weighed down by the Crown Jewels she "borrowed" from the Queen.
"The Gang and I decided to spend a few days in jolly ol' England to see the sights before heading back to the states to prepare for our next heist."
It's been a long time since I've been back here, and now that I'm taking a break from my Akko Kagari series for a while, I hope to get a lot of this done.
I didn't really have much planned in the way of the Watts boss fight since he's never displayed any real combat skills, only being able to manipulate machines, so there wasn't much action to be had here. It was mostly a duel of wits shared between Weiss and Watts. The rest of the Grimm are more battle-oriented, so look forward to that.
The next chapter will be a filler, as will all chapter between heists, but it gives me a chance to flesh out the RWBY Thief world and introduce some characters that would otherwise seem awkward and out of place anywhere else. And the next character to be introduced could quite possibly be an even greater menace to the Rose Gang than the Grimm. XD
Please, read and review.