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To Survive and Prosper

CHAPTER 5

Ruby and I decided to spend the afternoon at the arcade to pass time until the others managed to find something that was worth our attention. I managed to maintain the high score on the rail shooter that Ren and I completed a few times, only this time I beat the game solo. Speaking of shooters, Ruby managed to ace the virtual shooting range, getting several bullseyes under a single sitting. Thinking about it, this might be the kind of simulation Penny takes in Atlas, only more advanced of course.

Since the games we played tested our skills, it was training in a sense, so we didn't exactly waste our own time just to entertain ourselves and it kept us active in the meantime. We left the arcade once it got dark. We still have yet to get an update from others, so we simply strolled around town sharing some stories.

"You serious?" Ruby laughed at my stories about Nora's antics and how she went crazy around robots after drinking some soda.

"Yeah, she thinks robots are finally rising up against their meatbag masters and they are about to overthrow us!" I said with an amused grin.

She kept laughing until she suddenly stopped as if something serious had hit her. "Does every robot have to be bad? What if there's a good robot? The ones who will stick on our side."

I shrugged. "I don't know, ask Nora. The idea of a robot uprising wasn't my idea in the first place."

"Jaune, this might sound weird but… could robots have feelings?" Judging by the tone of her voice, she sounded more worried.

Huh, she's right about that question being a bit weird. Don't know what made her bring that up. She sounded strangely serious about the question though, her eyes were still gazing at me as she waited for an answer.

"You mean become sentient? Maybe, if someone is crazy and brilliant enough you're to somehow make them grow beyond their programming but that's probably not gonna happen. Their feelings would still end up feeling fake anyway. " I told her.

Looking at her, it appeared that she couldn't help but frown. When I was about to ask what was wrong, our scrolls abruptly rang and we saw that the call was coming from Blake. "Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back—" She yelled the second we answered, making it no less obvious that she was alarmingly in distress.

"HELP!" Sun cried out in her scroll's background. "Big robot! And it's big! Really big! That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something! Hurry!"

The call was then cut off and we were left with a blinking red light of Blake and Sun's position on our maps. Dammit, I murmured. I knew this would happen. 'Careful' my ass. "Looks like we'll be fighting a different kind of robot." I quipped in an attempt to cope with the fact that I was going to face a repeat of the docks incident again even though that was a stupid statement.

"Whatever that was, I am not missing this!" Ruby smirked excitedly like the thrill-seeking Huntress-in-training that she is. "Quick, we have no time to lose!"

There was unfortunately no other choice for me than to take part in it otherwise I'll be contradicting my image if I wasn't present in helping them especially since Blake was already questioning me if I am what my reputation cracks it up to be and I just ditched Weiss on her own. That wasn't a rumor I wanted floating around after I just started this semester.

Holy Brothers, this is the last time I trust Blake into investigating something, she only calls for trouble. I couldn't believe I let her convince me that everything would be all right and drag me along in it.

We took another look at the map that tracked Blake's scroll and began running toward the destination with almost indecent haste, never mind that we realized that it was too distant for us to reach. "Crap, they're on the freeway bordering the industrial district, that's miles away! We'll never get there in time!" I exclaimed.

"I could, my speed can get me there in a jiffy!" Ruby told me. "I could carry you with it, but it would slow me down and it would use too much of my aura."

With little time we have and the fact that we would need most of our aura to best an advanced war machine (if we're even lucky that is), that didn't sound practical. "Any other bright ideas?"

"This is an urgent situation! I'm going to have to get there first. Sorry Jaune, but I think you're going to have to catch up!" she said before using her semblance to zoom to the top of the nearest building.

"Wait! What am I supposed to do then?!" I said, looking up at her as I stopped in my tracks for a moment.

"You'll think of something, I know you can! Right now, my team needs me and I need to be as quick as I can! I'll see you later!" She then hurled away with the wind, leaving me with nothing but trails of rose petals.

Great, now what? I asked myself. I was tempted to take this as an opportunity to turn tail and bail out and just tell them that I couldn't make it but I already knew that wasn't going to make me look good. All I needed to do was simply be present and I'll let the girls do most of the cleaning since the mess they caused was an indirect result of agreeing that this was a good idea. It'll at least make me look like I care even if I do nothing.

The problem was I didn't have any sort of transportation to travel there quickly. Looking around, I spotted a headlight of a sole incoming scooter bike from a distance, giving me this incredibly stupid yet workable idea. I was hesitant to commit what would be outright bike theft but what else could I do? Take the bus? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I quickly entered my code to summon my locker and marked the landing zone next to my location. After a few seconds, the red beaconing lights of my locker appeared in the middle of the road where I marked its landing as the scooter went closer. Without a moment's hesitation, my locker crashed in front a few feet between the motorcyclist, causing him to hit the brakes out of shock, almost losing balance in the process.

Moving in to grab my sword and pistol before putting them on my belt and its holster. I showed my Beacon ID to the scooter rider. He was a lanky man in a brown checkered suit, wearing a helmet and a pair of goggles as well as a dark green scarf. He raised both of his arms, presumably out of shock and confusion. "Official Huntsman Business!" I asserted. Well, unofficial and I wasn't a real Huntsman yet of course. My I.D. was no license yet it seemed to have done the trick. It didn't seem like he was able to tell the difference. "I'm going to need to borrow your vehicle."

He nodded as he was noticeably trembling. He slowly got out of his bike, keeping his hands in the air. I then went in and rode his scooter and gave him a friendly smile. "Thank you, kind sir, the Arc family owes you a great debt. Someday I will repay you." Unless of course, I can't find him or I forget. Whatever the case, there was a rogue mech rampaging on the city's freeway that he'll surely hear later from the news, I hope he understands.

I twisted the bike's throttle backward and drove to Blake's location as fast as I could. After a few minutes had passed, I checked my scroll and saw that the entire team had already made it while their trackers were still moving around the freeway, indicating that the chase was still ongoing.

I managed to make it to the western part of the commercial district. I kept making my way until I saw a couple of VPD squad cars. I thought that they were heading to the freeway since they were also heading west as I was, so I thought it made sense for me to follow them at the time.

But as good as the idea was at the time, in hindsight, it was the worst mistake I made that day.

The cops led me to a bank where they suddenly stopped. One of the officers was shot down as soon as he left his vehicle. The front of the bank was clouded with smoke where all the gunfire was coming. I watched the scene with a mixture of shock and bewilderment for a moment. As soon as I realized that the cops were actually responding to a robbery and weren't leading me to the freeway, I pulled the brakes and tried to turn back, only for someone to open fire in my direction. I was able to avoid the bullets but unfortunately, the scooter's back tire was shot and was deflating as a result, forcing me to throw myself out of the scooter and run toward the nearest cop car to get some cover.

As soon as the shooting stopped, all of the cops were either dead or too injured to keep on fighting. I peeked out as the smoke started to fade. Emerging from it were casually dressed bank robbers with Grimm masks similar to those from the White Fang. They were armed to the teeth; in the middle was a small feminine figure. Said figure wore a unique decorative Grimm mask that concealed her entire face while her hair was still visible at the back of her head, her hair was two-toned in color with one side brown and the other pink; she wore a white jacket with a brown corset under it with her waists slightly exposed, brown pants and white high-heeled boots that still made her look short.

With all the criminal encounters I've been experiencing then, I was beginning to miss fighting the Grimm, at least their mindlessness made them less annoying to deal with. Where the hell was Penny when you needed her? I thought.

After thinking about what I should do, I decided to say screw it and took my laser pistol from my holster and began blind firing at the robbers, making them get to cover, while the short, fully-masked one just blocked the shots with her pink umbrella. I was only able to hit one of them down out of chance.

I tried running to the nearest alley, only for more bank robbers to pop out from there, so I had to run back while shooting at them. I saw that I was surrounded by more of the robbers so I had little choice but to get rid of them until help arrives. I survived a bank robbery before and I wanted to make sure that I survived another one.

I went back to the cop cars for cover while using my shield to block incoming gunshots. I then fired at two of the crooks, almost instantly putting them down thanks to the accurate stopping power of my trusty upgraded laser pistol. One of them was a female hooded figure in black who started to dash towards me with daggers in both hands, she started to jump over the cop car I was at, so I put my shield up and threw her to the ground once she put her foot above it. I began striking her with my sword while she tried her hardest to deflect them. Sensing a gunman behind me, I slipped to her back with my shield using her as a second cover as the gunman started to open fire at me, only to gun down his comrade as I blocked the shots that got past her.

As soon as the dagger wielder fell, I charged toward the assailant and bashed his masked face with my shield before stabbing him in the stomach.

Two robbers looked at each other—one of them a guy with a spiked steel club and the other was noticeably a faunus girl with antlers holding a pump-action shotgun. They decided to approach me and tried to succeed where others have failed, unfortunately for them, I wasn't going to let that happen.

I parried the club wielder's attacks while simultaneously blocking the female robber's shotgun blasts. When the gunner's ammo ran out and started reloading shells into her weapon, I sidestepped from her partner's vertical strike and bashed the clubber with my shield before turning back to slash her, causing her and her weapon to drop to the ground as she bled out. Afterward, I hear the other club-wielding robber cry in agony.

"Deery! Why you son of a—!"

Oh, shut up, I thought as I shot him in the face with my laspistol mid-sentence when his guard was down, leaving a glowing hole in the middle of his mask. Those assholes attacked me first, what the hell did they expect?

Facing back to the bank, I saw three robbers and immediately backed out, grabbing the bags of money and then fleeing. The short one without the uniform, on the other hand, decided to step in.

I pointed my gun at her and started shooting, but she casually deflected my shots with her umbrella. My ammo clip ran out, so I holstered it back and expanded my shield. She pulled down her umbrella's canopy and started attacking me with her weapon. I blocked her initial attacks with my shield. I dashed back and went to strike at her, but she was so fast that she was able to dodge every swing. She countered one of my attacks and started to push me back until she swept my feet, making me fall to the ground.

I kept parrying a few more of her attacks while lying down before she managed to swing my sword away from my grasp. She then stomped on my left arm, ceasing me from using my shield as she unsheathed a blade from her and raised it to stab my face.

Before she was able to do so, a gunshot flew into her mask, knocking her back before a scarlet blur came to her and began to clash her weapon with hers.

I took a good look at the figure who saved me, it was none other than my partner—The Invincible Girl herself. "Pyrrha?"

"Hello again!" Pyrrha greeted, pushing her sword against the girl's umbrella before they both pulled back. "We'll discuss this later!"

I nodded at her and got to cover. I reloaded my laspistol as I peeked out and watched Pyrrha and the short bank robber fight. I noticed a red laser sight aiming toward me before I leaned back and avoided the shot. I fired back at the sniper who was at the top of the bank, dispatching him with a single accurate shot.

In hindsight, I'm glad I warmed up my firing arm with that light gun game at the arcade earlier.

Looking back at the two girls. The short robber had her mask damaged enough, that she threw it away—revealing a face that contained mismatched eyes that shared the color of her two-toned hair. I stepped in and assisted Pyrrha in dealing with this threat, forcing the short girl to change tactics and start spinning around her umbrella to parry both of our attacks.

She turned at me as we started to clash our weapons. She kicked her back which Pyrrha blocked with her shield. As I continued to parry her attacks with my sword, I began shooting at her legs, making her leap back as Pyrrha threw her javelin at her, she dodged it but it ended up hitting a bag of money being carried by a bank robber, causing him to drop it and cower away.

The short girl then narrowed her eyes before suddenly smirking. I readied my weapon and started charging at her since she was open and was just standing there. But after swinging it to her, her figure devolved into literal pieces of glass.

Confused, I stared at the shattered pieces that were supposed to be her body, wondering where the hell did she go. We then saw a Bullhead float above us, its passenger—the same girl we just fought—smiled and waved at us before she flew away.

I panted as I looked around the area, finding nothing but bodies of police officers and bank robbers lying around. "Is that the end of it?" I asked.

Pyrrha was about to answer, but then she suddenly turned back, locked the wrist of another bank robber, pushed him to the ground, and aimed his hand cannon at him after swiping it. "I think it is now."

"What are you doing here anyway?" I asked her, stepping closer toward her.

"Nora calmed down and took a nap and Ren kept an eye on her, so I decided to check on my partner, only to find out that he was fighting bank robbers!" She exclaimed after tying down the last robber, crossing her arms as she scowled at me.

"Trust me, I didn't exactly want to be here," I defended.

"You do have a knack for finding yourself in trouble. I thought you were supposed to be helping Team RWBY in whatever they're doing. Not…this." She gestured around the place, showing me the mess that I was already aware of.

"I was about to continue doing that until I got into this mess," I explained.

"Where are they now then?"

"They're on the highway, fighting a giant robot I presume."

"What?!" she asked if I was screwing around. Couldn't blame her, it's as incredulous as it sounds.

"I'm serious. This was supposed to be a simple investigation, then Blake and Sun called saying they were being chased by a giant robot with Torchwick in it. We all rushed to help, then I ended up here."

"An investigation? Torchwick? What is this all about?"

"It's a long story," I glanced away for a second.

"And aren't these the bandits from Forever Fall?" she gestured to the unconscious bodies of the bank robbers. "They wear the same masks, and oddly enough, they also have the same smell."

I took a moment to look at the bank robbers for an extended period. I realized that most, if not all of them had faunus features and they were indeed wearing the same masks as the White Fang from both Forever Fall and the docks. Not only that, if I heard right, I recall some of them even have the same Hibernian accents. It all but said that they are connected. Whatever the case, something was fishy.

"Jaune, could you explain to me what is going on?!" Pyrrha demanded, obviously out of the loop on these things.

Before I was able to satisfy her questions, I heard sirens from a distance before a few squad cars approached us. "I'll have to do that later,"

The police arrived at the scene. The officers then got out and started pointing their guns at us. "Oi! Hands in the air. Drop your bloody weapons!" One of them commanded.

I considered protesting and explaining that I'm not a robber even though I stole a bike earlier which doesn't count because I had a good excuse, but I knew the wise thing to do was comply. I know my rights and I think bringing up my family's connections and my reputation as a bandit slayer could make these coppers excuse my vigilantism. Really, the only bad part about this was I couldn't go with my usual routine of looting enemy bodies.

"Don't freak out," I said to both myself and Pyrrha as I dropped my weapons and raised my hands. She was puzzled and hesitant but she was smart enough to do the same.

"Wait. Pyrrha Nikos?" One of the cops realized who he was aiming at as he lowered his gun. "Sign me notepad please!"

She glanced at me, to which I could only respond with a shrug.

"Oight, lads, calm down, they're not a threat." Another officer said to the others before turning at us. "But that doesn't mean you kids are off the hook. You two still have some explainin' to do."

Here we go again. This is the last time I trust Blake with an investigation. Those girls better have some good news. What number do I contact my family's lawyers again?

Editorial Note: Since Jaune was unable to be present during the encounter with Torchwick's stolen Atlesian Paladin at the highway between the Industrial District and the Commercial District of Vale, the event will be detailed by excerpts through Ruby's memoirs and Neptune's audio logs. For obvious reasons, Blake's accounts will be excluded, since their previous inclusion was already enough for one chapter.

Neptune's Audio Logs: Big Freakin' Robot!

Neptune: After leaving that shady club, Sun and Blake suddenly called us saying they were being chased by a giant robot as those two coincidentally passed us.

(Audio cuts to Neptune and Yang after leaving the club.)

Neptune: Those guys really hate you, don't they?

Yang: They wouldn't have to if they were a little nicer before.

Neptune: What exactly happened then?

Yang: Well, here's the short version: I asked them for something, they tried to beat me up, and I ended up kicking their butts. Let's just say the club remained closed for a few months.

Neptune: (Surprised pause.) Okay… that explains that.

(They got on Yang's motorcycle. After she started her engine. She suddenly heard Blake's voice coming out from the scroll.)

Blake: (Scroll call) Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back—

Sun: (In the background of Blake's scroll) HEEEELLLLP!

Neptune: Oh, what did Sun do this time?!

Yang: Shush!

Sun: (In the background of Blake's scroll) Big robot! And it's big! Really big! That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something!

Yang: (Responding to the call.) Where are you guys?

(Metallic stomps can be heard in the background.)

Sun: (In the background of Blake's Scroll and somewhere in the duo's distance.) HUURRYY!

Yang: (Responding to the call.) We're on it! (Turns around her motorcycle then accelerates.)

Neptune: Whoa!

(Audio cuts to a couple or more minutes later.)

Yang: We've gotta slow it down!

Neptune: Got it!

(Sounds of car horns and vehicles crashing.)

Yang: Hold on!

Neptune: (Screaming.)

(Cars crashing.)

Neptune: (Weapon twirling.) (Railgun blasting.) (Weapon transforming.) (Grunts as he leaps to the Paladin) (Sound of a weapon penetrating a metal.)

Sun: (From a distance, barely audible due to the traffic.) Neptune, hang on!

Neptune: (Screams as he struggles to balance with the robot.)

(Sounds of Sun's clones colliding with the Paladin.)

Neptune: (Screaming) (Bump)

(Both Sun and Neptune screamed as they both fell from the highway.)

Sun: (Lands safely on his feet.) Ha! Perfect landing.

Neptune: Oof! (Lands on his partner.)

Sun: (Grunts in pain.)

Neptune: Sun, are you okay?

Sun: (Painful moans.) My back…

Neptune: Don't worry, bro, I still got your back.

Sun: No, you moron—my back hurts!

Neptune: Oh, sorry.

Sun: Give me a sec. (A few seconds pass as his aura heals him.) There, it's much better now.

Neptune: Seriously dude, you just saw a real-life mecha for the first time and you managed to piss it off?

Sun: Hey, I'm just as surprised as you! I didn't know what we were walking into.

Neptune: Okay, okay. Do you think we could still catch up to them?

(Audio pauses as they look at a faraway distance. They saw the Paladin fall and looked at their allies.)

Sun: You know what, let them handle this. It's their fight; I just dragged ourselves into this. This is just too much. Fighting Torchwick in that robot would be badass and all, but I didn't sign up for this. Innocent people just got hurt, man!

Neptune: Wait, what? So, we're just gonna leave them?!

Sun: They'll be fine. I've seen them fight, they could handle it. We'll just be a liability anyway.

Neptune: (Sighs) Whatever you say. (Pause.) Man, I could use something to eat.

Sun: I know a place; it'll make us feel like we're back in Mistal.

Neptune: Hey… I just realized something. Where's Jaune?

Sun: No idea.

The Red Rose Diaries: Fighting Torchwick at the Highway.

I saw Torchwick shove cars off as he chased Yang, and all I could do was watch and let Weiss use her ice dust to make him and his robot slip until he fell below the highway. All I could think of was the people he harmed because they were in his way, but I went to hold my emotions for the time being and focus on stopping Torchwick before he could hurt more people.

Everyone was already there and was ready. [1] We first used 'Freezer Burn' to create a fog out of Weiss ice and have Yang crash on it. It gave us some time while Torchwick had trouble finding us in the fog.

I charged and hit him. I ordered Weiss and Blake to attack the robot at its legs while it had trouble trying to shoot them. Torchwick tried to stomp Blake, but Weiss pulled her with glyphs before that could happen.

Torchwick fired some rockets at them but they were able to avoid them. Thanks to Weiss's time dilation abilities with her glyphs, Blake was able to slice all of those missiles down.

Blake and I went in and attacked its legs again. When Torchwick tried to shoot me. We both jumped up and sliced off one of the robot's arms.

Yang then leaped to his back. Punching it until Torchwick launched himself to the freeway's pillars until he managed to shake her off. This was a mistake for him, as it activated Yang's semblance. With that, she blew the other robot's arm when it tried to punch her. Torchwick kicked her, making her fly away. I got Blake to pull her back with her weapon's ribbon.

We needed to slow it down, so I fired several rounds of ice dust at Weiss's glyphs, creating shots powerful enough to freeze Torchwick's robot. Blake threw Yang at Torchwick, finally breaking his robot to pieces.

Yang tried to put him down once and for all by firing a shot, only for some weird colorful-looking girl to come out and block it with her umbrella. Yang tried to charge and punch them before finding out she broke pieces of a mirror, with both of them disappearing. We then saw them on a Bullhead, flying away, scot-free.

It looks like Torchwick has a new henchman, at least that's what Yang said.

We may have broken his robot, but he got away... and we couldn't save those people. Weiss tried to lighten the mood and it's not funny, even Yang called her out on it.

The police came, one of them was the detective from the docks. He said that we needed a serious talk. We couldn't find a reason to say 'no', after all, it's our fault why Torchwick hurt those people.

Could we have done something? Was it our fault that we put innocents in harm's way? I can't exactly answer that. Either way, I wished it didn't have to end like this. Maybe Jaune was right and that we shouldn't have done this in the first place.

I wish Mom was here, she would have known what to do.

=o=

1. For those who are wondering how I got from Beacon to Vale's western highway so quickly, I bribed a Bullhead pilot into giving me a 'private emergency flight' and having him take me there as soon as possible.

Merry Christmas and uhh... don't drink too little.