"I'm sorry, what?" I asked, both surprised and not at the same time. I wasn't surprised that Blake would try and successfully convince the others to investigate the White Fang late at night, but I was surprised that they agreed with little argument in general.
I was also surprised that she'd go out of my way to ask me to participate in something like this as well. I wasn't really sure if Yang or the others were OK with it, but I'd have to see this for myself.
Blake blushed nervously, knowing exactly what she was asking me to do. "Please, we need your help," she said. "Things have been getting worse. You saw the news, the White Fang have been stepping up their operations and we need to stop them!"
Well, I wasn't too disappointed. I suppose this was unavoidable. "But...don't you think the police would be suited best for this kind of-" I said before Blake interrupted me.
"The police don't take their job or the White Fang seriously. The docks were reported to be White Fang only, they didn't even bother putting Torchwick in there despite our testimonies," Blake shot back at me. "You know what they're like. Please just...come with us?"
I don't recall the edgy Blake being able to pull off the begging kitten look, but she was doing it somehow. And holy hell was it working. "I...I don't like this," I protested weakly. "But...if we can stop it from progressing any further..."
"Thank you!" Blake cried, hugging me tightly in the middle of the dorm hallway. Patting her head awkwardly, I just sighed in reply.
"Just...make sure you don't rush into things without a plan again," I said. Before Blake could protest how she doesn't do that, I immediately spoke up again. "You jumped out the window the moment your heritage came out and you rushed into battle the moment Torchwick showed up."
Blake frowned, thoroughly embarrassed. Sighing, I shrugged. "And...you're going to be heading out tonight?" I asked.
"Yeah," Blake said. "Can you keep this from Liya? I don't want her to have to..."
Blake was aware about Tukson's death, and I did tell her about how Liya was taking it. Nodding, I zipped my lips. She didn't need to know what was happening. Blake and I split up after telling me to meet in RWBY's room after classes today. Classes were uneventful, with Liya more or less keeping to herself. While this was OK with me, I occasionally asked if she was doing OK or not.
She never answered me any of those times.
When class ended, I checked on Liya to make sure she was doing OK. Luckily, she said she was going to turn in early after doing homework. I told her that I'd be working on an assignment with Yang for the night as I changed my clothes, and proceeded to make my way to team RWBY's dorm room, where the four were changing into their one time outfits from Volume 2.
"About time you made it," Yang said as she turned on her heel to face me in her hunter outfit, my eyes flickering to that miniskirt and the purple cloth that hung from it. "So, whatcha think?"
Me, the absolute fool that I was, didn't respond. Instead I blushed like an idiot and just looked away nervously. Yang laughed and Ruby just went over to pet my ears. Weiss was on her scroll, reading things on its screen while scrolling while Blake was double checking that her bow was secured on her head.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked as I managed to shake off Ruby's hands off my head, much to her annoyance.
"We're doing investigations on multiple fronts," Weiss said as she finally pocketed her scroll. "Ruby and I can go to the CCT tower and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family and the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, it shouldn't be too much of a problem for me."
"That's cool ice queen," Yang said, ignoring the indignant "Hey!" Weiss gave immediately after that statement, cracking her knuckles as she continued to talk. " I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard."
Yang turned to me and winked. "Maybe you can come with me and convince him that I've been on my best behavior to make things easier," she said in a...sensual tone of voice. Blushing brightly, I looked away nervously while Weiss scoffed at Yang's crudeness.
"Actually, the White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. I was lucky enough to get a confirmed address for tonight's recruitment. If I can get in, I can hopefully find out any specifics on what they're planning," Blake said. "And I need Markus to come with me."
I blinked at Blake as Yang frowned. "Why do you need me?" I asked curiously.
"Yeah, aren't you usually good at doing things solo?" Yang asked. "The whole ninja thing?"
"Blending in is different," Blake explained. "Markus and I work pretty well together, and if I recall, you and Markus were sucking face at a bar rather than behaving."
Yang shrugged. "It was hot," she said, smirking as she saw my face blush for the third time in a row today.
"So, when do we get going?" Sun asked.
"Well, we should be able to sneak out in a few...hours..." Weiss said before her voice slowly fell silent. All five of us turned to the window, where Sun was hanging upside down from his tail, just like in the episode.
"Hi Sun," I said awkwardly as the other four stepped back in surprise.
"Sun?" Blake said. "How'd you get up here?"
"Uhh, monkey tail? Climbing? I do this all the time," Sun said casually.
"You what?" Weiss cried, mortified and apoplectic.
"I climb trees all the time!" Sun said, ignoring Weiss's seemingly horrified expression. "Anyways, we're getting back at Torchwick and the White Fang, right?"
"We are not," Weiss stressed. "This isn't your business. It's a team issue only."
"If it's a team issue...why is Markus with you?" Sun asked.
"Uhh, that's different-" Blake began, but Sun continued to talk.
"I never understood the whole 'team only' issue anyway," Sun said, as he flipped forward and landed on his feet in the room. "Friends are there to help, that's why I brought these two dinguses."
The five of us turned to look back out the window, where Neptune Vasilias and Reese Chloris peeked their heads into the room from over the windowsill.
"Yo," Reese said with a single wave of her hand.
"Sup?" Neptune said.
"Hold on...how'd you get up here in the first place?" Yang asked.
"You don't wanna know," Reese said before she squeaked and jolted from outside the window. "A little help?"
After helping the two Mistral students in, we gave Reese and Neptune the rundown on what exactly was going on. As expected, Blake's Faunus heritage was of no issue to the two bright haired students. They were also completely alright with what they were brought here to do, not pulled against their will by Sun.
And so, the eight of us went through a change of plans. Neptune, Ruby, and Weiss were going to go to the CCT Tower, with Reese and Yang sticking together to head to Junior's club. I ended up with the original plan to go with Blake to the White Fang meeting, this time with Sun tagging along.
"We're heading out early," Blake said as she pocketed her scroll with Reese's, Sun's, and Neptune's scroll contact information newly added. "We need time to scout the location before heading inside."
"Alright. See ya!" Ruby said as she waved us goodbye. Yang reached over and pulled me aside as we passed her, quickly pecking me on the cheek. "Be careful, OK?" she asked.
"I will," I whispered before we left. Slipping out of the building, we made our way to Beacon's airship pads, where we took our short flight to the city of Vale. Upon arriving, Blake was about to lead us to the address where the recruitment pitch was happening when Sun brought up something.
"You know...you never wear anything interesting," Sun said, staring at my classic combination of T-shirt and blue jeans, along with my belt of Neural Dust. My boots from before survived at least. "You should get a new outfit."
"Sun, we should all be focusing on the White Fang and we're almost there anyway-" Blake said.
"Blake, come on," Sun said. "It's going to look weird if we just do nothing outside a building then go in hours later. We could take a peek at it to make sure it's still there, then kill some time before we actually head in."
"Yeah...I'm with Sun. I don't really feel like stressing out on some stakeout for a while," I said awkwardly. "I just figured we'd be doing occasional checkups on the location and-"
"No, no you're right," Blake said, holding up a hand. "Sorry, I've just been pretty busy with this...I shouldn't be asking you to do all these hard things with me."
"Don't sweat it. Come on, let's have some fun! It'll be like last time," Sun said, grabbing Blake's arm and tugging her towards a store, with me following. I grinned to myself at the little red tinge on Blake's cheeks as he pulled her along.
The three of us spent some time at a small clothing store that did custom commissions for huntsmen and huntresses, owned by a Faunus and was very friendly to us. She was also genuinely offended when she saw that I had no actual dedicated huntsman outfit and immediately offered to make something for me.
She didn't charge that much compared to the more high end establishments and she even gave half off discounts for students. Blake offered to pay for it, saying it was the least she could do for making me as part of the plan in the first place. Still, I didn't want to drain her wallet so I stuck with something simple: black pants, a white shirt, and a black biker jacket much like Mercury Black's Volume 8 appearance, with the white lined zipper aligned to my right side rather than the center.
Blake also paid for some gray knee pads, shoulder pads, and some vambraces that fit over the jacket sleeves. When I protested, she said otherwise, insisting on buying me something that would best fit a huntsman in training as a form of thanks for now and last time when she ran off and dragged me off, despite that being my decision alone.
She also may have mentioned that she was still interested in beta reading and possibly working with me on my web-story, which may have ruined the moment for us partially. Bribery never felt so weird. Still, I agreed and she spent the next five minutes with a giddy smile on her face. I left with Sun and Blake decked out in my new attire before heading to the building.
Blake and I waited in an alley a full block away from the building while Sun left to get us something to eat. Looking down, I cleared my throat awkwardly. Blake turned to me. "Yeah?" she asked.
"You...mentioned being in the White Fang. But I don't think you ever mentioned why you join. Like...the true reason," I said.
"Well, what else is there to say?" Blake asked. "I joined because things were too rough for the Faunus. And I wanted to make a difference."
"That's true, but it sounded much more personal to you," I mentioned. Blake looked away from me and I coughed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"No, you're right," Blake said as she looked up at the slowly darkening sky above. "It's just not something I wanna talk about right now."
"Gotcha," I said. "So, any movement?"
"Just a few Faunus here and there. Most of them going in had the masks," Blake said, seemingly glad for the subject change. That begged another question, however.
"Where do the masks come from anyway?" I asked quietly.
"The White Fang sends them everywhere. It's the invitation for the Faunus to join. If someone shows up with them, it's likely they were either reached out to or just got one in the mail," Blake explained.
"That seems like begging for attention from humans too," I said. "Then there's the Faunus who don't sympathize."
"The masks are untraceable in many ways. It'll bring up investigations but the White Fang know how to stay hidden from the authorities," Blake said. "Though, it isn't always foolproof."
"Wait, do we-" I said before Blake held up three masks from somewhere on her body. I wasn't about to ask, so I just nodded and kept looking while chalking that up to anime logic.
"Yo, I'm back," Sun's voice said. We looked up to see Sun hopping down the fire escape of the adjacent building and landing with four bags in his hands. "Fish and chips."
Blake drooled at the word "fish" for a split second, but I just stared at Sun with cleverly concealed amusement. "Really, the cat stereotype?" I asked.
"Hey, it was the closest stall," Sun protested. "Plus the place is super good. Seriously, they have this combo for like seven Lien, three fish pieces, a bunch of fries that look like they were dunked in like three sauces, then you got diced onions, lettuce, cheese, bits of bacon-"
"Alright, alright, you convinced me," I said, laughing while my stomach growled intently. "Keep watch, I'm hungry."
"Me too," Blake said, immediately snagging one of the bags and tearing it down the side with rigorous vigor. We ended up eating together, Sun chatting about life in Mistral, as well as how Vacuo was. The fish was incredible as well, as were the loaded fries. For a moment, we forgot that we were supposed to stake out a terrorist organization and we simply enjoyed ourselves.
We entered the building an hour later, donning our masks and joining the masses that were piled up inside. The interior of the warehouse was much larger than I remember in the show, and the ratio of potential recruits to actual uniformed troops was much higher in the former category.
Onstage was the White Fang lieutenant. As expected, he was built rather buff with a different uniform and mask on. "Thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!" he announced, and Roman Torchwick himself walked around from the large curtain with the White Fang logo on it.
The crowd began to jeer at the "filthy human" for his appearance, and the thief simply took it all in jest. "Thank you, thank you! Please, hold your applause!"
"What's a human doing here?" Deery called from a few people ahead of me.
"I'm glad you asked, Deery!" Roman said as he swept the crowd. I couldn't tell whether he spotted and specifically called her out, or if he really said 'dearie' and the name just stuck. "Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans...are the worst. Case in point. So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or, better yet, killed!"
"So, is he going somewhere with this, or..." Sun muttered to Blake and me. I didn't say anything, for I'd noticed Neopolitan herself entering the stage as well. She leaned on one of the support struts that held up the catwalk, where several White Fang guards were at.
"But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy: the ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty, rotten humans that run our kingdoms! Government, military, even the schools: they're all to blame for your lot in life!" Roman said as the crowds began to slowly mutter amongst themselves in agreement. "And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around... No offense to any rodents in the room."
Roman snapped his fingers and the curtain fell. The Atlesian Paladin-290 behind it seemed much more intimidating than in the show. I could clearly make out large cannons on the arms, specifically large boxy Dust cannons, a few autocannons, several anti-personnel weapons in the form of high caliber machine guns and grenade launchers, and those hidden multi-missile batteries on its back.
What the show also didn't include was everything behind the robot. Specifically the massive number of ammunition crates, rifles, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, grenade belts, swords, axes, and much more. Just how much weapons dealing did Roman do?
"Big robot..." Sun muttered, and I could only nod in agreement.
Roman knocked on the large mechanized walker's double jointed knee as the crowd began to quiet down. "As some of you may have heard, this right here...is Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my "employer", we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, 'hit the shelves'. Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine... But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?"
As the crowd cheered, the lieutenant called all willing participants to come forward. As the crowd began to move, we found ourselves being pushed forward slowly by the sheer number of recruits that were willing to join. Luckily, we were near the back of the stage but we were running out of time before we were within spotting distance of Roman.
"What do we do?" Sun hissed.
"I dunno, I'm thinking!" Blake whispered back. I was looking up to see the catwalks above us. Specifically, one that had no guards on it.
It was a crazy idea, but would it work? We were moving fast, and actively pushing against the crowd would gain suspicion faster. But things were likely to go bad if we did nothing.
No, there was absolutely no other option.
"Guys," I whispered when Roman's eyes swept over us. "Grab me."
"Huh?" Sun said. Roman's eyes fell onto Blake and Sun, before finally spotting me.
"Now!" I shouted before I grabbed Blake and Sun by their waists. Before either of them could even say anything, the neural Dust shot out of my belt before forming large tentacles that hooked onto the catwalk. As Roman yelled at the guards, we were slung up onto the catwalks, landing with a loud thud as bullets began to fire on us.
Recruits screamed and took cover, rushing to other rooms in the warehouse, as most of the guards attempted to calm them down. Roman aimed up at us with Melodic Cudgel, but I was barely able to block the high explosive shot with my Dust before it struck the catwalk.
Unfortunately for us, Neo shattered into glass and reappeared in front of Blake and Sun. to their credit, they immediately rushed Neo with no hesitation, working in tandem to parry her quick attacks and covering each other when she tried teleporting. Say what you want, the monkey and the cat were very fast.
But Neo was faster. She often landed two or three hits to their aura before they could hope to block or counterattack. And I was hopeless to help them since I was busy blocking bullets and knocking over White Fang grunts left and right, either from reaching the ladder or landing a shot on my friends. "Shit, shit, shit!" I grumbled before spotting the cockpit of the Atlesian Paladin slam shut.
"We gotta go!" I yelled before I sent a tendril Neo's way. Lucky for me, I managed to snag her in the foot and fling her towards the hard empty floor. As she landed perfectly on her feet, the Paladin with Roman in it began to charge up its arsenal of many cannons.
"Window!" I yelled, and we booked it across the catwalk as bullets and Dust shots tore the metal framing and floors we were on, ripping holes in the ceiling. Sun jumped and smashed through the window with no hesitation, and Blake and I followed suit immediately.
The Paladin smashed through the building wall moments later, swiping at us just as Blake and Sun leapt onto the roof of the building. I, however, created a hoverboard with my neural Dust and shot alongside the two Fauna as Roman in the Paladin continued to give chase.
"I'll call the others!" I yelled, grabbing my phone. "Where do we go?!"
"Follow me, I know where we could lose it!" Blake said, and the three of us diverted down a path of buildings adjacent to an intersection where it led to a busy road. As we ran, the Atlesian Paladin continued to rush down the street, arm held out to fire its autocannons at us.
As high caliber rounds tore up chunks of building behind us, I pulled up a group call with Yang, Weiss, Ruby, Neptune, and Reese. Setting it to speaker mode, I screamed. "Atlesian robot chasing us down the street! Need help now!"
"That Torchwick guy's in it! Controlling it! Trying to hit us with big bullets!" Sun added as a roof explosion deafened us momentarily.
"How?! Wait, never mind that; we're on the way! Where are you?!" Weiss called as I spotted Junior's club as we rushed through the streets, getting close to the highway.
"We're near Junior's club! Hurry!" I yelled before a spray of autocannons drew near. Without hesitation, Blake and Sun leapt over the last building and onto the adjacent highway, jumping off the road onto a busy underpass.
I skated near the edge of the highway where there were fewer cars to dodge as the Paladin dropped itself down on the road behind us, concrete fragmenting under its multi-ton weight with every step it took. Behind the large mech, Yang and Reese were on Bumblebee giving chase.
"Slow it down!" I managed to yell over the roaring and screeching of panicked traffic. Nodding, Reese grabbed her hoverboard and quickly transmorphed it into her two Dust machine pistols. But before she could fire, the Paladin immediately began to barrel through.
"What the-" Blake cried before narrowly dodging a car flung at her. Trucks, cars, vans, any vehicle between us and Roman was flung into the air violently. Thinking fast, I went full Spiderman, forming tendrils and arms and grabbing any vehicles before they could fly over the sides of the road, and softening the landings of any vehicles too high in the air.
Luckily for me, most of the cars were tossed forward or back, with them later being kicked aside by Roman. Not too many were in danger of flying up too high or off the road. Yang and Reese managed to dodge pretty well, and Reese was now on her hoverboard, chasing Roman alongside me and Yang while Sun and Blake fired back at Roman while running in an attempt to slow him down.
Reese's hoverboard flew closer alongside me. "What's the plan?" she said as she dodged a car spinning on its top. "Road goes on for a while, we need to do something."
"Your hoverboard is a gun, right?" I called over the sound of the chaos.
"Guns, but yeah!" Reese called back. I immediately scooted forward on my board and gestured behind me. "So let's use 'em!" I said.
Grinning, Reese hopped on my board while grabbing her own, forming her dual guns and firing over my shoulder at the Paladin. I didn't know how strong they were, only knowing that they were probably the equivalent of sidearms, but her shots were way more powerful than simple small arms fire.
Several explosive blasts struck the Paladin's back, denting armor and fragmenting corners. They were loud, but I'd learned to tune out the loud noises as I kept position behind the robot to avoid any other cars being thrown at us.
Then Roman veered left. The Paladin slammed into the Dust barrier at the sides of the road before plummeting to the ground below. Reese and I followed it with no hesitation, and Yang rode off as well. Within seconds, all five of us were on the ground in front of the Paladin. Sun and Blake landing in front of us, Reese hopping off and joining them. Yang leapt off her sliding bike and landed next to me, arming Ember Celica with a glowering look.
The Paladin's speakers crackled as Roman's voice made itself heard. "This will be fun," he snickered as the large mechanized unit stood up proud and tall, all weapons out.
"It will," Yang snarled before we were joined by Neptune, Ruby, and Weiss. Looking around, I realized just how different things were with me around. Yang winked at me, and Ruby grinned as her scythe unfolded to its full length. Blake, Sun, Neptune, Weiss, and Reese were clearly ready to fight.
I looked back to Roman in his death machine and I cracked my knuckles. "This will be very fun indeed," I said, a grin on my face.