Story idea belongs to College Fool, RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.

Enjoy!


It was strange the difference a few details made between an ordinary happening and one that was distinctly out of the ordinary. To the average bystander, the two blonde teens walking the streets of Vale were most likely a pair of friends hanging out or possibly a couple on a date. The possibility that these two teens, one in a hoodie and jeans and the other in a cropped jacket and a skirt, were casually on their way to commit crime was ridiculous.

"Alright Ladykiller, there's a few things you need to know before we get to where we are going."

Musings interrupted, Jauque turned to his companion and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Very well, Xiao Long, what to you want to tell me?"

Jamie returned the look as they discretely turned off the well lit main streets of Vale's commercial district into a series of dimly light alleyways. Gone were the broad walkways and warm lights of downtown, instead they made their way through cramped and twisting corridors between the tall buildings. Trash was piled in the corners of the alleys and glowing eyes peered out from shadowy corners.

"First of all, this outing isn't just the two of us. We're going to be part of a much larger group that values anonymity. That's why we wear masks and use false names. So out here, I'm no longer Jamie Xiao Long; instead you can call me Yang."

That's logical, no reason to commit crimes under your own name if you go to the effort of hiding your face. I should pick something similar, yet not too close to my actual name. I suppose that my 'birth' name would be a suitable alias for these activities.

Jauque turned to Yang with a faint smile, as they exited the alley, crossed a bridge over one of two rivers dividing the city and turned onto a quiet street in one of the suburbs of Vale. Only a couple streetlights illuminated the streets as they passed through a neat, peaceful neighbourhood.

"Very well Yang, you may refer to me as Jaune. Is there anything else I need to know?"

She snapped a finger in his face as the street they were on became a dead end. Only a couple houses were still ahead of them on this road and they appeared as unassuming as the rest.

"Yeah, pretty much everyone in the group is here to relax and have fun so your formal way of talking is going to weird them out. Try to speak normally instead of sounding like one of the professors."

"Okay, I'll lay off the formality Yang. This any better?"

They turned onto a short walkway that led to the second to last house on the street. It was a fairly sturdy house, two stories tall and painted the same uniform gray as every other building. Jaune made sure to note the address as he made his way up the stairs and on to the modest porch.

Alright, the address is number 725, on 13th Avenue

"Alright Jaune, put on your mask and pull up your hood cause we're here."

He retrieved the dragon mask from his pocket and placed it over his head, pleasantly surprised by both the comfort as well as how little it interfered with his vision, before pulling his hood up over it. Yang had already put hers on over her features and had restrained her mass of golden hair under the hood of her jacket. She reached up with one hand and knocked heavily on the door of the house, letting the hollow sound echo through the deserted street before the door was cracked open. A masked figure dressed in green regarded both of them, clearly recognizing Yang and opening the door wider.

They entered the house, Yang all but dragging Jaune over to a couple other people in masks and hoods. It felt more like a masquerade or some weird cult rather than a group of people about to go painting. A smaller person, female if the voice was any indication, in a full-face mask with rose petals and a red hood was talking to Yang. A quartet of people dressed in varying shades of brown and orange, including a very tall man and a rabbit faunus, were off in a corner while the person that let them in, wearing a green mask with lotus blossoms over the eyes, was discussing something with a much shorter companion dressed in a hooded navy bomber jacket and a pink skirt. Finally, a solitary figure dressed in a pale blue dress with attached hood and a blue and silver masquerade mask was leaning against one wall, checking the clock before coughing loudly and stepping up on a box.

"Alright, let's do a quick role call before we start the night."

"Ruby." The girl talking to Yang raised a hand.

"Ren." A brief nod of confirmation from the doorman.

"Nora." The girl next to Ren bounced up and down.

"Blake." No one moved until Yang waved briefly.

"Yes, Yang?"

"She said that she had stuff to do tonight."

"Thank you. Moving on, Coco."

One of the people in the corner waved before shouting back, "Coffee's here."

"Very well, we already know that Yang is here, which just leaves the newcomer."

While Jaune was never one to feel out of place in a crowd, the fact that everyone was staring at him behind their masks was quite off-putting. Squaring his shoulders, he met the gaze of the girl in white as well as one could when both parties are wearing masks.

"The name is Jaune."

"Queen."

He received a nod from the girl before she made her way over to one corner of the room, an asymmetrical red ponytail exiting from the back of her hood. Laid out neatly were various painting tools, ranging from cans of spray paint to delicate brushes and palettes. There were also some unorthodox tools as well, like a mop or a pair of boxing gloves and stacked in the corner were several cans of paint. On the wall behind the painting supplies was a large map of Vale with various lines, circles and annotations covering the surface. Queen tapped a part of the map corresponding to Vale's industrial district before addressing the room.

"Alright, our target location is the 49th Street courtyard. Police rarely patrol the area so activity should be a minimum and the Schnee compound is much too far away for them to detect us. We're keeping it simple tonight as we are short on time and supplies. Any questions?"

Upon receiving no questions, she walked over to the paint supplies and retrieved a thin wand. Turning back to the assembled group, she gestured to the rest of the supplies.

"Nora, Yang, Yatsu and Coco, can you guys grab the paint cans? Everyone else, grab your tools and move out."

Everyone moved forward once she had finished speaking, with those that Queen had named grabbing paint cans and the remaining ones picking up both their items and those belonging to the others. Jaune waited for most of the people to grab their 'tools' before making his way over to the remaining items. Before him was a pair of brushes tied together with a ribbon, a broad-headed brush with a paint pan and a thin brush along with a palette. Selecting the pan and brush, he followed the crowd out the door and into the quiet night.

They maintained relative silence as they made their way through the streets, not wanting to disturb those in the houses on either side of the street. A few minutes later the smells of industrial smoke and chemicals drifted in the breeze, growing stronger with each step. Soon afterwards, they crossed the other river in Vale and found themselves in the industrial heart of the city.

Plumes of smoke drifted in the air from various factories and warehouses were everywhere. The streets were wide and smooth, dimly illuminated by the streetlights dotting the way. It was absolutely deserted, the factory workers and warehouse personnel having gone home hours before. Towards the western corner of the district, nearest to the commercial harbor, the walled compound of the Schnee warehouses shone coldly beneath the high intensity lights as small figures of guards patrolled the walls.

Now that they had left the tranquil streets of the suburbs behind, they broke the silence and began to banter among one another. Walking several blocks, they passed several locked warehouses before coming to a stop in a small, unintentional courtyard created by the walls of three buildings.

Jaune silently acknowledged the cleverness of this location, knowing that these warehouses contained mainly bulky equipment and materials used primarily in housing. Given the relative worthlessness of the goods to the average thief, police rarely patrolled this section of the district. It was deep enough into the district that it was impossible for a casual pedestrian to spot from the riverside, even in broad daylight. While the courtyard was clearly just an open space between several buildings, he could see refuse that indicated that it was a popular spot for workers to smoke and have their lunch, meaning that their 'art' would surely be seen.

The cans of paint were set down in the center of the courtyard and cracked open, revealing a range of colours. Everyone selected the colour they were to use and prepped their tools. Jaune picked the first colour he saw and poured a bit into his pan. Looking around, he saw that everyone was working either alone or in pairs as well as the fact that Yang was waving him over. Making his way over to Yang, he found her wielding a pair of boxing gloves that she had dipped in paint and was currently punching letters onto the wall.

"Hey Jaune, could you lend me a hand here?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

She gestured at the letters in front of her, each roughly 5 feet tall and with the tops left unfinished. They all leaned at odd angles, at places almost melding together.

"Normally Yatsu finishes the tops of the letters but you should be tall enough to reach. If you want to smooth out the rest of the letters, that would be nice."

He nodded, reaching up with his paintbrush to complete the punched on letters. Occasionally he had to ask Yang to specify which letter he was finishing. He suppressed a surge of discomfort in his core, knowing that as someone who was raised as a child of the state, what Jaune was doing now flew directly in the face of what he had been taught all his life.

Finishing up the last letter, he stepped back and slowly read put loud the entirety of what he and Yang had written.

"WE...AREN'T...YOUR...TIN...SOLDIERS,...MANTLE"

He scanned the rest of the courtyard, taking in the other phrases painted onto the walls in garish colours, as well as the wall that was entirely covered in clashing colours, barring some negative space that spelled out CFVY, courtesy of Coco and her friends.

WHAT TWO THINGS ARE BLACK, WHITE AND RED ALL OVER? GRIMM AND THE EMPIRE'S PROPAGANDA.

JUST BECAUSE SOLITAS IS MONOCHROME DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO BE.

On the last open space was written a lengthy message in a flowing, elegant script.

To the Monochrome Empire,

You seek to suppress us, to deny that we are unique, to render us to mere numbers. You seek to turn us into robots, to make us like your 'utopia' in Mantle. You make speeches in front of crowds and see them only as a mass to be regulated.

YOU ARE WRONG!

Your 'utopia' is nothing but a tyranny and unlike the soulless machines that patrol your streets, we are individuals with hearts and minds that you will not control. The world inside and outside the borders is full of colour that you are unable to regiment or suppress. We will assure that future generations will learn these truths and nothing you will do can stop us.

Queen.

A movement out of the corner of his eye caught Jaune's attention. Turning, he saw that Ruby was putting a symbol on the end of her graffiti: a large R with the circular top replace by a stylized rose. As he surveyed the walls again, he noticed that others were doing similar with Ren creating a blooming flower with his cans of spray paint while Nora had made what appeared to be a broken hammer.

"You going to add your tag, Jaune?"

A voice behind him caused him to turn on his heels. Yang was looking at him expectantly, a flaming heart punched onto the wall next to her.

"What do you mean by 'tag'?"

"A symbol that works as your signature as an artist."

Jaune picked up his paint pan and brush, quickly swiping two curved lines onto the wall before smashing the pan below them. Stepping back, he surveyed the courtyard one final time before his gaze settled once more on his tag, feeling bile slowly rise in his throat. A punch to his shoulder caused Jaune to stumble sideways, nearly crashing into Nora.

"Looks good, Jaune."

He nodded some thanks to Ruby, not trusting himself to speak at the moment. Hearing a polite cough behind him, Jaune turned around to see Queen looking at his work with what he could assume to be a scrutinizing gaze. She stared at it a few moments longer before turning her attention to him and holding out her hand.

"May I see your brush?"

Forcing out a 'sure', he handed the painting tool over to the girl in front of him. She uttered a brief thanks before stepping up to his tag and using the brush to gather up some of the excess paint dripping down the wall. With a flick of her wrist, the column of paint left by his paint pan had been turned into a curved line resembling a J.

"Expression is key, Jaune. After all, we can't do stuff like this come daylight."

She handed back his paintbrush with a beautiful smile before making her way over to the center of the courtyard, calling for everyone to collect the painting supplies and head out.

They reached the house around ten minutes later, the later hour lending itself to dead streets and more rapid movement. After they cleaned up the supplies, they briefly discussed the next outing.

"We should be getting a shipment from our supplier this weekend, so next week's art should be back to our usual standards. Same time next week, I hope to see you all there."

Everyone echoed goodbyes to each other as they went their separate ways upon exiting the house, although Jaune thought he saw a few of them on the ride back to Beacon.

It was nearing one in the morning when Jauque finally stumbled into his dorm. Penelope was the only one in the room, Natalie most likely dragging Ryan out for a late night snack. Thanking the fact that his partner was such a heavy sleeper, he quickly changed into his sleepwear, crawled into bed and passed the night in a dreamless slumber.


First off, I apologize for how long it took this chapter to write. University and writer's block decided that I was getting off easy amd they needed to fix that.

Chapter 7 may take some time to write as my exams are around 3 weeks away and a couple classes have been pretty rough for me so I have to sacrifice writing time for studying.

Thank you to everyone who has followed and/or favorited the story and if you have any questions feel free to review or send me a PM.

See you next chapter.