A/N: Chapter 10 is finally finished! Thank you everyone who's been reading along so far! It's been a lot of fun and I'm happy that there are people who actually enjoy reading my work. I will be starting another story shortly so be on the lookout for that.
I am moving jobs again soon so I might have to slow down how fast chapters come out –they're not coming out fast to begin with though so I doubt it should change too much. I'll be working approximately 60 to 70 hours a week so wish me luck!
Hopefully I don't go crazy with all this work.
Next Steps
Perhaps the alley way? No, it's too far and they'll catch me before I could find a hiding spot. What about losing them in that store? No, too many obstacles and people there. How about the-
"Blake!" Yang shouted at her teammate, snapping her fingers rhythmically, vying for attention.
Blake slowly turned to the blond –in her eyes- menace. "What?" She dryly said, ears not even perking up at the sudden intrusion as they normally would have.
"We're trying to ask you if you thought black would be a good color on you!" At that statement, Blake swallowed a scoff and instead spread her arms slightly, gesturing towards her current outfit. She leveled her teammate with a heavy, blank stare and turned in a semi-circle, locking onto the other two members who had dragged her out here into the city.
"…So do you think you look good in it or…?" Ruby quizzically asked, her head cocked in confusion and Blake's strange performance. She looked like a peacock going through its teenage angst phase if she was honest to herself.
Blake sighed and nodded at the young girl. She slowly wondered to herself how it had all come to pass like this; being dragged out into the city for seemingly no reason, being harassed about the upcoming ball, how they had decided to go clothes shopping of all things while the White Fang were nowhere to be found…
Oh wait…
She did know how this all happened.
The reason was quite literally poking her in the face.
"Yang! Stop!" Blake snapped, her teeth nearly separating the slender finger from its equally slender hand. She snarled, only stopping when she felt the finger was finally far enough from her face to not pose an annoyance. Her amber eyes glared daggers at her teammate.
Yang smiled brightly.
"Oh cmon Blake, it was just a detour I wanted to check out. Besides I know you don't have a dress for the dance so I wanted to see if we could find something for you." She chirped, wrapping an arm around the girl.
"I don't need a dress Yang, I'm not even going to the dance. I'm busy." Blake said, squirming out her grip. "Besides, don't all of you need to buy dresses? How about you guys go do that." She suggested, looking for another avenue of escape to continue her currently fruitless search.
Yang shook her head vigorously. "No way Blakey, I've already chosen my outfit, Weiss has a dress I'm certain-" Weiss nodded in agreement, "-and Ruby isn't wearing a dress. She'll be safe in the room where no guys are present."
"Yang! I already told you, I'm not staying in the dorm!"
"Ruby Rose!" Yang turned on her sister, her motherly voice drowning out any voice of dissent. "There will be boys there. I absolutely refuse to allow you to-"
"Yang, she's not a child, I'm sure she'll be fine." Blake interrupted, sparing her leader a sympathetic glance. She had seen how…obsessive Yang could get with her sisters chastity and knowing Yang and her party lifestyle –she probably thought Ruby would get laid or something at the dance, ridiculous, they all knew, but so was Yang.
"You don't know that! What if someone asks Ruby to go back to their dorm with them!? What then Blake!?"
"Break their arms?" She suggested hopefully, all while sliding slowly out of the picture. As they bickered, Blake made her way away from the group and to sal-
"Blake you're not getting away." Yang firmly held her wrist and began dragging her back to the group. All of her protests fell onto deaf ears. "And besides, we actually decided to go somewhere we think you would enjoy."
Blake raised an eyebrow and scoffed.
"I'm pretty any place I would like to visit would be dead bottom on your list."
"You don't know-oof!" Yang stumbled backwards at the sudden impact –felt like walking straight into a light pole. When she turned her head upwards she found herself face to face with a brightly dressed girl. The first thing Yang noticed was the smile, practically set in stone and didn't seem to want to budge off the girls face an inch. She slowly got up, dusted herself off, and apologized to the girl. "Sorry about that, I wasn't-"
"Salutations sir or madam!" Yang and the rest of team RWBY recoiled slightly at the loudness of the girl's voice, she pushed forwards though, not paying their obvious discomfort any mind. "I am sorry for my lack of spatial awareness!"
"It's…uh…" Yang had the words in her mind but she had trouble putting them out onto her tongue and into the air. "…fine…" She felt her face contort with confusion when the orange haired girl smiled ever brightly and extended her hand.
"Thank you for accepting my condolences!" Yang hesitantly grabbed the outstretched hand, watching for any extraneous movement in her peripheral vision.
"No probl-"
"Does this make us friends!?" Yang jumped when the girl gripped her hand with surprising force, she doubted it would be easy to escape it without putting in some mean effort. The question itself was…well, she wanted to say harmless but...
"Well, I uh…I mean we're not enemies I guess." Yang replied, twisting her head to look back at her friends, most of whom were at a loss for words at the arrival of the strange girl.
"That is wonderful! This may be the first time I have had a relationship classified specifically as 'not enemies!' Is this a step towards becoming friends?"
Oh god, she was going to regret this answer wasn't she. "Um…yeah I guess." Yang winced when the girl proverbially exploded again.
"Magnificent!" She shouted, before letting go of Yang's hand. "Oh my! I apologize, I haven't even given my name out yet!" The girl quickly stood at attention, raising one hand up at the gathered girls.
"No it's fine, we're goi-" Yang started, trying to seek an avenue of escape.
"I am designated as Penny! What would be yours?" She asked excitedly.
Yang looked back towards her teammates, only to see them gesturing towards her. Bunch of traitors. "…Yang…" She admitted warily.
"That is a wonderful name! Are these your friends?" Penny immediately moved to the other members of the team, face filled with curiosity. Ruby and Weiss cringed slightly at her expectant smile, not knowing what to reply with.
"Yeah, this is Ruby, Weiss, and..." Yang's eyes widened for a moment as she spun around, wildly searching for her sneaky teammate. "-Blake!"
Blake stared back at her blankly, grimace planted firmly on her face still but now exacerbated with a touch of confusion.
"…Yes?"
"Oh…Sorry," Yang laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "I just thought you would have tried to run off by now." She mumbled out. Blake merely raised her left hand, Ruby's fingers firmly gripping hers like a vice.
"Look, can we just get this over with?" Blake's impatience shone through every word. "Wherever you wanted to take me, let's just hurry up."
"Yeah! That sounds good!" Weiss spoke up, hurriedly gathering herself and Ruby, pushing forwards past the girl while offering a quick apology.
"Sorry Penny, we've gotta go now." Yang jumbled out quickly. "We'll uh…see you then." She offered the girl a final departing wave, which was returned with heavy vigor, and ran off to catch up with her friends.
"Now don't laugh okay."
"I'm already not laughing Yang." Blake replied dryly.
Yang covered Blake's eyes as the other two gripped her arms and pushed her around a corner. Blake squirmed but eventually found herself coming to a stop. "Alright, we're here! Are you ready to be amazed Blake!?"
"No. No, I'm not." She gritted out through clenched teeth. When Yang's hand came uncovered, she prepared herself to spin around, leave a clone, and run as fast as she could back to the bullheads –maybe she could sneak onto one that would take her back to beacon. However, before she could even start her action, amber eyes caught a glimpse of the store's title, her breath got caught in her throat.
"Speechless! I know, I found it myself!" Yang boasted, puffing her ample chest out. She withered a bit when Weiss immediately spoke up after her.
"Actually, we all chose it together."
"Yeah, we thought you would like it since it's kind of small and lesser known. We know you aren't exactly a fan of really crowded places." Ruby added cheerfully, she spread her arms towards the name of the place they had taken her.
Tukson's Book Trade
"Alright, let's go in and see what they have!" Yang grabbed her before she could protest and they gleefully headed into the store, Blake excluded of course. Her brain was still in standby mode as it tried to catch back up to their current situation.
"Hello! Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every-" Tukson was stopped when a vigorous cough erupted from his lungs, courtesy of seeing Blake being manhandled by a cute blonde. She looked…incredibly unpleased and judging from the bags under her eyes, she hadn't taken his advice to calm it down with her White Fang searching. He quickly straightened his back and spoke again, more clearly this time. "Hey there! Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun!"
"Hey there!" Yang greeted back cheerfully, her smile reaching dangerous levels of brightness. "My friend here's a huge book nerd and I was wondering if you had anything she might be interested in."
What the hell… Tukson thought to himself. These had to be her teammates from beacon, they certainly looked the part. Girl in red looks a bit young though and the orange girl is…well they say to never judge a book by its cover…wait…I own a bookstore, if anyone were able to judge a book by its cover it would be me…
"Well," he cleared his throat and shot one quick glance at Blake –who was incredibly quiet but shooting him the don't-let-them-know-I-know-you look. "I have plenty of books that appeal to younger readers such as yourselves over there in that aisle." He pointed towards the young adult section of his store.
"Sounds perfect!" Yang immediately looked back towards her teammate, catching the flash of her eyes. She leaned in towards the desk, arms crossed under her breasts, pushing them upwards and into attention. "Actually, I also have another question to ask you." Yang's smile turned into a smirk and in that instant Tukson knew what he was dealing with. "Do you know our little Blakey here?"
"No!" All eyes turned to the source of the outburst; the wide eyed Blake.
"Getting reaaaal defensive there aren't you?" Yang said, sashaying her way to her teammate. Yang raised a suggestive eyebrow at the girl.
Blake ignored the eyebrows and narrowed her eyes. "No Yang, I just don't think you should say inappropriate things in front of a stranger." She stressed the word 'stranger' with the gritting of her teeth. This had to be a terrible joke –going to Tukson's bookstore of all places when there were a million other bookstores in the city.
"Blake's mannerisms speak otherwise." Penny added, smiling cheerfully at Yang.
"Thank you Pen-WHAT?" Yang and co spun around to see Penny standing behind them, smile still plastered on her merry face. "Penny!? Why are you here?"
"I thought you said that we needed to go?" She cocked her head to the side and shot Yang an expectant look. Yang opened her mouth to reply but found herself lacking.
Yup, called it…Weird. Tukson snorted internally.
This girl is quickly becoming the epitome of socially awkward, Yang thought to herself. There wasn't really a streamlined way to deal with a person like this –she could always tell her to leave but she didn't want to be rude to someone they had just met that seemed to have good intention. Slowly a thought bloomed in her mind. Taking shape, Yang realized it fully and began smirking.
Penny sure seemed to be observant…
"Actually, what was that you said about Blake's mannerisms?" Penny had already followed them here and while it was pretty strange, Yang was never one to lose out on an opportunity –an easy ally who could push Blake into a neat little corner till she spilled her secrets.
"Blake has flicked her head towards Tukson precisely 14 times since entering the store and while I can't see her eyes from this angle, I would assume she has flicked those towards him several more times. On top of this is Blake's body language towards the store in general. When seeing the store's logo, Blake's posture stiffened immediately, indicating-"
"Alright! That's enough Penny!" Blake shrilled, immediately clasping a hand over the girls mouth and moving towards the young adult section of the store. "Let's go check out some books!"
"Oh fantastic! Does this mean we're friends?"
"Yes! Just stop talking for now please!" Penny zipped her lips and followed her newfound friend towards the aisle.
As they went off on their own, Yang turned back to Tukson and locked eyes with him. To his credit, he didn't even flinch at the attention. Sure, she was pretty, but she was also a kid in his eyes, naïve to everything the world would throw at her in the coming days. Though her age wasn't really to blame for that, after all, Blake couldn't really be classified as a kid despite probably being the same age.
"So, do you know Blake or not?" She narrowed her eyes and leaned in once more, edging him for a satisfactory answer. She was certain at this point that they knew each other in some way and she had to know. She was her teammate after all!
Tukson mulled over his options, eyes flicking to the gathered soiree in his store; Blake and Penny were…standing and staring at each other, the white haired girl was flicking through a novel, and the short one in the red hood was reading a comic book. He could always keep up the lie but at this point the girl probably wouldn't believe any kind of lie that left his lips.
He let his eyes linger for a moment longer on the orange haired girl, Penny.
She wasn't just strange.
Something about her, he couldn't place his finger on, but it was off putting.
"So is that a yes or…?" He snapped back to attention and faced her once more.
"I've met her before, yes." He answered slowly, letting the answer ruminate in her mind. Apparently Yang didn't want to ruminate though, hands slamming on the table, sending several papers flying.
"So you're dating!"
"…" What? He blanched in his mind, hoping he had heard wrong. But heard correctly he had and an answer he had to give. "I'm easily in my twenties kid…"
"Yeah, and? That's not a 'no'." She sang, eyes boring into him with teenage intensity. Underneath the mirth though, Tukson could see a layer of worry and caution –it was nice to know that Blake had teammates that cared about her. Now if only he could get her to stop putting herself into dangerous situations.
"She came into the shop once to buy a book." He answered succinctly, bending down to pick up the haphazardly thrown papers. Her gaze on him didn't falter.
"Why was she so defensive about knowing you?" Yang dropped the pretenses, eyes hardening like steel and boring holes into his face. It should have been pretty terrifying, knowing that this little teenage brat could probably tear him apart in a fight, but he had probably seen more people die than this kid had personally met in her entire life so he wasn't exactly phased.
So he just sighed, placed his hands right across from hers on the table, and matched her gaze with a tired one of his own.
"You tease her a lot don't you?" He asked simply. Yang furrowed her brow at the question, the gears of her mind turning at the sudden question.
"That doesn't answer my question." She replied quickly, eager to get back on track.
"It will soon," he promised, "but you do tease her a bit don't you?"
"I…I guess. Why? What's that have to do with anything?" Her accusatory tone made him want to go back out there on his search for the White Fang.
"I'm saying that she was probably just embarrassed knowing that you would say something strange if you knew about us meeting beforehand." Tukson explained simply, eyes closed and fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "She's a shy kid, but I'm sure you know that already."
Yang bit her lip and clenched her hands as she thought on his statement. It was probably true, Tukson's reasoning was pretty solid, but something about the way Blake looked at him rubbed her the wrong way. It was obvious Blake knew Tukson in some way and Tukson had confirmed it…but something about this felt off to her.
She didn't think they were dating –despite her teasing, she doubted he was Blake's style. No, but they clearly knew more about each other than regular bookstore buddies did. Her immediate stiffness at seeing him and her desire to keep him quiet were clear signs.
She would have to talk to Blake seriously later tonight when she had the chance.
"I guess that makes sense." She conceded, though she didn't really believe for a second. She nodded to herself and took her hands off the table, giving the two of them some breathing room.
"New friend Blake, are these what you would describe as 'pornographic novels'?"
"Penny! Put those down immediately!" Blake shrieked as Penny began to repeat paragraphs of graphic text.
"Oh my, do most males have genitalia described as such? The largest I was shown was during my lessons on human sexual-" She couldn't finish her statement due to the hand covering her mouth.
Blake's exhausted, slumped shoulders rose with her exasperated sigh.
"Don't say things like that aloud Penny, it's not normal at all."
"Oh, I will add that to my current repertoire of knowledge. Do not speak specifically of male sexual organs and their largeness."
"Don't speak about any sexual organs Penny."
"Very well friend Blake."
What the hell is wrong with this girl…? Blake thought to herself as she absentmindedly flipped through a random book. Penny's constant smile was bad enough but she acted like this was her first time ever interacting with people –her…clinginess and complete ignorance were worrisome, though slightly better than being back there with Yang. It's bad enough I've got Yang breathing down my neck about not relaxing enough, don't want overly attached Penny to start on me.
A couple of seconds ticked by, the only noise being Yang and Tukson conversing back at the counter, she couldn't hear them but she could imagine their conversation; probably Yang making a bunch of baseless accusations, how Tukson would reply was out of her scope though.
Speaking of Tukson, she hadn't received any new information about the White Fang from him recently which was worrying –it was getting harder and harder to trust him at all with each passing day he didn't have something for her. She was itching to go out there again and start searching in earnest herself since he wasn't doing his job quite as well as he purported to her. Though she would have to be more careful from now on –her team was getting overly worried about her and this most recent attempt at getting her to relax was just their poor attempt at finding a solution.
She couldn't afford to get them involved either, not with Adam possibly running around.
"Friend Blake." She turned around to see Penny staring at her, smile still plastered on her face. "What is bothering you?"
"I'm fine Penny." She replied blankly. Oh God, she didn't want or need the human answering machine to start on her now too.
"Are you jealous that Yang is talking to your not-boyfriend Tukson?"
Oh for the love of…Blake sighed and turned to face the girl in full. Blake plastered a fake smile on her face and shook her head, hoping that the silent answer would suffice.
"I see, than what is it that's bothering you?"
"Nothing Penny, I'm fine." She gritted out through clenched teeth, trying her best to keep a smile on her face.
Penny's smile faltered for a moment, unsure of how to respond to Blake's mannerisms. She was clearly in distress but did not seem interested in solving whatever problem she might have been plagued with. It was at odds with everything her father had imparted to her through the books on human psychology. She gripped her book a bit harder –though for a being like her, 'a bit harder' made the book crumple like tin foil.
"Is there nothing I can do to help you Blake? I would like to help my first friend." She said timidly, smile back on her lips, though not as bright.
Blake paused in her rebuttal, a feeling of regret worming its way into her heart. First friend huh…Blake thought, the words piercing dangerously close to her heart. She could remember the first friend she ever had –though he was also her brother, mentor, and comrade all in one. Blake shook her head of these thoughts though, returning to the present. As her eyes wandered over Penny she bit her lip and began thinking to herself, allowing seconds to tick by –Penny didn't interrupt her thoughts.
First friend…where the hell did this girl come from? The thoughts bounced around in her head. But I can't really just ask her to help me find an extreme activist group.
"Penny," Blake finally sighed, breaking the silence with a heave and closed eyes, "thanks but there's really nothing you can do to help me. Sometimes, people just need to do things on their own." Blake put a hand on the girls shoulder and squeezed –the girl had a surprising amount of muscle with how sturdy she felt.
Penny nodded, not truly understanding Blake's reasoning but at least comprehending that it was time to stop bothering Blake with her constant doting.
She still wanted to help her though…
Penny peered over a couple of aisles and say two more figures silently watching them from afar.
Maybe she couldn't help Blake…
But perhaps her teammates could.
"The Vytal Festival is a huge show of skill and prowess, schools from every nation will be sending their best students to compete."
"…Best…students? Is there anyway a team can compete with three people instead of four?"
"…No Jaune…" Pyrrha sighed at his question, hand reaching up to grab his shoulder, squeezing tightly. He was always like this when it came to proving himself –it had certainly gotten better ever since the incident with Cardin but that wasn't saying much. "You're our leader, you need to be there with us."
"These are the best teams in the world Pyrrha, how am I supposed to keep up with them at all?" Was she crazy or something? He might be able to hold his own against some students now, but these guys were all going to be highly skilled fighters –he had been training for literally one semester so far. He hung his head and crossed his arms tightly.
"Well the Vytal festival is still some time away, you can prepare until then Jaune." Ren said, placing a hand on the blond leaders shoulder. "Besides, we have something a bit more urgent to discuss." They turned to Ren with questioning looks –Nora excluded of course. "We have our first mission coming up."
At that announcement, team JNPR tensed slightly. Their first mission. All had different reactions; Nora whooped loudly and began loudly proclaiming her desire to do hunter things, Pyrrha was more reserved and pondered what mission they would take on, Jaune nervously rubbed his hands together, wondering what kind of danger they would find themselves in. Ren opened his mouth slightly, ready to speak his mind, but shut it once more –finding himself unsure of what to say.
Nora glanced in his direction for an instant.
"Actually," she quickly wrapped her arm around Jaune and pulled his face next to hers, "I was hoping we could pick a mission outside of the city." She requested, grin plastered on her face.
"Ye-Yeah…I don't see why not." Jaune choked out, hands reaching up and prying Nora's forearm from his throat. As he struggled against her surprisingly powerful limbs, Jaune took a quick glance at the other male teammate on team JNPR –Ren had a relieved smile on his face. Jaune wasn't exactly the sharpest lightbulb in the room but even he could tell that Ren wanted to check something outside the city. Why he was so hesitant in asking that Nora had to do it for him, Jaune had no clue, but he was certain Ren had his reason so he didn't push it.
Jaune eventually escaped Nora's grip -Pyrrha ended up having to help him with that- and the team continued walking down the road, pedestrians bustling around them. The city of Vale was awash with the colors of fall -vibrant banners filled the streets, advertising the upcoming Vytal festival and other noteworthy events. Jaune tried his best to immerse himself into the minor conversations Pyrrha brought up. It wasn't that he wasn't interested –he absolutely was- but it was that every time he tried to focus on the present his mind would slowly steer itself back towards the future, specifically Roman. Jaune wouldn't say the he and Roman were in any way friendly with each other but he had grown use to the consistency that was Roman Torchwick. The constant beat downs and verbal abuse, while objectively terrible and pretty cruel, weren't all that bad when he thought about it.
It helped him beat up Cardin didn't it?
Hell, he was doing far better in sparring classes now, having netted a couple of victories in the past few days.
Jaune grinned at something Nora did to make the rest of his team laugh, he had no clue what it was but if it got Ren to laugh it was probably somewhat humorous.
But Jaune knew that this wouldn't last forever. Good things never lasted as long as he wanted them to.
"Jaune, do you think we should start heading bac-" Pyrrha was interrupted when someone blasted past her, shoulder clipping hers. "Oof!" She stumbled forwards but stayed standing, quickly spinning to spot whoever had ran into her, hoping they hadn't hurt themselves –running into an huntress in training with aura reserves like hers probably felt like running into a brick wall after all. Instead of an injured civilian though, Pyrrha found herself staring into the eyes of a surprised faunus. "Are you alrig-"
The blond teen rose up and placed a finger on her lips, winking at her quickly. "I'm good beautiful, but I'm gonna have to split now. See ya!" The monkey faunus –the tail gave it away pretty easily- ran off quickly, darting between people and into an alleyway. Team JNPR stood there in silent shock, unsure of what to do. Jaune bit his lip in annoyance.
"Hey! Stop right there criminal scum!" A voice shouted from behind them. They turned to find a police officer, slightly overweight, breathing heavily as he slow jogged his way towards them. As he reached them he bent down and took deep, heavy breaths. Slowly he gathered himself together and spoke. "You see where that yellow haired faunus ran off to?"
"Down one of the alleyways…Why?" Jaune answered and asked. Was that guy a criminal? Were they supposed to help the local law enforcement now as well? He wasn't exactly too sure about that to be honest. "What did he do?"
"He's a stowaway!" He said between harsh breaths, chest rising and falling crazier than the late Roman empire.
"You want us to help you catch him?" Jaune offered, nodding with the rest of his team. While catching petty criminals wasn't exactly something important to them individually, it wasn't like they had any other real plans for the day.
He also had an strange urge to tear the guy's index finger off.
"Sorry kids, but this-" he took another deep breath and wiped sweat off his brow. "-is an officer's job, thanks though."
"We're hunters in training from Beacon, we could probably catch him pretty fast." Ren clarified. "It is our duty to-"
"Well why didn't y'all say so before!" He wheezed his words out and waved a hand towards them dismissively. "Go get him hunters!" He took a seat on the curb, still swallowing heavy breaths.
Team JNPR all gave him a pitying glance, even Jaune felt bad for him, before running off.
"How are we gonna catch him by the way?" Pyrrha voiced her concerns. While she was all for helping local law enforcement, the monkey faunus could be literally anywhere in the city now. They weren't exactly going to just run into him ag-
"Woah! Out the way please! Sorry! Man with a baby coming through!" A blond mane appeared from the crowd and jumped up, hands climbing up a light pole, dragging the rest of the body behind it. From the top of the light pole the figure flipped onto the roof of one of the buildings.
"…" Jaune pointed towards the light pole the figure had just jumped off of. "I guess we follow him?"
"Probably."
"…"
"Go team go!"
Team JNPR ran through the alley ways, chasing down the nimble navigator. As they leapt across roofs, the figure came back into view, now on the streets, running through a crowd of people. He rounded into another alleyway when he was them chasing him.
"Pyrrha! Shield throw!"
"On it!" Pyrrha took aim for a slight moment before she chucked her shield into the alleyway, bouncing it meticulously off the wall and into the criminals back, stumbling him.
"Nora, pin him down!" When Nora reached for her grenade launcher Jaune quickly amended his command. "With your hands! Me and Ren will help!"
"Aw man…" She muttered, putting her hand held artillery canon away.
"Ow! Hey that's not very paragon! Woah, hands off that location man!" They struggled for a moment before they finally had him pinned. Jaune got a better look at the running man –though from what he could tell, man was probably the wrong term to use, he looked roughly the same age as the rest of them.
They took some deep breaths before finally speaking. "So, you wanna explain why the authorities are chasing you down?" Jaune asked with faux confidence. Technically he was just as criminal so he didn't really have the right to be saying something like that.
"Urgh…" He struggled against Nora's grip for a moment. "I was just messing with them a bit." He said, looking at them ruefully. "So can you let me go now or…"
"We have to turn you into the authorities you know. We can't just let you go." Pyrrha sighed, collecting her shield, placing it onto her back once more.
"Hey, it's little miss beautiful again! Cmon, be dea-URK!" He stopped speaking when Jaune twisted the arm he was holding just a bit more than necessary. "Alright alright! Look I didn't break any laws alright!"
"I heard you were a stowaway." Ren stated, completely unconvinced.
"Stowaway is a bit of a mean way to put it. I prefer unknown passenger." No one smiled. "I'm here for the Vytal festival!" He finally said, though it didn't seem to really help his case as no one seemed convinced. Even Nora wasn't buying what he was selling, and she once apparently bought two tons of maple syrup for Ren's pancakes. "I'm from Haven!" Still no buyers.
"Alright," Jaune announced loudly, standing the faunus onto his feet with Ren's and Nora's assistance, "let's get him to the authorities."
"Wait!" He shouted, kicking slightly with his feet. "I have weapons to prove it!"
"How would that ever help your case?" Pyrrha asked, legitimately confused at the reasoning. Weapons would just make them treat him as more of a danger so why would he announce something like that? She leaned towards Jaune, whispering loud enough for the captured teen to hear. "Maybe we should take him to the hospital first, my shield throw might have been…damaging."
"Woah! I don't need any medical attention! I'm just saying that I'm a hunter in training!"
Jaune stopped moving and shared a look with his teammates, not entirely sure of what to do. It was eventually Ren who spoke up with a solution however.
"How about you show us your Haven ID?" He recommended. Every student was required to have an identification card signifying from which school they hailed. If he was really a student from Haven, he would have one on him.
"…I uh…might have left it behind with my teammates."
Team JNPR then proceeded out the alleyway and to the local law enforcement building. Handing over the minor criminal, they received equally minor praise and headed back to Beacon for dinner. Or at least that's what could have happened the teens scroll hadn't started ringing.
"That's my teammates probably! You can ask them!" He said, kicking his feet around.
"Pyrrha, can you answer it for us?" Jaune asked warily reaching into the teens pocket, fishing out the piece of technology. She answered it hesitantly and put the speaker up to her ear.
"Hello?"
"…Sun? Is that you? Why do you sound so…weird?"
"May I ask who is calling?"
"Neptune. Who's this?"
"I am Pyrrha Nikos-"
"Woah! Like THE Pyrrha Nikos? Champion from-" Pyrrha sighed, holding the phone away from her ear for a moment, waiting for the chatter to die down. She looked at Jaune who shot her a quizzical look –Pyrrha just shrugged though and pointed at the phone. Eventually when the noise died, she put the scroll back up to her ear.
"Yes, I am Pyrrha Nikos. Are you from Haven?"
"Ye-Yeah! I was just calling my friend Sun. The idiot left before any of us did and well…" She could practically feel him slouching. "…well who knows what kind of trouble he got himself into." Pyrrha readied herself to explain the whole situation when Neptune asked another question. "By the way, why do you have Sun's scroll? Did he lose his scroll again? Wait…"
"Your friend bro-"
"Are you with him right now? Is this a bad time to be calling? Am I interrupting an activity?"
Pyrrha flushed red at the implication and hastily began throwing denials into the air. "No! Absolutely not! He broke the law and we're just holding him down right now, trying to determine whether or not he's actually from Haven!" She rushed out as fast as she could, hoping that no one had heard Neptune's words.
"…He broke the law?"
"Yes!"
"Let me guess, he left his ID card back here with us?"
"That's what he said."
"Alright then, hold on…" She heard some shuffling in the background and brought the scroll in front of her curiously. Suddenly the screen flashed to life, showing the image of a blond teen, smirking into the camera, placed on a plastic card. The words 'Haven Academy for Hunters' ran across the top of the card in bold, black ink. It was an official identification card for students of Haven academy.
"Well?" She heard the newly christened Sun speak behind her. She turned to face him and showed what was on the screen to the rest of her team.
"I guess Sun," she waved a hand towards the captured teen, "wasn't lying."
"See!" Pyrrha ignored him and brought the scroll back up to her face.
"So are you his teammate?"
"Yes…Please don't arrest the idiot. I know he's dumb but he's also my leader."
"He's broke the law." Surprisingly, it wasn't Neptune or Sun who answered but Ren instead.
"Technically hunters and hunters in training are exempt from most transportation laws, allowing them to use any transportation method available to get to any place in Remnant. It's what allows hunters to operate so freely across the countries. So Sun hasn't really broken any laws since those that are in place don't apply to him." Ren announced, though he still held Sun firmly with Jaune.
"So he should be free to go?" Jaune asked his friend, ignoring the cries emanating between them.
"Yes." The looked at each other and then back at Sun, who gave them rueful looks. Ren nodded at Jaune who reciprocated, after a quick count to three they released him completely. Sun rubbed his sore arms and shot them glares.
"Jeez, you Vale guys go hard don't you?"
"We don't appreciate crime." Jaune said –he had to stop himself from choking on the sheer hubris of his words.
"Ah, but I didn't commit a crime now did I!?" He exclaimed loudly, proud smile stretching across his face. Jeez, he hoped that not everyone was so…strict and proper here in Vale. He was hoping that Beacon would have some cool people to chill with but so far it wasn't really delivering.
"So why are you here?" Jaune asked.
"Honestly, just kind of wanted to scout out what the people here were like. Havens a bit of a free style place you know, wanted to know if Beacon was anything like it." He said honestly as they walked back down the street.
"If you'd like, we could take you to Beacon." Ren offered.
"Weren't you guys trying to get me arrested like ten seconds ago?"
"That was when we thought you were a criminal though, completely different situation now."
"Really? You guys just change opinions that fast?"
"Yeah, I guess we do." Jaune said, laughing lightly. He really did want to arrest him though…and possibly take that finger off.
'Well I just kind of wanted to see more of the city first, you know." Team JNPR shared another look and turned back to him unanimously. Sun recoiled slightly at the mass attention. "Wh-What?"
"You're not going to cause more trouble, are you?" Jaune asked, lips stretched into a thin line.
"What? No! Jeez, could you trust a fellow hunter in training a bit. Cmon guys, I'm not that bad."
"Your teammate Neptune implied otherwise." Pyrrha laughed when he sputtered out several excuses and accusations of ungrateful teammates.
Eventually the laughter went away and as they walked down the streets, getting closer and closer to the bullheads, Sun decided to pose another question.
"So, you guys wanna hang out in the city with me? I could use some guides."
Jaune thought about it for a moment –they had already spent a significant amount of time in the city and he was kind of looking forwards to getting back to the dorm room, but at the same time he didn't want to just abandon Sun to his own devices. His team did look a bit tired though and-
"Well how about just you then?" Sun elbowed Pyrrha lightly in the side, prompting her to jump a bit. He grinned at her, pearly white teeth flashing. Pyrrha laughed nervously and put her hands up, unsure of how to dismiss the idea. Lucky for her, Jaune decided to help her with that.
"I can show you around the city." He rushed out, stepping in between the two of them suddenly. Sun stepped back in surprise but grinned just as widely. He wrapped an arm around Jaune and shook him slightly.
"Hey now! That's the spirit!"
Jaune turned his head, struggling to get out of another death grip. "The rest of you can head back to the dorm. I'll catch up after we're done!" Jaune shouted at his team as he and Sun walked away from them, into another crowd of people.
"We'll see you there Jaune!" Pyrrha replied, a smile filled with relief filling her face. She ignored the red on her cheeks.
Team JNPR got onto the Bullhead and flew off towards the school.
Jaune and Sun walked through the city, ready to see the sights.
"But Neptune's kind of a pansy when it comes to water you know." Sun regaled Jaune with another story of his team. Laughter filled the street that they walked down, bright smiles on both of the leaders' faces.
"Why's his name Neptune again?"
"That's what I'm saying!"
Jaune laughed again, impressed with how fast Sun had turned the awkward situation around. They had done a complete 180 from the initial encounter and had become fast friends in just a half hour. Sun started with some questions about his team and it just spiraled from there into stories and tales about their teams, friends, and past. Sun took a deep breath after a particularly long bout of laughter and shot Jaune a sly smirk this time.
"So, when do you plan on asking her out?" Jaune fell flat on his face when the question registered in his mind –good thing aura was automatic.
"A-Asking who out?" He sputtered out, hands dusting off his clothes quickly.
"C'mon man, you gotta give me more credit than that." Sun helped brush some lingering dust and pulled Jaune close, into whisper distance. "You like Pyrrha don't you?"
"What!" Jaune opened his eyes wide and threw his hands in front of his body as a meager defense. "No! That's not even-She's just-I don't even-"
"Wow…" Sun stepped back and gave Jaune the most sarcastic slow clap he could manage. "And the Emmy goes to…" He shook his head before going back to his newfound friend. At the very least he needed to give Jaune some kind of assistance for this endeavor, after all, that's what bros were for. "You gotta make a move on her soon man."
"I don't even know what you're talking about!" This was preposterous! He and Pyrrha were friends and that was that. Aside from some additional training, they didn't really talk all that much to each other. Except during breakfast, lunch, and dinner…Or when they studied in the library together...Or when they went to Vale together…Or when they took their daily walks in the greenhouse…
Ok so they did spend a significant amount of time together but they were teammates, it was pretty much expected.
Just because he spent a lot of time with her didn't mean anything.
"How about you just ask her out?" Sun asked honestly, not seeing the issue Jaune apparently saw.
"I'm not into her like that!"
Sun sighed. This always happened with guys who lacked self-confidence. Always denying how they felt, content to be the side man until some miracle happened –which would never come. He couldn't allow someone to fall into that trap when he was right there to help them.
"Really?" He asked, squaring his shoulders and standing upright, looking Jaune dead in the eye.
"Yes!"
"You're completely sure about your feelings?"
"Absolutely one hundred percent."
"I see…"
"…Yes…You see…" Jaune didn't like the smirk at all.
"So you won't mind me asking her out then?"
Bingo. Sun thought to himself smugly as Jaune stopped dead in the streets. He smiled at him and raised an eyebrow.
"What's wrong man?" He put his hands behind his head and stretched languidly, his voice filled with mirth. "You should be cool with that. After all, you don't like her right?" He took Jaune's narrowed eyes and clenched jaw as good signs. "Why not let someone else take a shot?"
"…"
"Well?" He asked expectantly.
"…"
"Sorry about that man, couldn't hear you."
"She's…ble…"
"What? Say it a bit more clea-"
"She's not available!" Sun laughed at the outburst, doubling over at Jaune's angry expression. He was so innocent and pure –he didn't think he would find a treat like this out here in Vale but here it was.
"Why not, she's not taken, right?"
She's just not!" Jaune growled, hiding his red face in his arm. God damn Sun, asking weird questions. He and Pyrrha were just good friends and he didn't want someone like Sun to be with her. Sun was weird!
Right.
That was exactly it.
No other motives involved.
Sun threw an arm around his new found friend, dragging him down the street to see more sights. Vale was definitely different from his Mistral. So much consumer technology and a curious urban feel –it certainly brought some truth to the term 'concrete jungle'. They crossed several streets -some with peculiar names like Corvix Street- and, as Sun humorously noted, a shit ton of coffee shops and bookstores.
"Jaune?" A curious voice sounded in front of them. Said teen looked up to see silver eyes staring back into his blue pair.
"Ruby? Hey, what's up?" He cheerfully asked, removing himself from another one of Sun's headlocks. He was starting to get worried that his neck would have permanent damage with how often people did that to him.
Ruby beamed back at the fellow leader and gestured to the rest of her team and Penny.
"We're just hanging out in the city, what are you doing out here?" Ruby then pointed to his companion, who was smiling brightly at…Blake? Weird… "Sooooo, who's your new friend?"
"This is Sun." Jaune plainly introduced, smile absent from his face, still seething slightly over the earlier events. He jabbed his thumb towards him, directing all attention towards the newly introduced blonde, who chose to grin brightly at the group and elbow Jaune lightly in the ribs.
"Jaune," he said in a sing-song voice, "you never told me that you were friends with so many pretty girls." Though really, only one of them was catching his full attention –she was also the one who was least impressed with his physique, having seen more than enough ripped bodies during her tenure as a White Fang member. Unabated however, Sun moved in on the beautiful brunette. "So, what's your name beautiful?" He let the words flow easily from his mouth, like syrup dripping off a spoon, they were sweet and slow.
They were also completely ineffective.
Instead of answering, Blake Belladonna decided that after having been forced to deal with the bookstore, Penny, and her teammates doting attitudes, she was officially done for the day. Her brain clocked out early and left the rest of the work to the janitor.
"Blake."
Sun's suave attitude stumbled at the direct and decidedly bored answer the girl gave. He quickly recovered and began his pursuit anew, this time deciding to lay off the flirty attitude, she didn't seem particularly interested in that kind of game.
"Oh, well I'm Sun."
"Jaune already introduced you." She quickly replied, she grabbed Penny's hand began moving forwards once again, prompting the rest of the gathered group to follow along. Jaune shot Sun a sorry glance as he continued his courting attempt.
"Oh yeah, sorry. So what were you girls doing in the city?"
"We went to a bookstore."
"Oh, what kind of books do you like?"
"All sorts."
"Any particular works?"
"She likes Ninjas of Love!" Yang shouted from behind them, flashing Sun a thumbs up before returning to her own conversation with Jaune and the rest of team Ruby.
"…"
They stared blankly at each other, one grinning and the other with a dead expression.
"So, Ninjas of Love?" While he wasn't exactly an avid reader of books –okay so he really didn't like reading but whatever- even he knew that Ninjas of Love was supposed to amount to written porn. She didn't exactly seem like the type to enjoy fiction like-
"Yeah, I said 'all sorts', didn't I?" Blake answered, battling his smirk with thinned lips.
Sun laughed at her answer, not every day you found a girl willing to so openly talk about her choice of written erotica stories. It was a bit strange but then again, so was he. The most interesting part about her though was still unconfirmed however and he felt like it was time to start on that topic.
"So, the bow is cute."
"…" No answer was pretty much expected so Sun didn't really trip over it.
"Where did you get it from?"
"An old friend." Blake said through grit teeth, her eyes narrowing slightly. She didn't feel like going down this path at all right now and Sun was really it with these kinds of questions. Lucky for her, Sun wasn't blind.
"Ah, alright then, is there anything you want to talk about?" Good Lord, he didn't think it would be that touchy of a subject -the anger was so palpable and even the group behind them could feel it. If Blake didn't want to talk about it then he wouldn't push the issue, while he would love to get to know her better, tonight just didn't seem like the proper night, with her being all gloomy and mad.
"I'd rather just walk in silence right now Sun." She sighed when she was his downcast expression, though he quickly hid it with another grin. God, she was kind of being rude to someone they had just met –regardless of how bad of a day she'd been having it wasn't really much of an excuse to be so off putting. So Blake turned fully to him and sighed heavily. "I'm sorry if I'm being flippant. I'm just not feeling very well right now."
Sun felt his lips stretch into a wide smile, he quickly thanked whatever God was out there that she wasn't just completely uninterested in him. "Hey, it's no problem, we all have days like that. Maybe we can hang out some other time?" He pulled out his scroll. "If you want of course."
Blake hesitated for a moment before pulling her own scroll out and handing it over to him while taking his into her own hands. She quickly typed in her information, doubting that she would ever really take that offer up again any time soon. Sun did the same, though he had a differing opinion.
Suddenly they found themselves standing in front of the bullheads again, pilots waiting on them dutifully. Team RWBY, Jaune, and Sun all got on, however Penny stayed behind, waving at them happily. Blake bit her lip and called out to her.
"Penny, aren't you coming to Beacon?" The quirky girl shook her head as she continued waving.
"I must meet up with my team first, I will be joining you later however! I look forwards to seeing you again friend Blake!" She paused for a moment before addressing the rest of them. "I look forwards to seeing you again too Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Jaune, and Sun!" The last two cast curious looks to the other girls, asking the silent question of who Penny even was. They didn't receive any answers.
As the Bullhead began starting up Blake bit her lip as she saw Penny's happy smile. She was…a moron to be frank but she was also really nice. Also innocent beyond belief and apparently also ignorant of what people were like for the most part. Basically, Blake didn't know if Penny would be fine in the city completely alone.
She couldn't exactly go with her though to her team…
…
…
She did have a scroll though.
No, there was a better way. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe she could...
"Alright, we're in the air in 60 seconds ladies and gentlemen, say your final goodbyes now!" The pilot shouted to his passengers.
Blake internally screamed at herself as she opened her mouth.
"Penny! Come over here real quick!" She fished out her scroll quickly, nearly dropping it in the process. "What's your scroll number? Log it in here! If you get into any…trouble, just call me!" She shouted through the loudness of the roaring engines. Penny looked ecstatic as she punched in her information, almost literally with how enthusiastic she pressed those virtual buttons.
"Thank you friend Blake! I'll be sure to contact you if anything happens." Penny graciously replied before stepping back and away from the rising bullhead. As they rose into the air and the doors closed, Penny smiled the same smile she always had.
The same one she was born with.
"Wow Blake, that was brave…" Yang said, watching Blake's scroll with hawkish eyes. It would happen any moment now…She knew it would.
"What are you talking about now Yang?" An exasperated Blake replied as she sent Penny a simple hello message. Hopefully Penny at least understood how to use the basic functions of a scroll and would know how to record her number from a text message.
"Giving your number to Penny of all people?"
Blake rolled her eyes. "She's not that bad." Okay so maybe she was kind of weird…but really weren't they all a bit weird!?
"She refers to you as 'friend Blake'…Just give it some time, she's going to explode your scroll. Explode." Yang said, pantomiming an explosion to her teammate, arms splaying wide into the air.
"Stop exaggerating Yang, just because she's…inexperienced with people doesn't mean she'll do something drastic or abnormal."
"She calls you 'FRIEND BLAKE'." Yang reiterated strongly. "She's nice, don't get me wrong, but something about her seems a bit off."
"Well, I can agree on that I suppose." Blake conceded, leaning against the seat and turning her head to look out the window. Vale was certainly beautiful at night, looking at it from the night sky. Buildings were alit, even at this time, casting a glow onto each other. Streetlamps washed the streets with yellow light, illuminating the pathway for everyone, from simple civilians to vagrants to law enforcement alike.
But the CCTS Tower stood at the center of it all, still bustling with life from the multitude of people making calls, sending pictures, uploading videos, and other multimedia adventures. The tower cast its light across the city, bright and vibrant –though not blindingly so- close at its base while petering off to a dim glow as one slowly left it.
Blake wondered to herself as she stared at the city.
Where the hell are they hiding?
Engineering.
Dust.
Biology.
Aura.
For a man such as himself, these topics were just a few of the many different fields he had come to master in his days as a scientist and researcher.
And sitting before him, was his life's work and achievement.
Beautiful she was in his eyes, never able to age and never able to die –a perfect being. A being made by his own hands, conceptualized within the confines of his great mind.
He pressed his thumb against the side of her neck, the back of her head consequently opened up, showing him the genius inside.
The brain now belonging to Penny Polendina.
"How was your first day outside my dear?"
"It was nice father, I met many different people." He smiled at her response, just her first time outside and she was already learning so much -her speech was far less strict and tempered, having a more natural cadence to it.
"Oh, what kinds of people did you meet?" He asked as he hooked her up to a large computer, a visual feed emerged on the screen. He flicked through it quickly, skipping many of the useless events such as her standing in one location for approximately three hours. Finally he found one, filled with several other girls, most seemed to be her age.
They seemed to be huntresses.
"They were nice people, one of them said we were friends!" Penny excitedly said.
He frowned at that.
"Friends? Did you say anything about your…'unique' qualities?" He quickly flicked through the memories, searching for one with shocked expressions or other strange happenings.
"No, you expressly forbid me of talking about that, am I correct?" He sighed in relief.
"Yes Penny, I did. Good job keeping it a secret." He hadn't exactly been completely confident that Penny wouldn't just speak carelessly of her condition, but he knew that Penny didn't exactly have a grasp on the concept of lying yet, so her word was basically the gold standard for the moment.
He would still sift through her memories to make sure of course.
He was her father after all.
"Well Penny, I think it's time for you to rest for the night." The girl smiled cheerfully at him as he typed on his keyboard, inputting commands for her to shut down for the night.
Penny spoke up suddenly though, causing him to pause. "Father, am I human like them?" She asked directly.
"Of course you are, just with some extra features." He reassured her as he finished typing in the commands. He made his way to her and held her hand tightly, gripping the cold flesh.
She smiled at his answer, content with it.
"Good night father."
He smiled back at her.
"Good night Penny."
And with that, he shut her off, allowing her some respite from the day as the computer sorted through her memories, intelligently picking what it deemed as important to view.
Penny's father left the room, shutting the lights off in ritual –Penny cared little if the lights were on or off when she 'rested'.
He entered another room then, this one blindingly white, its walls bleached like bone. In the center was a curtain which hung in a circle, surrounding a darkened figure. As he pulled the curtain back to look down on the figure lying down on the operating table, he thought to himself…
What a horrid expression.
A/N: So that ends chapter 10! This one was pretty long and took some time to write! The teams are now starting to discuss what kind of missions they want to go on which means mountain glenn is coming up soon! With that, the dance will be coming up soon as well and then finally the vytal festival.
So, another thing that bothered me in the series was Penny. I'm sure it'll become a major plot point though so I'm not particularly worried about it; but, the technology to make Penny should be so far outside of their scope that it's almost unfathomable.
The RWBY universe has robots sure, but nothing they've shown compares to the sheer complexity required to create a fully functioning, sapient, and sentient human being. To put it into perspective, the world's MOST POWERFUL supercomputer was recently able to simulate exactly one second of brain activity…
It took it 40 MINUTES TO SIMULATE IT ENTIRELY.
This is a computer that has over 700,000 processor cores, 1.4 million GB of RAM and it took 40 MINUTES to simulate just one second of brain activity.
For some easy math, this means that Penny Polendina is currently stronger/faster than one of the worlds strongest supercomputers by a factor of 2400. This is also grossly simplifying the issue.
RWBY-verse is hilarious if they expect me to believe that someone in this universe just made a supercomputer capable of handling that level of information and activity and somehow miniaturized it to the size of a human brain.
So I'm going down a very different route with Penny. An equally unbelievable one, but one that at least matches their tech level.
I know, it's a fictional story and I need to take it with a grain of salt but I don't like it when something happens that shouldn't be possible within the confines of said story. Suppose you were reading about a fantasy epic like the lord of the rings and someone just comes out with an Uzi and starts spraying down mother fuckers like he's Rambo.
Yeah sure, maybe gun powder weapons aren't completely out of the picture, but an Uzi is so far past that tech level that it just doesn't make sense to have it.
That's the problem with 'humanoid' robots in fiction; unless the universe has shown that it has progressed to the point where it is capable of such feats, it makes no sense of them to be present.
Hopefully Rooster Teeth can properly explain how and why Penny exists at a fundamental level but I doubt it.
After all, it is fiction, and most people don't really care.
I'll still enjoy the story though, it's a good story regardless.
