Hello everyone, my name is GUNdaiRANGER and welcome back to another installment of Joker in Remnant, now it's been months since the last update, but do to rewrites, loss of will to write, babysitting duties, and flat out forgetfulness, you're probably thinking, "I'm done with this fool, there's better fan fics out there so I'ma go read those" and you'd be right to do so, but nonetheless I got chapter 4 out and about, I still plan on writing this out, and also I've had ideas for new fan fics but that's for another time so let's get down to it this is Joker in Remnant: Chapter 4, and also I don't own Joker, nor do I own RWBY, but go support the official release, show your love for those beautiful people at Roosterteeth.
Chapter 4: Shocking Gag
[Beacon Academy-Cafeteria]
Early in the morning, the students whilst recovering from the shock the Bullhead crash that took place days beforehand seem somewhat celibate, due to the fact that the only students that were harmed were the students that probably had it coming in the first place, the students of Team CRDL. Despite the jubilation from the other students, Weiss and Blake had their thoughts somewhere else as Ruby and her sister Yang were busy with their breakfast, then to break their attention from their minds, Jaune Arc of Team JNPR takes the seat across from them at their table with a scroll in his hand.
"Hey guys, check this out, there was an incident at the docks last night and no one knows who did it." Jaune then showed the news report with news reporter Lavender giving said report.
"Authorities are baffled as to what actually took place at the Vale docks as of late last night as authorities believed it to be a heist as yet another shipment of DUST from the Schnee DUST Co. was yet again stolen by unknown thieves, while some believed this to be the work of the White Fang, the extreme Faunus rights and activist group are the ones responsible, others believed this to be the work of Roman Torchwick, the well known criminal and thief adding to his repertoire as a self proclaimed 'Master thief,' and yet authorities believe this to be the work of a new up and coming thief as earlier this week, a DUST shop was robbed of its DUST crystals but the perpetrator left his mark after murdering the shop owner….."
Upon hearing the dead DUST shop owner, Ruby stopped eating her breakfast and looked at Jaune's scroll and watched alongside her two other teammates Weiss and Blake as Lavender continued to give her report.
"….who was also the owner of a well known coffee and tea shop in Vale, the same man who was to open an open food stand during the Vytal Festival where the Vytal Tournament is to be held, the man was found dead in the early morning as one of the workers arrived for work and discovered his employer's body on the ground with a spike through his chest and a facial expression which can only be described as 'a creepy smile'…."
Jaune the exited the video report as he put his scroll away.
"Man talk about crazy right? First it was the DUST shop clerk, then the bullhead crashing on campus, and now a heist at the docks, what do you guys think about this? Do you guys think that there's a connection between the three incidents?"
Weiss and Blake looked at each other, then Weiss looked to Ruby and it was there that Weiss could see the sadness in Ruby's eyes as she remembers that Ruby was the one that saved that same man the night before being accepted into Beacon, then back to Jaune.
"Personally, I don't know, there's still much that we don't know to say that these three are related, but that is a matter for the police." Weiss then looked to Blake who gave her a slight nod. Then Ruby stood up surprising her teammates and Jaune and walks off out of the cafeteria.
"Hey sis, where are you going?" Yang called out then she looks down and saw that Ruby only ate half her breakfast, then looks back up. "You only ate half your food? If you're not going to finish, can I have it?"
Ruby only have a thumbs up as she walks out of the cafeteria. A look of concern swept along Yang's face, worried for her younger sister as she continues eating her own
breakfast while moving Ruby's plate next to hers.
"What do you think has gotten into her?" Jaune couldn't help but as the rest of Ruby's team shared the same look of concern for their leader. "Weiss and I were the ones that told Ruby about the old man when we went shopping for DUST that day."
Sensing the tone of Blake's voice, Jaune remembered that day when his team was sent to investigate what happened that day and also remembered running into Blake and Weiss, then he scratched the back of his head looking down.
"Guess that news report drudged up some bad memories, I didn't mean to upset her or anything. Think I should go to her and apologize? Or what? What do you guys think?"
Yang then waved her hand in the air for a bit. "Nah, she'll be fine, we just have to give her some space. She'll come around again for sure, Ruby can't be depressed for that long, she'll return to her normal, energetic, gun loving self again."
Jaune thought about Yang's words for a bit, and finally gave a light smile. "Yeah, you're right Yang, Ruby will be fine. You're the sister, so you know what you're talking about so I'll take your word for it, now if you ladies excuse me, I've got to get back to my team before Nora decides to finish off my pancakes, and Ren and Pyrrha could only hold her back for so long."
Jaune then rushes back to his team as Yang, Weiss, and Blake laugh at the thought of Jaune's pancakes being devoured by Nora Valkyrie. They watched Jaune make it back to his table only to hear distant ramblings going on at his teams table, which sounded like Pyrrha and Ren had failed in their mission to protect Jaune's pancakes from Nora as they could also hear Nora in the distance singing ~I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle~
"Silliness aside, Jaune did bring up a valid point, so many things happened in so little time, that perhaps, and this is a long shot here, but I think these things could be connected in some shape or form. We know Roman Torchwick is connected to the White Fang and is in fact working with them." Upon hearing Blake's concerns, Yang and Weiss looked at each other with doubt in their eyes.
"Okay then, how do you explain the Bullhead crashing into the cafeteria earlier this week? How is that connected?" Sensing the doubt in Weiss's voice, Blake looked down at her food, in thought of searching for an answer. "Remember how Ruby got Cardin out of the debris? Cardin said that he heard sick laughter coming from the radio right before the crash, it could be possible that the bullhead could've been remotely hi-jacked."
"Hold it there Blake, that's some television non sense you got cooking in your head there. 'Remote hi jacking?' Really Blake, you've got to be kidding me, am I right Weiss?" Expecting Weiss to agree with her, the expression on Weiss's face proved otherwise as she crossed her arms in thought. "I suppose what Blake said could be true since the Atlas Military does have some highly advanced technology, but to think that the White Fang could get their hands on it or even Torchwick for that matter….the pieces fit, but it just doesn't add up for some reason….just thinking about it is giving me headaches."
Weiss begins rubbing the temples on her head trying to piece together the conundrum as Yang just sits in her seat, somewhat bewildered at how Weiss agreed with Blake's statement. "So you girls think that there's a missing link or two that we don't know about?"
Hearing Yang's question, both Weiss and Blake looked at each other then looked back at Yang and both gave a silent nod in response to her question. Weiss then commented on Yang's question. "The fact that there's a missing link means that someone has to investigate and find out what that link is. Yang spared no moment as she stood up from the table with a smile on her face. "Alright girls, I'll go and get my sis Ruby, then after classes are finished we'll swing by Vale and see what we can pick up."
Blake raised an eyebrow upon hearing Yang's plan. "You make it sound so simple do you really think it'll go that well? It's as Weiss said earlier, we're just students and this is a matter for the Vale Police Department to investigate, this sort of thing is out of our hands."
"True, but that never stopped us when we set out for our own investigations, so I'm sure it'll work out okay, I mean come on it's us, am I right?" Weiss and Blake both pondered at Yang's statement and doth found it had some merit, causing Blake to smile calmly. "Yeah you're right. We've always been fortunate to be at the right place at the right time, so perhaps our luck can hold out hopefully."
Weiss sighed as she knew this was going to happen whether or not she protested, as with anything relating to Team RWBY, there's always going to be some form of adventure, and thus smiles back. "Alright I'm in too. Like I said at the beginning of the semester, if we're going to do something, we should do it as a team."
Yang got up from her seat and moved between Blake and Weiss and gives both of them a one armed hug from behind with a big smile on her face. "You girls are the best! I'll go and tell Ruby what our plans are and if anything, this might perk her up a bit."
Yang released Weiss and Blake from her hugs and dashed out of the cafeteria leaving Weiss and Blake behind, Blake looked down and saw that Yang had yet to eat Ruby's unfinished breakfast, then looked to Weiss with one eye brow raised slightly. "You don't think she minds me finishing it off right?"
Weiss looked at Blake and simply shrugged her shoulders in response, then after some thought, Blake decided to eat Ruby's unfinished breakfast, the eggs and bacon still warm but getting cold as well so Blake quickly ate the food then walked with Weiss to discard their food trays as they headed off to class.
[Streets of Vale]
Throughout the streets of Vale, Emerald couldn't help but feel annoyed at her partner Mercury had willingly brought the Joker with them on their unofficial mission to off a would-be liability that Roman Torchwick had failed to accomplish so Emerald and Mercury had decided best to take the matter into their own hands. Compared to most civilians, Emerald and Mercury looked the most normal while Joker dressed up in his usual purple tux, matching purple long coat and purple Fedora; the people couldn't help but stare at him since he looked like something from an old gangster movie.
"Mercury, tell me why on Remnant did you have to bring the clown with us today? It's bad enough he's an eyesore just by looking at him!" Mercury shrugged at first, knowing full well the reason why he brought along the Joker, he just wanted to indulge in his favorite past time, trolling the heck out of Emerald, and with Joker's help, trolling her became that much more sweeter, much to Emerald's chagrin, he finally let out a breath of delight.
"Well do you want the truth? Or do you want me to keep it to myself? Because I'm pretty sure you don't want me to tell you the truth and just want me to keep to myself, Em. So if anything, I'll place my bet on you wanting to keep it to myself."
Emerald couldn't help but slide her hand over her face in annoyance with Mercury as the three continued walking around the town as they come across a crowd of people minding their own business, knowing this to be a great opportunity, she chose one unlucky civilian and quickly snatched their wallet from their back pocket then quickly slid it into her own pocket then proceeded as normal a little farther up.
It felt refreshing for Emerald to pick pocket an innocent civilian, for it brought a sense of stress relief, probably because of the random amounts of Lien each individual had, though in this particular instance, the wallet she snatched had some heft to its weight, which brought a sense of joy in her. Sadly for her though, Mercury had seen Emerald's pick pocketing of the unlucky civilian, he's been around Emerald long enough to see her skills in action. "I know you stole that guy's wallet."
"How about this? I'll happily pay you, Mercury, for five minutes of silence and to keep the clown under control, does that sound like a deal?" Mercury and Joker looked at the Lien at first then to each other, shared a few mutual grunts then turned to Emerald to give a reply on her 'deal,' with another trolling smirk on his face as he crossed his arms and leaned back on a nearby brick wall of a nearby building. "First off, Uncle J hasn't done anything that would be considered 'out of control' and secondly, that's not your money."
Joker couldn't help but chuckle as Emerald turns her head to him with a light scowl on her face then turns her attention back to Mercury. "But it could be yours and the clown's for a pleasurable five minutes of silence." Mercury tilted his head at first thinking about it, and then looks to Emerald with his usual snark. "No deal and besides, uncle didn't say anything yet."
Emerald scowled as Joker begins laughing, grabbing his gut and pointing a finger at Emerald's failed attempt to buy silence from Mercury, the only thoughts going through Emerald's head was, 'I'm really starting to hate clowns and Mercury now, why on Remnant did I have to be stuck with these two? What did I ever do wrong in the past life? On second thought never mind.' With that in mind she quickly turns about face and continues on their journey, with Joker's laughing coming down, and Mercury finally freeing himself from the brick wall with the snark remark. "You want me."
Joker couldn't help but take in the sights, the world of Remnant, and more specifically Vale was different to him in so many ways, for one thing, there were no super heroes around, and the closest things to said super heroes were hunters and huntresses, the technology was far more advanced than that of Gotham, or anywhere back from Joker's Earth, for example the hand held devices called 'Scrolls,' to Joker, it'd look like something that Batman would use. Something that high tech would go for something back in Gotham, but here, it's standard and easily affordable. So he pondered if there was something like that and the Atlesian Paladins lying around, what other 'toys' could be laying around for him to get his hands on? The limits were practically limitless to him, a brand new world of possibilities had opened up to the Joker and all he could do was smile to himself quietly.
As Joker was lost in his thoughts, his thoughts were suddenly put on hold when he bumped into stopped Mercury. "Why the sudden stop lad? You could've warned me if we were going to stop so suddenly." Mercury turned around to face Joker with his hands behind his head. "Emerald said she was going to ask someone for the directions to the place we're going, so we're just sitting tight until then." Joker looked at Mercury with one eye wide open and a questioning frown.
"You mean to tell me she's been leading us in random directions this entire time with no knowledge of where we're actually going? Mercury only gave simple nod in response to Joker's question as Joker face palms himself as a result of Mercury's response. "Next time you're the one walking us to wherever we need to, kiddo." Mercury gave a slight smile as he gives a thumbs up to the Joker as they continue walking ahead as Emerald had finished her conversation for directions that she desperately needed apparently in the minds of Joker and Mercury.
Following the directions that were given to her, Emerald, Joker, and Emerald arrive at a bookstore called Tukson's Book Trade: Home to every book under the sun, Mercury looked at the storefront sign as a stern look on his face. "I'm pretty sure that's false advertising." Emerald jabbed Mercury's side with an elbow for him to keep shush as the three enter the bookstore and to their surprise, the majority of the books were gone, as the three looked around, Mercury was relieved to see that the store hadn't packed the comics away yet meaning that the business is still open, Mercury couldn't help but pick a comic in particular called 'Man of Bats' and decided to look through it with Joker. Much to Joker's dismay, the images reminds him of his battles against Batman and how this comic book somehow perfectly matched the Joker's crimes exactly as he had done them.
"Talk about an eerie case of déjà vu…." Joker then shudders at the thought as Mercury turned to him and asks: "Could you ever imagine your life as a comic book character?" Joker then freezes as he snatches the book away from Mercury's hands. "Mercury, don't ever say such a thing! The mere thought of it sends shivers down my spine." Mercury couldn't help but shrug as he picked up another comic book.
Sighing at the antics of the clown and Mercury, Emerald sees the dinger bell at the counter and presses it, the ding loud enough to be heard from anywhere from the store. Then the door to the back opens up and walking in the door was none other than who the three assume to be the store owner. "Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade: Home to every book under the sun…."
The store owner then looks at the three people in his shop which consisted of two teens and an adult together, although when he looks at the Joker, he sees the Joker's pale skin and is somehow getting a sense of danger from the Joker, Tukson then looks to Emerald seeing as she was the one who pressed the dinger. "How can help you today? As you can see, we're going to close soon so if you have any orders you want to place, you can go to our website to place an order from there." Emerald was quick to respond to that statement. "Hi, sorry to interrupt but seeing as the majority of your books are gone in what I assume to be a move, I've only the one question to ask you then." Tukson nods his head cautiously in acceptance and replies, "Sure, what's your question?"
Emerald leans forward towards Tukson and finally asks the question, "Do you have 'Third Crusade?" Tukson's eye widened a bit as he then tries to regain his composure and shakes his head, "Sorry, we've never carried that book before." The store remains quiet for only a few moments, soon to be interrupted by Joker's sudden burst of laughter, Joker holding his gut with his left hand and covering his forehead with his right hand, everyone looking at the Joker, Tukson being confused, Emerald with an annoyed look on her face, and Mercury just looks on amused as Joker regains his composure and his laughter begins dying down.
"And here I thought the motto 'every book under the sun' meant that. Looks like you were right Mercury my dear lad…." Then Joker's grin turns into a scowl, "It is FALSE advertising…." Joker then makes his way to the counter as he slides his hands into his coat pockets as Emerald backs away from the counter, she sees the look on Joker's face and sees that he is now not to be messed with as he reached the counter, he takes out his hands and removes his hat and looks at Tukson.
Tukson taken aback by Joker's now visible pale skinned face and scowl, Joker slams one hand on the table as he reached the counter and uses the other to point at Tukson. Seeing this as an opportunity, Mercury then dimmed the store's lights so that no one from the outside could peer in, and also locked the doors.
"Now listen here bucko, I've done my fair share of advertising back from where I'm from, and between you and me, I've never once lied about what I was promoting…." Tukson looked into the Joker's eyes then looked away, "It's just a catchphrase." As Joker opens his mouth, Mercury interjects, "Its false advertisement." The Joker turns to Mercury and gives him a thumbs up and Mercury returns the gesture in kind, then Joker turns his attention back to Tukson, "Its as the boy says, its false advertising so next time think about your catchphrases before you advertise, got it?!"
"Yes." Tukson replied, upon hearing that Joker's scowl reverted back into its smile as he turns back around to see Emerald and Mercury, "You can learn a thing or two with me around, wouldn't you say kiddos?" Emerald couldn't help but make a disgusted face at the thought of Joker teaching her something, "Okay clown, are you done with your thing so I can get back to conversing with him?" Joker thought about it at first, but then decides to troll Emerald by going back to the counter, Mercury could see Emerald's face turn to one of anger and give a silly grin in return as the Joker slips one of his hands into his pocket, and back out again, "Say Tukson old boy, I assume you know what this aura thing these hunters have right?" Tukson replied, "Yes." Then Joker leans in closer, "And is it safe to assume that your former party pals, the White Fang have this aura thing as well?" Tukson's eyes grows stern as he gives his reply, "Most members are just shooting guns and take orders." Then Joker leans in a little more closer to Tukson as Tukson backs away from Joker's approach, "And one last thing, do you have aura….?" Joker finished his question with a small chuckle as Tukson's faunus senses begins setting off danger bells, but remained calm as he gives his answer, "I don't actually."
It was in that moment for some reason the Joker decided to back off and relieving Tukson of his worried senses, a breath of fresh air swept over Tukson. "Very well that's all I needed to know, sorry for being so rude to you and your business, see I'm new in town and these two kiddies were showing me around, so with all due respect, I would like to firmly shake your hand and apologize for my behavior." Joker then pulls out his hand that was in his pocket earlier and awaits a handshake from Tukson; Tukson slowly reaches out to return the gesture all the while feeling hesitant to shake the hand of the man that literally just a few seconds ago just set off danger signals on his faunus side. As his hand was about to clasp with Joker's, he paused for a second to look at the Joker, and surely enough, there was no sign of malice on the Joker's face, in fact there was just a light hearted smile as Joker nods his head.
Tukson once again heard alarm bells in his head going off again, but decides to show courtesy to his customers and grasped the Joker's hand, unfortunately he should have listened to his instincts as he is zapped by 45,000 volts of electricity, the electricity surging through his body as his heart had stopped beating, his dead hand letting go of the Joker's as the now dead Tukson falls backwards, his back hitting the door behind him, the dead body slumping downwards as it sits on the floor, smoking from the electrical surge as Joker blows the smoke away from his modified joy buzzer. "What did you do to him?" Emerald asked as the look of shock swept across his face, Joker then slides his hand back into his coat pocket as he puts his hat back on, still smiling playfully and chuckling to himself, "I guess the poor man couldn't handle a simple joy buzzer, how shocking." Joker laughed at his own little joke as Emerald looks on in annoyance with Mercury clapping in the background. "Now then, I suggest we skedaddle before someone notices something isn't right here." With both Mercury and Emerald nodding in agreement, both decide to head the Joker's words and the three left the bookstore, with Mercury holding a book in hand as they left the store. "What's with that?" Emerald asked as she sees the book in Mercury's hand and Mercury replied with a smirk look on his face, "I like the pictures."
[Undisclosed location]
As the three walked into their base of operations, they stumbled upon Roman Torchwick, working on his speech for the new White Fang recruits in a few days while the other members of the White Fang are loading items and supplies onto bullheads, "Oh look, she sent the kids and the crazy uncle again." Torchwick walks towards them, then walks around them to hold both Emerald and Mercury in his arms, "This is turning out just like the divorce," both Emerald and Mercury started gagging as Joker begins laughing annoying Roman as Emerald and Mercury shake themselves free from Roman's grasp, "Please spare us the thought of you procreating."
Roman walks forward and with a quick sleight of hand, grabs the piece of paper that was in Emerald's pocket, "Relax it was just a joke," Roman then holds up the piece of paper that he stole from Emerald up in the air, Emerald's eyes widened as she sees the piece of paper. "I'm a professional sweetheart, pay attention and you might learn something, and this, just might tell me where you three have been all this time…." As Roman looks over the address he realizes the importance of the address thus returning his attention to Emerald and Mercury. "Why do you have this address?" Emerald looks into Roman's eyes and replies, "Wouldn't you like to know." Roman walks forward towards the three, keeping his focus on Emerald, "Yeah I would, now where have you been all day?" Mercury then steps up to Roman with an angry reply, "Cleaning up your problems, one of them at least." Joker stands there chuckling as if he were watching a sitcom, taking it in strides, Roman looked at the Joker in an attempt to keep him shush, then turns back to the two young teens, "I had that under control." Mercury countered, "A nearly empty bookstore, packed bags, and a ticket to Vacuo says otherwise."
That was when Joker chimed in, "Now now kiddies, I'm fairly certain that cousin Roman had a very good reason as to why he didn't send the man off his way." Roman moved away from the Joker in disgust. "The thought of you being any blood relation to me is something I don't need to think about when sleeping at night, if it were up to me I'd take you, the punk, and the street rat and I'd—" This was when Joker quickly goes for his long barreled revolver and points it at Roman's head. "If it's come down to that, I'll happily squeeze this happy trigger." A voice sounds out from above them, "I would prefer if you didn't do away with Roman, Joker. I still have use for him." The four turned to see who it was that spoke and saw Cinder standing on a platform elevator as the elevator descends to their floor, seeing Cinder got a smile going on Emerald's face as Cinder walked towards the four of them, stopping at Joker. "Believe me when I say I still have use for Roman's skills and as long as I'm here, you are to cooperate with him on my say so unless I say otherwise." Joker only responded with his hands in the air while still holding his revolver, Cinder turned her attention towards her compatriots Mercury and Emerald, "You two, didn't I specifically say to keep your hands clean while in Vale?" Before Emerald could speak, Mercury decided to cut in, "To be fair, we didn't actually kill the traitor, we didn't even lay a finger on him, it was all Uncle J's doing." Cinder then turned to Joker again. "Is that so?" Emerald then replied, "This might work out for us, since Joker is still new here and nobody actually knows him but us." Cinder then turns her attention to Emerald, "I'm willing to look passed this incident, but make sure it doesn't happen again." Emerald could feel the anger within Cinder rising and solemnly nods her head. "Yes ma'am, it won't happen again."
Cinder finally turns her attention to Roman, "And you, why hasn't this been done sooner? Any longer and the traitor would've ran off with some very valuable information." Roman then points his cane to several large containers of DUST, the stolen Atleasian Paladin, and the speech he was working on in his hands. "Excuse me if I've been busy stealing every speck of DUST in the Kingdom, stealing Atleasian robots, and working on the White Fang recruitment speech, not to mention having to deal with the clown over here!" Joker innocently waves to Cinder and Roman at the mention of his name, Roman could only sigh and face palm as he looks to Cinder, "As difficult as it is dealing with him, I've got police watching every corner and DUST sales through the roof, I'm practically having this kingdom running scared."
It was then that Joker stuck his hand out to Roman as Roman backs away from Joker cutting off his conversation with Cinder, "What are you doing clown?" Roman asked as Mercury's and Emerald eyes widened since they've seen this before. "Why I'm merely offering a handshake for a job well done claiming to have the kingdom running scared, basically a sign of respect." Roman looks at Joker and sees an innocent smile as Roman begrudgingly grasps Joker's hand, Emerald and Mercury quickly turn away, expecting Roman to fry like the now deceased Tukson, only to hear Roman yelp in annoyance as Joker's crazy laughter erupts, causing everyone to stop and look at Joker as he says, "Shocking isn't it?"
Chapter 4: End
And that was it for chapter 4 of Joker in Remnant, I know, I know, certain events in the original RWBY volumes took place prior to other events and I've basically broken the time stream, but as long as it will achieve the outcome that I want to achieve, then I can bend the time stream just a little right? Is that not how it goes for fan fics? No? I'm just being silly? Teacakes, well in any case, I still plan on writing this out whenever I've the time and memory because me on the computer is rare, so if you've any questions or comments, leave them in the review box or pm me and I'll get back to you when I can, so with that I'm just going to leave it here for now, because it's after 1 am here and I need to knock out and as always, I'll see you beautiful people in the next chapter, BYE-NEE! XD