Disclaimer: RWBY is an animated series created by Rooster Teeth. The cover image for this story is a screenshot from the Volume 8 opening.
The newly-formed Team RRAYNNBW crowded into our dorm room, most of us wearing new outfits. Ruby had declared that if we were going to go on another investigation mission, we needed different clothing.
Not to disguise us or anything. That would make too much sense. Ruby just thought new outfits would be cooler, and the rest of us knew better than to try and convince her otherwise.
The girls were dressed completely differently, but I just swapped my usual white jacket out for a black one.
"Is your room smaller than ours?" Nora asked, looking around.
"No," Ren said. "They just don't have bunk beds."
"Speaking of your bunk beds," I said, "have they broken and fallen on anyone yet?"
Pyrrha shook her head. "No, but there was a close call when Nora jumped up and down on hers too much."
I sighed. "Remind me to get some wood and turn those monstrosities into something structurally sound." The real Jaune never learned any carpentry, but I know some of the basics. Somehow.
"Stop being boring!" Ruby ordered as she jumped up to stand on my bed and point dramatically. "Alright, guys, today's the day! The investigation begins!"
Ruby leapt right back off my bed to land on her feet, nearly hitting Weiss in the process.
Weiss sighed. "I'm glad to see we're taking this so seriously."
Yang frowned. "Hey, we've got a plan! That's... moderately serious. Better than last time, at least."
"Right!" Ruby agreed. "Everyone remember their roles?"
Weiss nodded. "You and I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem."
"The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members," Blake continued. "If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning."
"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard..." Yang said.
"And Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, and I will stake out an area near the meeting Blake is going to," I said. "If Torchwick is there or she needs extraction, we'll charge in to back her up."
"Great!" Ruby cheered. "We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we found. Let's do this!"
"Um," Pyrrha spoke up sheepishly, "I'm a little worried that I might draw unwanted attention. I'm... sort of recognizable, and people have stopped me for autographs before."
I waved my hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that. I have a disguise kit we can use."
Everyone was silent for a moment as they processed that.
"Why do you have a disguise kit?" Weiss asked slowly.
"You can accomplish a lot with a good disguise," I said. "A pair of costume eyeglasses, a new hairstyle, and some baggy clothing will make you almost unrecognizable, Pyrrha. And as for you," I said, looking at Blake, "if you're going to infiltrate a White Fang meeting, you'll need something a bit more extreme. New hairstyles, some contouring, and colored contacts at the very least. Maybe even some hair dye, though I'm not sure how well that would work on your upper ears."
"I changed my outfit," Blake grumbled, bow flattening to her head. "Isn't that enough?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Blake, this is a White Fang meeting. What if someone that you used to know is there?"
She grimaced. "Fine. But no colored contacts. It's too easy for Faunus to notice them."
After Pyrrha and Blake tied their hair up in buns, we started on makeup. A bit of makeup changed how their faces looked enough that they'd be difficult to recognize.
"Where'd you learn how to do this?" Yang asked as we put the finishing touches on Blake.
"Seven sisters, remember? They made me do their hair and makeup all the time."
They also did my hair and makeup, but I chose not to mention that. I have at least a little self-respect, and Yang would never let me hear the end of it.
"Can I go now?" Blake droned.
I frowned thoughtfully. "I'm still a bit leery about sending Blake in alone. Do you think we could get Sun to back her up?"
Yang shrugged. "Might as well call and ask."
"Wait-" Blake began.
"Too late," Yang said as she hit the "call" button. Weirdly enough, we instantly heard ringing coming from right outside our window.
The eight of us turned to look out the window confusedly.
Sun peeked up over the windowsill. "Aw man... I was gonna surprise you guys!"
Blake's jaw dropped. "Sun!"
"How'd you get up here?" Yang asked.
Sun shrugged. "Ah, it's easy. I do it all the time."
"You do what?!" Weiss shrieked.
What?! Has Sun been breaking into our room?!
"I climb trees all the time," Sun said as he hopped over the windowsill to land in our room. "So, are we going after that Torchwick guy again?"
Blake frowned. "We are going to investigate the situation."
Ruby shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, Sun. We don't want to get anyone else involved if we don't have to."
Sun rolled his eyes. "Psh! That's dumb. You should always get friends involved when you do something dangerous! That's why I brought Neptune!"
I leaned out the window and came face-to-face with Neptune, who was precariously standing on a very thin ledge.
"'Sup?" he said.
"Hey there," I replied. "Need a hand?"
"Yes please," he said nervously. "We're like, really high up right now."
"Then use the door instead of climbing up here like a weirdo," I said as I pulled him through the window.
Ruby looked around the now very crowded room. "Okay, new plan! Sun can go with Blake, and Neptune can go with Yang since she's the only person without a partner."
Weiss hesitated. "Actually, Ruby, why don't you go with Yang? After all, she is your sister."
Ruby looked at her questioningly. "But, Weiss, who would go with you, then?"
"Well..." Weiss said, "I guess Neptune could come with me."
Ruby burst out laughing. "Hahaha, nah!" she snorted as she grabbed Weiss and dragged her out of the room, ignoring the other girl's pleas.
"And that's why Dad calls her 'Hurricane Ruby' sometimes," Yang said with a fond smile.
"I can believe that," I said.
Sun squinted at Blake. "Did you change your makeup? You look different today."
She glared at him. "That's because it's a disguise. And since you've invited yourself along, you get to wear makeup too."
Sun chuckled nervously. "Real funny, Blake. I don't need to wear any-"
"Good idea," I told Blake. "Sun, get over here. We need to make sure Roman can't recognize you."
"What about his outfit?" Yang asked as she and Blake grabbed his arms and forced him into a chair.
"Just button up his shirt," Neptune joked. "No one will recognize him if his abs aren't out."
Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and I trailed after Blake and Sun from a safe distance as the two of them headed to the White Fang meeting.
Pyrrha caught sight of her reflection in a window and paused. "I look just like my mother..." she mused.
"Is that a bad thing?" I asked. "We can work on the disguise a bit if you'd prefer not to look like her."
She shook her head. "I don't mind. We... don't always see eye to eye, but I still love her."
"Do you... want to talk about it?" I offered, hopefully not awkwardly.
Pyrrha smiled. "Maybe later, once we're not in the middle of an anti-terrorist mission."
I paused. "That... would make sense. Yes."
Ren thankfully took mercy on me and changed the subject. "How close to the meeting location should we get?" he asked.
"A block away from the warehouse should be good," I said. "It might be a good idea to stake out the location from a roof instead of the ground."
An hour later, the four of us were sitting on the roof of a building that was a safe distance away from the warehouse that the White Fang were meeting in. We hadn't seen anyone wearing a White Fang uniform, but there had been a steady stream of Faunus entering the building, Blake and Sun among them. Fortunately, their cover seemed to be intact, given the lack of gunfire. Unfortunately, Nora was bored.
"Ughhh..." she groaned. "Why did nobody tell me that stakeouts were this boring?"
"Boring is good," Ren pointed out. "It means that Blake and Sun haven't been caught."
"I know," she grumbled. "I just wish something would happen."
As if on cue, the lights visible through the warehouse's windows went out with the distinct crack of gunfire.
"Not my fault!" Nora immediately claimed.
"That sounded an awful lot like Blake's gun," Ren noted.
"Still not my fault!" Nora repeated.
Then I saw Blake's purple Aura rushing out of the warehouse, closely followed by Sun's yellow one. I opened my mouth to alert the others, but before I could say anything, a giant robot smashed through the wall of the warehouse hot on their heels.
"Time to move," I said as my mind raced through possible plans. The mech was obviously a huge problem; it was big, fast, heavily armored, and covered with weapons. But at the same time, the warehouse was full of White Fang members that we couldn't let escape.
"We're splitting up," I decided. "Pyrrha and Nora, you two go back up Blake and Sun. Call their Scrolls and tell them to lead the mech this way, then try to hold it down while the others get here. Ren and I will hit the warehouse to stop the Fang members from escaping."
"Got it," Pyrrha agreed.
"We'll show that tin can who's boss!" Nora cheered.
Ren just nodded.
I nodded back, pulled one of my brand-new flashbangs off my belt, and Blinked directly into the hole in the warehouse's wall that the mech had left. Now face-to-face with a large crowd of panicked Faunus wearing White Fang masks. There were about two dozen uniformed White Fang members on the stage in the back of the warehouse and a few more up on the walkways near the ceiling.
As the grunts on the stage and the overhead walkways started reaching for their weapons, I coated my eyes and ears with a thick layer of Aura and tossed the flashbang into the air.
"Heads up," I taunted, and then the flashbang went off.
In the vast majority of situations, Faunus night vision was great to have. While I could use my Aura Sight to see anything living even in complete darkness, that only worked on things with a soul.
But night vision can be a double-edged sword. Your pupils expanding to let more light in lets you see better in the dark, but it also means that extremely bright lights are more damaging, especially if your eyes have adjusted to work better in the dark.
That weakness, combined with the extra ears that many Faunus have, means that flashbangs are extremely effective against them. Every Faunus in the room would be blind and deaf for a good, long while.
I Blinked past the crowd and onto the stage that the White Fang had set up at the back of the warehouse. Most of the Faunus in the crowd were civilians in street clothes and a cheap facemask. It was the ones in full White Fang uniforms that I needed to take out. They had activated Auras, but they clearly hadn't received enough training to manage more than a basic shield.
Alba Mors sang through the air and struck one of the blinded Faunus hard enough to shatter his hastily-raised Aura, and I followed the slash up by bashing him in the face with my shield as it expanded from its sheath form. His mask and his nose shattered, and he slammed into the ground.
One down, two dozen to go.
Ren will probably get here in about sixty seconds. Depending on their Faunus traits, the White Fang members will probably be combat-ready again anywhere between twenty to thirty seconds from now. The only enemy here that looks threatening is the huge guy with a giant chainsaw, but I've never actually fought this many non-Grimm opponents at once before, so I can't get complacent.
Right now, the White Fang's biggest advantage was their numbers. To remedy that, I decided to whittle them down while they're all blind and deaf, so I took a deep breath and started tearing through them.
The satisfying sounds of Aura shattering and bones breaking filled my ears as I waded through all the grunts still clutching their eyes and ears in pain. Chainsaw Guy recovered much faster than I expected, but I had already whittled down the White Fang until there were only a dozen mooks left on ground level. He had a lot of Aura, so I backed off and started shifting Alba Mors into a shotgun while studying his movements. Chainsaw Guy's muscle mass and Aura capacity meant that he could probably hit like a truck, especially with that chainsaw, which could easily shred through Aura if he managed to land a solid hit.
Keeping some of the remaining grunts between us so he couldn't just charge me, I started peppering Chainsaw Guy with buckshot and watching his Aura drain. He shoved a grunt wearing glasses over his mask out of the way and swung his weapon at me, but I Blinked behind him and unloaded the rest of my magazine point-blank into his back.
Chainsaw Guy's Aura was shockingly still intact, so I backed off and started shifting Alba Mors back into a sword as he recovered and whirled around to face me. He started barking orders to the remaining grunts but was drowned out by the screams of the crowd behind me as they fled the building.
By the time he gave up trying to rally his comrades, Alba Mors had finished transforming, so I dashed in and feinted a thrust towards his midsection. He brought his chainsaw up to block, but I Blinked behind him and stabbed him right in the kidneys and backstepped to avoid his retaliatory slash as he spun around to swing at me.
One of the grunts had recovered enough to swing her scimitar at me, but I parried it with my shield and stabbed her in the solar plexus. The blow didn't break her Aura, but it knocked the breath out of her and caused her to drop the sword.
Then I lashed out with a kick to send her flying into Chainsaw Guy as he charged towards me, forcing him to turn off his chainsaw so he didn't accidentally shred his own comrade. The grunt bounced off of him and hit the ground, but he kept his balance.
Now that his weapon was out of the picture, I could stop being cautious. I charged in and slashed at him before he had a chance to turn his chainsaw back on.
Chainsaw Guy grunted as I cut into his Aura and tried to retaliate by swinging the deactivated chainsaw at me, but I caught the blow on my shield and shoved it aside, forcing him off-balance as he tried to keep hold of his weapon.
Now he was wide-open.
I pumped Aura into my muscles as I swung Alba Mors into his side with enough force to shatter his Aura and send him flying. He hit the ground unconscious, but I wanted to make sure he stayed down, so I walked over and stomped on one of his kneecaps. He wouldn't be standing back up with a broken knee.
Now that their heavy hitter was out of the way, I needed to deal with the grunts up on the catwalk before they started shooting down at me, so I Blinked next to one of them and broke his Aura with an overhead chop before he had a chance to react.
The two grunts further down the walkway whirled around and pointed their cheap assault rifles at me, but the path ws so narrow that the guy in the back couldn't hit me without shooting his comrade in the back.
I raised my shield to block the front guy's shots and charged straight into him, bashing him hard enough to concuss him through his Aura.
The grunt behind him was much more competent, as he had raised his rifle and started shooting the second his friend slumped over. The bullets pinged off my hastily-raised shield as I took stock of the situation. My Aura capacity makes small arms fire mostly ineffective, but enough of it can wear me down.
I decided to kill two birds with one stone by picking up his still staggered friend and charging forward while holding him in front of me as a human shield. Well, I guess he's a Faunus shield in this instance. In any case, the grunt chose not to shoot his comrade in the back and instead dropped his gun to pull out a machete.
The Faunus shield's usefulness at an end, I tossed him aside off the walkway. He had enough Aura left that he'd probably survive the fall. Then I heard him hit the ground with a thud and the distinctive sound of an Aura shattering. Yeah, he's probably fine.
The sole remaining grunt on the platform ran to the edge to look down and see if his friend was okay, which was a very sloppy move, since I was able to sprint in while he was distracted and launch a trio of stabs that shattered his Aura and left him open to a shield bash that knocked him unconscious.
With the gunmen on the balcony taken care of, it was time to finish off the last few grunts that were left. With a running start I jumped off the walkway and landed right on top of a half-blind grunt, sending him crashing to the ground. After giving him a stomp to break his Aura, I swung Alba Mors at the guy beside him who was still reeling from his friend's rapid takedown.
He managed to bring his scimitar up fast enough to turn the slash into a glancing blow, but my follow-up sent him flying. He was still conscious though, but before I could go after him, I had to dodge a swing from a nearby grunt.
In fact, the ten remaining White Fang members had me completely surrounded.
That... might be bad.
They charged at me, and for the first time tonight, I struggled to avoid taking any serious hits. Even as I parried, blocked, and dodged the scimitars coming at me, one of the grunts managed to score a hit against my Aura.
It... didn't do very much damage. These grunts clearly hadn't practiced using Aura to enhance the strength of their blows.
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I went on the offensive instead, ignoring their attacks and focusing only on taking the grunts out as fast as possible.
Then one of them wised up and decided to use a weapon that could actually inconvenience me. A grunt towards the back of the crowd drew a pistol and started shooting at me.
The first two shots pinged off my shield, but the third hit my arm while I was stabbing another grunt. I hissed in pain and Blinked behind the gunman, causing his fourth shot to miss me and hit the Faunus behind me.
I gripped my sword with both hands and smashed the unsuspecting gunman into the ground. As he hit the floor, I whirled around and cleaved down the two grunts beside him. Then I Blinked over to another group and did the same thing two more times. It was wasteful in terms of Aura, but I was getting bored.
Having just watched me wipe out most of their allies, the three remaining grunts decided that discretion was the better part of valor and ran for their lives into the back rooms of the warehouse.
As I started shifting Alba Mors into its shotgun form to shoot at them as they fled, I heard the distinctive sound of Ren's machine pistols. By the time I managed to actually make it over to where they were, Ren had already taken them all out.
"Have you dealt with all the ones inside already?" he asked.
I nodded. "Yeah, they're all out cold. These three were the only ones I saw escape, but there might have been more nearby."
"There were two more, but I took care of them," Ren said.
"Great," I answered while tossing him a handful of zip ties from my bag. "Now we need to tie up the prisoners and check the building for anything important."
"Have any of the others called you yet?" Ren asked.
I shook my head. "No, but they only left a few minutes ago. And Pyrrha can disable the mech easily if she uses her Semblance. They'll be fine."
He grimaced but nodded.
The two of us started dragging all of the unconscious White Fang grunts into the warehouse and moving them to the center of the main room where we'd be able to keep an eye on all of them. The crowd of potential recruits had long-since fled, leaving us plenty of space to put our prisoners.
Hopefully the police appreciate all the work we're doing for them.
Ren and I had just cuffed the last grunt when I heard a Scroll start ringing, but not in a ringtone I recognized. In fact, the noise was coming from... Chainsaw Guy?
"Hopefully whoever is calling him will have some interesting info for us..." I mused.
It took me a bit to dig his Scroll out of his pockets, and I had to put his thumb against the screen to unlock it, but I was finally able to answer the call.
"Could you have answered any slower?" a very familiar voice angrily asked over the faint hum of a Bullhead's engines. "Eight Beacon students showed up and trashed the mech, so we had to make a getaway. Which rendezvous point are you guys moving to?"
"Roman!" I grinned. "How are you?"
Roman stayed quiet for a bit before finally saying, "Please tell me you're just using a voice disguiser, Bane. Because you're sounding a lot like a certain pain in my ass."
"I'm afraid our chainsaw-wielding friend is out of commission at the moment," I answered. "If you'd like to leave a message though, I can give it to him once he recovers from the ass-beating I just gave him."
"For fuck's sake..." Roman groaned. "Can anything go my way tonight? What did I do to deserve Little Red and Psycho both coming after me on the same night? Don't you kids have anything better to do than ruin my life?"
Little Red? As in "Little Red Riding Hood," the fairy tale? Is he talking about Ruby? I mean, she does wear a hooded red cloak all the time. I guess that means that Ruby is based on a story from Earth too-
Wait, Psycho?
"'Psycho'?" I blurted confusingly.
"I'm talking about you, kid. Try to keep up."
"What are you talking about?" I dazedly asked.
"Given how you were smiling and laughing while you beat people unconscious and shot them back at the docks, I'd say 'Psycho' is a pretty fitting nickname. Hell, you practically giggled when you shot me while I was down," Roman said.
What the hell is he talking about? I wasn't laughing back then. That's something I would have remembered.
...Right?
No, he's probably just trying to get into my head. I can think about this later. Right now, I need to focus on my mission.
"So, now that we've captured all your men and destroyed your giant robot, I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me all about your evil schemes? Or maybe even surrender?"
"Here's my counteroffer," Roman replied. "Fuck off and die."
Then he hung up.
I sighed and pocketed Chainsaw Guy's Scroll. If he was high-ranking enough for Roman to call him, then his Scroll could have important information on it.
For now though, we should probably call the cops. They'll probably want to deal with all these terrorists.
Then my Scroll started to ring. "Hey Ruby," I said after answering the video call. "How're things on your end?"
Ruby gave me a smile and a wave. "Well, I ran into Penny, which was good, and then I got to fight a giant robot, which was awesome. But then Torchwick got away, which was terrible. So it's kind of a mixed bag. What about you guys?" she asked.
"Well, Ren and I took out more than two dozen White Fang members and got all of their Scrolls for us to search through," I said as I glanced over at Ren, who was sending a text to (presumably) Nora. "So things are going great on our end."
Weiss leaned into the frame and said, "Let's meet back at Beacon to debrief. I'd like to get at least some sleep tonight."
"Sounds good to me," I replied.
Ren and I walked through Vale on our way back to Beacon in companionable silence, but internally my mind wouldn't stop whirling. Torchwick's words kept worming their way into my thoughts.
Back when we visited Domremy, Mom and Weiss both talked about how I could act... strangely sometimes. But there's no way I wouldn't have noticed myself smiling and laughing in the middle of a life-or-death battle.
I stopped walking to look at my reflection in the window of a nearby shop. Jaune Arc looked back.
"I'm not crazy, right?" I asked him.
"Nah," Jaune said. "You're not any weirder than the rest of your friends. Besides, you're training to become a hero! Who cares if you have a few quirks?"
I smiled at him. "Thanks."
He smiled back. "Anytime."
I turned away and kept walking towards Beacon.
Author's Note: This chapter contains multiple hints for which literary figure Changeling Jaune is based on, because he's a reference to someone other than Joan of Arc. If anyone manages to guess it correctly, I'll send you a cake (recipe). Because trying to mail someone an actual cake would be a logistical nightmare, especially considering how only about half of my readers are American.
And don't worry about that last scene. I'm sure it's nothing important.
(First published Jun 20, 2023)
