Chapter 7: The War Begins
Abandoned Warehouse, Vale Outskirts.
6am
Blake was now reassured in herself as the Storyteller had helped her overcome the guilt because her past mistakes, and she had also received a brand new Gambol Shroud as a result. She was willingly working with Team DAHK in waging war against their former comrades, The White Fang, as they believed that The Fang have lost their way and have become the monsters whose masks they don. They were discussing information that had been recently delivered to them: The Fang had been shown occupying an abandoned WHITECROSS research facility in Mistral, trying to re-activate some kind of weapon that the organization had left behind.
" Do we know what kind of research the Facility had been carrying out?" Katie asked.
" Advanced robotics, they were thinking about applying robots to aid their forces in the field." Duncan explained.
" How will it take to get us there?" Blake asked.
" A couple of hours, it's located off Mistral's Southern Coast." Aiden explained.
" Do we even have a plan for once we get there?" Hera asked.
" We take out the bad guys and decide what to do with their weapon." Duncan said.
" Agreed." Blake said.
" But there's a problem, we're in Vale while it's in Mistral." Katie pointed out.
" I got a friend who runs a smuggling crew on the coast, he can get us there." Aiden said.
The group concluded their discussion, without knowing that Yang had planted a listening bug in the room they were talking in...
" So you're going to Mistral with these "friends" of yours, to stop the people you used to work for?" Yang thought to herself.
She watched as they took off to meet with Aiden's smuggler contact, and then pursued them on her motorcycle with the hopes of getting a head of them. But a tracker hidden on her motorcycle was secretly transmitting her location to Winter's scroll...
" Got you." Winter said.
While Winter was giving chase to the two girls, Weiss and Ruby were going to start their relationship in the best possible manner...
Team RWBY's dorm room, Beacon Academy
9:20 am
Weiss had awoken so she can get ready for school, while Ruby was still sound asleep on Weiss's side. She had stayed in the bed with Ruby since the nightmare last night that had scared both her and Ruby, and when she had moved, Ruby held Weiss tighter, closer to her while smiling. Weiss wriggled free carefully, then kissed Ruby on the forehead and whispered something to her...
" I love you, Ruby." Weiss whispered.
Weiss quickly got her uniform on and placed the tray with the thermos and medicine container on a little table next to the bed, and went to the door. She heard the dozens of students proceeding the cafeteria for breakfast, and she looked back to the bed to see Ruby still asleep, but she had a big smile on her face, which meant that she heard what Weiss had said. She carefully exited the room, and bumped into Pyrrah...
" Hello, Weiss." Pyrrah said.
" Hey." Weiss responded.
" Heard a bit of commotion over in your room last night, something happen?" Pyrrah asked.
" She had a nightmare about what happened." Weiss explained.
" Oh, is she okay?" Pyrrah asked.
" Yeah, she's actually sleeping rather peacefully now." Weiss said.
" Really?" Pyrrah asked.
" Yeah, like a little angel." Weiss said with a slight smile on her face.
She eventually looked at Pyrrah, who was giving Weiss a humored look that left her confused...
" What?" Weiss asked.
" You kissed her, didn't you?" Pyrrah said.
" What are you talking about?" Weiss said in denial.
" You've fallen in love with Ruby." Pyrrah said.
" DID SOMEBODY SAY LOVE?" Nora said annoyingly.
" Gah! Nora, where'd you come from?!" Weiss said.
" I wondered you two had wandered off." Nora simply said.
" Well, we just finished our conversation." Weiss said, walking away.
Pyrrah whispered what she and Weiss were talking about into Nora's ear, which made Nora's jaw drop. Pyrrah made Nora promise not to tell anyone yet, which Nora reluctantly agreed to. Ruby had woken up from her sleep, and Nora was standing there, with a tray of breakfast for her. She set it on the little stand that Qrow had bought for Ruby for the time she had been confined to bed rest, and while Ruby was eating her breakfast, she had noticed something rather odd...
" Nora?" Ruby asked Nora as she tried to tiptoe out of the room.
" Yes?" Nora said.
" Why is there a White Rose on the tray?" Ruby inquired.
" No reason." Nora responded.
" Well (downing the glass of milk and the medicine) I'm finished." Ruby said.
" Okay then." Nora said, taking the tray away.
Ruby held the rose Nora had left on the tray, and pondered the meaning of why she had left it there. She then realized what it had meant: NORA KNEW ABOUT HER AND WEISS! While she was confined to bed, and being unable to kick Nora's ass for that, Blake was on her way to the Abandoned WHITECROSS Laboratory in Mistral...
Argos Coast, Mistral
10am
Blake, Duncan, Katie, Hera, and Aiden proceeded to approach the laboratory, which had appeared as an abandoned structure surrounded by White Fang forces. The numbers outside stood at around 20, and their numbers only stood at five, which they liked those odds. But before they could approach, they crossed paths with a young man wearing a fighter pilot jacket carrying a heavy sniper rifle, which Katie held him at sword point with her sword Helena's Wrath.
" Hey, take it easy." The man said.
" Who are you?" Duncan demanded.
" My name is Eric Castor, and I'm trying to get the Nightprowler out there." Eric said, pointing to the facility.
" I thought the facility was for Advanced Robotics." Aiden said.
" It was, but it was also testing experimental flight tech. Nightprowlers were experimental stealth fighters that can deploy an entire squad into battle covertly." Eric explained.
" Why would WHITECROSS need stealth fighters?" Katie asked.
" Because they needed to deploy advanced recon teams to survey possible infection sites, but sometimes people didn't like that." Eric said.
" That could come in handy for what we got to do." Hera pointed out.
" Wait, what do you got to do?" Eric asked.
Duncan explained what their plan of action to the fighter pilot who was trying to be sneaky, their plan of action do everything they could to stop or slow the White Fang from getting their hands on anymore dangerous weapons they could use to further their cause. Eric was taking his time to look it over...
" Well, if you are planning to use the Nightprowler, I'm coming with you." Eric said.
" Are you sure?" Duncan asked.
" Do either of you kids know how to fly something as advanced as this?" Eric stated.
The group didn't argue anymore and proceeded to attack the White Fang forces at the facility, overtaking their numbers by surprise and entered the facility to clear the rest of them out. After they defeated the remaining White Fang forces, Hera and Duncan went to help Eric with prepping the Nightprowler for launch while Aiden, Katie, and Blake went and secured the weapon the White Fang had come for in the Robotics storage area and they came face to face with a pale white robot that looked like it hadn't rusted for years...
" What's this thing?" Aiden asked.
" Is this the weapon?" Blake said.
Katie was looking over the documents on a table, in which she immediately realized what the robot really was...
" Guys, do you know what this is?" Katie said in an excited tone.
" No, but I'm guessing you do?" Aiden said.
" This is an Adaptoid." Katie exclaimed with joy.
" A what?" Blake asked.
Katie explained that Adaptoids are living constructs of mimetic polyalloys that are capable to adapt to every kind of situation, such as extreme heat or acid, and that they could even survive a heavy duty explosion such as a missile strike or heavy bombardment. But what they didn't understand was what WHITECROSS would use such advanced technology for, but they knew it shouldn't be used by The White Fang at all, and that they could use it against them.
" Alright, let's try and fire it up." Aiden said.
" Are you sure? It could become violent." Blake said.
" We need every edge against the Fang Blake, this thing could help us greatly." Katie said.
They hit the switch, and the Adaptoid started to vibrate and shake until it stopped all of a sudden, and begin to speak to them...
" ATTENTION, UNIT 1380 ONLINE, RUNNING SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTICS. ARMOR: FUNCTIONAL, WEAPONS: ACTIVE, SENSORY SYSTEMS: ON, ADAPTIVE PROTOCOLS: INTACT, CYBERWARFARE SUITES: ONLINE, ACTIVATING A.I PERSONALITY PROTOCOL." The Adaptoid said, before starting to act like a person.
" Whoa." Aiden said.
" What? Where am I?" The Adaptoid asked in a thick accent.
" You're safe, you're in the lab." Katie said.
" Greetings madam, my name is Caius." The Adaptoid said.
" I'm Katie, and this is Blake and Aiden." Katie said.
" Pleased to meet both of you." Caius said.
" Well, we've got you online, so let's get you out of here before the White Fang come back." Aiden said.
" White Fang?" Caius asked.
" They're terrorists who want to use you for their cause." Blake said.
" Oh, the nerve of them, a pox on their heads." Caius said.
" Leave the smart-ass comments to us, okay?" Katie said.
" Alright, sorry." Caius said.
They were contacted on the radio by Duncan, who told them that the Nightprowler was ready to launch and asked if they had found the weapon. Katie explained the situation to Duncan, in which he expressed some concern about having Caius active. They regrouped and hopped aboard the Nightprowler, a large white and gold fighter, and flew away from the main facility after scuttling it. Meanwhile, Yang was going to be confronted again by Raven...
Make-shift camp, Mistral
10:30 am
Yang was resting in a make-shift encampment to regain her energy before she continued her chase of Blake and her allies. She ended up dozing off, waking up in another dream sequence in which she was confronted by Raven again.
" For the second time, I am not letting Blake run off like this." Yang said.
" So I'm not giving up until you change your mind." Raven said.
" You can't persuade me, I'm not letting my partner run off like this, even if she used to be White Fang." Yang said in anger.
" So you willingly abandon your injured sister when she needs you the most, to pursue your partner!" Raven exclaimed.
" Just like you ran when I was a baby?" Yang said.
Raven was hurt by Yang's words, words that had shown she was harboring anger, anger for her partner deserting them to go on some insane crusade to seek redemption for herself. But Raven also knew that this quest that her daughter was on had been toiling on her...
" Why do you push yourself like this?" Raven asked.
" Because... when you're part of a team, they eventually become like a second family for you. You always know that whenever you're down, they will always be there to pick you back up and dust you off. Blake is a part of my team, so I consider her family, and family doesn't abandon one another." Yang said.
" Maybe you should listen to your own advice." Raven said.
Yang woke up just after Raven had said that, and the sun was at highest when she had awoken. She packed up her camp, and loaded her motorcycle and took off in pursuit of the group, thinking about what her mother said to her. While Yang gave pursuit of Blake, Weiss was about to do something pretty daring...
Team RWBY's Dorm, Beacon Academy
12:11 pm
Ruby was just polishing off her lunch of a ham-cheese sandwich with a side of cookies, and Weiss was walking back to the dorm room to check up on her girlfriend, which was a term she had been quickly adjusting to since she had known her feelings to be true. Nora had walked out with the empty tray and dirty dishes, and Weiss walked into the room to talk to Ruby, while hiding a pair of movie tickets to see Grimm Master: Lord of the dead, a film about a brave team of huntsmen who take on an undead magister and his army of Grimm. Ruby was laying in bed, and smiling when she saw her girlfriend enter the room...
" Hey, sweetie." Ruby said.
" Don't go soft on me, you dunce." Weiss said jokingly.
" Hehe, anyway, what's up?" Ruby asked her girlfriend.
" I've wanted to ask you something." Weiss said.
" Really? What is it?" Ruby asked.
" Do you want to go see a movie tonight?" Weiss said.
" What's the movie?" Ruby asked.
" Oh, just Grimm Master: Lord of The Dead." Weiss said with a slight smirk.
" Really? How'd you even get tickets for that?" Ruby asked with excitement.
" I called in a favor from an old friend who works at the theatre, he got me tickets for a 4:00 showing, giving us plenty of time to get back here before bed." Weiss said.
" Well, when does the movie end?" Ruby asked.
" It's 2 hours and 5 minutes." Weiss said.
" So it ends at 6:05, and the theatre is only 2 blocks away from the transport hub, yeah we'll make it." Ruby said.
" Did you just do math?" Weiss asked.
" Yeah, I've got way too much free time on my hands." Ruby said.
" So you're in?" Weiss said.
" Yeah, anything for my girl." Ruby said.
Weiss hugged Ruby, grateful she had said that, without knowing that Qrow was listening in...
" Great, that means someone can keep you two out of trouble." Qrow said.
" Gah, Uncle Qrow, where did you come from?" Ruby said.
" I have my ways, so, you two are a thing now, huh?" Qrow said.
" How did you?" Weiss said.
" Lucky guess, and your pal Nora is booming with excitement about it." Qrow explained.
" I'm guessing you are gonna express your opinion about it now, huh?" Ruby said.
" Yeah, I actually don't judge when it comes to things like these." Qrow said.
Both girls were immediately surprised at the one fact that they had just learned was that Qrow was not a judge when it comes to relationships. He explained that he thought it was rather stupid at the fact politics was mingling with emotions, and that religion shouldn't be involved in the great game that is love. He offered to take the girls to the movie when the time came, and he expressed his relief that they weren't going to see Grimmnado, as he had preferred the comics better than the movie.
" I'm surprised he didn't freak out." Weiss said.
" Yeah, so am I." Ruby said.
" Anyway, looking forward to tonight." Weiss said.
" So am I." Ruby said, kissing Weiss on the cheek.
The girls continued about their daily lives, with Weiss attending her classes and Ruby receiving her assignments from her friends and completing them with their assistance. When the time came, Weiss had to help Ruby get dressed because her spine was still recovering, and they went with Qrow to the movie. Ruby had immediately knew that this was going to be an interesting year...
This chapter concludes with Ruby and Weiss going on their first official date and Blake and her friends gain two new allies for their cause, The washed-up WHITECROSS fighter pilot Eric Castor and the advanced Adaptoid Caius. Grimm Master: Lord of The Dead is a reference to the movie The Mummy, as it runs on the same time frame as the movie itself. Raven has been trying to dissuade Yang from her hunt of Blake but to no avail, as Yang is determined to make her partner come back. The next chapter starts with a very large fight between Blake, her allies, and the White Fang, and then transitions to the aftermath of Ruby and Weiss's date. It is also the next appearance of Dante's girlfriend Alexis, and how she handles a group of thugs when they try to rob a friend of hers while they are out shopping. Winter is set to discover her sister's new found interests...
WAIT AND SEE, THIS IS GOING TO BE GOOD.