"Okay! Now that Ruby's here, we can do another one of our holiday traditions!" Yang announced while carrying two large duffel bags through the front door and into the living room where the rest of her team sat.
"If it's another snowball fight, I'll be sitting it out." Weiss said without even turning her eyes away from the show Ruby had decided to watch.
Blake kept her nose in her book, ignoring her teammate as per usual, and Ruby seemed to be zoned out while Weiss slowly stroked her hair as she rested on her girlfriend's lap.
"Hem, hem." Yang cleared her throat and walked in between Ruby, Weiss, and the TV. She dropped the duffel bags loudly on the floor, making Ruby jump back to reality.
"Huh?" Ruby looked at the bags for a moment before her mouth dropped open. "No! You mean it's happened again?"
"You knew they wouldn't hold the line forever, now it's our turn to pick up the mantle and do what we can for humanity!" Yang announced bravely, pounding a fist to her chest as if she were a general saluting to her troops. "Scouts, move out!"
"Yes, Yang!" Ruby barked and quickly grabbed a duffel bag. "Come on Weiss, we have to go save Patch!"
Weiss jumped up and followed Ruby out of the room without questioning Yang's theatrics when Ruby was suddenly as serious as she was. Ruby had just started approaching the front door when Weiss noticed two things. The first was that Crescent Rose was not hooked to Ruby's belt, and the second was that two people were absent from their group.
"Ruby, what's going on?" Weiss asked as she stopped following.
"Oh, right!" Ruby breathed as if just remembering. "It's a paint-ball fight."
"A… paint-ball fight?" Weiss asked as her initial urgency left completely. "Please explain this to me."
"Well, every year or so, this rich kid from down the street comes home from some combat school somewhere on the other side of Remnant. Anyways, him and Yang never really got on well, and he started challenging us to paint-ball fights to see who was better. Up till now it's been about tied. But now that we have even numbers, we can totally come out on top!"
"So…" Weiss took Ruby's information and turned it over in her head to make sure she was processing it right. "Yang's rival is back in town, so you want us to help you win your competition against these guys. And this competition is shooting little balls filled with paint at each other."
"Pretty much, yeah." Ruby nodded excitedly.
Weiss thought the idea over for a moment, not in any way eager to take part in Yang's stupid rivalry, but somewhat happy for a reason not to get bored watching TV and start stressing over her impending marital situation.
"Fine, I suppose it could be fun." She said as Ruby pulled out some gear from the duffel bag.
"Alright!" Ruby cheered for her small success. "So how this works is we basically use all of patch. Don't hit civilians, and remember to check your corners!"
Weiss nodded at the less than helpful comments as Ruby continued to spew out more advice as she handed Weiss a small barrel of ammunition and a gun along with a few cans of compressed air. Once Ruby was out of breath she started putting the rest of the gear in the bag onto her. When she was done, she looked like a commando that was about to go into enemy territory alone, and stay there for a few months.
"So, last things you should know. Like I said earlier, we're up against four guys. One guy has super strength like Yang, another guy can grow plants like scary fast, and another guy is scary flexible. Not sure what the last guy has, but I'd guess at something more support oriented that isn't very useful." Ruby said as she approached the door and opened it a crack to peek out.
"Ruby, exactly how serious is this paint-ball fight?" Weiss asked with apprehension, sensing that it wasn't going to be fought honorably as she had been hoping.
"Um… slightly more so than the snowball fight?" Ruby suggested as she closed the door quickly to hear three dull snaps hit the wood. "Also, we're going to have to find cover as soon as we get outside. The neighbor has a pretty good fence but I think one of them is definitely waiting there to ambush us. Any ideas for a plan?"
"Why don't we just do what we always do and make it up on the fly?" Weiss asked, already getting tired of the paint-ball fight that had yet to start.
"The best plan there is!" Ruby smiled evilly. Weiss could see the wheels turning in the girl's head and had a feeling this was going to be more of an adventure than she'd bargained for.