Just as a side note here, in my perfect world Hotaru is voiced by Clancy Brown. See Lex Luthor (Superman: TAS or Justice League) or Silas (Transformers Prime).

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To say Cinder Fall was angry would be an understatement. Who did Roman think he was? She had every step for the fall of Beacon planned. The White Fang would use the dust Roman would steal in the next few months to blow up the walls of Vale and chaos would reign giving her enough time to find and kill Amber, claim the relic under Beacon, destroy the CCT tower and make everything easier to then find the other relics. But what did Roman do?

"Ok, this is my final shipment as stated by our verbal agreement. Hope you have fun with your little animals. Roman, out!"

"You what? Roman, this is not nearly enough what I need for my plan". Cinder objected.

"Sorry my dear, I know your 'End of the World' thing might sound convincing to some and the dough is very good. But a better deal just showed up with-" He then turned to face her directly. "And I am being kind here: better benefits which don't include 'move-your-opperations-to-the-nearest-non-Grimm-infested-capital' clauses".

"And WHO, should I ask, could change your mind so easily?" Anger showing in her face now.

He just stared at her, turned on a cigar and calmly replied "Nice, clean, doesn't yell and, I assure you, will be the next big name from here to the farthest moon-rock available up in space".

The last of the crates was dropped in the warehouse and Roman's men were already heading out. "For the love of- Roman! Junior will not book me anymore men. The incident with the red punk the other night won't happen again." Now she was growing desperate and irritated. "What am I supposed to do then?".

"Don't know, and honestly: Don't care. See you around!" With that last sentence, Roman dropped his cigar on the floor, jumped on his van and they all drove away; leaving Cinder, Mercury and Emerald alone. Cinder then started to breath heavily.

"Well… dibs on not telling Salem!"

"Mercury! This is serious. This is a huge setback; we might not make it to the festival". Emerald reprimanded.

"And what are we supposed to do? Keep it down and HOPE no one finds out all of Vale's underworld has abandoned us? We are not even at half of all the dust we need!" Cinder was losing it.

"Well… I… I'm sure Cinder has a plan!"

"Fiiiiine. What now boss?"

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Cinder yelled as fire emanated from her arms towards opposite ends of the warehouse. Once she calmed down and her breathing stabilized, she turned to her minions. "We have no choice but to tell Salem. Whatever Roman is planning with this big hotshot will surely fail and he'll come crawling back like the spineless worm he is. In the meantime, find dust robbers in other kingdoms if need be". She then started to walk away, if only to clear her head. Nonetheless, Cinder was terrified. Mercury had a point; they were way behind on dust. Their only short-term solution was the White Fang, but even then, they were not organized enough to pull dust heists on urban areas and making their presence known in Vale would be even worse. Her only hope was, indeed, for Roman's new associate to fail miserably sooner than later.

Breaking news on the financial world as Seido Industries wins the acquisition of new dust mines in Vaquo from the SDC. This is just the latest of victories the new conglomerate as the head of their legal team has this to say:

(A thin creepy looking middle-aged man with a thick accent appears on the screen with microphones surrounding him).

Indeed, we are happy, but not surprised by the ruling. The SDC had a bad deal, we had a good one.

(the video the cuts to the news anchor again).

None of the experts from the SDC could be reached for comment and many even say the owner and CEO, Jacques Schnee, could be heard screaming at his legal team. Some speculate if this trend continues, the SDC might enter a financial crisis and would have to sell assets if only to begin layoffs on every level. For VNN, this is-

(The feed stops)

Weiss let out a long sigh. This could only mean trouble. She disliked her father, yes. But she would rather have him fall than the company.

"Don't worry Weiss" Ruby tried to comfort her putting a hand over her shoulder "sure you might go broke and your entire family's legacy will go down with it but you'll… uh… have us!".

"Yeeeeesh, Rubes. Even I would feel bad after that pitch of yours" replied Yang.

The four members of team RWBY were currently on their room desk, watching the news report on Weiss' scroll. It had become a habit ever since a month ago.

Weiss' situation was no secret to team RWBY. It wasn't even a secret to Beacon academy or all of Remnant. Suddenly, a company comes out of nowhere and is slowly but surely taking money out of the SDC? Outrageous to some. Sure, taunting towards Weiss, the heir to the SDC, became somewhat regular, especially from teams like CRDL. Not only that, but paparazzi and alarmist journalists wanted to get a scoop on her. Most were kicked out by security and teachers. Others almost got compromising pictures or "interviews".

Her family was not safe either. Poor Winter was bombarded by them every time she wanted to leave a military base; Whitley confined himself to the mansion and had to avoid windows to prevent rumors from spreding.

"In the past, I might have felt happy for what is happening; but know that I would never celebrate your misfortune, Weiss" Blake also tried to comfort her.

Weiss let out another sigh. "Thanks girls. I honestly don't know how things could get worse for me".

There were three quick knocks on the door, it quickly swung open and in came Jaune. "Hey Weiss! Want to go to this fancy new restaurant in Vale? I got invites!".

Usually, Weiss would be annoyed by yet another flirting attempt by their friend's team leader. But this was neither the time nor the mood for her to simply ignore and walk away. "My family could be close to bankruptcy" she spoke softly while gritting her teeth, then she stood up "I am a joke to everyone in this school" she turned around and looked at him with killer eyes. "The last thing I need is for YOU to think I am in some sort of depressed state and try to woo me with an invitation to a cheap, ordinary, and infantile fad food joint!" She finally screamed.

Jaune was terrified and did not dare say anything as she just shut the door in his face. 3 seconds later and just as she turned around huffing and puffing, another set of knocks was heard. Enraged once again, she slammed the door open and was ready to deliver another rant but was stopped by Nora putting a finger on her lips. "What lover-boy here meant was if you AND your team wanted to go. You know, cheer you up!".

After a few seconds of silence to make sure Weiss was calmed down enough, Yang finally talked "Ok, what's the catch?".

"Na catch" Ren said, coming out of their own dormitory's door. "Jaune says Pyrrha has a new sponsor proposal and they agreed to talk it over dinner. He told us that she can bring relatives and friends, which is why Jaune was…" he was now looking at his team leader directly to the eyes "going to invite YOU and YOUR team. Right Jaune?".

Jaune blinked a few times "Uh, yeah! That's what I wanted. Not to use this meeting to hit on you. Pshhh, I am not that kind of guy. Using a gift from Pyrrha to hit on you while she makes big money" he let out an awkward laugh but soon realized everyone was looking at him in a not very amused way. "Uh, but still, ever since this whole thing started you've been getting grumpier and isolated; a time out in town would make you good. It's also not a fast food joint. Nice and fancy, just like you like it!".

It was true, maybe she did need a change of scenery. And she wouldn't be paying, that would be a first. "come on, bestie. It will be fuuuun." Ruby tried to sway her.

"Yeah! Let's hit it, girl!" Added Yang.

"It will be good for you". Blake said, ending her team's opinion on the subject.

Weiss let out a sigh, changed her pout into a small smile and finally agreed. "Fine, we'll go to this place". Just as everyone was cheering, Weiss spoke again "Wait! No! we can't". Everyone just looked at her puzzled. "In case you haven't noticed: I am a paparazzi magnet right now. I can't go anywhere without cameras pointing at us". She was right though. How could she have a relaxing evening if the same people blowing her situation were just going to pester her all night.

After some time, Nora had an idea "Don't worry white maiden! I got this!".

"How on all that is sane did I allow you to do this, Nora? Oh, sorry, not just Nora; all of you!?".

The group of seven was now entering downtown Vale in their common cloths; except for Weiss. Nora's 'brilliant idea' was to use some of Beacon's drama club's props to hide Weiss. A black wig and red contact lenses, some foundation to hide her scar and give her a tanned look (ok, they didn't have her skin tone, so they covered all her face) clothes were tricky, though. She refused to wear spare clothes from her team but agreed to use one of Ruby's capes, a black dress was improvised with costume from the club and she had to wear black stockings (those and the cape would at least hide her exposed pale skin).

"Heeeey! I resent that" Nora exclaimed. "Need I remind you that not one journalist has approached you? And we've seen many!". That was true. Weiss was ready to return to Beacon once she stepped out of the Bullhead and saw all those eyes and lenses scanning who got out. But not one of them looked at her, she thought it was mostly because of how she was able to hide among other passengers, but once in the open? She felt like being watched. "Don't worry, besides, Ruby's formation idea is great. Fool proof!"

To keep Weiss out of sight, Ruby devised a formation that would last all the way until they reached the restaurant: Blake and Ren would cover the front and the back of the line respectively. Their senses and ninja-like abilities would allow them to detect unwanted attention and hidden cameras. Jaune, to her dislike, was on her right and covering her from the street view; since he was bigger than her, he would be hiding her from people on cars or the other sidewalk. Yang was in front of her, fulfilling the same role as Jaune while Nora and Ruby would be covering her back. They walked the closest possible to the apartments and stores just to keep her left covered at all time.

"Relax, Weiss-cream, it's only a few more blocks". Yang assured her.

"Oh, you can afford to be calm, Xiao-Long. You are not the one who is going to be ridiculed as a clown if they find me out. Besides, I thought you said this was a 'fancy' restaurant, Jaune; so how is it that we are going to enter?".

"Well, Pyrrha said that no special clothes were needed. In fact, it was almost as if she wanted to meet us there as soon as possible?".

"Wait, meet us?" asked Blake pointing at everyone in the group.

"Yeah! Well… She said apossible sponsor had told her she could bring any special guest or guests. So, I thought: Why not bring someone… others to have a great time while she talks business".

"Oh, Jaune". Ren just began to massage his temple.

"What? Oh, we are here! I can see Pyrrha!".

Surely enough they had arrived. A 20 stories hotel stood on the other sidewalk. Built from the most beautiful obsidian stone and called 'The Night Beetle'.

Pyrrha was anxious. If everything went according to plan, this would be her first kind of date!

"Pyrrha!" Yes, Jaune! She could recognize that voice anywhere. She turned around, a big smile on her face "Jaune! You are here…" her emotion soon turned to confusion as she saw Ren and Nora running behind him "… With Ren… and Nora…".

"Yeah… we also brought RWBY with us". Well, so much for high hopes. "Oh… hi girls" she waved, and they all waved back. She then turned back to Jaune "Uh… Jaune, you do remember my call, right?".

"Yeah! You said that the sponsorship guy wanted to talk to you and that you could bring friends and I thought 'Yeah, I'll bring Ren and Nora, we are all friends; they are automatically invited, basically' but you also know how Weiss was feeling kind of down and being with her team makes her feel good so… yeah".

Weiss, of course. Nothing personal against her, she was a more than admirable huntress but… wait, Weiss!? "Jaune, Weiss is here?".

"Yes, is that a problem, Pyrr?"

"This hotel is owned by the Seido Industries!?" the black-haired girl who now Pyrrha identified as Weiss yelled while looking at her scroll.

Ok, yes. She was being a jerk for not trusting Jaune on the restaurant not having a dress code. So, once she got the name of the place, 'The Night Beetle', she looked for information on it; but once she saw who the owner was, boy was she mad.

"We are going to eat- mpphhh" Weiss' mouth was immediately covered by Blake once guests began to look at the young woman throwing a tantrum.

"Way to keep a low profile, Weiss-cream!" Yang whispered.

"Not only owned, but it also directly managed by the CEO". That deep but charming voice was not of any of the group of eight. They all turned to the entrance and found a fine-looking gentleman wearing a dark turquoise suit and white hair.

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Had the first two chapters done, but from now on I'll try to have updates once a week.