Previously, on The Defenders of Remnant...

"Ow! That hurts!" The rabbit girl cried in pain as Cardin yanked on her ears and his entire crew was laughing away. She had an accent Peter could only compare to Australian. "Please stop…"

"See? I told you they were real!" Cardin chuckled.

"Yang, I will pay you to punch him right here right now," Peter offered.

"How much we talkin?" Yang asked.

Cardin relented and let go of the Faunus girl's ears, and she ran off with teary eyes.

"Atrocious; I can't stand people like him," Pyrrha said in disgust.

"He's not the only one," Blake said with a similar look.

"I've unfortunately known people just as bad, and even worse," Peter noted.

"It must be hard to be a Faunus," Yang said.

You've had a hard life, Peter. I don't envy you."

"I'd be surprised if you did. Parker luck hasn't been kind to me over the years."

"'Parker Luck'?" Blake repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"It's what I call a string of bad luck,

Blake shook her head. "Peter, you can't blame yourself for what happened. Some people… some people are just pure evil."

"I thought you said there was no such thing as pure evil," Peter replied.

Blake sighed. "There are exceptions. I think we both know that."

"Pete…" Yang said.

"No, I.. I just want one night-" Peter started to say.

"Peter," Blake cut him off. Peter turned to face the Faunus. "It's alright. We'll still be here when you get back. Now go save some lives." Peter sighed in defeat.

His world became topsy turvy, he couldn't tell up from down. Peter opened his eyes and glanced up to see Taskmaster lord over him, his sword in hand.

"Dillon, status?"

"Mission accomplished. Seed planted in the CCT."

"Good. Return to home."

The last image Peter saw before blacking out was the bottom of Taskmaster's boot.

"You girls have your mission tomorrow. Leave Peter to us," Matt said.

"Like hell!" Yang exclaimed

"It's our fault…" Blake said.

"What?" Weiss asked.

"It's our fault Peter was taken. He didn't want to go out, he just wanted to spend the night here with us. But we convinced him to go right out into a trap!"

"Blake, we couldn't have known-" Ruby started to say.

"That doesn't change the fact that it's our fault! We couldn't let him just be Peter for one night. We sent him out to be Spider-Man."

"While Professor Murdock's sentiment wasn't wrong, his expectations of you were. He concluded you'd sit on the sidelines while he conducted the mission himself. But I knew better. So I decided to bend the rules a little," Ozpin said.

"Bend how?" Weiss asked.

"You four will accompany the Defenders to the southeast region, locate the White Fang's base of operations, and rescue Peter before it is too late. This will be your first mission as huntresses."

Thank you, Professor Ozpin!" Ruby said with a smile. "We won't let you down!"

The Defenders of Remnant

Chapter 22: The Search for Peter Parker

"No."

"C'mon!" Sun whined.

"I said no," Cardin repeated.

"Come on, why not?" Neptune asked.

"Because it's your mission, I have a team to work with, and in general, I have better things to do than go pretend I'm a cop for a weekend," Cardin answered.

"Hey, hey! Junior Detective," Sun corrected. "Respect the position."

"Fine, 'junior detective," Cardin groaned. "But even if I wanted to, I'm the leader of my team, and we have our own mission."

"Which is…?" Sun questioned.

"Doesn't matter, I still said no."

"Oh, come on, Cardin!" Neptune cried. "It'll be awesome!"

"Why don't you go get Parker to follow you guys around?"

"We tried, but we couldn't find him," Sun said.

"Wait, what do you mean you couldn't find him?" Cardin paused at this.

"As in, yknow, exactly what it sounds like?" Neptune said sarcastically.

"We couldn't find him in class, in his room, or at that lab of his. Come to think of it, I didn't even see him at the end of the dance last night," Sun said.

Caridn thought for a moment. "Yeah, now that you mention it-" He was interrupted when a set of doors they were coming up to opened, revealing a team of Huntsman entering the main building. The first was Velvet, and the rest was her team: Team CFVY.

The leader, Coco Adel, was a girl with fair skin and short dark-brown hair with wavy locks coming down the side of her face that starts as brown and becomes more caramel at the tips. Her clothes consisted of a long, cocoa-colored shirt with an upturned layered frill collar with a black single strapped waist cincher, black trousers that had golden lining around the pocket and ribbons attached to the back of a golden zipper seam around her knees, a black golden studded belt hidden by a large cocoa-colored belt with gun cartridges on the left side and a large golden crosshair buckle, a large piece of black fabric attached to her belt hanging down on her right side, and a pair of dark black, high-heeled leather calf-high boots with golden buckles. Coco also donned a number of accessories, such as a bracelet with black roses as decoration accompanied by black gloves and three beaded necklaces alongside a black scarf tied around her collar. She also wore a black beret with a cocoa brown trim and a pair of black, wire-rimmed aviator sunglasses, and could be seen holding a black shoulder bag with gold studs held by a bandolier strap.

The second other member of CFVY was Fox Alistair, a dark skinned young man with dark and messy copper hair with a long fringe and a cowlick. His arms were covered with scars, and a vertical scar rested on his lip, and his eyes were pure white as the young man was blind. Fox wore a sleeveless, muted orange zipper vest with black lining and a high collar, a pair of black jeans, and brown, laced shoes as well as a pair of long black gloves and had several pouches attached to his belt.

Finally, Yatsuhashi Daichi was a tall and athletic-looking young man with shaved-short black hair and tanned skin. He wore a long short-sleeved robe, which he wears on one shoulder over a black muscle shirt. The robe is fastened at the waist by a leather armored belt with two pouches on it. He also wears brown pants and black-and-green boots. His left arm bears a five-layer sode which extends up past his shoulder. His weapon, a green greatsword with a hooked tip called Fulcrum, was affixed to his back with a padded brown strap slung over his shoulder. He also wore a pair of bracers and a pair of black gloves with green plates on the backs.

When Cardin saw Velvet, he felt an instant wave of guilt spread across his body. While he wasn't a whole new man, he changed enough to regret treating people the way he did, especially Faunus like Velvet. Especially Velvet. "Hey, look guys, I'll get back to you later. Good luck with your, uh… Junior Detective thing."

"Whatever you say, man," Sun replied.

"Later, Cardin," Neptune added before the two huntsmen left him. Cardin then took a deep breath to prepare himself, then followed team CFVY down the hall. Only once he caught up did he speak.

"Um, hey, Velvet?" Cardin slightly tripped over his words, unsure of how the interaction would turn out. The entire team stopped and turned to face Cardin, and once they recognized him, not a single happy face was found. "Yeah yeah, hit the hate brakes, I'm not here to start anything."

"Doesn't mean we have to let you talk," Yatsuhashi said.

"I-It's fine, Yatsu," Velvet said, trying to calm her teammate. She then looked at Cardin. "What do you want, Cardin?"

"L-Look…" Cardin rubbed his neck, struggling to string words together. "I know we have a, uh… not so great history…"

"You can say that again," Coco remarked.

Cardin gave a slight scowl, but let it pass over. "But… I'm… not the same as I was before. And after a reality check or two, I realize how poorly I've treated you, and how miserable it must've made you feel. So I wanted to apologize, for everything. For hurting you, for talking down to you, and for just being an all around asshole. You didn't deserve any of what I did to you, and I deserve it back tenfold."

"On that, we agree," Yatsuhashi said.

"Hey, I'm trying to apologize for the crap I pulled, and you aren't exactly making it easy!" Cardin furrowed his brow in anger.

"LIke you made it easy for her?" Fox added.

"Guys, I think that's enough…" Velvet exclaimed.

"But Velvet-" Coco started to say.

"He's trying to make things right, and you aren't letting him. You all doing that makes you no better than he used to be," Velvet said. Cardin honestly didn't believe what he was seeing. Velvet was defending him, from her own team no less. The faunus girl then turned back to Cardin with a small smile. "I appreciate your apology, Cardin, and I'm glad you're working on yourself… but torment like what you and so many others put me through doesn't go away with a simple apology. You're clearly trying, and I can't hate you for that. I just… need time to think about it."

"D-Don't worry, I-I get it," Cardin assured her before looking behind her at her teammates with a scowl. "At last you heard me out." He then turned around and started walking back the way he came. "Hope you get some rest from your mission." Velvet held her hands against her chest nervously before her and the rest of team CFVY continued on to their dorm.

It was a bit of a tighter fit, but loaded up into the bullhead were all four Defenders and Team RWBY as the ship soared over the Emerald Forest towards the Southeast quadrant, where they hoped to find the White Fang hideout and Peter.

"So, do we know exactly where we're going?" Jessica asked.

"Mountain Glenn," Ruby answered.

"That's right! It was an expansion of Vale!" Yang added. "But in the end, it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off by the rest of the city…"

"That definitely raises the spirits up," Danny remarked. Danny was dressed in his Iron Fist attire.

Luke looked at Matt, who was still in a suit and tie. "So you aren't gonna suit up?"

"I will when we hit the ground. Can't exactly let the pilot know who I am," Matt replied. "Some of us still have identities to hide. Now, Mountain Glenn is abandoned, a ghost town, a reminder of Vale's failures."

"And a likely place for a hideout," Blake added.

Matt nods. "And more than likely a Grimm hive. So we'll all need to stay on our toes, and constantly be on our guard. Because until we find the hideout, we're in the wide open for Grimm."

The airship pulls down over a deserted, destroyed city block covered in dust and overgrowth, long since abandoned and forgotten by the world. As soon as they touched down, all eight of them hopped off the bullhead, then looked up as it ascended again and flew away. "Well, we're in the deep of it now," Jessica remarked. "So how do we find this place?"

"I would've said the same way we found the collider back in New York, but the White Fang have made themselves scarce since the arms deal," Danny replied. Matt tilted his head when he heard a quiet rustling in Ruby's bag, one no one else heard. He also still smelled a canine-like scent.

"Ruby, what's in your bag?" Matt asked.

"W-What?" Ruby replied.

"Ruby, I can hear and smell it. What's in there?" Matt asked again.

"There's nothing in there!" Ruby persisted, until Zwei popped out the back of the bag and barked at the eight of them, the lower half off his small, rounded body still shoved in the bag. Both Ruby's teammates and the four superheroes stared at her.

"Get back in the bag…" Ruby whispered to her pet.

"You brought a dog…" Jessica said. "Should I even ask why?"

"Ruby, why did you bring Zwei?" Yang asked.

"Because… he could help us?" Ruby answered unconvincingly.

"Dogs do have a history of tracking," Danny said.

"Yeah, but I can do that," Matt said.

"Yeah, but you're not as cute, no offense," Jessica remarked with a smirk.

"So, we can keep him with us?" Ruby asked.

"I'd say it's a little late to send him back now," Luke chuckled.

"Yay!" Ruby smiled.

"Yay is a word for it," Blake frowned.

"C'mon guys, we got some ground to cover before the sun goes down," Yang said with a smile as she and the other students started to move on.

"I just got out favored by a dog," Matt said in disbelief.

"The dog is cuter. Better than your ugly ass," Luke joked as he and Jessica followed the Huntresses into the ruins of the old city. Danny patted Matt's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. You can be my dog if you want," Danny smirked and immediately started laughing, forcing a smile to grow on Matt's face and bringing a small laugh from his mouth.

"Yeah, sure," Matt replied.

"C'mon, Matthew, you wanna go on a walk?" Danny kept laughing while talking to Matt as if he were a pet.

"Let's get going, Danny," Matt shook his head as he and Danny also started following.

"C'mon, Matthew, speak!"

"Woof."

Taskmaster washed the blood off of his gloves, watching the opaque red water run down the drain before wiping them off. He then looked up at himself in the mirror, seeing his own eyes staring back at him. His helmet sat on the counter beside him, staring back up as if waiting patiently to be put back on. He started to reach for it when a knock came at the door. "What is it?"

"It's Cinder," Cinder replied.

Taskmaster sighed. "Come in." The door opens and in steps Cinder, closing the door behind her. Taskmaster picked up his headgear and started to put it back on.

"You know you don't have to wear that thing when it's just us, right?" Cinder said. Taskmaster twitched at this. A shiver went up his spine. Something about the other night changed the dynamic between the two of them. The goal was to settle their idealistic feud. When the night was over, it was more. Their souls, their minds had been open for view to each other, and both had more than peaked at the contents. Just as easily as he could now get under her skin, she could do so to him even easier than before. And yet, neither crossed the line. An understanding was created between them, in more ways than one.

"Wearing it puts me at ease," Taskmaster replied as he slipped it on and the mechanisms locked into place.

"Well, I was going to ask if you would assist Roman in loading up the train. From what I understand, company is on the way, and everything must be set to go."

"They're already coming?" Taskmaster asked.

"That's what happens when you take one of their own. Speaking of which, how is our guest?"

"Pretty sure I just washed bits of flesh away with his blood, so I'm definitely happy."

"How kind of you to make him a smaller package for them to carry," Cinder smirked.

"Still don't get why they don't get to carry him back in a body bag," Taskmaster said.

"I know you want him dead, and trust me, he will be. Just not yet."

Taskmaster sighed. "I've waited this long. I can wait a little longer." He turned around to face her. "Where will you be?"

"Class," Cinder replied.

"You're serious?" Taskmaster questioned.

"I do have to keep up appearances, you know," Cinder replied before opening the door and stepping out. "I'll see you after the chaos." She giggled before leaving.

Luke stomped the ground as hard as he could, sending an Ursa up off the ground before quickly grabbing the Grimm and hauling it up. "Alright, Yang, heads up!" He exclaimed before throwing the creature towards Yang, who reeled her fist back, loading a shell into her gauntlet, and connected a punch with the Ursa's skull and blasted it apart, decapitating the creature before it faded away.

"Woo! Nice throw!" Yang replied.

"I'd say nice catch, but I don't think that counts," Luke chuckled.

"I caught it with my fist, and that's what counts!" Yang smirked.

"Can't argue with that," Luke replied.

"So, uh, how'd you get like that, anyway? The whole 'bulletproof man' thing? Pete told us semblances aren't a thing in your world," Yang said.

Luke chuckled a bit. "Yeah, we just got a whole lot of weirder shit instead."

"So? What's the story with the unbreakable skin?"

"It ain't pretty, I can tell you that much."

"Is any origin story?" Yang raised an eyebrow.

"Fair enough. Just don't say I didn't warn you. So, I used to be a punk called Carl Lucas, got into all kinds of trouble. One day, I was just unlucky enough to be framed for a crime I didn't commit."

"What crime?" Yang raised an eyebrow.

"Murder," Luke bluntly said.

"Oh," Yang replied, her smile fading a little.

"Hey, don't sweat it, I eventually got out, just not entirely the right way."

"So you broke out?"

"Yeah, but not before this freakshow scientist named Burnstein involuntarily forced me into being a subject for his top secret medical research to create the next super soldier. The experiment should've killed me, and I think that was the intention. But after Burnstein lost control of the experiment, it started changing me more than he intended. I came out of it with insane strength and unbreakable skin. I broke out of prison and left for New York, where I changed my name to Luke Cage, and started doing hero work for money. Had to make a living that didn't require someone to look at my background."

"I mean hey, us Huntresses aren't any different. We get paid for hero work. It's just not the only reason to be a hero, right?" Yang asked.

"Exactly! And Jessica's been giving me crap for years! Money's not the point, but I gotta live somehow! Can't exactly get a real job as an invincible supposedly-dead ex-con."

"But hey, good for you, man. You're fixing things up."

Luke smiled and wiped some of the Grimm dust off his hands. "What about you? Why'd you want to do the whole Huntress thing? I know you're not in it for money."

"Well… I guess I'm a thrillseeker. I wanna travel around the world and get wrapped up in as many crazy adventures as I can. And if I can help people along the way, then that's even better! It's a win-win, y'know?"

Luke nods. "Yeah, I can see that. Not a dull day."

"Yep!" Yang smiled. A moment of silence passed. "So, does this mean I can call you Carl now?"

Luke chuckled a bit. "No, you can't call me Carl now."

Before Weiss and Danny snarled an entire pack of Beowolves, more than ready to tear them apart. "That's a lot ahead of us," Danny remarked.

"Yes, it is," Weiss agreed.

"But not a problem, right?" Danny smirked, a facial expression Weiss shared.

"No, it's not." A glyph then blinked into existence before Weiss. She spun and thrust her weapon through the marking and fired ice Dust through the glyph, sending out a dozen zooming ice projectiles, every single one of each found a target and froze it in place. Quickly, the entire pack was encapsulated in ice. "Want the honors?"

"My pleasure," Danny replied as he charged up the Iron Fist and slammed it down in front of the two fo them, sending a fierce shockwave forwards and shattering every single frozen Grimm in its wake. Danny stood up and blew the steam off his fist as the dust settled, revealing a cleared, albeit wrecked, street. "Nice teamwork."

"Thank you," Weiss nodded as she sheathed Myrtenaster and wiped the dirt and dust off her white outfit.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to hit you with the blowback."

"It's fine. Won't be the last time I get dirty as a Huntress," Weiss said, though was clearly frustrated as she tried to wipe off dirt that was already staining her combat skirt.

"Yeah, about that, why would you of all people choose to be a Huntress?" Danny asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, that didn't come across right. What I mean is, you're the heiress to the most important corporate entity, the most important family in this universe. You could've done anything with that name, or nothing. You chose to train to be a warrior. Why?"

"Well, it's like you said: I'm a Schnee. I've got a legacy of honor to uphold. Once I realized I was capable of fighting, there was no question of what I would do with my life. It's my duty."

"That's very brave of you. Not everyone can make the choices you've made, especially with the expectation of your name," Danny said.

Weiss looked up at him and tilted her head slightly. "Your background is similar to mine, correct? How did you handle it?"

"Well, I kinda just had to figure things out as I went. I didn't have a choice in some of this."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the place I trained was called K'un L'un, a mystical city hidden from the rest of the world. I was stranded near it when my parents' plane crashed, and our family friend Harold killed my father." This gave Weiss pause. She didn't have words to say about Danny's story. "Harold didn't make it much further, my mother not much further than that. I wouldn't have made it much farther if the monks of K'un L'un didn't find me and take me to the city. I spent over a decade there, growing up with the other students, training to be the best fighters we could be. I had no choice but to become the best, and go through the trial of Shou Lou."

"Sh-Shou Lou?" Weiss repeated.

Danny nodded. "In K'un L'un, the trial to decide the next Iron Fist was to face the dragon Shou Lou. If you were victorious, you would take the dragon's energy, and obtain the Iron Fist." He gestured to the curving black dragon design on the green of his costume. "I bear this mark on both my uniform and my skin as a symbol of my power, my perseverance, and the responsibility that comes with it."

"But was it worth the cost?" Weiss asked.

"Depends how you look at it. When I returned to the normal world, balancing my life as Daniel Rand and the Iron Fist was more intimidating than Shou Lou, especially coming back as both an heir to Rand Enterprises, and coming back as a man the entire world thought dead. They had so many questions, not all of them could be answered."

"Sometimes even you don't know the answer," Weiss said. Danny was surprised she understood it.

"Um… yeah. How would you tell them about what you'd been through?"

"And how would they look at you if the world knew the truth? Or would they care at all? Would they look up at the podium built for you and think, 'They'll be fine. With that much money, they can do anything'?" Weiss added, earning a curious look from Danny. "My home life wasn't the most… stable."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Personally, if I had to choose between family problems or fighting fantastical monsters?" Danny said. Weiss looked back up at him. "I'd take the dragon."

Jessica held back the force as the Ursa pushed down on her, snarling at her with its sharp, yellowish teeth. She scowled and kicked one of its legs out from under it before throwing it through a wall into a ruined building. The creature shook the rubble off its fur and roared at Jessica before sprinting out the hole its body created, heading straight for Jessica. Jessica reeled back and gave a right hook to its skull, snapping its neck and sending it to the side. She let out a sigh of relief and wiped herself off just as a Beowolf burst through the wall behind her and primed its claws to attack. By the time she turned around, the Grimm had already raised its paw to attack, leaving no time for Jessica to counter attack. Suddenly, Blake dropped down and slashed her sword, decapitating the Grimm in a single strike. The creature's body stumbled a moment before collapsing and disintegrating, and Blake stood up and sheathed her weapon.

"Thanks, kid," Jessica thanked the faunus.

"You're welcome," Blake replied. "Any luck so far?"

"No. Anywhere I look, I just find more of those freaks. You?" Blake shook her head, almost dejectedly. She clenched her fists tightly, her hands shaking, something Jessica took note of. "Hey, we'll find him. These guys can't hide forever."

"But will we find him in time?" Blake asked. "You don't know the White Fang like I do. And with people like Torchwick and Taskmaster leading them on…"

Jessica looked her up and down. She could tell Blake was filled with anger and guilt. "You were one of them, weren't you?" Blake looked at Jessica in surprise. "I'm a private investigator, you learn how to read people."

"And so what if I was?" Blake asked defensively, crossing her arms.

"Well, they're idealists, they want equality for some of the right reasons. Why leave when you want the same thing?"

"Because they went too far. Innocent people were killed, and all we were doing was increasing our horrid reputation."

"So why choose to be a… Huntress, or whatever?"

"Because it's not only the White Fang. There's too much wrong in this world to just stand by and do nothing. Inequality, corruption, someone has to stop it."

"That's a high calling," Jessica replied, raising an eyebrow. "And completely unrealistic."

"I'm sorry?"

"Blake, every world has evil and corruption. Even a hundred superheroes in our world can't change that. How do you expect to change all that here?"

"I…" Blake started to form a response, but it died as it exited her mouth.

"Here's the thing you learn being on the street: you can't change the world, no matter how good you are. There will always be assholes trying to ruin everything no matter where you go. You can make things more bearable, and you can help some people, sure. But it's never going away." Jessica then continued walking on into the ruined city, leaving Blake to think about what she had said.

Ruby was playing with Zwei when a Beowolf came around the corner and snarled at the two of them. Ruby jumped in surprise before she quickly unfurled Crescent Rose from its collapsed form. The Beowolf started to charge, but then a red billy club smashed into it's faceplate, cracking the armor and putting the Grimm off balance. The weapon ricocheted off a few surfaces before returning to Matt, who was now dressed in his Daredevil outfit. The Grimm's mask started to fall apart, creating an opening to it's face, one Ruby took advantage of with one well placed shot, killing the Grimm with a single headshot. Ruby smiled before collapsing her weapon back down and looking at her teacher. "I like the ears!" She said.

"They're horns," Matt smirked as he put his billy club away.

"Oh. Right," Ruby nervously chuckled as she rubbed her neck. "Any luck?"

"No. And it's getting dark soon. We should find the others and settle in for the night."

"Right," Ruby nodded. "Come on, Zwei." The small dog barked and followed Ruby and Matt as they started off back towards the others. "So, um, Professor Murdock?"

"You can just call me Matt now, Ruby," Matt replied.

"Okay, um, Matt. I was wondering, why did you become a superhero? I know Peter did because of his Uncle, but, why did you?" Ruby asked.

"Well, my story's not a whole lot better," Matt replied. "You sure you wanna know?" Ruby nodded, and Matt took a moment and stopped walking. "I want you to look around, Ruby. Right now, just look and take in all the details you can of what's left of this city. The colors, the textures; what do you see?"

"Well… I see the gray bricks of the old buildings, broken apart into sandy gravel. I see green plants and overgrowth covering what's left of everything."

"Well, I don't get to see that anymore. My powers and enhanced senses paint a 3D image in my brain, so I know what's around me. But it's smoothed over. I couldn't tell you the color of a car on the side of the street, I can only tell you it's there. I can only use my nose to tell you the difference between red and white meat because of the minute differences I can pick up that normal people can't. Everyone else can just take a glance to figure it out. I was blinded by chemicals at a young age, and my father was already just getting by when I had normal needs. Now he needed to buy braille textbooks, pay a tutor for the blind, and most importantly take me just about everywhere he went so he could make sure I was taken care of."

"What did your father do?" Ruby asked.

"He was a boxer. 'Battlin' Jack' Murdock. And he worked harder than he ever did to try and make sure that I didn't have to go through the same thing."

"So what happened to him?"

"He was told to lose a match, and he ignored them. He won the match. The mob boss who bet on the other boxer wasn't too happy. My father never made it home that night."

Ruby covered her mouth. "O-Oh.. I'm so sorry…"

"It's fine. I've accepted it now. But back then? I was angry. I grew up, got my law degree, and along the way trained under a man named Stick to hone my skills with my new powers. Sometime after I graduated college, that mob boss returned to New York, and I took it as my chance to pay him back for my father. In the end, I didn't lay a finger on him. Tearing through his men and breaking into his office looking like the Devil himself? I literally scared him to death. It was almost cathartic, hearing his heartbeat stop. But from there, I knew I had to be better, for both my father and myself."

"So then you became Daredevil," Ruby said.

Matt nods. "Ruby, something you should understand is that for every Jack Murdock or Ben Parker, there's a Taskmaster. For every pure person like you, there's a Roman Torchwick. Evil doesn't go away, all we can do is keep the people safe as best we can. That's the burden we all carry, whether as a superhero or a Huntress."

"I understand, sir," Ruby nodded.

Matt smiled a bit. "You're a good person, Ruby. You all are. I can see why Peter likes all of you."

Ruby giggled with a small blush. "Thank you, sir."

"C'mon. Let's find the others and set up camp."

Blake and Danny tended to the fire, with Weiss standing to the side as Yang approached. "I can't believe we didn't find anything," Yang said.

"It seems you girls have a knack for being in the right place at the right time," Danny said. "But you can't always have luck on your side."

"Um, Danny?"

"Hm?" Danny looked up at the heiress as he removed his mask.

"Earlier, when I talked about 'upholding the legacy'; There's more to it than that."

"Yeah. No, me too. I mean… I don't know," Yang said.

"I don't know either," Blake added. "I know what I want to do, but I figured I'd just take things one step at a time."

"There's no need to explain yourselves. In the end, so long as you know why you're here, all of you will be driven to be your strongest," Danny said.

"Thanks, Danny," Yang said. Danny nodded in response.

"Nice fire. I could smell it burning ten blocks down," Matt said as he, Ruby and Zwei entered.

"Fire! Ruby gasped as she rushed to its heat. "So warm…"

"Not meaning much coming from you, bloodhound," Danny replied.

"Woof," Matt smirked.

"Jess and Luke are by our fire in the next room over," Danny told Matt.

"Any volunteers for first watch?" Matt asked the Huntresses.

"Yo," Ruby raised her hand before stepping up from the flames. Danny and Matt moved into the next room over, and Ruby then left her teammates next to the fire as she took first watch. The eight of them then settled in for the night, hoping tomorrow would prove more fruitful results for the search for Peter Parker.