OH HELLO THERE!
Sorry for the long wait!
Not sure if anyone notices, but I've edited all of my old works. Yes, even Wattpad and AO3, so they should have fewer writing errors now and hopefully be much more readable. I even reworked Hal's introduction in chapter 5, so feel free to check it out when you have the time.
It's sometimes nice to read an old chapter again a few times while waiting for a fresh new chapter to come up.
(City Of Vale)
An old shopkeeper was putting up a sign that declares the reopening of his "From Dust to Dawn" shop. As he climbed down the ladder, he accidentally bumped into a certain dark skinned and mint-green teenage girl, causing the poor old man to stumble and fall.
"Excuse me, sorry. I'm not really from around here." The girl apologized as she helped the elderly shopkeeper to his feet. "Would you mind pointing me in the direction of this shop?"
She said as she showed him a note with an address as the shopkeeper looked it over.
The shopkeeper nodded after skimming the note and gave her the directions she needed.
As the girl walked away while waving goodbye to the shopkeeper, she turned to an alleyway where her partner (in crime, mind you), aka the gray haired young man, was waiting for her.
"I knew you were lost." He told her.
"Mercury, I will seriously pay you to shut up." The girl told him, as she took out the shop owner's wallet that she pickpocketed and waved it in Mercury's face.
"That's not your money." Mercury replied.
"But it can be yours for five minutes of silence." The girl said to Mercury while still waving the wallet in front of his face.
Mercury thought to himself for a while before saying with a grin, "No deal."
"Fine." She muttered as she took out the lien from the wallet and threw the wallet and followed mercury from behind. "Whatever. You want me." Mercury said, annoying her even further.
(Some time later…)
"So…how much farther?" Mercury asked, getting bored that they kept walking.
"A few blocks." The girl replied.
"Ugh... this place is so dull." Mercury complained.
"Eh, I kinda like it." The girl said. "Tall buildings, diverse culture…"
"And nice dopey people who are easy to pickpocket." Mercury interrupted her suddenly.
"That's every city." The girl replied.
"Ooh, Emerald! Master thief! Please don't take my money! I barely have enough to get by!" Mercury pleaded as a bad impression of a victim of a robbery, causing the girl, identified as Emerald, to glare at him and groan angrily, before walking away from him.
"Ugh... you're no fun today." Mercury said to her as he followed.
The duo made it to a bookstore called: "Tukson's Book Trade" and walked inside.
"Huh? That's weird, no one's here. Usually there'll be a random bookworm or two but... Not today?" Mercury muttered as he looked around the store to see no customers around.
"At least this makes our job easier." Emerald said as Mercury quickly locked the shop entrance while she walked up to the desk and rang the desk bell to get the owner's attention. Strange enough, no response.
Exchanging confused looks with Mercury, Emerald rang the bell again. Still nothing. Seeing that there is still no response, the duo walked past the desk and into the back room of the store to investigate. When they entered the back room, they suddenly stopped in their tracks with dropped jaws at what they saw.
It was their target, Tukson, a Faunus man and the owner of the store, lying down on the ground motionless with both arms and one leg twisted behind his back. Scratch marks, burns and bullet wounds decorated his body while the walls are also littered with scratch marks, large burnt marks and bullet holes. The wall behind Tukson has a large graffiti of a red wolf with red claw marks, the insignia of the White Fang.
Mercury, being curious, decided to slowly walk up to Tukson, and took out his scroll to analyze him.
"Wow, he's dead, no aura, no heartbeat. I wonder which asshole killed him before us." Mercury said as the scroll showed him two flat lines.
"Oh well, at least whoever did it got our work done for us." Mercury said as he stood up and put away his scroll. "Let's get out of here." He told Emerald as she took one last glance to the dead Faunus before walking after Mercury.
(Beacon Academy, Cafeteria)
It's lunch time as The Blues, Chuck, Silver, Stella, Yang and Team JNPR were having their lunch, while Blake was busy checking her notebook, particularly some notes and sketches of the White Fang insignia, a man with his back turned with a sword sheathed on his back and an emblem of a white rose next to it.
"Whatcha doing?" Yang asked her partner as she slid up next to Blake.
"Is that someone you know?" Silver also asked Blake as she noticed the sketches on Blake's notebook, since Blake is sitting between Silver and Yang.
"Nothing." Blake said quickly as she slammed her book shut. "Just private stuff."
"Okay…" Silver accepted as she shot a worried glance at Blake, Silver knows that there is something bothering her, and the man in her notebook might be a clue, but she decided that now is not the time to bother with Blake's business yet, while Yang opened her mouth to catch the grapes that Nora is launching with a spoon before giving Nora a thumbs up.
"Hey Bomb? Where's Red and the others? I thought he was giving a tour guide of Beacon to Terry and the others before I went out for a jog." Chuck asked Bomb.
"Oh, Red is now giving the others a tour of the City Of Vale, since it is their first or second time here, depending on how you look at it. I wonder what they're having for lunch." Bomb replied, just as Ruby arrived and with a large heave, dropped a large binder onto the table that it caused the table to shake, catching everyone off guard. The Binder has the words: "Best Day Ever Activities" on it in red capital letters.
"Ahem…Sisters and brothers in arms! And Weiss."
"Hey!" Weiss complained.
"That's so unfair! Ice Queen has her very own category!" Jake quietly protested to his bros.
"Fourscore and seven minutes ago…I had a dream…" Ruby said.
"This ought to be good." Yang said with excitement as she used her mouth to catch another grape launched by Nora.
"A dream that one day, all of us will come together, Team RWBY and JNPR, even The Flock, as a big team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!" Ruby continued dramatically.
"Sounds fun. I'm in." Chuck said with a smile.
"So what are the plans?" asked Bomb.
"Hold on a second…" Weiss said as she looked at the binder for a moment. "Did you steal my binder?"
"What? No, it's Silver's. She lets me use it." Ruby replied.
"It's true." Silver added. "Little Ruby here was about to use your binder and make it hers in order to look good as leader, until I stopped her and offered her a spare binder and made our own plans together to avoid plagiarism."
"I'm not a crook!" Ruby quickly exclaimed, causing Weiss to glare at Ruby and Silver to snicker.
"What are you talking about?" Blake asked as she was preoccupied at looking at her notes again just now.
"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" Ruby said as she pointed a finger at Blake.
"I always kick my semesters off with a Yang!" Yang joked, with no one impressed at her joke.
"I'm gonna give you a B for effort…" Jake remarked as Nora tossed an apple and managed to hit Yang in the face, along with shouting "Boooooooooooooooo!", causing Yang to glare at Nora and The Blues to snicker.
"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But, classes start back up tomorrow! Even though you guys aren't technically students…" She said to the four/six members of The Flock in particular. "But maybe you could take a break from fighting and tracking down some Bad Piggies…and…you know…have fun?"
"Fighting them is fun anyway, can't be wrong with more fun from our fun experience with that Bubble Tank." Jim remarked.
"Yeah, it was pretty cool. " Yang said as she chucked an apple back at Nora.
"Even though we have some fun every now and then, we still have to look for those Piggies." Bomb said. "Who knows what havoc they might bring about since we now know that they are against the White Fang for now." Blake's face got serious when Bomb mentioned the White Fang. The fact that there would be more White Fang casualties since the Bad Piggies are against them made this personal for her, and she wants to help The Flock in any way she can.
"Terry and us Blues are already looking into it right now, we'll let you guys know if we have any leads." Jay added. "So we might as well kick back and relax for the time being."
"Yeah, Ruby and I made all of that planning, so it would be very rude for you guys to not join in on the fun." Silver said, as everyone nodded in agreement, all on-board with Ruby's idea.
"Well…I for one think that-" Weiss barely had time to finish her sentence before a pie landed on her face, much to the surprise of her friends and her teammates.
Turns out it was Nora who threw the pie, upon being spotted, she hastily retreated back to her seat and pointed at Ren who had his head in his palm. Pyrrha's hand is over her mouth while Jaune simply sits staring wide-eyed while covering his ear with his palm.
"Hey, Nora! Got any more of those pies?" Jake asked with great enthusiasm.
"Hoo boy…" Chuck winced as he ate a pizza slice, knowing well what's going to happen…
(Meanwhile…)
Outside of the cafeteria, Sun Wukong is sharing his experience with his friend and teammate, Neptune Vasilias. Neptune has tanned skin, with blue eyes and messy light-blue hair in the form of an undercut. He wore a red jacket with a white dress shirt and black tie along with gray jeans, black shoes and a pair of yellow-tinted goggles.
"Wow. Sounds like you had fun." Neptune commented.
"I know right?" Sun replied. "We were fighting against White Fang, some green soldiers and a giant tank that shoots boulders and bubbles! I mean, have you ever seen or heard of a tank that can fire boulders and bubbles like cannons? And I even met more of them! And the way they fight…. Oh man, I can't describe it, but it's awesome!"
"Cool." Neptune nodded as he continued to listen.
"Right? And the best part is that the black haired girl is a Faunus. But that's a secret, okay?" Sun said quickly.
"Got it." Neptune said with a nod.
"And not a, "I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back secret", I'm talking secret secret!" Sun insisted as he leaned in close.
"Whoa, chill out, man, okay? I got it." Neptune said before whispering, "I got it!"
"You better." Sun says as various food splatters onto the panes of the cafeteria door as students run around like headless chickens as poor Jaune flies into the window before splattering there and sliding down slowly.
"I just don't want to screw this up, you know? The people here are the coolest! No offense to you guys."
"None taken."
"Alright, they're just in here." Sun said as they approached the cafeteria doors. "I'm really excited for you to meet them. So be cool, okay? You're gonna be cool, right?"
"Dude." Neptune said with a thumbs up and a smile, his teeth gleaming brightly for emphasis.
"Good point." Sun said with a nod as he opened the door.
In which all of the other students ran out, screaming and shouting. One student even cried out, "Food fight!" as both Sun and Neptune managed to sidestep away in time to avoid the panicking stampede.
Meanwhile, back to teams RWBY, JNPR and The Flock, Nora gave a mighty laugh as she and her team stood atop a tower of tables stacked in a ramshackle manner.
"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" Nora said in a sing-song manner.
On the opposite territory of JNPR is RWBY's territory, where Ruby stomped her foot on a table as she pointed at JNPR with a carton of milk on her other hand. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be delicious!" Ruby shouted as she crushed the carton.
"Ruby, no! The milk was innocent!" Jake commented as he and the rest of the flock were in the middle of the battlefield, taking cover from as many tables they could grab as they watched Nora shouting, "Off with their heads!" as RWBY and JNPR began their food fight.
"You guys wanna join?" Silver asked her friends as she picked up two carrots and wielded them like daggers.
"I'm in." Bomb replied as he wielded a pair of corn cobs like swords.
"Later, I think I saw a cake flying this way!" Jake said as he and his brothers ran to the direction of the flung cake, while grabbing and eating some free food that flew by.
"You guys have your fun. I wanna eat." Chuck said as he is currently sitting on the floor enjoying a slice of watermelon that he found. With wide mischievous grins, Silver and Bomb got out of their table cover and charged in separate directions.
"Yang! Turkey!" Ruby shouted as she noticed Bomb rapidly approaching. Yang quickly rolled over and grabbed the two turkeys and stuck her hands into them, using them as gauntlets as she threw a series of punches at him, on which he quickly parried with his corn cobs.
"You guys don't mind about the turkey, right?" Yanga asked as she continued to punch.
"We do mind actually." Bomb admitted as he clashed his cobs onto Yang's turkey gauntlets to a standstill. "That's why I gotta free these poor souls of their misery." Bomb said seriously with a glare before giving a loud war cry and broke out, sending Yang tumbling into a wall as the turkeys flew out of her hands.
"Ow…ok…this one's on me…" Yang winced as she picked herself up while Bomb watched with a smirk, which could be Bomb's downfall as Blake sneaked in from behind, grabbing two loaves of bread as dual wielded swords to slice him, but Bomb already saw it coming and threw three bananas like boomerangs behind in quick succession, causing Blake to stop in her tracks and block the attacks with her bread swords, to little success as the bananas sliced through the loaves, shortening Blake's "swords".
"Nice try, but I was once a warrior of honor. Trust me, there's more to me that meets the eye." Bomb said as he spun the cobs around before engaging in close combat with Blake as Yang, armed with two tomatoes as bombs, Weiss, using a swordfish as a sword and Ruby, wielding condiment bottles, charged at Bomb as well.
Meanwhile, Silver engaged with Team JNPR as she threw a storm of carrots, with Juane and Ren using their long carrot and celery swords respectively to block the attacks and Pyrrha and Nora using the trays as shields. Silver quickly ran out of ammo as she quickly performed back handspring to avoid the vegetable slashes form the two teenage men and did performed various acrobatic maneuvers mid air to avoid the pies thrown by Nora and Pyrrha before landing in front of Nora, who has a watermelon wedged on a pole to make it into a watermelon hammer. "Have some fruit!" Nora cackled as she swung her hammer at Silver, who quickly parried the strikes with her carrot daggers, but is unable to keep up with Nora's strikes as she knocked the carrots out of Silver's hands before slamming down on the table that they are standing on, sending Silver flying and crashing through the ceiling, before quickly falling back down to the ground with a rough landing.
"Ow…" Silver winced with a single tear coming out of her eye as she rubbed her backside before seeing JNPR slowly surrounding her.
"There's still time to surrender." Jaune offered mercy as he pointed his carrot sword at Silver.
"Yeah! Kneel before your queen!" Nora cheered on.
"I'm an Angry Bird, I don't give up." Silver told them with a defiant glare.
"Famous last words." Nora said with a glint in her eye as she highly raised the watermelon hammer
"But…you might wanna duck." Silver said as her gritted teeth suddenly became a sinister smile.
Team JNPR doesn't have a chance to react as Jaune had a duck thrown at his face, sending him flying as Nora, Ren, and Pyrrah were hit by a barrage of an assortment of fruits, vegetables and pastries, causing them to be on the defensive as Jay and Jim quickly ran over to help Silver up and escort her away while they are distracted.
"Sorry Mr. Duckie!" Jake shouted as he continued throwing various foods to distract Team JNPR.
"You got the package?" He asked his bros.
"Got her." Jim said as he pointed to Silver with a smile.
"So what's the plan now, Silvy?" Jay asked Silver.
"Alright…here's what we are gonna do…" Silver said as various inaudible whispers can be heard from Team Pranksters as Team JNPR recovered and are advancing towards them for round two. "Alright, one-two-three-let's-do-this!" Team Pranksters said together as Silver ran away to execute her plan as The Blues prepared their weapons. Jake wielded a pineapple on a long stick, resembling a pineapple hammer, Jay wielded a stick with two bananas, making it look like a staff and Jim held some tomatoes on his hands for throwing.
"Y'all ready for round two?!" Jay taunted as he spun the banana staff around as Ren and Nora prepared themselves, while Pyrrah hauled a food covered Jaune back to the fight.
Meanwhile, Bomb was running away from Team RWBY as Yang and Blake threw various fruits at him, while Ruby and Weiss chased after him with their semblances, which they managed to be ahead of him as Weiss thrusted a swordfish right at Bomb's path, causing him to duck and slide to avoid the swordfish nose while Ruby, with a glint of opportunity in her eyes, grabbed a link of sausages to use it as a lasso, swinging it high in the air before tossing at Bomb's direction, causing him to yelp in surprise as the sausages wrapped around his body, before he was forcibly pulled back by with the power of Weiss's Semblance.
"Nowhere to run!" Ruby exclaimed, only to see Bomb smirking at her.
"Who said I was running?" asked Bomb as he aimed the corn cobs on his hands to Ruby and Weiss as his hands glowed red.
"Aw Dust…" were the last words Ruby said before she and Weiss were pelted by popping popcorn, causing Ruby to let go of the sausage lasso and retreat covering her head as Bomb managed to struggle himself free from the sausage lasso.
"Not bad Ruby…not bad." Bomb remarked to himself with a smirk as he chased after the girls with the cobs still firing popcorn.
Meanwhile, on the other side, The Blues seemed to be having a hard time, as the combined might of Ren and Jaune gave Jake and Jay no chance to attack as Jake and Jay used the sticks of their makeshift weapons to block the boys strikes as Jim kept tossing various food as he retreated with his brothers to attempt to distract them, which is proven ineffective as Nora and Pyrrah blocked the ranged projectiles with their trays to shield themselves and their teammates as they managed to back The Blues into a wall.
"You are surrounded!" Nora declared as she pointed her watermelon hammer at the blue brothers.
"Is-" "That-" "So?" The triplets replied.
"I think you're-" "Rather trapped in-" "Here with us!" They said as they suddenly vanished in a puff of blue smoke. Surprising them.
"Huh?! Where did they go?!" Nora exclaimed before hearing a loud whistle behind them.
"Drinks on us!" Silver and The Blues said in unison with evil grins as they revved up their miniguns made from toothpicks, firing assorted soda cans at Team JNPR. Jaune was the first to fall from the gatling onslaught, followed by Ren and Nora as they tried to shield themselves with their trays but ended up falling as well, covered in sticky soda.
However Pyrrah stood her ground and with a grin, spun her hands to channel her Polarity
Semblance to grab the flying cans and spun them around her body, as Team Pranksters watched with no hints of shock and surprise at all, but rather amusement.
"Did you forget about my Semblance being Polarity? Pyrrah reminded Silver.
"Nope, but I didn't know it was that strong, and you missed the cupcake." Silver pointed out.
"What…?" Pyrrah looked in confusion until she noticed a small cupcake decorated with pink sprinkles and a cherry on top right next to her foot. And there's a fuse that is almost going to reach the cupcake.
Thinking fast, she quickly sent all of the cans to The Flock and Team RWBY.
BOOM!
Unfortunately, Pyrrah does not have enough time to get rid of the bomb as the explosion sent her flying into a wall, as well as Team RWBY and The Flock for not being to avoid Pyrrah's counterattack, except for Ruby who managed to dodge them all with her speed.
"So…who's winning right now?" Chuck asked as he peeked out of the table that he was still hiding in, observing the messy cafeteria while eating a slice of cake with a fork, surrounded by defeated members of Team JNPR, The Flock and Ruby's teammates, all covered head-to-toe with various foods and sticky soda.
"It's only you and me now…" Ruby said with determination, pointing at Chuck while holding a pile of food.
"Is that so? Oh well then…" Chuck said with a sigh as he slowly put his plate onto the ground and slowly walked towards Ruby, before stopping at a distance facing her, and gave her a beckoning gesture with a grin. "Show me what you got, Little Red."
With a serious look on her face, Ruby dashed around the cafeteria, zig-zagging around Chuck, grabbing as much food as possible as red petals swirled around Chuck as he stood still. Ruby kept dashing around the cafeteria, before chucking a handful of food at Chuck from the behind, in which he managed to dodge in time, Ruby kept on the attack, causing Chuck to duck and dash around the flying food.
"Is that all you got?!" Chuck taunted as he dodged a squashed tomato thrown at him.
With a war cry, she charged towards Chuck's back and it looked like she was about to hit him with an apple on her hand, until time slowed down drastically again. Yep, Chuck activated "Chuck Time" again.
With a sly grin, he slowly walked out of Ruby's charging path. And snatched the apple out of her hands, before wiping it clean and took a bite.
"Sorry-Ruby-it-looks-like-your-speed-still-needs-some-improvement-but-on-the-bright-side-you-almost-got-me-and-maybe-after-this-maybe-we-can-do-some-speed-training-together-who-am-I-kidding-at-this-speed-I-don't-think-you-can-hear-me." Chuck said quickly to the slow motion Ruby before hearing faint footsteps outside, so he decided to run out to investigate, stopping briefly to say hi to Monkey Boy and his friend on the way and finishing his apple and throwing it to a nearby bin.
As he peered out of the Cafeteria door, he could see Glynda slowly walking towards the Cafeteria with a scowl on her face, before running back inside and quickly finished his cake. With multiple flashes of yellow, he darted around, gathering up the piles of food into large trash bags while repairing any damage done such as the chairs and the tables and reorganized them to make it look like nothing happened, before putting Team JNPR and The Flock back to their seats, followed by Weiss, Yang and Blake.
As for Ruby, he gently moved Ruby's charge direction to another direction before placing a pie right above her charge direction and taking a quick selfie with his scroll and went back to his seat.
Time resumed as per normal as Chuck went back to his seat, Ruby landed face-first onto the floor, as the pie that Chuck placed in the air landed on the top of Ruby's head and the doors bursted open to reveal an angry Glynda who looked in confusion as she noticed the cafeteria still seems to be intact, except for The Flock, Team JNPR and Team RWBY, all covered in food.
"I love these guys." Sun said to Neptune with a smile, as they were still standing near the cafeteria entrance, while Neptune stood next to him, covered in soda with an annoyed expression.
"Please…" Glynda said as she adjusted her glasses.
"Do not play with your food!"
"Sorry about that! We got a little carried away." Chuck admitted with a shrug and a sheepish smile.
"I lost…" Ruby said sadly as she slowly got up and sat next to Chuck with a sad expression.
"Don't worry, Little Red, here's your consolation prize." Chuck said to Ruby as he handed her a pie. "Come on, lay it on me, I won't dodge it this time. Honest."
Seizing the opportunity, Ruby slammed the pie hard on Chuck's face. "I have been avenged!" She cheered.
"Yes, you did. Hey, Beacon's lemon meringue pie tastes great!" Chuck said with pie still on his face as Teams, RWBY, JNPR and The Flock all erupted into laughter, despite being stinky and sticky from all of the food and soda.
Glynda grumbles with annoyance. Before she could do anything, Ozpin came up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let it go."
"They're supposed to be the defenders of the world. And The Flock are supposed to be defenders of their world." Glynda remarked. "It's not the best example they are setting."
"And they will be, but right now they're still children, and some members of The Flock are children as well. So why not let them play the part? And I think The Flock are already showing a good example. They bear a responsibility similar to ours, and they understand the importance of having fun. Just let them have fun. After all, it isn't a moment they'll have forever." Ozpin said before turning around and walking away.
(Later, evening, City Of Vale)
"And that's how Chuck and I managed to get out of this mess. I swear to Mighty Eagle, those pigs believed that eggs are made by kissing cabbages!" Red finished telling his story to Stella, Matilda, Hal and Bubbles as they all laughed at his story.
"Wow, I know that the pigs are dumb as bricks, but hearing this makes them even more ridiculous!" Stella commented.
"I know right?" Hal said as well as they were walking back to Beacon after Red gave them the city tour.
"Anyways….what do you guys want to call your weapons? Ozpin said it is mandatory." Red asked Bubbles and Stella.
"I decided to name it Bubblepop!" Stella declared as she took out her large pink bubble wand and spun it around.
"I call this the Beat Machine!" Bubbles declared as well as he took out his weapon in its boombox mode. "This hammer can lay down the sickest beats and make some noise!"
"It must be nice to have weapons to assist you." Matilda remarked with a smile.
"We can ask Silver to make you a weapon if you want one." Hal offered.
"No thanks, I'm good, I got my own weapons already." Matilda said as she took out two large folded fans out of her pocket for emphasis. One of the fans is white, while the other is black, like the heads of a King Taijitu Grimm.
"Fair point, but if you do happen to change your mind, you know who to look for." Red said before accidentally bumping into Stella, who stopped in her tracks.
"Ow!" Both Red and Stella cried simultaneously as Red fell down on his butt.
"Hey! Why did you stop?" Red asked as he got back up.
"I'm so sorry!" Stella apologized profusely with a bow. "But Bubbles suddenly stopped in his tracks, so I stopped, and you bumped into me by accident."
"Whoops, sorry about that guys." Bubbles apologized as well as he rubbed the back of his head. "I couldn't help but look at a scene of crime, do you think another robbery happened?" He said as he pointed to a store called, Tukson's Book Trade, where the entrance has been sealed in police tape.
"Why would thieves rob a bookstore?" Hal asked as The Flock sat on a nearby bench that is near the store.
"Hmmm…No visible damage to windows and the store entrance, and no traces of Dust either." Bubbles remarked as he stared at the store with his visors on.
"You can see Dust?" Matilda questioned with surprise.
"In a way, yes. This visor allows me to do that, I just found out about that thing two days ago." Bubbles replied as he removed his visor. "Who knows? It could have more features in there too. I gotta ask Silver about this when we get back."
"That's cool and all, but what about the inside?" Red said while looking at the store with yellow binoculars. "I don't think we can take a closer look-"
"Wish already granted." Stella interrupted as she showed them on her scroll, various photos of the store interior that she somehow sneaked into.
"Let me guess, your time as Arcee allowed you to be that stealthy?" Red asked as he browsed through the photos.
"The ninja training paid off." Stella briefly replied with a smile. "Here's the interesting part." She said as she showed them a photo of the back room of the store.
"The room is riddled with claw marks, burns and holes and has that weird logo on one of the walls." Stella pointed out as she magnified the photo of the emblem. "I also found this badge at a desk in the back of the store." She said as she took out a blue badge and passed it to Red. The badge had the emblem of the White Fang, but it's white instead of blood red, and it had no claw marks.
"I'm guessing that's the White Fang's old emblem." Red said as he closely inspected the badge.
"Silver told me about how the White Fang were once passive until a new leader prompted them to take up violence in retaliation.
"So does that mean the victim was once White Fang? Like Blake?" Hal asked Red.
"I believe so, but I'm guessing he wasn't as lucky as Blake, seeing that the back room of the store has signs of a skirmish happening here. But who did this…and why?" Red asked.
"Do you think it could be…Smooth Cheeks?" Bubbles asked nervously.
"It doesn't make sense, King Pig would never make an alliance with anyone, he only trusts those that he knows very well." Red replied.
"I think we're going to need Silver, Terence and The Blues to look into this. I fear this is going to get much worse." Red said as he handed the badge and scroll back to Stella.
(Later, Night, Elsewhere)
In an old warehouse, Mercury and Emerald entered inside, which served as their base of operations as various White Fang agents and Pigtroopers are moving crates of Dust into various aircraft, they soon approached Roman Torchwick, who is currently studying the map of the Kingdom of Vale and discussing with Chef Pig.
"Are you sure your troops can be trusted? They almost shot me the first time I met them." Roman asked Chef Pig.
"That's because they are under their idiot king's orders." Chef Pig explained.
"I've managed to convince them to help us with this operation. Don't worry, they are like rocks, dumb and plentiful to go around, so you can do whatever you want to do with them and they won't even object. In the unlikely scenario that they do, just promise them that you will provide them with eggs and they will continue to obey you. Speaking of minions, yours just arrived, right on schedule." He continued, as he and Roman turned around to see Mercury and Emerald walking towards the both of them.
"Oh, look! She sent the kids again!" Roman said in a teasing manner as he wrapped his arms around them in a group hug. "This is turning out just like the divorce!"
"Spare us the thought of you procreating." Emerald said with disgust as she and Mercury pushed him away.
"That was a joke. And this... just might tell me where you two have been all day." Roman said as he took out the note of the bookstore address that he swiped from Emerald.
"What…?!" Emerald said in shock as she checked her pockets to find that the note was gone.
"I'm a professional, sweetheart. Pay attention, maybe you'll learn something. Why do you have this address?" Roman asked as he took a good look at the note.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Emerald responded while pointing at Roman.
"Yeah, I would. Now where have you been all day?" Roman questioned as he got closer to the duo.
"Cleaning up your problems. One of them, at least." Mercury answered as he got close to Roman. "But someone already beat us to the punch."
"I had that under control." Roman said with clenched teeth.
"Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale said otherwise." Emerald countered with a glare.
"Listen, you little punk. If it were up to me, then I would take you and your little street rat friend here and-"
RATATATATAT!
ZZZZT!
Several warning shots consisting of multiple bullets and a laser were shot between Roman and Emerald as they jumped back in surprise. As they turned to see the culprit, their eyes slightly widened. It was the same red robotic condor that visited Salem's castle as it flew a few circles around Chef Pig's head giving a loud caw before perching on his shoulder, the laser cannons on its back smoking, followed by a low growl as the other culprit revealed itself to be a rather large robotic black panther, with three long and sharp claws in each of its legs, along with menacing red eyes and sharp teeth, and has cannons mounted on its hip, which is smoking as well.
"Laserbeak and Ravage are right, this is no time to fight." Chef Pig said as he kneeled down to stroke and pet Ravage's head. "I appreciate the help, but both of your hands are supposed to be clean here, that's why I've sent them both to take care of this."
"Then why didn't you tell us if you already got the job done?!" Mercury shouted angrily.
"You didn't ask, and you didn't let us know where you are going, so how am I supposed to know you two will be going for a wasted trip?" Chef Pig retorted as he got up and petted Laserbeak next. "I prefer the lot of you to not think, but rather obey." He said as he pointed to Mercury, then Emerald, and lastly Torchwick. "If you think, you will steer towards the wrong path and that will lead to catastrophe. I'm sure none of you want to fail and disappoint your higher ups, because it won't be pretty…" He said as he gestured to Ravage, who went closer to Roman and gave a loud growl, showing its knife-like fangs, causing him to shiver slightly.
"Oh well, what's done is done. Now, we have things to do. Roman, I need you to meet me later, Ravage will guide you to a nearby airship that will take you to the meeting point. Don't worry, Ravage won't hurt if you don't do anything rash." Chef Pig said to Roman before turning around and headed towards an elevator. Leaving Roman with Ravage, who continued to look at Roman with its red eyes. "Stop staring and take me there!" Roman insisted as he took out his cigar. He was about to take out his lighter from his pocket, but he noticed that it was missing from his pocket. He looked around for it and saw Emerald holding it, who stuck her tongue at him as she walked away from him, causing Roman to groan in frustration.
As Chef Pig reached the higher floor of the warehouse, the elevator doors opened to reveal Cinder, looking at him with crossed arms. "What do you want?" Cinder said in an annoyed tone.
"You're going to need this." Chef Pig revealed as he passed her an envelope, in which she opened to reveal forged student IDs and transcripts for herself, Mercury, Emerald and a girl, all made by Chef Pig.
"The girl has potential, all of Salem's allies are too old for school, and you need to be in teams of four, so she's coming along."
"It's that why you needed me?" Cinder asked as she put the envelope away.
"One more thing, so what's the deal of trying to be a Fall Maiden? You give everyone free leaves or something?" Chef Pig asked with crossed arms and a quizzical glance.
Upon hearing this, Cinder's eyes flashed with anger as she lunged towards Chef Pig, but a loud caw and the sound of a laser that was ready to fire from Laserbeak stopped her in her tracks, her flaming fist an inch away from his nose, while Chef Pig watched with amusement.
"You watch your tone…" Cinder growled as she lowered down her fist, the flames on her fist dissipating just as Laserbeak powered down its weapon systems. "That power is more than what you think of, and it is rightfully mine." Cinder then went inside the elevator and pressed the button that would take her down. As the elevator doors began to close, Cinder took one last glare at him. "As powerful as that Maiden power sounds, never underestimate your enemies." Chef Pig warned as the elevator doors closed.
As Chef Pig heard the sounds of the elevator going down, he immediately snapped his fingers to get Laserbeak's attention. "Patch me through." Laserbeak nodded his head as he opened its beak as sounds of static filled the room until a voice answered the call.
"What's the progress of phase 2?"
"Everything at Mount Glenn is all ready for your arrival, boss. All of the Dust has been secured and we've got a cozy base waiting for you."
"Good, What about Phase 66?"
" and Hektor are already working on it, they wanted to ask you how many of those you would like to have."
"I want all of it."
"Gotcha, boss, I'll let them know. Over and Out."
What does Chef Pig mean with phase two and phase 66? Time will tell. Sorry for taking so long just to make a chapter, the food fight got me in a writer's block.
And what do you know, Chef Pig has Ravage and Laserbeak now. I wonder if he will make more cassette minions, if he does, what cassette minions would you think he would make? Feel free to comment! Until next time, folks!