A/N: Chapter 13 of REKT. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or teams of RWBY, those belong to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum. What I do own are the characters and teams of my OCs: REKT, GTSY, KACE and DAZE.
Special thanks to the reviewers and to the readers who Fav/Alert this story, I really appreciate it.
Chapter 13: Best Day Ever
Vale...
It was a beautiful morning and an older-looking gentlemen was busy reopening his shop after it was targeted and vandalized by the members of White Fang, in particular Roman Torchwick himself. Luckily for him Ruby was there at the right place at the right time to save his shop so he was really excited to open his doors once more after repairs finished.
"There!" He exclaimed after pinning up the banner, nodding his head with satisfaction. "Everything looks perfect!" While lowering himself down the ladder he felt someone bump into him from behind, causing him to lose his balance and he tumbled to the ground.
"Excuse me!" The shop owner looked up at the speaker, a young girl with medium-brown skin and dark red eyes. Her hair was a light, mint-green cut with a straight fringe and bangs, as well as two long locks on each side and in the back. There were two bronze-colored rings on her middle fingers and for her feet there was a pair of high-heeled shoes.
"Sorry! I'm not really from around here." Extending her hand, she helped him to his feet and held out a slip of paper. "Um, would you mind pointing me in the direction of this shop?"
"Hmmm?" The man took the item from the girl's hand and read over it from behind his glasses. He nodded his head in agreement. After giving her directions, the girl thanked him and walked away. When she came up to an alleyway she didn't see a young man leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"I knew you were lost." The man commented smugly, his eyes burning at her backside. He had gray eyes and similar colored hair that was partially slicked back while unkempt at the front. He had a gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket that covered his upper body. There was a single notched belt with a bandana draped around his waist while sets of rerebraces and vambraces lined his arms.
"Mercury!" The girl frowned at the sound of his voice, back-tracking her steps until she stood before him and waved wallet full of Lien in his face. "I will seriously pay you to shut up."
"That's not your money." The man known as Mercury shook his head with disappointment, not believing for a second that she honestly thought that she could bribe him with such petty thing.
"But it could be yours for five minutes of silence."
"Mmm...no deal." Mercury decided, amused and entertained at his comrade's frustrated expression.
"Hmph. Fine." The girl huffed with annoyance and turned on her heels, tossing the wallet aside but kept the money for herself.
"Whatever. You want me." Mercury laughed as he followed after her. "So how much further? A few blocks?" He released a sigh and glanced around with a bored look. "Uhh, this place is so dull."
"I kinda like it." The girl chuckled. "Tall buildings, diverse culture..."
"And nice dopey people who are easy to pickpocket." Mercury finished.
"That's every city." The girl reminded him, placing her hands on her hips.
"Oh Emerald!" Mercury said in a taunting voice, using extravagant hand gestures to piss her off even more. "Master Thief! Please don't take my money! I barely have enough to get by!"
"Tch." Emerald scowled at his teasing. She walked past him and made sure to bump his arm with her shoulder harshly.
"You're no fun today." Mercury pouted and the two of them found themselves entering their destination, a shop called Tukson's Book Trade. Books in neat stacks were strewn across the room haphazardly but luckily there was a pathway to the info desk. Proudly strolling forward Emerald pressed her hand on the bell a couple of times.
"Welcome to Tukson's book trade! Home to every book under the sun." A man, with clean cut hair and noticeable sideburns walked out from the back to address his costumers, carrying some more books in his arms. He was wearing a short-sleeved beige shirt with black accents and a zipper that was pulled down below his collarbone. A white undershirt could be seen and he had muscular hairy arms. "How may I be of assistance?"
"Just browsin'!" Mercury pipped up as he looked through a couple more books in a leisurely manner.
"Actually, I was wondering..." Emerald ignored her partner and made sure to get the store owner's attention on her. "Do you have any copies of The Thief and the Butcher?"
"Yes we do." Tukson replied pleasantly.
"That's great!" She exclaimed.
"Would you like a copy?" He asked, pulling out the said book from one of the many stacks.
"No no, just wondering. Oh! Oh!" Emerald lit up with excitement as if she thought of some grand idea. "What about Violet's Garden in paperback?"
"He's got it." Mercury interrupted, holding up both sets of the book in his hands. "Hardback too."
"Ooh, options are nice." She said with a nod of the head.
"Eeh, no pictures." The man frowned as he put the books down. "Hey! Do you have any comics?"
"Near the front." Tukson pointed in the direction with an arm gesture.
"Oh! No wait. What about Third Crusade?" Emerald pipped up and the atmosphere turned from curiosity to something along the lines of tense.
"Umm...I don't believe we carry that one." Tukson replied after thinking of an answer, prompting his two customers to question his slogan. "It's just a catchphrase."
"It's false advertising." Mercury shot back, getting a scowl from the store owner but he kept his voice calm and not riled up.
"You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson." Emerald said as Mercury dimmed the store lights much to the store owner's surprise. "I hear you're planning on leaving. Moving all the way to Vacuo. Your brothers wouldn't be happy to hear that. And neither are we. You know who we are, don't you."
"Yes." Tukson replied coldly with a stern gaze.
"And you know why we're here?"
"Yes." The store owner backed up slightly, gazing at the two before him.
"So. Are you going to fight back?" The girl asked. Stating the obvious answer, Tukson's retractable claws appeared and he jumped on top of the desk, his features becoming much more feral. Taking a swipe at the girl, he realized that she dodged his attack easily and Mercury followed suit with a kick.
"Heh." The man smirked before finishing off the Faunus without effort. Once the job was completed, the two of them calmly left the store without any trouble, leaving Tukson's cold body lying on the floor and pooling in his own blood.
"What's with that?" Emerald asked, noticing that there was a book in Mercury's hand.
"I like pictures." He replied simply, showing her that the book he took was indeed a comic book.
Beacon cafeteria...
"Whatcha doing?" Blake, startled by Yang's intrusive and nosy voice, stared at her teammate with huge golden eyes. Teams formed of returning students as well as some new faces were all clustered at random tables, excitedly chatting about what adventures are awaiting them in the new school year.
"Nothing." The Faunus replied, closing the book so Yang's prying eyes wouldn't see the contents. "Just going over notes from last semester."
"Lame!" The brawler laughed before glancing around for a bit. Jaune and his team were sitting not too far at another table while my team were stationed at another two tables down. Efram and Timber were chatting up a storm about something that I didn't find an interest to while Kairos stuffed her face. Somewhere after our first semester Timber out grew his stutters and felt extremely comfortable talking without a hitch.
"Ahem!" The three girls looked up as their leader, Ruby presented them with a giant white binder and gave them a wide grin. "Sisters! Friends! Weiss..."
"Hey!" The ice princess frowned when her name was singled out, getting a small chuckle from Blake.
"Four score and seven minutes ago," Ruby continued dramatically, ignoring her teammate for a minute. "I had a dream."
"This ought to be good." Yang teased in a low voice, looking intrigued by her sister's theatrical side.
"A dream that one day, the four of us would come together as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had, ever!"
"Did you steal my binder!?" Weiss snapped with a huff, lying eyes on the large object on the table.
"I am not a crook." Ruby replied, holding both hands up in the 'V' for victory poses.
"What are you talking about?" Blake asked, a little confused.
"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" The girl replied with a thumbs up.
"I always kick my semesters off with a Yang!" Yang looked around to see a range of expressions cross her teammates faces in regards to her pun. "Ehh?! Guys? Am I right?"
"...shut up Yang." Weiss sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with annoyance.
"Booooooo!" Nora, who heard the lame joke, threw a tomato at the brawler in response.
"Look guys, its 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!" Ruby stated happily. "But classes start back up tomorrow. Which is why I took the liberty of scheduling a series of wonderful events just for us!"
"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store for us." commented Weiss just as Yang ducked underneath the table to grab something. Standing up, she threw what looked like a green apple in Nora's direction before sitting back down.
"I don't know." Blake admitted to Weiss. "I think I might sit this one out."
"Sit out or not I think however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team." Weiss said with a small smile before standing up.
"I got it!" Nora's voice chirped, getting Yang and Blake's attention.
"I for one think that-" Weiss didn't get to finish her sentence because she got smacked by a flying pie, standing absolutely still with crust and juice dribbling down her face. Ruby, totally flabbergasted at what just happened, sat down and looked at where the pie came from. Nora had a shocked look on her face with her hand still stuck in the motion, Ren had his head down in the palm of his hand probably to hold in his laughter, Pyrrha had a hand over her mouth and Jaune was flat out speechless.
"Oops." Efram looked up mid-conversation just in time to see what had occurred, watching the orange-haired girl point a finger at Ren, trying to place blame on him. "Nora just pegged Weiss with pie."
"Does it look good on her?" Kairos asked.
"I...I think that was a bad move...on Nora's part." Timber added just as the temperature in the entire room dropped a couple degrees.
Outside the hall...
"Man, that's harsh..." A teenage boy with tan skin and dark blue eyes said as he walked through the campus grounds with Sun by his side. He had messy light blue hair that was shaved on the sides and in the back that went well with his attire. A white dress shirt and black tie under a red jacket with a wide, upturned collar on top while gray jeans and black shoes complemented his bottom half. He also sported black fingerless gloves and a pair of yellow-tinted goggles worn on his forehead as accessories.
"So then we were fighting side by side and she was super fast and I threw a banana at a guy." Sun was saying as he recounted his story of fighting Roman by the pier. "Which sounds gross, but it was awesome!"
"Nice!" His teammate smiled.
"Right!? And the best part is she's a Faunus!" Sun slapped a hand over his own mouth when he accidentally revealed too much. "But that's a secret okay Neptune!"
"Got it."
"And not a 'I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the moment Sun turns his back' secret. I'm talking secret secret!"
"Woah chill out man. It's okay I got it." Neptune laughed heartily, getting a very stern look from Sun. "I got it."
"You better." Sun jabbed at him and they continued walking towards the cafeteria hall. "I just don't wanna screw this up, ya know? The people here are the coolest...no offense to you guys."
"None taken."
"I'm really excited for you to meet them, so be cool okay?" The Faunus pleaded with him with a sparkling look in his eyes. "You're gonna be cool right?"
"Dude." Neptune struck a pose and smiled, flashing off his brilliant white teeth.
"Good point." Sun commented and together the two of them walked through the doors that led to the cafeteria...totally unprepared at what was happening. By now, Yang and Nora's food fight escalated to a full blown war and most of the students were busy evacuating the room to avoid flying projectiles. While there was a look of pure elation on the Faunus' face, Neptune had a look of pure shock.
"Ack! Nora!" Jaune yelped as he, Pyrrha and Ren were ejected out of their seats and thrown across the room in a matter of minutes.
"Ahahaha! I'm queen of the castle!" Nora proclaimed, standing on what looked like a fortress made out of tables. The rest of team JNPR picked themselves up and just decided to go along with the orange-hair's judgement for once.
"Justice will be swift!" Ruby stated boldly, holding a carton of milk in her hand as she pointed a finger at Nora. "Justice will be painful!" She crushed the carton in her hand, spewing the liquid everywhere.
"Who do you guys think will win?" I asked, the rest of my team sitting on the sidelines almost like a cheer squad...or commentators.
"How long do you think it'll take before one of the teachers will get here?" Kairos questioned, arms crossed over her chest.
"Which teacher will get here first by the time this charade is over?" Efram prompted.
"How about Ms. Goodwitch?" Timber offered and we all nodded our heads in solid agreement. "Ms. Goodwitch it is."
"It will be delicious!" The rest of team RWBY raised their fists in the air in agreement with their leader.
"Off with their heads!" Nora proclaimed as she hopped off of her pedestal, quoting the famous line dictated by the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Together, team JNPR launched a volley of mid-size watermelon across the room.
"Yang! Turkey!" Ruby ordered as the brawler quickly used a couple of cooked whole turkeys as boxing mitts, smashing them together like she does with Ember Celica before the start of every fight.
"You know, I wonder how Yang's weapon feels being a replacement for food products." Efram commented as Yang quickly went to work, falling back on quick jabs and a couple kicks to demolish the fruity assault. Using the brawler's back as a spring Blake somersaulted over her partner and grabbed two loaves of french bread off the floor, her golden eyes narrowed with focus.
"As much as how Gambol Shroud feels about being two loaves of starch." Kairos replied, watching the Faunus cut up the fruit with Yang by her side. Getting the last watermelon with an uppercut, Yang sent one of her turkey mitts flying and it smacked Jaune in the face, eliciting a yelp from the blond.
"Mmmm...great use of the food as a dangerous and flying projectile." I mused as Pyrrha got into a bread fight with Blake, both girls wielding the same starchy material. Managing to overpower the Faunus for a minute, the red-head used a couple more bread sticks as javelins and threw them at the other team.
"I got them!" Yang announced, ditching the remaining turkey mitt and just used her bare hands to break the food.
"Good going Yang!" Ruby said as she dashed across the long table in the middle of the room, kick flipping an empty tray and used it as a skateboard. Seeing the leader approach Pyrrha crossed both arms in front of her head as both Ruby and the tray slammed into her, knocking her off her feet.
"It's my turn!" Weiss grabbed a ketchup bottle and started twirling it over her head. Slamming it down onto the floor, a huge red tide washed across the floorboard and made Ren loose his balance. The poor guy fell flat on his back and probably has a red line going down his back. Somersaulting over a table, Nora sprang into action and made herself a watermelon hammer.
"Hiyah!" She screamed, blowing Ruby away and blocking Weiss' attack; the ice princess opted for a swordfish which was probably frozen since it wasn't all floppy like most fish were. The two of them were going at it strong before Nora blew Weiss away as well.
"Weiss! Weiss!" Ruby yelled, catching the white-haired princess in her arms. "Don't leave me!"
"I'll handle this Ruby!" Yang rushed past her screaming, overly dramatic sister and picked up two more turkey mitts. Regaining his balance, Ren rushed to intercept her with two leeks in his hand.
"Ooooo! That's gotta hurt!" Timber cringed when the blonde managed to knock Ren straight into the ground with a solid punch. However Nora didn't give the brawler a chance to catch her breath. The two went at it in a melee of blows before the orange-haired girl manage to smack Yang with her watermelon hammer, sending the brawler flying right through the roof of the cafeteria and out of sight.
"Jeez Nora, how hard did you hit her?!" Weiss exclaimed with horror, regaining her senses just in time to see Yang disappear.
"Now that's what I call a home run." Ruby giggled.
"Ruby!" The ice princess stared at the leader with a mystified expression. "That's your sister you're talking about!"
"Heehee...oopsies!" Nora chuckled, sticking her tongue out with embarrassment.
Oh dear. Blake thought before back flipping out of the way as ceiling debris fell to the ground. Grabbing a sausage-link, she sent Nora flying with one hit but was ambushed by Pyrrha who used her semblance to control a multitude of soda cans.
"Ooh, now you guys are in for it!" Ruby snapped as Blake disappeared underneath a ton of cans. Using her own semblance to aid her, she disappeared in a flash of rose petals and created a massive cyclone that sent team JNPR flying into the wall. Grinning the girl step sided out of the way as the leftover food followed suit and splattered the team in all sorts of color.
"Wooah..." I heard my teammates gasp before jotting down some mental notes and raising to their feet whooping and hollering for the winning team.
"I love these guys." Sun commented with happiness before glancing over at an irritated Neptune. Suddenly the doors flew open and Glynda Goodwitch stormed in, a look of horror crossed her face when she realized what a mess the cafeteria turned into. Food everywhere and the tables were in the wrong places. The members of team JNPR finished peeling themselves from the food stained wall while my team members were busy picking remnants of food out of each others hair.
"Uuuugh, I'm gonna smell like Grimm attraction for the rest of the week." Kairos muttered as she wiped some kind of sweet liquid out of her eyes. I just smirked and picked out a piece of watermelon lodged in my hair, tossing the fruit to the side. Feeling curious the Faunus used a finger to get a small sample of the liquid before using her tongue to taste it. "Strawberry juice...a classic."
"You're telling me." Neptune agreed, his face totally smothered by grape juice much to Sun's amusement. "Purple and I don't mix well together."
"Tch...you children...please do not play with your food." Waving her crop and letting out a disgruntled click of the tongue, Glynda returned everything back to normal before looking at us individually and noticed that someone was missing. "Where is Miss Xiao Long?"
"She left awhile ago." Ruby told her, helping Weiss wipe some pie off her face with a napkin. The ice princess proclaimed that she could wipe her own face and didn't want Ruby to baby her.
"What do you mean she left?" Glynda asked, prompting everybody involved in the food fight to point their index fingers to the ceiling. The teacher tilted her head up and noticed the Yang-sized hole, pinching the bridge of her nose with worry. "And when will she be coming back?"
"In about..." I tilted my head to the side and smiled. "3...2...1."
KA-BOOM!
"Waaah! I'm okay!" Yang's muffled voice spoke after she came back down from terminal velocity, landing right behind her teammates which threw more food particles up into the air. She grunted from the impact and sat up, noticing that Glynda was in the room. "Hiya!"
"You kids trashed this entire space!" The professor berated us, obviously frustrated that she had to clean up after our messes. "You almost put your fellow comrades in danger by initiating a...a...food war! What if someone ended up seriously hurt?!"
"Let it go." Ozpin appeared with a smile on his face.
"They're supposed to be the defenders of the world." Glynda stated as she looked at us still covered from head to toe in food.
"And they will be." The man assured her, watching as Ruby was laughing along with her sister. "But right now they're still children. So why not let them play the part?"
"Hmm..." Glynda thought about it before nodding her head in agreement.
"After all-it isn't a role they'll have forever." On that note, Ozpin turned on his heels and walked off. Even though he let us off without penalty Goodwitch didn't and everybody spent the rest of the day cleaning the cafeteria with nothing but toothbrushes. It was pure torture.
That night...
Back at an abandoned warehouse Emerald and Mercury returned from their adventures in town. All around them members of the White Fang were busy unloaded large crates filled with precious cargo but they continued walking until they were near the back of the room.
"Oh look, she sent the kids again." Roman commented teasingly when he noticed them. He had been observing a map of Vale for quite some time so peeling his eyes away from the piece of parchment paper was a relief. "This is turning out just like the divorce..."
"Ugh." Mercury gagged, slapping Roman away when the man wrapped around them in a hug. Smirking, Roman took the opportunity to take a slip of paper that was in Emerald's pocket. "Spare us the thought of you procreating."
"That's a joke. And this..." Roman stated as he walked away and looked at the piece of paper. "just might tell me where you two have been all day."
"What?" Emerald felt around to see that she had been robbed without knowing.
"I'm a professional sweetheart. Pay attention and maybe you'll learn something." Roman said, taunting her. He quickly scanned the paper and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Why do you have this address?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Emerald questioned, seeing that her question was getting underneath the man's skin.
"Yeah, I would." Roman growled, waving the piece of paper in her face. "Now where have you been all day?"
"Cleaning up your problems." Mercury stood next to his partner and answered the question. "One of them at least."
"I had that under control." Roman replied stiffly, much to the gray-haired man's disbelief expression.
"Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale states otherwise." Mercury teased with a straight face.
"Listen you little punk. If it were up to me and your little street-rat friend here, and I would-"
"Do what, Roman?" A voice asked and the squabbling trio looked up to see Cinder descending from a lift, her golden eyes gazing at them impassively.
"I'd uh...not kill them?" The man stutters in response while Mercury just smirked.
"Cinder!" Emerald said with happiness as the woman approached them, her heels clicking against the tile floor of the warehouse.
"I thought I made it clear that you were to eliminate the would-be runaway." Cinder said, criticizing Roman who stated that he was going to do just that.
"He was going to escape to Vacuo." Emerald told her. "Mercury and I decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat."
"I think he was some sort of cat to be honest." Mercury said.
"What? Like a puma?" Emerald asked.
"Yeah, there you go."
"Be quiet." Cinder frowned at their little chatter. "Did I not specifically instruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?"
Hehehe...serves you kiddies right. Roman thought with a smirk on his face as the woman criticized the kids, holding his sides in mocking laughter.
"I just thought-"
"Don't think." Cinder interrupted her as Roman drew an imaginary line across his neck, letting his tongue hang out as if he had been decapitated. "Obey."
"Yes ma'am." Emerald apologized while Mercury looked aloof, staring at something other than the woman that was scolding him. "It won't happen again."
"Good. And you..." Cinder nodded her head and returns her attention to Roman who couldn't contain his laughter anymore. One smoldering look from her stopped his laugh right then and there. "Now explain yourself, why wasn't this job done sooner?"
"Ahem...Uhh...eh? Ehhh?" He pointed to his left and right, indicating the mounds of cardboard boxes as well as the stacks that reached up to the ceiling. "EHHHHHHHHHH!? Sorry if I've been a little busy stealing every speck of Dust in the kingdom!"
"You're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski-mask." Mercury spoke in a monotonous voice, causing Emerald to laugh under her breath. Basically he was comparing Roman to a common thief.
"Look around, kid. I've got this town running scared." Roman countered, pointing his cane at him. "Police camping out at every corner. Dust prices through the goddamn roof. And we're sitting pretty in an old warehouse with more Dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with."
Whoop-dee-doo...the two kids thought in unison.
"Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn't mind filing me in on your grand-master plan, it might actually make my next string of robberies go a little smoother." Roman couldn't help but let a little bite in his tone slip out, letting them know how mildly frustrated he was.
"Oh Roman. Have a little faith." Cinder said sweetly, stepping forward to brush her delicate fingers against his cheek. "You'll know what you need when you need to know it." Her eyes suddenly glowed like a burning fire, gazing deep into Roman's own brown orbs.
"Eh...okay." He agreed and decided not to argue with her.
"Besides, we're done with Dust." The woman added, removing her hand from his face.
"Okay. Then what now?" Roman asked as Mercury and Emerald shared a look.
"We're moving. Have the White Fang clear out this building." Cinder ordered as she walked away, her dress flowing out behind her like some magical cape. "I'll send you details and coordinates tonight."
"Coordinates?" The man asked, causing Cinder to pause mid-stride and turn to look at him with a smirk of her own.
"We're proceeding to phase two." With that the woman vanished with Mercury on her heels. Releasing a sigh Roman placed a cigar in his mouth and moves to light it, only to see that the lighter was nowhere on him. Looking up he scowled at the retreating thief.
"Teehee." Emerald giggled, twirling the stolen lighter between her fingers. Turning around she stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared behind Cinder and Mercury, leaving a frustrated Roman in the dust.
