Chapter 7

Over the course of the next few weeks, the turtles had been enjoying their time off from school. Leonardo continued to see Pyrrha for Aura training, almost every day in fact, Raphael kept busy in the sparring gym or going out and doing something reckless with Yang, Michelangelo spent his time playing video games or reading comic books with Ruby and Jaune, while Donatello's time was mostly spent in the library, in his makeshift lab, or pestering Weiss for any information on Dust that he could get out of her (or, even more rarely, some samples). Leonardo was strict in making sure the brothers were not behind on their training, keeping their senses sharp with midnight runs through the city of Vale. However, classes were soon going to be starting up again, so the turtles were currently sitting in the cafeteria with their friends from teams RWBY and JNPR.

At the lunch table, the three teams were sitting down, team JNPR sitting at a table across from RWBY, and the boys were sitting just a small ways down from RWBY's table. Donnie was busy writing down some notes as Mikey joined Yang in catching food tossed by Nora. At least, he was when he wasn't scarfing down a slice of pizza, a discovery that had brought joy to the four brothers. Raphael and Leonardo were busy picking away at their own food when Leo looked over at Donnie.

"So, whatcha got there Donnie?" Leonardo asked. Donnie looked up and smiled.

"Oh this, it's just some research I've been going over ever since our little incident at the docks a few weeks back." Donatello stated, picking up the notebook to show Leonardo. "It's those weird swords that they were armed with. Our local White Fang expert back there said that she had never seen the White Fang use such weapons before, and that she had no idea how they'd go about getting such special equipment."

"Didn't ya tell us they could like fire electricity or somethin'?" Raph asked Donnie as he looked up. The brainiac nodded.

"Indeed. On the one artifact I was able to... appropriate before the police showed up, I noticed that it had Dust chambers built into it with Lightning Dust particles. However, that was where it stopped making sense. The shock-waves and tremors that they caused didn't match anything I've seen before, at least not on Remnant. I'll admit I've never seen some of the more advanced stuff like what the Kingdom of Atlas is supposed to have, but that still begs the question of why they had them."

"Or how..." Leonardo said, as at the end of the table, Ruby slammed down a book, motioning towards her team, JNPR, and LMDR.

"Sisters... friends... Weiss..." Ruby said, of which only Mikey was paying attention. Raphael looked over.

"So what yer sayin' is dat it don't make no sense that some thugs should be gettin' dis high tech firepower but do anyways? Don't that seem familiar..." Raph stated. Donatello nodded.

"Exactly. How they're getting them is just boggling me. Although I am pretty sure that it probably has something to do with all of the recent Dust robberies." Donnie suggested. Leo nodded.

"True... it seems like we can't go out to the city without running into the aftermath of a robbery... or attempted robbery." Leo stated, to which Raph smirked as he thought about the few times they came across an active robbery.

"Exactly. If there's one silver lining to those its that they must not all have these special weapons, so they probably save them for the big heists." Donnie mused.

"Or maybe it was a test drive..." Leonardo suggested, even as next to them, Yang angrily threw an apple at JNPR's table.

"That worries me as well." Donatello stated, nodding grimly at his brother.

"Despite having stopped the robbery, we kinda proved that these weapons work. We can only really hope that after our little battle they still don't have the resources to make them." Donnie stated. Raphael stood up, crossing his arms, while behind his back Michelangelo was sticking his tongue out at team JNPR.

"Yeah, or we can stop messin' around and try lookin' for a way to make sure dey can't-" The hothead's words were cut off when he felt a cool, hard splat impact the back of his head. Seeing liquid running down the back of his neck, his two brothers looked up, staring wide eyed with shocked expressions... and a hint of fear. The red bannered turtle turned around slowly, his whole body tensed as he was seething. Looking around, he saw Mikey standing there, shaking in his shell.

"Um... look, Raph I know how it looks... but they did it..." Mikey said, pointing his finger across at JNPR's table. Their facial expressions were all it took to indicate their guilt: Pyrrha and Jaune had wide eyed shock, Ren was facepalming with pure disappointment, while Nora nervously pointed at Ren. Raphael was steaming, fists clenched as he stared across at them.

"Alright ya bozos, ya really done it now!" He angrily stated, reaching behind him and grabbing the pie tin and what was left of the desert. However, before a retaliatory strike could be thrown, he heard the voice of a certain white haired elite.

"Hmmph, how childish..." It wasn't exactly clear if Weiss was talking to whoever threw the pie, Raphael, or both, but with Raphael already in the mood he was in it didn't matter. Turning to her, he stormed right over.

"Oh ya think so, huh Ice Queen?! Maybe I should show ya how "childish" I can really be!" Raphael threatened, holding up the pie tin. Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, as if you would actually-" She was cut off by the white splat that engulfed her head, Raph smirking dangerously as he held it on her face. Behind the two, the rest of team RWBY widened their own eye, staring at them. For a second, tension filled the air, as all three teams had their eyes glued on to Raph and Weiss. No one was truly aware of what had happened, only one thing was for certain.

A war had been started.

The next few minutes escalated so fast that Leonardo and Donatello could hardly believe it, watching things spiral out of control at impossible speeds. For starters, almost immediately after the showdown between Raphael and Weiss started Michelangelo leapt on top of the table, declared a food fight, and began tossing food. Leonardo and Donatello had been midly amused, figuring Mikey would be the one to start a food fight.

But it did not stop there.

Things quickly escalated beyond reason. The entire cafeteria was embroiled, and it got more heated, to the point were someone, probably Raph or Nora, even used poor Jaune as a projectile. They had started to get concerned when things got to that stage... however in no time Nora had managed to stack a large number of tables up into her own pseudo castle, with her teammates guarding their self proclaimed "Queen of the Castle." That's when the vast majority of the students ran from the cafeteria, leaving just the three teams.

Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello stood near the back of the cafeteria, next to the no man's land between the cackling tyrant team JNPR and the resisting team RWBY. Leonardo looked out as team JNPR launched a barrage of watermelons at their foes.

"Alright... I'm officially lost." Leonardo stated.

"Ditto." Donnie added, while Raph smirked.

"I dunno either, but I'm likin' it!" He said, cracking his knuckles. Near them they saw Yang rush in, forcing her fists into two turkeys and charging ahead, smashing through them as if they were boxing gloves. Mikey grinned.

"Well come on, Leo you always say we should find training in everything we do... so lets do it!" He exclaimed, looking down. On his plate next to some half eaten pizza slices were some bread-sticks that he'd made sure had cheese in them earlier. He bent down and grabbed two, breaking them in half. Sure enough, some gooey cheese held them together. Adding a little aura to the whole thing he had his impromptu nunchucks. Grinning he charged in, swirling them around. Raph smirked and reached down, grabbing a pair of spoons.

"Heh... never thought I'd use you again." He said, before flipping over a table and charging in as well. Behind him, Leonardo and Donatello looked at each other. They both shrugged before leaping to join in.

Ahead of Leonardo, he saw Yang launch her turkeys at Jaune, knocking him back. Grinning Leo leapt headfirst towards them, reaching down to grab the drumsticks. Yanking them off, he spun them around. He saw his first targets: Blake and Pyrrha, who were locked in a bitter baguette stalemate. Leaping into the air, he brought his twin drumsticks down onto both their baguettes, smirking as he landed.

"Hello ladies." He taunted, before swinging his legs up and kicking them both out, knocking the two back, before he leapt down in between them. That proved to be a mistake as the two both charged him at once, Pyrrha stabbing out with incredible speed while Blake swing both sticks at him. He blocked Pyrrha's blow, but Blake knocked him back, Leonardo landing on his shell. Groaning a bit as he got up, he turned around to see Ruby skating across the tables on a tray, before leaping up and landing on Pyrrha, kicking off her, which knocked the red-headed warrior right into Leo.

Michelangelo rushed to his brother's aid, swirling his nunchuck breadsticks as he did. As he charged towards Leo, Nora and Ren rushed in behind the blue clad turtle as well. Mikey leaped up, bringing a foot down towards Ren, who nimbly dodged it, but didn't dodge the strike from Mikey's spinning weapon. However as he did that, Nora leaped up and kicked off his shell into the air, grabbing a metal rod from the ceiling, breaking it off, and impaling it into a watermelon, granting her a hammer. Mikey groaned and took a small bite off the tip of his weapon.

Grinning, the redheaded tyrant charged forward, before being stopped by several cracker shurikens impaling into her melon head. Turning around, she smirked as she saw her challenger, Donatello. The brainiac threw several handfuls, all of which Nora blocked with her handle, before getting in close. Thrusting, she smashed right into Donnie's stomach. Just as he was barreling over, she brought the end up with enough force to send the purple turtle flying up into the air. Smirking, Nora jumped up and swung her hammer around and smashed it right onto Don, sending the turtle crashing to the ground. He groaned, and laid there as the bruiser marched off, looking for a new opponent.

At the same time, Michelangelo found himself at the business end of a swordfish, wielded by Weiss herself. Weiss was fast... very fast, even for the speedy turtle. Mikey was just barely able to keep up, and kept on the defensive, forcing her weapon away from his body. At one point he smirked as he wrapped one of his breadsticks around her swordfish's "sword," pulling it away from her, and yanking the whole thing out of her hands. Grinning, Mikey then delivered a devastating series of blows at her, sending Weiss tumbling back. Mikey cheered and took a bite of his breadstick... before getting a boot to the face, courtesy of Ren.

Near the center of the room, Yang returned to the fray, rolling into the turkeys so they wrapped around her fists. She looked up, and saw her own opponent charging towards her as well: Raphael. Smirking, Yang threw a punch, which he blocked with his spoons. The two stared each other down for a moment.

"So let's see what ya got now, and make sure ya ain't just talk." Raph taunted, before forcing her fist down, and swinging a leg up to connect with her face. However, when her fist was forced down, she brought it back up, right into the turtle's chest, knocking him back, and giving her enough space to launch another punch out, connecting with the hot head's face. Groaning a bit, Raph spat and turned back, still smirking.

"That da best ya got?" He said, charging in and leaping over Yang, swinging a spoon down, which was blocked. Once landing he crouched, and swung a leg out, catching Yang's, she fell backward, and pushed off the floor with her hands, aiming at Raph. However Raph just leaped up into midair, and threw a leg down, knocking her on her back.

"Gotta say Yang, I'm a bit disappointed." He said, twirling his spoon. Yang shot up and with a smirk, threw an uppercut right into Raph, knocking the surprised turtle up and back. Now that seemed like a good move on Yang's part... until of course the watermelon hammer strike that had been aimed for Raph instead connected into her, launching Yang high up into ceiling, smashing through it in fact. Nora looked down at her now headless hammer, but she didn't have long to mourn, as a certain prankster landed down on the tip, wrapping his legs around it.

"Yoink!" Mikey said swinging it, and Nora, back, launching the two away into a vending machine. Looking up he smirked and saw Blake. Leaping at her, he kicked his leg out, which Blake nimlby dodged, cartwheeling away, and grabbing a chain of linked sausages as she did. Mikey smirked and brought up his own weapons... but saw Blake look back with confusion. Looking back at them, Mikey's own eyes widened, and he let out a quick scream as he saw that he'd actually eaten them down to just the "handles". Looking up he chuckled nervously, backing away with his hands raised. Blake smirked and threw the end of her sausage chain at the turtle, wrapping around him. Letting out another scream, Mikey was flung about, smashing into the ground, wall, pillar, and finally launched into Ren, the two tumbling to the ground.

Blake smirked as she saw her opponents land on the ground... before a drumstick to the back of the head reminded her that she wasn't alone. Groaning and stumbling back, Blake looked up to see Leo smirking as he spun his drumsticks.

"Hey there, remember me?" He stated cockily, before charging in. Blake swung her sausage up, lashing out and around. However Leonardo was quick and nimble, ducking and dodging, leaping head over shell over the links, and finally landing on top of it, wrapping it around his foot. Leaping back, Leonardo pulled on the chain, launching Blake towards him, and bringing his weapons down onto her. Groaning, she flipped back just in time to dodge Leonardo's turkey legs, as he stabbed them down. Leaping over the leader turtle, Blake got into a combat stance... before an explosion of soda erupted right in between the two, throwing them both back. Looking back, the two saw Nora was throwing soda cans that were fizzed up hard enough to break open, throwing their near bursting contents about. The two rushed off in different directions, nimbly dodging and leaping over the makeshift grenades.

Raphael meanwhile sat back up, grabbing his spoons as he looked around. It seemed like half of the team was down, while Leo was on the run from Nora's grenades. Grimacing, Raphael realized the situation was a lot bleaker then he'd been expecting it to get. However he stopped himself from blindly charging in when he saw Pyrrha look around at a group of discarded soda cans. Slamming a hand onto the ground, all of the cans nearby started levitating... then they began launching. The soda cans started focusing on Blake at first, then a massive wave of them crashed into her, sending Blake back near the entrance of the cafeteria. Raph saw Pyrrha look at Leonardo with a smirk, and that's when he made his move.

"'Scuse me, can't let ya do that!" He said, leaping up and batting at her head with his spoons, before flipping back and catching her chin with his foot. Leaping off and back-flipping to land next to Leonardo, the two got back to back.

"Things are looking pretty dicey. Mikey and Donnie are down, while we still got Nora, Pyrrha, and Ruby out there." Leonardo assessed.

"Good, never liked it easy, no fun." Raph said, twirling his spoons.

"I'm thinking we should take on Pyrrha and Nora now, they're da bigga threat here." Raph suggested, as he aimed his spoons at the two.

"Maybe, but Ruby-" Leo stated, before stopping and tapping his brother's shoulder. "Raph, Ruby's up to something."

Sure enough, the small leader of team RWBY was looking at her four remaining opponents. Then she seemed to kneel down... then kicked off in a burst of speed. She ran so fast that all of the debris, cans, and food on the ground were quickly picked up by the wind she left behind. Looking up, Leonardo widened his eyes.

"Ah shell, RUN!" He shouted, dropping his drumsticks so he could dash in the opposite direction, Raph following him. It didn't matter however, as Ruby blasted by the two in a blur, her winds picking them up and swirling them around. As Ruby ran, she also picked up the two other brothers, as well as all of team JNPR. Stopping right next to the opposite wall, she crashed into the wall, leaving a crater. Next, the two teams each smashed into the wall, while Ruby leaped up. The four brothers could only look up and see the massive amounts of wind, food, and various fluids rushing towards them, splattering, smashing, and coating them in a thick layer of food. After what felt like an eternity, Ruby finally landed, the eight others slowly following her to the ground. Mikey groaned as he sat up, trying to wipe off what he could, and looking back towards the entrance. There stood Sun and someone else, covered in purple stuff.

"Hey... when'd he get-" Mikey started, before the doors slammed open, revealing a very angry Glynda Goodwitch, who stormed into the room. Mikey screamed and crawled back, trying to find somewhere to hide, grabbing onto one of the upturned tables. Glynda aimed her riding crop out at the mess, and most of the tables started flying up, all slowly being reorganized into their individual places. The final table bumped and tumbled into its spot.

Glynda glared down at the turtle who was still hanging onto it. Mikey gulped and nervously waved up at her, before slowly letting go and slinking away. Glynda sighed and addressed everyone else.

"Children, please! Do NOT play with your food." She said, readjusting her glasses. The only response she got from the eleven there was a fairly large burp from Nora, then a crash as Yang finally returned. This caused chuckles to erupt from the teams, especially among Yang, Ruby, Mikey, and Nora. Leo sighed, and smiled sheepishly, but still happy from this, getting to let loose and have a good bit of fun. He grinned as he thought of how he was glad for these moments, hoping they'd last until they returned home.

Meanwhile, later that evening on the outskirts of the industrial sector of Vale, a lone warehouse sat abandoned... or so it seemed. Walking towards it were two teenagers, each entering inside to find not an abandoned warehouse, but a lively headquarters for the local White Fang. Inside, the members were scurrying about, unloading and stacking crates and boxes filled with stolen Dust. However, that was not the object of the two teens' interest.

The two were a tall, thin, gray haired teen with thick boots, long black pants, and a long sleeved gray and black shirt, the other a green haired, dark skinned girl with long white and brown pants, a fairly small green and white top, and two revolvers resting on the back of her hips.

Walking in, they passed by numerous members of the White Fang, ignoring them as they marched to the man they wanted to see... Roman Torchwick. He turned to them, and flashed a non-sincere smile as he walked up to them.

"Oh, look, she sent the kids again! This is turning out just like the divorce." Roman said sarcastically, wrapping his arms around his partners Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai from behind. The two shuddered, and pulled out from behind them.

"Ugh, spare us the thought of you procreating." Emerald stated with disgust, as Roman walked between the two.

"That was a joke. And this..." Roman said, pulling out a piece of paper. "just might tell me where you two have been all day."

"What?!" Emerald gasped, reaching back into her back pocket, discovering that the piece of paper she had left back there was in fact missing.

"I'm a professional, sweetheart, pay attention maybe you'll learn something." However, his playfully sarcastic tone quickly darkened as he read the note. "Why do you have this address?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Emerald retorted.

"Yeah, I would. Now where have you been all day?" Roman demanded more then asked.

"Cleaning up your problems. One of them, at least." Mercury snarked.

"I had that under control." Roman growled as he looked down on Mercury.

"Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale says otherwise." Mercury retorted, unphased.

"Listen, you little punk. If it were up to me, then I would take you, the tin can, and your little street rat friend here and I would-" Roman snarled, before being interrupted by a smooth, silky voice.

"Do what, Roman?" The voice questioned from above. All three looked up to see their boss standing up their. In a flowing, dark red dress with black flowing hair and piercing amber eyes the bored right into Roman's. The platform she was on lowered, and Roman backtracked, returning to a nervous tone.

"Ah hah I'd uh... not kill them?" He suggested warily. Emerald smiled as she saw her descend, running up to her.

"Cinder!" Emerald said as their boss, Cinder Fall, strutted forward, past the advancing Emerald.

"I thought I made it clear that you would eliminate the would-be runaway." Cinder said, still smooth but also with a sharp edge to it.

"I was going to-" Roman tried again, much more fearfully then before, but he was interrupted.

"He was going to escape to Vacuo! Mercury and I decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat." Emerald said, smirking as she proudly exclaimed to her superior as Mercury joined her. However, they were cut short.

"Quiet. Did I not specifically instruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?" Cinder said with the same sharp tone to her voice. Behind her, Roman took the opportunity to gloat.

"I just thought..." Emerald started, now nervous.

"Don't think... obey." Cinder ordered.

"Yes ma'am. It won't happen again." Emerald sighed, nodding slowly. At that point, Cinder turned back to Roman, who's cocky attitude vanished just as quickly as it appeared.

"And you." At this point her voice immediately turned very dangerous. "Why wasn't this job done sooner?"

At this point, Roman had had enough with being interrupted, and so he spoke with a lot more bite in his words, as he pointed out the massive crates all around the warehouse, stacked to the ceiling.

"Sorry if I've been busy stealing every speck of Dust in the Kingdom!" Roman countered. At that moment, another voice interrupted his, and the owner of said voice made Roman clench his fists and eyes shut.

"Ah yes, you have been much too busy with your barbaric robberies, I can certainly see. I mean, it's not like you could possibly have done them any better or faster, or if you'd just listen to my brilliant ideas." Stepping forward, Dr. Baxter Stockman finally made his appearance.

"I apologize that I'm late to this little impromptu meeting, but unlike some of us here I was actually doing my job and working on designs for those robberies." Stockman gloated, smirking as he held himself up high.

"Well, speaking of the tin can, look who decided to show up. And might I say, despite being up on that marvelously advanced high horse you built yourself, it seems that you, among most of us here, are missing the big picture, I've got this town on its hands and knees. Police camping out at every corner, Dust prices through the roof, and we're sitting pretty on an old warehouse with more Dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with!" Roman stated, to which Stockman rolled his eyes.

"So you keep saying. Despite the fact that your most successful robberies were only because of my technology, and my research. While... well, we saw several weeks ago what your blundering causes on its own." Stockman said with a smirk.

"Yes that's all very marvelous, but you made my job significantly more difficult. Maybe if I was let in on your grand master plan, it might make my next string of robberies go a little smoother!" Roman stated a bit bitterly. Cinder decided to step in at this point to avoid yet another verbal argument between the two egos.

"Oh, Roman. Have a little faith. You'll know what you need when you need to know it." Cinder said softly, placing a hand on his cheek. At that point Roman could feel her hand heating up, and saw the glow in her eyes. Roman knew when to fold, so he broke their gaze with a grunt, relenting. Cinder smirked and turned around.

"Besides, we're done with Dust." Cinder confirmed, leaving Roman confused.

"Okay... then now what?" He asked, hoping this next assignment would get him farther away from his "team".

"We're moving. Have the White Fang clear out this building. Stockman will send you details and coordinates tonight. Stockman, you will remain with the previously discussed staff to continue working on your little projects." She ordered.

"While incredibly generous, I do have to say that despite the Dust robberies, I still lack fundamental resources to go beyond the prototype phase. I assume that means you'll be fixing that shortly?"

"Don't worry Stockman, our new location will have plenty of those. Besides, it'll also have some... relics that should prove useful to your research." Cinder confirmed as she walked off.

Roman looked over to Stockman, confused.

"We're moving onto the next phase of the plan." Stockman confirmed, as Emerald and Mercury followed Cinder. The mad genius smiled and leaned towards Roman.

"Also, what a shame. Seems someone almost got burned because he wanted to know something that was above his pay grade. How humiliating." He smirked, to which Roman sighed and turned back.

"Oh I guess you of all people would know what it's like to get burned." He stated, looking up and down Stockman's body. As he strutted away, Stockman was visibly seething.

"Yes I do... but that's not going to happen again. That's never going to happen to the brilliant Dr. Baxter Stockman again." Stockman muttered to himself as he stormed back to his station.

Author's Note: Well...um wow...over a month since my last update. Um...well I can only say I'm sorry for that. With school having come up shortly after my last update, there was preparing for school,, then there was actually going too school, then there was just all sorts of miscellaneous issues that kept sucking away my free time, I can only say I'm sorry. I guess I was lucky that I was able to get out the final chapter of Volume 1 before it happened. I'm hoping that following updates will come out sooner, but thank you for being patient with me! It means a lot.