Chapter 8

It was a quiet day in the library of Beacon Academy. Inside this library, there sat two different tables, with twelve familiar faces all huddled around it. At one table five students all sat around a board game with small miniature soldiers battling across a map of Remnant, while the four girls of Team RWBY on each side held a deck of cards. Meanwhile, next to a certain Ice Queen, the orange bandana of Michelangelo collected the nervous sweat he was secreting.

"Look... Weiss, I'm telling you, if you'd just play-"

"And I'm telling you, I don't need your help!"

"Weiss c'mon, you're killing me! You're so close, and I promise you could end the game if you-"

"No, I am perfectly capable of taking care of Vacuo on my own!" Weiss stated, as Ruby raised her hand.

"Um... it's my turn anyways." Ruby said, before clearing her throat then dramatically pointing to her sister. "Yang Xiao Long, prepare your Kingdom for battle!"

"Bring it on!" The cocky blonde shouted dramatically, as her younger sister smirked.

"I play, the Atlasian Airfleet!" Ruby triumphantly decreed as she laid down the card, to the shock of Yang and Michelangelo.

"No way, Ruby! Ah shell... Weiss, this is not looking good for your kingdom!" Mikey said nervously as he looked over her hand, much to the heiress' displeasure. However, that was not the end just yet.

As Ruby basked in the assured destruction of her sister's kingdom, Yang smirked cockily, raising her own card.

"Pretty sneaky... but now you've activated my trap card!" She declared triumphantly, revealing it to the utter surprise of Mikey and Ruby. "Giant Nevermore!"

"How the shell... oh man, that's risky dude. But, it could alter the course of history itself!" Mikey declared dramatically. "It's a total coin toss on who is ruined..." Mikey continued, staring over at Yang's side of the table, eager to see how it would end up, and what the future of Remnant would hold.

As Yang's victorious roll created a wail of anguish from Ruby and a cheer from Michelangelo, his brothers sat with Team JNPR at the next table, all doing their own thing.

Donatello was in fact reading a collection of science textbooks, Dust manuals, and his Scroll as he wrote down in his notebook religiously. Leonardo was meditating in his seat, his own book on Aura and Semblances in front of him to occasionally take a look at. And the fourth turtle, Raphael, was laying his head on the table in front of a bunch of homework he really did not feel like doing. It was of course made worse by the fact that next to him Nora Valkyrie was napping without a care in the world.

Groaning, Raph took another look at his older brother, and seeing that he was deep in meditation, he tried closing his eyes to get some more rest... only to have said older brother smack the back of his head before resting a finger back on Raph's work, much to the frustration of the hot headed turtle.

Back at the bitter war for the planet, Ruby was laying on the table, tears streaming from her eyes as she could only give a halfhearted anguished "Noooo..." Mikey looked over the table, before turning to Weiss.

"Okay Weiss, that turn really helped in knocking Ruby substantially back, and left Yang wide open. However, her Smuggler's of Wind Path card is going to make things really tricky and-are you even listening?!" Mikey shouted right at her when he noticed her eyes had a glossy look as she stared into her deck.

She jolted up at the sudden volume, looking around.

"I uh... I have no idea what's going on." Weiss admitted as Mikey facepalmed and groaned loudly into his hand. However Yang slid over to her.

"Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus." Yang explained, as Weiss rolled her eyes.

"That sounds dumb." She complained. Mikey looked over.

"Hey, what's the enemy doin-" However he was interrupted as Yang started going through Weiss' hand.

"See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... oh, oh! Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Airfleet and put it in your hand!" Yang shouted cheerfully, as Mikey realized that Weiss was actually listening to her.

"Weiss... are you actually listening to your rival when you've been ignoring me this whole time?!" Mikey exclaimed, dumbfounded.

"And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" She offered, then turned her finger darkly at the Ice Queen. "Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war."

"Which means…?" Weiss asked, still somewhat lost. Mikey sighed and looked over.

"Well, theoretically, you'd be three moves from conquering Remnant, although it'd have been less if you'd listened to me, but I'd think more on it, as Yang told you, so who knows what she's-" Unfortunately the first half of his advice was all Weiss that listened to as she started laughing manically.

"Yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms-" However she was interrupted by the casual rebuttal from Yang.

"Trap card." Weiss could only look on with confusion as Yang rearranged the board in her favor. "Your armies have been destroyed!"

With that said and done, the table shook as Mikey's head crashed into it, groaning with defeat.

"If it's alright with you all, I think it's time I called for a revolt, as clearly our current leader is too incompetent for the job." Mikey's muffled voice came out.

As the three whimpering messes tried to console each other over their loss in political power, Yang cheerfully turned to the final remaining player, Blake Belladonna.

"Alright Blake, you're up!" Yang cheerfully stated.

"Oh, um, sorry, what am I doing?" Blake asked, jolting back int the real world.

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the Kingdoms of Remnant!" Yang reminded her cheerfully.

"Right." Blake said softly. At that moment, Jaune grew tired of studying and walked over to the assembled table.

"Hey! Can I play?" He asked eagerly.

"Sorry Jaune, we've already got four people." Ruby declined apologetically.

"Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt that you possess." Weiss derided haughtily. At hearing that, Mikey's head shot up as he glared at Weiss.

"Did you of all people say that? Ignoring this latest blunder, just two turns ago you attacked your own naval fleet!" Mikey shouted to the annoyance of Weiss.

"Seriously, I could be a better leader, Jaune could be a better leader... a ficus could be a better leader!" Mikey groaned as he stood up. "Why not let an Arc dynasty reign for a bit, the Schnee dynasty has only led to great ruin for the Kingdom of Vacuo!"

However before a scathing retort from Weiss could come forward, a new voice interrupted everyone.

"Sup losers." Came the cool voice of Sun. Looking up, everyone could see that Sun and that blue-haired kid he was with the other day as they walked up to them.

"Oh, its Sun..." Mikey groaned as he sat back in his seat. Sun smirked and looked over at everyone else.

"Ruby, Yang, Blake, Mikey... Ice Queen." He greeted the five there while waving over at everyone else.

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" Weiss demanded with indignation. Across the table, Raph rolled his eyes.

"Gee, I wonda why..."

"I never got the chance to formally introduce you to my old friend." Sun continued, turning to the blue haired boy, who was looking down at the board game.

"Uh, aren't libraries for reading?" He asked. At that, Ren threw his hands up, having been trying to do so with varying degrees of success.

"Thank you!" He exclaimed, while next to him Donnie nodded.

"That and studying... quiet, focused studying." The brainiac turtle added. Sun rolled his eyes and turned to his friend.

"Shut up, don't be a nerd." He said, as Donnie raised an eyebrow at hearing that.

"Ah ah ah, intellectual, okay? Thank you." The boy clarified, before turning to the group. "I'm Neptune."

"Intellectual, I like it." Donnie nodded at Neptune.

"Nah Don... you're still a nerd." Raph teased his brother. However, it was clear that Donnie wasn't the only one appreciating Neptune's appearance.

"So where are you from Neptune?" Weiss asked, the sting out of her voice, especially as he smoothly walked over to her.

"Haven. And I don't believe I caught your name, Snow Angel." He said smoothly, with a clear effect on her.

"Um... Weiss." She said slowly, looking up at Neptune, while Jaune in the background couldn't believe he was seeing this. Meanwhile, Sun was over at the table, looking down at Blake.

"I never took you as the board game playing type." Sun said, as Blake looked up at him and the rest of the table. Looking down, she stood up and pushed past everyone else.

"Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually. See you guys later." She said moodily as she walked off. Everyone watched her walk off, until Mikey jolted into her seat and grabbed her hand.

"Alright Ice Queen, you've mocked my tactics long enough! Now you'll learn to fear me!" Mikey said as he glared hungrily at the table.

Across at the other table, Leo opened his eyes and looked over at his brothers. He sighed and stretched his arms. He saw how Raph was barely able to stay awake, Donnie had his nose buried in his work farther then he'd seen in a long time, and Mikey was... being a bit more Mikey than usual.

"You know, I think we've been cooped up too much lately. How about tonight we go for a little midnight run." Leo suggested with a grin on his face, one matched by his hotheaded brother.

As the sun set over the city of Vale, on one particular building stood three mutant ninja turtles looking out as the lights of the city came on to illuminate the streets in the sun's absence. As the shadows descended, the three brothers were pacing around on the rooftop. Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo were all there, waiting for their red brother.

"Where is Raphael?" Leonardo asked, growing a bit impatient. "He was the one most eager to go after I suggested it."

Mikey looked back to his brother.

"Well we had an... idea so to speak, so that's probably what's holding him up." Mikey confirmed, to which Leonardo only had further questions.

"Wait... you and Raph, together, came up with an... "idea" for this? What are you two planning?" He asked cautiously, before Mikey grinned and winked.

"Just wait and see." As he said that, Raphael was seen climbing up the fire escape before leaping onto the rooftop.

"Sorry for da holdup, but our guests wanted ta take their time." He said, crossing his arms.

"Guests?" Leo asked, and to answer his question, Yang's head popped up from the fire escape.

"Sup boys, so this were the party's at?" She asked, grinning. Mikey walked up.

"Hey Yang! Did Ruby make it too?" He asked, to which Yang nodded and reached behind her, leaning back and down and lifting up her sister by the hood.

"Hey Mikey! Hey everyone!" Ruby called, waving as Yang crawled up onto the rooftop with Raph's help. Leonardo nodded, somewhat surprised to see the two there.

"Oh, hey there. I wasn't expecting you two to join us." He mentioned, as his eyes wandered over to Raph and Mikey.

"Yeah, Raph and Mikey invited us along, said it's something really fun you guys used to do all of the time." Yang explained, as Ruby nodded.

"They also invited Blake and Weiss but Weiss said, and I quote, "I will never be caught dead with those miscreants behaving so foolishly in public!" And Blake was... well... Blake." Ruby added, shrugging her shoulders. Leonardo nodded.

"Well if you want to join us, sure thing. I guess it would be nice to go rooftop running with some people who actually know the city well. We're still getting used to it." Leo said, before turning to Raph. "Although, I hope they can keep up with us."

"Pfft, if dat bonehead Casey could... sometimes keep up with us, den they should have no problems." He smirked and turned to Yang. "A course, I won't be goin' easy on ya like wit' him."

"Challenge accepted." Yang stated, meeting his smirk with her own. Leonardo interjected.

"It's not really a competition, just a fun run." Then his own grin came on. "Besides... we all know I could leave you all in the dust. And just to prove it..." He leaped back across the alleyway. "We're starting now!"

As Leonardo landed on the previous building, turning and running, the other brothers smirked and leaped across themselves. Raph landed in a roll and kicked out to keep moving, Donnie pole vaulted with his bo to make it, and Mikey did a few flips in midair with a chuckle. On the previous building, Yang and Ruby shared a grin and took a running leap to land on the building, rushing to keep pace.

The six dashed across the rooftops, effortlessly. Ruby could keep up with the turtles whenever they were running across flat rooftops, but when coming across obstacles or when it came to leap across at the next building the brothers just simply couldn't be beat. Their years of moving across New York's rooftops made going across Vale's skyline just as simple. They didn't know any shortcuts or have any special paths, but they could improvise at the drop of a hat. Yang tended to be the one lagging behind a bit, but she was able to hold her own and was not left behind. As Donnie ran across a roof, he leaped over next to Leonardo.

"You know Leo, I've been thinking about that tech we recovered from the docks, and it's driving me crazy at how familiar it is." He said, leaping into the air, flipping forward and pushing off a pipe to keep up, and then landing on his feet next to Leo.

"Yeah? What is it that makes it so familiar? I thought you were still getting used to all of the tech we've been running across lately." Leo replied as he kicked off the edge of the building, reaching up to vault himself onto the next rooftop.

"I have, and it's all fascinating. But I have been getting familiar, as our weapons should prove, but that's also what bothers me. I shouldn't be familiar with any of it to this level, but it looks too familiar. I really need to check out who is making it." Donnie said as he slid under a pipe.

"You said you got it from Roman Torchwick right, him and the White Fang? That's not exactly going to be the easiest thing to accomplish. We are well aware of how large criminal organizations love their secret tech." Leo argued.

"That's true... but you're also aware of how great we tend to be at getting that kind of stuff." Donnie said with a confident smirk.

"That's true..." Leo couldn't help but give his own grin.

The two brothers saw a red blur rush up to them.

"So wait, you guys are thinking of going after Torchwick?" Ruby asked looking at them. The two widened their eyes, suddenly remembering the four of them weren't alone.

"Wait... were you listening in on our conversation?" Leo asked.

"Um... just a little?" She offered, chuckling softly. Leo sighed and shrugged.

"Erm... well, I mean... it's a possibility. Have you seen the news lately? The White Fang and Torchwick are pulling heists left and right, sometimes with tech strong enough to overpower any resistance, and sometimes without even anyone knowing. Clearly something's up that's too much for the police to handle on its own." Leo stated. Ruby nodded and turned her head.

"Huh... you kinda sound like Blake." Ruby added, before slowing down as the building came to an end, leading to a large building under construction.

Leo and Donnie exchanged a grin as they ran faster. This one was trickier, as the only stable platform was far higher then any of them could jump. Donnie extended his bo and offered it to Leo, who grabbed ahold. Leo kicked up as Donnie swung the staff, launching Leo up, who kicked off of the beams to reach the landing zone. Donnie meanwhile used his staff to pole vault up, kicking on the beams near the end to make it.

Raph smirked and charged ahead, leaping as high as he could, before pulling his sais out and stabbing them into the beams. He then swung his legs up, using the momentum to swing upwards. Mikey looked over and saw a cable running across the roof to the building and reached for his nunchucks, wrapping one around it and kicking off to swing down rapidly. As he reached the building under construction, he swung up, the speed launching him there. Raph and Mikey stood on the edge, looking down on their two guests.

"Guess we gotta help em, huh?" Raph asked teasingly. However down below, Ruby and Yang grinned at each other. They both grabbed their weapons and leaped across, firing back to let the recoil carry them the rest of the way and over the two brothers. Yang looked back and stuck her tongue out at the two, getting Raph to frown.

"Tch, beginna's luck!" He dismissed as he chased after the them. Meanwhile up ahead, the other two went back to their previous conversation.

"So, you agree we have to do something, and I think that if we can find the source of all of this technology we can cut off the head." Donnie suggested. Leo nodded.

"Right, I guess tomorrow we can start looking for clues. I can ask Blake again if she has any ideas on where it could've come from." He suggested. Donnie nodded.

"That's good. Right now we don't really have a whole lot of other leads." He sighed and charged towards the end of the building, leaping down and free falling until he lashed his bo out to slow his descent enough to safely land, while Leonardo tucked and rolled as he followed. Don stopped as did Leo, looking out over the city.

"Sorry for bringing this up now, I know this was supposed to be fun and relaxing." Don apologized sheepishly. Leo shook his head.

"Don't be, I know how important this is, and we've been lax on doing anything. We'll just focus everything tomorrow." Leonardo stated as Raph, Mikey, Yang, and Ruby all landed behind them.

"Wheh, you were right Raph, that was fun! Really gets the blood pumping and the heart racing!" Yang said with a thumbs up. Raph smirked and nodded.

"Yep, you bet it is. An' you two kept up pretty well... for some amateurs." Raph added. Ruby was breathing a bit as well, as she walked over to Leo and Don.

"Wow, you guys must've lived in a big village to get so good." She said, grinning. Leo chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, you could say that." He said, thinking back to home and her skyscrapers.

"Yeah... Manhattan was quite the large village." Donnie said, mentioning the supposed name of their former homes. As the group took a few minutes to catch their breath, Yang smirked and looked back.

"Welp, guess you did beat us all Leo... with that sneaky head start of course." She added dismissively. And to that Leo shrugged walking over to her.

"Hey, being a true warrior is just as much about out-thinking your opponent as it is out classing them. And speaking of..." He took of with a grin.

"I'm gonna do it again." And with that the race back started.

AN: Well...it seems I was NOT able to get the update out faster then the last one. I can only apologize as my schedule filled up so much faster then I was expecting, making me have to put aside this for a bit. But it is not canceled, don't worry, I do plan on keeping this story up and running. I would like to thank my patient readers and reviewers for sticking with me. I can't promise my next one will be out sooner, but I am hoping that from now on they won't take as long to write. Thank you all again.