Ruby Rose is looking down with a look of disapproval on her face, letting out a disappointed sigh.
I've never seen him this bad." Yang Xiao Long commented.
It was then shown that Ruby, along with the rest of Team RWBY and Maria Calavera, found her and Yang's uncle Qrow Branwen passed out on some stairs leading up to a house.
"Come on, let's get him up." Ruby decided.
The two sisters then grabbed their uncle's arms and sat him up. Qrow groaned and rubbed his eyes.
"Why am I on the stairs?" Qrow wondered.
"Probably because no one's home, Uncle Qrow." Ruby answered. "We've been out looking for Oscar.
"Oscar?" Qrow replied in confusion?
The group heard footsteps. They turned to see Jaune, Nora, Pluto and Ren, as well as Jaune's sister Saphron and her wife Terra, who was holding their son Adrian in her arm, walking towards them. The two mothers then looked at Qrow.
"I'm sure this looks great to the neighbors." Terra said sarcastically.
Saphron lightly elbowed her wife while Jaune and his teammates walked up to the group.
"No luck?" Ren asked.
"No, you?" Blake asked in return.
"Nope." Nora confirmed before Team RWBY noticed Pluto standing with them.
"Who's this guy?" Yang asked, addressing Pluto.
"Oh, right. This is Pluto. He's Pyrrha's younger brother." Jaune said, introducing Pluto to Team RWBY.
"Hello!" Pluto greeted the girls in a manner similar to Pyrrha.
"Pyrrha has a brother?!" Weiss exclaimed in surprise.
"She never told us that before!" Ruby added.
"He kinda looks like Pyrrha if she was a guy and a nerd." Yang observed.
"I know, right?! Isn't he just the cutest little thing?!" Nora exclaimed as she bear hugged Pluto happily.
"Gyah...! I-It's nice to meet you…! P-Pyrrha said lots of great things about you girls too…! I think my ribs are broken…! Ow…!" Pluto said in a comically pained voice as Nora continued squeezing him like a stuffed animal.
"We met him at the park near Pyrrha's memorial statue. He's a novice huntsman who Jaune's taken under his wing." Ren explained.
"So he's basically a protege?" Blake asked.
"Pretty much… Okay, Nora, you can let him go of him now." Jaune told his teammate as she reluctantly broke the hug before turning to the others. "And don't worry, we aren't going to Atlas without him."
"We?" Ruby asked.
The three Team JNR members soon shared a smile.
"Sorry we won't be staying." Jaune said to Saphron.
"No you're not." Saphron smirked.
"I still can't believe you're an uncle, dude." Pluto commented.
"How about we get out of the cold?" Terra suggested.
The door to the house was soon heard opening. Everyone gasped in shock as a familiar voice was heard.
"Oh, I was wondering when you'd get back." The voice of Oscar Pine said, as he stood at the doorway, now wearing a fancy green coat.
"OSCAR!" Everyone but Pluto exclaimed.
Nora soon screamed in joy as Oscar initially had a confused look on his face, and then one of comical terror as the seven students all leapt forward and tackle hugged him.
Pluto remained on the doorstep, looking slightly confused.
"Uh… Hello, guy I don't know but who I was helping with looking for." He awkwardly said before entering the house.
Now inside the house, Ruby helped Oscar up as everyone shared a laugh.
"You had us worried sick!" Weiss pointed out.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.
"What are you wearing?" Nora also asked, grinning.
"Uh…" Oscar sheepishly said, smiling and rubbing the back of his head
After this, Saphron, Terra and Adrian also entered the house.
"Is something cooking?" Terra asked.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I thought you guys would appreciate a hot meal after... spending all day looking for me, apparently." Oscar answered.
"It's my fault we were all out there in the first place." Jaune said in a regretful tone. "Oscar, I am so sorry for earlier. I was way, way out of line, and what I said–"
"No, it's okay." Oscar interjected."These past few days, I've been scared of the same things you were. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be... me. But I did some thinking, and I do know that I want to do everything I can to help with whatever time I have left.
"Good. This team isn't the same without you, Oscar." Jaune said, smiling.
Pluto then walked over to the pair to share his thoughts.
"I don't even know you, man, but from what Jaune's told me in the short amount of time I've known him, you seem to be special to these guys. If you mean a lot to them, you'll most likely mean a lot to me too." Pluto added, before sticking out his hand. "I'm Pluto, by the way."
"Oscar Pine." Oscar replied, accepting the handshake.
Everyone shared a smile, until suddenly, a smoke alarm went off.
"The casserole!" Oscar gasped.
"We're on it, chef." Saphron giggled, as she and Terra stepped into the kitchen to take care of Oscar's cooking.
"Uh, I'll have chicken nuggets and french fries with ketchup, if you have those!" Pluto called out while Ruby spoke with Oscar.
"Uh, combat gear looks good." She said, complimenting his outfit.
Ruby and Oscar shared a smile, until the group noticed Qrow walking up the stairs.
"Where are you going now?" Ruby sternly asked.
"I don't want to get in the way of your celebration." Qrow answered.
"You've been gone all day! Just sit with us." Ruby offered.
"Look, Ruby. I'm glad you kids worked out, uh, whatever all that was." Qrow sighed. "But the fact is, we're not a single step closer to Atlas."
"Atlas?" Pluto asked, confused about why they needed to go there.
"Actually, I think I have an idea. But... it's sort of a "no-going-back" kind of idea." Jaune said.
"Well, let's hear it." Ruby obliged.
"With Cordo on watch, only Atlas airships have the clearance to leave for Solitas. So... we... steal an Atlas airship." Jaune suggested, nervously shrugging at his last statement.
Everyone got shocked looks on their faces, while Adrian giggled in Maria's arm.
"Hold on, stealing?! Why are we stealing? What's going on?" Pluto asked.
"That's not just breaking the law. That's... that's definitely worse." Weiss pointed out.
"How would we even get onto the airfield?" Yang added.
"That part I haven't quite figured out yet. But I–" Jaune was about to continue explaining until he was interrupted.
"Okay, stop. Just... stop!" Qrow interjected. "Look, if this thing goes south, it's not something we can just fight our way out of. This is the Atlas Military we're talking about. For your sake, just drop this.
Everyone looked down with discouraged looks on their faces, except for Pluto, who still looked confused.
"I still don't fully understand what's going on…" Pluto said.
Ruby noticed everyone else's discouraged looks and turned back to Qrow with a determined look on her face.
I want to hear him out. Qrow: Ruby...
"I want to hear him out!" "Ruby snapped. "I know you're trying to protect us, that you're afraid we can't do it, but right now, I don't really care what you think!"
Qrow gained a shocked expression upon hearing this.
"Just because you don't have an idea, doesn't mean we're out of options! Ruby continued. "Oz hasn't been here to tell us what to do, but we still managed to get this far anyway. We've been in bad situations before, and we don't need an adult to come save us or tell us what to do. We just did it our way! And I say we do it our way."
Everyone smiles over Ruby's motivational speech.
"And if you think you can keep up with us "kids"... we'd be happy to have you." She concluded.
Qrow looked down sadly in response.
"Looks like you didn't give her enough credit either." Maria laughed.
Qrow didn't say anything. He instead looked back to Ruby while she looked back at him determined, until Pluto spoke up.
"Okay, that was a really good speech. And I'm definitely down with helping you out anyway I can. But can somebody please tell me just what the heck is going on? I've only been here for about 10 minutes probably, and no one's really told me anything! Just why exactly are we going to Atlas?! What are we actually trying to do?!" He asked, clearly wanting an explanation.
Everyone looked over towards Pluto, realising that he's been left out of the loop throughout this whole thing. Upon noticing this, Yang spoke up.
"Right… Okay, who's gonna be the one to fill the new guy in with what's been happening?" She asked.
"I'll do it." Blake decided, as the cat faunus walked over towards Pluto to give him the run-down. "Okay, here's the situation…"
Blake proceeded to fill Pluto in with what they're actually dealing with, mentioning the Battle of Beacon, the events that followed, and the battle at Haven Academy, as well as informing him of Salem's forces and the threat they hold to the world. After about five minutes of explaining everything, Blake gave Pluto time to process everything.
"Wow, that is…surely something. This is not how I saw my day going. WOW." Pluto said, a bit stunned by the revelation of what he indirectly brought himself into.
"I understand that it's a lot to take in." Blake said, reassuring him.
"If you wanna back out of coming with us, it's perfectly fine." Jaune said, also in a reassuring tone. "You don't have to take part in this if it's too much for you to handle."
After some processing, Pluto gave a response.
"My sister was a hero. But she didn't deserve to go out the way she did." He stated. "I'm not an experienced huntsman, and I never got to go to Beacon, but I still wanna learn the tools of the trade. I wanna carry on Pyrrha's legacy, and I wanna make sure Cinder Fall pays for what she's done. I'm a bit nervous, scared even, of whatever it is we're going up against. But you guys know as much as I do, that Pyrrha Nikos wouldn't duck out of a challenge. Now I admit, I'm kind of a coward and a bit of an idiot, but I'm not backing down on the opportunity to help her team and the rest of her friends save the world. I already said I'm down with helping you guys out, and I haven't changed my mind."
After his speech, everyone smiled at Pluto and his willingness to help, especially the members of Team JNR.
"Then it's settled!" Ruby declared. "Let's do this thing!"