(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, the franchise, IP or series, only this fanfiction (plus Dizzy and any other characters, companies, gun brands, etc, that I made for this book) ((I mean obviously I own Dizzy, he's just a barely-disguised self-insert I put into this book as the main character, and I'm pretty sure I own myself)), RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth, all rights to the original series are reserved to them, yadda yadda yadda, other legal jargon I need to put here as to not get sued to high hell.)

First Person P.O.V.

Wednesday, 07:00

I wake-

*BZZZZ* *BZZZZ*

"Ah, FUCK!"

REALLY got to get that sound changed soon.

Getting up from the cold floor of the derailed train car, I pull out my Scroll from my pocket to check what the hell made my ringtone go off, practically nobody calls me cause practically no one has my number, only time I've been called was to be informed of what sector I was gonna be part of.

Ew, I feel a bit of dried blood from the cuts I got from the bullets that grazed me yesterday.

Apparently the person who called me was none other than Cinder, how did she get my number? Who the hell knows, she's a higher-up, who knows how they do anything.

She only called me for a second, just long enough to get my ringtone to go off, clarifying that she did so in order to wake me up so that I would read her message as soon as she sent it in said message, the message is a big ol' block of text so I'm not gonna read it entirely, too drowsy to do so, only gonna read the cliffnotes.

Somethin' somethin', damage wasn't as bad as they thought, somethin' somethin', Bullhead's repaired, somethin' somethin', on their way to pick us up, that's it.

Now aside from that, Roman and Neo also apparently woke up from my ringtone, since I was able to see them getting up from their respective slumbers as I read the message, Neo shooting me a brief annoyed look as she gets up from the crate she rested on and Roman rubbing his eyes as he awakens.

"Well, at least it was good news."

Speaking of the news, what's going on in the world right now? Haven't checked the news since I was, like, eight, suppose nine years is a long enough time to go without checking the news to justify doing so again.

"Eh, might as well."

Closing the message sent to me, I take note of the current time, that being '7:00 A.M.' on the dot, probably early enough to take a 20-ish-foot tall mech from the military back to our warehouse without being seen by anyone.

Moving on from that, I open the news app that came pre-installed on my Scroll when I first got it and scroll down a bit to check what stories are currently being displayed on the front page, hm.

['SDC Train Heist: Train Car Disappears, Leaked Video Of Culprits Surfaces!']

Oh.

Fuck.

"What."

Alongside the main article is a video from a reporter, Lisa Lavender, on the topic, talking about the whole thing and apparently showcasing the supposed leaked video of the culprits.

I swear to Oum that leaked video better be fake or else Adam's gonna have me executed via firing squad once he finds out about it, I mean, the dude had a whole meeting/announcement thing about basically nothing but how we need to be more secretive about our stuff in Vale now two days ago.

Well, might as well watch the report to make sure.

The report starts off simple, recapping the events of the train heist that they are aware of, from me and my superiors entering up to the final car of the train going 'missing,' alongside footage in a big box at the corner of the screen, showcasing...footage of the heist.

"There were more cameras?!"

I say in a whisper-shout as I lean in slightly closer to the screen of my Scroll, now paying a hell of a lot more attention to the video, all of the footage shown is thankfully in black and white, and censored, showing the scene of me shooting at the security in the first train car I entered through the window in the door, eventually getting to the point that practically half the damn screen is censored or blurred due to all of the gore spilling onto the floor.

Although I barely spent any time in there, the miasma coming from the corpses flooding my nose sucked.

Eventually, the report reaches the end of the 'recapping-the-events' part and on to show the rest of the leaked footage, that of which being from the camera that took a photo of me before I shot it, apparently it was able to get all three of us in frame before I took it down, only for a few seconds though.

Lisa Lavender: "Now as you can see for yourself, the footage shows that this robbery was perpetrated by a small group of people. Led by notorious criminal Roman Torchwick, with the other assailants being an unidentified female dressed in a multi-colored get-up, and an unidentified White Fang member."

Damnit, if I wasn't a wanted man already, I definitely am one now.

"Oh motherfucker...well, at least they didn't get footage of my face."

I turn off the video and put my Scroll away, deciding to move over to the little barricade of crates we made in front of the door and tear it down, so that we can get out and out of here once Cinder gets here.

Thankfully it was built in a way (that way being poorly) that all it takes is one good kick from the inside to topple the big stack of crates and make the door accessible again, so obviously I lift my leg up and deliver a kick to the left side of the barricade, causing all the crates to fall onto the floor, making a pretty loud noise in the process.

Looking outside-OH OUM CINDER'S HERE.

AAAnd so are Mercury and Emerald, but they aren't as big of a worry.

Mercury: "Rise and shine."

Emerald: "How'd ya rest on the hard floor?"

Cinder: "Get up you three, time to move."

As soon as Cinder finishes speaking, Roman pushed past me and out of the train car, a cigar in his mouth as he stretched for a moment, letting out a yawn in the process.

"How many cigars does he have?"

I say to myself as he yawns, with him speaking up soon after.

Roman: "Ugh... it feels like my spine got ripped out while I was sleeping, feels like I slept on a bed of nails or something like that-"

Cinder: "Enough with the complaining, it's not like you haven't done much more uncomfortable things before."

Cinder's response gets him to shut up pretty quickly, only letting out a slight grumble in response to her.

"Sooo, how are we gonna get the Paladin out of here? Don't think it'll fit on the Bullhead, are you gonna lift it out of here or something?"

Cinder: "Correct, there isn't enough room in the Bullhead to lift it, we were originally planning to upgrade it and increase the size of it to have a hanger to carry things like this, but couldn't due to having to focus on repairing it."

Roman: "Yeah, so unless one you kids has the kind of Semblance we can use to transport that hunk of metal, the only option we've got left is to do it good old-fashioned way: carrying it."

"Oooh, okay, so are we gonna disassemble it and carry it piece by piece? Cause carrying it in it's full form like this seems both stupid and like a waste of time."

Emerald: "Yeah no, there's no way we're hauling all of that thing piece by piece. All that's going to do is waste time. It'd probably also give us all a back pain for the next year or so, too."

Roman: "Exactly, we're doing it the hard way by carrying the damn thing in its whole. It'd save us time bringing every individual piece into the Bullhead."

"Ah, I see, yes, yes...that's nice and all, but can any of you geniuses explain to me how the FFFFUCK we're gonna fit a 20-foot-tall mech inside of our Bullhead?! Are we gonna duct-tape it to the roof or some shit?"

Now that I think about it, I really need some duct tape, could use it for a lot of stuff.

Roman: "With this thing called straps. Ya know, the same kind of straps you use to secure cargo. Unless your brain hasn't really woken up yet, that is."

"Sir, with all due respect of you as my superior, I am not afraid to spike your food with laxatives if I deem it necessary, now where are the straps you're talking about?"

He stares at me for a brief second before letting out a laugh, apparently not taking me seriously at all as once he finished laughing, he reached out to pat my head for a moment.

Roman: "Aww, aren't you cute? Threatening old Roman here with a little bit of spiking. Maybe you should leave the threats for when you're actually threatening."

I let out a scoff as he pats my head before looking up at him.

"Yeah, real funny, you ever thought of doing stand-up? Now where are the straps at."

Roman: "Oh I could make myself an absolute fortune if I got on the stage, but I'm too busy with my own ventures. In the meantime, I think I'll just stick with patronizing you. It's adorable watching you try to act all tough."

He'd thankfully stop patronizing me for now as he dropped the act, can only hope he doesn't do that too often.

Roman: "The straps are in the Bullhead. Emerald, mind getting them?"

"Don't waste your time Emerald, I can do it."

I hop out of the car and away from the group, over and into the Bullhead, then start looking for the straps, which I end up finding inside of a small box tucked away in the corner of the Bullhead, never really payed attention to it cause it doesn't have any attention-grabbing features, pretty bland.

I walk over to the box and grab the needed straps for the Paladin, exiting the Bullhead and walking over to the group who are talking about something before I speak up.

"Got the straps, now we just need to move the Paladin from the car to the Bullhead."

Roman: "Yeah, that much is obvious. Now come on, time to get to work, this thing isn't going to move itself."

Once he finished speaking, he, alongside everyone else, including me, went back inside of the train car and over to the Paladin inside of it to remove it from the car, most likely through removing the entire wall where the door is so we can actually get the thing out.

As we move towards it, I take note that Emerald starts to lag behind from the rest of the group, until we're both walking side-by-side, for whatever reason, I glance over at her as she does this for a moment before looking back ahead, which apparently is enough to get her to start a conversation, speaking in a relaxed tone.

Emerald: "Sooo, how'd you sleep last night?"

"Good enough considering I was sleeping on the floor of a train car."

Dunno why she decided to start chatting with me right now, but I'm not opposed to having a little conversation as we work.

"Quick question, did your parents name you Emerald cause of the whole Great War thing or did you name yourself that cause of your color palette?"

My question prompts a glance of her own aimed at me before her face shifts into a smile.

Emerald: "Yeah, my parents did name me cause of that tradition. Why, did your parents do the same? It wouldn't surprise me."

"They named me Dizzy, don't ask me why cause I cannot give you an answer, and I'm not willing to get one if it means seeing those pricks again."

Actually, my mother did change my family's legal last name to go along with the whole color thing, although that was more or less just to fit in with her friends who were all doing the same, my family and ancestors never really cared that much about the whole 'suppressing self-expressionism' thing.

I mean, if you're reaching, I guess my name can also be associated with a color, people who are dizzy usually end up vomiting, vomit is usually associated with a sickly green.

Anyways, back to the conversation, Emerald let out a small laugh after hearing what my name was before responding to me.

Emerald: "Your parents are probably idiots if they gave you a name more appropriate for a circus performer than a person."

I let out a small chuckle of my own once she lets out her response.

"You can say that again, good thing I'm here now and not with them, really says something when being part of a group publicly viewed as a terrorist organization is better than living with them, eh?"

Eventually, we both stop walking and decide to stand next to a nearby wall, a few feet away from one another so that we can just focus on conversing.

Emerald: "Yeah, honestly, I can understand the feeling. My parents weren't exactly great either."

"Well, at least we're both not stuck with them anymore, right? Free to do whatever we want and nobody can tell us otherwise, well, except for our bosses, but at least they pay us."

Emerald: "Yeah, you got that right. I guess being part of a criminal organization actually has a few perks in that regard."

"Sure does-wait,"

I look behind her, eyes locking onto the green grips of two familiar guns behind her back, quickly reaching forward and grabbing one from its holster before inspecting it.

"J&T Model 38's, chambered in .38 Super, except you painted and kinda screwed with em a bit, last time I checked these had extendable bayonets, not sickles."

After I grabbed her gun, her face turned to one of shock for a moment before eventually going away, responding to me right after.

Emerald: "Yeah, those bayonets were absolute garbage. I just made it so that the extendable blade feature could swap out the shitty bayonet for a sickle, much more effective for combat."

"Really? Sickles are cool and all but I prefer bayonets, got a soft spot for old weaponry, good job putting this together by the way, swapping out the bayonet of this probably took a decent bit of work, and I like the paint-job that you gave the grips, matches the whole theme you got going on."

I reach forward again and put the gun back into its holster.

She starts to smile again once I finish speaking, looking noticeably proud after hearing my comment, guess she liked my praise of her craftsmanship.

Emerald: "Thanks, it did take quite a bit of time to modify the weapon in order to give it the new feature, good to know someone actually noticed the effort that I put into it."

"Kinda hard not to when you replaced one of the main parts of the weapon,"

I look away from her and around the train car, taking note that the Paladin, alongside everyone else, is gone, and the entire wall where the door was is now missing.

"Huh, looks like they got the Paladin out while we were talking, should probably meet back up with them, still need to strap it to the Bullhead after all."

Emerald: "I suppose we should."

We both turn towards the now missing wall of the car and get out of it, walking back to the Bullhead where I spot-

WAIT.

I left the box and my gun back in the car.

Heading back into the train car and over to the corner I slept it, I spot my rifle and that black SDC box I found lying on the floor right next to the spot I was sleeping in, grabbing the box and holding it between my arm and side before slinging my rifle behind my back (making sure to keep the cargo straps in my hand the entire time).

THEN I leave the car and go back to the Bullhead with everyone else, where the Paladin is stood right next to it, the door of the Bullhead already open for us all to enter and leave this place once we're done securing the mech to it.

Roman: "Took you two long enough, I was almost beginning to worry you two were gonna go off somewhere to make out with each other."

What the fuck.

"Oumdamn it...didn't you already make that joke when I was fighting that hooded girl two days ago?"

I walk over to the prototype Paladin and wrap two straps around each of its legs, then connect them to these little spots around the back of the Bullhead that I never noticed, and are conveniently just the right size for cargo straps, guess they use these for hauling larger things around for transportation between bases, sometimes we have to lend our supplies to other bases around Vale in case they're running low, but I never really saw how they got the stuff around, guess this is how.

Roman: "I'm just saying, you two were having such a cozy conversation with one another there. A guy's gotta tease you for it a bit."

"You really don't."

Roman let's out a scoff.

Roman: "Eh, a little bit of it won't kill you, anyways it helps to pass the time and keep me from dying of boredom."

I ignore his words and climb up the Paladin, wrapping two more sets of straps around its arms and secure them as well, moving over to the door of the Bullhead and hopping into it.

"Paladin's secure, lets get the hell out of here before the Atlesian military decides to try and actually do something about us."

Roman, along with Neo, Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, all get into the Bullhead as I announce that we're ready to leave, getting into the cockpit and closing the door once everyone's inside.

Starting the engine, I get the Bullhead in the air, albeit with some extra effort than usual to do so, and begin the flight back to our base, which is pretty uneventful to be honest.

Was expecting the Atlesian military to send out a convoy over to get the Paladin back, find us flying away with it and promptly start trying to shoot us out of the air, which would be a whole thing, but they never did, hell, pretty sure they didn't send anyone to collect the Paladin, basically just let us get away with taking it.

But why?

Eh, who cares, we have a mech and they don't.

The flight was essentially just 20 minutes or so of uninterrupted flying, the only thing I could hear besides the engine of the Bullhead being Emerald and Mercury bickering about something in the background, dunno what.

Once we reach the warehouse, I lower the Bullhead to the same area Cinder did a few days ago, cause why not, before opening the door and stopping the engine, waiting for everyone to get off the aircraft before doing the same.

I walk back into the warehouse once out, standing in place for a moment to pull my Scroll out and check the current time.

'7:52 A.M.'

"Damn, that took a lot longer than necessary, at least we weren't caught, for the most part."

I put my Scroll away and reach behind my back, pulling out my shotgun before glancing over to the left.

"Wonder if there's any shells for this in the armory?"

I mumble to myself before going over to said armory, stepping inside and looking through various shelves and boxes for the shells I need.

Thankfully, I manage to find a box of 15 sitting on one of the shelves, enough for now, but I'm definitely gonna need to get more in the future.

"Eh, could be worse."

I grab the box and dump all the shells out of it, reaching behind my back and pulling out my orange marker, grabbing each shell and writing the same phrase on them that I wrote on the shells I used yesterday, putting the marker away once done.

I shove 9 of the 15 shells into my right pocket, pushing the forestock back to open the ejection port and sliding one shell into it before pushing the stock forward again, holding my shotgun by the stock and sliding the other five shells into the loading port with my free hand.

Well, that's about all I needed to do here, better get going-

Emerald: "Hey."

Ah.

Leaning against the doorway of the door to the armory that I was about to walk through is Emerald, currently staring me down with a nonchalant expression and her arms crossed against her chest, prompting me to stare at her in silence for a second or two before speaking up.

"Were you watching me the entire time I was doing that? Cause that's DEFINITELY not creepy at all."

Emerald: "No, I was just watching for a bit. I was curious to see what you were doing. That and I wanted to ask you something."

"You're being quite friendly for someone who I barely talked with for the first time today."

Emerald: "Well I don't see any harm in that, you seem like a decent enough guy."

"That's probably the biggest compliment I've received all month, whaddya wanna know?"

Emerald: "I was just curious considering that you're the shortest person here, not counting Neo, but you also have a beard and mustache, how old are you?"

"I'm 17, height and facial hare doesn't exactly give it away but it's the truth, now is there anything else you wanna say or can I go now?"

Emerald: "Huh, wasn't expecting you to be so young, considering how well you can handle yourself without Aura, you seem older than you actually are, it's kinda impressive."

Forgot that me not having Aura is public knowledge for everyone in this group.

"Thank you, appreciate it, now if you don't mind I have to go do jack-shit for the next 16 hours."

I walk past Emerald and out of the armory, hearing her let out a scoff before moving away from the doorway and following me, although she only follows me for a few moments before grabbing onto my shoulder and yanking me back towards her and turning my body to face her.

"OKAY, nevermind then, what is it this time?"

The nonchalant expression on her face is now gone, replaced by a more serious one as she tightens her grip on my shoulder.

Emerald: "I'm going to ask you something, and I'd like you to be honest with me, alright?"

"Monty...what is this, an interrogation? Yes, I'll be honest with you, what is it?"

Her expression softens slightly after hearing my response.

Emerald: "Alright, glad to hear that, this question has been bugging me for a while now."

She takes a short pause, as if trying to think of how to phrase her question before going on with asking it.

Emerald: "So, I couldn't help but notice that you've been giving Cinder a few looks when you think no-one's paying attention, haven't you?"

"Fearful ones, yeah,"

The woman's able to go toe-to-toe with a trained Huntress, not many people in the Vale part of our group can do that.

"Also I've been inspecting her dress, really like the designs on it, looks neat."

Her expression changes to one of slight confusion as I give her my response.

Emerald: "Seriously? All your looks towards her have been because you've been admiring her dress?"

"Yes! The gold patterns on it look nice, fuck did you think I was looking at?"

Emerald gives me an annoyed look for a moment before closing her eyes and responding.

Emerald: "Ugh...just ignore that, point is, do you find her attractive?"

"I mean, I guess? I haven't really thought of her in any sort of romantic or sexual ways, mainly cause she's my superior, but she's neat I guess, why are you asking me this?"

Once I finish talking, she lets go of my shoulder and raises her hand to rub the bridge of her nose for a second before stopping.

Emerald: "No reason, it's just a little bit of a shock, that's all, usually when a guy looks at her they don't just do it to look at how her dress looks on her."

"Whaddya mean 'how her dress looks on her?' Last time I checked I was talking about how the dress itself looks, not how it looks on her."

She lowers her hand and gives me a fully confused look.

Emerald: "Wait, hold on, you didn't look at her in addition to looking at the dress? Like at all?"

"Why would I? She's...alright, I guess, but there's better-looking people in this group in my opinion, anyways she's my superior, thinking about her like that is kinda weird."

Emerald: "Uh, really? You're joking, right? What are you, blind or something?"

"What do you mean 'Am I blind?' She doesn't look BAD, I'm not saying that, it's just-people have different preferences, y'know? Honestly the main selling-point she has in my opinion is her serious, dominant personality, but that can only get you so far."

She moves her right hand down to her hip, the other just resting at her side as she responds to me in an annoyed tone.

Emerald: "Come on, be honest with me, she's objectively attractive, I'm pretty sure it's universally agreed that she is."

"I didn't say she isn't! She looks nice, it's just that I have my own preferences, that's all, don't get all worked up because I don't find your boss as hot as you do."

I think that last part annoyed her a bit.

Emerald: "Come on! You're telling me she didn't catch your eye to a certain degree at least?"

"Alright, listen, all I'm saying is that yes, she looks nice, I think that she is attractive, but I'm not gonna be shooting glances at her or thinking about romantic or sexual things involving her cause she is a higher-up, maybe if she wasn't things would be different."

If she found out that I was having thoughts about getting it on with her, she would probably have it that I wake up back in Vacuo in someone's basement, laying down in a bathtub full of ice and missing a kidney.

Dunno why that's the first scenario that came to mind but the point still stands.

Anyways, back to Emerald, who lets out an exasperated sigh after hearing me speak, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them and speaking.

Emerald: "Ugh, of course your reasoning is entirely professional, just had to be like that, didn't you?"

"Yes, I'm not gonna be daydreaming about someone if they are a higher ranking than me, if they aren't then it's a possibility, can we end this conversation now?"

Emerald :"One last question, since you think there's better-looking people than Cinder here, who's the hottest in the group in your opinion then? Who do you think looks the best overall?"

Oh my fucking Oum-

"Oum, what kind of middle school slumber party-type questions are these? If we're going off of pure looks it'd probably be a tie between you and Neo, and you're only really there cause I fuck with your get-up."

Third place goes to that fox girl from a few days ago, she was nice.

Apparently this comment manages to get a bit of a reaction out of her, her cheeks flushing slightly and her eyes widening a bit, guess she isn't used to getting compliments, no matter how diminutive.

Emerald: "Y-you think I'm the hottest in the group?"

"Alongside Neo, don't let the praise go to your head, it honestly wasn't really that much of a competition, can I go now?"

Emerald: "Oh come on, that's really all you've got to say about me? There's nothing else attractive about me?"

Ah fuck it went to her head, she's fishing for compliments now.

"Wow, really fishing for compliments eh?"

Uhhhhhhhhhhh.

"Well, your friendly, outgoing personality is already a plus, your get-up is unique and really compliments you, your eyes are a beautiful shade of red, sort of fiery-looking, you have great taste in weaponry which is more of a personal opinion, to be honest, your haircut and hair color are both quite pretty...uh, can't think of anything else of the top of my head so I think that's about it."

Her blush deepens as I spout off various compliments at her, eventually leaving her with a stunned expression before she eventually responds to me.

Emerald: "I-you really mean all of that?"

"Yeah, why would I lie about that? Not like I'd be getting anything out of it, anyways, this conversation has been awkward and made me kinda sleepy, so I'm gonna go to the barracks, go there if you need me."

I give her a small wave as I walk away from her and over to the warehouse's main sector, a wave that she doesn't return as she just stands there in place, staring at me with a lingering blush on her face as she thinks whatever it is she's thinking in her head.

That was weird.

Once inside the man sector, I make my way to the barracks and towards my bed, flopping down onto my bed, sprawling my limbs out as I fall asleep for the rest of the day, not wanting to go through any more stuff after the odd conversation I just had with Emerald.

Oum, can I please get a slow day tomorrow? I'd appreciate it.

(After that whole thing with Emerald, I feel like it would be good to remind you that this is, at the end of the day, a chara cter . a i roleplay that I turned into a fic.)