You'd think that after a few months of this, I would have expected it, but no, that's asking for too much. Remember how Professor Port had us clear our afternoon schedule for his class? Yeah, it was just to tell one long story that couldn't have been split into three days, no, we had to hear all of it today. If I'm being honest, I wasn't really even trying to hide my scroll. Yeah, my novel was on my desk and blocking it somewhat, but I'm sure anyone with any social awareness would realize that I wasn't occasionally snickering at how Port once decapitated two Ursai with one swing. Now, that's cool, don't get me wrong, but for the love of the gods I couldn't care less right now.

Jade's fucking missing, and no one knows where she is, so that's stressing me out. The fact that Jade won't explain what happened during the sparring session, if you can even call it that, has soured Blake's mood a bit, and that's further stressing me out. Oh, right, Nora apparently was watching Blake and Jade's little kerfuffle, and now what happened has spread to everyone that I know. Fun.

I check the time on my scroll, and sigh in relief. There's only five minutes left of class. I take a swig of the flask of tea on the table and yawn. If I could've slept, I definitely would have, but I'm not tired. Funny how that works, huh? I'm relaxing in my dorm, and have to force myself to stay awake, but then as soon as I'm in what's basically a nap class I can't. Granted, the coffee energy drink that I was drinking, the second in two hours, probably wasn't exactly helping. All that's accomplished is made it so that I can't sit still and given me a bit of a stomach ache. My fingers drum against the table while my left leg bounces up and down. It's just something to keep myself occupied and to try and keep my thoughts from running too rampant. Still, I can't help but think back to earlier, with Blake breaking down, and then Jade being nowhere to be found. I couldn't get much out of Blake, and honestly I don't intend to press much, but like, what the hell could have happened to make Jade full on run away?

"Hey, Doge." someone to my left says quietly. I turn to see Lukas sitting there, looking at his scroll too. Granted, I'm almost positive that everyone is looking at their scrolls at the moment.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"What are you doing after school?" he asks.

I sigh. "I'm having my afternoon ruined by whatever you're about to ask me to do." I mumble, taking a sip of my tea.

"Damn straight, we're going shopping in Vale." he proclaims.

"What."

"Yup." he says. "Shopping."

…

"Remind me, why did I agree to this?" I ask, my steps falling upon the sidewalk. I'm wearing a different outfit than I usually do, having metal gauntlets and grieves on, but dark purple leather and padded armor everywhere else. There's a red phoenix printed on each of my jacket's shoulders and one on the pants, on my right thigh. The coattails of my jacket lightly move in the breeze behind me. Hell's Retriever dangles off of my left hip, and some shotgun shells are on my belt, along with a few grenades.

"You didn't have a choice." Lukas says, hands in the pockets of his hoodie. It's a noticeably darker blue than usual, and he's wearing khaki cargo shorts along with his usual black sneakers.

"Joyous." I sarcastically say, adjusting the sunglasses on my face.

"Definitely more joyous than rotting away in your room." Lukas says.

I scoff and retort, "I was having a lovely time in my room earlier, thank you."

He sneers at me, "Keep telling yourself that."

I roll my eyes and reply, "Oh, just… fuck you."

"My name's not Blake, dumbass." he laughs.

"Yo- Wh- I…" I take a moment to breathe. "What the fuck is wrong with yo-" I stop myself as I see something in the near distance, "Is that Commander Tinseltree?" I ask, pointing at the square.

"I'll be damned. It's actually Iron Cock. The fuck is he up to?" Lukas asks rhetorically, stepping forward to get a better idea of what the hell we're looking at. Upon further inspection, it's a hologram of him, and he's showcasing some sort of battle mech? Or robot? Or something. Needless to say, I couldn't care about Ironwood's obsession with having dick measuring contests with the voices in his head, because random shows of power like this are just unseemly.

"Y'know what? I don't care enough. We're leaving." I say, continuing down the street. "So, where are we going anyway?" I ask.

"Weapon store. I have something I need to pick up." Lukas says, twirling Solace around.

"Hmm…" I hum. "Can I go to, like, on my own for a bit?"

"I mean, yeah? Just meet back up here in-" Lukas is cut off as the sound of something, or a lot of somethings falling over.

"Yeah, ok, whatever's going in that direction sounds lovely and all, but uh, I'll be back soon, then. I'm gonna go see if there's any model sets that I might want." I say, already heading for the nearest toy store.

"What are you, five?" he asks, looking over his shoulder at me.

"What, am I not allowed to enjoy things?" I shoot back.

Lukas rolls his eyes and speaks, "You need better tastes in hobbies."

"You need better taste in women." I retort.

"Says you."

"Yeah says me! At least I can actually see her more than once in a blue moon!" I say, snickering as I walk off into the distance. By the distance I mean into said nearest toy store. I go through the shelves, looking at set after set. An Atlesian Gunship catches my eye, and as I reach to grab the box in order to get a better look, there's a loud crash outside. I grumble and place the set back on the shelf before heading back outside.

So, as it would turn out, apparently the moon was blue tonight. Lukas is standing there, absolutely slack jawed, and I quickly see why. Penny, that girl Lukas is dating, is standing there with her arms held out to the front of a truck. The truck's totaled, and debris is littering the street, yet the petite redhead seems virtually unscathed. How? Fuck if I know. Ruby godsdamn Rose is laying on the ground, near the crater, because of course she had something to do with this.

"What the fuck?!" Lukas exclaims, looking at the scene before him. I step up next to him and just kinda stare. Ruby's left looking in confusion, terror, and awe.

"Are you ok?!" Penny asks the driver, who nods.

"Did… did she just… face tank a truck…?" I stammer out, positively befuddled.

"Penny…?" Ruby mutters, looking up at her. Penny looks around at the growing scene before sprinting off down an alley, with Ruby pulling herself off the ground and chasing after her. Lukas then starts running after them, and I decide I might as well follow suit. I look behind me to see a couple Atleasian soldiers just standing there, looking for something. They can enjoy that, I have better things to attend to, like figuring out what in the hell just happened. The group I'm following turns a corner, and I don't notice until a bit late so I end up halfway slamming my shoulder into the wall before bouncing off and skittering to a stop.

Ruby's midway through a statement whenever I had made it to them, "…let me try to understand!"

Penny looks to the side, and then between us three, focusing a bit more on Lukas and Ruby. "Um…" she starts, and takes a moment to think. "Do you promise that you're all my friends? I mean, really promise?" Penny asks.

We all nod and Penny takes a second to process that. "The thing is, I'm not a real girl…" Penny says. This gets an eyebrow raise from me until she shows us her hands, all of the skin being gone and instead of flesh or bone being underneath, it's steel. Cold, hard, steel.

"Oh…" Ruby says, looking as surprised as me. "Penny, I don't… I don't think I understand…"

"Most girls are born, but I was made. I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura." Penny says, looking down at her hands. "I'm not real…"

"That's silly, you're still a real person, just as much as we are!" Ruby exclaims.

Lukas shakes his head and walks closer to Penny, and then starts speaking, "Penny, I've been to a lot of places in my life, and that's led me to meet a lot of different characters over the years. Some…" Lukas turns around and looks at me before continuing, "…not entirely terrible. Then again I've also met a lot of people I'd say are no more people than the Grimm. But you…" Lukas walks up and holds one of Penny's hands, rubbing her palm with his thumb. "You've got compassion, and goals. And I may not be the best with these kinds of things, but to me... You're about as 'people' as they come." he finishes.

"Yeah! It doesn't matter if you have nuts and bolts or squishy guts, you're a real person, Penny!" Ruby exclaims, taking Penny's other hand.

"Genuinely, from what little I've met of you, you're a better person than a plethora of clowns that I know. Plus, the way Lukas talks about you, I don't think he cares if you're a robot or not." I offer. Lukas goes a little red, but nods all the same.

"Wait, they're dating?" Ruby asks, tilting her head.

"You're all taking this rather well…" Penny says.

"Duh, you're not like those lifeless robots back there. If you have an aura, you have a soul, so you're a real person. That makes sense, I think…" I say.

"Aww, you guys are the greatest friends ever!" Penny says, pulling us all into a hug. How? I don't even know.

"I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower!" Ruby manages to get out.

Penny lets us go, and I stumble backwards before bumping into a dumpster. A rat jumps out of the dumpster, scaring me, and I accidentally fire off a fire bolt at it. I completely fucking miss, don't get me wrong, and the rat darts off. After looking at the scorch mark that's now adorning the graffiti covered wall, sigh and mumble. "I'm sorry…"

"You know, my father is very sweet!" Penny says. "He made me, and I'm sure you guys would love him!"

"Damn, I only have to thank one person for making you? That's neat." Lukas says, and earns a small giggle from Ruby.

"Well, not quite. Mr. Ironwood helped build me too!"

"He… what?!" Lukas asks, looking somewhat ticked off.

"Wait, the general? Is that why those soldiers were after you? Ruby asks.

"They like to protect me too!" Penny says.

Ruby and I scoff at the same time, and I speak, "Yeah, ok. They don't think you can protect yourself?"

"They don't think I'm ready yet, even if one day I'm going to save the world! That's why I'm here, so I can watch the Vytal Festival and see the real world a bit." Penny says.

"Wait, wait, save the world? Are we not in a time of peace?" I ask.

"Yeah, what's that about?" Ruby asks.

"Well, Mr. Ironwood said that we weren't…" Penny trails off, looking confused.

"Of course he did…" Lukas sighs.

"Check down here!" I hear from down the alleyway we came.

"Son of an emerald whore…" I mutter, turning to the alley. Before I even know what's going on I, along with Lukas and Ruby, are thrown into a dumpster. An empty dumpster, but a dumpster.

"Swear jar." Ruby says after we've been forcibly relocated.

"Oh for fuuuudge's sake. Yeah. Fudge." I say.

"They're good people I promise, I just don't want to get in trouble. You guys need to stay quiet, and promise that you don't tell anyone about this. Please, promise me." Penny pleades to us.

I'm the first to speak, seeing as the other two were still putting together the fact that they got tossed into a dumpster, "Yeah, we promise. This isn't the first time I've had to keep someone's secret identity a secret. Or the second time. Or the third… Geez, I should carry a cyanide pill in case I get captured."

"Ok, ignoring that last part, yeah, we won't tell a soul, Penny. Stay safe." Lukas says after elbowing me.

Ruby pokes her head out of the lid, and Lukas and I can hear the following dialogue.

"There she is!"

"Sal-u-tations, officers!" Penny greets.

One of the soldiers speaks, "Why were you running? And what happened to the other girl? Someone said they saw two guys running after you, too."

"What people? I've been by myself all day!"

Penny says before loudly hiccuping.

The first soldier grumbles, "You shouldn't cause such a scene..."

What I'm guessing is a second soldier, who sounds a little kinder, speaks up, "Are you okay?"

"Just a scratch." Penny proclaims.

"Penny, your father isn't going to be happy about this." the first person says.

"Please, just come with us." the second voice says.

"Yes, sir!" Penny exclaims, and we can hear their footsteps trailing off.

"So…" I start, "that was… a lot."

"Yeah, sure was…" Ruby nods.

"She's still my girlfriend, that's not changing." Lukas says.

"I'll add to the list of reasons you hate Ironwood, I guess. Keeps your girlfriend from you." I say, shifting around a bit for a little more room. Lukas nods.

"So, what were you guys doing here?" Ruby asks, sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees.

As I cross one leg over the other I speak, "Shopping. I was looking for models, and he was looking for… what was it?"

"A type of armor for my hoodie." Lukas says, pushing a gum wrapper off of his shoulder.

"That's neat!" Ruby exclaims, smiling a bit. She then suddenly holds out her hand to me, "You swore. Pay up." I sigh, and hand her a one. "Thanks! You're definitely the top contributor to the jar! Right behind Yang." Ruby says before giggling.

"Oh, before I forget, what were you two doing?" Lukas asks Ruby.

"Well, uh, it's a bit of a story." she says. When Lukas and I don't say anything in response, she nods. "Got it. So, uh, Blake had a problem the other day, right? Well, she wanted to look into why the White Fang was working with Roman, it didn't sit well with her. So, we're all doing our parts to help investigate and such! Weiss went to the CCT tower to get info from the SDC, Yang and Neptune went to a nightclub to get some information, Blake and Sun went to a White Fang rally, and I… got distracted with Penny."

"Wait, wait, Blake's at a what?" I ask. "Is she safe?"

"She's with Sun!" Ruby says.

"That's probably a no…" Lukas says, smirking.

Just then, Ruby's scroll starts going off, the sound echoing through the dumpster. I cover my ears while Lukas pushes open the lid. Ruby turns down the volume as she accepts the call, and Blake's voice can be faintly heard. Not loud enough to make out anything, though…

"Try turning it up?" Lukas says.

"Y-yeah, I'm trying…" Ruby says.

"Big robot! And it's big! Really big!" Sun shouts. "That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something!"

"Well that answers that. C'mon folks, we're going." I say.

"Wait, but this doesn't have to involve you guys. You don't have to come, or anything." Ruby says.

"Sorry, but this isn't up for debate. We're going." I say, making sure that my gauntlets are on properly. I then hoist myself out of the can, and watch as Lukas and Ruby follow suit.

Ruby nods, and speaks into the scroll, "I'm on the way, and Doge and Lukas are with me!"

"How? Why? Never mind…" Blake says.

"Where are you guys?" Yang asks, presumably to Blake and Sun.

"HURRY!" Sun shouts back, and in the video display I can see a glimpse of Yang's bike, with her and Neptune on it.

"That answers that..." Yang says before disconnecting the call.

Ruby, Lukas, and I sprint down the alleys, eventually finding ourselves underneath the bridge that everyone else is on.

"So, how exactly are we supposed to help them?" I ask, lackadaisically pointing a finger at the bridge. The sounds of car horns, and metal meeting metal can be heard.

"Well, if we-" Ruby starts, but is nigh immediately cut off by the giant mech that Sun was blabbering about slamming through a barrier, taking a bit of concrete and rebar with it when it tries to grab onto the road. Soon after it slams into the ground and immediately gets up, facing us.

"That's how." Lukas says, pulling up his hood and obscuring his face in shadows. With his revolver in one hand and Solace in the other, he springs to action, heading left.

"Riveting…" I say, drawing Hell's Retriever and breaking right.

"Freezer Burn!" Ruby shouts. As I'm trying to figure out what that could mean, Weiss appears from somewhere and covers a portion of the ground in ice. Yang then flies down and slams her gauntlets into the ground, sending mist through the area. Ok, lovely, they have code names for their attack plans. I'm totally stealing that idea for my team, but that's for another time. As said mist coats the battlefield, a laser sweeps the area and lands directly on my chest.

"Oh, that's probably bad…" I say, before Blake suddenly pulls me down as a barrage of bullets rip through the air at where I was just standing.

"Are you insane?" she asks as the mech fires off rounds at another direction.

"Do… Do I really have to answer that?" I ask.

"Listen, I've had to deal with Sun for the past few hours, just…" Blake trails off, before Ruby shouts again.

"Checkmate!"

Blake gets up and sprints at the mech, her and Weiss doing their best to attack it. I pull myself up, and take a grenade in my hand. Can't get in the way, but need to deal some damage. This'll be easy…

I watch as two blurs attack the mech, one stabbing at it, and the other almost getting stepped on. A flash of light below the second figure sends them backwards, and as I watch Blake dig her heels into the ground. A barrage of missiles flies at her and Weiss, so I decide to intervene a bit. While running to the side I lob a few fireballs at the mech, blowing one of the rocket racks clean off the mech. Weiss is nailed by an energy blast and is sent tumbling, but fires a shot of some kind at the faunus girl. The glow of a yellow glyph appears below Blake's feet, and she cuts apart several rockets that had been aimed at her. The pose she hits after neutralizing the attack is a bit much, but I wouldn't really expect less from Blake.

The mech turns to me, and a laser is on my chest once more. With both girls clear, and the aggression focused on me, I take my chance. As I would soon find out, it was the same time as Lukas did, apparently. Whenever a blast of energy is fired at me I use a burst of flames focused at my feet to send myself onto the mech. After landing on the cockpit, I clamor out of the way of one of the arms and find Lukas on the back, digging into the hull with his semblance electrified hands and Solace. I pull the pin on the bomb and jam it into the hole he created. We both kick off of it after sharing a fist bump, because we're just cool like that. Or so I'm telling myself. With a roll to ease my fall, all is well. Looking back at my handiwork, the mech's now sporting a nice inferno on its back, sparks shooting out of the other missile rack. I laugh to myself at how much damage has already been done, as Ruby shouts once more.

"Ladybug!"

That's Blake and Ruby, isn't it? My suspicions are confirmed as the two I assumed were being referred to get to work. Both girls attempt to tear apart the legs, but aren't getting much ground, if I'm being honest. I scowl, but then notice Yang's trying to find an opening.

"Hey, Yang!" I call out. She sees me, and I gesture towards the robot. Yang nods, and I just hope she knows what I mean. The blonde girl starts running full sprint at the mech, and I take that as my sign that she knows where I'm going with this. I sheathe my sword so I can use both hands for this following maneuver; After creating a nice jet of flame, I use it to send Yang flying up and at the mech. She starts pummeling the ever loving fuck out of it, as the mech tries to bat her off of it's back. Failing to do so, it slams itself through two of the support beams holding up the bridge, digging Yang into the third. Just as it goes to punch her, the arm starts to convulse due to a jolt of electricity, and Ruby's scythe cuts it off. Lukas and the red clad girl sprint out of the way of the debris as the severed limb tumbles down. Yang gets back up, her hair an almost white color, and her eyes a deep red.

Once again charging at the mech, it sprays the ground at my feet with machine gun fire. I raise a wall of flame to block the shots, but as I drop it I'm met with a metal foot right in the face. My sunglasses are destroyed, and I'm sent tumbling.

"Doge!" Lukas shouts before turning back to the mech to see Yang slam her fist into the cockpit and heavily denting it. The mech swats her away before spinning back at me.

"I'm not done yet, don't worry. I'm done fucking around!" I shout in return, getting back up.

"Swear jar!" Ruby yells before getting hit by the mech and sent a couple feet backwards. She digs her scythe into the ground to stop herself, and glares at the mech.

With a newfound burst of energy I rush forward, as Blake wraps Gambol Shroud around the robot's legs, temporarily binding it. My aura is forced into my fist as I jump into the air and slam my hand down into the cockpit, it getting further dented. I then send a jet of flame at the cockpit, sending it flying up and off with a burst of embers and flames. I then land back on solid ground while Blake dashes to the left.

Ruby shouts out, "Bumblebee!"

"You bastard! Do you know how much this thing costs, Firecracker?!" the pilot, Roman Torchwick himself, shouts. The mech cocks back in order to punch me whenever Yang comes flying in on Gambol Shroud.

"That's my nickname, not his!" she yells, punching the mech's fist away and taking my hand. Just then I see Ruby and Weiss rushing at it from opposite angles, cutting and stabbing at the mech from virtually everywhere, both of them using their semblances to bounce around the suit. Yang then lets go of the rope and we land firmly on the mech before she throws Roman out of it and onto the ground while I toss a grenade into the now empty cockpit. We both land in front of the wreck, with me giving a mocking bow to Roman as the mech becomes little more than a raging inferno behind me. Yang fires a shot at Roman, but it's blocked and knocked away by an umbrella of some sort? Blake and Lukas are both on my left, with the other three being on my right.

"Ladies, gentlemen, Ice Queen…" Roman says.

"Hey!" Weiss yells.

"Always a pleasure. Now, Neo, if you will-" Roman starts, but is cut off.

"No the fuck you don't! HONORBOUND!" someone shouts, as a loud, metallic thud can be heard a few yards to the side. Lavender lands, absolutely seething at everyone. There's a white, transparent dome around him, Roman, and Neo, which fades soon after. He then starts shouting at everyone indiscriminately, "Do any of you know how much property damage you just caused?! And how many people are hurt?!" No one says a word, and his eyes land first on the criminal duo, both of whom look rather uncomfortable. "First off! Ice Cream Shortstack! You were supposed to be watching my fucking daughter! What the fuck are you doing here?!" he asks, to which the woman who Roman called Neo just shrugs. "Fucking Torchwick! What the fuck was all of that? The casualties from your little run across the bridge are in the dozens!"

Godsdamn, what happened earlier to cause that many people to be hurt? I notice Blake is starting to stray off, probably attempting to sneak off unnoticed. Lavender does too, however, and sprints over to her at insane speeds. "HONORBOUND!" That same dome envelops her, and he grabs her by the arm. "CONSEQUENCES HAVE ACTIONS!" he yells, dragging her back.

The anger I'm feeling for seeing Blake getting dragged around like this fades for a moment as I question his wording, "Isn't it actions have consequen- AGH!" I yell as Blake is full on thrown into me by the armor clad man. I land flat on my ass, and Blake slides down my chest, groaning. She eventually uses me as a support to pull herself up, but makes absolutely no move to get off. Granted, I don't make any move to get her off, but that isn't the point. It dawns on me that Sun and Neptune are nowhere to be found. Lovely.

"Anyone else want to be a smart ass?! No? Great. Man, I thought you were cool, too." Lavender says, pointing at me.

"Oh, fuck you." I say.

"No thanks!" Lavender shouts.

"What? No, I have a… Oh, whatever, fuck off…" I trail off. I then sigh, and just look down at Blake for a moment. I'm met with her amber eyes looking right into my very being, and there's a subtle rumble of some kind? I don't know. We exchange a final glance before we both turn back to the ranting.

"Now! In case you haven't picked up on it, whenever I say 'honorbound,' you're stuck within an area with me, and you lose access to your semblance. If anyone else wants to fucking try me, be my guest!" Lavender yells, and waits a few seconds. "No?! Great! Now, start fucking explaining!"

Weiss speaks up, "Well, for your infor-"

"HONORBOUND!" Lavender yells as the transparent dome covers all of us, and I suddenly feel colder, and a cold sweat starts to form. I do not like the feeling of having my aura stripped, and neither does my body, apparently. I notice Lukas seems to lose consciousness for a moment, before dropping to his knees. "Now I'm gonna stop you right there, with your built like a twig in a gingerbread house rotting and covered with flies looking ass! Let me break it down for you just like I'm going to break each of your fucking bones if you don't shut up; you are not in control here! I want you to look at my waist for a second. Not the pole axe on my back, no, I wouldn't need that for your scrawny self. I mean the pouches filled with enough dust to level this and the next few blocks with ease! Now, I don't have any fire dust, and I'm assuming that's because you decided to cover the bridge in ice, based on your color scheme! Nice job causing a pile up, by the way, you're lucky if no one dies because of that! So, if you don't have anything else to say, I'll avoid shattering your knees and reminding you of where you fall on the food chain, alright?!" Lavender finally finishes, and I can hear Weiss quietly sniffle.

Yang speaks up, "How dare you talk to her like tha-"

Lavender immediately snaps at Yang, "Don't even get me started on you little miss property damage! You should be a respectable young woman, you look like you just got into combat school unlike the actual fucking child over there!" he points at Ruby before turning his rage back to Yang, "How the fuck do you manage to cause property damage whenever both you swing at people, and when they swing at you? Remind me if you will, how much did S rank huntsman Taiyang Xiao Long have to pay Junior to avoid a lawsuit?! The fucking millions?! Yeah! Not talking now, are you?!"

A silence falls over everyone, and I start to feel a more intense rumbling of sorts on my chest… Is… is Blake fucking purring? Can she do that? Now? Of all times, now? Lavender apparently hears this, as his head snaps to us, "Are… are you fucking kidding me?" he asks, his voice getting higher as he speaks to the point where it sounds like he's on the brink of… something? Be it crying or killing everyone, I really can't tell. "Are you fucking purring?! Now?! You let me manhandle you, throw you into your little boy toy, chew out Prissy Ice Queen, Blonde with Tits, and the actual fucking child, and then decide to purr? Now? You have set us as a species back generations, with that bullshit. The faunus rights movement is doomed as long as people like you continue to exist. What the fuck is it with cat faunus in particular deciding that stereotypes are a fucking to-do list? Fucking hell! Ooh, look at me, I have mommy and daddy issues and can't tell the right time for giving or receiving affection, ooh! Seriously, not in the comfort of your own home, but on a battlefield? Really? You couldn't wait a simple ten or so minutes before crawling into his lap and purring? Are you fucking me right now? Just for that bullshit I'd kill us all, me included if it wouldn't be hypocritical concerning property damage! Fuck! I hate all of you so fucking much, but you especially!"

He takes a breath, and then turns to me, "I seriously thought you were cool, but this?! Squared?!" he yells, pointing at first Blake in my lap, and then the heavily damaged bridge. "Come on, man!" Another silence falls upon us, this time lacking the purring of Blake. "Does anyone else want to say or do some dumb shit?!" Not a sound escapes anyone, minus another small sniffle from Weiss. "Great! Now onto the fact of the matter, what the fuck happened here?!" Honorbound drops, and I can feel a bit of warmth return to my body, as sparks start to shoot from Lukas and he falls back to his knees. I stand up, and Blake does too, though she doesn't exactly get far from me.

"Now, now, Tincan…" Roman starts before Lavender draws a hand crossbow from his hip and points it at Roman.

"You don't get to call me that. Try again." Lavender says.

"I have an au-" Roman starts before getting shut down again.

"Yeah? And this is an ice dust tipped arrow. I'll freeze you in place motherfucker, try again."

Roman fidgets with his sleeves, and does indeed try again, "Well, you see, I was just taking my brand new mech for a test drive whenever these… charlatans attacked me!"

"Bullshit!" Yang yells.

"S-swear jar…" Ruby mumbles.

"I was simply speaking at a rally, whenever Kitty over there shot at me!" Roman says, pointing his cane at Blake.

"Lying bastard! I shot the fuse box so you wouldn't kill us!" Blake says, definitely more involved than she was previously. I notice her bow aggressively twitch as she stomps a foot forward, almost as if she's getting ready to run at Roman.

"Swear jar…" is hardly audible from Ruby once again.

"Oh, that's such a harsh way to look at it, don't you think?" Roman says.

"What's harsh is how I'm going to slit your throat, Torchwick!" Blake shouts.

Lavender growls for a moment, and then shouts again, "Listen up! We're not fucking doing this! I want answers, not deflecting and pissing contests! You!" he points at me. "Explain!"

"What? Why me?" I ask.

"Explain."

"Fucking kill me…" I preemptively toss twenty lien to Ruby, and start speaking, "Ok, so, let me tell you my point of view. I was just having a nice relaxing day, and then I got a distress call saying that a big fucking robot was strolling through Vale, yeah? Well, I show up, and then bumblefuck over there comes barreling off the bridge at Mach Fuck, before he immediately tried to shoot me! So, in a nice little display of self defense, I, along with my friends, reduced that bowler hat wearing bastard's mech to scrap, and I'd fucking do it again!"

"That was borderline useless. I expected better from you." he says.

"The hell, man?" I ask.

Lavender then snaps to Yang, "I hate myself for even asking this, but what's your point of view?"

Yang immediately starts speaking, "Yeah, ok, so-"

"I changed my mind, shut up." he says. "You!" he says, pointing at Weiss. Weiss just sniffles again. "Good, you know your place. You!" he points at Ruby. "If you can keep up with your little swear jar, you can give me a cohesive explanation."

"W-well, it's basically what D-Doge said…" Ruby stammers out.

"Fucking useless. Ok, next!" Lavender points at Lukas. Lukas is still on his knees, and sparks are occasionally flying off of him. "Noted." Lavender says. "Alright, fine, you're up you My Dust Romance reject." he says, glaring at Blake.

"He attacked us first, and was deliberately attacking civilians to get to us before we threw him off the bridge!" Blake says.

"Good! Progress! Roman's going further on the shit list by the second! Roman! What the fuck?!" Lavender then turns back to Roman, who looks a bit worried at being called out.

"She literally shot at me!" Torchwick says.

"So you caused a fucking pile up?! That's two of you, including Snowflake over there!" Lavender yells, his armor rattling. He then stops for a moment and takes off his helmet before popping a piece of jerky into his mouth. We can't see his face, due to a balaclava with frost on it, almost as if it was ice dust weaven, or something? The sounds of smacking can be heard before he speaks once more, "Alright. I feel bit better. Ice Cream, you're up. You have my number, don't try playing coy." Neo slightly stiffens up, and starts typing on her scroll. Lavender seems pleased with this. "Great! Now, if I see, hear, or smell any of you bitches move, I will air this whole bitch out!"

I notice that I'm kind of thirsty, probably thanks to sweating earlier, so I take my flask off of my hip and start sipping on it. The tea's still warm, which is nice.

"Are you fucking drinking?!" Lavender asks, his violet eyes boring down on me.

"Oh, uh, no, it's tea. I made it in my room earlier." I say, before taking another sip.

"Good answer. If that was alcohol I would have killed everyone. Fucking kamikaze in this bitch." he says.

"Can I have some?" Blake asks. I nod and hand it to her. She starts sipping on it whenever we're snapped back to reality by, take a wild fucking guess, Lavender.

"Have some respect, woman! Damn! I fucking hate all of you!" Lavender half shouts. Blake didn't even fucking do anything this time, but like, alright. At least it isn't full shouting anymore? The sound of windchimes can be heard, before Lavender abandons everything he was doing, goes somewhat slack, and pulls out his scroll. As his eyes scan the texts sent by Neo, and his expression slightly chills out. He then realizes that his helmet is still off, and hastily puts it back on. "Ok, listen… I'm tired, I'm sure you're all tired, we need to come to a solution. Roman, you and I are going to have a long talk later. Neo… just don't pull that again. And you, the gremlins who're under that silver haired, clock tower dwelling fuck… just leave. This isn't over, but leave."

None of us wait for him to change his mind, and we head off, though I have to help Lukas walk for a bit. What I'm guessing happened is that having his aura and semblance ripped away fried his brain, as he was thinking at normal speeds for the first time in years. The second he kind of got used to it, though, his aura came back and sent everything back to his 'normal' speeds, shocking him further. We all start on the walk back to Beacon, and I yawn.

"Well, that was… eventful…" Ruby says. "Oh, Blake and Yang, swear jar money." The two girls sigh before each handing Ruby a one. Ruby nods cheerfully, mostly unphased now that everything's over. We continue walking until we pass a noodle shop, where Sun and Neptune are currently enjoying themselves. How fucking dare they?

"Are you two fucking kidding me?!" Lukas shouts, immediately followed by me...

"What the fuck are you two doing here?! Where were you?!" I shout, a flurry of ashes falling around me.

"Where the fuck did you go?!" Yang shouts.

"Whoa, whoa, you guys had it handled, didn't you?" Neptune says.

"And we almost didn't! Where the fuck did you go?!" Lukas yells.

"We were hungry, so we went to grab some dinner." Neptune says.

"Plus," Sun says, "We were going to come help after we were done."

"We were?" Neptune asks.

Wow… Uh… I could strangle a bitch right now. A blue gumball sonuvabitch specifically, but like…

"I hate it here." Lukas says.

"Genuinely, you both suck. The monkey sucks slightly less, but you both suck. Fuck you, I hope you both stub your toes in the dark while looking for a midnight snack of raw cheese, fall over and hit your head on a counter, get a nosebleed, and choke on your own blood, you fuckboys. Have an alright at best evening." I say before walking off on my own, and throw in my earbuds.

"Is… is he ok…?" asks Sun, watching me storm off, hands stuffed into my pockets.

"It's been a long night… I'm not even going to ask for swear jar money that time…" Ruby says, sighing and following after me. One by one, the rest of Team RWBY does so as well, leaving just Lukas with Sun and Neptune. Lukas zaps Neptune specifically with his semblance before jogging off to catch up with the rest of us.

"Damn…" Sun says.

"Do they hate me or something?" Neptune asks.

"Eh, they might come around at some point or another. Or not. Who knows, dude?" Sun says.

"You're probably right. Anyways, do you want to get another two bowls of ramen? I'm still kinda hungry."

"Yeah."

Well, right on time! Don't have much to say, other than the fact that the next chapter will be out in two weeks.

See ya later, nerds, and thanks for reading.