Chapter 28: The Hunting League of Justice
Patch, Vale. Thirty Minutes Ago…
Team RWBY were cooling off after a hard day's workout when Yang pulled out four large boxes and handed out one to each of her teammates. "Good work, girls! Eat up!"
Weiss and Blake shared a confused glance. "Yang, do you expect us to eat an entire box of donuts?" Weiss asked as she opened her own box.
"Oh, sorry. Force of habit." Yang shrugged after biting into a jelly donut. "When my dad was teaching me how to use my Semblance, we found out that Ruby and I have to eat a lot because our Semblances burn through a ton of energy."
"Oh, is that what it is?" Ruby asked, brushing powdered sugar off of her lips. "Huh, I just thought I was dying."
Weiss, Blake, and Yang stared at their leader in shock.
"What do you mean you thought you were dying?!" Weiss spluttered.
"I dunno." Ruby shrugged. "I'd just feel really weak after I ran for a while. I just - I thought I was dying."
"Well, why the hell didn't you ever say anything to me or dad?!" Yang asked, equally upset.
"Well, I'd eat a bunch of cookies to clear my head, and then I'd feel much better."
"You would eat and then feel better, and you… you never connected those dots?" Blake shook her head in exasperation. "A-and what if you actually were dying? Like, what was your plan?"
Before she could reply, Ruby got a call on her scroll. Quickly gaining a smile once she saw it was Svetlana, she put the vigilante on speaker. "Hi, Svetlana! What's up?"
"Ruby, listen to me, carefully." Krasnaya's voice echoed over the scroll. "Two hours ago, a terrorist group calling themselves the Princesses of Remnant attacked a casino in Shade City and took the entire city hostage claiming that they rigged several bombs all over the city. I'm already en route, but I won't be able to handle this on my own. I need you guys to help me."
Ruby shared a concerned glance with her team. "We're on our way!"
"Alright, but we are still having a serious discussion about how you were willing to neglect your own health!" Yang declared.
CFVY's Cafe, Vacuo. Twenty Minutes Ago…
Coco and Velvet expertly handed out coffee mugs and teacups to their patrons while Yatsuhashi baked pastries in the kitchen and Fox dutifully manned the cash register. With so much free time on their hands now that the Grimm attacks had dwindled, Team CFVY had decided to push forward and open a successful business. It helped that they set up shop near Shade Academy where there were plenty of young adults in need of caffeine to help them study.
Fox had just finished taking a new order when his scroll vibrated in his pocket, prompting him to answer. "Thanks for calling CFVY's Cafe, how can I-"
"Coco! Yatsuhashi! Velvet! Fox! Come in! I need help! Code red!"
"What? Like a lightish-red?"Fox replied. "Because, y'know, red is a pretty broad spectrum. There's scarlet, crimson, vermillion, burgundy-"
"Fox, listen!" Krasnaya interrupted. "Turn on the news! Once you and your team are brought up to speed, get them to come to Shade City!"
Argus, Mistrial. Ten Minutes Ago.
Team JNPR were scrolling through house listings to set up their own base of operations when Pyrrha's scroll vibrated on the coffee table. She noticed it was Svetlana calling and immediately answered.
"Hello, again, Svet-oh!" Pyrrha cupped a hand over her mouth. "Er, or Kras-ah! I'm sorry! Who exactly is calling?"
"It's me, Pyrrha." Krasnaya's distorted voice replied. "I take it you haven't been watching the news?"
"Are you kidding? As of yesterday, we are the news!" Nora grinned.
"Why, what's up?" Jaune asked.
"A terrorist group is holding Shade City hostage." Krasnaya replied. "Get your gear, and get over here. I already called RWBY and CFVY."
Pyrrha blinked in surprise. "Are you asking for help?"
"Yes!"
The entire team shared a nervous expression.
"You never ask for help." Ren pointed out.
"Just get over here!"
"Okay, okay, we'll be over as soon as we can," Jaune promised.
Shade City, Vacuo. Now.
Shade City had a reputation for being the entertainment capital of the Kingdom of Vacuo. With one hundred and thirty-four casinos, ninety-six hotels, fifty-seven amusement parks, and many beautiful natural sights to behold, many people came from all over Remnant for a good time. But tonight, something sinister was going on. A group of four women and a child had broken into the city's largest hotel, took an entire news crew hostage and claimed that they had set up several bombs all over the city to keep every citizen trapped inside the city.
Said news crew was currently broadcasting the terrorist group as their ringleader made a live announcement to the hotel's lobby, and by extension the world.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Allow me to introduce myself and my friends!" The wolf faunus grinned as she addressed the startled crowd. "My name is Bahama Blue Wolffe! But you can call me 'B.B.' And these are my fellow Princesses of Remnant! Y'see, we're in need of a vacation, and we decided to rent out this entire hotel!Rapunzel Gilded likes to let her hair down, Jackie and Jill Slime need to hydrate, and sweet little Silver Dream is in need of a good night's sleep!"
The crowd glanced at the youngest member of the group who was napping in a cushy armchair.
"... case in point." B.B. nodded before carrying on. "So, as I was saying, we'll be staying here for the night and would appreciate some privacy. You can go anywhere else, just don't try to leave the city or I'll huff… and I'll puff… and I'll BLOW THE CITY UP!"
The wolf faunus took a deep breath and her Semblance created a huge gust of wind, startling the crowd away. Once the area was cleared out, B.B. ordered the kidnapped camera crew to continue broadcasting. "Now, allow me to explain who we are and what we want."
The group lined up on the stage as B.B. began to tell the tale, showing off their Semblances as she did.
"You see, we five were each taken from our families by our respective kingdoms and sold to a militia faction so secretive, even we never knew who they were." The faunus began. "All we knew was that they wanted to use our Semblances as weapons. But, unfortunately for them, they trained us a bit too well. We escaped and now, we want revenge on our kingdoms for selling us out! I, B.B. Wolffe, can use my super-powerful lungs to create entire hurricanes!"
She took a deep breath and blew down a solid concrete wall.
"Rapunzel Gilded has complete control over her hair!"
Rapunzel's hair began to spread out and grab multiple objects.
"Jackie and Jill Slime can control all forms of water!"
The twins smirked and increased the pressure of the fountain behind them to blow a hole in the roof.
"And our sweet little Silver Dream…"
Silver was sound asleep in an easy chair next to the twins.
"... well, we'll get back to her later." B.B. shrugged. "In any case, we could easily force out everyone in the city with our abilities, but where's the fun in that? So I've set up a bomb within the city, and only Krasnaya and the teams that helped take down Salem are allowed to try and stop it. If anyone else makes an attempt, I press a button on a detonator I have and boom! There goes the neighborhood. Now we realize that just talking about our plans is kind of boring to you watching at home, so we've set up cameras all over town to catch all the action, and since every good suspense show needs a ticking clock, there should be one appearing in the corner of your TV screens at home."
Sure enough, everyone around Remnant watching the broadcast was given a timer at the corner of their screen reading thirty-five minutes. On Patch, Taiyang and Raven watched with anticipation, knowing that their daughters were on their way to deal with this. In Atlas, Winter was arguing with Ciel about whether or not to send in specialists to help Weiss and the others. In Menagerie, Kali placed a calming hand on Ghira's shoulder to assure him that their daughter knew what she was doing.
Back in Shade City, the Princesses of Remnant were laughing and celebrating amongst themselves as they watched everyone on the streets frantically run circles outside while their hotel had been almost completely cleared out. B.B. blinked upon noticing via one of the cameras she currently had access to that there was an old lady who was still at one of the slot machines completely ignorant of what was happening around her. "Err, excuse me Miss, but you were told to leave, weren't you?" she asked through the building's loudspeakers that she had managed to hijack.
"Yes, but there's no way I'm moving from this spot until I've gotten the jackpot…or until I've run out of lien in the bucket I brought with me: whichever comes first."
"Well, don't let me stop you," B.B. said with a shrug, recognizing that, while not something that she had expected, this wouldn't affect her plans in the slightest, so she wouldn't let it bother her. She turned back to her crew to get phase two of their plan underway.
"Alright, you three spread out and get ready for trouble." B.B. ordered before turning towards the snoring child and giving her a gentle nudge. "Silver, wake up."
The girl jolted awake and rubbed the sand from her eyes. "Mmmm, I was having a nice dream." She mumbled, tiredly.
"Sorry, kiddo, but I'm gonna need you to be alert for the next couple hours. It's showtime. And here comes the guest star of the hour~!"
The boss pointed towards one of the screens which displayed a customized Manta landing in the center of the city. Out stepped the Crimson Crusader of New Rushland, herself; Krasnaya.
"And she's wearing red. Always chic."B.B. faux-swooned, only to frown upon noticing a group of four other hunters drive up on the other side of the city. "Hello, who are these fashion-disasters?"
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!" Coco's voice echoed around the entire city.
"Whoa! Calm down, luv!" Velvet spoke, soothingly, as she and the others exited the car.
"Oh, uh, sorry. I just felt… a disturbance." Coco claimed. "C'mon, let's find Big Red and get to the bottom of this!"
At that very moment, the Crimson Crusader had been searching the city for the bomb when a water main pipe suddenly burst from the ground and sprayed a powerful stream of water at her. Jackie and Jill Slime used their shared semblance to surf on the artificial wave as they searched for their prey.
"Where'd she go?" Jackie asked, eyes scanning the street.
"Let's split up. She's here somewhere." Jill suggested.
The Crimson Crusader, meanwhile, had hidden behind an abandoned RV where she combined her weapons and converted them into a rifle. She loaded a cartridge of ice dust and quickly fired at Jackie's wave. The terrorist found her feet trapped in ice while her sister took advantage of Krasnaya revealing herself and fired another powerful stream of water at her. Jill summoned a bubble of water around Krasnaya's head, trying to drown her.
But someone fired a rapid stream of bullets at the glacier that trapped Jackie, causing her to fall to the ground and a chunk of ice to strike Jill in the head, breaking her concentration. Coco stepped forward and confidently blew the smoke from her weapon.
"Hey, CFVY, nice of you to drop by." Krasnaya smirked.
"Well, when Fox told us you needed help beating off a group of women, we came right away!" Coco proudly remarked, only to slap her forehead in frustration. "Gods dammit!"
"Nevermind." Krasnaya rolled her eyes. "Just help me capture one of these guys so that we can interrogate them about the bomb."
"Already on it." Velvet nodded before snapping a picture of Krasnaya's weapons with her camera and creating hard-light copies. "Let's do this!"
Jill recovered and summoned more water to her aid, blocking all of Velvet's blows. "Ha! You'll have to do better than that!"
"Ask and you shall receive!" …and that was all the warning that Jill got before she suddenly found herself getting punched in the face by Yang who had shown up alongside the rest of her team thanks to Ruby's semblance.
"Just for the record, I never want to do that again," Blake called out as she leaned against a wall in an uneasy fashion, almost like she was about to throw up due to what she had experienced, all while Weiss patted her on the back in comfort.
"My sister and I can help with that," Jackie said with a smug grin. "After all, you'll be too dead to even think of attempting it again rather soon."
"Over my dead body," Yang growled out, her hair catching on fire as she did, as she and her teammates got into a fighting stance.
"Please: you do know that water beats fire, right?" Jill called out.
"Yeah, well, my friends and I have been known to do the seemingly impossible fairly often." The Grimm Reaper declared as she fired an explosive round of fire dust at the pillar of water holding Jill up. As she collapsed, she split the pillar in half and used it to cushion her fall. Jackie tried to retaliate, but a blast of concussive energy blew her down to the ground.
"Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?" Jaune - having just used the energy cannon that had come with his new armor - felt the need to ask with his teammates close behind him.
Jackie tried to summon her water again, but a blast from Fox broke her concentration and drew her attention.
"Hey, why is a boy wearing pink armor?" Jackie asked no one in particular.
"It's!" Fox kicked Jackie in the stomach. "Lightish!" He kicked her in the head. "Red!" Then he swept his leg under both of her's, tripping her up.
"Ow! My Crown!" Jackie cried out in pain.
"No one does that to my sister!" Jill screamed as she rushed the blind huntsman. However, before she could lay a hand on Fox, Yatsuhashi drew his blade and used it to knock the twin across the city.
"Thanks, buddy." Fox smirked. "Now, mind helping me keep this one tied up for Krasnaya?"
"Sure! I've got just the handcuffs for the job!"
A short time later, the duo had escorted Jackie back to the group and forced her to her knees in front of the Crimson Crusader and Blonde Brawler. "Get your hands off me!" She grunted in discomfort. "And why are these handcuffs so sticky?!"
"Alright, never mind that: where's the bomb?" Yang demanded, all while privately suspecting she knew the answer to the thug's question, given the team that brought them.
"Oh, gee. This must be the part where I get so scared, I spill my guts." Jackie rolled her eyes. "You think I'm scared of you, Goldilocks? I'm more scared of what B.B.'ll do to me if I talk."
Krasnaya picked up the prisoner and dragged her into a nearby alley. She hoisted the young woman against the wall and glared into her eyes. "Let me give you one word of advice…"
Teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY watched with interest as Krasnaya whispered something to their captive. But what interested them more was how Jackie appeared to grow increasingly more frightened the more Krasnaya spoke to her. "Alright!" Jackie said, at last. "Okay! Okay! I'll tell!"
"What do you think she said?" Ruby asked her sister.
"I'm not sure I wanna know." Yang replied as a chill ran up her spine.
Krasnaya roughly pushed Jackie back towards the group where the criminal began to explain. "The bomb closest to here is at the Niagara Casino under the big roulette wheel."
"The closest bomb?" Blake asked with a worried expression, not liking the implications of that phrasing. "How many bombs are there?"
"We've got-" Suddenly, Jackie's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she began foaming at the mouth.
"She's having a seizure! Get back!" Krasnaya laid her down and reached into her utility belt for a tablet and forced the criminal to swallow, halting her seizure. Suddenly, a television came on next to the group.
"Sorry, Jackie-Girl." B.B. sighed. "That hurt me more than it hurt you, but you know what they say; 'snitches get stitches.'"
"You sadistic fuck!" Nora shouted. "How could you do this to your own woman?! How did you do this to your own woman?!"
"Ah, ah, ah. That would be telling." B.B. wagged her finger. "And besides, I'm sure Remnant's greatest detective can figure it out for you on her own."
Having heard enough, Ruby drew Crescent Rose and fired at the TV.
"Alright, we need to divide and conquer." Krasnaya surmised. "I'll head to the Niagara Casino and take care of the first bomb. RWBY and JNPR, you spread out and try to find the others, but don't touch them without calling me first. Fox, can you read Jackie's mind and find out where the other bombs are? Or how many?"
"I can try." Fox shrugged. "But after that, it'll be like trying to shift through the pieces of a shattered vase for one specific piece."
"Do your best, Fox." Coco gave her friend a firm pat on the butt. "We'll cover you."
Fox nodded and placed the tips of his fingers against Jackie's head, probing her mind for the information they sought. At the same time, Krasnaya headed straight for the Niagara Casino and broke down the door. Once she found the roulette wheel the terrorist had mentioned, she used her sickle to slice open the giant prop, revealing the bomb inside. After a brief moment to thank the gods that Tukson had taught her the art of disarmament, she holstered her weapons and reached into the pockets of her utility belt for a few more delicate tools as she set about opening up the explosive device.
"I'm at the first bomb." She called into her comm-link. "It's definitely homemade."
"Can you disarm it?" Yang asked over the comm.
"Fail safes, dummy leads, booby traps. It's a work of art." Krasnaya remarked. "But I'm a better artist." With that, the Crimson Crusader set about cutting the right wires.
Meanwhile, Fox was still struggling to reach inside of Jackie's broken psyche. It didn't help that while trying to find the number and locations of the bombs, he also discovered several disturbing images regarding the facility where Jackie and the other Princesses were trained and tested. Luckily, he finally began to piece together the information he was after.
"Fox, how're we looking?" Coco asked, still keeping a lookout.
"I-I'm working on it…" Fox grunted as he pushed the limits of his Semblance. "Okay, there's four… no, wait… seven… nine… twenty-five." He revealed, gravely, much to everyone's horror. "There are twenty-five bombs in the city. I'll send you all the locations."
"Hold that thought," Krasnaya declared. "I'll need a clear head to make the most of those locations, and I'm just about done with the bomb I already found."
No sooner had she said this, however, the timer on the bomb suddenly sped up, resulting in Krasnaya leaping back in an attempt to escape the blast radius…only for a bunch of confetti to burst out of the bomb, showcasing that it had been a fake.
"Surprise! There are indeed twenty-five bombs hidden throughout the city, but not all of them are real," B.B.'s voice suddenly declared from a nearby TV screen. "Then again, they don't need to be, as any one of the real explosives are enough to turn the city into a crater, and they're all set to go off in…" …and that's as far as B.B. got before she made a show of looking towards where the countdown timers she had set up would be located on the TV screens at home and faking a gasp. "Oh my goodness: that's not a lot of time!"
"Send me those locations, Fox," Krasnaya called out. "Everyone else, split up and find those bombs: we will not let this madwoman win!"
With a nod, the group split up to search for the bombs, with Fox projecting their locations into their minds. Pyrrha put on her goggles as she used her semblance to lift herself onto her shield and glide through the air towards the first location. However, a bullet struck the edge of her shield, causing it to flip and Pyrrha fell to the ground. She looked up to see multiple men and women in black uniforms with guns surrounding her.
"What the…?"
"Surprised?" B.B.'s voice called out from a nearby screen almost in response to the huntress' outburst upon seeing the armed goons. "You didn't think that my fellow Princesses and I were the only ones at that facility I mentioned who would be wanting a little payback, did you? No, no: we were just the most powerful of the bunch, but still, everyone else wanted a part in our little scheme, and the five of us couldn't be everywhere in the city at once, so I decided to let them have a little fun so as to make things more interesting."
"Well, she's not wrong about how this does make things more interesting." Pyrrha remarked. With a snap of her fingers, the squad's guns flew out of their hands and disassembled in the air. She got back on her feet and confidently cracked her knuckles, making the hit-men shiver in fear.
Meanwhile, Yang was propelling herself through the air with her gauntlets towards a famous Thai restaurant with a bomb inside.
"You sure you want to be the one to disarm this bomb?" Blake couldn't help but ask over their coms system. "After all, I'm not sure if your usual fighting style will mix with a literally explosive situation if a fight were to break out."
"Hopefully that won't be an issue, but I'll be sure to call for backup if I do indeed run into some trouble here just to be on the safe side," Yang reassured her wife even as she entered the restaurant. Once inside, she noticed the bomb was surrounded by several unconscious security guards and a single, tall bombshell of a woman with golden hair that ran all the way down to her ankles.
"Well, well, well, as I live and breathe." The woman smiled, wickedly. "Yang Xiao Long. The blonde brawler of Team RWBY. Hero of the Menagerie civil war. My name's Rapunzel. Y'know, your pictures really don't do you any justice. Hard to believe you popped a baby out of you."
"Thanks, but I'm not really in the mood for flattering chit-chat." Yang snapped back as she headed towards the bomb. "Step aside."
"Oh, I don't think so." Rapunzel whipped her head towards Yang, causing her long hair to collide with Yang's stomach like a bullwhip.
Yang grunted in discomfort as she was thrown through the plate-glass front window of the restaurant.
"Hey Blake? I'm going to need that backup," Yang said into her coms system even as she stared down Rapunzel.
"Sorry, Yang. I'm in the middle of disarming another bomb. Give me a few minutes."
Yang sighed and jumped back inside the restaurant to confront the "princess." Rapunzel's hair grew longer and began to move about, wrapping around several unconscious security guards' guns and aimed them all at Yang.
"Well, that's just cheating." Yang groaned.
"All's fair in love and war, Goldilocks." Rapunzel snickered as her prehensile hair opened fire on the blonde brawler.
Yang activated Dragon Fang and used it as a shield to block the bullets while taking cover behind a brick wall. Rapunzel unloaded every clip from the stolen pistols, then threw the pistols at her prey. The villain's hair extended even further until it lifted her off of the ground and she used it as limbs to stomp towards Yang. The blonde brawler looked up in shock as solid hair tendrils stomped down at her, forcing her to quickly evade.
"Get back!" Yang called out in frustration as the blows continued to hit her too quickly for her to find an opening. "I said, get BACK!"
…and that was all of the warning her opponent got before she suddenly found herself getting a face full of flames. Yang herself was surprised as her opponent quickly staggered back to try and deal with the sudden burns on her face before gaining a smile.
"Oho, I could get used to this," she declared even as some smoke blew out of her mouth to indicate that she was ready and willing to use her newly discovered fire breath if need be.
At the same time, Krasnaya was fighting off Jill Slime when she got a call from Grimm Reaper on her comm-link. "I found another bomb. How do I disarm it?"
"Hold that thought." Krasnaya reached into her utility belt for a capsule of ice dust and threw it at Slime, strapping her in her own water to give the vigilante some time. "Alright, Reaper, are you ready?" Krasnaya asked into her comm while Jill tried to break free.
"I'm at the first bomb. I'm ready." Ruby replied.
"Alright, first, carefully remove the red panel from the bomb, but make sure it doesn't touch the wires." Krasnaya began.
"Okay. What next?"
"Disconnect the wires in the following sequence; blue, orange, purple, yellow with black stripes, red, then green!"
Ruby rapidly plucked each wire from the bomb as her friend instructed her. Once the timer stopped, she tapped her comm in her ear again. "Okay, now what?"
"That's it. Move on to the next one."
"Got it," Ruby declared before running off to search the city for more bombs.
Meanwhile, Weiss had discovered another bomb beneath an artificial river and used the new dust crystal within Myrtenaster to scan it from a distance. Thanks to her newfound power, she was able to safely detect that there was no explosive payload inside. "This one's a decoy. Moving on to the next one."
"Aw, I was hoping someone would drown tryingto disarm that one." B.B. pouted as she spied on the huntress from her security room. "Ah, well! The night's still young! Let's see what everyone else is up to!"
And she did just that by tuning into the spy camera fixed on Krasnaya and Jill, showing that the former had broken the latter out of the ice to better intimidate her for interrogation.
"Where's B.B.?" Krasnaya demanded.
"You really think I'd give her up?" Jill fired back.
"Why not? She gave up on you," Krasnaya remarked.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about what's happening right now, or haven't you been watching the show?" Krasnaya called out as she let go of Jill and directed her attention to one of the big screens, with Jill following soon afterwards. "You've seen how she touches her hair, or the way that she rubs her shoulders."
Jill blinked upon noting that B.B. was indeed doing this to someone onscreen but still couldn't quite comprehend where Krasnaya seemed to be leading her. "What, you mean Silver Dream? She's just a kid."
"Really? Then why is she with B.B. while you're out here in the cold?"
Jill merely glared at Krasnaya before punching the vigilante in the jaw, seemingly causing her to stubble back and fall over unconscious.
"Have to admit: I hadn't seen that one coming," B.B remarked from where she was watching before looking at her watch. "Ooh, look at the time! We don't want to miss the rest of the action, now do we?"
Right as she had said this, one of the other bombs had been found. Ren cautiously, and slowly, went about following Fox's telepathic instructions, much to Nora's boredom. Losing patience, she grabbed the bomb, tossed it miles into the sky, and fired an explosive round from her grenade launcher to safely detonate it.
"I almost had it, you know." Ren remarked.
"Well, you'll have plenty of other chances soon, babe." Nora smiled before the couple found themselves surrounded by B.B.'s armada.
"Don't act so smug: we're all over the city, and even you can't take us all down before the city is destroyed," one of the goons called out.
"Well like our friend in Team RWBY said earlier, this wouldn't be the first time we've done the seemingly impossible." Nora grinned as she and Ren readied their weapons.
At the same time, Ruby and Weiss had disarmed a number of bombs throughout the city when Rapunzel suddenly landed in front of them. The terrorist tried to use her hair to attack Weiss, only for the Ice Queen to use her weapon to freeze the hair upon contact. Thinking fast, Ruby used her Semblance to burst over to some banners that were hanging around the area before using them to quickly tie up Rapunzel in a manner not unlike what one would see in an Egyptian tomb.
"Well that's a wrap," Ruby called out as her opponent struggled to free herself from her impromptu mummy state before suddenly sighing as if in response to said opponent's muffled shouts of rage. "Yeah, I know, and I'm sorry: I've definitely been hanging out with my sister a bit too much lately."
"Well, you've lived with her long enough." Weiss shrugged as she floated down next to her wife. "And your father. It was bound to happen eventually. It's not your fault their puns are awful."
Ruby blushed, slightly, and rubbed the back of her head with a modest smile. "Well, actually - full disclosure - Yang and my dad's puns are… actually my favorite." She admitted.
Weiss arched an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. They just tell so many. But whatever you do, don't tell her I said-" Ruby suddenly turned around to see Yang Xiao Long herself standing right behind her alongside her wife with wide eyes shining with stars and a toothy grin. The hooded huntress felt a heavy sensation of dread wash over her. "Yang. Yang, no."
"Yang, yes."
Before they could focus on Ruby's confession, however, Rapunzel burst free from her bonds and angrily lunged at Ruby. Acting on impulse, Yang pushed her sister out of the way and blasted the terrorist away with another burst of fiery breath.
"That's new." Ruby remarked with an impressed smile.
Yang merely chuckled even as bits of flame flickered from her mouth. "Yeah not sure yet if it means my Semblance evolved or if I finally discovered some magic that my Mom passed onto me when I was born, but either way, I'm not complaining."
"Well that'll certainly make make out sessions interesting," Blake remarked before smirking. "Not going to lie though: that's kind of hot and spicy right there."
Yang froze along with the others upon realizing what Blake had said. "Wait, did you just…?"
"What can I say? After a while I found some of your puns to actually be a-mew-sing," Blake declared with a teasing grin.
Yang couldn't help but snort in response to this. "If we weren't already married…well, I don't know Xiao Long I'd be able to wait to purr-pose to you."
"Well you know me: I wouldn't want things to dragon for too long and would likely purr-sue you myself after a while."
"Oh, no: now there's three of them!" Weiss groaned.
"Four." Ruby deadpanned. "Don't forget that my niece likes puns as well."
"Excuse me." Krasnaya's voice came over the comms. "I hate to break up this little gabfest, but there are still ten bombs spread out across the city!"
"Love to take care of them, but this guy just will not stay down," Yang growled out as she spotted Rapunzel getting back to her feet.
"Right, Ruby, see if you can find the other bombs. Weiss, you deal with the bomb here. Yang and I will keep our resident Princess busy," Blake called out with a stern expression even as she and her wife got into a fighting stance.
"Sounds like a plan," Ruby remarked with a nod. With that Team RWBY split up to take care of their assigned tasks.
Rapunzel, much to her own dumb luck, had landed next to one of the last two bombs in the city, giving her another chance to fight Yang once she arrived to disarm it. The blonde brawler tackled her opponent, allowing her team to handle the bomb. But just as Blake was about to remove the lid, a turret of water sprayed her away.
"Hey girls: did you miss me?" Jill mockingly asked as she prepared to help Rapunzel take down Team RWBY.
"About time you showed up," Rapunzel felt the need to call out. "Do you realize how many bombs this team alone was able to take out because you couldn't show up in time?"
"Well sorry: shockingly, emptying out the city means that there weren't a lot of taxis or buses available to help me get around the city faster," Jill mockingly responded with a roll of her eyes.
"Whatever: let's just take these girls down."
"Funny, I was just about to express the exact same sentiment," Blake declared as she and her wife got into a fighting stance.
Jill used an exposed water main to blast Weiss away, only for the huntress to use her ice dust to freeze it in place and send it straight back at her in the form of a herd of Boarbatusks. Ruby also recovered and ran circles around Jill to create a tornado to prevent her from helping Rapunzel against Blake and Yang. Likewise, Blake created numerous shadow-clones of herself to throw Rapunzel off while Yang made a break for the bomb. Unfortunately, the long-haired terrorist caught on to their plan and ignored the copies in favor of Yang.
"Oh, no, you don't!" She shouted, tackling Yang to the ground.
"Excuse me for a minute." Yang remarked before delivering an explosive uppercut to Rapunzel's chin, sending her flying high into the air.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!"
With her opponent otherwise indisposed and her teammates taking care of Jill, Yang opened the bomb's casing and followed Fox's instructions to carefully pull the correct wires in the correct sequence, disarming the explosive. After a sigh of relief, the blonde brawler looked upwards to await the return of Rapunzel.
"-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Said terrorist slammed back onto the ground, with her aura cushioning the blow.
Yang gripped her hair by the roots and angrily tossed her across the street. "Now where were we?"
Infuriated, Rapunzel used her hair to pick up a truck and swung it at Team RWBY. Ruby was knocked away, dispersing the cyclone and freeing Jill, who promptly blasted Weiss with another torrent of water. The truck then pinned Blake against a nearby wall, distracting Yang long enough for Rapunzel to trap every one of her limbs.
"You don't know what you're doing!" Yang grunted through the thick locks of hair wrapping around her.
"Sure I do: I'm kicking Team RWBY's butt!" Rapunzel growled out.
"But if that bomb goes off, we all die!" Yang reasoned.
"Please: with our powers, my fellow Princesses and I will easily survive the blast," Rapunzel boasted as Jill got up behind her. She tossed Yang into a brick wall and formed razor sharp tendrils again. "Why else wouldn't B.B. be all that concerned about us being out here?"
"Really? Then why is she with B.B. while you're out here in the cold?"
Jill instantly froze in place as what Krasnaya said to her earlier in regards to B.B. and Silver echoed through her mind before she turned and ran towards the door. "Oh no: this isn't a gamble I'm willing to take!" she called out while already plotting her next move.
"Coward!" Rapunzel yelled out before scoffing and turning back the others. "Fine: now it's just you and me."
"Yeah," Yang scoffed as she cracked her neck to signify that she was ready for the next round. "Now it's just you and us."
With that declaration, Yang quickly rushed Rapunzel and tackled her through another brick wall, then through a few roulette tables, and finally suplexed her onto a slot machine. Lien coins flew everywhere as the machine's alarm blared in a distorted tone. Yang hoisted Rapunzel back up by the scruff of her sweater, prepared to punch her in the face, when they both noticed they had smashed into the machine right next to the older woman from earlier. But the woman paid no attention to them, continuing to put in coin after coin, and pulling the lever.
"Geez, does anything faze that woman?!" Yang spluttered.
"You're asking the wrong person there," was the immediate reply as the two briefly watched in disbelief as the older woman continued to try and get the jackpot despite all of the carnage that they had just caused. Eventually though the two just shrugged and went back to fighting.
Yang tightly gripped the razor-sharp strands of hair with her cybernetic hand and flung her opponent out of a nearby window just as a storm of rose petals appeared beside her. "I've got her! Get to the bomb!"
Ruby nodded and rushed towards the final bomb while Yang dealt with Rapunzel. She carefully removed the cover just as she had before, only to be startled by the bomb's computer screen displaying B.B.'s face.
"You're running out of time, Little Red." The wolf faunus smirked.
"Shut up!" Ruby snapped.
"What kind of comeback was that?!" B.B. frowned. "At least put some effort into it for Maidens' sake!"
Ruby did her best to ignore the terrorist and remember Krasnaya's instructions.
"Not the blue wire!" B.B. shouted in mock-fear. "You'll blow us all to smithereens! You were right, the green one! I mean red! No, black with yellow stripes!"
Ruby growled in frustration as she tried to tone B.B. out and remember what Krasnaya had told her. The timer on the bomb now read that there were only two seconds left to disarm it. "Ah, screw it." She muttered before flashing her Silver Eyes, grabbing the bomb, and running away.
A massive explosion shook the ground, startling everyone.
"What the-? What was that?!" B.B. turned to one of the cameramen she'd taken hostage. "Get me an instant replay! Super-slow-motion!" She ordered.
The cameraman complied and rewound the security footage before playing it back at the requested speed. From there, they could see exactly what happened. Ruby had activated her Silver Eyes to enhance her Petal Burst just as she picked up the bomb. Afterwards, she sprinted out the door and ran past Yang, Blake, and Rapunzel as the blonde brawler smashed her opponent into the ground. Then, she ran past Jill just as the bomb began to detonate, frightening the criminal. By the time the bomb was starting to do any damage, Ruby had successfully moved it out of the city limits and outran the blast radius without so much as a scratch. B.B. and the cameraman could only gawk in awe at what they had just witnessed before B.B. gave an appropriate remark.
"... huh."
At the very same time, Rapunzel was keeping Yang and Blake at a distance with the razor-sharp ends of her hair-tendrils. "Aw, you spoiled all the fun!" She whined before piercing Blake's shoulder. "I'll just have to make my own fun."
Yang furiously kept trying to get close enough to her opponent to strike her while Blake cut the hair out of her shoulder. Suddenly, a few rose petals appeared from behind Rapunzel and Blake realized what her leader was planning. Ruby suddenly jumped over Rapunzel, swinging Crescent Rose into tangling up all of the tendrils, and landed right next to her sister.
"Now, Blake!" She shouted.
Blake didn't have to be told twice. She converted Gambol Shroud into a blade and sliced the hair off of Crescent Rose. Then Yang, who had quickly caught on, used her newfound fire breath once again to burn away what was left.
Rapunzel fell to her knees in shock and glanced down at the burnt clumps in her hands before trembling up towards her now-bald head. "M… my hair… what did you do to my hair?! YOU BROKE MY HAAAAAAAAAAIR!" The terrorist began to bawl, hysterically, letting tears flood out of her eyes as she kicked and flailed her arms like a child throwing a tantrum. "BWAAAAAAAAAAAAH HAAAAAAAAAAA! MY PRECIOUS HAAAAAAAAAIR! WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Wow, and I thought you were bad about your hair." Ruby cringed.
"Normally I'd be offended by that sort of statement, but when you're right you're right," Yang said with a shrug before gaining a small grin. "Still I'd say we did a good job here."
"Yeah, I can't wait to see how it looked on the playback," Ruby jokingly remarked in reference to how this whole night had been filmed.
"Was that great or what?" B.B. suddenly called out with a grin. "Let's give a big hand to our dashing heroes for stopping my bomb plot! Come on!"
Unsure of what else to do, the captive film crew nervously clapped as they were told.
B.B., meanwhile, walked up to where Silver Dream was sitting. "You know, our show was picked up by all the news channels, and the last thirty-five minutes or so has been running on the broadcast network. If my projections are accurate, we've got upwards of sixteen million people watching right now…which was the point all along. This whole thing was a stunt to get as many people watching as possible, and it worked! My fellow lab rats, Princess or otherwise, brought the conflict, our resident huntsmen and huntresses brought the star power, and I brought the shocking surprise ending. Everyone watching right now is witness to what my true goal has been all night," B.B. declared before turning Silver Dream so that she was facing the camera with her eyes wide open. "In less than five minutes, each and everyone watching will be reduced to what they are deep down: mindless animals."
Everyone watching had just enough time to be shocked by B.B.'s declaration before she continued to speak. "Can't stop looking, can you? I wish I could say it was my doing, but nope: this is the result of a dream: Silver Dream to be precise. 'Different', they called her. Some might have even called her a monster, with the fact that she ended up driving her own caretakers into a state of catatonic insanity when she was just a baby likely not helping one bit. Condemned for something she could barely comprehend, little Silver Dream soon found herself the unwilling guest of the government, but even they were scared of her power. Fortunately for them, they had a nice little headband that made her as harmless as a newborn kitten."
B.B. took this moment to massage Silver's shoulders. "Poor little Silver: all your life people have been recoiling in fear of you, which is something I personally can relate to. Maybe that's why I've never been afraid of you. You see, Silver Dream can send out thought waves that can alter perception, or to put it in terms even a child could understand, she can alter the way you think just by looking at you, whether in person or on TV. Even as I speak, millions of your lazy couch potatoes are losing your grip on reality, being reduced to an animalistic state, which I personally think would be something of an improvement for some of you out there. Oh, no doubt you want to look away, but you can't, even though you know something is terribly wrong. And the best part is I'm immune to all of this because I'm already in touch with my inner animal. Now, Silver: turn up the intensity of your power: unleash the animals within the souls of those watching all of this."
All over the city, Silver's Semblance was indeed having the effect B.B. had described on all of the citizens and hunters trapped inside the city. Yang and Ruby trembled as a heavy fog began to cloud their minds.
"We need…we need….to fight…to fight…" Yang muttered.
"Yeah…but I…can't…" Ruby whimpered.
On Patch, Raven had unconsciously transformed into her corvid-form and frantically flew around the house while Taiyang chased her like a rabid dog. In Atlas, Qrow was in a similar situation while Winter hissed and clawed at him, all while Ciel and Jim Ironwood struggled to maintain their grip on their sanity in order to contain the riot in Frigid Mountain Penitentiary, and Polu was the only person strong enough to restrain the feral Dr. Ember. On Menagerie, the faunus were having a slightly easier time handling what was going on, but several of the younger ones had very little willpower and quickly gave in.
Meanwhile B.B. could only chuckle as she watched the cameramen she had taken hostage likewise struggled to maintain their sanity. "It's only a matter of time. A few more minutes and millions are going to exchange going to the zoo to being part of a zoo," she declared with a wicked grin while stroking Silver's hair. "And it's all thanks to you, the best thing to have come out of being forced into that facility."
"What about me?!"
Upon hearing this declaration, B.B. froze and looked towards the doorway of the studio. "Jill?!"
Jill snarled as she started to advance on her fellow Princess. "Yeah, Jill, you worthless, two-timing, piece of-!"
"Wait, wait!" B.B. called out in a calming manner. "Wait. First off, watch the language: there are kids watching this. Secondly, we can't let all that we've been through fall apart due to a simple misunderstanding."
"And just what is it that I'm not understanding?" Jill sneered. "That you had that twerp give my sister brain damage?! Or that you left me and Rapunzel to get killed by the bombs?!"
"No, no, no, of course not." B.B. smiled, warmly. "That we are the Princesses of Remnant! This whole world is our oyster! And that we are much stronger together than apart."
"... yeah…" Jill smiled, softly. "I guess you're right."
"There's something else that you aren't getting though," B.B. remarked.
"What's that?" Jill asked.
"That you lead Krasnaya right to my doorstep!" B.B. snarled out before slapping her fellow "Princess" in the face, knocking her off balance before she collapsed on some nearby boxes.
"Tough love: very effective, don't you think so, Krasnaya?" B.B. casually remarked as she looked around the room. "Come now, Krasnaya: no use in hiding when I already know you're…"
…and that was as far as B.B. got before Krasnaya suddenly punched her in the face, knocking her off her feet in the process.
"Oh, there you are," B.B. casually remarked even as the Crimson Crusader approached her before looking over to the young girl in the chair. "Silver, why don't you give our guest here a piece of your mind?"
Silver Dream turned towards Krasnaya, bombarding her with the full-force of her semblance. Despite her incredible willpower, Krasnaya found herself overwhelmed by the mind-altering images flashing through her psyche. She had prided herself in the past for being immune to Loki's semblance, but this little girl was giving her a run for her money. While the vigilante struggled to fight off the psychic attack, B.B. took advantage of the distraction by punching Krasnaya in the jaw. The wolf faunus mercilessly beat her enemy to the floor before walking over to pick up a crowbar and lift it over her head.
"This'll make my rep forever." B.B. declared with a chuckle, which only increased as Krasnaya grabbed hold of her jacket. "Oho, still a little fight in you, I see. Shame it won't do you any good. It's time someone put you to sleep for good, Krasnaya." With that, B.B. brought the crowbar back so as to take the vigilante's head off.
Right as B.B. was about to bash Krasnaya's head in, however, the Crimson Crusader managed to pull out an electronic headband that had been hidden in a pocket of the criminal's jacket, one that Silver Dream was very familiar with, what with how it was the same one that had been used to keep her Semblance under control back at the facility…and B.B. knew it too as evidenced by the nervous reaction she quickly gained as Silver turned to give her a nasty glare. "It…it was just a souvenir," B.B. lamely tried to defend herself before hurriedly trying to pull the headband out of Krasnaya's hand.
"I'm not afraid of you," Silver suddenly declared as she got out of her seat, telekinetically pushing B.B. away from Krasnaya as she did. "I know what it's like to make others afraid of me, which is why I'm not afraid of you: I'm the only one."
"N…now, now, Silver: let's not do anything too hasty," B.B. nervously called out even as she turned away from her now-former ally in fear.
"Oh, don't worry: I won't kill you."
"Oh. Well, that's good," B.B. remarked as she looked back up with a smile before freezing as she noticed the absolutely enraged look on Silver's face. "...right?"
"Seeing how we were both part of the same facility, I figured you would know better than anyone that there are fates worse than death!" Silver snarled out.
"No! NO!" …and that was all B.B. had time to say before Silver unleashed the full wrath of her mental abilities on the false queen.
The Crimson Crusader could only watch in fascinated horror as B.B. yelled out in agony at the mental images that were no doubt assaulting her mind before suddenly collapsing with a brown stain on the back of her pants and a bit of drool coming out of her mouth.
"Is she…?" Krasnaya began to ask.
"No, she's still breathing, but she won't be waking back up again for a long time now," Silver declared, before turning to look at the Crimson Crusader. "So, what's going to happen to me?"
"That depends: are you planning on causing any further trouble?"
"Unless you give me a reason to, I don't plan to put up a fight," Silver remarked with a neutral expression.
"In that case, I'll do everything I can to make sure you get the help you deserve," Krasnaya promised.
Silver merely gave a slight smirk in reply. "You might just be the first person to say that whom I believe to be truly genuine in what they said."
Some time later, Silver watched as B.B. and the other people who had been held at the facility were loaded into vans to be taken to prison. B.B. was still catatonic while Jackie was finally starting to recover from her seizure. Jill sat next to her sister to bring her up to speed. And Rapunzel was still crying.
"I'M BAAAAAALD!" She sobbed.
"Ah, quit you're crying: it'll grow back," Yang called out before sighing upon realizing the looks she was getting. "Yeah, yeah: I already know that I'm a hypocrite for saying that, but come on: we all admitted that she was worse about her hair then I am."
"Touche." Ruby shrugged.
"An exemplary job, everyone." Everyone heard a voice call out; it was Agent James Ironwood, Jr. who had just arrived with a squad of Atlesian soldiers as back up.
"Oh, now you show up?!" Yang fumed.
"B.B. made it very clear what she would do if any outside assistance appeared." One soldier remarked.
"No, she made it clear what would happen if anyone who hadn't been there when we fought Salem showed up, so tell me: why didn't you give the okay for Ciel or Winter to provide assistance?" Jaune asked.
"We don't have to explain anything to you, you pompous…" …and that was as far as the soldier got before Agent Ironwood signaled for them to stand down.
"I sympathize with your frustration, but understand that we wanted to play things safe until we had a better understanding of the situation. With that said, you'll be happy to know that Ceil and Winter had already started to prepare to provide assistance regardless of this fact, but held off in the end after realizing that you had the situation well in hand. They even told me personally that they'd still storm the city if they had any doubt that you'd stop the Princesses here." James declared with an expression of fond understanding on his face.
"Sounds like Winter alright," Weiss replied with a light smile.
"Yeah, and that does line up with how Ciel generally operates." Ruby relented.
"Needless to say, we haven't been just sitting around and doing nothing all this time." Agent Ironwood continued. "While General Soleil and I were handling damage control at the penitentiary, our boys were researching Ms. Wolffe's claims. Turns out, she wasn't quite lying about some secret government organization. We've actually received several other claims from other people who were abducted and rejected by this organization. We'll take the 'princesses' in for questioning to find out where they are and put a stop to it."
"With that said, we'll take it from here." Another soldier remarked, about to grab Silver, only to be pushed aside by Pyrrha.
"Surrender Silver Dream to us, now." Agent Ironwood ordered. "We'll find out who did this to her."
"The girl stays with us." Krasnaya insisted, standing in front of Silver, Pyrrha, and Jaune.
Agent Ironwood snapped his fingers, ordering his men to take aim at the Crimson Crusader. But Ruby stepped right next to Kransaya and defiantly crossed her arms, indicating that she sided with her. Without a word, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Ren, Nora, Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi joined in.
"Mine are bigger than yours." Krasnaya smirked.
After a few more seconds of an intense stand-off, Ironwood sighed and waved at his men. "Stand down… fine. But the next time she loses control, you will be held responsible for it."
"I'm not afraid of you, Junior." Krasnaya declared.
"You should be. My father's secrets are now my secrets… rich girl." Ironwood smirked before leaving with his men.
Krasnaya was visibly surprised by the agent's remark, but decided not to worry too much about it.
"So all that really happened to her? B.B. wasn't just lying about what happened with Silver Dream? Pyrrha couldn't help but ask Krasnaya after the Crimson Crusader was done talking with the local police.
"From what I could tell, no, though that doesn't change the fact that she won't have anywhere else to go after this," Krasnaya declared. "After all, I doubt that the authorities would have any reason to trust the Crimson Crusader to look after her."
Pyrrha merely nodded, understanding that Svetlana couldn't get involved here without compromising her identity before looking towards Silver and taking in how, in spite of what had happened earlier, she couldn't help but notice how cute and innocent she appeared to be.
As Pyrrha glanced at the girl, her eyes began to sparkle with delight. She quickly ran over and took Jaune's hands into her own and smiled. "Jaune… I know we've never talked about it before… but how do you feel about adoption?"
Jaune merely blinked before looking towards Silver and then back to his teammate and lover. "Are you sure, Pyrrha? She's not exactly a normal child, after all."
"All the more reason to give her the home that she deserves," Pyrrha remarked. "Besides, you know as well as I do that no one in our friend group is completely normal, so she'll fit right in."
"Touche."
"You…you really want to adopt me?" Silver asked in disbelief, having apparently overheard what Pyrrha and Jaune had said here.
"It'll be a long process, but yes." Pyrrha smiled. "We'd be happy to adopt you."
"Why are you being so nice to me?" the psychic girl couldn't help but ask.
"Because no matter what you might think, you deserve to feel loved," Pyrrha remarked. "And I promise you, Sarah, we'll do everything we can to remind you of how much you're loved every single day from here on out."
"...Sarah?"
"Yeah, it's the name we decided would be on your legal documents." Jaune said with a shrug.
"I…I've never had a name other than Silver Dream."
"Well, Sarah, you have one now," Pyrrha declared before drawing the girl in for a hug.
"I…you really aren't afraid of me?" The newly named Sarah felt the need to ask even as tears started to well up in her eyes.
"I can't think of any reason for a person to be afraid of a sweet little girl like you: I'm just sorry we weren't able to tell you all of this sooner." Jaune called out while patting the girl on the head with a reassuring smile.
With that Sarah couldn't hold back anymore as she flung her arms around the Invincible Girl with a loud sob, all of her past pain and loneliness coming out like a flood.
"Shh, it's okay, just let it all out," Pyrrha remarked even as she gently caressed her new daughter's hair while holding the girl steady even as she continued to cry her eyes out. "I promise you, it's all over now. You're home now, Sarah… Sarah?"
Pyrrha and Jaune leaned back to see that Sarah had once again fallen asleep. While standing up, no less.
"Okay, I know it's filthy rich coming from me of all people…" Ren remarked. "... but I recommend that for her first doctor's appointment, you get that girl tested for narcolepsy."
"While I do think we might need to have some tests run to see what sort of condition she's in, I think in this case, she's just exhausted given everything that's happened," Jaune said with a shrug. "One thing is for certain though: after tonight, she'll finally have someplace safe to fall asleep in."
"All's well that ends well." Nora said with a grin.
"I'll say," the old lady at the slot machine suddenly declared with a grin. "I finally got the jackpot! By the way, who are all of you people, who caused this mess, and why do you have those ladies tied up?"
"Lady, you might have a problem." Nora called out with a dumbfounded expression with her friends nodding in agreement.
Vale City. Two Days Later…
Ruby had followed Krasnaya back to New Rushland to discuss the details of their last mission, and how they couldn't have succeeded without working together. That got both of them thinking that should such a threat come up again, it would help if they were all together to stop it. Thus, through several dummy accounts, Svetlana had bought an abandoned museum in Vale City and began converting it into a facility for her and all three teams to use as a headquarters. Ruby then invited everyone to meet there to discuss their future.
Currently, Ruby and Weiss were walking along with Krasnaya to meet the others in the main hall. "How much did all of this cost, Svetlana?" Ruby couldn't help but ask.
"I try not to think about it." Krasnaya admitted.
"By the way, I've been meaning to ask…" Weiss spoke up as she walked down the halls of the building with Krasnaya and Ruby. "Where were Azure and Cat Burglar during all of that?"
Krasnaya's gaze shifted to the side, slightly embarrassed. "Mikhail had to watch over Cyan. We… grounded her after finding out she beat up another bully at school during a meeting with her principal."
Weiss fought back the urge to laugh. "No way. Krasnaya went to a parent/teacher conference? That's great."
Ruby, likewise, was equally amused at the idea of Svetlana attending something as mundane as a parent/teacher conference right before doing something as exciting as dealing with the Princesses of Remnant. "Are you on the PTA, too? Tell me, you're on the PTA!" She giggled before picking up a nearby clipboard and began walking backwards while imitating Krasnaya's voice. "Ahem… I'm Krasnaya! We need more chaperones for the prom! Who needs to be convinced to sign up?!"
In response, Krasnaya glared at her smaller friend with the same look she gave while interrogating Jackie Slime.
This caused Ruby to nervously chuckle and step behind her wife. "Ah-heh… I'm just kidding… I think that's great…" She fearfully hid her face behind the clipboard and whispered to Weiss. "Is she still glaring at me?"
Eventually, the trio arrived at the main conference room of the building where the rest of Team RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY were waiting for them, all talking about their own business.
"By the way, did we ever find out how and/or why Yang can suddenly breath fire? I mean, I know that she herself has a few theories, but I'm wondering if we ever confirmed any of them or if there was a different explanation at play here," Ruby felt the need to ask, well aware that her sister had run some tests with Svetlana after everything had settled down. She was also hoping this would divert the Crimson Crusader's attention away from her.
"Well, it turns out some of Raven's magic had an effect on Yang's semblance." Krasnaya answered. "I wouldn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but breathing fire might not be the only new power to emerge. By the way, how's Sarah adjusting to her new home?" She asked Pyrrha, knowing all too well how difficult it could be to be in the young girl's shoes, at least to a certain degree.
"Pretty good so far," Pyrrha said with a smile. "We've already taken Ren's advice and set up an appointment to see if there were any conditions she might have that the facility she was at had overlooked. Other than that though, there aren't any complications that we'd need to worry about so far."
"That's good to hear…though that reminds me: we're all in agreement that we're finding and shutting down the place that held Sarah and the others, right?" Ren asked.
"Yep." Coco nodded.
"Definitely." Fox agreed.
"Absolutely." Blake declared.
"I'm surprised that you would even need to ask." Nora smirked with crossed arms.
"Well, hopefully, that's going to be one of many things we'll be doing together." Ruby mused as she looked out over the city through the window."
"What do you mean, Rubes?" Yang asked.
"I used to think just one team would be enough to protect our own cities." Ruby explained. "But after that whole incident with the Princesses of Remnant, I realized that there are threats greater than any one team of four can handle. So, I think it'd be a good idea if the thirteen of us kept working together to solve problems like this."
"What? Like a bunch of super friends?" Nora giggled.
Ruby smirked. "More like a… Hunting League of Justice."
"You have any idea how corny that sounds? …but then again maybe she has a point: with all of us together, it might just work. Count me in." Nora smiled, resting her hands on her hips.
"And if you're in, I'm in." Ren nodded, patting his girlfriend on the shoulder.
"And you can count us in, too." Coco added, with her other teammates nodding in agreement.
"But then who's going to run your coffee shop?" Pyrrha asked.
"Hey, when you sell high-quality goods, it basically runs itself." Yatsuhashi replied.
"Okay, I guess that means you're in." Ruby giggled.
"Can't let you have all the fun," Jaune said with a teasing grin with Pyrhha nodding in agreement.
Everyone turned to the Crimson Crusader.
"Well, I still have my own commitments." She remarked. "But I suppose you can count on me when I'm needed."
"If we're gonna do this, we should have codenames!" Yang suggested, excitedly. "I know they meant it as an insult, but I actually kinda like 'Goldilocks.'"
"What happened to 'Killer Bee'?" Ruby couldn't help but ask, reminding her sister of the codename Yang had when working with in regards to the reformation of the White Fang.
"Meh, it's good for covert ops like what Blake's family runs, but not so good for limelight heroics, you know?" Yang said with a shrug.
"Don't worry, my dear sister-in-law: I still plan to use 'Nightshade' for my own codename both here and with the White Fang," Blake directed at Ruby with an encouraging smile.
And thus, the three best teams of Beacon Academy were united once more into something greater.
To Be Continued!
Epilogue:
A young, tall man with silky black hair tied up in a ponytail, dressed in a neat business-casual suit and dark sunglasses made his way to the new building in the middle of Vale City and smiled. After watching the news about the Hunting League's first victory, he'd discovered that they were looking to hire a curator for their new headquarters. He entered the building, maneuvered past the tourists, and finally arrived at the office door. After a few gentle knocks, he was greeted by Ruby Rose, herself.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
"Hello, ma'am." He smiled. "I heard that you were looking for a curator?"
"Oh, yeah!" Ruby invited him into the office. "Do you have any references?"
The man chuckled and removed his sunglasses. "I'm afraid my official resume is a bit thin, but I do have plenty of experience."
Ruby blinked in surprise. "You… you have Silver Eyes… what did you say your name was?"
The man's smile widened as he shook her hand. "Dionysus Monarch. It's a pleasure to meet you."