Small Issues
AN: Final chapter of this part of the series. Feels almost like its been forever since I started it yet this entire Issues series has only been five years in the making. As stated last time, I'll be reposting the entire Issues series as one long fic for those of you who would like to see it that way. And actual upload schedule will need to be worked out but as it is now, going with a weekly schedule would take over two years to post every chapter that is available now, let alone any that will be written during that time. So I'll likely have to go with two to three chapters a week just to have everything out this year without just dumping everything at once and having it lost in traffic. Let me know what you think.
Food is for Bonding
For Yang and Ruby, the summer break seemed to pass far too quickly. Sure, there was plenty of time for swimming at the beach and games to play when it rained, not to mention the homework they had.
One would think that with Patch being an island, there would be plenty of beaches to choose from. They would be wrong as only the southernmost point of the island had an actual beach, just low enough in latitude for the hardier semi-tropical plants to grow aided by cliffs to the north that broke the worst of the winter winds and weather for them. The port lay on the eastern side from which fishing vessels would bring in their catches, the ferries would provide a steady flow of goods and passengers to and from Vale, and a few military ships would dock for a time before setting out on patrol around the island and the shallow waters between the island and mainland.
Aside from those two spots, the island had sheer cliffs that met the ocean that kept the residents well above sea level. And in case that wasn't enough to defend the island, it was home to Signal Academy, meaning there were always dozens of fully trained Huntsmen and Huntresses and aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses ready for a fight year round.
But there were a few interesting conversations…
"Hey Dad, have you ever been to Vin de L'Arc-en-ciel?"
The man rubbed his chin as he thought back to when he was actively working as a Huntsman. "Hmmm… can't say that I ever got there. Been to the town just north of it a few times but never had a reason to go further. Why do you ask?"
Yang sat back on the couch, enjoying the familiar feel of it. "One of my friends at school is from there."
"Really? Which one?"
"Jaune Arc."
"An Arc, huh?" Tai leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "Haven't heard that name come up for a while."
"What do you mean? Jaune told me he had a big family and we got around to talking about stuff like being a big sister." Yang was a little confused but wanted answers.
"Hmm… let's just say that every family has their share of things that they'd prefer to not be widely known." The warning was made and they knew it applied to their family as well. "But the Arc's… they've been around for a long time, from what I've heard. Any big event in the world, like wars, they've been there."
"Wow."
"Yeah. Well I remember an Arc and from talking to him… about twenty years ago, give or take, said he'd rather keep his kids from fighting if he could help it. Don't get me wrong, the guy was GOOD, probably could give Qrow a run for his money with the sword… but he wanted a simpler life for his family."
"A simple life? But we like to fight."
"Haha! Don't I know it." The elder blonde laughs. "But while there are many of us who do fight, physically, to keep the peace there are many, many more who can't or won't.
That is why the Huntsman Academies spend eight years training their students, to give them the best chances of surviving the job while also filtering out those who wouldn't before they would be in danger.
But for some Huntsmen and Huntresses, they've seen the dangers and fought through them, their love for their children overrides some of their thinking, forcing them to keep them from the Huntsman or soldiers life."
"But you trained us as far back as I can remember." Yang points out as she recalled the days long past.
"Yeah, well part of it was wanting to make sure that you could defend yourself, just in case. The other part was that you loved the training, especially with you wanting to be a lot like your old man!" They shared a good laugh about that.
Of course, the girls had found out that without them there, their father had more time to play games on his own.
"Wow! You can beat that dungeon on your own?" Ruby was amazed as she watched her father play Ancient Tomes.
"Yep! Took a bit of practice and luck to start doing that." The man shrugs. "Heck, my first time doing it was by accident. I just went in looking to get some achievements done for the day and just found myself going through until I was done." He told them without looking away from the screen.
"Really? You did it without trying?!"
"Eh, at first. But then I started trying others. Had to tweak my skills and armor sets to be just the way I like them and got a few things to heal and buff me along the way. Plus some experimentation through the dungeons to learn their mechanics. With some of these dungeons and bosses, the developers were diabolical."
Yang perked up at that. "Oh! Like the one that is almost all dark and the darkness slows you down to a crawl until you can light the torches?"
"Oh that one… yeah I'm not trying to solo that one any time soon. The easier ones are fine for now and I've pretty much been farming for equipment otherwise."
"You've been farming it?"
"Hey, with you two gone at school, I had the time." He shrugs. "Wanna see what I've found?"
"Yeah!" Both girls were excited.
The next few minutes were spent going through the records of what the father had found. Thankfully, the game saved what sets the players had acquired during their time, even if they sold or deconstructed them for materials, and had a method for rebuilding the set pieces with perks to suit the player.
"Wait, wait, wait! You got that set!" Yang pointed at the holographic screen. "I've been trying for ages to get that but never had the luck!"
"And this one is the one I need! Just a few pieces to get the full effects!" Ruby points at another set.
"Alright, alright, I'll make them for you. I think I have enough materials for all of that." Taiyang laughs as he directs his avatar to a specialized workbench to begin the crafting process. "Okay, Yang, which parts and traits do you want on them?"
Soon enough, the parts were made and mailed to the girls, both of whom had brought out their scrolls to receive the parts and equip them on their characters to achieve the full bonuses they were looking for.
From there, the three of them spent the rest of the night doing dungeon runs together and reaping the rewards.
—
Back at Beacon, Blake and Weiss could often be found in the library, with Sun occasionally joining them… mostly for his own homework. Ren and surprisingly Dove and Sky would join in for the impromptu book club meetings. It was certainly an odd grouping but there was no hostility at all, not even when the rest of Teams JNPR and CRDL would join in when they needed to research things for their homework.
That lack of hostility really showed now that they were working and occasionally training together more often. And further emphasized by how things had gone with Team CFVY weeks ago.
Not much was said about HOW Cardin and his team apologized to Velvet beyond eventually working up the nerve to go to their dorm for a face to face talk… but the deed was done, Velvet assured everyone that they were forgiven, and one joint training session together had the four boys limping for a week.
"Any plans for tonight or just more of the usual?" Sun asks as they walk towards the cafeteria. With a couple weeks of summer break, it wasn't hard to pick up on what the 'Usual' was for the group of friends. Ren would prefer to meditate, Blake would read, Weiss would study, Pyrrha would do some slow stretching, and Nora would game with Jaune… so long as Rennand Pyrrha saw that they did their homework.
"Why?" Weiss asks curiously.
"Honestly? We just need to have some fun." The blonde clasped his hands behind his head. "This is supposed to be our vacation time, finding some ways to relax and stuff… not sitting around in a library all day."
"I enjoy studying, thank you very much!" Weiss huffed as she turned her nose up in the air.
"What's wrong with the library?" Blake looked to her fellow Faunus with a scrutinizing gaze.
And he flashed a whole three seconds before folding. "N-nothing's wrong with a library but at least take your books outside to read in the fresh air and sunlight."
By the expression of thoughtfulness on her face, he could tell that he was safe and she seemed to like the idea. They gathered their meals and decided to sit outside for the peaceful evening.
"Sun?"
"Hmm?"
Pyrrha hesitated because she had caught him at a bad time having just bitten into a pear. "You said your team is going to arrive soon?"
Sun swallowed. "Yeah, they told me yesterday they were about to get on the boat… and repurposed my room while I was away."
Nora perked up at that. "Huh? What do you mean 'your room'?"
The blonde looked around at the group before shrugging. "Haven's dorms are a bit different than here… surprised me when I got here."
"How so?" Jaune asks, as he was the least familiar with the Huntsman Academy.
"Oh, Haven gives its teams dorms where we have a main room about as big as your room and each person has their own room. They're not that big, just enough room for a bed, a desk, and a small closet to keep your stuff. Not to mention the team bathroom and the main room has a tiny kitchen setup."
"Woooaaahhh!" Jaune and Nora were in awe while Ren took the news quietly.
"Sounds like you had quite the comfortable situation there." Weiss remarks.
"Eh, a bed's a bed."
For most, they might try to claim Sun was bragging, though there was nothing wrong with having pride in one's school. But for Blake, after spending the weekend with him and quite a lot of time since with the monkey boy, she knew that he came from humble beginnings and the culture of Vacuo taught that nothing was permanent, so combined that meant that he was fine with whatever he was given and he'd make the best of it.
It was something she had learned to adapt to once she fully jumped into the White Fangs methods… especially after the leadership change.
"I almost miss my bed back in Atlas." Weiss comments wistfully, thinking of her lavishly large bed with silk sheets.
Pyrrha smiled fondly. "I think we all miss the comforts of being home." She recalled how the cold weather often making her bed a nice retreat with the layers of thick blankets wrapped around her.
As orphans, Ren and Nora didn't have such fond memories of their childhoods but they did remember the times where they shared body heat to get through colder nights.
Growing up on a farm, a rather well-to-do one, his own bed was simple but very comfortable for him. But now that the subject had made him wonder when the next time would be when he could relax on it again. He did decline on going home for the break in favor of sticking with his team… and not wanting to be swarmed and smothered by his sisters.
They bonded a bit over small comforts and shared some good memories from their homes.
—-
Ozpin read the reports on his computer with all of the seriousness they required. By his side, Glynda stood waiting for his thoughts as she had already read them. Eventually, the Headmaster leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers.
"The situation at Cloudspire is getting out of hand. We need to do more." Glynda stated flatly.
"Vale has dispatched a regiment of troops and I've bolstered them with three dozen Huntsmen… but they've run into the horde of Grimm attacking the city."
"Cloudspire will fall if they don't get supplies soon."
"Vacuo has sent several airships filled with supplies and Huntsmen."
"Yes, three weeks ago." She reminded him. "And they had to fight through Grimm just to reach the city from Vacuo's side."
"Then it's time to make a call."
"I'm sure James will love this." Glynda rolled her eyes as she knew how her militaristic friend is. Though it was odd that as quick as he is to resort to force, he was actually quite restrained compared to two others she knew.
"Honestly, I'm almost surprised that neither Hames or Theodore are there to help yet." Oz shakes his head as he lifts his scroll to his ear.
"Ozpin, what do you need?"
"I'm assuming you've read the report from Cloudspire?"
"Yes. In fact, I just finished reading it."
"Good. Could you send some relief to the city?"
"You can count on it."
"How soon will they be ready?"
"I can have the ship loaded with supplies and troops and on its way within twelve hours."
"Very well, I'm sure that the soldiers and civilians will be happy to get some relief."
"Do you have any idea why an attack of this scale would happen at Cloudspire?"
"Unfortunately, no. There is nothing there that the Grimm would seek aside from their destructive nature." Ozpin shook his head as he spoke. On the other end of the call, he could hear the soft tones of the Generals computer as he input commands.
"Oz, the orders have been received by my men and preparation is underway."
"Good. Is there anything else?" He had noticed a subtle shift in the man's tone.
"Rrrrggghhhaaa…." James let out a groan of frustration, none of it directed at Ozpin. "Last week… one of our facilities was broken into and a lot of newly developed equipment was stolen."
"What!"
"Glynda?! You're on the call too?!"
"Yes James, I'm here too." She responded as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Back to the theft… What was stolen?"
"Sorry, sorry. Ehem, the technology that was stolen was a type of Dust rifle and a mechanized battle suit… along with two trucks."
"How much was stolen?" Ozpin wanted to know.
James let out a deep sigh on his end. "Fifty of each. Both of them were undergoing limited production with extensive field tests slated to start next week. Right now, the entire facility has been shut down for the investigation and the region around it has been closed to all traffic. So far… results have been inconclusive."
"What do you mean? We thought that your facilities had the highest security?" Glynda asks, taking a step closer to the scroll.
"To be fully honest, the security was high, but not at the highest levels we have. The remoteness of the facility was meant to be one such layer. But somehow someone not just found the location but seemed to know exactly what was happening there, along with starting an emergency evacuation so everyone was occupied during the time of the theft."
"Don't you have cameras?"
"Someone was able to bypass our firewalls and corrupt the footage. We're hoping that there is something to give us a clue as to who did this."
"James… Please keep us updated on the situation." Glynda pleads, knowing how proud the man is about his Kingdom's capabilities and how he would try to lift the world on his shoulders if he could. The admission that such a large-scale theft happened was a tough thing for him, even to his closest friends and allies.
"I will, Glynda… I will." They could almost see him hanging his head as he said that even though they weren't having a video call, that's how well they knew him. "Ozpin?"
"What is it James?" The Headmaster heard the tone shift when his name was asked. Gone was the acceptance of guilt and it was replaced by resolve, the same resolve that had carried the man to his current position of being the top General of the Atlas military and the Headmaster of the Atlas Huntsman Academy, as well as through a number of difficult situations that have broken most others.
"The Vytal Festival… I'm going to increase the security that I'm providing. I don't know if this theft is or will be linked to that but I don't want to take chances."
Ozpin and Glynda shared glances, knowing that it may be best to allow the man to do this, to help ease their friend's concerns and let him feel that he was making up for the security breach.
"Very well. Just… try not to go overboard with it."
"Thank you, Oz. Glynda, I'm sure we'll be talking again soon."
—
Deep in the inner workings of the school, far from where any students should ever be and where the maintenance crews occasionally did their inspections, there was some activity.
Four men were taking advantage of the break to complete their job, wandering through the maze with a set of blueprints in gloved hands.
"Ah, there it is." The tallest one was the one giving directions. "Get it in there."
The short brother climbed up to the large pipe and held his hands out, catching the package that was tossed to him. And with that in his grip, his hands began to glow a soft blue that enveloped the device and he lowered them to the pipe and through the thick metal as if it wasn't there. A moment later there was a clang as the magnets clamped the device to the inside of the pipe and he withdrew his hands, losing the glow only after he was out completely.
"A good job, as always, little brother. Now let's put these back and get out of here." The tall one orders as he led them all back to the maintenance office where the blueprints were replaced to where they were taken.
Stepping outside the office, the brothers linked hands and with a pop, they vanished… leaving no trace that they were ever there.
—
BAM!
"Look who's back!" Yang declared loudly as she nearly kicked open the door to the team dorm. The blonde held her arms out as if expecting a hug while Ruby stood just behind her with arms crossed and fingers giving twin V's.
"Yeah!" The younger sibling echoes.
.
.
.
.
Their announcement fell flat as there was nobody in the room.
"Huh? They aren't here?" Ruby walked in and saw that the beds were made, all of the books on the shelves were in place, and nobody was in the bathroom.
"Could've sworn that they'd be here." Yang shrugs as she tosses the small travel bag on her bed. Crossing the hall, she knocks on JNPR's door.
Knock, knock, knock.
Nothing.
"Oh come on! Where is everyone?" She complained as she double checked the time to find that it wasn't even lunchtime yet.
"I have no idea." Ruby answered as she looked up and down the hallway, finding nobody.
The sisters had come back to campus on Bumblebee, Yang's motorcycle, thanks to their father allowing it to be used for their travels since Yang had kept her grades up and hadn't gotten into trouble. From home she had submitted the application to keep the vehicle in the students garage and upon being granted, they left home.
Granted, Tai had done this as part of his birthday gift to his eldest daughter for turning eighteen. Besides that, going out for dinner, a big cake, and teaching her a few martial arts techniques that he'd been saving for such an occasion served as her gifts. Anything much more wasn't seen as useful, at least at the moment with her in school, although the gift of several different Dust shells for her to use and try was a fun surprise.
Ruby… had been bouncing ideas off her sister in an attempt to give Yang an upgrade to her arsenal. Unfortunately, most of her proposals had been shot down as they wouldn't work in some fashion or another and the idea of armor for the blonde beyond her gauntlets almost seemed laughable as there has been nothing to cause her concern for more.
Not even mini rockets after how the last attempt turned out… they were too unpredictable and caused too little damage for use in a fight.
Now they left in search of their friends.
Gym…. No.
Training rooms…. No.
Cafeteria…. No.
Library…. No.
Courtyard…. Nowhere they could see.
Double back to the dorms…. Still no.
Weapon maintenance…. Surprisingly empty.
"Oh… where are they?" Ruby whined as they kept up their search.
Yang shrugged. "Maybe they are in Vale?"
"Mirror, mirror what's behind you
Save me from the things I can see!"
"That's Weiss' song!" Ruby perked up as the music drifted down the hall.
"Yeah, but there's someone else who's singing it." Yang began walking towards the music room to find out who.
"Why won't you let me hide from me?" The song continued, but the singer wasn't alone, there was a partner.
The sisters opened the door to the last part of the song.
"I'm the loneliest of all!"
The pair opened the door to catch Weiss and Pyrrha finishing the song together with the rest of their friends sitting nearby to listen. And with the song over, they all began clapping.
"Wow, Pyrrha. I knew the Ice Queen was a songbird but I didn't know you had a great set of pipes too!"
"O-oh! You're back!" Both singers were surprised by the sudden arrival of the sisters, though the taller of the two blushed a bit as she looked away. "Um, thank you. I've been practicing something that isn't combat related for a change of pace."
Ruby tilted her head. "But why one of Weiss' songs?"
The Spartan laughed nervously as she rubbed the back of her head. "Hehehe… I just found myself resonating with it when I first heard it before coming to Beacon and Weiss was kind enough to help me practice with it."
"And you nailed it!" Nora popped in with a wide grin and two thumbs up.
Pyrrha took the compliments well but began tuning them out as she looked towards Jaune who gave her a smile and his own thumbs up.
"Got any more?" He asks. She didn't hesitate to find another with Weiss' help.
—
It was the day before classes were going to begin and many students had begun wearing their uniforms again, to get back into the habit over anything else. But students from Atlas, Mistral, and Vacuo had begun arriving at Beacon, and so the uniforms were also to help distinguish themselves and to show some school pride.
That also meant that Sun's team arrived and with them came his Haven uniform… and a lot of roughhousing as a way to let out frustrations that came up from the team leader's absence.
"Ladies, Gentlemen… Ice Queen." Sun began his introduction.
"Hey!"
"Meet the rest of Team SSSN!" He continued without acknowledging her indignant shout. "This is Sage." He points to the tallest of the team, a dark skinned young man with green hair and tattoos on his neck. "Scarlet." The shortest of the team has red hair with a small mark under an eye. "And my buddy, Neptune." He has bright blue hair and a pair of goggles pulled up on his head rather than wearing them normally over his eyes.
And as Teams RWBY and JNPR began their own introductions to the boys, Sun stepped over to Blake who had moved away from the group. "Something wrong?"
"Meeting your team? Not really."
"Then what's bothering you?"
"How about seeing you in a uniform." She couldn't help but giggle as it didn't suit him at all with the black pants and jacket with white trimmings. "This is the first time I've seen you with a closed shirt."
"Missing the view?" He grins teasingly, only for the disguised cat girl to look away with a hint of red on her cheeks.
"In your dreams." She gave his shoulder a light punch.
"What about your dreams? I doubt with your books it's anything too public friendly." That earned him a much stronger punch to the shoulder.
But they had been overheard.
"Oh, she's been working on her own steamy little novel." Yang teased with a laugh, though she said it fairly quietly.
That only made the cat give her a boot to the rump for the embarrassment.
—
Two people walked down the streets of Vale, admiring the decorations for the coming festivities. Technically, one was as her companion seemed bored out of his mind.
An elderly man hanging a banner was coming down a ladder when he slipped on the last rung and fell, thankfully someone was nearby to help him up. "Th-thank you."
"No problem." Emerald smiled at him, happy to have assisted. "But I'm not from around here, could you help me find this address?"
The old man gave her directions, pointing down the street while her companion looked tiredly around, not paying attention to anything of note. But he didn't have to wait long before they were moving again.
"How much further?"
"Just a few blocks."
"I'm bored."
Emerald glanced at Mercury somewhat annoyed. "What? You don't think it's good to have a big celebration for so many different cultures coming together? Nice decorations, good food…"
"A city full of stupid people and easy pockets to pick."
"That's every city."
"And that's not your wallet." He smirked.
Emerald ducked into an alley to continue the conversation where they wouldn't be in the wide open street for everyone to see, pushing Mercury against the wall. "But this could be yours if you shut up for five minutes." She waved the dark leather wallet in his face.
He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Hmmm… nope."
His dismissal made Emerald growl in frustration as she pulled a few Lien cards from the wallet and threw it on the ground, pocketing the money before she walked away. Mercury followed her calmly, satisfied that he had annoyed her for his own entertainment.
Soon enough, they arrived at their destination and walked inside, a bell ringing as the door opened.
"Just a minute!" A deep voice called out from the back of the store.
The pair wandered through the shelves, examining the books on display before a tall, burly man pushed his way through doors that led to a back room carrying a large stack of books in his hands. Well practiced in navigating his way to the counter with such loads, he had no trouble walking over to set the stack down and turned to help his customers.
"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun!" He greets them with his apparently usual announcement. "Uh, hello." He hadn't been expecting to see a young woman looking at him like she knew him. "May I help you?"
"Mostly just browsing." She replied with a smile. "Do you have any copies of 'The Thief and the Butcher'?"
Tukson had no problems remembering that title among the hundreds he had in stock out of the thousands he's sold over the years. "Yes we do. Aisle three, fourth shelf."
"Oh, very nice." Emerald was happy about that but didn't move.
"Would… you like a copy?" Something was odd about these two but he had seen many types come through his shop.
"Not right now." She responded almost too quickly. "Do you have 'Violence Garden'?"
Tukson didn't have a chance to answer when the young man called out from aisle two. "He's got it. Hardcover and paperback."
"Interesting, not many bookstores will have that one." Emerald tapped her chin with a finger.
"I do try my best to have something for everyone. If I don't have it here, I may have it in the back." Tukson jabbed a thumb at the door he had come from for emphasis.
"Hey! Do you have any comics?" The boy yells.
"Near the front." The shopkeeper told him, not impressed by the boy's attitude. Still, the boy went to the comics and began looking through them.
Emerald watched the exchange before turning back to Tukson. "What about 'The Third Crusade'?"
The shopkeeper narrowed his eyes at the question, picking up the inflection on the name. "I… I don't believe we carry that one."
Emerald smirks. "What was the name of this place again?"
"Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."
"And you're Tukson?" Her smirk looked like she caught something.
"Yes."
"And you have every book except… 'The Third Crusade'?"
"It's just a catchphrase." Tukson defended himself.
The boy turned around with a smirk on his face, one that promises trouble. "It's false advertising!"
Any retort from Tukson was cut off by words from Emerald. "Do you know who we are?"
"Yes." His body tensed as Mercury moved to the switches by the door and dimmed a set of windows.
"And you know why we are here?" Emerald continued her questions.
"Yes." More windows were dimmed, bathing the shop in shadow, though Tukson paid the lack of light no mind, though his tone became more of a growl.
"Are you going to fight back?" The final window dimmed, leaving the room dark to all but the owner.
"Yes!" Tukson declared proudly and full of determination, jumping up on top of the counter, hunched over as his nails extended as sharp claws and muscles bulged.
Emerald stepped back as she reached for her weapons, but Tukson leapt at her and slashed her throat with his claws… only for the girl to vanish as if she were never there.
But the Faunus had no time to think about what happened to the girl as the boy had moved in front of him and raised a leg with an odd metallic boot.
BANG!
A few minutes later, Emerald and Mercury walked out of the shop, the latter carrying some comics with him.
"What's with that?" The girl asks.
"What? I missed the past few issues and want to catch up." He shrugs.
They barely made it down the street when they heard the screams from the next potential patron of the book store, calmly walking around the corner to merge into a crowd.
—
Later that day, just as lunch was coming to an end, Team RWBY were having a little meeting of their own.
SLAM!
A large white binder was dropped onto the table, hard enough to make the trays and silverware bounce. And Ruby stood happily behind it. Immediately, Weiss eyed it suspiciously.
"Ahem. Friends, Sisters… Weiss." She began, ignoring the girl's indignant "Hey!"
"Oh, this ought to be good." Yang commented before catching a grape in her mouth. As she chewed it, she returned fire with her spoon, launching a blueberry over to Nora who caught it the same way.
"Did you steal my binder?" She had been looking for that all break and had given up hope of finding it. But her neat calligraphy was visible under the stickers, as well as her name on the spine. But the thick binder was also filled with pages and dividers, obviously repurposed by the younger girl, though it was questionable how much in the binder was her notes versus whatever Ruby added.
"I am not a crook." The cloaked girl countered, giving double V's with her fingers.
Yang snickered at the back and forth from them before having to catch a cherry, sending a chunk of pineapple to Nora. Off to the side, Blake was sketching the figure of a tall man from the back who was looking over his shoulder. One with swept back, almost wild looking hair that nearly hid the horns on his head.
"Oh? Who's tall, dark, and handsome? Someone from your story?" The blonde leaned over for a peek, noting the black clothes he wore. Then again, Blake was only using a pencil so her options for color were rather limited. There was a fair amount of text around the drawing, but Yang didn't bother trying to read it- partly because Blake's handwriting was a bit odd and needed a bit of time to translate and partly due to the girl slamming the notebook shut as soon as she heard the question.
"Don't look!"
"Alright." And she had to turn back for a slice of pear flying her way. Then the blonde launched a lemon wedge, free of the peel, back to Nora.
"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream." Ruby began, ignoring the quirked eyebrows at her choice of words. "A dream where we would come together, as a team… and have the best day ever!"
"Ruby, what is this all about?" Weiss asks, almost afraid of the answer.
"I've compiled a list of great and fun activities for us to do together! And with this being the last day before the semester begins again, I want to try to do as much as possible."
"I'm not sure if I should be scared or impressed." The heiress eyes the binder, spotting the tabs Ruby used to mark pages showing that some form of organization was at least attempted.
Neither of the two seemed to notice as an apple, a whole apple, hit Yang in the face, causing the girl to let out an irritated growl and hurl it back at Nora.
"Are you sure about that?" Blake asks her team leader. There was a lot in that binder and she doubted that they could even do a fraction of it… whatever it was.
Weiss stood up with her hand on her chest. "Well I think it's a great idea to have some team bonding exercises." Ruby perked up with a wide smile as she was getting support. "I may have a few ideas-" SPLAT!
The heiress was cut off as she received a face full of pie, practically freezing the girl in place thanks to the shock.
Blake and Yang traced the flight path… to Nora, who was giving them a guilty grin and pointing at Ren. For his part, Ren had his face in his hands and was shaking his head in disappointment while Jaune and Pyrrha sat with wide eyes at what was done.
And it was hard to miss that the cafeteria had gone quiet. And yet it was the calm before the storm.
Blue eyes glared after hands pulled the coconut crème filling from obstructing their view and nearly everyone nearby was watching her carefully. Those hands combined the remains of the pie into a ball and hurled it at Nora in retaliation but the target ducked and the mess hit the back of a young man with light brown hair.
Dove's eyes opened wide from the unexpected impact and stayed wide when he saw what had hit him. Sky and Russel couldn't help but find the situation funny, though they tried to keep their snickering quiet. That didn't stop Dove from flicking the mess from his head onto his teammates, who instantly retaliated as Cardin sat watching everything in disbelief.
At least until he took a glob of mashed potatoes to the face.
Outside, Sun was walking with Neptune towards the cafeteria.
"Oh, it was great! I walked up to the White Fang guys, acting like I wanted to join them and offered some donuts."
"In the middle of their theft of millions of Lien worth of Dust?"
"Eh, it worked." The blonde shrugs, seemingly ignoring the food splattering on the nearby windows of the building. "But then I was all 'Aw man, they put something in my donut!' And I tossed it behind me where it got sucked into the Bullheads engine and exploded! Then the whole thing came down and blew up!"
"And how did a donut do that?"
"Pretty easy when there's a shotgun shell or two in there." The blonde grins.
"Nice."
"Yeah, and Blake is really cool when she's fighting! She's all fast and quiet with her swords."
"Really nice."
"I… I just hate that the Torchwick guy got away. We almost had him."
"But you did get quite a few of the White fang people, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then it should be no problem."
"I guess." Sun was silent for a few moments. "I… I just don't want to mess things up with her."
Neptune raised an eyebrow at that. The entire time at Haven he had never expressed an interest in someone beyond being a friend. Not that there weren't girls there that wouldn't try dating him, it just became a one-sided thing.
But now with less than three months, he found someone who caught his eye? And she seemed to be at least not opposed to it, though he had only seen them together for a few minutes.
At the same time, his friend did seem a bit calmer than when he left Mistral… her influence perhaps? Maybe he was helping her open up? Further observation would be required.
"Hey, what do you think my chances are with that Yang girl? She's pretty cool."
"Neptune…" The blonde groaned at his buddies' tendency to hit on girls in hopes for a date. At the same time, he couldn't help but be interested in seeing how this would play out given what he knew of both parties. It would be entertaining no matter the outcome… at least for him. Neptune, probably not so much, given his track record. "Come on, they should still be here like they said they'd be."
Sage and Scarlet had been following the pair for the tour of Beacon, as the best friends caught up. At the same time, they picked on the same thing that Neptune did about their team leader. Yet when they followed Sun and Neptune walked into the building, they were greeted by more than a few people fleeing out the door.
"Aaaaahahahaha! I'm the queen of the castle!" Nora's voice echoed through the mostly vacated cafeteria, not that she was ever really quiet normally. But she stood proudly with her hands on her hips on top of a stack of benches which themselves were sitting on a table. Jaune, Ren, and Pyrrha stood on the floor but behind the makeshift wall.
Four boys had turned a table on its side, using the benches as side walls.
Team RWBY seemingly had no defenses made but there was a large gap of no cover between the three factions.
Ruby stood proudly and raised a fist. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! And justice will be delicious!" She punctuated the last word by squeezing a carton of milk until it burst.
"Yeah!" The trio of Yang, Blake, and Weiss shouted as one behind their leader, fists raised high.
Sage looked on with wide eyes. "What the hell did we walk into?"
"It looks like war." Scarlet told him as he watched as JNPR began lobbing watermelons over their fortifications like mortars at the approaching RWBY who began intercepting the fruit by hurling plates and trays that cut into the thick rinds like saws.
Through the shower of juices and seeds, Yang barreled forward and found a pair of cooked turkeys, which she rammed her fists into like gloves. Meeting her charge, Ren left to safety of the tower and grabbed several leeks, two of which he held like swords.
In the middle they met, her foot being blocked by the crossed vegetables. They locked eyes, not just out of habit as fighters to read their opponents, but at least for Ren it was so he couldn't be accused of looking up her skirt. It didn't matter if Yang wore short shorts under her skirt or was known for teasing plenty of guys around campus, he wasn't going to look.
The stalemate ended almost as quickly as it began, with Yang launching several alternating roundhouse kicks, each of which were blocked by the leeks easily enough before he countered, the quick stab with the stalk struck her shoulder set her back and the scissor slash made her transition to a backhand spring to give herself some distance.
Ren's assault wasn't done as he left his pair of leeks in the air while his hands glowed a soft pink, those hands slicing through the air and thus the stalks, reducing them to a dozen chunks each before he thrust his palm straight at Yang, with the chopped leeks just in front of him. The pulse of aura hurled the vegetables at the blonde as if they had been fired from a cannon, splattering across the girl who could only cross her turkeys in front of her as a defense.
Ren let out a breath, a small smirk on his face. At least until his opponent burst forward with her turkey pulled back. Snapping up a pair of spare leeks, he was able to push the roasted bird high but the second one found his gut, knocking the wind from him.
Then the first bird swung back around and skyward, launching him up high. Ren was able to gain his bearings and countered by hurling all of his leeks at the girl, the vegetables effectively planting themselves into the floor, but Yang had jumped to dodge them.
Left without any other weapons, Ren could only cross his arms as the turkey smashed into him again, sending him hurtling into the CRDL defenses.
As that was going on, Pyrrha and Blake clashed with baguettes on top of a table. The cat was dual wielding the hard-crusted bread compared to the Spartans single loaf but despite that, Pyrrha proved to be the more skilled of the two in using Breda as a sword. Their quick exchanges wound up forcing Blake to use Shadow to reposition herself several times in the duel but could never find a real opening to exploit.
A final use of Shadow put Blake well outside of Pyrrha's reach while remaining on the table but the Spartan seemed to have anticipated that move, rushing Blake to spear the shorter girl with the baguette, sending her crashing to the floor and dropping her own loaves at Pyrrha's feet.
Ruby ran in, using a tray as a shield from Jaune's bombardment of condiment packs, eventually putting Pyrrha between them to make him stop throwing. But she kept her momentum by hopping on the tray and sliding across the table with the mix of condiments as a lubricant.
Pyrrha responded by kicking up the baguettes and hurling them like spears at the cloaked girl, who slid around the projectiles before jumping with her tray to slam that into the redheads crossed arms, pushing off as soon as contact was made to knock the Spartan over.
Though she soon found herself having to run because in that time to attack Pyrrha, Jaune had gathered more ammunition and was now using it on her, splattering the girl in colors.
Weiss defended her leader by leaping at the blonde with a bunch of bananas in hand. Landing by the startled knight, she deftly squeezed one out of the peel into his face in a smooth swipe. The next swing splattered the fruit across his chest before another was smeared against his belly.
He grabbed a nearby apple and shoved it in her mouth, cutting off her triumphant laugh before rolling over the table and behind his wall. Moments later, grapes and other berries began raining down on the heiress from over the wall.
Off to the side, Blake stood up and found a link of sausages and used it as a whip at Pyrrha. The links were surprisingly long and proved durable… somehow, enough to wrap around the girl and hold fast as Blake pulled her in. The cat began twisting once her target was close, ensuring that the Spartan couldn't regain her balance or traction, and spun her around. Once Pyrrha was airborne thanks to the force, Blake was barely able to hold her ground as the taller and heavier girl threatened to throw her, the cat made sure that she was released… right into the stack of benches that Jaune was hiding behind.
Once the tower fell, taking the pair out of the fight for now, it was revealed as to where Nora had disappeared to during the fighting.
The bombastic ginger had stacked many, many cans of soda and other drinks on the end of a table, one that was tilted thanks to a bench under it to serve as a pivot. As for Nora herself… she had climbed up to the ceiling and positioned herself to drop on the free end.
And when she jumped, three teams felt their blood run cold.
With a crash upon her landing, her catapult released its load high into the air in an arc. Everyone else ran for cover as they listened to the mad cackling from the Valkyrie.
Then everything was drowned out by the falling aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and paper cartons making contact with any hard surfaces and exploding their contents over the nearby area.
And given the spread, nowhere was safe.
When the spray settled, Yang burst from her hiding place under a bench, drenched, and charged at Nora for the mess. For her part, Nora grabbed a watermelon with a baguette in it and met her halfway.
Out in the open, they clashed their weapons… or they would if they could hit each other. Both of them were able to dodge the others attacks and they were both slipping on the various liquids and thus missing blows that could have made contact.
At the same time, both of them found purchase on the floor and swung with intent to finish the other, Yang punching down with a turkey haymaker, Nora with a melon on the upswing.
As it turned out, the melon moved faster across the distance and struck Yang, not just causing the fruit to explode but making the blonde soar high in the air and getting caught in the support beams.
Weiss swooped in to avenge her teammate, swinging a fish at the now melonless girl. Fish slammed against bread in quick succession before the heiress thrust and made her opponent kiss her weapon on the lips, making her reel from the shock of such a thing happening. But that left her open to being disarmed of her own loaf and smacked several times with the fish.
At the same time, Ruby found herself under assault from Jaune and Pyrrha squeezing bottles of ketchup, mustard, and barbecue sauce at her while she tried to retaliate by hurling apples and oranges at the pair.
Blake dropped in with a pair of pineapples. Pyrrha may have been able to get out of the way in time to avoid being hit but Jaune wasn't so lucky.
The Spartan found a somehow untouched pizza on a tray and hurled them like a discus at the cat, impacting her in the rump since her back was turned. But given that the tray had flown as well, it only added to the force transferred and sent the girl tumbling over a table.
Now it was two on two, Pyrrha rearming herself with a ketchup bottle and celery stalk, Nora finding a carton of strawberries. Meanwhile, Weiss readied her fish and Ruby hefted a tray of sandwiches.
They stared each other down, waiting to see who would make the first move.
BAM! Side doors were kicked open as Coco Adel burst in. "Who the hell started a food fight… without us to kick your asses?!"
Unfortunately, that surprise made Nora throw the strawberries at Weiss, though a red blur intercepted them to leave only the green stems and leaves to flutter down to the floor in front of the heiress. Ruby emerged from the blur next to Weiss, popping the last fruit into her mouth happily.
Though in her haste to save her favorite food, she had thrown her own ammunition at the newcomers, as had Pyrrha with her bottle.
In turn, Yatsuhashi responded by grabbing one of the tables, by the end, and swung that up in front of his team as a shield.
"Are… we really doing this?" Velvet looked around at the damage done so far, spotting nine boys behind a barricade looking more like they've been just trying to stay out of the crossfire. "Um… hello?"
"Get them to stop!" Cardin nearly begged her, the rest of the team seemed to be in complete agreement.
One boy she recognized as part of the teams that were fighting, though somehow Coco had rigged up condiment bottles on a rack and had them spinning as she hit them, firing them in rapid succession at the four girls and hitting Jaune and Blake in the spray.
Three of the boys were new and it took her a moment to recognize Sun in the Haven uniform, the stains adding blotches of color to the dark clothes. But Sun seemed to be the only one actively watching the fight rather than taking cover like the rest. At the same time, Ren looked as though he had been caught in the fighting directly, possibly as a combatant who was knocked out early.
Nearby, Fox casually leaned against the wall while Yatsu stood in front of her as a shield. He didn't block a few stray drops and crumbs from hitting her, nor their leader's laughter as the others tried to mount some form of counterattack.
Although… where was Yang in all of this? She wouldn't leave her sister or team to fend on their own?
BAM!
Once again doors slammed open, this time because Glynda Goodwitch came stomping into the mess and she was PISSED.
"Children… do not play with their food." The words came softly and quietly, but the fact that they did combined with the bite behind them sent a chill up everyone's spines.
Her green eyes swept over the students, taking note of Teams CRDL and most of CFVY off to the side along with the newly arrived SSSN while part of JNPR was with them and the rest were hiding with most of RWBY from Coco's assault behind benches and tables, though obviously they have had to move a bit for cover. But where was the final teammate?
Above her, Yang's soda soaked clothes lost their sticky hold on the beam and she fell, falling on her back to crash into a table and splitting it in half.
With a growl, Glynda whipped out her Disciplinarian and used her Telekinesis to rapidly mend the table, rearrange all of the furniture back to its normal positions, swept up all of the food and liquids off the floors, walls, windows, ceiling, and furniture to send it streaming into the trash while all of the trays, plates, and silverware flew back to the kitchens to be cleaned.
It was only then that Ozpin walked in, looking at everyone sternly before setting a hand on Glynda's shoulder. "Let it go. Everyone is a child only once so why not let them have one last chance? Besides, it will not be something they will be able to do for much longer."
"But they are supposed to be defenders of the world." She counters.
"And everyone needs a chance to relax." He insisted. "At the same time, it was interesting to see how they adapted their combat strategies without their normal weapons. We could learn from them too."
"Still, there should be some form of punishment for this disruption and mess."
"Oh, no doubt about that. But I believe them having to walk across campus looking like that and having to clean themselves and their clothes of the stains will be a fitting punishment for them."
The blonde glanced back as she realized that she had cleaned everything but the students… so she accepted the Headmasters decision. Besides, the kitchen staff will be glad that she had gotten the worst of it all for them so they only need to worry about the final touches that they normally do.
That didn't stop her from flinching at the sound of a massive belch from Nora, causing the two teams who did most of the damage to laugh at it.
—-
In the warehouse that served as Roman's base of operations, he was at his desk when one of the White Fang knocked on his office door.
"This better be good." The gentleman thief grumbled as he walked over, irritated that his plans for the next set of Dust heists were being interrupted, among other things he had on his plate. "What is it?"
"Sir, they are here again." The man informed him, not bothering to disguise that he wasn't particularly thrilled by the bosses stopping by, something that he knew Roman shared.
A few moments later, Roman met Mercury and Emerald as they sauntered in through the main doors of the warehouse. "Oh look? She sent the kids again!" The man threw his arms over their shoulders. "This is turning out like the divorce!"
"Oh come on, man!" Mercury complained as he shoved the arm off himself.
Emerald wriggled out of the hold. "Spare us the thought of you procreating."
"And just where were you two today? You were supposed to be here hours ago." Roman asks, his voice taking a harder edge.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Mercury stepped forward as a challenge.
"Yeah, I would!" Roman matched the assassin's bravado, not afraid of him in the least.
"We were cleaning up your mess!" Emerald told him with no small amount of disdain.
"Really?" Roman held up a slip of paper with an address on it. "So is that why you had this?"
Emerald started patting her pockets to find that he had slipped it from her pocket without her noticing. "Wha? How?"
Roman turned to face her with a look of superiority. "I'm a professional, sweetie. Pay attention and you just might learn a thing or two without having to rely on that fancy semblance of yours."
Mercury let out a small snort as he tried to hold back laughter as Emerald was teased about her best skills. And he couldn't agree more about what was said but he wasn't going to admit that out loud.
"We had to do the job that you should have!" The girl shouts at the elder thief.
"And I had that under control." Roman lost all humor in his tone. "If it were up to me, you, Street Rat and Hot Heels over there would have been-"
"You'd do what, Roman?" A woman's voice echoed through the silent warehouse since everyone inside had stopped working to watch the meeting.
"Cinder!" At least Emerald was happy to see the woman but she was the lone exception as the next happiest to see her was Mercury and he was apathetic but curious as to how this would play out. Everyone else was of varying degrees of aggravated and distrusting.
"Hahaha… I'd, um, not kill them?"
Cinder walked closer to the thief in her employ. "And tell me… why wasn't that job done sooner?"
Roman looked at her in disbelief, wondering why she would ask such a thing. "Eh?" He gestures to his left at the stacks of crates full of Dust. "Eh?" He gestures to the right for more crates. "Eh!?" He waves his arms out to the entire warehouse, ending with a finger pointing out at a second warehouse that was used not only for more Dust but the other 'goods' he had to steal from Atlas.
"I'm sorry that I've been a little busy stealing every speck of Dust in the Kingdom that I could get ahold of!" Roman nearly shouted his frustrations at his Boss.
Mercury scoffed as he crossed his arms. "Congratulations, you're an inspiration to every thug with a gun and ski mask."
That snide comment just made him the new target for Roman as he stepped forward with a gloved finger pointing at the assassin. "Listen you little punk, I have this whole city running scared. Dust prices are going through the roof, police are on every corner, even Atlas doesn't have a clue about what happened to their fancy new toys. That hit you are so proud about? I had him under surveillance for the best time to take him out but the guy always made sure that there would be witnesses around ever since you had me taking out some loose ends for you."
Emerald stepped up with a hand on her chest. "Well because he was taking so long, Mercury and I took it upon ourselves to eliminate the rat." She gestured to her partner.
"Rat? I thought he was some sort of cat?" The assassin laughs.
"What, like a puma?"
"Yeah, that's it."
"Enough! Both of you!" Cinder raised her voice at her followers. "You two were supposed to keep your hands clean while we're in Vale. You're just lucky that we aren't supposed to 'officially' arrive for a few more weeks so things can die down."
None of them paid Roman any mind or noticed that the man was miming his throat being slit and pointing at the pair.
"And you." Cinder turned back to Roman. "The next time I ask you to do a job, get it done quicker."
"Hey, you wanted the best in the business and you got him. Sorry if I tend to make sure that things get done right but they can't all be by your schedule." The man had little problems with speaking his mind to his 'boss', but he knew how to keep it in check just enough. He also knew that he was too valuable of an operative for her plans for her to casually get rid of him. In fact, he was the public face of everything being done for her so if he would ever vanish for whatever reason, extreme suspicions would arise and a possible gang war could erupt in the streets as the local Xiong family would be fighting any smaller groups that would try to fill Roman's power vacuum, not to mention the White Fang making a bigger push in the city while keeping their actual presence as small as possible. "It would be helpful if I knew more about this grand scheme of yours so it might make my next string of heists a little bit easier!"
"Oh, come now, Roman… you'll know what you need to know when you need to know."
"Hmph, fancy way of saying nothing at all." He grumbled at her.
"Now, have the White Fang clear this place out and move everything to these coordinates." Cinder made sure to transfer the directions to his scroll.
"Coordinates? What about the Dust you've been having me steal?"
"We're done with Dust, now we move to phase two. We're going to need time to set things up and you have the manpower here to get it done." She told him with a confident smile as she turned back to the door and began walking.
And with the silent dismissal, Emerald and Mercury followed after her leaving Roman to follow the orders he was given and pull a cigar from his pocket before patting himself down for his lighter.
A flash of light drew his attention to Emerald who held his ignited lighter in hand as she stuck her tongue out at him before she left the building.
The man scoffed at her insolence before pulling out a spare lighter… and a wallet with the same emblem stamped into the leather that was on the green-haired girl's back. He sat down in his comfortable office chair and began counting the cards that the wallet held, wondering how long it would be before she noticed.
"Hey, Ben?"
"Yes boss?" A rather tall, lanky man ducked his head in the door with a pair of blunt horns on the top of his head poking through his hood.
"You heard the pain in the ass, spread the word that we are moving everything. I'll be down in a bit to tell the pilots where we're going."
"You got it."
Roman looked around his office, taking note of what to take with him and what to leave. Most of the plans he had made were going to be burned to leave no real evidence behind… and he'd make sure he'd enjoy this cigar while he sorted everything. And it didn't escape his notice that his 'boss' preferred to pop in whenever his real partner was out on a job. He'll send her a text in a minute about the change of plans.
AN: How's that for bringing this part of the series to an end, huh? Yes, the food fight has been changed from both what we got in V2 and Ice Queendom, but I wanted to give it a unique spin that follows the theme, much like how I've done with the rest of this series. At the same time, I believe it's been years since I last watched the interactions of Emerald and Mercury for what they do for the scenes they were in. I guess I wasn't far off from canon there, even if I made a few tweaks to the final scene.
Please, let me know what you all think about how things went and all of the setup that leads right to how Big Issues begins. Reviews are more than welcome!