Chapter Text
It was another warm summer day in Vale, birds were chirping, cicadas were singing their raspy cries, and the local dust shop owner had recently re-opened his store after it had gotten wrecked in the dust robbery a few months back, putting up a banner that read ‘Grand Reopening’ to signal the event. However, as he was climbing down his ladder, his foot slipped, and the old man promptly fell to the ground.
A red eyed girl with green hair chuckled nervously as he got up, “Excuse me, sorry. I’m not really from around here.” She said as she helped him up, then she pulled out a slip of paper and held it up to his face, “Would you mind telling me the direction of this shop?”
The old man smiled and nodded. After he showed her the way, the green haired girl gave him a polite wave before walking away. As she did, she passed by a gray haired man in a silver and black jacket leaning against a wall, the man quickly spoke up, “I knew you were lost, Emerald.”
Immediately the green haired girl walked right back up to him and held up a wallet to his face, “Mercury, I will seriously pay you to shut up!”
Mercury shook his head, “That’s not your money.”
”But it could be yours for five minutes of silence.”
Mercury had already made up his mind, but decided to tilt his head and act like he was thinking for a minute, before shaking his head again, “No deal.”
With that, Emerald dropped the wallet, “Fine.” She said as she walked away.
Mercury chuckled, “Whatever, you want me.” He said.
The birds and cicadas continued singing as the two walked down the sidewalk.
”So how much farther?” Mercury asked.
“Just few more blocks.” Replied Emerald.
In response, Mercury let out a groan of annoyance, “This place is so dull!”
”Meh, I kinda like it, tall buildings, diverse culture-“ Mercury cut her off.
”And nice, dopey people that are easy to pickpocket.”
Emerald stopped walking, ”That’s every city.”
Mercury put his hands up to his face made a mocking expression while speaking in a high pitched voice, “Oh, Emerald! Master Thief! Please don’t take my money, I barely have enough to get by!”
Emerald scowled and walked away, making Mercury sigh. “You’re no fun today.”
———
After a bit more walking, the two entered a small store on the corner of an intersection. While Mercury browsed the merchandise, Emerald walked up to the desk and pressed the bell.
”Be right there!” A man said from the back when he heard the bell. Shortly afterward, a man came out of the door that was there, carrying several books, “Welcome to Tukson’s Book Trade, home to every book under the sun!” He went to put the books down, “How may I…” he trailed off when he realized who he was dealing with, “How may I help you?” He finished after a few seconds.
”Just browsing.” Mercury said before slamming a book shut.
Emerald on the other hand had a question, “Actually, I was wondering, do you have any copies of The Thief and the Butcher?”
”Yes we do.” Said Tukson.
”That’s great!”
”Would you like a copy?”
”No, just wondering.”
Mercury slammed another book shut.
Emerald then spoke again, “Oh! How about Violet’s Garden in paperback?”
Mercury cut across before Tukson could say anything, “He’s got it!” He picked up another book, “Hardback too.”
”Ooh, options are nice.”
Mercury slammed the book shut, “Eh, no pictures.” He put it back on the shelf, “Do you have any comics?”
”Near the front.” Tukson replied.
”Hey!” Emerald suddenly said, “What about Third Crusade?”
Both Emerald and Mercury narrowed their eyes as Tukson stuttered, “Oh, um, I…don’t believe we carry that one.”
Mercury slammed another book shut.
”What was this place called again?” Emerald asked.
”Tukson’s Book Trade.”
”And you’re Tukson?”
”That’s right.”
”So I take it, you’re the one that came up with your catchphrase.”
”Yes.”
Mercury cut in, “And what was that catchphrase again?”
Tukson sighed, “Tukson’s Book Trade, home to every book under the sun.”
”Except The Third Crusade.”
”It’s just a catchphrase.”
”It’s false advertising!”
“You shouldn’t make a promise you can’t keep, Tukson.” Emerald said threateningly as Mercury dimmed the lights. “I hear, you’re planning on leaving, moving all the way to Vacuo. Your brothers in the White Fang wouldn’t be happy to hear that, and neither are we.” Tukson’s eyes narrowed as Emerald continued, “You know who we are, don’t you?”
”Yes.”
”And you know why we’re here?”
”Yes.”
”So, are you going to fight back?”
”Yes!” Tukson snarled, before unsheathing a set of claws from his fingers, revealing himself to be a Faunus. He leapt over the counter and slashed at Emerald, only for the green haired girl to duck it. His eyes widened as he saw Mercury preparing to kick him, but then something unexpected happened, there was a gunshot, but the silver haired boy wasn’t holding a gun. The bullet had come out of his boot. Regardless, Tukson used his claws to swat the bullet out of the air before trying to tackle Mercury, only for Mercury to roll out of the way.
Tukson didn’t waste a second once he had rolled to a stop, he charged at Mercury before slashing at him 5 times with his claws, the silver haired boy blocked every slash with his arm guards before redirecting the momentum of the last one to spin himself around and land a roundhouse kick to Tukson’s side, sending the Faunus crashing through a bookshelf. Thinking fast, Tukson promptly picked up a piece of the shelf that had broken off and hurled it at Mercury. Of course, the silver haired boy dodged it with a backflip, but Tukson was expecting that, he charged in again before landing a smack to Mercury’s face, the force of the hit sending him flying into another bookshelf. But before Tukson could do anything else, another gunshot rang throughout the store, Tukson crumpled to the ground lifelessly, revealing Emerald to be the one holding the gun.
Mercury got up and admired Emerald’s handiwork for a minute, “I could’ve handled that.”
”Yeah, well, it was supposed to be a clean job.”
———
Blake sighed as she looked over her drawings, most of those drawings date back to when she was the White Fang, and several of them were of her old friends on the Fang, including Silver and Jessie. Blake gently traced her hand down Jessie’s picture in particular, briefly closing her eyes as she remembered the times she used to have with him. Suddenly, Yang’s voice broke her out of her thoughts, “What’cha doin’?” She chirped.
”Nothing.” Blake said, closing her notebook, “Just going over notes from last semester.”
”Really,Blake? Because it looked to me like you were lamenting something.” Auyama said.
”Well… I-“ Blake was cut off when Ruby slammed a truly massive book into the table.
Ruby cleared her throat, “Sisters! Friends! Weiss…”
”Hey!”
”About 4 and a half minutes ago, I had a dream…”
”This oughta be good.” Yang said.
”A dream where the four of us would come together as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had, EVER!”
”Did you steal my binder?” Weiss asked.
”I am not a crook!” Ruby half whispered back
”What are you talking about?” Blake asked
“I’m talking about kicking our semester off with a bang!”
Yang cut in, “Well I always kick my semesters off with a Yang!”
Everyone else at the lunch table shot Yang a deadpan glare.
”Yang, you’ve made some bad puns before, but that one physically hurt me.” Emma said flatly.
”Well, guys, it’s been a good 2 weeks, and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is gonna be great! But classes start back up tomorrow, which is why I took the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today.”
“I don’t know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store for us.” Weiss said. As she was saying that, Yang threw some of her food at some guy across the cafeteria.
”I don’t know,” Blake said uncertainly, “I might sit this one out.”
”Sit out or not, I think however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team!” She stood up, “I for one think that-“ she was cut off when a pie hit her in the face before slowly sliding off. Weiss glared at Team JATE, and Auyama pointed at Amber, who rolled her eyes.
———
“Man, that’s harsh.” Neptune said as he and Sun walked down the sidewalk.
”So then, we were fighting side by side, and she was super fast, and I threw a banana at a guy! Which sounds gross but it was actually awesome!” Sun said.
“Nice!”
”And the best part is that she’s a Faunus!” Sun immediately covered his mouth as he realized what he said, “But that’s a secret!”
”Got it.”
”And I don’t mean a ‘I’m gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back’ secret, I mean secret secret!” Sun clarified.
”Whoa, chill out, man, okay? I got it. I got it.”
”You’d better!” The two continued walking for a few more seconds, completely oblivious to the various foodstuffs splattering against the window beside them, “I just don’t wanna screw this up, you know? The people here are the coolest! No offense to you guys.”
”None taken.”
The two finally reached a door, “They’re just in here, I’m really excited for you to meet them, so be cool, okay?”
”Got it.”
Sun opened the door, and the two were thoroughly shocked by what they saw, a whole crowd of students were running screaming out of the cafeteria, screaming “Run! Food fight!” Over and over as they did. All except one. Jake was perched on a support beam, having apparently taken up an announcer role, “Ladies and gentlemen!!! Are you ready for the most bombastic, fantastic, biggest slugfest of the year?!?!”
“Uh…” Neptune droned.
”GOOD!!! Direct your feeble, mortal eyes towards the center of the cafeteria to see our first combatant, TEAM JNPR!!!!”
They both turned to see a giant stack of tables, with Team JNPR’s members sitting and standing at various heights on the tower. “I’m Queen of the Castle! I’m Queen of the Castle!” Nora proclaimed from the top of the stack of tables.
“Is there anyone to rival Queen Nora’s vicious tyranny, niños y niñas?!” Jake asked very loudly once more.
Just then, Team RWBY appeared from the wreckage of flipped tables, “Justice will be swift!” Ruby yelled, crushing a milk carton in her grip and pointing a finger at Team JNPR, “Justice will be painful! It will be DELICIOUS!!!!!” The rest of Team RWBY appeared behind her, loudly proclaiming their agreement.
“LET THE FOOD FIGHT BEGIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!” Jake roared at the top of his lungs, spreading his wings and throwing his arms up for extra effect. He even used his semblance, creating electric arcs around himself for just for some extra flare.
”Off with their heads!” Nora said as she grabbed a watermelon off a table and hurled it at Team RWBY, the rest of her team did the same, with Ren kicking some, and Jaune and Pyrrha throwing some. Nora then jumped down and flipped the entire table, sending more watermelons flying.
”Team JNPR open with their signature watermelon storm!” Jake bellowed once more, “How will team RWBY respond?!”
”Yang! Turkey boxing maneuver!” Ruby yelled to her sister
With that, Yang stuck her fists in to a pair of full cooked turkeys before smashing them together and charging at the storm of incoming watermelons. She smashed two of them with the turkey knuckles before backflipping to avoid two more, then she rushed forwards and smashed six more watermelons.
Blake joined into the fight, flipping over Yang’s back before grabbing a pair of baguettes and slicing through some more watermelons. Then Yang hopped onto the table and threw her turkey fists straight at Pyrrha and Jaune, Pyrrha managed to avoid them, but Jaune took the first turkey to the jaw, and the second one to the stomach, knocking him over.
Pyrrha then looked up to see Blake coming down, baguettes drawn, so she picked up one herself and used it to block the attack, the two locking horns as they tried to shove each other.
”Impressive job using those stale baguettes, chicas!” Jake said, “No, seriously! They have the consistency of a tree trunk! Listen to that grinding! Beacon get on that!”
The two girls broke the baguette lock, and Pyrrha took a swing at Blake, the disguised cat Faunus quickly leapt over Pyrrha, flipping through the air before landing on her feet and swinging her baguettes at Pyrrha. The redhead cartwheeled out of the way of the bread before taking another swing at Blake, who backflip out of the way before leaping into the air and throwing one of her baguettes at Pyrrha. Pyrrha backflipped out of the way, leaving the baguette to split in half on impact with the floor. Then she leapt into the air and jabbed Blake hard in the chest with her baguette, sending the black haired girl flying backwards. When she landed, Pyrrha picked up a few more baguettes and threw them at Yang, the muscular blonde managed to block two of them, but got hit in the stomach by the third, knocking her over.
Ruby suddenly appeared, using a tray to surf across the table towards Pyrrha, before she jumped, caught one of Pyrrha’s baguettes, and threw it back at her, forcing the redhead to roll out of the way. Ruby then jumped into the air again and tried to land on Pyrrha with the tray, Pyrrha managed to block it, but the force of the hit still sent her flying backwards.
Then Ren and Nora re-entered the battle, rushing towards Ruby, only for the silver eyed girl to move out of the way to let Weiss into the fray. The white haired girl promptly used a ketchup bottle to leave a large streak of ketchup on the floor, which Ren quickly slipped on, sending him crashing into a table and sending more tables and plates flying from the impact. Nora then jumped on one of the flying tables and used it to propel herself upward, grabbing a metal flagpole off of the wall before stabbing it into one of the watermelons from earlier, creating a makeshift hammer. A hammer that she promptly used to knock Ruby away. Weiss responded by grabbing a swordfish off the table and thrusting it’s pointed bill at Nora, sending her flying backwards.
”Some impressive ingenuity from both teams here, folks! This is anyone’s match right now!” Jake yelled as Weiss and Nora clashed, their short battle ended with Weiss getting sent flying into a pillar by Nora’s hammer, as she fell, Ruby raced in to catch her before rolling to a stop.
”Weiss? Weiss! Don’t leave me!” Ruby cried out as the giant pillar crashed to the ground behind her, “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
”Ooh! A TRAGIC loss for Team RWBY brought on by a MASSIVE hit from Nora! Will they get their revenge?!”
While Jake was saying that, Yang leapt into action again, running across the table to retrieve her turkey boxing gloves. Ren rushed in too, grabbing a pair of celery sticks as he rushed in to fight Yang. The muscular blonde opened with a kick that Ren quickly blocked, before trying to follow it up with another kick, which Ren dodged, Ren then tried strike Yang with one of his celery sticks, but Yang blocked it before landing a series of punches on Ren’s torso that sent him into a spin. Ren tried to strike several more times, but Yang blocked them all before landing a hard uppercut that sent Ren into the air. Ren then tried for one last attack by throwing his celery sticks at Yang but Yang simply jumped out of the way, leaping into the air, before landing one final haymaker that sent Ren hard into the ground, sending tables and plates flying from the impact.
Yang then had to dodge a hammer swing from Nora, but this battle was over far more quickly, as Nora struck upwards with her watermelon hammer, sending Yang flying through the roof!
”Yang is hit -oh my goodness!- by Ms. Valkyrie! That has to be a food fight record! Look at the air time achieved by that!” Jake yelled as the flying Yang narrowly missed him and flew through the roof, “That is increíble! I don’t know if she’s ever gonna come down honestly!”
As Jake was wigging out, Blake grabbed a line of sausages and spun them around herself, replicating Gambol Shroud’s ribbon, the improvised whip hit Nora and launched her into a soda machine, causing several cans to come falling out. Nora thought quickly though, and grabbed some of them to use as grenades. As she threw them, the soda cans exploded into multicolored clouds of vapor as Blake jumped and backflipped out of the way.
However, seeing that gave Pyrrha an idea, tapping into her semblance, she picked up pretty much all of the cans at once and sent them all flying towards Blake. Try as she might, there were simply too many for the black haired girl to dodge, and she wound up getting launched into the wall.
Ruby shot a glance at the downed Blake, then gave Pyrrha a glare, “So you wanna play that way?” She got down on one knee as she prepared to use her semblance, “THEN LET’S PLAY THAT WAY!!!!” She screamed as she took off, flying at over 600 miles per hour as Petal Burst carried her. The amount of wind she kicked up wound up picking up soda cans, plates, and anything else that wasn’t nailed down. It also picked up Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren as well, sending them crashing into the wall. Ruby skid to a stop before jumping out of the way of the impending storm of debris. Said debris slammed into the wall, coating team JNPR in all kinds of soda, splattered food, shattered plates, the works.
When it was all over, there was a massive, multicolored stain on the wall from the soda, and five person shapes pieces fell off of that wall, revealing them to be the unfortunate victims of the food storm.
”TEAM RWBY WIIIIIIINS!!!!!” Jake bellowed from his support beam perch once again, “FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!!!” He started cackling like a mad supervillain when it was said and done.
”I love these guys.” Sun said, turning to Neptune, who had also been coated with food.
Suddenly the double doors swung open, and in walked a very pissed off looking Glynda Goodwitch, and Jake took notice.
”Uh oh! It’s Glynda ‘no fun allowed’ Goodwitch! And she does not look happy, ladies and gentlemen!” In response to his comment, Glynda shot him a glare that would make even the biggest Grimm run with its tail between its legs, and yet Jake was unfettered, “Hey don’t look at me, I’m just the overly enthusiastic announcer.”
Growling quietly, Glynda raised her riding crop and used her semblance, in seconds, all of the tables, chairs, and plates levitated into the air before placing themselves into their original positions. Glynda then adjusted her glasses before speaking in a dangerously calm tone, “Children, please, do not play with your food.”
Glynda’s eyes widened when Nora burped loudly, then she growled quietly as the rest of the students started laughing. She calmed down slightly when Ozpin put a hand on her shoulder though, “Let it go.” He said as Yang finally crashed back through the roof.
Glynda sighed, “They’re supposed to be the defenders of the world.”
”And they will be, but right now, they’re still children. So why not let them play the part?” Ozpin started walking away, “After all, it isn’t a role that they’ll have forever.”
———
Night had set in by the time Emerald and Mercury had gotten back to the White Fang base, various White Fang grunts were busy working on things as they walked past, at least until a voice cut through the relative silence, “Oh look, more of Torchwick’s useless goons.” It said. Emerald and Mercury looked up to see Jessie staring back down at them, his body mostly hidden in shadow, with only his green eyes reflecting any light, making it look like they were glowing.
”Calm down, Jess, they aren’t mine. Maybe you would know that if they hadn’t been missing all day.”
”So where have they been all day?” Jessie asked.
”I would like to know that myself.” Roman replied, shooting a glare at Emerald and Mercury.
”Oh nothing, just busy cleaning up your problems!” Mercury said, pointing an accusing finger at Roman, “One of them at least.”
”I had that under control.”
”Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale said otherwise.”
”Listen, you little punk! If it were up to me, I would have you and your little streetrat friend here and I would-“
“Do what, Roman?” A woman with black hair and a red dress suddenly said, cutting Roman off as she stepped onto an elevator and rode it down.
”Um…” Roman started, but Jessie cut across him.
”Kill them! He was totally gonna say kill them!”
”Okay are you trying to get me killed.”
”Trust me, pretty boy, I would love to see you as a pile of burnt clothes.”
”Cinder!” Emerald said gleefully.
Cinder walked towards the group, “I thought I made it clear that you were to eliminate the would-be runaway.” She said.
”I was going to.”
Emerald cut across him, “He was going to escape to Vacuo, so Mercury and I took it upon ourselves to kill the rat.”
”Tukson was not a rat!” Jessie yelled, promoting everyone up to look at him, “He was a badger Faunus, get it right.” He finished before crossing his arms.
Cinder turned to face Emerald and Mercury, “Did I not specifically instruct you to keep your hands clean while you were in Vale?”
Emerald scratched the back of her neck nervously, “I just thought-“
”Don’t think. Obey.”
”Yes ma’am. It won’t happen again.”
Cinder turned back towards Roman, “And you.” Roman flinched backwards and chuckled nervously, “Why wasn’t this job done sooner?”
Roman gestured to the boxes of stolen dust beside, in front of him and all around him, “Sorry, if I’ve been a little busy stealing every spec of dust in the entire kingdom like you asked me to!”
Meecury crossed his arms, “You’re an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask.”
”Look around, kid, I’ve got this town running scared! Police camping out at every corner, dust prices through the roof!” He turned to face the mountains of boxes, “And we’re sitting pretty in an old abandoned warehouse with more dust crystals, vials, and rounds, than we know what to do with!” He turned back to face Cinder, “Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn’t mind filling me in on your little grand plan, it might actually make my next string of robberies go a little smoother!”
Cinder walked up to Roman before putting a hand on his cheek, “Oh, Roman, have a little faith, you’ll know what you need, when you need to know it.” She took her hand off of his cheek, “Besides, we’re done with dust.”
”Oookay, then what now?”
”Have the White Fang clear out this building, I’ll send you details and coordinates tonight.”
”Coordinates?”
”We’re proceeding to phase 2.” Cinder said as she walked away.
