So over in the rebuilding RWBY thread Barnaby posted this:
And I found myself compelled to play with the idea a little. No real plans to expand beyond this, but I liked it enough to share.
OoOoO
Cries of fear and pain echoed in Vale, where they weren't drowned out by the sirens, the gunfire, or the clash of bodies. But that was all in the distance; the riot had mostly passed over this street in one of Vale's many shopping districts. The shops were barred, the cars were allowed to sit quietly in their parking spaces, and whatever workers and shoppers had been here either locked themselves indoors or made a dash for home when the news came. Oh, there were certainly a few bodies scattered here and there, but with the relative lack of other damages it was easy to pretend they'd just decided to lie down for a nap.
The only fellow moving about in the street was a short man with lean muscles, a black and white uniform, and a steel mask. From the way he was creeping between cover—fairly competently too—he didn't enjoy playing pretend. The point quickly became moot though, as the sound of a distant boom while he scampered along the sidewalk convinced him to do a sudden backflip through a car windshield.
"White Fang," Ruby called it, ejecting the spent casing.
"Nice shot," Blake said. "I liked the acrobatics."
The two were perched up on a rooftop watching the street. Ruby, hood down, had Crescent Rose's shaft at full extension for sniping and the scythe folded up and propped against the roof edge to help stabilize her shots. Blake lounged nearby, watching the show. There was an unusual amount of laughter and screaming wafting up from the stairwell, somewhat like a boxer with stress management issues who broke into the squeaky chicken toy factory, but neither of them seemed concerned by the caterwauling.
" ...peaceful are crushed by the strong and the forsaken are devoured by the Grimm. Faunus are trampled underfoot in a land that should be theirs by right, and faunus and humans both are chained and ruled by huntsmen..."
"Hey, Ruby. Do you ever wonder what you're doing here?"
Ruby answered without looking away from the scope. "Like, right now? I think I'm sniping off invaders and waiting for our ride to show up. Iunno, I could be wrong though."
"No, I mean more generally. Like, the mission."
"What, away from all the main fighting? That's bugging me too! Yeah, Ozpin's message said we'd get more orders at the meeting point, but why's it all the way out in Forever Fall? All the fighting's in the city!" Ruby sat up quickly. "Ooh, that reminds me, keep an eye on your situation. HEY YANG! YOU OKAY DOWN THERE?"
"Just peachy, little sis!" Yang shouted up the stairwell, followed by a crack and a clear tenor wail. "But I'd be better if any of these guys could hurt me!"
Ruby nudged her head toward the stairs. "Hey if you're bored you could go down and shoot over her shoulders. Firing into melee's always fun."
"...say they will keep you safe from Grimm, but they control your life with a steel grip stronger than even the old regime overthrown in the Great War. Which of you would build..."
Blake mulled it over a moment, going back and forth between doing something productive and getting to watch Ruby's marksmanship, before shrugging. "I think she's got it. And I didn't mean This Particular mission, more like… the Mission. Goals. As a huntress, as an order of huntresses and huntsmen. What you're doing with your life. Do you ever think about that?"
"White Fang," Ruby called. CRACK. She giggled, scoping out the results of her handiwork. "Oh dust, look! It's like a duck doing ballet with one leg! Who says you have to go for headshots? Gyehehehe~"
Blake couldn't help but smile fondly at Ruby's childlike delight. "Let none doubt that Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long are sisters."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Okay!" And Ruby went back to her scope.
"...dare travel where they say no? Which of you, no matter how charitable and necessary your task for the life of our people, would do it without emptying your pockets to buy their protection?"
Blake pointed with Gambol Shroud. "Take the lunatic on the broadcast. She knows what she wants. If this riot is hers, she's out there making a difference. Don't you ever wish you had that?"
"I wasn't listening, what's she want?"
Blake and Ruby both looked over at Blake's scroll, fully opened and propped up. The broadcast showed a vaguely familiar woman with orange fiery eyes that literally smoldered as her stare fixed the camera. Her voice, smooth as wet blood, came from lips quirked upwards with a smug, confident satisfaction that guaranteed any member of RWBY to meet her would either deck her across the face or follow her into hell on wings of flame howling battle cries. You know, it could go either way.
"Which of you dare look a huntsman in the eye when you pass in the street? When did you last see one in the streets? Their oath is to defend you, but they sit above you as gods, wielding the fearsome power of demons."
In the distant city skyline, a firebomb exploded in an air taxi tower, quickly turning the building into a conflagration. "I'm not sure," Blake admitted. "I think she might be a pyro though."
Realization hit, and they swiveled their heads at the same time. "HEY YANG, do you know a pyro who runs a faunus gang?" Ruby shouted.
A grunt of effort as Yang hurled someone into the crowd, sending the whole group to the ground so she had time to chat. "I think I went clubbing with her once? Gray hair in a pixie cut, like eight eyebrow rings, fox tail, and a helluva left jab?"
They both looked back to the woman on the broadcast, with her ebon curls falling over one eye and tumbling down to her bare-shouldered dress of crimson and gold. "No it's not her!"
"Ooh, did you find me someone new to hit the city with?"
"Don't worry about it!"
"Kay!"
"I miss Weiss," Ruby declared in the same tone of voice when it was time for team tea-and-cookie parties because she's the boss of them and no one's going to argue or else it's 4 AM wakeups for a week. "It was more fun when Weiss was on the scroll."
"If you want to ask pyro lady to get off our frequency, go ahead."
"Hey, if pyro lady's broadcast is messing us up, Weiss is getting it too. She's probably using backup frequencies!"
Blake obligingly began cycling her scroll through signals.
"—brothers and sisters of the White—" "—Fang declare we will not be ruled—" –any longer. The Grimm will be turned back, but—" "—by Rose, I know you're hearing this! Respond already, damn you!"
Blake waved across the scroll to Weiss. "Ruby's busy now, but I can take a message."
"Blake! Finally! Are Ruby and Yang still with you?"
Blake glanced over at her team leader, who was muttering as she scanned the street with Crescent Rose. "Do you really need that new television, Mister Looter?" Ruby asked. "I don't think you do. I think you need a warning shot through that window you're about to smash." CRACK went Crescent Rose. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Run along home, citizen."
Blake turned back to Weiss's glower. "We're all here. Some of us more than others."
"I'm glad you managed that much at least. What in the world were the bunch of you doing this whole time?"
Ruby perked up. "Aw, you were worried about us~! That's adorable, Weiss!"
"What? No I wasn't!"
"Oh, you can admit it," Ruby said, scrambling up and leaving Crescent Rose so she could kneel by Blake and the scroll. "Everyone here loves you too!"
Weiss threw her eyes at the ceiling; they flew high enough that she only narrowly remembered to catch them as they came back down. "Ruby. You're the unholy combination of a sniper and a blender, Blake's a ninja except when she's several ninjas, and Yang lights herself on fire because normal brawls are too boring; in what scenario does a White Fang riot even remotely threaten any of you?"
Ruby's eyes widened in slowly-dawning shock as her breath got stuck somewhere in her throat. Blake chuckled. "Even better than worry, Ruby—she thinks you can take care of yourself."
Weiss froze. "Oh no."
"Weiss praised me!" Ruby squeaked. "I'm so happy!"
Weiss hid her face in her hands in shame. "Oh dust, what have I done? She'll never shut up now!"
Lacking any physical Weisses on hand for appropriate treatment, Ruby did the next best thing and squeezed a big hug around Blake's side while kicking her feet behind her in the air. "Weissey likes me! She really really likes me! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
"What?" Weiss asked, looking at someone off screen, before turning back. "Hold on, you two. I have something I need to take care of." Ruby had time to go back to her sniper's post giggling and humming like a schoolgirl in love before the explosion came, slightly muffled, through the scroll.
"What do you mean they have rockets? You think I don't REALIZE this? THERE'S A REASON I'M THROWING BARRIERS UP, and believe it or not it isn't so you can SIT AROUND HAVING AFTERNOON TEA! I can find another way out of here anytime I like, you know. Do you want to hold the White Fang off yourself? No? THEN FINISH PREPPING MY BULLHEAD SO I CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THEM! NOW GET BACK TO WORK!"
"White Fang," Ruby said, voice still lilting with happiness. CRACK.
"Having trouble?" Blake asked.
"Just the technicians prepping out transport." Weiss shook her head in disgust at the scarcity of good help. "Ugh, civilians. It's like they've never been shot at before."
Ruby considered that. "You know I'm not like reeeeeeal sure, but I don't think most of my neighbors on Patch started using live ammo when they turned eight like Yang and me did."
"Yang and I," Weiss corrected automatically. "But then how did they prove themselves worthy of keeping their place in the household? I realize not everyone could afford a top-of-the-line golem like I had to obliterate for my trial, but that's hardly any excuse to slack off training."
"I don't think I had to do that? Wait wait wait, no, it was probably that time Uncle Qrow jumped me with his scythe at 3 AM and tried to cut my head off for like an hour until I lured him into a death stalker's burrow in the forest and caved it in with a dust charge."
Weiss grunted as her barriers caught a particularly loud barrage of rockets. "Father had Winter do that to me a few times," she agreed.
"My parents got eaten by Grimm and left me at the edge of the forest outside the walls when I was seven," Blake reminded them.
A moment passed while they thought of an appropriate analysis to this, til Weiss eventually took a stab. "I admire their dedication to your training."
"If it works, it works," Blake said with a philosophical shrug. "I think I turned out alright."
And Ruby found something else interesting in the street below. "Aw, lookit, there are two civvie girls down there and one of them has a hurt leg and the other one is helping her walk and it's so cute how they're sticking together and being not-useless in the middle of the gutted city! Don't worry my pets, your little sister Ruby's on overwatch to cover your advance!"
"Anyway," Weiss began explaining, "There are a few White Fang firing rockets at the hangar from beyond the academy moat. I don't have anything with the range to shake them loose and no one's really free to go murder them, so I'm going to throw barriers over the bullhead and rush them with dust shots. IF, that is, these dolts can prep it on a time scale that isn't geological. I'll be by to pick you up shortly after that."
"Good work, Weissey! Your team leader is pleased!" Ruby squinted into her scope. "Hey, White Fang go home! Get away from my darlings!" CRACK. "Serves you right. Heey, don't run away, darlings! I can protect you!"
"Wait, hang on," Weiss cut in. "Before that fire woman started broadcasting and cut us off, you said the three of you were pinned down under fire. You've taken, what, three shots this whole time? You're just sniping for your personal amusement, aren't you?"
"Th-that's because the White Fang are all inside on the ground floor now! Yang's holding them off! She's got a chokepoint, she's our only hope right now! We're seconds away from turning into a bloodbath!"
"I can hear her shouting, Ruby! She's having fun."
One of Yang's clearer shouts came up the stairwell. "Whoo, look at that rebound! Ceiling to floor to ceiling! Now that's what I call losing your head!"
Lest this plummet into one of their usual fights that filled up their apartment and dragged on for time spans measured in entire chapters of "Ninjas of Love" ruined by their screeching, Blake stepped in to play peacemaker. "To be fair, happy Yang and pushy crowds go hand in hand."
"Fine, whatever. They still can't stop you going over rooftops, can they? Get over here and take out these rocket troops for me!"
Ruby violently jerked into the air, before flopping back to the ground on her back and pointing Crescent Rose straight up. She began firing shot after shot into the sky. "OH GOD IT'S A GIANT NEVERMORE! CAW! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! WE'RE DOOMED, DOOMED I SAY!"
The glowering heiress on the other side of the scroll was not impressed. "Ruby."
"CAW CAW! A WHOLE SWARM OF NEVERMORE! OH DUST, I'LL NEVER AGAIN KNOW THE SWEET EMBRACE OF MY DEAR PARTNER UNLESS SHE SAVES US! WOE ARE WE! CAW!"
"Ruby!"
Ruby, suddenly launching in a burst of petals, almost knocked Blake over in a bid to grab the scroll and shove her face through its camera. "You're breaking up, Weiss! Kerrcherkerr, the fire lady must be jamming us! ccccchhhhhhkkrrrrr! Only you can save us!"
"Ruby Rose, I looted a whole crate of chocolate chip cookies from a supermarket for our supplies, but I swear I'm leaving it behind for the useless technicians if you hang up on me. Don't you dare Ruby, don't you—"
Ruby snapped the scroll off.
"Your sacrifice will be remembered and honored," Blake said as she caught the scroll from Ruby's over-shoulder throw.
"Nnngaaar! Why didn't she mention the cookies BEFORE she asked us to move? I can't break form after committing like that! Damn it!" She snapped her hood back down and took up her sniper's position again, muttering angrily as she shot out a few windows before settling down.
Eventually she hissed with something like actual anger, as opposed to the usual cheer inspired by the chance to for live field target shooting. "Heey, that guy tried to rob me once! He's one of Roman's suits!"
Huh. Someone… tried to rob Ruby? Blake hadn't heard that story. "And you didn't kill him?"
"He ran away…."
"Well, what is he doing now?"
"I bet he's thinking about going looting. What a naughty boy." She contained herself long enough to squeeze the trigger and follow through before leaping up and perching on Crescent Rose's shaft, arms raised, as the shot's echo bounced around the empty street. "AVENGED!"
She plopped back down on the roof. "I get you were saying though. About wondering about your purpose and all? Like, I told you I wanted to be a huntress so I could be a hero from all those books I grew up on. But I haven't got to kill even one dragon yet! What's up with that!"
"Exactly. No one told you you'd be doing pest control on fledgling Grimm for four years. I wanted to make a difference, make things better for the faunus. Huntresses and huntsmen are heroes, people look up to them. When people look at me, I don't want them to see an alley cat, I want them to see someone who fights off the Grimm. I enrolled because I wanted to remind humans that this is our world too and to convince faunus we can get somewhere, no matter how impossible it seems. But no one told me Ozpin and the military higher ups, they just don't care. They don't care about the social issues or that huntsmen and huntresses could do something about it. No one told me that half our potential is wasted by design. It's just a lot of 'patrol for Grimm, terrify and kill our enemies, sit on your ass and train until we need you again.' None of them care, and that means it's impossible to get anything done. It's ironic. For mobile small unit tactical elite forces, we get used like blunt instruments a lot."
"Blunt instruments?" Ruby nodded to her gunscythe. "If you want finesse, you can have a turn on Crescent Rose. You wanna snipe some terrorists? That'll make you feel better!"
"Eh, maybe later. It's tempting, though."
The building suddenly decided to practice its jitterbug steps and went shaking to the sound of several explosions. From the whoops and screaming coming from downstairs, it was all Yang's fault. Ruby and Blake looked at each other and shared a long moment of horrified realization.
For once, it was Blake who was angry enough to start shouting first. "YANG! Did you just fire four compressed burn dust shells into a crowd who can't even hurt you? Those are practically grenades!"
"Um, maybe?" Yang called back. "There are a lot of them! And they keep getting up! Or they did. Now they're not."
"Could you not? Wait until we're off the roof, at least! You're going to knock the building down!"
"YEAH YANG IT'S NOT STURDY LIKE YOUR BIG DUMB BOOBS! HAVE SOME FINESSE WILL YOU!"
"Sorry guys, my bad! I'll play nice with the rest of them!"
Ruby and Blake relaxed again as the fight below went back to the usual white noise of Yang shouting while she knocked bodies around. Though judging from the way Yang would hit a White Fang and the White Fang would get a solid crack from flying into a wall instead of colliding with another of their fellows, there weren't nearly as many opponents standing. After the explosive shells, Yang would probably say their offense was going to pieces, but that was because Yang was terrible in every way that mattered.
They didn't have much time to settle into the peace. A small mob of people flooded from a sidestreet into their line of sight—or two small mobs, intermittently shoving and pushing at one another, shouting the whole time. It hadn't developed into full-throated head-stomping yet, but it couldn't be very far off. Blake sat up sharply; she didn't have a sniper's scope, but even at this distance she could spot the distinctive black-and-white uniform of the White Fang. "Ruby?"
"The're all faunus, half White Fang, half in street clothes. It looks like they're arguing, and pretty mad about it."
"Hmm. If the White Fang are deliberately this far from the action, they're looking for something specific. Which means the locals are probably a cell from the old days before the White Fang splintered and turned violent, and the White Fang hoped to recruit them. I used to get assigned to settle a lot of those arguments."
"…But you're not a talker?"
Blake tapped Gambol Shroud's hilt. "It's amazing how persuasive knocking people out second story windows can be."
Bodies went flying as a new contender sprinted from the sidestreet into the middle of both groups, flailing about with a strength that was clearly aura-boosted. "Oh. Um. Huh," Ruby said. "They might get their chance to work together then, for a few minutes anyway."
"Why? What's happening down there?"
"Cardin Winchester just found them. And he has shitty trigger discipline. Mace discipline. Whatever."
"Ugh, Winchester!" Blake snarled, glowering at the too-small-to-see-anything-but-still-clearly-a-jackass figure flinging faunus about left and right. "He's the perfect example of what I'm talking about. Ozpin finds Winchester's views deplorable. Deplorable, I say. But does Ozpin care enough to stop training him? Of course not. The military doesn't even bother with that little disclaimer. They don't see any difference between him and me as long as we both follow orders and he doesn't actually go far enough to get caught shoving faunus students in front of King Taijitus on a mission."
"Yeah, he does suck like that," Ruby absently agreed as she rooted around in her supplies.
"We're both just weapons to be pointed wherever they want us. From differences in acceptance rates at the academies, they might even prefer Winchester's type to faunus. How am I supposed to be an example for young faunus when all I'm really showing them is if they work very hard and become the deadliest ninja, they get to work with a fucker like Winchester who wants to throw us outside the walls with the Grimm?"
Ruby snapped a magazine of valuable energy dust rounds into Crescent Rose. "White Fang," she called. CRACK. "Oh nooo, I slipped. Oh no, I'm slipping again." CRACK CRACK CRACK. She double-checked the damage through the scope, and grinned in satisfaction.
"What did you—let me see!" Blake pounced fast enough that Ruby had to let out a few petals as she rolled aside to let Blake take a look through Crescent Rose. Slowly, a smile like she'd just found her way into the cream spread over Blake's face, and she reached down to squeeze Ruby's shoulder. "You're alright, Ruby. I think I'll keep you."
Ruby replied by throwing a hug around her middle. "Yay! Blakey really likes me!"
