More than a week had passed since Yang had put out the call, and she was starting to get nervous. Not because of the fear that no one had heard her, but because of the fear that everyone had heard her. Even now, Torchwick and his goons could be lying in wait, standing ready to capture her when she next went off Vale's beaten tracks so that they could deliver her on a silver platter to their boss, Jacques Schnee. Or worse, the Decepticons. It was lucky for her, then, that she had an ace up her sleeve in the form of her big yellow friend.
It was while she happened to be inside that big yellow friend on a trip to the city that she finally got a call on her burner scroll.
"Well, that's convenient," mused Bumblebee. "We haven't even left our parking spot. Here's hoping none of these city folk decide to box us in while we're busy."
Yang found herself agreeing as she activated the scroll. Audio only, of course. "Took you long enough."
"Yeah, yeah. You should count yourself lucky that I even got a reply back on this," said Junior over the wireless audio line.
"Okay then, I'm lucky. Now what's the reply?" pressed Yang.
"Straight from the man himself. Roman says to meet him at a warehouse down by the docks in three days, around eleven at night. I'm texting you the address."
Yang glanced at the scroll. "Got the address. Is this the part where you say that this looks shifty, and then I say not to worry because I can handle it?"
"Nice to see you know the script, Blondie."
"I had a good line coach," she said, thinking back to some of her uncle's stories. "Well, you can tell Torchwick I'll be there."
"I'll pass that along. Good luck, Blondie. You're going to need it."
"Aww, didn't you know you cared, Junior."
Click.
"So, you planning to spring the trap?" asked Bumblebee as his partner put away her scroll.
"Yep," replied Yang with a pop of her lips. "Well, okay, I'm planning to walk in there in good faith, like I'm applying for a job interview. No need to let them know that I'm only joining up long enough to get enough information to take down their employers right off the bat."
"But they probably already suspect that," pointed out the yellow Autobot.
"Right, which is why you'll be standing by to extract me if things go south. I don't think they'll be expecting the car to roll out with no one in it."
"Unless they're aligned with the Decepticons directly. Then Barricade or someone else could be lying in wait. Call me crazy, but I don't think we're in any position to take on someone like, say, Menasor at our current energon levels."
"That's why I said to extract me, Bumblebee. I'm not stupid."
"Oh," Bumblebee realized. "Sorry. Had a sudden rush of scrap to the central processor and became Cliffjumper for a second."
"Do I want to know?"
"Let me put it like this. If you were with Cliffjumper right now, you wouldn't be setting up any meeting, you'd be smashing down the doors of every warehouse in the docks, guns blazing."
"That's…" Yang paused to consider the most inoffensive way to say what she was thinking, "...exciting."
"That's what Jazz said the third time he had to rescue Cliffjumper from a Decepticon force twice their number."
Yang smiled at that. "Okay, I've got to hear this."
She could hear Bumblebee smiling as well as he began his tale. "Well, it all started around the time of the Thirty-Third Battle of Polyhex. Now, you could tell that It was going to be an interesting day because Hot Shot said in full view of Cliffjumper…"
"I don't know what to do," moaned Ruby as she slumped against the wall of the hall.
It was not their darkest hour, not yet, but this directionless malaise felt almost as bad. It didn't matter how hard she was throwing herself into her studies, she couldn't get that terrible image out of her head. Somewhere out there, a group of innocents was crying out for a hero, and she couldn't answer the call.
"Need some help?"
Ruby looked up and found the smiling face of Jaune Arc looking down at her. She smiled back, but it was a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. She hoped then that he would not guess the evil that her team had chosen to battle.
"I don't think you can help me with this, Jaune," she replied. "I don't think anyone can."
"Fiddlesticks," cursed Jaune as he moved to sit on the floor besides Ruby. "You helped me with that whole Cardin situation. It's only fair I repay the kindness."
"All I did was give you some advice, Jaune. It was your strength of character that carried the day then. No great deed on my part was needed," placated Ruby.
"Then let me see if I have any advice for you," he suggested.
"You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"Nope!" he echoed cheerfully.
Ruby smiled at the memory. Maybe he had a point. "We've -- my team, I mean -- we've kind of… picked a fight with a pretty big enemy. But we've kind of hit a dead end, and I just- it's frustrating."
"I can get that," Jaune commiserated. "If you don't mind me asking, why?"
Ruby paused, considering her words carefully before answering. "Yang found out something pretty awful. It took a bit to get her to tell us, but even then, she told us not to get involved." Ruby sighed. "Please don't blame her; she's just being overprotective again. But… we couldn't just sit by. We got a few clues from Weiss and Blake's contacts, but we can't really push those any further."
Jaune considered her words, but there was one thing she said that he couldn't quite get his head around. "Hold up.
Yang tried to get you guys to back down from a fight?"
Ruby nodded, then replied, her voice worried, "You should have seen her, Jaune. She was
scared, terrified really. If she knew what I was doing… I don't want to betray her, disappoint her, but I can't just let this go."
Jaune exhaled heavily in response. "This is certainly a fine mess you've gotten yourself wrapped up in, Ruby, but you don't have to do this alone."
"Jaune, I already have Weiss and Blake helping me," Ruby pointed out.
"That's two," he acknowledged with a genuine smile. "How about four more?"
Ruby's eyes went wide with astonishment at her friend's words. "No, Jaune, I can't…"
Her blond friend put his hand on her shoulder and interrupted her. "If our roles were reversed, what would you say?"
Ruby didn't need to think long at all to get her answer. "Okay," she relented, "I get it. But… this isn't just me. I need to talk to Weiss and Blake first, and you should
probably check with the rest of Team JNPR first, too."
"Okay, then what?" asked Jaune pointedly.
"Your dorm, after midnight? Then we'll see if Team RWB needs a new name."
"'Team Rube'? Sounds like it needs a new name anyway," the blond quipped.
"Hey! It's better than 'Team Rib' or 'Team Rub'," Ruby shot back.
"That's debatable."
As agreed, just after midnight when the door to Team JNPR's dorm slowly opened. Through it came Team RWB, still dressed in their pajamas, to be greeted by the similarly clad residents of the dormitory in a room almost completely shrouded in darkness, save for a few flashlights in lantern mode.
"It's… dark in here," observed Weiss.
"Dark rooms for dark business," replied Nora menacingly.
"We thought it was better to use flashlights rather than keep the lights on and cause a scene," Ren informed them bluntly.
"Ren! I was going to be all epic about this," said Nora in despair. "Now the moment is ruined."
"Don't be too hasty," Blake said. "We haven't even started talking, after all."
"So, shall we begin?" asked Pyrrha seriously. "Who is this great enemy?"
Without an ounce of hesitation, the Ruby answered, "The Schnee Dust Company."
Whatever answer Team JNPR had been expecting, that clearly wasn't it.
Still visibly confused, Nora was the first to answer. "Hold up, the SDC? You're going after the biggest dust company on Remnant?" She paused as a thought crossed her mind. "Doesn't Weiss's dad run the place?"
"Yes," the heiress in question growled hatefully. "Straight into hell."
Team JNPR seemed taken aback by the venom in her voice.
"You still in for this?" Ruby asked, before the discussion derailed further.
All four members of Team JNPR nodded, and Jaune spoke, "Well, with an opening like that, we've got to stay just to find out what you're talking about."
Blake was the first of the triumvirate to speak. "When Yang finally got her car ready to run, she was out on the town almost all night. We were curious as to what kept her, so we asked her the next afternoon after classes ended for the day. She explained, after some prodding on Weiss's part, that she had run into and helped some escaped slaves trying to go to ground. Yang tried to convince us not to investigate, but… well…" She shrugged. "We learned that they likely escaped from an SDC blacksite north of Vale, beyond the city walls. As to what this blacksite was being used for…" She looked over at Weiss.
"The SDC has some new business partners," Weiss continued. "We don't know who they are, but we do know they've helped create a new superfuel called energon, a substance the SDC believes will change the world. We also discovered large amounts of hardware, especially combat androids, mysteriously disappearing from our inventory. In some cases, the amount of material being written off exceeds the amount officially built or bought. We think this equipment is being funneled to this blacksite -- or perhaps multiple blacksites -- where the SDC is using slave labor to create and test this energon before rolling it out for the public on a much grander scale."
Ruby nodded gravely, picking up where the heiress left off. "We need to find this facility that those people escaped from, and we need to take it down, along with everyone responsible for it. We were hoping Professor Ozpin would be able to handle the SDC, but we need to get him evidence first, solid evidence that isn't full of holes and black bars. But we've reached the end of our resources. Weiss can't probe her corporate contacts anymore, and we don't want to put Blake's charity contacts at risk. I don't have any resources to start with, so we're stuck. I don't suppose you guys have any ideas?"
Before anyone else could reply Nora cut in. "Hold up! Mysterious backers? Forced labor camps that don't exist? A new super substance? A whole lot of military equipment going missing? Does this smell like a 'take over the world' plot to
anyone else?"
Ren opened his mouth to rebut her, but the words died in his mouth; he didn't have a counter beyond 'that's crazy,' and that wasn't an argument at all. Reactions to the theory varied, from Blake and Weiss's horror to Pyrrha's polite skepticism. Jaune, however, looked thoughtful.
"Look, while it makes sense, let's not get ahead of ourselves," he cautioned. "True or not, I don't see how that affects our next step. If they're making this 'energon' at this blacksite, then they're either storing it all locally -- which doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the scale you're suggesting, Weiss -- or they're transporting it out. That means roads, rail lines, or air transport. Maybe a pipeline, if it's liquid. If we can track that, we can find the site, right?"
Pyrrha perked up. "I… may know someone who might be able to help check for unusual air traffic," she offered.
"Right, great," Jaune said, nodding to the redhead. He looked at the others. "Anyone able to look into roadworks or construction? Roads or rail or pipelines would need material, construction crews, and turrets or walls or something to keep the Grimm from wrecking them. Any ideas?"
"Public records," Ren suggested. "While the amount of material in question would be difficult to acquire and transport covertly, the specific records might be difficult to acquire access to without drawing suspicion… but construction outside the city walls would require a strong Huntsman or other military presence to protect against Grimm assault, in addition to the construction crews. The missing androids could account for that, but that would also significantly increase their transport footprint. We could check Beacon's records for any unusual missions in the area and ask the Huntsmen who took them for details."
"All right!" Ruby cheered. "Sounds like we have a plan!"
"Are you sure? Do you think this plan will really work?" Yang asked as she looked out on their destination.
"I think so. After all, I do have experience in this sort of this. Well, not exactly," Bumblebee admitted. "But I did sign up for scout work, and I picked up a few pointers from Punch."
"Who's Punch?"
"An intelligence operative," Bumblebee replied. "That's… all I can say, really. Just make sure to stay calm, don't give yourself away, and hope they don't recognize you."
Yang looked down and took stock of her outfit. It was fairly simple, like something seen at a race track, with brown steel-toed boots, white pants with strategic padding, and a white padded jacket opened to reveal a red t-shirt. The ensemble was completed by her own mirrored sunglasses and her hair done up in a ponytail.
As simple as it seemed, though, there was definitely more to the outfit that met the eye. After all, it had come off an Autobot assembly line back at their base, apparently one of the first iterations of clothing for any future human and faunus friends of theirs. She knew at least one feature of it was the ability to make their logo appear and disappear on it, which was neat.
"Here's hoping," Yang mused. "I mean, this really isn't my style."
"And that's the point. Anyway, it's almost game time. Before you get going, I've got one more thing for you."
A panel on the dash slid open to reveal a tiny, wireless earbud. It was mostly transparent plastic, with small flesh-colored sections concealing the presumed electronics inside. She put it on, nestling it carefully within her ear canal,, and soon afterward, she could hear Bumblebee's voice through the device instead of the car speakers like usual.
"Okay, now we should be able to talk to each other in case there's trouble. Can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you, Bumblebee. Let's get this over with."
Yang steeled herself, and they moved towards the warehouse. The front door was open slightly, and light could be seen streaming in from the inside. The door was, unfortunately, purely made with humans in mind.
Yang climbed out when Bumblebee had come to a stop and advanced on the entrance. "Keep your ears open for anything happening in there that I might not see," she told him, and then proceeded to walk inside.
"I'm already tracking them on infrared. And there's a lot of 'em."
"'Infrared'?"
"Yeah. I'm a scout, remember? State of the art optics."
She went through another two doors before she reached the main warehouse area and found, standing in the middle of a shaft of light from an overhead lamp, Roman Torchwick. He didn't look like much, ginger hair and green eyes, with an impeccably clean white coat, black pants, and a black bowler hat, but he stood with confidence, his hands resting on a cane in front of him. Standing some distance behind him was a small girl with pink and brown hair and eyes, dressed in an aesthetically-similar outfit, though much more feminine, with an umbrella resting daintily on her shoulder. Yang could also feel eyes on her from the shadows surrounding them.
"Well, hello, Blondie. I hear you've been looking for me," Roman said smoothly.
Yang smirked cockily and struck a confident pose. "You heard right, Torchwick."
The redheaded criminal seemed to appreciate that. "I also heard that you want to get into the dust thieving business. Is that true?"
"More like I'm a woman of limited means who's suddenly found herself with a need for a… significant supply of it," Yang replied. "You can call me Sunfire."
"'Sunfire'?" Bumblebee echoed.
"I like it."
"And you want in so you can get a cut," Torchwick concluded.
"Something like that, yeah," Yang confirmed. "Don't worry. If you -- or your
boss, I suppose -- are trying to keep the prices high, I won't be selling it off."
"Oh, you wouldn't, would you?" Torchwick asked, cocking an eyebrow. "And what would a girl like you need that much dust for?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Yang shot back, "but I suspect I'd get the same answer."
"Hmm. That's fair. Let's say I believe you," he said. "What do you have to offer?"
"You hear about Junior's nightclub getting trashed a while back?"
"That was you? Well, I
am impressed… assuming you're telling the truth. Neo, if you would?"
Yang felt a sudden stab of pain in her sternum and found herself flying back.
From the air, Site 13 didn't look all that impressive. A clump of irregular black buildings surrounded by a defensive wall, all nestled in a valley between three mountains, it surrendered the high ground for relative obscurity. Sure, once past the mountains, it was painfully visible, the forest surrounding it cleared and the grass razed to ankle height to provide clear fields of fire for the autogun turrets.
Including the ridiculous anti-orbital cannon someone -- almost certainly Lugnut, which was no surprise, really -- had seen fit to install on the central tower.
But it lay outside normal air traffic lanes, and the nearest dirt road for ground-level access was over two kilometers away and required a hike into the deep forest and through a hidden tunnel access to reach the valley.
As Vortex flew over the valley, Onslaught noted the tunnel opening. Poor foresight on Lugnut's part to not conceal the tunnel entrance on
this end. Too late to conceal it now; they'd just have to secure it some other way.
As they approached the landing pad, he noted Barricade and Swindle waiting for them. Good. He'd sent the team's quartermaster ahead to get an inventory of on-site assets.
"Finally!" came an impatient voice from behind Onslaught, riding opposite Vortex's transport bay. "Should've let Blast Off take us. He's faster."
"Patience, Brawl," Onslaught chided. "We need Blast Off on sub-orbital overwatch right now."
This was a delicate time, after all. They were still within the window in which a potential retaliatory strike was likely, if the escapees contacted someone with the resources and inclination to launch one, and it wouldn't do for the Combaticons to get caught off-guard before they could get properly situated.
Brawl grumbled unintelligibly but otherwise kept his peace.
Once they landed, Onslaught and Brawl dismounted, allowing Vortex to transform, shrinking himself down to match their scale. Size-shifting was common and useful enough on its own, but the more advanced
mass-shifting was capable of
so much more, and it was also integral to the combiner technology that helped make the Combaticons the deadly fighting force they were.
"-ail Megatro-"
"Next time, Brawl, you can
walk," Vortex snarled, jabbing a finger at the now-bigger Combaticon. "See how long it takes you then."
"-eath to the Auto-"
"Oh, did I hurt your feelings?" Brawl mocked.
There were, of course, disadvantages to leading such a team, as effective and deadly as they were.
"-ead us into a new golde-"
"Shut up, both of you," he ordered curtly, cutting off the argument before it could turn into Brawl's namesake. "If you're going to fight, remember the rules."
The rules --
Onslaught's rules, that is -- were pretty simple. Infighting was to be kept off-duty and formalized into duels, under strict supervision.
His supervision, preferably.
"-itable victory over th-"
"Yes, sir," the two chorused sullenly.
"And Barricade, shut off that nonsense!" Onslaught barked. "I'm not going to listen to Lugnut proclaiming Megatron's glorious victory over the Primes. Again." He could already feel the headache coming on from dealing with Lugnut's idea of "motivational speaking."
"Oh, thank Primus," Barricade muttered as he pressed a button on a handheld transmitter, cutting off Lugnut's recorded voice midword. He'd clearly been
waiting for that order. Which meant Lugnut had probably ordered him to keep the broadcast going.
Onslaught was impressed. After that many cycles of listening to Lugnut continuously, and Barricade was still sane? The jumped up security 'Con was made of sterner stuff than he'd thought.
"Swindle," he said, moving on to the next order of business, "status report. How are our supplies?"
"We're well-equipped for the long run," Swindle reported. "The autoguns run off a central energon feed, and the big gun appears designed to accept either dust or energon for power."
"And energon production?"
"Moving apace. Lugnut's…
indifferent attitude to the workforce has not helped any. I believe we might be able to increase overall production by three percent through certain improvements in management and investing in luxury goods as motivation for the... hired help. I've already taken the liberty of canceling the daily educational seminars. I've also begun tapping into the local human city's network. Nothing much yet on that front, though."
"Right," Onslaught acknowledged, making a mental note to keep Vortex off the labor force oversight rotation. "Keep me informed."
"Of course, sir."
Onslaught gave it about a 50/50 chance Swindle would
actually bother to update him -- the scrounger and fixer tended to get…
vague whenever it came to his shadier contacts -- but the reminder couldn't hurt.
"All right," Onslaught said, then transmitted. "Blast Off, get down here. We've got a lot of work to do."
"Yang, what's happening?! According to my sensors, your structural integrity field just took a big hit."
"The little umbrella girl just started my audition," she whispered angrily.
"Seriously? That little kid did all that?! Yang, don't get hit again!"
"Wasn't planning to," the blonde muttered, deploying Ember Celica as she spoke.
She raised her shot-gauntlets just in time to absorb a kick from Neo.
"Wonderful, you can block," Torchwick commented dryly. "But can you dance?"
"I know a few moves," Yang quipped as she backed away. "Let me show you."
The disguised Huntress (in training) snapped her arms toward the ground and fired off a pair of gravity rounds. Riding the recoil, she launched herself up into the air and came down on a catwalk. As soon as she hit the metal, she was already at the edge and shadowboxing a bombardment of explosive dust rounds onto the floor of the warehouse, making Neo buck and weave to avoid getting hit.
"Yes! Keep her off-balance!"
"And then finish her off!" Yang declared as she jumped, fired off a pair of gravity rounds to launch herself even further into the air, and then pivoted to fire off another pair of gravity rounds to launch her body towards Neo.
"Wait! No!"
With a battlecry and one fist extended out, hair alight with the fire of her soul made manifest, she hit the ground and let out a large earth dust powered shockwave. But Neo was not beneath that fist, nor was she anywhere on the ground. She had leapt up into the air and come down on Yang with a kick to the head.
"Hey, watch the property damage!" Torchwick cried from the side. He then mused to himself. "Well, she's certainly capable of dishing out the kind of damage she boasted of, at least."
Lilac eyes flashed to red as a growl escaped her throat. She let loose a flurry of punches, and every one of them failed to connect. She even threw in a kick, but the little girl with the unstoppable smile dodged that too.
"Yang, we talked about this! Stop pulling a Cliffjumper!"
The blonde let out another cry and fired off another pair of gravity rounds to launch herself back up to the catwalks.
"You're playing this like it's a boss fight in one of those video games you kids are into these days," commented Roman. "Well, two can play at that."
"Going to call in some help from all the goons you have waiting in the wings?" asked Yang sarcastically.
Roman cocked his one visible eyebrow at that. "How did you know about that, sweetheart?"
Yang cocked a smirk. "Only the best in optics. Though I'm sure with a boss as rich and powerful as yours, you're swimming in tech like that."
Roman muttered something under his breath that sounded like disappointment, and she found herself amused by the sight… right up until Bumblebee yelled in her ear.
"Right! Dodge!"
Yang ducked, and where her head just was, a parasol sailed through. Neo had jumped onto the catwalk with her. The blonde recoil boosted back and let loose a pair of glowing dust rounds that impacted the short girl's spinning umbrella.
The blonde launched into another series of punches, trying to get inside Neo's guard. And once again, the little girl was dodging everything she threw at her. Then, suddenly, she grabbed one of Yang's arms, and the equation shifted further in her favor.
In a move that made Yang dizzy just to watch, Neo launched herself up onto the blonde's shoulders and spun around like a top. She ended up grabbing the Beacon student's arm once more and using the bigger girl's weight to flip her. Yang found herself sailing through the air towards the roof, but fell short just enough to come crashing down to the floor.
Yang groaned as she saw dozens of armed faunus in the signature white and black uniforms with Grimm masks of the White Fang file in, pointing their guns at her.
"Okay, I admit it, I wasn't expecting this," she said. "Unless, of course, this is all a
deception."
Torchwick brandished his cane and pointed the tip at her as Neo daintily landed besides him with her parasol. "Lady, I don't know what you came here expecting to do, whether it was to take my job or take us down, but the only thing you're leaving here with is a death certificate and a pile of broken dreams."
The tip of the cane popped open to reveal a gun barrel and a crude sight.
"So, any last words?"
Yang smiled faintly. "Just one:
Bumblebee!"
The warehouse's cargo door smashed open, propelled by the force of the little yellow car barreling through it. It sped across the ground too fast to react to, shifting its geometry along the way and tucking into a roll. Now revealed in his robot form, Bumblebee stopped his roll on one knee, slamming an arm into the floor between his human partner and Torchwick, and intercepting the dust round from the latter.
Yang picked herself up off the ground, and Bumblebee brought his arm up, transforming it in the process into his blaster. Her trump card now revealed, Yang's jacket also shifted slightly, to display three red emblems that looked slightly like faces, one on each shoulder, and a larger one on her back. The looks on Torchwick and Neo's faces definitely made the beating she had just received worth it.
"They're Autobots!" one of the White Fang cried out.
Torchwick ignored the cry and focused on Yang and Bumblebee. "You kids just keep getting
weirder. Is your big robot buddy here supposed to impress me?"
"A little, yeah," Yang replied. "So are you going to tell me what's going on here, or are we going to have to do things the hard way?"
The red-haired criminal put a hand to his chin. "Hmm, I'll have to think about that one. In the meantime, Neo, demonstrate to them what happened to your throat."
Neo shot forward once more, parasol raised. Yang and Bumblebee prepared to defend themselves. Then, before she had gotten very far at all, she seemed to slash out in an attempt at a possible ranged attack. They never would get to find out what trick she was doing.
Neo's strike was intercepted by the red blade of a man in black. Her eyes changed then from pink and brown to a terrified white as she jumped back. The man swung his sword at her, and a red pulse ripped out from it to sail over her head and cut through the ceiling.
"Now, Neo, is that any way to treat a friend?" the man asked smoothly, his back still to Yang so that the only distinguishing features she could see were his blood red hair and the tips of a pair of pointed, swept-back horns.
"Adam!" another of the White Fang called. "You came!"
"Of course, I came," the now-named Adam replied. "When I found out this
human was overstepping his bounds while Cinder was away, I knew I had to investigate. Turns out I was right in more ways than one to do so."
"Oh, I'm overstepping my bounds?!" asked Torchwick sarcastically. "She left me in charge of city operations. That's what I'm doing."
"What you're doing is interfering with White Fang business. Her and her plans don't have anything to do with this," Adam insisted.
"Excuse me?" Torchwick retorted. "This girl here is looking for dust. You don't think that's relevant to her plans?"
"You have no idea who these two are, do you?"
Torchwick raised the eyebrow visible past his bangs and leaned to the side to look past Adam and get a better view of Yang. She waved at him with a smile, and Bumblebee transformed his blaster back into a hand to do likewise. "A puffed up teenager with delusions of grandeur and her Atlesian supercar that her rich daddy bought her?"
Yang resisted the urge to correct him that it had been her rich
friend who had contributed most of the funds to get Bumblebee out of that dealership.
Adam growled angrily. "They are the two who helped our latest recruits escape the SDC."
Torchwick scoffed. "You mean the nutballs who were talking about… giant… robots?" he trailed off as he made the connection. "Riiight. So maybe not nutballs."
"No, and don't you forget it," Adam said simply before turning to face the subject of their conversation.
His face and mask was one Yang had seen on wanted posters before, back when she had been so excited to hear that her sister had almost taken down a notorious criminal that she had spent all night searching for anyone that fit that description. Adam Taurus, a high-ranking member of the White Fang, wanted for theft, murder, terrorism, and a whole slew of other crimes that came with his position and tactics. She had to admit, though, that in person, he seemed rather charming, and his face would even be considered beautiful were it not for the mask; it was a thought that almost sickened her.
"I'm sorry for the theatrics," he said disarmingly. "I heard about your request. I have to say, it's not often a human tries to join the White Fang. Though, I'm also sorry to say that we're not open to applications from your particular species at this time."
At that Bumblebee spoke up. "Why do I have a feeling you would be a lot more direct with that if there wasn't a Cybertronian in the room?"
"Two Cybertronians, actually," came a voice even smoother than Adam's.
In through the broken open door rolled a bright white Ferdinand 119 sports car that quickly shifted and transformed into a robot slightly larger than Bumblebee.
"Oh, hey, Jazz!" Bumblebee called out. "When did you join the party?"
"I've been kicking it here since before you ever arrived on the scene," was Jazz's reply, and damn, Yang bet she could spread that voice over toast better than butter.
Adam laughed. "So, is this where one of us says, 'take me to your leader'?"
"Oh, I called Prime the moment these two chuckleheads rolled on up. He should be here any minute," Jazz reported with a single mechanical finger pointing at the yellow pair at the center of the warehouse.
Yang found it odd that despite being in a tense situation surrounded by dangerous criminals, murderous terrorists, and two alien warrior robots where death was but a heartbeat away, the thing she was most scared of was the possibility of getting a scolding from Optimus. The Autobot leader just seemed to have that effect on people it seemed. Silently, she hoped he would never meet her father for any reason.
"Sooo," Torchwick said with some exaggerated shifting, "Sunfire, was it? How did a sweet girl like you end up rolling with a bunch of giant robots. There a story there?"
"Yes," replied Yang succinctly.
Torchwick paused, waiting for her to continue. After a moment, he asked, "You going to tell it?"
Yang smirked. "No."
Torchwick rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Oh dear. You're another one of
those women with a fire-themed name. Of course. Here's hoping the big cheese shows up soon so you don't try to turn the floor into a model of the moon again."
He was there in two minutes, as luck would have it. The signature red, white, and blue truck cab rolled up to the warehouse like a bat out of hell and slid to a stop, transforming along the way into the towering form of Optimus Prime.
"Is everyone unharmed?"
"Yes! Except for her pride!" Torchwick called out, pointing at Yang. "And the profound awkwardness we got waiting for you to show up. And our security deposit."
"You actually rent this place?" Yang asked skeptically.
"Well… no," Torchwick admitted. "The point stands, though. You are
not easy on the local property values, girl."
At that, Jazz spoke up. "Bumblebee and
Sunfire here decided to throw a little side party without telling anyone and got into some fisticuffs for their trouble."
"I see," Optimus acknowledged. To Yang's surprise, there was no disappointment, no censure in his voice. "Sunfire," he said, looking over at Yang, "is this, then, where your contacts led you?"
Yang nodded. "Yeah. Looking into the dust robberies led me to Torchwick over there," she said, nodding at the bowler-hatted redhead. "Wasn't expecting the White Fang, though."
Optimus took a moment to consider that. "No," he agreed, "I expect you weren't. Jazz?"
"Real deal, here," Jazz said. "Been keeping an eye on 'em. Most just took advantage of the White Fang's contacts and moved on, but a few like Brock here joined. They were doing okay, so I kept outta sight."
Wait. Yang frowned. The Autobots had been following the faunus they'd helped?
A good number of the heads in the room turned to one of the White Fang members in particular, likely the so-named Brock, who upon realizing that he was the center of attention stepped forward, pulling off his Grimm mask. "That's me, Brock. I don't mean to be a bother, but me and other other guys from Site 13 didn't get to thank you before, um, Optimus, was it? You took a bullet for us, and that takes guts," he said. "So… thank you." With a start, Yang realized it was the bat-eared faunus from the other night.
"You are welcome," Optimus replied, nodding to the faunus who seemed to shuffle back into the crowd as quickly as was polite.
"Wait, you were following them?!" Adam demanded, stepping toward Jazz aggressively.
"Just to make sure they were okay," Jazz answered placatingly. "The Decepticons did send Barricade to punch their tickets to Stiffsville, after all. Didn't seem right to just cut 'em loose without a guardian angel, ya dig?"
"Hmm," Adam hummed, seeming to accept the answer, then looked over at Yang. "Why were
you looking for dust then, or was that a lie?"
"Because the Decepticons want it," Yang answered, ignoring the accusation. "They have to be getting it from somewhere, the SDC needs to keep their books clean, and since we learned someone was stealing it without stealing the lien…" she trailed off meaningfully.
Adam gave her a measuring look, then looked at Torchwick. "I told you leaving the lien was stupid."
"Hey!" Torchwick protested. "Not my idea, remember? You want to tell our 'glorious leader' that?"
Adam scoffed dismissively, then turned back to Optimus. "There's more to it than that, isn't there?" He didn't give Optimus time to reply. "Whatever. You want dust? Fine. We can work something out."
"Hey, hey, hey!" Torchwick protested. "I worked hard to steal that dust for Cinder!"
That name again, Yang thought.
'Cinder.' Cinder who, I wonder?
"Don't you worry, Torchwick," Adam assured him condescendingly. "I won't be dipping into your take. There are faunus who need to be liberated, and I'm guessing our large friends here want to shut down that facility themselves. We could use the firepower, and I presume you don't even know where it is, do you?"
"A joint operation?" Jazz mused skeptically.
"One job," Adam said, raising up a fist with his index finger extended. "We may not trust each other, but I think we can at least trust our objectives align for this."
"Agreed," Optimus said.
"Good." Adam gave a curt nod, then walked toward Yang. "I'll contact you through 'Sunfire,'" he said, then leaned in to whisper in Yang's ear. "And I
won't be going through Torchwick."
Yang raised an eyebrow. "I'll be waiting for your call."
Adam straightened up. "Good." He turned to Optimus. "Any objections? Questions?"
Optimus genuflected and waved the White Fang leader forward.
"I do have one question, Adam Taurus," he said quietly, once Adam had approached him.
"What?"
"Why do you fight?"
"I fight for the faunus!" Adam hissed, offended.
"Hmm, perhaps I should clarify," Optimus said, unperturbed by Adam's obvious anger at the question. "What goal are you fighting to achieve? When will your fight end?"
Adam opened his mouth briefly, then closed it. After another long moment, he said finally, "...I don't think this line of questioning is relevant to the task at hand."
"True," Optimus admitted as he stood up. "But it is an important one nonetheless. Think on it, for your own sake, if no one else's."
"If there's nothing else…?" Adam trailed off meaningfully. When no one said anything, he turned on his heel and left, waving the White Fang to follow him. Torchwick gave the Autobots a suspicious glare and followed, while Neo took the time to give Yang a parting curtsey before joining him.
"Did… did that just happen?" Yang asked as they watched the two criminals and the crowd of terrorists depart. "Did we just agree to an alliance with the
White Fang, of all people?"
"
I agreed," Optimus corrected her. "You may be our point of contact, Sunfire, but there's no need to involve yourself in this beyond that."
"I…" Yang paused, unsure of what she was going to say. Bumblebee had given her the chance to back down before, but this was different. The White Fang were terrorists; they hurt and killed innocent people. Was that a step she was willing to take? No, obviously. But what about working with people who did?
On the other hand, she thought about the Decepticons. Not only the facility they were about to target, but the things Bumblebee had mentioned to her in his war stories. Grindcore, the camps at Kaon, Simanzi.
If the Decepticons were willing to do that to their own people, what would they do to humans and faunus? To the people Yang cared about, the people she swore to protect? What new horrors would they invent just because they could?
Finally, she shook her head. "No, Prime, this is my fight -- this is
our fight -- whether we know it or not. I can't walk away from this. I'll be there; count on it." She found herself stifling a yawn as the battering she'd taken and the late hour made themselves known. "But for now, I need some sleep. Come on, Bumblebee."
"Yeah, let's get you home," the yellow Autobot agreed as he shifted back into his car form.
As Bumblebee drove off with Yang inside, Jazz stepped up next to Optimus and asked, his voice low, "She's got a point, you know. You really sure about this, Prime? Working with Mini-Megatron and his band of proto-Decepticons?"
"The humans and faunus are much like we once were, Jazz. I can only hope we can turn them from the path we have taken before it is too late."
A/N1 (Cody): This is without a doubt the most pivotal chapter of the fic, the point where what was is completely derailed into the dangerous minefield of what will be. We spent a lot of time thinking about things and waxing poetic about how they will go, and despite the forethought that went into this I still think that this will have a rocky reception. This reaction will be made all the worse by the simple fact that there is much that we can not tell the readers because it falls under the category of spoilers. . . . Still, it could be worse, because woah boy! The stories we could tell you about how this chapter could have turned out. There was legitimately a point where Ruby ceased to be herself and became Faramir, but luckily it was corrected before publication.
A/N2 (Cyclone): There you have it, folks. This was the make-it-or-break-it episode for this 'fic, so here's hoping we pulled it off. We knew going in that this was going to be a bit of a wham episode, but as work on it progressed, we realized it was even more important a plot keystone -- far more important -- than we had originally conceived. If there's anything I like more than using dramatic irony in fanfiction, it's inverting canon and subverting expectations; I like exploiting reader knowledge. It's even better when the story itself surprises me.
A/N3: By the way, anyone have any suggestions for a name for Team RWB+JNPR? We're… kind of at a loss here.
