39

 Chapter 39

A lone black bird flew above the five girls who were walking through the Patch settlement. Raven was a bit surprised to find out that Tai had left the island. She thought him to be too soft to go back to work but it would seem she was mistaken. They may have been completely over and done with but it was still nice to see that he still had at least some fight left in him. It would be bad if he caused her progeny to grow weak. When she arrived, the house was as crowded as the day she left it, the only difference being that instead of her teammates making a mess it was her daughter, Summer's brat and three other girls. She recognized the Schnee and the redhead looked familiar but the faunus was completely new. She also noticed that Yang and the Atlesian princess were awfully chummy.

"Is everything alright?" Pyrrha asked Blake who was acting weirder by the minute after they sat down at the cafe. Maybe the stress was getting to her…not that she was any better.

"Oh, sorry, I'm fine. I just have this feeling that we are being followed." Blake whispered back and eyed the people around them in suspicion. She was aware that a group of huntresses in training was turning many heads but this felt different.

"Sorry!" Pyrrha apologized. "Maybe some of the fans are getting more pushy."

Blake didn't think it was the fault of some of Pyrrha's fans but decided to simply ignore the issue and focus on the more pressing matter.

Their date.

An actual one. For three people because they didn't have enough time to figure it out and because Ruby would probably be unhappy if they ended up leaving somebody behind.

So far it was going smoothly. Ruby was constantly talking about the place, recalling her old teacher, some funny stories and all the times her or Yang caused property damage with their training. Which they were never caught for.

They also learned that when Yang decided to stop being an overprotective big sister she had a sense of humor. Or at least she thought so about herself.

It wasn't as romantic as they would prefer but, damn, it, Ruby was so cute when they decided to stop for an ice-cream and she gorged herself on the strawberry flavored one. Only to get a brain-freeze.

Yang and Weiss had at some point outright disappeared. The three of them agreed that it was more beneficial for their sanity to not look for them.

The feeling of being watched also disappeared around the same time, so Blake definitely didn't complain.

/

Vernal was studying the raid plan in their leader's tent when the dark red portal opened a few meters away from her. Almost immediately, her boss emerged, face scarlet and filled with disgust. Not even sparing her a glance, Raven marched to the pile of her brother's 'gifts'. The idiot would always sneak into the camp around their birthday and leave something extremely stupid as her birthday present. No matter how often she changed the camp's location, he would always somehow find his way in. If only he put his skills to something useful instead of wasting his time with Ozpin…

Pink lingerie, happy-pills, a postcard with a freaking unicorn and many other idiotic shit. The only useful thing he had ever given her was a punching bag that was styled after their headmaster. Apparently he had dragged him away from a cute girl because of a mission at the time.

And booze.

With every dumb gift he would also include a bottle of whatever hard liquor he had on hand.

She pulled out the first bottle she found and started drinking straight from it. It wouldn't completely erase her memory but damn, she needed to at least temporarily forget the scene. At least her brat had enough awareness to open fire at her bird form despite being…bah! Wait… where did she keep her weapon?

Vernal silently watched as their leader exed a liter of rum in one go, plopped down on the floor and continued to sit there with a thousand mile stare.

"Ehm, Boss?" No reaction… "Is everything alright?" She tried again.

Raven's head slowly turned towards her. She watched her for a few seconds, her drunk brain trying to figure out what she actually wanted from her.

"Vernal."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Do you think I have a small chest?"

-BBW-

Yesterday's date ended on a bittersweet note. Ruby had taken them to a remote cliff. It was during the sunset and the place was beautiful with the sun shining down on the surrounding forest and the crashing of waves was also very soothing. Then they noticed the lone gravestone.

"I just wanted to bring you here…" Ruby said in a quiet tone. "I would have brought Yang and Weiss to show off my team but Ynag doesn't like the place too much. Too many memories." She laughed bitterly. She kneeled in front of the stone and descended into silence. Seeing that Ruby was in need of emotional support, two girls sat down and sandwiched her between them, each giving a half-hug.

The date ended with each of them receiving an awkward kiss on the cheek from a very confused and embarrassed Ruby, who then proceeded to spend the rest of the evening hidden in her room.

/

"Ruby…what is that?" Weiss pointed at the monstrosity their weapon crazy leader had brought the next morning.

"Oh, that's just a gun for Pyrrha." Ruby cheerfully answered.

Said gun was longer than Pyrrha was tall, just the barrel was probably bigger then either Weiss or Ruby. And that was only the beginning. Thanks to the Myrtenaster's rotary mechanism she could figure out that the three barrels welded together were also rotating. Each one was almost big enough for her to fit her hand inside. And obvious dust-lining was only adding to her mounting horror.

'Gun' for Pyrrha… This thing belongs on a gunship or something!

"I thought those levitating gun-swords were meant to be my weapon." Pyrrha said as she carefully studied the…specimen.

"Yep." Ruby chirped. "Those would be small-caliber support type weapons, this one is one of the main guns."

One of..? "Ruby. What. Are. You. Building?" Weiss exasperatedly asked. She asked her for any ideas for an upgrade but she didn't want Ruby to make her into a one woman army by giving her enough weapons to equip an Atlasian flagship.

/

Three loud bangs echoed through the forest, alerting many birds and making what little animals were around scatter in fear.

Pyrrha was covered in a thin layer of sweat. That thing was really heavy and keeping it stable needed a lot of effort and concentration. Not to mention the monstrous recoil. Even if she wasn't holding it directly and was only levitating it parallel to her right arm. The weapon didn't have a name. Seeing as it was a part of something bigger Ruby didn't bother with giving each part an individual name. To which Blake had named it Can-opener, seeing that it would probably pierce through several layers of reinforced steel. Not that they could test it right now. She was only firing at rocks. But the name Stonecracker was just stupid.

Some distance away from Pyrrha Weiss and Blake were going through detailed schematics and manuals for their own weapons. Blake's was thankfully rather short but she would be having words with Ruby about the name. Elemental Retribution didn't suit her style even if it did with her weapon and overall mindset.

Weiss' was about three times as long as Blake's. Not surprising, considering that while Blake had only got a dust-fueled katana/assault rifle she had an estock, a pair of dust armed gauntlets and a direct full body aura-dust interface, which they were all referring to as dustsuit because it was shorter and more convenient. She skimmed through the necessary materials for her new armaments and despite being the heiress of the richest company on Remnant, she could feel her bank account whimper slightly. It still didn't compare to Pyrrha's get-up, manual and proper schematics for which were yet to be made but judging by the amount of pages Ruby had already written down it was going to be a marvel of engineering. Or a complete abomination that broke a few laws of physics. None would be too surprised if Ruby had somehow done it.

/

Weiss approached Ruby and Pyrrha who were discussing some minor details in regards to today's weapon test.

"If I may." She got their attention. "How exactly are you going to get all the materials needed to fully build this thing you are working on?"

Ruby was about to answer, only to remember what Yang had told her about casually mentioning the ways she acquired most of her equipment. She could only give Weiss a sheepish smile and poke her fingers together.

Pyrrha never had thought of the logistics of how Ruby would get, more focused on figuring out how to use the thing. And the girl. She shot Ruby a worried look and was about to tell that she didn't really need a new weapon. Fortunately, Weiss was faster to answer.

"I will have a list of professional and legal contacts soon, so I will handle it. I don't want our team to end up in prison over something that can be avoided." She sternly said.

"And I have some money from the tournaments so I will pay for my own stuff." Pyrrha also quickly added.

-BBW-

The rest of their vacation passed without any incident, although Weiss would beg to differ. Yang may have told her that Ruby would need to take her measurements for the dustsuit but she thought that Yang was exhilarating. Only to spend almost two hours lying motionless on a table while Ruby was jumping around her. At least she got a look inside of her lair. Not that she wanted to do it ever again, the place was crammed with things she had no idea about and franky, she was a bit scared that she might end up dead in a freak accident. The thing that looked suspiciously like a half-built tactical missile didn't add to her confidence either.

Except for a short training routine to keep them in shape and occasional sparring they mostly relaxed and didn't do much. Pyrrha and Blake had agreed to take things slowly, mostly so they could at least try to figure out what was going on between the two of them. Ruby was more than happy with that, mostly because she still had no idea of what to do.

Winter came through and sent Weiss half a dozen contacts to different departments, depending on what exactly she needed. She finally made an order, only having to spend half a day with Ruby to properly write down the specifics.

Beacon came crawling back into their lives and they were actually quite excited to come back. Maybe they would finally start doing something more interesting. Their first 'missions' and of course the Vytal festival was approaching.

/

"Hey, how have you been?" The first thing Blake did was find Ilia and made sure she was still okay. Ilia may have kicked her out but she still worried.

Ilia gave her a wide smile. "I've been great!" She cheerfully announced. "What about you? Finally made some progress?" She wiggled her brows at her.

Blake turned away with light red dusting on her cheeks. "Somewhat… It's a mess but we are trying to make it work." She summarized her current 'relationship' status. "What about you? You weren't too bored on your own, were you?"

"I wouldn't say I was on my own…" She vaguely answered, her skin tone briefly switching to pale pink before Ilia turned back to her normal colors.

Blake grabbed her shoulders and looked dead in the eyes, her own eyes gleaming. "Spill!"

/

By happence, both teams met up in the library. Instead of using the place for its intended purposes they all decided to share their vacations with each other.

They were going over Nora's latest overblown dream, memory or something when Blake had sent Ilia a proud smirk, which caused the chameleon faunus to roll her eyes but her smile did grow significantly and became fonder.

Weird… Weiss thought, noticing the subtle interaction.

"Sup ladies!" Sun called out as he and an unknown blue-haired boy entered the large room. "Ren." Sun made a small nod towards the only male in the group. "Don't want to ruin your vibe but I brought my partner for an introduction." He threw a thumb behind his back, pointing at the person who was trying very hard to look as collected as possible in a completely new environment.

"Neptune Vasilias. This monkey's partner." He introduced himself with an easygoing smile. "Thanks for making sure the idiot stayed alive without us to keep an eye on him."

"He was helping so it's okay!" Ruby shot back, not noticing the slip. Like they would let him die if he wasn't helping. "I'm Ruby, that's my sister Yang, Pyrrha and Ice Queen." She pointed at the members of her team in order. Weiss scoffed at the stupid nickname. SHe could…tolerate Yang using it but nobody else!

He was already somewhat acquitted with team BLAN, thanks to them staying in the school all the time. And Sun being a blabbermouth.

Sun's tail twitched in indignation. "You say it like I can't take care of myself without you around."

"And you can?" Neptune fixed him with a blank stare. Then, living up to the expectation of a male being surrounded by attractive females, he turned to in his mind the prettiest one and decided to try his luck. "I believe I didn't catch your name, snow angel." He walked up to Weiss with confidence.

Pyrrha started inching away as well as dragging Ruby away from her sister. Yang may have barely reacted but it was clear that if he tried to press harder he would have to leave. Probably via a window.

As for Weiss… She was really caught off guard. The guy was pretty and well-behaved but she already was in a relationship. One that she had no intention of leaving. So while Weiss was trying to figure out how to let him down softly, Ivory took over and she wasn't much concerned about his feelings.

"Weiss Schnee." She politely said her (sister's) name. "I'm already taken and fully content." She then let her eyes wander for a bit before fixing him with a mocking glare. "Frankly, switching to you wou-ouch!" She snapped her at Blake, who wasn't even trying to act innocent.

"You turned him down, no need to tear him a new one over it." She dryly stated.

Neptune wisely backed off.

"Salutation friends!" A cheerful voice came from behind Sun.

Team RWPY perked up at the voice, especially Ruby, who finally had a fellow weapon expert to chat with. She had some ideas that needed to be bounced off.

Penny was also dragging somebody with her. It was another guy. Blond hair, blue eyes and an expression of absolute confusion.

"I brought my partner!" She pulled the blonde and pushed him in front of her so he could introduce himself.

It was clear that he was having an internal debate over what to do. In the end he put up the most fake confident smile. "Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls of the tongue!" Which was finished with a pair of finger guns pointed at the group in front of him.

…

What was it with every huntsmen or huntress in training she had ever met being a weirdo?

"You are not the sanest person yourself…"

Just think of it, Ruby, Yang, Penny and him on the same team. I doubt that even if they put all of their minds together they wouldn't be able to figure out how to have a normal conversation.

"...no. Just no."

Thankfully, Jaune noticed that his introduction didn't go exactly as planned. Penny told him about them of course but it's not like she showed him photos of them or something like that. The only people he recognized was the Ruby girl, simply because Penny had been so ecstatic over getting a new friend that he now knew every single bit of available information about the girl. And Weiss, because after spending half a year under her sister, he would be embarrassed to not recognize her. And she was giving him the same look Winter had during almost every training. The 'how the hell did you even become a huntsman?' look.

"What is it, snow angel, seeing something you like?" As his parents said, confidence was the key!

Weiss' eyebrow twitched, before she buried her head in her hands. "Brothers, they are multiplying…" She bemoaned. Her head then shot up, eyes full of fury. "If anybody tries to flirt with me or calls me a snow angel, I swear, there will be consequences!"

Seeing an easy target, Ilia had already opened her mouth for a rather idiotic attempt at flirting, only to be stopped by a hard glare from Weiss.

"You don't count. I'm giving you a pass because we have the same taste in partners."

"What?!" Ilia exclaimed in surprise. "No, we do-" Jacked up, blond, very liberal when it comes to showing skin, questionable sense of humor (or at least if Blake was to be believed)... "Holy crap, we do…"

"Ilia, are you alright?" Blake asked, seeing her friend slowly grew pale.

"Yeah…" She weakly replied and stood up. "I think… I'll go for a walk. Yeah, a walk to unwind would do good." She then left the place while muttering something under her breath.

Blake leveled a flat stare at Weiss. "Thank you for breaking my friend."

"She will get over it." Weiss rolled her eyes. "Do you think she is more concerned over our shared tastes or the fact that she has something in common with a Schnee?" SHe added with a smirk.

Blake gave it a thought and stood up. "On the other hand, I should keep an eye on her."

Sun was the first one to put the pieces together and after sending Yang a conspiratorial wink, he dragged Neptune away to give him a piece of advice. He only met her briefly but the girl seemed like a no-nonsense type when motivated. And considering she hadn't bat an eye at the carnage Weiss caused in the docks, he didn't want to leave his friend with them.

"Hey Penny, do you have time?" Ruby also stood up.

"I do! What is it, friend Ruby?" She answered, a wide smile still on her face.

"I was working on some new stuff and I need professional commentary." She then showed blueprints on her scroll.

Penny studied the picture. It was very similar to her Floating Array but not controlled by strings. It seemed that the focus was more on each part being able to operate semi-independently while hers was more focused on using the whole Array.

"I actually wanted to ask if your weapon has any type of protective function. I've been working on hard-light dust shielding but it's still mostly theoretical." Ruby said.

"No I don't." Penny answered. "I spoke about it with my father but putting in an effective shielding technology would make it very bulky and the energy consumption would skyrocket."

"And yet you have a convergence type laser…" Ruby flatly spoke.

"Well… carrying an artillery type would be too… oh, I haven't noticed the sizes. Hmm… who is this for? The tallest recorded person was 2.86 meters. To use this effectively the wielder would need to be at least 3.4 meters."

"Oh that's…" She gave a side-glance to Pyrrha before sheepishly rubbing her head. "...a surprise."

Pyrrha and Jaune who stood next to their teammates shared a slightly worried look. The question was, who would be in more danger? The enemy or the one testing whatever those two would come up with?

/

/

/

Infodump:

Elemental Retribution

Think of it as a cross between Raven's Omen and Adam's Wilt'n'Blush adjusted for Blake's height. The sheath is no longer a cleaver and the bongie ribbon was also scrappen but it is an assault rifle. The blade is the important part. On the inside it's hollow and lined with gravity dust. By filling the blade with different types of dust it gains different properties. (Fire: sword is on fire and can melt through steel. Ice dust causes frostbites on contact. You can imagine the rest.) With the activation of gravity dust a burst function is available. Essentially it's a downplayed version of Adam's semblance. Gravity dust inside the blade puts the filling under pressure and with a swing it creates a wave of released energy.

Embrace of the Frozen Empress

Three part weapon for Weiss. Estoc, no additional functions. Just a bit of extra reach compared to Myrtenaster. A pair of gauntlets. Each has eight dust compartments. And a dustsuit for better dust casting. Overall, just an ultimate setup for a dust mage.

HTSU (Huntsmen Tactical Support Unit) Golden Paragon.

Specifics: TBA