18

Volume 2 OP: "PEACE SIGN" by Jonathan Young

Yang Xiao Long sighed to herself, the puff of visible breath whisked away as Bumblebee roared down the streets of Vale, the streetlights casting a faint yellow parlor over snow on the sides of the road. She normally enjoyed late-night rides since it was the perfect chance to just turn her mind off and focus on the rush of riding her bike but this time was different. This time, she found herself far too distracted by her thoughts to just focus purely on the thrill. As it was, her body was basically on auto-pilot as she made her way to the more dilapidated parts of town, paying only enough attention to avoid any crashes.

Chief among Yang's distractions was one Emiya Shirou who was currently sitting behind her, his arms wrapped securely around her waist but still leaving enough space between their bodies to be polite. The young man had been a bit of a mystery from day one with his somewhat peculiar nature and that complicated smile and that mystery had only deepened over the past few months. He was a nice enough guy and Yang didn't have any major problems with him but there was always something about him that she couldn't figure out. It was like she was looking at a puzzle that was missing some pieces.

To make matters somewhat worse, it seemed that Blake had found some of those pieces and now, if Yang was reading things properly, she'd say that her partner had a crush on Shirou. The fact that Blake willingly spent three whole days alone with him in his apartment aside, Yang didn't miss the way Blake had been hanging around Shirou more often than usual lately. Whether it be when he needed a partner for a class or when they were studying, Blake was using just about every excuse she could find to be near the guy. As her partner, this annoyed Yang for two reasons: One, this made it rather difficult to get to know her partner better. Two, she still couldn't tell if Blake really liked him or not. All of the usual signs were there, yeah, but it still just felt like she was missing something and it drove her up a wall.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it was clear as day that Yang's little sister, Ruby, had a massive crush on him as well. This started up a bit after the incident at the docks where, from what Yang could tell, Shirou basically stole her heart with his heroics (Ruby had certainly poured on the praise and described his actions with gushing excitement when she recounted the events). This didn't really surprise Yang given her little sister's ideals and how Shirou seemed to share them. While she hoped that things worked out for her, more than anything, she hoped that Ruby's first shot at love would break her out of her shell more. For someone as outgoing as Ruby is, it's almost amazing how socially awkward and sometimes even shy she could be. While she hadn't done anything overt to woo Shirou yet, her infatuation was obvious given all of the little things such as how Shirou always had her undivided attention when he spoke, how she referenced him often, and how Yang sometimes caught her just idly looking at him.

This all led back to the great mystery that was Emiya Shirou since, for the life of her, Yang had no idea how Shirou felt about basically anything, let alone Blake and Ruby. As far as Yang could tell, Shirou hasn't even so much as noticed Blake's interest, for how obvious her advances were. He just regarded the Faunus with the same gentle smile he usually wore when talking to basically anyone. Shirou had his emotions under such a tight lockdown that, despite Yang's not inconsiderable skill, she absolutely couldn't get a read on him. For all Yang could tell, Shirou and Blake could very well be macking on each other between classes. At the very least, she was certain they weren't boning since there's no way Blake would be able to sufficiently hide that from her.

Regardless, all of this left Yang in the rare position of not knowing what she should do. Usually, she just went with her gut on basically everything and never second-guessed herself but now her usual gut instinct was totally silent. She absolutely wanted to support Ruby and her little sister could certainly do a lot worse for a first crush (even if Shirou didn't return her feelings, he'd certainly let her down gently and not string her along) but she also wanted to support her partner and she'd rather subtly steer Ruby away from Shirou if he and Blake were already a thing. Frankly, if she had to guess, Yang would say that Blake would be more Shirou's type anyway. Even though they shared an ideal, the quiet, studious, brooding type seemed more up Shirou's alley. Of course, she could just come out an ask Shirou point blank to answer all of these questions but she refrained from doing so since figuring it out on her own was more fun.

All of those thoughts were pushed from Yang's mind, however, when she finally arrived at her destination and pulled up in front of a somewhat dilapidated building. Being near the outskirts of the city proper, the area was more than a little dirty and rundown; not at all helped by the dim streetlights casting elongated shadows that made the place feel sullen and abandoned. Even the snow, worn as it was from the foot traffic, seemed to lose its usual luster in this place's atmosphere.

Getting off of her bike, Yang removed her yellow helmet and shook out her long, curly, golden hair. Like the rest of her team, she was also sporting a new look. She wore a deep-collared cream vest over a low cut black shirt; both covered by a dark gray shrug with a raised collar, three-quarter sleeves adorned with a single black stripe down the outside of each sleeve, and gold cuffs. A black miniskirt worn under the cream vest complimented the thigh high stockings attached to it by garter-belts on the front and back of each thigh, decorated with four golden studs above her knee and her emblem, a fiery heart, on the outside of each thigh in gold. A pair of crooked black belts with gold accents were slung around her hips with a purple length of fabric attached to the left-rear section of the lower belt. Black ankle boots with multiple buckles and white ribbons on the back tied in a bow finished off her ensemble with a purple pendant set in silver and her aviators topping things off nicely.

"Come on, my friend's right in here!" Yang said to Shirou as she gestured toward the door of a nearby building.

Emiya Shirou, for his part, also had a new outfit. Apparently, this was the one bought for him by Coco when they went out two months ago. His armor was still there but the heavy steel cuirass was replaced with a hard leather one dyed to match the other pieces and the gauntlets and faulds were gone, the former replaced by black, fingerless gloves. Underneath the armor, he wore a dark grey, long sleeved, hooded shirt that was accented with gold which was accompanied by black pants that were tucked into boots that came halfway up his calves and were the same silver-white color as his armor. Since he lacked a helmet, he opted to pull his hood up and keep his head down which revealed the royal blue interior of his shirt. Strapped to his left hip and back were his sword and quiver, respectively.

"Where, exactly, is 'here'?" Shirou asked as he lowered his hood and got off the bike.

"Junior's bar," Yang answered as she led her friend onward. "I paid him a little visit before school started since he had some info I wanted and we've been friends ever since."

"Why do I get the feeling that there's more to this story than you're telling me?" Shirou asked as he let his left hand come to a rest on his sword's hilt. At this point, techno music could be heard coming from the building they were approaching.

"Don't worry about it! It'll be fine! Just know that things might get a little hairy at first but you shouldn't do anything unless bullets start flying!"

"Wait, bullets? Yang, what are you—" Shirou's concern was ignored as Yang readied Ember Celica and punched the door open, the explosive shotgun round aiding her by very nearly blowing the door off of its hinges. The boisterous blonde boldly strode in as some guy in a three-piece looked at her with what can only be called absolute horror. He immediately ran deeper inside, screaming for his life, as Shirou could practically feel himself sweatdrop.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Yang asked over her shoulder before continuing onward like everything was perfectly fine. Shirou could only sigh and shake his head before following after her.

OoOoOoO

"I don't know!" Junior said as he put down his glass and took a seat on the other side of the bar from Yang and Shirou. The trip inside the bar had been borderline disastrous with numerous people pointing guns directly at Yang's face after she blew open the doors leading to the club proper but the boss called them off.

Hei "Junior" Xiong was a massive man, standing at 211 centimeters, with short, black hair and a sharp goatee and mustache with sideburns. He was stockily built and his clothes were of a fairly high quality given the average appearance of his place of business. He would normally be a fairly impressive and possibly even intimidating man if it weren't for the way he was practically bending over backward to give Yang what she wanted.

"How can you not know where Roman is?" Yang asked, a little heat mixing with her confusion.

"I haven't talked to him! I haven't even seen him since the night you first came in here!" Junior leaned over the bar to point directly in Yang's face. For her part, Yang was completely unperturbed by this invasion of her personal space. "He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. Back."

"Do you know where they went?" Shirou asked.

Junior stared at him incredulously for a long moment. "What kind of stupid question is that? They never came back!"

"Are you in the habit of lending out your men without any idea of where they're going or what they're doing?"

"Listen, pal, I run a strict 'no questions asked' business here. You show up, hand over enough money, and I let you have my men for however long you paid for. This gives me deniability and helps keep my clients safe. Who even is this guy, anyway?" Junior asked Yang.

"Don't worry about him; worry about me if I don't find out what I want!"

"I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys and I guess he wasn't happy with them. Which is something I can relate to!" He shouted the last part at his own men who were loitering nearby. They all grumbled and steadily dispersed.

Yang hummed before walking away from the bar, "Come on, Shirou."

"Well, that turned out to be a waste of time," Shirou commented as they headed toward what remained of the door.

"Yeah. Hopefully, the rest of the team is having better luck."

OoOoOoO

Deep in Vale's warehouse district, close to the edge of town, Blake Belladonna examined three carefully made scratches on the wall before peering around the corner to see two horned Faunus being ushered into the building by a bearded man. It had taken her most of the day but she had finally managed to track down one of the White Fang's recruitment rallies.

Just like the rest of her team, Blake was also sporting a new look. Although, unlike the others, she decided to try for a bit of symbolism with her color palette. She wore a white, v-neck, zip-up crop shirt with a black hem and three-quarter sleeves and her emblem, a stylized flower, printed in off-white on the left side. She also wore black pants that had a vertical gray stripe on the outer side of each leg and a black belt. Attached to the rear of the belt was a black piece of fabric that covered her from hip-to-hip, underneath which was a longer, translucent, purple piece of fabric. Black high-heeled boots that reached to mid-calf and had two straps and buckles as well as purple undersoles rounded out the outfit. Just like her old outfit, she had black ribbons wrapped around her forearms and she still wore her black bow but it was currently absent.

All in all, Blake quite liked her new outfit but it left her midriff exposed which was a design decision she was currently regretting. While she had a thing for exposed midriffs, the middle of winter was not a good time to be giving in to that particular fetish.

Walking forward, Blake nodded to the man guarding the door and entered the warehouse. She was instantly met with a couple of White Fang members if full uniform. "Continue down the hall and take a right. Keep on till the end and take a left. Oh, and be sure to wear this," one of them instructed as she handed Blake a Grimm mask.

Blake continued on as she examined the mask. Even though they were practically synonymous with the White Fang, they were actually a relatively recent addition. The idea to wear them had come from that man who said that they served a symbol to use against the Humans. If the Humans thought the Faunus to be monsters, then they'd don the guise of monsters. Blake had agreed with that man's reasoning, as she always had, and almost proudly wore a mask of her own. It wasn't until she asked Sienna Khan why she didn't wear one that Blake started to rethink things. Sienna had said that she refused to play the part of the monster, to give Humans the satisfaction of thinking that they're right. That was the moment that had started Blake on the path she walked now as she had never worn one of those masks since.

With a sigh, Blake donned the mask.

The main room of the warehouse was filled with members of the White Fang. Blake couldn't possibly count them all but a rough estimate put them numbering at least seventy or so and that wasn't counting the about thirty new recruits who were standing off to the right. All of them were gathered before a large stage where a White Fang lieutenant was organizing everyone. Behind the lieutenant was a very large something covered by a black tarp emblazoned in blood-red with the White Fang's logo; a wolf's head in front of three diagonal claw marks. Blake had no idea what could be underneath that tarp but, whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"Thank you all for coming," the lieutenant began once the doors were shut. "For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!"

Out from behind the large object stepped the second-to-last person Blake wanted to see right now. "Thank you, thank you!" Roman Torchwick said mockingly as he waved to the crowd that almost immediately started jeering. The woman Shirou and Ruby had fought, Neo, silently followed after him. "Please, hold your applause!"

"What's a Human doing here‽" an antlered Faunus standing in front of Blake asked, pointing accusingly at Roman.

"I'm glad you asked, 'deerie'!" Roman answered in a mock jovial tone. "Now, I'll be the first to admit, Humans… are the worst." Roman gave a little salute while saying "Case in point" before he started to slowly pace back and forth, gesticulating as he spoke. "So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away or, better yet, killed!" Blake glared at Roman in confusion from beneath her mask. She had no idea where he was going with this but she couldn't help but feel a sense of danger start to slowly rise within her.

"But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy: the ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty, rotten Humans that run our kingdoms." As Roman continued to talk, members of the crowd started to agree with him. "Government, military, even the schools: they're all to blame for your lot in life." Roman paused as the crowd started to actively cheer.

Blake looked around nervously, that feeling of danger rising by the second along with a sense of revulsion. While Blake was all for Humans and Faunus working together, the current White Fang absolutely was not. They didn't want to stand alongside Humanity as equals, they wanted to stand above Humanity as superiors. The White Fang had been a group founded around an ideal that Humans and Faunus could live together in harmony through love and kindness. Over the years, that ideal got twisted into living with them as equals based on fear. Yet now even that twisted ideal was being casually thrown away because it was convenient and because the Human that they should hate was saying words they liked. Was this what the White Fang had truly become? Just a gang lashing out in hatred and anger that believed in nothing but their own self-righteousness that, even to themselves, was worthless?

After the cheering died down a bit, Roman continued, "And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around… No offense to any rodents in the room." Roman snapped his fingers and the tarp was quickly pulled away to reveal a massive robot that was loaded down with weaponry and had the White Fang logo painted on its side. At the sight of it, the crowd went absolutely ballistic, their cheers echoing off of the walls to create such a loud sound that Blake, and other Faunus with similar traits, winced in pain as her cat ears pressed themselves flush against the top of her head to try and protect themselves.

Once again, Roman waited for the cheers to die down before continuing. "As some of you may have heard, this right here," he tapped on the mech, "is Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my 'employer', we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, 'hit the shelves.' Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine… But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?"

As the White Fang cheered and Roman smirked, Blake knew that it was time she left. She had seen enough and she was fairly certain that one of those mechs was way more than what she and her team were prepared for. She just needed to slip out, contact everyone, and hand over this information to, say, Professor Ozpin. While she wanted to handle this herself to try and atone for her sins, she wasn't feeling particularly suicidal.

"Will all new recruits please come forward!" the lieutenant said, instantly destroying Blake's fantasy as the smaller crowd surged forward and carried her with them. Getting out without drawing attention to herself was no longer possible and remaining successfully hidden was becoming increasingly unlikely. Roman would almost certainly recognize her if he saw her and he absolutely would see her if she went with the crowd to stand right in front of the stage. She couldn't even try to hide behind the taller members of the crowd since that would just make the proper members of the White Fang suspicious.

As the crowd pushed her closer and closer to her doom, Blake chewed on her bottom lip and rapidly cast her eyes about the room, desperately searching for a way out of this situation. A quick glance at Roman revealed that he was now looking her way and frowning. She was running out of time. Any second now and her cover would be completely blown. Just as she was about to throw caution to the wind and start booking it, she finally caught a glimpse of what might be her salvation: the circuit breaker. While it wouldn't bother the Faunus much, it would hinder Roman which just might buy her enough time.

Blake quickly drew the katana half of Gambol Shroud and transformed it into a gun before firing several shots into the circuit breaker. There was a sharp sound of metal-on-metal as the bullets hit their mark and the entire warehouse was suddenly thrown into total darkness. Even as Roman called out for someone to stop her, Blake vaulted over the crowd, using some of them as stepping stones as she rushed to the window and dove through it. She faintly heard the sound of something starting up as she did so but prayed that it didn't mean what she thought it meant even as she discarded the Grimm mask and started running for her life across the rooftops.

The sound of a wall being destroyed not too far behind her utterly dashed Blake's hopes for a clean getaway. As she kept on running from the hulking robot chasing after her, Blake pulled out her Scroll and hit the emergency call button that would broadcast her location to her team. With backup now on the way, Blake quickly considered her location before making her way towards a better venue for what promised to be the toughest fight of her life.

OoOoOoO

Elsewhere in Vale, Ruby and Weiss sat side-by-side at a small cafe, cups of hot cider nearby as they went over their classwork and waited for word from their teammates. It had been a really enjoyable, relaxing time for the two of them and had been something they didn't know they needed until they had done it. The pair had just agreed to do this again sometime when their Scrolls started blaring at them. A quick glance to see the distress signal from Blake and they were off in a flash, ready to save their teammate from whatever trouble she had gotten herself into.

OoOoOoO

Yang had just mounted Bumblebee, her helmet not even fully on her head yet, when her Scroll went off. Checking it, her eyes went wide as she saw the distress signal. "Quick, get on!" she barked as Shirou. "Blake's in—" Yang's explanation was cut off by a distant-yet-rapidly-approaching thumping. They both looked down the street to see Blake jump across the rooftops with a giant mech that Shirou vaguely recognized as the Paladin Atlas had just announced in hot pursuit.

No more words were needed as Shirou got on the motorcycle in what must have been record time and Yang forwent putting her helmet on fully to just start up her bike and gun it down the road. Her partner was in danger and Yang would be damned if she let her face it without her.

OoOoOoO

Blake stumbled as she hit the ground off her Semblance's high-speed movement, her shadow clone being utterly destroyed as the Paladin's fist transited through the space it existed in. She had run quite a ways from the warehouse and the constant dead sprint coupled with the acrobatics and Semblance use had left her more than a little tired but her goal was finally in sight. Putting on one last burst of speed, Blake ran forward into a construction site and didn't stop until she hit a half-finished wall.

The construction site Blake now found herself in was located further in from the warehouse district but it served as the perfect battleground against the large mecha. At this time of night, the workers had long since gone home, destroying an unfinished building was nowhere near as bad as destroying one currently in use, and it was located on a relatively large patch of empty land so collateral damage could be kept to a minimum. She honestly had no idea what the building was going to be but she hoped that whoever owned it wouldn't mind its completion being delayed.

Blake turned back to face Roman as he slowly advanced in the Paladin, her weapons drawn and ready even as she fought to steady her breathing. She had made it to her destination and now she just needed to hold out until the rest of her team could show up. That shouldn't be too difficult, right?

"Well, well, kitty cat. Looks like you've reached the end of the line," Roman taunted as he leveled one of the Paladin's guns at Blake. "Why don't we find out if Cat Faunus have nine lives?"

Blake readied her Semblance to try and dodge the shot when a faint sound in the distance caused one of her cat ears to twitch even the proximity alarm went off in the Paladin's cockpit. Roman started to turn the Paladin around to look but Blake saw a streak of silver hit the center of the Paladin's back, the subsequent explosion causing it to stagger forward. Looking past the Paladin that was starting to turn around again, Blake could see a very distinctive motorcycle and its blonde rider coming up fast even as a familiar redhead bailed to the side.

"Get away from my partner!" Yang roared as a wave of yellow light passed over Bumblebee. She stood in a crouch on the seat of the bike and, at the perfect moment, turned to face the opposite direction before used the handlebars as a pivot to flip over the front of her bike. With a roar of effort, she lifted her bike up off the ground and twisted in midair to face the Paladin before slamming Bumblebee's back wheel into the top of the cockpit. Yang then gunned the accelerator and let her bike go careening away before using her momentum to send a shotgun-blast-enhanced punch right in front of Roman's startled face.

While this was going on, Shirou ran up to Blake's side, his nameless weapon back in sword form. "Are you alright?" he asked with a worried glance even as he readied himself to fight.

"Never better," Blake replied after she got her breathing back under control. "Thanks for the save."

"No need to thank us," Yang called out as she dashed between the Paladin's legs and came to join them, standing on Blake's left opposite of Shirou. "There's no way I could leave my favorite pussycat alone."

"I guess today's my lucky day," Roman said as he brought the Paladin back around, turning much quicker than he had before. "Here I thought I was just going to remove one thorn in my side but, instead, I get to remove two and get a freebie on top! I've had fun playing with you, kiddies, but play time's over." With that declaration, two panels, one on each of the Paladin's shoulders, opened up to reveal missile launchers which immediately sent a salvo of missiles at them.

Shirou watched as ten missiles headed straight for them and his mind went into overdrive. It was almost like time slowed down as he released the hammer in his head and brought the image of Rho Aias to the forefront of his mind. There was no way they would be able to fully dodge this many blasts and he had no idea if their Auras could withstand that much firepower so this was his only choice. It wouldn't be perfect since the missiles were too widespread for the Ultimate Shield to block them all but he'd be able to stop some of them. He only wished he had the time to get Blake and Yang behind him.

It was then that Shirou noticed something odd. He had released the hammer in his head but the spiritual change that signaled his transition into a magus had yet to happen. Not only that but his mouth, which should have been moving to say the spell to hypnotise himself in order to allow that change, wasn't moving. As he examined the situation, he realized that it wasn't as if time had slowed down but rather it had actually slowed down to an almost imperceptible crawl. After making that realization, Shirou's eyes finally noticed the odd pattern on the ground that hadn't been there an instant before. It was like a black, ornate clock face; the numbers marked by Roman numerals and the hands moving very slowly.

Turning his attention back to the missiles, Shirou watched as several sparks of light came into view; a very large one followed by several smaller ones. As they entered the area of effect, they all quickly slowed to a stop in this near-frozen time, their path through the air marked by odd contrails, and Shirou could see that they were perfectly aimed to take down the missiles.

The glyph beneath their feet disappeared, time resumed its normal flow, and the missiles were all instantly destroyed, harmless shards of ice mixing in with the explosions.

"Sorry we're late!" Ruby said as she and Weiss came to land next to Yang.

"Honestly, I'd say you're just in time," Blake remarked as she visibly relaxed slightly.

"Wow, sis. You and Weiss sure know how to enter with a bang!" Yang said with a cheeky grin.

"Is that Roman? Why's he in a Paladin?" Weiss asked, completely ignoring Yang.

"Oh, great, it's Red again. You know, you're really starting to get on my nerves, Red! You have this really bad habit of showing up just as I'm about to win!" Roman snapped as he extended the knives on the underside of the Paladin's gun arms and switched to close-range mode.

Ruby was torn between anger at Roman for trying to hurt her friends and glee at getting to fight a Paladin. She had no idea how he managed to get his hands on one but, regardless, she was glad that she had read up on them a bit. "A hero always shows up right on time!" she countered.

"You fancy yourself a hero, huh? Well then, little miss hero, how about you—"

"Scatter!"

"Wha?"

(A/N: Play "Red Sun" from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance)

At Ruby's command, everyone took off in different directions, Ruby herself charging headlong at the Paladin in a flurry of rose petals. She took a swipe at the back of its legs as she passed between them and frowned even as Blake came from above with a double slash down its back before retreating.

"I don't get it!" Yang said as she came from the side to nail it in one of its leg joints with a right hook. "Why aren't our attacks doing anything‽" She backpedaled as the Paladin started moving and turned to the side to just barely dodge the thrust of one of its knives before meeting its fist with a powerful right cross. The impact's shockwave disturbed Yang's hair and clothes even as the force made her skid backward a few inches.

"It's Aura!" Ruby answered as she helped Yang. She charged at the extended arm and lept over it before latching onto it with Crescent Rose and using both her momentum and the recoil of her shots to pull the arm away. "Paladins can amplify their pilot's Aura for offense and defense!"

"How do you know that?" Blake asked as she swung by to grab Yang and pull her out of the way before tossing her toward the unfinished wall. Yang landed on the side of the wall and prepared herself by crossing her arms in front of her face as Blake detached Gambol Shroud from the steel beam it was connected to and twisted her body to land on Yang's arms parallel to the floor. Blake quickly launched herself, assisted by Yang, toward the Paladin and raked it across its side with a series of high-speed spinning slashes. Blake bled out her momentum as she hit the ground by throwing out her right foot to drag along the ground, a ring of dust being kicked up as she came to a stop facing the Paladin

"We learned about it earlier today and she did some reading," Weiss answered as she appeared in front of Blake and created a wall of ice to block the Paladin's gunfire. She pulled Myrtenaster from the ground and took a few steps back as she cycled over to red Dust and created a large glyph in the air in front of her. With a horizontal slash of her rapier through the glyph's center, the released Dust was amplified and transformed into a series of fireballs that sailed around the wall of ice before converging with the Paladin in a nice explosion.

Under the cover of the explosion's smoke, Shirou ran in and placed his left hand against the Paladin's leg. With a muttered "Trace, on", he sent a pulse of prana through the mech as he used his Structural Grasp to get a better understanding of it. Since there was no way he'd be able to understand any of its inner workings, he kept the penetration shallow and simply analyzed the shell for any weaknesses. Even if Roman's Aura was protecting the Paladin from most of the damage, the shock of any impacts were still transmitted at least in part so they could, in theory, still cause damage to it directly with precise attacks.

Just as Shirou finished his scan, the Paladin's leg pulled away so Shirou immediately jumped backward as a safety precaution. This proved to be a mistake, however, as Shirou saw one of the Paladin's large knives coming right at him. Unable to dodge, Shirou positioned his sword to take the brunt of the attack and angled his body to try and lessen the coming impact. Just before the attack landed, Ruby Rose suddenly appeared beside him and landed on the edge of the blade before grabbing him by the back of his hood and launching herself forward in a burst of speed, dragging Shirou along with her.

As the two rolled and slid to a stop, Shirou gave Ruby an appreciative nod at her worried glance even as he cursed inwardly. While the Paladin did have a few weak points, they were in places that would be almost impossible to hit with sufficient force for it to matter. Whoever had designed the thing had clearly done a good job. That being said, since he didn't have to fully hide his Projection in these circumstances, he still had an idea that wouldn't draw more questions. "Give me a minute!" he told Ruby as he started to make his way toward the top of the unfinished building.

"No problem! Ladybug!" Ruby charged forward, weaving to avoid the Paladin's gunfire, as Blake charged from behind. Together, the two of them attacked with a series of crisscrossing slashes before Ruby jumped back and landed near Yang. "Strawberry Sunrise!" Ruby dashed back and put away her weapon as Yang leapt forward, left fist cocked back. In a flurry of rose petals, Ruby dashed forward and grabbed Yang to drag her forward at high speed. Together, the two sisters hit the Paladin in the side with a punch and kick that delivered enough force to make it stagger and nearly topple over.

While this was going on, Emiya Shirou stood atop the unfinished wall and took a deep, steadying breath. "Projection, start." He raised his right hand over his head, palm facing inward, and grabbed the arm just above the elbow to provide support. He needed a powerful weapon that could burst through the Paladin's Aura and, while he had countless ones capable of doing just that and more, he needed something that wouldn't also vaporize half the town while also creating a lot of questions. As it was, there was one weapon Shirou knew of that immediately sprung to mind and matched his criteria. It was a truly massive weapon for a truly massive man and while Unlimited Blade Works classified it as an axe-sword, it looked more like a slab of stone roughly hewn into the approximate shape of a weapon than anything else. Still, it was possibly the perfect weapon for the job and the corresponding increase in strength would make it all the better.

With a surge of prana, the weapon was given form and a grey, stone-like weapon with one jagged edge that was longer than Shirou was tall appeared in his hand. "Get out of the way!" Shirou called out as he leapt from his perch and swung Berserker's axe-sword downward with all of his enhanced might. Team RWBY scattered without so much as a glance in his direction as Roman stabilized the Paladin enough to bring its knives up in a crossguard. As the massive weapon collided with the mech's knives, the resulting shockwave was enough to not only blow Team RWBY away but also knock down the nearby scaffolding and damage some of the support beams even as the ground beneath the Paladin collapsed into a crater two meters across and at least a meter deep.

Still, despite Berserker's strength (degraded as it was), the weapon's great weight, and the assist from gravity; the Paladin just barely managed to hold firm with its left arm slightly buckling by the shoulder joint. Shirou had just enough time to look surprised and see Roman's evil smirk before the panels on its shoulders opened up again and two missiles were fired at him. With no way to dodge and no time to project Rho Aias, Shirou could only close his eyes as the missiles hit home.

"Shirou!" Ruby cried out as she looked up just in time to see her friend get blown up. The massive sword-thing he had created crumbled away like sand even as he got sent flying. In a flash, Ruby was on him and shielding his body with hers as they tumbled across the ground. After they had skidded to a stop, Ruby flipped them over so she was on top and watched as a wave of silver energy passed over his body, signifying that his Aura had broken. She quickly put her ear over his mouth and let out the breath she didn't even know she was holding as she heard him breathe.

Suddenly flooded by an anger greater than any she could ever remember experiencing, Ruby glanced over to where her team was still dealing with Roman before picking up Shirou's unconscious body and moving him further away from the battle. Once her friend was sufficiently safe, Ruby turned back to the conflict and leveled a hard glare at Roman as she swapped out her regular rounds for her high explosive ones.

Back at the fight, everyone screeched to a halt as a serious amount of killing intent poured over them. They turned to look at the young leader as she glared at Roman with cold fury before disappearing in a swirl of rose petals, her speed greater than anything she had displayed before. With a yell, Ruby sliced at the damaged part of the Paladin's arm and smiled in satisfaction as her scythe went straight through and the arm came flying off. "Bumblebee!"

Ruby's shouted command was enough to snap her teammates out of their stupor and into action. Yang quickly jumped onto the remains of the unfinished wall next to her so she could launch herself toward Blake but their plan was halted as Roman fired up the rocket boosters on the Paladin and came barreling right toward Yang. Unable to dodge, Yang threw up her arms in a crossguard and braced herself as the Paladin crashed into her and carried her through the wall. After traveling a couple dozen yards, Roman slowed the Paladin down and brought its remaining arm up, ready to drive the large knife straight through Yang's chest.

Ruby actually growled in anger and frustration as she watched the events unfold and quickly readied Crescent Rose in rifle form as she saw what Roman was going to do. "Weiss! Thunderbolt!" Weiss created a yellow glyph in front of Ruby and thrust Myrtenaster into it half an instant before Ruby pulled the trigger. The supersonic bullet passed through the glyph and was infused with energy as its speed was instantly doubled, the HE round approaching hypersonic speeds as it crackled with trails of electricity.

Just before the Paladin's blade could hit Yang, the blade suddenly shattered into a million pieces as a deafening "bang" followed it. Instead of being run through, Yang found herself being punched into the ground with enough force to crater it. "Well, not how I planned it but that's still one more pest out of the way," Roman mused as he paused to think and catch his breath. While the mech amplified his Aura, he'd been taking a serious beating and he was certainly feeling the energy drain. "Now I just need to— What?"

Roman looked down to see the Paladin's remaining arm slowly being pushed up. He tried to apply power to push it back down but he didn't even manage to slow it down as Yang slowly became visible; her teeth gritted in effort and her eyes burning red. She flashed the stunned Roman a toothy grin before punching the Paladin's fist, the impact shattering it and half of its arm.

The Paladin staggered back as Roman looked in shock from the remains of its arm to the blonde who was slowly standing up, a dense aura of yellow energy surrounding her and growing denser by the second. "Full Release:" Roman backed up as quickly as he could and prepared to fire the last of his missiles but suddenly found his movements growing increasingly sluggish before stopping completely. Yang started moving toward the Paladin; slowly at first but rapidly gaining speed until she was moving in a full-on sprint. As she ran, her aura grew denser and started to trail until it was no longer a young woman running at him but a long, gold dragon, its great maw opened wide to consume him.

"Roaring Dragon Fang!" Yang leapt into the air and put all of her power into her right arm. The glyph beneath Roman disappeared right before Yang would have crossed it which left Yang completely unimpeded as she brought her attack home and landed her mighty punch right over Roman's face. The dragon aura continued onward as the punch utterly shattered the Paladin, instantly reducing it to scrap metal and sending Roman tumbling painfully across the ground before sliding to a stop back near the unfinished building where the rest of Team RWBY waited with their weapons at the ready.

Roman quickly got to his feet, grimacing at the amount of pain he was in and at the ruined state of his clothes. He looked around at the three girls for a moment before taking a deep breath and smiling. "Well, ladies," he said calmly with a surprising amount of confidence for someone who was about to go to jail, "it's been fun but I'm all tuckered out so, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll take my leave."

Ruby's eyes widened as she put the pieces together and dashed forward to strike at Roman with the side of Crescent Rose but was dismayed when her attack simply made the air shatter like glass. As the image of Roman disappeared, Ruby brought up her scope and switched over to thermal but Roman and Neo were nowhere to be found.

(A/N: End song.)

The girls took a moment to catch their breaths, with Yang slowly making her way over to them, before moving to check on Shirou. He was still unconscious but it only took a few seconds and some light prodding before he awoke with a groan.

"What happened?" Shirou said as he gingerly sat up.

"We destroyed the Paladin but Roman got away with Neo's help," Ruby explained as she held a hand on Shirou's back to support him.

"Is anyone hurt?" he asked as he looked at each of the girls over as best as he could with his still blurry vision.

"Well, I feel like I got run over by a truck but you should see the other guy," Yang joked.

"I'm glad no one got hurt," Shirou said before slowly standing up with Ruby and Blake's help. "We should get going. We need to report this to—" Shirou had started walking away but abruptly stopped as his strength gave out. He would have collapsed back into the ground if it weren't for Yang catching him.

"Easy there, hero. You just got knocked out; you can't just walk that off right away. Trust me. I know. I've tried," Yang said with a gentle smile.

Shirou closed his eyes and hung his head with a sigh even as he started to feed some prana into Avalon. While its full healing abilities were unavailable without Saber's prana, he had developed a great enough sympathy with it thanks to having it inside him for so many years that he could slightly speed up his recovery time. It was nowhere near as good as the healing his Aura gave him but it still had its uses.

"Shirou's right. We should get going," Ruby said as she started walking forward. "It's been a long night but we still have a ways to go before we can get some sleep."

"I can take Shirou back on Bumblebee. He needs to get checked out first thing," Yang said. Normally, Shirou would protest this but, as it was, he was doing well enough to stay standing.

"Good idea. We'll meet up with you later. Be careful, Yang. Take care of Shirou."

"Don't worry, sis. Our cook's in good hands."

A/N: A few things of importance. First, Berskerer's weapon isn't a Noble Phantasm. If it had been, Roman and the Paladin would have been neatly bisected. Second, Shirou's attack, which he can do basically at will numerous times, did about as much damage as Yang's Soul Surge. In this version of the story, had Shirou not been there, Team RWBY couldn't have taken down the Paladin. Also, for what its worth, if Shirou hadn't shouted that warning, Roman wouldn't have been able to block the attack and things would have played out very differently.

Anyway, omake time!

Omake 6

Unlucky Situation

After V2C5

Qrow Branwen casually tossed his Scroll onto his desk after reading the report. Qrow was a man of many contradictions. His feather-like hair was a greying black and was spiked backward with his bangs framing his dull red eyes. Between his slightly angular facial features and the slight stubble running along his jaw, it was safe to say that he was a rather attractive man. This was further emphasized by his state of dress. He wore a gray dress shirt with a long tail, black dress pants, and black dress shoes that were capped off with a tattered red cloak. Combined with his numerous rings a crooked cross necklace, he looked like an important man with a lot of money.

The contradiction was in everything else about him. The atmosphere that Qrow gave off was lackadaisical at the best of times and downright buffoonish at worst. The fact that he tended to go through most days at varying levels of drunkenness didn't help matters. Worse still, the office he was currently in was the complete opposite of how he dressed. While it wasn't messy, it also wasn't even remotely organized and every single piece of furniture in it could charitably be referred to as "cheap."

The report that Qrow had just read was one that Ozpin had just sent him. Apparently, his darlings nieces and their team had decided it'd be a good idea to get in a tussle with the White Fang and their stolen Atlesian military hardware. They had managed to resolve the situation with relatively minor property damage and no major injuries. They had even managed to get information that both revealed the presence of a White Fang hideout outside the city (something that they had suspicions of but had lacked hard evidence for) and narrowed down where it could be located. Between this and the incident at the docks a few months ago, Team RWBY was really making a name for themselves.

Frankly, Qrow was impressed. His team hadn't started into this kind of trouble until their second year.

Still, this turn of events was somewhat worrying. While Qrow had full confidence in the capabilities of his nieces, he couldn't help but worry about them. It was a big, dangerous world out there and they were starting to tangle with forces that went way beyond what any of them knew.

Well, any of them except one. Emiya Shirou was a very curious individual. Despite only being seventeen, he had the same air about him as veteran Hunters who had seen all kinds of hell. The kid's fighting was also something else. He fought with the ferocity and precision of a soldier and his fighting style seemed to frequently change based on what weapon he was using. Fighting him hadn't been like fighting a single person but rather like fighting fifty people all rolled into one. Keeping up with him had been a pain and the less said about when he fought with that stupidly long katana, the better.

Then there was the matter of the kid's luck. The fact that Qrow happened to be nearby when that hole in the sky opened up was pretty lucky by itself but things got crazy when they fought. Whenever Qrow's Semblance, which brought misfortune to others, acted up against Shirou, it was almost a crapshoot as to whether the thing that happened to him was actually bad or only seemed bad at first but was a good thing in the long run.

And then he used that "Reality Marble" thing and it took everything Qrow had to not throw his hands up then and there and call bullshit.

All in all, Qrow found this kid from another world to be an absolute headache but there was no denying that he was a good kid. From the reports Ozpin sent him and the occasional messages he got from Ruby and Yang, Shirou was doing a lot to help out not only them but literally everyone else around him. The fact that someone so completely altruistic existed should have been laughable but Emiya Shirou's mere existence was undeniable. The kid didn't seem to have a selfish bone in his body. While he had warned him to not try anything funny with Ruby, he honestly wouldn't have any complaints if she developed a crush on him. Plenty of worries but no complaints.

Still, with things going as they were, perhaps it was time for him to make an appearance. With the Vytal Festival coming up, Qrow could probably get away with taking a few personal days off. Yeah, after he located the White Fang hideout for Ozpin, he'd do just that.