40

Blake was seething when she marched back into her dorm. Not only had Ozpin somehow brought Tukson to the school but he also made him give up everything he knew about White Fang. And yet… Torchwick wasn't caught. Adam wasn't caught either. Even General Ironwood arriving didn't help. So many resources and they were still sitting on their asses and doing jack!

/

"Did you notice anything wrong with Blake?" Ruby asked her team as they left the classroom.

"Hmm, she did seem a bit more on edge than usual." Weiss commented.

They all noticed but Pyrrha didn't want to assume anything and Yang didn't intend on getting involved until Blake either asked for help or screwed up.

Ruby scrunched her face in thoughts and worry. She didn't want to be nosy but Blake was her friend! And somewhat of a girlfriend? They were trying to make it work but she had no idea what to do but cuddling up for a movie night was really nice. "I think I'll talk to her." Ruby announced.

She found her late in the evening in the library, dozens of newspapers reporting on White Fang thrown around her. Her hair was slightly frazzled and it was obvious that she wasn't getting much sleep lately.

"Blake…" Ruby softly called out to her. Blake ignored her despite her being right behind her. Ruby tried one more time.

Still no reaction.

"Blake!" She said a bit louder and put her hand on Blake's shoulder.

That got the reaction. Blake whipped around, mouth in a snarl but when she noticed who exactly was trying to get to her, she calmed down and even looked a bit apologetic. "Ruby.. sorry, I'm in the middle of something. Could you let me finish it?"

Ruby slightly frowned and instead of leaving sat down next to her. "Need some help?"

Blake softly chuckled. That was just like Ruby. Not caring about what was happening but immediately jumping to trying to solve it. "Focus on your own projects. This… this is something I have to do myself." But Ruby was already working on a bunch of new weapons, leading a team and who knows what else. Dragging Ruby into her own mess wasn't something she wanted.

"Nope!" Ruby chirped and looked at her with a sweet smile. "It doesn't matter what's the problem. I-we are going to deal with it!" She said with absolute conviction. "So… what's the problem?" She took a quick look at the papers around them. "Oh, still dealing with White Fang?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah…" Blake exhaled. "I've…seen it all happen. I was at the rallies when I was very little. It was peaceful but then… A thrown stone here. Vandalisation there. The police interventions. I didn't notice it then but then… It was already too late. I couldn't change it then but I'm going to do it now. And if not, then I stop it and start again."

"What about that Torchwick guy?" Ruby asked after reading a report about yet another dust robbery.

"I don't know how or why the White Fang is working with him." Blake said with venom in her voice. "Regardless, he is a criminal so I'm-" Ruby gave her a flat stare. "-we are just going to throw him into prison and be done with him." This time Ruby gave her a proud smile and a determined nod.

-BBW-

"Hello, the most fabulous crime lord on the line." Torchwick picked up his scroll. Sure, Cinder and Taurus would probably start bitching about not preparing for his speech seriously enough but neither were around so he could at least have a chat with-

"Roman." A muffled metallic voice came. One that he still quite remembered.

"Oh hello, hehe. Hey, I'm kinda already preoccupied but if it's something small I can send-"

"You're causing headaches for the wrong people."

Translation: there is a target on your back and I'm a step away from taking you out of the picture. Roman audibly swallowed. "Ehm…you know…I can give you a number on my boss so you can deal with it between the two of you, you know?" Maybe the two of them would kill each other and he wouldn't have to worry about being set on fire by either of them.

"Your boss?"

"Yeah…terrible woman. Quite a looker but, damn she is a bitch with too many issues."

"The one that throws fireworks around?" Roman was sure he heard some very troubling (for him) tone in the speaker's voice.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about her." Now he was sure that the merc he had business before not only knew about Cinder but also wanted her dead. Okay… sell out Cinder and probably get killed by whatever friends she has in Mistral or don't sell out Cinder and have Scorchers going after me. High chance to get killed in a crossfire, or as a loose end…for fucks sake.

"Ehm, sorry but no… You know, client confidentiality and all that… er… be free to order anything when I'm done. Bye!"

/

Yang stared at the scroll after Torchwick abruptly ended the call. Small world indeed. Who would have guessed that Torchwick's boss was that bitch that tried to blow up Ruby and made her feel weird about the fight… She would need to ask Ruby about it again. Preferably in greater detail.

There was a knock on the doors. "Can we come in?" Pyrrha's voice came from the outside. "We heard you talking and didn't want to intrude…"

"Yeah, yeah. Just come inside." Not wanting to intrude, huh. If I really wanted privacy I wouldn't be doing it here…

The door opened, Pyrrha came in first, looking fresh as always. Behind her was a very tired Weiss. "You okay snowflake? You look like you just ran a marathon."

Weiss gave her a thankful smile for her concern and fell down on the bed next to her. "I tried to do the same routine as her… this is the result." Strangely, behind all the tiredness there was some pride in her voice.

"Really? I did hers once but it wasn't good enough for my muscles so I stayed with my own." Yang replied, now a bit self-conscious about her own training regime.

She flinched when Weiss pinched her leg and decided to use her tight as a pillow. "Stupid jocks…" She grumbled.

-BBW-

"Well…" Weiss took a look around their dorm, which was now cramped to the limit with team BLAN also being there. "The last time there were all of us, a forest burned down. What is it this time?" She directed the question to Ruby and especially Blake who stood in the middle of the room and while she looked nervous and a bit uncomfortable, it was an improvement compared to how she was a few days ago.

Blake took a deep breath and started explaining the events that led to the meeting. "I have told Nora and Ren about what happened before the break and-"

"How dare you to fight terrorists without us?!" Nora shouted, not just at Blake but at everyone who was involved. "How could you be so greedy!? To keep all the leg-breaking to yourself! Unforgivable!" She sat down with a huff and kept pouting while giving everyone a stink eye.

"Yeah…" Blake sheepishly looked away. "Anyway! It's obvious that what we did wasn't enough to stop or even slow Torchwick or Whie Fang down. So… I was thinking-"

"Who of us is up for round two." Pyrrha finished for her.

"Something like that. We-" She nodded towards Ruby. "-weren't able to find anything concrete like the stuff on the docks but I have a lead. Or something that can bring more actual leads. This Friday, there will be a recruit rally. I and Illia can sneak in and listen in for anything important."

"And you are telling us because..?" Weiss spoke up.

"Because Ruby would probably put me under a lock if I tried to go there on my own." Blake awkwardly admitted.

Ruby sharply nodded.

"Well I suppose I can also help. Most of the things that were stolen belonged to SDC. I can take a look at the reports, maybe there is something interesting there."

"I also have a contact in the Vale's shadier parts. I'll pay him a visit." Yang chimed in.

"These are only three places…" Pyrrha added thoughtfully. "What are the rest of us going to do?"

"Back up." Ruby answered. "We can't sneak into the rally but we can be around and keep an eye on things or jump in if something goes wrong."

"Why don't we skip the whole spy thing and crash the party?" Weiss lightheartedly spoke. "We all know that with our luck, this whole thing will go wrong sooner than later, so let's just go in. Catch the ring leaders and have a chat with them."

"No." Blake deadpanned. "No bloodbath." She then turned to Nora. "And no leg-breaking."

"So, is everyone on board?" Ruby asked and looked around. A series of nods followed. "Great! Then let's bring in some bad guys! Hooray!" Ruby cheered and pumped her fist into the air.

"Hell yeah, let's do it!" A muffled voice came from outside the window.

After a short moment the room exploded into action.

/

"And now this place is even more crowded…" Weiss remarked.

Eh, at least it brought some enjoyment. Ivory shot back and dug her heel a bit harder into Neptune's back. "Fine, fine. I'll be nice." She rolled her eyes and let the boy go after receiving glares from more than half of the present people.

"Ehm… where do we go after the bad guys?" Sun tried to diffuse the situation while trying to ignore how he himself was seated between Ilia and Blake, tied up with Blake's weapon.

"What's with Ilia?" Weiss asked, seeing that the girl was staring wide-eyed at the wall between the dorm and corridor. "And what is wrong with her pupils?"

Hmm… yes. I would think that she would be more focused on her boytoy being right next to her. "Ilia, is there somebody else listening in?"

She snapped out, her pupils becoming normal again. "Wha-sorry. It's just- There is a team out there and one of them is… weird."

Everybody kept looking at Ilia, waiting for her to elaborate. Surprising nobody Ruby was the first to run out of patience. "Okay… Let's meet up on friday after the classes in front of the CCT. Me and Blake will hash out some details and tell you then!" Or she simply brushed off whatever issue Ilia had with whoever was outside. In a flurry of petals she rushed out of the room. A second later there was a squeak from Ruby, a lot of cursing and a loud thud.

/

"That clumsy retarded dunce! What the hell is Torchwick's deal with the brat?" Emerald seethed as she followed Cinder to their dorm. "How the fuck did he lose to some little girl? Twice!"

"Emerald." Cinder spoke calmly. "Stay quiet and don't attract attention." She sighed at the childishness of her two accomplices. Speaking of… "Mercury, were you able to learn anything important? Or you spent the entire time flirting?" She said with a promise of a lot of pain in her voice.

-BBW-

Pyrrha put on a strange helmet Ruby made for her. After a couple of seconds, the screen lit up and- "Ugh. This is really disorienting…" Pyrrha remarked after trying to figure out the panoramic camera feed that expanded her vision to seeing what was exactly behind her. "Is this really necessary?" She asked Ruby who was setting up stacks of plastic plates.

"Well… the 360 vision is just something I thought would be useful. Yang seemed to like it. Ehm, as long as she doesn't everheat the proximity sensors… then those go crazy." Ruby rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish smile on her face. "Anyway, the main thing is the aiming program! Try lifting the guns. Let's see if it even works. I'm not really good at the whole IT thing so I had to pester Penny to help me with it."

Pyrrha reached out to the half dozen guns behind her and slowly lifted them up. The guns were a bit different from what she was used to. Those weren't the patchwork muscet Ruby had her train with but they still looked far away from something that could be described as a proper weapon. The weirdest thing was the small contraption where the scope would usually be. "Huh? Are the crosshares intentional?"

"Yep!" Ruby happily answered. "Each gun has a sensor that is linked to your helmet and it displays the projected trajectory of the shot." She picked up one of the plates. "Are you up for some practice or you want to get a bit more familiar with the system?"

Pyrrha smirked under the helmet. "I'm fine." To prove her point she even strapped the 'holster' of the guns around her upper body and lifted herself into the air. Besides, she needed to be able to multitask with all of this getup. "Bring it."

/

"Go away… I'm really not ready to deal with your teasing right now…" Pyrrha tiredly snapped at Blake. Ruby was buried in her scroll, looking through the data from the training.

"Wow, I knew you two were really serious about training but for you to be so done… damn, should have invited me as well." Blake softly laughed. "Well, looks like Ruby is in her own little world so mind filling me in?"

"I'm not that tired. At least not physically. Just my head is killing me." Pyrrha continued to whine. This time, Ruby put her scroll down, placed Pyrrha's head onto her lap and started slowly stroking through her hair. Blake also sat down next to them but kept quiet despite how cute she thought they looked. "I had to focus my semblance on 4 separate things for a long time. Keeping myself in the air, keeping the guns in the air, aiming the guns and firing the guns. Also, nothing against you Ruby, but the camera was making me really nauseous." Pyrrha finished her complaint.

They stayed quiet for a time, letting Pyrrha enjoy her rest. Then Blake turned to Ruby and spoke in a low voice. "You should have taken it easy on her. We are going after the Fang tomorrow. Would be bad if she has to do it with a migraine."

"Yeah… you are probably right." Ruby admitted, still giving Pyrrha a gentle massage. "I was just so excited and Penny looked so nervous about her program so I wanted to test it out too…"

"Hmm." Blake hummed in understanding. "Where is she anyway? I haven't seen her since she dropped by with that blond guy."

Ruby's smile became smaller. "Her father is really protective, so after the whole thing at the docks he and her headmaster told her to stay in the dorms and to not get into trouble. She only got out once because Jaune helped to convince them to let her introduce him to us."

Blake threw one arm over Ruby's shoulders and pressed her closer. "It's not your fault Ruby. You couldn't know."

"But I told her that she could tag along if she wanted…" Ruby relaxed into the embrace.

"I'm sure everything will be fine. They can't keep her grounded all the time." Blake softly spoke. "Let's all get some rest tonight. We have a big day tomorrow."

Ruby gave a short nod, still pressed into Blake's side. "Just be careful. We won't be able to go with you. And…use a lot of makeup and different clothes. Maybe hair dye. And-"

"Calm down already." Balke goodnaturaly whined. "I'll be there with Ilia and Sun. And there will be a lot of other people. Everything will be fine."

-BBW-

"Just to recap. Blake, Ilia and Sun will go undercover with Pyrrha, Ren and Nora sticking around in case something goes wrong. Yang and uh-"

"Neptune."

"Yes, sorry! Yang and Neptune will go after whoever Yang knows to look for rumors or something and I will go with Weiss and we will take a look at what exactly was stolen. Maybe we'll be able to figure out why and what about this whole thing." Ruby spoke to the circle of her friends and… yeah, friends, Sun and Neptune were kinda new to the group but they seemed nice enough. "Any questions?"

"No big guns tonight? You had a bigger one last time." Sun remarked, not seeing the giant weapon the little girl had during their escapade with White Fang.

"This is an information gathering mission. I can hide my sweetheart under my cloak." She lifted the cape and showed the red block on the small of her back. "But my darling would be just too big to hide." She looked around once more. "Okay, so everyone knows what to do? Great, let's move out!"

/

"This will end in a disaster." Ivory remarked as she and Ruby were walking toward the CCT.

"Why? I think we have a decent plan." Ruby shot back.

Ivory sighed. "You put Nora, a person who is loud and knows nothing about the word subtlety, as a rearguard near the White Fang warehouse, filled and surrounded by faunes with enhanced senses." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "There is a difference between bringing in active members, regardless of the state they were in, and showering desperate civilians with grenades. And I fear that should something go wrong, Nora might jump the gun."

"Uhm…" That wasn't something- I'll call Pyrrha to keep an eye on Nora so nothing bad happens." She pulled out her scroll and started fiddling with it, not noticing another person and for the second time that week she ran into someone. At least this time she was the only one to fall, instead of bringing an entire team to the floor. "Sorry!"

"Uh, here is your scroll, miss." A familiar voice sounded from above.

"Penny?" Ruby slowly picked herself up and took a proper look. "Penny!"

"Ehm…I'm sorry but you must have mistaken me with someone *hic*. Uh… goodbye." And she ran off. Well not really, something between running and really fast walking.

Ruby kept staring after her escaping friend in confusion while occasionally stealing glances from Ivory. Her friend was acting really weird and now she was trying to run away. She had to help but they were already on a mission. Friend or mission. Helping Penny or trying to stop White Fang.

Children…

"Children indeed…" Weiss agreed.

"Just go. I'll send you the copy of everything I'll be able to get." She waved Ruby off and as soon as she turned she could already see the petals floating in the air around her as her leader took off.

/

"Oh sweet ground! How I missed it! I thought I would never feel the stable soil under my feet!" Neptune cried as he and Yang finally arrived at their destination. It wasn't that they took long. Just that Yang was a VERY aggressive driver. Or she was still sore about him hitting on Weiss. Nah… if what Sun told me about her is true, I would be dead then… Wait! That bastard let me go with a girl who hates me to the kingdom's shithole! While he is with two girls on his own!

"Hey you! We aren't open yet. Go aw- I mean welcome to our establishment!" The guards walked up to the two teenagers but after recognizing Yang as one of Junior's VIPs they quickly backed off.

Yang didn't spare any thoughts about either the guards or her complaining 'partner' and simply moved in. Upon seeing her, Junior smiled widely.

"Oh! One of my favorite customers! What will it be today? Pleasure or business?" He then looked behind her and saw a rather confusing young lad in a red jacket and with blue hair. "Don't tell me you switched partners. I really liked the little princess…"

Yang rolled her eyes, debating whether or not she should scold him for the comment on her relationship. "You only like her because of the tip she left here." She then threw a look to Neptune who was already trying and failing to flirt with the twins. "I'm stuck with babysitting duty. Just ignore him. I'm here for business."

Junior nodded and put the glass and bottles away. "So, who or what are you looking for?"

"Roman Torchwick."

"Don't you have his number?"

"He blew me off. Now, I'm not giving him a choice."