In Streets of Vale, the owner of the Dust shop 'From Dust Till Dawn' is hanging a sign declaring its re-opening. As he climbs down from his ladder, he stumbles and falls. Emerald Sustrai appears next to him.
Emerald: "'Scuse me, sorry. I'm not really from around here." She helps him to his feet. "Would you mind pointing me in the direction of this shop?"
Emerald produces a piece of paper with writing on it and the shopkeep looks it over.
Shopkeep: "Hmm? Mm-hmm."
Emerald walks away from the shop owner as both wave goodbye and passes Mercury Black at a corner.
Mercury: "I knew you were lost."
Emerald: "Mercury, I will seriously pay you to shut up." She produces a wallet with Lien and waves it in Mercury's face.
Mercury: "That's not your money."
Emerald: "But it can be yours for 5 minutes of silence."
Mercury: "Mmmm... no deal."
Emerald: "Fine." Emerald takes the Lien and tosses the wallet, turning to walk away.
Mercury: "Whatever. You want me."
~~~
Mercury and Emerald are walking through the city.
Mercury: "So, how much farther?"
Emerald: "A few blocks."
Mercury: "Ugh... this place is so dull."
Emerald: "Eh, I kinda like it. Tall buildings, diverse culture..."
Mercury: "And nice dopey people who are easy to pickpocket."
Emerald stops.
Emerald: "That's every city."
Mercury: "Ooh, Emerald! Master thief! Please don't take my money! I barely have enough to get by!"
Emerald glares at him, groaning angrily. She then walks away from him.
Mercury: "Ugh... you're no fun today."
Mercury follows behind Emerald. The scene shifts to Emerald and Mercury entering a shop full of books. The shop owner can be heard humming a tune. Mercury stops near the door to look at books while Emerald approaches the counter and rings a service bell.
Tukson: "Be right there!" Emerald looks back at Mercury. The shop owner is seen through a set of double doors carrying stacks of books as he walks backwards and out toward the counter. "Welcome to 'Tukson's Book Trade', home to every book under the sun!" He sets down the books. "How may I..." Turning around, he gasps and hesitates upon recognizing the two of them. Mercury is now holding a book. "How may I help you?"
Mercury: "Just browsing. He shuts the book, he was reading
Emerald: "Actually, I was wondering, do you have any copies of 'The Thief and The Butcher'?"
Tukson: "Yes we do."
Emerald: "That's great."
Tukson: "Would you... like a copy?"
Emerald: "No, just wondering." Mercury closes another book. "Oh, oh! What about "Violet's Garden"? In paperback?"
Mercury: "He's got it. Hardback too." Mercury produces a book.
Emerald: "Ooh, options are nice."
Mercury: "Eh, no pictures." Mercury closes the book. "Hey! Do you have any comics?"
Tukson: "Near the front."
Emerald: "Oh, no, wait! What... about... 'Third Crusade'?"
Tukson hesitates, visibly unnerved.
Tukson: "Um... I..." Mercury and Emerald eyeing him carefully." ...don't believe we carry that one."
Mercury: "Oh." He slams another book
Emerald: "What was this place called again?"
Tukson: "Tukson's Book Trade."
Emerald: "And you're Tukson?"
Tukson: "That's right."
Emerald: "So then I take it that you're the one that came up with the catchphrase?"
Tukson: "Yes."
Mercury: "And, what was it again?"
Tukson: "Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."
Mercury: Except the Third Crusade.
Tukson: It's just a catchphrase.
Mercury: It's false advertising!
Emerald: "You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson. "Mercury activates a switch near the entrance causing a front window to darken. "I hear that you're planning on leaving. Moving all the way to Vacuo." Mercury activates another switch and the window in the front door darkens. "Your brothers in the White Fang won't be happy to hear that." Mercury activates the third and final switch, darkening the last window as he smiles creepily at Tukson. "And neither are we... You know who we are, don't you?"
Tukson: "Yes."
Emerald: "And you know why we're here?"
Tukson: "Yes."
Emerald: "So... are you going to fight back?"
Tukson: "Yes!" Tukson produces claws from his fingers. "Yaargh!"
Tukson leaps atop his counter in a threatening manner. Mercury and Emerald back up slightly and he leaps at Emerald and slashes at her, but she dodges. He looks forward and is surprised at Mercury as he raises one leg for a kick with his shotgun-greaves.
~~~
Mercury and Emerald exit 'Tukson's Book Trade'. Emerald stretches her arms overhead. Mercury is carrying a comic.
Emerald: "What's with that?"
Mercury: "I like the pictures."
In the Beacon Academy cafeteria, Team RWBY(F) are sitting together as Blake looks over some notes. Yang then slides up next to her partner.
Yang: "Whatcha doing?"
Blake: "Nothing." Blake closes her book. "Just going over notes from last semester."
Yang catches a grape in her mouth.
Yang: "Lame."
Nora giggles as she continues to toss grapes at Yang with her spoon. Yang catches the fruit with ease, giving Nora the thumbs up. Ruby, giving an enormous heave, slams a binder onto the table, catching everyone off guard. On the cover of the binder is written 'Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Weiss Schnee'. This has been hastily crossed out with a red marker pen, and with the same pen, a new title, 'Best Day Ever Activities', has been written underneath.
Ruby: "Sisters... friends... B-Boyfriend..."
F/n: "Don't call me that!"
Ruby: "... Weiss..."
Weiss: "Hey!"
Ruby: "Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."
Yang: "This ought to be good." She catches another berry in her mouth.
Ruby: "A dream that one day, the four of us will come together, as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!"
Weiss: "Did you steal my binder?"
Ruby: "I am not a crook." She tells Weiss, making a peace sign with both hands
Blake: "What are you talking about?"
Ruby: "I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!"
Yang: "I always kick my semesters off with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I right?"
An apple is tossed at Yang and hits her in the face. She glares at Nora.
Nora: "Boooooooooooooooo!"
Ruby: "Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But, classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today."
Weiss: "I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store."
F/n: "It's neither." He tells Weiss
Yang, still glaring, picks up an apple and tosses it across the room. An unfamiliar voice shouts "Hey!" and Nora can be heard giggling.
Blake: "I don't know. I think I might sit this one out."
Weiss: "Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team!"
Nora: "I got it!"
Weiss: "I for one think that..." Weiss is interrupted by a pie landing on her face.
Nora is shown to be the one who threw the pie, she sits down and points at Ren who has his head in his palm. Pyrrha's hand is over her mouth and Jaune simply sits staring wide-eyed while covering his ear with his palm.
~~~
Outside the cafeteria, Sun and Neptune are walking together as Sun relates the events that happened with Roman.
Neptune: "Man, that's harsh."
Sun: "I know, we were fighting side by side. She was super fast and I threw a banana at the guy, which sounds gross, but it was awesome."
Neptune: "Nice!"
Sun: "Right? And the best part is, she's a Faunus. But that's a secret, okay?"
Neptune: "Got it."
Sun leans in close in order to stress the importance of this secret.
Sun: "And not a, 'I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back secret', I'm talking secret secret."
Neptune: "Whoa, chill out, man, okay? I got it. I got it!"
Sun: "You better." He mutters his next sentence. "I still need to get pay back on him." The windows into the cafeteria where food splatters into the panes as students run around. At one point, Jaune is the one splattered into the window. "I just don't want to screw this up, you know? The people here are the coolest! No offense to you guys."
Neptune: "None taken."
Sun: "They're just in here. I'm really excited for you to meet them. So be cool, okay? You're gonna be cool, right?"
Neptune: "Dude."
Neptune's teeth gleam as he smiles.
Sun: "Good point."
Sun and Neptune enter the cafeteria where students are heard screaming.
Beacon Student: "Food fight!"
Many students are shown stampeding out the door past Sun and Neptune, the latter of whom is looking quite worried.
Nora: "Ahahahaha!"
Team JNPR are shown to be standing atop a tower of tables stacked in a ramshackle manner.
Nora: "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"
Ruby stomps her foot on a table and pointing at Team JNPR.
Ruby: "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful!" Ruby crushes a carton of milk in her hand. "It will be delicious!"
Team RWBY(F): Raising their fists simultaneously. "Yeah!" They all say except F/n.
F/n: "I'll be back!" He runs past Sun and Neptune, and goes outside of the Cafeteria
Nora: "Off with their heads!"
Nora jumps down from the top of her tower, and the food fight begins.
Ruby: "Yang! Turkey!"
Yang picks up two turkeys from the ground and uses them like gloves to punch through the barrage of watermelons thrown off a table by Nora; upon completion, Blake then leaps in front of Yang and picks up two baguettes. Yang then throws her turkeys at Pyrrha, who dodges out of the way and grabs a single baguette, leaving Jaune to take the blows.
Pyrrha and Blake duel in a one-on-one fight. Despite Blake's attempt to disorient Pyrrha with her shadows, Pyrrha knocks her back and throws three more baguettes to Yang, with the last knocking her down as well.
Ruby uses a food tray to slide towards Pyrrha across the table and hits a baguette back at her with the same tray; Pyrrha manages to dodge the shot, but is unable to stop Ruby from knocking her backwards with the same food tray. Ren and Nora then charge at Ruby, but Weiss intercepts them and uses ketchup to cause Ren to slip and crash with a group tables which are launched because of the impact.
Nora jumps through these tables to grab a metal flag pole and attach a watermelon to it. She attacks Weiss but hits Ruby instead, who manages to stand between them to protect her partner from the assault; however, the force of this impact knocks her down. Weiss grabs a swordfish and engages Nora in a one-on-one, but ends up being defeated after Nora throws her against a pillar, knocking her down, and causing the pillar to break. Before the pieces crush Weiss, Ruby jumps in and saves her partner, cradling her.
Ruby: "Weiss, Weiss! Don't leave me! Noo!"
Yang grabs two more turkeys and duels Ren, who wields a pair of leeks. Ren is overwhelmed by Yang's reflexes and takes a lot of hits before being sent a few meters into the air by an uppercut. He recovers from the strikes and throws his leeks at Yang, but she manages to dodge them and proceeds to finish Ren by jumping high enough to punch him toward the floor, knocking him out. Nora intervenes immediately afterwards and sends Yang flying through the roof with her hammer but destroys the weapon in the process.
Blake gets back up to dodge the debris of the roof and grabs a link of sausages. She whips it at a disarmed Nora, throwing her against two soda machines. These leak some soda cans that Nora throws at Blake, who manages to dodge them all.
F/n: "Hey!" Everyone in the Cafeteria pauses. They all see F/n holding T.G.R, in its gun form, pointing towards them. "Play Time is over!"
Jaune: "Take this!"
Jaune throws a piece of bread at F/n, bouncing off of his body. F/n picks up, and takes a bite, before he pulls the trigger, shooting out sausages out of the gun.
Ruby: "Everyone for themselves!" She yells, as everyone takes cover.
F/n is laughing crazily as the sausages are destroying everything in their path. Pyrrha is thinking of how to stop him, as the table she's hiding behind of is getting torn apart. Pyrrha sees than cans of soda, finally coming up with a plan. She then uses her Semblance of polarity on the puddle of soda, causing all the soda cans on it to rise after F/n.
F/n: "Nooo!" He says as he tries to shoot down the cans, but is overpowered, knocking him away.
As Pyrrha continues to use her semblance, Ruby, the last remaining member of RWBY(F), uses her Semblance of speed to dash through the food court, causing everything to follow her through the tailwind caused by her overwhelming speed. She spins like a torpedo, creating a hurricane of food that come backs at JNPR, knocking all four members out.
Sun: "I love these guys."
Neptune is drenched with soda and is not pleased. The doors behind them open and Glynda enters the room growling. She proceeds to use telekinesis to re-organize the room.
Glynda: "Children, please." She adjusts her glasses. "Do not play with your food!"
Nora burps aloud as both Team JNPR and Team RWBY(F) try and fail to compose themselves. A screaming Yang then crashes from the ceiling, landing on top of F/n.
F/n: "You weigh a lot." He says, before he passes out from the intense force.
Glynda grumbles. Ozpin approaches and places a hand on her shoulder.
Ozpin: "Let it go."
Glynda: "They're supposed to be the defenders of the world."
Ozpin: "And they will be, but right now they're still children." Team RWBY(F) are shown laughing together. "So why not let them play the part?" Ozpin walks away from Glynda. "After all, it isn't a role they'll have forever."
~~~
In an old warehouse, the White Fang are moving crates as Emerald and Mercury enter.
Roman: "Oh, look! She sent the kids again! This is turning out just like the divorce!" Roman approaches the two from behind and wraps his arms around them in a group hug.
Emerald: "Spare us the thought of you procreating."
Emerald and Mercury pull away from Roman.
Roman: "That was a joke." And this... just might tell me where you two have been all day. Roman produces a piece of paper.
Emerald: "What!? Agh..."
Roman: "I'm a professional, sweetheart. Pay attention, maybe you'll learn something." Holding up the piece of paper. "Why do you have this address?"
Emerald: "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Roman: "Yeah, I would. Now where have you been all day?"
Mercury: "Cleaning up your problems. One of them, at least."
Roman: "I had that under control."
Mercury: "Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale said otherwise."
Roman: "Listen, you little punk. If it were up to me, then I would take you and your little street rat friend here and..."
Cinder: "Do what, Roman?"
Cinder appears on a platform above them. She steps onto an automated lift, riding it down to their level.
Roman: "I'd, uh... not kill them?"
Emerald: Cinder!" She says excitedly
Cinder: "I thought I made it clear that you would eliminate the would-be runaway."
Roman: "I was going to..."
Emerald: "He was going to escape to Vacuo! Mercury and I decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat."
Mercury: "I think he was some sort of cat, actually."
Emerald: "What? Like a puma?"
Mercury: "Yeah, there ya go."
Cinder: "Quiet. Did I not specifically instruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?"
As Cinder speaks, Roman points a finger at the pair while laughing in agreement.
Emerald: "I just thought..."
Roman uses his fingers to mime having a slit throat.
Cinder: "Don't think... obey."
Emerald: "Yes ma'am. It won't happen again."
Cinder: "And you. Why wasn't this job done sooner?" She asks Roman
Roman: "Uh..? Eh..? Eh..? EHHHHH! Sorry if I've been busy stealing every speck of Dust in the Kingdom!"
Mercury: "You're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask." Emerald laughs at the remark.
Roman: "Look around, kid. I've got this town running scared! Police camping out at every corner, Dust prices through the roof, and we're sitting pretty on an old warehouse with more Dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with! Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn't mind filling me in on your grand master plan, it might actually make my next string of robberies go a little smoother!" He emphasizes the last word by clenching his fist.
Cinder: "Oh, Roman. Have a little faith. You'll know what you need when you need to know it." Roman seems entranced, but then looks away with a grunt. "Besides, we're done with Dust." She begins to walk away.
Roman: "O-okay, then what now?"
Cinder: "We're moving. Have the White Fang clear out this building. I'll send you details and coordinates tonight."
Roman: "Coordinates?"
Cinder: "We're proceeding to phase two."
Cinder, Mercury and Emerald begin to walk away. Roman attempts to light a cigar, but realizes Emerald has stolen his lighter. She turns back to face him and sticks her tongue out defiantly.
To Be Continued...
~~~
Team RWBY:
F/n L/n:
Team JNPR:
Cinder:
Emerald:
Mercury:
Sun:
Neptune:
Glynda:
Opzin:
Roman: