The life and times of Team RSBD as seen through the Scroll of resident nerd Bianca Strohmann.
Independent RWBY OC blog borne from an OpenLegend RWBY game. Each character run by a different player. Sidebar image by medbeebe. *
"The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all."
- The Emperor of China re:Mulan
We bear no such accolades.
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Clip Source: Beacon Academy Monitoring System | Camera: Hall H - 05
[A grid of video thumbnails. A cursor selects one, and the footage expands to screen width. The video player opens to a clip of pastries, fruit, and plates of bacon hurtling through the air. With a sharp click, the camera zooms in.]
A small girl with pale blonde hair skates across the hall on thick slices of buttered toast. The bread is strapped to the feet of her sleek, futuristic bodysuit. In each hand, she clutches a crusty baguette.
[System labels appear onscreen, a web of spider-thin lines connecting faces to names:
ROSE, RUBY
SCHNEE, WEISS
BELLADONA, BLAKE
EISENGARD, STEIN
The girl’s label reads: ANDRAZEL, RAPHTALIA.]
A pair of boosters unfold from the ankles of Raphtalia’s armor. With a quick snap of her wrist, Raphtalia activates a thruster on her right shoulder, sending her into a rapid spin.
Straight ahead, a grotesque fort assembled from upended tables and vending machines looms. Members of JNPR crouch in its shadow, each busy with their own opponents.
[As the camera focuses on the fort, labels blip to life:
VALKYRIE, NORA, swinging a watermelon hammer at MORRISON, MARCHE.
MAROON, DRAKE and ARC, JAUNE fending off a hail of peanuts.
Somewhere close by, obscured by the fort and a lurid pink van: XIAO LONG, YANG.]
Raphtalia extends her arms and spins faster and faster—a deadly rotor chopping through the battlefield, impervious to attack. Stray soda cans and rogue pies bounce off her. She rams through tables and chairs.
Too late, Nora spots the whirlwind headed their way.
“STOP! My castle!”
The fort shatters with a resounding crash. Table legs, soda cans, nuts and bolts spray all over the hall as the structure collapses in on itself, a baguette-and-biosuit hole blown clean through its base. Raphtalia emerges on the other side of the wreckage, spinning in stuttering circles.
“YES!” Marche pumps his fist, triumphant. “Your feeble Atlesian forts are no match for our superior combat armor!”
[The impact sends a shudder through the camera. It loses focus for a moment before scanning for new movement to follow. The sensors skip over Raphtalia and hone in on the pink van, now fully visible with the fort reduced to rubble.]
As the eviscerated fort spills the last of its parts out onto the floor, a flash of green skitters onto the roof of RSBD’s bakery van.
[A new label latches onto it: ANURA, RANI]
Beside her, a watermelon-frog construct lands with an ominous thump. Its mouth stretches into an unnaturally wide smile. Rani grins and points at the members of RWBY. The construct’s smile yawns open—and it spits watermelon after watermelon at its master’s targets.
Ruby, Weiss, and Blake scatter under the assault. Yang stands her ground, punching through every fruit that flies towards her.
“Alright, Suika! Nice work!” Rani thumps the butt of her spear on the van’s roof and calls out, “Hey, Biancs! Time for a combo!”
A muffled reply comes from within the van, and Rani lets out an excited whoop.
“HERE WE GO!”
She leaps off the roof. Wisps of golden light bleed out from her outline, and Rani disappears.
“YANG!” Ruby calls, searching the air frantically. “Be careful!”
Yang nods in response, sinks into a defensive crouch—and twenty feet above her, Rani pops back into existence, plummeting towards Yang in a flurry of breadcrumbs and golden threads of light.
“BAKED! DOOM!”
Lifting her arms above her head, Yang braces for impact. It’s not enough. The full force of Rani and her baguette-spear slam into her, sending Yang tumbling backwards into a pile of rubble.
Rani somersaults clear. The van’s door flies open.
A blur of blue and gold sprints out of the vehicle, straight towards Yang.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Yang growls, raising her fists. Fire leaps up around her. She narrows bright red eyes. “You are toast, Strohmann!”
She cocks a punch. Bianca stops just short of contact, pivoting her weight and momentum into a tremendous swing of her pike. Ember Celica rams into her jaw. Webendämmerung slips just under Yang’s blow, catching her across the middle and catapulting her through the roof and into the sky.
Both of them are out.
In the distance, somebody explodes through the hall’s massive doors. A manic roar of a laugh punches through the din.
“MERA! REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED!”
[The screen returns to the video gallery. The cursor re-selects the file, along with a few others. A prompt asks: “Append?”
The cursor clicks “Yes,” and the screen switches to a different module: files bearing the names, team affiliations, and photos of Beacon’s student body. The system highlights the members of RWBY, JNPR, RSBD, and MERA.
A small loading pane appears, before being replaced with a new prompt: “Update complete.”]
It’s the last free day before the start of a new semester, and Teams RSBD and MERA head down to the dining hall for breakfast. The hall is abuzz with chatter.
MERA claims a table near the wall.
Marche digs into a bowl of milk, sprinkling some cereal in for appearances’ sake.
Raphtalia seems to have traded her old heavy armor suit for a sleeker bodyframe. Eissen asks if she’s decided to use the new armor for the rest of the semester, to which Raphtalia nods.
RSBD sits placidly at their own table.
Rani and Stein discuss the list of baked goods to make for the day.
Bianca sips on tea and offers the occasional suggestion.
Drake eats peacefully, music turned up as usual.
Nearby, Team RWBY seems to be busy planning something big.
Ruby: Sisters. Friends. ... Weiss.
Weiss: HEY!
Ruby: Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream…
Eissen: (sips tea) “Four score” implies eighty years, Rose.
Then this happens:
The hall goes impossibly still.
Rani: (eyes sparkling with mischief) Is this…?
Bianca: (grabs hold of Rani’s sleeve with a sigh) How about we not help this escalate?
Marche: (stands up and points at Nora) HEY, DON’T WASTE FOOD!
Muffins and tea kettles start flying. It’s food fight time.
Team JNPR launches into action, giving Nora covering fire as she builds an impressive fort from vending machines and tables.
Team RWBY bobs and weaves to dodge JNPR’s projectiles, eventually regrouping on the far side of the hall.
Nora: I’m queen of the castle! I’m queen of the castle!
Ruby: Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! And it will be—delicious!
Rani lights up when she realizes they have a full bakery van’s worth of ammunition.
Eissen grabs Raphtalia and starts running away from the chaos: “I refuse to partake in these shenanigans! I just washed my hair!”
Eissen: I refuse to partake in these shenanigans! I just washed my hair!
Marche: EVERYONE STOP THIS MADNESS. YOU’RE ALL WASTING FOO— (gets slammed in the face by a rogue pie) War—war never changes. MERA, FORM UP! THIS. IS. WAR.
Rani conjures up a cloud of steam and slips out of the jacket that Bianca’s holding. She starts legging it for the van.
Stein: You don’t know how to drive that!
Bianca: Hold it! (teleports van keys into her hand and holds them up) If we’re doing this, WE HAVE TO WIN.
Drake continues eating, unfazed by the brewing chaos.
Everyone arms themselves with choice bits of food pilfered from the kitchens and the nearby tables.
Raphtalia replaces her usual sword with a gigantic baguette
Marche returns from the kitchens wielding a meat grinder-and-funnel minigun, a sack of peanuts, a belt laden with milk cartons, and cheeks painted with ketchup war stripes
Eissen projects a whirling barrier of Dust-bread swords to protect herself and Raphtalia
Adrian takes DURAN out for a grocery run
For RSBD:
Stein: All aboard the party van, BUD-dies!
Bianca: (aggrieved sigh) Am I going to be stuck in crazy vehicles until I graduate?
Stein goes for pizza bread, the huge pan spatula, and a pun:
“Alright, cap’n, time to take this BUTTERING RAM for a DRIVE THRU!”
Bianca grabs an eight-foot baguette and an industrial-strength piping bag, quipping:
“Funny how much prep we put into our hooliganism.”
Rani subs a similar baguette for her spear and hops on top of the van, weapon held high to signal the charge: “HOOLIGANISM HOOOOO!”
Drake looks up from his meal and finds his team missing
As the van crashes in and Raphtalia guns for Nora’s stockpiled bread, it becomes RSBD vs RWBY and MERA vs JNPR.
Raphtalia straps buttered bread to her feet and uses her armor boosters to turn into a spinning beyblade of doom. She careens right into JNPR’s fort, bringing the whole thing down with a crash.
Marche, deep in a battlefield rage, rails against JNPR, calling them “filthy Atlesians”
Eissen: I am Atlesian, you boot strap.
Rani uses her Semblance to create a fruit-frog water construct that rains watermelons down on Ruby, Weiss, and Blake
Bianca taps Rani for a tag-team move. The pair focus fire on Yang and send her into low orbit—but not without some losses.
Stein takes advantage of JNPR’s shattered fort to hurl sacks of flour at the whole team
Adrian and DURAN return, toting M&M-loaded autocannons, carrot-firing rifles, and cheese bread naginatas. They open fire on Rani, Drake, and Pyrrha. Pyrrha goes down.
Adrian: “MERA! Reinforcements have arrived!”
Marche follows up with a peanut barrage; Jaune slams him with a watermelon in retaliation. The fruit explodes, sending juice all over the hall—and Eissen’s hair.
Jaune: “That was for Pyrrha!”
Eissen, enraged, drops the idea of defense entirely. She conjures up a whirlwind of Dust-bread: pastries, bagels, whole loaves. For a moment, the room goes still. Then, with a flick of her wrist, Eissen unleashes a storm of bread upon the hall.
Eissen: (intones)
I am the bone of my bread
Flour is my body and milk is my blood
I have created over a thousand loaves
Unknown to stale, nor known to rise
Have withstood pain to create many pastries
Yet these hands will never hold yeast
So as I pray — Unlimited Breadworks!
Jaune goes down
The teams take stock of their conditions, and the battle shifts.
RSBD regroups, with Stein hopping back into the Rolling Pin to collect his scattered teammates. He splashes olive oil all over the floor as he goes.
Raphtalia slips on the oil and is once again set spinning all over the hall. She’s on a collision course with the bakery van.
Bianca sprays icing at a breadcrumb-blinded Eissen and Ruby, but misses. Sensing an opportunity, Adrian opens fire on Ruby—and she goes down.
Weiss: (catches Ruby and spirits her away from the field) Ruby! Ruby! No!
Marche loads up his meat grinder with soda cans and fires wildly at everyone. The makeshift weapon collapses under the strain, and the ensuing explosion catapults Marche to the other end of the hall. He’s down for the count.
Adrian: Marche? Marche? MARCHE!
Weiss attacks Adrian in retaliation, scoring a hit with her swordfish. Blake comes to her aid, and the two of them take him out.
RSBD leap clear of the van just as Raphtalia crashes into it. Both Raphtalia and the van topple over, and they take Nora’s table with them.
Nora goes down, and Ren throws up his hands and surrenders.
Rani grabs a jam nozzle from the van, and she and Bianca spray Eissen with jam and icing.
Eissen, blinded and furious, slips on a banana peel and gets knocked out.
With most of their friends out of the fight, RSBD set their sights on Raphtalia.
Rani sics her Semblance-frog’s machine gun on Raphtalia and follows up with a barrage from her jam rifle.
Bianca closes in and whacks Raphtalia in the face with a baguette
Stein, eager to avenge his fallen van, suggests hurling Raphtalia into the air
Rani: “DO IT!”
Bianca: “…Just don’t drop her on me, please.”
Stein misses, but Blake and Weiss see their opening.
Before Weiss and Blake can launch into another combo, though, the hall doors slam open. Professor Goodwitch marches in, looking far from pleased. She cleans up the mess and repairs the structural damage.
Professor Goodwitch: “Children, please. Do not play with your food.”
Everyone starts picking themselves back up, though the force of Professor Goodwitch’s withering glare doesn’t help. Yang drops back into the hall.
Yang: Uh. ‘Sup?
Headmaster Ozpin enters the hall.
Ozpin: Let it go.
Glynda: They’re supposed to be the defenders of mankind.
Ozpin: And they will be, but right now, they’re still children. So why not let them play the part? After all, it isn’t a role they’ll have forever.
Trading grins and promises to make it up to each other, the teams start to scatter. Some resume breakfast, others—notably Eissen—head back to the dormitories to change. RSBD hands out free pastries from their bakery van.
Ozpin: (to the people who remain in the hall) So, who won?
Rani: We totes did, sir!
Raphtalia: (pouts and points to herself)
Adrian: It was a close fight, Professor Ozpin! Worthy of the books!
Rani: (sticks tongue out at Raphtalia) You survived, Ghosty. Our whole team stayed up until the end. So we totes won.
Eissen: My hair lost. I am going to get a shower and go to bed. (wags an admonishing finger at Weiss) You’ll pay for my shampoo, Schnee.
Ozpin leaves, but not before he informs Marche that Professor Port wants to see him.
The Vale Police Department is abuzz with officers and police cars—clearly doubling the personnel on duty as a result of the latest incident with the White Fang. It’s also Free Cookie Day at the station.
Lina, the fox Faunus front desk officer, gives everyone a cookie and directs them to the general discussion room, where Officer Liam is waiting for them.
Raphtalia: (takes all the cookies)
Eissen: Share. Don’t take everything—it’s rude.
Marche: Yes, and too many sweets will rot your teeth.
Raphtalia: (returns some cookies)
Eissen (pats her on the arm): Good girl.
Marche and Eissen: Parents of the Year
(Image from Darker than Black)
In the general discussion room, MERA is met by Laura B. Oxley, lead investigator for the White Fang case. Officer Liam is apparently interrogating one of the suspects.
Laura asks for details. Adrian projects the recordings from DURAN while Marche sums up the events of the previous day, emphasizing Raguso’s involvement.
The coast guard didn’t find Torchwick in the bullhead wreckage, though Laura says it’s par for the course when it comes to Torchwick. She’s more interested in the unorthodox alliance between the White Fang and Torchwick, a human.
Laura takes Torchwick’s hat from Marche to examine for evidence.
Eissen and Adrian express support for a brutal and comprehensive takedown of the White Fang and their criminal allies, though Eissen frowns upon Adrian’s suggestion of torture, arguing that fear only invites more Grimm.
Marche disagrees with both of them, citing the validity of some of the White Fang’s grievances.
In light of the intel on Raguso, Laura also expresses concern about the Faunus students at Beacon.
At this point, Team RSBD rolls into the station with their newly bought bakery van, The Rolling Pin. It’s a bright pink beast of a van, topped with a giant donut sign that can be seen from miles away. Stein wrenches the vehicle to a screeching halt and parks it at an awkward angle.
Random cop: Don’t arrest them! They might be selling donuts!
Rani: Maaaan Scooby, you drive so sloooow. Haven’t you heard the saying, “Gotta go fast”?
Bianca: So Vacuo gives licenses to people who park like this…
Stein: Not on these roads, you speed devil. Plus I’ve been out of practice, and this thing is small compared to the things I used to drive.
Rani notices the officers crowding around to take a peek at the van, as well as the one trying to give Stein a ticket for his driving.
Rani: Do we have any donuts for these fine gentlemen of the VPD?
Bianca: We’re good kids, remember? (retrieves tray of fresh donuts from the back and flashes an innocent smile) Of course we do.
RSBD makes their way to the discussion room, handing out donuts to police officers as they pass. Rani takes the opportunity to advertise their new bakery van business, too.
Laura: Every batch gets crazier. Ozpin, I don’t know how you do it.
Laura asks Stein for an account of his involvement in the rally. Stein informs her of the false pretenses under which he was invited to speak at the rally, again identifying Raguso of the Blind Mice café.
Laura is troubled at the confirmation of White Fang infiltrating Beacon.
Liam emerges from the interrogation room and briefs Laura on what he gleaned from the suspect.
The operative has revealed that Torchwick is working for someone else, and the Fang will be moving operations somewhere underground soon.
Liam informs everyone that he’s put in a good word for them with Headmaster Ozpin, and that no damages or cases will be filed against them for the shenanigans at the docks.
He also expresses interest in taking them on once mission season starts for the first years.
Bianca brings up the strange demeanor of the rioters, and Stein informs the officers of the weird flute music he heard at the rally. They take note of it.
Adrian patches in a call with Delta Team and asks the officers to coordinate with them for the investigation.
The teams head back to Beacon. Raphtalia, yearning for a more convenient body, heads to the CCTS Tower to contact her “Father,” the head of Atlas’ Polendina Initiative.
He takes her call personally, delighted that one of his daughters has contacted him.
Raphtalia informs him of her request, citing her desire to interact with her new friends face to face.
Dr. Polendina happily mentions that he’s been developing just the thing, alongside Raphtalia’s sister, Penny.
The new project: Projection Power Armor, sparked by Aura and using a fusion of Dust and nanites to create a sturdy, practical armored shell.
Raphtalia excitedly asks about the armor’s specifics and offers to shoulder the cost of her current armor to make it up to her Father.
Dr. Polendina attempts to brush off the offer, but eventually relents to letting Raphtalia at least cover the delivery expenses for the new armor.
Raphtalia (smiling and tearful): I… I can’t thank you enough for this opportunity. To think I would be this blessed… I thought I was going to die when… So really, Father, thank you.
Dr. Polendina: Dear Raphtalia, you’ve gone so far! Don’t worry too much. Just promise me you’ll learn and have fun with your new friends as payback. And if you decide to visit, I’ll introduce you to your sister. Now get to it, little Raphtalia!
(Art by Guweiz)
As Raphtalia exits the CCTS Tower, she encounters a young woman playing a flighty little tune on her flute. The stranger introduces herself as a transferee and asks for help locating the Beacon dormitories.
Raphtalia kindly accompanies her back to the dorms. The stranger introduces herself as Nozomi, from Mistral.
To introduce herself, Raphtalia phases out of her armor and points out various decals on her armor that indicate her name and affiliations.
Upon reaching the dorms, Nozomi thanks Raphtalia and the two part ways. Raphtalia celebrates a successful interaction without her armor and returns to MERA’s room, anticipating the delivery from her Father.
After dropping off Duklja and the rest of REDD, Rani and Stein return to their own room.
Rani quickly hops into the shower to avoid another confrontation with Bianca. It only partly works, as they resume their disagreement by half-yelling at each other through the bathroom door.
Bianca (upon entering the room): How was the ramen? (raises her voice so Rani can hear from the bathroom) No more sudden murder attempts?
Rani (pouting): Hey! I wasn’t the one actively running over people with a Dust car.
Bianca: There were two of us in the car, so. The point on backup stands.
Rani: And my point of rushing in because Robot-boy and RoboDoggo absolutely got rekt also stands!
Their exchange is less heated than it had been at the docks, though, and they quickly stray to other topics when Stein talks about their dinner out.
Stein mentions meeting Neptune and Sun, and it turns out Bianca knows Neptune from Sanctum. His attempts at suaveness then did not leave her with fond memories.
“Nope-tune,” an old nickname from Sanctum, is quickly joined by “CasaNOva” as Rani warns her partner away from him.
Tired from their admittedly whirlwind day, Stein heads off to the showers. He stops short, though, when Rani—no doubt inspired by Eissen and Bianca’s stunt—proposes buying a car.
Stein (flabbergasted): Who’s driving? Do you have a license? Are you pulling off THAT stunt?
Bianca (holding out her Scroll to record a clip for her mom): Can you say that again, and clearer?
Rani: Sure, Biancs. LET’S GO BUY A CAR!
In light of the team’s apparent love for baking, Rani proposes turning the vehicle into a legitimate food van selling baked goods. Bianca proposes calling it The Rolling Pin.
MERA also makes its way back to the dorms—sans Adrian, who took a quick trip to the Commercial District to buy materials for an armored trenchcoat.
Eissen goes to take a nice, long shower. She wanders out of the bathroom, not bothering to cover herself up as she mutters about Ironwood’s absence at the docks and proceeds to check if her calls and messages even got through. They have; apparently Ironwood has simply been ignoring them. She gets dressed, sends a report to her father, and heads to bed.
Marche and Raphtalia start to turn in, but before he dozes off, Marche remembers:
Marche: Hey, brush your teeth before you go to bed!
Raphtalia: (throws pillow at the door separating the boys’ and girls’ quarters, stomps angrily off to brush her teeth)
Marche Morrison: Dad of the Year
Adrian returns and starts working on his new protective gear.
Adrian: I don’t want to feel bullets ever again.
Adrian’s personal Scroll, issued and encrypted by the Consortium, starts ringing. He makes his way out to the dorm balcony and takes the call.
Alexander Stahl, head of the Consortium and Adrian’s father, is on the line. He berates Adrian for what he sees as an absolute failure at the docks.
Alexander: Disappointing—the mutinous Faunus crew on that ship. Disappointing—that damage and losses brought by the White Fang. Disappointing—that you had to phone in back-up. Disappointing—that it looks like quality training wasn’t enough to give you some backbone…
He suggests that Beacon’s training might not be up to par, but Adrian defends the school and asks about the inadequate security on the Stahl freighters.
Alexander blames the Faunus crew and scoffs at Beacon Academy. However, he admits the benefits of having a Stahl there to investigate the matter directly, and instructs Adrian to coordinate with Delta Team.
Adrian’s success, he adds, will convince him of the merits of letting his son stay in Beacon.
Once the call ends, Adrian goes to repair DURAN. He works well into the late morning, when he receives another call from his Scroll—this time from Nala Blackwood, codenamed April, head of Delta Team.
Adrian goes to welcome Delta Team and the Mekh Volk Mk 2 LEO. The team has been with Adrian for much of his life, and he greets them as family.
Aside from Nala, the other members are: Suou, codename Gemini, one of the youngest VANGUARD team members; and Hazama, codename Fedora, a Snake Faunus.
Adrian briefs the team on the recent scuffles with the White Fang and Roman Torchwick. He then charges them to investigate those involved in the docks incident, as well as to coordinate with Officer Liam of the VCPD.
He also asks the team to be discreet, to Nala’s disappointment.
The rest of team MERA gets ready for the day. It’s the weekend, so there’s nothing much to do but head to the VCPD for their debrief with Officer Liam.
Adrian rides on DURAN as usual, while Eissen summons up her motorcycle and sidecar for herself, Marche, and Raphtalia.
Coco Adel, out for a stroll on the school grounds, greets them as she passes by.
Marche takes the seat behind Eissen, which leads to:
Adrian: When’s the wedding, you two?
Marche and Eissen (in unison): Shut up, Stahl.
Adrian goes on about the Galleon System ship he’ll gift them if they pick him as their best man.
(Original concept art by Kristina Nguyen of Rooster Teeth)
Most of teams RSBD, MERA, and REDD head to dinner together following the explosive tussle at the docks. Adrian suggests the local ramen shop, A Simple Wok, upon seeing good reviews in the Beacon student forums.
Epiros, Duklja, and Dalmatea of REDD are still smarting from Raguso’s sudden betrayal. Stein commiserates with them.
Adrian tries to cheer everyone up by casting the whole incident as just another test in their quest to become Hunters and Huntresses, but he eventually admits that it’s been “a really shitty day.” Marche tries to bolster his spirits.
Epiros asks Rani about the challenges of being a team leader, but the discussion soon strays to Epiros’ resemblance to the hero of the hit movie, 300: FutureSpartans VS ZombiePersians.
Marche, Adrian, and Eissen discuss the pros and cons of Atlesian intervention in the docks incident and the White Fang problem in general. Marche disagrees with Atlas operating in Vale territory, but Adrian and Eissen cite the shortcomings of Vale’s defenses and their right to defend Atlesian assets.
Madeleine, Dalmatea’s doll, befriends Raphtalia.
Upon arrival at A Simple Wok, everyone places their orders. Marche buys a round of milk for everyone. Two customers — a blond, monkey-tailed Faunus and a boy with blue hair and goggles — scoot over to make room.
Rani bestows nicknames upon Epiros (“Leo”), Dalmatea (“Dallie”) and Madeline (“Maddie”), and Duklja (“(S)Lavly”). She bonds with the latter over Counterattack: Worldwide Warfare and guns. Marche interrupts to scoff, in his best Gruff Dad tone, at how such games trivialize the horrors of war.
Marche, as usual, puts milk in his food and takes care to pass on Raphtalia’s orders for her. Adrian treats Team MERA to dinner.
Eissen, bored of the small talk, checks the news on her Scroll. The VNN reports of the dock incident are all over the web.
Upon recognizing the new arrivals as the kids from the news, the old man running the store is overjoyed at hosting the local heroes, and the blond and blue-haired boys chat them up.
Eissen preens a bit, pleased at the widespread impact of her actions.
Adrian introduces himself to the two boys, Sun and Neptune, students from Haven who are in Vale for the Vytal Festival Tournament.
Sun mentions that he’s also dealt with the White Fang before; this piques Eissen’s interest, and she asks him for more details. It turns out Sun helped Blake stop an attempted Dust supply robbery in the shipment areas near the Commercial District just the night before.
Adrian takes Sun’s and Neptune’s numbers, ostensibly for better coordination in the future.
Rani’s discomfited by all the talk of the White Fang, though she brushes Marche off when he asks her what’s wrong.
The other students bond over lighter subjects.
Stein and Neptune’s conversation gets…flirty, though the effect is ruined somewhat by the spring onion stuck in Neptune’s teeth. Stein feels an unexpected attraction the guy.
Raphtalia shows Madeline the inside of her armor, where the doll sees Raphtalia’s true form: a small, ragged girl piloting what seems to be a highly advanced piece of tech.
Madeline eventually reveals that she’s simply an aspect of Dalmatea’s personality.
Duklja has been sneaking swigs of liquor from a flash that she apparently carries with her everywhere. Rani helps Epiros carry his drunk teammate back to Beacon.
Meanwhile, in Beacon, Bianca has skipped the team dinner on account of the sunset and her annoyance at her teammate’s actions. Drake arrives at the dorms a short time later.
Drake is troubled by issues with his Semblance.
Bianca offers her partner a whole batch of the brownies she’s been anger-baking since the sunset tremors passed. Drake starts wolfing them down.
Using the distribution of brownies for the other teams as an excuse, Bianca heads out, asking her partner not to mention to the others that she’s roaming about. Preoccupied with his own issues, Drake shrugs and agrees.
Still enraged by Raguso’s manipulation of her team, Bianca intends to break into REDD’s room to search for any insight as to Raguso’s plans and whereabouts.
One problem: she doesn’t know where REDD’s rooms are.
She stops by JNPR’s room to drop off a box of brownies and ask about REDD’s room as well.
Nora and Ren are in, and Nora scarfs up most of the brownies before giving Bianca directions to REDD’s room. It appears a lot of people confuse JNPR for REDD on account of Pyrrha’s and Epiros’ similar-looking armor.
(Art by BunnyVoid for @project-jpde)
Thanks to Nora’s directions, Bianca finds REDD’s room. She teleports in and starts poking around.
At Raguso’s bedside table, she finds a shopping list for the Blind Mice that mentions a contact in Gobline Market. The drawers yield Raguso’s journal and lots of arts and crafts supplies.
Further examination of Dalmatea’s side of the room reveals a group photo of REDD that indicates a close relationship between her and Raguso. The ornate, oriental doll house by her bed is a stark contrast to Madeline’s European look; it seems the item was crafted by Raguso. Inscribed on a section of the doll house is an address: 515-B Goldie Lane, House of Brick Apartments.
(Image from Michelle’s Miniatures)
A student in the neighboring room hears Bianca poking about and starts to complain through the wall. She successfully convinces him that she’s a ghost out on a haunt.
Bianca’s scroll rings: it’s her mom, outraged by the news she’s just seen on the VNN. Beacon’s apparently cavalier attitude towards student safety leaves Dr. Strohmann aghast, but she flat-out shuts down Bianca’s attempts to turn that into a reason to return to Haven instead. She opts to have a serious talk with Headmaster Ozpin.
Bianca tries to do more snooping, but the casual disregard for safety and quality materials displayed in Epiros’ and Duklja’s spear and ammunition storage, respectively, bothers her too much.
Annoyed, she moves to go back to her team’s room and notices that the REDD team’s door has been unlocked this whole time.
Drake, having just finished off his share of the brownies, invites Bianca to join him for meditation on the roof.
He mentions that meditation and his constant stream of music help him keep his Semblance in check.
With a couple of quick demonstrations—including a casual walk onto the side of the dorm building—he reveals that his Semblance is always active, and he needs to focus on it constantly to control its effects.
They sit on the rooftop ledge, sharing Drake’s earphones, and meditate. It brings an unexpected calm that Bianca hasn’t had in months, and she begins to re-evaluate the merits of staying in Beacon on account of her newfound friends.
Name: Bianca Strohmann
Filed Under: Team: RSBD - Bianca Strohmann
Age: 17
Race: Human
From: Mistral
Weapon: Webendämmerung (Variable Range Combat Pike)
Aura Color: Navy Blue
Semblance: Limited reality manipulation
Partner: Drake Maroon
Appearance:
Bianca is a tall girl with bright blonde hair, blue eyes, and a lithe, strong build. She typically wears dark, high-waisted pants and matching combat boots, and a blue quilted jacket made with her father’s patented ballistic weave. Recently, she’s taken to wearing thin leather gloves. She keeps Webendämmerung in a holster on her back.
Personality:
Bianca believes in community and the inherent worth of people, and she carries a deep-seated loyalty to Mistral and its citizens. However, acknowledging people’s basic worth and actually liking them are different things, and she reserves the right to decide who or what counts as “people” to her.
Raised in Mistral’s halls of power, Bianca is socially astute, unimpressed by authority, wealth, or prestige, and imbued with the understated, matter-of-fact willfulness of someone who grew up in a world that was often shaped to accommodate her. She strives to be a solid, dependable presence for the groups she cares about, but her stubbornness can get the best of her; she has no patience or goodwill for anything or anyone that refuses to conform to her intentions. (See: all the sighs and snarking directed at Beacon Academy and its staff.)
Abilities:
Weapon: Webendämmerung (Duskweaver), an Ahlspiess that can also function as a kyoketsu-shoge and a combat shotgun.
[Weapon design by @notsojollyjo]
Fighting Style: Thanks to her previous...extracurriculars, Bianca is all about efficiency and quick wins. She’ll hit hard and fast, and she’s not above fighting dirty if it means an easy end to the encounter.
Semblance: Bianca’s Semblance allows her to tear and sew tiny seams in the fabric of reality; this comes easiest to her when she can get a conceptual grasp of an object or material’s essence. Right now, she can manipulate space, allowing her to “speed up” by folding distances between points, or teleport short distances outright. To a more limited extent, she can also “re-sew” damage to her body. Due to the strain on her Aura reserves, though, she only uses this regeneration when absolutely needed.
Background:
Born and raised in the city of Mistral, Bianca is the daughter of Abigail, a surgeon and member of the Mistral Council, and Jacob, a materials engineer. Her parents strove to keep her childhood as normal as possible, even eschewing private lessons in favor of classes at Sanctum.
The summer before her enrollment at Haven Academy, Bianca figured in a major accident. Her devastated parents pulled her Academy application and tried to direct her to more conventional professions. After long, fraught negotiations, however, they eventually relented to continued Huntress training. But Abigail refused to let Bianca stay in Mistral, where she had all the means to endanger herself again.
No, Abigail decided, a fresh start was in order. It would not be found in Atlas, where her daughter would have to serve in another kingdom's military. Nor would it be in Vacuo, that lawless excuse for a nation. Instead, Abigail turned to Headmaster Lionheart for help with a last-minute solution.
Bianca, despite her objections, was enrolled in Beacon.
Relationships:
Driven mostly by their designation as a team, Bianca has committed to looking out for the rest of RSBD and fostering good ties with them. As for MERA, she frowns upon Eissen’s and Adrian’s apparent snootiness, though she does respect Marche’s sensibility, and she’s found herself fighting alongside Raphtalia often enough to develop a favorable opinion of her. Overall, she’s not very close to them, though the recent fight at the docks is starting to change that. As for the rest of Beacon, Bianca’s sentiments generally range from apathy to exasperation and disdain.
Trivia:
Inspired by: Rumpelstiltskin
Name inspiration: “Bianca” is an Italian name meaning “white,” derived from the Germanic blanc. “Strohmann” is a Germanic surname meaning “straw-dealer.” It’s also reminiscent of the straw man argument, which covertly replaces a proposition with a different one that is then attacked.
The system’s encrypted communications module expands to fill the screen. A middle-aged woman dressed in a crisp white blouse and a tailored, cobalt-blue business suit leans forward on her desk. Her strawberry blonde hair is swept up in a neat bun, and her mouth is pressed into a line across her slim face. Her eyes are the wrong color, deep brown rather than piercing blue, but the gaze is the same.
Like mother, it seems, like daughter.
“Good evening, Dr. Strohmann,” Professor Ozpin says.
“Headmaster.” Clipped. Neutral. Dr. Abigail Strohmann folds her hands together and offers a dry smile. “Quite an illuminating broadcast from your Kingdom today.”
“Indeed.” Ozpin raises a brow and lifts his mug for a calm sip. He’s chosen this night to brew the last of the chocolate tea from Leo, sent over from Haven several moons ago. It feels, in retrospect, remarkably appropriate. When he sets the mug down, the clink of ceramic lingers in the silence. “I’ve found that the VNN makes a point of providing comprehensive coverage when reporting matters of public interest.”
“Many of whom attend your Academy.” One of whom happens to be my daughter goes unsaid, but they both hear it nonetheless. In the circles inhabited by Council members and headmasters and other figures of supposed consequence, the Strohmanns have long been known for their attempts at inconsequence. It’s fascinating, he supposes, to see the many ways that reputation does and doesn’t hold. “Simply a coincidence, I’m sure.”
Ozpin gives a noncommittal hum and refills his mug. “We do strive to inculcate a sense of civic responsibility here at Beacon, Doctor. Students are expected to contribute to their community even before becoming full-fledged Hunters and Huntresses.”
“To the point of confronting armed terrorists?”
From the bald skepticism on Abby’s face, it’s clear they have the same outrageous stunt in mind. Cyril Ian had certainly given it a lot of airtime—as had Glynda, when she’d grumbled about it before leaving to help repair the docks. Ozpin sighs. Duke Ritter, at least, could be counted on not to call.
“These children’s antics aside, what of the community itself?” Abby raps her knuckles sharply on her desk. “This is not the first incident of its kind, Ozpin. And these days, I’m not the only one expressing concerns about Vale’s stability when the Councils confer about the Festival.”
Gears upon gears creak overhead and around him—turning, always turning. He takes another sip of tea.
“For our part, Beacon has been taking great pains to safeguard all the students and prepare for the Tournament.”
Abby purses her lips at that, unimpressed. She looks so much like her daughter had, that first day in the airship above the Emerald Forest—though the girl had inherited enough of her father’s warmth to blunt the resemblance. Ozpin tips his head slightly and adds, “I’m sure the Festival’s engineering committee has also taken extensive precautions to ensure the students’ safety.”
She leans back with a dismissive wave.
“Jacob’s team can optimize biomes and crowd protection fields all they like, but we both know there’s more to the Festival than Amity Colosseum.” Her hands settle on her chair’s armrests, and Abby’s frown deepens. “James has been lobbying for a more proactive approach to security. Is he right to do so?”
Outside, the glowing hull of a distant airship swims across the darkening sky. Ozpin angles his own seat a little to the side, tracking the ship out of the corner of his eye.
“You’ve seen the Atlesian delegation’s manifests, Doctor. Though final deployment remains contingent on recommendations from Beacon and the Vale Council.”
“You’ll keep me apprised?”
“I imagine you don’t need me to.”
With a shrug, she concedes the point. The corners of Ozpin’s mouth lift, not quite a smile. He swivels his chair to consider her full-on, resting his elbows on desk’s edge and steepling his fingers under his chin.
“If I may, Abby. Though we at Beacon assume responsibility over these students, our role is, and has always been, bounded by our students’ agency. We are here to open paths, but it is up to them to take those steps.” He curls one hand around his slowly cooling mug. “Bianca and her classmates will not be children forever.”
“Oh, I know. On that, we agree.”
She straightens up and appears to reach for the controls of her communications terminal. Her hand hovers above the screen.
“I hope, Ozpin, that the paths you intend to lay out for your students contain more than just impossible sacrifices and necessary risk.” Brown eyes assess him as they would a patient at the emergency room, steely and precise. Ozpin meets her gaze, impassive. She doesn’t share what diagnosis she arrives at, only gives a weary sigh. “Surely they deserve that much.”
It’s his turn to offer her a brief, dispassionate smile.
“Oh, I know, Doctor.” He watches the screen blink out and reaches for another sip of tea. Overhead and around him, gears upon gears turn, ceaseless, somber as the grave. “On that, we agree.”
[The screen is a riot of color as the footage rewinds. With a sharp click, the video stops. Puffs of smoke and the remnants of Dust ammunition drift across the frame. The clip stutters and resumes playing at normal speed.]
The docks hum with the rumble of bullhead turbines. The charred and broken remnants of one smolders on the ground, but two still hover overhead. They are bearing down on a mess of White Fang, teenagers, and even a gigantic muscled frog, all trading shots and wading through the melee.
Shining white glyphs light a path from the ground, and a blur of shadow flits up, and up, and up. The closer bullhead’s pilot is visible through the cockpit. He’s yanking frantically at the controls, trying to climb – to widen the distance between him and the girl coming directly for the ship. He fails.
Blake draws level with the ship and whips Gambol Shroud at the turbines, emptying out Weiss’ entire clip of Ice ammunition. Magical Ice blossoms from the machines, and the bullhead teeters and drops into a slow descent, its frozen blades clattering to a stop. Blake lands gracefully atop the turbine and signals to Weiss down below.
Target secured. The ship is grounded.
The remaining bullhead’s engines fall into a keening wail as the ship breaks up and away, clawing for altitude. At the window, Roman Torchwick tips his hat at the minions he’s leaving behind. Beside him, the small girl with the two-toned hair offers a sardonic bow.
[A low whine, apparently from the camera itself at the time, momentarily drowns out the sounds of the recording. The camera pans stiffly to the top of a nearby building and zooms in.]
Marche is hunched over Valiant Magnum in his chosen sniper’s perch, lip curled in a snarl. Backwash from the bullhead’s straining engine is strong enough to muss his blond hair as the ship passes high overhead. He lifts his visor and scrambles for a better position, aiming for a turbine.
Even at a distance, the changes in Marche’s eyes stand out. Prominent veins spider out around his eyes, and silver flashes briefly from his irises. A single bullet cuts through the air.
The girl by Torchwick's side watches Marche with growing panic, pointing urgently out the window. By the time Torchwick notices, it’s too late. The round shreds through the bullhead’s right turbine. The engine explodes.
Marche shields his eyes and straightens up, watching the bullhead spiral down into the sea. The docks shudder with the force of the crash, and water splashes over the smoking wreckage. From directly above, left fluttering in the wake of the explosion, a black bowler hat striped with red falls towards Marche.
He frowns and snatches it out of the air. Tipping his head to speak sidelong into his active Scroll, he mutters, “I think I just took down Torchwick’s Bullhead.”
The audio crackles through the recording device’s auxiliary speakers, much too loud for how far he is.
[The newscast enters split-screen as Lisa Lavender patches in Cyril Ian’s live report. He’s standing on a balcony overlooking the site of the protest, mouth pressed into a grim line.]
“Thanks, Lisa. We’re coming to you live from the Vale City docks, where an unauthorized Faunus protest has descended into violence. City police are on-site and working to contain the riot, aided by a group of as-yet unidentified teenagers. Authorities have also confirmed that these newly arrived bullheads are controlled by the nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick and members of known terrorist group, the White Fang—”
[The roar of a car engine interrupts Cyril’s spiel. He whips around, jaw falling open as a hulking vintage car mows down Torchwick and a pack of White Fang operatives. Torchwick staggers to his feet, white cloak flapping in the wind. His voice echoes faintly from down below: “Crazy kids! Crazy kids everywhere!”]
“Good lord!”
[Cyril gestures excitedly at his cameraman.]
“Are you getting that? Who is driving that monstrosity?”
[The frame shudders a little as the cameraman readjusts his focus. Viewers with their volume turned up hear a faint, “Mr. Jameson will love the shots from that new field gear, Parker.”
The broadcast resumes with a crisp fix on the car, the camera steadily tracking the vehicle’s progress. At the wheel, a dark-haired girl smirks and throws the car into a screeching drift. As the vehicle pivots, the camera catches footage of the passenger side, where a blonde girl appears to be inspecting the dashboard. Cyril presses a hand to his earpiece and nods.]
“Ladies and gentlemen, our team has just identified the people currently on your screen as Eissen Ritter and Bianca Strohmann, both students from Beacon Academy.”
[A frown crosses Cyril’s face as more information from the studio appears to come in through his earpiece. After a moment’s hesitation, he continues.]
“Ms. Ritter hails from Atlas and is set to inherit the northern regions’ Duchy of Iron, one of the oldest holdings in that kingdom. Ms. Strohmann, meanwhile, comes from Mistral and is the daughter of lauded surgeon and longtime Mistral Council member Dr. Abigail Strohmann.”
[Cyril lets out a strained chuckle.]
“Quite a distinguished pair of intervenors we’ve got here, wouldn’t you say, Lisa?”
[The camera cuts back to the studio, where Lisa Lavender looks on, unperturbed.]
“Indeed, Cyril. Aside from them and the previously identified Mr. Eisengard, eyewitnesses also report the presence of fellow Beacon Academy students Ms. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, and Mr. Adrian Stahl, heir to the Stahl-Morgenrot Consortium. Incidentally, both corporations have stakes in the same Dust shipments presently targeted by the White Fang. Our team is still working to identify the remaining teens.”
[Cyril Ian’s stream replaces the studio feed as Lisa finishes speaking. Through the smoke and chaos, a group of White Fang members fires on the vintage car as it wheels into another pass. The camera zooms out to cover more of the area. In the distance, police are rounding up rioters. One of the bullheads looms overhead, caught in the center of the frame.
A boy with silvery-white hair runs out from a nearby freighter, followed by what appears to be a large, mechanical dog. They slide to a halt and loose a barrage of Dust on the bullhead—the boy with a rifle, the dog with the cannons mounted on its back. Explosions rack the bullhead, but it quickly stabilizes. A crate of Dust swings precariously from chains bolted to the ship’s belly.]
“All right, Lisa. The riot seems to be subsiding, but the White Fang’s attempts to abscond with massive amounts of Dust continu—HOLY WHILLICKING SHIBBLETS, ARE THOSE KIDS INSANE?!”
[The camera swings wildly before settling once more on the vintage car careening across the docks. The frame tightens on the two girls seated inside, clearly visible through the windshield. Eissen smirks and cranks the gearshift, slamming the car into high gear.
An almighty roar rips from the engine. With a flick of Eissen’s hand, a shining blue ramp materializes in front of the car, angling sharply up towards the hovering bullhead. Bianca gives Eissen a resolute nod. The cameraman lets out an audible gasp. Like a rocket, the car hurtles up and over the ramp, shooting straight for the airship.
Immediately, Bianca kicks the passenger door open and hangs out the side, Ahlspiess drawn. She stabs viciously at the chain holding up the Dust crate as the car pulls close. Chainlinks give way, and the blow sends her sprawling back into the front seats--just in time.
The car crashes into the bullhead, the ship’s metal hull rupturing with an ear-shattering shriek. Fire blooms from the bullhead’s side as if in slow motion, and the car emerges on the other end of the wreckage, gloriously, miraculously intact.
Cyril Ian clutches at the top of his head, slack-jawed, as the car sails by their crew’s balcony and lands to a shuddering stop on the ground. The camera lurches to shoot hurriedly over the balcony’s edge, just as the driver-side door swings open.
One, and then two elegant heels step out, and Eissen rises from her seat, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she surveys the bullhead’s slow, fiery tumble from the air. In the awed silence, the crew’s mics catch her voice as she speaks.]
“Hmph. That was adequate.”
[A gloved hand reaches up from the seats. The mics register a different, wry voice.]
“Just this once, Duchess?”
[Eissen raises an eyebrow and smirks, slapping Bianca’s hand in a resounding high five.]
“Fair enough.”
[The camera cuts back to Cyril, slumped against the balcony railing, his head in his hands. He presses a finger to his earpiece.]
“Studio says these kids are first years, Peter. First years.”
As the riot subsides, Officer Liam and the Vale City Police clamp down on the violent groups involved. Teams MERA, RSBD, and the remains of REDD take on the White Fang members at the freighters. However, three bullhead air transports have just arrived, and they’re heading for the crates of Dust on the far end of the docks.
Adrian, spotting the transports headed for the crates and knowing full well how much Dust and weapons technology those crates contain, tries to direct his classmates to their defense instead.
Adrian: Injured and having fucking terrorists steal guns and possibly mechs from your freighters. Tch. This is the worst fucking day ever.
Officer Liam informs MERA that the bullheads carry more White Fang led by Roman Torchwick. They’re trying to steal the Stahl Consortium crates.
Raphtalia finally snaps out of her fascination with her Dust sidecar and steering wheel. A passing police officer prompts her to help them with the bullheads and Raphtalia charges into the fray.
Torchwick (upon spotting Raphtalia): We were supposed to use the confusion of this rally to make off with the goods. But now I’M confused as to why more little brats are messing with my plans. First Little Red’s crew, now this bunch? Boys, get ‘em!
Bianca and Eissen take care of the remaining White Fang members on the freighters. As the fight ends, though, Dalmatea’s doll Madeline appears and warns them off the ship, telling them that bombs are planted throughout the freighter.
Eissen fires off another call to Ironwood but gets no response. She leaves to help take down the bullheads.
Pepe gives Rani a boost off the freighter, and she leaps back onto the docks, firing at the White Fang by the Dust crates. The shots don’t land, but Rani doesn’t break stride.
Marche aims for the bullheads’ turbines, but his shots miss, too.
Torchwick’s goons focus fire on Raphtalia, and Torchwick’s taunting bothers her enough to throw her off.
One of the bullheads, a Stahl Consortium crate chained securely to it, begins to lift off.
With a frustrated growl, Eissen uses her Semblance to create a Dust replica of one of her father’s vintage cars. She leaps into it and guns the gas.
Seeing an opportunity, Bianca hurriedly puts on a gas mask ripped from one of the fallen White Fang and hurls herself off the freighter. Running alongside the car, she grabs onto its side and climbs into the passenger seat.
Bianca: Hi. You have a license, right?
Eissen: I am royalty. That is all the license I need.
Eissen and Bianca use the car to mow down the White Fang and an outraged Torchwick. Raphtalia follows up with an attack of her own.
Torchwick: Crazy kids! Crazy kids everywhere!
Officer Liam informs MERA that some more Beacon students are on the way, and that these have dealt with Torchwick’s crew before.
Blake and Weiss arrive soon after.
Torchwick, guarded by Neo, orders all of the bullheads into the air and leaves the remaining White Fang to fend for themselves. Everyone focuses their efforts on grounding the transports.
Rani tries to sever the chains holding up the crates but misses. Marche keeps firing on the nearest bullhead’s turbines, but his efforts have little effect.
Adrian repairs DURAN enough to get it back on its feet. Staggering out of the freighter, they bombard the rising bullheads. One falters but quickly stabilizes.
Eissen and Bianca take matters into their own hands and bring down one bullhead. It nets them a prominent spot on the news.
Weiss: I should ask my father for a car as well.
Blake: Um, I don’t think that’s necessary.
Weiss: If you say so. Look at the offensive potential, though!
Blake charges the rest of RSBD with keeping the White Fang busy as she and Weiss take on the bullheads, too. They neutralize the second one handily.
Raphtalia, Drake, and Rani focus on taking out the White Fang on the ground.
The final bullhead attempts to pull away, but Marche activates his Semblance and snipes it out of the air. It crashes into the water, and Marche nets himself a souvenir.
The White Fang that Torchwick left behind are still putting up a fight, though.
Adrian and DURAN focus fire on them.
Eissen, Bianca, and Raphtalia team up to take down the stragglers. Raphtalia leaps onto the car hood while Bianca clambers back out onto the car’s side, and they ram into the White Fang group.
Eissen summons a pair of Dust-shades for each of them to top off the attack.
With the rioters rounded up, Officer Liam and his police force encircle the White Fang. Arrests ensue. MERA, RSBD, REDD, and Weiss and Blake gather around Officer Liam for a debriefing.
Everyone, battered but still standing, falls to healing and cleaning themselves up. Adrian requests for the VCPD’s help in transporting the damaged DURAN back to Beacon.
Liam sends everyone home to rest but requests that they all return to the VCPD the next day for a more thorough debrief. EDD tell him that they have important information on someone involved in the whole incident.
Bianca chews Rani out for her reckless charge at the White Fang. Rani attempts to deflect, but it’s evident that there’s more to her efforts than simply maintaining peace within the team.
EDD strikes up conversations with MERA and RSBD. The talk naturally turns to Raguso, but EDD say they don’t know where he could have gone.
Dalmatea gets a vision and informs everyone that the Blind Mice has burned down. Seconds later, news arrives of a fire in Goldie Lane, the same street where the café is located. Officer Liam and the VCPD rush off to respond.
EDD, MERA, and RSBD head off to dinner together.
Still angry and with sunset approaching, Bianca opts to return to Beacon; she passes by the burnt ruins of the Blind Mice on the way. Human protesters have set upon the building, vandalizing it further.
Drake skips dinner and heads back to the dorms as well.
Everyone else sets out in search of noodles, with Marche promising to buy everyone a round of milk for the job well done.
For the brothers Ahmar and Jamad, water had been life. Their bodies had been shaped by the weight of poles loaded with hard-drawn gallons; their minds had been molded by the tales of resistance and revolution shared around the crystal pools of the desert’s oases. Stale rainwater rationed carefully from a beat-up canteen had sustained them on the long trek to Vale, and when their first White Fang mission had them stationed on an industrial freighter right on Vale’s waters, they’d taken it as a good sign.
Until the red-haired demon came.
He’d stormed onto the ship in an impossible whirl of blades, his weapons already stained with the blood of their comrades. Ahmar had been closer. Jamad had watched helplessly as his younger brother took a strike to the stomach and fell, limp as a wilted flower, into the water below. The demon, earphones lodged snugly in his ears, hadn’t even heard him scream.
Aden grew up in the slums around Vale City, scraping out a living for himself and their litter of seven rail-thin, floppy-eared siblings. He’d tried looking for jobs. First in the Downtown District, manning jewelry shop counters and department stores, but management tended to frown upon headstrong kids who wouldn’t let customers treat them like just another mat to wipe their shoes on. Then in the Commercial District, where he’d gotten many promises of callbacks and no follow-throughs, from hedgy shop owners who eyed his extra pair of brown, floppy ears with discomfort.
And then, finally, there was Tukson’s Book Trade. It had been a good find, and Tukson had sent him home with last month’s excess comic books to give to his siblings. They’d read about heroes who fought for justice and the downtrodden, and Aden had started dreaming of becoming one. Little Leesha had squealed over his White Fang mask, and Keegan had declared him the bravest crimefighter in Vale, and the rest of the little pups had spent countless evenings stealing it from him and running around the house to vanquish the enemies of Faunus everywhere.
None of those imagined enemies had ever had floppy ears or cottonball tails, nor had they ever gone days upon days scrounging for scraps in the markets because Aden had gotten forced out of another job. They didn’t gain those either, when they finally took on flesh and bone one frantic day at the docks.
Instead, Aden had looked on red hair and hulking greatswords and an entirely human boy, one who dealt him a blow to the chest far stronger than the little pups had ever thrown in any of their games. He’d thought, Of course, his mask torn from his face just like every other one before it, and then the world had turned black.
Naledi had been first out of the warehouse when they set out for the docks that day. She had been first to the freighters, outracing Jamad and Aden with quicksilver steps and the driving weight of a chip on her shoulder. She had been the first girl to get picked for the snide, sneering Torchwick’s crew, though she’d decided to keep that dubious honor to herself. She had been the first kid from her quiet, malcontent, segregated little suburb to take action and join the White Fang.
When Drake Maroon had torn his way to the Stahl Consortium freighter, massive greatswords drawn, she had been the first to fall.
Chaos and confusion reign at the Vale City docks as the unauthorized Faunus protest quickly descends into violence. Team RSBD launches into action to extricate Stein, who’s stuck at the platform in the middle of the riot.
Bianca makes her way through the crowd, with Rani providing covering fire from the tea shop balcony.
They minimize damage to the protesters by disarming them and using only concussive Dust bullets.
Rani sets up a group call so RSBD and MERA can coordinate.
The protesters are intent on a fight though, hurling invectives at Bianca and using their protest signs as makeshift weapons. They’re outright raging, and many of them move to engage the human hecklers nearby.
Stein tries to keep the peace, calling for the protesters to calm down, but his pleas fall on deaf ears.
Drake, looking up from his book, finally realizes that something is happening. At Bianca’s prompting, he wades into the crowd and activates his Semblance for crowd control. Thanks to his enhanced gravity field, all the protesters who end up around him are knocked prone.
Bianca coordinates the team’s movement on the ground.
Stein moves to his teammates, activating his Semblance to alter the ground around him, slowing down anyone who gets too close.
Once her team has regrouped, Rani swings her sights back to the White Fang members at the freighters. She spots Adrian, clearly in trouble, and starts sniping his attackers.
Team MERA, arriving with the police, move to quell the riot.
Upon arrival, an outraged Adrian sends a quick missive to inform the Consortium of the riot and the attack on its Dust assets. He requests assistance from their VANGUARD teams.
From his perch on a rooftop nearby, Marche spots figures in the freighter area, all apparently attempting to escape. He sends Adrian to check, while he and Eissen take care of crowd control.
Eissen summons hundreds of Dust blades and gives General Ironwood a call to request an Atlesian suppression force. He doesn’t pick up.
In a huff, Eissen creates more swords and hurls them towards the rioters, attempting to terrorize them into backing down.
Marche fires Ice Dust bullets, creating a wall of frozen spikes to separate the violent human and Faunus groups from each other. He follows up with more bullets that create icy surfaces under the intimidated rioters’ feet, sending most of them tumbling to the ground.
The riot begins to subside, but the people themselves appear compelled to continue hurting each other.
Adrian heads to the freighters, DURAN in tow. The figures by the freighters appear to be searching for something.
Adrian attempts to sneak up on them but gets spotted. The White Fang members proceed to whale on him.
He and DURAN unleash a barrage of gunfire on the White Fang, but they’re sturdier than expected. One goes down, but the rest gang up on Adrian, scoring devastating hits of their own.
DURAN hurls itself into the line of fire to protect its master, but Adrian still gets injured. He tries to patch himself up, but the debilitating pain leaves him unable to do much.
Eissen soon enters the fray, firing a stream of spears at Adrian’s attackers.
The White Fang close in to finish Adrian off. DURAN is severely damaged.
Adrian puts up a last, brave defense, but the White Fang land enough shots to send him crumpling to the ground, critically injured.
Marche: STAHL! The battle isn’t over yet! Get up, and show these bastards what for!
Adrian (weakly, between rattling coughs): Heh, you’ve — convinced me, captain! I’ll not — die — just yet!
Eissen and Marche turn to the White Fang in full force in retaliation for their teammate.
Adrian, still barely conscious, hands his newly crafted grenades over to Eissen.
Adrian: Hey Princess, remember the bomb I made back then? Take it. Show these fuckers not to mess with MERA!
Eissen (scoffs): Don’t call me Princess, Stahl. You should know better. It’s Duchess.
Adrian: Cut a dying man some slack, Eissen. Just take the bomb.
Once the rest of RSBD reach the tea shop mostly unharmed, the team turns its attention to different matters.
Drake heads over to the freighters to assist Team MERA.
Rani charges full-pelt towards the White Fang, firing on them as she goes.
With a feral yell, Rani activates her Semblance and summons Pepe — a huge, muscled, frog-shaped water construct that falls in beside her.
Bianca: Just — don’t murder anyone, okay?
Rani: No promises, Biancs…
Bianca: WHAT?! Rani!
Bianca tries to activate her Semblance. She succeeds and runs after Rani, folding space to shorten the distance, fully intent on keeping their leader out of jail.
Stein sees the Faunus rioters drawing closer to the group of violent humans and moves to keep them apart.
Stein (to his teammates): HEY! I’ll go and be a distraction for these Faunus! Y’all fine with that?!
Bianca: STEIN! We didn’t get you out of there so you could run back in!
Stein opts to follow the rest of his team to the freighters instead.
At this point, her teammates’ antics have aged Bianca a thousand years.
Another explosion rocks the freighter area. Out of the smoke, a figure comes running: Raguso, with the rest of his team, REDD, in hot pursuit.
Epiros, in bronze power armor; Dalmatea, in a gothic dress and carrying a doll; Duklja, sporting shades and a massive gun.
Epiros: Stop this madness at once! You will just continue the cycle of violence! Think, man, think!
Duklja: No use talking to him — the lying сука wanted this to happen. Предатель!
Raguso: Madness, you say? Ha! Tell that to the men and women who took my eyes and chopped off my tail! Tell that to the thousands of Faunus who have lost their futures — their lives! What of them and their cycle of hate?
Madeline (Dalmatea’s doll): Fool. When I’m done with you, your eyes and tail will be the least of your worries. Dally trusted you!
Raguso smashes a bottle full of corrosive pink Dust, and more masked White Fang members emerge from behind him just as Raguso vanishes.
MERA and RSBD face down the new White Fang contingent as the remnants of REDD take on another group of White Fang.
Drake boards the freighter and takes the White Fang head-on. With his Semblance still active, he easily decimates the two closest White Fang members and throws another one off the side of the freighter.
Rani follows up with a devastating combo with Pepe, throwing another White Fang member off the ship.
Stein complains about the faint flute music he’s been hearing since the riot started.
Marche keeps Officer Liam apprised of the teams’ situation. Liam responds with a warning about approaching hostiles.
The hum of airship engines rattles the sky overhead. Three bullhead transports descend upon the chaos, making their way towards the crates stacked at the far end of the docks.
In which Rani uses the free Vytal Tournament weapon upgrades to put a selfie stick on Kibagari, and Professor Goodwitch takes it upon herself to check that the upgrade works.
