Vale alleyway...
In the deserted alleyway with a graffiti-marked dumpster as Penny reveals her secret to Ruby and Jared.
"Penny, I...I don't understand…" Ruby said, sadly.
"Most boys and girls are born, but I was made. I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura." Penny said, turning her head to the side sadly. "I'm not real…"
"Yes, you are real." Jared said, turning on his Augma to summon Yui. "Yui, Penny here thinks she isn't real. What do you think?"
"I think she is real!" Yui said, sitting on Jared's shoulder. "Are we in Vale?"
"Yeah."
"So, what do you think Ruby?" Yui asked, looking at Ruby. "Is Penny real? We know she is."
"Of course you are." Ruby said, taking Penny's hands in her own. "You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than us?"
"I don't...um…" Penny said, leans in close to Ruby and Jared's faces. "The both of you are...taking this extraordinarily well."
"You're not like those things we saw back there." Ruby said, tapping Penny's chest. "Taps her chest. "You've got a heart, and a soul; I can feel it!"
"Me too, I hang out with an artificial intelligence that can take the form of a pixie!" Jared said, looking over at Penny. "And I hang out in a virtual world with my friends at times. To escape real life. Why wouldn't I want a robot as a friend? You're real to us!"
"Ooohh...oh, Ruby, Jared…" Penny said, grabbing Ruby and Jared into a hug and shakes them back and forth. "You're the best friends anyone could have!"
"I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower!" Ruby said, with some muffled groaning.
"Jared, Ruby." Yui said, floating above Jared and Ruby. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah…" Jared said, coughing a bit. "I'm fine."
"Oh, he's very sweet!" Penny said, releasing Ruby and Jared, fully back to her happy self. "My father's the one that built me! I'm sure both of you would love him!"
"Wow." Ruby said, giggling. "He built you all by himself?"
"Well, almost! He had some help from Mr. Ironwood."
"The General?! Wait...is that why those soldiers were after you?"
"They like to protect me, too!"
"They don't think you can protect yourself?" Ruby exclaimed, scoffing.
"They're not sure if I'm ready yet...one day, it will be my job to save the world, but I still have a lot left to learn. That's why my father let me come to the Vytal Festival. I want to see what it's like in the rest of the world, and test myself in the Tournament."
"Penny, what are you talking about? Save the world from what? We're in a time of peace!"
"That's not what Mr. Ironwood said…" Penny said, confused.
"We really aren't, Ruby." Jared said, looking at Ruby. "It may seem like it now. But with everything we've seen with the Doctor. Is it really peaceful?"
"Yeah." Ruby said, smiling. "It is."
"Check down here!" Soldier 1 said, nearby.
"Yui, I think that's it for now." Jared said, as Penny grabs him and Ruby by the shoulders. "I'll be fine. Now go on, be with Kirito and Asuna."
"You have to hide!" Penny said, lifting Ruby and Jared above her head effortlessly.
"Penny, wait!" Ruby said, struggling and screaming as she and Jared are carried towards the dumpster. "What are you doing? You don't have to go with them! We can help you!"
"We really can!" Jared said, looking at Penny. "And I'm not a big fan of trash!"
"It's okay, Ruby, Jared." Penny said, throwing Ruby and Jared in the trash, and lifts the lid so they can still talk. "They're not bad people; I just don't want to get either of you in trouble. Just promise me you won't tell anyone else my secret." She gravely stares at Ruby and Jared. "Okay?"
"I promise." Ruby said, lowering her head into the garbage.
"Me too, I won't go beyond what Weiss and Yui did to tell everyone that Blake is a Faunus." Jared said, lowering his head into the garbage as the kid is put down. "I'm not like that."
Ruby and Jared lifts the lid a little to peek at the scene outside.
"There she is!" Soldier 1 said.
"Sal...u...tations, officers!" Penny said, happily.
"Why were you running? And what happened to the boy and girl?"
"What boy and girl? I've been by myself all day!" Penny said, she hiccups loudly, then smiles.
"You shouldn't cause such a scene."
"Are you okay?" Soldier 2 asked, looking at Penny.
"Just a scratch." Penny said, showing off her 'injured' palms.
"Penny, your father isn't going to be happy about this." Soldier 1 said.
"Please, just come with us." Soldier 2 said.
"Yes, sir!" Penny said, walking away with the soldiers.
"Ah, Penny." Jared said, as he and Ruby looks on in sadness. "Why do I get so attached easily?"
"Because you always do." Ruby said, and a rat screeched from below their feet. "What was that?"
"A rat!" Jared said, while he and Ruby fell and closed the lid on themselves. "I hate rats!"
"As much as spiders and snakes."
Outskirts of Vale…
In the ruined parts of Vale, the sound of an engine gets closer and closer until Bumblebee pulls into the street, showing Yang Xiao Long behind the handlebars in her matching helmet.
"Come on, my friend's right in here!" Yang said, taking off the helmet, talking to Mercury as she gestured with her thumb to the music playing nearby.
Yang gets off the bike to reveal Neptune sitting right behind her, hair and goggles messed up with a petrified expression of terror on his face.
"Cool…" Neptune said, sounding dizzy, and he shook his head, somehow perfectly fixing his appearance, and gets off the cycle, looking around worriedly. "And where exactly is...here?"
Junior's Club...
The music from Junior's Club gets louder once inside to show Junior behind the bar adjusting his cuffs as his Henchmen stock the bottles, carry boxes, and otherwise stand around on the dance floor, until...
"Hurry, close the door...she's coming!" Henchman 1 said, running inside, shouting.
He and another Henchman proceed to roll the doors shut and keep them closed with their bodies.
"What are you two idiots doing?!" Junior exclaimed, walking out from the bar.
The Henchmen shout incoherently until an explosion knocks them to the ground and forces the doors open, allowing a familiar face to walk in through the smoke as "I Burn" starts playing.
"Guess who's back!" Yang said, continuing to smile and pose as eight guns are pointed in her face with an equal number of angry Henchmen behind them.
Though this doesn't faze Yang, she stops and glares at the recording studio where the track is messing up until the frightened bear-headed DJ takes the needle off the record and retreats back under the table.
"Yeah, so could you define 'friend' for me?" Neptune asked, appearing behind Yang as the henchmen continue hoisting their guns.
"Stop, stop! Nobody shoot." Junior said, cutting his way through the crowd of goons, straightening his tie. "Blondie, you're here! ...Why?"
"You still owe me a drink." Yang said, grabbing Junior by the arm and drags him to the bar through the hired guns.
"Whoa...ho...ho...ho, what a woman…" Neptune said, breaking from his lovestruck staring to see the twins Melanie and Miltia Malachite standing beside him. "'Sup?"
Melanie and Miltia harrumph together.
"Whatever." Melanie and Miltia said at the same time, before walking away with their noses in the air.
Warehouse...
Blake's fingers trace three scratch marks on a wall before peeking around its corner and seeing a pair of horned Faunus as they are ushered into a building by a bearded man. She turns to Sun next to her, "This is it."
"You sure?" Sun asked, when Blake glares at him and starts moving towards the entrance while unfastening her bow. "Y'know, I'm just gonna take your word for it."
The two walk inside the building to a hallway filled with cases, seeing another man announcing "New recruits, keep to the right!" at the young pair as they follow.
"I don't get it." Sun said, holding out the half-mask in his hand. "If you believe what you're doing is right, why hide who you are?"
"The masks are a symbol. Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters." Blake said.
"Grimm masks...that's kind of dark."
"So was the guy who started it." Blake said, putting her mask on and walks on.
"Always sunshine and rainbows with you…" Sun said, following Blake's lead.
The new recruits to the White Fang are moving in a line to the side of the stage, a mere few dozen compared to the hundreds of white-vested, black-hooded soldiers to their left and up above in the balconies. Blake and Sun look around themselves when they stop, and a fully-masked man with tattoos standing starts speaking before the large sheet emblazoned with the bloody wolf and claw marks.
"Thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!" A White Fang lieutenant said.
The dark pants and brown shoes step forward before the orange tip of the Melodic Cudgel taps on the stage. Roman Torchwick is smiling confidently even as the crowd starts protesting.
"Thank you, thank you!" Roman said, waving mockingly, and as he speaks, Neopolitan walks out from behind the sheet. "Please, hold your applause!"
"What's a human doing here?!" An Antler Faunus exclaimed, pointing at Roman from her place, right in front of Blake and Sun.
"I'm glad you asked, 'Deerie'! Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans...are the worst." Roman said, saluting as an example. "Case in point. So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or, better yet, killed!"
"So, is he going somewhere with this?" Sun asked, leaning over to Blake.
"But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy: the ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty, rotten humans that run our kingdoms!" Roman said, when the crowd changes their tune and starts agreeing with him. "Government, military, even the schools...they're all to blame for your lot in life!" Roman lets the crowd cheer as Blake and Sun share a look. "And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around...no offense to any rodents in the room."
With a snap of the fingers, the curtain falls, and the whole mass of Faunus applaud at the sight of the Atlesian Paladin-290 behind it, the mark of the White Fang painted on its shoulder.
"Whoa, that's a big robot…" Sun said.
"How did he get that?" Blake asked.
"As some of you may have heard, this right here…" Roman said, tapping the giant mech. "...is Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my 'employer', we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, 'hit the shelves'. Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine...but if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?"
The White Fang's roaring applause tells Roman the answer.
"We should get out of here." Blake said, looking at Sun.
"Will all new recruits, please come forward!" The White Fang lieutenant said, angrily.
"Welp!" Sun said, when the line surges forward with him and Blake having to follow.
Junior's Club...
Junior puts down his glass as he sits behind the bar separating him from his interrogator, "I don't know!"
"How can you not know?" Yang asked.
"I haven't talked to him! I haven't even seen him since the night you first came in here." Junior said, leaning over to point in Yang's face. "He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever…came...back."
"So where did they go?" Neptune asked, rushing to Yang's side.
"What kind of stupid question is that?" Junior asked, after a long pause. "They never came back!" He looked over at Yang. "Who is this guy?"
"Don't worry about him…" Yang said, pushing Neptune out of the way with one hand. "...worry about me…" Neptune straightens and stands to attention. "...if I don't find out what I want!"
"I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them, which is something I can relate to!" Junior said, shouting this at his own men, who grumble and walk away in response.
"Come on, Neptune." Yang said, turning from the bar and walked away.
"We get everything we need?" Neptune asked, following with his hands in his pockets.
"Well, we got everything we can. Hopefully the rest of the team is having better luck."
Warehouse...
The White Fang is still cheering loudly as the recruits are marched to the stage, with Blake and Sun having no choice but to follow along.
"What are we going to do?!" Sun exclaimed, looking over to Blake.
"I'm thinking…" Blake said.
Sun is watching Roman lean on the robot smoking his cigar and laughing with the girl beside him before he zeroes in on him and Blake, frowning.
"He sees us…" Sun said, trying to smile and wave.
"He can't see in the dark." Blake said, noticing the junction box on the wall.
With that, Blake unsheathes Gambol Shroud, transforms it into a pistol, and shoots at the box, making the lights go out for the whole building.
"Don't let them get away!" Roman said, angrily.
"Sun! The window!" Blake said.
"Stop them!"
Before the two student Huntsmen crash through the window and start running as fast as they can, the mechanized sound of running power signals the Altesian Paladin's activation, and it crashes through the wall of the building in pursuit of the runaways, who leap off of a car and manage to get on the roofs. The Paladin follows beside them on the street as Blake and Sun run, jump, and flip from rooftop to rooftop.
Vale...
"So you wouldn't happen to have...oh, I don't know...some form of backup?!" Sun exclaimed, amidst twirls in the air.
"On it!" Blake said, grabbing her Scroll and puts it to her ear as she continues to jump.
Vale tower...
Weiss Schnee is seen leaving the Cross Continental Transmit tower's elevator when she grabs her own Scroll and listens to Blake's message.
"Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back…" Blake said, over the Scroll.
"HEEEELLLLP!" Sun said, over the Scroll.
Weiss rolls her eyes and starts running out the door, a little smile on her face as she does so.
Vale alleyway…
"I'm never gonna go in a dump every again." Jared said, sitting beside the dumpster with Ruby. "Even if it's in a couple of years."
"Neither am I." Ruby said, while the dumpster is boarded up, possibly to keep the rat imprisoned. "Ooo, a message from Blake."
"It's a chase!" Jared said, as he and Ruby are staring at her Scroll. "Finally, something good, Little Red!"
"Big robot! And it's big! Really big!" Sun said, over the Scroll.
"Oh, I am not missing this!" Ruby said, excitedly running off with Jared to join the fight. "Come on!"
Vale street...
Yang is back on the motorcycle in her helmet and sunglasses with Neptune looking at the Scroll in her hand over her shoulder.
"That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him...he's, like, controlling it or something!" Sun said, on the Scroll.
"Where are you guys?" Yang asked.
Right on cue, behind them, Blake and Sun can be seen running through the street with the Paladin hot on their heels before they all disappear from view.
"HURRYYYY!!!" Sun said, in both person and on the Scroll.
"I think that was them." Neptune said.
"Yeah, I got it." Yang said, putting the Scroll away.
Yang quickly circles her Bumblebee motorcycle around...much to Neptune's alarm...and drives off to follow Blake and Sun.
Highway…
Blake and Sun somehow make it to the highways, jumping down into the busy street and continuing their escape by hopping on cars while the Paladin follows them by pushing vehicles out of the way. Sun pauses to look at their pursuer's path of destruction and offer a quick "Whoa!" before leaping onto more cars, much to the anger of Roman inside the robot, his face surrounded by blue holographic screens.
Yang and Neptune are able to follow the mech suit on their ride, coming up next to it as it runs.
"We've gotta slow it down!" Yang said, looking at Neptune.
"Got it!" Neptune, reaching for his gun.
Roman notices Yang and Neptune on his sensors and crashes into a multitude of cars with the Paladin's strong bulk, sending them flying towards his chasers.
"Hold on!" Neptune said.
"Wuh...oh…" Neptune said.
Yang swerves, leaning her bike to the side in avoidance of flying debris while Neptune flails in a panic. Back on two wheels again, Neptune unslings his weapon, aims as sparks start flying, and fires several bolts of blue electricity at the Paladin, causing Roman to grimace from the force of the attacks.
Switching strategies, Neptune flips the gun and it grows a shaft and an energy blade at the end, then jumps from Yang's bike as the spear's head splits in three and drives it into the top of the Paladin. Sun and Blake pause in their car-hopping to look back.
"Neptune, hang on!" Sun said.
Neptune is trying his best, but the mech keeps bucking and threatens to make him fall. Closing his eyes, Sun smashes his palms together, and from the golden Aura around him, his Semblance creates two glowing outlines that copy their creator, leaping off and going back over the tops of vehicles to collide into the Paladin's front. They explode into blinding light upon contact to let Sun leap forward with Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang held high, but Roman finally turns enough to send Neptune flying off and knocking into his leader, sending both of them off the highway.
As Blake looks on from her spot, she hears a voice from her Scroll.
"Blake! I'm in position!" Weiss said, twirling over a highway with her Scroll out, and she landed in the middle of the road, holding Myrtenaster at the approaching Roman.
Roman smiles as his robot charges the girl, but Weiss spins and plunges her blade into the ground, summoning a circle of ice across the pavement that causes the Paladin to slip and crash, actually flying over the young Huntress and falling off the ramp, landing further down before Ruby and Jared, already having her Crescent Rose out in scythe form and the fan having his Monado out.
The Paladin stands back up, and the rest of Team RWBY falls beside their leader with Jared to take up positions. Roman chuckles, moving the robot slowly towards the girls and the fanboy.
"Freezer Burn!" Ruby said.
Ruby, Blake, and Jared, jump back out of the way as Weiss performs her same ice-circle trick, but backs out of Yang's way when she jumps into the air and hits the epicenter with her Ember Celica, creating a wave of mist that surrounds Roman.
Immediately, the Paladin activates its laser sensors to make up for the lost sight, but it barely sees the afterimage of Blake and narrowly misses the dashing Yang. A gun manages to fire at the area between Blake and Yang, but out from the blast comes Ruby, that gets a boost from Jared, who slashes the metal with her blade, causing it to falter.
"Checkmate!" Ruby and Jared said at the same time, grinning at each other.
"God, I love this move." Jared said, looking over at Ruby. "At least we aren't playing chess."
"Yeah." Ruby said.
Blake and Weiss go in this time, each girl going for the feet until Weiss jumps up and stabs a sensor before leaping off of a white glyph. Roman lifts the Paladin's foot to crush Blake, but Weiss summons another glyph under her teammate to launch her backwards before the crushing blow can land. Roman growls and fires off the missiles, but Weiss and Blake flip backwards as the explosions merely hit where they were.
Finally, Weiss jumps up too high, and Roman fires a double energy blast at her. Myrtenaster absorbs the damage, but Weiss is thrown back, so she casts a beam of light from her weapon to the ground under Blake, forming a yellow clockwork circle that's absorbed into the Faunus girl and lets her slice through each launched missile with ease in a flurry of super-fast slashes.
"Ladybug!" Ruby said, running into the fray.
Ruby shoots herself forward and cuts at the robot's legs, then turns as Blake aims herself at the giant's feet as well. They both dash forward and attack at the same time, circling each other around the Paladin with each strike until they both launch themselves into the air and come down together on the shoulder, cutting off the left arm entirely.
Yang doesn't waste a second, jumping onto the Paladin's back and punching the top with fiery shotgun blasts. Roman is knocked around in the cabin, but seeing as he can't reach her with his remaining mechanical arm, he runs backwards through two columns and leaves her embedded in a third before backing away and turning towards her. Just as she is falling down, the remaining arm extends a closed fist, and when it punches her, she flies through the column and doesn't get up.
"Yang!" Blake said, looking over at Yang.
"Don't worry! With each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special." Ruby said.
"She is like the Hulk but better." Jared said, smiling. "Now kick his bad guy butt, Yang!"
Yang slowly gets back on her feet, hair burning a brilliant white as she clenches her fists. Sensing victory, Roman throws a punch, but Yang catches it in her own hand despite the ground cracking beneath her and, eyes red with rage, smashes her knuckles into the second arm, obliterating it under her force.
Getting desperate with his armless robot, Roman immediately kicks Yang to the side, but as the blonde passes her sister, one of her best friends, and her teammates...
"Bumblebee!" Ruby said, looking over at Blake.
Blake throws her Gambol Shroud out for Yang to catch while flying, and the Faunus uses the momentum to swing the glowing girl around for a final hit to the robot. Roman, however, steps out of the way just in time to avoid complete destruction.
"We have to slow it down!" Ruby said, angrily.
"And how do you propose we do that?" Weiss asked.
"Ice Flower!" Ruby said, excitedly.
"Guess what people call you two back home." Jared said, laughing a lot.
"What?" Ruby asked, looking back at Jared.
"They call you and Weiss...White Rose!"
"White Rose? Did they get that ship name from Ice Flower?"
"Yeah."
Ruby and Weiss twirled their weapons so they both point at Roman, Weiss creates a series of glyphs in front of the scythe's sniper barrel, and a single shot through the circles creates a dazzling spiral of energy that creates large icicles upon impact with the Paladin. Ruby continues to shoot as Weiss freezes the fire, and as the ice completely envelops the robot's body, Blake swings her partner around in a circle one more time, but with Roman unable to move, the Paladin is hit by the speed and power of Yang's fists, flying into the air before crashing down in a hundred pieces and a defeated criminal.
"Just got this thing cleaned…" Roman said, getting up, slightly dazed but unharmed, as he inspects the damage while brushing himself off.
He looks up just in time to see Yang, still burning with her absorbed power, fire a single shot at the defenseless thief, but he's saved at the last instant when the two-toned girl seen before drops in front of him and merely opens her pink umbrella, deflecting the blast entirely. The new arrival hangs the weapon over her shoulder as Roman addresses the victors.
"Ladies, Black Swordsman, Ice Queen…" Roman said, looking at Team RWBY and Jared.
"Hey!" Weiss said, annoyed.
"Always a pleasure! Neo, if you would…" Roman said, looking at Neo.
The pink-and-brown girl curtsies her enemies with a bow, but Yang will have none of it, charging forth with fists raised to strike the outlaws...only to break their image as if made out of a mirror and turn just in time to see them escape in a Bullhead. The rest of Team RWBY and Jared run up to Yang's side, now cooled down with the end of the fight.
"So I guess he got a new henchman…" Yang said.
"Yeah, I guess she really made our plans...fall apart!" Weiss said, coming up with a bad pun.
While Weiss smiles, Ruby giggles, Blake starts walking away, and Jared rolls his eyes.
"No. Just...no." Yang said, grabbing Jared's hand.
"What...but, you and Jared do it!" Weiss said, getting mad.
"There's a time and a place for jokes."
"Was this not it?"
"No, it just wasn't very good." Yang said, following Blake with Jared.
"Well, at least I'm trying!" Weiss said, walking with the rest of Team RWBY and Jared.
"Weiss, just leave the bad puns to Yang and I." Jared said, laughing a lot. "You had some really bad timing. Like when the bad guys just got away."
"Wait...where are Sun and Neptune?" Ruby asked, looking around.
"Oh, they ditched us for ramen." Jared said, happily. "I hate them."
Vale street...
Sun and Neptune are sitting in the middle stools of the 'A Simple Wok Noodle House' eating their plates of noodles with the Shopkeep behind the counter and their weapons leaning on the other two stools.
"They're probably fine, right?" Neptune asked.
"Probably." Sun said.
His question answered, Neptune turns back to his noodles, and the two eat in silence.