RWBY /c/ RoosterTeeth

What a Wonderful World...

Summer was over the moon.

Team STRQ had successfully completed their first real mission with a genuine Huntress running as their backup. For the past week, they had been tasked with clearing out Grimm in a sector of North West Vale. And, in the process, managed to bag their first ever Goliath kill. Not just any old regular Goliath mind; an Alpha.

Such a task was utterly insane for four seventeen year olds, but given the situation, they really had no choice in the matter. Taiyang distracted and drew its attention, while Raven used her various dust swords in conjunction with Summer's dust-infused arrows to try and slow the beast down; Qrow used his affectionately named 'flight form' to get on top of the beast. Slowly but surely, they chipped away at the creature's armour, pulling rotations like on those games the boys were so fond off.

Whenever Qrow had managed to make a new crack with his scythe, Summer would switch her bow to rifle mode and lay down as thick a gravity dust snare as she could. Taiyang used his Heat Generation semblance to raise Goliath's cracked bone plates to molten yellow temperatures, then Raven would use one of her ice-coated dust swords to snap freeze it, shattering the thing into pieces.

Then they would rinse and repeat this dance for longer than Summer counted. Qrow would crack the armour, Taiyang would melt it, and Raven would snap freeze it into shattering. Until finally, the seemingly impenetrable layers of thick bone carapace had broken away, leaving it's neck open for all four members of STRQ to attack.

One last time, Summer immobilized the Goliath; shooting out the Grimm's forward ankles (or whatever the equivalent was). In its pained fury, it lashed out at Taiyang. Its trunk lightning fast as a whip, but instead of crushing him, Taiyang caught it with his monstrous strength and pulled as hard as he could. With its neck exposed, the Goliath was in the perfect position for execution; a pincer attack.

Raven leapt from the ground and Qrow swooped down from the sky - with longsword and Scythe in hand - they sliced the creature's head off with a single cut.

By the time their escort Huntress returned from her skirmish with another pack of Grimm on the opposite end of the village, she found herself confronted with four very worn out, very gobsmacked Hunters-in-training. Even as the Goliath lay disintegrating at their feet, none of them could truly believe they'd taken the monstrous beast down.

Once the shock wore off however, that was another story. The victory left the team invigorated, feeling larger than life and gave them a much needed boost to get through the rest of the week. Even now, as they returned home, that subtle giddy atmosphere still existed to some degree. Mostly it was pride.

Only three months into their time at Beacon - as a Team and they'd already brought down one of the most powerful known Grimm. With that in mind, Summer thought they deserved to feel a little proud of that. And that's not even thinking about how the rest of the Academy would see them now. Probably as heroes to aspire too, or subjects of ire and envy.

Either way, for better or worse, rumours would spread and that victory would put Team STRQ on the radar for a lot of people. While some people would revel in that kind of attention, Summer simply felt happy by getting the job done. There were a lot of people who'd sleep more soundly, now the Grimm in their sector were gone.

Too caught up in her musings, Summer hadn't even heard the conversation circling the Bullhead. Taiyang was on the defensive about something, Qrow was his usual blithe self and Raven was… well, Raven. Their Huntress Companion had sent them home alone, apparently she had other business to attend to in the village before she herself could return.

"Oh please. Shapeshifter for life, yo." Qrow said, rolling his eyes. Raven wordlessly offered a hand which he promptly high fived. The male Branwen smirked; Summer did too.

Despite her best efforts to appear otherwise, the Branwen sister was nowhere near as mature as she liked to present herself.

"Besides, why are you complaining? You're an outright pyrokinetic."

"I keep telling you; Heat Convection and Pyrokinesis are not the same thing!" Taiyang snarled, shaking his head and tossing his hands up in exasperation.

"It's not far off." Qrow shrugged, smirking now at his teammate. "Just call it 'Pyrokinesis' Tai. It sounds way cooler."

"And completely inaccurate!" Taiyang grumbled, glaring. "And besides, how do we know your shapeshifting is just limited to turning into birds!" His eyes narrowed suspiciously as he leaned forward, pointing an accusatory finger at Qrow. "How do we know you're not just using it to look cool right now? Your real form could be some fat ugly git for all we know."

Raven muttered under her breath bitterly, while Qrow roared with laughter. "Sorry Pal, Branwens are just born looking this good."

"Hey, I think I'm the one ripped off here." Summer interjected jokingly. "You guys have these wicked cool powers, and all I do is leave disapparating afterimages."

"Strategically perfect for the best marksmen this side of Remnant." Raven said plainly. Summer offered her a kind, grateful smile in return.

"Anyway." Taiyang piped up, looking out the window in boredom. "Anyone know if when we're getting to Beacon? I miss my bed." He sighed longingly, no doubt thinking of those warm maroon sheets.

"At least another fifteen minutes," Raven supplied, but her gaze wasn't the window. Instead, she inspected her weapon, rotating the barrel and the blades. The few that were left that is. "Regrettably, bed isn't a thought for me. I need to forge new blades."

"How many did you lose?" Summer inquired.

"Seventeen."

"Seventeen!?" Qrow barked, giving her a disbelieving look. "How the hell did you lose seventeen in a week?!"

Raven merely shrugged instead of replying, and Qrow groaned exasperated, muttering something about their allowance and paying for it.

"I could help?" Taiyang offered quickly, suddenly full of life again. Qrow made a face, while Raven nodded appreciatively. Summer would have laughed had something not caught her attention.

"Hey… do you see that?" She asked, peering through the Bullhead's window. Her teammates followed her gaze, towards a tiny pinprick of flickering white light on the ground barely five hundred metres away, almost like a star.

"What the…"

"Hell...?"

All four of them watched intently for a moment as the tiny light seemed to fight for life and fizzle out.

"Weird." Taiyang had said, but Summer had the vague feeling that wasn't the end of it.

The light returned, and not only was it brighter but it was larger. About the size of her thumbnail from this distance; then it exploded into a massive pillar of brilliant white light; and with it came a deafening screech that sounded like a voice.

Summer clapped both hands over her ears, the rest of her team flinched and covered their ears at a high-pitched scream. Some of the plated glass windows of their airship even cracked a little.

"WHOA!"

"Bloody hell!"

"What the fu-?!"

"Pilot! Change course and take us South East towards that explosion!" Summer ordered sternly, then her silver eyes rounded on the twins, narrow and determined. "Go. Figure out what it was! We'll be right behind you!"

"Got it!" Qrow had said as both of them dashed forward, turning into their bird forms and soaring down towards the white blast.

It didn't take long for either Raven or Qrow to find the blast zone. Swooping down in their bird forms, they shifted back into their humans selves barely a foot off the ground and broke into a sprint. Only a ten metres away was a magnificent blast crater in the centre of a thicket, still crackling and sizzling with energy.

"Dear god…" Raven muttered, her crimson hues wide with shock at the devastation.

Trees ripped from their roots, bushes and other flora had been completely leveled by the force of the explosion. And at the epicentre some ten metres away was the visage of a girl, wearing black and red.

"Did she cause this?" Qrow whispered in shock, before dashing over to check on the girl. Raven's hand stretched out to catch his wrist, but he'd already sprinted forward - caution thrown to the wind as usual.

Landing on his knees, Qrow leaned down and moved his hand forward, just in front of where he could see her nose and mouth. Her bright red hood had covered everything else about her features, and Qrow dared not to remove it until he was sure there weren't any surprises. He could feel her breathing gently against the back of his hand.

"Careful, Caw!" Raven called from her distance away,

"See if there's anyone else nearby, Rae! Someone else may have gotten hurt!" He called over his shoulder, and Raven dashed off, one of her remaining dust swords at the ready.

Qrow turned his attention back to the young girl, then examined the shallow blast crater. Was this the power of one little girl? He'd never seen anything like it before. It was almost too hard to believe.

Gingerly, he moved one hand to the edge of her red hood and pried it away from her unconscious face. In that second, his eyes went wide in panic, his heart pounded in his ears and he left out a breathless little gasp.

Summer?! He thought at once, but shook his head of it instantly.

No! It can't be. Summer was just at the Bullhead. He could hear the Aircraft approaching even now, and was certain if he looked, she'd still be standing insides. White cloak and all.

"Qrow!" Raven's voice snapped him back to reality. He glanced up, still pale and looking like he'd seen a ghost. Raven had an unconscious dark haired girl leaning on her heavily, and she carefully laid her down by the crater's edge. "I found two more girls just inside the treeline! They all look badly hurt!"

Seeing her brother unable to respond, Raven bolted over to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, a physical anchor back to reality. "Qrow." She repeated again, but her brother could only gesture at the girl in front of him. Following his gaze down, her red eyes went wide as saucers.

"That's not possible." She gasped.

"Guys!" Taiyang called from the Bullhead, hovering only a few metres away from the blast zone. He leapt off along with Summer and raced to their side, but Raven managed to snap out of it first.

"Is everything okay?!" Summer asked over the roar of the engine. Raven shook her head and gestured to the treeline.

"No. There's two more girls in the tree line. One blonde, the other white haired. Go get them first!" She told them.

Finally broken from the spell, Qrow got to his feet, hoisted the Summer-lookalike into his arms and carried her to the landing Bullhead. His sister went back for the dark-haired girl and hoisted her to her feet.

"How does she look exactly like Summer?!" Raven hissed, strapping her charge into one of the bullhead's empty seats.

"I don't know. Uh - Long lost twin?" Qrow offered helplessly, doing the same.

God, he was so confused. Ten seconds later, Taiyang and Summer emerged with the two other girls. One dressed in pure white with some red highlights, and the other girl dressed in browns and yellows, a lot like Taiyang.

Summer helped put the unconscious girls into the seats and strapped them in, but the second her gaze caught the mysterious girl in the red hood, she was transfixed. None of her teammates blamed her, how often do you come across a near exact copy of yourself? Let alone rescue one? Taiyang himself spared a small glance at the blond girl, then to the other two.

"We need to get them to a Medical Centre." Raven said at last, rapping her fist on the pilot cabin's door. A signal for him to take off.

"Beacon's the closest. We'll take them there." Summer decided with a shaky voice, holding onto one of the handlebars lining the roof.

"What the hell is going on?" Taiyang muttered, glancing around at the four girls, then back over the horizon, as if he could still see that blast crater.

"Hell if I know, but can't say I'm not a little freaked out." Qrow admitted, his gaze still shifting between all four girls, but especially focused on the red-hooded one. The carbon copy of Summer Rose.

"Yeah. We're on the same boat there, Qrow." Summer said, her tone still shaky. Her gaze never moved from the girl, as the Bullhead made its way back to Beacon.

Author's note: This plot bunny would just not leave me alone.

So we have STRQ, rescuing Team RWBY. Yay~!

Please Review and Comment. I welcome Criticism. :)