I don't own DC Comics or RWBY. DC Comics belongs to DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.

"The effort you put forth for anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death." – Monty Oum

"No one's invincible. But that fact shouldn't be holding anyone back. We all have something to offer. We all have something to lose." – Barry Allen

Downtown Vale

It was your average night in the streets of Vale, with the shattered moon shining its dim lunar light to illuminate the city skyline, while lampposts lining the sidewalks brightened the streets below.

Some citizens were going about their business, walking out of buildings, shops, or chatting amongst one another, but a certain group of individuals emerged from the alleyways, walking with an ominous air that quickly sent a clear message to the people around them: "Back off, and you won't need to go home with a hole in you."

The men were all clad in black suits and fedoras, walking with a dominant demeanour. Numbering at around twenty individuals, the gang walked with confidence down the street in full view, keeping the civilians around them a clear distance away.

Leading the group up front was a man clad in a white suit that made him stand out from his men, and in addition, he wore no red-tinted sunglasses like his henchmen, but he had orange hair combed down over the right side of his face and he was puffing a fat cigar between his molars, releasing wisps of smoke from his nostrils and lips.

With a cold, yet confident glint in his eye, the man known as notorious criminal, Roman Torchwick tapped his black and red cane on the ground and raised his hand, flexing his fingers to gesture for his men to follow his lead.

However, watching from the crowd was a pair of eyes, a pair that were firmly fixed onto the gang leader in particular. Their face was indifferent, seemingly unassuming. But the eyes flickered with a spark of intensity, crackling almost. They kept on staring at the men before promptly disappearing into the crowd.

Walking down the street, the gang came up to the sidewalk and stood in front of a small shop. The lights were still on, indicating that it was still open for business. The orange-haired criminal felt his lips curl up into a malicious smile, feeling his heart tremble, beating with excitement rushing through his very blood.

With this, the man placed a gloved hand on the door's handle and pushed, hearing the bell's chime ring throughout the store. As Roman walked in, the rest of his men followed close behind, flooding into the store behind their leader.

The old man standing behind the counter looked at his new customers with a cautious eye. He recognized Roman, and he knew he had no way to run either, as the men walked up slowly to him as he shivered in fear.

Roman looked around him. The shop's shelves were lined with all kinds of assorted items of interest. In one corner of the shop, DVDs of the latest movies were set up neatly, and in another, a series of bookshelves were arranged, with a vast array of selections on display, ranging from novels, comic books and magazines.

However, Roman paid no mind to these cheap trinkets and turned his avaricious eyes to the rest of the shop's items. A set of tubes connected to fortified tanks in the corner of the shop was set up, where Dust fuel was distributed.

Looking down under his palms, Roman grinned greedily at the wide selection of multicolored Dust crystals. Each crystal seemed to radiate with the sheer power of the planet itself, humming with an ethereal energy that seemed to resonate with Roman's own aura.

Dust ammunition was nowhere in sight, as Roman expected. After all, there was a fat chance that a tiny shop like this would sell live rounds. However, Roman brushed this off and turned his head up to glare at the frightened old man standing at the cashier.

Removing his cigar from his lips with his gloved fingers, he addressed the old man, gray smoke leaking from his breath as he spoke.

"Say, do you know just how rare it is to find a Dust shop open this late? Lucky me!"

Roman snickered darkly under his breath as a henchman raised a pistol to the cashier's face, the firearm whirring to life as it powered up. Flinching in terror, the old man raised his arms in fear, the man barely managed a stammer as he shook in his shoes.

"P-please! J-Just take my l-lien and leave!"

However, Roman put a gloved finger to his lips and shushed him calmly, pressing his smoking cigar against the old man's uniform to snuff it out, causing him to cringe in pain, smiling sinisterly as he did so. "Calm down, we aren't here for your money."

"Get to work, boys." Roman ordered his men, prompting them to spread throughout the shop with containers and cases in hand.

Some walked up to the Dust dispensers and emptied their contents into storage tubes, filling them up with the ethereal mineral.

Others took to the rest of the shop, taking any items and goods of their interest. One of the thugs slammed a case onto the counter, ordering the old cashier to fill it.

"If these cases don't have every crystal in this shop by the time we come back, we'll shoot you dead ourselves." The henchman ordered menacingly, scaring the old man into taking as much crystals from the counter and emptying his hands into the case.

One of the gangsters had an empty dust canister in his hand, about to take his load of fuel from the dispensers, when he noticed something he hadn't been expecting: a customer was in the shop with them.

The customer noticeably short, their height barely short enough so that the shelves hid them from view. Fastened to their belt was a metal device of some kind. The black skirt indicated that it was a girl, but her head and back were hidden by a scarlet cape and hood as she read a certain magazine from the bookshelves next to her.

For the moment, it seemed that the girl was too immersed in her book to realize that the shop was currently being robbed, reading without an apparent care in the world.

Growling between clenched teeth, the gangster set his canister down and drew his weapon from his belt. He held in his hands a blood-red machete, and pointed the blade's tip at the young girl.

"Hey kid! Hands in the air!" He barked threateningly at the girl, but he was met with no response, as the girl only continued to nonchalantly flip another page as if she had never even heard his voice.

Only becoming angrier, the thug stormed toward the girl. He then gripped her shoulder and violently pulled down her hood, revealing her face as a pair of doe-like silver eyes stared back at the gangster in surprise.

Upon turning her around, the thug could see the reason why she seemed so ignorant of their current situation: on her head rested a pair of red headphones, blaring loud music from the speakers. Considering the fact that he could still barely hear the music from where he stood, the gangster now understood why she would not be able to hear them.

Pointing at his ears, the girl seemed to understand what he was trying to say to her, and calmly removed her headphones, tucking them under her hood and hung them around her neck as she looked up to address the man in front of her.

"Hm? What's up?" The girl asked, obviously confused to some degree, but strangely wasn't intimidated.

"I said, get your hands in the air, kid! Now!" The thug bellowed in her face, leading her to quirk her eyebrow, as if she had been told a bad joke that she didn't understand.

"Are you… robbing me?" The girl asked, confused.

The gangster's face began to pop a vein. This little kid in front of him had a blade pointed at her puny neck, and she wasn't even flinching. What was worse, she didn't even act like she understood what the hell was going on. This kid was pushing his buttons, and he absolutely hated it.

"YES!"

Upon hearing his reply, the girl's eyes blinked, then narrowed.

"Oh…"

What happen next, the gangster really didn't process much. Because a split-second after the little girl answered him, he was flying backwards into a bookshelf.

The noise soon caught the attention of all the gangsters in the store, leading Roman to turn toward the body of his henchman ever so slightly, clearly unaffected.

Glaring at the perpetrator, another gangster ran towards the girl and raised a pistol pointed between her eyes.

"Freeze!"

Not to differently from a few moments ago, the man could barely comprehend what happened shortly after, because before he knew what was happening, he was shooting backward and felt his head smash against the glass window, shattering it into millions of pieces.

Roman Torchwick noticed the commotion and groaned under his lips. Seeing the girl tackle one of his men out the window was certainly something he wasn't expecting to deal with.

Ruby Rose then got herself off of the unconscious gangster and rose to her feet, retrieving the device from her belt and activating it, causing it to unravel itself into a massive mechanical combat scythe, its size double that of her own height.

Ruby hefted her massive weapon, Crescent Rose over her shoulder, and turned to look Roman Torchwick directly in the eye with a smile. Her face then hardened into a steely glare as she planted her weapon into the ground, switching off her headphones as she did so.

Pausing awkwardly at the girl's display, Roman wasn't entirely sure how to react to the combat student in front of him, letting his cigar hand loosely from his lip for a few moments.

But after a while, the gang boss responded, turning to his henchmen.

"Okay… Guys, do your thing." Roman ordered his men, prompting them to rush out of the shop with their weapons in hand.

Keeping her eyes on the thugs running towards her, Ruby clenched her fingers tightly around the shaft of the scythe, and stood ready for battle.

Leaping into the air, the young girl swung her legs in a circle, holding onto her scythe for support. Swinging her body weight in a circle, Ruby grunted as she slammed her feet against the face of a gangster, flooring him in one hit.

Ruby could tell that these men were not on her level. Their weapons were not as powerful as Crescent Rose, and they were slow and unorganized. Even though she was just 15 years old, Ruby was confident in her own abilities, and was not to be underestimated. She had this in the bag.

Using her momentum, Ruby flung her body into the air, yanking her scythe's blade out of the ground before landing gracefully on both feet, holding her scythe behind her back with both hands.

Seconds slowed down to minutes as Ruby's ears caught the noise of two more foes approaching from behind. In the spur of the moment, Ruby reacted, raising her weapon behind her and pulling the trigger.

The bullet drove into the ground, but she wasn't keen on hitting anyone. The shot Ruby fired off kicked like a mule, jerking her body in the opposite direction. This sent Ruby into a spinning motion, smacking away one nearby enemy and giving Ruby enough thrust to jump into the air and slam the blunt end of Crescent Rose into another gangster, pounding his body into the asphalt.

Suddenly, Ruby then heard a thug cock his firearm, leading her to aim in front of her and shoot, sending her body flying backward. Using her semblance in conjunction with her gunshots, Ruby zipped left and right to dodge the hail of bullets aimed at her.

Locking on target, Ruby then fired off a shot behind her, propelling her towards the final thug in milliseconds. Sticking her leg out, Ruby managed to fling the gangster into the air with a slide, and then sunk Crescent Rose into the road, using the momentum to jerk herself into the air.

Time then slowed to a crawl as Ruby's mind worked at blitzing speed. Remaining on target, she then pulled her weapon out of the ground and swung its head into his body with enough power to send her opponent plummeting down into the road at Torchwick's feet.

"These were the best, he said. You won't find better guys than these, he said…" Roman muttered under his breath, clearly in a foul mood as he plucked his cigar from his mouth and dropped it on the unconscious thug lying at his feet.

He then turned to the little red nuisance that had effectively ruined his relatively pleasant night with a sinister smile. "Well Red, I think we can say it's been a wonderful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around…"

As he addressed Ruby, he nonchalantly kicked aside the unconscious henchman as he stepped forward, raising his cane, pointing the end at the young girl. "...I'm afraid this… is where we part ways."

Ruby's eyes widened as soon as she noticed the crosshair sight flick up from the bottom of the cane, revealing a hollow muzzle similar to that of a rifle. She reacted instantly, barely dodging the red-hot blast the gang boss had shot out of his cane, blowing chunks of debris out of the road in a great explosion.

Landing on her feet, Ruby looked ahead with her weapon in hand, itching to bring her enemy to justice. However as the smoke cleared, she blinked to realize Torchwick had vanished, leaving her alone on the street.

"He couldn't have gone far. Not that quickly." Ruby thought to herself, looking left and right in search of Roman.

Sure enough, she caught sight of him, climbing up a ladder onto the rooftop of a nearby building. Narrowing her eyes as she locked on to her target, she noticed the shopkeeper next to her.

"Mind if I go after him?" She asked, to which the old man nodded meekly.

Chasing after the gangster, Ruby used her Semblance to race towards the building, then jumped with a gunshot from Crescent Rose fired beneath her, launching her upwards into the air from the recoil.

Landing on the rooftop, Ruby spotted Torchwick standing on the edge. Gritting her teeth, Ruby then moved towards him with her scythe at the ready.

"Hey, mister! Surrender now!" Ruby yelled at him.

Torchwick didn't answer, nor did he turn around to face Ruby. Snickering under his breath from her childish demeanour and annoying tenacity, he then growled.

"Persistent, aren't you…" he muttered to himself, before the loud noise of an engine tore through the air.

Raising her arms to block a massive gust of wind, Ruby saw what looked like a Bullhead rise from the alley and open its bay doors, allowing Torchwick to step aboard as the aircraft rose even higher above the ground with its new passenger.

From within the vehicle, Roman then turned around at his pursuer, grinning wickedly as he did.

"End of the line, Red!" He yelled over the engine, pulling out a red Dust crystal from his pocket, tossing it down towards Ruby, hoping to blow her to pieces.

Ruby's eyes widened as she saw the volatile mineral fly toward her, but before she could react, much less think, she felt something.

It was difficult to place this particular feeling, but something within Ruby could sense power within it. What happened next occurred in the blink of an eye, a fleeting blur of an instant.

Time slowed down by the second, and she could feel raw energy flowing around her. She opened her eyes, and saw it. Within the span of what could be described as a literal flash, she caught the sight of what looked like an arm, or at least a red blur of an arm.

What was even odder was that whatever this was, it appeared to be completely engulfed in sparks of electrical energy. Before she could process what happened, the crystal was shot backward in the direction of the Bullhead from where it was tossed, leading Roman's eyes to shoot wide open as the crystal shattered against the hull and exploded terrifically.

"H-Huh? W-w-wha-?"

Ruby saw the Bullhead's wing tear off and catch fire, before the vessel plummeted back down to the street below, leaving a battered piece of wreckage on the road.

Gasping in horror, Ruby used her Semblance to zip down the building to the sidewalk. She wanted to be a Huntress, but that didn't mean she was gonna just let people die. Not even people like Torchwick.

Running toward the site of the crash to check for survivors, Ruby turned to the side to see something that made her eyes wider than saucers. Tied up against a lamppost was none other than Roman Torchwick, his body limp and unconscious, breathing haggardly.

Ruby was oh, so confused. One minute, she was about to be blown to smithereens, and next thing she knew, her job was already done for her… somehow.

Ruby was at a loss for words, to say the least. But before she did anything else, she heard a voice call out to her.

"Hey, kid! Do you know what happened here?"

Turning around, the confused girl spotted a young man walking toward her. The man was around his late twenties; apparently he just arrived at the scene. He wore a white button-down shirt and black tie under a light lab coat, along with black pants and shoes.

His eyes were a light blue, and his short hair was a golden blonde. He was lean, but his face and figure were somewhat fit at the same time. However, what struck Ruby about his appearance most was his face.

Running down his eyes were distinctive black lines resembling tear lines running from his bottom eyelids down to his cheeks, barely reaching the ends of his lips. Ruby found this feature odd for a person like this, but given his neat and friendly demeanour, she assumed this was either a birthmark or possibly even a faunus trait.

"H-Hey kid, you alright there?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Ruby was reduced to a stammering mess once she realized the man was a few inches in front of her now.

"AAH! S-Sorry about t-that, mister! I-I guess I was caught up in the moment… hehehe…" Ruby managed to say to the man, who only smiled and chuckled at her antics.

Patting her on the shoulder, the man looked her in the eye and spoke again. "Don't worry 'bout it! So, what're you doing in a place like this?"

Ruby's eyes then flashed open as she remembered why exactly she was here. "A-ah, that's right! See, I was back there stopping this guy from robbing a Dust… shop…"

As soon as she was about to point the man to Torchwick, she stopped as her breath hitched. Where Torchwick was previously knocked out and tied up, his body was gone, leaving only the ropes that held him, spread loose on the ground.

"Huh?! W-What? B-But he was here a second ago whe-" Her panicked stammering was then halted when she felt the man grabbed her shoulder gently.

"Calm down, kid. I'll get to the bottom of this. Trust me. Name's Barry Allen by the way." She then saw Barry pulled a small card from his coat pocket.

"I'm a detective here in VPD. Call me anytime if you seen anything suspicious or something that leads to a criminal activity."

Placing the card in her hand, Ruby looked up at the man's kind eyes and took the card, nodding with a smile.

"T-Thank you sir-"

But before she could continue any further, that familiar rush of energy returned, causing her body to tingle for only a nanosecond before disappearing completely. Looking up, she then saw that Barry was completely gone, and that she was alone in the middle of the road.

"…H-Huh? W-Wha-? But… h-he was right-…?" Ruby stammered in absolute confusion. How in the hell did that happen?! Was she going crazy or something?!

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Ruby then looked down to her hand holding the card the man had given her.

"Bartholomew Henry Allen…" She read off the card, shifting her fingers around the card as she read it curiously.

But as she did, she yelped as she felt the familiar sting of static spark on her finger. However, she paid no mind to it, and began to walk away from the scene, rubbing her head in confusion.

"I need a nap…" Ruby whined as she walked away, completely and utterly stumped by the events that night.

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