A/N: So I started writing this around the time I finished posting RWBY: Contract. It's been almost a year since I've gone back to it. It's currently only about halfway done and I've had a lot of issues of figuring out how to fill in much of the sceond half to make my thoughts for it happen. Also, I got caught up with RWBY: The Phantom Pain (which I plan on continuing and do know how I'm gonna do it. Just need to do it.).

I thought I might as well not waste anymore time and put up what I have and hopefully the ideas will flow again.

This takes place about a month after RWBY: Contract. It is still before RWBY Volume 3. The girls are still at Beacon. Yes, it is quite out of date.

Hope you enjoy.

Altas. The Iceberg Lounge.

Oswald Cobblepot (AKA The Penguin) crashed through the door to his back room, trying to get away. Two of his henchmen came running to his aid.

"What's the matter, boss?" one of them asked.

"The Bat's here!" he told them. They immediately froze in fear, not sure what to do. "Well, don't just stand there! Get out there and stop him!"

They came back to their senses and followed their orders. They drew their guns and ran past their boss to confront their enemy. Penguin knew they didn't stand a chance, but they could at least buy him some time.

He ran into his office and retrieved one of his trick umbrellas. Upon hearing a loud thud, he walked back out of his office to see his two goons laying unconscious on the ground.

He heard from outside the room, "It's over, Cobblepot."

He looked to the doorway as a small canister was tossed into the room. It rolled to the middle of the floor before releasing a thick cloud of smoke. Penguin pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to cover his nose and mouth from the smoke.

"It isn't over as long as I say isn't!" he yelled as he instinctively began firing a barrage of bullets from his umbrella into the smoke. He exhausted all of his ammunition and dropped his umbrella gun. He drew a small sidearm from inside his coat and surveyed the dark cloud. "Where are you, you bastard?"

As soon as he asked, a tall, musclebound figure towered over him. He was disarmed and lifted into the air by his throat before his synapses could even fire.
"Now, let's talk," the caped vigilante suggested menacingly.

Ever defiant, Oswald said back, "I've got nothing to fear you for, Batman! I've done nothing wrong!"

Batman raised half of a dismantled assault rifle in his other hand. "These are contraband weapons. That's illegal gun trafficking already. Should we take a look around and see what else we can find?"

Having his bluff called, the short arms dealer dropped his tough guy act. "No no no! That's- that's completely unnecessary. I can be reasonable. J-just tell me what you want."

The dark knight pulled Cobblepot in closer, mere inches away from his scowl. "Tell me where he went," he demanded.

"I don't know," he answered. The next thing he knew, he was being hurled through the door into his office. He crashed into his desk and fell to the ground. He attempted to get back up, but forcefully had his skull slammed back to the ground and was held down.

"Where is he?!" Batman shouted.

"He never said!" Oswald explained. "He just bought a few guns and explosives off me and left! Small time stuff. I didn't ask. He didn't tell."

Batman slammed his face into the floor again. "That's not good enough!"

"Wait! Wait! I had a couple of guys follow him. They last saw him boarding an airship to Vale."

"Why?!"

"Who knows with that one? Nothing he does ever makes any sense. To get away from you, I'd guess."

"Thank you." Batman raised Cobblepot back to his feet and clamped a pair of handcuffs to wrists. He led him over to the wall, lifted him up, and hung him by his cuffs from one of the tusks on a large Boarbatusk mount on his wall. "Now wait here for the police to arrive."

He started to make his way out of the building when Penguin called out, "Hey! What do you think you're doing?! I told what you wanted!"

The caped crusader turned back. "And you were very helpful. You're still doing time for those guns, though."

With that, he turned and exited the room. Once he was a sufficient distance away from the small mob boss, he activated his comm. "Alfred, I'm done here. Prep the Batwing. I know where he's going."

Vale. Hours later.

The thief was on the run. He'd barreled over some woman and stolen her purse. The reward wasn't very high, but there's not going to be a huge investigation looking for him. And with legs like his, he could do this all night and never get caught. That is, unless someone decides to rudely get in his way.

Blake was walking down the street when she saw the crime. The purse snatcher was running towards her, pushing people out of his way. As he neared her, she dropped a Shadow clone and lunged at him. She kicked his feet out from under him and pushed him to the ground.

He acted fast and swung the stolen purse at her. He was just shy of hitting her. He tried it again, but this time she caught the strap to the handbag. Before he could react, the huntress kicked him across his face and pulled the strap from his grasp. While he laid there holding his jaw, Blake turned to go return the purse to its owner.

The woman attempted to run over in her heels and was already short on breath by the time she got to the girl. "Thank you so much," she said.

Blake handed the purse back over to her. "It's my pleasure."

Her ears then tuned in to hear footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw the thief escaping. You're not going to get away that easily, she thought as she turned and sprinted after him, leaving the other woman in the dust.

She chased him down the sidewalk for a block or two before he darted around a street corner. She followed him, not expecting him to be waiting right around the corner. When she came around he threw an elbow and hit her in the face. Blake was knocked to the ground from the surprise attack.

The thief took advantage of this and turned around and ran into the closest alleyway. Blake tried to get back up and re-engage her pursuit, but her head wouldn't stop spinning. That was dirty. She took a moment to recover and chased back after him. You just made this personal.

She entered the alley and stopped to listen for some sign of where he went. She could hear him. His breathing was heavy. Suddenly, his breathing cut off sharply. She heard a loud cry of fear. Oh, no. What now? She drew Gambol Shroud and bolted to the source of the scream. She rounded a corner and what she saw shocked and confused her.

The thief was dangling upside down about six feet above the ground. He was hanging by a cable wrapped around his ankle and attached to a fire escape above him. Blake reached out to check his pulse. He was alive, but unconscious. The entire left side of his face was starting to bruise up. She quickly pulled out her scroll and called the local police.

After making the call, she looked at her scroll's screen and realized the time. At half past 2:00 AM, Blake ran to the nearest transit station and hopped on an airship back to Beacon.

Blake made it to her door just before 3:30. She was able to sneak into her hall without being caught by any staff. That was fairly easy for her. This was the hard part: sneaking in without waking her teammates.

She quietly opened the door and peered inside, letting her Faunus night vision illuminate the room for her. As she panned her head around, she spotted Yang sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, scowling right back at her. Blake backed into the hall and slowly closed the door again. She stood there and braced herself for the talk she was about to get.

When she opened the door again to walk in and accept her fate, Yang was stood right in the doorway.

"Outside. We have to talk and you are not waking my sister up this late at night," she said as she stepped out of the room and into the hall. She closed the door behind her and started. "So do you mind telling me just what the hell you were doing until three in the morning?"

"I got caught up with something," Blake vaguely explained.

"With what?" Yang demanded to know. "What was so important? Ever since we took on Deathstroke, you're out later and later every night and you're always tired in the day. It's just like when you were obsessed with going after Torchwick." She paused as she came to a realization. Torchwick's outta jail now. "You're not going down that path again, are you?"

"No. No no no," the dark haired girl denied. "It's not that. I swear, this has nothing to do with him or the White Fang."

"Then what is it?"

Were Blake talking with anyone else, she would have brushed them off and just bottled up her emotions. But she felt a sort of connection with Yang. She was the only person that she ever let in and talked to about things. She was the person who helped her with her obsession with Torchwick. She was the one who stood by her against Deathstroke.

Blake turned away from her partner as she started to explain herself. "It's just… seeing Slade again made me think of all the bad things I've done. All the things I got away with as a child. And I started thinking about all of the bad things I've seen others do over the past few years. And I feel like there's something I should be doing to try and stop them."

"Blake, we talked about this."

"I know, Yang. And I know that Torchwick and the White Fang are too much for me to handle by myself. But there are things that I can stop. Like tonight, a man stole a woman's purse. I was there to stop him and I did. And I felt really good about it. I haven't been stopping bank heists or catching killers or anything huge like that. I know I'm not cut out for that kind of stuff right now. But that woman's night was changed because of me. And that's enough to make me keep going out every night."

"So that's what you've been doing at night?" the blonde asked her.

"Yang, we're Huntresses. We're supposed to help people. And that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm just doing it in ways other than fighting monsters."

Yang sighed and tried to reason with her. "Listen, Blake. I understand where you're coming from. I've indulged in crime fighting before, too. But we've got a team now. We've got responsibilities: as students and teammates. And we can't afford to go out and pick fights with random criminals. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying you've got too much to lose to do this kind of thing alone every night."

Blake hung her head in understanding. But then an idea popped into her head. "What if I didn't do it alone?"

Yang prayed she wasn't saying what she thought she was saying. "What are you talking about?"

"What if you came with me?"

She was saying exactly what she thought she was saying.

"We go out together; work as a team. If we can take on a world renowned assassin together, imagine what other good we could do against common street thugs."

"Blake, first of all, you're freaking me out a little with this whole inviting-another-person-to-do-something-with-you thing. Second of all, what's wrong with you? I just said you can't do this anymore, and now you're asking me to join you next time? Why am I even saying 'next time?'"

"Look, Yang. I'm not going to stop. I'll agree not to go out as late or as often, but I'm not going to stop. If you're worried about me being in danger out there, then back me up and keep me out of it."

Yang would be lying to herself if she didn't admit that she really did want to do it. She loved the thrill of fighting. One of her favorite memories was busting up Junior's club. The conversation she had been having with Blake was one she'd had with herself many times.

But as much as she didn't want to get sucked back into kicking criminal ass again, Blake had a point. She couldn't just tell her how to spend her evenings and she had no way of enforcing herself from Beacon. But if she were with her on the streets, she could keep her out of too much trouble and control her actions a bit more, all while having a little fun herself.

"One time," Yang agreed. "We'll do this one time. On a weekend. And Ruby doesn't find out."

Blake smiled bigger than she'd ever done before, which was about as much as an average person's normal smile. "Thank you, Yang."

At that moment, the door behind them opened. Standing in the doorway was a very groggy and annoyed looking Lie Ren. "Would you mind having this conversation both quieter and somewhere else? We're not all heavy sleepers here."

The Batwing set down on the landing platform in the cave. The cockpit opened and Batman jumped out. He spoke into his comm, "Alfred, I made it to the cave."

His butler returned, "What took you so long to get there?"

"I was scouting out the city. The crime rate is far lower here than in Atlas, but there is still work I can do while I'm here."

"Isn't there always. Now, I must ask, sir. How long have you had a backup cave in Vale?"

"I have one in each of the kingdoms. I set them up a while back over a long set of public visits. They're precautions in case I need to do work outside of Atlas."

"I would normally question the reasoning behind multiple bases spread so far apart, but I suppose today proves their necessity. Although I must ask, how do you manage to scout out and construct these multiple bases without your resources in Atlas or anyone cluing in on what it is you're really up to?"

Batman removed his cowl. "Come on, Alfred. I'm Bruce Wayne. With a fortune like mine, I could get away with murder if I wanted to."

"Yes, quite right, Master Bruce. Let us just pray that it never has to come down to that."

Bruce called commands to the Batcomputer as he neared it, "Computer, on. Authorization: Batman."

The multiple scanners around the computer activated and scanned him up and down, taking in every tiny detail to make sure it was him. Then a synthetic female voice responded, "Identification confirmed. Welcome back."

Bruce sat down at the computer station and set his cowl next to him on the desk. "Computer, get me the surveillance footage from the last two days for all international transit stations in Vale."

A second later, it responded, "Footage acquired."

"Scan through the footage for inmate number 801."

As the computer searched in the background, Bruce did his own searching through the police department's database. It doesn't take long for him to kill. I need to make sure he hasn't started yet. He went through the list of reported crimes. Luckily, there were none of civilians deaths.

Bruce stopped scrolling when he found something suspicious. The report read, 'Several White Fang members found dead in compound filled with illegal weapons and Dust. Victims were poisoned and found with pale skin and permanent smiles.' He leaped up from his chair as he kept reading.

"Scan complete. Subject found in northeast Vale."

Batman pulled up the filtered out footage. He saw the man in question. He was wearing a simple coat and a wide brimmed hat to try and hide his identity. But just under that brim, he could make out his unmistakable grin.

Bruce spoke back into his comm, "Alfred, I've found him. He set down in the commercial district. He's here in Vale."

Roman Torchwick barged into the meeting room. "Cinder, we've gotta talk!"

Cinder Fall and her two underlings, Emerald and Mercury, were already there. They were stood around a hologram table with a projected map showing all of their storage facilities and White Fang bases in and around Vale. In the corner of the room was their representative of the White Fang, Adam Taurus. They were all there to discuss recent events.

"And what is it you would like to discuss, Roman?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe we could talk about the fact that one of our warehouses was raided and confiscated by the police!"

"You're a little late," Mercury told him. "We've already started."

Adam stepped up to the rest of the group. "An entire squad of White Fang troops was lost as well." He turned to Cinder. "This is unacceptable. I want to know who did this."

Roman chimed back in, "That last part we can agree on."

Emerald asked her superior, "Who do you think it was? The huntresses again?"

"No," Cinder replied. "While they have been a persistent thorn in our sides, they have been consistent in sparing life. And no huntress would dare use chemical warfare in this manner."

"So what?" Torchwick asked. "You think some street gang decided to get into the chemical weapons business, hit our guys, and steal some of our stashed guns and Dust supplies? Oh, did I mention our things were stolen? Cause I'm personally a little pissed about that part."

Adam slammed his fist on the table. "The weapons aren't important right now!"

"Like hell, they aren't," Roman argued. "After the long nights of work I put in for those supplies, I want them reclaimed and whoever stole them strung up by their innards."

"You seem to forget that Faunus lives were lost!" the Faunus shouted. "Twelve of my brothers were killed!"

"And twelve of your brothers will probably be killed next week. You guys are trying to start a war afterall. People die in war. That's what happens. But for our plans to come to fruition, we need guns and Dust. And we can't just let people steal those from us."

Adam growled at the master thief and instinctively reached for his blade.

"Enough," Cinder finally spoke up. "You both want the same thing. And to answer your earlier question, Roman, no. It was not some street gang with a chemical weapon. It was a single man."

Torchwick gave her a face of disbelief. "One guy? You're telling me that one guy did this? What makes you think that?"

"The thing about this particular toxin is its effects on the body," she explained. "As it kills the victim, the color drains from their face and they begin to laugh uncontrollably, leaving them with a permanent grin. All of the victims of the attack exemplify these same symptoms. And there's only one man in Remnant with this MO: a psychotic criminal from Atlas who recently broke out of prison."

Both Mercury and Emerald looked to the man in the bowler hat.

"Hey, don't look at me," he said. "You all were the brains behind that operation. I was just the guy you came to break out. If you wanna blame someone, blame that assassin you hired."

Adam directed attention back to the matter at hand. "So who is this person and where can we find him?"

"Nobody knows who he truly is. His past is a mystery to the world. He is only known by one name: The Joker."

There was a pause over the group of criminals. Roman pulled out a cigar and lit it as he muttered, "This town just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

A/N: So I plan to release the next two chapters each Monday. After that... Only time will tell.

I would love some feedback on this one. I'm not sure if it stacks up to my previous works or not. Comments and reviews for RWBY: Contract helped me alter bits in its later chapters for the better. I'd really appreciate more of that.

Till next time, thank you.