"You know." Hol Horse said conversationally as he stared out at the looming presence of the academy, his trained eyes picking out several concealed and folded in sentry turrets that would undoubtedly activate if he walked forward without authorization. "The Boss did give us a massive budget. Why don't we just hire some people to do this for us so we don't get killed before we even know what we're dealing with?"

Beside him, the bundle of rags that J Geil hid under blinked and considered his comrade's – 'friend' was pushing it – words. "Mercenaries?"

"Well, yeah." Hol Horse shrugged. "I mean, I'm not afraid or anything, but that's still a building where they teach kids how to kill giant monsters. Stands or no Stands, we're not exactly invincible with ours. I mean, mine is a gun and you use mirrors."

"You raise a fair point." J Geil nodded. "…I'll contact Risotto later, he should know where to find some. No need to waste members of the Assassination Squadron to deal with this."

"Well, we've sorted that out." The cowboy nodded firmly, dusting his hands and turning away from the death-trap of an academy. "Bar?"

"…that would be agreeable."

Passione didn't get to be one of the largest – well, strictly speaking, the only – criminal network on Morioh Island without knowing who the freelancers were, either to kill them or recruit them, or use them for those projects where disposability was most important. All of those elements led to a rather prosperous freelance criminal 'economy' of a sort, mostly populated with dropouts from the Joestar academy – not normally for lack of skill, but rather dubious morals. Ever since Jonathan Joestar died, the place had been obsessed with drumming the perfect 'morality of a gentleman' into their students, even if they didn't outwardly match the profile.

Four mercenaries of dubious moral quality, but they'd do whatever they asked just because the amount of money they were dealing with was obscene. Not that J Geil or Hol Horse actually intended on paying them, of course. They figured they'd allow any survivors to mysteriously vanish in a 'misunderstanding' involving the White Fang's new weapons.

"Do you think it'll work?" Hol Horse asked after a few moments as their hires slinked away. J Geil gave him a look. "…yeah, I didn't think so."

RWBY'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE

CHAPTER TWO: FROM SHADOWS

Something's not right.

"Hey, are you alright?" Yang waved her hand in front of Blake's face, frowning. The faunus blinked in surprise and re-focused on the blonde, who was raising an eyebrow. "Earth to kitty cat, everyone else already left the cafeteria."

"Except them." Blake pointed at Team JOJO, who were all pretending not to listen. Yang rolled her eyes.

"Come on, you've been weird all day, ever since that class we shared with the second years. What's going on?"

"…something's…off about Velvet today. I'm worried."

Blake's ears twitched as she heard the JOJO member with the pompadour snigger something that sounded like 'Velvet-senpai notice me'. Thankfully, Giorno slapped the back of his head before she had to try and remember what 'senpai' meant in the first place.

"Maybe she's just ill." Yang shrugged, dragging the faunus out of the cafeteria by the shoulder. Blake didn't bother offering resistance, crossing her arms instead.

"Maybe, but…no, that can't be it. She smelled different, too."

That brought Yang to a stop, and when Blake saw the growing grin on her face she groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Yang, don't star-"

"You pay attention to what Velvet smells like often, then?"

"Yang, please."

"Heck, I didn't even know you swung that way, but I guess the ears are kind of cute-"

A chocking noise came from JOJO's table as Josuke and Guido pictured that in their head for a second. Yang grabbed an apple, wound her arm up, and tossed it at their heads, where it was intercepted by Gold Experience.

Then, in what was probably a case of showing off for the sake of showing off – either that or taunting them – Giorno turned the thing into a small rabbit and let it run away. That got a snort out of Yang, if nothing else.

"I'm serious, something's up. She didn't even stop to say hello." Blake insisted, the bags under her eyes being more noticeable than normal.

"You really need to get some sleep, Blake." Yang said, eyes narrowing. "This paranoia over the White Fang is making you see problems everywhere you can."

"Maybe." Blake agreed reluctantly. "Can you at least keep an eye out on her for me?"

"If you'll get some sleep for the first time this month, yeah." Yang conceded, getting up. JOJO had gone strangely sombre as the subject changed towards the White Fang – they hadn't reacted very fondly when they'd been told of the group in their first class with Professor Oobleck either, saying it reminded them too much of Passione for their tastes – which was an out-and-out criminal organization, rather than a 'liberation' front.

"Do you think we should look into it?" Guido asked after they'd left. Josuke nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, we've seen weirder things happen, and there were reports that someone matching Hol Horse's description was in town recently…" He scratched his chin. "…this could be the work of an enemy Stand."

"Well, now that you've said it, if it wasn't before it will be now." Giorno grumbled. "Every single time one of us says that it turns out to be true."

"Hrm…" Jotaro grunted, getting up. "We'll find out the truth soon enough. Guido, have a Bullet keep an eye on her for now."

Guido gave a sloppy salute and sent part of his Stand spiralling towards Team CFVY's room ahead of them. It was only a floor above their own room, so it shouldn't be out of range. "What do we do if there is something weird going on?"

"Make our Stands hit it until it stops going on."

"Really inventive, Josuke…" Giorno sighed. "But why am I even complaining, that's what we end up doing anyway."

Stand Name – Sex Pistols

User – Guido Mista

Destructive Power – E

Speed – C

Range – B (Same as a bullet)

Durability – A

Precision – A

Developmental Potential – B

Other: Sex Pistols manifests as six individually numbered anthropomorphic 'bullets', that can control bullets and reload Mista's gun for him at greater speed. In addition, due to their sentience and personality, they can spy for Mista and the others. Mista is also in tune with the Bullets enough that they can deflect projectiles fired by other people, so long as they are physical and not spiritual (Stand-based) or elemental (due to Dust).

There wasn't much recorded history in the early days of Morioh Island. Separated from the rest of the world, we just survived on an individual basis against the Grimm, relying on those we called Mystics – those that could channel the power of Hamon, or the ripple, or sudo – whatever you want to call it. Personally, I prefer The Ripple, although the scientific name is Hamon so we'll go with that for now.

Hamon was the ability to, through a combination of proper control of your body and an indomitable soul – through the manipulation of a person's Aura – channel a power similar to that of sunlight, rejuvenating the living and burning the impure. With it, a user could heal faster, age slower, destroy the undead with but a touch and manipulate fluids. I myself once managed to convert a cola bottle into an improvised weapon by using Hamon to simulate the soda, sending the cap streaming off to break a policeman's finger. Not that that trick did me much good against a group of bona fide gods…

It's a long story. That's how I lost my hand! Headmaster Zeppeli almost died!

Anyway, the undead – long thought to be a legend, until my grandfather's adopted brother, Dio Brando, uncovered a means of turning himself into one. He terrorized Morioh, gathering an army of thralls – lesser vampires, often incorrectly referred to as Zombies – before being defeated by my grandfather in one climactic final battle. Jonathan Joestar would later die at sea, with my grandmother saying that it was somehow Dio's fault – she never did explain precisely what happened that night. With Dio's thralls still wandering the island, the school was set up to train Hamon practitioners to both defeat the sudden approach of the Grimm and these new terrors. Shortly after my adventures, we discovered the power of the Stand, which was much easier to develop than Hamon – and so it became the new focus of our school, although we do still accept those without Stands, provided they can use Hamon.

Or, in one case, a peculiar new ability Caesar's grandson is developing called the Spin. Hrm…Oh, ignore the ramblings of an old man. Now you know the origin of the Stand, and the history of our island – now it's time to develop yours!

Ruby and the rest had emerged from the classroom sweating and exhausted. As it turned out, the easiest way to awaken a Stand was to place them in extreme physical danger – citing Jotaro finishing his Stand's development by trying to shoot himself in the head to demonstrate his original Semblance's low-level telekinesis. The stoic boy had looked slightly uncomfortable, possibly even embarrassed, by the incident.

What they hadn't expected was to suddenly be forced to fight the old man, who had been using his speech as a distraction to wrap Hermit Purple around each of their chairs, shattering them all with one 'overdrive'. Even Pyrrha had been caught by surprise, sent sprawling to the floor as the wood overheated and exploded. The only ones who had remained mostly intact was, naturally, Team JOJO – who were then informed that it was time to be the teacher's aid.

For the second time in a week, Cardin had been punched through a wall by Crazy Diamond, and that was when Joseph had reluctantly called it a class. The tired four trudged towards the cafeteria, moaning and complaining to each other all the way, before they finally got their food and started to eat with gusto. Well, most of them – Blake barely touched hers, and before Yang could ask her why there was a sudden interruption.

"I can't believe she ditched us like that!" Coco fumed as she slammed her tray down next to RWBY's table. "The sheer nerve!"

The group slowly shifted away from her, glancing at each other nervously. Fox and Yatsuhashi gave them apologetic smiles as the leader of CFVY continued to rant.

"After everything we've done for her, she thinks she can just split like that without even so much as a by-your-leave? One day I can excuse, but an entire week! Ridiculous!"

"We're really sorry." Fox mouthed over the back of her head at the group, who just nodded and tried to look like they were paying attention to Coco's rant.

"We were meant to go shopping, too! She's started to look too big in the chest for her clothes!"

Yang immediately turned to Blake with a raised eyebrow. "Is that what you've noticed different about her? You perv!"

"Shut up, Yang." Blake said quietly, shaking her head. "I'm not you, I don't pay attention to that. Besides, I told you already, it was…something else in her sc – uh, manners."

"We know you're a Faunus, Blake, we're not stupid." Coco said dryly. "Nobody would wear the same colored bow with literally every outfit they wear, not even Yang's that fashion blind."

"I might not follow the established trends, but I set them." The blonde sniffed haughtily, making the rest of RWBY look uncomfortable. "…although, yeah, you really should have worked a little harder to hide it Blake. I'm amazed we didn't figure it out sooner."

"Wait. You mean she lived with you and she fooled you?" Coco stared in disbelief. "…wow, you guys must be the worst people to pick up social cues that ever lived. We've had one conversation and I picked it up."

"I never paid much attention to it." Ruby said guiltily. Weiss just stared into space, refusing to comment on what she was normally paying attention to.

"Good to know my secret was kept only by your inability to care." Blake shook her head, glancing around. "She really has gone missing, hasn't she."

Yeah, nowhere to be seen – not at any table, not talking to any other teams, not even being harassed by Cardin's groupies. Just four people at every table, except their own and JOJO's.

There was another pause as she furrowed her brow. "Wait a second, where's Guido?"

"Follow your bullets, Guido. We'll cover for you, Guido." The former Passione member grumbled as he followed Velvet from a safe distance. "You'll be able to handle whatever it is, Guido. I swear, sometimes Jotaro's just trying to get me killed."

When his bullet had come back, bleeding from a small gash on its head from running into a steel wall, it had reported Velvet's complete and utter change in behaviour and reaction to her teammates. With that in mind – and the knowledge that it was almost certainly an enemy Stand – they'd sent Guido to follow his bullet and find out exactly what was going on.

Now outside of school limits – which had been a feat, Velvet had used her faunus jumping abilities to leave the walls, while he'd had to resort to good old fashioned sneaking (if he ever saw a cardboard box again, he'd scream) – she was certainly heading towards a place that he'd never had thought to look for her.

Most faunus probably wouldn't hang out in a restaurant advertising its famous Rabbit Soup, after all. Which was why Guido was surprised when Velvet's ears seemed to retract back into her head, leaving her looking all the world like a normal Beacon student skipping class.

"This is getting weirder and weirder…" Guido grumbled as he stopped next to the window, trying to look like he was simply playing truant and straining his ears to listen in. Whatever he'd been expecting to hear from Velvet's mouth, it wasn't a man's voice.

"The place is a fortress, but there's an easy way to get in if you don't raise any alarms." 'Velvet' said, a man in a cowboy hat nodding in agreement. Guido did a double take as he got a better look, shooting away from the window and starting to sweat.

Hol Horse is here?!

It had only been a matter of time until Passione arrived, he'd known that on some level, but to have them already be here was a new experience. Slowly, he reached down to his holster and unbuckled his revolver, sliding it out. His Stand was well suited to assassinations like this – if he could pull the trigger twice with nobody noticing, Sex Pistols would take out two known criminals immediately. As he loaded it, he looked straight ahead and saw Blake rapidly closing on him, glaring.

"What are you doing here?" Guido hissed in disbelief. Blake's eyes widened as she glanced at him.

"I could say the same!" She said, far too loud. Guido winced, Hol Horse looked up from his food, and that was when everything went to hell.

"Beacon student! Move!" He barked, and 'Velvet' shot out of the back door. Blake got ready to follow her, when Hol Horse put the piece of straw he'd been chewing down on the table and stood up, pointing his hand at the door. "EMPEROR!"

She barely had time to register the gun's sudden appearance and dodge when the first bullet was fired, streaking over her shoulder and searing her flesh. Stumbling to the ground, she had to roll to the side to avoid being trampled by the panicked horde of families leaving the restaurant, even as sirens started to sound in the distance. Scowling, Guido finished loading his revolver, shimmying up next to the door.

"Get after that imposter before you lose her!" He snapped. "I'll take care of this bastard!"

He rounded the corner at the same time Hol Horse did, who reacted with equal shock, leaping backwards and summoning Emperor once more. Guido frantically fanned the hammer, not even bothering with Sex Pistols yet, just to force the assassin back into cover. Blake snapped (Weapon name) onto the roof and shot off, spotting Velvet in the distance, running after her.

"Passione." Guido growled. Hol Horse smiled thinly.

"A Joestar student…fun!"

Sex Pistols manifested immediately, circling around and passing Guido's first bullet between them. That one had been a diversion, to force Hol Horse into cover while Guido found some of his own – which he did, diving behind a nearby bus stop and panting heavily.

This was going to get rough.

"Stop!" Blake demanded, following 'Velvet' and growling to herself. The imposter seemed to be a master at blending in, at point even seeming to change the colour of their clothes – which was impressive. It had to be part of their Stand ability, or a semblance – she'd figure out which when she caught up to them. At least they were slow.

Leaping over a railing, the imposter dropped down several feet to a canal, landing heavily and cracking the rock beneath their feet – almost as if they weighed much more than they normally should. Latching Gambol Shroud onto the same railing, Blake lowered herself and glared as she landed, detaching the whip portion of her weapon and settling into a combat stance. "Who are you?"

"My name?" 'Velvet' giggled, as her features twisted and fell away into yellow goo, revealing a thickly built man. "Well, my codename is Rubber Soul. Little girl, you don't stand a chance."

"We'll see." She muttered darkly, levelling a pistol at his head. "Where's Coco?"

"Her? Oh, I need to keep her alive or the impersonation won't work. She's still on the campus, one of your paranoid friends will find her soon enough. After all, my mission is complete. Your security is incredibly lacking." He grinned, the yellow goo clinging to his body and shifting its shape. "Still, I don't need to keep you alive."

Blake opened fire, just as she'd been trained to – three shots to the center of mass, one for the head. Each bullet was intercepted by the goo, which seemed to swallow the shots and – bizarrely – grow larger. Rubber Soul laughed, pointing a finger at the girl as his goo armour moved to cover the rest of his body.

"See, girl? Useless. My Stand, Yellow Temperance, can prevent any attack. It's the ultimate defence, I tell you! You're nothing before it!"

Stand Name – Yellow Temperance

User – Rubber Soul

Destructive Power – D

Speed – C

Range – E

Durability – A

Precision – E

Developmental Potential – D

Other: Yellow Temperance allows Rubber Soul to alter his appearance, as long as it matches something that currently exists and he is aware of. It is also physically impervious, and assimilates matter that it comes into contact with.

This is bad. Blake reflected, swinging up to grab onto one of the bridge supports and opening fire again, the bullets once more being absorbed by Yellow Temperance and strengthening him. If I could find a blind spot, I'd be able to put him down – but he's too good, he won't let me find one.

"Here, kitty kitty kitty!" Rubber Soul mocked, planting his palm against the side of the support. Yellow Temperance slid out from around his arm and started eating away at the wood, making the bridge shudder and forcing Blake to cling on for dear life, tossing Gambol Shroud to the ground with a clatter – at least on the other side of the river from him. "Haha! Honestly, if this is the best Beacon can do I'm not impressed!"

Bracing herself, Blake leapt to another support just as that one cracked and the entire bridge drooped to the side – thankfully, nobody was on it anymore. Not that she imagined the inevitably arriving authorities would be much help. Reaching out with her Semblance, she made a copy of herself and used its slight tangibility to drop down without hurting herself, landing heavily on the other side of the river and scooping up Gambol Shroud once more.

It's absorbing all physical matter. She noted, frowning. If my bullets won't do anything, the whip won't either.

She needed to do something, anything, to at least knock him out. If he escaped, not only would she be dead but it was entirely possible he could infiltrate the academy a second time under the guise of a different student – a problem that she wasn't sure anyone would be able to detect. Racking the slide, the beginnings of a plan started to form in her head.

He still needs to breathe…

The canal. That was her best chance. How to get him in there, though? Well, it took Yellow Temperance time to absorb matter. Maybe, just maybe, she could yank him into the river with her whip before the rope snapped. It was risky, but it was the best chance she had. Unless…

"Alright." She said to herself, eyeing the broken supports before snapping Gambol Shroud up to latch onto the bridge one more time.

"Hah! Trying to escape, are you?" Rubber Soul taunted, before he noticed something – she wasn't swinging away anymore. Now, she was swinging towards him. Grimacing in preparation for the impact, Blake's boots landed heavily into Rubber Soul's chest, Yellow Temperance starting to leech over them as the man stumbled backwards, unbalanced, and fell into the river. Tying Gambol Shroud to a nearby hook, she dove down after him and latched into his throat, wrapping the whip around his neck.

Rubber Soul laughed, the bubbles of air escaping his mouth even as he pointed at her arm. Glancing down, Blake's eyes widened in silent horror as Yellow Temperance ate away at her flesh.

If I'm going down, you're dying first! Rubber Soul seemed to taunt her with his eyes, and Blake couldn't think of a way out of this situation. Not easily, anyway.

That was when something flickered behind Rubber Soul. Something large, smokey, and cat-like.

"EMPEROR!"

"SEX PISTOLS!"

Bullets started flying through the air as Guido fanned the hammer of his revolver, each of the shots curving around in a different direction. Hol Horse's semi-automatic returned fire, its own bullets adopting a spiral pattern that forced Guido to duck behind cover. The various Bullets of Guido's stand sped towards Hol Horse, who grinned around his cigarette and fired again as rapidly as possible.

The shots twisted in the air, impacting each of the Bullets as the approached him and knocking them out of the air. The rounds they were carrying shot straight forward, smashing the mirror behind Hol Horse. Behind his cover, Guido gasped in pain as six bullet wounds opened up on his body – two on each arm, two in his stomach.

"He shot them down…?"

"That's what you get for relying on a Stand for accuracy!" Hol Horse chuckled, spinning Emperor in his hand over and over as he approached the bus stop. Guido grimaced and reloaded, recalling his Stand into the chambers of his gun.

"While you need an infinite magazine to do shit." He spat back, rolling out of cover and firing. Hol Horse grinned and fired again, making the cowardly Bullets dive out of his path, until he realized something just as the sixth bullet rammed into his chest.

Guido had only used five of his Bullets to guide his shots. Hol Horse had, arrogantly, assumed he would try to guide all of them – and thus, fired his counter shots to hit the Stands and once again hurt Guido. Since that hadn't happened, however, one round had gotten through…which was all Guido needed. Bleeding from his wounds, the former assassin dragged himself to his feet and snapped one more round into his gun, levelling it at the stunned cowboy's head.

"Need to use my Stand my ass." Guido snorted. Hol Horse winced in fear, before his grin turned triumphant as he saw something rise up behind Guido in his own pool of blood. The JOJO member cried out in pain and fell to the floor as Hanged Man impaled him in the 'shoulder', making him drop out of the range of the reflection caused by his blood.

"We're leaving." J Geil growled, and Hol Horse hurridly agreed, clutching the hole in his chest and running. Guido dragged himself to his knees and levelled his pistol, firing the round he'd intended to execute Hol Horse with, but it went wide.

"…crap."

Well, at least he'd driven them off. They'd have their rematch eventually. Now, where was Josuke or Giorno to patch him back up again?

Blake's newly-awoken Stand ripped its claws across Rubber Soul's back, forcing more air out of his lungs even as Yellow Temperance latched onto it as well. The Stand just shed away the affected portion of its body, dissipating like smoke as it bit the back of Blake's neck like a kitten and tossed her out of the water, where she landed on the side of the canal, coughing up water and writhing in pain from Yellow Temperance's stretch on her arm.

"Blake!"

Guido dropped to the ground, the rest of Team JOJO behind him. Josuke clutched something in his Stand's hand, a fragment of her clothing that she must have left behind at the restraunt when it all started – he must have used it to track her. Waving them away, she glanced down into the river where her Stand continued to shed smoke to prevent Yellow Temperance getting a hold on it, all while keeping Rubber Soul's head below water.

Eventually, he stopped struggling, and Yellow Temperance stopped eating at her arm and eventually vanished into thin air, revealing a bloodied mess of half-dissolved flesh.

"I'm gonna be sick." Josuke admitted, looking away queasily. Blake started hyperventilating, glancing away from her arm and shaking. Giorno just sighed and crouched down next to her, Gold Experience manifesting next to him.

"This is going to hurt." He said softly, as Gold Experience drew back its fist.

"Are you going to cut it off?" Blake managed to get through clenched teeth. Giorno chuckled, and then Gold Experience struck her, and her vision turned white. Screaming, she twisted to glance at her arm and her eyes widened as the flesh that Yellow Temperance had burned away slowly reformed.

"I can heal people, it just hurts." Giorno said, nodding towards Josuke. "He can stick stuff back together, but since your flesh was just gone, I was your only option."

"Thanks." Blake said through gritted teeth, standing up before woozily falling over. Her Stand manifested again, letting her lean on its side as she tried to regain her balance.

"I don't give you back blood." Giorno pointed out, making the faunus nod in acknowledgement. "Congratulations, by the way. What's it called?"

Blake glanced at her Stand for a moment, before smiling. "…From Shadows."

"Neat." Guido grunted. "So…can we go back and get yelled at by officials now?"

RUBBER SOUL – RETIRED (KILLED)

Stand Name – From Shadows

User – Blake Belladonna

Destructive Power – C

Speed – B

Range – C (40 meters)

Durability – N/A, Smoke

Precision – A

Developmental Potential – A

Other: From Shadows can turn itself, and anyone riding it, temporarily intangible in the form of smoke. In addition, this smoke can create clones of itself and its user, who have little substance of their own but can be used for spying and confusing enemies in a fight.

A/N: Brought to you by the Air Punch rock playlist on Spotify. I had to skip last month for various other commitments, but what can you do – and I've adjusted myself to a much saner limit of 5,000 words a chapter instead of 10,000. I forgot work was a thing.