Chapter Text
Each step was a jolt up Weiss’s spine as she sprinted across the rooftops, her lungs burning as she panted through her mask. She was really regretting a lot of things; having a recognizable semblance, wearing heels because she forgot to change into her sneakers, and the mask that she had to wear to avoid being recognized. If the Schnee family’s powers weren’t so well-known, she could skate around on her glyphs, but no , she had to run everywhere.
Okay, forgetting the sneakers was definitely on her, and there was no way she would be making that mistake again. She had assumed it would be fine, but her toes, the arches in her feet, and her ankles were all killing her. A couple of times, Weiss had slammed into the ground and had to roll, her ankles giving out upon trying to land jumps across rooftops in five-inch platforms.
Not fun.
Weiss cursed as she screwed up another landing and slammed to the rooftop, skidding on her face and thanking whatever was out there that her costume had been based on a knight’s armor and offered her some protection from her own stupidity.
She grimaced as she sat there, massaging her ankle. That settled it, the shoes had to go.
Her feet would be beaten up after tonight, but hopefully no one would notice. Or, if they did, she could just say that she had wanted to practice ballet on pavement to test herself. That excuse would make her look like an idiot, but making people think she was a total ditz might prevent them from suspecting that she was a vigilante.
Hopefully.
Sighing, Weiss unstrapped her terribly impractical heels and placed them in the middle of the roof. She was in a more residential area where there weren’t too many cameras, and no one in their right mind would climb onto this roof, so she was pretty sure no one would find her shoes.
Well. Bare feet it was, then. This was going to suck.
Weiss got to her feet and kept moving. It seemed pretty quiet here at the moment, so she didn’t think there was much she could do.
She kept running, heading towards her part of the city, making her way to the ground when the heights of the roofs in the area started to vary too much to jump back and forth between.
Her heart rate doubled when she heard a crash from down the block, not even in the shadier part of town.
Weiss picked up her pace, grimacing as her feet protested the bumpy and unforgiving surface of the cobblestone.
She skidded to a stop in front of the back entrance of the one business that had lights on, holding her sword in a ready position, and promptly did a double- take.
Schnee Dust Company read the label above the store. Who the hell was breaking into an SDC store? The security in these places was insane!
Weiss scowled as her eyes alighted on a figure cloaked in red. Of course, they were involved.
“Red,” she huffed. “ What on Remnant do you think you’re doing ?”
The figure turned to her with a cheery wave. “I’m helping!”
“By stealing ?” Weiss asked, incredulous.
They seemed to think about that for a second. “Well, yeah! I did name myself after Robin Hood after all! I’m stealing from the rich to give to the poor! Did you know that the Schnee Dust Company has a near monopoly on dust production and sales? Oh, also, I made some new friends!”
Weiss blinked. “I thought you were supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood? And more importantly, what friends?”
The Red Hood turned to wave to some people who were further inside the store, ransacking the dust shelves. “Guys! This is White, she’s cool.”
“Um, that’s White Knight to you, and you’re robbing a store! You should all be imprisoned!”
Weiss nearly screeched as five people approached the front of the store. Four of them were wearing matching cheap suits and sunglasses, like some sort of weirdly conspicuous security detail. The last person was wearing a white suit, carried a cane, and had a shock of red hair covering his eye.
“That-that’s Roman Torchwick! And again, you’re robbing a store. With a known criminal, apparently. How are you avoiding the cameras?”
Red hummed, running their hands over their weirdly complex scythe. “Well, originally they were planning on robbing a smaller business, but I convinced them to go after the SDC instead! And I was already kind of planning to rob this spot, so I hacked in and looped the security cameras in advance and I disabled the alarms! So no cops! And now I have new friends! I’ll take the cash and they’ll take the dust. It’s perfect, and we can help each other out on sticking it to the man in the future!”
Weiss had no idea how they had managed to hack into an SDC store, but she would have to ask them later. But she didn’t approve of the fact that Red was blatantly stealing now, or that they were associating with a wanted criminal. She had half a mind to call the police on them!
“Hey, Cinderella, since you’re here, want to do us a favor and look out for cops?” Roman asked her.
Weiss bristled. “Wha- excuse you , I go by White Knight! And I will not be helping with this, thank you very much! I’m not a criminal!”
Roman snorted, raising an eyebrow. “Well, it looks like you’ve lost your glass slippers. And sweetheart, you keep telling yourself that. Vigilantism is illegal, you know. And so are a lot of other things, like not being able to afford medical bills, or housing. This system hurts a lot more people than just stealing some dust. So, aren’t we all criminals, really?”
Weiss glared at him. “Well, maybe, but stealing hurts people, too. Besides, what are you even doing with all of that dust?”
Roman did not seem overly impressed, and she was sure that she heard Red snort in amusement. “Oh, you know,” he grinned. “Working on something. But you don’t seem like you’d be interested, so I guess you won’t be finding out. Now if you’re not going to help, you should get going. We don’t need bystanders.”
Weiss huffed, picking her way over the broken glass that littered the back entrance of the store. This was not her problem. If she called the cops then Red would be implicated, and if one vigilante was targeted for stealing from one of the most powerful companies in the world, then the authorities would come down on all of them, hard. And that was not something Weiss could afford.
She rolled her eyes, resolving to keep moving, her thoughts a tangled mess. Weiss found her way back to the rooftops a few blocks later, finally managing to make it to a seedier area, where all of the bars and nightclubs were located. There was sure to be something to do around here.
Weiss sighed, sitting on a rooftop across the street from a bar that was known to have a lot of… trouble.
A huge part of being a vigilante was helping people. Actually, that’s kind of all it was. But Weiss had assumed that all of the vigilantes in the city had been like her, and had copious amounts of pocket money to give away to the homeless and those who were going hungry. She had never thought that the others were stealing .
She should’ve, and it was probably pretty obvious, but she had convinced herself that all the reports of crimes being done by vigilantes were based on lies. She hadn’t wanted to think that they were criminals .
Wasn’t stealing hurting people? Wasn’t breaking the law inherently bad? Did all of this make them just as bad as supervillains?
Weiss was removed from her moral dilemma as she glanced down below. Someone stumbled out of the bar, barely able to stand, surrounded by three other people, all of whom looked perfectly fine. It definitely didn’t seem right, and Weiss was worried that the person who was inebriated might be unsafe.
So, like any good vigilante, she followed.
The rooftops suited Weiss just fine for the moment, the pavement down below far too rough for her bare feet. At least, until the three figures surrounding the inebriated person began to approach a car. She had to at least find out what was going on.
Skating down the side of the building that she was on on small, inconspicuous glyphs, Weiss dashed over to her new acquaintances. The girl in the middle was swaying, but seemed to be resisting being pushed into the car.
“What seems to be the problem here?” Weiss asked sweetly.
The three boys that surrounded her seemed remarkably alert and sober, considering the girl’s condition.
“Uh,” said one, his voice going up half an octave as he saw Weiss standing in front of them, sword lazily held in her left hand.
“We’re just helping her get home,” said one of the others.
“I can escort her. You’re no longer needed, gentlemen. Have a good night,” she said, checking the nails on her other hand.
“Wait, but you don’t know where she lives, and she’s really drunk,” said the last boy.
“And you do?”
He hesitated far too long before nodding, blinking too much as he did so. Lie.
“Sure,” Weiss said sweetly. “And I’m the Red Hood. Hand her over, boys. I’ll get her home safe.”
Reluctantly, irritated looks on their faces, the three boys stepped back from their prey, leaving her to slump against the side of the car.
Weiss tsk ed at them before grabbing the girl and slinging her over her shoulders. She would get her- well, if not home, then someplace safe.
Walking in the other direction of the car, she eventually put the girl down beneath a streetlight, before checking her pockets. Her license would have her address listed, and if she didn’t have one on her, Weiss knew of several hotels in the city where she could leave her.
She struggled for a minute or two before- aha! Her back left pocket yielded results. 132 Cherry Street. Weiss cursed. She didn’t know where that was.
But that was okay, because she had a GPS device on her, just in case she ever got lost while canvassing the city. She set it for the girl’s address, lifted her once more, and started walking.
It was a long walk, almost three miles, so she may have used her glyphs to zip around when it was particularly dead. It’s not like she had all night. And no, she shouldn’t have been using her glyphs at all, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Eventually, she got the girl back to her apartment, picking the lock and depositing her onto the couch in the living room before heading back out the door.
She still had a patrol to take care of.
Huffing, she climbed back onto the roofs, heading back to her section of the city. The four vigilantes of Vale, they had unofficially split the city into quarters, and they each ran patrols, taking care of the citizens in their respective areas.
Generally there wasn’t much reason for them to work together- they each worked independently, doing what they could to help the city in their own ways.
Usually, Weiss tried to leave the others alone, and they did the same for her, except for Red. The Red Hood was young, immature, and was always interfering with her work. It infuriated her, but they were technically colleagues, so she had to work with them.
Trying to get them off of her mind, she headed back to her route, switching it up a little bit, and heading back towards where she had left her shoes. She couldn’t just leave them on a random rooftop, after all.
And that was when Red appeared.
The dolt in the red cape was going to get them killed . Or worse, caught. They would be caught regardless, but at least if Weiss was dead, all of the controversy of her vigilantism would fall in her father’s lap, not hers. If Weiss was taken alive, though, then she would have to answer for all of her crimes. She would be disowned, disinherited, and shipped off to prison, which was not a prospect she was thrilled about, thank you very much.
Weiss grit her teeth and shook her head. She was monologuing to herself. Maybe if she cut back on her nighttime activities and actually got the amount of sleep she was supposed to, she would stop being distracted and narrating her own life. It’s not like anyone was going to be reading her story.
Jolting out of her thoughts, Weiss grabbed the back of the idiot’s cape and yanked , slamming them both to the cold, hard surface of the roof they were perched on, cursing as her arm landed in an icy puddle.
“ Hey ,” the Red Hood hissed, “I was checking that alley next to the building. I heard something down there, and someone might be in trouble.”
Weiss rolled her eyes under her mask. “And once again, the White Knight has to save you from your own sorry ass. I’m not sure if you noticed, but the construction site across the street has a swiveling camera right at eye level of the roof of this building! Any property owned by the SDC is bound to have cameras everywhere , and you have to pay attention, or else we’re all screwed,” she lectured.
Red winced. “Sorry,” they muttered, pressing themselves lower to the roof and further into the corner of the low wall that lined the top of the building.
“Yeah, whatever. Just be careful,” Weiss huffed. “Draw the attention of the authorities all you’d like, just don’t do it on my turf. Not all of us have super speed, you dolt.”
Red sighed. “I get it . Can you stop with the lecture now? I feel like I’m talking to my dad.”
Weiss brushed off the comment. “Hey, what are you even doing in my part of the city, anyway? Did you forget where you usually patrol?”
“No! I- I just. Look, I had a hunch. I’m trying to figure something out.”
“Uh-huh. And what is so important that you have to go and almost get me caught?” Weiss drawled.
The Red Hood glanced up, their gaze suddenly piercing. “Ever heard of the Salem Project?”