AN: I know. I'm crunching these out like clock work. Now, these characters are loosely based off real people. We created them together. We all wrote stories with them, but I'm only posting the ones I wrote. You actually get a lot of back ground in this story.
Quick Character Bios for Team BLJC (Black Jack). And Yes, they are suit and card themed.
Burgundy Marx: Leader (21) – Ace of Diamonds
Semblance- Tremorsense (Shockwave)
Weapon- Block (Sledgehammer) and Mortar (Hardlight Gauntlet)
Lazuli Jones: (20) – Jack of Hearts
Semblance: Written Apparitions (Summons with writing)
Weapon: Pistol and throwing pens
Carmyne Rowley: (22) – Queen of Spades
Semblance: Telekinesis (uses thread)
Weapons: Dust Whip and Pistol
Jette Black: (23) – King of Clubs
Semblance: Kinetic Energy Empowerment (absorbs energy into body to enhance strength)
Weapon: Katar dagger (Pain), Punishment (shotgun)
Truth Behind Lies
The girl in black swung her legs over the side of her bed. She took a deep breath and adjusted the wrappings around her lean body. She winced at the deep bruise on her ribs. She was a slow healer even with her high aura level. But she had work to do and rest could wait. Jette quietly pulled on her fraying crop top and tugged on the black and white plaid shirt. She reached for her headphones and set them around her neck, plugging the jack into her scroll. The next thing to do was fiddle with her arm to load it full of buckshot. She moved quietly to her pack and made sure everything was in order.
"Jette?" The brawler froze and kept her back to her companions at the sound of her sleepy partner. "What is going on? Why are you awake?"
The girl slowly turned and faced the three people she loved more than anything. She dreaded the day they would find out the truth. They would never trust her again.
"You would disappear for days while at school and return looking like shit," Carmyne looked hurt. Her partner was leaving her once again. The huntress believed Jette was here to stay, but the brawler had another agenda and it hurt. "Where did you go? What did you do?"
"We are a team. If there is a problem, we come clean," Lazuli added and sat with her knees out, soles of feet pressed together. "We've been a team since we were seventeen and eighteen. Years."
"Take your time," Burgundy rolled on his side and watched his teammate deflate.
Jette sighed and hopped up onto the desk. She looked at her hands. One cold metal and the other warm flesh. The brawler unlocked her gauntlet and shells emptied onto the floor with deep thunks as they bounced and rolled around. Jette replaced the covering and locked it in place with a clank. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. Jette's life was a train wreck before school. Killing came easy when you were raised with the idea no life was sacred. But then she met these three wonderful people who she felt honored to fight alongside. "Jette?" Carmyne sat up on her knees and observed her friend and partner. Worry filled her eyes as she could see Jette's pain in the darkness.
"Stark Black, code named Dragonfire," the girl began as she crossed her arms, "A contract killer, killed over a hundred men, women, and children in fifteen years. He would set off bombs in bullheads, snipe people from windows, poison, strangulation." Jette rubbed her hands together as she thought, growing nervous. "He and his wife, Metalstorm, tore apart their hunting team, literally, for coin. They had one girl and they raised her in a world of darkness, training her how to fight and defend herself. How to hunt… people."
The three kept quiet and stared at the girl. All three knew about Dragonfire. He killed many high-end targets. Some White Fang operatives too. But they did not know what he had to do with Jette leaving at the early hours in the morning.
"He was my father."
Carmyne gasped at Jette's confession. Thoughts swirled in her head, making her dizzy. This was not the first time Carmyne encountered Dragonfire, but she didn't expect it to be from the person she trusted the most in her life.
"Black did terrible things to me. Abused me. Trained me not to feel. How to kill with no remorse. One night he gave me the ultimatum to leave home with my life, or stay and die. I took my knife and ran out into the night before he could say twice. Anything to get away from that monster." Jette's hands gripped the edge of the desk. "I found shelter in one of my father's… enemies. He trained me up with one arm, made me useful," their eyes trained onto her mismatched arms. One cold and metallic and one hot, freckled flesh. "I would spend hours training myself up into a competent fighter, using only one hand and my feet," She kicked off her combat boots with metallic clank, hinting to the truth behind the metal heel. "I worked as a trump card for his gang. He would send me if he wanted brutality. I was not afraid to hurt or kill. I felt nothing when I slit throats, something I was known for. Then I would torch the scene with dust or other flammables." Jette pulled out Pain and drove the point into the wood. She then took out a hardened plastic tube with a few burn crystals, "I have the blood of six hits on this blade alone, one being my father. But I've killed others. Anyone who got in the way of my mission."
"Jette…" Carmyne sighed and wished to hug the smaller girl. Her partner was a contract killer. A murderer was right under their noses. Things began to make a lot more sense. Jette was never opposed to harming people no matter how innocent or unwarranted it was. She would go too far in fights. And it also explained why she was still alive. No one girl could live as long as she did without connections. And deep connections.
This girl with nothing more than the clothes on her back, a knife, and a glitchy prosthetic arm got into Haven Academy and quickly rose in the ranks in the battle rings, not too bad in the classroom, and successful in most other areas. All but team work. This was a girl who spent her whole life protecting herself and no one else. She did not think of anyone else but herself. Not in a selfish way. Just in a protective way. It took Jette the longest to adapt to a team setting, but once she did, their enemies fell like flies. Jette would even take hits for her team to keep them all alive on the battlefield. But she still did not care for anyone else. Only her team.
"Once I turned eighteen, so about four years and four kills in, I defected from The Organization to pursue a hunting career. I needed a cover identity and you know… some sort of life outside the darkness that is The Underground." The girl turned to Burgundy. "I knew you were curious about my files and respect you for not divulging the truth to the team."
"You knew!?" Lazuli turned to her partner and glared. Burgundy shrugged. He was a team leader. It's his job to know everything and Jette trusted him more than anything. When they went on their heist a few weeks back, the document recovered examined, in great detail, one of Jette's hits. Burgundy read the sensitive document and confronted Jette about it. She had to come clean. Not about everything, but enough.
"I told her it was in her best interest to tell you two as soon as possible. The Blacksmoke file…"
"Blacksmoke?!" Carmyne turned to the android who swayed her feet a bit in her nervousness. "You're—"
"Yes, I'm Blacksmoke. I killed Admiral Sasquatch Socks." Jette kept her head down because Carmyne was beyond upset about the news of his assassination. This admiral was a peaceful move to bridge the gap between Faunus and humans. He was murdered less than a day after he was promoted. Blacksmoke infiltrated his security detail and killed the admiral and his wife in their sleep. Then torched the place.
Jette made eye contact with Carmyne. Carmyne looked away in shock. Her best friend killed a hope in the dark for her people. Though Jette had no prejudice toward Faunus, she followed an order without question. She went against her own team to go on a mission that reignited the white fang's fire toward humans.
"I'm not as mindless as before, Carmyne. I don't blindly select missions and end lives for money anymore. I haven't used the name Blacksmoke in four years. Not since school ended. This hit… this mission is personal." The tank took out her scroll and sent the files to her three friends.
Erie Black
Code named: Metalstorm
Last known location: Textile Mill, West Route 50
Reward: 10,000 lein
"She's alive," Jette shifted uncomfortably as she studied the picture of her mother, "And I have to take her down. I'm the only one who can."
"Are your seriously going to kill your own mother?" Lazuli studied the shadowy picture. She looked so much like Jette, but with gray eyes instead of green. But the two wore the same dark colors and short hair. If the writer didn't know better, she wouldn't be able to tell the difference. "That's insane. The fact you killed your own father is crazy enough. But both?!"
"Lazuli," Burgundy cut his partner off before focusing on the small girl across the room. "Jette… As your friend, I understand. You feel responsible for all the pain she brought you and the world. And justice is, in fact, needed for people like your mother. But as your leader, I'm not allowing you to go on this mission. Team Blackjack is not killing people. Not for money."
"But…"
"No buts. If you walk out that door to take out your mother. Don't. Come. Back."
The air grew heavy with emotion. The negativity was strong enough to spawn Grimm from those nasty, black pits. The truth behind so many lies became clear. Jette wasn't who she said she was. She was a killer. A killer who would leave her team to bring justice to the world. Justice in the form of merciless brutality.
"And what if I stay? Are you three going to kick me out anyway?" Jette clenched the edge of the desk, digging her nails into the wood.
"Then you stay. We move on from this point as a team. This is not our first bad hand."
Carmyne and Lazuli rolled their eyes at their leader's joke. Jette hopped off the table and rolled her left shoulder before moving to the bed. The other three watched her carefully as she slowly took off her plaid shirt before laying back down.
"Go to bed," Burgundy suggested, "Now that the grimm are wiped out and the town has paid us, we can move out and search for more work."
Sadly, two of the four did not get any sleep. They both stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought. The Faunus turned and looked at her best friend in the darkness. The brawler had a fleshy arm tucked behind her head, looking at her metal fingers reflecting the moonlight from the window. The huntress rubbed her metallic finger tips together, testing the sensation. Or lack thereof.
"I know you are awake," Jette mumbled at her Faunus friend.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"The same reason you feel uncomfortable talking about your mother," Jette turned to her friend before switching beds to be with her. Jette sat by her friend's feet and rested a cold, metal hand on Carmyne's ankle. The Faunus jumped at the cool touch and Jette instantly pulled away. Carmyne was always cold and Jette's metal arm was almost always ice cold. "I never pressed you for that information and I'll never make you. But I feel it's the same. We both have shadows in our lives. More so that the other two, or at least darker. I feared you would reject me once you knew about Admiral Socks or my father or Blacksmoke."
"But why did you kill all those people?"
"Protection, money, guidance, loyalty," Jette listed softly, "the same reason we follow Burgundy."
"But Burgundy doesn't pay us to kill leaders and such."
"No, but he gives us a sense of belonging," Jette amended and smiled in the darkness. "I love you, Carmyne. You and the others are the family I never had. I'm not throwing that away."
Silence grew between the two partners. After a few long minutes, Jette slowly rose to her feet to return to her bed only for her wrist to get caught. She looked over at her arm and her eyes traveled to Carmyne's. Though the two were close and were used to physical contact, intimacy was not always welcome. Jette gently tugged against her friend's grasp, knowing now was not to time, only for the grip to tighten.
"Carmyne?" Jette warned. She would love to lay back and relax with her best friend, but Burgundy had a point. "We should get some sleep."
"You confessed your past to us." She said under her breath as her eyes bore into Jette's. "Now, more than ever, do I need to tell you about my mother, and myself."
Jette slowly sat down with her partner, arms so close they brushed against each other with each breath. For a while the only thing that broke the silence was a sniffle as a single tear that fell into Carmyne's lap. Jette kept her eyes on her partner because she rarely cried. This must had been a troubling story.
"When I was young, my mother was killed by a hunter. At first, I had no idea why, none of my family did. I know that moment is what drove my father to hit me when I asked him if I could apply to Haven."
Jette saw her clench the sheets in her fist and laid her cool hand on hers to comfort the Faunus. A few more tears escaped Carmyne's eyes as more emotions crashed upon her like a tidal wave. Jette was there for every tear and shaky breath. She was not letting her best friend travel this dark path alone.
"It wasn't until I ran away from that horrible place that I knew why my mother was dead. My mother was… she was one of the heads of the White Fang."
Burgundy rolled back over, starting to connect the clues he had collected about his teammate.
"So you are White Fang." He said in a calm tone and glanced at the bed next to him. Lazuli in her blue tank and shorts laid above to covers, silently listening to the Faunus's confession.
"I had nowhere to go." The Faunus struggled to compose herself as she sobbed. "I was an idiot for thinking I would be able to survive on my own in that cold wilderness. A White fang scout found me, and that's where I learned about who I really was. They were the ones who showed me love and power. They built me up into the fighter I am today."
She took a moment to catch her breath and Jette rubbed her back in encouragement.
"I tried to keep my family name a secret. If the group knew they had the daughter of a very influential family in their folds, who know what they would have done. Or at least that's what I thought. They told me about my mother once they learned my true identity. That's where I first heard of the name Dragonfire. That named was attached to my mother's death."
Jette's eyes opened wide as both their worlds crashed together in one moment. She quickly shut her mouth after she found it agape at the realization of why her friend reacted so powerfully to her confession. Her father ripped Carmyne's mother away from her. But then Jette killed her own father. She brought justice to the man who killed her best friend's mother. The brawler rubbed her right temple as a prick of a headache rose. This was a lot of information all at once.
"Carmyne," Jette began and focused her mind on the shattered moon, "Humans and Faunus will do anything to survive. Even the nicest people in the world turn to shady methods when they are faced with the choice to live or die. While I'm sure the White Fang did something for you as long as you participated in some way. But it's in the past. The White Fang is just a few pieces in the puzzle that makes up who you are." Jette let that sink in for a few minutes. "We do not judge."
Jette wrapped a hard, cold arm around her faunus friend. What was in the past stays in the past. Crime was nothing, really. The four shared a new life together and that is all that really mattered. Carmyne gave Jette a small smile and the smaller girl rested her forehead against her shoulder. The two gained comfort from each other and just small acts aided in hardship.
"Thank you for telling me," Jette mumbled as Carmyne relaxed a bit against her, "I'm sorry I wasn't totally honest with you."
"I was scared for the same reason and I respect you for not prying," Carmyne sighed, "Where did all your money go?"
Jette pulled away and held up her metal arm. She'd made many upgrades on this arm. The brawler reinforced the casing to endure her powerful semblance as well as modified the shotgun to not jam. She put a lot of work into it and now Carmyne understood why she took all those hits.
"Remember my first arm?" Carmyne grimaced at the memory. She ripped off Jette's first arm during training. She could still hear Jette's agonizing scream and it sent shivers down her spine. "I didn't want to hold the team back. That is why I took a few jobs. I needed a better arm."
Carmyne nodded and touched the steel. She always wondered how Jette got this arm. She had no money or influence, at least to Carmyne's knowledge at the time. Jette never really gave a full explanation to her arm, but it did not matter now. Everyone came clean and the truth was out. That was all that mattered.
The faunus yawned and laid back on her bed, a small smile gracing her lips. Jette gently reached over and covered the girl with her wool blanket. Jette leaned up and scratched some cat ears. Carmyne pushed her away with a laugh. Jette laughed back at her friend's reaction.
"You must pay for da scratches"
"Yeah. I know." Jette rolled her eyes and walked over to her bed. "Now sleep, kitty-kat."
"Jette…" Carmyne warned, her ears flattening against the top of her head in annoyance. Jette tested her limits too much.
"You love me," Jette stretched and laid back on her bed. "Good night, Carmyne."
"Good night, Jette."
The brawler stared at the moon for a long while, listening to the snores and mumbles from her sleeping companions. She went back to examining her hand. The thick metal casing had seen better days and all her sensors needed maintenance because her arm was still not designed for her semblance punches. But an upgrade must wait for honest money. Her days of killing for pay were over. The girl dealt a new hand and found a lucky straight.