Somewhere in Vale

? PoV

I sighed in relief as my favorite song came in over my earbuds, "Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There" was the name of the song. I took a few cans from the cart I had next to me and began stocking up the soup containers. I had been working here for about two years now, constantly on the push to make more and more money to support myself since getting seperated from my family...but that was too long ago to start thinking about it now.

"It means there's only soup!" A man's voice yelled, echoing above my earbud volume, which was quite the feat. I took my earbuds out and walked around the small store, trying to find out where the yeller was. I peaked down one of our three small aisle, and saw the man holding a black scroll, which was obviously on speaker.

"Then get out of the soup aisle!" I heard through my black fox ears, as the person on the other end of the line was talking softly. The man in question was wearing a black fedora and a normal black suit and seemed to be in an absolutely foul mood. Actually interested in the conversation, I decided to follow the man around and see how bad it would get, there wasn't always much comedy in this job so I had to get my entertainment where I could.

"Alright you don't have to shout me!" The man shouted as he walked into another aisle, to which I quickly followed. Could he be dumb enough to look for something other than soup in a soup store? I felt my eyes burn red as I continued to listen, I had a feeling this was going to get bad really fast.

"You really are dimwitted aren't you!" I heard the guy on the other end of the scroll say, as if he were reading my mind. I saw the fedora man grit his teeth, his skin turning a very odd shade of red.

"SCREW YOU DIPSHIT!" The man bellowed then threw his scroll on the ground, having it shatter into pieces. This was not going to end well, either A:He was going to destroy an aisle or B: He was going to destroy the store.

"Um, excuse me sir?" I said bravely walking down the aisle, ready to face this angry person.

"What do you want little shit?!" He asked me in a pissed off voice as he spun around to look at me. His two red eyes sort of threw me off but I spoke anyways, hopefully prepared for what was going to come.

"I have to ask you to leave before you destroy anything." I said gesturing around the aisle and towards the glass door. I would hate to have to explain to my manager why the entire store was left to shambles because one argumentative person. I took a deep breath and continued. "We are about to be closed and I'd much rather not have to clean up your mess."

"Or how about this?" He said in a smug tone of voice, folding his arms. "I stay here and you bring me exactly what I'm looking for."

"Listen here" I said starting to get annoyed more with this asshat. I checked my watch and saw we had just reached closing time. "This is after hours for me, I'm supposed to be off the clock but because of you wasting my time, I have to stay longer and clean up after you and restock. I'm not going to have you destroy anything or waste any of my time so get out of the store now!"

"Or what?" He asked with a smug tone, making me even more irritated than I was already getting. I took a deep breath, trying to control my tone and irritation but I knew it wasn't going to end up working very well.

"Serious you douche monkey, we can do easy way or the hard way. Choice. Is. Yours." I said intensely looking in his eyes, not caring about any form of repercussions. Suddenly the guy starts to slowly glow a bright red, as he cracks a very disturbing looking smile on his face.

"I vote the hard way." He said very menacing as the light started emanate from his skin, heat beginning to form around me. I don't know what was about to happen, all I know that is that I need to get away from him as quickly as possible.

"Oh no" I muttered quickly spinning my nine tails to take off the ground, pushing off with my feet as well, and flying to the door as fast as I could.

BOOM

An explosion tore through the entirety of the store and sent a shockwave right into my back, shoving me at extreme speed into the glass door. The horrible sound of metal tearing and glass shattering, along with a sharp pain going through my whole body, jarred me into semi-unconsciousness.

"Ugh." I groaned, laying on the ground in pain. I sat up after a bit and noticed the smoke had cleared, and the damage was made clear. The entire store, edged between two other buildings, was steaming a bit and was in a state of pure destruction. Pieces of aisle, glass, and even cement lay all around me. Well, there went my job.

"Disgusting." I groaned as I carefully began to pick myself off the ground, noticing pain was going through my right leg most of all, and slowly limped my way back towards the store. I saw nothing but wet soup and a large break in the far wall, leading into the other building. That was probably where the man had escaped to. I entered the back room to find my things amazingly intact. I sighed then grabbed my stuff and left, there was no way I was going back. The owner was not very fond of Faunus like myself, and I would almost certainly be blamed and jailed for the stores destruction. It was better to act like I wasn't there at all.

As I walked I noticed the wind blowing every so slightly, what a beautiful night it was. I glanced up at the stars and the cracked moon, amazed by its beauty. I had always wondered as to the story behind how it got the way it did, but it didn't seem anyone knew for certain, only stories we were told as children. I looked down at my clothes, which was comprised of Blue jeans that were worn and dusty, sneakers that which were once white, but due to age were now ash grey, and a T-Shirt with the words "Break of Life" written on it, which happened to be my favorite band. Sadly though the shirt was covered in all kinds of soups that were slowly drying on the shirt, which was rather disgusting. I needed to wash it when I got home.

"Who the hell was that? Why did he explode the store? Ugh, suck it up and go home Aura..." I said talking to myself. Even though I was super irritated, lost my job, and had my favorite shirt ruined, I still enjoyed my walk as it managed to really soothe me. I had always loved quiet walks by myself.

Turning the next corner, I saw a group of seven men walking. Normally I wouldn't mind it, however in the middle of the group I saw two men holding a struggling woman with blond hair and green eyes, by her arms. She looked to be fairly weak and had bruises all over her. They turned into an alleyway, and being someone who wouldn't stand for it, I ran after them into the alley, trying to focus my aura on healing my leg. This probably won't end well either.

"Let me go!" I heard the women yell with venom in her voice. Though she couldn't say anymore as one of the men slapped their hand over her mouth to keep her from yelling any further, but it was too late. I had already heard them.

"Don't try it lady. You are nothing compared to us." The assumed leader of the group said, though it was hard to tell as they all wore the same sort of black clothing and black masks. The rest of the guys then pulled out normal pistols and aimed it at the woman. "It's the middle the night, there's seven of us, and besides if you try anything again…we'll end you here. So just try and make yourself comfortable, because this is going to be fun."

He slowly reached forward towards her shirt with sexual intent, but before he could I threw a can right into the head of the supposed leader, amazed that I had hit my target.

"Hey!" I called, projecting my voice out across the alleyway as best as I could. Everyone turned to look at me, which cause me to clench my fists… sick bastards. These guys didn't even have the guts to show their faces, and hid everything but their eyes. From within me, I pulled on everything I had experience, both today and in my life. "Leave her alone!"

"Haha, nice joke there kid" Someone in the group said looking at each other before breaking out in arrogant laughter. The leader finally spoke after calming down from his own laughter.

"Now run along child, we adults have mature things to take care of." He said turning back to the woman, intent filling his body language.

"And by that you mean raping a woman, wow… how 'mature' you are…" I said sarcastically, my anger rising from seeing these purely horrible individuals. I then crossed my arms. "How about you actually TRY to be the mature, let her go and leave this place without any problems?"

"Listen child…" The leader started to say as he and the others pointed their guns at me. "Do you really want to die here, in a alleyway? It would be a shame if that were to happen."

"Ok, now you listen. I'm not afraid of you, and why should I? The fact that you think it's smart to do something this stupid is just funny. Really shows how intelligent each of you are." I said baiting them as I laid my trap. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I held out hope.

"Ok, that's it!" He shouted, obviously taking my insults extremely personally. "Ready, Aim, Fire!"

All of the filthy criminals simultaneously fired eight shots each at me, while the woman looked away from the scene. As the bullets moved from the gun I closed my eyes, really focusing on what I wanted to do and hoping that it would work out.

"Really? You think it would be that easy? Ha!" I said with a proud laugh, my plan working out perfectly. Even before their bullets had exited the gun I had already had a plan. Using my semblance I could move physical, non-living, objects. This meant that I could rapidly slow down the bullets as they came out of the gun in theory, though I hadn't exactly tried it before. As the bullets slowed, they came to a halt right in front of me, about to penetrate my body… luckily I had been standing this far back or I would have been a dead faunus guy. When they looked at me, they noticed that not only was I still standing, but the bullets were lightly glowing light blue and hanging mid air. "It's no use, take this!"

I flung each bullet back at each of the members, hitting them in various places on their body, though making sure they weren't lethal wounds. Each bullet hit its mark, wasting away a lot of my energy, causing me to fall to my knee. I was out of breath for a few moments, but quickly pushed myself up, knowing what I needed to do. I walked over to the woman who was in the middle of the fallen criminals, all groaning in pain, and helped the woman up. "Are you ok mi-"

"You stupid an-" One of the guys said, starting to stand up but before he could, I shot one of my tails out and hit the man in the gut. He collapsed back to the ground, and I stood over him, honestly feeling a bit of power coursing through me.

"Really? Haha" I chuckled as I looked the man in the eye, his eyes wide with fear. I bent down and punched him in the face hard, knocking him out. "People like you make me sick to think about. So just stay down!"

Knowing for sure they were all down, I turned back around to the woman. I took her hand and helped her up. "Anyway… are you ok Miss…"

"Goodwitch, Glynda Goodwitch." The woman said gracefully as she looked around for something. After a moment, she seemed to find what she was looking for around one of the criminals, and picked it up. In her hand was a black riding crop, which made me question her in my head. "And yes, I am ok Mister…"

"Sharp. My names is Aura Sharp." I told her with a stutter, my burst of confidence beginning to ward off.

"Aura?" Miss Goodwitch asked in a curious tone, as if she hadn't heard me right. I sighed, then repeated my name.

"Yeah… please don't ask." I said in a sort of defeated, beginning to walk towards the entrance of the alleyway. "Anyway, now that you're ok I'm going to drag my tired and slightly wounded body back home. See you around Miss Goodwitch."

"Wait a minute ." Miss Goodwitch called me before I could walk very far. I turned around and noticed she was walking towards me. As she reached me, I noticed that she was a few inches taller than me so I had to look slightly upward at her. "I would actually like you accompany me on my walk."

"To where and why?" I asked curiously, confused as to what this lady would want. Normally I would have refused to follow anyone with such a request, but where else did I have to go? I hadn't had that much in the first place and what I did have was basically destroyed by that man. Soon I wouldn't have enough money to pay rent, and I wouldn't find another job for sure. What could I lose by following her?

"I believe you will just have to trust me, your future will depend on it."She said softly, confusing me even further if I was honest. It would seem I wouldn't get my answers until we ended up where we were going, which I hoped would be the answer to my now looming problems.