A/N: Well hello there random stranger! And thank you for clicking on my humble fan fiction :)
I'm not going to say much in this author's note, as you should really be reading the story itself, but it should be stated that I'm relatively new writing/storytelling and so a lot of what you're going to read is going be my first uneasy steps as an author. This probably isn't selling the fic any... but I wanted to be honest.
Now with all that said n done. Please feel free to start scrolling down.
Chapter 1:
The Thief
"-and that's why you lot are staying here, Torchwick and Juniors crew will break in, start grabbing stuff, then we'll drive around and start loading crates."
Eir tried her best to listen to one of the crew leaders. The guy had a face like a bucket of smashed crabs, which was reassuring because it meant that he actually had seen action, but also concerning because it meant he had fucked up consistently over his time in the underground.
She was currently perching herself on the back of an unmarked van. One of two they would be using to drive their haul away tonight. The idea was that two crews would be used in this operation; One being Juniors thugs to steal the goods and rough up the place, and the other a set of nobody's to make sure said goods are safely whisked away in the dead of night. The place in question was a shop called From Dust Till dawn. Aptly named she supposed.
Eir shifted and leant her head on her hands. No longer caring for the man's words. The rest of the hired help stood around listened. They were a varied bunch, some human, some Faunus like herself, some looking like they had seen their fair share of hard times.
I know the feeling… She thought numbly in her boredom.
She wasn't exactly here by choice, more out of order for Eir to leave her family for a time without worry meant that she had to find a large sum of money quick. Of course this was always the case, but this time it really really mattered. She had a few contacts in the city who had pointed her to this heist, her reward based of the size of the haul. Ten percent in fact. Which was generous considering she was just one of the random's needed to pull of the gig.
The group organizing the raid were hiring some additional muscle. She had done enough jobs like this to know that they were the disposable end of the criminal stick but Eir was a brilliant escapist when it counted and so she agreed regardless. Though she never would have imagined Roman Torchwick was the one leading the raid. Eir wasn't sure if she liked that or not. Especially if she was one of the expendables in this instance.
Her gaze wandered, looking back at the group.
She took a closer look at Junior's men with their black suits and red sun glasses. Despite the get up they were still thugs at the end of the day. It was an odd contrast with the getaway crew present, most were wearing casual clothing almost like civilians. At least that made them look inconspicuous.
At some point the crew leader had left, everyone else started going about their duties. Jumping off the vehicle Eir decided to go look busy and took a quick stroll around the area. The street was annoyingly well lit, though luckily someone had the guile to place the getaway vehicles in a dark alleyway. She kept to the street during her walk, trying to look like another civilian but in truth scouting out potential threats, making mental notes of possible escape routes if things went downhill. Admittedly there were too many pedestrians around for her liking. It was late, but not late enough.
All in all it was a nice night, it was rare that she visited the nicer end of town. Things over here were clean, polished, and functional. Almost beckoning in tourists and the like. Newcomers would probably think that all of vale was like this. But like inspecting a mirror, the closer you look the more imperfections you would find. Maybe it was the amount of years Eir spent of the street, maybe it was the tension of the job, but every alleyway and shop corner seemed to present a hidden agenda. Despite what the city council liked to think most shops worth a damn in this town were probably owned by some criminal group or another. Though that was probably true of any city.
She kept her stride, dodging the occasional drunk and richer townsfolk. Despite everything vale was a decent place to live, she would have preferred the sights and smells of Vacuo, though her birthplace was a distant memory now.
Eir couldn't help but eavesdrop on people going about their day. Disgruntled night shift workers mumbling about long hours, the random drunk, lovers quarrels, it was all entertainment to her. It was times like these where she was thankful for her well attuned ears, a useful trait from her wolf Faunus heritage. She smiled to herself, stuffing her hands into her pockets. At least out here she could keep herself amused. Seriously these people's problems were minuscule, almost laughably so. There was a lot of talk about cheating boyfriends and plans for the weekend but nothing about where to find their next meal or someplace safe to sleep.
Eventually her thoughts began to turn to the task at hand. Despite her attempts at distracting herself Eir couldn't help and think of what she was about to do, what she was about to risk. Today was either going to be the solution or the escalation of her problems.
Giving one last glance at the crowd she decided to loop back around to the vans. With any luck the crowd would stay on this end of the street, and even if people saw Roman and his goons they would disperse. Say what you like about Torchwick but that man gave people good cause to shy away. She continued to think about the operation during the walk back. The job would pay well. The only problem here is that the haul was dust, a theft not taken lightly in any city and was dealt with accordingly. Something that risked her chances of enrolment at beacon. But this had to happen in order to reach the late enrolment period.
After some time Eir made her back to the alleyway, it seemed the rest of the crew were about ready to get things started.
She sighed and looked up to the sky.
"Everything going to be fine" She said to no one in particular.
Not one hour later…
"Everything's fucked!" She shouted at the one of the crew members.
Another crack of a rifle roared throughout the street, and to Eirs amusement it was also accompanied by the sound of fireworks.
"What the hell do you mean?" The getaway driver yelled back.
Eir looked behind her, clinging to one of the dust hauls she had pilfered earlier, watching the lights dance on the pavement from the relative safety of the dim alleyway. Those were definitely fireworks…
The man cursed and motioned Eir to get what she had in the back of the van.
She was about to do just that before hesitating. Her street urchin experience warning her. With this much noise the cops would already be coming, and considering it was a dust raid an unmarked van would be exactly what they'd be looking for. She gave a quick glance around her, checking her surroundings for her fellow thieves. It seems everyone was either scrambling to get their loot or making an early escape. No one had noticed Eirs presence
Perfect.
Eir waited a few seconds to pass then slapped the side of the van to signal that her part of the cargo was on board. In actual fact the crate was still very much in her possession.
She looked down and inspected her loot, it was the refined labelled stuff. Expensive, which was good, but a bitch to sell on the black market.
How the hell do I get myself into these situations? She thought herself, reflecting on yet another job gone wrong.
She was only a part of the clean-up crew, just there to help keep watch and help provide escort. This proved difficult considering a full-scale fight was happening right outside the place they were currently robbing, the police were probably already on their way and who's bright idea was it to be firing fireworks during a fricking heist!?
Her ears picked up faint sounds. Ones coming in from a few blocks away. Sirens.
Time to leave…
She was about to do just that before hesitating, her ears picking up the sounds footsteps stomping up to the van.
"Hey!" A man's voice shouted in her direction
She turned around. It was crab bucket man. His eyes were focused on the crate in her hand.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he barked.
"Just, uhhh checking the goods…" She responded, opening up the crate and fumbling with its contents.
The crew leader started marching up to her, weapon in hand.
She closed the crate with a thud, brandishing one of the containers filled with Dust
"Yeah, looks good to me." She noted, pretending to inspect one of the canisters
With a loud bang Eir smacked the container off the side of the van, causing little wisps of energy to escape the now cracked container.
"Oh…never mind, this ones damaged."
The crew leader hesitated, his stride winding down to a few careful steps. His eyes still furious but with a tinge of apprehension. The man couldn't help but notice Eirs devious expression.
"Here, catch."
She threw the container in front of him, with a metallic clink it hit the cobble, the fissures in the container widened and more light began to escape its confines.
Eir didn't stick around to watch the light show, instead she bolted into a neighbouring alleyway, still cradling her loot.
With a flash and crack of an explosion a torrent of flames erupted where Eir had fled just a moment ago.
She couldn't help but supress a giggle at the chaos behind her. Explosions were always more entertaining when you knew that you were the one who caused them.
Eir didn't care for the crew leader, he was probably fine, minus some shrapnel. Hell if the guy was smart he would have done the same thing as Eir. It didn't make sense that he was angry, after all what was to be expected of hiring a thief? Though maybe he was just pissed that Eir could get away with some loot while he could only suffer the wrath of his employer. God knows that face didn't need any more disfiguring scars.
She kept zig zagging through alleyways, shaking off any possible pursers. The sounds of her feet making hard contact with the floor only added to the amount of noise in the air. The sounds of an aircraft were also mixed in. A police chopper probably.
Her run became a jog, she was a few blocks away from the scene but the cops would establish a perimeter soon. Eir found the quieter end of the street, most of the civilians started watching the ensuing chaos. No one seemed to notice the Faunus girl carrying the crate of dust.
I need to drop this somewhere…
People were distracted but that didn't always mean you were safe, a lesson she learnt very early in life. If even one eye witness existed after this night it would probably mean the death of her plan to become a student at beacon. She found another nearby alleyway, judging by the nice layer of settled dirt this one probably saw little to no foot traffic. Eir checked both ends before dumping her loot underneath a nearby drainage grate. After putting some trash over the grate for good measure she promptly headed to an escape route she scouted earlier.
Eir continued along the pavement, she would pick up the crate tomorrow when things were quieter. For now she just had to try her best at acting inconspicuous.
Sirens flooded the neighbouring streets, those familiar tones cut straight through her, this wasn't the first job gone badly but there was too much riding on her not getting caught this time. After a few close calls Eir eventually got to the lower district level, a dead end by someone else's standards but not hers.
She unclipped her new tools from her belt. Two hybrid sickles by her own design, a requirement by certain hunting schools. Eir figured it may help her chances during enrolment.
She slapped the spines of the weapons together, the curved blades folded forwards and produced a small wire at each point, connecting to a notch on the main body of the handle. The handle itself curved slightly at the bottom providing a grip and trigger, forming the structure of a small crossbow. She placed a grapple bolt into its slot and fired upwards to the roof of the building.
The bolt clanged and gripped the lip of the roof. After a quick test pull she pulled the trigger and the grapple bolt started to coil and pull her upwards.
Here it was safe to ascend because of the adjacent buildings, anywhere else and she would have been clocked by an aircraft for sure. Eir held fast to the grip of her weapon as she was driven higher, upon reaching the ledge of the roof she clambered onto the buildings surface. The night's sky greeting her once more.
Decoupling the bolt Eir separated the crossbow back into its sickle counterparts, the mechanism producing a satisfying click as it reset itself. Damn she loved these things.
She took a few careful steps towards the other end of the building, getting a better view of the action. While surveying the damage it seemed that the police had already surrounded the area, the heist now becoming a crime scene rather than a job. In fact several of the disposable crew had been apprehended and stuffed into armoured vans. At least that was one problem solved. Angry accomplices were quite common when you fled jobs as regularly as Eir did. Oh well, no honour amongst thieves anyway.
Still keeping her gaze on the scene she searched for the police chopper, only to find another unmarked vehicle hovering above the chaos. A VTOL to be precise. Not only that but it was taking heavy fire, more specifically it was getting peppered with a hail of ice.
Is…is that a storm cloud? She thought, doing a double take.
It wasn't just ice, the VTOL was also returning fire with…well fire…
Eir simply stood there baffled. Someone's semblance she guessed, someone very skilled. But who the hell was casting their semblance so wholeheartedly in a popul-
Her train of thought crashed into a smouldering wreck upon seeing Glynda Goodwitch being responsible for the casting.
She faltered from the edge slightly, panic filling her limbs. Glynda Goodwitch…One of beacons top staff members…she was standing right there, shit, wouldn't she see her up here?
Her mind raced, Goodwitch wasn't alone either, and it looked like there was also a girl brandishing a red scythe bigger than she was.
What in the actual name of fuck is going on?
Her brain was still trying process what was happening, her feet however, were already moving. At least they knew she was still in danger.
She got the loot. That was all that mattered.
Head filled with questions and anxiety clinging to her chest, Eir fled the scene.
A/N:
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter :)
If you're wondering why Eir doesn't have a physical description in this chapter it's because I'm simply not going to show that just yet. I'm not hiding anything special it's just that I'm going to show it later. There's a reason for this, but for now just go ahead and pretend that Eir is actually a seven foot tall black man.
Criticism is welcomed and appreciated