RWBY: N.I.G.T Chronicles
Prologue
Chasing Rain
It has been roughly a year and a half since the infamous "Fall of Beacon", and now rain is falling heavily on the streets of the former capital city of Mantle….. or at least the parts that aren't literally bring covered in the shadows of Atlas.
"It should be just around the corner….. thank god for waterproofing." a young man mumbled to himself as he focused upon the map function of his scroll.
The young man was wearing a black cloak with its hood over his head as he quickly walks down the street of a poor part of an already suffering city. Thanks to the ice-cold rain however… the young man fails to hear a quick series of footsteps rapidly approaching him from behind.
"Drop your wallet, your scroll, and any other valuables you got on you right now you damn human!" another young man said threateningly as he held a knife right into the back of the first young man.
"Do we really have to do this?" the first young man said as he slowly raised his arms into the air.
This newcomer appeared to roughly be the same age as the first, but he was definitely a faunus rather than a human as one could see that a pair of horns or perhaps antlers were poking into his hood from within.
"You stu… stupid humans already take enough from us as it is." the faunus mugger nervously retorts, "So what's wrong with wanting to take some of it back?"
"He he….. personally I don't think there isn't anything wrong with that." the young man lightly chuckled.
"Then hurry up and drop all your damn stuff on the ground!" the faunus mugger yelled, "I got no problem draining your blood out your spine, and don't think anyone in his neighborhood will come to your rescue neither."
"I never said I wasn't going to hand anything over, but let me tell you a piece of advice a real prideful faunus friend of mine gave me." the young man said calmly despite having a knife to his back."
"And what would that be?" the faunus mugger asked as from his perspective no faunus with any real pride would help a human.
That and from the way the young man was dressed, the faunus mugger could tell that the young man was just some rich kid from Atlas trying to find an excuse to tell his friends that he survived walking around Mantle. There were places in the city far worse than this slightly seedy neighborhood.
"That you shouldn't stand right behind someone if you're going to hold a weapon to their back." the young man explained as he shook his head as if disappointed by the mugger's performance, "Because all the other guy has to do is kick you right below one of your knees to make your entire leg lock up in pain."
"Wha?" the faunus mugger mumbled out of confusion.
The mugger had expected for this easy mark to beg for mercy or perhaps leave him enough money to be able to get home (not that he'd actually grant either of those requests) instead of offering some career advice. After thinking about it for half a second the mugger had realized he was standing right behind the human with the knife to his back just as he said, but by that time it was already too late as even a half a second delay can bring about defeat.
"Like this!" the young man suddenly yelled as he caught his would-be-mugger off guard.
All the faunus mugger saw was the human raising up his right leg before feeling a sudden intense sharp pain right below his left knee before spreading throughout the rest of his leg. The human then suddenly turned to grab his mugger's knife arm along with a section of his sleeve just below the shoulder before tossing him over his own shoulder.
"Ow ow ow ow." the faunus mugger moaned as his back slammed hard into the cement sidewalk, "Okay okay… don't shoot!"
The faunus mugger could see that his intended victim had combed-back black hair, a pair of black glasses, a small beard covering his face, and more importantly his victim's gun (seemingly pulled out of nowhere) was now being pointed at a spot right between the eyes.
"I don't want to make a scene….. so run along!" the young man said threateningly.
"Okay okay…. thank you sir." the faunus mugger said gratefully before running off as though he was granted amnesty from his own execution.
The young man starts chuckling slightly while scratching the side of his head after his would-be-mugger disappeared around the street corner from whence he came.
"Guess… it was a good thing she beat into me how to fight after all." The young man mumbled before resuming the short walk to his destination.
Little did the young man know was that there was a pair of eyes carefully watching him around the corner. The person doing the watching (shockingly enough) turned out to be the very same mugger from a moment ago; however, gone were any signs of a nervous jittery and somewhat racist thief on his face….. and was instead replaced with a calm and extremely cold look. The mugger than took something out of his back pocket before sticking it in his ear.
"Target identity confirmed, operation is go, and am returning to mobile headquarters to change." The faunus mugger said before disappearing into a nearby alley.
A few minutes later and the young man stopped before his destination in this shady part of the city, of which turned out to be a pawn shop with a "We're Closed" sign taped on the inside of the door of all things. It was a surprise because most of Atlas's wealth as a kingdom is concentrated in the city of Atlas itself or the few towns near Atlas military bases rather than mantle.
"Open up!" the young man yelled as he started pounding on the door.
"Can't you read the sign? We're closed for the day!" a young woman yelled.
"Are you Quartz?!" the young man loudly asked, "Lil' Miss Malachite said you could smuggle me into Atla-"
The door suddenly bursts open before a long smooth hand reaches out and pulls the cloaked young man inside before summarily slamming the door shut once more. The young man found himself tossed onto a Lazy Boy chair for sale before he could even react. The woman who pulled him in, of whom was human (whose let's just say only good features were her arms) then moved to carefully peak outside through the blinds of her store.
"What the hell are you thinking?!" the young woman yelled, "Even if those desk jockeys up above don't give a s*** about what happens here don't mean they still don't have a fly or 2 on the wall."
"Sorry." the young man said in a somewhat guilty tone, "But I have to say…. when Lil' Miss Malachite told me to take a big risk by coming to Mantle… I expected you to be…"
"Not a human I take it?" the store owner said as if completely forgetting about her earlier frustration, "Yeah well… like your family preaches…. I prefer to be closer to the people I'm supposed to work with and protect."
"Protect? What….. do you consider yourself some kind of community activist or something?" the young man asked as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Ha ha…. you'd be amazed at the number of people in my line of work love to do charity work for the sake of tax breaks." The store owner said as she shrugged her shoulders.
The store owner then moved to the countertop where the cash register was before reaching her hand behind it as if looking for something.
"Now let's talk business over a drink shall we?" the store owner suggests as she pulled a bottle of wine out from behind the counter.
"No thank you….. I'm too young to drink." The young man said as he waved his hands from side to side in denial.
"If you're not interested you can just say no instead of giving that lame-ass excuse." The store owner said as she left the bottle on the countertop, "Now why exactly do you need me to smuggle you into the castle in the sky? I mean since you're human you should have no problem walking in the front door."
"If I could walk through the front door I wouldn't be coming here." the young man said firmly, "As for why….. it's not of your business, but let's just say I have some issues to settle with my… family."
The young man then starts quickly yet carefully looking around the entire pawn shop, but before that he realized that there was something off as he said the word "family." The owner of the store starts to look concerned with this sudden change in behavior.
"What was it that you said earlier?" the young man asked as he continues to look around the pawn shop.
"About the castle in the sky?" the store owner asked as she slowly backs away from the young man.
"No….. you said the word "family" but….. I never told you who I am." The young man said as he reaches inside his cloak, "How did you know my family doesn't live in Atlas?"
After saying so, the young man finds his eyes drawn to a seemingly innocuous picture frame resting on the same countertop as the cash register. In that frame was a picture of a young girl holding a black umbrella, and on a section of that umbrella was an unusual "round" shine to it that couldn't be accounted for the picture frame. The young man then starts looking around the pawnshop again using what he saw in that picture frame as a reference and finds several more spots with a "round" shine to it. Hidden cameras….. they have to be hidden cameras!
"You're not Quartz!" the young man yelled as he pulled out a gun from inside his cloak and pointed it at the store owner.
The store owner was actually backing up to reach her hand for a weapon that she hid behind a guitar stand, however she was forced to change her plan when she heard the distinct click of a handgun's slide lock being pulled back. She immediately dived behind the counter, and it was a good thing too as the young man fired off a few rounds that ended up creating holes very close to where she was standing.
"Freeze!" the store owner yelled as she stood up from behind the countertop after grabbing another weapon she had hid there.
The timing however was too little too late as the store owner was treated to the split-second sight of exiting through the back door after breaking it down. The store owner then pulled an earwig out of her back pocket before sticking it into her right ear.
"I've been made! Go go go before he gets away!" the store owner yelled.
The scene suddenly changes to the alley that runs along the pawn shop's backdoor as the young man runs down it back towards the city streets while the rain continues to pour down from above. The young man was actually just about to exit the alleyway when he sees a grayish-white APC with the emblem (that the young man recognizes) of an Atlas military division on its side come to a stop right before the exit with troops already emerging from behind.
"Really? They actually sent guys under my own family after me?! F***!" the young man thought before immediately turning back around and running back down the alley.
The young man saw another APC parked in front of the opposite end of the alley as he sprinted down it.
"F***! What do I do now?" the young man urgently thought as he looked around him for a way out.
The young man then looked straight up and saw that the buildings to his left and right were only 5 and 6 stories tall respectively, and neither of them appeared to have stripes of those porcupine-like metal rods used to keep birds away.
"Okay…. okay… I can do this." The young man mumbled to himself as he took a deep breath.
The young man dashed towards the building to his left and kicked off of it up in the air towards the building to his right, then he kicked off the building to his right even higher in the air back towards the building on his left, and rinse and repeat. A faint red orange glow like fire… the color of the young man's aura actually started to cover him as he ascended between the two buildings. Each time the young man kicked off one side of the building he reached just a little higher into the air than before and did so a little faster than before as well. He had actually lost his balance for a bit as he cleared the roof of the 5th story building and landed on, but was able to recover before he fell over.
"Have to keep moving…. I can't get caught now." the young man thought.
But suddenly he found himself blinded by a bright light before he could even pick a direction to run in, and once he regained his vision he saw an Atlas air transport flying high in the sky with its search lights focused upon him.
"I brought more "guns" to mug you this time. What do you think?" a familiar voice asked.
The young man turned around and saw the very same faunus who tried to mug him earlier, of whom seemed to be a deer faunus (now that the former could see the horns of the latter) only this time he was wearing the male uniform for an Atlas Specialist much to the former's surprise. The deer faunus was carrying a shield that unlike Jaune's was big enough to completely cover his entire upper-body.
"Specialist Rudolf Deering at your service." Rudolf said in a cocky manner, "You probably don't remember, but we've actually met once before during the Vytal Festival."
"If you had 2 or 3 more guys I might actually be a little worried, and sorry I don't remember you." The young man said in a smug tone in order to hide how extremely worried he was on the inside, "But I certainly didn't expect you to be an Atlas Specialist."
"Ha… yeah well as I'm sure you've probably said to your friends once or twice…. most of the few of my kind that serve in the military end up under members of your family." Rudolf shrugged, "Hell…. one of your cousins led the patrol that saved my village from Grimm."
"Then I don't suppose you'll let me go to pay back that debt?" the young man asked.
"No….. I strict orders to bring you in." Rudolf declared.
The shield in Rudolf's arms started to unfurl itself and transformed into the shape of a large heavy sword about 4.5 feet long.
"Ignis Verkholt... after being on the run for a little over a year, I can finally say that you are under arrest for the crime of treason against the Kingdom of Atlas, escaping from custody, and assault on both military and police officials." Rudolf declared as he pointed his sword at Ignis, "Out of respect for your family I'd like to take you in unharmed, so please come along quietly. We confiscated your weapon when you were first arrested and summarily broke out of custody, so you won't be able to use it to escape by leaping across buildings."
Ignis continued to glance around him for a way out as a few Atlas troopers started to arrive on the roof, but then without warning seemingly fires a few rounds from his gun at the Atlas transport of which all ended up missing. The Atlas troopers all around Ignis raised their guns and aimed them towards him.
"Hold your fire! No one shoots without my orders!" Rudolf yelled before turning his attention back to Ignis, "Did you really think a few bullets would bring down an Atlas transport?"
"No, but two things." Ignis declared as he raised two of his fingers after taking off his cloak and tossing it to the side.
Ignis was wearing a black sleeveless vest, a red t-shirt, along with matching pants/shoes, but what was most attention grabbing were the two circular devices attached to each side of his waist.
"I've had significant engineering training… building an improved copy isn't hard even on the run!" Ignis yelled.
"Tranquilizer rounds only… take him down now before he gets away!" Rudolf ordered as he was caught off guard by his target's new piece of equipment.
A pair of cables with hooks attached fire out from the circular devices on Ignis's waist directly behind him, goes across the street, embeds themselves in the roof of the building directly behind him, and then pulls Ignis towards that other building by a slingshot just as the Atlas soldiers finally get around to pulling the trigger as though they graduated from the Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.
"And second….. you shouldn't hover your ride right next to a water tank!" Ignis yelled as he flew over the street below.
Rudolf turns around and he does notice a rather large water tank right behind his transport. Water pours out in a torrent like the rain out of several bullet holes making each individual hole larger and larger. Those several holes suddenly expand to form a single large one letting out an even greater torrent of water to strike the transport and flood the roof below before the faunus Atlas Specialist could tell his men along with the transport crew to move. Rudolf anchors himself in place by driving his sword into the room, however the pressure behind all that running water forces the transport to crash into the street below and knocks most of the soldiers on the roof unable to quickly find cover off the roof onto the street below. It takes at least 2 or 3 minutes before that water tank empties itself completely of its contents.
"Check the guys that fell! I'll check on the transport crew!" Rudolf ordered the few of his men still on the roof after the last bit of water finally passes.
Thanks to the superior physique granted by years of Atlas Academy and military training along with the benefits aura grants, it was an easy feat for Rudolf to jump from the roof of the building and safely land right in front of the downed transport craft. Thankfully the collision knocked the transport's cargo door was open allowing Rudolf easy access to the cockpit….. otherwise he'd be force to waste time carefully cutting his way inside.
"Phew….. they're just unconscious." Rudolf mumbled in relief after he checked the pulse of the transport's pilot and co-pilot.
But that relief was quickly turned into anger directed at Ignis as he slammed his fists on the transports controls out of frustration.
"Bastard….. those were my men! The rest better be okay or I won't be as nice when I find you!" Rudolf yelled.
Rudolf then heard the ringtone of his scroll go off as if the sole purpose was to further disturb his mood. After checking his scroll, Rudolf found that he was being invited to a group call with three other people and was going to summarily ignore it but changed his mind when he recognized that names being mentioned in the Caller ID.
"We have eyes on him." a firm yet stoically voiced young woman said.
"You three were told to stay far away from this! Give me one good reason I shouldn't have you charged with interference!" Rudolf yelled into his scroll.
"Well for one thing good sir we know him better than you, and thus we have a far better chance of safely talking him down or if necessary….. bringing him down hard." a new young man said with the closest Remnant equivalent to a British accent.
"Iggy is my… our responsibility to deal with, so please let Tenne and her friends try." a young girl said with a mature yet still somehow childlike demeanor.
"Fine!" Rudolf said after a moment's thought seeing as how he's in no immediate position to pursue Ignis, "You three get 1 chance to bring him in softly…. If not my men and I will be taking him down hard!"
"Thank you." the firm yet stoic woman said gratefully.
To Be Continued