Hey guys, Madness King here with the new SABL story I promised. Now, I know I also promised to work on "Into Kingdom Hearts" and "Astral," but I just couldn't help myself. Since our internet went down AGAIN I had enough time and less distractions to actually work on my stories. But this, I was able to finish Chapters 1 and 2, and I'm already working on Chapter 3. So I hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Oh, and Chapter 2 gets a tad emotional, just fair warning. Without further ado, R&R, PM, and Enjoy!
A dark, peaceful night in the city of Vale, that's how it has been for countless generations. The citizens have nothing to fear, for they know they are protected by the Huntsmen and Huntresses. Humans with the power to slay the evil forces of the Grimm, Huntsmen and Huntresses use weapons combined with Dust, a powerful substance that contains "nature's wrath" as some would call it, to repel the dark forces and keep humanity alive.
But they forget so easily, that Huntsmen and Huntresses are just like any other man, woman, or child; they can be killed.
To one individual in particular, he witnessed this truth first-hand. A dark figure leaps across the rooftops, barely making a sound. He stops at the corner of a block, and surveys the street below. So far everything looks peaceful, but darkness is always close when such conditions are met.
Just as he thought, members of the White Fang, skulking in the alleyways. The White Fang were a group of Faunus - humanoids with animal traits and features such as the horns, ears, or tails of an animal - that were once peaceful, but eventually turned into a terrorist group. The figure on the rooftop didn't hate the Faunus, he was once friends with quite a few Faunus children, but the White Fang were mostly thugs now, and gave Faunus a bad reputation.
He observed the group as it came out of the shadows and sneaked their way towards the Dust shop around the corner. They shot open the door, aiming for the lock, and broke the door down. They were inside in a matter of seconds. The figure looked closer at the scene unfolding, and noticed there was a shopkeeper still inside. One of the White Fang held a pistol up to his face while he carefully took out crystals and placed them into a suitcase. On the side of the shop, he could see more White Fang, loading powdered Dust into canisters. He knew not to interfere, not yet. He had to wait for them to leave before he could make his move.
One of the White Fang, a grunt by the looks of him, stepped outside the door and kept watch. It was time. Using the night sky for cover, he easily leapt across the street and onto the roof of the building. His landing caused a slight thud, and the guard outside heard it. He stepped forward a little and called out, "Who's there?" He held up a pistol and began scanning the area. The figure climbed down into the alley they had come out of and looked towards one of the street lamps. The lamps were electric, mere child's play to manipulate.
He concentrated on a single light, and it soon flickered off. The other lights did so as well, and he watched as the grunt looked around frantically in the dark. The figure picked up a piece of asphalt, worn away from the street by weathering. It was a decent size, enough to cover his entire palm, and he let it fall to the ground. The White Fang grunt whirled around in the direction of the noise and fired two shots, easily missing their unknown target.
'Obviously, he doesn't have night vision like most Faunus do.' The White Fang member moved closer to the alley, unable to see his adversary. The figure watched as he approached slowly, until he stopped only three feet in front of him when another member showed up.
"Hey, we heard gunfire. Is everything all right?"
"Yeah, I thought I-WHA!" The White Fang member didn't get to finish his sentence as he was suddenly pulled back into the dark alley way. The second member could hear the sounds of punches being traded, a few bones being broken as well, and heard a body slump to the ground against the brick wall. He quickly drew his weapon, a red serrated sword and scanned the area. He apparently didn't have night vision either, judging by the way he was frantically looking around. The grunt's breathing stopped short as he heard a long, metallic sound being drawn out, the sound of metal against metal.
Inside the Dust shop, the leading member was keeping an eye on the store manager, a middle-aged man with very short brown hair. He heard gunfire outside a few minutes ago and sent one of the others to see what the problem was. "Where are they?" he asked to himself? "How long does it take to go outside, see what's the matter, then come back in and give a report?"
At that moment, the front right display window crashed open, the grunt that caused it smashing into a row of shelves with Dust crystals. The members of the White Fang stopped and turned their attention to their fallen comrade. The leader went over to his body and checked him over. He had deep cuts in his arms and torso, and he seemed to be barely conscious. "Everyone, get out there. I want to know what's going on. If you find anyone, don't hesitate to kill. Understand?"
The other grunts nodded and stopped collecting the dust. They drew their weapons, pistols and swords, and stepped outside of the store. The leader was the only one left who didn't have night-vision, all the others were a Faunus species that could see in the dark. He could only see a few feet outside thanks to the light from the store, but even so it wouldn't do him any good.
One of the grunts, out of four, went to the right and went out of visible range. There was the sound of two thuds, and two of the others decided to check it out. The lone grunt was looking around still, but yelled in surprise as an invisible force picked him up. The leader brought out his pistol, and pointed it outside. The two remaining grunts cautiously moved to where their comrade had been, and the third grunt was pulled back by the unknown force. The last grunt was now scared out of his wits, and tried to head back into the store.
"Stay outside!" The leader said, pointing the weapon at him. "I want you to stay out there, and find whoever or whatever is causing this. And you will stay out there until I say so. Do I make myself cl-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the grunt cried out as a white rope wrapped around his neck and pulled him back. The leader fired three shots into the darkness, and he could hear them hit their mark. A hand fell into the light, and a mask bounced into the light as well. He had shot his own grunt.
The leader was now scared. What could be causing all of this? The lights inside of the store began to flicker and eventually died out. Out of panic, the leader began firing random shots in the dark until he ran out of bullets. He looked around frantically, trying to find something, anything in the dark. He stopped as he heard the sound of footsteps slowly approaching from outside, along with the sound of metal being dragged across the ground. The leader looked straight into the darkness and saw two trails of sparks, barely illuminating a pair of shoes walking slowly towards him.
Knowing he was out of bullets in his clip, he frantically took out the clip and grabbed a new one. As he fiddled with it, he saw that whatever had been dragging across the ground had flicked up and was now covered in flames. They looked like swords, and they were brought up to reveal a male human face. The leader finally put the clip in but it was already to late.
The left hand sword moved, as if the figure were holding out his hand, and a white rope shot out and grabbed onto his hand. It twisted his hand down to the right when he pulled the trigger, making him miss. The rope moved up to his neck and began choking him, and the figure began walking closer. As soon as he was in arms reach, he released the leader's hand from the rope and used the sword in his right hand to cut it off. The leader could hardly scream due to the rope around his neck, and the figure pressed the sword against the stump, the flames sealing it to prevent him bleeding out.
The figure pulled him closer, and spoke in a rough and gravelly voice, "The White Fang will not attack this part of Vale again, or next time I will kill whoever leads that group," he pulled him closer, their faces barely half an inch apart, "and then I'll find and kill you. Understand?" The leader nodded, still unable to speak due to the rope around his neck. "Good," the figure said.
He tightened the rope more until the leader was knocked out cold. The white rope began to disappear, until the man slumped to the ground and the white rope was gone. He picked the man up, and he noticed the shopkeeper was coming out of his hiding place. The figure tossed all of the bodies, the only dead one at the bottom, into a pile and noticed a flash of light.
'Damn,' the figure thought. He quickly jumped onto one of the buildings and climbed up to the roof. Looking down, he saw it was only one of the lamp posts coming back on. He sighed, and made his way across the rooftops again.
*Author shudders* How was that for a first chapter. Bet you didn't think he'd be this ruthless, huh? And it's not even at the climax yet! I'll put Chapter 2 up shortly, just out of courtesy so you can read it. I promise you, it picks up in the third Chapter. So R&R, PM, and pleas be patient, I have enough troubles as it is.
