Disclaimer: RWBY Characters, places and terminologies with the exception of the Original Characters, belongs to Rooster Teeth Productions.
5:30 on the morning, both wanderers woke up earlier while leaving Velvet to keep sleeping. 'She looks so cute when she sleeps.' That was the first thing Ace got in his mind. As he and Diamo were accommodating everything before taking their respective chores, they couldn't stop thinking about how they were no longer just themselves exploring the region.
"Ace, where did you leave my scopes?" Diamo asked while he was preparing for scouting the area.
"I think is in the bag, the blue one…" Ace replied while his partner searched for his scopes in the appointed bag.
"Are not there…"
"Oh sorry, …it was the green one now that I remember it." Ace slammed himself in the forehead.
"Got it…" Diamo was getting prepare for his normal routine: Got his glasses cleaned, pistol and rifle loaded, and some of his favorite seeds if he gets hungry during recon. Despite being ready as always, he felt something different than other times. "Hey, what do you think are they doing?"
"Not so sure, partner. We got rather slow in the last couple of days." Ace sighed as he looked worried as well. "After what happened, is pretty hard to get enough info about it."
"In any case, I hope it was a good idea to let her accompany us in the meanwhile." As the guy with glasses looked worried, his sight focused on Velvet.
"We will be fine, she said is a huntress. More power for us right?" Ace tried to light the mood, but it wasn't enough to calm his partner.
"I don't want to involve more people in our problems; especially I don't want to deal with 'them' while she is with us." He looked rather serious, and his tone of voice didn't bring a sense of security for Ace.
"Right, 'them'… Whatever is happening, we just need to reunite Velvet with her team and get enough supplies for our mission."
"I hope you are taking this seriously, we cannot afford failure to the others."
"I'm TOTALLY serious. What would they say if they got in the same situation as us?" Ace sounded really serious, even more so than usual. That question made Diamo fell into total silence, unable to make a counter-argument. "…Exactly."
"Just don't get too distracted by her, understood?" Diamo said it firmly to Ace, he nodded back. Done with the talk, he walked into the woods while Ace stayed at the camp.
He couldn't remember the last time he and his friends were doing some camping. He was enjoying it now that Velvet was doing some company, which means a great meal for guests. The frivolous young man took out a pot, some vegetables and his set of knives; those were for combat rather than cooking. 'Let see…potatoes, tomatoes…I'm out of onions. Would she like it with more carrots? Nah, that is a stupid question and rather offensive. Everything should be fine, it is a shame we don't have any meat for it.' Ace was thinking about doing a good stew or simple soup for everyone, as he was getting tired of using rock soup as Diamo doesn't eat much as himself, or especially 'the big guy'.
He arranged everything, letting the pot boiled some water on the campfire while Ace launched the ingredients into the air. Wielding both knives on each hand, he started to slash and cut the vegetables into small slices. Those fell into the already-boiled pot, mixing together perfectly. While moving the spoons in circles, he tasted the soup. 'It needs more salt, where did I leave it?' He took some from one of his bags, sighing. 'I need to organize it more, what a pain.' After adding some condiments and his special family sauce, Ace surpassed his own expectations as in massive quotes to be called himself the next 'Iron Chef Remnant'.
6:45 on the morning, Velvet woke up as she smelled Ace's soup. She noticed that Kingston was already gone and only the optimistic man was doing the breakfast.
"Rise and shine!" His mood was upbeat as always. "You wake up just in time for breakfast."
"Where is he?" Velvet asked him while moving the blankets aside.
"Who, my partner? He is doing some recon while I was cooking. Don't worry; he will be back in an hour."
"Aren't you worried if he doesn't come back?" Velvet sounded concern, knowing that being far apart could be dangerous.
"Nah, there is no chance anything could catch him off guard, or even get the upper hand before he or she gets shot by him." Ace was so carefree, yet confident of his partner's skills. "In the meanwhile, here is some of my special soup, be careful as it is still hot." He grabbed a bowl and poured some soup on it, giving the first portion to Velvet.
Velvet took the bowl carefully of not getting herself burned, doing small blows to cool it down. Once the soup was good enough, she started to sip it slowly. She really liked the flavor as it was almost like the one her grandma used to cook, with the only difference of not having too many carrots. "This is really good!"
"You like it huh? I only wished I could have better ingredients to make anything else than just soup." Ace said in a mildly prideful tone. "Hey, do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure, go ahead." Velvet replied as she looked curious because of her bunny ears emoted.
"What were you and your team doing here at Forever Fall?" Ace's tone sounded serious, almost cutting the smile.
"Oh, that…We were investigating some attacks that been occurring at Tint Hills by weeks."
"Weeks? That's too much for Grimm to attack the same place."
"That is the thing, it wasn't caused by Grimm."
"Really? Then by what exactly?" Ace looked surprised as it wasn't of what he could expect.
"That is what we don't know yet, but the most we could assume is an intelligent being."
"Intelligent, huh? Could it be the White Fang?" Ace inclined himself as the topic caught his interest.
"We discarded that possibility as the attacks don't follow the same pattern as the ones they usually do. Besides, they weren't any reports about them in the area."
"I see." Ace looked at a different direction, lost in thought. "Well, I hope you can get a clue along the way because it can be a lot of things."
"True" Velvet was looking at the sky, with so many doubts in her head. It would be difficult to find any clues all by herself. "Now that I answered your questions, it is my run."
"Shoot." He said it with a smile.
"Why you came here too?" Velvet question made Ace's mood became serious.
"Oh, that? Like I said last night, we are just travelers."
"I see." Velvet was disappointed by the answer. She and Ace kept eating the soup to almost not leaving enough for Diamo. "Hey, shouldn't leave so for him too?"
"Nope, apparently he doesn't like to eat anything cooked. He tends to eat mostly fruits, vegetables, and mixed seeds." Ace looked sad as he doesn't have enough people to enjoy his cooking.
"Well, I thinking you did such a great soup." She made a really sincere smile.
'My…her smile is so pure.' Ace was thinking. "I appreciate the opinion. Let's finish the soup because we have a long trip today." He was done eating, putting the bowls back to one of the bags.
They started to pack everything before Kingston could comeback. Ace told Velvet which things should go in the corresponding bag and backpack. As they were almost done the packing, Kingston finally returned from doing recon. He took out and put in the center of the campsite.
"Was any interesting things on the way, partner?" Ace asked his partner.
"We got a body of water miles away from us to the east. We have some Grimm on our way, the usual Beowolves which shouldn't be a problem for us." Diamo was pointing out on the map the route they had to take.
"Is there anything else?" Velvet asked as well.
"Nothing, in particular, I saw what appears a cave so we could camp there before the sun goes down." The sniper stored the map back to one of his pockets while eating some seeds. "Alright, let's move on!" Done with the plan, the group started to move on the next campsite before night. With Velvet and Ace on the front while Diamo followed them from behind.
The trip was long with rocks, cliffs and fallen trees blocking the path. They were agile enough to climb obstacles, but only to make some few steps back as sometimes they found nowhere to go and take another path to advance. 8 hours being passed and they stopped at the top of a hill to check the area below them. Kingston and Ace were in position, with Kingston aiming with his rifle with Ace looking around with his binoculars while they and Velvet were with the heads down.
Just like Diamo's info from earlier, the Grimm were roaming on the area. "Well, there are a lot of them…" Ace commented. "…But looks smaller than expect it. Should we go and kill some of them?"
"No, let's wait until they leave." Diamo replied as he didn't separate his sight from them.
They were still, not moving an inch from the hill for one hour. Ace got a little impatient about it. "Oh please, can we kill them? They didn't move and we are wasting time."
"…" Diamo didn't say a single word.
"Is there something wrong?" Velvet asked the sniper.
"…"
"Hello? Earth to partner, are you with us?" Ace tried to communicate with him, it didn't take too long before Diamo could say a word.
"Mhhh…you are right, they are not going to anywhere."
"See!? We should go and…" Before Ace could be done talking, he got interrupted by the sniper.
"But we cannot engage in combat, that would be a waste of energy, Ace."
"Man, always ruining the fun…" Ace was disappointed.
"Umm… guys, the Grimm are moving toward us…" Velvet pointed out to the creatures while the travelers focused their sight on them.
"This is not good, engage combat now!" Diamo took out a metal plate and put under his feet.
"Finally! Time for some fun!" Ace did the same thing with the metal plate. He gave another one to Velvet. "Watch this and follow our lead, this is something you are gonna like it." Ace went downhill, sliding with the metal plate like a snowboard.
"Keep the balance, maintain the calm and just do the same thing as us." Diamo launched himself into the hill too after done instructing Velvet about the metal plates; she was the last one to slide as well.
While sliding at full speed, Ace got prepared while pulling out a regular combat knife on his left hand while drawing his personal weapon, a hybrid of a handgun and a Bowie knife on his right hand. Diamo's sniper rifle started to change form, becoming a spear with a drill on the top while being on guard. Velvet was struggling with keeping her balance, but she adapted quickly as she saw the others being ready to fight against the Grimm.
A large rock was on the way of the hill, Ace moved to there and used as a ramp to impulse himself into the air. Diamo got the same idea and also leaped himself as he was pointing his spear to the ground. Both travelers were on the air, they started to fall down with their weapons ready for an air assault.
The guy with glasses landed on one of the Beowolves, impaling on top of the head with his spear and killing it instantly. Ace landed on the back of another, stabbing with both blades and manipulating him to charge towards other Grimm like a rodeo. Velvet jumped too, but she stared into the trees while taking pictures of their fight. As their movement were pretty fast as Diamo was able to use both spear and pistol to kill some of them around him without getting close to him. Ace did acrobatic jumps as he dodged the attacks, both stabbing and shooting while going underneath most of them.
Velvet got some fight on the trees as some Beowolves climbed and tried to get her, she repelled with some stomps and kicks as the Faunus moved to different trees in order to maintain her distance. She couldn't get enough pictures to replicate their weapons, but at least memorize their patterns in fighting style. It made her curious about how powerful they looked for simple travelers.
"Partner! One is coming on your six o'clock!" Ace shouted to his partner while he was riding another Beowulf.
"Got it!" Diamo holstered his pistol while his spear reverted back into a sniper rifle. In a matter of seconds, while the target was charging towards him, he was already focused, aiming to its weak spot. Before it could have the chance to attack him, Diamo shot at it, completely annihilated in a blink and miss that Velvet remembered how he did the same with the snake from last night.
"Be careful!" Velvet saw another Grimm going after Ace; she jumped towards it and kicked out of the way. Ace noticed that leaped towards it, stabbing the Beowulf into the belly while it was against a tree.
Another one came and grabbed Ace against the ground while he was holding the Grimm from the neck, trying to avoid the bites. Ace put his weapon on its mouth, and proceed to shoot it, freeing himself while Velvet did another kick to disorient it and leaving to Diamo, snipe it and killing instantly. That was the last Grimm on the field.
Everyone took deep breaths, recovering some of the energy after a pretty exhausting battle. "That was impressive, how did you learn to fight like that?" Velvet asked them as she was curious about the way they fought.
"That is a great question, just something we learned to survive." Ace exclaimed, almost in a suspicious tone.
"I don't think simple travelers could just learn to fight like that unless you are either huntsmen or military." Velvet's statement made both of the travelers look at each other with a nervous look.
"I think you are mistaken, Miss Scarlatina. We are just travelers, but we learned to survive, nothing out of the ordinary." Diamo tried to explain in a serious tone, Velvet wasn't convinced enough.
"Hey, I'm not that dumb to notice the style of fighting you have. I can analyze the pattern of someone else and understand. You looked already trained and experience, tell me the truth: Who are you guys?" Velvet crossed her arms, as they could be even more dangerous.
"Well…we…"
"Help!" Ace got interrupted by a man that yelled from a close distance to them.
"Huh? Is someone in trouble?" Ace asked while they were trying to pinpoint the direction of the voice.
"I can hear him…He is over there!" Velvet used her ears to identify the voice. "You better explain to me everything after we are done helping that man."
"Hey, do you think he could be…?" Ace asked his partner.
"Probably, let's be cautious." Diamo moved towards to where the yells came from, Ace and Velvet followed him.
They saw a man trapped with his leg under a trunk, being completely exposed.
"I should go and…"
"Sorry about this, but don't try to go there by yourself." Ace got on her way, not letting her go to help that man.
"Huh? Why?"
"Mhhh…" Ace looked pretty serious. "This is too dangerous, even for any huntsman. Hey partner, you and Velvet go to the trees and keep an eye on me. I will go and check by myself if anything bad happens." And like that, Ace went to see what is happening to the man in distress.
Velvet looked curious, as they didn't really trust that man. Could it be a trap or else?
"Thank goodness someone came." The man replied.
"Sure…What happened here?" Ace asked he was standing right where Kingston can see both him and the man.
"Oh, there was Ursa that knock down the tree, trapping me under it and I tried to yell for help!"
"Oh really? And what happened to the Ursa?" Ace asked while raising an eyebrow.
"Well…." That man started to feel uneasy, getting too nervous. "Brothers!" An arrow came out flying out the bushes, as Ace dodged it by a couple of inches.
"Well, well, well… looks like I ruined the surprise party." Ace commented as he saw himself being surrounded by 6 people in white robes, aiming at him with crossbows.
"Oh no, he is in trouble…" Velvet whispered to Kingston, with a worried expression.
"Don't worry, I'm already covering him." The sniper changed his clip for different rounds while still not looking away from his partner.
"So, how are you guys doing? I didn't expect a surprise party for me." Ace was talking to those men in white robes while doing a mocking tone.
"Enough with your games and where is Four-Eyes right now, Faunus sympathizer!" The man leading the group yelled at Ace.
'Faunus sympathizer? Do they know I'm with them?' Velvet was thinking after hearing the way Ace was called.
"Who, my partner? We got separated after the last time we got that 'friendly' conversation with you. It is a shame how things turn out after that."
"We are not stupid; we know he is far from here, looking at us from a safe distance."
"Really perceptive of you, for a bunch of loonies that is." The ace expression became serious, tired of listening to them.
"We are serving to clean Remnant from those impure beings, and you call us crazy when you are supporting them for our destruction."
"Heh, at least the White Fang cares about their own kind, you guys hate both humans and Faunus equally."
"Well then, seems there are not much to talk now." The man extended his right hand, giving the signal to his group. "Brothers…!" Everyone was still, Diamo was in a position to shoot the group. "Execute him!"
After the signal, the sniper shot to one before any of them could react. As the other got caught by surprise, they turned around to see where the gunshot came from. Ace used that opportunity to sneak on the tall grass and get them by surprise. Velvet decided to leave the tree and start assisting to fight some of those people. They noticed her and start focusing on the Faunus.
One member of the group used a Fire Dust arrow on his crossbow, shooting at Velvet. Ace jumped on the way and blocked the projectile; he didn't suffer any damage as his body was glowing with a red Aura. With that energy, he used his weapon to return the same kind of fire projectile to that member.
'What was that it was his Semblance?' Velvet was thinking as he saw the way he blocked the fire for her.
Diamo shot another round, this time it bounced between two targets, knocking them out. Their forces were decreasing as how easy to defeat them was for Velvet and those two travelers. The last one tried to run away, but Velvet leaped towards him and pushes back to the area. Ace held him around the neck with his weapon, completely immobilized. "Where do you think are you going?" Ace asked him as the man had the arms on the air.
"What do you want from me…?" The man wasn't being cooperative with them, already feeling fear.
"Just like the last time, we tried to ask you. Do you know this man?" Diamo showed a picture of a bald man and a thick beard.
"My lips are sealed…"
"No response, eh? Velvet, could you cover your eyes? I don't want you to see what we are going to do with this guy." Ace was smiling, much to the hostage's sense of dread.
"Sure thing." Velvet just did what Ace told her to do; she covered her eyes with her bunny ears. Ace proceed to change the elemental function of his weapon from fire to electricity, the blades got sparks around it.
"Please, you are not going to do that, do you?" The man was feeling panic, shaky.
"For the last time, do you know where this guy is!?" Diamo yelled at the hostage, he was sweating due to how he felt too much pressure.
"I can't tell where Master Copper is!" Everyone fell in silence after what the hostage said. Diamo and Ace looked at each other.
"So…Master Copper eh? He sounds like he is in charge of all of you." Ace replied, pretty much looked satisfied with the response.
"W-What do you want with him?" The hostage was almost out of breath.
"None of your business, but you gave us all that we needed. Ace, if you please…" The guy with glasses nodded at Ace; he made a small contact with the blunt side of his electrocuted knives on the hostage's neck, knocking him down. "Well, it looks like we got a clue after so much time wasted."
"One step at the time, don't you think? We should go to the camping site and rest." Ace suggested as the travelers kept walking, leaving those people on their own luck. Velvet had so many questions after witnessing how they managed to deal with the situation, nothing made sense to her.
"Hey, do you mind to finally explain what is happening?" Velvet tone sounded serious than her usual demeanor.
"No need Miss Scarlatina, this is something that shouldn't involve…"
"No, I'm not going to follow you until you tell me who you guys are." Velvet's eyes were angry, something that made Ace uneasy, knowing that an angry lady is the worst thing to deal with. Ace looked at Kingston as they weren't sure if to accept her demand or not, they nodded at each other in agreement.
"Alright, we will tell you most of it until we get to the campsite. Don't expect much answers as this is a really delicate matter." Ace's tone was serious, really important that Velvet couldn't doubt anymore.
They kept walking until they finally reached the cave; nobody talked or commented about what happened on the day during the rest of the trip. The ever jolly guy lit the campfire with his weapon while Diamo arranged some leaves to cover the cave and blend with the environment. As they were done while Velvet was sitting away from them, Ace took some folder out of his bag with pictures and documents. "So, where do we start explaining?" Ace asked Velvet.
"From the beginning, if it is possible." Velvet replied while crossing her arms.
"Alright, better pay attention because this is a harsh story for us." While letting the winds blow inside the cave and make the fire grow, Ace got a sad expression, hard to hide it for him.
