Authors notes:

Hello, hello. Welcome back everyone to the second chapter. I got more of a response than I anticipated from the first chapter, even a few favourites. And I'd like to just take a moment to thank everyone who favorited the story, it really pushes me to do more :D Alright, alright enough stalling. Let's get on with it, shall we?

- Chapter 2: The Gang's All Here. -

'So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.' ~ Chief Tecumseh

The last words echo through my head, my eyes watering as memories flood into my brain. I can hear a faint sigh to my left, and I can feel a hand grip my shoulder. "Why do you torture yourself with this stuff, champ?"

I quickly wipe my eyes of their moisture, sniffing away everything and sitting up, tossing the flimsy piece of paper to the side. "It's all I have left of him." I mutter.

Derek nods and lets his hand drop. He's sitting on the edge of his cot, his legs over the side. "I know man, it's tough. But you gotta move on. That's all in the past now." I sigh heavily, burying my face in my hands.

"You don't understand, he was like my father. He wasn't my real father, of course. But close enough.." Out of the corner of my eye I can see Derek shrug.

"Do you think he'd want you to be all gloomy because of him? What was it he used to say, hmm? 'If one day this war kills me, don't frown, because I was smiling."

I can't help but chuckle softly, wiping the remnants of my tears away and sitting up straight. "Yeah, it was something like that. That old cow sure did like his violence, huh?"

Me and Derek exchange laughs, but grow silent as memories take hold of us. "I miss him, Derek." He nods in understanding, standing up and offering his hand to me. I take it.

"I know, champ. So do I." I smile up at Derek as he hauls me to my feet. "So, are you excited about tonight?" He asks.

"I don't know, I mean.. I guess. It's cool to be hand picked like this." Derek nods, hauling Destrum, his mace up onto his shoulder. Destrum is a large mace, the brunt edge of which is spiked like a medieval flail, and a perfect sphere about the size of my head. The long handle is pretty plain, decorated with ebony markings. The handle is roughly 3 feet long, and Destrum is huge. I doubt I could even lift it up, let alone swing it around like a feather, like Derek does.

"Yeah, it is isn't it? We are gonna be the talk of the camp. The elite of the elite! Badasses, heros!" I tune Derek out for the second time today as he daydreams aloud.

Derek is saying something about becoming celebrities when a guard opens our barracks door. I can tell that it's already nightfall, and the rest of our squad are all changing into their PJ's while we remain in our uniform. The guard beckons us forward, his mask making his expression unreadable. "It's time, Adam request your presence Stephan, Derek." I flinch, I hate it when people use my real name.

"Could you just call me Spawn, please?" The guard grunts and I can tell he's rolling his eyes.

"Just come with me, whoever you are." I nod, exchanging glances with Derek before the two of us walk out of our Barracks, following the guard who came to fetch us.

"You never did tell me how your one on one went with Adam, Derek." He shrugs his shoulders and keeps pace with me, walking with Destrum still slung over his shoulder.

"Not much to say really. It was pretty quick. We went back and forth and exchanged blows a few times until Adam was satisfied, then he just finished me off. I thought I failed, but he said something about potential and told me I was in." I nod, recalling my experience with our leader.

"Yeah, pretty much the same thing happened with me too. I activated my semblance, then so did he-" I'm cut short by Derek, who's looking at me with a shocked expression.

"You got Adam to use his semblance?! How?!" I shrug, an amused expression crossing my face.

"I used mine." I replied simply. Derek sighs and continues walking, a little faster in order to keep pace with the guard, who was for the most part ignoring us.

"No one has ever forced Adam to use his semblance before, he's usually skilled enough to go without. I'm impressed champ." I smile, beaming. Derek is an excellent fighter, praise from him comes rarely and is not to be taken lightly.

"Thanks." I say genuinely, filled with a new sense of confidence and pride.

"Alright you two, enough blabbing. Time to get serious." The guard opens a large metal door into what looks like an old hangar. The camp the white-fang operates on is a large abandoned air force base used back in the Faunus Rights Revolution. The base is run down and largely out of shape, but it serves it's purpose for our cause.

"Hello you two, how nice of you to join us finally." Adams voice booms in the empty hangar, echoing through the air in an intimidating fashion. "We've been waiting on you."

I nod my apologies and speak on me and Dereks behalf. "I'm sorry, sir. We got sidetracked." Adam waves a hand at us dismissively, turning his attention back to the whiteboard behind him.

"No matter, you're here now and that's all that matters. Sit." The other two faunus of our raid team are sitting impatiently, listening to Adams explanation and tactical plan.

One of them is a cheetah faunus. Her face is triangular like her animal cousin, and her face has a natural sleek look, making her look like a true instinctual killer. Her head sports no ears, but behind her back I can spot a black and orange spotted tail, the end of witch sporting a tuft of black fur. Her overall demeanor is intimidating. She isn't big, she's rather small, but powerful. Her arms are bigger than mine, and while her frame is small I can see from her she is as deadly as an actual cheetah, and probably as fast too. She glares at me and huffs dismissively, looking back at Adam and his game plan.

A bear faunus sits to her right. He's much bigger than me. Probably almost as tall as Derek. Ben is most certainly buffer than Derek though. His bear genes giving him a ridiculous amount of muscle mass. His face is warm and rounded, making him look friendly but yet still somehow intimidating. It's a face that demands respect, but is intent on returning the same. He half salutes to the both of us and looks back at Adam.

Me and Derek stride toward them, two chairs positioned on the left side of our teammates. I sit down on the chair in the middle next to the cheetah faunus, Derek on my left side.

"Right, now that we've all been introduced and familiarized let's get to it."

"Eh, actually." Derek speaks up. "I don't know these two…"

Clem huffs and shakes her head silently, looking forward but directing her words at Derek. "So I'm supposed to trust my life to this jackass who doesn't even take the time to learn his team mates? Ridiculous." Clems voice is exactly what I imagined it. Aggressive and bitter, agitated.

Derek raises his eyebrow and goes to defend himself. "Hey, no one told me to go out and find you guy-" Clem interrupts him, shooting her gaze in his direction and glaring daggers, screaming bloody murder subconsciously.

"You shouldn't have to be told! You are not a child!" She shouts, her arms folded across her chest. "Take some responsibility. As a fellow big-cat faunus I'm embarrassed." Derek growls, his teeth showing as the insult drives home.

"Listen hear you filthy little wench, insult my heritage once more and I'll wring your little neck-" Dereks response is interrupted by an infuriated Adam.

"ENOUGH!" Adam shouts, his finger pointing accusingly at Clem. "I can remove you from this team just as easily as I put you hear! I do not need a team full of bickering idiots!."

"But sir!" Clem goes to defend herself, quickly silenced by Adam.

"Shut it!" Adam takes a deep breathe as Clem sinks in her seat, a satisfied expression washing over Derek's face. "Now, Derek. This is Clem." He motions to the sulking Cheetah faunus, who pays no attention to her introduction. "And this is Ben." Ben half cocks his head at Derek and returns his attention to the white board.

'I didn't know Clem or Ben either, glad Derek spoke up before me..' I smile to myself silently. 'That cheetah chick is scary..'

I'm stirred from my thoughts at the mention of my name. "And this is Derek and Stephan-" I go to correct Adam, but he catches my look and continues. "Who prefers to be called as Spawn." I nod my head to the both of my new teammates, Clem stays silent and Ben barely acknowledges me.

Clem finally speaks up, muttering to herself frustratedly. "I already knew that.." Adam glares at her but stays silent, turning away to face the white board again.

"Now then," He continues. "We will be dropping in here." He points to a large map spread across the white board, held up by magnets. His finger is in a small clearing located in dense forest. "We will be dropped 30 minutes before the trains scheduled arrival, where we will wait for it. The train is heading to a station 5 miles from this area where it will refuel and continue on for another 100 miles to it's destination, Vale. We will board the train as it passes, we will perform the raid as it stops for fuel, giving us the element of surprise. We will have an hour and a half to perform the raid before the police force at Vale become suspicious and come looking for us. The train itself will be heavily guarded, but it will be nothing compared to the Vale police department should we take to long. The Schnee company will have the entire police force awaiting their precious dusts arrival."

As Adam is explaining he's pointing at the different locations along the map. The fuel station, the train station in Vale the train is scheduled to arrive in. As well as any choke points and possible escape routes. "If we somehow get split up take this path, keep out of sight and fire your flares. Each of you will be given a flare gun and two red flares. There will be an airship hovering far above, it's altitude to high to be easily detected. The pilot has orders to pick up anybody who shoots a flare. If all goes successful we will meet back in the same clearing we drop into, and pop a flare, the airship will pick us up and we will return to base. Any questions?"

Clem raises her hand silently, voicing her question before being acknowledged. "What if we don't manage to perform the raid in under an hour and a half?"

Adam straightens up, his arms folded behind his back. "I do not expect us to take longer than an hour, but I will be paying close attention to the time. If we reach the hour and fifteen minute mark I will be calling off the raid, and we will retreat before the authorities arrive."

Clem nods her head, satisfied with Adams answer. "Anymore?" He asks. We all exchange looks questioningly before returning our gazes back to Adam, and shake our heads. "Good, we suit up at once."

- End of Chapter -

Moar notes:

Hello again. So, this chapter is setting up the next, which I anticipate to be a long one full of quite a lot of action and plot development. This chapter was pretty dull, but it was necessary. Putting the raid into this chapter would have made it MUCH too long with what I'm planning, so don't worry! Just be patient, the action will come I promise. I feel like this chapter was a bit short though, and I apologize. What do you guys think? Should I try and make them longer? Or is this pace and length okay? Thanks for reading :D Comment, review, favourite, and PM if you want. Have a great day. ^^

-Spawn