Setting: Somewhere In Vacuo
In a forest near the Vacuo-Vale border was a fairly large cabin. Smoke came from the chimney, indicating someone was currently taking shelter. Outside the cabin was a single person, a purple-haired hair young woman wielding a knife, walking to the front door. Once the person stood before the door, they stopped moving for a while as if she was contemplating something, the hand holding the knife trembled a little. Suddenly, the woman pivoted their body and landed a powerful kick that broke the door down. Inside the cabin living room was a chair with someone sitting in it, looking at the dancing flames in the fireplace. The person sitting acknowledged the presence of the other.
"It took you a long time to reach this point, back here, the place where our game began," the person sitting in the chair said not looking back at the other person. His voice was masculine and rough. "Now then, what do you plan to do next, Violet?" Absinthe said as he reached for his mechanical hunter's knife. The leader of VRSZ got into a fighting stance then rushed toward the source of all her trouble.
"Very well, let's end this game little girl."
Setting: VRSZ Base
The day after accepting their mission, Team VRSZ prepared to leave for the assignment, but Zelts brought up one problem they may have overlooked.
"How are we getting there?"
"What do mean? We just go," Remus answered like it was a simple question.
"Just saying that doesn't solve how we get there. The village and the ones surrounding it are very far away, not to mention Vacuo is mainly desert, not a terrain someone can simply stroll through. And given the distance it would be too far for us to walk, however by airship it would take probably two hours or less. Maybe we can ask Clair to lend us one."
While Zelts laid out the options available, Silver went to the garage. "Or we can take our car and be there in about two days, maybe less." His answer only confused his friends.
Remus wasn't sure if Silver knew what he was talking about. "We don't have car anymore, Violet blew it up trying to kill you remember?"
"Yes Remus, I remember, sometimes I have nightmares Violet relentlessly trying to kill me and it keeps me up at night, it really does. But we do have a car now, follow me if you want to see it."
When Zelts and Remus walked into the garage they saw the car Silver was talking about. It was a sleek, eye appealing silver car, a sports car that looked really out of place in Fortuna. Zelts thought there was no way Silver got this legally. "Where did you find this?"
"A major spoil of war from one of my missions. She was pretty banged up when I got her, but I did my best to take care of her. Couldn't let her waste away and we needed a new car, a good deal if I say so. Violet is more of a gear head than I am so she can take care of the things I overlooked. If anything, I say we traded up from that old jeep."
On closer inspection, Zelts saw some nicks and scratches on the car showing it was used but something else caught his eye. Remus noticed as well as he crouched down to inspect the oddity located on the left side of the car.
"What's with the S?" Remus asked. It was an outline of an S spray painted with black paint.
"It's how we spread our name, just like the last car, we each spray our VRSZ letters on the side so people know who we are. Here." Silver grabbed two can of spray paint, blue and gold, and tossed them to Remus and Zelts respectively.
"Add your letters before we head out."
Setting: Desert
Team VRSZ drove through the desert in their car like they used too so long ago. Silver drove with Zelts in the passenger seat and Remus in back scoping the landscape and using his bionic eye to check for any potential far away threats. Zelts was focused on whatever was in front of him while Silver smiled like a mad man as stomped on the gas.
"MAN I MISS HAVING A CAR!" Silver shouted with joy.
Zelts said nothing and let his friend have his fun, but he thought of a more serious matter, Violet. "Come home Violet, we need our leader back... Plus we're missing a purple V on our car, without it the car just looks silly," he thought, trying to keep things upbeat since they were going to be driving for at least two days without any stops except for adding the spare gas in the trunk.
Setting: Absinthe's Cabin
Several hours have passed as the sun began to set, creating an ominous scarlet color in the sky. In the woods the cabin was destroyed, the structure was toppled over with only one thing left standing, Violet. At her feet was Absinthe, laying on the ground with blood dripping down his mouth and his lower half under the rubble along with his mechanical knife, leaving him at the young girl's mercy.
"Congratulations, you won, against all odds you championed through it all..." Absinthe said though it pained him to do so. "And even more impressive, you've surpassed me, what I wanted from my apprentice, even one as defiant as you." He looked up to see her face, but because of the angle and position he was in, Absinthe could only see up to her thighs. Even though he couldn't see her entire body, he could tell that she was severely hurt from the battle. After two harsh breaths he spoke again.
"Now, bring this game to an end, kill me. Don't worry, I have very good connections to those who have had a hand in this game, the minute I die they will be notified and remove your bounty, like it never happened. So kill me already." He closed his eyes waiting for death, but the finishing blow never came, instead the defeated hunter opened his eyes to see Violet slowly walking away.
"You plan to let me live?" Absinthe asked, but Violet remained silent as if she was mocking him. This was not the thing that upset the hunter, it was the fact that she was sparing him that angered him. Silent pity, pity to Absinthe in any form, was worse than death. "I will go after them, your loved ones without mercy if you look down on me!"
Violet kept walking in the direction the sun was setting, shining through the trees and unto Violet's body making it impossible to see her form properly. She stopped and turned around to finally speak to her defeated adversary.
"After all this time, I contemplated whether to kill you or not, but looking at you now, I don't think I will. Like you said, I'm stronger than you now, so if you still have the balls to go after them, I'll face you and beat you every time. You have zero power over me," Violet declared as she turned to walk away.
"I have one last card to play...Violet or should I call you by your real name, Aylssa Underland."
The minute Absinthe spoke that name Violet stopped walking and looked at the crippled man with immense rage, but to the hunter, who couldn't see her face, he thought she halted in fear.
"That's right, while you were fending for your life I did some digging of my own and finally found the faintest connection between you and your family. Would you like to know what your father's doing? Or would you rather I inform him of your whereabouts and what you've been doing with your life. With this kind of leverage I have many options available. Maybe-"
Absinthe stopped speaking when he finally noticed Violet was only inches away from him. He couldn't see her face, making this a little terrifying for him, he had no idea what she was going to next. The livid girl drew one of her daggers.
Two Days Later
Setting: Village
After a long voyage, Team VRSZ finally made it close to one of the villages confirmed to have survivors of the Grimm attack. Compared to Fortuna, this town was extremely small with ordinary buildings instead of skyscrapers buried beneath sands and some of their buildings were barricaded, most likely an attempt to keep Grimm at bay. If VRSZ wanted to keep a low profile they were doing a horrible job at it. The car was gaining the attention of everyone in the village, but this may work to their advantage by drawing out people who know a few things about the Grimm menace they've come to eliminate.
"You couldn't get a car that was less conspicuous?" Zelts complained to Silver who grunted in annoyance.
"Uh, did you not hear me when I said this was a spoil of war? I took this from a smuggler, it was either this or an old beat up jalopy, I did the best with what I had. Would you rather I chose the jalopy Zelts? If you find a better car, you can steal it," Silver answered a little irritated from Zelts' backseat car stealing tips.
VRSZ divided into two groups, Zelts and Remus went to a building that appeared to serve similar services to Moneta, a place where bounty hunters could take missions, and where the duo gather information while Silver spoke to the locals who were remnants of the destroyed village to learn more about this threat. The only problem is that they arrived to the town around nightfall, finding a place to stay would be wiser than heading straight to battle, so gathering info fast and improvising with what they had was the best option.
Two Hours Later
VRSZ found an inn they could afford to stay in for the night. Their room only offered two beds and a couch, so with a game of rock paper scissors, Zelts and Silver got the beds and Remus was stuck with the couch. Before they went to bed, they pooled all the information they gathered to better understand what they were up against.
"You first Silver, what did you find?" Zelts asked, sitting on his bed while Remus laying behind him, ready to take in everything they will say. Silver was sitting across from Zelts on his own bed.
"I did find some people who used to live in the destroyed town and they were able to tell me a little about this Jabberwock, though there wasn't much they knew. Basically it's big, has wings, claws, and ugly. Not a lot to go on, but they were running for their lives, so I don't blame them... Found anything on your end?"
"None of the hunters know about it because the ones who went for the 300,000 Lien mission never came back. We're pretty much going in blind." He didn't want to complain, but this wasn't good for them. A powerful unknown Grimm was not something ordinary hunters like to fight, even freelancers like them were a little worried, well Remus wasn't, he likes a challenge.
"Zelts, you're forgetting the important thing, what we found out about Violet," Remus interrupted while sitting up right.
"She okay?" Silver asked concerned.
"Her bounty has been taken off the list," Remus said happily and Silver reacted quickly by standing up, thinking what it usually means when a mission was taken of the roster.
"She isn't-"
"No, it's not what you think," Zelts said to calm his friend down. "Turns out her bounty has been removed because whatever charges on her were dropped. Meaning people have no right go after her now. This kind of thing is... really uncommon."
"Ordinarily, bounties that high don't just go away over night," Zelts thought.
"It doesn't matter how it happened, Violet's safe now, that's the important thing," Remus said before laying back down on Zelts' bed. "Maybe she'll finally come home."
"Good to hear, and with that I think we should end today on a high note, night guys," Silver said getting into his bed. "We head out to village ruins first thing in the morning," he said before getting under the covers and closing his eyes.
Remus got up and made his way to sleep on the couch while Zelts got in his own bed. They stayed awake, thinking of their mission before falling asleep and dreaming of being united with their leader again.
Additional Information
When searching for Violet, Team VRSZ couldn't use her name because of her bounty, so they resorted to describing her as a different person. When people asked them to description of who they're searching for, each member had a different description. Remus said she was someone strong and cool, Zelts gave them a physical description while avoiding the use of her name, and Silver only said one thing; she a girl that punches like a dude.
During his time away from the team and after helping the children, Zelts has been living with Lily for some time. Zelts is also known for having a habit of late night snacking and he eats and drinks things straight from the jar, bottle. Silver knows this but the other members don't. One night, Lily caught him drinking soda from the bottle, and as punishment, she told him to finish all the soda in the bottle while she watched and it was nearly a full bottle. Zelts' stomach was upset throughout the rest of the day and he learned never to drink or eat anything straight from the bottle again. Zelts also learned Lily has a little bit of a sadistic side.