Chapter 4: Docks
It was a nice morning in Vale,'.
The sun was bright and there was no sign of clouds while the workers continued their jobs by the local docks.
"Can you remind me what we're doing here, Weiss? Because I am half-tempted to ditch all of this to return to bed."
Yang didn't bother to hide a yawn as it was far too early in the morning for her to even be in that gloomy place, she couldn't even fix right her feeling tought was seemingly shared by the other teammates as even Weiss looked 'doubtful' herself about her own 'brilliant' plan.
"Ruby and I decided that we need to gather more information about our future opponents. Plus the Vytal festival is around the corner, there is lots of things to do and buy." She blinked, somewhat less tired. "Do you want to lose all of that?"
"Not thath there are many shops open right now." Blake mused quietly, her eyes had seen that many buildings had closed during their first shift to finish the last preparations for the event.
Still, several decorations had already put and the work seemed to be going quite smoothly.
"I-I want to also be helpful! We will win!" Ruby's entusiastic whine was almost silenced immediately as several policeman rushed towards the same shop she had helped to save from a robbery attempt from Roman Torchwick few months earlier.
They approached the guard set near the entrance as the Rose decided to take the lead, worried about whath happened. "What is wrong?"
"Dust robbery, the third time this week." The officer answered, yet he barely hid his annoyance at having to deal with some interrogation from a bunch of teens.
"Any suspects?" Weiss' own question did nothing but irk him further and he was half-tempted to lecture those girls to stop harrassing them.
That was until he noticed the weapons and their experienced stance.
To say that Vale Police Department wasn't fond of Huntsmen was an understandment.
It had happened multiple times that some cases were literally removed from their hands and given freely to some Hunstman.
Yet that dislike was kept at bay by an important point: Huntsmen were revered( for good reasons, aniway, since a lot of them specialized in ' normal' investigations) and, any damage against them would cause anyone responsible an expulsion from the VPD.. at least.
"The White Fang and Torchwick are our biggest suspects. Through this might be the work of some new gang, we are still studying the crime scene."
"Like Grimm weren't already a problem.." Yang almost groaned, remembering how her father had said that Huntsmen might have to deal with criminals too in their job.
"Or the White Fang itself." Blake glared at Ruby because of her uncalled comment.
"Can you stop talking about them, please?" The leader of the team frowned but shook her head.
"Sorry Blake. I'm not fond of those who hurt civilians, like in that protest few months ago-"
"Neither am I!" The Heiress interjected, interrupting Ruby's speech. "I even know few faunus acquaintances and they consider the White Fang nothing short to violent hypocrites."
The Belladonna was surprised by her words, clearly unsure if the Schnee was referring to her surrogate uncle or someone else, yet she found herself irked by having to hear the former organisation she was part of being badmouthed like this.
Whatever she had planned to say was cut down by a collective groan.
Turning around, team RWBY saw team JNPR with similar defeated look.
"Even this one is closed?! Is official, is a conspiracy!" An exasperated Pyrrha looked even more disheartened to the mere fact.
"Did you have to buy new mags?" Yang asked perplexed at the dramatic stance from the whole group.
"Not exactly." Ren sighed with a slightly more optimistic but calm outlook. "Nora and I wanted to buy some Dust and cloth to create special clothes."
"And... you are okay with that?" Ruby frowned as Jaune merely nodded at her.
The four girls shared a shiver to their spines as they imagined the very scary idea of giving the duo more Dust to use.
Nora's semblance allowed her to absorb electricity to further increase her physical prowess and electric Dust worked too in her case, while Ren with his Aura Manipulation could deal elemental tecniques capable of harming even Grimm like those they faced during the initiation's ending.
"I would gladly give you some spare but I'm waiting as well for some more supplies."
Weiss sighed as she contemplated her situation regarding the robberies.
With this shortage, the price for Dust would have to increase further, making it difficult for Huntsmen to save up enough for their missions. Dust monopoly was hellish.
"We can't just wait there like this! We need to see how to solve this issue before we will end up without any Dust to use!" , yelled Ruby determinated, gaining all the present's attention, surprised by her little outburst and rapidly started to planning a solution... thath came to the least expected source.
"You require a solution, ladies and gentlemen?" A voice asked from behind them. "I believe I can provide you with that." A tanned, monkey faunus anwered with a full-blown grin.
Sun Wukong was in Vale!
"What is this so called 'solution' of yours?"
Sun had led them to a close bar were they could sit and listen to his plan regarding the robberies.
"I've got a little group of friends from Atlas who informed me that a batch of new supplies from the SDC was going to arrive in few days from now. Since we are talking about a massive cargo, I am quite sure that whoever is responsible will not let this opportunity go to waste."
"Just to know, who are these friends and why should we trust you?" Weiss' rapier was ready to strike down the scoundrel if the answer was not opportune or false.
"You might found it unbelievable how someone like 'me' could befriend the bunch of people I am going to cite but... Souichiro Seaspell has a good friend of mine within his teamr."
"Seaspell? Do you mean Medea Seaspell's son?" Pyrrha couldn't believe that someone just as young and untrustworthy( for now) could know about the famous Atlesian woman. "Seriously , how do you know her and her son?"
"I don't know much about the pretty lady but I was just trained alongside her son's partner under the same teacher and so I came to know a little about Souichirou... I think their team should arrive here quite soon." The male faunus said with a calm voice checking the hour on his scroll.
Weiss blinked as she noticed how peculiar this coincidence was
Souchiro was one of the few friends she had in Atlas, but last time she saw him was almost an year ago, both too much busy with their own studies and then the different Academies they had chosen.
"Interesting connections.." Blake's comment was restrained as she still doubted about the factuality of Sun's words and so she decided to keep a neutral stance with this 'stranger'.
"By the waaay, who trained you and this guy?" Nora pointed a lamp, unknown where she had taken it, and flashed its light upon the boy's face.
Confused, the monkey faunus looked at the girl's teammates and Ren merely shrugged and gestured him to 'go along with it', knowing full well she wouldn't leave him in peace without having her curiosity satisfied.
Sun sighed, knowing that there was little to do to avoid answering with so many people now interested in that subject.
"None other than the great King Hassan, best teacher in all of Remnant." Everyone blinked at that smug presentation, this claim actually bringing Pyrrha to giggle a little while Ren shook his head with a small smile. Yang and Nora after a few seconds of silence directly started laughing, while Jaune, Weiss and Blake had to keep themselves to do so, with the result of getting red as they never were in all their life.
Ruby's nervous giggle was meant to not press the subject too much.
None of the presents wanted to offend their new acquaintance, but the idea the most powerful and skilled Assassin in all of Remnant had taken someone like him as an apprentice was nothing short to ridiculous.
"Ehi! I swear it was him to train me. I-I wasn't even the only apprentice. I had several seniors and we all had to call him Gramps(1)." You would think that the greatest King of Assassins would have not demanded that little nickname from his disciples and yet Sun had been quite surprised to call him that. Trough this reaction was pretty much whath the young Faunus wanted, after all he was ordered to answer with the truth to the question Nora gave him and making it sound as a stupid joke. So far the trick always worked
He then sighed and offered to pay for everyone, but a purple missile crashed onto his shoulders under the eyes of everyone. They were gifted with the sight of a pretty overweight wolf faunus( armed also with two tonfas thath weren't definitly light at all) sitting confortably on Sun's shoulders. The blonde Huntsman, trough, wasn't effected in the slightlest.
"Bro, stop harrassing people with your petty flirt attempts! I thought I told you that flirting with multiple girls and dudes was kind of beyond your abilities." The wolf faunus chuckled as Sun grabbed him and launched him right behind his ' businness partners', landing aniway withouth problems.
The two teams blinked as the seemingly average teen had some surprising strength and dexterity.
"You frigging scared me, Emil. But hello to you too!", greeted Sun before trying an high kick, which Emil crouched and dodged the kick while he hit the friend's standing leg with his open palm.
"Geez, Sun, no need to be so snappy at me."
The two Faunus continued to exchange blows but none seemed to actually deal any damage to each other.
"Shouldn't we stop them?" Ruby pointing at the fighting teens as they somehow reminded her a little of how her father and her uncle Qrow relationship worked.
Sometime they would do some little sparing during an argument but in the end her uncle would have to concede to Taiyang, the blond being much more specialised in hand-to-hand combat. Trough these arguments became much more serious in the period of her mother's birthday and her funeral, they could fight eventually for hours.
"Nah, they are merely playing around. " Jaune stated calmly, having see this happening when his father would spar with multiple recruits while his mother wasn't around.
"I confirm." Ren's comment was given the same time the rest of team SESP arrived to the scene.
Shouchiro was stoic as always, Ciel had an annoyed look on her face and Penny was looking around and staring every shop nearby, her bubbly personality finally free to explore around without Atlas' constritions in action.
"Don't cause any problems, Emil . I don't think we need to pay more than we already have to for our needs." The leader's remainder was delivered in a quiet tone as he distanced the wolf faunus by picking his ear.
Meanwhile the rest of the now pretty big group approached the new arrivals, Weiss smiling at Souichirou while Yang seemed to keep close to the Heiress for some reason. Maybe it was just a partners thing?
"Good to see you again, Souichirou." The Schnee greeted the snake faunus warmly and the others used that moment to introduce themselves as well.
"Glad to meet you, I'm Penny Polendina and she's Ciel Soleil." Penny replied after RWBY and JNPR said their names. "And we are Emil's teammates and friends."
"Just teammates." Ciel corrected her while thinking how someone as Penny could keep her cheerful attitude going for so long.
"Sooo.." Ruby tried again to return back to the subject in their conversation. "Sun told us that you had informations about a possible new Dust robbery. What can you tell us about it?"
"In layman's terms, a massive supply for refurnish Vale's shops will arrive this Sunday to the docks and it will be left unattended for a few hours. According to our sources, whoever is causing this crime spree will use that window of opportunity to capture the entire cargo."
"But we will intervene and stop the criminals from committing this horrible deed. Right, Shouichirou?!" Penny exclaimed with utter determination and with a sense of justice dripping from her tone.
"Of course, but we also have to know what they intend to do with it." If some criminal stole such quantity of potential explosive, they didn't want just to sell it, it was almost sure because they wanted to do something to do with it, something incredibly devastating.
The Huntsmen-in-training agreed to take action and were ready to go to the docks two days later, when the hit was supposed to happen.
While they ended their discussion, two young girls continued to watch them from the bar. Both were very short, one around sixteen years with blond hairs grouped in two tails and blue eyes, while the other was around eleven, with a black dress, dirty white hair and golden eyes.
"Should we alert dad?" The youngest asked as they both decided to retreat back.
In that cloudy weekend, the thirteen students were at the docks as they had planned.
They were divided in three groups, guarding each sections of the various containers.
Everyone (with the exception of Sun, Emil and Souichirou) were quite nervous about this pseudo-mission, being their true time they weren't simply killing some criminal met on the spot and one of them was also afraid of whath she could discover.
A certain Cat faunus was the most nervous of the big group and was unnerving everyone by walking back and forth as they waited.
"Is something wrong, Blake?", asked Ruby, just slightly irritated at her partner.
After all, while the little reaper was one of the gentlest people of Remnant according to almost everyone who knew her, she wasn't by any means a saint in every opportunity.
Several idiots who thought that either finished in the infirmary room back in Signal or at the cemetery if they went too far in Vale or on Patch.
"I-It's nothing." Blake replied as she closed her arms close to her chest.
"Liar!" Yang butted in as she noticed the little trembling in her hands, not fooling anyone.
"Is it because the White Fang, right?" Asked a concerned Weiss.
The way Blake's shoulders moved was a clear sign the heiress hit a sore spot.
"No, not at... ARGH, alright, you deserve to know!" She said with guilty in her voice. "I was part of the group."
An odd silence fell on the area and the faunus was quick to realise why.
"Y-you were already suspecting?!"
"Mostly anti-social faunus, dressed in black and too often with dark mood while reading tragic books? Either you had an abusive family, that was Nora's hypothesis or you were part of some shady organisation." Yang explained boringly, tired of waiting and especially annoyed that this was becoming just a scout mission without any planned fights.
"As much right you are, Yang, couldn't you phrase it in another way? Out of respect for Blake, I mean." Weiss's comment fell on deaf ears as the Belladonna tried to find a proper comeback to that situation.
"I can't believe you act this way for me." Blake's voice was trembling a little in surprise at the lacking reaction.
"Well, Blake, you already know our opinion on the White Fang." Ruby piped in, a cautious note in her voice as she wasn't meaning to annoy her friend.
" I wanted just to help my species, to strenghten our rights in Remnant." She continued to say, remembering her parents' dream. Her dream, corrupted by Adam's hate and most on all her own blindness.
Her monologue was interrupted by the familiar noise of several bullheads landing near the dock's middle zone.
It wasn't that much a surprise anyway that several White Fang's thugs rushed out of them and started to work quickly to steal the various packages, Blake already expected it after the talk she had with Vlad some months earliear. The real surprise was the human who lead them, the same person thath in a way permitted Ruby's arrive in Beacon.
"Wait a minute! I-Is that?!"
Ruby stared precisely at the leading figure of the thieves and she recognised him.
Orange hair? Check.
Cane mixed with a rocket launcher? Check.
Dandy style that would make one question the man's preferences? Check!
Ladies and gentlemen, Roman Torchwick was here to steal some more!
"You should hurry up faster, fleabags. We are already late in our schedule!"
"What is he doing here with them?" Prepping Ember Celica, Yang smiled eagerly at the possible fight that would ensue soon, while the leaders where talking on their scrolls about how acting.
"Ok, Pyrrha and I can keep him busy, meanwhile you... WAIT, BLAKE, NO!" Jaune almost cursed when the faunus girl rushed against Torchwick putting her katana at his throat and tried reasoning with the other faunus, while her teammates and friends cursed her carelessness,
"Ruby, no offence.. but you should have a better control over your teammates."
Souichirou sighed as he left his hiding spot when the fight started.
Roman took advantage of Blake's surprise to throw her in mid-air towards an explosive round before starting shooting several blast at her.
Using her clones and her impressive speed, she outmanouvered the attacks and planned how to capture him.
"Ciel, stay behind him. Penny, make a barrier with your swords. Emil, slow him." The Snake Faunus ordered with a steely tone as team SESP prepared to contain the infamous crime boss, surrounding him while the rest of their companions engaged the cronies.
Ciel, while not always so fond with Souchiro, at least followed his orders when necessary and pointed a pair of pistols to the orange haired criminal, while from Penny's backpack a swarm of blades blitzed around the five opponents, creating a small green barrier around them.
"Mphh, that's it? I've broken out barriers much more durable than this one, you-", Roman commented arrogant trying to hit Ciel with an Aura enchanted fist. Emil smirked as he slammed onto him and launched against the thief recovered just in time to see Souichirou rushed at him with his green-glowing dagger and was quite surprised when the Atlas' student outspeeded him in his dodging attempt.
'What is this?!' He thought as the youth dodged another attack from his stick trying to figure out whath was happening. 'Is time.. slower?'
He tought it could be an effect of the barrier, but outside of it the other fighters were still moving normally. He tried aniway to attack Penny for escaping.
That is if he could manage to get enough space away from the remaining Atlas' students.
Ciel's handguns blasted two powerful laser beams that forced the criminal right in Emil's and Souichirou's proximity.
He tried to jump and avoid getting forced to deal with two opponents on each side but he soon found difficult to make the easiest of overtakes, until Emil raised an hand toward him and the poor orange haired criminal started to float
The wolf faunus was glowing and that meant.. he controlled gravity, Roman realized with a groan before being launched toward a container. After the impact, he lost a good chunk of his Aura, he definitly needed help.
While Torchwick faced a very bad situation, Ruby and her team were facing withouth many difficulties the swarm of thugs, each of them getting their Aura broken after a few hits.
One of them tried to jump at her but she swung Crescent Rose in time to.. break his glass form?!
She blinked and had just a moment to dodge a pointy umbrella from pincushioning her body.
The owner of the weapon was a short girl with brown and pink hair, heterochromatic eyes of the same colors and a white tuxedo.
She smiked evily and when Yang tried to attack her, she avoided the first attack and retaliated easily by punching her stomach, sending her flying.
Crescent Rose collided against the umbrella, the clash causing some pressure around them as the two girls continued an endless exchange that saw neither of them capable of finding a blind spot in each other's guard.
' Roman had someone so strong on her side?', tought Ruby terrified, while she felt the girl's Aura level and physical prowess against her was dreadful to know that someone so powerful was affiliated to the crime boss.
It was then that Blake tried to intercede against the silent fighter but was surprised when she took out a slim blade out of her umbrella and almost beheaded her.
The young woman was still in quite the disadvantage but it was just as they had planned in case of ambush.
It was all a matter of time to get a victory out of that situation.
"Thanks for helping me with the stall, Neo! Now you little rascals will know the true meaning of Nightmare." A fourth bullhead arrived and fifteen WF thugs descended heavily armored and.. having some Grimm with them, their sight terrifying all Huntsmen in training. As far they knew, despite all the ages those monsters plagued Remnant, no one ever managed to control them, not even semblances could do thath.
Sun and Emil realised that his could be what Hassan had perceived, something foul and dangerous. And that was the White Fang being able to tame Grimm without sacrifice.
"I bet you kids are surprised at this, eh! Roman cheekily stated as he retreated back with Neo.
The lieutenant leading the new squadron aimed his axe at the composed group of huntsmen-in-training.
"Surrender now and you will have a swift death, even for the the traitor and the Schnee." His threat fell empty on their ears as Ruby looked quickly at the Heiress.
"Never! Weiss, go!" Her teammate didn't waste time in charging aura in Myrtenaster and, few second later, a torrent of ice flew to the Huntress' enemies trough the ground, freezing a good chunk of them, but most Faunus and Grimm still escaped and directed through the group.
A Deathstalker big as a puma rushed toward Ruby, who shoot a barrage of gravitational bullets without much effect, but Emil came to her rescue easily destroying the scorpion's armor with his Tonfas, now infused with thunder Dust, then hit one of the grunts with a rocket.
"All ok?" He asked Ruby, who now directed to a group of Ursa, slashing them with her scythe.
"Yeah but whath the hell happened here?!"
From the other side, Ren and Nora was fighting another Faunus aided by two Beowulfs.
The green ninja had some problem with the opponent's physical strength and speed, but after kicking him right on the head, he lost his balance and an Aura strike later he was dealt with, while Nora for one relied more on his raw skill for dodgin the Grimm's claws and countering, finding her normal approach a waste of energy.
"How did you manage to tame them?" Pyrrha's question was met by several thugs attacking her all at once, their batons crashing on her shield as her lance swept them off their feet.
"Y-You would like to know, human!"
Both Grimm and Faunus, while not so powerful, were still pretty strong and tough compared to their usual counterparts and were definitly giving a run for their money to the Huntsmen-in-training.
Roman and Neo didn't make things easier, needing in fact the full attention of team SESP to be held at bay.
Through, unknow to all thirteen students, another figure in the shadow was watching everything, Ruby in particular.
"No one hurts dad..."
The surname of King Hassan isn't exactly canon, but i've a group of friends, writer themselves, and we all like to call him thath, it seemed fit.
Hi, guys, sorry for the enormous late, but exams kept me from writing or even traducting, luckily they both went good and now i'm here again, also thanks to Social, my awesome and helpful beta reader. I hope the chapter was enjoyable to you, in the case give me some constructive critique and i'll try to improve as much possible. Next chapter will be the end of volume 1, see you soon.