Treason
During the night the Haitians were feasting with the Aak'kei at the kitchen trees that had dining platforms talking with each other, competing, and some flirting. Bly was beating all challengers at arm wrestling and Aiyana was talking to some old friends, Mira on the other hand was doing her best to ignore the ten guys who surrounded her and who were doing their best to flirt with her, though she had no desire to be with any of them but indulged them as they kept bringing her sweets and meat. When Kaliban arrived she completely abandoned her suitors and walked to his side, to the irate of the boys. Kaliban continued to walk towards where Bly was, the girl turned and waved at the duo as they approached.
"How was meeting with the Chief?" she asked as she slammed another contender to the ground.
"Oh it was fine, just talked about old times." He gave a small laugh but Mira could tell he was hiding something. "Anyway what have you guys been doing since I was gone?"
"Well as you can see I've been teaching these lightweights a thing or two and Aiyana has been chatting all girly to some of the Aak'kei girls." As she was speaking; Hurritt came and walked up to Kaliban. The two just stared at each other and the Haitian tribal men and women went silent, with the Aak'kei looking on with curiosity. Aiyana saw what was happening and got up in hurry and took a few steps until. Suddenly there was a horn blast echoing through the village, everyone looked around in confusion. Then Kitchi and Nahuel came running up to Kaliban from a nearby tree.
"Kaliban, it's terribly!" Nahuel was panting from the run.
"What happened?" Kaliban became worried wondering what was so urgent.
"It's Litonya she took a group of young Aak'kei warriors into a war band is marching them southward and completely behind fathers back!" Kitchi explain, his face was red with rage.
"What!?" Kaliban was shocked, he knew how much Litonya wanted this alliance but he never thought she would do it without tribal permission
"That's not all; apparently she also managed to talk some of your warriors to go with them."
"WHAT!?" Kaliban looked around the platform in a hurry all his warriors should have been here getting dinner but he now realized with growing anxiety that about a third of the group was missing.
"Our father is leading a troop to intercept them before they get too close to the City of Vale. He also wants your help in tracking down the Haitian warriors that went with her."
"How will I be able to track them, again?"
"Father says concentrate through your Chieftains Mark and it will guide you." All the Haitian warriors that didn't go with Litonya began to gather around Kaliban waiting for orders.
"We'll split up half of you go with the Aak'kei being lead by Bly and Mira and I will lead the rest further down south to intercept them, Aiyana will stay behind and wait to see if anyone will come back when we're gone."
"What about me?" Everyone turned to look at Huritt who had his arms crossed over his chest with his viscous Butterfly Blade strapped to his waist. Kaliban thought that Huritt would be one of the ones to go with Litonya as he would also be rebelling against him as well but decided to stay for what reason he did not know.
"Sigh, fine you'll come with me and the rest to the south."
"Hmph." Kaliban looked over to where Aiyana was standing and she had a smile on her face and giving a nod showing her approval.
"Alright everyone let's head down the tree and get on the move."
"Right!" The group responded in unison as the area could now be heard with tromping feet as scores of warriors started walking down the stone steps towards their stables. The Aak'kei mode of transportation looked like normal horses but they were stronger, faster, and smarter than any horse found in the Kingdoms. The Haitians mounted their reindeer and separated into groups, Mira and Bly took theirs with Kitchi and Nahuel who took off to the east to meet up with their dad. Kaliban took his group and preceded southward, the road was long and they wouldn't be able to reach the city until day break.
Dawn was approaching just as they reached the border of the Aak'kei when they could start to see the massive wall of the city. There was a loud explosion in the distance; it was so sudden that Kaliban halted the group; he could see a plume of smoke slowly rise over the walls, Oh buck! He thought please tell me they didn't start the assault now! He needed to find Litonya and her group before it was too late. He tried to concentrate on his Chieftain Mark to try to locate them but he was too worried to focus.
"I could help you find them." A foreign voice started to speak inside his mind.
"Who is this?"
"I can help you find them if you'll let me in." It was strange to hear it in his head, it was less human and more like an animal with its gruffly voice. The humming from the object that was strapped to his back began again. Kaliban's mind began to clear of worry and he lifted his right arm with the glowing mark and then he knew exactly where to go. He led the group towards the gate but he began to hear buzzing sounds overhead and looked up. The sky was filled with airships surrounding the plume of smoke and he could see white things fall out of the ships; one of the drop ships made its way towards them.
Kaliban couldn't worry about the ship until he found Litonya and speaking of the Hellhound there she was Litonya like a hummingbird was darting from one Atlas soldier to another with her gun blades and a mix of Haitian and Aak'kei were fighting as well and they seemed to be getting the upper hand until a giant mech fell from the sky and landed between Litonya and the rest of her band. And that still wasn't the worst of it the drop ship that the mech came from also began to drop smaller infantry robots with powerful new guns and it didn't help that they were also being bombarded by the ship as well.
"Go now! Grab as many of our tribes men and fall back to the village. We are Tribe!" with the last phrase they charged down into the fray, weapons raised over their heads. The Atlas soldiers saw the incoming enemy reinforcements and retreated behind the gate in the side of the wall Litonya chased after them and started fighting them on the streets of Vale. Kaliban's riders began to knock down the robots while grabbing a hold of Litonya's war band hauling them onto the backs of their steeds and one by one began to retreat back into the forest. The mech fired its machine guns and rockets and the fleeing riders.
"Huritt we go to take out that mech." Kaliban yelled to the warrior riding alongside him.
"And how do you suppose we do that?"
"Got any fire bolos on you?"
"Just one."
"When we get close to it throw it at the right leg," the two warriors go just close enough so that Huritt could be as accurate as possible. He threw it with all his strength at the knee of the right leg, the bolo connected in a fiery explosion that completely severed the bottom half causing the mech to fall and land on its side. Kaliban leaped from the back of Coal and smashed his wolf hammer into the side of the cockpit completely ripping the protective canopy off its hinges revealing a shocked pilot inside. Kaliban grabbed the man by his head and threw him out of the machine; the robots began to fire at him so he duck behind the downed mech and ran to where Litonya was still fighting with the Atlas soldiers with more starting to pour into the streets. Huritt followed close behind, he twirled his Butterfly blade around and the infantry bots and sliced right through them.
"Litonya what do you think you're doing here!" Kaliban demanded as they reached her and joined the fight.
"I'm doing what is necessary, something the adults don't seem to realize and neither do you it seems." She remarked at him with coldness that he never heard of in her before.
"Litonya I've ordered all my riders to forcibly remove your war band from the field and if we don't hurry we'll be left behind and surrounded."
"What! You had no right to do that!" Litonya was angry now to the point that she even swung one of her blades at Kaliban who blocked it with his hammer. This set of the humming again as Kaliban's rage started to boil up again.
"That's it!" The boy grabbed her arm and twists it until she was on her knees and karate chopped her in the back of the neck knocking her out. Huritt got off his reindeer and help Kaliban lift her up onto it, while Coal was so spooked by the robots that she fled back into the forest. Kaliban looked at the Atlas soldiers with weapons drawn and slowly approaching them, he heard a noise behind him and saw that they were closing the gate intending to trap the trio inside the city. He took out a smoke bomb and tossed it at the incoming soldiers to obscure their view that should buy them time to escape.
Just as Kaliban was turning towards Huritt his fist connected with the side of his face knocking him to the ground the wolf hammer clattered next to him. He was in a daze blinking in and out of darkness. He saw Huritt pick up his wolf hammer and mount his reindeer and rode off through the gate but not without giving one last mockery.
"That was for the sucker punch, punk." And like a dream they were gone, the last thing Kaliban saw was Atlas soldiers peering down on him and then nothing.
Kaliban woke up tied to a chair in a small room with one light doing a poor job of lighting the place up and there was a table right in front of him as well as two other chairs. The door behind the chairs opened up to reveal two men, they both wore suits except one wore his black and carried a cane, his hair was gray and wore small eyeglasses on his face, he also had a cup of whatever that weird smell was. The other man wore a white suit and had black hair with white streaks in his sideburns showing his age, he had a square face and military structure and he did not look happy.
"Hey Salt and Pepper what's shaking?" He might as well get one last joke in while he can.
"You will address us with respect you insolent savage." Salt slammed a fist onto the table rattling it. Though after today nothing was shocking Kaliban now.
"It's all right General I'll take it from here." Pepper spoke as he sat down and took a sip looking at the boy. General huh.
"Hmph," the General sat down next to his colleague.
"Do you know what just happened in this city?" Pepper spoke directly to the boy but it didn't seem like he cared for his answer at all.
"Yeah you got attacked."
"Do you know by whom?"
"I'm guessing the White Fang." Kaliban looked away trying to not meet the gaze of the man in black.
"Well if the White Fang were involved then they did not show themselves." Kalibans head snapped up in shock.
"Wait…..then what happened."
"It appears your friends in the White Fang lured Grimm into the city by blowing a hole into the ground." The Salty General replied with anger.
Buck poop in 3…2…1… IT'S OVER 9000!
"What the Buck!"
"Language young man!"
"Who uses Grimm to attack a city?!" Kaliban couldn't believe the White Fang would resort to something so low as to let those monsters harm people.
"You are surprised by this?" Pepper raised an eyebrow and laced his fingers together.
"Huh yeah I am."
"Are you not allies with them?"
"Well they did ask for our help in the assault on your city but that wasn't supposed to be until days later, and we had to discuss whether or not we would join them anyway."
"So you had no idea they were going to attack earlier and with Grimm?"
"No." Kaliban straightened his back and looked straight ahead.
"Then why were there warriors from your tribes attacking the northern gate?"
"A war band lead by one of ours went against the chiefs orders to wait. They attacked your wall, why at the time of the explosion I don't know, but I was to lead a group of warriors to bring them back home."
"We saw your group in action, you are quite skilled, the way you took down that Paladin left me impressed."
"Was that what that was?"
"Ozpin." Salty man growled at the man next to him because he seemed to know what is coming next.
"Do you want to come to my school?" The question hit him like a wild Ursa.
"…What?" General McSalty got up from his seat and left the room in a rage.
"I said, do you want to be in my school?"
"And why the buck would I do that."
"Because if you say you were only trying to retrieve your warriors and not wanting to get involved then I don't see why we can't be civil about this." Kaliban became instantly wary of the man, he may be ordinary looking but there was something about him that he didn't like. "Make no mistake, you will be treated as a prisoner of war and in which case you have two options." He lifted his cup to his lips and took a swig.
"Which is?" Kaliban didn't like where this is going.
"Option 1, you come to my school enroll into classes and train and fight alongside fellow class mates and due to the amount of skill you posses you will be allowed to be a solo team until we are able to find suitable team mates for you. You'll also get to see our city and people for what we truly are and if you decide to stay I have no doubt you'll make many new friends here." Is he trying to have me make friends with his students so I'll be less inclined to lead the tribes against them? More like he wants to make me his slave.
"And option 2."
"You will be handed over to the military where you'll be the subject of numerous tests and more 'unpleasant' questioning and will be forced to live in a small box for the rest of your life or until they decide your no longer a threat." Gee when he puts it that way it's kind of hard to choose.
"I'll need to think about it."
"Don't take too long, my offer won't last forever." Ozpin gave him a small tab that slid open to reveal several graphics and displays. There was a red timer at the top of the screen showing 7 days and 23 hours and was counting down. "This is your Scroll if you decide to take me up on my offer than click on the cross axe icon and I will answer, however when the timer counts down it will release a small E.M.P charge that will completely destroy the Scroll so choose quickly."
"EMP charge?"
"E.M.P"
"But it sounds a lot like."
"Sigh, I know what it sounds like." The General returned but he brought some guards with him one was red and one was blue.
"In the mean time he will be aboard a prison ship." One of the guards came up to him and took out a bottle and sprayed green mist on his face.
"Gah! What the buuuuucck…..zzzzzzz." The effect was immediate in knocking him out.
He came too again but this time in the smallest room he has ever seen and was lying on a bench. Only a couple inches in front of him was a door that he tried to opened but couldn't. He banged on it with all his might but he just ended up bruising his knuckles.
"Whoa whoa whoa, what's this? Looks like a new neighbor moved in next door and oh what's that I didn't bring any gift baskets what a shame." A charismatic voice came from the left of his cell.
"Who are you?" Kaliban questioned.
"Didn't I just say; we're next door neighbors, jeez keep up with the times kid."
"Why are you in here?"
"Oh you mean little old me, well let's just say I'm in the middle of a very important operation."
"Yeah right."
"Don't believe, well that's fine I wouldn't believe me either." Kaliban didn't like his tone but since he was obviously the only other inmate since no one else is speaking up he'll try to see if the stranger has any plan for escape.
"I suppose you got a master plan to get out of here?"
"Hey your pretty sharp for a kid, I like that." He gave a soft laugh through the wall of the cell. "Say I got a proposition for you."
"Which is?" Another deal what is this? Buy two deals from a principal and get one free from a stranger in a cell?
"Well if you're willing to wait I could have us both out of here in no time provided you come work for me now." His voice went low and sinister and Kaliban didn't like it at all. If he accepted the strangers deal then his honor would demand him to work with him until his debt was repaid.
"Hmm, and what will I be doing exactly?"
"Oh the job gets a little dangerous but what I hear you're from those ancient tribes up north so you should be able to handle it." How did he know that!
"So what will it be Mountain Boy?"
