Everyone in the room jumped to their feet when Sun blinked awake. Neptune was by his side in an instant, white-knuckled and staring down at his partner with heavy relief. Blake reacted the same way, rushing to his side the moment his hand twitched. Her bow twitched anxiously, her cat ears straightening to attention when he let out a pained groan.
Blake also noticed that strangely enough her friend seemed to smell of faintly spoiled milk.
In a burst of rose petals, Ruby was standing beside Neptune, a glass of warm water in her hands. "Here." She handed it to him, and he shot her a grateful smile before accepting it. He slipped in a straw that was on his bedside table and gently lowered one end of it to Sun.
"Drink up, buddy." He said. "You must be thirsty as hell."
To his surprise, the monkey faunus flinched and eyed the glass like it contained poison. He took a quick sip, and made a face when Neptune offered it to him again. The blue-haired boy gave him a worried frown, but put the cup down anyway. Sun looked at the faces gathered around him, blinking rapidly in confusion. His vision finally cleared, and he found himself staring into the anxious faces of team RWBY and his partner.
He grinned weakly. "What did I miss?"
Everyone sagged in relief. Yang even chuckled. Now there was the goofball they knew.
"Just the grilling of one cat Faunus." Weiss answered, rolling her eyes when Blake glared. The heiress was still feeling a bit peeved at the moment, tensions still running high after the revelation outside the emergency room. Sun sank a bit at that, his cheerful demeanour faltering slightly. "Oh. Er…" He swallowed, trying and failing to look innocent. Blake shook her head, a small smile forming when she realised what he was trying to do.
"It's alright Sun." She soothed. "They found out."
He winced. Damn. She was definitely in a shitload of trouble, judging by the glint of anger present in everyone's eyes. "Kay, firstly. This wasn't Blake's fault." When Neptune visibly bristled and opened his mouth, Sun wacked his stomach lightly. There was barely any strength in the hit, and it made him even more worried.
"Upupup. It's not her fault okay? She told me not to follow them but I did anyway. It's not like she forced me to help her or anything. I was the one who was tagging along when she went out to gather info and stuff." He told them, wincing when he reached up to touch his bandaged head. "Should have listened though, those guys were pretty freaky. And dangerous."
"You don't have to tell us about it now." Blake's knee jerk reaction was to answer when she saw a dark look flit across his face. "You should get some rest."
Sun smiled and shook his head. "Nah, I rather tell you guys what happened while it's still fresh. Don't wanna forget any important details." He gestured at them to take a seat. "This is gonna take a while." He said when he received looks of confusion.
Everyone, save for Neptune and Blake, took a seat on the chairs lined against the wall which were adjacent to the bed. The cat Faunus sighed, and leaned against the wall. Neptune mimicked her movements, though the space between him and his partner was much smaller. His protective instincts were in overdrive, and the urge to coddle the monkey Faunus was almost overwhelming. Sun seemed to have noticed this and rolled his eyes, but he shot the blue-haired boy a large grin before recounting what happened to his fellow classmates.
Sun crept through the dark streets of Vale. In front of him were three unknown Faunus that were suspected of being members of the White Fang. He had been following them for over an hour now and was bored as hell. No matter what they did it was like there was no point to it. They would go into a store, not buy anything and then leave. They would then go into an alleyway only to leave literally a minute later. Top it all off a certain black cat Faunus would check up on him almost every five minutes; at least that's what it felt like at the time.
His scroll vibrated again and lo and behold it was Blake.
'What's happening?' she wrote.
'Nothing, they just keep walking around and bitching about the heat' he answered, making sure to keep his eyes on the trio.
"Damn this heat is a bitch I wish we'd get some action already." one of them said; on que. Sun rolled his eyes. This bunch were as interesting as a sack of potatoes.
'BTW shouldn't you be enjoying the fair?' Sun wrote, cringing when one of the Faunus spat on the ground after clearing his throat.
His scroll vibrated. 'Be quiet you.' Was Blake's reply, and he smiled wryly when her irritated face flickered in his mind's eye. Sun could almost feel Blake gritting her teeth at him.
He looked up and noticed just in time that his targets had turned down another alleyway.
'Hold on they turned a corner, brb.'
He jumped to a nearby rooftop and observed the three figures enter a building. The next image he saw was Roman Torchwick. Now Blake had told him time and time again to never go into an actual building, but this was the best lead they had since God knows when.
He examined the outside of the building and found an air vent that had its grate removed. Probably left the way it was by some disgruntled maintenance man. Well, it was good luck anyhow. He didn't need breaking and entering on his long list of sort-of crimes. He jumped into the duct and proceeded to follow his quarry.
As he crawled through the dingy vent, the Faunus grimaced whenever his head brushed against thick layers of cobwebs and squirmed, trying to get them out of his hair. After crawling for what seemed like forever, he finally came across a grate which allowed in small patches of light. It reminded him of a horror game once played, and fought down a shiver.
Sun peered out of it, clicking his teeth at how little he could see. Fortunately... or Unfortunately depending on your point of view, he had quite accidentally found his way into a duct overlooking the men's room, where Torchwick, and a chatty grey haired boy who seemed somehow familiar, were busy doing their business. Sun had to fight back a snicker as he inadvertently got a glimpse at the grey haired one's junk, feeling a primitive sort of pride in seeing how he and the boy measured up... that pride was soon blown to pathetic smithereens and irradiated to hell and back when he made the mistake of taking a peek at what Roman was packing. My gods... he could beat an Ursi to death with that! While Sun was busy feeling sorry for himself, Roman was just finishing up his business when one of his men called to him from outside.
"What do you want?" Roman asked, shutting the door behind him.
"I came to inform you that your err... special guests have arrived and frankly sir, they scare the fuck outta me." he reported.
Roman made a snide remark to the soldier before leaving to meet his guests.
Sun was confused as to why the soldier was so nervous about these three Faunus. It wasn't a discomfort from being around 'faunus' but it was more of a thinly veiled wariness that seemed out of place if he'd been working with the likes of assassins. He would soon find his answer when he followed Roman via ventilation, anticipation building in his chest. This was going to be big.
Sun finally came to a stop when he turned down the vent that lead into the room. Despite his limited vision, he could make out the voices of the room's occupants, and fought to control his breathing as he strained his ears to catch what they were saying.
The grate was slightly larger than the previous one, and despite its pathetic view radius Sun was able to steal several glances at Roman's guests. As he looked down a shiver went up his spine. It wasn't out of fear it was out of instinct; there was just something not right about the three Faunus. The first one was a reptilian Faunus that was far taller than the other two. Even from his position, Sun could tell that there was a dangerous air about him, a feeling further enhanced by his ridiculously muscled and imposing figure he must be at least 6 foot eight, maybe 7! Sun didn't even want to ponder what the hell that one could be packing downstairs, for the sake his sanity..
The next one was a strange amphibious Faunus that had an unusually large smile. Her skin was covered in a slimy, mucus like substance that made her shine under the light. It reminded him of a glowstick whose glow had begun to fade away. Her skin also appeared to... somehow absorbe the colors in the room, and it seemed somehow just a bit dimmer possibly around her despite the mild glow, though that could have been a trick of the light.
Finally the last one seemed out of place in the strange trio. She was somewhat meek and looked rather sad and pitiful. However, Sun noticed that her talons looked like razor blades and her eyes would dart around the room at every change in color, motion, or other minor alteration. He groaned. Why was it always the quiet ones that seemed a little stir crazy?
"–the warehouse?"
Sun cursed inwardly. He got too caught up with observing the three, and pressed his ears against the vent in hopes of catching the rest of their conversation. Unfortunately, the vent was much too high up to clearly hear what they were saying, and it didn't help that the room didn't seem to give off much of an echo either.
"–arget is a real bitch." One of the females rasped. "And real stupid too. I'm surpri–"
"Affirmative. The guards are going to be spread thin so–"
"Wait." The male suddenly called out. He had been watching idly from the side, looking rather bored until his unnaturally long tongue slid out to wet his lips. Then he had spoken up. He had a very rather... thoughtful expression, and his body language was tense.
Sun's muscles were suddenly seized by an intense shiver that rattled his teeth. The voice was cold, but there was an undertone of smugness and ruthlessness that made his skin tingle and the hair on the back of his neck stand on an end. He bit his lip, realizing that the room had gone silent when the male Faunus had spoken. Well this couldn't be good.
The reptile ran his tongue along his lips once more, quite languidly this time, and almost seemed to... probe the air with it. It was at times like these, that Sun really wished he had paid more attention in biology class.
"Sir," the reptile spoke up, "You wouldn't happen to have any other Fauni in the building would you? I...have an idea, and I could use the aid of one... perhaps of the more simian variety."
The chills were getting stronger.
Roman frowned, "I think Bob in accounting might be a mole... or maybe some kind of weasel, but that's about the only Faunus I'm aware of, let alone any of the monkey variety."
The reptile smiled... it was a very incredibly bone chilling expression, one that told Sun that... he'd been here for far too long. He began shuffling backwards.
He grimaced. The vent was too small for him to turn around. At this rate, he would be crawling backwards until–
There was a sickening crunch of metal before the position Sun had previously been in was split open. He yelped as the vent was broken into two, and what had once been a steady straight line of endless vents became tilted, and like some sort of sick survival movie, he found himself sliding down the slippery metal.
"Oh fuck oh fuck–" He backpedalled, trying to put as much distance from the hole as humanly possible. It was a difficult, considering that his palms were slick with sweat and the vent was trembling like it'd been hit by a mini earthquake. As luck would have it, Sun narrowly avoided being dropped into the same room as the four criminals and was instead dumped into the hallway when the entire vent collapsed.
He pulled himself from the rubble and rubbed his arms lightly. Aura certainly came in handy, though it probably wouldn't have done much of a difference if he was thrown off a cliff. He would take what he could get at least, Sun was just glad he wasn't thrown into the same room with Roman and his pals. Pushing himself up, the boy tried to regain his bearings just as the wall in front of him exploded, chunks of plaster flying in all directions that were accompanied by a storm of dust particles.
"There you are, you little chimp."
The figure stepped out of the gargantuan hole in the wall, the thud of heavy footsteps and small cracking of knuckles setting his teeth on edge. Sun felt his stomach drop when the Faunus came into view.
The male Faunus was distinctly reptilian, and Sun had to look up to see the face of his aggressor. Up close, the man... if that was even the right word for him, even bigger up close, definitely 7 feet at least, let his forked tongue shoot out of his mouth to taste the air, displaying horrifyingly sharp teeth that lined his entire jaw. Scales covered the entirety of his arms and shoulders, only the torso, head and legs looking remotely human. And even then, Sun wasn't sure since he was wearing long, black pants. It was the first time he'd seen a Faunus like this. More animal than human.
Without so much as a warning, a fist came rocketing towards him, and Sun barely dodged; stumbling away and feeling the debris from the attack hit his cheek. Regaining his footing, Sun gaped at the crater in the wall, the fist sized hole connected by a spider web of cracks spreading far and wide. Okay, so he was definitely going to be dodging most, if not all of the Faunus's attacks.
Whipping out his staff, he ducked under the incoming fist and smashed it into his opponent's body as many times as he could before jumping back. To his dismay, the attacks barely even left a scratch on the reptile, and it seemed to have annoyed him more than it did hinder him. What the hell were those scales made of?
He didn't have much time to ponder on that however, when he was slammed into the wall when he failed to avoid the shoulder charge. Sun gasped when he was flung back like a ragdoll, his body meeting the wall with a noise akin to the sound of a sledgehammer meeting a cement block. His ribs were absolutely screaming now, and had to prop his body up with his staff. The reptile Faunus no longer seemed stoic, but was now grinning almost smugly. The grin disappeared when Sun landed a solid shot, the boy leaning against the wall with his staff now in its gun chuck form.
Sun didn't bother waiting for the reptile to regain his bearings and quickly limped with as much speed as he could muster down the opposite direction, eyes darting around in search of a window of some sort. His hopes were dashed when he found none, just walls and walls of ugly beige. It felt like a prison, and he was its captive. The fear in his gut tripled when there a deafening roar sounded from behind him. Against his better judgement, Sun looked behind his shoulder to see the Faunus charging straight at him, eyes screaming murder.
The reptile only seemed to get angrier when Sun ducked and rolled out of harm's way, Sun's reflexes being much faster than his own. The frustration inside him began to mount, and to Sun's horror, it only made the attack all the more terrifying; the reptile clawing and punching his way through the walls in an attempt to catch hold of him.
The walls tore as easily as paper mache under the attacks, and Sun opted to use his gunchucks as he scrambled away from the beast, his ribs throbbing from the exertion. There was little time to nurse his wounds however. Sun stared up at the grey metal doors of the lift in terror, and mashed the small buttons with increasing panic as the reptile got closer. A large chunk of the wall soon came soaring towards him, its jagged edges hooking into Sun's exposed arm and tearing off a patch of skin.
Blood spurting out of the wound, the monkey Faunus tried to stem the bleeding by wrapping it with his shirt, tearing off his sleeve in the process. He pressed himself lower into the floor when another large chunk of plaster was thrown, and winced at the loud bang that followed. A glance behind showed that the lift's doors were ripped off its hinges, a series of crashes A low whirring sound followed, the thick cables were undisturbed, still operating under the guise of normality.
The reptile roared once more and charged towards him. Sun only had to look between the Faunus and the open door before flinging himself into it. It was just as well, Sun hit the metal top of the lift with an oof before the reptile disappeared out of sight, the lift descending downwards.
Sun collapsed on the elevator, gasping, feeling genuinely as if his heart were about to beat its way right out of his chest.
He hadn't felt that stressed since... ever. Even facing Roman and his goons at the docks hadn't brought such terror to him.
He was just starting to get to his feet, when the elevator came to a sudden jerking halt beneath him and he stumbled, almost falling over the side. He looked up, and felt his blood run cold, as his gaze found the source of the issue.
The reptile had gotten a hold of the cable in one massive fist, and...actually seemed to be pulling the elevator up so that he could inspect it.
Sun couldn't see the reptile's eyes... but he could sure as hell see the gleam of his brilliantly white and wickedly sharp teeth as the bastard smiled, then proceeded to bite down on the cable in his grip.
"So...you ever wonder why we're here?" The guard named Todd asked of his companion.
"Great question, glad you asked, it's one of life's greatest mysteries after all ain't it, why are we here?" His companion Remeo sighed, "Are we the by-product of some great cosmic coincidence, or is there really a God out there, with a plan for us and all that...I dunno man, but it keeps me up at night."
Todd just stared at his long time comrade. "...What? I meant why are we here... right here in this building, guarding a bunch of false documents, some pencil pushers, and that asshole Roman. We're trained soldiers god damn it, not rentacops after all. What the hell was all that shit about god?" He snorted.
Remo flushed and was busily trying to look anywhere else but at his partner's gaze, when a loud rumble and roar came from above. "By the abyss," Todd swore, "The big guy's at it again... you don't think that they're gonna ask us to clean up after him do you?"
Remo shrugged, grateful for the subject change. "Boss does what the boss does, I'll just be happy if he asks us to do it, while that monster is off terrorizing innocent mooks elsewhere."
"Good point, but still why the hell are we here? I mean I get that this place needs guarding, but what the fuck do they need actual soldiers here for? I mean doesn't that just make this place all the more suspicious looking, and another thing–" He was cut off abruptly when a tremendous crash came directly from behind them where the elevator was situated, followed shortly thereafter with a triumphant formidable roar.
"Err... how about we wonder why we're here while we're busy searching for suspicious noises somewhere else kay?" Remo asked nervously, "Anywhere else." He repeated, dragging his comrade far away from what remained of the lift.
Sun stumbled forth from between the battered elevator doors, wheezing and trying not to cough his lungs out, plaster dust covering him over from head to toe and threatening to smother him. It was like a thick blanket had been draped over him, blurring his vision and coating his lungs with dust particles.
The Faunus looked around blearily, ears ringing like the bells of the Devil's own personal jester. He could dimly make out light...natural light from the sun outside the building and felt a flicker of hope pass through him. Sun lurched towards the light, ignoring the fiery aches and sharp pains that shot throughout his body, knowing that a far worse fate awaited him if he stopped to give his battered body the rest it so desperately desired. The door that stood in between him and freedom was easily pushed aside, and he stumbled out of the building – the fresh air and bright sunlight renewing the dwindling vigour in his muscles.
But then, it was as if the blazing light suddenly sprouted hands that reached forward. They gripped him by his jacket in impossibly strong, yet simultaneously flimsy feeling hands that seemed to be covered in slime.
The light vanished suddenly from his gaze, the sun disappearing behind a tall building. Pain flared through his body once more as he was thrown against the brick wall of the death trap he had just escaped.
Sun groaned, multi-coloured rings exploding in his vision, and he just knew that he was at the very least suffering from a concussion. It was hard to discern whether the messed up creature before him, the amphibian girl who'd been with Roman, was just a figment of his imagination or not.
Her skin held a definite sheen to it that spoke of her amphibious nature, and her oddly wide mouth definitely matched the few amphibian Faunus he had met before, but there was something... still definitely present in this girl, that hadn't been in the others he'd met.
Something dangerous, something that made him want to crawl into a tree somewhere and hide.
"Welllll...hmm what do we have here?" she purred even as she twisted them about, and set his back to the nearby brick wall. "A funny, funny little monkey man, giving the big bad dinosaur a tough time, hmmm."
She gave him an appraising look that sent shivers down to his core, and an unusually thick looking tongue slid across and over her thin lips, pausing a for a moment... before darting out with lightning speed and striking him across the face, with surprising force, and he felt something trickle down his cheek. Had she actually cut him with her tongue?
"Hmm you taste even better than you look, honey." She shivered with macabre delight. "Definitely gonna keep you."
Before Sun decipher her cryptic sentence, his attention was captured by the sound of metal cracking into bits as his attacker barrelled about through the building, tearing down walls and blowing apart cubicles in an effort to get to his prey. Sun shivered at the sound and tried to shrink into the wall though he knew it was futile. The Faunus could probably smell him even if he were miles underground.
A cough. Followed by a gagging sound.
Sun's attention was stolen away again, and suddenly–
"The fuck?!" He squawked, as the salamander-like girl showered him with a foul smelling liquid. It couldn't be categorized as a liquid if he was honest, the stickiness and ridiculous stench it emanated was enough to send him sprawling to the ground in a heap. She coated him thoroughly and impatiently pulled him to his feet before shoving him against the wall once more. His already spinning head didn't clue him in on the small bit of flesh she'd snagged from his arm, but it was probably better that he didn't notice.
There was another crashing sound, and Sun tried to make a break for it, but barely even managed to shift his feet in the right direction, let alone move his legs, for in the few short seconds since the girl had begun coating him with her viscous slime, it had already hardened to an unbelievable degree, and in a few moments more he knew it would probably be impossible to get him out with anything less than one of Yang's fierce punches.
The salamander girl smirked at a job well done. "Very good... hmmm yess very good indeed. Now be a dear and keep your mouth shut, or else this will all be a waste."
Sun was so stunned by this turn of events he just nodded and did as he was told. She smiled happily, and without further ado, she shot her tongue up into the sky where it glistened under the bright afternoon sun for a moment, before rapidly retracting back into her mouth from whence it came, and suddenly she barfed one last wretched time, covering him this time in faintly glowing slime.
Sun barely had time to blink, before he suddenly found himself disappearing before his very own eyes. His entire body turning more translucent than a jellyfish in a mere matter of seconds, and by the time the reptile Faunus finally burst out into the street, Sun was already as good as gone from mortal sight.
The Salamander girl turned to face her giant comrade, putting on a cool, though wickedly contented expression on her puffed out cheeks, even as she chewed on the slither of flesh she stole from Sun, while idly drawing in deceptively huge lungful's of air even without opening her mouth to full capacity, and filling her body to the point where even she felt ready to burst with it, her bloated stomach making it look as if she were 7 months pregnant or so with twins.
The reptile made a sound of distaste when he spotted his comrade causally leaning against the wall, an ever annoying smirk present on her face.
"Where did the bastard go?" He ground out, brushing the bits of plaster off his knuckles. "Can't smell him anywhere."
Pretending to roll her eyes, she pretended to gag and spat out the flesh she'd placed inside her mouth earlier and smacked her lips noisily. "Of course you can't. He's right here." She patted her stomach. "Stomach acids are a wonderful thing. You aren't the only one who can swallow their prey whole you know." She finished smirking while patting her newly distended stomach.
The larger reptile let out a suffering groan and glared at her. He'd gone through all that trouble and ended up with nothing to show for it. "Damn you." He grumbled, folding his arms as the adrenaline faded from his eyes. Turning around, he accessed the damage coolly and levelled her with a look that made her body tense.
"We've got to go. Torchwick is going to be annoyed with us now, and we still need to talk over the rest of the details regarding the package, and its transportation." The salamander rolled her eyes, "You rob one Schnee warehouse, you rob them all, and can't we skip the briefing and go straight to the napping and waiting?"
The lizard man growled, "It's different this time. It's not only is it an asset to us, it's a potential threat." The reptile leaned forward to growl directly into the amphibian girl's face, and she winced at the carrion-eater smell that washed over her nostrils. "We cannot let the Schnees get their filthy human hands on it, now get your slime covered ass up to the office, while I check the building for more traitors, I don't care how fat you are, if you're not waiting there when I finish, I'm going to have myself a meal after all."
"Why Mane," the salamander drawled, "I didn't know you even liked me that way, I'm flattered dear, but you are sooo not my type... I like mine with hair... golden hair is my favorite." she smirked, and Sun shivered.
What passed for the scaly giant's eyebrow twitched, and he growled, "Don't call me that you cannibalizing skank, and don't forget who owns you." Then strode off back into the building to vent his ire on the nearest poor sap that sparked his attention.
The salamander girl pouted, "Meanie, he didn't have to get nasty and start calling me names, I mean skank really?" she shook her head, "I just have a good luvin heart that can't stop from lovin when I see someone I could love."
She sniffed, before turning back to Sun, "Anyhow, sadly we must part now, do me the huge, huge favour of surviving the next few hours, could you do that for me sweetie? That's a dear." she patted him low on the stomach, just above his pelvic bone, before heading off back into the building. "Be back for you, when I can!" She called out, giving him a small wave before disappearing into the building.
"What happened after that?" Neptune asked, finally deciding to interrupt. He had enough of hearing how his friend cheated death. Sun winced at the harshness in Neptune's tone, his hand going to rub his nose as he recalled what happened next.
"Well, luckily enough for me, a truck carrying a tank full of milk crashed nearby, and the milk somehow dissolved the sludge covering me, though it also nearly drowned me."
Yang elbowed Ruby in the ribs, "Told you too much milk could be bad for you." she joked.
"Too true," Sun laughed, wincing at this invoked from his cracked ribs. "Anyways... then I crawled my way here through the various alleyways, doing my best to avoid any White Fang lookouts, and you know the rest."
Blake shook her head in disbelief, still amazed that Sun had managed to crawl back to Beacon after everything he'd been through. Any lesser person would have just waited for the authorities to find them.
"We need to tell Headmaster Ozpin that we had nothing to do with this." Weiss huffed. "You need to tell him what you've been up to, Blake. Take responsibility for your actions at the very least."
All eyes in the room turned to the cat Faunus, some of the gazes more intense than others.
Heaving a large sigh that seemed to make the room shake, amber eyes narrowed as Blake grimaced.
"Alright fine." She snapped before turning, and leading them out herself to the headmaster's office, inwardly steeling herself, prepared to face the consequences.
The Grinning Psychopath: WHHOOOO! yeah that was fun ladies, gentlebeings, and monsters, and jedi and all. Eh hope you all really enjoyed this chapter. Our apologies for it taking so long, eh life's just been a real bitch to us lately. Special thanks to the author SHDW productions, who is now assisting us in this ambitious venture of ours. heh hope to have a helluva lot more to you soon.
jin0uga: Super long chapter for you guys, sorry for the late update! A huge thanks to SHDW productions for assisting us in this chap, lots of love for ya! As always, thanks for reading, reviewing, following and favouriting (is this a word?) and I hope you've enjoyed the latest chapter.