Yang and Pyrrha drove to the jail where Cardin was being held to go confront him about the incident with Ruby. They were both mad at Cardin and wanted to do horrible things to him to make him pay, but do not want to go to jail for making him a bloody pulp.
"Yang," Pyrrha said, looking over at Yang while they were at a stoplight, "Mind telling me what you were planning on doing to him if I didn't come with and prevent you from doing it?"
Yang takes her phone out of her pocket and pulls up a document with many ideas of what to do to Cardin. "Should I start at the top of the list or the ones I think that are the most fun and damaging to his skull," Yang said, with an evil smile on her face, knowing if she had her way Cardin wouldn't be the same when they left.
"I would say just give the most interesting ones because I don't have all day to listen to your murder plots," Pyrrha said, pressing her foot down on the gas as the light turns to green.
"The ones I think are the most interesting are," Yang said, as she scrolled through the list looking for her favorites, "Knocking him out, then tying his arms and legs to different cars that drive different ways. Another good one is slamming his head between two insanely large bars to crush his skull. My favorite I'm going to keep to myself so you can't stop me from doing it." Yang said, covering her favorite idea so Pyrrha couldn't see, even though she was driving.
"I should have expected that much from you, Yang," Pyrrha said, continuing down the road toward their destination.
Pyrrha got to the next light and rolled her window down to let the wind go through her hair and so she could relax on her drive with Yang, she didn't get much time to just relax and drive she usually was racing or in some form of urgency when she was driving. The road had less traffic than usual cause it was the morning and the part of town they were in never had too much traffic.
Yang cut off Pyrrha's train of thought suddenly by saying "I wonder if the others have woken up and gotten breakfast yet?"
Pyrrha responded with, "I'm not sure they all were up pretty late. We can text Ren and Jaune to see if they have when we get to the jail."
Jaune motioned for Blake to take a seat at the bar and grab some of the pancakes that Ren had made for the group. Blake sheepishly grabbed some pancakes and took the seat on Jaune's right, which Ren was on Jaune's left. The room was quiet enough that the birds could be heard chirping outside and there was so much tension it could be cut with a knife.
Ren eventually broke the silence with, "Blake, how much of me and Jaune's conversation did you hear," scared she had heard that Ren was about to tell Jaune about his past.
Blake, still nervous beyond belief, muttered out; "I heard that you were going to tell Jaune about your past and that you specifically didn't want me to hear cause you had feelings for me."
"Well then guess you should know also since you would find out eventually anyway." Ren said, with his signature level head. "Probably should start with how I am so dangerous in combat while refusing to partake in it unless absolutely necessary."
Ren took a seat on the recliner and motioned for Jaune and Blake to take a seat also, anticipating telling everything would take a while. Both sat down on a couch and understanding by the look on Ren's face that this would take a while.
"As you guys get comfortable I'm going to go ahead and start." Ren said leaning back, looking toward the ceiling, in the recliner. "I was born and raised in Japan with a weird childhood, if you can even call it that, while being taught math and science, I was taught how to be an efficient machine in combat. Every day after school I would find myself being drilled for hours on many different ways to take down an opponent, no matter the opponent's size, strength, weaponry or skill in combat. It came to a point where I would find myself trying to get away from it by hiding at a friend's house or spending the night in the woods. It rarely worked, however, I more common than not was found and ambushed to be taken back to my house and punished. But, the times it did work I spent those nights acting like a regular child or learning how to survive on my own."
"Wait, so what you are telling us is that you were trained to be a killing machine from when you were young?!" Jaune said, shocked that Ren's childhood was as bad as it was.
"Sounds like it, but, you should let him continue, Jaune." Blake interjected, wanting to hear more.
"Thank you, Blake, well back to what I was saying, those nights I spent away from home were some of my favorite moments of my childhood, even though finding food in the forest was tough." Ren continued, deciding on what to tell them right now, "Fast forward to my teens and I had gotten better at escaping and even better at fighting off the men my father sent after me. It seemed like every day at school I would fall asleep in my classes but my grades would never suffer, to the amazement of all of my teachers and classmates. I wasn't sleeping much at night and was spending most nights finding out what could be used to cook and what couldn't be. That time during my teens was where I discovered my love for the culinary arts and enrolled in the culinary club at my school. In that club, when we made stuff, everyone wanted to work with me and maybe have some of my inherent skill rub off. What they didn't know was that I had actually built myself a place to live and had found some old pots and pans that were left out and used them to cook for myself, funny thing is that the pots and pans over there are the same ones I had during my teens."
Ren leaned up from the recliner and pointed over to the pans he had in the sink.
"Those pans over there in the sink are the exact same ones I had during my teens," Ren explained, seeing the confusion on Blake and Jaune's faces.
"Wow, I know some people who refuse to use pans longer than a year or two, let alone over a decade," Blake said, looking over at the pans mesmerized at how old they were but how new they looked.
"Yeah, I can't even imagine using the same pots and pans for that long or living in the woods while doing it," Jaune agreed, looking over at the pots and thinking about how it might have been living in the woods.
"There are very few that can, in all honesty, what amazes me though is how no one found my little hideout, with all the stuff I had stashed in it," Ren remarked, "I escaped my father that way though because at one point he just stopped sending men after me and I changed my name with the school so he couldn't use those records to find me again. The school never asked any questions about it but I could tell they were all thinking them. One day though, a student caused an accident in a chemistry lab and the school started to go up in flames. The teachers got everyone out and while the school was in panic, I saw my father's men coming and ran off of the school grounds. I had decided I was done hiding and was going to leave the country as soon as I could. I got a job at a ramen shop and worked there until I had enough money to leave for America. The owner of the shop was nice and gave me a job on the condition that I wouldn't officially be an employee and would be paid under the table. I told him that would work for me since I don't legally exist anyway. It took about 4 months of working six days a week to make the money I needed to come to America. It would have been longer if not for business booming not long because of my recipe for ramen, which quickly became a favorite and what the shop was known for. I loved working at that shop and was getting paid more than the official employees because I had created the dish the shop was becoming known for. I hadn't told any of the workers or the owner himself how I made that ramen with the taste that it had, despite them begging me for the recipe. When I left though, I told the owner the recipe and he was astonished at it because he had never considered using locally grown fresh herbs in ramen. I had saved up more than enough to make the flight over because I had no clue how much I would need for lodging and to get myself started here. My first day here I ran into Nora at the airport and almost immediately we became friends. She helped me get settled here in America and actually taught me how to drive. That's a story for another time though. Those are most of the major points of my childhood and teens though so any questions?"
"I actually have a couple of questions. First of all, how did your dad not find you at the airport? Also, how did you not get captured by your father when you left on that business trip recently?" Blake asked, pondering all of the information that had just been given to her.
"To answer your first question, Blake, I had gotten a fake passport and no one knew who I actually was. The second is actually a much more interesting answer, the reason I had went to Japan was because of his death. He had died and I had heard about it so I had to go and make my claim to the wealth, and if it came to it fight for it. I ended up taking a good chunk of the money away because I ended up actually having to fight for it. In the ensuing fight, many of the men who came for the money were injured and because of how the will was worded, lost their share of the wealth," Ren explained to the curious and questioning cat faunus.
"Oh wow, your family does not play around it seems like. Losing your share of the inheritance because of a fight seems a bit harsh, but with what you've told me already seems to fit with the theme." Blake said, with a look of bewilderment at how a father could be so cruel.
"They don't play around in the slightest, thats for sure," Ren remarked, finding the comment a bit funny, "Anyway, I probably should go out and catch up with a couple old friends that are moving into town plus maybe help them find a place to live."
"Hey Ren, do you think your friends would be ok with living here as they look for a place? We have that extra room in the basement Pyrrha was in before she moved her stuff into my room," Jaune quickly spoke up.
"Maybe, they are used to living with many people at once from what I know, we would have to ask the others though. Also, don't worry about them snitching on the racing, they race also and are somewhat respected in the scene where they are from," Ren stopped and thought about how his friends would react to everyone and how everyone would react to them, knowing that some have heard of the duo, but not what they look like.
"Blake, what do you think of the idea?" Jaune asked, looking over at the faunus.
"I think it would be a good idea, as long as they don't cause any issues." Blake said, picking a book up to read.
"Okay then, I'll text Pyrrha and Yang about the idea while Ren goes and catches up with his friends then tell Nora, Ruby and Weiss when they all wake up." Jaune said, grabbing his phone to text the girls on the way to the jail.
As Pyrrha pulled into the jail, her phone buzzed in her pocket. Once she parked, she pulled it out to see a text from Jaune about her opinion on two friends of Ren moving into the basement, at least temporarily, and to ask Yang her opinion. She turned off the car and got out to see Yang already headed up to the door.
Pyrrha caught up to the busty blonde and said, "Hey Yang, what would you think of two of Ren's friends moving into the basement?"
"I'm okay with it, as long as they don't snitch and aren't total jerks," Yang responded to the question as the duo walked in and got cleared to go to the cell Cardin was being held in.
As the two girls walked up to the cell, they saw two guys standing in front of the cell already and wondering what this guy had done to get dropped.
"What did you do to piss someone like Ren off that badly that he sent you spinning," The one wearing a denim jacket said to Cardin.
Before Cardin could respond to the question, Pyrrha asked, "Are you two Ren's friends that might be moving into the basement?"
"If your referring to Lie Ren, then yes we are, my name is Mav and my friend in the jacket is Madden," Mav said, tapping Madden on the shoulder to get him to look over at the girls.
"What Mav," Madden said looking over to where Mav gestured, "Oh hello, what are you ladies doing here today?"
"My name is Pyrrha and we're here to visit Cardin," Pyrrha responded for herself and Yang.
"This punk hurt my sister and I want to have a couple words with him since I haven't gotten to yet," Yang seethed, with fire in her eyes, "Oops, forgot to introduce myself, my name is Yang."
Right as Yang finished up talking, Madden's phone went off with a call from Ren. He excused himself to take the call and Ren told him that Pyrrha and Yang were friends of his and lived with him. As he looked back toward the group, Mav was making jokes as he usually did and Yang was laughing at them and cracking her own. Once he finished the call Madden caught up with Mav, Yang and Pyrrha as they were walking out of the jail.
"Hey Mav, we got a place to stay it seems like, well as long as the last couple people who live with Ren are okay with it," Madden told Mav, even though he knew he wasn't listening, then moving to Pyrrha he asked, "Did you see what Ren did to Cardin at the place or just hear about it afterward?"
Pyrrha was texting Jaune that her and Yang were ok with Madden and Mav moving in and that they had met them at the jail actually.
"I saw it," Pyrrha responded, gesturing to Mav and Yang ahead of them, "And I see our friends hitting it off a bit, I haven't seen someone make Yang relax that quickly ever even."
As the group got to their cars Yang got into Mav's car because Mav had apparently talked her into going out for food with him.
"Don't do anything dumb, tin can leg," Madden called over to Mav, laughing at how Mav is so good at getting females to go on dates.
"When you guys get done bring Mav by the house so he can get moved in," Pyrrha called to Yang as she was getting into Mav's Civic and called over to Madden as he was getting into his Bravado Gauntlet, "Madden, you follow me over to the house so you can start getting moved into you and Mav's room."
As the group split up with Yang and Mav going to get food then Pyrrha and Madden going back to the house. It was an uneventful ride with Madden listening to Sweet Home Hagibana and wondering if he should tell those he is moving in with his secret.
As they pulled up to the house, Madden saw a girl in a dress with red highlights in her hair bouncing around with energy on the front lawn of the house him and Mav were supposed to stay at. He parked on the street in front of the house because the garage seemed to be full. Pyrrha pulled into the garage as Madden got out. As Madden was walking up to the house, Weiss intercepted him.
"You must be one of Ren's friends, my name is Weiss," Weiss said as she intercepted Madden, "Some ground rules are don't make too much of a mess, don't reveal our street racing and don't cause any trouble for the group."
"You ain't gonna need to worry about being revealed by me because I'm one also, I usually am one of the cleanest people I know compared to Mav at least and if I cause trouble it will be settled with my Gauntlet and the road. Honestly I'm surprised none of you have recognized me yet." Madden continued walking as he spoke, coming to the door.
"Is that a good or bad thing," Weiss asked, confused.
"Good in some cases and bad in some also," Madden trailed off, being interrupted by a squealing girl behind him.
"OH MY COOKIES, IT'S THE GREY GAUNTLET. IT IS THE ONLY ONE IF ITS KIND IN EXISTENCE AND IT HAS THE SYMBOL OF THE MYSTERIOUS DRIVER ON THE HOOD," Ruby squealed.
"Welp, I've been recognized," Madden sighed.
Ruby heard this and stopped fawning over the car and ran over to the driver of the car.
"WAIT YOU ARE THE DRIVER OF THE GREY GAUNTLET," Ruby squealed jumping around Madden like a crazed fan, "I ADMIRE YOUR WORK AND ALWAYS WANTED TO MEET YOU!"
"We probably should head inside before she blows a gasket," Weiss said, opening the door for Madden and Ruby.
Reaching above Weiss' head to hold the door with his left hand and gesturing with his right Madden said, "After you m'lady."
"Well aren't you a gentleman," Weiss remarked at Madden holding the door while she entered.
"I was raised in a way that I was taught to hold the door for women," Madden responded to the remark.
"Still, it's uncommon around here, also, shouldn't you be bringing your stuff in currently it's supposed to start raining soon," Weiss commented.
"Yeah, but that will only take a second since I don't carry too much from place to place," Madden responded, thinking about his minimal luggage.
Madden let Weiss and Ruby walk into the house before going to grab his luggage from his car. His luggage consisted of a small suitcase for clothes, some cloth for repairing his jacket and a case for a hunting rifle and ammunition. He opened up the weapon case and looked at his custom R700 hunting rifle that was given to him by his father, then he modded it so the gun could fire faster overall. When he finished looking at the weapon and remembering he closed the case and brought his stuff inside right as it started to rain.
As Madden entered the house, Weiss said, "You really don't have much luggage, but what is in that large case, might I ask?"
Madden responded, "I'll show you as i get unpacked in the basement if you really want to know, everyone else can come down and look too. Also, where is the basement?"
With that, Weiss got up and led Madden to the bedroom in the basement where Madden and Mav would be staying, with Ruby following behind. They made small talk as Madden unpacked his suitcase and Pyrrha brought down an air mattress for the room before Madden grabbed the gun case and put it onto the bed.
"I see you got here safely, Madden, also thanks for telling me you guys met up with Pyrrha and Yang on accident," Ren said, walking down the stairs to the basement.
"Oh hey, Ren, nice timing, I was just about to show the girls here my R700 because Weiss asked about the case," Madden said to Ren.
"I remember when you got that," Ren said, walking toward the group around the case,"I did not hear from you at all that day, you shot that thing so many times Mav had to go to the shooting range to get you to stop, but by that point you were so fast with it."
"Yeah, I remember," Madden reminisced about that day, opening the case for the firearm, "Anyway, this is my rifle I hunt with during the season, it's modded in a way that I can rechamber faster than I should be able to. I usually fire with no scope because when I first got it, I never had one and became a very fast and accurate shot with the iron sights."
"Well we probably should let Madden get settled in and wait for Ren's other friend to show up," Pyrrha said, moving toward the stairs.
"You said you hunt, right," Weiss said, with a look of questioning.
"Yes, I did," Madden responded, closing the case and locking it.
"I've never had venison before, could you bring some of that home so we can try it," Weiss said, with an embarrassed look on her face.
"Oh easily, I try to take down a deer at least one a week and process it for meat, one rule i have though is all the meat is either ate or given to someone who will," Madden said, putting the case in the corner of the room.
"Okay, well I better go make sure Ruby, the one that recognized you, doesn't break anything," Weiss said, heading out of the basement.
After Weiss had gotten up the staircase and out of earshot, as far as Madden knew, he asked," Ren do you think I should tell them about my secret?"
"You should at some point but you have to decide when to do that," Ren responded, knowing what Madden referred to as his secret.
"Okay, I probably will tell them after I get to know them better, or one finds out on accident," Madden said, walking toward the stairway, "Well I think I'm done unpacking, lets head upstairs to wait for Mav to get back from getting food with your friend Yang."
Madden and Ren went upstairs to find most of those who lived there in the living room chatting about the day so far. Those who Madden had not yet met introduced themselves and Madden sat down in a recliner and pulled out a deck of cards from his jacket pocket and started to shuffle them. After a bit, the front door opened and Mav and Yang walked in, drenched and laughing.
"What did you do, Mav," Madden said, looking at the duo.
"Let's just say, I have some competition in drifting and jokes," Mav laughed.
"Just go get dried off and bring your stuff in, there are a lot of people here for you to meet," Madden said, facepalming at something that he never thought was possible.
Mav went out and grabbed his stuff, significantly more than Madden's, then Yang led him to the basement to get unpacked and get into dry clothes. Eventually, Mav came back up to the living room with a look of satisfaction on his face and grabbed a seat next to Yang while everyone introduced themselves.
"Since its raining and we got enough people, whos up for a game of Cards Against Humanity," Mav said, pulling out a box for the game.
"Oh no, let's do this," Madden said, leaning toward the table.
Authors Note: I just realized I forgot to credit my friend Dan Song for letting me use his character Mav, which he gave me written permission to do. Also, I have no clue when this will be updated again because consistency is for people who are not me.