Responses:
ImAPotterhead: Glad you like it! As for the shipping... to be honest, most of the pairings aren't set in stone yet, but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't one I was considering...
LightningDusk: Thanks, I had a great time.
Anon: I am indeed reading them; again, glad you like it, and see above for the ship response...
A/N: Well, here's the next chapter, folks. We now get to see our prologue OC's in action! Yay!
The Wildcard
Hill overlooking the White Fang camp in Forever Fall, mere moments earlier
Watching the young wolf faunus through her scope, Tania gave an exasperated sigh. He's going to get himself killed. Well, I guess there's nothing else for it, she thought to herself, as she pulled the trigger of Crimson Rain.
Just as the flap of the tent opened, a hand gripped Lupa's arm and his vision blurred momentarily, before he found himself looking, not at a group of White Fang tents, but at a cluster of trees. Confused, he looked around, seeing that he was now on a hill, with the camp he had just been in some distance away on his right, before looking to his left and seeing a blonde woman in leather and bronze armour with a golden broadsword strapped across her back, the hilt over her right shoulder, pulling a matching short sword out of the ground and stowing it over her left shoulder. Looking towards him, she smiled and held out a hand.
"Name's Tania. Tania Tenné. Nice to meet you."
Tania's smile faltered when she saw the glare on the the faunus boy's face. "Alright, look," she started, "I don't know what you were planning to accomplish down there, but I'm quite certain you could do a far better job of it alive than dead."
"You think I couldn't have taken the Fang? I've fought them before."
"Oh, I'm sure you could take out their grunts no problem, but either you've never seen Adam in action, or you were SERIOUSLY holding back in there if you think you would stand a chance against him as you are now."
Lupa looked at her in confusion. "Who?"
"Adam. Adam Taurus? The leader of the White Fang in Vale?" Tania's jaw dropped at the continued lack of recognition in the face of the faunus. "You're seriously trying to take down the White Fang when you don't even know anything about the leader of this branch? What about Sienna Khan, do you know that name?"
A brief shake of his head was her only answer.
"Well, someone's really thought this through. Look, the point is, you wouldn't stand a chance if you were to try to fight your way through the people in that camp."
"I don't care what you think. I will destroy the White Fang, along with anyone who stands in my way."
Tania sighed. "Look, I admire your drive, I do. But don't you think it might be just a bit more effective if you could actually hold your own against them?"
After several moments of silence, he spoke. "What exactly did you have in mind?"
Smiling to herself, she told him. "Ok, I saw you fighting there. You have skill, I won't deny it; there's a lot of raw potential there. But unfortunately, it's still just that: raw. You need some serious training before you can reach that potential. So what I propose is this: I have a friend in Vale who could set you up with some transcripts to get into Beacon Academy. You meet with him, go to Beacon, and get trained as a Huntsman. From there, you can do what you want; if you decide you want to help protect the world with your fellows, good on you. If you decide to continue your one-wolf crusade to destroy the White Fang, well, at least you might stand a chance against them then."
After weighing her words for some time, she grinned as he finally gave an answer. "Alright then. How do I find this friend of yours?"
"Here's the address," she said, handing him a card. "Just tell him Tania and Steele sent you."
Within the Emerald Forest, dusk of the same day
Damn. That took way longer than I thought it would, Tania thought to herself, finally arriving at the location she and Steele had scouted out earlier. I hope he's still alright.
Shifting Crimson Rain into sniper rifle form, she looked through her scope at the small band of White Fang soldiers clustered in the clearing in front of her. There. She spotted him lying, bruised and bloody, with his hands tied behind him, in the middle of the clearing.
Crap. Hope he's not too annoyed with how late I am. Ah well, I'll deal with that when it comes.
She searched the clearing carefully through her scope, noting seven Fang members. Three were on the far side of the clearing chatting with each other, one, the largest of them, was walking towards Steele, another was on her side of the clearing, and two were busy scouting around the perimeter, currently nearing the group in the rear. Figuring she would deal with them first, she lined up her sights carefully and squeezed the trigger twice in quick succession, watching as the pair dropped immediately. Seeing the others start to respond, she aimed at the one on her side of the clearing and fired once more, seeing him fall before the world blurred and she appeared beside him, Crimson Rain splitting into swords which she stowed on her back before taking Steele's weapon, Caliburn, from her belt and shifting it into its bastard sword form as the big one looked towards her.
Now only two steps from the prone Steele, he covered the distance quickly and dragged him up, holding the young man by the hair as a blade he pulled from his belt was shoved against Steele's throat.
"Move and he dies, bitch!"
Steele opened his eyes, seeing Tania in front of him, and grumbled in annoyance. "What took you so long? I finished getting the information we need from these morons hours ago."
The Fang glanced down at him, confused. "What? We didn't tell you any-" he stopped as he saw a flash of movement in front of him, looking up to see that the girl had thrown her sword high into the air towards him. His eyes naturally following it, he suddenly felt his grip loosen and the weight he had been pulling up disappear. Glancing down, he saw that where the bound captive he had held moments before had been was instead the blonde intruder, with his knife hovering above her hair, rather than at her throat. His eyes widened, first in shock, then in pain as her knee found its way into his groin, then in shock once more as she vanished from in front of him even as he hunched over from the blow. Gasping for air, he noticed a shadow appear over his head, and glanced up to see her in the air above him, grasping with both hands the hilt of the sword she had thrown, before twisting and bringing the blade screaming towards his face.
Moving smoothly into a roll after taking down the Fang she figured to be in charge of this group, Tania quickly made her way over to where Steele was standing, still looking rather annoyed. Cutting the ropes, she went to hand his blade back to him, eyes widening when she saw the bruises and cuts glowing briefly and disappearing, though the dried blood still remained.
Steele saw her surprise and grinned. "What? I wasn't going to bother engaging my aura for a beating from chumps like these."
"Wait, you mean you let them do that to you?"
"Well, yeah. I wasn't going to actually fight them before I got the intel we needed, and if I let them wear down my aura for real first, I wouldn't be able to fight when you got here." He looked up to see the remaining three members of the White Fang approaching. "Well, no time for that now."
Taking Caliburn, Steele brought up Aegis in shield form as Tania shifted Crimson Rain into rifle form and took a step behind him. As the Fang soldiers opened fire, Steele took cover behind Aegis, with Tania sheltering behind it as well, before she fired a shot above the heads of their opponents. As the bullet passed behind them, Steele saw her body flicker and vanish from his peripheral, before she reappeared beside the bullet she had just fired, Crimson Rain once more in blade form.
Just above and behind the rearmost Fang soldier, Tania brought both blades down on his head, before landing and rushing to the Fang on her left. Sweeping his feet out from under him with her broadsword, she kicked him in the chest as he fell, sending him crashing to the edge of the clearing.
Distracted by the sudden fighting, the remaining Fang looked towards her, only for Steele to charge towards him, bashing him with Aegis before swinging Caliburn in a powerful chop into the guard's throat, finishing him, and the fight.
Steele and Tania stowed their weapons, and began walking towards Vale. As they walked, Tania turned to Steele. "So, what's the target?
VPD Headquarters, midnight
After the events of that morning, Elune had contacted Adam Taurus, telling him what had happened at the White Fang's FOB in Vale, before getting additional details for their next mission for her. She might not need the Lien just yet, but she knew from experience that you took jobs when you could get them, to make sure you could still get by when there were none available.
That's why she was here now. Somehow, the VPD had managed to gather far more intel on the White Fang's movements than they should have. Adam was sure it was through the interference of some Huntsman or another, but the how was, honestly, irrelevant. The fact was, they had nearly enough information to move against the Fang stationed in Vale, and Taurus wanted that information gone, or, if possible, changed, so as to throw them off the correct trail.
Just as she finished wiping or altering the pertinent data, her sensitive ears caught a pair of footsteps heading down the corridor towards her location. Quickly arranging everything exactly as it had been when she first arrived, she moved to an already dark corner of the room, then, hoping whoever it was didn't need anything in here and would simply walk by, she used her semblance to shroud herself in further darkness, rendering herself invisible to human eyes, and even any faunus not specifically looking for her there.
Soon enough, two people came walking into view. One was in a VPD uniform, and Elune recognized her as the officer who had been manning the reception desk. The other was a tall, muscular young man with short grey hair and a clean-shaven face who, from the look of his equipment and the officer's reactions towards him, seemed to be a Huntsman, or (more likely, she supposed, considering his youth) a Huntsman-in-training. She perked up her ears, listening in on their conversation.
"I'm not really sure how much we'll be able to help you," the receptionist was saying. "As much as we may depend on Huntsmen and respect you for your work, we can't disclose any details about active cases that aren't already publicly available, and if you can't find it online, it likely wasn't made public."
"That's fine." The two were now at the entrance of her room. The look in the young Huntsman's eyes was unnerving as they swept around the inside, then stopped on her, almost as if they knew. But that was impossible, she could tell he was human, how... "To be perfectly honest, I may have had ulterior motives for asking you to bring me here. See, the truth is," he said, removing something from his belt and pointing what now revealed itself to be a large sword directly at her, "I'm actually here for her."
"Who..." the officer began, gasping and eyes widening as a crossbow bolt suddenly came flying out of a darkened corner of the room; it detonated in a fiery explosion on the other side of a large shield that had appeared just as suddenly in front of her, likely saving her life.
"Go!" Steele barked. "I'll handle her!"
As he said this, she saw another pair of bolts come flying out of the darkness, one headed towards her saviour, and the other towards the wall between them and the main entrance to the VPD station. This time, rather than block it with his shield, she saw the young man roll under the bolt, and when she saw it let off a blast of electricity on contact with the wall, she knew he had made the right move, though she had no idea how he could have known to do so.
The explosion of the second bolt, as well as the debris flying from the hole now present in the wall, shook her from her reverie. She quickly moved away from the new entrance she was sure the intruder would use to attempt escape, wishing she could do more to help, but recognizing that she would likely only get in the way.
"Intruder in VPD headquarters!" she yelled into her radio. "I was just attacked by an unknown assailant within the evidence lockup! There is a Huntsman-in-training in pursuit, suspect appears to be armed with crossbows firing dust-imbued bolts. Backup requested immediately!"
The two combatants had by now moved well down the hallway toward the entrance, the intruder emerging from the shadows and racing away, with Steele in hot pursuit, adeptly blocking or dodging every bolt she sent flying his way. The officer followed at a safe distance, watching as the intruder managed to reach the entrance, shouldering the double doors open, before suddenly staggering. A sharp CRACK then reached her ears, which she recognized as the sound of a rifle being discharged.
The area around the entrance was abruptly obscured by an impenetrable darkness. Steele raced through it, heedless, emerging on the other side to see their target already on the roof of a neighbouring building. "You tagged her, right?" he asked, aware of the sudden presence of Tania beside him.
"Of course. Do you even need to ask?" A playful smirk danced across her lips.
"I guess not. Well, we'll give her a couple minutes to let her think she's lost us."
"And then?"
"Then, we drop in for a surprise visit." Steele said, a matching smile finding its way to his face as he shifted Caliburn to shotgun form and checked the sights. "And I know just how we should do it."
Darkened alley several minutes from the VPD headquarters
Elune stopped, gasping for breath, but relieved. She had no idea how that man had known she would be there, but it didn't matter. She had accomplished her objective, and then she had evaded them and escaped. Now all that remained was to get back to Adam and get... Wait a second. "What the hell is that music?"
*Cue Warthog Music from Red vs Blue*
Suddenly, a VPD Special Operations Task Force Humvee screeched around the corner of the alley, tires leaving smoking black marks on the asphalt, revealing itself as the source of the odd music blaring out. It narrowly avoided hitting the wall as it swerved into the alley, before the high-beams flared to life, illuminating the area and temporarily blinding Elune's light-sensitive eyes.
As the vehicle turned, Steele shouldered the passenger door open and used the momentum to roll out, rising swiftly to his feet and bringing Caliburn up in shotgun form as he did, firing off several rapid blasts at their elusive target. Recovering her bearing, she flipped backwards to avoid the shots, only for Tania to appear behind her, sweeping her legs out from under her before she had a chance to land properly. Even as Elune fell, Tania's legs rose, kicking her towards the entrance of the alley as Steele ran forward, slamming Aegis into her before she had the chance to recover.
As his sword swung towards her from the side, she managed to get her crossbows out, extending the metal blades from the ends of the limbs and catching the approaching weapon between them, before flipping over the blade to evade a low sweep from Tania's blades. She dropped an orb of darkness around them before using her left crossbow to deflect Tania's follow-up attack, while her right reverted back to crossbow form and fired a grapple at the roofs around the top of the alley.
Even as she emerged from the top of the darkness, however, as her reel pulled her rapidly upwards, she saw a golden sword come spinning out from within it, cleaving through her cord before embedding itself in the wall. There was a flicker, and suddenly Tania was on the wall beside the blade, grasping the hilt and pulling it free as she pushed off towards Elune, tackling her to the ground. She then rolled off, as Steele stepped up and held Caliburn's blade at Elune's throat.
"Yield."
Tania stood and leaned against the wall of the alley, shaking her head. "Really? Blasting RVB music? Isn't that a bit much?"
"Kinda ruining the moment."
A/N: Gotta be honest, Tania is my favourite among my OC's; she's cheery and energetic, with a snarky bite and a headstrong attitude. Also my favourite: her semblance. So, without further ado, Tania's Displacement:
The key to Tania's semblance is her ability to siphon a small amount of her aura into another person or object to mark it. This transfer facilitates several other abilities.
As long as the mark is within a certain radius, Tania is able to feel where it is at any given time (much as others are able to feel the location of their body parts without seeing them)
She is also able to either teleport herself to, or switch places with, the marked person or thing.
Tania can bring others with whom she is in contact with her, but the more mass she teleports (whether she's bringing it with her or switching places), the more energy it takes her to do so.
While teleporting her maximum range takes more energy than, say, across the room, battlefield displacement is generally a close enough relative distance that how far she's going is essentially negligible.
A/N: So, life has this way of throwing massive curveballs just when you think you've got things together. I finished up this chapter Tuesday night around midnight, figured I'd save it and shut down so less-tired-me could do a last-minute proofread/edit before I posted. Just before I went to bed, we got a phone call; my mom was bringing my sister home from the airport for Christmas, and within 10 fucking minutes of being home they got into an accident. My sister is at the hospital, banged up pretty bad but stable, and my mom was killed instantly.
Anyway, I figured I'd put this up so you guys know what's going on; I will come back to this story eventually, but I don't expect I'll be working on it for a while. On the other hand, who knows; I may end up throwing myself into it every chance I get to keep my mind off of life's worst Christmas present ever. Either way, thanks for understanding.