Hunters of the Dark Art Chapter 8.5: Challenge Chapters
I'm hoping to get another Hunters chapter out before the end of June, but in the meantime, here's two snippets I wrote for the RWBY Art Challenge that take place in the Hunters timeline.
Whether or not one of these is canon, I'll leave up to you.
The tavern was occupied to about half-capacity as Cinder led her little posse in. The booths were mostly empty, most of the crowds gathered around open tables in the middle of the room, while the bar itself was occupied by the sort that couldn't bear to be far away from their coveted narcotics. A band was playing, a soft guitar wafting through the space. This was far from Cinder's usual choice of places to drink, but a message had come through on a scroll that only three people in the world knew of; herself, Salem, and the man she was looking for today. If he wanted to talk, she would damn well walk across the Vacuo deserts to meet him.
Mercury winced as they sat down in a corner booth- his legs had taken a beating in the fight and it hadn't been long since he had gained them. Marcus Black's final gift had necessitated that Mercury lose his legs below the knee before Mercury had put a bullet in the back of his skull. His nerves were still frayed and he would likely suffer from phantom pains for the next few years, but this was all irrelevant to Cinder. Mercury could fight, and would fight, at her beck and call. His own vices and pains were otherwise not her problem unless they began to interfere with the plan.
And Emerald? She'd been travelling with Cinder for two weeks and already Cinder had the little girl wrapped around her finger. She'd follow like a loyal dog, and if she stepped out of line, would be corrected in short measure.
Eventually, she strolled up to the bar to order some drinks, her gaze shifted to the booth diagonally opposite from where Emerald and Mercury were. One of the few occupied booths, it had Dredgen sitting in it, contemplating a glass. His armour fit in well here, making him look like a Huntsman from Atlas- smooth, practical gunmetal grey armour over the chest, the legs having patterned metal along the front. He had a helmet beside him on the table, lying atop a neatly folded green cape. Slicked back dark hair accompanied startlingly green irises, almost seeming to pulse in the sockets. Beside the cape was a gun- a revolver, sleek and dark black, with spikes adorning the sides facing the front of the weapon. He took a drink, reaching for the gun and sliding it into a holster beside him as he poured more liquid into the glass. As he did, three people came up, two men and a woman. Cinder felt her lips curl in disgust, but listened in. He'd be able to handle it, so she decided to enjoy the show.
One of them stepped in front of the others. "Can I see what ya got there?" The man sitting down seemed to ignore them, looking deeply into the glass and tilting the liquid back and forth.
"Your cannon. Can I see it?" The leader came in closer, the other two goons taking places to the left and right of the entryways to the booth. At this, the drinker put his glass down, looking across at the leader. His eyes were a pale green, almost seeming to… flicker, in and out of the iris.
"I know you?" His accent wasn't from around here, soft and clipped.
"Not that I could say."
"And you wanna hold my piece." A hint of something came into his voice. One could construe it as wryness, but Cinder heard something under it. Malice. She smirked, leaning against the bar.
"Just that I never…" the leader stopped, as if searching for the words. "… seen one like it. What's your name?"
Dredgen seemed to smirk. "No, you haven't. Yor."
"Looks… dangerous, Yor."
"Seems, maybe, that's the point." Something passed through his eyes- like he was recollecting an old memory- but only for a moment before his gaze hardened.
"Suppose so." The leader nodded in agreement. "Can I see it?"
"Not likely." The man reached for his glass again.
"Where'd you find it?" As Dredgen took a long sip from the glass, the leader tensed up. "You hearin' me?"
The second interloper, the one sitting to the left stepped in. "He asked you a question-"
"Didn't find it. Made it." The look of recollection resumed, and he put his glass back down.
The second let out a bemused breath. "Heh. Helluva touch you got then. You a 'smith?"
Yor leaned back in his seat, catching Cinder's eye as he smiled, noticing her. "I look like a smith?"
Cinder raised an eyebrow. "Looks can be deceiving."
His gaze returned to the leader of the trio in front of him. His eyes raked up and down the slovenly dressed man. Cinder saw a gun in his back pocket, the handle sticking out. Bandit, most likely- too poorly dressed to be a guard, too few weapons and too little Aura to be a Huntsman, too proud of himself to do menial labour. She scoffed inwardly at the poor management of his weapon, its positioning making a quick draw impossible. Dredgen spoke finally. "Got that right."
The second bandit tensed up alongside his boss. "There a problem?"
The not-smith shook his head politely. "Doesn't need to be."
The leader nodded. "Glad we got that cleared up. Now… about that piece."
"Ever been to Luna?" Dredgen interrupted suddenly, looking intently into the eyes of the trio around him.
"Excuse me?"
"The Moon." His tone became notably drier. "You been?"
The leader scoffed, leaning back. "No one's been."
"That a truth?"
"A fact."
Dredgen smiled. "Funny you'd make that distinction."
The leader snarled, leaning over Dredgen. "Truth is you must think you're some kinda something special. With that attitude. The way you're just dismissin' us like we're nothing...like we ain't even here." He scoffed.
"Fact is...You ain't near as rock solid as you figure. Fact is, special's only special 'til it's not."
A lengthy silence issued, Dredgen seeming to mull over the words. "Bones say otherwise."
The leader sniffed. "Speak straight."
"He said 'nobody.' Bones say otherwise."
The third bandit, a woman with close-cropped blonde hair, leaned forward. "What bones?"
"All of them." As if that answered the question succinctly.
She pressed on, the other two letting her talk. "What're you getting at?"
"Too many to count."
"You tryin' to get a rile out of us?" The woman's eyes narrowed. "Was only tryin' to make conversation.
Dredgen let out a small chuckle, catching himself. "You really weren't."
The bandit smiled in response, looking at her compatriots. "We got a smart one here."
Dredgen interjected. "Experienced, more than smart. But experience has its… advantages, lets you see your enemies clear as day so you can face them." He shook his head. "To rend one's enemies is to see them not as equals, but objects- hollow of spirit and meaning." He spoke like he was quoting someone else.
She looked back at him. "Experience tell you to lip off to strangers just tryin' to make talk?"
"Keep insisting," Dredgen's eyes narrowed as his voice lowered, the fragmented green sticking out against his skin. "And maybe we will."
"Talk?"
"Have words."
"Ain't that what we're doing?"
"My conversations tend to be a bit… louder."
Cinder's breath hitched and her smile widened. The way he emphasized that last word spoke wonders. The malice she saw earlier had edged in fully now, and he was partially coiled like a serpent ready to strike.
Silence ensued between the bandits engaged in conversation and their observer. The female bandit tilted her head. "That a threat?"
"A truth."
She bared her teeth at him. "Who the hell do you think you are?"
"According to your facts," he snapped. "Nobody. And here I sit."
She scoffed. "Don't matter much how pretty yer cannon is. You keep it up, we'll see just how loud you like to get." Yor seemed to exhale at this, as if holding in a breath for longer than he should have. He slumped in his seat, staring back into his drink as he refilled it.
"You done talking now?" She pressed on, voice growing louder. "Guess he knows his place boys."
"Ever have a nightmare?" His voice was quiet. Cinder leaned in instinctively. She noted offhandedly that Emerald and Mercury had moved up beside her, watching the conversation raptly.
The other underling to the leader smiled at the other two bandits. "You playing games? Or you just thick?"
"I know you do," he pressed. "This world? Can't help, but to."
"I don't have nightmares," the leader bragged. He grabbed Dredgen's bottle and took a swig, ignoring the glare. "I give 'em."
Dredgen laughed, harshly. It was devoid of mirth and joy, leaving it sounding more like a rattle of his throat than a laugh. "You are a goddamn cliché. The picture-perfect bandit."
He pressed on, his voice steadily becoming lower. "Hearing your voice - the things you're saying, the shade of the hard man you pretend to be-"
"I ain't no shade!" The leader slammed his hands down on Yor's table, the movement letting him slide his hands underneath.
His first shot slammed up through the table, catching the leader through one of his lungs and sliding past what little Aura the man had. Before Emerald could even flinch or shout in horror, Yor's gun arm was raised above the table, firing twice more into the throats of the other two bandits. The bodies hit the ground, spikes jutting out of their throats and the music cut out. People started to scream, rushing out the door or under tables. The leader started choking, trying to scramble to his feet to make a break for the door. Yor casually followed him, nodding at Cinder and her posse, until the leader nearly fell over a pool table, before grabbing him.
"Sit down." The leader tried to break free, but Dredgen backhanded him with his cannon, drawing blood. He threw him down at the edge of the table. "Sit. Down."
"Wait," Cinder murmured to Emerald and Mercury, both with their weapons ready. "Watch how this plays out."
Yor was granted a wide area by the townspeople streaming out, letting him back up a few steps, gaze never leaving the bandit. "Your mouth just got your friends dead." He leaned in closer, looming over the wounded man. "This is what happens when you bore me." His tone was repressed, hiding raw, animalistic rage within. "And right now?" She could imagine the grin stretching across his face. "I'm so very bored."
"Wha… wha…" Yor shushed quietly, but the leader kept talking. "But...but...you're a... you're one of them...A Huntsman, or a Specialist, right?" He tilted his head. "You're supposed to be one of the good ones."
"'Supposed to be?' Maybe I am." He stretched his arms out wide. "Maybe this is what good looks like. Anymore," he said quietly, almost whispering. "Who can tell?" He lowered his arm, cannon held loosely by his side.
"I… please…"
"You wanted to see my prize."
"No… I…"
"Look at it."
"I… I…" He started whimpering, eyes brimming with tears. Cinder resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
Yor's tone became cold, uncaring and mocking. "Whimpering won't stop what comes next. Look at it." The man's eyes closed, tears falling through. "Open your eyes."
They slowly cracked open, seeing the cannon inches away from his face.
"Not many get to see such a clean view," Yor noted, as if teaching a child. The man started crying again. "The bone, you see it. Jagged, like thorns. I used to think of it as a rose… focused on its bloom. But that bloom is just a by-product of its anger." He trailed off.
"You have nightmares?" He asked again suddenly. The sobbing began to grow in desperation. "Ever seen a nightmare? Ever opened your eyes and realized the horror wasn't a dream? The terror wasn't gone?"
"I've seen nightmares." His voice dipped low, sounded more like he was talking to himself now and that the other patrons didn't matter in this lecture. "They live in the shadows. They've been watching. I thought...It's foolish, I know...but I thought I saw a way. That maybe we could win. Maybe we could survive. But once you step into those shadows, it's so very hard to walk in the Light."
The gun wavered. Cinder caught his specific pronunciation of "light." She had heard that tone before- when he slipped up and referred to more of his past than he was comfortable with.
"Or…" Yor exhaled, his head dipping down into the cloth surrounding his neck. "Maybe I just wasn't strong enough." He raised his head, and the gun stopped shaking. "But I feel strong now." The sobbing continued, and Dredgen looked at his gun.
"I stole the Dark," Dredgen continued. "Or… maybe it stole me and threw me away to this corner of the world. Either way… here we are. And I'm hungry. It's… hungry." The bandit's eyes widened before closing rapidly, his breathing becoming rapid and shrill.
Yor crouched down beside the man, staring at him through a tilted head. "You have nothing to you beyond the spark of your pathetic life. But a spark… is enough." He stood back up, levelling the cannon to the leader's head.
"Open… your eyes." The sobbing continued, eyes cracking open a notch to look at Yor.
Cinder didn't flinch as he fired, sipping her drink as the crowd began screaming again. She put it on the table behind her, ignoring Emerald's pale complexion and shivering as Yor strolled past them back to his seat, resuming his drink. Emerald saw her expression.
"You can't be thinking of recruiting him…" she whispered.
Cinder smiled. "Why do you think we came out this way? But no, he's been a part of this plan for a long time." When Emerald opened her mouth again, she darted a hand out, shutting the green-haired girl's mouth. "And I won't hear a world otherwise. You're not paid to think, you're paid to obey. So, obey this order: don't get in the way." Emerald nodded, the resistance leaving her eyes as they glazed over, and the clasp on her mouth became a gentle stroke on the cheek. "Good girl," Cinder cooed.
She left Mercury and Emerald behind, Mercury raising an eyebrow at Cinder's behaviour while Emerald shuddered, walking up to the table and sitting opposite Dredgen. He looked at her from over the edge of his glass. He seemed, Cinder noticed, to be weightless – effortless in an existence that would crush a man burdened by conscience "You got my message then, child."
Her hand met his, under the table. Cinder presented him with a rare genuine smile. "It's been a while. You're looking well."
Dredgen's gaze travelled over Mercury and Emerald, finally taking in Cinder as well. "Better than you, I'd wager. I expected the new Fall Maiden to… well, radiate power."
"There was… a complication," she conceded reluctantly, "an unexpected ally for Fall."
"We prepared for Branwen-"
"Not him." She fixed him with a hard gaze. "Someone from your side. Which I would have appreciated more of a warning about."
"Ah," he said simply as his eyes darkened. "That is a complication, and one that, let's be honest, I don't think any of us could have expected. Luckily, I can help you salvage your plan."
"Do tell."
"I know where the Summer Maiden will be in three weeks, and I know how to hide our actions for so long that they won't know she's gone dark for a half-year if we're lucky."
Another genuine smile graced Cinder's face. "What would I do without you?"
"You'd adapt and survive, carve your name into history regardless. Even if I hadn't raised you, you'd have found a way into this life regardless. Is your team ready to move?"
"We just got off the road. I can keep going, but they…"
Dredgen shrugged. "Another day won't be the end of the world. We'll make up for any time lost here when we get back to Atlas."
I wrote this a few months back as practice for Dredgen and just a general attempt at novelisation. It also wound up being something of an apology letter for Cinder, given how badly I feel I did her focus chapter and her character for the Art Challenge.
ZWEI!
This chapter? I have no defence for it. I'm not sorry, and I shouldn't be. This is the one that's less definitely 'canon' in Hunters.
Vale/Vacuo border:
Teams RWBY and CFVY, along with several assorted glorified helper-monkeys, prepared for war on top of a large tower. Five pylons stood out in a pentagram shape, golden energy coiling around them. It resembled a bunch of spheres in a way.
Coco checked her scroll. "Showtime, misfits!" A beeping started to sound, accelerating in pitch. "Won't be long now before that Grimm scales the tower."
"Which will be its loss," Weiss replied tersely, loading Dust into Myrtenaster's revolving chamber. Sheathing it, she pulled out a small pistol, loading it and checking the slide before nodding approvingly.
A disapproving sound came from behind the heiress, and she turned to see Noir Malphur, the Hunter twirling a revolver as he poked at some wires with Ruby. "I thought your thing was just swords?" He asked. "Now you're doing the whole sword and gun thing. I mean, it's a popular style, but I feel like you're kind of cribbing me here."
"We've been hired to stop a Grimm the size of a small building from destroying these solar converters," Blake deadpanned, "And Weiss is going to stop it with a sword?" She paused. "And I've been doing the sword and gun thing for years. If anything, you're ripping me off..."
As Blake and Noir got into an argument, Coco looked over at her gentle giant of a teammate. "Hey Yatsu, what's the deal? You're not wearing that grapple set."
All of the students were adorned with a chest piece that had several grappling hooks tied to it- even the more agile ones such as Weiss and Blake- in case they fell off the ledge.
Yatsu looked away. "It's a bit tight," he muttered into his collar.
"Tight?" Fox asked.
Yatsu blushed. "It hurts my nipples."
A booming laugh sounded from where RWBY was preparing, Yang Xiao-Long nearly bowled over laughing. "Oh God, the dude who barely even wears a toga to battle is complaining that his nipples are gonna hurt! What, is he gonna think bad thoughts at the Grimm after he gets thrown off the ledge?!"
Velvet stood up for her teammate, stopping from her quest to take quick photos of everyone's weapons. "Hey! You can hardly talk, miss Tactical Midriff! Besides, what's Ruby doing?"
Ruby poked her head up from the maze of wires and boxes laid out in a semi-circle around her and Noir. "Noir said this was a tradition from where he came from! That Guardians listened to music while they went to work!"
Everyone looked over at Umbra and Sanguine, the other two Guardians quietly checking their own weapons. Seeing the looks, both shrugged. "He wasn't lying," Sanguine admitted, "It's just normally we play them in our helmets and don't set up speakers."
"Speaking of," Umbra noted, "where did you even get all these speakers?"
Noir chuckled. "I called in a favor."
A dingy bar in Vale:
"Are you in?" Noir asked the drunk. He looked at the Hunter with lidded red eyes.
"So you want me to help you break into the Atlas embassy in Vale," he slurred, "where we will likely be shot for trespassing, so you can steal some radio speakers and do... what, exactly?"
"I dunno, in case of a rainy day scenario. Maybe I just wanna stick it to Ironwood. You in?"
Qrow snorted. "You had me at giving the Atlas military a black eye purely to spite them."
"OK, but why is this important now?" Fox pressed. "Surely there's more important things to prepare."
Noir shrugged. "Ruby and I have been prepped for the last few minutes," he admitted. "So we ain't got much better to do until this thing shows up. Relax, I'm told my taste in music is impeccable. I'll be inspiring from the back!... Almost literally, since I'm gonna be using a sniper rifle."
"If you put on Duran Duran-" Sanguine warned, cocking her rifle for good measure.
"... I should clarify that my taste has become impeccable since I started taking criticism on it." Noir paused. "But yeah, maybe this isn't the best idea at this exact moment, I'll admit. Maybe we should stop, Ruby. Shame, we only had a few wires left to go." Noir turned to see Ruby hastily stuffing something furry into her bag. "... You brought Zwei on the mission." He said flarly.
As Ruby turned, a stammered excuse on her tongue, Zwei burst back out, perched magnificently on the top of the motherboard. "I couldn't just leave him alone?"
"Why not just ask JNPR to look after him?" Blake asked, backing away from the happy corgi.
Ruby gave Blake a Look. "You'd trust Nora with a dog?"
"Would she be bad at it?"
"Yes!"
Blake nodded. "Then yes, I'd trust her with a thousand dogs. I'm a cat Faunus Ruby, dogs and I don't get along."
Zwei stood above such abuse, tail wagging as he waddled over to Coco. The beret-adorned Huntress obliged him, scratching behind his ears before returning him to Ruby. "Just keep him behind us Red." Coco said gravely. "This Grimm's managed to get trained Huntsmen teams to retreat. If this tower falls, Vacuo's power grid suffers."
Ruby nodded, face setting like stone as she loaded Crescent Rose again. "Well it's never fought teams RWBY and CFVY!"
Coco chuckled, slapping Ruby on the shoulder. "Let's get the bastard," she grinned. Fashion Statement folded out of her purse as she walked back over to CFVY.
A deep rumbling afoot caught everyone's attention, along with an inhuman screech as the Grimm began to climb up the tower. It was the usual colors the Grimm, red and black, but this one seemed to be inspired by an octopus. With teeth. Lots. And Lots. Of teeth.
It had to have nearly three dozen tentacles pulling it up as it climbed the tower.
Noir gulped. "I have never been more glad to not be a Japanese schoolgirl," he muttered.
Everyone cocked their weapons, Velvet manifesting Yatsu's sword, and as one they charged in with a giant roar, pouring fire into the best while leaping and grappling around to distract it. It was a truly heroic scene.
But Zwei didn't care about that. There was this Big Red Button by where his master had been doing her tinkering thing, and Zwei loved pushing Big Red Buttons. Which he did. With his nose.
Electric Light Orchestra- Mister Blue Sky
As the music began, Zwei began to bob along to the funny noise coming out of the speakers, following some of the trailing lights on the ground. He sniffed the shit out of those lights, tail vibrating at near-subsonic speeds.
Behind Zwei, Noir had been firing from a distance with his rifle, before a tentacle knocked his platform off balance. Large plumes of fire fill the air as the platform slammed into one of the solar panels, sparking an explosion. One of the panels rolled along lazily behind everyone until it fell off the ledge. Another tentacle snatched him out of the air before he fell, tossing him onto the ground. He skidded along, stopping near Zwei, and groaned softly.
"If you want something done right," he growled, drawing a large sword and revolver before charging in himself, shrouded in electricity. Zwei paid no heed, for he had found a glowing circle that made him shine most radiantly.
Sun is shinin' in the sky, There ain't a cloud in sight
He was so radiant, in fact, that he completely ignored Yang beside him, getting repeatedly slammed into the ground over and over. Every time she hit the dirt, Zwei thought he heard a funny little sound coming from her.
Behind Zwei, as he danced in his circle of light, Sanguine hit the ground face first, legs sticking up at a funny angle as she skidded on her back. Coco dashed over, pouring fire into the Grimm with her big gun as she helped the Warlock stand up. Much of the rest of the students were busy flying around with glyphs and Semblances and grappling hooks, trying to find a weak point in the hide.
It's stopped rainin' everybody's in a play, And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day, hey hey
Sanguine fired a burst before taking off, Coco standing her ground, roaring with her minigun and her voice. She noticed Zwei, still not caring, still at his circle. "Come on ya little furball!" She cried, before a tentacle slammed into her chest, knocking her off her feet.
Mister Blue Sky, please tell us why, you had to fly away for so long (so long), where did we go wrong?
Zwei continued on his way, skipping merely. Yang desperately reached out to the corgi, being pulled away before she could say anything aside from a high-pitched whine as parts of her hair got snagged on the tentacle.
Ruby was ahead of him, firing round after round into the beast. She saw Zwei out of the corner of her eye. "Zwei! Get out of the way!"
Zwei stood there, panting with his tail wagging.
She fixed him with a smile. "Hey boy." She took off in a stream of rose petals,, leaving Zwei to keep wandering.
Hey you with the pretty face, Welcome to the human race!
Zwei leapt to and fro like a four-legged ballerina that he had seen Aunt Raven watch once (She had bribed him to get his silence when he walked in as a new puppy). He froze as someone slammed into the ground behind him, Blake twitching in pain. Zwei froze. She was in need... of love!
"No," Blake groaned as Zwei leapt onto her face, giving her the love and care that only a corgi could provide. Her face was thoroughly cleaned by the time she finally regained enough sense to knock him off and rejoin the fight. How rude of her. He was only trying to help!
A celebration, mister blue sky's up there waitin' And today is the day we've waited for!
Zwei gallivanted across the circle, stopping in his tracks as something leaped off of the big slimy tentacle monster. A Creep, he believed they were called. This could not stand; Zwei was the only one allowed to roam freely on The Circle! He had marked this as his territory! Any attempts to tresspass would be met with death! And thus, Zwei charged the Creep, inspiring fear in the beast and making it attempt to run.
It shouldn't have tried, Zwei reasoned. It would just die tired.
Zwei bit into a chunk of the Creep's neck, tearing a portion of muscle free. He started to bit into it, feral instincts taking over, when an armored hand pried him away from the Creep.
"No, no no!" Umbra scolded him, pulling the chunk free and tossing it over the ledge. "Spit it out!" The Titan commanded, and Zwei reluctantly complied. She gently placed the dog back down, picking up her large rocket launcher and firing a string of missiles at the large Grimm.
Hey there mister blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around see what you do
Everybody smiles at you
Zwei chose to use the tentacled Grimm as a moving obstacle course, dashing between the appendages and screaming Huntsmen as they fled from the mouths, teeth and tentacles. Noir in particular was very jumpy around the tentacles.
And then the Grimm breathed fire, which really wasn't that fair for everyone present as there became less ground to flee to.
Zwei tripped over a small ledge, banging his head against the speakers as the song began to wrap up. This made him excited, since if he hit the Big Red Button enough, the music would come back-
Velvet flew through the speakers and haphazard mixing station, the music cutting out. The Rabbit Faunus struggled to get up, spitting blood as her Aura shattered.
And Zwei saw red.
"Red!" Coco cried out, slamming away a tentacle. "Your dog's killing my partner!"
Ruby looked over at Zwei, teeth latched onto Velvet's ear as she ran around in circles screaming bloody murder. "Bad Zwei! Let go!"
The dog froze, looking at his master with the most adorable puppy eyes.
Ruby almost broke, but Velvet using the most adorably bunny eyes just about convinced her to side with the Faunus in this case. "I'm not joking Zwei! Let go!"
Zwei whined, but jumped off Velvet's head, waddling off somewhere else. Ruby sighed, loading another magazine into Crescent Rose as Noir and Yatsuhashi slammed down beside her. "How're we doing?"
"Poorly," the Hunter groaned as he got back up. "This thing's hide is insanely thick."
"What if we try gutting it from the inside?" Yatsu leaned heavily on his sword, Aura flickering.
"That trick only works in the movies! Everyone knows that skin's just as hard on the inside as it is on the outside!" Coco barked. "Only a complete and utter idiot would try something like that-"
"GET SOME!" Yang cried as she flew into the mouth of the creature, trailing fire.
Everyone blinked.
"We're all gonna die," Velvet groaned as she tried to straighten her ears. Zwei didn't care about all that though. He found a new toy to chew on!
"Wait," Velvet said suddenly, feeling at her hip. "Where's my camera?"
Everyone turned.
"ZWEI!"
If you've seen Guardians of the Galaxy 2, this scene should be familiar to you. And by familiar, I mean a complete and utter ripoff and I'm kinda not sorry. Honestly, this could have easily been a non Hunters story, but I wanted to justify the music in-universe because I'm pathetic like that.
Zwei's fun. He's a dog so I ain't got a lot to say here. I kinda always wanted to do Zwei's story like this, so this didn't really change. I did consider actually finishing the fight scene, but since this is meant to be Zwei's chapter, I left it in the air.
Besides, you know who won that fight.
So hoped you enjoyed the two little things. I'm gonna try to get the proper Chapter 9 out before the end of the month, but I don't then at least I have a legitimate reason of "I wrote two dozen + small stories, I'm sorry."
I'm gonna start putting the challenge stories here on , but you can read them all on AO3 if you're curious. My name's the same on both platforms.
