(A/N) Hey guys, it's time for your weekly dose of your favourite dynamic duo! Screw Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck, the real superheroes, as we all know, are X-Ray and Vav. Where's their movie?! (On a related topic, how awesome would it be if they had a movie?) This chapter continues the darker tone we've been going with in this fic so far, written by the ever-incredible StormBlue, and builds up the plot just a little bit more. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I sure as hell did! And, for all you RWBY fans, I hope you all enjoyed the latest episode!

As always, enjoy. (Or we'll send the Enderwolf after you!)


Chapter Nine – The Friendermen Murders

Agent Joel Heyman

Written by StormBlue


"The thing I fear most is fear." - Michel de Montaigne


Reaching up and rubbing his eyes, Federal Agent Joel Heyman sighed and ran his hand through his hair, then went back to looking at the papers in front of him. He had lines of weariness on his face and shadows under his eyes, along with a head full of messy hair, sticking out in all directions-but then again, his hair always looked like that. He had been focusing on his job, working late every night for the past...how long had it been? He was losing track of time. His co-workers urged him to go home and get some rest, but even they understood the importance of solving the murders and putting a stop to them.

The city had begun to grow complacent with their newfound safety after X-Ray and Vav showed up, but suddenly it didn't feel as safe as it did before. Two of Achievement City's heroes...gone. There was an unspoken question in the air; unvoiced, yet everyone was thinking it.

Would X-Ray and Vav be able to defeat this threat? Or would they be overwhelmed and destroyed?

Not everyone was confident that they would, but Joel was. The pair had brought much to the city that had been lost when the gangs had pretty much taken over, and they had overcome many things so far. And he planned to help them out as much as he possibly could.

The two were fairly young, Joel knew. Still adults, but they lacked certain lessons that could only be learned through time and experience. And yet they could do so much more than the police could. In the time he had spent with them, he had learned they they were good friends and in addition to their desire to help people, they enjoyed joking around. While it did get on his nerves in serious situations-that nickname they had given him, J-Roll, especially-he did suppose it was good for morale. Not just their own, but for the people around them as well. And Agent Heyman hadn't ever delved to try and find out their secret identities. He owed them at least that much.

Joel turned his focus back to his work, stifling the urge to yawn. Yes, it had been a long week, but he would probably work late again tonight, and indeed for all of next week. They would do what they had to.

"Heyman!" a familiar voice called out through the workspace.

"Yeah, what's up?" Joel looked up to see his partner, Burns, strolling toward him, a frown on his face.

"We've got trouble down at the Friendermen warehouse," Burns said, stopping by Joel's desk and slapping down a folder containing a few papers. "Got these in just now."

Joel picked them up and started looking through them, his eyes moving quickly across the lines. "The Friendermen? What trouble could they have gotten into?" To be honest, he shouldn't have been surprised. The Friendermen did have shady pasts, even if they didn't show any signs of wanting to return to the gang business. Something on the page caught his eye, and he squinted and looked closer. "There was a murder?"

Burns nodded at the folder. "Keep reading."

Joel did so, his features growing more and more grim. He finally set them down and looked up at his partner. "Do we know of anyone who would want to do this?"

Burns just shrugged. "Knowing those guys and where they came from, there could be any number of people out to get them. Only problem is, most of them have already been either locked away or disbanded by those two buddies of yours in unitards." He picked up one the papers and started looking through it again. "It could be any kind of motive too. Wanting to stop the charity work they're doing, or some people might even see the Friendermen as traitors for not only turning their backs on the illegal business, but trying to keep others from doing it.

"But what's more confusing," Burns said as he shifted his weight, "is one of them got away, apparently. But did he get lucky? Or was he just left alone?"

Joel had noticed that as well, standing out in comparison to the rest of the report. But at least they had a lead. He stood, ignoring what he had been working on previously, and started walking, Burns right behind him. "So do they need us on scene, to see what's left?"

"No, I just spoke to Kara Eberle. The forensic teams are already there, and she said they'd give us a more detailed report as soon as they have it. They took the camera footage over to the police department though," Burns replied.

Joel nodded his head. "Okay, we'll head over there first then, see if we can get a look at whoever did this."

They strolled through the front room and J-Roll pulled the glass door open, pulling out his keys and unlocking one of the cars out front. He climbed in the driver seat while Burns followed suit on the other side, a hint of haste in their movements.

The Warehouse owned by the Friendermen charity had been filled with just over twenty people.

As of half an hour ago, only one of them was still alive.

"So what are we looking at?" Joel asked one of the local policemen when they had arrived at the station.

"I don't know sir, we haven't seen the footage yet," the policeman replied. "But we've got it hooked up and ready for you."

They walked into another room where the screen was waiting for them, and not wasting another moment, Joel pushed the button to start the footage. Nothing happened. He pushed it again, and it still didn't work. "What's wrong with this?"

Burns sighed and reached forward, first touching one button then pressing start, and the footage started rolling. "They got a call from a passerby at around three-fifteen this afternoon, said he heard screaming from the building. By the time the others got there, it was too late. The footage is set to show us thirty minutes before the call. Figure that should give us enough time to see what happened, and look for anything suspicious beforehand."

Joel watched the screen. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just a room full of people going about their jobs. Coming up with fundraisers, sorting the money they had coming in, and putting it to use in campaigns to prevent people-mostly young adults and teenagers-from illegal activities. There was conversation between co-workers, the occasional joking around, they seemed like fairly happy people, working for a good cause.

The footage continued like this for about fifteen minutes, and the officers waited anxiously for something to happen. Joel had his hands on his hips and an expectant scowl on his face; Burns gazed quizzically at the screen, fingering his curly beard. The policeman accompanying them just stood back, fiddling with his fingers.

Joel blinked, suddenly noticing something strange changing within the room. "What is that?"

Burns leaned in, seeing the same thing. "Is that...smoke?"

Joel shook his head slowly, watching the screen fog up with what did indeed appear to be smoke, or at least something similar. "But it's red. Red smoke? What causes that?"

The last glimpses they had of the people inside were of them standing and looking around in confusion and worry, calling out to one another before losing sight of each other. When the room was completely filled with this strange red mist, the screams started. At first they were just screams of confusion, shock, or trying to locate the others, but it only took a moment for them to change to pure terror. The smoke swirled by the camera and shadows moved throughout the room, human figures that were attempting to get away from whatever was in the room with them, and less and less voices were crying out.

One man ran close to the camera, running toward something to the side-a window, perhaps-and not a second later the smoke swirled again, as if something else was passing by. They saw a shadow, but it was gone too quickly to be able to even see a shape. They heard the horrified screams of the man cut off abruptly, and it was followed with dead silence.

No one moved; the three men probably weren't even breathing. They watched the next few minutes as nothing moved in the screen except the red mist, which slowly cleared out, leaving only the mangled corpses of the workers. They could faintly hear the sirens from outside the building, and they knew it was over, but still no one moved.

Joel finally let out his breath and paused the footage.

The policeman's eyes were almost as wide as golf balls. "Did you hear-? Those people...those screams..." he stuttered, unable to form a complete sentence. "They were absolutely terrified."

Burns shifted his weight. "What the hell could have done that?"

Joel held up a finger. "Rewind the footage, back to when that last man passed and slow it down," he said.

Burns hesitated slightly, obviously not wanting to witness the ordeal again, but he complied. They saw the man as the footage passed frame by frame, his eyes wide in terror and mouth open, clothes dishevelled from his panic. He slowly passed in front of the camera, and Joel focused, waiting for the precise moment...he stopped it as soon as the smoke swirled and the shadow passed. It wasn't a clear image, but as least they had an outline of the attacker. And it wasn't human.

The only way to describe it was canine. It was slightly hunched over with a long jaw hanging open in the anticipation of the hunt and the kill. There were red pinpricks of light where the eyes would have been, giving it a fierce, evil look. But it couldn't have been any kind of dog, for it stood on two legs, rather than four. Taller than the average man, it had a long, muscled arm stretched forward towards its prey, the tapering fingers ending in claws. The red smoke surrounding the creature only enhanced the demonic look.

Joel stood, transfixed, a knot of dread weighing his stomach down like a bundle of bricks would have. This was...it wasn't impossible; X-Ray and Vav were just a couple of examples that things some might call 'supernatural' existed. No, this was out of their league. He didn't see any way that the police could combat this thing and win.

"What else do we know?" he asked, the question aimed at either of the other two with him.

"The only other thing Kara mentioned was that the victims appeared to have been 'mauled.' Now I see what she meant by that," Burns replied.

"Has the survivor said anything yet?" Joel inquired.

The policeman shrugged. "No, we haven't been able to get a single word out of him yet. He was obviously scared out of his wits...now I understand why," he shuddered.

"What do we do about this?" Burns asked.

Joel sighed, his mind coming up blank. "I honestly don't think there's much that we can do about this."

They would need help dealing with this unknown entity. Burns looked away for a moment, obviously not liking the conclusion, but finally giving in. "Alright, fine. Call them in."

Joel nodded and reached for his phone, dialling the now-familiar number. It rang a couple of times before a voice answered.

"J-Roll?"

"X-Ray. We need your help."