Setting: Virago
Remus Cobalt, Silver Synch, Zelts Allister, members of Team VRSZ, freelancers, each powerful in their own right, now wearing collars and reduced to Violet's personal pets in Virago. Silver pulled at the absurd thing around his neck with a disgruntled look. Zelts didn't bother with his collar, but he wasn't happy about wearing it either and Remus... was Remus. He didn't seem to care about wearing it for the mission but he still pulled on it since he knew it was there.
"Now, don't my boys look handsome?" Violet said, loving the facade bit too much.
"Yes they do, will that be all?" a store clerk asked as she began to ring up the price as Violet nodded. "I must say, you must be one of Virago's wealthiest newcomers. Not many people have three men under their authority and with their own clothing instead of the generic tunics." The clerk was very impressed by Violet's supposed social status in Virago. Silver grumbled, cursing under his breath, but Zelts elbowed him to keep him quiet.
"Really? I had no idea. I guess I do spoil them some, they're just so good to me," Violet said complimenting them to sort of makeup for their predicament. She paid for the collars and left the store with her boys forced to walk a few feet behind her.
"How much longer till the stupid excavation starts?" Silver complained while walking.
"Not long, in a few hours. We'll join as a volunteer group to guard the perimeter. Once we start the mission you can drop this charade and run wild until we report back." Violet answered and the idea of fighting did bring a temporary smile back to Silver's face. "How are you two handling this?" Violet asked Zelts and Remus.
"I'm fine," Remus answered.
"Same here, no complaints," Zelts said.
"Why can't you be professional like them?" she complained to Silver who just made a face at her. "Come on, let's get something to eat. It'll kill the time."
Violet guided her team to a building that served food for both women and men though they ordered food and sat in separate areas, even the chefs were different, a woman serving the female customers food and a man serving the male customers food that was less than stellar compared to what the women were given. Violet walked to her line while the others went to theirs, waiting for their food before sitting down at a very large table where every customer sat.
At the women's table with several other women who were conversing one another, probably the purpose of having one extremely large table. Violet sat and minded her own business while she ate, but being new in town with three boys under her authority didn't let her fly under the radar as she wanted.
"Hey," one of the women said to her. "you're the new girl with those guys right?"
Seeing no way around a conversation, Violet answered with a nod. The young woman extended her hand and Violet took it and shook. "Violet."
"Carmine, nice to meet you," the short red haired girl said with a smile and Violet did the same not seeing her as any kind of threat.
"What are you guys doing in Virago, some business?"
"Yeah, my boys and I are going to volunteer to help with the dust excavation later today. Hoping to get some Lien while we're passing through," Violet said not really lying but being vague.
"Wow, so their purpose is for combat? Don't see many people with those types around often."
"What do you mean by type?" Violet asked.
"In Virago, men under the authority of women are usually given types or labels by their owners to determine what kind of tasks they do. Some cook, clean, breeding and sexual pleasure-" Violet nearly choked when she heard that one.
"and other things. Some are fighters but it's rare to see someone with three fighters." Carmine said fascinated by Violet.
"I guess, they do other things outside of fighting too."
"So they're jacks, jacks-of-all-trade?" Carmine asked.
"Yeah, though two of them are jacks and the other's just a jackass." Both girls laughed at her joke.
"What do you think they're laughing about?" Zelts asked his friends while they ate.
"I don't know, but for some reason, I feel like I just got insulted," Silver said eating his sandwich.
Remus was eating when he felt someone bump his arm with their elbow. He looked to his right to see a man in a tunic with a collar around his neck and unkempt hair. "You three belong to her, right? Man you guys are lucky, she has three of you, gives you guys your own clothes, and she's so beautiful," he said complimenting Violet as he looked at her.
"Yeah, Violet's the best," Remus said answering honestly with a beaming smile.
"...She even lets you call her by her first name? You guys have it made," the man said jealous of their supposed standing.
"Do you think she'll want another?" the man said having a terrible time trying to cover the hopefulness in his voice.
"Sorry, she isn't taking anyone else into her lap of luxury," Zelts interjected as he continued to eat. "Violet doesn't want any more charges under her authority."
"Damn that's too bad. Wouldn't mind being a pleasure slave for her." When the man said that all the boys of VRSZ halted their movements. "She's missing out big time. Though with three men like you guys I'm sure she's got a lot of action," the man continued with a disgusting smile.
Remus was the first to move, he reached for Romulus, but Zelts moved faster and held onto Remus' arm to restrain him, even though he wanted to do the same with the Heart of Gold on his back, he couldn't cause a scene, they all knew it. Remus slowly and reluctantly retracted his hand and finished the last of his food in anger. Silver held a scowl on his face because he couldn't defend his friend the way he wanted and because Violet told them to think of the mission and to be professional. The man continued eating unscathed while they didn't feel like eating anymore and they each had a sour look on their face.
Violet continued speaking with Carmine until her eyes landing on her boys who all looked distressed which concerned her. She thanked Carmine for her company and excused herself from the table to leave with her boys to find out what's got them all upset. She approached their table.
"Come on boys, let's go."
The man Remus was speaking to made a very inappropriate sound as he watched her walk away and they all heard it, but like before they did nothing. They were at the entrance with Violet and Silver noticed the unkempt man's leer the whole way there then he took note of the toothpick dispenser on the counter near the door. He took two and just as they all left with him behind them all, he tossed the toothpicks at the man as he was reaching for his food. They landed on his hand and pierced his skin causing him to scream out in pain just as they left.
"You guys okay? Never seen you any of you that down before. Almost thought you going to kill someone."
"...It's nothing," Zelts said though he still wasn't happy. None of the others would speak either so Violet had to be satisfied with that for now. Suddenly, her scroll went off and she checked it.
"Let's go, Saffron just notified me that the excavation group is beginning to move out in an hour and recruitment for bodyguards just started the dust shop is where it's happening so that's where we're going."
"You got it, boss," Silver said rather composed compared to how he was before coming here. It surprised Violet that a meal was what he needed out of his grumpy behavior.
Setting: Virago Dust Shop
VRSZ arrived to see a lot of women, most likely the dust shop employees, gathering supplies, putting up camping equipment along with some camping gear, and some tools to excavate and collect dust crystals. There weren't many people signing up to be bodyguards, just three residents.
"Looks like we'll be working double time. Thought a few more people would help out," Silver said looking at everything while Violet signed herself in. Just as she did, she saw the dust shop employees packing the last of their stuff and noticed one in particular, Carmine, helping the other workers, her colleagues, finish packing. Not wanting to deter her from work, Violet went back to her team.
Setting: Desert
Carmine and her colleagues went to the large mound of dust crystals they planned to excavate and all the members of the volunteer security force divided to guard different locations. Seeing as Violet brought her boys, Carmine suggested they secure the area the bandits, thieves, smugglers, and other hired muscle commonly used. Their mission: To make sure no one outside the Virago dust workers make it past this point until the mining is complete. The area VRSZ had to patrol was just desert a good distance away from the mining that one didn't distract the other. Violet scanned the area to see what they could use to their advantage but this being a desert, she could come up with only one word to describe their setting.
"Nothing here," she said then she had an idea accompanied with a smile. "We can fix that. Silver."
Using her Chesire's Enigmas with earth dust and Silver's Cerberus with earth bullets, they fired on the ground erecting large tall pillars of stone that towered the area and served as a natural barrier and vantage points. After creating the stones, Violet told Silver and Remus to get to the top and watch out for enemies since Remus can see a great distance away with his bionic eye as well as Silver who can shot targets with his sharpshooting skills.
Carmine and the other miners never mentioned how long the dust collecting would take, but since it's been two hours, Violet guessed it was going to take a while. Silver and Remus had yet to see a sign of thieves coming, but they did spot some stray Grimm that was wandering around so they shot down any that were moving too close or did it just for kicks.
While tugging on his collar, Silver spotted a Nevermore flying in the sky a good distance away and he fired one shot, killing it and watching it disintegrate before it touched the ground. He smiled cause now he killed more Grimm than Remus. "Hey look at that, I leveled up."
"Hey, that's my thing!" Remus said angrily. He never liked it when Silver stole his catchphrase.
"Then kill more Grimm, you're kind of slacking-" Silver said then head-shotted an unfortunate Ursa. "Level up."
"AARRRGGGHHHHH!"
"Boys, behave yourselves!" Violet shouted from below, but the distance between the ground and the top of the earth spire was too great and they probably didn't hear her words that well.
Next to her was Zelts leaning against the stone as he kept an eye on things in case those two overlooked something. He did notice something was moving beneath the sand and right towards them. Seeing this made Zelts feel like this kind of thing happened to him before. He split his Heart of Gold into wingblades and with one motion he swung them against the sands stirring a burst of wind that swept up the sand around them. His sudden action proved to confirm his suspicions as the body of someone emerged.
"Ugh, was hoping to slip by unnoticed, but I expect no less from VRSZ," the man said and he was a peculiar one indeed. He had a short brown mohawk and a visor that conceals his eyes, but one could see a scar across the left side of his face. He wore a tan tank top and a pair of brown cargo pants that had some cybernetics on them but the thing that stood out the most was the extra limbs he had. On his left side where an arm would normally be were three mechanical ones in its place.
"The hell is that thing?" Violet asked grabbing her Enigmas.
"Whatever it is, it knows us."
"Usually I'd be upset, but now that I look like this I can understand your confusion. It's me, Buff," he said full of himself waiting for their shocked reaction that their longtime foe has returned.
"... Who is this?" Violet asked surprising Buff, but this is the first time they've met. He thought Zelts would at least inform her of his presence.
"I don't know," Zelts responded angering Buff that they still don't remember him.
"DAMMIT YOU-" his rampage cut short by a bolt of energy hitting him from above and blasting him a few feet away.
"Got him!" Remus shouted, but Buff got up immediately.
"I'm not going down like that! I came here for dust and I'm getting it!" He aimed his three new appendages at Remus and Silver and he fired three red lasers at them only for them to dodge by jumping to new stone. Silver quickly retaliated by shooting several rounds of ice dust at the rogue but Buff blocked using his arms which were frozen but with a quick flex, he broke through the ice unscathed.
Zelts charged in to ram Buff, but he used his arms to block and have them pressed against the shield as Zelts continued with his attack. Buff held his own, but whether he wanted to or not, he was moving across the sand due to Zelts' superior strength. To stop his attack, Buff fired his laser blast from his palms and the force threw Zelts off balance and stopped his charging. Unbeknownst to Buff, Violet was behind him this whole time using Invisibility to remain undetected. She did a sweeping kick to knock him off balance and out of nowhere Remus teleported in with Checkpoint to Buff's backside and launched a strong kick to it, propelling the rogue a few feet away. Buff got back up more irritated than hurt. Zelts stepped in and had a bout with the thief and before Violet could join the fray, Remus held her back.
"Silver and I saw others coming, too much for us to focus one at a time," he informed her and Violet gave her team new orders.
"Divide and conquer!"
Zelts stayed on Buff as they were currently in a stalemate. There was a horde of common bandits coming to take the dust for themselves and Silver took it upon himself to deal with them. Violet told Remus to help him as a stray in the pack was heading toward her specifically. And in an instant, something was headed right toward her. Violet narrowly dodged the object and saw it was a sword, a mechanical broadsword with a segmented chain attached to it, a weapon Violet has seen before. On the other end of the chain was the wielder, coming in from the air as the chain retracted. Violet moved a safe distance away as the wielder picked up his sword.
The wielder was a young man wearing a black body suit beneath grayish-silver light armor plated on his upper body and on his legs with armored boots along with a dark green jacket that he wore kind of like a cape. He had short gray hair, dark green eyes, and a scar running along his jaw. He looked at Violet with a smirk.
"Long time no see, girl. Missed you," he said in a disrespectful tone.
"Grayson, it has been some time, unfortunately, I don't feel the same as you. I'm not fond of the times you tried to kill me for my bounty, speaking of bounties, you're probably here under someone's contract to steal the dust right?"
"I always do what I can to complete my tasks.," he said gripping his broadsword but his remark made Violet grin.
"Really? Tough talk for a guy who couldn't take down a girl before bounty went away," Violet jested and the smirk on Grayson's face was replaced with a small frown.
"Maybe if I kill you here someone will still pay a lot for your old bounty? "Shall we test that?" Grayson said with a sword in hand as he made his way to Violet.
Fun Facts
This section will include not only facts about the VRSZ story but also things that the characters do off-page (off-screen) as they live their lives. For example, Team VRSZ sometimes play each other in basketball when they have free time and they allow the use of their semblances to make it more fun. Another is that Zelts has taken up meditation during his travels with Lily and does it in the base though he was never stressed out, to begin with, but finds it calming, however, Remus and Silver's antics around the base prove to be distracting.
Silver views Team VRSZ as his family, thinking of Violet as his sister and Remus and Zelts as his brothers. Since he sees them as family, Silver sees Ghost as his best friend and even if the other doesn't want to admit it, he thinks the same of Silver.
Carmine works at Virago's dust shop and helps find dust sources. Her name means crimson.
Grayson is a mercenary that has been one of the people that were after Violet during the time her bounty was still active though he's done it more than most. The scar on his face was caused by Violet and left several on her. His weapon is a grapple sword, Grayson can throw it anywhere and the segmented chain can extend and retract to bring him to the location of his sword. It is a model similar to Blake's weapon but his weapon is more for quick escapes rather than combat. Personality wise Violet says he's more of a jackass than Silver and that's saying a lot. He is twenty-two years old.
Buff has been a recurring enemy for VRSZ though he has been a C-class enemy all this time and another recurring thing is that despite their encounters on and off-page, VRSZ never remembers him. During the time skip, Buff lost his arm and replaced it with three cybernetic ones that he uses to fight, replacing the Grimm exo-suits he used to use in battle. He's actually more formidable now than before but whether Team VRSZ will remember him is a mystery.