Setting: City of Thieves
The morning sun peaked its way into the sky, brightening the dark remains of night. Silence filled the remains of Fortuna as none of its residents have awakened from slumber. There were, however, two people still active though neither one was moving. In the old, destroyed home of Team VRSZ, were Grayson and Teale Tear. The former was standing with his back against the wall, or whatever was left of it, with his eyes closed. The fortune teller remained in the same position she has been for hours.
Grayson guarded her for three hours, waiting for her to find Violet with her Wayfinder. Teale informed him how long it would take, but as time as, he became more and more restless. The closer he was to his goal, the more surreal it felt. He was going to end her and her team once and for all. He deemed it necessary to tie up all loose ends before returning to Mistral. He couldn't be a successful mercenary leader if there were rumors about his failures in the past.
"I'm taking you down once and for all, Vi. Count on it," Grayson swore to himself in his head.
A few seconds after he made this declaration to himself, Teale opened her eyes for the first time after closing them hours ago. At the moment they open, there was the smallest shining glimmer in her eyes. It was extremely hard to tell, but for an instant, the glimmer in her eyes looked like stars twinkling in the night sky. Teale took a breath, something she always did after using Wayfinder and informed Grayson when she was done.
"Where," Grayson asked Teale Tear and she answered him.
"Violet Tulipe. Nexus."
Setting: Desert
South of Nexus was their first and most trusted allied settlement, Virago, the settlement famous and infamous for its break from social structure. A place where women control everything and men are second-class citizens. It was the home of Nexus council member, Carmine, and it was here that Team VRSZ was undertaking a mission.
On Saffron's behalf, Carmine hired VRSZ to investigate an area that was a dust mine and claim it before anyone else does. Virago was already well off when it came to dust thanks to its exploration division and to Vacuo itself for having massive mounds of dust. The mission to claim the territory housing the dust wasn't a mission that Saffron wanted the team to take seriously. Virago already had a surplus of dust they could use or market. Claiming this new one was out of greed instead of necessity which is why she didn't send out her usual forces to deal with the matter. This was an easy job with good pay.
"This job suuuuucks!" Silver shouted from the backseat of the hovercar. "I hate going to Virago."
"You say that every time. What's not to like about it?" Violet asked from the driver's seat.
"Easy for you to say! You're not the one wearing a leash and collar!" Silver told her.
Every member of VRSZ was sitting in the hovercar with Violet and Remus up front and Silver and Zelts in the back. Collars were wrapped around the boys' necks, the symbol of man's second-class citizenship in Virago. Not even the members of VRSZ were above the law. It was the very thing Silver dreaded when he came to this place.
"And I swear, you get a kick out of ordering us around when we're there," Silver deduced.
Violet didn't say anything. She turned around and a not so discreet grin made its way on her face. She turned back to drive and Silver glared at the back of her head. "I am getting you back when we get home."
"Quit being a baby. I don't even see why you're still wearing yours?" Zelts said as he removed his collar. Silver noticed Remus already had his off.
"What are you guys doing?" Silver asked.
"We're not in Virago anymore. We could take them off anytime now."
"Yeah," Remus added. "Why didn't you take yours off yet?"
"He probably likes having it on," Zelts teased with a smirk.
"Maybe I'll let Bianca know about your little kink," Violet remarked with a sneer. Silver yanked the collar off his neck and threw it to the floor. Frustrated and embarrassed, he sat in the hovercar and muttered to himself with a peeved expression. Zelts and Remus laughed at him and so did Violet. She wasn't going to mention this to Bianca, but it was always fun to ruffle Silver's feathers.
It took about two hours for the team to reach the area where the dust mine was supposed to be. The terrain had several large rock formations that were as tall as four-story buildings. The rocks cast shadows that provided necessary shade for travelers. It did well for Zelts and Remus as they sat beneath one of the stones to relish the lack of sunlight. Violet gave them a two-minute reprieve before they start their mission. She and Silver used this time to scout the area. He used Gravity to run up the side of one of the rocks and rested on top where he scanned the area for dust and for enemies. Violet stuck to the ground and used Invisibility to remain unseen as she checked around. If there were enemies about, she wanted to get the drop on them.
So far, Violet didn't see anything on her end, but her scroll did go off. Thankfully, she put it on vibrate which became instinctual whenever she was on missions. She pulled it out and saw that Silver was calling her. "What's up?"
"I got four people at the dust mine west of you. This will be tricky."
"No problem. We just get the jump on them, take them down, and take the dust for ourselves. Easy."
"I doubt that's going to work."
Violet was curious why Silver thought this way. "What makes you say that?"
"You'll see in a minute," was all Silver said.
She walked in the direction Silver told her the enemy and the dust was and she did find both, but now she understood why Silver said this would be tricky. Collecting dust from the side of one of the rock formations were the members of Team CLSH. Loden was excavating dust out of the wall with World Splitter along with Hazel's wasp drones that used their lasers to slice the crystals out with precision. Cerise and Sapphire were just watching from a distance with the former ready to use Shields if the dust became volatile and the latter ready to use her Spinnerets to pull them back.
The four girls were too occupied with what they're doing to notice Violet. Granted, she was still invisible and was watching silently. She figured they were here to do the same mission for the kingdom, turning this meeting into a conflict of interest. "Maybe we can split the dust 50-50?"
"Hey, guys!" Remus shouted after he teleported beside Violet while she was invisible and he caught all of their attention. Violet quickly deactivated Invisibility before the girls could notice, but realized Loden's Panorama allowed her to see 360 degrees around herself, so she probably already saw her.
"Remus? Violet? What are you guys doing here?" Cerise asked, not expecting to see them of all people at this location.
"Same as you. We're on a mission to claim this place for Virago," Violet answered.
At this time, Silver jumped down from his perch and slowly floated down to where everyone was. Zelts was still relaxing in the shade while the others met with CLSH. With the rest of the team scouting and the intense heat beating down on him, Zelts planned on getting as much relaxation as possible. Not like there was anything dangerous that needed his attention.
"Sup girls," Silver greeted as he landed in front of his teammates. "Looks like everyone's here for the same thing. What do we do?" he asked, saying what everyone there was trying to prolong.
They were all on missions to secure this place for their respective clients. Only a greeting was made and both teams were already at an impasse.
"Well, this was bound to happen eventually," Sapphire spoke up with a smirk on her face. "So. How do we settle this?"
"We can duke it out," Silver suggested.
"I'm in," Remus said quickly.
"Guys, we don't have to fight to solve all our problems. Right?" Violet looked to the girls of Team CLSH to agree with her, but that didn't seem to be the case.
A wave of stone was erupting from the ground and heading straight for the VRSZ trio. Violet was surprised, but she quickly rolled out of the way. Remus jumped out of the way and Silver leaped high in the air with Gravity. All three of them noticed the excited expression on Loden's face. Cerise, Sapphire, and Hazel had similar faces. They all wanted to settle this in battle.
Violet sighed because this, like most of their conflicts, would be dealt with through battle, but that didn't mean she hated the idea. She was more than ready to fight Team CLSH again. She pulled out a few Enigmas from her bag and Silver quickly shot at them while he was still airborne. Cerise moved behind Loden who spun her naginata in her hands to deflect the bullets. The sound of gunfire caught Zelts by surprise. He rose from his rested position and grabbed his Heart of Gold. He moved to find the others and figure out what was going on.
Sapphire shot her cables at a nearby rock and began to swing around the area for better mobility. In response to her movements, Violet used a hand signal to tell Remus to take on Sapphire. He used Checkpoint to teleport into the air next to a rock formation then kicked off of it to head straight to Sapphire as she swung in his direction. She saw him launch himself toward her and readied her cables in her left hand. He reeled Delta back and Sapphire whipped her five cables at him. Remus planned to cut through them but was shocked to see his sword clashed with her Spinneret cables and they weren't cut. He figured she reinforced them or replaced them with a stronger metal. The cables that met his sword wrapped around it and his hands. Sapphire flashed him a quick smile before delivering a swift kick to his jaw, forcing Remus to let go of Delta and fall back to the ground.
He was falling, but he disappeared in blue smoke. He used Checkpoint again to teleport above Sapphire and landed on top of her, forcing her to fall to the ground with him. The two landed in the sand in a heap until Remus got up before Sapphire. He grabbed Delta, but she still had some of her cables wrapped around his body. "Too bad, so sad," Sapphire mocked playfully as she got up. Remus looked at the cables on him and smirked.
"You better hold on tight," he said before turning his back to her. Sapphire didn't know what he meant until it was too late. Remus began sprinting around the desert area at high speed while dragging Sapphire around with him. He turned around to check on Sapphire he was surprised once again to see her standing upright and skating on the sand as he dragged her along. She laughed the whole time like it was some kind of ride. Sapphire Velum, forever the thrill seeker.
Two of Hazel's wasp drone were going after Silver. They fired round after round of laser blasts to keep him at bay and off isolate him from Violet, who was up against Loden and Cerise. Silver kept backing away to avoid the two drones firing at him in great harmony. There wasn't a single moment where Silver could stand still. He was forced to jump and dash around to stay out of harm's way, but it's not like he couldn't strike back. Silver fired dust bullets at them, but the wasp drones were much more durable than their last encounter. Even the lightning bullets weren't slowing them down, but they were taking some damage, just not as much as Silver expected. This was all done while she just watched the battle, commanding her weapons with the computer in her glasses, not even breaking a sweat.
"Tch. These things usually break down by now. She doesn't stop improving, does she?" he thought, proud of Hazel despite fighting against her. He jumped backward with Gravity to create some distance and seclude himself and Hazel's drones. He didn't want her to direct her assault onto Violet. The drones followed Silver, but Hazel remained in the same spot, operating her drone with no problems whatsoever.
Violet was having the most difficulty fending off Loden while Cerise supported her. Loden swung World Splitter around to back Violet into a corner, one created by Cerise who activated Shields to conjure force field constructs out of her aura. She created vertical walls directly behind Violet to prevent her from moving back and leaving her vulnerable to Loden's attacks.
Once again, Violet was backed into another force field wall. Loden took her opportunity to approach slash at Violet, but Violet reacted quickly and threw an Enigma with ice dust at Loden's right leg. It froze her foot and stopped her advance before her naginata could reach Violet. Loden was able to break out of the ice with sheer force, but the short time it took to do this gave Violet enough time to get out of the corner and activate Invisibility. Loden didn't hesitate to guess where she was and brought the blade of World Splitter to the ground and spun around. This action caused the stone and earth around her to erupt, making jagged stones rise all around and spread out. Violet was still close enough to be struck by one in her sides. It knocked her down and gave away her position, but Loden wasn't the one who attacked.
Cerise threw one of her Runaways at Violet and it went off in an explosion. Violet was able to roll out of the center of the blast, but she did take a hit to her aura, and Loden came in to deliver a stronger blow with her World Splitter. Violet quickly got on her feet, but she was still in the range of the large polearm's reach. Loden motioned to strike, but instead hitting flesh, World Splitter hit a shield. Standing between Violet and Loden was Zelts, protecting his comrades like he always does.
"Forgive me for being late. It was such a nice catnap," he joked to Violet.
"You came just in time," Loden answered with a grin. She and Zelts bared down on each other, neither giving up ground as a contest of strength was going on between them. Earth and wind. The two forces of nature were clashing with each other.
Violet saw this as her moment to go directly for Cerise. She jumped onto Zelts's shoulders then leaped over him and Loden to land near Cerise and Hazel. She landed in front of the two of them with ease. Neither tried to stop Violet from approaching them and they did nothing still as she drew one of her kukris. "It's over," Violet told Cerise with a triumphant smile.
"Yeah. It is. We win," Cerise stated proudly which confused Violet.
"Uh, we won the fight," Violet told her to clarify the situation.
"We accomplished our mission," Cerise said, pointing to Hazel. The bee faunus still had her third wasp drone with her and it was taking all the dust they were supposed to claim for Virago. The dust crystals were loaded on the vehicle the girls used to get here. Hazel smiled at Violet and Zelts because Cerise was right. This was their win.
Team CLSH was able to distract and outsmart Team VRSZ to complete their mission. Violet knew this and felt both proud and a little embarrassed, but mostly proud to see these girls grew into capable Huntresses. "Well played," she told Cerise, "you guys got us."
Cerise smiled widely when she heard that. It was nice to receive praise from someone she admired, but she and her teammates couldn't admire VRSZ forever. When you admire or idolize someone, you don't want to see them lose. CLSH wanted to surpass them one day and today was the first step.
"I'll call back my drones. They're still chasing Silver," Hazel said as she inputted the command for the drones to regroup.
"And Sapphire?" Loden asked.
"Woohoo!" Everyone turned to see Sapphire still hanging onto Remus who was still running around the area. He was laughing as he ran through the desert. What started as a fight turned into a fun time between friends. "we can give them a few minutes," Zelts suggested.
"You guys won, which means you won the bet. Lunch is on us. If you guys have time to spare?" Violet told CLSH.
"Yeah, we have the rest of the day to return to Shade. You guys have a place?" Cerise asked.
Violet flashed her a devilish grin. She turned to Remus and Zelts and hoped Silver could hear her. "Boys! Get your collars back on!"
"DAMMIT!" Silver shouted back and she chuckled.
Setting: Virago
Both teams traveled to Virago where VRSZ gave Saffron their mission statement. The mission was a failure, so she couldn't pay them. Luckily, she didn't hold it against them. With the mission done, VRSZ had to ante up on their bet with CLSH.
They lost, so they had to take the girls out to lunch which they had to pay. The group decided on an all you can eat style restaurant where they could sit and eat at their leisure, though the boys were forced to get the food for everyone else since this was Virago. Remus and Zelts didn't mind, though Silver grumbled under his breath before making back to their table.
"Here you go, ladies," Silver said as he passed the girls' plates with Remus and Zelts. Both teams ate and talked amongst themselves.
"You guys were great today," Zelts told the girls.
"Yeah, we were," Sapphire spoke with pride swelling in her chest.
"I'll be honest, I didn't think you guys would win the bet," Violet admitted.
"That just shows how much we've grown," Hazel responded.
"Don't get used to it. We won't lose next time," Violet told Team CLSH, though she looked directly at Cerise.
"We'll see about that," Cerise retorted. The leaders of each group glared at each other, both seeing the other as a worthy rival.
Meanwhile, outside of Virago were two figures standing on the outskirts, staring at the settlement from a distance. These two were Alexandrite and Royal. The former looked on with confusion while the latter had a pleased expression.
"Why did you bring me here?" Alexandrite asked in a curt tone that Royal didn't mind. He liked her direct approach to everything.
"A gift, from me to you. You told me about how the people of your home refused to accept your power, your desire to rule by strength and force, and refusal to make you the next leader."
"Is the gift rubbing it in my face? Why are we here?" Alexandrite was not pleased with being back in Virago or being near it. So far, she liked being with Royal. He let her do whatever she wanted and fight any anyone she wanted. They even battled each other for hours almost every day and it always left her satisfied, but those moments were fleeting and they didn't matter to her now.
"Payback. That's my gift to you. Show them they were wrong to deny your strength. Make them regret their decision. Defeat or kill the people who wronged you, scare them, raze the city to the ground. Do whatever makes you happy. That's all I care about."
Alexandrite has never thought about ever coming back to Virago. However, she couldn't deny that her closest thoughts of her old home were taking down Saffron to prove she was Virago's best warrior. Maybe this gift from Royal was the opportunity she had been waiting for. Plus, battling the entire force of Virago sounded like an exhilarating time to her.
A wild smile crept onto her face. "All right. I'll accept your present, but don't interfere. This my vendetta," she commanded Royal as she approached the settlement.
"I wouldn't dream of upsetting my queen," Royal said as he watched her go. He loved the warrior side of her. Getting to observe her strength was a gift to himself if he admitted it.
Using her semblance, the Bedazzled Behemoth covered her body in red-colored crystal armor and held out her halberd. She was ready to begin.
"So, I've gotten pretty far with learning how to fly," Silver told CLSH as they talked at their table. Everyone was done eating, so they were just talking about their daily lives. "I can levitate and stuff, but I still haven't figured out how to move around on my own," he told Loden and Cerise with Remus listening in.
At the other end of the table, Sapphire was asking Violet and Zelts a personal question. "Um. How's Ghost? Is he doing alright?" Her face was slightly red with embarrassment. They could tell she still liked him and the time apart didn't change that.
"He's been doing pretty well," Zelts informed her. "He's actually been training with Violet and the others to get better and doing his job."
Sapphire was happy to hear he was doing well And Violet wanted to put her over the moon. "Ghost has been asking about you. Ever since the last time we met, he's been asking us how you were."
"Really?"
"Uh-huh. I think Bianca says she sees him on his scroll, contemplating whether to call you or not. I guess he's trying to find the right thing to say," Violet chuckled at that last part.
Sapphire was overjoyed to hear Ghost wanted to speak with her again. Even though they had to part because of distance, it didn't mean either stopped liking the other.
"You should probably tell him just saying 'Hi' is a good start," Hazel told her friend.
"Yeah," Sapphire sighed happily.
The time between VRSZ and CLSH was enjoyable to all of them. Enjoyable, but fleeting. It all ended when the sound of people panicking and rumbling could be heard outside the restaurant. All eight of them stormed out of the building to see what was going on and they noticed several of Virago's female warriors were fighting a crystal-covered person with difficulty. They also noticed some of Virago's warriors were already on the ground unconscious. It didn't take VRSZ, CLSH, or the Virago warriors long to figure out who his person was.
Some of the warriors attacked up close with axes and hammers, but their strikes were either parried by the halberd or collided with the crystal, leaving only a few cracks. With sheer strength, Alexandrite repelled them away with a swing of her polearm, pushing them away from her person. The ones with guns fired when their allies were cleared, but their bullets hardly did anything to Alexandrite's armor.
"Ha! You guys have gotten weaker! Where's the challenge?!" Alexandrite's voiced boomed as she asked her former colleagues' this question. And to answer her question, several projectiles came her way. A throwing knife, a cherry bomb, a bullet, and a laser blast collided with her armor. The explosion from the bomb covered the area in smoke, and when it dispersed, Alexandrite was still standing with a few cracks and the knife sticking out of the crystal covering her chest.
She looked over to see her other foes standing before her and she grinned. "Didn't think you guys would be here now."
Team VRSZ and CLSH stood before Alexandrite, ready to fight. The other warriors of Virago left to inform Saffron of what was happening. It was clearly a one-sided battle, but having the odds against her was something Alexandrite loved. A massive, deranged smile was on her face, showing her excitement at the battle to come.
"I don't know why I'm asking this, but are you going to leave quietly?" Violet asked Alexandrite, hoping the former Ravager, yet still enemy would listen.
Alexandrite's answer was her charging at everyone standing against her. VRSZ and CLSH did respond in kind. All while Royal watched from afar.
Both teams keep in touch with each other on their scrolls., telling each other about current events and CLSH letting VRSZ know how they're acing their classes at Shade.
Ghost used to be afraid of Remus when they first met, but that faded with time. Now, he's very afraid of Azura. She thoroughly beats him during hand-to-hand training. Azura can admit Ghost has gotten better and he does recognize her strength but is still scared of her. Bianca sees this as Ghost and Azura bonding as teammates.
In Nexus, C.P. has been performing scams to amass money. All of them fail and Onyx usually has to clean up the mess or help bail C.P. out of trouble when Violet isn't available. After months of this, Onyx has grown to enjoy his cousin's company, seeing him as a lovable idiot to his genius. He can do without C.P. constantly hitting on women.