Chapter 36
Cinder Fall stood before a White Fang member with a deep scowl of annoyance and hatred at hearing the news of Vale's recovery, all the Grimm cleared from the streets followed by all White Fang stationed there run out by their own deserters.
And it was all because of some wolf Faunus with an inner demon.
Clenching her fists in her barely hidden anger the woman inhaled slowly with the Faunus standing in silence, keeping his head down before leaving as Cinder waved a hand for him to leave, returning to the building where Mercury and Emerald stood in wait in silence.
Both remaining silent at their mistress' angered expression she spoke hoarsely.
"Emerald… any reports from Neo?" the woman said softly due to her wound sustained by the beast from Beacon, looking to the girl who gulped at being the bearer of bad news.
"No, Mistress Fall, all contacts we've gained from Roman have gone dark, almost like they vanished" Emerald said with Cinder clenching her fists tightly with fire igniting with her fury before she inhaled once again, glaring at an invisible object.
"Any reason they stopped contacting us?"
"We haven't received any word from Neo since Roman, so that could be a hint" Mercury said with Emerald hesitantly nodding in agreement.
"Damnit… the boy is undoing what… we accomplished" Cinder said with her throat acting up in pain, making the woman rub her neck.
"Shall we send someone to deal with him?" Mercury questioned with the woman shaking her head.
"No, my Mistress… has plans for him, Tyrian and her new lapdog are looking into… his whereabouts" Cinder said with a glare to a wall.
"Wait… she's finally sending… him?"
"Yes… she's finally sending James Black" Cinder said with a small shiver running up her spine as a lone bat flew through into the building, clinging to the ceiling it looked at the trio and hissed.
In Patch
Kolbe stood before Qrow in a battle stance, his old teacher holding his weapon in a reverse grip, while Kolbe had his hands clenched with ash particles flaking off his hands.
Standing against one another Qrow spoke.
"So, what your telling me is you somehow shared your power with Blake… because she's pregnant with your kid?" Qrow questioned with a raised eyebrow as both he and Kolbe rushed forward.
"In a matter of speaking, yes"
Qrow leaping into the air with a spin, swinging his sword formed weapon down onto Kolbe the teen Faunus caught it with ash flying from the impact like sparks before they returned to the teen Faunus' hand and pop like a balloon, sending Qrow back with Kolbe rushing after the man with the Ash grouping together to form a familiar hammer of a stone summons.
Spinning himself Kolbe slammed the hammer in front of Qrow, resulting with the ground crumbling into a crater with Qrow sent flying into the air, left off balance until the teach took aim with his weapons shotgun mode, shooting at Kolbe the bullets simply bounced off Kolbe as Ash surrounded him like an extra skin, landing Qrow re-engaged his weapons sword mode and dashed forward, followed by Kolbe with the hammer breaking down into a Dai-Katana, rushing forward the blade skidded on the ground with fire igniting on the blade, swinging their respective weapons Qrow took notice to the damage his weapon just took, shoving his student back the two were about to strike again until Blake landed from a tree, showing her new look Kolbe flicked his hands with the ash melting back into his skin and clothes.
Seeing Blake no longer wearing her bow Kolbe smiled at his Faunus girlfriends outfit, letting out a whistle he took in her new look.
Blake now wore a long white coat and a black crop top. The crop top exposed her midriff and had rectangular and diamond shaped holes surrounding her neck. Across her torso is a diagonal strap that contained a smaller magnetic clip used to sheathe Gambol Shroud. she wore a white belt and pouch over dark, tight stretchy pants. Along with thigh-high black heeled boots with gold-colored edging around the top. The left boot had a pair of belted straps tightly wrapped around the thigh. Each boot bears her belladonna emblem in white on the outer side of the thigh.
Walking forward she wrapped her arms around Kolbe and lightly pecked his lips.
Smiling Kolbe smiled until the two turned to Qrow who cleared his throat.
"If I'm not interrupting, but if I may ask, how the hell do you deal with all this treatment?" Qrow questioned Kolbe who turned to Blake who also frowned
"I don't know myself to be honest" Kolbe said with the man chuckling softly.
"Well, if your done with him, can I have Kolbe for the next few weeks?" Blake questioned with Qrow looking at her with a frown.
"Sure, just what are you planning to do in those weeks?"
"I… am planning to visit my mom and dad in Vacuo"
"Oh, so I can finally meet the mystery parents" Kolbe said with Blake puffing her cheeks out before both of their ears perked up.
"Just be sure to bring him back in one piece" not even able to turn to the owner of the voice Nora leaped onto her boyfriends back, making the three share a laugh.
"I'll be sure to bring him back for you Nora"
"Plus he's un-killable at this point of his life" Qrow said with Kolbe looking down in annoyance.
"Still feels weird at the sensation of losing an arm… I just wish I could help Yang so she doesn't have to rely on a synthetic arm" Kolbe said in guilt with Blake and Nora looking down in worry before he perked up at Qrow speaking.
"I actually need your to come with me to speak with an informant of mine tomorrow night" Qrow said with his student raising an eyebrow before shrugging.
"Sure, just be sure I'm back for Blake"
"I will, so in the meantime, give all your girls some attention" Qrow said while walking off, leaning to the right to avoid a thrown rock.
Meanwhile, unknown location
Salem Sat on a thrown in silence as Hazel and Watts sat on the side line, looking as if they were waiting for someone until Salem suddenly looked up, making the three men follow her gaze to see the individual of the hour, standing a head over Hazel, the persons face was hidden behind a dragon designed grimm mask with a flowing tail reaching down to the beings knees, walking forward he was shown to be wearing a coat with shoulder paddings that also adorn his arms, leaving his hands bare skinned.
Standing before the goddess of Grimm the being slowly kneeled down to one knee and spoke.
"May I be of assistance, Mistress?"
"Yes, I wish of you to test the strength of the Faunus from Beacons fall, the one who wounded cinder"
"Ah, so that is the boy who took Cinder's ego down a notch" the being said with Salem narrowing her eyes, making the being give an aura of no caring until he looked down.
"It shall be done my mistress"
"Oh and… be sure to either capture or take care of Ruby Rose for me, Cinder has reported she may need to also be dealt with"
"And of the other warrior"
"The man of Misfortune, be sure he stays alive, Tyrian is also handling that task" the woman said with the being nodding his head before his figure was covered in blood red ooze, leaving him encased in solid blood before he sunk into the ground with small markings in his place shaped as bats.
Leaving the goddess of Grimm alone Hazel spoke with respect.
"Are you sure he'll actually follow his orders this time?"
"No not really, but I believe he'll do half of what I requested" this time Watts spoke with an angry look
"The brat is near immortal, Mistress, I can clearly see he is losing interest to our cause each year, it was because of Beacons fall he showed slight interest" Watts said with Salem speaking.
"Because of Cinders brutal defeat of the Faunus boy who dares to control one race of my children" Salem said with an empty glare.
Meanwhile in an Inn
Kolbe sat in a booth in silence as Qrow sat on the second balcony with his informant, seeing the informant was a man Kolbe relaxed with a sigh as he closed his eyes, leaning his back he was about to reach out to Hoshi until he felt the second chair to his booth slide out with someone occupying it.
Cracking an eye open Kolbe instantly frown at the teen that sat across form him, looking into his features the teens eyes were blood red surrounded by pitch black, giving him a edgy look.
"Uh, can I help you?"
"Yeah, have you had any trouble with women?" the guy said with Kolbe looking up in thought before shaking his head.
"No, none that I recall" the teen Faunus sat up with the other downing a drink of tequila, taking a whiff of the air Kolbe could tell that drink had a shit ton of mixtures to it.
"I take it you're a strong drinker?"
"Kid, I can fight an entire Atlas Platoon drunk off my tits, so yeah, let's go with your words" the fellow teen once again downed a drink before holding his hand out to Kolbe who saw the gesture and firmly shook the hand, taking notice to the grip the guy had which rivalled Yangs.
"Most peoples hands break when they shake my hand, healing semblance?"
"That's complicated at the moment" Kolbe said before looking to the guy whose hair hung down in a black ocean, somehow reaching his lower back the guy spoke .
"Yeah, my hair grows quick"
Silence followed the duo before the teen spoke.
"The names James Black"
"Nice to meet you James, My names Kolbe" it was when he heard the teen Faunus name that the teens eyes widened, looking to Kolbe he blinked before smiling.
'So you're the one who took Cinder down a peg, good job mate" James said with Kolbe's eyes widening.
Looking at the older teen Kolbe summoned a ash shield in time to block a booted kick to his abdomen.
Skidding back the table was rendered splinters while Jams stood with now sign of damage to his clothing or being other than a small tear in his right leg, seeing the damage to his pants he cursed.
"Oh come on I just got it repaired!"
"Ha, sucks to be you, I can repair mine on the move" Kolbe said with a friendly smile, getting a laugh from the hitman before the two stopped and frowned.
"Okay I never laughed naturally before, why Salem is after you I don't care, I can toy with you though" James said before rushing at the Faunus teen, who got into a stance before James startled Kolbe by breaking down into bat like creatures that crashed into Kolbe and through the wall and into the street, flying away from Kolbe the bat creatures reformed James' form on a lamp-post, looking down to Kolbe's form the Faunus stood up again with his eyes melting into Blood red before he let out a growl worthy of a wolf as his eyes changed to golden orbs as he entered his lycanthropic form, baring his teeth at the Hitman the man let out a low whistle in amusement, dropping down his red eyes glowed.
"So, you really are the guy who hurt Cinder" James said with a dead serious face before being forced to duck under a tackle from the werewolf Faunus who skidded on all fours while turning to James who turned to him with a playful smile, making Kolbe snarl as he rushed forward, making it look like he was about to tackle again he dropped down and slammed into James, startling the man who fell onto his back the werewolf formed Faunus reared his head back to bite his throat before he was sent back by a bullet of… blood.
Skidding on the ground and flip onto his hands and feet the werewolf snarled confusingly as James floated onto his feet with blood floating around him before it sunk back into his hands.
"Marvellous, isn't it, the first semblance to be physically made from a users body, my blood for example" James said before thrusting his hands forward with a torrent of blood shooting out at Kolbe in the form of a lance, barely missing Kolbe who reverted back to normal with his eyes widened in shock.
"Even good for high speed regeneration" the man said before he rushed forward, making Kolbe summon Fuyu's blade as James held a katana of blood, startling Kolbe as Fuyu's gained a chip in the blade.
Making James lean forward with dead serious eyes.
"Seem's your relying too much on your anger for fuel" James said with Kolbe narrowing his eyes before sighing, making the two push each other away out of respect, facing each other James dispelled the weapon of blood with a flick of his wrist, allowing it to flow into his wrist which held a healing wound, leaving no damage or mark.
"What do you know about my anger?" Kolbe questioned with James giving the faunus teen a sympathetic look.
"Ozpin has been missing for the last six months, put two and two together kid" James said before vanishing, leaving Kolbe in the street before his mind clicked, clenching his hands tightly Kolbe's skin began to flake away with the bone hardening until the teen willed his anger down with one tear falling from his eyes, just as Qrow came out to the ruined street.