Chapter 34: Renegades
Setting: Libera
Inside a run-down building in Libera, the district in Fortuna known for housing the criminal scum of the city, there were a group of people huddled together in the building's basement. They sat together at a large table and were all wearing the hoods of Greyhound that covered all their faces. The remnants of the once feared gang were in the middle of discussing their future, mostly how to survive the next month.
After the end of Greyhound's golden days, the members that were able to escape the fight hid in secret to get their revenge on the city that scorned them and the people responsible, but they never had the chance. They have come across several obstacles like other, big time crooks that lurked in Fortuna, Clair's task force that protect the city, limited resources, and worst of all, Bianca. Once she got word of the Greyhound Remnants presence in Fortuna, she has made it her mission to draw them out. She battled so many members, eliminating nine out of their twenty-two members in the span of months despite their convert operations, leaving just the thirteen in their hideout. With the recent defeat of the three members at Evergreen's concert along with the disappearance of the fourth one, they were at their wit's end.
"We're screwed," one of the members said.
"No, we're not," a female member interjected. "We can still restore Greyhound to its former glory! We just need more time."
"It doesn't matter how much time we have. Greyhound's dead," another downcast member replied.
One Greyhound member stood up from his seat at the table to get the attention of the others. He took a deep breath and said, "With the defeat of Lady Slate, Greyhound has essentially ended. We are what remains of its members and we alone can't bring it back, but before Greyhound dies, we will get vengeance on the two responsible for its abrupt end. Silver Synch and especially Bianca."
"Especially?" a member asked. He was standing by the wall, leaning against it with his arms crossed when he spoke to the others. "Silver's the one who betrayed us. I especially want him to know how I feel about destroying Greyhound."
"And you'll get it," another member said. She was leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. "But Bianca not only betrayed us when the time suited her, but she's gone and joined the ranks of the Vantablacks. She's under the enemy's command, working as their dog to eliminate us. As long as she's around-"
"Exactly," the member standing at the table said. "Bianca is our first priority and we'll begin our assault tonight. If the intel we got is right, then she'll be going to an isolated area here to deal with some rouges. That's when we'll strike. Agreed?"
"Agreed!" all the members shouted in unison.
"Yeah, but before that, we should talk about the elephant in the room. We have some traitors," the male Greyhound member leaning against the wall declared.
"What are you talking about?" the female member against the other wall questioned.
"Yeah, no here would dare betray us. What proof do you have?" another member asked.
"An outside source. Turns out two of our own have been making shady deals with Bianca. Giving her intel about our plans, locations, and any allies we have. Doing all of that to save their own asses. Basically, we got renegades," the Greyhound on the wall said.
All of the remnants looked at each other with suspicion, unaware of who the turncoats could be and had no idea if their lives were currently in danger. Everyone there had twitchy hands and were reaching for their guns until the female member on the wall spoke up.
"Enough! We don't know who the renegades are and shoot out in a small room like this is foolish, not to mention suicidal. Only two of us are traitors. That's something we can discuss after today's mission, but if someone acts suspicious, we kill them on the spot."
"You're heartless," the member on the opposite wall remarked.
"You haven't seen heartless, yet," she responded threateningly.
"...She's right. Discussing this now without knowing exactly who the traitors are does not but increase suspicion and lower our ability to stand together, something we can't lose when we're in our darkest hour," the standing member said.
His words were enough to calm everyone down enough to stop them from reaching for their weapons. The situation was less tense and the thought of traitors was simply put in the back of everyone's minds. The Greyhound Remnant that was standing walked to the room's door.
"Come on. We have a weapons deal with a new broker. We're supposed to meet him up north in Liberia. Once we get those, then we'll be able to take down Bianca, Silver, then anyone they associate with," he said, gaining the position of leader of the remnants.
Setting: Abandoned Factory
The others followed him and the Greyhound Remnants left the building. All thirteen of them traversed through Libera using back alleys and avoiding any attention from the public before they reached their destination. The Greyhound leader brought his team to an abandoned, ramshackle factory. This is where they were to meet their new weapons dealer and pay for extra firepower. The members all entered the building, only to see that it looked worse on the inside than outside. There were mostly crates inside the building, with some of them destroyed or riddled with gun shots, and quite a large hole in the ceiling. It was the perfect place for a dirty deal to go down. All the members sat around, waiting for the dealer who was nowhere in sight.
"Where is he?" the Remnant leader asked in irritation.
"It's been five minutes. Is he coming or not?" the male member asked, now leaning against the factory door instead of a wall.
"He knows it's this location, right?" the female member asked, leaning against the door next to her fellow member.
"It should be here," the leader said as he pulled out his scroll to confirm his statement. "He said this place is where we'll meet our big break. I know it. Said this place has some sentimental value to him or something."
"Sentimental? Really?" the female member asked in a joking manner.
"Yeah, it's where we got back together," the male member next to her said. "This is where we fought and made up."
"Hmm, I guess you're right. This is where we started over and turned a new leaf," the female member responded.
The other members looked at the two leaning against the door, not sure what they were talking about.
"What the hell are you two talking about?" one of the members asked.
"Oh. Right. Should we end this charade?" the male member asked.
"Sure," the female member answered.
The two of them grabbed their Greyhound hood jackets and ripped them off. Without the garb hiding their faces, the members turned out to be Silver and Bianca. The two true renegade members looked at the Greyhound Remnants with grins while the crooks all had expressions of shock and fear. They held their guns at the two former members who only continued to grin at them.
"Wh-What! How! Where Are-"
"Your friends?" Bianca interrupted. "We were right about there being traitors among your ranks. They told us everything about you guys in exchange for being pardoned on all criminal charges."
"And you accepted their offer in order to get the drop on us," one of the members stated.
"Not really. Technically, they were supposed to discuss these terms with Bianca and she would make it happen. It's just too bad they ran into me and told me everything after a good old, back alley beat-down. They're in prison where they waiting for rest of you fodder to join them," Silver explained with a smirk.
"You bastards!" one of the members shouted in anger as he aimed his gun at them. "You ruined everything! Always ruining Greyhound's name! Just die already and meet your maker!" he opened fired and the others followed his example.
"You know NewDreamer?" Silver joked before taking action.
Silver quickly wrapped his arm around Bianca's waist and jumped high in the air to avoid the gunfire. He used Gravity to walk on the wall. Bianca instantly activated Stardust and her hair shined. Before the remnants could change the direction of their attack, Silver quickly used Gravity to make Bianca extremely light then tossed her in the air. She went through the air, high above the remnants with a trail of Stardust particles behind her. Before she landed on top of a crate, she pulled out Archangels and opened fired, attacking them from behind. Silver pulled Fenrir from their holsters and changed them to escrima sticks.
The remnants were shocked by Bianca's behind the back attack and turned around to deal with her, giving Silver the chance to strike close-up. He used Gravity to jump from the wall and quickly land on the ground between the remnant members when they were too busy trying to open fire on Bianca. He started his symphony by beating his metal sticks against the closest member then started bashing another. He smacked Fenrir against their arms, chest, legs and heads to deliver crushing damage before the ones further away from his position tried to shoot him.
"You know, for a group of people who want to take us down, you're not very good at, well it seems like you just aren't good at anything. This is cake. Maybe you should look into some career changes," Silver mocked while beating all of them senseless.
Silver jumped and flipped backwards to avoid the bullets while Bianca closed in and attacked them from behind using her bayonets. She maneuvered around all of them, dodging all their punches, kicks, and elbows while nicking and slashing them with her small blades. All while the particles following behind her began to spread all around the Greyhound Remnants without them taking notice.
Silver stayed back to watch his girlfriend clean house. He sat on top of a crate as he watched Bianca fight with a smile on her face and he couldn't help but grin himself. Seeing as how things were wrapping up, Silver pulled out a scroll and texted someone. When he finished, he noticed one of the remnants Bianca kicked away was getting up and about to shoot her gun at Bianca with her back turned. Silver quickly changed one of Fenrir to a gun and fired at her hand, effectively disarming the woman. Silver chuckled to himself, thinking Bianca might have been getting too lax in this fight, but knew he always had her back.
Bianca slashed and kicked all eleven members of what was left of Greyhound until they were bruised and tired. She jumped away and stood in front of the crate Silver was sitting on. The particles from Stardust was all around them and they knew exactly what a former elite member like Bianca was capable of. She held her gloved hand out in the snapping position.
"Do you surrender?" she asked tauntingly.
"Please don't. For my sake, please don't," Silver suggested.
None of them had the guts to speak up out fear of being hit by an unprovoked attack. One of them grew bold enough to pull their gun. Bianca snapped her fingers using the lightning dust in the glove. The Stardust cluster around them glowed yellow and transformed into lightning, electrocuting all of them badly. All members of Greyhound were on the ground and unconscious, effectively ending Greyhound for good.
Bianca turned to Silver asking, "Did you make the call?"
"Yeah, task force should be on their way to pick them up," Silver answered. He tossed Bianca's scroll back to her then jumped off the crate. The two of them walked toward the exit of the building feeling quite satisfied with the results of their infiltration.
"So, are we cool?" Bianca asked Silver.
"Frosty. I'm glad you decided to add me to your remnant problem instead of hiding it from me," Silver responded.
"It's not like I was keeping this from you because I didn't trust you. It's because you severed your ties with them, so you shouldn't have to worry about them anymore. That's why I was dealing with this on my own," Bianca replied.
"You make it sound like you're a part of this team. We both broke free of this gang Bianca. We're free to make our own choices. You get that right?" Silver asked with his hand on the door.
"I know, but in the back of my head I… Sometimes it feels like you saved me from them instead of leaving on my own. I feel like I might not have been strong enough to break free like you did."
"Look around. This is where we fought way back when. Even though you were injured, I couldn't beat you and had to settle for a draw. Then you saw through Slate's lies and joined Clair. You've done a lot of things that shows you're strong, definitely stronger than me. That's how I feel at least," Silver said then opened the door.
Outside the factory were two task force transport trucks, a dozen task force troops with weapons and hand cuffs. Once they saw Bianca exit the building, they stormed inside to arrest the defeated Greyhound Remnants. Several troops walked up to Bianca and asked her questions or to receive orders about what to do next. Silver watched his girlfriend take charge and was impressed with her authority, feeling like he was right when he claimed she was strong.
He chuckled and Bianca noticed his small fit of amusement. "What's so funny?" she wondered.
"It's funny how you don't realize how much you've changed since our days in Greyhound. Once gang member, now authoritative figure in Fortuna. Just shows how you took the reins on life," Silver answered with a genuine smile.
Being around her fellow co-workers, Bianca couldn't display the amount of affection she wanted without losing her image, so she settled with giving Silver a peck on the cheek then a punch to the shoulder. He feigned pain, but smile the whole time.
"Same to you about taking charge Silver. Once a gang member, now a semi-respectable freelancer," Bianca stated before they watched the last remaining members of Greyhound enter the transport vehicle. "I don't think they'll think the same way."
"Nah. To them, we're just a couple of renegades. And I'm fine with that," Silver said with pride before wrapping his right arm around Bianca's shoulders.
She pinched his arm playfully, causing him to flinch and take his arm back. Silver looked at Bianca who had a teasing expression on her face. "Not while I'm working. When we get back to my place," she told him before going to the task force and instructing them on what to do next.
Silver looked on feeling pretty good about himself, Bianca, and how far they've come since their days in Greyhound.
Silver and Bianca have long since transcended their old themes. After finally severing all ties with Greyhound, Silver and Bianca will be the first ones to share a theme song. Renegade English Cover by TYERecords for Silver and Renegade English Cover by LeeandLie for Bianca. This song shows how the two of them are no longer bound by their past as Greyhound members and plan to move forward as masters of their own destiny. Silver has long since outgrown his old song, proving to be loyal to Team VRSZ and Bianca's long overdue for a new theme.
Despite what happened to his shirt in the last chapter, Silver is wearing a spare that he keeps in his closet. However, he does have some scars on his arm where Tawny's blades pierced through so he keeps his arm wrapped in bandages beneath his clothes. He's the third member of VRSZ to have scars. Remus was the first with the scar across his head and the one near where his original eye used to be. Violet is the second with faint scars all over her body from fighting all around Remnant just to survive.
Silver is the most talkative member of Team VRSZ. While the others are professional and don't talk a lot during battle, Silver will chat up his opponents for his own amusement or to distract his foes.
Silver's room in their base is kind of like an average room for a young man, except for the bullet holes in the walls. He has a bed against a wall with a dresser to its left and a small bookcase to the right along with a black rug in the middle of the room. There weren't any books in the case, but spoils of war Silver has taken from adversaries on different missions that he'd prefer to keep in his room than place on the bookcase in the living room. Resting on the top shelf was a steel case with a four-digit lock and only Silver knows what it contains. Silver has a closet full of different clothes because he enjoys buying new clothes. He has a rack for his holster and guns when he doesn't want to carry them. He doesn't have a TV in his room, so it's still pretty empty. His room has a window so he could jump out and do things whenever he wants.
There is only one insult you can say to Silver that will piss him off; "You shoot like a stormtrooper." He will pull a gun on that person and find very little reason not to fire.