Chapter 8: Equal Rights

Present: City of Vale

To take everyone's mind off of the events of the Lone Wolf outburst, Shade thought that it would be best to have the team's go on a couple joint-missions as a way to better cement their comradery as Huntsmen and Huntresses. Shade and Oscar would go on a 'black ops.' mission to help other Faunus in the city. While Cerise and Kole were off on their own Faunus aiding mission. The two hired a Bullhead airship to take them up to a village in Northern Vale where hate crimes were running rampant against the local Faunus population.

Cerise was looking out the bay doors of the airship, admiring the vast ocean of red foliage from the Forever Fall forest underneath them. When she left Menagerie, she never thought that she would see such natural beauty this far from Menagerie. Her attention was broken by the pungent aroma of smoke filling the passenger cabin.

"What the hell are you doing?" She yelled seeing the slacker light up a cigarette.

"What does it look like? I'm smoking." He said taking a puff and blowing a thin cloud of smoke towards the Faunus.

"You're an asshole." She coughed waving the smoke away.

"And you're a snob." He said stamping out his cigarette against the window and placing it back into its package.

"ETA: 10 minutes." Said the pilot over the intercom

Cerise placed her weapon on her lap and fidgeted with its automatic and semi-automatic fire switch. "Why? Why in Shade's great tactical wisdom did she have to pair me up with…with…him?" The Faunus said out loud.

"I'm sitting right here, ya know." Said Kole adjusting his beanie

"I know."

"Hey, this ain't a day in the park for me neither, princess."

"Speaking of a day at a park, you're not going to try and kill me are you?

"Bitch."

"God, I hate you." She sighed to herself.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked sarcastically "Everyone likes me. I'm fucking awesome."

"For starters: your rude."

"Duly noted."

"Your immature, your grammar is atrocious, your sarcastic."

"Really? Is that all? Tell me how you really feel?"

"You never have a plan, and worst yet. You're…you're a…"

"We're here!" yelled the pilot

Kole got to his feet and looked out the bay door at the settlement below him. He looked back to Cerise who was slinging her rifle over her shoulder. "Last one to the ground has to buy the winner a drink." He said jumping out of the airship.

'He is such an asshole.' She thought following him out. The Faunus decided to play it safe by jumping onto the roof of an old church first and leap down from building to building. On her last leap, she lost her footing on a loose clay tile and fell the face first into the mud.

"Huh? And here I thought cats were supposed to land on their feet." Said the Huntsman helping the Huntress to her feet.

"Racist." She said under her breath, wiping away the mud from her cheeks.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up and me that drink." He said leading the Faunus into the town's tavern.

'God I hate him so much.' She thought to herself 'How can a family of elite warriors keep a wretch like him? He doesn't even care about anyone but himself.'

When she returned to her partner, she found him at a table knocking-back his victory drink. Her heart sank when she saw he was comforting a Faunus woman who had a swollen black and blue eye. Cerise took a seat next to the woman, across from Kole as he explained the village's situation.

"So here's the skinny." He said not taking his sorrowful eyes off the battered woman before him "Because of the increased White Fang hostilities world-wide, some of the local humans thought they would band together and crush any signs of a White Fang presence in their little township. Sadly, their vigilante-ism has caused them to target innocent Faunus that both live and pass through here. Mrs. Sona, here, was their latest victim."

Cerise looked into the poor Faunus woman's pain stricken eyes. every fiber of her being wanted to throttle those responsible, but she tried to keep her emotions in check. "Can you please tell us what happened to you."

"I-I was working in my Dust shop. I-I had just gotten a shipment from the quarry in Mistral. A-and t-those…monsters attacked me." She said bursting into tears "T-They stole all of my Dust crystals a-and t-they…" she added gingerly cradling her bandaged monkey tail that had was partially cut off.

"I'm going to making those bastards pay." She said trying to comfort the woman. "So where do we find them?"

"No idea. It's all very cloak and dagger stuff." Said Kole

"So how are we supposed to find them?"

"We don't. We let them come to us." He smirked looking into the reflections against his glass

From behind them an older man walked into the tavern, and scowled as he saw Cerise comforting the woman.

"Hey! What are you animals doing in my bar?" yelled angrily pointing at the abused woman, causing her to cower in fear of another attack. Cerise could see that this man had to of been one of the attackers. She jumped out of her seat and clenched her fist tight, ready to knock the man on his ass. But before she could act, Kole quickly snatched her wrist, yanking her back.

"This ain't your bar, asshole." Said Kole sipping the last few drops of scotch from his glass. "And no one insults my wife." He said getting up from his, seat wrapping his arm around Cerise's waist, and forcefully kissing her on the lips.

"You make me sick, you…you…animal lover." the man growled as he stormed out of the bar

The Huntsman chuckled to himself as he turned to his partner who slapped him with the back of her hand.

"Ow! What was that for?" he said rubbing his cheek

"That was for kissing me. And that-" she said slapping him a second time "was for stopping me from kicking that racist's ass."

"It was all part of my plan." He said walking out of the bar and locking his eyes on the man in the distance "See, now he's going to lead us to his buddy's hideout."

"You could have told me your plan before you tried playing tonsil hockey with me."

"I just came up with the plan when the guy walked in."

"Asshole."

"Bitch." He said smirking at the Faunus.

The Huntsman and Huntress wandered through the streets of the small township and continued to follow the man to an old, grey, stone walled church with a large stained glass window.

"Stop." whispered Kole hugging the wall as he peeked over the corner to watch the man look back and then walk inside the church. The Huntsman leaned his back against the wall and slid down into the mud as he focused his Aura and projected an astral wolf before him. he opened his eyes to reveal their eerie blue glow. "Okay boy be my eyes and ears for me." He said patting the head of the familiar.

The ghost wolf walked through the mud and crept its way into the church through an open window. Towards the vestibule of the church, it could see three men talking in hushed tones. The wolf used the church pews as cover as it crept closer to listen better at what the men were talking about.

"There's another Faunus in town. A young girl in blue. With cat ears." said the older man that lead them here

"Good." Smiled another man

"But she's accompanied by a Huntsman. Her Husband I think?"

"Beastiality? That is disgusting." Sneered a third man as they walked through the sanctuary to the apse, behind the alter.

"The Brother of Light will thank us for wiping these animals off the face of Remnant." said the first as he led the men to the basement where a stockpile of stolen Dust and crates of weapons. The spectral wolf then dissipated before it could learn more about the mad men.

"Great religious nut jobs." Said Kole, gaining control once again.

"What?"

"I'll explain later. Let's go fuck these bitches up."

"Hell yeah." she said chambering a bullet into her gun.

The Huntsman lead his partner to the apse, where a hatchway laid wide open. Reached into his pocket and loaded his gun with a single gravity Dust round. He looked to Cerise and smiled "Do you want the honors?

"Sure." She said eagerly trading weapons with the slacker.

"Just flip the gun forward to cock it, then rock her back, and you're ready to shoot."

The Faunus did as she was advised. She placed her fingers in the brass-knuckle guard and rocked the gun forward until she heard it click once and then swung it back into her hand. Cerise aimed into the darkness below her as she pulled the trigger "Boom!" she whispered to herself

The sudden thunderous explosion rocked the once stoic church. Clouds of smoke and dust billowed out of the opening

The two took out their scrolls and turned on their flashlight app. They plunged into the darkness and began their investigation.

"Well, they're not dead. So that's good…I guess." Said Kole

Under her foot Cerise could see shards of clay like material. Upon closer examination she could see that they were parts of a broken mask.

"Grimm masks?" she said lifting one to her head.

"They aren't even Faunus. What are they doing with these?"

"No idea"

"Humans faking White Fang attacks? Why?"

"Publicity probably." Said Kole searching the men's bodies

The Faunus girl looked into the mask's eye slits and was filled with regret. Regret that a group that was once created to promote peace had become what it is today. She lowered her head and dropped the mask, shattering the rest of it to pieces.

The Huntsman and Huntress dragged the men outside the church where Kole called the Vale police to retrieve the criminals and give them a lift back into the city. While they waited, the slacker nudged Cerise with his elbow

"Back on the airship you were yelling at me for being something. What was it?"

"It's nothing." Said Cerise wanting to forget what she wanted to say then.

"No it ain't. Tell me."

"Why do you want to know?

"Because. Now what was it.

"It was nothing, just drop it."

"Bullshit. what am I? Awesome?

"No.

"Annoying?"

"You are, but no."

"Am I…Arrogant?

"No!" she said starting to lose her patience with the barrage of questions.

"What then? Lazy? Selfish? Ooh I know. I'm a chauvinistic pig. Is that it?"

"You're…you're…Human!" Cerise stood in shock at what she just said. Never has she had such an outburst like this before.

"Damn. Well, I asked what you really thought, but I didn't think you would go that far." He said heading towards the tavern again

"Kole…I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure you didn't."

"Kole?"

"Just…don't."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Don't bullshit a bull-shitter." He said placing a cigarette in his lips

"What?"

"Don't act surprised. Since I meet your team, you have done nothing but grill us Humans for making your people's lives so unfair."

"What? No I don't."

"And what about your little Faunus only coffee shop? That place sure seems welcoming to me and my friends."

"I go there to get coffee because no place else will serve me. And what were you doing there?"

"I saw that look you had back at the church. You treated that mask like it was a Kingdom's banner. The White Fang are worse than Grimm and the Black Lotus combined. All they do is hide behind their masks, and hold their secret meetings about conquering Remnant. they're just as bad as those assholes." He said pointing at the unconscious men "You people make me sick."

"What do you mean 'you people'?" she said hastily trying to turn the argument around on him

"You, you White Fang sympathizer." he said flicking his cigarette at the woman

"I-I am not with the White Fang."

"Like I said, don't bullshit a bull-shitter, sweetheart."

"I'll admit that the White Fang are…misguided, but they are not terrorists. And I'm not a part of them."

"The complete enslavement and possible genocide of Human beings sounds way more than misguided to me." Laughed the Huntsman sarcastically

"Not all Faunus are the same. And what would you know about them, huh? They are fighting for the equality of all-"

"Let me give you a lesson in equality, bitch: I'm a human. That was adopted into a family of Faunus. Sure mommy and daddy loved me very much, but ever think about the other kids on the playground? The Human boys and girls saw me as just another filthy animal. And the Faunus kids called me a freak for calling Shade and Auburn my sisters. The only equality I knew about was that everyone hated me, equally." He said storming off

"I'm sorry that happened to you, but you can't just hate everyone for what a few kids did when you were a kid."

"Fuck you. We have nothing in common, bitch."

Cerise ran up to the Huntsman and slapped the back of his head. While he was distracted, she reached into his jacket pocket and took out his pack of cigarettes, his lighter, and proceeded to light one.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm smoking." She said lighting Kole's previously lit cigarette.

"You don't smoke though."

"The hell I don't." she said placing the cigarette between her index and middle finger as she took a long puff "I may have not been bullied like you when I was a girl, but one thing we have in common is our unhealthy habits." She said exhaling a heavy cloud of smoke into the Huntsman's face. "When we get back into town, do you want to hang out? Oscar and Shade should be gone till 6pm. And I think Richard might have a new bottle of whiskey waiting for us."

Back in Vale, the two collected their reward for their mission and went about their day. But before Kole, went to hang out with the team, he activated his semblance and ordered his familiar to go keep an eye on Shade.