Cyprus stared at the glass vial in his hand, turning it over with his fingers as it rested, no longer than the width of his palm, he struggled the find the words to explain it to his friend. Scylla stood with her arms folded, her head tilted to one side as the uncomfortable quiet took over their dorm room.
"So…" She began. "What is it?"
It took the vigilante a few moments to conjure up a reply, waiting any moment for her to make him out to be crazy as he struggled out his words.
"I don't really know, I know that it's powerful though." He said, "The woman in that house, I knew her. Saw her before it burned down, remember when I went out with Brandeis for drinks?" He stared at the glowing, swirling substance, the warmth that protruded from the object feeling like it could burn his hand at any moment. Scylla raised a brow as she made her way past him and towards the small kitchen area as she began to brew the pair some coffee, seeming to her like this would be a long night.
Throughout the evening, the fiery redhead struggled to follow Cyprus's chaotic and disorganised explanation. Flipping back and forth between the story of the maidens, the woman in the house and everything that she had told him, though what really confused her was the lack of detail.
"So, she just gave you this…Power? You drink it and hooray, you're a legendary hero?"
The young man let out a chuckle of disbelief. "Are you kidding me? I'm not touching this thing! I'm pretty sure drinking this stuff would burn me from the inside out, here." He handed Scylla the vial, and she too was caught off guard at the feeling of energy that hummed from within.
"Well why don't we give it to someone, maybe Ozpin could help." The young woman shrugged.
Cyprus shook his head "Hey, I don't know who to trust with this crap. Ash didn't just leave the stove on, someone burned it down." He cupped his hands over his mouth and nose, closing his eyes to take a deep breath. "If we just hand this thing off to someone, they could be in on the whole thing. Until we find out who was responsible, I don't think we should go offering the damn thing out like a free sample at a market."
The outburst shocked Scylla, but she knew he was right. Be it luck, planning or fate that had the young vigilante winding up with the vial in his possession, only the select few could be trusted, and those select few didn't need to know. And so the pair decided to keep it secret and safe in their dorm room, locking it away in a small chest beneath Cyprus's bed.
Though there was still a couple of days until the start of the new semester at Beacon, the pair had found themselves spending more and more time on school grounds, or rather, inside their dorm room. The rows of computer screens that coated the far wall served their purpose well enough, the troubling part was trying to find any proper activity, after the incident at the docks, it seemed that Torchwick and his company were laying low, and never surfacing unless in enough of a disguise that Scylla didn't notice on the cameras to tell. Still though, Cyprus continued his regular patrols in the city of Vale, leaving his friend to simply practice with the other students that remained, or sneak off to find the odd Grimm in the forest, whichever worked.
With but a few days left in the short break, their frustration grew.
"Ugh, this is ridiculous." The vigilante groaned, slumping as the two headed through the open courtyard, seeking some necessary fresh air.
"Well what do you expect? The whole city is after him at this point." His partner let out a slight chuckle, the bags under her eyes more prevalent due to the excess in time spent scouring the cameras for important footage.
"Well yeah, but you know how much of a cocky Dust-huffer that guy is. I figured he'd be out skulking the streets in no time."
As they rounded the corner of a large pillar, the familiar sight of two of the schools' highest authority stood by the colossal water fountain in the centre. Cyprus raised a brow and looked to Scylla, who shrugged before approaching slowly.
"Well, I'm glad to see you've recovered, Mister Haze. And Miss Varun, always a pleasure." Professor Ozpin said, a tranquil expression on his face.
"Good to see you, too, Professors." The young woman said smiling, giving a small bow to the Headmaster and his right hand. The older, blonde woman seemingly as stern and professional as ever as she gave the smallest of nods in response. Together they shared a brief, yet awkward silence until the vigilante spoke up out of boredom.
"Why do I get the feeling you two have been expecting us." He sighed.
The wizened Headmaster smiled a little. "Glad to that run in at the docks hasn't dulled your wit."
"Wait, how do you..." Scylla interjected, mouth agape before she caught the rest of her words. "You know what, forget I asked."
Glynda stood beside her superior, her arms held behind her back, standing so straight it looked as if her back was about to give out. "We have a proposition for you both, we realise that while you would both make valuable students. Times call for some..." She paused, struggling to find the words as she looked at Ozpin, rolling her eyes in her own way of showing that this was hardly her idea. "...Extracurricular activities."
"Do tell." Cyprus replied, sitting himself down on the edge of the fountain.
"Tell me, have you found any further leads on Roman Torchwick?" Ozpin asked, taking a sip from his quickly emptying cup of coffee.
"Nothing, he's gone completely underground." Scylla answered, upon noticing her friend's silence, his dull grey hues pinned to the concrete below.
"And the White Fang?"
"White Fang?"
"Well yes." Ozpin said, looking admittedly slightly haughty as he explained himself. "They were part of the attack as well, were they not? It seems like as good a lead as any."
Cyprus felt like a fool, his mind was so focused on finding one piece of the puzzle, he'd been ignoring any connections that he easily could have made, and thus any investigation into the criminal organisation. Ozpin waited for a short time before continuing.
"Seeing as you are both making yourselves out to be quite the detectives, think of your next assignment as a..." He grinned, "Research expedition, of sorts."
Cyprus raised a brow. "What are you asking, Sir?"
"Learn." Ozpin replied, taking a small sip as Glynda stood silent beside him. "Find the White Fang, and whatever links they have to the current events that have been taking place. Good luck."
As the two turned and left, the other pair stood stunned at the outcome of their meeting. Sitting by the edge of the fountain, they basked in the sun, the winds of the changing seasons much warmer than it had been the previous weeks, they contemplated their upcoming activity.
"So...Any ideas?" Cyprus asked, a mocking chuckle escaping him.
"Oh yeah, let me just bring up my list of Faunus rights activists from my book of best friends!" The freckled redhead laughed alongside him, due to the absurdity and unforeseen challenge of it all, they couldn't help but make jokes about it. "Well, we aren't Faunus, so we can't exactly blend in and ask where they meet up to discuss secret plans." Scylla continued, "I'll start working on a new encryption for my cameras, that way they hopefully won't get taken out again like last time something major happened."
"Got it, and I'll go...Scouting? They must have meetings, or at least someone handing out pamphlets, right?" He said, only half joking. In truth, the vigilante fully expected many dull nights of searching the dark streets, abandoned buildings and hunting through word of mouth to find any worthwhile information.
Reading through her mail back in the dorm on one of her many, many computer monitors, Scylla rubbed her temples as she browsed through her updated schedule. Classes for the upcoming semester seemed to be kept to a minimum, with only major lectures and optional combat training left to be truly mandatory. Cyprus was much less bothered by the situation, feeling any time where he wasn't wearing his uniform to be a plus.
"Knock knock." The pair slowly turned to the sound of the voice, the slightly ajar door to their room opening slowly to reveal the opposing couple. Coco with her ever stylish look peeking through, with a pair of very noticeable ears just behind her, let themselves in. Scylla's eyes lit up and she jumped to her feet, beaming as she approached her partner. Having not seen each other for over a week, their trip to the Harlequin Isles being the last they saw of one another before the remainder of the break. With Coco having see her family for the majority of the break, the young technician was all too pleased to see her return.
"Oh Coco, she's been just miserable without you!" Cyprus wailed, feigning sorrow as he leaned his head over the edge of the bed, the room upside down from his point of view. Although it caused a snort of stifled laughter from Velvet, who was peeking cautiously into the room.
Coco simply shook her head and embraced her girlfriend, who was pouting while avoiding the chance to run her mouth. "Hey hon'. How was being stuck at Beacon over the break?"
"Beacon was fine, he's what I'm stuck with."
The three shared a chuckle as Scylla's roommate pouted in response.
"So, I'm thinking of heading into the City tomorrow, do some shopping for supplies if you wanted to tag along." The leader of team CFVY asked, shifting her shoulder to reposition the hefty black bag that rested over her arm.
"Okay," Cyprus said, shifting his way through the cramped doorway. "I'm going to leave you two alone." Grabbing the Faunus girl by the arm, he began to drag her away. "Come on, Velvet. Up for some grub?" She stammered out half a response before sighing and following her schoolmate, admitting defeat as she heard her own stomach grumble. As they rounded the corner of the hallway, Coco squinted and furrowed her brow towards the two.
"He's not about to hit on her, is he? Because if he is then-"
"If he is, then she'll be able to handle it. Preferably without breaking a few of his bones."
Coco shrugged and nodded in agreement. "Be cool to see, though."
"So, next semester looking busy?" Cyprus asked, a mouthful of noodles trailing as he spoke in a muffled tone. Velvet, feeling just a little bit awkward, spun her chopsticks in slow circles around her bowl before deciding to shovel just a small amount down the hatch. The main hall wasn't at all crowded, despite the lunchtime hours, many students still home until the end of the break, and those that remained spent little of their time on the campus.
"Not too bad so far, they're really upping the ante on the work experience front." She began, sounding rather pleased. "We even get to shadow a proper Huntsman team at the end of term!"
"Huh, neat." Cyprus said, unsure of how to continue the conversation in a way that naturally had it veer towards his objective. "Hey, can you keep a secret?"
Velvet narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Depends on the secret, I suppose."
"Eh, good enough." He shrugged. "Ozpin gave me a little job for the next semester. We're looking for the White Fang, but we have no leads."
Her tall, brown ears twitched in response, and her focused visage turned quickly to concern, then a scowl. "Is this why you bought breakfast? Did you seriously think that I would know anything?"
The outburst caught Cyprus off guard, the large hall around them was littered with a barely a dozen people. few of whom turned their heads when the girl spoke up, her voice much louder than the rest of their ongoing conversation. He realised his mistake all too late, and scrambled to make an explanation for himself.
"No, no! I just wanted to ask, I'm not a Faunus, so I don't exactly know how commonly they ask for support, if you get my drift."
"What? So you just asked the first one you could think of, like we're all part of the same little gang?" Velvet was shocked at his carelessness, his lack of thought into the subject.
"I understand how this probably sounds." Cyprus said, softly, his eyes pinned to the cooling bowl in front of him. "But I've been asked to do something that's probably way out of my league. And I don't have the first idea of how to do it. All I know is I can't come up empty handed in this, and I need to find Torchwick. So if you know, then please, tell me. If not, I won't bring it up again. Simple as that." Cyprus sighed and sat back in his chair, the stress of the current conversation taking it's toll and ruining his appetite, though he could only imagine how Velvet felt.
The second year pondered for a moment, she knew her friend wouldn't be so ignorant as to actually assume that any Faunus would be a part of the organisation, or at the very least share their current interests and ideals. Despite her frustration, his heart seemed to be in the right place.
"I'm sorry Cyprus, but I don't know anything about the White Fang, if they do recruit people, it's not anywhere inside the city, could be the downtown areas, or the factory buildings. There's a lot of empty space there."
The vigilante smiled and got back to his noodles, finishing off his meal. "Thanks, V'." He said, nodding as he pulled his scroll out from his pocket, the translucent device lighting up with a chime as he began to send a message.
"Hey, might have to camp out back at home for a while."
Placing it on the table, he looked up to the girl opposite him, still seated as she seemingly waited to capture his attention.
"My dad works in that area, it's not exactly the kind of place you can explore all in one day." She said, wincing a little as she remembered the stench of fish and dust from the docks, the unbearable 'bring your child to work day' that she dreaded every year.
"Noted." Cyprus replied, just as a reply pinged on his machine.
"For how long? I can keep an eye on you from here."
"I have to work the outskirts, got a tip that's a good enough place to start looking."
"I don't have cameras there, you know?"
"Yeah...Fancy coming along for the ride?"
He could almost hear Scylla's groan from buildings away, a smirk on his face as she responded with a simple sad face in text form.
The following day was spent doing much preparation, organising enough clothes, shipping the simple things back to Cyprus's apartment, including but the most basic pieces of Scylla's home network. The younger student didn't seem to mind much once the process was complete, and any excuse to dust off her weapon and armour was met with a spark of glee, as well as the idea of being the one going outside for the chance at a little bit of excitement.
As the pair readied up their small transport ship, Cyprus at the helm and calling out the side window to the pair saying their goodbyes a few meters away on the landing platform.
"Remember, I get custody Sunday to Tuesday, you get Thursday to Saturday, and we alternate Fridays!"
His outburst was met with nought but straight faces and shaking heads from Coco and Scylla, who quickly turned back to each other and continued their conversation, leaving the vigilante to pout in the cockpit.
"...So you're on work experience, Cyprus with Hunters guarding the Radio tower near Sumire, and you're...?" Coco said, doing her best to remember the rather complicated explanation for their absence when the time came to tell the others.
"And I'm helping the staff there, learning more about the network." Her partner continued, finishing the sentence off. "I'll try to make it back every weekend to say hi."
Coco folded her arms and huffed in false protest. "Fine, but you better keep in touch, or I'll hold Romeo over there hostage until you come rescue him again."
They shared a laugh before the fashionista finally let her partner go, a quick kiss goodbye and she herself was on the vessel. The barrel sized, cylindrical engines lit up and whirred as they powered themselves on and lifted the ship above the large landing platform at the edge of the school. The city of Vale below, Cyprus took the ship on the lowest profile route he could, heading down a straight path, directly from the school to the rooftop of the tall apartment complex. Finally inside their home, the young man sighed and collapsed onto the bed while his companion simply opted to browse her laptop and work on what remained of her monitoring network, just in case.
The night came slowly to Cyprus, he knew that during the day there was hardly much to do as far as scouting the outer districts, not that they would be conspicuous as they did. As far as leads go, Ozpin and Velvet left the pair with quite the challenging endeavour. Still, they knew that Beacon wasn't where they were needed, and this way the pair could work towards their proper goal of keeping the City safe in their own way, at least for now.
However, the more the two hunted for signs of the White Fang's activity, the less they seemed to find. Aside from the odd murmur, rumour and foul comment of what they were up to and where, Cyprus never found anything solid to go on, and right now his only solace was the lack of any progress reports from their headmaster, though if he knew the results he felt it likely that both he and Scylla would suffer at least some punishment.
It had been weeks since they moved back home to the bustling City of Vale, their task leaving the two to be up almost every night spent skulking around abandoned or lightly guarded warehouses as well as the more run down complexes. If the movement had any kind of secret meetings or rallies, it made sense to do it someone with minimal chance of getting caught, and the outer districts were perfect for that.
Cyprus and Scylla found themselves, like most night as of late, crouched at the edge of a rooftop, his dull grey eyes scanning the area while Scylla checked their exit routes on the perimeter.
"I miss your cameras." The vigilante said, scratching his growing beard. His face now looked significantly more scruffy. The darker teal of his facial hair becoming a little more pronounced as he neglected it, only trimming the pieces that looked too off. The patches under his dull grey eyes now having bags to match his friends', a sign of their restless nights and lack of progress.
"I miss my cameras! It's freezing out here..." Scylla replied as she snuck up beside her companion. "But, rules are rules. Until we find things out for ourselves, we can't risk our network getting spotted out here, and shut down again. It could blow the entire operation."
Cyprus rolled his eyes. "Our entire operation consists of one drunk Faunus yapping about the White Fang recruiting on the west side of the city, near the highway. So far we've seen nothing."
He had a point, Scylla thought, but it was only partially true. The tip came rather recently, and it hadn't even been a full fortnight yet. Depending on how frequent the meetings were, they could be scouting this area for up to a month before anybody showed up.
Just as Cyprus was about to call it a night, his eyes spotted something a few buildings over, down one of the alleyways.
"Hey, come look at this."
"What, a group of people?"
"Not just any people." He smirked, laying down and pulling out a small pair of binoculars to get a better view. Sure enough, a pair of horns here, a swaying tail there, and a slight pattern of scales was all the affirmation he needed.
"Faunus. Let's hope they're here for the same reason we are." Scylla said, already stepping back from the edge and doing some quick stretches. "I'll keep quiet and let you know where they end up, keep an eye on my back for me, would you?"
Feigning shock, Cyprus grumbled as he watched the redhead take a running jump, and leap the fairly large gap between rooftops, landing near silently on the other building, despite her heavier armour set. "I thought I was the scout?"
"I've seen you work enough to know the ropes. Besides, how often do I get to be part of the action? Now shush." She said through her earpiece, letting out a quick laugh before changing her movements to a crawl, and stealthily creeping her way to where she saw the small group head to. Sure enough, a handful of five people, many hiding their faces with hoods and darker articles of clothing.
"So, what's up?" Cyprus asked, feeling a little off to be on the other side of the coin.
"Some guy standing at the door to this building, looks fancy." Her head perched over the brickwork, looking down as she watched the man at the door, weapon holstered at his side. A short man in his late forties, sleek greying hair parted in the middle, and a sleep brown jacket and simple suit pants. After a brief look of the quintet, he nodded and allowed them to pass. "Looks like we have our meeting. I'll look around the roof, try and find somewhere to sneak in, hopefully there won't be any guards."
"They'd be dumb not to put any there, I'm on my way."
Scylla was about to step away from the edge for another run up. Although most of the next rooftop was covered by air conditioning units, large metal tubes and other pieces of equipment, there didn't seem to be any patrolling members. Though something caught her eye before she could step back, another pair turning the corner and heading towards the door.
"Hey, Cy?" She said, turning back only to see her partner already locked on to the new arrivals with his lenses. A young woman with purplish-black hair, a pair of ears piercing through her locks atop her head, and a man lacking in the clothing department, an open white shirt and blue shorts, with a long yellow tail flowing behind him. "Is that who I think it is?"
Her bright, yellowish eyes and facial features were hidden by the grey mask over her face, but the weapon on her back was unrecognisable. The sleek, rectangular steel shape lay holstered on her back, complete with small grip extended from the top. Not to mention the eye catching Faunus beside her was easily recognised as the man that helped her save Cyprus at the docks at the end of the last semester.
"Crap..." Cyprus said, finding the targets pointed out to him, and sharing in the sinking feeling that enveloped his friends' heart.
Blake.