"Always remember that a new dawn approaches. Even if you've been through the fires of hell or have had someone close to you fall so far from who they once were, theres always another sunrise to see. Theres always another chance"
Despite the fact that the creatures of Grimm still prowl the planet, that doesn't stop humanity from tearing each other apart. The White Fang continues to drive Humans and Faunus apart but the one thing that still terrorizes both species is heretic extremists. The heretics believes in the story of Ulysses Fisher and the Elemental Weapons but they affiliate with the dark entity who stole half of the weapons. They believe that the nameless rouge did what was right as Ulysses was corrupting the weapons and harnessed too much power for himself, turning him into a god-like figure. Now the "cult" of sorts intends to collect all of the weapons in an attempt to rule over the world and set things back to where they used to be.
Needless to say, there are some who have a problem with masked lunatics running around burning villages and attacking innocents who decide not to convert to their beliefs. Examples could be the two young women staring at one of their encampments. Both looked very casually dressed with some armor here and there with boots to finish their looks. One was dressed in dark red with brown hair and holding a spear and the other was dressed in blue with blonde hair and holding a longbow.
The blonde spoke, "So your brother was supposed to be here?". "Yes, he is. Or at least some information on his whereabouts", the brunette responded. She held a scroll in her hand with lots of information on its screen titled "THE UNDERGROUND SANCTUM". Numerous articles and headline of the criminal underworld were spread on its pages, names like Sidney Harris, Michael Hyde, the long-lost Tyrian Callows, and even an assassin with an 100% guaranteed target kill named "Tsuki". The girl focused mainly on an article citing the assassination of one of the aforementioned cults top warriors in Northern Vale by a guy named "Phantom".
"Thats got to be Markus, I'm sure of it!", she thought to herself. "Uh, Shia? If you don't mind me asking, why are you chasing your brother with such hate? Aren't siblings normally supposed to like each other?". Shia turned to the blonde, "Its complicated Hannah but the main thing is that Markus left us when our family needed him. I'll explain more after we're done with this operation". "You're not the only one who had their older brother leave them", Hannah thought, but she turned back to the task at hand.
As they scoped out the encampment Shia made the plan, "We're only here to get info from their leader who should be in the central tent right there". Shia points at the large tent in the middle of the camp, "I'll attack them from the ground while you cover me with fire from above. We can't fight the whole camp so we need to get in, get the info we need, and get out. Remember, we aim to disable them, not kill them". "I know, we aren't killers", Hannah responds. Shia nods and moves from the trees to the ground. Hannah readies her bow and shoots her first shots.
"So when are we catching that Crossford guy?", one of the brash members of the cult asks. One of the more experienced members of the cult responds to him, "Patience, let the White Fang have their fun with him. Then we execute the bastard". The brash member was about to say something else before watching an arrow whizz past him. Two other arrows land a ways away from him, forming a triangle. The men draw their weapons but the arrows release Ice dust in the center of the formed triangle, freezing the men in their place. Before they can react properly Shia flies by them with her spear brandished, attacking the men and disarming them of their weapons.
With them out of the way, Shia runs into the camp as Hannah hops from tent to tent, freezing any grunts and their weapons before they can strike Shia. Shia twirls her spear in a spiral around her so she can quickly take care of any enemies that Hannah missed. Eventually, as she reaches the central camp she comes across a rather large guard who stands in her way with a battle axe. Shia runs towards him full speed and the grunt laughs at her. The guard prepares to bring his axe down on Shia, but the axe instead ends up phasing through her. The guard is especially shocked when Shia passes through her body and runs into the tent.
Hannah prepares another ice arrow to stop the guard from going after Shia, but she hears a series of explosions behind her near the front of the camp.
At the desk inside the tent sits a rather scrawny looking man with an eyepatch on surrounded by two other men, all of them wearing the standard issue cloaks given to all members of their society. You could imagine his surprise when he sees a young woman running up to the desk not in a cloak and without a standard issue weapon. Shia quickly sweeps her spear side-to-side, knocking the two men out and points the spear at the scrawny leader.
"I don't want to have to make this difficult, but you could end up like those other two", she motions to the men sleeping on the floor. The thin leader raises his hands up in defeat, "Look, look, look! I'm just a minor servant of the head of our society! I hold no real power! I just make the actions!". Shia pulls out her scroll, "You see the name on the scroll? The one called Phantom. Where was his last known location?". The man quickly responds, "He's on the eastern coast, I heard he's attacking a White Fang shipment with a partner". Shia rolls her eyes and knocks the leader out, making his chair fall back with him.
The spearswoman begins walking back to her partner, "Knowing him, he will be gone by the time I get to the coastline. I swear the next time I see him, I'l-", her thoughts are interrupted by screaming. Now worried, Shia hurries outside.
Shia comes outside to be welcomed to a war-torn landscape. The camp itself is in shambles and the big man who was blocking her now lies dead on the ground. Shia gags at the scene of death but her attention is focused on the two standing in the middle of the camp.
Hannah is recognized as one of the combatants but the other is a mystery. She has long wild black hair and tan skin as well as light armoring across her body that looks like a style from Vale. In her hand, she wields a halberd which was blood-stained and its pointed at Hannah. "You with this merry band of scum?", the new challenger asks rather aggressively?
"No, but who are you?". "Names Jacqueline, some call me 'The Raven' and this group of assholes just razed down a village when they were setting up their camp here so I decided to return the favor", the newly named Jacqui responded a little less aggressively.
Shia entered the conversation, "Yes Raven, it'd be best of we get out of here now before they decide to send some heavy reinforcements from their main base. Plus, I assume you have no more of those camp obliterating bullets on you?". Jacqueline shakes her head in embarrassment. With that, the girls run off as someone watches them go in the distance.
The three girls conversed on their walk back to their homes. "That cult razed my town down to the ground, killed a lot of good people, especially the elder", Jacqueline explained. Hannah looked at Jacqueline, "Doesn't your town have huntsmen defending it?". "Our people have always been nomads, cut off from the kingdoms so we don't really have any able fighters there. We move a lot anyways so thats our way of avoiding most trouble like the Grimm.", Jacqueline responds. "Oh by the way, why were you two there?".
Hannah then look at Shia in curiosity, "Did you get the info you needed?". Shia sighs, "He was spotted near the coast. By the time we get there, he will be gone already". "Who's this 'he' you're talking about?", Jacqueline interrupts. Shia sighs again, "My older brother. Our family was into some deep trouble with the cult we were fighting back there and when things got to their worst when my dad went missing, he ran from us and started doing assassin work. Hannah joined me because we are friends and both of us are attending Beacon this spring so we thought we should get some experience in combat". "This year would've also been Markus's first year at Beacon too", Shia sadly thinks.
Jacqueline looked a bit more upbeat, "Well then I guess I'll know some people at school this spring, cuz I'm going to Beacon too".
And thats a wrap for the Payback trailer. I apologize for the hiatus, but this April I'm going to try to be better with uploading at least once every week consistently. Uploads will be all over the place this week since I need to catch up some stories and I'm working on a new one too, but starting next week I will be uploading once per week on Wednesdays between 12 and 4 PM CST. Stay safe during this coronavirus, this will blow over soon if you keep yourself occupied with something other than refreshing the number of cases screen. I'll see you all soon!