A/N: Bit a Fanfic story I decided to write. I've been into RWBY for a long time and I kept getting some interest in writing a story for series. I even did Halloween stories over in DeviantART: HallowGrimm and RWBY Halloween: Spooky Stories.
This story is based on a team I made in one of them: Team PASM (Prism) With my main OC: Patrick the Shadow Hunter. This takes place during a time before Team RWBY have formed. Where it all begin with a simple Mercenary Outlaw, with a mysterious past.
Chapter 1: The Shadow Hunter
It's a dark, gloomy rainy day in the city of Mistral. Atlas, the floating city in the sky, hovers over the slum city below. Citizens are traveling on the streets, several of them sitting or standing in the streets. The city's on high alert; Soldiers, both human and machine, portals the streets. Grimm Attacks have been intense since General Ironwood increased security to the city.
To why he has, nobody knows.
Right now, the general is having a meeting with his team. Something critical has something, that the whole world doesn't know.
As the guards portal the streets, a shady character is in mobile in nothing but a black-hooded cloak. Whenever the guards crosses by, he kept his head down, slightly looking away to keep his face from being seen. Guards become suspicious with his behavior. Only few suspects he's up to no good.
The figure arrives in front of a tall building. He looks up to the tip top of the building, then activates a device on his left wrist. Which causes the bracers on his feet and lower legs to turn glowing purple, as they become filled with Gravity Dust. He leaps high as he runs up the building wall.
Once he reaches to the top, he looks at the Floating City of Atlas. He knows that he won't be able to jump high enough to land on the city grounds. So what he does instead he keeps his eyes to the skies for an airship to fly by.
Once the airship flies by, he jumps high and the Gravity Dust makes him stand on the airship upside down. The airship heads towards Atlas. Upon arriving, he deactivates the dust on the legs and starts falling. The floating city draws closer and closer to his vision. About a hundred feet away, he reactivates the legs and the Gravity Dust slows his fall. And lands on his feet uninjured.
There are no guards around the streets...for now. He doesn't spare a second standing around. He runs down the street, using the Gravity Dust to run up a building wall and reach the top. From there, he gets a good view of the Atlas.
He removes the hood, looking all around the city. Until he finds what he's looking for: The Schnee Mansion. He focuses his vision onto the mansion, until his eyes turn from dark brown to light blue. He gets a scope-view close up at the mansion. Guards at the courtyard.
He looks at the mansion. Windows are all closed. Most of them covered in curtains. Too risky to sneak in from there. He looks at the roof. Then smirks and puts his hood back on as his eyes return to normal.
"Time to get to work." He switches the power on his wrist device, and it loads the legs with Lightning Dust. And he dashes off in super speed.
The guards patrol around the courtyard. When they're backs turn away, he rushes through their blinded opening. They were startled feeling the breeze, but shrugs it off seeing it's nothing.
He makes it to the roof of the mansion, breaks into the ventilation system.
The mansion is dark, and the hallways are empty, with only one or two butler and maid workers roaming them. In the empty hallway, he lifts open the vent and drops in on the hallway.
Seeing the hallway lear, he takes out his scroll and turns it on. Showing a map of the Schnee Mansion Blueprints.
"Now...Where is the power grid? ...And his office?" He whispers to himself.
He hears footprints and shouting coming at the one end of the hallway. Somebody's coming.
Jacques walks down the hallway, raving in his rage with two other workers. "I don't care about the White Fang! I want our shipment delivered all across Anima! Double the security guards! Use the prototype Paladins if you have you!" Jacque slams his clipboard onto one of the workers. "Those filthy peasants will rue the day they steal from the Schnee Dust Industry!"
Jacques continues raging as he turns into another hallway. Once he's going, the infiltrator drops down from the ceiling, looking at the direction Jacques left. "He certainly lives up to his reputation." Then starts running in the opposite direction.
He roams all over the mansion, until he finds the basement floor. There are no guards, but there are Faunus workers, slaves are more like it, working on the water and heating grid to provide for the house.
He sneaks his way through the basement, until he finds the power grid. He breaks open the door and hacks into the system. With all that set, he attaches a device to it and activates the countdown, then closes the door and sneaks off.
He retreats into the vent system and makes his way to Jacque's office. When he arrives, he remains in the vent, as Jacque is sitting at his computer doing work. He looks at his scroll to keep track of the countdown.
Then he becomes startled when he hears the door opening. "Father." Entering the office is a young teenager with hair as white as snow. "Father, I have wonderful news."
"Weiss! I am busy right now! Whatever it is, it can wait." Jacque says, in a cold attitude.
"But, Father-" Weiss suddenly becomes scared when Jacques lands his hands on the desk and stands up in rage.
"I SAID NOT NOW! I have a ton of paperwork to do! Factories and Industries to interview and, on top of that, reports of stolen Dust Cargo to submit! ...Now leave me, and I don't want to be disturbed!"
Weiss just looks sad, as she turns away and closes the door behind her. He watches Jacque resume his work, feeling outraged as his slowly forms his hand into a knuckle, cracking in the process.
He really hates how a father treats his daughter.
The scroll counts down.
5...4...3...2...1...
Black.
The whole power in the mansion goes out. And Jacque is pretty mad about it. "What the...? Grr." The intruder focuses his vision, and his eyes turn bright green. He can see Jacque storming out of his office, breaks the door open even. "Klein!? Where are you!? What happened to the power!?"
With Jacque gone, the intruder breaks out of the vents and into the office. He takes over Jacque's computer, taking out a portable generator to power it up. Then attaches his scroll to the system and starts hacking.
Klein and Jacque marches through the basement. They start heading towards the power grid. When they open it, they are surprised to find an unfamiliar device attached to it.
That's when Jacques realizes what could have happened.
The computer is download important and sensitive information onto the scroll. He remains on the monitor until the download is complete, then takes the scroll and makes his escape.
Then suddenly, the power returns, followed by an alarm. He realize he's been compromised. "They figured it out sooner then I hoped. Time to go."
He hurries back into the vents. Soldiers searches all over the mansion for their infiltrator. But he cannot be found. What they don't realize is he makes his exit from the mansion by returning to the vent entrance upon the roof.
When he's out, he jumps off the roof and starts running. Before he has the chance to activate the Lightning Dust on his legs, he's been spotted. Next thing he knows, he's surrounded by Schnee Guards.
Guns pointed at him. "Freeze!" He only stands there, looking at his enemies. One of the guards is shocked. "Wait...Dressed in black? ...swift and stealth...Men! It's him! Patrick The Shadow Hunter!"
"The Mercenary Criminal of Remnant!? You will not escape from us!"
"Get him!"
Patrick just smirks, as he takes out a black fedora and puts it on. "And here I was hoping to not get serious." He reaches to the back underneath his cloak and takes out a pair of Dual Swords. "Guess I'm left with no choice." He activates the Lightning Dust on his legs.
Every solder open fires...only to hit air. In their sudden confusion, Patrick takes the opportunity to strike at them. Mostly cutting off the guns with his blades and use either the blades or his sweep kicks at the soldiers. When using the swords, he doesn't aim to kill. Only cause enough pain to stun them.
Soldiers fall one-by-one. Most of them attempt to strike at Patrick, only his reflexes are too fast. Some of them even ends up hitting the soldier that's behind Patrick. Crossfire.
In the end, all the soldiers have fallen, not a single one of them were killed.
The Mansion doors burst open, and Jacques and several guards came rushing out. "That's him! He's the intruder!" Jacques says. "Shoot to kill!" Patrick realizes it's some to go, and then dashes off at his Lightning Speed. "After him!" Jacques orders.
He runs right out of the mansion, only the open streets of Atlas. Atlas Warships take flight. One of them gets a spotlight on Patrick and shoots right at him. He's too fast and the bullets only it inches away from his feet.
Patrick starts zigzagging to avoid enemy fire. What's more, he starts to enter a city zone, and that's when he focuses his vision and his eyes turn Silver-White. The buildings turn into ghosts and he starts to see people inside or behind them.
Soldiers and military trucks take route into blocking his path. Patrick sees them from behind the buildings and makes a quick turn on the street before.
"He's too fast."
"He took a different route!"
"Don't let him escape!"
"Cut off his path!"
Patrick takes varies routes, outrunning the enemy behind him and avoiding any that attempt to block his path. Ultimately, he ran across a dead end in an ally.
"We've got him now!" Or so they think.
Patrick switches the dust on his legs into Gravity Dust. With a leap to maintain his speed, he runs up the wall. This shocks the soldiers.
When he realizes the top, he runs and leaps from building to building. Warships chase after him. Patrick kept running and leaping from building to building to building. Until he reaches to the edge of Atlas, where he leaps high, flying over the Kingdom of Mistral. And amplifies the Gravity Dust in his legs to slow his fall, and immediately as soon as he lands, switches to Lightning Dust and zooms off into the city.
Air Fleet still chases after him, but they can't shoot at him without the possibly of risking casualties. Soldiers try to cut off his escape, but Patrick still sees them from behind buildings and either takes different routes, and throws Steam Dust Crystals. Soldiers in the dense steam are confused, unable to even see past their own nose.
Patrick's eyes turn to orange-red. That's when he starts to see the soldier's heat within the steam, and manages to avoid them.
Patrick makes it all the way to the wall. He switches to Gravity Dust and runs up. At the top, the airships catches up to him, and using the Lightning Dust, he takes his less then a second running start to jump normally high, but far out.
"FIRE! FIRE!"
Airships shoot their missiles and guns at Patrick. Close to the ground, he fires more Steam Crystals and lands right in the middle of it. Everything fired hits directly into the steam.
The army gathers all around the steam, guns loaded and ready to shoot. And once the steam clears...
There's nothing. "He's gone!" One of them shouts.
This frustrates the army. At a far away distance, Patrick looks back at the army. He only stands and watches them...while giving his shoulder a single wipe, then takes off.
General Ironwood is in his office, with a Huntsman: Qrow a professor: Ozpin, and a Huntress: Glydia, and holograms of two other professors.
"They did WHAT?!" Lionheart shouts.
"There's no mistaken. They manage to steal the power of the Fall Maiden." Qrow explains. "However, they didn't get all of it. I manage to sever the link before they could finish."
"This is more dire." Ironwood says. "If Salem somehow manages to steal the power of the Maidens..."
"Then that means the remaining three maidens are in danger." Glydia says.
Everyone turns to Ozpin for advice. "Professor Ozpin?" Lionheart asks.
"All we can do right now is what we can to keep Amber safe, and hidden from Salem's eyes." Ozpin turns to Qrow. "Qrow, I want you to find the ones responsible for this."
"Be your eye in the sky. Got it." Ozpin says.
Just before anyone can say anything else, the doors burst open. Jacques storms right in, with Winter trying to stop him. Jacques's appearance surprises everyone, and upsets General Ironwood. Even looks directly at Winter for an explanation.
"I'm sorry, General Ironwood. I tried to stop him." Winter says.
Ironwood exhales then looks at Jacques. "You better have a good explanation for bursting into my office, Jacques."
"I think you are the one who should have a good explanation why as to your men has failed to capture the infiltrator that broke into my mansion, James!" Jacques says in an outrage. "You had guards on every street in both Atlas and Mistral, and yet they can't even handle a single criminal!?"
"I'll have you know, father, that General Ironwood is doing everything he can in his power to keep the kingdom of Mistral safe!" Winter says.
"You dare take back to your own father like this, Winter?" Jacques says.
"I answer to the general and only to him! I left the family name and you know it!" Winter says.
"how dare you! I have half a mind too-"
Ironwood slams his fist onto the desk. "That's enough! Winter! Please leave. And escort Jaques Schnee out of my office."
Winter is disappointed to hear this, not only begin dismissed, but also have to deal with her own father. But she obeys otherwise with a salute. "Yes, General." But before she does, he hands him her scroll. "Our forces...did manage to get a picture of him." With that said, he takes her father and leave the office.
With the two of them gone, they resume the meeting. But Ironwood is too curious about the criminal that invaded Atlas. He opens Winter's Scroll to find a data information on Patrick.
Ironwood's shocked to see him. "The Shadow Hunter? Here in Atlas?"
Glydia gets a close look at him. "So this is the criminal I've heard about."
"Gotta say, he's got guts to break into the Schnee home and made it out. I'll give him that." Qrow says. And he drinks to it.
Ozpin doesn't say anything. He just kept his eyes on the picture, thinking. "Hmm..."
"Professor Ozpin?" Glydia asks.
Ironwood plants his face in his hands and sighs. "Things are hard enough dealing with Salem and keeping the Maidens and the Relics safe. But Mercenarys like him...If my army couldn't catch him. What else could I do?"
"If you don't mind, James." Ozpin moves to the center, standing in front of Ironwood. "I believe I have an idea of how to handle him." Everyone looks at Ozpin with concern and confusion. Ozpin turns his attention to Qrow. "Qrow...Our Fall Maiden can wait. I have a special task for you."