(Important A/N at the bottom!)
(Chapter 16)
"And you're positive this will be happening tonight?" The questioning tone of Whitley was heard by Jaune and Penny from the blonde's scroll. The leader of team JCKP shook his head as he began to reply.
"I'm not sure, but if what I've heard is true, then there is at least a chance that the shipment of dust they were talking about is going to be hit. I just figured I should let you know about what I've heard since it has to do with your family." The white-haired teen on the scroll's screen put a hand to his chin as he thought to himself.
"Have you made the General privy of this information?" The blonde teen sighed before he answered his friend.
"Not yet. We wanted to make sure that we have more than rumors if we have to bother Ironwood." There was a brief silence before Whitley nodded and continued the conversation.
"Very well, I'll do some research and see if I can confirm whether or not there is a shipment of dust scheduled to be delivered today. I'll also notify my father of this information immediately. He'll no doubt be grateful for your discovering this." The blonde nodded to his friend, before he decided to bring the call to a close.
"No worries, and we'll keep you filled in if anything comes up." With that, the call ended. Whitley left his team's dorm room and made his way to the courtyard, before he took a deep breath and began to call his father.
A few moments went by in silence, the white-haired teen's heart audible in his ears before the other line picked up.
"Hello Father, I hope you're well this afternoon." The moustached man on the other scroll screen nodded to his son before he spoke.
"Whitley, I must say I'm surprised to be receiving a call from you of your own volition. What brought this about?" The youngest of the Schnee family paused briefly before he decided to ask a question.
"I needed to ask you a question concerning the family business." The older man's eyes widened before he steadied his expression before motioning for his son to continue speaking.
"Father, is there a shipment of dust scheduled to be delivered to Vale today?" The older man paused to study his son's face before he looked away from the scroll and began typing away at his computer. After a few moments of searching and scanning digital documents, the older man looked to his son with slightly narrowed eyes.
"There is, but how would you know that Son?" The white-haired teen kept his composure, albeit barely, as he answered his father.
"Jaune is in Vale with his partner and General Ironwood. Dust shops throughout Vale have been victims of robberies. A common factor between all these crimes is that the perpetrators never stole lien, only dust. He overheard that there was a large shipment of dust from our company that was going to be offloaded tonight and thought to warn us ahead of time."
The older man leaned back in his seat as he brushed his moustache with his hands in thought. Eventually, Jacques let out a sigh, massaging his temples as he began to speak.
"…I thought it odd that commercial purchases of dust throughout Vale spiked in the last few months. Due to the timing of the sudden influx of dust being bought by local businesses, I simply attributed it to being near the beginning of Beacon's semester. Now I see that it was no mere coincidence." The man sat up as he began to type with a focused look on his features.
Seconds turned to minutes as Whitley waited patiently for his father to say something, before he decided to speak up.
"Father, what would you have me do about this situation?" The man stopped typing for a mere moment to gaze at his son, before he nodded and responded while continuing to type.
"Nothing Whitley, you've done more than enough by making me aware of these incidents. I'm going to request that the docks be monitored for illegal or suspicious activity by the authorities in Vale." The older man paused, before speaking again.
"Your associate has done our family a service by notifying you. I must say; I am pleased you are surrounding yourself with such upstanding company Son."
"T-Thank you Father…If you no longer require anything of me, I'll leave this in your hands." As Whitley went to end the call, the older man stopped typing as he spoke out to his son.
"Actually, I have a few questions for you Whitley, if you'd indulge me." The youngest of the Schnee family nodded and waited for the older man to question him.
"My first question is this: Until now, the guilty have only been robbing from dust shops across Vale, and the only thing they've stole had ever been product. Why?"
He recognized his father's tone of voice as one he used when evaluating something, and realized he wasn't asking for hypotheticals, but for an answer.
The white-haired teen put a hand to his chin as he began to think intensely.
'…It is an anomaly. Granted the reselling price of dust can go up to three quarters of whatever the market price is, it being such a valuable resource. But that still doesn't explain why the robbers wouldn't also take the money if they were just going to resell the dust.' The teen shook his head and took a deep breath, realizing he was likely thinking the way he was expected to, and tried to think from a different perspective.
'Maybe…they aren't going to resell the dust. Maybe they're keeping it for something. But still, why not just take the money and then use it to buy more dus-'
A possibility came to the teen's mind, and he thought about it before he gave an answer to his father.
"They want to make their crime sustainable. If they allow the businesses to keep the money, those stores will eventually restock their stolen goods, which will set them up to get stolen from again, when the time is right." The older man fixed his son with his gaze as he nodded.
"My thoughts precisely. Good intuition. Now, if they have gone through all the trouble and effort to make crime sustainable as they have been to this point, why suddenly shift to such a high-risk maneuver?" The younger boy needed to think only for a few seconds when the most likely answer came to him.
"Desperation." At this, the older man leaned back in his chair before he began to muse to himself aloud.
"I wonder; who are the culprits and what could have them so desperate to acquire dust." The older man filed that train of thought away for later as he asked his son one last question.
"Last question Son. Now that we are both privy to the situation of dust shops in Vale, what would you do?" This question was rather open-ended, but Whitley had an idea as to what his father meant and answered honestly.
"I would consider how I best could help the S.D.C. as well as the small businesses that sell our product. Maybe developing some form of insurance against theft, or a repayment system, where we would send them a replacement for lost product, and they pay us back for the second shipment over a set amount of time. The specifics would need to be much more specific so that we wouldn't get swindled, but such an investment would generate positive publicity and promote business."
The older man looked to his son with the corners of his mouth pulling upward ever so barely, it was almost unnoticeable.
"I'm pleased to see that your mind and business sense is sharp as ever, even with you attending the huntsman academy. Keep up the good work. Oh, and I suppose I should find a way to compensate your…friend. Now, I must return to my work. Stay well Son." And with that, Jacques ended the call, Whitley's chest warmed by the fact that his father approved of his friendship with his squad mate. The white-haired teen let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding before he spoke aloud.
"You too Father."
"We're not that far from the place now Penny." The voice of the tall blonde cut into the silence that had befallen their walk as they both seemed to be in thought. Penny perked up at this and decided to make conversation with her partner.
"What kind of club is it Jaune?" The teen looked to the ginger android before he began to answer.
"It's a club that literally doesn't have a name, but people go there to listen to music, dance, drink, or even meet new people. But…there is more to it than that." Penny gave the blonde a small pause, letting him know that he should continue with his explanation. With a sigh, the blonde resumed.
"Junior, the guy who runs the club, is an information broker. If anything is gonna happen in Vale, odds are he knows about it." After finishing his explanation, Jaune stopped walking, causing Penny to do the same before facing him confusedly.
"He's…also the head of a gang." At this, Jaune's ginger haired partner seemed mildly alarmed. She stayed silent where they stood on the sidewalk as she decided on a response.
"Jaune…I'm not entirely sure I like this plan…"
The girl's hesitation was perfectly logical, but he did have a response to give to her.
"Junior is our best shot at finding out anything that might be happening in Vale. And I know it might seem odd but…I don't think he's a bad guy."
"My apologies Partner, but I'm not quite sure I follow." Seeing the curious look on his best friend's face, Jaune leaned against the wall of the building they halted beside as he tried to explain his thoughts.
"Its…hard to explain. I guess the best way I can put it is that Junior is a good person, but he does bad things sometimes."
"Wouldn't that make him a bad person?" The blonde let out a sigh as he responded.
"I'm not entirely sure, but not every bad guy is a 'bad guy', and not every good guy is a 'good guy'. Sometimes, good people do bad things, and bad people do good things. Put it like this, what if you saw someone steal some food from a vendor? But if you follow him, you find out that he stole so that his child could eat because he couldn't afford to buy it. Is he a bad guy who did something good, or a good guy that did something bad?"
The girl across from him looked conflicted as she thought about what her partner had said before she continued the conversation.
"That's…I don't know." Her leader looked up to the sky as he continued to speak.
"It's complicated, huh?" The ginger nodded before he resumed talking.
"But that's how it should be. Every situation is different, and it makes it hard to know who you can trust." The tall teen pushed himself off the wall he leaned against and spoke again.
"Do you trust me Penny?" The girl's expression recaptured its trademark smile but a moment after the question was asked and nodded to Jaune. He returned the smile and the two continued their walk to the club.
After another 30 minutes of walking, and they finally found themselves in front of the building the blonde had been leading them to. They shared a look before they both nodded. Jaune knocked on the door and after a few moments of waiting, the door opened to reveal a man wearing black and red.
"We're not open right now." The blonde responded to the thug quickly.
"Can you tell Junior I'm here to see him?" The henchman eyed the blonde for a moment before he grunted and returned inside. A few minutes later, the door opened again to reveal an extremely tall and broad man with black hair.
"…" The blonde knew the man in front of him was not pleased. His posture and the air about him told the blonde that he was in trouble.
"H-Hey there Junior-" The older man cut him off.
"What have I told you about calling me Junior." The blonde seemed to clam up a bit as he corrected himself.
"Hei, uhm, how have you-" Again he was cut off.
"You had, one job. One." The teen began to sweat as the large man continued to speak.
"All you had to do, was keep in touch with us once you made it into Beacon. So why is it that I'm only seeing you now after all this time?" The Mistralian man crossed his arms waiting for a response as the blonde teen squirming under his gaze let out a sigh.
"I got kicked out." Junior's gaze softened a little bit, but before he could question the teen further, he looked at the ginger girl with him before he spoke again.
"Get inside Kid, don't want anyone eavesdropping on us while we talk." With that, he opened the door to his club and motioned for the teens to follow him.
As they walked inside, the club was more or less how Jaune remembered it. A large room mostly in black and white with hints of red here and there. The lights weren't strobing, likely due to the club not being open for the night yet. The second floor of the room had henchman fulfilling various tasks, and on the dancefloor walking to the bar was a pair of identical twins, one clad in red, the other in white. Jaune gulped as he followed the large man down towards the bar, his ginger partner following him closely.
Hearing large steps approaching, the two girls turned from where they sat at the bar to see their boss, followed by two teens around their age. As the three got closer, the two studied the familiar looking blonde, before it dawned on them who exactly it was following Junior. The large man motioned for the twins to follow him to the seated booths at the far wall. Once all seated, the girl in red glowered at the blonde silently while her sister in white scoffed and turned her head away from him.
"Alright, so explain what happened and why you haven't contacted us at all." The leader of team JCKP gave a sigh as he began to speak.
"Long story short, the truth about my transcripts got out, and not long after that I got expelled. Or rather, I would have been expelled." At this, Hei raised an eyebrow while the two girls looked a bit confused, but still not pleased while Jaune continued speaking.
"The headmaster made me an offer. He didn't want to let my potential go to waste, so instead of expelling me, he let me withdraw from his academy and told me he'd send me to one of the other academies, and I could choose which one I wanted to go to. So, I left that same day and I've been training up in Atlas ever since." The taller man stroked his beard as he looked over the blonde teen sitting across from him. Miltia decided to ask Jaune a question.
"Why didn't you call us when you first got there?"
"The first day I was too nervous with trying to not stand out. The day after was initiation, which I was nowhere even near ready for, and that wore me out. From there on, I kept trying to remind myself to call you guys, but classes and training took up all my time. Since I've left for Atlas, I've been putting my everything into getting stronger and trying to be a good leader." At this, Penny spoke up.
"It's true, Jaune is an exceptional leader! He's always training during his off time and his grades have risen exponentially as well." Her comment drew the attention of the others seated at the table. Melanie decided to ask a question to Jaune as she finally met his eyes while pointing at the ginger sitting next to him.
"Who exactly is she?" Jaune smiled as he introduced his partner.
"Guys, this is my best friend and partner, Penny." The girl reached her hand across the table and held it out as she spoke.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Her tone lacked the enthusiasm that it held when meeting team CFVY, but more invested than when she met team RWBY. Junior grunted in response and met the girl's hand with his own, knowing neither of the twins would reciprocate the action.
"Name's Hei Xiong, but I mostly go by Junior, and these are the twins. The one in white is Melanie, and the one in red is Miltia. We looked after Jaune for a little before he went off to Beacon, only to never message us again." He turned his head to glare at the blonde who was letting loose a sigh as Penny asked a curious question.
"You looked after my partner?" At this, the large bar owner retracted his hand before speaking.
"Yup, couldn't let some kid from the country who was too kind for his own good get taken advantage of. I got him a job at a hotel, a nice one too, so that he'd have a place to stay, and helped him get a hold of some forged transcripts." At that, Penny seemed to think for a moment.
She remembered Jaune saying that when he first got to Vale, he looked for a job before getting hired to work in a hotel in exchange for a room and minor pay. Now she was beginning to understand why he seemed to trust the man despite being the leader of a gang. Slowly, a smile creeped onto her features, aimed at Junior.
"Well then Mr. Junior, I'd like to thank you for taking care of my Partner before he arrived at Beacon!" The sudden shift in tone threw the large man off, but just as quickly as his surprise came, it left as he adjusted his tie for a moment as he spoke.
"Just call me Hei when no one else is around, and none of that 'Mr.' crap; makes me feel old." To his side, Melanie and Miltia voiced their shared thought.
"But, like, you are old." The older man glared at the two as he responded.
"And shouldn't you two be working?" The twins both let out a groan of exasperation before they got up from the booth and walked towards the bar.
"Now, what brought you here Kid." The mood shifted from one of leisure to business, not that the blonde was complaining.
"The dust shop robberies around Vale, what do you know about them." The teen slid a five hundred lien card across the table, and Junior picked it and looked at it for a moment, before he snapped his fingers and a moment later had one of his goons beside him. He made a drinking motion, and within a minute, a glass with a shot of top-shelf whiskey was placed in front of him. After taking a sip, he spoke.
"Before you made it into Beacon, Roman kept needing some of my boys for some 'jobs'. I knew that he was the one robbing the dust shops around Vale. But one night, one of the jobs went sour. They didn't manage to steal any of the dust they came for, and a few of boys were in jail or the hospital." Hei paused to take a sip and continued once he took the glass away from his lips.
"I've known Roman for a while, but I've never seen him scared before. The next I saw him after that, he was all out of sorts. Dark circles under his eyes, seemed to have a hard time keeping his voice level, and I'm pretty sure he was hiding a limp." He pulled out his scroll and showed a picture of Roman from the night he was recounting; the man looked worse for wear.
"He told me his employer found that his hired help was 'worth every cent', and that they weren't pleased with him. He told me that he was going to cut contact with me and the girls until things weren't so hot on his end. Whoever's got the hold of the guy is not someone he wants to be around."
"I'm guessing you don't know who they are." The man finished off his drink with a mighty swig before he spoke again.
"No clue, but if we're being honest kid, even if I did, I wouldn't risk getting involved with them." Upon seeing the look Jaune was giving him, he held a hand up signaling for the boy to wait for him to finish speaking.
"Look, I don't like the idea of someone, anyone, needing as much dust as what's been being stolen; it doesn't bode well. But Kid, I gotta tell you my priorities. Get Roman out of whatever shit he's got himself in, I wish I could. Believe me, I do. But keeping what I found," At that, he motioned to the Malachite twins at the bar, the various henchmen around the club, and then to the club itself before he spoke again.
"I have to, at all costs. And Kid, you shouldn't get too close to this either, no offense but you didn't exactly have a ton of skills when you left for Beacon." At this Jaune grimaced, before he shook his head and gave a determined gaze back to the larger man.
"I really need some info Hei, at least tell me you know who he has helping him with the robberies." The older man looked up to the ceiling before he sighed and nodded.
"The White Fang." And just like that, Penny and Jaune shared a look before Junior continued to talk.
"Kid, gimme your scroll." The blonde looked slightly confused but retrieved it nonetheless before tossing it to the bar owner. The man caught it and began tapping away. A half minute later, and the scroll was returned to the leader of team JCKP, along with the five hundred lien card.
"You can pay for that info by not getting yourself killed. And remembering to keep in contact with me and the girls. I put our info in your scroll, so this time, you don't have an excuse." The man looked exhausted, and a tad worried, but Jaune gave a small smile as he accepted the items being held towards him.
"So, what are you going to do now?" The blonde looked to his partner before he answered.
"Penny and I are gonna have a stake out at the docks tonight to watch out for anything. Before that though, I need to go get some different, non-lethal ammo for my gun, and let a few people know about what's going on." The older man gave him a look before he sighed and nodded. With that, Jaune and Penny said their goodbyes to Junior and the Malachite twins before moving to leave the club.
And no one noticed a woman with mismatched eyes disappear from where she was hidden above the lights and rafters of the club.
(A/N)
Hi again!
Sorry this chapter took so long. Between a hurricane, work, classes, and trying to find some relaxation everywhere between, this one took a while. But I'm gonna be honest, the biggest factor for this chapter's delay, was trying to write for Junior and the Twins. They don't have many speaking lines, and while just looking at the characters, what they do, and who they are personality wise, I found it hard trying to get them to where I needed them.
If I'm giving an estimate, there are less than ten chapters left before Volume 1, which is the first semester, is done. After that, we go straight into volume 2. The next chapter shouldn't take so long, because its mostly going to be, well, I'm sure you all can guess what comes next.
Also, sorry if this one felt short. It just felt like the appropriate ending stopping place for this one.
Last few things!
Glad to see you're still breathing Weary, and also, thanks to everyone for all the feedback on this story thus far. I read every comment, and each one helps me grow as an author I feel. You asked about the caliber of everyone's gun, and I had a hard time putting it into a description, but hear it goes.
Ironwood: To give a mental image, his hand cannon is firing the RWBY equivalent, (so scaled really high up), of .600 Nitro Express. He has more shots per dust cartridge than Jaune/Whitley, (identical guns), and more power than Ciel, and his second trigger fire explosive rounds.
Ciel: RWBY equivalent of .500 Magnum, more damage than Jaune/Whitley, dramatically less shots, think something like Arthur Watt's firearm, but more damage, less shots, and instead of a dust cartridge making a projectile, actual dust rounds.
Jaune/Whitley: RWBY equivalent of .454 Casull, less damage than Ciel, Many more shots since they are, like Ironwood, on dust cartridge ammo.
I might should scale down Jaune/Whitley's to the equivalent of .50 AE, but I'm not sure.
Also, if some is using dust cartridges for their firearms, they have a drastically larger amount of shots per cartridge compared to real life with actual ammo and such.
Anyways, Sorry for the huge A/N, but the last piece of info is this.
We made the Discord! If you're interested, P.M. me and I'll give you the link, (I wanted to post it here, but FANF auto deletes part of it). Hopefully at least a few of y'all will come and hang out with me and a few of my buddies from time to time. We made a pretty neato server, (I hope), and would like to get as many people in it as possible, so invite people from other stories, other authors, etc. If you think they'd like to chill in a FF purposed discord, than share my link.
See you in the next chapter!
B.J.H.
(P.S.) Use the two lines below this one for the link to the discord, and get rid of all the spaces. Had to do it like this so FF wouldn't auto delete it.
ht
t p s:/ / discord .gg / 95NBjGd