The morning sun rose over Atlas, and with it came the sight of dozens of citizens down in Mantle that were restrained in gravity bolas by the Atlas military, with Altesian Knights stationed to watch them as the soldiers awaited orders for what to do with their captured citizens.
Just down the street the polling booths for the election had opened up and a woman looked at her ballot choices. Her finger went over the names of Ivy Brown, and Pearl Wistier. She stopped, hovering it over Robyn Hill's name, gritting her teeth as her hand shook from the feeling of indecision when it came to choosing between Jacques and Robyn.
"With the rioting in Mantle finally under control after days of insurgency, the polling for the election can finally begin, the rioting citizens will unfortunately be forced to sit this election out." the news reporter explained as she approached Robyn Hill who was standing outside one of the polling stations on the street.
"Miss Hill, what is your statement on the fact that some of those rioters might have been your supporters?" a microphone was held up towards Robyn who seemed to be busy making sure the streets were safe from any Grimm that had entered the city as a result of the riots attracting them. Her wrist mounted Crossbow was out and she immediately switched demeanors when the microphone was put in front of her face.
"I don't condone the rioting that's happened." Robyn shook her head. "I understand that tensions are high and that everyone out here is suffering. What Jacques Schnee did is nothing more than holding the good citizens of Mantle hostage."
"I ask everyone that is angry, not to show it in the streets, but in the polls. Let your voice be heard in this election and let us help protect Mantle and our Kingdom as a whole." she implored.
In Atlas's training facility, Blake and Yang were engaged in a game of cat and mouse with each other, with Yang chasing after Blake and firing shots off to try and knock her from the tall pillars she was swinging from.
Jaune stood by Oscar, who had just struck him several times with his cane per his request. "Check my aura levels now."
"Got it." Oscar pulled up Jaune's aura on his scroll and saw that it was at 65%, it soon raised to 95%.
"Your aura regen is on point." Oscar told him.
Ren was even more focused on his meditation despite the noise going on in the room around him. He could sense the auras of everyone around him for a decent radius, even picking up on some approaching auras from down the hall outside of the room.
Nora swung her hammer upwards at Ruby who jumped backwards and blocked another heavy swing with Crescent Rose before spinning around and hooking her weapon around Nora's torso, firing a shot of and sending Nora tumbling in Weiss's direction.
"Nora, can you and Ruby keep your fight where it is, I'm trying to focus myself." Weiss shot a glare at Nora, who immediately stood herself up.
"Sorry Weiss!" Nora ran back in Ruby's direction as Weiss focused on creating a time dilation glyph at the same time as several other glyphs to test how far she could stretch her semblance with the range of abilities she had access to.
Ruby split herself apart and reassembled behind Nora, right in front of Oscar who stumbled back in surprise. "Whoa! You've always been able to do that, right?"
"Oh um… Well that's a trick I admittedly picked up a bit more recently. But I never really put much thought into it." Ruby shook her head.
Looking down at his scroll, Oscar sighed. "You guys have all grown so much. I still don't even have my semblance, let alone anything resembling Ozpin's abilities."
Ruby put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I'm sure you'll have something way cooler than any of us. Then we'll be the ones that are jealous."
"I dunno, sis… My semblance is pretty cool." Yang chuckled as she finally got a shot off on Blake, who fell, but quickly recovered, prompting her to again pick up the chase.
"You barely use it now." Ruby pointed out.
Ren's eyes opened right before the door opened and General Ironwood walked into the room with Winter and Clover beside him.
"You weren't kidding Clover, they're all taking this very seriously." Ironwood glanced over to his Ace Operative who scratched the back of his head.
"Well we have to with all that's been going on." Ruby approached the three.
Ironwood pulled up the election results on his poll, showing that Robyn had 70% of the winning vote over Jacques who had 21%, the other top candidates each had 5% of the vote.
"It's looking like things aren't going to be going well." The general put his scroll away as Jacques' number went up by 1% while one of the other candidates decreased to 4%.
"Well, look at it like this, Robyn is someone who could definitely prove capable and work with us." Yang walked over now, resting a hand on her hip. "Better her than Jacques who'd just make things worse…"
"Or make it about money." Weiss added.
"I suppose you're right about that. If we can get Robyn on our side, we can earn support from Mantle back and things will only get easier from that point." Ironwood glanced over towards Winter and Clover, who both seemed to agree with this line of thought.
"If you open up to her, we can definitely earn her trust." Nora suggested as she slung her hammer over her shoulders.
"She has to be open with us too. After all, trust is a two way streak." Ironwood turned to make his way out, but Clover and Winter lingered in the room.
"Are you here to give us new assignments, sir?" Ren asked, seeming more eager to take work, Nora held a look of concern on her face.
"You could say that." Winter interjected.
"The General's giving the order for all of you to take the day off. You've been working hard, he believes some recuperation is necessary. " Clover smiled. "Consider it earned."
"So you're giving us the night off then?" Blake jumped down from the pillar she was sitting on.
"Ordering it. We wake up to a new Atlas tomorrow. I need you all to be ready for whatever that may bring." Ironwood stroked his chin. "I hope you're right about Robyn."
With their new orders received, The two teams left for their rooms, it was sunset and they had a fun night to get ready for.
"Sooo… Do you guys have anything fun planned?!" Ruby seemed eager. "I wanna go to Robyn Hill's election party. Penny's working security for it, and I figured that it'd be a great chance to just casually hang out with her a little."
"Ugh, no thanks. I don't want any part in politics." Weiss crossed her arms.
"Well, Blake and I were thinking about hitting up a club with Flynt and Neon." Yang explained as she noticed Blake fluffing her hair up a little in the mirror.
"I'm still not sure about this, Yang." Blake confessed. "I mean I can hardly dance."
"Don't pull a Neptune on me." Yang insisted now, pulling Blake to her feet, "Show me what you can do."
"Um…This?" Blake tapped her feet on the floor a bit and tried to move herself like she was dancing.
"No, no. You mean more like this." Yang tapped her feet on the floor, and slid herself forward with more rhythm.
"That's exactly what I was trying to do!" Blake pointed out.
Weiss just grunted in annoyance as Jaune and Oscar peered into the room.
"Hey! We're going to the movies! Anyone wanna tag along?!" Oscar offered with a cheery grin.
"Sure, why not?" Weiss walked over to them.
"Oh trust me you're gonna LOVE this movie we're going to Weiss! It's starring Keanu Reef!" Jaune beamed eagerly.
"Wait, the third one in that series is out already?!" Oscar was surprised.
"Fourth one." Jaune affirmed.
"We've got to fill Weiss in!" Oscar pointed out as Weiss just hung her head in defeat while the two boys started explaining the plot of the whole film series to her.
Ruby turned over towards the doorway where Ren and Nora stood. "We heard you were going to Robyn's rally." Nora smiled.
"You guys wanna come along?" Ruby seemed surprised.
"We don't really have anywhere else to be." Ren stated, glancing over at the trio of Weiss, Jaune and Oscar. Weiss was surprisingly invested in what Jaune and Oscar were talking with her about now, asking various questions about the prior films' events.
"Well, if you two insist, then I suppose I can make some room." Ruby nodded.
En route to the party, now at street level in Mantle Ruby was busy texting on her scroll, letting Penny know to expect them.
"Can we really do anything about Salem?" Ren asked Ruby, who glanced over at him. "I mean, if what Jinn told you is true then-"
"Ren…" Nora put a hand on his shoulder.
"We should be training, Nora. We don't have time for fooling around on things like this." Ren insisted.
"We can't be fighting all the time, Ren." Nora pointed out. "Look, I want a solution as much as you, but throwing yourself at a problem till you die, isn't the way to go. You promised me you wouldn't go getting yourself killed." she gripped his shoulder tighter.
The trio had now arrived at the location of the election party. "Welcome!" the woman by the door let them in and they saw the gathered crowd all around them.
"Now to find Penny…" Ruby's eyes darted around the crowd, not finding her anywhere when suddenly-
"SALUTATIONS!" Penny shouted from behind Ruby, making her fall over from the surprise.
"Hey Penny." Ruby grumbled as she stood herself up.
Penny beamed at her. "I'm so glad you could make it here." she looked at Ren and Nora. "Where are the others?"
"Oh um… Weiss, Jaune, and Oscar went to a movie and my sister and Blake went to a club or something." Ruby scratched the back of her head.
"Yeah, I bet they went to a club to have some real fun together." Nora snickered slyly.
"I don't quite get what you mean?" Ren stated, oblivious.
"Oh come on! Don't tell me you don't recognize the signs when you see it! Like with us?!" Nora gestured between herself and Ren.
"I'm even more confused…"
With that, Ren and Nora's arguing just continued...
Ruby just slid on over towards Penny and away from the arguing Ren and Nora, when Alix and Cyrus from Team FCSA approached them.
"Hey you guys!" Cyrus walked over. "What are you doing here? Do you support Robyn too?"
"Oh um? I just came here to see Penny actually." Ruby pointed towards her.
"Is it just you? Where's the rest of your team?" Alix inquired as Ruby sighed a bit.
"Just me. The others went to do their own thing."
"That's cool." Alix looked over toward the stage. "You know, Robyn's team is actually pretty cool when you get to know them."
On the large screen was a display of where the election was currently at, Jacques was now starting to catch up to Robyn, with the other candidates not even being on the board anymore.
"Deep breaths, Fiona… Deep Breaths…" May pat her shoulder, calming her down. "You'll do just fine."
"You really think so?" Fiona asked, as she looked to the powered off microphone in her hand.
"Yeah, I'd definitely say that." Marrow remarked with a thumbs up, prompting a scowl from the two happy huntresses.
"Salutations everyone! I'd like to introduce you all to my friend Ruby!" Penny gestured to her.
Ruby just greeted them with a wave. "H-Hey there! I'm sure you probably have heard of me or seen me around a little."
May stood up. "Yeah, I've seen you around. For a kid you're pretty tough." May crossed her arms, noticing Cyrus and Alix with the two.
"You two know this girl?" she asked.
"Oh um, we went to Beacon with her." Cyrus stated.
"Yeah, she's also the sister of another friend." Alix nodded.
Annoyed, Marrow walked over and took Penny by the arm. "Penny, what's with the posse? We're on the job, you know we have to stay vigilant in case-"
"In case what?" May now inserted herself into the conversation.
"In case someone actually tries to start trouble."
"Oh funny, I could have sworn that's what we were here for." she smirked.
"The general's just trying to help you guys out, look there's been a lot of-" Marrow was again cut off.
"What's the issue here, Wags?" Robyn interjected. "Oh and I see the pipsqueak's back, with friends?"
"Oh um… Hey again, Miss Hill." Cyrus's fox ears folded down, clearly a bit nervous.
"Good to see you again Medori and Celeste." Robyn looked at Marrow now. "If you're here to protect me, then do it without causing a fuss backstage please. We're trying to keep a festive atmosphere here, you understand, right?"
"Of course." Marrow straightened his posture. "So long as your party stays within the law."
"You know, the law isn't all that perfect." Robyn looked down. "It's allowed Mantle to get into the state it is, and the faunus haven't been treated any better."
"I know that all too well." Marrow agreed. "So long as the way you plan to help is legal, then I don't mind."
Robyn nodded to Marrow. "I don't intend on taking things to their extremes anymore." she assured him. "My days of seizing what the people need by force are behind me."
"I certainly hope it stays that way." Marrow, now looking towards Ruby who just made Penny laugh with a joke, walked over. "Alright, you and your friends have interrupted us long enough. Us grownups have a job to do."
Ruby huffed as Penny just offered a smile that cheered her up. "Another time, Ruby."
Back out in the party room, Ruby just sighed as her only options were, Alix and Cyrus, who seemed already distracted with something else, and the still arguing Ren and Nora.
The music had also changed drastically in the room.
"Maybe I should have just gone to the movies." Ruby turned her attention back towards the stage as Robyn and her entire team walked up.
Fiona tapped the microphone, earning the attention of everyone in the room with the simple test. "Uh… Hello!" She spoke, everyone looking at her made her feel more nervous, but she then gulped and took a deep breath. "Thank you all for coming here today! If it wasn't for everyone in this room, and out there voting for Robyn then we wouldn't be on this stage today!" she passed the microphone to Robyn.
May offered her a thumbs up to cheer her up as Joanna grimaced at Robyn's numbers slightly going down again, while Jacques's numbers rose more.
"It's because of everyone here in this room and in this great city of Mantle that I ran. I will continue to fight for us all as a part of the council. Even if I don't win the election, I can promise you that I won't stop fighting to make sure everyone in this great city can live their best lives." Robyn looked around the crowd and smiled, despite how her numbers were slowly getting closer to Jacques's own numbers.
"You all put so much faith into me, that it's only fair that I should have as much faith in all of you to do your part to ensure our home, Mantle thrives." Robyn bowed her head towards everyone in a humble act as the Newscaster suddenly spoke up again.
"This race is getting closer by the second despite how close to the end it is! Just look at those close numbers between Jacques Schnee and Robyn Hill!" The Newscaster stated…
Up in the Schnee manor, Jacques was hosting his own election party. "To my eventual victory!" he shouted as he raised a glass, taking a sip from it and smirking slyly as he continued to watch his own numbers rise.
Slipping deeper into the mansion, into a quiet hall, Jacques looked towards his scroll where another message was sent.
[You should be seeing the results you want very soon. I do hope you remember your end of the deal, Councilman Schnee…]
Jacques silently chuckled to himself before tucking the scroll into his pocket and entering his office. "It's time for me to break out the champagne…" he greedily smirked.
From down the hallway, the figure of Willow Schnee watched him enter the office, frowning and making her way towards the garden again.
"Don't worry you've got this, Robyn." Joanna Greenleaf assured her leader as Jacques' number went up by another percentage.
Back in the back of the room, Ren and Nora were still arguing, though it was now to the point where Ren was giving Nora the silent treatment.
"Ren, why won't you talk to me?!" Nora was genuinely upset with him now.
"Nora, you of all people… you should know, I've… I've never been good with words." he briefly glanced back at her.
"Then screw talking." Before Ren had any time to react, Nora pulled him in for a kiss.
I need to hear you sayin'
That it's you and me
Let this romance be
Tell me it's love
Tell me it's love
That it's love
Ren wrapped his arms around Nora's back as their kiss deepened, everything else in the room seemed to disappear for both of them at that moment.
Ruby blushed a little and looked away from Ren and Nora, turning her attention back in the direction of Penny and Marrow, the latter of which was rolling his eyes when Penny winked to her.
In an undisclosed room, filled with a number of SDC crates, Arthur Watts set his briefcase down on a table, and out of it procured several scrolls that he set down in front of him. "Are you ready, Tyrian?" he asked.
Tyrian laughed before responding. "Always…" He was near the front of the stage at the rally, his hood over his head, effectively disguising him from onlookers.
Ruby made a goofy face in Penny's direction, prompting her to giggle.
"The polls close in about twelve, eleven…" Robyn began counting down.
"TEN, NINE!" the crowd counted down with her.
Ruby looked away from Penny, and back toward Robyn as something else caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw a mechanical stinger in the crowd.
"SIX, FIVE, FOUR…" the crowd continued.
Following where she saw the stinger, Ruby's eyes went wide with shock as the hooded Tyrian smiled at her.
"THREE, TWO-"
"WATCH OUT!" Ruby screamed as the lights suddenly cut out.
In that split second, Ren pulled himself off of Nora, who also readied her weapon.
"Go…" Watts's voice instructed as he swiped his hands across the many scrolls in the room, rhythmically.
Robyn dropped the microphone when she heard the sound of a woman screaming.
Tyrian laughed as he started ripping through the panicked and blinded crowd of civilians.
As everyone scrambled about, bumping into each other, Cyrus drew his axes out. "Alix, I see someone!" he called out as he neared Tyrian, only to get swatted aside by Tyrian's tail and right into the confused Alix.
Ruby attempted to rush Tyrian with her semblance, but was struck directly by his weapon and slammed into the edge of the stage as he continued his rampage.
"Penny what's going on?!" Marrow asked, now running onto the stage with his weapon drawn, unable to get a clear shot on whoever the target was due to the crowd.
Tyrian smiled as Penny aimed her weapons at him. "STAND DOWN!"
Before Penny could get a clear shot, two people ran past him and he was gone from her line of sight.
As the rampage continued, Watts continued rigging the election results, picking more districts for Jacques to take the victory in..
"Huntresses on me!" Robyn ordered as her team huddled closely with their weapons out.
Fiona looked around at the chaos and gasped. "Robyn, we've gotta get you out of here!"
As Fiona turned towards the exit of the stage she came face to face with Tyrian, who slid a hand across her stomach, her aura temporarily parting and allowing him to get a slice in on her abdomen, resulting in her screaming out in pain.
"FIONA!" May cried out before firing blindly into the darkness while Tyrian landed behind Robyn, with his stinger primed and ready for the kill.
"Robyn, look out!" Penny yelled as she tackled Robyn to the ground, just as Tyrian's stinger almost came down on her.
With that, the lights came back on and Penny stood up, over Robyn, looking at the scene before her in horror, her weapons were out, and one of her blades was dripping with blood.
On a beam near the ceiling, Tyrian just chuckled while his aura healed the cut he had gotten from Penny. "Right on time."
"And our newly appointed councilman is Jacques Schnee!" the Newscaster declared as Penny took a step back, fully taking in the scene as a citizen still tending to the wound of another, glared daggers at her.
"It was Ironwood's robot that did this!" he pointed at her.
"N-No, I swear I didn't!" Penny pleaded with the angry mob.
"Thank you, thank you…" Jacques laughed as he accepted his victory on the screen behind her. "It's all because of you, that Atlas can finally start healing from the damage General Ironwood has caused…"
Alix and Cyrus were tending to another wounded civilian's injuries. "Keep that pressure on it, Alix!" Cyrus insisted.
"I'm trying dammit!" Alix spat back as it was clear they were starting to lose this woman.
Ruby, Ren and Nora were all on stage as Robyn was trying to help Fiona. "Guys, it was Tyrian! Tyrian's here!" Ruby declared to the group.
Robyn was focused on Fiona's wounds while May and Joanna had focused their attention on helping the downed civilians.
"Robyn, I saw it… It wasn't-"
"Fiona, there's a time and a place, and right now I need you to hang in there!" Robyn held Fiona closely before looking up at Ruby. "Tyrian? Who's Tyrian, tell me!" she demanded to know, now aiming her weapon at the girl.
"Ruby, I need you to get Penny out the back, now." Marrow ordered her as she saw Penny frozen on the stage while more civilians yelled at her.
"GET HER!" another man yelled before Marrow activated his semblance.
"STAY!" he yelled, now halting the angry crowd from chasing after them. "Get her out of here now, Ruby!"
"Tell me who did this!" Robyn insisted as Ruby led her group out the back, now lowering her weapon.
"It wasn't us… I swear it wasn't!" Marrow promised as he released his semblance and ran out the back, dodging a crossbow bolt fired from an angry May.
Putting all but one of his scrolls into his bag neatly, Watts stood up. "Fine work Tyrian. We're done for the night."
A video showing footage of the massacre was being uploaded, however instead of Tyrian committing the act, it was Penny. As soon as it finished uploading, Watts folded his scroll and threw it up into the air before catching it as he made his way out of the room.
As the group ran out into the back alley, Ren stopped Ruby. "Tyrian was here?! And I couldn't sense him?!"
A glare was shot in Nora's direction as she looked down, feeling responsible for what had happened now.
"We don't have time to fight each other." Ruby stated before looking over at Penny. "Penny, you need to go back to Atlas, now."
"Backup's on the way." Marrow assured as he put his scroll away. "Penny-" before Marrow could say anything, Penny flew off into the night.
"We'll find her." Ruby assured. "I think I might know where she ran off too."
"We've got other problems to worry about, right now, kid." Marrow pointed up at the sky, where the shadows of several manticores loomed in.
"Grimm." Ruby took a step forward.
"Looks like we've got a long night ahead…" Marrow took his weapon out as the four ran further into the city while the alarms continued blaring.
"As the newest member of the council, I pledge myself to serve the people of Mantle and Atlas…" Jacques's speech continued, as oblivious to all the carnage going on below him in Mantle.
Commentary: Thus we kick off the "Night off" arc as I'm calling it. Well it isn't really much of a night off considering what's happened. One consistent thing I did is that the faunus in the room were able to see Tyrian. Although, things happened too fast for one of them to identify him, and the other got wounded. Also, again more teasing of Robyn's past rogue streak earlier on... Next chapter we see how Weiss is doing at the movies...