AN:
Chapter Title: Talk of the Town
Arc 1: Bubbles of Futility Chapters
"Wait Azrael what are you doing?" Blake asked as I stood in front of my team as they were preparing to head out to the White Fang rally.
"Coming along since it's more convincing when the people attending the rally actually have displayed traits." I said, motioning my wings.
"He's got a point and what's the likelihood of there being fighting? So he can come, plus I think his Semblance will help if we need to just end things immediately." Yang offered overruling any comments to the contrary.
"Cool." I said, rolling my shoulders as I hid the calico under a large coat I was wearing.
My teammates were wearing outfits similar to those they wore that night we went out together at the end of last semester. As for me I had my armour on underneath a dark grey dress shirt, dark tie, black vest and trench coat as well as formal pants with some dark brown dress shoes. The outfit was something Serqet picked out for me the last time we had a date, I hadn't had a reason to use it yet, she chose it out since apparently I looked like a character from a show she liked.
Since I was meant to be not myself and pretending to support whatever rot they wanted to go on about I thought now would be a good time to wear it, plus the trench coat had room for me to hide my Calico and Khukri.
I wasn't going to be wearing my mask either since they gave us White Fang ones at the door from what I had heard from Yang when she caught me up on what was happening since I told her I still wanted to help.
"What about your hand will you be okay if there's a fight?" Pyrrha said from my left as we all stood around in the main part of the dorm.
"I'll be fine, let's just go already." I rolled my eyes and pointed at the door, Blake practically ran out followed by the other two and I went last trailing along.
Before long we were down in the streets of Vale headed to the place Blake had been told it was at. While we were taking a bus to get as close as we could to the street, I had a stroke of thought that for once didn't cause me a minor aneurysm instead seemed like something that might actually help all the stress that strangled me constantly.
Yang and Pyrrha were talking with another while Blake sat next to me brooding to herself focussed on what was to come. The bus ride was only fifteen minutes long so there wasn't really much reason to poke my raven haired teammate about the plan since she was so tense and anxious at the moment. She must really believe that we're about to stumble into something that goes far deeper than you'd think.
This didn't stop me from bringing up 'The Club' with my leader since we passed it along the way and I remembered what the owner had told Hektor and I when we were there, she almost punched my head off my shoulders and only didn't because my partner stopped the blonde. So it was a touchy subject and I now felt really bad about bringing it up.
As we were stepping off the bus onto the sidewalk I noticed a convenience store a block away and said I'd be right back before rushing over to it, quickly paying the outrageous price for what I wanted, then running back to them looking at me expectantly to explain why I had run off. Of course I didn't explain what I had brought and asked Moody to tell us the plan again.
"Azrael and I will infiltrate the rally with his Scroll on a call with you Pyrrha so that you can hear everything going on, if you see trouble just say and we'll leave- if I or Azrael see something that is going to put peoples lives in danger we're allowed to act on that, take out the lights if it involves a human then attempt to deal with it." It sounded like a decent enough plan, and so Pyrrha rang my Scroll. I answered it before putting it in my pocket and we parted ways with the redhead and blonde going to look for a spot that could see into the old warehouse while the rally was happening.
This left Blake and I with a five minute walk on our own to the warehouse itself along the way to which I pulled out two of the few things I brought from the store, a lighter and cigarettes. Lighting the cancer stick in my mouth a pair of distinctly golden eyes were staring at me confused.
"You smoke?" she asked more than stated.
"Thought it would help with the cover." I shrugged trying to play off the fact that I was a horrible liar and this was my idea of stress relief since I hadn't been able to enjoy a night at Serqets in over two weeks.
She didn't appear very pleased with my bold faced lie, but kept quiet. As it turned out, smoking those funky smelling cigarettes with my neighbour back in Valor helped because I didn't have any issues like I had seen other people have with these things. Though from what I remembered you weren't meant to make yourself cough with these like you could with the ones my neighbour introduced me to.
Approaching the building down a dank alleyway far from the roads I spotted a man dressed in normal clothing with a White Fang Grimm mask standing outside a door letting a woman and man in together saying something I didn't quite catch. He looked up at the sound of Blake and my footsteps echoing off the walls of the alley giving a smile as we came to stand before him.
"Brother, Sister" he nodded. "Welcome to the first of many events in our journey- there will be someone inside who will give you a mask for the talk.'' With that he opened the door to a small entryway where there were two guards with guns that had their serial numbers scratched off and had several attachments not issued to civilians.
Standing in between the two guards was a woman with lion-like arms and legs from the elbows and knees down with paws, who handed us a mask each pointing us on through another door finding us in an enormous warehouse the size of Ms Goodwitch's class.
There were easily five or six hundred people standing around waiting in front of a massive stage where there was a big piece of scaffolding next to a towering thing that had a sheet covering it completely. Obscuring it from being revealed to anyone down here with us. Another thing I realized was that this place was only half full so there could be so many more before this thing finally kicked off.
We were standing around waiting in the poorly lit building for long enough for me to smoke four cigarettes which were doing what I wanted them for. It was almost exhilarating how great I felt after taking a drag of the cigarette, Blake was on high alert the entire time.
"Hey Blake, I never asked but why do the Fang wear these masks?" I asked as I crushed my cigarette as the final people came in.
She eyed me for a moment with a furrowed brow. "Well why do you wear yours?" she asked back.
"Because I didn't want to accidentally use my Semblance on people or objects because I kept breaking chairs when I leaned on them and because I liked the masks at the temple." that didn't look like the answer she was looking for.
"When I was apart of them and they started using them, it was because humans chose to make monsters out of us on their news outlets and media, so we chose to dawn the faces of monsters." Her tone turned solemn.
"Grimm masks..." I said looking at the people around us all wearing slight variations in the mask, making me wonder what my Faunus brothers and sisters had experienced that was so bad they thought becoming the beasts everyone fears was a good idea.
"Shush!" the raven haired girl suddenly said, shutting me up as a man came out on stage as it lit up and the lights over the crowd turned off helping me see a banner with the old White Fang logo struck through with blood red claw marks.
[A new addiction]
The man that arrived on stage looked to be around my height, wearing a sleeveless black combat shirt under a bluish white military grade plate carrier with the new WF logo emblem on it, as well as that he had dark cargo pants and combat boots.
"Good Evening Brothers and Sisters! You're here for many reasons, be that you're unsure as to whether or not you'd like to sign up or you're already invested and want to understand what the movement is doing going forward." The man's voice was heavy and gravely, his accent sounded familiar.
There was an enormous cheer from the crowd around us.
"Now this will infuriate many of you, but those of you who are returning know well that this man I am about to bring out is a Key to helping us further Our cause!" There was another cheer from the mob as the man directed everyone's eyes to a man who looked very human as he walked out looking particularly suave.
The mob became half cheer, enthusiasm and the other half hatred and fury.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Blake whispered next to me, which made me think since he was the whole reason we were here because she wanted to understand why he was helping the Fang didn't she?
"Do we want to act now or wait?" My question went unanswered by her so I assumed we were waiting.
I also realised why the man's accent sounded familiar and that was because it was a little like Manus' just not as thick as my giant friends, since my friend was from a more rural part of the Solatis taiga or tundra depending on his family's location. I wondered if I could corner him and talk in their language to see if he'd answer me since I had found knowing the languages I knew was helpful at times even if it had yet to become while in Vale because everyone spoke Umberian.
"Thank you! Thank you! And thank you!" the new man on the stage said to the sound of the spilt audience. "Hold the applause." The mob quieted shortly after as someone yelled from the mob.
"What the Hell is a Human doing here?!" the person growled like a beast.
"I'm glad you asked!" He continued his speech. "I'll be the first to say it, Humans are the worst, Scum, Vile beasts even- case and point." for the last part he tipped the black bowler hat he wore that had a red band around it.
"So understand why you would like to see so many of us locked away or better yet killed!" After this he briefly went on about the governmental systems from the councils to schools and whatnot.
"What does all of this even have to do with the White Fang?" I whispered to Blake who seemed too enthralled trying to figure that much out on her own.
My question was answered when he shouted something I didn't catch over the sheer energy radiating from the mob as they cheered when he pulled the huge sheet down off the large thing on the stage revealing a massive piece of military hardware I could only describe as a mech.
"Fuck." I said more than a little audibly enough for the people around Blake and I to hear, though not above the hellish chanting that had begun.
It was at this point I was unable to make out what was being said and some of the mob started moving.
Blake grabbed my arm and said very seriously to me with a frantic hinge in her voice "We need to leave now." as people were moving around us and bumping into me.
"Why what's wrong?" she just shook her head and pressured me to move so I focused my Semblance seeing.
After a brief second I realised what she meant when I was looking around and Torchwick was standing idly by the robot with a very short woman with a weird colour scheme going on of pink and brown who appeared to be staring in our direction.
I noticed something off about the girls' Lines of Death, but I wasn't really able to figure it out before Blake shot her gun making people duck and run as the room went completely blackout before she ran off forcing me to follow as she jumped onto the stage. I used my wings to force myself up with a gust of wind watching as she kicked the man in his groin then heading for the nearby window going up the scaffolding.
Since I was a second behind her watching all this I was nearly beheaded by the man who had introduced the rally with an enormous chainsaw sword thing. I sprayed him with the Calico as I ran and flew out the window breaking it in the process as I grabbed ahold of my teammate.
About two minutes later when I let my teammate down as we came across Pyrrha and Yang in a main street we were interrupted when the massive robot burst out onto the scene.
"What the fuck is with this guy?!" I yelled as I flew out of the way of a heavy machine gun fire, the large calibre round shredded the pavement we were standing on as the others dived out of the way.
We began running through the streets, well I flew above my team, Blake and Yang were heading our charge and I suddenly felt a sense of Déjà vu at the running away from a massive thing feeling an impending doom. I remembered during this as we changed areas shifting up onto rooftops to get out of the way so we could find somewhere to fight him that my partner's semblance was metal manipulation and she could control it.
Since my Scroll was still on a call with Pyrrha's I pulled it out as I dodged more gun fire and said "Hey Pyrrh- AH!"
"Yes?" she said back as I looked down to where she was glancing up at me.
"Could you use your Semblance on him?" I could see her nod and listened as she called out to Blake and Yang.
To which our leader responded by asking me to just use my Semblance on it, we had a brief respite as we managed to knock the mech off a highway down onto the ground far below the raised road where it created a crater from the impact as I touched down near it with my friends landing next to me.
"I could use my Semblance but I don't really understand things like this so it's harder to find the right line or know that there is a line that will actually kill it." I realised I was still wearing the White Fang mask and tossed it into the crater as the robot rose to its feet.
"Pyr I need you to hold it down while-" We all watched as the blonde was ripped away from where she was standing as a voice came through a speaker on the metal construct saying something about annoying brats.
This was followed by an attempt on our part to get Yang back with Pyrrha keeping the thing from moving while Blake and I ran forward leaping onto it and spraying a burst of ten bullets into the cabin of the robot as Blake wrapped the cord-ribbon thing around its legs in an attempt to knock it down forcing him to drop Yang in the process as I leapt back out and flew at the robot as fast as I could kicking it over.
My partner let her grip of the machine go looking a hell of a lot like she had just trained for four hours straight, I hadn't realised her Semblance took so much out of her.
A pissed off sounding yell could be heard from the machine as Yang took stock of our team standing next to one another finding her heart in the face of our first true battle as a team. I could see it in the way she seemed to glow brightly like a star in the night sky, with the vigor of a dragon she declared one of the formations we had practiced with Manus.
"Para Bellum!"
I rushed forward to the right, Blake left and Pyrrha through the middle under the robot's legs. The dark haired girl and I sprayed a hail of bullets wreaking havoc on our enemy as the redhead jumped up firing shots off from her rifle tearing away at the outer shell of the armour in certain places forcing the man to spin around and deal with each of us as we took chances slotting in firing times to keep him off one another.
We became disoriented when a hellfire of missiles assasiled us from the machine's carapace with tens of explosions as we bounced out of their paths.
"Shadow Dragon then Soaring Dragon!" Yang shouted over the sound of artillery being fired upon us.
Following this Pyrrha and I got out of the way as our raven and blonde haired teammates performed some acrobatics dancing around the mech, very quickly tens of shadowy images similar to Blake's visage ran around the machine dispersing upon being hit. She had recently evolved her Semblance allowing her to create more than one copy of herself that all copied her every movement though they didn't shoot even if they looked almost identical to her person. I could only tell the difference because of the lines of death.
"Woah!" The dark haired girl yelled as she was thrown out of the way by one of the metal arms.
I wasn't able to catch her and Pyrrha was too busy trying her hardest to keep up after draining herself so much with her Semblance.
"Az!" Yang shouted and I knew it was time for the soaring dragon.
Flying around at dizzying speeds ahead of the mech almost unseen as I grabbed my buxom blonde friend as she leapt into the air and we for a mere moment because something akin to a comet soaring across the night sky as we went out around one of the massive pillars hold up the highway before I threw Yang at the robot-
Pyrrha stunned it again with her Semblance right as the robot was outstretching its arm in an attempt to punch me and Yang. This gave us the chance to strike-
"Wait-" my partner called unable to continue using her Semblance in such a heavy strain on her earlier than expected causing Yang to not be able to finish her punch and instead was punched by the robot straight through the pillar we had rounded going off with a yell.
My adrenaline was slowly running out and the pain of my now stressed left hand rose somewhat but it wasn't that bad yet so I returned my focus in time to watch Yang stand up on her feet after the entire pillar dropped down on top of her.
"Come on now! That was pussy shit compared to Manus' punches!" she yelled with a roar as her hair came alight in an explosion of flame and her eyes seared a hole in everything she stared at as they also blazed a hellish red glowing unlike anything else.
With the strength of being hit by a truck she launched herself at the machine in one final strike reaching back and punching the cabin and instantly destroying the robot in a hail of metal pieces and guns as the man driving it was thrown fifty odd feet across the ground out of the way.
Blake appeared after this as I checked on my partner who seemed fine.
"Where do you think you're going, pretty boy?" I heard my leader say as she kicked Torchwick in the stomach as he tried to stand.
"How about you!" The ginger haired man fired his cane.
Yes I said fired his cane.
This knocked the unexpecting Yang over and the man managed to scramble away in time for that small woman in the pink and brown to show up and deflect a shotgun round Yang sent their way then as I sprayed them with bullets as we closed in they shattered disappearing completely and their lines of death with them.
"Where the fuck did they?" I said aloud looking around us, seeing nothing.
"They got away..." Pyrrha commented, casting her own eyes around finding nothing.
"Damn and I was just getting warmed up… good job everyone, we did the best we could." our leader said brushing her hair back out of her face.
Sighing before Yang decided to make a pun about how they escaped I pulled out another cigarette from the pack I brought that was in a pocket inside the trench coat, lighting it drew the attention of my teammates.
"You smoke?" the blonde asked before Pyrrha had a chance to say something.
"Just started." I responded as I took a drag of the cigarette blowing out the smoke to the side.
"You know you look like some kind of comic book character or someone from one of those Mistrialian cartoons." Blake of all people said, making me wonder if she had forgotten about her being moody towards the Fang.
"He does, doesn't he." Pyrrha said with a growing smirk.
"Can we go? My hand is starting to hurt." I held my left hand up reminding them that it was still in a cast after getting it broken in the last sparring match in Miss Goodwitches class.
[First Team Effort]
The next morning when we were eating breakfast in the dining hall and discussing what happened, team SLVR showed up in time to hear the tail end of our talk leading to Yang and Pyrrha talking about it with them. Nora immediately complained that she wished she could have been there to help and Ruby in that bright eyed expression of hers gushed at that idea of the mech and said that it was cool we got to fight a bad guy the way we did.
There was a point where it was just sort of mentioned that it began at a Faunus rally for the WF but no one really said anything about the fact that it was Blake and I who were in there.
Right before we were about to disband and go our own ways for the day since it was the weekend the Yang stopped us and said we were having a team meeting tomorrow midday at the usual spot so we could talk to Manus about what happened and see what he had to say.
Once I was away from the team my partner approached me when I was sitting on a seat in the rooftop garden smoking to myself trying to calm my nerves about seeing my goliath of a tutor. I hadn't really been sure whether or not he would out me to my team yet or if he was just going to sit on it and let me come to terms and tell them.
"You're smoking again?" she asked with those gorgeous green eyes that sparkled with curiosity in a feline fashion.
"Yeah." I sighed.
She looked beautiful today, but then again that wasn't saying much when she always looked like some kind of goddess of beauty and war that had stepped out of a painting. Today she was in a loose short sleeved white blouse, light blue long skirt and sandals with her hair down except for a single bang on the right side that was clipped out of the way.
As for me I wasn't still wearing the makings of a suit with the trench coat. Instead I was in a white sleeveless top and basketball shorts in sneakers.
The redhead sat down next to me on the bench neatly tucking the skirt beneath her as she moved with a grace I hadn't quite ever noticed before.
"Are you alright?" her words were so simple yet they had an effect on me I hadn't been expecting.
I felt the urge to cry despite not being emotional, I felt the urge to thank her for always being a supportive person, I felt the urge to ask her why she was so kind and such a good person. But all that came out was-
"I'm sorry Pyrrha.'' My apology was unexpected to her and to me, but I did need to apologize.
I had a lot to apologize for in my life, but maybe starting with the people who were at the center of my troubles would be the best. Because it's like he said isn't it? I mean I remember now… when she asked if I was okay it sparked something in the back of my mind, awakening the forgotten moment from its dark hole deep in my mind.
The messed up place that it was.
"W-what for?" she asked back confused, shaking her head with her lack of understanding.
"I've been a really shitty teammate, partner and friend to you and the other two. I'm sorry."
"I- w- why are you a bad friend and teammate?" she stuttered out the first few words unsure whether to pursue this conversation with me.
"I haven't told you the truth, I've been lying." I choked on the cigarette smoke in my distracted state.
"W-well we all have our secrets I'm sure you have your reasons." The redhead said eyes brimming with uncertainty as they almost declared that there wasn't a way I could have done something to hurt them.
"I won't lie anymore about it, Pyrrha I don't want to be a Huntsman and I never have, I think it's a waste of my time." the words just sort of spilled out of my mouth in a hurried fashion as I just wanted this to be over.
I didn't give her time to respond as I took off into the sky flying away toward where I knew I could feel safe about the messy state of my mind. The flight took me on the wild winds that gusted over the school and city of Vale as I headed straight for her.
Touching down on the ground behind her as she came out of the apartment complex I was met with a smile when she faced me.
"Good I was wondering whether you'd really skip out on our first date in a while." She dragged me along to her car.
AN: The next chapter has a somewhat comprehensive list of the languages that I made for the countries and areas of Remnant since it never really made any sense to me that there wasn't any sort of language barrier across the world. Though I understand that having that in RWBY probably would've caused even more problems for its development. All the languages that do get mentioned next chapter should be relatively easy to figure out what are, their names are either references to the culture or just alternate names used for it in our history that aren't brought up.