For anyone worried that the villains are too strong, this chapter is for you. :D
Domino 3: Boredom
A tall blond woman collapsed into a chair, riding crop in hand. The tip brushed her forehead as she stared at the ceiling in a dejected manner, slowly slumping even further into her chair with a pout on her face. "Tell me, why did I agree to this job again?" With that she twitched her crop, at which point a pencil rose from the cup on the desk in which it had rested, and went flying towards the other person in the room.
"Glynda, please. You know just as well as I do why we set things up like this." Her silver-haired colleague didn't look up from his desk at the head of the large office, not even when the pencil bounced off of his forehead. He merely continued reading from the piles of paperwork in front of him with a focused expression as he spoke. However, since Glynda showed no sign of rescinding her question, and the risk of additional projectiles being fired loomed, he eventually did explain as she had asked. "My abilities are perfect for someone in a prominent position, which additionally allows you to move with less attention on you. And with your situation it is best to keep eyes off of you as much as possible. Besides, you refused to even consider accepting the responsibility that comes with being in charge, so here we are." With the threat of office supply projectiles averted, he continued his work.
"Yeah, and Qrow refuses to stay in Vale, so we need someone here. I just wish it didn't have to be me. And of course I can't get drunk without risking destroying half of Vale, so I have to sit around here stone sober. There aren't even students to pick on right now. UGH!" She got up from her chair abruptly. "I'm going to go beat up some criminals. Want to join me?"
The man didn't move from his spot as he spoke, "You know I'm busy. But I will help you find you a target, if you at least promise to at least try to bring them in. I recognize that isn't why you fight them, but I only have so much effort I'm willing to waste." He paused, then queried, "Speaking of which, why is the paperwork you handed me already completed?"
"An official was watching me, so I had to do some of it. It was just some applications that needed approval, nothing special about them. So I just went ahead and signed off on them all. Might as well lighten your load rather than just pretend to do stuff and make him suspicious." She gave a shrug, indicating her opinion on the importance of ensuring the quality of Beacon students. "I don't know why we even bother trying to make Vale officials like us. It isn't like they can actually do anything to us. Anyways, you owe me for that paperwork"
The silver haired man signed. "Ignoring your treasonous assertions, I really shouldn't trust that you checked this properly. On the other hand, I feel that I should encourage any time you actually bother trying to help out with official business." He stared at the papers before him, then concluded, "All things considered, I am grateful for your assistance. It will reduce my workload somewhat, which means more time for me to work on more long-term issues."
"It's a good thing you're so boring Ozpin." The woman said lightly as she strolled to the door, graceful despite her heels. "I'd go crazy in your situation." She heard him mutter something as she walked out the door, but didn't bother trying to catch what he said. It would just be grumpy muttering, nothing worth bothering over. Probably something to do with her sanity.
Not long after, Glynda exited the clock-tower that dominated Beacon academy. After a quick glimpse around, she rose into the air. Glynda didn't technically have the power of flight – her semblance was telekinesis. But while she couldn't lift herself, her shoes were another matter. Thus, flight was as hard as walking in heels. Sure it was tough, but the benefits were so worth it. The result was that Vale was almost literally a hop, skip, and a jump away from beacon for her, despite them being separated by a massive cliff face.
After landing gently on a rooftop, Glynda checked her ***** for any messages. A single image from Ozpin showed a map with a bright red dot on it. A short message followed as she looked at the map, saying only "Please clean up afterward." Glynda sighed. She was too young for this shit. Time for some fun.
The woman's dark figure sped across the sky, searching for the chaos she had been assured was going on. And there it was – a group of six White Fang attacking a Dust delivery truck, their stylized Grimm masks making it quite simple to tell friend from foe. She saw two Vale policemen there, but they were focused on getting bystanders out of harm's way rather than directly addressing the problem. That's where Glynda came in.
She landed daintily behind the group of criminals and crossed her arms. A flat look of disdain formed on her face, contrasting with her more expressive nature while alone with Ozpin. "Is there a problem here?" She asked in a calm and clear voice.
The only response was a fist swung at her by the nearest of the group. Glynda noted quickly that they were wearing some form of brass knuckles, before flicking her riding crop and willing the ground beneath her attacker to slide out from under him. The pavement moved with her thoughts, pulling the White Fang soldier off his feet, and then smashing into two of the others. The three others managed to dodge the wave of pavement, rolling gracefully out of the way. Not that it would help them. Enemies always underestimated Glynda. Not because they thought she was weak – not many people were that stupid. They underestimated her because she was just that strong. They might think that telekinesis would be tough to fight, but few actually understood what the full capabilities of her power meant.
The White Fang were learning what it meant firsthand. Every place to stand worked for their enemy. There was no piece of ground safe to stand on, no weapon that was not her tool. A blade swung at her would twist in the hands of the wielder, while the road opened up to trap their feet with each step. Guns jammed as dirt and rocks wormed their way into every available crevice. Their weapons might be Aura strengthened to prevent direct damage, but that didn't change the basic mechanics that the weapons operated on.
The criminals were slowly captured one by one, until only the one armed with brass knuckles remained, and not because he was lucky. Glynda had been focusing most of her attention on him from the get-go, but he had still managed to evade her attempts to trap him, always managing to leap away at the last possible moment. He had nearly been able to land a blow on her, blocked only by the riding crop that knocked his hand away with force much greater than he expected. But now she could put all of her focus onto her lone enemy.
She wasn't sure what animal trait he had, though being a White Fang member it was practically guaranteed that he was a faunus. Their traits were often a useful ace in the hole, generally not nearly as powerful as a semblance, but often capable of turning the tide of a fight. But it didn't really matter what his trait was. An ace in the hole is only useful if your enemy doesn't have a joker. And people are less likely to call you out for mixing metaphors if you can turn the very ground into a lethal weapon.
The fight paused as Glynda and the masked soldier watched each other. "You are an excellent fighter. I wouldn't mind making someone as talented as you into a hunter. What do you say?" Glynda wasn't lying when she made the offer. Desperation for good Hunters to hold off the Grimm lead to a justice system that heavily favored "community service" as an alternative to jail time, at least for those criminals with some talent for combat. Some people worried about allowing this "mercy" to be extended to members of organized crime, fearing the corruption of the biggest reason why the Grimm weren't swarming over the walls. But Glynda wasn't one of those people. That might have been because blind faith was a beneficial trait for someone that hunts monsters that are drawn to negative emotions, or it might have been because Glynda knew something that gave her confidence. It could have been both. For whatever reason, her voice was filled with the strength of someone that truly believes what they say.
But this faunus wasn't interested. "I'm no traitor." He spat as he said this, pure spite in his voice. He swung again, but Glynda now showed her own combat skill, leaning out of the way of the blow with ease. "I'd rather be thrown in a pit if you manage to beat me. It would be more honest than what you do to most faunus."
Glynda sighed, "You would think that a relentless enemy literally made of negative emotions would be enough to unite everyone."
His expression was hidden by his mask, but Glynda could hear the emotion behind his voice as he said, "That's what I'm fighting for".
Glynda nodded at this, her eyes showing just a hint of sadness. Then she swished her crop, causing the rubble around her to rise up. "I'm sorry that you feel this is necessary". With that, the rubble rushed forward, spinning around the faunus. His eyes widened, all avenues of escape blocked by whirling rocks. They slowly closed in on him, obscuring him from view, then flying up and across the street, in what appeared to be a brutal strike. But if his face had been visible, it would have shown surprise. He had been carried unharmed from the fight. He looked down at Glynda, who he could have sworn looked up at him for the briefest of instants before turning to the other defeated criminals. He accepted this chance and fled.
Glynda spent a good while helping the two officers arrest the captured members of the White Fang. When the last one had been hauled off, she pulled out an earth Dust crystal, shaking her head at the excessively repetitive name. Activating the crystal, she combined it with her semblance, resulting in the ability to repair all the damage that the fight had done. Broken pavement reshaped, damaged vehicles lost their dents and regained their lost pieces, electrical lines reformed, and lights turned back on. The road looked as if there had never been a fight in the first place.
Fighting with White Fang sometimes depressed Glynda. But she needed something to do, and criminals needed to be stopped. As least she felt somewhat awake now.
Many people had seen the fight, but one pair of eyes watched it with calculation, examining each use of Semblance, and each strike made. They watched until Glynda leaped into the air, noting how she positioned herself in order to do so, and how she failed to follow the normal parabolic curve normally dictated by physics.
Another data point.
