— A/N —
A new chapter. There's not much for me to say other than that.
- Reviews -
Molag Vile: I always take a while to update my stories since I do this as a hobby, not to mention that I'm usually busy with other things in my life. And thank you for letting me know that my grammar is fine!
Sasquatchae: Lol. Well, it wouldn't be "SAVESCUM" if he didn't use the quickload key. Though, for the sake of not being too repetitive, most of the retries are skipped over.
awesomenessomar5: Glad to see you here!
Cheshirek3t: Thank you for introducing me to a wonderful piece of music.
Guest on Oct 3: XCOM, the game where you start over the moment your favorite unit dies.
VLF: Here it is!
Imhappy0126: Thank you.
main882: Thank you.
karmax992: There are two characters who love fighting and can't speak, the opportunity seemed too good to pass up on.
NJMR IV: Thank you for the feedback! For this story I decided to stick with 3k words per chapter because I'm not that good at writing for long periods of time; 3k words per chapter allows me to update this story more often than another story of mine.
About your criticism of Teddy, I looked back through my chapters and, well, I agree with you. Because of that, I made minor changes to chapters 2 and 3: I removed Roman's thought of him giving respect to Teddy, and I added a scene of Ruby being questioned by a detective and a bit of her thoughts after the Teddy vs Penny fight. (I only updated it now because I didn't want to send an alert to followers when there's no new chapter.) Hopefully I'm going in a better direction with that.
As for more POVs, I can definitely do that; I'll make fights take place from others' perspective rather than just Teddy's in the future. However, I want to mention that the next few chapters may generally be in his perspective due to the way I have my plan structured, but I'll tweak it to include more of the RWBY cast POV.
"SAVESCUM" is my first real multi-chapter story, so I appreciate the feedback on how I can improve.
"SAVESCUM"
Chapter Four
It was the morning after the Docks Incident, as it would come to be known. Twenty-eight White Fang members had been arrested, seven were taken to a hospital for injuries, and a total of twelve were declared dead—either were dead at the scene or died later due to injuries. Over thousands of lien worth of dust had either been stolen or damaged. Worst of all, the serial killer was still at large. But Team RWBY was whole once again, and the semester break had begun—that had to be worth at least something, right? Ruby only sighed. It was only now, after more than eight hours of sleep, that she fully registered the events.
She got up out of bed stiff and uncomfortable. Breakfast was decent, though; eating a warm meal while her team and Team JNPR talked with each other at their usual spot. They asked her if she was alright, and had a whole plethora of questions for her and Blake. Ruby told them that she was fine, and Yang quickly put a stop to any questions relating to what happened. Breakfast continued as normal until she heard an announcement calling for her to report to Oobleck's office.
And so, here she was sitting in the professor's office; a rather small room with a single, medium-sized window behind where the professor sat. A large bookshelf took up the space of one wall, and had books ranging from ancient history to memoirs to philosophies from people she had never heard of. Oobleck was a doctor in history—though she wasn't sure how that made sense.
"How are you today, Ms. Rose?"
"I'm fine."
"That's good. And your team?"
"Everything's back to normal again." There was an awkward silence as she watched the green-haired professor nod and type something on his computer. The sound of an analog clock ticking droned on in the background. 7:23, she read. "Uhm, what am I here for? Is it because of my grades?"
"No, no. This is about something else. You're here because of what happened at the docks."
"Oh…"
Through his circular lenses, he offered her a solemn look. "Yes. Whenever a student has a traumatic experience, or sees something traumatizing, we offer a bit of counseling to help them. Sometimes it helps to let thoughts out in order to have a clear mind. If you're comfortable with sharing about it, could you tell me what happened last night?"
Ruby never had counseling like this before. There was counseling for things like choosing next year's classes back in Signal, how to behave, or some other minor thing, but for what she saw? She wondered if this would even work. But then again, she is already here, and Oobleck was waiting for her answer.
"I was… I was in Vale with Penny looking for Blake when there was a large explosion, and we both ran there as fast as we could. I suggested that we go up on top of the building to get a vantage point. I saw everything… and I just froze. Penny was the only one fighting him, and by the time I snapped out of it, he was already getting away."
Oobleck hummed and slid a small paper cup of water to her side of the desk. Ruby held it with both hands. "How does that make you feel?"
Terrible, weak, and useless were generally the first things that came to mind. "I- I should've done something to stop him. Maybe if I had helped Pen–"
"Ms. Rose, please listen." His tone was different from how he normally spoke in class. It was more gentle, sympathetic. "It is not your fault. You're a first year and the youngest student of Beacon, no one expects you to be able to stop injustice right from the get-go." Calming words; she appreciated them, but it didn't help. It doesn't change the fact that she froze up and didn't do anything, despite knowing what she's capable of.
"I just feel like I should be able to. I'm supposed to be a huntress."
"You're a huntress-in-training. In time you will, trust me. He may have escaped, but Vale has plenty of hunters, and the police have the resources to track him down for as long as it takes." With that said, he looked at Ruby to gauge her reaction, then glanced over to the clock. "It's almost eight." She looked at it too; 7:55. Did it really go by that fast? "How do you feel now?"
"Uhm. I don't know. My head doesn't feel like a mess as much, I guess."
"That's good; small improvements are still improvements. By the way, this will be something we will be having regularly for the week—same time. If there's still anything bothering you, don't be afraid to talk with your team, or any one of the staff at Beacon."
She nodded her head and finished the rest of her cup of water. As she was about to leave, she realized that there was one thing that she didn't understand.
"Professor Oobleck, why do people kill others?"
The question caught him by surprise. A moment was held to think about his answer. "There can be a multitude of reasons. Some do it out of hate towards the other—human and faunus is generally the biggest issue, but there are others such as differences in nationality, their occupation, or their religion. It could be about money, too; a person who needs money fast might resort to mugging someone who's well off to get money quickly. And sometimes it's personal."
"Personal?"
"Yes, well… it's not quite as common within the kingdoms, but outside of the walls, towns and villages may not have a proper judicial system or a jail to hold those accountable for; if someone wrongs someone else, that person may have to take justice into their own hands."
Ruby swallowed. "And kill them?"
"In places where people don't have the luxury, capital punishment may be the most viable solution. Not that I agree, however. But it was commonplace long ago."
That idea felt foreign, or incorrect to Ruby. Justice was about punishing those who have done wrong, that was always how she thought of it. Is killing really a viable punishment? It might stop the criminal for good, but it robs them of a chance to be redeemed. But does someone like him deserve to be redeemed?
"But why do serial killers do what they do?"
Oobleck adjusted his glasses. "Those kinds of people do it out of enjoyment." Enjoyment? The image of his smile came back. "It's the only reason why they will always kill again until they're caught."
"Thank you, Professor Oobleck."
"You're welcome, Ms. Rose. And please, it's Doctor." It fell on deaf ears as she left.
Ruby felt like the air was sucked right out of her. He won't stop? Back at the cafe, Weiss said that it was the fifth time in the past two weeks, the docks was the sixth time, and yet he still hasn't been caught. How many more lives will be taken until he gets caught? She was lost in her own thoughts, but she tried her best to keep hold of herself. A deep breath in, and one exhale later, she knew what she must do.
I have to stop him.
As she made her way down the halls, she checked her scroll. There was one message from Yang telling her that the rest of the team was back in their dorm room. Breakfast had been over during her time at Oobleck's office. Holding up her scroll to the lock, it clicked open, and she walked into the room.
Yang was the first to greet her. "So Rubes, what did you get called up for?"
"It was nothing important… it was just about grades." She looked around the room and a mumble escaped her lips. How was she going to say this? "I think we should train during our semester break."
"What, why?"
"Uhm– I just think that we should always be at our best, is all." Ruby kept her expression straight—or, at least tried to. Yang must've seen through it, because she was shaking her head.
"It's because of what happened last night, isn't it? We should let the police and other hunters handle it. It's our two week break before next semester begins, so we can train during Ms. Goodwitch's class."
That's exactly what Professor Oobleck told me. What if they can't catch him? Every bit of her wanted to tell her sister just that, but the look Yang gave her—that stern but almost begging look that told her to stop it. Her mouth opened, and closed right after.
"I think we should train, too." Ruby and Yang turn to Blake. "The police are incompetent, and I doubt that the hunters in Vale are equiped for the level of threat that White Fang and that serial killer poses."
Yang's expression scrunched up. "You want us all to train so that we can fight him?! If you think professional hunters can't handle those threats, then what makes you think that we can?"
"I know the White Fang better than them." Blake paused and looked at each of her teammates. "Weiss has more funds than the entirety of the Vale police force, you're a deadly close-quarters fighter, and Ruby is a prodigy who made it to Beacon two years earlier than most freshmen."
"And they have years of experience. We shouldn't be the ones out there; we shouldn't be risking our lives when we're not even ready yet." Yang glanced back at Ruby for a split second before turning to Weiss. "You agree with me, right?"
Weiss took a long inhale before she spoke. "We're not ready yet… which is why we should use our break productively."
"What?! Weiss, you're agreeing with them?."
The heiress sighed and fixed Yang with a serious look. "He was right there, right in front of us, and I didn't suspect a thing."
"None of us did, and neither did every other person that probably walked by him."
"But now that we do, do you know how that feels?" Ruby understood well what she meant. Weiss scoffed and steeled herself. "He's just another criminal that needs to be locked up for good. I agree that we should train; it's better than slacking off and doing nothing for two weeks straight."
Yang pinched the bridge of her nose; she was frustrated for sure, Ruby knew, but she thought that her sister would get angry, shout at them for how reckless the idea of fighting against the killer is. Instead she sighed and fixed each of them with her own hard stare.
"Fine, we'll train during our break. But, if we do cross this killer—we do not fight him. Blake, you said that you and Sun couldn't hit him at all, right?"
"Yes, but that was only with Sun and I, two people who'd never worked with each other before. But with the four of us, we probably could–"
"No, we don't, and that's final. We follow him and report to the authorities and Beacon his location, but we do not fight him. Is that clear?"
Before anyone could say anything, Ruby spoke. "That's fine, I just want us all to train." It was settled then; they would go to their lockers to grab their weapons, and then to the sparring room to train. Blake placed a bookmark into her novel and left the room alongside Weiss. Yang, however, held Ruby by her shoulder before she could leave.
"Ruby, we have a two week break; you need to relax and take your mind off what happened." Yang held her stare for a moment before she let go of her and paused at the doorway. "Don't let it eat up at you, okay?"
· · ·
Somewhere down the line, there was a misunderstanding.
Currently she was miming out… something, but Teddy had no idea what she said—or the idea she tried to convey. Not that it mattered, because chances are she had no idea what he said before either. This conversation, if their actions were translated into words, was an incoherent mess. It was pointless to try and salvage this.
[Loading Quicksave…]
He walked into the alleyway for the fifth time, waited one second, and turned around to see the mysterious girl. He had dubbed her Pink, as it was the color of her parasol, and the only color that wasn't a neutral color or brown. Just like the first time they met, he motioned that he can't speak and she tried to say something in sign language. Pink then waited for his response.
Teddy almost shrugged; that gesture could've been interpreted as his response to what she said rather than him not knowing. Instead what he did was point to his eye, shook his head, pointed to her and then his own mouth, all the while mouthing out the words he wanted to say—I have no idea what you said. Teddy hoped that she could understand. Through some miracle of programming that the developers have done, she held her hand to her face. I can't speak and I don't know sign language. Why else would you react like that?
Her palm reached out and was facing up towards him while she gave him a slight tilt of her head. This one she had done before, and he learned that Pink was asking him how he was doing. He responded by holding a thumbs up. Nothing like two mimes trying to have a conversation. He had asked her in the second retry if she had something to write on to make their discussion much easier, but alas she didn't.
She pointed at him, then assumed a boxer stance and threw some mock jabs and straights. Am I a fighter? To which he imitated her motion but with a lazy stance; Teddy then shook his hand to say a bit. It was at that point that the conversation took a turn—like it always did.
Pink bounced on the tips of her shoes while spreading out her arms wide, spun on one foot to which she snapped a finger to point at him when she came to a stop. Do I want to dance, is that what that means? Considering the previous statement asked him if he was a fighter, he shook his head and held up his hands to decline.
Perhaps Pink was insulted by this, because the next gestures she made, even if she slowed down, still wouldn't make sense. She pointed to her thumb, made a strongman gesture, then she made a bird flap its wings with both hands like a shadow-puppeteer would. Upon realizing that Teddy didn't respond, she kept going; she grabbed her parasol and tapped it on the ground, pointed to the sky, then right back at him. This went on, but he didn't bother to pay attention.
What kind of message is that? Teddy sighed and leaned against a relatively clean spot on the wall of a building. This was way too much time for something that was definitely not worth it. He had two options—try again and inevitably reach this point in the game, or quit the game and order that pizza for dinner. One path leads to misery, another leads to happiness. The choice was obvious. Though before he could open up the pause menu, Pink was silently giggling to herself. Then she pulled out her scroll and handed it to him like a big slap to the face. What? She had a scroll this entire time?
His thumbs dash across the screen to type out a message. "Why didn't you just use this to begin with?" He passed it back to her. The moment she laid eyes on the message, she covered her mouth with her off hand and typed her message. Instead of passing the scroll to his hands, she held it up for him to see.
"Charades are fun :)"
Teddy couldn't believe it. He snatched the scroll right from her hands. The sound of his thumbs against the scroll sounded more like thumps than small taps. "What were you trying to say after all that time?" After finishing his message, he passed it back into her hands. This method of communication would be a bit slow, but it was certainly better than pretending to be a mime.
"Nothing. I made random signals to mess with u"
[Quicksave Complete…]
The urge to punch her now and reload later had never felt so strong. He thought better of it. That whole 'conversation' was something that he would never do again.
"What do you want?" When he did pass it back to her, he watched her type out her message. The soft blue glow from the scroll illuminated her face perfectly, and he could see that she had this smile—neither a joyful or malicious one, but it was a soft smirk, the kind one made when they were in on something. Come to think of it, wasn't she always smiling like that during previous retries?
Teddy took the scroll when she passed it to him. "Dont you know that theres a curfew?" He snorted as he gave her his reply.
"I could say the same to you. What's your point?"
"I'm on the lookout"
Teddy supposed he should have thought of that sooner. She was a huntress on the lookout for the killer at the docks, but must've mistaken him for a civilian and is now making sure that he's okay. There was a bit of irony in that. He typed up his message.
"For that serial killer?" When she finished typing her response, she held onto her scroll to show him.
"Yes, and I found him :)"
… Oh…
Pink knew from the very start, and he just made a save-point right in front of her. Just like that fight with the weird girl, the odds were really against him this time. He has nothing that he could use or improvise as weapons while Pink had her parasol. The open street was just behind her, and behind him was more alleyways; he could try and make a run for it, but she was right in front of him and would stop him immediately. But then again, he managed to succeed in the battle at the docks, surely he could beat a girl smaller than him.
Teddy threw a punch; a complete shot in the dark with barely any force behind it to gauge her reaction. His knuckles collided with the parasol, and in the split second she grabbed onto the cuff of his sleeve with her offhand and hooked the handle of her parasol behind his arm and around his neck. The pavement coming close to his face was the last thing he saw before it all went black.
If his character was dead, then his eyes would still be open, thus he, himself, could still see the world go by after his death. The only time his character's view goes to darkness ever happened is when he went to sleep in-game. Pink knocked me out. It was certainly unique; most NPCs would kill him, either on purpose or by accident when they find out that his character didn't have any aura.
The darkness only lasted three seconds. Muffled sounds that could be heard became more clear, and he began to see that a bright light was shining in his face.
· · ·
Roman needed a nice, quiet place, and the warehouse that held all the dust he stole was good enough. It was empty now; all of it had been moved, as per his orders, to another warehouse to limit the chances of the authorities finding it. Just a large empty room in pitch black darkness, with nothing but the skylight windows showing the starless night, and a bright lamp.
All he had was thirty minutes—more than enough time to have a small 'chat' with the kid in front of him. The boy was no older than twenty and sat slumped in a metal folding chair. The brown hair that was swept back from the last time he saw him now hung low, covering the top of his face. His legs were each tied to the front two legs of the foldable chair, while his hands were handcuffed behind the chair's back. If that wasn't enough, Neo was behind him in the shadows, ready to intervene should things go south.
When the kid began to stir awake, Roman had been taking a slow drag of his cigar, and made no attempt to stop after the kid was fully aware of where he was. It was better to make him sit there and simmer—let him know just how much he messed up. Then with some dramatic flare, Roman pinched the cigar away from his mouth and smiled.
"You're finally awake, huh?" The kid shot a look of disgust at him and shook wildly in his seat, trying to find a way out of his restraints. He stopped as Neo held the hidden blade of her Hush next to him. Even with the restraints, he'd rather not take the chances of him coming free. "Ah, ah. Try to do anything but sit in that chair, and my partner here will slit your throat. So sit tight and relax."
Neo reached over into the kid's peacoat and pulled out his wallet. With a toss, Roman caught it. Surprisingly light, he thought, but money wasn't what he was after. His gloved fingers traced the white card and pulled it out of its display pocket.
"Teddy Gainsboro… A simple name for all the value it has. You know Junior's livid with what you did to his men. He might be an information broker, but having him owe me some favors isn't something to pass up on. Then there's the police who are willing to pay for a scrap of information on who the killer is." Roman placed the card back into the wallet, and tossed it back into the kid's lap. He leaned in close until he could see his own reflection in the kid's eyes. "If I give them your name and present you on a silver platter, they'll pardon me for all the crimes I've done."
Roman expected him to look anxious or fearful, or perhaps give him a begging look that pleaded him not to, but no—Teddy just stared at him blankly. This kid is something else. Does he really not care about that? Roman stared hard into his eyes trying to find something. He took a step back to give Teddy space.
"But I won't." Teddy's eyes darted to him; now Roman had his attention. "The media's got you pegged as a serial killer, but all your victims are criminals. And even though you go around at night to stop crime, you don't strike me as the average kid that tries to become a hunter." Neo said that she found Teddy wandering around at night, and the first report of a violent crime that's assumed to be his doing started two weeks ago—that meant he'd been doing exactly that for a while. "I don't know about you, but that sounds like someone without a purpose. Just going through the motions, waiting for something interesting to happen. Am I right?" A brief moment of his eyebrows rising meant he was right on the money.
Bingo.
"Well, tonight's your lucky night, then, because I have a simple job for you. If you succeed, I'll pay you handsomely."
Roman knows talent when he sees it. This kid, despite his sloppy movements, managed to be almost on par with him and only got the better of him when he wasn't paying attention. As for the fact that Teddy may or may not be a deranged psychopath, he's had his fair share of working with killers—he trusts Neo, after all, and she enjoys getting her hands dirty. Having the kid work for him would benefit him plenty.
"Hah! I'll even sweeten the deal: remember when you kicked me at the docks? I'll forget that ever happened, and I won't have Neo do the same to you with Hush." Teddy glanced over as best he could to Roman's partner, who's blade glimmered in the light.
"So, whaddya say? You willing to do a job for me?"
— A/N —
Hopefully I portrayed Ruby's counseling accurately. It's supposed to be therapy, but Ruby wouldn't know that (probably,) and I've only been to therapy once for a short period of time, so I don't really have anything I could draw from—save for what I look up online. She's a fifteen year old who sees something disturbing and believes herself capable of stopping it, so she's going to beat herself up over it.
As for three-fourths of RWBY feeling like they should stop Teddy, I think that some people would say that they wouldn't do that, but I remember that they all agreed in the start of Volume 2 that they would go out to look for the White Fang, so them agreeing to train for a potential fight with Teddy seems plausible for their characters.
Neo messing with Teddy was a fun one to conceptualize, but a bit difficult when I put it into action, specifically trying to think up of random gestures and signals that she uses.
Please let me know your thoughts, and if there is anything that needs improving—grammar-wise or storytelling-wise.
