I do not own RWBY or AdventureQuest Worlds.
In a warehouse somewhere lies stacks upon stacks of boxes and cargo containers of one of the most valuable materials in Remnant: Dust. It is a staple in Remnant, used in all fields, from power generation, to combat, transport, agriculture, and communications. He who wields the power of Dust would indeed change the fate of the many, forever. So it is that kingdoms have spilled so much bloodshed over Dust. So much savagery, just to hold oneself as more cultured than others. This is an age old story, one that the people of Remnant would see time and again.
For instance, Roman Torchwick's Dust robberies across Vale, and the millions of Lien's worth of Dust he is storing in the warehouse where the adventurer 'Johnny Lore' found himself in. Following Torchwick and his party back to this place, the two assassins he beat up, Mercury and Emerald found themselves silent. He watched at the shadows of the dimly lit place, observing the group.
]|[
Neo looked around. Seems the thing at the back of her head was just her overactive imagination. She shook her head as she leaned on the wall, watching the others settle down.
Not bearing the tense silence of the two normally bickering partners, Roman turned to them. "So! What mess have you two gotten into that had you calling for lil' ol' me?" He started, planting his cane to the floor. "Got mugged by a thug in a ski mask?" He taunted.
"It's…!" Emerald wanted to talk, but found herself unable to and turned away, her cheeks heating up in embarrassment over what happened to them.
"We got beat up. Does it matter why? Thanks for the solid, by the way." Mercury, still missing his legs, sat up on one of the tables.
Roman shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, children. Of course it matters.
Especially," He took out a piece of paper from behind him. "IF YOU'RE GOING TO BOTCH A JOB I WAS GOING TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE!" He screamed at the two teens.
Emerald, realizing what the piece of paper was, gasped in surprise. "Surprised?" Roman mocked asked. "Pay attention, you might learn something. Like not leaving a loose end alive? And not going in all guns blazing to a mark you aren't even sure about? Clearly, the both of you lost control of the situation!"
Nearby, Neo laughed silently at the two. She found it funny that they just had to mess this one up. What made it even funnier is what's coming to them.
Mercury grit his teeth. He couldn't answer. He and Emerald had failed spectacularly. Now it would be particularly bad if…
Johnny frowned, hiding within the shadows of one of the containers. The air around them heated up spectacularly. It was like being inside the volcano in Fotia! Something's coming. He thought, narrowing his eyes as he spotted a black haired woman in a red dress walking on one of the platforms above. More like, someone. This is insane! Some kind of pyromancer?
"Lost control of what, exactly?"
The woman descended using a small lift on the platforms. Johnny had to raise an eyebrow on how incredibly pretentious one has to be to slow walk like that for a dramatic entrance. Or maybe they were just born with the natural talent to chew the scenery?
Doesn't matter. He thought. That gal is about to chew these people's freaking heads off!
Cinder indeed looked just about ready to explode. Her eyes are glowing ominously, and her hands ablaze. "Careful with that." Roman said coolly, even as he was sweating buckets. "We're sitting on metric tons of dust here." Neo pushed herself off the wall where she was watching, and fingered her parasol in preparation.
Cinder ignored Roman. "What did you do?" She asked, voice just barely containing anger. Emerald looked away. Mercury shut his eyes almost in acceptance. Cinder placed a palm on Emerald's cheek, forcing the green haired thief to face her. Cinder leaned in. "I'm not going to ask again." She whispered. Emerald is frozen at Cinder's touch. The palm on her face feels hot, even though it wasn't on fire anymore. "What. Did. You Do?"
"I—We failed ma'am." Emerald said. "We were stopped before we could deal with Tukson, the deserter."
Cinder narrowed her eyes. "By who?" She hissed. Emerald winced.
"We don't know, ma'am." Cinder's palm moved down to Emerald's throat. Emerald fought the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "He was just some random customer that tried to get in the way before we had the chance to finish Tukson off."
"Emerald actually stole from the guy before he left the store." Mercury said. Cinder and Emerald turned to him. The green haired thief looked at her partner in a mix of rage and betrayal. Mercury had the decency to correct himself as his eyes widened at what he had just said. "A-at least, that what the guy said! It might just be an excuse to get involved!" He quickly added.
"And this man, he beat the both of you?" Cinder asked. Emerald nodded quickly.
"Both of you?" She repeated. "A trained assassin and a thief with a powerful semblance? Tell me exactly how one single person beat you?"
"I think he was a huntsman, ma'am." Emerald said. Mercury grunted in agreement. "He quickly adjusted to my illusions, and he was moving too fast to be just some random thug."
"His katana…" Mercury recalled. He raised of his stumps up. "He cut through my aura. In one cut."
Cinder raised an eye at that. The two was not over with their report however.
"I think he was also a dust user. He tossed a fireball at me. Like…" Emerald hesitated a bit. "Much like how you do it ma'am."
Roman decided to give out a bit of mercy. "Sounds to me like two brats would've actually succeeded, if it weren't for this…huntsman being there. That's why I put dealing with him off until later."
"You believe this is just a mere coincidence then?" Cinder crossed her arms.
Johnny had to smile at that. Tukson was indeed incredibly lucky he found him first.
Roman shrugged. "Can't be a hundred percent sure." He turned to Emerald. "You at least talk to the guy? Describe him."
"He was wearing a black baseball cap and a long sleeved shirt." Emerald said.
"It had this demon face printed on his shirt. Mistralian design, I think." Mercury added. "Plus, the katana. It was strange looking. It was straight, until it curved at the end like a hook."
"He had black hair and black eyes." Emerald recalled. "Also I don't think his clothes glowed when he used his fireball? Maybe a semblance?"
"No." Mercury disagreed. "His semblance I think was that trick he did where he appeared out of nowhere from the shadows."
"Right." Emerald nodded. "He seemed to be able to blend with shadows?"
Neo raised an eye at that. Sounds like another illusion semblance. Like hers and Emerald's.
"This boy of yours sounds real edgy." Roman shook his head. "Like one of your Mistralian cartoons Neo. The one with the hair that looks like a duck's ass?" Neo stuck out her tongue at him. How dare he diss her anime!
"Enough." Cinder said, raising her voice a little, to stop Neo and Roman's antics. "What else did you find?" She asked Emerald and Mercury again.
Emerald thought for a bit. "Oh! It was a bit weird now that I think about it. He was trying to buy books at the store using gold coins!" She searched a bit in her pocket. "I think I still have one here…" She took out a gold coin, printed on it, a snarling horned skull. She raised it for everyone to have a look. "See?"
"Gimme that!" Roman snatched the coin from her hands, Emerald yelping from the sudden contact. He inspected the coin closely. "It's real gold… Strange marks. I don't recognize it. It's not from any of the kingdoms…"
Emerald raised an eyebrow. "Since when were you an expert on coins?" Roman rolled his eyes at that and continued analyzing the coin.
"And you call yourself a thief." Roman scoffed at her. "How would you value your marks if you don't know what the value of the things they have are? That's why you'll never graduate from being a pickpocket, kid." Emerald seethed, but Roman ignored her. He threw the coin at Cinder, who caught it easily.
"Either the man has been treasure hunting somewhere really obscure, or he's somehow from outside the kingdoms from a place where they're still using gold coins."
"It doesn't matter for now." Cinder's palms blazed again, and the coin melted. "Unless this man starts actively hindering our plans, he is inconsequential."
Ouch. Johnny thought.
"Roman, your progress on the Dust?" She asked the crime lord.
"Still working on it. We're getting more of our recruits with the help from the mutts." He said. "I've stolen already almost all the dust in the city, and after that incident at the docks, the SDC is leery to send more."
"I'll leave that part to you then. Don't fail me Roman." Cinder warned, raising a flaming hand near the thief's face. Neo stepped in to retaliate, raising her parasol. Roman raised his hand to stop his assistant.
"If you actually let me in on your plan, then it'd help me make my operations smoother." Roman said calmly, ignoring the burning palm near his face.
"Have a little faith, Roman. You'll know what to do soon enough. Besides," Cinder faced to look at the stacks of containers and crates in the warehouse. "We're done with the dust."
She faced Roman again. "We're moving to phase two. Have the White Fang move out with the dust. I'll send you the coordinates. Emerald, Mercury," She called to her two lackeys, who straightened in attention. "Get yourselves fixed. Call our dear doctor for help with Mercury's legs. Then," She smiled sweetly at the two, who gulped in fear. "We're going to have a long, long talk about obedience. Understand?"
The duo nodded silently.
As the criminals planned their next move, Johnny's eyes narrowed and looked at the shipping containers all around him. Breaking the lock of one of the containers, he walked inside, investigating what exactly these people are stealing.
A pair of pink and brown eyes followed him, alerted by the clinking of the broken lock.
]|[
Johnny looked at the crates inside. With a wave of his hand, a small flame alit in his palm, lighting the container.
In small containers were crystals, Dust, as that book called them. Set in a row, different colored dust crystals shined reflecting the light from his firelight.
He took a red one out and inspected it. It's denser than it looked, weighing heavily on the adventurer's palms. He replaced it back.
The other crates had jars of powdered dust in them. Again, with many different colors.
I'm already here. Might as well get some premium samples eh? Johnny thought, placing the jars to his inventory.
[Red Dust Jar x 1, Yellow Dust Jar x 1]
Browsing through a few more crates, he saw a few in more expensive containers. Cyan in color, he picked some of the crystals up and stashed them away.
[Cyan Dust Crystal x 1]
This much dust… Johnny flipped a crystal in his hands. To actively terrorize a city for such a small thing. He stared at the fiery red crystal. And even to blow an entire kingdom up. Darn, I hate dealing with terrorists. He groused. The crystal seemed to mirror his frustration, glowing a bit slightly.
Good thing too, as he saw something move in the shine of the crystal's reflection.
Forcing himself to move sideward. He had barely enough time to dodge the pointy end of a Parasol. Quickly taking his katana out, he saw his attacker's heterochromic eyes widen as he took out the weapon from apparently thin air. He dropped the red crystal to the ground as he did so. His attacker, the one Roman called 'Neo', was a pink and brown haired woman, with matching pink and brown eyes, wearing a white jacket and brown pants.
Johnny snorted. "What are you? Ice cream? You look like you fell at the ice cream factory, miss." He said. He brandished his katana and swung downwards and flaring the fireball in his hands, in what he hoped to be an intimidating pose. Come on, lady. Just leave it, for now. He thought.
[Vs. Neo, Silent Assassin!]
Neo didn't answer and lunged with her parasol in a fencing position. With Uke Nagashi, he deflected the attack, but the multicolored midget didn't let up. Neo launched a roundhouse kick, bending her hips back extremely low, and the heeled boot met the guard of Johnny's katana. With the momentum from her kick, she quickly spun around back upright. Neo flipped her parasol, and used the handle to hook into Johnny's wrist and force him and his weapon down, leaving him open.
She quickly kneed him in the face, launching the adventurer back a few feet. His back met the dust crates behind him. He launched the fireball in his hands in retaliation, grunting a bit in pain. Neo opened her parasol up and shielded herself from the attack.
"So no talking. Got it." Johnny said. His other hand with the fireball turned dark and instead filled itself with inky black smoke spilling to the darkened room. Neo's eyes narrowed. She coughed, choking from the smog she was beginning to breathe in. Her eyes watered, but she kept her focus at her opponent.
Johnny swung the katana this time on the attack, slashing in the sequential three slashes of the Tachi. Each strike hit harder and harder than before, and Neo was forced to try and parry the attacks through her coughs and stinging eyes. With another wide slash, Johnny hit Neo in the neck, who glared at him, and she exploded into hundreds of tiny shards of glass.
"What?!" Johnny yelled. A kick smashed into his cheek from out of nowhere, forcing him to the ground. "Augh!" He screamed in pain as the heel dug into his face. Johnny retaliated by launching his Choking Shadow Smoke everywhere. Neo coughed a few more times and her vision blurred as her eyes burned. She grit her teeth and bared through it. She quickly took out the blade from with her parasol and prepared to stab down at him.
"As if!" Johnny shouted. His choking smoke glowed a bright, fiery red and yellow. He gripped Neo's leg, and let it combust. Neo quickly retracted her leg, and brought it up, aiming for an axe kick to smash his head in. Johnny wasn't about to let that happen. As the leg smashed downwards, he shielded above with his katana, and unleashed a devastating burst of Dark Fire at Neo.
Neo, coughing, nearly blind from her stinging eyeballs, had no way to defend herself from the shadowy flames. She screamed silently as the flames tried to eat at her aura.
Johnny spat a glob of blood. "Please stay down." He asked the woman who writhed around in the ground in pain. "You can't win."
She glared at him through the tears. "Look," Johnny started. "I'm just going to leave peacefully, alright? Not gonna kill you, or anythin'" He said, raising his katana away from Neo.
Neo grit her teeth, still furious. Her hands swatted around her trying to feel for her parasol. Her hands brushed something and she brought it up. A fiery red dust crystal. She grinned madly.
Johnny's eyes widened. "Uh what-!?" With the last of her aura, she activated the crystal and tossed it to the crates, exploding their small shipping container. "Oh crap!" He screamed, and Neo chuckled silently as their world was bathed in light.
]|[
Stevie the Rat was deep into his shift, opening up the shipping containers to finally move the dust for their plans. It was, degrading, to work under that human, Roman, but all for the movement, he thought.
"Hurry up you mutts! We haven't got all night!" Roman screamed at the White Fang carrying the dust. Stevie grit his teeth and his hands tightened around the crate. This cannot possibly get worse for me. But, pain before pleasure. He thought.
Stevie the Rat could've had a quiet night if he just kept his mouth shut. An explosion rocked him and the other White Fang and Roman off their feet. The warehouse exploding massively, sending debris of the structure everywhere.
Some of his comrades were unlucky. They were immediately buried under the rubble, or worse, impaled by some rebar or something. Others fared better, their aura protecting them from the blast.
"Shit!" Roman cursed loudly. "What the fuck happened?!" He held on to his bowler hat as he dodged some pieces of rock and steel still raining down on them. He yanked some poor sap on his feet by their collar. "What the fuck happened?!" He repeated. The masked teen shook his head, still just as shaken as he is.
They didn't have time to process properly what happened, as another explosion, this one bigger than before, lit up the night in a spectacular blast of colors. Roman gaped. "The dust…Someone detonated the dust!" Roman and the White Fang ran for their lives as the massive dust explosion triggered a chain reaction on the other warehouses, blowing everywhere up.
The dust, reacting with each other, activated on their own. Sparks flew from the smoke; peals of lightning lancing across the ground, shocking the unfortunate enough to be nearby. Ice crystals froze some roofs and warehouses over, before being blasted apart by the explosion, shattering them, launching jagged edges of ice flying everywhere. Worst of all, an angry red fire raged across the area, spreading building to building, carried by the fine red powdered dust, burning through most of the structures nearby.
In a few minutes, the industrial district turned into an inferno of dust explosions, fires, and terrible lightning bolts. Roman and his lackeys scrambled to their vehicles and sped away, fleeing the disaster scene.
In the midst of it all, a capped figure was dragging a woman from beneath a pile of debris.
The city of Vale would wake up to one of the worst manmade disasters from an alleged terrorist attack. A significant part of the industrial district burned down. The city of Vale trembled from sudden step up from simple robberies to an outright attack. Millions of Lien in damages, and a not insignificant amount of lives lost, Ozpin frowned at the news as shivers crept up his spine as he tried to divine the meaning of this attack.
