Red Sunrise
Beams of afternoon sunlight slipped through the closed curtains of the RWAY dorm and cut across a map of Vale littered with model soldiers, notes and flags.
"Opposition forces have gathered up primarily on the western side of the district, close to the city hall." Adam shifted the pieces representing the White Fang loyalists on the map of Vale, updated to show the walled-off government district of the Ildaite Ward. "No excursions or attacks on Vale or Atlesian authority, but they have been keeping them out." Using tokens from Ruby's Remnant game was not something he was entirely pleased with for something this important, but he'd had to make due with worse before.
"Sounds to me like they're focusing on taking over the businesses in the chaos," Blake mused, sitting across from him. "It's smart: they'll have income."
Adam snorted. "If Vale will accept anything from a hostile power taking over their land."
"Still worrying: if they're focusing on income sources, then Almond's been thinking in the long term. That's not an occupation, it's annexation."
"Hm..." Adam tapped a pen against the map of Vale. "Operation Pale. That's the White Fang codename for a potential takeover of Vale, Ruby," Adam explained.
Ruby, sitting between them with her eyes focused on the map, gave him a thumbs up.
"Operation Pale focused taking ports to force the city into submission, not business."
Ruby raised her hand. "Idea! What if they're trying to take the center so that no matter where you go, you kinda have to get through them?"
Adam clicked his tongue. "Possible. Even so, we should have our focus continue to be assisting the reconstruction of the residential areas near the riverfront. Rebuilding efforts of the faunus quarters by Vale have been suspiciously slower than surrounding areas." Another shifting of pieces. Adam's expression darkened. "At this rate, a message may need to be sent to Vale that they cannot be ignored."
"Adam..." Blake started with a warning tone.
He held a hand up and sighed. "Point taken: things are tenuous, as is. Securing the river ports would do well to place pressure on Vale, anyway: a lot of boats move through there. We've made no moves against the authorities, but I'm sure that if they saw that antagonizing the faunus might have consequences, they'd think twice."
"Ooh, ooh, second idea!" called Ruby, before she moved a few of their pieces across the map. "I overheard on the scanner—"
"When did you get a police scanner?" Blake asked.
Adam waved it off. "Don't worry about that."
Ruby snickered beside him. "Anyways, the Atlesian robot guys are having some trouble making sure the ports are safe. I've heard that King Taijitu have been using the river to go east and nest up deeper into the city: that's gonna cause problems. So if we just send help out along there, then that'll be a lot of people saved by us!"
Her bow twitching as she thought it over, Blake tapped her chin. "And if Vale treats the people who helped them badly..."
"The people will switch their side to us if push comes to shove, and we'll have the primary trade route of Vale in our hands," Adam finished. He leaned back with a pleased smirk. "And you doubted Ruby."
"Can you blame me?" Blake said with a roll of her eyes.
Ruby jumped to her feet with a proud grin. "Yep! I'm a planning prodigy!"
The door chimed and Weiss let herself in, carrying a shopping bag in one hand and looking through a Scroll in the other. "Must you three be so... noisy..." She trailed off as she looked up to see most of the center of the room covered in papers, notebooks, blueprints of buildings, orders and plans for the defectors Adam had taken control of since the Breach all surrounding them and a map of Vale coated in little flags and pieces. Their dorm was a war room. And the 'commanders' were Adam, Blake and... Ruby.
Weiss closed her eyes and took a deep breath. After a mental count to three, she opened them. Nope. Didn't help. "We just got this dorm fixed!" She exclaimed. "Could you please do something that, I don't know, is not going to probably get our room raided by the police one day!"
Still beaming, Ruby wagged her finger. "Ah-ah-ah! We're super secret! Besides, if the police were gonna come in, we'd know." She zipped to Weiss and Adam's side of the room and pulled a black box with an antennae out from under Adam's bed.
"Tada! See?"
"... Is that military police scanner?! That can't be legal!"
"In Atlas," Adam informed Weiss. "Technically, it's not illegal in Vale until it's used to monitor police activity while committing a crime."
"And what is this supposed to be then, hm?" Weiss waved over to the more-than-incriminating evidence that members of her team—and Team CEMB("Symbol")—were actively commanding a regiment of ex-terrorists and criminals.
"Use of a police scanner before committing a crime," Blake droned, looking through another paper.
Weiss sputtered, looking for some kind of words that could accurately describe how that didn't make any of this okay.
"Hey! It's not crime at all!" Ruby protested and puffed her chest out. "It's extralegal assistance! Right, Adam?" She turned to Adam with her usual, sunny grin.
Adam let out a hum of agreement, picking up a paper of his own to look over and propping his head up on his hand. It did little to hide his smile creeping wider with every word.
Weiss tried to glare down Adam, but the only thing it did was leave him smiling more. She huffed and stomped her foot. "Ugh, you and Yang are just the worst influences. You would think that as the only law-abiding citizen here, my opinion might actually mean something!"
Blake turned to Adam. "Wow, you weren't joking: she really is that easy to get worked up."
Her cheeks turning bright red from embarrassment, she stormed closer and let her bag drop so she could prod Adam's shoulder. "And exactly what have you been telling her about me!"
"The truth, from the looks of it~" Ruby stage-whispered to Blake, who barely stifled her laugh.
Weiss whirled around to Ruby, but by the time she'd turned Ruby was rocking on her heels and whistling innocently.
"Aw, let up, Weiss Cream!" Yang called as she threw open the door. "Everyone knows that it's not breaking the law if you don't get caught!" She didn't even blink at the command center their dorm was turned into.
Seeing the other two members of her team nod as if there was nothing wrong with that, Weiss turned to the only other person she might've gotten support from.
Blake shrugged, a playful glint in her eye and her slim smile tilting up into a knowing smirk. "You're on your own, Schnee."
Forty-five days was a long time, and Team RWAY had learned that the hard way. It was not an official punishment for sneaking off by any means, but the fact of the matter was that all of that constant fighting without ever giving their aura time to rest meant their auras were all but crippled. Were they not in Beacon with assistance, they could have been expected to spend three months, maybe even longer, before their auras would fully repair themselves. As of now, they were lucky to have theirs recover in a month's time, though the school had added an extra two weeks onto that. Just to be sure, the nurses said.
"Aura and semblances are like muscles, and using them at their breaking point like this for well over an hour has consequences," the medics had told them with no small hint of annoyance. The good news was that their auras would grow back stronger. The bad news was that little more than a few nudges to their aura would turn a month and a half of recovery into three.
And forty-five days of being physically fit but unable to do much of anything to test that was a long time. No vigilante work. No full-aura sparring. Nothing too strenuous. Even a subconscious use of aura could be too much. They were left to be normal students—and to a certain extent, not even that. Weiss took it well, at least: she appreciated the time to relax and not need to fight for her life once every couple months. Ruby, not so much. She'd built two more weapons, designed three others, increased the effectiveness of Ember Celica by thirteen percent, went out for daily runs, and yet still would usually be found drooping halfway off of her bed, bored out of her mind.
Being pulled into the 'command meetings' for the White Fang defectors was a godsend. That was how Adam spent most of his time: secret communiques between him and Vale, planning with Blake and finally putting their plan in action to 'take back' the White Fang. Adam hadn't expected this to be a war against his branch, but both sides these days were more focused with protecting the population of Ildaite.
And the other half of his day was taken up by... Yang. Yang and her competitions. It started with no-aura sparring, then races. Arm wrestling. Drinking contests. Games.
Adam wasn't exactly sure what had gotten into her, but he did have a competitive side of his own. He wasn't going to just take the challenge lying down. Yang teasing him when he originally refused to had nothing to do with it.
And it looked like another one of those challenges were coming, Adam thought to himself as Yang caught his eye.
As Weiss bickered with Weiss and Ruby, Yang whistled over to Adam. "New bar opened up near Beacon. How about when we trounce the team we're up against, you and I go celebrate!"
Adam mulled it over. That was the other side of their challenges: a fair amount of time spent at bars. Of course, there was another reason for that. "Ah, that's right. It is my turn for the bet, isn't it? Winner is whoever eliminates an opponent first. Loser buys."
"Deal!"
That got Weiss' attention, at least. "You two have been going out an awful lot. What was the big change?"
Adam waved it off. "We weren't exactly going to stay cooped up at a school for almost two months."
She put a hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes, looking over Yang and Adam with suspicion. "You two never happened to invite me, before."
Blake leaned over to Ruby. "Sounds like jealousy, to me."
"I can hear you!" Weiss glared back at Ruby and Blake, the latter clearly holding back a laugh, the former failing miserably to do the same.
"Well, yeah, you never asked," Yang said. "Besides, Weiss, it's kind of a private thing."
This didn't stop Weiss' glare in the least. If anything, it brought it just a little closer to a full-on pout.
"It's semblance training," Adam said simply.
Weiss' stare locked solely on him. "Semblance training," she repeated.
"Correct."
Weiss looked back to Ruby and Blake. "You two surely don't believe any of this trash, do you?"
They shrugged.
"It's quite simple, Weiss." Adam smoothly rose to his feet. "Yang and I have noticed that our Semblances are quite similar. The main difference is in activation: Yang's Semblance takes all the damage that she's taken and greatly amplifies her aura with it for a brief period of time. I, on the other hand, absorb damage deflected and unleash it in a singular strike. She builds anger but cannot concentrate it, while I concentrate anger but cannot hold onto it."
"I don't get what that has to do with bars," Ruby said.
Weiss motioned off towards her in agreement, eyes still on the two being interrogated.
"Easy!" Yang declared. "I'm hot, and drunk people piss me off, so Adam has me not sock one of those idiots in the face for as long as possible. And Adam's a faunus with the hot girl, so he attracts all kinds of dumb people, so when I mess up and punch somebody, I get to teach him to just enjoy the fight for as long as possible!" Yang said with a bright smile and her hands on her hips. "See? Teaching me to pack all that anger in one punch, and teaching him to hold onto it!"
The room was silent.
"Wow," said Blake. "That has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard."
Weiss angrily thumbed over at Blake. "Exactly! You're using bar fights as Semblance training?!"
"Without aura," Adam added.
"That doesn't help in the least!"
"Ooooh, I get it, sis!" Ruby said as realization crashed into her like a wave. "So when I found you outside of Junior's bar before I got into Beacon, you were just Semblance training?"
"E~exactly!" Yang lied without skipping a beat.
"Blake, you have to be able to convince him of just how insane this plan of theirs is." Once more, Weiss was left with only Blake to help her.
Unfortunately, she just shook her head. "If he actually agreed to this, I don't think there's anything I could say that could stop him. Good luck with that, though. You'll definitely need it," Blake mumbled under her breath.
When someone knocked at the door, Weiss saw it as a gift to the heavens. Making her way past the papers that, now that there was no one else from their team to come in, Ruby, Adam and Blake quickly went to gathering back up, Weiss opened the door.
"Hey, heard a bit of commotion and, uh..." Jaune looked down. "Oh! Hey there, Snow Angel, didn't think—"
Weiss slammed the door shut.
"Okay! I admit: wrong foot to start on!" Jaune's voice called from the other side.
"Sorry, I really should've been the one to say something," Pyrrha's voice joined his.
With a sigh, Weiss opened it back up. "What can I do for you, Pyrrha?"
Jaune deflated, but Pyrrha smiled nonetheless. "We were just checking in on how you four were holding up. And to wish you luck, of course!" She peered over Weiss' shoulder. "Is Zwei here?"
Ruby kicked their scanner under Adam's bed. "Sorry, Pyr! Dad picked him up earlier today!" she called out.
Pyrrha's shoulders sank. "Oh, that's a shame... Still, I know that tension must have been terribly high lately, but it's a good thing your auras have repaired themselves in time for the Vytal Tournament! Frankly, I'm kind of surprised they've let it continue..."
"I heard that they were keeping it closer to Beacon. Maybe that was all that was needed?" Weiss suggested.
"I'm not so sure..." Pyrrha sighed.
"Once again, I protest this constant display of military presence, General Ironwood." Headmaster Ozpin kept his voice level and stern, his office having the perfect view of Amity Coliseum and the several Atlesian warships escorting it into Vale.
Their only connection to each other being through a screen, Ironwood was clear to see on it, head raised and arms folded behind his back. "I give it all the consideration it is due, Ozpin. The Council of Vale made me the head of security for a reason."
"To make your interference appear purposeful instead of acting against their orders?"
Ironwood snorted. "It was either this or the Vytal Tournament was going to be delayed and brought up to Atlas where, in my opinion, it should have stayed."
"Which would have been unprecedented and caused far more distrust and chaos than keeping it here." Ozpin steepled his hands and leaned forward on his desk.
"Much better than letting Her pawns do what they wish in Vale itself. I hold my doubts that what happened in Vale was the full plan, but unfortunately my only link happens to be mute and very... uncooperative. At this rate, we'll be returning her to Vale custody shortly for the law to do with her what it wishes."
A tense quiet settled over the two—a staring match through the screen.
"This is what needs to be done, Ozpin." Ironwood blinked first.
"The chances of reversing this are minimal, General. I can only hope that you're right." Ozpin cut the connection, then sighed. He couldn't help but feel like whatever path he took, She would win. Leave the Tournament here and it became a target. Bring the Tournament to Atlas and his students were out of his control, and it went without saying that the panic overtaking Vale in such a time of peace would be ludicrous.
What was she planning?
Salem.
That name—that face—still stood in Roman's mind like a brand. He still wasn't entirely sure when he had gotten back into Vale: he'd woken up in a bed of his safehouse one day to find he was missing two weeks from his memory, and the last thing that he clearly recalled was seeing, quite literally, the face of evil. The rest of his day had been a blur: pacing, thinking, and putting off having to delve into the insanity he'd gotten into as much as possible. Nothing could be remembered clearly, but his mind was full of new information.
Never since he'd met Neo had Roman felt so woefully over his head. Had he been outmatched before? Certainly. And in fact, he made a point to never let it get to him. But only a machine wouldn't be at least a little thrown off by this! Magic! Maidens! Gods! A Queen of Grimm!
He had caught a glimpse of the TV as he had passed by. Lisa Lavender was blabbering on about whatever was in the news cycle this week, but that didn't matter. What did was the headline. He'd rushed to his Scroll to ask Cinder what in the hell was going on. Her response?
"Acceptable collateral, though it is greatly unfortunate. I expect to not see your petty emotions get in the way."
And with that came clarity.
["Breach Mastermind Neopolitan Sentenced To Death."]
Perfect clarity.
It didn't matter what he had to gain. It was what he had to lose. And right now, Cinder was threatening to leave so very little left. If Cinder really thought she had so much power that she could stop him from making sure Neo got out of this plan safely, she had another thing coming.
It was in that moment that Torchwick decided that if she was going to take from him, he was going to take it all right back from Cinder.
Torchwick yanked a drawer open and pulled a tablet from it, then fished his Scroll out of his pocket. A quick hook up and he was typing away. He still had one thing she didn't: a certain backdoor into a certain little mechanical tool she was depending on. Him and Neo, way over their heads against someone they had no business looking at, let alone standing up to?
It was just like old times.
Amity Coliseum was the jewel of the world. Though Atlas would like to claim that it was the true driving force behind it, every Kingdom had a hand in its construction: Mistrali industry constructed the mega-structure from Atlesian designs around the largest Dust crystal in the world brought free from Vale and brought to life by Vacuan engineering. The result: an arena easily as large as two city blocks end-to-end, and even taller when considering the gargantuan crystal reaching down from the lowest floor. The largest stadium—the largest anything—built by mankind. It needed to be this large, of course, for it was meant to hold nearly 300,000 people comfortably. It was a city unto itself.
And it was that city that Team RWAY marched through, wind rushing past and sometimes drowning out the din of rising music and the hundreds of people happily laughing and chattering without a care in the world. Ruby was one of those people, skipping at the front of her team and grinning like a kid in a candy store. Yang and Adam followed behind her and spoke of chances against various teams and people they should watch out for, but Weiss lingered at the back.
Ruby's eyes were glued to the weapons of the numerous students and professionals, Yang and Adam's eyes were both looking for specific teams, but Weiss' was locked onto her Scroll. Another missed call from her father. It was just postponing the inevitable now, wasn't it? She hadn't brought herself to mention to anyone else that her family was arriving.
She hadn't been tracked down, so she doubted that her family was already there, but her father was the exact type who would see her trying to avoid him at every opportunity and take that as the perfect reason to show up completely unannounced. Weiss looked out at the afternoon sky at the airbuses flying by. He also was the exact type who would make his entrance flashy. Which meant he definitely wasn't here yet.
One fight to have fun with her team, and then it was going to all come crumbling down. Weiss let out a great sigh and snapped her Scroll shut.
She looked up just in time to run into Yang's back. With a huff to mask her confusion, she stepped beside her to ask what the big deal is when she caught the reason out of the corner of her eye: Team CEMB("Symbol") standing just across from them. Cinder as sly and impossible to figure out as ever, Emerald at her side and Mercury—who, frankly, she hadn't the slightest clue how he had gotten away from that train—holding onto two tubs of popcorn and looking like nothing in the world bored him more. Blake was nowhere to be found.
Considering the silent glares from her teammates, Weiss supposed that left her as diplomat.
Weiss cleared her throat. "Hello, Cinder. Did you need something?"
Cinder's smile grew ever so slightly. "Why, we were just here to wish you luck. After all, while I was fighting alongside your dear leader, I had no clue that you had been fighting for so long, beforehand." She laid a hand on her chest. "I do hope your auras have repaired themselves by now."
"Enough to kick your butts!" Ruby huffed, leveling her angry stare at the opposing leader.
Cinder was the only one of her trio to openly chuckle, but her two lackeys clearly stifled laughs. "Is that so? I'll hold you to it: I wouldn't want any of you to miss out on the fun."
"Good afternoon, Vytal Tournament's attendants!" Doctor Oobleck's voice came from speakers set at all angles. "The first match's selection will begin in five minutes!"
"Ah, and that sounds like our time to go. Wouldn't want to keep Blake waiting." With a wink to Team RWAY, she sauntered past them into the crowd. Ruby stuck her tongue out at them as she passed. Emerald returned the gesture.
"She's just flaunting it, at this point," Yang growled, watching them go.
"Overconfidence," Adam said. "That's good. That means we have the advantage."
"Or her own is just that great," Weiss mumbled.
"Pssh! Don't be so negative! We've already sorta beat them once: we got this in the bag! Now, come on, team! I heard combatants get front row seats!"
"So, Emerald, were they bluffing?" Cinder asked her loyal comrade as they walked deeper within the coliseum. The sound of conversation and merriment rapidly grew to the deafening roar of the largest crowd in Remnant. Perfect for being able to hide their words in plain sight.
"Not a chance: they're at one hundred percent. If anything, their auras were stronger."
"Good. We'll need them at their best if they're to proceed to where they need to be."
"Yeah, that's fine and all," Mercury said, "but what's the point of making sure they're ready to go? Can't they just mysteriously fight some chumps?"
Cinder restrained herself enough not to scowl. "Unfortunately, Atlas is taking its sweet time in hooking our little friend into their system. Until then, we cannot change fate in our favor." Cinder spotted Blake some distance away, already waiting in the row of 'their' school. Blake nodded over, and Cinder raised a hand in recognition. She hadn't the slightest clue that they were speaking of far darker deeds than snacks and team planning.
"So what's stopping them from getting stomped by some senior team?" Mercury asked.
"Are you doubting her?" Emerald glared past Cinder and Mercury.
"Now, now, have faith. I do have my ways if all does not proceed as planned. Consider it a... plan B." Cinder plucked out a piece of popcorn for herself as they took their seats around Blake. "But for now, you two should just relax. Enjoy the show: this is only the beginning, after all." A statement with an entirely different meaning flying over Blake's head.
Ruby couldn't have asked for better seats: any closer and they'd practically be in the fights. She could count the number of tiles on the vast, white octagon that was the arena. If she focused, she could even feel the faint tingling in the air that the transparent, hard light barrier left in its wake ahead of them. She was bouncing in her seat when she noticed someone sitting down beside her.
"Excited too, huh?" Velvet asked, a bright smile on her face.
"You bet!" Ruby exclaimed and hopped out of her seat. "I mean I was in the Coliseum once when I was younger, but I was wa~ay up there!" She pointed up to the nosebleed sections.
Velvet giggled. "Quite the difference, isn't it? It's my first time here as well! Every other time I've seen the Vytal Tournament's just been on TV."
"Must be a pretty big shock, then," said Coco as she strolled over, still dressed just as much for a photo shoot as for combat. "You went from watching last time's finalist to being on her team." She winked. "No pressure, Vel~"
She huffed, even though she knew Coco didn't mean it. "I'm quite confident in my abilities, thank you very much."
"So are we!" Ruby proclaimed and puffed her chest out. "We're gonna take this one home, just you wait!"
Coco raised an eyebrow and smirked, teeth gleaming. "Lotta big talk, freshman."
"Especially with us around!" declared Nora as she skipped over to take a seat besides RWAY. The rest of Team JNPR followed behind.
"She has a point, Ruby: the Invincible Girl and the runner-up for last year are quite formidable, indeed," Weiss chipped in from beside Ruby. "Years don't matter in the Vytal Tournament after all: a freshman class could get sent against a sophomore just as easily as they could a senior. But I doubt our teams will need to care much about that." She checked her nails.
Pyrrha shifted in her seat, trying to remain modest. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. I'm sure every team that's come here will be at their best!"
"Good for them." Adam leaned forward on his knees, watching out over the stadium. He clenched and unclenched his fists: it wasn't as though he wasn't used to being in public, but the part of him that had narrowly avoided numerous prison sentences was suddenly feeling very exposed out here. "There's only one team on my hit list, though." His stare was focused on Haven's students.
"CRDL?" Yang leaned over to ask, shooting a dirty look at the armored team sitting behind them not too far away.
Adam shifted his jaw. "Two teams."
"Hey Blake," Mercury mumbled through a mouth full of popcorn and leaned over to Blake, "Whatsh your thoughts?"
Blake leaned away. "Well, the first year teams sound like a challenge. We shouldn't let our guard down: RWAY, JNPR, and that strange girl with the blades..."
"Penny. That's the one who got kidnapped, right?" Emerald asked with faux innocence.
Feeling her ears wilt below her bow, Blake glanced away. "Yeah. That one..."
A gallant voice rung out from the speakers loud enough to rumble through Blake's chest. "Ladies and gentlemen, get ready! The selection for the first match is about to begin!"
Blake was reminded why she was never fond of crowds.
The volume of the crowd somehow dwarfed even that and excitement was in the air as, all along the arena, vast screens of hard light grew bright, and the myriad of teams flashed by almost too quick to see, like a high-speed slot machine. The first roll of the dice for the Vytal Tournament had begun.
"I don't find myself worried at all," Cinder said, leaning back and getting herself comfortable in her chair. "I believe we have more than enough skill to see this through to the end."
"What about luck?" Emerald asked with a faint smile.
Cinder propped her head up atop her hand. "I think we all know that we won't need much of that."
The first team slotted into place.
And despite herself, Cinder grimaced.
"It's us! It's us!" Ruby zipped from her chair, trembling with excitement and leaning over the ledge of the stands far enough to almost tumble over them.
The 'almost' was from a little black glyph hovering just behind her.
"Try not to hurt yourself before the match, Ruby," Weiss sighed out, barely paying attention as she tugged Ruby back to her seat. She was busy hiding her relief. Good, she thought, better to fight now without my father breathing down my neck.
"That's unfortunate," said Adam. "It's less of an ability to know what we're up against, and less of a chance to see what others can do." He narrowed his eyes at the second slot where teams spun by.
Yang playfully jabbed his arm. "Ah, don't be so negative all the time! This means the whole world's gonna know what we can do! After all, I mean, come on: we're practically seniors already! How many teams have the kind of experience we do?"
The second team slotted into place.
And despite himself, Adam grimaced.
Mercury leaned over to Cinder, who was rubbing her temples. He swallowed down most of his popcorn.
"So, about that whole 'Plan B' thing?"
The roar of the crowd struck RWAY with all the intensity and noise of a blast wave. Yang tried to keep her confident grin up, because the thought of going up against a force like that was one she couldn't afford to have. Even so, Yang decided, that just meant she was going to come out all the more impressive for winning. She didn't know that just two seats away, similar thoughts ran through Weiss' head.
But whereas Yang rolled her shoulders and grinned all the more, Weiss' shoulders sank. Perhaps she could hope that wherever her father was, he wasn't watching the very first match.
Even Ruby's endless enthusiasm was replaced with shock and a slack jaw. A hand clapped onto Ruby's shoulder, knocking her out of her thoughts.
"Good luck out there, kid~" Coco said with a teasing wink over her sunglasses.
"The first match of the Vytal Tournament shall be Team RWAY versus Team CFVY, both from Beacon!"
"You'll need it."
Deeper within the coliseum, inside a bar nestled deep enough inside the arena to be officially considered poor real estate with even poorer attendance, a dusty old crow nursed his first drink. Well. First drink in Vale. And as he watched the screen, pale-red eyes lazily following the first match-up's announcement, one thought stuck out clearly in his mind.
"Oops."
A/N: And let's really get started, now! With how much action there is in V3, I may very well change the genre to Action/Drama.
