The Grey Freelancer of Remnant Vol 2
Chapter 1
"Best Day Ever. Of All Time"
To Headmaster Ozpin from Councilman Julius Aurelius
Dear Headmaster, I want to thank you in advance for your openness and helpfulness in response to the council's request for more information. We were disappointed to hear that your huntsmen reported a total loss at the crash site, we had hoped that at least one specialist or huntsman had survived that could shed some light on the situation.
I know that your academy have enjoyed a high degree of freedom and autonomy with very little scrutiny in the past. It is not our wish to disrupt such a key facet in our society. But instead to find a way we can work together in a manner that befits all our responsibilities. I am certain that you will agree.
David Washington, formerly known as Agent Washington and Recovery One, picked at his food with his fork absentmindedly. his thoughts were on one particular night at the docks at the end of his first semester at Beacon. The Meta was on Remnant. He should've expected this, he knew, after all both he and South Dakota had ended up in the foreign world, so it would stand to reason that the third person there would have as well. Hindsight's 20/20, he thought.
The Meta was the most dangerous individual Washington had ever encountered, which was saying something. Though, the Meta wasn't really an individual anymore. Once upon a time, the Meta had been known as Agent Maine, a brutal yet honorable man, fiercely loyal and one of Wash's closest friends. But that had changed when he received the Sigma A.I fragment. Sigma had been, and was still, obsessed with the idea of metastability, in which an A.I can be considered fully human; Maine had become Sigma's vessel, which was now also home to several other A.I fragments, all of which belonged to freelancers they'd murdered.
"Hey, Wash," a voice interrupted Wash's thoughts, "whatcha thinking about?" It was Pyrrha Nikos. The world-renowned warrior had a head of red hair and strikingly-green eyes; she bore startling similarities to Agent Carolina, Wash though, but the similarities ended at the physical level. She was one of the most kind-hearted, caring people Wash had ever met.
"Uh, nothing much, just, erm, thinking about last semester's finals," Wash evaded the question, taking a bite out of his bowl of mac n' cheese, as if to prove his point.
Pyrrha looked skeptical, but, just as she looked like she was about to respond, a heavy object was dropped on the table, shaking it violently and causing Wash to drop the mac n' cheese that had been on his fork, much to Nora's amusement.
Wash looked up to see his team leader, Ruby Rose, standing at the head of the table. She had dropped a heavy, white binder on the table, on the front of it, the words, "Property of Weiss Schnee," were written, though the ice queen's name had been crossed out in red marker, replaced with, "Ruby Rose."
The previously mentioned team leader cleared her throat. "Sisters, friends, Weiss," she began, gesturing to each person or group in turn.
"Hey!" Weiss protested.
"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream," Ruby continued dramatically.
"This oughta be good," remarked Yang, catching a dumpling in her mouth that had been thrown by Nora.
"Four score and... what, what is even happening right now?" sputtered a dumbfounded Wash, who's attention had been completely taken by his red-wearing friend.
"A dream that the five of us would come together, as a team, anyone has ever had, ever!" She finished her speech.
"Of all time," Yang added.
Wash grimaced. Ever since he had used the phrase, "ever, of all time," it had become a running gag between teams RWWBY and JNPR.
"Did you steal my binder?" Weiss asked, noticing her crossed off name on the book's cover.
"I am not a crook," Ruby deflected.
"What are you talking about?" asked Blake, sounding only slightly annoyed.
"I'm talking about kicking this semester off with a bang!" responded Ruby excitedly.
"I always start my semesters off with a Yang," her older sister chirped in. "Eh, guys, am I right?"
"God dammit, Yang," Wash sighed exasperatedly.
"Boo!" called Nora from across the table, bouncing a thrown tomato off the offending blonde brawler's head. Yang growled in frustration.
"Look, guys," Ruby attempted to refocus the conversation, "it's been a good two weeks, and, between more exchange students arriving and the tournament, our second semester is going to be great! But classes start back up tomorrow. Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today!"
"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store," responded Weiss.
Yang suddenly stood up and threw a green apple back at Nora, as revenge for the tomato she'd been hit with, though it missed and squashed the contents of Ren's plate.
"Hey!" Ren called out in protest.
"I don't know," said Blake dubiously, "I think I might sit this one out."
"Sit out or not, I think however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team," said Weiss. She stood up, "I for one think that-" whatever it was she was about to say was cut off when a pie flew into her face with a wet squelch.
Team RWWBY turned in awe to look at Team JNPR. Jaune and Pyrrha seemed shocked, while Nora, wide, guilty grin on her face, pointed at Ren, who had his head in his hands in defeat.
"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"
Nora bellowed her war cry from atop her tower of tables that loomed over the cafeteria, casting a dark shadow on the ground beneath it. The rest of Team JNPR were posted up at different parts of the improvised fortress, all at lower levels then Nora, of course.
Ruby leapt atop another table. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful!" she squeezed the milk carton in her hands, spraying its contents through the air. "It will be delicious!"
Behind her, the rest of Team RWWBY cheered in affirmation, following their fearless leader into battle.
"Off with their heads!" ordered Nora, leaping down from the top of the tower to the floor. Team JNPR unleashed a barrage of watermelons at their opponents. "Our melons will blot out the sun!" bellowed Nora.
"Yang, turkey!" ordered Ruby.
Yang plunged her fists into two conveniently-placed turkeys, wearing them like boxing gloves. As the hail of melons neared. Yang leapt forwards, splattering the watermelons into pieces with her new turkey gauntlets. Blake too leapt into the fray, dual baguettes in-hand, smashing melons as they flew in.
"That is really hard bread," Wash noted.
Yang flung her two turkeys at Pyrrha, but she leapt out of the way, Jaune, however, did not, taking one to the gut and another to the face. Pyrrha turned back to see Blake lunging in at her. She dodged her initial strike, arming herself with a baguette of her own. The two locked "blades" staring into each other's eyes, until Pyrrha attempted a strike. But Blake leapt over the red-haired warrior, getting behind her.
Pyrrha cartwheeled out of the way of Blake's attacks, before lunging back in. Only for Blake to once again leap into the air, this time throwing the long sticks of bread at her foe. Pyrrha stepped back, allowing the projectile to split in half upon coming into contact with the ground. She then lunged forward once again, this time catching Blake and sending her flying and breaking off the front part of her weapon in the process; Pyrrha caught the black-haired girl's discarded baguette and threw it back at her like a javelin, following up with two more. Yang blocked the first two but was sent sprawling by the third.
Ruby herself then joined in the fray, Wash not far behind, sliding over the tables on a lunch tray. Pyrrha continued hurling baguettes at the girl, but Ruby leapt into the air, deflecting the bread projectile and sending it flying back at its thrower. Pyrrha rolled out of the way and Ruby launched off the table at her. Ruby put all her weight into the tray, but Pyrrha caught it on her forearms, though she was still thrown to the ground by the attack.
Jaune got back up to his feet in time to see Wash hurl a banana at him at great speeds, the yellow projectile spinning in the air. The banana caught Jaune in the face and, once again, sent him to his back.
Ren and Nora charged Ruby, but Weiss stepped in the way, spraying condiments on the ground and causing Ren to slip, being sent flying into a cluster of tables that were, in turn, sent hurtling through the air. Nora, however, leapt to one of the flying tables, grabbed a metal pipe from the wall, and stabbed it through a watermelon, creating an improvised hammer.
She brought the new hammer around to level Weiss, but Ruby stepped in the way and was sent flying back. Weiss picked up a full raw swordfish from the ground, lunging at Nora and landing a powerful blow. But the hammer-wielding girl was not to be deterred that easily. She ducked under a swipe from Weiss, who, in turn, blocked two of hers, until the third connected, sending her flying across the cafeteria.
The ice queen crashed into a stone pillar, fracturing it irreparably. Ruby caught her teammate as she fell.
"Weiss, Weiss, don't leave me," she pleaded. "NOOOO!" she cried dramatically as the pillar collapsed behind her.
Meanwhile, Wash and Ren charged across the room at each other, Wash picking up a cup of yogurt while Ren grabbed a pair of leeks. As he two leapt at each other, Wash threw his yogurt cup into Ren's face, temporarily blinding him. He then landed a hard kick to the side before Ren could retaliate.
Ren was, however, able to duck under Wash's follow-up left crescent kick. he retaliated with a flying knee that Wash blocked, Wash also checked the follow-up kick Ren aimed at his side. Wash leapt in the air and landed a hard kick to Ren's sternum, but Ren managed to hit Wash across the face with a backstrike with his leeks. The quiet ninja then landed two more quick hits across Wash's face with the leeks.
Wash blocked his next strike, pushing him away with a kick. He scooped up a plate of apples from the table behind him and hurled the tasty, red projectiles at his quiet foe. Ren sprinted back at Wash, dodging and ducking around the apples. He leapt at his foe with a powerful kick, which Wash caught on the plate, but, before he could capitalize, Jaune came from behind, bear-hugging him and trying to wrestle him to the ground.
Ren moved in to strike, but was cut off by yang, who had found a new pair of turkey gauntlets. She hit him so hard he almost dropped to the ground, before following up with a massive uppercut, sending the boy flying into the air. Nevertheless, he retained his composure, launched his leeks at Yang with enough force to puncture the solid ground. Yang leapt out of the way of the attack, leaping into the air and punching Ren back to the ground and through a table, sending food and plates flying as several tables were flung through the air by the impact.
Wash stomped his foot down on Jaune's right knee, causing the boy to stumble, he then elbowed Jaune in the face. The boy staggered back before charging and winging his right fist at his foe recklessly.
Blake turned and, seeing Wash's predicament, threw her teammate one of the many rock-hard baguettes. He dodged Jaune's punch, stepped behind him, and cracked the baguette down on the back of his head with enough force to break it in half and send the boy flying into a lunch table and break it half.
Meanwhile, Yang was sent crashing through the ceiling by a blow from Nora's melon hammer, her cry fading as she went higher into the sky. Blake narrowly dodged the falling debris from the new hole in the roof. Grabbing a string of sausages, Blake batted Nora back, sending her into a vending machine. But Nora recovered quickly, scooping up soda cans as they began spilling from the now-destroyed machine.
Nora hurled the cans at Blake, but the nimble cat faunus was able to dodge out of the way just in time, until Pyrrha activated her semblance and sent a barrage of soda cans flying at Blake, pinning her to a wall and exploding in a multi-colored, carbonated cloud. Suddenly, Wash too was engulfed in soda cans sent flying across the room.
That left only one member of Team RWWBY standing. Ruby. She dashed forwards, activating her semblance. She moved with such speed that every food item on the ground was picked up for the storm she was pulling along. The small tornado slammed into Team JNPR, rocketing them into the fall wall and covering them with every manner of edible fare.
Four multi-colored blobs dropped from the wall once she fully deaccelerated. Those blobs were, of course, the members of Team JNPR. Team RWWBY had won the day.
Wash looked around. All around him, he saw tables, at least hose that weren't a part of JNPR's castle, strewn about and lying in pieces. Food and drink coated the walls and floors. And, to top it all off, a massive stone pillar had collapsed, the ceiling had a hole in it, and the fall wall was covered in cracks.
Suddenly, a loud crack sounded across the room. Wash turned to see an irate-looking Glybda Goodwitch storming across the room. With a few flicks of her riding crop, tables flew back into place and were repaired, food was disposed of, and the many damages to the room itself were fixed.
"Children, please do not play with your food," she told them firmly, pushing her glasses up her nose.
The children had taken seats at the newly-repaired tables. Just then, Yang came crashing back through the ceiling, landing on one of the freshly-fixed tables. As she got back up to her feet, her friends all burst out laughing.
Glynda was just about ready to go off in an angry tirade when she felt a calming hand on her shoulder. It was Ozpin. "Let it go," he said.
Glunda sighed. "They're supposed to be the defenders of the world," she reminded him tiredly.
"And they will be," Ozpin assured her, "but right now they're still children. So why not let them play the part?' He turned to leave. "After all, it's not a role they'll have forever."
The warehouse district of Vale made for a great place from which to run a crime organization. Roman Torchwick knew this all too well. Now that he had the support of the White Fang, he had access to resources he had never had access to before: bullhead dropships, powerful weaponry, and, of course, more dust that any one man would know what to do with.
That being said, things were far from optimal for the suave criminal mastermind. His alliance with the White Fang, as well as other, more powerful, allies, had brought its fair share of problems. For one, his "friends" in high places were very reluctant to share much information on their grand master plan. Not to mention the fact that the main thing keeping him in their service was what they threatened him with; it wasn't his life, no, it was much more valuable than that...
Just then, the criminal mastermind saw two faces he had learned to despise.
Emerald and Mercury
"Oh look she sent the kids again!" said Roman sarcastically. He wrapped an arm around both of their shoulders. "This is turning out just like the divorce."
Emerald shuddered.
"That was a joke," responded Roman, "and this just might tell me where you two have been all day." He held up Emerald's wallet.
"What?" exclaimed Emerald, fumbling with her pockets. She could've sworn it was in her back pocket.
"I'm a professional, Sweetheart. Pay attention, maybe you'll learn something," snapped Roman. He opened the wallet and withdrew a small slip of paper. On it was the address of Tuckson's Book Trade. "Why do you have this address?" he asked them gravely.
"Wouldn't you like to know," responded Emerald snarkily.
"Yeah, I would," answered Roman. He did not like his authority being questioned, especially not by ones so young and inexperienced; at least the other new guy got that, he thought with some small sense of relief. "Now, where have you been all day?"
"Cleaning up your problem," answered Mercury, "one of them, at least."
"I had that under control," Roman told them.
"Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale says otherwise," Mercury retorted.
"Listen, you little punk!" snapped Roman, getting more and more sick of these kids' attitudes by the second, "If it were up to me I'd take you and your little street rat friend here and I'd-"
"Do what Roman?" A sultry voice cut him off.
On the catwalk above was a woman in a red, silk dress with long, dark hair that covered her left eye. The lift on the catwalk took her down to the warehouse floor.
Roman laughed nervously. "I'd uh, not kill them?" he suggested, his tone changing immediately.
"Cinder!" exclaimed Emerald happily.
"I thought I made it clear that you were to eliminate the would-be runaway," said Cinder, ignoring Emerald.
"I was going to..." Roman began.
"He was going to escape to Vaccuo," Emerald interjected. "Mercury and I took it upon ourselves to kill the rat."
"I think he was actually some kind of cat," Mercury corrected his partner.
"What, like a puma?" she inquired.
"Yeah, there you go," Mercury agreed.
"Quiet," Cinder ordered them both, "did I not specifically instruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?"
Roman laughed. He enjoyed seeing the bratty kids get chewed out, even if Cinder herself wasn't much better in his eyes.
"We just thought..." Emerald began to explain herself.
"Don't think," Cinder cut her off. "Obey."
Emerald looked ashamedly at the ground. "Yes, ma'am," she replied dutifully. "It won't happen again."
"And you," said Cinder, turning her withering gaze on Roman.
Roman chuckled nervously.
"Why wasn't this job done sooner?" Cinder demanded.
"Uhh, eh?" Roman gestured at a stack of crates, all containing dust vials, to his right. "Eh?" he motioned at a stack of boxes, all of which contained various types of dust rounds. "Eh?" he spread his arms out wide, as f to encompass the whole warehouse, and the contents inside. "Sorry if I've been a little busy stealing every speck of dust in the kingdom," said Roman, in a tone that implied he was not, in fact, sorry.
All things considered, Roman was doing quite well. While he didn't stand to gain much from his deal with Cinder's faction, he was sure his performance was good enough that he could keep what was at steak.
"You're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask," remarked Mercury snidely.
"Look around, kid, I've got this town running scared," responded Roman. "Police at every corner, dust price is through the roof, and we're sitting pretty in an old warehouse with more dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with. Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn't mind filling me in on you whole master plan, it might actually make my next string of robberies go a little smoother.
"Oh, Roman, have a little faith," Cinder purred sultrily. She cupped his chin. "You'll know what you need to know when you need to know it."
He grunted in acceptance.
"Besides," she continued, "we're done with dust."
"Okay, then what's next?" asked Roman.
"We're moving," she answered, turning to walk out, her lackeys close behind, "have the White Fang clear out this building. I'll send you details and coordinates tonight."
"Coordinates?" Torchwick inquired.
"We're moving to stage two," Cinder responded cryptically.
With that, Cinder and her two most loyal followers left Roman alone.
A response from Headmaster Ozpin,
Dear Councilman, I am, of course, obligated to assist you in your investigation and will continue to help in any way I am able. I too wish that there was one who could shed some light n the events that transpired at the crash site. As headmaster of Beacon Academy, I do not have much time to spare. Nevertheless, despite the lack of any witnesses or authorities, I will do utmost to aid the council i their efforts to uncover the truth of what really happened that day in the Emerald Forest.
To Be Continued...