Ch. 26

Downtown Vale…

"So was it Blake that made you girls come up with this plan?" Abaddon asked.

He held on to Yang as they rode through the city at night on Bumblebee. Yang drove surprisingly fast on her bike, and had the tendency to zoom through tight spots between cars.

"Yeah, she felt like we needed to get to the bottom of what the White Fang were planning. It bothered her to no end," Yang explained. "By the way Fido, how come you're not going on a hunting spree, considering how much you hate them?"

"Well, remember the main reasons I quit hunting for them at that time was not only because I couldn't get my hands on Adam, but also at the request of my parents. They feared that my quest for revenge would consume me and ultimately get me killed. So I stopped and promised that if I found anything about the White Fang I should report it to my grandfather to let him deal with it. I tried calling him several times to inform him about our recent encounters with the Fang, but he hasn't answered at all," Abaddon told her.

"Damn, hopefully he'll call back soon. I'm sure he's just a busy man," Yang said, trying to give Abaddon a bit of support. "Oh! Were here!"

Turning a corner and coming to a complete stop the duo had arrived at Junior's club. Yang took off her helmet as she and Abaddon got off Bumblebee and walked through the front doors. They strolled down the hallway until they met the henchmen who usually stand by the entrance. The henchmen immediately opened the door to let them in.

"Hmm, feels different from last time," Yang said.

"That's because I'm here with you. If you had come alone, then these guys would've gone on alert real quick," Abaddon said.

Yang smiled. "True, true."

The interior was empty this time with no guests and Junior's henchmen mulled about either doing nothing or moving things around. Abaddon and Yang went towards Junior who was standing in the middle of the dance floor talking to the Malachite twins.

"Hey Junior, how ya been?" Abaddon asked.

"Heyyy, you made it." Junior and Abaddon shook hands. "Come to the bar so we can talk."

"How did he know we were coming?" Yang asked.

"I called him while you were getting your bike ready. I didn't want to interrupt him if he was doing business at this hour," Abaddon answered.

They followed Junior to the bar and took their seats. The Malachite twins gave them two glasses and filled them up.

"We gave you the same drinks you had last time," Militia said plainly.

"Thanks girls." Yang happily took a quick sip from her glass.

"Thanks again for the other night. Same for you…Blondie." Junior had to put effort into saying that, which made Yang giggle. "I've already got to watch out for police, I don't wanna have the White Fang on my tail either."

"Your welcome Junior," Abaddon said. "Now, tell us what you've found so far."

XXXXXXX

Blake traced her fingers across three claw marks that were on the wall of the alley. She peeked around the corner and saw two faunus talking to a gentleman guarding a door.

"This is it," Blake said.

Cinder peeked around the corner too. "Perfect."

"You sure?" Sun asked, earning a glare from both girls. "You know what, I'm just gonna take your word for it."

"So while you two go in, I'll look around for clues," Cinder told them.

"Got it." Sun gave her a thumbs up and Blake nodded.

Using her dust manipulation, Cinder's clothing instantly changed from her red dress and heels into a black infiltration outfit consisting of a sleeveless jacket, long gloves, stiletto heel boots, a black glass mask, and straps lined with several containers. Then, she jumped onto the roof of a nearby building and was gone.

Blake took off her bow as she and Sun entered the building, following the last couple that just entered. The doorman gave them masks on their way in.

"I don't get it. If you believe what you're doing is right, why hide who you are?" Sun asked Blake.

"The masks our symbol. Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters," Blake explained.

"Grimm masks. That's kinda dark," Sun said.

"So was the guy who started it," Blake replied.

Sun sighed. "Always sunshine and rainbows with you."

They donned their masks and entered a large room where many faunus and White Fang were gathered near a stage and a black curtain was hung with the Fang's red symbol on it. Sun and Blake joined the crowd as they waited for the meeting to start.

"Thank you all for coming." Lieutenant Corvus paced slowly back and forth across the stage as he greeted everyone. "Allow me to introduce two very special comrades of ours. I can assure you, they are the key to obtaining what we have fought for, for so long."

From behind the curtain came someone new, a middle aged man with pale skin and brownish black hair tied in a small ponytail. He wore a dark trench coat over a grey long sleeved button down shirt, a brown tie, black pants, brown hiking boots, grey gloves, and rectangular glasses. And following close behind him was none other than Bantus.

"Thank you my friend. It is a pleasure to be here." The unknown man spoke with a light accent.

"What's a human doing here?!" a faunus yelled.

"Good question. I am Doctor Verruckter Wissenschhaftler, a doctor and profound scientist. Yes, I am human. No, I do not like it. Why? Because we humans are so weak compared to you. Look at you all, you beautiful creatures. You are capable of so much more than we are. But I understand why you would want to see us humans locked up, tortured, maybe even perish. Here's where we have a common enemy my friends. The ones governing our kingdoms, our lives. The government, the military, the schools, authority are all to blame for your suffering. They keep you down because they want be in control. And why is that? Because they fear you. And humans always destroy what they fear most. Just look at my friend here. He is most likely the last komodo dragon left, all because humanity was afraid of their potential." The doctor's words were riling the faunus in the room. They cheered in admiration of what he said while Sun and Blake worriedly looked at one another.

"Humans are pests, just waiting for a good ass wake up call," Bantus added. "Unfortunately for them, we have the right toys to use for that." Bantus snapped his finger and the curtain fell down, revealing a giant mech. The sight of it made the faunus applaud even louder.

"Uhhh, that's a big robot," said Sun.

"How did he get that?" Blake asked.

"As you may have noticed, this giant tin can is part of Atlas' newest arsenal to get rid of all the scary things in the world. And thanks to the good doctor here, we've managed to snag a few ourselves from right under their noses. Now, many of your comrades have moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you wanna stay in Vale, that's fine, but if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal we can provide you. Any questions people?" As soon as Bantus finished, the crowd went wild with cheering and chanting.

"We should get out of here," Blake told Sun.

"All new recruits, please come forward." All the faunus near Blake and Sun started to move toward Corvus whilst still cheering to their hearts content.

XXXXXXX

"So these four criminals haven't been active lately at all?" Abaddon asked.

"No, none of my boys have seen them for a while," Junior answered. "But what would they want with so much dust?"

"That's were trying to find out," Yang said. "Did you find anything else?"

"Well, I had to pay some lien to get this info, but one of my clients informed me about a big shipment that the White Fang have been bringing through Vale. He says it's not dust this time and he couldn't get close enough with all the troops they have, but whatever it is, it's big," Junior said.

"Did he tell you where their shipment is going or coming from?" Abaddon asked.

"He knew, but he wanted too much lien for that information," Junior said.

"Then go pay him," Yang ordered. "It shouldn't be that much."

Junior glared at her. "Shut up blondie. You say that because you don't own a business."

"Well, I'm thankful for what you've told me so far. If we can find where their keeping their shit, then we'll probably find those dust robbers and get some answers. Let's go Yang." Both he and Yang stood up to leave. "Also, Junior, how much did you pay for that intel?"

"Like 150 lien," Junior answered.

Abaddon reached into his pocket and pulled out some of his own lien. He placed it on the counter in front of the man. Junior picked up the money and counted it.

"160 lien."

"Wow, thanks a lot kid." Junior pocketed the cash. "And good luck."

Abaddon gave Junior a thumbs up. "Thanks. I might need it."

XXXXXXX

"So what made you choose this place?" Neptune took another sip from his frosted blueberry smoothie.

"I've just been here before with friends." Weiss gave Neptune a cute smile before also taking another sip of her frosted white cherry smoothie. She had taken Neptune to the same burger joint that Yang had brought her and their friends to weeks ago. Luckily for her, it was a slow night and they got a table on the outside patio with very few people around them. It wasn't a five star restaurant, but she had to admit it was pretty nice.

"I didn't think you would be into this type of scenery. No offense," Neptune said.

"None taken. It's just that when you're treated to the classiest of meals every day, you don't often think of visiting such places," Weiss sighed.

"I see," said Neptune. "Back in Mistral I would usually relax at a coffee shop by myself to read a book since Sun gets bored easily and talks so much. He once even threw a couple of banana peels at me when I was trying to ignore him."

Weiss giggled. "That sounds like how my partner would act if I were in that situation, childish."

"Ya'know, I thought we were supposed to be taking this mission seriously," Neptune said.

"Yeah, but who says we can't relax a little," Weiss replied. "I'm sure the others are fine anyway."