RWBY: Dual Eclipse
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Scene Transitions
Chapter 6: Routine
After taking a moment to find a quick hiding place so he could store his belongings away in his right wing, Raoul had taken to learning more about Remnant's history, mostly as a blend into the crowd scenario just in case. Thanks to the acquisition of his new Scroll, he had something with which to take notes and compare information. Being a Sunday, the Local Library was closed early, so he gave his recent acquisition a test run, connecting it to the CCT in order to see what all it could really do.
Today's topic of review was of Vacuo, the expansive desert he had seen right after crash-landing into this world. The kingdom originally was home to lush jungles, an immense oasis and tons of natural resources, all surrounded by natural barriers that deterred many from attempting to lay claim to it all. Instead of having a major city, the people of Vacuo were as nomads, roaming the immense landscape.
Sadly, everything provided in one place for the people caused the people to grow complacent, an inverse of what the people of Solitas had gone through. They simply had no drive to adapt and develop, which made it incredibly easy for other Kingdoms to worm their way in and begin claiming resources for their own use.
Years of this had turned this once thriving jungle climate into an effective wasteland. Warfare, heavy mining and ecological disasters ruined it all, forcing the people to keep to their nomadic lifestyle to avoid becoming a wandering Grimm's lunch, assuming the wildlife didn't get to them first.
And then the Great War happened in earnest, with Vacuo finally siding with Vale. The kingdom lost many of its settlements to the Grimm before everything was over. Eighty years had done little to help the desert kingdom recover.
Like the other Kingdoms, an Huntsman Academy was established within the kingdom, and a governing body soon followed... however, it appeared that the people didn't care much for the attempt at establishing any laws, leaving the Academy to step up as a policing force.
According to various cross-checks, the one unbidden rule in Vacuo was one of survival: If you could prove yourself able to survive in such a place, then you'd be considered one of their own, regardless of whether you were human or faunus.
'Hm, kinda reminds me of home, now that I think about it.'
'What do you mean?'
'Back home in the Netherworld, if you proved yourself capable of fighting and surviving those literally hellish conditions, then you were considered an equal, even if some demons were opinionated against humans and angels.'
'I'll have to take your word on it. I don't have many memories of Netherworld life.'
A quick glance towards the top right showed that it had just turned to 7:40 at night. Small snippets of conversations between passerbys had implied that Beacon Academy was currently putting its first-year applicants through initiation tomorrow, and apparently one among them was a famous tournament circuit champion. He mostly put it out of his mind, seeing as it didn't concern his operations.
Putting up a bookmark on his personal Scroll to check out available information on Mistral on his next visit, followed by Menagerie, he closed his Scroll and pocketed it, contemplating his next move. With Police still active in the Industrial District, heading back to the warehouse he had been using would be a risky endeavor. True, he could wait until after they had departed to retake the locale, but he was now considering finding a spot that was much less suspicious. There was also the possibility of them deciding to make a surprise raid on the warehouses.
Beacon Academy, 7:43 P.M.
Opzin returned to his office, the initiation procedures completed and the stage set for the new first-year teams to be formed. Oobleck's suggestion for this year's initation was quite a stroke of genius.
He flipped through his personal Scroll, looking to see if any updates regarding Amber's respective assailants and savior had come in. No dice, it would seem. Sometimes, no news could be considered good news, but in such a case as this, it wouldn't do.
Now then, onto the information about this new face around Vale... aside from what had already come in before regarding his frequenting of the public library and helping kill Grimm in the southern end of the kingdom, there wasn't much else to find regarding him.
If he was but an unregistered being, then it'd be a simple matter of supplying the forms and having him full out the necessary information. Though, to be this old and unregistered within any of the kingdoms was already one red flag.
He had done a search for those that had the name of Raoul, and while many matches came back, both male and female, none of them matched the being in the footage. Perhaps this was a psudeonym to hide one's identity, one chosen at random, yet an equal possibility was of him being a former bandit, as more often than not they tended to only go near the Kingdoms when in need of something.
'I wonder what other secrets this one might be holding...'
Vale Streets, 10:52 P.M.
The hunt for a new place of residence was not going very well for Raoul. While there were some apartments for rent, he didn't have any forms of identification, so trying to get a place like that wouldn't be very feasible. Police presence was increasing around the Industrial District as they were hunting for any other spots that Torchwick might've had as storage, so raising suspicions by sticking around there was a bad idea.
Given that tonight was going to be a clear night, with local weather forcasts calling for no rain for the forseeable future, it looked like he was going to be camping out this time.
Hanging out on the rooftop of one of the highest-rising buildings he could find within Vale, he withdrew both of the Scrolls, and began using his to connect to the CCT. In the meantime, his partner was continuing her coding exercises with the filched Scroll, trying to understand it in its entirety.
"Hmmm..." His eye flicked left to right as he entered in his search query.
"Something up?" His partner inquired, taking her holographic form.
"Testing the waters, so to speak." Having entered in a random search term, he deleted it before entering another term. He kept note of how quickly the Scroll loaded up the information.
"What kinda tests we talking?"
"Speed, relevance to the search term, links provided... standard kinda thing." As he erased the current search term, he decided to look up things related to recycled electronics. A few links to local electronics shops popped up, a small map of Vale providing physical locations to look for. A couple of links were directed towards Atlas' territory.
"Looking to put part of that message into space thing into production?"
"If the parts could be insulated to survive the trip up, then yes. There's also creating a battery to keep the message from dying out, properly recording and transmitting the message..."
"I see where this is going. There's also launching it from a remote enough place that we don't draw unwarranted attention to ourselves in all of this."
"As far as the launching point goes, I'd say either way out in the middle of the continent or over one of the oceans would be our best bet. If any Grimm decide to show up, we'd either kill them or they'd be gutted by anyone that tries investigating." Looking over a few of the links as he conversed with his partner, Raoul bookmarked a few spots to check out in the coming days.
For right now, it was time to get some rest. Closing his Scroll and setting it off to the side, he made himself as comfortable as he could be before dozing off.
Torchwick's Hideaway, Unknown Time
Roman Torchwick testily ended his call, slamming his Scroll down onto the table. Looks like Cinder was upping the amount of Dust that needed to be stolen, and combining this with a few of the Dust Stores in Vale catching onto his methods, it equaled one stressful night. Supposedly these acquisitions were going to go towards persuading someone to join her cause, but that didn't help him feel any better.
Reaching into his coat and grabbing a cigar, he lit it up as two of the Axe Gang grunts entered the room, pulling a trolley behind them. Well, seems they managed to do their work rather well. Amazing what could be accomplished when you had competent help, and nobody to interfere. It had taken some serious negotiating and more than a few greased palms for Junior to be willing to part with his more competent members.
"Open it up." He told the second grunt as he slid over the requesite Lien. The suit-clad human did so, opening the crate on the trolley to reveal tons of Dust crystals of varying quality. "We're going to need more men..."
Over on the nearest wall was a map of Vale. Various areas had notes next to their respective districts, mostly pertaining to which cops were competent and which ones could be bought off, but the highest note of concern was the circled area - Beacon Academy. Cinder must've held one hell of a grudge against the Academy, if it factored into her whole thing. Then again, the place was only the best Hunter Academy on Remnant... if it was somehow taken down, there'd be such a lower amount of interference that it'd make doing his business laughibly easy.
He dismissed the grunts, but had them spread a warning to keep an open eye for anyone that might disrupt the operation like what happened with the other Axe-Gang members. As he took a drag from his cigar, he took his Scroll and prepared to head back to his other safehouse. The next few months were going to be busy ones.
Wednesday, March 9, 8:43 A.M.
As the days went by, Raoul took to exploring more of Vale's Residential District, in the hopes of finding a location that was relatively unoccupied, scanning from west to east across the Kingdom. He got his wish, all right - the southeast end of the Residential District was looking more and more vacant the further in he went. Houses were empty, several of them even had plant life growing right up the sides, the streets and sidewalks looked like they'd seen better days as grass was peeking up through the cracks... much further ahead, he could seen several chain-link fences locked up, with signs posted over them. Further beyond the fences were the ruins of old highrises, shops and other former domiciles that looked like they'd seen better years.
The words "KEEP OUT" were spraypainted across the original text... "Mountain Glenn."
'Whoa... what happened here?'
Now curious about this, he popped his Scroll open to look up the locale. It took a little time for the information to come in, given the CCT was a fair distance away.
'Mountain Glenn... let's see what we have here.' He flicked his finger vertically across the screen, scrolling the relevant page as he took in the information.
Mountain Glenn had been Vale's first serious expansion project, as an image of several construction efforts going on at the same time would prove. Making use of an underground transport system to bypass the Grimm and increase commute to and from the kingdom, things had been looking pretty rosy for the new expansion as its population swelled and the settlement continued to improve. Unfortunately, as there were few to no natural barriers to keep the Grimm at bay, the smoke monsters kept coming in constant numbers until the city's defenses were inevitably overwhelmed.
As a last-ditch effort to save the area, the residents took to the tunnels that were initially dug out for their subway, and took refuge there, setting up an elaborate underground town. It looked like buildings and other living spaces were carved into the subterranean walls. Sadly, an explosion meant to help in expansion efforts opened the way into another cavern that had been filled with subterranean Grimm, dooming the town. When word of this got out, the tunnels were sealed off. The place remained as a constant reminder of the Grimm's everpresent danger.
'...morbid. Still, if there's nobody that wants to live down around here...' Despite the situation that lead to this, he figured this might be ideal for a base - with the area being so desolate, he could easily slip in and out without anyone noticing. Sure, it'd take a few more seconds to get to the central areas, but that was a minor detail, one easily compensated for. For that matter, if there was another way to get to the underground areas, that'd be much more room for expansion, provided he took out whatever Grimm decided to come sniffing around.
Putting a personal bookmark to check out more of these abandoned houses later, he headed back towards the Commercial District. One of the restaurants should be open by now...
Commercial District, 10:01 A.M.
Grabbing a bite at an out of the way eatery, Raoul popped his Scroll back open to check with any local information hubs on the CCT.
Seems that Torchwick guy had struck once again, hitting up a few places within the Upper Class District before moving back down towards other areas of the Commercial District. For all of this being done by a single person, the places were adding up ridiculously fast. Dust prices were likely going to raise again, as more than a few disgruntled comments would attest to.
'Normally, I'd ask how he hasn't been caught yet, but considering that red woman is apparently backing him with those suits, I get the feeling the police wouldn't be much help.'
'Looks like the only break they got was the tip I left 'em. Still, if he's going to be at this some more, I'd welcome the chance to deny them those resources.'
'Guess I know what we're doing tonight.'
Exiting the cafe after paying for his generously sized breakfast, he did his best to blend into the crowd... yeah, good luck with that. Guys that are seven feet tall are something of a rarity in Vale. Ignoring what few people did decide to gape, he headed back towards the Residential District to better map out a course towards the area he had scoped out.
During this time he stopped by a few electronics shops on his way, checking to see what all they had available. While the bits relegated to vehicular systems weren't of much help at this moment in time, the parts from scrapped and broken Scrolls proved more interesting. About 60 Lien later and he was on his way out, the scrap components secured neatly in a bag.
A shadow passed over him as he exited another shop, drawing his attention skyward. One of those Bullheads was on the move towards the Industrial District, likely to drop off any construction supplies if the immense container being held up by two hooks and some cable on its underside were any indication.
'...now there's an idea.'
'What, we nab one of those jets? Where'd you even park it?'
'Considering nobody else resides around the extreme south-east, should be easy enough to clear out a landing spot. 'Sides, if that woman and her accomplices can get ahold of one, what's stopping us from doing the same?'
'A number of things, such as where these jets come from and what security could be present.'
'Which is why we appropriate one from her forces and see what we have to use. The less she gets to work with, the better.'
His business concluded for the time being, he popped his Scroll open to check for any extermination requests from the Agricultural District. About seven had been posted, with three of them currently taken. Might as well grab one or two and get some more cash.
It was as he was on his way south that he swore he was being watched. He cast a quick look around, but saw nothing that would indicate someone or something was looking at him.
'Maybe I'm imagining it.' He continued on. Meanwhile, a dark-colored bird flew off.
Vale, Industrial District, 5:39 P.M.
One last round of police officers made their way through the southern end of the district, checking over the various warehouses and marking down which places were empty and which were being used for official business.
Sadly, what this sweep had missed was double-checking any places that had been previously marked. There was a reason Roman had "Dumb Cops" marked for this particular section. Those morons had walked right past the current hideaway he had been using at least six times. Still, wasn't like he was going to complain at all, what with the recent hits he had made.
Shifting targets to the Upper-class District had been the best call on his part. While Junior's men were busy causing a ruckus elsewhere, that let him move around pretty much hassle-free to continue hitting up the higher-end Dust shops. The fact that these guys were much quicker on the draw about grabbing the goods and getting out of dodge was also a plus in his books. Add in him quickly jumping districts whilst the police were tied up investigating elsewhere, and it all added up to successful ventures.
'Speaking of Dust, Neo should be reporting in about the next big shipment.'
With him hitting up all the different places across Vale, requests for more of the stuff was approaching an all-time high, driving prices so much higher. It was only bound to keep increasing, something that Cinder seemed all too gleeful about... well, about as gleeful as she'd allow herself to be seen as.
His Scroll pinged right on cue, and as he opened it up, he saw that Neo was indeed the sender of a new message.
{Hey Roman- turns out there's gonna be a big Schnee shipment headed your way sometime in the next two months or so.} A rare smile graced his lips. He could always count on her to be reliable.
{Any details on where it's going to be delivered at?} He tapped out the message, then sent it. A minute later, her reply reached him.
{Considering what happened to their prior train shipments, this next one will be by ship.} The docks weren't too far from his current hideaway. That'd make it easy to grab the Dust when it arrives and make a clean getaway... well, so long as there wasn't any interference.
{Excellent. I'll see you in a bit - just got one last place to hit up for the night.}
{Seeya at the usual place. :)} With that, he closed the Scroll. As he pocketed it, he grabbed his cane and headed for the front doors. "All right, it's showtime. Hop to it."
After making certain the police presence had ceased, Roman lead several Axe Gang troops out for another hit on some Dust Shops.
Vale Commercial District, 6:05 P.M.
Exiting the Agricultural District with some extra Lien in his pocket, Raoul began heading back into the city to grab a bite to eat. However, that was soon spoiled by the sounds of something resembling either gunfire or explosions. Following the sounds, he soon found who or what was causing the ruckus.
There were several people...more members of the Axe Gang. In comparison to the earlier members that he had taken out, these ones had discarded their usual red blades and hatchets in favor of what looked like sleek, newly designed guns. Their shades were more a shade of blue, and their suits looked a touch more immaculate.
'Hold the damn phone, aren't they...' His companion didn't get much of a chance to finish her inquiry, as the gang members were plenty busy hitting up a number of places in the district, scattering the people before them. On closer inspection, it looked like they were only hitting certain shops, breaking in and grabbing several items... no, not items, but Dust.
'Dunno, but if they're active this is our chance.' Gun already drawn, he moved in quickly, and once he was at enough range, he fired low, aiming to graze them in their legs to disable them.
The shots rang out, catching the members' attention, only for several of them to drop as their thighs became the unfortunate recipients of some lead. Those that had seen their comrades fall turned their gazes towards the seven foot tall blur that was bearing down on them.
"Oh shit!"
"Already?!"
Several opened fire with their own guns, but this blur swiftly dodged the dust cartridge fire, and within seconds was already within melee range.
Several of them clicked something on their guns, and as they moved forward to engage this being, several blades emerged from certain compartments within the firearms. One tried to swipe horizontally with his blade, only for this being to leap back and suddenly surge forward with a punch to the jaw, sending that poor unfortunate soul flying into several of his comrades, knocking them to the street. Two others tried to stab him in unison, only for him to kick the guns out of their hands and close the distance in less than an eyeblink. The both of them soon had the wind knocked out of them, one getting a fist to their gut, the other getting elbowed in the chest. One particularly brave soul attempted to punch him, but his hand was caught, and he was flung bodily onto the pavement, knocking him out cold.
A few others decided to try and fire at him again, setting their guns to automatic fire. To their horror, this guy, whomever he was, deflected the rounds that had gotten close with his hand... his bare hand, at that. Seeing that was more than enough incentive for them to pack it up and get the hell out of there.
'That's right... run, and give us a lead.' The sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance, closing in. As the conscious gang members scattered, leaving their unconscious brethren to be picked up by Vale Police, Raoul decided to tail them from a different perspective. Time to go roof-hopping.
Several Vale Police cars sped into the area, the officers at the wheel calling for medical and prisoner transportation vehicles as they took in the scene before them. The area was quickly being cordoned off, and witnesses were being asked to provide some testimony as to what was going on.
The reports they got from the people were turning out very interesting.
"This guy was like a blur - I dunno how fast he was moving, but he took down those gang people in a single hit apiece!"
"I've never seen a Hunter able to deflect gunfire with their bare hand like that." That one got their attention. Not very many Hunters would ever choose to deflect a bullet, much less with their bare hand. Even with Aura, it was one hell of a risk.
As they asked the eyewitnesses for any distinguishing details regarding this being, there was a pattern emerging. The person in question was a tall brunette, and as more details came in...
Industrial District, 6:31 P.M.
The Axe Gang members that had quickly fled from the Commercial District piled into one of the warehouses. A couple of minutes later, Torchwick walked in with his ill-gotten gains, his members with him.
"You're all back early." Roman did a quick headcount of the grunts that had returned from their end of things. "Though there seems to be a few less of you... someone get cold feet?"
"A Hunter, Roman!" One of the senior gang members retorted.
"You said to keep an eye out for Hunters, not that we'd have to fight them!" Another shouted, adding to the growing ire in the room.
'This just keeps getting better and better.' Roman took a moment to compose himself. "Were you followed?"
"What?"
"Were. You. Followed." Torchwick made certain to repeat his question slowly. "Did this Hunter tail you?"
"We didn't see him trailing us, if that's what you're asking." And that cast the die.
"Grab everything you can - we're going to have to switch locales in case we got a smart one."
As he directed the gang members to quickly grab the stockpiles of Dust and weaponry, he lit up another one of his favorite cigars to help calm his nerves. Cinder wasn't going to like hearing about this, not after the previous bust, but right now he needed to salvage this situation. If this could be saved, then there'd be no problem whatsoever.
Roughly half an hour later, the warehouse's contents were packed up in several small getaway vehicles, and were ready to move them to the new location. After doing a quick check to ensure the police weren't going to cotton onto their movement, they began moving their supplies.
They would split up the move into multiple groups, so as to keep attention to a minimum.
"If need be, duck into one of the numbered warehouses on the map - the police isn't smart enough to double-check those ones."
District Border, 7:02 P.M.
After a few detours and double-checks to make certain he was going the correct way, Raoul had tailed one of the groups to the border between the districts, keeping far back enough and staying downwind to ensure he didn't draw attention to himself. Leading this particular group was none other than the suited character they had seen at the previous bust, and the biometrics confirmed it was Torchwick.
'He really doesn't give up...'
'Probably that crimson woman's doing.'
'Guess she must have some serious dirt on him, if he's still doing this.'
Raoul quickly ducked behind some old shipping crates as Torchwick walked by, muttering something about annoying Hunters and their interference. He waited about two to three more minutes for Torchwick to vacate the area. 'Still, it's a hell of a plan. If I had to guess, the suits are the diversion.'
'We can puzzle motives later. Right now, we need to appropriate that stuff.'
'Fair enough. Time to go to work.' Undoing his eyepatch, he let the obsidian flames coat himself once more, his eye changing color from orange to yellow.
'Won't this be a bit overkill?!'
'It'll be fine. As you've seen before, I know how to pull my punches. Besides, they won't be able to retaliate against what they can't see.' The transformation complete, Belderiver took center stage tonight.
Keeping to the shadows, he snuck around to the sides of the warehouse, looking for something that could control the power to the place. No such luck, it would seem... the master control for the power was likely inside the building.
'Time for Plan B, then.'
Finding a few loose pieces of rubble, mostly ones as small as basic gravel, he leapt up to the upper windows, finding one that overlooked the interior, and had a good view of the lights.
In contrast to when he had taken down the Axe Gang members several days prior, as the news had called them, there were easily multiple times more gang members in here. He could count at least thirty or so of them down there, a mix of the ones from before and these new ones, which he had to guess were higher-ups in the gang. From what he could see, they were each armed with one of those guns and a melee weapon, either their trademark sword or hatchet-axe, though some were being briefed in using a longer model of the aforementioned melee weapons. Many of them were busy looking over the various stolen goods that had been acquired in their earlier heist. One or two others had been using their own Scrolls, likely to update whomever was in charge of this bunch about the current situation.
Slowly opening one of the upper-floor windows, he cradled a couple of small rocks in each of his index fingers, thumbs ready to flick. Ready... steady... careful... wait for the Scrolls to be closed up...
'Fire!' The thumbs flicked outwards, propelling the small rocks forward with the relative speed of a bullet from a gun. The grunts below had but a fraction of a second to react to the sound of something whistling through the air before the rocks harshly impacted the lights, destroying them and flooding the warehouse in darkness.
"The hell?!"
"The lights!"
"Who did that?"
'Showtime.' The window now open enough to fit himself through, Belderiver entered the warehouse and dropped down to take them out. The grunts, unable to adjust to the new darkened setting so quickly, weren't quite able to see their new assailant, due to him being black on black. Three of them were immediately taken down via something landing on them, and two more soon followed when the wind got knocked from them thanks to a good fist in the midsection.
"Light him up!" Several gang members quickly loaded their guns, and after taking a moment to adjust their hearing, tried to scope out where their enemy was.
One grunt screamed as he felt his foot get wrapped by something and yank him to the floor, gun firing wildly in a panic. The other grunts tried firing in his direction, but it was for naught, the sparks richocheting off the walls revealing that he was no longer there. Another yelled out as he felt a hand constrict his throat and pull him to the upper walkways, where the consciousness was soon stripped from him.
Two more spun around as they felt something behind them, only to have the backs of their necks harshly grasped by someone, and their skulls forced to collide with each others', knocking them out.
"Who the hell's there!" One of the gang members yelled, not liking this situation. He got a reply via fist to his face, sending him to the floor. Two more grunts tried firing, only to get kicked down.
"Screw this!" One grunt exclaimed, and bolted for the warehouse door. That same whistling sound could be heard, and he felt something small impact the base of his neck, stripping the consciousness from him as he impacted the floor.
One by one, the Axe Gang members were dropping. Soon, there was naught but one remaining grunt still conscious, one of the lower-ranking members.
"W-who's there? W-why are you d-doing this?!" Their hands were shaking pretty badly, only having the barest grip on their gun. "Show yourself!"
"Boo." A downright terrifying voice came from the grunt's right side, and as they felt their heart leap into their chest and their blood freeze, they spun around to try and catch a glimpse of whomever this was, only to see a terrifying yellow eye staring back at them. It proved too much for the grunt's mind to handle, and as their own eyes rolled into the back of their head, they collapsed to the ground.
'Was that really necessary?' His companion asked as Belderiver faded away to reveal Raoul once more.
'Won't lie, always wanted to do that at least once.' Regardless of his methods, the operation was again a success. The grunts were out cold, leaving the warehouse free and open to be investigated.
'Damn, look at this stuff... this is a LOT more Dust than last time.' One large crate was full to the brim with plenty of Dust, and if the way the crystals looked was an indication, these ones were pretty high-quality. It also held that snowflake emblem on one side, indicating it belonged to that Schnee company.
'And check these weapons... not quite like what the Netherworld has, but they look pretty solid.' Raoul looked over one of the guns that the gang members had, taking note of its Dust-cartridge system and the blade that folded out for melee engagements. 'Stuff like this would easily start one hell of a riot.'
With the locale secured, it was time to leave another tip for the Vale Police. Before that...
Thursday, Southern Commercial District
March 10, 8:24 A.M.
Rousing himself from the rather soft sheets, Raoul slid out of bed and went to don his gear.
After his heist against the Axe-Gang, he headed straight back to the Commercial District and booked a room at one of the local hotels. With it now morning, he took to checking over his newly acquired gains.
From the grunts' pockets, he had taken close to 2500 Lien, most of that coming from the higher-ups in the operation. Together with what he had left over from getting food and finding a place to get his clothing fixed up, that left him close to 5800 Lien overall after having payed for a room for the night.
'So, what's our next move?' His companion inquired.
'We scope out some of the places down around the southeast near that Moutain Glenn road. Betting at least one or two of them have to be decently liveable..'
Returning his roomkey to the front desk, he left the hotel and headed down the sidewalk towards the southern end of the District.
Across Vale, 9:00 A.M.
"Lisa Lavender here, with a Vale News Network Special Report."
The broadcast changed from showing the violet-haired woman to the image of a card, text neatly typed out upon it. The news banner below read: Mystery Hunter Strikes Again?
"Shortly before 9:00 P.M. yesterday night, another anonymous tip came in reporting suspicious behavior in the Industrial District. This note was found on several Vale Police Cruisers, reading as such..."
Text of the note appeared on-screen as Lisa read it aloud.
"To The Police - Check Warehouse 7564 in the Industrial District, close to the border of the Agricultural District. You may wish to bring multiple men for this."
"When Police arrived on the scene-" The broadcast changed once more, showing the warehouse in question, "-they were greeted with quite the sight. Around 30 Axe Gang members had been identified within the warehouse, alongside multiple cases of high-quality Dust and weaponry."
The Axe Gang members were shown on-screen as laying out in a pile, several members each tied up. From what could be discerned, someone or something had taken them out with little effort.
"While this proves to be an incredible break in the recent theft string across Vale, concerns are being raised, not only in regards to criminal activity, but also regarding the identity of this potential vigilante, and why they have not come forward about their assistance..."
Roman had been in the middle of taking a drink when the report got to the part about the Axe Gang having been taken out, and his morning beverage was soon violently expelled through his nostrils. Combine this with said beverage being a Mistrali wine that he was very fond of...
"Agh-gah-" Grabbing a nearby paper towel, he did what he could to clean himself up, taking a few breaths to try and rid himself of the burning sensation of fine wine upon areas of his body it was never meant to go. Taking another look at the TV though watering eyes, he saw that the acquired goods were reported as being tallied up and returned to their original owners. "Motherfu-"
Looks like he was going to have to move operations again. He sent a pre-emptive notice to Neo, letting her know about the next move to find a new base of operations. If this was going to keep happening, he was increasingly tempted to have her take over watching the goods. A general waste of her talents, but if he were to keep Cinder from deciding to burn his face off... then again, this was just one of the storehouses. Splitting up the group to keep all of the goods from being reclaimed was a damn good idea... but then he realized. If that storehouse had been raided by some mystery person, what would stop them from deciding to check around for the others?
Grabbing his favored cane and hat, he was out the door in seconds.
Meanwhile, over at Beacon, Ozpin watched this news report with mild interest. Hunters were known to do some level of vigilantism, frowned upon though it may be, but this felt off to him. Why leave a note instead of directly contacting the Police?
And then there was the matter of what else the Police had reported. Sometime before the bust-up, someone had been seen fighting off several Gang members in the Commercial District, and according to what eyewitnesses were able to see of this mystery person, this person had brown hair, and stood incredibly tall.
'No doubt it has to be him.' Evidence was mounting to track this character down.
Present Time, Interrogation Room, 10:42 A.M.
"That was quite the risk you took." Ozpin looked Nelius dead in the eye. "Though, now knowing that the criminal elements in Vale are in league with this woman whom obtained Torchwick's help..."
"Yet there has to be another reason for all of the Dust being stolen..." Ironwood had been thinking over the logistics of focusing on Dust, and they all kept pointing towards starvation tactics... with Vale deprived of these resources, the kingdom's livelihood would become more and more stressful, forcing Vale to have to pay out increasingly taxing amounts of Lien to sustain itself. At the same time, the people getting frantic over a potential Dust shortage...
As much as he didn't want to jump to that conclusion, it made sense. For now, however, he focused on listening to this man's story, internally picking apart what elements didn't sound right.
Chapter 6- Complete