KS: Alright, time to check on our favorite blonde firecracker. Let's hope she doesn't blow any gaskets... (chuckles) ah, just read away, you fine people.
In an abandoned underground chamber, the sounds of a blunt, metal object hitting against a limb reverberated throughout the vacant space. The sounds were accompanied by soft, feminine grunts of pain that sounded along with every hit. The source of the noise was the result of at least five thugs beating up a person with a bag over her head. The leader of the gang repeatedly hit them with a crowbar.
"I still can't believe that you were dumb enough to come here with everyone knowing what you've done," he sneered as he hit the person with his crowbar. "Everyone things you're some kind of criminal, and frankly, we can't blame them. We don't need your kind skulking around near the kingdom."
The figure offered made no sound. The thug leader sighed and hit her again.
"The silent treatment, huh? You're not getting off that easy."
More hits were heard, followed by jeers from the other thugs.
"Hey, here's an idea: how about we get some scissors and cut off every strand of that hair you're so damn proud of? That ought to teach ya."
No words came from the captive, which made the leader grin.
"No objections? Perfect." He turned to his henchmen. "You three come with me to get some scissors. The rest of you keep a close eye on her in case she struggles some more."
The leader left the chamber with the henchman trailing close behind him, while the remaining two watched over the prisoner. They started to circle around her, wondering what to do with her.
"So, is this really her?" the first thug asked. "This is the crazy chick from the tournament?"
"Yeah, it's her," the second answered. "Still can't believe she had the stones to come here after what happened. She's either really brave or really stupid."
"Doesn't matter what she is now. By the time we're done with her, she'll not only be ridiculed, but she'll be a freak with no hair! Maybe she'll be an even bigger freak than the faunus."
The first scoffed. "Don't be stupid, man. There will never be anything freakier than someone with animal parts."
"True enough," the second laughed. "At least we can mess around with this one bit longer... wait, hold on."
The thug inspected the captive's bindings closely and noticed that they were worn out. Melted, to be precise.
"I don't believe it."
The first walked to where his friend stood. "What's up?"
"Take a look at the bindings we put her in. Do they look weird to you?"
The thug closely inspected the binding closely as well. The next thing he saw was a fist quickly making impact with his face. The other was stupified as his went flying into the wall.
"What the hell? How did you-"
He was cut off when the captive punched him in the face as well, sending him into the wall like his friend.
"Why is it that whenever I come around here, I'm always getting kidnapped and beaten up?"
With a frustrated groan, the captive takes the bag off of her head, revealing golden hair tied in a ponytail.
"I swear, when I get my hands on that bastard, I'll break more than just his fake legs."
Five days earlier...
Yang was relentless on her father. The apathy she had after the events at Beacon had given way to dormant anger and fury. She charged towards her father, unleashing a string of right hooks, leg sweeps and even some unfair tactics like throwing dirt at his eyes or roughly slamming her hands on the sides of his head, dazing him. She prepared to slug him with her new arm, when all of a sudden...
"Stop!" Taiyang ordered, putting his hand out. "That's enough, Yang."
The younger blond snorted in disapproval. "Enough? We've barely gotten started. Don't tell me you're ready to pack it in. Unless your age is catching up with you."
Taiyang decided to ignore her rude comment and equally disrespectful tone to focus on the main issue. For now, at least.
"Look, as much as I'm happy to see you get back in the groove, you're being too rough. All these low blows and cheap tricks is not what being a huntress is about."
Yang spat on the ground. "Well, after what happened during the tournament, I doubt anyone is going to think of me as a huntress anymore." She looked at her new arm with distain. "And now, I've got this thing as a constant reminder of how I'll never truly be one."
Taiyang sighed at her negativity. "There's no sense in thinking that way. Also, Ethan made that arm specifically for you, so the least you could do is show some gratitude."
"I'll express what gratitude I have when I see him again," she growled, getting into a fighting stance. "Now let's continue."
One look at Yang's eyes and Taiyang could see her mother in them. And that worried him to no end. He knew that Raven was... unfriendly at first glance, but her true personality is what scared him. There was no way that he would let Yang fall down that same road.
"No, we're done for the day," he said firmly.
"So, I guess you are tired," Yang scoffed. "Fine with me. I can manage on my own."
She stormed off, leaving Taiyang alone. Well, he wasn't exactly alone. Zwei was near him.
"I wonder if I'm making the right decision here," he mused.
Zwei let out a small bark as a sign of encouragement. Taiyang smiled.
"You're right, boy. I can still convince her. I just know she can rise above what she's been through."
Yang hit the punching bag with a string of brutal attakcs, rage guiding her every move. Her anger had been dormant, built from being disgraced in the tournment, losing her arm to a psychopath... and worst of it was her partner leaving her with no explanation.
"I swear, somewhere out there is some higher being whose main purpose is to piss me off," she growled, assaulting the bag even more. "Well, whoever they are, they succeeded. I'm mad beyond belief, and I'm low on options as to how to deal with it!"
Yang gave the bag one last punch, leaving a hole inside of it. Taking her hand out of the hole, she fell onto her back, panting heavily with sweat dripping from all of her pores.
"Damn it... I'm not good enough," she growled, getting back up. "I need to get better."
She continued her assault on the bag, repeating the same motions as before, but she appeared to be slowing down. Her spirit may have been running at full blast, but her body was running on fumes. And she was damn near exhausted.
"I... need... to... beat... him..."
The last punch was all it took for Yang to finally be depleted. She collapsed to the ground, landing flat on her back. Her breathing became shallow and her vision blurred. She only blinked a few times before seeing a familiar, yet sinister figure hovering above her.
Who happened to have his sword raised, preparing to strike her.
"This is going to hurt her more than it will hurt you."
Those were the last words she heard before her consciousness left her.
Yang laid in bed in her bed, sweat still dripping from her face. She began to stir for a bit, then rose up, breathing heavily.
"Not again," she groaned. "Why does this keep happening?"
She prepared to get out of bed...
"Unless you want your wrists slapped, I suggest that you refrain from taking another step out of your bed."
...but a certain sharp tone stopped her in her tracks. Yang looked up to see none other than Glynda standing in front of her, her one hand holding her riding crop while the other rest on her hip.
"Glynda? What are you doing here?" Yang asked.
She narrowed her eyes towards the brawler. "Your father invited me to keep an eye on you. And last I checked, I was formally known as Professor."
Yang shot the mage a dirty look. "That's funny, becuase last I checked, Beacon is the new hotspot for Grimm. Unless you've decided to teach them somehow."
Glynda scowled. "I do not appreciate your tone or that comment you just made."
Yang scoffed and got up from her bed. "Yeah, if I manage to give a damn in the next decade, I'll let you know. But for now, I got to get something to eat."
She prepared walk out, but Glynda stopped her by poking her chest with her crop.
"Perhaps I was not clear earlier. You not to leave this room until you have made a full recovery."
"But I have recovered!" Yang snapped. "I'm standing up, aren't I?"
"Yes, but for how long?" Glynda shot back. "I saw your conconscious body laying on the ground behind the house. I doubt your father would be pleased to know that you've been fainting due to overexertion."
"Well, I need to keep training," Yang growled. "I need to make up for lost time from laying around doing nothing."
"Oh, really?" Glynda crossed her arms. "If I remember correctly, I believe that Ms. Belladonna was in a similar state not to long ago."
Yang grit her teeth at the mention of her former partner, disregarding the fact that she could have known she was investigating the White Fang.
"I don't see how it concerns you," she said through grit teeth.
"It's my concern when one of my students begins to neglect her well-being just to learn more information," Glynda said matter-of-factly. "But you managed to convince her to slow down for the sake of her team."
Yang began to breath loudly, barely containing her anger. Her eyes were still in their normal color, but all of that could change in an instant.
"And yet," Glynda continued. "Here you are, pointlessly training for what I percieve to be an attempt at petty vengeance-"
"Who said anything about vengeance?" Yang said defensively.
"You didn't say it out loud," Glynda explained. "It was displayed through your actions. I witnessed your spar with your father, not that anyone would be sane enough to refer to what you did as sparring. Once you left him, he would occasionally tell me about your behavior after each spar. He told me that you were unwilling and sullen at first, but when the months passed, your apathy soon gave way to anger."
Yang narrowed her eyes. "What's your point?"
"I'm getting there," Glynda said. "And each time you finish your 'spar', you take whatever leftover frustrations you have out on the punching bag. Taiyang had to replace each one you destroyed."
"Huh. That explains why it looks so new every time," Yang mused.
"And after your assault on the bag, you do a bit of cleaning around the house," Glynda continued. "However, you often mutter to yourself that you'll 'give him what's coming to him' or some other nonsense like that."
"Since when was what I mutter any of your business?" Yang snapped. "Now get out of my way."
Glynda scowled, finding her defiance to be tiresome. "Ms. Xiao Long, if you do not comply with my order, I'll have not choice but to use force."
Yang was about to retort, but a buzzing sound coming from her scroll interrupted whatever she was going to fire back at Glynda. She picked it up and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Yang? Good, looks like I got the right number."
She widened her eyes as she recognized the caller's voice. "Ethan? What's going on?"
"I did some digging on that guy you fought in the semifinals," the voice said. "Whoever he is, his story is a total fraud."
Yang was confused. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that he's not from Mistral. In fact, none of his teammates are even enrolled in any academy, let alone Haven."
Yang couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you sure?"
Ethan let out a heavy sigh on the other line. "There's more information, but I don't think you're going to like it."
Yang's heart stopped for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"I... I'm not sure if I should tell you," Ethan said, his voice heavy with hesitation.
"Tell me," Yang said through grit teeth.
A sigh was heard on the other line. "Okay..."
As Yang listened to every word on the other line, Glynda watched as she did. She was pleased to see that Yang had calmed down when she picked up her scroll to answer whoever was calling her.
"Perhaps I was being worried for no reason," she said. "Maybe she just need to burn off some leftover anxiety." She let a small grin out. "I knew she had some sense left-"
"Could you repeat that?"
The sudden, cold tone from Yang made Glynda drop her grin as quick as she gained it. She saw that Yang had her head dipped low to the point where her eyes were not visible to her.
"So, is that true?" she said in a low tone of voice. "Okay. Thanks for telling me."
She hung up and tightly gripped her scroll. "Professor... I really think you should let me go."
If Glynda's level of concern for Yang had a meter, it would have broken by now. Whatever was said to her must have set her off somehow. She needed to keep her from getting into more trouble.
"You can't leave in your current state, Yang," she said firmly. "You need to calm down."
"...Calm down?"
She raised her metallic hand, which slowly began to produce smoke, then slowly lifted her head. Glynda looked in shock as the blonde's gentle violet pupils were now replaced by enraged red ones.
"I don't think I was asking, Professor," Yang growled.
The mage gripped her crop, hoping that Yang wasn't going to do what she thought she was going to do.
Yang stood in front of the shack. She now knew what she had to do, and she would damned if anyone tried to stop her.
"So, you're leaving?"
She heard the voice of her father, but didn't turn around to see him.
"I have a goal now," she said. "I'm going to Mistral and get some answers of my own. And then I'll have closure."
Taiyang frowned. "Is that what it's all about? Closure? You know that's not how I raised you."
"Really?" Yang asked sarcastically. "Is shutting down after Mom's death your idea of raising your children?"
Taiyang was taken aback, as if his daughter struck a nerve. He wanted to reply, but Yang continued to speak.
"I'm not going to just drudge around here, lamenting about what went wrong." She flew the doors to the shack open, revealing her motorcycle. "Those days are over. I have full intent of seeing this through to the end."
As Yang approached her motorcycle, she felt a hand grasp her shoulder. She turned to see Taiyang with a concerned look, just like any other father would have.
"Could you promise me something before you go?" he asked.
Yang sighed, realizing that she was not going to get out of this one. "What is it?"
Taiyang looked her in the eyes. "Don't lose yourself to anger. I don't want to open up old wounds- no pun intended, I swear- but you know what happened the last time you lost it."
Yang did not appreciate the warning. She knew that better than anyone. Hell, there was a glaring reminder of that night where most of her arm was. She pushed back whatever uneccessary remark she would have made and decided to play ball for now.
"Like I'd lose myself again," she said. "I'm not going to let history repeat itself."
Taiyang looked at her warily, wondering if she was being sincere with her words, or only said that just to get him off her back. For now, she decided to trust her.
"Okay," he said, forcing a smile. "Try to be careful, okay?"
Yang nodded and got on her motorcycle. She started the engine and drove off, her goal clear as the sky above. As she got farther and farther, Taiyang's concern grew.
"I hope she doesn't become anything like Raven," he said.
Present day...
"What do you mean she got out?" the thug leader shouted in astonishment.
"She tricked us into thinking we easily captured her!" the goon replied with equal shock.
"Well, why are we standing around like idiots? We gotta find her-"
"Looking for someone, boneheads?"
The thugs turn around to see Yang standing before them, holding one of the unconscious thugs with her new arm. She glared at all of them, her eyes blazing with barely contained anger.
"So... who wants to go out with a Yang?"
KS: Alright... I want everyone to know firsthand that this will be the first time I will make a particular character... act differently than they normally do. I'm not the type to dabble in OOC very often, so this will be a new experience for me and your support and critique would be most appreciated. Have a good night, everyone. Peace.