You stash your groceries in your rental shuttle and close the door. It zips away to find a parking space, leaving you to explore a bit; you have a few frozens, but they wouldn't go bad with a little extra transit time. You're only going to look around, anyway, so a full exploration can come later. Today was just getting a glance at the city for fun to help understand everything.
Again thankful for your new shoes, you start a walk with no direction. Leaving the parking lot of the mall, you find yourself walking past stores that manage to be familiar, but alien. You have a vague recollection of gun shops on the side of the road, but they were on every other corner in Vale; in addition, it seems that people aren't bothered about firearms at all, as they're marketed like toys for adults– or even people your age, honestly. You guess the fact that monsters are real might have something to do with that.
Curious, you step into a weapons shop and are… confused, to say the least. You expected guns, but… not EVERY gun; lining shelves were brightly colored rifles, futuristic pistols, bladed snipers, and… not even guns, but gun mechanisms. Something that also strikes you as weird was the fact that there were weapons lining the shelves. Medieval weapons, you should say… sort of. Between the AKs and the shotguns, there were swords, hammers, gauntlets, greaves, basically anything you would expect to see a fantasy video game character to wield. That said, they all looked just as complex as the guns, having triggers, joints, articulation, ports, vents, stuff you expect to see on firearms, and one particular weapon looked like the offspring of a sword and a motorcycle.
You stare blankly at the what-is-decidedly-not-medieval medieval weapons and try and figure out why a store sold a neon blue-bladed halberd alongside military firearms. You don't figure it out until a much older, grizzled enthusiast speaking with the cashier gets handed a large knife with electrical lines along the blade. Interested, you watch as he holds it, testing the weight. He points it forward as if threatening someone, spins it like a cowboy spins a revolver, and in slow motion, you see the blade unlock and reshape into a large magnum-styled pistol in what only took an instant. He lets out a pleased chuckle, pops out the magazine, puts it back, flips it back to a knife, then hands it back to the cashier.
Well, that was cool…
So, that's figured out. Weapons in Vale are AWESOME! On closer inspection, each weapon you look at has specs on how it can transform and integrate with other weapons. Immediately you start fantasizing about using all of the cool weapons in the shop but shake your head. Though you had to see where things went, you don't plan on becoming a fighter right now. You still browse the selection of weapons for fun, learning that, in addition to people using "archaic" weapons, they also use everything and the kitchen sink; in addition to swords and spears, the shop had catalogs of weird weapons like urumis, karambits, and macuahuitls. You don't even know what those are! Also, Dust blades and Dust rounds; you wonder what kind of things a Dust bullet can do. You can guess what a Fire Dust round can do, but an Earth bullet? And you read about Gravity Dust! So much cool stuff to learn about.
Deciding that you would need to learn a lot more about the weapons and technology available, you leave the weapons shop. You think you can still fit in a little more exploring before you should head back, so you start wandering down the road. It takes you a minute to realize, but as you turn a corner, you see that the holographic streetlights disappeared and were replaced with more familiar metal ones. You absentmindedly look up, wondering why there was a disconnect between the technology like that. Was the entire city not up to date? You wonder if it's because–
"Hey!"
With a jump, you return to your senses. You look around and lock eyes with three guys leaning on a wall that look like trouble; you put together that the reason these streets have metal streetlights is that you stepped out of the richer side of town. In addition to the streetlights, lots of trash and boarded up windows were around. You were too caught up to notice.
"You hear me!?" the probable leader of the trio shouted. He didn't sound like a reasonable individual, despite being scrawny, he still managed to be intimidating. The three of them looked maybe a bit younger than you, but about a third as intelligent. Together, they might form one intelligent guy, though one lackey would make up most of the weight.
Realizing you've been surveying the area rather than addressing the person talking to you, you answer, "Uh… hi?"
"What are you doing around here?"
You look around again. "Umm… exploring? I'm new in town–" you say, not entirely inaccurate.
"Cut the crap. Why are you so jumpy?"
You feel as though you are the appropriate amount of jumpy for the situation. In fact, considering you're exploring a brand new world, you're not even that jumpy.
"I was just walking, dude. Chill."
Leader boy steps away from the wall he was leaning on. His eyes focus downward. "I see. And where did you get those shoes?"
You look down at your new shoes. You didn't like where this was going, but you answer, "I bought them just a minute ago. Breaking them in."
"Really?" Leader boy steps forward, causing his lackeys to bump off the wall with him. "Because that sounds suspicious."
Feeling you might need to use your shoes for running in addition to walking, you open your stance in case you need to hightail it. "I bought new shoes. What of it?" You also try to slyly dial your rental to pick you up, but you can't navigate your scroll blindly.
"There's no way a guy like YOU could buy shoes THAT nice, then decide to come HERE to break them in. Nobody with that kind of money comes to this side of town, so you must have stolen them!"
Failing to see the logic in leader boy's words, you start to worry. He clearly was against you for some reason, and his goons didn't have the intelligence to disagree. "Whatever. I didn't steal them, but if it's a crime to talk a walk here, then I'll leave." Hoping exiting the situation would get them off your back, you start to turn. The trio takes a step closer to you. "I'm leaving."
"And if you ARE a thief?"
"I'm not. Look, I'm leaving, okay?" Deciding to get on with life, you start to pull out your scroll to call your car.
"He's pulling something from his pocket!" the fat lackey yells with an accusatory point.
"What!? It's a phone!" you shout to the air. They don't seem to listen or care. You quickly dial your rental car to pick you up, hoping five minutes was two seconds.
"What did he do!?" the other lackey asked.
Knowing it wouldn't matter, you answer, "I called my car." The gang somehow takes that as a crime and start walking towards you. Deciding to chance it, you turn and start hauling ass out of the area, running back to where you came.
"Head him off!" The leader begins running, chasing you for seemingly no reason. His lackeys break off, running to other streets to try and head you off.
Great. Luckily, you have a lot more stamina that you remember, but you still hate that you're running from a bunch of assholes for no reason. You just had to avoid them long enough to get to your car, which tracked your location. You manage to keep a distance, but you don't know where the other two went, so you try to hear where they are with your improved hearing.
"Get back here you furry freak! Damn animal!" the leader shouted, trying to gain on you as you turn on a street corner.
What?
Was… were you being chased because you were a Faunus? The guy chasing you was more concerned with calling you an animal than a thief. No time to think, back to running!
At about half a block away from the guy chasing you, you try to cut through an alley. Unfortunately, you find a chain link fence with the fat lackey on the other side, a stupid smile plastered on his sweating face. You pause to turn back, but the other two after you start coming in from that side. Deciding to put hope into your new(?) body, you go for the fence; if you could manage to jump over it, one out of shape guy was easier to fight/get away from than two.
You kick off from the ground, trying to gain as much speed as you can in your limited window. As you reach a point before the fence in front of you, you try and put as much spring into your leg as possible and jump; you find that everything you're doing feels… oddly natural, despite you having no recollection of having so much maneuverability. Your body lifts off the ground, flies through the air, and clears the fe–
The world grows slower as a wall appears before you. Though you managed to jump high enough to clear the (admittedly short) fence, several hexagonal glass-like plates take shape in front of the lackey, as if he were making them. You bounce painfully off of the bubble shield, falling back onto the ground and scratching your hands in trying to catch yourself. Without time to process what just happened, you climb back up and ready yourself to fight.
"Got him, Gild!" the fat lackey with the bubble shield said. He tries to climb the fence but fails, though he tries to play it off like he was guarding it instead.
"Thought you could get away, huh, freak?" the leader of the thugs/you guess Gild says. "Are all Faunus that dumb?"
You stop yourself from snarling. You were right; this bastard didn't care if you stole your shoes or not, he just cared if you had ears. Faunus must be the target minority around here, and this asshole decided to give you that lesson. Seeing no way out of this, you square up.
"Gonna try and fight your way out? What's the saying about a cornered rat?" Gild looks up at your ears and corrects, "I'm sorry, cornered cat. At a certain point, you all look the same."
Too pissed off to think, you force yourself not to respond. It suddenly occurs to you that the fat guy behind you can make bubble shields; was that some other kind of tech? These guys didn't look like they had money…
"Get him!" Gild shouts, though only the skinnier lackey listens, the fat one incapable of scaling a fence. The two thugs rush at you and start swinging.
You somehow find yourself able to dodge the first strikes, your body moving on its own. However, while you give a solid palm strike to Gild's jaw, you yourself take a hit from his friend. You step back, having taken a blow to the face; you can already feel your eye start to swell, but you don't try to stop. Dodging another blow from the skinny lackey, you sock him in the stomach.
Luckily, you ran into the three thugs on eart– Remnant- that don't know how to actually fight someone who could fight back. Given, you don't really either, but at least that keeps you from serious damage. You block a few strikes from Gild, but take a few from his buddy thanks to opening. Several shots of pain surge through you, forcing you back. You fall back onto a wall– a solid wall, not the chainlink fence; the fat lackey pushes his bubble shield forward, again knocking you to the ground.
"Take this, Feral!"
You suffer numerous kicks to the everywhere before you manage to push Gild and his buddy away to stand. Still a bit hazy, you throw a lucky punch, sprawling the skinny guy onto the ground. In addition to not knowing how to fight fair, they also can't seem to take a good punch. You shake off a hit from Gild and turn to reciprocate but a noise interrupts both of you.
A loud honk sounds off from the street outside the alley. Aware of what it must be, you take advantage of the distraction to land a punch square on Gild's nose; as he hits the wall, stunned, you immediately flee the scene, running towards the street.
Gild and his lackeys recover just in time to watch you hop in your rental car. They come out onto the street as your car's autopilot sends you off. You throw back some middle fingers to rub it in, hoping you never see them again. As you round a corner, you hear Gild shout one last, "Freak!"
As you fall back into your car's seat, you relax a little. You now have a major question to ask Oz about when you see him later, and that was, "How can an uneducated fatass create a bubble shield?" You might consider phrasing it better. As the adrenaline starts to wear off, you find your body aching and lacking breath. You consider one last quick stop before heading home for the day.
About 45 minutes later, you walk up to Ozpin's office with all your new stuff put away, sporting a red beanie that A. matched your jacket's new logo, and B. hid your cat ears from view. Oz turns on his massive gear chair to address you but immediately notices your injuries. He looks worriedly at you, but you cut him off before he gets a word out.
"Sign me up for combat lessons. I'm learning how to fight."
