The moment the sun peeked its head out of the horizon, Ray started banging on everyone's door, screaming like a drill Sargent.
"Rise and shine! Early Huntsman guts the Grimm!"
Neil opened the door, still looking sleepy. "Isn't the saying 'gets' the Grimm?"
"And where's the fun in that?" Ray laughed. Neil never suspected the man of any sense of humor, but there it was.
Vivian, noticing the Huntsman attitude, added a comment of her own. "Someone's feeling chipper this morning."
She knew the man longer than anyone from the team. It was clear to her that he actually enjoyed the fact the old gang was back together. Even if he never was keen on talking about his emotions, he could show them in different ways.
Preparing for the investigation, everyone checked their gear and everything they would need. Ray checked his mechanical blinder's mechanism, sliding it open and closed a few times, revealing an empty eye socket. Neil was enamored by the technology and pondered on other applications of that kind of system.
"Instead of a blinder, you could use a hard light display and…"
Ray cut him off by raising his hand. "You can theorize about the applications of a simple eyepatch another time."
"How did you even get something like that?"
"I needed a blinder that I didn't need to take off and put on by hand, so I commissioned a tech guy. Nothing more to the story," he finished, flicking the redhead's hand when he was reaching to touch the piece of tech.
Nina tested out her and Gran's weapons before giving her thumbs up. She built both those weapons after all, and after all these years, Gran still had troubles learning all technical aspects of them. He did feel comfortable using his Crimson Tide in battle, however. His weapon was a retractable double-bladed bo-staff. With a single press of a button, blades from both sides shot out, creating a deadly weapon capable of cutting through any Grimm. Nina's Orchid Flame, on the other hand, was a wide-bladed whip-sword.
After the revision of the plan again, they separated into three groups. Each headed in different directions, hoping to uncover the mystery of disappearing citizens.
Ray walked with purpose towards the higher peaks of the Upper Cliffs, followed by eager Neil. The redhead was constantly looking around as he did not have the pleasure of seeing the city before. The residential area was much cleaner and distinct than other parts of the town. Even more so, the higher they were getting. Some of the houses at the more challenging to reach places were almost decadent. Captivated by the sights, Neil almost lost Ray but quickly sped up his pace and got back to him.
"So, where are we going first?" He asked the leader of this team.
"We'll check on the Black Sheep veterans first," he answered without stopping his stride. "We could go to The Skillful in search of some goons from both factions, but I think it's much more effective to go to the source."
"Sure," Neil just nodded, thinking about their whole endeavor. "Anything you want me to know before we start questioning them?"
Ray thought for a while before giving an answer. "Just follow my lead, and you should be fine." After a brief moment, he added: "They might mistake you for a girl, so you should be mindful of that."
Neil didn't know if he should feel offended by that remark, but he knew where he was coming from. He did look very much like his sister; they were twins, after all. Were… A sting through his heart reminded him of the past. But it was a long time ago, and he moved on. His hand rested on his weapon, a kusarigama he named Tsukuyo. After her death, he upgraded it with the parts from her Imhullu. An immortalized part of her that will always be with him.
"This is the place," Ray pulled him out of his thoughts.
They were standing at the entrance of something that looked like a more deluxe version of the Vagabond. A simple pub but with a much more focused clientele. When they entered, no one batted an eye. They blended perfectly with all the locals, as the vast majority of them were Huntsmen. Wherever you looked, huge men and battle-tested women didn't care for anyone who entered and just kept to their own cliques.
Ray scanned the room in search of any prominent Black Sheep members when a woman caught his eye. Approximately his height, the woman was dressed in leather armor with an engraved rose on its waist. She was picking up dirt from under her nails with a brass knuckle knife. With an impressive pink mohawk that lightly drooped down, covering her eye, she slowly pulled up her head, and their eyes met. A strange chill went down his back, seeing her look; a mixture of anger and confidence that was hard to describe. What surprised Ray the most was that no one else seemed to notice or acknowledge her standing there.
"Is everything ok?" Neil asked his friend, who looked a bit rattled.
The one-eyed man turned away just for a moment to see his comrade's expression, but when he turned to look at the woman again – she was gone.
"Yeah," he said, confused. "Just looking for some familiar faces."
He waved his hand for Neil to follow him when they sat next to a group that looked like a definition of 'retired Huntsmen.'
"Hey guys," Ray quickly started his pitch. "I don't want to bullshit anyone here, so let's just cut to the chase: Are you members of Black Sheep?"
They all busted out laughing, but one of the bigger men turned towards him. "Depends on who's asking."
"My friend over here is very curious," he pointed out Neil with his thumb.
The redhead only sighted and got closer to the bulky man. He looked into his eyes with a polite smile and asked the same question: "Are you members of Black Sheep?"
"Yes," he answered immediately, with a look of shock and confusion on his face.
Neil continued looking into his eyes. "We are interested in the recent kidnappings. Do you, perhaps, have any information on that topic?"
"I don't."
The rest of the gang started exchanging confused stares and even picked up their weapons.
"Do you know anyone who might have some information about that?"
The man was struggling for a moment but finally gave an answer. "I don't think anyone connected to the Black Sheep has any information. Some of our members also had gone missing."
"Thank you for your cooperation," Ray said with a smile on his face and slapped the man in the face playfully.
Neil got closer to the man and whispered, "cover us as we retreat."
"What the hell was that, man?" One of the huge man's friends jumped towards him, and the man turned around, concealing the two Huntsmen with his hulking body. Ray and Neil were already in a different part of the bar.
"Do you think there's someone higher up that might know more?" Neil asked Ray.
"Don't think so," he was thinking. "But might as well try a couple more guys. Maybe one of them will prove more useful."
They approached a few more groups with the same tactic, asking if the Black Sheep could be in some way involved with the vanishings. However, they didn't get any useful information. Many didn't know a thing or had information that was already in the scope of public knowledge. They tried for about an hour, but the more they tried, the tenser the atmosphere in the put was getting. Unsettling whispers about a 'very charismatic man' started to spread around, and Neil felt more tired, so they decided it was high time to bail.
"I don't think this is getting us anywhere," he said to Raymond. "Don't forget that we also have to check the Wave."
"I was sure we get something here," the man sounded frustrated.
"At least we can assume the Wave should know more as the Black Sheep members were also abducted."
"Ray!" A raspy voice screamed out from nearby, and they both turned their heads. "You son of a gun!" The voice belonged to a rather skinny bald man who walked towards them with two other people.
"Red," Raymond seem to know the man. "How's the job treating you?" He asked with a sarcastic tone.
The man and his friends stood, trying to look intimidating. "I thought you understood the meaning of the words 'never show your face around here.' But it seems you're dumber than you look."
"What can I say," Ray shrugged, amused. "I always was more of a looker."
Red rolled up his sleeves. "You can get out of here or face the consequences. No lapdog of the Ma…"
Before he could end the sentence, he was hit with Ray's knuckle. Then with a front kick, Merlot sent the man flying through the bar, where he landed on one of the tables. Before Neil could comprehend what was going on, Ray leaped in chase of the adversary. The two men accompanying Red attacked the redhead, not giving him much time to defend.
Someone from the pub crowd started to shout. "Bar brawl! Everyone get in here!"
The simple attack turned the place into the utmost chaos. Stools and bottles started flying, hitting random patrons. Someone even threw one of the clients into a different client.
Neil got hit a couple of times before he was able to regain his composure. The two men attacking him were trained Huntsmen, and it looked like they were no chumps either. He wasn't as good in hand to hand combat as Amethyst or Ray, but he wasn't bad at it. He deflected a few of their punches and kicks and started an offense of his own. One of the men blocked his jabs, while the other sprung from the nearby wooden column and attacked with a spinning kick. He avoided the attack in time, but the other enemy took the chance to deliver a knee to Neil's gut. The second foe prepared another assault, but a random patron crashed his mug on his head, sending the man to the ground.
Ray flew through the air and landed knee first on Red's face, who blacked immediately. After that, complete chaos erupted around him with random kicks and punches everywhere. One of the clients rushed towards him. Ray quickly swept his leg, and before the opponent even touched the ground, he spun around and delivered another kick. The attacker stopped at the nearby wall and crashed into the table of a group of Black Sheep members. They all stood up and, with angry faces, attacked Merlot.
He was in his element. Blood pumping through his veins with a spike of adrenaline made him excited for the upcoming exchanges. The first attacker wound up a punch, but Ray was faster and elbowed him in the stomach. The opponent stumbled, and he used that opportunity for a roundhouse kick to the man's face. Two other adversaries emerged, and Ray acted on instinct. He deflected a jab to the side to go into a spinning back fist towards the second opponent. After that, he kicked the enemy he firstly avoided in the knee to immobilize him and finished him with an elbow to the side of his face.
Nearby a group of random patrons was exchanging blows, and Ray could not help himself but attack them. With a short dash, he bolley kicked one of them in the head, instantly knocking him out. With the momentum, he somersaulted backward on a nearby table.
"Who's next?" He exclaimed, raising his arms in a challenging manner.
Neil was pushed to the back of the bar, attacked by the remaining thug and some other random clients who just wanted to mess with anyone. He was considering using his weapon, as he was tired and out of his depth in this situation. But exercising it in a simple bar brawl seems a tad too excessive. He continued to defend himself against the oppressor when he noticed Ray standing on a table in the middle of the bar. He was randomly kicking anyone who got close and seemed to enjoy the whole setting.
"That's enough!" Suddenly a roaring voice boomed across the place. A man with a well build upper body, bald head, and a really long, light-blue beard slammed his foot on the ground. Everyone in the bar was pulled from the ground and suspended in the air, floating like there was no gravity. "Who started it?"
All fingers started pointing towards Raymond, floating in place positioned with his legs crossed and arms behind his head. He looked like he was in an invisible hammock.
The man looked at the one-eyed warrior with rage that could almost melt. "Get him and anyone he's associated with out of this joint!" He snapped his fingers, and a few of the Black Sheep patrons dopped down.
They tossed out Ray and Neil out of the pub, but not before Red – who was conscious now – threw some death threads in Merlot's direction.
"You're a dead man walking Raymond! Remember that!"
With a confident smirk, Raymond simply extended one of his fingers in an uncensored gesture towards the thug without even looking at him. The one-eyed man put his hands in his pockets and moved in the direction of the Central Strip.
Neil, with a few bruises and a small headache, followed Ray. "Can we just take some rest?" He asked after a while when he felt his headache was growing stronger.
"If you want," his companion said without looking at him. "I'm still going to see the Wave."
"And I doubt you could get anything without my semblance…" His mind was getting a bit fuzzy, but one question was slowly emerging from the chaos of his thoughts. "What was with that Red guy? Why did you attack him?"
"Just some punk from the old days," he said without batting an eye. "We had our misunderstandings before, and he gets on my nerves. Couldn't resist the urge to punch him, so I did."
"There has to be some more to the story," Neil was skeptical. "You wanted to silence him… He was saying something you didn't want me to hear…"
Ray raised his eyebrow, eyeing his partner. He then started laughing. "You read too much into this, my man."
Still, Neil could not shake off the feeling that something wasn't right.
Raymond led them towards the Lower Valley. More precisely, the warehouse district where all of the gangs had their stored cargo and loot. Every single warehouse was a small fortress, guarded by tons of henchmen armed to the teeth. Not many ventured here, so the guardsmen didn't hide.
"To be honest," Ray suddenly said. "I can't precisely differentiate which spaces are which. But knowing in what kind of 'commodity' Wave deals in, I would guess it's this one."
He pointed out the least noticeable stockroom. A few goons were arguing about one thing or another. The duo came closer to utilize Neil's semblance and get the info they needed. The moment the guardsmen noticed the two men getting closer, they slowly stood up and got in on their path.
"You have any problems, fellers?" The tallest and skinniest one of them asked. He was the only one not having an automatic rifle beside him.
This time it was Neil who took the lead. "We're just investigating the cases of recent disappearances. Maybe you… 'fellers'… can help us out a bit?"
Raymond chuckled under his breath.
"What's so funny?" The man closed in towards Merlot, annoyed.
"It's very impolite to turn away from someone when they are talking to you," Neil said as politely as he could.
The skinny guy suddenly turned his attention towards the redhead and moved strangely to face the man. He almost seemed like a shark circling his prey. His face was now directly in front of Neil's. So close, in fact, that he could feel his breath on his skin.
"Sorry if I'm not so accomodating when the 'guests' are making fun of my accent."
"I apologize for my friend," Neil smiled and locked his eyes with the man. "I just want to know if you perhaps know anything about the recent kidnappings?"
"The only known victims were the Faunus, some homeless, and both Hana and Black Sheep members."
"So no Wave members vanished?" Neil was intrigued.
"Not that I know of." The man seemed unaware that he was under the effect of his semblance.
After some consideration, the redhead released him from his influence. "You can go back to your post."
The man nodded and went back to his previous guard duty to shocked expressions from his fellow henchmen. They both closed in on Neil.
"You never saw us, you never saw us," the red-head said while looking in the eyes of the first one and then the second goon.
They stopped in their tracks, noded, and returned to their post to the tall guard's small confusion. He turned around to see the people he was just talking to, but they had already vanished.
"You didn't ask any more questions?" Ray was surprised.
"I don't think we could get any more info from that particular guy," Neil answered. "We might need to get someone higher up."
"That could be hard to set up…"
"At least we know that Wave looks the most guilty at the moment. Their members are the only ones that were spared the fate of being abducted."
"It still could be just a random fact that has nothing to do with what's really going on," Ray stated.
Neil was thinking about that. "It might, but for the sake of moving forward with the investigation, we should focus on that piece of information."
"So if Wave is actually responsible, some of the higher up should know about that."
"That's exactly what I was thinking. We just need to find anyone who would have that kind of information."
Neil looked at Ray, waiting.
"What? You think I know absolutely everything about the ins and outs of the organized crime in this city?"
"No," the redhead sighed. "I was just hoping you might." He smiled towards his companion.
All of a sudden, Ray's expression changed. He was looking blankly in one direction with a similar face he had for a moment at the pub. Neil looked in the way he was observing in hopes of seeing what caused him this distress. Nothing.
"Is everything ok?" He asked him to the surprise of the one-eyed man.
Ray shook his head after looking in a different direction for a brief moment. He then rubbed his eye and looked again.
"Maybe I'm just tired?" He said, confused. "I swear I saw someone there…"
"It was almost a full day of going around the city. Your eyes could be playing tricks on you. I myself would love a warm bed right now." He massaged his temples in the hope of relieving some of his headache. "Well, we can't say we are ending the day empty-handed. Wonder how the rest of the gang is doing."
A sudden chill made his skin crawl. A strange feeling that someone was watching him. He turned around. Nothing.
It must be the headache, went through his head.