February 3rd, 2000…
Sgt. Vine had called his deputies to order, Adam Taurus had managed to escape from prison less than four days ago with the help of a low-level criminal named Mercury Black. A task force of six officers including Tai, Clover, Harriet, and the Sergeant sat in the briefing room ready to discuss the crisis that was unfolding around them. Tai sat in the smoky room as a couple officers took long drags off their cigarettes.
Adam Taurus was the subject of this emergency meeting.
"Alright we had a strong reason to believe that Taurus is going to return to this area, so I need to know exactly what we know about him." The Sergeant said. "Harriet, what do you have?"
Tai liked Harriet, she was young, one of the youngest in his particular precinct, she mostly worked dispatch but she had a good head for research. The ebony-skinned young woman was reportedly dating another officer by the name of Marrow.
Tai started to seriously question how some people get named but he kept such thoughts to himself.
"Sir, Adam Taurus is, of course, a 17-year-old teenager male standing six feet tall with ginger red hair. As of today's date, he also has the distinction of being the only person in the county to be tried as an adult for the sheer levels of abuse he laid into his ex-girlfriend Blake Belladonna." Harriet said as she was reading from a notepad. "I… You don't need me to go into details about that do you?"
Sgt Vine simply said, "Sexual assault, regular assault, and battery, Drug use, possession of narcotics, We all know the depth this son of a bitch went, and none of us will be able to sleep well while he's free."
Tai chimed in "We're going to need to know where he's going to be crashing at when he gets back here."
Harriet spoke up again. "That's the real challenge we are having here, most of his friends have publicly distanced themselves from him since his initial arrest. His mother had disowned him formally. And of course, the Belladonna's are going to likely, murder him, grind up his corpse, and feed him to their livestock if they get their hands on him"
Tai snaps his fingers and spoke up "Right we need to station someone to watch her residence, her parents are on vacation and Blake Belladonna has been bouncing between her house and Winter Schnee's home."
Sgt Vine looked at Clover "Rookie, that's your new job."
Clover Scoffed "Alright, I'm behind on a few books I was reading anyways"
Tai snapped at Clover "Take the Job seriously, I suspect if he does come our way he's going to target her."
Clover waved it off "Yeah, I know I know."
Sergeant Vine looked around at his officers and asked "Okay what do we know about Taurus himself, anywhere he might be able to go to hide in town? Any friends he could stay with?"
Clover spoke up "The short answer is no, like we said, publicly most of his friends distanced themselves from him after his arrest, his mother has also formally disowned him as well. His father is dead so no dice there as well."
Tai Chimed in again "Yeah you want to talk about a rabbit hole, the Taurus father's death…"
"What was so strange about it?" Clover said "My research showed it was an accident"
"Yeah, that was the official word, but it was a clearly happy accident if we want to go off the fact that after that 'accident' Adam's mother didn't feel the need to wear quite as much makeup as she was wearing in public before," Tai said.
Everyone looked confused at Tai so he clarified by adding "the Taurus family lived on the outskirts of the town, the poor side of an already poor town at the time. The wife never would come forward and she was never willing to press charges, but we know she was getting the shit beat out of her regularly."
Clover clicked his tongue "And if she didn't press charges for a domestic dispute..."
"We couldn't do shit about it." Tai said, "The circumstances of the father's death were also strange, they lived on a decent-sized plot of land, and the idea that he wouldn't remember where a large hole in the property was is just comical to think about."
"The reports said he was drunk at the time" Clover added.
"He was always drunk" Tai smiled and said "Well it's in the past either way. What I want to know is why on earth did he break out from prison in the first place. He was two years into a three-year sentence."
Harriet jumped in "I was able to gather that about six months ago he was interviewed by a prison psychologist and it was determined that he was dealing with paranoid schizophrenia."
Tai looked over at her and asked "So what? That just makes him the type of guy my daughter would date."
"Meaning he was going straight from Jail to a psych ward long term" Harriett added. "He was also borderline on Sociopathy and was dangerously disconnected from reality."
"That's the real story then," Tai stated, "They were going to lock him up and throw away the key."
"Either way, we won't get anything done just sitting around here, Rookie, You go straight to the Belladonna residence and park there. Do not leave until you are relieved." Sergeant vine said. "Tai, you and Marrow are on patrol, you see anything. Make sure you check any abandoned houses that might be in the area to be safe."
"Understood," Tai said. "Let's go Marrow"
Marrow stood up and nodded following Tai out.
Clover smiled as he went also left "Bout time we get some action"
Harriet rolled her eyes "I'll be in dispatch then?"
"Your to only focus on this operation, Taurus is our priority right now."
Harriet nodded and stepped out.
Meanwhile in one of the manage abandoned houses that dotted the town Sun lounged around with Scarlett and Sage as the trio waited for the one that summoned them.
As the trio sat around on long-abandoned furniture and waited, Sun was the first to speak up. "I don't know about any of this…."
"The boss did right by us before now," Sage said. "We even kicked the shit out of that Arc kid for his part in getting the boss locked up."
"Yeah but now the boss is out, the cops will be looking for him" Scarlet stated
"That's the point I was trying to reach, the boss broke out of prison for God's sake, do we want to get nailed to the wall for helping him?" Sun asked.
"Considering he's going to nail you to the wall if you don't help him?" Scarlet said as he brushed strands of red hair out of his face.
"I'd hate to be Neptune right now, first the son of a bitch dropped his colors and now he's dating that blonde bitch friend of Blake's," Scarlet said.
"Just don't mention either of them to Adam when he gets here," Sun said.
The trio waited in silence for a few moments when the heard the sounds of heavy boots stomping on the creaking floor. When Adam rounded the corner he had a smile on his face.
"Good to see you Adam," Sage said with a smirk. "I was starting to wonder how long you were going to make us wait here."
"Oh well, I had to make a couple stops on the way here," Adam said as he laid a pair of bloody gloves and a bloody knife on the table before he sat down on a broken-down chair like it was a throne.
Sun's eyes shot wide at the side of the bloody items on the table before he shouted: "What did you fucking do Adam?!"
"Oh, I had realized that it's been a while since I saw my dear sweet mother" Adam said in a sickly polite voice. "I dropped in to say hello on my way over.:
"Jesus… You murdered your own mother?" Sun said as his voice cracked and struggled to get the words out.
"I avenged the murder of my father," Adam said smugly. "A good man that was taken before his time."
Sage and Scarlet exchanged concerned glances before Scarlet spoke up. "So why are we here Adam?"
"Because I just declared war my friends," Adam declared "I declared war on everyone in this town that would cross us!"
"What does that mean for us?" Sun asked, folding his arms across his chest.
"Each of you is going to have a job to do, or to be more precise, someone I need to be taken out," Adam said. "Scarlet you did a wonderful job filling me in on Blake's social circles. I want you to take out the one named Yang Branwen."
"I can do that," Scarlet said out loud.
"Make sure no one in that house is left alive," Sun added.
"I said I can do it," Scarlet repeated himself.
"Sage, You get to kill Jaune Arc's Family," Adam said so matter of factly that one would have thought he was telling him the type of toppings to order on a pizza.
"Wait a god damn second, you want Sage to kill a fucking infant?" Sun stammered out "That's not even right, his family had nothing to do with your arrest, the baby wasn't even alive when you were arrested!"
"No, but Alan Ozpin was involved, as well this Arc kid, the girl is collateral damage Sun," Adam stated.
"In what world is it okay to murder an infant!" Sun shouted.
"In my world, the world that you fucking live on Sun!" Adam shouted. "Or do you want to be on the list as well?"
Sun froze and spoke softly "No, No I don't want to be on the list, Adam."
"Good, so I understand that Arc has a girl. She's a sweet one, I believe her name is Penny?" Adam said with a wicked grin "You know her right?"
"Jesus Christ Adam she has nothing to do with this," Sun said.
"She's your target, make it happen or you're going to one of our next targets." Adam declared.
Sun clenched his fists for a moment and weighed his options. "Alright, fine I'll get it done."
Adam smirked having never so much as even shifted from his comfortable looking slouch. "Good, do whatever preparations you all need to do, we'll strike in three days."
"What are you going to be doing Adam?" Sun asked
"I hear Blake is fucking the Schnee girl, I'm going to kill her, real slowly," Adam said with a giggle that sent a disturbing shiver down the spines of the three other members of Adam's group.
Scarlet chuckled "What happens once you've killed everyone around Blake, you kill her?"
Adam laughed, he laughed so hard he doubled over in his seat with his feet kicking in glee "Oh by that point she'll have lost everything, so of course we're going to kill her. I mean we're going to play with her one last time for nostalgia's sake, but then we kill her. Once that's done, then we get in contact with a friend of mine and we skip town to greener pastures."
Adam's smile widened "Well be fucking legends!"
Jaune sat around at his computer with little Bethany snuggled up taking a nap on his bed, Jaune couldn't believe his little sister was already six months old. She ended up being a bit of an early crawler and he spent a lot of his day after school keeping his little sister occupied and out of the kitchen cabinets. She had passed out on the floor after a particularly vigorous game of "chase the cat" before the As he sat at his desk with Nine inch Nails playing on his cd player, mostly because for some reason Bethany seems to like to sleep listening to it.
It'll be good to have another metal fan in the house.
Once Ruby had finally logged onto her computer he messaged her almost instantly.
DARKKNIGHTARC: Hey!
RBYROSE1: Hey what's up? I was about to get Blake on so we can plan out a few things.
DARKKNIGHTARC: Can we stop pretending we hate each other at school?
RBYROSE1: I guess we might as well, we haven't made any headway on the subject of Sun and his gang have we?
DARKKNIGHTARC: No we haven't managed to pull off a damn thing in almost three months. Besides honestly... This Adam situation is scaring the hell out of me.
RBYROSE1: Yeah I hear you, Dad and a deputy named Clover has been taking turns parking outside of Blake's place to watch out for Adam to try something.
DARKKNIGHTARC: Maybe nothing will come of this. Maybe Adam will fuck off to another state or just stay in the area.
DARKKNIGHTARC: Also who in the hell names their kid Clover?
RBYROSE1: Maybe they'll catch him before anything happens.
RBYROSE1: Also who knows it might be a distant relative of Blake or something.
DARKKNIGHTARC: Yeah who knows.
Jaune saw the notification message show Blake had logged in and Jaune quickly invited her to the chat.
RBYROSE1: Blake how are you holding up?
DARKKNIGHTARC: Hey Blake, you doing okay?
BLACKCAT42: I'm doing as well as I can expect to be.
DARKKNIGHTARC: My mom wasn't too pleased with the idea but she is going to be okay with me spending the night at your place Saturday so you won't be home alone.
RBYROSE1: Yeah I'll be there as well.
BLACKCAT42: I appreciate it. You're not going to piss Penny off are you Jaune?
DARKKNIGHTARC: Honestly I don't know what the hell we are, Penny really has no idea what she really wants from us. But she was fine with it.
BLACKCAT42: Well she has been making you happy at least.
DARKKNIGHTARC: I think that has just as much to do with the meds as Penny, to be honest.
BLACKCAT42: Well sure I suppose that's true.
DARKKNIGHTARC: Is everything okay? Has anyone reached your parents on the cruise ship yet?
BLACKCAT42: No… and honestly I wish Weiss would hurry up and get back so we can get back to what we were doing.
DARKKNIGHTARC: Which I'm sure I don't need to hear about.
BLACKCAT42: Well we have a lot less to worry about than most couples to be fair.
DARKNIGHTARC: Ruby, help, she's talking about sex again!
There was a pause as Jaune waited for a response from Ruby.
BLACKCAT42: Ruby?
When she didn't respond to that Jaune started to panic….
DARKKNIGHTARC: Ruby! You good!?
A moment later ruby finally responded.
RBYROSE1: Yeah sorry, my dad had some disturbing news he wanted me to pass on.
DARKKNIGHTARC: What happened?
RBYROSE1: Dad said they just did a wellness check on Adam Taurus's mother... she was found murdered in her home, hell in her bed…
BLACKCAT42: Adam….
DARKKNIGHTARC: Jesus Christ…
RBYROSE1: I think we all need to plan for the worst-case scenario now. I got to log-off, Blake the officer outside your house was notified so he's on alert. Your safe okay?
BLACKCAT42: I hear you… Thanks for letting me know.
Both Blake and Ruby logged off at about the same time just in time for Jaune's step-father to knock on his door.
Jaune turned and signed [We need to talk…]
Alan nodded and said, "Let's talk then."
Things are starting to kick off already, I kinda have a plan in mind for this storyline that is already shaping up, I do plan on fleshing out Adam's backstory more than what was presented by a group of jaded sheriff's deputies. But this should get the fires stoked for this.
I also plan on showing this for the full horror of the situation that it is, everyone is in over their heads already and it's not going to get easier for anyone as the story rolls forward. But hopefully you all are down for the ride that i'm tossing you all on.
So lets talk about last chapters reviews as we do.
First off Gustrubio it's good to see you! Sun's reaction in both the last chapter and this one has been interesting right? Also Penny being part of the story now and being a sorta love interest for Jaune has been fun, even if as of now it's more of a confused "what the hell are we" Mess on their parts. I didn't exactly hide that Penny has more than a passing resemblance to Pyrrha in story, not exactly a dead ringer, but damn close.
Hey Calamk, your damn right I love stirring the pot, what's so fun about a status quo anyways?
Dragon lord Syed: Your not the first person to mention how Aceops fits the role of police officers rather well, I mean they are in canon more or less super cops in a way, just kinda good luck they became part of the show when they did I suppose.
Rando Guest, I know your reviewing chapter 8 but once you reach this chapter, yeah, they kinda are. I think that's my real life occupation leaking into my writing a bit.
Well as always, I want to take the time to think every last one of you for reading, and once again I hope you all have a great rest your day, until next time!
