Forever fall is one of my favorite places. The trees are always in bloom with autumn leaves, and seem to regrow them almost as quickly as they lose them. The forest floor is a carpet of warm colors. I chose today to stretch the old dark side. With a wave of my hand a mask forms across my face, pure white with red lines carved into it. A grimm mask. Blackness spreads over my body, small spires of bone shooting out along my spine as I crouch down, hands shifting to claws.
I let out a small howl, and begin racing through the forest. Leaping from tree to tree, occasionally swiping at weaker grimm which roam the forest. That is until I get a sort of ping. To say grimm lack abilities like ours is incorrect. Each contains a malformed soul, incomplete as it is manufactured instead of natural. They cannot generate an aura, yet some do possess abilities granted to them. They aren't individual, but by species. The beowolf, and several other hunter form grimm, as my father would call them, can actually detect active auras. And there are two nearby.
Normally no one enters Forever Fall, so I find myself curiously inching towards them. And who I find is, well, unnerving. Sitting on a rock is a well dressed girl, wearing a black vest pinned together with a single silver button and a sleeveless white crop top. White shorts, black stockings which lighten to purple as they go, and black boots. Very long black hair, halfway down her back, amber eyes, and a cute bow. Almost like cat ears. She's rather beautiful, but my attention is on the well known psychopath next to her.
Adam Taurus. With an outstanding bounty of three hundred and sixty thousand lien on his head. He wears a half grimm mask, as opposed to my full one. Not a day goes by that I don't find dislike in the White Fang's signature accessory. He wears a long black coat, open in places to reveal a red undershirt, similar to his hair color. Sheathed on his waist is a sword, and a large omega sign is emblazoned onto his shirt's back, the sleeves adorned with stylized roses and thorns.
I inch back a few feet. As brave as I am, I'm not taking on this one. "It's time." He says, and heads off with this faunus girl. At least, I assume she's a faunus. I don't remember Adam as being the type to work with humans from what the news says. Still, I haven't seen this girl before. Right before I start running through the trees to get anywhere else, I hear it. The supply train that runs through Forever Fall. That must be their target! And like an idiot I left my scroll at home. Sighing, and spending a few moments psyching myself up, I try to catch up to them.
Sliding down the hill, I follow their method of reaching the train. Eyes trained on them, about six cars up, I see him rest his hands on the hilt of his sword, and suddenly the locked hatch is missing its lock. Faster than I could even see. God I'm so dead. Catching up to them, I hear from the hatch "-dentify yourself." Followed by a screech of metal on metal. Atlas automated defense troops. Well, this certainly isn't good. I climb down into the hatch, anchoring myself to the roof with my claws.
Adam, for all his flaws, certainly knows how to fight. Slicing through the Knights like paper. And that faunus girl has some interesting weaponry. A cleaver for a sheathe, and a katana with a pistol at the crossguard. With a bit of mechanical mystery it folds down into a lethal kusarigama, when attached to that long black ribbon on her arm. In mere moments they are in the next car. I gulp, and follow. Adam begins checking crates with this other faunus. After a bit I hear a sound I became familiar with in Atlas. A security droid booting up. I look up at this odd black shape I'm next to, as red eyes stare back at me.
"Blake, move on up to the next car. I'll set the charges."
"Explosive device detected. Unknown manufacturing signature. Protocol Two in effect."
"But what about the crew?"
"What about them?"
"Lethal Force Authorized." And then it detaches. The train shakes as it lands. Four large legs, a humanoid torso, and both arm and shoulder cannons. Last I heard, they hadn't worked out all the kinks. Let's hope it at least wounds Adam.
Immediately they attack it, to little effect. And it attacks them. Rather effectively. It thrusts one of its legs out to kick Blake when she tries to bring her sheathe down on it, and keeps her on the defensive with those powerful energy blasts. Adam briefly grabs its attention, and she goes in for a kill. The droid, despite being still a work in progress, attacks her again with a preemptive strike before she can connect, headbutting her across the freight car. And then its cannons begin to slot together.
"Move!" The bull yells, pulling his ally out of the way of its blast, which rips the freight car open behind them. Taking advantage, they head outside. And the droid looks at me. Rather slowly, I creep out of the hatch, and assume a different mask. With wings now, curtesy of the nevermore, I head into the trees. At this point I'm far too curious to leave this alone, so I struggle to keep up.
I barely get close when a red shock-wave of energy nearly takes my arms off. The top of the droid flies up into the air, and disintegrates. I manage to end up on the car past them, and perch on top of it. In the aftermath of the spider droid, there's an uneasy silence, before Blake cuts the car coupling. Adam roars in rage, leaping and catching the edge of the car, to both of our surprises, pulling himself up and drawing his blade.
"No one leaves the White Fang Blake. No one leaves Me." Adam Taurus everyone, representing everything humans fear about the faunus. The blades clash against each other. He easily overpowers her, knocking her around like a training dummy. I've got to do something, but getting involved against that guy, I gotta wait for a good time, or he's going to kill me too. "This isn't really a surprise. I've seen the signs. You, trying so hard to spare our enemies, when they'd rather skin us alive than have a civil conversation. Well, I guess I can count you among them now!" He sends her rolling across the floor, edging ever closer to the end of the train. Perfect.
"You're insane Adam! You always think the worst! How many people have you killed? How many families have lost someone because of us?"
"By people, you mean vermin. Do we cry when the grimm are slaughtered when they attack us? Do you feel sympathy for them too Blake?" He starts laughing as I creep up behind him. "Of course you do. You just weren't cut out for this life. And neither was your weak father!" He raises his sword, and I unleash a barrage of feathers into his back, knocking him off the train car. He screams as he hits the ground. Watching him grow smaller, I feel a bit relieved when he gets up. I've never had to kill another person before. Even though it would have done the world a favor had he died. Maybe a grimm will get him. This place is full of them.
And then I feel a pain in my side. And another, as the lady I just saved begins beating the crap out of me. "Ah! Stop it, ow, what the hell?" I push her off, sending a feather into her ribbon, pinning it to the door of the next car. Slowly, the blackness slides off, the mask falling, then dissipating against the ground. "Is that any way to treat your hero?"
"What the hell are you?"
"That, my friend, is nowhere near as important as what you're going to do now."
Reminding her that she just had a brief fight with the world's most notorious criminal caused her to immediately shift focus, eyes opening wide. "No one who's left the White Fang has lived a peaceful life. He'll come for me."
"So how does one with passable combat experience get more?" She looks up at me skeptically. "They train. Even better, they attend a school designed to train them for combat." Her eyes tell me she's not following. "Ever hear of Beacon Academy?" She bursts out into laughter.
"There's no way they'll let me in with my background."
"I don't know, Ozpin's a long time family friend, according to my dad. I'm sure if I ask really nicely he'll look over the White Fang part of your resume." She glares at my joking tune. "Just a suggestion. If you need a place to stay, I know this nice, quiet cabin. Has a spare bedroom. You know, till you're on your feet."
"Well, what have I got to lose?"