CH2: The Silver Knight and The Black Fang
Few weeks before to the night club incident.
"How did we not see this?"
Inside the drop-ship, Shieri, who spaced-out by being preoccupied with his gear inspection, turns his attention momentarily back to the small round device that is projecting a hologram of the Atlesian General. Though, in the hologram, the General has his back turned, which makes the boy assume that the man was speaking to himself.
Or so he thought.
"Silver Knight?"
Once again, Shieri—suppressing what little frustration he has built by this annoyance—turns his head back to the hologram of the General, revealing no emotion whatsoever.
The General wore his usual attire, which composed of a three-piece suit—though the vest the man wore was gray, while the slacks and jacket were white. He also wore one white glove on his right hand; a Band-Aid over his brow and has black hair with grayish-white streaks on the sides, due to age—and possibly stress.
The General raises a brow at the boy, noticing his cold expression and his current attire for the mission he was being sent on.
Shieri's fashion for the trip is made up of a fitted, long-sleeved, black coat, with a large scarf-collar that has a sowed-in mask that covers the lower-half of his face, which also has silver-trims all around the coat—and a silver-stripe that goes from the collar down to the hem of the coat; gray-black combat-pants with knee-pads, and pistol-holsters; and black commando-boots. The boy also wore pieces of silver armor that covered vital organs, and vein arteries, which altogether makes him look like an armored priest.
"Must I repeat myself?"
Shieri sighs, "No, sir."
"Then how did we let this happen?" Then general slams his fist onto his desk.
"It could be that the White Fang sent one of their special units to hijack a section of the Schnee company freight-train."
"But why only a section and not the entire train?"
"Maybe your mechs were manufactured well and did their job this time?" Shieri retorts.
The General frowns as the young boy goes back to inspecting his weapons, which are a pair of small black dual-magnums that have the ability to transform into dual-sabers by adjusting the handles to extract blades made of pure Dust energy.
"May I remind you, Hurosaki, that this is a very serious matter," the General continues, "this is the first time that the White Fang have sent a pair of their own to steal five train cars. Successfully."
"If they successfully stole five train cars," The Silver Knight puts his pistols in his holsters and tightens his shoe-laces, "then why do you have me doing a C-I, when you could have easily sent a battalion of troops, and airships to comb the land."
"You are not a criminal investigator, Silver Knight," the General retorts.
The Silver Knight began to repeat himself. "Then why am I-"
"You're on this mission, because one of the crewmen aboard the train reported a young Faunus girl disconnecting a section of the train," the General continues, "thus indicating the missing five train cars."
At this moment, Shieri wanted to ask why the General mentioned a young Faunus girl, but instead of asking, the boy merely answers his question out loud to clarify with the Atlesian.
"So you're assuming that this girl managed to eradicate a group of over thirty Atlesian Knight Drones and a large walker mech-"
"Yes, but-"
"-but she didn't do it alone, obviously," The Silver Knight interrupts, abruptly.
"No." The General frowns and types a few keys. "Apparently, video feed from one of the drones showed an older boy, standing on the edge of the train car that was separated from the rest of the train. Opposite, from where the girl was standing."
Shieri sighs and asks the main question that's been frustrating him in this situation, "So who I am going after then?"
"Well…" the General pauses for a moment, "you were to go after the boy but we lost sight of the entire stolen cargo and him. So you are to apprehend the girl instead."
From Shieri's view, the General appears to be typing something, though he cannot see what the Atlesian General is interacting with.
"So where is this girl now?"
"She was last seen jumping off the Schnee company train at a train-yard in the industrial district in the kingdom of Vale." The General answers.
"Right now?"
"Right now"
Shieri snorts, "I'm less than ten minutes away."
"Then you know what must do. Remember though, I want her alive."
Before the General reaches over to disconnect comm-chat with Shieri, he looks back up at the boy, whose cold expression actually seems a little, puzzled.
"Oh, and the Atlas Council is paying over one-hundred thousand lien for this contract." The General adds, "Also, I am sending what images we have captured regarding the Faunus girl, so you can have a visual on what you're looking for… Signing off, Silver Knight."
At that the hologram of the Atlesian General fades away, which automatically shuts off the little device.
Underneath his mask, the Silver Knight smiles. It's a good thing we understand one-another, General Ironwood.
The young boy stands up from his seat aboard the drop ship and pulls out of his pocket a rectangular monocle HUD, and places it over his right eye. The boy takes a deep breath as the nano-drones that are released from the section of the HUD that covers his entire right ear, moving their way into his ear and attach themselves to his brain to create a neuro-connection from the HUD piece to his brain; heightening his sight, hearing, and perception senses. Without having to tire himself out by using his aura.
As the HUD device registers Shieri's bio-signs and other vital information that helps him out in the field; the boy walks toward the door leading to the cockpit of the drop-ship. He knocks on the door three-times, as per usual, to indicate he's jumping out of the drop-ship. In response to the boy's knocks, the pilot turns on the green-light signal atop the door.
Shieri now steps away from the door and moves towards the side hatch which is now opening wide, revealing a very beautiful morning sky.
The boy looks at the clock built in his HUD, which reads: 5:53 AM.
Damn, it's too early for this. The Silver Knight thought.
At that last thought, the drop-ship slows to cruising speed, so as to remove any suspicions anyone would have on a lone military-grade drop-ship.
Once the drop-ship slowed, Shieri stood low and then leaped out the open hatch, into the morning sky.
As the Silver Knight started free-falling, he thought up the NAV-point of where the most recent location of the Faunus girl was; which turns out to be indicating northeast towards a Schnee Industrial warehouse—near the kingdom of Vale's train-yard.
Alright, let's fly.
The boy—as he continues to fall—focuses the energy of his aura into his back, allowing him to summon a pair of metallic—almost skeletal-like—wings, capable of allowing him to fly at supersonic speeds. Though since the mission requires stealth and reconnaissance, Shieri flies at the same cruising speed as the drop-ship that dropped him off.
From the air, Shieri scans the ground leading from his drop-off point, towards the large warehouse that flashes a giant snowflake logo on top of the roof. As the Silver Knight gets closer and closer to the building, he slows down to hover above the building. From here he uses his mind to activate the scoping mechanism built into the HUD monocle; though at the same time, summons a clear image of what the Faunus girl looks like.
The Faunus girl in the picture wears a low-cut, single-button, black-vest, with a white sleeveless top underneath; white short shorts; leggings that fade from black-to-purple from top-to-bottom; and a pair of black low heel shoes. Now as far as accessories go, the girl wears ribbons coiled up on her wrists, and a black arm-sleeve being held up by a white armband. Also a large black bow on her head, which from the boy's experience, is used to hide her animal-like ears—if she has any.
Shieri chuckles at the image of the Faunus girl. It's always the pretty ones, he thought.
The Silver Knight thinks the image away, and starts scanning the streets and buildings below, like a sentry drone. He looks down to the left at the train-tracks—nothing; then down to his right, where the entrance to the train-yard is, and still nothing. As the boy was about to do a slow turn-around, bio-information being scanned by his HUD catches his eye.
The bio-info that Shieri reads reveals organic movement near the entrance of the train-yard, though the movement is atop the smaller warehouses, which also reveals a figure free-running and leaping, heading east. It's the Faunus girl.
Now where do you think you're going?
Slowly, Shieri glides in the same direction as the figure below. As he moves, the boy thinks about zooming in—using the scoping mechanism, built into the HUD. The HUD then zooms in and locks onto the girl below.
Still keeping his distance, Shieri watches the Faunus girl run under the network of freeway overpasses and then cross into the residential district. Though again, the Faunus girl continues to leap across buildings to avoid detection below on the streets.
It was then, when the Faunus girl crossed the bridge into out of the industrial district and into the residential district that the Silver Knight realized which direction she's going.
She's heading towards Beacon Academy. Shieri thought, now why there?
But then another thought hit him.
God dammit, she's going to sign up for the entrance exams.
At this thought, Shieri realized that if he doesn't kill her now, it will be very difficult to do so in front of highly experienced huntsman and huntresses that would be watching her during the exams.
One thing the boy has learned in the past, is that it would raise a lot of complications as to why the infamous Silver Knight is going around killing seemingly innocent girls. Also that would look very bad on him and the General—who at this moment, is his current employer.
The Silver Knight sighs and pauses for a brief moment. Then in an instant, he uses his aura to conjure up a shiny-silver helmet that looks very similar to the heads of the Atlesian Knight Drones that were on the Schnee company train. Though, he looks obviously scarier and far more intimidating than the drones themselves.
Once his HUD connected to his helmet, Shieri channeled his aura into his wings, allowing him to travel at supersonic speeds.
Within seconds, Shieri was on top of the Faunus girl as she jumped onto the flat roof of a building, that kitty-corners with the edge of a cliff.
As for the Faunus girl, she only had a split-second reaction time to stop-drop-and-roll, just as the Silver Knight flew over her head and landed several feet away, in front of the Faunus girl's path.
Shieri slowly turns around to face the Faunus girl who, as she slowly rises to one knee momentarily, has the look of a deer-Faunus caught in the headlights.
Without saying a word—as per usual of his hunts, Shieri reaches for his pistols and pulls them out of their holsters swiftly.
No remorse. Shieri thought, it's just business.
Boom! Boom!
(And…)
(…Nothing.)
Never in his life has Shieri ever missed a shot—let alone two, at only less than six feet from his targets.
A shout roars from the Silver Knight's blindside.
On instinct, Shieri ducks just as the sound of wind being cut by a blade whistles over where his head used to be if he were continuing to stand. While staying low to the rooftop, the boy transforms his magnum-pistols into blade hilts and draws out the dust blades. The boy then performs a fast spinning sweep-attack in order to make the Faunus girl gain some distance from him. To dodge the attack, the Faunus girl performs a backwards handspring. Although, the Faunus girl was able to gain some distance from the Silver Knight, she misjudged her distance and ended up putting her lower back to the low-rooftop wall, almost making herself fall back and over the corner.
The Silver Knight sees this as an opportunity and lunges with his left blade at the girl's head and swings right; though the girl's swift agility allows her to lean to the side and dodge the blade by a mere centimeter. Again, the boy sees another opening and sweeps low at the knees, with his right blade, but again the girl's surprisingly nimble movements allow her to balance a hand on top of the wall of the rooftop, allowing her to lay flat in mid-air as the blades swoosh past her in both directions.
Frustrated, Shieri breaks his silence with a mechanical-like roar—which is due to the nano-drones inside his head, helping disguise his voice—and swings his blades horizontally once more, this time in opposite directions than his first attack. Though his attack was interrupted once the Faunus girl swung her legs out in one circular motion, with which her foot connected with the boy's face, causing him to spin and stagger back from the girl. Once the fuzz in the Silver Knight's HUD screen cleared, he transformed the blade in his right hand into its pistol form and fired multiple shots at the girl. The Faunus girl gasps and then dives to the right and—at the same time—unsheathes her weapon, removing the large bladed sheath, and revealing a transformable katana blade with a pistol for a hilt.
The girl then fires her own barrage of Dust-bullets at the Silver Knight.
In an instant, Shieri—the Silver Knight—channels his Aura into his back and summons his mechanical wings, and takes flight, dodging all rounds.
Moving faster than the speed of sound at such a short distance, Shieri, who only rose fifteen feet in the air, flies at the girl in a spiral-like flying technique. In the same motion, the boy performs a combat-roll in the air and kicks the girl in her mid-section. The impact was strong enough to send the girl straight through the rooftop corner-wall, down the street…
And…over the cliff into the body of water that's between the entire kingdom of Vale and Beacon Academy.
Down below on the streets, morning civilians jumped in surprise when they heard a loud crack! sound. Some even looked up to where the sounds came from, while others ran and/or dove out of the way of falling debris. Also, some were surprised to see a boy in silver armor and mechanical wings stand before them atop the building where there is now a gap in the rooftop walls.
To Shieri's surprise, the civilians were oblivious to the fact that he just sent someone flying into the air. Without a response, the Silver Knight ignores the gathering crowd, and their gawking, and dashes through the air in the direction where he kicked the Faunus girl.
God dammit. The Silver Knight groans.
This money better be worth the trouble, was all Shieri thought as he flew through the morning sky, after his target.
In the distance, far from where Shieri and the criminal Faunus girl tangled, another Faunus—a boy—sits atop a church roof and stares into the sunrise under his mask as it slowly rises from the oceanic horizon.
Slowly, the boy turns his head to the window next to him that's built just under the church bell tower. In his reflection, the Faunus boy has long-black hair and a light-skin complexion. He also wears a black Dust-woven sleeveless tank-top body-armor; a pair of make-shift black ninja-pants with a wide dark-violet coat-tail; and a pair of black-armored combat boots. As far as accessories go, the Faunus boy has a pair of vambraces that armor the backs of his hands, and forearms; a long-black ninja-muffler scarf; and a matching colored grim-mask that resembles combination of what a tiger and a creature of Grimm would look-like. Also, his choice of weapon is a dai-katana that continues to flow with purple electricity, though quite faintly.
The boy, with his arms crossed, glances at the photograph he was given of a Faunus boy with red hair and a long-sleeve coat with red-markings, and a young Faunus girl with long-black hair and cat ears. Both smiling, as if nothing that these two lived for ever existed.
The Faunus boy unfolds his arms and holds the photo high above his and lets it go in the wind. Then with one swift strike, the Faunus boy slices the photograph in half—clean down the middle.
As both halves of the photograph flow in the wind, the boy only snatches the half that has the Faunus girl in it, and tucks it deep into his right vambrace. Once he re-adjusted his vambrace, the boy's heightened hearing senses, catches a girl's voice. One he's all too familiar with…and must silence, once and for all.
Falling over the edge of the cliff, the Faunus girl collapses her katana blade and then throws her entire weapon up the cliff face, while holding onto the loose end of the ribbon that's wrapped around her weapons' hilt.
Lucky for the girl, her weapon was able to stick into the ground atop the cliff face. Once the girl landed her feet on the side of the cliff, she tested the ribbon to see if her weapon stuck well into the ground…which it did.
Just as the Faunus girl started climbing, Shieri flew over the edge and stopped high above the girl's head.
Then took aim, once more.
Though the Silver Knight had to cancel the shot, just as someone flung a flurry of electrified shurikens at him.
The Faunus girl stared wide-eyed for a moment, as she watched the person who just tried to kill her; dodge left, right, up, and down to defend himself from someone unbeknownst to her. But she quickly shook the thought of the mysterious savior from her head and dropped down the cliff face. The momentum of her fall allowed her to slingshot back up and onto the edge.
Once the girl was back on flat surface again, she turned to her right and finally saw who her mysterious savior was. Though she could not believe who it was, yet deep down the Faunus girl knew the stories were true because if they weren't before, they are now.
The girl stares in astonishment as she watches the Black Fang fight her attacker with full force, using the very weapon that made others in the White Fang give him the fairytale-name he has now.
…The Black Fang ducks and spins, as the Silver Knight fires several rounds at him with his left pistol, and continuously follows-up with quick flurries of his right pistol-blade.
Without using his weapon, the Faunus boy slaps away the Knight's hand that holds the pistol-blade creating an opening in the Knight's attack pattern, and then closes in with a hard elbow to the abdomen, sending the Knight over the edge. Luckily though, Shieri recovered quickly enough to stop himself in mid-air.
Once stopped, Shieri took both of his weapons and slapped them together, causing the weapons to be engulfed in pure silver light. Holding the silver light in his right hand, Shieri flicks his wrist, which dissipates the light that was created by his own aura. With the aura gone, Shieri's weapons—which were once dual pistol-blades—were transformed into a single-large bladed gauntlet.
With a mechanical roar, Shieri swings his bladed-gauntlet horizontally, creating a large gust of wind that's condensed enough to be as sharp as any blade.
Such a wave caught the Black Fang by surprise, but his reaction time was fast enough to block the wave with his electrified dai-katana. Although, such force from the attack pushed the Faunus boy back several feet, leaving deep tracks in the grass.
Shieri uses this opportunity to fly towards the Black Fang and lands in front of him, while lunging with his weapon at the Faunus boy's mid-section.
At the last possible second—once the wave attack faded away—the Black Fang leaped into the air and flattens out his dai-katana on top of the Silver Knight's blade.
The Faunus girl's eyes goes wide as she watches the Black Fang perform a hand-stand, while balancing on his dai-katana, which is balanced atop the Silver Knight's blade-gauntlet like a teeter-totter.
With a grunt, the Silver Knight swings his bladed-hand and sends the Black Fang over him and closer to the edge. As the Black Fang lands lightly on his feet, he crouches low and swiftly throws three shurikens at the Knight. The shuriken attack fails when the Knight made a circular motion with his blade and thrusts it throw the ring of pure aura which—to both Faunus' surprise—distorts space and time within its attack range. Although, the Knight only concentrated enough to disintegrate the attack and nothing else around flying shurikens.
The Black Fang smirks under his mask and slowly rises from the ground.
How interesting, the Black Fang thought. His attack style is very familiar.
Where have I seen this Faunus before? Shieri thought.
Momentarily both the Atlesian and Faunus stare-down one another, looking one another over for recognition. Yet at the same time, they both ignore the Faunus girl that they both were sent to kill. Who, in the meantime has taken the liberty of sneaking off, although a part of her wanted to stay and watch the fight.
Shieri quickly turns around to watch the Faunus girl disappear back deep into the residential district, atop the rooftops, again.
God damn Faunus! Shieri thought, they always run.
Completely forgetting about the Faunus boy, the Silver Knight makes an attempt to take flight after his target before he completely loses focus.
Just as the Knight shot into the air after his target—not a second to soon, the Black Fang—moving at the same speed—met the Knight atop the house closest to the edge of the cliff.
Both assassins clash blades—once, twice, and then on the final strike, the Silver Knight, uses his aura to cloak his free-hand in silver-like metal, and then grapples the surprised Black Fang. Once the Knight had a firm grip on Faunus boy, he then flies backwards, over the edge and into the water below.
At least you'll be worth more than the girl.
As Shieri finished his thought, both boys crash deep into the water. The impact of the water made the Knight let go of the Black Fang, allowing the Faunus boy swim up freely to the surface.
Breaking through the surface of the water, the Black Fang then uses his aura to climb and stand atop the water surface.
For the first time in a while, the Black Fang kneels down to rest.
How can the assassin be as powerful as I, the Faunus boy thought. No one has been able to match me. Not since Ad-
The Black Fang's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden explosion of water that just occurred at a mere twenty meters away.
As the water settles down, the Silver Knight appears through the mist, hovering only inches above the water.
Quickly, the Faunus boy takes a defensive stance, holding his dai-katana upside-down at an angle. Though, his stance falters for a moment, when he notices something different about the boy who stands before him.
Shieri, who usually wore his black and silver attire, is now wearing a full-suit of silver and black-trimmed molecular-armor, with a matching thin robe-hooded jacket, and a silver-colored helmet that covers his entire head, except his right eye. All of this together, makes the Silver Knight, look like an actual…Silver Knight, but more of an animated character style though.
Ah, the Black Fang thought, now I know who this is. The Faunus boy also realized that his opponent's weapons has disappeared.
The Black Fang snorts, "Hmph. So you're the fabled Hero of Atlas."
Without a response, Shieri scans the Black Fang with his left eye.
The Faunus boy continues to speak, though this time he removes himself from his defensive posture.
"I have heard stories—rumors perhaps—of you." The Black Fang points his blade at the Knight, "You have been known for countless assassinations and needless murders amongst those with higher authority within the White Fang. Such deaths have given us reason to commit the same acts just as you perform…though our messages are quite clearer than what you wish to expect."
Shieri smiles under his helmet. "Is that why they send the Grimm Reaper…aka you. The Black Fang." His voice still under the mechanical impression-disguise.
A moment of silence fills the air as both assassins glare at one another.
Shieri continues speak, though this time he reads off the info he discovered about his opponent.
"Alias: The Black Fang. Actual name: Fang Shegatsuki. Race: Faunus. Type: Faunus Dog…looks like we are one in the same. Except you are just as loyal and obedient as an actual dog."
At that last part Shieri spoke, the Black Fang frowns in anger and tightens his grip on his weapon, then channels his aura into it, preparing to attack.
Following suite, the Silver Knight summons his blade-gauntlet—which still remains the same before his transformation—and charges his aura into the weapon as well.
As the Black Fang crouches low the surface of the water, the Silver Knight charges his over-boost ability for his wings. Both boys stare at one another as the power bestowed upon their weapons reach their peak.
Within an instant, both assassins shout a battle cry, and then dash at each other and swing their blades across their chests, both sending a thin—but very powerful—wave of Dust and aura-energy.