Outlaws and Outcasts Chapter 4-

Don't mess with the new kid.

Welcome to the next chapter of Outcasts and Outlaws. Sorry that it's been a while since the last chapter was posted, I've had some trouble getting to a computer, but in the meantime I was busy writing more episodes, so expect a couple to come out during the weekend!

Fire. Fire everywhere. Spreading throughout the village, taking lives.

Bodies, lying everywhere. All of them scarred, burned and bleeding.

One child stood. Alive, but scarred. His rage subsiding and turning into tears.

'Connor? Connor?'

Connor felt someone nudging his shoulder as he awoke from his nightmare. He raised his head and adjusted his eyes to the light, managing to make out a figure to his left.

'Ruby?'

'Class is over, you fell asleep.' Ruby told him as he got up out of his seat.

Connor looked around the classroom. Everyone else had already left. Ruby had stayed behind for him.

'Are you all right?' Ruby asked, sounding worried. 'You look terrible.'

Connor put his hand on his head to check his temperature and then replied, 'I'm fine. I just had a nightmare, that's all.'

Ruby became even more worried at this and asked, 'What was it about?'

Before Connor could answer, Yang poked her head into the classroom door and yelled for Ruby to hurry up.

'Oh, I gotta go to lunch.' Ruby said and then asked, 'Do you want to come eat with my team?'

Connor looked at her in surprise. 'Really?'

Ruby smiled and said, 'I don't see why not. Besides, you probably don't have many friends in the short time you've been here.'

Connor thought for a moment. There were good reasons why the other students weren't being so friendly with him, so why was Ruby being so nice?

'So what do you say?' Ruby asked.

Connor looked to Ruby and smiled. 'I'll be there in a minute,' he assured her. 'I just have to check on something.'

Ruby smiled and cheerfully said, 'Okay, I'll meet you there.'

Ruby walked out of the room beaming at her success, leaving Connor to collect his thoughts.

'You almost told her.' Kane commented.'

Connor picked up his things from the desk and asked, 'Why is that so strange?'

'You've never told anyone about it.' Kane explained.

Connor didn't reply. He just walked out of the room without saying a word, not wanting to reflect upon that day.

When Connor arrived in the lunch hall, he spotted Yang sitting at a table on her own, presumably waiting for Ruby, and Team JNPR at a different table. Looking around some more, he saw Blake and Weiss sitting at a table with two guys he hadn't seen before, but he still couldn't find Ruby.

'I'm sure I had enough earlier.'

Connor followed the source of the noise to his left and saw Ruby standing at the food counter fumbling with some coins. He walked over and tapped her on the shoulder.

Ruby let out a small scream and turned around, and then saw that it was only Connor and smiled.

'Oh, hi Connor!' I'm glad you decided to come!' She beamed.

'What seems to be the problem here?' Connor enquired.

'Oh, well…I lost some money and now I don't have enough to pay for this ice cream.' Ruby explained.

Normally, Connor would've just left it at that. He would've said goodbye and walked away, but he couldn't do that to Ruby. He wasn't sure why, but he felt obligated to help her.

'Which one is it?' Connor asked.

'it's the mint chocolate one, right there.' Ruby pointed out the mint chocolate flavoured ice cream, with an expensive price label.

'That's a pretty expensive ice cream.' Connor commented, wondering how Ruby had expected to be able to pay for it.

Ruby sighed, 'I know, but it's my favourite flavour.' Then she looked directly at Connor, giving him puppy eyes without even meaning to.

Connor was lost for words. Was she flirting? Maybe she didn't mean to, maybe she just really wanted that ice cream. Either way, he found himself reaching into his pocket, Ruby's face lighting up as he did so, and pulling out all of his money, then he placed it on the counter.

Ruby's smile of disbelief didn't leave her face as she took her ice cream and had a first lick. She shivered, the cold giving her a small brain freeze. Then she looked at Connor with sparkling eyes.

'Thank you so much!' She said.

Connor let out a little smile and joked, 'No problem, it was only all of my money.'

Ruby gasped and asked, 'It was?!'

'Yeah,' Connor admitted, 'But don't worry about it. I don't really need any money for myself.

Ruby's smile grew larger and then she looked over to Yang and waved her ice cream in the air.

Yang stared over at Connor. 'What's his deal?' She thought. 'He barely speaks to anyone else, but he brought Ruby an ice cream? What does he want with her?'

'I don't remember having ice cream as a kid.' Though Connor. 'My parents never had a chance to buy me one.' Thinking about his parents made him suddenly become very sombre and he didn't realise he was being watched.

'Yang's staring at you.' Kane informed him.

He looked up and saw Yang looking right at him and quickly looked away, hoping that Yang hadn't seen the tear run down his face.

But Yang had seen the tear, and with that she started to piece together the pieces of the puzzle. 'Connor Hikaru-Kodomo.' She thought. 'Where have I heard that name before?'

Connor looked at Ruby again. She was gobbling down her ice cream lightning fast, and was enjoying every bit.

'How does she do that?' He thought to himself. 'She's always so happy and cheerful and she makes me feel the same way. That's something I haven't felt in years.'

'Oh, get a room.' Kane teased.

'Shut up.' Connor thought.

Ruby gulped down the last bit of her ice cream and smiled. 'All right, I'm done!'

Connor asked, 'So what now?'

'Well, we were planning to go to Vale for the day.' Ruby told him. 'You can come if you'd like.'

'Really?' Connor couldn't believe how nice she was being to him. He'd never had friends before and now he seemed to have made one using ice cream.

Ruby assured him, 'Yang won't mind, let's go over and ask her.'

'Hey, new guy!'

Connor turned and looked in the direction of the table Blake and Weiss were sitting at. The two guys they were with were standing over there posing confidently. One had blue hair and a red jumper over his school uniform and the other had blonde hair, an open white shirt which showed off a six pack and a monkey tail.

'That makes him a Faunus.' Kane deduced.

The blue haired guy pointed at Connor and said, 'You're Connor right?' I'm Neptune and this is Sun.' He pointed to the monkey boy.

Sun stepped forward and announced, 'Rumour has it, you're pretty strong. How about an arm wrestle to prove it? With a 20 Len bet?'

Blake and Weiss both rolled their eyes at the two boys showing off their strength in an attempt to woo the ladies.

Ruby interjected, 'Actually, we were just about to head into-'

Connor put his hand in front of her and said, 'This won't take but a minute.'

Before Ruby could reply, Connor has stepped forward to talk with Sun and Neptune.

'I'll take you both on.' He announced, 'And we'll raise the bet to 40 Len.' This caused quite a commotion in the hall as he sat down to the opposite of the two and took their hands in his and prepared to wrestle, the money on the table.

'You know what to do, Kane.' He whispered as Nora stepped out from the crowd to start the match.

The moment Nora said go, the match was over within a second as Kane pumped power from into both of Connor's arms giving him enough strength to defeat both Sun and Neptune instantly.

Everyone watching was shocked into silence. Connor stood up from the table and took his prize money, more than enough to make up for the ice cream, as Neptune and Sun rubbed their wrists in confusion.

'How did you get so strong?' Sun queried. 'You always broke my wrist.'

Connor took a look back before walking away and saying, 'That, monkey boy, was my semblance.'

'What?! You cheated?!' Neptune yelled in confusion, but Connor was already long gone.'

On his way back to Ruby, he felt an impact on his right cheek and turned around to investigate. A team of 4 armoured guys were sitting at a table smirking at him, obviously looking for a fight.

'Do you want something?' Connor said in a harsh tone, hoping he could scare them out of fighting him.

The one in the middle of the group, who Connor assumed was the leader, was sitting down at the table while all of his team-mates stood. He responded to Connor's question.

'I know who you are.' He stated.

Connor stopped thinking rationally at that point. He rushed forward and grabbed the guys throat in one hand and pushed him down onto the table.

Then he whispered, 'I'm warning you, keep your mouth shut about who I am or you might end up getting hurt. If you know who I am, then you know not to mess with me.'

Everyone in the hall watched from afar as he assaulted Cardin, no one understanding what was going on.

'What's he doing?' Ruby thought, slightly scared. 'Did Cardin say something bad?'

Ruby looked at Sky Lark, a team member of Cardin's and saw him pull out a knife.

'Connor!' She yelled, 'Watch out!

Connor turned around quickly enough to see the knife but not quickly enough to stop it. Sky buried the knife into Connor's right shoulder blade, causing him enough pain to make him let out a small scream. He lost his grip on Cardin, who fell to the ground wheezing, and upper-cutted Sky with his bad arm which caused the blade to go deeper in.

The punch knocked Sky out instantly, and everyone stared directly at Connor, at his wounds and his eyes.

Blake looked right into them and couldn't help but notice a certain ferocity, and then as she looked, one of his eyes flashed black.

Blake stayed silent, taking note of what she had seen, knowing this was not the place to mention it.

Connor grabbed the handle of the knife and pulled it out, letting out another small scream, and he dropped it onto the floor. Then he made a beeline for the exit, and started to make his way to the medical bay.

'What have I done?' He thought as he trudged down the corridor holding his wound.

'It was always going to happen eventually,' Kane stated, 'let's just hope no-one else knows the truth about you and me.'