Lance turned to face the male who now stood where Shayne had been not moments before. His face was covered in a strange splodged pattern, no matter how hard he tried to make sense of it; it never seemed to be the same thing upon another glance, as if it was alive.
"Cross, you mother-fucker, you killed my mom and her kids"
"So you did see my calling card, I was worried it would be too difficult to find"
"Shayne, we have business to attend to-"
"Shut the fuck up right now!" Blaine erupted from the ground at Shayne's feet and snarled at Roman.
"Okay, I'll just be leaving then…"
"No you won't" Lance span, drawing his rifle and disabling the Bullheads engines with two dead on shots.
"Shayne, you may not remember me, but I want what's mine back" Shayne's arm burned as Cross held his arm aloft.
Shayne dropped to his knees and Nemea landed in the square. He roared, Cross stumbling backwards, Lance utilised the confusion the Grimm had caused and teleported to Roman.
"Where are the bombs Roman" Lance held his blade to Romans throat.
"Calm down kid, I'd have told you for the asking, I don't want to see this town burn any more than you do"
"So why set the fucking things"
"I profit on misery…" Lance punched him in the face.
"Just tell me where they are"
"Okay, okay, bring up a map then…" Lance kept the blade at Romans throat while he pointed out the locations.
Shayne glared at Cross, he stood up slowly as Blaine circled around behind Cross. Shayne sprinted at him drawing one of his katana and his pistol at the same time. They collided and Cross slid backwards, drawing his axe as he came to a stop. Shayne advanced slowly flourishing his sword as he came. The clashed sparks flying off the metal as they attacked in an almost mirrored fashion, ducking and swiping always finding nothing but air.
Roman left, Lance had no qualms with him and Shayne needed help. He tried to line up a shot but the White Fang closed in on him.
'Ah shit, I forgot about these guys' Lance switched his rifle into its SMG stage and held his blade in hand.
A bolt struck on of the White Fang in the chest, piercing his lung and he dropped to his knees. Ralen dropped down next to Lance.
"I thought you could use a hand" Ralen said switching his weapon to its sword form.
The pair looked around at the Faunus that surrounded them.
"I don't think this is fair. do you Lance?" Lance cocked his gun in response.
The White fang rushed them.
Shayne took a kick to the chest and slid backwards. He drew his pistol and took aim; Cross strode towards Shayne, the markings on his face shifting with each step. Shayne fired once, the bullet left a trail as it sped across the gap between them, it pierced the right side Cross's chest, it lodged in a rib and detonated, leaving a three inch hole in his chest. Cross staggered backwards, and looked down at the wound.
Cross grimaced, stowed his axe and walked away.
Shayne was about to follow suit but Lance and Ralen danced in front of him avoiding the attacks of the White Fang members; Shayne lost sight of him and turned to the masked Faunus enraged. Lance and Ralen stepped back as Shayne squared up to them.
"Shayne calm down, we got the bombs we can just leave" Lance put his hand on Shayne shoulder, Shayne turned his head and his eyes flashed red and it was removed.
"You have three seconds to turn around and walk away or you will be dead in the next ten" Shayne said turning back to the fifteen remaining Faunus.
Some took his advice and turned and quickly left the area, five didn't.
Shayne cracked his knuckles and started forward. Ralen and Lance looked on as Shayne dealt with them.
He ducked swords and dodged bullets, punching and kicking them all the while. A volley of shots came from to two using guns, Shayne dragged another into the path, bullets rippled on his torso, he fell to the ground dead. Shayne ran at the two with guns as they reloaded, he snapped the neck of one and kicked the other one in the knee, snapping it and making him cry out in pain.
Lance strode forward to try and calm Shayne, Ralen readied his crossbow.
Shayne turned as two of the remaining Faunus attacked him, he caught the blades, and ran one of them through before head-butting the other. He kicked the one with the rifle in the head, a sickening snap was clearly audible. The last Faunus scrabbled backwards away from Shayne as he bore down on him.
"P-please d-don't k-kill me!"
Lance grabbed Shayne and hip tossed him away.
"Shayne that's enough, calm down now!" Shayne stood up and resumed his advance, Lance stepped in the way and Shayne drew his knife.
"Stand down Lance, don't make me hurt you"
"No Shayne, you stand down"
Shayne stumbled forward as a crossbow bolt hit him in the back, just below the shoulder. He turned and looked at Ralen who brought up his crossbow by his head. Shayne felt his eyes becoming heavy and collapsed onto the floor; Lance was too slow to catch him before his face smacked against the ground.
"Some warning next time would be nice"
"Sorry"
"Well because of that you can carry him back to Beacon" Ralen strode over and Lance helped him get Shayne onto his shoulders.
Lance and Ralen arrived at SHDE's dorm at around 3-ish, it had taken longer than expected to get back, as when they got to the Bullhead depot, they had just missed the last Bullhead and had to wait an hour for the next one.
"How have we not spent this much time with these guys before?" "
What do you mean Ralen?"
"Their dorm is opposite ours and we've never really hung out or even spoke"
"Well, we have very few classes in common so we haven't socialised before"
"Just knock on the door would you"
Lance knocked and Lina answered the door.
"Oh god, what happened to him Lance" she said looking at Shayne still slung over Ralen's shoulder.
"We had to knock him out to keep him from…"
*cough* "I'm still carrying him you know, can we come in so I can put him down and get the bolt from his back"
"Sure come on in, you can put him on our bed" she walked over to the bed they shared and cleared her books and papers off it for them.
Dundra, Eddi, Vossler and Ashe all stood up and wandered over to them. Ralen put Shayne face down on the bed and took Shayne's knife from his thigh; he proceeded to dig his arrow from Shayne's back.
"His jacket is ruined, he's not going to thank you when he wakes up" Dundra said, knowing how much Shayne cared about his jacket.
"As long as I'm not dead tomorrow I'll count today as a success" Ralen joked as he pulled the bolt free, and healed Shayne's wound.
"So, what now?"
"In a few hours he'll wake up with a headache and very little recollection that he was ever shot"
"I wouldn't count on that" Ashe said straightening up
"Why not?"
"Because he's awake" Ralen's face dropped Shayne flipped off the bed and faced Ralen. He held out his hand and Ralen gave him back his knife.
"Why did you shoot me?" "
You were out of control Shayne, we had no choice" Lance said pushing Ralen slightly further away from Shayne.
"Shayne, I thought you'd got your curse under control?" Vossler asked fingering his sword.
"Well this Cross guy was there" he turned to Eddi; "He's the guy who killed my mom" Eddi nodded sullenly.
"So you lost control and went berserk on him"
"Not just him, there were some White Fang guys there too" Ralen said, Lina glared at him.
Dundra and Eddi looked at each other, Lina lunged at Ralen but Eddi caught her and pushed her to Dundra who held her securely.
"Why didn't you put him out sooner, how many did he kill?"
"Four, the others left after he squared up to them"
"To be fair we did kill fifteen ourselves in self-defense"
"Shut up Ralen"
"Well, at least you two actually stopped me" they nodded.
"For which I'm thankful, we don't want you getting arrested" Lina said kissing him gently.
Dundra coughed and she snapped back to reality, she blushed slightly and looked at the floor. The others looked around not knowing what to do, and then Hanna walked in the door with Silver.
"Oh, what are you all doing here, I thought you'd be out or something" she gave Dundra a look and he shrugged.
"Silver, what's going on?" Lance asked, neither of them looked like they wanted to talk.
"No Hanna, we just got back from dealing with Roman"
"Oh right, I forgot about that, how'd that go?"
"So you didn't help the others?"
"Uhh…no not as such"
"We got all the bombs anyway so it's all good, no harm done" Eddi said trying to disarm the situation.
Jiang was feeling lonely, she hadn't seen her friends since earlier that day, so she decided to go see what SHDE were doing. She knocked on the door and was surprised when Silver answered the door.
"Silver?"
"Hey Jiang, what's up?"
"I was wondering where my team is" she saw Lance and Ralen inside, "and none of you thought to tell me you were okay or back"
"I'm sorry Jiang, I was busy with explaining what had happened to SHDE" Lance walked up to her and stood close to her, she bowed her head and blushed.
"I-it's okay L-Lance" Everyone but Shayne, Silver and Lina had no clue what was going on.
"So, time for dinner I think, come on let's get going" Dundra said ushering people out the door.
Lance and Jiang stood by the door, Lance was still very close to Jiang, Shayne and Lina walked over.
"Hey, I'm not telling anyone and neither is Lina" Jiang nodded at the statement
"Am I missing something?"
"Well she likes you and you clearly like her so it's up to you what you do with that, but for now it's time for dinner" Lina said resting her hand on her hip.
Lance nodded and left, Jiang followed right after him. Lina closed the door quietly.
"Lina, they're expecting us downstairs"
"So, I don't care, I just want to talk I swear" Lina said pushing against him before kissing him and taking off his bandanna.
She walked over to the bed, sat down and patted the space beside her. Shayne sighed and smiled, it had been a while. He took off his damaged jacket and slung it over a chair and strode over to her. Her kissed her and guided her down to the bed.
Shayne and Lina eventually went down to dinner, when they got there they found themselves in an all too familiar situation, Cardin was starting shit again. He was picking on Velvet again but Silver and Blake were staying out of it as usual. Shayne sat down next to Silver and opposite Blake.
"What's got him so worked up?"
"I don't think anything; I think he's just doing it to make a point"
"Where's Frank?" Lina asked noticing that he wasn't there.
"Dunno, I think Oobleck wanted to see him for something" Nelwyn said, not even looking up from her Scroll.
"We should do something, Shayne what if…"
"I can't do anything to him; I'm on probation from last time still"
They looked around in desperation for anyone who could help. Then Frank walked in. He saw what Cardin was doing and his face contorted into one of rage. He bore down on Cardin stopping just behind him.
"This however, I can deal with" Shayne hopped over the table, Blake leaned to the left to let him pass.
Cardin turned and his face dropped as he saw fury in Frank's eyes.
"O-okay, calm down Frankie this isn't what it looks like…"
"It looks like you're tormenting my girlfriend Cardin" Shayne stood just behind Frank, looking determined but not angry.
Frank pressed forward and Cardin let go of Velvet, she ran to Shayne and he sat her down with Blake. Frank stretched his neck and cracked his knuckles. Shayne walked over and stood between them.
"Frank, this isn't the time or the place, now sit down"
"So it's okay if you take revenge for your girlfriend but I can't for mine"
"I didn't say not to just not here, later" Shayne looked him in the eye and Frank knew what he meant.
"Hmph, getting him to fight your battles for you Frankie, that's just sad" Cardin said smugly, Shayne's head dropped and stood aside.
Cardin's face dropped as Frank started forward again. Cardin panicked and ran. He bolted out the door and Frank ran after him. Shayne sat down again, and the room calmed down again.
"Well that handles that then"
"I hope he doesn't do what I almost did a while ago" Lina looked down.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing Silver, let's just drop this" Blake said, knowing that neither Shayne nor Lina liked talking about it.
Several hours later Shayne caught up with Frank at his dorm.
"So you didn't kill him then"
"No I just beat him up a bit; hopefully he'll get the message now"
"I wouldn't count on it but we can hope"Shayne stood up and left.
Frank took off the bindings that covered his hand; he looked at his cut knuckles and flexed his hand. He shook his head, he had left Cardin in his dorm battered and broken, and he hated himself for it, for all he had done to Velvet in the past, he was still Frank's first proper friend.
Drop me a PM if you have any questions. if you haven't already done so, check out GuyFromPandora's story, Remnants shield, he could use some support so leave him a review or something. anyway you guys are great and as always thanks for reading.
-TheWolfbane987