The lack of anything happening was as boring as it was irritating. From outside the window, he could hear shouting and the movement of heavy machinery as people went about rebuilding nearby infrastructure, the clock on the wall seemed to be even louder than normal as each passing second caused an audible tik, and the infrequent shuffling of paper as Louis turned the page of the book he was reading. It had been like this for nearly thirty minutes now and Grey was losing patience. After being collected by the blonde woman, the two revenants had been escorted to the second story managers office of a nearby dockworkers facility. The woman then informed them that someone important wanted to speak with them and that they were to stay put until she could fetch them. This led to their current situation of them seeming to have been forgotten about as they sat around twiddling their thumbs in the hopes that whoever was looking for them would show up soon.
Grey lightly smacked his head against the cool surface of the metal table as he tried to maintain his composure. At the very least it didn't look like they were in any trouble, as no guards had been posted at the door to keep them from leaving nor had they been chained up -for whatever good that would do considering their enhanced capabilities-, but that didn't mean it would stay that way. They were working with a time constraint right now and couldn't afford to be sitting idly by, but just up and vanishing after they'd been told to stay put by someone in a position of authority was a fast way to getting on their bad side.
"I haven't even had anything to eat or drink yet today." Grey grumbled with his face still pressed against the table. "Couldn't they have at least left us with some bottled water and a box of crackers?"
"I will admit, that is poor etiquette on their part." Louis added as he licked his thumb before turning the page of his book.
Grey rolled his head to the side to stare at his fellow 'captive'. "At least you have something to read to pass the time. Should have grabbed a book for me while you were at it."
"It's not like I grabbed it before we left, I just happened to have it in my vest pocket. Had I known we would be stuck here waiting for so long, then yes, I would have grabbed one for you as well."
Lifting his head up, Grey leaned back against his chair and began to glare at the blank ceiling above them. "Why is this taking so long?" he groaned rhetorically. "Don't pull us away from what we're doing if you aren't even ready to receive us." The sound of the clock continued to echo loudly in the barren room, only serving to further frustrate the undying soldier. Glancing at the time-recording mechanism, he noted that another full minute had passed, and their hosts still hadn't arrived.
"Hah, Yakumo is out cleaving monsters in half, Murasame is showing off her skills with a hammer and wrench, and Mia is doing some PR work." Grey said with a sigh. "And we are stuck playing the waiting game with that annoyingly loud clock as our only company."
As if trying to mock him in response, the clock briefly stuttered and brought the second-hand to a halt. Grey glared at the object once more as time apparently stood still, only for the internal mechanisms to finally catch up with itself and let out the loudest 'tik' yet. Small arcs of lightning leapt from knuckle to knuckle as Grey drummed his fingers against the table, contemplating whether or not destroying the clock would be worth whatever trouble he got in for doing so. But his thoughts of premeditated clock-homicide were shattered upon receiving a firm smack to the top of his head as Louis leaned over and hit him with the spine of his book.
"Of all the things to abuse your powers for doing, that would have to be one of the most pitiful reasons." Louis reprimanded, having easily discerned Grey's destructive intentions.
Letting out a long exhale, Grey relented in his petty desire for vengeance. Had they at least been in a spacious room or outside, the Successor could pass his time by experimenting with the powers he gained from his new Blood Code so that all this waiting wouldn't be a complete waste of time. The powers he previously obtained from what he now calls 'Horror-class Grimm' have been some of the most powerful and devastating abilities in his arsenal, and his newly acquired Siegfried blood code would certainly be no different. Grey wanted to get a feel for this new addition to his repertoire of Gifts, as the sooner he can master his control over them, the sooner he'll be able to reliably utilize them without having to be constrained to only use them while channeling Siegfried.
'…'
Actually, now that he gave it some thought, the immediate days following a terrorist attack is probably not the best time to be throwing around fire and explosions all willy-nilly. Maybe wait for things to calm down a bit more before fully putting his powers through their paces.
Mentally planning out a general schedule for the next few days, Grey was somewhat mollified with how the brief tangent of thought had distracted him from the boredom of waiting, but dared not look at the clock in the event that not even a single minute had passed since his destructive impulse.
"Geez, I'd love to just say 'forget it' and leave, but I know the second I open that door to exit is when they'll show up." Grey opined as he leaned back in his chair.
Louis snorted in amusement. "By that logic, the sooner you try to leave is the sooner they will arrive."
Lolling his head to the side to look his friend in the eyes, Grey was apparently struck with an epiphany. "That is the smartest idea I've heard all day." he replied before standing up and heading over to the door.
Louis shook his head in mild bemusement. "That was just a joke. Don't expect it to actually happen."
Grey shrugged as he reached for the doorknob. "You never know until you try."
As Grey grabbed hold of the handle and started to turn it, he was met with slight resistance, followed by the light force of the door being pushed inward. Taking a step back, Grey maneuvered out of the way in order for the newcomer to walk inside.
Aside from the general demeanor, posture, and presence the man presented, the immediate detail about his appearance that Grey took note of was the similarities he bore to Raven. Same shade of black hair, same shade of red eyes, similar jawline, it all felt a bit too coincidental for them to not be related in some way. However that was a subject to be tackled at a later time. Evidently the man must have realized what happened and let out a light chuckle.
"Going so soon?" he spoke. "I only just got here. What, were you planning on standing me up?" he continued jokingly, though Grey felt that the man had no right to be so brazen considering how long it had taken for him to arrive.
"Pretty sure we were the ones feeling stood up with how long it took you to get here." Grey responded with his own gentle ribbing, throwing a subtle insult at the man for his tardiness. "I was beginning to think we'd been forgotten. And with the lack of food or drink I was worried I'd need to eat my friend in order to survive." he added as he jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the rooms' other occupant.
The other revenant sighed as he closed his book and returned it to the pocket inside his vest. "Alright, let's hurry up and get this over with."
"Hmph, kids these days never have enough patience to go around." the man remarked in mild annoyance. "No wonder Glynda is already getting wrinkles from dealing with them."
"I heard that." a familiar stern voice called out from the hall. The blonde woman from earlier had returned and was now glaring at the back of the mans head. "Well Qrow, do you have any other childish comments to make, or can we get on with this?" she asked, though it was rhetorical as she pushed the man ahead without waiting for a response.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." Qrow grumbled as he grabbed a nearby chair and slid it over to the table. "So, I'm sure you're wondering why we have called you over here today."
"Given how things have played out thus far, my only guess would be to test our patience." Grey answered snidely, his mind still focused on the need to recover Pyrrha's body. "But you are free to convince me otherwise." he added as he took a seat himself.
The scruffy-looking man coughed into his hand and momentarily shifted his gaze away. "Well, we can't all be working on the same timetable, now, can we?"
"But I suppose an explanation is in order, at the very least." the woman standing behind Qrow remarked as she stared at him menacingly. "Isn't that right?"
Qrow muttered an obscenity under his breath as he leaned his head back to face Glynda. "I keep telling you; when half the city has been turned upside down, it's perfectly reasonable for me to have gotten lost. Do you have any idea how many street signs are still intact?"
Glynda clicked her tongue in annoyance. "And I keep telling you that isn't a good enough excuse. Did you accidentally replace your compass with another flask of that poison?"
"I resent any comparison made to this being poison." Qrow replied as he pulled out a flask of alcohol from his jacket pocket. "Do you know how much a single bottle of this stuff costs? 'Cause I don't. Nabbed it from a White Fang hideout during a raid a few weeks back."
"Are there any other crimes you wish to confess to while we have the opportunity? I'll be sure to keep a written record for the authorities to go over."
"Is it really theft if I take from a bunch of criminals? Try to think of it more along the lines of scavenging for supplies in the field."
Before the argument could get out of hand, Grey felt the need to remind the two humans of his presence. "Are you children going to stop fighting, or do I need to separate the both of you?"
Qrow scoffed. "'Children' huh? Didn't anyone ever teach you to respect your elders, kid?"
"…"
"…"
The revenants shared a brief look, both understanding the irony of the situation that -although based on a technicality- either of their own ages were easily greater than Qrow and Glynda combined. However, Grey decided to bite down on the witty retort he had planned as that would only serve to prolong the pointless conversation.
"Can we please get to the reason we've been dragged over here already?" Grey asked as he tried to get back on-topic. "We kind of have places to be and things to do."
"Fine, fine…" Qrow remarked as he put away his flask and pulled out a rectangular device from a different pocket. "I'm not one for beating around the bush, so I'll just come out and ask you plainly."
After a few moments of fiddling with the device in his hands, Qrow pulled up an image on the screen and placed it on the table for all of them to see.
"Mind telling me which of you is responsible for this?"
Despite the normally reprimanding nature of the question, the image being presented to them was not in fact a picture of collateral damage that resulted from their actions. No, the picture shown on the device was of the moment when Grey had sliced the flying monstrosity in half. It also was abundantly clear that Grey had somehow managed to kill the creature just as they were soaring past the shattered moon in the night sky. The enormous blade of blood that Grey had produced came down in a clean crescent-arc, with the whole scene perfectly eclipsing the moon in the background.
"Damn. What are the odds of that?" Grey spoke up after a couple seconds of silence.
"Even lower than you'd think." Louis answered as he leaned in to get a better view of the picture.
Their dark-haired 'interrogator' gave a huff of amusement as he grabbed the device and swiped his finger across the screen, the next image evidently taken a few moments after the first as the dragon was plummeting to the ground, yet the red crescent created by Greys' attack had lingered in place for a short while longer.
"Judging by your reactions, I'd say we hit blackjack with our call." Qrow said, looking particularly smug about having found the person responsible for the stunt. "And I'm willing to bet that you are the dragon slayer between you two." he added as he lazily pointed at Grey.
Seeing no point in withholding the fact, Grey came clean plainly. "Yeah, that was me. Why, did you want an autograph?"
The dark-haired human snorted in amusement. "Real funny kid. You'd do great as a stand-up comedian. But no, I'm asking because we need your help."
"Got another dragon that needs killing?" Grey asked with a raised brow.
"Eh, more of a metaphorical one. The dragon in question this time is called depression, and a whole lotta people are under attack from it." the man elaborated as he jabbed his thumb towards the window. "We got a tragedy on a scale never before thought possible, so morale is at an all-time low. No one came out of this unscathed, and life won't be returning to normal anytime soon."
"And what does this have to do with me?"
Tapping at the screen again, Qrow continued. "We need to do something about this before all those negative emotions start attracting more grimm and cause further problems. And I figure the fastest way to fix the problem would be a morale-boosting publicity stunt with a figurehead for the populace to rally behind."
"And you can't really top having an appearance by the man who brought an end to the nightmare." Louis spoke, easily following the logic behind the idea.
"Figuring out how you managed to pull off that stunt isn't really our number one priority at the moment, so I'm willing to put my curiosity on-hold for the time being." Qrow continued with a smirk. "What matters now is giving the people a sense of hope, and that is something only you can do."
Glancing at the image of the crimson crescent once more, Grey nodded his head in agreement. "Well, at least you already have an image to print on the t-shirts."
"Heh, smartass." Qrow remarked as he pulled out his flask once more.
"We just need you to do one thing for us real quick before we get on this." Grey said as he stood up from his chair.
"And what would that be?" Glynda asked, seeing as how Qrow was preoccupied with taking a swig of his drink.
"I need you to bring me the corpse of Pyrrha Nikos."
To Qrow's credit, he did manage to stop himself from spewing his drink on the table, though he did start choking a bit. As for Glynda, her expression landed somewhere between disbelief and disgust, still not entirely sure that such an outrageous request came from Grey's mouth.
"Had you at all considered being a slight more tactful in broaching the subject?" Louis asked as he shook his head in disapproval. "Certainly you can tell how baffling and morbid your request is."
The Successor lightly shrugged as he glanced over his shoulder at his companion. "They were blunt in their approach, so I decided to respond in kind. You know, in the interest of moving things along. Besides, how else am I supposed to ask them in a manner that doesn't sound completely bonkers?"
"At least start with; 'I know this is going to sound crazy'. But no, you skip right to the part where you ask for a dead girls' body."
Waving off his friends' qualms about how he phrased the request, Grey returned his attention to the two humans. "Listen, it's important that we retrieve the body before anything happens to it."
Glynda closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, quietly counting to herself in an attempt to maintain composure, while Qrow took a deep breath before leaning forward with one arm on the table in an aggressive posture.
"One quick question first." Qrow said as he stared into Greys' eyes with incredulity. "WHY?"
"Because she is in the process of becoming a revenant."
"…"
"…"
"… A revenant? Someone who returns from death?" Qrow asked for clarification, his mind going to the literal definition of the word.
Grey nodded. "Correct."
After a moment of silence Qrow ran a hand through his hair as he exhaled a sigh of frustration. "One more question; what did you drink and where can I get some of it? It's been a rough few days."
"QROW!" Glynda yelled in aggravation. "Can you try to take this seriously?!"
"What, you think they're telling the truth?" he asked with a raised brow.
"No, I think that something is clearly wrong with them if this request is serious! Don't go making a joke of this nonsense!"
"How else am I supposed to respond? Getting worked up over it like you are isn't going to help sort this out." Qrow replied, swiftly returning his attention to Grey. "But seriously, what the hell?"
"It is just as I said. Pyrrha Nikos is currently undergoing a process that will transform her into a revenant like us." Grey answered as he gestured to himself and Louis. "Thus it is imperative that I am given custody of her body. I must ensure the transformation occurs without incident and am there to give her guidance when she awakes from her coma."
"And you think we'll hand over the poor girls' body just because you give us some nonsensical explanation that she'll rise from the dead?" Qrow asked as he tried to think of what to do next, seeing as how their dragon slayer was apparently a total loon. "How drunk do you think I am?"
"I get the feeling that they don't believe us." Grey opined as he held out his left arm in front of Louis. "Fine, we'll do this the messy way. Louis, take my hand."
Pushing off the wall his back was leaning against, Louis shook his head at the request his friend was making. "Think you can be a little more specific? I get that you like to be up-front about things, but I think Mia or Rin would prefer the offer, although I am flattered."
"You know what I'm asking, so just do it."
"If you say so." Louis said as he grabbed the handle of Enduring Crimson and held the blade aloft.
"Wait, what are y-."
Glynda's query was abruptly cut-off -much like Greys' hand- when Louis forcefully swung his sword in a swift vertical slice, cleanly severing the appendage at the wrist. Blood-splatter was minimal, owing to the speed and angle of the slash, and the amputated limb landed unceremoniously on the table in front of them.
"Whoah! What the hell kid?!" Qrow exclaimed as he stumbled to his feet, nearly toppling backwards out of his chair in the process.
"Why did you do that?! I'll go get a medic!" Glynda shouted as she made for the door.
"Calm down!" Grey barked as he waved his stump of an arm. "It's only a flesh wound."
Glynda looked at the man like he had grown a second head. "What?! How in the world is that a-?"
The blondes' rant trailed off slowly as both she and Qrow noticed a familiar smoky mist begin to fill the air. Eyes immediately locked-on to the source of the smoke, that being the now dissipating remains of Greys' hand. It was with morbid curiosity that the two humans watched as the flesh would briefly smolder before crumbling to dust and floating away. Not even the flecks of blood were exempt from the phenomenon. Over the span of ten seconds, the disembodied hand had completely vanished, leaving behind not a trace of it ever being there. Both humans slowly turned their gazes up to Greys' wounded limb, already having an idea of what was going to occur next. Sure enough, a similar black mist began to pour out from the point of amputation, rapidly condensing into a solid form.
With his hand regrown, Grey made a show of flexing his fingers and squeezing them into a fist, displaying to the humans that his hand had indeed regenerated. "As I have now shown you, we are not as crazy as you assume us to be. Death may take us, but he always sends us back."
With everything they've experienced over the course of their lives so far, neither Qrow or Glynda thought it possible to once again experience a sense of utter bewilderment and were left temporarily stunned silent while their minds tried to process what they had seen.
"Do you wish for another example?" Grey asked, preparing to hold out his arm once more.
Qrow was the first to regain his sense of awareness, now feeling the need to be more careful in his interaction with the revenants. He was being forced to face the most frightening thing mankind has ever encountered; the unknown. It was already an established fact that Grey was powerful enough to slay a grimm the size of an airship on his own, but now has shown the capability of recovering from serious debilitating injuries with apparent little issue. Qrow briefly shifted his gaze towards Louis, pondering whether he too could perform similar feats.
"Who… What are you?" Qrow asked, getting a sense that the answer wouldn't be as simple as he first thought.
"I'm getting the sense we'll be needing to give this explanation a lot in the coming days." Grey opined as he turned to look at his partner. "You think we should start writing up pamphlets? Be loads easier if we did it that way and save some time."
Louis chuckled. "Perhaps if they let us borrow a photocopier."
(-)
When Blake was finally given the go-ahead to leave the improvised medical facility once her condition was deemed stable, she wasted no time in making herself scarce. Yes, her stomach was still sore, and any strenuous activities would result in a sharp pain from where she'd been stabbed, but that did nothing to hinder her ability to remain mobile. The doctors had done a great job of stitching her up and her aura had recovered enough to aid in the healing process, so when she told them she was intent on leaving, they couldn't really argue for her to stay any longer, especially considering how many other patients needed their attention. Their only option was to give her some painkillers and warn her to be careful.
Blake took their warnings under advisement and opted to ignore them. All that mattered right now was putting as much distance between her and her friends as possible. Despite how much she wanted to believe she was safe at last, her past finally managed to catch up with her, and it had cost her closest friend dearly. The absolute last thing Blake ever wanted was for harm to come to her friends, and yet that is exactly what had happened. It was a foolish decision on her part, deluding herself into thinking she'd been successful in starting a new life, far away from the clutches of the monster known as Adam Taurus. Her only option now is to put as much distance between herself and her friends, ensuring they would not get caught in the crossfire between her and Adam a second time.
Once again, she was running away from her problems.
Once again, she had to forsake everything she had been part of.
Once again, she was all alone.
The coward who outruns even her own shadow.
Such self-deprecating thoughts could wait until later though, as she had one last task to complete before she disappeared entirely. When she first had the opportunity to thank Louis for saving her and Yang from Adam, she had been too weak to properly express her gratitude, and while that was partly the reason she was seeking him out, it was primarily to warn him about the grudge Adam would now have against him. How the psychopath would stop at nothing to get his revenge against the man who had not only beaten him, but protected Blake from his wrath. She knew there was no way for her to protect Louis from Adam's fury, but she needed to apologize for getting him involved. But in order to do so, Blake first had to find the man in question.
After a bit of asking around, Blake managed to find a promising lead, being told that a man fitting Louis' description was residing in one of the shipping containers with the rest of the refugees. She had no idea as to where exactly it was, but figured that wandering around the area for a while would eventually lead to her finding him.
Her search was briefly halted however, as she heard a commotion nearby. She told herself that whatever fracas was going on had nothing to do with her, and that she should just move on as butting in would just take away time that she needed for getting out of Vale. So, Blake was fully intent on ignoring whatever was going on, until she heard the sound of a child crying in fear.
"Watch it, you filthy animal!"
And just like that, suddenly the disturbance was something she needed to address. Blake knew faunas racism when she heard it, and was internally seething that it was being directed at a child.
Pushing her way past the gawkers, she observed as the confrontation began to escalate, her hand grasping the handle of Gambol Shroud while she continued her approach. Although it wasn't her job to do so, Blake felt that as a huntress-in-training she was well within her right to defuse the situation before it worsened in order to maintain order. And if it just so happened that she needed to smack around a racist prick to get the job done, then that's what she'll do.
"That's enough!" a female voice cried out as someone came rushing out of the crowd and placed herself between the faunas boy and the belligerent man, the girl holding out her arms to shield the child from any potential harm. "Have you no shame?! Do you go around assaulting everyone who is a nuisance to you?!"
The man clicked his tongue in annoyance at having his tirade interrupted. "What the hell is your problem girly? This has nothing to do with you, so run along before you get hurt."
"Excuse me?!" the girl exclaimed in disbelief. "How is me protecting a person from a ruffian like you none of my business? I'm not going to idly stand by whilst you go around pointlessly harassing people! What do you think gives you the right to act like this? We are all trying to recover from a serious crisis, and you are just stirring up trouble."
Despite her small stature the girl wasn't the least bit intimidated by the burly frame of the antagonistic human. Blake noted that she was armed with an odd yet simple-looking rifle with a bayonet, whilst the man had a pistol holstered in his jacket. The armaments of the two didn't matter much in this scenario given the high potential of civilians getting caught in the crossfire, but the two brusque-looking men flanking the leader looked ready for a fight as well. Given how things had already gotten as far as they did, Blake was fine with joining the girl to at least make it two-against-three should they come to blows.
Sneering at the girl while pointing an accusatory finger at the child, the man continued proclaim his opinion on the situation. "Person? All I see you protecting is some dirty mongrel!" he shouted vehemently.
Blake grit her teeth in anger as the man began hurling racial slurs and verbal abuse, somehow ignorant of the fact that it was him and two humans on one side, with a crowd of roughly thirty faunas on the other. He was poking a hornets' nest, knowing full well that after the White Fang attack any acts of aggression carried out by a faunas would end badly. Perhaps that is what he wanted though. An excuse to let out his frustrations in a violent manner with minimal repercussions. Whatever the reason may be, Blake was determined to put an end to his actions, even though she was still recovering from her injuries.
"Besides, it's their fault we're stuck in this mess!" the man yelled loudly in accusation. "It was their kind who attacked the city!"
"But these people had nothing to do with it! They are innocent!"
"That doesn't change the fact that it was a bunch of rabid animals who destroyed everything created! Are you seriously going to continue defending these monsters?!" the man shouted as he held his arms out to gesture all around them. "Look at what they have caused! Why the hell should we be rationing supplies out to the ones responsible for all this?! Do you not understand how wrong this is?!"
Blake was halfway done unsheathing her blade, but halted when she noticed something peculiar about the girl. Her eyes had changed color from a faded-green to a familiar shade of red. The same kind of red burning in the sockets of the creatures of darkness. What's more, the metal frame that ran up the sides of her neck began to move in an oddly organic manner.
The agitator of the trio had no time to react as the girl struck his chest by thrusting the butt of her rifle right into his solar plexus. He was thrown a few feet backwards and landed with a painful thud on the blacktop. The second man raced to pull out a knife but was tossed to the side by a fast-moving object, his body impacting a nearby telephone pole. As for the last man, he attempted to dodge whatever it was that had attacked the previous man, but soon found himself flipping through the air as he was thrown like a ragdoll.
After a moment of calm, it became apparent what had struck the second and third man, with the culprit being the dangerous-looking tail with a stinger that was now coiled around the girl protectively. However this was no normal type of tail that one would expect to see on a variety of faunas, for this tail was not comprised of flesh and bone, but steel and obsidian. An equally menacing mask was now covering the girls' face as she glared at the downed man in contempt.
The troublemaker hurriedly regained his bearings and pulled out the pistol that was holstered inside his jacket but was already too late to act further as the girl stabbed her stinger into his hand and pinned it to the ground. As the man began to holler in pain and curse at the girl -swearing vengeance and other expected threats-, she calmly stepped forward until the distance between them was roughly the same length of her rifle, which she then proceeded to aim at the man from point-blank range. Any further raging the man had planned was silenced as the tip of the bayonet tickled at his chin.
"If I ever find out that you lay so much as a finger on these people again, I will personally hunt you down and carve out your heart." the girl threatened, the cold tone of her voice making it abundantly clear that she would keep her promise. "Do you understand?"
It seemed as if the severity of the situation finally came crashing down on the man as he stared down the barrel of a gun, a cold sweat breaking out as the girl loomed over him with all the terror-inducing presence of a deathstalker.
"Well?" the girl spoke, evidently expecting the man to provide an answer.
"Y-yes! Just let me go before you rip my arm off!" the goon quickly answered as he tried to scramble away from the frightening girl, only to wince in pain as his hand remained impaled in the ground.
"Then leave." turning her gun away from the man, she also pulled her tail back to let the man go free. The mechanical tail then retracted itself to her back where it seamlessly merged with the cloth and metal-plating of her trench coat.
Evidently the show of force and intimidation wasn't enough to entirely dissuade the man from his antagonistic mentality, or maybe he was simply too stupid or stubborn to leave well enough alone, but he felt the need to make one last threat as he picked himself up off the ground and mustered a weak glare at the young woman.
"Mark my words girly, I'll let you have this win, but when my boss hears about this, he'll-."
"Be extremely furious with his moron of an employee." an irritated voice interrupted from behind the thug. There was no time for said moron to react as a large hand gripped him by the top of his skull and lifted him off his feet. "You are lucky we need all the manpower we can get, otherwise I'd let the twins use you as a training dummy."
Whilst those familiar with the man know him as Junior, his current appearance was far from the snazzy-look he often maintained at his club. His usual attire had been swapped for work jeans and a loose red-shirt, the clothing marked with sweat-stains, dirt, and scuffs of similar sorts. Clearly he was putting in his fair share of effort with the recovery process for the city, while the same could not be said for his employees who had most likely been slacking-off until now.
"Not only do I find you worthless mooks doing eff-all to aid in rebuilding, you even have the gall to strut around causing trouble, acting like this has nothing to do with you." the large man growled as his temper began to rise.
"J-Junior! I swear, this ain't what it looks like!" the mook cried as he flailed in Junior's grip, his likeness that of a prize being carried in an arcade crane-game. "I was just-!"
"'About to apologize to the nice lady', right?" Junior said as he forcibly finished the sentence for the hapless thug. "The same lady whose team got us out of that park and escorted us to safety."
Blake watched with mild amusement as Junior forced his employee into a perfect 90-degree bow, much to his discomfort.
"Say it!"
"Please forgive me! I am extremely sorry for my rudeness! It will never happen again!"
"Please accept my apologies as well." Junior said as he briefly bowed as well. "It appears that I must enforce further discipline upon my incompetent workforce."
"Oh, you don't need to go that far." the girl said as she raised her hand placatingly. "So long as he learns his lesson and doesn't do anything else like this again, that's all I can really ask for now. I understand that everyone is in a rough spot because of the attack, but that is no excuse to cause a ruckus and worsen the situation."
With a few parting words, Junior collected his men and headed off while the crowd began to disperse. It was at this point that Blake decided to approach the girl. She couldn't quite recall her name, but she did remember seeing her with Louis, along with a few others who all wore similar gasmasks.
"Excuse me," Blake called out as she neared. "may I have a moment of your time?"
The girl holstered her rifle. "Sure. What is it you need of me?"
"You are friends with Louis, correct? Short dark hair, oddly well-dressed with a shoulder-cape, wears a gasmask?"
Nodding in confirmation, the girl explained. "Yeah, he's part of our team. Why? Do you need something from him?"
"I would just like to properly thank him for rescuing me and my teammate. As well as give him fair warning about the man he had fought."
Happy to oblige Blake's request, the girl quickly introduced herself as Mia Karnstein and proceeded to lead the faunas to the place where she and her team had been assigned shelter. Oddly however, upon reaching the shipping container where they had been staying, they found the place to be empty. Not a single belonging of theirs was to be seen, save a single sheet of paper that had been taped to the door. Grabbing the written message, Mia read it aloud.
"'Found a location to set up our base. Trina will guide you there.'"
"Who's Trina?" Blake asked as she glanced over Mia's shoulder.
"Not a who, but a what. We need to follow the scent of the flower." Mia explained as she inhaled deeply. "This way." she then instructed as she began walking in the direction the smell had gone.
Blake tried sniffing the air as well, managing to pick up the faint smell of something sweet as it wafted along the breeze. At first Blake had assumed that their destination would be at most ten minutes away, but slowly grew more irritated with each passing mile as they walked further into the city. After almost an hour of walking -with Mia constantly having to tell Blake that 'no, we are not lost, I know what I am doing.'- they managed to arrive at their destination.
The location turned out to be a moderately-sized park on the edge of the territory that the Huntsmen had recently deemed safe, which meant that they were the only people in the area. What was once a serene location that many a happy family would visit to have a fun time together, was now devoid of any sense of comfort and peace. Sure, the place didn't look quite as much of the warzone as the rest of the city, but that didn't change the fact that the land was pockmarked with craters and littered with debris. Evidently this hadn't been enough to deter Mia's friends from claiming this place as their apparent home. Blake idly noted that the swan-shaped paddleboats in the nearby pond had been capsized, and what was once a children's playground was now a heap of bent and twisted metal. Following Mia, the two girls made their way over to the parks' recreation center; several buildings arranged as corners to square, with a courtyard in the center where a water fountain periodically spat out streams of water. The structures were connected by a series of roofs that made it look like they had been partially hollowed-out. However, it was abundantly clear that some remodeling was being done, with wooden and metal barricades being constructed like something out of a post-apocalyptic setting.
"Hey guys! I made it!" Mia called out to announce her arrival.
After a moment someone poked their head out of a window a gave them a wave hello. "Yo, glad to see you finally made it!" a man with crimson hair shouted back.
A brief flash of light emanated from inside the room behind the man, followed by another man cursing in pain. Pulling his head back in, the man started arguing with whoever was inside.
"I thought you said you knew how to fix this thing!"
"No, I said someone in my head knows how to fix it! I'm trying my best here!"
Odd response aside, Blake recognized the voice of the other person, remembering it was the leader of the group Mia and Louis were part of, and the same person who had rescued Ruby from Beacon tower.
After passing what was to serve as the entrance through the barricade to the rest of what apparently looked to be turning into an outpost, the two were then greeted by Louis.
"Nice to see you made it here without trouble." the young man said as he offered Mia a canteen of water.
"Apart from how long it took to reach the place, I suppose so." Mia responded as she took a sip from the canteen of water before passing it to Blake. "What is all this supposed to be anyway?" she asked, gesturing to the ad hoc compound they were in.
"Our 'home away from home', as Grey put it. A place for us to set up a more permanent base of operations."
"You don't think anyone will be angry with how you've commandeered a public space?" Blake felt the need to ask, taking then a second swig of water.
Louis made a 'so-so' gesture with his hand, evidently not as certain about the answer as he would want to be. "Pretty sure a handful of squatters are low on the list of priorities in lieu of everything else. Plus, Grey is convinced that he's owed a plot of land as a reward for slaying the dragon."
Mia's expression scrunched up into one of concern upon hearing that. "I mean, I can see where he's coming from, but…"
A sudden sound of whirring interrupted the conversation as power was restored to the complex, lights flickering on, pipes flowing with water once again, and various appliances that had remained plugged in were now running once more.
"See Yakumo, I told you I could get it fixed!" Grey could be heard boasting from the adjacent building.
"As long as you didn't set fire to the place, I'd have considered that a victory itself."
"Fine then, next time you can be the one sticking their hands into all the sparky stuff."
Both Grey and Yakumo came out a few moments later, the former having his clothes dusted with dirt, soot, and grease, presumably coated from whatever he had been working on prior.
"Oh, it appears that we already have a guest." Grey remarked in genuine surprise as he took note of Blake's presence. "My apologies, but we weren't expecting visitors this soon, so we can't provide much in the way of hospitality."
"Still better than what we had been offered." Louis added as he grabbed a small cardboard box off a nearby table, and then held it out to Blake. "Crackers?"
Blake couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something about this situation felt odd, like she was missing some key bits of information.
"No thanks, I just came here because I needed to talk to Louis about something. I'll be out of here… in…" the faunas' sentence trailed-off as she noticed a teenage girl with a similar shade of orange hair to Nora, was effortlessly carrying a large metal box that was taller than her.
"Grey!" the girl called out. "Where do you want me to put this?"
"Just put it in the storage room for now Murasame. I'll examine it once we're finished talking with…"
"Blake Belladonna." the girl answered the implied question.
"Okay then!" Murasame replied as she hauled the crate off to one of the buildings.
Returning his focus to Blake, Grey lightly clapped his hands to rid them of some of the dirt before extending one out for Blake to shake. "Greetings Miss Belladonna, my name is Grey. I believe we shared a brief encounter the other night?"
The girl grabbed his hand in response and nodded. "Yes, I was lying on one of the cots nearby while you were talking with my team leader."
"Good to see you have made a decent recovery." Louis remarked as he recalled the injuries she and her friend had suffered. "What of your friend, the blonde one?"
Blake's expression momentarily stiffened as her thoughts drifted to her partner. Although Yang was in a stable condition and had regained consciousness, that didn't change the fact that she was now missing the majority of her right arm. And since Blake felt that it had been her fault that it had happened, she couldn't bring herself to face Yang again, especially not in-person.
"I haven't been able to see her recently, but I heard that she is doing well." she answered as she desperately prayed for a distraction to derail that line of inquiry. Every moment she spent thinking about Yang felt like a needle puncturing her heart.
Silently studying the girl in front of him, Grey noticed how the look in her eyes changed as soon as she made mention of her friend. Not a topic she was comfortable discussing.
"Alright then!" Grey exclaimed, making himself the focus of the conversation. "Miss Belladonna, would you care to join us for a late lunch? It's been some time since my friends and I have had a proper meal, and it would be no trouble at all to cook for one extra."
"H-huh? Lunch?" the girl uttered in confusion at the sudden offer. After a moment of thought, she decided it would be best to turn them down, but as she opened her mouth to respond, something else beat her to it.
*grrrrnnn*
"Shall I take that as a yes?"