ShortstackAttack: Sup girll
NepNep: Can't talk much. Going on a mission.
ShortstackAttack: Too bad :(
ShortstackAttack: Maybe we can talk during the VytalFes
ShortstackAttack: U coming to bee con?
NepNep: Of course. Then we can finally hang out in person.
ShortstackAttack: Don't u wanna hang out with the monkey instead?
NepNep: He's not interested. He likes faunus girls.
NepNep: Can't blame him. I like faunus too.
ShortstackAttack: That's racist
ShortstackAttack: Whatever. Plenty of fish in the sea. U can find some cuties here in Vale.
NepNep: Maybe.
NepNep: Now I really must go.
ShortstackAttack: Cool. :)
ShortstackAttack: Good luck with ur mission
ShortstackAttack: ttyl
NepNep: Bye Trivia.
***Kuchinashi, a mountain city south of the capital. Full of thieves and assassins, this is a region where the people can be just as, if not more, dangerous than the Grimm. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
And this is where our next mission takes us.
I step on a puddle when I leave the bullhead.
"Gah, why did it have to be raining? This is going to ruin my hair."
"Chill out Nep, we'll be out of here in a sec. We just gotta go in, grab whatever Headmaster Leo wants and fly away. Vroom!" says Sun.
"I doubt it's going to be that easy." says Pyrrha.
"Like she said, they're not gonna hand it to us if we ask nicely."
"It will be fiiiine."
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
"Sometimes I wonder if your faunus trait isn't a monkey brain."
"We should go. Staying in one place for too long might not be a good idea here." says Sage.
"Gotcha, let's go Team!"
Sun may be my best friend, but sometimes I wonder if he should really be a huntsman. At least he knows how to fight.
We get through the security checkpoint easily and find a rather large market near the port. All sorts of different stalls and trinkets. Perhaps this was placed strategically as a tourist trap.
"You think we have time to check this place out?"
And it's working on Sun.
"We're here for work, monkey brain. Let's split up and see if we find anything suspicious. Meet at the main road in an hour?"
"How are we splitting up?" Sun asks and I put my arm around his.
"I don't trust you around these stores."
Sun pouts but I ignore it. Pyrrha and Sage, as usual, accept without complaints.
I've already lost patience with my task, retrieving a particular artifact for the Headmaster. After all, how hard could it be to find a distinctive red, glowy crystal in a sea of pretty jewelry and cheap baubles for the less discerning traveler?
...
After several fruitless hours walking back and forth established shops and vendors' stalls until I memorized this part of the city, I concluded that it's quite hard.
I do find a couple of pieces that interest me however. Unfortunately I spent a little too much on a new jacket recently so there's nothing I can do about it. I could ask Pyrrha; she never spends her money on anything; but I haven't paid her back since last time. Maybe after the mission.
My company doesn't help. Sun is more interested in why the bananas here are so expensive, but I'm not patient enough to explain supply, demand and transportation costs, as well as everything being expensive in tourist traps like these.
Just before the hour is up however, we get a lead.
"These are all very nice but I'm looking for something a little more… special."
"Hmm, that so? Let me take a good look at you."
The old cat faunus looks us up and down, paying special attention to our weapons then smiles.
"Take a look at the Skillful. Nice little tavern it is. Keep your ears open and you might just find something interesting. Oh, and if you do, tell the boss that Boots sent you."
I smile and thank the man.
"Come on Sun, it's about time we meet the others."
***Kuchinose's main entrance is… Grimm.
And this is not just a pun as actual Grimm, too heavily injured so as not to be able to move yet not enough to truly die, are dangled in chains above the path.
"They call it mummified Grimm. I never thought I'd see it in person." says Pyrrha.
"This is… sick." says Sage.
"I'm glad we came by air; would not like it if this was my first impression of the city." says Sun. I agree with him.
"So leader, what do we do now?"
"We were told none too subtly that this tavern might have good info." I say. "I suggest we check it out."
"The Skillful, right?" asks Pyrrha. "We heard about it too. They seem to tell all the huntsmen looking types about it. People noticed Sage's massive sword right away, so it didn't take long."
I snicker at her choice of words, causing the champion to pause for a second before blushing. Right when she's about to say something, I speak my piece.
"Then it's decided. Let's see what this tavern is like."
The blonde boy nods in agreement.
"I could use a drink, and maybe chat up some cute girls."
Sage, surprisingly, makes a comment.
"Sun, we're on a mission."
"Geez, fine. Sage, you're such a buzzkill."
The streets of this city are strange and off-putting; many buildings carved from the very stone of the mountain, no doubt with liberal use of earth Dust. The roads are narrow with plenty of even narrower alleyways littering the place. The abundant tall buildings making sure that even during the day the streets are covered in shadows. The entire place feels oppressive in a way I can't quite put a finger on. It's as if the city itself was alive and it didn't like people much.
It wasn't hard to find the Skillful. The winding, confusing streets of Kuchinashi almost lead us right to it. But before we even enter the place we are met by an imposing figure. A very tall woman blocks our entrance; her large antlers with filed tips making her look even taller and more intimidating.
"Huntsman license?"
She speaks with a surprisingly deep voice. Perhaps she smokes a pack or two a day. In a city like this, it wouldn't surprise me if it was common.
Ignoring that train of thought, we all show her our licenses. If she cares that they are provisional she does not show.
"No fighting inside. Or else…"
She none too subtly points to her rifle, so big that it would look comical on anyone other than herself.
"Understood." says Pyrrha.
"Good. You may enter."
I never truly expected we'd find this artifact out in the market, but at least that search got me some info. Truthfully, this mission was probably a little too hard for 1st years given the location. I'm not sure why headmaster Lionheart put it on the mission board, but I trust the man.
Besides, I'm the one who accepted the mission. Hopefully the professor didn't accidentally make it selectable by a team too young or something like that.
The tavern is warm, and not only in temperature, although that's certainly part of it. I only really noticed how cold it is outside when I entered this place; which makes sense as this city is high up in the mountains.
But it's also got a different feeling of warmth. I don't know if it's the wooden walls on the mostly stone city or how bright the lighting is, contrasting with how dark the city is at all times of the day, but everything about this place feels inviting.
Though not without a little bit of danger. As just about everyone I can see here has a weapon and the others probably have theirs hidden away. Being a huntsman is a requirement for entry after all.
An empty stage calls some attention to itself, no band is here to set the mood tonight. Many posters decorate the walls, many people that I assume are famous huntsmen, one of them is a younger Lionheart. Another poster reminds me of the upcoming Vytal Festival in Vale.
I give a look to my teammates and they nod in understanding. Pyrrha grabs a table while Sage and I find the bar and Sun does his thing.
An old woman with a smile and a rather large scar on her face comes along.
"What can I get you two?"
"We'll have something weak. No reason to embarrass myself by getting drunk too early." Also, we're underage.
Sage nods along with me. The woman brings our drinks swiftly, with practiced motion.
"I see a lot of newcomers recently. What brings you to this lovely city?"
"Oh, you know. Looking for something."
"That seems common. Even though you look a little young for these types of business; doesn't mean much. Lots of young folk around here. Especially as of late. Makes me remember when I hung out with Maria and the others. Good times."
"Lots of people my age lately?"
"Yes, I think one of the big families here is hiring, I don't know the details. But I've seen plenty of new blood around. Most of them faunus, interestingly enough."
"I wonder if this means anything?"
"You'd have to ask one of them. And I wouldn't get on the bad side of one of the families if I were you."
"Thanks for the tip. Anything in particular I should be careful of?"
"Well…" the woman stops to think for a second. "The Black Sheep usually keeps to themselves unless provoked. The Hana Guild doesn't like people messing with their business; drugs and sometimes weapons. Just don't try to pry about that stuff and you should be fine."
The woman grabs a drink for herself along the way. It smells a lot stronger than what Sage and I are having and I have to try and keep my poker face.
"As for the Wave… they've been doing a lot of work with their stuff. Stolen goods, mostly. If you hang around them and don't buy anything they could get suspicious. You see, they're the new guys around and have had plenty of people trying to sabotage them."
"I see. I should go buy something from them then. Hopefully they have something good."
"Oh, that they do. Lots of stolen Atlas tech. Recently one of my friends bought a hard-light saber. It's as efficient as it is pretty. They also found a lot of ancient things after a recent cave in. They claim those things are magical but between you and me, that's ridiculous. They're just saying that to jack up the price."
"I might buy myself a 'magical' bracelet or ring. Maybe something that matches my eyes." I laugh drily and the woman laughs with me.
"Yes. They have their auctions every now and then. I think they're having one tonight actually. Warehouse B in the Lower Valley. Look for their symbol."
"Ah, how nice. I might drop by."
"Hope you have the lien, they don't like people who can't pay up afterwards."
I laugh again.
"That won't be a problem."
Sage then pulls on my sleeve.
"I should go now, I have things to do. But I'll make sure to drop by again later Miss-"
"Opal. And drop the Miss. These bones are old enough for me to not care about these things."
"I'll be seeing you, then."
Sage and I leave the tavern, getting another glare from the tall deer woman.
"So, what did you find?" I ask Sage, who kept discreetly studying the crowd while I talked with the woman.
"Some people were watching us at first but stopped later, except for a couple of girls. They were paying a lot of attention the whole time. One was a human with brown skin and a ponytail and the other was a cat faunus with black hair."
"Hmm…"
"Sun was hitting on the later."
My hand meets my forehead.
"Of course he was. I hope he actually got some info out of her."
"We should go to our meeting place and wait for Sun and Pyrrha."
I roll my eyes.
"Right, yeah. Hopefully he doesn't forget the mission and spends the night somewhere."
***While I'm waiting with Sage, Pyrrha sends me a message.
[Sun is in trouble. Near the Northern Mountain Pass. Hurry]
"What did he get into this time?" asks Sage.
We make our way as fast as we can. Which is easier said than done in these winding alleyways.
The Northern Mountain Pass certainly fits the name. It consists of a narrow, treacherous looking path that seems to get more and more dangerous as it ascends. Many large houses, or perhaps mansions would be more appropriate, can be found spaced out up the pass, with multiple tunnels no matter where I look, making navigation difficult should one not know their way in.
At the base of the path, before it properly begins, is what looks like an old abandoned park. The dry, unkempt grass more yellow than green, a handful of sickly, yet surprisingly sturdy trees sprinkled around along sharp rocks and the remains of a few tables and seats made of stone. This place clearly doesn't get regular use on most days, although today seems to be different as five figures can be found on it. And they clearly aren't here for leisure.
Two of them look familiar since they are my teammates but the other three wear black clothes with hoods and Grimm-like masks. All three of them are female. While I have a hard time reading their expressions due to the masks, it's clear from their body language that they aren't having a peaceful conversation. That and the fact that they all have their weapons drawn.
"-I'm just saying, I don't think it was that bad." Sun defends himself.
The lithe looking one with brown hair in a long ponytail shakes her head. "And I quote, 'Hey girl, are you from Menagerie? Because you meet all of my koalifications.' " She crosses her arms. "Has a single girl done anything other than slap you across the face?"
Seeing us approach, Pyrrha explains.
"Sun flirted with the wrong person." She clearly wants to facepalm but won't compromise her battle stance.
"Gods-damnit Sun," I sigh.
"In my defense, she's pretty cute under the mask." my faunus friend defends himself shamelessly.
"The others came? That's a problem. We'll have to finish this quickly." says the black haired woman.
She has a sword in one hand and what looks like a large cleaver on the other; besides her, a girl with a ponytail has a whip and behind the two, with small antlers poking out of her hood, a small girl with a rifle.
"Get them!"
The black haired one attacks Sun with her dual blades, Sun managing to catch her weapons in his gunchucks' chains, the woman kicks him and rolls back before running back at him and resuming her attack. Her movements are fast, having clearly practiced this style for a long time but while she seems to have the advantage, her dual-wielding is much less effective against an enemy with similar weapons.
Up, down, middle; no matter where she tries to attack, Sun parries her blows with some of his own. She's too skilled for him to go on the offensive, but as long as he keeps up his defense there's little she can do. Sun shoots her when it seems she's distracted but she ducks at the right moment, undeterred, Sun uses the momentum of his shotgun blast for a stronger hit with Riyu Bang and Jingu Bang, but this weakness in her stance was on purpose and she takes advantage of Sun's mistake to slash him across the chest. Something I may just use later.
She continues on the offense for a moment before Sun regains his footing. She may have good reflexes, but so does Sun, and his playful and energetic footwork keeps her own practiced efficiency in check. She's clearly not happy about this stalemate and keeps trying to repeat her earlier success but to little avail as she doesn't get a clean hit on him anymore, Sun getting at most small cuts and making it look effortless.
Thankfully Sage joins the fight by jumping at her with Pilgrim with a leap that leaves a shower of powdered earth in his wake. The large sword passes right through the woman and creates a small crater on the ground, the woman appearing a little behind where she was previously. My teammates attack her together but the woman, upset by this change in the balance of the fight, uses a ribbon tied at the end of her sword to pull on Sage's foot, making the large man fall.
Sun fuses Riyu and Jingu Bang into a staff and tries to keep her at range, she dodges his flurry of blows and when he goes for a stab she disappears, leaving behind a fiery copy of herself that promptly explodes.
What an annoying Semblance.
The black haired woman shoots at my teammates from atop a tree but Sun blocks the pistol shots by spinning his staff while Sage swings at her, a large green wave leaving his sword and cutting off the tree in half as the cat faunus jumps to safety. She ties her ribbon to another tree and swings around it, building momentum and kicking Sage in the chest, causing him to fall on his back again.
This upsets my silent companion.
Sun comes up behind the faunus woman and attacks her, she parries it easily but it was a mere distraction as Sage throws his sword up in the air and jumps, grabbing it by the blade with both hands as he falls and hitting her face with the heavy handle, breaking her mask and I bet a lot of Aura too.
Turns out she really is pretty under the mask.
My friends aren't done yet as Sun decides to kick her in the ribs but she once again disappears, leaving a stone statue behind that would have broken an ordinary person's leg, but Sun easily breaks it.
Unfortunately for her, Sage was expecting her to use her Semblance and answers it by uprooting the entire tree and using it as a baseball bat, the woman of course, being the ball. Granted the woman doesn't fly far away but this clearly hurt.
Meanwhile Pyrrha is trying to join the fight but is being held by the woman with a ponytail. She nearly wraps her whip on my friend's ankle but the redhead jumps back. Pyrrha's expression is ever neutral, her stance shifting her weight perfectly. When she moves, her opponent almost misses it by blinking at the wrong time.
She comes at the woman with Milo in sword form as the masked figure barely dodges out of the way but Pyrrha continues her assault, the woman trying, and failing, to get out of the way of Pyrrha's sword. That's what she gets for fighting an expert of 1 on 1 combat.
When it looks like the champion might finish this early the woman disappears from sight. Another troublesome Semblance?
Ponytail girl attacks Pyrrha from behind with a whip but the champion's instincts are enough for her to turn around and parry the weapon with her blade. Unfortunately this seemed to be her plan as the whip flares with electrical current forcing Pyrrha to drop her blade from shock-numbed fingers.
The last member of the opposing group levels a rifle at Pyrrha while she dances around the dust-laden whip cracks from her opponent; causing me to spring into action. I grab Tri-Hard in rifle mode, shooting lightning bolts at the deer faunus. This obviously gets her attention as she shifts her focus, and her weapon, towards me.
Antler girl doesn't seem to be very experienced, but she has a rifle and guns are fairly easy to use and hard to dodge. Trading fire with her seems like a good idea at first, until I'm hit by a particularly accurate rail of gunfire. Changing my approach, I opt to block her attacks with Tri-Hard in its guandao form. Noticing her standardized weapon's lack of mechashift I sprint towards her parrying bullets left and right in a display I hope shows how skilled I am but the open terrain does me no favors and there's little to hide behind and I'm forced to tank the hits.
At least this will show how tough I am.
Committing to losing some Aura here, I shift Tri-Hard back to its rifle form and shoot a couple of bolts of lightning squarely at her face, then, taking advantage of the effects of the electricity making her shots go wide, I shift it to trident form and slide next to the girl, slashing her side and hearing squeals of pain as her Aura barely holds on. She points her gun at me once more but my victory is assured since I'm are this close, I kick some dust in her eyes and while she's distracted I kick her weapon away from her hands with an unpractical, if stylish technique, then I sweep the butt of my polearm into her stomach and, reeling from that strike, she's helpless to stop me as I get up in her face and shove her to the ground bodily by stabbing my trusty weapon into her neck. Her tawny brown aura shatters and I keep all three points of my long armament close to her neck and then flash her a smile.
I can only hope I looked as cool as I felt.
Pyrrha decides this is the best time to use her Semblance as she pushes away the offending whip and recalls her weapons, changing Milo to its Javelin form. A worried look falls upon the whip user as Pyrrha's expression changes from a neutral one to a confident smile. She changes her stance and throws Akouo like a disk at her opponent, who swats the shield off the air with her whip but Pyrrha takes this chance to throw her Javelin at the enemy with expert accuracy, shaving off a large portion of her Aura, but the redhead isn't done yet. She runs at the opponent and jumps, shifting Milo back to sword form in the air as she pulls Akouo towards her feet and uses it for a boost, finalizing her opponent with a slash as she falls, breaking her Aura.
Despite appearing humble, the champion is really a show-off.
And speaking of show-offs...
Sun and Sage are finishing their fight with the black haired woman who must be at the end of her Aura. Sun separates Riyu and Jingu Bang and shoots her but the attacks hit a clone of hers, one that she uses to boost her height and jump over Sun, slicing him on the back, Sage wastes no time sending an Aura blade her way but she sends one back, green meeting purple before dissipating. When Pyrrha shifts her weapon to join the fight a vast array of beams hit the girl on her side. She uses her Semblance to barely dodge a fireball that sets the dry grass of the park on fire as four new figures stroll onto the scene almost casually amidst the cloud of dissipating smoke and I lower my weapon as I take them in.
"You look like you needed a fire-fighter, your cat was stuck up a tree!" the orange-haired faunus of the group sneers as they approach.
***One is a girl with short ginger hair and many swords floating near her, one is a man wearing a suit and a hat holding what looks like a trumpet, one is a girl wearing bright colors with a collar with a bell on her neck and a very real cat tail and the last one is a white haired girl with blue eyes who is on the shorter side and has a scar on her left eye. She wears a short white dress and white stockings covered by a stylized red jacket that pops out with all that white. A crown accessory atop her bobbed hair gives the look a special touch.
"White Fang, I'd recognize those masks anywhere. If all the things you usually do aren't quite enough, now you're allying yourself with the Wave. I'd say I'm surprised, but I'm really not."
"Schnee…"
The cat faunus says with hatred in her voice as she jumps down from the tree.
I had my suspicions, but it seems like they really are the White Fang. Meaning ponytail girl is probably a faunus as well.
As for the Schnee, they need no introduction. Though I didn't expect one of them to be here.
The White Fang member swings her sword and a blade of Aura shoots towards the Schnee girl, who blocks it with a snowflake shaped Glyph. This causes the faunus to rush her, one blade on each hand, only to be pushed back by a blast of air from man in a suit's trumpet.
"I had everything under control." the Schnee complains with a frown.
"I'm sure you did." the man in a suit rolls his eyes.
A rainbow figure very quickly rushes the other White Fang member before she can use her whip for much. Hitting her on the head with a nunchaku that looks very different from Sun's.
"Why? You're faunus too, why are you helping those humans?" asks the ponytailed faunus.
The brightly dressed cat girl smiles before she answers.
"Not everyone cares about the difference, nyah."
Schnee clears her throat.
"Now that we've defeated you, you'll be telling us all about your little plan here with the Wave."
"I'd rather die than help you, Schnee." the black haired faunus says with poison in her words.
"You have no choice, you're outnumbered." she says with a smug look on her face.
"I do have one choice…" she grabs something behind her belt.
"Wait, what are you-"
"Ninja vanish!"
A smoke bomb is not something I was expecting as I cover my eyes and cough thanks to the irritant. Perhaps those Grimm masks had some use after all. Eventually a blast of air from trumpet man disperses the cloud of smoke, but of course the White Fang members have disappeared.
"Argh, we lost them! Couldn't you have done that faster?" Schnee complains, face red thanks to the smoke and also embarrassment.
"Couldn't you? I have lungs too, princess."
"Don't call me princess."
"Uh… hello?" says Pyrrha.
The small ginger girl steps forward, ignoring her Teammate's antics.
"Salutations, my name is Penny Polendina and we are Team SPNC (Spinach) from Atlas Academy. Pleasure meeting you."
She extends her hand in a rather strange way but Pyrrha shakes it. Schnee isn't happy about it though.
"Penny! How many times have I told you to not just blurt out our name like that. What if they are enemies?"
"I don't know Weissy, they look like huntsmen to me." says the colorful cat girl.
"You be quiet, Katt."
"That white haired girl is cute." says Sun. I'm forced to agree but I ignore him and step forward.
"Neptune Vasilias, leader of Team NAVW (Navy) from Haven Academy."
The white haired girl sighs and then stands with perfect military posture.
"Weiss Schnee, leader of Team SPNC, we're here on a very important mission. These are my teammates, Penny Polendina..."
"Salutations."
"Neon Katt…"
"Nyan~!"
"And Flynt Coal."
"Yo."
I look at my team, but Sun is already in front of everyone, trying to show off to the other Team's leader.
"The name is Sun Wukong, strongest man in Vacuo. Nice to meet you, Weiss."
"Yes, very." she replies in a dry tone.
"Sage Ayana."
"And I'm Pyrrha Nikos, pleasure to meet you."
Weiss blinks a few times.
"Nikos? Did you just say Pyrrha Nikos?"
"Yes?"
She takes a step forward.
"You mean the four times champion of the Mistral Regional Tournament, top of her class in Sanctum Academy, mascot of Pumpkin Pete's cereal Pyrrha Nikos? That one?"
"Yes." says Pyrrha in an annoyed tone.
"It's… well, it's an honor to meet you. Truly."
I can tell Pyrrha's uncomfortable, so I quickly change the subject.
"So, about what just happened…"
Weiss reluctantly turns towards me.
"Right! We came here with a very special mission to track some goods that were stolen by the White Fang, important things from Atlas, I can't talk about it. And while investigating we found out they are in a partnership of some kind with this local crime conglomerate, The Wave. We were looking for their hideout, which is somewhere in this mountain pass when we found this fight."
Well, that's convenient.
"Oh, we're on a similar mission. Apparently Haven's Headmaster wants a certain something that is probably with the Wave too. Maybe we could work together."
"Well…"
Weiss attempts (and fails) to subtly steal glances of Pyrrha.
"Normally I would be against this kind of thing since I was entrusted this mission by the General himself, but I supposed I could make an exception."
"Teammate Weiss, this behavior is outside your normal parameters."
"Please be quiet Penny."
Sun smiles.
"I like the idea, how about you, Nep?"
He's for the idea, for obvious reasons, Pyrrha is against it for equally obvious reasons and Sage… like always he doesn't care either way.
Looks like Professor Lionheart chose me as leader for a reason. Good thing he got it right the second time.
"We can help each other, it will be faster if we're working together."
"Perfect. I knew you looked reasonable. We look forward to working with you."
She salutes, then realizes it's a strange situation to do that and looks embarrassed.
She clears her throat.
"Why don't we share what information we have?"
"Maybe a little away from the guards?" suggests Flynt.
Like he says, a little ways from the park, a bit up the trail, a few city guards watch our group, weapons in the ready.
"Why didn't they help us out against these criminals?" complains Weiss.
"There is a high probability they are also working for one of the many crime families of this city." says Penny.
Weiss sighs.
"Of course."
***"So The Wave is going to do a little auction of stolen goods tonight? Then we should be able to find what the White Fang stole with no difficulty."
Teams Navy and Spinach were chatting in a café in another part of town. The other Team's leader seems very focused on her mission. She'd be a lot cuter if she'd smile like the rest of her Team.
"Calm down princess, there could still be White Fang around. They're obviously going to warn their bosses about us." I explain.
"There is a high probability of them getting in the way of the missions. I suggest we deal with them first." says the bubbly ginger girl.
"Yes, yes, Penny, I get it. We should… do something about them. Maybe some of us could… infiltrate them?" she said, looking at Sun.
Her faunus teammate, Neon, smiled and spoke with a sarcastic cheer.
"Oh Weissy, you're so funny. You can't be talking about shirtless and I, right? They totally know our faces."
"Yes, well… it was simply a suggestion."
The embarrassed Schnee said blushing.
"It wasn't a good one." said the hat wearing Flynt.
She narrows her eyes at him.
"Unless you have a better alternative-"
"I do." said Neon. "We could split up and look around; see if any of them are nearby. Not like they know we'll be there tonight if they don't keep a watch."
"With eight people we have plenty. And I can count for three." said Sun.
"More like count to three." I say offhandedly.
"I'll go with monkey." said Neon.
"Cool." he answered.
Weiss frowns.
"Now wait a minute, we haven't agreed on any-"
"I'm in. Just don't put me in the same Team as you." said Flynt.
"...Fine. If the other Team is alright with it."
Weiss relents with a sigh.
"Yeah, it's okay. Right guys?"
Sage shrugged his shoulders while Pyrrha said…
"That seems like a good idea. Perhaps we should check what areas would be more likely for them to keep watch."
"I believe the Oasis Combat School and the local CCT tower would be the most optimal places to search." said Penny.
"Great, it's settled then." I say.
"How are we splitting the Teams?" asks Weiss.
Sun and Neon to a high five while Flynt stands next to them. I look at my green haired friend.
"Sage."
"Got it."
He walks towards the three.
"That simple?" asks Weiss.
I shrug my shoulders.
"I don't trust Sun without someone watching him. Who will be the leader? Because Sage isn't much for that and Sun… is Sun."
"Guess that means me." says Flynt..
"That leaves our group being me, Teammate Weiss, Neptune Vasilias and Pyrrha Nikos." says Penny.
"Hello again. It will be nice working with you."
"I salute you back, temporary Teammate Pyrrha."
The two redheads laugh while Weiss simply stares at Pyrrha and blushes.
"I am curious as to who will lead our temporary Team." says Penny.
"Indeed. There are two leaders here." says Pyrrha.
Weiss puffs out her chest.
"Obviously it will be-"
"Me."
Weiss turns her head to me quickly, expression halfway between confused and offended.
"What? No offense to you, but whatever training you had, I was trained by Atlas Academy."
"What's wrong with Haven? Are you implying our training is inadequate?" asks Pyrrha.
"I… I didn't… urgh!"
She looks at me, pouting.
"You can lead."
She looks cute while angry. Very opposite to Pyrrha who is very scary the rare times she's pissed.
Weiss puts a lock of her short snow white hair behind her ear.
"So, where are we going?"
"While we were talking the others already went towards the CCT tower." says Penny.
"Oh."
"Guess that means Team NNPS is going back to school." I say.
"Team NNPS?" asks Weiss.
"Yeah, Wimps." I say with a grin.
"That is an awful name."
"Next stop, Oasis Combat School."
***"I'm surprised a place with this reputation has a combat school." says Weiss.
"Maybe the huntsmen here are the reason this place isn't in complete ruins." I say.
"I wonder how the huntsmen here compare to those in Sanctum?" asks Pyrrha.
"What was your combat school like, if you don't mind me asking?" Snow Angel asks nervously.
"I imagine not too different from your own. Argus is very close to Atlas in both geography and culture. Though the Mistrali love of gladiator combat influences things a little."
"I think we're definitely more encouraged to spar with each other than in other schools." I add.
"It is curious since the main job of a huntsman is to fight Grimm. Although I suppose fighting other aura users is also important." Says Penny.
"I'm not as into it as Pyrrha but there's just something about giving your all in front of all these people that excites me." I say. "Hope you Atlas girls are as good at fighting people as we are. Don't think we'll be seeing a lot of Grimm."
"I assure you we're more than capable. Isn't that right, Penny?"
"Indeed. Our grades for single combat are among the highest in our year."
"Thank you."
"Although our performance in Team battles has been noted to be subpar."
Weiss's face goes as red as her outfit.
"...thank you, Penny. That's enough."
"How was your combat school?" Asks Pyrrha.
"I… never went to one. My family hired private tutors."
That explains her social skills.
"The same is true of me. I never went to a combat school due to… reasons."
Never mind. Penny seems well adjusted enough, if a little weird.
"W-Well, even without a combat school, we're having no problems with Atlas Academy's great standards of education." She says proudly. "I'm sure Haven is good too." She adds in a hurry, looking at Pyrrha.
"Actually Haven wasn't my first choice. I was planning on going to Beacon." says Pyrrha.
"You were?"
"Beacon is said to be the best among the 4 academies. I only changed my mind because Neptune was going to Haven."
"Oh… I see."
Weiss looks a little disappointed for some reason but shakes her head then her face is back to normal.
"We have arrived." indicates Penny.
I don't know what I expected, but it's certainly this. Oasis looks like any other combat school, not unlike Sanctum. Maybe the schools in other kingdoms are different? We'll find out when we go to Vale for the tournament. The only noteworthy thing about the building is that it's at least partially built from the mountain itself; although that's quite common here. Seems like the whole city was built this way. Not sure if that made building things easier or harder.
In front of the building two armed guards stand, weapons in hand.
"Halt! What business do you have here?"
I'm about to say something when Weiss steps in front of us.
"We're students from Atlas and Haven here on a special mission. We're looking for information on the Wave."
Didn't she agree to let me lead?
"Do you think we're stupid? Leave now."
"What? What is the meaning of-"
I put a hand on her shoulder.
"I apologize for my friend, she was a bit too forward."
The guard frowns.
"Apology accepted, now leave."
"Now now, this is no way to treat a guest."
Says a slightly older man who appears from inside the building.
"Headmaster! These suspicious people claim to be from the huntsman academies."
The man raises his hand.
"That's enough. I highly doubt the heir of the Schnee family is working for a crime organization."
Weiss' face remains neutral as she gives him a military salute.
"Weiss Schnee, here at the behest of General Ironwood."
The man laughs.
"At ease, soldier. My name is Takaya, headmaster of this small Oasis. What can I help you with?"
"General Ironwood and Headmaster Lionheart gave us missions to recover stolen property from this city. We believe the Wave to be responsible for this." I explain.
"Hmm… a bit strange to send someone so green on a dangerous mission like this, if you don't mind my saying, but you all seem capable enough. I'm sure you're all good students. Now, as for the Wave…"
The man talks in a slow, calm manner. Enunciating every word clearly and bringing with him a quiet atmosphere. It's a little boring in my personal opinion.
"They have their base up the mountain and a few warehouses in the warehouse district, same as the other families."
"We have narrowed it down to Warehouse B where there will be an auction tonight." says Penny. "We also found out they are in a partnership with the White Fang."
He laughs again.
"Looks like you're well informed. Well, the Wave has grown a lot in a short time. They threaten the balance of the city and we're doing what we can to keep the peace."
"Is it really that bad?" asks Pyrrha, but the man waves her concerns away.
"Nothing we can't deal with; we're huntsmen. Now, if you want to enter their warehouse, you'll need a password."
"To keep away unwanted customers." I say.
"Precisely. Now, the password changes often, but right now it should be 'swordfish'."
"Thank you."
"No, no. It's alright. Anything you girls do to disrupt them helps us out. Just be careful; they might be smaller than the other families right now but they are no less dangerous. Supposedly they have a few artifacts that are said to be magical."
"Clearly a rumor to scare their enemies and increase their profit." says Weiss.
"Probably, but it never hurts to be prepared. Once you have a few years of experience you'll know that there's plenty of weird things around Remnant."
"Thank you for your help. Is there anything else we can do?" my redhead friend asks.
"You've already done enough. Just promise you won't do anything stupid. I heard they recently hired some mercenaries. If the rumors are true, they are to be taken seriously."
Weiss smiles with pride.
"Thank you for the warning but we can take care of ourselves. Isn't that right Penny?"
"I am combat ready."
He nods.
"Being confident is good. I can only wish you good luck and hope you succeed in your mission. Farewell."
We say goodbye to the man and walk back to the meeting point. We haven't seen any White Fang nearby; maybe the other group had better luck.
***"Looks like they're not following us. CCT tower was normal and I didn't see any White Fang around." says Flynt.
"Maybe they ran with their tails between their legs all the way to their base at the top of the mountain." says Neon.
"As good an idea as any. Those tunnels seem like a pretty good place to hide." Sun looks around boredly. "Wish we had found them."
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
"Sun, please tell me you don't still want to flirt with the cat faunus."
"Nah, not really…Well, maybe a little bit, but mostly I was just curious about them."
Weiss crosses her arms.
"Never mind any of that. We should be heading to the warehouse district. The auction will start soon."
Good idea.
"You're right, Snow Angel, might as well get there early."
The white haired girl raises an eyebrow.
"...What did you call me?"
I ignore the diminutive woman and begin to walk.
It takes more time than I'd like to admit to find the place. In my defense, with the way the B is painted on, it looks like a 13. And after that I had to find the one with the symbol of a flower; thankfully that last one was easier thanks to Neon's night vision. Seems like she's been talking a lot with Sun. Perhaps he finally found someone as talkative as he is.
Yet again an intimidating looking faunus is guarding the entrance.
"Password."
"Swordfish."
The bouncer narrows his eyes at me.
"Hmm… and what will you be buying?"
I'm not scared, not with all these guys by my side.
"I heard you guys had some fancy Atlas tech."
The man thinks for a second.
"You can enter. Auction will start in 30."
"Thank you."
We pass by him and enter a well lit warehouse with a few people already in. Three rows of chairs sit in front of a podium, behind it, on the far back, are boxes that I'd guess contain the stolen property. The large, obviously Atlesian, machines next to it just make it even less subtle.
"There it is!"
Speaking of, Weiss immediately points towards the machine and announces its presence. For the three people sitting on the chairs, this is a mild nuisance; for the man behind the podium, this is a threat.
"You don't look like a customer."
"W-Well, we're-"
"In fact, I'd say you look like a Schnee."
"Oh."
Seems like there's a downside to being famous;
"I'm a fan of your music but this just won't do."
This is certainly not good but it's nothing we can't deal with.
"Blitz Attack!" I yell before anyone has a chance of doing anything.
Pyrrha, Sun and Neon of all people rush forward to knock out the three would be customers. How did Neon even knew to… never mind.
Sage looks at me and I shrug. I knock out the man behind the podium before looking at the redhead champion.
"Seal the door."
Pyrrha twists the metal door, making it impossible for it to open normally. Seeing this, Snow Angel creates an icy barrier in front of it.
"Won't hold a huntsman for long." says Flynt.
"Then we must hurry." she answers.
"Don't think it will be much of a problem." says Neon.
I can faintly hear what sounds like headmaster Takaya's voice on the outside. Looks like they're buying us a little time.
"Let's go!"
The eight of us ran towards the end of the room. A bright red crystal, looking quite distinct from Dust, is connected to an assortment of machines; however four people step out from the darkness and into view.
One is a small boy with black hair and long bangs. He flips said bangs with a smug smirk. Beside him is a large man, in many ways, who wears aviator goggles on his face. On his other side is a woman whose attire is almost entirely made of leather and lastly there's another woman, wearing a mask, not unlike the White Fang
"You can call us Team SMMK (Smoke); we were hired to keep things tidy." says the small one. "Not that it will be much of a problem." He smiles again.
I really want to punch this child.
Looking at their weapons, the small boy has none I can see, the fat man in googles has a mace, the masked woman wields a shotgun with dual blades, probably a mechashift weapon and the leather wearing woman carries a strange looking staff.
I look to my allies, maybe we could try to just grab what we need and run? I take a single step forward.
***A loud sound rings in the closed room. I barely avoid the shotgun blast. The masked woman then shifts her weapon into an axe.
"Oh! No, no, no." says the fat man. "You don't think you're getting past us that easily, do you?"
Looks like a fight is inevitable; which I was expecting, to be perfectly honest.
"Eight of them, four of us. Should we make this a competition, see how fast we can beat them?" the short one, the apparent leader, asks.
"I'm in." the fat man hits the ground with his mace in obvious excitement. "But you guys know you're going to lose, right?"
The masked woman laughs.
"This will be over quickly."
I don't waste any time.
"High Tides!" I yell and go towards the enemy leader, Pyrrha follows closely behind. Both of our weapons mechashifting into polearms. The enemy is unarmed, so this should be easy.
I stab low at his chest, he dodges to the side, trapping my trident over his shoulder, before spinning in place, catching me off-balance and sweeping my feet off the ground.
"Ow."
I found myself suddenly sprawled out on the ground, my spear quickly followed, smacking me in the face.
"Heh." he laughs. That was so uncool.
Pyrrha is doing much better than me, crouching under his spinning kicks and attempting to sweep his legs with Akuo. The short man hops over her weapon carelessly laughing, as if he was playing some sort of game rather than seriously fighting. Shifting his weight, he closed the small gap between his body and the weapon, aiming a swatting kick at Pyrrha's spear, trying to disarm her. Thankfully she managed to jerk the weapon away at the last minute. Lunging off her back foot, Pyrrha feigns an over-telegraphed thrusting stab, only to break off at the last moment, letting her right hand loose from her grip, and sending it rocketing forward in a brutal uppercut. That certainly caught the small-fry off guard, judging by the look on his face. And Pyrrha didn't waste any time, seizing the opening to thrust her spear clean into the man's shoulder. He's certainly not laughing anymore.
Honestly I wish I could show off more as Team leader but Pyrrha is just on another level. Maybe that's why the headmaster originally chose her as leader.
Meanwhile Weiss and her Teammate Flynt seem to be having trouble against the fat man.
"I'll handle this, Coal. You stay back."
"Yeah, right. We're Teammates, Schnee."
"Fine, but don't get in the way."
"If you kids are done talking...HYEAH!"
He jumps forward much faster than one would expect a person his size would while holding a weapon that massive. Flynt manages to get away, but Snow Angel is hit on the face and falls to the ground.
"Schnee! Argh, that was not cool man. You have any idea how long I've been waiting to do that?"
Flynt blows on his trumpet, a blast of air coming towards the fat man, who easily gets out of the way. Weiss to her credit, recovers quickly. Moving her sword around in the air where a few glyphs appear and shoot icicles forward. A few do hit the man but he doesn't seem bothered by it. If anything he's smiling.
"You people look like you rely on Dust a lot. It's pretty useful, don't get me wrong. But a lot of folks use it as a crutch."
"I refuse to be lectured by my enemy." Weiss retorts.
"Whatever you say, princess."
He jumps forward again, this time she's prepared and dodges it with the grace of a ballerina, slashing away at his side as his large body takes the hits without flinching.
Flynt makes some weird sounds with his trumpet.
"What are you doing!? This is no time for a concert. Fight!"
"I'm trying! But my weapon isn't working." he says, fiddling with his instrument.
The fat man smiles widely before rushing Flynt, a single punch on his stomach causing great damage judging by his pained face, hopping away to avoid a follow up hit.
"Never take your eyes off your enemy."
"The same goes for you!" says Snow Angel as more glyphs appear in the air… and do nothing.
"Huh? What is going on?"
"Weren't you paying attention?" he hits the ground with his weapon, a cloud of steam obscuring his figure. His voice echoed from somewhere inside.
"You folks use Dust as a crutch too much. So I evened out the playing field a bit."
Weiss' eyes widened.
"You can nullify Dust!"
I can't see his face but I'm certain he's smiling again.
"But that cloud, you're still using Dust yourself."
"Princess, I'm the bad guy. I play to win."
Looks like their fight just got a lot harder.
My silent buddy Sage and that Penny girl are fighting against the masked woman. Sage wastes no time swinging Pilgrim with all he's got, but his powerful blows are easily parried by her axe.
"Hrnt." he grunts in frustration.
"Have no worries my temporary Teammate, I shall aid you."
The multiple swords coming from her backpack slice in an arc, forcing the woman to jump back to avoid getting hit, an opportunity Sage takes immediately. His Aura-enhanced feet leaving cracks on the stone floor as he dashes towards the enemy.
"Marton!"
She calls out and shifts her weapon from axe to shotgun and shoots Sage in the chest, forcing him to back down from what would have been a devastating hit. Instead he turns Pilgrim on its side, using the flat side of the blade to block the icey rounds that at this close range would have shaved off a good bit of his Aura.
"Don't rely on me too much Mina, use your own Semblance." says the fat man. The masked woman, Mina's, response is to shift her weapon back to axe form.
"Fine."
She extends her hands and multiple threads of what looks like spider silk appear and fall all over the place.
Sage, with his heavy muscular frame and even heavier weapon, finds it difficult to move on the sticky floor.
Penny shifts her swords into rifles and attempts to shoot to no avail.
"It seems that man's Semblance is also interfering with my weapon. Changing to plan B."
Penny slices the web with ease, a single motion of her arms being replicated by the floating swords. She and Sage then charge the woman with their weapons at the ready. Sage's movements clearly slowed down thanks to the webbing.
The masked woman uses her Semblance again, this time catching Penny's weapons in it. The web completely envelops the swords, trying them to each other and to the ground as they fall into a big clump of metal and web.
"Oh no, my wires!"
Whatever she did, Penny can't use her swords. Thankfully Sage managed to punch the woman across the room, no doubt taking a chunk of her Aura with it. His victory is short lived though, as he finds his body completely trapped by more of her web. The woman directly aiming at him this time instead of all over; covering his body from up to the shoulders as his sword falls out of reach, stuck to the ground.
"Pthoey! Stupid kids,."
The woman spits blood on the floor. Penny turns around to aid my Teammate but this leaves her open to being attacked by Mina's Semblance as she puts her hands close together and forms a large ball of webbing that explodes into many sticky strands after making contact with Penny, trapping her body as she did Sage's.
Meanwhile my best friend and the cat girl are facing off against the woman with a fur jacket. Hopefully that's animal leather. The faunus duo swing their nunchaku around, wait, when did they swap weapons? Anyway they swing their nunchaku towards the leather wearing woman who blocks it with an intricately decorated staff.
It's fun seeing Sun and Neon fight, despite their similar weapons, their fighting styles couldn't be more different. Sun tends to jump around a lot, trying to find a spot in the enemy's defense, hit high with his left, hit low with his right, change it up, jump, try to hit the head, stop the swing halfway, aim at the ribs, fast hits all over. The woman however is no pushover; blocking a good amount of hits with her staff and taking every opportunity to kick him and try to swat his weapon away. Sun continues with his unrelenting strikes, using his quickness to his advantage, until eventually one hits. Quantity over quality seems to be his game and for every two strikes she parries, he hits a third; her brown Aura shimmering on each hit.
Neon goes for hit and run tactics instead, waiting for the right time to rush in and attack, using the momentum from her speed Semblance to make each hit count. She keeps getting close to the enemy and running away, distracting her, creating openings that Sun is all too eager to take advantage of. Overhead strike with his right, sideways strike with his left, right hand goes up, nunchaku traveling under his arm to hit her chin. While Sun keeps her attention by getting in her face and staying there with acrobatics, Neon uses her mobility to strike from every odd angle possible. When Sun captures his opponent in the chains of his weapon, Neon flies past with a rainbow contrail behind her, landing a flying kick on her chest. Little by little her Aura is going down, and if she remains too focused on Sun, Neon swoops in to strike her from behind.
"How come you're wearing all this leather? Let me guess; it's because you have such a plain face that you decided to dress in whatever you thought was cool to compensate. I used to do that too… when I was twelve."
The Atlesian faunus laughs, briefly running towards Sun for a high-five.
They got this. Or so I thought, until the woman points her staff at them friends and speaks a word in a language I don't understand. A large wall of fire catches Neon off-guard while she is rushing in. She attempts to shift her movement to dodge, but with another word the floor becomes icy and slippery, causing the faunus girl to fall on the floor where she is hit by a lightning bolt originating from the staff.
"Kitty!"
"Sorry Sunny."
When did they start using pet names? Actually, how come she can use Dust? Sun doesn't seem to care as he goes for a running kick that the woman blocks with her staff, then sends a blast of icicles towards him with another foreign word. Sun is on the ground in pain.
But I have my own problems to worry about. Pyrrha keeps trying to stab her short target but he unexpectedly dodges with a dancer's grace. His short stature and agility proved a challenge. He abruptly dashed in and out of Pyrrha's range, tossing punches and kicks, before quickly weaving backwards right before Pyrrha could swat back with her spear, going back to a distance she's more comfortable with.
Was he just fooling around? While I could understand that, I won't let him get away with this. Having long since gotten up, I approach him from the back, trident in hand, and try a sweeping attack. He seems to be expecting that as he backflips out of my attack, landing behind me as my weapon and Pyrrha's lock onto each other.
"Sorry." the champion mutters quickly out of habit.
"Heh, you kids really suck."
Now I really want to beat him up.
Pyrrha uses her Semblance to separate our weapons and I shift Tri-Hard into its guandao form to avoid any more weapon-locking shenanigans.
"Wish I could do that to his weapon. Of course he had to be an unarmed fighter." She smiles wickedly. "Not that I'm complaining."
Pyrrha is either angry or excited, neither bodes well for the enemy as she starts a well practiced sequence of blows, mixing stabs and slashes and I do my best to mimic her movements in our combined attack.
She really could have given me the heads up, this is supposed to be a Team move.
He parries many of the hits, pushing some out of the way with the palm of his hand or the back, kneeling or elbowing the shafts away from his body as he shows off obvious experience.
Not that it matters as our opponent can't stand the fury of two spear wielding beauties and we get more than a few hits in. He doesn't seem to like that if his expression is anything to go by, but it quickly changes into his usual mocking smile as he flips his hair away from his face and the world goes dark.
I can't see a thing, everywhere I look is just pitch black. I can't see Pyrrha who is right next to me, I can't see Tri-Hard in my own hands and most worrying of all, I can't see the enemy.
"Neptune?"
I hear my friend call out. Even though I'm sure she's close by, the sound is muffled as if she's much farther away. Maybe she is.
"Just attack!"
This is a distraction, obviously. We were close to victory and that's why he's hiding. I thrust my spear forward and hope Pyrrha is doing the same, I can't feel any impact but inside this darkness, who knows? I keep thrusting and slicing, sometimes my weapon collides with something, but it might be Pyrrha's weapon. Changing our position would be ideal but in this situation, that's impossible.
I feel something hit my ribs. I turn to my right to strike but find nothing. All I hear is a muffled laugh. Then I feel another open palm strike to my chest.
It fucking hurts. And the dude isn't even using a weapon. I won't have enough Aura if he can keep doing this.
I hear what sounds like Pyrrha's grunts as she clearly is having just as much trouble hitting him as me. Then I get an idea. Grabbing a water bottle from my belt, I open it and wait.
Eventually I feel him hit me again. I drop my weapon and crush the water bottle, using my Semblance to push the water onto his face.
"Argh!"
My sight returns as the darkness fades away. Pyrrha by my side, her weapon on the ground, and the short enemy trying to get the water that is suffocating him from his face.
He won't have the time.
Akuo flies into Pyrrha's hand and she throws it, hitting his chest. I kick Tri-Hard up in the air, grab it, then slash his face in a very cool move. He definitely felt that.
When he finally wipes the water from his face and the darkness begins to appear again, Pyrrha rushes forth and grabs him. He tries to escape but she chokes him from behind with her forearm then pinches his Adam's apple and squeezes it; hard. I take the opportunity to land an Aura enhanced kick to his balls.
The enemy falls.
Flynt has put away his trumpet, having realized it's useless against his opponent. Instead he puts on a stance I vaguely recall from combat class, right leg raised in front of him, torso slightly shifted to the side.
The fat man comes out of the cloud and has his mace try to make friends with Flynt's face. The hat-wearing musician tries a jumping kick on his enemy's face, but is quickly parried and headbutted on the chest. Marton wastes no time hitting him on the face again, this time with his Dust enhanced mace.
"Ah crap."
Flynt seems to dislike that, as he flies away from the mace, landing on the floor, hopefully still with all his teeth.
Snow Angel is creating a glyph on the ground, her eyes closed in concentration, but Marton just hits her on the chest with his weapon, breaking her concentration and the glyph. She tries getting up but he's already on top of her and brings his weapon down… on Flynt. Who jumped in to protect her. I can hear some unpleasant crunchy sounds coming from him. Looks like even with his Aura he couldn't take that hit well.
Weiss looks at Flynt on the floor in pain and quickly stands up, pointing her weapon at her enemy.
"Cute." he says.
She tries to stab him but he hits the ground again, creating another cloud of steam to hide in. This does not stop Weiss as she jumps right into the cloud, her weapon looking for him. I hear a few sounds of weapons clashing, and then see Marton getting kicked out of the cloud, a glyph quickly disappearing from the ground. But Weiss isn't done yet as she creates another glyph in front of her, blocking his next attack, then creates one under his feet, pushing him to the air as she stabs him multiple times in short notice.
The man tries to create another cloud of steam, however when he hits his mace on the ground, a glyph pushes it right back to his face, breaking his glasses and creating hot steam at his face.
"AAAAHHH! You whore!"
The man screams as the hot steam does painful things to his face and eyes.
Weiss continues on the offensive with a few more elegant strikes and slices. Forearm, thigh, chest, knee. When Marton goes back on the offensive, he is surprised by Flynt, who sweeps his legs from behind. Then Flynt creates three copies of himself and kicks the fat man on the ground, his copies imitating his movement until the man's Aura is broken and he is unconscious.
Flynt and Weiss look at each other and nod, breathing heavily and not saying a word.
The masked woman casually walks towards Sage, axe in hand and no doubt a malicious expression. Sage tries very hard to get out of his restraints, flexing his muscles with grunts of obvious effort.
"It's useless. You won't escape. Just stay quiet while I-ow."
Ignoring the woman's comment, Sage manages to free himself, tearing her Semblance created web with a mix of strength, Aura and sheer willpower; taking the opportunity to punch her in the stomach, impact causing her to be thrown far away. He walks forward with purpose, each step taking a huge amount of effort as the sticky floor holds on to him; as if it were the souls of the damned trying to pull him down, web tearing in places as his muscles heave, threads hanging like a shroud. He grabs Pilgrim, the large sword being stuck on the floor thanks to the woman's web, and pulls it with both hands, eventually releasing the weapon… and a piece of the floor with it, still stuck on it.
"Well done temporary Teammate Sage. Your strength is commendable." says Penny, watching the fight without much worry.
The woman rushes Sage, axe in hand, but he brings Pilgrim down on her with an overhead strike, the huge blade and the block of stone still stuck on it, hitting the woman's face and breaking her mask, revealing very spider-like fangs.
Sage then kicks the prone enemy, though she recovers quickly and gives him a look of pure venom, the hatred in her eyes being seen for the first time as she holds her stomach in pain with one hand and lazily holds her axe with the other. Taking the opportunity, Sage rushes towards Penny.
"Are you okay girl? I'll get you out of there."
"I am perfectly fine." says Penny. Then she proceeds to walk forward casually, tearing the web like it was wet tissue as Sage's mouth hangs open.
"Floating Array disabled, changing to plan C."
Penny keeps walking, the web posing zero opposition, strands tearing apart as they attempt to pin her to the ground and when the formerly-masked woman tries to attack her, she simply swats her weapon away and grabs her wrists.
"I apologize in advance for any pain you suffer in the process of your necessary incarceration." she says with her usual cheer.
Then she squeezes them and the woman screams in pain. She tries and tries in vain to get away, but is unable to escape the grasp of the petite girl.
"This would be a good time for finishing the fight." Penny comments and Sage, after a moment just watching her, raises his blade in the air and hits the trapped faunus on her shoulder. I can hear the crunch of her bones being broken as her Aura shatters and she falls on the ground unconscious.
After 3 seconds completely still, Penny raises her index and middle finger split like a V into the air.
"Victory!"
Sage is, this time understandably, speechless.
Sun is in a pinch, Neon lies unconscious near the leather-clad woman as she waves her staff again, hissing something illegible beneath her breath. Three darts of green energy shoot from the staff towards Sun who attempts to dodge them with a roll, however they track him unerringly and eventually hit him from behind between his shoulder-blades, taking a part of his Aura.
The woman smiles silently and with another whispered utterance releases more roiling darts of verdant energy, this time my friend is ready and uses his borrowed nunchaku to swat the projectiles from the air. The woman frowns in annoyance and prepares another lightning bolt, however this time the Atlesian student who I thought unconscious jumps up and clubs her on the back of her head with Riyu and Jiyu Bang's staff form in a massive two-handed overhead.
Her concentration gone, the woman attempts to fight staff with staff and Neon to her credit does well holding her off in a clear defensive style, however she is obviously not as proficient in this type of weapon and the best she can do is slow her opponent a little.
Thankfully that's exactly what the brightly dressed faunus intended.
"Sunny!"
The woman realizes what is going on and pushes Neon off her, raising a wall of fire between her and Sun to protect herself. Thankfully, Sun's clones have no fear of fire as they go through the wall, the real Sun never having moved from his place. The two clones advance on the staff wielding woman, but when she's about to attack them, Neon pulls her leg from the ground, leaving her defenseless.
Sun's clones proceed to beat the woman with Neon's help in the form of a very enthusiastic stomp.
Neon takes a step back and, leaving the groaning woman lying on the ground, the two nunchaku-wielding faunus celebrate their victory with another high five.
I'm a little jealous of how well they coordinate together after a single day, despite me knowing him for years. Did they know each other before this? Is it just because of their similar weapons or because they're faunus… Wait, was that racist? Sometimes it's hard to tell, being from Argus.
Doing my best to ignore my possibly bigoted sub-conscious and after dusting ourselves off, the eight of us make our way to the back of the warehouse. Battered, bruised but not defeated. We see what we were looking for all this time, the keystone, whatever it is. The red crystal is exactly like the photo I have and it is connected to a complex machine that is slightly taller than Sun.
"Perfect. This is exactly what the General wanted us to take back." says Weiss.
"How exactly will you take this back, Snow Angel?" I ask.
She crosses her arms.
"My name… is Weiss Schnee. And we can ask for a flight back."
Wait, seriously?
"You guys have a ship waiting for you? Can we get a ride? After everything here I don't know if we could escape the town alive otherwise."
"That-"
"Won't be a problem. We couldn't have done without you and Weissy would never be this ungrateful." the faunus girl interrupts her leader.
Not wanting to lose face, the girl puffs her cheeks cutely and nods.
"Very well. I suppose that's not a problem."
"Meh, I kinda wanted to fight my way out." says my faunus friend. Pyrrha noticeably doesn't disagree.
"Forgive my friend, he was born stupid."
"I'm used to it." says Weiss.
"So, shall we get going? Sage, can you help carry this… whatever this is?"
My ever silent Teammate nods and, with some effort, lifts the machine.
"That won't be necessary. Penny?"
"Understood."
The small girl takes the machine from Sage's hand and holds it with a single arm.
"..."
My Team's reaction is as expected, though their smiles give away that this is a normal occurrence for Team SPNC.
Our friendly banter is interrupted by the leather wearing woman who, despite having her Aura broken, is capable of using Dust still, as her staff shoots a bolt at the machine connected to the keystone.
"Watch out!"
I don't know who said this as the resulting explosion leads me to a sea of white as I lose consciousness.
A/N: This was first written in August of 2021, so while the title is clearly a reference to the fairy tale Oscar mentioned, the Ever After was not a thing when this story first began, so Alyx wasn't in my mind at all during the writing process.
If the narration sounds a bit stilted, it's because this was originally written in second person and I only recently changed it to first person, it will get better.
As for the reason I haven't been able to update my other stories, it's because I'm busy with a lot of commissions. My apologies for the delays. I do have a fair bit of this story mostly ready though. Do let me know if this chapter length is good or if it's too long; I can break the next ones into smaller parts if you'd like.