{The Tempest}
Kyzal's shower lasted a lot longer for someone who doesn't have a lot to wash, though who was I to talk?
I fucking hate water, but whenever I'm inclined into cleaning myself, I tend to take my sweet time.
I found showers to be a good method of clearing my mind. Thing is, moving around from place to place tends to postpone them.
Duty calls and all that.
I mean, 30 seconds under a cold stream of water is hardly what I'd call a hygienic experience, it only just rids you of the grime and sweat that sticks to you after several days of hard work.
Either way, Kyzal shouldn't have taken this fucking long to clean himself.
When he finally did leave the shower, it was no surprise to me that his drunk ass hardly cleansed himself in the slightest.
If I had to guess, he probably couldn't find the damn soap.
What was most interesting though, even for me, was what happened when the boy left the bathroom wearing nothing but a pair of pyjama bottoms and underwear.
"What?!"
Scarlet's screech of disbelief was probably heard by the other teams all winding down in their dorm rooms.
Personally, I could've done without it, but that girl was as predictable as a double pendulum.
But this begs the question, what was it that took her by surprise so much?
The answer was simple.
I watched as Kyzal's head snapped to Scarlet in alarm as soon as Scarlet's voice tore down any quiet atmosphere in our room.
"W-what's wrong?" the boy questioned hesitantly, I watched as his eyes slightly widened at Scarlet's ever-growing manic grin and pointing finger.
I had to give him a little credit, his Aura did a better job of cleansing the alcohol than I had previously expected.
"You-You have wings?!" she half-asked, half-stated. Honestly, it was as if she wasn't quite sure how to react to a pair of wings.
I mean, sure, wings were uncommon for a Faunus, but was it really so surprising to see them?
I've seen a lot of shit in the past six years, and Faunus types covered a good 30% of that, at least. There are people with claws, animalistic eyes, even scorpion tails for crying out loud.
But none of which could've been considered extraordinary. Statistically, they're all very likely variants.
It's the mutations that catch you off guard.
Faunus with more than one inherited trait, like cat ears and a cat tail, or even fox ears and fox tails.
Now I pluralised the word 'tail' for a very good reason there. Because contrary to popular belief, multi-tailed fox faunus do exist. In fact, I've seen them before, a whole family, even.
They're known as Kitsune and are supposed to be rare, and very powerful, picking a fight with one is not something I would encourage.
The rarity however…
It seems that there's quite a few of them to be considered rare. Someone should downgrade that status to 'Uncommon' instead.
Not really something of major significance though, considering my 'partner' was still hyped up over a pair of fucking wings.
Seriously, wings? You can hardly call them weird. Intriguing maybe, but not fucking weird.
But, you know, lo and behold, a pair of large, sleek, midnight black wings, decorated with flecks of white and brown were furled just behind his body.
Big fucking whoop.
"Is there a problem with that, Scarlet?" Kyzal questioned suspiciously, narrowing his eyes. I felt as though he probably shared my views on her misplaced shock.
Didn't feel anywhere near as bad as my ears when Scarlet opened her mouth again and practically squealed...
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL!"
Scarlet's voice was continuously growing louder and higher pitched as her excitement bottled up.
"Jeez Scarlet, let the whole neighbourhood know, why don't you?" Gabriel commented as he reorganised his deck of Reapers.
Ray, who had pretended to pass out almost as soon as he rolled over, had sat up with a scowl on his face as he rubbed his eyes.
Scarlet disregarded all of this, her blood-red irises still wholly focused on the wings Kyzal tightly wrapped around his torso as he pulled his pyjama shirt over his head.
Fortunately, the shirt had slits in the back, designed to allow his wings to glide in and out for comfort, convenience, and security.
Once more his wings were on full display as he climbed on to his bed and leaned against the headrest, using his feathered appendages as a cushion.
Scarlet's hands had begun to twitch…
"Oh whoopty-fucking-doo, Kyzal has wings," Ray grumbled as he made his way to the bathroom, pulling off his beanie and tossing it on the desk by the door, "anyone else want to state the obvious?"
He paused by the door, glancing around the room as he waited for a reply. When no one answered, he nodded.
"I thought not," he commented lowly and entered the bathroom, locking the door behind him.
Kyzal watched as he entered the bathroom and his eyebrows furrowed for a moment before his gaze fell upon Scarlet giving him an expectant stare.
"Can I help you, Scarlet?" he questioned, his glowing, inquisitive eyes staring at her as she basically trembled with longing intent.
"Can… can I touch them?" She asked slowly, kicking the soft carpeted floor with her black ankle socks. Excitement burned in her eyes, those rubies never leaving the glossy feathers behind Kyzal's torso.
Kyzal shifted nervously, unsure of how he felt about the prospect of someone touching his wings and staring with an ardent curiosity.
He never let anyone touch his wings. It was far too private. Far too intimate.
To let a complete stranger stroke them or run their fingers through his feathers, regardless of their intent, was too much for Kyzal's dignity to allow.
Even amongst other faunus, it was still taboo to touch each other's animalistic extremities, let alone allowing a human to do the same.
Kyzal shook his head slowly, "I'm sorry, but no, I don't like people touching them."
He wasn't racist, not in the slightest. It was true that all faunus have some minor disposition towards resenting humans for their prejudices, but even so, that didn't mean Kyzal outright liked or disliked them.
Not these three especially.
The marksman had actually expected more questions from his teammates regarding his wings, but to receive little to no reaction from Gabriel and Ray, and only a simple request from Scarlet was a nice change to the negativity he had received from others in the past.
He actually felt a little bad about turning the girl down… it didn't help when Scarlet's frame deflated a little, and when she seemed to nod in understanding.
Touching a Faunus' animalistic appendages were deeply personal gestures, something to not be taken lightly and Scarlet recognised and accepted this without question.
"It's okay," she chirped, "if you don't want me to, then there's not much I can do about it."
With a smile, Kyzal nodded in gratitude.
At least she seemed a little compassionate about the matter, most others pried even further, pressuring him into saying yes.
He wouldn't admit it, not yet at least, but her considerate nature was something that could be tolerated.
A buzzing sound on the wooden bedside table beside Scarlet's bed brought her attention to a violet scroll. Its golden button was flashing, indicating that someone was trying to start a call.
"You gonna get that?" Gabriel asked, gesturing toward the table.
Scarlet looked between him and the scroll, biting her lip anxiously, "B-but it's Ray's…"
"So? Just answer it, Red. Tell whoever it is that he's in the shower." Gabriel countered.
After a few moments, Scarlet sighed and picked up the scroll, her thumb grazed over its golden button and the device opened up to reveal the face of a young woman with soft blue eyes and lilac-tipped blonde hair.
"Oh, hello!" she greeted in surprise, a smile gracing her lips, "Who might you be? You certainly don't look like my cousin..."
"Cousin…?" Scarlet asked slowly.
"Yeah, my cousin, Ray," the woman replied, "is he there right now? I need to ask him something."
Scarlet's feet shuffled nervously, she wasn't usually good at talking to new people, especially when she didn't have the chance to steel herself beforehand.
"Oh… um, he's in the shower right now. D-do you want me to leave him a message for you?" The girl fumbled over her words and this seemed to somewhat amuse the woman on the opposite end of the call.
"Oh, that won't be necessary, it gives me the chance to meet his team until he gets back," her response was laced with some kind of excitement, this did Scarlet's confidence no favours.
"So, is your name as pretty as your face, sweetheart?"
Scarlet's face quickly developed a blush and this only further incited the young woman to keep pressing.
"Aww, aren't you adorable?" she cooed, "no need to feel embarrassed though, I was just asking your name, honey. Here, I'll make it easier on you, I'm Lylac, but most people just call me Ly. Now, what's yours?"
Scarlet looked nervously towards her teammates, each giving her a 'go on' gesture before her gaze settled back on the scroll in her hand.
"S-scarlet. Scarlet Rubine."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Scarlet. Sadly, I won't be meeting you in person tonight, but in the future, maybe? It doesn't matter now though." The woman on the other end of the call smiled sweetly before quickly turning to something in the background as she walked.
"Damn…" she cursed, "I'm sorry Scarlet, but it looks like we're going to have to continue this at another time, sweetie. Do me a favour though, tell Ray to call me back whenever he's free. For now, I'll catch you later kiddo."
With that, the call abruptly ended and the scroll in Scarlet's hand returned to the home screen before collapsing.
"She sounds interesting…" Gabriel commented idly as he sat on his bed facing his leader.
Scarlet slowly placed Ray's scroll on their shared bedside table and returned to her own bed, sitting on the side before removing her armoured tunic. Underneath, she had white wrappings around her torso, and the girl reached down to open up her suitcase and pull out a pair of black short-shorts and a red t-shirt.
"Uh… Scarlet? Wouldn't it be best to remove those bindings someplace more private?" Kyzal questioned as the girl had slowly begun to unwind them.
Scarlet paused, turned to face her teammates behind her trying to avert their eyes and thought for a moment before her face instantly glowed red.
"O-oh y-yeah, you're r-right…" She stuttered hurriedly before quickly rushing to her feet and heading towards the bathroom.
"Ray's in there!" Kyzal promptly cautioned her as her hand found the doorknob, "Try the kitchenette instead."
She nodded, her face growing evermore redder as she rushed to the open area on the opposite end of the room, pyjamas in hand as she disappeared outside the line of sight.
"Is she gone?" Gabriel slowly asked as he kept his eyes hidden behind his hand. His morals didn't allow him to witness a lady without clothes unless it was for special purposes.
"Y-yeah, we're good." Kyzal replied with a breath of relief.
As if by coincidence, Ray finally exited the bathroom with a towel tightly wrapped around his waist and another hanging around his shoulders.
Kyzal and Gabriel could hardly ignore the series of scars running the across his entire chiselled body. Not like scars were uncommon for huntsmen, but the fact that the vast majority that littered Ray's body were symmetrically positioned and dead straight.
And if that wasn't enough to pique their curiosity, the metal plate on the back of his skull and the silver metal nodes running parallel to his spinal column most definitely raised several questions.
Questions Kyzal didn't hesitate to ask.
"Ray…? What are those?" He inquired as the boy gathered fresh clothes. A white shirt and blue, tight-fitting jeans.
He turned to face his Faunus teammate with a raised eyebrow, "What are what?" he replied, a hint of hostility in his voice.
"The uh… the metal sticking out of your head and back?" Gabriel answered in reply, clearly just as curious as his partner was.
A frown made its way onto Ray's eyebrows as he sat down on his bed. Water droplets crawling down the sides of his face and landing on the towel.
"Nothing you need to worry about."
"Dude… you have metal… things poking out of your back, how could we not worry about it?" Kyzal countered, his golden irises reflecting a burning curiosity mixed with a worried concern.
Ray turned his gaze away from him and placed his white t-shirt over his head. After doing so, his violet orbs locked with Kyzal's to make his next point absolutely clear.
"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to."
"Yeah but, that isn't natural man…" Gabriel spoke up in response, "have they always been there?"
Ray was clearly keeping secrets, but then again, it wasn't much different from Kyzal hiding his wings.
"Don't ask questions." Ray slowly replied, locking eyes with the cardslinger, his voice was more forceful than it was before.
Definitely hiding something.
Gabriel held his hands up in defence, "Look, okay man, whatever floats your boat…"
"Clearly your boat floats on curiosity…" Ray murmured as he slipped on underwear under the towel around his waist.
His blue jeans were next as he removed the towel and pulled them over his legs, tugging the zip all the way to the top and securing the button. White socks then found their way on his bare feet and his clothing was finally complete.
He would be sleeping in those clothes.
Sleep.
It was quite funny actually, Ray never considered sleep as sleep, more like a convenient four hours of recharging, if anything.
His metabolism was ridiculous, his food was digested at an incredible rate, with an almost perfect efficiency rate, with almost 80% of the potential energy in the food itself being converted into usable energy for Ray's day to day use.
It's due to this absurd amount of energy that Ray requires such an underwhelming amount of sleep, because he already has the energy required, he just needs to allocate it.
Tonight would be no different. He'll go to sleep, rejuvenate his cells, then wake up early morning with a full night's rest.
Considering his teammates didn't possess this unorthodox sleeping schedule, he would also get the peace and quiet he so desperately wished for.
Albeit at the earliest hours of the morning, but silence is silence, right?
As Ray laid there on his bed, full clothing, and playing around on his scroll idly, he began to board yet another train of thought.
His circumstances, aside from the obvious setbacks of being in Beacon and on the radar of Ozpin, weren't honestly all that bad.
Those that he was teamed up with were by no means the worst possible kind of kids he had to live with.
The temperament was calm with both Gabriel and Kyzal mostly keeping to themselves and not bothering him. Scarlet was a little more demanding for attention, but even then, she was manageable.
Not much different from Lylac really, a little younger and far less experienced maybe, but the fact remained; Scarlet was pretty much harmless, with the only exception being her incredibly destructive Semblance.
Ray vowed to find a way to keep that in check once he had enough data on it. Once he had acquired enough, he'd invent a way to channel this energy so she could use it without killing someone, or at the very least, somewhere to discharge it that wouldn't result in a hundred souls lost.
That was all in due time however.
"Hey Ray," Gabriel's voice shattered the train of thought Ray had boarded, "your cousin called earlier, when you were in the shower."
The hacker's eyes narrowed, "You answered my scroll without my consent."
Gabriel rolled his eyes, "Relax, it was Scarlet that answered, your cousin said something along the lines of making sure you call her back when you get the chance."
Ray's lips parted slightly to release a heavy sigh, he swiped his scroll from the table beside him and opened it up.
"Suppose I better respond then…"
"God fucking dammit…" Ly cursed furiously as she ran through the back alleys of downtown western Vale.
Her sneakers pounded against the floor in rapid succession.
This was supposed to be an easy job. A few crates of fruit, fruit.
How the hell she managed to screw this grocery shopping up, she had no idea, and yet…
Police were onto her like flies to faeces. This is Lylac Chroma, the girl who succeeded in stealing priceless family heirlooms from right under the noses of some of the wealthiest and well-defended families across the four kingdoms.
How in the world did she manage to screw up 7 crates of apples?
The answer wasn't important, getting out of this sticky situation was.
See, the issue she was facing had nothing to do with stealing the apples, not in the slightest. The issue was how the hell the police managed to catch on to her so quickly.
No doubt the stores she raided didn't fail to notice one tonne crates of apples mysteriously disappearing, and ultimately called the authorities, but the fact that the police were so quick to react had her somewhat concerned.
Vale's Police Department were known for being notoriously sloppy, hell, they were literally comparable to kids playing make-believe. Never in any of Lylac's previous experiences has she ever been remotely close to being caught onto by those idiots.
Which meant either someone tipped them off, or they've dramatically upped their game.
Lylac doubled down another alley, vaulting over empty crates and litter before coming to a chain link fence, using the muscles in her legs, she leaped up and over the fence, landing with a roll as the blaring sirens of multiple police cars zoomed past her.
"They can't have gotten this good…" she muttered to herself as she slowed her pace to a walk to catch her breath, "either that, or I've gotten careless…"
In truth, she wasn't exactly discrete with stealing the fruit. Walking into the storage warehouse and waving her guns around is the furthest thing from inconspicuous.
Luckily, she had managed to get the fruit and leave before the police arrived, but they were hot on her tail almost immediately after.
Vibrating in her pocket brought her attention to her ringing scroll.
It seemed her cousin had received the message she gave that cute little red thing that answered earlier.
She accepted the call and brought the device to her right ear.
"Hey honey! How's the kids?" She greeted, a smirk pulling at her lips as she chose to sit down on a grimy doorstep beside her.
The alleyway was more than concealed enough for her to hide in to let the heat simmer down, so she was able to make the call without any untimely interruptions.
"You wanted my attention?" A monotonous voice replied.
"I do indeed, I have a favour to ask you."
"If you want another list of valuables to- "
"No no! Nothing like that. I need money, quite a bit too." Ly interrupted, brushing some hair out of her eyes as she crossed her legs.
There was a deafening silence before Ray gave his response, "You better not be trying to bribe someone out of a rare gem again."
A slight giggle echoed throughout the alleyway, "You know I don't bribe for gems, Ray. I didn't get the title of Master Thief for nothing."
"That self-proclaimed title is debatable, but whatever. How much do you need?"
Ly took a deep breath, "Oh… about forty-seven-point-five mil."
The speaker on Ly's scroll emitted what seemed to be a stifled choking sound before she heard her cousin inhale deeply.
"And what exactly do you need it for? That's a lot of money, Lylac."
"I want a fancy place to have all the sex I need, with as many people as I wish, whenever I see fit." Ly spoke with absolute confidence and without hesitation.
Another period of silence occurred before Ray responded, "Of course…"
Ly suddenly gasped, "Oh, and I also need a place to store all the shiny things I'm going to steal while I'm here, showcase them in a place where they'll be most comfortable."
"… you already have a location in mind, don't you?"
"Maybe…"
Ray sighed, "Very well, I'll send you the money digitally."
Ray couldn't see it, but a devilish, shit-eating grin soon flashed on Ly's face. Her soft, pink lips curling upwards in both victory and genuine delight.
"Thanks sweetie! We'll talk later, maybe over the weekend or something. Love you!"
"Love you too…" Ray mumbled, hanging up shortly afterwards.
Ly sighed, staring blankly at her scroll for a few moments as her smile dwindled into a slight frown.
"Your words ring hollow, Ray…" She muttered to herself dejectedly, opalescent sapphire eyes staring wistfully at her cousin's image, "you haven't felt real love since you were six..."
Lylac collapsed her scroll and slipped inside her right pocket. She knew the money was already in her account, she didn't even have to check.
With a drawn-out exhalation, she stood and brushed the back of her distressed, bleached jeans down. The police had almost certainly slowed in their search by now, their sirens' ear-splitting cries had long since died down, blending into Vale's white noise in the cloudy night.
Ly looked up and glanced at the clouds lingering above the kingdom, it would rain soon, cleansing the air and washing away the dirt and grime accumulated over the week.
The thickness in the air would also lead to the manifestation of a storm. Ray hated those. Though Ly could only subconsciously wish him luck as she made her way to Vale's grand hotel, she had an apartment to purchase, and after making her first heist of the week, it was about damn time she established a safehouse.
Raindrops rapped lightly against the lone window in RGDS' dorm room. All members sat in their beds comfortably, winding down after the long day.
All save Ray, at least.
The boy detested water in any form, even refusing to drink it on its own. The fact that it fell from the sky, usually after a nice sunny day, did it no favours.
The aquaphobic teen sat across the room, at the furthest point away from the window, surrounded by a softly glowing dome of hardlight.
"Ray, you know it can't get you right?" Kyzal asked with a sigh. Quite frankly, how someone with such a hard personality and cold exterior could be vulnerable to one of life's most crucial ingredients was perplexing, though, everyone had their own kryptonite.
Ray gave the winged faunus no response, the dome was soundproofed to some degree, and his avian faunus teammate's mumbling was hard to hear by default. Ray opted to sit on the carpeted floor in silence, staring intently at the window.
A flash of light startled him, followed shortly by a great crack.
Ray's shoulders sank even further as his eyes widened and his shield thickened.
"You're scared of thunder too, huh?" Scarlet sighed, slowly getting up and cautiously approaching the violet cocoon, knocking on its glass-like surface, "Can I… come in…?"
Ray momentarily glanced at her, his irises giving her a once over as they scanned her tight red t-shirt and black short-shorts. Her necklace lightly glistened in the light that reflected off of it as she kneeled beside his shield and rested her hand upon its surface.
Scarlet felt the slight warmth of Ray's energy against her palm, seeing and feeling the shield pulsate as Ray released a small burst of energy to renew it.
"Please?" She asked softly, her eyes locking with his. She could see the genuine veil of fear hidden in those twin amethysts, no doubt backed by bad past experiences.
Ray shuffled nervously before the wall of his shield parted to give Scarlet access to its interior.
"You have really good semblance control, I envy you." The girl whispered as she found a seat beside her partner, leaning against the door and hugging her knees, mirroring his own position.
Ray glanced down to the gauntlets around his forearms, "They do most of the work…" He muttered as the shield closed once again.
"Better than nothing though." Scarlet pointed out, making herself comfortable.
The two sat there, barely grazing shoulders as they both watched the window. With every flash of lightning, Scarlet could feel Ray's body briefly lock up before slowly releasing.
"I wish I had as much control over my semblance as you do, I can barely contain it at times…" Scarlet commented, breaking the silence in the dome they sat in.
In order to take his mind off of the storm, she had to distract him with conversation. This wasn't her first rodeo with innate fears, so trying to quell Ray's was hardly a new experience.
Ray blinked before he turned to her for a moment, "Can't you channel it?"
Scarlet's pink lips curled into a wistful smile as she shook her head, "No."
This information kickstarted the engineer in Ray. His mind beginning to shift into a higher gear as ideas for new potential designs and tests formed.
"I might be able to help you with that."
Scarlet's focus suddenly shifted to him, "Many have tried, none have succeeded. I doubt you'll do much, but you're welcome to make an effort."
"Nothing ventured… nothing gained…"
Another flash of lightning illuminated their dorm for a split second, but this one didn't seem to affect Ray, his mind too focused on finding a solution to Scarlet's semblance problem to worry about the discharge of 100 million volts that had just struck the academy's grounds. Even the immense thunderous clap that hit them had no effect.
Ray hypothesised that the storm would last the entire night, which left him with no room for sleep as his hypervigilance would undoubtedly prevent that.
The irony is, the hacker was more concerned about the water pouring from the sky, rather than the thunder and lightning that accompanied it. His aquaphobic disposition gave him a strong inclination to worry more about the rain itself.
Of course, the lightning still unsettled him, with the delicate electronics in his brain, one strike is all that would be needed to melt them until the entire supercomputer was nothing but metallic junk. Though his teammates need not know that.
Either way, Ray wasn't going to leave his shield until it was over, no way in hell he was going to put himself in danger like that.
Not unless-
A flash of green light in the corner of his eye caught his attention, his focus snapping to the window once more.
Environmental sensor arrays in his gauntlets had begun to pick up on an unnaturally powerful surge of lightning bolts accumulating around something on one of the roofs.
Out of fear, Ray involuntarily double the thickness of his shield, muting all sounds outside into nothing but a dull whisper in response to this phenomenon.
Something wasn't right, and the amount of negatively charged particles in the air made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end.
Before Ray could even build a modicum of courage to investigate what exactly was going on, the lightning had begun to grow evermore powerful, as if something were amplifying it.
Now why anyone or anything would want to do that was beyond Ray's comprehension, but regardless, it was becoming more and more aggressive as the energy struck the ground repeatedly, slamming into the campus like a war drum, and at its climax, a brilliant lime green light shot out and shattered across the sky, scattering and dispersing the clouds instantly.
It was no doubt a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, that Ray knew, but never in his life had he experienced a storm as heavy as this, only for it to disappear in a lightshow brighter than any firework display he had ever seen.
A few silent moments passed as the clouds finally disappeared, revealing the crystal-clear night above the kingdom.
Stars had finally made their prominence in the night sky once again, showing the world who was really the champion of light.
Each cosmic entity twinkling as their light spent millions of years travelling through the cosmos to reach the naked eye of the average star gazer.
Power such as that that had been established of generations. Seen as deities, objects of worship in many cultures that had appeared and died through Remnant's history. Accompanying the shattered moon in the sky like lovers as their soft glow barely illuminated the world.
Ray's eyes gazed out into the starry night as all tension he held before became gradually released. His mind having lost its desire to lock up and prevent entry.
Ray's shield ceased to exist as it slowly melted away into a shower of violet sparks, each one slowly falling to the floor before fading.
Scarlet seemed to have also witnessed the spectacle that had just occurred too, if her expression was any proof.
It seemed Ray's living nightmare was all just a bad dream at this point.
It didn't even deserve to be recognised as a storm at this point, considering how short it was.
Like a candle in the wind, the maelstrom was finally gone.
As was Ray's fear.
Author's note:
This is probably one of my longer chapters by far, around 4.9k words excluding this A/N.
I'm trying to aim for bigger chapters to compensate for my irregular uploads.
Sorry about that. *shrugs*
Though considering I was on vacation last week, I was a little restricted in regards to when I could upload. So, this week I'm giving you a juicy chapter so I don't get scrutinised.
Oh and by the way, for those that have forgotten or don't know, in order to understand what the hell is going on in this story, you need to read Rogue Huntsman by Xera Stark, and on top of that, for another great story about the same plot, go and read Knights of White and Black generously brought to you by andy2396.
I hope you enjoy this story, please feel free to give it and myself a Favourite, Follow, and a Review.
Have a good one!
-Hydra