The sun has set over Mistral, and the world is covered in a blanket of darkness once again. While Axel and Ray are resting, others are at work. In the forest of Mistral, grim are not the only thing hunters and huntresses should fear. Fires are blazing in the night as black garbed men and women move throughout the camp. Several camps are set up in a clearing in the forest, a large tent in the center bares an insignia. The insignia is an ursa looking out ripping its claw out towards whom ever is looking at it. Fences surround the campsite as the guards make their rounds. A tent near the fence flaps open as a burly man walks outside.
A viridian sleeved arm reaches up to run a hand through short brown hair. The man sighs and scratches the stubble on his face as he takes meaningful strides toward the large tent in the center. Red slitted eyes reflect the fire he walks past, as his timberland boots crush the grass underneath him. He puts his hands in the pockets of his fitted blue jeans. Whistling to himself, he pulls one hand out to adjust the chest plate covering his sweater. Rolling his shoulders to alleviate the weight of the giant green kite shield on his back, he reaches up to make sure the large joust stays in place on his back.
Going past another tent, he hears the flapping of the tent next to him. Stopping to look to see who it is, the large man smiles at his friend. Amber irises look up to meet the gaze of the big man. Long black dreads sway in the wind through the pony tail he has them in, and black cat ears peak over them. A white shirt with one sleeve traveling down the left arm illuminates the night. It contrast his naturally dark complexion as his sleeveless right arm reaches down to adjust his black pants. They stop above his white high top sneakers as he steps out from the tent and speaks to the burly guy.
"Vahn...let us be off" said the man looking at Vahn, who in which stood a head taller than his dark skinned comrade.
"Yes, it is about time for briefing, eh" Vahn said starting to walk towards the center of camp. The man followed after him and they are soon walking side by side. "Where's pass...uh...your weapons Nazir?"
"Passionis et Mortis is back in my tent" Nazir says looking straight ahead. Vahn looks at Nazir with confusion. "I'll grab them when briefing is over...but you always carry libertas et iustitia"
"I can't help it lad" Vahn said bringing his hand up to grasp the handle of named joust. "They help keep me calm during these dark times"
Nazir nods and they both continue towards the center tent. They walk past several more tents, and see a few Black Claw members sitting around fires and talking. They soon approach the large tent and Vahn knocks on a post holding the flaps closed.
"You may enter" said a low rough voice from inside. Vahn parts the flaps for his friend, Nazir walks inside. Vahn soon follows and steps inside the large tent. Inside is a large table and several chairs around the table. At the far end of the table sits a large man with long black hair that frames his scarred face, and it has a streak of orange coming down the side. The man wears a black overcoat and black slacks. His combat boots tapped the grass impatiently waiting for Vahn and Nazir to sit down.
"Figures that you two are late" On either side of the table are two women. Nazir sat next to the one on the right who chastised them for being late, and the girl scoffs. Nazir glares at her and she glared back with amber irises. She crosses her arms across her small chest. Her red tank top scrunches up revealing even more of her midriff. Her black asymmetrical jacket did not cover much of her upper body either. She crossed her white skinny jean legs and 'accidentally' kicked him with her black low heeled boots. Her auburn hair sways as she looks away huffing. She slides her chair away from Nazir which has a black whip wrapped up along the side.
"Good evening, Cassidy" said Vahn sitting next to the other woman. Cassidy simply looks up and nods, before returning her attention to the woman across from her.
"No need to be so upset, Voltaire" said the green haired girl across from Voltaire. Vahn laughs, while her yellow slit irises look at Voltaire. A forked tongue licks dry lips as she places her sleeveless arms on the table. Her blue blouse covered chest pushes against the table, as she leans forward. Her bare legs cross at the ankles of her brown leather sandal high heels. She brings a hand down to adjust her red harimaki holding her two katana against the left side of her white skirt. She then edges forward as she waits for their leader to begin briefing.
"Yes, you four will be taking part in a raid tonight" said the large man at the head of the table. Vahn nods and rubs his chin thinking things over. Nazir merely looks at the man while he speaks. "On this mission you will be known as VNCV, or Vindictive. Vahn you will lead the group"
Vahn nods in approval as Voltaire looks downcast. Nazir chuckles and Voltaire punches him in the arm. Cassidy has a small smile as she looks at the two across from her. The man then points to a map in the middle of the table, while everyone brings their attention to the map. His finger his pointing at a large building near the coast of Mistral.
"This is a storage facility for the Schnee dust company" said the man. Everyone nods as he slides his finger across the map to a star in the forest. "This is our location. You four are to travel with the carriers here and steal as many shipments of dust as possible."
"This doesn't seem like a difficult task, boss Laohu" Vahn noted looking at the boss. "It would probably only require two people. Why so many, eh?"
"Always the bright one" said Laohu. Vahn merely shrugs in response to the question. "If you must know, it's because these two failed their last mission"
"Care to elaborate?" Nazir asked as he smirks at Voltaire. Voltaire glares daggers at Nazir and Cassidy giggles.
"They are to redeem themselves on this mission" said Laohu. Vahn nods and Voltaire looks down nervously. Nazir and Cassidy merely look at Laohu. "Now, pack up and get ready, I want this shipment before it departs in the morning"
VNCV stand and head out of the tent. Once outside Nazir walks towards his tent ignoring everyone else. Vahn stays behind, for he wishes to speak to his female partners. Cassidy and Voltaire step outside and face Vahn.
"You both failed, eh?" Vahn asked looking at the two girls. Voltaire shrugs while Cassidy sighs. "So what happened?"
"Our orders were to retrieve Vere Aureum and Ferrum Domina" Cassidy said while looking down at her feet. Voltaire swore and kicked a nearby can.
"Just remembering pisses me off!" Voltaire said huffing. Cassidy nods in agreement and brings a hand to her side. "The brat modified Vere Aureum"
"Did he now?" Vahn asked in surprise. "That's impressive for the boys background"
"Yea, it appears that him and his brother aren't just any ordinary orphans" Voltaire said angrily.
"So, we underestimated them and didn't bring are best with us" Cassidy said rubbing both her Katanas, while Voltaire feels her whip at her side. Vahn merely nods and looks up to see Nazir heading towards them. Nazir has two large metal armguards that go up his forearms and end at the back of his hand.
"Well, let's be off" Nazir says looking at the three. They all nod and head towards a clearing away from the tents. In the clearing are several carrier ships, designed to carry people and cargo. As they approach, the carriers start up and air is fiercely blowing all around them. Voltaire shudders and Cassidy sighs again.
"What's wrong?" Vahn asked yelling over the sound of the carriers they are approaching. A carrier opens a hatch to let them on.
"Let's just say, that we both hate wind." Voltaire said as Cassidy nods next to her. Nazir gives them a questioning look and proceeds onto the carrier. Vahn shrugs and follows him onboard, while the other two are close behind. The hatch slowly closes as the four seat themselves along the walls of the carrier. Once inside Cassidy takes out blueprints from under her blouse. She lays it down in front off everyone as they all gather around. She points to a large white dotted line along the wall of the building.
"This is the main shutter" Cassidy says while pointing to the dotted line. She then flips the page and points to a large rectangular area. "This is the roof of the building, we'll be landing here." She moves her finger to a large trapezoid object in another viewpoint. "These are the main Windows to the storage area. If everything goes well, we'll be able to get into the building from here. Once inside, we'll be able to open the main shutters."
"How are we gonna get the crates of dust though?" Nazir asked looking at the blueprint. "Those things aren't light, we'll need heavy machinery"
"Already taken care of, laddie" Vahn said pointing at the shutter. "The other carriers with us have other Black Claw members with forklifts and such. We're here as the fighting power, on the chance we run into resistance"
"Speaking of that" Voltaire said. "I don't see any sentry drone areas in the blueprints. So are the guards people? Or are the sentries just kept elsewhere?"
"Hmmm, thissssss is a blueprint during the first stage of construction" Cassidy said accidentally drawing out her 's'. "The buildings structure could be completely different"
"Possible, but unlikely" stated Nazir. "Let's just hope that if there our guards, they're just people hired to watch the place."
Just then a red light starts blinking above their heads. Cassidy rolls the blueprints up and puts them back under her blouse, and she puts her hands onto her katana tensing up. Voltaire rubs her arms and looks at the hatch. Vahn adjust his chest plate and holds onto his joust. Nazir puts his elbows on his knees as he looks at his feet while he's sitting down. A minute passes, then they hear a ringing and the hatch opens for them. They stand up and line up at the edge and look into the night.
Voltaire jumps out first, then Nazir, Cassidy soon follows, and lastly Vahn jumps from the carrier. Voltaire glows a brilliant orange as she suddenly is riding a giant spirit hawk. She swoops under Cassidy and catches her mid fall. Nazir and Vahn flare their aura as they land on the roof of the building. They create two small craters on the roof as they breath heavily. Voltaire and Cassidy elegantly jump from the hawk as it dissipates into nothing.
"Certainly convenient semblance" Cassidy said stepping towards Vahn and Nazir. Voltaire smiles and follows after her. Vahn and Nazir moved towards the window looking down into the building. Cassidy and Voltaire approach and peer inside with them. Using their Faunus eyes, they see four drones inside the storage area. They can also make out a plethora of crates inside the building. Vahn looks at Cassidy, who in which nods in return. Cassidy pulls a katana from her hip and slashes three times at the window. Perfectly cut into triangles they fall down into the building.
All four follow the glass as they land nimbly on their feet. The glass breaks around them and the few sentries are alerted. They look at the glass, and scan the area. A sentry goes to examine the glass. As soon as it steps on a shard of glass. It is sliced in half, and then the one a few feet to the right is ripped apart by a giant spirit lion. Vahn then stabs through the thirds robotic head, and Nazir cut the fourth into pieces. Nazir sighed and walked over to the rest. Under the moonlight, his blades reflect from his bracelet. Three blades almost an arms length extend from the back of his hand. He sighs and then the blades fold in half and return to the armguards.
Vahn points to the shutters to the left of them. Nazir nods and runs over to the shutters, Cassidy walks over to where Nazir is and draws both her blades. Nazir and Cassidy both cut down the shutter. Vahn looks back at Voltaire, who merely salutes while smiling and sends several tiny spirit hawks into the air. She also sends tiny spirit rats into the rest of the facility. The rats eventually came back and dissipate in front of Voltaire.
Three carriers soon landed in front of the broken shutters. They open their hatches and a forklift comes out of each one. Nazir and Cassidy stand aside as the forklifts begin to retrieve the crates. Voltaire sits on one of the crates near the back and sighs. Vahn leans against the wall and waits.
An hour passes and they're down to the last stacks of crates. A forklift picks one up off the top. Voltaire, simply looks over bored as the crate is lifted. She then sees a red flashing light under the crate. Her eyes widen as she jumps down from the crate.
"Vahn! The crates are-" she began only to be cut off by a siren sounding inside the building. Vahn curses and draws his shield and joust. Nazir extends his blades and runs inside with Cassidy who has her hands on the hilts of her katana. Voltaire cracks her whip and a lion forms next to her.
From the back of the building a shutter raises, and inside is a horde of sentries. Nazir rushes in with Cassidy and they cut up several sentries. Voltaire's lion charges in and rips apart a few before dissipating. Vahn jumps in front of Nazir and Cassidy, he then raises his shield as bullets pound into it. Voltaire cracks her whip and a pack of wolves form and rush into the horde. Voltaire cracks her whip again, and the wolves explode in a flash of orange. Debris bounces off of Vahns shield, and he rushes forward. Slamming his shield into several sentries, he thrust his joust in front of him. The tip of the joust sends an electrical charge through the sentries. Nazir rushes forward and cuts down several sentries aiming for Vahn.
Nazir hits his armguards together and the blades retract. Then replacing them are two small tubes, and buttons are placed on his palms. He closes his fist and begins shooting rifle rounds into the sentries from his wrist. Cassidy cuts down three more sentries as she sees cracking her whip and sending several goats to ram into the sentries. She cuts down another sentry. She puts the bottoms of her katana together. They clasp into place, and a thin string shoots from the tips and connects them together. She reaches under her skirt and strapped to her leg are small tubes. She knocks one into her bow and from the front of the tube forms an ice arrow. She releases, and shoots it behind Nazir, and five sentries are frozen. Voltaire looks and sees Cassidy shooting arrow after arrow. She cracks her whip and creates two Bulls, and sends them barreling into the horde. She cracks her whip again and blows up many looks back and sees the forklifts loading the last crate onto a carrier. "Alright lads! It's time to leave!"
Cassidy cuts down two more sentries as she rushes towards the exit. Voltaire makes a horse, and hops on while it rushes out towards the carriers. Nazir cuts down a few sentries before sprinting to the carriers. Vahn goes to run, but is stopped as a downed sentry holds onto his ankle. Vahn crushes it with his other foot, but is jumped on by another sentry. Then a few more jump onto him, within a second a pile is made. A flash of viridian is seen from underneath, then Vahn is surrounded by a transparent green bubble. It knocked all the sentries away and he rushes towards the carriers.
Nazir exits the building right behind Cassidy and looks back for Vahn. He sees Vahn running at him from inside the building. Vahn puts his shield on his back and speeds up. Nazir aims his wrist guns at Vahn, and the horde chasing him. Vahn hears several bullets hit his shield and puts his head down while running. Nazir fires past Vahn onto the horde, and several sentries drop. Vahn looks up and an ice arrow whizzes by his face as several sentries are frozen behind him. Vahn jumps over a group of rabbits as they jump into the horde. An explosion from behind propels him forward in the air. He tumbles for a second before rolling to his feet and keeps running.
Vahn sees that his friends are on the last carrier waiting for him. The carrier begins to take off. Nazir is waving him on as the carrier begins to lift off the ground. Cassidy is shooting at sentries behind him, as Voltaire is making hawks to fly into the horde. Vahn is only a few meters away as the carrier is about eight feet off the ground. Vahn jumps and grabs onto the hatch, and he attempts to pull himself up. The carrier shakes and Vahn loses his grip. Vahn reaches up for anything, and Nazir reaches his hand down and grabs a hold of Vahns. Nazir pulls Vahn into the carrier as they both lay down on the floor of the carrier. The hatch closes behind them as they both breath heavily. Cassidy and Voltaire are sitting down in the seats looking at them. Vahn soon stands and helps Nazir to his feet. He sees that the carrier is almost full of crates, so he squeezes over and sits down against the wall of the carrier.
"Thanks, lads" Vahn said looking at his friends sitting by him. To his left Nazir just sat, while Cassidy and Voltaire are sitting to his right. Cassidy looks up at Vahn and smiles, While Voltaire smiles and gives him a salute. Nazir simply smirks, and leans back.
The ride back was fairly short, because they fell asleep from being tired. Once they landed in camp, the pilot opened the hatch. This startled all four of them awake. Voltaire and Cassidy were leaning against each other, but snapped up from the noise. Vahn slowly lifts his head and rubs his sore neck. Nazir opens his eyes and yawns while stretching. They walk off the carrier and head into camp. They make their way to the center of the camp, in order to tell their boss they completed their mission. They drag their feet towards the tent, even the ladies could barely lift their heels off the ground. Once they reach the tent, Vahn knocks on the post.
"You may enter" came from inside. Vahn parted the flap and let the rest of them inside. The flap closed behind him as he stepped inside. They all stood there looking at Laohu, his fingers locked in front of his face waiting. Vahn stepped forward in front of everyone.
"We completed the mission sir" Vahn said looking at Laohu. Laohu nods and looks at all of them. A minute passes as they all shift uncomfortably. Laohu then sighs, and moves his hands down onto the table.
"Good job" he said looking over all of them. "I now need you all to do another mission."
They all wanted to yell, but held it in as they stared at the man. Laohu slides a packet of papers across the table at them. Vahn looks down and grabs the packet looking over it.
"I need all four of you to infiltrate Shepherd Academy" Laohu stated looking directly at them. They all looked at him. "I'll have you four be new students there. I've gained word that they just opened their doors to humans this upcoming fall."
All four of them looked shocked to hear this. They glanced at each other, and looked back at Laohu. Voltaire stepped forward and grabbed the packet from Vahn. Cassidy steps up next to her and begins reading it with her. Nazir shifts his weight and just wait for more information.
"The brothers are attending Shepherd Academy" Cassidy and Voltaire shot their heads up at this. While Vahn and Nazir simply look perturbed. "You will maintain a low profile and observe them. You will need to attend initiation tomorrow. I will keep in touch throughout the year. Well, with that said, good luck throughout the year. You may now rest and prepare."
"Sir, yea sir!" They all respond as they shuffle out of the tent.