"OK, so we didn't do so hot in figuring out about Cardin's uncle do to the lack of public information."

Jared Arc, the time displaced boy recapped as he and his father, Jaune Arc strolled down the hallways of Beacon towards Team CRDL's dorm.

"But, even though we might assume there might have been foul play behind his Uncle's death, we shouldn't tell him right away. We have to ease into that topic."

Jaune Arc listened closely to what Jared was telling him. They at first were trying to plan to help Cardin Winchester to get over his hatred over Faunus kind, since he seemed like a good man. However, while trying to help him by learning a bit more about his past, Team JNPR noticed something amazing: Cardin's uncle, Rook Winchester, was a high politician with a shady past that was killed off. However, it didn't stop there. Jared told the others, that there was something very off with how Cardin's Uncle was supposedly murdered. This lead the team to do some research, but were ultimately reached an impasse when they lacked any public information.

However, there was a possibility of Cardin having more information about his Uncle. However, they were not police nor detectives, so asking outright about a traumatic experience form the guy seemed rather cruel.

The two boys came in front of the door. Jaune knocked on it and waited for someone to answer.

The Mohawk member of Team CRDL opened up their dorm door.

"Oh Jaune, hey," He turned over to the guy next to him. "Resh Kolc?"

"Yep, it is I, currently existing within three dimensions, and hoping to ascend further into the cosmic planes without my mortal shell being affected by entropy."

Russel gave the most flabbergasted and stunned look on his face since last Dr. Oobleck's class.

"He means, 'in the flesh'." Jaune corrected, translating the unnecessary and superfluous vocabulary of his friend.

"Umm well. They did say you were 'quirky'. An-Anyway, come on in. sorry for the mess, but Dove's been working so hard lately trying to catch up with some of Goodwitch's battle Philosophy class, so he hasn't been cleaning as well as our team house maid should."

A shrill and annoyed shout came from inside. "You freaking punks! I'm the only here that actually cares about tidiness in our room! And Russel? Keep your blasted hair gel and Lo'Reo hair care products in your person or I'll throw them out!"

The Mohawk boy snapped his head back as he left the door open for the two visitors. "Dove! Don't you dare touch my Sedub Revolution Pro Tourmaline Ionic 40001 hair dryer! I paid 200 Lien for that specific brand!"

He yelled out, obviously unaware of how specifically and naturally he described his hair dryer.

"Dang, I thought Yang was uptight about her hair. Maybe Russel could give her tips." Jared said before walking into the dorm.

The two boys didn't actually know what to expect when they entered in. To be honest the room looked as normal as four guys dorming together would be. They personalized with their own gear and other hobbies. Since Dove was the supposed neat freak of the group, his bed was the easiest to spot. It looked clean, but what stood out to the two members of the Arc family was that there were some neatly placed binoculars, and books that seemingly catalogued different bird types. The next spot that caught their attention was the hair care products scattered only slightly over another bed. If Dove's comment was any indication, the hair care products, and tattoo ink magazines all located in one bed probably belonged to Russel.

There was also the fact he was playing tug of war with an interestingly designed hairdryer against Dove, who currently was dressed in a cleaning apron, hair net, and wearing rubber gloves with several cleaning supplies behind him.

If anything, Jaune and Jared simply thought that from all these hair care products, some habits that Russel must have had from his time posing as a girl as a child haven't quite died if he's still this well groomed.

Next was Sky, calmly watching the TV in their room on his bed while eating cereal.

'…ows where exactly the shipment of discarded robotics went. However, there was a block-wide blackout that turned all electronic and mechanical devices off within the vicinity. Schnee Company's sub branch, Schnee Robotics claim that whoever could have pulled of a heist of this magnitude may have a semblance that is related to Technopathy, a rare semblance that allows a user to control any machine they want.

Hillary, what proof did Schnee Robotics have in saying a Technopath may have done this?

Well, Jerry, before their cameras died, some of their scanners and other capture footage recorded one life from that gave out an odd signal. They didn't clarify further…'

"Hey, Sky. What are you watching?" Jaune managed to ask Sky as he turned away from the T.V.

Sky actually sat up, waving to the two first before answering. "Hey Jaune. There is some weird robbery around Wizard City, a border town at the corner of Atlas. Reports say that they think it's the White Fang, but I don't think so."

Jared perked up at that. "What makes you say that?"

Sky shrugged. "Yeah, aiming for anything Schnee related those seem like their MO… but the thing was that no one died, and this looked way to professional. Like there was someone that was just there to steal something stealthily, because they don't have a clue to who the guy who stole some random robot chips was."

Russel rolled his eyes. "Dude you always have this weird conspiracy ideas going on with your head. The last conspiracy you had was that the moon was really made out of cheese and that astrologists and the government were covering that up."

"Hey! That was just a theory! Second of all don't you think it's a bit strange how none of the moon's chunks seemingly move together like a single moon around or planet despite being broken? Something's up there, I can tell!"

Jaune and Jared seemed to relax seeing team CRDL in their daily life. It looked as if it wasn't just their teams that were quirky and weird.

"So, where's Cardin?" Jaune asked.

"Right here."

The towering boy walked in with a small, unfrozen croissant in his hand.

"Sorry, hadn't eaten yet." He said simply before biting on the egg sandwich.

Jaune didn't seem to mind. "Oh take your time. We're just here to hang out anyway."

It was then Sky realized something. "Oh yeah. Where's the rest of your team?"

Meanwhile, Ren was walking down the lower districts of Vale by himself.

Team JNPR had not given up on the strange case surrounding the supposed murder of Rook Winchester. However, due to the fact that there seemed to be some external forces behind the death, Jared advised caution in continuing. It was more than likely the more they got involved in this, the more likely they were to stumble on to something that could potentially be over their heads.

As such, Jared advised everyone to be a little more discreet with their research. Jaune had pointed out that maybe Cardin could probably hint a clue into what had happened to his uncle that got him killed. Jared agreed full to that, and added more into that. He suggested that Team JNPR would split up and check the families of the Criminals or at least the friends. Perhaps they knew something about their friends before they were killed and such.

After a little more research when they left the court house, Jared was able to find out Hawkward's family around downtown in Famile Street while M'Baggs had a roommate in an apartment complex in a different area who still lives there up to this day. The roommate's name was one William Hedland.

Jaune decided on the teams that would handle this. Firstly, both he and Jared would go to Team CRDL and try to ease him into being more comfortable with them. They were not going to ask him outright about his uncle, and it looked to be a good idea to deepen their relations with another team.

Despite his protests, Ren was assigned to go visit both Hawkward's family and M'Baggs roommate alone. The reason why Jared said it would be better for him to go alone were fairly simple. Pyrrha is too famous, much to the surprise of Jaune, and she would attract too much attention. Nora would cause too much attention. Not to mention, Jared had not meet team CRDL personally when they expressed meeting him specifically. Jaune also had to introduce Jared to CRDL since he seemed to be the one that connected with Cardin.

So that left him to travel solo around Vale.

Meanwhile, Jared asked both Pyrrha and Nora to head back into the library. Much to Nora's dismay of going back to that boring place, and try to research any actions Rook Winchester was making before he died.

Nora complained several times how she wanted to go with Ren in hunting down and 'interrogating' the 'criminal scum'.

Thankfully, Ren and Jared were able to convince her that this would need a little more subtlety and that she would get pancakes for dinner if she agreed to their terms for today. Also, Jared promised her that if there was anything that needed smashing, violence, explosions, or all of them, he would call her right away.

Ren briefly wondered how Nora was doing since this has been the first time in a very long time that Nora was not nearby him. Honestly, it felt a little empty without the hyperactive girl doing the talking equivalent for two to three people. However, this particular case did seem to call for more cautious movements.

He looked into his scroll that recorded the address of Hawkward's mother, a bird Faunus named Verily Hawkward…

It was then Team JNPR started to wonder what kind of idiot gives names like that.

Ignoring the sheer oddity of such names, and sincerely hoping that it would be the last time they saw a name like that, Ren walked up to one of the apartments and scouted out which floor Verily lived in.

When Ren made his way to the door, he knocked politely on it. He heard sounds of shuffling behind it and he ehard the sounds of more than several locks being undone.

The door opened slightly, but no head came out.

"Who is it?" A meek voice called out warily.

"My name is Lie Ren. I'm looking for a woman named… Verily Hawkward." He resisted the urge to sigh as he said the name out loud.

"Why do you want to talk to her?"

Ren contemplated about this slightly. Should he tell this woman? By the sound of the many locks, they obviously were very worried about their security. If Ralley really was part of the White Fang, then their family would be put under a lot of scrutiny if they lived among humans or even Faunus that don't support the White Fang since some normal Faunus blame the white fang for even stricter rules on Faunus. There was also the way that the door was only slightly opened to talk to him.

If he wanted answers, he was going to have to open up as well. He looked both sides and carefully scanned the area. When he was sure it was clear, he whispered towards the door so the person could hear.

"We believe Ralley Hawkward was set up."

A few seconds passed before the door was closed again. However, there were even more sounds of unlocking before the door opened up, revealing an old woman in her early sixties at best. There were some instances of feathers around her arms, but other than that, she looked human.

"Please, come in, quickly."

Ren stepped into the apartment and the door was locked behind him.

Ren looked at the clean, but slightly old apartment. It was humble enough with some couches and a T.V. in the living room with a walk in small kitchen. There was a small corridor to the opposite side of the kitchen that looked to lead to a bedroom and a restroom.

However, one thing Ren immediately noticed were the windows. They looked padded and enforced.

"Sorry about this place, I… I wasn't expecting a visitor. Would you like some tea?"

"No thank you. May I ask why your windows are padded?" He pointed over to one of the windows.

"Oh, Mr. Damian, my land lord, was kind enough to put those on. He helped set up this room with sound proof and reinforced walls just for me after the event ten years ago." The woman said as she sat down tiredly nearby a Sudoku puzzle book.

Ren acknowledge that fact. What she just said finalized it in his mind. "You are Verily Hawkward, aren't you?"

"A funny name no?" She smiled weakly. "My husband started laughing at me when he first taught about it during our early dating period. It startled me that he would talk about marriage during our first dates, but the stupid fool was so adamant in telling me I was the only one for him. …He was such a Casanova you know, saying such things with passion to a lonely bird Faunus that was teased to no end as a kid. The idiot was so convinced he was in love with me that he once stood out of my house in the rain for an entire night just because I'd come back and tell him my answer."

Ren could feel the longing in her voice and saw the nostalgic gaze in her eyes.

"Yet, when we actually got married, he always said these harsh things like how people weren't coming to our wedding because you scared them all away with your hawk like stare. I don't know why we were always arguing—maybe he was an M. He always had this stupid smile on his face even while we argued." She looked at Ren. "Oh please sit down, I'm an old senile woman now. I bet I'm just boring you with my 'back in ma days' stories you young ones like to ignore."

Ren shook his head. "I don't mind."

"A good listener eh? I wish more people would stop and listen for a while," She looked back at Ren after looking back at her book. "But that's not why you're here isn't it?"

"What can you tell us about your son?" Ren asked finally.

A solemn and hard look appeared on her slightly wrinkled face. "You said it yourself didn't you? You believed he was set up?"

"A sharper friend of mine noticed some contradictions and things that logically didn't add up to the case. However, since we are not part of any form law enforcement," he mentally added 'yet' to himself. "We lack judicial access to look into the case deeper."

A smirk curled up her lips. "But you obviously came to me. Such clever kids."

However, her smirk died down quickly and was replaced with a solemn look. "Ralley was… a wonderful, hardworking, and smart boy. He graduated with a four point O GPA in Yunado University…"

Ren listened intently to this, it obviously pained her to talk about her son, so he would do his best to let her take all the time she needed.

"If it's too much, may I ask what your son was doing before he was arrested?"

"That's the darnest thing. Ten years ago, my son was hired by Mr. Winchester to be a part of his cabinet."

From a pair of binoculars watching through a window, a covered being saw the eastern boy come walk into the specially padded room.

"Tch!" The cloaked person cursed under his breath. As soon as he spotted the boy from Team JNPR, he quickly resumed his stalking. Mostly due to the fact Beacon was protected and he could only continue his surveillance around Vale.

Quickly the figure took out a scroll.

"The Teammate known as Lie Ren has entered the apartment of Verily Hawkward. The room has been padded and I am unable to get closer without losing the element of surprise. What is my next course of action?"

The head bobbed up and down.

"Very well, I will be on my way soon. The loose strings must be cut."

With that, the figure vanished, seemingly heading way to some unknown location.

Pyrrha sighed as Nora continued to play paper football with her.

Or rather, shoot paper strips nearby her.

Pyrrha had been given the more meticulous of jobs in gathering information of what Rook had been doing before he died. While specifics such as who had seen him that day or what he ate that morning may only be found in the government files, Pyrrha focused her research around the political rules that were both suggested, denied, and proposed by the man. She also decided to research all chronicled meetings where he was present.

Nora on the other hand, was feeling extra bored, if it was possible to explode with boredom, she might be the first.

"Uhh, I miss Ren." The orange girl moaned. She tried to strike a conversation with Pyrrha, but she was really too shy, she didn't even say anything to her while she was discussing how boring detective work actually was and that they didn't actually get to do those things in the movies were they kick down doors and fire bullets in a hail of lead or where they get to the part where they point dramatically at the killer after more than several and mysterious attempt at their lives by making chandeliers and other inanimate objects fall and crush on them as they drew closer and closer to the truth. But then, the twist would come and the accused suspect would be killed the next day forcing the detective to re evaluate the entire case in a different way that is without a doubt less than genius but amazingly simple and easy to miss. Soon the mystery would be solved at last as the detective, in front of everyone, and truly finalize that all this time, declare that the killer was—

"This is so boring!" Nora whined, and Pyrrha could do nothing but smile politely.

"Maybe…" Pyrrha started. She wanted to build a better relationship between Nora and her."You could fetch me a bottle of water please?"

Before she could take that back, Nora darted off.

Pyrrha felt like slapping herself in the head. Why did she think that was a good conversation starter? Maybe she could just try again later. After all, it would be a good idea to try and be better friends with everyone instead just sitting there smiling at everyone else. It looked really fun to be in their conversations.

Nora walked back towards the library, making sure to take her own leisure by taking the most scenic route back there rather than the fastest.

As she was passing by Professor Ports class, she noticed the door slightly open with Principal Ozpin's figure inside.

Nora, sensing something interesting stuck her ear towards the door and tried to eavesdrop.

"…re? Are you certain about those sightings?" Ozpin asked.

"Why, I recognize those descriptions anywhere! Yes those beasts are quite rare, but they do exist and are quite fearsome! But the curious thing is that these type of Grimm are always seen alone, nor are they even spotted out in broad daylight. So imagine my surprise to hear reports of groups of them heading our way." The burly professor explained.

"That is quite disturbing if Grimm of that magnitude are seen in groups…" Ozpin stated. "Yet why the strange behavior?"

Professor Port added in some more information. "There's more, the group is seemingly heading towards the Covenant Mountains."

"Covenant Mountains? But isn't that a rather desolate area? There are neither human civilizations nor even other Grimm in that area. It lacks even any useable resources and is overall a terrible place to even set up a base due to the unending fog that surrounds the clouds for the past 100 years. Why would the Grimm head there?"

"Who knows how those blood hungry mutts think. But our current problem is the sightings of the group passing by. They might cross Forever Fall on their way towards the mountains. Do we cancel the field trip?"

Ozpin seemed to think very hard on the subject matter. "Hmm, perhaps we can choose a safer location or a different area in Forever Fall. I don't necessarily want to cancel the trip since there has always been a chance of danger."

Nora listened carefully to the conversation regarding their supposed and upcoming field trip to Forever Falls. Was there some kind of Grimm there that wasn't there before? By the sound of the two teachers, there was something very powerful on the move and this sounded really exciting.

However, the bubbly girl did not notice a figure that seemingly was spying on her. With a smile on the mysterious person's face, they left without the hunter in training questioning why the door to the class room was open in the first place to such a private sounding conversation.

Ren was on the train as he made his call back to Beacon.

"Hello?"

"Pyrrha, it's Ren. I'm on route to meet with M'Baggs' roommate, William Hedland after meeting with Mrs. Hawkward, but I have a favor to ask. Are you still in the library?"

"Yes, I am."

"Do you think you can look up Ralley again and see what they have on his past?"

"S-Sure."

Ren then noticed something off from the Scroll call. Pyrrha answered him too easily, and it was quiet like the library should be. Such normal things shouldn't happen if Nora was there. That caught his attention.

"Pyrrha, where's Nora?" The eastern boy asked as he looked out the window.

"Well… I may have asked her to get us some water. … And there may be a possibility of her getting distracted and leaving me all alone here." She sounded a little abashed.

"Why?"

"I was just trying to strike a conversation, and I didn't know what to talk about," Pyrrha sighed dejectedly. "Huh?"

"Is something wrong?"

"Well, I searched him up again like you asked, but… I don't see anything about him besides him being accused of murder. It's as if his files were erased."

Ren thought back a bit. He recalled a particular piece of information Verily told him. "Is it possible for you to check files elsewhere? Could you try looking for academic records in Yunado University class of (XXXX)?"

"I might have to ask the librarian for help accessing a different school's database, but I can try."

Ren nodded at that. "Before you try that, there's one more thing I'd like to ask. Have you found out anything about Rook Winchester's last public meeting?"

"Oh! I completely forgot about that!"

Ren noticed the surprise in Pyrrha's voice. It sounded like she stumbled on to something important.

"His last public appearance was at his first and only Faunus donation charity event. It was held in a small office building not too far from the middle class districts, and you want to know the strange part? I did a little more digging, and I found out that geography wise, it's within ten miles of both of the Accused's last living address."

"Do you think that they met there?" Ren asked as he heard the train say his stop was coming.

"I don't think it's just a coincidence. But the strangest thing off all was that before this event, Rook Winchester was an Anti-Faunus type of politician before his almost 180-change over the course of a week. I… I haven't been able to find much about this week though… it's been kind of hard to find."

Ren got off his seat and walked out the subway. "That's good enough Pyrrha. I should also tell you something interesting I learned from Verily, Ralley's mom: he was supposedly hired by Rook into becoming part of his cabinet."

"What?" Pyrrha asked with obvious shock.

"Resh was obviously right in saying something was off with this place," Ren exclaimed as he walked up the stairs. "Anyway, I'll keep in touch. I'm on my way too…" His voice trailed off as he saw a large crowd gathering ahead of him.

"Ren?"

"I'll call you back." The green themed boy closed his scroll and made his way towards the crowd.

There were blinking, bright red and blue police lights flashing ahead of the forced his way to the crowds towards another apartment building where he now clearly saw Police cars, and an ambulance carrying a stretcher into one of their trucks.

Ren glanced over to two people wearing suits that were standing nearby a cruiser. One of them was a tall, clean shaven man wearing a gray suit with black hair, blue eyes and a stern, hardened look. There was a younger woman beside him, looking to be around her early thirties or late twenties at best, she was wearing a lighter suit and had blue-gray eyes. She seemed like the calmer of the two or probably the 'good' cop to their good cop bad cop looking dynamic.

Since they weren't in police uniform, and since they were also within the vicinity with holsters on their sides, Ren assumed that these two were detectives. He wondered what was going on and tried a certain skill with his aura. He concentrated his aura, specifically his hearing and focused it towards the two.

"…inshed the report," The blonde spoke to the older man. "The name is William Hedland, a wallaby Faunus, thirty six years old, single, and occupation a white collar desk job in the IRS. His neighbors heard a scream before finding him dead in his room. The medicine capsules near his body suggest that he had a heart attack."

Ren almost felt his concentration broke when he heard that the person he was going to visit died, but he continued to focus on their talk.

"Did you take some words from his neighbors." The older man asked.

"No one said anything worthwhile except they did tell me that they originally thought he was murdered when they saw his dead body."

"Why?"

"They told me it had anything to do with William's old Roommate."

"So they believe that the roommate is a suspect."

"No, the roommate's already dead," The older detective looked towards his younger partner. "He was sentenced to death by a famous case trial ten years ago. Some of his long time neighbors told me his name was Alpaca M'Baggs," Even from there, Ren noticed the smile curl up the woman's lips before she quickly turned back to a professional look. "Sorry. I think I remember that name somewhere though."

"I remember it," The older detective looked contemplative. "I was still a beat cop back then. So besides the ties to being friends with one of the accused, was there anything else about him?"

"So far? No. He was having some health issues recently due to working nearby a welding factory which was why he had his prescription medicine with him. His heart was already bad as it was."

The two then turned towards the Police cruiser after hearing their radio open up.

"Calling all units, calling all units. We have a 419 in the lower downtown Vale in with the address under Famile Street (XXXX, XXXX)."

"Well that's peculiar. Think this is connected?" The blonde girl asked.

The older detective moved towards the driver's seat. "Come on, O'hara. This looks like it's going to be a long day."

The two detectives along with some Police cars made their way out of the area. Some stayed behind.

Meanwhile, Ren was shocked at the address that was given from what he heard in the radio, that was where he had just met with Verily!

Ren quickly wondered to himself. Did William really die from a heart attack? Or was there something more to this?

He then heard something while his sense of hearing was heightened, a sound of someone talking from a scroll. Sure there were others around him, but it was the location of this particular sound that caught his attention.

It was right above him.

Ren quickly looked up, just in time to spot a cloak escaping from view at the top of the building. The warrior felt himself tense, and ran away from the crowds, readying both Storm Flowers in the process.

Jaune thought things were going well as both he and Jared were talking with Cardin and hanging out with the rest of Team CRDL.

"So you don't have it with you!?" Dove asked dejectedly as Jared told him about his buckle that allowed him to armor up.

"Sorry," Jared replied. "I don't always carry my buckle with me. I mean, it's a good idea to do at all times, but I don't always."

"Huh, but with the way you described it to us, it's less extravagant than I thought it would be." Sky noted out loud.

"What did you expect exactly?" Jared asked them.

He shrugged at the question and answered casually. "I kind of thought it would always be attached to your belt or waist and that when you activate it, it would have to be by voice command where you shout out, 'transform!' or something."

"Huh, I admit, the first few times I had this thing, I actually did hand motions and shouted out catch phrases like that. … I wonder why I stopped?"

While Jared was talking with the rest of RDL, Jaune and Cardin were lagging behind.

"Hey," The taller brunette called out, catching the attention of Jaune Arc. "Sorry for acting like a jerk a while back."

"Well I'm sorry. I didn't know how bad your Uncle was murdered."

"How'd you know that?"

"Your teammates said that he was."

The taller boy scoffed coldly. "My Uncle was stupid, trusting those monsters in the first place and getting himself killed."

"I don't think he was stupid, Cardin." Jaune countered.

"Yeah? Well looks who's six feet under."

Jaune noticed something off with Cardin. The way he insulted his Uncle was weird. Jaune instantly recalled one time when his younger sister, Jane was complaining about their mom to him. She looked like she was insulting their mother, but in reality, she was just lashing out and feeling bad. Jaune saw something like that again in Cardin. It was like he didn't hate his Uncle at all with these insults, it was like he was trying to convince himself to hate him so he wouldn't feel so heartbroken.

Jaune felt like he should reveal what they knew now. maybe have Cardin help them on what really happened to his Uncle. "Cardin, listen. You need to know that your Uncle—"

A sound of something caught both of their attention.

"Resh? Yo, Kolc, are you alright!?"

The two looked ahead and Jaune immediately started to worry. Jared had just suddenly froze and stared in front of them as if he had seen something horrible.

Quickly, Jaune looked ahead. He saw the same bunny Faunus Cardin snapped at the first time. But why was Jared so stunned and looking at her like a ghost?

"…a." Jared seemed to say something inaudible.

Jaune was really worried and walked up to the stunned boy. "Resh! Resh! Hey!"

"S-Sir?" Jared cried out, snapping out of whatever spell he was in.

"Are you alright?" He asked worryingly.

Jared, seemingly coming back to his senses picked up his buckle and placed hand on his head. "I'm fine."

Jaune looked ahead. He saw that the Fuanus looked back at them and seemed scared as she looked eyes on Cardin. She quickly scurried away in fear.

"I have a head ache. I need to go." Jared quickly said as he dismissed himself, clutching his head in pai as he left.

"Wait, Resh!" Jaune cried out before turning to CRDL.

"Err, sorry. Gotta check up on him."

He told them before running after his teammate.

"Jared, would you like to hear a story?" She asked him, gently rubbing his small head as he cuddled closer to her for warmth in this cold room.

"… What story is it, Na?" He asked her.

"It's about your father."

The boy blinked and stared at her brown eyes with his red eyes.

The he asked the woman with chocolate brown hair that had bunny ears sticking out of her head, "Who?"

Ren ran the roof tops at what little he could spot from the cloaked figure. It looked like said figure knew they were being chased and went faster after Ren started pursing them. Ren wondered who that person was, and why they were on the roof of the building of the deceased Hedland. Was he killed after all? Was this the murderer?

Ren calmed himself and moved even faster as he tried to catch up with the unknown person, catching up slowly by focusing more aura into his legwork.

The cloaked figure then expertly jumped off the building and onto the ground, speeding by towards a bridge over a man made river. Ren rushed after them, hot after their trail before he saw the figure jump off the bridge and land on the thin walkway near the river. Ren jumped after, still refusing to lose sight of the suspect, even when he turned and ran into a large pipe that went into the sewers.

Inside, everything slowly got dark, and Ren had to slow down to prevent himself from tripping over anything unnecessary. He kept running until he reached the end of the hallway and saw a large underground stairway leading to different sewage levels.

Ren cursed mentally in his head. He obviously lost that person.

"You shouldn't have followed me."

Ren's senses blared and he quickly jumped out of the way, a loud crash coming down hard on the spot he was just standing on. Ren jumped to a different catwalk and looked towards the dust cloud that was slowly dying.

The cloaked figure came out… along with a black wolf, lion, hawk and giant spider! Ren wondered if that was some kind of semblance that allowed this stranger to summon animals to his command. Quickly, he took out both of his weapons and aimed them at the stranger. He fired, but then, he jumped back, and a giant black shield came out of nowhere and stopped the bullets from hitting their target.

Then a roar and snarl came from behind him. Ren quickly turned and saw a black velociraptor rushing from behind him. He jumped out of the way, but suddenly a large silk thread stuck to his left gun, and pulled hard on it, trying to yank it away form him. Ren grabbed tightly on to his gun as he landed, and raised his right gun to cut the silk thread. However, the hawk swooped in on the raised hand and snatched away the raised gun.

Ren was startled, and at his distraction the Spider yanked his other gun away from him, leaving him defenseless.

At this moment, the Raptor tackled him down and tried to bite down on him. Ren struggled briefly, before pulsing Aura into his palms and pushing away the beast, only for it to land on its feet mid air and roar back at the hunter in training. The wolf and the lion joining the dinosaur on both of its sides.

"It's actually a good thing you came here after all then."

The stranger said in an electronic voice. Ren noted mentally that this person was even using a voice modifier now that he had a better chance to concentrate on it.

"After all, now I can get rid of your body in the sewers, and no one will ever find it."

The person declared as he motioned all current animals towards the unarmed boy.

"It won't go the way you think."

Ren glared with his magenta eyes towards the cloaked figure.

He didn't see the face under the cloak, but he felt one of the brows raising under the hood. "You are surrounded without your weapons. How are you… no… no!"

If there was no hood, Ren imagined the person's eyes widening with realization.

"You have my weapons yes, but who said I just had my own?"

Ren took out more objects out of his pocket: A strange silver buckle with a hollow center and an crystallized thunder Dust orb.

"Kill him quickly!" The stranger roared at his fake looking animals as they all charged from all sides.

Ren slammed the two items together.

And the sewers glowed green.

{Author's notes.}

OK, I made this one asap! I felt bad for nearing like a whole month or something without a chapter so I made this one as quick as possible.

I just wanna take time for your patience and I really do appreciate your support.

I am a bit busy still, so I won't put up the Review Response this time. Maybe next time I will.