Big Issues
AN: Let's get things started with the thanks as Stranger Johnny is following this series, Kevin Hernandez2 for the faves and follows, and Dagon of the Deep for the fave.
We have a lot going on here and the times for each of the groups are narrowing down, currently all within two months, August and September. But I'll let you all read for yourselves what's going on.
Search
If there was one thing that Blake was grateful for about getting fat, it was the intense training that allowed her to get back into the pants she had outgrown.
Of course, she couldn't deny that the extra bounce and jiggles when she found some alone time with Sun didn't help to add some thrills… and places for him to hold. Neither one of them complained if she rolled on top of him either, being so soft she just molded around his frame, allowing them to be closer.
The only real downside was that they had to be careful to not mention what they did or do anything like that so Ghira would know that they were so intimate. Kali was great for running interference for them, though the teasing they got was worth it… sort of. The elder cat woman had joked about the possibility of writing a novel of two young lovers who needed to keep their relationship a secret from the girls father, despite just about everyone else knew what was happening.
The pair never moved faster to leave the room, their faces glowing red from embarrassment, much to the confusion of Ghira and great amusement of Kali and even Sienna.
As much as Ilia seemed to be in a bad mood when in the presence of the young couple, she spent plenty of time around a fox.
"What are you doing?" The chameleon asks as she watched Itazura fiddling with her scroll.
"Running some diagnostics and adding some firewalls." She replies honestly. What she didn't say was that she was adding the Circle channel with the extra encryptions that doubled as a hidden firewall.
The tower was almost ready to begin operation but while the Vale Tower was still being repaired, this new one would need to wait just a bit longer. The main reason being that the true key to turn the thing on to full power to do its job was coming from Atlas.
It was a bit of an ingenious trick of machinery, something seemingly overlooked being the most important. Yet it's arrival would mean the biggest party that Menagerie would see to date and likely not see again for some time.
Once the key was in place, the Tower would be able to link up with the other four and truly connect the world once more.
"Why you and not the techs?"
"Because they are using the same protections that were hacked back at Vale. I'm just giving them a boost." Itazura shrugs.
Ilia blinked at the honesty and the disregard for most standard procedures that the fox has. She could somehow blend the idea of 'the ends justify the means' with 'keep everyone safe' at the same time. It wasn't perfect and they both knew that nobody could save everyone but Itazura was going to try to do so while minimizing the potential damage to everything else the best she could.
"Are you sure you should be doing that?"
Green eyes flicked up to grey. "I'm the one they trusted to make sure this project was even made known to you. I also happen to be the one who ensured that I could call Vale thanks to me getting into the system. Probably could have avoided a lot of the mess back there if I got in earlier but I wasn't trying then." She shrugs at the end. "Hindsight can be a bitch sometimes."
"If you say so."
Silence lasted for a few minutes between them before the fox spoke again.
"So… what have you been telling Corsac and Fennec about the tower?"
"What?" It took all of her control to not flinch at the accusation.
"Did you think I wouldn't know that you've been meeting with them, usually after Ghira and the others having a big planning talk? Or that you've been sneaking around the school? Or lurking outside Blake's room?"
Ilia's eyes widened at every question and suddenly found that the concrete wall was much closer than she remembered… or liked at the moment.
"I'll take that as a yes." Itazura slipped her scroll into her pocket and kept her hands on her hips while not so subtly keeping herself between Ilia and the door.
"Wh-what do you want?"
"For you to be honest with me." There were no signs of teasing or playfulness that were normally in her green eyes.
"I have been honest with you."
"In what you say, yes. But you tend to pick your words carefully so there wouldn't be a lie to be found. I can notice those little details." Prosthetic ears twitched for emphasis. "I also heard your conversation with spider girl."
Ilia really wished that her reaction wasn't to change her skins color to match the concrete behind her. Her black bodysuit and boots stood out all the more thanks to that.
"Now…" Blue flames lit up along her tail and were launched at the door to block the only exit. With the burning tail and the backlighting, the green eyes seemed to glow bright compared to the shadows that bathed her face. "We need to have a talk and you are going to tell me everything."
Ilia could only swallow and wish for some water as her throat felt incredibly dry right now. Her skin and hair turned white in fear. What she didn't know was that a program was working its way into her scroll to send the information back to its master.
—-
Weiss stirred on the bed she lay on. A simple canvas cot with a foldable wooden frame may not be the best bed but it generally beats sleeping on the ground.
The biggest problem that the girl found, besides that the bed was too narrow to support her hips, was that she was tied to it. A thick leather belt around her chest and the bed prevented her from sitting up while smaller straps held her ankles. Her arms had limited mobility, the ropes let her move but she found quickly that the rope hung under her bed and tied to both limbs, keeping her from fully extending her arms.
"This can't be good." She mutters and begins to take stock of where she was at.
A tent with a brown canvas roof held by wood poles. There was a simple stool next to her with a small crate serving as a table holding a canteen and a candle.
Other than that, the tent was empty but daylight could be seen through the flaps that moved a little in the light breeze and from people walking by.
"Where am I?" She wonders out loud. She could hear the banging of metal like from a blacksmith, idle chatter of several conversations muddled together so she couldn't pick out more than a few words, the sounds of a few things being chopped from distinct firewood to what she thought was a butcher.
The flap opened and in steps a young woman not much older than herself with a tan complexion, brown hair in a short pixie cut, and blue eyes. Her clothes looked to be well worn but durable.
She stood taller than Weiss with a black choker around her neck and wears a brown vest with darker sections from shoulder to mid-chest, making the lapels stand out as they are the same brown as the lower half. Under that, she wears a white shirt with the sleeves torn off and the collar popped up, the latter part reminding her of a certain monkey. Much of the upper buttons were undone, showing her chest and what looks to be a black bra or tube top. A pair of dark leather straps went over her shoulders and connected on her back, seemingly no function beyond personal fashion choices.
On her left arm she bears a tattoo of a bird rising from flowers. On the right arm she wears a brown fingerless glove that extends to her elbow and is covered by a darker leather vambrace while the left simply has a matching glove where the cuff ends at her wrist.
Her legs are donned in a pair of maroon jeans with the right side rolled up to her thigh with a belt around her waist that has a large pouch on her left hip. On her feet, she wears tan boots with brown toes and soles with the upper edges folded over. Rising from inside her boots, brown calf guards reached to cover her knees
"You are exactly where we want you to be." The girl tells Weiss with a grin as she sits on the stool so she could be closer to looking at her face to face.
Weiss wasn't particularly thrilled by the answer she was given. "And that would be?"
"Ha! Funny, a princess like you I would have expected to be worried right from the start. Especially one who looks like she's been stuffing cakes in her mouth all her life. Too bad it all went to your ass and nowhere else."
Weiss narrowed her eyes but refused to give into the taunting.
"What do you want with me?"
"You? You, Wide Load, are our money ticket." The woman grins widely. "You see, we have eyes and ears everywhere and the thing we heard about you is that there's a big payday for you to be brought back to Daddy. Better hope that he's willing to pay up front 'cause we're just about to make the call to Atlas."
"You think I want to go to him?"
"Oh, believe me, I do understand daddy issues. Been there, done that myself." The bandit waves her hand dismissively. "But I'm not the one with a fifteen million lien bounty, now am I?"
"You just want the money?"
"Oh, Wide Load." She teases.
"Weiss. My name is Weiss."
"Wide Load, we don't just want the money. We wanna use that to carve out our own piece of Anima. Got a few good places in mind to start."
"So some lowly bandits want to create their own Kingdom?" Weiss never let up on the cold stares.
"Kid, this is the Branwen Tribe you are dealing with." She states proudly with her arms outstretched, despite the closed nature of the tent preventing any view for presentation. "We are among the oldest single groups to continue the old ways since before the four Kingdoms were founded."
"And you want to throw away that record."
"Call it… we know an opportunity when we see it. And you? We're pretty sure that we could get old Jacques to double up on the price for you. He's certainly not hurting for cash, is he?" The girl grins as she leans in close.
"What makes you think that he won't just have some guards take you down?"
"You mean besides unless he brings an army to match our numbers? Or that the exchange point will be of our choice? Or that we have the hostage that he put the price on months ago?" The bandit stands up and stretches her arms casually. "Face it, we are in control and that's not including how strong our Boss is. See ya later, Wide Load!"
With that, the flaps of the tent were flung open as she walks out, the harsh glare making Weiss squint. But what she did see was that the lady bandit gave her one last look and grin, pulling a very familiar rapier from the dirt and slipping it into her belt.
Weiss let her head flop back against the cot. She was now a prisoner of a band of bandits.
Branwen… why did that name sound familiar?
It was odd to think that she was actually more worried about her father coming for her than the fact that she was tied to a bed in the middle of a bandit camp. She was sure that the moment he had her, she'd be a captive and she'd never be free until he died.
Thoughts of an ankle tracker, an electric shock collar, and round the clock guards that would monitor every little thing and answer to Jacques alone… that would probably just be the start.
She knew how ruthless he could be… is. The abuse of her mother, marriage into the Schnee family just for the wealth, rigidly structuring his children's lives so the he'd look better which led to the eldest abandoning the family fortune for a career in the military, her brother beginning to mimic his father, and herself to try finding a middle ground.
That's not to mention how he conducted business, undercutting the smaller businesses in any town until they went out of business or were pressured into selling to him. His act of 'charity' to rivals was to buy them out but let them keep their name and store, so long as he got the majority of the profits.
Add in how he treated the workers in the mines, mostly Faunus, as disposable. Safety equipment was more for public relations than concern for his employees. Accidents would happen but she did notice early on that he was always worried about how the cleanup and rescue efforts would cut into his profits and the delays.
Slavery is what it really was. He paid them, sure, but being the largest employer in Atlas and with branches around the globe that were incentivized to drive out competitors, the workers tended to barely make ends meet. With the workers in poverty and their only option to work for him and buy from other companies that he's bought or is part owner of, Jacques always got his money back by design.
As much as she knew that a business was required to make a profit, doing so at the expense of all morals and stomping on anyone and anything that gets in its way from competitors to its own employees and customers, was not the way any should be run.
And why she felt the need to take the Schnee Dust Company away from her fathers control and do her best to restore it to how her grandfather had run it. Nicholas poured money and innovation back into the world around him, the technology helping to take Atas to where it is today and the people praised him for it.
And now the SDC was something much more akin to a Grimm, if one wanted to use that comparison. And she trained to destroy Grimm.
"Father, you are just on borrowed time until you get thrown in prison. I just hope that I get to be the one to do it." She mutters before looking around at the tent.
Judging by the shadows on the walls from the outside, there wasn't anyone standing guard, just plenty of people who would be walking by and talking about whatever job they were doing or jokes.
Satisfied that she wasn't being watched, she takes the canteen off the crate and drinks some water. "Hmph, Ruby would come up with a plan like this." She smirks as a small glyph appears above her hands and soon the Arma Gigas was summoned standing in its full glory with its massive sword at the ready.
All three inches tall…
"You know what to do." She whispers and the Knightly Grimm sets to work by cutting into the straps holding her.
—-
The base along the coast of southern Anima was busy. It never stopped as boats were being built, tested for seaworthiness, and weapons mounted. If there weren't people in that construction site, they were busy training. Physical conditioning, live fire exercises, combat drills, it all was happening.
Already, the docks that had been built were surrounded by dozens of ships of varying sizes and purposes from small speedboats to several vessels capable of carrying a hundred passengers and their supplies. Dedicated gunboats with small cannons and machine guns, even a few that looked to be amphibious vehicles.
Out in the bay, two submarines surfaced and coasted into port where they moored after their test runs. The crew emerged to cheers of their success.
And Adam watched from the top of the hill with a smile. "Soon we will be coming for what is ours. I hope you are ready for me, My Love."
—-
The first two towns were a bust. Neither settlement even looked like they had populations that would hit triple digits and the one they spent the night at saw very little traffic of any sort. So little that it didn't even have an inn, just a single room that they kept open for the occasional Huntsman to spend the night.
A bed for one person and there were four of them. Two of which were fairly considered plus-sized.
So the sleeping arrangements wound up with the sisters on the bed while the couple took the floor. In the morning, the locals were treated to what the team thought of as light exercise was dubbed as suicidal by the younger men who thought they'd try to go through the routine with them.
"Where to next?" Denko asks as Talon was driving this time.
"There's a few more towns before we get to Lake Mashu. They should be bigger than these middle of nowhere towns so it might take a week to go through them all." The chubby girl explains as her finger traces the holographic roads on the map.
"Unless we get lucky in that time with a better lead." Anya adds, sitting up front this time.
"Then maybe it's a good thing we don't have Qrow with us." Denko laughs.
Talon pressed a few buttons and the road was highlighted, nearby Yang gave her a thumbs up as her own display was updated.
And off they went for another day of travel and trying to chase a ghost.
—-
The night around the fire where Team RNNJR was camped was peaceful, which contrasted with the dangers that they were involved with.
For some, sleep came fairly easily. Nora snored lightly as Ren was close by and it was difficult to tell if he was still meditating.
Pyrrha slept well enough earlier but it was her turn on watch and she had her worries. Jaune slept through the night but was tense.
For Ruby, things were anything but pleasant. She was constantly fidgeting and rolling over, often grunting and mumbling in her fitful sleep.
"Uncle Qrow!" The young reaper shouts as she sat up and nearly scaring Pyrrha in the process if she wasn't already about to check on her.
The older girl examined the younger as she caught her breath. She sat there in just her shirt and shorts, the corset, skirt, socks and boots set to the side on her pack so they could at least air out until they could be washed at the next town.
But Ruby was soaked in sweat, hair matted to her face from the moisture, dark bags under red eyes, and breathing hard enough to mimic a long hard fight's aftermath. Tracks from tears crossed her cheeks.
"Breath Ruby. You need to calm down." Pyrrha advises with one hand on her shoulder to help her sit still. It took a minute or two for the younger girl to calm down but Pyrrha stayed to wait her out.
"Is this something that you'd like to talk about?"
Ruby hugged herself, her damp clothes making the night feel colder. Wordlessly, the two moved closer to the fire and Pyrrha stoked it while being glad that it was still summer so that it was as warm as it is.
"Pyrrha?"
"Hmm?"
"Am… Am I a good person?"
"What makes you ask that?"
"Pyrrha! I cut off a man's tail!" Her outburst wasn't very loud but with few sounds besides them, it was a scream in comparison. "Did you see the way he could barely move right? Hear his screams of pain?" Tears began to fall once more.
That was what made the older girl connect the dots in her mind. Ruby had seen the damage done to her sister when her arm was nearly cut off. The limits that were now imposed on her thanks to that injury.
Pyrrha saw the results herself while she was at the family home. The blonde wasn't her normally upbeat self, everything about her was subdued except the care for her sister. Even in just the short time between the Vytal Tournament and when the team left Patch, Yang had put on a notable amount of weight, no doubt from the relative inactivity she was forced into.
"I understand Ruby. You saw what happened to your sister. And you are going through what I had to after… Penny."
Silver eyes widened and snapped up to green. "B-but that wasn't your fault! Emerald tricked you!"
"And that doesn't change the fact that I was still the one who acted and wound up killing her! Accident, set up, or not, it was me who did it." Pyrrha's eyes welled with tears and soon they too flowed down her face. "I watched as the hundreds of swords I saw vanished. The control wires cutting into her. The light in her eyes was gone as she lay there in pieces." She was openly sobbing now. "Do you think I wanted to have the nightmares of repeating that night over and over again?"
"Pyrrha." Ruby gives the taller girl a hug, one that was immediately reciprocated. It took a few minutes for them to calm down again.
"Pyrrha?"
"Hmm?"
"Do…you think this is what Yang went through after her fight with Mercury?"
The redhead thought about it for a few seconds. "Probably but to a lesser degree." A look of confusion passed over Ruby's face, prompting her to elaborate. "Yang was honest about what she saw and we all saw the change in her right before that… incident. We may have been across the hall but we heard everything that General Ironwood said and how he hoped that it was just an accident himself. The support from you and Weiss really helped a lot."
"Blake didn't help, even when she said she believed what Yang said she saw, it… sounded like she wasn't being honest herself."
That was a bit of a shock for Pyrrha, knowing how much Ruby wanted her friends back and would do anything for them. Maybe the harshness of the world had given her a bit of a cynicism, though it took a fair bit for it to come out.
"While we are being honest." She begins as a way to change the subject away from their friends. "Um… you aren't fully responsible for what happened to Tyrian's tail."
"Uh… what do you…?" Ruby was cut off as Milo floated by, surrounded by a black aura, and caught by Pyrrha's hand that glowed black as well.
"I was also trying to stop him with the only thing available."
"What do you…" Ruby trailed off as it began to click: Crescent Rose had felt incredibly light in that final swing, in hindsight.
"We both reacted in defense of your uncle, apparently. But we were too slow to block his attack, yet things were in motion and he lost his tail as a result." Pyrrha explains.
"So… it was an accident?"
"Somewhat." Pyrrha admits. "I… learned during my fight with Cinder that we can't just fight to disarm with some of our opponents, we'd need to fight to kill." She paused as Ruby gasped in surprise. "Only for certain situations. If this Salem is recruiting followers of Cinder and Tyrian's level of skill, we should not hold ourselves back because they will not do so for us."
Ruby hung her head for a few minutes as she thought about what her friend said. On one hand, she was still deeply disturbed about having a hand in severing a limb in the first place, yet she didn't try to do so. She acted in defense of her family and wouldn't try to go that far with any humans or faunus, the Grimm being the only enemies that she'd actively go for the kill.
She knew from seeing Yang struggle what the loss of a limb could do to someone, or at least the immobilization of a limb and she didn't wish that kind of harm on others. Yet she saw the work of Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald and just had the fight with Tyrian just the day before; none of them had shown any remorse for what they had done, actually taking pleasure in the pain of others.
"Pyrrha… I see what you mean." The young girl's voice made the elder perk up from staring into the fire. "I may not like it but as dangerous as they are, we won't help anyone if we get killed because we played the nice guys. Fighting to kill may be the only way to actually capture them. So if it means saving others, I'll take that sacrifice."
"So we reserve that just for Salem's followers?"
"Them and the Grimm."
"Very well."
Slow clapping startled the pair and they jumped to their feet ready to fight… only to find Qrow sitting on his log with an amused smirk on his face. Unfortunately, he looked to be struggling to sit up and his face was pale and sweaty.
"Uncle Qrow!"
"Calm down, Pipsqueak, I know I look like hell. I feel it too, worse than some of the hangovers I've had over the years." That didn't stop his niece from rushing over to his side to help him in any way she could. Pyrrha was quick to follow.
"But you've gotten worse!"
"Trust me, I can tell. Good thing we're not too far from Mistral. Maybe if we're lucky, one of their patrols will fly by and we can get a lift."
"How long were you listening?" Pyrrha cuts in.
"Pretty much the whole thing." He had to stop and cough into his sleeve. "But you two have the right mindset. It's one of those things that isn't really taught in the schools, fighting to kill others. It's something that you learn on the job with enough experience, one thing that you never want to do and the thing you never hope you have to do. But it is something that you may have to do."
"Were you trying to kill him?"
"Ruby… not at first. I wanted to gauge how strong he was to see what kind of people we're dealing with when we find more of Her followers. Then I tried to end the fight, permanently. If I managed to beat him without killing him, I doubt that he'd tell us anything if we captured him, probably bite off his tongue so he couldn't talk or kill himself." Another round of coughing racked his body, deeply concerning the girls.
"Your leg!" Ruby gasps as she spots the bandages soaked in blood that was an odd blend of red, purple, and brown.
"Grab the med kit! We'll wrap his leg some more and make a stretcher so we can carry him to Mistral!" Pyrrha orders, laying the man back down on the log and the kit was set next to her.
Thankfully, the noise woke the others. "Jaune! Ren! Nora! Quick, get dressed and help make something to carry Uncle Qrow! We can pack as we go!"
From there, the campsite turned into a barely controlled frenzy of activity as they hastily did as ordered.
On the log, Qrow coughed into his hand and looked at the resulting mess, seeing that it was sprayed with red and purple liquid. "Oh… That's not good."
—-
A small woman wandered the streets of Mistral. Her height being the only thing that truly made her stand out but she was easily lost within the crowds. Eventually she stopped just outside of a certain establishment, one with a spiderweb on the sign.
She was reluctant to enter, given her past, but she also knew that this was her best chance to find what she was looking for.
With a silent sigh she steps forward, flashing some Lien to the man at the door who let her in without a word. Inside, it was as she remembered with the bar on one side and several tables with chairs scattered around the rest of the room. None of the woodworking was fancy, just utilitarian and easy to replace. A few patrons occupied the bar and chairs while others lined the walls as they chatted amongst themselves.
But it was the well dressed woman in the back she was here for.
'Lil Miss Malachite sat back and worked through a slice of chocolate cake as she read over some documents. She paid the person who just entered no mind, not until her bodyguard moved as they came her way.
"So, you want to do some business with me?" The chubby woman asks with a smile.
The customer pulled out a stack of Lien and sat them on the table.
"Very good, let's get started. What is it that you want?" The half eaten cake was slid to the side in favor of business.
The woman reached inside her clothes and withdrew a picture with three people on it. The photograph was sat next to the Lien and she tapped the central figure, a woman with black hair wearing a red dress with gold accents.
"You want me to find her?"
The woman nods, then adds a finger to the picture and spreads them to the others. A young man wearing grey and black with grey hair and a young woman with dark skin, red eyes, and green hair. A tap on both before the fingers closed to tap on the first woman together.
"Ah, I see. Those are her associates then. I'm assuming that if one is around, the other two aren't far away?"
Another nod of confirmation.
"Hmm… very well, my Spiders will begin to look around and do our best to find them. Would they be in Mistral or in the other Kingdoms?"
At that, the woman shrugs but tosses a few more Lien on the table.
"Very well, pleasure doing business with you, Miss Trivia." The woman nearly jumped at the name being used, much to the amusement of 'Lil Miss Malachite. "You can relax, I treat my customers well."
The woman's image crumbled like glass from a brown robe to a girl with pink and brown hair, heterochromatic red eyes of pink and brown, a white tailcoat that only met around her chest, leaving the dark brown shirt underneath exposed. Brown pants with tall white boots completed the look, aside from the pink umbrella in one hand and a black bowler hat in the other.
The thing that really stood out was that she was filthy and her clothes were covered in stains, holes, and tears. Deep dark circles under her eyes showed that she hadn't slept much for a long time and her hair unwashed.
"Poor dear, how about this. I'll set you up with a really good deal while I work on your search for this woman. We have a good inn on the next level up on Birch Street. You can stay there and do some work… after you get cleaned up, in exchange." The blonde woman offers. "Perhaps even get you a few… other jobs that suit your skills."
That took Trivia by surprise but she wasn't about to turn down the offer. She had spent months trudging through the wilderness and hitching rides on any vehicles going this way. She had come to Mistral in hopes of finding Cinder and making her pay for setting up Roman to take the fall in her plans and what ultimately led to his death.
She had come here to find that woman because Cinder had said that Haven was next on her list. And knowing that, she hoped to catch her either setting up her plans or in the act. Revenge would be sweet.
With a nod, she extended her hand after setting the hat on her head. Malachite looked at the dirty hand briefly before finding a compromise, quickly finding a blank piece of paper and writing a few words before folding so the address was on the outside.
"Give this to Tom, he should be near the lobby. He'll get you all set up."
The note was taken with a small smile and nod. Soon, the disguise was back up as a redhead wearing a brown robe and she walked out the door.
"Start looking for those people, I'm pretty sure that we saw them before." 'Lil Miss orders the nearest woman with a web tattooed on her arm.
"They look like that team from Haven from the Vytal Tournament." She says after looking at the picture for a few seconds.
"Then we have a good start. Get on it."
—-
"Professor Goodwitch!"
"At ease, Cardin." Glynda walks by the young man with a large mace at his side.
"Is there a mission for us?" The tall man with slicked back grey hair asks, a halberd collapsed at his waist.
"Not at the moment, Sky."
Team CRDL was one of the few teams to stay at Beacon. When classes were in session, they weren't the strongest or most cohesive team but they weren't bad in combat either. In fact, the leader of the team, Cardin, was one of the few who could compete in a contest of raw strength with some of the other first year students; Yang and Nora being exceptional in that regard.
During the cleaning and rebuilding process, their team didn't have a camp to patrol like others. Teams JNPR and CFVY were still rather popular and had spent much of the winter there. But JNPR took a mission to Mistral and hadn't been back in months. CFVY decided to transfer to Shade Academy a few months later. Team RWBY had been separated and scattered.
So they took it personally to improve themselves and to show their loyalty to Beacon by staying and assisting in any way they could. Part of that included seeing Team CFVY off where Anya and Talon went as their escorts. The four boys had knelt in front of Velvet and apologized to her… to the point that she began to beg them to stop.
That didn't stop Coco, Fox, and Yatsuhashi from giving each of the four a lump on the head before accepting their apologies. It was odd that the all male team thought that they deserved more than that, but it was Velvet who talked her team down from following through on that desire.
In short, they were doing their best to turn themselves around from being the school bullies and into the model students. They just needed classes to resume to complete that image.
At the time Glynda walked by, they had been sorting through many of the library books. Finding those that had been damaged and depending on the severity, would separate them from the others so the damages could be repaired or the book replaced. The books meant to go on the shelves, they had to be organized by their topics and then in alphabetical order. And everything had to be documented.
So far, the four of them had gotten through a few hundred books and put them on their shelves… but the former library had several thousand so they were likely to be doing this job for the rest of the week. And they had helped in repairing the library not long ago.
—-
"Ghira, we need to talk."
The large man looked up from the paperwork that covered his desk. "Sienna? This is a surprise." He takes off his glasses and moves to the couch so they could speak freely.
"Perhaps but this is urgent." The tiger sat down and took her cup of offered tea, noting that it had gone cold.
"Did something happen at the school?"
"No, thankfully not." At least the tea was still very good. "It's what one of the fishermen found." She pulls out her scroll and shows Ghira a video. At first there was nothing but soon the waves bulged and something emerged. As the water settled and the foam faded, it was revealed to be a submarine with a White Fang logo on the side.
The video turned a bit to show another bursting from the deep a minute later. A few boats sailed up alongside a few minutes later, one of which was extremely large and obviously armed.
That was when the video zoomed out to show just how far away the fisherman was before the video ended.
"That's not good. Did you have any of that built?"
"I may have taken the fight for our rights to a more direct path and targeted certain places for attacks for their discrimination, but that was all I ever condoned. Either they built some of that behind my back or got them over the past year."
"Alright." The panther sighs. He may not have agreed with her confrontational methods but he had passed the leadership of the White Fang to her because she restrained herself. It was just unfortunate that hindsight showed them both that to allow one step towards violence was a step too far. That one step showed those with less restraint that it was the right course of action.
"But I am starting to form a plan." Sienna grins.
"Really? And what is your plan to deal with that?" He asks, pointing at the scroll which had the video ready to play again.
"For one, I know that the channel into the harbor here is too shallow for those subs to come in unnoticed. And a big ship like that?" She forwards the video to the larger boats. "They can only get through the channel one at a time and even some of the smaller ones would get hung up on the shoals. If they are going to use them on Kuo Kuana, they will have to either land and cross the desert or make their beach head here at Boton Village."
The screen was replaced by a map of Menagerie and her finger traced the highlighted areas that she spoke of. The channel into the harbor was full of turns that severely limited the size of ships and how fast they could move. For the village, it was one of the few areas where there wasn't a cliff rising from the ocean and wasn't defended by the large shoals like the larger settlement is. Kokomo Beach could be an entry point, so long as someone used small boats.
"Anything else?" Ghira was getting interested.
"Yes. How far along is the Vault? I think it would be best to begin moving some of the more valuable artifacts we have there."
—-
"Sister Ilia, what brings you here?" Corsac asks as he faces his masked spy.
"I'm beginning to grow impatient. How long until we take control of the White Fang and end this charade?" The chameleon crosses her arms.
"The Tower is nearly finished and much of the school to defend it is ready. It will be a good fortress in the times to come." The fox replies.
"How soon?" Her frustrations were clear and he knew that Blake was a large part of the reason.
"I believe the party would be a good time to light some fireworks, wouldn't you say?" The smile he wore didn't match the words he spoke. In its own way, that said more than what he did.
"Very well. Do we have more weapons for me to hide for our agents?"
"Not at this time. You've done well getting them to our forces here."
"Then I will wait for the signal."
"For the good of the Faunus."
"For the good of the Faunus." And she left silently from the office.
—-
Today wasn't a good day… for the horde of Grimm that ran across Team DAYT. At first they were baited into a long run, the merry chase going on for an hour and attracting more Grimm. Beowolves, Ursai, Boarbatusks, and at least two King Taijitu were in that number.
With some distance put between the horde and themselves, the team left their vehicles and readied their weapons as they walked towards the Grimm. And when the opposing sides met, it became a warzone.
Talon took to the air and attacked with one blade aflame and the other trailing freezing vapors. Anya waded in with her arms covered in blades, soon becoming a dancing figure of death. Raijin spun in Denko's hands, a whirlwind of destruction that grew into a storm. Yang rocketed into the fray, four shotguns barking like a pack of dogs.
Soon the fighters were separated and the sisters found themselves back to where they began, leaving a trail of dead Grimm fading into dust and smoke, some faster than others if they were burnt or frozen. Perhaps it was good that they didn't have to deal with the giant two-headed snakes, being so close to their transportation.
On the other side of the battlefield, bright flashes of light burned their way through the remaining horde. "I guess they finally decided to get serious." Talon comments as she cuts down the last Beowolf near them.
"We do have a time limit, I'm glad they did remember." Anya scoffs, knowing how both blondes loved a good fight and would hold back just to extend the fights they were in.
Soon the couple came walking out of the aftermath, the air darkened to mimic dusk by the amount of vaporized Grimm, bodies and pieces of Grimm littered the field, an Ursa or two fell from their brief flight, a King Taijitu lay with one of its mouths agape from its death scream. And the humans that killed them casually walked through the carnage with their Semblances active; Dynamo wreathing Denko in blue sparks and Burn making Yang's hair glow with golden flames. Raijin was hefted over its owners shoulder as he looked at their handiwork with a confident smirk while Ember Celica and Hiryu Shoten leaked a bit of white smoke from their barrels.
A flash from a camera drew their attention to Talon, who was holding her scroll up. "What? You two look badass like that!"
The blondes let their Semblances fade to inactivity as they drew close and looked at the picture. "Okay, I can't disagree with you there. Send us a copy." Yang put an arm over the shorter girl's shoulders, after returning her weapons to their compact bracelet forms.
"Done!" Talon chirps and both had their scrolls chime with the new message.
"Good, let's get moving." Anya orders as she climbs into the driver's seat of Scarab.
Yang hops back onto Bumblebee and brings up her map again. "Hey, there's a Dust station up ahead. You wanna stop there and top up?"
Anya looks at the map and sees that the station is a little out of the town they were going to. "We're good on Dust for now, we can hit it on our way to the next town."
"Alright, I'll ask anyone at the station for Spring while I'm there."
"Have fun!" Denko waves cheekily from the back seat.
Yang just gave him a quick salute before her bike roared ahead.
AN: A whole lot of things happening all at once and many of them building up to something dangerous. Plus, Ruby and Pyrrha had a good heart to heart. And Weiss is being held captive after her little crash, at least she has better accommodations than her RT canon counterpart.
Anyway, we're gonna be in for some intense action and suspense next time. I hope I can keep up these weekly uploads again. As always, reviews are welcome!
