"Is this about that leftover pizza?" – ?
Vale City. Current Day.
Blake and Sun were still at the Café in silence when Blake would begin telling her own story to Sun, as well as the listeners. "Sun... Are you familiar with the White Fang?" She asked Sun. "Of course, I do." The monkey faunus replied as he put down his mug too. "I don't think there's a faunus on the planet who isn't. Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks, if you ask me!" He would continue to express his disagreement and dislike towards the group and their actions to Blake despite being of the same race with its members.
"3…2…1…" Johnny, who listened through the bug on Blake's ears from onboard the Nexus counted down right before Blake revealed her secret to Sun. "I was once a member of the White Fang." Blake revealed to Sun, making him to choke on his drink a little out of confusion. After wiping his mouth with his hand, he asked Blake again to confirm, "You… were a member of the White Fang?"
"That's right. I was a member for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it..." Blake answered. Sun leaned in towards Blake as she continued to speak. "Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus." She said.
"Yeah, they're doing a good job at that. Peacefully… robbing people, peacefully… terrorizing innocents, peacefully… working with criminals." The deep voice of the mysterious titanium skull masked man silently spoke from the rooftop of his building as he listened to Blake and Sun's conversation.
"Of course, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as a voice of our people. And I was there. I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist… easily misunderstanding the reality of the world…" She further explained before she and Sun took a little break to take a sip out of their beverages.
"Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking. Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. And the worst part was, it was working. We were being treated like equals. But not out of respect... out of fear." She said to Sun and to her listeners that she was unaware of.
"So, it wasn't meant to be this way with them." Helena voiced out her thoughts to Johnny as she listened. "Mmhmm" The blue haired DJ answered as he paced around the room. "They saw their peaceful attempts fail repeatedly and well… if the circumstances don't change to fit you…" He said, only for Helena to complete it for him "..then you change to fit the circumstances. Something that their new leader understood and followed precisely" She continued. "But at what cost?" Johnny asked while he stroked his chin.
As for Asura who listened from another building similar to the mystery man's, he simply had no different thoughts from the others. He understood the purpose of the group, but similar to others, he still despised the methods which they used to attain their goals: theft, terrorism and destruction wasn't a way to protest against racism.
"And so, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am: a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of little black bow." Blake ended as she wiggled her ears slightly which were still covered by her bow. Sun nodded gently as he looked at Blake momentarily. He had understood where Blake was coming from.
"And have you told your friends about this?" He asked as soon as he stopped nodding…
POV Change- ?
"Cat's got your tongue?" I whispered to myself as I watched this quite interesting conversation through my scope. Apparently, she couldn't say a thing after being asked about letting her friends in on her secret. While I made myself comfortable listening in, my microphone picked up a few sounds… faint breathing… movement beside me, almost the same altitude. Quickly flicking my sniper towards the direction where the sounds came from, I saw the silhouette of a hulking figure on a building beside me. Shii! It was the damn golden man, and he was watching those two too.
From here on out, definitely not worth it; I would be better off leaving now. I silently, yet rapidly disassembled my rifle and placed it back in its case then wrapped the case and my right arm with the cloth. As I walked towards the ladder, I turned back to take a glance at him and that's when I noticed that he was staring right back at me. He knew I was watching them too… God alone knows what could have happened if I even thought of pulling the trigger while scoped in on em.
His stare was fierce, fear-inducing but I would let nothing break me, man or deity. I turned back and returned his favor, staring into those white orbs he had in place of eyes while he stared back at the little eye shaped holes on my mask. For a full half a minute, not one of us moved while we stared. I took a little step backwards and jumped off the edge of the building, gripping on to the ladder while I fell. Something told me that we were going to meet again sooner, and it wasn't going to be under the best circumstances. Until then, I had another thing to do, and it would be better if I went and got dressed for the occasion now, won't it?
I climbed down to the bottom of the building and began my trek back to my makeshift safehouse, technically not a house but it was safe… I think. Anyways, I walked down the street at a fairly quick pace, hummed a little tune my mom taught me. I remember it like it was yesterday, when things weren't as hard. This one'd always put me out like a light. Ahh, Good times. If only I could… "Oh! You know what might be able to help? The Police!". Some familiar voice rang out from the next corner.
It was uh.. the Schnee girl. Almost no one's out today, must probably be looking for Black. I couldn't help them dressed like this, so of course, I hid behind a close building, gently and silently following it along the wall until I had gotten past them. "Ugh, Weiss" This was definitely the one with the black hair and silver eyes. Then that would mean they all came. "It was just an idea." Weiss tried to defend herself. Personal opinion here; that's not how you treat colleagues. This long and they still ain't getting along? Jeez. "A bad one" the smallest one fired back.
"Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions." A third female voice said. Ah yes, finally some reason brought into this by the clever Yellow haired one. "I think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right! She isn't who she says she is!" And all form of reason has once again been shut out by Weiss Schnee. Honestly, had to feel for the both of them. Misunderstood by each other and not willing to talk it out… How foolish.
"And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today" Another voice said from behind them. Well, this was unexpected; The uppity robot girl's here. "Ahhh! Penny, where did you come from?" Ruby asked. If her little ahh at the start was any indication, they were shocked by her arrival as well, but no worries. They all started making a conversation again but I temporarily drowned it out. T needed to change the building I was hiding behind ASAP; else I risk getting seen even more. I quickly started walking along the wall of the current building, taking gentle and slow steps to avoid them hearing me. Afterwards, I realized that there was a gap between these two buildings, through which the girls' voices became clearer.
"Uhh, the cat ears?" the robot girl asked. I took a quick peek through the large gap to see her or it (this is very confusing) pointing to her head. "What cat ears? She wears a bow….". Realisation hit the young silver eyed girl like a bus. "She does like tuna a lot." She whispered, piecing the information together. Oh yeah! I could do that too.
"Cloak Stats" I whispered. 'Cloaking systems are online, but full suit is required to activate.'. Damn! I needed the full suit to cloak myself, or just the mask and the torso parts. I took another peek and... OPPORTUNITY. Without wasting time, I dived towards the other building, rolling twice to make my landing soundless before reassuming my position against the wall. "We don't know, she's been missing since Friday." Was the first thing I heard once I started paying attention again.
"That's terrible." The robot said back after what seemed like a hum, no, a gasp. "Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate!". Honestly, super optimistic for aa robot she was. Taking time out of her day to help a couple girls she met not too long ago to help them.
"Uh, that's really nice of you, Penny, but we're okay! Really!" Miss uh... Ruby replied, turning down the nice robot girl's offer to help. "Right guys?" She asked her teammates but got nothing in response. Well, I guess another peek won't hurt. Another peek and… yup, her friends were gone and just to add to it, the oh so convenient breeze blew a tumbleweed past them, through the gap and stopped it literally at my feet. THESE THINGS DON'T EVEN GROW HERE SO HOW DO THEY… Just forget it. The kids and the robot had passed and now I could walk normally again without worrying about them noticing me, at least now.
I had walked for about ten minutes before entering the little hidden place I used as my safe unhouse? Yeah whatever. I opened the door, walking in to start preparations for my first job since I got to this place. Once I opened the door, something caught my attention from my little earphones. "Well that was awkward, so what's the plan?" The oh so familiar voice of Sun said.
POV Change- None
Blake and Sun could be seen walking down an alley with Sun holding both hands behind his head to support his relaxing posture when Sun threw his question at Blake. "I still don't believe the White Fang is behind these robberies. They've never needed that much Dust before." Blake replied, seemingly refusing to believe that the Fang was to blame for the robberies.
"What if they did?" Sun turned to Face Blake as he asked this. He lowered his hands from their previous position behind his head before continuing "I mean... the only way to prove that they didn't do it, is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there! Right?" It was only simple logic. If the fang were behind them, they would surely keep going after some more. Blake took a little thing before agreeing to follow Sun's idea, but another problem would arise.
"The only thing is, I've no idea where that would be." Blake voiced out the flaw in the plan, to which Sun responded with some information he heard "Well, while I was on the ship, I heard some guys talking about offloading a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas.".
"How huge?" Blake immediately asked. "Huge." Sun replied "Big Schnee Company Freighter" He added to further explain the size of the cargo to Blake. Blake looked up in thought for a while, then turned back to face Sun. "And you're sure of this?" Blake asked, in a lower tone. "100 percent!" Sun answered with a little smirk as they both walked to the docks to watch for any sign of Fang activities.
'She knows it's them deep down. She just needs to see it for herself.' Asura thought as he watched from the rooftop. He was still thinking why Blake would think of trying to fight her former allies now foes alone instead of seeking help from her current ones. Nonetheless, the cat girl would learn her lesson eventually. He was broken from his thought when the figures of Blake and Sun started walking, headed in the direction of the dock. Without hesitation, he silently followed from above.
POV Change- ?
"Great, as if working with these guys wasn't enough, now I gotta deal with these huntsmen people too." The man in the mask said to himself. "Just perfect, not like things could get any worse from here..." As soon as he said this, he got a notification from his suit. Pulling out his little device, he read it to figure out that… his suit was low on power. "Power Status?" He spoke out to seemingly nobody. "Low, non- critical. Estimated uptime left is one hour, twenty-three minutes and 15 seconds." The AI of his suit replied to him as it projected a holographic timer showing the remaining time as it counted down to the last second.
He raised his palm and placed it on his forehead, repeatedly pacing round the area, thinking of his next move. With the golden warrior aiding them, he wouldn't stand a chance with the low power limiting him. He walked over to a stool and took a seat to try to relax himself. 'Calm… calm….' He thought before taking a deep breath. As soon as he exhaled, he remembered something. "003 Power Status." He asked his suit's AI. "#003 is fully charged and ready for use." The AI replied. He quickly jumped back up to his feet and rushed to a dark corner of the room where nothing illuminated.
Pulling out a flashlight, he pointed it at the corner, and saw something he thought he would never have to use again: An old suit of his which served as his main when he was on another adventure. He decided to bring it with him since it might be needed sometime. It was a black suit as usual made of the same titanium alloy, albeit being slightly lighter and thinner. Instead of the design of his normal suit, it took its origins from the attire of a Japanese Samurai Warlord, a Shogun. Around its waist was a sheathed katana and a smaller blade or the wakizashi with the same katana like shape, collectively dubbed the Daisho. For personal preference purposes, he swapped the helm design of a traditional warlord for that of his normal suit and crowned it with a gift he received long ago, a long edged conical hat. Normally, it wouldn't look like much compared to his usual suit but he knew himself the abilities this one possessed. Definitely not as strong as his norm, but it sure had a lot of tricks under tricks under its sleeve. "This should be interesting." He said with a grin on his face before putting on his skin tight body suit required to effectively operate any of his suits.
Meanwhile, Team RWY and Penny were still going round Vale, looking for their lost friend. "Thank you." Yang said to someone as she exited a store, waving as she walked away. She let out an audible sigh; her attempts at finding Blake so far had proven nothing but futile. "This is hopeless." She said to Weiss, who walked in front of her. You really don't care if we find her, do you?" She asked.
"Don't be stupid. Of course, I do. I'm just afraid of what she'll say when we find her." Weiss answered. She looked over her shoulder towards Yang before adding, "The innocent never run, Yang." Before she continued walking back to meet up with Ruby and Penny.
Meanwhile with Penny and Ruby three streets away, "So Blake is your friend." Penny asked Ruby. "Yes, Penny. She is" Ruby replied, sighing a little as they walked. "And you're mad at her?" Penny questioned further. "Well, I'm not, but Weiss is." Ruby said in response to Penny. "Is she friends with Blake?" Penny asked again. Ruby, wearing a look of worry, answered back "Well, that's kind of up in the air right now.". "But why?" Penny asked, looking confused. She couldn't exactly understand the reason why friends would fight since the entire friendship thing was partially new to her.
After letting out a less audible sigh, "Well, you see, Blake might not be who we thought she was..." Ruby replied, stating the situation to Penny from her point of view. This caused Penny to gasp before she asked with a surprised look, "Is she a man?". She asked.
Somewhere close to the docks, the man in the mask looked upwards, a look of confusion on his mask covered face. "The actual hell is that supposed to mean?" He asked seemingly no one in a low voice. "What?" Roman asked him through the secure call he had started earlier. "Forget it, Roman. Just get here quick let's get this done and go" He answered in a stern, deep voice again.
Back with Ruby and Penny, "No, No, No Penny." Ruby quickly dismissed Penny's acquisition. "She's…" Ruby tried to think of what to tell Penny but couldn't find any reasonable fact, "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off. We even tried chasing her to calm her down but Asura told us to leave her be for now." She replied. "Asura? Who's that?" Penny curiously asked. "Another friend of ours, huge, golden, marks on his body… Speaking of which, where is he anyways?" Ruby said to herself, unsure of Asura's whereabouts for the past two days.
Meanwhile, at the docks, Blake and Sun were observing the docks that Sun had informed Blake of earlier. The cat faunus laid flat on her stomach as she watched the activities that went on below. So far, the cargo was being offloaded without any issues, no sign of any suspicious activity. "Did I miss anything?" The voice of Sun asked as he jumped down, landing beside Blake. "Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there." Blake answered as she turned away from the bay area to face Sun beside her.
"Cool." The monkey faunus replied before extending his arm that held a green apple towards Blake, "Here. I stole you some food" He said as he presented the apple. Blake didn't really like this as she asked, "Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?", a look of disapproval present on her face as she asked. "Hey, weren't you in a cult or something? Sun rhetorically asked in his defense." To which Blake responded with an angry stare. This did not escape Sun as he quickly dismissed his previous sentence, "Okay, too soon!" He said before turning back to watch the bay for any activity.
Suddenly, the wind speed around them picked up. The both of them looked upwards to see a bullhead with searchlights preparing to land in the area. The armored man looked at the bullhead as it approached the docking bay. "About time, Roman" He said to himself as he, Sun and Blake watched as the aircraft landed and extended a ramp towards the ground, allowing a black hooded armed person to exit the aircraft. "Oh no…" Blake said as she watched the man walk down the ramp. "Is that them?" Sun asked her in a quieter voice. Blake sighed a little then answered, "Yes." She answered as she stared at the bloody wolf insigne on the man's back. "That's them."
"Alright, grab the tow cables!" The man yelled out to his soldiers as they quickly followed his orders and got to work. "You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun whispered to her as Blake watched the robbery. "No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." She replied before proceeding to close her eyes and reflect on her thoughts, trying to get over the fact that her former allies were behind the robberies.
"He said he would be here and now he's missing." Roman said to himself concerning the other character. After a handful of failed attempts to reach the masked man, he simply gave up on trying to contact him before proceeding with his heist. "What's the holdup?!" He said to the White Fang soldiers who turned to look at him as he emerged from the ramp. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?".
"This isn't right. The White Fang would never choose to work with a human." Blake said with a tone of anger and confusion "especially not that one." Out of anger and need for some answers, she unsheathed the katana part of her weapon, Gambol Shroud and walked off the edge of the building they were on, much to the disapproval and surprise of Sun.
'While unadvisable, this might serve as a learning experience on how she should choose her battles her intellect instead of her emotions.' Asura thought as he watched her craftily maneuver past the guards, using the crates to aid herself. It had become clear to him that she was fighting more than Roman. She was also fighting her true self, as well as her past but rather than help her, he stood not too far behind Sun, watching Blake as well and allowing her to solve her problems in whatever way she saw fit.
From the perspective of the masked man, he also watched as Blake weaved her way through the guards to Roman through his thermal lens. He had to admit, she was good at what she did. It wasn't too long before she finally popped up behind Roman, who was berating another White Fang soldier with a rope, before pointing her katana at his neck. "Oh for f.." Roman was about to say until Blake cut him off. "Nobody move!"
"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?" She asked the soldiers who had their weapons raised and pointed at her. Quickly, she removed the bow from the top of her head using her free hand, revealing her ears to the others. This left the soldiers in confusion as they reluctantly lowered their weapons just a bit.
"Didn't you get the memo, kid?" Roman asked with a little smirk on his face. "What are you talking about?" Blake asked. "The White Fang and I are on a joint business venture!" The criminal announced to Blake.
"Tell me what it is, or I'll put an end to your little operation." Blake demanded, tightening the grip on her blade. Suddenly, the wind around them picked up as two other bullheads approach the area and hover above, ready to collect the loot. "Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation." Roman said, the smirk on his face increasing.
Once the bullheads showed up, Blake looked up in horror at the two vehicles. 'And her first mistake…' Both Asura and the masked man thought. 'Getting distracted'. As soon as they mentally said the last part, Roman quickly took the opportunity to fire his cane at Blake's feet which caused a large explosion around the area.
Meanwhile, from where they were, Ruby and Penny saw the explosion. "Oh, no..." Ruby said before she and Penny rushed to the docks where they saw the explosion.
A stunned Blake opened her eyes to catch a glimpse of a projectile coming towards her, which she quickly dodged by rolling out of it's way. Roman stood in front of her, the barrel of his cane pointed at her as he fired off two more flaming missiles at her, one of whuch she flipped out of the way of before using her semblance to dodge the other. Before the criminal could fire more, he was restrained by a dark gloved and metallic arm holding him back. "Leave her. Tell the rest to hook up the stuff." The familiar voice of the masked man said.
Needless to say, Roman was shocked by his new attire since he hadn't expected it. Nonetheless, he hesistantly followed what he was told to do. "Hook the cargo up and prepare for evacuation." Roman commanded the other White Fang soldiers as they began attaching the cargo with the ropes. As the masked man turned around to face Blake, he was met with a banana peel to his face, followed by a drop kick to his head, temporarily dazing him but not enough to knock him down.
He raised his head to face the culprit. Before him stood Sun with a collapsible staff in his hands. "Very well then." He said in a cold tone before stretching out his hand and moving his fingers in a universal 'Come' gesture. Sun charged the cyber samurai with his staff, holding it back before swinging it at his opponent. The samurai didn't put much effort into catching the flaming staff before delivering a spinning kick to Sun's gut, pushing the faunus back as well as leaving his weapon in the masked man's hand. It was now that a brilliant idea came to him. He threw the staff at Sun, who leaped into the air to obtain it but little did the boy know that it was a trap. The masked man leaped into the air and delivered another spinning kick to the side of Sun's gut which was left open due to his arms being extended towards his staff. Both Sun and his weapon fell to the ground.
Sun instantly got up; his weapon ready as he prepared to fight more against this new foe. "That's it" Roman said as he walked away from one of the ships with the cargo towards his jet but before that ship could take off, a blurry red figure crashed onto its front, injuring the pilot and making the other White Fang soldiers to get off both ships and point their weapons at the blur; which was discovered to be Asura. Of course, he wasn't going to aid Blake and her friend yet but he also wasn't going to allow these thieves to get away with the property of another. "Leave, Now!" He yelled at Roman at the soldiers but instead of leaving, they aimed at Asura, and opened fire on him. This drew Sun's, Blake's as well as the man's attentions to them.
After a few seconds of nonstop gunfire, a dust cloud had formed around him but instead of a bloody corpse pelted with bullet hole, they saw Asura, visibly unscathed by the bullets. Raising his arm, the demigod wiped off a little dust from his shoulders before moving at inhumane speeds and quickly dispatching of the Fang soldiers, each with no more than one swift blow. Within less than ten seconds, he had defeated almost half of the men. The masked man remembered that he still had his own battles to face as he turned to see that Blake and Sun stood by each other, both armed with nunchakus and a katana respectively, ready to fight him. He reached for his sheathed sword with his left hand and using his left thumb, he partially unsheathed it by pushing on its hilt.
Taking his gesture as a sign to start, Blake and Sun charged him from different angles. He sidestepped to avoid a strike from one of Sun's flaming weapons before parrying Blake's slash with his sheathed sword. In response, Blake began slashing repeatedly, moving as fast as to create afterimages of herself. The masked man weaved through and parried all her attacks before seemingly teleporting behind her and punching her in the back. Sun would also make multiple attempts to hit the samurai with his nunchakus while twirling them to keep their speed up. The samurai, not unlike when he was fighting Blake, dodged all of Sun's attacks and attempted to catch the monkey faunus off guard by shooting thrice at him, only to have his bullets deflected by two swirling orbs of fire which were Sun's weapons.
Deciding that it was high time he went offensive, he drew his sword and dashed towards Blake and Sun, who expected an attack and brought up their weapons to parry. He went for a slash at Sun but the boy spun his nunchakus and deflected the attack away from himself, giving Blake an opportunity to land a blow on him. She swung her katana at the armored man but was shocked when he used his left hand which wielded a smaller blade to deflect Blake's sword and strike back. Blake would however use her semblance to retreat but her opponent would not allow her to do that. Forcefully pushing Sun away from him and retracting his blade, he dashed towards Blake, stopping only when he had appeared behind her. A grin formed on his face as he swung his blade at Blake's shoulder, ready to finish off one of his opponents.
A quick wooshing sound was made as his daito/katana went for Blake's arm, but it was stopped in its track by another blade, which seemed to have no user until… "Hey!" Ruby said from behind Blake and Sun. Standing beside her was Penny, who was telekinetically controlling a few blades that hovered behind her, including the one that stopped his attack. Quickly, he withdrew his blades and sheathed them and jumped backwards; away from Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Sun. As he stopped, he turned to see that Asura had already defeated all the White Fang members. He also spotted Roman, who was about to escape on a jet. Above them, a few more soldiers had descended from one bullhead and they all went straight for the demigod in an attempt to subdue him long enough for Roman and a few others to load up a portion of the dust into the new ship.
"And then there were four… What next? You're gonna invite every student in the whole damn kingdom here?"
Holding his Katana scabbard in his hand, he charged right at them again. Penny attempted to subdue him by launching her blades at him but he sent them flying in different directions with a flick of his sheathed sword. Leaping into the air, he drew his sword and went right for Penny but his slash was stopped by Ruby, who had appeared right in front of Penny to block his daito with her scythe, leaving behind a trail of rose petals. He withdrew his attack and flipped backwards only to run right into Blake and Sun. Soon enough, he found himself in a swordfight with Blake while trying to avoid getting hit by Sun's staff. After deflecting Blake's Katana with his own multiple times, he saw Sun trying to land a flaming attack to his torso. He quickly pushed Blake away and fell backwards to the ground, allowing Sun's staff to pass safely over him but instead of kicking himself back up to his feet, he adjusted and changed directions so that he would forcefully drop kick Sun right into Blake, causing both of them to fall over before he would actually get back to his feet.
As soon as he stood up, he was hit by two bullets from behind him which did absolutely no damage but before he could turn around, Ruby had used her semblance to get behind him with her scythe already coming down on him and Penny wielded two of her blades, also ready to hit him from behind. The two of them were surprised when their weapons hit nothing but some black smoke. Standing in front of them was their opponent, who looked at them, studying them. He took slow steps to his left, allowing Blake and Sun to regroup with Ruby and Penny. "You know… You can leave now, no one has to get hurt." He said to them. "You're not getting away with this!" Blake yelled back in anger. "Have it your way!" He was about to dash at them again when his mask's GPS glowed red for a bit showing a dot moving quickly towards his location. Not too long after, Yang and Weiss dropped from the roof of the warehouse and landed not too far from the five of them. "I knew it, more of them…" The masked man murmured to himself. "You guys, okay?" Yang asked as soon as she landed. "Yeah, mostly." Ruby answered for them. "Blake…" Weiss said, a little venom noticeable in her voice.
"Not now, Weiss." Blake quickly shut her down. "We still have to worry about him" Penny added, staring at the cyber samurai that stood in front of them. "Woah! Who is he?" Yang exclaimed before asking the same question on everyone's minds. "Not your business." The masked samurai answered. "So" He said as he unsheathed his daito again but this time, flipped a switch that made the sharper bottom to glow red before getting into a stance. "Shall we?" He asked as he gestured for them to attack first.
Fighting fair wasn't going to work now so from now, he would start using a few of the tricks this suit possessed. Ruby, Yang, Blake, Sun and Weiss had chosen to get up close and attack from close range. Yang started off with a wide punch to the face of the opponent, but he simply ducked underneath it and tripped her with a kick to her ankle. Instinctively, he moved his left arm and his daito to quickly block Ruby's scythe while also using his smaller blade to repeatedly deflect Sun's staff away from him. While holding Sun and Ruby off, he faintly heard the footsteps of Weiss and Blake coming towards him from behind with both their weapons ready to attack.
Noticing this as an opportunity to overwhelm him, Penny launched three swords at their opponent. The samurai then realized that he had been cornered. Yang and Ruby on his left, Sun on his right, Blake and Weiss coming at him from behind and Penny's blades coming towards him. 'Perfect!' He thought to himself as to everyone else's surprise, he disappeared from where he stood, moving quick enough for the others to see nothing but some back smoke where he stood. Noticing his sudden disappearance, Penny, Sun and team RWBY all stopped in their tracks as they looked round them to try and spot where he had gone.
Their attention was drawn to a few silent footsteps that approached the group from somewhere in front of them. They noticed their opponent moving slowly towards them with only his katana unsheathed and his head bowed, allowing his conical hat to cover more of his masked face. "It's been fun." He said as he slowly walked towards them. "But sadly, all good things must end." He said to them before throwing five small metal balls at them. "Watch out!" Penny yelled to the rest before they all jumped away from the balls expecting an explosion of some sort. Five simultaneous loud bangs were heard and suddenly, the area was covered with a thick white smoke, blinding as well as temporarily deafening them.
Asura, who watched from a minor distance could still see and hear the fight perfectly despite the smoke and bangs. Team RWBY, Penny and Sun stood in a compact circle, back to back and ready to defend against the masked man. As for their opponent, he moved fast… very fast, leaving a trail of black smoke. "Hnngh!" Sun groaned in pain as he took a quick jab to his already damaged gut before swinging his staff to hit thin air. Suddenly, the sound of metal clashing multiple times filled the area as the samurai dashed around, attacking Penny repeatedly from different directions but getting parried. "Very well then." The deep voice echoed from right in front of Ruby, making the youngest one and her half-sister to shoot at the source of the voice five times each only to have her bullets deflected by the sword of their attacker… Then he moved.
In a grueling show of speed and precision, the armoured samurai came at them from different directions, at almost the same time. Using his short blade to maximize his speed, he slashed at all of them excluding Penny; landing almost every strike at his opponent before they could even react. Penny had managed to parry some attacks for her teammates using her numerous blades but alas, she had been overwhelmed as well. Immediately following his flurry of attacks, all of the targeted collapsed to the ground, their bodies covered in numerous, small yet painful cuts; nothing their auras wouldn't heal in an hour, or maybe two.
Grunts and groans of pain from them could be heard from them but soon enough, they died out leading Penny and Asura to believe that they had passed out from their wounds. Penny stood face to face with the man or machine that had taken out her friends with her blades at the ready in case he made any sudden movements. "Listen, Miss Penny." He said to her. "What just happened… Nothing personal." He claimed as he gestured towards where her friends laid. "Merely a little business hiccup. Surely you have to understand right?". "Who are yo…." Before Penny could complete her question, the wind around them picked up, blowing the smoke away and revealing that Roman was halfway into his escape. His bullhead took off, quickly gaining altitude. "It's been a wonderful night, weird kids!" Roman said and used his cane to close the doors. Before either Penny or Asura could react, two more bullheads showed up and began shooting at the battlefield.
Asura leaped into action instantly, punching his way through one of the bullheads until it could no longer hover and firing off a barrage of red mantra orbs at the other, bringing it down with a loud boom as well. Penny had tried to aid him while he did this only for her attention to be diverted to creating a shield to stop a couple of bullets from hitting her. With neither of them being able to thwart him, Roman was able to flee with a miniscule amount of dust compared to their actual planned loot for the evening.
Now he noticed, he clearly had no chance of winning the fight if the behemoth that just landed beside him as well as the fact that the others were getting up sluggishly were any indication, but the masked man could still win the night if he played it smart. He threw the final smoke bomb into the air and slashed it open to cover the area in a thin smokescreen before tapping on his left arm to activate an EMP device holstered on his waist to shut down Penny for a minute; stopping her from tracking him and just like that, he disappeared, leaving a gust of black smoke where he stood. "He's gone. Don't bother." Asura said to the rest as they rose, including Penny since the device that shut her down was out of range, then he disappeared
"Ugh… what happened?" Yang said weakly as she got up. "Who got away?" Weiss asked, clutching a couple of partially healed cuts on her torso. "That freakishly fast guy probably." Ruby replied; she had never seen someone move that fast without the aid of a semblance before, either that or he had used his semblance as well.
Within a few minutes, Vale Department's Police Cars had surrounded the area with its officers scouring for anything that would aid their investigation on the robberies. Yang, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Penny and Sun were sitting on boxes. Asura had taken the liberty to watch over them without drawing much attention to himself from a close rooftop as Blake and Weiss tried to resolve their conflict. "Weiss… I just want to let you know that I'm no longer involved with the White Fang." She said.
"Stop!" Weiss cut her off. "Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?" She asked before providing an answer and continuing "Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think of this and in those twelve hours, I have decided that… I don't care." Her words made Yang, Ruby and Sun to sigh in relief.
"You don't care?" Blake asked, surprised at her partner's decision. "You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" Weiss asked back. "No. I haven't been since I was younger…" Before Blake could finish, Weiss cut her off again. "Ah bahp bahp. I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to your teammates. And not some..." Weiss turned to face Sun as she stopped herself from saying something offensive "Someone else" She completed her sentence. Blake looked around to find Yang and Ruby staring at her while grinning. After proceeding to wipe a small tear from her eye, she responded, "Of course."
"Yeah!" Johnny and Helena said as they listened in through Yang's bug. "Just as planned." The masked man said to himself as he listened in on their conversation as well. Suddenly, his suit received a transmission request from another encrypted source. "Ah, shi…" Before he could finish, he was greeted by a live feed of the Nexus with Johnny and Helena staring at him through the camera. He put on his best awkward smile before asking with a shrug, "So, Is this about that leftover pizza?". "You know what it's about, Ivory… Or should I say… Cesar?" Helena replied, calling out both his code name as well as his real name. "Just get your ass back here, Doc, then we'll talk about this over that pizza… that's missing?" Johnny said before the transmission abruptly ended. One thing for sure, he had a lot of explaining to do.
"Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby exclaimed, waving her arms in the air. "Though I'm still not quite sure how I feel about you." Weiss said, pointing her finger at Sun, who responded with an awkward laugh.
Asura stood at the top of a nearby roof, watching the whole ordeal go on. He was filled with joy, even though he could not express it. Not only had they protected… He thought as he looked around… MOST of public property, they had also solved their personal problem, putting their racial differences and pasts aside to focus on their true goal. "Everything is as it should be" He said in his native language (Not Japanese here, folks) before looking towards where the masked man most likely went "Bot not for long". He immediately took off into the forest to most likely carry an unconscious Jaune and a weak Ren back home from Akuma.
"Hey wait a minute…" Ruby said, pausing everyone as she looked around as if searching for something or someone. "Where's Penny?" She asked.
Meanwhile, in the darkened back seat of a limo, Penny sat, thinking of the events that had transpired while watching the group reunite. The entity they faced was human, no doubt, but she couldn't help but feel it was robotic too. One question stood out among the rest though: How did it know her name? Could it be that he knew them before or… "Penny!" She was broken out of her thoughts when the driver of the limo called her name "You should know better than to go running around in a strange city." He said
Penny lowered her head in shame, "I know, sir." The robotic girl responded. The car took off from the area. "Penny, your time will come" The driver reassured her as they went off.
Beacon Academy, Ozpin's O ffice
Ozpin sat on his desk, in his hand was a scroll that displayed a live feed of the docks where the partly successful robbery took place. Having seen enough of the feed, he closed it when a message caught his attention. He opened it up to see that the message was sent from Qrow, Qrow Branwen and it only read…
'QUEEN HAS PAWNS'
"Hmm…." Ozpin quickly realized who the 'Queen' was, and if she had people that she was working with, then it could spell serious danger. He closed up the message and put down his scroll before looking outside his window or more specifically, the area where Asura usually meditated.
Vale Capital…
A scroll beeped numerous times before displaying an 'Unable to Connect' message. Roman sat in a large warehouse, letting out a sigh of tiredness and frustration as he had been unable to reach his partner in crime. "How very disappointing, Roman." The voice of Cinder said from behind him, making him to turn towards the source of the voice.
"Whoa! Hehe... I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon..." He said back. Meanwhile, Cinder proceeded to criticize Roman for his work, "We were expecting more from you." She proclaimed. Roman's scroll beeped again in his hand and the same deep voice was heard again. "Vale Cleaning Services. How may we help you, Roman?" Shocked but definitely not scared, Roman was about to hang up until Cinder requested to speak with the person on the other side.
"Someone higher up wants to speak to you." Roman said before handing the scroll over to Cinder. "Hello there" Cinder greeted in a sultry tone. As soon as she greeted, a hearty laugh could be heard from the other side. "What do you find amusing, if I may ask?" Cinder asked, her face displaying a tint of annoyance.
"Permit me if I'm incorrect, but didn't Akuma mop the floor with y'all a few weeks back?" He asked back, knowing the answer fully well if his continued laughter, which earned a little giggle from Roman, was anything to go by. Cinder muted him out of annoyance. "Roman, who's this?" She summoned a fireball in her other hand as she asked. "He's the reason we were even able to escape with what we had." Roman simply answered with a small gulp before Cinder unmuted him again to hear a little laughter yet again before it abruptly stopped.
"Anyways…" He said as he stopped laughing, "What do you want?" He asked. "Well, I hear you're quite the fighter and my boss was hoping if you could do a little job for us. Of course, you'll be well compensated" Cinder explained, trying to ally herself with the mystery man.
"Hmm…. What kind of job?" The man asked. "Just getting someone out of the way, nothing much." Cinder responded. "Who?" The man's voice somehow was deeper than usual when he asked this back. It was obvious he was getting tired of this.
"She wants you to kill Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy."
'What have I gotten myself into?' Ivory asked himself mentally as he packed his old suit in a case, ready to make his way back to the Nexus.
Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum
Oh yes, this is so much fun. And this brings us to the end of Ivory's intro as well as introduces us to who is behind that mask! As usual, thank you guys for reading, don't forget to leave a little review if you enjoyed it, if you didn't enjoy it or notice something that I didn't. This is the Doc, Signing off. (So Horizontal lines exist... Intriguing)