Chapter 16: Agent Atlas
NRPD Headquarters.
Sam Neon was just writing up a report for a minor arrest before returning to the commissioner's office to continue working on finding the Red Woman. Once he stepped in through the door, however, the commissioner's son was the only person in the office. Boris was playing a game on his scroll, seemingly ignoring the detective. Sam sat down on the chair next to Boris and awkwardly patted his knees, thinking of something to say that would break the tension. He was never the best at talking to kids. He opened his mouth to speak, only to drink his coffee instead.
"So you like my mom or what?" Boris asked without looking up.
Sam nearly choked on his coffee. He set the cup aside and cleared his throat. "Ahem… just go straight for the jugular, why don't you?" He chuckled.
"I usually do." Boris smirked, still not looking up from his scroll. "Especially when it involves my mom."
"W-well, I can assure you, Boris, I have nothing but the highest respect for your mother." Sam insisted. "In fact, it's embarrassing to say, but she's kind of my hero. She overcame so much to get where she is now, it was very inspiring to me when I started out at the academy."
"Mm-hm." Boris nodded, absentmindedly.
"And… a-and I don't want there to be anything weird, between us, Boris. I promise my relationship with your mother is purely professional."
"Mmm-hm." Boris nodded, again.
Sam paused once again.
Luckily, Commissioner Maroon and Chief Rojos entered the office. "Boris, out." Jane asked, sternly.
"Sure thing, mom." Boris pocketed his scroll and smiled at the detective as he left. "Thanks for keeping me company Mr. Neon. Hope I didn't bore you with my babbling."
Neon gawked in disbelief as the teenager left.
"So, where are we on finding the Red Woman?" Jane asked, taking a seat at her desk.
"We've been running through a few theories regarding her identity, but haven't been able to come up with anything concrete as of late." Rojos grumbled, irritably.
"Well, I suppose that makes sense," Jane declared with a sigh. "I hate to admit it, but we don't actually know anything about her. Not her motives, not where she gets all of her equipment from, nothing, so of course we wouldn't know who she was."
"Y'know, commissioner, I've been thinking…" Detective Neon tapped his chin as he smiled at his own idea. "The equipment the Red Woman uses has to cost a pretty lien. I think it's safe to say whoever she is, she's quite wealthy. And it just so happens that the wealthiest woman in New Rushland also happens to be one of the only two survivors of the original Rushland's destruction. If that doesn't sound like a motive, I don't know what does."
Commissioner Maroon and Chief Rojos shared an impressed glance before Jane smiled back at her detective. "Neon, I could kiss you."
Little did the police officers know, Detective Cash was eavesdropping from outside the door and took out her communicator to update Krasnaya of her superiors' actions. A few hours later, Jane, Sam, and Alex arrived at the Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy farm with a warrant in hand. They knocked on the door and patiently waited for someone to answer. Internally, Jane hoped that Neon's hunch was wrong; her son was best friends with the Crimsonoffs' ward, and if Svetlana Crimsonoff had been involved with Krasnaya's activities, it would break Boris' heart.
However, once the door opened, the trio of police officers began to doubt their suspicion. Svetlana Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy was dressed in nothing but a loosely-tied robe with a half-empty liquor bottle in one hand and a blush across her face. She happily invited them inside and led them into the living room where Mikhail was reading a magazine on the couch - wearing only his boxer shorts.
Jane cleared her throat as Svetlana sat on her husband's lap and gave him a longing kiss. "Um, I hope we didn't interrupt anything, Mrs. Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy."
"Oh, it's no trouble." Svetlana slurred as she broke the kiss with Mikhail. "With Cyan off at school, and this being my first day off in months, we decided to celebrate our second honeymoon. Any way we can, isn't that right, darling?"
Mikhail's only response was to purr in delight as he pulled her in for another kiss, accidentally pushing her robe further open. Sam reflexively looked away and allowed Jane and Alex to proceed with the interview.
"Ahem, last week - when Dr. Frost abducted Dr. Dust from Ironwood Asylum - you and Cyan visited Atlas. Which is where the Red Woman happened to be in order to apprehend Dr. Frost." Jane stated. "Where were you when all of this happened?"
"Mmm, well, if you must know, I was visiting Dr. Polendina." Svetlana groaned as she strained herself to remember. "Sorry, commissioner, I am very drunk."
"Perhaps I can make some tea to sober us up, dear." Mikhail offered as he got up from his seat.
"Please, Mrs. Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy, try to remember." Jane leaned closer. "You visited Dr. Pietro Polendina the day after Dr. Glacier was sprung from Ironwood Asylum. Why?"
"Penny Polendina was one of the kindest and brightest individuals I ever had the pleasure of knowing." Svetlana explained, straightening her robe and tying it tighter. "Other than Ruby Rose, she was also the sweetest and friendliest. I cherished her friendship - as well as the friendship of my entire team. And, recently, I realized that I had never properly given my condolences for her passing to her father. I wanted to rectify that."
"What happened when you got there?" Jane asked.
"We spent the day together." Svetlana replied. "He introduced me to his newest pet project, and I shared with him some of the less classified details of my time spent with his daughter. Why? Did something happen while I was away?"
"Hmm." Jane rubbed her chin. It seemed unlikely that someone as worldly as Svetlana Crimsonoff wouldn't have heard about Dr. Dust's bizarre escapade in Atlas and the subsequent transformation of Cobalt Frost. "So, Dr. Polendina can confirm that you visited him?"
Svetlana shrugged, took her scroll out of her pocket, and placed it on the coffee table. "Go right ahead and call him, Commissioner. I've got nothing to hide."
Jane picked up the scroll and dialed up the number and got up to excuse herself. A few minutes later, she returned and handed the scroll back to Svetlana. "Dr. Polendina confirms your visit. Though, I'd like to go on the record to say we haven't accused you of anything, Mrs. Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy. Just trying to get some answers."
"And I'd like to go on the record to say that I'm sorry my police force couldn't do more to stop the Red Woman when she crashed your party the night Dr. Dust made her debut, Mrs. Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy." Rojos added. "You're lucky you escorted your kid to safety while it was going on. I admire your charity work."
Svetlana allowed a cocky smirk as she leaned against the counter. "Ha! This 'Red Woman' is the one who's lucky, chief!" She laughed. "I don't take kindly to anyone trying to crash my parties! If I had the chance, I'd have shown her exactly why I was handpicked to be on Ironwood's huntress team!"
"Ha ha ha ha! I like your style, Crimsonoff!" Rojos laughed.
"With that being said, I get the feeling that Cyan would have been fine without me," Svetlana declared. "She's growing into a fine young woman, capable of handling herself and making her own choices. Yeah it can get stressful at times when it comes to being a parent, but at the end of the day, sometimes all you can do is trust your child to know what they are doing."
Jane couldn't help but give a slight frown upon hearing this. "I'm guessing that Cyan mentioned what happened with Ivy."
"I'll neither confirm nor deny it."
Any further discussions would be put on hold for the moment when Svetlana's scroll suddenly went off, causing her to blink upon noticing who was on the caller ID. "I wonder what my secretary could want at this hour," Svetlana genuinely declared before looking at Jane. "Mind if I take this?"
Jane just shrugged. "Go ahead."
"Thanks." Svetlana remarked before putting the scroll to her ear. "Hello? …he did WHAT!? Ugh, this is just what I needed. No, no, I'm not mad at you: you made the right call in contacting me. Just…just get me in contact with him. …I don't care what he's doing at the moment: we're hashing this out NOW! …that's fine: I can wait. In the meantime, let the team know that they still have a job."
Neon just gulped as he watched all of this with the others. "Boss?"
"Yeah, Sam?"
"Whatever our conclusions regarding this investigation might be, remind me not to make Svetlana mad."
"A sentiment that a lot of people would agree with," Mikhail said with a slight grin even as his wife gave off a scoff, indicating that whoever she was currently speaking to managed to upset her.
"I hope you don't take that tone with the rest of the people in the company," Svetlana declared before giving a huff in reply to whatever was being said on the other end. "Yeah, it's me. Now, you have five minutes to explain to me what the hell you were thinking when you tried to dismiss the entirety of the Gamma Team for our upcoming charity project when we'll be a week behind schedule without their assistance, and if I don't like what I hear, you can say goodbye to your Nondescript Winter Holiday bonus this year...and that's just the best case scenario."
Everyone just watched as Svetlana spent those five minutes listening to everything that was being said to her, with her face showing more and more irritation and anger as time went on before finally she switched the scroll to the camera feature so as to show her employee just how upset she was.
"I don't care how much money you think it'll save us!" Svetlana snapped into her scroll. "I already promised those people jobs, and I'm not going to let your personal prejudices get in the way of that! If you have any further problems with my decision, I suggest you keep them to yourself! Or I swear by the Four Maidens, the next termination slip you write out will be your own!"
With that, she angrily hung up and sighed in exasperation. Mikhail brought over a cup of tea for his wife. "Problem?"
"The COO tried to fire the new construction crew I hired for the homeless shelter project." Svetlana explained. "I can't prove it, but I'm certain he has a problem with them being Faunus. It's bad enough Cyan just dealt with this sort of thing at school the other day."
Jane just winced upon hearing this, knowing how little Svetlana tolerated discrimination against Faunus in no small part due to having worked with them in the past, not to mention that her ward was a Faunus herself. "Ouch. Just…ouch."
"Yeah, needless to say, I wasn't happy to hear about that sort of thing…though I apologize if my outburst scared any of you guys," Sventlana declared with a sheepish expression.
"It's fine, though having seen it, I could totally believe you could take on Krasnaya," Rojos said with a respectful yet genuine nod. After all, while it was true that she wasn't a fan of Azure any more then she was her senior partner, her being a Faunus was not reason enough to have her arrested in and of itself, regardless of what some of her…less then pleasant colleagues might say. Heck, some of their best informants were former White Fang members so she genuinely couldn't understand the notion of "the only good Faunus is a dead one" that seemed to take up a good portion of the criminal underground.
One hour later, the police trio had returned to the station.
"Well, she seems to be in the clear." Sam noted as he scribbled in his notepad. "She may be passionate about equal opportunity, but she's too incompetent to be the Red Woman."
"Either that, or she's a good actor." Jane corrected. "I suggest we keep a close eye on our city's main benefactor."
"And then what?" Boris called out with a glare as he came into the room, showing that he had been listening. "Arrest another one of my friends if you find anything suspicious?"
"It's not that simple, Boris," Jane declared. "The law states that…"
"Since when is there a law against saving lives!?" Boris barked out before sighing and giving his mother a look. "Be honest with me: if it was me out there helping to bring in psychos like the Trickster, would you be proud of me or would you be too busy slapping the cuffs on me?"
Jane actually flinched at this, having not at all been prepared for this line of questioning. "I…you see…"
"That's what I thought," Boris declared with tears in his eyes. "You don't really care about the promise of that badge to protect and serve: you just use it as an excuse to punish the guilty - or anyone you think is guilty - instead of protecting the innocent. Dad would be ashamed of you."
"Boris I…" Jane called out only for Boris to storm out of the room and slam the door shut before she could finish. "Well, that could have gone better."
"Yeah, no kidding…but I'm sure things will work out eventually." Sam reassured her.
Jane just sighed. "I hope so…"
As Boris walked into the building's rec-room, he spotted a group of officers gathered around the TV. Curious, he squeezed past the cops until he got a full view of the screen. A man in red, white, and blue armor and a silver helmet was tearing up a White Fang stronghold, slaughtering multiple criminal Faunus with an array of weapons.
"Who the hell is this huntsman?" One officer asked in awe.
"That's no ordinary huntsman…" Boris gasped as he gazed at the screen. "That's Captain Red Ivory Lapis! A.K.A, Agent Atlas! Remnant's first and only dust-enhanced soldier! He's a legend!"
"The Agent Atlas?! Didn't he once take on a half dozen squadrons of men single handedly?" Another officer gasped.
"Nah, he wasn't quite that skilled, as the legends have a habit of playing up the feats of the people involved, but seeing how he was capable of taking on four or five squadrons with only minimal backup, his skills are still nothing to sneeze at," Boris remarked. "Weird thing is, he's supposed to be dead."
Meanwhile, on the streets of New Rushland, Agent Atlas took cover behind a dumpster as he reloaded his pistol. Unfazed by the barrage of dust being fired upon him, he tapped the side of his helmet, activating an infrared targeting system that allowed him to spot his enemies. Then, adding a few attachments to his gun, he jumped out from his hiding spot and gunned down three criminals. Once his gun was depleted again, he holstered it and drew a combat knife which he used to cut down the remaining six. Considering his mission accomplished, he moved on to find more Faunus criminals.
Back in the cave beneath the Crimsonoff-Kashtonovvy residence, Svetlana and Mikhail were busy researching Captain Lapis to determine his next move. Svetlana was digging through the files she'd copied from her days in Team CPPR while Mikhail checked as many newspaper articles and movies he could find on the internet.
"Okay, according to my research, Red Ivory Lapis was either a Mantle-born son of Vacuan immigrants who enlisted in the Atlas military and was chosen to be a test-subject for a super-soldier program, or he was an orphaned son of an enemy general taken in by the Atlas military and trained to be the perfect soldier."
"He's neither." Svetlana corrected, pointing to her own computer screen. "Remind me to thank Ciel for giving me access to the old Project Guardsmen database."
Mikhail leaned over his wife's shoulder to get a better look. "Agent Atlas is related to Project Guardsmen?"
"According to this, he's somewhat of a prototype." Svetlana elaborated. "He volunteered for the program shortly after Ozpin found the Summer Maiden. Back then, they hadn't perfected the A.I. mimicry yet, so instead, they focused on chemical enhancement and intense physical training. Eventually, he became the first official Guardsman. Codename: Agent Atlas. He underwent several covert-ops missions for them before he went missing in action."
Mikhail blinked in confusion. "I thought you said Ozpin found the Summer Maiden fifty years ago? Lapis seems a bit spry for his age."
"Apparently, the enhancements included an experimental form of Dust that was designed to keep him in his physical prime." Suddenly, she found a new file that seemed a bit more disturbing. "And he eventually went off the deep end. Targeting Faunus soldiers and singling them out, using excessive force during interrogations, and even attacking ordinary citizens until the first real Guardsmen took him down and placed him in suspended animation."
"And I'm guessing that all of this took place before Jacques Schnee took over," Mikhail said with a small huff, already imagining all of the vile things that man might have done if he had been able to get a hold of this legendary soldier.
"Indeed, though even if Jacques wanted to take advantage of this, the Guardsmen in question took the secret of where Agent Atlas was originally located to his grave…literally: he was mortally wounded and ended up dying of blood loss not long after he had contacted Ozpin to let him know that the situation had been taken care of, thus making it so that they couldn't even give the man a proper burial due to being unable to narrow down his coordinates in time," Svetlana remarked with a grim expression.
"Here's hoping that history doesn't repeat itself this time around now that Agent Atlas has woken back up and made it back here."
"Quite."
Suddenly, Svetlana received a text message from Dr. Oobleck, informing her to check the news. Much to her and Mikhail's shared disgust, Agent Atlas had been caught on camera by an amateur photographer as he brutally interrogated an innocent Faunus citizen, thinking that he was a member of the White Fang. Mikhail fearfully ran upstairs to check on Cyan while Svetlana began planning her move against Agent Atlas. If her research was anything to go off of, this wasn't a problem she could handle on her own. She took out her scroll and dialed the number.
"Hello?"
"Sorry to bother you with this, but I'm assuming you've seen the news?"
"Unfortunately yes, though I'm guessing that this relates to why you've contacted me."
Kransnaya simply kept her face neutral as she kept her eyes on the news playing out on the screen even as she spoke into her scroll. "...how soon could you and your team get to New Rushland?"
"Assuming that prototype plane that the Atlas military has been developing is operational, we should be there in 15 minutes, give or take. If not, we might be able to still show up in a half hour or so."
"A bit on the slow side but it'll do," Krasnaya said with a nod. "In the meantime, my allies and I will see about buying time for your arrival."
"Appreciated."
Just as Svetlana hung up and went about dressing in her Krasnaya uniform, Cyan made it home and immediately headed downstairs to change into her own costume. Mikhail was to stay behind in case they needed back up, but that didn't stop him from noticing something out of the corner of his eye.
"Hold on one second," Mikhail called out as Cyan was about to suit up before pointing at the face of his foster daughter. "What happened there?"
Cyan merely blinked before gingerly touching the black eye she had. "Oh, this? Yeah, one of the boys in my class ended up insulting the Flying Robyns and well, things got a bit heated after that. Don't worry: my principal knows that it was the other guy who ultimately started the fight so he won't be punishing me, but unfortunately said other guy is too well connected for him to do anything about him either."
"...we'll talk more about this later." Mikhail promised.
A few moments later, the entire NRPD SWAT Team were led by Commissioner Maroon against Agent Atlas who had holed up in the home of a Faunus family he had killed.
"Red Ivory Lapis! This is Commissioner Jane Maroon of the New Rushland Police Department!" Jane called out into the megaphone. "We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up!"
"My apologies, miss, but I can't let even an upstanding woman like yourself get in the way of my mission," Agent Atlas declared even as he aimed his weapon at him to get to a Faunus officer behind her.
Maroon ordered a squad to move in, but Agent Atlas threw down several smoke bombs to conceal his escape. But before he could get far, Azure tackled him to the ground and scrambled to keep his arms pinned behind his back. But Agent Atlas was much stronger than she anticipated and soon found herself flung backwards. Once he spotted the feathers on her head, Agent Atlas drew his pistol and aimed it directly at her head.
"Get away from her, you bastard!" Magenta shouted as he swooped in and kicked the gun away.
"Language!" Jane called out, before her eyes blinked in mute shock as she realized what she had instinctively called out, not to mention who she had done it for. Even as a certain young vigilante tackled Agent Atlas away from her, she couldn't help but take a good long look at the boy in front of him, seeing him with clear eyes and yet not quite believing what she saw. "Magenta? Is it possible that you're…?"
"Hey, get your head back in the game, Commissioner!" Neon shouted.
"Uh, right, sorry." Jane declared even as she shook her head to clear her mind and focus on the task at hand. "Alright, here's the plan: while Krasnaya's partners are keeping Agent Atlas distracted, we're going to secure any other hostiles in the area and make sure that all civilians are kept out of the crossfire. Now I know that some of you might have an issue with letting vigilantes deal with the primary target of this mission, but like it or not, none of us are prepared to take on someone like him at this point in time. With that being said, if you do get the chance to get a shot at him without risk to your own life, go ahead and take it: we owe it to this city to let them know that we aren't afraid to take on anyone who would threaten its residents, even if it's a legend like Agent Atlas himself."
"You got it boss!" Neon smirked and ran off to follow her orders.
"Uh, excuse me: are we just going to ignore how Commisioner Maroon just said 'Language'?" Cash teased.
Jane couldn't help but blush in reply. "Sorry: it just kind of slipped out."
Regardless, Agent Atlas fired another shot that knocked Azure off of the police car, but didn't quite knock her out of the fight. Another police officer shot at the silver helmet atop Atlas' head, but it did little more than prompt him to knock the gun away and pin the officer against a nearby wall.
"P-please…!" The human officer whimpered. "I have a family! Please, don't kill me!"
"I wouldn't kill you, officer. You're just doing your job." Agent Atlas remarked as he threw the policeman aside and marched towards Azure. "Now, I'm going to finish mine."
"Don't think that I'll go down so easily," Azure called out as she got back to her feet. "After all, I was difficult to keep down even before I found my Semblance."
"I believe it," Agent Atlas begrudgingly acknowledged, having seen for himself how agile the young girl was even without factoring in her ability to fly. "But unfortunately for you, there's more than one way to force a bird out of the sky."
With that said, Agent Atlas holstered his pistol and taunted the Faunus to come after him. Azure steeled her nerves and rushed forward with a flying kick. Unfortunately, the pre-Guardsman dodged in an eyeblink and handcuffed one of her wrists to his own.
"Let's see you hop around now, you little twerp." He smirked before punching his captive in the face. Once Azure fell to the ground, Agent Atlas planted his foot on her throat while holding up a collapsible shield to block the fire from the police force. Azure proved to be more clever than he anticipated, as he used the fact that they were handcuffed together against him via pulling his arm down, thus messing with how he was holding the shield and allowing for the police to get a few quick hits in before he readjusted said shield.
"Bet you wish we weren't handcuffed right now, huh?" Azure managed to call out despite the pressure on her throat.
"Now that you mention it…yes," Agent Atlas declared with something resembling a mocking grin, which confused the young vigilante…right up until the handcuffs broke apart via a flick of Agent Atlas' wrist. "Fortunately, those were my breakaway cuffs. So, any other clever ideas?"
"Uh…" Whatever it was Azure was about to say was cut off as Agent Atlas quickly applied more pressure to where he was standing, causing her to gasp and choke even as she desperately tried to push the boot off of her neck. "Get… get off…" She wheezed as her world became so dark that she couldn't see the gun pointed at her face.
Agent Atlas pulled back the hammer on his pistol and sneered. "Die, you filthy motherfu-"
Suddenly, a hook swung from the rafters, knocking Agent Atlas away and giving Magenta a chance to check on his friend. A relieved sigh slipped through the fabric of his mask as he felt a pulse on her neck. Such comfort was brief as he heard a familiar click behind him.
"Step away, kid." Agent Atlas ordered, having recovered from the blow. "My beef isn't with you."
"What the hell is the matter with you?!" Magenta spluttered. "You're supposed to be a hero! Dedicated to defending peace and the innocent!"
"You wanna know who was innocent?" Agent Atlas sneered, keeping his weapon aimed at the teenager. "My mother. Pregnant with my little sister. She'd be about your mother's age right now, if our mom hadn't gotten caught in the crossfire when two meth-head Faunus freaks decided to rob a fucking convenience store just because they got laid off. A world without those people in it? Sure sounds like peace to me."
Magenta had heard enough. He grabbed a nearby pipe and rushed towards the crazed bigot. To the young vigilante's credit, he managed to land a blow to Agent Atlas' head before he gripped the teenager by the neck. "Y-you think… this serves peace…?" Magenta choked out.
"I cherish peace with all my heart." Agent Atlas growled as he tightened his grip around Magenta's throat. "I don't care how many men, women, and children I have to kill to protect it."
Suddenly, a hammer soared through the air and hit Atlas' hand, causing Magenta to fall to the ground. The Agent grunted in pain before Krasnaya flew down and kicked him away from her proteges. Using the magnets built into her glove, she summoned the hammer back to her hand and smacked the shiny helmet off of Atlas' head.
"Huh. I knew it was only a matter of time before I ran into you." Agent Atlas smirked. "You call yourself a protector, and yet you let trash into your city."
"I don't have time for your racist narcissism. Just get the hell away from my kids."
"Make me." Agent Atlas drew his combat knife and rushed towards Krasnaya.
In response, the Crimson Crusader flipped backwards and used the magnets built into her glove to summon the hammer back to her hand, colliding with Agent Atlas' left kneecap halfway. Despite buckling from the pain, the man out of time managed to throw his knife into Krasnaya's shoulder. Krasnaya retaliated by drawing her sickle and slicing it across Agent Atlas' forehead.
"What was that?" Agent Atlas called out.
"Just the right kind of cut above the eyes: the kind that bleeds," Krasnaya easily replied.
Sure enough, droplets of blood began to sting his eyes, making it harder for him to keep them open. However, he powered through and continued his assault. Krasnaya pulled the knife out of her shoulder and threw it aside before holstering her weapons and relying on her fists. She managed to dodge another punch, and delivered two swift taps to his arm.
"Was that a tickle?" Agent Atlas mockingly asked.
"That was a nerve bundle in your deltoid. Might not have hurt, but you won't be moving that arm for a while," Kransaya replied.
Sure enough, despite his best efforts, Agent Atlas found that he couldn't even wiggle his fingers at the moment. With a snarl, he charged forward, giving a flying kick to Krasnaya's chest area, who merely responded by grabbing his legs and swinging him into a nearby wall on the other side of the street. Realizing that things were going south fast, Agent Atlas reluctantly picked up his helmet with his only functioning arm and placed it back over his head. "Activate aura-regeneration." He ordered.
Krasnaya merely watched as Agent Atlas' helmet began to glow, subtly punching in some commands onto her wrist computer as this happened. Agent Atlas rushed forwards with his knife once more, managing to graze Krasnaya's stomach. But in response, Krasnaya kicked the knife out of his hand and fractured three of his ribs with a single blow from her hammer.
"Your helmet may have healed the injuries I gave you, but I hacked it just before it could fully restore your aura." Krasnaya bragged before roughly pulling her sickle out of his shoulder and kick-flipping away from him. "Do you understand now? This isn't some random street, Lapis. It's an operating table. And I'm the surgeon."
"How are you doing this?!"
"Buying into your own hype now?" Krasnaya asked with a huff. "Seems that you've forgotten that despite all of the boosts to your strength, speed, and stamina, you're still as human as the rest of us."
"You can't do this to me: I'm a war hero!" Agent Atlas snarled out even as he struggled to get back to his feet for another round.
"And yet you chose to try and kill a child just a little while ago, so I don't think you have the right to that title anymore," Krasnaya barked back.
"Can't you see we're on the same side?" Agent Atlas sneered. "You claim to be the guardian of New Rushland, but you refuse to punish the Faunus slime who destroyed the old Rushland."
"The actions of the White Fang do not condemn all Faunus. Heck I personally know of a few former White Fang members who would gladly give their lives if it meant your late family had another chance at life, and yet I can tell by how you're acting you would gladly have them executed alongside true monsters like Tyrian Callows and Adam Taurus," Krasnaya spat back, circling her enemy. "That's what separates us. You claim to fight for peace and justice. But you confuse peace with 'complacent.' I fight for justice by fighting against all injustices done to humans and Faunus."
"Then it seems we're at an impasse here, as the two of us are just a bit too different to see eye to eye." Agent Atlas spat out.
"Agreed, but do you want to know the biggest difference between you and I?" Krasnaya smirked as she held up the communicator. "I have friends."
Suddenly, a storm of rose petals flew in from behind the Crimson Crusader and reformed into the Grimm Reaper who sliced Agent Atlas' armor with Crescent Rose. Agent Atlas sumersalted backwards and drew another pistol with the intention of killing the new attacker. But before he could even pull the trigger, a white corporeal Urasi materialized out of thin air and swatted him away. Weiss Schnee stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground, sending an explosion of ice dust towards the fallen Agent in an attempt to trap him. Agent Atlas dodged the blast, but ended up getting stabbed in the thigh by Gambol Shroud. The blade pierced all the way through and stuck into the ground beneath, leaving him open to a punch from Ember Silica.
The explosive punch knocked Agent Atlas' helmet off, leaving him vulnerable to one final blow from Krasnaya's hammer.
"Well, that takes care of that," Yang said with a nod before looking toward Krasnaya. "Are you doing okay?"
"I am now. Thanks for coming, you guys." Krasnaya gasped, tiredly.
"Any time." Grimm Reaper nodded, taking off her mask. "You've worked too hard to build this place back up for us to let creeps like him burn it back down."
"Besides, we were just repaying the favor for your assistance in the Menagerie Civil War," Weiss said with a grin.
"Plus, it's always nice to see my wife beat up racist pricks." Blake added.
"Love you too, Kitty Cat," Yang said with a smile.
"No…way…" Magenta called out, looking upon the huntresses before her in awe. "Is that…?"
"Indeed it is." Krasnaya said before clearing her throat. "Meet Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. Team RWBY, this is my friend, Magenta."
Magenta rapidly took deep breaths as he waved at the huntresses, unable to contain his excitement. "H-Hi! I-I-I am a crazy big fan! Uh, c-crazy for huntresses fan! Um! Crazy for what huntresses do fan! N-not 'crazy' as in I have a backpack filled with duct tape, or anything creepy."
Blake gave an easygoing smile here. "It's fine: we get what you mean. Heck, one of us was a lot like you at your age."
The Grimm Reaper just groaned here. "I'm never living down how I asked all of our teachers for autographs, am I?"
"No, no you're not."
"As amusing as this is, some of us have things to do in the morning, so we'll be taking our leave," Krasnaya declared while looking at Azure and Magenta as she said this, getting a reluctant nod in response.
"Hope to speak with you again sometime," Magenta called out with a grin.
"Say hi to The Savior for me," Azure declared with a wink before the trio started to walk off.
"Hey, you can't just let those vigilantes go!" Rojos barked out.
"You want to stop them?" Yang teasingly asked. "Be my guest."
Rojos snarled as she turned to try and arrest Krasnaya and company…only to freeze upon realizing that the Crimson Crusader and her sidekicks were already long gone.
"Yeah, they do that," Jane and Ayshia simultaneously called out in an amused manner.
Sometime later, Team RWBY could be seen assisting the NRPD clean things up following the attack, all doing their part to make sure that everyone, Faunus and human alike, were given medical treatment along with other tasks best suited for them.
"Not that I don't appreciate the assistance, but for the record, why did you really come tonight?" Jane couldn't help but ask at some point in the operation.
"Svetlana called us not long after the attacks began to show up on the news," Weiss remarked. "Said something about being under investigation and thus not being able to show up in person."
"Well this is awkward," Rojos sheepishly called out, having wanted to see Svetlana back up her claim about being able to take out Krasnaya.
"Eh, don't worry about it: we would have come regardless," Ruby said with a grin. "After all, it's a huntress' duty to protect those who can't protect themselves."
"It also doesn't hurt that some of us had a personal stake in this," Blake declared with a subdued expression.
Instantly, Captain Maroon realized what was going through the black haired woman's mind. "Oh, right: you're a former member of the White Fang."
"And according to Agent Atlas, I should be pushing up daisies alongside my ex Adam Taurus despite how I've long since cut ties with that part of my life," Blake said with a nod even as her wife squeezed her hand in comfort. "Say what you will about Krasnaya but if helping her out meant that I could at least try and show that I wasn't like the faunus that killed his family, I'd do it all over again."
"Well don't worry: despite what some people might say, I'm actually glad you and your friends showed up tonight," Detective Neon declared. "We could have lost a lot of good people if you hadn't provided assistance."
"It's no problem at all, officer," Ruby declared. "We know how much Svetlana cares for this city, so we had the chance to help her out, even if indirectly, we took it."
"Besides, we never shy away from the chance to pound some bastards into the dirt," Yang declared.
"Watch your language there," Aiysha remarked, giving Jane a teasing grin.
"I'm not living that down anytime soon, am I?" Commissioner Maroon asked with a groan before sighing as she thought over everything that happened tonight. "He was right about us."
Ayisha blinked upon hearing this. "Who was?"
"My son," Jane declared. "Earlier Boris said that this job has recently become more about punishing the guilty rather than protecting the innocent. Agent Atlas was always someone the academy celebrated as the ideal that we should strive for in this job…and yet he just tried killing a child in the name of so-called 'peace'. If all we're doing is punishing those that we feel have wronged us, how are we any better than the criminals that we put behind bars?"
"Boss, you know better than anyone Krasnaya is a sensitive topic around here, but in this case, I find myself agreeing with what she said earlier: Agent Atlas made a choice to let the amount of people he punished define him, and yet here you are hoping to establish what sort of punishments criminals deserve, if any," Aiysha remarked. "In fact, let me ask you this: if you were in Agent Atlas' shoes a little while ago, and you had the chance to take out Magenta, what would you do?"
Jane blinked as she reflected on how her son had asked her something similar a while back, before gaining a stern expression. "I'd let him go: he was already injured and in need of medical attention, so it wouldn't be my place to punish him further for doing what he felt was right."
"And that's what separates you from Agent Atlas: you know when not to pull the trigger," Aiysha said with a smile.
"She's right, you know. As someone who has seen more than her fair share of fallen heroes, I know for a fact that you aren't the same sort of person as Agent Atlas or Adam Taurus," Blake declared with a reassuring grin, with her teammates sharing an expression that showed that they agreed.
"Thank you," Jane said with a smile.
"You're welcome, though if you don't mind my asking, what are you going to do now?"
"Take things one day at a time, I suppose, but in the here and now, I'm going to check in with my son: hopefully clear the air regarding what happened earlier."
One hour later, Jane arrived at her apartment just as Boris was about to leave for his shift at the library. After a brief awkward silence, the mother and son sat down at the table for a talk. "I'm sorry for what happened earlier," She said, casually.
"Me too," Boris said before sighing while thinking back on how his mother almost died earlier tonight. "Mom, remember how I asked what you'd do if I was out there helping to take down psychos like Trickster? Well, after what's happened…look I'll understand if you get mad, but there's something I need to tell you."
"Boris, let me stop you right there," Jane suddenly remarked with a light smile. "It's admittedly taken me a while to realize it, but you're at the age where you're old enough to make your own choices. You don't need me to approve or even acknowledge them…and in this case, I can't."
Boris' eyes widened. "Wait, so you already know, or at least suspect that…" …and that was as far as he got before Jane used her finger to cover her son's mouth.
"Shh. Whatever it is you think I know and/or suspect, go ahead and keep it to yourself. Just know that I'm proud of the man you're becoming and that I love you: all of you…and that's all that I have to say on the matter," Jane said with a wink.
Boris merely gave a tear filled smile as he brought his mother in for a hug, with Jane giving a smile of relief even as she returned the embrace. She knew that the road ahead wasn't going to be easy, but she ultimately decided to take Svetlana's advice and trust her son to know what he was doing.
Meanwhile, Mikhail drove Cyan into the city until they came upon an apartment complex.
"What is this place?" She asked.
"I pulled some strings and got the address of the boy who insulted your parents." Mikhail replied as he put the car in park and unlocked the doors. "And after what Lapis did to you, I think you deserve this."
Cyan glanced at the door to the apartment and steeled her nerves before walking up to the door and ringing the bell. Soon enough, the bully answered. He rolled his eyes and shut the door behind him. "If you think you're gonna tell my mom-"
He was cut off when Cyan punched him in the stomach and proceeded to hit him in the face, breaking his nose. "Don't! Ever! Talk! About! My parents!"
"Cyan!" Mikhail ran up and pulled her off of the boy, calming her down. "I think he got the message."
"S-sh-she tried to kill me!" The bully screamed, fearfully.
"That's right. She tried to kill you. You remember that the next time you see her." Mikhail replied, darkly. "And you also remember that I let her try. Capiche?"
The bully nervously pinched his nose and nodded.
"Good." Mikhail smiled and led his foster daughter back to the car. "C'mon, Cyan, let's get some ice on those knuckles."
To Be Continued!
Epilogue:
"This is it," Ciel called out as she approached a particular prison. "This will be the turning point in my plans…or one of them, at least…"
"You sure you want to do this, General?"
"I've never been more certain," Ciel said with a light smile. "If nothing else, I want to see with my own eyes the man that my father admired in my youth."
"Okay, though be sure to contact us if he starts acting up."
"Will do, though I get the feeling that won't be a problem." With that, Ciel made her way down the corridors of Frigid Mountain Penitentiary until she came upon the maximum security cell. Inside, she spotted the prisoner she was looking for; a man in peak-physical condition doing pushups with one arm until he noticed his visitor. "Agent Lapis, my name is General Ciel Soleil of the Atlas Military."
"General." Lapis stood up and saluted in respect.
"At ease, Agent Lapis." Ciel nodded and took a seat in front of him. "I've read your file, agent. I must say, I'm quite impressed. How would you like a legitimate chance to serve peace?"
Lapis grinned. "I'm listening."
