Chp. 15: Playing with Emotions
Mantle, Atlas
An hour had passed as Bulldog, Ice Pick, Missionary, and Steel were out on the sidewalk, waiting for someone. They soon heard footsteps approaching and turned around to see Keaton, Alex, and Cassandra approaching them.
"You guys said that the cameras had spotted Fifestone?" Bulldog asked.
"Yes. His last known locations were in the East side of Mantle and the Eastern part of the Crater," Cassandra answered as she pulled out an iPad and tapped onto it. "Give me a few minutes and I may be able to triangulate the location of where Fifestone is hiding."
"The sooner we find Fifestone, the sooner we get our answers," Keaton said.
"What do you want with Fifestone?" a new voice cuts it.
Everyone turned around to who had spoken and came face to face with Robyn Hill and the other Happy Huntresses.
"Hey there, Ms. Hill," Keaton greeted. "What are you ladies up to today?"
"Faunus have been disappearing in Mantle, so we've been trying to look into the disappearances," Fiona answered
"So why are you guys after Hanlon Fifestone?" Robyn asked with narrowed eyes.
"We have reason to believe that Fifestone is trying to incite Grimm attacks," Alex answered.
"Incite Grimm attacks?! What are you talking about? Do you even know who Hanlon Fifestone is?" May asked.
"We did our research on him. Hanlon Fifestone was born in Mantle and made his way through the ranks of Atlas after enlisting as a soldier in the Atlas military. He wanted to fight for better rights for the people of Mantle," Missionary answered.
"Yes. And it was during that time that he saw the corruption, wealth and greed of the people of Atlas. He then deserted military duty to become one of Mantle's union leaders," Joanna added.
"This gained him a bad reputation with the people of Atlas as a result. And eventually, he became the most well-respected union leader in Mantle due to fighting for better rights for the citizens, including the Faunus," Fiona said.
"He is our friend. So what makes you think he would want to incite any Grimm attacks?" Robyn asked.
"Weeks ago we found an orb that can attract Grimm. We learned that it contains raw emotions, mainly fear, anger, and sadness. And Fifestone is the only one that can extract emotions with his semblance. We believe that he had stuffed those emotions into more of these orbs, which would then be used to attract Grimm," Ice Pick explained.
"Why would Hanlon do this?" Fiona asked.
"We believe that he may have changed his ideals on how to fight for better conditions for Mantle and decided to resort to terrorist acts to get what he wants," Keaton answered.
"Much like the White Fang had," Ice Pick added.
"Hey guys. I think I have managed to triangulate Fifestone's location," Cassandra said.
Everyone gathered around Cassandra as she tapped on her iPad and a red dot appeared on the Eastern point of the map of Mantle just next to the Crater.
"That's the Mantle Industrial Center," May said.
"Then that's where we're going," Keaton said.
"Hold on now! We're not gonna let you guys lay a hand on Fifestone until we see if your suspicions are confirmed! So we are coming with you!" Robyn said.
"That's fine. We were gonna be asking for some help anyway," Keaton said.
"Only if your suspicions are confirmed," Joanna replied.
The Americans and the Happy Huntresses started to make their way to Fifestone's hideout.
Mantle Industrial Center
Several minutes later, the Americans and the Happy Huntresses arrived at the Mantle Industrial Center. They were walking through a dark hallway quietly searching for Fifestone.
"He's got to be around here somewhere," Missionary said.
They soon approached an entryway and approached to take a look inside. They all looked to see a large room filled with crates, boxes, and cases. The Americans and Happy Huntresses then noticed two people in the middle of the room. The first was a rabbit Faunus woman in a miner's uniform who was on the floor whimpering and crying in terror, and the second was a man towering over her. The man that the Americans had been looking for; Hanlon Fifestone.
"You think I'm blind to your failures, girl? Let's see how well you can work if you are the one who is blind," Fifestone spoke in a threatening tone.
Fifestone grabs the Faunus by her arm and lifts her up off the floor with a smirk on his face.
"No, please!" the rabbit Faunus pleaded.
Fifestone extended his other hand at the miner's face and an orange mist suddenly came out of the Faunus' eyes and mouth and into Fifestone's palm as he gave a gleeful smirk. The Americans realized that this was Fifestone's semblance, Raw Emotion, and the orange mist was the rabbit Faunus' raw fear. Fifeston drops the miner back to the floor and then pulls out an orb from his pouch. He then placed the orb next to the mist of fear as it then seeped its way into the orb. The orb was now ready to be used.
Robyn had a look of complete fury on her face upon witnessing what Fifestone was doing, while May and Joanna looked with angered expressions, and Fiona covered her mouth in shock.
"Thank you. Your fear has been useful. But now you've served your purpose," Fifestone said.
In complete rage, Robyn sprints up towards Fifestone and punches him in the face. Joanna follows behind her leader and kicks Fifestone in the stomach, sending him flying and crashing through a wall. May, Fiona, and the Terrans all caught up to Robyn and Joanna as Cassandra knelt down to the Faunus who was starting to sit up.
"Are you okay, miss?" Cassandra asked.
Everyone looked at the hole Fifestone had crashed through.
"He's gone," Fiona said.
"Not for long," Robyn growled.
The Happy Huntresses then ran towards the hole in the wall as the Americans watched them go out through the hole.
"We better follow them so they don't kill him. We still have questions to ask him," Bulldog said.
"You gonna be okay if we go after him?" Steel asked the rabbit Faunus.
The Faunus nodded in response. Cassandra stood back up and ran to the hole in the wall to go after Fifestone. They went out into a large mineshaft and caught up with the Happy Huntresses as they saw Fifestone was just getting up from the ground. The Americans all pointed their rifles at Fifestone.
"Get down on the ground!" Keaton ordered.
"Hands where we can see 'em!" Ice Pick shouted.
"Don't take another step, asshole!" Bulldog shouted.
"How could you do this?! Why would you do that to that poor girl?!" Fiona asked.
"Turn around and walk away. All of you. Forget you ever found me. This has nothing to do with you," Fifstone said.
"No gonna happen, pal! You're going to answer for your crimes!" Steel said.
"We know you're stealing raw fear from innocent people and using it to fuel the orbs!" Alex said.
"And from the Faunus no less! And you likely had something to do with their disappearances!" Robyn said.
"Are they even alive, or did you kill them?!" May asked.
"They would have told everyone of what I've been up to. And I was about to do what I have to do to make sure that this is kept under wraps," Fifestone answered.
" You... You son of a bitch! We're going to make sure that you never go free again!" Robyn said as she and the other Happy Huntresses readied their weapons.
"Fine I've been patient up until now, but that patience is at an end. Allow me to show you all what raw fear really is!" Fifestone shouted as he readied his weapon, a two-pronged weapon attached to his arm with one prong is a piercing spear, and the other a drill.
"Huntresses, take him down!" Robyn ordered as she and May, Fiona, and Joanna all charged at Fifestone.
As the Happy Huntresses approached, Fifestone kicks Fiona to the ground, then whacks Joanna in the face with his weapon, sending her flying into a crate. Fifestone lunges his arm-drill at May as she deflects the attack away. Fifestone kicks May in the face before punching her to the ground. Robyn fired a couple of crossbolts at the corrupt union leader as he dodged the first crossbolt, then deflected the second with his arm-drill. Robyn folded her crossbow into her shield and swung her weapon at Fifestone blocks her attack and pushes her to the ground.
As Fifestone was about to lunge the spear-point of his weapon down at Robyn, he was suddenly shot in the back by a couple of bullets, making him cry out in pain. He turned around to see the marines and soldiers shooting at him. Fifestone began spinning his drill, plunged it into the ground and small rocks and dirt shot out from the pressure of his weapon and straight at the Americans. They all dove for cover behind some crates and a minecart avoiding the rocks and dirt. Bulldog pulled out a grenade and pulled out the pin before throwing it at Fifestone. The grenade explodes knocking Fifestone into a crate.
Keaton jumps out of the open and pulls out a shotgun and fires a couple shots at Fifestone. The union leader cried out in pain from the shots striking him in the chest. Angered, Fifestone charges at the marine captain. Just as he was about to lunge his arm-drill at Keaton, Robyn dashes at Fifestone and bashed her shield at his face, knocking him to the ground. Fifestone quickly gets up and starts swinging his arm-drill at Robyn as she parries and dodges his attacks. Suddenly, Alex and Missionary jump onto Fifestone as they try to restrain him, but Fifestone quickly throws them off of him.
Before he could do anything else, a crossbolt wheezed past his face. He turned his head to see Joanna firing another crossbolt at him. He quickly deflected the crossbolt away and charged towards Joanna. suddenly a mine cart crashes into Fifestone pinning him to a rock wall. He pushed the cart away and saw Fiona placing her hand on another mine cart, and a shockwave traveled from the cart to her hand, which shimmered with Aura. The cart begins disintegrating from the back, forward. The powder flows into a black hole in her palm, which disappears as she makes a fist. This was Fiona's semblance, Pocket Dimensions. Fiona opens her hand at Fifestone and the black hole appears in her hand again as the powder shoots out from her hand and shoots straight at Fifestone. As it did, the powder quickly assembled into the same minecart Fiona had previously absorbed as the cart flew towards the union leader. Fifestone ran to the side as the cart narrowly missed him.
Fifestone gets struck in the shoulder with a bullet as he then turns to see, Steel, Cassandra, Ice Pick, and Bulldog all shooting at him. In complete fury, Fifestone charges at the four Terrans. Suddenly a crossbolt struck his arm-drill, stopping him. He had noticed that the crossbolt came from where the four Americans were, but none of them shot it at him. He also noticed that they had stopped shooting at him. Suddenly, May appears out of thin air in between the four Americans having used her semblance, Invisibility Field.
"Gotch ya," she said with a smirk.
Suddenly, the crossbolt embedded in Fifestone's arm-drill beeped as it started to flash red, before bursting into flames and exploding, knocking him to the ground and breaking his aura. Fifestone got up to his knees and looked down at the ground in front of him to find that his weapon was now in pieces. He grabbed on to a couple of the pieces as the Americans and Happy Huntresses approached him.
"So you use your semblance to bleed raw emotion from innocent workers, the very people you're supposed to be helping," Fiona said.
"I had no choice! You all are blind to the machinery at work here. There was a time I used my semblance for the good of Mantle. To reduce tensions between our classes. Between the rich in Atlas, and the rest of us," Fifestone explained.
As he spoke, three Atlesian soldiers walked into the mine and approached Fifestone. Two of the soldiers forced him up off the ground and tied a pair of bolases behind his back.
"This is not what I wanted. What comes next is entirely your fault," Fifestone said.
As they turned around and walked away, Keaton noticed a remote in Fifestone's hands as he pressed the red button on it. The marine captain walks up to Fifestone and takes the remote out of his hands and grabs onto his shoulder, and forcefully turns him around to face him.
"What is this? What did you just do?" Keaton asked, waving the remote at Fifestone's face.
"You'll know soon enough," Fifestone answered with a smirk.
Robyn approaches and viciously punches Fifestone in the face knocking him to the ground. The Atlesian soldiers lifts Fifestone backup to his feet with his nose bleeding as Robyn coldly glared at him.
"I can't believe you would stoop to this low, Hanlon. We all looked up to you. Mantle looked up to you. You've become no better than the White Fang. And I am going to make sure that all of Mantle knows what you have done. You're finished," she said with venom in her voice.
"Get this piece of shit out of here," Keaton ordered the Atlas soldiers.
The soldiers complied and escorted Fifestone out of the mine to be detained. Keaton looks down at the remote in his hand as Alex approached.
"What do you think that remote was used for?" Alex asked.
"Whatever it is, it can't be good," Keaton answered.
Author's Note: My DeviantArt account right now has the title covers for the RWBY and Earth series. More art will be put up later on in the future. My name for my account is CodyC99.