Author's Notes
Howdy again folks! Here's another one. I can't promise speed like this will become normal for me again, as I have a lot of life stuff to worry about some days, but it should hopefully assuage any fears of me disappearing for several months before you get any more updates!
Monkey D Conan: It's always right when they think they've got it all figured out, isn't it? Glad to see you here again!
RozeBomb: A new face! I'm super happy you like my work so much. I am inclined to agree that I work best with as much freedom to do as I please as I want, although there are certain more 'traditional' OC stories that I intend to work on sometime in the future. I have a general idea of which stories I want to work on for the near future, but I'm keeping the number small (like a maximum of 3 or 4) compared to my old scattered self, just to ensure that those stories actually see progress. This is the first of those stories, and you'll see what the other ones are in time. Everything's going good now, don't worry! I was pretty lost for awhile, but I'm back.
Essiter: Always great to see your reviews. Yeah, no, they're not original songs, they're stuff that I either took from my own musical preferences or (in Violet's case) something that was suggested to me. The first one is Love Like You, specifically the cover by Caleb Hyles for the additional lyrics. The second is Fallen Angel, a cover song by Amalee, and the third one is a Paramore song, while as you already know the fourth is Bury the Light by Casey Edwards. Violet's naughty fanfictionis highly confidential, so you see Blake simply doesn't know about it. Great to see you around!
I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!
The rest of the summer went by much like that day had, peacefully and happily.
They made it a new habit to watch whatever Violet wanted them to every weekend, and it proved to be an… interesting experience. Neve would certainly say that Mistrali animation was very unique to Valean or Atlesian animation. So far, he liked what he'd seen, but he had heard there were some… interesting tropes in the medium that he would be on the lookout for.
They spent the rest of the summer doing various things together, or separately depending on their moods, though the latter was rare. Especially because none of them particularly cared about being separate, Ebony had been acting… differently, lately, a lot more flustered and shy, though only towards Violet and the others, rather than to anyone they didn't know. That, however, was to be expected.
Neve wasn't exactly sure what to do with his feelings, but he kept it in check regardless. He wasn't even sure if Orchid liked guys, and besides, he had a great friendship with her and didn't want to risk ruining it. Was that cliche? Maybe, but Neve was full-willing to be a cliche in this one instance if it meant preserving a friendship.
The 'Mom and Dad' comments certainly weren't helping matters, though. It was embarrassing, but Neve knew they didn't mean anything by it, so he didn't try and get them to stop it. Orchid didn't either, no doubt because she knew the same thing he did—it was harmless.
As the days drew closer to the end of summer, Ebony complained that they'd soon lose all that extra free time, but Orchid was glad to be going back to school. Taking a break for a couple months was fine, but she didn't want to get into the habit of doing nothing, even if they had been training sometimes, they hadn't really been learning much.
The most eventful thing to come out of the summer ended up coming just a couple days before the end of the break, at the Dining Hall.
COVE was sitting near Team RWBY, who were going over their plans on how to spend the last day of summer. Neve had to admit he felt kind of bad for them, his whole team had stayed together, while they had split apart for most of the summer and had only really come back together towards the end of it. They didn't seem too bothered by it, however, as Ruby came in with a binder filled with ideas for what they could do.
Meanwhile, COVE had mostly just been talking idly about what to expect from the next semester, as a new semester meant new classes and new lessons. Weiss seemed a lot more interested in that as well, but she couldn't join the conversation thanks to Ruby's machinations.
None of them paid attention to Yang throwing food at Nora, or Nora throwing food at her. At least, not until a pie ended up hitting Weiss in the face. When it fell off of her, Nora tried to whistle and look innocent, but the damage was already done, and the line in the sand was drawn.
As it became apparent what was going to happen, Orchid looked at Violet and both girls smirked. Neve, meanwhile, shook his head bemusedly before resigning himself to what was about to happen. Ebony, meanwhile, began gathering up as much food as she could before slinking off to sit in a corner and enjoy lunch with a show.
What followed was a scrambling of students as they fled the building, for they knew what was to come. A time-honored tradition amongst Beacon Huntsmen students, some might call it a rite of passage for the best and brightest amongst them, others might call it 'Chef's Bane'.
JNPR threw together a castle of tables and chairs on the back wall, while COVE built a barricade on the right, and RWBY opted to focus entirely on the offensive. The battle began with Ruby declaring, "Justice will be swift, painful, and delicious! Banzai!" Before leading a charge.
It seemed RWBY's tactic was to try and split their forces, with Weiss moving to engage Neve, with Weiss grabbing an inexplicable swordfish and Neve grabbing a pair of short baguettes, Yang wielded two chickens as if they were boxing gloves and moved to engage Nora, Blake similarly grabbed two baguettes and moved to engage Ren, who wielded two leeks, and finally Ruby was intent on using her speed to try and run circles around just about anyone who came her way.
Orchid armed herself with mustard and ketchup bottles, along with a single large baguette as a melee weapon. Meanwhile, Violet didn't need a weapon, per se, but she still deployed Yuvi and had her throwing different kinds of food at every opponent she could see, while Violet herself sat next to her for the moment, eating a loaf of bread.
Ebony was further back, merely feasting on all the food that had been left behind, seeing no reason to let it go to waste when it was all right there and perfectly good.
Neve swiftly dodged to and fro as Weiss attempted to jab him with the swordfish, and he attempted to hit her back with his baguettes. They were in a stalemate for a full minute before Neve got an idea and waited for Weiss to stab outward again. When she did, he stepped out of the way and got behind her guard, giving her a good whack with a baguette with enough power to send her flying back.
She flew past Orchid, who had quickly found that the baguette she grabbed was not her speed, especially as she was locked in a three-way fight with Ren and Blake, both incredibly fast fighters. Blake was able to block attacks from both while dodging and weaving, Ren managed to get a few hits on both, and was able to knock away Orchid's baguette. She jumped backwards and grabbed a very long link of sausages, grinning as she whipped them outward, managing to wrap them around Ren's leg and pulling it out, bringing him up with her aura-enhanced strength and sending him flying as the sausages lost their grip on him.
That left the fight between Blake and her, for the moment, and Blake smirked before lunging forward, starting to swing her baguettes in an attempted flurry of strikes and stabs. Orchid responded by dancing, stepping from left to right, spinning in place and bringing up the sausages in order to try and land strikes on Blake, and as she did she began humming and singing to herself a nondescript tune. As she did, an orchid appeared in her hair and allowed her to move faster.
Blake tried her best to keep pace, resulting in their engagement becoming hard for any observers to see as the two moved as fast as their bodies allowed them to. Both landed hits, Blake hitting Orchid in the side, Orchid slashing and smacking Blake with the power of sausage-links, and it seemed as if the fight was going to continue like that.
That was, until Pyrrha, who, after watching Jaune get knocked back by Yang and Ren get sent flying, picked up her own baguette sword and moved to engage. Nora was fighting Yang, the two incredibly strong Huntresses-in-Training using chickens and a watermelon hammer to try and land their hits. Pyrrha laid her eyes on Blake and lunged forward, taking advantage of the fact that both combatants were distracted to land a telling blow on the girl's side, sending her flying off.
Pyrrha seamlessly took Blake's place, and the Invincible Girl took advantage of Orchid's surprise and her own superior swordsmanship to put Orchid on the backfoot. The other girl managed to dodge some attacks, but Pyrrha only needed to land one block on Orchid's chest to send her flying backward.
She flew right past Neve, who had begun fighting Ruby after Weiss had been knocked into a pillar and was taken out of the fight. Ruby was using her speed to her advantage, but Neve had a plan for that just as he had a plan for dealing with Weiss. He called out, "Violet! Rain on their parade!"
Violet got an idea of what he meant and grabbed several bottles of water that had been left out, along with various glasses and cups with the help of Yuvi. She then threw it all out, sending water all over the place, on the ground, on Ruby, and even on some of the other combatants.
Meanwhile, Nora had sent Yang flying, and Pyrrha had gotten an idea of her own. She used her semblance to summon every soda in the vending machines, and she raised them high, prepared to send them out.
Before she could, however, Neve's semblance activated, and everyone in the room but him and his friends felt the sudden drop in temperature. It was like stepping into a walk-in freezer, and the effect was immediate. The water froze, freezing Ruby to the ground, and as Pyrrha attempted to send out the sodas, they promptly exploded, covering not just her and JNPR, but half of the cafeteria in soda. The explosion was bigger than Neve had anticipated, sending him and the others to the ground as well, while Violet ended up losing her balance and falling backwards, right behind their table barricade.
As the dust settled and the haze of soda cleared, it was clear that nobody had really won the food fight. Neve was sitting on the ground, panting, Orchid was leaning against a wall, having been knocked out of the fight earlier, Violet was on the ground, and Ebony had never been in the fight to begin with. Meanwhile, the remnants of JNPR and RWBY had gone down, either from their own fights or from the explosion of soda that had just occurred.
There was silence for a few moments, but after Ruby snickered, the laughter began, as the three teams rode the high of adrenaline and joy of what they'd just done. It was no doubt a food fight that would be remembered for many years to come.
Ozpin certainly felt that way, watching the students with Glynda from the front door as he was. He smiled, knowing well that this would be a memory they cherished for a long, long time to come.
With a job like theirs, they needed a long memory.
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A couple days later, classes had begun again.
While the banality of them could be grating to some, Violet had to admit that the concept had grown on her somewhat. At least, because she was learning useful things and if she got bored, she could sneak a manga into the class and read it while disguising it as a textbook.
Were it only that classes were the only thing they had to worry about.
There were whispers and worries on the streets and in the academy, not just because of the rumblings of White Fang activity in the city, but because of a new group that had begun to make itself more and more known as time went on.
Pamphlets and letters were sent out to destitute parts of the city, promising elevation and assistance if they joined their cause. Of course, this made people suspicious, especially because anyone who bought into what they were selling seemed to disappear, rarely reappearing, and whenever they did, they were often very different people, espousing the teachings of a group that remained as-yet unnamed.
This news had Ebony on edge, Violet could tell. She had been actually sleeping in her bed lately, but that didn't mean there wasn't an undercurrent of paranoia to her. She practically slept with one eye open, and whenever the others tried to ask her about it, she grew evasive.
Violet remembered the day this concern came to a head for the first time. It started normally enough, it was Friday after classes, and they were all in the library. Neve and Orchid were studying, Ebony was fidgeting in her seat, and Violet? Well, Violet was reading a manga as discreetly as she could to avoid being caught by Neve or Orchid.
Teams JNPR and RWBY were there as well, with RWBY playing Remnant the boardgame, and JNPR also trying to study, though Nora was asleep and Jaune didn't seem to be paying attention to the textbook laid out in front of him. Pyrrha leaned over his shoulder, reading whatever it was he was reading with a curious expression on her face.
RWBY played their board game for a while longer, before eventually Weiss was taken down by Yang, who seemed to have set her up from the very beginning to fall for her trap card.
Before they could continue, however, a new voice pulled the attention of all three teams. Sun Wukong appeared, his hands behind his head as he smiled and casually greeted them, "Sup, fellas." He cast his glance over Team RWBY. "Ruby, Blake, Yang, Ice Queen." He smirked at Weiss' protestations to the nickname before turning his attention to COVE. "Frosty, Queen Bee, Not-Trash Panda, Scary One."
Neve greeted with a smile and a raise of his hand, "What's up?"
Orchid smirked at the nickname. "Hey yourself, Sunny."
Violet wasn't entirely sure how to feel about her nickname, but she just shrugged and raised a hand in wordless greeting before going back to reading, while Ebony looked at him before looking away again, still stuck in her own head.
Sun didn't seem to mind, though, he just gestured to his approaching friend. "I never got the chance to formally introduce you guys to my old friend, Neptune."
When Neptune approached, he saw the eclectic activities everyone was doing and commented curiously, "Uhh, aren't libraries for reading?"
Ren threw his arms up and said with exasperation, "Thank you!"
Nora woke with a start. "Pancakes!"
Sun waved him off dismissively. "Psh, don't be a nerd, Neptune."
COVE turned their attention away to other matters as Neptune approached Weiss and began to smoothly talk to her. Orchid had to appreciate his game, though his tricks would have never worked on her. Meanwhile, Sun looked at Blake and said, "I never took you as the board game playing type."
Blake took this opportunity to stand up. "Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later." Then she stalked off.
Ebony stood up as well, taking this as her cue and saying, "I'm going too, I need to… take a nap or something, I don't fucking know." Then she stalked off, clearly very distracted.
Both COVE and RWBY were disturbed by their teammates leaving so suddenly, and so both teams left after a few minutes, going to check on them
COVE found Ebony in their room, where she said she'd be. The girl was worriedly looking over her Scroll while sitting on Violet's bed, and didn't even look up as they stepped in. Violet caught sight of what she was doing—reading an article about the mysterious pamphlets and theories as to what group they could be related to.
Neve stepped forward first. "Ebony… something's up." He walked over and sat on his bed, looking at her from where he was sitting, knowing all too well she didn't appreciate being surrounded when she was nervous. "You know you can tell us what's going on, right?"
Orchid nodded in agreement, going to sit on her bed, which was directly opposite to Ebony's on the wall. She sat down and said, "Yeah, and I know it's rich coming from me, but… nobody can help if we don't know what's going on. You know we're in this together."
Violet was the only one to approach Ebony directly, sitting next to her. Her voice was soft as she spoke. "Yeah… you're our teammate, and one of my best friends. We're a family, we should be facing whatever comes together."
Ebony looked apprehensive as her gaze darted between everyone. Finally, she looked down and sighed, closing her scroll as she relented. "It's… you guys probably haven't heard of it, and I've never told anyone this before, but… when I was young, before I met my mom, I… was born into a cult."
The weight of the words washed over everyone, as Neve and Orchid got up almost as quickly as they'd sat down, moving closer to sit on the bed with them. Ebony continued, "They're called The Choir, and they've… They've been hunting me ever since I escaped. That's why I was practically feral when you guys first met me, because I had to be. Anyone could have been an operative, anyone could have been working with them…" She sniffled and closed her eyes. "I never felt safe."
Violet, in a strikingly rare move, was the one to reach out first. She pulled Ebony into a hug, which the other girl returned. Violet muttered, "Don't worry. We're not going to let some insane assholes get you. I'd sooner storm their compound myself."
Orchid joined the hug. "Yeah, we're with you on this."
Neve placed a hand on Ebony's shoulder comfortingly before standing up. "Then we know what we have to do." The others looked at him, and he looked back at them while saying, "We have to find out where this cult is and stop them. They're tricking innocent people and turning them into cultists, and they're hunting Ebony, our friend—our family, and we're not going to sit around and let that happen, are we?"
Orchid shook her head and let go of Ebony, standing up as she did. "Hell no! We're Team COVE, we're not going to let some kool-aid drinking lunatics get their hands on Ebony! And if she's been dealing with them her whole life, then maybe she knows their tricks and we can use that to stop them!"
Violet held Ebony closer to her, the other girl wide-eyed at this display as Violet said, "Yeah, exactly! We're Huntsmen, we can bring them down! What do you say, Ebony?" She asked as she finally loosened her grip on the girl, allowing Ebony to get loose.
Ebony looked between all of them and smiled, tears forming as she closed her eyes and looked down. "Thanks, guys… I've… I've been alone in this fight for so long… If you want to help… I guess I can't stop you."
"Then it's settled." Neve began, smiling as he turned away. "We'll hit the town starting tomorrow and figure out what's going on, see if we can't track down some people who are related to the cult. I'm sure there's gotta be a trail, these things always have a trail."
Just as they were all set on what to do, they heard a knock on the door. Neve walked over and opened it, finding Ruby standing there. He raised an eyebrow in concern. "Ruby? Did something happen to Blake?"
Ruby shifted slightly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Ah… kind of? We were having a discussion, and we figured you guys should be involved, since it kind of relates to… 'you-know-what'."
The White Fang. Neve was ready to turn her down, they had enough on their plate after all, but then Orchid stepped forward and said, "Count us in. I owe it to Blake to be there whenever she's dealing with them, and…" She looked at the others. "Maybe it's related to our problem? We could tell Team RWBY and we can work together—two teams are better than one, don't you think?"
The team looked at Ebony, who bit her lip and seemed to hesitate, before eventually saying, "Yeah… I guess I see the wisdom in that." She didn't like it all that much, but if they were going to go in on this, then they were going to need all the help they could get.
Ruby was curious now, but she withheld her curiosity and beckoned for them to come with her. "Let's go to our dorm, we can share what our problems are!" She turned on her heels and the team followed her lead to Team RWBY's dorm.
When they got there, they found Blake, Weiss, and Yang sitting around waiting for them. Blake smiled softly as she saw Orchid, "So… you're helping too?" As Orchid nodded and beamed a grin at her, Blake's smile grew as she pushed a lock of hair out of the way, seeming comforted. "Good. And…" she finally noticed Violet. "Are you…?"
Violet shrugged. "I still don't care about all this 'race' stuff, but if Orchid's going in, I'm not going to let her do it alone. Besides," she smirked, "we need you guys' help too."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "I guess it's only fair… what is it?"
Ebony stepped forward, awkwardly looking away as she began to explain everything she'd told COVE—about the cult, and her history with them. Though she didn't hold RWBY close to her heart, she did care about them more than the average person, so she felt they could be trusted with the information she had. At least, some of it.
When she was finished, each member of RWBY reacted in their own way. Ruby looked incredibly distressed and hugged Ebony, ignoring her protestations. Weiss covered her hand with her mouth, eyes wide with shock. Yang grimaced and clenched her fists, clearly wishing she could beat the cult up now, while Blake had a look of understanding on her face. She might not have had the same experience, but… "I… can sort of relate to what you've been through. I know what it's like to be hunted. To live in fear…"
Once Ebony was free of Ruby, she regarded Blake for a moment before nodding. "It's… nice to have someone who's been somewhere similar before."
Weiss spoke up, "Alright, so we're not just one team going after the White Fang, we're two teams going after the White Fang and a crazy cult called The Choir. That about right?" At everyone's nod, she nodded and looked away. "Then I guess we're going to need a plan."
Neve nodded in agreement as he crossed his arms. "So, what do we know about what's going on with the White Fang?" While the White Fang was far from his personal top priority at first, if they could be linked with the cult, even indirectly, then they needed to figure it out.
Besides, they owed it to RWBY to be there to help them when they needed it.
Blake began to explain what she knew: The White Fang had been getting more active lately, and she believed that she'd traced their activity to a warehouse in the Industrial district, but there were still more avenues that they needed to explore. The man who hired out goons to Roman Torchwick ran a nightclub, and could possibly know something about his whereabouts, and Weiss needed to contact the SDC using the CCT Tower.
Added on to that was the problem of finding information about the cult. The more destitute areas of the city were bound to be rife with information, and the seedier areas might have had dealings with them as well. So it was decided that Violet would go and look around the poorer neighborhoods with Ebony, Neve and Yang would investigate Mistral-Town after talking with Junior (the man in charge of the club), while Blake and Orchid would infiltrate the White Fang gathering and see if they could kill two birds with one stone (the potential that the White Fang was working with The Choir couldn't, and wouldn't, be discounted).
So, with plans set, the teams agreed the two teams broke for the night.
The next day would be busy.
/-/
When the day came, both COVE and RWBY put on different outfits to their usual Huntsmen gear for the sake of being a bit more discreet.
Neve donned a black long-sleeve shirt with a flurry of snowflakes designed to look as if they were falling from his chest down to his stomach, swirling around to his back. Then, he put on a pair of black pants and his usual boots, before donning a trenchcoat that looked like it was ripped straight out of a noir movie, finishing up by putting a pair of winter goggles around his neck, colored ice blue on the rims and black in the lenses.
Orchid put on a very different outfit from her usual one, donning a black T-shirt and a pair of jean shorts, before putting on a sleeveless brown vest and a flower crown on her head. Her shoes were brown slip-ons, and she kept her guitar on her back, ready to be used whenever it needed to be.
Violet put on a simple black tank top and blue jeans, with a pair of black boots. She hid her form some more with a black fleece jacket, which she kept unzipped. She kept her weapon on her back, and donned a pair of fake rimless glasses (she said it made her look more 'approachable').
Ebony wore the outfit Orchid had picked out for her that reminded her of Shi, with the burnt orange shirt, black travel pants, boots, the bolero, all of it. She kept her weapons at her sides, ready to be used when the time came.
Then, they split off, pairing off with who they needed to in order to get the job done.
Neve found himself meeting Yang not far from the Bullhead landing in Vale that normally ferried them to Beacon. She was waiting for him, also wearing a different outfit to the one she usually wore. She smirked. "Looking good! Ready to go paint the town?"
"You too." Neve responded with a smile. "Yeah, let's get going." Yang got on her motorcycle, while Neve got on right behind her and donned his goggles. He asked, "Have you ever been to that club before?"
As Yang started up her bike and donned her helmet before pulling out of the parking spot and starting them on their way. "I have!" She called out to him. "It's been a little while, but I visited it before looking for some clues on something. It ended up being… eventful, but! Junior should know to not back talk to us when he sees me."
Neve thought back on what he knew about the club, he'd never been, but he'd heard plenty. He remembered seeing on the news that some 'unknown assailant' attacked it and kicked the ass of everyone in it before leaving. The timeframe was just a couple months before initiation, so he took a shot in the dark. "Were you the one who wrecked up the place last year?"
Yang chuckled. "Great detective work Sherlock! Yeah, that was me. He should have known not to cross me, but he wouldn't answer the question I asked him! That's practically begging for an ass kicking."
"Screw you, Watson." Neve quipped right back. "Let's just hope that he doesn't decide to go down fighting again. We're going there to find out why he hired those guys out to Torchwick, not to get banned for life."
"Baah, you wouldn't like it there anyway!" She chuckled and grinned. "Their service sucks, and their strawberry sunrises barely taste like strawberries!"
Neve huffed and shook his head. "That still doesn't mean we won't get arrested if we cause too much property damage, so keep it on the DL, alright?"
Yang rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. I'll be good."
They rode in relative silence after that. Yang was a fast driver, and didn't particularly care about following road laws, and because of that they arrived in record time, miraculously without any police attention.
Once they were parked and got off, the two of them headed out, taking off their goggles and helmet respectively before reaching the door. No sooner than when they approached did the henchman guarding the door turn and run inside. "Hurry, close the door! She's coming!"
The doors shut in their face, and Neve shared a glance with Yang before muttering dryly, "You sure left an impression. They love you."
Yang smirked. "Don't I know it!" She stalked forward. "So much for DL." She punched the door, activating her gauntlet and causing it to blow off its hinges. "Knock knock! I'm back!"
The two stepped into the building, the nightclub had been closed at this time of day, but that didn't mean it wasn't occupied. Eight henchmen with guns raised their guns at them, and Yang just grinned while Neve gestured down. "Now, gentlemen. Let's be civil about this. We don't want to fight, we just want information."
That was when Junior approached, walking out from behind the bar and pushing past his goons. "Enough! No shooting. You idiots know we couldn't take her, let alone two of them!" He fixed his tie and leveled his gaze at the two of them, clearly trying to play it cool. "What do you want?"
Yang's grin never faded as she stepped forward. "You still owe me a drink." She grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him towards the bar.
Neve rolled his eyes and went to follow. He stopped briefly as he felt a pair of eyes on him, and looked to the right. Two twins dressed fancily watched him with interested gazes. He wasn't sure how to feel about that, so he just raised a hand in greeting and kept going. "Good to meet you two, sorry but I'm here on business."
Neve joined Yang at the bar, sitting down while Junior made them drinks. Non-alcoholic, given they were clearly not here for a good time. Once they both drank their drinks, Yang began explaining, "We know you hired out some of your guys to Torchwick. Where. Is. He? I don't want to wreck this place any more than I already have, even if it'd be fun."
Junior shook his head hastily and said, "I-I don't know!"
Yang glared at him. "How can you not know?" She looked ready to punch him, and take on the whole of his mob in the process. She knew she could take them, especially with Neve at her side. These people were no threat to them.
Junior waved his hands in front of him. "I haven't even talked to him! I haven't seen him since the night you first came in here! He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. Back! That's it!"
Neve leaned forward on the bar, leveling a gaze that was as subtly threatening as he could manage. "Is that the end of it? Surely your boys would have shown up in the news somewhere if they died, or got thrown in jail."
Junior looked at him with confusion. "I- maybe, but I don't know!" He looked at Yang. "W-Who is this guy?" He had clearly been put on edge and filled with fear as this new and unknown quantity made his power known.
Neve tapped his now empty glass, and Junior saw as it froze and shattered. "Call me Jack. Now, are you sure you're telling the truth? Have you heard anything about anything else, like, I dunno… a cult of lunatics passing out pamphlets?"
Junior's eyes widened and he looked away for a moment. Then, he looked back. "That's really it, I swear. As for your question… My boys have heard some people talking about them, but everyone who ever says anything just… leaves and never comes back. The best you could do is talk to some of their families! I can give you names and addresses, if you guys leave and never come back."
Yang grinned at Neve before looking back at him. "Now, that's a deal that works for all of us. So… tell us what you know."
/-/
Violet wasn't sure what she expected to find in what had come to be called the 'ghetto' of Vale, but somehow the place managed to be even lower than her already on-the-floor expectations.
Buildings had missing or boarded up windows, some doors were barely hanging on to their hinges, others were reinforced with steel that had clearly been picked from some scrap heap… the only benefit they had was that people didn't seem intent on testing their patience, seeing the weapons on their back and at their sides was more than enough to mark them as either Huntresses or warriors of some kind.
At first, neither Ebony nor Violet had any idea where to look, but luckily they found a place to stop.
It was a dive bar with a warehouse next to it further out from the neighborhood, near the exit to this part of the city, clearly one of the seedier ones, but Violet knew enough about these kinds of things to know that bartenders tended to know about all sorts of things going on around town. The wooden sign simply read The Last Stop.
They entered the bar and found it to be fairly empty, not surprising given the time of day. It had wooden floors and wooden furniture. People looked at them as they entered, but their gazes quickly averted once they saw the weapons they had. They knew the reputation of Huntsmen—they dress strangely compared to a normal person, but carried weapons, and could kill droves of people if they really needed to.
The bartender was an older man with gray hair wearing a black leather jacket and jeans. He was built strong, clearly he'd been in the business for awhile. He didn't even blink when the two short girls approached him. Instead, he stopped cleaning the glass he had and set it down. "Huntresses, I'm guessin'? What do you want? We ain't lookin' for trouble. We had enough of that when that Vacuan bitch tried to buy the place from us."
Neither girl knew who the biker was referring to, but Violet pushed on regardless. "We're looking for information. We heard there's this group passing out pamphlets and whisking people off at night with promises of sunshine and rainbows. You know 'em?" Violet had learned a thing or two about talking to rough and tumble people in her lifetime. Granted, it was mostly from watching anime and reading manga, but… still!
"Oh, those whackos? Yeah, I've seen a couple of 'em." He shook his head. "Had to throw one out once when they tried peddlin' their shit in the bar. He was some skinny dickhead. Normally I'd charge for this kinda info, but… they're cuttin' in on my clientele, and I've always looked out for my clientele. So, here's what I know…"
The man explained about how the pamphlets started appearing before any actual people did. It seemed they were testing the waters, trying to figure out if they could get an 'in'. When they figured they could, they started sending people out to try and run recruitment. They'd met with some success, bringing more people into the fold with their promises of, as Violet put it, 'sunshine and rainbows'.
They learned that, the last that the bartender had seen of them, there was only one member of the group still in the area. Apparently they were mostly satisfied with the number of new converts they'd gotten and were just doing one more round before leaving. The last he heard, the man was standing on a street corner a couple blocks away.
And so, with their destination in mind, Violet left a bit of Lien as a tip for the bartender before leaving with Ebony. As they walked, Violet muttered, "They must be making big promises if they're converting that many people."
"That's how they get them." Ebony responded, voice shaky with anxiety. "They promise the world, if only you dedicate your whole life to them. Of course desperate and downtrodden people are going to want in on that shit." She snorted. "'Course, I don't know more than the basics of how that works. I was never too close to their 'recruiting process'." She couldn't see it from the cage they kept her in.
Violet nodded in understanding. "Yeah, that makes sense. I've read up about cults before… I always thought they were some old-timey thing, not something we'd have to contend with in the here and now." She chuckled a mirthless chuckle. "Shows what I know."
Ebony shook her head. "It's not as if you could know. The cult was always good at keeping their secrets… at least, when they don't want something from you. Them passing out pamphlets and stuff like that… it's not in their MO. Usually they're a lot more discreet about it. They must be desperate for new members…"
"Good." Violet smirked. "Then maybe taking them out will be easy, if we're dealing with a small rag-tag bunch of lunatics with some sort of complex about how the world works."
"I hope you're right." Ebony responded, still fidgeting with her hands. "The easier and quicker we deal with these assholes, the better. I didn't want anyone in on this, but… if it's easy, then maybe we can move past it." She didn't quite believe her own words, because how could she? This cult had been following her for her entire life, the idea of them being that easy to take out almost seemed like a pipe dream… but if it was, then she was all too eager to smoke it.
It didn't take them long to find their quarry, a man who was as skinny as a rail and wore a hooded brown cloak. He was waving a pamphlet around, calling out for people to come and see the promises of their group. However, as Violet and Ebony approached ,with Ebony gritting her teeth and eyes burning with fire, the man saw them. When he did, he gasped and turned to run.
The two girls gave chase, bolting after him. Ebony was the fiercest and fastest of the two, shouting out, "Stop running, stop running, stop running!" She drew her sickles as she continued to give chase, with Violet not far behind.
The man turned a corner, hurrying into an alleyway. They gave chase, and he knocked over a bunch of pallets to try and deter them. Ebony merely jumped over them while Violet, coating herself in her aura, merely smashed through them as if they were nothing but set-dressing.
The chase continued as the man turned yet another corner, into another alleyway in this labyrinthine maze of buildings. Yet, neither girl was willing to give up the chase, and Ebony kept her sight on him, while Violet followed not far behind.
Eventually, the man's luck ran out. He reached a dead end, and swore as he turned around. He reached for something in his coat, but Ebony reached him first. She surged forward and slashed her sickle, cutting into his unprotected abdomen and causing him to scream in pain and terror as her semblance filled him with visions of his greatest fears. He fell to the ground, and Ebony raised her sickles, glaring and baring her teeth like a rabid animal. "What is the cult doing here?! Why are you still chasing me? Where is your base?" He kept screaming in terror, writhing on the ground in agony, and so Ebony yelled at him, "Tell me! Tell me or I'll decorate the ground with your guts!"
Violet reached Ebony and placed a hand on her shoulder. The girl looked about ready to turn around and turn her anger on Violet, but she caught herself as she met Violet's worried gaze. Ebony's body relaxed slightly as she turned to look at the man on the ground. "Tell me."
The man stopped writhing and looked up at her. "Y-You… you're… you're The Herald! W-We heard… you'd be here…" He coughed, the chase and subsequent energy having exhausted him. "We're… preparing for judgment day… whenever it will come. We're looking… for you. Our… base…" He looked away and muttered. "Th-The warehouse…"
Ebony raised her sickles. "Where is this warehouse?!"
The man, faced with his imminent death, gave the information she sought. A warehouse outside the city—a bit of a walk, but nothing that couldn't be managed if one was careful enough. Once they had the information they needed, Violet stepped back. "Ebony, we have what we need, let's-"
Ebony let out a shout of anger and anguish and brought her sickles down on the man. She didn't say anything, just roared as she repeatedly stabbed into him while Violet watched, wide-eyed. The man died screaming in pain and agony, and only once Violet snapped out of it and pulled Ebony back did she stop. "Ebony! H-He's dead!" She looked pale. "Let's… Let's go."
Ebony only realized what she'd done after the fact. She saw the man covered in wounds, herself covered in blood, and squeezed her eyes shut, falling on the ground and beginning to cry. "I-I'm sorry! I… I can't… it's…" She didn't want to show this side of herself to anyone, let alone Violet. Now she'd seen the darkness that could take hold if Ebony didn't control herself.
Violet sat next to her and placed a hand on her back. "It's… it's okay… we can… we can figure something out." She looked up at the sky, filled with dark clouds, and muttered…
"I know we can."
/-/
Orchid was apprehensive.
It was one thing to take on White Fang at the docks, but going to the place they were meeting at in the industrial district was walking into a proverbial hornets nest, and hornets hated bees.
The two girls approached the warehouse after donning a pair of White Fang masks that Blake had retrieved, where a moose-antlered woman wearing a white fang mask was guarding the door. As they did, the woman who was guarding the door nodded to them and allowed them to pass.
Blake grimaced as she passed the woman, and they reached a hallway filled with cases. A man announced, "New recruits, keep to the right!" He then turned around and began to lead them,
As they reached the main area, where a stage was setup and several dozens of recruits were standing in the middle, while hundreds of white-vested White Fang were standing at attention, Orchid muttered, "There's more of them than I thought… too many…"
A large man with a full mask and tattoos stood on stage, beginning to speak as everyone reached their places. "Thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!"
That was when Roman Torchwick walked in, accompanied by a strange woman with brown and pink hair following behind him. Torchwick waved mockingly. "Thank you, thank you! Please, hold your applause."
An antlered woman called out. "What's a human doing here?!"
Torchwick smirked. "Glad you asked, 'Deerie'! Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans… are the worst." He saluted. "Case in point. So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or better yet, killed!"
Orchid's frown only deepened. "This… this isn't right…" What the hell was Roman Torchwick planning, that he could manage to work with a group that hated humans? Let alone a terrorist organization? It wasn't adding up.
Roman continued his speech, "But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy—the ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty rotten humans that run our kingdom!" The crowd seemed to change their tune, starting to mutter in agreement with him. "Government, military, even the schools! They're all to blame for your lot in life!" Then, the crowd began to cheer. Meanwhile, Orchid and Blake shared an apprehensive look. "And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around… no offense to any rodents in the room."
He snapped his fingers, and the curtain behind him fell, and the whole crowd applauded at the sight of an Atlesian Paladin-290 behind Torchwick, with a White Fang logo painted on its shoulder.
Blake muttered worriedly, "How'd he get that…?"
Orchid shook her head. "I don't know, but…"
Torchwick continued to explain. "As some of you might have heard, this right here is Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world, and thanks to my 'employer' we've managed to snag a few before they… 'hit the shelves', so to speak. Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay in the city, that's fine… but if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?"
Blake muttered, "We… we need to get out of here."
Then, a White Fang Lieutenant called out, "All new recruits, please come forward!"
The crowd around them began to surge forward, and Orchid swore under her breath. "Shit, shit, shit…" They were forced to move with the crowd, and Orchid wasn't sure if there was an easy way out of this.
However, it seemed like their decision was made for them, as Roman Torchwick looked in their direction and spotted them, frowning as he did.
Blake noticed a junction box on the wall and muttered, "He can't see in the dark." Then she unsheathed Gambol Shroud and transformed it into a pistol, shooting the box and causing the lights to go out.
Roman called out, "Don't let them get away!"
However, Blake and Orchid already knew where to go next. They both jumped out a nearby window and began to run, while the sound of an engine roared behind them. The Atlesian Paladin crashed through the wall and began to give chase, with Roman Torchwick at the helm.
Orchid shouted, "Blake! Solo acts over, call the rest of the band!"
Blake nodded and drew her Scroll. She made phone call after phone call as they ran, calling out for everyone to converge. When Neve heard this, he called out that he'd call Violet and get her and Ebony over.
Once the phone call was done, Blake looked up and said, "Orchid, the highway!"
Indeed, the highway was coming up, and so Orchid drew her guitar and said, "Right!" She then strummed her guitar, causing wind dust to activate and encircle both of them, launching them up in the air. Blake grabbed Orchid's arm and used the ribbon on Gambol Shroud to pull them both over and onto the highway.
If they thought they were safe, though, they were soon proven wrong. They kept running as the Paladin jumped up and chased after them, with Orchid swearing under her breath then shouting, "We can't keep this up! He's going to kill everyone on this highway unless we get him off!"
That was when the roar of a motorcycle caught their attention, driving down the wrong side of the highway (towards them) was Yang and Neve. Orchid grinned and called out, "Neve! Yang!"
Neve reached to the small of his back and produced Fimbulvetr, which turned into its rifle form as they continued to ride closer to the Paladin. He shot several rounds at it, fused with electric Dust, which caused it to shudder briefly. Then, he switched his weapon into its glaive form and dragged it along the ground. He had infused it with water Dust, leading to the ground growing wet and then subsequently freezing from his semblance. "Blake! Orchid! Now's a good time to get ready!"
Blake and Orchid moved, with Blake throwing her ribbon towards Orchid and Orchid catching it. They pulled the ribbon taut. The Paladin slipped on the ice and kept moving forward, off-balance, it was easy enough to make it trip on the durable ribbon. The Paladin fell off the highway, crashing into an empty construction yard beneath.
That was when Violet and Ebony entered the scene, running beneath the highway and reaching the construction yard. Violet laced herself with Yuvi, creating an exoskeleton around her. The Paladin stood back up and raised a fist to punch down on Violet, but she intercepted it and held it in place, which made Torchwick's eyes widen.
The rest of both teams reached the construction site, with Orchid already playing out a wordless tune to send waves of musical force towards the Paladin, causing it to stagger backward.
Neve called out, "Snow Honey!" As he reached behind the Paladin, and Orchid nodded at his command. She laced her music with water Dust and sent out a gout of it from her guitar with the force of a firehose. It connected with the Paladin's visor as Neve froze it, rooting it in place.
Ruby took advantage of the situation, calling out, "Freezer Burn!" And promptly Weiss to create a glyph under Yang, who was promptly catapulted into the air. She landed on the ice and ran along it. The Paladin prepared to shoot out several missiles, but Yang reached the frozen visor first, punching it as hard as she could and causing it to fall backward. The gout of ice fell and shattered, just as the visor of the Paladin shattered from Yang's efforts.
As Yang caught sight of Roman Torchwick, she growled and raised a fist to punch him, but as she brought it down, she found he shattered like glass. She looked around in confusion, before seeing a Bullhead come into view from seemingly nowhere up above.
Torchwick called out, "Well this was fun, but eight of you is way too many for my tastes! Bye bye!" He then closed the bay door of the Bullhead, and the two teams could only watch as it flew off.
Blake growled. "Damn it!"
Orchid patted her shoulder, putting her guitar back on her back before she did so. "Relax, Blake… we'll get him next time. For now… we learned a lot, and that's all we need."
That reminded Neve to return to his team and ask, "Did any of you find anything out about the cult?"
Ebony and Violet nodded, relaying to them what they had seen, and Neve nodded. "Right, then…" He looked at Team RWBY. "You guys should stay here, or get back to Beacon… no doubt the police are going to have questions. We have to go and check out this lead."
Ruby looked apprehensive—she didn't want to leave her fellow team behind. Yet, she saw wisdom in his words and nodded reluctantly. "Alright… be safe you guys."
Neve nodded, and so the four wasted no time in leaving, looking to strike while the iron is hot.
/-/
The trek out of the city was fairly easy. However, following the directions they'd been given was a bit harder. Of course, they expected that. The Cult wouldn't have used a warehouse somewhere public, so it was obvious that they'd want to keep their secret base somewhere safe.
They weren't expecting a lot of resistance, based on what they'd learned. They hadn't expended much aura in that fight they'd been in, and from what they knew, very few members of the cult had any sort of training. So, they expected an easy fight.
The warehouse came into view, and it was clearly run down and decrepit, having once belonged to a shipping company or another before being abandoned when the company went under (based on what information they had been able to gather by trawling through the ScrollNet). The thing they noticed was wrong right away was the symbol painted above its large doorway—the yellow inverted eye and black wheel of The Choir. The same symbol Ebony had on her neck.
"Okay, be ready for anything…" Neve muttered. The four were already brandishing their weapons, but he still felt the need to say it. "This place looks abandoned, but… they could be hiding somewhere, or underground in a basement."
The four opened the large metal door to the warehouse,and immediately, their senses were assaulted by a horrific stench.
It was so powerful that it caused Neve, Orchid, and Violet to reel backward and immediately feel sick. Ebony, however, was all too accustomed to the scent—the putrid and foul stench of death. Despite this, they pushed on, opening the doors and intending to find the ghosts they'd been chasing and which meant harm to their friend.
The warehouse itself was dimly lit, barely bright enough to make out what was in front of them. "Hold on, Scroll lights… on." Neve spoke, clearly trying to keep his fear in check. He needed to be brave, he told himself. If he balked and turned away, then the others would too. They were too close to what they sought to turn away now. They turned on their Scroll lights, and began to wander through the warehouse, the light guiding them forward.
As they walked, Violet felt something wet squelch beneath her shoe. "WHAT THE FUCK?!" She shrieked as she looked down and moved her Scroll to illuminate just what she'd seen. Blood, a red viscous trail of liquid that led to a nameless corpse, a man who had been killed and left to rot, mouth agape and eyes wide. She felt something grasp onto her arm, and startled, only to realize that it was Ebony, clinging onto her with a panicked expression, breathing heavily and looking on in such raw and mortal terror that Violet felt a chill go up her spine.
She'd never seen the girl so terrified before, never.
"F-Fuck!" Orchid exclaimed, reeling back. "W-We shouldn't be here! Th-This… this isn't right!"
"S-Steady." Neve commanded, pushing down his own fear. "W-We've come this far. It's… it's grim, but we have to press on. We can't stop. I-If I have to, I'll protect you guys." He knew they didn't need him to protect them, they knew it too, but nobody protested, because nobody was going to refute what he said.
None of them were going to refuse an offer of succor. Not as the lights turned on, as if someone had turned them on, or as if they had been waiting for them.
The team was momentarily blinded, their eyes filled with light. They recoiled, closing their Scrolls instinctively and putting them away as they became unnecessary. Once their sight returned, however, they soon found they wished that they couldn't see at all.
To be blinded would have been a mercy.
They saw what the warehouse had hidden, grisly secrets laid bare, almost perverse in its morbid depravity. Blood stained the concrete floor, almost painting the whole of it red. Twisted symbols and words like 'The Silver Gaze Shall be Blinded' or 'The Truth Is Found In Death' sprawled across the walls, written in blood. The team was confused at first, before it fully set in on them. They had to all fight as hard as they could to avoid losing their lunch, and Violet suddenly felt very, very vulnerable. As if she were a little girl again.
Alongside this, dozens of hooded figures, kneeling in prayer further in the distance and at the end of the warehouse was a statue of some kind, venerating some horrific deity no doubt, with something underneath it.
The team could only stand in terrified silence at the sights before them, the blood, the gore, the viscera, the whole warehouse painted like some sickening art piece from an unspeakable and hellish realm. Orchid swallowed a lump in her throat and finally worked up the courage to speak. "W-We… l-let's keep going…"
Only for Ebony to scream in response. "WE NEED TO LEAVE, NOW!" Panic and terror lined her voice, startling the other members.
Yet, Neve tried to keep his cool, replying with a tremble in his voice that he was trying his hardest to conceal. "I… I wanna run too, but we need to find out what's going on, then we can tell the authorities, a-and Ozpin." He was trying oh so very hard to be reassuring in the face of this scene, just as much as Ebony was, but it was difficult.
Orchid and Violet agreed with him, keeping their words to a murmur stricken with fear and terror. Thus, the four continued walking forward towards the kneeling clergy, positioned around the statue. Ebony desperately clung herself to Violet, refusing to let go, clearly and desperately wishing to run from this hellish warehouse.
Yet, she stayed, because running would leave them without her. She wouldn't abandon her family.
They soon found themselves between the hooded figures, with something in their minds clawing at the walls of their consciousness. It desperately pleaded them to look away, look away. Yet, be it out of bravery or foolishness, they pushed onward, with curiosity getting the better of Orchid. She pulled one of the hoods back, and she staggered backward in horror, losing her lunch as she turned away from the sight.
There was a human skull with bits of flesh still clinging to it, and Grimm-invoking markings painted on it alongside two golden crystals that were embedded within its eye-sockets. She looked at the other hooded figures with a horrifying realization that soon dawned on everyone there.
Each of the hooded figures was a corpse, a fetid and rotted cadaver. They had been propped up like puppets on display.
She quickly reeled back to the rest of the team, and yet in spite of the horrifying sight, they kept going forward. The clergy of corpses that surrounded them could not bring them to heel. They refused, in spite of everything in their consciousnesses telling them to flee.
Neve was trying his hardest to avoid thinking about everything around them as they made their way further towards the statue. As they finally stood before it, they saw it for what it was. A massive and ornately made depiction of some form of reptilian Grimm with massive wings outstretched, and there were smaller statues of various types of Grimm beneath the wings…
But the most horrific sight was not the statues. It was the naked cadaver of a woman that laid at its feet, a woman with burnt orange hair and white red-panda ears atop her head. Her eyes had been ripped out and replaced with silver crystals, while her flesh had been carved with words. "THIEF", "HERETIC", "DEMON", and various other wretched titles scrawled across her body. There was a giant open cut on her torso, as if she'd been ripped open.
The collective gasps of three of the members of her team were not enough to quell the ringing in Ebony's ears. She fell to her knees as she muttered a single word, strained and strangled. "M-mom…?" The word sent shockwaves through the other three, as their horror reached an apex. They realized now who this woman was, and yet they were frozen in fear and shock, incapable of stopping Ebony as she crawled over the woman's corpse and cradled it in her arms, her head buried against the crook of her neck as she cried in naked pain and anguish, a kind of cry that could only be heard from someone who had lost what they loved the most.
Neve tried his hardest to not turn away, instead keeping his gaze fixed on Ebony. His ears were ringing, and his heart pounded. His fear was washed as if he had been doused in cold water as he became all too aware of the beeping coming from the statue.
A trap.
The entire warehouse was a trap, meant to lure in whoever was foolish enough to draw close. Perhaps it had even been built just for Ebony.
Neve managed to shout, "W-We need to run! NOW!" He ran forward and grabbed Ebony, trying to wretch her free.
Violet and Orchid both ran forward as well, with Violet shouting, "Ebony! We have to go!"
And yet, no sooner than when her words left her lips, did the world turn white.
The last thing they heard was a deafening explosion.