As the night sky above filled with stars, Evan tried his best from nodding off as he flew through the air.
"*Yawn* Damn, I'm getting tired already? I still got like three hours left before I'm done for the day. With all the coffee in my system, I normally still got some energy to spare right around now. Although that was before Cordovin started to extend my shifts." Evan said to himself as he recalled the event in his mind.
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"How is this even possible? I have you working night and day exterminating Grimm for over a month, and they're still encroaching on our city's borders? Are you certain that you are actually completing your job and not just lollygagging about!?" Cordovin furiously questioned as she got up from her seat.
"Of course not! I've told you everything already: I've gone to every stretch of land that you've sent me to. By the time I'm gone, there are no Grimm in that area anymore. But days later, lots more will show up to take their place. Heck, I've even gone out of my way to look into some caves in the mountains and stuff like that to see if the Grimm have been using them as spots to hide in, and I still couldn't find squat! I don't know how to explain it, but Grimm have been continuously approaching Argus for some unknown reason." Evan explained from the other side of her desk.
"Well if Argus is to remain standing, then you'll have to double your efforts! Until my team and I can determine the cause of this infestation, I will be increasing your hours even further than before. Do I make myself clear?" Cordovin stated.
"What? You can't just put that on me! Practically my whole day is already spent…" The young Saiyan argued.
"Am I hearing you spouting insubordination? I am your superior officer, and you will do as I say! Do you understand?" Cordovin demanded.
"Yes…" Evan simply replied back. Despite his response, Cordovin's irritated expression only continued to linger as she raised an eyebrow at him.
"…Yes, ma'am." Evan said aloud.
"Better, now you better get to it. You have a long day ahead of you." Cordovin responded back as Evan proceeded to turn and leave her office.
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"At this rate, I'm not gonna last long out here without passing out. God, I need a drink…I hope that Joe's still open at this...Wait, is that…" Evan thought to himself as he flew toward the lit up city of Argus. However, amidst the shining lights of the city, a large plume of smoke continued to bellow out from a building close to the shoreline.
Picking up speed, Evan blasted through the sky and saw a tall but narrow building ablaze. As firefighters continued to try and quell the fire, numerous civilians stood from afar and watched the chaos unfold.
Hovering back to the ground, Evan saw an older man with graying hair yelling at one of the firefighters.
"You got to get back in there! My daughter's still inside!" The man exclaimed.
"We're doing everything we can, sir!" The firefighter stated.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Evan asked as both figures turned toward him.
"Oh thank goodness, my baby girl's all the way up on the third floor! Please save her!" The father quickly explained.
"Is there anyone else inside?" Evan inquired.
"Aside from my men, no. I've been helping them through everything with this." The firefighter said as he gestured towards an earpiece and mic on the left side of his face.
"Good. Let them know to focus just on the fire. I got the kid." The teen stated as he rushed inside.
Almost immediately, the cool night air was replaced with a harsh heat that seemed to worm its way into his suit. As the red flames danced throughout the walls, Evan moved at amazing speeds as he found the staircase.
Progressing up the first and second floors, Evan saw the entryway into the third was blocked by a fallen over bookcase and a big chunk of the collapsed ceiling. Hearing the cries of a young girl, Evan easily moved the burning debris aside as he entered the floor.
Following the voice, Evan made it to a bedroom where he saw a young child with brown hair holding a dog plushy huddled up in one of the corners of the room. Raising her head up, the child continued to cry as she held her arms close to her chest, clutching the stuffed animal as hard as she could. Stepping forward, Evan held out his hand.
"Don't worry, I'm here to help." Evan explained.
"W-Where's Mommy?! Where's Daddy?!" The kid questioned with tears in her eyes.
"They sent me to get you out of here. Come on! We need to leave before this building falls apart!" Evan stated as he put his helmet back on.
"I-I'm scared! There's so much fire! Mommy told me that f-fire's really mean! What if I get burned bad?! I-I don't know if I c-can do this! I'm not super tough like you." The child exclaimed as she lowered her head in fear.
Kneeling down, Evan took off his helmet and approached the girl.
"Listen, I know that it seems hard, but I need you to be brave for me. There's a bunch of people outside that love you and care about you. If you can't be brave for yourself, do it for them. It's alright to be scared. Everyone's scared of something. But being able to push through that fear makes you stronger than most people, even huntsmen like me." Evan stated.
Raising her head back up, the girl held the plush close as she shakily got up on her feet.
"Ok, I-I'll try..try to be brave…" The child muttered out.
Smiling, the teen put his helmet back on as he expanded his Ki out primarily into his chest, hands, and arms.
"Thank you. Now I need to hold tight to my chest. I'll keep you close, but make sure you don't let go. Ok?" Evan replied back as he brought his arms close to the ground.
Hoisting the child up, Evan kept her somewhat stable on his right arm as she clung to his chest. As the two left the room, Evan ran toward the staircase, only to find the ceiling continuing to collapse from both ends of the hallway. As it fell apart, Evan looked down to the girl.
"Don't let go, ok?! I'm getting us out of here!"
Channeling his energy, Evan produced a circular energy barrier around himself. As the pieces of ceiling bounced and slid off the barrier, Evan discarded the barrier and flew up into the open night sky. As he moved forward, Evan watched as people on the street stared and pointed toward them. Bringing himself back to the ground, the father's eyes lit up with overwhelming joy as looked at the girl on his arm.
"Sam!" The father exclaimed.
"Daddy!" Sam said aloud as the father scooped the girl up and into his arms.
Rushing forward from the crowd, a woman approached the two and hugged them both.
As the trio were happily reunited, Evan looked around to see the fire finally getting put out by the firefighters.
"Thanks for the help back there!" The firefighter replied to the teen.
"Don't mention it. Besides, you guys did most of the work anyway." Evan responded back as the crowd of people started to clap and cheer. Taking off into the sky once more, Evan flew off toward the all now too familiar sight of The Jumping Bean.
Spotting the "Come in! We're open!" sign, Evan entered the establishment.
"Hey Joe! How you doing?" Evan questioned curiously as he took off his helmet.
"Business as usual. Although this is certainly a first…I don't think I've ever seen you visit my shop twice in one day. Things that rough out there?" Joe asked with concern on his face.
"Ehhh…More exhausting if nothing else. But I think I know the perfect remedy." Evan replied back as he wiped the thick layer of sweat off his forehead .
"You got it…Let's see, I'll need to grab some of…Oh!" Joe said to himself.
"What is it?" Evan inquired.
"It looks like I've run out of a few ingredients for your drink out here. I'll need to go into the back and get some more. Make yourself comfortable, and I'll be back in one second!" Joe stated as he moved away from the counter and opened a door close to the side of the building.
As the older man headed inside, Evan looked about the empty cafe. Spotting a black wire newspaper rack, the teen almost ignored the papers if it wasn't for the main title and image.
Infamous White Fang Leader Captured by Hunteresses-in-Training
There on the front cover was Team RWBY alongside a heavily bruised and angry bull faunus being shoved into a police vehicle.
Grabbing the newspaper, Evan flipped it up to the next page and started to read.
Adam Taurus, the leader of the terrorist group known as the White Fang, was apprehended and defeated by a group of young Huntresses earlier this week. Led by a young lady known as Ruby Rose, a student of Beacon Academy before the tragedy at the Vytal Festival led to its unfortunate shutdown, the group was able to defeat the criminal after a long fought battle on the grounds of Haven Academy in the Kingdom of Mistral. According to licensed Huntsman Qrow Branwen, Adam was working alongside several other criminals including Cinder Fall, mastermind of the Fall of Beacon, and the group was attempting to use a large collection of explosives to try and destroy Haven. Thankfully, the crisis was avoided before any damage could occur. Currently Cinder, and the other criminals working with her(see Page 5 for more details), fled the scene before proper authorities were able to assist. The fugitives are at large and extremely dangerous. If you have any information about their whereabouts, please submit it using the number provided below.
"Holy shit." Evan muttered out.
"What was that?" Joe asked as he came out of the backroom with a small jar of some brownish ingredient.
"This! Look at this!" Evan exclaimed as he slid the article in front of the man.
"These are my friends! From back at Beacon! I didn't realize they were here in Mistral too!" Evan added.
"Is that so? Well good for them! They certainly brought that criminal to justice!" Joe replied back with a cheer in his voice as he got to work making the beverage.
"True enough. I hope I'll get to see them all sooner rather than later. The only one of them I've seen recently was Weiss, and that was during this big party up in Atlas." Evan elaborated.
"Hey, there's always silver linings and things like that. I'm sure you'll bump into them eventually." Joe said as he passed the finished drink across the smooth countertop toward the teen.
"Thanks man." Evan replied as he started to sip on the drink.
As Evan let the beverage settle, the young Saiyan waited for the familiar rush of energy to come forward. Only this time, nothing happened, causing Evan to take on a confused expression.
"Is something wrong?" Joe asked.
"Yes, but it's…it's weird. The drink tastes as good as ever, but I'm not getting the usual pep in my step from it." Evan explained as he then chugged the rest of the drink down, and still nothing happened.
"Really? Hmmm…Maybe you need a bit more caffeine in the drink in order to get your engines running. You have been coming here daily, ordering the same thing for a while now. Adding the extra caffeine to the beverage wouldn't be hard to do, but it's certainly not going to taste good if I do it like that." Joe explained.
"Really? *Sigh* If that's what needs to be done, so be it. I'll swing by tomorrow morning and we'll see how it tastes. You got any stale muffins that you're going to toss? I'm going to need a little something to fuel me up for the next few hours if the coffee isn't doing the trick." Evan questioned.
"How are your feelings on double chocolate?" Joe inquired.
"Good enough for me." Evan replied as Joe reached under the counter for a plastic bag and placed two muffins inside it.
"Thanks again, Joe. You're a lifesaver! See you around!" Evan exclaimed as he grabbed the bag and opened the door.
Quickly scarfing down the first muffin, Evan tied the bag's handles around his left arm before taking off into the night sky.
"Maybe Joe's right…The world's only so big. Who knows what'll happen. Still though, I wonder what Ruby and the others are doing right now?" Evan contemplated.
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"Come on you ladies! We're burning daylight!" Nora shouted out as she entered the hotel room.
"Ugghhh…Nora, we still got two hours before we need to catch the train…Just give us like another half hour…" Blake said with a tired look on her face before turning over and planting her face deep into her pillow.
"Yeah, plus the train has food on it, so we don't even need to waste time to eat before heading out to the station anyway." Yang argued from her bed.
"No way! I'm not gonna risk us missing this thing! What if the lines are long? What if there's a traffic jam?" Nora questioned, completely ignoring the group's cries and complaints.
"The train station is literally just down the road." Weiss stated as she removed a blue and white sleep mask from her eyes.
"No excuses! You all just need to do some squats to get your blood pumping, that's all! Come on! I've already started some today! You can join in too! Fifty one! Fifty two! Fifty three!" Nora yelled out enthusiastically.
"*Sigh* Today's going to be a long day." Ruby muttered out from under the covers.
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Hello! Thank you as always for reading. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the chapter and the story so far. The next chapter should be released sometime the weekend of the 19th.
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