"Look out behind you, dad!" Jaune scuttled behind a wall of crumbled stone and watched as his father's ropes of straw lashed out against the clattering chains of Mad Treasure. It was a sight to behold, watching the always stoic-faced guardian shed his gloomy demeanor for one of heated rage.
War raged between the opposing factions of Branwen and Wukong with the abandoned ruins serving as the battlegrounds. Neither tribe held the advantage of terrain, for both had histories over the sand that spanned longer than when the first Vacuan book was published. However, while the Wukong's were disciplined and battle-hardened, they lacked the Branwen's numbers and technology which threatened to tip the scales in their favor.
"Watch out, Jaune!" Sun tackled his friend behind a rubble pile with a knife in hand.
"Here, take this," Sun handed a small, circular shield to his fellow blonde. "This is thick enough to block a cheap dust bullet, but it won't do you much good when the expensive stuff comes around. You got aura, right?"
Jaune's quizzical face was all Sun needed to see to come to a conclusion. He probably should have checked back with Starr last night in regards to the subject, but given the scolding, he and Jaune received for fooling around with her tail...
Sun's inner monologuing was broken by the violent bang of a dust grenade that exploded but a few feet from him and Jaune, reminding the monkey Faunus that the threat of death was very much real.
"Alright," Sun said, "we need to find the weaker or younger brutes of the Branwen tribe and take them out."
Jaune's skin paled. "W-Wait, do you mean we're going to try and kill somebody?"
Sun nodded. "That's the plan."
"I've never killed anything before though!" Jaune whined in innocence. "I even let scary spiders outside the house when they decide to wander in..."
"This isn't the time to be scared, Jaune!" Sun puffed his chest and raised his sharp dagger. "It's our duty to serve our tribe leader's commands, and we're no exceptions! After all, you're a Wukong now, right?"
"B-But killing people is bad, isn't it?"
"Only if you're living in one of those easy-going cities where people don't need to work to survive. You're in the Kingdom of strength, Vacuo! The only thing that matters around here is if you're strong, so stick your chin up Jaune and get ready to fight!" Sun boasted.
"...Have you killed anyone before?" Jaune deadpanned.
"...N-No..." Sun scratched his head. "But I've seen Starr skin deer after a successful hunt, so I'm used to seeing blood."
"I've seen my Granpa cut fresh bacon... but I always want to vomit after," Jaune grumbled.
Suddenly Sun did not seem so confident. "Yeah... me too."
The boys shared a look that was all too understanding, but yet again their moment of camaraderie was intruded on by a girl who literally crashed into the both of them in a mindless panic.
"Ouch, my arm!" Jaune coughed.
"Owie, my tail!" Sun yiped.
"Oh... my head." Emerald patted the sand out of her minty locks and found her gaze meeting with two bewildered sets of blue. The group now combined of three six-year-olds nodded silently and crawled behind another pile of rubble that hadn't been blown up... yet.
"O-Okay, Jaune, you see that guy over there with the limp? We'll take him down and knock him out... and not kill him. Sound good?" Sun whispered, yet received no response.
"Hiya, my name's Jaune. Nice to meet you, Minty!"
Emerald blinked at the ridiculous nickname. "My name's Emerald, not Minty!"
"S-Sorry," Jaune scratched his cheek, "I saw you with my Uncle Tyrion. Are you my cousin? Also, that's a nice sword."
"W-What?" Emerald stabbed the fancy saber into the ground, then crossed her arms and frowned. "Where did you come up with that? I don't know who you are, but your dad saved me... so I figured I'd follow him around for a bit."
Little did Emerald know that these words translated to a whole different meaning to the innocent blonde boy, who desperately desired a similar family to that of his auntie Summer and uncle Tai, and came to a conclusion that only he could understand.
"So does this mean that you're my new little sister?!" Jaune shouted with stars in his eyes. "My dad promised that he'd give me one, and to think, he gave me a sister before he got married! That's great!"
Emerald glanced at Sun, who was in full pondering mode with the way his tail curled upward into a question mark and how his hand cupped his chin. The girl couldn't believe this, all because she wanted to stay close to the man who saved her, she now had to deal with the idiotic fantasy of a goofball in the middle of a warzone.
"Hey, I found three Wukong brats over here!" Shouted a rough-looking Branwen bandit and aimed his rifle at the trio. However, the bandit and his two cohorts were unaware of the poor foundations around them, and the cracked walls behind them fell over after being bombarded by a few stray grenades, trapping them.
"Okay!" Sun declared. "Let's find a new hiding spot, sound good?"
Jaune and Emerald nodded, but the former's gaze drifted back to his father and Uncle who were engaged in fighting a terrifying machination of strength and reckless ambition they'd ever witnessed.
/-/
"Is this all the magician has to offer?" Mad treasure cackled like a maniac and picked up an enormous boulder nearly as big as he. "I bet you've never encountered something like me, a mad combatant with no regard for fair play!"
Mad Treasure hurled the boulder Hawkins' way, and the demonic scarecrow caught the rough projectile, then threw it back with just as, if not more, power. The boulder exploded off of Mad Treasure's chest, sending bits of stone and dust into his eyes. The bandit leader winced back, his chains scraping against each other as he did so, which left him open to a clear tackle from Hawkins.
The scarecrow and chain giant tumbled across the sand, their combined weight sending thunderous echoes over the ground that shook the abandoned ruin's weakened towers.
"Woah!" Jaune exclaimed as a loose wall fell behind him. "M-My leg!"
"Jaune!" Sun and Emerald, but were separated when another group of Branwen bandits ran at them but were blocked by Starr and other members of the Wukong tribe.
Trapped beneath the debris, Jaune cried out in pain, and the woeful plea did well to earn his father's attention. Hawkins turned to his wounded son, only to receive a metal punch that cracked his jaw and flattened his face. Hawkins soared, then landed on the opposite side of Jaune where more of Mad Treasure's bandits had gathered.
"Shoot the damn straw monster!" Yelled Marcus who gripped the hilt of his spiked club, and charged after a searing volley of red-dust rounds bombarded Hawkins' downed body.
Holes burned through his straw, leaving marks on his pale flesh that ached with nightmarish memories. Screams of past traumas in a full circle, Hawkins could see his crew before him, falling one by one in a horrifying line as they bled their dead corpses dry.
"Haugh!" Hawkins coughed blood, but forced himself up and swiped at Mad Treasure's men with his black iron fingers. He breathed deeply and shut his eyes. The objective was so close, to rescue his son and return home to Vale where those who cared for the magician resided.
"Oi, what's the matter, spacing out already?" Mad Treasure sneered as his shadow loomed over that of Hawkins. "There's more to this fight than a simple one-on-one, and unlike you, I've got a group who's not afraid to kill. What do you have? A deranged scorpion Faunus and a crying child with a bunch of monkeys? It's laughable!"
Mad Treasure's fist collided with the back of Hawkins' skull, but to the bandit's surprise, Hawkins remained standing and delivered a haymaker of his own that rattled both Mad Treasure's brain and jaw. Not only that, the scarecrow went the extra mile and snaked his long limbs around Mad Treasure's torso, hoisted the chained menace several feet into the air, and brought him back to the sand head-first.
"L-Leader!" Marcus went wide-eyed at the thrashing his superior endured, as did the other bandits who raised their guns with shaky hands.
"Oi, why aren't you fighting, Marcus!" Yelled a bandit. "You're second in command now since Mad Treasure killed Dufor and exiled Raven, so show some backbone and help our leader!"
"Shut up!" Marcus hollered. "If I was capable of fighting on their level, do you honestly think I'd be standing here with you?!"
While the lower bandits bickered among themselves, Tyrion took this opportunity to run over to Jaune and lift the heavy stone off his leg.
"Up we go, Jaune, no time to be stupid now!" Tyrion smirked and was shocked when Jaune wrapped his arms around his leg for a hug.
"Uncle Tyrion!" Jaune showed a pearly smile and his round cerulean eyes. Even the assassin had to admit, the boy was as cute as a button.
"Run along now, Jaune, and find a nice secluded spot away from the action. Your dad doesn't need any more distractions, and I can't say that I'll be able to keep you alive if you put yourself into this deadly mix." Tyrion jabbed a thumb behind him where Hawkins was now rampaging through the bandit's ranks while getting shot at in the process.
"Why don't you hide with that green-haired girl? She's been staring at us for quite some time now." Tyrion pointed to a fear-stricken Emerald, who yelped at the attention and scampered back to the sidelines.
"O-Okay, Uncle!" Jaune nodded vigorously and limped to safety.
"What a nice boy," Tyrion showed a twisted grin, "a shame that he might die today... but oh well! There's carnage to be had!"
The scorpion Faunus fastened his weapons and loaded their ammunition. With a twirl of his scorpion tail, Tyrion ran straight ahead to where Hawkins was devastating the opposition and fired relentlessly into the panicked hoard.
"Tyrion!" Hawkins shouted and motioned to Mad Treasure who'd unearthed himself.
"You got it, magician, it's time to merge to our ultimate combative form, the straw scorpion! Behold you, dastardly peons, at the brilliance of the world's greatest assassin and his partner, the most stoic magician in all of Remnant!" Tyrion shouted and somersaulted onto Hawkins' shoulders.
Strips of straw tied around Tyrion's legs, the Faunus now stood upon Hawkins like a sentry or a standing-up version of a shoulder carry.
"What the hell is that?" Emerald deadpanned from behind a short, flat wall of broken bricks, and found the position of her savior and his sassy partner to be ridiculous.
"That's so cool!" Jaune cheered with stars in his eyes. He glanced over to Emerald and gestured that the two try the same thing, only to be denied harshly.
While Hawkins would dread the day he allowed Tyrion to step all over him, the effectiveness of their combined efforts surprised all. With Tyrion's flexibility, he was able to maneuver his way around Mad Treasure's chains, occasionally leaping off of Hawkins so he could score a cheap shot on Mad Treasure's blindspots while his strawed companion took the brunt of Mad Treasure's assault head-on.
"Time to fly!" Tyrion shouted and Hawkins threw him high into the air.
Mad Treasure fell for the bait, and stared at Tyrion's rapid descent, only to be tackled by Hawkins and have his iron nails leave a deep gash on his forehead, nose, and chin. Yet Tyrion's acrobatic acts were not without danger, as the assassin emptied a full magazine on Mad Treasure as he recovered from Hawkins' attack.
"Tyrion, the last of the bandits!" Hawkins ordered and the Faunus complied merrily, all too eager to invoke in some easy pickings with how devastated Marcus and his men were after the scarecrow's onslaught.
Ready for round two, Hawkins swapped places with his partner and clasped hands with the steel ones of Mad Treasure.
"I underestimated you," Mad Treasure coughed and a drop of blood trickled down his lip, "but whatever your straw can do; my chains can do better!"
The chains on Mad Treasure's forearm spiraled into a frenzy, then latched themselves on Hawkins' neck, shoulder, and thigh. Strapped to a stalemate, Hawkins could do nothing as his turn to be lifted came, but instead of a simple takedown; the magician was spun in circles, his face mimicking a club as it bashed through stone walls and sand.
"Mad Chain!" Mad Treasure's shouted and his devil fruit's steel manifestations obeyed his commands. The chains extended, sending Hawkins higher and higher into the air until all he could see of the battlefield were moving dots. With a violent pull, Hawkins felt the rush of the wind pass through his straw before he collided against the sand. The impact was so brutal it left a large crater in its wake.
"Jararara!" Mad Treasure's laugh was joined by a hacking cough. His chains released off his dark-skinned body, Mad Treasure wiped the blood off his cheek and cracked his shoulder into its proper socket. "Not bad, magician, but compared to the battles I've had with Vergo, this was nothing."
"D-Dad!" Jaune broke into tears as his father's straw relented and dispersed, thus revealing Hawkins' bruised, bloodied, and true body. More debris fell, and if it weren't for a quick tug from Emerald, Jaune would have suffered more than a few scratches.
"H-Hey, where are you going?" Jaune called to the green-haired girl as she crawled farther away from him.
"I-I'm not staying here!" Emerald shouted. "Once your dad and uncle die, there'll be nowhere safe once that crazy chain guy sees us!"
"My dad won't die!" Jaune said through grit teeth and clenched his fists. "He's been through all sorts of dangerous situations, and he's always survived, so don't you dare write off my dad!"
"Will you stop yelling?!" Emerald spluttered when Jaune tackled her and pinned her wrists to the ground.
"Not until you take back what you said!" Jaune's tears pittered across Emerald's face and stung her red eyes. "My dad is super strong, he wouldn't lose when he really puts his mind to it!"
"Will you wake up!" Emerald wrestled free from Jaune's grip and flipped the position. "My parents are already dead, and your dad's about to be dead too! So the faster you run, the faster you'll move on with your life and survive!"
"Never!" Jaune's voice grew raspy and desperate and his heart rammed against his ribcage. "If my dad says he's going to win, then he will!"
"Oi, what's with all this noise?" Came a brooding voice of malice.
Jaune and Emerald tensed, and they turned to meet the narrowed pink eyes and blood-stained skin of Mad Treasure.
"Jararara!" The bandit laughed. "I don't mind putting the two of you in cages and selling you off, but I'm not in the mood for some human trafficking. Oi, Marcus, take these brats and do what you want with-"
Mad Treasure's speech, cut by a timely bullet from Tyrion, he staggered back and flexed his fingers.
"What a riot!" Tyrion hopped on Mad Treasure's shoulders and slammed his bladed gauntlets against the bandit's throat. Only to find a layer of chains over the bandit's skin that promptly coiled around Tyrion's ankle.
"Ah, you're not the only one with a flexible set of weapons, namely a tail for example!" Tyrion cackled and activated his semblance. His entire tail emanated a bright purple hue, it wrapped its hardened carapace around Mad Treasure's waist and forced him into a roll which freed Tyrion from the bandit's chains in the process.
"D-Dad!" Jaune broke into a sprint and hurried to the crater where his father's body lay. The boy slipped on the steep sand, barreling down in a clumsy fashion till his eyes could register all the damage that racked Hawkins' form.
"Jaune! Come back!" Emerald moved to follow, but fear forced her back, and she cowered where she stood.
Crimson eyes, unfocused and blanched, Hawkins showed no sign of life as his right arm was twisted and broken at the elbow. Jaune gripped his hair, then tore his shirt's sleeves to use as a wrapping for his father's wounds. He did all that he could, but doubt filled his mind as the minuscule movements of Hawkins' chest ceased.
"Dad!" Jaune screamed and shook his father's shoulders. He repeated the word, over and over again, but as the seconds passed, dread darkened Jaune's gaze and his emotions faded. Tears swept the dust and blood from his face, but the boy's determination would not falter.
"J-Jaune?" Hawkins wheezed through trembling lips. "Get out of here... I've lost."
"N-No! That's not true!" Jaune wept. "We can still go back home! You can still keep your promise! I-I don't want my dad to die!"
Jaune grabbed his father's ruffled cloak and tried to pull him out of the crater. His feet skid over the sand, and Jaune bit the dirt more than once up the steep slope, but never faltered in his physical strength.
"Jararara! What's this now? Don't want to die out in the desert alone do you?" Mad Treasure sneered as he peered into the crater and held Tyrion by the neck. The scorpion Fanus struggled for breath as he delivered some half-hearted kicks to Mad Treasure's midriff. Emerald had also been taken captive and was coiled in chains as she struggled to breathe.
"Don't worry boy, after my last attack, your dad is bound for death. But since I'm feeling generous, I'll let you put up a grave right beside him, how does that sound? Quite a fitting end for a pair of weaklings, I must say, and the old hag is bound to give me a good reward for your father's devil fruit after he kicks the bucket."
"My dad's not weak!" Jaune blurted and crossed his arms on his father's chest then laid his head atop it. His tears soaked into the many gashes and cuts in his father's pale skin. "He's the strongest person in Remnant, and he promised me we'd go back home together so he can get married and give me the best mommy and little sister!"
Mad Treasure grunted, then broke into raucous laughter. "Jarararara! Oh my Oum, you're living in a fantasy, kid. If you think either you or your father are getting out of Vacuo alive for all the trouble you've caused me, then you've got another thing coming!"
"We're getting out of Vacuo, and that's final!" Jaune's muscles cramped under the strain, but he managed to throw both himself and his father out of the crater and across from Mad Treasure. Jaune then tried to drag his father away, but the attempt was futile with Mad Treasure's presence.
"You're not going anywhere!" Mad Treasure yelled and jumped over the crater to deal a skull-breaking punch on Jaune's forehead.
Time stopped for Hawkins when he witnessed his son's limp body hit the sand. For a moment, a white light emanated from Jaune's injury, but it quickly petered out and allowed the boy's blood to puddle around him. Hawkins winced as he cracked his neck to look Jaune's way, but a harsh boot to the jaw sent him rolling in the opposite direction and left him on his stomach.
"M-Move..." Hawkins choked as tears and blood smeared his vision. "D-Don't let Jaune die... Damnit, move!"
Tyrion's thrashing had also come to an end after Mad Treasure spun him around like a ragdoll on strings, and slammed the scorpion Faunus through many walls, debris piles, and dragged him coarsely over the ground like sandpaper. Battered, Tyrion slumped and hacked out a bucket's worth of blood, and fell silent as well.
"And there we have it." Mad Treasure tossed Tyrion aside and clasped his right arm with a new coil of chain. "I haven't sweat this much in a while, but now it's time to face reality. Straw is no match for metal, so just give up and die already!"
Mad Treasure went for the killing blow, but the punch never landed, as a cold pale hand intercepted it. Hawkins, his crimson eyes burning with a protective will, something had changed about him; though this transformation did not seem natural. The Arc symbol on his chest glowed, but the light was faint compared to previous experiences and was practically nonexistent. No... the light that glimmered from Hawkins' crippled, but standing, body was that of a murky purple which spread over the entire area like a dense mist.
"Is this his devil fruit?" Mad Treasure thought and witnessed several strands of straw sprout from Hawkins' arm, but the strands fell off and pittered on the ground in a messy stack.
"Hmph, your body's given up on you, not like I care-"
Mad Treasure's insult was interrupted by a fierce uppercut to the chin, and the bandit was sent ten feet into the air and then landed wobbly on his feet. He spat out a tooth and had to crack his jaw back into place.
"You bastard!" Mad Treasure snarled. Though he hesitated when he witnessed a change in coloring on Hawkins' fist. The same fist that punched Mad Treasure was not pale, but a deep black that could mimic coal.
"Haki?" Mad Treasure felt despondent that the strawed weakling managed to pull off such a feat. Vergo had used the same ability when he achieved the spot as one of Salem's strongest enforcers, but that man was a trained assassin. Didn't Monet tell Mad Treasure that Hawkins was no more than a depressed farmer in a complacent kingdom?!
Hawkins pounded his chest and forced out the blood blocking his throat. The magician glared at Mad Treasure, but his expression held no malice or rage, rather... anguish as he raised his single blackened fist in Mad Treasure's direction. The bandit couldn't read what his opponent was thinking and knocked his knuckles together to cover his entire body in chains to manifest Gigantea once more.
"I'll kill you first, and your son is next, Hawkins!" Mad Treasure surged forward with the force of a truck, his footsteps breaking the already weak foundations of the sandy stones he marched upon.
Hawkins said nothing and listened. He felt the faint presence of his son, and though faint, Jaune was not ready for a tombstone. He could also feel Tyrion's presence, as well as that of Emerald, and another blonde boy he could not put a name on. Soon, the entire battlefield had been registered in Hawkins' mind, and he could see their actions transpire around him, though the scenes that flashed before his eyes were very blurry.
Haki-infused fist still raised, the moment Mad Treasure lunged forward with a death-inducing punch, Hawkins side-stepped, THEN SLAMMED HIS FIST SO HARD AGAINST MAD TREASURE'S SKULL THAT THE BANDIT SHIT HIMSELF!
The strike, imbued with all the power and will Hawkins had left to offer, sent Mad Treasure's chain-covered body into the ground and obliterated the ground they stood on. The entire ruins, their foundations failed and crumbled, their surrounding towers fell atop one another and crashed over screaming bandits as they tried to flee the area and opened a wide pit in the earth. The ruins caved in and swallowed but a few survivors of the Wukong and Branwen tribes respectively.
"J-Jaune..." Hawkins limped and reached out for his son, but was helpless as Jaune disappeared in a collapse of dust and sand. Soon, his entire vision blacked and the magician fell on his back and was promptly sent to the same ruins below that Jaune had fallen in.