Jacques Schnee considered himself to be a very shrewd businessman, a man with ambitions as high as Atlas itself, and with a company to match that ambition as well. Which makes it all the more frustrating when Vacuo and their little 'Republic' closed off their docks to Mistral and Anima, rather violently too he might add. He leaned back on his cushioned chair, eyes furrowed, with the sounds of his daughter singing blurring into the background as he thought about the situation. Vacuo is Mistral's number one customer in all things Dust, since Vacuo can't get the Dust themselves; they have to rely on the other kingdoms like Vale or Mistral, in which the Schnee Company have subsidiaries in, ready to make deals.
Well imagine everybody's surprise when Vacuo completely closes its docks to Mistral and Anima, and with Vale currently in ruins… the Schnee Company, and every other Atlas-based company for that matter, lost out on a continent's worth of customers. White sat next to him, one of the representatives for the Schnee Company, more importantly, the Vacuan section. He's been helpful with the situation, especially when Jacques wanted to make demands of the 'Vacuan Republic'. He has held off on completing his side of the deal, sending Faunus workers over to Vacuo just to get those docks open again? It might sound like a good deal at first but… something feels off…
"It looks like Vacuo city's improving rather drastically," Jacques glanced at a nearby businessman, who was flipping through some articles on his Scroll, showing it off to his lady friend or whoever, "They even have this thing called… a sol-ar panel? I don't what it is but it looks really interesting," the businessman chuckled, "Guess this New Vacuan Republic's no joke huh?"
"Mantle looks to be also improving in tandem with Vacuo," the woman hummed in consideration, "Some said that they see strange bullheads fly in and out of Mantle, dropping off crates of… something to the people down below," the businessman raised an eyebrow and leaned closer, "Word on the street is that these 'bullheads' have the Republic's flag on them, y'know, the Ursa with the red star on the corner?"
Jacques' eyes widened at this, the New Vacuan Republic deliberately going out of their way to airdrop supplies into Mantle? Worrying, he wondered what their endgame here is…
"How long do you want to delay the deal?" White asked, taking a sip out of his wine glass, "Vacuo's not going to wait forever, I personally think that it's a great idea," he raised his hand up placatingly, "A couple workers to open up trade routes again? That's a steal."
"I don't trust this 'Republic' of theirs, least of all their leader," Jacques' face soured at the thought, "This Courrier… who does he think he is? Getting the media to call him a 'Hero of the Faunus' of all things," he scoffed, "I'm not surprised if he's one of those White Fang terrorists."
"Hmm," White hummed, Jacques turned back to watch his daughter sing, while he personally thought the action was a waste of time and effort, it'd do good for the Company's PR, "You might be right, sir, that Courrier is a part of the White Fang," Jacques scowled at the mention, "If you were to really focus on his features, you'd see a distinct shade of… 'Faunus' on him," White smirked, "He's sly and cunning, and seems to act as if creating the 'Republic' was just a daily activity for him," Jacques raised an eyebrow, "Not to mention the large amount of White Fang already living within the Republic's jurisdiction… you're right, it's no surprise really."
To Jacques' surprise, General Ironwood decided to join in on the conversation, sitting next to White, using the man as a divide against Jacques and him, "Heard you two were talking about Courrier," the general said, sighing, "What's this I hear about the Schnee Dust Company trying to reason out a compromise with the Republic?"
"We're attempting to reopen the Vacuo docks," White answered professionally, "Seeing as how Courrier and the Republic wouldn't do it out of the blue, we wanted to give the man a little incentive to do so," Jacques smirked, his expression hidden by the dim lighting and the fact that Ironwood was focused on White, "Reopening trade routes between Mistral and Vacuo would be most beneficial for both the companies… and might I say Atlas as a whole too."
"You speak of profits; I'm more concerned about matters regarding national security," Ironwood scowled, "Courrier sending bullheads into Mantle completely without warning, what's stopping the man from doing the same with Atlas?" the general leaned back on his seat, sighing deeply, "We can't do anything about it too, seeing as how the Republic has a… monopoly, so to speak, on the communications front," Ironwood take a sip out of his drink, "Making an enemy out of them almost guarantees that Atlas would be disconnected from the rest of the kingdoms…"
"It's more surprising that Vacuo has bullheads to begin with," Jacques interjected, "Most of their transportation in between kingdoms were with boats and other sea-faring alternatives," he chuckled, "So unless this 'Republic' somehow found out a way to replicate a bullhead, they must be getting the vehicles from somewhere…"
"The problem here is that they might not be bullheads in the first place," Ironwood furrowed his brows, "They have propellers, and are generally stockier than an average bullhead, and instead of a flat base, they have retractable landing wheels," he took a sip out of his drink, "Something that we have not seen before, which suggests that the Republic has a lot more power than we've initially realized…"
"I thought that'd be apparent the moment they recreated the CCT," White said, "By all means, it shouldn't have worked at all! But somehow they made a transmission tower out of steel and strange foreign electronics that worked like a budget CCT in just a few weeks!" he rubbed his chin, "Combine that with their new 'solar panel' technology, to which they constantly gloat on the papers as 'an infinite energy source cleaner than Dust'," White scoffed, "As if…"
White chuckled, but Jacques noticed that Ironwood looked deadly serious, "Thanks for the party, Jacques." He stood up and walked away, Jacques just narrowed his eyes at the back of the general, before scoffing and turning back to his daughter's performance.
How mediocre.
Tyrian snarled at the interruption, looks like he has to be serious about this now… That blond boy, what kind of maniac taught him to do that move? And that girl… the silver-eyed one, Tyrian wondered where she got her hands on such devastating ammunition…
"Well… Branwen I take it?" he chuckled, "I'm afraid that whatever you have in store for me won't live up to what those kids did to little ol' me," Tyrian grinned, "Maybe they should be the one to give you a hand!"
Branwen looked to the silver-eyed kid and the rest of the group confusedly for just a second, Tyrian used this opportunity to dash forwards with his Semblance active, heh, those kids were lucky he wasn't trying to kill them… although getting hit by one of the bullets that that silver-eyed girl had really hurt!
Branwen, as expected of any Huntsman worth their salt, blocked Tyrian's slashes well enough, even managing to kick him away! Although that wouldn't do much as Tyrian smiled at Qrow's wince when his tail grazed the man's leg on the way back, "Listen pal, I don't know who you are or what your deal is," Branwen smirked, "But preying on little girls? Heh, you even look the part."
The blonde-haired girl snickered at this, what's so funny? Tyrian didn't find that funny!
A vein bulged in Tyrian's forehead, but he kept the grin on his face anyways, "Well, for your information, the name's Tyrian!" he twirled around fabulously, hoping that these people would have more taste than the bores that Her Majesty surrounds herself with! "I am under orders from Her Grace to acquire this young girl," he pointed at the silver-eyed one, "So I'm going to do that, lest I upset the Queen."
"Queen?" the silver-eyed girl asked, how ignorant! Not knowing of Her Majesty like that!
"Salem." Thank you!
"Who?" Damn it!
"That's it! I think talking time is over, no one speaks a word!" Tyrian crouched down, eyes boring into Branwen's as the man just smirked. Arrogant fool, he won't see this coming…
"Heh, you took the words right out of my-" Branwen fell silent and blocked two slashes from Tyrian, much to his displeasure. The man then swung at him with his scythe, which he easily jumped over. Tyrian quickly retaliated, slashing at Branwen on the way down from his jump. Branwen quickly dashed backwards before the hit can connect, performing a broad swing with his scythe on the way back. Tyrian, with his expert gymnastic skills, backflipped away from the slash, landing on his two feet gracefully before jumping back in, pressing on the attack.
Tyrian focused on the fight with Branwen, a couple downward slashes here and there to get him primed for his next attack, he feigned a strike and quickly kicked the man in the side, causing the moron to grunt in pain. Should've learned more in combat class! Tyrian cackled, quickly weaving out of the way of a scythe strike, "How does it feel bird boy? To be so vulnerable?" Tyrian thrusted his claws at Branwen's chest, but the strikes were batted away by the handle of his scythe, "Look at ya, gasping for air in pain, so pathetic! So… sad!"
Tyrian's eyes widened into saucers when he felt his side cave in from a powerful impact, the resulting boom of a gun cluing him in as to what exactly happened. That girl must've hit him with those freakish bullets that she have, Tyrian flew a fair amount from the bullet, skidding on the ground, he snarled and slammed his claws down, slowing his movement to a halt as he spat out a glob of spit and blood, damn, he must've chewed the inside of his cheek on accident.
"Ha!" Tyrian coughed, feeling the air being knocked out of his lungs when he stood up, even Aura can't fix things that quickly, "That… that was actually really surprising!" Branwen looked more surprised than he did! "Ha… haha!"
He jumped towards the group again, seeing as how that girl was rubbing her shoulder after firing that shot; it must be a trade-off thing, powerful bullets for powerful recoil? Done deal! She's now open for the taking! Tyrian jabbed at Branwen with his tail, forcing the man to block the stinger while also trying to parry his slashes from below as well. The scythe then turned into a sword as Branwen picks up the pace, each jab, thrust, and slash coming at Tyrian at an increasingly fast pace.
Tyrian kicked the blade to the side and spun around, hooking the sword into one of his claws and directing it towards the ground, stabbing the edge into the dirt and temporarily immobilizing Branwen. Using this opportunity, Tyrian yanked his claws out of the sword and swung it at Branwen, his Semblance on full effect… the perfect killing blow…
Branwen lets go of his sword and narrowly dodged the jab, the sharp blade of the claws drawing a line of blood from his cheek as the man clenched his fist and punched Tyrian right in the nose. Disoriented, Tyrian stumbled back before being punched again, this time a hook to the abdomen, he spat out some blood before being kicked away by Branwen. Tyrian quickly caught his footing, his smile slowly going away as he narrowed his eyes at the man. He has to act quickly, or else he'd be shot by that girl again…
And be shot at he did! Quickly jumping out of the way of a shot as he watched the thing blow a hole into one of the house's walls, kicking up a torrent of dust as the building buckled under its weight, Tyrian jumped at Branwen again, this time when the man was crouching down to pull his sword out of the ground. Branwen acted quickly though, grabbing the hilt and yanking that thing out of the ground, slashing at Tyrian on its way up as well. Tyrian dodged the attack, sidestepping it before he continued with his strikes.
The kids must've all ran away, except for that girl who kept shooting at him. How rude!
Branwen changed his sword back into a scythe and blasted himself away, "Running away now?" Tyrian asked, jumping after the man, "How cowardly!" The battle continues with both being evenly matched with one another, exchanging strikes and blocks while Branwen parried most of his while Tyrian redirected most of his. Branwen changed it back into a sword again, performing some amateurish broad swings in order to goad Tyrian into being overconfident, but he's not going to fall for it!
The rooftop battle dragged on until Branwen jumped over to another house, Tyrian, frustrated with the bird man's constant retreating, jumped after him, accidentally stepping onto a damage wood structure, causing him to plummet through the house. Branwen would've looked smug at this, if not for Tyrian's tail coiling around the man's body and dragging him down as well.
The two landed roughly on the base of the house, with Branwen taking more damage as Tyrian's tail swung him downwards instead of letting him free fall. Tyrian got up quicker than Branwen did and capitalized on this, quickly going over to the man's groaning body and slashing his claws downwards, his Semblance once again on full blast as he prepared the perfect killing blow…
Foiled yet again as Tyrian felt his elbow being kicked in by Branwen, a creak alerted the two as they noticed the roof collapsing inwards. Branwen quickly jumped up and kicked Tyrian in the jaw, knocking his head the other way before dropkicking towards a support beam, causing more of the roof to fall. Tyrian, frustrated, jumped at Branwen and dropkicked the man out of the building, using the momentum to carry himself out as well.
Branwen bounced across the ground like a skipping stone before coming to a halt, stopping himself as he perched his body atop his scythe. Tyrian snarled at this, this has been going on for too long! He needs to end this now-
His head snapped backwards when he felt another heavy impact crash into his Aura, he must've forgotten about the girl and her stupid bullets. Tyrian was knocked off his feet and flipped around in the air before dropping back first into the ground. His Aura flickering a lot more than Branwen's.
Tyrian sighed, each breath hurting as he felt his body developing bruises on his forehead and stomach. That girl… this has gone from a good surprise attack into a battle that he's going to lose if he doesn't pay attention.
He quickly hopped back onto his feet and crouched down, he needed to close the distance… or suffer another shot from that damn gun.
Looks like FFNet will be back up by tomorrow, or worst case scenario, the day after that.
I used the temporary fix mentioned in the last chapter's AN to continue posting by the way, don't want to mess up my daily schedule and all that.
So the Republic's gaining more traction in Remnant, they have Vertibirds now which is hilarious.
The NVR's flag is the California Republic's flag (the one with the one-headed bear) but instead of a bear it's an Ursa.
Guess the Courier must be homesick lol.
Thanks for reading!