Walking down the roads of Vale, team MACE was far more than shocked or confused. Each of the girls had their shoulders rolled back slightly and eyes peeled and wide and the wreckage laying waste to the city. All of them glanced from side to side, almost not believing what the saw before them.
Had Vale City become a warzone once again?
Bullet holes pierced through sides of buildings on the east side of town. The once smooth sidewalk was carved with deep gashes from sharpened blades of steel. Street benches, lamp post, and signs all deformed and mutilated as back streets and alleys held what remained of broken weapons and crimson red. Some dumpsters themselves were being hosed down, smoke still swiftly escaping from its sizzling underneath.
"What... in all of Remnant Happened?" Elise let her brows furrow as she watched a flash of red and blue lights zoom past the group. Her voice hushed and quiet as she spoke softly.
"I don't... I don't know." Kagami took a deep breath, her inhale strong and sturdy, but as she exhaled it grew shakier and shakier.
With her hands folded and resting in front of her face, Cheyenne let her thumbs rub up against her nose as she chewed on her lips. "You guys don't think it was because of those bandits Kagami dealt with earlier, do you?"
"There is only one way to find out." Kris' boots let off a soft clap against the concrete under her feet as she began to stride in front of the others. Her hands balled up in tight fist as her arms swung back and forth. Glancing back and forth between each other for a second, the remaining three gave soft nods to each other before following behind the younger girl.
Surrounded by a line of yellow police tape, a female Faunus with dog ears in a short sleeve black uniform with black pants was leaning on the side of a wall in front of a small shop that sold weapon ammunition. The store's windows all completely shattered. Reaching up to rub her forehead, she gave off a low groan that sounded more growl like as her black hair wrapped around her face. "I can't believe this..." She shut her eyes, inhaling sharply as wrinkles formed between her scrunched up eyebrows. "If the chief would just listen to my leads for two damn seconds..."
She suddenly jerked her left arm around, a faint shadow of white following behind as she caught a pink frosted donut in her hand. Her pointer finger through the center as her thumb kept it held in position. Sighing softly, she rolled her head back, flipping her hair behind her head as she opened her eyes. "What do you want now, huh rookies?" She narrowed her eyes at two younger male cops, taking a bite of the donut.
"Uh, well, you see, the captain ordered us to go get coffee and donuts for everyone." He shakily smiled, holding up a slanted white box of donuts. "S-So we brought you some!"
The second jumped a little, seeing her unamused glare as her Faunus ears twitched against the breeze. "Yeah, yeah." He held up a four cup tray of coffees. "And we also um, were slightly worried about you, Scath..." He trailed off, stumbling and nearly dropping the tray as the first elbowed him in the side.
"You weren't supposed to tell her that! You idiot!" He hissed, his nostrils flaring.
Shaking her head, she took another bite of the frosted treat while pushing herself off the wall and stepping towards them. "What are you two worried about?" Her eyebrows rose.
"Well..." The one holding the coffees looked away a bit, his badge reflecting light from the sun. "You've been up all night. And I know you're a heavy duty senior officer, but you should probably get some sleep. I know you really want to stop all the mayhem but you're no good when you're not even awake." He gulped, glancing up at her as he bit his lip.
Keegan stared at him for a second, finally sighing as she picked up one of the cups from the tray he was holding. "Isn't that what this is for?" She flashed a smile.
"But don't you think you should rest at least a little, Scath?" The one holding the donuts asked.
"Please," The canine Faunus rolled her eyes. "I'll rest when chief stops being a di-" She cut herself off, her head tilting to the side as her dog ears twitch.
"Um, Scath?" The young rookie tilted his head before glancing back as a few shuffling noises were heard down an alley. Like someone was trying to be quiet and listen to their conversation.
"I'll have to take a raincheck on that, boys." Keegan shoved her coffee and half eaten donut into the second's torso, making him stumble back as she took off bolting towards the alley. Her right hand trailing to the holster on her side as she began to undo her weapon. "This is Vale PD! Stand down!" She shouted, turning the corner to see a blur of red, green, brown, and light brown disappearing before following quickly with a groan.
"Lets spy on the police and eavesdrop on their conversation! What could ever go wrong?!" Elise snapped, her feet sliding against the ground as the group made a sharp turn. "We could have just watched the news like normal people but nooo! We had to listen to Kris! And now we're being chased by police because none of you know how to stay silent!" Her face changed colors, a wave of beat red anger washing over her.
"Well not all of us were raised to hunt!" The redhead glared back at her, narrowing her green eyes. "The hardest thing I have ever had to do to get food is walk to the store by myself when I was seven because mother was busy with her friends!"
"Well you know what I was doing while I was six! I was fawning over papa's rifle and shotgun collection! I couldn't wait for grandpapa to get me my first BB gun! So I could shoot birds!"
Sighing while exhaling to catch her breath, Kagami eyed Cheyenne. "They still bicker at important moments." She drew her sword, slashing at a large shelf of crates as they ran passed, letting the weight collapse in on itself to make a barrier before sheathing her weapon.
"Tell me about it..." The deer Faunus was breathing heavily, the group slowing to a stop with their hands on their knees.
"Did we lose her..." Kris raised her head as the four of them looked down the alley that they come from.
"I think so..." The jadette nodded softly, standing up straight before going stiff.
"Freeze!" A voice called out from behind them.
Groaning, the leader of team MACE slowly lowered her head. "We can't fight police... can we?"
"Nope." Cheyenne let out, her head dropping.
Sitting at one side of a metal table, Cheyenne, Elise, Kagami, and Kris were all staring at the female officer dressed in black. Her elbows firmly pressed against the table as her hands wrapped around each other. Silence fell past them, only the sound of a clock's second hand ticking over and over and over and over...
"I ran away from home! I'm sorry!" Kris suddenly shouted, her hands shaking a bit. "Please don't take me to jail! Their meat probably isn't even real meat but I still don't want to eat it!"
"And it was my parents who skipped their taxes all those years! Not me!" Elise's eyes widened. "I'm an innocent victim in all this!" She pleaded.
"And I didn't really join the White Fang by will! I had nowhere else to go! I mean before I left and came here that is! Please I'm not a crook!" Cheyenne held her hands together and lowered her head.
Blinking slowly, Kagami glanced between her friends a few times before she let her head face plant onto the table in front of her. "She didn't even ask us anything..." She gestured towards Keegan. "I can't believe this... my teammates are idiots..."
"Uhhh..." The officer stared blankly at the four girls for a moment before shaking her head. "I don't care about your life stories, you idiots." She pointed towards them. "I couldn't care less about whatever issues you got. I want to know why the lot of you were sneaking around and spying on officials. Do you four girls worg for the BBB or the Fang Gang? Are you spying so you know how much we know so you can report back to your bosses? Huh?"
"Uh, what's the Fang Gang?" Elise raised a finger before quickly pulling it back down at the look she received. The dog Faunus was definitely the one asking the questions here.
"Would you believe us if we told you that we were spying on you so we could help take down the bad guys too?" Cheyenne smiled softly, poking her fingers together.
"You expect me to believe THAT?" Keegan raised an eyebrow.
"Well, it's the truth." Kagami slowly sat upright, locking eyes with the officer.
Staring back, she eventually shook her head. "The four of you are Huntresses in training, aren't you?" Without even letting one of them answer, she leaned back in her seat and slouched as she rubbed her face. "You know, Beacon has been destroyed for months now. Why didn't you four transfer to a different academy to continue your training so you don't get in the way like this?"
"Because Vale is our home." Kris glanced up, swallowing thickly. "We met each other here and grew close together here."
"We have family here. Friends here. And we are not going to leave them behind and abandon them." Elise crossed her arms.
Taking a deep breath, Cheyenne glanced around. "The city is in shambles still. Even after all this time. Crime is still hiding in broad daylight hurting people."
"And if it means not having a special certificate that says we're official Huntresses, that's fine." Kagami leaned across the table. "Because we're going to protect the city of Vale and defend it from any evil we can."
Staring blankly at them, Keegan slowly raised an eyebrow. "Am I supposed to be moved by your little two minute synced speech you just gave or what? Because I'm still feeling the same over here."
As the four girls each let out a sighing exhale, the female officer shook her head and stood up. "You four need to go back to school. Learn a few more things. The real world isn't some fairy tale. I'm not going to help you along the way to get yourselves killed." She pushed her chair in, stepping away to leave. "Your weapons should be at the front desk. And if you're smart, I hope we never meet each other again until years later. Otherwise we might not see each other again at all."
"So what do we do now?" Kris asked as the four left the police station. Her voice much more quiet than usual.
Taking a deep breath, Kagami glanced back at them "Do you guys still want to figure out and try to stop who's all behind this?" She raised an eyebrow. A second of silent and quiet stillness washed over them before the jadette saw three small nods. A small smile stretching across her face. "Then I know someone we can talk to."
Standing inside a small house hidden in the woods of the Emerald Forest, Kris was deadpanning as she stared at a young woman with pink hair and two certain twins with blue and purple hair. "You're kidding me. Please tell me you're kidding."
"Hey, if you need some shady information about crime, it's probably best to ask criminals themselves." Kagami smiled a bit, eying Val, Nihilus, and Thanaton. "I'm ready to call in my favor."
Setting his bowl of noodles down, the blue haired, surprisingly with a few strands of pure white, young man raised an eyebrow. "What is it you need?"
"Well, the Fang Gang is a bit of a long story." Nihilus began to explain, pacing back and forth with a few motions of his hands as MACE sat on the couch in the living room. Both Val and Thanaton leaning on a wall to the side. "Persephone Sanguine is a very... unique woman. She was originally married to a wealthy businessman. The lived in a nice happy home, had a daughter, a dog, and more lien than one could ever need. But one day, her husband was killed. The case went cold. No trace of evidence anywhere. But anyone with a couple brain cells knows what happened." He took a deep breath.
"Sanguine, talked her daughter into killing her father. And she was fine with it. She enjoyed it. And using the skills she learned from her husband and his leftover lien, she built herself a frightful crime circuit. With her at the head and no way to tie her to anything. I've been to their club a lot in the past few years. They have a bouncer named Tohopka Tenebris. A large dark skinned guy who wins every fight he's ever been in without so much a scratch. He is definitely not someone you want to mess around with." He exhaled, shaking his head as he waved his arms around.
"Now, Sanguine's daughter, Katie, she is just like her mother. Wicked, cruel, heartless, spoiled, greedy, selfish, rotten, you name it, the list goes on. She's about as bratty as they come. Always carrying her stupid small dog around. Trying to get closer and closer..." His eyebrow twitched a bit as Kris gave off a small chuckle.
"Awww, it sounds like you have an admirer you don't want." The redhead started to chuckle more before Cheyenne put a finger over her lips, making her go quiet.
Sighing, Nihilus reached up to rub the bridge of his nose. "She also has a new recruit. Some other blonde red eyes woman. I don't know what the deal is with her and blonde hair and blood red eyes but whatever. There is also rumors going around about Dion Ysus joining up with her, but Sanguine hates him. But Sanguine's new alley went off and killed one of the Triple B's members to gain her respect. It worked, but it also brought a whole bunch of chaos along with it. The Triple B isn't going to let them get away unscaved and the Fang Gang won't back down without spilling blood. Basically," He held up his hand before letting it fall. "There is a huge gang rivalry happening. Like the Yin and Yang Gang War that happened in Mistral two or so decades ago. And Vale is stuck in the middle."
Remaining quiet, the group of girls each eyed each other before looking away. "So why is Sanguine's gang called the Fang Gang?" Elise finally spoke up.
"Because of Sanguine herself." Thanaton pushed herself off the wall and stepped towards her brother. "Her semblance is as wicked as her. She bites whoever she wants on the neck and injects this chemical into them. It's like a drug. Their nervous system goes into overdrive and in the end Sanguine eventually has brainwashed whoever she is fighting and can get them to do whatever she wants for the next hour or so. But if she doesn't bite them again after that time, the victim falls into heavy withdrawals. It's like taking someone who uses Speed every ten minutes for a year and immediately taking them off. It's not pretty. But if they can make it through that, they'll be as good as before. That's just if they can handle the aftershock of it"
Watching the group of young girls closely, Val took a deep breath while rubbing her arms. "You four aren't going to go try and stop this, are you?"
"Yes." Kagami immediately responded without hesitation as her jaw tightened. "Yes, we are."
"Well, we can help you." Nihilus spoke up, his expression neutral as he cocked his head.
"Um, no we're not." Thanaton glared up at him, putting her hands on her hips. "No way in hell am I."
"Yes. You are." He glared back, flicking her on the forehead without so much as anyone seeing his hand move from his side up to her face.
Smiling softly, Kagami glanced around at her teammates, her friends, with a growing grin. "I guess we finally have a new mission. No more small stuff once again. Things are about to get real."
Oh hey look. It's nearly another three months hiatus. Whoooops. Where did that come from? I don't know. *falls on ground and just gives up* I really promise no more of that. Sorry. So sorry. I'm feeling a bit better though so I /might/ get back into my regular weekly scheduled posting. So sorry. Much sorry. *bows repeatedly* I'm also super sorry for any awful or mass number of spelling mistakes in this. I felt like writing again and wrote it in less than three hours starting at two thirty in the morning but I'm posting it so whatever. Trash will be trash. Bye!