(WARNING: BEFORE THE FIC STARTS, I feel like I should mention this since this might be a turn-off for most, this was originally a chara cter . a i roleplay that I decided to turn into a fanfiction for funsies, so yeah this was TECHNICALLY written with the help of ai, but not in the 'throw a prompt at a storywriting bot and just copy and paste it onto here,' this was an entire roleplay at first, I did try to edit the messages to make them more in character while not changing them too much so ooc stuff will still happen occasionally, but I tried to make it enjoyable, or at least not utter dogshit, in the eyes of you readers, I understand if this makes you not wanna read my fic but at least give it a chance man.)

(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, the franchise, IP or series, only this fanfiction, RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and all rights to the original series are reserved to them, yadda yadda yadda, all that other legal jazz to make sure I don't get sued to high hell for whatever inane reason.)

First Person P.O.V.

As per my last book, Dizzy's lines will be written in pure italics. (except for text messages those don't count)

Sunday, ?:?

The atmosphere is quiet as I ride along in the back of a small truck with a few others, going through a path in the woods towards our intended location, before eventually going a bit off path and coming to a stop behind a hill.

Our driver, the man who recruited me into this rag-tag group of people, takes out a map of the layout of our intended location, looking over it while we still have time to prepare before we begin with the main part of our task.

I look down at the firearm provided to me by my superiors to use for missions such as these, and for general combat usage, it's a modified AK-74U, the barrel being threaded to be compatible with suppressors and other attachments, every part of it besides the hand guard and magazine painted an obsidian black, with the hand guard and magazines provided to me being painted a crimson red, there is a removable part on the end of the wood stock that contains an extra magazine in case I need it.

I put the gun behind my back using the sling attached to it and look over to my left, speaking to the fellow acolyte next to me.

"Hey, why did we stop right now? Are we gonna go to the facility on foot or something?"

The person I talked to appears to be a girl, the only real notable traits of hers being the white hair on her head and red eyes, that I can barely see through the eye slits of the mask she's wearing, she looks over to me once I ask my question and scoffs before responding.

?: "The boss said it was better to move on foot. So, shut up and wait."

Rude.

"Okay, no need to be aggressive, Oumdamn..."

I look away from her and down at the floor, twiddling my thumbs and waiting until we receive our instructions, which doesn't take long thankfully, my recruiter getting out of the truck, map still in hand as he looks back at us before talking, with me looking up at him while he speaks.

Recruiter: "Look...There is security outside of the doors. And I heard that the facility has an advanced security system and that the SDC has recently received their own guards to up the defenses of the place. So, it's going to be a fight. Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

I unsling my gun from behind my back and hold onto it with both hands, the other members of our group doing the same and taking out their own weapons as we all stand up, getting ready to get out and approach the facility.

Recruiter: "Alright, let's get moving! Be ready in case our element of surprise is not enough! Let's go!"

Everyone (except me cause I didn't know we were going to) shouts in agreement before getting off of the truck, me following them closely as we walk to and over the hill we stopped behind, with us moving in a zig-zag type pattern and making sure to stick behind the trees to help avoid detection as we slowly approach the facility.

As we move, I grab my gun's bolt and pull it back most of the way, checking to make sure that it has a round in the chamber, which it does, before we stop moving around the top of the hill and look out towards the entrance, seeing only two guards outside of the main gate protecting it, but something seems...off...about them.

"Are those...robots?"

Observing the stationary guards looking around as they watch over the entrance of the facility, I recognize them from spotting them in public a few times and reading about them once in the news, they are both Atlestian Knight-130's, the black-ish armor and red visors are a dead giveaway to what model they are, they're AI-driven robots that are used usually as glorified police, security guards and, in certain situations, soldiers, apparently being made to help lower the amount of human casualties in combat from what I have heard, or at least something similar.

I turn to look at my recruiter and ask him a question while still keeping my gun trained on the AK-130's in case they spot us and try anything.

"So, are we gonna take them out from afar or just run in?"

He glances at me and rolls his eyes right after before answering my question.

Recruiter: "It is better to take them out from afar. Their armour is thick and hard to penetrate without weaponry strengthened with Aura or high caliber guns and their weapons are powerful. A frontal assault will cause casualties, which is something we would like to avoid. However..."

He lets out a short sigh before continuing.

Recruiter: "If needed, we will charge in and fight with our numbers but we need to avoid that happening in the first place."

An understandable decision, only a dozen of us and who knows how many of them inside that building ready to tear us to shreds if we try fighting them head-on.

"Okay, got it, does anyone have a sniper we can use for this or do we have to just aim well?"

Soon after I ask my question, a dude with brown hair and barely visible blue eyes who's right next to me nudges my shoulder and gestures to the gun on his back, it being a modified Remington 700, fit with a suppressor and 6-24x50 scope from a company I don't recognize for stealth-heavy operations, pretty useful as of now.

Brunette Dude: "I got a sniper, just aim and shoot straight; they aren't moving too fast. The targets should go down in one hit, especially if you target the heads."

"Alright, thanks for letting me borrow this."

I sling my modded AK over my back and take his rifle from his back, going prone on the floor, laying on my stomach as I line up my sights to the head of the Knight standing guard to my right, adjusting the scope a bit to be set at around 65 meters as I line up the center of the scope to their head.

I fire a round after a few seconds of prep, the bullet rendering their mechanical head essentially nonexistent, revealing their glowing red internals as they fall to the floor, the Knight right next to them noticing near instantly and starting to scan the area for whatever caused their partner to keel over dead, the brunette dude who let me borrow the sniper I'm using lets out a small cheer over my successful shot.

I smile over the audible support and cycle the Remington's bolt, lining up the sight of the gun to the next Knight, shooting them soon after, the bullet giving their head the same fate as their partners as their corpse falls onto the other Knight.

I cycle the bolt again and hand the gun back to it's rightful owner, unslinging my own right after and holding it tight but still staying prone on the floor just in case any other Knight's that may or may not be in the facility decide to check in on the two guarding the entrance for whatever reason.

The brunette gives me a small smile as I return his gun to him and the rest of our squadron pull out their weapons in preparation for the next part of our assault, with me grabbing the two spent .308 casings from the floor and shoving them into my pocket before turning to my recruiter to speak to him.

"What do we do now, sir?"

He looks down at his map again then back to our group before responding.

Recruiter: "Stay hidden and be ready to charge just in case...no more shots. I don't think the Knights have been alerted, but it is better to be safe...now, stay still..."

I give him a nod and go back to looking at the entrance in case anything happens, which doesn't really take long, after a moment I start hearing a few beeps coming from the entrance, spotting the red dot of an active security camera staring directly at me and the rest of our group, my eyes widening as I hear the faint sound of alarms blaring from inside the facility as everyone in it has certainly been alerted about us.

Recruiter: "Get ready! Looks like they just spotted us!"

I get up from the floor and line the iron sights of my modded AK to the camera, firing three rounds at it, the first shot missing it barely but the second and third manage to damage and destroy it's lens respectively, can't make them not notice us anymore but I can at least try to make sure they don't know where we are.

However with the end of one problem comes another, the sound of various loud, metallic footsteps being heard from inside the facility, near the entrance, as however many Knights that are in that building get ready to come outside and send us to hell.

Recruiter: "There is no time! We must charge and make our attack before more forces arrive! Get ready and let's get this over with!"

I nod at him again and decide to take lead by jogging towards the facilities entrance, the rest of my group following behind me as we get there, the blaring alarms and metal footsteps becoming louder and louder as we get closer before finally stopping right outside of a set of two large metal doors that block us from reaching the inside of the facility.

"Oumdamnit, how are we gonna get in?!"

I turn around to look at my recruiter after yelling, with him gazing at the door with a look of frustration before pointing at it and looking at the rest of the group at the same time.

Recruiter: "We will have to blow this place open. Someone go and get the explosives we brought; we will set them on the door and detonate it to gain entry."

I back away from the door as someone scurries of to go grab the explosive devices we brought with us, them coming back a few moments later holding a large duffel bag filled to the brim with a bunch of improvised C4 that some of the more adept explosive-makers back at our stationed base made for us to use.

They grab a few blocks of the stuff and rig them between both doors and arming them, all of them being connected to a small detonation device in the person's hands that is nothing more than a cartoonish-looking square with a big, red button in the center of it, only being covered by a glass cube that they lift up before slamming their fist onto said button.

The explosives detonate near-instantly, making a loud bang that assaults both of my sets of ears, the force of the explosion causing both of the doors to blow inwards and cause a bit of damage to their hinges, trace amounts of fire dotted around the large hole leading inside of the main facility.

I walk up to the newly-created entrance and peer inside, spotting various AK-130's places near entrances to other parts of the building and in front of doors, all of them staring at the hole in the door but thankfully somehow not spotting me, I move back from the hole and look back at my recruiter to receive further instructions, with him calling out to me and the rest of the group loudly.

Recruiter: "Now is our chance! Get into the facility! We will need to push past these Knights and make our way further inside."

I rush into the facility right after he finishes, aiming my AK at the first Knight I spot, switching the gun's selector lever to be set at fully automatic before firing fifteen rounds at their chest, the force of the bullets piercing their armor and sending them falling to the floor as the rest of my group follows my lead and give the other Knight's the same treatment.

Thank Oum for the existence of AP rounds or that might've been harder.

The sounds coming from the weapons held by the other members of my squadron might as well have given me tinnitus as I hear nothing but ringing for the next five or so seconds as my body accustoms itself to the influx of new sounds.

Not letting the ringing in my ears distract me from my goal, I snap my head in the direction of the next Knight I spot, pointing my rifle's barrel at them and firing the remaining twelve rounds left in my magazine into their body, rendering them out of commission as I replace the empty mag with a new one in a little fashion I've been practicing in my free time, grabbing a full mag from the pouch near my pocket and using it to knock the empty one out of my gun, grabbing it before it hits the floor and slamming the fresh magazine into the magwell and using the empty one to pull back the charging handle and chamber a round before storing it in my actual pocket.

Not overly flashy but still looks neat and feels cool to do, right up my alley.

Looking around the room I spot the rest of my squadron quickly dispatching every Knight they spot with relative ease, most of them opting to gun them down while a few use melee weapons like swords or axes to hack, slash, and cleave them in two, I spot my recruiter firing at a small group of Knight's while directing us to follow him as he goes up a staircase and to the second floor of the building, I decide to run up to the set of stairs he's climbing and follow him closely to the next floor.

Glancing back at the destroyed Knight's while going up, I spot that the arms of a few of them seemed to be swapped out for either large swords of multi-barreled automatic guns to fight back against us, but apparently those weren't enough, I look up at my recruiter as we go up the flight of stairs and ask him another question as soon as we reach the second floor.

"What are we even looking for in here again? Dust?"

My recruiter is currently too busy gunning down a set of AK-130's he spotted on the second floor to look at me but still answers my question, barking out a reply to me.

Recruiter: "We are looking for Dust, correct, and we are also looking for information regarding those SDC bastards responsible for the unfair treatment and living conditions directed towards the Faunus. Now get busy killing Knights, we aren't exactly waiting here!"

"Hell yeah, that's what I joined this group for sir! Achieving equal rights for Faunus that is."

He gives me a quick thumbs up of approval before going back to mowing down every Knight in sight, I decide to help him out by raising my gun and firing it in quick, short bursts at the heads of every Knight I see, with them dropping one by one as we keep on pushing forward, although for some reason, instead of fighting back like the others downstairs were, they are mainly trying to push us away or just block us from moving forward, not trying to shoot or stab us at all.

I turn to look at my recruiter as I reload my AK, letting the others in our group take them out for me as I take a little break to ask him a question.

"Why aren't they fighting back? Were they not set into combat mode before we got here or something?"

He raises an eyebrow at me before noticing what I'm talking about, taking a break from shooting the Knight's to respond to me.

Recruiter: "It is unusual...these Knights usually would've fought back by now...they most likely received instructions to stop us and halt our progression as much as possible, but...that doesn't explain the lack of fight back..."

"Yeah, it's weird...welp, might as well take advantage of it!"

I holler out that last part as I go back to shooting at them, firing a few shots at the head of a Knight I spot before going back to moving through the upper floor of the building.

The Knight's continue to not really do much to try and stop us as we take them out one after another in rapid succession, soon after my recruiter motioning for us to split into two groups of six to cover more ground as we move forward, but no matter how far we go, I don't see a single Dust crystal in the area, not even a grain of Dust.

"Damn, where are they keeping the Dust in here? Haven't seen so much as a speck of the stuff."

My recruiter shouts a response to my soon after I ask, not stopping from shooting at the AK-130's in the process.

Recruiter: "It should be in the lower floors of the facility, in underground vaults in order to help protect it from possible disasters. We will be heading there soon, for now, we need to clear the Knights from this facility so we can gain access to those vaults. Follow me and try to keep up!"

"Got it!"

I continue to move with the group I am a part of as we tear through every Knight in sight, reducing them to nothing more than scrap with some neon red insides as we continue going forward, until I spot something I...didn't expect to see.

A lone Knight standing at the end of the hallway we're in, not moving towards us to try and stop us or even moving at all, remaining stationary with their arms raised in surrender, not moving an inch.

I lower my weapon and raise and eyebrow at the surrendering Knight, slowly and cautiously walking up to it, under the impression that this might be a trap made to catch us off-guard then tear us to ribbons, I walk up to the Knight before raising my gun up and poking their head with the barrel of it.

Right after poking them, I notice a message displayed on the inside of their LED visor, that would normally be a bright, glowing, neon red is now just a dim red, the words on it reading 'Atlesian Knight-130 combat system offline and unable to respond.' nothing more, nothing less, with them staying in the same pose as I read it.

Huh...

"Oh..."

I sling my gun behind my back and turn around to look at the rest of the squadron before yelling at them.

"THEIR COMBAT SYSTEMS ARE OFFLINE, THEY LITERALLY CAN'T FIGHT BACK! STOP SHOOTING THEM, IT'S A WASTE OF AMMO AS OF RIGHT NOW!"

The members of both groups stop firing/swinging their weapons as soon as I yell out my sentence, turning to look at me and lowering said weapons in the process, no need to waste their ammo or durability on targets that aren't even a threat to us.

"Hey,"

I turn to look back at my recruiter, who seems to be thinking about something, after starting my sentence.

"I've got an idea, how about we take these Knight's back with us! We can do a bunch with them, re-purpose them, scrap them for parts, take their built-in guns and swords and use them as our own, think about it!"

He looks at me then at the AK-130 in its surrendered state, seemingly taking my idea into consideration and thinking about it for a moment before replying.

Recruiter: "That is not a bad idea...we could use them for our own purposes as you put it...they could easily be re-purposed towards our own needs...but that would require taking all the Knights back with us, which is going to require a significant effort and time on our part..."

"Then let's just take the ones we haven't shot yet, the others are probably too damaged to be used much anyways."

We riddled the fuckers with lead and/or maimed them with whatever melee weapons the select few that actually brought any used, not much the dead can be salvaged for with how much we screwed up their internals.

He nods at my response and smiles before speaking up again.

Recruiter: "...That is a reasonably good idea. Let's move in and get as many of these Knights as we can, and then bring them back with us. We will figure something out later on down the line."

"Alright, how about this, one group takes the still functioning Knight's and carries them out to the facilities entrance to be picked up and the rest of us go downstairs to take all the Dust from this place, eh?"

He pauses for a moment before nodding in response to my idea and turn around to the other ten members of our squadron, ordering the group he was originally part of to collect as many still-operational Knight's as they can and the other group that I am part of to head downstairs and towards the lower floors with the vaults to get the Dust stored in here and whatever other valuables we can find, with him joining our group right after issuing that command.

We quickly head back to the staircase we went up and go down to the main floor of the facility, the ground littered with corpses of various AK-130 Knight's that tried to fight us before their combat systems went offline for whatever reason, the scarce amount of flames that were outside the handmade entrance we created in the two metal doors blocking us from entering earlier now gone and in their place is a few spots of burnt cement.

"So, where are the vaults you said are holding all the Dust here?"

I don't get a response as we continue moving down into the lower floors of the building, stopping by a few places of scarce interest before reaching a floor containing a large steel door blocking us off from entering it and accessing it's contents, there is a terminal on the wall to our right connected that is presumably supposed to be used to open the door, either using a card or code, but I don't really care about it much since we aren't gonna use it.

Recruiter: "I assume that these vaults will be behind this door, so we will be using our explosive charges to open the door and gain entrance to the Vault room. We should be prepared in case we find any opposition within those vaults, so keep your guard up."

"Eh, makes sense to me."

I move away from the door until I reach a distance that will probably be safe from the blast that's gonna be caused from however many C4 charges we are going to use to get through the door and watch as the person who was in charge of carrying the duffel bag full of explosives grabs two handfuls of C4 blocks and sets them up to the center of the steel door, instead of arming them and detonating them using that cartoonish detonator they have, they connect them all to a long fuse wire and, once all the blocks are connected, lights the fuse on fire using a lighter they brought along with them.

We all stand back from the door and watch as the many explosives not only destroy a large chunk of the door, but also render us temporarily blind and deaf, the mass amount of dust and smoke caused from the explosion dissipating after a few seconds and the ringing in my ears leaving soon after.

I raise up my AK, folding stock pressed up against my right shoulder as I, alongside the rest of the group, walk past the destroyed door and into the room or hallway or whatever it was protecting, our weapons drawn and raised in case we meet any resistance set up by the SDC to protect whatever may be inside.

Looking inside, we step into a neatly organized storage room full of various shelves and racks, all containing crates of many sizes, all of them labeled a bit differently but all of them containing the same word on each label listing their contents.

'Dust'

No wonder they had so much security for this place, this must be thousands of Lien worth of the stuff at least!

"Damn, pretty good amount here,"

I sling my gun over my back, walk over to one of the larger crates on one of the many shelves and pick it up with both hands, walking up to the rest of the group and smiling at them as I speak.

"Let's just grab these and bail, eh?"

My recruiter gives me a nod of agreement before turning to the others and directing his words at them.

Recruiter: "Alright, everyone, split up and begin taking all of the Dust you can find and bring it with you outside, no need to overstay our welcome here."

I nod at him and walk out of the vault, back up the various floors we went down, which is a little harder now that I'm carrying a crate filled to the brim with Dust, and out of the hole in the doors we made, setting it down on the floor right next to me as I wait for my comrades to do the same, which thankfully doesn't take very long.

"Alright, now we wait for the other group to come back with the non-combat ready AK-130's, wait for our ride to get here, load everything up and get out."

Speaking of the others, right after I finish talking I hear a noise coming from inside of the facility, looking in I spot the six from the second group carrying five Knight's that are still mostly functional with them and outside of the building with us, and it only takes a few minutes of waiting before our transport vehicle comes to pick us up, apparently they brought a freight truck to gather us and all the goods we got our hands on.

"Sweet, that was pretty quick."

I pick up the crate of Dust I brought with me and walk to the back of the truck, opening up the railroad car-esque thing on the back of the truck they brought with them to load up all of us and our things, then place the crate inside, hopping in the railroad car right after as the rest of my squad members do the same, the car soon being filled with the twelve of us, the five AK-130's the second group managed to scavenge and many crates full of Dust.

As soon as we're all on along with our loot the driver starts up the truck and drives away from the facility and onto the road as fast as he can without sending all of us and our stuff out of the car, the other members of my squad start letting out some cheers and other celebratory noises as we drive away from the Schnee-owned facility, I let out a couple cheers of my own and even start laughing in the direction facility for a few second before stopping and sitting down on the floor of the car.

As the truck drives down the road and back to our base, the cheers of my fellow squad mates slowly die down before stopping, the only sounds being able to be heard now are the sounds of the vehicles engine as it drives along the road.

After a while, we come to a stop outside of a seemingly abandoned warehouse if you were to merely observe it from the outside, but we know what's really going on in there, as we come to a stop, we all begin grabbing the loot we brought with us and getting out of the railroad car, unloading all the stuff we got as I do the same, picking up my crate again and hopping out of the car, I walk inside of the facility and into the entrance of our base.

Man...if only my mom knew I was with the White Fang now, she would be so pissed! It's kinda funny to think about.

As I step inside, I see a few other acolytes that were waiting for our return looking at the crates of Dust we brought with us before moving to take them to our storage room, prioritizing the larger crates first as they contain the most of the stuff, one of them grabs onto my crate and I let go of it for them to take it to be stored.

I watch as they take my crate to the main storage room, with some of the members of my squadron from the mission taking it there themselves, as I watch them transfer the goods, a sudden thought pops into my mind.

It would be REALLY easy to take some of the stuff for myself if I want to, maybe once everyone is asleep or when I work my way up the ranks in the future, after all, we got so much of the stuff already, would they really mind losing a crystal or two that much?

But eh, that's for the future, and/or when everyone else is asleep, I can worry about this later.

Not having anything to do right now and feeling a little bored, I walk around before opening up the door to a random room in the warehouse, looking inside it seems quite nice, it's fairly tidy and based on the smell of cleaning products is being maintained frequently, there is a single bed in the corner of the room and two shelves with miscellaneous supplies on them attached to the walls next to the bed, there is also a wardrobe on one side of the room full of spare clothes, a desk with a computer set on it next to the bed and a bookshelf filled with various books, all of them mainly relating to various parts of Faunus history.

"Nice,"

I exit the room and look at the closest person to me, that being a girl with fox ears, who turns to look at me as I ask them a question.

"Hey, whose room is this? It's definitely not one of ours, does it belong to one of the higher ranks or something?"

No way in hell one of the lower-ranks like us would have a room as good as this to sleep in, it being for a higher-ranking member makes the most sense.

Fox Girl: "You're right about that, this room belongs to Adam Taurus. He tends to occupy this room during his stays at this warehouse on the rare occasions that he comes to check in on us."

Damn, the bull dude himself? No wonder it looks so nice.

"Ooooh yeah, Adam, feel a little bad for the guy, hasn't been the same since his girlfriend left him yesterday...what was her name again? Wasn't it Blair or something like that?"

She stays silent for a moment before shaking her head and correcting me.

Fox Girl: "You're close, her name was Blake. Blake Belladonna, if I remember her name right that is. I do believe that they were quite close to one another, but I cannot say so myself as I don't talk with Adam all that much when he is here and he does not interact with us often, but I've heard that he has become more aloof ever since Blake left."

"Yeah, same here...well, enough of that, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself after that successful raid we had today, I'm gonna go to Junior's and get a drink, you want something?"

She seems to think to herself for a moment before shaking her head 'no' and speaking up to me.

Fox Girl: "No thank you, I don't really drink alcohol. I prefer to keep myself at a healthy status at all times, and alcohol does not aid in that regard. I appreciate the offer though."

Damn, so well-spoken.

"Eh, understandable, see ya later."

I start walking away from her and wave goodbye as I move out of the warehouse, looking back as I wave and seeing her wave back as I head out of our base and into the streets, heading towards Junior's club which is thankfully pretty close to the warehouse, hearing the loud sounds of conversation and laughter coming from inside the place as I stand outside of the door.

Realizing that it is a very stupid idea to just barge into the place wearing the uniform of an organization that isn't really liked by most, I walk up to a nearby trash can and turn it on it's side, grabbing my AK from behind my back and bashing the bottom of the can with the folding stock of it until it has a sizable dent in it, taking off my outfit, mask and magazine pouches then putting them on the floor, placing the trash can on top of them soon after, the dent helping to hide them and make it seem as if there is nothing under it.

Not constantly having the hood of my outfit on my head is a bit of a relief, my raccoon ears springing out and now fully visible on top of my head, also being visible now are my eye bags which I got from my terrible sleep schedule but are now more pronounced due to my extra set of ears, the amount of people that think I got them cause I am a raccoon Faunus and not realizing that the only raccoon part I have are my ears is surprising, you usually never get two animal parts at birth but apparently not a lot of humans know that I guess.

I then grab my gun, take out the magazine then pull the charging handle back, grabbing the round that comes out and putting it back into the magazine as I shove it into my pocket and slide the gun under my shirt, taking advantage of my somewhat chubby body by maneuvering it to just look like it's part of my stomach.

Once ready, I open the door and walk inside of the club, the dance floor of it immediately drawing my attention as there seems to be dozens of people on it already, almost completely full right now, but I can't really seem to make out any details of any of the people on it, from this distance they just look like grey-black silhouettes.

Well, that doesn't matter right now, not like I came here to dance or anything, looking around the place I eventually land my eyes on the bar, being lit up with red neon lights, just like the Atlestian Knights me and my squad fought earlier, while the rest of the club is light up by neon white lights, thank Oum most of the place is colored black or else I would've gone blind by now.

I walk over to the bar and sit on one of the bar stools, the bartender doesn't seem to be here right now so I decide to just sit around and wait for them to arrive, although I only really get to wait for a few seconds before I feel a tap on my right shoulder.

Turning to look at whoever tapped me, I notice that it's a blonde girl who is apparently smiling at me, she's wearing a tan jacket with puffy sleeves and a yellow crop-top under it, alongside some black shorts, brown knee-high boots and a brown belt belt, alongside a grey bandanna on her left knee (for whatever reason) and two black bracelet/cuff things on each arm with a golden button on each.

?: "Hey, mind if I sit here?"

"Yeah, go ahead, I don't mind."

I turn away from her and go back to looking at the empty bar in front of me, placing my left elbow on the bar table and resting my cheek on my hand as I continue to wait for the bartender to get here.

A person like this approaching me in a place like this can only mean one thing.

She sits down on the stool to my right and turns to look at me, leaning in close to me before murmuring to me.

?: "So what's a handsome looking man like you doing all by himself on a fine Sunday night?"

"Try to flatter me all you want, you aren't getting a free drink out of me...whoever you are."

The girl pauses for a moment at my response, eyes widening and eyebrows raising upwards as she forms a response to my statement.

? :"Well, you're a little dull at the moment. But oh well, can't expect to charm everyone, right?"

Damn right, so might as well cut your losses early and leave me alone, eh?

Unfortunately, since I didn't say that out loud, she just lets out a small laugh before extending an arm out towards me, offering a handshake.

?: "My name's Yang. Yang Xiao Long. Nice to meet ya."

I turn to look at her and reach my free hand forward, shaking hers for a moment before pulling away.

"Dizzy, just Dizzy, nice to meet you too, I guess."

Yang lets out a small giggle upon hearing my name and gives me a playful smile before leaning in a bit closer to me.

Yang: "Dizzy? What kind of nickname is that? You got a real name or is that it?"

The audacity...

"My real name IS Dizzy, don't ask what my parent's were thinking naming me that, I dunno either."

Her eyes narrow in suspicion at my answer, clearly not buying that my real name is, in fact, Dizzy, before she pipes up again.

Yang: "Uh huh, I bet. But whatever, I'll believe you...but you know what? It does fit you. I imagine that you would be fairly dizzy after I'm finished with you if we went back to my place later."

HUH.

I snap my head quickly in her direction after she finishes talking, hurting my neck a bit in the process but not by much, my face sporting a small blush that is thankfully not as visible due to my brown skin tone, luckily I'm not too flustered from that surprise comment so I'm still able to respond to her.

"Still ain't working, sorry, but you're gonna have to buy your own drinks, you aren't getting any free booze outta me."

The smile on Yang's face near-instantly disappears after my response, seeming a little frustrated now as she realized that her flirting attempts aren't working on me.

Yang: "Ahh...not working then? I see that you are one of those guys who aren't all too interested in flirting, huh? Well, it was worth a shot."

"I suppose so, gotta say though, I respect your tactic of trying to hustle free drinks out of gullible folks willing to buy them for you in hopes of a chance of getting in your pants, it's a good strategy."

Her eyes narrow at me as her frustration grows ever so slightly, with her letting out a sigh and turning her body around on the stool, leaning back against the bar table as she speaks again.

Yang: "Well it usually works out for me, guess you're one of those harder fishes to hook then."

"I guess, got some experience with people trying stuff similar to you in the past, although mainly they were trying to get money outta me instead of booze."

Oumdamn carolers...no, I will NOT give you ten Lien for singing a bland Nondescript Winter Holiday song to me, if you want some money and are willing to work for it then GET A DAMN JOB!

Yang nods her head in response to my words as she just stares at the ceiling, before turning her head to look at me with a small smile, still leaning against the bar table as she replies to me.

Yang: "Well, that's too bad because it would have certainly been a fun night if you had accepted my proposition. Oh well, not that I have a shortage of guys who would gladly want to hook up with me, so I guess I'm not all that bummed out about it."

"It wouldn't be a fun night for my wallet, anyways, I'm gonna stick around here until the bartender comes, you gonna go try to wring some poor sap dry of their cash or what?"

She shrugs her shoulders and answers with a smile on her face.

Yang: "Well, I was planning to leave and find another guy to talk up and hit on until I get a free drink, but I guess I'll keep trying with you here right now. Besides, someone as nice looking as you will at the very least be worth trying again a little later when you have a few drinks in your system."

"Still not working and probably will continue to not work even if I get drunk, but eh, whatever helps you sleep at night."

I turn away from her and back to the empty bar as I wait for the bartender to get here, seeing her shrug again out of the corner of my eye and then turn her body to stop leaning against the bar table and instead look at the bar in front of it, same as me, probably not really having anything better to do.

A few seconds after this, the bartender finally gets here, wiping some sweat off of his forehead that accumulated from working his shift I believe, he's wearing the typical uniform I see every one of Junior's workers wearing, not counting the DJ and whoever those two twins are that he has body guarding him all the time, that being a black hat, black suit, red glasses, red tie and black gloves.

"Finally, I can get a drink now, gimme a bottle of Monsriff, will ya?"

The bartender lets out an exhausted sigh after I make my request but soon after nods his head and grabs a bottle of the drink I asked from underneath the bar table, apparently having a stock of alcohol under it to serve to customers, he slides the bottle across the table and towards me, letting out a small groan right after, clearly not wanting to be doing any more work today.

Bartender: "Here's your drink, that'll be Ƚ15."

I dig into my pockets and take out the necessary cash, handing it to him, as soon as he takes it I snatch the bottle of vodka from the table and pop the already loose cork off of it, taking a swig from the bottle right after.

He puts the money I handed him into his pockets before looking at me drinking the vodka I ordered, announcing this to me soon after.

Bartender: "Be sure to be careful with that, I would not want to have to cut you off this early in the night. Especially considering that Junior himself is here tonight."

"Oh damn, he is?"

I turn around and drink a bit more from my bottle before looking around the place, trying to spot the big man himself, using 'big' in a literal sense cause the dude is tall as hell, nearly seven feet tall from what I've seen.

I am able to spot him near the dance floor but still somewhat away from it, chatting to some very dapper looking dude wearing a bowler hat and white suit, holding a cane, dunno who he is but I gotta admit he looks fresh.

"Huh, neat..."

I drink a bit more from my bottle of Monsriff and glance to my left, noticing Yang staring at Junior with a scowl on her face as she stands up and starts walking up to him, one hand holding onto a photo that I can't really see the contents of from this distance, but it's probably important.

Everyone in the club seems to go silent as they watch the blondie walk up to Junior looking pissed as all hell, turning my attention to the dude he was talking to as he walks away from him and out of the building, blowing some smoke out from the cigar he had in his mouth that I can see now as he exits the club, I then turn my attention back to Yang and Junior, choking on the vodka that was in my mouth as I see her painfully grabbing onto his crotch and barking out questions to him that I can't really hear from this distance, but I swear I heard the word 'Raven' thrown out there.

The patrons of the club continue to watch the scene play out in front of them, the only sounds able to be heard being Yang's very loud questioning and me coughing after choking on my drink, once I manage to stop coughing though, I see Junior get some of his workers to help him out and get Yang off of him, with her leading him to the dance floor of the club and now seemingly...flirting with him? What? Is she planning something or is she just bipolar?

My question is answered rather quickly, the answer being the former as I see Junior lean in to kiss her only to be clocked in the face and sent FLYING ACROSS THE CLUB TO ONE OF THE WALLS HOLY FUCK HOW HARD DID SHE PUNCH HIM?!

"OUMDAMN!"

His body slides down onto the ground and she walks over to him to seemingly hit him again, but is stopped by a horde of Junior's men stepping in front of her to protect him as he recovers, all of them holding thinks like swords, hatchets and a few even having a few modern handguns on them, apparently coming to the decision that this problem must be solved with violence.

Yang also thinks the same thing as she presses the golden buttons on her cuffs, with them (somehow) expanding and turning into two sets of yellow gauntlets on each hand, each one having a ring of shotgun shells inside of them that is visible from the outside.

Man, modern day tech really is something...

Anyways, I better haul ass before this gets messy.

"Oh scheiße, I better get going before this gets messier, don't wanna get caught in the crossfire."

I stand up from my stool and speed walk out of the club, drink in hand as I exit the building, hearing the sounds of shotgun blasts, gunfire and a lot of bodies hitting a lot of walls from the inside as I place my bottle on the floor and go to retrieve my uniform from the trash can I stored it underneath and put it back on, but am unable to as I am interrupted by the Scroll in my pocket vibrating, gifted to me by one of my superiors to communicate with the others in our organizations if necessary, say, if something goes wrong during a mission for example and we need to call for backup or an ride to get us out of wherever we are.

I grab my uniform with one hand from under the trash can and open my Scroll with the other, checking to see what was causing the vibration, which apparently was a message I got on my 'Messenger' app, from a contact labeled...Yang? How did her number get onto my Scroll?

[Yang]

[Voice message, click to play audio.]

Clicking on the message, I hear the following from Yang, apparently she recorded this mid-fight with Junior's men as I hear the sounds of battle cries being let out from them and numerous shotgun blasts being let out by Yang's gauntlets, following the sounds of them hitting the floor in pain.

[Yang: "I know that you have probably already seen what happened and went on back there with me and that bastard. If you're listening to this message, I just have one thing I want to say to you..."]

She pauses for a moment before I hear the sound of someone being punched a few seconds later, a groan of pain, them hitting the floor and their Aura being broken can be heard a moment later.

[Yang: "Good on you for not giving in and buying me a drink earlier. It was probably pretty funny to see me so frustrated as I continued getting shut down by you. I don't normally get so pissy over failing something so simple, but whatever. I guess this is you hearing from me that, while my ego might have been a bit bruised, you did actually manage to intrigue me at least slightly. So, good job to you."]

[how did you get my number]

[Yang: If you paid close enough attention to me, you would have definitely seen me input your number into my Scroll while you were looking off somewhere else when you were waiting for your drink to come. Although I suppose it didn't occur to you that I could have pulled that little trick on you. Whatever, I won't make fun of ya like that.]

[ok im gonna let that slide cause im tired but if you pull something like that again im gonna throw a brick at you]

[Yang: That's fair enough. I'm surprised to see that you're still replying to me, but who am I to judge what you do in your spare time.]

"Bitch, you started texting me first."

I close the conversation between us, then my Scroll and put it away in my pocket, picking up my bottle from the ground and putting my White Fang outfit back on as I walk back to the warehouse, which is admittedly kinda difficult to do with only one hand, taking my AK out from under my shirt and taking the magazine out from my pocket before putting it back into the magwell of the rifle, chambering it soon after and slinging it behind my back as I reach the warehouse.

Entering our base I spot a few people inside just relaxing or talking to one another, the others probably already asleep for the night, a few of them spot me and give me a quick wave as I enter, with me waving back to them as I walk past them and into the main sector of the place, drinking some more vodka and looking around as soon as I get there.

The atmosphere of the area is quite calm and relaxed, I spot some folks either playing card games with one another, watching TV using one of the new-ish TV models we stole a week ago, and the rest just talking to each other, most of them unaware of my presence as they are focused doing their own things.

"Welp, I'm tired, gonna nap."

I walk past everyone and through a door leading to one of the barracks, the one where I sleep at, the room is relatively empty except for four sets of bunk beds on each side of the room, the side on the left already full of people sleeping for the night or trying to fall asleep, the right side is completely empty, not a single person that sleeps in any of the beds there in the room right now.

Not counting me, of course.

I walk over to my bunk at the top-right corner of the room, setting my half-full bottle of Monsriff down next to my bed as I hop into the bottom bunk, getting under the covers as I get ready to sleep.

I lay in bed for half a minute or so as the sounds of people moving around in their beds, trying to fall asleep dies down as they manage to finally go to bed for the night, with me following them soon after, getting ready to wake up to another day of work for the White Fang.

(wow i used WAYYYY too many ellipses in the first chapter, might give it a bit of a tune up some day in the future, or not, might just forget to)