The dark and gloomy night completely bathed the normally warm and lively atmosphere of Forever Fall, the trees with red leaves let go of some of their color to the sky, where the only source of light was the full moon that gave off parts of itself .
Schnee Corporations train moved forward with the speed limit that the vehicle could bear, the large size of the train and its highly important contents made it necessary for the speed at which it was transported to be a little bit slow, since Winter Schnee didn't want to take an unnecessary risk.
And Yang Xiao Long didn't intend to do so either.
The wheels were forced to jump over some holes in the ground, Yang did not move an inch and stared at the train, her purple eyes turned red for a moment, before turning around to see her son.
"Everything alright?" Yang asked her son, Bryan Xiao Long, the cat faunus nodded forcefully, firmly grabbing his mother's waist and hiding his face in her back, eliciting a playful laugh from the woman " Hold on tight, we'll start this party with a-"
"No puns" the boy complained back, Yang accelerated hard and the motorcycle jumped off the cliff, falling under its own weight exactly at the last train car , Bumblebee released four ropes with powerful magnets, nailing itself firmly to the steel of the car "Okay, we have little time"
Yang stepped off the motorcycle, her blonde hair blowing wildly from the constant buffeting of the air, Bryan was barely able to stand, forcing herself to crouch down a bit, her cat ears flattened on her head, revealing her discomfort.
"This is simple" Yang said, turning around once more and facing the boy "This train has been hijacked by the Black Fang, you know who they are, right?"
"A pro-faunus organization that hates humans" Bryan said quickly, receiving a nod in response from his mother.
"They took this train a few hours ago, to steal weapons and the Dust that is being sent from Vale to Atlas, these little friends know a thing or two about the transportation process, so, here we are" Yang shrugged , the confidence that her years of experience as a Huntress and as a savior of the world had given her giving her nerves of steel "There are civilians in danger, that's why I brought you, remember, get the civilians to safety and defeat any Faunus dressed in an emo version of the White Fang uniform, understood?"
"Y-Yes" Bryan muttered, standing up with some effort, looking at his hands and feet gloved with the weapons his grandfather once used "When-"
Yang raised her right arm, hitting the ground hard and releasing a bomb with Ember Celica, the explosion created a hole wide enough for a person to pass through, Yang wasted no time and simply threw herself inside, being closely followed by her nervous son.
The car was dimly lit by the long lamps installed on the sides, Yang looked carefully and walked slowly forward, trying to listen for something out of the ordinary or intercept a member of the Black Fang.
Yang tried to open the sliding door that would take her to the next car, finding that it was stuck, she managed to force it open easily, now finding herself in darkness, the woman waited patiently for her son, who was behind her.
"There are brackets on the walls" Bryan muttered, sharpening his senses and letting his eyes dance around "There's nothing—"
A particularly loud bang alerted both blondes, Yang prepared her bracelets and patted her son on the back, in just a few seconds, voices began to sound in the next car.
"Most important weapons are not here" a female voice spoke, her voice seemed to be hissing with each word and she was dragging out her sentences "The scientists are safe in one of the front carriages"
"Where's the rest?" A new voice joined in, this one was male and somewhat heavy, if Yang was to guess, it must be a big faunus, there was an odd silence, forcing Bryan to concentrate on his ears "She's here? She's supposed to stay home, god, I hate dealing with teenagers"
"She's alone back there, the rest are up front, leave the hard work to that girl…she has a lot to prove" The woman replied, her footsteps echoing thanks to the metal as she seemed to advance, Yang knelt for a second, thinking of a new strategy now that the information on the situation had expanded a bit.
"Looks like there's a newbie in the back, a few cars behind where we came in" Yang whispered, not trusting that the faunus who had heard had bad hearing "At least we have the scientists and inventors well placed…this is what we'll do"
"I'll go ahead, I can handle anyone they put in front of me… you go stop the new girl from stealing anything" Yang firmly took her son's shoulders, gently placing her forehead against his " I trust you, son"
Yang didn't wait for a response from Bryan and started running, destroying the sliding door that stood in his way and starting to shoot at the first Black Fang members he saw, Bryan didn't just stand there watching the spectacle, but quickly got up and ran in the opposite direction.
The new sound the boy could hear was that of angry screams and laughter from his own mother, Yang Xiao Long had become a sought-after Huntress for her great skill and experience, even if she had not been in service as long as other Hunstmen, she had a kind of talent that allowed her to adapt to the situation that was put in front of her, even a rescue situation like the one she was in now.
Bryan repeated the same action as his mother, each passing car was another expensive door destroyed by DeathRaze, a set his grandfather Taiyang gave to him recently, Bryan had been using his bare hands for combat, without having a real weapon, there was something about punching with his fists that excited him quite a bit, the addition of a pair of gauntlets and boots was more than welcome.
The boy finally stopped at a gate that was bigger and also different from the rest, with the words exclusive access written in white, the cat faunus tapped the metal obstacle a couple of times; it was definitely more resistant; beating it to death would be of no use.
Bryan turned quickly upon hearing a male moan, he quickly approached the origin of the sound, some stacked boxes blocked the way, so he simply moved them aside, coming across a somewhat older man, his grayish hair and wrinkled skin gave a hint about his advanced age, his white clothes typical of a scientist were stained with blood, and he was also clutching his abdomen tightly.
There was a child next to him, scared and curled up next to the man.
"It's not as bad as it seems" The man said with irony in his voice, catching the worried look of the boy in front of him , Bryan tried to find something to identify him, noticing a somewhat small metal plate on his chest located on the left, Arthur Mason.
"You are a faunus, but you don't wear the mask" Arthur observed, groaning in pain, Bryan quickly placed his hands on the wound, squeezing lightly "There was a woman, with a sword, she took my permission card and opened that big door, there are military grade weapons in there, grenade launchers-"
"Don't strain yourself" Bryan said firmly, tearing off a piece of his jacket and placing it on top of the wound "I'm going to stop her"
"You look very young" Arthur murmured, noticing Bryan's still somewhat childish features. He simply laughed nervously, confirming the man's suspicion "That girl is crazy, her semblance is very powerful…you won't be able to fight her"
"I must try" Bryan shrugged, looking at the boy beside Arthur. Bryan smiled sweetly, stroking his hair and ruffling it "Don't worry, I'll save you and your…"
"Father" Arthur said, grunting in pain, the man looked towards the door when a scream echoed inside the room "That was her… perhaps she didn't understand the locking system the company uses…"
"So we're okay…sir?" Bryan turned around, Arthur had passed out from blood loss, the boy pressed himself tightly against his father, burying his face in the unconscious man's shoulder, Bryan growled lightly, standing in front of the huge door and standing on guard.
Bryan didn't have to wait any longer, the door was thrown forward violently, the blond put his arms forward, managing to cushion the impact of the now deformed metal, the boy grunted in pain, throwing the door to the side.
There she was, it was a girl, he knew it by her feminine figure, even so, her face was covered by a black Grimm mask with red details, different from the others that only covered her eyes, this one covered her face completely, the only thing he could differentiate about her was her hair, long and red.
"You are the son of Blake Belladonna" The mysterious girl murmured, the hatred in her voice instantly making Bryan nervous, he was not as world famous as Waylon was, so being recognized so quick was new to him "You have the blood of the traitor in your veins"
"I'm sorry?" He replied unsurely, his eyes traveling to the hooded woman's sword, the handle was black and looked somewhat rustic, almost as if it were a piece of an oddly cool tree, the blade had a very pronounced crimson red color, although the trail of blood could still be recognized on the metal of the weapon "We don't need to fight, just leave the train with the others and return the weapons"
"Weapons are the least important thing" she replied furiously, slamming her sword hard into the ground "The Schnee have been oppressing my people for decades, this is not a simple robbery, it is an act of revenge"
"We faunus stopped being oppressed by the Schnee since Schnee Corp was created " Bryan responded , feeling a not very pleasant nervousness flooding his body with each second "I-I understand that you feel bad…but-"
"Silence" she growled, hunching her back slightly "Your traitorous mother condemned you by conceiving you, your destiny was always to fall before me"
Bryan had no chance to respond as the hooded woman lunged forward, swinging her sword with incredible ease and forcing the boy to simply raise his arms to deflect the blade with each impact, the girl's strength was deceptive, even if he was a bit taller than her and definitely had more muscles, she was definitely stronger than him.
Bryan hissed as the blade embedded itself in the metal of his gauntlet, he took advantage and kicked the girl's ankle hard, managing to push her away for a second, he grabbed the sword and threw it away, before connecting a punch to the hooded woman's face.
The girl laughed lightly, stretching her neck, and with impressive speed she moved until she was in front of Bryan once again, punching him in the stomach and knocking the wind out of him, then simply hitting him in the jaw and knocking him to the ground.
"I would expect more from the son of the White Fang princess" she said, even with a hint of mockery in her voice "Are those gauntlets and boots just for show? Pretty boy?"
Bryan got up in a second, the hooded woman tried to hit him in the face once more, however, the blonde put his arms in a crossed position and a small explosion occurred between them, the redhead gasped in surprise, being lifted into the air and then slammed against the ground.
The boy took advantage and continued with the attack, throwing himself on top of her and subduing her to the ground, hitting her a couple of times on the head, her moans of pain and discomfort made his stomach turn, even so, he did not stop his blows.
The redhead's black mask cracked slightly, she reacted violently and raised her hand, Bryan was thrown backwards as if he were a powerful current of air, slamming into the door of the back car and going through it in the process.
"Ugh" Bryan complained, propping himself up with his arms and spitting out some blood "I don't like hitting girls"
"I won't break that easily" she growled in response, raising her hand towards him, a purple aura lightly running through the girl's fingers, before she raised her palm slightly.
Bryan was surrounded by that same purple aura, being suspended in the air, his gasp of surprise only seemed to give more motivation to his opponent, as she closed her palm, causing a sharp pain to go through the boy's body.
She could control gravity.
The girl began to breathe heavily, clenching her palm tighter, her nails digging into his skin as her power took effect on Bryan, the sharp pain becoming more and more evident in his neck, she was choking him.
"Ah!" The hooded woman suddenly moaned, falling to the ground on her knees, Bryan grabbed his neck with difficulty, massaging it in an attempt to relieve the pain, then quickly looked forward, trying to figure out what happened.
The boy accompanying Arthur was holding the sword that the hooded woman had wielded earlier, the blade was slightly bloodied, Bryan looked confused at the redhead's leg, it was bleeding a little.
The child hurt her.
"DAMN BRAT!" The outburst made her get up, ignoring the pain and how her aura had been consumed too much, she firmly hit the boy in the chest with her foot, throwing him back and knocking the air out of his lungs.
Bryan stood up on pure instinct, surrounding the hooded woman from behind and pressing her tightly against him, he threw her against the wall and hit her masked face multiple times, finally finishing with a kick to her stomach, the pain made her kneel weakly, gasping for air.
Bryan approached the boy quickly, kneeling down and examining him superficially but desperately, the pain was obvious on the boy's face, making Bryan's heart twist , he caressed his chest a couple of times, looking at him with a reassuring smile.
"You did well, you were brave" Bryan murmured, helping the boy sit down near one of the boxes, Bryan turned to face the hooded figure once more , finding that she simply wasn't there anymore.
Bryan sighed lightly, feeling dissatisfied with the result.
...
The hours passed and the situation had improved greatly, the scientists and inventors that the Black Fang took hostage were finally safe, the train had been stopped by Yang, who took some time to defeat the members of the movement, although it was not a new challenge for her.
They were captured and sent to the city of Vale, where they would eventually be tried and put in the kingdom's prison shortly after, Yang was not at all positive about whether or not they would be able to discover anything about the organization, the loyalty that the members of the Black Fang could show was as comparable as the loyalty that their Menagerie counterparts had.
She didn't want to be complacent, but at least she was satisfied with the current result.
"You're too quiet" Yang said to his son, popping her burger into her mouth and biting it in half "Did the rookie turn out to be tougher than you thought?"
"A child was injured, trying to help me" Bryan muttered in response, Yang arched an eyebrow at her son's strange tone of voice "He hit the girl in the mask with her own sword and she hit him back, why the hell did he help me?"
"Because he's brave" Yang replied simply, looking at the starry sky with his son "You can't stop people from doing stupid things out of a fit of bravery, your Aunt Ruby had plenty of those in the past, and I think you have them too"
"I wasn't even able to really beat her" Bryan remained pessimistic "Maybe that's why mom gets mad at me all the time, I don't like to fight"
"You don't like hurting people for no reason, it's not the same" Yang became more serious from one moment to the next, she placed a hand on her son's shoulder gently, staring at him "You always need a reason to throw a punch or two, Blake may not understand it yet, but you use your fists to defend others from what you believe is unfair, you protect the weak from the strong, regardless of whether you are the weak or the strong in the situation "
"I guess you're right" Bryan shrugged, resting his head on his mother's "Can we go home? I'm really sleepy"
"Calm down, kid" Yang laughed, standing up and walking away from the cliff with his son, getting on her motorcycle "By the way, you're going to have a sister"
"What?" He asked confused, his question hanging in the air even as Yang started the engine and drove them both out of the forest.