Chapter 11
"What happened?"
Percy held up his hands as his four teammates crowded the door entrance to their dorm eagerly.
"Well, you know, just asked me details about the person who was in the CCT tower," Percy shrugged nonchalantly, not wanting to give out the name to his team just yet. They would be too eager, and would try to stop the bad guys the second his back was turned. No, it was better to keep it from them for now.
Even if Ruby's eyes pleaded with him so hard that he was about to cave in.
Thankfully, Yang saved him.
"Look Ruby! Dad sent something to us," Yang held out a brown package.
Ruby was visibly excited and hyper, and she quickly ran to it.
The second Yang tore off the wrapping, something jumped out of the box.
A dog.
"Zweiiiiii!"
Percy raised an eyebrow.
"He sent a dog… in the mail?" Weiss and Blake echoed each other with varying degrees of disbelief.
Yang dismissed them with a casual wave of her hand, "Oh he does stuff like this all the time."
Percy shrugged. He'd seen worse.
Blake had climbed up onto her bunk bed, hiding away from the dog.
Probably because she was a cat faunus, he snickered quietly, as Blake sent a glare at the yapping dog.
Weiss leaned in, "Are you telling me that this mangy, drooling… mutt, is going to live with us forevah? Oh yes he is, yes he is!"
Percy blinked. Weiss had flipped so quickly.
The dog, Zwei, ran onto him next, trying all his hardest to bowl him over. He began slobbering him not unlike his old hellhound Mrs. O'leary. Damn the dog was cute.
He ruffled him, showering him with head pats, "Who's a good doggo, who's a good doggo?"
"Oh isn't he adorable!" Weiss commented, ruffling him.
"P-Please keep him away from all my belongings," Blake practically whimpered from the corner.
The PA blared, "Will all first year students please report to the amphitheater."
"Well, we can't exactly leave him here alone."
"Oh look! There's a letter from Dad!" Yang pulled it out, beginning to read.
"Dear girls, I've got to leave the island for a few days, so I'm sending Zwei to you to take care of. Enclosed is all the food you should need. Love you both, Taiyang."
Yang flipped the box upside down, and cans of food dumped onto the floor.
"What is he supposed to do with that?" Weiss pointed in confusion.
Yang shrugged.
"Come on, let's go," Percy gestured, leading the group out of the room.
He could hear Weiss still ruffling the dog's mane, "Oh I'll miss you so much, we're going to be best friends, I can't wait to see you again!"
He snickered. Who knew a dog could even melt ice queen's heart?
"Today we stand together, united," Ozpin spoke into the microphone, pointing out the four academies.
"Mistral… Atlas… Vacuo… Vale… The four kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression."
"A war that was about much more than where borders fell or who traded with whom… But about the very idea of individualism itself. We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression."
"And as you all are well aware that was something many could not stand for. As a result, those who opposed this tyranny began naming their children after one of the core aspects of art itself: color."
Huh. He'd never thought about that. So all the people's names were colors in one language or another. That was… weird.
Wouldn't there be a limited number of names? Then again, it couldn't be possible that everyone was named after a color…
Ozpin's voice drew him away from his thoughts.
"It was their way to demonstrate that not only would they refuse to tolerate this oppression, but neither would the generations to come. And it was a trend that is held to this very day. We encourage individuality, expressionism, and unity, through diversity."
"As I have said, today we stand together, united… but this bond cannot exist without effort. Which is why today, while the rest of the world celebrates peace, huntsmen and huntresses will work to uphold it. As first year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional huntsman or huntress, on a mission. Some of you may be taken out of the kingdom for several days. Others may work within the walls for the rest of the week.
"But no matter which path you choose… remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best."
Well Ozpin certainly knew how to give a speech. The speech he'd given at the beginning of the semester was… dreary at best. This one, though, was inspired by the confidence he had in them. That was reassuring, at least.
"So, Percy, the headmaster gave us permission to take on a higher level mission?" Weiss quirked a perfect eyebrow at him, as if daring him to lie.
"Yep," he said, popping the p.
"Express permission?"
"Yep!"
"And you're absolutely certain of that."
"Oh lay off him, would you?"
Surprisingly, it was Blake of all people who came to his defense.
Weiss only huffed instead of pressing the issue, and Percy's lips quirked upwards in amusement.
"Search and destroy?"
"Hell yeah!" Yang pumped her fist, "way better than some recon mission or diplomatic mission."
They all shuddered simultaneously. That would be catastrophic.
"High Grimm activity, only suitable for higher year teams. Quadrant 5, Mountain Glenn. Mission start: ASAP."
Percy narrowed his eyes in thought. Mountain Glenn… where had he heard that name before?
"Well, looks like we found our mission!" Ruby commented excitedly.
Percy typed his team's name in, half expecting for it to be denied.
It passed through, to his slight relief, and Weiss' nearly inaudible gasp.
"Come on, let's head to the docking bays!"
The corner of Percy's lip twitched upward in slight amusement as the overenergetic Ruby started skipping happily.
Perhaps this mission would go just as planned.
"Velvet? Are you okay?" Blake asked the rabbit faunus, who turned around.
Team CFVY's mission had come back awfully late, late enough that Weiss and Yang had to take over the planning for the dance.
"I'm fine, I had Yatsuhashi to look out for me," she shrugged, gesturing to the giant.
Weiss still looked worried, "Your mission was supposed to end a week ago. What happened?"
"N-nothing happened," she stuttered slightly, "It was just… there were just so many."
So many Grimm? Then he'd have to be on the lookout, Percy pondered silently.
Seeing the looks on their faces, Velvet added, "Oh but don't worry, you first years are just shadowing huntsmen so you should be fine."
"Right…" Yang drawled, looking a little skeptical and worried.
Percy clapped her on the shoulder, "Don't worry team! We'll have a huntsman with us to help, and we're five instead of four. This'll be a piece of cake!"
"A genuine huntsman!" Ruby exclaimed in excitement. She was practically jumping in her boots at the thought of it.
Percy could only snicker as the four girls looked at their huntsman in varying shapes of disbelief and denial. Weiss looked like she was about to faint, Blake slumping in shock, and Ruby and Yang sporting identical 'WTF' expressions on their faces.
Bartholomew Oobleck grinned at them enthusiastically, "Why hello team! Who's ready to fight for their lives?"
"Professor… Oobleck?" Weiss finally managed to get out.
Percy interjected before Oobleck could go on a rant again, "Doctor Oobleck! Doctor Oobleck!"
"Why thank you young man, it is indeed," Oobleck leaned in, glaring at the heiress through his spectacles, "Doctor Oobleck. I didn't earn my PhD for fun, thank you very much!"
"Anyway, you will be shadowing me, a huntsman, on what is essentially now a reconnaissance mission…"
The eccentric green haired man continued speaking at his rapid fire pace, pacing back and forth from side to side in front of them.
Knowledgeable he was, but he spoke so fast that most people couldn't understand him in his classes. Thankfully, he slowed down a little bit here, just so they could fully understand him.
"…. You won't need your bags for this mission, so leave them at the academy. Come now children, according to my schedule we are already three minute behind, schedule!"
The professor zoomed away as fast as he spoke, running towards the bullhead.
Ruby tried to put them in a good mood, "We're saving the world with Doctor O-obleckk… okay yeah when you say it out loud it sounds worse-"
The five of them hung their heads in disappointment.
"Save the world?"
They whirled around to see team JNPR right behind them.
Nora continued, "I'm hurt and sad! Maybe a little hungry? That last one's not my fault, though, Ren!"
Percy chuckled. Nora as energetic as ever, while Ren pleaded with his eyes, Come save me!
"Sounds pretty interesting. Where to?" Jaune commented.
"Just outside the kingdom," Percy answered, Ruby still bouncing on her toes.
"Hey! So are we!" Nora exclaimed.
Pyrrha put her hands on her hips, "Ren and Nora wanted to shadow the sheriff of a nearby village."
"We set out tomorrow," Ren added.
"Then you can party with us tonight!"
Neptune and Sun joined in on the conversation, surprising them.
"We're shadowing a crime specialist. All inner-city detective stuff. We get junior badges."
"Smug bastards," Percy grinned, watching the two splutter denials. Jaune looked like a hard-core fan boy with his eyes wide and his hands on his face, almost as if he had stars swirling about his head.
Sun continued, "We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always exploding and junk."
Percy coughed into his fist meaningfully, as Blake recoiled from all the staring.
"Hey! The White Fang is important!"
Everyone ignored her protests.
"…So we thought this might be a better way to check out the kingdom when it's, y'know, normal."
"Four minutes team PRWBY!" Oobleck called out from the bullhead.
Percy grinned in anticipation, "That's our call boys."
The four girls deadpanned at him.
"I- uh, girls? Huntresses?"
He shivered under their collective gaze.
"Team! Team. Sometimes I wish I had Jaune or Ren on my team," he muttered to himself, trying hard to ignore the tingly feeling of four female glares on his head.
"Well, wish us luck!" Ruby called out.
Percy sincerely hoped nothing would go wrong here, even with his horrible streak of bad luck.
Wind rushed past their ears as the bullhead flew towards Quadrant 5 of Vale.
Percyhad tuned out the squabbles between Oobleck and Weiss on the importance of history for this mission, until the professor actually started dishing out relatively important information.
"The southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves. But, it is also the location to one of the kingdom's greatest failures."
"Mountain Glenn," Percy stated grimly.
"An expansion of Vale," Yang interjected, only to be cut off by Ruby, who looked uncharacteristically sober, "in the end it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off from Vale."
"Correct! And now it stands abandoned, as a dark reminder of humanity's failures," Oobleck pointed out the drab ruins they were quickly approaching on the bullhead.
"And a likely place for a hideout," Blake said, narrowing her eyes at the ruined city.
Oobleck tweaked his spectacles, "Precisely."
The ship landed, and all of them dropped on to the ground, knees bent and ready.
Except the professor. The nonchalant man merely took a sip of his thermos. The place was clearly abandoned.
Eerily so. The only thing in sight was concrete. Concrete buildings, walls, and pavement. And many buildings were flat out broken down or had no roof.
"You still may be students, but as of this moment, your first mission as huntsmen and huntresses has begun!" Oobleck proclaimed dramatically, taking another sip of his thermos.
Oh, how Percy wished he could have some of Ozpin's master brew right now…
"From this point forward, you need to do exactly as I say. Do you understand?"
Before any of them could reply, Ruby's backpack made a thudding noise.
"Ruby! I thought I told you to leave all your bags back at school," Oobleck scolded.
"But, uh, you hadn't told us to listen to you yet…so I didn't."
Percy facepalmed.
"She's not wrong…" Oobleck muttered to himself in surprise.
"Very well Ruby leave your bag here, we can pick it up upon our return."
Ruby protested weakly, "But I- whaaa-"
Oobleck narrowed his eyes dangerously, "Young lady what in the world could you possibly have in that bag that could be so important for you to bring it-"
Zwei popped out of the bag, panting with his tongue out.
What. The. Shit?
"Get back in the bag…" Ruby half-whispered, only for Zwei to give a bark of assent. Or dissent, Percy had no clue.
"We're here to investigate an abandoned urban jungle teeming with death and hostility and you brought… a dog."
"I- uhh-" she stammered out in embarrassment.
"Genius!"
Oobleck started running around like he was drunk, high, and on Ozpin's coffee all at the same time.
The eccentric professor grabbed Zwei, holding him up in the air and running around, blurting out words in the typical Oobleck fashion.
"Canines are historically known for their perceptive nose and heightened sense of sound, making them excellent companions for hunts such as ours!"
The dog barked in jubilation at being twirled through the air.
"I'm a genius," Ruby grinned smugly.
The rest of the team merely sighed, facepalming.
"So, what are your orders doctor?" Blake asked.
"Ah! Yes! Straight to the chase, I like it!"
The eccentric green haired man promptly dropped Zwei, "As you have been informed, the Southeast area has been marked as a recent hotspot for Grimm activity. Now there are several possible explanations for this behavior, one of which being, Grimm."
They all turned to look at each other.
What kind of circular reasoning was that?
Ruby voiced their confusion, "Uhh… what?"
Oobleck didn't seem to share the same sentiment, "Grimm, a creature of Grimm approximately one hundred yards from us at this very moment."
They whirled around to see a single Grimm sniffing the ground slowly. They unsheathed their weapons, preparing to fight.
"Stop," Oobleck ordered.
"Huh?"
"The Grimm shouldn't be here," Percy began, "but they are because of an attraction to negativity: sadness, envy, loneliness, hatred. If there were no people present, they wouldn't be here at all. Meaning there is a hideout somewhere in this ruined city."
"Precisely!" Oobleck agreed, "These negative qualities are all likely held by our hidden group holding ill intent."
"And so we track them?" Blake asked uncertainly.
"We wait, we track, and if the specimen leads us to its pack, that pack may subsequently lead us to our prey."
Oobleck clasped his hands behind his back, the man looking proud of them.
"How long do we wait?" Yang huffed, putting her hands on her waist, clearly impatient.
"It's uncertain," Oobleck answered, putting his hand to his chin thoughtfully, "hours, days, weeks, why lone Grimm have been known to stand isolated from the pack for months-"
"And there's the whole pack."
"What?" Weiss seemed utterly confused, not that Percy could exactly fault her for it.
"And now they've seen us," Oobleck commented helpfully.
"What?"
"And now they've seen us!" Oobleck practically yelled in her ear.
"I take it tracking is out of the question?" Ruby asked tentatively.
"An accurate assumption, yes," Oobleck replied.
"So what's the plan then?" Yang asked.
"Well, shoot them of course," Percy smirked.
Percy dipped his hand in his pocket, pulling out a stylus.
"What? That's not your pen…"
"Absolutely correct, Blakey."
Percy could only smirk as the cat faunus' eye twitched in annoyance.
"So… what does it do?" Ruby piped up, despite the horde of Grimm rushing towards them as they prepared their weapons.
"Nothing," Percy shrugged, "just increases my arm length."
"Wha-"
Before they could get any further, Percy stepped up, his left hand using the stylus to sketch a ward.
It was shaky at best, despite him having practiced warding with his left, and the ward wasn't accurate enough for him to push much power into it. Even so, the massive expel ward destroyed multitudes of Grimm, leaving more than a few injured and clearing the path.
More filled their ranks, rushing towards them.
"Cover your ears Zwei!" Ruby shouted as she took aim with her scythe, preparing to open fire.
"Ruby, cover Weiss! Weiss, TimeDil Yang and Blake!" he shouted.
"I refuse to call it that," she harrumphed, flicking her rapier to set the dust to the lightning type. Glyphs appeared under Blake and Yang, and the two dashed forward eagerly to take on the threat.
Percy followed not a moment later, Riptide whipping out, eager for blood.
Yang and Blake herded the Grimm towards him, leaving them disoriented. All Percy had to do was hack and slash as the three of them decimated the Grimm. Weiss was still disoriented from the use of time dilation, and Ruby twirled around her with her scythe, fending off the Grimm.
"Heh. Piece of cake," Ruby commented as they finished off the stragglers.
"Do not celebrate yet, for I am certain this is the first bout of many," Oobleck rebutted her, "Shall we continue?"
"Excellent work team!"
Oobleck commented, taking a sip of his master brewed, heavenly coffee from his thermos. The guy hadn't lifted a finger to help so far.
His teammates looked utterly drained. All of them looked as if they were about to keel over and lay on the ground for a few hours.
"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any signs of criminal operations in this sector… Oh well, moving on!"
Yang looked disgruntled, "Hey doc, ya know, I was actually looking forward to seeing a pro huntsman in action… like… fighting or at least helping us fight?"
Percy couldn't help but share her sentiment. The guy hadn't done shit since arriving in the ruins with them.
Oobleck looked back at them, not offended in the least, "Ah, but I am in action, scouring the ruins of this once great city for any signs of irregularity."
That was what they were doing with him… tch. Smug bastard.
"Not every mission is filled with daring and heroism. Sometimes it's just a heightened form of extermination. Remember, this is a job, and you all signed up for it."
"I do hope you understand that."
"W-Well, yeah. O-of course!" Yang answered, looking a little disgruntled.
They spread out, fanning the sectors as they cleaned out the Grimm. Percy caught Oobleck running around asking his teammates about why they wanted to become huntresses more than a few times.
Hmm… did Ozpin order him to ask? Maybe it was related to the test Ozpin was giving him. Ironwood said something about loyalty or whatever, so it made sense, he supposed.
The Grimm were almost completely cleared out, with only straggler groups remaining in some sectors, so Percy let his team handle it.
Percy made his way deeper into the city, keeping track of how far away he was from his teammates. It wouldn't do to be cut off and stranded due to his own ignorance.
He moved into a building, checking it for any signs of inhabitance so that they might find the little group they were searching for.
As expected, the place was utterly abandoned.
He settled into a martial arts stance. He sketched a ward, powering it and feeling it settle onto his palm. Another one on his other palm.
As he shot his fist forward, it blurred. Not by the pure speed, he hadn't put enough in to have it do that. Instead, the ward was causing it.
An unsight ward. Trickier to draw and involving more lines than normal wards, unsight wards didn't make his fist invisible. Rather, it made all perception of the wards shaky.
His fists would glitch in and out of existence sometimes, and they would blur at random intervals, making it useful for combat. After all, he already knew by spatial senses where his fists were, but his enemy wouldn't.
His semblance was utterly broken, he had to admit. He'd even read that semblances could evolve over time. The possibilities were endless.
Maybe wards could even be powered onto clothing, but even then, he had to put a significant amount of aura into them for them to even last, or he had to consistently power them himself. As such, he likely couldn't power his teammates' weapons…
Unless he just thought of it as a battery. He could place wards and charge them, but he would be spent, and they would use it until the battery bank for the ward evaporated. Then he would have to charge it again.
Their weapon was the phone, and he was the charger.
Huh. Pretty neat. But he hadn't actually tried putting wards on any objects yet, so he'd have to wait and see.
The wards on his fist disappeared after a little while, and Percy growled in frustration. He'd lost his concentration, and the initial amount of power he'd put in had fizzled out.
Again, he drew them carefully on his palms injecting aura and feeling the power tingle them.
He settled into his stance. A healthy combination of kicks and fists with the occasional translucent ward dagger ensured he could fight without Riptide if he was disarmed and low on aura.
After all, even if Riptide always came back to him, it would still take some time.
With a flick of his wrist, the unsight wards on his palms disappeared. He replaced them with another intricate, and relatively new ward: a parrying ward.
As opposed to an actual shield, a parrying ward didn't require him to tank the full force of the blow, instead deflecting it to the side. The area of contact was only as large as his hand, since he didn't want to expend a massive amount of aura on it, which meant he had to be accurate with his left.
A warded long sword appeared in his right hand, and he began flowing into stances. An offensive Greek stance flowed into a more rigid, Roman one, before he combined them effortlessly. An intricate stance that was both defensive and offensive, full of countering opportunities and first moves. A healthy blend of slashes, stabs, fakes, parries, blocks, rolls, and the like. Left, right, up, down, he forced his ward blade to move at his maximum speed. The blade blurred with speed, even without wards of unsight.
It was faster than using Riptide, he had to concede. Despite it being longer, it weighed almost nothing, and he could feel sword hummed in his hand in content, tendrils of energy running smoothly through the sword. It almost felt like it was sentient, like Riptide, even if the celestial bronze blade had the essence of a sea spirit. But this long sword… it was his essence that poured into it, since it was his semblance, his aura. It felt just as good as Riptide.
He spun, dancing back before reengaging his imaginary opponent, thrusting so fast that he left after images of the sword. He parried and slashed, bending and ducking all while keeping his feet in the same place.
He finished his routine with a flourish, and he let go of the hilt, allowing the long sword to dissolve.
Clapping was heard behind him, and he turned to see his team and Oobleck standing at the entrance to the building he was in.
He hadn't planned on letting them see
"How long have you been standing there?" Percy asked.
"Eh, long enough," Yang smirked at him, the cocky blonde putting her hands on her hips.
"She means we saw most of it," Blake elaborated helpfully.
"Percy's so cool!" Ruby practically fangirled, as Percy could only scratch the back of his neck.
"I-It was nothing…"
Percy internally thanked his lucky stars as Oobleck took control of the situation, "That will have to do for today. It's going to be dark soon."
He threw his bag filled with camps supplies and materials at Yang, who caught it with an 'umphf'.
"You four, set up camp in this building. Oh and please do make sure that there are no more Grimm."
He turned to Percy, "Your leader and I are going to secure the perimeter."
Oobleck led him towards the edge of the city as they walked in silence.
Deep howls sounded in the distance, as Percy and Oobleck came to the edge of the ruined city. Giant, elephant-like Grimm walked in the far distance.
"Goliaths? Why are they there? And why so many of them?" Percy questioned, looking at the professor.
"I'm not quite sure. Nevertheless, those goliaths are not concerned with us, so there is no need to agitate them. Not every Grimm is mindless… or well, not every Grimm is still mindless. These goliaths are so superior to the ones you just fought that they have undoubtedly lived hundreds of years."
Hundreds of years? They'd develop pack mentality and superior intellect, not to mention build up strength, Percy thought.
Oobleck continued, "And in that time between killing humans and attacking our borders, they've done one important thing: they've learned. They've learned that when they attack our borders, they're likely to die. And what us humans lack in pure strength, we make up for in will and intellect. They've learned that killing one human will only bring more."
Percy put his hand on his chin in thought, "They're strangely close to a city that's been abandoned for a while. What are they doing?"
"Waiting."
"Ah, perfect, a textbook campfire!" Oobleck exclaimed, putting his hands near the fire to warm himself.
"Is there even such a thing as a campfire that's not textbook?" Percy asked in confusion.
"Why of course young man, there are many different types of campfires that all depend on the method you light the fire up in. For example there's the…."
Ruby and the rest of the team stared at Percy meaningfully. Their team leader smiled sheepishly, seeming to shrink under their glares as Oobleck droned on and on about the different types of… campfires…
"Anyway, I believe we're getting off track here. Very well, eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode, any volunteers for first watch?"
Percy's hand shot up a second after hers, but it was too late, and she childishly stuck out her tongue at her fuming team leader.
"Fine," Percy shrugged, "I'll have-"
"I call dibs on last watch!" Yang practically yelled.
Percy slumped in defeat, Yang only patting his shoulder patronizingly, smirking.
"Percy," Weiss asked, "Did Oobleck ask you why you wanted to be a huntsman?"
Percy shrugged, "Nah. Oh well, good night everyone."
Ruby groaned for what felt like the thousandth time, just barely keeping her finger off the trigger.
The Grimm wandered off, and Ruby clenched her hand in slight frustration. It would have been a perfect headshot too…
Guess she needed to learn some 'trigger discipline' or whatever Blake called it. It would have been so easy to just start wiping out Grimm again, but her teammates were sleeping, and it would have done nothing but cause a racket for them all. Not to mention attract more Grimm.
She harrumphed in slight disappointment, patting Crescent Rose comfortingly.
"You'll get some action tomorrow baby, I promise."
She swore she could feel Crescent Rose humming contentedly.
"Blake… are you awake?" Yang whispered from beside her.
"Yeah," she whispered back.
"Why do you think he asked us about being a huntress? Like… was he tryna say?"
"Maybe he was just curious…"
"Ya think?"
"No."
Yang turned back onto her back with a sigh, "Percy? Are you up?"
"I'm here," he stated.
"Weiss? Are you awake?"
"Of course I'm awake! You two are talking," Yang cringed with every word she said.
"And I think he… When I said I wanted to honor my family's name, I meant it. But… it's not what you think. I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a… moral grey area."
Percy gave out a quiet snort of amusement, as Blake commented, "That's putting it lightly."
"Which is why I feel the need to make things right," the white-haired girl sat up, looking at Blake.
"If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it," Weiss said, lying back down.
"All my life, I fought for what was right," Blake reminisced as the others listened to her words.
"I had a partner named… Adam. More of a mentor, actually. He always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place. But of course, his idea of a perfect future turned out to be… not perfect for everyone. I joined the academy because I knew that huntsmen and huntresses were regarded as the most noble warriors in the world. Always fighting for good. But I never really thought past that."
"When I leave the academy… what will I- How can I undo so many years of hate?"
"I'm sure you'll figure it out…" Yang reassured her, "You're not one to back down from a challenge, Blake."
"But I am! I do it all the time! When you learned I was a faunus, I didn't know what to do, so I ran. When I realized my mentor and teacher had become a monster, I ran! Even my… semblance. I was born with the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself. An empty copy that takes the hit while I run away."
Percy spoke, "Sometimes, running is the only way. Like a trapped mouse, you can run or fight, but sometimes you aren't ready for that conversation. You want to avoid confrontation. It might not be the best choice, but it is a choice, and a choice you make is one you have to live with. You make yourself, your own destiny… not your semblance or whatever. Past experiences define your reputation, not you. They shape what possibilities you see, but that doesn't mean there aren't more out there."
"Thank you, Percy."
"Well," Yang piped up, "at least you have something that drives you. I just kinda always… gone with the flow, you know? And that's fine, I mean that's who I am. But how long can I really do that for? I wanna be a huntress… not really because I wanna be a hero. But because I want the adventure. I want a life where I won't know what tomorrow will bring. And that'll be a good thing. Being a huntress just happens to line up with that."
"I'm not like Ruby. She's always wanted to be a huntress. It's like she said. Ever since she was a kid, she dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day, and never asking for anything else in return. Even when she couldn't fight, she knew, that's what she wanted to do."
Percy scowled uncharacteristically, "It'll get her killed."
Yang turned towards him threateningly, but he didn't seem to care.
"She reminds me of a twelve-year old me. We were forced to grow up. I never had a childhood… an abusive step father and a doting mother who took all the hits for me that I wasn't strong enough to take… Forced on quests by the g-, the council, to retrieve lost… artifacts, we had to grow up, and adapt in danger. Being a hero isn't all that romantic that it's chalked up to be. It's loss, of family and friends, of the people you've grown close to that have been brutally ripped from your clutches."
"Well, she's still just a kid," Weiss tried, and Blake added, "She's only two years younger. We're all kids."
"Well… not anymore," Yang started, "I mean, look where we are! In the middle of a warzone and armed to the teeth?"
"Armed in the middle of a warzone doesn't mean you're an adult," Percy sent a meaningful look at Yang, "Experiences do."
"It's the life we chose," Blake commented.
Weiss sat up, "It's a job to protect the people. At the end of the day, whatever we want comes second."
Ruby lifted her head off the pillow, noticing Zwei bark quietly.
"Zwei, it's late. Go back to bed," she yawned.
She was forced to get up a second later when Zwei ran off.
She checked if anyone was up, but everyone was asleep.
"Ugh! Looks like my baby is seeing action sooner than I thought."
She grabbed Crescent Rose, peeking out the doorway.
"Zwei? Zwei, where are you? Zwei!" she whispered, swiveling her head around to look for him.
"Huh?"
Zwei was peeing… in the middle of a ruined city. Ruby resisted the urge to facepalm as she walked toward her dog.
"Zwei, this is a wasteland. You literally could've done that anywhere."
Zwei barked in affirmation.
"What was that?"
Ruby's eyes widened as she picked up Zwei, shushing him. She quickly backpedaled, hiding behind a wall.
"What was what?"
White Fang! Ruby watched from her spot as two of them conversed quietly with each other.
"I thought I heard a beowolf, or something."
"Let's just finish our patrol and get back to base. This place gives me the creeps."
She had to follow them. They would lead her right to their base!
Ruby crept after the creepy White Fang dudes, hiding behind each obstacle as they obliviously led him towards their base.
They walked into an open area, and Ruby instinctually followed, until she realized they were heading towards a building. There were no more obstacles to hide behind.
Ruby's hands slipped, and Crescent Rose almost fell onto the ground.
Crap, crap, crap!
She barely caught her baby as she zipped back behind a wall.
How was she supposed to know if the two White Fang people had gone in? She couldn't peek out, it would be too risky.
Ah hah!
She lifted Zwei, his gray coat camouflaging perfectly with the grey wall.
"Did they go in yet? One bark means yes," she whispered to Zwei.
After several moments of silence, her faithful dog barked quietly.
"Yes! This is it! Gotta call the others."
Ruby raised her hand to her earpiece, wanting to call the others, before realizing that they most likely didn't have them on. Only Percy would have his comfy, customized earpiece in.
Ruby grumbled, wishing she had that comfy version of the earpiece.
Her fingers came across no earpiece. There was nothing on her ear at all.
Crap! She hadn't grabbed it when she went out looking for Zwei!
Okay, Plan B: her scroll.
She called their group chat, but her scroll beeped quietly, indicating low signal.
Oh man! Ughhh….
"Come on, we gotta get the others!"
Ruby motioned for Zwei to follow her as she left the vicinity.
She took several steps across the street, pausing when she thought she heard something.
What was that?
The ground beneath her cracked, and she didn't have time to get out of the way. Crescent Rose slipped out of her fingers onto the pavement, too far away for her to reach.
Ruby grit her teeth as the concrete gave way to a deep cavern. It was a sinkhole!
Crap…
Her right hand held a fearless Zwei by the scruff of his neck, and Ruby chucked him over and onto the solid section of the road.
She tried to pull herself up, but the pavement wasn't strong enough to hold her weight.
She widened her eyes as the piece she was holding onto clipped off, and she fell into the darkness below.
She landed on her back with an 'oomph'. Slowly, she got up, surveying her surroundings, scratching her head.
She was on a tall platform, with ruined buildings like the ones in the city above all around her. It was like another abandoned city, this time underground.
Before she had a chance to do anything, a door opened behind her, emitting bright white light.
White Fang.
Here she was, stranded, without a comms earpiece, and the White Fang on her?
Triple crap. Percy would kill her once he got a hold of her.
"Freeze!" one of them called out.
"Where did she come from?"
The two of them moved slowly towards her, their guns leveled at her.
She stepped backwards, squinting from the light, before realizing she was at the edge. She almost stumbled and fell over, but managed to right herself at the last second.
"You're a long way from home, little girl."
Ruby narrowed her eyes. She couldn't run and get the others. So she had to fight.
Her band touched the back of her waist to find… nothing.
No Crescent Rose?
Quadruple crap.
Percy had recommended that they have backup weapons, and Ruby, in all her stubbornness, had refused, stating that she would never cheat on Crescent Rose like that.
And here she was, with absolutely nothing to help her.
Would it be too much to just wake up and say it was all a dream?
Apparently yes.
She gasped as one of the guys roughly grabbed her arm.
"Hey! Hands off!"
She managed to push his arm away, and slammed her fist into his unprotected stomach with all the might and fury worthy of a huntress of her caliber.
The guy didn't even move an inch. He retaliated with a fist into her face, causing her to see stars. She fell onto the ground, her head spinning.
"The boss is gonna wanna see this one," one of them commentated.
A boot slammed into her face, and darkness overtook her.
AN: Join my discord!
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FFN (remove spaces): discord . gg / M4yMguEz2J
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How'd you like this chapter? Review, comment, favorite, follow, vote, but only if you enjoyed! It helps motivate me to write more.
'til next time!
Next Chapter: July 8th (1 week)
-thann3