Larger Issues
AN: Sorry for the long delay in posting, it's been a rough couple of weeks since I posted the last chapter of Small Issues. But I do hope you enjoy this one as I get the next Small Issues chapter rolling, that part of the series is looking like it will end in a few chapters... probably no more than 10.
Around the World
The return to Menagerie was a welcome one. To be quite honest, it seemed that everyone had come to see the returning ship and its passengers, the mostly repaired dock seemed to be putting through an intense durability test due to the crowd.
Once the gangplank was lowered, Ghira, Kali, Sienna, and Ilia came down first, much to the applause of the crowd. But that quickly died down to a respectable silence as coffins were carried down and through the crowd. It was only once the last coffin left the ship did the rest of the Menagerie Militia disembark.
Everyone looked to Ghira for an explanation as many families were reunited, the man having expected this had already positioned himself to address them all.
"People of Menagerie, as you may know by now, our mission to assist Mistral and deal with Adam's White Fang defectors has been successful. Unfortunately, it came at the cost of lives, both of ours and those in Mistral.
While our loved ones here died in service of a greater cause, their actions and sacrifices helped to save thousands of lives. Our greatest regret is that we wish that all of this fighting could have been avoided so that they would still be here with us today.
While the splinter group led by Adam Taurus was defeated, either killed in battle or captured, Adam himself was able to get away due to unexpected circumstances.
However, do not let anger fester nor grief consume you. Let us honor the sacrifices of our friends and family by building up Menagerie into a kingdom that they fought for. A kingdom that we will all be proud to call home! A kingdom that prospers and is safe for our descendants, not just from Grimm but so there would be no justification for a hate group like Adam's White Fang!"
The roar of the crowd was almost deafening, especially to those with sensitive ears. But while the services for the deceased will happen later, the spirits of the living were lifted tremendously.
Now there was work to be done as Ghira had his usual administrative duties for Kuo Kuana, Sienna had to deal with the Militia, Kali had a list of names and their resumes for prospective employees of Sirius Academy. And Ilia… Kali had offered her a job for training in stealth and reconnaissance, though had reminded her that it would be best if she finished her own education before taking that up.
The chameleon girl slipped out of the crowd and soon found herself up the mountain where she sat down to think.
The job offer was good and she'd likely also be working with the Militia as well. It's not as though she lacked the skills to be a Huntress- she could fight on par with Blake, Sun, and Itazura and had plenty of experience out in the field thanks to her time in the White Fang.
But to put those skills to use training another generation? To protect the next generation until they could protect themselves?
Maybe she should at least finish her schooling, Goodwitch had offered her an opportunity at Beacon once classes began again next year. Atlas was a flat "No." Perhaps going to Shade would be better as things at Beacon might become… awkward, if or when her past with the White Fang would come to light. Shade didn't have that kind of history or even much exposure to the White Fang's old militant attitudes because of Vacuo being far more accepting of Faunus.
Besides, with Sun there, she'd have a friendly face to greet her and it would be interesting to see where her girlfriend got her education. Itazura spoke highly of Professor Theodore, so it may be worth checking out.
Speaking of Itazura, she should try seeing if the girl was available to talk. Because of her mission, the little fox had been unavailable to talk with and Ilia was missing her a great deal already.
It was kind of funny that she had crushed on Blake for a while but the cat had been rather close to Adam at the time. Granted, Blake and Adam hadn't dated but they were about as close as anyone could be without crossing that line. But to be fair in retrospect, Blake pulled herself out of that relationship as Adam delved further into violence, even though none of it was aimed at her. The cat had tried to get the bull to see reason but all she managed was to slow the fall before she gave up and left the White Fang completely to be a Huntress.
Then Blake showed up one day with Sun and the two of them had only grown closer. Yet her own feelings towards Blake hadn't diminished during her time away, Ilia had been left conflicted. Not only was her old crush back and had a boyfriend officially, but the schism in the White Fang had reached a tipping point.
Yet there was Itazura.
She had come with Blake and Sun and proved herself to be a powerful ally during the fights against Adam and a tricky planner. She had managed to bring hope to Menagerie by way of the CCT tower and building the school around it, recognized the threat that Corsac and Fennec posed and was able to direct Ilia into playing the double agent to gain their trust.
It took nerves of steel to pull off what they did, fooling both sides so well that the White Fang had no problems with giving their weapons to her, unaware that the chameleon and fox pair were tampering with them. And then came her performance at the celebration to blend in seamlessly and position herself so that she'd be the one the sleeper agent of the White Fang would threaten… it couldn't have gone better aside from that all but her fox and the White Fang had thought of her as a traitor to Menagerie.
To be quite honest, there was a bit of thrill in the deception for the greater good, though her time to do that had now passed. She still felt guilty about nearly killing Sun just to trick the Albain brothers into thinking that she was still loyal to them, and by extension, Adam.
And their time together proved to be quite… exciting… enlightening… enticing…
"Perhaps becoming a Huntress will be my act of atonement and teaching will help others avoid what I went through."
—
Raven woke up in a bed in a house that she had spent years believing that she'd never be in again. It was… different, in a good way.
The fact that she was here with her daughter and husband… if one would use the term loosely, was a small miracle given everything over the past two decades.
She was just grateful for the second chance she was given by her family, it eased the guilt that she held for all of those years.
She was pulled from her thoughts by the smell of cooking. "Mmmm… sausage."
She threw a robe on before going downstairs to find Taiyang at the stove and Vernal at the table enjoying a plateful of scrambled eggs and sausages.
"Hey, I gotta get to work soon so you'll have to clean up when you're done." The blonde tells the woman as he loaded up her plate and made sure the stove was off as he put the pan back to cool.
"They have you back to classes already?" Raven lifted an eyebrow.
"Hey, my little vacation was unplanned to start with and I'm surprised that I was given yesterday to adjust to the time zone difference." Tai told her before chugging down a glass of orange juice. "Even then I spent a good chunk getting Tater hooked up with his new place and job."
It was true since the huge man had to duck just to walk in the door of his small home, the door only coming up to his shoulders. The two of them, the Headmaster, and anyone willing to help pitched in to quickly adjust the frame and install a new door for Tater to use easier. The rest of the furniture was largely removed, partly because Tater was too big for the standard bed, partly because he preferred a futon to sleep on. The kitchen table already was capable of folding up against the wall to provide more floor space, meanwhile the chairs were removed so he wouldn't break them by accident. The rest he'd deal with since the options were inconvenient to deal with unless they built a new home around his size.
Overall, the man was content with what he had and would be starting his new job soon, starting with some basic training by the faculty.
The two women had been left to go shopping for more food. Not only had Taiyang been shopping for one plus dog, but the few weeks he'd been away had pretty much guaranteed that all of the food in the fridge had spoiled. So the fridge was cleaned out thoroughly, much to the girl's mixed disdain and satisfaction before going out to restock after seeing what the freezer and pantry held.
For both of them, it was an odd experience after being thieves for most of their lives to be obtaining goods legally. Thankfully, the novelty, frustrations, and choices helped to distract them from old habits… aside from a pack of gum that Vernal was enjoying.
Besides that, they simply enjoyed walking around the island and town, taking in the sights and familiarizing themselves with their new/old home… and killing a few Grimm while did so.
Overall, it was a peaceful change to their lives but one they knew they'd have to work to keep it… and they would fight to maintain it.
—-
When Professors Theodore and Rumpole said that they were going to give Teams ABRN and SSSN a crash course to help them catch up… they didn't mention that the eight students were going to feel like a train had crashed into them.
Say what you want about how laid back things in Vacuo may be regarding their laws and enforcement of those laws, one thing is certain is that the people care about survival. And for Huntsmen and Huntresses at Shade Academy, they don't want any weak links, just strong and stronger links.
Spars wouldn't end when a fighter reached ten percent of their aura, they'd go until their auras fully broke and someone either surrendered or was knocked out.
Other classes were no pushovers either as the teachers demanded The absolute best from their students, emphasizing that failure in the classroom would mean certain death in the field. And they had the stories to demonstrate that.
One of the bigger surprises came from running into some familiar faces.
"I thought I saw a tail I knew!"
Sun spun around to find Coco Adel strutting over to him, along with her team. That also meant that the rest of his team and ABRN stopped for the older students.
Fox Alastair hadn't changed much since Beacon, same sleeveless orange shirt, dark brown pants and boots. The only changes being a leather harness around his chest and shoulders that held his weapons, Sharp Retribution, with the blades pointing at each other and down his back. He also sported a set of orange shin guards that matched his outfit and likely supported his close quarters combat fighting style.
Yatsuhashi Daichi didn't change his outfit at all besides finding a turban-like hat to keep the sun off his head, his massive orange sword called Fulcrum sling on his back.
Likewise, Velvet didn't seem to change much either, the bottom heavy bunny girl's tight suit supported her thick curves well, just a few straps to close off her cuffs while Anesidora sat on her lower back.
Yet it was Coco Adel who changed the most, wearing a light brown jacket with short sleeves over a darker brown long sleeved shirt, and her usual gloves on her hands that covered all but her index fingers. A dark chocolate colored leather vest sat over the jacket and connected to a thick belt around her waist, accentuating her heavy hourglass frame. She still kept her beret and sunglasses, though the latter now has
A second, looser belt hung on her hips displaying her emblem as the buckle and sporting extra bullets along its length. Darker brown, nearly black pants covered her legs with a few gold accents, black boots donned her feet with low heels while featuring what looked like leg warmers of some lighter brown material that offered extra protection from sand in her boots. Gianduja, her rotary gun currently disguised as a black handbag with gold studs, was slung over her shoulder as usual with the strap still covered in extra bullets.
Neptune snapped to attention with a smooth smile and finger guns. "Hey, you're Coco… right? What are you doing here?"
"Ha! Nice try kid, but you're not my type." She fired back with a smirk, enjoying how he withered. "But we're here to be Huntresses." She put an arm around Velvet's shoulder… only to hear a throat being cleared behind her. "And Huntsmen." She jabbed a thumb back at Fox and Yatsuhashi.
"Thanks, we feel so loved." The blind man scoffs, though his grin showed that it was a joke he was long used to.
"I thought you guys were over at Beacon?" Sun had to ask.
"And we thought you were Haven students." Velvet replied with a small smile.
"We were until we transferred." Arslan says as she walks over, shaking hands with the leader of Team CFVY.
"And that is why we are here." Yatsu says gently.
Coco decided to elaborate. "Yeah, we stuck around Beacon and helped with a bunch of the clean up and protected the refugee camps for a while but we eventually wanted to keep on track. Goodwitch understood our reasons to leave… wasn't easy on us either… but soon we'll be starting our last year."
"Wow, you're almost Fourth Years?!" Reese was almost giddy. "Time sure flies."
"You sound like you haven't had classes." Fox comments.
"Technically… no, we didn't." Neptune answered, though not proudly.
Velvet cocked her head. "Technically?"
Sage and Scarlet looked to the hydrophobic boy to encourage him to explain. "We were mostly out in the field, all of the students and teachers were. We'd be on rotations to avoid burnouts and allow for injuries to heal, but when we weren't on missions, we'd have some loose assignments to work on."
"Wait… really?" Coco lowered her sunglasses to look at them clearly.
Arslan stepped up for further elaboration. "There were a lot of Grimm attacks across Mistral territory, even villages that were founded to get away from the kingdom were asking for aid. But in the process of spreading out so far to help everyone…"
"A lot of people were lost." Fox finished, leaving the blonde to nod in affirmation.
"From what we saw on the news, you were busy." Yatsuhashi changed the subject slightly as he addressed Sun.
The monkey boy began walking, prompting the others to follow as he led the way to dinner. "It was no walk in the park, that's for sure."
"I'm sure you had plenty of pussy time." Coco tried to break some of the tension.
While Sun had been expecting the subject of his love life to come up, he had no idea that it would come so soon… or bluntly.
"Coco!" Velvet nearly yelled. She had known the taller girl for three years and still wasn't used to her antics, at least not all of them.
The beret wearing girl simply laughed at the slew of similar feelings on most of the others, not even stopping when a certain rabbit's foot made her feet leave the sand from the kick to her rear.
Sun sighed at the insanity. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. At least I have a love life." That garnered the attention of the older team.
"Alright, go on." Coco got control over herself thanks to the small dig at her from the monkey boy.
"Well… the ride to Menagerie wasn't easy, ran into a Sea Feilong in the final stretch. But we took care of it."
"Damn." Fox voiced his opinion about the feat, knowing how powerful that type of Grimm is from classes.
"Things once we got to land were pretty good. Blake's mom likes me… Ghira took a while to win over." They reached the cafeteria and got their meals, opting to sit together so Sun could continue.
"The White Fang… that was a mess. Apparently we got a message out to Sienna just in time, Adam had gotten to the headquarters just as she was leaving and missed his chance to assassinate her."
"Sounds lucky." Velvet comments. As a Faunus, she had her own grievances with humans and certain groups of them, but she'd never go as far as to attack them. But she did see the news broadcast with Sienna, the woman admitting that she was the one who led the civil rights group towards violence but never desired for the scale that the attacks became. Admittedly, it was rather inspiring to watch as she made a blood oath right on camera to undo her wrongs, starting with disbanding the White Fang and giving all of the resources it had to Menagerie.
"Yeah, she got lucky there but a lot of others weren't when Adam's goons attacked the headquarters while she was gone. Took over the entire island except for a safe room meant for a case like that. But the survivors were stuck in there until we came and fought our way through." Sun stabbed his fork into the ham on his plate.
Fox's morbid curiosity made him ask. "How bad was it?"
"Like Beacon but with nowhere to run. And it still took five of us to beat Adam there."
"Five? Who else was fighting?" Coco needed to know.
"There was me and Blake, Sienna, then Ghira and Kali. Bastard stabbed her in the same place he did Blake." The memories made him clench his fist and tail lash behind him, thankfully nobody was within striking range.
"What?" Both older girls nearly stood up in shock.
"They're fine but it did lay up Kali for a while. Good thing her knives aren't very long but they are sharp." Sun told them to calm the pair down. They all took a minute to settle and eat before continuing.
"But once we got back to Menagerie, things got exciting."
"In which way?" The tone of Coco's voice indicated that she was hoping for something… spicy.
"Apparently Ozpin was looking to help out Menagerie and had a bunch of stuff ready to go, he just needed someone to see if the place was ready for its own Communications Tower. Turned out that the crap Adam was doing was the perfect way to unite the rest of the Faunus and convince them that some help from humans would be needed."
"And you built all of that in less than a year?" Yatsu was incredulous at the feat, having seen the video of the newly built Sirius Academy.
"Yeah, it's amazing how fast that works when a couple of ships arrive filled with supplies and equipment plus all of the engineers needed… and a whole town pitching in."
"It really is something to see!" Velvet bounced in her seat. "I simply must visit for myself!"
"Haha! You're welcome to look around. If I'm there, I can give you a tour!" The blonde boasts.
Coco spoke up, wanting to know more. "I'll take you up on that when we get the chance. But I distinctly remember that your grand opening ceremony was cut short."
"Way to kill the mood." Sun gave her a stink eye.
"Would you prefer me to ask how frisky your girlfriend is? I wouldn't mind."
"Is that all you are going to ask about?"
"Maybe not all but I do like to indulge my curiosity."
"I'm not telling you about our sex life."
"Ooooohhh… now we are breaking ground." She grins as his eyes widened at the choice of words he used.
"That's enough, Coco!" Velvet slaps her friend across her soft stomach with a satisfying crack on contact that her clothes barely muffled.
"You're no fun today, Bunbun." Coco 'sulked', prompting her entire team to roll their eyes.
"Anyway… the White Fang attacked us while we were celebrating but a little fox and chameleon had set things up to throw them off. Kinda makes up for Ilia stabbing me."
"What? You were stabbed?" Velvet was the most concerned, at least openly.
"Yeah." The monkey pulled his shirt collar down to reveal the scar from the weapon and its electric shock. "Nearly killed me but she had to really sell it to maintain her cover as a double agent against the Fang." He put his shirt right. "Wound up having to fight Adam one on one for a bit before I got help… not fun."
"You fought him on your own?" Fox was impressed. 'Damn!' He added through his Telepathy to everyone at the table, surprising the Mistral students. 'Sorry, this is just my Semblance. I can speak to you mind to mind.'
'Please tell me you can't read minds.' Neptune immediately thought.
'No, I can't. And you can only talk to me this way so long as I keep the 'channel' open.'
"Huh, interesting. I wonder if that can work with my clones?" Sun said out loud.
"Maybe we can test that later. Back to Adam." Fox waved his hand, speaking aloud once more.
"Hmm… not too much to say about it, I was just doing my best not to get killed and almost was." Sun continued his tale.
"Almost?" Reese had to ask.
"There was some bat guy that had tried to jump me and Blake earlier as we ran to defend the town. We beat him and tied the guy up but I guess his buddies freed him. But the guy went after Blake while I had Adam's attention and I really pissed him off 'cause he used his Semblance to blast me but Blake threw the bat guy in the way. There… wasn't much left of him." He really didn't like to think about that, what that other Faunus must have felt as his body was being destroyed. He rather preferred to think that it happened too fast to feel… it made him feel better given that he was the intended victim.
"But now with the two of us, we could counter some of his attacks. Ghira and Sienna came in a bit later and helped turn the tide… but not before Ghira lost his arm."
"Oh jeez… and he still held that broadcast to the world?" Coco pinched her nose as she remembered that video sent everywhere, the man laying in a hospital bed with his left side bandaged and arm gone from the shoulder.
"Yeah, he did that and got the last hit on Adam in that fight- hit him with an explosion even as he lay on the ground bleeding." He spoke with pride before souring. "Too bad the bastard got away."
"Was that why he was at Haven?" Bolin wanted to know.
"We found out that he was going to attack there so we trained a militia and went after him. Ran into a bunch of small outposts along the way before trapping their forces between us and the wall." Sun cracked his knuckles as he recalled that fight.
"Right, that's where we were trying to hold them off before they blew up the wall." Arslan nodded. Her statement drew the attention of CFVY to herself, relieving Sun in the process.
"They… blew up the wall?" Yatsuhashi was surprised as he knew those defenses were thick and sturdy.
"We were on the wall when it happened." Sage insisted.
Neptune raised a finger. "Well… we were jumping off the wall when it happened."
"Still made those guys fight and pay as they climbed over the rubble." Reese added. "Who would have thought that Nadir had such a great throwing arm with those grenades?"
"Huh, nice job, Pinky." Coco compliments.
Nadir flustered from the praise. "It's not pink… it's lightish red."
Velvet tilted her head as her ears twitched. "Umm… isn't that what we call… pink?"
Bolin waved things off before they went any deeper into the rabbit hole of color names and gradients. "If we don't cut that off now, we'd spend the rest of the afternoon on the subject. Let's get back to what happened."
"Anyway…" Reese began. "The White Fang came through what was left of the wall and we did our best to slow them down. But we got lucky that some of the army got to us then to stop them."
"And I was there helping the Militia to divide their attention from behind." Sun adds, spotting Velvet giving Coco a warning look for whatever the taller woman might say.
"So you were able to stop them?" Fox wanted to know.
Sun clenched a fist. "Almost… but Adam had a group that had gotten in earlier and attacked the Mistral Army from behind. During the confusion, he led everyone he had left back up to Haven while causing as much damage as possible. We got slowed down trying to rescue people along the way.
When we got to Haven, there was another group causing damage to the place, we just happened to get lucky that Teams RWBY, JNPR, and DAIT were there at the time."
"Please tell me those guys kicked the asses of whoever was causing trouble." Yatsuhashi asks.
Sun shrugged. "Missed all of the action that went on there, at least until we blasted Adam into their fight. Found out a bit later that Weiss was nearly killed but that was before Adam tried using her as a hostage." He paused at the gasps of surprise and fear, expecting one of them to say something. "Turned out to be a bad idea as she summoned this huge suit of armor from nowhere and it beat the crap out of Adam."
"And you captured him then?" Velvet asked with hope.
Sun clenched his fists again. He hated that he had to keep from telling the entire truth but it was still true in what he was saying. "We got distracted when a guy that was thought to be beaten showed back up and killed Professor Lionheart. One of the others used that as cover to grab Adam and run."
"That's how he died?" Yatsuhashi questioned while the others were shocked and speechless. As a Mistral native, he knew of Leonardo Lionheart well enough, even getting a tour of Haven by the man with the rest of his class before he had settled on attending Beacon Academy. The man took great pride in his school and cared for his students and faculty, even if age was catching up to him. And that didn't include that he was a well respected Huntsman in his prime, which more than likely helped to get him to the position of Headmaster.
"A poisoned dart right to his throat." Sun acknowledged.
"Damn." It was hard to tell who said that but it was noticeable that the cafeteria had gotten rather quiet as the other students listened in.
"Anyway, we stayed a few more weeks to help deal with things like interrogating the White Fang we were able to catch, some rebuilding, and dealing with the Mistral Council." Sun told them
"And then you came here." Fox finished.
"Yeah. We gotta finish school and graduate to become full Huntsman." Neptune finished.
"And Huntresses." Reese added.
"Anyway, do you guys have any plans tonight?" Coco asks with a raised voice, getting the rest of the students to turn back to their own business but it wasn't hard to tell that they were all discussing what was said about Menagerie and Mistral.
"Studying." Bolin told her flatly. "We've been getting a crash course in the lessons we've mostly missed over the last year."
Fox was interested. "No combat classes?"
"We get a few spars to make sure our skills stay sharp but we've been kinda fighting since last year." Scarlet shrugs.
Coco suddenly slammed a fist into her open palm. "Oh yeah, Sun!"
"Huh?"
"Since you guys came here because Beacon and Haven aren't opening for classes until next year, why didn't Bellabooty come here with you or you go with her?"
"Please don't tell me you're going to call her that the next time you see Blake." The blonde gave her a deadpan stare.
"Eh, no promises." She shrugs. "Gotta admit that she does have a nice booty."
"She's my girlfriend."
"And you don't stare at it? Grab it?"
"Her butt is not a toy!" He fired back, getting red in the face. 'Until she feels frisky while we're alone!' He amends in his head.
"That's enough Coco!" Velvet smacked her leader once more, ensuring that she put some power behind the strike. Then she was perky as she turned back to Sun. "Sorry about her, sometimes she gets a little out of hand. Back to why you aren't with Blake right now?"
The monkey boy was a little surprised by the sudden shifts in the rabbit but rolled with it. "Part of it was needing to reconnect with her team and friends. They… had a few issues to work out that I know about. Part of it was that they were gonna get a crash course in Atlas before they go back to Beacon."
"Oh! That is nice." Velvet clapped her hands a little.
"Yeah, and if they're lucky they'll stop by here. Gotta see if my cousin, Star, is still kicking around." Sun shrugs.
"Oh, introducing her to your family, eh?" Coco had calmed down to normal.
"Well… I lived with her family for nearly a year now. Kali and Ghira are great but it's kinda my turn for family." He admits as he rubs the back of his head.
"And you need to find her? Your cousin." Nadir asks, finding it an odd thing.
Sun took the question in stride. "I don't know if you've noticed yet, but Vacuo doesn't have much in the way of stable ground in a lot of places… plus other things that could happen. Gotta see if her dojo is still where it used to be or if she moved."
Team CFVY stood up and Yatsuhashi bowed his head. "Sorry for leaving suddenly, we have to get to a mission."
"It was nice meeting you all again!" Velvet waved as Fox and Coco simply raised their right hands as their waves goodbye. "Maybe we can team up on missions sometime!"
—
Well outside of Mistral, three women sat around a fire to keep themselves warm. One is rather diminutive with pink and brown hair, one with shoulder length green hair, darker skin and red eyes, and the tallest hid half of her face under a black mask and her hair.
"S-Salem isn't going to be happy we failed… I-is she?" Emerald shivered under her blanket.
"No, she won't." Cinder glared at the fire, unintentionally making it blaze much higher for a few seconds as her anger spiked before she reigned it in. "Which is why we are going to make up for that in the best way possible."
Neopolitan sat up attentively as Emerald looked to her boss with a raised eyebrow. "How?"
"We're taking Atlas down… and I already have a plan for that."
"Isn't… Watts already working on that?" She asks, missing the sudden glare from an amber eye cast her way. "S-Salem pulled him from Mistral to assist her with something with the promise that he'd have full control over the situation in Atlas."
"Do you think I care about him?" The fire flared again. "He has his uses but he's only a tool. If he gets in my way…" This time her eye burst into flames and the campfire became a towering inferno reaching as tall as the trees around them. "He'll become a broken tool. One that will be disposed of."
Cinder took a moment to calm herself and quench the flame beside her, relishing in the fear on both women's faces from the searing display. With the fire now back to a natural size, she lay down and covered herself with a blanket. "Now get some sleep, we're finding ourselves a ride north tomorrow."
Emerald immediately complied while Neo looked to the stars, those that she could see through the trees. She never mentioned that when the White Fang broke through the wall in Mistral, more than a few met their ends by her hand. While unlikely, those she took from the fight could have been what was needed to tip the scales in their favor. Spider and Lil' Miss Malachite certainly didn't mind her assistance in defending the kingdom, the confusion from the attack and the loss of Lionheart was granting the organization a boon for control of Mistral, though they preferred to stay as the unseen rulers.
Still, she had a job to do and lay back to get some rest.
—
TARGET WAS FOUND IN MISTRAL. SPOTTED BOARDING TRAIN TO ARGUS.
This was the message that was intercepted by his intelligence officers. It was short, minimal, and tracing the exact source was impossible.
However, the coding embedded in the signal as well as the frequency of it was rather specific. So specific that there were only twenty devices that would have been able to receive and decode anything more than a burst of static.
Twenty devices with the vast majority of them residing in Atlas. Four more were directly connected to the Communication Towers outside of Atlas.
Five more were distributed across Atlas in key locations. The rest were kept sealed in a vault until needed.
James had some thinking to do.
—
"Adam was here!" Blake screeched as she leapt to her feet.
Teams JNPR, RWBY, DAIT, and ROCQ were in the Nikos home having a meeting to catch up on what's been happening to them since they separated at Mistral. Maria's presence was being strangely ignored but both Qrow and Ray seemed far more willing to include her.
Needless to say, DAIT wasn't exactly pleased that the others weren't in Atlas yet but they understood the delays thanks to Grimm, Grimm, more Grimm… and family.
At the same time, the other teams were rather disappointed that DAIT hadn't been able to track Hazel, Tyrian, and Mercury better. Granted, they did surprisingly well for such a cold trail but it wasn't particularly exciting until Denko brought up yesterday's fight with Adam Taurus.
Now they watched as the cat girl tried to pace in the crowded room.
"Blake, you need to calm down." Weiss reached out and took the girl's wrist as she passed by.
"Calm down? Calm down?! How can anyone be calm with him around? He's left a trail of destruction wherever he's been! Beacon, Menagerie, Mistral!"
Denko stepped in front of her to look her in the eyes. "And I beat him."
"W-what?" She was in disbelief but did stop.
"I said that I beat him." He paused to let that sink in. "Technically it was a draw but he was in just as bad shape as me but we had a literal canyon between us or we would have kept at it."
Blake had to process that, dropping back to her seat next to Weiss, partially sitting on the girl at first. "But how? It took five of us to beat him at the White Fang Headquarters and he was still able to walk away."
Denko smirked at the cat. "Did you forget that he's not the only one who can fight teams on their own?" The mere mention of that had RWBY shivering at the memories of Denko fighting them all at once and winning easily, often without using his own weapon and completely without using his semblance. "But yeah… he pushed me to my limits but I did the same to him."
Qrow clapped a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "And that strength is a good part of the reason you are my replacement. Gonna need that power more often now that the Witch is being more active."
"Witch?" Yang had to ask. "Don't you mean to call her Bitch?"
"That's taken by Cinder." Pyrrha interjects, though nobody argued that. Nobody batted an eye at the bitter tone in her voice either, they'd say the same… aside from Weiss who thought that it was beneath her to use and Ruby who had a self-imposed rule against swearing.
"Wait… Your replacement Uncle Qrow?" The plump Reaper asks as this was the first time her role model had spoken about retirement beyond a dismissal.
"Hey, I'm not getting any younger and I can't keep fighting forever. Gotta pass on the torch sometime." The elder Huntsman laughs.
"Why not me?" His niece had to ask.
Fortunately, Qrow had anticipated that question for years. "Hey, don't try jumping the gun just yet. You may be good, better than most of your age… but you still have a lot of training to go through. Heck, you haven't even graduated to earn your license."
"So in a few years?" She sounded hopeful, though it reminded Qrow and Yang about how she would ask for a cookie.
"Hmmm… maybe. Do you really think that you'll be able to do more than give me a good workout?"
"Uncle Qrow!" Her outburst really helped to change the atmosphere from shortly before, now with the group laughing rather than worrying.
"But why Denko?" Yang wanted to know. She already knew how much her uncle was away and wasn't particularly thrilled about her boyfriend potentially being away for weeks or months at a time.
Itazura let out a small flash of her Foxfire to draw attention and stop any conversations before they got out of hand. "Technically… all of our team are Qrow's replacement."
That certainly got everyone's attention.
"What do you mean? Is there anyone else?" Weiss wanted to know, voicing the same query that the others have.
"Kid, that is a bit of a long story." Qrow gave her a tired look, though part of that may have been because of the late hour.
Talon came to his aid. "How about we tell you all about it in the morning? Have breakfast with a story." She looked around to see more than a few nods of approval. "Okay! Let's go to bed!"
There were plenty of yawns seen as everyone got up and dispersed with JNPR splitting up between the neighboring homes but one thing that stood out was how RWBY and ROCQ were confused as to where to go.
Anya grabbed Qrow by the arm. "Come with us, the hotel we're at has plenty of room. The girls too."
Team RWBY looked at each other, rather embarrassed that they hadn't thought about finding a place to stay and just because their friends had a place to crash, that didn't mean that they could impose as well.
"Um… yes, let's go." Weiss tried to save face as much as possible, grabbing her suitcase and following the older team. The rest of the group quickly complied with her example.
AN: There was a bit of jumping around the world of Remnant here and for those who haven't read or have forgotten some things from Big Issues, Sun helps you to remember as he tells Team CFVY about what he's been up to over the past year. And a fun bit is that Coco's new outfit is based on Princess Leia's bounty hunter outfit from Star Wars, as is the hat for Yatsuhashi, specifically the helmets used by the Rebels on Endor.
Now... I feel that I should inform you all that I take no pleasure in the election that took place here in the US, and I imagine that many of my readers feel the same way. I doubt things will be good in the new administration and have every reason to expect things to be bad, I do hope that anyone reading this will be safe. If anything, this series can be a small bit of an escape from the real world... writing this series will be part of mine.
Anyway, I hope that you all have enjoyed the chapter and will tune in for more!