Once more, his lack of anything noteworthy left him to wallow in the few shots Junior poured every now and then. Most of it was just water, but sometimes he faced temptations to go the Jay route and ask for actual booze. Josh refused though; he wouldn't pour any out for his friend.
Jay could drink his own shots when he got back.
"Your news was spot on." Junior laid a fresh refill of chilly water before him; ice clinked against the glass. "We managed to get a confession out of one of the men."
"And what happened to him?" Josh probably didn't want to know, but a part of him worried. He stood firmly in the camp of dealing out justice, but he didn't count murder as just. Sure, some crimes made you want to kill, but that didn't mean you should.
"For now, we've got him stowed away somewhere." Junior hummed, and following some silence and a swift peek, elaborated on the most important point. "Alive, in case you're wondering."
"Even after what he did?"
"The dead can't pay for their crimes."
"Some might argue death is the payment."
"Aye." Junior continued to clean a few extra shot glasses, swapping old for new regularly. "But last I checked, you can't feel anything once you die. You want someone to pay for something, they gotta do it while alive; unless, of course, getting rid of 'em is how you get to that payment."
Josh toyed with his fill, at most licking at the ice cubes floating atop the surface before he plopped it back down; the action abandoned. Junior then set another glass down, filled fresh. Josh might have asked about it, until the bar owner took it in hand and enjoyed a splash of cold himself.
"You don't like what we do, do ya?"
Josh grimaced and his eyes lost focus, but he didn't lie.
"Not particularly."
"But you still stick around. Why is that?"
"Jay's here."
"He's not now."
"He usually is."
"True." Junior rolled his cup back and forth roughly. Little waves formed on the surface, but never spilled over. "But even when he was here, you still stayed. You could have taken him elsewhere, but you chose to stick around. Logically you could just be making a smart call, but I feel like someone with your mind has their limits."
Had he known he'd be called out so easily, Josh might have prepared a real answer. Sadly, he had no script, and he didn't feel like lying over something so simple.
"None of you seemed all that bad, and Jay vouched for you too."
"Is that all?"
"Why so curious all of a sudden?" Josh curled a brow, only to blink and shake his head. "Sorry. That came out rude."
"Don't worry about it." Junior chuckled a little and sighed. "Smart people know when to question intentions. Even if it's rude, it'll keep you in good shape most times. As for my curiosity, you can say I find it a little odd that a guy like you, someone who seems to have a strong sense of morality, is worried about scum getting killed. Most men would smile; not to openly celebrate a bad man's death, but take peace in it."
So I'm not like most men, huh? That checked out, in all the worst ways. Even in Remnant, the ways of man remained resolute. Always the same anger, and next to no mercy.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Hmm?" Junior looked curious and a little caught off guard. Nonetheless he nodded.
"Is it wrong to try and save everyone? Even if they're the worst of monsters?"
Josh got his reply firstly in the tune of a strong whistle.
"Now that's a new one." Junior loosened his grip, pushing around his half-empty drink. "Some might call it a childish thought too. Trying to save everyone; even monsters." He shrugged, and Josh had been ready to take that as is. "A bit too hopeful for my tastes. I've seen too much to believe it's possible."
"Yeah..."
"No." Junior's answer dribbled out almost without effort. "I don't think it's wrong. Don't get me wrong, because I don't at all believe anything that altruistic can live in the world we inhabit. But the desire to help people... there's nothing wrong about that."
"Even murderers, or kidnappers?"
"Everyone thinks of themselves as the hero, kid. And if not that, then they see themselves as a victim of some kind. Now I know people won't be too keen on you giving bad folks the getaway, but that's not what you mean, is it? You're there thinking about the what if? You believe everyone can change for the better, and that if people can overcome what hurts them, they have a chance to become someone less spiteful or vile."
Josh had no idea what to say, but he nodded along anyway.
"I'll be honest, I don't think you can do it." Junior swiped up his drink. "But hey, I've been wrong before. And when it comes to you kids, things for some strange reason tend to go every which way."
As Junior cleaned up, Jay removed himself from the stool.
"I think I'm going to go for a walk. I'm tired of being cramped in the club."
"Need one of my men? They ain't the best, but they can lend a hand if you catch yourself in a scrap."
"No thanks. I don't plan on getting in any fights." Josh stretched, unwinding the kinks in his stiff joints. "I just need to clear my head."
Junior nodded as he walked out.
"Be safe."
.
.
"Crap!" Yang yelled as she threw away two idiots who thought they could jump her. "The train's taking off!"
Ruby scowled. Why couldn't these guys just leave them alone and run? She beat between several in a flash, her baby acting more like a rocket than a gun as she readjusted her angle with every shot.
"This way!" shouted Blake who dipped into a sprint. Ruby saw the clear shot ahead and joined her, as did most everyone else.
Several Fang continued to blast them, but atop the moving cars they paid them no mind and instantly found a way inside through a latch.
"Woah..."
They could say that again. Several crates of dust lined the car, all compact and ready for transport. But where? Weiss went to work first. Small glyphs split physical locks in half, and she flicked up the tops to show a multitude of crystals all in pristine condition.
"No powder. No tags. Not even a receipt." Weiss dropped the hatch. "These were taken from shops, not a full shipment. Either that, or they've mixed their supply."
"What's so special about that?" Yang stepped up, her hand primed to take a peek again until Weiss intervened and pulled her away."
"It means we can't tell the quality or power of these particular crystals."
"I thought that was done through size."
"Mostly." Weiss laid an uneasy look over the other boxes. "But depending on their excavation, some of their energy could have been lost. We have machines which drain a bit of their power during the digging process as a way to lower the chances of accidental ignition. Normally, each crate comes with instructions detailing safe use and storage, along with how powerful a batch is."
"Weiss." Blake stepped up. "What happens if you were to mix various crystals with different levels of power?"
Weiss squinted, her lip in a twist, but it flattened out as she looked to mull it over.
"The power bleeds, from the most intense into the least, like taking a full glass of water and pouring half of it into an empty one beside it. You get two half-filled glasses, only with dust, the results are a lot more volatile."
"Hold up." Yang stepped up again to interrupt things. "Does that mean you can take a bunch of weak crystals and supercharge them by leaving them around a big one?"
"Yes." Weiss nodded. "It'll take some time, but that's exactly what happens. But that doesn't change the size of the dust blast. Small crystals will still make small explosions, they'll simply be more powerful; more condensed, in a way. There's a limit to how strong or weak the change can be, but it's vast enough that some tiny crystals can be super-charged to eat through anything within the blast radius."
"And big explosions can be weakened to the point they only blow people away." Blake got her confirmation from Weiss. Ruby then watched as Blake moved between the crates. "Then they may be evening out their supply in hopes of more powerful controlled bursts."
"Without knowing how strong this collection is, we can't know for sure." Weiss stepped away, only to be startled by a wack.
Everyone, including Ruby herself, peered ahead to spot Neo up against the door to the next car; her head tilted as if to say "come on."
"She's right." Ruby thus took the reins and rolled up, where she got a grin from the girl who seemed itching for conflict, before she turned back to her team. "We don't have time to wonder. We have to stop the train and rescue Jay."
At least everyone could agree on that, but every car proved more worrisome as cache upon cache of dust crates cluttered every step of the way. So much dust, and with the train moving, they had to assume it was going somewhere. Ruby didn't know much about Mountain Glenn, least of all some secret underground city, but she knew that wherever this tunnel ended off would not be good to reach.
Several cars in and their trip got interrupted by a massive quake. Nobody had time to question what went down before Neo zipped out the door. Ruby kept pace just in time to see her mount the top of the car, and she joined the woman before a sight truly gut wrenching.
A wave of grimm spilled from a beam of light, which itself rained down from this strange gaping hole in the tunnel. Here, she got to witness first hand as a car came loose and drifted back, before light blinded her momentarily. It all made sense in the worst of ways, but Yang said it best.
"Brothers' sake! They're letting in the grimm!"
"We're headed north..." Weiss shuddered, eyes wide and fast to act as her head whipped around back. "There is no drop off point. This isn't a transport trip, it's an invitation. They're going to blow a hole into Vale..."
"And in march the grimm." Blake stepped forward, Gambol Shroud primed. "We don't have time to look back. We have to stop them."
"Everyone grab on!" Ruby rounded everyone up as fast as she could, and let her semblance guide them forward in a single blast. It blinded her partially, but she knew they had at least five or six more cars to go forward before they got close, and so released them on the fifth to check for more.
She hated being blind, especially when you came face to face with a fast moving dead end.
In that moment her body grew heavy, and she fell flat atop a foggy black glyph. She could make out Weiss's "hold on" briefly before all her senses vanished, which left her head in a spin and her whole near totally numb.
.
.
"You still alive, kid?"
Perry nodded, managed to pull himself free of the wreck, and followed Roman on out. That was the last time he crashed a train on Cinder's behalf. A few weeks ahead of schedule, sure, but the big boom went off without too much disaster. While partially his fault for thinking the kids would show up to try and grab Jay silently, the disaster had been set in motion long before he got involved.
Still, Perry didn't seem to be all that great at walking straight; ol' four-eyes swayed under every step. His aura? From the looks of it: shattered. Still, they lived, and with how persistent Little Red's lot painted themselves, he had an inkling they'd gotten Jay out good enough.
It wasn't like the kid had anywhere to go other than towards them.
With his second in command - for this mission anyway - under his shoulders, Roman gave the guy one lone warning before he fixated a solid chunk of his aura into a grand leap to lift them out of the smoking hole.
Central Park... not too bad. While no mayor's office, at least the flat-ish field gave the grimm ample space to move. Although things didn't look to be going all that great for the White Fang. With most of the city distracted by the raid on Garanite's crib, or at least the police response to keeping people out of the raid, the grimm who crawled in had no one to target besides the White Fang themselves.
On second glance, maybe it hadn't been going too badly after all.
The grimm didn't simply wait around, and neither did the goobers with guns. Without people around to hunt, the grimm who hadn't locked onto the Fang began to spread, swarming down streets with ludicrous speeds. A black tsunami had broken through several key points already, and Vale had just enough tunnels and crevices to fill. This would have been the part where Atlas or Vale swooped in to defeat him, but with nobody around and half of the Fang making mad dashes to higher ground while on the run, Roman wound up with a second opinion in mind.
"Time to go." Being only two men made for easy traversal, and he led Perry alone over to the one perfect escape route that never failed them in any capacity: the sewers. Cinder might grill him later, but again, this whole shindig shouldn't have gone down until later; he'd call that an abridge of the plan.
Besides, she'd probably just find another way to get him in cuffs later on, and so Roman felt nothing as he dipped with Perry in tow.
.
.
Ruby opened her eyes to a sight most unsettling: a beowolf's maw clasping desperately towards her face, but held back by the steel beam that pierced its torso and pinned it in one place.
She blinked, glanced up at the trail of light, and noticed one final hole where a few panicked shouts and gunfire tore apart the air. She moved, ignored the sting in her side, and managed to confirm that her aura lived. Not anywhere close to full or even half, but not broken either. A brisk shake got the little chunks of cement painting her hair to sift through and fall off, before she shot up not with her semblance, but a solid leap.
Where she came face to face with small rivers of burned scarlet. A metallic tang wafted from the puddles, where globs of discolored dirt piled and a black film dripped down to wet crumbled piles of debris that once upheld the underground.
Squads of White Fang fought, and lost, not in droves but groups of two or three.
She wondered momentarily how many were stowed away on the train, but those thoughts, like the men and women who permeated them, rapidly dropped in numbers as members who once put up a solid resistance beforehand were tossed and torn effortlessly by the very monsters they invited in.
For some reason, she couldn't decide how to feel seeing so many drop.
A numbness had taken her, the same type which usually overcame an injury when you laid an icy pack over it. The cold, unlike its counterpart in soothing bruises, did not provide any aid. Rather, Ruby experienced something strange. The shakes, no different than when she'd first stepped into Beacon and thus had been abandoned by her sister, grabbed hold of her neck.
Was it a headache? Hard to be certain when it seemed that her stomach had started up a routine of jumping jacks. And that smell... Was it blood? It didn't reek, like she thought it would, but the incoherency of-
Ruby doubled over, her rolling head, the moist suffocating air, and pounding stomach having finally teamed up to empty her stomach's contents all over the ground. She didn't get it. Violence clung to her like the hair atop her head; being a huntress made fighting second nature. So why did the sight of so much blood make her this queasy? It couldn't be just the blood. She'd slain plenty of grimm before, and while their insides were a goopy black that evaporated quickly, the mess was similar.
Her eyes tilted over a fresh corpse dropped; the sickness returned; she eyed the killer instead; it left. So long as she kept her eyes on the grimm, she could move; act; fight.
But right as she raised Crescent Rose, ready to zip into a fight she surely shouldn't have been facing right about now, an acapella of whining and fright flooded in from all around them. North, East, South, West; no matter the direction, people's horrified screams lit up the night.
And the grimm before her, who'd just finished off its kill, thus twitched and ignored her.
All the rest acted similarly and rounded up together before they rushed off everywhere. Few things could draw a grimm's attention away from a living target, save the promise of more prey. And in her moment of silence amidst the ruptured park, Ruby had the chance to ask herself.
Where was everyone?
Coughing behind her turned Ruby's head, and she saw Blake finish hauling Yang up from the hole. Weiss leapt up on her own, but collapsed seconds later onto her knees. It was after Yang got up on her own two legs that Ruby recognised they could use her help or attention, and she whipped up beside her group.
"Guys!" Her throat hurt, and she resigned herself not to shout again. "Ow..."
"Rubes?" Yang blinked a couple of times, cleared her eyes, and warily observed their surroundings. "Jeez... What the dust happened here?"
"Grimm." Ruby couldn't keep the unsettled scowl off her face. "But they didn't stay. They left."
"They sense everyone else's fear." Weiss joined them, and although her appearance feigned composure, Ruby could hear the uncertainty in her voice. "They're spreading out to catch whoever's closest."
"Then we have no time to rest." Yang clenched her fists, ready for a fight, but Ruby stopped her there with a question.
"Did you see Jay?"
"Sorry, but no."
Ruby went to ask Weiss, but Blake intervened.
"Roman was supposed to be with him, right." According to Neo, yes... maybe. Neo nodded, having stepped in from who knows where? Their unofficial guide carried in her hands a bloodied blade, which she flicked clean before it got shoved within the parasol she carried around with her. Blake, like the rest, either ignored that part or simply didn't see it and went on to say, "if we find Roman, we'll find Jay."
"But where is he?" Yang waved her arms. "He clearly didn't stick around."
"We don't have time to go looking." Weiss stepped over and took Yang by the arm. "The grimm are moving, and while the way here is clogged by the train remnants, that doesn't mean the other holes blown along the track didn't spill into Vale."
"Over there." Ruby pointed south, down a road a little wider than the few alleyways surrounding the park; the very spot she'd seen the last grimm who eyed her run towards and vanish. "I saw one go that way."
The noises of panic began to blow up, and each individual scream to pierce the clouds forming above sent shivers down Ruby's spine. Police sirens began to pick up, unsettlingly absent before, but they offered no comfort. There weren't enough grimm in the park when she got up, and despite the small amount of bodies all over the place, they too seemed few.
And where could Roman have gone during the mess?
Weiss pulled her from the dizziness, a firm hand clasped over her own.
"Come on. We need to move."
R-right. They had to go, and so she kept up, even as her fear - true and genuine - finally began to settle in. What did the White Fang gain from letting the grimm into Vale, and why did they want Jay?
Author's note
…
Writing when sick? Not a great idea, but it got us through this one.
Not sure how I feel about this chapter, honestly, but it had to be finished. Train segment went by quickly, mainly because there wasn't much to it. On the plus side, we get a bit of info surrounding dust and how it acts in groups, so that was neat. Roman makes his getaway with Perry. RWBY and Neo show up to a near empty park, with the grimm now flooding the city not only from one whole, but a few.
Kind of wild; kind of not; probably going to speed up next time.
Until next time.