Back when Juane had been in school, middle school; not the one he failed out of, his class had taken a trip to his village's sleepy police office. Fondly he'd always remembered being allowed to sit in one of the cruisers and play with the siren, Turned out sitting cuffed in the back was less fun.
"Shouldn't you be on the other side of the bars?" He questioned the unsettling police LT, a polished name tag displaying the word Grim; presumably revealing the man's name and his family's unusual naming convention.
"Mr. Arc, why would I need to do that? You are no danger to me and most likely not going to jail."
"The cuffs kinda make that hard to believe." He said raising them for effect.
"Yes, Sgt. Dan just dislikes you." From the driver's seat Dan flipped the bird.
With that solved Jaune's mind focused on the more pressing matter of not being incarcerated. "So I'm not going to jail?"
"Probably." Grim shrugged. "Depends on why you and your accomplice killed the butcher,"
The fact that they thought he'd killed the butcher didn't bode well for him and Jaune had to wonder if this was just some elaborate ruse to get him to confess, but he knew VPD was comfortable filling in blanks with outright falsehoods. Putting in the effort to do things the proper way seemed less likely the implication that they had some other way to spin this in their favor, probably getting him entangled in more trouble than he already was.
"And if you're willing to do some work for us."
There it was. "I didn't kill him." He objected. The dubious face Grim produced was reasonable enough considering he was covered in the dead man's blood, but his lack of words seemed a good enough indication to Jaune to explain what had happened. "I didn't have an accomplice, that was my client. We were investigating the recent dust robberies and the White Fa-"
"Dan." Grimm interrupted. "You know that coffee shop I love?'
A gruff grunt from the front signaled acknowledgment.
"Get me a cup, large, no sugar- actually, one sugar, minstrel blend." The vehicle lurched as it turned in a new direction.
"Same for me." Jaune commanded, not that he wasn't off put by the sudden turn in the conversation or particularly wanted coffee, but because Dan was a dick and he knew it'd piss him off.
"Anyways." Grim continued, getting back on track. "Skip all the details, what happened in the shop."
"Well, I approached the butcher and told him who I was, then…
"FUCK YOU ARC!" the Butcher screamed. "Death to enemies of the fang!"
Taken aback by the sudden fervor of what was a completely normal butcher a moment ago Jaune and Blake didn't react in time to stop him from pulling out a hand cannon from behind his counter.
"Wait-." Blake was all managed before the man took aim and pulled the trigger.
Blood and brain matter flew everywhere as the butcher fell dead.
Blake swiveled around looking for the shooter only to see nothing.
"Owwww…." Jaune moaned from the ground, clutching his head. "Did you get him, Blake?" He questioned.
Blake looked back between the fresh corpse and Jaune. "Ummmmm…..I think you did Jaune."
"The bullet ricocheted off your Aura." Grim summarized.
"Pretty much."
Instead of the suspicion or out-right disbelief that Jaune expected he watched as Grim let out a small chuckle. "Seems to me your luck is good as bad ."
A tired sigh escaped the blond. "You have no idea."
"Well seeing how you haven't committed any crime I seem to lack the leverage to make you take on a new assignment on the city's behalf." Grimm mused.
As nice as that sounded Jaune had been around the block to know that he wasn't about to just stroll out of this car with a coffee. "That really gonna stop you?"
"Mr. Arc I am aware you are an man of experience that may lend to see you perceiving the VPD and its methods in a negative light. For that I apologize, you have not been treated with the correct respect you warrant. I will not threaten with something as thuggish as blackmail."
Jaune leaned forwards, this was the part where the "but" came.
"I'm prepared to offer you department intelligence to assist with your profession, continued protection from reasonable transgressions against the law, and generous compensation for your time assisting the VPD; discretion warranted of course."
The offer seemed solid, intel and protection was worth its weight in gold, and if he was honest with himself a part of him liked the idea of more work. It was a memory of school that kept him from say yes there and then. Cardin and other bullies hadn't just gone up and smacked him in the face outright all the time, they put on smiles and gave the occasional word of encouragement to lull him into vulnerable situations. As his mother said you catch more flies with honey with vinegar. This whole thing seemed too good to be on the level, if it was the regular threats he could understand it, but the carrot Grimm held out just made it seem all the more poisonous.
He weighed his options, but seeing few, the straightforward approach seemed as good as any. "No." Internally he braced for the stick that usually came with the carrot. At the very least he could get an idea how the cops intended to really control and eventually bury him.
If the rejection was taken negatively by the LT then he didn't show it."Your current employer, she seemed open to let you take the fall for a murder. It strikes me that you might have chosen your client poorly."
Throughout the negotiation Jaune had held back showing much emotion, a tactic he found useful in these situations, but he grimaced as it felt like a hot knife was in his gut at the mention of Blake. Sense she'd run out on him; he hadn't had the time to really process it. Now a complicated round of emotions battered his thoughts. He saw her looks of disappointment in their investigation, of course she saw him as the failure he was. How could he fault her? A part of his mind chastised as it brought all his screw ups to the fore as evidence. Instead of the shame of his pre-Beacon life, the rage he'd started to feel more often ignored it all. This whole job was basically a favor and she'd left him out high and dry. Screw why she did it, he gotten fucked and he promised there and then that Blake was dead to him.
For a moment his brain churned towards more hatred but the situation he was in demanded he disregard it. "Then you see why I may be hesitant to involve myself with more questionable clients."
"Understandable sentiment, but I was under the impression that you and Belladonna had a personal past together that lent to a favorable relationship between you and her."
"I did too." Sadness and shame at him thinking he might have actually been friends with Blake almost made him miss the fact that the police knew about her in the first place. An alarm bell went off in his head. Why even mention Blake? "What's this about?"
"I happen to know she has been hunting the White Fang and I worry about a potential future huntress' wellbeing,"
Guess this was the part where he was just getting boldfaced lied to, Jaune supposed. As easy as the bull shit was to see he found himself confused, what was the LT play for with all this?
"And I want you to have her leave this dangerous business. In the department's experience, huntress students playing vigilante have a habit of doing more harm than good. Some sadly run afoul with the law, and with the recent spike in anti-fanus prisoners thanks to you, it won't be unimaginable for one to accidentally end up in a cell with the wrong crowd…."
Threatening Blake, why? Jaune tried to fathom what angle this was. They could threaten him or Cardin, but they knew he was just betrayed by Blake. He had just sworn to not give a crap about her.
"...or more tragically get moved into the wrong gendered cell. It's rare but it happens." Grimm paused for effect before an evil grin formed. "It's never pretty."
Bastard. Jaune's hands formed into fists as his face grew hot. "So you want me to stop Blake." He spoke through gritted teeth.
"No, , I just know you are a righteous man, and I happen to know where Miss Belladonna will go tonight if she has any success in tracking the White Fang. The job involves entering a particular home and leaving certain items and an understanding that you will take some certain work afterwards."
Blake screwed him, and everything rational said he shouldn't care. For gods sake he'd just promised she was dead to him
"I'll do it."
Fuck promises, he wasn't gonna let them hurt Blake. If someone asked him to explain why he couldn't have explained it; not even to himself. Think was he was pretty sick of explaining his actions.
"Gotta a light?" Cardin asked, not because he needed one but because it was a universal preamble to conversation amongst smokers.
The tall criminal smoking with ink and scares all across his body regarded him for a sec before fishing a cheap light from his pocket. "Sure man."
"Thanks." A moment was taken lighting his own tobacco before Cardin began the actual reason he approached the man. "So, locked up by the Fang for a job. Ever seen anything like this?"
"No." The man grunted
"Most of the town's hitters are here, too."
"Yeah…"
The tone of the man's words had already moved from indifference to compilation, and Cardin had to fight the urge to push more. Instead he took a few more drags to keep the facade of casual conversation; it wouldn't do if the guy thought he was being sold something. "And this Arc guy, unreal right."
Cardin's chosen sucker finally turned to look at him now. "I was thinking that too. I've heard some boogeyman stories but they all sound like crap."
"That's what I'm saying man. I heard that gang he smoked was actually a faunus riot on Grovestreet."
"That sounds like what I heard too."
"Sure was lucky the Fangs biggest ops got ganked like that."
The casual smoking stopped. "And now we are all here."
"At gunpoint." Cardin reminded. The comment wasn't needed; he knew the bread crumbs he laid out already led the guy to the conclusion he wanted him at.
"I think I should talk to some guys, maybe get lay of the land."
"Right on." Cardin grinned as the man had already started leaving towards the gang he'd come with. Looking around he saw the multiple groups of men and women were starting to form and talk amongst themselves with angry looks shot towards Fang members. It seemed all the little "observations" he'd been mentioning for the last few hours were starting to boil over.
"Ah, criminals," He remarked to himself as he took a well deserved hit of nic. " a superstitious and cowardly lot."
Jaune's eye's scanned the file he'd been given, it was about a Fang raid on the docks that was going down tonight. As much as he would love to have booked down there immediately, it was going down in a few hours and was covered in butcher blood; not exactly a look you could walk in public with. So he'd had Grimm drop him at his place for a change and shower.
"Well just gotta stop a huntress-in-training with a vendetta, handle whatever the fang brings, somehow get out from under the police, and all for free." He took a sip from his newly poured glass of whisky on his desk to steady his nerves. "Well, you did want to do something today Jaune, you moron." He moaned, and if he'd just left it at that he could have been fine. Too bad he didn't. "At least nothing else could go wrong at this point."
His scroll rang.
"Hello." He answered seeing it was Junior.
"Jaune! You gotta get to the club. Now!" Junior screamed in a panic causing Jaune to hold the phone away from his ear to avoid going deaf. "A crazy bitch is about to tear my business up!"
"I'm busy." If somebody had told him he'd be casually brushing off crime lords before Beacon Jaune would have thought that sounded as cool as it was unlikely.
"Any amount! I'll pay you whatever you want."
Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose, suddenly more annoyed than he could remember. All he wanted right now was a stiff drink and to blow off some steam. Suddenly punching some idiot in a bar sounded like a good idea. "Triple my rate, and favor."
"Sure. Just get over here!' Junior agreed frantically.
The line clicked dead and Jaune was suddenly struck with what he'd just done. Why had he just agreed to this? Maybe he was starting to let all this go to his head. He was playing a ruff PI and bounty hunter, picking fights with idiots he knew was stronger than for money, but now remembering that Junior had quite a few armed goons on top of two aura infused bodyguards lent to the reality that Jaune had just agreed to fight somebody that didn't consider that an issue.
Amber liquid cathartically burned his throat as he shot back the rest of his drink before he threw on his trench coat as he marched towards his door. "I swear to the gods this is somehow all Blake's fault somehow." He grumbled, not that he really believed that, in the end he knew it was just his shit luck again.
The warehouse was a warzone; bodies lay in their own blood with walls with bullets ridling the floor and walls. Thankfully the fang had chosen a secluded area where calling the police wasn't exactly a thing. Well thankful for the criminals that had murdered most of them, not exactly great for the fang.
"Why is the fang after Arc." Cardin questioned one of the injured survivors.
"I don't know." The faunas replied, absolutely terrified. "Our leader just said he was an enemy to the fuanus."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know!"
Cardin frowned, he knew the fang was big enough that it was unlikely that the guy actually knew. That still left him with the most powerful violent terrorist in the world gunning for his friend, and wasn't a fight he knew they could win. Looking back towards the criminals he'd just watched butch the fang; some were already leaving, others looting, a few networking like they were at a mixer, but most were calling bosses or other gangers to pass up what had happened or get orders. It was still a potent group of killers that were about to be gone soon.
He looked back to the terrorist he was interrogating "Where are the most Fang in the city that you know of?"
"A raid on the docks tonight."
"Where is she?" Yang demanded.
"I don't know." Junior repeated, truthfully, much to his detriment.
Yang's eyes flashed red. "Wrong answer."
"Strawberry Sunrise for the lady."
The red left her eyes as Yang groaned, was some moron really gonna hit on her right now. "Listen bud, you have to be that the biggest idiot or blind, and for your sake you better be blind." She growled as she turned around. Expecting to start her rampage off with a moron or see some douce turn tail and run, her next snarky comment died as her eyes widened in surprise.
"Biggest idiot in the world I'm afraid." Jaune joked with a charming smile. "Still hope I can buy you a drink though."
"Right away, Jaune." Junior said in a thankful tone as he ran off to make the order.
"Jaune?" Yang questioned. It looked like him, but well, this wasn't the Jaune she remembered. Jaune was her sister's gangly friend who was the source of like 75% of Beacon's cringe, the boy who puked on her and more likely to stab himself than do anything to help in a fight. This guy was dressed smart in a get up that showed more muscles than Jaune ever had, and this guy was smooth. So yeah, like the opposite of Jaune.
He chuckled. "Hope you aren't the blind one now."
Who the hell? This wasn't Jaune. "Ummmm, no sorry," Yang stumbled unused to being the one on the back foot socially. "You just look good." She admitted.
"Ah, t-thanks." Jaune sputtered, rubbing the back of his head and adopting his usual goofy smile.
The blonde berserker relaxed, this was the Jaune she knew. "Well, nice seeing you Jaune, but I'm kinda busy." She disregarded him in favor of looking for wherever Junior had gotten of to.
"Looking for Blake I take it."
Her neck gave a cry of pain as she whipped it back to look at Jaune again. "You know where she is?"
"Know where she's gonna be." He explained as he took a seat next to her. From his pocket he took out a smoke and lit it up. As he took his first puff, Junior came back with Yang's drink and whiskey neat for Jaune.
The urge to ask Jaune what he knew almost had Yang asking immediately, but the weirdness of the situation had her hold off. This definitely was not the Jaune she knew a few months ago, it wasn't lost on her that Jaune hadn't ordered a drink for himself but was served like a regular. "I thought Junior didn't let people smoke in his club, vomit boy?" She asked, using his embarrassing nickname, it was still Jaune afterall, and Yang did love to tease.
"Ugh, I hate that nickname." He groaned "But, I'm an exception." He answered with a sip of his drink. Probably not a great idea to have a second drink before going to violent raid, but for some reason the objective of looking cool in front of a hot girl who'd called said he looked good was sitting a bit higher on his priority list than it maybe should have. "Want one?" he offered.
Now Yang had never actually smoked, and it probably wasn't a good idea. However a mysterious figure from her past was offering some societal rebellion, and that was kinda her thing. "Light me up." She grinned mischievously.
Handing her a cig Jaune watched her put it in her mouth and sit it out. Suddenly suppressing a gulp he managed to strike a flame. He wanted to say something but didn't trust himself to not stutter.
Taking her first drag Yang figured it was time to get down to the business of Blake and why the hell Jaune was somehow connected to Junior, too bad she was too inexperienced smoking to know you had to exhale before talking. As she made the first syllable, cacogenic smoke clogged her throat and lungs. "GAehk" Was all she managed as the strong brand Jaune smoked did it's work and made her eyes water and her throat choke up. Embarrassment turned to panic as Yang felt herself start to gag. Reacting quickly she grabbed a drink to hold it down. Unfortunately for her the sweat and mellow sunrise strawberry was not what her hand landed on, but instead Jaune's straight hard liquor.
"eeehk-HUUUGGAAAA"
Puke ran down her chest and legs as tears flowed freely from her eyes down to her red face. "Uggggh" She looked up miserably.
"So, not a smoker," Jaune asked as he took another drag of his own cig before a grin came to his face, seemingly unfazed that he was covered in Yang's breakfast. "Vomit girl?"
A light flashed from Junior's scroll. "You continue to be worth every cent Arc." Was all he managed before Yang decked him.
"My criminal brothers and sisters!" Cardin shouted from a stack of crates in the warehouse. "We are the dregs of society, the killers that stalk the night, the hated and feared," The attention of all the criminals was on him, some curious, but most looking pissed. "And it's fucking awsome!"
"Yeah." Someone agreed.
"We take what we want and offer no apology." He continued. "We serve ourselves, and ONLY OURSELVES!"
"Yeah." More responded.
"We don't give a flying FUCK about fuanus that throw a tantrum about how mean this world is! The world hates us even more and we laugh while we stick it in the eye and rob it blind!"
"Fuck yeah!"
"Now, my fellow bastards, those fuckers are hear to take what we've rightfully stollen and killed for! Those cowards brought us here to kill the fucking apex predators we are, too scrared to face us!" Cardin could feel the crowd's electric energy now; no one wasn't looking to hi m without a look of murder in their eyes. "And I don't know about you, but I need SOME FUCKING BLOOD!"
"Blood!" the crowd screamed.
"These fuckers are gonna be at the docks tonight, and I'm going down there to get that fucking BLOOD!" He screamed in fury, spittle flying.
"BLOOD!" The killers echoed. It was set, the crowd was Cardins, but he knew he could do better.
"Tonight! We are not just killers,
The crowd seemed confused at the sudden change and change of focus of his speech. Just as he planned.
"This city hates us." He spoke more subdued. "But tonight we our it's fucked protectors!" A pause at that to let the group let the idea enter them; enough to like the sound, but not enough to really think it through. "We, the forgotten, hated, damn," the words were delivered even but now swelled back to a scream. "We will push these invaders form OUR FUCKING CITY!"
"Blood!" The chant resumed.
"Tonight we are the righteous evil that will paint this city in blood to save it from THE WEAK!"
"Blood!"
"FROM THE INVADER AT OUR CITES DOORS!"
"BLOOD!"
"TONIGHT WE PAINT THE CITY IN FANG BLOOD!"
"BLOOD!"
"YOU MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, THE MOTHERFUCKING RIGHTEOUS DEFENDERS!"
"BLOOD!BLOOD!BLOOD!"
"FOR VALE!" Cardin screamed till the moment before his voice broke.
"FOR VALE!"They screamed, not just as killers now, but fanatics.
As blood lust whipped into a frenzy and Cardin's fanatic cannon fodder revealed, he lit a celebratory cig. "Shit, if this whole thing doesn't work out I'm trying televangelism as a back up career." He joked to himself with a smile.
Hey everyone got a some rare downtime and got this out, was meant to be longer but figured yall rather have a chapter sooner than who knows when with my scheduled. Getting out the infantry and moving to a nice IT job but I gotta bounce out for like 5 months and I don't know if I'll be able to post while I'm on order. As for the story I liked writing some lighter stuff in preparation for the conclusion of this case. Again always love your take on the story, never thought so many would like this. Seriously, thanks for all the love and support over a story with an atrocious update rate.
Btw people seemed to like my random personal stories so here another: My unit had a mix up at a foreign airport when we decided to go in commercial instead of mil-air. Shockingly customs wasn't happy to see a bunch of guys with a platoon worth of heat, so long story short that's how I spent 3 days in south Asian jail. Highlights include, terrible food, speaking gibberish in an interrogation cell which resulted in 3 different confused translators, and very briefly a gang of american soldiers in gen pop.
Anyways , hope you all have great time till next chapter. PEACE