[Other FULL] [IC] As the Dust Settles; A RWBY RP [M] [EPILOGUE]

Fen-Fen · Jan 23, 2017

Humiliating Hatred

Lauren Baxiao

After Lauren led the pained woman to her mother, frantically gesticulating and relaying the feelings with her pregnancy and having Mrs. Baxiao's colleague Mr. Alzer assist the woman alongside her, Lauren exchanged a few short words with her mother before coming back outside the clinic, prepared to check back in with her compatriots before seeing that only Ilexa remained, still unconscious. Her mother, without looking back from what she was doing, said to Lauren, "They stormed off. I'm not sure where Nara went but Nina went over to the Inaris' place." Mrs. Baxiao returned to her work and the younger faunus decided to head out for their place. As she walked out of the clinic, tempted to check on the two but wanting nothing more than to disassociate with people and have a chance to just swim and hopefully be able to calm down, Lauren spotted a team that she really did not want to see: ABAK. Being but one of many groups to harass her about her allegiance with humans, they certainly saw her as the adversary. After all, she was the one who aided and abetted an enemy of Faunus kind.

Lauren quickened the pace and tried to ignore their presence, but it was too late. The snake faunus, Kabrok, called out to her and shouted, "You! C'mere. Now!"

The venom and anger in his words didn't give her much of a choice. While the two were physically even, Lauren was far from being in the mood to fight. She flinched as she hesitantly walked toward him and the others, each with a look of contempt and disdain evident across their faces. Lauren took a deep breath, crossed her arms and said to them. "Is there something I can help you with?"

This angered Kabrok, who growled and replied, "Don't play dumb. You know why we're here. Archer is the fuckin' reason why!" Kab took a swig out of his flask before letting the alcohol fuel his rage more. "It's all your fault. All your fucking fault! You stuck up for him over our kind! You stuck up for that vile creature. You're just as bad as the humans that deported us here, you fuckin' traitor!"

On the defense, Lauren clenched her right fist and replied, "I'm not a traitor. I was protecting someone who was innocent."

The snake faunus seemed to be further enraged. "Bitch! The hell kind of savior you think you are when he turns out to be a monster, huh?! You think that makes it alright?"

"No, of course not, I hate what he's doing, but-"

Kab took another long swig from his flask. "But? You have a defense for him at this point?! He's "misunderstood"? He's faking it? I've heard all the damn excuses from you." He hiccupped and continued on his tirade. "There is no way we can ever consider your treacherous word. Perfect for a lowly creature of your caliber. Nothing but a bootlicker for the enemy. And you wanna know what else?" His voice lowered slightly, taking a deep breath before continuing. "Our team was in jeopardy cuz of that freak! He laughed at the prospect of kidnapping my fellow team mate! Hell, even his own kind ain't safe. What makes you think that he's worth the waste of existence, huh?" After receiving no reply, with Lauren facing the snake faunus for a good ten seconds, with a pained look on her face, Kab shouted at her. "Answer me, coward!"

Antonio, seeing the fight as unproductive to their task, started to pipe up and say, "Leave her to her own devices for now. Ve need to resume our patrol. Zis fight is proving to be counterproductive to those means."

Kabrok sighed, and glared at the dolphin faunus, "Tch. You're lucky I ain't in about to pummel your lil' face in." Lauren simply remained motionless, struggling to keep her composure.

The octopus faunus, Agurolishi, chimed in with her own two cents. "I got this Kab." She turned to Lauren with a faux cheery grin. "So, fish-for-brains, what's eatin' ya? You usually aren't this down in the gutter even after getting your just desserts."

Lauren clenched her fist and growled out, "Nothing that's any of your concern, punk."

"Ooh, very feisty, fish-for-brains. But I don't need a shrink to know that you're upset about what Archer did. You think 'Oh no, how could he betray me like that?' and wanna still stick up for him. Hence your failed attempt at a defense earlier."

Lauren cried out, "Sh-shut up! That's not how I feel. I just told you guys that I hate what he just did. Not only that, but I...I h-hate his guts! And w-why shouldn't I, huh?!"

The octopus faunus retorted, "You really think we're gonna believe that? After all of the times you stuck up for him, mentioned him to your friends and praised him, I don't think you can quite hate him."

Bea, who had been watching the entire event unfold in trembling silence, both anxious and tense, picked up on the conversation and something in her mind clicked. She spoke up and shared her thoughts. "Quite the opposite, actually. You love him, don't you?"

Very flustered and struggling to prevent her face from being flushed, she glared at the bushbaby faunus and shouted, "N-no I don't! He was a friend and nothing else. "

Exasperated, Antonio again tried to get his team members away from this spectacle, but struggled to get a word in, sighing in defeat.

Bea followed up her observation, ignoring Lauren's defensive insistence to the contrary. "But now you finally learn he really is an unlovable human."

This biting remark got Lauren to visibly cringe and look away from them. The rest of the team was far from done, with Agurolishi chiming back in. "How about that? He talked you up all nice and pretty, got you all hot and bothered to help him out and dumped you like trash. But why are you surprised? You should be used to it by now. You've cycled through boys more than Kab cycles through flasks of liquor."

Now struggling to hold her visceral emotions, having flashes of the humiliation that she suffered two years ago at the hands of her human ex-boyfriend in Vale, she cried out, "N-no, stop. I don't want to hear another word." She couldn't face them anymore and tears began streaming down her face.

Ignoring Lauren's tearful demands, Agurolishi quipped, "After all of this, it's the human she misses most of all." She chuckled as "Archer must have had something really special in the bedroom to keep you missing him so much."

With that final remark, all pretenses for Lauren getting herself together shattered into pieces, sobbing uncontrollably and her mind flashing back to two years ago, all of the shame, guilt, grief and pain piling up in a way not seen since she was driven to the brink of killing Archer. It thrashed her, so much so that she bolted off running, much like what she wanted to do when the townspeople unleashed an absolutely hateful torrent of racist and slut-shaming insults and when the police handcuffed them and hauled her family away to Menagerie. She didn't seem to care about standing her ground against them. It seemed that no matter what she did, she earned the ire of both sides, so what was the point? The sounds of the leader of the team chastising them with the other members jeering at her barely registered in her mind as she sprinted to the beach. After running for a while, Lauren found her preferred stretch of beach, collapsed on the snowed over sand, and sobbed into her hands for what seemed like an eternity.

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After a few hours of moping and getting out her feelings through physical means, she kneeled down, panting from the emotional and physical strain. She laid down on her stomach and stared at the sky, observing the cloud patterns. Unaware of the sound of footsteps, she was startled by a hand on her shoulder and a familiar deep baritone voice calling out to her. "Lauren, are you okay?"

The other faunus turned her head around and looked up with a shocked expression. "D-dad?! What're you doing here?"

Lauren's father explained. "I've been meaning to relay you guys a message for me coming home unexpectedly, but signal's been real bad. I just got back three hours ago. I went to see your mother, and didn't see you. Figured that even in the middle of winter you'd like to take a little swim." He smiled and ruffled her hair. "So kiddo, have you been doing alright while I've been away? I've uh...heard about what became of Archer."

Lauren sniffled as she stared down at the ground, "No. Everything's falling apart. I can't trust my peers, can't trust humans, can't trust faunus, can't trust anyone."
Stroking his chin and kneeling down, her father replied, "What makes you say you can't trust anyone?"

"No matter what it seems I do, both faunus and humans hate me, shame me and push me to the edge. Whether I try to unify us or whether I hate humans I can never satisfy the others or myself."

Her father nodded solemnly, absorbing this information. "Yeah, your mother told me how rough it's been for you. I even heard she had to discipline a few kids for bullying you." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry that I haven't been there for you Lauren while this was happening. This whole thing between humans and faunus is an absolute mess. C'mere." He opened up his arms, gesturing for a hug. Her slightly shorter daughter took him up on the offer and gave him a giant bear hug. The two embraced, and Lauren let out more of her feelings as she cried into her father's arms.

After a while, Lauren asked her dad, "Hey dad, can I ask you something?"

"Yes Lauren?"

"Can I...come with you, y'know, to just get away from things for a while? I know I'm asking a lot, since you're so busy and all, but, I really need some time off to sort things out. My mom and Professor Azure can vouch for me being gone."

Mulling over this proposition, Mr. Baxiao thought about the proposition, now commandeering a mercenary navy. "Well young lady, we have to think of all the logistics of including you, accommodating you and-ahaha nah, I'm just kidding! Of course you can come with me. It'd be nice to have you on board. Plus, we could use the expertise of dad's favorite little huntress." He ruffled Lauren's hair and gave a hearty chuckle.

"R-really?"

"Yeah. I'll just say...to the school that my lil' navy needs a little help defending against water grimm ever since Barkley left,"

Lauren sighed with relief and replied with a rapid fire "Thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou" She gave her dad another bear hug and zoomed off to go get her stuff, debrief her mother about her "mission" and be ready to spend some quality time with her father.

StingrayP226 · Jan 24, 2017

Spoiler:

Varik and Nilya: Before the Storm

Nilya was trying to meditate inside the dark cargo bay of the corporate transport. Her failed attempt to calm her nerves was not comforting her parents sitting opposite of her. Their first experience flying had them praying to land especially due to turbulence that the flight kept experiencing. Nilya however was dreading the landing, there her parents would meet her husband for the first time. Her heart was still wounded from her twin's anger and accusations that only worsened when Nilya tried to get her to come with them. When Nilya revealed the plan to protect the Inari family by hiding them in Cybran Industry's secret facility, Nara accused Nilya of stealing away their parent's with her tricks and stormed off.

Now she had to see how her parents would react to the reality of their daughter being married to a human. The initial confession of her relationship had happened earlier, and her parents had been shocked. They body language showed dismay at the news, but they tried to act accepting. She quickly revealed how she had met and come to love Varik, but it only seemed to slightly improve the elders' demeanor toward the revelation. Nilya's greatest fear would be her protective father lashing out at the human that "stole" his daughter. Nilya felt the momentum of her body trying to force her body toward the cockpit as the airship slowed to made its approach to land. Taking a deep breath Nilya tried to slow her heart race and stop her hands from shaking while returning her ears to a relaxed position. However negative thoughts about the possible future overwhelmed her and she was unable to control her emotions.

Minutes later the transport had landed and Nilya saw her husband again after several long emotional days in Menagerie. She wanted to run up and hug him but instead she slowly descended the ramp with a fearful look on her face. She felt a gentle touch on her shoulder as her mother took hold of her daughter to stop her, allowing her father to go first. Nilya's eyes darted toward her protective father then to her confident husband who stood his ground with a welcoming smile.

The next few silent seconds felt like a hour to the distressed faunus as her father walked up to her taller husband and began sizing him up. Her father's critical eye looked up and down the taller Varik before suddenly looking the human in his eyes. Staring at his son in law the male faunus said, "Thank you for taking care of my precious Nily. Both me and Sky spent countless nights worrying about her fate, fearing the worst, while hoping for the best. Many sleepless nights were spent wondering if we would have found her, if we had risked searching for her a little longer."

The male faunus let his head slowly turn downward until it hung in shame, "I should have been there to protect my daughter, but I failed. I cannot express my gratitude for you risking your life to protect her, despite not knowing who she was. I will not lie… the fact you are a human is uncomfortable to me. A small part of me wants to push you away from Nily, but I know deep down you are a good man and will continue to take care of her. I still harbor earned hatred for your kin, but… I will try to disregard such feelings for Nily's sake."

Nilya felt her mother let go of her shoulder allowing her to approach her husband. Walking up to Varik Nilya threw her arms around him in a loving embrace. Feeling his familiar embrace Nilya was finally able to relax. Varik smiled at his wife before welcoming her parents to the facility, "Welcome Mr and Mrs Inari, I wish we could have met under better circumstances. I value your daughter more than anything, and I promise to do my best to be the man she deserves… I recommend you settle for now and we can talk tomorrow over lunch or dinner. Do not worry about your things we will have them transported to your room for you. If you would follow me I will show you to your temporary quarters." Nilya detected a nervous hint in her husband's voice and on his face after her father addressed him, but he did his best to keep a confident air around him. Her parents simply nodded as two quadruped drones made their way up the ramp behind them on long spider like legs.

Varik then slowly turned around with Nilya attaching herself to his hip as they made their way out of the hanger by a metal double door that slid open silently as they approached it. This door lead to a wide hallway they continued down on the way to the parent's room. They walked a minute in silence before passing a few drones, but no employees. "Not many people for such a large facility… you replace them all with machines?" asked Nilya's father as they passed a large well armed biped Loyalist assault bot.

"Dr. Gustaf Brackman, the CEO, is rather paranoid when it comes to hiring people. He was betrayed more than once by former employees, and prefers the loyalty of machines. Something me, nor his daughter, Dostya, shares. We are going to fix the low employee problem," replied Varik with a frustrated sigh.

"With humans or faunus?" asked the male Faunus again.

"Both, this project is bigger than any one race, and I hope such an undertaking will help unite the few of us who get to be a part of it," replied Varik confidently.

Nilya's father sighed and replied, "After all your kind has done to ours I…" He was interrupted by Nilya's mother punching his arm then giving him a death glare.

Nilya squeezed Varik's arm as she felt his body droop a little and looked up at him with a reassuring smile, but he did not see it. Varik stared straight ahead as his confidence faded making his demeanor sink. Signs of fatigue began to creep on his face alongside defeat. Once again the group walked in silence until they reached the two elder Faunus' room. Varik showed them around the small two room residence then showed them a map of the facilities open to them on a custom scroll that had been sitting on the bed. As they finished up the tour the two four legged drones appeared with all of the Inari's possessions.

After unloading the few suitcases and boxes, Varik's fatigue was clearly evident on his face, and it was decided the younger couple should depart for their own room. As the human and faunus started to leave Nilya's mother said with a smile, "Now you two run along and start working on some grandchildren for us, Okay?" Her words made Nilya's face turn crimson, while Varik just stood there looking tired and unsure how to respond.

Seeing the comment did not relieve any of the tension or stress. The older woman frowned as she quickly gave Nilya a hug before turning around to meet her husband's shocked look with a glare. Varik and Nilya left for their room in silence.

Nilya stepped out of the small bathroom attached to the bedroom. Walking over to the bed she leaned down and plucked the scroll from Varik's hands and gently placed it on the desk behind her. Smiling at her tired husband she crawled into the bed and curled up against his right side. Laying her head down on his bare chest she relaxed as she listened to the rhythm of his heartbeat. "I know we have plenty to discuss, but tonight let us just focus on enjoying each other's company," whispered Nilya.

Varik looked down as his wife and started to ask, "Shouldn't we at least…" He was interrupted by Nilya gently placing her index finger on his lip.

"No, I want to relax and enjoy being with you. Like we used to… laying there cuddled up together staring at the stars. Not caring what the world thought of us, or what it was doing. Passing each other words of affection and talking about simpler dreams," interrupted Nilya as she lay back down on Varik's chest as she let out a deep sigh.

Varik looked down at his wife and a small smile appeared. He wanted to point out they were homeless and poor then, and often wondered where their next meal was going to come from. However he was not going to ruin the moment. Reaching up with his right hand he began running his fingers through Nilya's silky and still slightly damp hair. He slowly moved from the hair around her shoulders to the top of her head where he began rubbing her behind her fox like ears. His fingers then gently pet his wife's left ear while tracing the outline of it with his thumb and index finger.

Nilya let out a gentle sigh of pleasure. The feeling of Varik touching her faunus ear like this was not particularly more pleasant than his other physical acts of affection, but it brought back fond memories of their early relationship. When they first started dating, her insecurities in being a faunus returned and hit their peek. She tried to break things off because Varik deserved better in her mind. After a long discussion, Varik was about to pry the truth that Nilya was ashamed of being a faunus and felt she would always be a burden to him, and hold him back. Varik told her he did not care that she was a faunus and love her for who she was.

This was not enough and Nilya remained insecure until Varik slowly began to pay extra attention to her "undesirable" features. He would spend time rubbing and petting her fox like features and compliment them and how they made her look "cuter," "more beautiful," "charming," and "enchanting." Nilya began to realize that Varik did care about her being a faunus, and he was more attracted to her because of it. When confronted about this, Varik had blushed and said he did not want her to think of him as shallow, or he was dating her because she was a faunus.

The warm memories increased her smile as she flipped over so she could bring her head up to look into Varik's eyes. "No matter what happens, I will always be your faunus," whispered Nilya crawling a few inches forward and gently kissing Varik.

"And I will always be your human," replied Varik smiling back between kisses. Despite their previous fatigue the couple took several hours revitalizing their taboo relationship. Little did they know the importance of this night because their challenges were just beginning...

Geras · Jan 24, 2017

Brooke Webster, Reese Kells, Oswald Carotene, and Salazar Jones
Faunus Prison Ship

[h1][/h1]

Reese and Boson stared each other down, ready to resume their fight. Boson couldn't help but grin, confident he had the upper hand. Their fight was interrupted before it could even begin when Manus bolted onto the deck. He came to a stop in front of Boson, apparently not seeing Reese. "Boson! Quit playing around out here! We've got a bit of a problem."

"Let me guess: another team of Huntsmen showed up, am I right?" Boson leaned on his hammer, the music fading into quiet static. Manus stood still for a second, his helmet hiding his shocked expression. "Yeah! How'd you guess?"

Boson lowered his shades as he quirked an eyebrow at Manus. He wordlessly pointed at Reese, grinning like a fool. Manus turned to look, his shoulders slumping with dejection. "Oh, not you too..."

Reese answered his displeasure with a smile and a wave. "Hey, looks like you survived after all, bone brah."

A ball and chain appeared from nowhere, knocking Manus' helmet off and giving Reese a look at him. The heavy weapon retracted back, connecting to Sal's Grappling Arm with a click. "Hey! I'm not done with you yet!" Sal snarled.

Ozzy quickly loaded his shovel with a couple Earth Dust shells, firing them at Blaine. The buckshot tore into the reptile's chest, but he started healing almost instantly. Ozzy knelt down, his hands glowing a warm green. The Dust under Blaine's skin reacted to Ozzy's Semblance, and vines started sprouting out of Blaine's wounds, pushing their way through his flesh.

Brooke took the chance to fire on Blaine, the shining rounds bursting into clouds of numbing frost upon impact, freezing the surface of his skin.

Blaine stumbled back from the hail of bullets, hitting the remnants of the ice wall. Ice started forming on his body, and he looked around in a panic. With Brooke and Ozzy in front of him, the wall behind him, and nowhere else to turn in the narrow corridor, he was trapped. Seeing only one escape, he swung his hook into and through the ceiling, smashing his way to freedom.

Blaine crawled up through the hole and found himself on the top deck. He spotted Manus and Boson, scurrying over to them. Manus was still glaring at Reese, while Boson looked at the hole Blaine had created. "Yo, B, what's with the hasty retreat? Wait, are you frozen?"

A light shone up from the hole Blaine had crawled up through in a bright, focused beam before solidifying into stone, a dog and rabbit Faunus clambering up it moments after. "Don't think you can get away so easily!" Shouted Brooke as enthusiastically as she always got when she was winning a battle. Though her expression changed to one of confusion when she made it up and saw numerous other huntsmen crowded on the deck, including her own.

"Sal! Reese!" She called out to her allies, surprised to see them. "What happened with the Prisoners? And the guards?"

Before anyone could make a move, a loud whistle cut through the air. It came from above, by what was presumably the wheelhouse. A girl jumped down from there, landing lightly on the deck and flipping her hair over her shoulder. She was even shorter than Ozzy (probably only four foot tall), with loose blonde hair to her shoulders and large, brownish-gold eyes. A pair of large fennec fox ears protruded from her head, covered in soft gray fur that darkened to black at the tips. She was wearing an oversized white t-shirt that nearly reached her knees, and a pink vest over that, though a faint clinking of metal suggested she wore a chainmail shirt underneath. She had on white stockings and pink slippers, with no weapons in sight.

She walked past Team BROS, not paying them any attention, stopping in front of the other three Faunus. "Okay, boys, I don't mean to sound like a mom, but I left you alone for ten minutes. What happened?" She placed her hands on Blaine, and a blue aura surrounded him as his expression went blank. The ice receded from his body, the vines shrank away, and his wounds briefly reappeared before vanishing again. The effect was eerily like watching a video in rewind. The girl let her hands fall off Blaine, as if moving them would take too much effort.

She took a moment to catch her breath, and Manus approached her. "Hey, Olivia, I got hurt too! That croc drained my aura, and weakened my Semblance! Can you help me out?"

The girl, Olivia, rolled her eyes at him and sighed. "Too much time has passed. You'll just have to deal with it."

Brooke took in the information in front of her, the sight of Manus turning the gears in her head. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" She called out to the opposing team. "You don't seem to be allied with the humans as I'd thought when we killed your bone man last time, but you're still interrupting official Faunus Academy business and attacking academy huntsmen. Where do you stand in this fight?"

Manus growled at Brooke, but stopped when Olivia calmly lifted a hand. He stepped back, putting his helmet back on without another word. "Team BOMB, it's a pleasure to meet you." She bowed her head, her eyes closed. "We stand against the humans, as our actions here should prove, but we left FaunAc behind us to focus on our true calling..."

She looked up at Brooke, her golden eyes sparkling. "The war! A final battle to eradicate our human oppressors!"

Manus pounded his fist against his shield, and Blaine laughed loudly at that. "Yes, the WAR! We will exterminate the humans, rend them into tiny pieces! FEAST on-"

"Blaine, please. I'm speaking." Olivia turned her head to give him a cold glare, ceasing his crazed ranting. Her expression softened as she faced Brooke again, offering her an apologetic smile. "Imprisoning our people like this is simply awful, but executing them like they did is unforgivable! In the memory of our fallen brothers, we will ignite the flame of war and rain vengeance upon this land!"

Ozzy took a step back in shock, his ears standing straight up. "W-what?! Executing?!" Sal glared at Manus, a low, rumbling growl building up in his chest.

"Oh man..." Reese muttered.

Brooke frowned. She wanted to be outraged at the humans for giving her yet another reason to hate them and pursue their fall, but something was wrong about this. "Sal," she turned to her comrade with a serious expression. "You were there. What of the prisoners?"

"They're lying. Humans didn't kill them, there'd be no profit in that. He did, though." Sal aimed his cannon at Manus, who raised his shields. "Took a human gun and shot up a cage full of Faunus!"

"It's your word against ours, Sal." Olivia chimed in. "We can go back and forth over the prisoner issue. They confine us to an island or sell us as slaves, either way we're prisoners, and peaceful protest and talks of equality ensue. But they slaughter us like animals, and peace goes out the window. War is coming, it's a matter of 'when', not 'if'. We're just lighting the fuse before the humans can crush us underfoot."

Brooke couldn't help but laugh at the situation she'd found herself in. "I want nothing more than a war where I can go forth and slaughter every last filthy human with my own two hands as payment for everything they've done to us. No machine can match the ecstasy I feel when I snuff out one of their insignificant little lives... That war I've longed for is so close that I can already smell the gallons of blood ready to be spilt. You're right. It's inevitable, and no flowery bullshit from either side will change that."

Her eyes passed over her team, bloody and battered. There was a pause as she seemed to struggle with her thoughts, but she came to a decision before long. She stood tall and spoke fiercely. "But I have another dream; to be a hero. A symbol of hope and justice for our downtrodden people that they can look up to with pride. So if you want to sacrifice my brothers and sisters and hurt my teammates, my friends, just because you're all impatient children then I won't just stand idly by. You've pissed off the team BROS, so now you'll have to pay the consequences." Brooke drew her Laser Cannon and held it at the ready. She also fought hard to hide the ear-to-ear grin she got from her excitement of delivering what she personally thought was a really cool little speech.

"Tell 'em, brah!" Reese agreed, extending his staff now that Boson's sabotaging effect didn't seem to be active.

"Oh, it! Is! ON!" Sal roared, not bothering to hide his fierce grin as his fist transformed into a wrecking ball.

"Why does it always come to this?" Ozzy complained, loading more shells into his shovel.

"Very well." Olivia nodded to Boson. "If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get. We have a mission to complete!" She pulled a pair of hand crossbows from off her hip, deploying the arms with a flick of her wrists. Boson hefted his hammer, a heavy bass beat pumping from the speakers. Blaine screamed out his bloodlust, and Manus took initiative, charging toward Team BROS with his shields up.

"Those things aren't going to save you this time!" Taunted Brooke as she cracked open one of her flash bombs, funneling the light through her weapon and firing a thick laser that radiated intense heat straight at Manus. If her lasers could melt through steel there was no way his bones would protect him, and even his shields were bound to have a limit. "Reese, keep the hook guy off me!"

"Gotcha!" Reese acknowledged, using his Semblance to launch a chunk of stone off his pillar with him still on it. He cheered with joy as he surfed over the others before redirecting his makeshift vehicle so it careened straight toward Blaine.

Blaine had been eyeing Brooke from the moment she pulled her gun out, ready to charge in against her. Reese's stone surfing caught his attention, but it seemed to anger him. "You will not keep her from me!" He allowed Reese to drive the pillar into him, grabbing onto it even as it pushed him back. "She owes me a debt of fire and flesh!" He shouted with effort, crashing Reese's pillar onto the deck, hopping onto it to fight Reese.

Manus blocked Brooke's laser shot with his shields, but the heat carved through them after a moment. He hardened his bones, the adrenaline of combat helping him recover his Semblance now that Sal wasn't actively tearing chunks out of it. His perfect defense restored, he became an immobile bone statue, even as Brooke's laser cut through his shields. His bones were harder and denser than steel, and he could shift the damaged plates away and replace them faster than the searing heat could destroy them.

Sal wasn't going to stand for any of Manus' shenanigans, charging forward to aid Brooke. He didn't even make it halfway before Olivia simply appeared in front of him, jabbing him in the stomach with her open palm. Sal's body glowed blue, and he could hear a ticking clock, the ticking slowing as the entire world seemed to speed up, leaving him behind.

The others saw Sal moving in slow motion after Olivia's hit, allowing her to easily evade his counter attack. He tried to aim his cannon at her, but she simply moved, putting herself between him and Brooke. She lazily looked over her shoulder, firing crossbow bolts at Brooke. Her bows glowed blue after each shot, rewinding themselves so the string was pulled back and a new bolt was in the channel, letting her instantly reload a normally slow weapon and release a barrage of bolts at Brooke.

Meanwhile, Ozzy had his hands full with Boson. Fast as the bat was with his hammer, Ozzy was faster, scurrying and dodging away, but unable to effectively attack. It didn't help that Boson was blasting his music right next to the rabbit's sensitive ears. Seeking any advantage, Ozzy decided to try a new trick. His hands glowed green, and the Earth Dust woven into his clothing formed wooden armor around him. The armor slowed him down, allowing Boson to hit him with the hammer, sending Ozzy flying into a wall.

As soon as the hammer struck, Ozzy's armor released a cloud of spores. They coated Boson's face and chest, and he accidentally breathed some in. He felt a fog settle over his mind, and the will to fight faded. Suddenly, he just wanted to hang out, listen to his tunes, and just chill. "Whoa, this is my jam, man!"

As reluctant as Brooke was to let up on her attack, she moved aside to dodge the bolts. The sheer number made it impossible for her to avoid them all in time so she covered her face with her arm and let the remainder bash against her armor. A few shots managed to bury themselves in the armor's gaps, but it wasn't anything she would consider too serious.

What concerned her more was Olivia's strange power, instantly able to incapacitate their strongest fighter. She grabbed another flash bomb, noting she didn't have many left, and shattered it against the ground. The released light warped into a thick stone wall with two gaps at the top whose purpose was quickly revealed when Brooke pulled out her Multi-Tool as well. After a quick swap of the dust canister to enable her explosive rounds, she rested both weapons on the gaps and fired them simultaneously, keeping the Laser Cannon trained on Manus while firing on Olivia with the Multi-Tool.

At the same time, Reese faced off against Blaine. He struggled to deal any significant damage, as everything from bullet, blade, or bash was healed off almost instantly. However, Blaine wasn't nearly as quick as Boson, meaning Reese, even in his injured state, could dodge his enraged strikes without much trouble.

Olivia stopped firing at Brooke when the wall came up, sizing it up for weaknesses. She noticed Boson under the influence of spores and heaved a sigh of annoyance. Brooke's exploding bolts caught her off guard, but after the first hit, she vanished from sight, reappearing by Boson. "Not the time for this, Boson!" She laid her hands on him, rewinding him to before he inhaled the spores.

Fresh and ready to fight, Boson put himself between Olivia and Team BROS while she recovered from using her power. "Whoa, that little bunny is a trip! I hope I didn't hurt him too bad!" Olivia rolled her eyes, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Don't worry about the rabbit. Deal with the crocodile. Shouldn't be too hard."

Sal growled in frustration, wondering what the little girl had done to him. The only enemy not moving too fast to aim at was Manus, hiding behind his stupid bone armor. He raised his wrecking ball fist at the pangolin's head and fired, but before it had gone more than a foot, it suddenly fell limp, the ball swinging from his wrist as his mechanical arm went numb. "What?!"

Boson lowered his hand, leaning on his hammer and grinning at Olivia. "No more wrecking ball for him!" Olivia turned her attention to Brooke, manually loading Ice Dust infused bolts into her crossbows. "Let's hurry this up, boys!"

Blaine swung violently at Reese. His hook, his fists, even his head and his tail, but the monkey dodged or deflected everything! Blaine wasn't worried about his own defense, and was accumulating a lot of scars from this fight. "Stand still and fight me like a man! You're hurting me so much... and I don't think... you can survive long enough for me... to repay you in full!" He didn't want to admit it, but he was getting tired, and he was breathing too hard to properly rant.

As soon as Brooke saw Olivia disappear she readjusted her aim. Her fingers held tight against the triggers until a harsh, burnt smell assailed her nose. Her Laser Cannon was overheating. "Damn it, not now!" she shouted, but regardless of her protesting she knew she had to stop firing or sacrifice her weapon, and she wasn't prepared to lose her precious creation yet. She stowed it away and swapped her Multi-Tool's canister to her high-speed Wind Dust rounds, turning her fire toward Boson and Olivia. She grit her teeth, knowing they wouldn't last if the fight dragged much longer.

Boson wasn't expecting high-speed rounds, and took several shots before he could react. He grabbed Olivia and threw her clear, taking cover behind Manus. "This chick just keeps coming!" Olivia picked herself up, glaring at Boson for his sloppy rescue attempt. "I can handle myself, Boson! I don't need you to take care of me."

"Can you handle this?!" Sal yelled, no longer under the effects of Olivia's Semblance. He swung his sabotaged arm like a flail, striking Boson in the face and sending him tumbling away. Olivia realized too late that she had dropped her crossbows, only to see them dragged away by a pair of vines sprouting from Ozzy's armor.

Manus dropped his defensive stance, putting himself between Sal and Olivia. Sal raised his cannon, blasting Manus with a point blank Gravity Dust cannonball. The impact knocked Manus back, but he got himself under control by increasing his density. Sal winced in discomfort, the recoil stronger than he had anticipated.

The ship suddenly rocked as large waves battered against it. A massive wall of water rose up, falling away to reveal a gargantuan black beast rising from the sea. A creature of Grimm had arrived, attracted by the negative emotions from the slaves and the feuding Huntsmen.

The Grimm resembled a giant squid, with red eyes the size of dinner plates encircling its head. It kept itself upright by using four thick tentacles as legs, leaving it with four more tentacles and two long arms to fight with. Its arms ended not in sucker-covered heads, but with massive three-clawed hands. It must have stood 50 feet tall, with arms even longer than that. The Kraken roared loudly, an unearthly sound containing both a low bass rumble and a high shrill screech.

Brooke's jaw dropped as she saw the massive beast that had come to interrupt her battle. "Son of a-" she began before being interrupted by a massive black tentacle crashing down on the deck next to her. The ship the guards had spoken so proudly of with its armored metal body tore under the force of the strike, creating a gaping hole that threatened to pull Brooke down into it. As she flailed about in search of something to grab onto she heard the familiar sound of Reese's grapples being launched, the ends digging themselves beside her so she could grab on.

The grappling hooks retracted, pulling Brooke to safety beside Reese. "So what's the plan, man?" He asked her, looking calmer now than he did when he was facing team BOMB.

She breathed a sigh of relief before barking orders, speaking loud enough for her other teammates to hear. "Both the Grimm and BOMB are a threat to the mission, but the Grimm is far more dangerous. We'll hit the tentacles first to neutralize its offense before focusing on the main body." Reese nodded and moved to engage the monster, but she grabbed his arm to stop him. "And if you see any openings to take down Olivia, do it. No matter what else is happening."

Reese nodded again. "You got it, brah." He held up his staff and began taking potshots at it while he thought of a better plan.

Reluctant as he was to stop fighting Team BOMB, Sal recognized the Grimm as a bigger threat. Literally and figuratively. "Tell me you still have a gun!" He shouted at Manus, who wasn't moving. "I don't really like guns! I like it up close and personal!"

Sal growled in frustration, pushing past Manus. "Then get in there and get personal!" He raised his cannon, firing a shot at the Kraken's tentacle. Unfortunately, Gravity rounds were slower than other Dust rounds, and the Kraken was faster than Sal expected, moving its limbs before the cannonball could hit.

Ozzy slid in next to Sal, deploying the blade of his shovel. "Sal! Can you get its attention? I can't hit it from that far off."

Sal nodded, adjusting some dials on his cannon. "I think so. Time to try the second setting on this thing!" Three smaller barrels extended from the main barrel of the cannon, spinning rapidly as Sal pulled the trigger. Rather than a single cannonball, a hail of bullets poured forth from the barrels, striking the Kraken in its massive head, forcing it to close one eye or risk losing it.

"Ha ha HA! I love this gun!" Sal crowed. His elation was short-lived, as a large tentacle crashed down on top of him. Or it would have, if not for Ozzy's vines and Blaine's hook pulling it aside at the last second.

Ozzy looked at Blaine in surprise, the reptile gritting his teeth with the effort. "Why did you-" was all Ozzy got out before Blaine interrupted. "Hunting Grimm is what I do. Or humans. I'd rather not fight you guys."

"Oh. That's surprisingly-" Blaine cut off Ozzy's words with his mad laughing. "Besides! I'm in the mood for SEAFOOD TONIGHT!"

While they were talking (and keeping the tentacle pinned), Sal turned his minigun toward the offending limb, the high impact bullets tearing into the flesh and ripping through it. The Kraken roared in pain and anger, pulling its tentacle away. Blaine pulled back, gripping his chain with both hands, but the Kraken was stronger, dragging Blaine toward the edge. With a shout, Blaine's Semblance activated, increasing his strength and allowing him to stop, holding the damaged tentacle still in mid-air. Ozzy took his chance, vaulting off Sal's shoulders and slicing through the damaged limb, severing it and showering the deck with viscous black ichor.

Reese wore a wide grin at the sight of the two teams working together. As he stared in wonder his attention was pulled aside by music that grew ever louder. He turned around, immediately recognizing it as Boson's.

"Might need some bigger bullets for Mr. Tentacles over there, dude," the bat informed him cheerfully as ever. Reese noted that propped over his shoulder was the greater part of what looked to be a flagpole. "Wanna help me make one?"

Reese looked at the flagpole, then back at his staff which he was in the middle of reloading. "Sure thing, brah." After a quick bit of advice on how exactly to go about it, he gathered the stone debris from Brooke's wall and from his own pillar. With his semblance he was able to fuse the pieces into a sharp spike which he stuck to the pole's tip to create a massive spear.

Through Boson's magnetic abilities and his own geokinesis, the pair lifted the spear and shot it through the air. It flew toward the opening made by their teammates, passing dangerously close to them before finally hitting its mark, tearing through the Grimm's body.

Brooke grinned at the pained screeches it made as it writhed. "Come on, be sure to leave some for me!" Caught up in the moment she grabbed the last three flash bombs in her stock and shattered them all at once. She coated her Laser Cannon with a slight amount of the released light which she froze in order to cool it quickly, then funneled all the rest of it through the weapon, unleashing a mighty laser far larger and more intense than any she'd fired thus far. The primitive creature struggled to swat away the attack, only to have its tentacles melt on contact.

"TAKE IT ALL!" Brooke shouted amidst her own laughter. Ignoring all else, the Kraken began trying to climb onto the ship in a last ditch effort to take down its attackers before it burned away into nothingness. The ship lurched under the weight of the Grimm, threatening to bring the entire thing down. Brooke didn't think about it, nor about how her hands burned from her own drastically overworked weapon, and she simply kept firing.

Ozzy landed just as the Kraken hauled itself on board, slipping on the rapidly evaporating black goo. Blaine managed to catch him, laughing like a maniac and covered in the black blood. "A glorious tapestry of death! A Symphony of pain! You, little man, are an artist! I am a conductor! And we! Are! FAUNUS! No enemy can withstand our combined might!"

"Y-Yeah, okay! We should move, though!" Ozzy trembled as the Kraken surged over the railing, exposing its underside and mouth. Most cephalopods would have a beak, but the Kraken had an eerily humanoid mouth, filled with sharp teeth and smaller arms for grabbing. It opened its horrifying mouth to screech at the Huntsmen below, the sound combining pain, rage, and hunger in one loud cry.

Sal turned his minigun toward the Kraken, but he was out of ammo in his Gravity Dust canister. He ejected the empty canister, reaching for another, when he suddenly remembered something Brooke told him when she made him the cannon...

"Using primarily Wind and Fire Dust with a smaller amount of Earth Dust to allow it enough stability to form, I've created a type of Dust that resembles pure energy. Of course, when I say stability I use the term as lightly as I possibly can. But the point is, I'm giving you a special canister of this Energy Dust, all powdered for extra reactivity to aura. It'll create an explosion capable of instantly vaporizing even the largest human warship! Of course, the reason I don't use this myself is that the Dust is so unstable I don't trust it being used in any way other than all at once, and the explosion is so large that trying it in a grenade will just destroy me along with it, but that's what the AMDC-2b is for! So just be extra careful and use it only for emergencies where you have a good amount of distance or shielding from the blast. Isn't science great?"

Sal set the dial back, transforming his weapon back into a cannon. He loaded the Energy Dust canister into the end, taking aim as the Kraken roared. "Smile, you son of a b-" His witty one-liner was cut off by the roar of his cannon, the recoil knocking him off balance as the entire canister rocketed forth from his cannon, glowing with a white light. The cannonball went in the Kraken's mouth, exploding and blowing a massive hole in the beast's head.

The giant Grimm convulsed in pain, falling backwards off the ship. It let out a low, rumbling death cry, hitting the water with a massive splash and dissolving into black smoke as it slowly sank beneath the waves.

Back up in the wheelhouse, Manus and Olivia watched the battle from a distance. Manus puffed out a breath, impressed and unsure at the same time. "So, uh... what now?"

Olivia stood quietly, hands clenched in fists of rage as she glared at Brooke. "The mission is a failure. The humans will have detected a Grimm of that caliber. There's no way we can pin this on the humans. Any Human or Faunus deaths will be attributed to Grimm attack, and we can't beat those FaunAc fools. Get to the boat. I'll get Boson and Blaine and we'll get out of here."

Manus sighed, heading for the door. "The Master isn't gonna be happy about this..." Olivia didn't respond, having already had that thought when the Kraken appeared.

Things quieted down after the Grimm fell, with only the cheering of its conquerors to accompany the quelled waves. Of course, there was also Boson's music but by now most on board had gotten used to it or learned to tune it out.

Brooke didn't join them in their celebration, her mind a whirlpool of thoughts and feelings. She felt unbridled joy at the massive success of her two latest weapons. She lamented the loss of one of them, her Laser Cannon, now a pile of hot slag on the ground. Her hands burned and her body ached, her lungs still struggling to catch up after all the excitement. There was worry over whether or not the Faunus prisoners were okay, the ship having been utterly destroyed in their battle, unsureness over what BOMB would do now, and most importantly there was the question of how long it would be until more humans showed up.

"Everyone, it's not over yet!" Brooke shouted as she stood back up, readying her Multi-Tool. "There's no way the humans haven't noticed us and it's only a matter of time before they send people to investigate! We need to be gone before that happens." She knew they wouldn't last if they had to fight yet another team of huntsmen. On that note, she looked at Olivia, who made her way toward her two teammates still rejoicing with Brooke's own team. "And what of you? Do you still intend to get in our way?" Brooke wondered whether or not they'd even be able to beat BOMB if it came to that, considering that they'd exhausted all their resources.

Olivia regarded Brooke with the cold glare she had given her teammates earlier, with none of the warmth or politeness she had displayed previously. "Our mission is a failure, thanks in no small part to you. And while I don't like you, this doesn't make us enemies. We'll depart gracefully for now." She didn't give Brooke another look, raising her voice to be heard over the cheering. "Blaine! Boson! We're leaving. Now!"

Brooke nodded in acknowledgement as the Bs of BOMB frantically rushed toward Olivia. Likewise, Brooke moved to rejoin her team. "Sorry to ruin the fun, but we need to move. I'll get the ship moving. Reese, you keep watch for the humans. Use your sniper if it becomes necessary. Sal and Ozzy, get ready to unload the Faunus. We'll unload them on the secluded shore shown in the briefing at which point I'll continue with the ship as a decoy. You'll communicate with the Academy ship, and once the Faunus are safe I'll find a way to rejoin you. Now let's go!"

"You got it, boss!" Sal unhooked his cannon from his arm and strapped it to his back, leading Ozzy toward the cargo hold. Their attention was momentarily drawn to the sound of an engine roaring as Team BOMB made their retreat in a speedboat. "That's going to be a long, uncomfortable ride." Ozzy observed.

Reese easily climbed over a watchtower, taking one last look at BOMB before doing his job, whereas Brooke rushed down to the bridge to take command of the ship. Fortunately, Hershel had eagerly explained how to pilot a ship back on the Academy's vessel, and while this one had its differences it seemed the basics were similar enough for her to work with.

They left the harbor as quickly as they could, Brooke's inexperience taking a chunk out of the dock as she hurriedly took off. It wasn't long before the humans began rushing to the scene, but fortunately by then the ship out of their range, forcing them to take their own ships in an effort to catch up. It was here that Brooke learned that the prison ship still had some cannons intact, and much to her excitement they were fully controllable from the bridge.

Their head start, suppressive fire, and Reese's sniping of huntsmen who tried to get closer using their various abilities allowed BROS to make it to the shore, where Sal and Ozzy's combined efforts saw the surviving Faunus quickly unloaded. Reese joined them while Brooke took the ship and changed course, pulling the tardy pursuers away from the shore before they could reach it.

"This will end poorly..." Ozzy muttered, watching as the naval ships closed in on Brooke. Sal chuckled at that. "Yeah. For them!"

The Trio watched as the battered prison ship continued on, even as it was bombarded by attacks from the pursuing ships that had finally managed to reach it. It continued on even as Vale's proper naval forces gathered and formed a blockade, closing the ship in. It continued on, despite the warnings from said navy, until it rammed straight into the blockade, breaking against the navy battleship's armored hull before sinking unceremoniously into the depths along with most of its unconscious crew.

The trio also watched as a suspicious blob of darkness made its way toward them, looking more and more visible as the cover of night was gradually driven back by the rising sun. As it approached the shore, the blob's darkness gradually faded away until it revealed Brooke sitting in a speedboat with a large stone sphere in her hands.

The plan had succeeded, and all that remained was to wait for extraction. As Team BROS waited on the rocky little shore they talked about the mission. They celebrated its success while reflecting over how narrowly they'd managed it. They shared stories of their individual battles against Team BOMB, thinking about their goals and powers and who would win against who in different situations. There was talk of the humans, their fate, and what it might mean for the future.

Brooke gushed about possible new weapons and upgrades while raving about the performance of her latest ones. Reese, inspired by Boson, started a conversation on the group's musical interests that led to a little bit of singing. Sal took particular pride in the group's performance, posing and praising them for what he believed to be everyone's most awesome feats. Ozzy mostly just sat back and listened, drained like usual after a harrowing mission.

Eventually, after the many hours it took for Vale's harbor to calm down, the Faunus Academy boat finally arrived to take the team home.

Foxrally · Jan 25, 2017

Jairo & Sahn Xill

Mira Cullous Nel Phelia

Team JSMN
Arachnid Village

"One last equipment check. You sure we salvaged everything?" Mira asked a final time, looking up from her notepad at Jairo. The latter didn't respond, absentmindedly packing his violin back into its case. "Jairo!" she repeated, waving her hand in front of him.

"Huh, yeah, yeah, I said we got everything!" the spider faunus replied in a mildly annoyed yet disconnected tone. Their two other teammates had also finished packing, with Nel having checked the landed debris-raft-boat for supplies one last time.

"Cheer up, J!" Nel grinned as she hopped off the ship, landing with a little-too-strong smack on his back. Despite her injury, she seemed just as energetic. Jairo had agreed to give her his breastplate in exchange for her parka, for for the time being, to make sure her injury wouldn't be worsened by any firearms they'd be hit with. "You and Sahn are getting to see your home turf again! Or web. I don't know how spider people work. We get to be heroes, and stuff! Isn't that what you want?"

Yet instead of replying with a snide remark as usual, Jairo shrugged silently and put on his violin case. It was clear he had something on his mind, and neither Nel or Mira coidl extract anything from him when he was in this state.

"Well, we should get moving." Mira noted, pulling out her map. The paper had been drenched in water when the ship had crashed, and even though it was dry now, a lot of the ink had washed off. After a few seconds of squinting and turning the paper around, the owl faunus signed in frustration. "There's no point trying to make sense of this damn map. Ink's too washed off." she cursed.

"Oh, oh!" Nel exclaimed. "What if I boosted you up so you could see the forest from up top? You could handle the landing!"

Mira opened her mouth to protest, but she knew it was a solid plan. Jairo and Sahn seemed to think it was a good idea, but she wasn't exactly ready to put her safety in the hands of Nel.

"So a bird's-eye view, basically." Sahn commented. Jairo glared at her in disbelief, almost as if you say 'you too?'

Mira sighed defeatedly, putting down her weapon and equipment. "Alright, let me just- baaAAAAHHHH!!" was all she could utter before a powerful, sudden geyser blast of air threw her into the sky, spinning uncontrollably. Thankfully, her passive semblance was strong enough to stop her rotation just in time for her to be upright. Instantly, she was able to get an entire visual of the forest around them. Distance, height, orientation.

Okay, so according to Jairo, the old village is east of the coast, so if... Her eyes suddenly grew wide as she saw a faint grey streak rising in the distance. Is that... smoke? No, it can't be. The sea salt must'messed with the goggles.

A few moments later, Mira floated down slowly in front of her teammates, instantly letting out a loud sigh of exhaustion and relief as her semblance deactivated. Huffing, she pointed in the direction of the village.

"Awesome! Let's get going!" Nel piped.

It was after an hour or so of silent journeying that Jairo finally spoke up, suddenly hopping off of his sister's shoulder. "Holy shit... I remember this tree! It's this way!" he called, waving his teammates over without looking at them, and pressing forward intently.

"Jairo wait, we really should stick tog-" Mira began, taking a step forward to stop him, before a hand laid on her shoulder.

"Let him. He wants to get to it first." Sahn said, her eyes slightly sorrowful as she looked at her brother. "Besides, he knows this place like the back of his hand."

"How come you don't remember anything?" Nel asked, instantly taking Jairo's former position on her back as soon as she had the chance. The group began following behind Jairo.

"Spider folk like me forget almost everything about the past once we hit our growth spurt. I can only remember emotions I've had associated with this place, so not really memories." Sahn replied bluntly.

Nel opened her mouth in keen interest, surprised that the towering figure she was piggybacking on could have been the same size as Jairo once. "Well, what emotions do you remember, then?" she asked.

Sahn hesitated for a moment. "No good ones."

"Hey, can you guys hear Jairo? I can't hear his footsteps anymore." Mira asked, perplexed. They could now see a clearing appearing in front of them, so the village was right in front of them.

The three other members of JSMN finally made it through the forest. The difference was astounding - it was obvious that this place used to be a pretty sizeable village. Burned-down wooden huts were scattered around the clearing in what first appeared to be no order - but after a few moments, one would realize they were built in the shape of a web. The huts seemed to have markings on them similar to that of Jairo and Sahn's armorplates. Rags and wooden boards were tossed around, torn and broken, showing clear signs that the village had not gone down in a fight.

"Woah..." Nel gawked as the trio made their way through a row of huts. While the hidden village was fascinating, the dried blood on the wood and visible destruction and death everywhere counteracted any feelings of wonder they could have possibly had. It wasn't until they reached the center of the village, however, where they stopped. Mira clasped a hand in front of her mouth, looking away. Sahn took a step back in shock, unable to believe what she was seeing. Even Nel, who was usually the most unfazed by sights such as these, covered her mouth with her forearm in disgust. Right in the center of the village, dozens of long, metallic spikes stood around a house which was even more destroyed than the others. Strewn around, on top, and even through the spikes, were humanoid skeletons and cadavers.

And a few feet away, kneeling in the snow, was Jairo. He was making no sound. A few moments passed. Slowly, Mira approached him. "Jairo...?"

She sat down in the snow next to him. He was hiding his face from her - she knew why. Before she could say anything, the spider suddenly spoke up, his voice soft but solid. "This was the elder's house... our mother." he said. He looked up to the spikes in front of him, littered with the victims of this mass-impaling. "Not even the kids..." he spat through gritted teeth, unaware of the thud that had just sounded behind them.

"Jairo, we can find another place. We can leave if you want." Mira reassured him, moving closer. "Gah!" she suddenly yelped, before falling forward into the snow, unconscious. This gave Jairo just enough time to duck below the projectile that was headed for him, the bullet instead clanging against one of the metal spikes in front of him.

The spider faunus pulled out his gun and spat on the ground. "I knew you would come back, human." he growled in the direction his bullet had come. "The fucker who did all this." Another bullet zoomed past his ear, missing again. "What? Too fucked to face a spider who can actually fight back?" he continued, his eyes tearing up. "Come and fucking SHOW YOURSELF TO ME, HUMAN!" he screamed.

Unfortunately, his scream was just loud enough to muffle the sound of the footsteps coming up behind him. At the last moment, Jairo whizzed around.

"I'm afraid you've seen too much now."

"...Jak...?" Jairo mouthed, dropping his guard.

"Nothing personal, brother." the six-armed spider faunus said, before striking at this throat with 3 arms, knocking Jairo out instantly.

Foxrally · Jan 25, 2017

ACT 5 - FINALE: WAR

Spoiler:

Winter has now passed in Remnant, and spring is beginning to blossom as we reach the early days of April. Rising tension between the faunus and humans have caused many people to evacuate their homes and move to regions further away from Vale and Menagerie, in fear of faunus attacks and riots like the ones seen in the latters. Governments have begun working closely with corporations to make sure they stay supplied with food, dust, weapons and military machinery - surprisingly, from both sides.

Beacon and FaunAc's infiltration mission initiatives were discontinued after the first try three months ago, partially due to the return of students to each respective academy, and partially due to the fact the problems brought by them outweighed whatever intel or benefit they brought back.

To say Grimm activity has risen in the past three months would be a callous understatement. News reports showing complete massacres of villages, hunstmen teams getting overwhelmed in numbers or strength by Grimm, and evacuations and grimm-caused quarantines have become all too common, causing mass panic among the population (and, ironically, attracting more Grimm.) Civilians have been advised to report any sign of grimm activity to their local police station, and multiple hunter teams are now being posted around cities and villages in order to protect them from the monsters in the wild.

-------------------------

Battlefront Map

A - FaunAc & City of Porscherie

The Faunus base of operations in Menagerie. This is where any supplies, forces and weaponry comes from and retreats to.

B - Beacon Academy

The human hunstmen base of operations. Most semblance users, even graduated ones, will be grouped there and use it as a base. None of the fighting will be happening here however.

C - Primary Battlefield

This is where the bulk of the faunus forces (both air and navy) will be attacking from at the start of the war. The coastline is rocky and unstable to build on, and the surrounding waters are littered with jagged rocks and unstable currents. Beyond the coast, the region is made up of mostly muddy, brown plains which have little Grimm activity but also no human settlements nearby at all. Most of the first battle will be happening here, but at the start of it it will not involve any hunters.

D - Ambushers' Base

The drop-off point where the faunus hunter teams will land, separate from the rest of the faunus forces. The area itself is an old mining village left abandoned after an exceptionally large grimm ravaged through it (along with the hunter team that was sent to kill it). While some buildings - the ones that are still standing - are a few stories tall, most houses are short and weak from erosion and grimm activity. Not far from the main settlements is also a collapsed cave system, but the entrance and more shallow tunnels are still open. This place will also be having a lot of fighting. Like, a lot.

Spoiler: Rules (please read!)

Some rules to keep in mind:

Once again, we have time-skipped 3 months ahead for this arc, and are now in early April. Most flesh wounds, broken bones and such would have healed by now thanks to hunters' nifty auras, so once again, everyone's ready to throw themselves into the flames one last time.
As you will see below, this arc is made up of three phases (for the war). You can't take part in the events of a phase before/after it has occurred, so make sure you keep up if you want to stay involved! (or just ask me to slow down, really. I'm not a very fast person.)
You don't have to necessarily succeed at an objective given for a phase, but your team has to work towards it. For example, if one of the objectives is "kill Faunus McFaunface" your team could fail and get beaten to hell by them, but they should at least try for it.
Keep in mind that if you're at either battlefield (C or D) at any point, there will be a lot of people and even more action. Feel free to make up hunter teams or exceptional soliders to fight alongside with, just make sure to run them by me if you ever feel like they're too strong.
All teams are now at level 6 (i.e. FEAR, STAR, NAFV, GAIN, STLL, SHLD, SNAP, and CAOX for the humans and LGHT, BROS, JSMN, KYND and LUST for the faunus.)
You'll be able to use your level 7 attack at some point in the arc. That's right, baby! However, most characters would only be able to use it once, and would wait for the best time to do it. If you feel like you need my permission/advice on when your character should use their level 7, or if you would like to use it twice (for some crazy reason), once again - contact me!

Don't hesitate to ask any questions if you need anything!

Spoiler:

Spoiler: Rules (please read!)

GreyBidoof said:
Spoiler:

There will be three phases for this act - or the war, at least - each phase directed by a GM post, to make it clear when it is the time to act. These phases are Setup, Human Ambush, and Grimm Battle (the second and third will be explained further when their time comes). This is more linear than the other acts, but think of it as this- instead of one large act with a single large objective/mission, Act 5 will be made up of 3 different objectives, occurring sequentially (obviously, they don't apply to you if your team isn't participating in the battle during that phase).

PART 1 - SETUP

The Faunus Revolution Army are playing it smart. While they send their more expendable, numbers-heavy troops right into the face of the enemy, their skilled, more powerful hunters teams are getting prepared to strike from the back, and potentially take out human intel bases. Thankfully for the humans, they've gotten word of it. Now, the ambush is going to be taken to the faunus themselves.

Humans:

Prepare weapons, ammo, supplies for battle

Finish any business you have in Vale

Head for the airdocks where you will take the airships, along with other teams (assume around a dozen or so teams) to the ambush location (point D)

Get dropped off, scout the location and await the next phase

Faunus:

Finish any business you have in Porsch/FaunAc

Ride the airships with the other faunus hunter teams to point D

Set up base camps, prepare weapons and ammo until orders come in from Menagerie

Scout the area, remain unaware that the humans are actually coming to fuck you up right now

Orx of Twinleaf · Jan 26, 2017

Archer and Team FEAR
(condensed for reduction of clutter and broken in the middle for your convenience)

Spoiler:

"I remember I was actually visiting my father's grave at the time, if you can believe it. I was out there talking to the headstone—I'd do that like I was talking to him, I know it's silly—and one of the footmen comes up to me with the news: we were going to war; Menagerie was rebelling. I remember being more relieved than anything; the footmen weren't surprised either, and really I could see it in everyone I talked to: we all knew it had been coming. I suppose we had just been tired of waiting. My father would have liked it; he hated Faunus with a passion. But most of us didn't really hate Faunus so much as dislike them. I admit it: I didn't like seeing them walking among the humans, I looked down on them, I thought of them as lesser people … so many humans did in those days and still do, sadly. We disliked Faunus. We really disliked Faunus. But not a lot of us hated them. We'd say nasty things and make faces at them because we disliked them, but we didn't attack them. We didn't hate them. But they hated us, and we deserved it. And when that realization hit me I was horrified. People like me, my whole generation, we had made the Faunus hate us. Hate us enough to kill us. And now it wasn't us but our children and grandchildren who would answer for our short-sightedness. I remember looking down at my father's headstone and realizing that my son's headstone might easily be next to be raised. Or my grandson's. I wanted to call them back, to bring my little Timmy out of that academy before he was deployed, but it was too late. I and all those like me across all the world realized we had endangered our children, and that it would be up to the cruel chances of fate whether or not we'd ever see them alive again."
—Timereaux Tranxerton III, head of the Tranxerton Estate, quoted from Cage Cast Open: the Revolution of the Faunus

Spoiler:

a joint-post with Khawill

StingrayP226 · Jan 27, 2017

--- Two and a Half Months Earlier ---

"This is Business Insider with Tracy Smith, big news tonight is Cybran Industries suddenly breaking apart and selling off pieces of the company. In the middle of a massive growth due to the increased demands of military arms and their popular defense drones, Cybran Industries suddenly sold off fragments of the company to their competitors. Some claim this is due to legal actions taken against the company for illegal sabotage operations…"

--- Two Months Earlier ---

"Where is Xavier? This is the third day of classes he has missed." asked the panda eared faunus to her scorpion tailed team member.

"Didn't you hear? His whole family disappeared," replied the other young faunus in his rough voice.

"What?!" asked the young woman standing up suddenly almost knocking her desk over.

"Yep like the others… disappeared in the night. No warning, some of their stuff is gone, but not all of it. Neighbors said they spotted them sneaking out," replied the boy as his tail's stinger casually scrapped his desk.

"But why?" asked the girl almost in tears.

"Cowards I guess… war is coming and they don't want to fight," replied the boy before adding, "They are likely the smart ones here."

"Where did they go?" sobbed the girl as she sat back down.

"No one knows… they just disappear," added the boy.

The girl failed to respond verbally and instead buried her face in her arms and began to cry over the loss of her crush.

---- One Month Earlier ---

"How the hell did those damn beasts keep striking key facilities like that?!" screamed the human general throwing his pen across the room, upon hearing that a second top secret research lab had been raided.

"Could have been grim…" started the colonel giving the update brief.

"Grimm do not use guns and they are not this precise!" screamed the general, shutting up the colonel.

"Could be another country… or a terrorist organization capitalizing on our focus on the faunus. It would explain why the attack did not come from faunus territory," offered a female NCO to the general's right.

"Perhaps, either way send military units to help guard all research facilities with key military projects and put them on high alert," said the general as he finally sat down staring at the map on the screen in front of him while rubbing his temples. He hated that he had to devote forces to protect corporate assets, but he couldn't lose anymore top secret projects to whoever was targeting them.

"Sir, we also received news a military prison airship carrying potentially dangerous faunus scientists crashed," added the colonel.

"Those dangerous animals are better off dead anyway," replied the general.

"Sir… the cause of the crash is unknown and they have not be able to find all the bodies. Unknown at this time who disappeared," added the colonel.

"Better be the animals," muttered the general not wanting to deal with this issue. "Next slide Colonel I have another meeting in a hour."

--- One Week Earlier ---

Dostya and Varik stood in the small metal command and control room looking over a hologram device. "Varik… Varik, Varik! Snap out of it we have work to get done," said Dostya noticing her partner's eyes glazing over.

"Sorry just so much going on. While I predicted it I still cannot believe the war actually is happening," muttered the tired man as he rubbed his unshaven face. His eyes were focused on a small window that displayed a video of his wife training in the new armor he designed for her with Dostya's help.

"Yes, and things are getting worse. Seems like some of the larger Grimm have figured out our plans, and have gone on the offense. Forward outpost three was attacked yesterday, and badly damaged. It was saved by the massed deployment of Witches, but not long after outpost two was hit. Hunter-Killers have been rather successful still, but we are starting to lose some. The main facility will need bolstered defenses if we are going to start moving people into it. Having some hunters on our side will help," continued Dostya.

"You father and I have been working on some new technology that should help make the colony more defensible," replied Varik in a tired tone as he tried to refocus on the task at hand.

"Maybe Nilya can help recruit some hunters from the faunus," added the man as he leaned on the table.

"How has my father been, still resistant or warming up to this whole plan?" asked Dostya.

"Resistant, but coming around slowly," replied Varik his voice showing a hint of frustration.

"I understand, my father doesn't care about people anymore, that is what concerns me. My father only wants to see scientific progress. He cares little for the lives of other, and this is about people," replied Dostya her voice showing a hint of sorrow.

"As long as he doesn't do something terrible for the sake of science," muttered Varik as he stared at the hologram with tired eyes.

"I will not let him" replied Dostya her voice showing resolve that took Varik off guard.

"I best get back to work, the problem will not solve itself," replied Varik slowly standing up straight and leaving the room.

--- Present ---

Nilya watched the stealth transport disappear into the low cloud deck behind her. She had several miles to go to reach the Faunus hunters staging area, but the pilot dared not get any closer. The faunus' mind was in chaos as she pushed forward toward the infiltration point the faunus would be using. First her husband was likely pushing himself to exhaustion, and she wanted nothing more than to be at his side insuring he did not kill himself. Fear of her husband hurting himself with one of his inventions was just one of the fears tearing through her mind, but she knew deep down he would be okay. Still she wanted to be there for him. However her sister needed her more, the faunus were about to walk into a trap.

Dostya's agents and various stealth drones have been monitoring human and faunus activity in regards to the coming war. The faunus had decided that their hunters should strike separately from their main force, but the humans discovered their plot and were hoping to eliminate the faunus' best warriors in a counter ambush. Nilya now needed to save her sister without letting anyone know what was coming. It was a terrible feeling, knowing information that could save many of her kin's lives, but unable to tell them.

Tension was building between the human and faunus "exiles" due to the building war. Already they were speeding ahead with their plans, and it was agreed upon that they would stay neutral in the war to prevent any bias from creating further rifts among the human and faunus team members. Thus Nilya was here to be her sister's bodyguard. Worse yet, Varik did not know she was here likely about to step in the middle of an ambush. She had not told him because she did not want him to worry about her, or to try in come along. She had lied to him about the danger, and he took her words as truth. She knew Varik would forgive her, but she felt guilt for betraying his trust.

Nilya adjusted her special black kimono that had been created from a lightweight but tough material to afford her a little protection. Under this garment was a skin tight suit with flexible armor plating covering vital areas. It afforded her protection without limiting mobility or stealth. She then put on a bulletproof kitsune mask that looked decorative with its carefully painted fox like face with a sly smile molded into the metal. Built in optics and sensors enhanced her already excellent vision and allowed her better situational awareness. Focusing her semblance Nilya formed eight illusionary tails to further enhance her chosen persona in case anyone spotted her. The black fox tails ended in a purple that matched her original hair color, and she had dyed her own hair to match these illusions as well. Looking at her real tail Nilya cracked a smile as she remembered revealing her new look to Varik. With the good memory in mind, she then darted forward with purpose, trying to stick to that darkest areas she could find...

Fen-Fen · Jan 27, 2017

Fate
JP by CrowofNobility and Fen-kun

Spoiler:

Crow · Jan 28, 2017

x

Natalie Star
with Lauren

CH 2 · 2 PT

Comfort

Star, having nodded off shortly after her creation was complete, was, of course, rolling about well into the early hours of the day. A familiar humming sound and the feeling of being sapped of her life force recurred in her dreams. Over time her heart began to pound, and pound, and pound, until… Star awoke with an uncontrollable scream, her heart racing erratically as she jolted into an upright position, eyes widened. Her expression only half-responsive, she seemed in a daze. Her breathing was heavy and she looked entirely panicked.

Her scream woke the two dolphin faunus and Lauren and Mrs. Baxiao jumped from their beds, half asleep and very shaken up by the scream. Mrs. Baxiao called out, "What happened? Are you in pain? Are you ok?"

Star, breathing heavily, seemed unresponsive to the question, her eyes widened but her stare blankly aimed at the floor. Her heart was beating roughly against her chest as she panicked, body tremors all over. "Lemme go, lemme go, lemme go," She mumbled softly to herself over, and over, and over.

Mrs. Baxiao immediately got to work in gathering medical supplies stashed in their dorm and came back with a defibrillator and other equipment if necessary. Lauren, wide-eyed and concerned, tried to reach Star. "S-star, c'mon, stay with us."

Still repeatedly chanting to herself, her arms crossed and wrapped around her sides, body shaking violently. Her heart still beating off rhythm and loud. Her eyes and hair flickered faintly on and off with a glow as she violently trembled, apparently still out of it. Lauren lightly tapped Star's shoulder, trying to see if she was responsive to physical touch.

Star's head popped back up, her semblance flicked back off, and she looked suddenly around the room to see both Faunus looking understandably shocked. Her face reddened slightly as her heart began to calm with her breathing. Embarrassed, Star lowered her head slightly. "... Um… Guess I was more tired than I thought…?" She half-joked.

Adopting a serious face, Mrs. Baxiao bluntly said, "It's much more than that. You know what I mean. I've seen you have these spells more than once when I was tending for you."

Star's face turned a brighter red. "S-sorry… Didn't mean to wake you," she replied nervously, completely darting away from the subject.

A little exasperated, Mrs. Baxiao said, "That's not the main issue here. We're worried for you. I know that you know more than you're letting on."

Star grew rather silent, a pained look in her eyes as she stared back down, face still beet red from the embarrassment. Lauren took to Star's side and softly said, "Is this the reason why you wanted to stay up all night?"

Star relaxed slightly, nodding quietly. "I did want to finish the cloak… And I finished it…" She trailed off for a moment. "... It happens every time I sleep." She shivered. "Because of my semblance I have the energy to skip multiple days of sleep before it affects me like most… But I guess I've already hardly been sleeping since I got here, and crashed…"

Lauren asked, "Do you have any idea what's causing these spells?"

Star sighed, silent for a long while as she looked for the right words. "... I… Every time I fall asleep… I relive those same three years… Every moment, every detail… Every last trace of my memory…" She began to tremble. "I was so alone…"

The two faunus women looked at her with worry and immediately went to comfort her. Mrs. Baxiao sat next to her and gave her a comforting backrub while Lauren gave Star a big hug. Lauren spoke up and said, "You're not alone anymore. It's going to be ok."

Star leaned against Lauren, tears forming in her eyes. "I don't feel like I deserve all this kindness… I'm such a hazard to keep around…"

This time, Mrs. Baxiao spoke up and addressed Star's concerns. "I know you might be confused about why we, as Faunus, have been so kind and supportive to you, a Human. While I'm definitely aggrieved by them, and I do hate the ones who have caused me and my family grief, I cannot hold that against you. I can never say no to those in need and evidently, you are still in need."

With a sniff, Star shook her head quietly. "Just keeping me here puts you both at risk… The scared faces out there are bad enough, but it's the angry ones that mean something bad could happen because of me... "

Sighing, Lauren replied, "Yeah, we get that you're a risk. But frankly, there's nothing we could do at this point that would recover our reputation here. It's irrelevant at this point."

Frowning, Star looked down at her outstretched legs, sprawled across the floor she'd evidently passed out on. "I just… Don't want anything to happen to you guys. And I feel like I'm a magnet for trouble right now… I've always been."

Touched by the concern, Lauren replied, "I really appreciate your concern for us, but at this point, it's too late to go back on our word or even a way to save face. We're in this together."

After a long pause, Star turned to Lauren and hugged her tightly close. "Then… I'll do everything I can to keep you guys safe…" Her heart, still pounding against her chest, had eased up considerably, and continued to do so. Nonetheless, Star's tremble was still present, still very clearly shaken up.

"Thank you, Star, for sticking here with us," Lauren said softly to her trembling friend. Star nodded quietly, though her eyes seemed to still reflect that pain of just moments earlier. She was silent once more, although she didn't realize she was, nor for how long. Lauren asked Star, "Do you want to be left alone for now or would you like for us to stay a bit?"

Star thought for several long moments… Almost forgetting that she'd been asked a question as her mind wandered the thoughts of her nightmares. I cold shiver ran down her entire body. "Um… Company might be nice…" She muttered quietly.

Looking at the state Star was in, Lauren said, "Here, sit down on the futon. Get comfortable. It might be best if we talked about what happened to you if you ever wanna get better."

Star sighed and quietly picked herself up off the floor, bringing a folded black cloth in her hand (evidently her cloak that had wound up rolled into a pillow overnight) and closed her eyes, steadying her breathing. Her body still trembled uncontrollably. It's clear her thoughts had been tormenting her. Lauren stood up to sit next to Star on the futon, and began to soothingly rub her back in an attempt to calm her nerves. "Ok, so let's start from the beginning. What happened three years ago when you were kidnapped?"

Spoiler:

.

Fen-Fen · Feb 3, 2017

Together

A JP by Fen-kun and CrowofNobility

As the sun started to barely rise over Menagerie, Lauren started to rise, yawning and stretching. She got up out of bed and was still in her pajamas, consisting of a tank top and sweatpants. She could see Star working on something with her sewing at the foot of her bed. With a cheery tone, Lauren said to Star, "Morning~."

Amidst the dead silence of the night, even the faint rustling of Lauren waking was audible to Star, causing a gentle smile to form. "Morning," she replied. She gazed up at Lauren with a warm smile, though bags had formed beneath her eyes. She'd not slept for the entire week, and it was really starting to set in on her face. She let out a slight whimper as she stretched, beginning to stand up herself with an entire armful of newly crafted scarves, capes, and other various accessories. "Did you sleep okay?"

"Yup. I slept great." She looked at Star's handiwork and admired them. "Wow, they look so pretty! You are quite the skilled sewer. I want some of these."

"I could make somethin' for you if you wanted," she smiled sweetly, "But these are for your mom to bring to work, for the patients." She smirked a bit. "With all the sewing I've done, I can really feel like I'm getting better at it. I might modify my cloak to look better as well."

Lauren widely grinned and said, "I'd love it if you can make something for me." She added, "I personally would love a scarf with a star design, because y'know, it reminds me of you."

"Actually, these all have a tiny little yellow star on them," she smirked as she lifted the end of a scarf, flattening out a corner where, sure enough, a small yellow star had been sewn on. "It's like a signature at this point," she joked. A momentary pause, Star lit up once more in excitement. "So a scarf? What about a cloak? What about colors? Do you have a symbol?"

"Hmm...both would be great, and as for my symbol, I'd have to say that it'd definitely have to be a seashell. I really like pink and blue."

"Hmm… Blue with pink accents or pink with blue accents?"

Lauren replied, "Blue with pink accents."

"I take it the same colors as your clothes," she smirked. "I love the fabrics here… I might remake my cloak completely too just to have it in these softer materials." Star walked over to the bathroom and checked herself, having placed the pile of clothing she'd made in the corner of the futon. As she tied her high ponytail with a black ribbon, she took the moment to examine her reflection. Even her appearance had changed as she more or less had become part of the family and grown accustomed to Menagerie. Having stopped wearing the tank top altogether, she wore the equivalent of a bra made of bandages for a top. She could see that her toned muscles were more visible, making her appear at least slightly less wiry, no doubt thanks to all their training.

She looked to her legs, where she wore black leggings and a sort of miniskirt-esque pair of shorts made of a solid yellow material, then of course, her old black and yellow slip-on sneakers. She finished getting ready by once again wrapping her hands with bandaging. "It's a good thing there's always a ton of bandaging everywhere," Star chuckled to herself. After a few more moments of self-examination, she flipped her cloak on and left the bathroom. "So, what today?" She asked quietly.

Lauren replied, "How about some more training with our semblances? I sure had fun the other day doing that."

Star grinned, that same flare of excitement in her eyes. "Definitely!" Star giggled excitedly, like a hyperactive child.

Similarly excited, Lauren grabbed her hand and exclaimed, "Let's go!" The two ran out of the dorm, eager to train with their semblances. After walking through town, with a few nasty looks thrown their way that were ignored, they arrived at the usual beach where they hang out in.

Feeling particularly lively, Lauren exclaimed, "Woo, I'm feeling really pumped today! Not that I usually am a slouch at this, but still…"

Star reached a hand out of her cloak and tossed the whole thing aside in one fluid motion with a grin. She'd stopped wearing the belt across her chest entirely, sheathing the bat now at her hip. Nonetheless, she tossed it aside as well and took her usual stance, lighting up like a bonfire as she sunk the ground beneath her. Even at full supermass her powers seemed to have gotten stronger.

Lauren ran into the sea, having the ability to walk on water. From nearby, she summoned a spout of water to rocket herself very high in the air. While airborne, she took the spout and directed it towards a series of larger boulders, blasting them down with the force of the water. After that, she extended her hands in front of her to dive and landed with surprising grace and finesse. She called from her position, "Whatcha think?"

Star shone pure enthusiasm in her expression. "Awesome, especially that dismount," Star laughed. Stepping across the beach, small quaking as she walked, she approached an absurdly large boulder and lifted it with relative ease, immediately chucking it high up into the air, shouting "Catch!!" as she did so.

Lauren summoned another torrent of water, and combining her strength and the force of the water, kept the boulder steady and deflected it far away with a huge splash.

Star formed a wicked smile and, as Lauren dealt with the boulder, had launched herself even higher into the air, controlling her semblance as she plunged down toward Lauren at a weight of about a quarter of a ton.

Lauren shouted from above, "Bring it on!" She constructed another jet of water and deflected her back to shore.

Star launched herself even higher, small golden white explosions propelling her higher and higher as she was carefully flicking her semblance on and off. Then, at her apex, she dove straight at Lauren yet again, this time at a full ton of mass. "You get what you ask for!" She shouted back, flying full speed at Lauren.

Lauren repeated the same technique for deflection, straining a bit more, but managing to deflect her back to shore with a loud thud. She shouted back to her, "Thanks for the workout, Star!"

With a loud boom, Star launched herself straight up like a rocket, dropping yet again at about a ton and a half. "It ain't a workout until you hit your limits!" She retorted, flying at maximum velocity down at Lauren a third time.

"Alright," she said to herself. She readied the water and found that she was straining significantly under the weight. She grunted and seemed to only keep her at bay. Lauren used the last of her strength and managed to slightly deflect her to shore. As she hit her limits, she started falling towards the water.

Star, quick on her feet, kicked herself off the shore with a boom, aiming so that her timing and trajectory would place her under Lauren at just the right moment. She reached out with both arms and caught the other girl gracefully, immediately after kicking both feet forward with another boom, skidding to a stop in the sand, Star grinning with intensity. "Okay please tell me you that, that was the coolest ****!"

Panting, Lauren replied, "Yeah! Whew, that was...quite the workout. It feels great!"

"Doesn't have to stop now, right?" Star hopped to her feet and put Lauren down, placing an open palm against her back, semblance flaring up visibly as it flowed toward her hand and vanished into Lauren.

Lauren suddenly felt renewed, and said to Star, "I feel just as good as new!"

Star smiled. "Perks to being a human battery, I guess," she laughed. "We need some utility, some versatile moves other than just strength."

"I have plenty of versatile uses for water. Apart from merely controlling liquid water, I can make steam." She took some water from the sea and made it evaporate instantly into a small cloud of water vapor. "And ice." She took the steam cloud, cooled back to water and froze it.

"I can smash things, and… Blow stuff up." She snickered. "I've touched on more science-y things with it though. Like condensing gasses and setting them off with my powers. Propelling myself and objects. A lot of practice with timing and trajectory and stuff. Controlling my semblance to alter my weight so I can lighten up for more speed or bulk up for a harder hit. Unfortunately I'm still pretty useless in stealth," she finished, winding her arms in circles as her shoulders popped.

Lauren rubbed her chin in thought. "Condensing gasses, huh? I only work with steam, but boy can it be volatile and powerful. If used right it can be quite powerful, even more so than a bomb."

Star nodded, adding, "There's a lot we can do together as well as apart. A lot of potential in our combos…"

Lauren excitedly said, "Yeah, yeah! I really wanted to work with you in doing a combo. It was one of the things I wanted in today's session."

Smiling warmly, Star crossed her arms and lightly kicked, a small pop on the beach launching her weapon up into the air. Leaning to the side, Star moved to the right position for the weapon to fall immediately beside her, clicking into the lock on her belt. Without a word, that familiar, doofy grin spilt all over her face with an excited giggle.

Lauren said, "Alright, you ready? Because we are gonna do awesome! So, what I wanted to do was try out something explosive. Literally." She chuckled slightly and continued. "I'm pretty sure some steam could give some oomph to some of your explosive attacks, especially if we combine it with the gasses that you can produce with your semblance." Lauren summoned some steam, whose heat was intense even from the distance that it was maintained at.

"I've got an idea too." Following along, Star reached out an arm, slowly curling her hand into a fist, as if crushing something in her mind. The steam visibly moved inward on itself, until it appeared as if it was trapped within an invisible sphere. Mocking something she'd seen and tried months ago, Star made a finger gun pointed at it, jerking her hand back as she exclaimed, "Bang!" A moment later the sphere erupted into a very real explosion, one whose radius expanded much farther than either would've anticipated. However, quick on the draw, Star had gestured her hands apart and moved them slowly toward one another. As the explosion continued it slowly began to lose its radius as it also appeared as if in an invisible bubble. Star continued shrinking its area until it merely poofed out of existence. Star gave a slight panting as she rubbed her brow. "I didn't think that'd be so difficult," she huffed. "Good to know it can be done though."

Impressed at their handiwork, Lauren quipped, "Heh, we really can do a lot a lot together." As Lauren said that, she didn't only think of the combo attack. Lauren felt something deeper than that, something that she couldn't put a finger on, but seemed to consume her thoughts nonetheless. Lauren spaced out for a few moments, processing what those indistinguishable feelings were.

Star nodded in agreement, lost in thought herself for several moments. "We gotta be careful with that though. It's not as easy to control and could put someone at risk. But for something especially sturdy it'll work wonders, I bet."

Half paying attention, Lauren came back to her senses and replied absentmindedly, "Mhmm, yeah."

Star tilted her head a few degrees. "You okay? You're a little out of it, and unlike me, that's not normal for you."

Shaking her head, Lauren replied, "Oh, nothing's wrong. Quite the opposite, in fact. Just thinking about something."

"What about?" Star asked in a bit of confusion. "I've never seen you make a face like that before."

Attempting to cover it up, she replied, eyes looking away from her, "It was nothing, really. Just some thoughts about stuff."

This only brought more confusion for Star. "You sure? Talking always helps." Star gazed up at the sky. "I know it worked really well for me."

She relented and replied truthfully, "It's just a feeling I can't put a name on that I felt just now when we were working together."

"I get that… I think." Star spoke without much certainty. "I always have a hard time putting that stuff to words. Emotions are kinda weird." She itched a finger over her cheek.

"Hmm." Lauren shifted a little and said, "Anyways, wanna continue training?"

"If you can still concentrate, sure," Star replied, visible concern in her expression. "I don't want any accidents or anything."

Lauren said, "Nah, I'm fine. It was just a quick little thing. C'mon, I am ready to go!"

The two spent the remaining morning hours practicing and training with their semblances, with no incident as the two were able to concentrate. After a while, the taller of the duo started voicing her desires to go out to lunch. "Man, I'm famished, let's say we go eat lunch." Her stomach seemed to agree with a growl.

Star smirked, her own stomach replying with a loud groan. However, instead of her past embarrassment, she smirked and beamed with her usual brand of enthusiasm. "Where this time?"

Lauren thought of what place to bring her to. "Hmm...you up for something different? I know this place where we can get kabobs."

"Sounds good to me," Star said excitedly. "I live here, I've gotta try everything nearby once."

Lauren replied, a little disheartened, "Well, only the places that'll let us in. A lot of these are friends of my dad and some are my mom's friends. Let's go." Lauren walked with Star into town, too absorbed in her company to notice any dirty looks and scorn. They arrived at a small shack with a few tables for eating. It was in a quiet part of the market, being a little hole in the wall even among the relative hole in the wall status of the restaurants here. A young man, no more than twenty seven, was manning the kabob stand and saw the pair approach his business. He said to them, "Hey, Lauren, how ya doing? You brought a friend?"

Lauren nodded, "Mhmm. I'll take the two of the usual."

He nodded. "Coming right up." While he cooked, the pair took their seats and sat across from each other. Lauren again let her mind wander a bit, staring off into the sky.

A few moments of silence (aside from the sound of cooking nearby) and Star looked around. Over the course of her time out here, each day there seemed to be less and less Faunus around. Despite their overall opinion about her, the lack of passersby bothered her. "You've got that look again," Star spoke, in a slightly teasing tone.

Snapping out of her zone out, she replied, "W-what look?"

"That one," she smirked. "Just like before. You're usually the focused one of the two of us too, I thought paying attention was gonna be your responsibility!" She joked.

Lauren sheepishly smiled and scratched the back of her head, "Eheh. Today's just not my day I guess." Just as she was gonna continue, the man called from the kitchen, "Kabobs are ready!" Lauren went to grab them, and brought them back to the table. She gave one of the kabobs, with juicy chunks of spiced grilled chicken gleaming from the stick.

Star eagerly dug in, with not much hesitation.

"Starlady!" A child's voice called from behind, causing Star to nearly choke.

"E-excuse me?" Star responded, turning around with a somewhat shocked and confused expression.

"You got a big star on your back," the kid replied. He couldn't have been over ten years old, a short armadillo boy with natural plating on his back. Star came into understanding when the boy held up an end of his red scarf, pointing to the tiny yellow star in the corner. "Did you make this??"

Star coughed for a moment before swallowing. "Are you supposed to be in the infirmary? I did though…"

"Cool!!" The kid exclaimed, without really answering her question. "Thank you!" He shouted his thanks as he bolted back the way he came.

"I…" Star trailed off, eyes wide for several long moments. "Starlady!?"

Lauren giggled. "That was really cute. You're starting to have a fanbase here." She gave a teasing smile to Star.

Star held her head in both hands, still visibly stunned. "I-- It's been less than a day!" She shook her head, not entirely able to overcome the shock. "Smart little kids…" She cleared her throat for a moment. "I'm starting to question if this cloak is really concealment or a giant target on my back."

Lauren replied between mouthfuls of the kabob, "Well, it seems like you're slowly building something of a somewhat positive reputation here. And don't worry, if the worse comes to worst, I'll be able to protect you." She adopted a very earnest look on her face.

Star let out something of a growl as she ripped into more of the meaty chunks. "I thought protecting you was my job… When did we switch places?"

Lauren said, "Well...I mean, I was just thinking, since we're in this thing together, we get to protect each other. Y'know, for our sakes."

"Right, next you're gonna tell me we should both be paying attention," Star joked with a laugh at herself. "We've been all around here enough," she continued in a suddenly more serious tone, "You've noticed how the amount of people keeps dropping, right?"

Lauren nodded. "Yeah. It's been bothering me."

"There hasn't been any violence around here," Star pondered aloud. "Tension, sure, but people aren't just dying…" She thought on it. "Either they've begun to hide, or they've packed up and gone elsewhere." She frowned momentarily. "You don't think that's because of me being here…" She trailed off.

Lauren shook her head. "Oh no, I really don't think so, it's probably people getting ready for war." She looked down and seemed glum at the thought of war.

Frowning, she placed a hand over Lauren's in reassurance. "Not everyone's out to kill each other… We're an example of that. There's gotta be others who feel the same, I'm sure of it. Best we can do is help whoever we can and protect them too." She gave a slight glance, catching the faintest glimpse of another glare. "Even if they're not in their right minds right now, y'know?"

Lauren again felt that confusing emotion she couldn't quite nail down, but was stronger. She replied to Star, "Yeah. I get it. But thanks for the reassurance." Lauren gave a really warm smile and looked at her shorter compatriot with a look of gratefulness and appreciation.

"You did the same for me," Star smiled back. "At least we have these few allies already," she added as she smiled and waved at the guy who made their food. She turned back with a slow blink. "I never once thought my life would turn out like it has… But I'm grateful as hell for how it is right now… Even if others aren't so enthusiastic." She smiled. "You taught me that appreciation."

Lauren laughed warmly and said, "I'm so glad that I've left that impact on you."

As the two were enjoying the moment, the man called from the stand and chuckled to himself as he said, "Heh, don't you think it's a little dangerous to be like that here?"

Lauren realized how their interaction must have looked and blushed, stammering back at him, "W-what? Oh no no no, it's not like that, really, it isn't."

"We can defend ourselves if anything happens," Star replied, clearly not on the same page. "Your concern is appreciated though!"

Lauren mumbled, "That's not what he meant."

The man was laughing a good deal, saying, "I'm only joking, Lauren, chill. Unless--"

Lauren got redder and shouted to him, "Shut up, Kevin!"

"I don't get it," Star glanced back and forth. "What'd he mean?"

Regaining her composure, Lauren said, "N-nothing. Just a joke."

"I didn't get the joke," Star pouted.

Lauren giggled and ruffled Star's hair. "Don't worry about it. Let's just continue enjoying this lunch, ok?" The two continued on their lunch, vigorously devouring their kabobs and again enjoying each other's company. They decided to go out for a stroll, with Lauren taking Star through the nicer part of the island, which was the wealthier part with "mansions", gardens and more upscale shops. The two spent hours lost in conversation, seemingly unaware of anything negative to interrupt it. At last, Lauren said aloud, "Whew, how time flies, am I right Star?"

Star, somewhat disconnected to the world around them up until then, looked around in surprise. "... Oh. I guess it did," she said, her tone heavily implying that this was a very sudden realization. "Guess we should probably turn around and at least start walking back."

Spoiler:

Crow · Feb 3, 2017

x

Natalie Star
with Lauren

CH 2 · 4 PT

Family

Star opened her eyes… Or so she thought. Around her was the lab she was painfully familiar with, the same hum, the same draining feeling from her chest out to her restrained limbs. She struggled against it, fighting until she was panting and exhausted. "Alone…" She muttered, body trembling. Her quivering suddenly ceased as another familiar feeling took over. It wrapped around her waist and expanded throughout the rest of her body. Warmth. But different from the usual kind of warmth. It had an air of comfort to it, of reassurance. It was as if someone had taken the sensation of being safe at home and condensed it down to a single feeling.

The sphere she was trapped in - no, the entire reality around her - shattered and fell out of existence. Released from her binds, she gently fell into a position of rest on her side. The warmth embraced her as powerfully as ever, the comfort overwhelming as her eyelids grew heavy and consciousness slipped away.

With a small, contented yawn, Star opened her eyes to find the beach around her. It was morning, and while the crisp early air nipped at her, she took notice that she wasn't cold in the slightest. She moved her hand across her torso, freezing when she felt something unfamiliar. Glancing under the cloak, she noticed very familiar arms tied around her stomach. Face burning up in sudden color, she flustered for a moment before immediately regaining her senses and recollections of the night prior. Relaxing, a thought occurred to her. She didn't wake up screaming. Her heart was as stable as ever. She… Had actually slept.

Sighing contently, Lauren wore a serene smile on her face as she woke up to find that her partner had not stirred with the nightmares that usually plagued her. She whispered sleepily to Star, "Morning~. I noticed you didn't thrash about last night."

With a slight nudge closer, Star shuddered slightly, rolling around to face Lauren with widened eyes. "I haven't slept… Like… Actually slept… In years… But I just..." Trailing off, Star grew quiet, her gaze fixating on Lauren's ruby-colored eyes as she relaxed once more.

Lauren gently stroked Star's face as she replied, "It must have helped that you had me here with you. I have to say, I had quite a pleasant sleep too."

"I couldn't be happier," Star muttered with a tiny smile, nuzzling her head underneath Lauren's. "I don't think I ever wanna sleep alone again…"

"Me neither." She savored the comfort she found with Star and kissed her on the top of her head. "You're far too cozy to give up."

Blinking sweetly, Star smiled more and tightened her grip on Lauren. "Mmmnn~..." She glanced up at the sky. "Oh… We never went home…"

With a look of realization, Lauren's eyes lit up as she said, "You're right. We have so much to tell mom about all of this. I really wanna make sure she knows about us."

Smiling quietly for a moment, Star nodded her agreement. With a long stretch, she sat upright, examining her cloak and dusting off bits of sand that'd accumulated over the night. She clicked open her pendant, picking up some of the sand and placing it inside before clicking it shut again. "I kinda remember both your parents, just a little bit… From back then."

Gathering up their stuff, Lauren exclaimed, "Really? What do you remember?"

"Mostly how they looked," Star replied, pinning the pendant on her now properly equipped cloak. "But I remember them being really nice to me… Nicer than my own parents sometimes. Especially nowadays… Obviously."

Lauren nodded. After finishing getting all their stuff, Lauren led Star away from the beach en route to their residence. After walking together with hands held, with no one to see them this time around, they arrived at the dormitories and went up the stairs to their dorm. Lauren got out her keychain and unlocked the door, only to find not only her mother asleep on the futon, but her father as well. Hearing the door open, the two began to stir, and were relieved to see the figures of Lauren and Star. Her mother spoke up first, "There you guys are. I got a message from your father and he came over for a visit."

The tall muscular faunus concurred. "Yeah. Your mother told me that you were out and about with someone." He squinted his eyes and said "Though she doesn't look to be faunus."

A faint blush forming across her cheeks, Star gripped Lauren's hand a bit tighter. "H-hi… Mister Baxiao…" Slowly, with her free hand, she pulled the hood off of her cloak. Shuddering slightly, Star glanced at her partner with a nervous stare.

Spoiler:

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StingrayP226 · Feb 10, 2017

The Couple, the Fox, and the Raven

Spoiler:

Foxrally · Feb 12, 2017

Jairo & Sahn Xill

Mira Cullous Nel Phelia

Team JSMN
Departure

"This is so exciting!" Nel exclaimed gleefully as she hopped around FaunAc's bustling main hall. "It's like we're going on a field trip, and everyone's invited!"

"Yeah. A field trip to go get killed, more like." Jairo scoffed and put down his violin. It was true, though - he'd never seen so many students in one place in his entire time in the academy; there were even more people than there were on the first day. They could barely hear themselves in the massive refurbished warehouse which served as FaunAc's main building, as hunter teams and teachers prepared their weapons, ammo and supplies and orders were barked around by the superiors. In a way, he did feel excited anticipation, even if it was because they were going to war.

His mind drifted back to the first day, how everything had been so different. How he and his sister had moved from a life of exile in Vale, to scavenging in Menagerie, and now soldiers for the Faunus Revolution. But now he couldn't help but think back to what had happened when they finally made their way back to Vale. The plan was to stay there... why were they here now? What had he seen there? All he and his team could remember is that they had reached the mainland, and then... blank memories. Next thing they knew they had been on a faunus airship back to Menagerie, and (admittedly, rightfully) branded as thieves. Yet after a lengthy interrogation, for some reason, they hadn't been thrown out of the school. They had all tried to think of what exactly had happened once they reached Vale, but to to avail. Yet for some reason, Jairo always felt a sense of dread and shock when trying to do so.

Shaking off the thought, he turned his mind to more pressing matters. "So what's the plan right now? We just sit here and wait for some army-boot asshole to make us 'answer the call of duty', or what?"

"I think that's the general gist of it, yeah." Sahn replied, nodding. A sudden gunshot sounded beside the two.

"Ow, ow, hah! Sorry!" Nel said, shaking her in pain as he reassured all the looks around her the shot had gotten. She skipped over to the spider twins, sucking her finger. "Ow... still getting used to the whole gunblade thing." she moaned, raising her new gun-fitted half-chakram. "I guess I can't wait to shoot off." she grinned.

Suddenly behind them, a panting, breathless Mira appeared, nearly falling to the ground as she hopped off her hovering staff. "Sorry, sorry!" she meekly apologized between breaths, flicking her glasses out of their goggles form. She had her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and they almost couldn't recognize her at first.

"Daamn, girl! You look georgeous with that hair!" Nel piped, Sahn nodding in approval.

"Oh, hah, thanks…" the owl faunus replied meekly, blushing. She patted herself down. "Sorry. I was settling things back in Porsch, and I wanted to make sure I didn't get anything left behind. You know, just in case we... don't come back." she added hesitantly.

"Oh, don't be like that!" Nel put her hands on her hips. "This'll be an absolute breeze with you!"

"Nel's right, Mira." Sahn reassured. "We'll all get home safe, regardless of what happens."

"You're our team leader after all. Nothing can go wrong, right?" Jairo prodded with a smirk. "Nah, I kid. This is what we've been trained for. Won't go down like the airship did."

"Both figuratively and literally." Nel added.

The owl faunus didn't know what to say, and was a little taken aback by all the sudden praise she was getting. "I, ah... Thanks for the confidence, guys." she said. "I guess hope and confidence are all we can do in a situation like this."

The team kept waiting for a while longer, sitting around idly as the they watched more hunters come in and out. Suddenly, a powerful lion roar sounded through the hall.

"The following hunter teams must report to the airship docks!" Professor Corryn called out. "ABAK! GRNT! BLUE! JSMN! INCT! Get moving, cubs!" the lion faunus roared.

"Well, that's our cue. Let's go." Mira instructed, getting up. Her team followed, Jairo hopping onto his sister's shoulders, and they made their way to the large open field which functioned as FaunAc's landing zone.

As the summoned teams gathered, they could clearly see that not all teams were taking the fact they were going to war very well. Next to them was a girl Jairo recognized as Layla, the panda faunus from team BLUE, sobbing uncontrollably and being comforted by her teammate.

"I'm too young to die, I can't be doing this! I know everyone dies, but I'm gonna die now I don't want toooo!" she wailed, burying her face in her teammate's shoulder.

"You keep saying that, and it'll come damn true! Quit your whimpering!" the lion professor suddenly roared. He motioned towards the large airship with its door open. "Get in, stay in your teams!"

As JSMN prepared to enter the ship, the professor's gruff voice stopped them in their tracks. "Not you lot. We got special orders for JSMN."

"Seriously?" Jairo sighed exasperatedly, letting two of his arms drop. "Three months later you people are still bothering us with this shit?"

"Cullous, tell your lackey to watch his mouth before I make you all regret it." the professor snarled at Mira, their leader. "You'll be seated separately, under watch from two supervisors. Says here you got a bad history with airships."

"That's understating it." Mira noted. Two slim, strikingly identical professors, one a man, the other a woman, appeared before them. Based on their ears, she could tell they were some sort of feline faunus.

"Professor Brass. He is assistant professor Brass." she introduced herself and her twin, who was chewing idly on what smelled like a piece of fish. "You girls come with me." the first Brass addressed Sahn and Mira, motioning towards the ship.

"You two come with me. Move it." her male doppelganger ordered, waving for Jairo to get off Sahn's back and beside Nel.

Begrudgingly, the four members of JSMN separated, with Mira and Sahn going in first, followed by a the remaining other teams, and lastly Jairo and Nel.

----

The large faunus airship shook and rattled during the three-hour-long trip. Some of students were sleeping, others anxiously checking their weapons and ammo. Nel and Jairo were on the other end of the ship, next to the stern professor Y. Jairo would have enjoyed going to sleep like the other students, if it weren't for the hawk faunus beside him.

"Kshht." Nel sounded, imitating the noise of a plane radio turning on. "Hello, this is your tour guide speaking! If you look to your left, you can see this side of the Menagerie-an ocean. If you to your right, you can see the other side of the Menagerie-an ocean." She looked around expectantly with a big grin on her face. "Oh come on, nobody? Man, it's like we're going to a funeral or something. Cheer up!"

On the other side of the airplane, separated from the other two members of their team, were Mira and Sahn. The tall spider faunus had managed to doze off, and Mira, who was far too anxious to get any rest, sat idly between professor Brass and her teammate. Sitting across from her was one the members of team ABAK, Bea.

"Hey, that's your teammate right?" Bea started, looking at Mira, her tone along with her nervous fidgeting, giving away that her nerves were unusually shot, "Why don't you do us all a favor and shut her up?"

Mira looked up, confused, before realizing the girl in front of her was addressing her. "O-oh, sorry…" she stammered, glancing at the professor next to her then towards Nel, who was busy talking to some girl now. At least she was being quieter about it. "Ahm, yeah, sorry." Mira cleared her throat and looked back at Bea. "Nel's got a habit of going off at the wrong times. We're all stressed, she's just trying to clear the air, y'know." She gave a friendly smile.

"We're on a flying ship." Bea said, agitated, "She shouldn't be clearing the air at the expense of other passengers." Bea tightly held her gun, feeling trapped, and she twiddled her thumbs.

"Where's your team?" Mira asked, looking around. "Bea, right? I've seen you guys hanging around Grimm capture class a few times. I'm Mira, from JSMN."

"They're in the back of the plane, because the three of them were too busy eating out to be on time. Now I'm up here having to listen to your annoying teammate." She took a breath, "I remember you and your team, so they roped you saps into being here?"

"Yeah. We asked for a Grimm elimination mission instead, but we still ended up in deployment. Guess it's what happens when you sign up as a hunter, heh." Mira replied. "Might be karma for what we did last time on an airship; it's why we're being separated and supervised." She looked nervously at professor Brass, who said nothing.

"We volunteered. We're hoping to find a winged human with red hair." Bea said, getting angry, "So we've taken every human mission since the attack on menagerie."

"Red hair…? That sounds familiar…" Mira muwsed. "Why are you guys looking for him? High value target?"

"He attacked and humiliated me.". Bea said, gritting her teeth, "And he's the reason my grandmother's house was wrecked by Grimm." She looked up at Mira with a burning glare, "We hope we get to bury his face in the ground."

"Oh my god, I…" Mira began, flustered, "I'm sorry about that. I hope you do bring justice to him in the end. But… sometimes I just ask myself, why do they do this? All because we look different?"

"This one attacked his own." Bea said, shaking slightly, "And I don't think he's anymore than a monster that needs to be put down."

"Well, when you think about it, it's what we're trained for. Taking down monsters, whether it's Grimm or people. Although nowadays it's getting harder to tell the difference." Mira chuckled nervously and looked away.

A joint post of Foxrally and Khawill

Crow · Feb 13, 2017

x

Natalie Starlight Baxiao
with Lauren

CH 2 · 6 PT

Friends

After walking briskly away from a few glances of curiosity at who the girl by Lauren's side was and her uncharacteristically pissed off demeanor, the duo arrived at a nearby usually populated beach with nary another person in sight. Lauren gently sat Star down, and proceeded to shout at the top of her lungs, "I hate them!"

Star watched up as Lauren let it out, her face a deadpan sad as she reached up for a hand and promptly pulled Lauren down onto her lap, hugging tightly around her waist and resting a chin over her shoulder. She let out a slow exhale, attempting to relax herself as well. "I hate the guy… I'm trying not to hate myself… And I hate how mean the girl was." She sighed, a slight shiver as she hugged tighter. "... I think he's playing with her head."

Appreciating the embrace, Lauren calmed down slightly and clenched her free hand into a fist. "Who cares at this point? They can both piss off for all I care." Even in her anger, there was a slight note of pain that seemed to cut through her words.

Breathing deeply with an unusually calm demeanor, Star shook her head, then nuzzling it beside her mate's. Her voice soft like silk, she replied, "You don't believe that." She gave a faint smile, if nothing more than for the relief of being together and away from the chaos. "I don't know what's up with that guy… But you did hurt her feelings, the way she's trying, and succeeding, at hurting ours… Though I'm at least partially to blame for that." Star pulled closer, her mind somewhat clear as her mouth seemed to just move on its own. "He's taking advantage of her pain and using it against us. I don't know why, but… Whatever he said to her is working." Star shuddered at the thought of his manipulative ways; or even just the thought of him at all. "I could feel her pain… Somewhere in there, she hasn't given up yet."

Now more pained than angry, Lauren began to cry, but seemed somewhat hesitant to let her tears out. "I...I...I never meant to hurt them and yet...she…"

"I know…" Star responded gently. "What's done is done… As unfortunate as that interaction was, we can't take any of it back. I don't think I've given up on her yet. But we can't just go to her like that again… Especially when she's around… Him..." She frowned, finding comfort in their closeness despite all that'd happened. "I don't know what to do though…"

In a bit of a role reversal, Lauren cried onto Star and sought her comfort. Between her sobs, Lauren exclaimed, "I'm a terrible leader. I've gotten our team in so much trouble."

"No, you're not," Star replied bluntly, her tone still sweet despite this. She gripped tighter around Lauren and gently caressed her back in an attempt to calm her. She was fairly disturbed by her own uncharacteristically peaceful nature at the moment. "Everyone makes mistakes… It's part of growing up. They're lessons to learn from, they make us better people unless we just disregard them. And you've obviously held onto them for a long time." She let out a low growl for a moment. "Your team was tainted from the inside…"

Star's taller partner continued to sob. "It's not supposed to be like this...everything's my fault...getting deported, leading to my two teammates deaths, Archer and now this...what's the point of being happy-go-lucky and being good at anything if this stuff keeps happening?"

"Because those things make you happy," Star responded easily. "It's not your fault. It's not like you knew he'd go crazy or anything. Life is harsh… Stupidly, annoyingly, heartbreakingly harsh. It's not your fault, but there's not necessarily a reason these things happen either. Maybe we can come up with a way to get to Nara… But the frontal approach obviously isn't gonna happen." She sighed. Even the faintest mention of Archer removed her off the growing fears in the back of her mind. She spaced out on them for several moments before coming to. "I'm not leaving you, no matter what… Even if the world turns on us..."

"Me neither." She shakily sighed. "I'm sorry you have to see me like this. I hate all this suffering, pain, anger, all this junk that makes me not me."

"You're always you… You are how you respond to these things." Star smiled softly, her eyes deep in color as she relaxed against Lauren. "I hate it too… But that's what we're fighting to stop, right?"

"Right." Lauren took a deep breath as she began settling down. "Y'know, you really do know how to make me feel better." Lauren gave a faint smile.

Spoiler:

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Khawill · Feb 15, 2017

Another Archer Kidnapping

Featuring Archer, Fear, Dostya, and Dad!,

"I sort of expected some more noise, hahahaha." Rimer was eyeing Archer's caged form at the outer ring of the fire's light. As feral as he had been on capture, he'd been eerily quiet since he had woken up after Fajio's Semblance had timed out.

Fajio sucked deeply on his straw, siphoning a great quantity of the tomato soup out of his cup. "I can't account for it," he said, passing his cup to Azoo to have it refilled from the pot over the fire. "His mind's in the worst shape I've ever seen one been in; I almost started flailing about myself, just to alleviate the pressure. I wonder he should have enough presence to hold still."

Evegy had lowered her kerchief to eat her soup with a spoon like everyone else. She looked curiously towards Archer. "He might be hungry. Shouldn't we give him something?"

"Don't have any raw fish sitting around, hahahahaha!" Rimer slapped his knee, spilling some of his own soup.

Azoo reached over with the patience of a parent and steadied his cup. He cast his own judging look over their captive. "He can do to starve a while."

"Now, Azoo," Fajio said, getting up and taking out his unused spoon, "no need to be spiteful. You can hardly blame him for shooting me, everyone probably has wanted to wound me and worse at one point or another, you know."

He took his cup over to the cage, now, and extended a spoonful of the red soup through the bars. "Mr. Ines, would you care for some?"

Archer remained silent, his face not showing any sign of hunger or any strong emotion. When Faijo stepped closer, he could not possibly notice Archer's muscles tense up, and when he stuck his hand in the cage, Archer got close and looked at the spoonful of soup, before biting the hand attempting to feed him.

Fajio's face at that moment would have been enough to drive a priest to cursing, but behind his mask he presented a cold figure, and calmly pulled his hand away after Archer's teeth loosened their grip. He had dropped the spoon in the cage. He looked at his hand: Archer had drawn blood. Fajio looked at Archer through his shades silently.

"Fajio, are you alright?" Evegy was there next to him, looking at his hand, but he waved her off.

Fajio looked at his captive a moment longer before slowly and deliberately pouring the remainder of his soup onto the dirt outside Archer's cage. "I remember seeing your memory, Mr. Ines." The red stream trickled wastefully into the earth. "You were quite hungry then. And you'll remain so until we get back." He threw his cup at the cage in a jerk of rage, and the metal piece rebounded off the bars and into the brush. Evegy went off to retrieve it as Fajio turned back around and returned to the fire.

"Hahahahahaha!" Rimer had spilled most of his own soup laughing at Fajio's misfortune. He called out tauntingly at Archer. "You'll give yourself a bellyache, Archer! Hahahaha, Fajio's too full of piss and vinegar!"

Archer watched quietly, not having any response, clearly on edge and cautious. He glared at them with predatory eyes and sat on the far side of the cage, clearly unphased by any of their words, as if he couldn't understand them. It didn't even seem like he blinked as he watched them, waiting. In his hand, he held the spoon, gripping it tightly.

Evegy returned to the pot at the fire and refilled Fajio's cup. Instead of taking it to Fajio, though, she approached the cage. Azoo was watching her, and Fajio was checking his cane for scratches. "I wouldn't bother if I were you, Ms. Evegy," Fajio said, not looking up. "If he bites you, Azoo will make sure we have to knock up an instruction manual for them to put him back together again at the infirmary."

She looked at Azoo, and figured that that probably wasn't an exaggeration. Still, it was improper not to give Archer something, and she knew that Fajio, insistent on etiquette as he was, thought so too, even if he didn't weigh that insistence against the love of his fingers. "Well, of course he bit Fajio," she said. "We'd all bite Fajio."

Rimer s******ed. "Damn right, hahahaha." He turned to Fajio, laughing, "I'd take off three fingers too, hahahahaha!"

Evegy turned back towards the cage and held the cup out to it, not putting it through the bars like Fajio had. "Are you sure you don't want some?"

Archer tensed up, and grit his teeth, but didn't move from his spot. His face visibly showed defensive hostility, like that of a cornered dog.

"You see, Ms. Evegy? The ungrateful mutt doesn't know enough to stop himself from starving. Now may I have my cup back? I am not quite finished, I think."

They passed their meal uneventfully, except for some noise Fajio had sicced Rimer on. "Big-ass squirrel, hahaha" had been the report, and Rimer's subsequent maintenance of the Gut-Grinder made that creature's fate clear. When Azoo got up to find some twigs after they had laid their bedrolls, to draw lots for who would take first watch, Fajio called him back.

"No, Azoo, I'll take first shift."

Azoo had eyed Archer for a moment, and then looked up at the dark sky: there was some cloud cover tonight, and it was a nastily dark night. They were leaving the fire burning for warmth, and the forest beyond its comforting ring of light was a foreboding blackness interspersed with the small shifts of the brush that drove the imagination into all manner of dark realm. "Are you sure?" he said, only.

Fajio nodded assuredly. "I had myself a long enough nap earlier, after I came back from Mr. Ines. And I'd like to have some time to talk with him in private."

Rimer s******ed from where he had cuddled up with his chainsaw, as if it were a horrid metal teddy bear. "I thought we were supposed to bring him back from the edge of madness, hahahaha!"

He, Azoo, and Evegy turned into their bedrolls, then, while Fajio dragged the supply pack over towards the cage, to sit on. He sat down and leaned forward on his cane. "You seem insistent on not eating, will you refuse also to sleep?" Archer remained silent, watching with eyes far from tired.

"Well, then! If it's all the same to you, I don't often have the benefit of having a captive audience very often, and I find I am rather partial to story-telling. Have you heard The Ant and the Arborgrest?"

A hidden watcher blended in perfectly with their surroundings as they watched the hunters and their prisoner. The watcher's scope danced between the members of FEAR, its crosshairs dancing on each member's head for a second before moving to the next member. A mask hid both the sniper's breath and whispers from the environment around them as they kept the approaching "rescue" team informed of the situation.

The team's approach was silent and precise. Once all the members were in position around the camp hidden in cover, Dostya gave the order to their team's sniper.

"Take them down."

The sniper pulled the trigger on the rifle and magnetic rails accelerated a projectile filled with a powerful poison. Upon striking the victim in less than a second their muscles would all relax making them unable to move, and a second later the slowing of their heart and breathing normally put them to sleep.

Fajio's head had snapped in the direction of the hint of a voice in the underbrush, and his telling of how little Ant and his friends had brought down the giant Grimm was interrupted with an ugly crack of noise, as some manner of projectile lodged itself into his mask.

Rimer was up immediately, the roar of his chainsaw sounding with his cackling to choke any hope of Fajio hearing anything else coming from the brush. "Ahahahahahahahaha! Grimm! Grimm, ahahaha!"

Fajio felt at the thing in his mask, hot from the impact. "No, nothing like." Even with an Aura as weak as his was, Fajio still had a hunter's Aura: he had felt something looking at him but had supposed it had been a Grimm and had privately hoped it would have thought better of attacking. But this was anything but.

He stood up as Evegy and Azoo began to stir. "What is the meaning of this?!" he bellowed in his metal voice into the darkness, hefting his gauntlet. He had quite turned his back on the cage.

Two small metal cylinders landed in the middle of the group coming from two different directions. The first exploded with a powerful flash and a loud sound mean to disorient any that looked at it by overloading their senses. The second hissed as a thick white white cloud spread from it. The chemical made the lungs, mouth, and eyes of anyone exposed to it burn. The attackers were clearly trying not to kill the hunters.

The sniper changed his target to the chainsaw wielder and pulled the trigger planning on taking down the crazy-sounding one. That one might force the team to go lethal if not contained.

The flashbang dazzled Evegy and Azoo, who stumbled into their bedrolls and got a mouthful of the gas, coughing hard. Rimer, standing and with his head still out of the stuff, instead got a hard dose of the flashbang, his eyes wide and unseeing as his tongue lolled out madly.

"Nyahahahahaha, flashflash, cutcut!" He stumbled drunkenly, blind, into the woods, his chainsaw swinging great dangerous arcs as its Semblance-enhanced chain cleaved the trees as if they were hot butter.

Fajio stepped away from the spreading gas cloud, his shades keeping him from suffering too greatly from the flashbang, even though they left him effectively blind anyway in the dark press of the night: the cloud was killing the fire. "Rimer, stop swinging before you cleave one of us! Azoo, Evegy, up and away from the cloud." He pointed his barrel at the cloud, trying to place the cartridge: he'd blow it up yet if only he could manage to hit it properly. "You will cease your attacks at once, we are here under federal orders. Out of the darkness now, before I send Rimer in after you!"

Archer watched the chaos unfold, and all of the noise and chaos sent him into a frenzy. He thrashed about in the cage, trying to get free, bending the bars but not yet enough to get out.

"Can't we just kill them? We can set it to look like Grimm like we have done before," muttered Bigby as he watched the hunters.

"No, this Archer has gotten himself in enough trouble. New plan Bigby you and Justin get their attention and fall back. Cadivus prepare for a quick pick-up," responded Dostya as she creeped closer to the cage still under cover of the brush. Their masks kept their communication contained, not even Faunus would be able to hear them.

"With pleasure," replied the wolf Faunus as he placed several small devices on the ground. He then armed his small dart launcher and stood up targeting the crazy chainsaw hunter and pulled the trigger.

Another human team member also stood up and aimed for a different hunter, that was focusing on their special tear gas, with a dart pistol and fired. Both of the operatives were expert marksmen and their darts would find their mark if the hunters didn't do something to avoid or block the high-speed projectiles.

Fajio felt a sharp sting in his neck, and he flinched awkwardly, his barrel going high and firing into an old dead tree at the edge of the clearing. The fire Dust in the piece set the wood alight, adding maddeningly to the confusion, and dazzling their already-dazzled eyes. He opened his mouth to shout more orders, but found he felt uncommonly sluggish. He teetered limply, confused.

Rimer, still blind and mad with battle-fury and at least not immediately affected by the dart he barely felt was still swinging madly in quite the wrong direction, and his Gut-Grinder glided easily through the flaming tree, and angry echoing cracks snapped into the night as Evegy and Azoo finally managed to roll clear of the gas and gain their footing. Evegy was rubbing her eyes, coughing. "What is—"

A resounding boom cut her off as the flaming tower of wood slammed its way into the camp proper, sweeping the gas cloud up and outward and throwing flaming splinters all over FEAR. Evegy wiped at her arms, where some embers had managed to catch. She blinked and saw Rimer go storming uselessly into the dark and Azoo yank a long and brutal splinter out of the meat of his arm. She saw Fajio stumble from the shock of the impact and collapse onto the flaming tree, face down and unmoving. "A-Azoo!" She called frantically for the big man to come and help, but he couldn't hear her over the roar of the flames, the chainsaw, and the further crashing of other trees in the forest.

The camp was in chaos, well and truly.

Dostya charged forward to the cage and shot Archer point-black with a sleeping dart in the back of his neck while he was distracted by the show. She then took out a small blade that hummed with energy as she gripped it and cut the lock off. Meanwhile the rest of her team prepared to shoot anyone that dared to attack their leader.

"Cadivus begin your run. I've got the package," ordered Dostya as she reached in and grabbed Archer's collar. The integrated powerpack on her armor's back began to emit a light humming sound as she prepared to extract.

But FEAR was paying no attention. Rimer had gone in the complete opposite direction to be of any help and his cackling was already growing steadily more distant and less fervent. Evegy was trying to remove a limp Fajio from the burning log but was wincing back from the flames. "Azoo!" she was screaming.

Azoo, who was finally managing to grasp the situation, saw someone in curious armor pulling Archer from his cage. At the same time though, he heard Evegy calling, and as soon as he understood the situation he couldn't have cared less about Archer. He thumped over to where Fajio's body had caught in the fire and brought out his extra arms with his Semblance, using their immunity to the flames and lack of pain to pull Fajio free and into some bushes.

Evegy was looking around for their pack, for some bottled water, but Azoo, with stern determination, uprooted a scraggly bush and beat Fajio's body with the dirt-caked roots, smothering the flames and soiling the man thoroughly. Fajio looked like a broken, misshapen toy: his mask, still bent up and cracked from the assault from Archer, was now blackened severely along with the rest of his form, and was smoking lightly. A smell like roast meat had risen to join that of the burning wood. Azoo put away his extra arms and leaned to put his ear against Fajio's chest. He relaxed visibly.

"Is he alright?" Evegy asked worriedly.

Azoo nodded somberly and, after a moment to reflect in the glare of the flames, the crackle of the burning wood, and the dying cackling of a drugged chainsawman, said, "Archer's gone."

The suppressed whine of two jet engines suddenly dashed overhead, followed by sudden unexplained flashes in the brush around the team and next to the cage. Varik's teleportation technology allowed the team to re-enter their transport as it did a low pass over the field. Its black hull blending into the dark night sky as it rapidly climbed into a bank of clouds and disappeared.

Inside the transport, Dostya and Bigby strapped Archer down to a bed on a pallet close to the ramp of the aircraft, while two other team members shut down the teleporter homing beacon in the cargo bay. Once they had Archer strapped down, Dostya started to insert an IV into the hunter's arm while Bigby checked the extraction chute attached to the top door above the ramp. A security precaution in case the crazy boy pushed passed the steady stream of drugs entering his body and woke up. Apparently this hunter could not control his own Semblance at times according to Nilya's sister, and if he tried to bring down the transport Dostya would not hesitate to expedite his exit.

Satisfied with her work Dostya walked over to the seats close to the entry to the cockpit and pulled out a secure scroll. She then typed a message to Archer's father: "Your boy is secure and asleep. Bring data to attached coordinates at 0800 tomorrow."

Back on the ground, Azoo and Evegy had seen the great flier, of course, and now sat by the burning log looking after it.

"That was a stealth flier," Evegy said.
"What's going on?"

Azoo shook his head. This far inland, that could not have been a Faunus ship, certainly. "Fajio'll be pissed."

Some Time Later

Spoiler:

On the ship Archer came to violently, thrashing about in his restraints, his body had begun to resist sedations, and although the one they used was powerful, it wasn't enough to keep him down for too long. As the ship got further and further away, the light on his collar began to dim, and eventually go off. His thrashing began to subside as he calmed down, eventually culminating in a sort of sensory overload. He stopped abruptly and passed out from exhaustion.

The team watched the hunter thrash around for a second then settle down. "I hope his father is ready to deal with this mess," muttered Bigby before going back to his newspaper.

Dostya nodded and messaged Dad one more time this time reading, "Change of plans, We meet in one hour same location. Your son is mentally too unstable for me to keep. Confirm receipt of message."

There's nothing for a while, and then a reply, "Negative. I'm incapable of making it in one hour, though I want you to describe his condition."

Dostya replied, "Mentally unstable, unknown device around neck when found. Poses possible risk to those around him, if he proves too dangerous I will be forced to get rid of him expeditiously. I recommend you become capable of meeting the new time line." Frowning Dostya looked at amap that showed the drop off location, making the spot in the forest close by the school she had designated was possible in one hour. Dad would be rushed, but that was the point. Considering how unstable the boy was, and his recent activities she was not taking any risks with his father.

"A collar?" The man said quietly. A number of page turns later and he replied, "Interesting, tell me, did he use his semblance at all?"

"Find out for yourself in 55 minutes," replied Dostya she then allowed the message to send before looking over at Bigby with a scowl. The wolf faunus looked up from his paper and chuckled at Dostya's expression.

Dad laughed from the other side, "I know you're boss is a very important type, but I know for a fact that he wants my technology much more than I want Archer back." His voice was serious as he read through the papers, "I'm willing to wager that he can't use his semblance, in which case, that collar is a prototype of mine that was stolen. Seeing as I only want information from him, we can do this entirely over the phone."

"The deal is simple, we give you your kid and you give us the tech. Do not take my gentle approach as weakness. The deal is as previously discussed. I recommend you make it to the drop off point on time," replied Dostya.

"Why keep him for an hour if he's so dangerous then." Dad replied, leaning back in his chair, "I get my information, I send you the schematics, and you can toss him in the ocean or something as far as I care." His voice was casual, as if he were talking about bartering for a car.

"Good point you now have 20 minutes," replied Dostya as she ended the transmission link. Looking over at Bigby she said, "Sounds like we have a difficult one on our hands."

"They always try to change the deal and hate it when we keep them to their word," replied the wolf faunus with a smile.

Archer began to stir, and the collar made an audible beeping noise before clicking and turning off. A message appeared from Dad, You may not even survive 20. Archer felt himself get crushed under his own weight and he cried out in pain. He tried to reach for where his sedatives usually were, but felt restrained and confused. "Who are you people?!" He cried, struggling.

"Mercenaries your father hired now I suggest you calm down," replied Dostya rolling her eyes upon hearing Archer's voice.

Upon hearing his father's name he became more frantic, "Mercenaries?! You're making a mistake, he isn't going to help you, not for my sake."

"Settle down before you hurt yourself," replied Dostya calmly. "I can see he does not care for you like any normal father would, but he wants information so we will see if he completes his side of the deal. If not do not worry about us we have dealt with far worse," added Dostya.

Moving a little closer to Archer Dostya asked calmly, "Now Archer what do you want?"

"I want…" His mind wondered as his he tried to gather his memories. There was the cage, he remembered that, but then there was nothing before that and he hung his head, stressed, "I want to go back to menagerie… Nina and Ilexa, I want to know if they really died there…" He was shaking, truly working hard to keep himself calm, "Did he tell you what information he wants? Are you going to meet him in person?"

"We are meeting in person… and Nina and Ilexa are alive one of my agents has been interacting with one of them recently. If you want to see them I can arrange it if you cooperate," replied Dostya calmly.

Archer felt a sense of relief, and his body relaxed for once, "They're alive…" He repeated quietly, "I-I don't want to see them then." He said, "And I'm not going to give him whatever information he wants, sorry if you will get in trouble for that."

"Not my problem the agreement was you for the information I want. If your refusal to give him what he wants affects us getting what we want. My issue will be with your father not you," replied Dostya.

"What information do you want from him?" Archer asked, "He isn't going to honor an agreement with faunus…"

"I am human… sorry if Bigby over there made you think otherwise. Some of his nanotechnology," replied Dostya.

"Like the ones I have?" Archer asked confused, "What could I possibly know that would be worth that much?"

"Well then if you have the tech, and your father falls through with his side of the deal I am sure we can work something out," replied Dostya pleased to hear a secondary option. The airship began slowing as they approached the drop off point.

"And if he decides to kill all of us, are you going to leave me behind?" Archer asked, wondering how callous these people really were.

"Then you will be an orphan," replied Dostya casually.

"Something tells me I'm already an orphan." Archer replied, "I'll cooperate, but I need to know what happened the last few months…"

Dostya lifted an eyebrow and asked, "In reference to what?" The door of the transport and one of the soldiers ran out of the open door before they shut and the transport started moving again.

"The last three months, can you tell me anything? After I made that… bad decision."

"Yes there have been several events. The humans and faunus are going to war there is no doubt about that now," replied Dostya.

"I see. Nilya, Lauren, and Varik are all fine right?" Archer asked, not really worried that they were anything but fine.

"Not sure about Lauren the other two are alive and well," replied Dostya calmly as the craft spun around and Dostya announced, "Here is our stop."

"Is he really going to be here?" Archer asked nervously.

"We will see," replied Dostya as the door opened. The craft gently landed on the ground and Dostya pushed the pallet Archer was tied out the back of the transport and onto the ground. The ramp and door then shut and the craft took off leaving the two alone. "And now we wait," said Dostya.

They waited for quite a while before a person sized capsule landed before them. Instead of a person, it opened to reveal a screen and seemingly nothing else. Dad appeared on the screen and looked at the two of them, "I see he didn't end up killing you." He said casually, leaning comfortably back in his chair.

"No, now I have other matters to attend to so transfer the information, and I will leave the boy here for your retrieval," replied Dostya.

"Have him walk here and bring you the information." Dad replied, "And do it slowly, I don't want to see any tricks."

"This is the meeting point, I am not waiting for any of your tricks. Upload the information to the server I provided you, or the deal is off," replied Dostya her tone serious and her face stone cold.

"How can I ensure that you'll uphold your end of the deal." Dad replied, crossing his arms. "The unit has no way to carry off a person, so there are no tricks here."

Dostya eyed the unit carefully then walked over and disconnected Archer from the pallet and helped him stand up. She then motioned for Archer to go to the device.

Archer took a breath and began to walk forward. A thumbdrive dropped inside the unit and Archer looked as his father, "Where is she Archer?" He asked in a low voice. "I know it was your friends that broke Lull out."

"She's pretty far from here." Archer replied, picking the device up.

"Don't bother coming home then." His father replied, pressing a button on his end, causing a shot to fire from the capsule. Three pins lodged themselves in his chest, and he felt his chest start to tighten. Dad looked up at Dotsya, "All the data you need is saved to that drive, and conveniently, you'll have the perfect cadaver to verify it with." He said as Archer struggled to breathe, "Don't worry too much Archer, I'll find Lull and kill your rogue team." The screen cut off as Archer curled up, his semblance being thrown off balance, causing pulses of gravity to emanate from him. One last pulse and it stopped, even though Archer was still writhing, his abilities were completely shut off.

"You have such a caring father," muttered Dostya as she watched Archer. Lifting her hand up she motioned for her team to rally.

Bigby was the first to appear and he poked Archer with his foot, "Leave him to die?"

"No we take him with us," replied Dostya walking over to Archer as their transport appeared overhead. She grabbed the flash drive and activated her teleporter as she grabbed Archer's collar to take him with them. A second later they were in the gunship and Dostya quickly moves to extract Archer's blood and hopefully the poison as well.

"Risky," muttered Bigby as he watched Dostya.

"But worth it," added Dostya as she tossed the flash drive to Hex, her team's hacker. "Scrub and secure the information," ordered Dostya as the team's medic moved over to help Dostya with Archer.

Archer was breathing slowly, the muscles in his chest contracting, "This is painful." He wheezed, instinctively moving his hand to his chest.

"Focus on breathing and staying alive consider the pain a sign you're still among the living," replied Dostya. As the medic silently took Archer's vitals and looked at scans of his blood that Dostya had made.

Archer didn't have the anesthetics he normally had access to, and his heart was racing. The plans matched the few nanobots from Archer's blood, but the ones Archer had were rapidly shutting down.

The Medic quickly stood up and went to the onboard medical stores and shifted through the drugs before returning. Injecting Archer with a drug to get his heart under control. Next she pulled out a small blood filtration device and began to wire it into Archer carefully. The hope was to filter out the poison before it did more harm.

Archer laid there, breathing slowly, his body beginning to relax. His words came quietly, "Thanks, I owe you." He muttered lying back, "If you got what you want, you don't need to waste your time on me."

"I am not a grimm plus you never know when a favor will be needed," replied Dostya.

He sighed, "I won't be of much use to you, I also have no idea who you are."

Dostya smiled as she added, "You never know when you might be of use to us… and for now I would like to stay a mystery. Now where should we drop you off?"

"There's a town near Beacon, it's abandoned… If you could drop me off near there?""

"Not the social type?" asked Dostya as she motioned to Bigby who stood up and headed toward the cockpit.

"With friends like mine, you need space sometimes." Archer retorted, sitting up with several deep breaths, "Don't land, I'd rather my drop be more subtle." He also didn't want to risk the chance of being followed.

"Need a parachute?" asked Dostya.

"No, I should be fine." Archer replied, not even considering the need for assistance falling.

Dostya looked at Archer with an arched eyebrow the shrugged and said, "Alright you're broken bones or funeral." A few minutes later the ramp and door opened as the transport began its low to the ground approach to the chosen spot. Bigby quickly got up and walked over to the open door hoping to get a good view of Archer's fall.

Archer got up out of the bed and walked over, "Thank you for the help." He said just before jumping. He plummeted to the ground, and realized his semblance still would not work. He fell into the dense trees below, out if sight.

StingrayP226 · Feb 15, 2017

Before the Storm

Nara stepped off the airship with a frown. She had spent the entire trip avoiding Lauren and Star on the airship, and sticking close to Gareth was part of her tactic. The raven faunus was the only member of her team she felt like she could somewhat trust now that Lauren had betrayed her. He still made her uneasy, but it was the best she had for now. Almost all of her other friends she had driven away by defending the "human-lover" Lauren.

Gareth was standing next to her looking around. He commented, "We need to stick together if we hope to survive."

"Okay…" muttered Nara her mind a storm of negative emotions.

"I know you still do not fully trust me. My aims are simple: I need to survive and to do that I will need help. Protecting you benefits me as you will be able to help protect me when the time comes needed. I do not intend to get you in any additional danger for my sake," added Gareth trying to ease Nara with the truth.

Nara looked up at him and said, "Thanks… but I do not think I will be much help. I will be lucky to just survive this."

"I have no doubt you will be helpful," replied Gareth as he started walking forward toward some of the gathering faunus.

Nara followed after him as her mind screamed at her to run from the coming war. She was not a fighter, and she dreaded the coming battle. Gareth was powerful and could protect her from many enemies, but his abilities were terrifying. She did not want to witness them turned on humans no matter how bad the race was. The mental image of a human being twisted into some horrific creature turned her stomach. Swallowing to help ease her stomach Nara now wished more than ever she had been the twin born with the ability to hide away in darkness.

----

Nilya watched the gathering faunus from the shadows. A frown appeared over her masked face as the advanced device fed her information from a drone thousands of feet above them. The humans were closing in, and the gathering faunus were completely unaware of the coming danger. It was taking too long for Nilya to locate her sister so now she could no longer extract her easily. The urgency of finding Nara grew and her keen eyes aided by the mask scanned the newly arrived crowd quickly as she secretly hoped Nara remained in FaunArc.

She was unable to spot her sister in the chaos of the gathering faunus hunters. She began to wonder if she should break cover and searched for Nara or wait longer. Before making a decision, she spotted three figures sneaking away from the rest of faunus. Trying to make out who it was she spotted a fin protruding from one of the figure's back and hoped it was Lauren and her team minus Gareth.

Moving silently, Nilya approached the group to discover it was Lauren and Tilki, but the third person was not Nara. The next question that entered her mind was 'where is Nara and why isn't she with Lauren?' Nilya started to fear something had happened to Nara so moved to intercept the group moving shadow to shadow to hide her approach. She needed to know what was happening with her sister.

Groc · Feb 16, 2017

Team CAOX - Cassandra Alexandra, Azrael Marjorie, Orion Romanov, and Xyra Coronis
Beacon Academy

[h1][/h1]
Beacon. Lately, it hadn't felt as much like home as it used to. These days, Xyra had gotten used to spending her days at Azrael's house, which had been officially converted into "Huntsmen for Hire Headquarters". She had even convinced Cass to let her redecorate the harsh former warehouse into a warm and inviting office space. Azrael had disagreed vehemently, but Cass talked him into it.

"She didn't 'talk me into it', she threatened me! I was forced into letting you redecorate!" Azrael interjected, crossing his arms grumpily.

Cass rolled her eyes, turning away from the others. "And really I only let you do it so you'd stop moping and complaining all the time. I kind of liked the old spartan style."

"But you must admit, new style has been good for business." Orion chimed in. "Customers find wood panels very professional."

"You guys are ruining my inner monologue!" Xyra pouted, stamping her foot in a huff.

"For the gods' sake, it's not 'inner' if you're talking out loud!" Cass snapped, massaging her temples to stave off a headache. "Now can we please get a move on?!"

There was murmured assent from the others, so Cass led the group onward to the hangar bay. They weren't really sure what they would find when they got there. After all, their last talk with the Professors hadn't gone like they expected it to...

"Xyra, I swear, you'd better not narrate this flashback you're about to have." Cass warned. Xyra was staring off into space, while Orion calmly picked her up and carried her.

☆☆☆☆

The steel security door creaked open loudly. It had been damaged in a fight recently, and while Orion had tried to fix it, it had been harder than he'd anticipated. Cass had told him it was fine, and the creaking would let them know when someone came in.

Xyra, as usual, was manning the front desk. She waved cheerfully as their new client entered. "Welcome to Huntsmen for Hire, where your issue is our mission! How can we help you today?" She smiled warmly, but froze up when she recognized the client.

He was tall and slender, with turquoise hair and a white goatee, wearing a tie dye shirt, ragged blue pants, green crocs, and a long brown coat covered in dozens of patches in various colors. He smiled widely at Xyra, but the look in his yellow eyes could best be described as "sinister". "Rather presumptuous, wouldn't you say? I'll admit 'Huntsmen for Hire' has a certain ring to it, but you're not really full fledged Huntsmen, are you, Team CAOX?"

"P-P-Professor Quinn! What a surprise to see you here!" Xyra stammered, glancing about nervously. "Would you believe that I actually disagreed with the name? I thought it was a little disingenuous, to be honest, but-"

"Enough, Ms. Coronis. Did you think we didn't know about your little side project? Your grades, and the grades of your teammates, have been steadily slipping the past few months. Not to mention your attendance rates have plummeted, and when you do show up, you're tired, scuffed up, and less coherent than usual. But really, your advertisement was the biggest clue. I'm honestly baffled that you thought you were being subtle about the whole thing."

Xyra sank back into her chair, her lip quivering. "Are you here to shut us down, Professor?"

Quinn scoffed, leaning against her desk. "Of course not! Frankly, I don't care what you do in your free time. And your grades may be dropping, but your missions are more or less successful, and I've read about some of your exploits in the papers. I just couldn't resist putting a bit of fear into you! The look on your face when you saw me come through your door? Priceless!" He burst into laughter, making Xyra grin uncomfortably.

"Yeah... haha... priceless..." She tentatively chuckled along with the Professor, still looking around nervously. "So... can I help you, or..."

"Yes, of course! Down to brass tacks!" Quinn straightened, holding onto the lapels of his coat. "As enjoyable as I'm sure you find your little freelance job, Beacon Academy has a mission for Team CAOX. Consider it extra credit, to make up for everything you've missed. The four of you will report to the hangar bay tomorrow morning at 0800. No excuses. In case you haven't noticed, there's a war going on. Time to do your part for your country." He gave Xyra a mock salute before leaving, chuckling darkly.

"What are we gonna do?" Xyra fretted, getting up to tell the others. The door creaked open again, startling her.

"Oh, and get this door fixed. The squeaky hinges are dreadfully annoying." Quinn poked his head in to say, looking Xyra in the eyes as he slowly pulled away.

☆☆☆☆

"Hello? Is anybody in there?" Professor Quinn asked, snapping his fingers in front of Xyra's face.

"Huh? What?" Xyra looked around in confusion, finding herself face to face with the Professor. They were all in the hangars at Beacon, and she was leaning against Orion for support.

"Oh good, the gang's all here. Now the briefing can begin." Quinn shook his head, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "As I was saying, with our main forces gathered at the shore, we're sure to repel the Faunus invaders before they can establish a foothold. Unfortunately, a foothold may have been established for them...

"We've received word of rumors that the Faunus may have acquired flying vehicles as well as aquatic ones, and may be setting up a base camp north of the projected battle site. With this in mind, we may have to fight them on two fronts, unless we can nip their forces in the bud. To actually perform the nipping, we're sending several teams of Huntsmen way up north to intercept the rumored strike force before it can mobilize. I want you four on this mission. Your colorful history and habit of taking on missions off campus means you'll be perfect for this kind of secret black project! Now get on an airship and let's get this started!"

"Um... sir?" Xyra raised her hand. "Don't you think we're rushing this? And getting just a tiny bit over excited?'

Orion nodded, towering over his teacher. "This is war, Professor. We are just students, children. You should not be so hasty to send us out onto battlefield."

Quinn looked between the two in confusion. "War? This is not war! This is pest control! Now get on the airship!"

Team CAOX, with varying levels of enthusiasm, followed orders and boarded the sky boat.

Foxrally · Feb 17, 2017

Jairo & Sahn Xill

Mira Cullous Nel Phelia

Team JSMN
Yet Another Archer Kidnapping

"Alright, listen up, cubs! We went over this in last week's briefing. But in case any of you got hard hearing, we've now arrived at the ruins of Asani town. Grimm activity is low, but since the town got ravaged by them you can expect a few stragglers. You are to scout the area for grimm, set up camp and prepare for future orders to move. Got it?" the lion professor announced to the teams on the ship. "There's already a few teams in camp right now. Now get moving!" he roared.

The two Siamese cat professors, Brass and Brass, escorted JSMN out of the ship after the other teams. The airship had landed in a field next to the village, and they could see the ruins of the large village not too far from them, surrounded by forests. The beautiful scenery and nice weather would have almost made this trip feel like a vacation, if not for the eerie feeling the Grimm had left behind when they'd destroyed the village.

The male Brass spat his fishbone at the ground next to them. "See that? That's what happens when a team fails a mission." he said, sneering. "What'cha waitin' for? Get goin'!"

And with that, the airship doors slammed shut, and the airship took off again.

"Right, well, you heard them." Mira spoke up, looking around. "Me and Nel can scout around the fastest. I'll look around the forest, Jairo and Sahn, you guys do the edges of the forest. Nel can fly above us as usual."

"Sounds good." Sahn nodded, her brother shrugging nonchalantly on her shoulders.

"I'll let you guys know how the weather's up there." Nel stuck her tongue out and flew off into the sky with her wind control semblance.

-------

Archer hung from vines in the tree he fell in, unable to wiggle out. He groaned, as he swung in the vines, "As far as bad days go, this is starting to be the second worst." He tried again to use his semblance, but nothing happened. He sighed and swung slowly with a nonchalant expression, hoping the vines would get weak and drop him to the forest floor.

After a few hours, Archer heard footsteps and began to make a fuss himself, regardless of who it was, "Hey, up here! Someone?!"

Mira, who up till then had been nervously checking around every tree and in every bush for potential grimm, jumped up at the sound of a voice calling out. It wasn't anyone she could recognize. Might just be a huntsman who got lost. she thought - if not for her semblance's innate ability to improve her sense of direction, she would've easily gotten lost in these woods too. She made her way towards the source of the voice, her weapon still raised cautiously.

"Hello? Anybody? I'm kind of in a bind here." He yelled, swinging around, feeling a spider crawl up his side, "No rush though, just hurry." He said desperately.

Mira looked around in confusion, knowing the voice was close but unable to see where its source was. "Where are- oh." she stopped herself as she looked up, finding Archer's mangled figure hanging by a few vines and branches. She squinted at him, trying to recognize who he was but unable to see much of his face through the foliage. "Hey, down here! You, uh, got separated from your team?" she called out.

"Team? No uh, I just jumped from my ship and ended up here…" He replied truthfully, "Uh, I don't mean to be rude, but I think a spider is trying to determine whether I'm tasty or not." Archer was sweating bullets.

"O-oh, right, right. Sorry." Mira raised up her spear, still trying to understand what the guy meant about his airship. Professor Corryn's was the only one of two going back and forth, there was no way the second one had just landed.

A small gun barrel extended from between the tips of her spear, and the owl faunus fired a few shots at the vines above Archer. The boy came tumbling down, his fall only slowed down by Mira's vector semblance. The faunus walked up to him. He's not a student I've seen before, but he looks so familiar… she thought.

"Just a second." Mira commanded, pointing her gun at Archer before he got a chance to get up. "Who are you exactly, and what is this ship you're talking about?"

Archer noticed the girl was a faunus and held up his hands, "Oh I'm Archer, uh thank you for saving me, and nice to meet you." He said as politely as possible, "I was on an airship from some people trying to capture me, but they let me go."

The faunus girl looked him over. Capture? Yeah, this isn't just a regular guy. she thought. "Guys, come over to my location, and don't let anyone know about it. Quickly." Mira spoke into her watch, her gun still pointed at Archer. Turning back his attention to him, "What's your full name? And do you have any weapons?" she asked, realising she probably should have asked that last question much earlier.

"Oh I'm Archer… just Archer." He replied, completely aware of his disownment. "And nope, no weapons, no semblance." Archer barely had clothes that covered his entire body. "Say, I've already been captured twice, and I figure things will go down in such a way that you capture me, I escape, and you wonder what happened. So what do you say to skipping all that and just letting me go?"

Mira frowned, trying her best to hide her blushing at the… underclothed human in front of her. "No. You stay here until I decide otherwise, and if you try anything, I won't hesitate to shoot you." She commanded.

------

"...and after that, once this whole mess is over, we get the shit out of that island and head back to where we went last winter." Jairo said as he climbed up the shattered wall of a ruined farmhouse, peering down inside the house to check for Grimm. "When we're done bein' hunters, we'll actually be able to take care of ourselves against the humans. Hell, might get some respect from 'em for once, eh?" He turned to his sister.

"Hm." Sahn nodded, casually lifting up a large slab of broken wall and squashing a small bug-like Grimm which was hiding underneath with a swift punch. Well either way, when this ordeal is going to be done with, I'm-"

The spider faunus was cut off by both the siblings' communicators beeping simultaneously. Jairo pressed the button on his, motioning for Sahn to shut hers up. Mira's message played, followed by a small GPS map with a small red dot signalling her position.

"The hell's birdbrain found now?" Jairo asked, hopping off the roof of the farmhouse and onto Sahn's shoulders. The larger spider twin shrugged, dropping the slab.

----

"... And really, I don't even like water all that much, when I had my wings they'd get ruined by it." Archer rambled, comfortable even with the gun to his head, "Aren't your arms getting tired? I'm not going to run away, say do you know Lauren?"

The human was right, Mira's arm was getting tired. "Yes, I do. And if you're trying the same with me as you did with her, it won't get you anything other than a bullet in the head." she threatened.

A crash suddenly resounded a few feet away from them, and the burly figure of Sahn along with her brother appeared, with Nel slowly landing beside them.

"Oh man, featherlegs talkin' tough, eh?" Jairo said, sneering as the trio approached Mira and Archer. "What's this all about?"

Nel giggled beside Jairo, nudging him. "You guys sure we should be here? They look like they might need some privacy, hehe~" She teased at the shirtless human.

"Oh, hi, I'm Archer." He said politely, "I don't suppose you three will be letting me go either?"

"Wait a second," Jairo began, running up to him, "Did you actually catch a fuckin' human out here, Mira?"

"I wouldn't say she caught me, she more kinda, saved me?" Archer injected.

"Immobilized." Mira corrected. "He says his name is Archer. Keeps repeating he was dropped off some ship, and won't tell me his last name."

"Oh yeah?" the diminutive spider faunus beside her said, pulling out his daggers. "If he won't talk, we can still go the hard way. As far as we know, he's one of them goddamn Beacon goons." He walked up to Archer. "Eh, mate? Your last name won't matter much when-"

"Ines!" Nel exclaimed casually, circling the human with a smile. "Archer Ines. Human, used to be a student at Beacon. Son of Dad Ines - yeah, that's his real name." she pointed out. "Got Lauren all over him, ran off, appeared on TV. In fact, he was the guy who messed up that girl you were talking to on the ship!" she told Mira. Her teammates looked at her, confused and slightly impressed by the fact she knew this information. "...what? I read the newspaper. The word crosses are fun." the hawk faunus shrugged.

"You missed the part where I set all those faunus free from prison." Archer added, "And my Dad tried to kill me a few hours ago, so I'm not really an Ines anymore." His stomach rumbled and he groaned, "Also, I didn't run off from Lauren, she kidnapped me, and I wasn't exactly in the best state of mind."

"Well, what do we do with him?" Sahn asked, giving Archer a look over. "Should we call the others?"

Mira shook her head, remembering what Bea had told her aboard the ship - the guy was unstable, and could change his behaviour anytime. "Not yet. If we show him to the other teams they might kill him, or worse. We should rather have the human interrogated." she said, crossing her arms.

"Or they might take credit for catchin' him." Jairo added, tossing up a dagger.

"Well, I'm pretty mellow." Archer yawned, *I'll tell you what, if you free me, I'll be cool. I promise not to do anything bad."

"Or," Jairo hissed, "You'll run over to your little human friends and tell 'em all about us. No harm there, eh?" He threw a dagger towards Archer, only for it to be pulled back by a string a few inches away from his face. "If we're going by your shitshow of a story, what are you doing here? Why'd your airship friends drop you off so far from anything remotely civilized, eh?"

Archer didn't flinch and merely yawned, swaying side to side, "Considering I'm being hunted by humans too, I'm not in much of a position to out you four beautiful faunus. Say, I can retract the let me free thing right? I'm actually really hungry, could you share some food maybe?"

Sahn chuckled. "Heh. I like him." she commented.

"Answer the question." Mira raised her gun again.

"I already told you, I'm being hunted by humans." Archer said, "And I'm not a faunus obviously, so I asked my last captors to drop me off here, because this is where I used to hide out three months ago before that jerk Isa tossed me in some forest."

"Nel, did you notice any signs of activity around the forest when you were flying?" Mira asked, turning to the hawk faunus.

Nel shook her head. "Nope. Just a bunch of our guys and grimm. I ran into a duck too. He was cool."

"Mmm… duck..." Archer muttered, mouth drooling as his mind drifted.

Mira sighed in frustration, lowering her gun and motioning for Jairo to come over. The spider faunus raised an eyebrow, walking up to her. "What do we do with him?" the owl faunus whispered at him, uncharacteristically hesitant.

"You're askin' me?" Jairo replied. "I say we kill him. You heard Nel, he's experienced with faunus. He's probably being used as some sorta' decoy or spy." He looked at Archer again, and a sly grin suddenly appeared on his face. "Hell, we could use him as a hostage! They wouldn't want him to get killed, so I bet they'd be doin' anything to get him back."

Mira nodded slowly, scratching her chin. "Right." she spoke up. "Ines, from now on you are a captive under the Faunus Revolution Movement. You'll be taken to the ruins, and we'll wait for whoever you're working with to contact us." she commanded, motioning for him to start walking.

"Uh, it's Archer." He replied, "And will there be food? I was in that tree for quite a few hours…"

"We'll feed you whatever the rats shit out." Jairo spat.

"Tsk, J, don't be rude." Nel scolded, frowning. The hawk faunus skipped over to Archer, coming up behind him and putting her hands on his shoulders. She gently rested her head on his shoulder. "He's our guest, and we gotta be good hosts, right?" As she said so, she gripped his shoulders harder, her nails digging into his skin.

Archer relaxed with a sigh, "Oh man, I'm lucky I got the nice faunus team." He said, enjoying the gesture, "Are you like this to all the guys you meet in the forest?"

"Only the shirtless ones~" Nel replied, giving him a light shove forward to force him to walk. "But hey, I'm all for finders keepers. He's all yours, boss." The hawk faunus stepped back and winked at Mira.

A joint post of Foxrally and Khawill

Fen-Fen · Feb 18, 2017

Reunited
A JP by CrowofNobility, Stingray and Fen-kun

After the flight over to the ambush point, with Lauren and Star keeping close to each other but in a tense silence like many on the trip, the ship finally landed at the dropoff point and announcements came on pertaining to deployment. Lauren barely listened, however, and said to Star, "We're here…" She trailed off nervously.

Clutching Lauren's hand, she gradually moved them away from the crown, an occasional glance back at Tilki to ensure he was following. "Let's be quick while everyone's still confused…"

"Right." Lauren and Tilki followed suit, careful to duck out of sight from the commanders. The chaos would hardly last for long with the commanders calling for order and giving instruction to their crew of hunters and huntresses. Lauren thought about leaving the brethren she would have relished fighting with three or four short months ago against the race of people she loathed. She whispered to Star, "I really hope that we can fight off the Grimm...for their sake. Even if a lot of them must hate me."

"We can only cover one front," Star replied somewhat gravely, though with an optimistic glance back she calmed herself. "But we might save a lot of people who otherwise would've been attacked from behind while they were busy with the war. Whatever happens after this… I'll happily stay beside you. I couldn't call anywhere home without you."

Lauren replied, "Same here. It makes the uncertainty easier to handle. But in the meantime, you'll be a great motivator for me, even when things seemed stacked against me."

Star kept the occasional glance back until, sure enough, the entirety of the landing point was well out of sight. She turned to face Lauren and Tilki. "Alright. We've got some time before the war starts I think, and the Grimm don't seem to be around yet. We need to steel ourselves here. Grimm aren't going to be as deadly as fighting other hunters and huntresses, but they'll likely come in numbers and we shouldn't lower our expectations anyhow. Once we hear the sounds of battle, we'll know to be ready."

A bit surprised, Lauren exclaimed, "Wow, that was quite insightful. I didn't know you were one for battle tactics. Maybe we could talk about them over a board game or something like that." She laughed.

Reforming a grin, Star pointed cheerily at Lauren. "Just like that! We need good spirits to go into battle with." She paused. "Speaking of…" She turned to Tilki. "Please, for the love of God, do the snappy thing and fix my tattoo. I really can't take being without much longer."

"Alright darling." Tilki snapped his fingers and just like that, the tattoo was once again visible.

Nilya frowned beneath her mask once she got close enough to Lauren's little group to see Nara was not in the group. Tilki was a bit familiar but this other girl who was sticking to Lauren was a stranger. Glancing up at the feed from the Hawk's Eye Nilya decided to remain in stealth and to use an illusion to talk to the group in case a human team encountered them ahead of the main force.

Nilya twisted her semblance into an illusion of a normal sized fox. It trotted out in front of the three retreating individuals. To them it appeared to just appear from the shadows in front of the group. Its jet black body accented by dark purple tips on its feet, tail, and ears make it look more sinister than it was. Sitting down in the three's path it looked at Lauren and spoke, "Where is Nara?" Its tail slowly wagged back and forth leaving a small trail of dark energy trying to keep up with the illusion created from darkness.

Startled by her sudden appearance, Lauren jumped back a little and exclaimed, "Oh my god, Nilya! Wh-what are you doing here?"

"I am here to make sure my sister is safe," replied the fox in a strange whispering tone as the real Nilya maneuvered to a better position to watch the group interact with her illusion.

Lauren looked visibly pained. "She...I don't know where she is by now. She wants nothing to with me, disavowed me and is now marching to Gareth's tune. He...he turned Nara against me…" She couldn't bear to face Nilya, illusion or no.

As if in perfect sync, Star reached from her own cloak to Lauren's, clutching her hand tightly in support. It had taken a few moments for Star to realize what they were saying and understand who this fox was. She pulled her hood off with a bit of a sigh. "It was my idea for us to go see them. I wanted to see her team and maybe try and be friends, but… It didn't go very well." A similar pain flashed in her eyes as well, a tinge of hurt in her tone. "I don't think she gave up completely though… I think that damned Gareth guy is using her emotions to turn her against us. She was hurt and upset, and he used that against us… I just wanted us all to be friends…"

The fox looked at Star for a second before asking, "And who are you? More important question I wonder is what are you, human or faunus?" Nilya was a bit confused by this turn of events, but perhaps Star was the key to solving this.

Reasonably hesitant to answer, Star heaved a sigh; based on context, this likely wasn't a dangerous question to answer. "Uh-- Star… My name is Star. And I'm… Human. There's a whole long story but Lauren and I were best friends as kids and now we're, um… Together..."

The fox illusion stood back up and looked back at Lauren as it said, "I am guessing Nara is upset because of your relationship."

"I didn't want to 'replace' her," Star muttered quietly, looking down at the ground. Clenching her free hand into a fist, she added, "I'm sick of being treated different just because I'm Human…" She gritted her teeth quietly. "I could feel it though… She only responded out of pain… Exactly like that stupid jerk wanted. But there's nothing we can do, she won't listen to us and now he's got her right where he wants her…"

"You are a human among faunus of course you are treated different. Your kind has abused ours for years, remember that and realize your presence alone can bring many of us pain. Nara is one of those faunus, she has developed a lot of hate toward humans due to the past," replied the fox calmly. It then looked at Lauren and said, "I am surprised you did not consider that when you brought your friend here to see her. Did you forget how she treated me? If I remember correctly you were not too welcoming to me either for the same reasons."

"I didn't ask to be Human," Star retorted, immediately and clearly stung. The hurt was blatant in her voice and she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes slightly. "I don't have a 'kind' anymore… I just wanted people to treat each other fairly and now everyone hates me… I didn't do any of those things… All I ever wanted was to make people happy…"

Lauren looked away. "I'm...very sorry about that, and I only now realize how wrong that was. But perhaps I was still being a bit naive…"

"You are human, and the world is not a kind place," said the fox to Star its tone quickening due to its knowledge of the coming trouble. Its head turned back to Lauren suddenly, "My point was you should have expected a hostile reception from Nara due to this…"

The fox sudden changed its tone to show a sudden urgency, "Where is Nara at this time?" Nilya was not trying to be rude, but time was quickly running out. She still did not know where Nara was, or had a plan how to get her out of the situation safely. The fox began to reflect her anxiety as it began to pace back and forth.

Bitterly, Star replied, "She should be with Gareth at the dropoff point." Sighing with a bothered frown, she looked away into the distance. "There goes the good spirits…" Clenching her fists as she simply walked off toward a nearby tree, she grumbled her upset thoughts aloud as they gradually faded the further she walked.

"Stupid fucking racist shit with every goddamn person I meet, if it's not toward someone else it's toward me! Hey, wanna be friends? 'Pfff, no, you're a Human and therefore automatically racist and a terrible person by default', like that's not racist…!" Her complaints eventually fell out of audible range, though her distant shouts of anger picked up soon after as quick white flashes appeared where her punches collided with a tree, her hair and eyes glowing bright yellow. Sure enough, the tree soon ripped apart at one end and fell safely over into the ground.

The fox watched Star storm off then looked at Lauren again as if it was about to say something. Suddenly there was a loud boom followed by violent crash as Star destroyed a tree, and for a second the fox began to lose its shape as Nilya lost focus. Nilya glanced over at the faunus camp to see several faunus looking in their direction. At the same time she whispered directions to the Hawk Eye. Her fears confirmed that more than just faunus attention had been drawn to the emotion driven display, Nilya had no choice than to end this encounter.

"Lauren get your friend under control before she attracts any more attention it is not safe here," said Nilya as the fox pointed its head off in a specific direction as it spoke quickly, "Move in that direction with haste. The faunus are aware of you trying to sneak away. I cannot join you as I need to protect my sister." The fox then ran off into the nearby shadows and disappeared as it rejoined its energy into Nilya's invisible form. She had directed Lauren in the direction the three would need to go to best avoid one of the approaching human teams.

Star, visibly upset, let out a groan of immense frustration, hands in her hair with occasional panting.

"C'mon Star, let's get the hell outta here. Before we have to fight 'em." Lauren led her in the pointed direction and ran to get out of sight.

Once the three moved a safe distance away, Star threw down her clenched fists with another groan. "Why does everyone treat me like that!?"

Tilki replied, "It's nothing personal, Star. Nothing is built in a day, and neither is overall trust with faunus and humans."

"They sure know how to make it personal," Star grumbled. "She was nicer and still did the same fucking thing. I'm fed up with it!"

Lauren said to Star, "You really should give her a pass. She wasn't trying to make it seem as if you were bad, it's just unfortunately that things are on guard for all of us. In fact, if anyone knows about these relations, it's her. Her husband is a human."

"Sure acts like it…" Star rolled her eyes. "I'm just tired of it. I hate being judged for what I am and not who I am…" With a sigh, she shook her head. "If someone treats me like that again I might lose my shit."

Lauren stroked her back. "Easy now...just give her a chance, okay? It really is nothing personal, like Tilki said. She was the one who was right about humans and faunus being able to coexist in the first place, and she is proof." She paused, before adding, "Just like we're proof."

Star gave in with an over-exaggerated breath, though crossed her arms with a pouty lip. "Fiiiiiiiine… But if she does it again I'm gonna yell."

Lauren giggled. "You're cute when you pout."

Star couldn't resist smirking. "Dammit I was trying to stay mad. But I guess that helps us prepare for the Grimm stuff again." She turned to Tilki. "How combat ready are you, what can you do?"

The fox faunus replied, "Well...I like to think that I have superior abilities with distraction and disorientation...buuuuut, I'm not so bad with my katar." He smirked triumphantly.

Star returned his optimism with her own grin. "I think that rounds out our capabilities pretty ni--" Suddenly Star formed a serious expression, dead silent as she looked onward at the trees.

Lauren and Tilki asked in unison, concern in their voice, "What's wrong?"

Squinting slightly, Star cautiously approached one tree in particular. As she did, a claw hook latched onto her wrist, and in an instant she reacted with her semblance lighting up as her body gained mass. Rather than being pulled, the attacker instead flew straight at her with sword in hand and a masculine battlecry. Start quickly flinched to one side as she thrust her arm in a circle, evidently dragging the male off his center of balance and promptly slamming him against the ground using his own clawshot as leverage.

She stomped a foot over his chest, her stare gradually widening to shock as the red hair parted from his eyes and revealed the reddish-brown eyes beneath. He merely coughed in response, and with a sigh she released him and watched him slowly rise until he was sat upright against a tree. "I never thought I'd see you again, Tyrael."

Geras · Feb 19, 2017

Brooke Webster, Reese Kells, Oswald Carotene, and Salazar Jones
Faunus Academy

[h1][/h1]
"Can you believe this is finally happening?" Sal asked, carefully stacking chairs into a pyramid. "It's been months since our last mission, and now we're going to the mainland to take the fight straight to those smooth-skinned bastards! I'm not happy about our hiatus, but this more than makes up for it!"

Ozzy sat on a nearby chair, his ears twitching at every sound. "I guess so... I mean, personally I'd rather be back home, with my garden, or even on another hunting mission..."

Sal scoffed at that, looking for another chair. "Sure, taking out Grimm is all well and good, but these are humans, man! You seriously telling me you'd rather be tending to your carrot patch or whatever?"

"Sure, carrots. Let's go with that..." Ozzy muttered under his breath, jumping out of the chair before Sal could add him to his pyramid. "This isn't like the other missions, Sal! We're not fighting Grimm, or renegade Faunus, or even a team of human Huntsmen! We're talking about full scale, all out war!"

"I know! Isn't it great?" Sal practically giggled with excitement, stacking the last chair onto his makeshift art project. "All we gotta do now is wait for our ride to show up, and we're off to send the humans on a one-way trip to Smackdown City!" He pounded his fist into his palm in excitement, grinning like a madman.

Ozzy just sighed, shaking his head at his partner's antics. "I'm starting to miss the Prison Ship..."

"Man, why'd you go and bring that up? You know we're not allowed to talk about that." Sal frowned, his good mood instantly soured. "Some of our best work, one of the best fights I've ever had, and Professor Nose Ring forbids us from bragging about it. 'Plausible deniability' and all that. Not to mention getting benched right after!"

"Yo, sorry we're late, brahs!" Called a voice the pair recognized as Reese. Of course, the group expected Reese to be late as always. But to their surprise, he arrived with Brooke in tow, who was not only usually early, but also wasn't known for hanging out with Reese much outside of team business. The strangeness didn't end there, as it appeared both of them were in worse moods than usual.

Brooke didn't stop to chat with the group, even to show excitement over the chance to kill humans. "Let's get to the ship. We have a mission to do."

Reese followed after her, though he turned around and gave his other teammates an apologetic smile and a shrug. "So she says. But man, nice pyramid, Sal!" He gave his burly comrade a thumbs-up.

Sal turned to look at his project, cracking a smile. "I kinda want to knock it over, you know? See how it all comes together?"

Ozzy sighed, following Reese and Brooke. "Just leave it, Sal. You can knock it over when you get back."

Sal shrugged, following after Ozzy. "Cool. Something else to look forward to."

"AAAALLLL RIGHT, LISTEN UP, LADIES! And gentlemen. Everyone, actually." Professor Bullrush shouted, despite there being almost no chatter. "This mission is of utmost importance! We've already sent the jobbers to the front lines, but that is merely a distraction for our true goal: THE TWO PRONGED PINCER ATTACK! You few, you lucky few teams, will infiltrate Vale and penetrate their forces from the rear! STOP LAUGHING OVER THERE!"

Ozzy looked around the area, which was full of hustle and bustle. Even Sal was helping load crates of supplies. Ozzy couldn't help but notice the tension in the air and the general chaos all around him. He also noticed Bullrush's assistant Carla wasn't around, which might explain the lack of co-ordination. The Professor wasn't exactly known for his stellar intellect and organizational skills.

"Now we're going in there hard and fast! They won't be expecting us, so we have the advantage! But we want every advantage we can get! So, all you clever types? Put those big brains to work! Think outside the metaphorical box and look at the mission from a different perspective! Or whatever you genius types do! BE CREATIVE! Now go kick ass!"

Ozzy noticed Bullrush single him out from the crowd and flash him a smile and a thumbs-up. He took a deep breath as he headed for the airship. "Here we go..."

[Other FULL] [IC] As the Dust Settles; A RWBY RP [M] [EPILOGUE]

Me but more fabulous

All is dust...

Roleplayer

[img]http://i.imgur.com/omi0jS3.gif[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/omi0jS3.gif[/img]

Branch into Psyche

All is dust...

Me but more fabulous

A bird among... Non-birds.

Me but more fabulous

A bird among... Non-birds.

All is dust...

[img]http://i.imgur.com/omi0jS3.gif[/img]

A bird among... Non-birds.

<3

All is dust...

[img]http://i.imgur.com/omi0jS3.gif[/img]

Me but more fabulous

Roleplayer