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

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Jairo & Sahn Xill


Mira Cullous      Nel Phelia








Team JSMN
Revisit​

"Are these handcuffs necessary?" Archer asked as they walked. He didn't like the sound of the clanging metal, and the feeling was unpleasant. "By the way, where are we going? Why are faunus on the mainland?"

"You don't need an answer to either question." Mira replied strictly. The group had finally reached the area of the ruins where the faunus had set up camp, with tents and boxes of equipment scattered around what would have formerly been Asani Town's city centre.

"Sahn, Jairo, put up the tent. Get it a little further from the rest - we're keeping Ines there." Mira commanded, pointing towards a connected street some distance away from the other tents.

Sahn nodded, pulling out a large cylinder from her backpack and helping her brother down. As the spider siblings went to pitch the prefabricated tent, Nel and Mira took Archer inside the ruins of a shop. From the smashed screens and wires, it looked like a former electronics store.

Archer looked around and sighed, "So about that food, can I eat or what?" He asked hungrily, "Oh, and Nel, I actually have this sore spot on my back from when I fell, would it be too much of me to ask you to help me out?"

Before the hawk faunus could do anything Mira quickly stepped in and slapped her hand away, instead dropping Archer on a broken chair in the store. "Listen up," she began. "You may talk as smart as much as you want, but you're a prisoner now. If we want you to starve to death, you will. You think of doing anything funny, we shoot you. You try to contact anyone on the outside, we shoot you-"

"-and them too!" Nel added cheerily.

"-and you should be thankful I'm not letting the other faunus here know about you. Because you'd be god damn dead if I did." the owl faunus hissed.

"Sorry if I made you angry." Archer said sadly, lowering his gaze, and holding an innocent, apologetic look. "I'm not going to do anything funny, and well, I'm not talking smart, I'm just kind of happy to be talking at all, especially to people who aren't trying to kill me and are so beautiful."

Mira blushed, attempting to hide her expression by pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Just-" she began, before realizing there was no point in her giving him a reply and turning back to Jairo and Sahn. "You guys done?"

"Yeah, almost. Start bringing in the boxes." Sahn called back.

The owl faunus nodded. "Nel, get him in there, make sure nobody notices. Get him a chair or something as well."
"Aye aye, my captain~" Nel chirped, nudging Archer to get up. "Let's go, hot stuff. Your girlfriend just broke up with ya."

"Aw, are you going to catch me on the rebound?" Archer said, getting up compliantly.

"If you wanna end up like the last guy I was with." the hawk teased, winking innocently. "As in, ended. He ended. Literally. Not exactly my fault, though."

"Well, I can assure you, I'm pretty resilient." Archer said with a joking prideful tone, "Almost every girl who's taken an interest in me tried to kill me at some point."

"Well, I haven't yet!" Nel giggled. Suddenly, the girl pulled out one of her half-chakrams, bringing the blade dangerously close to Archer's throat before stopping and letting the edge barely touch his skin. "Oops. I tried." she whispered, a devious smile on her face.

Archer laughed without a hint of fear, "Well then I guess it'd be rude for me not to take you out after all this. You, me, that blade thing, and maybe these cuffs too, they're actually getting quite comfortable." Archer sat down in the chair he was led to.

"Oh, I'm sure we can find other uses for them." Nel wrapped her arms around Archer behind him, weapon still in hand. She jabbed it lightly into his neck. "It could be your neck," her eyes slowly drifted downwards, "or maybe your-"

"Nel, we got company." Sahn called from outside the tent. "Think you might know them."
----

Gareth walked up to the isolated tent being guarded by a faunus team. Curiosity drove him to discover why they had isolated themselves and he had a feeling the answer would be more exciting that the activities at the main camp. Nara followed him like a loyal pet, unsure what he was doing but keeping in line regardless. Walking up to JSMN, Gareth said, "Good morning, I cannot help but ask why are you isolating yourself from the rest of us?"

"Oh hey, Nara, Gareth!" Nel waved at the duo excitedly and ran over to them as she exited the tent. "Oh, it's nothing really." She said. Leaning towards the two faunus, she motioned towards Jairo. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to know, we're doing you guys a service. It's just that J over there gets really bad gas when he's stressed, and-" Her sentence was cut off as an angry 'MOTHERFU-" sounded behind her, followed by a large bullet magazine striking her on the side of the head.

"Ow! What was for?" The hawk faunus yelled at her teammate, rubbing her head.

As the hawk and spider faunus exchanged unintelligible insults and curses, Mira had approached the two LGNT members. While she didn't personally know them, they seemed to at least be acquainted with Nel. "Hey. What she was trying to say is, it's nothing you guys should worry about." she reassured Gareth with a smile.

"I am not worried, but I am curious. You are trying to hide something here. Why else would you isolate yourself from the rest of the faunus in a war zone?" replied Gareth his calm zone making Nara wonder if he already knew what JSMN was up to. She then turned her attention back to the arguing Faunus.

"We-" Mira began, but sighed defeatedly. The last thing she wanted now was to argue and attract more attention, and she'd seen how it went the last time someone from LGNT had busted them out. Looking around, she motioned for them to come to the tent's entrance. "Sure. But we're trusting you guys on this." she said.

Once she deemed they were out of earshot, she turned back to the duo. "We've got a human with us - Archer Ines. We don't know why he's here, and he isn't telling us. We're keeping him away from the rest for now, in case anyone does anything, you know, rash. You can talk to him if you want to, but you should make it quick."

"Archer, that is a familiar name. One half of the human problem for this fractured team. I do not plan to expose your secret, or do anything to your prisoner unless you want me to," replied Gareth as he walked toward the entrance to the tent. Nara scowled upon hearing the word Archer and her ears pinned back to reflect her anger and hatred for the human.

Spoiler:


A joint post of Foxrally, Khawill and Stingray​
 
PART 2 - AMBUSH!​

The faunus teams have barely had time to set up at the ruins of Asani City. As the FaunAc hunstmen prepare their camp and await orders, the dozens of human teams who had landed some distance away ambush them from around the city - from the buildings, to the open fields, to the mines. What will your huntsman or huntress do? Fight? Flee? Perish? One thing is clear, though: not everyone is going to make it out.

Humans:

  • Conduct the massive ambush on the faunus
  • Choose one of the four major locations for fighting:

    1. The deciduous forest near the ruins
    2. The ravaged streets of the village
    3. The dark, caved-in mines outside the ruins
    4. The large open tall grass plains surrounding the ruins and forest

  • Fight a faunus team of 4 people (NPC or player-controlled)
  • Keep away from the small amounts of grimm which will be attracted

Faunus:

  • Drop everything you're doing and defend yourselves
  • Choose one of the four major locations for fighting:

    1. The deciduous forest near the ruins
    2. The ravaged streets of the village
    3. The dark, caved-in mines outside the ruins
    4. The large open tall grass plains surrounding the ruins and forest

  • Fight a human team of 4 people (NPC or player-controlled)
  • Keep away from the small amounts of grimm which will be attracted
 

Natalie Starlight Baxiao
with Lauren, Tilki, & Tyrael

CH 3 · 1 PT
Forgiveness​


When Lauren heard the name Tyrael, she stood in shock for a moment, before immediately shifting to hostility. "What the hell do you want? Isn't it enough you messed her up, huh? You better have a good explanation, or I can assure you, you will not like me when I'm really pissed."

Star merely held an arm out before her, abnormally silent as her golden stare struck Tyrael, who at this point looked about as shocked as the two had been just moments before. "The hell... Star!?" The guy slowly rose to a hobbled stand, still dazed from the previous spin and slam. His eyes appeared a maroon-looking brown, his skin lightly tanned, wearing a lightweight leather armor set, covering roughly half his body overall. He flicked his wrist and the clawshot retrieved his sword from where it fell, which he swiftly sheathed at his hip. "Last we heard you attacked an entire warehouse and stole a cargo vehicle, rebelling against humanity with some Faunus. What're you doing here??"

Star clenched her first, though she struggled to calm herself, taking a long, deep breath before speaking. "I could ask the same for you, out here alone in the forest. Where's the rest of the TAR, and what about the war?"

Tyrael took a few steps closer, though his hurt gaze moved to surprise when Star held out an arm and stopped him from approaching. Her glare was somewhat cold, silently insisting for an answer. "I-- Fine, chill…" With a swig from his belt-rested flask, Tyrael sighed. "... Rathos is dead, Star." He looked up quickly enough to see her pained reaction, shaking his head. "Your little stunt caused a lot of crazy shit here, Star. We've been ridiculed without end for being affiliated with you. We washed up, lost our edge… Got your replacement killed. They never let us live that down."

As he was about to take another drink, Star swatted the flask away, spilling alcohol all over the earth as it bounced and landed. Tyrael looked ready to bite her head off, though this looked faded quickly when he met Star's unwavering glare. She spoke bluntly. "What happened to Rathos?"

"Got himself killed trying to be a goddamn hero," Tyrael glared back. "Like I said, you caused a lotta shit. Some hate you for betraying your own kind, others… They wanted to rebel too." Tyrael spit off to the side, but his eyes had glazed slightly, as if he was holding back the urge to cry. "He wanted to fight for the same cause. Peace between Humans and Faunus. Disobeyed my direct orders and left in the night. Next morning, we found him just in time to see him get killed. Tried to free another factory just like you. Didn't work out, obviously." He glared at her. "We lost him 'cause of you."

Extremely skeptical, Lauren glared at Tyrael, "You have absolutely no right to place anything on her, not after what you scumbags did to her! Apparently you didn't care enough to stop selling her out to a lifetime of trauma and heart problem, so there's a lot of shit for you, 'buddy'!"

Tilki joined in, confused at the unfolding situation, "Wait, woah, what's going on here?"

Star turned to Tilki, sighing at the daunting amount of information that swirled around the conversation. "It's a long story… I was nearly killed in a life-draining machine for nearly three years because he sold me out to some old dudes that had been trying to use me for my powers."

Tyrael took a step back, looking shocked, as if he'd just been stabbed in the gut. "You--… How long have you known?"

Spoiler:


​
.
 

Team LUST


Leon lay snoring atop one of the several crates which Umbra had packed, his tail dangling lazily off the side and swatting at anyone who walked past.

Shawn groaned as he stacked another heavy crate onto the pile, wincing when he pinched his fingers between the stiff planks.

Umbra caried two large crates on his shoulders. Quietly side stepping the flicking tail of the team leader before setting the crates onto the pile. He took a glance back at the few remaining crates and sighed as even his hardworking back was beggining to break from the weight.

Shawn started to walk over to their lazy team leader but paused when he heard shouting and turned to see Tahu jumping up and down on the top of a crate, trying to get a bunch of food to fit inside. Shawn sighed and walked over towards him, making sure to step on Leon's tail on his way.

Hissing profuesely as he massaged his tail and pouted, Leon stood up and starting mumbling under his breath as he picked up the smallest possible crate and starting walking it over to the pile.

"You can't force the food to fit, Tahu. Get another box." Shawn grumbled, irritated, as he started filling up another crate with first-aid kits and other medical supplies.

"We've almost got everything loaded. Once we finish, I've preppared lunch." Umbra said plainly in his quiet but eloquent voice.

"Good, all this hard work has me strarved!" Leon responded as he set down his tiny box on the pile inside the plane. "Say, this place we're going was an old mining village right? Think theres anything shiny left around we could take as a souvenir?"

"Don't you dare get any ideas, Leon!" Shawn sharply replied. "Can't you take anything seriously?" he complained as he shoved the lid on the last of the boxes.

"What? I was being serious!" Leon complained.

Several hours and a plane trip later:​
"Man this cave is so boooooooorrrinnnnngggg" Leon complained once more. "There is practically nothing left thats shiny. Other than some funny funny smelling yellow rock-"

"Its sulfur." Umbra, Tahu, and Shawn all responded .

"-but I mean, where is all the gold and silver?!" Leon finished, stopping to lean against the wall of the mine and stare back at his team.

Tahu picked up a piece of sulfur and brought it up to his face, scrunching his nose in disgust. "Yeah, not to side with Leon here, but this place reeks." he gagged, "Even worse than Shawn's gas."

Shawn made a face at Tahu and then sighed. "I guess there's no point in going any deeper, unless Mr. Greedy over here thinks there's gold at the bottom." He looked towards Leon.

"Wait thats a great point! Maybe its like a dungeon! All the best loot is gonna be at the bottom!" Leon exclaimed suddenly! He turned to look back at the rest of his team before grinning wildly. "Catch me if you can!" He shouted before shedding three glowing copies to slow down the remainder of his team before darting off.

"Leon wait! Its dangerous to go alone!" Umbra shouted as he sliced through the first Leon clone. But Leon had already disappeared deeper into the mineshaft.

Tahu raised his crossbow to burn away the remaining clones when Shawn grabbed it and shoved it down. "Burning sulfur emits a deadly gas. You'll have to sit this one out." he informed Tahu as he stuck a dagger through one of the clone's faces. He twisted it until he heard the satisfying pop of the clone dissipating and then launched himself down the tunnel, leaving Umbra to finish off the last one.

"Wowza you guys sure don't have any qualms with stabbing your friend, maybe we should do this nak-" The last Leon clone's sentence was interrupted as it was chopped in half by the annoyed Chameleon faunus darting through the space it had once occupied, going after their missing team leader.

​

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

Spoiler:

"So we had been trading fire for about an hour, maybe, pretty much stalemated right off the get-go. The commanders seemed pretty surprised that the Faunus didn't just up and sink on the way to the fight, so the order stood to just fire, fire, thinking they'd cave eventually. Our ships were bigger after all, and in better shape, but theirs were armed to the teeth and were giving us a run for our money. Up above us our flyers were trying to screen against theirs: but damn you shoulda seen them! Being part bird or bat or wasp must've helped em in the flying sphere, cuz our boys were having a hell of a time keeping them off, and we were taking fire on the deck from them. Little ball things, they splashed out when they struck down, and threw frag all over the place. Didn't do a lot to the ship but it sure was messing us up. I was on the Rally, one of the bigger ones, we were holding the center. I was green at the time, I'd only ever fought off Grimm until then, you know? I just helped load the gun and covered my ears as she fired, and then back to loading again. Now and again someone screamed as one of those balls came down from above, but mostly I kept my head down. I'd probably still be standing somewhere, going through the motions, if I hadn't been brought out of it by the jerk the Rally made. Nothing like what a ship ought to do. And then the cry came up: boarders, boarders below. We grabbed our swords and ran before realizing how strange it would be to be boarded from under the ship, and then we saw them coming up the hatch, water pouring in after them. They'd come up underneath us, some of them ones that can swim real good, and blew the hull open. I saw Captain Fawckz go down under a monster more crab than man, and damn me I ran. I ran to the lifeboats and I dropped one over the side. I thought maybe I should row to one of the other center-holders to warn them, to the Jaunt or the Phoenix, but they were sinking too. The center was lost."
—Lieutenant Eshwin Angrodyn, quoted from Cage Cast Open: the Revolution of the Faunus
Spoiler:





a joint post with Foxrally and Khawill
 
Last edited:
The Twisted Raven and his two "assistant" Vixens​

Nilya charged out of the tent and quickly spotted her sister and Gareth in the middle of a discussion that had Nara looking rather upset. Nilya put away her sword and ran up to the two other faunus and grabbed Nara's left hand by the wrist while saying, "Come on we need to go, no time to explain."

Nara pulled her hand out of Nilya's grip and gave her a hostile look, "I am not going anywhere with-" There was a sudden explosion followed by a powerful shock wave that silenced Nara and took all her attention as she looked toward the gathering cloud of smoke that have lept into the sky not far from their location. Seeing her opportunity, Nilya grabbed her sister's hand again and began running. This time the shocked white hair faunus followed as she asked in a shaky voice, "What is happening?"

"The humans are attacking, they discovered the faunus' plan and are trying to kill off the faunus hunters with this attack," explained Nilya as she ran through the ruined streets, weaving around ruined walls and piles of rubble.

"You saw this coming," added Gareth as he tried to keep up with the more agile sisters.

"I have eyes above so follow and be silent, and we might survive," remarked Nilya taking a sudden jink to the right and moving into the remains of a two story building. The shadows cast by the walls gave Nilya strength as she slowed her pace. Outside the sounds of metal covered boots could be heard stomping down the road in haste as someone shouted out orders to their team as they charged in the direction of the faunus camp.

"Where are we going?" whispered Nara her eyes filled with fear as she tuned her ears for the sounds of the not so distant battle.

"To the mine, I can hide us there until help arrives or night falls," replied Nilya in a calm whisper as she waited for the humans to be far enough away for them to move. Nara nodded as Gareth patiently waited for the more decisive sister to order them to move. After a minute Nilya darted in the direction they entered the roofless structure and across the road toward the crumbling remains of several small one story buildings.

Entering the closest one to the street that still had a part of a roof intact Nara stopped following Nilya as she spotted a trail of red. Pulling her hand out of Nilya's grip she followed the short trail to a mangled body of a faunus. Its short tail looked completely stripped of flesh and was nothing more than a link of bloody bones, and its body was covered in so severely mauled much of it looked like raw ground beef. Its face was mostly intact with a strange mask like coloration over its eyes. Nara knew who she was, Mili Feri, a ferret faunus whose curious and carefree nature often landed her in trouble. Nara had her as a patient in the clinic many times after one of her many spur of the moment adventures went south. Memories of exchanging stories and talking to the girl filled Nara's mind as tears formed in her eyes. Nara felt a tug on her shoulder as her eyes began to water up. "We need to go, this area is not safe," whispered Nilya in a soft caring tone.

"I am not leaving her to die," replied Nara in denial as the horror of the scene continued to draw out her tears.

"She is already dead," Nilya started to reply before Nara cut her off.

"No she isn't. I can save her. I know you don't care about other faunus, but I do!" cried Nara as she summoned what energy she could to heal the dead faunus.

The sudden bright light weakened Nilya and made her step back as her keen ears heard someone yell, "There is something in that building!" The sounds of approaching footsteps made Nilya draw her blade as Gareth began to mutate his body to better be used as a weapon.

The raven faunus felt the sharp pain of breaking bones and twisting flesh as his right hand turned into a thin bony spike covered in tendrils of flesh. His left hand's palm burst into a gaping maw with an eye where the throat should be. The painful mutations was almost enjoyable to the man as it was a terrible reminder of his twisted power. Soon, he would have several victims to unleash his blessings upon. In doing so he hoped to gain Nilya's allegiance getting him one step closer to his final plan.

The first well armored human charged through the open space that used to host a door only to be met by a two front assault. Nilya motioned toward the man as two of her tails formed into roughly fox shaped illusions and charged the armored man. The dark illusions were blocked by the sudden appearance of a large tower shield as the man pressed into the building. Their dark corrosive energy lashing against the dust infused wall weakening it but not breaking it. The man was then met by a torrent of twisting pink and blue flames that lashed against his shield seemingly harmlessly. Behind him, two more humans were following behind his massive frame ready to unleash their weapons on the faunus.

Just as the ninja looking female human pushed into the room Gareth surged forward his strange spike like appendage stabbing toward the armored man's shield. The reality of the flames' powers became apparent when the fleshy spear went through the shield like it was made of paper, allowing Gareth to drive the spike with precision into a gap in the man's armor. The calculated precision strike drove into the man's left shoulder making the man wince in pain before the human counter attacked by sending the raven faunus backward with an uppercut with his club gripped in his right hand.

Gareth stood up and snapped his jaw back into position with his powers as a slight smile danced across his lips. Meanwhile Nilya was forced on the defensive by an agile female wielding dual daggers. As a third human entered the room and a fourth could be seen outside, hope began to fade in Nilya's heart as it looked like they would be overrun and killed. Nara's healing light was preventing Nilya from merging into the shadows, and her opponent was better skilled in melee combat than the fox faunus.

Then a painful howl shifted the flow of battle as the massive human gripped his wound. Gareth's strike had poisoned the man's wound with his sinister powers and already the lord of change was twisting the man's flesh from the inside. The woman fighting Nilya lost focus as her companion's tormented scream pierced the air, and she glanced over at her team's muscle bound hulk. The room darkened as the white haired faunus shifted her attention to the battle as well. The female ninja quickly regained her composure and refocused on her faunus target with a renewed vigor. The human's anger for her ally's pain was directed into her blades as she unleashed a relentless assault of blade strikes against the dark haired fox faunus. The fox was no match for her skills and the assault allowed the woman to create a large opening as she deflected the katana out of the way leaving the faunus fully exposed. With a swift jab, the human sunk her right blade into the chest of the dark haired faunus.

The black clad woman's blade cut through the faunus' heart, but The faunus did not die. When the confused ninja pulled back the blade, no blood poured from the wound. Blood drained from once confident woman's beautiful face as the illusion faded away, the sly smile on its mask almost mocking her. Spinning around desperately to the right, the human tried to bring up her weapons to guard herself from the strike she caught in her peripheral vision only to have that illusion fade as its weak blade touched her own daggers. She then felt the piercing pain of a sharp blade cutting into the back of her shoulder as well as a cold feeling of emptiness around it that began to consume her entire body, and a second later she faded into oblivion.

Gareth summoned up a bolt of change in his left hand as his right reformed into a set of scaly talons. The massive man in front of him retreated backward holding his wound as the flesh twisted and changed invoking waves of different types of pain. The hulk's eyes were wide with fear as he watched his attacker start approaching him with a wicked smile, and the orb of twisting fire like energy that emitted a soft screeching sound that reminded the human of a pain ridden dying animal. The faunus' right hand twisted and changed to its master's whim. Flesh seemed to turn to liquid as it flowed into a new shape, defying the laws of nature as it took new form. Bone casually reformed like origami paper in the hands of an invisible artist. "Accept my blessings and I shall reform you into a much more useful form," spoke the raven faunus his usually monotone voice replaced with an excited tone that filled with cruel intentions.Gareth then suddenly lurched forward and thrust the bolt of tormented flames toward the human, who desperately tried to bat away the attack with his club but missed.

The bolt tore into the man's chest as his weakened semblance defenses failed to hold back the horrible energy. The human could feel the power rippling through his body, before focusing their energy on his previous wound. His skin began to liquefy and bones suddenly turned to rubber and misshapen before suddenly turning into brittle glass in strange shapes inside his body. Indescribable pain caused the human to scream out to his teammates to kill the faunus and cut off the infected flesh. One of the man's companions tried to charge at Gareth with his massive sword but suddenly his blade was deflected by the darkness that surrounded the faunus.

Gareth's wings spread out as dozens of eyes appeared randomly on the large black appendages and locked their gaze on the last member of the human team who stood in the doorway. The staring unblinking eyes locked on the man he lifted his rifle, shaking in fear, Gareth then spoke in a casual tone, "After I am done with this one… you are next. They want to recreate you into a more appealing form for them to stare upon." The hulk clumsily swung his club at Gareth as taunted his teammate, but the faunus to easily ducked under the poorly throw blow. Before the man could build momentum on the return strike Gareth grabbed his forearm with his right claw and squeezed. The blade like talons dug into the man's flesh under his arm, where his armor did not protect, and Gareth released more twisting energies into the man's body. The human could feel the flow of energy entering the new wound as the pulled his entire body away from the faunus, in fear of what torment was to come from this new wound. Spinning toward the doorway the large man lost his footing and fell to the ground. His left side hit the ground shattering the ribs that had turned to glass. The shattered glass cut into vital organs the ribs were suppose to protect, and the man died trying to struggle to his feet.

The rifle wielding human watched his massive friend die with a look of pure horror on his face, and when Gareth started moving toward him, he panicked and fired his weapon which harmlessly hit the nearby wall. The human's eyes grew in terror as Gareth formed another bolt of energy, and then the human turned and fled in fear from the nightmare. The last man trying to fight the faunus hidden in the shadows realized he had been abandoned and looked for an escape as Nilya's blade found his wrist, cutting a huge gash in it. He then suddenly bolted for a window away from both his shadowy attacker and Gareth in hopes of escaping. Before he could reach it he felt a dark force shove against his back while another gripped his right leg, making him fall to the hardwood floor. The shadowy forms of demonic foxes held him down as he thrashed to break free of their hold. Kicking the one biting his ankle he quickly glanced over at the raven faunus hoping this enemy was not too close. When he looked back to deal with the second shadow, he noticed the masked faunus emerge from the shadows with a blade held high. He tried to retrieve his own blade but his three tailed executioner was standing on it. A second later the blade dropped on his throat, ending his life. At least he did not suffer at the hands of the winged nightmare.

Nara stared in horror at her sister and Gareth, but stood when Nilya ran over and helped her to her feet. Gareth casually added, "Fear and pain can be such effective weapons. They cloud the mind and dull one's skill and judgement." A shiver went down Nara's spine as Gareth spoke and she drew closer to Nilya as the three left the scene of the battle.
 

카 Archer and JSMN's Bad Day.​

Before Archer could reply, a transmission came through one of the ears of the mask and into Nilya's sensitive ear. The voice rapidly fired off a warning to the faunus that only she could hear, "They are attacking! Get out of there now!" Looking up at the data being fed into the mask from the drone Nilya confirmed Blair's announcement. Nilya drew her sword as she announced to Archer, "Time has run out, I must go!"

Archer watched as Nilya ran off. Although he was curious, he wasn't in any state to leave with her. It wasn't moments later that Jairo came into the tent, frowning.

"Oi, ****face. The hell happened? Scaring off faunus chicks, now?" he hissed, having just seen a person strikingly similar to Nara hurry out of the tent with her weapons drawn. "And the silk is that in your hand? F-"

His sentence was cut off as a massive explosion sounded in the distance, sending a shockwave through the ruins. The tent shook and shuddered, as the sound of rubble falling from the unstable buildings crashed around them. Once it stopped, the faunus and human waited anxiously for a moment.

Archer didn't react much, his mind surprisingly nonchalant about the sound, as if it didn't matter. "I suppose whatever made Nilya run off is here." He said, looking at the tent entrance.

Before Jairo could retort, Mira burst into the tent, weapon drawn. "You guys okay?" she asked, looking at them. "What was that?"

"Something bloody big." Jairo replied, frowning.

Archer got onto his feet and held his cuffed hands in front of himself, "The two of us are fine, what about you and the rest of your team?"

"Yeah, we're good..." Mira began, before stopping mid-sentence once she realized Archer had had the politeness to actually ask in the first place. She squinted suspiciously at him. "Keep him put, Jairo." she instructed. "I'll check out what's going on."

Mere seconds later the owl faunus popped her head back into the tent. "GETTHE****OUTNOWGO!!" she screamed.

Archer stretched from sitting down all day and walked out of the tent as he was told. As he took his first step the spider faunus beside him gave him a violent, four-armed shove, sending him crashing through the entrance of the tent just in time for the two of them to witness the shelter behind them being plowed by a massive, street-wide fireball.

Mira coughed from the dust, reaching down to help Jairo and Archer up before another fireball came through the street. "Nel! Sahn!" she called between coughs. Her two teammates had also barely avoided the fireball, hiding in the alleyway next to them. As they approached the three of them, Nel cleared the air with her semblance.

"Someone's got the hots for us…" she said, grimacing at the smell of burnt tent. Archer laughed quietly at the joke.

"It's the humans. They've come for him." Sahn added, motioning towards the source of the fireball. A human girl dressed in an orange and black outfit stood alone in the middle of the street, cackling. Just as she raised her arms to throw another fireball, a weapon akin to a hammer, spear and axe slammed into the side of her face, sending her flying out of sight. A fox faunus appeared from where the weapon had come from, grabbing the weapon mid-air and following the fire girl's crash trajectory.

"Go, go! We gotta keep Ines moving!" Mira urged JSMN and Archer through the alleyway, using the fight as a distraction.

Archer was pushed forward but he kept looking back, "Why aren't we fighting?!" He asked, heart beating. He wasn't sure if the fox faunus would survive.

"He probably has his own team." Mira snapped, completely aware that they should have gone to aid their fellow faunus rather than escape, that he wouldn't survive alone. She tried to keep the thought out of her mind. "Our job right now is to get you to command, then whatever we do isn't any of your concern."

Around them, the sounds of yelling and screaming could be heard as fights slowly started. As they ran through the town, it was evident that the humans had come from the side opposite the command post, though they seemed to be everywhere at once. The five of them rushed through the streets as fighting enclosed on them. They finally made it out to a clear, calmer street and paused to take a breath, hopefully hidden by the numerous piles of rubble and debris around them.

"He's right, Mira. We should get ready to right" Sahn said, putting on her spiked gloves. "If the humans don't find us, Grimm soon will. This commotion is going to bring waves of them."

"How in the bloody web did they figure out our location?" Jairo hissed, quickly checking if his own weapon was loaded.

"Well, I'm sure there are a number of faunus and human spies." Archer replied, nonchalantly, "I can think of one or two I'd love to beat down."

"I'll fly over and check out the area." Nel said, beginning to activate her semblance.

Suddenly, a voice called out from the other end of the street.

"That won't be necessary."

Archer yawned and stretched, nonchalant. "Oh, so someone else has it handled, let's go back and stop the fighting."

The five of them turned to face the source of the voice. At the end of the street was a burly, bearded, powerhouse of man with a grey breastplate and a morningstar in hand. His voice was as intimidating and commanding as his appearance. He called out once more. "NCKL, group up!"




[/div]
 


Jairo & Sahn Xill


Mira Cullous      Nel Phelia








Team JSMN
Enter NCKL​

"NCKL, group up!" The bearded man commanded, stomping on the ground. Slowly, the other members of his team revealed themselves, emerging from their ambush spots.

Crap! How come we didn't see them in recon? Mira cursed internally, raising her shield. She used her semblance to instantly analyze the area around her: 40 meters wide street, 3 alleyways on either side. Four houses on left, three on the right with a slightly taller one. The path behind them was blocked by debris, the alleyway through which they had come was probably overrun by the fighting on the other side. The other alleys all lead to dead ends; and the only way out of this street was straight ahead, or above. JSMN and their captive all stepped back warily, assessing their opponents as they returned to their leader.

"The fuck, Nik?" the first human, a dark-skinned girl with strange silver eyes, hissed as she obeyed his orders and appeared from around the corner. She wore a sleeveless jacket, revealing two identical silver tattoos on either of her arms. Behind her was another boy wearing a grey vest and a necktie, casually shuffling a deck of cards and eyeing the four faunus, unimpressed. The black girl was surrounded by a ring of shiny silver liquid, orbiting her slowly like a sort of shield. "Why ain't you sticking to the plan, jackass?!"

"It's a fair fight, Chloe. We are four, so are they. Ludger's plan was in case we were outnumbered." the bearded hunter replied seriously, his fierce glare still fixated on JSMN.

"Shame." the boy next to Chloe added, chuckling. "My design was quite the ingenious strategy. But a good card shark always makes room for... improvisation." he finished his sentence by pulling out a card from the deck and smiling. He flicked the tarot card at the faunus, landing it upright right between the two teams. The card was black with a hooded skull figure drawn on it: XIV - Death.

"Uhm, Niklas... There's a... another fifth one there..." A female voice noted meekly from behind a smashed streetlight. Archer waved politely from his position, chains shaking as he did so.

"WHAT? We can't hear you, dumbass!" Chloe screamed back in her direction, still visibly annoyed at the situation in general. Her orbiting ring of silver wavered momentarily before retreating back into a hilt on her belt. "Fucking Kathy, I swear..." she muttered loudly, rubbing her temples in an attempt to calm down.

"She's right. It appears they do have someone in the back. Unarmed, however." Ludger noted as Katarina, the last member of NCKL cautiously moved away from her hiding spot and scurried back to her team. She was wearing a red frilled dress that looked far too large and inconvenient for combat, although it had cuts on the side to allow her to run.

Mira briefly looked behind her at Katarina's mention of Archer, her sword and shield still raised cautiously. While he was no danger to them right now, he definitely could attract more trouble.

"W-we have a hostage with us!" she called out to the hunters. "I'd suggest you think well before doing anything you regret. "

"Hostage taking? Shouldn't have expected any better from you slimy bastards. Goddamned animals." NCKL's leader replied back, disgusted.

Archer looked to Nel and whispered, "Am I the hostage?"

"Mira said to use the term 'guest of honor'." the hawk faunus murmured back, nervously glancing towards Archer and back.

Archer stretched his arms, and yelled back at the other team, "I was taken hostage by humans earlier today as well." He then laughed a bit and put his arms down, "See, now they just called humans honorless too."

The two team leaders stared at each other defiantly for a few moments, neither side daring to make the first move. Suddenly, Nel tapped on Mira's shoulder. "Well, dibs on the cutie~!" she smiled and deliberately winked at Archer before blasting towards NCKL at incredible speed, sending dirt and rocks flying behind her.

Suddenly, the card Ludger had thrown between them expanded, growing instantly to twenty times its size and creating a wall tall enough for Nel to crash right into. The hawk faunus fell back to the ground, dazed as the card disappeared.

Archer pursed his lips and drooped his shoulders before letting out a breath as he watched Nel get tossed away from her target and holding his wrists out to Mira, "Hey Mira, could you uncuff me? I'm going to go and kill them for you."

Although his voice was calm and and leveled, Archer dropped his relaxed gaze and his robotic eyes were fixed onto Mira's faunus ones. The girl frowned slightly in concern at the sudden expression change, grabbing Archer and pulling him towards her aggressively as to signal he wasn't going anywhere - both a message to NCKL and Archer himself. "Nobody is doing any killing. Especially not you."

"Ludger!" the mace-wielding human suddenly shouted, assuming a fighting stance. He swung his Morningstar at the air, only for the spikes to suddenly detach, lobbing a volley of bombs at the faunus. Without a word, the card player beside him nodded, precisely flicking four cards in JSMN's direction, then two more towards Kathy and Chloe. The cards dissipated immediately, and the two huntresses nodded knowingly, as if they already knew what to do.

"Shit!" Mira cursed as the members of JSMN rolled out of the way of the explosions and into the alleys connected to the street. Mira, Jairo and Archer on one side, and Nel and Sahn on the other side.

Mira gritted her teeth. The human team had communicated so well together, it was like they were a single unit. As team leader, she was responsible for all of JSMN - no way she'd be one-upped by a human. "Nel!" the owl faunus commanded from across the street. "We have to make sure they don't get to Ines! Go for the two on the right, and cover us as much as you can!" The hawk faunus flashed her a thumbs-up and looked at Sahn.

"Let's give 'em hell, girl!" Nel exclaimed and shot up into the sky. "Come and get me!~" she taunted, blasting a large, concentrated ball of air towards Ludger, Chloe and Katarina below her and avoiding the incoming gunshots.

"Sahn!" Mira called out. "You take care of the big guy, and I'll handle the silver girl! Jairo-" she turned to the spider faunus behind her, "-you stay behind and watch Ines. Keep him away from the fight, and we keep them away from him."

"I don't need to be watched!" Archer snapped.

"What?!" Jairo complained. "I ain't getting assigned to fuckin' watch duty, bullshit!"

"This isn't up for discussion!" Mira shouted; her commanding tone threw off the two hunters. Not wasting any more time to argue, she turned back to Sahn across the street and nodded. "Go!"

The owl faunus shifted her sword and shield back to their hovering staff form, and hopped on top of it, shooting forward to get Chloe off of Nel and focused on her.

A joint post of Foxrally and Khawill​
 
(Note that this takes place during Phase 1, it is only so that my characters can catch up to the current events.)

Team NAVF

PHASE 1​

Fei's POV:

Spoiler:
 


Jairo & Sahn Xill


Mira Cullous ?????Nel Phelia








Team JSMN
Hunted​

Sahn leaped out of the alleyway, landing in the same street where Niklas was, a few feet away from him. The muscular human smirked, slamming his Morningstar n the ground.

"They brought me their best fighter, eh?" he shouted at the woman. "Good! Come at me, bastard!" Spiked fists raised, Sahn charged at him, her eyes already beginning to flare with red semblance energy. To her surprise, however, he remained still, not moving or even attempting to block the incoming hit.

Instead, her punch merely bounced off his bare chest, the spikes having absolutely zero effect. She reeled back in pain, clutching her wrist ? it was as if she'd just punched a massive diamond wall.

"I am the IMPENETRABLE!" Niklas roared, swinging his morningstar at Sahn's chest, knocking her back a few feet. He charged at her, following up with a powerful knock to the jaw which stunned her out of her semblance.

Sahn grunted, moving sideways to avoid the next punch and grabbing his arm; in an attempt to throw him over her shoulder. Yet, despite her semblance, she couldn't even manage to move the hunter an inch.

"The UNMOVABLE!" Niklas proclaimed again, Grabbing Sahn by the collar and batting her away with his mace. The spider woman fell back on her feet, grunting. Her normal attacks were having no effect on him at all ? she knew that humans had a much stronger aura than faunus, but this was unlike anything she'd seen before. Niklas leaped into the air, swinging his weapon on front of him to unleash another barrage of bombs on below him. Sahn reacted quickly, momentarily collecting energy before slamming her hands together and unleashing a massive shockwave to push back the bombs towards Niklas. The human rolled out of the way and towards his enemy, weapon raised. With no time left to react, the huntress was met with a mace to the side, throwing her against the nearby building. The spider faunus fell back to the ground, coughing.

"Get up, animal!" Niklas commanded, standing over her.

"We aren't... animals!" she muttered, pushing herself back up. Slamming her spikes into the ground, she tore off a chunk of the earth in front of her and hurled it at her opponent.

Suddenly, a small card crashed through a window to Sahn's left and shot straight at her. The spider woman ducked, and the poker card lodged itself into the metal pole behind her, almost as if it were a sort of homing throwing knife.

"HEY!" the shrill voice of Nel called from above. "My eyes are up here!" She blasted an airblade in Ludger's direction, who had thrown the playing card from inside one of the houses. His teammate, Katarina, was nowhere to bee seen.

The Card Master was clearly annoyed by the constant nuisance the hawk faunus was trying her best to be, snapping his fingers as the poker set instantly switched to his his dust-powered cards. He threw three red explosive ones at Nel simultaneously, the faunus easily dodging each one with ease as she blew away the explosion with her semblance.

"I'm guessing it's my turn now, then?" Nel giggled and pulled out her chakrams, blasting a large cloud of fog towards Ludger. The human stepped backwards, his visibility suddenly impaired by the cloud. He threw a white card on the ground ? wind dust. The card exploded into a powerful wind gust, dispelling the fog, just in time for him to see Nel's flying silhouette charging at him bladefirst. He grunted as his aura took the brunt of the slash, the chakrams still managing to cut his skin.

Nel swooped back upwards, firing gleefully downwards as she twirled back into the sky. She landed on top a taller building, posing dramatically. "Can't keep up? Would've expected better." she taunted, winking. The hunter below her said nothing, instead pulling out another set of cards from his pocket. He kept looking upwards expectantly, as if waiting for something- but of course, Nel never had the time to notice. He was just another fun opponent to toy with.

Once again, he took another of his regular tarot cards and threw it in Nel's direction. The faunus hopped sideways to dodge it easily.

Suddenly, something struck her in the back, as if the card Ludger had thrown had just turned around on its own. She yelped out in pain, feeling the sharp edge of the knife-like card dig into her shoulder; falling over the side of the building and barely avoiding a deadly fall as her semblance regulated her position midair. Painfully, she reached behind her back and yanked out the tarot card. It had an emblem of a jester, cackling maniacally: I ? The Fool. The girl held the card in her hand, laughing nervously at the sight of her own blood splattered over the jester.

"A fitting card." Ludger chuckled and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the card exploded in Nel's hand, the blast knocking her into the wall behind her.

Nel fell back slowly to the ground, coughing, blood seeping from the side of her mouth. However, much to the human's surprise, she was giggling. "Hehe, you got me good, you -cough- did..." she muttered, shakily getting back to her feet.

"Hope you won't mind me taking two turns in a row, faunus." Ludger taunted, sneering. He pulled out a yellow dust-powered card, preparing to throw it at her.

Suddenly, without warning, the hawk faunus charged forward, tackling Ludger to the ground as she cackled uncontrollably. Getting on top of the dazed hunter, she pulled out her blades from her belt. Ludger looked around desperately, trying to find his pack of cards. He reached for the dust card he had pulled out earlier, which had fallen a few feet away from him. His fingers had almost gotten hold of the weapon, when he felt a sudden pain course through his arm, as Nel fired her entire gun into his hand and forearm.

"No cHeATiNG!" the faunus growled in an almost merry tone, grinning maliciously. The card player looked up at her just in time to see her blades brought down on his face.

But the impact never came.

"Rrah!" Nel snarled angrily, pulling forward but unable to move her arm. Her wrists were now both wrapped two glowing dark red ribbons, extending from the roof of the building the hawk had just fallen off of.

"S-stop! Stay away from him!" Katarina, NCKL's fourth member, squeaked from atop the building. The two ribbons were tied to her wrists too, though they seemed to almost float over her skin.

However hard she tried, Nel couldn't manage to overpower the girl's tether. "Mind if I reroll my turn?" she taunted at the human underneath her, before hopping back up to her feet and reactivating her semblance. Using the unfortunate huntsman's ribcage as a launchpad, she shot back up into the sky, landing swiftly on the building where ribbon girl was.

Katarina trembled as the deranged hawk faunus took a step forward, the ribbons beginning to waver. ?Get back!? she yelled. The human clenched her fists, reinforcing the strength of of the ribbons. She was too slow however, as Nel brought her arm down, sending an airblade forward and severing one of them. Nel raised her free hand and fired a large ball of air at Katarina's chest, blasting the huntress back. The human was pushed back into the building?s railing, bouncing off slightly as her aura took most of the hit before tripping and falling over the edge and into the street.

Almost instinctively, Kathy throw her hat towards the ground. In an instant, the headpiece turned into a massive, body-sized pillow, breaking her fall but dissipating as soon as she landed. Nel jumped down and ran forward, her hand ready to blast a second airball.

Suddenly, the dozens of frills around Katarina's dress began glowing, just like the ribbon attached to Nel?s arm. Just as Nel got close, the frills quickly unwrapped from the dress, wrapping themselves around Nel?s arms, legs, and neck. Katarina slowly stood up, her ribbons lifting Nel up into the air as she did so.

?I said? get BACK!? Katarina screamed.

?Ngh!? Nel grunted as the ribbons began to tighten around her limbs and neck, pulling in opposite directions. She could feel herself losing consciousness as the human huntress choked her out, her flailing getting weaker and weaker as the ribbons drained her energy.

Finally in control, Katarina confidently took a step forward. As she did so, the huntress suddenly found herself encased in a light blue outline for a second, almost like an aura. ?Wh-?

It was all she could utter before the frail girl was hurled violently against the wall of the nearby building, followed by another slam against the ground, instantly knocking her out.

Nel fell to the ground, coughing and spitting. Mira ran over to her, the blue glow dissipating from her hand. ?Nel!?

?I?m -cough- good, I'm okay,? the nauseous hawk faunus struggled back to her feet with Mira's help. ?I just got choked up in the heat of the moment.?

Mira's annoyed 'this isn't the time? response was cut short by a glob of silver liquid flying past and splashing against the wall behind them. ?Get to cover, you can't fight like this!? Mira urged her teammate to where Jairo and Archer were, looking back at the droplets of silver already beginning to rise again. ?Go!?

---

?Let me see.? Archer said, his nails digging into his palms, causing a little blood to drip down, as he kneeled down next to Nel, his bloodlust rising ?Are you hurt??

The battered hawk girl tried to readjust herself to a more comfortable sitting position. ?Kind of, if you can?t- AGH!? she suddenly screamed out in pain and dropped to the ground, clutching the side of her hip in agony.

?Motherfuckers!? Jairo cursed, kneeling down. ?The fuck did they do??

His teammates? response came in the form of a series of screams and ?ow?s and curses which only served to worsen the situation. Archer's body tensed up and he began to shake, ?Jairo, I'm going to get you in trouble.? He said through grit teeth as he stood up, ?If you aren't going to take them off I'll just kill them with my teeth if I have to.?

?Bloody-? Jairo gritted his teeth, every bone in his body telling him not to help the human. He knew that he couldn?t fix Nel?s leg on his own ? he just had to decide which was more important right now. After a second of hesitation, the spider faunus reached towards Nel?s belt, pulling out the keys to the shackles, and unlocked them from Archer.

?Hold her down!? he told the human, knowing he wouldn?t have the strength to immobilize Nel?s squirming. ?We?re popping your leg back into place, birdbrain!? he told his teammate.

Archer stretched his wrists and then took a deep breath, effortlessly holding down Nel with a surprising amount of strength for how he'd been acting. The hawk faunus shuddered and squirmed in place, letting out a slow, painful groan. Jairo breathed deeply and grabbed her leg with all four arms, with two near her hip and two around her knee.

?This ain?t gonna be fun.? he warned, ?Five, four, three-? With a sudden push from all of his arms, Nel?s leg slid back into position with an uncomfortable crack. The hawk faunus, who at this point had tears streaming down her face from the pain, let out a pained yelp as the bone fell back into place, before letting out a shaky sigh of relief.

Archer stood up and grabbed the cuffs. ?Don't worry, I'll come back in them? but I'm not feeling too happy with this new team.?

?You keep watch over her, human.? Jairo spat, still refusing to call Archer by his name. He also realized that Nel should?ve been the one watching their ?captive?, not the opposite, but there was no time for that now. ?I?m showing those shitheads what comes for them when they mess with JSMN.? He grabbed his weapon holster and slung it over his shoulder, giving Nel and Archer one last glance before running out of the ruined house and into the street.

?M-my mom always said I didn?t have a bad bone in my body?? Nel laughed shakily and coughed, falling backwards onto the broken floor.

?The woman who raised me would be out there ripping them all apart.? Archer said angrily, ?Nel, what the hell are you doing??

?Making sure the others don?t die.? the faunus replied cheerily, wiping off the tears and dirt from her face. ?Nobody died yet, right? I?m the closest one who got to that. I think.?

?And now Jairo is angry and ran off alone.? Archer said with a frown, ?What, do you think they want you to die? Or is that just you??

?Psh, J?s a hothead anyway. He?ll come back. Hopefully.? Nel waved off his concerns and got back to her feet, wincing. ?Ow. Seriously though, where?d he say he was going? I need to get back out there before the boss realizes I?m sleeping on the job.?

?You're not leaving.* Archer said in a serious tone, ?If you end up dead, then what is your team going to do in the next fight??

?Pfft.? Nel stuck out her tongue. ?Ain?t happening, Don Juan. See you in a bit~!? She put her hand to her lips and blew him a semblance-powered kiss, sending a little ball of fog his way. In a flash, the hawk girl grabbed the weapons at her side and ran out the house before blasting upwards into the sky.

Archer frowned and put the cuffs in his pocket, grabbing a wooden board from the floor. ?So that's how the twins feel.? He muttered.

A joint post of Foxrally and Khawill​
 
Team FEAR
(condensed for reduction of clutter and broken in the middle for your convenience)

Spoiler:

"So I remembered something about our getting together to ambush the flank of the human army or something, but I never really paid all that much attention to orders, ya know? Even so, I still knew something was against the grain when battle broke out before we'd left camp! 'Counter-ambush' was the name of the game with the humans, is what it looked like to me. Wells, the alarm goes out and we're all over the place, trying to answer hostiles here, there, everywhere, and I gets my team together and heads into the little abandoned town we was nearby, try and find some cover, when Lee starts crying out he's been hit, and I sees them standing there, them humans, and I just kinda lost it, aye? Now, since then, I've gotten to talking to a lot of humans, and even if they didn't much care for us, the general consensus looks like they didn't really hate us, neither, leastwise not as bad as a lot of us thought at the time. But we Faunus, we were out for blood. We'd been raised on it: why are we overcrowded, why are we segregated, why are we hungry, why are we poor, hell anything you could ask had the same answer. 'It's the humans' fault.' Little brother died? Humans' fault. Food shortage? Humans' fault. Hell, the fuckin sky coulda started falling in and we'd all still blame the humans for it. It's just how it was. I'm older now, and a little more steady, and now all I can do is regret what I did that day. For all intents and purposes, I wasn't a soldier that day. I was a monster. The worst part is how long it took me to realize it, after I'd walked away stained to the elbows in that poor girl's insides."
—Kristoff Danzer, Dasyuridae Faunus leader of Team KLAW, quoted from Cage Cast Open: the Revolution of the Faunus
Spoiler:
 
One Change of Heart and One Change of Form​
Spoiler:


A Monster is Born...​
Spoiler:
 
Team FEAR
(condensed for reduction of clutter and broken in the middle for your convenience)

Spoiler:

"Yeah, I'd kinda forgot about the Grimm with all that was happening. I suppose it makes sense they'd come sniffing out into a war zone, they say they're drawn to strife and things. Wasn't exactly at the front of our minds though with the humans coming in at us. My team was engaged with a human team in the ruins of the village we had formed up near. So we're fighting, and we're fighting, and then tup! Just like that, I'm being hauled off and the ground's falling away and I hear my leader shouting something about Grimm, and I look up and a Nevermore's got me! One of the really big ones, you know, and I smack at it with my pole, but a pole isn't much of something to hit a giant claw with, let me tell you. Well, I heard someone calling to me, and I see one of the humans we'd been fighting in the other claw, and he's telling me to give him my pole. I tells him he's got a perfectly good tonfa right there, but he keeps telling me to give him my pole, and for some reason I did. I threw it out over towards him and he actually caught it. Then he touches his tonfa to it and he fuses them into a hammer thing and swings it up into the Grimm's crotch and it drops us both. And then we're falling and I'm getting ready to use my Semblance—lets me take lethal damage and not die immediately, more useful than you'd think. But then he's got one of his arms around me from behind and I look over my shoulder and he's got his damn shirt off! Well, you can imagine I was justly confused, but I see he's holding the hammer up and he'd torn his shirt in two and he tells me to grab the hammer. I'm saying all sorts of stuff cuz I got this half-naked human grabbing me from behind falling through the air, but he says it again, and for some reason I do it. Then he fuses the cloth to it and it makes some sort of weird thing that I guess was supposed to be a parachute, even though it didn't slow us down all that much. I figured I'd better turn on my Semblance just to be safe but he twists in the air as we're coming down and he cushions the fall with his own body. He was messed up, too, and I was only a little shook up, but I'm all sorts of confused because that shouldn't have been a human thing to do at all, trying to get me down safe like that. He's out like a light though, so I end up dragging him back to base camp and shouting one of the medics into touching him up. I always think back to that day, you know? It's easy to see the enemy side as just a bunch of targets, but then you wind up in a bad spot together and you're both just people trying to get out of it. I didn't go back to fight after that happened, I stayed in with the guy to make sure I could keep the medics from euthanizing him or something. I would've never thought I'd end up finding a friend in that human, in Linkters Yuntee, but for some reason I did."
—Mrs. Erica Yuntee, Didelphidae Faunus survivor of the Huntsman Ambush, quoted from Cage Cast Open: the Revolution of the Faunus
Spoiler:
 


Jairo & Sahn Xill


Mira Cullous      Nel Phelia








Team JSMN
The Fallen​

The long, tiring fistfight with Niklas was starting to take its toll on Sahn. Whatever the spider woman three at him, the human wouldn't budge — but she could tell he felt the hits. With neither of their teammates being around to help them, this wasn't a battle of strength, it was a battle of endurance.

Sahn grunted and uprooted a streetlight from the pavement, dodging another volley of bombs from her opponent. She leaped towards him and swung the metal pole like a bat, aiming for his head. Instead of ducking, Niklas raised his arms and grabbed the streetlight, stopping Sahn instantly in her tracks, and used the remaining momentum from the attack to redirect the swing towards a pile of rubble, flinging Sahn away.

The faunus braced for impact on the sharp rocks — but it never game. She instead felt herself land on a soft, springy net stretched out across the pile of rubble. As she got up, the voice of Jairo called her from behind the rubble.

"God, I can't leave you alone for one bloody sec without getting your ass kicked, eh?" the diminutive spider faunus said, motioning for her to come over.

Being careful not to alert Niklas of her brother's presence, Sahn rolled off the net and made her way to her brother. "What are you doing here?" she asked, frowning. "Who's watching the-"

"Fuck him. Nel's watching, or whatever. I ain't standin' aside like some watchdog while those goons fuck with my team." Jairo spat. Sahn raised an eyebrow, surprised at the uncommon camaraderie her brother was displaying. Jairo peeked at Niklas across the street. "The way he stopped that swing right in its path, probably his semblance. What's his deal?"

Sahn grunted. "Said something about being unmovable earlier…"

"Psh. Bullshit." Jairo shook his head. "Let's put 'im to the test, eh?"

A few seconds later, the spider duo emerged from their hiding spot, Jairo on top of his sister's back, both siblings with their weapons drawn. The smaller of the two was playing a soft tune on his violin, dragging his bow slowly across the strings as the dreadsong powered up Sahn's aura.

Niklas spit on the ground. "Got yourself a lackey. Pathetic." he taunted. "Not that it matters anyway." He pointed his morningstar at the faunus, and fired the front spike at them like a missile.

Activating her now-enhanced semblance, Sahn charged forward towards the bomb, her skin and eyes glowing red from the energy. Jairo hopped off and watched as his sister collided with the missile in a powerful explosion, powering right through and continuing towards Niklas.

"Shit." Niklas cursed under his breath. He raised his arms braced for the faunus' impact, knowing well he could once again turn her momentum against her. The faunus got closed and closer, her fist ready to strike, until…

The attack missed his body completely, Sahn's spiked fist flying to his right instead, where his weapon was. The punch was met with a loud crack and before Niklas could turn his head, the entire explosive contents of his morningstar exploded in his face.

The human tripped backwards, his head and side covered in red powder as the metal rod which formerly was his mace fumed and sparked. He clutched the side of his head, his ears ringing from the explosion and the right side of his face bruised and cut from the spikes. Hoping his semblance had momentarily deactivated, Sahn quickly followed up with an uppercut.

To her surprise, Niklas' arm flew in front of him to block the attack. Her fist violently collided with his arm before bouncing back with a snap. Sahn clutched her wrist; she had definitely felt something break. Enraged, the immovable human in front of her retaliated with a blow of his own, powered by all the momentum of Sahn's punch. Sahn staggered back a few feet, the red aura around her waning.

"Jairo!" she called out.

Suddenly, the figure of her brother appeared behind Niklas, weilding his violin. He was a playing a fast, erratic tune on the instrument behind his back, using his auxiliary arms to play. Niklas glanced at him and back at Sahn. "Come at me, bastards!" he growled, standing his ground with his semblance. Yet, as he spoke, the ground right beneath him began to tremble and crack, as if an earthquake had just hit. "Shit—"

Jairo's Tremorsong tune got louder and louder, and the ground shook even more. Despite his semblance the human staggered and struggled to keep his balance; he may have been the immovable, but the ground was not.

"Go!" Jairo yelled, as he released the final tremor from his violin with one last draw.

Following his cue, Sahn charged at Niklas, tackling the burly human and slamming him through the collapsed wall of the house behind him. The two fighters fell into the rubble, Sahn following up with a kick to the head and knocking out her opponent. Before she could deliver any more hits, the two siblings heard a loud crash coming from the adjacent street, where Mira and the silver-wielding human were fighting.

"Leave him, he's out! We gotta get to the other street!" Jairo commanded, running over to his sister and hopping on her shoulders. She nodded and charged up her semblance momentarily, before leaping up and to the other street.

----

Good god, does she not get tired?! Mira cursed internally as another glob of mercury shot out of Chloe's quicksilver ring, whizzing past the faunus' head as she rolled behind what looked like an overturned car -or what was left of it. She wondered why the human wasn't using bullets instead; probably because her semblance was much deadlier. Her power gets weaker when she loses concentration, and I can't manipulate it while she's in control. All I need is just one opening…

The human had been silent for the entire fight, not even responding to Mira's ('pathetic', as Jairo would have put it) taunting in an attempt to destabilise her. The owl faunus had only been deflecting and dodging in the hopes of it happening — the plan was to collapse the entire ring onto its user as soon as it showed signs of weakness. But maybe…

Taking a deep breath, the owl girl dashed out of cover, weapon raised, and vector-boosted herself upwards in a leap. As she brought the spear down, a blue sonicboom released from it towards Chloe's shield. The human never moved from her position, and the attack dissipated immediately as it came in contact with the ring.

Mira cursed. "Crap."

"Is this how you wanna play it then?" the silver girl growled, the first thing she'd said in the entire fight. The ring began wavering erratically, as Mira had hoped, but her expression soon faded as she realized the girl was actually shifting it shape herself.

Pulling out the hilt as her side, Chloe summoned all of her mercury back inside before ejecting back out in the shape of a silver, shining morningstar similar to Nikas'. She held the morningstar with ease, giving it a twirl before charging at Mira at a surprisingly high speed. Mira held her ground, counting on her semblance to counter the human's charge. The instant Chloe was close enough, she commanded a vector upwards near Chloe's legs, tripping up the human and sending her charge flying above the faunus. As Mira prepared to follow up with a gunshot, she looked upwards — and was met in the face with the spiked end of a massive hammer.

The huntress was violently thrown backwards by the impact, her body bouncing off the ground before coming to a stop. Mira shakily pushed herself back up, blood trickling down her face. Her glasses fell to the ground, the lenses and frame completely shattered. Coughing, Mira barely had time to react before Chloe charged at her again, this time with a silver sword in hand. Mira weakly got to her feet and threw herself sideways to avoid the slash, the blade still managing to cut her side. Before Chloe could regain her balance, she summoned a vector in front of her, tripping the human up and slamming her headfirst into the ground. The owl faunus began running for her fallen weapon, which had slid a few feet away, clutching her side. However her path was cut off as a blob of mercury shot past her; and before she could dodge, another slammed into her, splashing against the open wound at her side.

"Gah!" Mira screamed as she stumbled forward and fell beside her weapon. Her vision flashed in and out of focus — worsened by the fact her glasses had broken — her head was throbbing with pain, and she felt as if she was going to vomit any minute. Her mind frantically tried to recall the effects of mercury exposure, as she spit out what little of the metal had gotten in her mouth. The cut at her side burned slightly, but she had lost most of the feeling in the flesh that was there…

A second shot was fired, but Archer stepped forward and used the circular, heavy metal sewer cover below him to block the attack, and then throwing it at the girl, forcing her to take cover as the cover lodged itself in the wall nearby. Archer held his shackled hands out to Mira to help her up, "Get up, Mira."

Still dizzy from the fall, Mira pulled herself up quickly before realizing she was looking at Archer. "Wait, what?!" she blinked. "Why are you out here?!" she hissed, urging him behind cover as she clutched her side. "Where is Jairo? What did you do to him?"

"Your team kind of left me behind, so I figured I'd go ahead and kill that team for you guys." Archer was calm and nonchalant in the heat of battle, "If you have some red dust I can take care of that girl."

Before the owl faunus could retort, a loud crash sounded beside them, where Sahn and her brother Jairo had just landed. The latter hopped off of his sister's back. "Hey, what's the human doing-"

"Here? Well broadly I'm trying to help, but specifically I'm trying to get some red dust so I can go up and make that girl stop shooting heavy metals at us.

"He's out here, alone! didn't I tell you to watch him?" Mira snapped.

"I left him with Nel!" Jairo yelled back.

"She cuffed me and flew off." Archer replied, "So I'd like to hurry up so I can kill the other team."

Before one of the faunus could retort, a white card came flying from behind the group and detonated in a massive wind blast, knocking Archer the three faunus back and away from their cover. Chloe, followed by a limping Ludger, made their way to the group, both of their weapons raised.

"Ludger, get the short one. I'm-" the dark-skinned girl began, before stopping herself as her eyes glanced over Archer. "Holy shit. Hey, hey! That's fucking Archer Ines!" she yelled, her ring beginning to expand. "The fucker who ratted our side!"

"To be fair, I've killed about as many faunus as humans at this point… though I'm thinking of adding one more human." Archer glared at Chloe.

"Still the same god damn mouth," the human spat. "Shit, why don't I just pop you right now? They'd just pin it on the animals. Would do everyone a fucking service."

"Chloe, are you -cough- sure about this? He's harmless, I don't think Niklas is going to-" Ludger began.

"Harmless? Asshole tried to knock me out with a sewer cover!" Chloe yelled at her teammate, her ring of mercury forming into the shape of a spear. "Fuck this."

Archer held his cuffed hands out defensively, "How could I possibly do that if I'm handcuffed." He said innocently, noting the team dissonance, "Perhaps the wind carried it?" He said in full sincerity.

Letting out an angry snarl, the silver girl raised her spear, her eyes glowing white. She hurled it at Archer, the weapon aimed right at his chest.

Archer fell backwards clumsily , the spear landing near his head as he scrambled to his feet, "Forgive me, I am incredibly feeble." He said in a mockingly weak tone.

As the other faunus got up from being knocked over by card, Mira glanced at where Archer was, right next to Chloe's mercury spear. "Fuck, Archer, behind you!" she screamed, knowing the human would remotely control the spear and stab him in the back before he could even notice it. She turned to Sahn who was beside her. "Sahn, get to him! Move him out of the way!" she commanded, knowing Sahn's defensive semblance would protect her from any of the effects of the mercury. The spider woman nodded, quickly rising to her feet and sprinting forward with a boost from her semblance.

The silver girl gritted her teeth. "Son of a bitch..." She muttered, her silver spear slowly raising itself into the air, pointing at Archer's back. Then, with a wave of her hand, she brought the spear down.

Archer suddenly felt a large figure slam into him, shoving him to the side. He pushed himself up as he felt something warm and wet seep over him. He saw red as he pushed the figure off of him and he looked to see Sahn on the ground. Her eyes were blank and coated in silver, her mouth slightly ajar as a silver liquid seeped out from the side.

Archer began to tremble as it registered in his mind and things began to become a lot harder to think of. There was a long drawn out silence as everyone watched, stunned, everyone but the murderer. She let out a laugh that broke the silence and rattled in everyone's ears, "Why bother jumping in the way, I'm still going to kill you." The silver liquid in Sahn began to reform into a spear, and Archer reacted quickly, not just dodging the metal, but using it to pierce through his shackles. He stretched his hands and took Sahn's gloves off her rapidly cooling hands.

None of the other members of JSMN had seen what had happened yet, except Mira. She stood there, crouched behind the rubble, her hand covering her mouth as her eyes stared into Sahn's lifeless ones in disbelief. Her mind raced, telling her this wasn't real, but the bloodcurdling scream let out by her teammate brought her back to her senses.

"SAHN!" Jairo roared, storming over to his sister almost as if he was unbelievably enraged at her. He knelt down beside her, unaware of the fighting, shaking her violently.

Archer fit the gloves on his hands and rolled his shoulders. He didn't show signs of being sad, or hurt, but he glared intensely at the human. "You better kill me." He said to her as his anger began to truly well up, fueled by the animalistic tendencies gained over the last few months that he had yet to rid himself of.

"I'll enjoy doing it." Chloe said as she ran her fingers through her hair, "The faster we kill all these fucking faunus, the faster I can go home and change out of these clothes."

Archer tightened his fist and darted forward, carrying a surprising amount of speed as his fist collided with the girl, who flew back into a building, only protected from broken bones by her aura. His muscles twitched and Ludger took a step toward him, but Archer just pushed him out of the way as he walked to the building. He grabbed a stunned Chloe from the rubble and looked her in the eyes with a hateful glare.

Suddenly, Niklas' large figure appeared beside Archer, almost out of nowhere, tackling him from the side and sending him crashing against another building. The human stepped back, cracking his knuckles. "Bastards! Thinking you can take me down two on one like that, eh?" he snarled. "Disgusting!"

Archer got up, visibly more injured than someone with an aura would be, and he cracked his neck, "I didn't think I'd go against a team of dishonorable cowards." He sneered.
"You're one to talk." Niklas scowled. "What are you on about?"

"Why don't you do the math?" Archer snapped, "Only four of us were armed, and yet she attacks the one unarmed, handcuffed person?" Archer spit at the other team, "At least they have the decency to capture me before execution."

"Wha-" Niklas turned his head towards his teammate in confusion, still wary of Archer however.

"Heh." Chloe wiped the blood off her mouth, reforming her silver weapon. "Think about it, Nik. We get rid of this thorn at our side ourselves, then they pin it on the faunus. Get to skip all the bullshit. Isn't that what you're about?" she said, smiling.

Niklas' expression shifted from annoyance to rage. Stepping forward, he grabbed Archer before slamming him against the wall again for good measure, then turned back to his teammate. "You fucking bitch,"

Chloe stepped back. "Wait, Nik-"

"What is the one fucking thing I am about?" he snarled, grabbing her collar. "DID YOU FORGET?" he screamed.

"No-"

"YOU DON'T! ATTACK! THE UNARMED!" he spat, pushing her back against the wall.

Archer rolled his shoulders and stretched a bit, "If she isn't out of my sight in the next few minutes, I'll burn her alive." Archer snarled. Niklas looked at Archer, then back at his teammate, his fist raised against her face. Just as he was about to bring it down on her, a meek voice called out behind him.

"N-niklas…" Katarina squeaked behind him, trembling. Her face was bruised and battered, and she leaned on the wall for support.

The bearded hunter glanced and Kathy, her eyes begging for him to stop. He looked at Ludger beside her, bloodied and clutching his broken arm and shaking his head slowly. On the other side, a defeated JSMN stood their ground, two of their members incapacitated with the fourth nowhere to be seen, and their 'hostage' now free. On top it all, his trusty morningstar was gone, meaning he had no way to protect himself or his team anymore.

After a brief moment of hesitation, the human growled and tossed Chloe to the side. "Fuck off." Nik muttered and turned to his team. "Retreat. This fight's over." he announced solemnly. "Do whatever you want." he motioned at Archer.

"Take your team and go home, none of the faunus or I are in the mood for fighting." Archer walked up and stepped on the girl's hands, crushing her bones so she couldn't easily use her semblance. He callously listened to her shrieks as he dropped the gauntlets on the ground, and crouched down and lifted her head up to face his deadpan expression, "You're the only one to kill someone here. You know that means you're free game to kill as well right?"

"Nik! Niklas?!" Chloe screamed., struggling to get her body off the ground with her smashed fingers. The human said nothing as he walked away. Her other two teammates hesitantly followed, their backs all turned.

Behind them, Mira fell back on the ground, her hand over her mouth as as she could hear were the sobs of her grieving teammate over Sahn and the pained screams of her enemy in front of Archer. All she could do was watch the enraged figure of Archer as he towered over Chloe. This can't be happening… No…

Archer pushed Chloe's head into the dirt. "Shut the hell up. You came to this war and now that you're going to die, you're going to beg and grovel?" Archer lifted her up by her hair so she could look at the faunus, "I bet even now, they'd still be opposed to killing you, but I'm not." Archer pulled red dust out from his pocket, "I was going to use this to escape… though I'm sure a better use would be burning your sins into your mind."

"Archer, no!" Mira suddenly shouted, getting up. "E-enough damage has been done, please!" she pleaded. Every bone in her body wanted to see Chloe dead right where she was, but she knew the fight was over. She picked up the gauntlets Sahn had dropped.

"Just because you're too afraid to kill her, doesn't mean I have to be." Archer snapped, igniting the red dust and holding the flame just below Chloe's chin. His body was shaking and his mind was murky and chaotic, his instinct was to kill her, but he managed to hold himself back, struggling against the urge to burn her, or stab her, or do anything he could to kill her.

Suddenly, a massive explosion sounded off in the adjacent street, sending debris flying around the humans and faunus. "Shit!" Mira cursed, dodging a rooftile as it shot past her. "We have to get out of here!" she shouted, looking around. Nel was still nowhere to be seen, and Jairo was…

"Jairo!" Mira hurried over to him and put hee hand on his shoulder. "Please, you know we have to leave!"

The spider faunus paused momentarily before turning to her. His lower eyes were jet black, just like his smaller, spider-like eyes. He scowled at Mira, the latter stepping back slightly in shock at the look on his face. However, a second explosion brought her to her senses. She grabbed his arm. "We'll come back for Sahn later!" she yelled, pulling him away. She winced as the movement brought back the searing pain at her side. Jairo glanced at his sister for a moment, and turned around, without saying a word. Both faunus looked at Archer.

"Go. Just… get far away from us. Stay away from everyone. Please." Mira said solemnly, before activating her staff's floating ability and motioning for Jairo to get on.

A joint post of Foxrally and Khawill​
 
Team FEAR
(condensed for reduction of clutter and broken in the middle for your convenience)

Spoiler:

"They only tell you certain things when they get ready to point you at the enemy. They told me that the humans hated Faunus. They didn't tell me the humans hated one another just about as bad too, if hate is even the proper word there. They told me about the Schmirtz case, where a Faunus woman was abused and lynched in the street way long ago. They didn't tell me there had been two humans killed in that incident too who had tried to intercede and defend her. They told me about how humans shipped Faunus to Menagerie against their will to be segregated. They didn't tell me about all the human-run charities that helped fund many of the Faunus orphanages and soup kitchens Menagerie has. They told me any real Faunus would be proud to go to war, to kill humans for what they had done. They didn't tell me that the humans would be drafted to fight, and terrified of us. It may have been a revolution, and there may have been many social justices done, but there are no victors in war. Everyone did inexcusable things, and in the wake of it all the only thing I can really find myself thankful for is that I did not do things as terrible as some others did."
—Perry Fletchynn, Ornithorhynchidae Faunus survivor of the Huntsman Ambush, quoted from Cage Cast Open: The Revolution of the Faunus
Spoiler:
 
3 Months Ago
Nina sat quietly in the chair as she was interviewed, although she was nervous, she was ready for the process.

Blair stared at her newest victim, without Bigby or Cadivus here to refrain her from pulling pranks. "What are your qualifications?" asked the female faunus with her cheerful voice.

"Well, I'm really good at fighting, and I can move a few times faster than sound." She replied mind thinking, "I can do a lot of things that require being nice too."

"What type of nice things?" asked the faunus as she wrote down something on her pad of paper.

"Well I'm not really all that mean, and people say I'm really kind I guess." Nina replied, not really able to answer all that easily.

"What job are you applying for again?"

"I have no idea, I was told if I wanted to help I should come here…" Nina replied, suddenly realizing how little she actually knew about what she was trying to do.

"Who told you that? Also how do you apply to a job when you don't know what it is?" asked the faunus lifting her right eyebrow.

"Oh uh, Nilya hinted at it, and I was there when you and your friend came to the infirmary…" Nina replied, putting her hands in her lap.

"O well do you know what I'm doing then?" asked Blair her questioning getting a bit more serious.

"Uh, giving me an interview?" Nina asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"I meant in Menagerie," replied Blair.

"No not really, I know you were looking for faunus?" Nina said, trying to remember.

"Yet you want to help? You hear the rumors about disappearing families?" asked Blair.

"Oh, yeah I think I've heard about it. I haven't been here too long." Nina replied, looking around, "Are we going to look for them?"

"No silly that is why I am here. I am the one helping them disappear. Well really helping them find a safer place to live since all this hostility is likely going to boil over soon," replied Blair as she leaned back in her chair.

"Oh, I see." Nina said, thinking, "And they're safer right? Like, you aren't locking them underground or anything?'"

"Well I think they are safer and they chose to do it," replied Blair.

"But you're not like, trying to turn them into soldiers, or giving them a bunch of drugs to make them do bad things?" Nina asked cautiously.

"Why would we drug them?" asked Blair with a puzzled look on her face. "O right your Archer friend gotcha… No, we are not trying to turn anyone crazy," added Blair after a second of thought.

"What do you know about Archer?!" Nina asked suddenly, her ears perking up.

"I saw his crazy video and what I have been told by Nilya and Nara. Could know more if I wanted to," replied Blair.

Nina sighed, "I'm going to fix what he did.. And I'm going to stop him from doing worse things."

"Not your burden to fix, and I doubt he will do as much damage as your imagination makes you believe," replied Blair. "I guess after that incident you are less likely to trust. Now I am deciding if I should tell you more than permitted. Nilya as convinced the bosses you are not to be trusted due to your connections with one wanna-be crime fighting superhero."

"Issue is this offer to help people escape is not open to everyone… we are being rather selective," added Blair.

"Nilya said that…" Nina said looking down, clearly hurt, "Well, I can help you get the people, or be a bodyguard or something… I don't really care where you take them as long as they're safe."

"I already have bodyguards," replied Blair with a smile. "I could use help finding families meeting the criteria… it's getting difficult as the local authorities are looking into the disappearances, and it is slowing me down. I really do not want to have any accidents," replied Blair as she put her hands behind her head and leaned back a little.

"Do you need someone to distract the authorities?" Nina asked curiously, "I learned some tricks of distraction from Archer…"

"That or do some of the "screenings" for me," replied Blair hoping that she had found a way to get someone else to do her job.

"What are screenings?" Nina asked.

"Figuring out if they are the right type of people," replied Blair.

"Oh, I don't think I'm a good judge of character…" Nina replied timidly.

"So you are not going to be much help then?" asked Blair frowning a little.

Nina looked to the side, "I mean, I can learn if I need to."

"Trying to figure you out honestly… You and your sister would likely meet the criteria, but I know your association with this Archer character disqualifies you. So how to make you useful to me without damaging my mission is the question now," replied Blair being suddenly very honest with the human turned faunus.

"I can just do the work, nobody knows me, and I won't ask any questions unless it's about Archer!" She replied desperately.

"You should ask questions," replied Blair.

"To you guys or the people we are going to be helping?"

"To those you seek to help or work for, like your friend Archer," replied Blair.

"Oh, well then I do have a question." Nina said quietly, "If your people end up finding Archer, what will they do to him?"

Blair shrugged and said, "As far as I know we are not searching for him, and we have no reason to right now."

"In that case, if you ever catch wind of where he is for some reason, can you tell me? I'd be grateful." Nina asked bowing her head modestly, "I know he did a lot of bad things here, and if he has to be punished, I'd at least like to talk to him one last time."

"We do not care what he did here," replied Blair.

Nina nodded, "In that case, I have no qualms with working for you, and I wouldn't have any reason to betray my work."

Blair shrugged then tossed Nina a set of dossiers and said, "Contact these families and figure out their stance on working with humans and if they desire to stay and fight or prefer an alternate to the war… do a good enough job and I should be able to secure safe passage for your sister so she doesn't get caught up in the crossfire."

"Don't worry about Ilexa." Nina said, looking at the files, "When she wakes up she'll probably go on her own to look for Archer."

"In the middle of the faunus capital that seems to be preparing to go to war with humans. Not sure if she will manage to pull that off… she wasn't… modified? Like you," replied Blair clearly unsure what to call how Nina got faunus features.

"She's uh, not going to be here long." Nina said with a melancholy tone, "When she woke up, we decided it's better for us not to be linked anymore.



Two Months Ago
Nina sighed with her hands in her pockets as she walked to her next assignment. The Galago family was rather large, consisting of a student, her seven younger siblings and an elderly grandmother. Nina had looked through the files several times, and it gave her a headache just thinking of how to get them out easily. Her work ethic over the past month impressed whoever her boss was, and Nina truly did put every bit of herself into doing her job as perfectly as she could, but that came with increasingly more difficult marks. Additionally, she had heard nothing from Ilexa since she left, and nobody had heard anything about Archer, Isa, or Gaige since the attack on menagerie. Needless to say, every day was getting to be that much harder for her, and she hadn't made an effort to reach out to any of the faunus, making her time here incredibly lonely.

Nina put those stray thoughts out of her mind and put a smile on her face as she approached the door of a house too small for three people, let alone nine. She knocked on the door, and the oldest of the children answered the door, holding her toddler sister in one arm, "What?" She asked over the laughing and clamor within the house.

"Hi! Are you Bea Galago?" Nina asked pleasantly.

"Who wants to know?" She asked, putting her sister down to run into the house.

"Hey Bea, who's that, is it food?" A larger girl older than Nina asked, resting over Bea's tiny shoulders.

"Agurolishi, you're supposed to be keeping nana company!" Bea snapped.

"Antonio was telling her a story and she fell asleep." The larger faunus replied, "Who's the cutie, is that some secret lover." She teased.

Nina shook her head and laughed, "Oh, nothing like that. I'm just here to talk about helping your family relocate."

"Look, I paid this month, quit bothering me about trying to get the house." Bea said in an annoyed tone, ready to close the door.

"Nothing like that!" Nina said quickly, "I work for a group of people who are trying to help people before things go south."

"What do you mean?" Bea asked.

Two children, a brother chasing his crying sister, came running through. They were about a year apart and 5 and 6 years old. "Bea! Ray bit my hand!" The tiny girl shrieked, running around Bea's legs to avoid her brother.

Bea picked the girl up while the boy yelled, "That's not what happened! Rea said I didn't tag her and I did! Shi-Shi you believe me right?!" He said, tugging at the shirt of Agurolishi who was laughing at the scene.

Agurolishi picked the boy up and held him in front of her with a stern glare, "You aren't lying to me are you?"

"Nuh uh, Rea is the liar!" He said as Bea looked at the little girl's hand. There were no marks of being bitten, and Bea sighed.

"Why don't you two play something else." Bea said letting her sister run off.

"Yeah, and if I catch you biting your sister, I'll break your teeth." Agurolishi said as she put the boy down.

"Yes ma'am."

"Come on in, it's not exactly warm outside yet." Bea said with a sigh. Nina walked inside and Bea closed the door.

"Thank you for the invitation." Nina said politely.

"Can you cook?" She asked, picking toys up off the ground while Agurolishi went to play with the kids.

"Uh, yeah, I can cook some stuff." Nina replied, slightly confused.

"Good, then you can help me cook while you explain yourself. Because some people don't know how to cook without burning my pans!"

"Hey I went and carried all that food for you!" Agurolishi yelled back. "Ray, what did I say I'd do if I caught you trying to bite Rea?!"

"So you take care of everyone here?" Nina asked, looking at the ingredients on their counter.

"My team is usually around, but for the part, yes, I take care of the kids and nana." Bea replied, giving Nina a bag of vegetables and a knife and cutting board "You can cut these."

Nina began to cut the food neatly, "I can help you get out of here, I can even help get your family off the island."

"I don't even know who your are." She replied, mixing the broth and soup. "I'm sure you aren't a bad person, but I can't just trust my family to a stranger like that."

"I understand." Nina said, cutting the vegetables up and mixing them in a bowl. Nina put the vegetables in the broth and began cutting the meat after washing her hands. "You're a huntress right? Doesn't it make you worried you won't come home, what if something happened to you?"

"Bills have to be paid, food has to be made." Bea replied after a short hesitation. "My team takes care of me, and I usually try to keep away from the fights… I've only ever been captured once, by this red haired human with wings."

Nina stopped for a moment, "Red hair? Did you catch his name?"

"Uh, it was Archer…" Bea said, shaken. "A month ago when all that chaos was happening." Her hand started shaking.

"You don't have to talk about that." Nina said, looking over and handing the meat over to be browned. "The people I work for, they're trying to minimize the risk for faunus in case something like that happens again."

By the time they had mixed in all the food, Nina could see that there was way more food than what could feed even that family. "You can't save us all." She said as the stew brewed. "And others rely on me for food."

"Others?" Nina asked, tilting her head.

"I know you important types are doing these grand things to "save" faunus, but there's so many starving here." Bea said with a sigh, "So many able-bodied faunus just complain, and that leaves the ones without a choice to starve and die."

"I see, well then I guess that's why it's up to people like you and your team, and me to pick up the slack." Nina stretched and smiled, "I grew up homeless like many people here, and I clawed my way up, to put myself here, able to help those like me."

"I'll think about it Nina." Bea said with a sigh, "In the meantime, feel free to come over whenever, just bring more food."
 
Betrayal - Varik​

Spoiler:
 


Jairo & Sahn Xill


Mira Cullous Nel Phelia








Team JSMN
Murderers Die, Traitors Collapse, Hearts Break​

Archer felt an emptiness as he stood and watched the four faunus leave. Did I do wrong. He wondered, feeling something well up inside of him. He felt it back in the forest, just the memory, but he sighed and he sat down next to Chloe, "Sorry." He said quietly.

The silver-eyed girl stayed silent for a moment, then let out a short, deranged giggle. "Are you fucking sorry. That's what I tell Kat every time she fucks up and apologizes." The broken huntress, grimacing in pain as her broken hands moved, rolled over onto her back. "Just kill me, man. The mercury's been doing it for years. Just fuckin' end me." she muttered, her voice strangely serene.

Archer sighed and shook his head as he looked at his hands, "They can treat Mercury poisoning…" He said with a deep breath.

"And then what? My team's abandoned me. If I die here, I die a martyr. That's better than whatever shit's in store for me."

Archer took out his last painkiller and injected it into her, "You don't have to go back, but I'm not letting you die here." He gently picked her up, heart heavy, "I'm going to save at least one person… I have to."

The girl didn't struggle. Instead she just laughed. "Look at you. Pathetic. Can't even do the killing right. Chicked out after your faunus friend took the hit for you, eh?" Grimacing, she spat in his face. "Kill me."

Archer kept walking, moving her to his back as he tried to avoid the fighting by weaving through buildings, "You're right, I'm a coward. I'm more afraid of seeing another death on my hands, even if it's justified. And I was left behind just as much as you were."

"Guess we both deserve it, then. Fuck it, kill yourself after you're done with me. Sip of the quicksliver would do it." Chloe jested. "So that's what you do? Fuck up people who're minding their business, break their fingers and leave 'em to suffer. Hah, classic." It was clear the girl wasn't in a right state of mind now- the painkillers only worsening her deranged rambling.

"I'd say I break more hearts than fingers." Archer said with a morbid laugh, "I can get your bones fixed up, those are easy to heal. I'll admit, if I let you die, then I'll follow shortly after, though it won't be by suicide."

As the two humans made their way behind another building, hidden from sight and away from the battles raging around them, a powerful breeze swept through the narrow alleys and hit them in the face. Following the wind, Nel suddenly landed in front of them, having apparently hopped off the roof of a house. Her face and skin were bruised and dirty, her clothes were torn and burnt, but the girl's everlasting grin was still plastered on her face.

"Heya, prince charming~" she waved at him with her fingers, skipping towards him. "Sorry I couldn't be there earlier. Got caught up with some other people - one of them was fighting me with heaphones! Talk about an earsore." she said, winking. "Did Mira actually let you go? Wow. I wasn't ex-" She stopped as she recognized Chloe. "Hey, isn't that…? Weren't you fighting us a few moments back?"

"Yeah. Just got done killing a friend of yours. Your boyfriend here helped me out." Chloe responded, coldly staring into Nel's eyes.

"Haha, what?" Nel's smile waned a little as her eyes darted from Chloe's face to Archer's.

Archer didn't change from his own, neutral expression, "Sahn was killed." He said, trying to hide the fact that his heart was dropping, "And now I'm taking the murderer away."

Chloe laughed and put her hand over his chest, "Oh, feels like you might die of a heart attack. I wanted to kill this knight in shining armor, but that faunus took the bullet for him, so to speak." She looked up at Nel, "He broke almost all of my bones and now he's saving me, isn't that the cruelest thing?"

"Uh… ha… Sahn's okay, right? That's kinda not funny, Archer." Nel giggled nervously. "You guys are joking. Gotta make light of this whole 'war' situation thing, haha. ...ha."

Archer looked down at the ground, with no response out of guilt. Chloe was much more ecstatic, "Well, you know war means death right? And death is pretty funny, so yeah, you could think of that faunus's death as a joke." She laughed, but coughed up blood, "Maybe you'll be laughing when you kill the both of us?"

Without warning, the faunus dropped her weapons and ran at them, her wind semblance throwing her forward. Clenching her fist, she punched the taller of the two smack in the center of the chest, staggering him slightly. "Sahn… isn't… dead." she muttered, wincing - punching Archer was almost like punching a brick wall, but she didn't care. "She's not."

Archer put Chloe down and looked at Nel, grabbing her to make her stop, "You've been fighting so much that you are starting to get fatigued…" He muttered quietly, looking at her injuries, "I don't want any more people to die at all Nel… but I don't have any use of my semblance."

"Don't touch me!" Nel shrieked, pulling her arm away. She stared blankly at him, her expression momentarily shifting from anger to a soft smile. "Y-you… Haha… Yeah, people dying… Sahn… you-" Her face contorted back to rage. "You helped her kill Sahn, didn't you?" she screamed, pointing at Chloe without leaving her eyes off Archer.

Glancing at the faunus and back at Archer, Chloe smirked. "Yep. He fuckin' did."

Archer frowned pressed his foot down on Chloe's broken leg, causing pain that went through even the painkillers, "I was pushed out of the way." He said, looking at Chloe. Her rage was infectious to him, and his mind started telling him to kill, even as he tried to reign it in.

Nel looked Chloe, then back at Archer. "I've… always stopped myself from killing. Even when others tried to kill me. Because Sahn told me not to." Stepping forward, she kept her eyes locked on the human. "Kill her."

"No." Archer said, stepping forward, "All I've done since I've come to is violently lash out, and I don't want to see anyone else die."

"Okay." Nel mouthed. She stepped forward as well and hovered her hand over Chloe's body.

The dark-skinned girl laughed. "Go on, then, do it, b-" Her words were sliced short as a single, curved blade of air shot out of Nel's palm, slicing her torso in half.

Nel looked down as her victim literally choked on her own words, her limbs spazzing out as blood seeped from the wound. Foam rose to Chloe's mouth as she stared pleadingly into Nel's eyes. Grimacing, the faunus lifted her other hand, gathering her semblance into a large ball of nearly-solid wind before slamming it down onto Chloe's skull.

Archer could feel his body shaking, just the sight of blood making something switch on in his head. "Now what?" He asked as his own consciousness began to fade, the negative energy began to attract a nearby Ursa to their area. One was unfortunate to get behind Nel as Archer lost control. He leaped seemingly at her, grabbing the jaws of the Grimm and separating them as his mind began to fade.

Nel instinctively ducked under Archer's attack, her vision slightly blurred by the blood splattered all over her goggles. She turned around to face him, but was instead met with the snarling figure of an ursa - the beast wrestling with Archer. She looked for her weapons on the ground, past the monster. Nel quickly rolled between its legs, grabbing her half-chakrams and pointing them at both the Ursa and Archer.

Archer bit down into the neck of the Grimm as it bit into him, unable to get past his synthetic bones. Archer could feel the Grimm begin to fade away, and it was all he felt as his mind completely sank away.

A group of faunus came upon the scene and looked to see the fight; one called out and Archer froze, his animalistically driven body standing and facing them as he began to charge at them. Nel paused for a second- her mind clearer than ever despite the chaos. She pushed herself upwards with her semblance, landing onto the shoulders of the Ursa in front of her and toppling it over. Wasting no time, she unloaded her weapons' clips into its exposed throat before ending its life with a simultaneous slash of both blades. As the Grimm faded to smoke beneath her, she turned to the rampaging Archer. "Archer, no!" she screamed, stretching her arm out to conjure a gale to throw him off-course. He flew into the wall and the faunus got their weapons out, one of them pointing their bow at him, pulling back an arrow.

"Wait!" Nel cried, her voice slightly cracking with hesitation. "He's… with me! His, uh, semblance makes him go crazy, let me handle him!"

Clearly reluctant to let his prey go, the bow-wielding faunus put his arrow down, motioning for his team to back up. "Come get him now then, or we won't hesitate to keep him in check!" he replied.

Nel grit her teeth. "HEY ASSHOLE!" she shrieked at Archer. She hadn't uttered a curse word in years- the sound of one exiting her mouth sounded uncomfortably strange to her. "LOOK AT ME!"

Archer grasped his head and stood up, crying out as his muscles tensed up and then relaxed. All of them just want to kill you anyways. Archer dug his fingers into the dirt and in a blinding speed, he was on top of the faunus with the bow, his teeth sunk into the boy's shoulder.

Gah! Nel cursed internally as her distraction had failed. "Don't… hurt him!" she cried, rushing forward with her semblance. Unfortunately however, the faunus' team was not going to stand by idle. One feline faunus with a staff came to her teammate's aid, swinging her weapon and slamming Archer on the side of the head, pushing him off. At the same time Nel reached the human, tackling him to the ground.

"Stop it!" she screamed. "I don't know what's happening to you, but stop it, stop it, stop it!"

But you know what's wrong with you. Archer twitched, and writhed, his eyes closed as he struggled to move. Two of the faunus helped hold him down as the other two went to get medical help. "It's just a human." One of the faunus holding him down said, pulling out a knife, "Just kill him and be done with it."

"No, please! I said he's with me." Nel pleaded, putting her hand on Archer's chest. "Our team was taking him for interrogation, it's really important!"

"Then -agh- find a way to calm him down, fast!" one of the faunus grunted.

Nel nodded. Raising her open palm over Archer's chest, she took a deep breath before slamming it down on him, precisely knocking all the wind from his chest. Immediately the struggling stopped as Archer was forced to refill his semblance-affected lungs, giving the impression of him passing out. "There, he's out! Now go, we can't have too many people around him at once! It's too suspicious!" Nel yelled, motioning for the others to leave. Reluctantly, at the command of their leader, the three remaining faunus left the scene to take their injured teammate to a safer spot.

Archer lied there, struggling to breath as his muscles relaxed. You're as weak as you are a coward. His breathing steadily went back to normal. He coughed, and he began to tear up as he finally tasted the familiarly disgusting taste of blood in his mouth, and his eyesight began to come back. "Did I kill someone?" He asked with a sense of dread.

Nel sighed briefly. "No. You…" she began, looking him over. "Were you like this with Sahn?"

"After she died… that's how Chloe got all her bones broken." He sighed, spitting to the side, "I wouldn't have been able to save her even if you hadn't come… I can only kill."

Nel looked at Archer in half-disgust and half-fear, slowly backing off. The news about Sahn, the raging battle around, Archer's condition… it was too much. "Wh-where's Mira? And Jairo- oh gosh, Jairo…" she suddenly brought her hand to her mouth, realizing the spider faunus was likely taking twice as bad as her.

"They left me, and they're safe." Archer couldn't make eye contact, standing up, "Nel, could you stop fighting for today?" He asked softly as he walked over to Chloe, putting her jacket over her face, "If I see you like this… I probably won't come back."

"D-don't. Stay away. Please just, I need… I need to stay alone." the broken falcon girl backed off from Archer slowly. Without saying another word, she wiped a single tear from her eye, and blasted off into the air.

A joint post of Foxrally and Khawill​
 
Warzone​
Nina, ABAK, and JMN


Nina Looks for Answers​


Nina worked with Bea, bandaging an injured faunus who had a gash across her arm. Bea worked through treating the wound as Nina held the injured faunus' head, giving her water as needed. "We are desperately low on painkillers." She said to another student passing by with a clipboard. Nina stroked the girl's hair gently, "Don't worry Marie, once we get you fixed up we can get you a flight back home."

Her voice was hoarse from crying and screaming, and she felt a numbness, even though she hadn't been able to get any pain killers, "I'm not worried about me, what about Tanner, is he alright?"

Although Nina's heart dropped, she kept up her smile and warm tone with a great show of emotional control, "He's being treated, he went home on an emergency flight." Nina didn't have much faith for him, but seeing the state of things, she wanted to just get Archer and take everyone home as if nothing happened.

"Thanks Bea and Nina, I can help Marie here." One teacher said, kneeling down and giving the girl a small dose of anesthetics. Nina and Bea washed their hands and took off their smocks as they walked out if the medical tent. "Get some food and take a break, you're not helpful if you're exhausted."

"Do you think my team has had any success finding information on Archer?" Bea asked as they walked towards the tent distributing food.

"I hope Ilexa was wrong, and that he isn't even here." Nina replied. Neither of them had slept in two days as they helped pack the few medical supplies available, and assisted in the delivery. Upon landing, Bea split with her team so they could look for injured faunus and Archer.

"If he is, I doubt he'd die here." She said, feeling a resentment towards Archer, despite having spent the last few months housing Nina and warming up to her. "If we do find him, and he's in the state that Ilexa described, what will we do?"

"If we absolutely have to… then we'll kill him." Nina said, the thought of it coming to that haunted her for weeks, "I promised that your team wouldn't get hurt if you agreed to this."

"Give us a little credit." She laughed, "The team Archer attacked didn't fare to well against us, I doubt he can't be captured." They stood in the long line when Agurolishi pushed her way through the crowd, "We found a team that ran into Archer." She said excited as always, a welcome change in tone for the two exhausted girls. She grabbed both of their hands and dragged them to the side of the medical tent where teams were waiting for their friends to get treated. Three shaken faunus sat near the rest of Bea's team. "Alright Jackie, what happened?"

"Well, we were securing some of the residences, and we saw two people fighting a Grimm. They looked like they were in trouble and there was a dead person on the ground. Well, one of the people was a human, and he was fighting without a weapon or anything."

"Yeah, I saw him bite into the Grimm." One of the faunus said, "He was like, a wild animal."

Jackie nodded, "Anyways when they killed the Grimm, he turned on us and although the faunus girl with him tried to stop him, he was way too fast and bit into our leader's neck."

"What did he look like?" Nina asked nervously.

"He had red hair, he was super dirty, and he wasn't wearing a shirt. Uh, he also looked like he had weird eyes I think, it's hard to tell."

"Where was this?" Bea asked as Nina froze.

"Uh, near the residential area, uh, house 3A or 8A I don't remember."

"Are you sure it wasn't 34?" One of them asked.

"I recognized the faunus!" Jackie said suddenly, "Her name is uh, Claire, Chloe, Kira…" She said, thinking, "She's on team JSMN with Mira from my math class. If you find them, maybe you'll have a better chance?"

"Thank you!" Nina said, hugging the girl.

"Hey, I'm not sure why you're trying to hunt someone like that, but he's definitely going to be attracting Grimm, if I were you, I'd just let him die to those." Even though it was a kind warning, they were words that hurt Nina, who smiled even with Bea's hand on her shoulder for comfort.

"If we let that happen, he might hurt more people." Nina replied simply.

"That's true." Jackie responded with a sigh, leaning back, "Well then good luck, we're hopefully going to be able to go home with our leader if he is sent there."

Nina bowed and walked away, with Bea and the rest of her team in tow, "It'll take a bit to find JSMN, but I kind of vaguely remember one member I think. We could ask a teacher." Agurolishi said, thinking.

-----------

"Dammit, Jairo, please stop- keep moving!" Mira snapped at her teammate, pulling him along. Since their separation from Archer and Nel, the pair had been roaming the ruined streets panickedly, trying to avoid any humans or grimm and desperately looking for some sort of base or camp. The owl faunus was virtually dragging Jairo along; the latter having uttered not a single word for the past hour. His eyes were still jet black and stared endlessly forward.

Clutching her weapon with one hand, Mira used her semblance to recall where she had went and were she had not been yet. From what she had calculated, forward was the only way to go. The pair continued down a ravaged street where the streetlights had been ripped out of the ground and strewn around, and rusty vehicles were scattered along the sidewalk. Suddenly, in the distance, she noticed a group of 5 people walking in the opposite direction of where herself and Jairo were going- right towards them.

"Crap!" she cursed, ducking behind one vehicle. The group might be faunus, or they might be humans, she thought, I'm not taking the risk either way.

"Should ve split up again to find zem?" Antonio asked as they approached the vehicle.

"If Archer was with them, then they're probably either on fire or in some sort of stalemate." Bea joked, although Nina winced.

"That team said he was acting like a monster, you think he's hurt anyone else?" Nina asked, worried.

Agurolishi stopped them all as they stood on the other side of the car from Mira and Jairo. "If you're planned to ambush us, try not to reek so much of desperation." She said, looking down at the car.

Gritting her teeth, Mira quickly emerged from behind their hiding spot, spear raised for an attack. She realized the people were none other than team ABAK, along with a mouse faunus she hadn't met. "Oh thank god," the girl sighed, lowering her spear. "We thought you were a human team. We've clashed with so many of those on the way."

"Who are you?" Agurolishi asked, looking down at the broken Jairo, "And what's with him?"

"It looks like trauma." Nina said, rushing over and checking his heart rate, "Archer went into a couple of these… Miss, what happened to put him in this state?" The spider faunus had no reaction to her whatsoever, and continued to stare blankly through her.

Mira looked down, taking a deep breath as she tried to keep her composure. Her mouth trembled as she muttered, "He… we lost someone on our team to the enemy. H-his sister. He's been like this ever since."

"I see." Nina replied, picking him up easily in a cradle hold. "We need to get these two back to camp, Bea."
"Just point them in the direction, we have our own problems, and they can walk." She said.

"We can look for him afterwards, the lives of faunus have to come first." Nina said, "What's his name?"

"Wait, aren't ya bastards from JSMN?" Kab slurred behind them, pushing past his teammate so he could take a look. "Yeah, yeah! You're in a team with that bird chick! She the one who bit the ****? Damn, hope it is." the snake faunus said, taking a swig from his flask.

Mira clenched her fist. "Yes, we're from JSMN. No, Nel and us just got separated. I'm Mira, he's Jairo." She said, turning to the clearly more sympathetic Nina.

"JSMN?" Nina asked with a feeling of Hope and then taking a breath to focus on the more pressing issue "Jairo, we're going to take you to camp alright?" She said, not expecting any answer, but having a warm tone nonetheless.

Bea looked at Mira, finally recognizing her, "Mira, could you tell us everything involving Archer? A team told us that Nel was with him, and she came here to find him."

Relieved by the news of Nel being spotted with Archer, Mira nodded. "We… we found him somewhere in the woods. I recognized him as being the- wait, wait." She suddenly stopped as she realized the whole reason they'd kept Archer with them was to send him to a superior, not a fellow student. "Sorry, but who are you? I can't continue if I don't know."

"I'm Nina." She replied, "And I'm not a student, I'm just a girl who is trying to stop him before he gets people killed." Nina replied

"She, uh, came from the mainland with all the faunus Archer freed from that prison." Bea said, not lying but not telling everything.

Mira squinted, unconvinced. Her main concern was to report everything she knew about Archer to someone from the higher ranks; she knew how important Archer was. "I'm sorry, but I'm not convinced I can divulge anything about Archer to anyone other than a teacher or some authority figure." the owl faunus said, her voice trembling as she tried not to remember all the disasters that cursed human had brought to them.

"If you absolutely can't, we won't force you." Nina said with a sigh, "Nel could be in a lot of danger though, Archer isn't stable. We're going to catch him and bring him back here."

"What?!" Mira frowned. Immediately all relief she felt earlier disappeared. She couldn't afford to lose anyone else. "What's wrong with him? How is he dangerous, what can he do?!"

Nina looked at her confused, "Was he normal when you found him?" She asked, feeling a range of emotions, "Last information I got was that he was animalistic and got captured by faunus…"

"What? He wasn't when he got him. He kept trying to convince us to let him go." Mira began, terrified of what the human might be able to do to Nel if what Nina was saying was true. "We took him a few streets north," she pointed to their left, "but got ambushed by four humans. We fought, and after they… after the fight ended, we left him behind with one of the humans. He couldn't have gotten far, the alleys get really confusing and cramped past that street."

Nina nodded, "Don't look so scared Mira, if he was normal with you guys, then that means he could be safe. Why did you leave him behind?"

Mira looked down, painfully reminded of how Archer had taken part in her teammate's death. "We… we just did. All he did was bring trouble to us. I just want to get Nel back safe and sound. Are you going to get him?"

"I want him back safe as much as you want Nel back safe." Nina replied as she adjusted Jairo, "He is a trouble magnet, but he isn't a bad person, he's just been manipulated."

"Let me come with you, please." Mira requested. "As team leader of JSMN, it's my duty to leave none of my teammates behind." She stood up taller. Suddenly, a wave of pain coursed through her head, dizzying her slightly. She subtly shook it off. "I... need to get Nel back, with or without Archer."

"No, you need to get back to camp." Nina said with a frown, "You don't look like you're in a good condition either, all you'd do is make us worry about keeping you alive." She turned around and started walking towards camp, speaking softly and comfortably to Jairo about light-hearted things. The owl faunus behind her opened her mouth to argue, but another wave of pain - this time in her abdomen - brought her to the realization that she would indeed be more of a burden. Mira sighed and followed behind the mouse faunus, along with team ABAK.

-----

Having some time in the sky was good for Nel to clear her mind. As she hopped from rooftop to rooftop, extending her airtime with her semblance, the painful memory of what had just happened faded from her mind, as did all negative feelings she kept repressed. In no time the girl had regained her bouncy composure and was excitedly scouring the streets for sign of an encampment. She figured her team was probably regrouping there, so she could meet back up with them. Oh man, I hope I'm not late. Hope I'm not early, either. Both of those tend to be pretty awkward.

Her train of thought was cut short as she noticed a group of six people walking down a street. Such a large group was pretty strange for the situation, considering the largest she'd seen were scattered teams of four. She suddenly recognized Mira's outfit among the group.

"Oh, hey guys, up here!" she called out, waving up to the group from the rooftop she was on.

Bea looked up cautiously, almost reaching for her gun and then sighing when she saw the falcon girl; realizing the headache one of her teammates could cause. "Nel, get off that roof and stop yelling. Last thing we need are humans finding our camp." she called up.

Mira immediately looked up and breathed a sigh of relief at seeing Nel safe and sound. Looking at her cheery demeanour, doesn't look like she knows about Sahn yet… she thought, her expression turning to worry. The falcon faunus somersaulted off the roof, freefalling before quickly slowing her descent with her semblance.

"Right, right, sorry. It's hear-d to keep my voice down when I'm flying around." Nel said, dusting herself off with a smile. "What's up, guys?" she asked, looking at everyone. "Made some new friends, Mira? I already know some of 'em." she wiggled her fingers at Bea.

Mira could hear Kab snarl angrily behind her. "Tony, hold me the **** back before I do something we all regret," he muttered, putting his hand on Antonio's shoulder as he glared at the girl who had half-blinded him almost a year ago. The rooster faunus sighed, stepping forward to put himself between the two. "Nel, vas it? Is this ze girl you vere talking about earlier?" he asked, looking at Nina.

Nina looked at Nel and nodded, feeling bad about the state of the team in front of her, "Yeah, it probably is." She said, trying to keep her composure, she could feel her semblance get stronger, a sign of her sister being near and she took a breath with the newfound comfort, "Nel, were you just with Archer?" She asked.

"I was?" Nel replied, slightly puzzled. "Oh, yeah, I was! Me and Archer w-" Her face suddenly changed as the memory of what had happened in the past hour returned to her. Her eyes immediately darted to Mira, then to the unresponsive Jairo in Nina's arms. "Sahn's really dead." she mouthed, staring back into Jairo's black eyes.

The girl crumbled to the ground, sobbing as she covered her face with her hands. Mira rushed over, kneeling down to comfort her. "Nel, it's okay, please-" the owl began as she held Nel in her arms. She could feel tears welling up in her own eyes, but she had to keep focused. It's what a team leader must do.

Nina took a deep breath and looked at Bea, who took Jairo off her hands. The mouse faunus walked up to the two of them and kneeled down, looking at Nel's wounds, relieved that none of them were serious. "Nel, we need to get Mira and Jairo back to camp, are you injured at all?"

The girl didn't reply, instead burying her face deeper into Mira's shoulder. She kept mumbling something about her mother, the words muffled by the crying. A few moments passed and Mira looked at Nina. "She's cut up pretty bad, her clothes are a mess." she whispered. Rubbing Nel gently, she began, "Nel, we have to keep moving. I know you're broken up, but it's not safe out here. I can't have both you and Jairo break on me like this, please!"

It took her a moment, but the falcon faunus slowly pulled back, nodding slightly. Her face was red and her lip quivered as she tried to keep a straight face- Mira had never seen her like this. "C'mon, girl." she gave her a small pat on the back and looked at Nina, nodding.

Nina looked at Mira a little more closely and in a surprising display of strength, Nina lifted them both over her shoulders, "Bea, I need to take these two to urgent care, can you make sure he gets to camp safely?"

"Yeah, sure… but why? They look fine to me." She said, confused.

"Exhaustion on Nel, and poisoning on Mira." Nina said making sure they are securely held, "Alright you two, I need you to stay relaxed, too stiff and your bones could break."

"What- no!" Mira tried getting out her grip. Nel on the other hand seemed to accept it, almost passing out immediately in Nina's arms. "I'm fine, I can walk my myself! What do you mean by poisoning?" Mira said.

"We aren't walking." Nina said seriously, stepping forward and taking a deep breath. It was undeniable, Ilexa was in the town. There was a rush of air and a blur, and in seconds they had made the half a mile trip back to camp. Nina stopped in front of the medical tent and quickly set Mira and Nel down before collapsing from fatigue herself.

Despite her protests, Mira was taken in along with Nina and Nel by the medical team. The owl faunus was moved to a different tent, while the other two girls were sent to the tent for physical trauma in a pair of stretchers.

----------

Nina sat up and was rushed by a nurse, although Nina stopped her, "I'm fine, it's just a lack of sleep." She said clenching her fist and looking at Nel who was bandaged up. "Where is Mira?"

"Who?" the nurse asked, noting on her pad that Nina was conscious again. "Do you mean one of the other girls who arrived with you? One was sent to the detox tent, the other is right here." she motioned towards Nel. "It's horrible how we needed to dedicate an entire tent to detox… some humans have been using bio-weapons and poison against us." she muttered, shaking her head. "Please stay here for a while longer, we need to check your name for our records before sending you back out. We'll have our doctor run a final check on you." the nurse added, before quickly leaving the tent to tend to another set of patients.

Nina stood up and shook Nel, "I need you to wake up." She said gently, kneeling beside her bed.

It took a few more shakes, but the girl finally opened her eyes. "Wha…? Mom, no more toaster snacks, please…" she mumbled absentmindedly before rubbing her eyes and coming back to her senses. She slowly moved her head to look at Nina. "What, who are you?" she muttered, squinting at the mouse girl.

"My name is Nina." She replied gently, "I know it is a sore subject, but I really need to get everything you know about Archer and where he could be." Nina said with a bit of desperation.

"Archer…?" Nel repeated for a moment, before suddenly remembering the events all over again. Her face began contorting into a sob, as she tried to control herself. "...Archer told me Sahn died. He had the girl who killed her. I… I killed her." she recounted.

"Was he, uh, normal?" Nina asked, gritting her teeth, "Like, he wasn't acting wild or anything right?"

"He…" Nel stopped to sit up and rub her eyes. "Why do you care?" she suddenly asked, changing her tone.

"I have to know if I have to be prepared to kill him." Nina replied, tensing up, "I used to be a friend of his."

"Wh-what?!" Nel squinted, unsure if she'd heard Nina correctly. "You want to what?"

"I want him to be taken in for a proper trial…." Nina replied with a deep breath, "But he is unstable and too dangerous, so you heard me. I need to know if I have to be prepared to kill him, or if he is not wild."

"No, he's fine!" Nel blurted out, hesitation showing in her voice. "He's not wild, please just… don't… kill anyone else…" her voice trailed off as she clutched her shoulders.

Nina gripped the sheets, her own optimism steeled as she kept others she held dear in the front of her mind, "Where did you last see him?" She asked again.

"I don't know, I don't know! We were in some street, and then he went crazy on some people, but then I calmed him down, and I left him, I left him alone, so please just… don't…" Nel looked into Nina's eyes pleadingly. "If I show you where exactly, do you promise to help him get better?" she asked.

"I can't promise I can get him better." Nina replied, looking away, "I owe him a lot, but he puts people in danger, and he doesn't have control anymore."

"…fine." The faunus muttered, her poor mind unable to handle her conflicting emotions. Wincing, she got back on her feet. Both girls waved off the nurses that came their way, instead heading to the entrance of the tent. Nel pointed to a specific street. "We… we went this way. Mira was leading us but I can recognize the houses. After you get about hallway, go left into the narrow alleys. That's… where I left him." She said, looking down.

"Thank you Nel." Nina replied with a smile,taking her hand, "If you really brought him back to sanity, then I might be able to get him here easily."

Nel nodded, sniffling as she swallowed her sorrow. "R-right." was all she could say before stiffly pulling her hand back and promptly re-entering the tent without another word. Satisfied with the answer she had gotten, Nina made her way to the food tent to get one meal.

A joint post of Foxrally and Khawill​
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Last edited by a moderator:
Brooke Webster, Reese Kells, Oswald Carotene, and Salazar Jones
Vale​
[h1][/h1]
Ozzy and Reese
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Brooke and Sal
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Reese
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Ozzy
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Brooke
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Sal
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