32This still isn't good. It's the next couple days since Blake took off and she hasn't returned. I was kind of expecting her to not return of course the next day after the night she took off but to be honest, I was hoping I would be wrong. The sad look Ruby was giving at the empty bed of Blakes wasn't good either. Now that its Sunday and she's still not back, the feeling of worry by some of the team is permeable in the atmosphere. Weiss is still cross about the whole thing and that's not good. Thankfully, it's the weekend so we don't have any classes to take up our time or for us to get in trouble for skipping. So we can go ahead and search for our missing teammate without the teachers getting suspicious. The four of us are here now in Vale searching for her as best we can.
"Blaaaake!" Ruby shouts our runaway friends name.
"Blaaaake!" Yang calls out too. When we don't get anything in return, they both sigh in frustration. "Anything?" She asks me. I shake my head no. I told them I sent out Raven and Shadow to try to find her. In reality, Shadow already had her scent and Raven still has eyes on her. I didn't want to immediately tell Ruby and the others where Blake was because it seemed like too soon for everyone to meet. Not with Weiss still cross and slightly angry at the idea of one of our teammates was a member of the White Fang. So far Blake is still fine with that monkey faunus named Sun so at the very least, she's safe and I'm going to bide time for everyone to cool down.
They both grunt in frustration before Ruby shouts some more. "Blaaaaaaaake! Where aaaare yoooouuuu!?" She calls out.
"Blake!" Yang too.
"Weiiiiss, you're not helping!" Ruby remarks to the heiress as all she's been doing is walking by us without making any effort to help out as we stop for a second.
"Oh! You know what might be able to help? The police!"
"Ugh." I groan and place my face in my hand, frustrated. 'And that's why I haven't brought Blake back yet.'
"Ugh, Weiss…" Ruby too groans at the attitude our teammate displays.
"It was just an idea!" Weiss complains but we aren't listening as we continue to walk again.
"Yeah, a bad one." Ruby bitterly states as she walks ahead of us.
"She was our friend and teammate first. Let's not forget that." I voice my opinion as I walk behind her. I don't care about her past so long as she's not part of them now. They aren't exactly a peaceful group anymore, regardless of their intentions.
"Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions." Yang says walking behind me.
"III think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right!" Weiss takes up the rears as she continues to speak of ill intentions of our friend.
"And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today!" Penny compliments her from behind. 'Wait, what?'
"Aaaah! Penny! Where did you come from!?" We all turn around in surprise at the sudden new addition to our group as Ruby screams and asks. 'How the hell did we not notice her?!'
"Hey guys! What are you up to?" She completely ignores the question as she cheerily asks us with a wave to what we're doing.
"Uhh…" For a second we stand there confused, as Ruby's groaning indicates.
"We're looking for our friend Blake." Luckily Yang snaps out of it and informs her what we're doing.
"Ooooh, you mean the Faunus girl!"
"…" We stare at her for a several stunned seconds as the wind blows by us. 'But… how did she… how…?' It was only last night I found out about Blakes faunus traits and it didn't feel like I had any right to tell the others.
"Wait, how did you know that?" Ruby asks.
"Uhh, the cat ears?" Penny states like it's the most obvious thing in the world as she points to her own head as an example.
"What cat ears? She wears a… boooohhh…" Yang begins to laugh it off until the realization hits everyone.
"…" The wind blows by, a tumbleweed somehow in the middle of the city bounces as it rolls by us.
"She does like tuna a lot…" Whispers Ruby.
"And why she's uncomfortable with Shadow." I add. "In hindsight we really should have seen it to begin with." The others nod a little.
"So, where is she?" Penny asks.
"We don't know. She's been missing since Friday." Ruby tells her, which I think is a bad idea.
"That's terrible!" Penny gasps and loudly says before approaching and grabbing an uncomfortable Ruby. "Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate!" She firmly states with conviction with her arms bent against her sides.
Ruby gives an uncomfortable smile to the odd orange-haired girl while I look on uneasy. "Uh, that's really nice of you, Penny, but we're okay! Really! Right, guys?"
"…"
"Girls?" I question as well when Ruby doesn't get a reply. Right where Weiss and Yang were standing… is nothing. They are completely gone and have abandoned us.
The wind blows past us again, another tumbleweed bouncing in the opposite direction as it passes us in the quiet betrayal. "It sure is windy today." Penny comments.
"Was that the same tumbleweed?" I question, for some reason.
Several blocks elsewhere, the betrayers of team RWBEY come walking out of a shop with Yang waving to the person inside. "Thanks anyways!" She turns around and lets out a sigh at the lack of info. "This is hopeless." When she looks at Weiss, she notices her teammate is looking around nonchalantly, still not putting in as much effort in looking for their friend. "You really don't care if we find her, do you?"
"Don't be stupid; of course I do." Weiss bites back at the blond at the insinuation that she doesn't care at all. "I'm just afraid of what she'll say when we find her." She starts walking forward before calling out her teammate over her shoulder. "The innocent never run, Yang!" She shouts her reasoning.
Yang isn't as easily swayed by the words. She sighs at her friends attitude and walks after her. All the while, the two of them don't notice a pair of red eyes staring at them from an alleyway that they pass. Shadow stares at the two as they pass the entrance before trotting deeper into the alleyway and following them.
'Did they really think they could lose us so easily?' I think. It wasn't that hard to have Shadow track their scents when they ditched. Or more specifically, it was easy to track Yang.
She uses aaaallloooot of shampoo on her hair.
So while I know where they are, I subtly lead my remaining friends with me to where the Y and W of our team is. Unfortunately they walk away from us so while we head in their direction, we don't really make as much ground unless they stop for some reason or another.
"So, Blake is your friend?" Penny asks us.
"Yes, Penny." Ruby sighs as she answers while we walk.
"That's right." I add.
"But you're mad at her?"
"Yes- Well, I'm not." Ruby quickly corrects herself.
"We're not. But some in our team aren't." I say.
"Weiss is."
"Is she friends with Blake?" Penny asks.
"Sort of." I answer uncertainly as I scratch my head. I'm hoping we'll have an answer by the end of the day, and it's a good one for all of us.
"Well, that's kind of up in the air right now…" Ruby uncomfortably says. So am I.
"But why?" Penny's alright. She's a nice girl, a little odd but nothing bad. Problem is, she can be a little… dense at times. On occasion, Ruby can be too but Penny is… on a whole other level I feel like.
"Well, you see, Blake might not be who we though she was…"
"Is she a man?"
*PONG*
"Ow!" And I run into a light pole.
"No! No, Penny. She's…" The others ignore me as I stand there rubbing my head while they pass me. Ruby assures to Penny that Blake is NOT a man. She does stop a few steps further ahead and sighs before turning to Penny. "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."
"She just took off with barely a word. I chased her but she is the stealthiest out of all of us." I comment as I walk up to them, rubbing the sore spot on my head.
"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things." Penny speaks words of wisdom right there. A little dense at times but she knows what's good.
"Me too…" Ruby sadly says as she looks down. I pat her shoulder comfortingly.
"We'll make things right. They can't be angry forever." I tell her. I think we can meet together soon since it looks like everyone is cooling down some. Just a little more.
Once she sees my firm look, she nods, not sad as much but more so wanting to find our friends and make things better. "Right." We continue walking.
Hours pass as the search for Blake continues. Night has already fallen over the land and while the majority of the members of team RWBEY are searching for Blake, she and her new friend Sun plan to use the cover of night to put their plan into action. Whether the White Fang truly are behind the robberies is something Blake really wants to know so thanks to Sun, they know of a large shipment of Dust has entered the port of Vale. Whoever is robbing all the Dust will not miss the opportunity, thus allowing them to find out who is behind it truly.
Blake waits on a nearby rooftop overwatching the docks while she waits for her partner to return.
"Did I miss anything?" Sun asks when he returns.
She turns to look at him. "Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there." True to what she said, the cargo containers bearing the Schnee Dust company logo has all been off loaded and the workers are gone, leaving the place deserted for anyone to steal it. A perfect target.
"Cool." Sun holds out a green apple from the bunch he has in his arm. "I stole you some food." He tells her without a second thought.
"Do you always break the law without giving a second thought?" She asks him with a questioning look, not bothering to take the stolen fruit.
"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" He counters. And now the questioning look Blake had has been replaced with an angry glare. "Okay, too soon."
Just as he says this, the winds blow all around them, forcing them to cover themselves a little before they look up to see a Bullhead's searchlights flashing around the docks for a landing spot. It descends in the middle of the cargo containers and when it lands, it extends a ramp towards the ground where a black hooded individual with white tunic clothing with red and metallic fanged mask comes out.
"Oh no…" Blake moans in disdain at the familiar uniformed individual.
"Is that them?" Sun asks.
"Yes… It's them." Blake confirms as she stares intently at the red beowolf with slash marks on the back of the uniform.
Soon enough, after seeing the coast is clear, to them at least, more soldiers of the White Fang disembark the vehicle. "All right, grab the tow cables!" One orders as he holds an assault rifle.
"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun asks his companion.
"No." She replies sadly. "I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." She closes her eyes in despair at seeing the once peaceful group she joined stooping so low.
"Hey! What's the holdup!?" A new voice makes her open her eyes. Descending down the ramp is none other than Roman Torchwick, a known criminal and robber that once tangoed with the leader of team RWBEY. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?" What's odd about this scene is the White Fang are predominantly Faunus, and yet the criminal giving them orders is a human.
"This isn't right." Blake says. "The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." Wanting to find answers now rather than later, she pulls out the katana of Gambol Shroud and jumps down off the roof.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" Sun cries out in alarm as she jumps off before quickly following after her.
Blake, like the cat faunus she is, lands on her feet before standing and gets ready to put her plan into action in trying to get some answers. "Gah!" This is when she gets over getting startled by Raven perched on a nearby crate.
"Hey! Wait up. Why are you- What the-?!" Sun catches up to her and stops dead next to her when he sees a small Grimm bird in front of her. "A-A Grimm?! Here?!" He almost yells and goes to pull out his weapons but Blake shoots her arm out in front of Sun, halting him.
"Wait." She tells him. He looks at her with extreme confusion in his eyes until she slowly walks up to the bird. Meanwhile Raven simply stays there on her perch, tilting her head every so often as she watches Blake approach. Seeing no outward aggression or attacking taking place, he calmly lowers his arms down but stays rigid, ready to attack. As soon as Blake stops a few feet in front of her, she lets out a sigh as she cups her forehead. "So, you found me. Are the others on there way?" She asks.
Suns eyes almost bug out as he watches the bird Grimm nod her head a little.
"Great." Blake lets out a frustrated groan before shaking her head and looking at Raven. "Well, I guess I can use the backup. They can come but please don't attack just yet until I do. Somethings going on and I need to find out why. Can they do that?"
"…" Raven stares back at Blake before she picks at her feathers with her beak.
"Of course, you can't talk. Why did I think differently." She can grumbles to herself at having been found out by her team and walking away. She was going to go meet and talk to them eventually but now in the middle of finding out about the robberies was not something she was hoping. No matter though, she still has to get her answers and now she needs to be quick about it. As she walks away, Sun stares at her with an incredulous look at what he just witnessed before turning to the Grimm. She cocks her head at him curiously. Not wanting to be alone, he fast walks after her.
"Uhhh, are we not going to acknowledge how you were just talking to a Grimm a few seconds ago?" Sun asks incredibly confused.
"Got her."
"What?" Ruby quickly asks.
"I found her. She's at the docks." I clarify.
"Oh, thank Oum."
"Oh that's wonderful!" Penny loudly exclaims with her arms in the air in happiness that Blake has been found. Soon though, her happy expression turns to curiosity. "How?"
"Uhh what?" Ruby asks before Penny walks up and gets right in my face.
"Your right here, with us, and have been for the past few hours. How have you found Blake when we haven't seen you seen her?" She asks. Not accusing or anything like that but more so in a very curious manner as to how.
It's then that I realize that Penny has no idea about my special… friends. "Oh crap! Penny doesn't know about them!" Penny whisper yells behind me, which completely doesn't work because Penny is still right in front of me.
"Yes Ruby, I realized that." I whisper yell back to her but again, it doesn't really escape our peculiar friends ears. I stare back at Penny before taking a step back. "Uhhh the situation is a little complicated Penny. C'mon, let's get moving before things take a turn for the worse." I lead them down the direction where the docks are. "Like I said, how I know is a little… complicated." I say to her without looking back.
"Why?" She asks.
"I just… I know some… people that were able to find her… only…" I trail off as I try to come up with a proper explanation without kind of dropping the G word straight up.
"Only what?" She asks again.
I look at Ruby but she's just as stumped and unsure how to proceed. "Only… only I can see and understand them." I give a vague enough explanation as I can without completely spilling everything.
"Ooohhhhh… like a ghost!" It… wasn't perfect.
"What? No! No no no Penny not… I don't see ghosts."
*Boom*
Before I can explain anymore, an explosion goes off in the distance towards the docks. Dread fills me as to just what happened. "Although if we don't hurry, our friends may become ghosts."
We quit beating around the bush and sprint to the docks.
"Grrrrrr."
"Slow down Shadow!" Yang wails as she's pulled along by the wolf Grimm by her gauntlet with his teeth. "Where are we going?!"
"Ethan must have found something. That's why he must have sent Shadow to us." Weiss surmises as she walks behind them. Shadow lets go of Yang and pants a little now that they know what he's doing.
"You think?" Yang asks her teammate as she wipes away the drool.
*Boom*
An explosion goes off at the docks, immediately getting all their attention. Right in the direction that Shadow was pulling them. He immediately bounds on all fours straight towards the docks. "Yeah, I do." Weiss replies and the two follow.
"Hey!" Ruby yells out as they finally make it to the docks port. Deciding on a better vantage point, Ruby, Ethan and Penny look down from a nearby rooftop and see the carnage that has been wrought. Dozens of guys are scattered around the whole place with some of them standing while others seem worse for wear on the ground. To top it off, several large cargo containers have been blasted and broken all over, leaving the place a bit of wreck. What makes the image even more weird is the fact that the large majority of the men that are there are wearing the uniforms of the White Fang. 'Huh, so they really were a part of the robberies.' Ethan thinks and gets ready to grab my weapons, just as Ruby already has Crescent Rose ready to go.
"Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?" Interesting enough, the criminal robber that Ruby mentioned a few days ago is here as well, taunting the team leader. While he focuses on Ruby, Sun gets up from the ground where he was next to Roman and moves away.
"Ruby, Ethan, are these people your friends?" Penny takes the moment to walk up to her two friends and ask curiously.
"Penny, get back!" Ruby calls out as she looks back at the curious girl who has quickly become their friend in such a short time. Ethan too looks back but quickly look back to the front to see Roman aiming his cane at them. A small boom later and an explosive is hurled right towards the trio.
"Watch out!" He yells and quickly pushes Ruby out of the way, while at the same time pushing himself back. Penny also takes the hint and moves out of the way of the flying projectile. It sails past them before it explodes in the air further away. He looks to where the explosive blew up then back to the attacker who is scowling that he missed. Ethan adopts his own cross look as he stares at the man that just tried to get the jump on them.
"Ethan go. I'll cover you from here." Ruby quickly orders him before she turns her scythe around and stabs the blade into the ground, stabilizing it as she looks down the scope.
"Gotcha." He nods and steps forward, falling off the street level and landing on the docks stone floor and pulls Razor's Revolt.
"Wait Penny!" Ruby calls out and like with Ethan, Penny falls off and lands on the ground right next to him on his right.
"Penny?" Ethan says her name in a questioning manner but she simply looks back up to Ruby.
"Don't worry, Ruby." She answers back and right before their eyes, the backpack she's been wearing opens up and single sword emerges. They are thrown for a loop as the single sword multiplies into several and floats around her. With a flick of her arms outwards to her side, a sword each is sent flying to either side of them, catching and pinning two White Fang members that were trying to sneak up on both Penny and Ethan from either side. He looks on in surprise at the deft, quick and precise movement she exhibited right now. He looks at the disabled combatant before looking back at her with wide eyes. She smiles at him. "I'm combat ready!" She finishes saying.
Ethan stares at her for a few seconds before smiling and nodding at her. "Hm, well alright then." He smirks before bringing his right hand up to his mouth. "I got some tricks too." And with a sharp whistle, his backup arrives. Raven streaks through the air before she hovers next to Penny on her right and Shadow bounds off the street level and lands to the left of Ethan. Penny gives off a small gasp at seeing them but before she can use her blades, he places his hand on her shoulder, making her look at him. "Remember the friends I mentioned earlier?" She widens her eyes as she looks at him before he smiles and gestures to the two Grimm. "Raven. Shadow." He introduces them.
She stares at the two of them for a second looking to Ethan. "Are they safe?" She asks cautiously.
Before he can answer though, four White Fang run up to them with assault rifles ready to fire on the two.
*Snap*
Ethan snaps his fingers and just like that, the Grimm spring into action. The image of seeing some Grimm here make the enemy hesitate at the absurdity of their appearance and its enough for Shadow to streak forward and slice through their weapons with his tail. They look on in surprise as their weapons are cut in two but before they can do anything else, its Raven's turn as she swipes her wings forward, sending a flurry of feather arrows straight towards their enemy. Many of the nip at their forms forcing their aura's to flare up and protect them from the onslaught of projectiles but some of them catch onto them, pinning them to the ground or the sides of the cargo containers. With the immediate enemy's to them take care of, he turns to her. "I'd say so."
She looks at them in surprise before returning her own smile to him. Now that the two of them are ready, they move forward and get ready to fight. Shadow and Raven spread out to the sides and begin picking off straggler White Fang on the edges of the dock while Ethan and Penny focus down the middle with Ruby providing cover fire on any of them coming up from behind. Ethan dashes forward and engages two White Fang, easily blocking their attacks before knocking them out. As more of them come to attack him, Penny slides in with her swords floating behind her, hitting one enemy with them, pinning another to the wall on their left, and creates a barrier of spinning steel swords in front of Ethan and her, reminding him of his own blades extended spinning function, against a running attack of two goons. Their attacks fail as they bounce off and are sent flying away from the two. She leaps over another goon with her swords in tow and slices him as she comes down, and finally a large mass of White Fang goons of over a dozen in number head straight for the two. Ethan looks to see Penny making a wheel out of her swords and gets ready to throw it. He watches in awe as she throws it, making knock every single one of the Faunus enemies off their feet.
"Whoa."
"Whoa!" Both he and Sun look on in amazement at the spectacle they just witnessed. Ethan doesn't stare in awe for too long as two more groups come at them from their left and right, one bigger than the other. He focuses on the biggest one and extends Razor in his left hand before sending it in its plus extended setting straight at them, knocking them all down similar to how Penny took down the first group. He prepares to do the same to the other group but find they've already been taken care of. They are groaning as they lay on the ground from getting hit hard by something. A look back to the rooftop shows his leader waving to him as she cocks another round into crescent rose.
"Nice." He nods to her before extending his arm up and catching Razor as it comes flying back to him. He doesn't have a chance to rest however as suddenly over the water, three Bullheads come from the skies and open fire on them. Both he and Penny shield themselves as they send their weapons to start spinning in front of them, blocking the bullets from the air vehicles.
"Stay down! I got this!" Penny tells Ethan as he crouches to better hold himself against the onslaught. Before he can question her, she launches two of her swords into the far wall behind her, which in turn pulls her back with their strings through the air until she lands and braces against the wall. This actions catches two of the Bullheads and move in to continue to attack her while the third keeps its fire on Ethan. Without the other two, he's no longer winded from having to keep all the bullet fire off him and can hold against the solo Bullheads fire. With Penny in position, she commands her swords to open their points and a large glowing ball of green light begins to form in the middle of her circular of weapons. Reeling her arm back, she punches the air in front of her, the action activating the green light sending several bright lasers forward. This cracks the pavement around her when they fire straight at the transports and slice each one in half, causing several of the White Fang members inside to fall and letting Ruby watch as the halved Bullheads fall in pieces behind her. The one in font of Ethan is cut in half as well and falls straight to the ground. He looks stunned at the action and looks to see the others are taken out as well. Another Bullhead, this one carrying the container filled with Dust, takes off and Ethan is about to throw his weapons at it in hopes of disabling the weapons when several of Penny's swords stab into the hull of the vehicle. She then holds herself steady as she grabs the wires coming from her backpack and actually pulls the several ton heavy vehicle to the ground.
"What the hell is she?" Ethan breaths out in stunned awe as he watches her.
"Whoa… How is she doing that?" Ruby too is surprised at this before she quickly pulls up her weapon.
A few White Fang members run out from the sides and go to attack the vulnerable Penny but are stopped before they can. Two are knocked out from high caliber shots from Ruby while Ethan slices another away from her. He quickly nods to her and watches her back, making sure none will try to attack her while she focuses on taking down the vehicle carrying the precious cargo. No more come after her so he takes the chance to watch with rapt attention as Penny with all her might pulls on the strings, forcing it out of the sky and making the aircraft crash into a stack of cargo crates, causing an explosion as a result, no doubt from the Dust contents possibly igniting.
Roman meanwhile watches the freaky display of power from the entrance of the Bullhead about the take off. "These kids just keep getting weirder." He comments and goes to close the door. "Arhhh!" He yelps as something grabs his leg and nearly forces him out of the aircraft if it wasn't for him grabbing the edge of the door. As he looks down, his eyes widen as he sees a small Grimm biting onto his shoe and trying to pull him out. "Aahhh! Get off me you flea bitten mongrel!" He yells and starts smacking the hound with his cane. The wolf winces from the hits but remains firm in holding on.
"Hey!" Roman looks up and watches as Ethan begins making his way to him. Not wanting to stay here anymore, he aims his cane right at the Grimm and prepares to fire. Firing this close would normally be suicidal but he doesn't fancy going to jail anytime soon. Shadow jerks away just as he fires, making an explosion go off right on the floor, sending Shadow tumbling away and Roman thrown into Bullhead.
"Get us out of here!" He yells to the pilot and slams the door closed. He holds on still as the Bullhead does a hard turn away from the docks and the interlopers to their operation just now. He hears a few impacts against the hull but the aircraft continues flying without any other problem. Once its leveled out and its become a smooth ride, he lets out a sigh of breath and leans against the wall. "Well, that could have gone better." He sighs in disappointment at how bad the operation took a turn. It was going so well at first and now, he leaves back to base with barely any Dust, and barely a handful of his… associates. With a dejected sigh, he uses his cane push himself onto his feet. "Hm?" He question as one of his feet suddenly feels colder against the floor, and lower. A quick look confirms his question, and makes him angry. "Son of a—!"
"Good work Shadow. Whatcha got there?" I ask him as I walk up. The Bullhead carrying Roman Torchwick has already taken off out of range, so besides Ruby nailing it with a couple shots, he's long gone. Shadow for his part, turns to me and offers something in his mouth. "A shoe?" I question, making him bark happily. I look at the shoe, to Shadow, then to the retreating aircraft before I smile. "Nice one boy." I pat his head, making him wag his tail in happiness. Without anymore for us to do, I walk back to the others. Soon enough I spot Penny and Ruby together.
"Aw man, he got away." My leader sadly states with Penny patting her back.
"Not all of him." I pitch in before tossing the stolen object to her. She catches it with both hands and looks at it confused. "Sort of."
"Is that a shoe?" Penny questions as she looks at it closely. "From who?"
I don't answer but instead turn back to the direction the thief went before back to them. "… Ahhahahahahah!" After a moment to think, Ruby gets it and laughs, making me chuckle as well. Pleasantries don't last long though as we hear police sirens.
"C'mon, let's go explain to the police what happened." I begin to say and soon enough, Blake and Sun emerge from elsewhere and walk up to us, Blake looking a little down. "We got a lot to talk about." I add out loud. More so directed at our runaway teammate and she catches that, nodding a little reluctantly at what's to come now. No more running.
Less than half an hour later and the police are here, rounding up all the criminals we knocked out and securing the area. A handful of police cars are at the docks, where Ruby, Blake, Sun, Penny and I are sitting on some boxes in silence. Not all of our team is here so we decide to wait for them to come by so we can get to explanations and make sure everything is alright. Soon enough, Weiss and Yang appear on the scene. I feel tense all of a sudden and Ruby makes a bee-line for them.
"Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute…" She tries to explain but Weiss ignores her and squares off with Blake.
"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the—"
"Stop!" Weiss cuts off the newly discovered Faunus. "Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you? Twelve hours." She answers the question after a short pause. "That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided…"
Yang, Sun, Ruby and I look on worried on what might be said. Its then I notice that we are missing one other. "Hm?" I question as I look around to find the quirky girl. Soon enough, I find her walking away from us and heading away from us.
"I don't care." While Weiss answers, and I smile at the answer, I exit myself from the group and jog over to the retreating girl.
"Penny." I lightly call out to her as I make my way to her, not enough to get the others attention but enough for her. She turns around in surprise at me having seen her.
"Oh! Ethan! Hello! Nice to see you!" She replies in a pretty loud and happy tone that just shouldn't be for this conversation, along with a forced smile.
I look at her weirdly before replying. "Penny, what's wrong? Why'd you just suddenly leave?"
*Honk*Honk*
Before she can answer, a care horn goes off behind her. We look to see a black limo is nearby and someone in the backseat is gesturing to Penny to come to them. I can't see the face do to the tinted and black windows but I look back to her to see her looking down and unsure of what to say. "I… I technically… wasn't supposed to be out at this time… or before, as a matter of fact." She tells me sadly, still looking to the ground as she presses the tips of her index fingers together.
I stare at her for a few seconds until I glance to the limo then back to her. "So, you have to go back now?"
"Yeah. I just… didn't know how to tell you so I just… left." She says in the still sad tone.
"Heeeey come on now. Don't be sad. Just because your leaving now doesn't mean we won't ever see each other again." I say in hopes of raising her spirits. She looks a little better now and I look to the sky. "It's getting late anyway so chances are we were probably going to have to leave anyway. We have classes tomorrow so we can't be out too late."
"Oh yeah! That's right." She answers, better now that we have valid reasons for needing to leave at this time.
"Don't worry Penny. I'm sure soon we'll meet again." I smile at her and extend my hand. "Until then, have a good- Hgrk!"
"Thank you so much for being my friend!" The enthusiastic girl happily says as she hugs me in an almost bone-crushing hug, as she lifts me off the ground.
"Yes… okay… your welcome Penny. Please… let me go… air…" I breathlessly let out.
"Oh! Sorry." She finally lets me, allowing me to breathe in a sweet lungful of air. Once I manage to riht myself, we smile at each other.
"So, I'll see you later."
"Sure. See ya Penny." I wave to the girl as she begins walking away. She waves back to me one last time before heading off to the limo and getting in. A simple hand wave in the general direction to the vehicle, I head back to the others. When I make it back to everyone, I notice the atmosphere isn't that bad or anything anymore. Not tense. Their even smiling. 'Good looks like things are patched up.'
"Hey, wait a minute… Where's Penny?" Ruby asks as she glances around.
"And Ethan for that matter?" Weiss asks as well when she notices I'm not there.
"She had to go." I speak out loud, getting all their attention as I walk up from behind them. "Turns out Penny had gone out without permission so she needed to head home." I quickly explain as best I can. "I was just saying bye to her."
"Ohhh. Soooo, why didn't she bye to the rest of us?" Ruby asks, a little sad at the sudden departure of our friend.
I take a few seconds to come up with a proper answer. "… We were kind of having a moment here. You know, clearing the air of some issues." I say as I glance over to Weiss and Blake. They understand what I mean and smile at each other in understanding before back to me. "So she didn't want to interrupt and just excused herself. I caught up to her, we said goodbye and that's that." I finish. It's not the exact reason why she left without saying goodbye but this should be alright. I give a slow look to each and everyone here. "Sooooo since I don't see any angry faces or Weiss yelling,"
"Hey!"
"I assume everything is good?" I ask.
"Yeah, we're all good. These two made up so everything's back to normal." Yang says as she pats the backs of Blake and Weiss, in which Weiss still looks annoyed at my comment.
"Team RWBEY is back together again!" Ruby loudly and happily shouts into the air with her arms thrown up to the sky.
"Ruby! You already said that." Weiss states in an annoyed tone.
"Well, yeah… but he didn't hear me the first time." She mentions innocently enough as she points to me. The answer is so simple and easy, that it lifts our spirits from the intense battle we had faced less than half an hour ago and we begin to laugh. It's a good feel after the last few days of constant worry for our teammate for things to end up on good terms for everyone. It's a relief everything's good now.
"Huuuuuu, dang it." Roman lets out a defeated sigh as he leans on the table. The ride on the aircraft back to their little hideout went about as well as can be. They weren't being tailed so it was smooth sailing back to safety. Although throughout the time, Roman was a bit on edge as to what might his… employer might say at his lack of resources gathered.
"How very disappointing, Roman."
'Speak of the devil.' Roman thinks at the cold voice. That still doesn't stop him from suddenly turning around when he hears the voice and their noisy entrance. "Whoa! Hehe… I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon…" He nervously says at the new arrivals.
"We were expecting… more from you." Cinder Fall, as beautiful as she is dangerous, speaks in a disappointed tone at what returned from what was supposed to be a simple snatch and grab.
"Hey! You were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang." Roman tries to place the blame on the organization they are working with, who normally wouldn't work with humans for that matter.
"And you will continue to do so." She chuckles darkly to him. To emphasize her point, she summons a fireball in her hand and steps out of the darkness with her two companions, a grey haired man and mint-haired, tanned woman, eyes glowing gold. We have big plans for you, Roman. All we ask is… a little cooperation." She subtly threatens him with the fire still burning, showing off her smile in the small of the darkness around them. Roman purses his lips and groans a little under his breath but nods nonetheless, ensuring he shouldn't screw up again. Not like it was his choice for that matter. "Now, would you also mind explaining why your shoeless?" Cinder asks him, snuffing out the fire and pointing at his missing shoed foot.
He looks down to his aforementioned missing shoe before looking back up with an annoyed look. "Hey! I'd like to see you get mauled on by a Grimm and come out without a scratch." He accuses them.
The two behind Cinder look at each other confused by what he means while her eyebrow raises in curiosity. "Grimm?" The grey haired guy asks.
"You were only supposed to go to Vale and back." The mint haired girl states.
"Yeah, I know." He answers matter a factly before crossing his arms. "But nosy brats weren't the only thing there. There were some Grimm there as well and they beating the crap out of those mutts." He refers to the White Fang members before getting a thinking look on his face. "Weird thing was, it looked like they were being controlled by someone."
Cinder walks closer to him, emitting an air of authority about her that makes him know he has to be going somewhere with this. "And what makes you think that?" She asks in her calm cold voice.
Roman looks uncomfortably at her and clears his throat. "Because the Grimm I saw ONLY attacked us and not the brats at all. I even saw a couple of them right next to the one that attacked and it didn't even growl at them. It was weird." He explains to them what happened, as best as he can put together from everything.
While Cinders cohorts are confused at the statement, the woman herself begins to think on this new set of events that has transpired. "Hmmm, interesting." She hums and walks away, gesturing for her partners to follow, minus Roman.
The next day has come around and that means its back to class for everyone. Even Blake as she's not back at Beacon in team RWBEY's room. She sits on her bed deep in thought as to what had happened over the weekend.
'They… forgive me. They aren't mad at me and… accept me. This was… this was something I wasn't expecting.' While a smile forms on her lips at the thought, it soon forms into a frown as her thoughts begin to take on more foreboding ones. 'But… how long will the peace last. I was member of the White Fang. We started out with good intentions but now… now its gotten so bad. How long until they do something really really terrible that no one will ever forgive them? Or any Faunus by association?' Her hands start to quiver at the idea as they clench tightly into fists on her knees. 'How long until my friends hate the White Fang so much that they hate me?! Just for one being a part of—'
"Blake."
"Huh? Ooh!" At the sudden new voice, she turns her head towards the door and thanks to her reflexes, both in her training and natural instincts, she manages to catch the item that was thrown at her. She looks down at the item before she looks at what was thrown to her in confusion.
It's her weapon. Gambol Shroud. She looks back up at him for an answer as to why he just threw her weapon towards her. Ethan stands there, his own weapons equipped and his normal combat attire on. "Go ahead and get dressed. The others are still in class, we're done for the day and I think its time."
"… Time for what?" She asks after a moments thought.
He simply smiles at her as he crosses his arms. "I've already started a partnership with Weiss. I think its time we do the same. Step one: teach me." He finishes with a hand wave to the weapon she's holding.
While her thoughts before were leaving with many doubts as t her place on her team, this sudden activity brought upon her… just might be what she needs. She stands and returns the smile to her teammate.
Hey everyone. Sorry for the long wait. Things happened, my drive to write took a hit for a while and I just wasn't focused on writing as much so I would have liked but now I think I'm starting to get back into things. Not fully but it's a step in the right direction and hopefully will stop me from taking almost four months in updating again. Seriously, sorry everyone.
This chapter was an alright set up from what I can tell and I like how it came out. As it turns out, looks like our enemy's has taken note of Ethan's special ability. Only a matter of time in whether or not this will come to bite him later on or not. Time will tell.
Cf96: Thank you.
xXSpades231Xx: I do what I can.
During the summer I was able to head on over to RTX and check out the event. It was fun and I got to enjoy all three days but not as much on the third day. My family went with me to Austin as a sort of vacation for all of us to get out of our normal home life but on the third day I was only able to go to the RWBY event and then we had to go home because my grandmother wasn't feeling too good. She's better now but I hate it when coincidences happen like that on vacation-esque trips. Still, I was able to get some nice merchandise and just overall have a good time. Saw some awesome cosplayers, lots of Yangs, and even a few a Raven Branwens. Now I don't know about you all and those of your that attended the event, but I had a front row seat, so to speak, it happened in the lunch area, to a heated debacle between the mother and daughter and talk about the mother wasn't a very good… mother.
It… was… awesome. The acting and bit one of the Yang and Raven cosplayers was awesome to watch and hear. I was drinking a soda and I almost spit-take. Now, I'm not confident enough, especially in public, to cosplay like that but props to any and all cosplayers like that. Especially the ones that are just so good at staying in character.
Anyway, that's enough ranting. Hopefully it won't take me as long to get out another chapter here. I'm excited for the new season of RWBY and wonder what their going to do. Thank you everyone for your support. As always, fave, follow, review, whatever it is you want to do, have fun reading and have a great day everyone. I'll try to. It's going to be raining heavily for a week here. But that's not a bad thing.
I like the rain.