"Ugh," Yang groaned. " Thanks for letting me use your shower."
"No problem. Sorry, that's all the clothing I got."
Yang looked down at the unusual ensemble of Jaune's old pumpkin pete hoodie and a pair of jeans that just fit awkwardly on her. "Eh, not exactly my style, but I'll live. My reputation on the other hand…"
"Don't worry, we don't exactly run in the same circles any more," He reassured before a small grin formed on his face. "Vomit girl."
"Yep Mrs. and Mr. vomit now I suppose." Yang chuckled in good humor.
Jaune shared in his own chuckle, back in Beacon Yang had been a bit intimidating with her teasing and good looks, but now he appreciated her presence more than he'd figured. Between manipulative cops, Cardin being off somewhere else, and the eternally catty Blake being his options for company today, he appreciated the straightforward and easygoing blonde.
"So….?"
"Yeah?"
"Should I be worried about the clothes covered in blood I just saw in the bathroom?" Yang asked as casually as one could ask that question; her earlier jokes and calm demeanor hiding genuine nervousness.
"Oh, my bad," Jaune apologized with an embarrassed hand scratching the back of his head. "Somebody killed themselves in front of me."
"Holy crap, are you ok?" She asked with shock and concern in her voice. Jaune being in shock from such a traumatic event came to Yang's mind as a possible explanation for his unsal demeanor. Sure she was seeing a lot of glaring questions about Juane, only multiplying the longer she hung with him, but she'd feel like a real ass if she was just gonna continue rolling with it if it was because he was traumatized. However the small laugh that came from him told her that she was probably off the mark.
"I'm fine, the guy was trying to kill me. Round bounced off my aura and took his head off, pretty messy."
Wow, that wasn't dark or mysterious at all. At this point Yang really needed to do a bit of Q and A with her sister's old friend; there was only so much going with the flow she could realistically go with. For a moment she carefully weighed what to ask the other blonde, the amount of questions she had being many and suddenly pressing. Internally she felt her uncharacteristic feeling of unease increase, as she suddenly was acutely aware that her shotgun gauntlets were back in the bathroom. Combined with the glint of a very large handgun she just realized Jaune had on him, her brain moved away from selecting what to ask him and to pointing out more unsettling things. Things like she was alone with the last person to see the missing Blake and hadn't told anyone where she was. All after she took a drink from a mysterious guy at a bar. Kinda all added up to every horror story her overprotective dad and uncle had told her if she thought about it.
Shaking her head to physically rid herself of those increasingly nerve racking thoughts, she gave up on a well constructed opening question in favor of her kick in the front door approach. "Hey Jaune."
"Yep?"
"What the fuck?"
"Ummm.., what?" He asked, confused.
Of course that went over his head, she groaned internally as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ok, first; are you going to kill, molest, eat me, or any combination of that kinda thing."
Now Jaune was really confused. "What?"
"Really need a yes no on that question Jaune." Yang clarified as she casually got into a fighting stance.
"NO!" He screamed. "Why? Wha-did I miss something?"
"Ok, cool." Yang commented, taking a more relaxed stance. "Now, second question."
"Why is this suddenly an interrogation?" He asked unprepared for the turn in the conversation.
"What is up with you?" Yang questioned, ignoring Jaune's own inquiry. Sure she felt a bit uncool about just interrogating Jaune after he'd been pretty ok so far, but she'd been feeling a bit too on the back foot since she bumped into him today for her liking.
"Uh, I've been working out a bit?" He replied dumbly, not really understanding what she was asking.
Yang groaned, seeing Jaune not really putting things together. "Ok I'm gonna spell it out. When I last saw you a few months ago you were a dork tripping over your feet on the way out of Beacon; you were practically terrified of somebody looking at you wrong. Now you are real casul about people trying to kill you, the first person a crime lord calls, and really exuding some dark and mysterious energy. All in all kinda freaking me out a bit."
Jaune just stood there for a second, not knowing if he should be insulted or happy at being seen in a new light. One thing was sure, he definitely remembered in a lot more clarity Yang's bullish nature and the headaches it caused him at school. Quickly he made to apologize and answered truthfully like the old days only for a newfound automatic response of snark suddenly tangling up his tongue. "IAundjsafn" He verbalized.
Not what Yang had expected. "What?" She questioned as she watched Jaune fluster before taking a breath.
"What's it to you?" He asked, settling on a more stand-offish demeanor.
"Kinda find myself in a vulnerable position here." She shrugged. "Also come on, how am I not gonna ask?"
"OK take out your notepad Vomit girl, Imma say it once." Jaune huffed, deciding he was insulted enough to be prickly but reasonable enough to answer her. "I'm a freelance bounty hunter and PI, I was working for Blake till she ran out on me, Junior is a wannabe that calls me on occasion for legal work, alsonothappythateveryoneremebersmeasanidiotdoesthatawnserallyourquestion?" he finished out of breath; too agitated to control his tempo at the end of his rant/explanation.
Yang shot him a shit eating grin. "Nope."
The air left him like a balloon; she was messing with him. Of course she was, picking obvious scabs and ignoring tack was Yang's whole thing after all. So much for being dark and mysterious. "How long have you been screwing with me?"
"After you told me you weren't gonna kill me." She grinned mischievously. "Had to get even with you for making me puke."
"Ughh, Fair." Jaune relented, suddenly feeling silly at his outburst.
"Still the PI stuff sounds awesome." Yang commented as she took a seat at his desk and propped up her feat. "New Jaune sounds like a little badass now."
"I can see up your dress."
"EEPP!" Yang scrambled to hide herself and managed to fall on the floor before she realized she was in his jeans still. "New Jaune is kinda a dick." She growled as she rubbed a newly formed bump on her head.
"Don't dish out what you can't take." He chuckled.
"Ok, we're even now." Yang admitted "Truce?" She said with a hand outstretched. Internally she suppressed an evil grin as she watched the goofy blonde make the mistake of walking up to accept her gesture.
She was the great Yang Xioa-Long, the queen of one ups and annoyed groans, just cause Jaune could play the game all of sudden didn't mean she'd let him off with even. With an iron grip on his hand she swiftly pulled him close and dipped him; a saucy delivery of words and a wink suddenly leaving him a sputtering mess as usual.
At least that had been the idea.
Suddenly feeling his weight being violently shifted, reflexes, honed by sucker punches on the streets, had Juane firmly planting his lead foot firmly between Yang's legs. Holding their center of gravity, he used his knee to unbalance the other blonde. Completely surprised at his action, Yang felt herself falling forward in a spin before something solid stopped her descent.
Opening eyes she didn't know she'd been closing, Yang saw the close and very smug face of Jaune inches from her face. "I enjoy a bit of competition." He spoke low, gruff, and with an audacious wink.
Why was it suddenly so hot in here Yang's brain wondered, and why was speech suddenly beyond her? What had happened, she had Jaune dead to rights a second ago and now instead of some witty retort her traitorous brain was spending waaay too much time memorizing the smell of cheap soap, gunpowder, tobacco, and whiskey that clung to Jaune.
Standing her straight, Jaune stepped away with a chuckle. If this was how fun it was to screw with people he understood why Yang liked it so much.. "So, Blake." He said, getting back to work.
"Who?" Yang questioned as her brain took too long to switch gears. "Oh, yeah, Blake."
"We got an hour or two before the raid is supposed to go down." Jaune said as he glanced at his scroll. "I think we should get over there."
"Sounds good, what's the plan ?"
"We should try to nab Blake before she gets us tangled up with the Fang." He explained as he tossed his coat on and made to head out of the apartment.
"You think Blake is gonna be talked down?"
"Nope."
"So?"
"One of us will talk to her, the other will knock her out, then we leave."
"Violent." Yang pointed out as they headed through the halls to the exit of the building.
"That's a no on your part?" He questioned.
"Jaune," Yang stared at him with a serious look. "Blake has had the entire team running around the city worried sick for two days. Let's bag this kitty."
He grinned "Remind me not to piss you off."
A ping on Yang's scroll had her looking down before uttering a curse under breath. "Ruby is near the docks, with a friend." She explained.
"Sounds good to me." He really couldn't see why Yang said that like it was a bad thing. "We could use some help if things go bad."
"You really think Ruby won't want to help Blake with whatever she has going on? No, she'll want to be a good leader and get involved."
Yang's logic made sense to him to a degree, but he felt like more was going on. "Are you sure you just want to keep your sister out of danger?" He countered.
A frown creased her brow. "Is that your business?" Yang questioned as she simultaneously texted her sister that she should head to a different part of the city on a bogus hunch.
"Ok, ok," He relented with arms up in surrender as they stepped out of the building. "But you really wanna tangle with the Fang by ourselves if it comes to it?"
Walking towards the street Yang strode up to her bike before striking a pose and hitting Jaune with a million dollar smile and a wink. "Can't think of a better way to blow off steam." Turning she tossed a spare helmet to him. "So what's it gonna be vomit bro?"
With his stomach doing flips all of a sudden Jaune didn't know if he should have been terrified or excited; didn't stop him from smiling though. He'd never say it, but Yang was trusting him like nobody had in the past, like an equal that could keep up, and he'd be damned if he was gonna let that pass.
The helmet slid onto his head."Let's go get our cat."
Going with the flow; that was how Sun lived his life. Stowing away on a ship to get to Vale, no problem, running from the police, not even a thought, bumping into a beautiful fanus girl and joining her crusade against the White Fang, a bit out of his wheel-house, but hey beautiful girl. He'd bumped into the hottie, Blake, with her running from the police a few hours ago and one coffee and a solid mysterious backstory later here he was; hiding on top of a shipping container watching a small army of fang rob the dock. Somewhere in his head he could just hear Neptune facepalming at his current situation, but really, he hadn't seen how cute Blake was.
From his perch laying prone he was watching Blake slink up on the fang's leader, some criminal named Tourchwich. He had kinda listened to whatever Blake had explained to him about how the guy being a human somehow meant that the Fang was innocent or maybe less bad. Honestly, he been too busy daydreaming about how cool this story would be to tell their future kids. Sure this was gonna end in a fight, but he was just gonna go with the flow.
Too bad the flow didn't involve him watching his back as someone grabbed him by his hair and slamming his skull down into a metal crate. Disoriented, he felt a knee pin him down and the barrel of a gun press to the back of his skull.
"Make a sound and it's lights out." His assaulter whispered. "What's Blake doing?"
Silence.
"Ok my bad, first time doing this. You can talk."
"You aren't getting anything from me you dirty fang goon." He shot back in a cocky tone, as bad as the situation seemed his clone semblance was perfect for this situation. All he needed was to stall till Blake made her move before he went loud.
"White Fang?" The voice said, confused. "I'm here to save Blake."
"Oh, Jaune?"
"Ummm, yeah. Have we met?"
"Well, Blake was telling me about some guy that was too violent to work with and you seem like you fit the bill."
"She what? Too violent?" Jaune sputtered. "She left me because I couldn't cut it."
"Well if it helps you stop holding me at gun point I'd say you're doing pretty good. Seems like the intense sort."
The gun went back into the holster and the knee came off Sun "Ugh, forget it. Where is Blake now? I just saw her up here a second ago."
"Welp it looks like she's holding the main fang guys hostage now." Sun informed as looked back to the dock. "And explaining how they shouldn't be stealing, something about being better or whatever."
"Are you kidding me?" Jaune swore as he looked over to where Sun was looking. Quickly he pulled his scroll out and shot Yang a text.
"You got some more people with you?" Sun questioned.
"One, I just texted her where Blake is and what's up."
"Oh, cool man. Is she like super stealthy or something?"
Jaune's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. "No." He deadpanned redundantly, just in time for them to watch a Fang member shoot into the air with the sound of a shotgun going off before he fell in the center of the crowd that had grown around Blake.
"Welp let's go man."
"Let's go?" Jaune seethed. "This situation is fucked. We are outnumbered and-"
Two armed bullheads fly overhead.
"And now super outgunned." He finished, his mind racing for some way to get everyone out of here. How was everyone so ok just charging into this stupidity? A hand on his shoulder stopped his thoughts as he looked to Sun.
"Hey man, I don't mean to be up in your business, but it seems like you got some issues feeling you're good enough with your whole keeping up thing. I get it, but just do what I do and just go with the flow." Sun offered with a charming smile.
Jaune looked back at him with a thoughtful expression momentarily. Sun couldn't help but pat himself on the back internally, he didn't really know this Jaune guy, but it really seemed like he had a lotta of problems that just needed a chill approach. His self congratulation hit a roadblock as he watched the other blonde glare. With his attention on the grouchy PI Sun didn't see the split second turn of Tourchwhich breaking from Blake in the sudden confusion and bringing his cane to point at her.
Jaune wasn't so lax; muscles acting on instincts he shot like a bullet to the edge of the container. "Fuck the flow!" He yelled in anger as he jumped off the edge.
As fast as the world moved for Jaune and Sun, Blake's was in slow motion; off balanced from Tourchwich and distracted by Yang's entrance she was stuck looking down the barrel of Tourchwichs cane, and judging from the hole at the end of it she was about to receive a very large caliber surprise. Her mind moving faster than the world, unhelpfully informing her that she wasn't going to avoid whatever her former hostage was packing and that maybe she was kinda an idiot. The amount of bad decisions that it'd taken to get here were as numerous as they were seemingly obvious to everyone else; the fang, Adam, running from Beacon, this half-cocked plan. For a moment she wondered what life would have been if she wasn't like this, maybe just gone with the flow like Sun kept talking about. She knew it was never ment to be though, she was at heart a coward that ran from every fucked up situation as quick as she ran towards the next one, all in an effort to change the flow of this cruel world.
A scream pulled the world to speed. "Fuck the flow!"
The words set off Roman's sharpened reflexes, in a moment his cane swung to the new threat. In head he scoffed, he just knew it was gonna be some new Beacon brat, they seemed to come out of the woodwork these days. Not that he couldn't handle it; he was Remnant's greatest thief after all. He'd made full huntsmen fools on a weekly basis, whatever abomination to fashion and good sense was coming at him was about to learn a very painful lesson about tangling with him.
Then Jaune Arc landed in front of him.
"Oh, hell no." Nope. Not fighting that psycho. Of all the people, why that guy? What had he done to deserve this? Really, he'd only murdered a few people that mostly deserved it and stolen from a couple hundred others. Not one to die fighting some lost battle, Roman suddenly remembered his tried and true tactic against huntsmen.
Jaune hit the ground as close as he could to the bowler hat wearing leader as he could, he knew Blake needed to be in this if they had a chance of getting out of this. Aura braced as he impacted and held strong as he expected an attack in his moment of landing, but it didn't come. Standing towards his opponent he thanked his luck at getting into the fight without a scratch before worrying that his entrance wasn't enough to take the heat off Blake. Instead he looked to see his opponent hightailing it into the maze of shipping crates with a speed that had him wondering how he'd do in a race with Ruby.
"Huh, guess dad was right about that confidence." he remarked to himself.
"Jaune?"
"Yep, I'm here." He said facing Blake. In his head he'd been creating all kinds of retorts once he saw her again, but honestly he was a bit too terrified and angry to come up with something clever. Ah well, next life or death outing he supposed.
"Why?" She asked dumbly.
A burst of gunfire caused them both to jump behind a crate, the fang seemingly done with the idea of Roman helping at all.
"No idea." He retorted, as he looked around the crate to see a lot of pissed off fang running towards them. "I could head out if you want."
"No!" She shouted as she took a few shots with her guns before another burst had her hunkering down.
Before any other remarks could be made Jaune watched three glowing Sun's jump into the mass of Fang with a non-glowing Sun giving him a thumbs up before jumping in himself. Now or never, he mentally noted as he charged forwards intent on capitalizing on the initiative, Blake by his side.
Distracted by Yang and Sun the Fang didn't get a accurate shot off before the two new combatants were on them. A unlucky horse eared faunus catching a right hook from Jaune before he even saw him. He reeled for a second, but his aura compensated for the blow to feeling like a smack.
"Ha stupid human!" He grinned as he turned to face Jaune. "The Fang bows to no Aura laws, we are all potential unlocked!"
The second blow had the man crumpled on the ground, Jaune's second aura infused blow doing the trick. "Nice to tell me I can go all out." He snarled, it wouldn't do to decapitate some normal person with an aura blow, but it seemed he wouldn't have to bother with collateral tonight.
A blade slammed into his back. Sent forward by the blow with a chip on the aura and pain in his back he turned to see his assailant sent flying from a spinning kick from Blake. "I got this!" He shouted as another fighter charged her.
"What's your problem?!" She shouted back as she swept her oppented to the ground and finished another with impressive acrobatics.
A fist hit Jaune in the face. "You!" He retorted verbally and physically with a powerful kick that caught his attacker in the chest.
"I left you for your own good." Three well placed shots from gambol shroud hit center mass on three fighters.
A solid kick sent him to ground, a large fox faunus jumping atop Juane as he brought a knife down. "So you do know you did something wrong." He quipped as he let the blade break on his chest. "You left me to take the fall cause you thought I was weak." Both of his hands cupped to box the Fox's sensitive ears; blood spurting from his blows.
Blake's foot hit the fox in his midsection flinging him off, the faunus clutching his ears; in too much pain to get up. "I don't think you're weak."
"Please. Everyone knows I'm a loser." Jaune shot back as he threw the broken blade at a charging machine gunner with immersive velocity, the impact sending the man falling back. Another attacker changed past, only to catch a blow to the face and a kick to the groin. "Besides you left me to go down for a murder with the cops.
A round from Blake snapped the man's head to the ground, into the land of unconsciousness. "That's not it. I thought you could handle them like you have before, or at least ran." Three blade wielding fangers charged her in a group. "I left you because you're just doing all this to make up for failing Beacon." Flowing like water past the middle attacker Blake jumped up to use the man's head as a fulcrum to send a double split kick to the other two. "I see it when we work together, you like taking your anger out on people, you like this crap." Sneaking up on her, a Fang soldier with a shotgun looked down to see a ribbon attached to leg. "I was wrong to ask you to help." She pulled her ribbon to fell her would be ambusher before jumping up into the air before coming down on his skull.
Jaune's hand hooked the edge of a woman's head before sending it into a metal container. "Help you? How couldn't I?" A swift kick to the nads put another man on the ground. "You came to me, strung out from your stupid obsession with the Fang." An arm wrapped around his throat from behind. Held in place another guy ran and started to pound on Juane. Not done yelling at Blake he kicked the guy, pumping with both feet, sending him and the opentent latched onto him flying back to the ground. The grappler now exposed, a rear elbow had Jaune released and back to his feet. "You were practically telling me you where gonna throw your life away on this self righteous suicide mission."
Two rounds from Blake had Jaune's other attackers out cold. "That's not true!' Blake yelled out as she simultaneously choked someone out. "You're just looking for any excuse to make up for Beacon and feel like a big man. It doesn't matter what it takes."
"I'm just trying to survive!" He argued as he looked for another attacker, partly to survive, partly to express his growing frustration. An unfortunate goon provided a good enough target. "Unlike you, putting everyone in danger without a care for the consequences." A right hook sent his target reeling back towards Blake.
Anger struck Blake at his words. She expressed it in a flurry of blows and kicks on the new punching bag Jaune had just provided "I didn't ask you idiots to follow me here!" She yelled, stopping her beating for a second to glare at Jaune. "And doesn't change the topic, I'm not gonna let you punch your way through town till you get yourself killed or turn into a piece of shit."
"What I do with my life isn't your business." Jaune barked, his fist cracking against their shared punching bag.
"Same." She retorted with a kick that sent the member stumbling out of their immediate range.
Bloody and beaten, the goon they were beating on stumbled back, barely on his feet. "Hey guys," He called out, dazed. "I'm seeing a lot of good points here, it really seems like you two care about each other's well being but think you're too broken to deserve connection and trust each other. Now, could you please go to therapy instead of taking your anger out on me."
"Shut up!" both yelled as two fists crashed into the poor goon's face in unison; his last conscious thought being how he probably should have stayed in his psych major instead of joining a terrorist group.
A bullhead screamed over head, a gatling gun mounted on it sending a bristling hail of rounds towards the pair. Blake effortlessly did a flip to evade the fire and get behind a stack of shipping containers. Jaune, less agile and fast, felt rounds punch into his aura as he sprinted towards the opposite end of the crates and far from his verbal sparring partner.
"Shit." he grumbled as he felt the pain from the impacts on his body. Unable to check his scroll to see his aura levels he could only assume by how he felt that it was near half. A real problem seeing as how the fang seemed endless, four of them in now front of him and the bullhead zeroed in on the clearing between him and Blake.
The group in front of him raised their weapons, too far away for him to close before they did serious damage. Frantically he looked to his left and right to find an exit; he only saw containers boxing him into a corridor, or more accurately a shooting gallery.
The leader of the small group stepped up. "Surrender human!"
"I really wish I had my shield right now." His hands shot out to grab a container door. With aura and the sound of metal tearing he pulled it free. "But this will do." He smiled evilly as he brought it to face the shooter.
"Move, move, move!" The leader shouted as he watched a solid metal wall charge at them with ridiculous speed. Quicker than his comrades he barely missed it by rolling to the side.
They felt like a speed bump as Jaune impacted, his makeshift shield catching three of the group as he carried forward to slam them into another container behind them. A bit too hard it seemed, as he sent them all through the thin metal; explosive dust spilling out of it.
Feet covered in the volatile material, Jaune looked in horror as the leader recovered quicker than he could move out of it. Bringing his gun up the man saw his opening and hastily took aim.
The bark of gunfire that rang out wasn't from a handheld but instead wrist-mounted as Yang appeared to send the man into the ground at terminal velocity. "Hey Jaune." She waved cheerily. "Nice shield, liked your other one better though."
"Thanks for the save. That was close." He said frantically getting away from the dust. It was insane that they were fighting with all this around. One wrong round and they were all screwed.
"Can't one up if you're dead." She joked. "Where's Blake?"
"Being a stubborn ass somewhere in that direction." He pointed angrily.
"Didn't kiss and make up?"
"She's pissed that I'm here to help her." He grumbled. "Doesn't want to get us hurt on her stupid vendetta, some crap about me taking my anger out on people."
"And you're pissed because she's right?"
"No, I'm-"
"YAAAAAHHH!" A machete wielding muscled fang woman with wicked scares across her body jumped from a container above her weapon aimed for the blonde human's head. Unlike her Valiean comrades, she was a veteran of the harsh raids in Atlas, and she'd picked her time and place to ambush nearly perfectly. Rage and adrenaline surging across her face to form a wicked mask of violent intent as gravity brought her to spit skulls open.
Her harsh features stopped an arm's length from the blonde man; his finger wrapped around her throat, her body held a foot in the air. For as wicked as she looked a moment ago she could only gulp as she stared at an equally vicious face now.
"We" He slammed the woman against the wall. "Are"" Repeated blows rained down on her face. "Trying" He spiked her unconscious form onto the cement. "TO HAVE A CONVERSATION!" A few kicks added for good measure.
A lone fang member had rounded the corner to see the beating, only to now stand still in terror.
"AHHHH!" Jaune bellowed in rage, watching as the man ran away with his tail literally tucked between his legs.
"You were saying?" Yang questioned with a raised eyebrow.
He sucked in a breath. "Ok, maybe she has a point."
Across the dock Blake found herself with Sun in a mass of Fang goons in a tight four way intersection of containers stacked high enough to keep the bullheads from making a pass at them. Between her and Sun ,together with their semblance based clones, they were holding them off pretty well. She knew if the Fang had any sense they'd stop bunching up and take the high ground, but it seemed the Vale sect was as hopeless as she remembered, if not a lot more numerous. Not that any of that had here any less pissed at Jaune.
"So…." Sun chimed in as he beat back a straggler with his staff.
"What?" She asked in annoyance as she blinked a few random rounds towards the Fang line.
"Jaune."
"What about him?" She asked, her annoyance growing at Sun's ill chosen topic.
"He seems like a character."
A bullet cracked centimeters from her head before her clone jumped off a wall to crumple the shooter "Yep."
"So you got a thing for blondes?' Sun pressed verbally as he pressed against a few disorganized fang physically.
"Not the time Sun." Would it kill anyone if they had these conversions later?
"I mean it's like everyone here for you." He pointed out as he ducked a sword. "Glad they're backing us up." His staff caught a chin, Blake's silence echoing all the while. "But you don't agree?"
She dropped low, "This is my fight." her foot swept to drop a goon on his back before a clone dive bombed him.
"Yeah, I don't think this is gonna work out." Sun relented.
"No!" Blake surged. "We can't give up."
Running up a bull fanus's back Sun back flipped to land on a man with a knife coming for his back only to have him stab his comrade. "Oh, no, we are gonna be fine." A bullhead made a pass dropping as many of its own men on top of a few of his clones. "Probably." He mumbled nervously to himself. "But I'm talking about us."
"Us?" Blake questioned.
"Yeah I kinda figured we could go out after this."
A large brute body slammed Blake into a crate. "Sure." She said half listening to Sun, half stabbing the shit out of the meat and aura slab pinning her. "If you really want a date, I don't care." Did she care about Sun like that, no, but if he stopped talking and helped her out of this she could try an awkward date.
"Yeah that's the problem." Sun said a bit sadly as he took his staff to Blake's attacker's skull, leaving him on the pavement. "As much as I figured this for a strong independent damsel that needed a save situation, I'm starting to see that maybe I should listen to Neptune and felt out things a bit more."
"What?' Blake asked confused but forming a growing pit in her stomach that she was about to be told something she didn't. She was almost happy when another pass of the bullhead gave her a second to ignore whatever Sun was going on about for a second.
"I thought you were alone and needed a helping hand.' Sun continued, yelling through machine gun fire. "But it seems like you got a lot of people that care about you out here."
"They shouldn't be." Blake retorted angrily, getting from cover as the bullhead left momentarily and forming up back to back with Sun. The fang was regrouping at all ends again, and more problematically starting to post shooters above them.
"Because they matter," Sun glanced back to look Blake in the eye as the Fang formed walls of melee fighters in front with shooters taking aim from beside them. "You let me be here cause I'm expendable."
There it was, hitting Blake hard. Sun was right, not just about using him, but everyone else in life. Team RWBY just were people to put up with until they had started to matter, suddenly being on the right side of things with the fang had mattered enough to be here, she couldn't have them in harm's way on her account now. Jaune had just been someone she knew, useful to her own selfish need to make amends, until she cared enough about him to see him as an actual person, and one hurting. That was when she couldn't stomach him. The difference between him and Sun being here really was the simple fact that she was ok if Sun got hurt on her account. How long until she cared about him and he suddenly couldn't be around her.
The noose was closing on them, no one had attacked them as they had their moment, instead digging in a preparation to volley them at distance from every direction; friendly fire outweighing the need to drop them. The final nail in the coffin being two bullheads finally realizing they had no counter to them, foregoing safe strafing runs to use their VTOL capability to hover inline with the pair, guns training on them.
"Sorry." Blake said regretfully, fully seeing how dire their situation was.
"Eh, no problem. You couldn't stop the others and you never would have stopped me from helping someone." He shot a grin at Blake. "That's my whole flow."
The bullheads' large caliber miniguns started to spin. Bullets cooked as primer ignited, but instead of from controlled fire they burned and bounced at random as the heat from an RPG shredded the metal beast; metal guts flaming and spilling onto fang below.
Blake looked up, her eyes tracking the smoke trail to see dead fang shooters pushed aside from the tops of crate walls by rough looking men. For a moment she had no idea what an assortment of all manner of sketchy looking character where doing here so suddenly until her eyes locked onto a familiar figure
With one hand he took a puff of a cigar, his polished armor and gaudy floral shirt cutting a striking figure in the night, a smoking rocket tube hanging off his other meaty bicep Cardin smiled. "Sup."
"Hell yeah, so cool." Sun uttered in awe.
Blake facepalmed "Oh gods."
"So you do know someone who's not blonde." Sun added unhelpfully.
"Men," Cardin shouted, before jumping down near the pair. "Cut them down!" From their position on the high ground the criminals of Vale laid into the now disorganized Fang; one of the four formations falling apart to another group of criminals flanking from the rear, another running from the flaming wreckage of the destroyed bullheads, leaving two groups still closing ranks in an effort to still sway the fight in their favor.
For a second Blake readied to charge one group, only to watch her target fall into disarray and screams. Streaks of blonde, shotgun blasts, and terrible puns giving her a good idea why. Looking back she saw one of the last bullheads peeling away, with the briefest glimpse of Tourchwich in it to tell her that the criminal was finalizing his escape. That still left one bullhead to deal with she realized as she saw it lock back into a gun run. A major problem in its own right, until she watched a container door fly into its cockpit, before it veered wildly into the ocean. Once again twisting to look she saw a smiling Jaune standing atop a crate missing the aforementioned door.
Hopping into the crossway Jaune beamed, the terror of the fight giving way to how good of a shot he'd made. He spared a glance around to see the rest of the fang running in fright; criminals chasing them. Looking back to Sun and Blake his smile widened as he saw his partner walking up and chomping a cigar.
Caridn looked at his partner with an equally large grin on his face. Striding up in front of Blake and Sun the two partners smacked hands in a manly bro shake that had the two's naked arms bulging with muscle as it turned to an impromptu arm wrestling contest. "So, taking an easy day off, eh?" Cardin quipped as he strained in competition.
"How's that just-a-meeting going?" Jaune joked.
"Oh, just get room." Blake mumbled at the overly macho display.
"Shhhh" Sun hushed her. "So manly." he uttered in reverence of the moment of bro.
"So, who're your new friends?" Jaune questioned as his arm dipped a bit.
"Oh, you know." Cardin pressed his advantage. "Just a gang of the city's worst out to kill you."
"Ha," Jaune pressed back on his partner's assault. "At least it's not a gang out to kill you again."
"Shit, probably be my turn next week anyways, ready to do this all again?"
"You son of a bitch, I'm in." Jaune started to dip his arm in the direction of victory. "As long as we have people that want to kill us even more we'll be fine."
Sun looked at Blake with a dumbfounded look. "You passed up these guys to help you? Maybe you really do like me."
Uggh, Blake was feeling a headache coming on. If her life wasn't over after this she was really gonna need the thickest, smuttiest novela and as much herbal tea as possible.
"Hey guys." Yang interjected as she jogged up to them. "Love the moment, but we should really get out here." She reminded them, giving a lazy thumb to the flaming bullhead wreck starting to cook off dust.
"Ah, saved in the nick of time, Jaune ." Cardin quipped as he exited their arm wrestle. "Come on, I got a ride nearby."
A massive fireball went up in the dock, most of the combatants leaving just in the nick of time; Jaune and his cohorts included. It was a truly spectacular view from the roof across from the now burning dock, precisely why Lisa had picked the spot.
"Tell me you got all that."
"Oh yeah." Her cameraman confirmed, never stopping his recording.
Hey everyone, another one on the books, finally. I really love writing humors and action packed scenes but I always struggle to get more internalized characters done, which has really slowed the pace of this arc getting written; this chapter have a lot of moving parts specifically . Ah well, I'm doing this to get better as an author anyways, still a pain sometimes, and maybe not the strongest writing I've done. All said, with this case coming to a close I hope it's been a nice addition to the story and characters, defiantly love hearing you guys thoughts. Back in country now so hopefully should be able to have a bit more time to work on this. Anyways see you all next chapter.