7-29-19
It has come to my attention that Charlene's previous name, Ezmerelda, was close to that of Emerald's, although she was created a while before we learned Emerald's name. Nonetheless, canon Emerald came first, and it drew too many connections to her and Syrius. As such, I changed her name and updated the chapter. Nothing else has been changed besides names, scout's honor.
"Perhaps the question that we should be asking, is why a team of huntsmen from Atlas are operating within Vale's borders," Tiberius offered. "And why they hold such an interest in two criminals we just captured. Perhaps by telling us what Atlesian laws they have broken."
"If you even are Atlas," Schatten offered. "How do we know you aren't just trying to bail your friends out?"
"We are Atlas, and their crimes classified information," the one calling himself Greeve answered. "You however should explain why stolen Atlas tech is on that heap of-"
"Now hold on a minute Greeve," said a man in an orange lab coat and cargo shorts as he hefted a large battle axe over his shoulder. "I wouldn't go so far as to call that a 'heap of scrap metal'. Sure it's missing a leg, but it's quite the piece of machinery."
"Yarrow, shut up," the girl shot back. She wore a red vest, skirt, and black calf high sandals. She was holding a tonfa in one hand, and gripping a sheathed knife on her belt in the other. "Greeve's right. Whoever these kids are, they shouldn't have a military grade cannon."
"I told you that thing was a bad idea," Dakota hissed to Lunare, who ignored it in favor of glowering at the one that had introduced himself as Greeve.
"And they shouldn't be using it in a residential area," Greeve added. "In the process of capturing these two, you caused severe damage to the freeway with your reckless firing. That cannon needs to be removed from your, 'vehicle' before someone gets hurt."
Lunare stepped forward as Nieh Mehr expanded to its full size. Instantly, the team from Atlas stiffened and save for the one called Yarrow, slid in to attack positions. Undeterred by the show of aggression, Lunare began speaking. "While I will admit I should have dedicated more time to fine tuning and testing the targeting reticule, I do not appreciate the tone you've taken about Scrapmetal, or the way you refer to it in that tone. It would be beneficial to both parties if you ceased from referring to her as such."
Without replying, Greeve drew back and threw a punch, despite being well out of range. As the punch came to an end, his silver metallic gloves broke apart in to individual wires. The wires wrapped around Nieh Mehr and ripped it from Lunare's grasp. They returned to their original form and deposited the gunstaff in Greeve's hand. He gripped the weapon firmly so Lunare wouldn't consider trying to take it back. "This is your last warning," he said firmly. "Drop your weapons or we will take you in to custody for assaulting members of the Atlas military, and have that piece of scrap hauled off to the dump."
Daniel looked over at Lunare to see him shakily begin to push his glasses up by their edges and eye his captured weapon. Realizing what Lunare was thinking, and the similarities of a previous situation that wound them up in jail, Daniel desperately tried to diffuse the situation. "Hey uy, look, how about we wait until the police arrive and make sure you guys really are Atlas, and haven't just stolen an airship. Then we can-"
Too slow.
He was far too slow.
Out of the corner of his eye, Daniel saw it happen in slow motion. Lunare's hand fell from his glasses to his side. He slid in to a crouch and activated something on Corabellum. He was launched forward in to Greeve as he activated the razor sharp ribs on his arms. He pinned Greeve's arms between his own and slammed them both in to the airship. Before anyone else could react, Lunare launched the two of them high up in to the air, rapidly shrinking to a speck in the sky.
Daniel stared openmouthed at the deep grooves in the airship, then slowly turned his head back to the remaining members of the Atlas team. Their faces were a mixture of shock and outrage. In the case of the female member, there was a hint of horror and fear mixed in as well.
"I am so, so sorry," Daniel said, trying to find the words for an apology. "I have no idea what's come over-"
Before he could figure out what to say, a dark purple vortex swirled in to existence on the ground next to the Atlas team. Greeve flew out of the vortex headfirst and landed on the pavement. A second later, the vortex disappeared in to the concrete. Greeve dusted off his gray military jacket and gave the Huntsmen in training a hard look. "Team GREY, engage," he said with a hard edge. He flicked his arms up and the wires from his gloves shot out once more. They attached themselves to a diving Lunare and threw him in to the ground next to Scrapmetal. The force of the collision rattled the asphalt in a miniature earthquake.
Schatten roared in anger and launched himself at Greeve, claws extended to slice Greeve to ribbons. The fourth member of team GREY, who had remained silent for the entire time, leapt in to defend his leader. He grabbed Schatten's wrists and performed a midair somersault. The two sailed through the air for an unnatural distance before Schatten managed to free himself and land safely on the ground.
Schatten crouched down and bared his teeth, tail low and bristling with anger. To his surprise, his opponent pulled out two revolvers and mimicked the movement. He snarled like a large cat, and Schatten was suddenly aware that he himself had a long white tail. As it flicked back and forth, the two circled warily, eyeing their opponent carefully. The panther Faunus abruptly made the first strike, leaping toward Schatten, baring his teeth and winding up to strike.
Daniel, Dakota, and Tiberius were meanwhile trying to defend themselves against the combined attacks from Greeve, and the girl with the knife and tonfa. Dakota was fighting the girl, while Daniel tried to help Tiberius get his chakrams untangled from Greeve's wires. Greeve had both chakrams trapped in one hand of wires, and was using the other hand to fight off Daniel. Tiberius had both Chakrams firmly grasped in his hand, and was desperately trying to pull them free.
"Unhand my weapons, and fight me!" Tiberius yelled at Greeve. "I demand that you-"
Greeve flicked his right hand, and the wires yanked Tiberius through the air and through the window of a liquor store. Within the depths of the store, the sound of smashing glass continued as Tiberius landed on one of the shelves.
With Tiberius incapacitated, Greeve reformed the wires on his right hand in to a glove, and caught Daniel's sword as it descended toward his shoulder. As Daniel wrenched at his saber, trying to get it out of his opponent's grasp, Greeve briefly looked around to see how the battle was going. Ebon, the panther Faunus, had just whipped Schatten across the face with his revolver, sending him skidding down the street. Schatten rolled to his feet and jumped at Ebon, using the jump jets strapped to his waist. He slammed in to Ebon, and the two sailed backwards. Ebon twisted in midair and made sure Schatten hit the ground first. They landed, and Schatten roared in pain at the unexpected weight. It was like a truck had landed on his chest.
Rojoe, team GREY's only female member, was having difficulty fighting Dakota. Every move she made with her tonfa, he was able to counter with his pipe. He wrapped his chain around her tonfa, pulling it aside, and hit her with an uppercut from his pipe. Her head snapped up and she stumbled backwards. Dakota yanked his chain free and whipped it around for another strike. Instead of hitting the tonfa or the girl behind it, the chain instead skated off a sheet of ice. Dakota grinned at this; ice wasn't anything that could stop his semblance. He was reaching in to the pouch on his belt for a dust vial when his back was suddenly struck by what felt like half a dozen razor blades. Dakota roared in pain as Greeve's wires cut through the back of his jacket and in to the flesh beneath. Distracted by the unexpected blow, he stumbled forwards, and Rojoe took the opportunity to hit him across the face with her tonfa. The weapon collided with a satisfying crack, and Dakota collapsed to the ground. He struggle to regain his footing, but Rojoe planted her knee against his back, and held her knife to his throat.
"No!" Daniel cried out, as he realized that his friends had all been incapacitated in a matter of seconds. He reached to his back and pulled his pistol out. He flipped the safety off, and pulled the trigger.
Greeve saw Daniel pull a pistol from his back, and reacted instantly. He let go of the sword and summoned his semblance to bear. A portal burst in to existence behind him and he fell through. As soon as he was through, the portal closed, and the bullet smashed in to the pavement. Before Daniel could react, another portal appeared behind him and deposited Greeve on the ground. Greeve grabbed Daniel by the back of the head and slammed him in to the side of the overturned cop car. "Stay down," he ordered as he stripped Daniel of his weaponry, letting it fall to the ground, "Failure to do so will result in your neutralization. You have stolen Atlas weaponry, and assaulted four members of the military."
Daniel continued to struggle despite Greeve's order, but Greeve was able to hold him down. He spared another brief glance out at the rest of his team. Rojoe had her opponent's hands shackled behind his back, and Ebon was sitting calmly on the chest of his opponent while the Faunus struggled to push him off.
"Good work you two," he called out. "Rojoe, watch out for those snap attacks. He almost had you there."
Rojoe's cheeks flushed red with embarrassment and she rubbed the back of her neck. "S-sorry Greeve," she apologized. "I didn't think he would put up such a fight." She looked to see if he had anything else to say, but he had already moved on to pulling Daniel's hands behind him and wrapping them with his wires.
"Tie them up, and load them in the airship," he ordered. "Yarrow, you're in charge of the street rat and hacker. Yarrow?"
Greeve looked around, but Yarrow was nowhere to be seen. Come to think of it, neither was that kid with the flying suit. Both of them had disappeared after the onset of the battle. Where the hell were they?
Before he could locate either of them, two disks shot out and severed the wires holding Daniel's hands together. Daniel pushed back and shoved Greeve back enough to scoop up his weapons and retreat to a safe distance. As Rojoe ducked underneath one of the chakrams, Dakota unclasped the top of his pouch and reached inside. Two melted cuffs and an elbow to the kidneys later, and Dakota had both his weapons scooped up and was moving over to where Daniel stood. The two teams finally were able to get a good look at what had just caused the distraction.
Tiberius stood in the doorway of the liquor store, blood red wine flowing off his light-ish pink suit. There were surprisingly no stains or tears to the fabric, but Tiberius still looked mad as hell.
"That, was a one hundred and twenty-year-old bottle of Château Merriweather," Tiberius seethed. "Known for its fine aged taste, it's one of the few decent things that's come from that name. A single bottle is worth at least twelve thousand Lien on the market. And you just wasted it in an attempt to further ruin my jacket. That, was a mistake."
"No, no, hear me out. The problem you keep coming across is not in the joint stabilizers, it's in the entire joint assembly," Yarrow explained as he leaned against Scrapmetal and waved a cigarette through the air. "What you've got on right now is barely strong enough to hold up Scrapmetal, much less tear a titanium door apart or take that many bullets from those turrets without sustaining some sort of damage. What you need is a thicker joint made of pure titanium covered with armored joint caps."
"Interesting," Lunare commented. He had a dirty notebook out, and was scribbling furiously with a minuscule nub of a pencil. "Tell me, how is it you came to this level of mechanical understanding?"
Yarrow shrugged. "Oh you know, when your big sister steals all your projects just as you nearly finish them, you move from projects and focuses quite a bit. By the time I settled on biomechanics, I was already pretty knowledgeable in many fields. I imagine that's something as a Nacht you'd understand." He laughed at the surprised look on Lunare's face. "Don't look so shocked kid, I doubt there's an inventor in Remnant who hasn't heard of the Nachts. Especially after what happened to-"
"Yarrow!"
Upon hearing his name, Yarrow calmly looked over at the commotion, and watched his leader desperately defending himself from Tiberius' flying chakrams. He sighed and dropped his cigarette, stubbing it out with his heel. "It looks like I'm being called in to help," he said with a tinge of regret. "Sorry Lunare, but it looks like I'm going to have to fight you, maybe even arrest you. If it's any consolation, I really think you're on to something with mounting a turret to Scrapmetal. Only thing wrong was stealing an Atlas cannon."
"I perfectly understand," Lunare said as he unfolded Nieh Mehr and slid in to a defensive stance.
Yarrow slid in to his own stance, and grasped the two blades of his battle axe. The handle split lengthwise, and Yarrow slid the two pieces down in to the sleeves of his lab coat. They connected to something within his coat, and the two axe heads reoriented themselves so Yarrow could grip them from directly behind the blades.
Lunare nodded in appreciation. "Your weapons doubles as a powered exoskeleton. Very impressive. Had I not already built offensive armament in to my own armor, I would have-" Lunare frowned and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Yarrow, I do not mean to alarm you, but the two fugitives we apprehended seem to have escaped."
In an instant, Yarrow's eyes went from calm to dead serious. He half turned his head to look at where they were lying, then turned back to Lunare; unsure if he was trying to trick him. "This had better not be a trick," he warned. "These people, they're really bad news." With that, he turned his head fully to check on the spot Charlene and Syrius lay on.
All he saw was cracked asphalt, and a bit of torn clothing.
Yarrow cursed and turned back to Lunare. "Lunare, I'm really sorry for this, but we've got to find those two before they escape." He flicked Nieh Mehr out of the way and slammed the bottom of an axe head in to Lunare's gut. As Lunare collapsed to the ground, Yarrow leaned in and whispered in his ear. "Check your email later. I will send you something to help you build a replacement cannon."
Yarrow opened his mouth and was about to yell to Greeve that they needed to go after the two fugitives, when he saw Greeve use his Semblance and create a portal behind him to get away from the kid throwing the chakrams. As he took a step backwards, the kid with the red hair tackled Greeve, throwing off his balance. The two stumbled, and fell toward the portal. Yarrow broke out in to a sprint to try and stop them from falling, but even with his powered exoskeleton, he was too slow. The two of them disappeared in to the inky purple vortex without a trace. Rojoe cried out in horror, and Ebon looked on in shock. These kids may have stolen a cannon and attacked them, but they didn't deserve that fate.
It was therefor to their immense shock when the two reappeared above the kid with the chakrams, still struggling. The redhead, while sporting a black eye, was completely fine. They crashed in to the chakram wielder, and the three of them sprawled across the pavement. Greeve threw the redhead off, and stared at him in shock. "How," he began, "How did,"
"Greeve!" Yarrow yelled, equally confused, but focused on the mission. "They got loose!"
Greeve shook his head and stared at the spot where Charlene and Syrius had until recently occupied, and was instantly back in the zone. "Team GREY, move out!" he ordered. Ebon and Rojoe reacted instantly, getting off Schatten and leaping to their feet respectively. Schatten and Dakota tried to stop them, but Yarrow was ready to intervene. Flipping an axe head down, he fired a bright yellow pellet from a small hole in the top. It bounced and rolled in to the middle of the group fighting, and team GREY instinctively covered their eyes. Teams DDLN and LSTR saw them do so and moved to cover their eyes as well, but were too slow.
Light as bright as the sun exploded from the pellet as it exploded in a loud report. Smoke rushed in to the battlefield, quickly obscuring the combatants. Though the smoke, Yarrow watched the blurred forms of his teammates quickly board the airship and start up the engines. As Yarrow sprinted toward the open hatch, the redhead stumbled out from the smoke, covering his eyes and blindly swinging his sword. Yarrow instinctively blocked one blow with an axe head, and slammed the other axe blade in to his side, sure that the kid's Aura would protect him from such a light blow. He leapt onto the ramp as the airship lifted off, accepting a hand from Rojoe.
"I can't believe those damn kids screwed this up!" Greeve shouted over the whine of the engines. "We were so close! So freaking close!"
"Least we know they're in Vale!" Ebon shouted back. "We can lock down ports, issue warrants. They won't leave the kingdom!"
Yarrow returned his weapon to its axe state as he stared out of the open hatch at the scene below. As the smoke cleared, he thought he saw their opponents fighting each other. But that was silly, he reasoned. Why on earth would they want to fight each other?
Light. A blinding bright light that blocked out everything.
Noise. His ears were still ringing
Pain. Pain in the chest.
The Voices. Rushing over him. Flowing throughout his mind. Overwhelming him without attempting to let him give in.
They have hurt you, the voices roared. The humans have betrayed you. Kill them. Kill them all!
Daniel tried to resist, but it was no use. The voices were simply too much. He let out a massive roar that quickly robbed him of his voice. Energy coursed through him, robbing the axe wound of its potency.
Dakota looked up at the roar, and blearily saw Daniel standing with blood dripping down his chest. "Ah hell," he muttered. "Daniel, try not to move. You've got a pretty big cut on your-" his voice trailed off as he noticed the hate on Daniel's face, and the red that had completely replaced his normal green-brown eyes. "Daniel?" he asked in a cautionary worried tone.
With another roar, Daniel charged Dakota, swinging his sword in an arc through the air. Dakota reacted instantly, blocking the blow and delivering a punch to the kidneys. A blow that would normally have Daniel on his knees felt like a mild tap to him. He aimed his pistol at Dakota's face and pulled the trigger. One, two, three times in rapid succession. Dakota's head snapped back and he was thrown to the ground. Groaning, he looked up to see Daniel pointing his pistol right at Dakota's chest. Dakota rolled out of the way as Daniel emptied his magazine where he lay a second before, and leapt to his feet. He whipped his chain around and knocked the pistol from Daniel's hand, sending it skidding off under the police car.
Schatten took the momentary lapse in fighting to tackle Daniel to the ground. He wrestled with Daniel, trying to catch his sword and wrench it from his hand. "What the hell are you doing Daniel?" he demanded to know. Daniel simply responded by biting down on Schatten's arm. His Aura, weakened by Ebon landing on his chest failed under the massive pressure. Schatten roared in pain as Daniel bit through his leather jacket and in to the flesh underneath, bright red blood flowing from the wound.
"Out of the way Schatten," Tiberius demanded as his Chakrams began orbiting his head and spinning rapidly. "I can't get a clear shot of him like this."
Growling in pain, Schatten sheathed his claws and punched Daniel in the jaw with the knuckleduster. It didn't hurt Daniel, but the force was enough to dislodge Daniel's teeth from Schatten's jacketed arm.
With Schatten free, Tiberius raised his arm to send his Chakrams in to Daniel. Dakota saw his movement and held up his hand for him to wait. "Daniel, stop this," Dakota demanded. "You're better than this. Fight whatever's making you do this!"
Daniel's only reply was to growl menacingly and advance toward Dakota and Schatten. Tiberius didn't wait any longer. His two Chakrams stopped orbiting Tiberius and launched themselves at Daniel. Daniel saw this however, and blocked both of them with the flat of his sword. The Chakrams returned to Tiberius, and he sent them flying back toward Daniel. He deflected them again, and ducked under a punch Schatten threw at him. He balled his left fist up and socked Schatten in between the legs. The wolf Faunus whimpered and fell to his knees. As Daniel rose back up to his full height, Dakota leapt onto his back and wrapped his chain around Daniel's neck. Daniel gagged and growled, pulling at the chain angrily; but Dakota refused to let him go. The voices in Daniel's head were in an uproar, furious that this human was riding Daniel like that. They made Daniel buck forward, throwing Dakota over his head.
Dakota landed on his back, and Daniel was on him instantly, punching and kicking every inch of Schatten he could find. He pulled Dakota's pipe from his limp fingers, and raised it over Dakota's head, intent on bashing Dakota's brains onto the asphalt. Dakota squinted through swollen eyes at Daniel, trying to see any signs of his friend in the monster kneeling over him. All he could see was glowing red eyes and a vicious snarl.
Daniel swung the pipe down, but was suddenly lifted up off the ground. Lunare was flying through the air and had Daniel by the collar of his jacket. He pinned Daniel to the wall of the liquor store, and twisted Daniel's hand until he was forced to release the pipe. Daniel tried to bite Lunare, but Lunare simply maneuvered out of this bite radius. He then shoved Daniel to the side and flicked his wrists outwards. An Aural disruptor flicked in to his hand and he leveled it at Daniel. "Forgive me Daniel," he said, "but this has to stop before someone gets hurt."
Daniel ignored Lunare's comment and charged his friend. Lunare sidestepped the attack and hit Daniel in the gut with the disruptor. He fell to his knees from the pain, but was quickly getting back to his feet when Lunare hit him again. And again. And again. It took five jolts from the disruptor to send Daniel to his knees. A swift knee to the forhead, and it was all over. Daniel fell in to the sea of glass shards, groaning in pain.
The voices were scrambled now, nothing more than confused and unorganized demands. They quieted down in to whispers before finally disappearing altogether. With their absence, Daniel was finally able to think straight once again. And as he did so, the pain returned in full force, along with the realization of what he just did. He scrambled to his feet, wincing as his chest wounds stung. Lunare raised his pistols again, but Daniel raised a hand, begging him to stop. He limped around Lunare and scrambled over to where Dakota was being helped up by Tiberius. "Dakota!" he cried out in a raspy voice. "Oh no, I-I'm so sorry. Are you all right?"
Dakota groaned and reached in to his pouch, pulling out a vial of ice Dust. He broke it open and held it on his face, moaning as it provided instant relief. "You, are one hell of a fighter," he said. "If I have to fight you again, it'll be too soon."
"That wasn't me," Daniel said. "It was, I don't know what it was."
A knuckleduster clad hand reached up and pulled another ice Dust vial from Dakota's pouch. "Whatever it was, it has a very strong punch," Schatten said in a voice several octaves higher than normal. He too broke the vial open and held the dust to his affected organ.
Satisfied that Daniel was back to normal, Tiberius grabbed Daniel by the shoulders and turned him to face him. He pulled Daniel's denim jacket off and ripped his shirt apart where Yarrow had struck him. "The denim appears to have absorbed the worst of the blow," Tiberius reported. "You'll still have to get stitches, but you should survive. There isn't any bruising, so internal bleeding should be kept at a minimum." He took Daniel's hand and placed it firmly on the cuts. "Hold this here until you can receive proper medical attention."
Daniel was about to ask how and where Tiberius learned about medicine, when he suddenly heard sirens approaching. He looked up to see where they were coming from, and to his surprise and horror, saw that a crowd had formed around the fighters. They were staring at the five teens with a mixture of confusion and horror. Daniel tried to raise a hand to inform them that they were all okay, and they all backed up in fear. With a sinking feeling, Daniel recognized their faces. It was the same one civilians had when they encountered Grimm. They had seen the fight. Worse yet, they recognized him, and knew who he was.
Daniel, Dakota, and Lunare's attempt at improving Daniel's image had failed horribly. And there was no escaping what was to come.
Hey Guys!770Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtB4hCRNPRx
Sorry for not posting last month, I got caught up in finals and getting my old job back once I made it back from college. But now I'm here, and here's the chapter I've been waiting to post for a long time! Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you all to team GREY! Like team LSTR, they were graciously donated by one of my friends when I was in need of another team for To Be Human. I enjoyed writing the fight scene between the two groups, and I hope that you all enjoyed reading it as well.770Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3cz8LHpNPV
Don't forget to drop a kudos or a comment if you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all next month!770Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDjcWXWO3B9
-Wrench
