[I just realized these bonus chapters have kind of shaped up to being like my version of the RWBY manga light novels. I guess I'm still following the show's model--but better right?]
The huge lion would have pounced onto Piper if he hadn't sprung out of the way.
Raven jumped and kicked off a tree trunk then brought her sword down on its neck.
Her sword broke into red dust shards, to her great chagrin and astonishment, and the lion turned towards her, snapping its humongous jaws.
"Hey, look over here!" Yang shot at it.
It turned toward her, but the bullets didn't seem to do a thing to it.
"Let me guess," Neptune said. "We found another one of Salem's old special friends."
"Looks like it," Yang backed up, planting her feet.
"Merc!" Emerald yelped as they ran to get out of its range.
Mercury tried to focus.
"Get down, you d--- kids," Claw said, lifting her weapon, which looked like a bazooka crossed with a pike.
[If you think that sounds stupid, just picture Professor Port's two bladed axe musket.]
Mercury both lost focus and had to duck as she blasted at it.
Yet again it did nothing, except that the lion grew spikes out of its hide.
"Okay, that's not working!" Piper said.
"Oh, I get it," Emerald had ducked behind a tree. "Look, the hide, it's like some protective shell. Weird... a lion grimm usually wouldn't be that armored."
"Okay, so we need heavier artillery?" Mercury said.
"Isn't that why we were here, because we didn't have that?" Emerald asked.
"I dunno, do I look like the stats guy to you?" Mercury dodged as the lion charged at him, then it spun around and used its massive claws to knock Sergeant Claw's pike out of her hand as she was going to ram it into its side.
Claw went sprawling across the dirt and into one of the trees.
"Err!" Raven pulled out a fresh sword. "Always something with these grimm. Hey, Nemean!"
The lion looked at her.
"You know who I am right?" Raven held out the sword and her aura glowed. "Back off. I command you by the authority given to me."
The Nemean eyed her with what sure looked like pure hatred for an emotionless grimm.
Then it snarled in a way that sent chills up their spines and dashed through the trees.
"Wow..." Yang looked at her. "That was impressive... and a little too easy."
"Oh yeah," Raven narrowed her eyes. "With the big ones it always takes more than one try. Even more than one person."
"So it ran off because it's going after someone else," Neptune reasoned.
"Huh?" Piper looked at them weirdly.
"We scare grimm, moron," Yang threw her human hand up. "Duh. By now we've learned things about them. They don't just quit like that unless they have more targets. Keep up already."
"I thought that was just a tall tale, you actually scare them?" Claw picked up her weapon.
"Yes," Raven's tone was clipped. "And where there's one that big, there's more right behind it."
She wasn't wrong, a bunch of smaller, more common grimm came crawling out of the woods right after she said that.
These ones were easy enough to kill.
Emerald evaded them and climbed one of the trees.
The pilot had circled back around.
"Ground squad," he said into their headsets. "The large grimm you were just fighting just headed due East, there's more following it. I think it sniffs some other targets."
"Do you see anything else?" Raven asked impatiently.
"I'm not picking them up on the scanner, could be some interference still," the pilot said. "But the thing is fast for a grimm that size. Do I follow it?"
"Yes, but keep a distance," Raven said. "If it starts to attack you, retreat back to us, we'll deal with it. Let us know once you find the target."
"Affirmative." The pilot soared over their heads to the East.
They finished off the rest of the grimm quickly.
"They'll be more soon enough," Raven said. "Regrouping."
They came to the center of the clearing they'd fought in.
"What did you call that thing? A Nemean?" Neptune said.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard rumors of some big lion shaped grimm in this part of Mistral when I was still leading the tribe," Raven said. "Part of the reason we stayed Northward more. But it's been a long time since I've heard of it actually attacking anyone. I think it usually prowls the inner parts of these woods. But we're just lucky."
"I mean this is why we're here," Emerald pointed out. "But how can we fight it? Is it indestructible?"
"It's supposed to be," Raven said. "But we tend to find a way." She frowned. "Black, want to tell me why the frick you didn't use your specialty advantage?! That could have weakened it enough for us to kill it!"
"I was gonna try, but Sergeant gun-happy blocked me!" Mercury said.
"Special advantage?" Claw said. "I don't know anything about that. You were in my way, I was trying to save our lives!"
"You have a weapon or power we don't know about? I thought you didn't use a semblance," Piper scowled.
That was a sore point for Mercury still, he glared.
"They don't know?" Neptune said.
"There was good reason not to make it public knowledge," Raven reminded him icily. "But for this squad, we're going to have to use it. I assumed that going in."
"Mercury can turn grimm to dust with his eyes," Emerald said.
"What kind of semblance is that?" Claw asked.
"It's not a semblance," Mercury said. "It's a Divine gift."
By now, he really just wanted to annoy Claw and Piper, so he talked big.
"You're serious? That again?" Claw snorted. "Oh please. I've heard the hype, heroes always try to make things sound more impressive than they really are. But there's no way people like you have any divine gifts."
"Did you miss where the grimm just ran from us like a mangy dog?" Yang asked.
"Ok that was weird," Piper said. "But that's not turning it to dust. And you said Black could do it. We're supposed to believe that?"
"I don't give a rat's tail what you believe," Raven said. "But if you talk to me or my team like that again, I will personally deal with you," she looked angry. "I don't expect you two to like us. But we have grimm to kill. If you're going to keep giving us attitude, I'll send you back to Argus right now."
She opened a portal as if to prove her point. "I'd rather work with 5 people who can stop b----ing and do their d--- job, than 6 of them who are going to be acting like immature children--no, I've seen children act better."
Claw and Piper frowned at her. Then they shrugged.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear a 'yes, commander'," Raven said.
They glared but then they said: "Yes, Commander."
Raven's portal closed.
"All right," she straightened. "We're going after the thing before it finds some new victim. Black, be ready to fry it. Sing Kumbaya or whatever you need to get in the zone. Sustrai, you're good at helping him with that? Right, stick close. Claw, you're the tracker, so you take the lead. Piper, you flank her. Xiao Long, Vasilias, you're with me, we'll watch the rear and make sure they don't get the drop on us. Move!"
Everyone started moving as fast as they could.
The sky clouded over overhead while they were running, in this part of Mistral it didn't usually snow, but it did rain in the winter a lot. They were probably just in time for a storm.
Claw tracked the Nemean by sending some kind of sonar from her mouth and listening to it with her ears. She said they were closing in on it... also some other grimm.
The pilot confirmed this when he radioed again.
"Target is nearing what looks like a small quarry in the woods," he said. "Possible campsite for humans. Could be its new prey."
"Can you beat it there?" Raven asked.
"I can, but if there's a lot of them, I can't get them all out."
"Get as many as you can if you find anyone, anyone who would be able to run or fight easily," Raven instructed. "Then get them further away from here and come back for us.."
She sighed. "Blast it...there weren't supposed to be people out here for us to worry about. We'd better just call in backup. We'll need a rescue ship out here."
"I already radioed the Argus base to let them know of the change in situation, and position, Ma'am," the pilot said.
Raven sniffed. "Captain, you're the most professional member of the team I have today."
"Just doing my job, ma'am," the pilot replied dryly.
"At least that's underway," Raven told the others.
"Wow... Commander, you're really taking to this," Neptune was impressed. "You sounded so official."
"Shut up," Raven said.
"I gotta say,Branwen," Yang shrugged. "He's not wrong."
"Both of you shut up or you're getting chores at the base for this," Raven threatened.
"Can you all shut up? Trying to listen?" Claw said. "Respectfully, Ma'am."
Raven ignored that one.
"Can we catch it on foot?" Piper asked.
"It slowed down," Claw said. "So yeah, I'd say it's found its target."
Sure enough it wasn't five minutes behind the tree turned to rocks, and they saw the wide open quarry rising up out of the forest.
The Nemean was creeping over the side of it like a cat stalking a bird, but silently.
"Captain?" Raven hissed. "Bogey's right on top of you."
"I haven't found a place to land yet, Commander," the pilot replied. "This d-----d terrain is too uneven."
"I can slow it down," Piper lifted his flute thing.
"Wait," Claw pointed. "There's more."
A lot of small grimm that looked like rocky dwelling animals like lizards and rodents, only they were huge, and not unlike the ones they'd seen in the grimm lands, were scittering towards the centers of the quarry like they were going to a feast.
"Okay, there's definitely humans there," Yang said. "But this a is a few more grimm than we were ready for. Can you take them, Merc?"
"I might take 1/4 of them with a good shot," Mercury said. "But the rock is blocking me, I need to get higher. And that means going towards the big one."
"I can stall it," Piper said. "Your parlor trick better work."
"Sustrai, I want you to sneak the rest of us past it," Raven said. "The grimm will not attack the five of us. Claw you cover Piper. Don't move until you hear my signal."
They nodded curtly.
"That's a lot of grimm to fool," Emerald muttered. "I've gotten a lot stronger, and grimm are a little easier than humans, not that much brain power, but still... well, we'll move fast." She put a hand to her head.
"Now." Raven ordered.
The five of them started to climb over the rocks.
Piper began to play some kind of melody on his pipe and his semance appeared to activate.
The Nemean slowed down its creeping and then kind of stopped and just stood there, eyes staring straight ahead.
"What is he doing?" Mercury asked.
"I think he's...hypnotizing it?" Emerald said oddly.
[Okay, I'm sure most of you got it but for those not familiar with the story, Pedro Piper is referring to the Pied Piper of Hamlin, a story about a mystery person who could charm any creature into following him and doing whatever he wished, but he had to be paid for his services or he would take the children of the people. Seragent Babs Claw is referring to any number of bat-themed fictional characters, but her name is inspired by Batgirl, i. e. Barbara Gordon. That was easier to than Dracula or the other bat themed monsters--there's a lot of them. Also vampires don't really suit my aesthetic.]
I didn't think of it till just now, but the fact that there are rat grimm is also kind of a reference to the story.]
Some of the other grimm stopped also.
"That's pretty cool," Neptune said.
"Yeah, but how is he going to kill them?" Yang asked. "Seems like more of a supporting power to me."
Emerald tripped suddenly on the rocks and some of the grimm turned towards them.
"Back off," Mercury said to the grimm, pulling her up.
They bared their teeth.
"Too many of them, they're going to be bolder," Raven warned.
"I got it," Emerald used her semblance again.
The grimm appeared to lose track of them.
"There," Neptune scrambled over another rock and pointed down with his trident.
He'd found the humans.
It must have been some of the caravan, though it couldn't have been all of it. Some tents were spread over the rocky floor, and some flat bed trucks, and a larger armored car was parked a little further outside the quarry.
They must have set up camp here, hoping the train would shelters them from the grimm.
The grimm were surrounding them on all sides, and there were a few huntsmen who were eyeing them nervously, and some of the adults, and a few kids were hiding next to the trucks.
"Why are there kids here?" Yang balked.
"Must have been us the caravan for protection to move," Raven noted the bags of belongings in the trucks. "Well, this just got even worse. We need to get them to where the pilot can land, ASAP. Sustrai, new plan, you get down there with Yang and Vasilias and get them out. I'll flank Black, we'll try to clean them out, and we've got to take down that Nemean, but it's stalled for now, better get the other ones while they're distracted."
"Got it," the three started to scramble down the rocks as fast as they could--which was pretty fast, they were used to this by now.
Mercury scrambled to get higher so he could hit as many of the grimm as possible, they were getting closer by the second.
Raven followed him and then began to run along the edge of the quarry and used her sword to slice some of the small ones.
"Move!" she yelled at others. Some of them ran from her.
"Hey," Yang called to the people, who now nitc them and were confused. "We're here to help you. We've got an airship, trying to land out there," she pointed. "You have to follow us. Unless you can fight, then you can help clean out the grimm."
"We can fight, girl," one of the huntsmen said. "But these kids and civilians can't."
"We'll be all right," one man said. "But my wife and kids need to get to safety."
"Take the kids first," Neptune said.
"Yeah follow me," Emerald said. "I can get you out of here."
"What? Right through the grimm?" Some of the people eyed the throng of them that was only about 100 feet away now warily.
"We don't have time to bat this around!" Emerald snapped at them. "Come on already!"
They didn't look reassured.
"Guys watch it!" Mercury yelled at them from higher up.
Then white light flashed out of his eyes and fried every grimm that was approaching them for several feet.
The people blinked.
"Perfect timing there," Yang gave Mercury a thumbs up.
"Listen," Neptune held up his hands. "We're world renowned heroes, you might recognize this?" He pulled out his medal.
They blinked at it.
"Wait, you're those huntsmen?" One young guy said in awe.
"Whoa cool," said another.
"Yeah so we know how to handle grimm, Emerald here's one of the best stealth people there is," Neptune said. "So just follow her, and I'll be right behind you, okay? But we need to move fast. Just walk past the grimm, I swear, they're not going to know you're there. And our friends Black up there, he's going to fry them if they get close."
"I've got your side too," Yang held up her gun and fired at one grimm. "I'm going to draw them away."
She fired at one. "Hey! Ugly, eat my dust!" She punched it across the quarry.
"Gosh, I love her," Neptune said. "All right everyone, let's go."
"Okay..." they said slowly.
Emerald took off towards the gap in the quarry that she thought most likely would lead to a clearer area.
The families followed her, and the other huntsmen rushed to help Yang make the grimm back off of their tail.
Mercury fired another blast at them.
Raven had cleared out several also.
"We're going to blow our original mission if we kill too many right now," she said. "We need to scatter them. Let the backup plane do its job.... Plus there's gotta be thousands of lien-worth of dust in that car." She motioned at the armored car. "We can't afford to lose that right now."
"I can't blast them too many more times." Mercury rubbed his eyes. "I have to take out the big one first."
"Agreed," Raven said. "We'll worry about the small fry after that."
They sprang down the other side of the quarry again.
Just in time--Piper had just expended his energy.
As soon as he stopped playing, the Nemean and other Grimm unfroze and seemed infuriated that they'd ever been caught.
Claw shot some of the little ones down, but the Nemean was running right for them.
"Black!" Raven called.
"I'm getting to it!" Mercury closed his eyes and then opened them again.
Silver light cut through the Nemean like a knife, and its outer shell cracked and fell off it. Part of its started to turn to stone, but then Mercury had to blink.
Enraged, the Nemean turned toward them.
Raven leapt down onto its back and plunged her new sword into it.
The Nemean began to turn to smoke.
"Be gone, monster!" Raven pushed harder. Her Aura gleamed.
The Nemean turned completely into smoke, and she dropped to the ground.
"Whoa..." Even Claw was impressed.
"Go help the campers!" Raven barked at her.
They rushed to do so.
Mercury rubbed his head. "I need to rest it now."
[Stamp on the Ground AMV by Jay]
Yang and Neptune were keeping the smaller Grimm at bay.
Emerald and the group of campers following her slipped past a bunch of them and out of the quarry's walls.
It flattened out a bit here.
The pilot circled and began to blast some trees aside to clear more of a space.
Good thing: It worked.
Bad thing: More Grimm swarmed out of the woods.
They must have come up from the south side, drawn to the fighting or to the campers freaking out.
The campers had started to calm down, but now they screamed.
The Grimm sniffed and rushed towards them, the pilot tried to shoot some down.
"This is not good..." Emerald said.
Claw and Piper came rushing out to back her up.
Piper began to play music again, and the Grimm started to turn towards him.
But he looked tired.
"We're doomed," one kid said. "We can't go back in there, and we can't go past the Grimm!"
"We never should have left home!" one whimpered.
Emerald pursed her lips.
"Listen, it's going to be fine." She turned to them. "We're not done yet. I know a few tricks to make Grimm back off."
"Like what?" one said to her, pretty skeptically for a kid.
Emerald drew a deep breath.
"Grimm are afraid of music," she said, holding up her scroll. "I haven't done this in a while--haven't had to--but with this many..."
One Grimm turned to lunge at her suddenly. Maybe it knew she was up to something.
Emerald held up her knife, and her Aura flashed into view. The Grimm clamped its teeth around her arm and the Aura seemed to fry it instantly. It turned to smoke.
The kids blinked.
The other Grimm looked at Emerald apprehensively.
"Yeah, you know what that means," Emerald said in a low voice. "I'm not alone..."
She drew a line in the ground with her knife.
"You stay away from these kids--and other people," she specified.
Finally she got her playlist on. She'd named it the "Grimm Destroying Jam".
[Andy Mineo--"You Can't Stop Me"]
The kids and young adults looked at her like she'd gone crazy--or with hope, for some of them.
But sure enough, the Grimm all stopped at the line she'd drawn, then they turned and ran for it.
"Hey, Piper, stop that," Emerald called. "You're just keeping them here."
"He needs to hold them while they get on the ship," Claw argued.
Emerald was going to argue and then thought better of wasting more time.
The pilot let down the gangplank.
"Okay, everybody on," Emerald said, hustling the campers.
They scrambled on board no problem.
The handful of Grimm being held in place by Piper followed the campers with their eyes, even if they were unable to move.
Then Piper suddenly gasped and fell to his knees, winded.
His Aura shattered.
Claw knocked one Grimm down with her pike as they all snapped out of it.
"Shut the d--- hatch!" Emerald told the pilot, moving away from it as some Grimm ran towards her.
The pilot did as she said, whatever his private opinion might have been of it being wise.
Emerald thought the Grimm would attack her, but they were freaked out by her now. They turned away--but the music wasn't enough to scare them--maybe hearing the pipe had kind of drowned it out--and they spun around and went for the remaining two huntsmen instead.
Neptune and Yang being too far away to see or reach them, Emerald shot one of the lines out and stuck it into the grimm.
"Just die already--" she strained, as it almost yanked her forward and off her feet.
Her Aura spread along the line, and the Grimm howled and began to smoke.
Claw blasted away two more.
Now, there were only two left.
One of these had wings, unfortunately, and suddenly it snatched up Piper and started to fly away.
Claw couldn't shoot--she might hit her partner instead.
Emerald swore and swung her line up and looped it around Piper's foot.
She pulled.
"Help me!" she yelled at Claw.
The other Grimm turned to them.
"Get lost!" Emerald shouted at it.
It decided to run.
Claw glanced at Emerald uncertainly, but then she dropped her weapon and grabbed the line also.
The flying Grimm did slow a bit, but it began to tug so hard it could tear Piper in two if he didn't get free. He was trying to wiggle, but he couldn't reach the monster's claws.
Just as it looked as if he might be a goner, Mercury's silver light pierced the air again.
It fried not only that Grimm, but a few more that were still running for it and in his line of sight.
The rest of them fled like whipped curs into the forest--hopefully they'd start scattering like the group had planned.
Piper dropped about 12 feet. Thankfully he landed on a bush instead of rock, otherwise with no Aura he might have broken his ribs.
Emerald dropped her knives and rubbed her arms. "S---, that was close."
"What'd we miss?" Yang and Neptune came running out of the quarry then, with the rest of the campers.
Raven appeared out of a portal next to Yang abruptly.
"All right," she said firmly. "It looks as though most of the ones on this side have run off or been vaporized, and the ones coming from the other side are starting to peter out. They must have realized we're tougher than they are, but I'm not leaving it to chance that they won't regroup. Where's the rest of your caravan?"
"We don't know," one man answered her. "It rained so hard two days ago, a flash flood washed up, and mudslide. We got separated in the hills. We found the quarry later and hoped it would be enough shelter. They haven't found us. We've tried calling them, but who knows? The water could have fried their scrolls, or the weather could be clouding our signals...or..."
Or Grimm.
"I think we're pretty far off course," a woman said.
"Where were you going?" Claw inquired.
"Argus," some of them said.
"We were headed to Pan Animarum," said some of the others.
Pan Animaraum was a small city about 50 miles away as the crow flew, according to Raven's estimate.
[Pan is Greek for "all", among other things, also relates to nature. Animarum is Latin for "Souls", plural. "All souls" would be the translation. The World of Remnant has a lot of soul-themed names as you might remember from when they left Vacuo for the Grimm lands.]
"If you were going to Argus, I can send you there now," Raven said resolutely. "And the rest of you will wait for the rescue plane and get escorted to Pan Animarum. I guess we'll have to wait for that."
It started to rain right then.
"Can we wait on the ship till then?" someone said.
Some people managed to laugh.
"And our supplies?" said someone else.
"You can drive it." Yang pointed out. "Once we have enough of an escort. I guess it can just wait for now. I mean, I doubt a bandit tribe is going to pop out of the trees and steal it--"
Raven shot her a dirty look. "Do not invite bad luck, Xiao Long."
"I thought we didn't believe in that anymore, Commander," Yang sassed her back.
"Are you two related? You look kind of alike," said one person.
"Yeah, like sisters," said another.
"Dude, she's her mom!" Neptune pointed from Raven to Yang.
"Oh..." The person seemed embarrassed. "She just looks young."
Raven frowned.
"You do kind of look younger than Qrow," Mercury noted, finally joined them. "Are you sure you're twins?"
"The job just aged him poorly," Raven said smugly. "Women handle stress better than men."
"Is that really true?" Neptune said.
"I'm a little bummed I didn't get to kill the big Grimm," Yang changed the subject.
* * *
The rescue ship arrived not too long after they'd been waiting.
While they were standing around, Raven decided to return to Argus to confer with Winter briefly about the rest of the Caravan.
"This could be a bigger mission than we thought," she explained. "You all might get pulled off of it and replaced with the military trained operatives if we're looking for missing people."
"I think we could handle that," Yang crossed her arms.
"Just stay with the ship." Raven said flatly.
She was taking the handful of people who needed to go to Argus with her.
While she was gone, the teens and other two team members were standing in the front of the air ship away from the passengers.
The pilot, who finally they found out the name of (only Raven had apparently known already) was Royal Zapato, was just sipping coffee and seemed unfazed by the entire ordeal.
"Not that it's really that much compared to what we've done in the past," Emerald remarked. "Just that it's taking longer than we thought and people might be missing. I hope the grimm thing is still on track."
"You know, you worry too much," Mercury put his feet up. "We can't do anything about it, just relax."
"How about Raven though?" Neptune rubbed his head. "She's loving this."
"Wish I could say the same," Yang said.
"Did it step on you leather boot toes that she's bossing you around, Blondie?" Mercury said.
"Yeah, kind of," Yang said.
"No family bonding huh?" Emerald said dryly. "Personally, if I were you, I'd think my mom was pretty cool."
"Ew, don't say that," Yang said.
"It's never cool when it's your mom," Neptune said. "That's how parents are."
"Oh, poor you," Mercury mocked him.
Claw and Piper were watching them all oddly.
"What? Are we offending you by having a normal conversation while we're waiting?" Mercury said tersely.
"It's not that," Piper said. "How did you do that thing out there? With the light."
"Oh, trade secret," Mercury said. "Anyway, I thought you didn't want us here, so why does it matter?"
"Mercury!" Emerald hissed.
"What? I'm not just gonna take them calling us basically schmucks who were getting down with it on the job and then changing their tune just because we pulled their a---s out of the fire," Mercury said. "That's cheap."
"People can change their minds," Neptune pointed out. "We used to think you were an over confident, prickish jackass with a big mouth and bigger anger issues, but now we think you're okay."
"Wow...Blue Boy, that was almost actually good," Mercury said. "Did Blondie teach you some salt while you were cruising around the countryside?"
"Maybe he swallowed too much sea water," Emerald snickered.
"Hey." Yang sat up more.
"Just kidding." Emerald held up her hands. "Old habits. Sorry. No, but really, you seem pretty calm. The rain doesn't bother you?"
"Oh...uh...I try not to think about it," Neptune said. "I mean...at least it's not all around...kind of."
"Rain?" Claw said warily. "What? Do you have rain powers?"
"No...uh, my Semblance lets me control water--kind of." Neptune finally told people this instead of hiding it--though he was reluctant.
"So...you're saying you'd be pretty overpowered also if you were outside right now?" Piper said.
"I don't really like using it," Neptune said.
"His brother tried to drown him once," Mercury said. "Didn't end well."
"Dude!" Neptune said. "He was trying to get me to swim--and stop telling everyone that."
"Everyone knows all our dirty secrets. Why do you care?" Mercury said. "It's liberating."
"No, it's not!"
"Shut up already," Yang told Mercury. "You always get like this when you're anxious, and it's really annoying. Don't make everyone else miserable with you."
"That was way harsh," Mercury said.
"Can we all stop acting like crazy people? Just for five minutes?" Emerald begged. "We're scaring the pilot."
"Actually, I'm fine," Royal said casually, flipping a magazine page.
"You seem...oddly okay with this," Yang said. "Like...seriously what was your job before?"
"I've done a little of most things in the military." Royal looked up. "I was there when you and your team stole that ship and headed for Atlas. On the ground though. You probably wouldn't have seen me."
"Oh..." Yang said. "Right...uh...sorry about that, I guess?" She gestured uncertainly.
"Oh, water under the bridge, if you'll pardon the use of that expression." Royal nodded at Neptune.
"You're not against us being here, Fly Boy?" Mercury said. "You're the only one who hasn't talked s---."
"Anyone who saves the world is okay in my book, even if they were something else in the past." Royal flipped another page. "Anyway, Momma always said the problem with an eye for an eye is that soon everyone's blind."
"That sounds like something Wally would say," Emerald said.
[Joke for people who watched JLU--Flash does quote that saying in that show.]
"Let's not talk about it again," Neptune said. "It's weird to talk about it."
He meant because Claw and Piper were right there. They were glaring at Mercury too.
Claw crossed her arms. "All right, fine, maybe we were a little wrong about your level of...competency. The plan went better than I thought it would. But you have extra powers. That's not exactly something we could predict."
"Does that really make it okay?" Yang was still in a huff. "You dissed on our teammates. I can't believe I'm saying this, but if they were assigned to us by the higher-ups, isn't that something you're supposed to defer to?"
"Yang..." Neptune said.
"No, we're not fighting Grimm right now, and I think we should call them out on it," Yang insisted.
"Honestly, I'm with her," Mercury said. "And I don't really give a crap about protocol, personally, but it's just stupid when there's Grimm around to start something like that."
"If you had a problem with us, you could have said something before we left Argus," Emerald said. "I'm sure they would have reassigned you. I just don't get starting it with us on the job."
Claw and Piper looked a little embarrassed actually.
"They're not exactly wrong about that," Piper said. "Usually I'm more professional than this.... Look, we didn't want to sound like we couldn't do our job. But...well, it got old, listening to a former Bandit boss us around. Just seemed too cheeky."
"Yeah, what a joke," Claw said.
"Hey!" Yang's eyes turned red.
"I was on Atlas when it fell--well, when it started to," Piper said. "I saw you there."
He was looking at Emerald.
Emerald blinked. "In the subway..."
"Yeah." Piper nodded. "My family lost everything because of that. Right now, I'm supporting them, but wages aren't what they used to be. My siblings are trying to work too, but the economy isn't the same anymore, between the refugees, the Grimm attacks, all of it. We're scraping by. Maybe all that isn't your fault, but some of it is."
Emerald winced.
"Hey, she barely did anything in Atlas." Mercury put a hand on her shoulder. "And she did a lot to support it. That's not even fair. And for the record, I did nothing at all--that time. Vacuo was when I...okay, and before that, but still, what do you expect us to do? Undo it?"
"So you're sorry, is that it?" Claw said. "That doesn't fix anything. And you saved the world? Great. But our problems are not any better because of you."
"But you're alive," Yang pointed out. "You wouldn't be if not for their help."
"It just doesn't seem fair," Claw said. "We were good people. We never did anything but serve Atlas and the public. And you blew it all for your own selfish reasons. Yet, you got selected for the world saving mission and we get the boot, literally."
Silence.
"Are you jealous of them?" Yang said oddly.
"Well, Yang, it wouldn't be the first time," Neptune reminded her.
"Well...yeah, but...wouldn't you just say they had to risk their lives to atone for it?" Yang said. "I mean, you have no idea the s--- that Em and Merc went through because they switched sides. It got ugly. All of us went through it--the Mind Grimm attacks, the gods' judgments, the people trying to screw us over who were still working for Salem. Emerald almost got choked off by her old mentor--and that mentor joined our team. How trippy was that? You really want to envy us?"
They frowned.
"Maybe," Piper said. "You want to see it as a punishment? Then why the awards? Why the hype? Wasn't it just what you should have done?"
"Hey, I never asked for the medal." Emerald pulled hers out and dangled it in front of him. "I only carry the d--- thing in case people like you try to kill me because they think I'm still a criminal! I worked my a-- off to change my record. I didn't think I deserved the clout, but they wanted to make us heroes. Still, we're trying to get on the right track."
"I kinda get it," Yang spoke up. "I used to feel the same way you two do."
"Did you?" Claw was skeptical.
"Yeah, I didn't like them being on our side at all," Yang said.
"Yeah, you were a b---- about it," Mercury said.
"Hey, watch it," Neptune said.
"He's right, I was," Yang said. "But I changed my mind about them, because I saw them put in the work to get right again. And it's... surprisingly easy to do the wrong thing and not realize it. Even now, we're not really tight." She shrugged. "But I'm not carrying a grudge about it. I lost stuff too."
She pointed to her metal arm. "I used to blame them for this... but in the long run, they didn't really control the person who did it, or Salem, or the Grimm.... They were pawns, and they tried to change that. It's not easy. You don't have to like them, but you should respect them for making that kind of call."
"Wow..." Emerald was surprised. "D---, Yang."
"Don't." Yang didn't want her to get sappy.
Claw and Piper exchanged a look.
"I'm not sure I want to change my mind just like that," Claw said.
"But you did help..." Piper said. "Maybe it's only fair. I don't know--I think Raven might reassign us either way after what we pulled. If she doesn't, I guess we'll worry about teamwork then."
This was probably as good as they would get.
[This is the end of Yang and Neptune's main focus chapters, but they will be in other ones. See how things came full circle for them?
But since technically Emerald and Mercury were only featured as a side to their chapter, and so was Raven, they will also have chapters focused on them coming up.]