The Weekend - Near Midnight, Thelrose Park, Northern Quarter, Vale

Gage's bike helmet looked over everyone. Scarlet being Scarlet, Cerise failing to appeal to reason, and Halle trying to be helpful with Duncan looming in the background like a warhead having tea.

As Strings was caught and flanked by his gang, the delinquent lightly pushed his kickstand down and calmly strode past the helmeted Scarlet and firmly planted himself by Strings' side. By now, the mood was turning ugly. More than a few were taking cover on account of having ranged weaponry while in the majority's hands were a selection of unfolding batons, daggers, and even cleavers.

"There's not gonna be a fight," he spoke aloud through the helmet. "An' the trade being you all walk away from this while we get what we want."

"Who the fuck you all think you are," Strings began, reaching into his pocket to pull out his piece, a Hei Xiong heat cleaver.

The delinquent in his woven scarf pulled off his helmet and planted it firmly on the ground, looking the greasy-haired thug square in the eye and stabbing the murderous tension so that it bled messily into the air, the gang members silenced and more or less calm.

Strings' reddening face was coated in a light sheen of sweat. If the name Gravedigger Joe rang many big bells, and the cat-pawed baton was too distinct, the herald of the Four Beasts was the final piece in the puzzle. There was no mistaking the bandanna. "Y-you-"

"Bring Mack out here, Strings. We're done playing."

A brief scuffle was had beyond the light of the big bikes. Mack, who turned out to be a kid somewhat younger than them, of indeterminate gender, and clad in a large coat was shoved forward. Round eyes were bouncing back and forth between both parties, an eyelid twitching on account of not getting a particular kind of fix.

Questions were reiterated. Finally, in a squeaky voice, Mack muttered, "Stuff like that, you're gonna want Candlemas Avenue! All them hostels an' things, places to show tourists good times." This was punctuated with a nervous giggle. "Places where anybody who's anybody goes..."

edited 30th Apr '16 12:33:55 AM by KR_Vandal

Evening

Scarlet strode forward, her boots making heavy clomping sounds as she came to a stop in front of Mack, looming menacing before reaching out her hand and patting Mack gently on the head.

"Thank you for your help." She looked at the other gang members. "Thank you all for your help. We're on a tight schedule and I really don't need stories of me beating up people with..."

...jaundice?

"...dull weapons, circulating around the street, ya know? Oh and feel free to tell them we roughed you up so you can keep your cred." And then the biker walked back and mounted her motorcycle.

"C'mon people, we ain't got all night."

Morning in Dorm Sakura

"You mean Gage isn't—?" Cerise said, though instead of finishing that sentence, she grinned. "Only kidding. They'd never make Gage the leader."

Cerise leaned back in her chair with a fork sticking out of her mouth. In her mind, Cerise envisioned James as a leader tall, handsome, muscular, and with a huge...aura.

"Well, is he any good, then?" Cerise said.

Night

"There's not gonna be a fight?" Cerise said.

Cerise looked visibly disappointed. On the back of Gage's bike, Cerise swapped her crossed legs and unwrapped a chocolate bar taken from the storage compartment.

"Off to Candlemas Ave, then. You know, I—"

Distracted, Cerise hopped off the seat and strode over to Mack. She bent her knees and leaned forward, lowering herself to about Mack's height to get a better look at the kid's face. The old instincts born from interacting with other kids at the orphanage kicked in.

"Aren't you cute," she said, finally. She held up another wrapped chocolate bar. "Chocolate? Or do you know better than to take candy from strangers?"

edited 30th Apr '16 6:28:23 AM by opnerf

Evening

With answers apparently found, Duncan simply shrugged and slung his shield onto his back and hopped back onto his bike.

Flicking through his collection, Duncan eventually began playing a track he deemed fitting for the current scenario. Duncan was a firm believer that a fitting song can do wonders for improving morale and it was looking like that might be needed in the future. Drumming on the handlebars as he waited for everyone else to saddle up, Duncan shouted over to Cerise "You ridin' with me again Cerise?"

Weekend. Morning.

Quietly leaving the Infirmary after gathering his things and the opportunity to sneak away arrived, James didn't waste any time dropping off those forms he'd filled in earlier at the front office before heading over to the dorm. Sitting in bed wasn't going to get anything accomplished, after all.

Resting his tattered jacket over his shoulder, walking into the dorm and nervously peering into the kitchen.

The Weekend - Near Midnight, Thelrose Park, Northern Quarter, Vale

There were sounds of general insults in the direction of the Beacon students. One of them even kicked dirt in their direction as they began to slouch back to whatever it was they were doing.

Mack flinched under Scarlet's touch. Then looked Cerise square in the eye with his(her?) own twitching lid before grabbing the chocolate out from her hand and shoving the whole thing into her(his?) mouth. The expression on Mack's face told the cat Faunus precisely what they thought of her patronizing manner.

Gage rolled his eyes and stuffed his helmet under his arm and turned back to his Hornet.

"Yo, 'Sura!"

He looked back to where Strings was dusting himself off. The look on his face was cunning and mildly foul.

"Watch your back. Phoenix is still out for your head."

With a final gesture, they were met with the back of the Faunus as he followed after his retreating gang, Mack at his side.

Gage only sighed and resumed his journey back to his bike and his passenger. Candlemas Avenue was in the border where North bled into South, after all.

Weekend - Morning, Dorm Sakura Kitchen

Cerise got her own rude gesture care of Gage, his mouth stuffed with pancakes as he rose to boil himself his customary cup of tea.

edited 30th Apr '16 7:48:50 AM by KR_Vandal

Morning in Dorm Sakura

Cerise giggled.

"I'm just doing what I was born to do," she said. She finished off another pancake, and was almost down to the bottom of the stack. "Making sure you don't get a big head."

Night

Cerise hummed lightly and shrugged. "Rude kid," she said.

Cerise turned away and walked back to Gage's bike, finishing off her own half-eaten chocolate bar and then mounting on the back of the bike without asking. She waved Duncan off.

"Naw, think I'll ride with Gage this time," she said. "Like old times. Cheers, though."

edited 30th Apr '16 10:09:22 AM by opnerf

Just on time!

As soon as Cerise had asked Dia about James, Dia had responded. "He's somewhat shy, but a nice guy."

And it was just then that James peeked into the Kitchen. Dia would politely address him without shouting as she waved to him.

"Good morning James."

She would then stand up to introduce both of them to each other via gestures.

"Cerise, he's our team leader James. James, meet our new member Cerise."

Weekend Evening

"Fine, let's move." Halle climbed back onto Duncan's bike. "I'm not kidding, Scarlet, next place we go you better take it down a notch. These people are criminals, not monsters; they're more than likely victims of circumstance, you know."

edited 3rd May '16 1:49:16 PM by Taco

Morning Kitchen

Raggy rubbed his eyes lightly as more people entered the kitchen. "Hi, folks..." Then his eyes set upon James.

He knew that the bespectacled peer of his got rather badly injured the last night. To see him on his feet already was... just a little troubling.

"James? You okay?" He asked, shuffling up to his feet to look at Croire.

Vale-Evening

Scarlet growled at Halle's word and gunned the acceleration on her bike, quickly taking her away from the gang, only for the biker to swerve off into a side-alley and park.

The redhead stepped off her bike and deactivated her helmet, retracting it into a circlet. Once the others arrived and parked she would speak.

"Take it down a notch? Halle, go home. You're clearly out of your depth here. I didn't even hurt anything but his pride and you're already crying about my supposed sins."

Kitchen.

Blinking in surprise and nervously walking into the kitchen instead of timidly peering from his hiding spot, James adjusted the goggles covering his eyes.

"Um, g-good morning...again, Dia. And, um..." He glanced over at Cerise, giving a friendly wave and blushing a tiny bit. "I-It's...nice to m-meet you, M-Miss Cerise. U-Um..." The poor kid seemed to be struggling on what to say, getting even more flustered, although the silver-haired classmate...sort of bailed him out.

"I-I'm fine...I mean, i-it hurts but, well...I don't p-plan on overdoing it. Um, s-sorry, R-Ragna."

Kitchen

"Shouldn't you still be recovering in the infirmary, James?" Raggy inquired, looking rather worried for his peer. "You don't look too good regardless..."

Kitchen

Dia was obviously concerned about James' safety. That was an impalement right there, and furthermore, for some strange reason, Iris' drone was unable to heal the wound. She sat down, took a few bites of her breakfast before adjusting her hair.

"I'm concerned about your safety too, James. But if you're able to handle it, then I guess... it's ok?"

edited 1st May '16 4:55:15 AM by ironcommando

Kitchen.

Going an even brighter shade of red and anxiously glancing to the side, James tried to pull himself together and look at least somewhat confident.

"...I can't...exactly get t-things done if I'm stuck in bed. A-And, um, t-thank you, Dia... U-Um, anyway, it's not like I plan on overdoing it and making things worse, R-Ragna. so...w-well..." The boy took a deep breath before giving a timid smile. "I-I mean, i-if you want...we could...maybe...um...h-how do you put it...we c-could...'hang out together' too...maybe..."

He just hoped they or anyone else in the room wouldn't take that out of context.

The Weekend - Near Midnight, Northern Quarter, Vale

They were beginning to understand the true fallout of the CCT attack. Normally a busy weekend time, they came across more closed shops than were open, with increased police presence that all took care to avoid on the way to the park.

At the park, they stopped underneath a streetlight by a gazebo. Passenger in tow, Gage was next to fall in after Scarlet took that sudden sharp turn.

He formed the next side of their informal pentagon, cutting his engine and swinging his legs free so he could lean against his bike. "We gotta give her props though, Scarlet handled that better than I thought, even with the sticky take-off."

Gage looked at Duncan. "Dunc there gave us the muscle, and they'd have been willing to jaw. But when Halle showed up and Cerise did her routine, that's what pushed them over. Much as I'd hate to say it, Scarlet's right about there being too many of us. But that don't mean we're buggin' out, Red. We're deep into it now."

The Weekend - Dorm Sakura, Kitchen

What was in James' rucksack was James' business, that was what was running through Gage's mind.

But upon seeing Dia, a thought occurred to him as he turned to his partner, his mouth still messy with syrup. "Dia, got a minute?"

Morning in Dorm Sakura

Cerise stood, pushing her chair back across the floor. She walked up to James and sized him up and down, wide grin getting up in his face and giving Cerise a difficult to read expression. James, it seems, was not tall, handsome (more bishounen than anything, not that Cerise disliked that), or muscular.

Well, maybe he still has a huge...aura, Cerise thought.

Cerise cocked her head in Gage's direction.

"You vouch for this guy?" she said.

Night

Still clinging to Gage's waist from the ride over, Cerise peered over his shoulder.

"Yup. That's me. MVP."

She popped back behind Gage's large frame, humming her same tune from earlier that morning.

edited 3rd May '16 12:18:17 PM by opnerf

Weekend Morning- Kitchen

Dia paused her breakfast as she heard James ask about hanging out together.

(Hanging out together? Sure, why not?)

"I'd love to, James."

The green-haired girl would resume eating until she heard Gage's question. She finished her bite before responding with her natural straight face.

"Sure, Gage. What may this be about?"

Weekend Night

"Fall off your bike, Gage." Halle snapped back. "If I'm the one thing keeping us from being a bunch of thugs then so fucking be it. I don't know about where any of you come from, but these folks are no different from the ones out in the country where Dad and I live, or that worked in the industrial park where I was born." She clacked Zarathustra as she talked, almost as another form of gesticulation. "You have no right to leverage any amount of unprovoked violence against these people."

Night

"Get your mind out of the boonies, you idiot!" Scarlet yelled back at Halle. "We encounter one gang of pickpockets and you're already willing to excuse every criminal we come across! And you wanted to do 'fair-trade' with them. If you had given them honest pay for their services they would have been just as likely to send us on a wild goose chase as actually help. Sure, we scared them, but they gave us solid info because of it."

Evening

Still drumming along to his music and trying not to get wrapped up in the argument, Duncan was quickly growing tired of hearing his friends bicker.

"I mean, I'd rather not fight anyone without them attackin' me first, or if it's in the ring. So I'd rather we stick t'talkin' with these guys until they start somethin' with us. Nothin' wrong with a little bit of intimidation if they're tryin' t'be tough guys though, but I'd rather avoid outright threatenin' them if that's okay with you guys."

Weekend Night

"Thank you Duncan." Halle said. Her mind worked rapidly and she seized the little momentum he gave her to shift into an attack. "First of all, Scarlet, it's pronounced fair trade. The other thing is that I said industrial park. You missed that part. I was raised 5 minutes outside the center of town, in a factory crewed by the urban working class. What happened to make you resent the place you came from so much?"

Night

"The stuff that normally happens when you're left without a father figure for....ten years now." Scarlet replied, cooly. "Throw in any psychological issues a kid might get from a mother to depressed to take care of her plus a power she can't control."

She sat back down on her bike and thought for another minute. "I suppose after that I just couldn't get over how dad sacrificed his life going after some crook who was more scared of the law than Grimm and yet nothing really changed. Someone got away with leaving a cop to die and the gangs just seemed to be getting stronger by the day. So yeah, I don't have much respect for the same people who tore my family apart. But I don't go looking to start fights with half-starved gangs. Just scare 'em until they point me in the direction of someone who actually has it coming."

"You don't think that that fear will ever galvanize?" Halle asked. Interesting. Cool motive. Still assault. Etcetera. "Humans galvanized oppressive fear of Grimm into Huntsmen. Every time you show up here and shake down gangs for a supposed greater good, you're creating a bigger ingroup mentality for them and reinforcing a narrative that anyone not from this area is a scumbag." She shook her head. "Look, I'm not going to blame anyone for getting themselves killed, and I get where you're coming from on this policy, believe me, but one day folks aren't going to be scared, and that's when people will die. I don't want that day to ever come."

Nights

"So what? Crooks should just be able to walk around unafraid!?" Scarlet shot back. "Able to just scurry behind Old Man Junior and the others when the cops come calling? Forget that. Let them be afraid, let them hate me. I could care less. If I can stop one more crime, one more criminal from making another me they can kill me for all I care!"

Scarlet punched the alley wall, leaving an small impact crater in the mortar. "I don't hurt anyone who hasn't earned it. And anyone who's going to cover for whoever attacked us has definitely earned it. So go home, Halle, and judge me all you want from there but don't come along and tell me how I should be getting information from these people, I did just fine before I met you."