Qrow could barely contain his grin when both him and Ozpin walked into the police station. The looks they received? As Qrow Branwen, one of the best Huntsmen in Vale. As Ozpin, THE Huntsman, councilor and Headmaster of Beacon. Just one of them would be alarming to see but both? Some of the officers did their best to make themselves look busy.
"Heheh.. the novelty of this never wears off." Qrow chuckled as he took a swig from his cantine.
"Agreed. Especially so because I think a few of them already looked distresssed before they saw us. I believe Yin may have inherited Raven's blunt attitude that always seemed to put others through... well, you know." Ozpin replied, giving Qrow a good natured smirk.
"You mean how she drove Port up the wall? Raven's the reason he always monologues that long. Poor guy couldn't get a word in when he taught us.." Qrow snorted before walking over to the front desk, seeing his Niece calmly answer questions posed by two incredulous officers.
"And then.. when they fired rockets, you did.. what?" A tired female officer asked Yin incredulously.
"I jumped on the rockets. I used them as stepping stones then got onto truck." Yin answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
The female officer ran down her hand down her face and sighed.
"Okay.... yeah.. and then-Oh! Councilor Ozpin? Mister Branwen?" The officer stood at attention and greeted the two newcomers.
"My apologies, Officer Linda. We had heard our friend here got involved in a misunderstanding. So we came to help clear things up." Ozpin smiled politely and shook the woman's hand.
"Oh.. yes, that's fine. Our main issues are that Miss Branwen-XiaoLong here engaged in.. 'Huntsman' activities without a license or student status. We were just getting her.. account here." The officer, Linda, answered with a strange edge in her voice.
Qrow and Ozpin looked at Yin, who just shrugged with a hard to notice smirk. Seeing that face, Qrow had a pretty good idea she either did something questionable or completely unbelievable.
"I saw some of the streamed chase but is there anything she did that could trouble her legally?"
Officer Linda sighed and shook her head, "Technically? No. Her vict-suspects are all alive. But.. forgive me for saying this.. but this is fucking insane. She JUMPED onto flying ordinance, split an Atlas truck in half and shrugged off a full blast from Baldur Beormir's semblance. It's.. suspicious, if you don't mind me saying."
Qrow shrugged, both him and Ozpin knowing exactly where she picked up her skills. But stating she was trained by bandits would only complicate things further. Ozpin stepped in and decided to smooth things over.
"Ah yes. She was trained by her Uncle here. He is very capable, so it's not too absurd if you think about it. Now, as for her license? She has one pending but the physical copy hasn't been sent yet. I'll send a copy to your precinct via email as soon as I return. I apologize for the confusion, Officer Linda." Ozpin smiled and leaned on his cane.
Officer Linda simply looked at Qrow, then Yin. Then finally back to Ozpin.
"Very well then. We may reach out to Miss Branwen-XiaoLong later once the suspects.. wake up. They're currently all in the hospital with the exception of one."
Yin cleared her throat and stepped forward.
"I'd like to interrogate the one you have. Bjorn, his name ought to be." Yin stated, looking into Linda's eyes as she did her best to not look at the intimidating teen.
"Heh. I'm sure we can set somethin' up later, Mini-Rae. For now, I think we should head back. Your place got hit hard, right?" Qrow stepped in and pat Yin's shoulder, drawing her eyes away from the poor officer.
"Mn. Yeah, I should go see if they're okay. Thanks for coming, Uncle, Headmaster." Yin gave them a grateful nod and speed walked out of the station with a purpose.
"You know, Qrow.. I think we just found a potential candidate to help you on your new assignment." Ozpin nudged his long-time friend and subordinate on the shoulder.
"Well it'd certainly go way smoother if I had Yin. Given what we've seen her capable of? Yeah, I'll swing by her place. The opportunity to get back at the douchebags who did this will probably entice her enough but just in case.. I got Yang on speed dial. Pretty sure Yin would agree to raid Atlas itself if Yang asked her to join.." Qrow snickered, imagining the face of Ironwood in that particular hypothetical.
"Oh my Gods there's another...?" Poor officer Linda whispered in what sounded like horror.
-Branwen Branch, Twenty minutes later-
As soon as Yin arrived, she saw the damage. The front office had been hit with an explosion. Likely from the two rocket launchers. As soon as she walked in, she was met with Shia, who ran out from further in the building and grabbed her shoulder.
"I did as you said. I kept two alive, lost the cops and came back. Though Ren, Nora and Emerald were a bit roughed up. April was spared, since she was in the back, taking inventory." Shia informed as she hugged Yin's arm and basked in her affectionate head-patting and ears-stroking.
Yin smiled and kissed Shia on the forehead, "You did a good job, Shia. I'm proud of you. I'll interrogate those guys after I check on Emerald, Ren and Nora. Was any of our other men hit?"
Shia preened under her compliment and affection, squeezing the large mounds of her breasts into Yin's arm before answering.
"Nope! We had them out on those jobs you posted. About half went to recon Mountain Glenn and the other half went to recon the Executors. They checked in about ten minutes ago and a few sent reports. I saved them on your computer. Your room and the back offices are all pretty much untouched so there shouldn't be much of an issue getting settled." Shia released her arm and gave Yin a proud smirk after she informed.
Her expression being one that said 'Yeah I did a great job right? Praise me more!'.
"You're awesome, Shia. Really. Thank you for the hard work." Yin complimented before tilting Shia's head up and giving her an affectionate kiss on the lips before strutting into the meeting room and seeing a bandaged Nora and Ren.
Though Emerald seemed mostly fine herself, having a few cuts and bruises that were covered up with bandaids and compresses. Nora, seeing Yin walk in had immediately tried to get up and salute her, only to wince as she put weight on her leg.
"Fearless Lea-Ow! Ow! We successfully defended Emerald and.. well.. uh..." Nora coughed and awkwardly sat back down before mumbling something about 'Tanking two rockets'.
"Y-Yeah they shielded me, Yin. I'm sorry.. I panicked and I gave one of the shooters an illusion a huge bug was crawling on his hand s-so they didn't shoot us with a third.." Emerald apologized.
Ren looked like he wanted to speak, but he shamefully kept his head lowered, expecting Yin to be disappointed.
Instead, Yin gently brought them all into a hug.
"You guys did well. I wasn't expecting the attack either. But you reacted fast and did what you could. What's important is that we learn from this and that you're all alive. I'd hate to lose my treasures." Yin backed up after five seconds and held an intense, yet oddly caring look in her crimson eyes.
"I.. I should have been-" Ren, feeling his throat clench, was about to blame himself when Nora grabbed his shoulder.
"Ren, Renny, Rennykins.. There was no way we could have forseen that they'd whip out their tools and blow it all over our backs. But NEXT TIME?" Nora raised her fist.
"Next time! We're going to WHIP OUT our BIGGER tools and blow it all over THEIR backs! We're gonna mess them up so hard they'll become STUPID and beg for more.."
They all looked at Nora strangely before Ren chortled. Not having expected the somewhat innocent yet vulgar innuendo, Ren found himself holding back his laughter. His previous despondence overshadowed by the sudden humorous, (yet oddly inspiring?) outburst from Nora.
Yin smirked and nodded at Nora, knowing she had likely said all of that to help snap Ren out of it. She always knew what to say to help him feel better, after all.
"Just as Nora said. We're going to fuck them.. up. But before we can, you need to rest and let your aura heal you up. As soon as you're back at a hundred percent? I'll call on you. Now, I have to go interrogate the two Shia caught. So relax in the common area and I'll come check on you guys in a few minutes." Yin ushered the three of them into the common area, where some televisions, game systems, bookshelves and mini fridges were, before closing the door and looking at Shia with a stoic expression.
"Take me to them."
-Hodr Beormir-
It was all so sudden. One day, him and his people were approached by the Atlesian Mafia and offered a job. Things hadn't been so good ever since the Branwen kicked them out of Anima, so they took it. His Father sent him and his brother, Baldur down as a show of good faith. Thor wouldn't listen to the orders of that Gelle boy and they needed the money. It all made sense.
Then, they were offered a job. Harass and attack the new Branwen PMC office in Vale. Raven's own child was supposedly staying there. They were given ordinance, guns and armored trucks. They even blew up the front of the building pretty good before there was any sort of pushback.
After that, it was all a blur. Escaping the scene, being chased by a crazy masked woman in a hoodie and Yin herself, who apparently wasn't inside the office when they hit it. Then the masked woman totaled one truck before catching theirs and flipping it.
Then he woke up in a basement in heavy chains.
"Nnnngh..! Fuck.... fuck!" Hodr tried moving his arms to no avail.
One had been dislocated and the other was chained to a wall. He tried to freeze the chain, but his semblance fizzled out shortly after. Having most of his aura focused on healing him left very little remaining.
*Creaaak*
The darkness was broken as the basement door opened. In stepped one of his targets, Yin Branwen-XiaoLong. Her crimson eyes locked onto him in the dark as she slowly walked over.
"I'll make this simple. Who hired you to attack my office?" Yin asked, her voice calm and mature, going against the expectations Hodr had when he heard she was supposedly fourteen.
*Ptui*
"Hired? Nobody hired us. We came for revenge.. For Magni and Modi." Hodr replied after spitting on the ground.
"You didn't get that tech lying around. And you haven't so much as dared talked to my clan since we kicked you out of Mistral. Try again." Yin stepped closer, looking down at him with a cold disdain in her eyes.
"..." Hodr didn't answer. He was never the smartest, so making up lies wasn't his strong suit.
"I'm going to get paper and give your dickhole a papercut and lemonjuice bath until you tell me what I want to know." Yin turned back, making her way to the door as she heard Hodr grunt in displeasure.
"Fuck no.. I have no idea. The equipment's from that William Gelle bastard. The job? From what I heard by Baldur? It was given to us by William's friend in a high place..." Hodr said with a scowl under his bearded face.
Yin paused and cupped her chin. For a few seconds, she thought about something before nodding and turning away.
But Hodr wasn't happy with how one-sided the exchange was..
"Heh.. but you should know. We do want revenge on you. You killed our kin. It's only fair we did the same. There was another team.." His words made Yin stop once again, standing by the basement door.
Seeing his words seemingly sink in, he continued with an angered smile.
"You have some sweet sisters, right? The blonde one and the redhead? I wonder how that team's doing.. With those helpless girls in that cabin..." Hodr chuckled darkly, waiting for Yin to react with panic, anger, desperation.
Instead, she chuckled. Still facing away from him, she brought out her scroll and showed him a picture Yang had sent her ten minutes prior. Of two men hanging from a tree branch by their legs while Ruby hit them with a bat like some kind of strange pinata.
Hodr knew the two men. They weren't Huntsman level but they weren't far off. His face burned with anger and embarrassment as he looked at how bruised up the men were.
"You need to do your homework. My sister? She's no pushover. And if they'd tried to intrude when Summer or my Father was there? They'd be dead." Yin laughed quietly as she put her scroll away.
"But this just affirms things for me. It's too careless to leave things to chance.. To underestimate you next time. So I'm going to exterminate you all. Pull you up from the roots. Because if my sister had been weaker..? If some underhanded method had been used....?"
Yin slowly turned toward him again.
Hodr felt his skin become numb and clammy. Cold sweat poured down his face and back and his tongue almost seemed too big for his mouth. Looking at Yin, she didn't look angry. Only resolute.
"If that happened.. and you had killed my Yang? If you had so much as hurt her? I would show you Hell on Remnant. So consider this my act of mercy, despite knowing you tried to kill my light." Yin's arm blurred before she walked out, leaving Hodr in the dark.
He slowly opened his mouth to speak before realizing his head had been separated from his body and rolled against the cold, hard ground.
[AN: Thanks for waiting! War starts next chap. How's everyone feel about the Vale arc so far? Also, more Yin images!]