章 18: Forever Fall and messing with Cinder
After her successful intimidation of Cardin, one would reasonably expect him to simply lie low and not antagonize Neo. That's exactly what he did. More precisely, it's what he tried to do.
Cardin would try to pants her, but would end up donkey kicked in his balls.
Trying to trip her ended with him getting his foot kicked out from under him, making him do a painful and involuntary splits.
He tried to shove her into a weapon's locker but ended up with yet again, another hit to his testicles and kicked into the locker himself. He had to travel back to Beacon from the Emerald Forest for two hours.
All of his failed attempts at making the shorter girl pay made him seethe in anger. During Doctor Oobleck's class now, he gave a racist response about Faunus and gave Neo a scornful glare. Neo put on a smile that he grew to despise.
"Actually the General failed because he hadn't realized that some Faunus have night vision. A trait considered really useful but it's just so strange that a lot of humans shun and hate them because of their differences? God, if they treated them like normal people, you'd have advanced as a society. But you know.. some people are ass-backwards and get scared of what they don't understand. Even something as simple as 'humans with animal traits' I guess?" Neo shook her head. Pyrrha and Blake especially looked at her with smiles. Pyrrha nodded and Blake turned away as she played with her bow.
"Very good explanation, Miss Jasmine! I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. Mister Winchester, I'll need you to stay after class though" Oobleck informed him sternly.
Cardin seethed once again, glaring at Neo, who was balancing a pencil on the top of her lip, much to Pyrrha's amusement.
-Forever Fall-
Teams RWBY and JNPR were gathering red sap from the Forever Fall trees and talking while taking it easy. Neo and Pyrrha were getting the sap currently. Though it was a struggle as Neo was impatient and had jammed the spigot into the tree, filling up with the deep red sap. Occasionally she swatted Nora's grabby hands away from the jars.
"Nora I will make your pancakes with chocolate chips, caramel and cinnamon sugar later if you STOP trying to take the damn sap!" Neo scowled and looked at the guilty Nora, then Ren who had given up on trying to stop Nora.
"Okay! Promise!?" Nora hopped up and down like a twelve year old with a sugar rush.
"Sure.. It's Ren's problem after you eat" Neo shrugged and heard Ren sigh.
"You're evil.." Ren whispered in his hands.
"Well that's what you get for not keeping her away from the sap" Neo stuck her tongue out and heard a faint shout.
"Eat this, Shorty and 'Invincible Girl'!" And she saw four jars of sap fly at them while the rest of JNPR minus Pyrrha hadn't noticed. Though this was because of the body purification elixr.
Pyrrha turned around but it was too late, the jar was in front of her face now. She closed her eyes not to get glass in them and awaited the crash. But it never came. She opened her eyes and saw Neo caught the jar along with the others.
"Wow.. Thank you, Neo" Pyrrha sighed in relief but then she saw her partner's face.
It was devoid of the casual expression she usually adorned. Even when she was a little annoyed it never truly left her face. Now, she looked neutral but Pyrrha could tell she was mad.
"Excuse me for a moment. Go to Goodwitch and tell her an Ursa is attacking team CRDL" Neo said before she ran off at high speeds toward CRDL, who had started to run upon seeing this.
"Neo..?" Pyrrha watched for a moment before she went to team RWBY and Goodwitch to relay what Neo told her.
-Forever Fall, CRDL-
"Damn it, Cardin! Why'd you have to drag us into your feud with her!?" Russel panted as they ran.
"Shut it! I'm not letting that little bitch make a fool of me anymore!" Cardin yelled out until they stopped, feeling they had gotten far enough.
"You did that yourself though" Team CRDL jumped and noticed Neo crackling with lightning, sitting on a branch above them.
"You think your actions don't have consequences? That you can just screw with people and act the way you do with nobody doing anything about it? You think you have power? That you can do all that because you think you're strong? You're the weakest litter in our class, Bird Boys. Where do you get off acting like hot shit?" Neo hops off the branch and plants her Halberd in the ground in front of her, making it crack.
"You're probably a closet Faunus simp, aren't you? You like Faunus girls and guys, don't you? Like a child that bullies their crush because they don't know what to do with their feelings. Is that it?" She looked Cardin right in the eyes as he got angrier and angrier.
He took his weapon out and the rest of team CRDL reluctantly followed his lead.
"All of that's fine though. You fucked up though. You tried to hit my team. My new and amusing friends I've come to like. The bigger offense? You tried to hit Pyrrha, when she hasn't even done a damn thing to your sorry ass" Neo juggled the jars of sap while Cardin lunged at her.
"Fuck you and that perfect bitch friend of yours!" Cardin swung his mace, though he swung wide.
Neo used that chance to hit him in the balls, this time, shattering the jar of sap on it. Then, as the others attacked, she did the same to each of them. Every attack was dodged effortlessly and a jar of sap was splattered on their crotches.
"I know you know the Grimm are attracted to the sap here, since you relied on it to get Rapier-Wasps to come and harass us so I'd get to running to Goodwitch before some Grimm bigger than a small Rapier-Wasp comes after you" Neo half-heartedly shrugs and CRDL minus Cardin make a run for it.
Cardin, fueled by his ego and anger, tries to hit her one last time with her back turned. But the next second his face makes a heavy impact with the grassy ground. He tried to get up but felt a boot pressing his face into the ground. Struggle all he might, he could not lift his head up off the ground.
"Cardin.." Neo spoke in an incredibly soft but neutral voice now.
"The only reason I haven't hurt you far more is because for the briefest of moments, my team and team RWBY would pity you. If you continue on like this, I'm sure you'll dry out their pity-well. Then.. Well, you know what I'm implying right? I will fuck you up and your whole team? They won't be able to stop me" Neo felt him shake under her and took her foot away.
"By the way, I'd run before an Ursa bites your dick off" Neo leaves him and walks away, not noticing the figures of Pyrrha, Ruby and Weiss in the bushes nearby, having seen and heard everything.
"Wow.. Neo has a scary side" Ruby commented as Weiss nodded with a hum of approval.
"It's actually kind of sweet, in a weird way. Good thing she told us to get Miss Goodwitch though. I already see an Ursa chasing them" Weiss pointed out.
"What do you think, Pyrrha? ...Pyrrha?" Ruby waved in her face.
"Uh! Oh.. right.. Sorry, what were you saying?" Pyrrha wiped some drool from her mouth and shook her blush away.
"Guess that's your first time seeing Neo like that too" Ruby nudged her with a small laugh.
"Yes well.. Let's just go. I see Miss Goodwitch is dealing with the Ursa already" Pyrrha got up and decided to return back to her team with Ruby and Weiss, who both gave the other a knowing look.
-Vale hideout two days later-
Cinder was just waking up, having sent Mercury and Emerald on a mission to help set up the Mt. Glenn operation. Sitting up in her bed, she rubbed the tired from her eyes and checked her scroll. No messages aside from the girl she knew as Neopolitan's twin.
>Jasmine: Hey I have a target of interest for you. He's a huntsman looking into the dust stealing. Been setting up ambushes near the dust shops. He's kind of strong too. Name's 'Mike Hunt'<
>Cinder: Mike Hunt? Fine. I'll send Mercury and Emerald to grab him. You just focus on coordinating the White Fang with your sister<
Cinder put her scroll away after responding to the more talkative sister. Though often she felt like she was watched by her. It reminded her of Mercury's gaze early on when she hadn't put the fear of god into him. It was an appraising gaze. Though she did wear her red dress whenever they met. She felt her gaze on her legs and butt. Then when Cinder looked back at her, she would always be sharing looks with Neopolitan. As if having a conversation about it.
Getting up, she stopped in place. Feeling a strange electricity in the air, her hair stood up and she noticed the figure of a woman in a long white coat with the collar popped up, hiding her lower face. Though her upper face was masked. The mask being completely white and fox looking. It reminded her of the Grimm's bone plating.
Her hair was white and lustrous and almost reached the floor. She had pale white skin and the only thing other than white she saw neck-up was her pink petal-like lips. Downwards on, she saw her hands were tipped with long, claw-like nails that looked as durable as they were sharp. Below that, she wore tight black pants and red heeled boots. Standing at her full height, she figured the strange masked woman was at least five-foot-four.
Before she could form any weapon or blast her with her Maiden magic, she felt her claws around her jugular and a large amount of lightning shredding through her aura, depleting more than half in just a second along with severely burning her bed and the surroundings with electrical burns. Not daring to move, she decided to try and talk her way out of this.
"What do you want.." Cinder tried to calmly ask. She was internally panicking, from the speed of this woman, the fact that she had her in a dangerous position and that she felt a familiar energy in her. Magic.
"Stay calm, Cinderella. I'm only here to talk. I needed you away from your crew. No Mercury, no Emerald, no Roman, no twins. Just us" She spoke in a horse voice.
"How do you know my.." Cinder's pulse jumped.
"I know many things, Cinderella. Salem, Maidens, Relics, Ozma. Let's start off with your megalomania" The woman spoke in her ear.
"I'm not a megalomaniac" Cinder furrowed her brows.
"You desire power, why?" She calmly asked.
"Because I DESERVE it!" Cinder's eye lit up but was pacified by the claw cutting into her neck by a millimeter.
"Because you suffered? Because you were shown cruelty all your life? Or because Salem got it in your head?" She retorted back, making Cinder grit her teeth.
"No one will ever raise their hand to me again. All my enemies.. I'll crush them" Cinder seemed to rant to herself.
"They were cruel to you, weren't they? You were never rescued from that abuse. I pity you but that does not give you the right to hurt and kill innocent people. You're just like them now. Salem has promised you power for your loyalty but she does not care for you. What you truly want is to not be hurt anymore. This doesn't justify what you've done. But there is still a chance. Turn on your Master or remain a slave, as you were back when you were a child" Cinder ignited in flames, swinging at the woman in fury, who dodged backward across the room, body sparking with blue lightning.
"Who ARE you!?" Cinder screamed at her, creating glass swords in her hands.
Deciding to take some inspiration and another reference, the woman laughed and started speaking to the irate Cinder.
"I am nobody. Even if I 'was' somebody. I am beyond your comprehension. And even if you could comprehend, you do not have the tools to express that knowledge.. Hahaha! Sorry, I just wanted to say that line.. at least once. Don't worry about my identity. I only came here to give you some advice" Cinder narrowed her eyes, thinking she was being mocked now.
"Salem, in her madness, is going to try and bring the Old Gods of Remnant back by using the four relics. The reason? To die, of course. Immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be, it seems. You'll have power but at what cost? For what will you use it for, after you die? Free yourself. If you continue the way you are, I'll kill you" The woman then took a step, and with a flash of lightning, she vanished.
Cinder finally put away her weapons and clenched her fists tightly. Though she was angry, she also started to think about what that strange woman said. It echoed in her mind for the weeks to come.
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