The Lost Bounty

 - WEEKS LATER -

Lucifer has started on his career as a Bounty Hunter. He is bringing back his most recent capture, a double-murderer from downtown.
"You're good at this!" Says the desk clerk at the Bounty Office "Some of our Bounty Hunters that went after this guy couldn't find any trace of him!"
"Guess I just have a good nose for this job" replies Lucifer, the desk clerk not knowing how true this rising star of a newbie Bounty Hunter's most recent remark is. He's got the nose of a bloodhound, if not a better one.
"Well, I think I've got another bounty here that seems to suit you. A White Fang terrorist. Don't see her handiwork around much, now, but her actions in the past need to be paid for. Fell off the grid and out of sight quite some time ago, never resurfaced since. Here's her picture."
Lucifer took the picture and scanned it, recording it into his memory. Hut he ran into a wall. What? I've already got this face in my memory? That's odd. Looking at the mugshot for real this time, he stared at the face on the photo. The photo was grainy and not of good quality, and is slightly worn, but the face on it is clear as it could get if he were standing in the same room with her.
It was Blake.

"One good thing about being a student at Beacon Academy, among other things, is unlimited access to the city libraries..." Not that she really needed it. Said 'unlimited access' is simply access to information on criminals or Grimm not allowed for the general public, and she just wanted some nice stories-
"Blake."
She stopped.
"Blake!"
Using her heightened senses, she found the direction of the whispers.
"Come over here! It's me, Lucifer!"
She went over.
"Lucifer, what-"
Lucifer grabbed her and bolted away without saying a word.

Some hours later, they stopped in some sort of back alley while Lucifer caught his breath. Blake didn't need to, she didn't run.
"WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!?" She shrieked.
"Had to. Some people may have been watching. Couldn't risk it."
"COULDN'T RISK-" Lucifer put a hand over her mouth.
"Quieter. PLEASE." He let go.
"What's going on?" She asked.
Lucifer showed her the mugshot.
"What? Where did you get this?"
Lucifer showed her the official document stating she had a bounty on her head.
"What? A bounty? On me? Who did this?"
"The identity of the person who put the bounty there is a secret, else I would have told you. I had to grab you because I couldn't risk anyone seeing you. Don't think you are unnoticeable, I found you easily enough. Believe me, if the priority of bringing you in were any higher, you're ass'd been hauled in by now."
"But that is all in the past, I've got nothing to do with White Fang anymore."
"You don't, but you did. That's enough for the authorities."
"What did you do?"
"I told them I was taking the bounty offer, just to make sure no one would go after it for a while, though when they find out I'm not pursuing you, the offer will go back up for grabs."
Blake slumped against the wall.
"And so goes the second time my past involvement with White Fang come back to haunt me." She sighed "So now what?"
"I was going to ask you that question." Said Lucifer.
She sighed, louder this time.
"The White Fang I was involved in did peaceful protests. I went out on a couple of the attacks of the violent White Fang before deciding it just isn't right and left. I thought I left it all behind me until I accidentally busted myself to my team. Thankfully, that got cleared up, but now this..."
"Let's get you back to Beacon first, I'll have to think about this."
"Okay, but...where are we?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." He chuckled "However, my new toy can bring us back no problem."
Blake looked up. Lucifer is standing next to a sleek, black motorbike. It had blood red markings as well as some vents that didn't look like they spewed waste air.
"How much did you pay for this?" She asked.
"Didn't actually paid for nothing." He replied.
"YOU STOLE IT!?"
"Nope. Put it together at the Forge, actually. Best urban transportation of maximum speed and mobility. Perfect for bounty hunting, especially for chases. That and getting from A to B the quickest possible way."
"Something tells me I might regret this." She says, climbing on.
"If you had followed Ruby and Yang into the forest, this would be nothing!" He said, revving the engine before accelerating.

They returned to the dorms to find the rest of RWBY in their dorm room.
"Blake! Where have you been? We looked everywhere for you!" said Ruby.
"Even Weiss thought she said something wrong and fused you to run off again." said Yang.
"I did NOT think that! Hmph!" shouted Weiss.
Lucifer looked at Blake. Should I?
Blake sighed. Might as well.
"Guys...there's something important you guys should know..." began Lucifer.
"What?" asks Yang.
Lucifer paused for a moment before saying "Blake's got a bounty on her head."
There was a short and uneasy silence before Ruby broke it.
"Who? Why?"
"Blake asked those exact same questions. I don't know. I'm not supposed to."
"Can you find out?" asks Yang.
"Maybe. It won't be easy, though." replies Lucifer.
"Do what you have to, within limits, of course." says Blake.
"Tell Ozpin. I'm going out to, uh, help someone in need. Might need a couple of days to get a lead. Another day or more to track down the person where the bounty came from. I'll take until the end of the week at most." says Lucifer.
"I'll get to it" promised Blake.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey guys, this is TheRyderShotgun.

First of all, to whoever's kept with me, thanks to you!

Second of all, that's ten episodes so far. I may manage another tomorrow, but the holiday's ending. I won't be able to upload at the same rate as before, so I'm sorry!

Third, recently, I discovered a site for people to post their own fanfiction. Still deciding wether or not to join it and move this fanfic there. I might not get any replies, but I would like anyone's input on this.

Finally, I recently took to google to see if this blog appears on the results page if I search it, and guess what I found: http://ryderhasablog.tumblr.com/post/66380401590/target-a-terrible-rwby-fanfic-948-words
Jolted me, to be sure.
You can find this blog via google search now, though.

That'll be all for now. RyderShotgun, out.

The Last Ace

"...Lucifer? Are you okay?" asks Ruby.
Lucifer didm't say anything. He slowly turned from the direction Yang was knocked from his punch to sweep over team RWBY and JNPR, and once more Blake, and the rest, felt the chill down their spine, the feeling of total helplessness, the faint knowledge that they are about to die.

Kicking up another dust clout, White-Haired-Lucifer charged at them with surprising speed, one arm drawn back for a punch.
"Spread out!" yelled Ruby, and the group of 7 became individuals as they went in every direction, making more difficult targets for White-Hair. He stood at the center of the swirl of running people for a second, before he randomly chose a target and charged.
Said target was Jaune, who was terrified at the sight of his approach.
"He's after me!? Why me!?" he was wailing, running as fast as his legs would carry him.
"It's called 'weeding out the weak', Jaune" said Pyrrha, and fired a shot from her weapon, catching him on the side of his face, knocking him off his course, Jaune grateful enough for that he didn't even say anything about her remark. However, White managed to form a mask of Exo for protection at the last minute and prevent any serious damage.
However, anyone could tell he was seriously pissed at the unexpected attack.
He stood erect, and glowered at Pyrrha, sending a mental promise he would be the death of her that chilled her to the bone. She started to run, but he was upon her in an instant, forming Morph Claws and raising them high. In half a minute, she would have be torn into strips, were it not for Ruby, who fired another shot from her weapon blasting him away from Pyrrha.
As he stood up once more, Ruby decided that running won't do it.
She yelled "Keep moving! Don't slow down! And fire on him from every direction, but try not to hit one another!" The effect was immediate, bullets and projectiles came at him, creating huge dust clouds that dissipate as fast as they are formed from all the mini-explosions of Dust ammo.
White turned around aimlessly in the pandemonium of projectiles for some time, before the anger became to much and he roared mightily at the sky, a roar of anger, bloodlust, and hatred, and he chose another target to attack.
He never got the chance, Ozpin appeared right behind him, saying "That would be enough of you, Lucifer." and whacked him on the back of his neck with his cane. Everything became black.

- Where am I?
Lucifer is standing in a place he has never seen before. The sky is black, and the earth is white. And Lucifer is glowing with an odd white light that seemed to pulsate along with his heart.
- What is this place?
- This is your mind, fool. Don't you know your way around your own damn mind?
- Who's that?
It was Lucifer, but it wasn't Lucifer. He is surrounded by darkness, and seemed to drown out all light around him.
- Who are you?
- Who am I?
He smiled, a mad, dangerous smile of someone looking down on a helpless person and wondering how was he going to kill him.
- I am you. I am the rightful owner of this body. I am the more worthy between us of control. I am the one who is better than you.
- The Grimm?
- Yes, that's what I am.
- You are supposed to be behind bars.
- Yes, I was, but when the blonde maiden attacked, the bars were removed.
- Then I'll get you back into the corner and re-erect the bars, Grimm. 
White Lucifer formed a Morph Blade and charged...
...And passed right through him.
Black Lucifer laughed and hit White Lucifer on his head, causing him to fall.
- You're trash, Lucy.
- My name's LUCIFER, Grimm!
White Lucifer swung, and the blade went right through him as if he weren't there. Black Lucifer laughed again. He punched White Lucifer, causing him to tumble across the land. White Lucifer didn't get up, he just lay on the ground writhing in pain. The blow rivaled that of a runaway train ... one with explosives on the hood.
Black Lucifer went over and kicked him.
- Trash.
Kick.
- Worthless.
Kick.
- Weakling.
Kick.
- Cowardly.
Kick.
- You would have been much stronger...
Kick.
- ...Avoided much pain...
Kick.
- ...If you would just...
Kick.
- LET.
Kick.
- GO.
- Go to hell, Grimm!
- That's not my name. 
Kick.
- You know my name. 
Kick.
- My name is...

"NEIMO!!!"
Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaunce, Nora and Pyrrha all flinched at that. Only Lie, Ozpin and Glynda remained indifferent.
"What? What did you say? Who's Neimo?"
Lucifer wasn't listening. He was sitting up and staring straight ahead, as if seeing the door to Hell in front of him and swearing he heard a creak of the door opening, and making sure the door remains closed.
"LUCIFER!" yelled Ruby, knocking him out of whatever thoughts he was having "What are you saying? Who's Neimo?"
"Neimo..." muttered Lucifer "Neimo ... is me."
"What?" says Yang.
"Neimo is the Grimm. He-" he gulped "He is the one within me."
"What?" echoes Weiss.
"Remember what I said about the lab coats simply chasing Him to a corner and erecting bars around him? He said that when Yang attacked, the bars were removed and he was free."
"I would seem" says Ozpin, simply looking on until now "That Lucifer is at least part Human. Surely enough Human to be able to have Aura. I would guess that when Yang attacked with her Aura Semblance, she involuntarily unlocked Lucifer's Aura, and subsequently the mental bars holding this 'Neimo' was removed. I guess its safe to say that whenever Lucifer's Aura is activated, Neimo will emerge."
"So all I need to do I avoid using Aura?"
"Basically, yes."
"What do you man by 'basically'?"
"I mean it's better insurance to, uh, train, the use of your Aura."
"What?"
"Avoiding the problem won't save you forever. It's best for you to face it. If you keep Neimo locked up, He is bound to escape again sometime, and when he does, he'll kill everyone close to you."
"So what do I do?"
"That" says Ozpin "Is a question for you to answer."

The next day, despite the previous day's events, Lucifer was present. Team RWBY and JNPR met up with him during lunch.
"Sooo..." begins Ruby "Any idea what should you do?"
"A vague one, to be sure, but yeah. I'll activate my Aura once in a while in you guys' presence. I want you blast me when I attack, and stop when I do. That may send the message that you mean no harm, but won't hesitate to kill me if I go too far."
"Okay..." says Yang "...Now onto your real plan."
Lucifer stared at her.
"I'm kidding, but really, are you sure that will work?"
"Honestly? No. But Ozpin's right, just locking him up isn't going to work forever. This isn't a card I'm playing because I don't know what else to do, I'm playing this card because this is the ONLY card I have. I don't want to hurt anyone."
The rest of the day passes without incident, and Lucifer says he wants to go to the library after school. "I didn't have all that many reasons to read up on Aura and Semblance back at Signal because I thought I won't be having it, but since I do, might as well look up on everything there is to know about it."
Lucifer returned to his room - actually more like an unused broom closet - later in the day, grinning from ear to ear.
"What's so funny?" asks Yang.
"Check this out." he says, and hands them his rifle.
Holding up the rifle, Yang and the rest try to figure out what was different with the rifle. Then Ruby noticed a glint. "Oh, no. You didn't"
"I did. Engraved it myself."
"What?" asks Weiss, who didn't know what Ruby saw.
Ruby placed a finger on the rifle, just beneath an engraved metal plate. On the plate were the words: 'Justabasic Rifle.'
"Heavens!" chuckled Yang.
"Are you crazy or immature or what?" says Weiss.
"This is stupid." says Blake "You're stupid."
Lucifer laughed. Then he said "Tensions were kinda high after yesterday. It was bad. I...I couldn't feel comfortable, you know? Had to cut the tension somehow. Caught sight of the Forge on the way back from the library. Lightbulb above my head just went 'BLING'!"
He laughed again, and the others joined him.

The Fighter and The Monster

"So." asks Ruby "Just what can you do with your shapeshifting ability?"
RWBY and Lucifer were chatting in the cafeteria before class starts for the day.
"Actually, I call it a 'Weapon Morphing' ability. I call the black stuff Eve and the White, hard stuff Exo. Not much at this stage. Just a blade."
"But I thought you have a claw as well?" asks Weiss.
"Don't go there. That's His ability. Bad memories associated with it."
"Well, you can't fight with just a big-ass blade, you need more...variety, i guess." says Yang.
"Good point. What say we meet up after school for a training session?"
"Sounds good."
"Wait," says Weiss "We were supposed to meet up with team JNPR after school, too!"
"Oh, right!" says Yang "Now what?"
"Just invite them, then." says Lucifer casually.
"But i thought you can't-" Weiss is cut off by Lucifer.
"Yes, I can't. Tell me, are you friends with this 'Team Juniper'?"
"Actually, it's team J-N-P-R, but yeah, we're friends."
"Do you trust them as allies?"
"Yeah?"
"Then you can trust them not to blow it out to the world."
"I guess. OK, after school, us, you and JNPR, training session."
"Done."
"Aren't you afraid Ozpin will find out?" asks Weiss.
"A little. He'll understand. If he don't like it, too damn bad."
"I like the way you think, man." says Ruby and they laughed.
As their laughter died down, they hear more laughing, and someone wailing.
Hearing those, Lucifer's face suddenly darkened so much you could practically see a shadow on his face. He stonily turned his head around, looking behind him, where the sound was coming from.
Cardin and his group were harassing Velvet again, pulling both her ears like reins on a horse.
"Stop! It hurts!" she wails.
"Mush! Mush, you animal!" he said, and all of them laughed.
Staring straight ahead, Lucifer sees the whole scene, and he doesn't. He sees himself strapped to a metal rack. He sees men in white coats stabbing him with instruments. He sees them burning him with hot pieces of metal. He sees Velvet being harassed by other people.
Lucifer stood up and walked over, standing over their table. Cardin looked up.
"What are you looking at?" he asks.
"What do you think, punk?" replies Lucifer.
"Whoa! Look at this, our little bunny's got a boyfriend!" they laughed.
Lucifer grabbed Cardin's left arm, squeezing it so he released his grip. Cardin stood to his full height, releasing his other arm, dwarfing Lucifer. "So, little bunny's boyfriend wants a fight, huh?"
"I'm not her boyfriend, but-" he twisted Cardin's left arm, causing him to turn, then pinning the hand to Cardin's back, pushed him to land facefirst in his own plate of food. "Doesn't mean I won't kill you if I ever see you within six feet of Velvet ever again. Do I have myself clear?"
"What's with you and lit-"
Lucifer pushed harder on Cardin's arm, causing him to cry out.
"What did i say her name was?"
Cardin wailed "Let me-"
Lucifer pushed harder.
"One last time before you lose an arm. WHAT. DID. I. SAY. HER. NAME. WAS."
"Velvet! Velvet! Her name's Velvet! Velvet Scarlatina!"
"Very good." says Lucifer, and released his grip. Cardin retreated back into his group, on their feet now.
"What the heck, man? What's with you and her?" he wailed.
"She saved my life, if that's what you're wondering." Velvet looked horrified. "Now scram. I ever see you within sight of Velvet again, and I don't need to be there to know it, I'll kill you."
Cardin glared at Lucifer, then he say Lucifer's eyes. It was the eyes of someone who didn't care about killing, probably even relished it. "Let's get out of here!" yelled Cardin, and the four disappeared into the crowd in the cafeteria. Lucifer turned to Velvet.
"You Okay?" he asked.
"Fine, but...you told him?"
"Told who what?"
"That I..."
"Saved my life? Yeah, why?"
"I thought I said not to."
"Didn't hear it."
Velvet turned to RWBY's table. Ruby and Yang shrugged. They forgot to told him.
she sighed "Now they're going me harass me more."
"They won't. I made sure of that."
"They'll come back later."
"If they do," said Lucifer, his voice hardening "Cardin will be the first to go over the cliff. Relax" he said, his voice softening "I'll watch over you. Aah, where are my manners."
Reaching out his hand, he said "My name's Lucifer. Lucifer Grimm. Glad to make your acquaintance."
She shook it weakly "Velvet Scarlatina."
Leaning close, he said "Well, Velvet, now we're even." and returned to his table.
"Wow." said Blake.
"Wow what?" asked Lucifer.
"You helped someone out of the good of your heart."
"Reminded of my own suffering is all. Physical wounds heal. They are slow, but they do heal. Mental wounds take forever to heal, if at all." He took a sip of his drink "Don't need someone suffering at the hands of cowardly fools like those morons. Velvet is a better person than any one of that group ever will be, and she's suffering for it. Someone's got to put a stop to it."
"They can still harass her when you're gone." points out Weiss.
Lucifer smiled. "Weren't you listening, Weiss? I don't have to be there to know they are harassing Velvet."
Then they saw Jaune walk up to their table.
"Hey, uh, what's your name?"
"Lucifer Grimm. And you?"
"Jaune Arc. I saw the whole thing, and I guess I came to say thank you for what you did just now."
"Why thank me? And why didn't you break it up?"
"I was weak. I'm pretty sure I would have worsened the situation somehow in any case."
"Lucifer, this is the team leader of JNPR." says Ruby.
"Well, if the team leader is like this, I'd hate to see the rest of the team." he said, and raised his hand as Jaune started to say something "I know, I know, team leaders aren't chosen based on their skills, but on what the teachers see in them, usually potential." he lowered his hand "You have to live up to that potential, you know. Me and team RWBY here are having a training session after school, why don't you and your team join us? I'm aware you were supposed to meet up today."
"I'll have to ask the rest, first, but thank you for the invitation." said Jaune, and he went back to his table.
"You're good." says Yang.
"What are you talking about?" asks Lucifer.
"Picked a perfect time to pop the offer." she says.
"Hey, I'm just a man with a great many skills." he replies.
"ARE you a man?"
It was silent around the table for a moment, but then they all burst out laughing.

For the rest of the day, Lucifer proved himself a proverbial genius in the classes. He quickly caught on to the lessons and read books between periods. When school was over, RWBY, JNPR and Lucifer went for their training session close to the woods, where no one was about. First up against Lucifer was Jaune.
"Ready?" asked Lucifer.
"Ready as ever" says Jaune, and pulled out his sword.
Lucifer didn't take his weapon out, he just charged. Jaune swung his sword at him. Lucifer ducked under the blade. Then, planting both hands to the ground, he kicked with his legs forward, wrapped them around the blade as he tipped over, then pushed himself backwards with his hands, yanking Jaune's blade from his hands and standing back up. The blade fell to the ground after he straightened himself.
Jaune swung his shield at Lucifer, attempting to bash him. He spun around in the same direction the shield was heading, dodging it. Then, reaching out with his left hand, he wrapped it around Jaune's neck. Pulling Jaune against himself, he got into a position to choke him, and he said into his ear "Checkmate." and released him.
"Gods, you're good" said Jaune, coughing.
"Sorry that I can't say the same for you." replied Lucifer.
"I'm up next." says Yang.
Once again, Lucifer was the first to charge. Yang didn't want to give him any chances, and blasted at his direction, only to see she fired into a shield of Exo. It moved aside to reveal a Morph Blade coming at her. She just managed to dodge the attack.
"Good surprise. Too bad your attack didn't hit."
"Did it?" asked Lucifer, holding the blade to his face. A single strand of blonde hair is caught between two of the flat spike-shapes.
"What? You..." Her eyes became red, she seemed to burst into flames, and charged at Lucifer. He lifted his Exo Shield, but she punched straight through it, and grabbed the hand behind it. Shattering it with a blast from her other hand, she fired a blast of Dust and Aura Semblance at Lucifer at point-blank range, and the two vanished in a cloud of dust.
"Sorry, Lucifer" said Yang "You have your tricks, I have mine-"
Suddenly the dust cloud dissipated like an explosion, and a shadow charged at Yang, and a fist is in the air. Yang just managed to block the attack, but she was thrown backwards and tumbled end-over-end over the ground.
"What on earth was that?" asked Yang. Her question was soon answered.
The black shadow turned out to be Aura surrounding a body. As it dissipated somewhat, the person beneath it appeared. It was Lucifer, but it wasn't Lucifer.
His hair was white and spiky, he showed no signs of Yang's previous attack save the marks on his clothing and armor, his eyes spewed bloodlust.
It was the Grimm.
And it had Aura.

The Other Tale

It seemed like calling out to someone you thought had been lost a long time ago, that was more or less what Ruby felt like when she shouted at him.
"LUCIFER!" she calls.
He turned, and a wide grin spread across his face.
"GUYS!"
"You can talk now?" says Weiss.
"Mastered every language two months ago."
"Wait." said Blake "Did you say you mastered every language in Remnant in ONE MONTH?"
He shrugged "Yeah. Information sponge, didn't Ozpin say something like that?"
"You understood him?" said Yang.
"No. I remembered the sounds and understood them after I learned the languages. If you guys have any other questions, follow me. I gotta go see Ozpin for the questioning session that didn't go through the last time. You can add some to the list while you're there."

At Ozpin's office, after everyone was seated, the questions began.
"What's your story, Lucifer?" asked Ozpin.
"I lived in a lab - what lab, I don't know - since I could remember. I got experimented on all the time I was there, though, truthfully, 'tortured' is a better word. They burned me, stabbed me, jabbed me ... you name it, I probably got hurt by it. One day, I guess they decided there was nothing more to learn, so they strapped me to a metal rack and shot me through with electricity. They thought I was dead later - though I was just unconscious - but none of them could say for sure, so they decided to bury me in some forest. I managed to boogie out of there before they could dump the dirt on me, walked I-don't-know-how-far to a rundown-looking house and slept there. I woke up to see myself surrounded by guys pointing guns at me. Though I didn't know anything about guns then, being surrounded ticked me off and I did ... this-"
He reached out with his right hand. It morphed into the same blade that took the Alfa's life.
"They were scared at first, but thought they should bring me to their boss. Now that I think about it, it's the Torchwick guy on the posters everywhere. Anyway, he tried to tell me that I should join them. I didn't know alphabets then so I couldn't understand or respond, and he thought I was being stubborn about not joining, so he ordered to had me put under, uh, 'special convincing techniques' or whatever."
They stared at him.
"Torture me. again. Torture chamber in the basement." he coughed.
"Anyway, I saw the rack, remembered the same rack back at the lab, and broke out of the building and took off.."
"I noticed you skipped from the basement to outside the building." noted Weiss.
"Bloody scene. Don't go there." he said evasively.
"Huh."
"Anyway, I broke out of there, and went on the run. I remembered some of the bloody scene that took place there, and, long story short, told myself I won't take another life for as long as I live. I ran, and ran, and ran. might have ran around the world and did it for decades for all I know. Then, one clear, sunny day, I rammed into Weiss here. It slowed me down enough for the mercenaries after my ass at the time to jump me. You know more or less what happened there, but for the sake of point of view ... I saw you girls try to help me, and the girl with the bunny ears. who was - you know what? introduce me later. Anyway, I saw that, and I sort of thought to myself like 'These are good people.' Then the guy attacked you. At that moment, I made a decision. I won't take an innocent life, but I won't let anyone else get hurt because of me, and I didn't care who I had to kill to make sure of that."
He fell silent for a moment.
"The white-haired guy was my, uh, 'Inner Grimm', i guess. Back at the lab, I was quite a trouble, as far as I remember, so they tried to drive out the Grimm in me. What they really did was drive it into a corner and put bars around it. When I'm mentally weak and he's strong ... in his own way, he can reach out and take control for some time. It was him that broke me out of the building, and it was him that killed those suits, but he can't be controlled, once he's out, it's for blood. Not good."
He paused.
"I ran because I knew whoever was after me would find me again, somehow. I wanted to keep others away from it. But they followed ... actually, more like half of them followed ... me into the Emerald Forest. I found a hiding spot in a bush on the edge of a clearing and hid there. When they came, they got swamped my Beowolves and the Alfa came to kill them. I knew then I had to stop it. You were there because i was. I had to help. I planned to run again later, but three deep claw cuts took away whatever chance there was of that happening."
He sighed and chuckled.
"You know the rest. Ruby and Yang got me back, Peter took me to Ozpin, Ozpin sent me to Signal, I passed Signal in three months and here I am."
Ozpin nodded, and then said with the tone of someone who has made a decision: "Would you like to stay here at Beacon?"
"Worried you wouldn't ask. Not to become a Huntsman, though, I'm going to be a Bounty Hunter."
"Why? Don't want to kill your own kind?" asked Yang.
Lucifer laughed.
"Nope. Nope. No problem killing Grimms here. Hey, those things and me aren't the same thing, I'm different, I have a conscience. Bloodshed isn't part of my nature. No, the reason I'm not going to be a Huntsman is because of the teams thing."
"But why?" asked Ruby.
"Because teams work together. And working with others may stick me into situations I have to abandon my cover."
"Cover?"
Ozpin explained. "Of the things I wrote on the letter I gave him, one was telling him not to let anyone know he was a Grimm."
"And Bounty Hunters are lone wolves, so no worries there."
"I understand." said Ozpin "Effective tomorrow, you will be an official student of Beacon Academy. You will be present during class and any written tests, but physical tests will be taken separately. You may interact with other students in this school, but no more people get to know about you being a Grimm. You will follow the instructions given to you in the letter you have the best you can. Breaking any of these or those I just mentioned will result in expulsion of yourself here. Are you clear?"
"Yes, sir." said Lucifer.
"Very well." said Ozpin "Dismissed."

Outside, some more questions were asked.
"What are your weapons?" asked Ruby.
Pulling out the gun on his right, he said "I call this the 'Handcannon'. High-calibre, long ranged, low magazine capacity. Rock-and-roll dammit-shit-hit-the-fan weapon."
Pulling out the gun on his right, he said "I call this the 'Silent Bite'. Low-calibre, mid ranged, high magazine capacity and suppressor. Ninja weapon."
Pulling out the two daggers, he said "These are the 'Dicers'. I took time sharpening these edges. Hard-wearing metal, it was a tough job. also-" he pulled the trigger on the daggers, and the fell off the hilt and dangled on two strings of barely visible wire each. "Razor wire. Vicious."
"What rifle is that?" asked Ruby.
"This?" he asked, and took it out. "This is just a basic rifle."
"Is that it's name?" joked Yang.
"Oh yeah," he said "Justabasic Rifle."
They all laughed.

The Shapeshifter

"Now what do we do?"
"We-"
Ruby and Yang just managed to get the man back to Beacon, but apparently, Ruby didn't think any farther than that.
Then Peter Port appeared at the door.
"What's all this ruckus about?"
Then he saw the man.
"What is he doing here?" he demanded. "Don't you kids know that you're not supposed to bring people not of this academy here?"
"Yes, yes, we know." said Ruby. "I can explain. It all started this afternoon when..."
When she finished, Peter calmed down to a point, but became curious.
"A claw and a blade, you say?" asked Peter.
"Yes." said Yang.
"Hmm ... let me try to talk to him."
Walking over the short distance, he started his attempt.
"What's your name?"
Silence.
"Where are you from?"
Silence.
"How did you manage to make yourself the leader of a pack of Beowolves?"
Silence.
"How did you get your..."
Silence.
"Weapon creation?"
"More like weapon morphing, actually." Yang.
"OK, how did you get that 'weapon morphing' ability of yours?"
Silence.
"This will be difficult ... I ought to take him to see Ozpin, see if he can do anything about him. Any objections?"
"Any other options?" asked Blake.
"Good point." said Peter. "He should be in his office, finishing up on late night paperwork, probably. Come along."
They helped him to his feet. Immediately it became visible he was already getting better. He didn't growl at each step, and he didn't limp and topple. Blake and Yang, both of which were helping him along, barely felt any weight on their arms.
"Odd..." said Yang. "I ... I think he's already better. Not healed, just ... better."
"Hm?" wondered Peter. Carefully, he felt on the wound, then applied pressure onto it. The man just huffed and a sudden, but small, spike of pain. He was otherwise silent, and fixed Peter with a curious look. "Indeed. That's remarkable. Come along, now, and pray he hasn't retired for the night yet."
He hasn't. "What is it?" he asked as Peter, at his decision, entered first.
"Ozpin, sir. RWBY team is outside, and they have a peculiar man with them. They said he turned his arms into weapons and first killed a Beowolf Alfa and then basically made himself the Alfa."
"I see." said Ozpin, showing no visible emotion "Let them in."
When everyone entered the office, Ozpin, now standing in front of his desk, began to ask questions similar to Peter's, and received the same wordless answers.
"It would seem" he said "He doesn't understand language."
"How are you sure?" asked Peter.
"Like this." replied Ozpin and said to the man "Did you coldly break the neck of five men dressed as undercover police officers on the hours of this afternoon?"
Silence.
"No visible emotion or reaction that may indicate he understands what I said. An ordinary person, even a sociopath, would at least twitch at the mention of his killing actions."
"But what do we do about it?"
"We need answers."
"Yes?"
"We need to prevent him to fall into the wrong hands."
"Yes."
"To do both, we need to keep him."
Pause.
"Yyyess, i guess."
"It's decided then." he concluded "Peter, have a Bullhead take this young man to Signal effective tomorrow. Do not allow information of his presence here or at Signal go further than this room, is that understood?"
"Yes sir. May I ask a question?"
"Go ahead."
"Why do you want to keep him?"
"The same reason those girls decided to follow him. Answers."
Walking back to his desk, he retrieves a pen and paper, and writes on it. Then, wrapping it in an envelope, he held it out to the man. He looked at the envelope, then at Ozpin, then back again. Taking it, he turned it around in his hand for a moment before tucking it in his trouser's pocket. He would take it out again when he understood the to him runic markings that to others were writings.
"Wait." said Weiss "You're sending him to signal, Won't he take years there?"
"His mind is relatively empty, very information absorptive. I would estimate that he would return within a year or two. No more, for sure, probably less."
"But how?"
"He'll advance in classes based on performance instead of time. If he learns everything to be taught at Signal, he can come back here. "

 - THREE MONTHS LATER -

"He's old enough to be in your class, in any case." echoes Ozpin's voice
RWBY looks on as an Airship is docking at the air docks of the school. It can't be a batch of new students, but it can be ONE student.
"He gave himself a name" she remembers Ozpin saying several weeks ago.
"What name is it?" asked Weiss.
"Lucifer." said Ozpin.
The Airship's cabin door opened.
Out walked a man, wearing a black hoodie with a pull up mask visible at the base of his neck over the same stone-grey trousers he wore since the street. He also had plate metal bracers on his forearms and his lower legs, as well as a plate metal chestplate, all five pieces of armor decorated with blood-red spiral markings. he had two different handguns tucked into their holsters strapped to his back on his belt, as well as two daggers with some sort of reservoir at the end of the handle, in their sheaths on the lower straps of his chestplate. Lastly, he had a basic-looking long rifle at his back.
"Lucifer Grimm" said Ozpin in Ruby's memory.

The Lost Soul

"We have to bring him back." Says Ruby.
The man has three deep claw cuts on his side, and is bleeding profusely from the exercise.
He has collapsed from the disintegrating Alfa's body, and Ruby and Yang are at his side, surrounded by Beowolves. It seemed a peculiar sight: Creatures of Grimm not attacking people and hunters not attacking the Grimms.
"What? Why?" Demands Yang.
"He saved our lives."
"So?"
"So!"
"You've seen what he can do, he can take care of himself."
"But not his wound. It's already getting worse."
"How are we supposed to bring him all the way back? It'll take at least until morning before we reach the city on our own, carrying a wounded man - if that's what he is - will just slow it down."
"What about your bike?"
Yang gave Ruby a look that said 'What do you think?'
"Oooohh...right."
The man then started to make some growling and whining sounds.
"Don't try to speak, it'll just make it worse. Just calm down and don't say anything."
He didn't stop. He huffed at one of the Beowolves and it stepped forward, like a knight being called forth by a king. Pushing away and ignoring the protests of Ruby, he stumbled over to it and climbed onto its back. He then fixed the girls with a weakened look as if to say 'What are you waiting for?'
The two girls looked at each other for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea. Ruby shrugged, and climbed on. Yang sighed, grumbled "I am SO going to regret this..." and climbed on, too.
The Beowolf took off. The sudden movement attacked the man's wound, he cried out and almost fell over, but Ruby, sitting between him and Yang, grabbed onto him. With much effort, she hauled him back upright on the Beowolf.
As if sensing his pain, the Beowolf slowed down to a more manageable yet still a reasonably fast speed.
About half an hour into the ride, Ruby spoke up.
"We're riding on a Beowolf."
"Yes, we are."
"Crazy."
"It is."
Silence.
"How?"
"Through that guy, apparently."
"What is he?"
"In my opinion, probably a Grimm."
"How?"
"Genetic mutation? Lab Experiment? Any other entries you might want to add?"
"...Yyyyyyymmmmmmno."
"What?"
"First 'yes', then 'maybe', then 'no'."
"Huh. Even after what just happened, you still have the capacity to make dumb jokes."
"Dumb?"
"Ok, not dumb. HUMORLESS."
"Come on, sis."
"Here we are."
"What?"
The barely visible city lights dotted the landscape, visible through gaps in the trees that are growing bigger as they continued to advance. The Beowolf then stopped about 30 meters or so from the nearest street and didn't budge.
The two girls carried the man between then, carrying him off the Beowolf, and took him towards the street. The Beowolf watched for a moment, before howling at the sky and running back into the woods.
At the street, they once again met Velvet, now carrying a bag, just released from the medical centre and walking back to the dorms. when she saw them, her face first showed curiosity, then recognition, and finally horror. She rushed over.
"Is he-" she began.
"No, he's not OK." says Yang
"No, is he they man from the street in the day?"
"Yes?"
"What happened?"
"A Beowolf Alfa is what."
"How bad is he injured?" she asked, crouching down and rummaging in her bag, removing several bottles labeled as medicine she got from the medical center.
"I don't know, I'm not a doctor. But if I had to guess, I'd say several broken ribs and blood loss."
"Pretty much." she said, applying antiseptic to the wound.
The man gritted his teeth as she cleaned the wound, fighting off the pain, and didn't calm down until she began to apply gauze and bandage to the wound.
"That should suffice for a temporary fix. It would hold him together until we can get professional help."
"Thanks, Velvet." says Ruby
"Your welcome. Just...don't tell anyone." says Velvet.
"What?" asks Yang.
"Don't go around telling everybody."
"Why not?"
"They'll say I was showing off."
"You're not." says Ruby.
"They'll say it anyway. Promise me, don't tell anyone. Well, you can tell the other two from your team, and any teachers if they ask. And...tell him."
"O...kay, I guess."
"Great. Thanks."she said, and ran off.
"That's not right." says Yang.
"What isn't?" asks Ruby.
"Her. she's being bullied because she's too modest. I'm willing to bet she'll be an A-student if she's just willing to show her abilities without worrying about what people are thinking of her."
"Not a problem to be addressed now."
"Guess not."

 - AT THE DORMS -

"Ssooo...let me get this straight. You went into a police station..." began Weiss.
Blake nodded.
"...And managed to walk out again?"
Blake sighed and drooped her head.
Blake and Weiss are at their dorm room, exchanging what happened to them after they split up.
"What did you find?"
"That the man might be dangerous."
"That's not good for Ruby and Yang."
"By the way, why didn't you tell the police about the claw thing?"
"The claw-? Oh, that. I forgot."
"You what?"
"I said I forgot. Why?"
"I thought you had some ... special protective reason to not tell them! I didn't tell them! Do you know you can get into trouble for withholding information to the police for an unspecified reason?"
"Uhh...no, but it can't be all-"
"It'll leave a black mark on your school report."
"This is bad, this is very bad. You think we can still tell them now?"
"Maybe, but-"

*knocking*

"Too late."
"Blake! Weiss! Open the door! My hands are, uh, kinda full out here."
Ruby!
"I'd never thought I'd be saying this, but boy, am I glad it's -"
Weiss did't get to finish the sentence after she opened the door.
"By heavens! Who is -"
The man lifted his head.
"YOU!? What are you doing here?"
"We got attacked be some Beowolves. Actually, just their Alfa."
"You defeated a Beowolf Alfa!?"
"No, we didn't. He did. Saved us and got himself injured. We figured we could bring hum back and get him treated. As repayment, i guess. And Velvet did the dressing of the wound."
"How did you manage to fight off the rest of the pack?"
"We didn't. After this guy killed the Alfa, he ... cut out it's heart and named himself the new leader of the Beowolf pack. That's how we came back to Vale on the back of a Beowolf."
"You came back on the back of a - ?"
"Yes."
"But how!?"
"Stick around when the questions are asked."
"I KNEW I should have went."
Ruby gave Yang a look of smugness which she ignored.

The Shattered Mask

"A little too late for that now." said Ruby.
Ruby and Yang are standing in a circle of Beowolves, and one in particular, the Alfa, has emerged and seems to have decided to confront them by itself. Probably a freshly named one, looking to prove his place in the pack. This would have been a good thing except that a named Beowolf Alfa is already several times stronger than a normal Alfa to begin with.
"Can't hurt to do it while you can." Replies Yang.
"Let's hope you can do it again after this."
"Scared?"
"Very. You?"
"Yup. Now let's do this."
A flurry of crack-cracking announced their weapons being first unfolded and then armed, and the two took their fighting stances. The Beowolf clawed the ground, growled, and charged at them.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the man from the street appeared, at a running pace that would have impressed a speed demon, and tackled the Beowolf with enough forward momentum to knock it off it's forward course.
Both of them stared. Ruby at the man, and Yang at the direction he came from. The bushes on the edge of the clearing were still calming down after he ran through them.
Only the bushes right at the edge. Those further into the woods were still.
He had been hiding in there. He had been watching.

The Alfa, recovering from the unexpected attack, roared in anger.
The man, also recovering, returned it with a roar of challenge.
Both charged each other amongst a glass-shattering hail of howls of the surrounding Beowolves.
The Alfa pounced at the man, front legs outspread, preventing any escape to the side. An escape towards the rear will have less chance of success compared to the seemingly foolish choice of escaping towards the front, directly at the Beowolf.
Those words would have shot through the man's mind if he understood a word of language, but since he didn't, he knew what to do through instinct programmed into him, and charged forwards, rolling under the Alfa and drew first blood with an enormous sword with a bone-white blade with four large flat spikes for an edge and blood-red markings of swirls and a circle on each side ...
... sprouting from and attached to the man's right arm.
She'd been telling herself that she was seeing things, that he just had a grappling-hook/claw weapon, but seeing the blade, she had to finally face the truth.
He wasn't an ordinary man, if at all.
This could be bad. This could be very, very bad. Probably would be.

The cut wasn't deep enough to wound anything vital, but the Alfa had a nasty gash on it's belly. A flesh wound, to be sure, but one that bleeds nonetheless.
It had underestimated the man. It didn't expect either attack. That's why it got injured. It won't do so again.
It charged again, but in a patternless zigzag pattern, and then began to ran circles around the man, kicking up dirt and dust in his wake. Soon, a cloud of thick dust has obscured both from the two girls' view.

Inside, things weren't much better.
The Alfa, with it's animal-like senses and instincts, can quite literally see if not sense right through the dust cloud. The man can hear growls and the occasional kicked stone and broken twig, but that's about it. He looked alarmingly at every direction, flinching at every little sound, but soon gave up doing that. He took several deep breaths to calm down, lowered his head, dangled his arms...
...and closed his eyes.
It seemed an insane and life-abandoning idea, but considering the situation, it is in fact the best thing to do. Sight is the most-used sense for living things, and is more effective to obscure than to blind so the brain is still paying attention to sight already gone. In that sense, blinding oneself - closing one's eyes - forces the mind to adapt and focus on senses better suited for the task like scent and hearing, but for a human's weaker senses and slower reaction time, it is a last bet that gives naught but false hope.
And yet, for a third time, he proves himself inhuman. The Alfa finally charges at the man, seeming to be the loudest explosion in the most dead of nights. Almost immediately, he begins to move, twisting to face the threat and jumping sideways to avoid the charge. Almost immediately.
As the Alfa passed the man by, dissipating most of the dust cloud, blood is in the air. Three red claw marks appeared on the side of the man's torso. He crashes to the ground, grunting in pain but pushing it out to avoid missing the window of opportunity in which the Alfa is taken off guard having missed it's target, got up, and rushed at the Alfa. As he is doing so, he swings his right hand sideways. By the time his palm passes his shoulder, it's already gone and in it's place the blade used before.
He drives the blade sideways deep into the Alfa's exposed and unarmored underbelly. Twisting it, he jumps over the Alfa, the blade still connected to him with a flexible and extendable black strip, solidifying into a hard white pole shape. Landing on the other side of the Alfa, a rough scythe shape is formed. Grabbing lower onto the pole with his other hand, he pushes with his left and pulls with his right, causing the blade to rip right through the Alfa's body, creating a cut going two-thirds across it's torso.
He didn't stop at delivering the killing blow. Jumping onto the Alfa, he created a second blade and drove it into the Alfa, creating a second cut going over the first.
The other Beowolves begin to advance. Alarmed, Ruby and Yang attack some, but soon realized they weren't hostile, and that they were going towards the Alfa and the man.
Having created a triangular flap, he frantically dug into the bloody and has already to begin disintegrating depths os the Alfa.
As soon as a ring of Beowolves, sitting attentively around the late Alfa formed, the man reemerged holding high the heart of the Alfa, and roared at the night sky. The rest followed suit and howled at the sky as the heart, as well as the Alfa, disintegrated into nothingness. The man has just been named the new Alfa of the pack.

"Yang" says Ruby shakily "What ... what WAS that?"
"Which that? The Alfa, the unusual pale-white weapons, or him?"
She was silent, then said "The last one."
"A humanoid living creature with what seems to be a self-morphing ability to form weapons which just turned itself into the leader of a pack of Beowolves."
"What have we gotten into?"
"I knew, I just KNEW not to come!"
"A little too late for that now..."

The Bloodied Suits

 - NOT TOO FAR FROM EMERALD FOREST, A COUPLE OF HOURS AGO -

She knew she should have followed.
Her nightvision and other heightened senses like hearing and smell as a Faunus can help greatly when it gets dark out. She could be a crucial asset in the forest.
But she trusted her friends, and besides, she had to do some answer-searching herself.
At a police station.
Arriving, she got stumped: Now what? Where do I go asking about 5 dead undercover cops and a runaway man with some sort of morphing ability?
She got saved by - surprise, surprise - a police detective.
"Can I help you?"
"Wha - oh, yeah! Sure! Help! Yeah!"
Giving her an odd look, he asked "What do you need?"
Clearing her throat, she began "Well, I'm here to ask about, uh, the, uh, incident, involving a half-naked guy and five undercover cops."
He narrowed his eyes "And what are you here to ask about?"
"What was going on?"
"In a nutshell? Five hoods with stolen badges and weapons attack unknown man who killed all but one of them (we have him now) and ran away with three girls after him."
"Two."
"How do you know that?"
"I'm was one until I broke away. Just now."
"So you know a girl in white that decided not to follow her teammates?"
"Sure, Weiss Schnee."
He huffed.
"A Schnee. That explains much."
"Yeah, well, she's changing. At a pace."
"Any more things you want to know?"
"Who was the man?"
"Beats me, if you find out, tell us. And if you're going to ask about the hoods-"
"Suits."
"Whatever. They are ... well, WERE mercenaries. We found their mode of transportation - an unassuming van with fancy-schmancy-whatever-but-it's-glowing stuff inside. and color photo of the guy identified as the victim of the assault, as well as a piece of paper with 'work orders' on it. 'Capture the target. Do not let your guard down, even if he's dead. Use weapons provided to you fully. Finish the job as quick as possible. Warning. Dangerous target. Make every attempt to escape shall He emerge.'"
"Who's 'He'?"
"I figured you knew. They ran, right?"
"If you could call that measly attempt running, yeah."
"So I guess you know. Can you tell me?"
She searched her memory, and was hit once more with the dread she felt when 'He' first swept his eyes over her.
"Demon."
"No joking around."
"Nope."
An odd silence followed.
"What?" asked Blake?
"Demon?" asked the officer.
"Yeah?"
"What made you think so?"
She tried not to look into the memory again "Everything?"
"Anything specific?"
"Eyes, actions, heck, stance...Aura? That help?"
"Helps confirm that he is one scary mother, yeah. We had around two dozen people questioned before this, and they all said different variations of the same thing. He's a demon, a monster, a lab mutation, yada yada yada."
"Anything else?"
"Nah. most of them were too scared to say much. The second most quiet was the last suit and he just kept saying 'Abomination' (And the most quiet didn't say jack, in case you didn't know). The most talkative was the Schnee girl."
She wondered why Weiss, clearly calm enough to talk about the claw thing, didn't. She thought that she might have some sort of reason not to, so she didn't share the man's morphing ability to the police. She'll ask Weiss why later.
"So, care to dethrone the Schnee girl as most talkative in this case?"
"What, I haven't already?"
"With that sentence, you did." He chuckled. "By the way, why didn't YOU follow your team?"
"I had an idea to come here to maybe learn something about the incident I haven't yet already."
"Disappointed?"
"Yep. Also, I trust them to look after themselves and find THEIR answers from their source."
"You're a better person than the Schnee girl. Who are you, anyway?"
"Blake Belladonna."
"Well, Belladonna, keep up the good work."
"Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if I made a mistake coming here."
"How so?"
"'The second most quiet just kept saying 'Abomination' '."

The Masquerade

 - HOURS AGO, ON THE SCENE OF THE ASSAULT -

"...AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"
Weiss is standing at the street, shouting at the direction Ruby, Blake and Yang headed, though they were too far away to be seen now, and she is pretty much shouting at the street.
Truth was, though, that she was trying to tell herself that more than telling her team members. She DID want to seek answers, to follow her team and aid them, to show them how she can be of help, but - they were supposed to relax today! And if they didn't want to rest, then it's their loss, she will have the rest they didn't want. Yes, them running off was their own choice, and she had nothing to do with what came next.

Suddenly the sound of police sirens reached her ears.

Maybe she SHOULD have followed ... too late for that anyways.

Turning around, she sees one of the police detectives walking towards her, notepad and pen in hand.
"Excuse me, young lady, would you mind if I asked you some questions regarding the incident that occurred here?"
It wouldn't do to say no, of course. "Sure, why not? Happy to help, heh heh..." she was nervous.
"Can you tell me what happened here? No assumptions, no guesses, just what you saw and heard."
"Well, me and my team were going to that new mall everybody's been talking about..."
He jotted some notes.
"...and suddenly, out of nowhere, this guy just came crashing into me from behind."
"From what direction did he come from?"
She pointed. He jotted.
"Carry on."
"I yelled at him to watch where he was going, but he didn't say anything. He was going to run again when they -" she gestured to the five dead suits "- came from up and down the street and surrounded him, pinning him against the wall over there." Point.
Jot.
"And?"
"And they started hitting him with what one of my friends called an outlawed weapon..."
Jot.
"And another of my friends say she was going to stop them, even though they were cops -"
"They weren't."
"Excuse me?"
"I said they weren't cops, those badges were stolen from our locker room and from some of our officers, they Stun Batons were stolen from a retired hunter and picker. the Batons were among the weapons stolen from his collection."
"You allowed him to keep those things?"
"The law didn't say 'active hunters', just 'hunters', and retired hunters count as 'hunters' in court, so he was allowed to keep those weapons provided that they were never loaded with Dust."
"Huh."
"It is what it is, now we were at your friend going to stop some fakes."
"Right. Another of my group went to stop her, telling her it would just invite trouble or something, and she spotted, err..." she looked about for a moment "...her." she pointed at Velvet, just waking up with a paramedic in attendance.
"And SHE tried to stop them, but they attacked her, and she dodged the attack, but she was knocked out anyway."
Jot. Pause. Jot, jot.
"When she got knocked out, err..." looking about again "...that old man..." Point "Began to shout all these insults at them and at the police department."
He turned.
"Are you sure it was him?"
"Sure I'm sure. Why?"
"Hey bud, get over here!"
Weiss turned and stared. 'bud'?
The old man came over. "What is it?"
"You shouted insults to the department?"
"Yes, i did."
"Why?"
"Those insults weren't for you, so to speak. It was to piss of the crowd and make those hooligans' jobs harder. I could tell at a glance they were fake cops."
"What?" asks Weiss "How? You have a sixth sense for cops or something?"
"I used to be in the department."
"And?"
"And I see them wearing their badges on their RIGHT. You are supposed to wear it on your LEFT, against your heart. Something about being loyal to the department or something. Besides, who wears a badge announcing to the world you're an undercover cop?"
She looked at one of the bodies. It's badge was on the right.
"Go figure."
"Well, i decided to wait it out, maybe make sure these fellas weren't rookies out for the first time. My suspicions were confirmed when one of them made a racist remark and attacked the unarmed Faunus girl."
"And you decided to use the crowd against them. What would that do again?"
"I dunno, you tell me. But I had to do SOMETHING."
"Lowering the citizen's trust in us one of them?"
"You know I don't mean that."
"Sadly, I do, so I can't arrest you for that. You can go."
After he left, the detective turned back to Weiss.
"We were at when our old boy began shouting nonsense."
"After that, our leader-"
"Excuse me?"
"Team leader, four-person team, Beacon Academy."
Jot.
"She told us to help calm down the people and make some distance between them. Then she got attacked by one of them."
"Where is she?"
"She ran after him when the guy took off after..." she gestured around "...this."
"She didn't get knocked out?"
"No. The guy stopped him."
"How?"
"By grabbing him and-"
"Not that how, I meant how can he still stop them? How many times was he hit?"
"Probably more than ten times."
"He should be dead."
"That's what she said."
"Do I look like a 'she'?"
"I meant one of my group."
"She said that?"
"Yes."
"Then?"
"Wait. I forgot to say. When he stopped the guy, he looked ... different."
"Different how? Appearance or behavior?"
"Both. He had black, curly hair before, and look scared; when he stopped the guy, he had white, spikey hair and-"
Remembering the look, she suddenly gave an involuntary shiver.
"And he looked like he just lived to kill. I don't know how you see that but ... he ... just had the look, you know?"
Jot.
"Actually, I don't know, but i guess I have an idea."
"Then, the guy picked them off, one after another - broke their necks, if you were wondering, all of them, except for one. That one his hair became black and curly again, and, he just, roared? It was loud and he was the one who made the noise, but people don't roar, do they? Anyway, he roared into his face and he passed out. And then he took off again, and the other three people in my group decided to follow."
"And you didn't?"
"No! We were supposed to rest toady!"
"Don't know how things work at Beacon, but when my mates decide to do something potentially dangerous, I follow, regardless of what I have planned or what was supposed to happen that day, because I want to help and make sure they see through the danger, and if I fail, I will know I have done all I can, instead telling myself over and over again that I should have followed."
He jotted some final notes before saying "I know we police haven't been exactly helpful in terms of crimes committed, but I hope you'll keep what I just said in mind" and left.

He needn't have bothered, Weiss was already wondering if it was too late to go after them or not.
And only then did she realize she forgot to mention his hand turning into a claw.

The Bloodluster

The crack is still echoing off the walls when the first screams made themselves heard.
Some people ran away, most of the rest stood stock-still and staring in disbelief.
Only the suits acted differently, wether that is a good or bad thing. looks of terror spread across their faces, looks of men knowing their about to die and that any effort to fight is futile. However, to fight no matter what is part of human nature, and 2 of the suits went up street, and the other 2 went down the street, all 4 tucking their stun batons, now off, into their suit jackets and retrieving handguns, unused until now, from the other side of their jackets and brought them level to the man...

...But he's already gone...

...And reappeared between the 2 suits up the street, arms outstretched and wrapped around both suits' heads, knocked off their feet because the man went slightly further up the street from where they were standing.
Both arms pulled upwards, and 2 more cracks announced the deaths of 2 more people.

The final 2 suits weren't standing side-by-side, so the first to go was the closer suit.
The man threw his right hand around the back of the suit's head, and his left around the suit's back to his left shoulder in a grotesque bear hug.
Except this isn't a hug anyone alive is used to.
Both arms pulled.
Anyone who didn't witness the act may find it difficult to tell the suit's neck has been snapped. The head has been twisted all the way around, from the front, it looks as if the head's in its proper place, with no evidence to a cause of death save a neat, red-smeared wound going all around the suit's neck.

Looking up from the suit he just killed, the man sees the final suit running down the street, screaming that the Devil himself has arrived to bring about death to Remnant.

And he did something completely unexpected.

Drawing his hand back as if to throw something, it firstly turns jet-black up to his elbow before splitting into several black strips. These he manipulates so they twist and turn around each other to form a claw shape, which solidifies into a pale bone-white colour. More black strips the sprout between claw and arm, wrapping around the latter as if to secure the claw to the hand.
Then, in a throwing motion, the claw launches from the hand - connected with an extending strip of black - towards the suit. Landing and grabbing on the suit's leg, he falls screaming face-down on the pavement.
Pulling out his gun, he begins to squeeze of bullet after bullet into the claw and the black strip connecting them in an effort to escape, with no visible effect even after the gun runs out. Then removing the stun baton, he begins to beat the claw and the back strip with it, forgetting to turn it on first.
By the time he does, the man is already upon him, and, grabbing onto his shirt, lifts him right off the pavement with just one arm. He holds the suit close to himself and stares into his eyes, and the suit stares back into the man's eyes, to terrified to even struggle, and sudden, infrequent pants for breaths.
Suddenly, the man's hair reverts to black, and settles down against the man's head, curling at the tip just as before.
The man is silent for a moment, his eyes closed. Then, squeezing his eyes shut tighter, he slowly shakes it from side-to-side as if he is just waking up in the morning. Opening it, he looks around for a short moment, freezing as he laid eyes on the first body, and from then he looks from one body to the next, as if the only thing that could have happened here can not be good, finally laying eyes on the suit he is holding up. He sighs, a long deep sigh, almost of disappointment.

He then opens his mouth. wider and wider it goes, revealing a pair of fangs just slightly longer than his other teeth on either side on his upper front teeth.
"Uh-oh" says Yang
"What?" asks Ruby
"I don't know, but after what he has done, i wouldn't rule out 'man-eater' if i have to describe him" she says, and the four rush over in hopes to stop what they fear the man would do to finish off the last suit.

The roar seems to stop everything, every action, every sound, every second, all froze as his jaws let loose and the man roared into the suit's face. A long, loud roar rippling with pain and sorrow.
The suit seemed to have froze as well. He didn't blink, didn't breath, didn't even twitch for the longest moment, before his eyes rolls upwards, and he falls limp in the man's hands, unconscious.

Dropping the suit down to the pavement, he looks about him, at the gathered people, at the dead suits, at Ruby, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Velvet, the old shop owner, every direction, as if taking in a precious memory he would never want to forget, before turning down the street and taking off, running into a path opened by the gathered people avoiding the man.

"Come on." says Ruby "After him."
"What?" exclaims Weiss "But why? we were supposed to have fun today!"
"Because" she replies "We need answers."
"WE!?"
"Are you coming?"
"NO! I AM NOT!"
"OK, then, Blake, sis, come on."
"What?"
"Sorry, Weiss" says Blake as she runs after Ruby.
"Maybe some other time" says Yang, as she, too, runs after Ruby.
Weiss stands still for a moment before shouting "I am NOT going with you guys!"

The next half hour is spent running after the man, elusive as a greased fish out of the water. The chase comes to a pause as the man takes off into the Emerald Forest. It is there where Blake turned away, saying "You guys go on ahead. I honestly think he won't be coming out of there alive, but you're free to try."

Ruby dashes into the trees, Blake walks back to the mass of concrete and steel.
Yang  stands still, unsure of where to go, until a shout of "Yang, come on already!" got her to run into the woods, too.

 - PRESENT -

"Aaand...that's how it pretty much came to this."
"I knew i shouldn't have followed you." says Yang.
"But you would have followed anyway, and you did." says Ruby
"And you know me too well, and I don't really like that."
"You're my sister, you're the second-best person I know, after myself."
"They say you don't really know who you are, others do"
"And who are 'they'?"
"Sure as heck not these guys"
"Wha- oh, damn it..."
The two girls have been surrounded by a pack of Beowolves while in the middle of their conversation, and are just walking out of the bushes they were hiding in, but none in particular made any move to attack.
That didn't mean it was a good thing. It means things are worse.
Another Beowolf walked out of it's hiding place. It was twice as big as a normal Beowolf, and the markings on its skull-armor is slightly different. Larger curves, thicker lines.
A Beowolf Alfa.
"Ooooh...nooo" moans the two girls, out in the Emerald Forest, approaching night, looking for a half-dressed mystery man and now surrounded by a pack Beowolves and confronted by the Alfa.
"I KNEW I shouldn't have followed."

The First Contact

"Why are we still out here?" Asks Yang.
"Because," says Ruby "that guy is still out there."
The two are in a clearing in the Emerald Forest, and the sun is lowering over the horizon.
Being in places like the Emerald Forest when it's dark, even as a qualified hunter, is never a good thing.
Rubbing her temples, Yang asks "tell me again how I got into this mess?"

 - EARLIER THAT DAY -

"BANG! And, heavens, you should have seen that thing fly! I think I set a record" says Ruby.
"Sure you did," replies Weiss "one that didn't exist till then. It's no question you set a record, even with such a small entry."
The team of RWBY are walking through the city of Vale, on their way to a recently opened mall.
"I should have taken my bike instead of agreeing to walk with you guys there." groans Yang. Ruby and Weiss have been at each other the entire trip.
"Yeah" says Ruby "You should have." Turning back to Weiss, she says "about that 'small entry', I'd like to see YOU make an Ursa fly farther. Come back to me when you've done it."
Weiss was about to answer, when suddenly, a man wearing only a pair of baggy trousers and black, curling hair, ran into her, causing both to fall.
"Hey!" yells Weiss "watch where you're going you clumsy half-naked buffoon! That hurt!"
The man didn't reply. Didn't even give a glare at her remark. He just pushed himself away from her like a child caged with a dangerous creature. Standing up again, from the direction he came from up the street, there came a shout "I SEE HIM! HE'S OVER THERE!"
The man flinched, and a look of terror spread over his face. He turned, and was about to take off down the street when three men wearing suits, hats and tinted glasses came around the corner and retrieved long metallic batons from their coats. Each suit had a badge with "VALE POLICE DEPARTMENT" and "PLAINCLOTHES" printed on them. Seeing them, the man turned back up the street as two more men in suits trotting similar batons appeared. The five suits surrounded the man in a semi-circular pattern, pinning him against the wall.
Several passerbys, curious, gathered around the suits to see what was going on. The team of RWBY has a front-row seat directly behind one of the suits.
With a cry, the man charged at one of the suits...
And got hit across his face with the suit's baton.
With the flip of a switch, all five batons glowed with Dust and sparked with electricity.
Lowering her eyebrows as if she were trying to make sure she wasn't seeing things, Blake mutters "... Are those ... Dust stun batons? But I thought they have been outlawed..."
Hearing her, Yang asks "excuse me?"
"Not too long ago, the police force experimented with Dust-powered non-lethal weapons, as a more long-lasting alternative to conventional batteries. The first such weapon prototype was the Dust Stun Baton. The concept was simple: a resovoir of Lightning-type Dust, a Dust activator, a business end made of Dust conductors and an on/off switch. You flip the switch, the baton lights up. You hit someone with it and he is down but not dead and you can arrest him..." she sighs " Or ... That was what it was supposed to do. Tests show the weapon's output to be next to impossible to control, going high enough to deliver lethal blows wherever it lands. After several long months trying to stabilize it, it has been concluded that Dust was never made to subdue humans but to kill Grimms, and has been outlawed for civilian and civilian police use, though the concept is allowed to be utilized by hunters."
Just then the man, having recovered from the blow as Blake was speaking, charged one of the suits again, and got hit in the same place. This time, though, the weapon screamed thunder, and the shrieks of man and electricity fills the air. The man was propelled against the wall where he landed. He seems to be unconscious, but then he stirs and wobbly stands on his feet, shaking his head as if to clear it.
Staring now, Blake says "He shouldn't be alive. He was hit across his face with a highly-charged electrical weapon. He should be brain-dead at the least. You don't shake off things like this, you just don't."
"What do you mean?" Asks Ruby
"I mean" she replies "we have five suits with police badges carrying weapons outlawed for civilian and police use, and a man who, while can be affected with said weapons, won't die from it, or at least not from one blow alone."
The man makes what seems to be a half-hearted attempt at a charge for the suits again, though he is clearly exercising what little energy remains within him, and is hit again, this time on his chest. He is flung against the wall once more and, slowly, stands once more on his feet, keeping the suits in a glare that the suits don't seem to notice. They advance, and, to the muted horror of the gathered people, begin to hit him with the batons again and again, a humbled and beaten man quite literally being tortured and humiliated in the street without reason.
"I don't really know what's going on" says Ruby "but I do know no one deserves to be treated like that." and walks towards one of the suits.
Yang rushes to her and stops her before she could do anything, saying "Don't, it'll just get you into trouble with the police and -" she stops short, and, pointing, says "Isn't that Velvet?"
It was. The Faunus walked right up to one of the suits, and, grabbing the raised weapon arm before it could drop and bring pain, says "Enough. Whatever he has done to deserve being treated like this in your eyes, it's enough. You don't have to keeping attacking him like -"
What was probably supposed to be a speech about humanity is cut short by a shout of "SCRAM, ANIMAL!" And a swing of an outlawed weapon. Velvet, caught off guard, barely dodges the metallic pole, though a spark of electricity from the baton to her forehead knocks her unconscious.
A familiar voice then cries out in anger from the gathered crowd.
"WHAT IS THIS? WHAT HAS GONE INTO YOU FOOLS? YOU FIRST FAILED TO STOP, THEN TO CATCH, THEN TO HUNT DOWN THE MEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HEIST ON MY SHOP, AND NOW YOU'RE ATTACKING AN UNARMED MAN AND A SCHOOLGIRL?"
It was the old man from the shop that was robbed by Torchwick in which Ruby intervened. He was now screaming and whipping the anger of the surrounding people.
"FIRST, THE ROBBERY OF MY SHOP, THEN, THE ROBBERY OF A DUST SHIPMENT AT THE DOCKS, NOW, ATTACKING AN UNARMED MAN AND A SCHOOLGIRL! WHAT'S NEXT ON THE LIST, EXTORTING THE PEOPLE OF VALE? ARE YOU STILL POLICE?"
The gathered people began to shout and shove at the suits, who turned their weapons to the crowd to keep them away from themselves
"WHAT IS THIS? YOURE ATTACKING CIVILIANS NOW? WHY AM I NOT SUPRISED BY THIS, MAYBE ITS BECAUSE YOU COPS HAVE LONG SINCE BECAME AN INCOMPETENT MOB OF ARMED MANIACS, PERHAPS?"
"Heavens" sighs Weiss "You want us to help calm them down, don't you?"
"What a great idea" chuckles Ruby
Coming out of the crowd and equipping their weapons, they try to make some distance between the suits and the crowd, yelling for both to calm down. Suddenly, there came a shout of warning and some people pointed behind Ruby. Turning, she sees a yellow glowing pole shrieking with electricity coming towards her...
And stopping just short of her face.
An eerie silence falls on what was just now a pandemonium of shouts of anger, screams of pain and the electric music if swinging electric weapons.
The man, unnoticed until now, is standing again.
But it isn't the man.
This one's hair is white, spiked and looks to be combed backwards.
He is standing perfectly still, without a hint of all the attacks inflicted on him save the marks on his skin.
The man's eyes, previously seeming scared and lost, is now dark, piercing, and spewing bloodlust
But that's not what caused the silence.
The man has his right arm around the front of the suit's face, and his left at the back of his neck.
A classic breakneck stance.
The snap was deafening.