"Well, well. What do we have here?" The 3 kids jumped as a deep, male voice rang out from the exit that they'd been heading towards as a man stepped out of nowhere, blocking the way out. His creepy voice amplified as it almost seemed to echo in the alley.
Yang immediately made them spin the three of them around to try and head back the way they came from, but someone else stepped out of the shadows and blocked that exit as well.
"I'd say that our luck just took a turn for the better, am I right, Azure?" A higher pitched voice, this time from a woman rang out. Kit wanted to pay attention to the woman in front of him, but his fox ears twitched, and he heard the sound of the man from behind them walking slowly towards them.
Looking behind them, he saw a huge, bodybuilder of a man walking step-by-step closer. His dark blue clothes only seemed to make him all that more dangerous as he almost blended in with the shadows of the alley. Kit couldn't look away.
Unknown to Kit, the reason why he couldn't take his eyes off of the man, Azure, was because of the instincts that he'd honed when he'd lived in the forest by himself after the rest of his real family had been killed. Although it had been 4 years since then, instincts were not something that could be easily lost! Even though they'd been dulled by the years of living in a safe environment, Kit's instincts were still easily able to pick up the dangerous aura that was radiating off of the man in front of them!
An arm went up in front of him, pushing him closer to the wall. "Kit, Ruby get behind me!" His older sister was already putting herself in front of her two younger siblings, glaring at the man on the left before glaring at the woman on the right, trying to make them scared.
She was already failing. They were coming from both ends, which meant that she had to split her attention between the massive hulk that was Azure, and the slim beauty that Yang somehow knew was just as dangerous.
Azure chuckled darkly in agreement at his partner's rhetorical question as he finally came to a stop. He was close enough to be a threat but far enough to give the illusion that the kids weren't within striking distance. The thought made him grin, fully displaying his teeth to the kids. They'd been sharpened and filed down into points like a shark's teeth, which only made his smile even more terrifying to them. His twisted glee grew as the three kids visibly flinched at the sight of his teeth. Oh, he really loved the fear people had at the sight of him.
Especially when it came from kids. Their fear was the best.
"I think you're right, Auburn. It's definitely our lucky day." He jerked his head to get his partner's attention. "So, how much you think we can get for'em?"
The lady, Auburn, paused in thought. Her heels stopped clicking against the dirty pavement of the alley as she, too, gave just enough space that the little brats could delude themselves into thinking that she couldn't possibly reach them from this distance. Her entire outfit was black, from her blouse to her tantalizingly short skirt. They were all various shades of dark as Auburn loved to wear clothes that matched her midnight-colored hair. Just from her outfit alone, you could tell that unlike her brute of a partner though, Auburn was clearly not the type to punch her way out of a situation.
No, her talents lay… elsewhere, and the sidearm strapped to the outside of her right thigh was proof of that. She didn't miss. Ever. Her semblance, [Homing Bullet], made sure that any bullet she shot would always find its way to the target.
There was also another reason why Azure always deferred to her when it came time to calculating the risks, and more importantly the worth, of their targets. The dark blue Hulk was definitely the brawns, but she was the brains of the operation. Auburn didn't have the strange fetish that her partner had, but she had other reasons for loving what they did.
Namely, the money.
She could easily calculate how much others would be willing to pay for certain… products, which came in handy in situations like these where she had to quickly decide whether or not it was worth it to capture their targets. As Auburn quickly looked over their soon-to-be-acquired merchandise, figures immediately popped into her head.
'3 products, 2 girls and a boy. All 3 are young and healthy, with one that looks to be around 9-10, while the other two look to be about 2-3 years younger. Good.'
It only took less than a few seconds for her to have decided that these kids were definitely a necessity. Auburn was always more than a little wary when it came down to kidnapping children, what with how they were always so frustratingly near people who would be willing to lay down their lives to protect them, but the danger made it so that they could be sold for a LOT more lien.
And when those same kids didn't have any parental figures around? Less risk with still the same massive rewards.
The thought of all those lien cards made her salivate as she looked towards the kids, no, the merchandise, with a predatory gaze.
'The blonde one is clearly feisty with anger issues. Blondes always go for a high price, and Markov will DEFINITELY want this one. With how young she is as well as her attitude, he'll have fun breaking her.' Auburn's eyes slid over to the two younger siblings behind the 9-year-old. Even though the three brats weren't that too similar in looks, she could definitely tell that they were related with how protective they were of each other. Little blondie was up front and ready to protect the other brats, while the slightly taller of the two behind her, a girl, almost looked like she was ready to push their brother behind her despite the fact that she was shaking.
It was her eyes though, no… their eyes that caught her attention. Both the black-haired girl in red and the orange-haired faunus frozen in fear had silver eyes. "Azure," She called out, making the man in dark blue look at her with a growing sense of excitement. It made sense. After all, her voice was already getting that slightly higher pitched tone that Auburn always got when they were about to score big time. "We're about to make the score of a LIFETIME! Together, those brats huddling behind little blondie are worth 100 TIMES more than what we'd get from Markov for the girl in yellow!!"
Auburn had heard rumors of someone up in Atlas that would pay good money for… interesting specimens. And she had a feeling that he would do more than just pay a good amount of money.
After all, he was The Scientist.
She didn't need to say anything more, though. Azure's eyes were wide open in shock, before his face took on a pervertedly gentle look towards the kids that almost made them faint from fear. He loved being feared and could've kept them around just to keep that delicious emotion in supply, but Markov was always generous enough when they sold him feisty merchandise like the 9-year-old in front of him. So being worth 100 TIMES more than the usual was saying something.
If they got this done right, they could retire with tens of millions of lien swimming around in their bank account. Just from selling the two brats with silver eyes!!
Forget making them fear for their lives! For the first time in his life, Azure put aside his fetish of being the scariest thing in the room and put the job before his own desires. "Don't worry little brats -uh, kids," He said with a cough as he tried to cover his slip-up. "We're not going to hurt you. Why don't you come with us? We'll take you to someplace fun." Azure said with a tone so fake, even his partner Auburn shivered in disgust as he mentioned his "fun".
She couldn't help but facepalm at (regrettably) her partner's attempt. 'Honestly, how stupid is he? Even if you didn't mention the fact that we literally just mentioned how much we were going to sell them for, what kid would go anywhere with a man with shark teeth that talks about how much "fun" they're going to have?!' Letting out a sigh at the obvious reminder as to why she was the brains of the operation, the alley came back into view as she let her hand fall back down to her side, where it could easily snap her gun out of the holster with a twitch.
Focused as she was on her partner's stupidity, and the fact that she'd had her sight covered by her hand just a little bit ago, Auburn didn't realize that a pair of silver eyes had noticed the gun strapped to her thighs.
Azure didn't miss his partner's reaction to his words but he didn't care. What mattered was how the brats took it.
But…. He could tell as he stepped forward with a hand outstretched that his words had spooked the kids even further as the 2 kids in back visibly cringed and tried to shrink themselves even further behind their older sister. Normally that's what he would've been aiming for, but this time it was just annoying!
He'd screwed up somehow.
_________________________
"Are you sure?" Crow Branwen asked his Alter's sister, eyebrows furrowed. Everything he'd just heard was more than a little unbelievable. In fact, it was impossible.
And the only reason why he was even considering it was because he'd once thought the Maidens of the four seasons to be impossible as well.
"Would I even consider telling you of all people if I wasn't sure?" Raven asked her brother's darker persona. "We both know that you hate being lied to."
He couldn't deny that logic.
"The only reason I'm even telling you about this is because I didn't want there to be any… misunderstandings." She continued. "You have your rules, and I respect that."
The Horseman went silent in thought.
It wasn't long before he came to a conclusion. "I won't help you, but I won't get involved either. The most I'll do for you is give you a 10 second head start before I let Qrow take the reins."
Raven's lips pursed.
"And before you say anything else," Crow interrupted. "I already know that you've sidelined me. You've been stalling, trying to make sure neither Qrow or I get there in time. So you've got 10 seconds on top of whatever time you gained up till now."
There was nothing else the bandit leader could do except nod her head. "Fine." Turning back around, she sliced the air open and walked through the portal, disappearing without another word.
Crow snorted. "Uppity b*tch." Looking around, none of the happy-go-lucky passersby had noticed anything out of the ordinary. The only thing they saw had probably been two siblings having a conversation.
The Alter lay down and got comfortable. It'd take about 10 seconds for Qrow to take over anyway. He'd be going back to sleep, waiting until the next time the drunk idiot needed him again.
It wasn't long before Qrow Branwen woke up.
'What the hell just happened?' Checking his pockets to make sure everything was still there, he tried to figure out why he'd been on the ground. 'I'm at some kind of family entertainment place…. Right, I was babysitting the three tykes and showing them around Vale. At least, until I saw that feather...'
The thought bounced around in his skull before he pulled out scroll and saw the missed call from Yang. 'Shit, did something happen?!' Calling Yang's scroll didn't get him a response. There was a bad feeling in his gut, and this time, there was no way it was from Tai's cooking.
A crow took to the skies, looking for family. He prayed that everything was alright and that he wouldn't be too late.
________________________________
Everything was not alright.
"GET AWAY FROM US YOU CREEP!" The blonde girl literally exploded, her eyes turning blood-red as her hair seemed to catch on fire.
He and his partner looked at each other and had the same thought.
'Shit.'
It definitely wasn't because of how much noise the blondie was making. Azure's semblance, [Silence of the Damned], made it so that sound was limited to a certain range when chasing down any that he considered prey. Sound was the least of their problems. It wasn't even because she'd gotten a little more dangerous. Flaming hair or not, she was still a little girl, one that Azure was sure he'd be able to take down in a matter of seconds.
No. It was because of the fact that the little girl had a semblance. That meant only one thing.
'Hunters' kids.'
Where there were Hunters' kids, there were Hunters. That was the ironclad rule. Hunters, having seen the best and the worst of humanity and faunus while on their crusade against the Grimm were paranoid to a fault about their kids.
If you thought crime lords were bad; if you thought rapists, serial murderers or terrorists were downright vengeful, then you'd never seen a Hunter whose kids got hurt.
Mistralian Hunters were infamous in the underworld for dragging anyone that touched their families to the shores of Anima. They'd wait and lure in a specific grimm that looked like a monstrous version of a starfish. They'd stick one end of it in you (and it gave new meaning to the words "bottoms up") and then they'd cut off that part from the rest of the original Grimm. It would take a long time for you to die; the part still in you would crawl deeper and regrow by literally eating you from the inside-out. You'd stay alive the whole time, it'd make sure of that. You were its living buffet, after all. You'd thank Oum for when it finally ate its way out of your body, just so you'd finally die.
And that's if you got the nicer Hunters that still had a bit of humanity left. The worst monsters weren't the Grimm. People always made the worst monsters.
People with special powers had to experiment in order to find the best ways to use them, after all. People with special powers and Hunter's training? They got creative.
It didn't even matter whose kid it was. If any Hunter saw you messing with another Hunter's kid, well, enough said.
Azure forced out a laugh as he pretended that the little brat having powers didn't faze him at all. Luckily, none of the kids noticed a thing. "I'll tell you what, blondie," The shark-toothed man said with a sneer. "You manage to beat me and we'll let you go."
Yang turned her head to look at the woman with black hair, who nodded in agreement, before quickly turning back towards Azure. "I'll kick your butt!"
If she'd turned her head back a split-second faster, she might've noticed the silent exchange between the two human traffickers.
'They're Hunters' kids! You sure there weren't any nearby?!' Azure sent to his partner with a silent glare. Everybody knew messing with those kids was a death sentence.
'I'm positive!' Auburn practically yelled back in the same silent exchange. 'Even you're not stupid enough to mess with Hunters' kids.'
'So? What now? Worth the risk or what?'
A quick flick of her eyes towards the two still huddled behind the older brat had her licking her lips. On the one hand, if she and Azure were caught, it would be worse than a death sentence.
On the other hand, that much lien was a once-in-a-lifetime chance….
----------------------------
There was a saying that perfectly described this kind of situation. Animals died for food, people died for wealth.
----------------------------
Her eyes hardened as she came to a quick decision. With a small nod and a series of quick blinks that wouldn't have been noticed by anyone that hadn't worked with her for as long as Azure had, she gave her orders. 'Do it. Plan B!'
Plan B: Exhaust the target quickly, then knock them out before abducting them.
Plan B made use of the fact that no one would be able to hear the conflict, due to Azure's semblance, [Silence of the Damned], stifling all sound past the area that he'd designated. The targets that they pursued either didn't have an active lifestyle (high-profile targets such as politicians and leaders) or didn't have above average levels of stamina (cripples, scientists, and children) so by having them fight Azure in the belief that they'd be let go, the targets would exhaust themselves and make it far easier to kidnap.
Yang, being the 9 year old kid that she was, completely missed out on the entire silent exchange which took less than two seconds. All she knew was that there was a way out!
Azure snorted at the little blonde's shout. "Well, what're you waiting for? Aren't you gonna kick my butt?" He raised his hands in mock fright. "Oh no! Please don't hurt me, sir!" The hulk laughed.
Yang raged as she shot off like a fireball, throwing punch after punch at the man that stood between her and her little brother and sister's safety.
The large bodybuilder just kept laughing as each punch landed in his palm harmlessly.
Taken out of context, any random passerby would've just thought that it was a man teaching his daughter boxing. The man raised his hands, and the daughter punched right into them like it was all scripted.
Azure couldn't stop laughing. Fear was great, but this was just hilarious! "Sir! Sir! You're hurting me!" He laughed in between every mocking word that came out of his mouth. His dark blue garb making him seem like some monster that had come up from some strange nightmare.
Auburn looked on, each second that passed made her more and more nervous. Anyone looking would've seen a confident Mistress of the Dark, as her clothing would suggest, but anyone that knew her could see the signs. She was having second thoughts, but it was already too late. Every second that passed meant another second that they could be discovered.
And she did NOT want to find out what kind of sick torture Vale's Hunters had in store for people like them. She had enough nightmares after hearing about the Mistralian Hunters. "Azure, hurry the f*ck up already!" She called out.
The man in blue looked up at her. "Yeah, yeah, give me a sec. I'm having a helluva lotta fun!"
Looking up was a mistake.
Yang wasn't Hunter-grade material yet, but Dad had already taught her to look for openings. And she was the kind of girl that would definitely take advantage of it.
Quicker than the blue hulk could react, she closed in and punched right between the man's legs, before making sure to grab the dangly bits in a vice. The hulk squealing like a little pig was definitely a sight to see.
"That's right, you better call me 'Sir!'"
Auburn couldn't believe her eyes. "AZURE!" Her hand immediately went straight to the gun strapped to her thigh. With a twitch, she'd have the gun in hand and shoot the girl full of holes!
But when she went for her gun, the holster was empty…
And it was in the hands of a black-haired, silver-eyed brat!
Ruby's chest was heaving, her eyes wide open, and it wasn't because she'd used her semblance.
She had a gun.
She was strong.
She could save Kit and Yang and be a hero!
"Little girl, you better give me that weapon or else-"
Auburn didn't have the chance to say anything else before blood and bone burst out in a small explosion. The little brat shot her in the f*cking knee! She wasn't someone new to the game though. A little pain and a bullet to the knee wouldn't stop her. She wasn't built like Azure, but she was more than strong enough to send a kid flying.
With a backhanded fist, the silverette's aura broke in a shower of red sparks and the brat was sent flying to the alley wall. Her cry of pain was cut short as her head hit the wall, hard.
Kit saw his twin sister's blood pooling from the back of her head out onto the ground.
Yang's head jerked and she looked back at Ruby's cry of pain.
Her grip loosened…. And Azure noticed. Smacking her hand away, he immediately grabbed the blonde's head and smashed it into the ground. Her aura shone, but held.
Barely.
Kit saw his older sister with her head smashed into the ground, a man with shark-like teeth grinning.
He saw both of his sisters in trouble… and CRACKED.
The orange-haired faunus was lifted up into the air, and both of the would-be kidnapper's eyes followed him. Cocooned in an orange light, both Azure and Auburn had to shield their eyes from the glare. It pulsed, before breaking open in a wave of heat
The wind and heat ruffled both of their clothes as both the blue-clad hulk and the black-clad mistress looked on.
In the cocoon's place was a kitsune.
Not an orange-haired faunus with fox ears and a tail.
This was a kitsune. Reddish-orange fur covered its humanoid body, a single tail swished in the air behind it. A fox's face had replaced the visage of a 7-year-old boy's features.
""What the hell are you?""
The words slipped out of their mouths unknowingly.
The monster, because there was no way that anyone could mistake that for a human or faunus, looked down on them as it floated a few feet off the ground. It said only three words.
"ALPHA FOX DEMON."
Before the last syllable had rang out, it was in front of Azure.
It hadn't teleported, it'd moved so fast that neither of the two kidnappers had seen it.
The Demon, as it called itself, had a hand buried inside of the blue-clad hulk's chest. There was the sound of something ripping, before the kitsune removed his hand from the man's chest. The body fell backwards, and the reddish-orange fox was left looking at his own fist.
It was gripping a dark-blue silhouette that was the same size as the man it had been ripped from. If there was such a thing as a fox smiling, that was what would've been on the kitsune's face as it stared at the dark-blue, hunger in its eyes.
If the thing had been corporeal, what happened next would've been downright messy.
When it was over, the kitsune set its eyes on the one that had dared to hurt its twin sister.
Auburn tried to run, but there was no way that she could've with only one good leg left. She tried to scream, but there was no one that could hear her after she'd been ripped from her body.
The kitsune found that, surprisingly, her purple soul tasted a lot like grape soda.
With the two souls devoured, it looked up into the sky and ROARED. Three tails now swished behind it as the kitsune turned to look at its siblings. It wasn't worried about others hearing it. Somehow, it knew that no one could hear it.
But it was confused. It knew that the two girls on the ground weren't its siblings. But they were its siblings.
It cocked its head to the side, studying the two laying on the ground. It felt that its time was short, both for itself and the ones on the ground.
The fox decided that it was better to be safe than sorry. He was sure that they weren't its siblings, but they still felt like his siblings. With but a thought, balls of fire lit up on each of his three tails. He flicked them forward, two of them landing on a black-haired girl in a pool of her own blood (Ruby, her name came to mind) and the other landing on a blonde-haired girl who had been knocked unconscious (Yang, his older sister).
Both lit up in flames, before the fire died down and revealed his two sisters in a much better condition than they were before. Not completely healed, but enough that both could be saved.
Suddenly, the kitsune crashed onto the ground.
He wasn't strong enough to keep afloat.
He collapsed, completely unconscious. His three tails merged back into one, the orange fur receded back to the top of his head. The fox face melted away like a mirage, and all that was left was Kit Xiao-Long, the fox faunus.
That's exactly the state that Qrow Branwen found all three of his brother-in-law's kids.