Violent Purple

Neopolitan wandered the streets of Mantle to kill time since she wasn't in the mood to stay in the room at the tavern. As she looks around for anything of interest, her thoughts turn to how things have turned out since her parents' deaths. The tri-colored girl went with Miltia and Melanie Malachite after the secret of Lady Browning's information network was exposed because she had nowhere to go like the twins. At the same time, they could be considered acquaintances despite the rocky start of their relationship with the twins trying to aggregate Neopolitan.

After being on the run together, they surprisingly got along, and when the Malachite twins first contacted Silva, things turned out alright in the end. When Neopolitan first met Silva, she knew he was different from others but didn't know why she thought this with the snow leopard faunus. She decided to try and push his buttons to see how Silva would react and learned the hard way not to mess with him. Neopolitan shuttered at the memory of Silva tanning her hide when she threw a cream pie at him.

Neopolitan made a mental note not to tick off Silva again after that, but what she learned of him from there surprised her. The snow leopard guy actually agreed to let her participate in the Mistral Regional Cup when she thought he would flat out deny her after she just threw a pie at him. Neopolitan, from there, learned more about Silva, his past as a bandit, his choice to be a huntsman in the future, and how he is currently plotting to shake the kingdom of Atlas. He withheld some things, of course, but overall he has been honest with her.

Neopolitan may not know what sort of item Silva is aiming for in Atlas or what he took from Mistral, but she decided to place her trust in the snow leopard faunus. The tri-colored girl smirked at how she trusted him enough to let him view her thoughts and memories on a regular basis. Neopolitan liked how Silva's Semblance Soul Archive could allow him to understand her without the need to express herself. After their heart-to-heart, she felt like she had gained someone who saw her as her and no one else.

Neopolitan smiled as she started to skip from her current happiness and tried to keep herself entertained.

***

Ilia Amitola had reached Mantle without any issues and made her way to the Mantle Crater to start her search. As she walked through the streets flashes of memories of her parents went through her mind, which brought up her old sorrow and rage. The loss she felt from her parents reminded her of who she is, and the cruel laughter of the human scum that found her parents' death funny boiled her blood. Ilia took a deep breath to calm herself down and focus on the task at hand. She passed a large TV screen that told today's news.

" Greeting everyone, Ash Lavender here with Atlas News. Our current story is on the infamous Red Auction Incident that, despite Atlas's best efforts, has found no new leads. General James Ironwood has made no comments on the case and has only responded that he is using every available resource to find the culprit."

Ilia stopped to watch the news to see if there was anything she might pick up from it.

" With everything that has been happening as of late, like the recent assault of Atlesian Scientists and increase of Grimm activity, one of Atlas's most noteworthy figures has come to present his theory on the matter, Jacques Schnee."

The chameleon girl's blood boiled at seeing the fake Schnee since it was his practice of lowering safety values in Dust mining that indirectly caused the collapse that killed her parents. Jacques smiled at the camera as he took a seat and greeted the news anchor.

" Hello, Ash and people of our great kingdom."

" Now Jacques, would you mind running me through that theory of yours again?"

Jacques adjusted his collar while maintaining his photogenic smile and said.

" Certainly, Ash, now let me ask the people of our great kingdom. Who stands to benefit from the attacks of our brightest minds and that awful slaughter of those dear good people of Atlas."

Ilia snorted at how those scum were referred to as so-called good people when they were treating faunus like property despite the fact that the fact slavery was outlawed. Jacques continued his theory with a smile.

" It's quite easy; it's the faunus. They are never satisfied with their lot in life and would love nothing more than to drag the good people of Atlas down to their level. While the dear general has refused to comment on these turns of events, he hasn't denied the possibility of my thoughts being true."

" Truly now Jacques?"

As the news continued to play, Ilia felt her blood run cold; things were already bad in Atlas for the faunus, but this... this will light a fire under all the racists and bigots to make things much worse. Unfortunately, Ilia was correct in thinking this, as everyone watching this just ate it up. Soon a mob was born filled with hate and violence.

***

As I watched Jacques run his mouth, I could already guess what was going to happen next.

" Silva..."

Emerald called out to me, looking concerned as she had the same thoughts as me. I sighed as I knew I had a hand in this despite being primary that fake Schnee's fault in spreading this sh*t. I told Emerald as I got ready for what was next.

" Em, stay inside with Argint and don't come out."

" But..."

" Em, I need you here to watch over Argint, please."

Emerald reluctantly nodded as I left the room and ran into the tavern master barricading the door and windows. I asked him as I stopped the table he was moving.

" Mind letting me out first?"

" Kid, you really shouldn't go out there right now; a storm is coming."

I gave him a wry smile as I told him.

" I know, which is why I need to try and limit the damage as much as possible. I'm strong enough to deal with most huntsmen, and I can certainly handle what's coming up ahead."

The tavern master looked at me in the eyes, then said.

" Fine, but kid, don't push yourself."

" I know my limits."

I got out of the tavern and headed towards the main entrance of the Crater and saw the faunus return to the slums there in a hurry. I thought about sealing the entrance but decided against it as it would probably make the bigots heading here even more indignant. I stood over the entrance as I saw more and more faunus run back inside to the Crater, and not long after, I saw an angry crowd move towards the Crater. Just as they got close enough, I used Emission to draw a line on the path in front of them, which stopped the mob in their tracks. I roared out my warning.

" ANY OF YOU PATHETIC SCUM CROSS THAT LINE; THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY."

I am stopping them here as I felt partly responsible for this mess, and I knew there was some decent folk in the slums. Why does it seem like I am more and more taking on the role of a hero, or maybe an anti-hero since I got to Atlas? I really just want to finish up what I want to do in this kingdom and move on. One of the mob members moved forward and pulled a gun, and shot me in the chest as he screamed.

" Die, you worthless animal!"

My Aura protected me, and I brushed off where I was shot at, and that removed any hesitation I felt before because now I knew these a*sholes were out for blood. I raised my paw and created a black sphere with Emission and said, with I've in my voice.

" You started this..."

I fired off a wide blast, not strong enough to kill someone, but they aren't getting out of this unscathed. As the a good portion of the mob was knocked back and experienced burns from my Semblance, they all looked at me with fear. I roared out with fury.

" I DARE YOU TO CROSS THAT LINE!"

One of the braver idiots called out.

" There's only one of him! Let's get him!"

This spurred the mob to rush me to get to the slums in the Crater. As the first one passed the line I made, I fired off another wide blast that pushed them back and burned their now exposed flesh. This continued for a few minutes until all of the mob had at least one burn from my Semblance. The fear from before cranked up into full-blown terror as the first one turned tail and ran. The others soon followed. Before I could relax, airships from Atlas showed up and landed in front of me. I knew why they were there; one of the military officers walked in front of me while the rest of the troops surrounded me and said.

" You have committed crimes against Atlas and its people. What do you have to say in your defense?"

I stared down at the officer as I knew if I entered a court of law here in Atlas, I would, without a doubt, be pronounced guilty as I knew Atlesian law well enough from using Soul Archive on some lawyers here and there. Atlas's laws are extremely biased against faunus, so I am not going to comply with them. The officer then said.

" Surrender now! Anything you say can and will be used against you!"

" Piss off!"

The military personnel surrounding me readied to fire on me at the officer's orders, and the CO said to me.

" This is your last warning. Comply now and surrender!"

" Go kiss a Grimm!"

I told them that was no different from telling them to drop dead. The officer ordered fire, and I countered with a wide blast once more. I guess Silva Branwen needs to "officially" leave Atlas behind, and I still got somethings to do, but now I can't have a public figure here anymore. I sighed as I needed to get the girls and pop over to Vale, then pick up my airship from its hiding place. Still, if given a choice, I would do it again in a heartbeat.