Chapter 20
After school, Weiss, Yang and I meet up at Weiss’ place like usual.
Yang: “Wonder what's keeping Blake?”
Weiss: “Yeah. It’s not like her to be late like this...”
Yang: “She didn’t meet with me at the school entrance like usual either.” Guess the whole thing left a bigger impact than I thought. I know I probably shouldn’t since it’s not my place too, but they’re gonna find out eventually anyway, so I might as well say something now.
Ruby: *sigh*”Guys, I-” The elevator dings and Blake comes in with a determined look on her face.
Yang: “Blake! Are you okay? What kept ya?”
Blake: *inhale, exhale*”Guys. I have something important to tell you.” She goes over everything she told me earlier today as well as us together telling them about last night. Weiss claimed to have thought she was the cat at first given the circumstances, but regardless, she and Yang were both as accepting as I expected, and we all shared a group hug for a moment before we all composed ourselves for further discussion while Weiss brought up the footage from last night for analysis and Blake set up her suit on the table to fix her claws.
Ruby: “So what do you make of this character?”
Weiss: “A real mystery to be sure. More so regarding what happened with Blake’s claws.”
Blake: “Good thing I had the foresight to have spare claws in case they break, though I never actually thought that the day would actually come, to be honest.”
Yang: “How is that even possible? You clearly got her in the face.”
Blake: “I don’t know. She's clearly some kind of reptilian like Faunus, but not even Faunus of any kind have invulnerable skin.”
Ruby: “Maybe if we can figure out exactly who she is, we can figure out her whole deal.”
Weiss: “Well, I have an idea for that, but I need to know if you all will be okay with it first.”
Ruby: “And what's that?”
Weiss: “PENNY can tap into the full network and a facial recognition software to hopefully get an in depth read on someone.”
Yang: “Whoa! Hold on. Isn’t that a major invasion of privacy?”
Weiss: “That’s why I wanted to discuss it first. Unlike the last three villains, we don’t know anything about Tombstone, or have even seen her before. Without any leads on where she may be operating, we don’t have any point reference on where to investigate to figure her out.”
Yang: “I don’t know though.”
Ruby: “I mean, we’re already acting on the unethical side of things as it is. Blake, you're the veteran hero here. What do you think?”
Blake: “All I can really say is that in this line of work, sometimes the toughest decisions must be made if you want to save anyone, let alone everyone. And right now, all of Vale in danger if we don’t do something about her now. I say we go for it if we ever want to get somewhere.”
Yang: *sigh*”Fine. Might as well. But I don’t condone this for every one you guys' fight. Only in circumstances like this when we don’t have any other info beforehand.”
Ruby: “Okay. Fair enough.”
Weiss: “Then let’s get started. PENNY?”
PENNY: “Yes ma’am. This should only take a few moments. Maybe a little more while I make sure we stay secure and cover my tracks to avoid detection.”
Weiss: “Okay. In the meantime, there is something else I wanted to talk about with Blake.”
Blake: “Yes?”
Weiss: “You said Kuo Kuana was founded after a meteorite of Vibranium crashed on Menagerie, right?”
Blake: “Yes. It’s been the primary resource behind our Kingdoms development since then.”
Weiss: “Well, hearing the term Vibranium made me think a few years back when I was reading through my family history. Remember during the field trip, Mother was talking about Captain Vale from the Great War?”
Yang: “I remember him. He was supposed to be a big hero who ended the war.”
Weiss: “Well, I read somewhere from my grandfather's old study regarding how Vibranium was what Captain Arc’s shield was made from. They made it from a very small piece that was confiscated from an arrested war criminal. The name of the guy was redacted though.”
Blake: “I think I have a feeling who it was. Back during the war, a large shipment of Vibranium that had just been cleaned and processed was intercepted while on its way to the mansion for use in the lab. The perpetrators were human bandits that had infiltrated our borders and made off from the goods. We had captured and identified their leader, as well as brand him with the Menagerin symbol for thief, before his men broke him out and they got away. Their leader was a Mistralian man named Shay D. Mann. We have no idea what happened with him since then. If he were still alive today, he’d be well over 90.”
Weiss: “Hm... nothing in grandfathers records mention anything of what happened with the guy. Only that he was arrested and that all the goods he had with him were confiscated. The amount of Vibranium used to make the shield was all that he had with him.”
Blake: “Which can only mean the rest was hidden elsewhere with him men. And after almost 80 years, it’s probable all been sold off by now if they didn’t hoard it for themselves. Regardless, they would all be rich beyond their wildest dreams.”
Yang: “All of these years just from one shipment?”
Blake: “Fortunately, security was naturally improved after that, and has continued to do so as our tech and culture developed over the years. We haven’t had a Vibranium theft since then. Though we do still get the occasional attempts at illegally infiltrating our borders. Humans and Faunus alike. And on the rare occasion, we even get mutants of either species too.”
Yang: “Mutants? You know what she’s talking about, Sis?”
Ruby: “No I don’t.”
Weiss: “That would only make sense since Mutant activity is especially rare in Vale. Technically, Mutants would be all over Remnant, but they try to hide the fact their Mutants from the public to avoid unnecessary problems.”
Blake: “I spent my middle school years in Vacuo, so I know it's the only Kingdom and its region where Mutants can act more freely. It’s all thanks to a Mutant who earned a place on the Vacuo council named Theodore Gail, the headmaster of Shade Academy. Originally known to the public as a prestigious boarding school, it was actually a secret safe haven for Mutants trying to hide from normal people and learn how to control their powers and the staff are a team of Mutant who use their powers to protect people like we do as superheroes known as the X-Men.”
Ruby: “So does that make me a Mutant now too?”
Blake: “No. Because you gained your powers from a man-made source. Mutants are confirmed to have been born with their powers because of something Professor Gail calls the X-gene.”
Weiss: “Though the origins of the X-gene are currently unknown, along with exactly how long Mutants have been around. The only thing we really know for sure thanks to Professor Gail is that they’ve existed for at least the past 1000 years.”
Yang: ‘You certainly seem to know a lot.”
Weiss: “That’s only because of PENNY going through some of father's secret files. Apparently, he’s only one of many people who have secretly been trying to capture and experiment on Mutants across the globe. Though Father is one of the only ones who have always failed in that effort. Most companies around the world outside of Vacuo believe Mutants to be a blight on Remnant just as early humans did about the Faunus. Though most people in the public these think it's more justified in this case solely because of the fact that Mutants have powers. Some of which having some very unsettling implications behind their intentions.”
Blake: “One such example at the start was Professor Gail since his powers define him as a telepath,”
Ruby: “As in someone who can read, communicate with and control minds?”
Yang: “Yeah, I can see the implications those would hold.”
Weiss: “But in Gail’s case, those fears were expelled on account of him and his X-Men constantly protect Vacuo, and sometimes all of Remnant, from a major threat that are really the biggest issue Mutant-kind face.”
Blake: “Their biggest issue isn’t the companies that try to catch them or even the normal public who openly hate them. It's the ongoing conflict between the X-Men and a group of Mutants known as the Mutant Brotherhood, who believe Mutants should be the dominant race of Remnant’s gene pool. This ideology was brought about by Gail’s former colleague, Xanthe Rumpole, better known to the world as Magneta due to her magnetic powers, who founded the Brotherhood and gathered Mutants who hates non-Mutants just as much as she does in efforts in wiping them off the face of Remnant.”
Weiss: “Though Vacuo is still the only place Mutants can really live freely without much discrimination, the X-Men service in thwarting the Brotherhood has somewhat gotten the other Kingdoms governments off their backs. But not completely, considering the continued existence of the Brotherhood.”
Ruby: “And you said this ‘Magneta’ was Professor Gail’s colleague. What happened?”
Blake: “I don’t know exactly. The conflict between them was already a thing during my whole middle school career.”
Weiss: “I found some articles regarding the topic. Apparently at the start, Rumpole was actually as founding X-Man. And they were implications at how close she and Gail were. But then not after the founding, they had a falling out cause by their conflicting ideologies, the specifics of the falling out itself wasn’t covered though. Forcing Rumpole to leave the team, along with one or two other founding X-Men who shared her views. And then year later, the Brotherhood made its first appearance against Vacuo, with Rumpole leading the charge.”
Yang: “Hold on. With all of this Mutant talk, you think that might be the case for Tombstone?”
Blake: “No, I don’t think so. If she is a Mutant then she’s being far too brazen. And a Mutant causing this much havoc would definitely attract Magneta’s attention. Then we’d all be in trouble.”
PENNY: “That sounds like my que to announce my findings.”
Weiss: “Ah. Kind of got lost in the moment there. So, what do we got?”
PENNY: “The identity of Tombstone is a woman named Tock Barrie, a crocodile type Faunus born and raised in Argus, and has known criminal record in Mt. Glenn, Vale neighboring city. She was arrested mostly for major property damage, but did also have a charge in robbing the local gun club. She escaped after serving a year of her sentence and fled the city afterwards. No one her at all for two years since then, until now.” The screen displaying Tock’s mugshot, which had a different haircut back then from her current mohawk.
Blake: “Okay, so we know who she is now. Is there anything you found about her that could explain what happened with my claws?”
PENNY: “I believe that can explained from something I found in her medical records, which were used as evidence against her in Mt. Glenn, and is also the reason behind her skin color. As a child, she was exposed to a chemical known as Diox-3 when a container of it fell off a truck delivery it to the local Atlas Military base. Young Tock was hospitalized for months as her body suffered from adapting to the apparent changes that came from the chemical. According to the Atlesian scientists that aided the hospital, Diox-3 made her physically invulnerable to just about anything, as well as altered her natural strength to nearly super human.”
Ruby: “Which means she’s virtually indestructible.”
Yang: “Oh shit. How do we stop something like that?”
Weiss: “Now hold on. PENNY did specifically say physically invulnerable, so maybe the same can’t be said for her mentally?”
PENNY: “Indeed. It would seem she is still susceptible to exhaustion and can be subjected to various substances that knock a person unconscious. However, due to her impenetrable skin, said substances can only be delivered through ingestion or being inhaled. Injections or physical absorption are out of the question.”
Blake: “So, aside from just trying to continuously fight her until she wears herself out, our only options are to try and get her to either drink or breathe in some kind of sedative.”
Weiss: “Arguably, that sounds like the easier option by comparison, by somehow I think even that will prove to be a major challenge.”
Yang: “And of course, in order to actually do any of this, you need to actually find her first.”
Ruby: “She has an entire gang spread out across the city that could be called in by the cops. She could be anywhere.”
Blake: “Unfortunately, the police response to any biker activity is all we have to go off of at the moment. For now, let’s just focus on fighting against her forces. Maybe we can figure out where they’re hiding out along the way.”
Weiss: “In the meantime, I can work on getting my hands on some anesthesia or something for you guys to use against Tock herself when we do find her. I’ll let you guys know once I finally get ahold of some.”
Ruby: “Well, I guess having some kind of plan is better than having no plan.” We get an alert about some biker activity around the city. “Okay. Let’s break for today while Blake and I take care of this for now.” We all agree, and Blake and I head once we suit up, and split up to cover more ground around the city. Even though we have some kind of plan, I can tell you now... that this is gonna be real headache.