Episode Derrick: Chapter 2: In Truth

Chapter 2 of Derrick's adventure.

            Derrick grabbed a pot of tea from the kettle in his office and poured a few cups for himself and Qrow.  He handed Qrow one of the cups and sat down and took a big swig of tea himself from his own cup.

            “So you’re saying,” Derrick said wiping his mouth after finishing his tea, “that Lionheart has not once taken my weapons up to Atlas for the sake of my employment applications, but rather to take them south into the wilderness of Mistral in order to sell weapons to a black market?”

            “All signs point to that, yes.”

            “And your sister attacked me because….”

            “She automatically assumed that just because you made the weapons that you were obviously also in on it.”

            “Is that why whenever some random jerk robs a bank and gets caught, they also arrest the guy who sold him the gun?”

            “Look, my sister doesn’t exactly run with the normal civilized crowd.  In her world, justice is absolute and all-consuming or whatever.  But she gets things done.”

            “For who?  Unless I misread one of my old dossiers, she’s the head of one of the biggest bandit groups in all of Mistral.”

            “Ok, normally I don’t go around telling randos this, but since she did try to kill you and we will more than likely need your help on this mission, I’ll just tell you.  A few years ago, Raven’s daughter reached out to her as an envoy of Professor Ozpin.  She patched some personal things up first, but then convinced Raven to have the Branwen tribe act as a sort of suicide squad.  A group that could act without being hindered by politicians or regulations or anything normally holding Huntsmen and Huntresses back from doing what needs to be done in certain situations.  Raven agreed, and the Branwen tribe became an off-the-books task force for the Kingdom of Vale.  In exchange for this service, previous crimes have been pardoned or overlooked.  So, whoop de doo.”

            “And for some reason official avenues can’t find Leo so they’re having a bandit group look for him?  Seems kind of odd.”

            “Look, there are groups out there who have eyes and ears everywhere, most of them terrible people or bureaucrats.  Can barely tell the difference more often than not.  But the best whispers are heard in the shadows, and usually stay in similar company.  An official search party is subject to potential leaks that could signal the enemy before the good guys even get out the front door.  Meanwhile Raven can scour the wilderness of Mistral and no one would think twice because bandits roam all the time and keep to the shadows like the whispers they hear.”

            “So why include someone like me who’s officially employed by a Kingdom?  Wouldn’t it be better to find somebody in those shadows you kept talking about?”

            “I probably would’ve if my sister hadn’t tried to cut you to ribbons.”

            “Fine.  Well, I guess I’m roped into this mess now thanks to your trigger-happy sister.  Let’s go kick Lionheart’s teeth in.  How soon do we leave?”

            “We can leave right now actually” Qrow said as he pulled out his Scroll and typed a few words into the messaging app.  A few moments later, a red portal just like the one Raven walked through earlier appeared out of thin air.  Qrow motioned for Derrick to walk through.

“What the heck?” Derrick said in surprise.

“My sister’s Semblance allows her to create portals to people she is close with.  And we can go through them as well to get to where she is.  Don’t worry.  It’s safe.”

“You want to go through first to prove that point?”

“I would, but then Raven might close the portal in your face out of spite, and that could be pretty bad.  Especially if one of your body parts is partially through and not the rest of you.”  Derrick took a step back initially in surprise, but he quickly gathered his gear, made sure everything was secure in his office and that he had his keys to get back in, then stepped through the red portal.

 

 

 

The Middle of Nowhere

South Central Mistral

The Camp of the Branwen Tribe

 

 

 

            Derrick stepped out of the portal and found himself standing inside a rather lavish tent that was filled with a few nice rugs and a central table with a small tea set, and a tattered map of Remnant on the wall.  Derrick saw Raven standing there with her sword in her hand as she kept the portal open.  As soon as she saw Derrick, she rolled her eyes and groaned.

            “Worried I’m here to kick your butt again?” Derrick said mockingly.

            “Worried my brother opened his big mouth again and decided to let some random person in on some mission he has no business in dealing with.”

            “I think you brought me in on this when you transformed from a bird into an ambush and tried to kill me.  Speaking of which, you have two Semblances?”

            “What are you talking about?”

            “The portals AND the bird thing?  Never seen anything like it.”

            “Bird form isn’t a Semblance kid” Qrow said as he stepped through the portal himself taking another swig from his flask.  “It was a magical ‘gift’ of sorts years ago from Ozpin.  Helped with stealth related missions and the like.”

            “Maybe I should attack a news crew next time brother” Raven said in an annoyed tone, “then after you stop me from killing them, you can tell them all about every last secret we have and let them broadcast it to everybody on Remnant.”

            “This kid worked with Leo on a regular basis Raven.  He can give us information we sorely need.  Plus, after your murder attempt, he might have actually gone to those news crews to talk about what he saw just because of your quick trigger finger.”

            “Joke’s on you, I barely trust anybody” Derrick said with a chuckle.

            “Not a bad policy” Raven said as she stepped out of the tent.  Derrick looked around not sure if he was supposed to follow until Qrow motioned for him to do so and they both stepped out into the daylight.  The camp was very much what Derrick expected from a bandit camp out in the boonies of Mistral.  Tall logs erected with the tops sharpened with spikes as a crude defensive wall around the entire camp to keep the Grimm out.  Tents made of animal hide, people wearing patched clothes and armor from stuff lying around, and just about every person had some kind of weapon nearby and ready.  Some carried guns, some carried swords or maces, others carried modified farming tools just to have something to defend themselves with.  The general atmosphere around the camp was one of preparedness.  As if they were all waiting for something to drop and then they would take action.  Raven jumped up to an observation tower that was built by the front gates of the camp and waved at Derrick and Qrow to join her.  The two of them obliged, and joined her atop the observation tower.  The camp was surrounded by trees, but Raven pointed in a direction through the foliage as if she could see the horizon in the distance.

            “We’ve had scouts patrolling a few miles south of here, they’ve been tracking some small groups here and there.  There’s an old abandoned warehouse nearby and we think that’s where the weapons sales are going down and where their main base of operations are.”

            “You think?” Derrick scoffed.  “Doesn’t really seem like a good plan to just think something is there without any solid proof.  But then again, given how we met, that does seem to be your style.”

            “I’m going to ignore that…..” Raven said with a growl.  “We are getting everybody ready for an all-out assault on the place.  Catch them by surprise, get Lionheart, find out who he’s been selling weapons to, then take them out.”

            “So you mean to tell me that your big plan is to launch an attack on an arms deal.  When the enemy has access to a very wide range of guns and weapons?”

            “Hard to use those weapons if they aren’t expecting us” Raven said with a smile.

            “You’re sure about this Raven?” Qrow said as he made sure the gun portion of his blade was loaded up and ready to go.

            “Positive.  You and I can scout ahead brother.  The kid here can march with the rest of the tribe to the location.”

            “Fine by me” Qrow said.  With that, Raven placed her sword hilt into her sheath, and pulled out a blade.  The original one that Derrick fought against was red, but this one was blue.  It seemed she had several different dust types forged into blades sitting inside her massive hilt.
            “Your weapon is a multi-ink pen?” Derrick said mockingly.  Raven bit her tongue and used every muscle in her body to keep herself from trying to bring the blade down on Derrick.  But she simply waved it around in the air in a circle and all of the bandits made sure their weapons were ready to go and started marching out the front gates.  As soon as the first group of people reached the woods, Raven and Qrow jumped off the side of the wall and dived down towards the ground.  Before they hit the ground, they both turned into their bird forms and flew off over the tree line.  Derrick jumped down as well, but followed the marching bandits into the forest.

 

 

 

            The trees started to thin out after a few miles of hiking, Derrick could see the outlines of a large lake with a small island standing in the middle.  And on top of that small island was an old dilapidated factory.  Raven and Qrow flew across the lake without issue, while the bandits began making preparations still hidden along the treeline.  A few of the bandits carried large backpacks along the way, and they took them off and began assembling small makeshift rafts and pushed them into the water with bandits jumping into the rafts almost seconds after they were completed.  Derrick followed suit and the swarm of boats began to quickly yet quietly glide across the lake.  There were some collapsible paddles that people used, but they didn’t try to paddle like it was a race.  Derrick kept scanning the horizon with his weapon in rifle form, peering through the scope expecting to see guards or scouts patrolling the shoreline of the island or perhaps even the roof of the factory.  But there was nothing.  No sign of life.  Everything felt too easy.  Finally, they reached the shores of the factory.  Raven and Qrow descended and resumed human form and drew their weapons.

            “No quarter, no hesitation, no mercy” Raven said as she put on her Grimm mask.  She then charged forward, and all the bandits and Qrow did the same.  Derrick followed suit, but he still felt uneasy.  One of the bandits pulled out a bazooka and fired it at the main hangar doors of the factory, blowing open a hole in which they could charge through.  But as soon as they got through the doors however, they were met with a rain of gunfire from all around.  The entire warehouse from the open hangar in front of them to the catwalks above were filled with people with guns firing at will at the Branwen Tribe.  Everybody who survived the initial hail of bullets scattered to wherever they could find cover or deal some damage of their own.  As soon as Qrow and Raven realized what was going on, they turned into bird form and flew up to the catwalks and then turned back to start cutting into the high ground.  Derrick quickly took a few shots at the soldiers he realized were either behind Qrow and Raven or were trying to sneak up on them.  Once he saw the two of them had a good handle on the upper catwalks, he morphed his weapon to trident form and began focusing his effort on the soldiers on the ground.  He ran headfirst into a hail of bullets, but he brought up his trident to help deflect any harmful attacks and his aura handled the rest.  He then started swinging without hesitation.  Sending guys flying left and right while trying to keep himself alive.  As a few more people started to fall over, he noticed the bandits were still struggling immensely, and some of them were still using their farming tools as weapons, despite the fact they were utterly useless in this situation.  Derrick then focused his energy to have some of the loose guns that had been dropped by his assailants turn into crude puppets, had them run themselves towards the bandits who needed real weapons, then had them collapse in front of them.  At first the bandits were surprised and not sure how to respond to the fact that a literal gun man was running towards them.  But once the gun puppets became undone and clattered on the ground, they quickly picked their new weapons up and did what they could to turn the tide.  Derrick kept pushing deeper into the heart of the enemy attack, and initially thought they were just waiting there to trap them and kill them all right then and there.  But then he saw something.  The lights of an engine glared through the windows as an airship took off and flew away.  They weren’t trying to kill them all, they were trying to escape.  Derrick kept pushing through waves of troops trying to get to the back where he saw the airship take off from.  But then something happened.  He cleared another group of enemies, but as he impaled another one, this one didn’t have the same weight as the other ones.  This one simply melted as if it were slime. Derrick stopped for a moment, surprised by this revelation.  But then more soldiers appeared to attack, and again, they all turned to goo.  Derrick pressed onwards until he saw a man with black hair and a buzzcut, sporting an orange bandanna around his neck and wore a ripped up black button up shirt with a white undershirt underneath with black combat pants and tan combat boots.  The man then charged at Derrick with nothing more than his fists.  The strange man tried to punch Derrick with a powerful right hook, but Derrick managed to deflect it using the staff portion of his trident.  He then proceeded to try and stab the enemy in the shoulder, but the enemy used his hand to push the trident to the side causing it to slide harmlessly across his shoulder.  The two of them traded blows for a few minutes, mostly involving one deflecting and defending against the other’s attack.  But then Derrick got an idea.  He pressed a button and the prongs of his trident started sliding back to start forming rifle form, but then he took one of the prongs, took it off the track slider, and stabbed the enemy in the chest with it.  The enemy reeled back, but then dissolved into goo like the rest.  Derrick ran out the back door to see the goo returning to a man who looked exactly like the enemy he just faced and was sitting on an airship that was starting to take off without a scratch on him.  Derrick put the prong back into his weapon and started firing at the airship trying to bring it down, but to no avail.  The airship took off and flew off into the distance.  Derrick kicked the ground in frustration, but quickly returned back to the warehouse to see that the battle was almost all over.  Tons of casualties lying around, most of them bandits of the Branwen tribe.  Raven was surveying the losses while Qrow was attending to the wounded.  Derrick looked over and saw a single enemy soldier still sitting there alive, but badly wounded.  Derrick marched over, grabbed the soldier by the collar and said,

            “Why don’t we have a talk about you and your friends?”

Author's Note

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