Episode Derrick: Chapter 4: Puppets

Chapter 4 of Derrick's Adventure.

            Derrick stood at the ready in the center of camp alongside Qrow and the rest of the Branwen tribe with their weapons at the ready.  Raven had called back with her Scroll to report she had found the abandoned Schnee Mining facility and that the enemy was going about their business without a care in the world.  Now all they were waiting for was for Raven to open the portal and let them through.

            “What’s your plan?” Qrow asked.

            “Me?  I’m mostly just along for the ride.  You and your sister are in charge of everybody.”

            “Yes, but you’re the one who figured out where their base was and came up with this first step in a counter attack, so you must have a plan for once we get through the portal and are faced with a bunch of enemy soldiers.”

            “But of course” Derrick said as he cocked his weapon in rifle form just as Raven’s portal opened.  “Shoot the bad guy until they flipping die.”

“Seems kind of hypocritical that you chastised us for charging in headfirst during the last raid when that’s what you’re doing now.”

“Yes, but when I do it, it actually is going to work.”  With that, he charged head first through the portal and was greeted with a warehouse filled with people shopping around for weapons like it was a comic convention.  He immediately opened fire and started taking out anybody in his path.  The attendees and vendors initially reacted by trying to run away.  Almost instantly forgetting that there were weapons sitting right in front of them. Qrow and the rest of the Branwen tribe followed suit and began tearing through the enemy.  A few guards tried to retaliate but they were woefully unprepared this time.  The Branwen tribe made quick work of the show floor, but then they faced a new challenge.  Some of the guards and attendees managed to make their way up to the second floor and opened fire on the group below.  This forced Derrick and his allies to kick up tables and take refuge behind them.  Fortunately, not all of the weapons had been taken off the floor in the panic, so Derrick created a small team of puppet guns that returned fire without fear of damage from the hail of bullets.  Most of the guards backed off, not even attempting to fight back.  Qrow and Raven didn’t even need to fly up to the second floor to deal with them, there was enough cover fire that a group of Branwen tribe members rushed up to the second floor and started taking out the guards up there.  Derrick surveyed the area and the chaos, and saw the stranger that he fought at the warehouse earlier trying to shove Professor Lionheart through a door out the back.  He charged through a few more guards and then reached the two inside a destroyed office area, filled with destroyed cubicles and computers.

            “I’ve got a few words with that cowardly lion you’re dragging away” Derrick said firing a few warning shots at the stranger.  The stranger then turned around and started shaking like jello, with a perfect clone of himself forming from his body.

            “Ok, that’s just nasty” Derrick said with a groan.  But he fired a few quick rounds and the puppet fell to the ground with relative ease.

            “Lionheart,” the stranger growled, “either help me fight this cretin off or die where you stand.”  Lionheart sheepishly yelped and pulled out his weapon Stalwart, a weapon that looked like a painter’s palette but with Dust cartridges instead of paint.  He initially started shaking in fear, but then with a punch to his head from the stranger, Lionheart immediately started firing Dust glyphs at Derrick.  Derrick leapt out of the way and tried to fire a few rounds at the stranger, trying to ignore Lionheart, but the stranger simply grabbed a small bag full of green vials and then made a mad dash out the back.  Derrick tried to pursue, but then Lionheart leapt in front of him and fired another salvo of Dust in his face.  Derrick had to try and deflect this attack with his weapon and hope whatever damage his Aura took wasn’t too substantial.

            “You held me back from my dream just so you could make a quick buck?!” Derrick yelled as he morphed his weapon to trident form and slashed it across Lionheart’s body.

            “Not to just make money!” Lionheart yelled as he recoiled back from Derrick’s attack.  “But to keep this school safe!  For years, I would funnel them weapons so that they would not attack this school.  And they kept their word!”

            “By kidnapping you?”  Derrick yelled as he brought down his weapon again, but this time Lionheart blocked it with his weapon.

            “Not in this most recent instance.  When the Order attacked Mistral.”

            “Wait, that guy was with the Order?  How are they still a thing?”

            “They almost aren’t.  Back when Mortem attacked the world, Mistral was hardly touched by their hand, thanks to my dealings with them.  But then you and those stupid kids we sent to Vale that year for the Restoration Tournament fought back, and you actually won.  You brought them to their knees.  And I thought I was finally free.”  Lionheart then moved to the side to dodge a gigantic swing from Derrick, causing him to stumble down having put all of his weight behind the attack.

            “I thought the Order would be brought to justice.  That they would be finally removed from the board.  But no!  The remnants came to me and demanded more weapons!  Initially when it was smaller numbers, I was able to get by with skimming a few weapons off the top of the shipments I sent to Atlas.  But with the greater demands, I was stuck.  But then you graduated, and wished to pursue an opportunity of weapons creation in Atlas.  I saw my opportunity.  I knew how many weapons Ironwood demands from potential candidates, so when you came to me with your request to apply for work in Atlas, I saw my opportunity and took it.  I refused to falter.”  Lionheart then fired several fiery boulder glyphs at Derrick to which he rolled out of the way to avoid.

            “You kept me trapped in your prison making you weapons just because you were too afraid to stand up to the Order?”

            “I did what was necessary to keep this kingdom safe!  I kept the peace and made sure nobody died!  It was only this recent time that apparently they were not satisfied with the quantity that they decided to kidnap me and make me their prisoner to demand more weapons!”
            “Did it ever occur to you that you could have reached out to the other headmasters and just simply told them that you had the Order dealing with you trying to get weapons and then have them help you take them down?”

            “Well I….” Lionheart stuttered trying to defend himself, but then Derrick charged forwards and struck Lionheart with a powerful strike to the chest sending him flying into the wall.

            “No, you were just too scared for yourself.  Scared that if Ironwood or Ozpin found out about your previous back-door dealings, they would have fired you, or put you in jail for what you did.  Well, congrats.  You’re going to be doing that anyways and everybody loses here today.  The Order has gotten away, you are still a piece of garbage, and now I am going to enjoy every last second of this.”  Lionheart stood up and tried to fire another glyph, but Derrick was too fast for him.  Derrick stabbed Lionheart’s weapon and broke it in just one strike, causing the Dust inside to fly all around and start randomly going off, causing the walls to shake and the ceiling to crack.  Lionheart had just enough Aura left so that the weapon’s destruction did not hurt him, but he had run out after everything started falling apart.  Derrick, ignoring the chaos exploding around him, simply started slashing away with his trident, creating deep wounds on Lionheart’s body.  Lionheart turned to run, but Derrick ran around in front of him, and impaled him in the chest with his trident.  He then started running all the way back into the central room, and he ran his trident through the rest of Lionheart’s body and into the ground, leaving Lionheart there screaming in pain.  Derrick simply stood over Lionheart’s screaming body, feeling a little bit better now knowing what he knew.  Qrow and Raven looked over having heard Lionheart’s screams, and ran over in shock.

            “Why did you…..” Qrow began to blurt out, but Derrick held up a hand.

            “Relax, that won’t kill him.  I avoided his major organs, so just bandage him up, let his aura regenerate and the idiot will be fine.  Unless somehow Faunus have different organ locations compared to humans?”

            “But…..”

            “He’s incapacitated, he’s not dead, and he’s such a scaredy-cat he’ll tell you everything.  Heck, he already told me a pretty great deal.”

            “Well then, I suppose that’s the end of it” Raven said with a sigh.

            “Not quite” Derrick said with a smile.  “There’s one last thing I want to do.”

 

 

 

As Qrow and Raven took the prisoners out of the facility and began contacting Ironwood for air support, Derrick looked at the Schnee facility, now far away from where everybody was standing and cleared of all living people, began pressing a few buttons on his Scroll, seemingly preparing for something.

“What’s all this about?” Raven asked looking over Derrick’s shoulder at the buttons he was pressing.

“I am a simple man” Derrick said with a smile.  “I enjoy simple things.  Weapons are good and all, but what good are they if they fall into the wrong hands?”

“Well, we got them back so I guess we could…..” but before Raven could finish that sentence, Derrick pushed a button and suddenly, several explosions went off inside the factory, causing it to go up in a ball of flame.  Raven and Qrow looked on in shock and mild horror while Derrick had the biggest grin on his face.

“WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?” Qrow yelled.  “We could have used those weapons for the Branwen tribe!  Or given them to smaller towns that don’t have that much to use to protect themselves with!  Or….”

“Explosions.” Derrick said softly.

“What?” Qrow said tilting his head in confusion?

“EXPLOSIONS FOOL!” Derrick said as he dropped his Scroll like he was dropping a mic.  He then walked off as an airship began to descend where they all were.  Qrow and Raven simply looked at each other in shock and walked over to greet General Ironwood as he stepped off the airship.  Derrick walked up to Ironwood and held out his hand.

“Hello,” Derrick said, “I am a weaponsmith who has been stuck working for this idiot for years and now that he’s gone would like to work for you up in Atlas.”  Ironwood was taken aback at this moment, but he politely returned Derrick’s handshake.

“I….will keep you in mind.  So long as I can see some of your work.”

“Well I just blew up most of it but I can get you another batch within the next few months.”

“I…..see……” with that Ironwood walked over to talk to Qrow and Raven, leaving Derrick simply standing there, feeling rather proud of what had just transpired.

“You seem like an interesting guy” a new voice spoke up from inside the airship.  Derrick looked up to see a young woman step off with a bracelet on her wrist.

“Name’s Brooklyn,” Brooklyn said extending a hand for a handshake which Derrick accepted.  “Look, between you and me, I don’t think Ironwood will ship you up to Atlas anytime soon.  He’s got a ton of people up there already, so he’s not really hiring right now.”

“Of course….” Derrick said with a sigh.

“Hear me out though, he does sometimes do official liaisons in other kingdoms to do work for him, so I say come out to Atlas in the next couple of months, impress him and then he might be willing to make you the weapons liaison at Haven Academy or something.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.  Thanks.”

 

 

            While Derrick would not actively participate in the War of Seasons, he did play critical roles in that conflict, helping create weapons and technology that aided the heroes.  While out of sight for that conflict, the next great challenge beyond the War of Seasons will bring him to the front lines with his knowledge and creations.

 

 

 

 Vacuo

The Chamber of the Great Monolith

 

 

Lord Sangui stepped out of the airship and walked through the front gates to be greeted by Lord Memoriare.  He stepped off the airship and handed him the bag, to which Lord Memoriare opened it and saw the many vials of green Power Blood that emanated from their canisters.

“Yes,” Lord Memoriare said with a smile, “he can most certainly make use of this.

 

 

 

 

Retribution.

SAGA OF SEASONS

 

 

 

 

Authors Notes:

 

            It is rather interesting, compared to the original nine, Derrick was probably a bigger fan of RWBY than most of the others and yet he didn’t get a character in the story until now simply because I was already working with a ton of characters as it was and is.  But luckily thanks to this anthology, I am now able to include him in this story.  Much like with Sage, I had thoughts about including him in “War”, but once again, figured due to the subject material it was best to focus on pre-established characters.  But now he’s here, and I hope to work with these characters again in some way, shape or form in the future, be it in future anthologies, or most definitely if I ever reach Book 3.  Derrick as a character was an interesting one to pin down.  Initially I thought about potentially giving him a deep backstory, akin to the ones I gave the survivors of Aequo.  But if you know Derrick as well as I do, his whole existence is simply “chaos”.  Or at the very least, he enjoys the energy of chaos.  I also figured everybody else has some connection to another outside of Aequo, why not give at least one or two of these characters an identity that doesn’t coincide with preexisting characters?  Derrick is very tech-savvy, but I didn’t want him to be just a computer guy in this story, so I figured I’d combine his chaotic energy with weapons making, which seemed to fit.  While he might make casual mentions of murder and destruction as a joke to help alleviate a mood or try to make a point, he is also one to host a big dinner with friends to celebrate a big accomplishment, or even deliver you food if you’re feeling sick.  I mentioned in a previous set of note’s Jacob’s cancer diagnosis a few years ago.  And while most of us including Derrick made efforts to be there for him in person, sometimes life does get in the way and we weren’t able to visit.  Derrick would circumvent this issue if his life did not permit him to physically visit Jacob by buying him food and having it be sent to his hospital room. Or another time when Christy mentioned she was stuck in bed because of an illness or recent procedure (I don’t remember the exact circumstances off the top of my head), and he made her soup and brought it to her at her house.  I had thought about playing with this love of food that he has in this anthology, and perhaps I will when I go back through and edit this whole thing.  But I felt that for this story, especially for his character, I wanted to showcase the character’s abilities and chaotic nature.  Part of me kind wondered if I was maybe going too far with some of the actions he took, but then I would remember some of the things that Derrick had his characters do in DnD or games like that and I think, “I probably should have had more explosions, I think it fits better.”  But regardless, Derrick is still, while chaotic, one of the most caring people you could hope to meet and I’m lucky I get to call him friend.

Author's Note

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