"Alright, shitheads. How much are we betting this time?" Sun shouted over the Bullhead's engines as his team flew to downtown Vale.

"I wouldn't want to take all your money while we're away from home, mate!" Sage called back from the other side of the airship.

Neptune and Scarlet watched as their partners yelled at each other from across the airship. Sun tried to justify that since he was the team leader, he was obviously the most skilled, and therefore would be the one to win said bet. A quick retelling of the results of their last few bets shut him up quickly, and Sage stood victorious for the next minute of the flight.

Neptune decided Sun had done enough of his pre-fight ritual, and gave his partner a nudge. "So what's the plan?"

The Faunus's self-assured smile returned, and he addressed his team once more. "Same as always dickheads! Me and Neptune go right, Scarlet and Sage, you two go left. We'll meet up once we've cleared a block each. Our meet up is the square where the smoke is coming from." Sun reached to his pocket, his fingers searching for something that wasn't there. Huh, I swore I brought my scroll with me…

"Alright lads! This is our stop!" Sage's long jacket whipped about his legs as he leaned out of the side of the Bullhead to get a better view of his drop. "Remember, last one to the meetup buys the first round! Hope you blokes are ready!" And with that, Scarlet leapt out without a word, followed quickly by Sage, who yelled like a madman all the way down.

"You fucks are going to be paying for our drinks!" Sun called after his teammates before he turned to Neptune, "Hey, do you have your scroll with you? I think I left mine at Beacon."

"Yeah, why do you want it?"

"Just to keep an eye on them. You know how reckless they get with their aura."

"Right, right." Neptune fished in his front pocket for a second before he managed to locate it. Just as he produced the device from his pocket, the Bullhead banked suddenly, and sent both young huntsman tumbling from the airship.

Sun easily twisted and landed on his feet without incident, but just by the sheer amount of noise that Neptune had made on his descent, Sun could tell his descent wasn't as graceful.

"Hey! You alright there, Nep?!" Sun called out as he turned to run toward his partner's location.

A pained groan was all that he got as a response.

Oh shit, don't you fucking dare be injured, Sun's mind immediately jumped to the worst possible scenario. Images of Neptune bloodied and surrounded by Grimm fought their way into his head. He quickened his pace.

As he rounded the corner, he found his friend alone, climbing out of an open dumpster. The usually fashionable Neptune was covered in garbage, his red jacket stained with whatever the people of Vale deemed trash.

Sun burst out laughing at the sight, relief washing over him like a wave. "Dude, you look like shit!"

"Yeah, well not everyone was born in a circus," the blue haired huntsman in training shot back, peeved as all his hard work to look good went down the drain.

"Hey, just cause I climb a lot doesn't mean my parents were acrobats. Besides, I grew up with you three! Dad tried to teach you how to climb, but what did you used to say? 'Noooo, I'll get sweaty!' Like seriously, I thought you were gay for a while."

Neptune glared at the monkey tailed Faunus.

"Not that there's anything wrong with that!" Sun provided hastily, sincere in his response.

Neptune opened his mouth to retort, but as he did so, a pack of Beowolves rounded the corner, howling at the sight of fresh meat. Sun immediately snapped Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang out from his waistband readying his staff towards the approaching Grimm.

"Alright, I'll take the two on the right, you take the two on the left."

Neptune leveled his trident at the approaching Grimm, his feet firmly planted by his brother, teammate, and best friend.

Sun felt him tense.

They sprang forward, Neptune easily slicing through one Beowolf with his weapon in glaive form, then twisting his body and impaling the other with his trident.

Sun kicked one of his two Grimm to the side and swept the other's legs with a low strike from his staff before finishing it off with a crushing blow to the head, killing the Grimm instantly.

As he turned to face his next opponent, he was greeted by the sight of Neptune standing over the Beowolf, his trident embedded in its chest.

"What the hell, man?! He was mine!"

Neptune shrugged. "Trident form, bro."

"That's bullshit and you know it. That was totally my kill and you stole it."

"I mean, it looks like this is my weapon stuck in his chest, but unless you want to swap for the rest of the day, I'm going to chalk this one as 3 to 1 for me."

Sun glowered at his partner for a moment before returning to the task at hand. "Fuck it. You still have your scroll? We need to keep an eye on those two idiots."

"No, I lost it when I almost died falling out of the Bullhead."

"Hey. Don't be such a fucking downer. That shit was awesome and you know it."

His companion let out an exasperated sigh, but smiled in agreement.

"Alright, it looks like we're right about where we needed to be dropped off at, so let's clear these alleys and try to beat those two losers to the square."

The pair started down the alley where the Beowolves had come from, concerned less with the danger of Grimm, but more with the thought of the embarrassment of losing another bet to Scarlet and Sage.

As they raced through the alleys, quickly dispatching any Grimm along the way without a problem. Ursai, Beowolves, and Creeps were the only things that could fit in through the tight entrances and they were easily snuffed out by the two fighters. The mission had proceeded smoothly so far, but still, Sun had a nagging feeling that something was wrong.

He and Neptune finished securing their block without incident, but as they made their way toward the square, Sun's stomach dropped. "Hey, slow down. I've got a bad feeling about this." Neptune slowed to a steady pace, walking with his weapon at the ready in rifle form, scanning rooftops and checking behind them as Sun covered their sides and in front of them.

An eerie silence hung over the square, but there were no Grimm to oppose them as they moved toward the source of the billowing smoke. An ominous clicking came from the hole created by the train, and a golden light began to radiate from within.

"Uh, Sun?"

"I see it," he said as he gritted his teeth and braced for whatever was about to come out of the tunnel.

The golden light shot out at Sun's chest with enough force to tear apart a building.

Instinctively, he leapt above it, turning mid-air to get a look at what it was.

A huge golden stinger connected to a long, bony tail was extended beneath him, already a cars length past where he was standing just a split-second ago. Huge claws emerged from the breach, followed shortly by the rest of the Deathstalker.

Sun's leap had bought him a few precious moments in the air, which he used to quickly scan for weak points in the giant scorpion's armor. The entire top of the beast was armored in bone plate, but the underbelly was solely a comparatively soft-looking chitin, as well as the 8 unarmored legs of the Grimm.

Sun raised his staff above his head as he hurtled back to the ground, which was now occupied by the creature. As he was almost on top of the tail, he brought his staff down with all of the force he could muster into one strike behind the stinger.

The Deathstalker's tail snapped back to crush Sun, but the damage was done. The usually lightning fast stinger was now a more manageable speed, and he easily hopped out of harm's way.

Neptune had just stood up, undoubtedly knocked aside by one of the pincers as the Grimm had emerged from the breach. Neptune saw the weakened Grimm's state and immediately began firing at the monster's eyes, peppering the beast with energy blasts from his weapon.

The Deathstalker immediately began to retreat back into the hole while it shielded its eyes from the abuse of Neptune's powerful rifle shots with its claws.

"Oh no you don't you sonuvabitch!" Sun sprang after the Grimm, intent to finish the job.

The Deathstalker swung out with its right claw, intent on snapping the monkey boy in half, but Sun was prepared. He wedged his staff in between the claw, leaving it there to push off of as he sprang backwards.

As soon as his feet hit the ground he shot back toward the beast. It had begun to try to snap the staff, and squeezed down to break it in two. Perfect, Sun thought.

His leap carried him directly towards his staff, and he snatched it from the beasts grasp, splitting it into the dual gun-chucks as he continued toward the scorpion's eyes. He snapped the gun-chucks as many times as he could midair, each snap sending a barrage of fire at the Deathstalker's eyes, causing it to rear back in agony. Sun easily bounded off the top of the Grimm to head to safety while Neptune made his strike.

After seeing his partner blind the Grimm, Neptune immediately sprinted head on toward the beast. A desperate strike from the Grimm's stinger was easily avoided by a quick roll forward, and a slice up with his glaive severed the tail from the golden point.

Sun had returned to the fray, his weapon back in staff form as he whacked the rear legs of the scorpion, pestering it until it exposed some weakness that his partner could exploit.

The Deathstalker reared back to sting, but the sudden weight loss of the stinger opened up its underside more than usual, and Neptune dove for it.

He slid underneath the snapping pincers and regained his feet in time to strike a blow with his trident to the exposed chitin.

The Deathstalker writhed in pain, but Neptune held on, twisting as much as he could. Sun had leapt on its back and began unloading shell after shell on to the Grimm's head, trying to force it down and into Neptune's spear.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, the scorpion gave way, crumpling to the ground, almost squashing Neptune as he was dislodging his weapon.

Sun finally had a chance to look around the tunnel that the Deathstalker had been guarding.

The only light came from the hole that the train that had created when it had smashed into the square. The train cars had been pushed aside by Grimm as they had poured out and into the city, intent on feeding on the fear that had stricken the populace.

Sun strained his eyes in the darkness. He made out the shapes of the cars, the walls, and a large mound of… something.

The light from outside intensified, followed shortly after by the ground shaking beneath their feet.

"Was that... an explosion?" Neptune had turned to the tunnel entrance, his curiosity drawing him toward whatever just happened.

"Hey," he tapped Neptune lightly. Neptune shook his head, and they moved toward the mound together.

Still unable to make out what made up the heap he approached, now only a few feet away.

Neptune made a sickly noise, and turned to puke.

What did he see?

His eyes had finally adjusted to the dark, and his gaze traveled back to the pile.

Bodies.

But he could not tear his eyes away.

His brothers were among them.