On a cliff, not far from the city of Botan, stood a woman with spiky green hair, orange eyes, fair skin, average body, and with a foul mouth. She was making a deal with a crooked trader, gathered as much dust as she needed from him. She had no time to meet up with the rest of the gang outside the prison so she headed directly to here just in time to make a deal with the trader.
"Now I'm wondering where you hid all of these lien. Knowing that you just came out of prison, I figured you must've buried them somewhere in case you ever got caught." The trader said to her, "I may not look much, but I still am as street smart as when I was your age."
The woman bought several dust crystals, an energy propellant substance, for enough lien, which is a type of currency.
Dust were the resources their people used for pretty much everything, whether it be for everyday life, combat, chemistry, etc. They could be found in various forms: Crystal, Powder, or in other shapes necessary for the job they'd be used in. The basic four were Fire Dust, Ice Dust, Electricity Dust, and Plant Dust. Each of them can be combined with another and would make a secondary type of dust.
The bikers used Combustion dust to power the engines of their motorcycles, they used Fire Dust or Ice Dust as a primary type of their dust bullets to fire back at enemies. They also integrated those kinds of dust into their melee weapons. The woman specifically bought several types of dust crystals from the trader. Enough for her gang, or possibly for herself.
"I'm still wondering where you get all of this dust, honestly. Do you steal them yourself? Like, from dust mines or politicians?" She asked.
"Both, of course." The trader said.
The woman judged him by his appearance and behavior, with that attitude and overconfidence he had she definitely doubted it. "Gosh, man. Learn to give other people some credit sometime." She said, implying she does know other thieves stole the dust and just sold it to him.
"Wha--well, nevermind then. You best stay out of trouble and not try to bump into any those other tribes or whatever. They don't exactly know how to be friendly." He said.
She chuckled as she turned her back and strolled away.
"Why would I be worried about them? All they do is drink around and call it a day, thinking they're the best of all the crooks around here."
She said with enthusiasm, and there was notably no fear in her voice of expecting any of these Branwen bandits to suddenly pop out of nowhere. She would gracefully blow their head off if there turned out to be one.
"Just a big bunch of featherheaded scumbags waiting to be curbstomped."
"Boy, you sure are one heck of a hateful soul." The trader said.
"Anything wrong with that?" Jade suddenly turned to face the trader again, this time with a deadpan expression and cold tone in her voice.
"I thought you were supposed to be the experienced one here, but I guess not. I mean come on. In a world like this . . . "
"Even the butterflies seem out of place."
Jade Green
HEAD OF THE TRIBE
Later on, Waylon and the others found Jade back at the front of the prison. They easily spotted her, with her duffel bag which she used to store the dust.
"Good to have you back, Jade. How were things in there?" Waylon asked as he parked up infront of her.
"Oh, the usual. Endless streams of people having either fist fights or steamy make-out sessions." She answered, hopping onto Waylon's bike. Her voice pointed all signs about that prison being one heck of a freakshow.
"Sounds usual." Waylon said before he and the boys rode off again, booting their bikes, and were headed back to their camp.
"How does it feel to be sidelined once more, Lonnie-boy? Now that the REAL leader's back?" Jade teased during the trip, slightly testing the Vice Head.
"Surprisingly fine by me, why? I'm no sourpuss and you know that." Waylon said.
"I don't know if I do. I mean you were always more competitive than me when we were little." Jade chuckled, "Oh, Jade! I'm better than you at this! I'm better than you at that! Let me prove it!" She went and imitated Waylon's voice when he was a child. Waylon was many years younger than her, and it's how he became some sort of a little brother to her.
"Screw you. I grew up." He chuckled right after. "What were you doing back there?"
"I was keeping it low all the time, honestly. Nobody has time for romance, love and all that softie shit. The dragon in me was just sleeping, waiting, until she was awakened again to get stronger. To grow up, gather up some power and become the one and only queen."
Jade cheered, that was her favorite part of being the leader of the tribe, or in being a biker in general. She surely enjoyed her freedom of speech.
"Damn right." Waylon agreed.
The gang rode through the streets of Botan flashing their lights for people to see. Being on the road fashioned them like warriors marching into battle, their bikes represented horses from the earlier ages more so depicting them as dark knights marching into battle. That was always how Jade pictured themselves, and it was the primary reason they called themselves Dragons.
"How about you, Waylon? Found a girl yet?" Jade asked, she herself has had three relationships with girls. One was from Atlas, two were bandits, and unfortunately none of them ever worked out in the end.
"Not exactly. But I am looking forward to date Cerulean." Waylon replied, Cerulean was the name of one of their members in the tribe. Cerulean Carol AKA the Enforcer of the Dragons Biker Tribe, the one with fair skin, and black hair with a tint of the actual color cerulean, considered to be the most confident of their females right next to Jade herself, Waylon's been keeping an eye on her.
"Holy crap. So you finally have the guts." Jade said, she was either proud or excited to watch him fail at this shot again. Waylon has had two relationships before and they obviously didn't work out as well.
By the time they had arrived back at the base, many bikers scrambled out of their tents to welcome back Jade. Considering in the past she had sacrificed lots of things just for them, for her tribe, their tribe. She started this tribe at eighteen years old, proved to be the most rebellious teenager there ever was in Botan, it was right after she was kicked out of Haven Academy for committing various offenses which led to doing crimes right after. Her adoptive little brother Waylon, even when he was just eight years old at the time, joined their cruises since he had no other family asides from her. The tribe was their family.
Jade built Waylon his bike when he was sixteen, a year before he left for Haven Academy. She expected him to be a drop-off just like her, but surprisingly his years were straight and he got a clean slate as an official Huntsman. She was proud of him, but was still unbeknownst to how exactly did he get through those years without having to be a bad boy.
"Stand for your beloved leader, brothers and sisters!"
She cheered enthusiastically as she raised a fist, the collective cheers of the bikers filled the warehouse.
"Welcome back, Dragon Queen!" Cerulean approached Jade then shook her hand.
"Good to see you too, sport. Wanna hear the breaking news story for today, folks?"
Jade queried to their fellow comrades. Waylon didn't feel as happy upon hearing that, he suspected that Jade would spill the beans about him planning to ask Cerulean on a date.
The spikey-haired big sister eyed Waylon with a smirk. Waylon responded with a brow raise.
"I heard news about this big SDC delivery that's headed to Wind Path in the morning."
Jade announced all of the sudden, Waylon supposed he was safe for now, no humiliation for tonight he guessed.
"So, obviously. We'll have to get ready. We sure have dust now but by the time we take from SDC directly we'll have more of it!" She said, as many members started scrambling around the camp to attend to their weapons, some reassembled theirs, and some simply equipped them and filled them with the needed dust bullets for tomorrow.
"Wait a minute. Where did that come from?" Waylon asked right behind Jade.
She turned to him, "This crook visited me back at prison a few days ago and told me about it."
"But what does this . . . crook have to do with you?" He asked.
"Well, I DID have teammates back at Haven, remember?" Jade reminded, luckily she wasn't the only crook in Haven at the time. Maybe there were more, maybe there were many, there were more crooks in the world of Remnant than one would imagine.
"Oh, I get it. You have connections." Azraq said.
"We leave at 6 AM tomorrow. Got it, folks?" Jade said.
"Got it. Got it. Dust heist tomorrow." Waylon said, heading back to his tent. He just wanted to go take a nap now.
"Hey, Waylon! Where you goin'?" Jade closed in on him and rubbed the top of his head playfully. "You gonna be a good boy, huh? Same as how you got to graduate from Haven?"
Waylon pushed her off of him.
"Shut up, Jade. Of course I'll be."
Jade chuckled before she decided to ask, "How exactly did you get to graduate with a clean slate anyway?"
"Welp. There was this teammate of mine. Our leader."
Waylon felt empowered once he was talking about the admirable Athin Stark, the one and only leader of their team called ACWA (Aqua). It was thanks to her that he found the steps to be a better person than he was, or to put it more delicately she gave him a bigger heart.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you how much of a good leader they were, not only that but a very good friend too." He said.
"Oh, yeah? What about being a good person?" Jade asked.
"Of course. Maybe I should've started with that." Waylon scratched the back of his neck.
"Well, if she is such a good person, Waylon. Then why isn't she here?" Jade said.
"What do you think? She has her own business up from where she's from. Just like my other teammates. But I'm keeping in-touch with her and the others in case there comes a time we need to band again." Waylon replied, what she said frustrated him a little bit but he kept himself from getting angry just like how Athin taught him how to calm down quickly.
"It's not like another big rodeo's gonna come up anytime soon." Waylon said.
"I'll have to bet that she doesn't really care about you." Jade said. Then she pat Waylon's back.
"You don't even know anything about her, though. So whatever you say won't mean anything." Waylon told her then headed to his tent, followed by Azraq and Hazel.
Jade was unfazed, staring from behind Waylon as she watched him go into his tent. Sure she had no right to judge his teammate but it was all thanks to her excessive mistrust and hatred towards people, especially supposed "friends" of anyone she knew, those who weren't bikers or bandits.
"That was uncalled for." Hazel said to Waylon.
"But she had no right to judge, didn't she?" Waylon replied. "She's always been like that."
"I get it. The flaws in family. It's a real thing, man." Azraq said.
"Yeah, whatever you say. All I wanna do right now is sleep off this tiredness." Waylon said, as he set himself down on the mattress. Avoiding to accidentally kick the legs of the cabinet in his tent.
"Sure thing, Waylon. We'll be here in case you need us." Azraq said to Waylon as he and Hazel left to go do the same, and that meant get some rest too.
During the near end of 5 AM, the tribe was getting ready. The warehouse was crawling with them, as Jade gathered everybody that was awake so she could show them the plan. Which was to expect the SDC Truck carrying loads of dust on a highway a few miles from Botan, and to also expect a load of rival bandits from the Brevik tribe to show up.
"So it's going to be a tug of war. Reassure me that I won't see any of you being pussies, alright? Don't underestimate the Atlesian Military, but make sure not to underestimate yourselves as well, got it?" Jade said.
"Vice Head?" She called out to Waylon, who just came out of his tent holding his double-barrel shotguns that sported the colors of Black and Yellow.
"All set, Jade." Waylon said as he approached her, behind him stood all the other high-ranking members of the tribe.
Azraq Thorn is the Road Captain, Crimsen Redwood is the Treasurer, Hazel Brownley is the Sergeant-At-Arms, Cerulean Carol, Chara Chartreuse, and Flax Dull are the Enforcers, and Chiffon Dull is the Secretary.
There is also Malachite Bloom, who is just a regular but serves promise based on Waylon's observations. She'd make a good next Vice Head, he thought.
The tribe officers, accompanied by a bunch of regulars, started up their motorcycles then were headed to that highway, and left another bunch to look after their clubhouse. Once more, the Dragons Biker Tribe served another day of driving through roads, being looked upon by bystanders as a dominant faction in the city. No better than cops they were, but they sure looked more savage. The Head of The Tribe rode at the front of their herd, on her own motorcycle that sported a genuine dragon-like fashion which she just set eyes on again last night. No different from weapons in this world, she and most of her close friends built their own motorcycles.
"Did you sleep well today, Waylon?" Jade said to Waylon in the middle of the trip.
"Yeah. How about you? Glad you got to see your own bike again?" He said.
"Obviously. This baby must've been mewling all night long while I was gone." Jade replied.
Meanwhile, the metallic-looking SDC Truck they'd been talking about was being accompanied by one chrome-like atlesian cruiser filled with more atlesian soldiers. Luckily, the semblances of most of the bandits and bikers will be able to counter their defense.
"Expect bandits to be closing in anytime, folks." One of the soldiers told his comrades. "If we lose another cargo again, we'll be dead to the General for sure!"
The Dragons kept themselves on-guard behind a shady spot where they could watch over the road, expecting the truck to be pass by anytime now. They had plans up their sleeves involving their semblances as well.
"Jade, are you sure it's coming?" Crimsen asked.
"A hundred percent, yes." Jade said, calmly laid back on her bike.
"Don't forget what they all say, Crimsen. Patience is key."
"What if other bandits know about it too?" Waylon asked.
"So what if they do? Then we'll whack them."
Jade said.
"Yeah---that'd be a problem, though . . . " Azraq said.
Jade turned to him, "What? And why?"
He clicked his tongue. "We made a truce with the Brevik Tribe a year ago."
"Excuse me, what?!" Jade complained. "Did I ever decide for this group to be some dumb sanctuary for lovebirds or something?"
"We had to, Jade. Working with them gained us more profit." Azraq said.
"You're kidding me." Jade said, giving hard stares, as most of the others were now distracted by the conversation.
"You got to understand. When we formed the truce, we had more money in our pockets ever since." Azraq said.
"Ever since you were gone, Jade. The gang's been weak, especially 'cause I wasn't here yet. They had no choice!" Waylon said.
Jade sighed, "Well, maybe then. But now, you boys aren't gonna need no stupid truce to keep the tribe alive. Okay?" She smiled and nodded.
"Hey! Truck's on sight!" Cerulean alerted them, this luckily disrupted the argument.
"Darn!" Waylon turned to see the road, the SDC Truck was already being ambushed by bandits from the Brevik Tribe. "Brevik's beat us to it! Let's go!"
And so the Dragons started up their bikes then charged out of the bushes, towards the caravan.
"Hazel, get ready to block!" Jade said to Hazel.
Shortly after they got close enough, Hazel clenched her fist and raised it up. Thus a blockade made of rock popped out of the road and put the truck and the accompanying cruisers to a stop. Her semblance involved manipulation of the land and hardening the materials she manipulates.
Jade plucked some thin spikes out of her hair and threw them at the two tires on the right side of the truck. Her semblance was to sharpen any type of object, including her own hair which she purposefully made to look like those of a hedgehog. The thorns she threw deflated the tires, which then sabotaged the truck's handling.
"This is our cargo! Get away, boys!" Jade said to the rival bandits that they interrupted from attacking the two cruisers that accompanied the truck.
"Wait a minute, you're back!?" One of them said, surprised to see Jade Green back in action and out of prison, before getting shot in the chest by Jade, using her dark automatic shotgun. Splashing blood all over the windows on the cruiser.
"What?! No!" Another one of them screamed, then earned the same fate.
"Don't let any of them get away!" Jade said, it was time for Waylon and the others to deal with the remaining rival bandits.
"I thought we had a truce!" A bandit yelled as he activated his aura, indicated by the orange shimmer coating his body. Three more bandits did the same, and then the Dragons did so too whilst hopping off of their bikes.
"Until now!" Jade leaped towards that bandit, fired a few shots at him which knocked him inches away. When she landed in front of this one, she immediately delivered hits with the head of her gun across his face, then to his rib cage area.
She dealt with that same bandit until his aura was shattered, which gave her the opportunity to shoot him to death.
Waylon and the others took advantage of the rest of the bandits.
"Stay down, mutt!" Waylon pinned one down to the ground and kept punching him until his aura broke as well, he continued to knock this one's teeth out.
Cerulean kept the atlesian soldiers freezed using her semblance: Pause, which allows her to stop the movement of any living thing, so they couldn't interfere.
"Now get outta here!" Waylon shouted at the escaping bandits.
"I said no survivors." Jade closed in and shot the bandits to death, which highly startled Waylon.
"Hey, what the heck?!" He said in shock.
"Come on, let's go get the loot! Let these scumbags rot to the bone." Jade said as she lead them back to the truck. Waylon was almost hesitant, and thought deeply about what Samara said to him earlier. It was going to be hard trying to live up to Jade then at the same time trying not to kill.
"Put them in the duffel bags. Here." Secretary Chiffon handed a few duffel bags to the two other enforcers, who filled them later with the dust they got. While they were gathering the loot, Jade was nearing the atlesian soldiers. She decided to have Cerulean stop with her semblance for now.
"Go on, resume them. I got this." Jade aimed her shotgun at one of the soldiers' heads.
But before she could pull the trigger, Waylon interfered by knocking the gun off her hands using his own.
"No!" He shouted.
"What the--?!" Jade by now started to think about it, earlier she didn't mind the reaction Waylon had when she killed the bandits and simply shrugged it off. However, now that he prevented her from killing these soldiers, she realized that something is wrong.
"No more killing! We're not really gonna earn anything from it." Waylon said to her.
"Why?" Jade said as she arched her brows at him.
"We may be the Dragons, Jade. But that don't mean we're a pack of heartless, ruthless animals who do nothing but ruin other peoples' lives!"
"Says the one who used to threaten to blow peoples' heads off." Jade said.
"Killing would make us no better than the grimm!" Waylon said.
"I thought you'd do anything for the tribe. Even if it means to kill who you gotta kill, yeah? Which is why the main thing here, too, is to do what I say." Jade said. "I thought you vowed that, Waylon!"
"Well, maybe I don't wanna do everything for this gang!" Waylon shouted, Hazel gripped his shoulder to calm him down. Crimsen and Azraq closed in to help her with it, too.
The Tribe Head simply sighed, turning away from the Vice Head to attend to the gatherers of the loot. She had no time to argue with him now, especially in the middle of a road where they'd likely run into a Grimm. Things would get harder if any of those Creatures of Darkness were to appear now and thirst for the Dragons.
"Come on, comrades. Let's get outta here." She said.
Waylon sighed as he started calming himself down, with his trio of friends helping him with it. When there wasn't Athin or Samara, there were the three of them to calm him down.
"I can't believe I said that." He said.
"You have no idea." Hazel said.
"You okay? Let's go hang out somewhere right after this." Crimsen said to him.
The trio was always there to accompany Waylon when Jade wasn't there, ever since childhood their friendship was that ambitious. When the tribe was finished gathering all that dust, and let the atlesian soldiers go back to Atlas without the dust. Luckily, Jade was cool with it and did not start another argument with Waylon.
The latter hoped she would soon understand why killing is no good at all, because he wouldn't know what he'd do if she doesn't.