PHTM learned what was going on even before Sapphire had called them to tell them of the situation. Because they were already fighting.

The squads of soldiers Adam had taken with him apparently weren't enough. Judging by how things looked to them, the entirety of the White Fang that followed Adam had gone to Mistral to demolish it. While some citizens fought, they didn't really last long and decided that living was better than dying, and thus either ran away or locked themselves in their own houses. PHTM, however, had no such intentions of backing down.

Hannibal in particular was doing more than fine. Due to his Semblance, every bit of vibration that was made due to the destruction and fighting strengthened him more and more, swiping away White Fang grunts effortlessly with his sword, Shindō. Any time anyone got close to Tara, she would glare at them, her Semblance scaring most into a retreat without a fight, and those who did fight didn't stick around for long, being pushed back by both her Semblance and daggers.

Pamela clawed down a few more grunts before taking a few breaths to rest up for a bit, since the wave was dying down. Michelle was doing just fine from her perch on a nearby building's wall, taking potshots at random enemies while using her Semblance to appear invisible. Once all of their opponents were knocked out (or maybe dead, who knows?), the Spider Faunus hopped down from her perch and the team regrouped.

"Okay," Tara said, noticing the whole team was a bit out of breath, "If this is how we're faring, I'd hate to see how SHDW is doing, seeing how they're at the school, aka the main target."

"All the more reason to get moving," Pamela replied, "Let's get-"

But before she could continue, she was interrupted by the thundering sound of a charge. They all turned to see a second wave a soldiers approaching them-Wait, were those humans among them? Yeah, apparently bandits had joined in the battle. Pamela scowled and the fighting restarted.
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Rin knew this was a bad idea, but hey, bad ideas were what started this whole mess, so why stop now? To be fair though, the bandits started it. One guy, who just apparently wasn't having the best week, had broken down their door. It hadn't taken long for them to get rid of him.

But that had been the straw that broke the camel's back. Taven and Axel had already been tempted to go and join up with SHDW, Rose, and PHTM, Sapphire right behind them, but this strange coalition of the White Fang and bandits that were currently raiding Mistral had finally convinced Rin that the kingdom needed them right now.

They had managed to wipe out the enemies in the lower levels and were now making their way up. Their opponents were jokes. A lot of them probably hadn't even unlocked their Aura. It was a wonder why citizens were giving up and running.

Except for one, which caught their attention, especially Rin's. It was a woman, older than them, pretty much manhandling two soldiers at a time. Rin found that impressive, even more so by the martial arts the woman was implementing. But why did something about her seem familiar? Axel caught her eying the adult and walked up to her.

"What is it?" he asked.

Rin shook her head, "Nothing. Let's go, we have a job to do."

But the universe apparently had other plans. They kept fighting, but it only drew them closer to the woman, keeping Rin's mind in the gutter while they fought. Her teammates had to cover for her a quarter of the time, a number of bad guys trying to catch her off guard. But nevertheless, the job got done, STAR regrouping near the panting woman.

"Okay, guys," Sapphire said, "I know we're having an easy time, but our allies up ahead might not be having it so easy the further we get to the school. Especially Team SHDW, who are already-"

"Wait!!" the woman called out to them, jogging over, "Did you say Team SHDW?"

"Yeah," Taven gave a raised eyebrow, "You know them?"

"Know them?! My daughter, Hazel, is one of them! Where are they?!"

"They're at the school," Axel answered, "Right at the heart of all of this. Want to come with us, Miss..."

"Kendra Tikal," she replied, "And that would be nice, thank you very much!"

Sapphire nodded while Rin continued to stare at Kendra in confusion, "Alright then. Always great to have extra help."

But just before they left, Kendra spotted Rin eying her. She looked Rin up and down before her eyes set on the swords Rin was holding, Yaban & Hito. The older woman's eyes widened and she slowly looked up at Rin in shock, the younger girl swearing she saw Kendra's eyes watering.

"Young lady," Kendra said shakily, "Where did you get those blades?"

Normally, Rin would've told some half-truth, or flat out lie about something like this, but she answered truthfully for once, "...My dad gave them to me right before he died."

While the rest of STAR looked on in confusion, not used to Rin opening up so easily, Kendra's hands covered her mouth. Yup, those were tears. Rin barely caught anything the woman said, but was able to make out one word.

"Rin..."

The aforementioned Huntress' eyes widened, "How do you know my name?"

Kendra's crying only seemed to get worse after that, but she removed her hands to reveal a smile, and she spoke more coherently, "How could I forget my first child?"
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The second wave of enemies was much more viscous than the first. Even Hannibal was starting to get worn down, sheer numbers getting to them all. Tara's Semblance was almost exhausted by this point, and Michelle's form was starting to flicker back to visibility, her strategy to camp on a wall starting to fall apart.

Pamela in particular had it the worse. At least her teammates' Semblances were still helping them. It was at this point that the leader wished that she had spent more time mastering her Plant Manipulation Semblance. She really could've used it for better things than tripping up her opponents and playing harmless pranks. She paused to take a breath, but this time, she didn't even get the luxury of that.

The second she paused, she was tackled and slammed against the ground by a White Fang grunt, her Aura crackling. She gasped for air as the grunt held her down by the neck with one of their hands, the other hand holding a dagger, ready to stab her. But before the dagger was even thrust...

"HEY!!!"

The grunt barely had time to look up. A black iron pole slammed into his face, sending them flying. At first, Pamela was grateful, but then she saw who had saved her and gave an annoyed frown. She knew that white comedy mask anywhere.

"Sora Whitehand," she all but growled.

The white haired, black eyed man removed his mask, flashing a flirtatious smile, "Hello, my dear Pamela. You seem like you require assistance."

He offered her his free hand, but she refused it, getting up on her own and continuing to glare at him, "What are you doing here?"

Sora playfully pouted as he smacked away a bandit trying to grab at him, the end of his staff, Infected Valar, opening up and blasting a flash bomb right in the bandit's face, "I do believe you mean what are we doing here."

"'We'?" Pamela raised an eyebrow, but soon got her answer.

Over by Tara, a group of enemies was halted by a figure jumping between them and Tara. Borvine Asterios swung his halberd, Minos, and took out all of them in one go. He turned to her, his insane personality speaking.

"Hello, Gordon," he said, widely grinning at her, "It would be a shame if that pretty little face of yours was ruined!"

Tara could only glare, trying to use her Semblance, but she was running on empty, so she just settled with a normal glare.

"Ooh, scary!" Insane Borvine taunted, waving his hands dramatically, "There. Does that satisfy you?"

Tara only growled. Back over with Hannibal, the opponents surrounding him suddenly froze in place and fell, unable to move. Nefera Viles swooped in and smashed all of their heads with her bow-shield, Gorgonieon. And as another squad of soldiers and bandits charged Michelle, a loud scream hit them all from the side, sending them to the ground in pain. The girl looked to see Heinrich Screesh walking forward, his two pronged spear, Morrígan, at his side, though he kept his eyes off of Michelle.

The entirety of Team BNSH was here, the second wave of troops now dealt with.

"As you can see, my dear," Sora pointed out to PHTM's leader, "I am very not alone."

"He almost was, though," Nefera retorted, "I, for one, was happy to leave you to your fates, Nicholson, but since he and Borvine insisted..."

"Oh, shove it, Viles," Pamela scoffed with a growl, "You'd jump off a cliff if your precious leader told you to."

"I'm sorry, what was that, you twat?!" Nefera said, stomping over to her.

"We were just fine before you showed up, you heartless little bit-"

Hannibal chose that moment to step in between them before things got more out of hand and spoke quietly, "Pamela, let it go. We need to get to the school. Let's let bygones be bygones for now and go."

Pamela and Nefera glared at each other, and everyone could've sworn they saw sparks flying out of their eyes. But eventually, they both conceded and turned away with a huff. And with that, a third wave of enemies began to fast approach the two teams. BNSH readied their weapons.

"We'll handle them," Heinrich said, "If you guys have somewhere to be, just go. Stay out of our way."

And with that, the third wave hit, the fight forcing them to stop talking. Michelle heard her team leader cursing Nefera under her breath. She didn't catch all of it, but she heard 'daughter of a', 'lecherous snake', and a few choice suggestions about where Nefera should stick her bow. The Spider Faunus just rolled her eyes in annoyance at BNSH's interference, but if she was being completely honest, at this point, they needed all the help they could get.

Even if they didn't necessarily like the help they got.
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At the sight of Adam, Skyler heard the voice inside of his head after almost a month of silence, ~Ooh! Someone to hate! How exciting! Want me to go at him, amateur?!~

Skyler wasn't going to lie and say he wasn't tempted, but he wasn't going to let the voice know that, "Shut up. I can handle this."

~Party pooper!~

"You seem to be doing quite the good job of taking care of my men," Adam spoke, inching closer with a grin, "But are you able to handle me yet?"

Skyler's trigger finger began to itch, but he didn't trust his own voice. But luckily, he didn't have to say anything. The wall of the building to his side broke, launching the large man from before out of it and onto the ground. One of the White Fang members had the courage to speak up.

"What's going on in there?" they asked.

"None of your concern..." the big man responded.

Everyone stared in amazement as they watched the guy get back up. It was then that SHDW noticed that the man had yellow Dust crystals injected into his arms, and they grew disgusted expressions at that. Then he took out a pair of red Dust crystals and stabbed them into his arms too. He lets out a roar and prepared to charge back inside the building.

"Stay focused!" Adam commanded his remaining troops (there weren't much left after trying to deal with SHDW), "Our friends are almost done here."

But before they could get back to attacking SHDW and Bloodmane, a voice called out, "ADAM!!!"

And they all looked up and see a female figure standing proudly on top of the roof of a nearby building. Skyler squinted and looked on in shock. It was Blake Belladonna.

"Blake?" Skyler said, not believing his eyes.

"Who is that?" the big man asked.

"Stand down!!" Blake ordered, but the White Fang soldiers aimed their firearms at her.

But Adam put his hands up to order them to stand down, "Wait!!"

He then began to laugh evilly, "To think that I went through so much trouble to find you, only to have you deliver yourself to me."

"This isn't what's right for the Faunus!" Blake replied, "Stop what you're doing and we can end this peacefully."

"You're wrong, Blake, and you can't stop us."

"No, I can't. Not by myself."

A new voice then called out, "That's why she didn't come alone!"

SHDW, Rose, Adam, and his followers turned to the left in surprise, seeing Sun Wukong standing in front of the rest of his team, as well as a massive legion of Faunus, all armed with blunt weaponry, their shields bearing the old White Fang symbol. Skyler grinned. Maybe getting PHTM was unnecessary at this point.

"What?!" Adam exclaimed.

"Who's there?!" one of Adam's soldiers asked.

They then turned to the right and saw another large man leading another massive legion of Faunus, and he said, "Your brothers and sisters."

Adam and his followers looked all around them, assessing the situation before Adam called out, "Make no mistake, brothers! These are our enemies! And we will not let them ruin-"

Suddenly, Adam was interrupted when a Mistral airship shined its searchlight down on Adam and his group, a voice calling out over the loudspeaker, "Adam Taurus, this is the Mistral Police Force! Lower your weapons and surrender peacefully."

"Nothing is just going your way today, is it, Taurus?" Skyler grinned at his parents' killer.

Adam growled, but composed himself, "I don't have time to deal with you. My love is here, and I need to... take care of her. You won't interfere."

Skyler frowned, "And why not?"

"Because you'll be quite busy," and with that, the White Fang leader snapped his fingers.

Skyler was confused for a moment before he heard a loud stomp behind him. He barely had time to turn around when a large weapon slammed into his side, sending him flying out of range of all the other fighting. Skyler groaned, getting up just as his friends joined him... in one way or another. Hazel was just fine, her Semblance allowing her to see it coming and make her way over to her partner. But Walker and Dante didn't have the same kind of luck, getting smashed onto the ground next to their leader.

And, for the first time in a long time, Team SHDW looked up to see Team EBNE.

"I warned you to leave, Yin," Nathan said, his team glaring at them, "And now you pay the price."
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Ooooooh man! I had a lot more fun with this chapter than I thought I would! And with that, we got the revelation with Rin, the intervention of BNSH, and the setup to the finale fight happening next chapter! I hope you enjoy, because H20FLAME and I have been waiting for this for a LONG time. Prepare for the final chapter of Team SHDW Volume 2! Till next time guys!